Millions of people have watched the disturbing video that showed a 75-year-old protester being knocked down by Buffalo police, but there is still a debate regarding the circumstances surrounding the incident. The elderly man was at a protest and can be seen approaching a number of officers before he was knocked over. He landed on his back and immediately began bleeding from his ears. In the video, an officer is heard telling the others not to help him while bystanders yell for someone to aid the man.

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Later, it was shared that as the man recovered and two officers had been suspended in connection with the incident, causing nearly five dozen of their fellow officers to walk off the job in solidarity. Today (June 9), President Donald Trump took to his favorite social media platform, Twitter, so share a few unconfirmed allegations about the identity of the 75-year-old victim. According to Trump, the elderly man may have some ties to ANTIFA that “appeared to scan police communications.” Trump also suggested that the man fell “harder than he was pushed,” alleging that he sustained his injuries on purpose.

After the bizarre tweet, Trump was met with criticism. Rapper and activist Wale even came forward with a simple response: “Girl… we seen the footage.” Even so, it’s clear that the President isn’t willing to acknowledge acts of police brutality in this specific incident. This response from Trump also calls into question why people are struggling to believe footage that has been captured by witnesses. Let us know if you agree with Trump’s conspiracy theory.

The road to Hollywood hasn’t been an easy journey for Rome Flynn. Prior to winning an Emmy for his role in The Bold & The Beautiful and before he starred in three seasons of How to Get Away with Murder, the Chicago native periodically lived in shelters with his mother and siblings when he was a child. As he got older, he learned from his mother’s tenacity, watching as she built a life herself and her eight children. Rome moved to Los Angeles on a whim and a prayer, working odd jobs until he landed his first major role in 2014: Drumline: A New Beat. Since that time, the past six years have seemed like a whirlwind as he’s shared acting spaces with Viola Davis, Cicely Tyson, Richard Roundtree, Tyler Perry, Loretta Devine, Tia Mowry-Hardrict, and many other noteworthy actors. Yet, not many people know that music is Rome’s first love, and while the budding actor is returning to a space that’s familiar to him, it’s a side of himself that he has yet to share with the world.

Recently, Rome Flynn released his single “Keep Me In Mind,” a sultry, sexy, side piece R&B jam that the musician has admitted is about his good friend Kehlani. The track is the second song we’ve received from Rome, as it follows “Brand New,” his first release last Fall. We spoke with Rome last October about “Brand New,” so it was only fitting that we follow up with the multihyphenated performer to discuss his transition from acting to the music industry. He described this stage of his journey as a “freeing experience” as he shared that he’s also “in a really good creative space.” Yet, there are multiple levels of vulnerability in choosing to walk this path of creativity, and as he presents this side of himself that people aren’t used to, he forges ahead into unchartered territory.

“I think that artists that do music and grow their fanbase from people that [have] grown accustomed to seeing them as artists, it’s a different kind of vulnerability,” said Rome. “For me, I’m really putting myself in a position where I’m allowing people to really judge who I am personally after kind of navigating them to judge me through the characters that I’ve played.” According to the actor-singer, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. “When I come and try to reintroduce myself to people [outside of my roles on televison], there’s a little bit of pushback just because change is always scary for people. And anything that doesn’t align with who they think you are, it doesn’t feel natural to them. It feels forced or it feels fake maybe or something to do. So, it’s a road that I’ve been having to travel…It’s a different vulnerable space.”

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“Brand New” and “Keep My In Mind” are but two pieces to a grander puzzle as Rome has been laboriously crafting his debut EP. When he spoke with us last year, Rome was clear that the project would be titled Energy, but things seem to have shifted. With growth comes movement, and Rome has put the idea of “energy” on the shelf for the time being. “As I was writing most of these records for this EP that will have probably six or seven songs on it, they’re in line with the vein I want to be in with [‘Keep Me In Mind’], so I don’t think ‘energy’ is something that—that’s something I may revisit another time but, yeah,” Rome said. “With art, it just evolves and I’m just allowing myself to grow. If I do grow in a different direction, I have to allow myself to do that.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many artists to press the pause button their plans as studios have closed, social distancing keeps people away from one another, and tours have canceled. Rome’s untitled EP, an album that’s “geared toward love,” is still slated for release this year, but things may take a bit longer to come together than he expected. Rome holds his cards close to the chest when sharing details about the project—a record the self-proclaimed “hopeless romantic” describes as “Trap-R&B”—but he did let us know that he’s looking at having “maybe two or three” features on the record, including a collaboration with Wale.

“I just spoke to him a few days ago about doing something with him,” Rome shared. “I’d love to do something with Bia. We’ve been talking about it.” His music tastes are clearly influenced by our favorite classic oldies as Rome told us he has Soul icons like Marvin Gaye and Teddy Pendergrass on rotation, but that doesn’t mean that this current generation of artists doesn’t move him. “I’ve been listening to Tory Lanez. I think that he has such a unique, kind of this Trap-Soul thing that’s similar to why I listen to Bryson Tiller a lot,” Rome admitted. “I listen to Chris Brown’s album a lot, Indigo. I like Eric Bellinger. He has his own kinda style. Erykah Badu. Those are a few R&B people. Khalid, too.”

While Rome Flynn’s looks have set him apart in Hollywood, the 28-year-old has often been pigeonholed as a vacant-minded pretty boy. If you take a quick stroll through his social media pages, you’ll find thousands of messages from people who have defined him strictly by his outer appearance—but his “intellectual property,” as he calls it, is a personal quality that Rome would rather be exalted over any physical characteristic. His life experiences have made him a person who sees far beyond the surface and he hopes that his audience will take the time to do the same as he exposes inner parts of himself rarely seen by the public. It’s clear that his river runs deep, but the assumption of superficiality plagues the rising star.

“I think that a lot of times people just see me for my photos and they only see me as some sex symbol or something like that. I never asked for any of that. It just kind of happened,” he said. “And because of that perception of people seeing the amount of attention that women give me or whoever, they have this idea that I believe it or I buy into it. But really, when people give me compliments on how I look, I frankly don’t take them with much credibility.” He added, “I’d rather be [noticed] for the work that I have put in, for my career, and where I came from. Those kinds of things. I think people think I’m pretty shallow and I’m actually the exact opposite. I probably think deeper into things than I should.”

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Regardless of how he hopes people will perceive him aside from his exterior, Rome understands that when it comes to being in the public eye, it’s impossible to control the minds of the masses. “Whether or not people love you or hate you or like your music or not, your job is to always just try to be true to yourself and allow those other things to weed themselves out,” he told us. It’s a bit of advice he’s received from his fellow artists as he moves from portraying Gabriel Maddox on HTGAWM into hopefully becoming the next R&B star. 

“I had a conversation with Kehlani about how she navigates being an artist. She’s one of very few artists who are just out in the open with everything and it’s a really vulnerable space, but she kind of elaborates it to being a freeing place to be,” Rome continued. “I can see how that can be. Having a conversation with her and recently having a conversation with Sevyn about her journey, too… Her kind of perception on that is being true to yourself. People are going to hate you or love you regardless, so as long as you’re happy with what you’re doing, that’s really all you really have control over.”

While fans await the Spanish version of “Keep Me In Mind,” watch the Riley Robbins-directed music video for Rome Flynn’s latest single below.

The world is hurting. For the duration of the last week, protests have been aplenty as we fight back against racial injustice. The public is having their voice be heard and, in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the famed rapper J. Cole joined along to march and chant for the equal treatment of people of color in America. 

Photos circulated on social media, showing the rapper participating in one of the organized protests in his city. While his efforts were being praised by the majority of his fans, one person took the opportunity to throw a shot at Wale, asking him what he was doing to support Black Likes Matter at this time. The rapper has been using his platform to spread awareness but he was clearly pissed at the remark, deciding to shade Cole in his response.

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“I’m sick of a lot of u acting like y’all messiah was the only one outside suck my dick,” wrote Wale on Twitter. The controversial message has since been removed from his feed.

Wale is seemingly angry that people are only paying attention to J. Cole’s efforts at this needy time, failing to recognize all that he has done to raise awareness and fight back himself.

Do you think he was wrong in snapping like this? 

Wale is well aware that his name was trending on Twitter this weekend, but he's choosing to ignore it and take the opportunity to plug his music instead. On Friday, a meme began circulating that uses a clip from Family Guy showing four characters hands in a stack. These cartoon hands are meant to depict Drake, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, and Travis Scott to seemingly declare that these are the top four rappers in the game right now. However, what appears to be a wooden hand, which has the name "Wale" on it, then attempts to enter the circle, but is rejected as Peter Griffin says, "No, no, no, not you."

Every so often, hip-hop brings two like-minded entities together, kindred spirits if you will. Case in point, EarthGang has officially connected with none other than Wale, a rapper who brings as much soul and energy to the table as the Dreamville duo. Together, they came through and put together a song that may or may not be titled “Options,” and EarthGang took a moment to hype the track on their Instagram page. 

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“Who wants this new heat with us and @Wale???? DROP A [Green heart emoji] IF YOU GOT #OPTIONS,” captions EarthGang, inviting fans to get the ball rolling. The post features footage of Wale’s recent Instagram Livestream, during which he provided a thorough glimpse at the upcoming bop. The snippet features a fair amount of Olu, who rides the bouncy instrumental with a lovesick verse. “You hang up that brand new dress, you clean up that same ol’ mess, but it’s beautiful,” he sing-raps, before passing the mic to Wale.

Though no release date has yet to be provided, it’s clear the demand for this one is high — Guapdad 4000, Tay Keith, MixedbyAli, and more have already shown some IG love. And while it’s unclear as to when exactly the track was recorded, EarthGang described it as being “new-new,” far removed from the Dreamers 3 sessions. 

In music, fans love to hear a good crossover. When artists from differing genres come together to make hits, it can be a chart-topper or a dumpster fire. Either way, fans seem to enjoy hearing genres collide like when Christina Aguilera and Redman did “Dirrty," Brad Paisley and LL Cool J gave us “Accidental Racist," and Nelly and Tim McGraw had everyone singing "Over & Over."

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Back in 2009, Wale released his debut album Attention Deficit along with his lead single, "Chillin," featuring none other than pop princess Lady Gaga. The Cool & Dre-produced track came about because the two artists were introduced to one another by Mark Ronson, Wale's friend and mentor. A fan took to Twitter recently with a quick message to Wale: "work with @ladygaga again." Others liked and agreed, but the rapper said that things behind the scenes make collaborations more complicated for some artists.

"Y’all got to understand these fantasy features work two ways," Wale responded. "Pop people don’t wanna work wit us unless we sittin in that top 40 or unless it’s a white rapper .. prove me wrong." Can you prove him wrong? Let us know what your favorite unlikely collaboration has been over the years and who else you'd like to see link up.

Mitchell & Ness and Bleacher Report have teamed up with eight hip-hop artists for a limited collection of basketball jerseys and gear inspired by their hometown teams. For instance, The Diplomats put their spin on a blue and orange New York jersey, while Future created an electric Hawks jersey with a nod to "Zone 6" on the back.

Wale has been in the game for a while now and his story has many twists and turns. He has hopped around between record labels and management teams. His career can be broken down into the various business arrangements he was entangled in at given stages. In his new hour-and-fourty-minute interview on Joe Budden‘s “Pull Up” series, they chronicle these stages to arrive at Wale’s current situation and state of mind. Towards the end of their chat, Budden asks, “In 2020, is there anybody you need to make it right with?” Without hesitating, Wale responds that he feels there’s a crucial conversation to be had between him and Jay-Z. 

“HOV,” Wale says. “That’s my idol. That’s my Michael Jordan. I just feel there’s one conversation we gotta have, but it ain’t nothing bad though. We just gotta have one conversation. I mean like, there was a time when I could reach Obama easier than I could reach Jay-Z. Jay-Z took me on my first world tour. He took me on my first major domestic tour. I learned a lot from him. This is a conversation we probably should have soon. Things I wanna tell him.”

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“Just a real solid convo,” the DMV rapper adds. “Like where I’m at now as a grown man. You know, I left Roc Nation as a child.” Wale signed to the Roc, Jay-Z’s management company, in 2009 and left in 2014, when he was 29 years old. Budden wondered whether both Wale and Roc Nation were children, in a metaphorical sense, at the time: “you in your infancy stage as an artist and Roc Nation in its infancy stage as a growing business.” 

Earlier in the interview, Budden got frustrated with Wale for not giving in-depth and honest answers to his questions, specifically one about his hit “On Chill”. 

Joe Budden is not one to hold his tongue when something isn’t sitting well with him. While he was interviewing Wale on the latest episode of “Pull Up”, he didn’t hesitate to call out his guest when he was giving unsatisfactory answers. 

Around the 15-minute mark of the video below, Budden asked Wale to speak about how he felt when his recent single, “On Chill”, became a commercial success. Wale, without much enthusiasm, started discussing how the numbers reflecting its positive reception left him with a “good feeling.” Budden thought the DMV rapper wasn’t diving deep enough to offer an honest response. “Oh my Jesus man,” Budden exasperatedly interrupts. “I hate when you n****s make this difficult. Coming off of the album, before the fucking album that’s doing great right now, when there were rumors that maybe Wale had lost a step – that maybe Wale’s pen was not as sharp as it once was, that maybe Wale wasn’t as valuable as he once was – and then you caught another hit. So, when I ask you how it feels, I’m not looking for this shallow laid-back bullshit that you’ve given everyone else.”

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This occurred within the first 20 minutes of the interview and tension is palpable for the remaining hour and 20 minutes. There are several moments when Wale appears to be frustrated with Budden’s tone and prying. Wale explains that his hesitation to speak on certain matters stems from past experiences of his words being twisted and held against him. At one point, Wale says, “Go ahead. Add to the list of n****s that get the toxic moments from Wale and I just come off the wrong way for everybody, every time.”