By: Gabrielle Nicolosi

Well known rapper Drake, 32, is receiving backlash after a resurfaced video was released showing the singer touching and kissing a 17-year-old girl on stage.

Drake is under fire for a video in which he kisses, holds, and touches a young woman after he learns she is a minor. Many are questioning his intentions and his reasoning for continuing after learning her age.
In the 94-second video, Drake is seen kissing the teen on her forehead, hand, cheeks, and then lips. The video is a resurfaced clip posted by a Twitter user taken during a Drake concert in Denver, Colorado of 2010.
After Drake invited a teen onstage during one of his concerts, he began to make inappropriate comments, and touches her, while he’s aware she’s a minor.
Drake goes on to ask the girl her age and she notifies him that she’s 17- years old. In response, Drake goes on to say, “I can’t go to jail yet, man! 17? Why you look like that? You thick. Look at all this.”
After wrapping his arms around the fan while standing behind her he states, “I don’t know if I should feel guilty or not but I had fun. I like the way your breasts feel against my chest.”
“It’s ok, I’m only 23,” he added. Many are concerned about his disregard for the fact that she’s a minor and doesn’t ask for consent before he carries on kissing and touching her.
He then carries on, kissing the 17-year-old on her forehead, hand, and lips, while the crowd erupted with screams. The video has struck controversy among fans of Drake as well as many who have seen the video.
Many claimed to feel uncomfortable and disgusted after watching the clip. One Twitter user quotes, “I’m so disgusted by his response after she said her age. No respect.” Another tweeted, “He keeps getting away with this too. It’s not the first time he’s been caught messing with underage girls.”
Drake’s publicly announced friendship with 14-year-old Millie Bobby Brown has also raised concerns. While on the red carpet, Brown discussed her friendship with 32-year-old rapper Drake.
When asked about their friendship, Brown quoted, “We just texted each other the other day and he was like ‘I miss you so much,’ and I was like ‘I miss you more.” When asked about the specifics of their messages, Brown replied, “About boys, he helps me.”
After being asked to elaborate further on the specific boy advice given to her by rapper Drake, Brown insisted that it “stays in the text messages”. The 18-year age gap between the two has made many have question if its appropriate for a 32-year-old man to be talking about boys and relationship advice with a young teenage girl.
Brown additionally called him “a great friend and a great role model” during the interview. These two incidents are spiking controversy for 32-year-old rapper Drake. Many say his behavior and language used with the two young teens is inappropriate.

By: Sophia Haque

From Filthy Frank to Pink Guy, to Joji.

    George Miller has finally made the transition from “Filthy Frank/Pink Guy”, a comedic Youtuber with no filter, to the extremely talented singer, Joji. Joji has always shown an interest in music, clearly visible in “Pink Season,” an album produced while known as “Pink Guy.”

    Filthy Frank was George Miller’s alter ego on Youtube. He contributed to the creation of the “Harlem Shake” and many more iconic Youtube videos.

    After releasing the albums such as. “Chloe Burbank” and “In Tongues,” it was apparent that Joji wanted to expand beyond his Youtube limitations.

     After officially becoming a part of “88rising,” a record label, Joji was allowed to play with a more serious tone in music. Putting out songs such as, “Midsummer Madness” and “ Head in the Clouds” which collaborated with multiple artists also taking part in “88rising.”

    Joji’s most recent works, “Ballads 1,” was released October 26, 2018. This album included hit songs such as “Slow Dancing in the Dark,” and “Can’t Get Over You,” showcasing Joji alone. Some other artists featured in this album include “Clams Casino,” “Shlohmo & D33J,” and “Trippe Red.”

    After making the trending page on Youtube and reaching No. 1 on “Billboards Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart, Joji has become increasingly more popular. Ultimately resulting in the sellout of all concerts for the “Ballads 1 North America Tour.”

    Although Joji has performed several times in Europe, his first performance in America happened to be in Santa Ana at the Observatory. Tickets costing $20 for general admission and $90 for V.I.P.

    Doors opened at 6:00 pm for V.I.P and 7:00 pm for general admission. However, many fans arrive hours beforehand so they can be first in line and get the best spots in the house.

    Right as you walked in you could stand in line and support Joji by purchasing his merchandise. Most people, however, hurriedly walked to the stage area so they could find a spot to stand and settle down.  

    After waiting almost an hour for the concert to begin, and what seemed like a hundred “Suicide Boys” songs, it was apparent that Joji was very late. After many fans getting restless, Rei Brown, Joji’s starting act, eventually came out.

    Rei Brown played several of his original songs for everyone while playing the piano. However, it was shocking how long Rei Brown played for, having been that this was a concert for Joji. Rei Brown is very talented and overall pleased the crowd.

    After a round of applause for Rei Brown, he left the stage. Many believed it was finally time for Joji to make his appearance. However, fans were left waiting for another 30 minutes.

    As the lights suddenly shifted and the repeatedly played “Suicide Boys” tracks were pt to an end, it was apparent Joji was finally ready.

    Screams and cries of joy filled the room as Joji entered. Immediately getting right into performing.  

    Not only did Joji play new songs from his new album, but he also played songs from his past albums such as “Demons” and “You Suck Charlie.” Making his original fans feel nostalgic.

    It also was made apparent that there were multiple technical difficulties during the show causing Joji to become frustrated. However, Joji pushed through an finished the show with a band by performing “Slow Dancing in the Dark.”

    With a small, loyal following Joji has much to improve on, but plenty of time to fulfill. Overall, fans were left satisfied and happy after his performance. Ending the long, but exciting night, with a bang.

By Michael Murg

Beloved Simpsons character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon will leave televisions screens for continuing episodes of The Simpsons as he is deemed as a ‘racist’ and ‘Stereotypical’ character.

    “Thank you, come again.” You may or may not be familiar with these four words. If familiar, you would know that they are the most famous and memorable lines from the character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon when customers leave his store, Kwik E Mart, in the beloved show, The Simpsons.

    Due to the controversy around the character, the producers of The Simpsons have decided to drop the character to avoid all conflict. This means not including him in the story and making no further appearances in the show. There was possible to talk that one of the producers Adi Shankar had found a perfect script to solve the Apu problem. However, this seems highly unlikely and is probably just a script to write him out of the show for good.

    The reason this controversy has risen was simply around the fact that Hank Azaria, a white man, voices the stereotypical first-generation Indian immigrant named Apu. Hank, although voicing many of the characters in the Simpsons, has been ridiculed for his voicing of Mr. Nahasapeemapetilon.

    The documentary, “The Problem with Apu”, by Indian American comedian Hari Kondabolu deep dived into why Apu Nahasapeemapetilon is not okay to be on television. The documentary interviewed many other Indian American comedians and actors and how their lives were affected by Apu.

   First off, it explained how the only reason why Apu appeals to the audience is because of his thick, stereotypical accent. There is really no depth to Apu other than his ridiculous accent. In fact, the documentary proceeded to explain how Apu was not supposed to have an accent at first due to being too cliché. However, at a table read one of the writers used a heavy Indian accent to be funny and it stuck.

    At MVHS, Kamille Kibria, an American Indian Student, commented on this issue by saying, “I have never been called Apu by anyone.” Maybe it is fair to say that The Simpsons is a show more targeted to earlier generations, rather than Kamille’s generation.

     She also later stated that maybe the Simpsons could find a real Indian to do the voice of Apu, rather than being voiced by a white man.

    Noureen Dewulf, an actor who was interviewed in the documentary stated, “An accent is a crucial part of a character, it’s when the accent lends itself to being part of a joke about the person, (or) a racist dig, that’s when the accent is problematic”

    Another important part of the equation is how Indian Americans have been mocked in reference to Apu as a sign of mockery. Obviously, this has been offensive to many of this minority group. The reason why people would reference Indian Americans as similar to Apu is because in 1989 when the Simpsons first premiered, there was no other representation for Indian Americans. In comparison to 2018 with shows like The Mindy Project and comedians like Hasan Minhaj, there was only Apu who represented the Indian American population on a wide scale format such as television.

    Hari Kondabolu also compared Apu to a form of Minstrelsy. Minstrelsy is a wavered form of entertainment that makes fun of Blacks as being stupid or foolish, not to mention these “actors” portraying black people were white people with black paint on their face. Apu doing foolish songs and dances, looking silly, and being voiced by a white man fit under the category of Minstrelsy pretty well.

    What you may be thinking is that Hari Kondabolu is just another annoying civil rights activist who doesn’t look from different point of views other than his own. However, due to the work in the documentary, one can see how he isn’t quite that.

    He interviewed his first-generation immigrant parents on the subject of Apu. They said they were not offended by the character and that the huge difference between them and Hari was the fact that they are immigrants and he was born in America.

    There is a whole other side to this controversy: the fans. Barstool Sports journalist, native Bostonian,  and a die-hard Simpsons fan, Rear Admiral, had said on his popular podcast Spittin Chiclets, “I personally saw the documentary, I don’t think he made a very convincing case, you know basically ‘I got picked on as a kid’ with it, and you know every kid got picked on as a kid and if you got compared to a cartoon character, it’s probably not the worst thing.”  We can most likely assume for many “Day-one” Simpsons fans, seeing Apu leave for good will be sad for them.

    Whichever side you may be on, it is truly a beautiful thing to be able to create a documentary expressing your beliefs about a subject matter. It is equally as grand to disagree with what they are saying. Not too long ago, citizens of this country could not express their freedoms. As previously stated, standing up for your beliefs is a clear sign of an American no matter what race you may be.