AHH Stray News: Desiigner Drug Charges Dropped, The Weeknd Sets Spotify Record, Riff Raff Troll’s Kanye With New Album

DESIIGNER, THE WEEKND AND RIFF RAFF IN THE HEADLINES

HOT 97 Summer Jam Concert held at the Metlife Stadium - Performances Featuring: Desiigner Where: East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States When: 05 Jun 2016 Credit: WENN.com

Rapper Desiigner has been cleared of all charges relating to a recent drug and weapons arrest in New York City. The Panda hitmaker, real name Sidney Royel Selby III, was taken into custody in September (16) after he and four friends were involved in an alleged road rage incident. Reports suggested the group had screamed at the driver of another car, who called the police and claimed Desiigner had pointed a gun at him. Cops tracked down the hip-hop star’s vehicle and during a search, they reportedly found a large amount of loose pills, including Oxycontin. Desiigner and his pals were arrested and charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal possession of drugs with intent to sell. The 19-year-old MC was also slapped with counts of criminal possession of a loaded weapon and menacing for allegedly brandishing a gun at the other driver. The rapper’s lawyers were quick to blast authorities for the headline-grabbing bust, insisting the friend driving the car had a prescription for the pills, and revealing no firearm was ever found on Desiigner or in the car. As a result, the charges of criminal possession of a loaded weapon, menacing, and criminal possession of drugs with intent to sell were promptly dismissed by the District Attorney, and on Tuesday (29Nov16), the final count for possession of a controlled substance was also dismissed.

The Weeknd

R&B superstar The Weeknd has set a new record for the most plays of his tracks in a single day on streaming service Spotify. The musician, real name Abel Tesfaye, racked up the record numbers on Friday (November 25), the day his new album Starboy was released. Monte Lipman, the co-founder of The Weeknd’s label Republic Records hailed the achievement, as he told Billboard magazine, “Spotify’s continued support of The Weeknd has now reached historic proportions and also reinforces the tremendous growth of global streaming.” Streams of tracks on Starboy, which feature contributions from Daft Punk, Lana Del Rey, Kendrick Lamar, helped the 26-year-old unseat previous record holder Justin Bieber, whose music was streamed 36 million times on 13 November last year. Exact details of how many times the “Can’t Feel My Face” singer’s tracks were played are yet to be released by Spotify bosses.

Riff Raff on Real Late w/ Peter Rosenberg

Riff Raff is banking on his race and the controversy surrounding Kanye West, to move copies of his latest album. The rapper has announced the title of his new upcoming album, which will be called The White Kanye West. The album follows Riff-Raff’s most recent releases Peach Panther and Balloween, both of which were released in 2016. Riff Raff is also attempting to promote the hashtag #TheWhiteWest hashtag to go along with The White Kanye West album. Riff Raff’s announcement comes just a week after Kanye made international headlines, by being hospitalized for stress, exhaustion and psychosis.