Cee Lo Green issues apology for rape comments and returns to Twitter

September 3, 2014 9:51

Singer says his remarks were 'idiotic' and 'untrue'

Cee Lo Green has apologised for controversial remarks he made about rape on Twitter earlier this week.

The singer deleted his account on the social networking site on September 2 after posting a series of tweets relating to a recent court case in which he pleaded no contest to supplying ecstasy to a woman.

Green escaped jail time last month after pleading no contest to drugs charges. The singer was accused of secretly slipping ecstasy into the drink of his dinner date at a sushi restaurant in July 2012, and was sentenced to three years of formal probation and ordered to complete 360 hours of community service.

An earlier rape charge relating to the same alleged incident was dropped due to insufficient evidence. Writing on Twitter, Green had remarked: "People who have really been raped REMEMBER!!!" and "If someone is passed out they're not even WITH you consciously! so WITH Implies consent."

Although Green removed his profile from Twitter after receiving criticism for his remarks, he has now reactivated his account and has issued an apology. "I truly and deeply apologize for the comments attributed to me on Twitter," he wrote. "Those comments were idiotic, untrue and not what I believe."

Earlier today, meanwhile, it was revealed that Green's reality TV show The Good Life has been cancelled. MTV reports that US cable network TBS decided not to renew the programme for a second season after it returned disappointing viewing figures for its first six-episode run.

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Morrissey calls Twitter account 'bogus'

May 17, 2014 9:59

The singer has denied that he is posting via the recently active social networking account

Morrissey has called the Twitter account that was set up in his name "bogus".

Writing in a statement posted on fan forum True To You, Morrissey denied that he posted his first official tweet earlier this week, saying:

I would like to stress that I do not have either a Twitter or a Facebook account. I gather that a Twitter account has been opened in my name - as 'It's Morrissey' - but it is NOT Morrissey. I do not know who has opened this recent Twitter account, but please be aware that it is bogus. That's, of course, if you should remotely care. Untwitterably yours, MORRISSEY.

On May 14 a tweet was sent out by the verified Morrissey account @itsmorrissey on Twitter, reading: "Hello. Testing, 1, 2, 3. Planet Earth, are you there? One can only hope...". Four more tweets have since been posted, with tour details and a tweet which read: "Twitter is the perfect metaphor for...something. Dunno what."

Morrissey recently revealed the title track from his new album 'World Peace Is None of Your Business'. The song is the first to be taken from Morrissey's forthcoming solo album of the same name and is available to download immediately for those who pre-order the record.

PHOTOS: Morrissey's most memorable quotes

A video for a spoken word version of the single featuring Nancy Sinatra has also been revealed. The video can be watched via iTunes. The album will be released on July 14 and includes 'Neal Cassady Drops Dead', 'Earth Is The Loneliest Planet' and 'Kick The Bride Down The Aisle'. Scroll down to see the full tracklisting.

The singer, who released his autobiography in October 2013, has signed a new, worldwide record deal with Universal Music's US-based Harvest Records for the release of his 10th studio album. All 12 tracks were produced by Joe Chiccarelli (The Strokes, The Killers) in France.

The 'World Peace Is None of Your Business' tracklisting is:

'World Peace Is None Of Your Business'
'Neal Cassady Drops Dead'
'Istanbul'
'I'm Not A Man'
'Earth Is The Loneliest Planet'
'Staircase At The University'
'The Bullfighter Dies'
'Kiss Me A Lot'
'Smiler With Knife'
'Kick The Bride Down the Aisle'
'Mountjoy'
'Oboe Concerto'

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We Asked Twitter #Music: What the F*%k Happened?

Why did Twitter #Music die after just one week?  Immediately after launch, Digital Music News questioned whether it made sense to demand payment for full streams, something that the stats sadly supported. 

But here's what Stephen Phillips, a top executive at Twitter #Music, told Digital Music News during a question-and-answer session at SF Musictech Summit on Tuesday.  Phillips founded We Are Hunted, acquired by Twitter to power the music play.

Digital Music News (Paul Resnikoff): I'm really wondering what happened in terms of Twitter #Music's profile.  It launched and there was so much hype around it, and it was the number one ranked app and it was blowing up.  

Then a week later, it was falling so quickly; it seems like this is becoming endemic to this space.  

So what happens next?

Phillips: I just think it's early days, that we can't call it a failure, and I can't call it a success.  It's still just the beginning, and it's going to be a long path for us to build upon.  And it's just so important - music is just so important to Twitter that it's not something they're going to walk away from.  

Obviously from the numbers they're one of the biggest music apps around already, and I've got a dedicated team that's been building music apps for ages, and we plan to move pretty quickly.

Audience Member: Hi there, I've used We Are Hunted for years for music, loved it —

Phillips: So did I, it was really good [audience laughter]

Audience Member: — but uh, just curious, what story are you going to tell to convince people to pay for music?  Because personally, there are so many ways to not pay for music, that I just want to know, how are you going to convince me to pay for music —

Phillips: I don't know, how am I going to convince you to pay for music?  Twitter's going to convince you to pay for music?

Audience Member: If you're — if you're successful...

Phillips: Yeah, we're kind of hoping our partners will solve that one [audience laughter]. That they'll be the ones who convince people to buy their products. 

We're going to help if we can.  It was really cool to bring Rdio and Spotify to the table, we met them three weeks from launch and said, 'I think it would be really cool if you joined into this.'  

And we said, 'how can we make this easier to get people to use these services?'  But I'm not sure we're going to be the ones to sell that.  It's not going to be wont of letting people have opportunities to buy music they want. 

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What Else? Twitter Funding, Apple's 'Problem,' Lauryn's Hill, Rolling Stones, Omnifone, Beyonce's Ban...

There's more to Twitter music than just Twitter #music.  Enter Chirpify, the in-tweet commerce engine that just rustled a $2 million series A from Voyager Capital.  That brings the broader financing level to $3.3 million, according to the company. Snoop Dogg, Puma, and Lil Wayne are now signed on as 'enterprise customers'.   

So it seems that Apple has a problem: it's smashingly-excellent past.  The company reported fairly solid second quarter financials on Tuesday — $9.5 million in profits on $43.6 billion in sales —though CEO Tim Cook admitted that growth rates are slowing.  Perhaps more importantly to Wall Street: current-quarter expectations are lower than expected, which probably means more downward movement on AAPL.

And it's rain/pour for Lauryn Hill, who basically checked out from both celebrity and broader society sometime in the early 2000s.  Hill is now facing sentencing for tax evasion (non-payment on nearly $2 million in income), though TMZ is now reporting eviction proceedings on Hill's rented mansion in New Jersey.  Court documents show that Hill has inked a $1 million recording contract with Sony Music to manage the tax debt.

And what's more important than the Rolling Stones?  The NBA Playoffs, that's what: according to official word from the band, the opening date for the upcoming '50 & Counting' trek will be moved one day to May 3rd (still at Staples Center), to avoid a hoops-related conflict. 

Over the pond in London, Omnifone has just named David Finch as CFO, effective immediately.  Omnifone, a b2b-focused digital music service provider, is helping to power the just-launched MySXM personalized radio service.

And, can you really control the cameras anymore (or the blogs, Tumblrs, Tweets and websites that distribute them)?  After the publication of wildly-unflattering Super Bowl pics, Beyonce is now banning all photo credentials on her upcoming, Mrs Carter tour.  Beyonce will only release authorized pics taken by an authorized photographer.  And what about everyone else in the crowd?

More ahead!

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Wendi Deng Twitter account found to be a fake (AP)

LONDON – A Twitter account purported to be linked to the wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch has turned out to be bogus.

Twitter officials say they "mistakenly verified" the Wendi_Deng account as genuine for a short time. Twitter spokeswoman Rachel Bremer said Tuesday the company apologizes for the confusion.

The person who opened the Wendi_Deng account tweeted Tuesday that it had been a hoax.

News International spokeswoman Daisy Dunlop said while the Wendi_Deng account was fake, the Twitter account opened over the New Year's weekend by News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch was genuine.

The Associated Press and other news organizations including the Guardian and the Telegraph newspapers quoted the Wendi_Deng account in earlier stories.

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