A student was found dead inside a car at Jackson State University in Mississippi on Dec. 2, according to WLBT News. Flynn Brown was found dead of an apparent gunshot wound around 8 a.m. in a parking lot on campus.

The 22-year-old student was recently found inside of a Dodge Challenger. Bailey Martin from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation confirmed that 20-year-old Randall Smith was in custody after being arrested for the murder of Brown. Martin said, “Smith has been arrested in connection to the JSU homicide that occurred yesterday.”

Brown played football in New Jersey at Mount Olive High School before going to college. His former high school coach, Brian O’ Connor, announced his death on Twitter.

The president of Jackson State University Thomas Hudson, J.D. announced the tragic news on Dec. 2.

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Just as Roddy Ricch was enjoying some success again with the release of his most recent album, Feed Tha Streets III, he was hit with a copyright lawsuit over his most popular song ever, “The Box.”

According to TMZ,  Ricch, the producer of the song, 30 Roc, and his label, Atlantic Records, were sued on Tuesday by long-time soul singer Greg Perry, with claims that the Compton rapper and his team took elements of his 1975 song “Come on Down (Get Your Head Out of the Clouds)” without his permission.

This lawsuit was filed exactly a year after Ricch’s hit single was certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

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Perry says the similarities are unmistakable and claims a musicology expert “clearly and convincingly” shows the 2 tracks share similar melody, form, and structure.

Perry is looking to be awarded damages and wants the court to find that Roddy and his team willingly infringed his copyright.

Ricch’s debut studio album, Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial, was one of the most popular rap albums of 2020, mostly thanks to the success of “The Box “ which spent 11 weeks at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. If Perry is able to win this lawsuit, there’s a lot of money for him to make on the backend.

Since Please Excuse ME, Ricch hasn’t quite been able to reach that level of success again with the release of LIVE LIFE FAST in 2021 and Feed That Streets III in 2022. Although his most recent project has been received well, it has not had the same level of commercial success as his debut studio album.

Outside of music, the Compton rapper has found himself in legal trouble this year. In June, he was arrested on gun charges in New York City just hours before he was supposed to perform at the Governor’s Ball Music Festival. He was eventually released from custody and had the weapons charges dismissed, according to Rolling Stone.

Cousins! The currently accused shooter within beloved Migos member TakeOff’s tragic death appeared in court recently where he claims that he’s innocent!

As we previously reported earlier this month 33 year old Patrick Xavier Clark was arrested on charges of murder for the fatal November 1st incident. Appearing in his first court hearing on Monday he is said to have not spoken and only communicated through his legal team.

In legal documents obtained by TMZ, it appears that Patrick is seeking to take an extra mile in proving his innocence by requesting $5,000 from the proceeding judge to hire a Private Investigator. He adds that his family is unable to pay for one on their own as they’ve used all of their money to hire an attorney.

Patrick reportedly insists that a Private Investigator will help his defense , “ properly investigate [Clark’s] case and to prepare effectively for trial.”

It has been indicated that he’s already located a Private Investigator willing to work at a fixed rate of $85 an hour.

According to Fox News, one of Patrick’s attorneys identified as Letitia Quinones explained after the scheduled court appearance that her client was feeling both nervous and concerned.

“…he’s being charged with something that he believes he’s innocent of, so how would anyone do in that type of circumstance?”

If released Patrick will be placed under house arrest , prohibited from possessing firearms or any deadly weapons, and prohibited from the use of marijuana or any controlled substance without a prescription. He will also be ordered to not contact specific people from Takeoff’s family, including J. Prince Jr. and boxer Shakur Stevenson.

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Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

The trouble began when he found a copy machine that made perfect copies. His name was Cliff Evans and the year was 1996 and he’d just finished Columbia University. He was in the midst of money troubles, and he was a hustler who wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. He was at a crossroads in his life, but he didn’t hesitate. He opened the machine and put a dollar bill on it. The copy that came out looked exactly like money. In that moment, he became a professional counterfeiter. Evans was a friend of mine in high school, and his wild life story is the center of my new book about a true crime called “The Ivy League Counterfeiter.” It’s available on Scribd as an ebook. I talked to theGrio’s Maiysha Kai about it for her podcast, “Writing Black.” The episode will be out on Sunday.  

That night he discovered the copy machine, Evan stayed for hours copying money. He created about $10,000 worth. The next day, he took short cab rides, just a few blocks each, then handed whoever was driving a fake $20. No one noticed. That day, he made several hundred real dollars. He knew he had something. He went back and worked hard at making sure the color of his bills looked right and the paper was the perfect texture — he often put his bills in a clothes dryer to make them feel aged. He went to all sorts of places — bars, smoke shops, malls — spending money on lots of small things he didn’t need. He was in business.

Evans, who grew up in Chicago, was then living in Harlem. He chose a trio of compatriots to be his lieutenants and also had 10–15 people serving as distributors — guys who would come by once a week and get a stack of fake bills. They had to come back with real money. In a way, counterfeiting is a smart crime because there’s not a lot of violence associated with it like there is in the drug trade and there’s not a lot of exploitation like there is in prostitution.

Counterfeiters say success feels like getting over on someone — you feel like you’re smarter than them. But, counterfeiting is hard work — you can never pass bills in the same place twice so you have to keep finding new places to go and new things to buy and all that endless spending becomes boring. Counterfeiters can’t buy something significant like a home because that’ll trigger questions from the IRS. Also, every time you give a fake bill to a store, that store is almost certainly going to call the police. If you’re in the drug trade when you buy weight from a supplier or sell a bag to a citizen, both sides are happy. No one’s going to call the police. But if you give someone fake money, they’ll probably realize it soon after and then the government’s looking for you.

Evans did not know how close the cops were to catching him. The photocopier he was using was imprinting a microscopic code onto every copy he made. That code gave law enforcement the coordinates of the copier that made it. Every bill Evans passed had a message on it — this bill was made at this address. The seeds of Evans’ demise were there at the beginning — he was “covertly” handing out paper that told law enforcement where to find him. But ultimately, what brought him down was a shocking betrayal that he never saw coming. The moment I realized who had betrayed him my jaw dropped to the floor.

My book, “The Ivy League Counterfeiter” goes deep into Evans’ scam, the ways he did it, the reasons why, the people who led to him getting caught and also why he got out of prison and went into a whole new criminal conspiracy. It’s an amazing, riveting story about crime, private school, and a charismatic unforgettable hustler who just didn’t know when to say no.

Touré is a host and Creative Director at theGrio. He is the host of the podcast “Toure Show” and the podcast docuseries “Who Was Prince?” He is also the author of seven books including the Prince biography Nothing Compares 2 U. Look out for his upcoming podcast Being Black In the 80s.

TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. Please download theGrio mobile apps today! 

Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. won re-election to a full term in the Senate against GOP nominee Herschel Walker on Tuesday.

His victory in the Georgia runoff now gives Democrats a 51-49 majority in the Senate.

“After a hard-fought campaign — or should I say campaigns — it is my honor to utter the four most powerful words ever spoken in a democracy: The people have spoken,” Warnock stated.

Warnock, a reverend at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, is a Morehouse College graduate and a Fall 1993 initiate of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.’s Alpha Gamma Lambda Chapter in Harlem.

Alpha Phi Alpha’s international headquarters took to social media to officially celebrate their brother.

Senator Warnock is the third member of Alpha Phi Alpha to be come a US Senator, following Edward Brook who represented Massachusetts from 1967 to 1979 and Roland Burris who represented Illinois from 2009 to 2010.

“I am Georgia, I am example and an iteration of its history,” Warnock stated.

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“Just with that attitude and his response, oh it’s so triggering,” she says. “Customers were looking at me and I was just embarrassed.”

The employee gave her a refund without apologizing for the “monkey” comment, the messed-up order or his bad attitude.

Pugh immediately contacted customer service about the incident. The first person to reach out to her was the general manager of the location she was violated in.

“This is not a small complaint, it’s not like my coffee was cold or I was missing my croissant,” she says. “And you couldn’t even leave a message without mispronouncing my name.”

The manager said in his message about the location’s commitment to diversity, that he was a man of color, and offered to pay for a free drink and sandwich from the store to make up for the incident.

“I declined it … because that offer felt disrespectful,” Pugh said. “It was disrespectful that he’d say as a Hispanic male he understood and then offered me that.”

The corporate office confirmed that the incident took place and says the person who took the order was disciplined, however, wasn’t fired.

A Starbucks representative told the news, the person was not an official worker of their company, however, was employed by a franchisee, Impeccable Brands. The franchise company has since has initiated its own third-party investigation and will launch diversity and inclusion training for its employees.

The city of Earle, located in Arkansas, elected Jaylen Smith as mayor in Tuesday night’s runoff. This makes him the youngest Black mayor in the country at just 18 years old. According to election results, Smith managed to receive 218 votes while his opponent, Nemi Matthews Sr., obtained 139 votes.

Smith quickly went to Facebook to celebrate his victory:

“Citizens of Earle, Arkansas, it’s official!! I am your newly elected Mayor of Earle, Arkansas… ‘It’s Time to Build a Better Chapter of Earle, Arkansas.’ I would like to thank all my supporters for stepping up getting people to the polls. I am truly grateful for you all.”

Smith, who just graduated from high school, told Cincinnati’s WKRC about his plans to make transportation and public safety better. Earle has a population of about 2,000 people. He also wants to tear down houses that have been abandoned and build a grocery store.

“You’re never too young to want to make a difference in your community,” Smith stated. His opponent, Nemi Matthews Sr., is the street superintendent of Earle. In addition, Matthews served as lieutenant for Earle’s police department. In total, he had worked for the City of Earle for more than four decades.

Just days before Tuesday’s election, Matthews explained to WKRC the bond he and Smith share, stating that they are friends and that their families have been friends for a while.

“No animosity, anything, far as me and Jaylen are concerned,” he commented. “Everything has been cordial. If I can help him do anything, I’ll do it, and likewise with him.”

Smith’s fiery resolve played a crucial role in his win. “When somebody tells me ‘no,’ I don’t stop just because someone tells me ‘no’,” he has said in past interviews. “There’s always someone waiting to tell you ‘yes.’”

Cousins! It is officially a wrap for longtime couple Nia Long and fiancé Ime Udoka. Despite their shared 13 years together the couple has decided to call it quits following the NBA coach’s cheating scandal!

A source close to Nia confirmed the news to People magazine within an exclusive statement. “The situation is unfortunate and painful, but Nia is focusing on her children and rebuilding her life.”

The direct cause of their breakup has been noted as Ime’s affair with a female employee apart of the Boston Celtics organization.

The rep shares that though the couple are no longer together their main focus remains their son Kez and being effective co-parents.