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The number of Matter-enabled thermostats just grew by oneLuke Richardson was fired as coach of the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday, the NHL club announced, after the team stumbled to the league's worst record so far this season. Swede Anders Sorensen, coach of the Blackhawks' top developmental club, was named interim coach for the NHL squad. Richardson, a 55-year-old Canadian, went 57-118 with 15 overtime losses in three seasons with Chicago. The Blackhawks are 8-16 with two overtime losses this season for a league-low 18 points after going 19-54-9 last season, second-worst in the NHL, and 26-49-7 in 2022-23, third-worst in the league. "Today I made the difficult decision to move on from Luke as our head coach," Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson said. "As we have begun to take steps forward in our rebuilding process, we felt that the results did not match our expectations for a higher level of execution this season and ultimately came to the decision that a change was necessary." The Blackhawks are on a four-game losing streak and 3-9-1 in their past 13 starts with 2.42 goals a game this season, second worst in the NHL. They have reached the Stanley Cup playoffs only once over the past seven seasons. "I fully support Kyle's decision in making this change as he continues to do what is needed to move our team forward," Blackhawks chairman and chief executive Danny Wirtz said. "I have the utmost confidence in him and the rest of our hockey operations team as they begin their search for the next head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks." Richardson became the third NHL coach fired this season after Boston dumped Jim Montgomery last month. He was hired five days later by St. Louis after the Blues fired Drew Bannister. js/bb
Urgent need for job creation to retain Lankan youthCredo shares surge after 64% jump in revenue, narrowed quarterly loss
French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to stay in office until 2027 and announced that he will name a new prime minister within days following the resignation of ousted Prime Minister Michel Barnier. Mr Macron came out fighting on Thursday after a historic no-confidence vote at the National Assembly left France without a functioning government. He laid blame at the door of his opponents on the far right for bringing down Mr Barnier's government. "They chose disorder," he said. The president said the far right and the far left had united in what he called "an anti-Republican front" and stressed: "I won't shoulder other people's irresponsibility." He said he'd name a new prime minister within days but gave no hints who that might be. While he was critical of his political opponents, Mr Macron also acknowledged his own "responsibility" in the chaos shaking French politics and alarming financial markets. He revisited his decision in June to dissolve parliament, which led to an election that produced a hung parliament. "I do recognise that this decision wasn't understood. Many people criticised me for it. I know many continue to criticise me for it," he said. However, he argued, "I believe it was necessary" to let French voters speak. Earlier in the day, Mr Macron "took note" of Mr Barnier's resignation, the Elysee presidential palace said. Mr Barnier and other ministers will be "in charge of current affairs until the appointment of a new government," the statement said. The no-confidence motion passed by 331 votes in the National Assembly, forcing Mr Barnier to step down after just three months in office—the shortest tenure of any prime minister in modern French history. The new prime minister "will be charged with forming a government of general interest representing all the political forces — that commit not to vote a no-confidence motion," Mr Macron said. The priority will be to pass a budget law for 2025, he added. Mr Macron tore into lawmakers who brought Mr Barnier's government down, accusing them of pursuing their own political interests. He noted that the vote came with the end-of-year holidays just around the corner. "Why did lawmakers act this way? They're not thinking of you, of your lives, your difficulties," he said. "They're thinking of just one thing: the presidential election — to prepare it, to provoke it, to precipitate it." But Mr Macron said he'd see out the 30 months still left in his second and last term as president. Mr Macron faces the critical task of naming a replacement capable of leading a minority government in a parliament where no party holds a majority. Yaël Braun-Pivet, president of the National Assembly and a member of Macron's party, urged the president to move quickly. "I recommend he decide rapidly on a new prime minister," Ms Braun-Pivet said on Thursday on France Inter radio. "There must not be any political hesitation. We need a leader who can speak to everyone and work to pass a new budget bill." The process may prove challenging. Mr Macron's administration has yet to confirm any names, though French media have reported a shortlist of centrist candidates who might appeal to both sides of the political spectrum. Mr Macron took more than two months to appoint Mr Barnier after his party's defeat in June's legislative elections, raising concerns about potential delays this time. The no-confidence vote has galvanised opposition leaders, with some explicitly calling for Mr Macron's resignation. "I believe that stability requires the departure of the President of the Republic," said Manuel Bompard, leader of the far-left France Unbowed party, on BFM TV Wednesday night. Far-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen , whose party holds the most seats in the Assembly, stopped short of calling for Mr Macron's resignation but warned that "the pressure on the President of the Republic will get stronger and stronger." Mr Macron has dismissed such calls and ruled out new legislative elections. The French constitution does not call for a president to resign after his government was ousted by the National Assembly. "I was elected to serve until 2027, and I will fulfil that mandate," he told reporters earlier this week. The constitution also says that new legislative elections cannot be held until at least July, creating a potential stalemate for policymakers.Equifax and Mastercard Join Forces to Combat Payment Fraud in Latin America
Around the port of Melbourne in Australia, stronger bunker demand for high sulfur fuel oil has tightened prompt product availability and also limited barging schedules amid the peak cruising season in full swing around the region, traders said Nov. 22. Owing to stronger cyclical HSFO demand from scrubber-fitted cruise liners, buyers sourcing for spot requirements could expect extended lead times for the rest of November, with earliest slots reportedly around the early to mid-December window. “Due to lack of HSFO availability, and LSFO [bunker] prices competitive enough compared to HSFO, demand for LSFO seems healthy too,” an Australia-based bunker trader said on Nov. 22, citing narrow spreads between the delivered HSFO and LSFO prices around Melbourne. Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed the Melbourne-delivered marine fuel 0.5%S bunker premiums to the benchmark FOB Singapore Marine Fuel 0.5%S cargo value to average at $259.44/mt across Nov. 1-21, above the $241.90/mt for all of October. “There’s limited supply ports most due to seasonal peak HSFO demand, so most customers take LSFO instead, or others taking extra marine gasoil, rather than dragging on trying to source for HSFO,” the trader also said. Moreover, with cruise ships nominating a quantity range, suppliers would have to allocate the maximum quantity for these orders, which is less favorable given the already tight HSFO supply conditions. Although LSFO demand around Melbourne was seen mostly steady, supply conditions are mostly “holding well”, despite some momentary supply crunch as suppliers await replenishment imports, bunker suppliers said. Platts assessed the Singapore marine fuel 0.5%S cargo’s cash differential over the Mean of Platts Singapore marine fuel 0.5%S assessment at an over three-month low of $4.89/mt Nov. 21, down 73 cents/mt day on day. Singapore’s LSFO cash premiums also progressively lowered to an average of $5.69/mt since H2 November, down from $9.49/mt in the first half of November, and below the $8.55/mt for all of October. The sole bunker barge servicing downstream refueling operations at the port of Fremantle and Kwinana around the Western Australia region has reportedly resumed operations recently over the past weekend, returning from drydock for maintenance since early September. The Australia-flagged barge, Absolute I, comprising a deadweight tonnage of around 8,646 mt, is capable of loading three different grades of fuel on board, was initially expected to begin refueling operations early in the previous week of Nov. 11-15, but unforeseen delays had slightly extended its resumption date, according to market sources. The barge first started downstream bunker deliveries in April 2020, mostly for buyers’ LSFO and marine gasoil requirements. While the bunker barge was not operational in the past couple of months, marine gasoil requirements around Fremantle were met by truck deliveries. In the absence of ‘Absolute I’, the nearest LSFO refueling option would be Melbourne, which would require an additional four to five voyage days. The region’s inner harbor handles the bulk of container trade volumes across all of Western Australia, whereas its outer harbor boasted one of Australia’s major ports for both wet and dry bulk cargo handling, according to the Fremantle port’s official webpage, Source:
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By TOM KRISHER, Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — For a second time, a Delaware judge has nullified a pay package that Tesla had awarded its CEO, Elon Musk, that once was valued at $56 billion. On Monday, Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick turned aside a request from Musk’s lawyers to reverse a ruling she announced in January that had thrown out the compensation plan. The judge ruled then that Musk effectively controlled Tesla’s board and had engineered the outsize pay package during sham negotiations . Lawyers for a Tesla shareholder who sued to block the pay package contended that shareholders who had voted for the 10-year plan in 2018 had been given misleading and incomplete information. In their defense, Tesla’s board members asserted that the shareholders who ratified the pay plan a second time in June had done so after receiving full disclosures, thereby curing all the problems the judge had cited in her January ruling. As a result, they argued, Musk deserved the pay package for having raised Tesla’s market value by billions of dollars. McCormick rejected that argument. In her 103-page opinion, she ruled that under Delaware law, Tesla’s lawyers had no grounds to reverse her January ruling “based on evidence they created after trial.” What will Musk and Tesla do now? On Monday night, Tesla posted on X, the social media platform owned by Musk, that the company will appeal. The appeal would be filed with the Delaware Supreme Court, the only state appellate court Tesla can pursue. Experts say a ruling would likely come in less than a year. “The ruling, if not overturned, means that judges and plaintiffs’ lawyers run Delaware companies rather than their rightful owners — the shareholders,” Tesla argued. Later, on X, Musk unleashed a blistering attack on the judge, asserting that McCormick is “a radical far left activist cosplaying as a judge.” What do experts say about the case? Legal authorities generally suggest that McCormick’s ruling was sound and followed the law. Charles Elson, founding director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, said that in his view, McCormick was right to rule that after Tesla lost its case in the original trial, it created improper new evidence by asking shareholders to ratify the pay package a second time. Had she allowed such a claim, he said, it would cause a major shift in Delaware’s laws against conflicts of interest given the unusually close relationship between Musk and Tesla’s board. “Delaware protects investors — that’s what she did,” said Elson, who has followed the court for more than three decades. “Just because you’re a ‘superstar CEO’ doesn’t put you in a separate category.” Elson said he thinks investors would be reluctant to put money into Delaware companies if there were exceptions to the law for “special people.” What will the Delaware Supreme Court do? Elson said that in his opinion, the court is likely to uphold McCormick’s ruling. Can Tesla appeal to federal courts? Experts say no. Rulings on state laws are normally left to state courts. Brian Dunn, program director for the Institute of Compensation Studies at Cornell University, said it’s been his experience that Tesla has no choice but to stay in the Delaware courts for this compensation package. Tesla has moved its legal headquarters to Texas. Does that matter? The company could try to reconstitute the pay package and seek approval in Texas, where it may expect more friendlier judges. But Dunn, who has spent 40 years as an executive compensation consultant, said it’s likely that some other shareholder would challenge the award in Texas because it’s excessive compared with other CEOs’ pay plans. “If they just want to turn around and deliver him $56 billion, I can’t believe somebody wouldn’t want to litigate it,” Dunn said. “It’s an unconscionable amount of money.” Would a new pay package be even larger? Almost certainly. Tesla stock is trading at 15 times the exercise price of stock options in the current package in Delaware, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas wrote in a note to investors. Tesla’s share price has doubled in the past six months, Jonas wrote. At Monday’s closing stock price, the Musk package is now worth $101.4 billion, according to Equilar, an executive data firm. And Musk has asked for a subsequent pay package that would give him 25% of Tesla’s voting shares. Musk has said he is uncomfortable moving further into artificial intelligence with the company if he doesn’t have 25% control. He currently holds about 13% of Tesla’s outstanding shares.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. , Dec. 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- This holiday season, help give the drivers in your life the gift of convenience and control with the Reviver RPLATE ® — the exclusive digital license plate of the Sacramento Kings. The innovative RPLATE is the world's first digital license plate, allowing drivers to monitor and customize their license plate through the ease of a mobile application. Whether it is a teenager's first ride, or the dream car your parents always wanted, the holidays are the perfect time to gift your loved ones with a new car. Reviver has the perfect companion gift for a new car — the RPLATE, a smart and sleek digital license plate. The RPLATE helps make owning and maintaining a car easier and more enjoyable by turning the license plate into a connected vehicle platform. Through the RPLATE, drivers can quickly renew and update their vehicle's registration via the secure Reviver app. The RPLATE also offers fun personalization features with its weatherproof display, such as light/dark mode and banner messages. "I created Reviver and the RPLATE because I observed that the license plate and vehicle registration ecosystem wasn't innovating to meet the needs of the modern world," said Reviver Founder and Chief Strategy Officer Neville Boston . "At Reviver, we want to reimagine the driving experience and what a license plate can do. We want to make life easier for drivers, businesses, and government." Today, more than 65,000 drivers own an RPLATE including Cedric the Entertainer, Marshall Faulk and DJ Skee. Sacramento Kings fans can learn more about Reviver and the innovative RPLATE at an upcoming home game at Golden 1 Center. ABOUT REVIVER ® Reviver ® is a technology company on a mission to modernize the driving experience. As developer of the world's first digital license plate platform, Reviver products transform the license plate into a connected vehicle platform, enabling consumers and commercial businesses to digitize vehicle registration renewals and experience a growing set of personalization, convenience, and safety features, all managed through a mobile or web app interface. Reviver's digital license plates are legal for sale in Arizona and California , along with Texas for commercial fleet vehicles. Ten additional states are in various stages of adoption. Founded in 2009, Reviver is headquartered in Northern California , and is the official patch partner of the Sacramento Kings and the official innovation partner of the Sacramento Kings and Golden 1 Center. To purchase an RPLATE click here . To learn more about the RPLATE, click here . View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/help-them-drive-like-a-sacramento-king-give-the-gift-of-a-reviver-rplate-302337650.html SOURCE ReviverA judge has once again rejected Musk’s multi-billion-dollar Tesla pay package. Now what?
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Social shopping finally broke through in the US in 2024, driven by TikTok Shop. Companies spent years trying to import social-commerce habits from Asia, with varied success. The US market is still dominated by Amazon, but social apps and influencers are key players. Social platforms have spent years trying to get Americans to buy stuff from videos, posts, and livestreams. That bet seems to finally be paying off. The 2024 holiday sales from social media — driven by TikTok Shop and influencer affiliates, among other factors — show how far social shopping has come in the past five years. TikTok Shop, which had its official wide launch in the US in September 2023, reported $100 million in single-day US sales on Black Friday this year, triple what it drove in 2023. Americans viewed over 30,000 TikTok shopping livestreams that day, with one creator picking up $2 million in sales from a single session. The company's holiday gold rush didn't come easily. TikTok and its owner ByteDance have spent years investing in its e-commerce business, even as competitors like Instagram have pulled back on shopping features. TikTok began testing out social-commerce features in the US as early as 2020 when it let creators add shopping buttons to some videos . It began rolling out its more advanced product, Shop , in the US to a group of merchants and agencies in November 2022 after testing in other markets like the UK. It's since built out its own order fulfillment program, enlisted hundreds of outside partners to train merchants and creators on how to sell in-app, and recently began connecting creators with manufacturers to build their own products. TikTok likely wants to replicate some of the success of its sister app in China, Douyin, which drives hundreds of billions in sales annually, often via influencer livestreams. While TikTok's numbers are comparatively small, the company has made a ton of progress this year, social-commerce executives told Business Insider. Max Benator, the CEO of the social-shopping agency Orca, said he expects to hit just under $100 million in total gross merchandise value, or GMV, in 2024 across the company's clients, a roughly 10X increase from 2023. "We've now been on TikTok Shop since the very beginning, and we've seen successes gradually and consistently increase month over month," Benator told BI. "The numbers are serious." Outlandish, a TikTok Shop agency that recently opened a livestreaming hub in Santa Monica , said its Shop sellers earned $48 million in US sales in November, up from $20 million in October. The company is betting that live shopping will continue to gain traction in the US, as it has in more mature social-commerce markets like China. "It's QVC on steroids," Outlandish's founder and CEO William August told BI. Affiliate marketing from influencers and others drove a fifth of Cyber Monday sales revenue TikTok Shop's holiday performance was impressive for an e-commerce newcomer, but its business remains a small piece of overall holiday sales. Total online Black Friday sales in the US hit $10.8 billion this year, up about 10% from 2023, according to Adobe Analytics . Online sales in the US between November 1 and December 2 reached $131.5 billion, and hit $13.3 billion on Cyber Monday alone. Retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Target continue to dominate much of online spending, but social-media influencers and other affiliate marketers are playing an increasingly important role in driving purchases on those platforms. About 20% of US e-commerce revenue on Cyber Monday arrived via affiliate or other promotional links, a 7% year-over-year increase from 2023, per Adobe Analytics. Outside TikTok and affiliate marketing, other influencer-focused platforms are also reporting meaningful sales volume this year. Live shopping platform Whatnot said in November that it had surpassed $2 billion in year-to-date livestream sales, for example. TikTok and its partners are proving that US consumers are willing to adjust shopping habits When TikTok and competitors like Instagram and YouTube first began testing e-commerce features in the US, not all consumers were psyched. Social media is for entertainment, not shopping , some said. Amazon and other big retailers have long dominated e-commerce, and changing consumer habits is a challenge. Instagram backpedaled on its shopping product last year, removing its Shop tab in February 2023 and eventually partnering with Amazon for its in-app shopping strategy. But TikTok kept charging forward with social shopping. It enlisted an army of agency partners and livestream coaches to accelerate the adoption of Shop and flooded its feed with videos of creators hawking goods in exchange for a commission. TikTok's owner ByteDance was likely behind the company's determination to make social shopping work as it sought to bring Douyin's success to TikTok . Now that live shopping and social commerce are beginning to take hold in the US, TikTok and ByteDance's push into the category is paying off (though it all could fall apart if TikTok ends up being banned in January due to a divest-or-ban law ). "This is the year that we've seen the real beginning of live shopping in America," said Julian Reis, the CEO of SuperOrdinary , a social-commerce agency that's worked with TikTok and Douyin. "With TikTok, we've had the first real foray into building an ecosystem that ties in entertainment and live shopping together, and a full-service ecosystem that brings in the creators, the affiliates, the products, the brands altogether."
It’s a rainy December afternoon in NYC as rush hour approaches. With traffic mounting, Paul Wall opts to walk from Times Square to 5th Ave. to make it to his Billboard interview on time. See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news While the Houston legend has traded his fade for a platinum slicked-over haircut, lost 100-plus pounds thanks to gastric sleeve surgery (he wishes Ozempic was around in 2010) and let the salt and pepper fill his beard, it’s still Paul Wall, baby. His signature grills shine bright peering through his infectious grin lighting up any room he enters. Two decades after the release of his debut album, the 43-year-old’s love for hip-hop hasn’t waned an inch. Whenever he’s home in Texas, he’s recording every day. These days, PW’s even keeping a Notes app filled with sayings and random words he hears like Incandescent or impermanence that he’s just waiting to turn into a bar. “I love making music,” he tells Billboard . “I 100 percent intend on doing this until I’m 80 years old. God willing. Especially in hip-hop, our elders a lot of it is they don’t have the opportunity to make music. I don’t take it for granted. I’m 43, so for the next 37 years, there’s going to be albums all over the place.” It’s not the era of running around with Swishahouse, but Paul Wall’s enjoyed a bit of a renaissance since debuting his viral silver fox look last year while also being championed as the Hotties’ favorite video vixen with his cameo in Megan Thee Stallion’s “Bigger in Texas” video earlier in 2024. Multiple Billboard staffers even voiced their frustration of missing out on seeing The People’s Champ during his visit to the office last week. Wall’s also brought a new album with him as the slab music savant’s 12-track Once Upon a Grind hit streaming services last Friday (Dec. 13). “This is really about the journey,” he adds. “A lot of people see the success or finished product, but they don’t realize what it took to get there.” Check out our interview below finding Paul Wall looking back at Kanye West’s “Drive Slow,” “Grillz” topping the Billboard Hot 100 , Megan Thee Stallion and more. What are some of your early memories of NYC? My first time performing [in NYC] I remember performing with Dipset. They took me under their wing. The label I was signed to at that time, a lot of people at Asylum and Atlantic were cool with Cam’ron when they were at Def Jam. They were kinda looking out for me. My boy [Joie Manda] was the main one. He was like, “Ay, I’m gonna link you with Dipset. You f–k with them?” Of course, hell yeah. They gave me that New York love. Me and Juelz would be in the studio non-stop. Go out to the club sometimes, perform with them sometimes. We were just enjoying the moment. We had a hell of a co-sign from Dipset. We got a lot of crossover love. Take me to the new album, Once Upon a Grind , what do you feel you have left to prove? I put out an album last year called Great Wall and we kinda kicked off with that one and kept it going. When I’m at home, I’m recording every day. It definitely adds up this way I stay sharp and explore different ideas and avenues I want to go if I want to try something. If I got 500 songs, I got a lot of opportunities. I’m at no loss for bars, I got bars for days. That ain’t it. It’s more how are we gonna deliver the subject matter. P eople say, “I’ma do this or change this about my life, but I’m gonna start Monday.” Whether it’s saving up for something, working out, starting a diet, I’m not waiting until Monday, I’m starting today. That’s what it’s all about. Set goals and strive to get them. For me, it’s the nonstop grind of working and consistency. I never won a lottery or nothing like that. All I know is the hard work aspect of that. One thing I heard you say that I do as a writer as well is when you hear a word you don’t know, you’ll write it down. What, I got a whole list right here. Let me see your list. I got a hell of a list. Some of it’s simple. Incandescent, convoluted, ancillary, cerebral, confound, calamity. Some of these are not too much out there... Impermanence. It will be something I’ll hear on a TV show and be like, “What the hell they say?” Then I’ll say it to Siri. I’ll hit look up the definition and be like, “I gotta find a way to put this in [a bar].” The kiss of ice — I heard of the kiss of death, but I want the kiss of ice. Some of these are just ideas. “Bewildered,” you heard that but you never heard that in a rap. It’s words and random half-bars. “Save the best for first.” What do you think about how the rap game stands today and how you fit into it compared to when you broke in? I still feel exactly the same. I’m a fan of it. There’s a lot of it I’m not a fan of, but I’m not mad at it. I just choose no to listen to it. It’s not my cup of tea, but I’m eternally grateful I had a place here. I love that there’s so many different avenues for artists to not just be one monolithic style. When I was coming up, if you were a region or city and you didn’t sound like you were supposed to sound like, it didn’t work. You were wack. Now you can be from anywhere and sound like anybody. The possibilities are really endless. I’m a fan of that, even though some of the music I’m not [rocking with]. Some of the production style has changed. Some of it I love. I love the musical aspect of it when people incorporate live instruments or the sampling something musical. Some of my favorite beats are just drums, but I like a variety of it. I’m just happy to be representing for my style. Why complain about what someone else is doing? Make the music I want to make. What do you feel you have left to achieve? So much of it is the longevity. I’ve seen so many people tap out. Some of the greatest tap out. Some people are a perfectionist and if they’re not meeting that standard, it’s a failure for them. I don’t look at it like that. It’s art. I’ve put so many albums and I’ll work on an album with a set of producers and a group of people will love it while another group of people hate it. Then I’ll do an album that’s another style and the group that hated it will love it now. It lets me know I gotta stop overthinking things and you can’t please everyone with every song. Let me give them a variety. I love making music. Let me be the first person to use this in a rap. I 100 percent intend on doing this until I’m 80 years old. God willing. Especially in hip-hop, our elders a lot of it is they don’t have the opportunity to make music. Being that I self-fund my own music, I own my own studio, all my producers are usually my dogs, we’re in this for the same cause. I don’t take it for granted. I’m 43, so for the next 37 years there’s going to be albums all over the place. Are you mentoring anyone at all? Do people come up to you and want some game? Some people I’ll see and I have a lot I want to share with them. I gotta be cautious because everyone might not want my advice. Sometimes people think I got an ulterior motive. That Mexican OT, he’s someone who’s open with what I have to share with him. He listens. I don’t know it all and what worked for me might not work for him. One of the biggest things I learned it is okay to be wrong. I been right about what song’s gonna work — it worked, but it didn’t be work. It’s okay for the label to be right. Even though they wrong, it’s okay for them to be right. What do you think about the evolution of white rappers? Do white rappers come to you asking about how they can move in this culture tastefully? A lot of white rappers come to me. Obviously, Eminem is the big dog, as big as it gets. But he’s out of reach. I’m more accessible. You might bump into me at Starbucks. I would get a lot of people who might be fans of me or my grind not even music. I tell people to be themselves. What worked for me might not work for them. For anybody to be inspired by me means a lot. I also know the sensitivity it takes. Especially when it comes to saying the n-word. You say it in a rap, and it lives forever. It don’t matter if it’s okay in your hood for you to talk like that. When you get outside of your hood, it’s not okay. That lasts forever and some people don’t really get that until it’s too late. I’m somebody who never said the n-word. There are definitely non-Black people who say the n-word and it’s acceptable in their neighborhood. I strongly tell them it’s not worth losing future things over something you’re saying now. You might stop saying it and you blow up and they go back and it could be a huge deal. What do you remember about the week that “Grillz” went No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100? I remember we were selling a lot of grills. That was a good week for us. The only time I had did something like that. To be a part of that history moment with Nelly, Jermaine Dupri and Big Gipp. It was huge for me — a huge accolade. One week it was Beyoncé’s “Check On It” with Bun B and Slim Thug, and the next week it’s Nelly with Paul Wall. It’s a proud moment for us to keep representing. I remember Nelly telling me, “It’s gonna be bigger than ‘Air Force Ones.'” I’m like, “Yeah right, he’s just gassing me up.” [Nelly] did not have to put me on the song. He’s Nelly, he could’ve gave me a shout-out on the song. He didn’t have to mention me at all. The song is still a hit without me. For him to give me that opportunity, he for sure getting free grills for life. How has the grills industry changed? The evolution has been one path. The grills are monolithic, and people want something different. I got grills a certain way and you’re like, “Hey, why don’t we do it this way?” Me and Johnny are like, “Why not?” Let’s try that. Also with the machines and technology improving, and a lot of the diamond setters having decades of experience, there’s a lot of things they could do now that they couldn’t back in the days. Some of that is your imagination. Now it’s whatever you want. We can do basically anything now. The week The People’s Champ went No. 1 [on the Billboard 200] it dethroned Kanye’s Late Registration. You even got “Drive Slow” on your album. Jay-Z is the president of Def Jam, [I’m thinking] there’s no way he’s gonna let me put that on my album. We’re talking about Kanye West, even though he wasn’t what he is now, he was still a top dog. There’s no way he’s gonna let me put it on my album so it was extremely unbelievable. People made a big deal about me dethroning Kanye, but I didn’t dethrone him — his album just came out before mine. He’s still Kanye. If you look at his album, it sold more than mine. I didn’t dethrone s–t. He really gave me the leg up letting me put that song on my album. What do you think about “Drive Slow” turning 20 next year? That’s definitely the song that people ask me most about. Hip-hop fans — not necessarily Paul Wall diehards, but the general public — that’s the No. 1 thing people ask me about. Plain Pat putting it together. He actually tried to sign me to Def Jam but it didn’t work out. He mentored me for a long time. He taught me it’s okay to be wrong. First I made Kanye some grills and Plain Pat said, “I seen you made Kanye some grills. He say he f–k with your music and he like your music.” He let me know [my verse not make the album] but this was an opportunity and if it works out this is a hell of a look. I’m not gonna tell the whole world I got a song with Kanye West and it never came out. I didn’t think it was gonna make his album. There’s no way he wants a verse from me. He sent me the beat. The “Drive Slow” verse was the first verse I wrote for “Sittin’ Sidewayz.” I always knew this is gonna be something if Jay-Z want me on a song. This is one of them situations. I do it to the beat and this worked. I sent it into him and Plain Pat said Ye liked it and he wants you to come to L.A. and lay it again with him in person. He’s gonna want you to try some new things. Just work with him, he’s a perfectionist. He’s gonna take what you give him and make something out of it. We flew out to L.A. and we’re coming down the escalators and two sheriffs come up and I’m immediately thinking I’m being Punk’d because Mike Jones just got Punk’d . When you got Punk’d, you’d pass it on. I told everyone, “If y’all set me up, lose my number. You’re not gonna embarrass me.” Next think you know I’m cussing out these L.A. sheriffs. If they reading this, I apologize. I thought they were actors. I’m going hard in the paint talking crazy to them. They have a notorious reputation... We weren’t doing nothing wrong... They left, so I’m like, where Ashton Kutcher at? I’m also thinking Kanye’s in on this. We go to the hotel and I got to the studio. This is when you had to Mapquest. The driver says it’s right here and we’re in the far left hand lane. There’s four lanes and we’re at a light and the studio’s right there. So you really had to turn right. The driver broke ’em off. He cuts in front of the traffic to turn right and it just so happened there’s a cop in the far right lane. They couldn’t get me plan A at the airport, and now I know I’m getting Punk’d . I’m like, “Get me to the studio.” I’m like, “Can I go?” He didn’t care what I was doing, and the driver stayed there and got a ticket. I’m upstairs doing my part with GLC and Nas is downstairs doing his verse for the album. I remember leaving, “I don’t know if I’ma make the album.” I’ll never forget DJ Drama called me, “You on the Kanye West album? I’m here at the listening party. You’re on the album!” How was your cameo in the “Bigger in Texas” video for Megan Thee Stallion? They’re saying you were their favorite vixen out there. I’m the Zaddy for sure. Megan is a true visionary. T Farris is her manager, and there’s that connection. She’s somebody we’ve rooted for from the beginning. [I’m] so happy for her success. She definitely deserves all of that, she’s so talented. They reached out and told me they wanted to put a few people in the video. I said, “Of course, I want to be in the Megan video.” She was there in the store with Johnny twerking with her grill. It was a hell of a shout-out to Johnny. She showed us major love for that.Bernie Sanders Stuns by Declaring 'Elon Musk Is Right'