#Stronger: After nearly 2 decades in the rap game, Kanye West earns his first diamond song

Kanye West finally has a diamond-certified record thanks to ‘Stronger’.

The Chicago native’s song “Stronger” has gone 10x platinum, according to chart data. via: Uproxx Landing a hit record is already hard enough, but a Diamond-certified song is even harder. Luckily for Kanye West, he recently achieved both thanks to one of the most popular songs off his third album Graduation. The Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA) announced that the rapper’s 2007 track “Stronger” just became his first Diamond-certified single. What that denotes is that the single sold at least 10 million copies since its release 14 years ago.

#Stronger has become @KanyeWest’s first DIAMOND 💎 Award! 👏 Congratulations to Yeezy and @DefJamRecordings! 🎉 #RIAATopCertified pic.twitter.com/JubcdD6CXI

— RIAA (@RIAA) October 6, 2021

Four months after its release, “Stronger” became the rapper’s third No. 1 single when it reached the top of the singles chart at the end of September in 2007. Additionally, the song won a plethora of awards, which includes Best Hip-Hop Video at the 2007 BET Awards, Video Of The Year, Best Director, and Best Editing at the 2007 MTV VMAs, and Best Rap Solo Performance at the 2008 Grammy Awards.

One of the most infamous stories behind “Stronger” is that it was reportedly mixed more than 75 times before and after its release. West worked with eight audio engineers and 11 mix engineers from all over the world on the song, but it wasn’t until he called on Timbaland to re-do the track’s drum programming that he felt satisfied. Still, West later decided the song wasn’t nearly as good as Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger,” which he sampled for “Stronger.” 

Look below to see the chart data.

US Certifications (@RIAA): @kanyewest, Stronger Diamond (10,000,000).

— chart data (@chartdata) October 6, 2021

Congratulations Kanye! 

Rihanna & her boo A$AP Rocky celebrate his birthday at Wizkid’s #MadeInLagos concert in L.A

In celebration of the rapper’s 33rd birthday, A$AP Rocky and Rihanna attended a Wizkid concert at Los Angeles’ Novo Theater over the weekend.

The birthday outing follows up on several date nights that fans of the couple have been privy to lately — including RiRi and A$AP being each other’s dates to the Met Gala last month and that infamous night Rihanna wasn’t allowed inside an NYC barcade with the “Wild for the Night” rapper while the two were hitting the town. 

Watch: 

Emmy award-winning #Bridgerton hair & makeup designer, Billy Pilcher, dead from #COVID19 at 53

‘Bridgerton’ hair and makeup designer Billy Pilcher died from COVID-19 over the weekend, just a month after taking home an Emmy for his work on the Netflix series.

According to his family, the 53-year-old was vaccinated and had no underlying health conditions. The family’s statement further says that Billy, who was based in the UK, “tested negative on multiple COVID-19 tests to make the trip across the Atlantic and back again for the ceremony. 

Not long after his return, he was taken ill and his condition deteriorated over the weekend.” “Glamorous and extravagant, he brought his flair and style to every design,” the statement added. 

“Never limited in his thought process for his creations, he pushed boundaries and created work never realized before.”

Culled From LoveBScott.Com

Why Facebook, WhatsApp & Instagram were down for 6 hours! #FacebookDown #WhatsAppDown #InstagramDown

What an evening!

Facebook Inc blamed a “faulty configuration change” for a nearly six-hour outage on Monday that prevented the company’s 3.5 billion users from accessing its social media and messaging services such as WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger. 

Several Facebook employees who declined to be named had told Reuters earlier that they believed that the outage was caused by an internal mistake in how internet traffic is routed to its systems. 

The failures of internal communication tools and other resources that depend on that same network in order to work compounded the error, the employees said. Security experts have said an inadvertent mistake or sabotage by an insider were both plausible. “We want to make clear at this time we believe the root cause of this outage was a faulty configuration change,” Facebook said in the blog. 

The Facebook outage is the largest ever tracked by web monitoring group Downdetector. 

The outage was the second blow to the social media giant in as many days after a whistleblower on Sunday accused the company of repeatedly prioritizing profit over clamping down on hate speech and misinformation. 

As the world flocked to competing apps such as Twitter and TikTok, shares of Facebook fell 4.9 per cent, their biggest daily drop since last November, amid a broader selloff in technology stocks on Monday. Shares rose about half a percent in after-hours trade following resumption of service. 

“To every small and large business, family, and individual who depends on us, I’m sorry,” Facebook Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer tweeted, adding that it “may take some time to get to 100%.” “Facebook basically locked its keys in its car,” tweeted Jonathan Zittrain, director of Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society.

Twitter on Monday reported higher-than-normal usage, which led to some issues in people accessing posts and direct messages.

Photos: Holy Quran casted with 200 kg gold & aluminium-plated words will be displayed at #Expo2020Dubai

Expo 2020 Dubai is the place to be from now till the end of March!

A Pakistani artist is well on his way to complete what he calls a first-of-its-kind project to cast the Holy Quran with gold and aluminium-plated words, part which will be displayed at Expo 2020 Dubai. 

“Expo 2020 Dubai is one the biggest events to take place in the region. I consider it to be the perfect platform to showcase my creative work to millions of visitors over a period of six months,” says internationally renowned artist Shahid Rassam. 

Addressing a Press conference at Pakistan Association Dubai, Rassam said he will present Surah Rahman as part of the world's largest Holy Quran to be showcased at Expo 2020 Dubai. Award-winning artist Shahid Rassam, who is developing the first-of-its-kind project to cast the Holy Quran with aluminium and gold-plated words, said he will display 'Surah Rahman -- the heart of Holy Quran' as part of his creative concept that is in line with the Expo them of 'Connecting Minds, Creating the Future'. 

"I will be using about 200kg gold and 2,000kg aluminium to cast around 80,000 words on 550 pages. Each page will have 150 words," Rassam said. 

The creative artist said he is committed to complete the project by 2025 after showcasing part of it at the Expo 2020 Dubai. 

The creative artist said the size of the Holy Quran is 6.5 feet by 8.5 feet excluding frame.

Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar team up for #SuperBowl performance

This will be epic!

Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar will perform for the first time on stage together at the 2022 Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show. The NFL, Pepsi and Roc Nation announced Thursday that the five music icons will perform on February 13 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. 

Dre, Snoop Dogg and Lamar are Southern California natives. 

'The opportunity to perform at the Super Bowl Halftime show, and to do it in my own backyard, will be one of the biggest thrills of my career,' Dr. Dre said in a statement.

Where exactly are you? There are FREE buses to#Expo2020Dubai site from ANYWHERE in the UAE!

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) on Wednesday announced the provision of free bus rides for visitors of Expo 2020 Dubai aboard ‘Expo Rider’ buses from nine locations in the UAE.

These include three in Abu Dhabi, two in Sharjah, and one location in each of Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah and Al Ain. RTA has deployed 203 Expo Riders transport visitors to the Expo venue from 18 stations, with nine of them in Dubai, in addition to two routes to lift visitors directly from hotels to the site of Expo. 

Where are the nine stations? 

RTA has deployed 77 buses to lift visitors from nine location across the UAE. 

The three stations in Abu Dhabi city are: Abu Dhabi International Airport, Abu Dhabi Main Bus Station, Marina Mall Station in addition to one station at Al Ain (Al Ain Bus Station). 

There are two stations in Sharjah: Al Jubail Bus Station and Muwaileh Bus station. There is also Ras Al Khaimah Bus Station, Ajman Bus Station, and Fujairah Bus Station (near City Centre Fujairah). 

There will be 287 trips per day during weekdays, rising to 358 trips during the weekends (Thursday and Friday). 

RTA had previously designated 126 Expo Riders buses to transport visitors for free directly from nine stations. 

Stops in Dubai 

There will be stops between Dubai and the Expo, at Palm Jumeirah, Al Baraha, Al Ghubaiba, Etisalat, Global Village, International City, Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai Mall and Dubai International Airport (Terminal 3), with 455 to 476 daily journeys. 

It will also provide commuter service between the parking areas to the three Expo Gates of Opportunity, Mobility, and Sustainability, as well as Expo People Mover to transport visitors between the Expo Gates. 

Service hours 

Expo Riders will operate from 6.30am and continue service for 90 minutes after the closure of Expo Gates. 

Passenger commuting service from the parking area (Expo Parking Shuttle) to the three Expo Gates will start at 9 am and continue for 90 minutes after the closure of Expo Gates. Bus Service between Expo Gates (Expo People Mover) will start service at 6.30am and continue service 90 minutes after the closure of Expo Gates. 

Taxi and e-hail services will be running around the clock. 

Modern buses 

The transit service for Expo visitors features buses with low floors for easy boarding and disembarkation, making them accessible to people of determination.