The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 3.3 Revealing My 2020 Support, Megan Thee Stallion Lawsuit, Battle For Twitter, & More

Episode Date: March 3, 2020

Are you just...tired? Check out our Exhausted 2020 merch at www.exhausted2020.org   Check out my Conversation With Rhett and Link: https://youtu.be/yCwqigzvhj8   Follow On The Podcast Platform Of Your Choice: http://Anchor.fm/aConversationWith   Check out the latest Rogue Rocket video: https://youtu.be/XyFCPbnnlB4   ✩ FOLLOW ME ✩ ✭ TEXT ME: 813-213-4423 ✭ TWITTER: http://Twitter.com/PhillyD ✭ INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/PhillyDeFranco/   ✩ SUPPORT THE SHOW ✩ ✭ Buy Merch: http://ShopDeFranco.com ✭ Lemme Touch Your Hair: http://BeautifulBastard.com ✭ Paid Subscription: http://DeFrancoElite.com    ✩ TODAY IN AWESOME ✩ ✭ Check out https://phil.chrono.gg/ for 91% OFF “Slayaway Camp Super-Sized Summer Slasher Pack” only available until 9 AM! ✭ Check out the podcast at www.linkshole.com   ✭ Secret link: https://youtu.be/UFiYROTKBKI    ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ Megan Thee Stallion Free to Release Music After Contract Dispute: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/m7q5db/megan-thee-stallion-is-now-free-to-release-new-music   An Activist Hedge Fund Wants Jack Dorsey Out as Twitter CEO. Could That Change the Site? https://roguerocket.com/2020/03/03/jack-dorsey-twitter/ Netanyahu Projected to Win Israel’s Third Election in Under a Year:  https://roguerocket.com/2020/03/03/israel-election/ Tornadoes Rip Through Tennessee: https://roguerocket.com/2020/03/03/tornadoes-in-tennessee-impact-super-tuesday-voting/   ✩ MORE NEWS NOT IN TODAY’S SHOW ✩ James Franco’s Lawyers Say Accusers Are Taking Advantage of MeToo: https://roguerocket.com/2020/03/03/franco-lawyers-me-too/ Miss Staten Island Banned From St. Patrick’s Day Parade After Coming Out: https://twitter.com/TheRogueRocket/status/1234958985989705729?s=20 How a Wave of Negative Reviews Against This Black-Owned Business Actually Backfired:  https://roguerocket.com/2020/03/03/honey-pot-negative-reviews/  ——————————   Edited by: Julie Goldberg, Jason Mayer Produced by: Amanda Morones Art Director: Brian Borst   Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Cory Ray, Neena Pesqueda, Katie Calo  ————————————  #DeFranco #Tennessee #JackDorsey  ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you've been a fantastic Tuesday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. And actually a quick note before we get started. So with it being Super Tuesday, and I was gonna wait until we were closer to the general election. I feel like it makes sense

and I'm really hoping I don't regret it. So to let you know where I stand politically this season. I do hope, but do not expect for you to look at me the same when I say this, but I am, I'm exhausted. I am, I'm exhausted. I am, I'm exhausted. This political season, has it been nine years before this election cycle? I look like this.

No, that's not Photoshop. This election cycle is killing me. And there are what, almost nine months left? And I know, I'm not the only one. And that's why with Exhausted 2020, we are making a multi-racial, multi-generation, multi-consenting partners, why not, economically and politically diverse coalition. And so I say, if youconsenting partners, why not economically and politically diverse coalition?

And so I say, if you are also exhausted, tired, you just wanna chill out, go to exhausted2020.org or click that link in the description down below and snag yourself an exhausted 2020 hat. We've got several styles that'll look good on your big dumb head. Maybe grab yourself a tote or a fanny pack since people that are cooler than me can pull that off.

Maybe snag yourself one of the two fantastic shirts that are available in multiple colors, or maybe, I don't know, a mug. Or don't, but it would be awesome if you did. Honestly, I think all of this is fantastic on its own and or goes great with pretty much whoever you support. Because like being an active participant in life right now feels like a lot, right?

It's not just me. Anyway, welcome to the Philip DeFranco Show. Buckle up, hit that like button, and let's just jump into it. And the first thing we're gonna talk about today is what feels like a continuing trend of young creators and artists having a legal battle over bad contracts they signed when they were even younger.

I mean, there's been a range, everyone, from Taylor Swift to Tfue. But today, the artist we're talking about today is Megan Thee Stallion, who has just blown up over the past year. You know, as she continues to pull in numbers, there's been a lot of excitement about her debut album. She's been teasing it.

But then over the weekend, she went live on Instagram and she talked about 1501 Entertainment, which is an indie label in Houston. And among other things, we hear her say, When I signed, I didn't really know what was in my contract. I was young, I think I was like 20. She then goes on to say, you know, in 2018,

she signs with Roc Nation. She has real management, she has real lawyers, and they say, did you know that there's this really sketchy stuff in this contract with 1501 that could prevent you from releasing music? Her response was, damn, that's crazy, no, I didn't know. And then saying that she expected she'd be able to renegotiate her deal.

She goes on to say, that is not what happened. It just all went bad, it all went left. So now they telling the bitch that she can't drop no music. It's really just like a greedy game. All right, so following that, of course, there was a massive reaction. A lot of her fans incredibly angry.

Although you did have some people saying, you signed the contract, 20 is not that young, you have to live with it. And well, what we ended up seeing on Monday is that Megan actually filed a lawsuit. This reportedly against 1501 certified and Karl Crawford, who's the CEO. And that lawsuit, which was obtained by TMZ,

appears to be for a million dollars. Right, and on that note of greed and money, Megan in this lawsuit claims that the contract was exploitative. And reportedly, according to Megan, the contract stipulates that the label received 60% of her earnings, leaving her to front the bill herself

for features and sound engineers using the other 40%. And also claiming that her earnings from her live shows and tours are being paid straight to the label, and that when she asks the label to provide documents for what she's owed, it is quote, "'Purposefully and deceptively vague.'" And reportedly saying that despite the fact that she has more than 1 billion streams

and sold more than 300,000 individual track downloads, earning an estimated 7 million in revenue, she has only been paid $15,000 by the label. And so on top of that, now the news that we are seeing is that a Harris County district judge has granted Megan a restraining order against Crawford by the label. And so on top of that, now the news that we are seeing is that a Harris County district judge has granted Megan a restraining order against Crawford and the label, which means Megan can release music after all.

So right now it's looking like she should be able to drop her album on Friday, which all of a sudden, because of this old debacle, has a lot of press behind it. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what happens with the relationships here, the lawsuit here. Also, how does this affect the album dropping? But I guess the main point of this story is,

yeah, always read the contract, trust nobody. There are very few people that are not in it for themselves. Granted, I am a cynic, but that's my thought on it. And then let's talk about the fight for the soul of Twitter. It's really more the potential fight for the future of Twitter. If you use the service you might have seen yesterday, We Back Jack was trending,

and this is because there are concerns that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey may be pushed out of his position. The reason for that is last week an activist investment fund by the name of Elliott Management announced that it had bought roughly $1 billion in Twitter's stock. This, according to Business Insider,

is nearly 5% of the company. And that's also enough to allow it to launch a pressure campaign to try to replace Dorsey. And the replacement could be for a number of reasons. Probably the biggest reason universally here is that Twitter is underperforming. Dorsey was actually CEO of Twitter until being fired in 2008.

He then returned in 2015, and since then Twitter shares have fallen 6.2%, which wouldn't be bad if the whole space was being hit, but by contrast, Facebook has gained more than 121% during that time. And keep in mind, that's a company that was largely blamed for fucking up the election. Also, back in November,

Dorsey announced that he was preparing to move to Africa for three to six months this year. Right, so with this, you have people asking, is Twitter even a priority for you? And that's not only because of the trip, it's because he's already splitting his time between two companies. If you don't know, Dorsey's actually also the CEO

of a company called Square Inc. Which, if you're unfamiliar with Square, they're the company that developed the Cash App. Right, and so the argument here is that the CEO of Twitter should be full-time, and he could probably do a better job if he was dedicated. This also isn't the only time that we've seen someone announce a plan to oust Dorsey.

Back in December, a marketing professor at New York University penned a letter calling for Dorsey's removal saying, quote, "'As of December 6th, I am the direct and beneficial owner "'of approximately 334,000 shares in Twitter. "'To be clear, my primary objective "'is the replacement of CEO Jack Dorsey.'" And adding,

"'Weak governance, a part-time CEO, "'relocation to Africa, "'damage to the Commonwealth, and poor returns. "'Stakeholders deserve a board and CEO "'that command the opportunity Twitter occupies.'" But also moving back to Elliott Management, part of the reason that they're trying to push out Dorsey may not stop there.

Elliott Management is owned by Paul Singer, who is a conservative billionaire mega-donor. And back in 2016, Singer actually donated $24 million to Republican and right-leaning groups. And also on this note, at least part of the decision could be connected to Republicans accusing Twitter of having a left-leaning bias. I mean, you can see the complaints in general,

but you also have the likes of California GOP Representative Devin Nunes filing a $250 million lawsuit against Twitter, accusing the platform of shadow banning conservatives and hiding their posts. You also have the likes of Fox News, arguing that a Dorsey ousting could raise the, quote, "'prospect that some of the changes to Twitter "'could make the platform a friendlier place for pro-Trump users. But also, following this news and people talking about the reasons it should happen, we saw We Back Jack trending on Twitter.

Now reportedly this was started by a group of Twitter employees trying to show their support for Dorsey. Those employees going on to say things like, I've worked for many major corporations, never did the CEO take three minutes to talk with me one on one. Jack did more than three minutes might I add, and he didn't treat me like someone below him. He's not pretentious or egocentric, so yeah, we back Jack. Also, I don't say this as often as I should, but Jack is a special leader.

He's empathetic, he's transparent, he's decisive, he has a heart for people, he's just dope. I've learned so much by observing him over the years, loyalty, grit, patience, and then some. And in fact, we even saw Elon Musk backing Dorsey. Saying on Twitter, just wanna say that I support Jack as Twitter CEO, he has a good heart. then some. And in fact, we even saw Elon Musk backing Dorsey, saying on Twitter, just wanna say that I support Jack as Twitter CEO. He has a good heart.

Now, with all that said, we should also talk about what Elliott Management has already done so far. Because while it has not yet ousted Dorsey, it has nominated four people to Twitter's board of directors. Though, and notably here, there's actually only going to be three seats available at this year's annual meeting.

But Elliott Management reportedly wants to ensure that it nominates enough people to fill all three seats in any vacancies that arise. And so really starting to try to gain that influence at Twitter. And the thing is, this story really seemed kind of bound to happen. Unlike Facebook or even Snapchat,

Twitter only has one class of stock. And while I'm not gonna go into explaining all the different types of stocks, basically what you need to know here is that it means that Dorsey does not have voting control of the company. And so that lack of power is part of the reason we're even talking about this today. But ultimately, that's where we are with this right now.

It's gonna be interesting to see how it happens, how the situation develops, if it fails. And then, of course, rightly so, for the next 48 hours, most all political news is going to be about Super Tuesday. I, of course, like with everyone else, will be paying attention, but I want to pivot and rather focus on another election in another country. And what I'm talking about is the Israeli election,

and if you're like, again? Yes, this is the third Israeli election And if you're like, again, yes, this is the third Israeli election in less than one year. Right, first election, Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz, both getting 35 seats in the 120 seat parliament. Israel's president gives Netanyahu the first shot at forming a government with smaller parties.

He fails, passes a bill that dissolves the parliament, sets in motion a second election. There in September, we see Gantz beating out Netanyahu by one seat, 33 to 32. Both men get a chance to form a parliament, sets in motion a second election. There in September, we see Gantz beating out Netanyahu by one seat, 33 to 32. Both men get a chance to form a government, Netanyahu first, because he had the best chance at forming a coalition, Gantz second, they both fail. Nothing works, the deadline expires, boom,

third election set to happen March 2nd. And also, while all of this was happening to make things extra interesting, Netanyahu was actually facing charges. Right, Israel's longest serving prime minister who has largely defined Israeli politics for the last two decades has been fighting to hold onto power.

If you don't know, Netanyahu was indicted for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust back in November. Though it should be noted, even with this hanging over his head, it hasn't done horrible things to his popularity. And in fact, what we ended up seeing yesterday with 92% of the votes counted is that his party ended up on top,

winning a total of 36 seats as of recording. And even more notably, Netanyahu's block of right-wing parties won a total of 59 seats, which is just two seats short of a majority. Right, and understand, this is a huge victory for him for a number of reasons. First off, 36 seats is the most that he's won in the three elections over the last year.

It's also notably the biggest lead he has had over Gantz, whose blue and white party only won 32 seats, and whose center-left block won a total of 54 seats. It also means that his base does not care about the fact that he was indicted on corruption charges since the last time they voted for him. In fact, what we ended up seeing was that voter turnout was the highest that it's been for all three of the election.

And so this shows that Netanyahu has incredible staying power and sway in Israeli politics. But, and there's always big ones when it comes to politics, the problems are far from over. First of all, we don't technically or officially know if Israel's president can even legally ask Netanyahu to lead his party in trying to form a government. Or because like we mentioned before,

a sitting prime minister has never been indicted. So the whole situation is entirely unprecedented. And actually to that point, we could have had an answer, but Israel's Supreme Court avoided ruling on that question back in January. Possibly, probably, because they hoped that the election would solve the problem. But now it's almost certain that the highest court

is gonna be asked to make a decision. And that is, I mean, if you think about it, a country defining choice. They either have to stop an elected leader from taking power or allow a leader accused and charged with bribery and fraud to form a government. Also, the timing of the situation is incredibly important because Netanyahu's hearing is set to happen in two weeks.

And there, if he's convicted, that opens up a whole other can of worms. And like a different one, but a similar one, like a Coke Zero and a Diet Coke. But also, even if he is allowed to form the government, there is the question of it, can he get to that majority? He is only two away, can he do it? And that might seem like a crazy question

because he is so close, but it's like if you were jumping for a ledge and you were two inches away, you fall, you die. Physics and politics, they don't grade on a curve. And they've actually been here before. In fact, with one more seat. So even though different parties have won different seats in the last few elections, the same problem remains.

And honestly, at that point, it's too much. Like I watched the trilogy. At this point, I don't want a fourth movie. Maybe it's time for a reboot. Maybe the same story, but all new people. Elections should be like baseball, three strikes, you're out. Yeah, ultimately that's where we are with this. And of course, like with every story,

but also specifically if you have any sort of connection to this, whether you have family there, you live there, whatever. I'd love to know your thoughts on what is happening right now. And the last thing we're gonna talk about today is a very sad and horrible situation. If you haven't already seen,

there were intense thunderstorms and then tornadoes all across Tennessee. The AP reporting that tornadoes struck Nashville as well as other areas of Western and Central Tennessee. And they destroyed over 140 buildings and killed at least 22 people as of recording this. And these deaths were reported across four different counties,

with Putnam County alone seeing at least 16 deaths. Though, those numbers are likely to rise. I mean, even this morning when the numbers were in the single digits, we saw Governor Bill Lee say, quote, "'There's a really good possibility "'that there may be more like this "'because there are people that were still unaccounted for.

And on top of all that, there are tens of thousands of people without power. Really, just when you look at the videos and the images that are posted on social media right now of tornadoes raging through the area, wiping out cars, homes, businesses, you really just hope and you pray that that number stays low.

Obviously, my thoughts go to all those affected, but also praise to those that are trying to help. You have officials rushing to open emergency shelters around the area to all those affected, but also praise to those that are trying to help. Or you have officials rushing to open emergency shelters around the area to help those affected. Meanwhile, you had responders working throughout several counties to check for residents, search for survivors, clear roads of dangerous debris. Also, and obviously this is to a lesser extent

because we're talking about the loss of homes, we're talking about the loss of lives here. But it's also possible that what we're seeing here could have political ramifications. Tennessee is one of the Super Tuesday states, right? That the primary vote is happening today. And in fact, you had a number of polling stations that were destroyed.

Now, election officials have also announced several alternate polling sites that were quickly set up to accommodate for the damage. With this, you also saw voting starting an hour late. But also, for those affected and those even kind of outside of that area or they have friends there, voting is probably the last thing on their mind.

Right, and actually, the more that you look into it, weather can play a significant role in elections. Often by lowering voter turnout, right? I mean, maybe public transportation is affected, there's massive damage like what we're seeing in Tennessee. And actually on that note, Tennessee may not be the only state where voting is disrupted by severe weather. Southern branch of the same system that brought

the tornadoes to Tennessee is reportedly moving across parts of Alabama. I mean, right there, that's another Super Tuesday state under threat. Also, according to reports, thunderstorms are possible in Virginia and North Carolina this afternoon and evening, which experts say could produce wind damage or a possible tornado.

And also, in Central Texas, we're seeing reports that severe storms could cause large hail damaging winds in a tornado as well. But ultimately, that's where we are with this just really horrible story. We're gonna have to wait to see the full extent of the loss here. Yeah, once again, my thoughts and well wishes

to those affected here. And that is where actually we're ending today's show. Thank you as always for watching. If you liked the video, hit that like button. If you're new here, hit that subscribe button so you don't miss these daily news videos. Also, if you're looking for more to watch after this video, maybe you missed yesterday's Philip DeFranco show,

maybe you wanna catch the Rhett and Link podcast before the next one comes out. It's not like it goes away. Either way, you can click or tap right there to watch either of those right now. But with that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in.

I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow. I hope you liked the video. Subscribe if you like it.