rappers

US rapper Ashnikko sells out Manchester and London gigs as she counts down to her highly anticipated Smoochies tour in the UK and Ireland.

The musician will be headlining six dates from February 11th to 20th and she’ll be descending upon Glasgow and Dublin as well as Manchester and London.

She’s kicking off the UK leg of her tour in Glasgow at the 02 Academy before heading to Manchester for two dates at the Manchester Academy.

Ashnikko will follow this up with Dublin at 3Olympia before finishing up with two nights at London’s Brixton Academy.

Her fans have been excitedly awaiting her return to the UK and a result, many of the dates have already sold out.

She announced the tour dates back in August as well as the dates that the pre sale and general sale tickets were going to be available.

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Taking to Instagram to share the tour poster, she penned: “SMOOCHIES TOUR!!!!

“Coming first to Ireland and the Yoo Kay. Preorder Smoochies the album from my UK store before 3pm bst on Monday to unlock a sexy little presale code.

“Pre-sale opens august 19th – 10am. General sale Thursday 21st – 10am.”

Her excited fans flocked to the comments section to share their enthusiasm as one gushed: “JUST GOT MY MANCHESTER TICKETS BABEEE.”

Another enthused: “Got the Glasgow tickets!!! Acc buzzing travelling from N.I to come see you.”

While a third added: “02 is GONNA BE CRAZYYY!!!! So proud of u.”

Her setlist includes her biggest tracks from her album of the same name, including Liquid, Skin Cleared, Chichinya, Full Frontal and Lip Smacker.

The tour kicks off on January 26 with dates in Poland, Germany, Denmark, France, Belgium and The Netherlands before descending upon the UK and Ireland.

After giving Blighty a visit for her six tour dates, Ashnikko will be heading back to her native US for shows in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and many, many more.

The musician will conclude her tour in September, with shows in New Zealand and Australia.

She began her career in 2016 but gained huge popularity in 2019, when her single Stupid featuring Baby Tate went viral on TikTok.

As a result, the song was declared certified platinum in both the United States and Canada.

Her debut mixtape, Demidevil was released in January 2021, with singles released including Daisy and Slumber Party.

Her debut studio album, Weedkiller, released in 2023, followed by Smoochies which came out in October last year.

Speaking about her sophomore album, she expressed: ““Smoochies feels like Demidevil’s older sister.

“It’s sexy, playful, and feminine, while toeing the line of grotesque and absurd. I feel like purse sediment so much of the time – like a mess of crumbs and gum in receipts and lipgloss that I’ve forgotten about – so the album feels like that too.

“This is the first where I’ve written very autobiographically, but at the core of it all is personal autonomy and joyful whimsy.”

IT’S now the beginning of a fresh year, but last year was a tough one for Stormzy.

The famous rapper and singer, who’s real name is Michael Ebenezer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr., gained mass attention back in 2014, when he broke into the music scene.

But now over 10 years on, he’s reflecting on what a tough year he had, and how since the end of 2024 he’s felt like he’s been “dying a slow death”.

In a heartfelt Instagram post, Stormzy shared a statement about how it feels to gradually lose your sense of childhood wonder to reality and its twists and turns.

“Ok, I’m ready,” the star began before launching into a poetic statement.

“There’s poetry in all this chaos so lemme embrace it.

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“Towards the end of 2024, my life took a few unexpected twists and turns and I was forced to pivot.

“These same events also robbed me of the wide-eyed innocence I once navigated the world with.

“Kinda like how you used to believe that Disneyland was powered by rainbows and fairy dust, and then one day you see a headless Mickey Mouse arguing on the phone and smoking a cigarette.

“This made me more resilient and put the final nail in the coffin of my desire to be understood – a part of me that, tbf, was already dying a slow death.”

The lengthy post continued on for eleven images in a carousel, detailing how Stormzy just wanted to get things “off [his]chest before [he] enters the New Year”.

He also shared how he is “eternally grateful” to the people in his life, whether they still work together or not.

He tied the statement off with the same words he scrawled at the start: “Ok, I’m ready.”

Stormzy opted to turn comments off on the simple text post, captioned with a repeat of “Ok, I’m ready.”

These same three words are the only ones in colour among the black and white statement, standing out in red.

It’s unclear exactly what “events” Stormzy is referring to when discussing the difficulty of 2025, but a couple of notable things happened to the star that did become public.

Back in March at the BRIT Awards, he took to the stage wearing a pair of sunglasses to scoop up an award for best British Hop Hop/Grime/Rap Act.

Clarifying to a confused audience why he was wearing shades inside the venue, he explained he had “bruised his cornea” during a game of padel.

“Sorry I’m wearing shade as well because I’ve mashed up my eye playing padel.

“I’ve got a very sore eye. I’ve got a bruised cornea.

“My eye’s sore under here, I’m not being a mad man with shades on inside.”

Then later on in the year in November, Stormzy shared a devastated post to Instagram sharing that the Rottweiler he owned with ex Maya Jama sadly passed away.

He said: “RIP my no.1 boy. Don’t have much to say, just gutted and heartbroken. I love you so so so much my boy. 

“If you know me then you know how much Enzo meant to me, gonna miss you my guy.”

CARDI B’s boyfriend Stefon Diggs seemed to finally confirm he has welcomed more than one baby this year.

The New England Patriots player, 32 – who welcomed a son with rapper Cardi in November – posted three separate photos of three infants on his Instagram Stories on Christmas Day.

In one, Stefon held a baby boy in front of a colorful Christmas tree.

“One of my boys’ first Christmas,” he proudly posted.

The identity of the baby’s mother is unclear- though Stefon was rumored to have fathered a mystery child after TMZ obtained photos of him loading a baby carrier outside a New York hospital in May.

In the second photo, the NFL star posed with a baby girl – who appears to be Charliee, his daughter with Instagram model Lord Gisselle, who also goes by Aileen Lopera.

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The U.S. Sun exclusively confirmed Stefon was the father of Aileen’s baby after she took him to court to confirm paternity and request child support in Los Angeles.

The baby was born in April 2025 – just seven months before Cardi gave birth to his son.

In Stefon’s third photo, Cardi, 33, held their son in front of a sparkling Christmas tree.

“Miss yaw!” he captioned the pic. “Don’t be squeezing him too tight, you making him soft.”

Cardi and Stefon first stepped out publicly in May of this year, and she announced her pregnancy in September.

She is the mother of three kids with ex Offset- Kulture, Wave and Blossom. She gave birth to her youngest daughter in September 2024.

Stefon also has an older daughter named Nova, 8.

TIMOTHEE Chalamet simultaneously debunked two recent rumours swirling about his life at once through his debut rap song.

The actor, 29, has been the center of lots of speculation lately as fans have been somewhat convinced he is secretly Liverpudlian rapper EsDeeKid.

The wild theory is based off of supposed fan “evidence”, drawing similarities between the shape of the pair’s eyes an faces, hands, and fashion choices.

The young star has also been facing swathes of break-up rumours, after viewers noticed that him and girlfriend Kylie Jenner appeared to look “bored” together at a New York Yankees game.

Timothee has been accused of acting “cold” towards the Kylie Cosmetics founder during the holiday season.

He’s been doing lots of press in recent weeks following the release of new film Marty Supreme.

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But in the press interviews he hasn’t mentioned Kylie at all.

He was also a no-show at Kylie’s mom Kris Jenner’s 70th birthday celebrations last month.

However in his recently dropped rap collab 4 Raws – alongside masked singer EsDeeKid himself – Timothee sang some lyrics that seemed to highly praise his stunning significant other.

Collaborating with EsDeeKid in itself instantly debunked the rumour that the rapper could possibly be Timothee.

Meanwhile lyrics such as “My girl’s worth a billion,” stood out in the single, in possible reference to Kylie’s wealth and hard work.

It could also be Timothee’s way of describing Kylie, 28, as utterly irreplaceable.

Timothee and Kylie were first linked back in 2023.

Rumours about their romance began to fuel in January after they were spotted together during Paris Fashion Week.

But it wasn’t until September 2023 that they hardlaunched as a couple, kissing at a Beyonce concert.

In the years to follow the star-studded duo have attended many public events together including the Golden Globes and the Oscars.

They’re often seen looking loved-up on a red carpet, and have piled on the PDA lately to help combat split rumours.

Early this month Kylie attended the premiere of Marty Supreme with her beau and they posed up a storm for the cameras.

Timothee wrapped his arms around her waist as they both wore matching bright orange outfits and smiled for the cameras.

They smiled at one another, looking incredibly happy.