Months after former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling drew fire for his racist comments, the NBA finds itself in a similar controversy.

On Sunday, news broke that Atlanta Hawks co-owner Bruce Levenson decided to sell his shares after self-reporting a racist email that he sent two years ago; now Hawks general manager Danny Ferry is in hot water for comments that he made.

Ferry received undisclosed discipline by team CEO Steve Koonin after making inappropriate comments about NBA star Luol Deng during a June conference call with members of the ownership team, ESPN reported on Tuesday (September 9). During the call, where team officials discussed the possibility of signing Deng as a free agent, Ferry said that the two-time all-star “has a little African in him.”

He went on to try to justify the comment. “Not in a bad way, but he’s like a guy who would have a nice store out front and sell you counterfeit stuff out of the back,” Ferry said during the call.

Atlanta’s WSB-TV obtained a letter from Hawks co-owner Michael Gearon Jr., which detailed the incident. Gearon went on to say that he and the other co-owners were appalled by the comment; in his letter he recommended that Ferry be fired or asked to resign. It was during the investigation of Ferry’s comments that the Hawks uncovered Levenson’s email, where he stated that the majority black crowd at Hawks games in Atlanta scared off white fans.

Ferry apologized on Tuesday, but ...

There’s been a ton of conversation surrounding former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, the attack on his then-fiancée Jenay and the NFL’s subsequent indefinite suspension, but now, a day after the brutal video of the beating hit the Internet, the victim has something to say.

“I woke up this morning feeling like I had a horrible nightmare, feeling like I’m mourning the death of my closest friend,” Jenay Rice wrote in a private Instagram post on Tuesday morning (September 9), ESPN reports. “But to have to accept the fact that it’s reality is a nightmare itself. No one knows the pain that the media & unwanted options from the public has caused my family. To make us relive a moment in our lives that we regret everyday is a horrible thing.”

On February 15, the 206-pound football star hit Jenay in the face in an elevator in an Atlantic City, New Jersey hotel. She fell unconscious and Rice attempted to drag his then-fiancée out of the elevator before he was stopped by security. The couple got married about a month after the incident.

In May, Rice entered a pretrial diversion program, which will allow him to avoid a formal prosecution if he attends the program for one year. If he completes the program, the aggravated assault charges will be dismissed, while the arrest will stay on his record.

The NFL originally suspended Rice for two games and fined him more than $500,000 in July, but yesterday, ...

The Baltimore Ravens announced on Monday (September 8) that they have cut running back Ray Rice from the team following the release of footage that showed the football star striking his then-fiancée, Janay Palmer and knocking her unconscious.

After the Ravens made their announcement via Twitter, the NFL PR rep Greg Aiello announced that the league has suspended Rice indefinitely.

The decision came hours after TMZ released surveillance footage of the attack. The incident occurred in the elevator of an Atlantic City, New Jersey hotel back on February 15. At the time, video surfaced of the aftermath of the attack, as Rice appeared to pull an unconscious Palmer from the elevator. But a newly-released and edited version of the tape shows Rice entering the elevator with Palmer, whom he married after the attack.

Related: If you or someone you know is experiencing relationship abuse, please head to LoveIsRespect.org

The 206-pound running back strikes his now-wife and she appears to strike him back, before he delivers a blow to her face, which causes her to knock her head on an elevator hand rail and fall unconscious. Rice then tries to drag Palmer out of the elevator, before he is stopped by what appears to be a hotel security guard.

In May, Rice entered a pretrial diversion program, which will allow him to avoid a formal prosecution if he attends the program for one year. If he completes the program, the aggravated assault charges will be dismissed, while the arrest will ...

Wale’s next LP is titled The Album About Nothing, but the Maybach Music rapper sure has a lot to say in the three-minute trailer for the project.

The “Bad” MC tweeted a link for the video on Monday (September 8), and in it, he addresses his past controversies before coming to a resolve. For Wale, recording the follow-up to his 2008 “Seinfeld”-inspired The Mixtape About Nothing is his cure-all.

Did we mention that comedy icon and his longtime muse Jerry Seinfeld also makes an appearance? Looks dope.

Rob Markman

Mentally been many places, but I'm Brooklyn's own. Hip-hop gives me life!

@RobMarkman

NFL running back Ray Rice is currently serving a two-game suspension, after a February attack on his then-fiancée, Janay Palmer. On Monday (September 8) a jarring video of the crushing blow hit the Internet for all to see.

The incident occurred in the elevator of an Atlantic City, New Jersey hotel back on February 15. At the time, video surfaced of the aftermath of the attack, as Rice appeared to pull an unconscious Palmer from the elevator. But TMZ Sports has now published an edited version of the brutal surveillance tape. In the three-and-a-half-minute clip, Rice can be seen entering the elevator with Palmer, whom he married after the attack.

In the video, the 206-pound running back strikes his now-wife and she appears to strike him back, before he delivers a blow to her face, which causes her to knock her head on an elevator hand rail and fall unconscious. Rice then tries to drag Palmer out of the elevator, before he is stopped by what appears to be a hotel security guard. TMZ says the video is a “cleaned up version” of the raw surveillance video which was “jerky.”

Related: If you or someone you know is experiencing relationship abuse, please head to LoveIsRespect.org

Rice was suspended for two games and fined more than $500,000 by the NFL, which said it did not see the gruesome footage until today. “We requested from law enforcement any and all information about the incident, including the video from inside the elevator. ...

There’s nothing like hip-hop music. Since the late 1970s, when the culture and music was taking form, there was something unique about the beats and the rhymes, as well as the dances, fashion and graffiti.

Now that hip-hop has fully bloomed and penetrated almost every facet of pop culture, it’s become clear that there is just no musical genre in the world that can currently compare.

That’s no dis; we love pop, rock, reggae, EDM and all other forms of music, but we just happen to think hip-hop is the best and we have 14 reasons to prove it.

1. The Lyrics

No other genre of music packs as many multilayered, dual-meaning and witty lyrics in three minute and 30 second songs. Seriously, picture Katy Perry singing: “I should probably sign to Hit-Boy, ’cause I got all the hits, boy.”

2. Slang

Getty Images

Part of what makes rap lyrics so appealing is the slang that MCs use to paint their picture. Spitters like E-40 have created a language that everyone uses, so keep that in mind the next time your grandmother says “fo’ shizzle.”

3. The Fashion

No doubt hip-hop has been influencing everyday fashion since the 1980s. So when you see Taylor Swift with a fitted hat, a hoodie and a boombox you’ll understand the influence.

4. Tupac Shakur

Kevin Mazur / getty Images

No other genre of music has an artist quite like Tupac. He blended his own gangsta and Black Panther political ...

These days, Eminem interviews are hard to come by, but when he talks, it’s always an event, like this “The Monster Tour Special,” which aired on his Sirius XM Shade 45 satellite station.

During the hour-long broadcast, which was recorded during Eminem and Riahnna’s August tour stop in New Jersey, Shade’s Reef the Streets interviewed Royce da 5’9″, Alchemist, Mr. Porter and Marshall Mathers himself.

Listen as Em talks about his working relationship with Rih, how the tour came together and his thoughts on the upcoming 2015 NFL football season.

Rob Markman

Mentally been many places, but I'm Brooklyn's own. Hip-hop gives me life!

@RobMarkman

When Wiz Khalifa recorded “Ass Drop” for his new album Blacc Hollywood, he says he was inspired by Vine and the viral nature of all of the twerk videos that emerge on the social networking site. Oh yeah, he was also inspired by his wife Amber Rose.

“My wife has a great ass and I get to see that all the time, so that’s inspiration in itself,” Khalifa told MTV News just one week before his album dropped in August.

Rose continued to inspire on Friday, when she dropped a twerk vid on Instagram to celebrate hubby’s first #1 album on the Billboard 200 charts.

Amber earned almost 300,000 likes on IG from that video alone, and that attention would make some men jealous, but not Wiz. “She loves the sh– out of me, bro; I love her, too. So I’m not worried.” he said confidently. “It just brings positive to our situation; it’s nothing negative.”

Instead, Khalifa is quite proud of he and Amber’s very public relationship. “Everybody’s like, ‘Oh, Wiz you’re the f–kin’ man, you’re so lucky,’” he said. “I’m like, ‘Yeah.’”

Rob Markman

Mentally been many places, but I'm Brooklyn's own. Hip-hop gives me life!

@RobMarkman

Chris Brown’s drama in Washington D.C. looks to finally be behind him. The star singer pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault on Tuesday (September 2) for hitting a man outside of a hotel and was sentenced to time served.

“I would like to say to the court that I’m sorry,” Brown said in court today according to a report published online by the Associated Press.

The “Look At Me Now” singer was arrested in October 2013 after he was accused of hitting a man who tried to jump into a picture that Brown was taking with two women. Originally CB pleaded not guilty to the charge.

After a Los Angeles court hearing in May, Brown was sentenced to 131 days in jail because he violated the probation which was handed down to him as a result of the 2009 incident where he assaulted then-girlfriend Rihanna.

Brown’s attorney argued that the 131 days in jail which Brown served earlier this year was sufficient punishment for the D.C. case.

The singer’s bodyguard, Christopher Hollosy, was also charged in the Washington fight and convicted of misdemeanor assault in April, though he hasn’t been sentenced yet.

Brown is fianlly set to release his oft-delayed sixth studio album X on September 15.

Rob Markman

Mentally been many places, but I'm Brooklyn's own. Hip-hop gives me life!

@RobMarkman

Now that G-Unit is back together and making music again, don’t expect them to stop any time soon. 50 Cent and his crew just dropped their comeback EP The Beauty of Independence and already have another EP on deck.

“It’s broken up into two pieces so The Beauty of Independence is the first half and then The Beast is G-Unit [is] the second half,” 50 revealed during a recent interview with the LA Leakers on their Shade 45 satellite radio show.

Related: Watch 50 Cent And G-Unit Talk The Beauty Of Their Reunion

“Right now we got like over 50 records recorded and the process for picking this EP was six records,” Lloyd Banks told MTV News of The Beauty of Independence during an interview last month.

“It reminds me of when we first started, because we didn’t have a lot of time to fall in love with a record like, Yo that’s my joint. Because by the time you lay that one down, we’re in the booth again. And then four or five records in one day. So they can expect the first six songs and then another EP following that and solo projects as well.”

Young Buck told us that now that the Unit is back together, there will be no splitting up. “If you looking over here at G-Unit and looking for the downfall, then it’s hard on yourself, you’re making it hard on yourself,” Buck said. “But if you’re looking over here at ...