The social media controversy involving Drake and Kendrick Lamar that damaged one reporter’s reputation

Christopher Alvarez is a freelance reporter and filmmaker who lives with the serious skeletal disorder Thanatophoric Dysplasia and reports on issues affecting disabled people like himself, as well as celebrity interviews. He recently graduated from Columbia Journalism School.

Now Alvarez – who has written several articles for the Brooklyn Eagle’s sister publication, the Queens Eagle – finds himself caught up in a media firestorm that involves the bitter rap battle between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, which recently culminated in the Billboard Hot 100 number one hit “Not Like Us.” A bizarre alleged blackmail scheme or maybe just a scam played out via tweets and creepy videos staged in Brooklyn Bridge Park, led to wholly unsubstantiated speculation that Alvarez may have been abused.

The virtual counterpart of “Tiger King” is what you get when you combine conspiracy theories a la Q-Anon with screenshots of purported talks to purchase goods connected to mysterious activities involving Drake. All of this is compressed into a single weekend.

EbonyPrince2K24 makes claims that become viral right away.

On May 10, X (Twitter) user “EbonyPrince2k24” tweeted a threat of legal action against Drake and a close associate, implying that she had proof of something horrible. She also included a video of items that were purportedly left at The Mark Hotel in Manhattan by Drake, such as an old laptop, receipts, clothing, and medications bearing his legal name, Aubrey Graham. On the diss track “Meet the Grahams,” Kendrick Lamar used some of these objects as cover art, implying that Drake’s camp had a mole. The film was time-stamped with a copy of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle dated May 8 and a picture of Alvarez.

The objects were arranged on the balcony of the 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge in the video.

with a view of Brooklyn Bridge Park. Some conjectured that EbonyPrince meant to suggest that there was evidence of misconduct on the laptop.

You’ve thrown away a lot of stuff throughout the years. I’m curious whether you can recall them all,” EbonyPrince tweeted in a mysterious manner.

A second video, filmed at night on a scenic overlook in Brooklyn Bridge Park, shows more items, including jewelry. “It’s about diamonds,” EbonyPrince wrote. Other tweets make vague and unsubstantiated allegations of child abuse.

Another X user posted screenshots of what appears to be negotiations with EbonyPrince to buy the video footage for $800,000 in cryptocurrency, although other users later called these out as fake. A deadline of noon Monday was set for Drake to apologize and retract what EbonyPrince called “lies,” after which he vowed to turn everything over to a lawyer.

The full story, began to emerge, according to internet sleuths, who pored over the user’s X page: EbonyPrince appeared to be an employee of the Mark Hotel, and had intended to sell Drake’s unclaimed items following a period in the hotel’s Lost and Found, but was unable to do so after Drake’s associate DJ Akademiks claimed on a livestream that the articles were stolen property. It is still unclear how the photo of the items made its way to Lamar’s camp.

The noon deadline came and went with only more vague and speculative posts from the user, leading some to speculate the whole thing might have been disinformation. but EbonyPrince shortly afterwards uploaded a shaky video of his laptop, showing more security footage of Alvarez.l