Hip-Hop Music News
Thundercat Remixes “Dragonball Durag” with Smino and Guapdad 4000: Stream
Guapdad 4000 (photo by Paul Middleton), Thundercat (photo by Parker Day), Smino (photo by Heather Kaplan) Thundercat has shared a new remix of “Dragonball Durag” featuring underground king Smino and rising star Guapdad 4000. The song was already a highlight of It Is What It Is, one of our favorite albums of the year so far. The remix features more to love, with new verses to expand on the song’s effervescent charm. Smino is already well known in these parts, and for “Dragonball Durag” he busts out a funky flow that combines smooth syllables with staccato bursts of emphasis, as well as plenty of punchlines. As for Guapdad 4000, he’s spent the last year like a bomb in space, quietly blowing up. Along with Smino, he’s in the supergroup Zoink Gang with JID and Buddy, and his 2019 deb...
Leikeli47 Speeds Past Her Competition on New Single “Zoom”: Stream
Leikeli47 hasn’t released a new album in nearly two years, but she doesn’t want her competition to think she’s been sleeping on the job. Enter “Zoom”, a fresh single from the Virginia-born rapper and our first preview of her upcoming third LP. On the booming and braggadocious offering, Leikeli47 reminds her peers she’s not to be trifled with. “Fist in my pocket, just in case a n*gga talking crazy/ Gotta sock ’em/ I don’t have no ammo, but my gunna got the rocket,” she says, fully confident and ready to step up to anyone. Leikeli47 also works in references to multiple ’90s boybands as well as her roots in the DMV area and New York City. “I ain’t the type of bitch to do a lot of barking/ And only thing I need validated is my parking/ I’m from the back street boy, where it’s very rare to link...
Cardi B Announces Waterproof Line of “WAP” Merch
When she isn’t interviewing the Democratic nominee for President or making FOX anchors flip out, Cardi B stays busy by giving fans new songs that will get stuck in their head for months. The latest example of such is “WAP”, her viral collaboration with Megan Thee Stallion that promotes female sexuality in the most over-the-top way. Now, Cardi has released an exclusive line of waterproof “WAP” merch to keep that brand going strong,. Cardi B has unveiled a new webstore exclusively for “WAP”-themed items called the “Wapstore”. It features a wide array of raincoats, crop tops, sweatpants, umbrellas, sports bras, and biker shorts, each emblazoned with the text “WAP” and, in some cases, the single artwork featuring the rap duo’s hair intertwined. Prices start at $25. Though some stuffy critics a...
Ms. Lauryn Hill Performs Six Songs for Louis Vuitton’s Menswear Show: Watch
Ms. Lauryn Hill Ms. Lauryn Hill has given limited performances during the pandemic, but her latest is a big one. Louis Vuitton called on the hip-hop icon to provide the musical accompaniment for their spring-summer 2021 menswear show in Shanghai, which took place earlier this month. The whole six-song performance was captured on video for an accompanying video presentation, which has now come online for all to behold. The black-and-white video finds Hill delivering half-a-dozen tracks, including her contribution to the Queen & Slim soundtrack, “Guarding the Gates”. With her band in full force around her, she also sings “Everything Is Everything”, “Lost Ones”, “Ex-Factor”, “Black Rage”, and the classic “Doo Wop (That Thing)”. Most of the July 31st shoot took place at New Jersey’s MLH St...
JAY-Z and Pharrell Team for New Single “Entrepreneur”: Stream
JAY-Z and Pharrell Williams are two of the most successful business men in all of music, so it’s fitting that their new collaboration be called “Entrepreneur”. Coming as part of a new cover package for TIME, the track finds the two artists advocating for an equality revolution across all levels of the American Dream. “The intention for a song was all about how tough it is to be an entrepreneur in our country to begin with,” Pharrell told TIME. “Especially as someone of color, there’s a lot of systemic disadvantages and purposeful blockages. How can you get a fire started, or even the hope of an ember to start a fire, when you’re starting at disadvantages with regards to health care, education, and representation?” In the song itself, Pharrell raps, “Gravity on the black man/ With everythin...
Kendrick Lamar Narrates Nike’s New Kobe Bryant Tribute Video: Watch
Nike is celebrating Kobe Bryant’s 42nd birthday with a new short film narrated by fellow Los Angeles great, Kendrick Lamar. Entitled Better, the film “celebrates the universal relevance of progress and highlights Kobe’s prolific desire for improvement,” Nike says. “The Mamba Mentality is about getting better, every day, in everything we do.” Kendrick echoes these sentiments throughout the clip: “Kobe taught us to be better,” K. Dot begins. “Better waker, better stretcher, better walker, better talker.” As the clip progresses, so too does the intensity of Kendrick’s articulation: “Better form, better focus, better friend, better fighter, better rider, better eater, better generation, better nation!” he continues. “Just be better. Can you do that?” Watch the full video below. ...
Megan Thee Stallion Confirms Tory Lanez Shot Her
Over a month after it was first reported that Megan Thee Stallion was shot in the foot, the “WAP” rapper has confirmed that it was Tory Lanez who pulled the trigger. News broke in mid-July that Lanez, real name Daystar Peterson, had been arrested for suspicion of possession of a concealed weapon. Megan, né Megan Pete, was in the vehicle with Lanez at the time and reported suffering glass wounds on her feet. However, the very next day, she took to social media to reveal she had actually been shot in both her feet “as a result of a crime that was committed against me and done with the intention to physically harm me.” At the time, the Los Angeles Police Department said Megan had not reported any crime. Over the next few weeks, however, she continued to discuss the experience, including surge...
Kanye Booted Off Presidential Ballots in Ohio, Wisconsin, and Illinois; No Longer Has a Path to 270 Electoral Votes
Kanye West’s presidential aspirations hit several more roadblocks this week after being booted from the ballot in three crucial midwestern states. In Ohio, Secretary of State Frank LaRose said Kanye “failed to meet the necessary threshold for certification.” In Wisconsin, the state’s elections commission concluded that Kanye’s ballot signatures were invalid, because they were submitted past the 5:00 p.m. legal deadline on August 4th. And in Kanye’s home state of Illinois, the state’s board of elections backed a hearing officer’s previous conclusion that a majority of the signatures submitted by Kanye were invalid or fraudulent. As it stands now, Kanye is on the ballot in five states: Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, and Vermont, and pending verification in six others: Iowa, Missouri, Mi...
Travis Scott’s New Song “The Plan” Soundtracks Trailer for Christopher Nolan’s Tenet: Stream
Travis Scott is having a very busy 2020, even though what’s arguably his biggest single of the year hasn’t dropped yet — well, until now. “The Plan”, Scott’s contribution to the soundtrack for Christopher Nolan‘s movie Tenet, has arrived in the latest trailer for the upcoming blockbuster. “The Plan” isn’t some random B-side Scott agreed to fork over to the Hollywood machine. According to an interview in GQ, Scott’s single wound up becoming an integral part of the film, going so far as to become a type of musical glue instead of a simple backing track. “His voice became the final piece of a yearlong puzzle,” said Nolan. “His insights into the musical and narrative mechanism [composer] Ludwig Göransson and I were building were immediate, insightful, and profound.” Scott delivers with both hi...
Nas Premieres New Album King’s Disease: Stream
Nas has returned with his new album, King’s Disease. Stream it in full below via Apple Music or Spotify. King’s Disease marks the Queens legend’s 13th studio album to date and serves as the direct follow-up to 2018’s Nasir. Whereas that release was produced entirely by Kanye West, this time around Nas has linked up with in-demand producer Hit-Boy. The 13-track LP also boasts contributions from Anderson .Paak (“All Bad”), Big Sean (“Replace Me”), Lil Durk (“Til the War is Won”), Charlie Wilson (“Car #85”), and ASAP Ferg and Fivio Foreign (“Spicy”). Nas was recently named by Eminem as one of the greatest rappers of all time. He also joined Public Enemy for “Fight the Power” at the BET Awards, and remixed “Rodeo” with Lil Nas X. King’s Disease Artwork: <img data-at...
Vic Mensa Releases Surprise V TAPE EP: Stream
Chicago is being represented well this New Music Friday thanks to Vic Mensa. The rapper has dropped off a surprise EP called V TAPE, and it’s streaming below via Apple Music or Spotify. The unexpected collection consists of seven all-new songs. Among them are collaborations with SAINt JHN, BJ the Chicago Kid, Snoh Aalegra, Eryn Allen Kane, and Chance the Rapper associate Peter Cottontale. Meanwhile, Hit-Boy, Thelonious Martin, Keyon Christ, Stefan Ponce, and C-Sick provide production alongside Smoko Ono, SC, and TRAKGIRL. As to be expected from the always thought-provoking and outspoken activist-rapper Mensa, V TAPE weaves in themes of social justice and suffering. For example, lead single “MACHIAVELLI” and its corresponding “vignette” offer an intimate look at Chicago’s South S...
Sexually Repressed Fox Anchor Tucker Carlson Freaks Out Over “WAP” Video: Watch
Nothing quite scares conservative men like a woman expressing her sexuality on her own terms. Add in the fact that she’s Black, too, and you’re bound to rile up the entire GOP base. That’s essentially what happened the other week when Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion unleashed their hotly anticipated single “WAP”. The collaboration’s acronym stands for “wet-ass pussy” and, much to many folks’ chagrin, was actually unabashedly about some wet-ass pussy. What a crime. The right immediately condemned the hip-hop track. One Republican congressional candidate named James P. Bradley described “WAP” as “what happens when children are raised without God,” later adding that he felt “sorry for future girls if this is their role model.” Bear in mind, he’s all for keeping a sexual predator in the White ...
