Hip-Hop
Polo G’s The Goat Laments Chicago’s Violence with Poetic Precision: Review
The Lowdown: In this winner-take-all economy, the owner class is shrinking faster than you can read a foreclosure notice. Yet, Polo G’s talent for quivery, upwardly inflected sing-rapping made him a homeowner. He has a backyard. He can come and go as he pleases. No more agonizing wait times at apartment security checkpoints; no more having to dodge the prying eyes of too-inquisitive neighbors. On his sophomore album, The Goat, Polo G — who was raised in a squat brick mid-rise on Chicago’s Near North Side or, as he calls it, “the zoo” — marvels at his sudden freedom of movement. But he’s restless and slightly remorseful in his new life. Privacy is one of those benefits that redounds down to the upper, petty bourgeois. As long as his friends on Sedgwick Street are still living under state su...
Here’s How The Internet That Built Up Doja Cat Broke Down Her Alleged Racist Remarks
On Monday morning (May 25), Doja Cat tried shutting down the #DojaCatIsOverParty by addressing her allegedly racist songs from the past, early participation in what was considered to be alt-right chat rooms and self-hatred issues rooted in her curly hair in a lengthy Instagram Live video. The video supported a note she wrote to her 6.8 million fans on Monday about how she grew up using public chat rooms to socialize with others and how she takes pride in being a Black woman with her father Dumisani Dlamini’s side being from South Africa. What resurfaced about Doja Cat (real name Amalaratna Zandile Dlamini) over the weekend got Twitter chatting nonstop about whether the “Say So” hitmaker, who recently scored her first No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hit with th...
Dr. Dre Thinks Social Media Destroyed the Artist Mystique
Dr. Dre (British GQ) No wonder Dr. Dre doesn’t post much online. In a new interview with Jimmy Iovine in British GQ, the prolific rapper said he thinks social media has “destroyed” the artist mystique by offering fans too much access into the life of musicians, reports NME. Dre and Iovine’s conversation primarily revolved around how digital fame plays a role in an artist’s success nowadays. “I probably would’ve hated social media when I was coming up,” said Dre. “There’s a certain mystique that gets destroyed. I like the mystique. I like waiting. I don’t need anybody to know where I am every minute or what I’m doing. Or what I’m about to do… There’s a certain mystique that came along with music that was entertaining to wait to see what was about to happen.” From there, Iovine took Dre...
JPEGMAFIA Is a “CUTIE PIE!” in His New Song: Stream
JPEGMAFIA is always a ball of energy, but 2020 appears to be the year where he lets off creative steam at every opportunity that arises. Today, the experimental rapper has released his fifth (!) new single of the year, “CUTIE PIE!”, alongside a low-res music video. Since dropping his album All My Heroes Are Cornballs last fall, JPEGMAFIA has shared a string of exclamatory tracks that read like flyer announcements thanks to names like “BALD!”, “BODYGUARD!”, and “Covered in Money!”. Clearly, this new single “CUTIE PIE!” continues the trend. “CUTIE PIE!” opens with a lo-fi percussion beat that sounds like it’s being recorded to an iPhone and a slinky bass beat. Combined, the rhythm section is a throwback to ’90s hip-hop — and JPEGMAFIA keeps that mood going by spitting nonstop verses in a mon...
Eminem Just Invited All His ‘Stans’ To Text Him
The Rap God just got closer to his fans. From out of leftfield, Eminem shared his phone number and invited all his “Stans” to get in touch. “’Dear Stan, I meant to write you sooner, but I just been busy’ text me, ill hit you back,” he writes in an Instagram post, which is accompanied with a snippet of his classic “Stan”. He completes his message with his phone number — 313-666-7440 — and the hashtags #MMLP20 and #DearSlim. Eminem’s causal call-out to his fans comes on the 20th anniversary of his third album release, The Marshall Mathers LP, which ruled the Billboard 200 for eight weeks. MMLP single “Stan” went to the top in the U.K., fueled British vocalist Dido’s fledgling career and gave the English dictionary a spanking new entry. All these years later, Mathers i...
Kim Kardashian Celebrates Anniversary With Kanye West: ‘Forever to Go’
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West celebrated six years of marriage on Sunday (May 24). Kardashian marked the occasion on social media by posting a set of pictures with her arms around her husband. In one, she’s seen kissing him on the cheek, and in the other, they’re both smiling at the camera. “6 years down; forever to go,” she captioned the sweet snapshots. “Until the end.” They were married in 2014 at Fort di Belvedere, a 16th century fortress in Florence, Italy, and have four children, North, Saint, Chicago and Psalm. See their anniversary photos below. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in t...
The 7 Best Moments From ‘A Tribute to Andre Harrell: Mr. Champagne & Bubbles’
Legendary entertainment executive Andre Harrell passed away on May 7 due to heart failure at just 59 years old. To celebrate the fulfilled life of Mr. Champagne & Bubbles, the music world came together with a virtual broadcast paying tribute to Harrell on Sunday evening (May 24). Whether it was his signature infectious smile, eye for talent or sheer wisdom, a plethora of artists’ careers have been positively impacted by Harrell during his near four decades in the music business. The Uptown Records founder is lauded for helping launch the careers of music luminaries Mary J. Blige and P. Diddy. The BET-REVOLT TV program saw moving tributes from some of Harrell’s closest entertainment industry friends, like Mariah Carey, Babyface, Pharrell Williams, Russell Simmons, Jamie...
Fans Pick BTS Member Suga’s ‘D-2′ Mixtape as This Week’s Favorite New Music
A new mixtape from BTS member Suga dominates this week’s new music poll. In the poll, published Friday (May 22) on Billboard, music fans voted for Suga’s most recent solo project, D-2, as their favorite new release from the past week. The mixtape, his second, brought in more than 72% of the vote. It follows 2016’s Agust D. “My previous mixtape focused more on being better at rap, better at making music, sound, mix, master and so forth. I’ve worked on a lot more projects since then and didn’t really try to become perfect,” Suga recently told Billboard. “Perfection is an elusive term. I simply just did my best.” Coming in second with 23% of the vote was Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande‘s first collaborative song “Rain On Me.” The track w...
Future Flies ‘High’ With Seventh No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 Chart
Plus: Polo G’s “The Goat” debuts at No. 2, Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit’s “Reunions” surges into top 10 after wide release. Future flies in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with his seventh chart-topper, as High Off Life enters at No. 1. The album, which was released via Freebandz/Epic Records on May 15, earned 153,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending May 21, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data — Future’s biggest week, in terms of units, for a solo album. Of High Off Life’s first-week units, 16,000 are in album sales, while nearly all of the remaining units are from streaming activity. Also in the new top 10: Polo G’s The Goat bows at No. 2 with 99,000 units, and Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit’s Reunions jumps from No. 149 to No. 9 after its first week ...
BROCKHAMPTON Unleash New Songs “I.F.L.”, “baby bull”, and “downside”: Stream
For the third Friday running, BROCKHAMPTON have shared a cache of new music. This week, it’s a chilled-out trio of tracks in “I.F.L.”, “baby bull”, and “downside”. A handful of BROCKHAMPTON members are in quarantine together, and as they’ve done the last two weeks, they hosted a password-protected livestream called Technical Difficulties. Via the fans at /r/BROCKHAMPTON, the boy band is being cagey about what Technical Difficulties actually is — album, loosies, or something else entirely. However, they did suggest that it’s happening without label RCA’s approval, which might explain why none of the premieres have made it to Apple Music or Spotify, and also why the four previous releases — “M.O.B.” and “twisted”, as well as “N.S.T.” and “things can’t stay the same” — have already ...
Beenie Man & Bounty Killer Speak on Their Careers & Highly-Anticipated ‘Verzuz’ Battle
“I do it for the fun, not the funds.” The ultimate celebration clash is set for Saturday (May 23) at 8 p.m. ET between dancehall music’s titans Beenie Man and Bounty Killer. The Jamaican champion sounds will ring throughout the world via Instagram for the reggae loving masses. Ever since the whole Swizz Beatz and Timbaland created social media battle platform Verzuz wave kicked off, bringing a much-needed spark of joy and excitement to the dreadful pandemic grind, those of us who love and respect dancehall music and Jamaican sound system culture have been asking ourselves when (if ever) the world would finally recognize that this whole digital sensation was based on the concept of sound clash. Which is to say that it’s all rooted in the rich history of Jamaican music, whi...
Beenie Man vs. Bounty Killer in ‘Verzuz’ Battle of Dancehall Legends: See Billboard’s Scorecard and Winner For the Showdown
Why was this night different from all other Verzuz battles? Streamed live from Kingston, Jamaica, the Memorial Day “Soundclash Edition” of Swizz Beatz and Timbaland’s flagship IG Live series was easily the most exciting and entertaining yet, as well as the first to delve into dancehall reggae. Considering the fact that Jamaican sound systems pioneered the sort of “beat battles” have made Verzuz a social media sensation well over half a century ago, the creative decision was more than fitting. By pitting two icons of the genre, Bounty Killer and Beenie Man, in head-to-head competition, this Verzuz battle did not just showcase two of its most respected lyricists ever to hold a microphone, it also tapped into an epic rivalry that stretches back more than a quarter of a century. At that time t...
