Hip-Hop
2022 Billboard Live R&B/Hip-Hop: Photos From the Evening
The biggest and brightest stars and executives in the R&B and hip-hop world showed out at Billboard Live: R&B/Hip-Hop on Thursday night (Nov. 17) at Academy LA. Billboard‘s deputy director, R&B/hip-hop Carl Lamarre and executive director, R&B/hip-hop Gail Mitchell started the evening’s festivities by thanking the R&B and hip-hop team, including reporters Neena Rouhani and Heran Mamo, and devoting a moment of silence to Takeoff, PnB Rock, Young Dolph, Pop Smoke, Nipsey Hussle and more rappers who have died in recent years. Future, who currently stars on Billboard‘s cover, presented the Rookie of the Year award to Blxst, who recently came off a sold-out world tour and earned two 2023 Grammy nominations for album of the year with Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & the Big S...
GloRilla Announces First Headlining Tour
It’s a big week of firsts for GloRilla. Days after earning her first Grammy nomination, the rising Memphis rapper has announced her inaugural headlining tour. The “Anyway.. Life’s Great Tour” comes in support of GloRilla’s debut EP of the same name. Kicking off in late January, the trek includes stops in Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Detroit, New York, and more. Tickets go on sale Friday, November 18th at 10:00 a.m. local time via Ticketmaster. Related Video Earlier this week, GloRilla’s breakout single, “F.N.F. (Let’s Go),” received a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Performance. Advertisement GloRilla 2023 Tour Dates:01/27 – Charlotte, NC @ The Underground01/28 – Atlanta, GA @ Hell At The Masquerade01/30 – Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live Studio01/31 – Dallas, TX @ The Cambridge Room at H...
NYC Mayor Eric Adams & Hip-Hop Legends Kickoff Yearlong Celebration Of The Culture’s 50th Anniversary
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced yesterday (Nov. 15) that The City of New York will partner with the Universal Hip-Hop Museum to launch 50 events and fundraisers during 2023 honoring the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop. As seen in a news clip from CBS News, Adams took the stage alongside community leaders and Hip-Hop stars and luminary personalities dressed in a black and white adidas tracksuit in an apparent homage to Run DMC. “What we’re saying in ‘Hip-Hop is 50’ is that Hip-Hop has grown up in a manner that they are not going to be exploited,” Adams said, per theGrio. “As we talk about education in school, as we talk about the products that are going to be sold, we’re looking at the economics of Hip-Hop,” he added. ...
Meta Announces Notorious B.I.G. VR Concert with a “Hyperrealistic” Biggie Avatar
The Notorious B.I.G. will become a “true-to-life, hyperrealistic” avatar in a forthcoming virtual-reality concert, coming exclusively to Meta’s VR and Facebook platforms. The Notorious B.I.G. Sky’s the Limit: A VR Concert Experience is set to premiere December 16th in honor of what would’ve been the late rapper’s 50th birthday. Sky’s the Limit is produced in collaboration with the Notorious B.I.G. Estate, and will feature the avatar Biggie spitting through beloved classics from his discography. Additionally, he’ll lead fans on a VR experience in Meta Horizon Worlds in “The Brook,” a virtual recreation of his Brooklyn hometown in the ’90s. With Biggie’s speaking voice performed by writer and music journalist Touré, the VR experience will be a “narrative journey” through a day in the rapper’...
R&B & Hip-Hop Reign Supreme With 2023 Grammy Nominations
On Tuesday morning (Nov. 15), the nominations for the 2023 Grammy Awards were announced. Unsurprisingly, Beyoncé leads the charge with nine nominations for her dance-rooted album Renaissance, and awaits her blockbuster showdown against Adele’s 30 and eight other nominees for the coveted album of the year award. Other notable names in the R&B and hip-hop space that enjoyed a career day on the nominations front alongside the venerable megastar include Kendrick Lamar, Mary J. Blige, and DJ Khaled. After releasing his first album in five years with Mr. Morale and The Big Steppers, Kendrick Lamar hopes to increase his win tally next January via his eight nominations. Mary J Blige, who delivered her riveting album Good Morning Gorgeous last ...
Drake & 21 Savage Deliver Fake ‘SNL’ Performance of ‘On BS’: Watch
As Steve Lacy took the real SNL stage, Drake shared a performance with 21 Savage on what looked to be a replica of an SNL stage via Instagram Saturday night (Nov. 5). Drake and 21 Savage, who just dropped the joint project Her Loss, were introduced by actor Michael B. Jordan in the clip. “Ladies and gentlemen,” Jordan said, “presenting your musical guest for the evening: Drake and 21 Savage performing a song off of one of the most relatable albums of all time, Her Loss.” Their performance ended with an outro sounding like a live television studio audience cheering for the duo. The SNL spoof is the latest stunt in a series of phoney but fascinating Her Loss promo spots. It follows a rollout that’s included a fake Vogue magazine, a Tiny Desk Concert teaser that won’t...
Eminem Celebrates Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction: “I’m Probably Not Supposed to Be Here”
Eminem celebrated his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday by performing a six-song set that featured surprise appearances from Steven Tyler and Ed Sheeran. Marshall Mathers ran through hits like “My Name Is,” “Rap God,” “Forever,” and “Not Afraid.” He also teamed up with Aerosmith’s Tyler on “Sing for the Moment” and Sheeran on “Stan.” Eminem was introduced by his mentor, Dr. Dre, who spoke of the Detroit rapper’s “undeniable gift.” “His raw, dark, and humorous lyrics coupled with an impeccable cadence stood out from anything I had ever heard before, and he was hungry,” Dr. Dre said of Eminem. “Both of us were. We were two artists in do-or-die situations: he was desperate to find a way to feed his family and I was searching for something to sink my teeth into creative...
Nandi Bushell Covers Eminem’s “Rap God”: Watch
It’s been a minute since Nandi Bushell has shared one of her viral drum covers, but she resumed the practice this weekend by playing along to Eminem’s “Rap God.” Watch the video below. In the video’s caption, Bushell said she’s been “working on my speed and consistency,” so it makes sense that she chose Eminem’s rapid fire 2013 track. As always, the kid drummer handles the song with ease and confidence, twirling and throwing one drum stick while playing the other and never losing her footing on the kick drum. Elsewhere in her caption, she shouted out HAL, the drummer for the Japanese rock band CVLTE who has also enjoyed some Internet fame in recent years. Beyond performing songs by Rush and John Coltrane, Bushell has moved beyond simple covers and has begun writing her first album of origi...
Megan Thee Stallion Responds to Drake’s Apparent Diss Over Tory Lanez Shooting
Megan Thee Stallion heard Drake’s line about a “stallion” lying about “getting shots” — a thinly-veiled reference to the 2020 incident in which Tory Lanez was charged with allegedly shooting her — loud and clear. Without naming names, she tore into the hip-hop community as a whole for continuing to “dog pile on a black woman when she say one of y’all homeboys abused her.” “This bitch lie ’bout getting shots, but she still a stallion,” Drake raps on “Circo Loco,” a track from Drake’s collaborative album with 21 Savage. “She don’t even get the joke, but she still smiling.” “I know I’m very popular but y’all gotta stop attaching weak ass conspiracy theories in bars to my name lol,” Megan wrote in response. “N****s nor hoes EVER address me or @ me WITH a fact or receipts. I AM C...
Rap Song of the Week: BROCKHAMPTON Celebrate the End on “Big Pussy”
Rap Song of the Week breaks down all the hip-hop tracks you need to hear every Friday. Check out the full playlist here. Today, BROCKHAMPTON return with their new single, “Big Pussy.” BROCKHAMPTON have announced their final album, The Family, and on lead single “Big Pussy,” Kevin Abstract builds a funeral pyre and sets the band on fire. The track begins with a sample containing the words, “Fuck you,” and while it doesn’t appear to be directed at anyone in particular, if there were any doubt about Kevin’s feelings, he opens his first verse the same way: “Fuck you to anyone that claim that they got me/ When my heart was low, it turn to kami-kami-kamikaze.” With those words ringing in your ear, “Big Pussy” starts to feel like a final suicide mission. It’s one of the few BROCKHA...
Diddy Makes a Big Move Into Cannabis Game With $185 Million Purchase of Major Pot Players
Sean “P. Diddy” Combs never does anything halfway. On Friday (Nov. 4) the music/fashion/sprits/media mogul announced that he plans to make a major investment in the legal marijuana game with a $185 million deal to buy licensed weed operations in three states. If approved, the deal would create the nation’s largest Black-owned and licensed cannabis company, a platform Diddy said he wants to use to increase Black participation in the field. “It’s diabolical,” Combs, 53, told the Wall Street Journal about his desire to get into the pot business to help address long-running inequities that have seen Black people disproportionately arrested and jailed for marijuana crimes even as they make up a “tiny” percentage of the market for legal weed. “How do you lock up communities of people, break down...
BROCKHAMPTON Drop Fiery New Single “Big Pussy”: Stream
BROCKHAMPTON are dropping their purported final album in a few weeks, and today they’ve unleashed the new single “Big Pussy,” which solely features vocals from the group’s leader Kevin Abstract. The beat from bearface and Nick Velez opens with a jazz sample before kicking into gear with a rumbling bassline and hard-hitting drums. Abstract seems to have a lot to get off his chest on the track, going “kamikaze” about topics like owning his masters, being a “faggot n***a out of Houston,” and setting off moshpits at shows. Mostly though, “Big Pussy” is about BROCKHAMPTON as a group: “I don’t roll solo, need the crew to maneuver/ Through the loose and dark and stupid kinda movements.” Watch the Harrison Fisherman-directed music video for “Big Pussy” below. In January, BROCKHAMPTON announced the...
