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When artists set out to promote a new album, their publicists often encourage them to have “a story.” Mark Oliver Everett, otherwise known as E, frontman and chief songwriter of the band EELS, has a lollapalooza of a tale. His father, Hugh Everett III, developed the Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. Today, his theory powers the Marvel multiverse and countless other movies, TV shows and novels about parallel worlds, but Everett wasn’t recognized for his work until late in his brief life. He died of a massive heart attack in 1982.
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E, who was 19 then, discovered his father’s body, and, a decade later, endured the deaths of his sister, who committed suicide, and his mother, from cancer. Left without a family, he chronicled his experiences in EELS’ 1998 masterpiece, Electro-Shock Blues, and his inspirational and funny 2008 autobiography, Things the Grandchildren Should Know.
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In 2017, the Everett bloodline rebooted when E became a father at the age of 54. But the story does not end there. Shortly after the band’s post-pandemic Lockdown Hurricane tour, his CT scan revealed an aortic aneurysm, and E underwent open-heart surgery to have it repaired.
The health scare did not curb his creativity. On June 7, EELs released its 15th studio album since forming in 1996 (not counting his two solo records in 1992 and ’93). “After 25 or 30 years, whatever it’s been, our time has finally come. It’s finally EELS time,” he says — which, if you put an exclamation point at the end, is the album’s title.
EELS TIME!
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After a spate of hard-rocking songs, EELS TIME! finds E, now 61, in a contemplative and grateful mindset accentuated with a poppier sound. Below, E discusses the album’s collaborative efforts with All-American Rejects frontman Tyson Ritter, the poignant music video for “Time,” which depicts three generations of the Everett family, and much more.
You’ve experienced quite a lot over the last few years: fatherhood, divorce, open-heart surgery.
It’s always something right? I got used to that a long time ago.
You’ve had quite a lot of experience with mortality. How is dealing with your mortality different from dealing with the deaths of loved ones?
Well, the one thing I don’t have any experience in is hospital experience. I’ve never been in a hospital before, which was a great run. I’m thankful for that. I was in the hospital for a week, so that’s a big deal. It turned out great. I’m totally good as new now.
It’s great that you were staying on top of your health.
It’s the one good thing that came out of my father having a heart attack and dying at 51. Doctors would tell me heart stuff can be very hereditary so keep an eye on stuff. Get scans. Whatever the best scan is technology-wise, get that. It was a CT chest scan that discovered the problem. [My condition] was not related to what happened to my father. It’s a different thing, but it’s still a heart related-thing and it’s only because of his early death that I found out about it.
How did working with Tyson Ritter change your creative process? Did you collaborate in the same room or were you throwing stuff back and forth via email?
It’s funny because we found out we were neighbors and literally live three blocks away from each other. But we did it all remotely. It was still the pandemic and I have a little kid in school. I didn’t want to be the asshole that shuts down his school by getting Covid.
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You also feature on indie-pop artist meija’s “Possum.” How did that come about?
The thing with Tyson started with me singing on a song he did, too. And then the meija thing happened. That just came out of the blue. A mutual friend contacted me and said, “Hey, this guy would really like to have you on a song.” He sent me the song, and I was like, “Oh, this is cool. Yeah, I’ll do it.” I even went so far as to be in the video.
“If I’m Gonna Go Anywhere” is one of my favorite songs on the album. It has a Bobby Gillespie/Primal Scream vibe,
That one is all credit to Tyson, by the way. That’s his musical doing. I’m singing and writing lyrics mostly on that.
In the chorus, you sing that if you’re going anywhere, you’re going “there.” Where is “there”?
There is simply if you have a choice to make, why not make the nice choice. Why not choose love.
“Sweet Smile” is like that, too.
That’s exactly what “Sweet Smile” is about. Sometimes I’ll be walking down the sidewalk and I’ll realize I’m not scowling but I’m not smiling. I’ll think smile. And I’ll smile and it’s weird. It’s like, everything feels better and easier when you smile. With that song, I wanted to to write my version of [The Seekers] “Georgy Girl.” Just a nice, innocent song about walking down the street.
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“We Won’t See Her Like Again” seems to be about someone you lost. I realize not every song is autobiographical, but I’m wondering if you wrote that about your mother or sister, who you lost at a young age.
I wrote that one with Chet from the EELS, and I don’t feel like it was specifically about anybody at the time. A lot of the songs that I’ve done over the years I can’t access if there is a personal experience that I’m writing about. And years later, I’ll look back and go, “Oh, that’s what I was writing about.” I think it’s a coping mechanism that helps me write unfiltered — to not let myself know that I’m disclosing all these things about myself in some cases.
When I hear “I Can’t Believe It’s True,” I’m thinking could E have found love?
Yeah, I’m hoping that song will be one that people will play at their weddings. We’ve had songs go on to become really popular that we never would have thought of as a single at the time they were released. They take on this big life because of being played at weddings or whatever. Really, the inspiration in the back of my mind was thinking about my kid. So, maybe it can be played at weddings and births.
Has your son Archie formed his own band yet?
No, I got him a little drum set because he’s at the exact age that I was when I started playing drums. And I didn’t want to push it on him. He likes to bang around on everything, but he has not shown anywhere near the kind of interest I had in it so far. But that’s fine.
It’s there if he decides he’s into it, but also I think I should probably get him an instrument that would make [him] more money.
In the letter you published on the EELS website a few days ago, you wrote that you almost lost your mind during the first part of the Lockdown Hurricane show. What was overwhelming you?
First of all, I was super jetlagged. Going to Europe overnight; that always makes me crazy. We hadn’t played in almost four years or something because of the pandemic. You might remember the pandemic. So, we finally got out there to play, and it was an extreme culture shock for me because it was the double whammy of being a new father — a new divorced father — during those years of lockdown. I got really used to nobody caring about me. Do you know what I mean? When you’re a father, you’re the last person in the family anyone gives a shit about. Then suddenly, from the first show of the first tour in almost four years, it was like everybody super cared about me and it really fucked with my head. I didn’t know how to process it, and I didn’t know how to act. I don’t get stage fright normally. I’m usually very comfortable being on stage, but I started to have a panic attack right before the first show. For the first week, I was just insane. Then I got my bearings, and it was, “Okay, it’s coming back to me now. I know how to do this.” I’m sure a lot of people have gone through situations like that from being in such an extreme situation during the lockdown years and then being thrown out. Then it was great. It was like, “Oh, people. This is fun.”
Will you be touring behind this album?
I don’t know when we’re going on tour yet. The last one took a lot out of me. It was a good one, and we worked really hard. But since we just went, it might be too soon to go right now. Maybe we’ll go in late summer or the fall. We don’t know yet.
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“Song for You Know Who” is about not repeating the missteps of the past and forgiveness. Is that directed at yourself or someone else?
I’ll never tell. My favorite thing about that song is going to become my least favorite thing about it, too, which is that everyone I know is going to suspect it’s about them. I couldn’t resist calling it that because I just thought, it’s going to drive everybody crazy around me. But I’ll never tell.
The video for “Time” is very poignant and emotional to watch. And having read your book, understanding the sense that you had no family and to see now you do have family, it’s really touching. Did that idea just come to you or was it something that you wanted to do for a long time?
When I wrote and recorded the song I didn’t have the video concept in my mind. It wasn’t until later – I can’t remember what sparked I, but I just thought, “Oh, wait a minute. There’s three verses. We can do photos of my dad in the first verse.” It fits the theme of each verse.
Then the second one where it says, “I’m riding on the train, I’m ready to stop anywhere and see what’s out there,” that’s like young me going into teenage me and EELS me. Then the last verse is about how I want to be here and I don’t want to ever leave because I like being close to the ones I love, and that’s my son.
The beard looks very strong in the “Time” video
That was filmed the day after I came home from our tour, and I couldn’t wait to get rid of the beard. That was my pandemic beard, and I was like, “Oh, we’re finally going on tour. I’ll save it for that. It’ll look cool onstage or whatever.” Then I couldn’t wait to get rid of it by the end of the tour because a beard like that is a lot of maintenance and a lot of work. So I called the director of the video and said, “I’m going to get rid of the beard.” He was like, “No, just keep it for one day after the tour and we’ll shoot it then.” The next day I trimmed it down extensively.
Okay, so you’re not in Fidel Castro territory anymore.
At the moment, no. But it can always come back. It comes back overnight if I want it to. I’ve got a lot of testosterone.
In 1971, a few hundred young people from around the world stood on a verdant hilltop in Italy and sang about their collective desire to “buy the world a Coke.” This now iconic Coca-Cola commercial became a hallmark moment in advertising history and a bona fide hit: A version of “I’d Like To Teach the World To Sing (In Perfect Harmony)” by British pop group The New Seekers reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972.
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Half a century later, Coca-Cola has its eyes on the charts again, but with a very different strategy: through music created by superstar artists in collaboration with Coke itself; promoted and distributed by those artists’ labels; and supported by label partner Universal Music Group (UMG), which will assist with promotional and playlist strategy. On a recent day in Seoul, for instance, K-pop sensation NewJeans recorded R&B-infused pop track “How Sweet,” sung in English and Korean, which arrived May 24 as both the lead 2024 Coke Studio song and the title track to the act’s latest mini-album.
The girl group is just one example of the global stars Coke has signed to its roster. Colombian phenomenon Karol G is working with the brand, and internationally in-demand electronic producer Peggy Gou has created a club banger with, as Coke puts it, a “timeless beat” that “will cross borders and genres.” Coke will roll out two more original songs in 2024, with all three 2024 Coke Studio artists (plus another two still to be announced) taking part in Coke Studio-sponsored music festival experiences and yet-to-be-revealed live performances. Coke Studio is also the first client of AUX, Spotify’s in-house music advisory agency for brands.
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If the songs take off, Coke Studio will, as it has historically, boost visibility and streaming royalties for the artists involved, as well as further expand Coke’s own customer base and worldwide soda sales. Coke Studio is Coca-Cola’s biggest global music program of 2024, with the songs from each involved artist set to be used in the brand’s marketing in more than 150 countries — roughly 75% of the world.
This new phase of Coke Studio arrives at a moment when Coca-Cola is eager to expand its dominance of the carbonated soft-drink industry, a realm in which it has had “over 50% market share on a global basis for a very long time,” says Filippo Falorni, director and equity research analyst at Citi, where he tracks the beverage sector. The company reported $45.8 billion in net revenue for 2023 and a 3% net revenue growth in first-quarter 2024. Year to date (and as of press time), its stock price has risen from $59.82 to $62.
At the same time, its biggest rival, PepsiCo, is in the midst of cost-saving initiatives as it attempts to increase profit margins on the beverage side of its business (the company also owns Frito-Lay), which Falorni says have dipped in recent years. “Pepsi went through a period where they were almost deemphasizing the carbonated soft-drink business because they were focusing on [healthier] brands,” he says, “and that ultimately hurt the brand.”
As part of its belt-tightening, PepsiCo ended its contract as Super Bowl halftime show sponsor in 2022; its remaining music initiatives include its sponsorship of the National Battle of the Bands competition for marching bands from historically Black colleges and universities and its partnership with Mary J. Blige for May’s three-day Strength of a Woman Festival and Summit in New York. (Asked how Coke’s efforts compare with its direct competitors, Josh Burke, global head of music and culture marketing at the Coca-Cola Company, demurs: “We prefer to focus on what we’re doing versus on what our competitors are doing.”)
As Falorni explains, the respective companies’ business models directly influence their marketing strategies. While PepsiCo owns the majority of the bottling companies that produce Pepsi beverages, Coca-Cola sells the syrup that Coke products are made from to a global network of franchised bottlers, allowing Coca-Cola to “leave the execution of the lower-margin business to their bottlers and focus on marketing, which is what they’re best at,” Falorni says, citing campaigns throughout the company’s history that have framed its products as “refreshing, enjoyable and shareable” and created “strong brand equity.”
While it’s difficult to quantify the direct impact of Coca-Cola’s music-related marketing on sales (a representative for Coca-Cola did not respond to questions on the matter), Falorni says music-driven projects like Coke Studio “make the brand very relevant to consumers” — particularly young ones whom, he notes, soda brands in general are having a harder time reaching, given that the demographic is more health-conscious than previous generations. But the internationally popular, of-the-moment artists creating the music that powers Coke Studio — with the brand’s spirit of uplifting inclusivity in mind — is helping to attract that younger demo to Coca-Cola. This formula differentiates the initiative from how “other brands or even our competitors have been approaching music,” Burke says.
“When brands work with music, it’s typically very traditional,” he continues. “You license a song for a commercial or might have an artist smile and take a picture for Instagram. That’s effective and is something we do in our normal marketing, but when we’re working with music, we’re looking at our role in being authentic and connected to output and storytelling that’s going to contribute back to the music community versus just renting from the music industry. It’s very important for us that we’re adding value back into the ecosystem of music and fandom versus just borrowing from it.”
Coke Studio began in Brazil in 2007 as a musical variety show of the same name featuring performances by local artists. While it didn’t produce strong results in its first year, its 2008 launch in Pakistan became a phenomenon. There, the project took the form of a TV show called Coke Studio. Coca-Cola’s creative team recognized cultural tensions between younger and older Pakistanis and based their concept on bridging generations. “Whenever there’s such a tension, we try to find vehicles to tell a point of view [on it] from the brand perspective,” Coca-Cola global vp of creative Islam ElDessouky says. “Coca-Cola has always been a connector. We’re always inclusive and trying to bring people together.”
Coca-Cola’s team decided to center its Pakistan initiative on music, a format that ElDessouky says the team predicted would make “the point of view of the brand extremely evident.” Coke Studio Pakistan went to market as a TV musical variety show featuring Pakistani talents performing music in traditional regional styles — qawwali, ghazal, bhangra — along with hip-hop, rock and pop. Now in its 15th season there, Coke Studio has produced over 260 original songs in Pakistan and has over 5 billion streams on its YouTube channel alone. “Pasoori,” the 2022 Coke Studio collaboration from Pakistani American singer Ali Sethi and Pakistani vocalist Shae Gill, is now Spotify’s most streamed Pakistani song of all time, and in 2021, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs acknowledged Coke Studio for its “subtle forces of cultural diplomacy.”
Following its success in Pakistan, Coke Studio expanded to India in 2011, African territories in 2013, the Philippines in 2017 and Bangladesh in 2022. These projects were also filmed as variety shows featuring local artists performing traditional and original music. In 2022, Coke Studio expanded from these regional-market initiatives into a global program.
This push was marked by a project called “The Conductor,” a song and music video featuring seven rising acts, including Nigerian star Tems and American R&B artist Ari Lennox, performing a collaborative cover of Queen’s 1986 hit “A Kind of Magic.” Each artist recorded their own version of the song; those were then all combined — along with a live orchestra and a Freddie Mercury sample — into a two-minute video in which all seven artists performed parts of the song in their respective styles. The clip has 14 million YouTube views, and its top comment serves as proof of concept: “When the ads are so good you actually search for them.”
In 2023, Coke Studio signed 16 acts from around the world — Jon Batiste, Sam Smith and Imagine Dragons among them — to the program, pairing acts that lived far from one another for original collaborations. One such duo was Colombian singer-songwriter Camilo and Indian artist Diljit Dosanjh. Sung in Spanish and Punjabi, their song, “Palpita,” has 19.5 million global on-demand streams, according to Luminate.
Illustration by Matt Chase
Coca-Cola measures this music’s success by how it resonates with fans and through data on streaming and fan engagement, particularly in countries where the artist in question didn’t previously have a huge presence. “Coke Studio has been instrumental in helping us tap into new languages and cultures, particularly with our recent collaboration with Camilo,” says Dosanjh’s business manager, Sonali Singh. “This partnership has opened the doors to new markets that would have otherwise taken longer to reach.” Singh says Dosanjh’s three Coke Studio collaborations over the last 10 years have helped him ascend to playing arenas and stadiums in North America and making his Coachella debut last year.
As the music industry at large now contemplates how to unlock the market power of superfans and fan armies, Coke Studio’s latest iteration is focused on exactly that — “especially given that Gen Z acts are more global and connected than previous generations,” ElDessouky says.
For Coke Studio, the goal is to tap into the attention (and spending power) of each artist’s fan base by giving them new music associated with Coke, a strategy ElDessouky calls a “value exchange that will result in loyalty and love associated with Coca-Cola.” Curating this latest group of artists “wasn’t necessarily about how many Instagram followers they have or how many monthly listeners they have on Spotify,” Burke says. “It was [finding] artists that have a high engagement and special connection with their fans” — particularly a “certain type of warmth or care.”
While the Coca-Cola team chose regional-market Coke Studio artists by first listening to their music without knowing who they were (to help identify “that ‘it’ factor,” Burke says), getting artists to sign on for this latest season was easy and a matter of simply reaching out. Burke says that while many artist teams inquire about involvement, this year, the team knew who it wanted to involve and sent the invites.
It also deliberately chose artists with “a footprint across the world,” ElDessouky says — such as K-pop act NewJeans; Berlin-based Gou, who represents both her native South Korea and the European electronic scene; and Karol G, the world’s biggest female Latin artist. (The pair of forthcoming artist announcements will expand the footprint of Coke Studio’s 2024 season to the United States and Africa.)
ElDessouky says the biggest incentive Coke Studio can offer artists is, well, Coca-Cola: “The brand itself has this magic and charm.” Plus, Coke Studio delivers artists and their work to audiences in 150 countries, including places where the act may not yet have a strong presence.
While the team declines to share Coca-Cola’s overall investment in Coke Studio, ElDessouky says the 2024 budget is spread across departments and that its total number is “not extravagant, because we are very much a conscious company in how we spend our money. But it’s not nothing either, because everybody needs to be successful and make gains off their services.” Still, Burke emphasizes that Coke Studio “is not just a paycheck or advertising partner” for artists. “We want to be looked at as a partner that can actually help propel the artist’s career.”
After the 2024 deals were signed, the artists got to work in their own studios. (Coke Studio doesn’t have physical locations.) Burke says while there’s minimal back-and-forth in terms of song approval, the brief is for artists to make music that ticks Coke Studio’s boxes — uplifting, inclusive and without explicit content — while staying true to their respective styles. “Peggy Gou, for example, made a banger,” Burke says. “She made a song that no matter where you are in the world or what time of day it is, you’re going to want to dance.”
Given this remit, Coca-Cola also encourages artists to be collaborative. For instance, Gou came up with ideas on how to tease her music and how she wants to appear on social media. “We love that,” ElDessouky says. “If we were able to just do things on our own as a brand, why would we collaborate with artists?”
Corporations and musicians partner frequently; still, Coca-Cola’s model of developing and underwriting music by internationally famous names is unique. While Pepsi has had stars like Michael Jackson, Ray Charles, Madonna and Britney Spears appear in commercials over the years, all of these ads used either preexisting music from an artist’s catalog or original songs directly referencing the brand — an approach Coca-Cola also tried in 2021 when it had Tyler, The Creator write and perform “Tell Me How” for a campaign.
But while any company can “write a check and get an artist to do something,” Burke says, Coke Studio has more closely resembled a record label. The music is released through UMG, where Burke previously was vp of marketing and enterprise partnerships at the label’s London office. (Like him, several members of the Coke Studio creative team have a music industry background.)
While roughly 50% of the artists who have participated in Coke Studio are UMG acts, being signed to the label isn’t a requirement. (Karol G is signed to Interscope Records/UMG, while NewJeans and Gou are signed to ADOR and XL Recordings, respectively.) Coke Studio has retained an ownership share of the more than 40 songs made for its previous global initiatives but will not own the rights to or participate in any royalties from the music made for this year’s project.
Released “as if it was any other single from these artists,” Burke says, music created through the initiative appears on Coke Studio’s channels along with the artists’ own platforms. The partnership also includes social media activations and performances. The Coke Studio program is developed in collaboration with the marketing teams in the company’s many global markets, with content distributed for local use — like billboards in Japan featuring Karol G.
The Coke Studio x Spotify studio space in the latter’s Los Angeles office offers emerging talent access to equipment and facilities.
Courtesy of the Coca-Cola Company
Coke Studio also partnered with Spotify, which has a dedicated recording studio in its Los Angeles office for emerging artists curated in partnership with Spotify and not limited to Coke Studio-affiliated acts. Spotify, through AUX, will produce live events in partnership with Coke Studio for NewJeans, Karol G, Gou and the two artists yet to be revealed upon the release of their songs. Coke Studio has activations at more than 60 international music festivals including Belgium’s Tomorrowland and Coachella in the United States (where, this year, attendees could digitally insert themselves into music videos — and also just hang out in the air-conditioning).
Coca-Cola will hold the 14th annual edition of its own festival, the Coca-Cola Music Experience, in September in Madrid. (A Coke representative says the company can’t confirm if 2024 Coke Studio artists will appear.) Fan participation also occurs through bottles of Coca-Cola, with QR codes on the packaging unlocking access to concert tickets, music, videos and more.
As the industry increasingly focuses on “glocalization,” which considers strategy from both local and global perspectives, Coke Studio is a way for artists with specific points of view to leverage the brand’s ubiquity in a manner that transcends traditional advertising and is arguably more authentic then just singing a jingle. A Coca-Cola representative says the company sells over 1 billion servings of Coca-Cola a day, offering unprecedented crossover potential for the artists involved.
For Coca-Cola, the possibility of reaching the fans of its chosen artists provides this same opportunity. But at a time when it’s harder than ever to cut through the noise, Coke will face plenty of competition trying to bubble its new tunes up the charts.
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This story will appear in the June 1, 2024, issue of Billboard.
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Some phrases often heard when discussing Sean “Diddy” Combs lately include “How did he get away with it?” or “No one said anything?” In a new exposé from Rolling Stone, some of those questions are answered as the magazine took an in-depth look at the sordid behavior that the multihyphenate mogul has seemingly been practicing all along during his rise as a Hip-Hop icon.
It’s not hyperbole that Diddy is now officially disgraced after CNN revealed video footage of the Bad Boy Records founder brutally beating his then girlfriend, singer Cassie Ventura, in a hotel lobby back in 2016. By now you’ve probably heard the story—Cassie filed a lawsuit against Diddy accusing him of rape and sex trafficking, amongst other offenses, that he quickly settled the next day.
Cassie’s bravery in coming forward with her truth opened the door for more women, and a man, to come forward with lawsuits accusing Combs of a myriad of heinous charges that include sexual assault, trafficking and even illegal firearms. Save for the faux-apology he delivered after the hotel footage’s release, Diddy has been adamant that all the other acclaims are essentially money grabs and that he is the actual victim.
Well, Rolling Stone sorted through all the receipts in the aforementioned lawsuits and also reached out to former Bad Boy employees, artists, friends and associates to paint a picture of who they describe as an “abusive, menacing figure.” The 6-month investigation led to the painting of a figure who has basically been a problem since his school days at Howard University when he was the party promoter and student who also finessed his way into an internship at Uptown Records, and eventually on to Hip-Hop stardom. During that ascent, there have allegedly been dozens of people traumatized by his behavior.
To say that what Rolling Stone’s investigative report is damning would be an understatement. Here are some of the wildest revelations and allegations in the story.
1. Her Too
Gina Huynh is an ex-girlfriend of Diddy who accused him of abuse while speaking to gossip blogger Tasha K (yes, the same one who owes Cardi B money) back in 2019. However, her story didn’t get much traction.
Also worth noting, a personal chef who sued Diddy claims she walked in on him and Huynh engaging in “sexual activity.” The chef, Cindy Rueda, sued Diddy for sexual harassment, and it was settled out of court.
2. No Way
Former Bad Boy President Kirk Burrow told Rolling Stone that after the mag approached Bad Boy about a Notorious B.I.G. cover after the rapper’s death, Diddy instead pushed for his own cover to help promote his own debut album, No Way Out. Bruh.
“I was telling Sean, ‘Let’s make it Biggie. You still have a chance [for a cover in the future],’” Burrowes recalls. “He’s like ‘No, he’s dead. I’m putting out [Combs’ debut album, No Way Out] in July. I need to be on the cover of Rolling Stone.’”
3. Not Kim
Source:Getty
Much has been said about Kim Porter being Diddy’s one true love. However, the late model who shared three children with Diddy was also allegedly physically abused by him as well. And it goes without saying that he was anything but faithful. She reportedly broke up with him when he had another child while she was pregnant with her twin girls.
4. Shakir Stewart was minding his business…
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Shakir Stewart was a decorated music executive who passed away in 2008 (he was Def Jam’s VP of A&R at the time). But back in 2000, he made the mistake of daring to be romantically involved with Kim Porter, which in turn enrage Mr. Combs.
Per Rolling Stone: In 2000, Porter’s fledgling courtship with late music executive Shakir Stewart enraged Combs. When the industry gathered for L.A. Reid’s wedding in Italy that summer, Combs went to Stewart’s room after the ceremony and allegedly broke a chair over Stewart’s head, Stewart’s mother and two of his close friends tell Rolling Stone. “He left him bleeding on a hotel floor in Italy,” Stewart’s mother, Portia, says. “He had to have stitches and then [Combs] threatened him … ‘I’m going to kill you’ … That’s when I said you need to get out of this business. This man is crazy.”
5. Hate Me Now
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Too often forgotten is how back in 1999, Diddy and his bodyguards barged into then Interscope Records executive Steve Stoute’s office laid hands and feet on him. Reportedly, Diddy was upset with the edit of Nas’ “Hate Me Now” video that was sent to MTV. They settled out of court for about $500K (at minimum), and are still friends. But yeah, that happened.
6. Tupac Was Cool On Puff
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Apparently Tupac’s “I Get Around” was studied by Bad Boy Records execs in how to make a commercial Hip-Hop hit. Diddy tried to befriend Pac, but while the latter rapper was cool, for a time, with the Notorious B.I.G., he considered Puff a “corny” executive according to photographer and Biggie’s homie Monqiue Bunn.
7. P. Satan?
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Andre Harrell was Diddy’s mentor, but the student became terror in the office at Uptown Records. So much so that the other execs reportedly referred to him as “Satan” behind his back. Eventually, Harrell fired him.
8. HU Diddy
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Part of Diddy’s origin story is the couple of years he spent at HBCU Howard University as an undergrad where he gained a rep for throwing incredible parties. Unfortunately, Rolling Stone tracked down witnesses who said he beat a girlfriend on campus with a belt in a fit of rage.
“Puff is out here acting crazy. He’s beating her,” the fellow students said, according to the classmate.”
9. Bad Boy x BMF
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The Black Mafia Family was infamous in the streets. But BMF allegedly planting see money for Bad Boy Records wasn’t on our bing card. A stray line from a portion about the Feds raiding Diddy’s homes in Miami and Los Angeles reads: “Agents may also examine Combs’ alleged ties to the infamous Black Mafia Family cartel after the Detroit Jane Doe alleged in her suit that the group “is rumored to have seeded Bad Boy.” (No criminal charges have been announced as of publication.)”
In the opening chapters of Darius Rucker’s new memoir, Life’s Too Short, out earlier this week via Dey Street Books, the three-time-Grammy-winning lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish and successful country solo artist details a near-death experience in the late 1990s, when actor Woody Harrelson saved him from drowning near Harrelson’s home in Hawaii.
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“I hear Woody from Cheers, simple, direct, a little goofy,” Rucker writes in his book, recalling the actor saying, “’Die? S–t. Not on my watch.’” (They later traveled to Willie Nelson’s Hawaii home to play golf with Nelson and Kris Kristofferson).
Elsewhere in the first pages of the book, he recounts the time a roadie who had spent time working with well-known rock bands took a look at what Rucker describes as “the mountain range of the snowy-peaked white powder we’d laid out on the table in front of us,” with the roadie saying, “I’ve been around a lot of bands and nobody comes close to you guys, not close.’”
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From stories of celebrity pals to tales of intense drug use, Rucker’s memoir makes it clear that the South Carolina native with the distinct, honeyed voice is holding nothing back.
“I wanted to open the book that way to break the ice, to let people know this was going to be a book about real s–t that happened in my life,’” Rucker tells Billboard.
Rucker opens up about his life story, as the youngest of five children being raised by a single mother in Charleston, South Carolina. He describes growing up in a working-class household and first realizing his vocal gift at age six, while performing Al Green songs in his living room for his mother and her friends.
In 1986, while attending the University of South Carolina, Rucker teamed with Mark Bryan, Brantley Smith and Dean Felber, forming the band Hootie & the Blowfish (Smith soon left the group and was replaced by Jim “Soni” Sonefeld). They garnered a following as a regional act, performing in dive bars and frat houses. The band’s 1993 homespun EP, Kootchypop, included “Hold My Hand” and “Only Wanna Be With You” — songs that would later be included on the group’s Atlantic Records major label debut, 1994’s Cracked Rear View.
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That debut LP went on to become one of the defining albums of the 1990s, being certified 21 times platinum by the RIAA and spawning three Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hits (“Only Wanna Be With You,” “Hold My Hand” and ‘Let Her Cry”) in less than a year. The band’s acoustic-driven, pop-laced songs upended the melancholy grunge rock sound that had dominated music culture in the early-mid 1990s, but also drew intense vitriol from critics.
Still, the band found champions within the industry from day one — including David Crosby, who lent background vocals to “Hold My Hand.”
“We’re this little pop-rock band from South Carolina and as soon as we got to Los Angeles to write a record, a friend of our A&R guy said, ‘I want to get David Crosby to sing on the record,’” Rucker recalls of the recording. “I was like, ‘Yeah, right. Nobody knows who the hell we are.’ But sure enough, one day she walked in with David Crosby and he was awesome. He was exactly what we needed at the time. It was just great to be with him and when he started singing on the record, it was just amazing.”
Rucker says in writing Life’s Too Short with author Alan Eisenstock, he aimed for the book to seem like he was sitting down with the reader at a favorite bar, swapping stories over a few drinks. He began working on the book nearly two years ago, though he says various companies had brought up the idea to him for years.
“I always said I wouldn’t do it until my kids were old enough to read it,” Rucker says, referring to his three adult children. “If I was going to do it, I was going to tell the truth, so I felt I’d know when it was time.”
Rucker’s memoir pulls back the curtain on a life that has been filled with lofty career highs, but also relational hardships. He explores his complex relationship with his older brother Ricky, as well as the impact of Ricky’s death after falling and hitting his head while intoxicated. Rucker also addresses his estranged relationship with his father, who was largely absent from Rucker’s life, and writes about the 1992 death of his mother Carolyn, who died of a heart attack before Hootie & the Blowfish ever made it to the big leagues. Carolyn is the namesake of Rucker’s 2023 country album Carolyn’s Boy.
“That was tough to take, because we were playing these s–tholes,” Rucker recalls. “I wish she’d gotten to see us play the bigger stuff, but I know she did. That was tough to write. Everything I put in there, it’s like, ‘Should I put it in or should I not?’ I wouldn’t say it was great to relive it again, but it was healthy to live it again and see it now that it was a long time ago. It was therapy and it was hard, but I’m glad I did.”
Throughout the book, Rucker traces his life’s story through the lens of 23 songs that pulled him in and left an indelible imprint over the years, punctuating the memories and milestones with songs including The Black Crowes’ “She Talks to Angels,” KISS’ “Detroit Rock City,” Al Green’s “For the Good Times” and Lady A’s “Need You Now.”
Rucker explores the swift rise of Hootie & the Blowfish, starting with their life-changing 1994 performance of “Hold My Hand” on The David Letterman Show (in 2015, the band bookended that experience by performing on one of the show’s final episodes, 21 years after their initial debut). He also describes the arc of the Hootie & the Blowfish members’ relationships with each other as the years passed and they matured into various stages of life, detailing the band’s hiatus in 2008 and their reunion in 2019 for the Group Therapy Tour, commemorating the 25th anniversary of Cracked Rear View.
“Mark [Bryan] and I had one moment, 39 years ago, and since then, there’s never been a bad argument,” Rucker recalls. “There’s never been a fight, never been any of that stuff. We just don’t do that. We have too much respect for each other, and that’s why we can not play together for five years, 15 years, and then get back together and play again. We have so much respect for each other.”
When Hootie & the Blowfish went on hiatus, Rucker used the time to pursue his lifelong love of country music. In the book, Rucker writes that he was well aware of the obstacles as a Black artist pursuing a career in country music — even with his pop star bona fides. “The country music world will never accept a Black country singer…happened exactly once, Charley Pride. He made it big…but that was 25 years ago. Sorry Darius, it can’t happen,” he wrote about the thinking at the time.
“People think I’m kidding, but I really didn’t expect any success,” he tells Billboard. “I just wanted to come here [to Nashville] and do a couple of records, even if I had to do it myself.”
He didn’t have to make the record by himself — his then-manager, Doc McGhee, landed Rucker a deal with one of the biggest country music labels, Capitol Records Nashville, led by then-chairman/CEO Mike Dungan. In the book, Rucker writes that Dungan called 13 “tastemakers” in Nashville, noting that all but one — producer/songwriter Frank Rogers — told him that the prospect of signing Rucker was unlikely to be a successful venture. Dungan signed Rucker anyway, while Rogers has been a mainstay writer-producer with Rucker since his 2008 country debut Learn to Live. Rogers also produced Rucker’s first single to country radio, “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It.”
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“To get Mike to believe in me and back me the way he did, and Capitol, it was a game-changer,” Rucker says. “Mike truly championed me when a lot of people were telling him it would never happen. Frank championed me. It’s very sweet to look back on that and know that a lot of people were saying ‘It’s never going to work’ — but here we are, 16 years later.”
When promoting “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It” to country radio, Rucker put in the work, too, spending six weeks on a radio tour, and personally visiting more than 100 stations.
It was during a radio station visit in Tampa, Florida in October 2008, that Rucker was told that “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It” became his first No. 1 country radio hit. With that, Rucker also became the first Black solo artist to earn a No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart since Charley Pride rose to the top spot with “Night Games” in 1983. The song spent two weeks at No. 1.
“It paid off. It worked. I remember I cried when I found out,” Rucker recalls.
Now, 16 years later, Rucker has earned nine Country Airplay No. 1s, including the three-week 2009 chart-topper “It Won’t Be Like This For Long.” His remake of Old Crow Medicine Show’s “Wagon Wheel” was certified Diamond by the RIAA and spent two weeks atop the Country Airplay chart in 2013.
For Rucker, one of the most defining moments of his country music career was when Brad Paisley invited him to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry on Oct. 2, 2012, and he was inducted two weeks later.
“I had played the Opry every chance I got for six or seven years,” Rucker recalls. “It was important to me and I loved it. But getting to be a member of the Opry — that’s really where I thought, ‘Okay, I’m in. I’m part of country music.’”
Given how music serves as a vessel guiding the chapters of the book, Rucker says he and his team considered recording a companion album, with Rucker performing the songs listed throughout the book, but that they ultimately decided against it. Still, he says, “I’ve thought about doing a covers record, just a whole bunch of songs that I love. That’s probably something I’ll do down the line.”
More than anything, Rucker hopes readers take away from his journey “that it’s a real story, and it’s a story of American triumph.”
Darius Rucker
Jim Wright
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It’s official; the Indiana Pacers are going to Cancun. The Boston Celtics swept them in the NBA Eastern Finals.
As reported by ESPN the Celtics have proven to be the best NBA team in the Eastern Conference. On Monday, May 27 they won their fourth straight game against the Indiana Pacers. While Andrew Nembhard and his squad fought hard they couldn’t maintain their 98-90 lead with under six minutes left in the fourth quarter. Boston’s clutch defense caused the Pacers to miss several shots and turnover the ball. The Celtics outscored Indiana 15-4 to close out the series.
Jaylen Brown lead his team with 29 points, three steals, six rebounds, two assists and one block. At the end of the game he was given the Larry Bird Trophy as the Eastern Conference MVP. He made it clear the honor came to him as a surprise. “I wasn’t expecting it at all” he said. “I don’t never win sh*t.” The Marietta, Georgia native went on salute the Pacers during their celebration. “And give credit to Indiana, they played us tough. I know people think that Indiana wasn’t a good team or whatever the case may be, but I thought they were as tough as anybody we played all season. They were physical, they were fast, they put a lot of pressure on us. So shout out to them, and respect to them.”
When asked about his second trip to the NBA Finals Jayson Tatum responded “it’s special.” He added “even though we’ve been there before, most of us have, you don’t take it for granted. We were excited.” The Dallas Mavericks currently lead the Minnesota Timberwolves 3-0 in the Western Conference Finals.
I was torn when snippets of Drake‘s new Sexyy Red feature started popping up on X (formerly Twitter) last night. This is the song he chooses to break his silence with? Was that really him rapping over “BBL Drizzy”? Nah, it couldn’t be. Not after Kendrick labeled him “the colonizer,” not after Kendrick spit those bars about the two rappers on “euphoria.” In fact, some thought he should distance himself from Sexyy. The block is still too hot, they’d say. But the more I thought about it and the more I listened to “U My Everything” once it dropped, the more I now think it was a smart move on his part.
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Why not be in on the joke? That’s a classic Drake move if you’ve followed his career. He’s never really been afraid to make fun of himself. He’s reposted memes of himself and poked fun at his background on SNL. Why not keep relevant while also continuing to show love to one of his favorite new artists? The collabs work both ways. There are times when I give Drake the Larry David stare when he rides certain waves, always remixing the hottest songs. But that’s his M.O., and he rocks with shorty, so why not come back on a song that’s directly in his wheelhouse — while still throwing subs and leaving the door open for more battling? This is rap music after all. Drake has no choice but to stand tall. And, not for nothing: This route is more interesting than waiting for Drake to come back with a song he hopes tops the Hot 100.
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We knew a Sexyy Red feature was coming sooner or later; the two have taken multiple pictures together, she was featured on “Rich Baby Daddy,” he’s appeared in the “Get It Sexyy” video, and they’ve been at the center of fan theories about their connection to gamma boss Larry Jackson. One person asked, “are you f–king Drake for features?” to which she sarcastically replied, “yes.”
And I’m gonna just say it: I like the song. I don’t know what to tell you, man. Sue me. “U My Everything” shows Sexyy Red at her most charming. The beat is soulful and so is her hook. This is the type of chorus you find yourself singing randomly throughout the day. I’m willing to bet the Drake stimmy check will get this high on the charts. There are too many factors at play. The St. Louis rapper is a hitmaker in her own right, with “Get It Sexyy” creeping into the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100. Then there’s the guy in Toronto who has made a home for himself on the charts. Why wouldn’t this song do numbers? It’s fire, and there was already conversation and lore around it just off the snippet.
nigga popped back out on a song with the same artist Kendrick mentioned in the diss track while using the “BBL Drizzy” beat lmao we never seen a bigger troll than Drake https://t.co/C1gbLQAaD0— A ✩ (@adryanashton) May 24, 2024
This is clearly a calculated move by the Toronto MC. He references the beef multiple times. First, he raps, “You know the timin’ we on when my n—as start lurkin’ and tyin’ they hoodies and s–t/ Soon as this sh—t get resolved, I’ll turn to librarian for you, I’m bookin’ that sh—t.” Then there’s the lines, “Maybe we go to Saint Lucia, I been there, so I’ll introduce you/ Or maybe you go to Saint Martin with me if these n—as take break and quit startin’ with me.”
But then, the beat switches to “BBL Drizzy” and your ears perk up. You think you can’t be hearing what you’re hearing. He then starts going in with a machine gun flow: “BBL Drizzy, they want a new body, they ask me for it/ The last one, Jung, he did it for free ’cause I sent over so many past ones for him.” (I Google’d “jung bbl” and what do you know? Dr. Calvin Jung — @drjungmoney on Instagram — popped up.)
Sometimes you just gotta sit back and laugh. Drake is a smart guy. You gotta love when a rapper leans into villainy like a pro wrestler. Drake is trying to pull a Hollywood Hogan, the beloved institution who turned heel. Can this s–t backfire? Of course it can, but I still applaud it.
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Iron Mike Tyson is returning to the ring, and pay-per-view won’t be needed since it’s going down on Netflix. The boxing icon will be squaring up with YouTuber turned boxer Jake Paul in July, but they held their first press conference on Monday, May 13 in Harlem to promote the fight.
Source: Sarah Stier / Getty Images for Netflix
Tyson (50-6, 44 KOs) and Jake “El Gallo de Dorado” Paul (9-1, 6 KOs) came face to face at The Apollo Theater in Harlem for a lighthearted press conference hosted by combat sports journalist Ariel Helwani. The two friends, who have been calling each other out for years, traded relatively tame shots, but Tyson was clear that once they enter that ring, they are not homies. “Once he’s in that ring, he has to fight like his life depends on it, because it will be,” said Iron Mike, who also drew laughs when he admitted he felt terrible and was “sore” from training.
With Mike pushing 60, Paul is no slouch, and is plenty confident. “I’m going to show the world that I can outbox Mike Tyson, prove everyone wrong, and show that I will be the one doing the killing,” said Paul.
Good luck with that.
Paul and Tyson are scheduled to go eight, two-minute round for their pro bout. The fight will be streaming live globally on Netflix on Saturday, July 20, 2024 from the home of the Dallas Cowboys, AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Also in attendance was the top tier “undercard” match up of super lightweight world champion Katie Taylor (23-1, 6 KOs) and Amanda “The Real Deal” Serrano (46-2-1, 30 KOs), the unified featherweight world champion. In this rematch, Taylor will be defending her undisputed title in a scheduled 10, two-minute rounds.
Check out photos from the event in the gallery.
1. Mike Tyson x Jake Paul Presser
Source:Getty Images for Netflix
Katie Taylor, Mike Tyson, Jake “El Gallo de Dorado” Paul, Amanda “The Real Deal” Serrano
2. Mike Tyson x Jake Paul Presser
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Katie Taylor, Amanda “The Real Deal” Serrano
3. Mike Tyson x Jake Paul Presser
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Mike Tyson, Jake “El Gallo de Dorado” Paul
4. Mike Tyson x Jake Paul Presser
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Mike Tyson
5. Mike Tyson x Jake Paul Presser
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Jake “El Gallo de Dorado” Paul
6. Mike Tyson x Jake Paul Presser
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Mike Tyson, Ariel Helwani, Jake “El Gallo de Dorado” Paul
7. Mike Tyson x Jake Paul Presser
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Jake “El Gallo de Dorado” Paul, Amanda “The Real Deal” Serrano
It takes just one star to become a household name, but a truly talented lineage to make for a powerful family legacy. Such is the case for many of music’s biggest names, who have not only passed down their talents to their kids, but invited their offspring into the studio to record collaborations before they’re […]
We just witnessed an unprecedented weekend in rap music, with five diss songs and a snippet keeping us away from our friends, our families, and (most importantly) our playoff games.
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Drake started things off on Friday night by dropping “Family Matters,” a 7:36-long collection of mini-songs accompanied by a video allegedly featuring the good kid, m.A.A.d city van being crushed — with Drake and his crew also apparently flashing both Pharrell’s (supposedly melted-down) jewelry and a new G-Unit spinner chain in the clip, because the Rap Game Sinister Six had him out here talkin’ like he’s 50. He also posted a snippet dissing Kenny and Rocky over the “Buried Alive Interlude” beat on his Instagram. Then, about a half hour later, Kendrick Lamar took things straight to hell (over creepy Alchemist production) on “Meet the Grahams.”
The next night, while we all tried to watch Anthony Edwards do his thing against the Nuggets with “Meet the Grahams” still marinating in our brains, the Compton rapper followed that diabolical entry in the feud with the DJ Mustard-assisted West Coast party anthem “Not Like Us.” We thought it may have been over after that, ‘cause Drizzy took a beat — but he got right back in the booth and responded with “The Heart Part 6” on Sunday night. As a rap fan I was excited, but as a rap journalist I was fighting the air like Tre in Boyz n the Hood. We’ve never experienced anything like this before.
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While we’ve seen artists go back and forth on wax throughout the years — there were the Roxanne Wars between Roxanne Shanté and U.T.F.O., MC Shan vs. KRS-One, Ice Cube vs N.W.A., Jay-Z vs. Nas, and Ja Rule vs. 50 Cent, to name just a handful of the most notable examples — they all mostly adhered to traditional album and single release schedules. What’s really made this battle different from previous ones is the speed at which two of the genre’s biggest and most important stars have responded to each other.
When this thing started, fans were getting antsy because Kendrick took over two weeks to respond to Drake’s “Push Ups.” Drake himself even got tired of waiting, following “Push Ups” with “Taylor Made Freestyle” a week later — to troll Lamar and try to peer-pressure him into finishing what he started with the verse heard ’round the world on “Like That.” This is something Drake himself has been through before: When Meek sent a tweet in 2015 about Drake allegedly using ghostwriters, the Canadian rapper responded with “Charged Up” on his Beats 1 OVO SOUND radio show about a week later. And when Meek didn’t respond to that, he dropped “Back to Back” on his head just a few days after and that was that. The Philly MC never fully recovered from that feud. An overlooked part of the Meek feud is that it set the social-media-era standard for how long rappers now have to respond to a diss record. Kendrick beat Drake at his own game.
Since Lamar released “Euphoria” about a week ago, he’s put out three records — including an immediately certified bop in “Not Like Us” — with speculation that there’s still more left in the chamber. Kendrick essentially told Drake and the rest of the rap world, “Don’t let me do it to you, dunny, because I’ll over do it.”
At first, there was a lot of talk about time limits and rappers being on the clock as the hip-hop community waited with bated breath for Kendrick to respond. Older fans, such as myself, wanted him to take his time. We were used to watching these things play out over months, if not years. But that’s the thing about the old days — they the old days. These are different times. I admit, even I wondered what was taking Kenny so long as the days went by before “euphoria” dropped out of thin air. Those weeks felt like an eternity. By contrast, Rick Ross wasted no time responding to the jabs directed at him in “Push Ups”: The Miami boss released “Champagne Moments” a couple of hours after the song “leaked” online. Nowadays, if you get dissed in a song, you better find a booth, open a laptop, and get to rapping ASAP. The mob will expect nothing less.
Speaking of the mob: Social media now plays a massive role in how these battles play out. With each release, Rap Twitter (and Instagram) was sent into a frenzy the likes of which we haven’t seen since the pre-COVID days. There have been many memorable moments on those godforsaken apps, but this past week was special. Jokes and analysis have been flying all over social media. Uma Thurman offered up her Kill Bill suit to Drake. Rick Ross was updating us between every diss, with an X user comparing him to a YouTube commercial. Diss records were being played during professional sporting events. The NBA on TNT crew played some during NBA Playoff broadcasts. “Not Like Us” was played as walk-up music at a Dodgers game. And Stephen A. Smith signed off First Take on Monday morning by telling them both to stop because it’s getting too personal.
No other genre has this power.
The more you listen to “The Heart Part 6,” the more Drake sounds defeated. He mentions his war jacket, rapping, “I am a war general, seasoned in preparation/ My jacket is covered in medals, honor and decoration” and ends the track with a rant saying Lamar would be a more worthy adversary if this whole thing were about facts, which in truth, rap beef has never really been about. If “Not Like Us” was “Ether” 2.0, then “The Heart Part 6” is essentially “Blueprint 3.” By the time the latter came around, Jay had already lost the battle to Nas — but they were still fighting the war, as the two continued to sub each other on various songs until they squashed the beef on stage in 2005 during Jay’s “I Declare War” tour.
It’s still too early for this beef to get squashed, and maybe it never totally will. This one got personal and very weird in the blink of an eye, the wounds are still fresh, the accusations still have a stench in the air. However, Drake vs. Kendrick will be remembered as the defining rap battle of the streaming era, and the most important one since Jay-Z and Nas went to war to kick off the new millennium.
Source: Hip-Hop Wired / HHW
In the latest installment of I Got Questions, Remy Ma and Fat Joe reminisce about their careers and collaborations.
The highly popular interview series I Got Questions returns with a conversation between veteran rappers Remy Ma and Fat Joe. The Bronx MC’s sat down and the convo immediately got entertaining as Remy asked Joe Crack if he remembered how they met. After relating the first encounter on the set of a Jennifer Lopez video where she arrived in the company of the late Big Pun, the “Conceited” rapper also made a surprising admission.
“So I’m shooting the video, she’s like ‘Hey.’ Pun is like, ‘This is Rem, that’s my artist’ and whatever. That’s the first time we met. And I’m like…’I don’t like him,” she said with a laugh.
“Wait, wait, so that was your initial response?” Fat Joe asked incredulously. “You was very nonchalant, like ‘How you doin’?’ So I’m like, ‘Okay,” Remy Ma responded. But Fat Joe’s recollection of the second time they met centered on them being in the studio, with him in awe of her lyrical flow. “So I’m looking at you like, ‘damn…I need her to be MY artist!’
Fat Joe also harkened back to the now-classic track “Lean Back,” playfully revealing that Remy Ma made it a point to fight to get on the track. “I saw an interview where M.O.P. said you bullied your way to get on ‘Ante Up,’ and you bullied your way to get on ‘Lean Back’!! Yo, why do you scare men?!” he joked.
Remy Ma then revealed that her appearance on the M.O.P. remix was due to Prodigy’s verse being taken off because of verbal jabs thrown at Jay-Z.
The conversation also touched on both MCs’ views on women rappers and the industry, and a lively discussion on each of the Bronx natives’ top five rappers. Fat Joe also reminisced on his and Remy Ma’s appearance at the BET Awards after both went through stints in jail and other issues, calling it “his proudest moment”
“We work, we make a hit. And here we are at the BET Awards, we’re about to perform…me and you grabbed each other’s hands and we’re like, ‘F—k, we’re back. Like all the way back.’”
Check out more from the latest episode of I Got Questions above.
Source: Hip-Hop Wired / HHW