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Legendary Hip-Hop icons Common and Pete Rock sat down for the latest edition of I Got Questions.
For Common and Pete Rock, their collaborations in the past have been a blessing for Hip-Hop culture. And the public got to see one of their dreams realized as the duo released The Auditorium, Vol. 1 as the summer began. Now, as the two are finishing off their tour in support of the album in New York City this week, HipHopWired got them both to sit down and discuss their careers and partnership in the latest edition of the digital series I Got Questions.
Source: @conradclifton / Hip-Hop Wired
The conversation starts with a bang as Common discusses their first collaboration, the scathing 1996 diss track “The B*tch In You,” which was part of the feud the Chicago rapper had with Ice Cube.
“That was a tough time, but what made you decide to do that beat?” Common asked. “Just being in your house at that time, meeting your moms, and being concerned. Like, calm down,” Pete Rock said with a laugh. At that point, Common revealed that a lot of producers had initially turned him down for that track, surprising Pete. “I know what it’s like to want to get something off your chest,” he replied, as Common agreed and said he’s glad the team up happened and that it’s now a part of Hip-Hop.
Both discussed their first steps into rap, with Common sharing how he started rhyming through his late cousin’s crew in Cincinnati, Ohio, as well as being part of a group with veteran producer No I.D. and opening for Big Daddy Kane and N.W.A. Pete Rock reminisced on when he first met C.L. Smooth in high school and getting signed off the strength of their demo tapes. “That bugs me out to this day,” he said, “because I was just learning how to formulate music, and to get signed off of that by a major label…it was cooking.”
Source: @conradclifton / Hip-Hop Wired
Other gems from the conversation include Common revealing that The Source had planned to do an album full of Unsigned Hype artists like himself including The Notorious B.I.G., Mobb Deep, and Eminem, as well as Pete Rock detailing how he and Nas got together with the help of Large Professor to make the classic “The World Is Yours” track from the Queensbridge MC’s Illmatic.
Check out the entire I Got Questions episode featuring Common and Pete Rock above.
09/20/2024
Mixtape Pluto has made his triumphant return.
09/20/2024
It’s been six days and I can’t stop listening to “Groupies & Goofies.”
Sometimes I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and play it on my phone a couple times before going back to sleep. It’s one of the best rap album intros of the year, right up there with the opening tracks of Future & Metro Boomin’s back-to-back collaborative albums. I didn’t know what to expect when Babyface Ray‘s team sent me his latest album, The Kid That Did, but I was immediately grabbed by the intro.
After diving into the rest of the album, I came away thinking that this is the Detroit rapper’s most ambitious project to date. He sounds confident, and with confidence comes big swings. Songs like “I Need Some Motivation” and “Delusional” showcase his versatility, while others like “Watching My Page” and “Nights Like This” “Legacy” show more of his personal side.
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Ray has been prolific over the course of his decade-long career, releasing a slew of mixtapes and EPs as a solo artist and as a member of Team Eastside. The Kid That Did, released on September 13, is his fourth solo album and his first since his Wavy Gang label entered a partnership with Empire earlier this year. With 20 tracks clocking in at under an hour, the album’s already spawned six singles with accompanying videos with more on the way. One notable single is “Count Money,” with BossMan Dlow, which samples the iconic pause music from N64’s GoldenEye 007. “We got the original composer from GoldenEye to do the beat over,” he answers when asked how they managed to get the sample cleared. But there’s much more to the story.
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According to one of his A&Rs, Dre Edwards, Babyface Ray’s team had a hard time clearing the beat (made by producer Rich Treeze), so they decided to reach out to Grant Kirkhope, the original composer of the GoldenEye soundtrack, to see if they could get it cleared. Well, it turns out that Kirkhope was already familiar with Ray’s music and gladly offered to collaborate with Treeze to make a version of the beat that would work for all parties involved. He even posted the video on his Instagram.
I caught up with Ray at the Billboard‘s New York office, where we talked about the making of what is probably the most important album of his career, how his rap style is informed by his parents and how he managed to get Rich Paul on the outro. Check out the interview below.
This album feels like your most ambitious. There are some records that feel big on there. Would you agree?
Yeah, big for sure. I know what you mean. I was just trying to show a little more growth this time and make it sound different from the last projects I put out.
When you were making this album, did you go in with the approach that this was going to be an ambitious record?
I think the records I picked were just more along the lines of what you’re saying. I had other records that I wanted to use, but I went more with that type of style.
Yeah, because some of the beats are different from the stuff you usually rap over. Were you aiming for that sound? Or were they beats that you were coming across that happened to grab your attention?
Yeah, what I was coming across and what I felt like wanting to do at that time.
Detroit has had its rap moments with the likes of Eminem, Royce Da 5’9″, D12, and J Dilla, but the last few years have felt different. What is it about this era of Detroit rap that resonates with fans?
Probably the rawness. Probably being able to connect with the music a little bit more.
What are some of your favorite records from this album?
“Nights Like This,” “High Off Life,” the intro. I like “Delusional.” I like “Stuck in My Ways.” There’s a few on there.
There’s a couple of tracks that you get real personal on. You mentioned a couple of them. Can you talk about why you felt the need to go super personal on some of those?
Really, just updating people on what’s going on with me type stuff. And, really on all my projects, it’s always gonna be a song on there that’s kind of like super personal and I get deeper on what’s going on for real.
The way you rap, it’s like you put people on game. Can you credit your style to your father being a preacher?
Yeah, if you know my dad, it don’t got nothing to do with religion or him being a preacher. That’s just how he comes off, putting us on game and just schoolin’ us and kickin’ it with us since we were little. I can definitely credit that to him, for sure.
Did you spend a lot of time in church when you were younger?
Hell yeah. All the way up until eighth grade, I went to church every Sunday. I wasn’t really too much a fan of church, though. Nothing against religion, but the whole going to church thing — I would just feel burnt out.
Did your parents give you a hard time for wanting to be a rapper at first?
They ain’t know. So, it was like — once I got old enough to get out the house and do my own thing, I was just doin’ that on the low. But I wasn’t a bad kid, so they didn’t have to worry about me too much. I was just doing it. They didn’t really find out until I became poppin’. And then people was telling them, and by that time, it was already too late. They couldn’t really have a conversation with me about it.
How do they feel about it now that you’re successful?
I mean, they ain’t trippin’, they love it, and even my dad, he be talking about it. You know, back then he really didn’t understand, but now he sees what I’ve grown into as a man. He can understand and enjoy my music. He can see where I’m coming from.
When would you say you felt that you was poppin’ as a rapper? When it felt real.
My first feeling was around probably 2011 or 2012. We used to get booked in the city a lot with my group [Team Eastside.]
In earlier interviews you had mentioned that you dropped out of college. Around what year was that?
I graduated [high school] in 2009, so it had to be around 2010.
That’s around the time you said you started poppin’, so you were already rapping?
I was already rappin’ throughout high school and all that stuff. When I got out of school, I was still staying with my parents. My pops was like, “You either gonna get a job or you gonna go to school.” So, I ended up choosing college and when that didn’t work out I just left the house completely.
Word, and you had said that they used church money to help send you to college.
Yeah, for sure. No cap. That really happened.
Rich Paul is on the outro. Can you explain that relationship? How did you guys link up? Was he a fan of your music?
He was a fan of my music. I met him through my partner, V, who owns a clothing line called Jack Ripp. He called me and connected me with Rich Paul, and then we hit it off just conversating about music. He really just wanted to talk about music, for real.
Has he given you any business advice?
Not really, head on. I just watch and learn from what he’s doing.
How do you feel about this album compared to your other tapes?
I feel good. I feel like I got some good records on there. I think people are gonna enjoy it. I’m geeked for it to get out, so I can see how the feedback is going to be.
Gillie and Wallo had mentioned that they noticed the ladies rock with your music on social media. Explain why you like to make records for them.
It’s always good to have a record or two for the ladies when you put a project out, because they’re consumers. And, really, I feel like it’s the women that get the men hip sometimes. You gotta have something that the ladies enjoy too.
Bossman Dlow seems to have that effect too. The ladies use his stuff on social media all the time. He did a show with Teezo for us recently and when he hit the stage, mad shorties ran to see him perform.
That’s fire. Dlow got a strong presence on social media with the women. I feel like the women be on it more than the men these days.
And you guys linked up on this project over the GoldenEye beat. How did that come about?
I had never met him. I was on Live one time just poppin’ shit and I said something along the lines [of] somebody talking to me in the club while the music was loud, and I was saying, ‘Stop trying to talk to me, Bossman Dlow is playing’ blah, blah, blah. And then it reached him and that kind of went crazy and he said something to me, and he came to Detroit, and we met up. We kicked it off like that. I did a song for him first, and then I was sitting on “Count Money” and I was like, ‘I think Dlow would sound good on here.’ I sent it to him and he sent it back.
You’re a video game head, right? What games do you play?
2K, Madden, NCAA. But I had woke up from my sleep, and seen my kids watching some s–t on YouTube, and I ended up downloading this new game called Little Nightmares. S–t fire. It’s like some horror-mystery shit.
You don’t play Grand Theft Auto?
I used to play Grand Theft Auto RP on my PC, but I stopped playing it. l was gettin’ burnt out on it.
You weren’t in Tee Grizzley’s world?
Yeah, I was in there. I was the only one with the Ferrari truck in there. That s–t turnt, for real, but I was getting burnt out.
What else you got planned for this album? You going on tour?
Yeah, I’m going on tour. I’m announcing the tour on Friday with the album [release]. That’s pretty much it. Hopefully, I can get a deluxe out because I do got some more records, more features, some more vibes that I wanna add to it.
You gonna put out more videos?
For sure, 100 percent.
Yeah, because you put out mad s–t already for this album.
S–t, I was just telling them. I got like seven videos already in, but I’m still trying to get at least two or three more.
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Rich Homie Quan’s Funeral at World Changers Church [Photos]
On Tuesday, September 17th, 2024 beginning at 7:00 am The City of Atlanta will pay tribute to the legend Rich Homie Quan.
World Changers Church International will host a public viewing to honor the ATL legend the right way. Marking this as a “celebration of life.” The celebration of life will offer friends, family, and fans a chance to pay their respects and reflect on the Quan’s impact on music and culture of not only Atlanta but music, period.
The ‘Some Type of Way’ rapper was always known for his unique style and influential tracks that were a soundtrack to our childhoods. Rich Homie Quan’s passing has left a significant void in hip-hop. The public viewing will provide a space for celebration of his amazing career and long-lasting legacy.
WATCH: Livestream of Rich Homie Quans Funeral
Long Live RHQ
RELATED: Takeoff’s Funeral Hosted at State Farm Arena in Atlanta [Photos]
RELATED: LIVESTREAM | Celebration of Life for Justin ‘Beatking’ Riley
RELATED: Rich Homie Quan’s Longtime Girlfriend Speaks About His Passing
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This past Sunday (Sept. 8), Kendrick dropped news that sent the rap community into a frenzy. Standing at the 50-yard line as he worked a football throwing machine with a huge American flag behind him, the Compton MC announced that he will be headlining next year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show. He also made sure to throw a subtle shot at his 2024 rival: “You know there’s only one opportunity to win a championship,” he said before loading another football into the machine. “No round twos.” Two weeks ago, Drake took to his finsta account, @plottttwistttttt, and posted an old video clip of NBA All-Star Rasheed Wallace telling reporters that his Detroit Pistons “will win Game Two” after dropping the first game of the 2004 NBA Eastern Conference Finals. Many believed that was Drake’s not-so-subtle way of telling fans that he’s not yet done with the battle. And despite talking heads like DJ Akademiks saying the Toronto rapper has no intention of continuing the back-and-forth, Drake alluded to a continuation on the song “No Face” (probably his best post-battle release) when he rapped lines like, “How you get lit off the n—a you hatin’ on?,” “This is the moment I know they been prayin’ on,” and “I’m just so happy that n—as who envied and held that s–t in got to finally show it/ I’m over the moon, yeah, we’ll see you boys soon.”
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Those lines don’t really hit the same post “round one,” but I get the sentiment. In boxing and pro wrestling, when the title holder loses their belt, they’re usually entitled to a rematch. He’s seemingly expressing that he doesn’t feel or want this battle for rap’s heavyweight title to be over. However, even after all that’s gone down, I’m still not sure he realizes who he’s dealing with. Lamar seems to have a darker side to him; a side he struggles to keep at bay, especially when he appears to despise his opponent so much.
Trending on Billboard
Enter last night’s loosie Lamar posted on his Instagram account. He’s not necessarily “dissing” Drake, but he’s indeed talking to him — and the rest of the mainstream rap community that promotes nonsense over substance. The song works as an exposé on the modern mainstream rap industry, and Drake serves as a symbol of both rap’s massive popularity and its devolving cultural significance in the eyes of fans familiar with the genre’s roots. To them, he has always been seen as a visitor, never to be taken too seriously. Yet, he’s proven that he’s willing to battle when tested. That coupled with his hit-making ability was able to buy him more cultural currency a little bit at a time. T
hat party seems to be coming to an end, though, considering Drake’s chart dominance has stalled since losing the battle. None of his recent releases have charted particularly well, at least judging by his own standards. The club just turned the lights on, and the DJ is playing “Poison.” The bar’s closing, where we going to for breakfast?
Dot starts off his latest with the lines, “I think it’s time to watch the party die/ This s–t done got too wicked to apologize,” before saying, “Just walk that man down, that’ll do everyone a solid/ It’s love, but tough love sometimes gotta result in violence.” In his mind, he did the hip-hop world a favor by exposing Drake and his so-called selfish, dirty mackin’, colonizing ways. He also takes aim at social media pundits who have served as mouthpieces for Drake, or at least claim to, throughout this battle.
Bars like, “Influencers talked down ’cause I’m not with the basic s–t/ But they don’t hate me, they hate the man that I represent/The type of man that never d–kride ’cause I want a favor” and “The radio personality pushin’ propaganda for salary/ Let me know when they turn up as a casualty, I want agony, assault, and battery,” are directed at them. At times, Kendrick comes across as someone who believes he has a moral superiority — but on this track, you can hear him wrestling with the angel and the devil on his shoulder on the chorus, as he pleads with God to give him peace, while also keeping the lames at bay.
Many fans and critics have described Drake as Thanos, because Rap Game Sinister Six had to team up to finally knock him off his pedestal. However, Kendrick has been Thanos this entire time: The Marvel supervillain’s whole philosophy was based on destroying and rebuilding, a philosophy Lamar mentions in this new song. He talks of burning down villages to start over and said one of his friends told him he must “burn it down to build it back up.” Lamar is grappling with the rationalization of what he’s done to Drake, so far, and he sounds like he doesn’t think the job is done just yet.
“Watch the Party Die” is essentially the scene from Avengers: Endgame where Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man try to walk Thanos down, and he spits some of the greatest dialogue a villain has ever spat. He looked them in the eyes and said: “You could not live with your own failure. Where did that bring you? Back to me. I thought that by eliminating half of life, the other half would thrive. But you’ve shown me that’s impossible. And as long as there are those that remember what was, there will always be those that are unable to accept what can be. They will resist. I’m thankful, because now, I know what I must do. I will shred this universe down to its last atom and then, with the stones you collected for me, create a new one, teaming with life that knows not what it has lost, but what it has been given. A grateful universe.”
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The rap world stops when K. Dot drops. He doesn’t have to use streamers with questionable ties to the community to leak information. He simply tweets a link out or posts a song on Instagram with no title, and a picture of gnarled black Air Force One’s, and everything comes to a halt. Almost like a snap of the finger.
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Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump faced one another for their first presidential debate, and Hip-Hop Wired viewed the entire debate, capturing reactions from X, formerly Twitter.
On Tuesday (September 10), Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump met for their debate on ABC News. Trump seemed hesitant from the start, pausing in surprise as Vice President Harris strode over to greet him and introduce herself.
ABC News moderator David Muir opened the debate by asking Vice President Harris about the state of the economy and what she intends to create what she referred to as an “opportunity economy.”
“I believe in the ambition, the aspiration, the dreams of the American people,” Harris said. Trump retorted, reiterating his policy stance on employing tariffs against other countries, namely China.
Harris sagely stated that President Joe Biden’s administration had to “clean up Donald Trump’s mess”, taking digs at the business mogul over his assumed orchestration of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack and his response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abortion proved to be one of the more intense exchanges of the debates as Harris championed more progressive policies as Trump again equivocated.
Her poise and strategy of prodding Trump into baffling rambles provided one of the more incredulous moments of the night after she spoke about his rallies. “You will see during the course of his rallies, he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter, he will talk about windmills cause cancer,” Harris began, “and what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom. And I will tell you the one thing you will not hear him talk about is you. You will not hear him talk about your needs, your dreams, and your desires.”
Trump angrily replied that his rallies were “the best, then repeated a false claim from his campaign about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio: “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” he yelled. He was swiftly fact-checked by Muir.
With the looming specter of Project 2025 hanging over this upcoming election, Trump distanced himself from the plan after Harris’ initial answers tying him to it, claiming he hadn’t even seen the controversial document.
“I have nothing to do with Project 2025,” Trump said. “That’s out there. I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it, purposely. I’m not going to read it.”
Abortion is one of the touchier subjects of the race and one that Trump and his running mate JD Vance have faltered on regarding their messaging. ABC News moderator Linsey Davis’ question led to one of the more intense serve-and-volley moments of the debates with Harris leaning into the more progressive side of the debate while Trump seemed to display once more his changing stances on reproductive rights.
Seizing on conservative voters’ concerns that Harris would change the fabric of the country, Trump referred to the Vice President as a “Marxist” in a key moment in the debate. “If she ever got elected, she’d change it. And it will be the end of our country. She’s a Marxist everybody knows she’s a Marxist. Her father is a Marxist professor in economics, and he taught her well,” Trump quipped, referencing her father Donald J. Harris.
Muir also asked Trump about his repeated attacks on Harris’ racial identity. “I don’t care what she is,” he said before again saying that “I read where she was not Black”. Harris responded that it was a “tragedy” and a “disgrace” that he wouldresort to that, bringing up his calling for the death of the Exonerated Central Park Five as an example of his past bigotry.
The debate questions would move to foreign policy, where Trump criticized President Biden for his support of Ukraine. “You’re not running against Joe Biden, you’re running against me,” Harris said, turning to face Trump. Trump would jab Harris and the Biden administration on the withdrawal from Afghanistan, but she would counter by hammering him on his love for authoritarians such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Meme fans gathered plenty of fodder due to the expressions of incredulity from Harris, especially as Trump would get combative with Muir after several questions. While the microphones were muted, crosstalk could still be heard. The feature proved to be effective for Harris, allowing her to respond vividly through her facial expressions which could be criticized by certain pundits and outlets. There was also praise for Muir and Davis as moderators, who strived to give each candidate time to respond while working hard to avoid being steamrolled by Trump’s petulant moods after Harris’ answers.
Take a look at some of the best responses to the debate below.
With additional analysis from D.L. Chandler.
1. Nikole Hannah-Jones
2. Michael Beschloss
3. Jon Lovett
4. Tre Easton
5. Dave Itzkoff
6. Flavor Flav
7. Laura Bassett
8. Neha Shastry
9. Brooklyn Dad Defiant
10. Pablo Torre
Few songs withstand time, distinguished by their infectious beats, experimental sounds, poignant lyrics or enduring appeal, rendering them as classics. In partnership with Tres Generaciones Tequila, a brand that champions the journey and not just the destination, we’re on an exploration to roundup the top Get Up Anthems over this next year from these six cities: Houston, Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles. Guided by curated panels, we delve deep into each city’s sonic history, spotlighting tracks that embody resilience, authenticity, and innovation and celebrate the power music has to inspire listeners to get up and chase their passions, in the spirit of perseverance.
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The Get Up Anthems from New York were crafted through a blend of editorial expertise, data-driven analytics, social impact and personal sentiment, to create a stimulating conversation of the songs which inspired, captivated, and energized the city. In a historical dive from 1973 to present day, the city’s playlist [click HERE to play] features hometown hits that are synonymous with the city’s rich history and culture.
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RASHIDA ZAGON
Amidst the lively whirl of 5th Avenue, where the city’s heartbeat pulses through its bustling streets and perpetual traffic, a hidden enclave of artistic fervor thrives. In a secluded studio nestled in the heart of New York City, Method Man and Joey Bada$$ converged with Billboard editor, Carl Lamarre to celebrate the city’s unmatched musical heritage. As the conversation unfolded over Tres Generaciones Tequila’s signature serve for New York City: The Trespresso Martini, Rocsi Diaz expertly navigated the fervent conversation over some of the city’s most iconic anthems.
Take a look some of the discussed Get Up Anthems for New York City:
“Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See” – Busta Rhymes (1997)
Produced by Shamello and Buddah, the beat is characterized by its sparse, hypnotic production, using subtle basslines and percussion rather than the bombastic sound typical of Busta’s earlier work. It was a stylistic departure, drawing inspiration from African rhythms and early funk influences, which complemented Busta’s smooth, almost whisper-like delivery. This shift in sound helped the track stand out on When Disaster Strikes and became a signature song in New York’s late ’90s club scene.
“Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)” – Jay-Z (1998)
Jay-Z’s “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)” is a brilliant fusion of Broadway and hip-hop that transformed the genre in 1998. Featured on the rapper’s third studio album, Vol. 2… Hard Knock Life, and produced by The 45 King, the song ingeniously samples “It’s the Hard Knock Life” from the musical Annie. Jay-Z’s sharp lyricism, detailing the trials and tribulations of street life, struck a chord with a wide audience, propelling the track to No. 15 on the Hot 100. This song not only expanded Jay-Z’s reach but also showcased his knack for innovative sampling and storytelling.
“I’ll Be There For You/ You’re All I Need to Get By” – Method Man feat. Mary J. Blige (1995)
“I’ll Be There For You/ You’re All I Need to Get By” is a timeless collaboration between Method Man and Mary J. Blige, released in 1995. Featured on Method Man’s debut album, Tical, this track, produced by RZA, Puffy, and Trackmasters, seamlessly blends hip-hop and R&B, sampling the classic Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell duet. The chemistry between Method Man’s gritty verses and Mary J. Blige’s soulful chorus created a magic that earned them a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, making it a beloved 90s classic.
“N.Y. State of Mind” – Nas (1994)
Nas’s “N.Y. State of Mind” from his landmark debut album, Illmatic, released in 1994, is a gritty, cinematic portrayal of life in New York City. Produced by DJ Premier, the track features a haunting piano loop and Nas’s razor-sharp lyricism, painting vivid pictures of urban struggle and resilience. Although not released as a single, “N.Y. State of Mind” is hailed as one of the greatest hip-hop songs of all time, showcasing Nas’s storytelling prowess and the raw, unfiltered essence of the streets.
“Quiet Storm (Remix) – Mobb Deep feat. Lil Kim (1999)
The original “Quiet Storm” was produced by Havoc, one half of Mobb Deep, known for crafting dark, brooding beats with atmospheric tension, a hallmark of East Coast hardcore rap. The remix, featuring Lil’ Kim, brought new life to the song, adding her fierce delivery and solidifying her as a key figure in New York’s rap scene. The production, with its haunting loop, matched the raw street narratives that defined Mobb Deep’s Murda Muzik album, becoming a favorite in NYC radio and clubs.
“Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)” – Cardi B (2017)
Produced by J. White Did It, the beat of “Bodak Yellow” was built around heavy 808s and a menacing piano riff, providing a hard-hitting, bass-heavy sound that matched Cardi B’s aggressive flow. The track was created while Cardi was still an emerging artist in the Bronx, and its minimalist, trap-style production echoed the sound of Southern hip-hop, which was dominating the charts at the time. “Bodak Yellow” became a historic hit, catapulting her from local fame to global stardom, marking a major moment in the city’s rap comeback.
“Ruff Ryders’ Anthem” – DMX (1998)
“Ruff Ryders’ Anthem” is an adrenaline-fueled rallying cry from DMX’s 1998 debut album, It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot. Produced by Swizz Beatz, the track’s aggressive beat and DMX’s ferocious delivery captured the raw energy of the streets, making it an instant hit. Landing at No. 94 during its original rollout, the anthem re-entered the Hot 100 in 2021 following DMX’s untimely passing, reaching No. 16. This track remains a testament to DMX’s explosive talent and enduring influence in the genre.
“C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me)” – Wu-Tang Clan (1993)
A cornerstone of hip-hop, “C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me)” by Wu-Tang Clan is an indelible part of their groundbreaking 1993 album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). Produced by the genius of RZA, this track’s minimalist yet haunting piano riff underscores Raekwon and Inspectah Deck’s penetrating verses. The song’s exploration of economic struggle and ambition resonated with countless listeners, encapsulating the raw, unfiltered ethos of Wu-Tang Clan and the reality of street life.
“Still Not a Player” – Big Pun feat. Joe (1998)
Big Pun’s “Still Not a Player,” featuring Joe, is a quintessential late 90s hip-hop hit that radiates smooth charisma and undeniable swagger. Released in 1998 as part of his debut album, Capital Punishment, this track, produced by Knobody and Dahoud Darien, is a masterful blend of hardcore rap and R&B. Sampling Brenda Russell’s “A Little Bit of Love,” the song’s irresistible groove and Pun’s clever wordplay captivated audiences, propelling it to No. 24 on the Hot 100. This track is a testament to Big Pun’s larger-than-life persona and his extraordinary lyrical talent.
“Dior” – Pop Smoke (2019)
Features a signature dark, foreboding drill beat with pulsating 808s and a minimalist piano loop, the 2019 record, produced byUK drill producer 808Melo, set the tone for Pop Smoke’s deep, gruff vocals. This production style was instrumental in introducing the Brooklyn drill sound, heavily influenced by UK drill music, to a wider American audience. The track’s success played a pivotal role in popularizing drill music beyond New York and was a key track on Meet the Woo and Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon.
“Paid In Full” – Eric B. & Rakim (1987)
The title track from Paid in Full revolutionized hip-hop production by pioneering the use of sampling. Eric B. sampled “Ashley’s Roachclip” by The Soul Searchers, adding a prominent bassline and minimalist percussion. Rakim’s smooth, complex lyricism was groundbreaking, moving away from the simpler rhymes of early rap and influencing a new generation of New York MCs. The song’s innovative production and lyrical sophistication helped establish the duo as legends in NYC’s golden age of hip-hop.
“Hot Boy” – Bobby Shmurda (2014)
Exploding onto the scene in 2014, Bobby Shmurda’s “Hot Boy” (often stylized as “Hot N—a”) was a nuclear hit in the hip-hop world, and throughout Brooklyn’s streets. Featured on his debut EP, Shmurda She Wrote, the track, produced by Jahlil Beats, showcases Bobby’s electrifying delivery over a beat that’s both infectious and relentless. The song’s virality was propelled by the iconic “Shmoney Dance,” which took social media by storm. Peaking at No.6 on the Billboard Hot 100, “Hot Boy” wasn’t just a hit—it was a cultural phenomenon that marked Bobby Shmurda entry into the rap game.
“Lean Back” – Terror Squad feat. Fat Joe & Remy Ma (2004)
Produced by Scott Storch, the beat for “Lean Back” was built around a prominent Middle Eastern-inspired string melody and a heavy, slow-rolling bassline that made it instantly recognizable. Storch was known for blending hip-hop with cinematic, orchestral elements, and this track was no exception. The production’s simplicity and infectiousness helped it become a club anthem. Released on Terror Squad’s True Story album, the song’s success was pivotal in keeping New York on the hip-hop map during a time when Southern rap was dominating the charts.
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Former A&M Records executive Derek Taylor captured the sound of Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66 in a few well-chosen phrases in in his liner notes to the group’s first album for the label. Taylor wrote excitedly about its “delicately-mixed blend of pianistic jazz, subtle Latin nuances, cool minor chords, a danceable beat, gentle laughter and a little sex.”
With all that going for it, how could it miss?
Mendes, who died on Thursday Sept. 5 at age 83, had the kind of career artists dream about. He had enormous success in the 1960s fronting Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66, which had three top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 and two top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. But Mendes’ success didn’t end when that group’s fortunes cooled. He enjoyed periodic comebacks and periods of rediscovery for decades to come.
He had a big comeback in 1983 with the Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil power ballad “Never Gonna Let You Go,” which reached the top five on the Hot 100. He enjoyed another rediscovery in 2006 when his album Timeless, which he co-produced with will.i.am, reached No. 44 on the Billboard 200 and received a pair of Grammy nods. (The album featured such guest artists as The Black Eyed Peas, Erykah Badu, Stevie Wonder, John Legend and Justin Timberlake.) In 2012, he was nominated for an Oscar for best original song for a song he co-wrote for the film Rio.
Mendes won a Grammy for best world music album for his 1992 album Brasileiro and two Latin Grammys for best Brazilian contemporary pop album for Bom Tempo and Timeless. He received a lifetime achievement award from the Latin Recording Academy in 2005.
In 1966, Mendes came to the attention of Herb Alpert, co-founder of A&M Records, and one of the top-selling album artists of the 1960s. Alpert produced the group’s first three albums, all of which went gold. Alpert also took Brasil ’66 on tour with him and even wrote an enthusiastic recommendation that appeared on the back cover of their debut album: “One afternoon recently, a friend of mine called to ask if I wanted to hear a new group. From the first note I was grinning like a kid who’d just found a new toy.” That album remained on the Billboard 200 for more than two years (a rarity in those days) and was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2012.
Alpert was a close friend of Mendes’ for nearly 60 years. “Sergio Mendes, my brother from another country, passed away quietly and peacefully,” Alpert said in a statement on Friday. “He was a true friend and extremely gifted musician who brought Brazilian music in all its iterations to the entire world with elegance and joy.” (Another bond between the two musicians: Lani Hall, to whom Alpert has been married since 1973, was one of two female singers in Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66.)
The group’s sound was cool, yet hot, and brimming with confidence. Still, it was a new sound in 1966, so new that A&M took no chances and supplied parenthetical phonetic spellings for five song titles on the album, including “Mais Qu Nada (Ma-sh Kay Nada).” That pronunciation gambit may seem quaint in an era when Bad Bunny gives acceptance speeches on general-audience award shows in Spanish, but, hey, baby steps. One generation paves the way for the next.
The group’s music was often featured in “lounge music” compilations of pop songs from the 1960s, which were a forerunner to today’s “yacht rock” collections of pop songs from the 1970s and 1980s. Some people, it seems, can only enjoy pop music if they’re being ironic about it. (But they’re listening, so I’ll take it.)
Here are 10 Mendes tracks which will remind you of his greatness or give you a good place to start in exploring this talented and innovative musician.
I wrote the liner notes for a CD compilation, Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66-86, which was released in 1987 amid A&M’s 25th anniversary celebration. This piece draws some material from those notes.
“Acode” (2008)
After weeks of climbing the charts and drawing groundbreaking crowds to her performances, Chappell Roan had to get something off of her chest.
Addressing her audience of over 3 million followers in a frank pair of TikTok videos, the “Pink Pony Club” singer stared directly into her camera, eschewed the typical dynamics of artist-to-fan communication, and laid everything bare. “I don’t care that abuse and harassment, stalking, whatever, is a normal thing to do to people who are famous or a little famous,” she said, her voice breaking. “I don’t give a f–k if you think it’s selfish of me to say no for a photo, or for your time, or for a hug. That’s not normal, that’s weird. It’s weird how people think that you know a person just because you see them online.”
While Roan disabled comments on her videos, that didn’t stop the oncoming discourse from consuming online spaces. A majority of the messages across X, TikTok and Instagram were affirmations, supporting the singer for taking a strong position; a vocal minority of others offered comments that bore a striking similarity to the ones Roan called out in her videos. Some users said Roan wasn’t “cut out” for pop stardom. Others proclaimed that being a pop star required a “sacrifice” of personal privacy. More still suggested that Roan should “be a little more open” to photos with fans in public.
The debates about what is expected of pop stars when it comes to interacting with fans forces the question — at what point does genuine appreciation for an artist’s work cross the line into inappropriate behavior?
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Nick Bobetsky, Roan’s manager, puts it simply on a call with Billboard: “It’s about artists setting boundaries. The majority of fans don’t cross that line, but there are some who just don’t respect those boundaries. And it’s not even really all about fans — it’s about human boundaries.”
When she first read Roan’s statement, artist manager Kristina Russo says she felt something within her “relax.” Russo has worked with pop singer-songwriter GAYLE since the “abcdefu” singer was 14 years old, and says that preparing her client for inappropriate fan behavior has always been one of the hardest parts of her job.
“I had like a whole other purpose, aside from wanting to make her dreams a reality,” Russo says. “It was like an experiment — ‘Can you raise a young person up in this industry who can also maintain their humanity and their personal autonomy?’ Seeing [Chappell] talk about this made me feel like we were on the right path.”
Why do some fans feel a need to be so close with an artist who doesn’t know them? “A fan I interviewed once said, ‘I have stage four cancer, and when I go to my chemotherapy, I take my iPod with my Josh Groban music because it makes me feel better,’” explains Dr. Gayle Stever, an associate professor of psychology at Empire State University and the author of The Psychology of Celebrity who has spent her career studying fan behavior, embedding with fandoms across the cultural gamut. “[The fan was] seeking to be near this person through their work … and her proximity to this person and their work in turn gives her comfort.”
What Stever is talking about is a phenomenon in which a person develops a close relationship with someone — often a media figure or celebrity — who does not know them in return. That one-sided relationship can develop over time, as a fan begins to derive feelings of comfort and security from a figure and their work, which then forms what she refers to a “parasocial attachment.”
The concept of the parasocial relationship has become a major talking point online. The phrase is often deployed by those criticizing what they deem to be irregular behavior, in order to paint certain fans as weird and off-putting. But Dr. Stever makes it clear that parasocial relationships are a feature, not a bug, when it comes to human behavior — and no one is immune to forming a one-sided bond.
“As humans, we are biologically hard-wired to create connections with people from infancy,” she says. “So whether we want to admit it or not, we all form connections with familiar people in media all the time.”
It’s also not a new concept in the music industry. Back in the mid-60’s, news broadcasts around the world touted the onset of “Beatlemania” as the Fab Four rose to public prominence. In the decades following, stars like Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Prince and dozens more found themselves garnering massive, mobilized fan bases. Soon after, fans began to give themselves their own branding — the Beliebers, Little Monsters and others became veritable fan armies all marching under the same flag.
Robert Thompson, the director of Syracuse University’s Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture, points out that these types of fan-celebrity relationships go back even further in history. “We can look at the Roman Empire and the fandom that went on for gladiators — there’s old graffiti of the top gladiators at the time, and the fans were carving stuff into buildings and furniture,” he says. “I suspect that as long as we’ve had people performing in any way, we have had relationships with those performers.”
So why, in 2024, does it feel like we’ve reached a fever pitch in terms of boundary-crossing fan interactions?
One factor is how the advent of the internet has fundamentally changed the way that fans and artists interact with one another. Ryan Star, a recording artist and the CEO and co-founder of social-audio platform Stationhead, says that with the internet came a complete upending of the way the industry thought about fan engagement.
“Social [media] became everything, where music was almost secondary to it,” Star says. “If you were a rock star [pre-internet], there was a disconnect where [fans] couldn’t relate to you. Now, you suddenly have a hyper-connection between fans and artists thanks to social media.”
Bobetsky agrees, adding that artists don’t have much of a choice when it comes to using networking platforms like X and TikTok. “Whether an artist leans into it or not, they’re generally on social media,” he says. “That heightens the personal connection that fans feel. That’s an amazing part of modern culture, that people can have that, but I think that in particular feels new, where you’ve got this more personal connection with fans broadcast at the broadest potential level.”
Colette Patnaude Nelson, a manager for artists like Conan Gray and J. Maya, knows firsthand how fundamentally social media has changed the course of fan-artist interactions. “I started my career representing YouTubers — I’ve watched the social interaction between audiences and influencers or artists just intensify,” she says.
But Stever posits that fan dynamics, be they online or in-person, have remained largely unchanged throughout the history of modern pop culture. “Every single one of these things we’re talking about, I saw pre-internet,” she says. “What you had was the same kind of fans doing the same kind of things.”
What the internet has done for fans, Stever says, is remove most barriers for entry. Where pre-internet fandoms would have to meet in-person — at conventions, concerts or elsewhere — today’s fans have direct access at all hours to others with similar points of view. Some fandoms of the past required payment in order to be a member of a fan club; now, fans can organize independently without money changing hands.
Social media has also inexorably concentrated the power of fan bases, to the point where they now inherently compete with one another. Swifties, Barbs, Stylers, Team Drizzy, ARMY and others can now not only show support for their favorite artists, but defend them against other fan groups. “Nowadays, there is almost a sense that one of the ways one expresses fandom online is to protect the border, to take the wagons and defend your territory,” Thompson says. “The blessing about everything opening up is that it is opened up to all kinds of other voices who were either silenced or stigmatized before. The curse is that it opens it up to everybody, and we’ve seen the manifestation of that with the spread of hate speech and false information online and among fandoms.”
That’s part of why Star wanted to create an online platform that prioritized community building over tribalism among fans. At Stationhead, fans are able to join channels corresponding to the artists they adore, and essentially stream music with fellow fans. Occasionally, the artists themselves will host listening parties for fans on the platform, solidifying their own base while silently promoting a healthier, less-fraught online dynamic.
Star points out that other social platforms, despite benefitting from artists’ presence on them, were not “purpose-built” to support artist-fan relationships. Stationhead, by contrast, was built with that relationship in mind. “When fans all come together to listen and the artist is there too [on a Stationhead channel], it is like kind of a live event,” he explains. “Joining that without being a fan would be like going to a concert for someone you didn’t like — why would you be there?”
Creating a sense of community and safety among fans is important — but as Roan pointed out in a follow-up Instagram post to her original videos, artists’ safety and well-being also has to be considered. “Women do not owe you a reason why they don’t want to be touched or talked to,” she wrote. “I am specifically talking about predatory behavior (disguised as ‘superfan’ behavior) that has been normalized because of the way women who are well-known have been treated in the past.”
As unwelcome behavior toward artists persists, many in the music industry believe that it is within an artist’s best interests to stay silent about unwanted interactions. One artist manager, who spoke to Billboard on the condition of anonymity, described Roan’s comments as “a thought best kept in her head.
“The relationship with fans is incredibly precious. Fans are hard-earned — especially from artists who are relatively new to the pop space — and pop fans especially are ruthless,” they added. “[Saying what Roan said] definitely comes across as a ‘biting the hand that feeds you’ situation.”
Russo fundamentally disagrees with that notion, saying the only way to help mitigate the surrounding circumstances of toxic behavior is to have hard conversations with fans. “Unfortunately, that is the training we receive in this industry — put up with the things that you’re not comfortable with in order to do well. Which is why what Chappell said fuels me as a manager,” she says. “The only way to change things like this is to talk about them. If somebody is telling you how to treat them, listen.”
So what can realistically be done to help artists dealing with inappropriate fan behavior? For starters, Stever says there is a danger of painting all fans as boundary-crossers — what she refers to as “homogeneity of the out group” (“I know, it’s very jargon-y,” she quips). “The psychological tendency is to treat a group of people as if they’re all the same,” she adds. “The reality is that the vast majority of fans are just as appalled at this [behavior] as [Chappell] is.”
The same concept applies to artists: Bobetsky claims that any industry-spanning “solution” to toxic behavior is virtually impossible, because different artists prioritize different aspects of their jobs. “Some seek the fame, some seek the celebrity — others, like Chappell, are all about music and message, and about being an artist,” he explains.
With that understanding, Patnaude Nelson says a good industry-wide starting point would be to normalize letting artists say “no” to certain opportunities. “Not everyone has to do a meet-and-greet at a show — that’s not something that we should press upon every single artist,” she offers. “We can’t control fans, but what we can do is be supportive of our artists and listen to them.”
For Russo, eliminating boundaries for artists to access mental health professionals is a must. “My dream is to have a psychologist on the road,” she says. “I would love if, structurally, we can make that a thing worked into artists’ deals.”
But Bobetsky is quick to point out that real change has to start at fans’ level. “I understand why we put artists on a pedestal, because we all find a sense of self through our favorite artist,” he says. “But I think you have to remind yourself that, as superhuman as you may consider your favorite artist, they are a person, and that person deserves boundaries.
“Take the advice I give my four-year-old, fans,” he adds. “Behave in a way that you’d want someone to behave around you.”
As Democrats rally around Vice President Kamala Harris in the wake of both President Biden’s exit from the race and the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, the American flag – and all the different forms of patriotism that it symbolizes – has been thrust back into the center of cultural discourse. Of course, these events have also occurred in a year that has boasted several musical releases that both muddy and call into question the dynamic between Americana iconography and Black musicians and entertainers.
The complications of this dynamic have been a mainstay in pop culture conversations this year since Queen Bey first revealed the Cowboy Carter album cover (March 29). But her album is just the latest in a series of releases from Black R&B and hip-hop stars that incorporate Americana imagery in a way that departs from how that iconography was implemented in prior decades.
As the country enters the home stretch of the 2024 presidential election, what are we to make of some of our biggest contemporary Black entertainers in hip-hop and R&B — Beyoncé, Sexyy Red and Lil Uzi Vert, among others – holding onto the American flag amid a triad of global cataclysms, and ahead of an unbelievably consequential presidential election?
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When Black artists incorporate the American flag in their work, it is rarely as a mere decoration; they are almost always calling on some kind of history by way of irony or subversion. Whether or not that actually lands is a different conversation, but to take the use of the flag at face value as a blind, uncritical embrace of American patriotism is often too simplistic of a reading.
Though recent uses of the flag by Black musicians have drawn ire both online and in real life, the practice stretches back generations. In 1971, Sly and the Family Stone topped the Billboard 200 with There’s a Riot Goin’ On, which originally featured an album cover that replaced the stars of the American flag with nine-point stars emblazoned across a black (not blue) background. That LP’s title was a direct response to the question posed in the title of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, released six months earlier. Altering the classic look of the flag to complement the album’s bleak outlook on the turbulence of the 1960s in the face of a rising Black Power Movement, There’s a Riot Goin’ On is a prime example of Black musicians using the American flag to explore the questions of belonging and ownership in regard to “Americanness.”
That question – an eternal inquiry in the story of Black Americans – is the anchor for most of hip-hop’s relationship with the American flag. The Sugarhill Gang, whose landmark single “Rapper’s Delight” helped bring hip-hop to America’s mainstream, placed their faces over the stars of the American flag on the cover for their third studio album, 1983’s Rappin’ Down Town. Released the same year that Guion S. Bluford, the first African American astronaut, reached space, Rappin’ Down Town found the rap group embracing their Americanness to access the country’s interstellar advances, through which they envisioned a life of liberation and autonomy with songs like “Space Race.”
The ‘90s found rappers doubling down on their critiques of America through visual and lyrical subversions of the flag. As the golden age of hip-hop, the ’90s were the decade in which hip-hop canoodled with capitalism without all of the cracks showing. While Puff Daddy and Bad Boy took a blinged-out approach to both the music and the business, other ’90s hip-hop acts were still subverting Americana iconography on their own terms. Miami rap group 2 Live Crew kicked off the decade with 1990’s Banned in the U.S.A: the first album in history to bear the RIAA-standard parental advisory sticker. Banned found 2 Live Crew leaning on Americana aesthetics to double down on their claim to Americanness during a time in which they were being forced out of that label – both culturally and legally – due to the vulgarity of their music.
Despite the country’s attempt to police and other Black expressions of sexuality, 2 Live Crew called on the flag to offer a critique of the tension between their Blackness and Americanness. Four years later on 1994’s “Aintnuttin Buttersong,” Public Enemy offered cutting lyrical critiques of the flag and all that it represents, with Chuck D spitting, “The stars is what we saw when our ass got beat/ Stripes is for the whip marks in our back/ The white is for the obvious, ain’t no black in that flag.”
Less than a year before Dipset’s new eagle logo took over their output, OutKast posed in front of a black-and-white American flag for their Stankonia album cover. Now one of the most iconic photos in hip-hop history, that cover’s black-and-white reimagining of the flag immediately situated the duo’s embrace of Americana as an intentional choice of irony and critique. The album’s title – the name of a fantasy place where “you can open yourself up and be free to express anything,” according to André 3000 – works in tandem with the group’s altering of the flag. The “stank” of Black American musical genres like gospel, funk and hip-hop course through the record, providing OutKast with the necessary tools to illustrate a space of true liberation for Black people outside of the gaze of white America. Whether they were ironically dressing themselves in the country’s colors or explicitly subverting the flag’s likeness, the ‘00s found rappers using the flag to explore the dichotomy of white and Black America at the turn of the century.
By the time the 2000s rolled around, it was practically impossible to think about the use of American iconography outside of the context of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Dipset’s musical and aesthetic relationship with America has been well-documented: While dousing themselves in red, white and blue and stars and stripes, the New York rap crew favorably compared themselves to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. Writer and critic Andre Gee writes, “That ‘them and us’ mindset [in regard to white vs. Black America] is what paved the way for Dipset to simultaneously be victims but feel detached enough to harbor twisted esteem for the entities who had stuck one to ‘the man.’”
The 2010s, still aglow in the shimmer of the Obama years, found the historic president’s success reflected in hip-hop’s relationship with the flag. With a Black man finally reaching the highest office in the land, two of hip-hop’s defining icons fully leaned into bootstrap ideology with art that played up the idea that, if you work hard enough, you too can access the financial spoils of the American dream regardless of your skin color. Jay-Z and Ye’s (formerly Kanye West) Watch the Throne was a total exaltation of wealth, from its gilded album cover to its lavish sonics.
“Made In America,” the eleventh track on the LP, is perhaps the exact turning point in mainstream hip-hop’s relationship with the flag and Americanness: While their overall vision of Americana still retained notes of Blackness — “I pledge allegiance to my grandma/ For that banana pudding, our piece of Americana/ Our apple pie was supplied through Arm & Hammer,” Jay spits — “Made In America” finds the two stars proclaiming that they’ve “made it” because they’ve figured out how to achieve financial success through the country’s existing capitalist framework. They leave no room for the possibility of a life beyond the American capitalist project, à la OutKast, and instead happily settle for a life in which wealth is the master key to Americanness. Watch the Throne was the culmination of capitalism’s swallowing of hip-hop, forever changing how far critiques and subversion of Americana iconography can travel, at least on the broadest of mainstream levels.
“You can say a whole lot about [Jay-Z and Beyoncé],” says author, academic and cultural critic Dr. Mark Anthony Neal, of 21st century Black music’s reigning power couple. “The one thing that [continues to] resonate is that they are capitalists, and there’s no stronger brand in the U.S. than the actual American flag, so they need to tap into it at some point.”
The shadow of Watch the Throne continued to loom over album releases from a younger generation of rappers – like A$AP Rocky’s Long.Live.A$AP (2013), which features him with an American flag draped over his shoulders – but political turmoil later in the decade opened up a bit of space for a return to the critiques of the ‘90s and ‘00s. In 2017, the first year of former President Trump’s first term, Brooklyn rapper Joey Bada$$ dropped All-Amerikkkan Badass – an LP chiefly concerned with unpacking the atrocities of the American project – which featured an album cover that replaced the red, white and blue of the flag with the paisley print of bandanas.
Just as Trump’s 2016 victory influenced an onslaught of music across genres, so did the 2021 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol after the 34-time felon refused to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election. Last year, Lil Uzi Vert’s Pink Tape debuted atop the Billboard 200 in July, becoming the first hip-hop album to top the chart in 2023 and ending the chart’s longest gap between No. 1 rap albums in nearly 30 years. The LP’s cover is reminiscent of Stankonia’s, with Uzi posing in front of an American flag with pink stripes and stars emblazoned across a black background. Arriving in the wake of the insurrection and bearing a sound heavily influenced by rage rap, metal and punk, Pink Tape offers a starkly dystopian imagining of America; the official album trailer finds Uzi dancing and somersaulting their way through a fleet of warriors in what appears to be a crumbling city. What does it look like when an empire begins to fall? Visually and aesthetically, that’s the question Uzi seems to be posing with Pink Tape — but lyrically, the album doesn’t really engage with that inquiry. This combination of loaded visual imagery and comparatively empty lyrical imagery signals a new evolution in hip-hop’s relationship with Americana iconography: Uzi is aware of the essentially limitless capital of the brand of the American flag, and they incorporated it all the way to a No. 1 album.
At the end of 2023, breakout star Sexyy Red released a deluxe version of her Hood Hottest Princess mixtape, with an opening track titled “Sexyy Red for President.” By the time she released the follow-up, 2024’s In Sexyy We Trust, the St. Louis rapper doubled down on the patriotic imagery, incorporating the flag, U.S. currency, the Secret Service, the Oval Office and even Trump’s MAGA hat template into her live performance sets, album artwork, merchandise and social media presence. Of course, this all came several months after she claimed that the hood “loves” Trump because of his pandemic-era stimulus checks.
The meaning behind Sexyy’s use of Americana iconography is a bit more coherent: She’s drawing a thread between the way Trump’s cult of personality allows his supporters to embrace the vilest forms of their prejudices and the way her music and devil-may-care persona inspire her listeners to be their most ratchet, liberated selves. The issue with this thread is that it requires a latent acceptance of all the –isms and –ists that come with this specific brand of Trumpist Americana. Like Uzi, nothing in Sexyy’s lyrics provides any sort of critique that can balance the unconditional embrace of this imagery that her visuals suggest. Ultimately, Sexyy’s use of Americana ideology is yet another example of hip-hop artists understanding the potential capital of the brand of the American flag and accessing it with little regard for their role in promoting and normalizing the most sinister parts of its symbolism.
“I don’t know Lil Uzi or Sexyy Red’s brand of America, and if we are being entirely honest, we don’t entirely know Beyoncé’s either,” reminds critic and author Gerrick Kennedy. “We can infer, certainly, having looked at her usage of the imagery over the years. [Many] of those moments can be read as simply overt patriotism. I think about her performing under an American flag that was altered to the Pan-African flag colors, or the dress she wore with a black and white American flag as the train. Again, one could project meaning onto these moments, but with the absence of her telling you directly it’s simply projection.”
Of course, it would be impossible to talk about contemporary mainstream Black R&B/hip-hop artists using the American flag in their art without lending serious discussion to Beyoncé. Queen Bey boldly waved an unaltered American flag on the album cover for her country, Western and Americana-indebted Cowboy Carter LP earlier this year. The record explored the oft-whitewashed roots of country music by exploring her own cultural background, from Louisiana to Texas.
Led by a historic Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper in “Texas Hold ‘Em,” the LP also platformed several rising Black country stars, including Shaboozey, Brittney Spencer and Tanner Adell. Cowboy Carter opens with a literal “American Requiem” and closes with “Amen,” in which she sings, “This house was built with blood and bone/ And it crumbled, yes, it crumbled/ The statues they made were beautiful/ But they were lies of stone.” In the Tina Turner-nodding “Ya Ya,” Queen Bey belts, “My family lived and died in America/ Good ol’ USA, s–t/ Whole lotta red in that white and blue/ History can’t be erased.” Lyrically, the album does a fine job of getting across her critiques of the country’s violently anti-Black history.
While Beyoncé was drawing on the specific look of a Texan rodeo queen – a nod to her hometown of Houston – her artistic intent was ultimately muddied by her position as a global billionaire institution. She’s shedding light on a specific sliver of Black American culture, yet she’s also intentionally reaching for the biggest brand in her home market by embracing the flag and remaining silent on local and global political happenings. These two truths don’t necessarily cancel each other out, but they do complicate readings of the album cover and the effectiveness of subversion at that level of global stardom. A critique that calls out anti-Blackness without taking into account its very real global ramifications – especially from an artist who has previously done so – will always ring a bit hollow. Perhaps, Beyoncé’s version of critique is unlikely to get more nuanced than her calling the U.S. a “big, bold, beautiful, complicated” nation, as she did while introducing Team USA to the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics through a rework of “Ya Ya.”
“Subversion, like art, is subjective. What one person believes is subversive, another may not,” contends Kennedy. “Beyoncé spurred an avalanche of dialogue by putting part of the flag on the Cowboy Carter cover, but without her directly offering her POV around the usage, it’s left to interpretation. Someone will read it as a nod to the rich Black cowboy tradition from her native Texas. Someone will read it as [a] reclamation of the flag’s symbolism. Someone will see it as a critique on racism and imperialism. Someone will see it as a moment of patriotism. It could be all, or none, of those things.”
To paraphrase Vice President Harris, nothing falls out of a coconut tree, and everything exists in a greater context. It’s why the Cowboy Carter cover courted so much controversy, arriving mere months after a major kerfuffle over Israeli screenings of Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour documentary.
“We still have to understand how this comes across at this particular time,” reminds cultural critic and writer Hanna Phifer. “We’re living in such a regressive time where a lot of rights are being [repealed and] people all over the world are being slaughtered in the name of America and American imperialism. If you are going to align yourself with this symbolism, this is what you are aligning yourself with.”
As long as America exists, there will be artists who want access to its iconography, artists who find it important to critique the empire and artists who prioritize capital just as much as art, if not more. As mainstream hip-hop has gotten more and more intertwined with capitalism, artists have continued to reach for the flag in ways that feel more like they’re simply trying to access the brand of America rather than offering leveled, contextualized critiques of the empire and what it stands for. (None of the artists, creative directors, or photographers discussed here responded to Billboard’s requests for comment about their respective uses of Americana iconography).
But is our current climate even properly equipped to give mainstream Black artists that space to make those kinds of critiques?
“Frankly, I don’t believe we are in a culture where mainstream artists have the space to offer critique, especially mainstream Black artists,” says Kennedy. “Part of the discourse around Beyoncé’s usage of the imagery is rooted in the belief that she’s too rich and disconnected [from] the community to actually understand why anyone would feel a way about her having an American flag on the cover of her album. Who are we to tell Beyoncé how she can or can’t use that imagery? How is that our individual right any more than it is hers to pose on a white horse with the flag if that’s what she wants to do?”
As hip-hop enters its second half-century and continues to exist amid late-stage pop capitalism, artists continue to wade into murky waters with their flag use, yet they do so in provocative ways that, at best, help incite helpful and necessary conversations. If only they were willing to go a bit further with it. And such is the evergreen tension between what an artist wants to do regarding their usage of such loaded iconography, and what we, as consumers and supporters, may want them to do — especially when they share our hue.
“You’re never going to have mainstream Black artists that will critique the left from the further left,” Dr. Neal argues. “That makes you a fringe artist, that makes you Chuck D, in a kind of way. There’s a place for those artists, but those are never the mainstream ones.”