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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
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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?
Source:Getty
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
Source:Getty
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
Source:Getty
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.
Trending on Billboard
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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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Source: Sarah Stier / Getty Images for Netflix
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
Source:Getty Images for Netflix
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.
Trending on Billboard
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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.
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Kendrick Lamar has finally dropped his retort to Drake, and it’s a doozy. Called “Euphoria,” K. Dot went in on The Boy for over 6 minutes and seems to address just about every issue social media has been discussing ever since he dropped that verse on “Like That” and all the reactions it inspired (particularly “Push Ups”).
At 11:24am ET, Kendrick dropped a YouTube link with the worse “euphoria,” and heads have been analyzing the ensuing verbal beatdown ever since. The track opens on a cool jazz vibe with Kendrick using an almost spoken word delivery, saying, “Them super powers gettin’ neutralized, I can only watch in silence, Tthe famous actor we once knew is lookin’ paranoid, now it’s spiralling/You movin’ just like a degenerate, heavy antic, it’s feelin’ distasteful, why calculate you, not as calculated, I can even predict your angles.”
Alright then. Soon enough, K. Dot goes to a frantic flow loaded with barbs aimed at the 6 God’s dome. And there are plenty. Like, “I got a son to raise but I can see you don’t know nothing ’bout that.” Or, “When I see you stand by Sexyy Red, I believe you see two bad bitches, I believe you don’t like women, that’s real competition, you might pop ass with ’em.”
And if you really know, you caught the homage to DMX.
Listen to “Euphoria” below, and check out the reactions in the gallery. Yeah, Xitter is going to be talking about this one for days.
This story is developing.
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Steve Aoki is obsessed with numbers. It’s why the Grammy Award-nominated producer and mega-DJ has a seven-page rider specifying the exact weight and dimensions of the sheet cakes he hurls into the delirious crowds of fans who flock to his shows holding signs that say, “CAKE ME!” It’s why, despite an “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” tattoo on the back of his neck, he knows per one epigenetic measure that he has slowed his aging process down to 0.8 out of 1 thanks to a rigorous biohacking regimen that includes tracking how much REM sleep he’s getting on his WHOOP watch. And it’s why, when asked why he wants to live so long in the first place, he equates life to winning the lottery and quotes the statistical probability of simply being alive on this earth as 1 in 400 trillion.
But there is one number Aoki prefers not to know: the amount he’s getting paid per show. He worries that knowledge might subconsciously affect the energy he brings from one massive outdoor stage to another, that it might cloud the sacred union he feels between himself, the lucky lottery winner, and his fans, who tend to embody the rollicking frenzy of a punk show that Aoki has injected into electronic dance music (EDM).
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It’s a high that he says he has grown addicted to, which explains why he DJ’d 209 shows last year and holds the 2012 Guinness World Record for most traveled musician in one year, and (though they’ve since been broken) the 2014 records for longest crowd cheer and most glow sticks lit simultaneously. It’s fitting, then, that on this Wednesday evening in April, Aoki is Zooming with me from a lounge at the San Francisco International Airport as he prepares for a flight to Australia, where he’ll DJ five shows in 48 hours before headlining the Siam Songkran Music Festival in Bangkok. At 46 years old — or 36.8, if you take into account his 0.8 aging rate according to TruDiagnostic, an epigenetic testing company — Aoki has little interest in slowing down.
“I still have the thirst,” he says. “I still have the enthusiasm, and with music, there’s no greater energy force. There’s no greater high than playing your records at your show in front of a crowd that knows your music and everyone’s just f–king lit up. Like, there’s nothing greater than that.”
Whatever you might make of his persona as a fist-pumping, hair-shaking, Takis-munching, EDM-spinning, sheet cake-throwing party bro who seems to have perpetually lost his shirt, it’s hard to dispute that over the last two decades, Aoki has firmly established himself as a pioneering figure in the world of dance music. That he has done so globally and exuberantly — despite the reserved Asian American stereotypes he grew up absorbing — is a testament to his unabashed confidence, unrelenting work ethic and entrepreneurial instincts, which extend far beyond music.
For starters, there’s the all-electric race boat team he recently purchased to compete in the UIM E1 World Championship against competing owners Tom Brady and Rafael Nadal; the Hiroquest graphic novel he published in April with comic book legend Jim Krueger, about a genetically augmented meta-human who journeys into the multiverse 400 years into the future; and his various forays into science and tech, from investing in brain research through his Aoki Foundation to ventures in cryptocurrency, esports, non-fungible tokens and cryogenics. In 2022, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa selected Aoki as one of eight civilians to join his SpaceX moon trip, with a yet-to-be-determined launch date.
“There’s always a new thing every year, and the whole team kind of shrugs their shoulders like, ‘OK, let’s go learn how to do this,’ ” says Matt Colon, Aoki’s business manager of 20 years and the global president of music at talent management agency YMU.
“He embodies that spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship that is so inspiring,” says Paris Hilton, a friend of Aoki’s since she was 16 who released her first-ever collaboration with him late last year. “Every venture he takes on, he does it with a sense of style and purpose. He has turned his artistic vision into an empire, and that’s something that I deeply respect and connect with in my own business endeavors.”
Balenciaga hoodie and jacket.
Jessica Chou
Colon sees it as his job to foster his client’s excitement — even if he admits that roughly half of Aoki’s business ideas “get dismissed kind of out of hand because once you get into the details, they don’t really make sense.” Still, Colon notes that it was that out-of-the-box thinking that allowed Aoki to break into the industry in the first place, by way of Dim Mak Records, the Los Angeles-based label he founded in 1996.
In the early ’00s, Dim Mak became a tastemaker by signing acts like The Kills, Bloc Party and Gossip. But perhaps more significantly, Aoki became godfather of the scene that coalesced around Dim Mak Tuesdays, the indie sleaze Hollywood party he threw from 2003 to 2014 to promote the label. With then-rising acts like M.I.A., Lady Gaga, Kesha and Justice clamoring to perform and buzzy guests like the Olsen twins all enshrined by the famed nightlife blog The Cobrasnake, the party took on a life of its own.
Aoki only started DJ’ing to fill the time before performances at Dim Mak Tuesdays, and in the beginning, “he admittedly was not a great DJ,” Colon says. But Aoki attributes his success today to his willingness then to keep trying, to fail in public, sweat bullets and then ask for help. “I don’t have any kids, but if and when I do, that’s one of the most important things I want to share: You need to have that shamelessness,” he says. “It’s such an important rule of thumb.”
“He’s an early adopter,” Colon adds. “It’s in his blood, and it’s often because he doesn’t have the shame of being afraid to ask. Most people just wait until it’s offered to them. Steve will always ask.”
Despite his far-reaching business interests, Colon says DJ’ing remains Aoki’s primary revenue stream, both internationally and in Las Vegas, where he lives and maintains residencies at three venues. As a producer, he has proved agile at working deftly across genres, collaborating with everyone from Linkin Park and Hayley Kiyoko to Lil Jon and Diplo.
“When you’re on the road that much, you come across new people, new trends and new sounds,” Lil Jon says. “He’s just really easy to work with. He’s not overly pushy in the studio — he lets me do my thing but still has input. Neither of us half-ass anything.”
Versace shirt.
Jessica Chou
Aoki’s reach also spans continents, having worked with South Korea’s BTS, Mexico’s Danna Paola, Japan’s Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and Colombia’s Maluma. This hodgepodge has bolstered Aoki’s international appeal; he says his global fan base is particularly receptive in Central and South America.
He plans to release his ninth album this summer, featuring collaborations with Big Freedia, a rework of Lil Jon’s “Get Low” (called “Get Lower”) and a lead single with Ne-Yo called “Heavenly Hell” — a phrase he’s quick to point out inspired the title of a chapter he’s working on in the sequel to Hiroquest, which also happens to be the name of his last two albums that also spawned a line of trading cards meant to bolster his graphic novel’s intellectual property (IP) across platforms.
This is the way Aoki’s mind works — seemingly at its best when it has at least seven tabs open, all the better to connect the various dots that compose the Aokiverse. It’s an impulse he attributes to his father, Rocky Aoki, the wrestler turned powerboat racer turned founder of Japanese restaurant chain Benihana, who died in 2008 but remains Aoki’s North Star, a larger-than-life figure who seemingly did it all.
“He would just fly in like Superman, coming in to pick me up and take me on an adventure, and then drop me off [at] the humble abode of my mom’s house,” says Aoki, who was raised by his mother, Chizuru, whom he calls “my rock,” in Newport Beach, Calif. “So when I was with him, I just experienced all these things that he was doing. Like ‘Oh, my God. This life is crazy over there.’ ”
I was in college while you were coming up in the early aughts, and it felt kind of shocking to see someone who was Japanese American, like I am, take up so much space so aggressively in alternative culture. Were you thinking about ideas of representation back then?
I’m not going to go down memory lane too deep, but I remember when I first got into music in high school, the first thing I did was sing. You just didn’t see Asian singers. You just didn’t see Asian people in music, period, and if you did, they were really quiet, like the singer of Hoobastank, whom I looked up to. Actually, I am reworking [the Hoobastank song] “The Reason.” I guess we can announce it here: There’s a Steve Aoki-Hoobastank record coming soon. But it was cool to actually work with that guy [singer Doug Robb] because I remember looking up to him when I was in high school.
The other main artist I looked up to big time was Chad Hugo from The Neptunes. This is when I first got into production, around 2003. I was in L.A., and I remember hiring someone on Craigslist to teach me how to use Pro Tools because I just started dabbling on the computer. And I was like, “Chad Hugo, that’s my hero because he’s Asian, but he’s also quiet.” I’m always like, “Where are the loud ones?” I wanted to see someone Asian that’s just loud and in charge and commanding audiences.
Balenciaga hoodie, robe, jeans and shoes.
Jessica Chou
Did you become that character because you wanted to see it, or did that exuberance onstage come naturally to you?
One of the really important things that music gave me was a voice because I really, truly felt invisible. Growing up in Newport Beach, the statistic was 96% of the population is white — this is in the ’80s and ’90s. So I’m already kind of out there, I’m already different, and Asians, generally speaking, don’t rock the boat. Japanese people are quiet. My mom’s quiet.
Your dad wasn’t quiet.
No, he wasn’t, but I was raised by my mom. I mean, I’m sure I was inspired by my dad going, “Holy sh-t, my dad’s doing his thing and is successful, and it’s not bothering him that he’s Japanese, he’s just connecting with the world.” That is what I loved — the idea that it shouldn’t bother you.
But when I was a kid, I was bothered, and that’s where music gave me the voice. You could just belt your sh-t out. A lot of it was just understanding who I was, finding my identity through the music and allowing me to be unabashed about it. I grew up in the punk hardcore scene, and they thrive off that. It’s thriving off these underrepresented voices. That’s how the culture grows. So I was in the right place to foster this kind of attitude to be heard.
As someone who’s known for being a prolific collaborator, how do you connect with other artists? Do you still reach out to people?
It goes both ways for sure. In some cases, if we meet in person, the energy of that meetup ends up becoming something. When I met up with BTS in 2016 at a house in L.A., we just hit it off really well, and in 2017, I ended up remixing “MIC Drop,” which later led to [the BTS collaborations] “Waste It on Me” and “The Truth Untold.” But sometimes I just do cold DMs. I’ve always been very unabashed about that. Whoever I want to work with I just send a DM, and if it hits, it hits.
What’s your success rate?
I would say my success rate is pretty low. You know, of all the collabs I’ve done that are out, I’ve reached out to far greater [than have reached out to me], like 80%.
How does that make you feel?
It’s like a game of baseball. That’s how I see it. I don’t have a problem as long as I hit the ball and I get the home runs, you know? Like the best baseball player in the world hits the ball three out of 10 times. So if you hit the ball two out of 10 times, you’re actually above average. If you hit the ball once, you’ve made the cut. If I can make a record that’s meaningful to culture, meaningful to my fans, meaningful to what I’m doing, what my purpose is, then it’s worth it and I’m excited. I never lose my excitement on this stuff. I think that question would provoke a different answer if I was tired. If I was jaded. If I wasn’t really into what I do. When you love what you do, you still fight for it. You still have the hunger.
Balenciaga hoodie, jacket, pants and shoes.
Jessica Chou
What do you like about collaborating with such a wide range of artists? I think some producers would find that really challenging.
It is. It’s extremely challenging. It’s challenging on many different levels, too. It’s not just challenging on the creative side, but it’s challenging to your fans. Like whenever I started collaborating in a different space, I would get a lot of hate; I get a lot of criticism.
What’s an example?
When I started working with hip-hop artists in the early 2010s, there was a lot of negative criticism, even when I did Kolony, which was an entirely hip-hop album that I produced in 2017. You know, I’m a sensitive guy. I don’t like seeing negative sh-t just pile up.
Do record sales matter to you?
Honestly, no. In the beginning, it does matter, when you have your first hit, when you have something that’s just catching steam. But then, going back to your question about collaborating across different genres, I can’t think too much about what the world thinks. Of course, it’s incredible if I have a song that breaks 100 million streams on Spotify. That’s pretty f–king cool. But I can’t put my emotional place there. That would probably make me jaded. That would probably hinder my creative spirit, 100%. It’s more about, “How does it penetrate the culture? Do the fans at the festivals and the shows sing along? Are they connected to it?”
It sounds like the measurement for your success is more experiential than data-driven. How else do you gauge that?
Yeah, it is something that grows over time. You could sort of gauge it on some level of metrics, but then there’s a lot of other layers. You can’t just type in “What’s Steve Aoki’s biggest song on the festival circuit?” If you type that in, you might not get the correct answers. [Artificial intelligence] cannot generate that. For example, “No Beef” is an old song of mine that I made with Afrojack in 2011. That was before streaming was actually a big deal, but everyone knows the vocals to that at my shows.
As an artist, what are your thoughts on AI?
I’m still a novice in the usage or utility of AI, but I use it mainly for lyric generation. It has actually helped me quite a lot. If I have an idea of what lyrics I want to put down on a record, I’ll work that out with AI, and if I have a songwriting team in my house and we get stumped, we can always use AI. As far as sampling, I’ve used AI to get a particular female sound using certain words, and that has been fantastic.
What about the fear of it replacing producers and DJs entirely?
See, of course that’s the conversation topic because the possibilities are endless. But when that happens, I’m assuming, just like everything that we do with technology, we’re building safeguards. And you can’t stop AI. It’s not like, “Oh, f–k. AI is going to take away our jobs. F–k technology, it’s going to take away jobs.” You can’t. You just have to ride the wave with it and just start building safeguards as we go. We’ve been doing this the whole time with the internet.
Versace top, shirt, jeans, and shoes.
Jessica Chou
Let’s pivot to another serious topic: How does it feel to throw a sheet cake into someone’s face?
OK, there’s a lot of points here. One, I think it really goes along with this idea that people are singing your songs at your show and your music is their music. So we’re all part of the same culture. You’re partially responsible because you created that music and that experience. That’s what the cake is. I’ve been able to share an experience that was such a silly idea, and now it’s a thing. As a culture, people want to get caked, and it’s a very Steve Aoki thing.
How many years have you been doing it now?
Thirteen.
Wow. That’s a lot of cake.
Yeah, over 20,000 cake faces. It’s pretty epic.
How consciously are you aware of yourself, Steve Aoki, as a brand?
It’s interesting because when I see “Steve Aoki” on things or I see the logo, I look at it as a company. And I’m just part of that company.
You’re just another worker?
(Laughs.) I mean, really. It’s like, “Oh, my God. There’s a person with a Steve logo or a tattoo on his arm.” It does excite me. I’m like, “Wow, that’s so incredible.” But that’s the music, you know? It’s not me personally. So I finally started separating myself from that because I’m the same kind of fan. I have a band [tattooed] on my back that inspired me when I was in high school called Gorilla Biscuits. It’s not someone’s name, but Steve Aoki is like a band to someone. So I understand the way music moves people and why you do that. It’s a community. That’s how I see the brand.
I think a lot of this is not just about the music, too; it’s the experience, you know? And the experience itself is something that can last a lifetime. That’s why the live show is so important. It’s not just about being a producer in the studio and getting the music out there and having people connect with the music in their homes. A lot of my IP is based on the actual experience [of a live show], and unfortunately, I can’t clone myself because as an entrepreneur, you would think, “How do you scale that?”
Is that why you play so many shows?
Yeah. It’s like you get this momentum going when things are happening, and I’ve seen a lot of friends, a lot of artists, taking their brick and just disappearing. And they didn’t have the same momentum to come back as strong as they were.
Are you scared of that happening to you?
I am. I think I am. I mean, I don’t want to say that, but I think it does have this effect on me because the thing is, I love what I do. Like, to be able to be onstage and the high that you get after a show, it’s just incredible.
What’s the secret to keeping this so fun after doing it for so long?
I’m glad you asked this question. I just was in South Africa and I did two shows out there, and during my extra time, I worked on music with two South African artists. I actually connected with more African artists from different regions as well and their beats, like Afrobeats and amapiano, have definitely been coming up inside my beats. The sounds, the rhythms, the percussions, I have a strong affinity to this music. That was so much fun. That’s what keeps things going.
I think being a global artist, being able to travel all the time, my natural way to connect with different cultures is to musically connect and collaborate with different people of that culture. And fortunately, they’ve allowed me to work with them in different capacities that have brought out some of these incredible global records that connect my sound to their sound. And the more and more I do it, the more exciting it is and the more it’s connecting with a whole different world of people, with a different culture. You see it at the shows. It just becomes more exciting to do more outside of what you normally do. It’s a challenge, too, and I love the challenge.
This story will appear in the April 27, 2024, issue of Billboard.