genre hiphop
Page: 14
Young Thug was behind bars for the duration of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle last year, but was kept in the loop thanks to his girlfriend Mariah The Scientist.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Thugger was asked about the K. Dot and Drizzy battle dominating conversation in hip-hop last year during his interview with GQ on Friday (April 25), as well as how he was name-dropped by Lamar during his “Not Like Us” diss.
“Yeah, [Kendrick] just spoke on people’s name in Atlanta. I don’t know what that was about,” he said before making his allegiance to Drake known. “I’m a Drake fan.”
Trending on Billboard
Kendrick attacked Drake’s ties to Atlanta in the third verse of “Not Like Us” by naming artists he’s worked with extensively in the past. “21 gave you false street cred/ Thug made you feel like you a slime in your head/ Quavo said you can be from Northside,” he raps.
While he didn’t address Kendrick directly, Thug hopped on X when he was in jail last year and called for Drake, Metro Boomin and Future to stop feuding. “@Drake @1future @MetroBoomin we all bruddas. Music aint the same without us collabin,” he wrote.
Speaking to Billboard in 2024, Mariah The Scientist explained that she kept Thug up to date on cultural events like the Drake and Kendrick battle when she would talk to him while he was locked up.
“I tell him everything. I might tell him too much,” she said. “I play him the [diss] songs over the phone and shit. He’s a lover of music in general. He fucks with everybody. I don’t think he would ever be able to – let me not speak for him.”
She continued: “He love music though. He thinks it’s interesting, for sure. We were listening to some of the songs. Not all of them, because now I’ve gotten lost. In the beginning, I was like, ‘Hey, there’s a tizzy going on.’ I played him some of it. I feel like those two people are both great rappers. With all of the rappers with the guy and the girl rappers, granted it’s cool for the craft, and to be able to keep up with that — because let me not lie and say there’s no competitive energy in the music industry. Because there is.”
In the past, Thug and Drake have joined forces on a plethora of hits including “Way 2 Sexy,” “Ice Melts,” “Sacrifices,” “It’s Up,” “Solid,” “Oh U Went” and more.
After regaining his freedom in October, Thugger is getting back to music in his own right as he delivered his first single of 2025 on Friday while teaming up with Future for “Money on Money.” Look for Thug’s UY SCUTI album to arrive in May.
Watch the full interview with Young Thug below.
Summer Walker said both of her birthing experiences were life-threatening, and that her first birth lasted over two days. In an interview with Mariah The Scientist for Summer Walker’s Over It Radio show on Apple Music 1, the latter spoke a bit about what it was like giving birth, and said both times were incredibly […]
Erica Banks is clearing the air about allegations she sounds like other rappers, including the most recent comparisons to GloRilla. The “Buss It” rapper hopped on X on Thursday (April 23) to push back against assumptions she’s trying to sound like other female rappers. “I don’t sound like anyone,” she wrote in her post. “I […]
Young Thug has a lot to say. After being released from prison in October following a two-year-plus bid as part of the YSL RICO trial, Thugger has remained quiet. That is, until Friday (April 25), when his first all-encompassing interview since regaining his freedom dropped via GQ .
In addition to his case, jail and his relationship with Gunna, Thug gave his unfiltered thoughts on the state of the rap game today.
Trending on Billboard
“I think the numbers could be better, but yes,” he said when asked if the rap game’s in a good place. “I think a lot of people rapping about the same thing. Ain’t nobody bringing something that you could actually watch. You can enjoy the music and enjoy the things they do, but we used to make movies. Now it’s just quick. We gotta get back to movies to where like people respect it.”
Thug expanded on the dominance of simplicity. “It was just a big wave of nothingness running the game,” he said. “Super-simple videos, not really high-priced videos. That wave came in really strong. Even the people that was doing high-priced videos, they started doing regular videos because that’s what was popping. We did it so long where we’re comfortable with that. We don’t want to do stuff like this that takes time.”
The YSL boss also spoke on his friendship with the late Rich Homie Quan. Thug explained that Quan wanted to do his own thing and pursue a solo career, which led to them not releasing more music together.
“I think we just grew and became our own bosses and men,” he said. “We were getting bigger, so I wanted to do my own thing. I think he did. I love music, but I don’t care about songs. I’ll have a No. 1 hit record song and I’ll put you on it. Whoever go to the top with you, go to the top. I don’t care. I would’ve been OK with keep doing it.”
Even after spending more than two years away, Thug hears his melodic influence across today’s hip-hop. “Absolutely, you hear some s–t and you’re like, ‘Me, for sure.’ You never rapped like that.”
Thug returned with his first single of 2025 on Friday as well, which finds him alongside a familiar face in Future as the Super Slimey duo teamed up for “Money on Money.” Thugger is headed toward releasing his UY SCUTI album, which is rumored to arrive in May.
Watch the full interview below.
DDG says his expensive lifestyle is causing him to live paycheck to paycheck. On his latest livestream on Wednesday (April 23), DDG confessed that despite having a sizable income, he constantly has to work to keep up with his expenses. “I have to make money. My bills are high,” DDG said. “Did I tell you […]
Flo Milli is a mom. The Alabama rapper revealed that she gave birth by sharing a photo of her baby boy on Instagram Friday (April 25).
Flo melted the collective hearts of her followers with a picture holding her baby boy sporting a diaper. She also made sure to let her fans know that they need to take their job of protecting their nephew seriously. “Yall bett not play bout yall internet nephew,” Flo wrote.
All of the uncles and aunties flooded Flo Milli’s IG comment section, with congratulatory messages from Latto, Halle Bailey, GloRilla, Rubi Rose and more.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
According to Vibe, Flo revealed that the father is rapper G6reddot when she shared photos from her baby shower showing the two together.
Trending on Billboard
Shortly after Flo revealed she had given birth, G6reddot also announced his son’s arrival on Instagram with a carousel of photos featuring the newborn. “Welcome my first born sixx,” he captioned the post. “it’s not easy being a black father in America Dey already counting me out.”
Flo’s followers knew she was going into labor when she posted a photo of a hospital bed on Thursday (April 24,) and captioned it, “yall pray for me.” The “Never Lose Me” rapper received support from J.I.D., Wale, Latto once again and many others in her comments.
Flo Milli confirmed her pregnancy in November when she took to X writing: “Flo mommy s—t … I can’t even see my coochie nomore that’s crazy.”
Weeks prior to her confirmation, pregnancy rumors ran rampant on social media after Flo posted a clip featuring her previewing new music, which saw a man rubbing her baby bump. She pushed back, claiming to be “bloated” at the time.
What’s fitting is that the same song she was teasing when fans first saw her pregnant belly also arrived in full on Friday. “Gripper” features T-Pain and samples the Florida legend’s 2005 anthem “I’m N Luv (Wit a Stripper).”
Find Flo Milli and G6reddot’s photos of the baby boy below.
Young Thug has spoken about his relationship with Gunna in a new interview with GQ. The Atlanta rap star finally breaks down everything from his rumored falling out with Rich Homie Quan to his lengthy and chaotic RICO Trial that kept him behind bars for over two years in GQ’s video cover story published Friday […]
Birdman revealed some interesting tidbits about Cash Money’s rise from New Orleans street label to mainstream powerhouse.
He sat down with Nick Cannon for the Counsel Culture Show in the episode that dropped Wednesday (April 23) to talk about how he and his older brother Ronald “Slim” Williams became success stories, and some of the early label meetings they had before signing their historic deal with Universal Records. Baby said he first took a meeting with Warner Bros. and executive Sylvia Rhone, but they weren’t really into the independent label’s music. “Sylvia Rhone said our music don’t work for them, so we just left,” he said. “I just walked out.”
Cash Money then took a meeting with legendary rap label Def Jam, but was turned down because of their artwork, which still confuses the rapper and music executive. “I went to Def Jam and met with Russell [Simmons], Lyor [Cohen] and Kevin Liles,” Baby told Nick Cannon. “This n—a Russell said he don’t like our artwork. I said, ‘This some weird s—t. I walked clean out. N—a don’t like my artwork, what about my music? You don’t care for the music? So, I left.”
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Baby then said that he and his brother almost had a deal with Priority Records, who just so happened to be in business with fellow New Orleans label No Limit headed up by Master P. However, according to him, things fell apart after the label flew them out to their offices in L.A. “I went to Priority — some weird s—t here — I go to Priority, they fly us to California,” he said. “Me and Slim, a couple of the homies, we go out there. N—a come in there and said, ‘I’m sorry, we can’t do the deal. They said because Master P said, ‘If we sign y’all, he’s leaving.’ I just jumped on a jet and went back to New Orleans was like, ‘F—k it, we just gonna grind with it.”
Trending on Billboard
Finally, Universal came calling and the two sides were able to carve out one of the more historic deals in music history. “And then Mel Lewinter and them called and I said this my last trip. I ain’t taking no more motherf—king flights to New York or California,” he recalled. “F—k it, we’ll thug it out. I’m still making millions, they gonna come down here and f—k with me, I ain’t going back. And that was my last flight.”
Master P and Birdman have seemed to have moved past those early issues, as the New Limit founder gave Lil Wayne key to New Orleans alongside Mayor LaToya Cantrell last year. He also said there weren’t any issues between the two camps when he went on No Chill with Gilbert Arenas in 2021, saying, “A lot of people thought, ‘Oh, they got beef,’ but, man, we lived right up the street from each other.”
Watch the full conversation below.
Texas rapper BigXthaPlug has carved out a nice career for himself over the past half-decade, amassing 16 hits and three top 20s on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, a handful of appearances on the back half of the Hot 100 and a successful touring base, emerging as one of the more distinctive voices of his generation of hip-hop artists. But he was always more than just a rapper, and his multi-genre Southern roots first came to the fore with his 2022 song “Texas,” the video for which saw him decked out in full cowboy regalia as he rapped about his home state over a country-inflected acoustic slide guitar.
The song, among other things, proved BigX’s versatility. But it also opened the door to something else: the country music community. And now, as his latest single “All The Way” featuring Bailey Zimmerman spends its second week in the top 10 of the Hot 100 after zooming in with a No. 4 debut last week, BigX has a bonafide smash hit country single, with a full country-infused project on the way.
Trending on Billboard
It’s a huge moment for BigX as he explores his country interests, and also a big pop moment for the Texas MC as well, representing far and away the biggest hit of his career so far. But it’s also a big moment for UnitedMasters, the company founded in 2017 by veteran record executive Steve Stoute that releases his music — and scored its own biggest hit so far with “All The Way,” too. (The song is officially credited as BigXthaPlug/UnitedMasters/Atlantic.) And it helps UnitedMasters vp of music/head of A&R Mike Weiss earn the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Weiss talks about what went into making the record, BigX’s country “side quest,” the crowded distribution space of the music business and how UM has helped develop BigX by following his vision. “The plan is simple: stay true to BigX, lean into organic collaborations and let the music speak,” Weiss says. “We’re not mashing together genres for the sake of it. We’re building something that reflects all sides of who he is as an artist and a person.”
This week, BigXthaPlug and Bailey Zimmerman’s “All The Way” spends its second week in the top 10 of the Hot 100, at number eight. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?
This record didn’t happen overnight. It took a complete team effort to get us here with a vision for an overarching artist plan, rather than one single. My partner David Melhado and I sat down a year ago with the idea to start mapping out a course for a country-inspired BigX project. We knew from the start that authenticity had to be the foundation. If BigX didn’t feel it, it wasn’t going to happen and that filter guided every decision we made.
Around that time, BigX started spending time with a number of country artists who had become fans after his breakout single “Texas.” We knew there was an opportunity here. We have an amazing team of core producers in Charley Cooks, Tony Coles and Bandplay. They started working on ideas for a country direction that stayed true to BigX’s roots. The initial demo to “All the Way” was Ben Johnson’s vocals over a guitar that hinted at something special. We knew it needed to be “BigX-ified,” so Bandplay built a sound that was unmistakably BigX. We have an amazing A&R team that played it for BigX. He loved the record, and cut it immediately. BigX has some of the best instincts. He trusts his gut and doesn’t miss.
The song exploded out of the gate, debuting last week at No. 4 on the Hot 100 and soaring in at No. 1 on the Streaming Songs, Digital Song Sales and Hot Country Songs charts and at No. 3 on Hot Rap Songs. Why did the song have such a huge immediate impact?
Back in February, BigX teased an early version of the record on Instagram. There was no set release date at the time, but the response was immediate and explosive. Within days, fans ripped the sound from the Instagram post and flooded TikTok with tens of thousands of videos. It was clear we had something special on our hands.
Even with that momentum, we resisted the urge to drop the record prematurely. There was external pressure to release it fast and not “lose the heat,” but we knew that a moment this big deserved a proper runway. We took the time to create the right content, shoot the music video and prepare a full rollout that matched the energy we were seeing online. We were also mindful that this was the first single off the project, and once we launched, we needed to be ready to move with full force.
That patience and discipline paid off. By the time the song dropped, there was such pent up demand that the record exploded.
With a song like that with so much immediate interest, what can you guys do to keep the momentum going?
Our priority is building sustained momentum for BigX as an artist, not just capitalizing on a single moment. From the beginning, our focus has been longterm artist development, and this moment is just one chapter in a much bigger story that BigX is telling with this country-inspired project.
We have an incredible body of work lined up, and we’re deep in the process of mapping out the next singles and the full rollout. Consistency is everything. With BigX, we take the approach of always being on cycle. We’re keeping our foot on the gas and continuing to invest in the music, visuals and storytelling that got us here, while building towards the next big moment.
After landing 16 songs on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, this is BigX’s first song that touches the country genre. What are your plans to make sure that his crossover there works?
Our intention isn’t to fully cross BigX into country. This project is more of a creative “side quest” that allows him to showcase his versatility and explore new territory without abandoning his core. It’s about expanding, not switching lanes.
This isn’t a trend-chasing move, it’s rooted in who BigX is. Back in 2022, we released “Texas,” a country-inspired hip-hop record where he was literally in cowboy boots and a cowboy hat in the video. That record sparked early interest from the country community and planted the seed for what we’re doing now. This moment is a natural evolution of that foundation, not a sudden shift.
The plan is simple: stay true to BigX, lean into organic collaborations and let the music speak. We’re not mashing together genres for the sake of it. We’re building something that reflects all sides of who he is as an artist and a person.
This is the biggest song in UnitedMasters’ history so far. What does that mean for the company?
This is an exciting moment for the company and for our team. We’ve been a partner to BigX for four years with a deep belief in artist development and doing what’s best for our artists. This shows that we can compete with anyone. We touched every aspect of the A&R process, rollout, marketing, digital and overarching strategy. This win further affirms that our model works. That independent artists with the right support can not only compete, but lead.
Just last year, we had a major global success with FloyyMenor’s “Gata Only,” the fastest Latin song in Spotify history to hit a billion streams. That was a global moment. But with “All The Way,” we’ve shown we can dominate domestically, too, and drive immediate, culture-shifting impact in the U.S. market. Delivering on both fronts shows that our approach scales. The exciting part is we’re still just getting started.
The distribution space is getting crowded. How do you make sure UnitedMasters stands apart from the competition?
We don’t see ourselves as just a distribution company, and we don’t operate like one. At UnitedMasters, we’re aiming to reimagine what a modern music company can be. Our mission is to reshape the industry by building something that lives at the intersection of a forward-thinking label, a tech-driven platform and a premium distributor.
What sets us apart is the ability to support artists at every stage of their journey, from emerging creators to global superstars, with a tiered system that scales alongside their growth. We’ve invested in world-class technology and paired it with an elite label services team that delivers across A&R, marketing, strategy and beyond. We’re not focused on just getting music to DSPs, we’re focused on building careers.
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony famously could not re-assemble earlier this month to appear on comedian John Mulaney’s live Netflix late night talk show Everybody’s Live due to what the host said was a scammer posing at the Cleveland rap crew’s phony manager. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news But […]