genre hiphop

Whens she’s not making music, chances are you’ll find Tinashe (aka SniperNashe) sniping away at bad guys in Call of Duty: Warzone. The singer loves to talk about her obsession with the game — including with Billboard last August — and all that chatter has paid of in a new promo featuring Tinashe hyping the return of the Verdansk map.

And even if some people still look sideways at her game skills, she’s not sweating it. “I think it’s something that you kind of expect with the territory and within the culture, and something that I’m definitely used to,” she told Rolling Stone of the side-eye women gamers still get sometimes. “Gaming culture is super huge, and especially women — young women — [are] an underappreciated fan community. So, it’s really nice to be able to represent that. And yeah, hopefully with more representation, the less we’ll have those kind of stigmas.”

Because of her obsession, the “Nasty” vocalist told the magazine that she always brings her PlayStation console on tour to set up in venues before her shows. “It’s one of the ways that I can still stay connected with the things I love to do at home, because you have so much downtime on the road before shows,” she said. “If I’m flying show to show, I probably won’t bring it because it’ll just be a little bit of a hassle going through security, but whenever we’re on a bus tour, I definitely always bring it.”

Her focus on the game is so intense, in fact, that she admitted she’d rather play than work on new music when she’s on the road. “I’m not really a big fan of recording while I’m touring because it’s hard for me to split my energy and attention that way,” she said of her attention to Call of Duty‘s free-to-play first-person shooter game that debuted in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic when she, and everyone else, had a lot of free time at home. “But now the Match My Freak Tour is done, and I’m just doing more spot dates, a couple here and there. So, now I’m really kind of more focused on creative mode.”

At Billboard’s Women in Music 2025 event in March, the Tinashe promised now that her dates are over she “excited to get in there [the studio] and work on what’s next musicwise.”

Watch Tinashe describe the sniper tower rampage that earned her her killer nickname in the promo video for the return of the beloved original Verdansk map below.

It’s been seven years since Public Enemy leader Chuck D released a solo single. But on Friday (April 18) the lyrical Hard Rhymer came back into the frame with the psychedelic bomb track “New Gens.” A swirl of PE’s signature hard-hitting beats, layered samples and D’s twisty wordplay, it opens with the rapper borrowing last presidential election’s Democrat diss of choice.

“Weird, I’m weird too/ But damn, you weird/ Can’t stand the way you, goddamn you weird/ Oh way you can’t see, but can you listen for a minute?/ If you cannot see it, but cannot hear it/ Whoa, new gens can’t dance to this,” he booms over the free jazz-like track featuring rock guitar, vintage VHS tape educational videos samples, blaring horns and a disjointed drum track.

“Here right now the place to be/ Why everybody’s always pickin’ on we?/ We the people, ‘crossed all ages/ Now joined by a screen between/ Called screenagers,” he intones in the video that features a collage of stock b-boy and rollerskating footage from the 1970s and ’80s, news reels and fresh film of Chuck chilling on a couch having a drink. “And don’t forget, new gens I love y’all/ Have a ball,’” D says in a shout-out to the current crop of MCs.

Stetsasonic legend Schooly D jumps into frame in the final stretch to amp things up with a frenetic guest spot.

“They say I got no filter/ I’m wonderin’ if it’s true/ But when you speak the truth/ Some punks ain’t into you,” he raps before adding the cold hard coda, “Some people claim they legends/ But don’t put nothin’ out.”

The single is the first taste of D’s upcoming solo album, Radio Armageddon, which is due out on May 18. The 14-track follow-up to 2018’s Celebration of Ignorance will find Chuck surrounded by some of his old school microphone brethren, from Schooly D to Philly rapper Phill Most Chill and Donald D and Jazzy Jay of the Universal Zulu Nation. Other guests include hip-hop’s original hype woman, Son of Bazerk’s 1/2 Pint, ULTRAMAG7, N.Y. MC Miranda Writes and artists from D’s SpitSLAM Record label, The Impossebulls and Blak Madeen.

Chuck will be on the road with PE this summer, playing a run of festivals in the U.S. and Europe in May and June before joining Guns N’ Roses for a run of European shows this summer.

Check out the video for “New Gens” and the album’s track list below.

Radio Armageddon tracklist:

Tommy Richman and Sexyy Red are “Actin Up” together on the new remix that dropped on Friday (April 18).

“Bend it over, shake that a–, show that print/ Clean a– bi—, smell good, I ain’t got no scent/ Everybody lookin’, I’m the baddest in this b—h/ Got some booty shorts on, coochie fat, I’m feelin’ thick,” she raps on her verse.

Richman originally released “Actin Up” in February via Brent Faiyaz‘s ISO Supremacy and Pulse Records. “Actin Up,” which employs a steel drum pattern similar to that of Soulja Boy’s 2007 pop-rap smash “Crank That,” arrived months after his debut studio album, COYOTE. The 11-track project included the Billboard Hot 100 No. 2 hit “Million Dollar Baby” and “Devil Is a Lie,” which hit No. 2 on Rhythmic Airplay.

“This is a big record, but this s–t doesn’t define me,” he told Billboard about “Million Dollar Baby” in his Chartbreaker interview last June. “I’m using this as ‘We’re here. We arrived.’ Not as ‘We made it!’ This is the start of a run.”

The Woodbridge-based artist is currently on the Coyote Tour, with a handful of upcoming international stops left in Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and London.

On the other hand, Redd has released a handful of singles this year, from “Fat Juicy & Wet” with Bruno Mars, “YN” with PlaqueBoyMax, BabyChiefDoit, LAZER DIM 700 and Baby Kia, and “Hoochie Coochie.” The St. Louis rapper rang in her 27th birthday earlier this week with Justin Bieber, her “WHATCHU KNO ABOUT ME” collaborator GloRilla and more at The Players Club.

Listen to “Actin Up” remix below.