Hip Hop News
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Ice Cube is firing back at social media critics taking him to task for apparently being chummy with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a recently posted photo.
The Hip-Hop icon and businessman has come under scrutiny after the son of the slain Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy was in attendance at the BIG3 Basketball event held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on Sunday (July 9th). The Democratic Party presidential candidate and his campaign manager, Dennis Kucinich posed for a photo with Cube afterward which was shared to Twitter. “@Dennis_Kucinich and I spent a wonderful evening with one of our country’s most influential and outspoken civil rights leaders @icecube!”, the caption read.
The photo didn’t sit well with people online, who immediately voiced their displeasure at the West Coast legend being in a picture with Kennedy, who has been a notorious anti-vaxxer and COVID-19 denier. They also had jokes for the 69-year-old Kennedy calling him “a civil rights legend.” But it didn’t take long for the “Steady Mobbin’” rapper to issue his own tweet in response. “For all the simple minded short bus people out there. A picture is not an endorsement, dummy. Now get your ass over to bungalow 51 and STFU,” he wrote.
One fan directly wrote to Ice Cube expressing disappointment: “My brotha ice cube, I’ve been listening to you since 1993 you went from arrest the president, fuk the police, straight outta Compton, the list goes on,” they wrote. “I’m highly disappointed in you brotha, what’s your mission? Because of you I still rep the West pls tell me your not selling out.” Ice Cube’s reply was fiery: “Sellout? I work for myself. I’m self-made. How do you feed your family??? How much do you sell your time for per hour on your job?”
The AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted artist did garner some support from fans as well as from his peers, such as Chuck D of Public Enemy who tweeted out a sketch of him, writing: “Know this fact. @icecube has gone into every one of these ‘industries’ many of the masses worship… on HIS own rule and as his OWN MAN. A game that’s twisted many into demise. Not him. Know that. Seen the same dude since the day I met him. He KNOWS who he is. Know who YOU are.” Cube replied by quote-tweeting, “Thanks Big Bruh.”
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A new lawsuit claims that Ye aka Kanye West’s Donda Academy had seriously unsafe conditions including a “moldy smell.”
According to reports, a lawsuit was filed on Thursday (July 6th) in a Los Angeles courtroom by a former teacher with the school. Isaiah Meadows’ suit is the third in the last three months. In the case, the former faith and physical education teacher (who also worked at the Yeezy Christian Academy which was a predecessor) claims that he was fired from his position after expressing his concerns about grave health and safety issues at the academy. He also claims he is owed back pay as well as compensation for rent at a place near the school.
The details begin with Meadows alleging that Donda Academy was built without windows in the window frames. This left the faculty and students vulnerable to the weather outside. “In the middle of the main classroom, a skylight was left without glass inevitably allowing rain to fall directly inside, where water would soak into the floor, which would lead to a moldy smell for the next few days,” Meadows’ lawyers wrote in the suit’s documents. “The skylight was intentionally without glass because WEST expressed that he did not like glass.”
Another issue that was presented in the suit concerned the septic tank that would “overflow every other day, causing a terrible smell.” There were also “serious wiring issues” at the school, leading to an incident of an electrical fire “near the student eating area where wire was laid atop the ground, exposed.” These add on to claims brought by former teachers Cecilia Hailey, Chekarey Byers, and Timanii Meeks in the May lawsuit which include students only being allowed to wear black clothing and not going to the second floor because the rapper was “reportedly afraid of stairs.”
“The unlawful and retaliatory behavior by Mr. West and the school directors have now been documented multiple times by other former employees who never even worked together but all experienced the same horrendous treatment and witnessed the same serious health, safety, and education code violations, while all were subjected to the same fate,” attorney Ron Zambrano wrote in a statement that accompanied the lawsuit.
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Gloria Carter, the mother of Jay-Z, married her long-time partner in front of a star-studded crowd of guests.
According to HipHopDX, Carter walked down the aisle with Roxanne Wilshire on Sunday night (July 2nd) in New York City. The “99 Problems” rapper and entrepreneur was in attendance front and center with Carter’s daughter-in-law, Beyoncé. The pair were part of a glamorous guest list, which included actress and singer Kelly Rowland, Tyler Perry, Good Morning America host Robin Roberts, talent manager Corey Gamble (sans girlfriend Kris Jenner), and Tina Knowles. The ceremony and the reception reportedly lasted well into the night.
The wedding is another momentous step in Gloria Carter’s journey, which Jay-Z shed light on in the track “Smile” from 4:44, released in 2017. Initially, she wasn’t too pleased with the track according to Jay-Z in an interview on “The Shop” in 2021. “It changed the dynamic of our relationship,” he shared. But she and her son talked and understood how vital the message in the song was for people to have a better understanding of the struggles of the LGBTQ+ community. “Living in the shadow feels like the safe place to be. No harm for them, no harm for me. But life is short, and it’s time to be free. Love who you love, because life isn’t guaranteed,” Carter said in the song about being a lesbian and the difficulties she faced.
Ms. Carter related the story while at the 29th GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Media Awards in 2018. She was there to accept the Special Recognition award given to “Smile” on behalf of her son, and introduced by Robin Roberts. She went into detail about her hesitancy about the situation, and how meeting Wilshire was a moment that helped her change her stance. “Here I am. I’m loving. I’m respectful. I’m productive and I’m a human being who has a right to love who I love,” she said to close the moving speech. “So everybody — just smile, be free. Thank you and God bless.”
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Pop Smoke’s manager, Steven Victor, sat down and explained exactly what went on with the artists’ album cover designed by Virgil Abloh that caused a backlash.
The late rapper’s manager recently sat down for an interview on the latest episode of the Rap Radar podcast, which aired Friday (June 30). Victor, who also hails from Brooklyn, addressed the criticism directed at him over how he’s managed the affairs of Pop Smoke, with the album cover of Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon, and his work with the late designer Virgil Abloh.
“That was bullshit,” Victor began when asked about the controversy beginning with the fan reception for Pop Smoke’s debut posthumous album release. “People sit back and think they know, but they don’t know s–t. They’re like, ‘oh, this is not what Pop would like.’ I’m like, ‘f–k you talkin’ about?’”
Months after Pop Smoke, aka Bashar Jackson’s murder in February 2020, Victor showed off the album cover artwork from Abloh on his Instagram page. Comments piled up, with many calling the artwork from the Louis Vuitton designer “lazy” among other scathing descriptions.
He continued: “When we did the video for ‘Shake the Room,’ like that whole concept and idea was Virgil’s idea, and when we were going through the process, like at first, Pop was like—’cause, y’know, he’d never had a video like that—he was like, ‘I don’t know,’ but he trusted Virgil’s vision, so it would’ve been the same thing.”
The backlash – which included a fan petition – compelled Victor and the label to replace the cover art, and Abloh would later delete the image from his own social media accounts. Conceptual artist Ryder Riggs was then commissioned to create a new album cover. It would eventually be a chrome rose against a pitch-black background.
“I was brought on to do design and creative direction for this project, and I was experimenting with flowers in 3D at the time,” Riggs said in a Complex interview after the cover’s debut. “While I was experimenting, I realized, ‘Oh my God, this is so perfect.’ People use flowers to memorialize people, and by fixing it in metal, it’s taking something that’s fleeting and making it permanent.”
Check out the entire interview below.
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Young Thug is calling out a police officer’s claim that he’s a snitch, as his lawyers try to get the testimony thrown out before his trial.
Attorneys for the “Metro Spider” rapper filed two motions Thursday (June 29) and Friday (June 23) with the former arguing that a witness in the case who is a police detective is falsely claiming that Jeffrey Williams, aka Young Thug, confessed details of an unrelated homicide case to that detective.
In the motion, lead attorney Brian Steel argues that Judge Ural Glanville should throw out the testimony of Detective Quinn stating that it is “not accurate, places Mr. Williams’ character at issue, and is irrelevant to the trial of the above-referenced case.” Steel also states that Young Thug’s “right to a fair trial” needs to be preserved by the court and that Judge Glanville should also toss out any records of 911 calls allegedly made by the rapper in relation to this unrelated homicide.
Steel’s previous motion June 23, asked Judge Glanville to dismiss the RICO charges brought against Young Thug and his YSL co-defendants, citing the statute of limitations for the state in RICO cases has been exceeded. “In order to satisfy the crime of RICO conspiracy, the prosecution must prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that at least one (1) overt act was committed in furtherance of the conspiracy within the Statute of Limitations,” the motion says. “To satisfy the Statute of Limitations, the overt act must have occurred within five (5) years of the filing of the Bill of Indictment with the Clerk of Court.”
That motion continues: “Approximately overt act numbers 62 through 191 are alleged to have occurred on a date within five (5) years of May 9, 2022, the date of the original Bill of Indictment as well as the re-Indictment. The re-indictment was filed with the Fulton County Clerk of Court on August 5, 2022.”
The motions come as jury selection in the trial has been halted and scheduled to resume July 10. The high-profile case has run into several stumbling blocks from Young Thug’s brother having his probation revoked and going to prison to a Fulton County deputy being arrested on charges of inappropriate contact with one of the defendants. Young Thug also underwent a medical evaluation in May over concerns about his well-being while in custody.
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So, yeah—we should probably all be really worried about Hip-Hop veteran Keith Murray.
Earlier this year Black Twitter was speculating that Murray was as high as the most beautifullest kite when he went full TMI (and that’s putting it mildly) during an appearance on The Art Of Dialogue.
But recently, a video has surfaced that shows the Enigma MCwandering in a circle while appearing to be on drugs and/or experiencing a serious mental health episode. The video was so unsettling that his fellow “Live Wires Connect” artist, Lord Jamar, posted it on Instagram with a message of concern for Murray, who he indicated he had past friction with.
“Our brother @keithmurrayrap obviously needs serious help,” the Brand Nubian rapper captioned the post. “I don’t have to see this man do drugs in front of me to know he’s on drugs. Dude crossed a line with me, that I believe if he wasn’t on drugs he wouldn’t have crossed, so I forgive him. We need to get our brother clean, cause this is a horrible look.”
This isn’t the first time notable artists in the Hip Hop world, including Jamar, have implored Murray to get help for whatever is harming him.
From Hip Hop DX:
Prior to his IG post, Lord Jamar implored Murray to get help on his podcast on Thursday (June 22). Jamar was addressing Murray’s prior appearance on another podcast, in which Murray allegedly threated to “slap the shit out of [Lord Jamar]” when he saw him again.
But rather than feed into the taunts, Jamar addressed the larger, underlying issue. “At the end of the day, I just want to say that addiction something that is serious,” he said. “You know, many of us had people in our families that have suffered from addiction, and although we may not like some of the things that they do … we still love them at the end of the day. So hey, Keith — still love you, brother.”
Murray’s precarious mental state is something that was also recently alluded to by N.O.R.E., who addressed why he reneged on having Murray on an episode of Drink Champs back in March.
“We love Keith Murray, but let’s also be upfront,” he said. “We’re concerned. His mental health doesn’t seem that we could put him in this environment and smoke and drink. Now, if he can we gon’ do it. If he can sit, he can smoke, he can drink, we gon’ do it.”
He continued: “Or he doesn’t have to smoke or drink. We don’t wanna — the thing is we have responsibilities. We know there’s a certain amount of people that watch us every week, every month, every muthafuckin’ year, but why would we put a rap legend in jeopardy? And that’s what it’s feeling like.”
Doodlebug of Digable Planets and legendary Hip Hop producers 9th Wonder and Immortal Technique were among those who commented in support of the Def Squad rapper Jamar’s IG post.
Worth noting is that Keith Murray performed during last night’s BET Awards and did a fine enough job.
We all hope Keith Murray is OK, and that he’s getting the help he clearly needs. Damn, this is getting scary.
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The 2023 BET Awards was a jam-packed night, with Beyonce, Drake, and SZA standing out among those taking home trophies. Also, Busta Rhymes received a long overdue Lifetime Achievement Award.
The annual awards night was Sunday night (June 25th) at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California. It was made more so by the fact that the night was focused on the celebration of 50 years of Hip-Hop, which saw numerous tributes take place and key wins by some of the most popular artists today including Quavo & Offset of the Migos honoring their late member, Takeoff.
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Beyoncé and SZA reigned supreme as the biggest winners of the evening with three awards each. In a surprise, both songstresses would tie for Album of The Year with Renaissance and SOS, respectively. “Break My Soul” won the Viewer’s Choice Award and the BET HER Award as well. As for SZA, she would also win Video of The Year for her stylish “Kill Bill” video and Best Female R&B/Pop Artist, beating out a stacked field of artists including Beyoncé, Lizzo, Ari Lennox, Tems, H.E.R., and Coco Jones.
Drake followed behind with two wins on the night for Best Collaboration for his appearance on “Wait For U” by Future featuring Nigerian singer Tems, and Best Group for his team-up with 21 Savage for the hit album Her Loss. The win was his second in the category – he previously won the award seven years ago with Future. Kendrick Lamar won Best Male Hip-Hop Artist, his record-setting sixth win in the category. He was the leader in nominations for the evening with seven. Latto would take home the award for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist, and show love to other women rappers in her acceptance speech.
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The heartwarming moment of the night came as veteran MC Busta Rhymes was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award, and he delivered an emotional speech detailing his journey while admonishing other rappers to stop fighting among themselves.
“Y’all messing up the bag. Y’all messing up the energy. I don’t like when I talk to these dudes that run these streaming platforms and they talking about, ‘You know, we turning the consumer off because there’s so much little this and little that going on with you rappers.’ We’re gonna stop that. We’re gonna love each other, and we gonna get to this money,” he said.
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A new documentary series hosted by LL Cool J and Ice T follows them on the hunt for the most sought-after items in Hip-Hop culture.
The two rap icons and television stars are the hosts of Hip Hop Treasures, a new documentary series that will air on A&E. The premise of the series will follow the pair along with museum curators and field experts as they track down memorabilia from the glory days of the culture such as the jersey The Notorious B.I.G. wore in the “Juicy” video to DMX’s Aaliyah car to the clocks that Flavor Flav of Public Enemy wore. Items procured during the episodes will be sent to the Universal Hip Hop Museum, which boasts the largest collection of Hip-Hop memorabilia in the world.
Major stars of the culture will be present in each episode, which include DMC, CeeLo Green, Fat Joe, Master P, Soulja Boy, Naughty by Nature’s Treach as well as Coolio in his final on-screen appearance before his death last year. Hip Hop Treasures will also feature tributes to Biz Markie, DMX, and The Notorious B.I.G. The field experts assisting the two will be Cipha Sounds and veteran MC and actress Yo-Yo, and Paradise Gray and Pete Nice will be representing the Universal Hip Hop Museum which is currently being constructed and will open next year. Hip Hop Treasures is slated to premiere on Saturday, August 12th at 10 P.M. ET, coinciding with the weekend celebrating the official 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop.
Hip Hop Treasures is produced by Pulse Films and Rock The Bells, with Erica Hanson, Tracey Baker-Simmons, Andrena Hale, Mira King, Elaine Frontain Bryant, Shelly Tatro, and Jonathan Partridge on board as executive producers for Pulse Films and A&E Networks. Paradise Gray and Pete Nice are also executive producers of the series.
Check out the trailer for Hip Hop Treasures below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-QFdx_UuNg
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A healthcare clinic in Georgia will remain open after being on the brink of closing, thanks to a generous donation from Rick Ross.
On Monday (June 19), the Maybach Music Group mogul and rapper presented a check for $30,179 to the team of women running the Fayette C.A.R.E. Clinic in Fayette County, Georgia. The clinic enables poorer families to have access to the premium healthcare they need including affordable medication and doctors. “The patients that come to this clinic, all of them, their income level is 200% below the poverty level. The national poverty level,” said Geneva Weaver, the clinic’s executive director.
Ross is a resident of Fayette County and got word of the clinic’s potential closing through his lawyer, Steve Sadow. Before his donation, the C.A.R.E. Clinic had raised $19,000 with a goal of $50,000. “A clinic like this means a lot to me. I lost my father at an early age and I felt like one of the reasons I lost him so early was his lack of healthcare,” the artist said at the ceremony where the check was presented. “I look forward to continuing to help out as much as possible. I consider you family, friends, and of course, neighbors.”
Local network WSB-TV was present as Weaver thanked Ross along with other executives from the clinic. She said that the check was the largest donation from an individual donor that they’ve had since opening their doors in 2005. The “Aston Martin Music” rapper was humble about the donation on his social media profiles, opting to share information on Juneteenth with his fans along with photos from his recent car and bike show held on his sprawling estate. That event didn’t go over well with some in the county, as some attendees of that show trashed a plaza in South Fulton three miles away from his Promised Land estate. Local authorities believe they resorted to that behavior after not gaining entry to the event.
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HOT 97 has announced a new star-studded concert in honor of Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary, which will be held at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
On Monday (June 12), the iconic radio network announced the Hip-Hop Forever concert to celebrate the anniversary of the culture. The show is organized in partnership with WBLS. The one-day event will be curated by veteran DJ Funk Flex with the Wu-Tang Clan as the headliners. Other artists set to perform are Mary J. Blige, EPMD, Tyrese and Sean Paul. Mariah Carey and Maxwell are also on the bill as special guests, but there is no word yet on if they’ll be performing as well. The Wu-Tang Clan will begin the North American leg of their N.Y. State of Mind Tour with Nas and De La Soul the next evening.
The show is notable as the Wu-Tang Clan and HOT 97 have repaired a once highly-publicized rift that began in 1997 over the group being asked to headline Summer Jam for free. As detailed in the 2019 documentary series Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mice and Men, they were also asked to come to the event without the network paying for it. Ghostface Killah took the stage at that Summer Jam concert, shouting “F**k 97!!” and prompting fans to repeat the message, which resulted in the station banning their music being played for a number of years. Funk Flex also personally apologized to the group, posting a message on his Instagram account earlier this year.
HOT 97’s show marks yet another activation in honor of the birthday of Hip-Hop culture, Aug. 11, 1973. The events include the Hip-Hop 50 Live concert by MassAppeal, which will take place on the actual date at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. The concert will feature Run DMC in their final concert appearance ever, Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, T.I., Lupe Fiasco and others. The concert will be held at Madison Square Garden on Friday, Sept. 15th Pre-sale tickets are through Ticketmaster at this link on Thursday (June 15). The general public will be able to obtain tickets on Friday (June 16).
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