Hip-Hop
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A court-ordered auction of Damon Dash’s one-third stake in Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella Records has been postponed for at least three weeks, court documents show, and the minimum price for the sale will be more than doubled to help cover Dash’s massive unpaid tax and child support debts.
The auction – in which the U.S. Marshals Service will sell off Dash’s 33.3% interest in the storied record company – had been set to be held Thursday. But in an order Tuesday, a federal judge granted a motion to extend the deadline for the event to Sept. 21.
The delay will give more time to sort out who will get paid first from the proceeds. The auction was originally intended to pay off an $823,000 judgment against Dash won by movie producer Josh Webber in a civil lawsuit over a failed film partnership. But New York City has jumped into the case to demand more than $193,000 in unpaid child support, and New York state later claimed that the auction must also help pay down more than $8.7 million Dash owes in back taxes.
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In a court filing on Monday, Webber’s attorney Chris Brown alerted the judge that he had reached an agreement with New York City and New York state to sort out a pecking order for the proceeds, but he also asked to push back the auction; it was that request that was granted by the judge on Tuesday.
Under the agreement, the minimum bid for Dash’s stake will be increased from $1.2 million to $3 million. New York City will get first dibs at that money, taking at least $193,000 to cover the money Dash owes in child support. That will be followed by $1.7 million going to the state to cover part of the massive tax bill, followed by the original $823,000 in legal damages owed to Webber. After other civil litigants are paid smaller sums, the remainder of the tax bill – roughly $7 million – will be paid to New York state. If anything is left, it will go to Dash himself.
Other issues remain to be ironed out. New York City is still seeking an additional deposit of nearly $70,000 more from Dash to cover ongoing child support payments in the future, and wants any payouts from the auction paused until a judge decides the issue. Brown has opposed that motion, and a hearing before the judge to decide the issue is set for next month.
Dash himself was not involved in the deal. In court filings, his attorney Natraj Bhushan said his client was “not privy to these discussions, had no input on the same, and disagrees with the priority given.” In a statement to Billboard on Wednesday, he said the pecking order had yet to be finalized.
“We look forward to upcoming court conference so that all interested parties can be heard and the court can decide who gets what, and in what priority from the forthcoming public auction,” Bhushan said.
Brown declined to comment on Wednesday. Attorneys for New York City and New York state did not immediately return requests for comment.
Whenever it happens, the auction will be for Dash’s stake in Roc-A-Fella Inc., an entity whose primary asset is Jay-Z’s iconic debut album Reasonable Doubt. The rest of the catalog of music released by Roc-A-Fella, which dissolved as an active label in 2013, isn’t involved.
The owners of the other two-thirds of Roc-A-Fella — label cofounders Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) and Kareem “Biggs” Burke — have already attempted to stop the auction, including making changes to the company’s bylaws and intervening in the lawsuit. But a federal judge rejected such opposition in February.
Though the auction’s minimum bid has now been increased, it’s entirely unclear how much a potential buyer is going to be willing to spend on Dash’s one-third stake.
The royalties from Reasonable Doubt would likely provide them a revenue stream; since its 1996 release, Reasonable Doubt has racked up 2.2 million equivalent album units in the U.S., according to Luminate, including 21,500 units so far this year. But the eventual buyer also would be a minority owner in a company controlled by hostile partners, with little ability to perform typical due diligence on the asset they’re about to purchase. And Roc-A-Fella’s rights to Reasonable Doubt will potentially expire in 2031 thanks to copyright law’s termination right, which would allow Jay-Z himself to reclaim full control.
A federal judge has ordered convicted pharma executive Martin Shkreli to hand over his copies of Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, rejecting his claims that he had a right to retain duplicates of the one-of-a-kind album even after he forfeited it to federal prosecutors.
Following a hearing Friday in Manhattan federal court, Judge Pamela K. Chen granted a preliminary injunction to PleasrDAO — a digital art collective that bought the album in 2021 after Shkreli was forced to forfeit it as part of his criminal case.
In addition to extending previous restrictions barring him from sharing the album, the judge ruled that Shkreli must hand over “all recordings of the Album’s contents that Defendant possesses or controls” to his own attorneys. He has until Friday to file written confirmation that he’s done so.
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By granting the motion, Judge Chen rejected Shkreli’s arguments about the copies. In court filings last month, his lawyers argued that making private copies had been legal when he owned the rare album — and that he had not been required to turn those copies over to prosecutors when he handed over the famous original CD.
Pleasr sued Shkreli in June over the potential leak of the album, accusing him of violating both their purchase agreement and the federal forfeiture order. They also accused him of violating federal trade secrets law, which protects valuable proprietary information from misappropriation.
Wu-Tang’s fabled album was recorded in secret and published just once, on a CD secured in an engraved nickel and silver box. Though the group intended the bizarre trappings as a protest against the commodification of music, Shaolin later became the ultimate commodity. In 2015, Shkreli — soon to become infamous as the man who intentionally spiked the price of crucial AIDS medications — bought it at auction for $2 million.
When it was initially sold, Shaolin came with much-discussed stipulations — namely, that the one-of-a-kind album could not be released to the general public until 2103. But Shkreli’s lawyers say the deal granted him the right to “duplicate or replicate the work for private use.”
After Shkreli was convicted of securities fraud in 2017, he forfeited the album to federal prosecutors to help pay his multi-million dollar restitution sentence. Pleasr then bought the album from the government in 2021 for $4 million, and in 2024 acquired the copyrights and other rights to the album for another $750,000.
Pleasr, which has recently been attempting to monetize the album, sued Shkreli on the grounds that had been threatening to release the album publicly and destroy the exclusivity that the company had purchased.
In a statement following Friday’s ruling, Pleasr’s attorney, Steven Cooper of the law firm Reed Smith, called the ruling “an important victory” for his client: “We are pleased that Judge Chen recognized that immediate relief was necessary to thwart the continuing bad acts of Mr. Shrkeli.”
An attorney for Shkreli did not immediately return a request for comment.
Following Friday’s ruling, the injunction against Shkreli will be in place until a final ruling is reached at the end of the case. Barring a settlement, the lawsuit will now proceed to full litigation – including discovery, dueling motions from each side, and an eventual jury trial.
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Dr. Umar Johnson is known for his strong opinions and ability to both enlighten and infuriate those who choose to debate with him. In a recent appearance on a popular podcast, Dr. Umar Johnson shared his thoughts on Hip-Hop and how he feels the music and culture have not helped the wider Black community.
Dr. Umar Johnson was a guest on the Hustle Over Everything with host Alex Whitfield, and the pair got into a spirited conversation regarding Hip-Hop that has since gone viral. In the chat, Johnson asserts that Hip-Hop music has “betrayed Black America” after fellow guest Mouse Jones locked horns with the famed Pan-African psychologist and educator.
Jones asked Johnson if he felt that Hip-Hop as a culture or the industry where it thrives was what sparked his harsh critiques. Johnson stated that the culture and industry are both responsible for what he framed as a betrayal.
“You’re still selling death and destruction to my kids while your kids are going to $30,000 a year privileged white schools; that’s what you call a traitor,” Johnson said. “The hip-hop community has betrayed Black America.”
Despite Hip-Hop’s half-century existence, Johnson doesn’t see that the music or culture has added true value to Black culture overall.
“You’ve been around for 50 years, the most popular music genre in the world, billions and billions of dollars, and all you can tell me about is a few people can get jobs,” Johnson shared. “That’s bullsh*t when you look at the cost that the black community has had to pay for Hip-Hop. A whole two or three generations of black kids growing up thinking the best thing you can do is be a gangster.”
With the clip of Dr. Umar Johnson and Mouse Jones debating the finer points of Hip-Hop going viral, fans on X, formerly Twitter, offered their thoughts on the debate and even posted some examples to counter Johnson’s arguments. We’ve got those reactions below, along with the episode of Hustle Over Everything mentioned above.
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Photo: Hustle Over Everything/YouTube
OutKast has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against an electronic dance music duo called ATLiens – the same name as one of the iconic hip hop duo’s best-known songs.
In a lawsuit lodged Tuesday in Georgia federal court, lawyers for Big Boi (Antwan Patton) and André 3000 (André Benjamin) argue that the name (a combo of “aliens” and their hometown of Atlanta) is a novel linguistic term – and that the rival group is confusing music fans by using it.
“The word ATLiens was invented by OutKast. Before OutKast created it, it was not used in the cultural lexicon and did not exist,” the group wrote. “Defendant’s use of the ATLiens mark is likely to cause confusion, to cause mistake, or to deceive the public.”
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Released in 1996, ATLiens is OutKast’s second studio album, featuring the same-name song as one of the singles from the LP. The album spent 33 weeks on the Billboard 200, while the song itself reached No. 35 on the Hot 100 and spent 17 weeks on the chart.
The track, well-received at the time, is “one of OutKast’s most well-known and well-regarded songs,” the lawsuit claims, and the duo “continues to perform ‘ATLiens’ at nearly all (if not every single one) of its full-length live performances.”
According to the group’s lawyers, the rival ATLiens started using their name in 2012 and later registered the name as a trademark. In the suit, Outkast appears to claim that they did not know about the other dance group until recently.
In accusing the EDM duo of infringement, OutKast says the two names are “identical” and used for largely the same thing – musical duos from Atlanta who perform in “related musical genres.” The lawsuit even claims that, thanks to the rival group’s stage costumes, fans might literally think they’re Big Boi and André 3000.
“The duo comprising defendant performs with masks on, thereby concealing their identities such that consumers will mistakenly believe that the members of Defendant are one and the same with – or at least somehow connected to – plaintiff,” lawyers for OutKast write.
OutKast says it attempted to “negotiate an amicable resolution to the dispute” but that ATLiens has continued to use the name in confusing ways – like a poster for an upcoming show in Atlanta that allegedly riffs on a similar poster used by OutKast.
“Management for OutKast has already received communications from third-parties querying whether OutKast was affiliated with defendant’s upcoming show,” the group’s lawyers write.
Reps for ATLiens did not immediately return a request for comment.
In technical terms, the case was filed by High Schoolers LLC, a holding company owned by Big Boi and André 3000 that controls OutKast’s trademarks.
Sexyy Red is about to be a beauty mogul: The 26-year-old rapper introduced her Northside Princess beauty brand on Monday (Aug. 19). “BO$$ LADY SPEAKIN …. New and improved @sexyyred_products is back better den eva !! introducing NORTHSIDE PRINCESS the brand @getnorthside,” she wrote on Instagram. The first product from her Northside Princess line is lip gloss called […]
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HipHopWired got to interview Dr. A.D. Carson, the renowned University of Virginia professor and author who is building bridges between Hip-Hop culture and academia.
Hip-Hop has always been about education in various forms. It’s become a fixture on college campuses due in part to pioneering work done at The University of Virginia by Dr. Kyra Gaunt, and the establishment of the Hiphop Archive and Research Institute at Harvard University by Marcyliena Morgan in 2002. These days, artists such as 9th Wonder and Lupe Fiasco are among those teaching courses and seminars on Hip-Hop at institutions such as M.I.T., and adding to that legacy of work at UVA is A.D. Carson, Associate Professor of Hip Hop and the Global South.
Dr. Carson’s robust body of work began with his groundbreaking dissertation at Clemson University, a 34-track album entitled Owning My Masters: The Rhetorics of Rhymes and Revolutions. Since then, the Decatur, Illinois native has earned numerous achievements including having the first peer-reviewed rap album for publication by an academic press, i used to love to dream with the University of Michigan in 2020. His music is imbued with a vigorous dexterity and matter-of-fact perspective shining a light on multiple issues facing Black people and other people of color in America and abroad throughout history, demonstrating the true educational power of Hip-Hop culture. Dr. Carson has been a featured contributor to Rolling Stone, as well as having been interviewed by NPR, The Undefeated, and many other outlets.
We had the chance to interview Dr. Carson recently about his work. This interview has been edited for clarity.
HHW: The conceptualization behind Owning My Masters – what was the impetus behind making that decision?
Dr. A.D. Carson: It’s probably important that when I left Illinois to go get a PhD, I knew that it would be Hip-Hop related. The time that I left Illinois was around the time that Trayvon Martin was killed by George Zimmerman. I imagine that many people can like, look back on that, and then think “Wow, that was like 10-12 years ago.” But as that’s happening, I’m moving from Illinois to South Carolina. And Clemson is football country. I didn’t know all of the stuff about John Calhoun being Thomas Clemson’s father-in-law. I didn’t know that Clemson was a plantation. I get there and they’ve got a plantation house in the middle of campus. And then you walk out in front of the plantation house, you look to your left, and you can see the like the tiger eyes in the endzone. And it’s like, “Oh, they’re producing NFL football players and millions of dollars of revenue. And I don’t know if folks know that this place is a plantation.”
Anytime I tried to say something about that, or about what was going on in the world, then there was this loud chorus of people who were like kind of politely saying “You shouldn’t say that.” Or like, very violently saying, “You need to go back to Illinois.” I don’t think that I would have even made the album if it wasn’t for people not just trying to tell me what I can’t say, but also telling me how to say whatever it is that I do get to say. Because as much as people claim to love Hip-Hop, as much as people claim to love the culture, I don’t think that people have like very high cultural literacy or cultural fluency.
And so that’s a way that you might be able to say the thing directly to folks’ faces while they smile and nod and be like, it’s so great that you did this, but like you’re saying directly to them, “I’m not f—–g with this.” the decision like had everything to do with being in Clemson at that time, and I don’t know that it would have even had the kind of like potency or resonance if I was in Chicago, or in LA or in New York because I imagine that like those are the kinds of places where the politics they express are like a little more receptive. At Clemson, they were trying to shut it down even at a university where you’re supposed to be able to have academic freedom. I’m saying it was a social response, not an academic response, And with the folks in Clemson’s administration on down to the undergraduate students, it was consistent. This is also like the ascent of Donald Trump. So as you’re trying to trace what’s going on in the world, it’s really easy to move from central Illinois to South Carolina and think “Oh, these people are living in the past.” And that was what I thought for a good portion of the time that I was there. But then Trump gets elected. And it’s like “The whole time they didn’t live in the past, they were in the future.”
So Owning My Masters was a way of trying to document that. The early songs that I’m recording are from my first week, being in town, all the way up through all of that stuff happening. The album moves chronologically. It just seems more despairing over the duration of it. It’s because that’s like literally what was happening. And maybe it’s not desperation, much more like defiance. But that was because people were asking, “So this music that you do, or this stuff that you’re studying, like, are you saying this stuff in front of everybody?” And I’m like, “Why wouldn’t I say it in front of everybody?” That means that they need to hear it as much as anybody. It’s really important that the people who are perpetuating the stuff and acting like we’ve progressed, those are the people who need to hear these messages, which also means that they need to have they need to be invited into ways of hearing that they’re actually going to tune into.
HipHopWired: In terms of comprehension, and having Hip-Hop be a way in academia to navigate, confront, and ultimately provide some answers, if not all to some of these questions within your role as Associate Professor of Hip-Hop at UVA, are there any set guidelines or curriculum that you use to those interested in navigating the same path?
Carson: I have to say, when I defended the dissertation I talked on the phone with Mickey Facts and Lupe Fiasco because they were working on what they call a “rapper guild”. I asked, “What are you trying to do, be affiliated with a university?” Part of it was to create the conditions for people who were really interested in emceeing to be better at emceeing and to have that connected to these volumes of scholarship that would be able to bear on it. And it might not be about rap, it could be about linguistics, or it could be about history, or it could be about other kinds of stuff like I was reading as a doctoral student, because, of course, I didn’t go to Clemson to learn how to rap. I think it’s important to say that because folks get that twisted as well, like no I didn’t start rapping when I got to Clemson. Rap was just a way to detail he findings in the research.
In the classes that I teach now, with undergraduates and graduate students in my brand, the graduate students I work with are the ones who are most likely to teach and become professors. I mentioned Lupe and Mickey Factz, because I think to a certain degree, both of them have been interested and engaged in some kinds of teaching appointments in their engagements at other universities or independently. So, in my writing rap class, I’m teaching techniques. Literally, what do you rely on to start a rap? And then, what techniques are you going to use to get from bar one to bar 16? At the same time, there’s some of the mundane like simile and metaphor to the more complicated ways that people might use structured rhyme schemes. But also in that class, I’m alternating between teaching those techniques and listening to people who have been doing this for a long time. So that’s the whole archive of rap music going back to the 70s, as well as reading about the context for those things being made. So it’s not trying to get like a grand narrative of the “capital T” history of Hip-Hop but the histories of Hip-Hop.
HHW: In terms of dealing with academia and trying to have this conversation through the culture and the machinations of Hip-Hop, has there been any kind of pushback that you’ve experienced on a social level, not necessarily administrative, in terms of trying to sanitize the work that you do?
Carson: I think that there’s been pressure – I don’t know if you’re familiar with the professor watch list that exists, basically unmasking radical professors?
HHW: I’m familiar with that, yes.
Carson: So that kind of thing – but what they call radical is the fact that I make music. (Laughs) They don’t even understand the content of the music, but on their websites, they’ve got screenshots of lyrics. I realized that this is a very real thing in these cases, where people are having their lyrics used against them in court. And people are explaining what the lyrics mean, like police officers. That definitely means the system is like gamed against you, because like the people who arrested me, and in the system that’s trying to use my lyrics, also illegally against me, to convict me, are having people who work for them, tell the jury what the lyrics mean? This is also why getting tenure is important, because then you have at least the supposed protections of job security and academic freedom
I did write one album where one of my colleagues was like “Yeah, it’s been good knowing you”, thinking I’d get fired. And my response to that was like, “if this is the kind of thing that gets me fired, then they’re not serious about what the professor of Hip-Hop, not in the way that I choose to do the work.” I’m not pulling punches, because how do they know what I shouldn’t be saying and how I should be saying it? They trusted me enough to put me in the position. Trust me to do my work, I’ll trust the people whom I trust in that regard. And then that means that I have to have mentorship, collaborators, and people whose opinions I trust. In a real way, some of this is supposed to make you uncomfortable, right? I mean, I’m not making this up. I am not creating controversy, when I talk about the fact that Black folks are being erased from history, and having our lives taken from us for that. People don’t believe that rappers deserve to be treated as human beings. I’m not making that s–t up.
HHW: In terms of being a notable figure, creating In this space within academia to have these conversations through the media and the culture of hip hop, and then confronting newer problems like AI and technology, has it posed any obstacles for you?
Carson: A part of it is – maybe the fancy word to say is legibility, but it’s like, “How do you get the message out?” I’ve talked to people at NPR, or writing for Rolling Stone or whoever else but that’s not really my target demographic. That’s not gonna get to the people at home in Decatur. So it’s, “How do I most effectively speak to black communities?”And this might also mean t places like The Breakfast Club, Sway in the Morning, or Black media where you don’t have to explain the concerns before you launch into ways we might think about them. But that means that you have to get past the hurdle of folks believing that because you work at a university, the thing that you’re doing is not for them or directed toward things that they might be interested in.
The thing about AI thinking about that – I’m not worried about somebody cloning Tupac’s voice or cloning Drake’s voice or Kendrick (Lamar’s) or Jay Z, because all of these people with their estates have the power to be able to be like, cease and desist with the s—s immediately. They can fight that because they got money, but what about like the dude like one of my cousins or anybody that you know from your hometown, who is incredibly gifted, but nobody knows them? And then they put their work online on SoundCloud, or Spotify or Bandcamp, something like that. And then one of these companies gets it. What I think we should be thinking about more is what happened to regular people in blues clubs, and juke joints across the country, whenever white folks were able to export Black music or cordon it off to these particular kinds of places, including academia, where working-class Black folks didn’t have any kind of access. So that’s not a problem where I need to say “Hey, white folks, make sure that whenever you decide to exploit us, that you have like some kind of ethics when you do it.”
This is why I appreciate you talking to me, because who are the people in HipHop media who talk to the people who are dealing heavily with Hip-Hop regularly to bring these issues to the fore, rather than only the things that are being puppeted by these media machines that are pushing out particular kinds of stories. The conversations about how rappers are being utilized in this particular election cycle is something that we absolutely need to be talking about, right? But who’s gonna host that conversation, Ari Melber? If we’re dependent on NBC, to like, talk about how Hip-Hop intersects with politics, then I think that we f——d up. I’m just saying it’s important to get the word out and to challenge us to think differently about all of these things that are going on. And part of my doing that is of course, making the music and teaching the classes, but the other component is commentary.
Travis Scott‘s Days Before Rodeo is getting re-released, with previously unreleased bonus tracks, for the mixtape’s 10th anniversary. The re-release of the project means Scott’s mixtape will be available on streaming platforms later this week, on Aug. 23. Days Before Rodeo was originally released on Aug. 18, 2014, and featured guests Young Thug, Big Sean, […]
Fresh off their headline-grabbing performance at the Paris 2024 Olympics closing ceremony, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre are gearing up to drop their latest project, Missionary, this November.
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But the biggest surprise? Legendary musician Sting is among the featured artists on the album.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Dr. Dre couldn’t hold back his excitement, revealing, “We have Sting on the song. Man, it’s an amazing roster of artists that’s on this album. I shouldn’t have revealed that, to be honest.”
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The unexpected collaboration adds a twist to the forthcoming album, which already carries the weight of being the first full-length project Dre has produced for Snoop since their iconic 1993 album Doggystyle.
The friendship and musical chemistry between Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg is legendary.
It all began with Dre’s groundbreaking 1992 album The Chronic, which introduced Snoop to the world and set the stage for his debut album, Doggystyle, a year later. Missionary promises to be a continuation of this storied partnership, with Dre sharing, “This one’s gonna show a different level of maturity with his lyrics and with my music. I feel like this is some of the best music I’ve done in my career.”
The Compton native added, “It’s an album that women are going to enjoy, and like I said, it shows a massive amount of growth and maturity with the lyrics and with the music.”
Dre also offered some insight into the production process, saying, “I wanted 14 songs, Snoop wants 16, so we have that thing happening. I’m on song number 11 as far as the mixes go. I have to be done and delivered by September 1 to have a November release.”
Dr. Dre has consistently shaped the Billboard charts over the years, starting with his groundbreaking debut solo album, The Chronic (1992), which hit No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and produced the iconic single “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang,” reaching No. 2 on the Hot 100.
His 1999 follow-up, 2001, continued this momentum with smash hits like “Still D.R.E.” and “Forgot About Dre.” Beyond his own music, Dre’s production genius has been behind numerous chart-topping albums and singles, and, of course, the Doc was instrumental in launching Eminem’s career.
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Just days after Lauryn Hill abruptly cancelled the highly anticipated Fugees reunion tour, band member Pras Michel has taken aim at his former bandmate with a scathing diss track.
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The song, titled “Bar Mitzfa,” was teased on Pras’s Instagram Story before being exclusively released on TMZ, further fanning the flames of controversy within the iconic hip-hop group.
The Fugees’ reunion tour, which was set to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Hill’s groundbreaking album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, was supposed to kick off on Friday, Aug. 9, in Tampa, Fla., and continue through major cities across the U.S. and Europe, concluding in Amsterdam on Oct. 22.
However, just days before the first show, Hill announced the tour’s cancellation, citing “sensationalism” by the media over past cancellations as a reason for low ticket sales.
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In “Bar Mitzfa,” Pras doesn’t mince words. He directly blames Hill for the tour’s failure, rapping, “No one will remember: click bait beefs, how many Gucci bags you owned, bogus excuses. People will remember: How you made them feel, if you kept your word, if they could count on you, if you come on Time!!!”
The track, which is now exclusively on TMZ, also touches on Pras’s own legal struggles.
Last year, Pras was found guilty in a political money laundering conspiracy, a high-profile case that has marred his public image. In the track, he references this ordeal, rapping, “Obama’s name in the discoveries had to plead the fifth!”
The Miseducation Anniversary Tour was set to kick off on Friday (Aug. 9) in Tampa, Fla., and stretch throughout the next few months, wrapping up on Oct. 22 at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam. The tour, which was scheduled to reunite Hill with The Fugees to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Billboard 200 No. 1 album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, was also to feature music from The Fugees’ No. 1 album The Score, with Hill’s son YG Marley as the support act.
The 21-date trek was previously postponed in November after Hill revealed that she was struggling with vocal issues.
“As many of you may know, I’ve been battling serious vocal strain for the past month. I made it through each show by taking prescribed prednisone, but this can be detrimental to the body when taken in large amounts over long periods of time,” she wrote on Instagram at the time. “In order to prevent any long term negative affect on my voice and my body, I need to take time off to allow for real vocal recovery so that I can discontinue the medication completely.”
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Rapper Quando Rondo pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal drug offense before a judge in Georgia. The 25-year-old rapper, whose given name is Tyquian Terrel Bowman, was indicted in U.S. District Court last December on charges of conspiring with others to possess and distribute drugs including methamphetamine, fentanyl, cocaine and marijuana. […]