Hip-Hop

05 Jun 2023

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ Son, Justin Combs, Arrested For DUI in L.A.

Sean “Diddy” Combs‘ son, 29-year-old Justin Combs, was arrested for DUI in Los Angeles this weekend. A spokesperson for the LAPD confirmed to Billboard on Monday morning (June 5) that the younger Combs was taken into custody on Sunday morning on a misdemeanor DUI charge.

At press time no additional information was available on the arrest or the sanction for the charge, but according to TMZ the arrest took place near Beverly Hills after an officer reportedly saw Combs’ car run a red light around 8 a.m. The officer stopped the car and found Combs behind the wheel, with a preliminary investigation reportedly providing enough probable cause to cuff Justin and take him to lockup on suspicion of driving under the influence.

The site reported that after being booked on the misdemeanor charge, Combs’ bond was set at $5,000; at press time the LAPD spokesperson had not confirmed whether Combs remained in custody or had been released. Former UCLA college football player Justin, born in 1993, is Diddy’s son with stylist/fashion designer Misa Hylton and he has appeared in a number of TV shows, including MTV’s My Super Sweet Sixteen (with his dad), Wild ‘N Out, Catfish: The TV Show, Power Book II: Ghost, The Crew League and the 2020 reboot of his dad’s MTV series Making the Band.

Justin’s dad made news last week when he sued alcohol giant Diageo for allegedly breaching their partnership deal for his DeLeon Tequila brand, accusing the company of racism and claiming it treated his product line “worse than others because he is Black.”

05 Jun 2023

Lauryn Hill Hosts Surprise Six-Song Fugees Reunion at Roots Picnic

Fans at the Roots Picnic this weekend got a huge surprise during Lauryn Hill‘s headlining set on Saturday (June 3) when the singer brought out her former Fugees bandmates Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel for a surprise reunion of the beloved 1990s hip-hop power trio. It was definitely a moment to savor, as there’s a good chance it might be the first, and last, time the group will appear on stage for the foreseeable future in light of Pras’ indictment in April in a long-running campaign finance case.

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All that mattered in Philly on Saturday, though, was that the men took the stage with Hill at the end of her set to perform a six-song run of classics after Hill celebrated the 25th anniversary of her debut solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. “We’re out here doing 25 years of Miseducation,” Hill told the crowd about her Grammy-winning 1998 solo bow, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “But there’s another 25 years we didn’t do a couple of years ago because of COVID.”

The latter was a reference to a scotched reunion tour the trio had planned to celebrate the 25-year mark of their 1996 album The Score, which was first postponed, then canceled, citing complications from the COVID-19 pandemic after just one gig. Then, when Michel was found guilty in April on 10 criminal counts in a federal conspiracy trial related to an alleged wide-ranging foreign influence campaign scheme that could keep him behind bars for more than 20 years when he’s sentenced, any chance of a re-reboot became unlikely.

So, on Saturday they did the best they could by running through “The Score,” then “How Many Mics,” “Zealots,” “Ready or Not,” “Killing Me Softly” and “Fu-Gee-La.” The crowd response was reportedly electric for the first show since the Fugees reunited for the first time in 16 years during a gig in New York in 2021, with Hill repeatedly referring to her formerly estranged bandmates as her “brothers.”

Check out footage from the reunion below.

02 Jun 2023

Frank Ocean’s ‘Mutations’ Photo Book Is Definitely Something to Sneeze At

Frank Ocean seems to relish being hip-hop’s biggest enigma. The reclusive singer proved it again this week when he announced a new project that once again pushes the envelope. Ocean’s Homer company is offering up the 48-page booklet Mutations, which is described as a “retrospective of artwork from October 19 to December 22, 2022” featuring photos taken by Ocean.

The most intriguing part? The $75 book is described as being “offset printed on tissue-weight paper.” The cover image is of a shirtless man in yellow pants and a matching baseball cap in front of a series of blurry photos of another man wearing sunglasses.

The book announce is the first new project form Ocean since his controversial headlining set at this summer’s Coachella Festival, during which he took the stage an hour later than scheduled, did not offer up any merchandise and performed in a small space in front of a giant screen that rendered the singer hard to spot.

Following the confusing set, Ocean’s reps issued a statement revealing that he’d suffered a serious injury earlier in the week that led to a radically reworked production that did not invovle the full-sized ice skating rink he’d originally envisioned on stage.

“After suffering an injury to his leg on festival grounds in the week leading up to weekend 1, Frank Ocean was unable to perform the intended show but was still intent on performing, and in 72 hours, the show was reworked out of necessity,” it read. “On doctor’s advice, Frank is not able to perform weekend 2 due to two fractures and a sprain in his left leg.”

Ocean was replaced by the reunited Blink-182 on the second weekend. Ocean has not released a new full-length album since 2016’s Blonde; his most recent music came in the form of the singles “Cayendo” and “Dear April, which came out in March 2020.

02 Jun 2023

Watch Cardi B Get ‘Summer Jam Ready’ With Impressive Yoga Moves

Cardi B knows it takes stamina to headline a festival, which might explain why the “Up” rapper shared a video earlier this week of her prep for Sunday’s (June 4) Summer Jam festival at UBS Arena in New York. In an Instagram Story captured by HipHopDX, Cardi worked on getting her mind and body right with the help of a yoga instructor.

Doing a deep back bend on a mat while wearing a blue sports bra and grey shorts, Cardi listened as the yoga teacher said, “I want you to press your hands into the floor and I want you to move your butt back just a little bit. Don’t move your hands!”

Cardi will headline the Hot 97 festival in Belmont Park, N.Y. on a bill that also includes GloRilla, Ice Spice, Coi Leray, Fivio Foreign, French Montana, Lil TJay and Lola Brooke, as well as a celebration of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary featuring the Lox.

Last month, Cardi told Rolling Stone that fans can “expect a lot from me this summer,” as a tease about new music and other projects. She made good on that promise on Friday (June 2) when she teamed up with Latto on a remix of her single “Put It On Da Floor.” Cardi brings it in her verse, rapping, “Put a ribbon on me, I been actin’ brand new/ I ain’t smokin’ on no za’, lil’ b–ch, I’m smokin’ on you/ Put your bestie in a pack and now I’m smokin’ her too/ I been ballin’ so damn hard, could’ve went to LSU/ Got so many chains on, I can’t even see my throat.”

Watch Cardi get her yoga on below.

01 Jun 2023

Lil Dicky Talks Topping Cameo-Packed Third Season of ‘Dave’ With a Pair of Ultimate Superstar Walk-Ons

Warning: This story contains spoilers for the season 3 finale of Dave.

Dave Burd managed to wrap up the over-the-top third season of his series Dave with the most unexpected, how-did-he-pull-that-off stunt yet. After a two-episode will-they-or-won’t-they arc starring Rachel McAdams as a potential paramour for his rap alter ego Lil Dicky, the just-aired season finale opened with Dicky in bed with McAdams during the video shoot for his homage to The Notebook star, “Mr. McAdams.”

In another scene, Dicky raps, “Maybe I’m your Brad Pitt,” and in keeping with Dave‘s unpredictable, cameo-stuffed run, of course the real Brad Pitt then pops up. But Pitt doesn’t just do a drive-by, he hangs around playing a Brad Pitt type who is interested in getting into the music game only to get stuck in a hostage situation. There’s a shooting accident with a Looking for Love prop crossbow and an escape thanks to bear mace and Dave’s $7,000 set doll.

But the most important question is: How did they get Pitt? (And Drake, for that matter.)

Star Burd and co-star GaTa spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the surprise superstar cameos and why they decided to keep Pitt’s fate a secret.

“There was a lot of debate about how to play it. We even shot several versions of that outcome with Drake with us talking about, ‘Oh, he’s dead’ and like, ‘No, he’s alive,’” said Burd. “We had every iteration at our fingertips, but I chose to keep it slightly ambiguous. For me, as a viewer, if you look closely as the paramedics are running in, you can kind of see Brad’s hand go up and start to give the thumbs up. So, I take that as an indication that Brad will live on.”

Even more surprising, after a season-long arc about Dave looking for love on the road, when it comes down to finally going with his heart and trying to make it work with on-and-off girlfriend Robyn — and after Pitt very clearly warned him about the pitfalls of being a star — Dicky decides to chase after Drake rather than settle down with Robyn.

“What a twist, huh? I wanted to do something that was kind of a surprise,” Burd explained. “Not to oversimplify it, but every season we build toward this big decision. Am I going to do the right thing or the wrong thing?… It’s not just throwing [away] love and not learning anything the whole episode. I’ve been looking for love this whole season and I learned through this experience, and through Brad Pitt, that as confident as my character in his own greatness there’s clearly a gaping void in his soul that needs this validation. Until you actually love yourself and remedy yourself of that void, how can you possibly take on the love of another person?”

Burd said as much as he wanted to find love, he looked at letting Robyn go as a sign that he wasn’t ready for it yet. “That awareness was at the core of that final decision. I think I learned the lessons and was aware enough to realize that’s not where I was yet. So, in the meantime, I’m going to go to Drake,” he said.

As for Pitt’s near-death crossbow incident, GaTa said he never expected to be in that situation. “I was like, ‘Wow, this is crazy. We got Brad Pitt on Pro Tools with auto-tune AND we ’bout to kill this man?,’” he said. “I still can’t believe it. It’s just surreal even talking about it, like we got Brad Pitt doing all this stuff. It’s crazy.”

Asked how he keeps pulling off such amazing cameos — this season also featured Usher, Don Cheadle, Killer Mike, Demi Lovato, Jack Harlow, Rick Ross and many more — while keeping the Pitt pop-in secret, it all comes down to Burd’s persuasive letter-writing according to showrunner Jeff Schaffer. Earlier this year he told THR that he and the show’s other producers thought it was a bridge too far at first.

“None of us thought it was going to work, except Dave,” Schffer said while giving props to Burd’s big ideas. It also helped that two-time Oscar winner Pitt was reportedly a fan of the show. “It really speaks to the greatness of the show that all three of them just independently are huge fans of the show. Everyone who works on the show should feel like they got Brad and Rachel and Drake,” Burd explained. “The reason we got them is because they loved the first two seasons of the show.”

The rapper had never met McAdams or Pitt before, but he’d heard through the grapevine that they were fans. “It was a little reckless to anchor an entire three episode arc with Rachel McAdams and an entire finale on Brad Pitt, but for the themes that we’re talking about there is no one better,” he said, admitting that Drizzy was an especially big swing, since the MC had not done TV since his early days as a teen actor on Degrassi: The Next Generation from 2001-2008 playing Jimmy Brooks.

“What better representation of like hopeless romanticism and love is there than Rachel McAdams, who was like my generation’s dream woman and who has been in films that have totally defined my interpretation of what love is supposed to be? Same with Brad Pitt. What better person to teach you a lesson about fame and validation than like the star of all stars, Brad Pitt? Drake is like the top of the mountain top musically and as a rapper. I had met Drake and he pulled me aside and told me the show is one of the more important shows of our generation and I knew he was a fan.”

01 Jun 2023

Paramore Bring Out Lil Uzi Vert For ‘Misery Business’ at MSG

Paramore usually pick a superfan to join them on stage to perform their signature 2007 hit “Misery Business” during their shows. But on Wednesday night (May 31) they had a very special guest, and true uberfan, on hand to do the honors: Lil Uzi Vert.

According to NME, Singer Hayley Williams took a moment to introduce the “Just Wanna Rock” MC on the second night of their Madison Square Garden stint, saying, “We’ve been talking for a minute but this is the first time we’ve met in person. I love you,” as she hugged the MC while the crowd erupted in cheers.

“You’ve said so many nice things about me. You’re so sweet to me, and to Paramore,” she added. “Can we do this bridge again together? Then we’re going to melt their faces off.”

The dynamic duo then stood face-to face as they sang, “I watched his wildest dreams come true/ Not one of them involving you/ Just watch my wildest dreams come true/ Not one of them involving,” before they danced across the stage, spinning in place as streamers filled the air. They then got the usual full-throated help from the audience on the tune’s soaring chorus, “Who, I never meant to brag/ But I got him where I want him now/ Who, I never meant to brag/ But I got him where I want him now.”

The performance ended with Williams giving Lil Uzi a giant hug. The sweet moment came more than three years after Williams told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe that she once turned down a collab with the rapper because she worried that it might bring an unwieldy amount of fame into her life.

“I remember too Uzi asking me to do some stuff with him and I know that fans are going to be so pissed at me for saying this,” she told Lowe. “But I literally wrote him back on Instagram and I was like, ‘Buddy, I love you so much, but I don’t want to be that famous.’” Uzi would not be deterred, however, saying to Complex last year that their dream collab would be “Hayley Williams from Paramore… there’s no one better than Hayley Williams.”

Watch Lil Uzi with Paramore below.

31 May 2023

Tupac Shakur Is Finally Getting His Own Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

The Rose That Grew From Concrete is finally receiving his own sidewalk honor: a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On June 7, legendary rapper, poet and actor Tupac Shakur will receive his star in the recording category during a public ceremony at 6212 Hollywood Blvd.

“Tupac Shakur was a rapper, actor, activist, poet, and revolutionary,” says Ana Martinez, producer of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. “This iconic artist has continued to be part of the zeitgeist for decades after his passing and will continue to be an important cultural figure for many years to come. Surely, as one of L.A.’s own, Tupac’s star will be added to the list of most visited stars.”

Born in New York City but spending his formative years in California, Shakur is revered as a West Coast legend and a cited inspiration to artists across the globe, including Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, J. Cole, Drake, Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber and countless others.

At the Baltimore School for the Arts, Shakur studied acting, poetry, jazz and ballet. In his early career, Shakur was known as MC New York before taking on the moniker 2Pac during his time with rap group Digital Underground.

As a solo artist, Shakur released his debut album 2Pacalypse Now in 1991 via Interscope Records. He went on to share three more albums before his fatal shooting at age 25 — all of which charted on the Billboard 200, with All Eyez on Me and Me Against the World topping the chart. Following his death, six posthumous studio albums were released through Amaru Entertainment, started by Shakur’s mother, and Interscope Records.

Both All Eyez on Me and Shakur’s greatest-hits collection are RIAA-certified diamond, surpassing the 10-million mark. In 2017, the rap icon was the first solo hip-hop artist to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. As an actor, Shakur starred in films including Juice, Poetic Justice, Above The Rim, Gridlock’d and Gang Related.

The Walk of Fame star unveiling will be hosted by L.A. radio host Big Boy and guest speakers will include director Allen Hughes (Hulu documentary series Dear Mama), writer Jamal Joseph and Tupac’s sister Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, who will accept the star.

The ceremony will take place at 10:30 a.m. PT and will stream live here.

31 May 2023

R&B/Hip-Hop Fresh Picks of the Week: J Hus, Kenny Mason, Khamari & More

It’s the last day of May, which means summer is around the corner. As the hottest season of the year approaches, we’ve got you covered with the very best of emerging R&B/hip-hop talent. This week sees the return of rap standouts J Hus and Kenny Mason, while blossoming acts like grouptherapy. and Khamari are making their way to the R&B centerstage.

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Check out all of this month’s picks with our Spotify playlist, linked below.

Freshest Find: Khamari, “Cherry Picking”

Boston-made artist Khamari has made a splashy album debut with A Brief Nirvana. The 11-track project is the multi-instrumentalist’s gripping introduction to the world, with cuts like “Cherry Picking” embracing the quiet and vulnerable. Centering songwriting and the texture of his brain-tickling voice, Khamari is captivating, eliciting emotion and forgotten memories with each track.

J Hus, “It’s Crazy”

J Hus returns with a vengeance on his new drill-adjacent track “It’s Crazy.” Released with a frenetic video, the U.K. rapper peers directly into the camera, questioning, “Why you wanna see the evil in me when I wanna live my life peacefully?” The new song marks a new era of music for J Hus — and is hopefully the precursor to a new album.

grouptherapy., “Nasty”

L.A.-based best friend trio grouptherapy. are reveling in their youth. On “Nasty,” the collective is embracing their resilience and self-acceptance: “We all felt a need to let our id speak and embrace our nastier side; whether that be sexy and seductive or slick like an oil spill,” they share in a press release. “This is grouptherapy. on our pimp shit.”

Cochise, “Hydroplane”

“Hydroplane” is the climactic intro to Cochise’s new EP No One’s Nice to Me. He enunciates more than usual on the opener track, rapping, “I’m counting out this money, while I’m counting up my blessings,” over cinematic strings and glimmering keys.

Kenny Mason, “Dracula”

Kenny Mason’s new Coupe-produced track “Dracula” further proves that he is one to watch. The Atlanta artist likens himself to the infamous vampire, but with platinum teeth and thirsting for bags of money. Mason went full rapper mode for “Dracula” though his knack for effortlessly fusing rap and grunge is what makes him a standout amongst the next class of artists.

audrey mika, “satuRday”

Thank god for Saturdays: the day of the week that lacks the scaries of Sundays and the anticipation of Fridays. Audrey Mika agrees, the cheery singer embracing the beauty of the weekend feeling being spread throughout less exciting days of our lives. The cut is uplifting and perfect for those lazy summer afternoons, equipped with a bouncy percussion line and Mika’s soft rasp.

$NOT, “Easter Pink”

An ode to Cam’Ron and Y2K style, $NOT delivers “Easter Pink”: a perfectly summer single, made to be blasted with all the windows down. The MBWAV instrumental is perfectly nostalgic as $NOT coolly raps, “Wanna be my friend again? Ride around up in the Benz/ Drivin’ up into night ’til we hit the mornin’.”

31 May 2023

Tyson Ritter Claims Machine Gun Kelly ‘Went Ballistic’ When He Made a Provocative Suggestion to Co-Star Megan Fox

Tyson Ritter is used to making audiences go wild as the frontman of All-American Rejects. But during a chat with radio host Stryker on his Tuna on Toast podcast, the singer-turned-occasional-actor shared an intense run-in he had with Machine Gun Kelly on the set of the recently released low-budget crime drama Johnny & Clyde that sounds pretty wild.

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In fact, Ritter said the confrontation was so fiery he used it as acting inspiration for his role in the upcoming film Prisoner’s Daughter with Kate Beckinsdale and Succession‘s Brian Cox. Ritter said among the plot points in the Johnny film — which he sighed is “kind of an okay… bad movie” — is Fox’s character, Alana Hart, teasing his henchman character Vince about putting a finger in her mouth.

Ritter thought it might be interesting to call back to that moment and put his fingers in Fox’s mouth during her death scene later in the film. “So I go over [to her trailer] and there’s her man in there with her. This Colson guy, who you know as Machine Gun Kelly,” he said of Fox’s rapper/rocker/actor fiancé. “I call him Pistol Pete. So I go over there and I was like, ‘Hey, Megan. I wanted to talk to you about this moment where, when you die, because you’ve been teasing putting my fingers in your mouth, that when you’re dead, I put my fingers in your mouth. And it’s like this sort of resolution to my character getting his revenge.”

According to Ritter, that’s when MGK allegedly lost it and gave him “the greatest gift” for his Daughter role. “Colson just goes from… zero to like awesome rage and awesome super angry… He was super-bummed about me asking if I could put my fingers in Megan Fox’s mouth. He just went ballistic. It kinda went maniac mode,” Ritter said, noting that he kept his cool as MGK was allegedly losing it. “I think the whole experience for me was, ‘What the actual f–k is happening?,’” Ritter recalled. ” He had this baby’s arm of a joint dangling out of his mouth. And he was fully unhinged.”

At press time spokespeople for Fox and MGK had not returned a request for comment.

Though it was off-putting, Ritter said the run-in helped him get into character for the other movie he was shooting at the same time, Prisoner’s Daughter, in which he plays a violent, hostile character. “I was like, this is what I’ve been looking for with my character on Prisoner’s Daughter,” Ritter said he thought while MGK was allegedly shouting at him. “Because the next day I had to shoot this scene in Vegas where this character goes in and confronts Kate Beckinsale, who’s his ex-wife, and he goes from zero to apes–t. And I didn’t, I was really struggling [with] how to flip that switch.”

While Ritter said he originally planned to use his relationship with his father to reach down deep for his character’s motivation, the alleged MGK incident helped him dial it in further. “I remember when Pistol Pete just started going ape on me, I was like, this is really confrontational, but also thank you, dude,” Ritter said. “A lot of my role, in that one moment especially, it’s not only my dad being his drunkest, wildest self, but there’s a little bit of Pistol Pete in my role for Prisoner’s Daughter.”

Johnny & Clyde dropped earlier this month and Prisoner’s Daughter is due out on June 30. All-American Rejects are slated to launch their first major tour since 2017 on June 16 at Phase Fest in Kansas City.

Watch the Johnny & Clyde trailer and the Stryker interview below.

31 May 2023

Machine Gun Kelly Takes Stock of Career on Intense ‘Pressure’ Single

After taking a detour into rock, Machine Gun Kelly is back on his rap game on the new four-minute career retrospective track “Pressure.” Over a laid-back “la-la-la” background, MGK raps, “The diamonds are symbolic of all the pressure they put on me until I shined/ My life is symbiotic with the culture, I could never, ever lose the vibe,” in the opening verse of the song that dropped on Monday.

The accompanying video finds Colson going home to Cleveland to hang with his pals and making sure you know he’s repping his hometown via a white hat that reads, “I’m From Cleveland.” Though he’s risen up from his humble roots, MGK revisits the lean years in the second verse, where he raps, “I was eleven/ Sharin’ a bed with my dad, but didn’t have a bedroom/ In a recession/ Six of us in a Ford Explorer, didn’t have leg-room/ Everything’s destined/ It was inevitable I take on his aggression.”

The visual ping-pongs between MGK and his dancers bopping down the city’s streets, cars and four-wheelers burning out in front of a liquor store and Baker casually sitting on a gold and crimson throne. About a minute and a half in, the hi-hat heavy beat subtly shifts to a molasses-slow chopped and screwed vibe as MGK’s pal, Bupkis star Pete Davidson, makes a brief cameo chilling in front of an ice cream truck.

The third part of the song shifts into a slinky uptempo beat, with MGK turning his attention to flossing about his money, jewels, women and some of his demons. “I slept in the attack, had demon nights/ That’s in the house off Lee Road/ I saw my friend’s eyes change, now he just a body with no soul,” he laments.

“Pressure” is MGK’s return to rap following two rock-leaning albums, Tickets to My Downfall (2020) and Mainstream Sellout (2022) and it comes on the heels of his “Doja Freestyle” and “Renegade Freestyle,” with the latter seemingly taking shots at Jack Harlow.

Check out he “Pressure” video below.