Music News

It was a busy week in the worlds of hip-hop and R&B. Billboard Unfiltered returns on Thursday (Aug. 8) with an episode attacking Drake’s 100 Gigs dump, Ye and Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures 2 and Latto’s place in the pantheon of female rap.

Drake’s every chess move has been dissected by fans since the fallout from the Kendrick Lamar feud. Deputy Director, Editorial Damien Scott was complimentary of Drake’s shrewd decision making in leaking the three songs and archival footage, which he compared to something Ye would’ve done in the mold of G.O.O.D. Fridays.

“We know he’s a person who thinks about the totality of not only his career, but the whole market and the people he’s playing against,” Scott said. “I think this is extremely novel. It’s really creative. The highest compliment I can pay it is this feels like something Ye would’ve done when he was still killing it. Back when he was doing the G.O.O.D. Friday releases.”

But he still thinks the Lamar feud was weighing on his mind with this move. “I think it’s not crazy to believe, ‘Alright, let me reset for a second.’”

However, Staff Writer Kyle Denis thinks Drake is nervous about the reception of his next single and found a loophole to test the waters. “I do think it’s p—y,” he stated. “Because I would think these three songs are all you dropped versus three songs plus 10 hours of archival footage. If you believed in this new stuff, why are we walking up memory lane at the same time?”

Onto Vultures 2, the panel agrees that the project’s original version didn’t feel completed with fans rightly wanting more from Ye and Ty. “It feels like Ye doesn’t care. If Ye doesn’t care, why should we care?” Scott asked.

Senior Charts & Data Analyst Trevor Anderson is surprised none of the tracks have caught on a path to disrupt the top of the Billboard Hot 100.

“Wherever you want to start post 2015, Vultures 1 ‘Carnival’ are the outliers… I think that was more of a surprise to people,” he said. “This feels a little below — I’m surprised there’s no song jumping…Everything has gone No. 1 going back to College Dropout, you don’t want to make too much of it, but when you look in the record books it’s, ‘Oh, this is where the drop-off really happened.”

With Kanye’s decorated discography, Deputy Director of Hip-Hop/R&B Carl Lamarre is frustrated knowing what Ye’s capable when it comes to V2‘s final product.

“This is somebody I still believe to this day — maybe you could put Kendrick in the same conversation of releasing five consecutive classic albums. To know creatively what he’s been able to do and have such a drop-off and not give a f–k? One of my favorite songs if ‘530’ and I saw flashes, but that last part it went downhill from there,” Lamar said. “That’s why it’s tough for me to dismiss him and say, ‘It’s fully over.’”

After getting an early listen, Denis has high hopes for Latto’s Sugar Honey Iced Tea album and thinks it could vault her into the big three conversation with Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B and Nicki Minaj in female rap.

“One of those [big three] spots is kinda shaky right now, for obvious reasons. This album — I think it’s better than every other female rap album we’ve got this year. I’ll stand on it. I’m very happy with this album.”

Watch the full episode below.

Don’t expect a Big Sean album tonight. In July, the Detroit rapper announced that he planned on releasing his sixth solo album on Aug. 9, a day after a version leaked online.

However, earlier this week, while promoting new single “On Up” on Instagram, he said the album was coming “soon.” When a fan asked him, “Why you saying album soon like it’s not suppose to drop on the 9th?” Sean blamed scheduling issues for having to push the album back. “I gotta push it just a lil’ bit. Music done, but jus organizing listening events, shows etc. Might need an extra week or 2 to plan,” he replied.

Some fans tried to blame his former label boss Ye (formerly Kanye West), but Big Sean went on Instagram Live to clear those rumors up, assuring fans, “I know he ain’t do that s—t. I love Ye. Without him, there would be no me.” 

He added: “I been there since Graduation. I got to study, contribute, give energy to every project. 808s, Beautiful Twisted… I know he wouldn’t do that, that’s trash. So whoever did do that, just know it did f—k me up”

Although, the album isn’t coming this week, Sean has been feeding his fans. He’s released the singles “Yes” and “On Up,” so far, and he’s teased a song with The Alchemist and killed an On the Radar freestyle over Aaliyah’s “If Your Girl Only Knew.”

Some fans thought he was dissing Kendrick with the lines, “I got better things to do than find someone to beef with/ Or else I’m off the deep end/This game will take you either way, you know it’s offense-defense,” but he quickly cleared the speculation up. “Yall goin wit so many narratives, im talking to da haters who just keep finding something to point out they dont like bout me,” he wrote in a since-deleted tweet. “Its not even worth explaining tho im a just focus on the music.”