R&B/Hip-Hop
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Soulja Boy woke up this morning with the Drake and Kendrick Lamar battle on his mind. Soulja tweeted at the Toronto rapper, saying, “You disappointed me.” He then followed that tweet with a reminder that no one came to his defense. “Doing all them weak ass songs with them niggaz look where It got u […]
07/16/2024
It hasn’t exactly been a surgical summer for the 6 God.
07/16/2024
Kaytranada will embark on his North American Timeless Tour this fall, Live Nation announced on Tuesday (July 16). Special guests Channel Tres, Amaarae, Sam Gellaitry, Kitty Ca$h and Lou Phelps will join in select cities. The 15-date jaunt will begin in Canada on Sept. 14 at Vancouver’s Deer Lake Park, and goes through major cities […]
Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” momentum cannot be stopped. The Drake-dissing anthem has officially received the video game treatment and is now available for those looking to smack around some owls. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Game designer Richie Branson unveiled Not Like Us: The Game […]
Amber Rose completed her 180-degree pivot in throwing her support behind Donald Trump. The 40-year-old model took the stage at the Republican National Convention on Monday night (July 15), where Rose detailed her journey to becoming a fan of the former president.
“I’m here tonight to tell you, no matter your political background, that the best chance we have to give our babies a better life is to elect Donald Trump president of the United States,” she said.
Rose alleged that the media misguided her views about Trump, and she now sees the light that this is the path toward a better America.
“[I] care about the truth, and the truth is that the media has lied to us about Donald Trump. I know this because for a long time I believed those lies,” she added.
After letting go of her fear of being judged and “attacked from the left,” Rose said she figured out being a Trump supporter and with the Republican party is where she belongs.
“I realized Donald Trump and his supporters don’t care if you’re Black, white, gay or straight. It’s all love. And that’s when it hit me: These are my people. This is where I belong,” she continued.
Rose pointed to the sky-rocketing prices and inflation rate impacting the average American. “When you go to the store to buy food for your family, you’re shocked,” she said. “When you fill up your gas tank, you’re pissed. I know I am, and when you turn on the news, you are just exhausted, inflation is out of control.”
Amber Rose believes that American families were “better” when Trump was in office for his first term. “The left told me to hate Trump and, even worse, to hate the other side — the people who support him,” she concluded. “When you cut through the lies, you realize the truth: American families were better when Donald Trump was president. We were safer, wealthier, and stronger.”
Political commentator Van Jones was impressed with Rose’s speech and believes it was the “most dangerous” of the night for Democrats.
“That was probably the most dangerous speech for the Democratic coalition,” he said on CNN. “That is a young woman of color. She is describing the experience that a lot of people have — feeling that maybe, if you’re around too many liberals, you might get criticized too much or you might not be able to speak your mind, and she spoke to it really well.”
He continued: “And she’s way more famous than any of us up here — I’m going to tell you that — way more famous. And so to the extent that these guys are trying to bust up our coalition, that was a bunker buster right there.”
Rose went public with her support of Trump in May when posting a photo to social media alongside the former president and his wife, Melania. In 2016, Rose called Trump a “f—king idiot” in an interview with The Cut.
Monday marked Trump’s first public appearance since the assassination attempt; he appeared with a bandage around his wounded ear.
The RNC continues on Tuesday night (July 16). Watch Amber Rose’s speech below.
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Back in January, Natalie Portman had a run-in with one of her biggest icons during Paris Fashion Week when she scored a meet-cute with Rihanna. On Monday night (July 15), the actress visited The Tonight Show to describe her first meeting with the music icon and make-up mogul, calling it “an amazing experience.”
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Specifically, Portman said “I think every woman going through divorce should get to have Rihanna say to her that she’s a bad b–ch,” Portman explained of the moment caught on camera earlier this year after the two women sat front-row at the Dior Haute Couture show. “It was exactly what I needed,” said the actress, 43, who finalized her divorce from husband of 11 years Benjamin Millepied in February.
Fallon then rolled the clip or the two women meeting on the street outside the show, in which Rihanna envelops Portman in a huge hug while saying “I love you!” Rihanna then amped it up, telling Portman, “I am a f–king fan! You’re one of the hottest b–ches in Hollywood forever!” Portman could not believe her ears, responding, “Are you kidding me?… Excuse me, I’m gonna faint!”
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Not only did Rihanna rain praise down on Portman, she also noted, “Yo, I don’t get excited about anybody, but I f–king love you.” Portman appeared to get a bit choked up watching the clip again, telling Fallon, “it was a formative moment in my life.”
Portman, who lives in Paris, also gave Fallon some crucial advice for how to not look like a tourist in France for when he travels there on August 11 to co-host the closing ceremonies at this summer’s Olympic games. According to the Lady in the Lake star the following items are forbidden: no shorts, no flip-flops, no red berets.
Watch Portman talk Rihanna meeting below.
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In a stellar moment for music and space exploration, NASA has transmitted Missy Elliott’s iconic 1997 hit “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” to Venus, marking the first time a hip-hop song has been beamed into deep space.
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The historic transmission took place on Friday, July 12, from NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Using the agency’s Deep Space Network, the song traveled an astronomical 158 million miles from Earth to Venus at the speed of light, taking approximately 14 minutes to reach its destination.
Elliott, clearly over the moon with this otherworldly honor, shared her excitement on social media: “YOOO this is crazy! We just went #OutOfThisWorld with NASA and sent the FIRST hip hop song into space through the Deep Space Network. My song ‘The Rain’ has officially been transmitted all the way to Venus, the planet that symbolizes strength, beauty, and empowerment. The sky is not the limit, it’s just the beginning 👽👽”
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YOOO this is crazy! We just went #OutOfThisWorld with @NASA and sent the FIRST hip hop song into space through the Deep Space Network. My song “The Rain” has officially been transmitted all the way to Venus, the planet that symbolizes strength, beauty and empowerment. The sky is… pic.twitter.com/g6HofNQSt1— Missy Elliott (@MissyElliott) July 15, 2024
This cosmic milestone follows the Beatles’ “Across the Universe,” which became the first song NASA beamed into deep space in 2008.
Brittany Brown, Digital and Technology Division Director at NASA’s Office of Communications, who pitched the idea to Elliott’s team, noted the synergy between space exploration and the artist’s work: “Both space exploration and Missy Elliott’s art have been about pushing boundaries. Missy has a track record of infusing space-centric storytelling and futuristic visuals in her music videos, so the opportunity to collaborate on something out of this world is truly fitting.”
Produced by Timbaland, Missy Elliott’s “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” from her debut album Supa Dupa Fly marked her emergence as a major player in hip-hop and R&B.
It debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with 129,000 copies sold in the first week released, becoming the highest debut for a female rapper at the time, and topped the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The track’s innovative production by Timbaland and its unique music video directed by Hype Williams left a lasting impact on the music industry, establishing Elliott as a creative force and setting the stage for her successful career.
In case you missed it, Cam’ron and Mase went viral once again for a sports take.
During an episode of their sports talk show It Is What It Is, the subject of boxer Shakur Stevenson’s latest fight came up and the rapper turned pastor to turned sports commentator called Stevenson’s style of boxing boring. Shakur didn’t take to kindly to the Harlem rapper’s opinion, and initiated a back and forth between the two camps on social media (which we covered here.)
Now it seems J. Prince has gotten in the mix.
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Prince — who has been managing the Newark boxer since 2016 — sent the Harlem duo the message below on Instagram yesterday:
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“Let the haters say that he’s boring and nobody wants to watch him. Sorry to tell you it’s just a select few of you haters. As you can see there’s proof that he has the number one ratings in any fight on ESPN this year and the top three ratings since 2022. And to all of you haters who want to escalate that hate outside of the ring I’m Shakur’s manager and I handle all his business outside of the ring. In other words Cam and Mase I will fade all his shots and take all bets.”
Naturally, Cam and Mase responded this morning on the latest episode of It Is What It Is.
“When you dealing with older people, they’re the last to know that things have changed,” Mase said. “We not your lil’ n—s. All that big homie stuff, that’s for little n—s. We’re not little n—s so we don’t even respect big homies. I know Killa doesn’t. And for me? I never respected n—s in the streets, that’s why I always got the problems I got.”
He then added, “If you 60 years old and you tryna be a street n—a, you failed. My name is Mase. I stand by this message.”
The former Bad Boy artist also revealed that he recently spoke to the Texas mogul via FaceTime call with Ye and the convo was a positive one. “So I don’t even know why he would come at me with that energy. I felt really disrespected. It’s certain people you supposed to come at like that and I’m not one of them.”
Cam agreed with his co-host and added his two cents, saying, “Why do you think that you can tell us what we can and cannot say. Control your n—a! Ain’t nobody gon’ tell a n—a, ‘Get the strap’ and then we gon’ sit there and be like, ‘I think we should shut up.’” Adding, “Nah, n—a. This is not 1982, bro. You buggin’, James. I don’t know what bet you talking about and all that other slang. Whatever bet you talking about, bet it.”
You can watch the full episode here.
Devin Scillian and Kimberly Gill are in the business of reporting the news, not making it. But the two broadcast journalists are getting as much attention as some of their leading stories as part of Eminem‘s new album, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace).
The two anchors for WDIV, the Detroit NBC affiliate, are featured in the skit “Breaking News,” reporting on the hometown rapper’s supposed attempts to “cancel himself” with the release. Over background music composed by Eminem and regular collaborator Luis Resto, Scillian introduces the faux news segment and throws it to Gill, who is covering fan protests outside Eminem’s Mom’s Spaghetti restaurant in Detroit.
“It’s a lot more than either one of us expected,” Scillian, who’s an award-winning songwriter and performing musician himself, tells Billboard. He’s actually been on two Eminem tracks before — “Careful What You Wish For” from 2009’s Relapse and “Darkness” from 2020’s Music To Be Murdered By, which also includes Gill — but says there’s more excitement surrounding this appearance.
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“The other ones passed by with just a little bit of notice it seemed. This one has been kind of crazy,” Scillian notes. “I guess it speaks to the anticipation for this album in general.” Gill adds that, “especially since Devin said my name when he tossed it to me in the report, my whole name is on an Eminem album. That’s the difference.”
Gill and Scillian only learned they would be included on the album a couple of days before its release. “I think that’s part of the reason we didn’t get too excited about it,” Gill explains. “You never know if he’s going to use it or not. We do these things, they ask us not to talk about it, we leave there and forget about it. Months pass, and before you know it the album comes out, and there we are. We made the cut!”
Scillian adds that they’re well aware that, “The cloak and dagger world of music relies so much on secrecy. It’s a need to know basis, and apparently we didn’t need to know.”
The pair worked with Eminem in his studio over several sessions, as far back as two years ago and as recently as this past spring. They’ve found him to be “very collaborative” as well. “He gave us an idea of what he wanted but he also was very interested in knowing how we would do it as real journalists,” Gill says. “So that was a really cool thing; here we have Marshall Mathers asking us for advice on how to say something.”
“He’s very hands on,” Scillian says. “He knows what he’s looking for, but he’s also having you do a couple of different things. It’s almost like he’s using them as water colors; he’s just starts playing with them later and you never know whether you’re gonna be on a song. on the skit in this case, or not. And it’s really fun… After we were done (Eminem) was like, ‘Wow, that was just crazy you could do that in one shot.’ We look at each other and say, ‘If there’s one genius in this room, it’s probably not the two of us!”
Another thrill for Scillian came when the album’s full credits were finally revealed; “I looked on Wikipedia, and we are under Musicians on the list,” he says with a laugh. “My name is right below Steve Miller. That’s about as high on the horse as I can get.”
Scillian is about to head to Paris to cover the Summer Olympic Games for WDIV. So what’s bigger — winning a gold medal or being able to say “I’m on Eminem’s new album?” “I’m going to put it on a T-shirt,” he says with a laugh.
André 3000‘s appearance on The Shop continues to grab headlines.
First, he made news when he told the story about Pimp C originally being upset about the verse he turned for “Int’l Players Anthem.” Then, he and Sexyy Red had a cool moment as they bonded over people drinking haterade.
This time he’s in the news for responding to LL Cool J‘s disappointment in his instrumental flute album New Blue Sun.
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The 56-year-old Queens rapper, who himself is on the verge of releasing his 14th solo album, was a guest on The Shop a few weeks back when he expressed his feelings about 3000’s first solo album. While having a convo with filmmaker Lena Waithe about what inspires them, New Blue Sun was brought up to which the rap legend said, “Let’s not lie to ourselves: I don’t wanna hear him do the flute,” before asking the room, “You wanna hear me do a violin? You might not wanna hear me do sh–, but do you wanna hear me do a violin?”
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Adding, “I wanna hear him get with Big Boi, I want them to make an OutKast [album] or to do a solo album. Every time he does a verse, it’s enough material for an album! He’s so gifted. So it’s like, ‘Come on, B. Not the flute.’ That man needs to know the truth.”
LL also said he disagreed with the notion that older rappers don’t have anything to rap about. “When you were 14, you weren’t rapping about pubescent growth spurts. So, why you have to get older and talk about prostate?” He then continued by saying he loves André, but disagrees with the notion that you can run out of things to say. “With all due respect, I disagree with that because he has it in him.”
Stacks didn’t take what LL said to heart and responded in a measured way, saying, “To me, I feel like if it’s in you — ’cause I got homies my age and older than me that still rap — so if it’s in you, you should rap until you die. You should perform until you die.”
However, he reiterated why he’s not confident at the moment when it comes to making a full-fledged rap album. “But what I’m saying is, what it takes for me to do it, I’m always looking for the next. I’m not trying to uphold a thing that I’ve done before.”
Adding, “Of course, I have things to say now, but if I can’t say them in a fresh, innovative way, if I feel like I’m just hanging onto the same flow that I used to do, it’s not enough for me. So I can’t talk for another rapper about what they doing. I just say, ‘Man, go for it. If it’s in you.’”
You can watch the both episodes here.