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Questlove has angered plenty of hip-hop fans in recent days after blasting the Kendrick Lamar-Drake feud while deeming the genre “dead,” and then proceeding to critique 2Pac’s scathing “Hit ‘Em Up” diss track. And the hot takes keep coming: The Roots drummer appeared on SiriumXM’s One Song podcast last week and while discussing the evolution of rap diss tracks, he took a shot at “Hit ‘Em Up” while dubbing it the “weakest musical smack.”
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“I would actually respect 2Pac’s ‘Hit ‘Em Up’ if his music tracking was better,” he said. “‘Hit ‘Em Up,’ to me, is disqualified not because of the misogynist… Dude, you’re rhyming over smooth jazz dinner music! Luther Vandross could sing over this!”
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He continued: “So when this came out, everybody was like, ‘This is hard as sh–! Yo, he killin’ it!’ And I was like, ‘Dog, he’s smooth jazzed up Dennis Edwards. It doesn’t count.’ … That song, to me, is the weakest musical smack. I can’t get with ‘Hit ‘Em Up.’”
Veteran journalist Elliott Wilson took issue with Quest’s sentiments. “Yo! Questlove we love you, but you gotta stop,” he wrote.
Questlove had a enough of the vitriol and posted a PSA to Instagram on Tuesday (May 14) explaining that he was specifically talking about the interpolation of Dennis Edwards’ “Don’t Look Any Further” on “Hit ‘Em Up” and not taking shots at Pac.
“Let’s be clear on the context I was speaking of aight? lol woke up to a grip of ‘what did Dennis Edwards/Pac do to you?!’ texts I’m speaking of the musical backdrop of that record (“Hit Em Up”),” he contested in his caption. “Still mostly not a fan of dis records mostly because having lived in that period (mid 90s) I never seen any good results from hip hop beef.”
While Quest threw dirt on the Drake-Kendrick beef, fans were quick to remind the Philly native about The Roots aligning with Jay-Z during Jigga’s feud with Nas. Quest played the drums for Jay’s Unplugged live album in 2001 where Hov performed his “Takeover” diss.
Looking back, the 53-year-old admitted that his role on Unplugged wasn’t “one of my brighter moments” and had “second thoughts” about the Jay-Nas feud.
“& yeah you don’t have to remind me of my role on Unplugged——-that wasn’t one of my brighter moments & had I had a redo I prolly woulda had second thoughts of the “Takeover” situation,” he wrote. “I mean I know I’m old y’all but damn I’m not tryna be #Poundcake/Respectable Politics Smurf over here yelling “Get Off My Lawn!!!” every 14 secs.”
Find Questlove’s full post below.
After Kendrick dropped “Euphoria,” it was clear that this was going to be different from other rap beefs. Well, except for one: When Pusha T and Drake got into their beef, Pusha worked to methodically break down exactly why he believes Drake is not who he portrays himself to be. In an interview with L.A.’s Big Boy, Pusha said his disses against Drake were “speaking about the character of a man.”
Kendrick picked up with Pusha left off, putting everything on the table, including Drake’s predictability, his relationship with J. Prince, the women he chases, his mixed race and his character. Kendrick’s message to Drake was basically: stay on the pop side of things and leave this rap s–t alone, because you’re no longer welcome. The line “Keep makin’ me dance, wavin’ my hand, and it won’t be no threat” drives that point home.
This motif was used in every song Kenny dropped on Drake’s head. In “6:16 in LA,” Kendrick plays mind games, as he not only uses a timestamp and location for the song’s title like Drake does whenever he feels like being introspective, but he plants seeds about a mole inside his rival’s camp. There’s the song’s artwork, featuring a black leather Maybach glove, and then there are lines like, “Have you ever thought that OVO is workin’ for me?” as he warns Drake about his entourage. Lamar also alludes to the Canadian rapper offering money for intel on Kendrick, something Pusha T accused Drake of doing during their spat.
And we haven’t even gotten to “Meet the Grahams,” which includes artwork that is at the center of a very weird controversy as we speak, catapulting this beef into a rabbit hole of dark web conspiracies and connections to the NYC ballroom scene. This song itself manages to be even more sinister, as Kendrick speaks to each member of Drake’s immediate family (including an alleged hidden 11-year-old daughter) over haunting Alchemist production. Yet despite all that, what will be best remembered about “Meet the Grahams” was how Lamar used the track to spoil Drake’s “Family Matters” release, by tweeting out the YouTube link about a half hour after Drake posted his song and video.
The lore behind this record will be told to generations, and it will be remembered as one of the craziest, most evil diss records in rap history. Kendrick managed to create “Ether 2.0″: Rappers must now be worried about getting Meet-the-Grahamed out here. This was Omar walking down the block with the shottie hidden in the trench coat. This was the boogeyman in the flesh.
Eminem added to the rollout of The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) with a fake obituary that he ran in his hometown Detroit Free Press on Monday (May 13).
As part of the morbid support of the rapper’s upcoming 12th studio album, the obit shrewdly has quote marks around the subhead that had fans thinking Slim Shady was dropping a hint about the project’s possible lead single.
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“Fans ‘Will Never Forget’ Controversial Rapper,” the piece eulogized of Slim Shady in the subhead.
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Theories began to fly across social media platforms such as X and Reddit, with some hypothesizing that the subtle hint of “Will Never Forget” may serve as the title of a single off The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce).
“I bet ‘Will Never Forget’ it’s a single (or sth related to the album, maybe the real name),” one fan wrote to X, while another added, “New Eminem single “Will Never Forget” coming real soon…”
An Eminem Brazil fan account speculated, “Let the theories begin. Will ‘Will Never Forget’ be the first single off TDOSS?”
One more fan on X found it funny Em stylized it like that as well. “I don’t want to reach or get anyone’s hopes up, but isn’t it weird they’d have quotation marks on ‘Will Never Forget’?” they wrote. “Could be a song title or single? Eminem is known to have some weird song titles so I wouldn’t put it past him.”
Billboard has reached out to Eminem’s reps for comment.
The ad/obituary features a photo of Eminem in a white Jason Voorhees hockey mask and revisited how Slim Shady became a household name thanks to “My Name Is,” before concluding that the “complex and tortured existence” of the rapper’s alter ego had ended. “May he truly find the peace in an afterlife that he could not find on Earth.”
Eminem has yet to release any new music in 2024. His most recent verse came as part of Juice WRLD and Benny Blanco’s “Lace It” in December.
The Death of Slim Shady — which does not yet have a release date but is expected this summer — will follow Music to Be Murdered By, which arrived in 2020. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 to give Em a 10th consecutive leader.
In April, Em made an appearance at the 2024 NFL Draft in his hometown of Detroit. Shortly after, the rapper officially announced The Death of Slim Shady (Coupe De Grâce). Em unveiled plans for the project through an Unsolved Mysteries episode, which finds him meeting his demise in search of “who killed Slim Shady?”
Read some of the fan theories on Reddit about Em’s possible first single from his upcoming album below:
In the Detroit Obituary (found on Twitter)byu/l8te2dapartee inEminem
Business is boomin’ for New Ho King. The Chinese restaurant referenced by Kendrick Lamar on “Euphoria” is looking to capitalize on the spotlight by naming a special meal after K. Dot. Last week, food blogger @insta.noodls pulled up to New Ho King in Toronto to order the “Kendrick Lamar Special” and tried out the fried […]
In Spotify‘s latest Billions Club: The Series episode Tuesday (May 14), Cardi B feasts on some delicious Caribbean food while enjoying a few major streaming milestones on the side.
To celebrate having four songs on the platform surpass a billion plays, the rapper ate a meal of oxtails, rice and plantains while using her quartet of shiny new Spotify plaques as plates. In between bites, she opened up about making each track, starting with her 2018 feature on Maroon 5’s “Girls Like You.”
“This song is the perfect song to dedicate [to] my child,” she says in the clip while wearing a pink bathrobe and slippers. “Like, my daughter was in me when I did this song. When I perform this song, it touches me a little different.”
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Cardi’s first child — a daughter named Kulture Kiari, whom she shares with Offset along with son Wave — was born in July 2018, less than two months after her collaboration with Maroon 5 dropped. The New York native also released “I Like It” with Bad Bunny and J Balvin while she was expecting her baby girl, not that she gave the two Latin music stars a heads-up about her pregnancy before meeting them for the first time.
“They just looked down at my stomach like, ‘Oh!’” Cardi recalled, laughing.
“I went to my Grandma’s house, and I played it to everybody like, ‘I have a song with Bad Bunny and f–kin’ J Balvin! Oh my god!” the musician added. “The three of us, we were coming up at the same time.”
Cardi also celebrated her collaboration with Ozuna, Selena Gomez and DJ Snake, “Taki Taki,” reaching a billion streams, clarifying that the song’s title has nothing to do with the popular spicy chip of the same name. “It’s just a word Ozuna made up,” she said with her usual hilarious candor. “I don’t freaking know.”
And of her “WAP” duet with Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi said that their two voices “just went perfect” together. “It meshed very well, like butter and f–king bread,” she continued. “It became such a political record, which kinda shocked me and kinda shocked Megan. The song is not that freaky.”
Three of Cardi’s four Billions Club entries reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 following their respective releases, with “Girls Like You” reigning atop the chart for a whopping seven weeks back in 2018. “Taki Taki” reached No. 11 on the listing that same year.
“I just want to say thank you to my fans because sometimes I can be a little bit hard on myself … I never feel satisfied,” the Whipshots founder said to close out the episode. “The goal is never going to be reached because I’m always hungry for more.”
Watch Cardi’s new Spotify Billions Club episode below.
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Rapsody has been in the rap game for over a decade, and she always sings the praises of the great female rappers who came before her while feeling excited to see a new generation find success.
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“This is a beautiful beginning. We’ve never seen it like this,” she said in her Billboard News interview Tuesday (May 14) about the resurgence of women in hip-hop. “I think there was a time, ’90s ‘course you know we had MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, Lauryn [Hill], Lil’ Kim, Foxy [Brown], Missy Elliott, Charlie Baltimore…. I could go on and on. But I think with social media, you just see it in such a heavy force that’s everywhere. I’m excited about it.”
The 41-year-old MC named Ms. Hill, MC Lyte and Queen Latifah as her main hip-hop influences, as well as Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., DMX and Erykah Badu (“She’s hip-hop to me,” added Rapsody). But she credits Nicki Minaj and Cardi B for paving the way for a newer crop of femcees.
“Nicki coming in, doing what she did, definitely opened the door. And then when Cardi came in, you have two huge women that are very, very, very successful. And if you know the industry, you see one success, it’s like ‘Great. Let’s really pour into this,’” she told Billboard‘s executive director, R&B/hip-hop Gail Mitchell. “I think that women’s stories were needed…. And I think the way that Cardi supported so many women also helped as well. Because of who she was and the success she had and to speak people’s names, to work with the artists that she did, it definitely made room and space for other artists.”
Cardi has worked with many of the newer female rap stars like GloRilla on “Tomorrow 2,” which earned Glo her first top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100; Latto on the Hot 100 No. 13 hit “Put It on da Floor Again;” FendiDa Rappa on “Point Me 2,” which earned her her first Hot 100 entry; and Flo Milli on the remix of her Hot 100 No. 15 hit “Never Lose Me” (also featuring SZA).
Rapsody is set to release her fourth studio album Please Don’t Cry on Friday, May 17 via Jamla and Roc Nation. “It’s supposed to be ironic, right. It’s Please Don’t Cry, but the real message is please do cry. Allow yourself to be human, allow yourself to feel, to sit in your emotions, to grow from it. And think of all the reasons that we do cry. Of course, we cry when we’re sad, but we cry when we’re happy, too, and joyful. And we cry when we’re in love. It’s just about allowing yourself to really be imperfect and embracing the human that you are,” Rapsody said of the album’s title, adding that it’s her most vulnerable body of work to date.
Please Don’t Cry arrives five years after her album Eve, which reached No. 76 on the Billboard 200 and No. 42 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. “After Eve and I did two tours, I had an idea of where I wanted to go next with the album. And then we went into the pandemic. Everybody having to sit with themselves, be alone, the volume of the world turned down and everything internal turned up. You have some healing to do, you have a lot of growing to do and evolving,” she recalled. “And going through the process, it started in March of 2020. I started working on three albums at one time. I’m thinking Eve is done, I know which one I want to do next, but then I had this other idea, but then I’m feeling so much emotionally that I need to purge. And I think it was a week once we were in lockdown, I did 10 or 12 songs in two or three days. And I just kept going. And it took me about three-and-a-half, four years, 360 songs. I had a lot to say, I had a lot to get out. But I was relearning myself.”
Watch Rapsody’s full Billboard News interview above.
It seems Eminem may be taking his upcoming album title The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) literally. A fake Slim Shady obituary recently ran in the Detroit Free Press, in which the piece bids farewell to the “controversial rapper.”
“Slim Shady Made Lasting Impressions” the headline in the DFP reads with the subhead, “Fans ‘Will Never Forget’ Controversial Rapper.’”
The ad/obituary appears to be in support of Em’s upcoming 12th studio LP — titled The Death of Slim Shady (Coupe De Grâce) — and features a photo of Eminem in a white Jason Voorhees hockey mask.
“Fans ‘will never forget’ controversial rapper,” the piece reads. “A product of Detroit who began his career there as a rogue splinter in the flourishing underground rap scene of the mid to late 1990s, Shady first became a household name in 1999 with the debut of his playfully deranged single ‘My Name Is,’ which — along with its uniquely eye catching video — exposed the young artist and his lyrics to a wider audience.”
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The obituary continues: “Ultimately, the very things that seemed to be the tools he used became calling cards that defined an existence that could only come to a sudden and horrific end. His complex and tortured existence has come to a close, and the legacy he leaves behind is no closer to resolution than the manner in which this character departed this world. May he truly find the peace in an afterlife that he could not find on Earth.”
Billboard has reached out to Eminem for comment.
In April, the rapper popped up at the 2024 NFL Draft, which was hosted by his hometown of Detroit. Shortly after his appearance in support of the Detroit Lions, the rapper announced plans for his The Death of Slim Shady (Coupe De Grâce) album, which is slated to arrive this summer.
The album announcement came in the form of an Unsolved Mysteries episode featuring Em meeting his demise in search of “who killed Slim Shady?” 50 Cent even makes a cameo in the crime show-styled bloody teaser.
The Death Of Slim Shady will serve as the followup to the rapper’s 11th studio album, Music to Be Murdered By, which was released in 2020. That album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 to give Em his historic 10th consecutive leader.
It was his frequent collaborator/mentor Dr. Dre who broke the news of an Eminem album on the horizon when he made his first late-night appearance in 30 years on Jimmy Kimmel Live in March.
“Let me tell you something, let me explain something to you right now: Eminem is working on his own album which is coming out this year,” Dre said. “And I actually talked to him and he said it was OK for me to make that announcement right here on this show. So he has an album coming out, I’ve got songs on it and it’s fire. I’m actually gonna hear the entire album for the first time for tomorrow.”
See Slim Shady’s obit in the Detroit Free Press below:
As Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” launches at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (dated May 18), the rapper lands his fourth leader on the list as a recording artist. Meanwhile, its producer, Mustard, tops the Hot 100 for the first time in that role. Mustard produced five previous Hot 100 top 10s, dating […]
The year of the Dogg is upon us.
Hip-hop veteran Snoop Dogg has his hand in everything right now, from cocktails to cooking shows, an international tour, movie roles, coaching spots on NBC’s The Voice and a spot on the sidelines for the world’s greatest multi-sport event, the Olympic Games.
On Monday night (May 13), Snoop dropped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon for a brisk walk through his busy schedule.
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This Dogg is having his day, again and again.
Rocking a customized Olympics kit, Snoop talked of taking his talents to Paris this summer, where he joins the NBC team for nightly reports from the 2024 games. “I wanna do something special with you over there, I don’t know what it is,” he tells Fallon. “Something musical. Something comedic.”
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That once-in-a-lifetime gig will slot into a stint as coach on NBC singing competition show, The Voice, alongside fellow newcomer, the Canadian crooner Michael Bublé.
Announced earlier this week, the 52-year-old joins a panel for this fall’s 26th season which is rounded out by returning coaches Reba McEntire and Gwen Stefani, with the former notching her third consecutive season on the series and No Doubt singer and solo star Stefani adding yet another notch with her eighth go-round.
“If you know anything about me you know I love all forms of music,” he says of his pivot to the musical chairs of The Voice. “So this is a great opportunity for me to show that I really understand music. And be a real coach and really give direction to some of these artists that can be today’s next big thing.”
Snoop insists, “I’m not one-sided, I’m not just for you. I’m for everybody. I’m the people’s champ.”
Before the gun goes off in the French capital, Snoop will embark on a Canadia-exclusive trek this June with fellow G-Funk trailblazers Warren G and DJ Quik, for the Cali to Canada Tour. “We’ll be doing what we do,” he tells Fallon, “representing that west coast hip-hop and giving up a great show.”
Watch the interview below.
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Chris Pratt has a confession to make: He might have some competition when it comes to Usher. The actor revealed in an interview with Entertainment Tonight on Monday (May 13) that his wife, writer Katherine Schwarzenegger, has a thing for the “Yeah!” singer, especially after his 2024 Super Bowl halftime show performance. “She knows every […]