R&B/Hip-Hop
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Megan Thee Stallion has proven her dedication to both her music and her love for anime with a last-minute twist just days before the release of her third studio album, Megan.
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The Houston rapper took to Instagram Live on Jun. 26 to share some behind-the-scenes drama with her fans, the Hotties, about having to re-record the track “Otaku Hot Girl” due to unexpected clearance issues with a major anime studio.
During her Instagram Live session, Megan explained how she initially recorded “Otaku Hot Girl” without securing the proper clearance for an anime sample she used in the song.
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The Grammy Award-winning artist didn’t reveal which anime series or studio was involved, but she assured fans that the sample would be instantly recognizable.
“Y’all will never believe what the motherf**k just happened to me!” Megan exclaimed to her followers.
“Y’all know how I told y’all I got an anime sample on my album. I recorded the song before I asked for clearance, so when I sent the people the song, they was like…” Megan paused dramatically, then detailed the studio’s stipulations: she had to change some of the lyrics and was not allowed to cosplay any characters in the music video.
The demands didn’t stop there.
Megan shared that the studio later requested the removal of all character names from the song, which presented a significant challenge since the names were crucial to the lyrics.
Despite the frustration, Megan re-recorded the track in a makeshift studio just hours before her June 11 Dallas show.
“The music is what’s really important to me, but the names really tied it all together,” she explained.
Megan’s determination paid off, and she expressed her gratitude towards the studio for eventually granting the clearance. “I really hope y’all think this s**t sound fire, ’cause I had to jump through eight million hoops to get this s**t,” she added.
“Otaku Hot Girl” is one of 18 tracks on Megan’s upcoming album, which includes the singles “Cobra,” “Hiss,” and “Boa,” as well as collaborations with artists like Kyle Richh, GloRilla, UGK, and Victoria Monét.
The album follows nearly two years after her sophomore release, Traumazine.
Megan Thee Stallion’s new album, Megan, dropped on June 28.
Chance the Rapper has just dropped a major update on his upcoming release, Star Line, and it’s the news fans have been waiting for.
In a recent chat with Complex, the Chicago native revealed that his next studio project is about 83 percent complete, bringing us one step closer to hearing what he’s been working on.
Initially, Chance estimated the collection was 85 percent done but quickly adjusted his estimate.
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“That’s a little generous. I’ma say 83. 83.5, 82.7, you know what I’m saying? We’re living in the project right now,” he joked, giving fans a peek into his creative process.
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Reflecting on the journey from his debut album The Big Day (2019) to Star Line, Chance shared how different this experience has been.
“For my last project, I’d just gotten married, I just had a baby, I was about to separate from my management. Like, I had so many things going on. Now, it’s not like there isn’t a lot going on, but I’m really able to enjoy the creative process and be 100 percent myself.”
Star Line draws inspiration from Marcus Garvey’s historic Black Star Line, a shipping company aimed at connecting the global Black diaspora in the early 1900s.
Chance elaborated on this during a 2022 interview with Sway.
“He started and ran this very important, integral shipping line. He had a fleet of ships, these giant ocean liners which are the size of cruise ships, that he owned and funded with common Black folks’ money.”
Garvey’s vision of global Black connectivity deeply resonates with Chance, who aims to channel that spirit into his music. “When I think about the Black Star Line and all the spaces that it’s been in, the black star [on the line’s flag] is [also] the representation of Ghana, in their flag, in the fabric of how their country was set up,” he said.
“They believe in global Blackness, Black connectivity and a free Africa.”
Although the album was initially slated for a Spring 2024 release, Chance hasn’t confirmed a new date yet.
To keep fans engaged, he dropped “Together,” produced by DJ Premier, in May, and “Buried Alive” in April, a track that touches on his recent divorce and legal battles with his ex-manager.
In Buried Alive, Chance gets real with lines like, “Where’s his money now? Where his wife at?/ Where his manager? Where his hype at?/ Then they threw the dirt on the casket,” showcasing his raw, introspective side.
Earlier this year, Chance posted an IG Reel of “Buried Alive,” asking fans if he should drop a video. The clips he’s shared of his new direction have featured a darker tone, with black backgrounds and white subtitles, addressing the drama he’s faced since The Big Day.
“I’m really able to revel in the creative process and put everything into that and be 100 percent myself and present in the now,” he said.
It’s officially a Hot Girl Summer. Megan Thee Stallion unleashed her anticipated Megan album to streaming services on Friday (June 28). Filled with 18 tracks, Meg sheds her skin for a rebirth of sorts on her third studio album. She calls on Victoria Monét, GloRilla and UGK for assists throughout the 18-track project. The effort […]
On the latest episode of It Is What It Is, Mase talked about the times he and his late friend and collaborator Big L were at odds.
Both hailing from Harlem, New York, the two rappers were in a group together called Children of the Corn formed around 1993, but prior to that, Big L was already getting buzz in NYC’s underground rap scene, ultimately releasing his solo debut Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous in 1995. However, the younger Mase signed with Bad Boy a year later in 1996 and became a huge mainstream star. This was when the rift started between the friends, according to Mase.
“This was when I first got on. Because, you know, before we got on L was the guy.” Adding, “He took us everywhere… to Bobbito and different places to rap, and then when I got on it was like the whole wave changed, like this is what it looks like when a n—a really get on. So, me and L would get into it.”
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Mase then continued by saying he noticed some similarities between himself and some of Big L’s rhyme schemes. “He start using a few of my lyrics, like different compounds that I was using,” he said. Adding, “That’s when you make two words rap at the same time, so I checked the n—a.”
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After saying the conversation wasn’t a productive one, Mase revealed he was later confronted by Fat Joe — who was in another rap crew D.I.T.C. with Big L — in popular nightclub The Tunnel. “I told L, ‘I’ll knock you out, n—a. You fakin’, n—a. You know I know you, n—a.’ God Bless [the dead],” he recalls while laughing. “He went and got Fat Joe on me, he went and got some Bronx n—as ’cause he couldn’t find nobody.” Adding, “Next thing I know I’m in The Tunnel and the n—a Fat Joe come up to me,” he says. “Then Joe see me and Joe’s like, ‘I ain’t doing nothing to that n—a. That’s Mase, that’s something y’all got going on.’”
Fat Joe confirmed this story on the podcast Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson last year.
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The Harlem rapper then brings up a second time when the two friends started arguing over a woman. He said was hanging out with childhood friend Dallas Mavericks assistant coach God Shammgod in their old neighborhood when the two were confronted by a stick-up kid. Mase said he had just purchased his first Rolex and had it iced-out. “A Spanish n—a just run out of nowhere like, ‘Yo, give it up, give it up, n—a, I’mma kill both of y’all n—as.”
After stalling a bit, Mase said he took his watch off slowly, threw it by the tires of a car, and he and Shammgod fled the scene. Luckily, the cops were in the area and were able to nab the stick-up kid and found the watch.
However, Mase claims he started getting phone calls from friends that were in the same jail as the robber and eventually found out that Big L was behind the robbery. “N—as got crazy on the dude in jail and then they beat the n—a so bad, he told us who did it.”
Mase reveals that he once confronted Big L for using his rap lyrics and tells the story about the multiple times Big L set him up to be robbed.(
it is What it is/YouTube) pic.twitter.com/k2Ng2TaA9R— The Art Of Dialogue (@ArtOfDialogue_) June 26, 2024
With all that being said, Cam and Mase laughed the entire time and still consider Big L their “brother.”
The stories begin around the 50-minute mark. You can watch it here.
Blxst announced on Thursday (June 27) that he’ll drop his debut album I’ll Always Come Find You on July 19 via Red Bull Records/EVGLE. He dropped the album’s official trailer on his socials, which feature Blxst whipping through the city in a black Buick Grand National (featuring a “BIRDIE” California license plate) in black driving […]
Duane “Keefe D” Davis, the man charged in connection with Tupac Shakur‘s 1999 murder, has been denied release despite coming up with the money to post bail, Las Vegas ABC affiliate KTNV reports.
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Davis had notified the Clark County District Court in Nevada on June 20 that he would be able to post his $750,000 bail and faced Clark County Judge Carli Kierny on June 25 to hear the conditions for his release to house arrest and to verify where the funds had come from. The next day, the magistrate denied releasing him due to concerns over the legitimacy of the funds posted by entertainment manager Cash “Wack 100” Jones, according to KTNV.
Jones, who currently manages The Game and Blueface, appeared in court through a video link and said the $112,500 down payment was “a gift” and claimed there wasn’t a quid pro quo arraignment between him and Davis.
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“The court cannot say that Mr. Davis has shown the funds were legally obtained,” the judge wrote in her order, according to the local ABC affiliate, which also provided video of the hearing.
Jones had appeared on VladTV in a video interview posted in early June and said he would bail Davis out if he allowed him to make a TV series about his life. “It’s only $75,000,” he told DJ Vlad at the time. “I’ve been thinking about going to get him with the stipulations that I’ll do the series on it.”
But Jones admitted to the court that he sometimes says things for entertainment purposes and to drive engagement.
“That’s what I said to Vlad, but Keefe D is already involved with somebody. I have no contracts with him,” said Jones, according to KTNV. “Before you go on Vlad, you have a discussion about what you’re going to talk about and what needs to be said to draw up views. There’s nothing about Vlad and nothing about YouTube that says that we’re being truthful about what we’re saying for entertainment.”
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Prosecutors responded with a recorded jailhouse phone call between Jones and Davis, during which they seemed to be talking about a contract of sorts. “You got to remember, this s—t can set you up for the rest of your life,” Jones says on the call played by prosectors. “I will get you out, and then we’ll sit down and talk about all that.”
“While Mr. Jones testified he was bonding out Mr. Davis because Mr. Davis was fighting cancer and had been a pillar of the community, his previous interviews with VladTV suggested another motive,” some of the ruling reads, according to KTNV.
Kierny concluded the bank records that Jones provided were “insufficient to make the requisite showing that the $112,500 bail premium was paid by a legitimate source,” according to KOLO 8, a local ABC affiliate in Reno, Nev.
Davis has been in jail since last September, when he was taken into custody for his alleged involvement in the murder of hip-hop legend Shakur.
Ever since Gunna was released on an Alford plea deal in the YSL RICO trial, fans have wondered about his ties to the YSL label and relationship with Young Thug, who remains behind bars.
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The Atlanta rapper welcomed Spotify’s RapCaviar into his world for an episode of A Day in the Life With Gunna earlier this week, which found him clearing up whether he’s still with Young Stoner Life Records.
“I’m still signed to YSL,” he confirmed. “I’m still providing. We still pushing. No paperwork has been changed. So it’s like, whatever’s been getting and how we’ve been pushing this s–t, it’s still going.”
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After his May 2022 arrest as part of the YSL RICO case, Gunna — born Sergio Kitchens — secured his release through an Alford plea in December 2022, in which he pleaded guilty to a single charge and was sentenced to five years in prison. The rapper was credited with one year of time served and the rest of his sentence was suspended.
Things appear to be OK between Gunna and Thug these days amid the trial. Thugger’s father attended Gunna’s concert in Atlanta earlier this month, and the two embraced and posed for a photo.
In the Spotify video, Gunna showed fans what a typical day for him looks like in the ATL, where he began with breakfast at his mom’s house with family, hit the gym, met up with friends and more.
The 31-year-old is in his lover era and he wants romance and intimacy to provide the inspiration behind his next body of work.
“I might do this love album … Not all just love songs, but a pocket of songs [that are] more intimate songs,” he said. “I think that’s gonna be the next album for me.”
Perhaps Gunna could work with Bossman Dlow down the line, as Gunna revealed the “Get in With Me” rapper and his motivational anthems are what he’s listening to the most right now.
“I be going Bossman Dlow like a motherf—-r. Like he hard. I know all that n—a words, bruh,” Wunna said while giving the Florida rapper his flowers. “Like for real. That n—a get me in a pocket. I just feel good. I been on his wave.”
Gunna returned in May with his One of Wun album, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 91,000 album-equivalent units sold in the first week. The project arrived under exclusive license to Young Stoner Life Records/300 Entertainment, according to a description on Apple Music.
Watch A Day in the Life With Gunna below.
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Childish Gambino wants the world to have more “fun,” which he kept in mind and provided the inspiration for his upcoming Bando Stone & the New World album, his last under the moniker. Gambino (born Donald Glover) hopped on Instagram Live Wednesday (June 26), where he clarified plans for his “Lithonia” single and blamed streaming […]
Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby” sets a new record on the TikTok Billboard Top 50, reigning for a chart-leading seventh week as of the June 29-dated list.
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The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity June 17-23. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
Richman’s seventh week atop the TikTok Billboard Top 50 surpasses Mitski’s “My Love Mine All Mine” as the longest reign since the chart began in September 2023.
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It’s fitting that “Million Dollar Baby” assumes the mantle of the lengthiest No. 1. Though the song was originally released in full on April 26, it was first teased on TikTok via a snippet that quickly went viral, with 13 million global views on the original clip to date.
While pent-up demand for the song drove its initial success on the ranking, TikTok uploads featuring “Million Dollar Baby” in the months since have been paced by a dance trend, as well as a theme where users show how dating their significant other has changed them (“Black wife effect,” “white boyfriend effect,” etc.).
“Million Dollar Baby” has peaked so far at No. 2 on the multimetric Billboard Hot 100. It ranks at No. 5 on the latest survey via 53.2 million radio audience impressions, 35.8 million official U.S. streams and 5,000 downloads sold in the week ending June 20, according to Luminate.
It reigns on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 over Tinashe’s “Nasty,” which lifts 3-2 for a new peak. As previously mentioned, “Nasty,” which was released April 12, first made the chart in late May and has steadily risen thanks to a dance trend and comedy videos attached to its “I’ve been a nasty girl” lyric.
“Nasty” concurrently jumps to a new peak of No. 62 on the Hot 100 with 7.9 million streams, 2.7 million audience impressions and 1,000 downloads.
Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please,” which concurrently hits No. 1 on the Hot 100, falls to No. 3 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50, followed by Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” rounding out the top five.
A pair of songs reach the chart’s top 10 for the first time, one in its third week and the other as a brand-new debut. At No. 7, Jordan Adetunji’s “Kehlani” leads the pair after leaping from No. 25. Adetunji’s ode to the R&B singer has achieved TikTok success in part due to Kehlani herself, who hopped on its virality with a May 24 upload vibing to the song with the paparazzi in the background. A dance trend featuring the tune has dominated its more recent highest performing clips from creators.
“Kehlani” is currently bubbling under the Hot 100 and appears at No. 33 on the latest Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs tally on the strength of 5.6 million streams.
Ella Langley’s “You Look Like You Love Me” is the other new top 10 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50, debuting at No. 9. The song, which features Riley Green, bows despite being released in full on June 21. That’s because, like Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby” before it, the song benefited from pre-release virality with clips uploaded to Langley’s TikTok account as well as live performances of the song from Langley and Green’s joint tour that’s been progressing the last few months.
Further chart action for “You Look Like You Love Me” is expected on the Billboard charts dated July 6, which will incorporate streaming, airplay and sales data from June 21-27.
See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 here. You can also tune in each Friday to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the premiere of the chart’s top 10 countdown at 3 p.m. ET, with reruns heard throughout the week.
This is not a drill.
For those of us old enough to remember the golden days of file sharing, there was a song named “Analyze This” featuring Lord Tariq, Jay-Z, and Nas. File sharing applications like Limewire were hugely popular during the early 2000s, which also happened to be around the same time Jay and Nas were in the throws of their legendary beef, so some weren’t sure whether or not the song was real. It sounded stitched together, and there was also a version of the song with Shaq floating around.
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Well, that’s because the original song “No Love Lost” was on O’Neal’s third album You Can’t Stop the Reign and it will finally be available on streaming services Friday, June 28. Andrew Barber of FakeShoreDrive broke the news on his X account earlier today.
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Shaq’s third album ‘You Can’t Stop The Reign’ FINALLY comes to DSPs this Friday, June 28th…And for the first time ever, the previously unreleased original version of “No Love Lost” featuring both Nas & Jay-Z will be included (their first-ever collab) 
pic.twitter.com/hPncEqP7uR— Andrew Barber (@fakeshoredrive) June 26, 2024
Earlier this month, Barber also broke the news that Shaq’s collab with Biggie — the album’s title track — was set to hit DSPs, as well. That’s how on fire the Diesel was in 1996. Not only did he sign a seven-year, $120 million deal with the Lakers, he dropped a platinum rap album featuring the likes of the Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, Nas, and introduced rap group Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz to the world. The latter of which would have a massive hit with “Déjà Vu (Uptown Baby)” in 1997.
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While Shaq and Lord Tariq do their thing, the real draw here are the former rivals.
Nas spits one of his best verses with the help of bars like, “I flip my loot twice a week on the most trifling streets/You got no right to eat, by the laws of life you keep.”
Jay finishes things off with a smooth 16 packed with memorable lines like, “Get wetted up by the sleeve that leaves the bezel out/You don’t like it? Sue me, I’ll settle out.”
During an appearance on Drink Champs, the legendary basketball player and entertainer addressed why the original version of the song never came out, saying, “People didn’t clear it, but I didn’t take it personal.”
Check out a version of the song that made onto a DJ Clue mixtape back in the day.
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That’s history right there, you understand?
You can find the album’s presave link here.