R&B/Hip-Hop
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SZA recreated Kim Kardashian‘s internet-breaking Paper Magazine cover to celebrate her AMAs victory last night. On Monday (May 26), the R&B singer won favorite female R&B artist and favorite R&B song at the 2025 American Music Awards. To celebrate her victories, the SOS star hopped on Instagram and gave her own rendition of Kardashian’s viral […]
Nicki Minaj has shown serious love to Sabrina Carpenter and Billie Eilish in a new interview with Vogue Italia.
On Tuesday (May 27), the publication published a lengthy sit down with the Barbz leader, and asked her to share some thoughts on the overnight fame that comes from social media now.
“A superstar is a superstar,” Minaj said. “And if you are one, you’ll find a way to shine — with or without social media. Like any tool, it can be used well or not. What I feel, sometimes, is that today’s artists don’t realize how important the record label is. They don’t realize how much happens behind the scenes. It all looks easy.”
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Minaj was then asked to share a few of her favorite new artists at the moment. “Sabrina Carpenter,” she said. “I didn’t know she’d been around that long when I started listening to her. A breath of fresh air. I like Billie Eilish. I love everything she does. Then there’s a dancehall artist… his name’s Skeng.”
While Minaj and the “Espresso” star have yet to link on a track, Eilish appeared uncredited on the former’s latest album Pink Friday 2. On the intro track, “Are You Gone Already,” a high-pitched Eilish opens up the album before Minaj starts rapping about the love she has for her children.
Minaj also recently asked Eilish a question in the latter’s star-studded appearance in British Vogue last month. “Was there ever a time in your career, or before you made it, when you wished people couldn’t see you and that they could only hear the music, and really get a chance to just listen to the written words?” Minaj asked.
“Nicki, this question made me tear up a little,” Eilish eplied. “Well … like you said at the beginning of that question, I’ve never really felt very beautiful or seen myself in that way, so I definitely never struggled with the idea that it would overshadow anything, since I didn’t even really see it myself. I’ve had to really convince myself that I am beautiful. Being a woman is hard.”
In the 1970s, “The Future Is Female” became a rallying cry built to encourage and challenge women, to portend that they were poised to surpass their male counterparts. Nearly five decades later, that prophecy rings truer than ever — especially inside the squared circle and in front of the mic.
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The world of wrestling is birthing perennial WrestleMania main-eventers with names like Bianca Belair, Rhea Ripley, Liv Morgan, Becky Lynch, Tiffany Stratton, Iyo Sky and Charlotte Flair headlining a stout women’s division in the WWE. The same could be said in the hip-hop world, where Billboard’s newly crowned Best Female Rapper of All Time, Nicki Minaj, still reigns supreme. While the Queen continues to lap adversaries with her decades-long dominance, her competition is fiercer than ever, as Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B, Latto, Doechii, GloRilla, Sexxy Redd continue to push towards pole position.
What makes this era of female wrestlers and rappers so compelling is the depth on both sides. In the 1990s and 2000s, WWE relied on sex appeal and titillating theatrics to captivate the audience. Lita and Trish Stratus dazzled with their skill and in-ring acrobatics, but the WWE leaned more into their desirability to satiate their audience’s cravings. During the McMahon era, Bra and Panties matches were considered the premium for the female division, due to the company’s dearth of talent. Even during The Divas era, when talent increased substantially with the arrival of The Bella Twins, Natalya, AJ Lee, Beth Phoenix, and others, the desire to see these women headline noteworthy premium live events like WrestleMania felt like a pipe dream.
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The trajectory was a bit different for female rap. In the late 1980s and 1990s, pioneers such as Roxanne Shante, MC Lyte, Salt-N-Pepa, and Queen Latifah made a significant impact on the rap scene with their sharp lyrics and unflinching demeanor. Although the men dominated the conversation, those marquee names went toe-to-toe with the males, twice as vigorous and swaggering. In the mid-to-late ’90s, Lil Kim and Foxy Brown grew in fame and supplanted those stars with sex-laden bars. Other artists attempted to replicate the blueprint, but their tawdry attempts didn’t pay any dividends; when Minaj detonated in the early 2010s, she had the female rap landscape in a bearhug, dominating radio and the Billboard Hot 100.
Fast forward to the 2020s, and the times have changed. WrestleMania 37 included not only a main event headlined by two female superstars but also two Black women: Bianca Belair and Sasha Banks. Liv Morgan became the first woman to win the inaugural WWE Crown Jewel Championship last year. At the same time, Tiffany Stratton was arguably the company’s top rookie, winning Money in the Bank in 2024 and, inevitably, her first Women’s Championship earlier this year. With WWE’s developmental system, NXT, serving as the training ground for budding talent, new stars are making their presence felt there before stepping onto the main roster. New stars are surging up the ranks, ranging from Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer to Jordynne Grace to newly-promoted acts Roxanne Perez and Guilia.
Though Minaj remains the top woman on the throne, the battle for supremacy is more brutal, as proven by Billboard’s Top 10 Hottest Female Rappers list last year, which saw GloRilla oust the Queens rapper from the top slot. Megan Thee Stallion rocketed to superstardom overnight when she nailed three Grammys at the 2021 ceremonies. Doechii’s genre-bending defiance has the music landscape salivating at her every move. And though Cardi has yet to drop her sophomore album, her 2018 debut, Invasion of Privacy, remains a landmark moment in the rap landscape.
In 2011, when Beyonce shouted out: “Who runs the world?,” the singer wasn’t merely predicting what was to come. She issued a spoiler, and a decade later, we’re watching it unfold as predicted right before our eyes.
At the turn of the century, it was Allen Iverson who served as the bridge between hip-hop and basketball while also boasting a massive amount of pop culture influence. Part of the influence came after he retired, when the Philadelphia 76ers icon inspired Post Malone’s breakout hit “White Iverson” in 2015. A decade later, Posty […]
Nicki Minaj‘s last album arrived with her Pink Friday 2 to close out 2023, and she’s laid low for much of 2025 so far on the music side. Gracing the cover of Vogue Italia on Tuesday (May 27), Minaj opened up about the creative process heading into her next LP.
While the Queens legend has a collection of songs she’s proud of, Minaj is in no rush to release her next body of work until the time is right and aligns with her life.
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“I’ve got a bunch of really strong tracks, but I don’t want to rush,” she explained. “I want the record to mean something, both for the fans and for me. I’ll never be one of those people who puts out songs just to put them out. I love music. I respect it.”
When that time does come, she plans on hitting the road once again. “To experience it all again, as soon as possible. For me, and for the Barbz,” she added. The Pink Friday 2 World Tour earned Minaj the honor of having the highest grossing rap tour for a woman.
Elsewhere in the interview, Minaj revealed that she actually initially hated how she looked in the viral “Did I Lie” video, which was born from a CRWN interview in 2018 surrounding the rollout of Queen with Elliott Wilson.
“I hate how I look in that video,” she said. “When people started using it I thought, ‘I’m blocking you all!’ Then I gave in — it’s actually pretty funny.”
Minaj hasn’t made many public appearances this year, but she did pop out at the 2025 Met Gala earlier in May, as the Young Money rapper stunned in a Thom Browne navy pinstripe mermaid dress. “It reminded me of putting on your Sunday’s best and being iconic in your own world,” she told Entertainment Tonight of her attire.
Pink Friday 2 arrived with much fanfare in December 2023. The project debuted atop the Billboard 200 with 228,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 14, according to Luminate. That figure is the largest week for a rap album by a woman in the 2020s.
See Nicki’s Vogue Italia cover below:
05/27/2025
Listen to new must-hear songs from emerging R&B/hip-hop artists like AKIA and Praise.
05/27/2025
Mustard loves him some tennis. The Los Angeles-bred producer has teamed up with the 2025 U.S. Open to launch the Major’s Spectacular Awaits campaign on Tuesday (May 27). Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news While ushering in a new sound on the West Coast’s rap scene, Mustard […]
OVO Fest will be back in summer 2025. Drake made the announcement while making a surprise guest appearance at Central Cee‘s concert in Toronto Saturday (May 24) at History. “I’ll see you this summer, by the way” Drake said to the crowd, while congratulating the British rapper on his success. “OVO Fest will be back […]
Sacha Jenkins, a pioneering hip-hop journalist, author, filmmaker and cultural historian, has died at the age of 54.
Jenkins passed away on Friday (May 23) at his home due to complications from multiple system atrophy, his wife, journalist and filmmaker Raquel Cepeda, confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.
Throughout his multifaceted career as an author, producer, magazine founder and filmmaker, Jenkins was widely regarded as a key authority on hip-hop culture. Born in Philadelphia and raised in New York City, he moved to Queens in the late 1970s — a formative time when hip-hop, punk, graffiti and skateboarding were all rising cultural forces.
Jenkins was the son of Horace Byrd Jenkins III, an Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker who worked on 60 Minutes and Sesame Street. He began his own career by founding Graphic Scenes & X-plicit Language, an early magazine dedicated to graffiti art. Jenkins later co-founded the hip-hop newspaper Beat Down with childhood friend and fellow music journalist Elliott Wilson.
In 1994, Jenkins and Wilson launched the influential hip-hop and skateboarding publication Ego Trip. The magazine ran for 13 issues and spawned two acclaimed books: 1999’s Ego Trip’s Book of Rap Lists and 2002’s Ego Trip’s Big Book of Racism! Alongside team members Jefferson “Chairman” Mao, Gabriel Alvarez and Brent Rollins, Ego Trip also branched into television, producing several shows for VH1, including 2007’s The (White) Rapper Show.
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Jenkins contributed his writing to publications like Spin, Rolling Stone and served as both music editor and writer-at-large at Vibe. He recently held the position of creative director at Mass Appeal, according to Rolling Stone.
As a filmmaker, Jenkins directed and produced a range of projects. His work includes Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues (2022), Bitchin’: The Sound and Fury of Rick James (2021), Fresh Dressed (2015), All Up in the Biz (2023) and Harley Flanagan: Wired for Chaos (2024). His 2019 docuseries Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men earned him an Emmy nomination.
Jenkins is survived by his wife, Raquel Cepeda, and their two children.
Jamie Foxx suffered a serious medical emergency in 2023, which he later confirmed to be a stroke. During the time of uncertainty surrounding the mystery illness, plenty of rumors swirled on social media, including Diddy’s alleged involvement.
Foxx shut down the rumors that Diddy tried to have him killed during an interview earlier this week for The Hollywood Reporter with Hasan Minhaj, Chelsea Handler, Roy Wood Jr., Seth Meyers and Sarah Silverman.
“I’m in f—ing perfect shape. [I saw things like,] ‘Puffy tried to kill me.’ No, Puffy didn’t try to kill me. When they said I was a clone, that made me flip,” he said. “I’m sitting in the hospital bed, like, ‘These b—h-a– motherf—ers are trying to clone me.’”
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The 57-year-old admitted he was heavily sedated with drugs during his hospital stay — and he says he doesn’t recall weeks of it — and he snuck in a cell phone, which saw him indulging in the salacious rumors around his health.
“I was doing so many jokes in the hospital,” he continued. “That’s the only way I could get through it. I’m a comic, so even when I was heavily sedated, and they gave me OxyContin, Dilantin and morphine at the same time.”
Foxx previously addressed the rumors of Diddy having him killed and his friendship with the Bad Boy mogul during his What Had Happened Was Netflix special in December.
“The internet said Puffy was trying to kill me, that’s what the internet was saying,” he said. “I know what you thinking, ‘Diddy?’ Hell no, I left them parties early.”
Combs’ reps dispelled the rumors of Diddy having any involvement in Foxx’s health crisis in October, which they said were “outlandish, ridiculous and baseless.”
In April 2023, Foxx’s daughter revealed that her father was hospitalized for a “medical complication” while filming the Netflix movie Back in Action in Atlanta with Cameron Diaz.
Jamie Foxx eventually explained that a “brain bleed” led to him having a stroke after only saying he had a “bad headache.” A nurse said he only had a five percent chance of surviving the medical crisis.
The Oscar-winning actor spent nearly a month in the hospital as doctors ran a myriad of tests and watched his condition closely. He told the audience at his Netflix special that he came “within an inch of his life” while battling the health scare.
As for Diddy, Combs is currently on trial for his sex trafficking and racketeering case, which is expected to last into July. He potentially faces life in prison if convicted on all charges.