R&B/Hip-Hop
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Footage of a 2024 traffic stop between Ice-T — born Tracy Marrow — and a New Jersey police officer surfaced earlier this week. The contentious exchange reportedly went down in May in Hudson County when bodycam footage showed the “Cop Killer” artist was stopped mere feet away from the Department of Motor Vehicles as he […]
After closing the book on a turbulent 2024, Drake may be looking to make the most of a clean slate in the new year. Conductor Williams, a producer who has worked with the OVO boss, released a brand new Drizzy freestyle on his YouTube page on Friday (Jan. 3).
While the video was quickly taken down, fans grabbed the “Fighting Irish” freestyle and spammed the viral clip across social media. The visual captures Drake’s side profile as he raps through a small, grainy TV screen.
On the track, the 6 God gets introspective about the trials and tribulations of his 2024 over Conductor’s gleaming production, and seemingly blasts those who switched sides on him throughout the Kendrick Lamar feud.
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“The world fell in love with the gimmicks, even my brothers got tickets, seemed like they loved every minute/ Just know the s–t is personal to us and wasn’t just business/ Analyzing behavioral patterns is somewhat suspicious,” he raps.
Drake appears to be targeting those he considered close friends, such as NBA stars DeMar DeRozan and LeBron James, who were in attendance for Kendrick’s Pop Out concert in June. The Fighting Irish was also the mascot for LeBron’s high school team when he attended St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Ohio.
Drizzy also dispels on the track Kendrick’s notion that he has a drinking problem, which Lamar alleged on the diabolical “Meet the Grahams.” “I don’t have a drinkin’ problem, I got a subtle addiction/ I got my father’s habits and I got my mother’s permission,” Drake rhymes.
He also sent a possible subtle jab at Universal Music Group regarding his legal actions alleging that his parent label artificially inflated the popularity of Lamar’s “Not Like Us” diss track. “I hate to see their empire crumble on judges’ convictions,” he spews. (UMG denied his allegations, calling them “offensive and untrue” in a November statement to Billboard.)
Drake and Conductor have connected in the past on For All The Dogs tracks such as “8am in Charlotte” and “Stories About My Brother.”
Billboard has reached out to Drake and Conductor Williams for comment about the track and its removal.
Young Thug made his return to music on Friday (Jan. 3) when he appeared on Lil Baby’s new album WHAM for an assist on “Dum, Dumb, and Dumber” with Future.
Thugger doesn’t waste any time addressing his two-plus-year jail stint as part of the enduring YSL RICO case.
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“Yeah, n—a, King Spider back/ I don’t even believe I was locked up, for real, for real/ I was havin’ my way the whole time, fool, you know what I’m saying,” Thug raps about the jail bid over Wheezy’s skittering production.
Young Thug was arrested on racketeering charges in May 2022 and remained behind bars while the longest case in Georgia’s history yet unraveled.
He finally reached a plea deal and secured his release in October, when he was sentenced to 15 years of probation as Thug pleaded guilty to possession of drugs and firearms charges while pleading no contest to a handful of others.
Gunna was also arrested with Thug and 26 others in May 2022 as part of a sprawling 56-count indictment. However, he reached an Alford plea agreement in December 2022 and was released.
In the time since, Gunna has continued to battle allegations of snitching from fans, and Lil Baby, once a sidekick, has distanced himself from affiliating with the YSL rapper. Attorney Steve Sadow, who represented Gunna in the case, has vehemently insisted his client did not cooperate with authorities and had no impact on Young Thug’s case.
“This long post is solely to set out the truth. Gunna did NOT cooperate, and did NOTHING and said NOTHING to cause harm to Thug’s case,” Sadow tweeted in part on Friday (Jan. 3). “He spent 8 months in jail and was released in Dec. 2022 after entering an Alford plea. Gunna’s plea could not and was not used at Thug’s trial and he was never even named as a witness.”
He concluded his message: “THOSE THAT HAVE AND CONTINUE TO BAD MOUTH GUNNA, GET OVER IT. NUFF’ SAID.”
Young Thug hasn’t addressed his relationship with Gunna since his release outside of a since-deleted November tweet snipingat the Atlanta rapper. “Gunna stop acting like we friends on the internet, I don’t know you my guy,” he cryptically penned at the time. Minutes later, the tweet was gone.
Listen to Young Thug on Lil Baby’s “Dum, Dumb, and Dumber” below:
After lying low, Lil Baby said it was his turn to kick off 2025. The Atlanta rapper sets the tone for the year with the arrival of his WHAM album on Friday (Jan. 3). Short for Who Hard As Me, WHAM serves as Baby’s fourth studio album and features a loaded cast of Young Thug, […]
A quarter-century after Boy Meets World ended, 50 Cent is finally meeting the girl. Following his recent show in Las Vegas, the rapper posed with Danielle Fishel — who played Topanga Lawrence on the iconic series — and wrote afterward on Instagram that the actress is going to be “fine” forever. In a photo posted […]
Diddy will remain behind bars until his sex trafficking trial begins in May, but those closest to him have broken their silence. Peacock released the shocking trailer to the Diddy: The Rise of a Bad Boy documentary on Thursday (Jan. 2), detailing the embattled Bad Boy mogul’s rise to fame, transformational years in the spotlight […]
Kim Kardashian quoted bars from her ex Ye — formerly known as Kanye West — with a post to her Instagram Story on Wednesday (Jan. 1) to ring in 2025.
“Sunglasses & Advil… last night was mad trill,” she wrote in her caption, which was a repost from July 2012 from her own account. The original photo features gold Cuban link shades with two Advil gels, and boasts more than 100,000 likes, including from the late designer Virgil Abloh.
The caption is partially an homage to Ye’s rhymes on Watch the Throne standout “No Church in the Wild.” “Sunglasses and Advil/ Last night was mad real/ Sun coming up 5 a.m./ I wonder if they got cabs still,” he raps on the Frank Ocean-assisted track.
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Co-produced by West and 88 Keys, “No Church in the Wild” reached No. 72 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2011.
The Skims mogul appeared to spend the holidays with family, as she posted a series of photos to Instagram featuring her four children — North, Psalm, Chicago and Saint, whom she shares with the rapper — and mom Kris Jenner and sister Kourtney Kardashian.
It doesn’t appear Ye was part of the family’s Christmas festivities. The reality star spoke about Ye’s lack of help in co-parenting when she claimed to be “raising four kids” by herself during an appearance on the What in the Winkler? podcast last year. The couple officially divorced in 2022 after Kim filed in 2021 following seven years of marriage.
“It’s not something that I talk about a lot because I feel like there is always a lot of judgment or people always will jump to the, ‘Oh, but you have the resources to have nannies and to have help,’” she said on the podcast. “And I just think that no matter what kind of help I have, basically raising four kids by myself.”
West looks to be doing his own thing bringing in 2025. The Grammy Award-winning rapper returned to social media and posted photos on Instagram with his wife, Bianca Censori, as they vacation in the Maldives.
See Kardashian’s original “Sunglasses & Advil” Instagram post below, which she reshared on Stories on New Year’s Day.
Lupe Fiasco is adding to his educational résumé as he takes the next step in his teaching career. The Chicago rapper announced on Wednesday (Jan. 1) that he’ll be joining the faculty at Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute as a visiting professor. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Lupe […]
2025 may only be two days old, but Doechii is already hitting the ground running. On Thursday (Jan. 2), the ascendant Tampa rapper released the highly anticipated music video for “Denial Is a River,” a standout cut from her breakout mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal. Co-directed by Carlos Acosta and James Mackel, the “Denial” clip […]
Coi Leray is going to be a mom. The Boston rapper kicked off 2025 in a major way, as she and Trippie Redd are expecting their first child together.
Leray revealed her pregnancy in an announcement to social media on Wednesday (Jan. 1). “I’m a rock star mommy we ready for 2025,” she captioned an Instagram carousel of photos of her baby bump, with two photos also featuring Trippie.
Congratulatory messages poured into her comments section from her fellow female artists such as Anycia, BIA, Lady London, GloRilla, Mariah the Scientist, Ice Spice, Shenseea, Kehlani and DreamDoll, who revealed a pregnancy of her own earlier this week.
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“Congrats! You finally got what you wanted you’re gonna loveee the journey sis,” Shenseea wrote.
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Coi and Trippie dated back in 2019 before breaking things off not long after. During that time, Leray accompanied Redd to the Billboard NYC office for his ! album press run.
The couple went their separate ways, but rekindled their romance in August 2024. Trippie relayed to TMZ that he slid into Coi’s DMs and things flourished from there. “We just been talking. That’s my boo,” he said in September.
Some of their relationship drama was poured into music, as Trippie dedicated “Leray” from A Love Letter to You 4 to his then-ex in 2019. Coi mentioned Trippie years later on 2023’s “Isabel Marant.”
“At first, no, I didn’t like it. It was very like, ‘What the f–k,’ because I always thought we really had something outside of the music,” Coi said of her response to “Leray” in an interview with No Jumper. “So I’m just like, ‘Damn. If you got something to say, let’s get together and you say that s–t to my face.’”