R&B/Hip-Hop
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A$AP Rocky continues to tease new music ahead of dropping his highly anticipated album Don’t Be Dumb. However, the song that was played as he walked down the red-carpet stairs in the rain with his pregnant partner Rihanna at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday night, when his new movie Highest 2 Lowest premiered, sounds […]
50 Cent is back at it. The Queens rapper and filmmaker continues to troll Diddy as the Harlem mogul’s sex trafficking trial heads into its second week. This time, he posted an AI-generated picture of himself on Instagram wearing a white “Free Diddy” shirt in front of a courthouse and followed that up with a […]
NFL wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. is standing by his friend Chris Brown, who remains behind bars in a U.K. jail following his May 15 arrest. The former New York Giants superstar took to his Instagram Story early Tuesday (May 20), calling for CB’s freedom. “Free Breeeezyyy,” OBJ wrote. “The moral compass will never lie… […]
A new era of rap beef is upon us. One where diss tracks get dropped left and right, forcing curious fans to scramble around trying to catch up.
Enter Joey Bada$$.
Since the Brooklyn rapper kicked things off on New Year’s Day with “The Ruler’s Back,” there have been 22 tracks released (and counting), with a flurry of them coming after Joey’s recent “Red Bull Spiral Freestyle” verse, where he addressed the drama that he started. “Since ‘Ruler’s Back,’ they been tryna measure up,” he rapped. “Look, my name ain’t Rick, but I talk slick, don’t press ya luck/ And I ain’t taking no words back, I’m with all that (All that) But this ain’t gotta turn to nothin’ else, let’s keep it all rap.”
He then referenced Kendrick’s infamous “Control” verse from 2013 when he named names and invited his peers to a friendly competition. “First off, I could never hate the West Coast,” Joey rapped. “But since n—as comin’ for Joe, f—k it then, let’s go/ N—as must’ve forgot what Dot said on ‘Control’/ There’s still a buncha sensitive rappers in they pajama clothes, I guess/ This ain’t no East versus West, I just think that I’m the best, as a matter fact, I know.”
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And you know what? He’s right.
So far, Ray Vaughn, Daylyt, Reason, and AZ Chike have stepped up for the West Coast with a couple decent tracks here and there, but nothing really to write home about. I was into AZ Chike’s decision to step into the ring with his song “What Would You Do?,” but that effort was squashed when Joey called him “Ass Cheek” and brought along battle rap vet Loaded Lux to add insult to injury on their reply entitled “My Town.”
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Speaking of Lux, a handful of New York rappers have stepped up to the plate in Pro Era member CJ Fly, Brooklyn rapper Kai Ca$h and Jadakiss’ son Really Jaewon. And while I dug Kai’s “Knicks in 6” record, the offerings from the East Coast heir have been mainly forgettable already — but they’ve managed to show the type of solidarity the West showed during the Kendrick and Drake battle, which I have to commend them for. Somebody else from NYC needs to drop a crazy diss record over a Cash Cobain beat or something, though. Let’s get everybody involved.
Anyway, there have been fans clamoring for the Griselda guys to get involved, but they haven’t taken the bait yet. Rome Streetz tweeted out a popular meme clip of Stephen A. Smith to express how he feels about people trying to drag him into this thing — and Benny the Butcher seems perfectly fine being a spectator like the rest of us, tweeting out earlier that he felt like Joey was “handling himself exceptionally well.”
And you know what? He’s right.
The Brooklyn rapper hasn’t dropped a full-length project since 2022 and has been focusing on a bubbling acting career in recent years. So, when he randomly dropped his Conductor Williams-produced track with a shot at the West Coast’s recent dominance, fans were taken aback. He then followed that up with a three-song EP in Pardon Me in February, which included the already released “Sorry Not Sorry” and the aforementioned “The Ruler’s Back,” and he told Red Bull that he’s planning on releasing a lot of new music this year in an interview.
If that’s the case, then he’s doing a good job with his album rollout — even if the stakes of this battle are pretty low compared to others in rap’s history. His songs “The Finals,” “My Town” and “Crash Test Dummy” are the strongest out of the bunch to me as of press time. Filing a TDEast trademark and buying the domain so that his new battle releases can live there was also a nice touch.
Call it East Coast bias, or maybe blame it on the Knicks being in the Eastern Conference Finals — but Joey is winning this thing so far, and I’m not sure it’s been close.
Joey Bada$$’s war of the words with the West Coast is heating up. The Brooklyn rapper returned fire on what was a busy Monday night (May 19) in hip-hop as Joey directed his attention at Ray Vaughn, Kendrick Lamar and more on his scintillating “My Town” diss track.
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“I’m the real boogeyman, y’all n—-s should be afraid/ Get the general, I’m killing his troops,” he raps while teasing Lamar. “Don’t make me Pulitzer, better be wise because/ I’m dottin T’s and cross your eyes like Whitaker.”
Joey had plenty of smoke for TDE’s Ray Vaughn and sniped at AzChike, who threw his hat into the ring on Monday with his “What Would You Do” diss track.
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“Look, Ray Vaughn was so last week/ Now, I’m hearing s–t about some nigga named ‘Ass Cheek’/ Who wanna be the next victim/ How many Top Dawgs will it take to sick ’em,” Joey spews.
The 30-year-old pays homage to Cam’ron’s “Welcome to New York City” with his own spin on the Big Apple staple to close out the outro.
Kendrick has yet to address Joey’s shots, as the Brooklyn native previously taunted the Compton legend on “The Finals” earlier in May.
Ray Vaughn didn’t waste any time in returning fire on Monday with “Golden Eye,” which finds him rapping over 50 Cent’s classic “Back Down” instrumental.
“Vaughn Wick” jabbed at Joey Bada$$’s relationship with Diddy and claims that there’s a video implicating Joey in crimes with the disgraced Bad Boy mogul. “If you’re standin’ next to Diddy, then you shouldn’t mention dick/ ‘Cause if they ever show that footage, you gon’ have to plead the fifth,” he raps.
The explosives are still seemingly dropping out of the sky every hour as Daylyt returned on Tuesday (May 20), going after Joey on “Ayo.”
The Joey Bada$$ versus the West Coast battle began on New Year’s Day when Joey gritted his teeth on “The Ruler’s Back.” He appeared to reignite the flame last week during the “Red Bull Spiral Freestyle” alongside Ab-Soul and Big Sean.
Monday brought about a barrage of lyrical missiles fired as AzChike, Daylyt, CJ Fly, Kai Ca$h, JaeWon, Joey Bada$$ and Ray Vaughn all exchanged diss tracks.
Find a timeline to keep up with the entire battle below.
Great day in hip hop 🏆 5.19.25 Joey vs. West (21) https://t.co/pptn4lxeYEJoey Bada$$ “The Ruler’s Back” 1.1.25DAYLYT “HIYU” 1.7.25Ray Vaughn “Crashout Heritage” 1.8.25Joey Bada$$ “Sorry Not Sorry” 1.20.25CJ Fly “HIYU Freestyle” 1.27.25DAYLYT “YHRR” 2.3.25Ray Vaughn…— Elliott Wilson (@ElliottWilson) May 20, 2025
Whenever Drake supports a team with his rooting interest or backs them with his six-figure bets and that franchise ends up losing, the 6 God hears all the noise from sports fans about the “Drake Curse.”
Drake was finally asked about the mythical curse in a mock interview he posted to his Instagram on Monday (May 19) in promotion of his partnership with Stake.
“I feel like I don’t play sports, whether I picked the wrong team or not, if I could get out there and win for all your favorite teams, I would,” he said.
Ultimately, Drake feels vindicated that a “curse” doesn’t exist because the Toronto Raptors captured their first NBA championship in 2019.
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“The Drake curse is funny to me,” he revealed. “First of all, the Toronto Raptors are NBA champions. If there was a Drake curse, Kawhi [Leonard] would’ve never hit that shot, we would’ve never beat the Warriors. There is no Drake curse, but it’s funny, though.”
However, Drake did concede that he isn’t a sports gambling savant and has taken his fair share of monetary losses with bad bets over the years.
“I am a flawed sports better,” Drizzy admitted. “I will not deny that. That’s not my gift. I’ll let everybody roll with it. I’m sure if you’re a Drake curse believer, there will be plenty more content in the future to confirm your theories because my slips do not cash out. But one day I’m gonna have a parlay that’s insane.”
Drake added to the “Drake Curse” theories on Sunday night when his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs were eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs after a 6-1 thrashing at the hands of the Florida Panthers in Game 7.
Drizzy actually ended up betting $1.25 million on the Maple Leafs to take home the game 7 victory and advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.
However, Drake jokingly flipped the script and blamed the “Bieber Curse” in his IG Story, as Justin Bieber, who’s a massive Leafs fan, was in attendance front and center at Scotiabank Arena with his wife, Hailey, to watch the excruciating loss in person.
“I don’t remember a time in my life when I haven’t been obsessed with the leafsssss,” Bieber wrote following the loss on his Instagram. “This year we made it farther than we have in so long and im happy about that. I can be patient cuz I know this is the team to do it.”
Watch the full interview clip with Drake below.
50 Cent continues to troll Diddy as his trial heads into its second week. Over the weekend, the Queens rapper and filmmaker posted a video that was floating around social media of a group of people wearing “Free Diddy” shirts outside Manhattan federal court and couldn’t help but comment on what he was watching. “Diddy […]
Jalen Brunson is staking his claim for the King of New York. Brunson has led the New York Knicks back to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 25 years, after NYK dismantled the heavily favored Boston Celtics in six games. With the Indiana Pacers on deck, Brunson took to Instagram on Monday […]
Wiz Khalifa announced additional tour dates for later this summer, and he’s bringing a handful of friends along for the ride.
On Monday (May 19), Wiz announced the Good Vibes Only Tour: Smoker’s Edition, which will serve as the second leg of his upcoming summer tour across North America.
While the first half of the tour will include opening performances from Da Baby and Sean Paul, these new dates will feature special guests including Dom Kennedy, Earl Sweatshirt, Curren$y, Ab-Soul, Chevy Woods, Fedd the God and DJ Bonics. The second leg kicks off Tuesday, July 29, in Austin, Texas, at Germania Insurance Amphitheater. From there, the smokers crew will head to Phoenix, Los Angeles and more, before wrapping Thursday, Aug. 14 at Cascades Amphitheater in Ridgefield, Washington.
As previously reported, the initial dates of the Good Vibes Only Tour will start July 6 in Darien Center, New York. The Live Nation-produced trek is slated to hit Massachusetts, Ohio, New Jersey, Toronto, Pennsylvania, Virginia and more before concluding the first leg in Atlanta on July 27.
The tour comes after Wiz dropped off Kush + Orange Juice 2 in April. Khalifa recently sat down with Billboard and said he never gets sick of performing his anthems even after two decades in hip-hop.
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“I love playing all my songs, man. I get hyped for everything,” Wiz said. “Because there’s somebody out there and it’s their first time seeing that s–t. They might have rode around their car with it for 15 years, they might have broke their whole motherf—-ing life and their girl bought ’em a ticket and they do not want to see you perform that song lazy. They want to see some heat.”See the full list of dates of of the Smokers Edition tour below.
July 29 – Austin, TX – Germania Insurance AmphitheaterJuly 31 – Albuquerque, NM – Isleta AmphitheatreAug. 1 – Phoenix, AZ – Talking Stick Resort AmphitheatreAug. 3 – Concord, CA – Toyota Pavilion at ConcordAug. 7 – Inglewood, CA – YouTube TheaterAug. 8 – Chula Vista, CA – North Island Credit Union AmphitheatreAug. 9 – Irvine, CA – Great Park LiveAug. 12 – Auburn, WA – White River AmphitheatreAug. 14 – Ridgefield, WA – Cascades Amphitheater
05/19/2025
The current and former leaders of Death Row Records have had a tumultuous relationship over the years.
05/19/2025