“We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States,” Kanye West tweeted along with the hashtag #2020Vision.
Previously, Kanye had stated he would be running in 2024, but the Yeezy mogul obviously pushed that plan up four years early.
The move into politics is a major step for Kanye West.
Ye wasn’t even register to vote as of March 2020, even though he’s a staunch supporter of the President and has met with the POTUS multiple times.
Kanye has yet to release any more details about his run at the White House.
(AllHipHop News) A global pandemic is not enough to slow down the expansion of Rick Ross’s business empire.
The rap star continues to expand his Wingstop franchise, with the opening of another restaurant in ex Mississippi.
The boss was on hand during a ribbon-cutting ceremony with Clarksdale Mayor, Chuck Espy, and other local powerful politicians.
“Opening a business is hard enough but to do it during a pandemic is a true definition of hustle. As a BLACK ENTREPRENEUR now is the time more than ever to show courage and inspire the next generation of BLACK BUSINESS OWNERS.
With great risk comes great reward.”
Rick Ross owns over two dozen Wingstop franchises in multiple states, including Florida, Tennessee, and now Mississippi.
And the opening of the Clarksdale Wingstop was especially important to Rick Ross since he was born in the city.
He has his own street sign in Clarksdale at the corner of E. 3rd Street in the Art And Culture District of the city.
(AllHipHop News) Soulja Boy has been a businessman since he was a teenager.
He helped created a lane for artists who have excelled in the new world of digital music, by embracing social media in its earliest days.
Despite the various professional successes Big Soulja has mastered, it seems that his love life has been in shambles.
From the escapades played out on “Love and Hip-Hop: Hollywood,” to “Marriage Bootcamp” (both with his ex-girlfriend Nia Riley) to his current conflict with another jawn, Kayla.
According to The Blast, at the top of the year, a woman named Kayla took Soulja Boy to court for allegedly pistol-whipping her, and putting a gun to her head.
The drama started in February of 2019 when she got into a fight with one of Soulja’s workers at his Los Angeles home.
Sometime during the altercation, she further alleges, that Soulja had someone tie her up to restrict her from running away.
Now in court papers, it appears that Soulja blew off his court date —leaving the judge open to talking to Kayla about recognizing her claims without objection through a judgment.
She is asking the courts to award her a whopping $2 million in damages plus an additional $20,615.25 for fees.
(AllHipHop News) The police are still looking for leads as they tried to catch the gunman who assassinated rapper Huey.
The police in St. Louis are asking for the public’s help in nabbing the gunman who killed rapper Huey.
The “Pop, Lock & Drop It” rapper was gunned down in the street on June 25th with almost a dozen bystanders present.
The incident unfolded when a car came down the street and open fired on the group. Two men were hit including Huey, who died from his injuries at a local hospital.
Despite plenty of witnesses being at the scene, the cops are still having a hard time catching the triggerman who took the life of the 32-year-old rapper.
So, local investigators are pleading with the public to come forward to catch Huey’s killers.
So far, the suspects have yet to be identified or apprehended.
(AllHipHop News) Remember last year when the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement locked 21 Savage up for being an illegal alien?
They almost lost a real one, who cares deeply about the country’s urban youth in ways that many citizens within the country simply don’t.
The rapper, though British, grew up in this country and is invested in making the country that he chose to be home “great!”
One way that he has done this is by starting a financial literacy program for students.
Two years old, the program is called the Juma Bank Account Financial Literacy program and it will target Atlanta youth, teaching them how to manage their money.
The program will service the three tiers of K-12 schooling.
With elementary school students, children up until the 5th grade he will teach them the basic concepts of money management.
Middle school students will get to discover how to start planning for their futures, considering the finances associated with the lifestyle that they want to live.
High school students get to have fun as they have set up various lessons that teach entrepreneurship and budgeting.
21 Savage will make a $25,000 donation to Atlanta’s #ATLStrong COVID-19 fund, a program started by the city’s current mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms.
An additional program that will help the city is his Bank Account at Home portal.
The free online financial literacy resource was created in partnership with one of the nation’s top leading mobile banking services providers, Chime, and education technology platform, EVERFI.
EVERFI is made especially for young people and their families and is available across the country on chime.com/21savage.
“The generous support of 21 Savage will go a long way toward the well-being of these young people,” said Robert Lewis, the Juma Atlanta Site Director. “Not only will it help them stay afloat during this crisis, but it also provides a glimmer of hope and the realization that they can count on the support of their community at this time of need.”
21 Savage has been working on building financially savvy families since 2018.
Named after his hit song, “Bank Account,” he created the 21 Savage Bank Account Campaign and donated $21,000 to the cause that had the sole purpose of teaching kids how to save money, make money, and open their own bank accounts.
Tay Roc calls himself Dracula, but he is much more like the man-child turned vigilante, Batman.
Sure Dracula, the Transylvanian Count from Bram Stoker’s book, is a fearsome night-dweller who attacks, marks and provides cultish rebirth in the dark spaces of vampirism —and that sh*t is hard on its own — but Roc is not any of that.
The symbolism of dominance that Prince of the Night manifests has epic overtones … rings bells …still despite the colloquial association of his Cave Gang, the bats, and his history of calling himself that … the mythology of the Stoker’s monster does not easily mesh with the actual mythology and lore of the man-child, Tay Roc who is now the face of URL.
The idea that Batman is a better association for the Maryland star is rooted in some deep psychological babble that would probably bore the hell out of his fans.
But if anyone does a quick overview of the complicated life of Bruce Wayne and juxtapose it to Donté Richardson’s, it would not take the average mind long to see how the natural men (Wayne/Richardson) struggle to subdue their alter-egos (Batman/Tay Roc). Daily, the two face the pressures of competing with their ginormous second-selves — fighting to see who will emerge as the dominant voice that they hear or that the world sees. Who do you want to win, Batman or Bruce Wayne?
More people know what Batman values more than they even care about what Bruce believes is important … And when it comes to rapper Tay Roc … well, fans could care less about his truth. They want the rapper that arguably is one of the best rappers in the world.
As Batman pushes to be greater than the billionaire Bruce Wayne, the double life of Tay Roc many times suppresses Donté Richardson’s need to be civilian.
It is hard because Donté is actually heroic, doing the things that Black men are supposed to garner respect and valor. But in the comic book of his life’s legacy, fans decide whom they want to read. Over and over again, they choose the Gun Bar King over the father, the son, the friend. More interested in wins, than the fact that his teenage daughter is an accomplished and published author. They care more about the rumors than the fact that gives back to his community. But perhaps in reading both, there is a chance to reconcile the man and the artist.
The Birth of Tay Roc: The Origin Story
Like Bruce Wayne, Tay Roc had to be a man before his time. He went from spitting rhymes to feed his need for competition, to strive for greatness so that he could feed his family.
“I have always been a fan of Hip-Hop. As a kid, I watched and listened to Jay-Z, all of Roc-A-Fella, the Lox, Wu-Tang, and Dipset. That’s how I started rapping. But I have always been a competitive person with anything I did so rapping was just one of those things I was competitive with. I always jumped into cyphers and took over. That’s how I started battling.”
“I started battling at a very young age, like 14 or 15. My first on-camera battle inside of a barbershop was when I was 16. That’s when leagues in Maryland started to form (around 2004). We would travel from town to town, go to different counties. We would meet up in football fields, basketball courts, parties, and just rap. This is during the time when battle rap was just for the love of it. This was when you knew who the hottest rappers were. Back then, it was like a secret society, before battle rap was what it is now. This was before we could have fans and get all these YouTube views. It was behind closed doors and it was really cool to do. We never knew who the rappers would be, so it was like nothing personal. Never any type of name flips. The art has evolved so much, now we are able to feed our families off of this and travel.”
It has changed. When you think of Tay Roc, it is hard to imagine that at 32, he predates the YouTube era. It is hard to consider that the same story of street corner rhyming that makes up the origin story of vet rappers like Cassidy, Rakim, Roxanne Shanté, and Big Daddy Kane also applies to him. But as a teen, far too young to go anywhere by himself, he pushed his way into the circle scruffy-big-hat-wearing and determined to spit his bars.
“The first time I saw a SMACK DVD, I was like 16 or 17 years old. It changed my life seeing it. Where I am from, I just thought that it was just ‘me.’ There were people I was battling … I just was passed them. I was way ahead of my time. I was too good for the people I was battling. So when SMACK DVD came out and I actually saw T-Rex and saw Murda Mook, I was like ‘hold on! there are other people in this world like me.’ The Philly battle rappers also let me know that there are other battle rappers. At 17, I had never been out of my state. Then after a while, I just got a call to come up there (NYC). My life changed. I’ve been with battle rap ever since.”
At 17, the average teenager is thinking about prom. They are dreaming about college or the next basketball game at their local high school. But all of a sudden, Donté’s fun hobbies started to look like an obsession, one that didn’t make sense. The reality is Donté’s Baltimore County was similar to that of the HBO hit series, *The Wire*. While he was not directly in the City of Baltimore, it is not hard to believe that a man-child in a household considering the economic condition of the community would be required to hold his weight with either an after-school job or if we are being real, hustling. Donté, like Bruce Wayne who basically had to become his own man before he was legal, did nothing that the average teen around him was doing.
“I didn’t graduate from school because I dropped out. I could have graduated. I dropped out because I was having a kid and school wasn’t getting me money. I had to straight go get a job and start my life. It wasn’t like I was in school and couldn’t do it and I just gave up. I was a senior when I stopped going to school. I never failed or anything. I was supposed to graduate in 2006.”
The snapshot was clear: Baltimore ranked in 2005, 87 out of the 100 largest U.S. cities in terms of median household income. Approximately 2 in 10 Baltimore City residents lived below the poverty line (22.9 percent) and approximately 4 in 10 families with children live below 150 percent of the poverty line (39.5 percent).
So the introduction to out of state battle rap was particularly stressful for Donté, even as it was exhilarating for Tay Roc.
“My big moments in New York were battling in the Lion’s Den, before SMACK. I was about 19. Loaded Lux was the first one to reach out to me and bring me to New York. My first battle in New York was with Charlie Clips. That’s how Smack found me. I took a year off. At that time, I was literally just waiting for calls to get a battle. It was even like we were battling for money. It was a competition. Everybody was doing it for the love and nobody was getting paid at the time. I sat back for the whole year and then SMACK/URL started when I was 20. I was just watching it unfold. I saw T-Rex and all of the new faces that I had never seen before like Tsunami Surf and Hitman, Hollow da Don and K-Shine. I just felt like I had to be a part of this world and I didn’t know how to reach out to any of them. But getting that call from Smack was something that changed my life. I couldn’t even believe that they reached out to me. I was super ready to go. It didn’t matter who they gave me. I was ready.”
Tay Roc was ready, brave, and focused. But Baltimore and the pressures of family and life tugged at Donté’s heart.
“It was very hard for me because, at the time, battle rap wasn’t paying me. I just knew that I wanted to do this more than anything, more than even traditional work. It was hard to figure it out but I put my all into this every time. I feel like it figured itself out. Once Smack started paying people for battles, that changed it from just being a hobby. Now it has become a job.”
“Now, I am like, is it a job? Because it is something that we love to do. I am always going to give my all to this. If this would all fall to the ground, I would still want to do something for this. I would still want to be a part of this and wouldn’t stop trying to create my bars. I would still try and find someone on the same page as me.”
“It is crazy to me, my path. It could be a movie. Now I am damn near at the top of the company. They give me freedom and I am allowed to do a lot that others are not. I earned that and even in that, I go by the rules. They pay me and I do my job. I don’t come to work and go to the bathroom and wait for my time and clock out of work. No, I do my work. The organization respects me for that. I think that is how all these battlers should do.”
“Also, I never left. I never took my brand to any other place. That’s also what made me big in the URL. The fact that all my fans can find all my content in one place. If the URL channel was to vanish, I would vanish. My work would be gone. That’s like huge to me. You have 30 battlers (I can’t even tell you how many) and all of them have been to every battle league in America. I am the only one that stayed home. The only three other places I have been to are Queen of The Ring, Bull Pen, and UW, and all of those are URL family/ affiliated.”
Interestingly, Roc exists in that weird gap between the old school age and the new generation. His age aligns him with the second and third wave of battlers, but he can trace his steps directly behind those who are considered the best in the industry, an industry that he miraculously found himself in as a teenager from the beginning. And like most young people watching from up close, he has clocked the shift in culture.
“It is a crazy world now because a lot of battlers aren’t in it for the love. They are like ‘wait, people are getting paid? I wanna be a battle rapper now.’ They want to battle rap, to get money and that is not what it was in the beginning.”
The Face of URL
By 2016, it is accepted that Tay Roc is the face of the URL. But many wonder why. Even more, they don’t care, they just want to knock him down. But his loyalty to the brand remains unmatched, but the same work ethic that got him from Maryland to the big stage still prevails.
“I am always in a creative mood. Just not to lose my spot, I stay on top of the new guys. I stay on top of what they are doing in the battle world. They keep me motivated (at least the ones I think are good) and that is how I am able to come up with new styles and evolve in this.”
While he is the face of URL, depending on whom you talk to, he sometimes is underrated and slept on. People push a narrative that he is mostly gas and that if Smack White wasn’t calling him his “Number One Gunner,” we would not be as successful. It is almost as they forget that he is a lyricist of the finest caliber and a leader extraordinaire. Cave Gang harbors emcees like Chef Trez, Ave, Brizz Rawsteen, Chess, Bad Newz, and Burke Bucs.
“Even though I am the face, I do feel like I am underrated. At the same time, I feel like there are way more that are also underrated. Other battlers should be in a better position than they are in. Some battlers can get through four rounds (not just three) flawlessly. Full rounds of material and not cause any problems. Keep the positive energy here, but some battlers can’t do that. And the battlers that do keep the positive energy, they don’t get the look that they deserve. They get pushed onto the back burner.”
“It is like battler rap has changed from a lyrical thing to a character thing.”
That statement stands alone. As the face and as a stake-holder in the culture/ URL brand, it is blurry who cares more about a certain professional and moral compass —Code of Honor— for the artists: Tay Roc or Donté. The double consciousness is sickening and troublesome and beautiful all the same time, birthing the genius that gave us the safety belt/ stabbing bar from a previous NOME.
“As long as I continue to do me, the world is going to love me. The battle rap world has changed so much, I am also changing. I go through so much in life and it is not just battle rap. It is hard for me to just keep my composure sometimes. I am just a regular person. And regardless of the celebrity, my battle rap career gets me, I still go through regular people sh*t. When I am at these events and we are going back and forth with battlers, it is not just me but everyone (all of my peers) are going through their own thing. Yes, we come in with chips on our shoulders, and we might be getting into it with each other, it shouldn’t be happening. I learned that. I can’t bring my whole problems and just share them at work. If I am stressed out about some other stuff, I can’t take it out on a battler because he said I was trash.”
The assessment is remarkable. But just hearing his story, makes it impossible to say that he is “regular.” He grew up in battle rap. He has had more years as Tay Roc than he has had years not being Tay Roc. Other emcees went on to college or have made battle rap a second career. But Donté did not have those necessary experiences that would help him gain certain social skills needed to always navigate home, work, friendships, work friendships, commerce, personal investments, trust, elevation, loyalty and etc. It would be ridiculous to totally absolve him from the street culture of Maryland (and his second home NYC) that he raps about — he knows something — but the expectation to always be optimal without the experience of outside things is selfish and unfair. Still, between the two personas, the loving father and son and the vicious battle rapper and crew leader, he makes it work.
That is where Smack comes in as a big brother, mentor, and boss.
“It took a couple of battles for him to really notice me but then he saw that I was serious and not choking. He is not stumbling. Then he reached to me and told me that he respected me strictly for that. He would say, ‘Bruh, every time you come you come 100%. I haven’t seen any bullsh*t from you. You are not in different leagues. I like your style.’”
“The fact that the creator of the league came to me and personally told me that he respects what I am doing, made me turn it up another notch. And then from there, it went from him respecting me to ‘Yo, that’s my gunner! Can’t nobody beat him.’ I feel like that made a lot of the battlers mad because I am not even from New York City. There are plenty of other battlers that he could have picked. That made me super special. I was the first one he ever said that about. That made me feel like I always had a title to live up to. I have to keep my performance at an all-time high. I got to come on 10. Smack doesn’t expect nothing else from me.”
WITHOUT DONTÉ THERE IS NO TAY ROC
“A lot of stuff in life is just common sense. I don’t watch a lot of TVs but I am into documentaries. I am into nature and the history channel. I am into a lot of sh*t and it informs what I do. I don’t think I need to be in school to learn. You can get on YouTube to learn whatever. I just watched Jeff Epstein’s documentary. I enjoy learning about political and historical figures that I never knew about because I wasn’t paying attention in school. ‘Cause I was writing raps in the back of the class.”
“I am a cat person. I love the big cats and if I were to look at myself like one, I would consider how I ambush my opponents. I am going to prey on my opponent (wait in the bushes and when it is time to get him, I am going to get him.) I don’t want to be seen and talk a lot of sh*t.”
NOME is a trademark franchise for URL. The Night of Main Events continues to push the envelope with match-ups that are guaranteed to impress fans. It can be considered the Olympics of Battle Rap. And Tay Roc may have been on more NOMES than any other battler associated with the league: He was on NOME I (O-Red), IV (Charlie Clips), V (Tsu Surf), VI (Rum Nitty), VII (Chess) and VIII (Goodz).
“NOME represents a shift in the culture. After that card happens, the ranks change. Whoever is on that card, all of the top names have to have their best performances. Whoever doesn’t do good, they are at the bottom of that ranking.”
“Daylyt is one of those names that anybody should worry about. At the end of the day, he has a high lyrical ability. He is also very different than any of us. He doesn’t rap like any of us. Everybody has me as the underdog. People are again, underestimating me. I actually feel like that’s f*cked up for Daylyt. All the pressure is on him to do some super amazing stuff, that I don’t think he can pull out. People are expecting him to 3-0 me. There has not been anybody to just 3-0 me. So when I come in there and I win two of the rounds, then what?”
That competitive edge has not left him. He still has the hunger that he had when he sat on his mother’s couch like a teenager waiting for someone to call him for a battle, to do the thing he loves most in the world.
The artist, whether we are addressing the man or the rapper, says that this NOME feels different. Battle rap as the world has known it thus far has changed and this is the first attempt to get back normalcy. It will be epic — possibly seismically allowing another evolution to transpire. No matter what, the kid from Maryland is ready. His bat signal beaming high and he got 3 solid rounds of fire to compete with.
(AllHipHop News) Revered R&B singer/actress Janelle Monae is fed up with hip-hop music.
Janelle took to Twitter last night (July 3rd) and fired off a series of tweets blasting the content in today’s Hip-Hop music.
According to Janelle, she can only stand to listen to women rap, because the amount of misogyny in rap lyrics infuriates her as a woman.
I really only ever wanna hear women rapping . The amount of misogyny from most of men in rap and music is infuriating . We need to abolish that s### too .
Janelle noted how normalized misogyny against women has become, particularly within the present-day landscape of hip-hop culture.
“Y’all can’t wait to call women every b##ch , hoe , discuss violent acts against women, etc for clout in rap, rock, and through out music history. Misogny [sic] has NEVER been okay yet it has become normalized. Women didn’t create misogny [sic], y’all did. SO YOU DO THE WORK to ABOLISH IT,” she tweeted.
“A lot of my musical heroes and peers’ Work are problematic in many ways. And I just might be a problematic hero to someone,” she tweeted.
Take a look at Janelle Monae’s stance on Hip-Hop music below.
Misogyny in entertainment, boardrooms, the WH, households, corporate spaces, army, church, let’s us all know ya’ll do not care about women on a human to human level and you never have. If you did it would have been ABOLISHED centuries ago. You had time.
(AllHipHop News) Reggae legend Buju Banton’s faith got him through the “hell” of spending almost a decade in prison in the U.S. on drugs charges.
The Jamaican star was arrested by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Miami, Florida in 2009, and he was convicted of drug trafficking and firearm offenses in February 2011.
He was released in December 2018 and returned to his homeland, and tells The Guardian he got through the “improvised hell” of jail through his Rastafari faith, reading and reflecting.
“Time and space is relative,” he says. “You have to shield your mind, and as a man of hope and a man of faith I can see the world is right there and I am right there, but can absent myself from the mundane existence.”
The star also stayed strong due to his pride in his ancestors, who fought with Jamaica’s Maroons, a coalition of escaped slaves and indigenous people who fought British colonizers so successfully that Maroon communities persist to this day.
“My Maroon heritage is very important to I, because it kept I close to my roots and my origins,” Buju adds. “I think about it every day. It kept me solid through the recent years, because I know how my people suffered long and they fought hard for freedom. It puts my struggles into perspective and shows why every black man have to fight.”
He has now released a new album, Upside Down 2020, which features contributions from the likes of John Legend and Pharrell Williams, and is determined to look to the future.
“You have to move forward – it’s liberation,” he explains. “There is no future in the past. Let it serve as a guiding force, but that’s all. Music is in my blood. I can’t lock myself in a single room; evolution is what you’re supposed to do.”
(AllHipHop News) Coco Austin, wife of rapper Ice-T, has opened up on her dad Steve’s Covid-19 diagnosis.
The star recently shared a photo of Coco Austin’s dad wearing an oxygen mask on social media, writing: “Coco’s father checked into the Hospital yesterday. COVID in AZ.”
For everyone asking on updates.. Coco’s father on his 3rd day in ICU.. Trying his best to avoid going on the ventilator.. Thanks for all the love and support..👊🏽🙏 @cocosworld#COVIDpic.twitter.com/N0DcrSd87C
Speaking to the New York Post’s gossip column Page Six about the ordeal, Austin confessed she “just wants him to pull through,” as she admitted he’s so weak that even speaking is difficult.
“I’ve been sending as much love as I can, but there’s only so much I can do from a distance,” the former reality TV star shared. “I want to be in the room with him right now and hold his hands, and just let him know that his family loves him, to push through, and this is too early for him to go.
“He can’t even say a word,” she continued. “For him to say ‘no’ or ‘yes’ is so hard that I have to use texting now, and today he doesn’t even want to text anymore. He’s just getting so frustrated that he’s in this position that he doesn’t want to get on the phone.”
Unfortunately, Steve’s condition is “not looking good,” the star explained.
According to Austin, his symptoms first appeared on Father’s Day, and Steve waited nine days to seek medical attention, which Austin said is “basically what they say is too late”.
Where he contracted the virus is currently unclear, but Austin admitted her father isn’t one for wearing face masks.
It comes after Ice-T previously urged fans to take coronavirus seriously, and wrote on social media: “At this point, wearing a Mask in public is more of an IQ test.”
(AllHipHop Music) The duo first met while playing music together in, of all genres, a bluegrass band.
After a late night of freestyling and live-streaming, they decided to collaborate and infuse their unique twist to the classic Snoop Dogg track.
“We’ve always sang this song when we’re out on the road, so we wanted to make a version that we could dance to at home”, explains Dre.
“We had this song memorized since I was 12, and we want our tribute to be more upbeat and summery in nature”.
Meant as a “homage” to black culture, Dre and 182 Water wants to help fight systemic racism through their latest effort.
“All of our royalties are automatically donated to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to help fight systemic racism.”
The duo are relatively new to the scene, but they have been making waves in the crowded music space.
182 Water’s sound has been compared to Young Thug, Lil Wayne, and Shaggy, while the Los Angeles-based Dre just recently worked with American Idol alum Jonny West on his debut single “The End”.
If their future releases mirror their newest release, it’s a sign of great things to come.
(AllHipHop News) West coast rapper 40 Glocc will be spending the next year in prison after taking a plea deal over allegations he was pimping a woman out on social media.
The law enforcement agents had responded to an online offer, agreeing to pay $400 for an hour session.
After taking the girl into the room with the agents, the rapper waiting in a car, where he got wind of the sting operation sped off
The cops eventually caught up with 40 Glocc, whose hands were bloodied and battered from breaking and smashing his cellphones in an attempt to destroy evidence on the devices.
His plot did not work and he was eventually charged with two counts of intentionally promoting the prostitution of an individual and another count of inducing an individual into prostitution.
On Tuesday (June 30th), 40 took a plea deal – he did not admit guilt – but he tapped out to avoid a harsh sentence since the evidence against him was overwhelming.
The rap star sent to prison immediately, where he will spend one year behind bars, along with 10 years of probation.
The “Colton City Crip” was an associate of 50’s G-Unit.
After the bust with the woman in 2017, he was shot twice and hospitalized during a funeral in San Bernardino, California in a broad daylight shooting.
(AllHipHop News) Jay-Z and officials at his Roc Nation firm are calling on a top Wisconsin prosecutor to fire and charge a police officer accused of fatally shooting three people of color in just five years.
The rap mogul and his team of social justice advocates took out a full-page advertisement in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Thursday, directly addressing Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and urging him to take action against Wauwatosa officer Joseph Mensah.
The cop is accused of using excessive force in multiple incidents since joining the Wauwatosa Police Department in 2015, with three ending in the deaths of Alvin Cole, Antonio Gonzales, and Jay Anderson.
The open letter begins, “District Attorney Chisholm, Let us start off with a simple question – how many more people must die at the hands of Officer Joseph Mensah?”
They claim Mensah fired a total of 19 shots during the clashes, stating, “His actions demonstrate an utter disregard for the lives of these young men…
“Outside of the three tragedies associated with Mensah, no other fatal shootings by police have taken place in Wauwatosa since Mensah joined the force in 2015. Doesn’t that tell you something?”
The Roc Nation representatives, together with officials from social justice organizations Until Freedom and The Gathering for Justice, go on to demand Chisholm “immediately” fire Mensah and hold him “accountable for his actions and protect Wauwatosa citizens from further tragedy.”
Roc Nation clients the Jonas Brothers have added their voice to the call for action, posting the open letter on their Twitter page to pile on the pressure.
Echoing details in the note, their caption read: “@DAJohnChisholm How many more people must die at the hands of Officer Joseph Mensah? Mensah has recklessly shot and killed THREE men of color, inexplicably failed to enable his dash camera, and failed to render medical aid during these tragic instances. Prosecute him.”
The news emerges amid ongoing Black Lives Matter protests and renewed calls for social and racial justice, sparked by the murder of George Floyd, who was killed at the hands of a white cop in Minnesota in May.
(AllHipHop Rumors) Well, there’s a new movement that is addressing the 2nd Amendment and that is the Amendment allows most people to legally do something. Now, these laws vary from state to state but the right to bear arms is a universally beloved and respected amendment to the Constitution. But we have to admit white men are the ones that generally adopt this and put it into practice. Things are changing quite a bit especially in the legal sense. We are seeing more and more men and women pick up the gun. I have to say this as well, most Black people are doing it in self-defense and as a reaction to the extreme racism and that we are currently facing.
So why am I saying all this you might ask? I am saying all this because tomorrow, on July 4th, in Atlanta, Georgia in Las Vegas they are hosting a formation. What is the formation you might ask? Well, the formation is not what Beyoncé used to do. The formation is when armed Black militiamen go out there and basically let people know that “We are armed and we are not to taking this and we are ready for war as well.”
Grand Master Jay, the head of the NFAC, is leading the charge in Atlanta and Vegas. It’s actually Stone Mountain which is outside of Atlanta. I am not sure about Vegas. They are doing a lot of protection though, because it is extremely dangerous out there. There’s actual card-carrying KKK members out there intimidating protesters. Protesters have been out and about all over the place but at specific sites like the Wendy’s that was burned down they are taking a stand in the name of people that I’ve been slain by the police. I don’t think we’ll see violence but here’s the information.
If you don’t know what this all means, check it out….we interviewed Grand Master Jay, not to be confused with Jam Master Jay! Check it out….
The NFAC is the “Not F#ckin Around Coalition” and they are not playing around! They came together in the aftermath of Amaud Arbery’s hunting and murder.
Also, since this coalition seems to get no press coverage, we are going to have boots on the ground there in Stone Mountain reporting on it all.
(AllHipHop News) Rapper Vanilla Ice has backed out of plans to perform at an Independence Day party after confessing he “didn’t know” how bad the coronavirus spike was in Austin, Texas.
The show had only been allowed to go on due to a legal loophole, as the venue is technically classified as a restaurant – not a bar, enabling bosses to keep the place open at 50% capacity after Texas Governor Gregg Abbott recently ordered the closure of all drinking establishments as a result of a surge in COVID-19 cases.
Local officials at the Travis County Health Department even warned people not to attend the show for their own safety, but at the time, Vanilla Ice remained defiant and refused to cancel.
Due to the increase in COVID-19 numbers in Austin we’re gonna move the concert to a better date. We were hoping for better Coronavirus numbers by July but Unfortunately the numbers have increased quite a bit so for the safety and health of everyone we’re going to stay home. pic.twitter.com/MWWfNWf3zd
“I take the coronavirus serious. But we can’t live in a bubble,” he posted on Twitter early on Thursday.
“I think at this point we all understand the severity of it. practice social distancing and wear a mask. This is an outside venue, Fourth of July on the lake with fireworks. Plenty of room for distancing.”
However, less than four hours later, Vanilla Ice announced he had changed his mind and would postpone his show due to mounting safety concerns.
In a video posted to social media, the MC said, “Basically, I’m not going. I listened to my fans, I hear all you people out there.
“I didn’t know the numbers were so crazy in Austin, but we were hoping it would be a lot better by Fourth of July, ’cause we booked this concert a long time ago.”
“Basically, we just wanna stay safe,” he continued. “We do take it serious and we wanna make sure that everybody’s safe…
“We were just hoping for a good time… but it turned into a big focal point on me, and it’s not about that, so anyway, Happy Fourth July, and hopefully, by New Year’s, this corona c**p will have a cure…! All the best everybody.”
More than 8,000 new cases were reported in the state on Wednesday, two months after Texas authorities began allowing some businesses and services to reopen following the initial coronavirus shutdown.
(AllHipHop News) The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” is Britain’s biggest single of 2020 so far, according to the Official Charts Company.
The track, which was released in November, spent eight non-consecutive weeks at the top of the charts on its way to selling over 1.46 million copies, including 160,000 downloads.
At the half-way point of 2020, the Canadian star’s#### leads “Dance Monkey” by Australian singer Tones & I – the only two tracks to sell over one million copies so far.
Saint Jhn’s “Roses,” Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now,” and “Before You Go” by Lewis Capaldi round out the top five.
Meanwhile, Capaldi’s Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent is the biggest-selling album of 2020 so far, with almost one million sales.
The album dropped in May 2019 but spent four of its 10 weeks at number one in the U.K. in 2020.
Stormzy’s Heavy Is The Head is the second biggest hit of the year, while Billie Eilish’s debut When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go? is third, ahead of Harry Styles’ Fine Line and Ed Sheeran’s No.6 Collaborations Project.
“Marioooo!” When you hear this producer tag, you already know Supah Mario is the mastermind behind the beat. While he previously had 12 producer tags to choose from, he’s recently narrowed it down to two. His endless catalog of collaborations include Drake’s “Ice Melts” and “Blue Tints” and Young Thug’s “Thief In The Night” and “Wyclef Jean,” two artists who played a detrimental role in cementing his name in the rap game.
Real name DeMario Priester draws influences from a melting pot of genres, actually falling in love with rock before hip-hop came into the picture. Most recently, the South Carolina native landed three records on Uzi’s critically-acclaimed album Eternal Atake: “Myron,” “Silly Watch,” and “That Way.” In addition, he produced Tory’s Lanez’ “Stupid Again” and helped Teddy Walton produce “Rich Blessed Savage” on Key Glock’s Son of a Gun.
AllHipHop caught up with Supah Mario via FaceTime to discuss the recent state of the world, relationship with Uzi, working with Tory in LA, goals, and more!
AllHipHop: How is it over there in Georgia?
Supah Mario: We have a tropical storm right now so the weather’s not that great. Typical stuff: protests, people trying to go back to work, COVID type stuff.
AllHipHop: I heard Atlanta was really always outside though. They never really fully locked down.
Supah Mario: Yeah they don’t follow rules here, it’s ridiculous. It’s messed up because my girlfriend works at a dentist, so everybody’s scared of it but nobody wants to stay inside. My mom’s a nurse, she works with COVID patients. My mom was here last night, my girl mentioned that at work and they sent her home.
AllHipHop: Really?
Supah Mario: She was in a casual conversation: “yeah my mother-in-law works with COVID patients, she’s been at our house.” “Yup, we need you to go get a COVID test and not come back to work until you get your results.” It’s a little bit crazy right now.
AllHipHop: What are your thoughts on the current state of the world?
Supah Mario: Man, it’s crazy. It’s a repeat of what, 3 years ago? We had the same stuff happen. I’ve never seen the world so divided. I’ve never seen people show their true colors like right now. That could be a good thing because now at least I know how people feel. I know how much of the world feels this way, we have a better idea what we’re dealing with now.
AllHipHop: Have you been out there?
Supah Mario: I do not participate in protests. I can’t, I got a child. I have to make sure I stay in the house. I just bought a house, so I’ve been spending my time getting my house together. While everybody else is having this weird ass year, I’m using this time to get my life together. I’ve been in here. I’ve been working on this home studio, getting set up.
AllHipHop: How has everything affected the music industry?
Supah Mario: It slows down the releases that were supposed to happen. In January, everybody’s like “oh, this going to be a great year for music.” COVID hit, everybody’s like “it’s still going to be a great year for music because everybody’s at home and can listen.” All the police brutality stuff happened, now everybody’s like “s##t, we only want music that relates to this.” Artists feel they need to hit the studio and start being more relatable with the times, which is necessary. It’s definitely made people halt their plans and go back in the studio, reevaluate what they’re going to drop.
AllHipHop: What inspires you to create music today? I know family is a big part of it.
Supah Mario: Absolutely. I haven’t been as creative lately to be honest, because there’s a redundancy in the type of music out right now. Everybody’s putting out the same s##t, I’m tired of seeing the same rappers talk about the same s##t. Producers hear a hit song, they start making beats like that hit song. I’m unmotivated at this point because there’s no motivation right now. Nobody’s doing anything outside of the box, so my only motivation is to go against the grain. Do something that nobody else is doing.
AllHipHop: How’s your daughter?
Supah Mario: She’s good. She’s absolutely wonderful. She’s in South Carolina right now, hanging with her aunties. She’s on summer break so that’s why I’m stuck in the house too. I’m being a stay at home dad while her mom’s at work.
AllHipHop: Last time we spoke, you were waiting to see if you had a placement on Uzi’s Eternal Atake. What was your reaction?
Supah Mario: Man, that was crazy. I knew I had it, he already told me I was going to be on it. Once we got to that point where it was time to do paperwork and we were picking records, it felt good. My career was sort of in this limbo state where okay, I did some stuff with Drake, I did some stuff with Young Thug, but I’m constantly working with the same artists. Working on his album helped me diversify, now I have more of the younger kids coming to hit me up. It brought some more opportunities to the table.
AllHipHop: “Myron” has 19 million views on Youtube, which is insane. You did “Myron,” “Silly Watch,” and “That Way.” How did that feel to have three records?
Supah Mario: I knew I had three the whole time. At first, it was supposed to be six records. Two of them ended up leaking last week. Some song I did with Uzi featuring A Boogie ended up leaking, but we stopped the leak before it got to all platforms. It’s a song called “Racist” and another song called “My Friend Artist” or something like that.
AllHipHop: Were those records done in the studio with Uzi?
Supah Mario: No, none of them. That’s how me and bro work, I literally send s##t to his phone or I’ll email them to his manager. I’ve literally only met Uzi one time, with Don Cannon here in Atlanta. This was way, way back right around Luv Is Rage or The Perfect Luv Tape. That was dope. What I really want to do is get out there and start working with West Coast artists because I got a lot of West Coast s##t. I want to link with more producers. I want to hopefully get in a room with Hit-Boy. That’w one of my favorite producers, somebody I really want to work with. I want to do a record with Saweetie. A lot of people I haven’t been able to reach yet, that I know we’d make some dope ass music together.
I’m being put in a specific demographic only based off the records I’ve already done, but I could literally send you beats and you’d be like “yo, the versatility here is crazy.” I can make anything. I can make R&B, I can make it all. They haven’t given me enough of a platform, that’s why these interviews matter because people don’t know who I am yet. Still, there’s not enough media about what I do. I watch other producers go on Live and make beats, then people putt those live beat-making sessions on YouTube. Those beat making sessions are doing 39K, 40K views on YouTube alone, that’s visibility.
AllHipHop: Do you put your own s##t on Youtube?
Supah Mario: I started a YouTube channel, but I’ve never used it. I wanted to make sure I got this place set up before I started streaming. I started a Twitch channel, I started a bunch of stuff, but haven’t done anything. I get hit up everyday, someday asking me “yo bro, when are you going to go Live? When you going to get on Twitch?” They definitely want it, I haven’t had the time yet.
AllHipHop: How was it to hear Tory Lanez gas through “Stupid Again”?
Supah Mario: Man, I was there. I was in the studio with him when he did that, we were in LA. He had rented a house out to finish that album for the label. I was literally in the room sitting on the couch while he’s recording.
AllHipHop: How was it? What was the energy like?
Supah Mario: I made that beat in front of him. Right before they’re getting ready to go to the club, I was working on a beat. He’s rolling up a blunt in the next room, came in the room like “bro I’m rapping on that. Save that because I’m for sure rapping on that.” I said “alright, cool.” Over the next two days, I finished the beat. He called me and told me to pull back up, so I went back over there.
I was in LA for two months at a time, staying in an AirBnB. He had rented the mansion, my AirBnb was 5 to10 minutes away from where he was. I rented a car and I’d go over there every day, make beats there. We’d go to the studio now and then as well to polish up the records. We have a bunch of records that haven’t dropped. We did a lot of stuff. The energy was dope, he was cool. A lot of weed smoking [laughs].
AllHipHop: You don’t smoke right?
Supah Mario: I don’t smoke. Every now and then. I have weed, I’ll hit it once or twice then come back to work. I used to be a serious pothead, I don’t know what happened. 2012, all of a sudden I started smoking and getting paranoid. What’s the deal? You smoke right?
AllHipHop: I do. I think at one point you realize there’s nothing to be paranoid about, you know?
Supah Mario: I hope, because I still get paranoid. I always feel like I’m going to jail, or I’m going to get pulled over. Or f##king aliens are coming, s##t’s crazy. The Tory Lanez s##t was dope because I was able to be there. He’s actually one of the first artists who allowed me to create the process with him, instead of “alright bro, send me some beats. I’ma record, I’ll let you know how it goes.”
AllHipHop: How was producing Key Glock’s “Rich Blessed Savage”?
Supah Mario: I have to give all of that to Teddy Walton, he did that. Me and Teddy had been talking for a month about working together. I‘d send stuff to his phone. I’d create melody patterns then send them to him, he’d make drums around those. He’s from Memphis so he knows these guys. I always thought Teddy was from LA so I’m like “okay yeah, send this to Bryson Tiller.” Or “send this to Chris Brown.” He said “nah bro, we gotta get on some of this trap s##t.” Him and Key Glock have a relationship. We didn’t even know, we saw the tracklist on Instagram one day. Okay cool, guess we got one.
AllHipHop: That’s one of my favorite songs off Son of a Gun.
Supah Mario: Thank you. I did the melody on that, bro did the drums. It was quick. It literally took us five minutes to make that beat. It’s a very, very non-detailed beat. It’s very simple, it loops over and over again. It’s the way he rapped on it that made it such a dope song.
AllHipHop: Key Glock is so hard.
Supah Mario: If they let me produce beats by myself for this dude? You should hear the records I have in his lane. I have a pack just for him.
AllHipHop: Talk about producing “Look What I Got” for Big K.R.I.T.
Supah Mario: That was fun. Me and K.R.I.T. are friends, that’s my homie. He’ll send me acapellas to songs that he produced and ask me to make new beats around them. With this particular one, it’s a song I produced already. That beat ended up getting used by a different artist so I told him “if you send me the acapella, I can make you a similar beat like this.” He said “alright cool. If you do it, I need it back by the next day.” I literally went in my room, no studio setup or nothing. I had to put my keyboard on an ironing board and had to make the beat in my room. That’s actually one of my favorite beats to make because I was able to use the acapella to help build the beat around. I could mix it the way I wanted to, so that was fun. K.R.I.T. is definitely one of my favorite artists to work with. They’re definitely one of my favorite rappers to produce for.
AllHipHop: You still juggling your 12 producer tags?
Supah Mario: [laughs] No, I’ve narrowed it down to three right now. It’s about to just become the “let’s go Mario” one. What’s your favorite one?
AllHipHop: “Mariooo!” I like that one.
Supah Mario: They’re asking me to bring that one back. I really only use that tag for Thug and Drake, that’s who originated those tags. Maybe K.R.I.T. sometimes but for Uzi and everybody else, they always get the “let’s go Mario.” Or “Super Mario on the beat,” the little kid. You haven’t heard that one yet, you’re going to hear it soon.
AllHipHop: What do you have in the vault?
Supah Mario: Man, I can’t tell you bruh. Maybe new Drake records, maybe some Playboi Carti. Who knows? I’m not on Whole Lotta Red, I wish I was. That’s one of the albums I really wanted to be on but it was too late by the time I sent beats for it. Possibly some new Drake, on his new album. Definitely more Uzi s##t. Working on Thug’s album. They’re still working on the punk album, so I’m working on a lot of rock stuff for him. Definitely trying to get some more stuff to Key Glock.
AllHipHop: Anything else you want to let us know?
Supah Mario: We need to get into the heart of this industry. What we don’t talk about enough is what it takes to make it nowadays, how the game is switching from working live to streaming. I still want to have that conversation about depression in the music industry. We have to talk about how artists’ relationships with producers are f##ked up because artists treat producers like s##t. TM88 was talking about it on Twitter the other day, he’s like “is it me, or does anybody realize that the artists don’t really treat or help producers out the way we help them out?” They barely want us in the studio anymore. Artists need to stop treating producers like they’re expendable, they’re trying to reduce us down to nothing.
(AllHipHop Rumors) I don’t believe Meek Mill has a ghostwriter, but there is a lawsuit saying that the Philly Goat rapper stole a pair of songs from a local record label. Dream Rich Entertainment says that Meek Mill and Atlantic Records committed copyright infringement on a pair of songs on his last album. Dream Rich said they got the songs to “Cold Hearted 2” and “100 Summers” through a lyricist they had under contract. Somehow, Meek Mill had access to the lyrics or the writer. They are saying that Meek Mill then took “Cold Hearted 2” and “100 Summers” and then recorded them using the same lyrics and titles. Dream Rich is now seething mad and say that they tried to work with me over the alleged theft but they have not made any progress. They now want $75,000 for each infraction, a sum of $300k.
Here is a fraction of the original report from Bossip.
He should be enjoying quarantining at home with his partner and newborn son.However Meek Mill has been dragged into a copyright infringement lawsuit that accuses him of coopting two songs from a Philadelphia boutique record company, BOSSIP has learned.Dream Rich Entertainment sued the “House Party” artist last month, accusing him, his record label Dream Chaser and parent company Atlantic Records of civil conspiracy to commit copyright infringement. Dream Rich alleges that Meek stole its copyrighted songs and passed them off as his own on his last album, according to the company’s complaint.The music business said in 2018, it acquired the song lyrics and copyrights for “Cold Hearted II” and “100 Summers” after its contracted songwriter penned them.Dream Rich said in court papers that Meek, who was born Robert Rihmeek Williams, had access to one of its songwriter’s lyrics. The company said the rapper helped himself to two songs, “100 Summers” and “Cold Hearted II,” and recorded them using the copyrighted lyrics and title, according to court papers obtained by BOSSIP.
(AllHipHop News) What made NWA revolutionary was not the cussing and “gangsta” talk, the lyricism of a prolific 19-year-old.
Over 30 years later, he is still speaking out against injustice against Black people. However, as a grown man, he is not recording songs to get the message to the masses … he is producing comprehensive plans.
Inspired by the nation’s current civil unrest and protesting, the multi-hyphenated icon, Ice Cube, has put his ideas on paper.
The document is called “A Contract with Black America: Addressing Racial Inequality” and details the demands and concessions that African Americans need to see in the near future.
This Contract With Black America was designed to start the hard conversations. It was made to be perfected and debated. Add comments and suggestions so we can create a better contract with America that will help create a better and more perfect Union. https://t.co/3VXjGSH6Uc
Constitutional Amendment Codifying Expansion of the 13th Amendment by the Courts
Entertainment Industry Reform
Reparations and Monuments and Institutions
Within Ice Cube’s program, he addresses ways to uplift the community by dismantling systemic racism and building equity models to help people have access to opportunities in major ways.
One way is by making sure that Black and brown kids can get into secondary schools, colleges, and universities that have a tradition of blocking out people of color.
The mandate is that all of these institutions have to meet or exceed 13.4% enrollment of minority students. The number is not random, but represents the actual percentage that Black people make up in America.
Cube’s plan asks for not just police reform and more judges that look like the communities in which they serve, but for there to be a “codifying expansion” of the 13th Amendment.
He is also asking for reparations and new banking policies that do not make it so difficult for people of color to borrow or lend.
Should this document be taken seriously, financial reform, policy & legislative reform, and just an all-around rehaul of the system will be on the horizon.
Sometimes you have to “F##k the police” to get some attention. Ice Cube continues to show us to get it done.
