King of Petty, 50 Cent, just refuses to let Irv Gotti and the rest of the former Murder Inc. crew live. Murda Mook recently posted a photo with Gotti along with a caption that read,
“Had a lengthy discussion wit a man that knows this game all too well. And always has been for the artist. He is quietly responsible for some of the greatest artists of all time. A very #honorable dude and mentor. @irvgotti187 and he still loves the rush of doing dope sh*t.”
Irv replied saying,
“@Murdamookez my n*gga. We gonna work. See what happens. F*ck it.”
50 must’ve got wind that Irv was trying to make moves and commented under the post saying,
“Nothing is gonna happen, I’m still around watching everything n*ggas I’m not missing a beat.”
Mook didn’t seem too bothered by it and decided to stay out of it, skipping 50’s comment to let someone know he’s dropping a new single today. LOL! Oh 50.
(AllHipHop Features) Last August, promising Hip Hop artist Jason “Jay IDK” Mills let loose his latest music collection. Subtrap is a 15-track excursion through the mind of several characters created by the Maryland-raised wordsmith. The world was introduced to King Trappy III, Jon Jon, Matt, Ed, and Chris as each fictional individual offered his own tales of the drug game via various cuts on Subtrap.
Following in the tradition of noteworthy conceptual rap albums like Prince Paul’s A Prince Among Thieves, Little Brother’s The Minstrel Show, and Childish Gambino’s Because The Internet, Jay IDK’s opus presents an artisan capable of crafting an exceptional auditory screenplay, an otic motion picture that plays on the big screen in the listener’s head. And according to its creator, the magic of Subtrap is charming a wider audience by the week.
“I think Subtrap is a good example of staying relevant, because we’re noticing an increase of sales per month as opposed to an album coming out, doing a certain amount of numbers the first week, and then going down from there,” says Jay. “So it’s basically been word of mouth for that particular project. I think based off of what the content is, what I’m talking about, and how deep everything is, it gives the music value.”
The LP features production by IDK, Lo-Fi, Skhye Hutch, Tobari, GameBrand, The Glitch Mob, Noose, Mr. Temmtation, and The Watcherz. While most of Subtrap is carried by Jay’s performance, BJ The Chicago Kid and Eddie Vanz lend their voices to the album as well. The soulful BJ appears on the track “Cookie Addiction” which highlights another player in the story of Subtrap – the influential Her.
“A lot of ‘Cookie Addiction’ had to do with that whole Her factor in Subtrap. Her is the music industry. I referred to the music industry as a girl,” explains Jay. “I took some of the experiences I had with women, put that together, and made it as if I’m talking to a woman. But at the end of the day, it’s all about this music industry.”
Jay IDK’s eventual love-hate relationship with the music business actually began while he was serving time in jail. During that period of being locked away, Jason was encouraged by another inmate to take his hobby of putting words together and turn it into a recording career.
A few years later saw the arrival of 2014’s Sex, Drugs And Homework. The debut album was the first example of the “Ignorantly Delivering Knowledge” approach that saturates every aspect of Jay’s persona and style.
The former Prince George’s County Community College student adopted a mission of infiltrating this generation’s psyche with Trap sounds that are easy to digest intertwined with thoughtful content that goes deeper than what appears on the surface. It’s in that spirit that Jay challenges viewers to decipher the covert themes of his recent “God Said Trap” video directed by Jacob LaGuardia.
“If you notice, there’s a lot of subliminal messages in this video. You would have to pause it or play it in slow motion to see some of these things,” says the London-born rhymer. “If you look at it, it seems like it’s just a regular, good quality music video, but it has these things in it that sets it apart.”
Even with turn-up anthems like “The Plug” and “Two Hoes” keeping Subtrap balanced, Jay is still very conscious about letting the doubters know he has real rap skills. Loosies like “MC Hammer Freestyle” and “Hungry” drop as reminders of what the HXLY TRiBE leader can do with the bars. His most recent declaration of higher level emceeing came in the form of “Hello (Freestyle).”
“Every now and then I have this sporadic moment where I feel like I need to prove or reassure people that I’m a rapper and a lyricist first. I try to challenge myself to write better than the last time I did it,” IDK states. “[On ‘Hello’] I was talking about people maybe not believing in me. I was trying to rub it in like, ‘Look you didn’t believe me when I told you, and this is what it is now.'”
The freestyle was spit over the beat to Raekwon’s “Ice Cream.” Jay was just a toddler when the Wu-Tang Clan member’s classic single was released in 1995, but it is not surprising the music connoisseur dipped into the 90’s well. The 23-year-old’s Instagram page partially serves as a multi-genre monument to celebrated masterworks of yesteryear.
Jay pays homage to numerous projects as inspirations (e.g. Bob Marley’s Gold, Erykah Badu’s Baduizm, Gorillaz’s Gorillaz). When it comes to Hip Hop, the works of DMX, Kanye West, and Eminem have been making a huge impact on his creative direction as of late.
DMX + IDK (via Instagram)
“If you listen to my new stuff about to come out, you almost get a little bit of a DMX vibe on some of the records. I incorporated some of that raw energy that he brought. That feeling of actually being a dog, an animal,” Jay tells AllHipHop.com. “Of course, I’ve always been a fan and studied Eminem. From him, I get a lot of my flows and some of the humor.”
He continues, “I started listening to some older Kanye. Not even College Dropout, but Freshmen Adjustment. I listen to that to get an idea where his head was at before he really popped off. I compare myself at where ever I’m in my career to where a lot of these people were as well.”
A taste of what’s to come from Jay arrived this week. He teamed with North Carolina’s Deniro Farrar to warn about devious n-ggas and thirsty b-tches. “Trust Nobody” is a menacing track reminiscent of DMX declaring “I don’t really trust humans that much these days” on “Dog Intro” off Grand Champ.
The next several months are on pace to be the start of a championship run for Jay IDK. The follow-up body of work to Subtrap is expected to hit the internet this summer, and an opening spot on Freddie Gibbs’ “Shadow Of A Doubt Tour” begins on 4/20.
In the meanwhile, Jay is still taking meetings with labels as he searches for a potential company partner who understands his vision as an artist. New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta have essentially been the capitals of Hip Hop culture for years, but the majors are also starting to focus on trying to find the next star out of the area surrounding the nation’s capital.
As one of the leading voices of the new DMV Hip Hop movement, Jay is helping to bring global attention to the musical awakening happening around Washington, DC. While he recognizes The District has not reached the same level as other cities in the rap game yet, Jay is optimistic about where the locale’s rap community is headed.
He concludes, “I think there’s still a lot more work we need to do and a lot more things that need to be accomplished for us to really do what we need to do. I think it’s at a good start, and that’s the most important part.”
(AllHipHop News) Atlanta’s 2 Chainz and New Orleans’ Lil Wayne took the time to show love to a few of their rap forefathers. The creators of the ColleGrove album sat down with Genius to discuss the impact the Dungeon Family’s Goodie Mob and OutKast had on their careers and southern Hip Hop as a whole.
“OutKast was setting the bar for Atlanta, getting us out of the booty shake zone, getting us to where people could actually listen to some lyrics, show creativity, and have live instruments,” stated 2 Chainz. “Goodie Mob was in the same bracket, in the same cloth, in the same blood vessel.”
The Def Jam recording artist shouted out Goodie Mob on the track “Gotta Lotta” off ColleGrove. Chainz interpolated lyrics from the group’s “Black Ice” for his own cut.
Cee-Lo, Khujo, T-Mo, and Big Gipp also heavily influenced Lil Wayne. The YMCMB rapper revealed he started listening to music by Goodie Mob as a young teenager.
“My homeboy C.T. – that’s one of Mack [Maine’s] good homeboys – he put me on it back in the seventh grade. He had me listening to that sh-t every day,” said Wayne. “It changed my life. I started rapping about different things and found out that it was okay to rap positive.”
(AllHipHop News) The music industry has often seen a struggle between creatives and corporate. That dynamic was on display when 300 Entertainment head Lyor Cohen and Atlanta rapper Young Thug appeared on the CNBC program Follow The Leader.
In a clip from the episode, Cohen can be seen telling Thug he needs to work on his songwriting ability rather than just freestyling lyrics as he records. Thugger pushed back on the idea.
“This year I want ten #1 singles,” said Thug.
Cohen replied, “If you don’t freestyle and you actually work on the singles and record great choruses and develop your songs.”
After Cohen advised the “F Cancer” performer that he needs to come back to his recordings and work on them further, Thug shot back, “No I don’t… Hell nah. The critics come back to them.”
Young Thug has managed to establish himself as one of the most talked about rappers in the game at the moment through his abstract fashion sense and constant releasing of music. The 24-year-old southerner has already dropped two projects in 2016 (I’m Up and Slime Season 3) with Hy!£UN35 expected to arrive this year as well.
CNBC’s Follow The Leader airs Wednesdays at 10 ET/PT.
(AllHipHop News) J Dilla fans rejoice. The late production master’s unreleased album The Diary is set to arrive this week. The Detroit legend’s revived company PayJay teamed with Mass Appeal Records to drop the posthumous musical effort.
The Diary was originally set for release in 2002, but it was shelved by Dilla’s label at the time. The collection allowed the man born James Yancey to use the project to showcase his vocal talents. Madlib, Pete Rock, Hi-Tek, Nottz, House Shoes, Supa Dave West, Bink! and Karriem Riggins provided production for the LP.
The Estate of James Yancey’s Creative Director Eothen Alapatt oversaw the completion of The Diary. Alapatt, the long-term general manager of Stones Throw Records, also served as A&R for Dilla’s Donuts and Jaylib’s Champion Sound.
The process to assemble The Diary took ten years as two-track mixdowns and multi-track masters found in J Dilla’s archives after his death were added to the album’s final version. The Diary will be released on April 15. Pre-order the album on iTunes.
Check out the cover art and tracklist for The Diary by J Dilla as well as the single “The Sickness” featuring Nas below.
1. The Introduction2. The Anthem feat. Frank & Dank3. Fight Club feat. Nottz & Boogie4. The Shining Pt. 1 (Diamonds) feat. Kenny Wray5. The Shining Pt. 2 (Ice)6. Trucks7. Gangsta Boogie feat. Snoop Dogg & Kokane8. Drive Me Wild9. Give Them What They Want10. The Creep (The O)11. The Ex feat. Bilal12. So Far13. F-ck The Police14. The Diary15. The Sickness feat. Nas (iTunes only bonus track)16. The Doe (iTunes only bonus track)
(AllHipHop News) New York rapper Desiigner has released only one official single in his career so far, and “Panda” has become a certified smash hit. The 19-year-old rhymer took over the #1 spot on the Hot Rap Songs chart after seven weeks.
Besides being in the poll position on the Rap Songs chart, “Panda” is climbing the Hot 100 as well. Desiigner now sits at #5 on the Billboard tally that marks the top singles in the nation.
Sales of the song jumped 43% and total number of streams rose 48% in the last week. “Panda” sold 70,000 downloads and was streamed 22.3 million times during that span.
Desiigner gained notoriety after being signed to Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music imprint early this year. The Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn based performer was also featured on his label founder’s latest album The Life Of Pablo.
“Panda” managed to out chart Ye’s “Famous” and “Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1” as well as Drake’s “Pop Style” and “Summer Sixteen” on this week’s Hot Rap Songs chart. On the Hot 100 side, the record is only trailing Rihanna’s “Work” (#1), Lukas Graham’s “7 Years” (#2), Meghan Trainor’s “No” (#3), and Zayn’s “Pillowtalk” (#4).
(AllHipHop News) Seminal West Coast rap group N.W.A was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this month. The Straight Outta Compton album creators joined fellow Hip Hop representatives Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Run-DMC, Beastie Boys, and Public Enemy. However, KISS member Gene Simmons has been very vocal about rap stars not being included in the Rock & Roll museum in Cleveland.
Simmons and N.W.A member Ice Cube exchanged words about rappers in the Rock Hall via Twitter after the induction ceremony. Cube then went on The Howard Stern Show where he addressed the issue further.
“I think he believes it’s straight for rock and rollers,” said Cube. “I got a lot of respect for Gene Simmons. I’ve met him a couple of times. He’s actually pretty cool, but I just think he’s wrong on this.”
He continued, “Everybody’s got their own opinions. Gene is an OG in the game, but he’s just wrong on this. It’s a spirit, and it’s been going on before they called it Rock & Roll.”
It’s hard to believe that “Barbershop: The Next Cut” is the third installment of a franchise that is just two years shy of the 15 year mark. Considering the who’s who of talent that has come through this franchise that has spawned four movies to date – including this most recent release set for April 15, as well as the female spin off “Beauty Shop” in 2005 – it wouldn’t be off the mark to suggest that even if this current movie were the narrative equivalent of wet cardboard, people would likely turn out to see it in healthy numbers. However, in this case, due to the on point comedic and emotional execution by director Malcolm Lee ( “The Best Man”, “The Best Man Holiday”), an excellent nuts to bolts story structure built with room for inspired comedic improv courtesy of writers Kenya Barris and Tracy Oliver, as well as politically relevant, up to the minute reality based subject matter, courtesy of producers Robert Teitel, George L. Tillman Jr., Becky Cross Trujillo and Ice Cube, moviegoers will be on point themselves in heading down to the theater to pay the cost of admission.
Not a movie to let it’s highly successful ten year plus history keep it out of touch with what is happening on the ground today versus September, 2002 when the original movie debuted, “Barbershop: The Next Cut” manages to be hilariously entertaining while still following the characters that we have come to know and love (as well as some welcome newcomers) while not forgetting this strange new political world that we all currently inhabit – both in Chicago, Illinois as well as nationally and globally. It’s a scary world out there currently for a myriad of reasons that were unimaginable just five years ago. This movie manages to embrace this new reality while reveling in the human ability to laugh harder than ever to get through it and conquer it… or lose a few innocents along the way trying.
While Barbershop starts out with a telling enumeration of everything that has been exemplary in Chicago (Kanye West, Oprah Winfrey, President Obama) juxtaposed with the recent steep spike in violence in Chicago as compared to the rest of the country, to it’s credit, this movie never ever forgets that it is a comedy. Cedric The Entertainer leads the charge as the comedic Pied Piper showing the way to an outsized crop of A list comedic talent in comedians J.B.Smoove, Anthony Anderson and Deon Cole and newer “Barbershop” comedians LaMorne Morris and Utkarsh Ambudkar. “Barbershop” also stays true to it’s who’s who of actor/hip hop star power with Common, Eve and Nicki Minaj doing some very relatable and funny relationship based B-story work with Tyga giving a pitch perfect turn as a neighborhood element who gives Calvin (Ice Cube) some pause when it comes to his son Jalen (Michael Rainey, Jr.).
Ice Cube, as both a producer on the film, as well as it’s lead actor gives just the right mix of funny and poignant as a man who loves his community, but necessarily must love his son more. Clearly from what Ice Cube did creatively with “Straight Outta Compton” and everything else that Cube has touched both cinematically and musically in a leadership role, this is a producer who has great talent when it comes to entertainment and what works well and speaks well to a mass audience.
If anything negative can be said about this film, it is simply the usual curse of a great ensemble cast feature done well – some characters simply aren’t allowed as much screen time as we might like in order not to tip the whole apple cart. Indeed, it might have been nice to see a bit more of Anthony Anderson and Regina Hall doing the comedic antics that they do best, but likely this would have disturbed what is currently a very good final mix. Yet, given the considerable entertainment value of “Barbershop: The Next Cut,” maybe those lost stories will make for yet another great followup film – provided that the usual suspects that made this one work so well can see getting the band back together once again yet another timely sequel.
“Barbershop: The Next Cut” opens in theaters nationwide on April 15, 2016.
Maybach Music Group’s latest artist Kris Kelli just dropped some visuals for her new single “Murda She Wrote.”
Kris Kelli, who is signed MMG Digital through Block Enterprises, is currently mid-way through a 44-city-tour with legendary group Floetry.
It’s a good fit for Kris, who has been a longtime fan and supporter of the critically acclaimed group.
“Thirteen years ago I met Floetry in New York in my first year in the music business, not knowing that one day I would be on a 44-city-tour with them,” Kris Kelli explained. “I was and still am a major fan of their music.”
(AllHipHop News) The corporate world and big business has used Hip-Hop since it’s inception to drive business.
From Adidas to Honda to Pepsi, big business needs Hip-Hop’s sales.
There’s no better example of this phenomenon than Common’s most recent role as the voice of Microsoft’s “empowerment campaign.”
Microsoft loved Common’s voiceover so much, that his voice was used in the airing of was a $16 million dollar commercial spot that kicked off Super Bowl Weekend in February.
But how did it all come together? How did Common replace the CEO’s voice on a commercial?
According to GeekWire, Common reached out to Microsoft to explain why he wanted to be the voice of the brand, but the choice to use Common came from the top down as the commercial was being developed.
“I love this spot, but you’re not going to use my voice, right?” the CEO asked after seeing an early version of the commercial with his own voice.
Opting to avoid any sense of narcissism with his own voice, the CEO wanted something different and something fresh that captured the message of the Microsoft brand.
Eventually Microsoft would have Common read from CEO Satya Nadella’s speeches, breathing fresh life into the Microsoft CEO’s words.
Says Microsoft Chief Marketing Officer Chris Caposella,“If you were to listen to the audiotape of Common explaining why he wanted to be the voice, it was just so spot on with the brand of Microsoft, and how excited he was to work with us.”
This isn’t the first time Common has linked up with Microsoft to bolster the brand.
When the company launched their “Softwear” clothing line, Common took on the role as spokesperson for the new gear and contributed designs drawing inspiration from the 1980’s.
(AllHipHop News) From landlords reporting eviction to auto financing companies threatening repossession, Tyga has an alleged history of being late on a number of big payments.
This time the Cali bred rapper, born Michael Ray Nguyen-Stevenson, is said to be holding on to his 2013 Lamborghini Aventador without making the proper payments.
TMZ reported that they have documents stating Choice Motor Credit previously repossessed the Rawwest Alive rapper’s 2014 Bentley Mulsanne.
Just this past week Tyga took to Instagram to show his love of luxury cars after the rapper rode around in a Rolls Royce while touring Australia and New Zealand.
“Nothing less,” the rapper said in the caption.
This is not the first time that Tyga has had issues with making payments.
(AllHipHop News) In 2016 we undoubtably live in a racially charged world where racially motivated incidents make headlines daily.
According KHOU 11, a controversial photo is sparking outrage after a Caucasian high school student at Lamar High School allegedly wore blackface as she tried to impersonate the late Tupac Shakur.
In addition to wearing blackface, the girl is wearing a Tupac Shakur t-shirt to a school initiation party after she was told by upperclassmen to wear a costume for the ceremony.
In the controversial image the girl has her hands together seemingly mimicking the image of ‘Pac on her shirt.
“I thought it was blackface and I was immediately offended,” said senior student Ogechi Anene.
“It was supposed to be a shadow they asked her to bring a black shirt and that happened to be the shirt she was wearing,” one student said defending the student in blackface.
According to the Houston Independent School District, “The Houston ISD Code of Student Conduct governs student behavior while on campuses and while participating in district-related activities. At this time, there is no indication that the activities referenced in your email occurred on campus or during a district-sanctioned event. In addition, the organizations referenced in your email are not recognized by the campus.”
Recently Talib Kweli, Bun B and Scarface spoke out against use of the n-word after a group of Desert Vista High School students posted an offensive photo to social media. When originally posted, the highly inflammatory word “NI**ER,” was collectively spelled out on the smiling group of Caucasian girls’ t-shirts.
Rumor has it that Meek Mill is dropping his ‘Dream Chasers 4’ the same day Drake’s plans to release his ‘Views From The 6’. Wow! Now this would certainly be a ‘L’ for Meek. They have been going in on Twitter about this! Did anyone else hear anything like this?
Well, It looks like the Desiigner version of Young Thug, Kyng, has dropped a visual to accompany one of his own version of ‘Slime Season 3’ tracks. There’s one problem, the song as well as the visual are both garbage. What happened to Hip Hop? The rap game is looking more and more like ‘Single White Female’. Isn’t it ironic that Kyng is trying to do to Thug was Thug was doing to Lil’ Wayne?
So often do we feel bad for the kids of this generation as they have no idea what good music is. It makes complete sense why they don’t know who many artists are as the artists clearly aren’t in or from their era, however Erykah Badu’s recent visit to a high school was just sad. The children had no idea who she was and they didn’t know or like her music. They didn’t even try to give it a chance.
Most kids have no idea what good music is as they are subjected to the music of today. They don’t even know about great music of the past unless someone decides to sample a classic, and even then that’s if they do their research. These high school kids weren’t paying Badu any attention at all. As we know most kids will only openly hype music that’s popular right now though. Hey, at least it was a lucky day for the staff.
With only a few days to go until “Barbershop: The Next Cut” opens nationwide in theaters on April 15, 2016, All Hip Hop’s Los Angeles correspondent Kylie Krabbe was able to catch up with some of the cast and crew on hand for the star studded premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California.
In keeping with the highly communicative vibe that has come to define the whole “Barbershop” franchise, both the stars and the creators of “Barbershop: The Next Cut” had a lot to say to All Hip Hop’s cameras when it came to both the premiere and their experiences working together on this latest foray into the world of Calvin ( Ice Cube), his barbershop and his community. See it all here in living color:
“Barbershop: The Next Cut” starring Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer, Regina Hall, Anthony Andersn, Eve, JB Smoove, Common, Nicki Minaj, Deon Cole, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Tyga, Michael Rainey Jr. and Torion Sellers opens nationwide in theaters on April 15, 2016.
(AllHipHop News) As the Future, Ciara, “Baby Future” saga continues on, so does the legal battle.
According to TMZ, Future is suing Ciara back after she filed a $15 million defamation suit against the What A Time To Be Alive rapper.
In the countersuit, Future calls Ciara’s last project a “flop” and says that her career is over despite her “reasonably large” fanbase.
The two have been involved in an ongoing public feud that appears to be primarily based on the custody of “Baby Future.”
“This btch got control problems. I gotta go through lawyers to see babyfuture…the fckery for 15k a month. I jus want babyfuture that’s all,” Future vented back in January.
As Future’s image came across the screen Ludacris had to fill in for Ciara, as she apparently skipped over or refused to mention her ex and father of her son.
No comment from either artist at the time of publishing.
Lil’ Kim wants to remind you that she has been using auto-tune long before the musical processor and effect dominated the music industry. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Lil’ Kim shared that she was using auto-tune 16 years ago. The Queen Bee also recently sat down with Elias Leight to discuss ‘Lil Kim Season,’ her latest mixtape. She says she was using auto-tune heavy as she wanted her songs to sound different and because she was ahead of her time.
“Everyone needs to go back and remember my older music. I even used auto-tune back when no one even was touching it – I used it on The Notorious K.I.M., on a song called “I’m Human.” I sang on all my albums; this is nothing new to me. It’s just that people haven’t heard from me in a while, so they only remember most of the singles that were put out. People need to remember how different every song I put out [was]. “Kitty Box” sounds like something that would be out now. I was ahead of my time, all the time,” said Kim
Photo credit: Marcus Ingram for Warner Bros. Pictures
Atlanta’s own “King of the South” T.I. recently hosted a special VIP screening of the new film KEANU at Regal Cinemas Atlantic Station. Hundreds packed the theater for a chance to preview the highly-anticipated comedy. Cast members Jordan Peele, Keegan-Michael Key, Method Man and Jason Mitchell were on hand to thank the crowd for their support. Special guests included Keri Hilson, Kelly Price, Egypt Sherrod (HGTV), Robert Riley (VH1 “Hit the Floor”), Clifton Powell, Demetria McKinney, Headkrack (Dish Nation/“Rickey Smiley Morning Show”), DJ Fadelf, D’iallo Thompson (Barbershop: The Next Cut), Beautii J (“Cutting It: In the ATL”), Jasmine Burke (Bounce TV’s “Saints & Sinners”) and more.
Following the screening, T.I. invited guests and the cast to an after-party at his restaurant Scales 925. KEANU is in theaters April 29.
Visit www.keanumovie.com for more information. Join the conversation on social media by following @KeanuMovie and use hashtag #KEANU.
