Slim Thug drops the vid for his track “Still Surviving” from his Hogg Life project. As he does donuts in the whip while smoking on a big Cuban cigar you can tell Thug ain’t worried about a damn thing. Clothes, shoes, women and weed, Slim Thug got it all. Such is the life of a boss.
Casey Veggies drops an animated video for his track “The Boy” which appeared on AHH back in early July. With Live & Grow on the way this track is Veggies’ Hit Boy, Rey Reel and Haze Banga produced track and goes perfectly with the cartoon.
Yesterday, Snoop Dogg was arrested by Sweden police. The legendary rapper was arrested after police believed that he had drugs in his car after a concert. According to Snoop, he was dragged out of his car, brought to the station, and currently had a report done on him. Snoop was also forced to take a p### test, but ended up being clean. It looks like racial tension between police and civilians is international, even for pop culture icons like Snoop Dogg. Snoop recently posted a video via Instagram about the situation. Check it out below.
Remember when Shaq was rapping? Well, little do many know but Redman had a role in the Hall of Fame center’s career as an emcee. Take listen below as Redman gets into the story of how he was on tour with Def Squad and went from selling drugs and sleeping on couches to getting out on the road. Then he talks about working with Tupac and eventually his work with Shaq.
According to HYPETRAK, Chicago police had shut down the Chief Keef’s hologram concert. A clip of the crackdown was uploaded via Instagram. The concert was originally supposed to be in Chicago, but was soon moved to Craziest Hip Hop festival in Hammond Indiana after Chicago officials banned it at its first location.
A couple of weeks ago, one of Chief Keef’s close friends, Capo, was killed in a shooting in Chicago. What made matters worst was that one year-old Dillon Harris was also killed during the shooter’s escape. After hearing the news, Keef announced that he would throw a beneficial concert to stop the violence in the Windy City. However, there were several public officials, from a local pastor to the mayor of the city, that opposed the concert. Check out the Instagram clip, as well as a news package that caught a couple of moments from the brief concert.
Just days after Trae Day, Hustle Gang artist and Houston hip hop legend Trae Tha Truth drops his aptly titled new album! “Tha Truth”. The project has 16 original tracks and features a host of features, including Future, J Cole, Dej Loaf, Rich Homie Quan, Boosie Badazz, Rick Ross, Ty Dolla $ign, Jeremih, Nipsey Hussle, Lil Bibby, T.I., Problem, Snootie Wild, Que and more. Trae love to drop them features and this project is no different.
In support of the album, Trae also drops the visuals to the album’s lead single “Tricken Every Car I Get” feat. Future and Boosie Badazz. Peep it below!
Earl Sweatshirt might be around your way in the next couple months. Recently, the Odd Future rapper released an official schedule for his latest tour called the “Ready to Leave Now Tour”. With the tour following the release of his latest album I Don’t Like S###, I Don’t Go Outside, Sweatshirt is going to have a lot of new music to showcase to fans around the world. The tour was announced via Instagram, check it out below.
The Travi$ Scott and PARTYNEXTDOOR collaborations seem to continue. Earlier today on OVO Sound Radio, the two artists’ new single “No Feelings” premiered. The single is relaxed, yet keeps an aggressive undertone through PND and Scott’s auto-tune raps. Check out the song below.
(AllHipHop News) The world was waiting to see if Drake would have something to say about Meek Mill’s accusations the OVO leader was using someone else to write his rhymes.
Drizzy waited until his OVO Sound radio show on Beats 1 to respond to Meek and anyone else that had something to say about the rumors. On the new track “Charged Up,” Drake also makes references to Tidal, DJ Clue “dropping bombs,” and his foes focusing more on rap drama than cops killing people with their arms up.
Yesterday, Kanye West premiered a set of visuals for his two singles “All Day/I Feel Like That” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts, according to a post from The LA Times. The new video from the Chicago rapper was directed by Steve McQueen, who was also a visual artist behind the critically acclaimed film 12 Years a Slave. “All-Day/I Feel Like That” was shot in a dockyard in London. The video will be available to museum visitors until this Tuesday. Check out a couple of clips from the premiere below.
Run the Jewels have been very active ever since their album dropped last year. One half of the duo, El-P, is taking the the sound used for their music to another level. According to (P&P), RTJ member has contributed to the musical score for Fantastic Four. The film is set to release early August. This isn’t the first time Run the Jewels had collaborated with a Marvel project either. Last year, Marvel release an RTJ2 album-inspired comic book cover for Howard the Duck.
Check out a brief clip of the audio via Apple Music.
(AllHipHop Editorial) First off, let’s be clear. Aubrey Drake Graham is one of the most gifted recording artists of the last 10 years. His ability to craft hit records is undeniable. That statement is proven by the fact Drake is currently in the Top 10 of artists with the most Billboard Hot 100 entries. The man is a bona fide hit maker, period.
Being among Elvis Presley, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and The Beatles in that exclusive Hot 100 club makes Drake one of the most celebrated music stars in history. But that honor does not equate to his rankings among the Hip Hop elite.
Hip Hop has always had a different set of rules than other genres. In Pop music, an artist’s ability to connect with a mainstream audience is an important trait for calculating their greatness. In R&B, a singer’s vocal talent reigns supreme when determining which performers are seen as being among the best. For Hip Hop, if you want to reach GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) status, the first thing people in the culture will examine is your lyrical genius.
Hip Hoppers’ Top 5/Top 10 emcees lists varies from person to person, but one main factor that is vital in most of those choices is that rapper’s pen game. Whether you’re talking about certified GOAT candidates such as Rakim, KRS-One, Kool G Rap, Ice Cube, 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G., Jay Z, Nas, Eminem, Andre 3000 or rising potentials like Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, and Big K.R.I.T. – they all have been known to write their own rhymes. And do it well.
Of course, other things play a role as well. Flow, delivery, storytelling, stage presence, record sales, and cultural impact are cited during any GOAT debate. But the key stat has always been lyrics.
This is why if Drake hopes to be considered in the Hip Hop GOAT discussion he has to address these stories he re-recorded reference tracks for his own verses. Yes, anyone that is aware of how the industry operates knows a lot of artists get help in the studio. But having someone in your crew give you a couple of lines or even a hook is not the same as paying someone else to write entire 16 bar raps for you.
That is what Maybach Music Group member Meek Mill has accused Drake of doing, and that has always disqualified a rapper from being mentioned as one of the greatest of all time. (For the record, known “check writers” like Dr. Dre and Sean “Diddy” Combs are never brought up in the barber shop or in rap forums when it comes to GOAT rappers talk, despite their great contributions to the culture).
According to DJ Funkmaster Flex, Drake has Atlanta rapper Quentin Miller on retainer for $5,000 a month as a songwriter. The Hot 97 DJ has already released one alleged Miller reference track, and claims to have several others.
Miller has denied being a “ghostwriter” for Drake stating he was credited for his work on the OVO leader’s latest project If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. Unfortunately, his statement still does not fully address the issue at hand.
If Q.M. chooses not to call himself a “ghostwriter” because his name is listed in the album credits, that’s fine. But that still does not answer whether he actually wrote complete verses for Drake like it sounded in the alleged leaked “10 Bands” reference track. That’s what needs to be confirmed or denied, not his concerns about the semantics of the word “ghostwriter.”
Of course all this is only important if Drake is even worried about being considered one of the greatest emcees. He did refer to himself as the “King of Pop” on Meek’s “R.I.C.O.” In defense of his friend, Drizzy’s longtime producer Noah “40” Shebib essentially tweeted that Drake was more than a rapper. It’s not my place to knock that assertion if that is how the artist truly views himself.
We go beyond the normal boundaries that rappers want to sleep themselves stuck in.
On “What We Talkin’ About,” Jay Z said “I don’t run rap no more, I run the map,” effectively announcing he has grown bigger than the confines of rap music. Kanye West recently declared he is the greatest living rock star on the planet. There is nothing wrong with an entertainer wanting to expand their brand as far-reaching as possible, but again that’s a different conversation. Though you can be both, the qualifications to be a global icon and a Hip Hop GOAT are not one in the same.
Early in Drake’s career he seemed to be focused on being in the pantheon of emcees. In 2009, the Toronto native had yet to release his debut studio album, but he still opened his verse on the song “Forever” with “last name Ever, first name Greatest.” That was an extremely bold statement from a rookie, especially considering the other three guys on the track were Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and Eminem.
Fast forward to 2015 and many fans, media personalities, and fellow rappers consider Drake one of the hottest in the game. He’s a platinum selling artist that hosts SNL and appears in movies with Will Ferrell. His resumé as an entertainer is very impressive.
Drizzy can lead the league in a bunch a categories. He can be the best-selling, the most popular, the most viewed, the most awarded – but he can’t be the greatest rapper if he has other people writing his whole 16s.
Barry Bonds holds the record for most career MLB home runs, but the outfielder will forever have an asterisk next to his name in the public’s mind, because it’s heavily believed he used performance enhancement drugs. If Drake did indeed use Quentin Miller or other people to pen his verses for him, then he will be stamped with an asterisk too. And rightfully so.
Drizzy has a very strong team of producers, writers, and collaborators that help create great music. A good number of rappers do. But if your teammate is providing most of the points during your championship run, then who should be getting the bulk of the credit for the title?
Michael Jordan had a team of players around him that contributed to the success of the Chicago Bulls. Let’s say during the Bulls’ 91-93 Finals run it was Jordan leading the team to most of those victories, but the second three-peat featured Scottie Pippen scoring 30 points a game while Jordan was putting up just 20. MJ would still have his six rings, but he probably wouldn’t be talked about in the way he is today.
That’s how Drake’s Hip Hop biography could end up looking if these writing allegations are true. A star with a lot of hardware, but at just 5 years into his career he lost his step a bit and another player had to carry the load. That’s not the story of a GOAT.
Some people have made the argument rap fans don’t care about who writes the rhymes anymore. But that wasn’t the case just four months ago when California rapper Skeme suggested he wrote the lyrics for Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy.” Hip Hop fans instantaneously pounced on Iggy for being “fake” and were convinced her career was over.
To be fair, many in the Hip Hop community had prior concerns with Iggy around allegations of cultural appropriation, but that still doesn’t negate the fact the “ghostwriting” tag was seen as the nail in the coffin for the female rhymer. And there wasn’t even a reference track for that controversy.
And if you feel fans aren’t bothered by rumors of other people writing verses for their favorite artists, best believe most emcees do care. That’s why Nicki Minaj told the audience at the 2014 BET Awards, “When you hear Nicki Minaj spit, Nicki Minaj wrote it.”
That’s why when Dead Prez and Jay Electronica were accused of being ghostwriters for Nas in 2012, both D.P. and J.E. came out and clearly and vehemently denied the rumors. That’s why Kendrick Lamar added the line “I can dig rapping, but a rapper with a ghost writer… What the f*ck happened?” on “King Kunta.”
That’s why this entire Drake/Quentin Miller ordeal is even making headlines and trending on social media. The culture understands how damaging the label of “he doesn’t write his own rhymes” is to a rapper’s legacy in Hip Hop circles.
So if Drake wants to be viewed as the Muhammad Ali of rap like he implied on “Under Ground Kings” (“I’m the greatest man, I said that before I knew I was”) he has to come out from the shadows and speak on the accusations someone else wrote whole verses for him. If it’s not true, then Drizzy will get his due props as one of this generation’s best rappers.
Drake, you told us on “Light Up” that you “promise to always give you me, the real me.” Well, it’s time you present the real you about this matter. Or you leave it up to the culture to decide your rightful place in Hip Hop history, and that likely won’t be among the GOATs.
Earlier this week, the 9:30 club in Washington, DC was packed to see Goldlink perform in his own hometown. Gold link may have been the headliner for the show, but there were several others anticipated for Sango, Esta, Lakim, and Joe Kay: producers and DJ’s from the popular LA record label/collective, Soulection. The turn out show was very successful, and AllHipHop was able to capture the entire show. Check out our official recap for the show below.
The song used in the video is “Owe Me Back” by Soulection producer, Sango. Check our Soundcloud for the full song via repost.
You still bumping Pilot Talk 3? Get ready for more music from Curren$y soon. This morning, the New Orleans rapper teased fans with some new music via Instagram, featuring production by 808 Mafia. To our surprise, the clips feature a sound different from the bangers that many are used to from the production trio. There hasn’t been any more info on when the music will drop or on what project, but we can safely say that Spitta Andretti is still supplying his fans with those bangers. Check out the clips below and let us know what you think.
When Slick Rick did his track “Mona Lisa” back in the day, it was a classic. But the euphemism for “Mona Li$a” still remains in Hip-Hop as Slimarous aka Slim sings over a this track that has a running melody over consistent symphonic sound. In the video Slim goes from the winter woods to the summer beaches singing about his shawty.
Doggy Collins is an eclectic Hip Hop artist and the quintessential entertainer. His sound has been described as OutKast meets FLO-Rida, with a cool Slick Rick echo. Collin’s latest release is a single called “Bad Girls Club” Ft. Lo Deezy. Check out the video for the single below.
Check out Problem’s brand new music video for Mollywood 3 track “50 Shades of Grey”. Problem directly responds to fellow rappers Wiz Khalifa, Meek Mill, YG, among others on this fan favorite track. “50 Shades of Grey” is available on Mollywood 3: The Relapse (Deluxe Version) now available with 4 bonus tracks on iTunes HERE.
(AllHipHop News) If people thought Quentin Miller’s open letter denying being a “ghostwriter” for Drake was going to end the controversy, that may not be the case. Meek Mill ignited the issue by suggesting he had proof the OVO leader’s verse on “R.I.C.O.” was written by someone else. But that was just the beginning.
DJ Funkmaster Flex took the allegations to another level this week when he dropped what is said to be a reference track of Miller rapping “10 Bands” for Drake. Then late Friday night Flex claimed he has more recorded verses Drake supposedly copied for his own songs. The Hot 97 personality posted the following tweets.
While Miller and OVO producer Noah “40” Shebib have both acknowledged Q.M. worked on Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late project, neither man has explained the “10 Bands” reference track released by Funk Flex. They also have not specifically addressed how much Miller contributed to Drake’s work.
Drake has yet to formally comment on the situation. As of press time, Flex has not released any supposed reference tracks for Drake’s verse on “R.I.C.O.” or for his song “Know Yourself.”
Cali born rapper and So So Def Records member, Royce Rizzy, sits down with DJ Smallz and reveals the biggest advice he received from So So Def CEO Jermaine Dupri.
While the Luciano Family album is blowing up world wide, Money Mafia is steady dropping hot visuals to go with the movie they are putting on in the streets with nothing but banging singles from the Luciano Family ghetto classic project. Look for the new She Money album coming next Colombiana.
