Music fans may still be getting familiar with Warner Brothers Record’s artist Bebe Rexha’s name, but they’ve already grown to love her sound. She’s the songwriter behind a monster hit and has upcoming collaborations with some of the biggest names in music. With the release of her single, “I Can’t Stop Drinking About You,” a song that MTV calls a “certifiable smash,” 2014 is shaping up to be the year Bebe Rexha takes center stage. Bebe Rexha released her Girl, Interrupted/Melancholia inspired debut video this week, “I Can’t Stop Drinking About You.” She penned the song while being hammered following a bad break up.
Bebe is a first-generation Albanian-American from Brooklyn. Her major break into the music industry was as the front woman for Pete Wentz’s Black Cards project, where she honed her talents opening up for acts like Travis McCoy, Panic at The Disco and Bon Jovi. In 2012, Wentz decided to fold the project to refocus his attention on his group Fall Out Boy, and Bebe found herself doubting her direction. She channeled those emotions into “Monster Under My Bed,” a dark, hypnotizing track produced by Frequency. Eminem remade “Monster Under My Bed” into “The Monster,” featuring Rihanna. The song spent five weeks at #1 and sold a massive 3 million copies. Fans soon discovered Bebe’s original demo online, and the buzz around her has been building since.
Bebe draws from her experiences with romance, family difficulties and personal challenges to create electrifying tracks that are a combination of toughness and vulnerability. Her sound is as versatile as her subject matter.
Check out the video to “I Can’t Stop Drinking About You” below.
Atlanta’s QUE. & 2 Chainz team up to bring you “Rich Problems” produced by DJ Mustard. Look out for his mixtape “Can You Digg It?” to release tomorrow via livemixtapes.
Less then a week before she drops her mixtape Valifornia on 8/18, fast rising L.A artist Raven Felix puts a crazy flip on SchoolBoy Q & BJ The Chicago Kid’s “Studio” by inserting her own perspective. The 19 year old shows her range by taking on both parts of the song. Raven Felix’s mixtape Valifornia drops this week.
“Ahhh sh*t Now why the f*ck you done called them cops/With your hands up, you still getting shot.”-50 Cent
G-Unit is in no mood for a peace treaty. On their new track “Ahh Sh*t”, the Unit discuss the police brutality that surfaced in the recent deaths of Eric Garner and Mike Brown.
(AllHipHop News) Many moons (and prison meals) ago Remy Ma was garnering a buzz as a capable battle rapper. In a recent interview, Remy Ma discusses her view on female battle rap now, turning down a “six figure” offer to battle and still believing she can battle.
Back in 2006, Remy Ma faced off against Lady Luck for Fight Klub. According to Remy in her interview with TheHomeOfHipHop247 states that she can
I had a crazy offer that was in the six figure area to do such. That’s not really where I’m at right now in my career. I believe I could do it if I wanted to, that’s what I do. But that’s not what I want to do. I like seeing people that haven’t had the chance to make it as far as I have or even as far as I would like to be one day get a chance to showcase their art and their creativity.
Remy has not chosen sides on the beef between Nicki Minaj and Lil Kim feud but does believe it has “been going on for too long.” In the interview, Remy states that Kim’s lyrical focus has been too narrow as a result of her beef:
It’s been going on for too long. That’s one thing. On Kim’s part, I would have liked if she put out more music. Not just music directed at the person she’s upset. Just music in general. If you feel like you hold a certain position, it’s so easy to prove that by putting out material.
(AllHipHop Features) Statik Selektah may have a serious addiction. Going off the continuous projects, tours, and events attached to his name, it appears the DJ/radio personality/producer is a functioning work-a-holic. And Statik does not seem to have any interest to kick his labor habit any time soon. Up next is more new music.
After dropping critically acclaimed LPs like Population Control (2011) and Extended Play (2013), Statik is set to release his latest studio album this week. What Goes Around is a collection of tracks that feature a diverse group of emcees including Joey Bada$$, Freddie Gibbs, Action Bronson, Ab-Soul, Snoop Dogg, Black Thought, Ransom, Styles P, Talib Kweli, and many more.
Statik’s musical career has always consisted of working closely with other artists. From 1982 with Termanology to Lord Giveth, Lord Taketh Away with Freddie Gibbs to The Proposal with Ransom, the Massachusetts native has created numerous collaborative projects. Even as What Goes Around is about to hit stores, Statik is also helping craft the forthcoming albums B4.Da.$$ by Joey Bada$$ and Mr. Wonderful by Action Bronson.
The current New York City resident took a break from his various jobs to chat about What Goes Around, connecting with Joey Bada$$, the new era of NYC Hip Hop, and which rapper could be his next full project collaborator.
Read part 1 of AllHipHop.com’s exclusive interview with Statik Selektah.
There are a lot of interesting collaborations on What Goes Around. What is your process when you’re trying to decide what artists you want to put together on a track?
It really just comes natural. I hear certain people on the beat, and we reach out. That’s it. A lot of these guys are a phone call away. I basically have a list of who I want to work with when I start the album.
Sometimes things happen through chance. Sometimes I might bump into someone at the right time. It really depends. Every collaboration is different.
Did you ever have any rappers that ask if you could put them on a track with a particular artist? Or do they ever request that you put them on a certain track?
Yeah, it happens every day. On this album one specific one was I had Joey [Bada$$] on “Carry On” by himself. It was supposed to be a little interlude in between two songs, and I was like, “Let’s put [Freddie] Gibbs on this.” Joey and Gibbs actually did a record together for Cocaine Piñata at my crib a long time ago, and Gibbs ended up doing the song by himself.
I was like, “There’s still no Joey Bada$$/Freddie Gibbs record.” Me and Joey were out in San Diego, and Gibbs came to me like, “What do you want me to get on for the album?” I asked Joey what he felt about putting Gibbs on “Carry On.” He said, “Let’s do it. That sounds dope.” It came out crazy, and now the video is coming out.
You’ve seemed to really embrace Joey Bada$$ and the entire Pro Era movement. How did that relationship first start?
We’re literally together every day. I’m on the road with him, so in the last two years we’ve done over 300 shows. It came about early when he was working on 1999, and his manager Jonny Shipes reached out to me to do some scratches. He came through my crib, and we just started working.
It was just a natural vibe. Ever since then we’ve been rocking, literally every day. I’m very involved in his album. He’s on my projects. He’s like my little brother.
You worked with him on his album. So you have production on it?
Yeah, I mixed a lot of it too. I brought him ideas. I’m very, very involved with his album.
A lot of your previous work has been critically acclaimed including Extended Play that you put out last year. Does that add any pressure when you’re creating your most recent project knowing that people have a high expectation for a Statik Selektah album?
Nah, if anything I think I surpassed it big time on this album. Extended Play was me finishing a chapter of my first five albums that are kind of similar. To me, this album is a lot different. There’s a theme to it. It’s real jazzy. I brought in a lot of live music.
I think it’s time to bring, on a music level, everything to the next level. So when you start hearing a lot of the records I produce now, you’re going to start hearing a lot more live instrumentation. Obviously, I’m always going to stick to my samples and certain drums, but you’re going to hear a lot more live music.
People associate your production style with the “traditional New York sound,” and you’ve worked with a lot of the new NYC acts like Joey, Troy Ave, Action Bronson, Nitty Scott. How do you feel about where New York Hip Hop is at the moment?
I think it’s great. I don’t always look at it from the artist’s perspective. I look at it from when I see the fans. I go to a lot of shows, and I think there are a new wave of fans now from the age of 15 on. These kids are really rocking out with the traditional New York values now. From the style – the way they dress – to the vibe of the music, and that was missing for a long time.
A lot of kids were into Soulja Boy and s**t like that for a long time. If you ask the average kid walking down the street in Brooklyn what they’re listening to now, they’re probably going to say some dope s**t. I really appreciate that, because the history got lost for a little while. The people weren’t looking back into Nas, Biggie – real music. Now when I meet these kids they know what they’re talking about.
That’s bugged out to me, because my whole career I’ve been DJing clubs and for Q-Tip, so I meet a lot of adults. I never got to do all-ages shows until I started rocking with Joey Bada$$, so now I’m meeting all these kids that I never would have had a chance to meet. It’s dope. It’s like a new energy to this Hip Hop s**t.
What’s your take on New York artists that have incorporated other regional sounds into their music? Like for example Bobby Shmurda. He’s hot right now, but he has faced some criticism for kind of sounding like he’s from Chicago or the South.
I don’t knock anyone else’s hustle if they’re trying to put on for New York, but to me that’s like a flash in the pan right now. If Bobby Shmurda makes a career out of that, and he makes real music then I’ll be impressed, but right now I haven’t really heard anything original that’s really impressed me.
His single is cool, but it’s a freestyle to me. I understand the dance and all that, but let’s see if he’ll make some music that will last a couple of years. We’ll see. I hope he does. I hope everybody makes good s**t. But I felt like it was a Chicago type of thing when I first saw it.
We’ll see what he does with it. That’s not really what I’m rocking with though. We got our own thing going on. [“Hot N***a”] is a fun record. You play it in the club, people do the dance. To me, that’s – I don’t want to say a gimmick, there’s just a catch to it. What happens when you take that element out? Is he going to put out a real good record? We’ll see. I hope so.
Going back to your album. I noticed there’s a hidden track on there. Why did you decide not to list that particular song on the official track list?
I wanted an element of surprise on there, but even besides that, literally I had way too many songs for the album. It was one of the last songs that got turned in, and to me it just hits you in the head. When you think the album’s over it surprises you.
He’s somebody that I grew up listening to – from Ultramagnetic to Sex Style and Dr. Octagonecologyst. He’s a bugged out dude. I got to get cool with him recently. I think I’m going to throw people off with that.
Your catalog includes a lot of collaborative projects. Are there any particular artists that you haven’t worked with you that you’d like to do a full album with?
I have a wish list. How realistic it is, I don’t know. Something that could happen in the future – me and Ab-Soul. We’ve been working. I think we’re going to do an Ab-Soul [project]. Obviously, I love Kendrick [Lamar]. I love Common. I’d like to work Common, Jay Z, Nas, Eminem. The regular top dogs.
I like Chance [The Rapper] a lot. I see him going in a different direction now. I see him doing a lot more soulful s**t which I enjoy. I went to see him in London. He was real dope. I like Vic Mensa. He’s dope.
I feel like I’m working with pretty much everybody I want to work with. If anyone’s not on the list of who I’ve worked with, it’s definitely Kendrick.
Do you think we could see a Statik/Joey Bada$$ full project since you guys are so close?
I could put one out right now if I wanted to. We have so much unreleased music. You’re going to see a lot. I think when people hear his album they’re going to hear my influence on it. When you hear Action Bronson’s album – those three points are going to connect, and people are going to see it. I can’t give away too much right now.
How do you have time for yourself or anything else? It seems like you’re on a constant grind.
I’m actually moving this week too. I just landed from Europe, and then we’re leaving again in a couple of days. It’s madness.
Statik Selektah (via Instagram)
Statik Selektah’s What Goes Around is scheduled for release Tuesday, August 19. Order the album on iTunes.
The What Goes Around album release event featuring Pro Era, Freddie Gibbs, Ransom, and more takes place tonight August 18 at SOB’s. For more information visit sobs.com.
(AllHipHop News) In a bizzarro world, Ice Cube has chosen who will immortalize Paul Giamanti in the upcoming N.W.A. biopic. Recently the actor who will play the manager of the legendary group in Straight Outta Compton was chosen.
Paul Giamatti was selected to play as Jerry Heller in the upcoming N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton. Paul Giamtti’s most recent role in his illustrious 15+ year career was as Aleksei Sytsevich, the Rhino in 2014’s The Amazing Spider Man 2.
Heller founded Ruthless Records and managed N.W.A. throughout their short-lived career from 1986-1991. Ice Cube left N.W.A. in 1989 after making claims that Heller was shortchanging the group on their royalty payments. On his 1991 debut album Death Certificate, Cube made his accusations explicit with lyrics from the song “No Vaseline” such as “It’s a case of divide and conquer, ’cause you let a Jew break up my crew.”
Straight Outta Compton is currently filming and is set to be released on August 14th, 2015.
In the wake of the tragic killing of unarmed teenager Michael Brown, Atlanta duo ILLClinton return with the timely track “Alive (Don’t Shoot).” The song was recorded prior to the police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, but the tune addresses the unnecessary death of black youth.
Brennan raps, “I pray all of my n***as live long for a million moons and don’t end up one of them damn statistics on the evening news” over his brother Blake Belair’s production.
(AllHipHop News) What you see may not necessarily be real. During a recent interview, Wiz Khalifa explain how celebrity couples manufacture news coverage of their relationship.
While on The Breakfast Club, Wiz described Beyonce and Jay Z, Tiny and T.I. as well as Kim Kardashian and Kanye West as “public relationships, so they’re like sitcoms.” He differentiates his marriage from those by stating that “we don’t got [public relations] for our relationship.” Wiz explains how those types of public relationships “set up” media coverage:
I know what’s real. I’m not telling any secretes, but this is entertainment. It’s been going on since the 80’s. The 70s, the 60s. But, the media wasn’t as accessible. It became media accessible in the 80’s and the 90’s where it’s set up. But, we ain’t in no set up.
Last month, Wiz Khalifa described Tyga’s excuse for leaving the “Under The Influence” tour without informing him as “corny.” According to Wiz, he and Tyga spoke after he made those comments and Wiz explicitly explained his gripe with the Young Money rapper he calls a “friend”:
I was just like ‘we run what we do’. How people look at it and how they see it is all on us. So, if you want it to be like ‘I’m too busy’, that’s how it’s going to look like. If you want it to be like ‘Me and Wiz would love for this to happen but we didn’t get a chance to because of this that and the other thing but I’m going to make it up. Then we can orchestrate that amongst us and then it comes off right. That’s what I was telling him.
Mpulse’s free album, “Be Incredible”, drops on Aug 27th. The free album will feature production from Don Cannon, Novacane, Keef Boyd, and a few other frequent Mpulse collaborators. There will be no features.
Trinidad James drops the new single H.O.M.E. “Hating On Me” featuring ILoveMakonnen. On “Hating On Me” the Atlanta native addresses his haters over the mellow banger produced by hitmaker Sonny Digital.
(AllHipHop News) Crazy Legs has stories no one . In PART TWO of our EXCLUSIVE interview with the epochal B-Boy Crazy Legs, he breaks down the dangers taking the B-Boy culture back to its earlier days, dancing for Queen Elizabeth at the age of 17 and more.
Back in 1983, Rock Steady Crew released their first single, “(Hey You) The Rock Steady Crew”, which subsequently entered the top 10 charts in a variety of European countries. After being a B-Boy for only six years and a member of the Rock Steady Crew for four, Crazy Legs and his Rock Steady partners were invited by Queen Elizabeth II herself to perform in London. According to Crazy Legs, he had other interests in the Queen when he first met her:
We were more interested in what we saw in each other, because we weren’t sure if the crowd knew what the hell we were doing or not. I think it was more we didn’t care. Meeting the Queen, I mean I was still basically wilding out, we were performing, but coming back to the Bronx we were still wilding out. I can’t front, when I met her I was looking at her jewels like ‘Hmmmm. What can I do with THAT?’ [Laughs]
Rock Steady Crew member Mari Koda is featured in the upcoming sixth installment of Step Up as the character Kiddo. Crazy Legs welcomes the commercialization of B-Boying in movies such as Step Up and You Got Served, because “people would not have heard of Hip Hop if it wasn’t covered in The Daily News,The New York Times, National Geographic, Life Magazine, Flashdance or Style Wars or Wild Style.” He also
Taking it back to how it used to be may also mean you had to take the chance of getting stuck up, getting beat down, all of these things. Let’s be careful when we talk about taking it back, because it wasn’t that dope. It wasn’t that safe. Most of the dudes that I knew that were When I first met people from Rock Steady, they bought me to rob a purse, Unsuccessful, but that was what it was. It was, we were poor and being hungry was always an issue and sometimes getting that money meant getting that pizza too.
Check out the SECOND PART of Crazy Leg’s interview with AllHipHop below:
(AllHipHop News) Are two of Chicago’s top rappers reuniting on another track? That seems to be the case according to Chief Keef’s Instagram page. The Chitown representative posted a video with the caption, “‘Nobody’ Almigh x Yee” over the weekend, and MTV is reporting the track playing in the background is a new collaboration between Keef and Kanye West.
Ye and Sosa previously worked together on the Yeezus track “Hold My Liquor.” They both also had verses on the remix version of Keef’s “Don’t Like” that appeared on the G.O.O.D. Music compilation album Cruel Summer. There is no word on where “Nobody” will end up.
(AllHipHop News) Hip Hop legend Nas did a sit down interview with Zane Lowe for the “Relentless Ultra presents Soundchain” series. During the Q&A, the Queens rhymer was asked about the infamous feud between Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G., and Nas revealed the deaths of the two icons had him questioning the future of rap music.
“Those two things hit me real hard, because I knew both of them. I knew Biggie more, but what they meant to the art form can never be redone, can never be replaced,” stated Nas. “And when those two guys passed away I thought [it] was the end of rap.”
The creator of the 2006 album Hip Hop Is Dead, also spoke on his own verbal back-and-forth with former rival Jay Z and how the game has changed since the two Hip Hop titans faced off in the early 2000’s.
Nas said:
Today’s music industry it’s really about money now and back then during that period, when you talk about me battling with Jay, it was about something else. It was not just about being the top guy in rap. It felt like we were leaders of nations. Not that we were egotistical as, “I’m the leader.” No, not in that sense. I mean what you felt surrounding us was – there was an importance in what we were doing that mattered more than just success.
It was more than just, “Oh my record’s going to sell,” or… Yeah we need the records to sell to make money. That was something we thought about, but put that aside. When Pac made “Dear Mama,” and these records and then he had to switch up to get in war mode, these were chess moves. This was real… today it’s a whole other world. I’ll just leave like that.
(AllHipHop News) The trolling actions of battle rapper Daylyt have now come to include taking shots at Forbes magazine’s most profitable couple in entertainment. The Los Angeles emcee gave his opinion about Jay Z and Beyoncé’s relationship during an interview with VladTV.
“Me and my son’s mother were just talking about this a couple of weeks ago – how the industry matches people up to create buzzes. I honestly don’t believe Jay Z and Beyoncé ever touched other like other than in front of a camera. I think it’s 100% a business,” said Day. “If you ask me, Jay’s probably f**king Solange on the low. That’s probably the real couple.”
Daylyt later adds that Jay and Bey could be sleeping together now, but the union most likely started off as an “investment.” He also goes on to question the Nick Cannon/Mariah Carey and Swizz Beatz/Alicia Keys relationships as well. Day claims the industry creates these celebrity couples to “troll the world.”
The conversation then turned to Day suggesting 2Pac fathered a man named Demario Brown. He also believes both Pac and Jay Z have several children that the public does not know about.
(AllHipHop News) After first releasing the tribute song “Be Free” dedicated to Michael Brown who was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, J. Cole actually visited the city to show his support for the protesters seeking justice for Brown’s death.
Cole did not announce his trip to the St. Louis suburb prior to showing up in the town, but his appearance was captured by residents that then shared the moment on social media. Several people posted photos of the Roc Nation emcee at the site where Brown was gunned down and video of him embracing the crowd.
Cole was also seen talking directly with individuals upset over the Brown shooting and the actions of the police toward African-American citizens. When one fan asked Cole if she could take a picture with him he replied, “I’m not here for that, but I’ll give you a hug.”
(AllHipHop News) St. Louis rapper Nelly’s home state has been embroiled in protests for over a week. The town of Ferguson has been the site of ongoing demonstrations stemming from the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown at the hands of a local police officer. The Country Grammar creator recently showed support for the slain teenager at a charity event in Los Angeles.
While attending Chris Brown and Quincy Combs’ celebrity flag football game, Nelly asked the crowd in attendance to stand up and put their hands in the air. The “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” gesture has come to symbolize the reported last moments of Brown’s life before he was shot by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.
“If I could get everybody to rise and just raise their hands in support for everything that’s going on back home in my city right now at this minute,” said Nelly. “If anybody can sympathize with what my city is going through, it’s this city of L.A. right now. On so many levels.”
Other celebrities at the game included The Game, Wale, Trey Songz, Shad Moss, Lil Mama, Tyrese, Jermaine Dupri, and Omarion.
Nelly had faced some criticism for not speaking on the Ferguson situation earlier. Five days after the shooting, he finally addressed it during an interview with a local radio station. His appearance mostly focused on him stating he waited to say anything in public about Brown’s death until he was able to speak the family, criticizing the looting that took place in the city, and expressing that he was “p###” about what happened.
