Audra The Rapper finds herself in a predicament in her new hook-heavy track “No.Body.” This is the first release from Audra’s Retrospectrum EP due in March. The downtempo electronic sound blends flawlessly with Audra’s melodic vocals. “No.Body” reveals a more erotic side of Audra, who perfectly shows why she is a must watch artist on this mesmerizing single.
As Durham,NC emcee Tracy Lamont gears to release his 92Til album, he hits us with his first single “Space. Funk. Flow.”.
Large Professor’s Re:Living album is coming this Spring but while we wait, Large Pro offers up a brand new video for “Own World” strictly the ladies. Scratches by: Boogie Blind.
When the Fox Network released the new show, “Empire,” I was concerned about what I might see on screen. Fox is not known for producing the most favorable images of black people, so I figured this show wouldn’t be any different. For some reason, black dysfunctionality makes for great television, and there is a long line of white guys getting rich off of our willingness to celebrate all that makes us miserable.
If you do some research, you might notice some of the same things I’ve seen in this ghetto-fied hood drama: Pimps, hoes, thugs, gangsters, emasculated black men, and all kinds of other kinds of stereotypical coonery that many of us have grown tired of seeing portrayed on-screen. Lee Daniels is apparently the man responsible for this televised monstrosity, and I wonder if a day will ever come that the majority of us will refuse to support directors who pimp their people to help bigots like Rupert Murdoch get rich from modern day minstrel shows.
Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson are two of my favorite actors. They are incredibly talented and deserve every opportunity to make their money. But this is a show that I cannot support, because I have a secret dream of seeing the black community prosper, educate itself, build strong families, and become something more fitting of Dr. King’s grand vision. I can’t tell you everything that Dr. King and our ancestors wanted for our people, but I can certainly say that it had nothing to do with the crap we’re seeing in modern American media.
I also have a few things to say about Lee Daniels and his admitting that he’d like to use the show to “blow the lid off of homophobia in the black community.” I’m not sure why black people are always the target of this kind of propaganda, especially when there are millions of white conservatives who have their own issues with homosexuality as well. Not to say that any of us should be forced into a position on gay rights or that we can even agree on what it means to be homophobic, but black people do not have a monopoly on homophobia, however it is defined.
Daniels’ efforts to use media as a tool to pathologize his own people might be an even greater reflection of the mental illness he is confronting as he works to cradle a deeply abused inner child. The same way that abuse victims often become abusers themselves, Daniels has decided to abuse all of us with media messages that are stomach-churning for nearly any conscious black person to absorb. The same way Michael Jordan spent 20 years pissing on the world because he was the dark-skinned kid who was cut from his 8th grade basketball team, Lee Daniels (along with Don Lemon) is using his new-found power to destroy society’s perception of black people rather than build something more distinguished, thoughtful and meaningful.
Basically, “Empire” wasn’t created to entertain black people (although I’m sure it has black viewers). It is instead selling an image of blackness to a predominantly white audience that has been long fed stereotypical messages about what blackness represents. These thug-gangster-hoodrat images are the ones that are deeply embedded in the minds of police officers who shoot black men and potential employers who refuse to give black people jobs. Just like animals in the zoo, the world loves to observe black people at our most ratchet, because ignorant negroes are simply fun to watch.
The video below goes deeper into what I think about this show. I also reiterate that I won’t be watching. Actually, I don’t even watch network TV anymore, I’m a Netflix/Youtube/Amazon kind of guy. But it’s not as if Fox News cares what I think anyway, I banned myself from their network six years ago (after that silly situation with Bill O’Reilly), and haven’t visited that racist platform since.
Dr Boyce Watkins is a Finance PhD and author of the book, “Black American Money: How black power can thrive in a capitalist society.” To have Dr Watkins’ commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
HotPeez drops a sentimental track as he talks to a female. In reply Ashlyn drops her soulful touch to the hook thats backed by some classic Hip-Hop drums. Seeing HotPeez continual progressing and consistent output of quality music, we see that hes not just seeking to saturate the market, but moreso looking to make an impact with poignant takes on life and relationships.
Top of the year and one of Chicago’s most overlooked lyricists decides to drop a spur of the moment freestyle video on the coldest day of winter this year in Chicago (thus far). Murph Watkins is preparing to kick off a campaign to promote his upcoming album “YUN”.
Rico Love has been teasing the May 19th release of his debut album, Turn The Lights On, with a bunch of great singles, EPs and mixtapes. Today we get “Somebody Else”, the first single off the album, produced by Jake One. Check out the official video below.
Joey Bada$$ hit us with a loose track for his birthday titled “Born Day”. B4.DA.$$ in stores and iTunes now!
MC Marc 7 of renown LA Hip Hop collective Jurassic 5 has been making a name for himself with some exceptional solo output since his 2014 debut Food Clothing & Shelter. With his highly recognizable voice, east coast influence and west coast style, Marc 7 has upped the ante with his upcoming EP, When Sounds Attack Vol. 1, which was recorded with his longtime engineer/producer “Big John” Meyers and boasts bigger rhymes, bigger samples and a bigger sound. We have the pleasure of premiering “Lose You” which catches the silver-tongued rapper in an acrimonious mood, rhyming over a stuttering beat laced with retro soul samples. An enticing taste of whats to come when the first installment of When Sounds Attack drops March 10th.
Iggy Azalea may receive a bevy of backlash, but she’s not slowing down anytime soon.
GQ recently caught up with the six-foot beauty to talk to her about what 2015 has in store for her career, which already includes four Grammy noms. In between talking about what constitutes her “good life” and her cooking skills, Iggy talked about wanting longevity in hip-hop. The Aussie rapper said she doesn’t know how long people will appreciate her music, but says that whether she is gone within the next few years or not, she’s satisfied knowing that her songs made people accept seeing artists from different cultures making hip-hop.
“I might be here for a long time,” said the 24-year-old. “At the very worst, if I have a short-lived career, at least I could say I sparked a change—that I inspired some leniency in what people accept in hip-hop. And if I have a very long career and can be gyrating in a leotard at 35, that would be great.”
The “Black Widow” rapper is no stranger to criticism. Last month, she was lectured by Q-Tip about the history of hip-hop, gets continuously slammed by fellow femcee Azealia Banks and receives criticism for sweeping the hip-hop categories at recent award shows. During her sit down, she revealed that those award nominations that she receives so much flack for actually help her deal with her naysayers.
“Uh, awards season helps. Anytime where people get to choose who they want to have a voice and they choose me, I just think that makes it worth it. And that gives me the patience to just bite my tongue. When people choose me as the person they think should be speaking for them, I think, ‘Well, I don’t really care what someone in the industry or another artist has to say about it. Your opinion is biased anyway, because you want people to listen to your voice’. So having actual people who choose me, it makes me think, ‘I have a place, and I don’t care what other people have to say about it’. I was a fan of rap music growing up, and I didn’t feel like there were enough characters that represented me and my situation. So I think it’s needed.”
Read the rest of her GQ interview here.
The Nike LeBron 12’s released October 11, 2014, and Jadakiss thinks they got it right with this pair. He says the past LeBron sneakers are “Super tight corn busters.”
Yo Gotti just dropped his Concealed mixtape with features from a host of artists including Jadakiss, Boosie, Shy Glizzy and many more. Peep this track from the project produced by The Young Starz.
Currently hard at work on his fifth solo album, Wu-Tang Clan alumni U-God is set to re-release his 2014 offering The Keynote Speaker, which features guest appearances from fellow members GZA, Method Man and Inspectah Deck in addition to verses from Styles P, Elzhi and Keith. The project features executive production by RZA who also produced on the album; those copping physical copies will be treated to a newly illustrated fold-out of the album’s cover which features a futuristic boom box inspired by U-God and Wu-Tang terminology and slang. A full-size poster of the new album artwork is also available for purchase.
A Brooklyn native, U-God moved to Staten Island as a youth where he would grow up on the Island in Park Hill not far from his cousin Method Man, Inspectah Deck and Raekwon who were all childhood friends. He would later go on to become friends with Cappadonna, then RZA and Ghostface, eventually turning to music after he began rhyming under the alias Golden Arms, based on the Kung-Fu movie The Kid with The Golden Arms. Later on, his incarceration prevented him from featuring heavily on the group’s debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), although he helped finance some of the Clan’s early recording sessions, his input on the seminal LP consisting of only a short bridge on the group’s debut single “Protect Ya Neck” as well as the now famous opening verse of “Da Mystery of Chessboxin'”. Nevertheless, he quickly became known to fans for his rugged flow and bass-like voice on future Wu tracks “Winter Warz”, “Knuckleheadz”, “Investigative Reports”, and “Black Jesus”.
Speaking exclusively to AllHipHop U-God explains, “Keynote Speaker is such a special album. My team has worked closely with Babygrande to give the album a fresh look and to continue to promote it around the world. ‘Heads Up’ is a classic Wu-Tang style video that brings everything back to the essence.”
Having resigned to GZA’s record label Babygrande Records, the two have teamed up for a new track titled “Heads Up.” Also featuring Jacksopot Scotty Wotty, the single showcases the distinct uniqueness of each emcee as lyricist and director Don Tyler captures the tone of the track using black and white visuals appropriately shot in New York. The Keynote Speaker is set to drop on February 17th and will be available via iTunes as well.
Lou Armstrong gets the assist from Dipset rapper Juelz Santana. Juelz looks like he’s back to classic form with this verse, while Lou Armstrong spits Bostong street game over a hot beat. Def worth a few spins as we see NYC and Boston collab for a street banger.
Though it’s 2015, no one can forget how successful Pharrell Williams’ 2013 single “Happy” was. It has sold over 12 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best selling singles of all time and has peaked at the number one spot in over two dozen countries. “Happy” reigned supreme throughout 2014 and Pharrell revealed in a sit down with GQ for his February cover story that he is still taken aback by the single’s success.
“Happy has been hard for me to understand,” said the Virginia native. “You go back and look at look at the lyrics and you realize that it’s so much bigger than you. It’s so much bigger than what you intended.”
The singer/producer, who also just released a single with N.E.R.D for the Spongebob Movie:Sponge Out Of Water soundtrack, said that he is used to songs that he produced being that successful and is humbled that his words could affect billions of people.
“People say that that song has touched them but switch it around real quick and imagine how I feel. I’m humbled that anything that I could have ever uttered could end up being sung by over a billion people.” He ended with “I’m still shaken by it, but shaken with humility.”
Watch Skateboard P gush about the single below.
D’ Angelo has been pretty quiet ever since he dropped his third studio album Black Messiah with very short notice. Now, he and his band the Vanguard have booked two high profile performances. It was recently announced that the “Brown Sugar” crooner would be headlining a show at the famous Apollo Theater on Feb. 7th but he isn’t stopping there. D’ Angelo will also be hitting the Saturday Night Live stage later this month. Comedian J.K Simmons will be taking over as the host for the episode as well.
[ALSO READ: D’ Angelo To Headline His First Show At The Apollo Theater]
Tune in on Jan. 31st at 11:30 pm EST to see D’ Angelo and the Vanguard hit the stage.
After his Apollo performance, D and his band will be heading over seas for his Second Coming Tour. Check out the dates below.
02-07 New York, New York – Apollo Theater
02-11 Zurich, Switzerland – Kaufleuten
02-12 Neu-Isenburg, Germany – Hugenottenhalle
02-14 Berlin, Germany – Columbiahalle
02-16 Paris, France – Palais Des Congres
02-17 Birmingham, England – Academy
02-18 Manchester, England – O2 Apollo
02-20-21 London, England – Eventim Apollo
02-24 Hamburg, Germany – Docks
02-25 Frederiksberg, Denmark – Falconer Salen
02-27 Oslo, Norway – Sentrum Scene
02-28 Stockholm, Sweden – Annexet
03-02-03 Amsterdam, Holland – Paradiso Grote Zaal
03-04 Utrecht, Netherlands – Tivolivredenburg
03-06 Cologne, Germany – Tanzbrunnen
03-07 Brussels, Belgium – Forest National
Besides working on her upcoming album, which may be titled R8, and settling into her new creative director position at Puma, Rihanna has also teamed up with Fendi.
It’s reported that RIRi collaborated with the Italian designer to create a handbag to be auctioned off for charity. She designed a 3Baguette handbag to be donated to the charity of her choice, which was her own Clara Lionel Foundation. Rihanna’s specially designed bag will be unveiled at Karl Lagerfield’s cocktail party at Fendi’s New York City flagship store on Madison Avenue on Feb. 13th.
Rihanna wasn’t the only one tapped to design bags for charity. Model Jordan Dunn, Sarah Jessica Parker of Sex and the City, comedienne Rachel Feinstein and fashion blogger Leandra Medine will be personalizing 3Baguette handbags for charity as well.
Xavier “Zaytoven” Dotson has been one of the leading production minds of the Atlanta Hip Hop sound for a decade. His early contributions on Gucci Mane projects such as Trap House, Hard To Kill, and Trap-A-Thon led to Zay’s later work with Rocko (“4 Minutes”), Lil Scrappy (“Bad”), Migos (“Versace”), and many more.
That extensive discography also includes tracks for another high-profile A-Town native – Future. To start off his 2015, Zaytoven connected with the Freebandz founder for their collaborative project Beast Mode. The 9-track digital release features appearances by Juvenile and Young Scooter adding to Zay’s list of recent artistic partnerships.
Other noteworthy tracks over the last few weeks sporting the Trap music visionary’s tag include Nicki Minaj’s “Want Some More” and Usher’s “Still Got It.” The pianist also extended his expertise beyond album work by providing the score to his own 2014 film Finesse.
AllHipHop.com caught up with Zaytoven to discuss Beast Mode, his other production efforts, and what else he has planned for the rest of the year.
How did the project with Future come together?
Future reached out to me. He was in the studio, so I sent him some beats. He ended up recording on all the beats, and he wanted me to come in and hear them. I went to the studio and listened to what he did. It sounded so authentic, so I made some more beats for him right then. It seemed like every beat I made, he wanted to rap on it.
It really went from that. We did more songs, and then it went to, “We need to just do a tape, me and you.” I said, “I’m with it.” We had done so much work together in the past. It was almost spontaneous.
Are you planning on doing videos or touring together?
Most definitely, we almost made it like Beast Mode is a group. We’re going to do some dates, and we’re definitely gotta do videos to hype up the project.
There’s a song on the tape with Juvenile called “Aintchu.” Who came up with the idea to kind of recreate Juve’s “Ha” delivery?
Believe it or not, when I made the beat, I didn’t make it with any thoughts of Juvenile in mind. Future came with the hook, and he almost sounded how Juve did on his song back in the day. As soon as he did that, Future said, “Juvenile would sound good on this.”
I had been rocking with Juvenile for the last couple of years, so I said, “I’m gonna call him right now. He’d love to hear that.” We sent it over to him, and he jumped right on it. Juvenile sounds how he did when he made 400 Degreez. He sounded perfect on there.
You have a record on Nicki Minaj’s new album. Were you in the studio with her when she recorded “Want Some More”?
No I was not. Me and Nicki had worked together a long time ago – back before she got as big as she is now. They reached out and wanted some beats. I was working with Yung Berg. He was working with her on [The Pinkprint] album. He was the one that called me and said, “Hey man, this one track that you gave me, we’re doing it with Nicki for her album.”
What was your reaction when you heard the way she tackled that beat?
That’s the Nicki I think most of her fans fell in love with. Her rapping her bars that way, putting her characters on it. I was so happy she went that direction with it, because the track is already bumping and sounds like it needs to be in the club. She came and ripped it up. I was very happy with how that turned out.
The Migos “Versace” track came back up recently, because Logic did an interview where he talked about other people like Drake and J. Cole using that “Versace” flow. It started a debate on whether that is consider “biting” or just part of the Hip Hop game. What’s your opinion on that?
I would really say it’s biting. Guys like Migos – what made those guys popular was their flow. That’s what made them stand out. I know last year after the song came out, every rapper that’s in the game was using that same flow. So I almost see it as biting, because people will wear it out.
It will make Migos seem less special when everybody else is doing the same thing they did. It starts getting watered down when everybody uses it, so I think it’s a form of biting.
Speaking of Migos, who decided to put Migos and Usher on a track together?
I did a song for Usher – “Papers” – a few years back and it went number one faster than all his other songs went number one. So when his people reached back out to me this time they said, “We need a track for Usher. We’re working on his album and we want you to give us the same kind of music you’re giving to Migos.”
So when I sent them the beat they hit me back like, “We got one. Now what we need you to do is get Migos to get on the song.” I was thinking that anyway. To me, that was the perfect combination.
You played a really big role in the Atlanta sound over the last decade. How do you feel about Trap music extending beyond just Southern Hip Hop? It’s even been heavily incorporated into EDM.
It’s flattering to see something that I feel I helped create is so much a part of music right now. Even R&B, all these people want Trap music. It’s almost the dominant sound of music right now.
When people call for a track, they’re calling for something that’s heavy bass hitting. The biggest artists want Trap – from Beyoncé on down. They’re not really looking for soft, subtle R&B music right now. They’re looking for something that can go in the clubs, something that can play on the radio, something the younger people can identify with. So it’s flattering to me.
You did the score for the Finesse movie. How is that process different for you as opposed to producing an artist’s album or song?
It’s me just composing my own music to what I see. An artist is almost 50% of a song, so it’s up to them to finish the song. They’re the last instrument to go on the track.
When I’m scoring, it’s all me. I’m creating the atmosphere. I’m creating the tone for whatever’s happening in the movie. I treat it like that. I sit and watch a scene over and over and then give it a mood whether it’s funny or dramatic.
What else can we expect from you this year?
Definitely more music. I’m shooting another movie this year. I got a book coming. I’m going to be touring with the movie. A lot of cities want me to do a screening for the movie. I’m doing Q&A’s with different colleges. I’m going to do a tour with the book. So I’m going to be moving around a lot this year.
Follow Zaytoven on Twitter @ZaytovenBeatz and Instagram @ZaytovenBeatz.
Stream/Download Future and Zaytoven’s Beast Mode below.
On OWN”s Light Girls special, many women with a lighter complexion shared their stories of discrimination and unfair treatment due to their skin tone. Model Amber Rose was one of the women to tell her story and made a tearful revelation during her testimony. Rose is half Creole and half Italian and revealed that her Creole side of the family did not attend her 2013 wedding to Wiz Khalifa because he is black.
“My family feels like they are more superior or better than an African American because we’re Creole and we have culture and that’s something that I’ve battled with most of my life,” said the Philadelphia native. “It’s more of the older people in my family.”
Watch Amber Rose talk about her family wanting to pass for white and more below. If you missed it last night (Jan. 19) on OWN. click here to see more testimonies.
