To promote their new Beats Solo2 headgear, Beats by Dre reached out to some of hip-hop all-stars for their #SoloSelfie campaign. In the minute-clip, 2 Chainz, Fabolous, Big Sean, Saturday Night Live’s Kenan Thompson, Hot 97’s Funkmaster Flex, Nicki Minaj and more flex in an colorful array of the lightweight headphones.
During their first time in Puerto Rico, Kendrick Lamar and Pro BMX rider Nigel Sylvester crossed paths for Noisey’s Back and Forth series. Posted up on a balcony, the two chopped it up about how they kicked off their careers, the roadblocks on their paths to success and pursuing their dreams. K. Dot revealed his past obsession of having a radio hit and not being concerned with longevity while Sylvester says he’s been riding bikes his whole life and suffered many breaks, bumps and bruises along the way.
Smoothly making the transition from actor to artist, Astro (also known as Astronomical Kid) is hungry to show his growing lyricism as he prepares to release his first commercial project through his own Grade A Tribe Records. Calling the EP Computer Era, he says it refers to the negative impact that modern technology has had on music creativity and authenticity.
Turning his own bedroom into a studio, he carefully crafted the EP with production from Boi-1da and BrandUn DeShay and features from Nathaniel and Bishop Nehru. Available on iTunes December 2, that same day Astro will debut “Champion” the first video from the project, on BET’s 106 & Park.
Mixed by Edward J. “UK” Nixon and mastered by T.R. Waterman, the standard version of the EP includes 11 songs and a digital booklet, while the deluxe has 13. Physical copies will be available at www.gradeatribe.com.
Every year, family, friends and transverse back and forth across the U.S. and celebrate the glorious holiday called Thanksgiving, which recalls a fond moment where the wondrous Indigenous People of this land ate with the visiting Pilgrims. For the last for years I have been increasingly vocal about my disdain for celebrating such a holiday. Additionally, I’ve been gradually reacquainting my daughter with the truth about the holiday, which yields gut-busting meals and family time with loved ones. Thanksgiving is a fallacy and a fraud as a day of giving thanks and here are 5 Reasons To Tell Kids The Truth About Thanksgiving.
1. The Whole Day Celebrates Genocide
Imagine a holiday that celebrated slavery at the root. How would Black people feel? Children should understand that the result of Europeans coming to this American land resulted in the mass death of another people. Now, Thanksgiving Day, as an event, has no historic link to genocide or massacres, but in a general sense, many regard it as “ThanksTaking Day” or a general “Day of Mourning” for what eventually happened to the Native Americans.
2. Thanksgiving Is Actually Based On A Myth
The early settlers, known as Puritans, never invited this mass of Native Americans for a happy sit down meal. They invited one person – Massasoit, the Wampanoag leader. Now, history is blurry on this, but I’ve read that Massasoit was a pretty smart dude. He came to the Puritan Party with 90 or more of his Native brothers and sisters – most likely for safety. They brought most of the food. It was not some joint harvest. The settlers didn’t even bring any grub. And an encounter of this sort never happened again, history says There was no prayers and there was no “giving thanks” at this time of supposed happy harvest. They never sat down for a happy harvest. It simply never happened.
3. Thanksgiving Is Actually A Holiday About War
The funniest thing is that what we deem Thanksgiving has almost nothing to do with Pilgrims, Puritans or even the Native Americans. The holiday most are acquainted with Thanksgiving was the result of the American Revolution for Independence. In 1777, the war was looking absolutely dismal for the American “rebels.” Eventually “Honest” Abraham Lincoln, president at the time, made a bold Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving in 1863 to boost national morale during the Civil War. It was for a day of prayer and thanksgiving. But, do we really want to be celebrating war as we take time with our families and loved ones? (There are conflicting historical accounts of this. Some reports state that there was an actual Thanksgiving dinner than took place after the massacre of hundreds of Pequot natives.)
Here is the sinister new visual for Da Mafia 6ix’s “Hear Sum Evil”, the title track from their latest mixtape. Horrorcore fans should be delighted with this very graphic video, and you’ve been warned…
Hear Sum Evil features appearances from MJG, Paul Wall, Lil Wyte, La Chat, DJ Zirk, Fiend and more.
Like their upcoming full-length album Watch What U Wish, Hear Sum Evil also features vocals from the late, great Lord Infamous, who played a major role in getting Da Mafia 6ix together in 2012 to create their critically-acclaimed first project 6ix Commandments, currently on iTunes.
It’s the holiday season, and Louie V Gutta is giving thanks for the amazing Fall 2014 he’s had with the release of his highly praised New Legend mixtape. Thank you to the web and the fans for the support! BUT, there’s that other matter of how things are these days between Louie V Gutta and his former Dreamchasers partner in rhyme, Meek Mill. While the world waits for Meek’s return, Louie checked in with journalist Mikey T The Movie Star to tell him how running into Rick Ross recently helped put things in perspective
“The Return” is the latest single from Trademark Da Skydiver’s highly-anticipated forthcoming album Return of the Super Villain. On “The Return”, Trademark provides his fans with a taste of what they can expect from his latest album as he delivers witty lyrics over an undeniably chill instrumental courtesy of Canis Major.
Return of the Super Villain hits stores worldwide on December 2nd via The Barnes Corp / iHipHop Distribution. Pre-order Return of the Super Villain on iTunes.
Monster’s new 24K Headphones, introduced in the Hip-Hop world by Meek Mill’s IG posts, have finally arrived. The gold headphones is a glistening example of where Monster Headphones is making an impression with this device. Meek Mill helped usher these elite headphones into our social media but, artist like Rick Ross, Swizz Beatz, Yo Gotti bit also athletes like Marshawn Lynch (Seahawks RB), Jadevon Clowney (Texans DE) and Andrew Wiggins (Timberwolves SF). With all the star power backing this product, you want to see if the product matches the hype.
After examining the packaging I see that you have a tangle free DJ in-line mic cable and your standard in line cable with the ControlTalk Universal™ In Line Controls. Also, you get a 1/8 studio converter and a cloth carry case.
Sound. Now the moment I’ve been waiting for, the moment I placed the super plush headphones over my ears, I instantly noticed that there’s of starch contrast to any other headphones a place around my ears. Now it’s time to do the soundcheck, I start playing Drake’s “0 to 100,” I immediately hear the bass. The depth of sound is so intense, I actually heard instrument differentiation that I didn’t experience on my other previous headphones. The sound on the 24k is superior to much of what is out today.
Since these headphones are all about style, I take these headphones along to a meeting that I have with Jimmy Cozier’s manager, Spice. I showed Spice the headphones and he was impressed. I ask him to give them listen with a couple song’s and the first thing he said was “these are DJ headphones.” You definitely get that DJ/studio feel when you have these headphones and as an added feature, the ear cups actually swivel back as an aded use for the DJ while he is spinning and hearing his environment. If your a DJ, you really want to have a pair of these to rock your next set.
Style. So my next test is the style factor. I take headphones on a stroll through the city and test the microphone out with a phone call. Of course, people noticed these gold headphones, the whoa factor was evident by other people’s faces as they took a second peek at the headphones. My phone conversation was the best I’ve ever had on any set of headphones. Clear audio and now issues with the other party hearing me at all. They passed my phone call with flying colors.
Vibing Out. Now it’s time to take it to a few full music test. I’ll start playing random songs to my playlist and then I realized that with this base I have to check out Rick Ross featuring Jay-Z “Movin’ Bass.” Again, the music range is incredible, the bass was superb. The lows and highs are very clear and the bass so rich. The quality of sound matches style of these headphones, so you would want to show them off visually and won;t be afraid to let them listen to them with that classic Pure Monster Sound, however; I’m sure you want let them go further than 10 feet before you make sure your friend doesn’t “forget” your headphones on their head!
The only issue that I have with these headphones, is that if you have something so flashy, I would hope that there would have been a hardshell carrying case for the headphones. They did include a monster clean cloth which, I thought was a great touch, but the cloth/fabric case that is provided I thought was not adequate for these type of headphones.
Overall, I have to say, these are one of the best sounding headphones I’ve ever heard and as for style, the 24K headphones get a 10. If you walk down the street with these 24K headphones, you’re sure to get stares, complement and inquiries on where you got these headphones. Just to give example of the quality of these headphones, I wrote this entire article through my microphone on the Monster 24K. The best feature of these headphones is the bling factor. Style and sound encapsulated in one scorching hot headphone. Theses area sure fire hit.
Fresh off the release of his “All About The Money” (Remix) with Ghostface Killah, The Chef returns with a new verse he cooked up over Dej Loaf‘s “Try Me” joint.
After issuing a statement about the grand jury’s decision not to indict officer Darren Wilson for their son Mike Brown’s killing, his parents Lesley McSpadden and Mike Brown, Sr., appeared on CBS This Morning to discuss the heartbreaking decision.
When asked if they believed Wilson’s account of the incident where he named Brown as the aggressor in the altercation, McSpadden quickly shot down that accusation saying she “didn’t believe a word of it.”
“I knew my son far to well. He would never do anything like that. He would never provoke anyone to do anything to him. He wouldn’t do anything to anybody.”
Emotions ran high when the discussion shifted towards Wilson’s statements during his first televised interview where he said he had a “clear conscience” and would do it again.
“He didn’t do what he had to do,” McSpadden said. “He did what he wanted to do…I don’t think he wanted to kill my son but he wanted to kill someone…How could your conscience be clear after killing somebody even if it was an accidental death?”
McSpadden and Brown, Sr. also said that no Ferguson officials or representatives have come to them and given them any condolences.
‘We just been disrespected all the way around,” Brown Sr. said.
AllHipHop caught up with Philly-bred singer/rapper/songwriter Patty Crash to talk about her upcoming album, Born to Fall.
While she was crafting her LP, her mentor and manager Richard Nichols was battling Leukemia, which was a crushing time for the 28-year-old. Watching Nichols struggle with the illness influenced the tone of her project, describing it as dark.
“The whole project is just this dark period and me kind of just exploring and getting back to what’s important,” she said as she wiped away tears.
Black Thought, who discovered Crash, also spoke to AllHipHop about how he first met Patty and discussed her promising future.
“As an artist, Patty has infinite potential,” said The Roots frontman. “She’s dope. She can go as far as she wants to go and take it wherever she wants to take it.”
Watch Patty talk about working with The Roots, not wanting to do music anymore at one point and more. Then watch Black Thought discuss his relationship with the singer.
As time goes on, its gotten easier to weed out the random’s from the real. The ones who were only in it for the money and the guys who were always in it for the love. The phony ones tend to fade out first chance they get.
The authentic ones however, like Mobb Deep’s own Prodigy, tend to keep adding to already classic catalogs with new albums, new plans and the energy of a new artists every time they come around. With his homies Boogz Boogetz and Sam Scarfo in tow, the HNIC sits with AHH’s MrMecc to discuss what he’s up to, what he likes and after a 20 year run, what the hell keeps him going.
Since Thanksgiving is right around the corner, Big Sean headed back to his hometown of Detroit to make sure that the less fortunate were taken care of. Thanks to him and his nonprofit organization, the Sean Anderson Foundation, turkeys and canned goods were given to 1,000 people at Detroit’s River Rouge High School at their second annual turkey drive. From the looks of the pictures and video, Sean and co. put smiles on many people’s faces.
For the Toronto Raptors, having Drake as their global ambassador comes with some perks. Not only do you get to rub elbows with one of hip-hop’s favorites but you also get first dibs on his new music. Just ask Raptors small forward DeMar DeRozan. During an appearance on NBA TV he revealed that he will be hearing Drake’s newest mixtape soon, which he said is dropping at the top of 2015.
“I talked to [Drake] the other night. He actually said he wanted to give me his mixtape. It come out in January,” he told to Chris Webber and co.
Whether this mixtape gets released or not, fans are patiently awaiting the arrival of Drake’s fourth studio album, Views From The 6, which is expected in 2015 as well.
Whether getting love or hate, 15 y/o NYC rapper Chris Miles embraces the commentary as long as he remains a “Topic of Discussion.” In a new loose single produced by Statik Selektah, Chris continues to flex mind-bending wordplay and a charismatic flow atop the bouncy boom-bap beat.
“Topic of Discussion” releases in anticipation of Chris Miles’ Birth of Cool EP, which releases December 15th. The EP’s first single, “Time”, produced by Jake One, dropped earlier this month.
Greg “Frenchie” Hogan’s journey as a recording artist consists of several pivotal maneuvers in his career. The rapper began his run of writing lyrics at the age of 10 years old, but it was his relocation from his native neighborhood of South Jamaica Queens to Atlanta that ignited his course in the business. It was in the Georgia city that Frenchie linked with his aunt Mizay Entertainment founder Debra Antney and a rising rapper named Gucci Mane.
The Southern transplant played a significant role in the construction of Gucci’s So Icey Entertainment which would later birth 1017 Brick Squad Records and Brick Squad Monopoly – label home to Frenchie’s cousin Waka Flocka Flame. With strong connections to both the NYC and ATL markets, Frenchie embarked on creating his own street mixtapes such as New Atlanta, Concrete Jungle, and Long Overdue.
In September, Frenchie dropped his latest collection Fukk Fame. The uploading of the 10-track project to the internet coincided with the announcement of another big move this year for the performer. That same month he helped launch Protekted Records.
Frenchie is now prepping to drop his studio album in 2015. His official debut LP is set to feature Gucci, Waka, Yo Gotti, Migos, and more. He prefaced the release with the single “Ain’t Goin Nowhere” with B.o.B. and Chanel West Coast.
AllHipHop.com spoke with Frenchie to get the BSM affiliate’s take on past problems within Brick Squad, Nicki Minaj’s former connection to the crew, dealing with negative social media comments, and what the future holds.
You have a lot of family ties to the music industry. Was being a recording artist something you always knew you wanted to pursue?
Yes, it was like music was thrown on me from my family members.
What age did you start recording?
I started recording when I was 19 years old. The first record I recorded in an actual good studio was with Gucci Mane. I took my shirt off. That was in ‘09.
You came up under the So Icy/Brick Squad brand. Did you ever feel any sense of pressure having to follow the success of Gucci and Waka Flocka?
No, because me and Wooh Da Kid were Gucci Mane’s first artists. Waka wasn’t even rapping, so when he started rapping and blew it out of the water it was beautiful. You have to understand he’s still my blood cousin, so we’re not in competition with each other. We’re not battling each other.
Are you still officially connected with Brick Squad?
I made Brick Squad. I’m one of the fathers, main players of the squad. You got Waka, Wooh, Gucci, OJ [Da Juiceman], and Frenchie. So even if I said I wanted to leave Brick Squad, I can’t leave because I made it.
Don’t get it twisted I’m standing on my on two with this one, but Brick Squad will always be a part of my veins. It will always be in my blood. It’s just with this one I’m doing my own thing.
Gucci Mane + Frenchie (via Instagram)
How did the Protekted Records situation come together?
[Protekted Records President] John [Gornbein], who used to be the drummer for Kid Rock, and my uncle DJ Hurricane, who was the Beastie Boys’ DJ, were working together. I got in contact with [Gornbein] through Cane.
You recently dropped the single “Ain’t Going Nowhere,” and it features B.o.B. and Chanel West Coast. Both of those artists are known for having a pop appeal. Why did you decide to connect with Bobby and Chanel for that particular track?
Actually, I like the pop sound. I feel like that’s a good route to go, because I want to elevate my music. I’m getting older. I’m tired of just doing “gang banging music.” It’s time for me to make music for everybody, to be universal.
You released your recent mixtape Fukk Fame earlier this year. One of the standout tracks was “Birds and Keys”. What inspired you to write that particular track?
It was my life. I was just in my feelings when I wrote that. That’s how I felt.
Unfortunately, you lost your cousin KayO Redd last year. As a result, your aunt Debra Antney started her “No Reckless Internet Posting” anti-cyber bullying campaign. As a public figure, how do you handle dealing with negative social media posts or blog comments?
I don’t even bother myself with negative energy. I pray everyday. That’s how I defeat negative energy. I pray and give out a positive energy. It totals out all the negative energy. I pray to block that out.
I’m sure there are a lot of young people that follow you that have to deal with that every day.
I feel like a lot of kids should be more spiritual. I feel like they should call to God more. They should pray more and never give up.
Everybody knows Waka and Gucci had their issues, but Waka announced they had squashed it earlier this year. He sent out a tweet with a picture of him and Gucci saying the beef was over. What was that moment like for you?
You have to understand the media eats everything up and just make it how they want it to be. They’re brothers at the end of the day. We were brothers before all this media putting bulls**t in the air. No matter what… Gucci has been in my life for like 8 or 9 years. Arguments don’t determine friendships.
The media blew up everything, and made it have to be like that. I always knew it was going to be squashed. It was never gonna keep on going. The only reason people was thinking it was gonna keep going is because the media does not know the relationship of Waka and Gucci.
In fairness, they did make it public. It’s not like they kept it between themselves.
If you notice it was stuff that they said and then they erased it. People are loving these people so much, they’re taking snapshots. [Gucci and Waka] didn’t keep it up there, they were angry at each other. The people took a hold to it and made it bigger than it was.
If they meant it, they would have kept what they said online. They didn’t keep what they said online. All of them erased their things. The people who snapshot it kept it going.
I hear what you’re saying, but if you’re an artist and you put that information out there, then of course people are going to be attracted to it.
Sometimes they don’t know how powerful they are. But other than that they’re brothers, and I knew it was going to be squashed.
You did an interview with The Breakfast Club where you talked about how you introduced Nicki Minaj’s music to your aunt Deb Antney. Nicki’s former manager Fendi did an interview with The Breakfast Club where he talked about that situation. He made it seem like Deb stole Nicki away from him, but from what you said it wasn’t like that. Can you clear that situation up?
No, Deb didn’t steal Nicki away. Whatever Nicki wanted to do she did it on her own. Nicki came done there, because Nicki knew where her career was heading. And she knew what she wanted her career to be. She knew she had to grab the down south fan base, so she did exactly what she was supposed to do.
Is that part of the reason why you moved down south as well?
I been moved down south. I actually went down south for a family reunion, and it just ended up like that.
What do you have planned for 2015?
I expect the world to see me more on TV shows, MTV Jams, VH1, anything dealing with music. Prepare yourself to see me a lot.
During his LOUD MUSIC college tour trip to the US back in April, London Mc Ikes jumped in the lab with Brooklyn’s own, Wordsmiff, over some production courtesy of German duo The Cratez.
After premiering at the Sundance Next Fest back in August, the visual to Kendrick Lamar’s debut album good kid, m.A.A.d city will be released for the public’s viewing pleasure. Unfortunately, only TDE stans that live in LA will get to see it.
The short documentary, titled m.A.A.d, will be shown at the Museum for Contemporary Art in LA in 2015 from Mar. 21st to Jul. 27th.
The 14-minute doc, which was directed by Khalil Joseph with help from Flying Lotus, is depicted as “a lush portrait of contemporary Los Angeles.”
Read the synopsis for the film below.
“From barbershops to marching bands, from homeboys drinking in the streets to the iconic carpet of shimmering lights, the camera in m.A.A.d sinuously glides through predominantly African American neighborhoods in Los Angeles catching a dizzying array of quotidian moments suffused with creativity, joy, and sadness. Joseph’s film is accompanied by a thick booming soundtrack provided by emerging hip-hop star Kendrick Lamar and indeed m.A.A.d is part of the title of Lamar’s highly acclaimed second album good kid, m.A.A.d. city.”
