HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Cole Burston / Getty Hey Kanye West, this is how you roll out an album. After weeks of being tortured by Yeezy and his annoying rollout for his album DONDA, Drake is here to save us all with his very late album Certified Lover Boy, and ahead of its release, the Canadian-born Hip-Hop star is taking a unique approach to building hype for his project. Drizzy has been spending bread and taking out billboards across the globe to reveal the features that are going to be on his upcoming album. Drake had the internet talking when a photo of one billboard located in New York City popped up, telling New Yorkers, “Hey New York, The Goat Is On CLB,” leaving many to assume at the time he revealed JAY-Z would be on his album. That was seemingly was confirmed by Tidal, ...
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Kevork Djansezian / Getty With Drake’s next album, Certified Lover Boy, set to drop this Friday (September 3rd), the King of The North’s army took to the streets to bless his loyal subjects with some exclusive CLB merch that have yet to hit the racks. Drake’s man’s and ’em, OVO Mark, took to IG to show he and his team hitting the streets of Toronto with some Nike/Certified Lover Boy tees and straight gave them away to Drizzy fans who were lucky enough to be in the vicinity at the time. The black t-shirts carried some love-struck messages on them such as “Should’ve said you loved me today because tomorrow is a new day” and “I don’t miss… Let alone miss you.” That’s pretty clever and heartbroken-ish. At one point OVO Mark even got some FaceTime in with...
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Christopher Polk/NBC / Getty Without much expensive fanfare, or listening sessions, Drake’s forthcoming new album, Certified Lover Boy, is easily one of 2021’s most anticipated projects. But the album’s artwork has thrown just about everyone for a loop. Drizzy himself posted an image of the cover that features three rows of four pregnant women of varying ethnicities in the form of emojis with the simple caption: “CERTIFIED LOVER BOY SEPTEMBER 3.” Though most people initially thought the 6 God just having some fun at the expense of his rabid fans, that is indeed the album cover. It took OG journalist and media maven YN aka Elliott Wilson to confirm the cover for people connect that it was legit. Drake also tagged artists Damien Hirst in his post. but...
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: MEGA / Getty On Sunday (August 29), Kanye West’s highly anticipated album, Donda finally hit the streets and while it’s been a total love and hate affair with the album on social media, one Drake superfan decided to ride for the King of The North and give Yeezy a piece of his/her mind. Taking to Kanye’s childhood home to send him a message, the aforementioned fan left a few signs on the steps of Yeezy’s old Chicago home including “44 45 BURN OUT” (the dart Drake threw at Kanye on Trippie Redd’s “Betrayal”) and “CLB Coming Soon” (Certified Lover Boy is said to be dropping this Friday). The Drizzy ridah also had an middle-finger left over for social media influencer and Kanye supporter, Justin Laboy, with a sign that read “F*CK JUSTIN LABOY.” Well, that was...
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Todd Williamson/NBC / Getty It appears the wait for the latest album from Drake may be over with a finalized release date and thanks to a random drop on ESPN. On Friday (August 27), the morning edition of ESPN’s SportsCenter broadcast was interrupted during a cutaway to commercial. The interruption was a glitchy and mysterious ad, featuring someone covered in darkness holding up a cardboard sign that carried a handwritten message reading: “CLB September 3rd.” Although Drake’s representatives haven’t confirmed press requests regarding this announcement , they did say to an inquiry from Rolling Stone that the video can be taken at “face value”. Drake has stated earlier that Certified Lover Boy was finished and ready while appearing on OVO Sounds’ radio show...
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Alex Menendez / Getty Fans think Donda should be his only priority but clearly Kanye West has Drake on the mind. Last week he made it clear the gloves are off with his former collaborator. As spotted on Complex the Chicago native has seemingly responded to Drizzy’s recent jabs on Trippie Redd’s “Betrayal”. On the track he rapped “All these fools I’m beefing that I barely know/ 45, 44 (burned out), let it go/ Ye ain’t changin’ sh*t for me, it’s set in stone.” Yeezy shared a screenshot of a group text to his Instagram. In it he sent a photo of Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker character and a very cryptic message saying “I live for this. I’ve been f***ed with by weird ass jock n***as like you my whole life. You will never recover. I promise you.” Additional...
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Todd Williamson/NBC / Getty While more and more celebrities are revealing that they at some point battled COVID in the past year (see Jim Jones and DJ Khaled most recently), Drake shocked fans that not only did he survive the Coronavirus, but it also caused him some hairline problems. Responding to someone commenting on how his signature heart design in his wig piece was looking “stressed,” the 6 God acknowledged the look and took everyone by surprised when he said it was a result of him having had been infected with the Rona. “I had Covid that shit grew in weird I had to start again 😂 it’s coming back don’t diss.” WOW. We can’t say we saw that one coming. The news comes on the heels of both Jim Jones and DJ Khaled also having revealed that they h...
Music videos are the perfect bastard child of art and commerce, even more than pop music itself. A promotional visual accompaniment to a popular song doesn’t need a coherent narrative (although on rare occasions, they do). It just needs to suit the song, sell the record, and possibly make the artist look cool. But since the launch of MTV 40 years ago this week, a select few recording artists have helped raise music videos to an art form — sometimes by accident, and sometimes by carefully curating the work of brilliant directors like Mark Romanek, Hype Williams, and Spike Jonze. Here are 40 artists from the last four decades that helped video kill the radio star. 40. Lil Kim [embedded content] Although earlier female MCs like Salt-N-Pepa and Queen Latifah used music videos to help launch th...
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: @levibentlee / Instagram Drizzy’s latest album, Certified Lover Boy has still yet to get a confirmed release date or even a first single released, but already we’ve gotten pics of what his upcoming OVO Air Force 1 exclusives will look like and while they seem like some average white-on-white 1’s, the devil’s in the details. Featuring little hearts on the bottom sole instead of the average stars Air Force 1’s tend to boast, the silhouette also replaces the customary “Air” logo on the side heel of the sole with “Love You Forever” in script. Not bad for the hardcore Drake fan who want to show their allegiance to the King of The North. Though rumors have the kicks dropping this Fall, no official word yet on when the sneakers will drop or if they even will. Do...
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Kevork Djansezian / Getty If there’s anything to be said about Drake, it’s that he knows how to swing for the fences when it comes to charming the ladies. A big recent example comes courtesy of the rapper who had a date night in a unique location – Dodger Stadium. While the Los Angeles Dodgers were on the road playing a series against the Miami Marlins this past Thursday (July 8th), the “Certified Lover Boy” took advantage and rented the entire stadium out to serve as the setting for an intimate date night with model Johanna Leia. A helicopter for local news network ABC7 flying over the stadium at Chavez Ravine captured the two as they sat by the dugout along the third-base side of the field. From the looks of the video, the table was decked out to the hi...
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Drake wants to take care of the environment, and to that end he’s entered into a new partnership with a climate-conscious group to do what he can to help heal the planet. On Wednesday (June 30th), the platinum-selling artist announced his partnership with Aspiration, a company that is dedicated to providing consumers and companies “sustainability as a service”. Through this connection, Aspiration will analyze Drake’s travel, artist schedule and events to figure out his carbon footprint and then help him reduce and offset it. This will be done in coordination with the firm’s reforestation program. “Drake isn’t just ahead of the curve — he defines the curve,” said Joe Sanberg, Co-Founder and Board Member of Aspiration. “He is showi...
Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, Nigerian superstar popularly known as Wizkid, has finally received his Grammy award plaque. The famous Singer won the best Music video award at the 63rd Grammy award for his collaboration with Beyoncé and her daughter, Blue Ivy, in “Brown skin girl”. Wizkid had his first Nomination in 2015, when he collaborated with Drake in his Album Views. He also brought the trophy home back then. Critics of Star boy as he is fondly called have argued that he is not worthy to be called a Grammy winner because he got both plaques through collaboration but his fans rose in his defence. The Starboy became the only contemporary Nigerian musician besides Burna Boy to shine at the 2020 Grammys. Wizkid took to his Insta story to showcase his trophy. Get more stories like this on Twitte...