HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Tim Mosenfelder / Getty Is there a Crip HR for non-Crips to make a complaint? Apparently, some Twitter users think that Vince Staples is the closest thing to that department. After trying to start a conversation about the NBA playoffs the Long Beach rapper took some incoming fire on Twitter from Hip-Hop blogger DDot Omen for not speaking up about a video showing a gang of Asian Crips in Sacramento using the N-Word and calling themselves “Real Black N-ggas” while wearing “Stop Asian Hate Shirts.” We know—there’s a lot of irony to unpack there. Staples, a reformed gangbanger who ran with the Crips growing up in Long Beach, was probably confused on why DDot directed the tweet at him like he’s responsible for these non-Black Crips that he’s probably nev...
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty As Hip-Hop is approaching the magnificent milestone of turning 50 in 2023, preparations to mark the occasion in ways honoring the culture are underway. And Nasir “Nas” Jones is ensuring he’s at the forefront of these efforts with a documentary series titled Hip Hop 50. The Queensbridge rapper and businessman has teamed up with producer and writer Sasha Jenkins, who was the force behind the acclaimed Showtime‘s Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men, for a new series done with the same network and Mass Appeal exploring the figures and moments that made Hip-Hop throughout its history. “This is something that’s coming up that we don’t want to just pass by like it’s small. This is the biggest birthday in the world,” Nas stated in a recent intervie...
HipHopWired Featured Video If you truly thought about your favorite songs of all time, a good chunk either were made for a hip-hop soundtrack or were introduced to you by one. Alicia Keys came wailing into our hearts in 2001 with “Fallin’,” but it was 1997’s Men In Black soundtrack where a teenage Keys predates that classic. The only time we ever got rap’s funniest MC’s Eminem and Redman on a song together was “Off The Wall” from the Nutty Professor II soundtrack. Outside of DJ albums, hip-hop soundtracks are like hip-hop All-Star Games, the best the game has to offer teaming up on dream songs. Partly for those reasons listed above, the best hip-hop soundtracks come from those with the biggest visions. Diddy has said he used the 2003 Bad Boys II soundtrack to launch a new era of the l...
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Al Pereira / Getty Five years ago on this date, (March 22nd), the world of Hip-Hop lost one of its most enigmatic and lyrically versatile MC’s when it was announced that Phife Dawg (Malik Taylor) , one-fourth of the legendary A Tribe Called Quest passed away due to complications from diabetes at his home in San Francisco. Proudly representing the borough of Queens, New York, Phife Dawg had a few nicknames that spoke to his flawless capability as an MC, but the “Five Foot Assassin” tag was a calling card and a promise whenever he stepped up to the microphone. Starting out with Q-Tip (Jonathan Davis), Jarobi White and Ali Shaheed Muhammad to form A Tribe Called Quest in high school back in 1985, he helped usher in a new era in Hip-Hop and was one of the arc...