Hip-Hop
McKinley Dixon Deftly Navigates Grief and Healing on For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her: Review
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-07T15:45:52+00:00“>May 7, 2021 | 11:45am ET The Lowdown: From the first track of McKinley Dixon’s For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her, you’ll be floored by the Richmond, Virginia-based artist’s ability to marry extremely personal storytelling with dazzling, and often unpredictable, instrumentation. The final installment in a five-year trilogy, the record builds on the legacy of 2016’s Who Taught You to Hate Yourself? and 2018’s The Importance of Self Belief. Across each of these works, Dixon sounds like a highly-trained musician, with melodic arrangements that induce a visceral reaction. Coupled with his gripping delivery and impeccable lyricism, it’s hard to believe Dixon h...
Artist of the Month McKinley Dixon on Time Travel, Cowboy Bebop, and the Death of a Childhood Friend
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-07T00:06:38+00:00“>May 6, 2021 | 8:06pm ET Artist of the Month is an accolade awarded to an up-and-coming artist whom we believe is set to break out. In May, we turn our attention to rising rapper McKinley Dixon as he caps off an ambitious trilogy of albums with For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her. Less than 30 seconds into our conversation, McKinley Dixon abruptly travelled through time. It happens frequently if you learn to see the world from a certain perspective, as Dixon has. The DMV rapper has a boundless cache of interesting ideas, and one of them — involving shifts in chronology — lands somewhere between a philosophical framework and a poetic theory of know...
Madonna Is Smoking In Snoop Dogg’s ‘Gang Signs’ Music Video: Watch
“Was so much fun to show up in Snoop Dogg video for his new song Gang Signs!,” she tweeted, along with two goat emojis. Directed by 4 rAx, “Gang Signs” also follows Snoop as he gets to work in a green screen studio with a pair of cars as props. In the song, Snoop namechecks his famous friend. “Crip walking with my homegirl Martha/ While I’m passing joints to Madonna/ Who wants to smoke with snoop let’s have a smoke or two/ Puff puff pass that’s what real smokers do,” he raps. “Gang Signs” appear on Snoop’s his 18th studio album, From Tha Streets 2 Tha Suites which dropped last month (on 4/20, of course). Watch the clip below. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begi...
Isaiah Rashad Announces New Album The House Is Burning, Shares “Lay Wit Ya”: Stream
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-07T04:00:44+00:00“>May 7, 2021 | 12:00am ET One of the most hotly anticipated releases in hip-hop history is just around the corner, as Isaiah Rashad has finally announced his new album The House Is Burning. It’s slated for a June release, and Zay is offering an early taste with the new single “Lay Wit Ya” featuring Duke Deuce. Rashad’s legend owes a little to his 2014 debut Cilvia Demo and a lot to his 2016 magnum opus The Sun’s Tirade. Five years ago he seemed poised on the cusp of superstardom, but instead of following in the footsteps of his TDE label-mate Kendrick Lamar, he disappeared. Call him the Prodigal Sun. As he explained in a new intervi...
J. Cole Unveils New Song “i n t e r l u d e”: Stream
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-07T04:05:15+00:00“>May 7, 2021 | 12:05am ET J. Cole sent Dreamville fans into a frenzy on Tuesday by announcing a new album titled The Off-Season, and now he’s shared its lead single, “i n t e r l u d e”. Stream it below. To hear the North Carolina rapper tell it, releasing the track was an impulsive decision. “Told myself I would drop the album all at once,” he wrote on Twitter. “Sometimes you gotta say fuck it tho.” The Off-Season drops on May 14th. While announcing the project, Cole described the follow-up to 2018’s KOD as “years in the making,” which lines up with his first tease of the LP. “The Off Season coming soon… All roads lead to The Fall Off,” he wrote in the descript...
MF DOOM and Czarface’s New Album Super What? Receives Posthumous Release: Stream
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-07T04:11:17+00:00“>May 7, 2021 | 12:11am ET Czarface have just released Super What?, their new collaborative album with the late MF DOOM. The two recorded the LP together before the masked rapper’s unexpected death in October 2020. Stream it below via Apple Music and Spotify. Out of nowhere, Czarface announced the album on Wednesday afternoon to a thrilled response from fans, less than 48 hours before it would be released. In total, Super What? spans 10 tracks. Four of those include guest verses by the likes of DMC, Del the Funky Homosapien, Kendra Morris, and Godforbid. Wu-Tang Clan‘s Inspectah Deck and 7L & Esoteric, who make up Czarface as a unit, never expected Super What...
Rapper G Herbo Charged With Lying to Federal Investigators
Authorities say the suspects used text messages, social media messages and emails to share account information taken from dark websites for trips on private jets, exotic car rentals, yacht charters, luxury vacation rentals, and even designer puppies. During the investigation in November 2018, G Herbo told a federal agent that he never worked with or was assisted by Strong; never provided Strong any money; never received anything of value from Strong; and had no direct relationship with Strong, prosecutors said. In fact, the two had worked together since at least 2016, had exchanged money and valuable goods, and had frequent direct contact through phone conversations, text messages and social media messages, prosecutors said. An email seeking comment was sent Thursday to G Herbo’s attorney....
Little Simz Reunites with Cleo Sol for Uplifting New Song “Woman”: Stream
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-06T16:00:24+00:00“>May 6, 2021 | 12:00pm ET Little Simz has released a new single from her upcoming album, Sometime I Might Be Introvert. It’s called “Woman” and it features guest vocals by Cleo Sol. Accompanying the track is Simz’s first self-directed music video, in which she brings the song’s empowering lyrics to life. Stream it below. “Woman” is a low-key retro hip-hop number that sees Simz rapping about the women around the world who inspire her to carry on. “Woman to woman, I just want to see you glow,” she sings sweetly with an audible grin on her face. In a press release, Simz explained why she felt compelled to write the track in the first place. “I love it when I see wo...
New MF DOOM and Czarface Album Super What? Coming This Friday
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-05T17:09:56+00:00“>May 5, 2021 | 1:09pm ET The enigmatic rapper MF DOOM passed away in late October 2020, but we haven’t heard the last of his music. Today, Czarface member Esoteric announced the group is releasing a joint album with DOOM called Super What? this Friday, May 7th. Super What? spans 10 tracks and features artists like DMC, Del the Funky Homosapien, Kendra Morris, and Godforbid. Esoteric explained on Instagram that it was originally slated to drop in April 2020, but they pushed it back when COVID-19 hit. “What you’ll be hearing was finalized, mixed & mastered in the summer of 2020, and it’s our honor and privilege to share it with you Friday,” the Boston rap...
Meek Mill Shares Adorable Photo of Son Czar
The lad looks the part, wearing chunky chains, jeans, and a fetching bucket hat with his chest bare. Mill, now age 34, shares the same birthday as his youngest, May 6. In recent years, Mill has thrown his energies into criminal justice reform through the REFORM Alliance, which he formed in January 2019 with Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Philadelphia 76ers partner Michael Rubin, Jay-Z, Brooklyn Nets partner Clara Wu Tsai and more. Meek and Rubin also started a $2 million scholarship fund to provide financial relief for underserved kids in their Philadelphia hometown. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Ea...
Eminem Teases Animated Film Noir ‘Alfred’s Theme’ Lyric Video
Eminem is sticking with the master of suspense theme for the upcoming lyric video for “Alfred’s Theme” from the bonus edition of his 2020 album Music to Be Murdered By. On Tuesday night (May 4), the rapper released a 30-second teaser for the visual, which continues the album’s Alfred Hitchcock theme by re-creating some iconic images from the late director’s legendary films. In one, Marshall — dressed in a robe, shorts and slippers — falls backwards down an M.C. Escher-like stairwell as he raps, “I’d describe it as bowling (why?)/ Ball Hard (ball’s hard)/ ‘Cause the gutter’s where my mind is and when/ It’s in this ‘frame’ better ‘split’ like the five and the 10.” The clip, which uses ...
Justin Timberlake Tells DJ Khaled He’s ‘The Best A&R Guy’ in the Biz
Khaled said Timberlake’s contribution to the album featuring the usual compliment of superstar vocalists and rappers — including Lil Wayne, H.E.R., Migos, Cardi B, Lil Baby, Post Malone, Megan Thee Stallion, Justin Bieber, Drake and Jay-Z, among others — made him cry. “This is an important song,” Timberlake said, suggesting that if Jigga’s 2002 The Blueprint anthem “Song Cry” had never existed, but then Justin and Jay’s 2013 collab “Holy Grail” was “Song Cry.” You follow? “I got the right rasp in the right spots, bro!” Timberlake enthused. The clip ends with Khaled trying to convince JT that they absolutely must shoot a video for the track. “It’s needed!” Khaled tells him. Watch...
