Hip-Hop
Posthumous Tony Allen Album to Feature Damon Albarn, Danny Brown, Skepta & More
Last year, legendary Nigerian drummer Tony Allen was working on a new album when he suffered an aortic aneurysm and passed away at the age of 79. His collaborators have finished what he began, and the posthumous release There Is No End will arrive on April 30th, the anniversary of his death. You can catch a preview with lead single “Cosmosis”, which was co-written by Damon Albarn and features Skepta and Ben Okri. Allen pioneered the Afrobeat sound, drawing influences from American jazz, Ghanian highlife, and Yoruba polyrhythms to develop new grooves that continue to resonate today. He built his towering reputation by collaborating on over 30 albums with Fela Kuti, and his skills were so advanced that when he left to pursue a solo career, Kuti hired four drummers to replace him. Allen ...
Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac Receiving Cassette Reissues
Tapehead City is celebrating Death Row Records’s 30th birthday in the most ’90s way possible. The popular cassette retailer is giving Death Row albums by Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac their very first cassette reissues since the decade they were originally released in. The collection will include four seminal projects that every hip-hop head will know: Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle, 2Pac’s All Eyez On Me, and his follow-up The Don Killuminati (The 7 Day Theory). Like vinyl, tapes present a fun opportunity for labels to choose colors that match the artwork and mood of the albums themselves, and Tapehead chose hues that are unique to these special releases. The Chronic will be available in “chronic” green, “up in smoke” smoke tint, and “standard” white with b...
Chika Unveils New EP Once Upon A Time: Stream
Alabama rapper Chika has released a new EP called Once Upon A Time. Stream it below via Apple Music or Spotify. The 24-year-old is nominated for Best New Artist at this Sunday’s Grammys, so this new joint serves as a celebration of how far she’s come in just a few years. The six-song effort follows her well-liked 2020 EP Industry Games, and the handful of singles she released last year. Only one of those — the lustful “FWB” that she originally dropped back in December — appears on Once Upon A Time, while the others are all fresh cuts. As its storybook title and castle-adorned cover art imply, Once Upon A Time has a fairytale concept weaved through it. The first song, which features BJ The Chicago Kid, is literally called “FAIRY TALES”, and there are two other tracks cal...
Kenny Mason Announces Angelic Hoodrat: Supercut Project, Shares “Pup”: Stream
Kenny Mason turned Atlanta hip-hop on its ears with last year’s debut album, Angelic Hoodrat. The genre-mashing artist is now set to keep his momentum going with a new project dubbed Angelic Hoodrat: Supercut, which features the new single “Pup”. Due out April 16th, Supercut consists of 12 new tracks and a quartet of features. Denzel Curry, a frequent collaborator who has emerged as something of a mentor to Mason even though he’s only a year older, appears on “A+”, while Freddie Gibbs drops in on “Much Money”. Alongside those heavy-hitters, Mason welcomes a pair of fellow risers, with Dallas’ Angel White featuring on “Titan” and bi-lingual New Jersey singer-songwriter contributing to “Breathe”. The new collection was first teased last month with “Partments”, a low-key track that further pe...
Fugees Scored Big at the Crossroads of Hip-Hop
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS Consequence of Sound and Sony present The Opus, an exploration of legendary albums and their ongoing legacy. For Season 13, host Jill Hopkins (The Moth Chicago, Making Beyoncé podcast) will explore the Fugees’ second and final album, The Score. Hip-hop had considerably changed from when the Fugees started recording their first album in 1992 to just three years later when they began working on their second effort. The “Golden Age” was coming to a close, and the genre was at a crossroads. So were the Fugees, though. Coming off their critically and commercially divisive first album, 1994’s Blunted on Reality, the New Jersey trio of Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, and Pras Michel were ...
CHIKA Covers Billie Eilish’s “my future”, Reimagines “U SHOULD”: Stream
All this week, the Spotify Singles series is highlighting the nominees for the 2021 Best New Artist Grammy. But the contribution from CHIKA comes as a double celebration, as today happens to be the Alabama MC’s 24th birthday. As a gift for your ears, she’s delivered a new rendition of her single “U SHOULD” as well as a cover of Billie Eiilish’s “my future”. Plenty of artists have put their own spin on Eilish’s single from last summer, including Artist of the Month Arlo Parks and Miley Cyrus. CHIKA takes it into a new realm, however, taking ownership of the luscious, jazzy ode to self worth with a whole new verse of her own. “Ain’t no stopping shooting stars/ They got their own mind, and that’s the gold mine,” she raps. “The whole grind is nuts, so hold mine/ I promise you I’m set for go ti...
Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak’s Silk Sonic to Make Live Debut at Grammys
Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak are not only some of the smoothest guys making funk-based music these days, but they’re also two of the most entertaining artists of this era. A few weeks ago, they revealed they’re joining forces under the new moniker Silk Sonic, and now they’re already gearing up to make their live debut as such at the 2021 Grammy Awards. This all started when Mars and .Paak decided to write music together while stuck in quarantine during the coronavirus pandemic. The two artists originally bonded when .Paak opened for Mars on his 24K Magic world tour years ago, and they collaborated on record for the first time when they contributed to Chic’s 2018 album It’s About Time. But for them, Silk Sonic is a chance to explore other creative corners of the funk world that they’ve not...
Johnny Depp Investigates The Notorious B.I.G.’s Death in New Trailer for City of Lies: Watch
Three years ago, City of Lies was one month away from hitting theaters before it was pulled by its distributor due to Johnny Depp’s less-than-flattering public image at the time. Now, the crime drama is finally scheduled to hit select theaters and VOD on March 19th, and a newly revealed trailer is streaming below. In case you forgot — which, considering how much time has passed since the first trailer came out in 2018, would be understandable — City of Lies is based on the true story of The Notorious B.I.G.’s death in 1997. Directed by Brad Furman, the movie follows a retired LAPD detective named Russell Poole (Depp) and a journalist (Forest Whitaker) as they try to uncover the identities of those responsible for the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls. Allegedly a handful of co...
Corey Taylor Compares Gen Z Attempt to Cancel Eminem to the Salem Witch Trials
Eminem was recently the target of a cancellation attempt for a lyric from “Love the Way You Lie”, his 2010 hit featuring Rihanna. After seeing the story, Slipknot singer Corey Taylor compared the situation to the Salem witch trials. As the story goes, a group of Generation Z TikTok users apparently attempted to cancel Eminem for “Love the Way You Lie” line, “If she ever tries to f**king leave again/ I’mma tie her to the bed and set this house on fire.” Eminem responded by sharing a lyric video for his 2020 song “Tone Deaf”, which contains the lyrics, “I won’t stop even when my hair turns grey (I’m tone-deaf)/ ‘Cause they won’t stop until they cancel me.” Taylor, seeing the story make headlines this week, brought up the topic when speaking with Matt Pinfield on Los Angeles’ 95.5 KLOS radio....
Azealia Banks Sold an Audio Sex Tape as an NFT for $18,000
What’s that fucking sound? Why, it’s “I FUCKED RYDER RIPPS”, an audio-only sex tape by rapper Azealia Banks that just sold as a blockchain NFT for over $18,000. (Via Vice.) The Non-Fungible Token (NFT) was created by the titular Mr. Ripps and posted on the Ethereum blockchain for 10.00 ETH. At the time of this writing, 1.00 ETH is worth about $1,827.08, which brings the total haul for the heavy breathing to $18,270.80. Now, that 24 minutes and 22 seconds of light cardio belongs to Bond villain user Rulton Fyder, who has the right to do anything they want with it, from whacking off, to helping others whack off, to playing it at parties while passing out drinks. As Banks and Ripps wrote in the product description, “This sale is for the full rights and sole access to the first audio...
Cardi B Becomes First Female Rapper with Diamond Single for “Bodak Yellow”
Cardi B turned “bloody shoes” into a diamond on the wall. Her breakout single “Bodak Yellow” has been RIAA-certified diamond, making her the first female rapper to ever achieve the feat. The artist born Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar teased fans with the news late last night by posting a video on Twitter. She had been working on her upcoming Grammys performance, she said, when she learned of an unplanned meeting with Atlantic Records. As she explained, “I’ve been rehearsing all day today, I’m really stressed out, my body’s aching. At rehearsal, they said to me, ‘Yo, you gotta meet up with Atlantic execs.’ I’m like, ‘Yo I’m fucking tired like I don’t wanna talk about no Grammys, I don’t wanna talk about no album, I’m just tired.’ And then I still got drove to a restaurant. I’m like, ‘Are y...
Verzuz Founders Swizz Beatz & Timbaland Talk Triller Partnership: ‘This Puts a Light Back on Creatives’
The ultimate payoff, says Swizz Beatz, is “hearing everybody being so floored about having shares in the company and feeling like they belong. That’s the real currency. It’s going to take the creative to save the creative.” What initially attracted you to Triller? Swizz Beatz: The whole time that Tim and I were building this platform, we didn’t really have any plans from a monetization or even a business side. We never even built out the technology for it. It was more about wanting to do this from a celebration, educational side; to give people some life, love and happiness during these hard times with COVID-19. Then as the platform started growing it turned into a business with sponsors coming in and offers from people wanting to buy ownership in the company once w...
