Hip-Hop
Wesley Joseph Drops Thumping Track “Thrilla”: Stream
23-year-old UK rapper Wesley Joseph has released “Thrilla”, his first new song of 2021. The booming track is co-produced by Jai Paul collaborator Lexxx and Joseph himself. It arrives via a self-directed music video featuring one of the two working DeLoreans in the UK. Stream the clip below. “Thrilla” is propelled by a heavy 808, but the production is also layered with funk-inspired guitar licks and gothic strings. In an interview with BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac, Joseph said he freestyled the song’s lyrics while drunk “off the rum and orange juice.” Accordingly, most of the track features swaggering rhymes, but Joseph also gets introspective at times. “Visions in my dreams, who do you believe / They fear the change,” he raps. “Looking hollow tomorrow, dividing barricades / Thought I saw the fu...
Ghostface Killah and Raekwon to Go Head-to-Head in Verzuz Battle
Verzuz is a quarantine battle series that pits two similar artists against one another to determine who is the hit-for-hit champion. Over the past few months, the event’s organizers have gotten some of the biggest names in the music industry to join in on the fun, and the next battle might just be their most anticipated yet: Ghostface Killah vs. Raekwon. Swizz Beatz and Timbaland announced the news during an Instagram live story last week. In the clip, they hyped up the reveal, saying, “Who’re we talking about?” while playing various songs by the two Wu-Tang Clan members in the background. Unsurprisingly, fans were immediately stoked to realize this meant Ghostface Killah and Raekwon would be dueling it out over a livestream battle, with an excited Common even commenting, “WHOAH!!!!!” Curr...
Fans Choose Pop Smoke’s Posthumous Song ‘AP’ as This Week’s Favorite New Music
Pop Smoke was shot and killed at a Los Angeles residence in early 2020. In the months following his murder, the 20-year-old Brooklyn star’s posthumous album, Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The late rapper will make his posthumous acting debut in Eddie Huang’s new coming-of-age movie Boogie, the story of Queens basketball prodigy Alfred “Boogie” Chin. Pop Smoke plays Boogie’s on-court rival Monk. Placing second on the past week’s tally with 23% of the vote was Malone’s rendition of Hootie & the Blowfish’s 1995 hit “Only Wanna Be With You.” The cover will appear on Pokémon 25: The Album, which celebrates the franchise’s 25th anniversary. Other artists appearing on Pokémon 25 include ...
Cardi B Wants Lizzo to Join Her on a Song
Cardi B and Lizzo, together at last? After gushing over some stunning portraits of Lizzo, the rapper implied that she’s ready to write a song that will feature her. “These pics do it for me,” Cardi wrote on Twitter Sunday afternoon (Feb. 28), captioning a set of four photos of Lizzo in various poses. When a fan left the comment “now drop that collab with her” on Cardi’s post, she replied within two minutes. 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. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet revenue.
Redman, Method Man, and H.E.R. Join D’Angelo’s Verzuz in a Celebration of Live Music: Review
For music lovers, the COVID-19 pandemic effectively put an end to live performances for the foreseeable future. Many venues across the country have temporally (or permanently) closed or now operate with capacity restrictions. Never again will we take for granted the sweet simplicity of being able to catch our favorite artist/band in concert. But one of the few positive things to happen for live music during all the insanity that has taken place over the last year and counting is the emergence of the Verzuz series. Curated by super producers Timbaland and Swizz Beatz, who dueled in the first battle last March, Verzuz gave fans a lifeline as we sat at home watching our favorite producers and singers reminisce about the creation of their classic songs, many of which have defined hip-hop and R...
Benny the Butcher Announces New EP The Plugs I Met 2
Benny the Butcher has announced a new EP. It’s called The Plugs I Met 2 and is scheduled to come out on March 19th. The Plugs I Met 2 will be the first record the Butcher has dropped since putting out Burden of Proof in October 2020. As the title suggests, this new EP will serve as a sequel of sorts to his The Plugs I Met, which came out back in 2019. So far, the only name attached to The Plugs I Met 2 is Harry Fraud, who will serve as the EP’s producer. It’s likely a handful of other rappers will hop on the joint considering the original 2019 EP saw the Butcher link up with Black Thought, Pusha T, Jadakiss, Conway The Machine, and more. “March 19th THE PLUGS I MET 2 EP,” he wrote on Instagram on Friday. “Me and @harryfraud linked up on niggas I could sit here and ...
D’Angelo Brings Friends, Classics and No Drama to Verzuz Stage For Competition-Free Performance
After a little under an hour, D’Angelo breezily walked on the Ciroc-loaded stage with a cigarette in hand, a black mink coat on his back, and a tall, wide-brimmed hat on his head. “Peace and love, everybody,” he calmly declared, welcoming viewers to a deeply intimate evening with D’Angelo. He informed the audience that they would be the friends, opting for the concert route rather than a traditional 1v1 setting. He kicked off the night with a performance featuring trumpet player Keyon Harrold (of his backing band The Vanguard), then transitioned to the fan favorite Smokey Robinson cover “Cruisin” from 1995 debut album Brown Sugar — to instant delight from viewers. After D’Angelo and DJ Scratch collaborated in performing the singer’s most celebrated early reco...
Post Malone Headlines Pokémon 25th Anniversary Concert: Watch
As part of the festivities celebrating the 25th anniversary of Pokémon, Post Malone headlined a virtual concert on Saturday night. The event saw a digital avatar version of the rapper perform a pre-recorded four-song set for an audience of Pokémon characters. Throughout the course of the 15-minute concert, Posty was transported to different Pokémon environments, from Glimwood Tangle to Charizard’s lair. All the while, beloved Pokémon figures like Gyarados, Umbreon, and Lugia could be seen vibing out. Posty’s setlist included “Psycho”, “Circles”, and “Congratulations”, in addition to his newly unveiled cover of Hootie and the Blowfish’s “Only Wanna Be With You”. Replay Post Malone’s Pokémon concert in its entirety below. At the end of the concert, The Pokémon Company International...
Nashville’s National Museum of African American Music: An Inside Look
The Wade in the Water exhibit chronicles the history of African-American religious music, starting with indigenous African spirituals and musical traditions. The Crossroads and A Love Supreme exhibits (the latter borrows its name from jazz pioneer John Coltrane‘s iconic album) focus on blues and jazz, respectively. One Nation Under a Groove (the title of the Funkadelic classic) recounts the history of R&B from WWII to its contemporary counterpart. Final exhibit The Message (Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five) traces the development of rap/hip-hop from its origins in the South Bronx to its global impact. NMAAM also houses several mini-exhibits including The Business Behind the Music. Sponsored by Sony Music Group, the display spotlights trailblazing Black industry executives...
Song of the Week: Jay Som and Palehound Choose the Bachelor’s Life and Debut “Anything at All”
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, two longtime friends form a new band and find a new sound. The past year of our lives has taught us that loneliness comes in several shades of blue. It can feel like total isolation, separation from dear friends, or even the tedium of seeing the same faces every single day. Those among us who have fared best have either found ways to beat the loneliness (a little Zoom went a long way there for a while, didn’t it?) or embrace it as a chance to remain in the moment and accomplish something. Jay Som (Melina Duterte) and Palehound voc...
Facebook’s New App Bars Lets You Rap Over Premade Beats
The follow-up era to SoundCloud rappers may well be upon us. As noted by TechCrunch, Facebook is releasing an app that will let users rap over premade beats and share a video of it with their community. It’s called Bars, and it’s currently available to download in closed beta form. From the sound of it, Bars is an app geared towards beginner rappers and freestyle pros alike. Users can choose from a rolodex of beats already available to use on the app, rap over them for 60 seconds, and then post the video to a “TikTok-style feed” where fellow Bars users can watch it and mark it as “fire” if they like it. Bars reportedly offers “studio quality vocal effects,” including everybody’s favorite AutoTune feature, too. Those in need of a creative boost should be pretty pleased with Bars because it ...
Freddie Gibbs Covers Gil Scott-Heron’s “Winter in America”: Stream
Gary, Indiana rapper Freddie Gibbs has released a cover of influential poet Gil Scott-Heron’s 1975 song, “Winter in America”. Check out the song below. Shining a light on American colonialism, the absence of democracy, and racism, “Winter in America” first appeared on Gil Scott-Heron, Brian Jackson, and the Midnight Band’s 1975 album, The First Minute of a New Day. In his version, Gibbs pays tribute to Scott-Heron by singing in a spoken-word flow. Unfortunately, the lyrics are just as applicable today as they were 45 years ago. “Just like the cities staggered on the coastline / In a nation that can’t take much more,” he croons. “Like the forest buried underneath the highway / Never had a chance to grow.” “Winter In America” appears on Black History Always – Music For The Movement Vol. 2, t...
