Hip-Hop
Song of the Week: FKA twigs and Headie One Unite Social Movements in “Don’t Judge Me”
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. The #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements may have different origins, but they share certain goals: among them, making certain that those who suffer sexual abuse and racial injustice, respectively, are acknowledged, listened to, and believed. Only when those things happen can healing begin, changes be implemented, and true justice attained. In this week’s Top Song, British artists FKA twigs and Headie One bring their own survival stories together and, in doing so, unite these movements under a common anthem. This collaboration, which ...
T.I. and Wife Tiny Issue Statement Denying Accusations of Sexual Abuse
T.I. and Tameka “Tiny” Harris, image via Instagram/@majorgirl Rapper T.I. and his wife Tameka “Tiny” Harris have both been accused of horrendous sexual abuses by former family friend Sabrina Peterson, who says she has anonymously collected dozens of women’s stories. Now, the Atlanta MC and his partner have released a statement “emphatically” denying the claims. Peterson, who runs the Instagram account @TheGlamUniversity, posted a statement earlier this week accusing the Atlanta MC of putting “A GUN TO MY HEAD IN FRONT OF CHILDREN.” While she herself has not accused T.I. of sexual misconduct, she alleges that dozens of women have since anonymously reached out to her. Their stories, which she has collected on her Instagram stories as screenshots of DMs, include being pressur...
Machine Gun Kelly Reveals Origin Story of His Name in ‘SNL’ Promos: Watch
“Okay, okay I get it!” the Jack Ryan star responds. “No, no, no, she’s right, you better be funny,” MGK chimes in with a hard stare. In the second clip, Gardner asks the MC-turned-pop-punker (born Richard Colson Baker) how he came up with his stage name. “Oh, my mother’s maiden name is Machine Gun,” he jokes. MGK recently released the 50-minute Downfalls High — the companion movie to his Billboard 200 No. 1 album Tickets to My Downfall — which he wrote and directed with Mod Sun and which features frequent collaborator Travis Barker, Sydney Sweeney, Chase Hudson, Trippie Redd, Blackbear, Iann Dior and Maggie Lindemann. Watch the promos below. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are l...
Mary J. Blige ‘See What You’ve Done’ Lyric Video Launches to Promote Oscar Song Contender
Directed by Erika Cohn, Belly of the Beast chronicles the near-decade-long fight to shed light on the forced sterilization of women’s prison inmates in California. The film highlights this reproductive injustice with personal accounts from formerly incarcerated individuals. The early lyric, “The world can decide if a caged bird flies,” is a reference to Maya Angelou’s seminal autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, in which the poet describes the racism and trauma that have impacted her life. The song culminates with Blige singing the line, “It ain’t over till it’s over,” accompanied by images of protestors, Dillon and her legal team in a courtroom, with shackles falling to the ground. The song takes the perspective of the survivors of this underreported i...
Roddy Ricch & 21 Savage Set to Perform on iHeartRadio’s Living Black!
The Feb. 20 show will be produced by Rikki Hughes, best known for her work with comedian Dave Chappelle. Roddy Ricch, 21 Savage, Jhené Aiko and Kirk Franklin will be among the performers on iHeartRadio’s Living Black!, which is set to air Feb. 20 on iHeartMedia hip-hop, gospel and R&B broadcast stations, iHeartRadio’s YouTube and Facebook pages and the iHeartRadio app nationwide. The show, which will air at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT, will be produced by Rikki Hughes, who has won two Emmys and three Grammys for her work with comedian Dave Chappelle. Throughout February, which is Black History Month, iHeartMedia national and on-air personalities, including The Breakfast Club (consisting of Charlamagne Tha God, Angela Yee and DJ Envy), Steve Harvey and Big Boy, will honor “trailblazers, modern ...
Cardi B Says She’s Spending a Fortune Every Week on COVID Tests
When a fan said they thought the tests were free, Cardi explained that it’s free when you go to your doctor’s office, but “when it’s for work and you gotta have people test you at your home is not.” That said, Cardi wasn’t complaining about the cost because she knows the legal and health ramifications if she doesn’t do everything she can to keep herself and her team safe. “It’s necessary because if you in my space and you get Covid I can get sued. If I do a commercial and I get Covid the company can get sued,” she said. “Its all about not being a liability and is a requirement.The government should be paying for healthcare workers we pay out our own pockets.” When another user noted that Cardi is lucky that she has the luxur...
’34 + 35,’ ‘Lady Marmalade’ & More Top 10 Hot 100 Hits Featuring Three or More Female Solo Artists
The first such single to hit the Hot 100’s top 10, as well as the most voluminous in terms of female collaborators, came in 1997, with “Not Tonight” — a No. 6 hit for Lil Kim off the Nothing to Lose soundtrack, also featuring Da Brat, Left Eye, Missy Elliott and Angie Martinez. Missy is a common element on several of the nine total all-female Hot 100 top 10 hits to feature more than two female artists. Along with “Lady Marmalade” (which she co-produced and provides the intro for, despite not being a credited artist on the song) and “Not Tonight,” she also appears along with Mocha as featured artists on Nicole’s “Make It Hot” (No. 5, 1998) and again with Lil Kim on Keyshia Cole’s “Let It Go” (No. 7, 200...
Dave East Unveils New Song “Mercedes Talk”: Stream
Dave East has elevated hustle to a religion. Since 2010 he’s dropped something like 16 mixtapes and albums, most recently 2020’s Karma 3. The veteran MC shows no signs of slowing down, opening 2021 with the new song “Mercedes Talk”. The track was produced by AraabMuzik. His beat eschews internal movement, building tension out of the contrast between a high chime and rumbling bass. East works over the top with a laid back flow, mixing the personal (“I still don’t feel like I’m famous/ Had to move up out the projects just to feel like I made it,”) with punchlines (“Headshot turn your thoughts into liquor.”) “Mercedes Talk” comes with a music video directed by WillC. It shows East on the street with his bros, outside a corner store, and behind the counter of a fast food joint. Oh, and th...
HDBeenDope Drops New Song “21 Bags”: Stream
HDBeenDope is building on the buzz from his 2020 album BrokeN Dreams with an arresting music video for his new song “21 Bags”. “21 Bags” quietly dropped on December 31st, at a time when the world was preoccupied with burning 2020 in effigy. The odd timing disguised a banging self-produced beat, over which HD unleashed half-a-dozen head-spinning flows. One of the things that makes him such an interesting MC is ability to switch between humility and braggadocio, hard truths and going hard. “21 Bags” is here to slap you upside the eardrums. He spits, “Parlayed all the hard days/ To the soirée with a ‘Yonce/ I need all lays for the bolognese/I got octane and they all blaze.” The new video was directed by Erikson Corneil. It shows HDBeenDope in what appears to be an enormous dance studio, ...
15 Hip-Hop & R&B Artists to Watch in 2021
In 2020, Blxst rocketed to success when fans unwrapped his eight-track project No Love Lost. The Cali polymath doesn’t shy away from messy topics, working through heartbreak and relationship woes with elastic ease. Fortunately, Blxst doesn’t allow his losses to define him, as he proves to be a slithery Casanova on “Wrong or Right,” “Overrated” and “Be Alone.” His skill for hitmaking shines on the project’s deluxe edition, as he recruits West Coast all-stars Dom Kennedy (“Got It All”) and Ty Dolla $ign and Tyga (“Chosen”) for his daily escapades. — CARL LAMARRE Pooh Shiesty If you didn’t know Memphis rapper Pooh Shiesty before he locked in with Lil Durk on “Back in Blood,” you certainly do now: T...
The Weeknd Rolls Out Greatest Hits Album Ahead of Super Bowl Performance
The Weeknd has unveiled an 18-song greatest hits collection, The Highlights, in advance of his upcoming Super Bowl halftime performance. The “Blinding Lights” singer will take the stage at the Super Bowl LV showdown between Tampa Bay and Kansas City on Feb. 7 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. But before then, he’s offering fans the chance to order a copy of his hits comp, which features such beloved songs as “In Your Eyes,” “Can’t Feel My Face,” “Starboy,” “Heartless,” “Die For You,” “Love Me Harder” and “Wicked Games,” among others; the singer’s site says the CD version will ship in the next two or three weeks. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for ...
SZA Says She’ll Ask Frank Ocean to Feature on ‘Good Days’
“Imma ask lol,” she wrote. While there’s no update as of Sunday, fans of both artists have already started daydreaming about a “Good Days” remix. “Ok but the frank ocean remix….let’s talk,” one person wrote to SZA on Twitter. Another tweeted: “If Sza really gets frank ocean on the good days remix my soul will quite literally leave my body.” “sza and frank ocean are both scorpios so if they do collab i know it’s gonna hit emotionally and i’m gonna cry for days,” wrote another fan. “The day Frank Ocean hops on Good Days by SZA is the day I pass away peacefully,” another person joked. See some of the reactions, and enjoy SZA’s “Good Days” again, below. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you ...
