Newsletter
Issa Rae Teams Up With LIFEWTR For “Life Unseen” Campaign To Help Diverse Creatives
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: LIFEWTR / Issa Rae Issa Rae is looking out for all diverse creatives with her latest partnership with the Pepsi brand LIFEWTR. The award-winning actress, producer, writer, and advocate kicked off her new Life Unseen campaign on Wednesday (Apr.14). The nationwide campaign’s main goal is to “expose disparities in representation among diverse creatives (representing people of color, disabled people, the LGBTQ+ community and women) across four creative industries (fashion, film, music and visual arts),” according to a press release. LIFEWTR partnered with QSIDE, a nonprofit corporation specializing in the quantitative study of inclusion, diversity, and equity, for a first-of-its-kind study that revealed under-representation in the arts the following sta...
airKAVE’s $349 Portable Air Filter Approved To Help Fight COVID-19 & Other Airborne Microbes
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: AIRKAVE / AIRKAVE PORTABLE AIR PURIFIER Despite what you see on your Instagram and Twitter timelines, COVID-19 is still here. While masking, social distancing, hand washing, and vaccines are significant steps in stopping the virus’s spread, airKAVE has a new tool that could assist in the fight. airKAVE’s Portable Air Filter, which is billed as the “world’s most advanced air purification system,” has now been approved to combat COVID-19, the company announced in a press release after passing the Characterization of Model AH01 Air Purification Device in Deactivation of Aerosolized SARS-CoV-2 test administered by MRIGlobal an independent, not-for-profit, contract organization based in Kansas City, Mo. Basically, that means the device can successfully neutral...
Sgt. Jonathan Pentland Arrested & Charged With 3rd-Degree Assault, Mugshot Is Pure Struggle
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Richland County Sheriff’s Department / Sgt. Jonathan Pentland’s Mugshot See what being a racist bootleg neighborhood watch member gets you? A video featuring a Columbia, South Carolina Sargeant terrorizing a young Black man who was just walking around “his neighborhood” went viral on social media. The clip was recorded by a Facebook user named Shirell Johnson, who felt the need to press record on her smartphone when she saw Sgt. Jonathan Pentland harassing the young Black man known only as Deandre. Pentland can be heard in the video threatening Deandre, telling him, “You’re in the wrong neighborhood,” while yelling expletives and saying. “I ain’t playing with you. … I’m about to show you what I can do.” The video was retweeted by a Twitter user named @Ang...
Mark Curry Says Diddy Has Been Reaching Out To Help Black Rob
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Jamie McCarthy / Getty Just days after the painful passing of Hip-Hop legend, DMX, fellow golden era alumni, Black Rob offered his condolences from a hospital bed. But considering the circumstances, many worried that the “Whoa” rapper was going to be the next legend to be mourned by the culture. Immediately word and rumors began to spread of Black Rob’s post-Bad Boy Records struggle including his health and possibly being homeless. Many began to call out P. Diddy for not doing his part in ensuring that his former artist was better off in life. However, according to Mark Curry, Diddy has reached out since the video was released and is looking to see what he can do to help Rob in his obvious time of need. In a video uploaded on IG, Curry addressed the situa...
LL Cool J Reacts To Twitter Randomly Crowning Him “Pop Rap” Pioneer
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: SXSW / Getty LL Cool J is not too old to knock people out if they erroneously keep associating his legacy with being a Pop star. The legendary rapper felt it necessary to defend his life’s work on social media after discovering fans were crowing him a “pop rap” pioneer, whatever that means. “Me being called the forefather of pop rap is very confusing. What the f*ck are you talking about?? LOL,” he wrote on Twitter. In the early 1980s, the Queens native first broke into the scene as a pretty-faced teenage street rapper named LL Cool J (short for Ladies Love Cool James) signed under Def Jam Recordings as their flagship artist. He’s since released ten consecutive platinum-plus selling albums that have catapulted hit singles “I Need Love,” “Rock T...
Cop Who Murdered Daunte Wright Charged With Manslaughter
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: KEREM YUCEL / Getty Kim Potter, the former Brooklyn Center police officer that shot and killed Daunte Wright in a Minneapolis suburb, has been officially charged with a crime. Potter was slapped with second-degree manslaughter and is now free on a $100,000 bond. Local outlet KSTP reports that Potter, a 26-year veteran of the force, was formally charged by the Washington County Attorney’s Office on Wednesday (April 14). If Potter’s case goes to a conviction, she will face up to a maximum of 10 years in jail and a possible $20,000 fine. Potter was arrested in St. Paul at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension by agents and her bail was set at $100,000. Potter is slated to appear in court later today (April 15). Potter posted bond at around 5:38 PM lo...
Lil Nas X Taking “Montero” To Pornhub After He Claims Streaming Services Are Scrubbing It
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Bernard Smalls / @PhotosByBeanz83 They just won’t Lil Nas X live his best life. Lil Nas X can’t seem to catch a break when it comes to his song “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).” Upon its release with the accompanying video that saw the rapper pole dancing his way into hell to give Satan a lapdance before snapping his neck, Christian twitter has been on one. It also didn’t help that Nike had a knee-jerk reaction to a pair of customized Air Max 97 sneakers from MSCHF called “Satan Shoes,” resulting in the company reaching a settlement barring Lil Nas X from giving away the final 666th pair. Now, it appears that streaming services are scrubbing the song altogether. On Tuesday (Apr.13), Lil Nas X urged his fans and followers to get the singles numbers up becu...
DJ Mustard Claims His Personal Shopper Ganked Him For $50K In Goods
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Pascal Le Segretain / Getty We’re not sure exactly when “Personal Shoppers” became a thing in the Hip-Hop culture, but DJ Mustard just learned that just because you trust someone with your fashion sense and grocery lists, that doesn’t mean you can trust them with your money. Recently DJ Mustard took to Instagram alleging that his personal shopper, Karissa C. Walker, treated herself to his credit cards at the tune of $50,000. Hired to shop for himself and his wife, Walker apparently made some personal purchases for herself without Mustard’s permission. From pricey handbags to shoes, Mustard claims that Karissa went wild with his paper and even ran up a $15,000 tab at Louis Vuitton. Labeling Walker a “Thief” and a “Liar,” Mustard aired out his grievances an...
CERTIFIED FRESH: Stunna Girl Talks Epic Records Deal, Vision & Proving Doubters Wrong
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: press handout / EPIC It’s been about 18 months since Stunna Girl’s “Runway” hit peak levels on the short-form video app TikTok and she’s still one of the first in line to rep for her hometown of Sacramento. With the recent release of her latest mixtape Stunna This Stunna That, the Epic records signee is focused on bringing her fans into her world, even as she figures it out for herself. She’s intent on becoming a star and she sees it on the horizon just as clearly as she did a decade ago. There was a three-year stint in between where she found herself behind bars at a California youth facility for engaging in some unsavory activity—there was a robbery charge, a gun charge, and a pesky assault charge that reappeared around the time of her sentencing—but on...
Pepsi & Angie Martinez To Hold ‘Manzanita Sol NYC Food Truck Giveback’ This Weekend
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Manzanita Sol / PepsiCo Over the past few decades Angie Martinez has gone from popular radio personality to rapper to actress, and now the OG Voice of New York is teaming with Pepsi to bring some more Latino flavor to the streets of NYC. Looking to hype up the debut of their new Manzanita Sol beverage, PepsiCo has enlisted the talents of Angie Martinez and recruited the help of Black and Latino owned food trucks to dish out free meals and free Manzanita Sol this weekend (April 17 & 18). Angie couldn’t be more enthusiastic about the new drink and in a press release expressed her pride in taking part in the campaign. “New York is a place where you’ll find diverse cuisines around every corner and food trucks are what bring that authentic taste of home pa...
Hype Williams Pays Homage To Slim Aarons For Jay-Z’s New ‘Monogram’ Campaign
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Hype Williams / Hype Williams When the first ad campaign for Jay-Z’s new cannabis line, Monogram dropped, many were confused by the suburban lavish atmosphere featured in it being that Jay is a Hip-Hop icon. Source: Hype Williams / Hype Williams Well, it turns out that it’s actually Hype Williams play on an iconic photoshoot done by famed socialite photographer, Slim Aarons. Known for capturing the lifestyles of the rich and famous on film, Aarons made a name for himself as his whole style was based around “photographing attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places.” Hype Williams decided for Jay’s Monogram campaign he’d pay homage to Aaron’s career concept and used Frank Sinatra’s house in Palm Springs where he recreated Aaron’s most&nb...
Funk Flex On Drake vs Meek Mill: “I Wanted To Be In The History Book”
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty Funkmaster Flex admittedly likes attention—more than most, some could argue. Sure, a lot of us have already known this, but still recoiled at one particular line from a recent talk the DJ had with Rap Radar: “I wanted to be in the history book.” Back in 2015 when Meek Mill and Drake were feuding, it all started with the Philadelphia rapper running the reference track for Drizzy’s “10 Bands” up to Hot 97. He’d hoped to “expose” Drake for using ghostwriters, and not having read the room, things did not work out in Meek’s favor. News of the reference track barely moved the needle amongst rap fans and subsequently, Meek received a succinct lesson in why you should never poke a sleeping bear. [embedded content] “I gotta be honest. I ...
