HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Gilbert Carrasquillo / Getty Essence Fest is back, and to celebrate, two of the biggest artists on the planet will be headlining. Nicki Minaj and Janet Jackson were announced as headliners for Essence Fest when it makes its triumphant in-person return to New Orleans after being canceled in 2020, understandably due to the pandemic and going completely virtual in 2021. Minaj and Jackson will be the main attractions of the four-night concert series that will go down at New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome from June 30 to July 3. Essence Festival marks the return of the Minaj to the US Festival stage before she heads across the pond for the UK’s Wireless Festival. Minaj has been quite busy as she is full album mode unleashing two new singles on us, “Bussin” and “Do...
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Johnny Louis / Getty Benzino has put his foot in mouth yet again. He has formally apologized to his daughter Coi Leray for revealing she has a Nicki Minaj feature locked in. As per Complex the former Source Magazine executive had to backtrack this week after claiming his child had locked in a verse from Nicki Minaj. On Monday, February 21 he shared the news in a Club House chat. “Her album’s gonna be dope. She got this song with Nicki Minaj that’s gonna be coming out that’s gonna be crazy” he said. But it seems either that was cap or spoke out of turn. Onika quickly shut down the claim in a Instagram Story post that read “i don’t have a collab coming with anyone.” Naturally the announcement quickly went viral prompting Coi to comment on the...
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: @PhotosByBeanz / @PhotosByBeanz After weeks of anticipation, Nicki Minaj finally dropped her highly anticipated record with Lil Baby, “Do We Have A Problem?” and even dropped a new visual to go along with the cut. Featuring Joseph Sikora (Tommy from Power), the visuals find Nicki as Agent Barbs interrogating a hitman who seems to have history with Nicki before he spills the beans on the location she’s been looking for. Going undercover at an illegal auction, Nicki runs into a Lil Baby who’s there to bid on some ill gotten items before she set’s it off and pulls out the toast on a bunch of uppity white folk breaking the law. Ultimately she makes off with Lil Baby to Cuba and reveals herself to be a double-agent. Bell Biv DeVoe always said never trust a big...
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Bernard Smalls / @PhotosByBeanz Looks like City Girls and Nicki Minaj have squashed whatever weird drama they had between them and could possibly collaborate on something in the coming future. Yesterday (Feb. 2) the Queens rapper took to social media and surprisingly revealed that she had a heart-to-heart with both Yung Miami and JT saying “Just had a great convo with @ThegirlJT & @YungMiami305. Let’s move on & make new memories y’all.” Related Stories Does “new memories” mean new studio memories? This is the collaboration fans have been waiting on for a hot minute now (though social media derailed it via slander and hate on the idea) and now it seems like it could be coming to fruition. Both JT and Yung Miami took to Twitter to echo the sentiment...
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: James Devaney / Getty Nicki Minaj’s husband stays in some drama. Mr. Minaj aka Kenneth Petty is gettings sued for allegedly putting his hands on a security guard. Supposedly it went down back in 2019 in Germany, when a security guard claims he was working a Nicki Minaj event and caught one of Petty’s fist to his jaw, breaking it in the process. All because Nicki was pissed, allegedly. Reports TMZ: Related Stories The guy was head of security for one of Nicki’s concerts in Germany back in March 2019 … and in a lawsuit, he claims the rapper was pissed at a security staffer for allowing a male fan to get onstage during the show. In docs, obtained by TMZ, Thomas Weidenmuller alleges Nicki yelled at the female security guard — calling her a “f**king bitch...
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: WENN/Avalon / WENN It seems that Nicki Minaj can breathe a sigh of relief. Jennifer Hough has dropped the harassment lawsuit against her. As spotted on Complex the Queens, New York native got some good news regarding some potential legal troubles that originated with her husband Kenneth “Zoo” Petty. On Wednesday, January 12 Jennifer Hough’s lawyer confirmed that his client has dropped the “Super Bass” rapper from the suit. Related Stories “The case was voluntarily dismissed as to Nicki in NY,” Hough’s lawyer, Tyrone Blackburn, told Complex. “The case against Kenneth is ongoing.” Back in September of 1994 Hugh accused Petty of raping her for which he served four years in prison. The attorney went on to claim that she is not in the clear just yet thoug...
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Bernard Smalls / @PhotosByBeanz 2022 is already off to a controversial start for Nicki Minaj. She is denying that she offered her husband’s sexual assault victim a bribe to change her tune. As spotted on Complex Onika and her husband Kenneth “Zoo” Petty are being sued by Nicole Hough. She claims that the Queens, New York native allegedly raped her back in 1994. While his extensive criminal record was no secret Hough finally revealed her identity and came out to the public with her story. Back in September she and her lawyer Tyrone A. Blackburn made an appearance on The Real where she detailed the supposed horrid encounter with Petty. “It was September 16 of ’94. It was a Friday morning,” Hough recalled. “I was on my way to school — high sch...
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Robert Kamau / Getty Source: Robert Kamau / Getty It’s been a busy week for Nicki Minaj and while she was stunning fans in her birthday suit on social media, she was also fighting for her husband’s good name in a court of law. Yesterday The Barbz celebrated her 39th birthday and as a gift to her millions of followers, Stans, and stalkers, Nicki stripped down to her original birthday get-up and showed that having a baby did absolutely nothing to effect the physical degree that’s helped make her a sex symbol to many. Posing with a cake in a few pics and a giant teddy bear in another, all we can say is Meek Mill really dropped the ball on this one. Just sayin.’ Related Stories Meanwhile in the courtroom, Nicki filed some new legal docs against the woman who’...
HipHopWired Featured Video CLOSE Source: Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Nicki Minaj has one of the most devoted fanbases in the world, helping propel her to become one of the highest-selling artists of all time. Affectionately known as the Barbz, Minaj’s fans are all over Twitter praising their queen in celebration of her birthday, which is today (Dec. 8). Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty was born on December 8, 1982, in Trinidad and Tobago. At the age of five, Minaj came to America and settled with her family in Queens, N.Y. She attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts with hopes of becoming an actress, even landing in an Off-Broadway role. However, Minaj would discover Hip-Hop as a career path and debuted her first mixtape Playtime Is Over in 2007 and the res...
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Derek White / Getty Lil Kim and Nicki Minaj‘s beef is dated as a dry-aged steak so when Angela Yee brought up the old drama on her Facebook page last week, Lil Kim wasn’t feeling The Breakfast Club co-host bringing up old sh*t. Taking to social media to air out Yee for the post, Kim publicly wondered, “Why are we bringing this up, This interview is how many years ago? Like really Angela Yee??? This sh*t is WACK, but go viral.” Related Stories Interestingly enough, Yee says she didn’t post it and during the 11th Anniversary show of The Breakfast Club, she addressed the situation saying it was her team who runs her Facebook page that posted the old news, not her. “I definitely contacted them because I didn’t know what was going on,” Yee told DJ Envy. “So I ...
HipHopWired Featured Video CLOSE Source: Scott Legato / Getty TLC member Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins caught the wrath of Twitter after seemingly egging on a potential beef between Nicki Minaj and Cardi B. Twitter took note of the alleged jab and did their best to drag T-Boz back to the 1990s. The Jasmine Brand shared a video of Cardi B and Offset heading into club E11EVEN in Miami, Fla., with someone using T-Boz’s account to reply “Poor Nicki Minaj” in the comments. The slander towards T-Boz was swift and expected, prompting the singer to fire back her own comments stating that she was hacked. “MY ACCOUNT WAS HACKED IM ON A ZOOM CALL/MEETING SO I DONT KNOW WHAT WAS SAID OR WHATS HAPPENING YET BUT I SAID NOTHING ABOUT @nickiminaj AT ALL,” T-Boz wrote. She also added a longer statement and shared...
Source: Ronald Siemoneit / Getty Film and Hip-Hop have a unique relationship being that you can always find a reference to a particular movie in a rap song. One movie in particular that always gets a nod from your favorite rapper is The Matrix. There is no denying how much of a stranglehold The Matrix has on pop culture. It’s made evident due to the film’s many references in other movies, television shows, cartoons, and music, especially in Hip-Hop. Since the movie’s 1999 release, The Matrix, plus its mind-blowing plot, has found its way into the songs of many rappers over the years. With Lana Wachowski’s highly-anticipated 4th film in the franchise, The Matrix: Resurrections, right around the corner, you can bet there will be even more Matrix-related bars popping up in new songs. Until we...