Rap
Kanye West is Now Worth $6.6 Billion
Well, he’s definitely got his money right. Lord. According to Bloomberg, Kanye West is now worth a whopping $6.6 billion dollars. It was around this time last year that the rap superstar finally cracked the nine-figure threshold and became a certified billionaire. Now, after a terrific sales year for his sneaker and apparel brand Yeezy, and the closing of a new Yeezy partnership with Gap, the recent divorcee has seen his wealth skyrocket roughly 500%. Like all net worth estimations, some of this is based on fickle market speculation. However, Yeezy’s high-profile deals with Adidas and Gap have launched its value into the neighborhood of $3.2 to $4.7 billion. Since West remains the sole owner of the company, that money can be attributed to his personal net worth, which also includes another...
Paris Texas Share New Song “Situations”: Stream
Last month, the South Central rap duo Paris Texas released their first ever song, a metal-tinged banger fittingly titled “Heavy Metal”. The track quickly picked up some considerable blog buzz, and now they’re back with a much different-sounding loosie called “Situations”. There’s not a whole lot of info out there about the LA pair, but we do know that their names are Louie Pastel and Felix, and it seems unlikely that this is their first entry into the world of music. “Heavy Metal” featured pounding guitar chords that stopped and started with the choppy suspense of a horror film, but “Situations” is a completely different vibe. The track is piece of funky, warped club rap that sounds a lot more like Outkast than Death Grips. The vocals slip and slide over its tubular groov while gurgli...
Drake is First Artist to Debut Three Songs in Top 3 of Billboard Hot 100 Simultaneously
Drake has set yet another record on the Billboard charts, as each of the three songs from his latest EP, Scary Hours 2, entered the Hot 100 in the Top 3. As Billboard reports, “What’s Next” debuted at No. 1, followed by “Wants and Needs” featuring Lil Baby and the Rick Ross-assisted “Lemon Pepper Freestyle”. “What’s Next” becomes Drake’s eighth No. 1 hit on the Hot 100, and he now has a record-extending 45 Top 10 songs. He joins The Beatles and Ariana Grande as the only artists to simultaneously claim the Top 3 spots on the Hot 100 (though neither The Beatles nor Grande did it in their respective songs’ first week of release). Drake’s previous No. 1 hits include his Rihanna collaborations “What’s My Name?” and “Work”, as well as “One Dance”, “God’s Plan”, “Nice for What”, “In My Feelings”,...
Grammys 2021: Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B Perform “WAP” Live for First Time
The 2021 Grammys were one of the smoothest award ceremonies in recent memories, and the proceedings never felt more well-lubricated than when Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion performed their smash hit “WAP” live for the first time. That climactic moment didn’t come without foreplay. The song was preceded by a medley of other songs, beginning with Megan, the newly minted Best New Artist, who turned up the heat with the Good News track “Body”. Dressed in Las Vegas showgirl glamour, she segued into “Savage”, which would go on to win the award for Best Rap Performance only a few minutes later. While Beyoncé herself didn’t join the stage, her voice was heard through the speakers, and Megan used that moment to bust into a dance break. From there, the focus shifted to another side o...
AI Robot Rapper FN Meka Releases New Single “Speed Demon”
From Bot Dylan to digital film curators, there’s a whole wide world of AI robots out there slowly encroaching on human skills, and FN Meka is the latest to join the bunch. The bot, who’s credited as being the world’s first AI-powered robot rapper, just released a new single called “Speed Demon” that’s already making waves on TikTok. According to a press release, FN Meka is powered by Vydia, a distributor that provides a platform for his label, “which lives in a dimension somewhere between the human world and the virtual world, empowering not only these unique creators, but the teams behind them.” Together, they’ve released a handful of singles like “Moonwalkin” and “Internet” in addition to this new track. What’s a robot rapper sound like exactly? Well, “Speed Demon” isn’t all that inventi...
Song of the Week: Lucy Dacus Delivers a Wrenching Ballad with “Thumbs”
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, Lucy Dacus delivered a wrenching ballad that left all of us speechless. Some songs end and sit in the pit of your stomach for the rest of the day, so visceral and affecting that they can’t be shaken. Lucy Dacus’ raw, devastating new release, “Thumbs”, is such a song, offering a gothic revenge fantasy that lingers long after the four and a half minutes have passed. Extremely minimal in production, “Thumbs” is also nearly formless, unfolding more like a whispered secret, twilight confession, or piece of local mythos than traditional...
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...
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....
