Month: September 2021

Ice Cube’s BIG3 basketball league was at the Atlantis Paradise Island resort in Nassau, Bahamas this past weekend as the league got to host its first-ever international championship weekend. The players and the fans got to be surrounded by gorgeous views and overall, it was the best possible location to host such a monumental event.

Today, the championship game officially went down with Gary Payton’s 3 Headed Monsters taking on Stephen Jackson’s Trilogy. Heading into this game, everyone knew this would be a matchup between Kevin Murphy of the 3 Headed Monsters, and Jarrett Jack of the Trilogy. In the end, it did not disappoint as both teams took the game down to the wire. The 3 Headed Monsters had a 26-13 lead which eventually led to a halftime performance from Ice Cube. From there, the Trilogy gained all of the momentum and took a late lead at 47-45. In order to reach the 50-point threshold, the Trilogy just needed one three-pointer, and Jarrett Jack got it.

Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images

“I thought I had a couple of clean looks prior to the ultimate winning basket and they just didn’t go down,” Jack told HotNewHipHop after the game. “I just tried to stay confident and they actually fouled me on the one that I made but luckily for me it went in and now we’re sitting here champagne showered up.”

This was a particularly bitter sweet moment for coach Jackson as he lost in the BIG3 Final back in 2019. Now, Jackson can finally call himself a BIG3 champ, and it is something he will never forget. It helps that he got to do it all with a group of guys that he refers to as part of his family.

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“It feels good in my first year coaching just to get a championship,” he explained. “I wanted to be able to say that I’ve won the championship on every level. It’s real sweet with these guys. These are my brothers and I knew I could rely on them to get the job done. I’m just blessed to be in this position with a great group of guys”

Now, each and everyone of these players will be able to go out and enjoy their win as they still have a couple of days left out on the beach. Paradise Island has produced some magical basketball, and there is no doubt that the BIG3 put on a show for the fans.

A witness named Alexis, now 31, testified at R. Kelly’s trial that when she was 15, the disgraced singer once made her walk another underage girl around in a leash and collar. Kelly is currently on trial for sexually exploiting several women, young girls, and two males.

When asked by the prosecutor, “Do you want to be here today?” she candidly responded, “No.”

“I walked a girl around on a leash,” the witness explained during her testimony. “I put the collar on her and she was on her hands and knees and I was walking her.”

Pool / Getty Images

She also recalled meeting Kelly for the first time at his concert in Jacksonville, Florida, in 2006. She was still just 15 at the time.

When Alexis informed Kelly of her age, he was allegedly unfazed.

“There’s nothing wrong with platonic friendship and if it turns into something over time then so be it,” he told her.

Kelly had her sign a non-disclosure agreement and would fly her around the country. Later she would agree to have threesomes with another woman with Kelly, although she says she could not remember if they first had sex after or before she turned 18.

Kelly’s defense team declined to cross-examine the witness.

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Kid Cudi says that he’s happy his past beef with Drake has been put to an end, as Kanye West has been engaged in a public feud with the Toronto rapper throughout the rollout for his recent album Donda.

“Happy that the Cudi Drake beef is over,” one fan tweeted at Cudi, Friday

He responded with a simple, “Me too.”

Michael Hickey / Getty Images

Despite Cudi appearing on Drake’s new album, Certified Lover Boy, things were not always so pleasant between the two rappers. On Drake’s 2017 project, More Life, many fans thought he crossed the line with his Cudi diss track, “Two Birds One Stone.”

“You were the Man on the Moon, now you go through your phases / Life of the angry and famous,” Drake rapped, referencing Cudi’s struggles with mental health.

Cudi also confirmed that he is still working on a collaborative project with Travis Scott, on Twitter Friday. 

“Is The Scott’s album still in the works?” a separate fan asked the rapper.

“It’ll happen. Not sure when, but it will,” he responded.

He also quickly teased his own upcoming solo project.

“Workin on it,” he confirmed in response to a fan who asked for a new Cudi album.

Paper Route Empire’s crown prince has a few thoughts about today’s state of Rap as Key Glock took to social media to let off a simple thought.

“Rap game watered down,” he penned in a post to his Instagram Stories.

While seemingly unprompted, the statement naturally sparked a slew of responses, wading in a mix of concurrence to those that directly paint Glock as a part of the problem. While it’s easy to agree with his statement, painting him as a culprit is certainly subjective.

While weaved into the mainframe of southern Hip-Hop’s current rising class, Glock’s unique position with Young Dolph’s Paper Route imprint certainly places him at the advantage of moving along at his own pace as opposed to other contemporaries throughout his native Memphis and neighboring Atlanta.

This year, Glock and Dolph linked up to deliver on Dum and Dummer 2, marking Glock’s sole release of the year, however, he has since teased the arrival of another outing.

“9/?/21,” he cryptically tweeted at the tail end of August. As a solo artist, Glock hasn’t offered any full-length projects since last year’s Yellow Tape project. No word yet on just what he’s cooking up next.

While we await what he’s stored up, sound off with your thoughts down below. Is the rap game watered down?

Many of the biggest celebrities in Hollywood shared tributes honoring Beyoncé on her 40th birthday, Saturday. Among the posts, was a star-stubbed tribute video shared by Harper’s Bazaar that featured Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Kerry Washington, and more wishing the legendary singer a happy birthday.

“You are such a gift to this world,” Washington said of Beyoncé in the video. “Thank you for being an inspiration to me, to my kids, to brown skin girls all over the world, to non-brown skin girls all over the world.”

Mike Coppola / Getty Images

Taylor Swift praised her for paving “the road that every female artist is walking down now.”

“Then the fact that you’ve done so with such kindness and such grace, I just to say I admire you as like there’s just not a word for it,” Swift added.

In her own post on Instagram, Knowles, Beyoncé’s mother, shared a lengthy tribute for her daughter.

“Today I look at you and see true Happiness !! With an amazing man that loves you and children that adore you !!! Nothing or no one can mess with that kind of love and happiness! I Just want the world to know !!!” she said in the post.

Check out more tributes below.

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A post shared by Harper’s BAZAAR (@harpersbazaarus)

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Wizkid and Tems’ “Essence” track has certainly bubbled to the surface as one of the summer’s most memorable tracks. Now, following a boost from a Justin Bieber-assisted remix, the cut dominates the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart with a No. 1 position, marking a significant milestone for both artists and the Afrobeat genre as a whole.

It marks Wizkid’s first No. 1 as a lead artist following similar success with his presence on Drake’s “One Dance,” which topped the chart in 2016. As for Tems, it is the 26-year-old songstress’ first appearance on the chart. 

Per MRC data, it is the first time artist has hit No. 1 on the chart without having any prior Top 5 tracks since DaBaby’s “Suge” nabbed it in 2019.

“Essence” first arrived almost a year ago on Wizkid’s Made In Lagos album. It was one of a handful of R&B-centric cuts that could have equated to similar success for Wiz. Among them were the H.E.R.-assisted “Smile” and the Ella Mai-assisted “Piece Of Me.” Months later, as the quarantine began to scale back, “‘Essence’ pushed through as the soundtrack of choice post-lockdown.

 “[‘Essence’] has become emblematic of being back outside,” former RCA Executive VP A&R Tunji Balogun told Billboard. “Then, a narrative on the internet started about the song being the song of the summer — and we took that energy and ran with it.” 

Andre 3000 says that he wrote and recorded his verse for “Life of the Party,” a few weeks ago, but it was scrapped from the album because he didn’t know Kanye West’s Donda was going to be a clean project. The legendary Outkast rapper discussed the backstory to the newly leaked track in a statement, Saturday.

“A few weeks ago Kanye reached out about me being a part of the Donda album,” Andre begins the statement. “I was inspired by his idea to make a musical tribute to his mom. It felt appropriate to me to support the Donda concept by referencing my own mother, who passed away in 2013. We both share that loss. I thought it was a beautiful choice to make a clean album but, unfortunately, I didn’t know that was the plan before I wrote and recorded my verse. It was clear to me that an edited ‘clean’ format of the verse would not work without having the raw, original also available. So, sadly, I had to be omitted from the original album release.”

Tommaso Boddi / Getty Images

He goes on to explain that he’s a big fan of both West and Drake: “The track I received and wrote to didn’t have the diss verse on it and we were hoping to make a more focused offering for the Donda album but I guess things happen like they are supposed to. It’s unfortunate that it was released in this way and two artists that I love are going back and forth. I wanted to be on Certified Lover Boy too. I just want to work with people that inspire me. Hopefully I can work with Kendrick on his album. I’d love to work with Lil’ Baby, Tyler and Jay-Z. I respect them all.”

The track was leaked by Drake on SiriusXM’s Sound 42, Saturday morning, amidst an ongoing feud with Kanye West. Following Andre’s verse, West disses Drake on the song.

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