Pusha T delivering a single for the Cocaine Bear soundtrack, a perfect match.
Cocaine Bear is headed to the theaters this weekend and for the film’s release, Pusha T has dropped bars on Melle Mel’s 1983 “White Lines (Don’t Do It)” for a new remix.
In case you don’t know what Cocaine Bear is, it’s the story of bricks of coke being tossed out a plane in a drug drop, but it was intersected by a wild black bear in the forest who gets extremely high and goes on a rampage. And get this, the film gets its inspiration from real-life events. In real life, the bear died, sadly. But Hollywood will make anything happen.
You can hear Pusha T making the Dope Boys go crazy, and see the original trailer below.
Drill rapper Kay Flock is facing racketeering conspiracy charges. In a release from the United States Justice Department, Flock and seven additional people have been accused of running the “Sev Side” and “Third Side” Bronx gangs. The unit is stated to have executed a run of violent crimes, including attempted murder.
Prosecutors state the gangs ran rampant across the Belmont neighborhoods engaging in shootouts and then celebrating their acts in music and on social media.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Over a span of several years, the members of these gangs allegedly terrorized neighborhoods in the Bronx and Manhattan by killing and shooting other people. Through these charges, we will hold Sev Side and Third Side members responsible for plaguing our communities with gun violence.”
NYPD Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell said: “The deadly nexus of gangs and illegal guns in New York City is a grave threat to public safety in our city. Combatting this crisis is the NYPD’s top priority, and today’s indictments are another step toward ridding our streets of violence and fear. I want to thank the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and everyone else involved with this case who worked to make our city safer for all the people we serve.”
Kay Flock was already in state custody for the alleged murder of Hwascar Hernandez, who was killed outside a Harlem barbershop in 2021. He will now be transferred to federal custody with this indictment.
One of the “Central Park Five” is running for City Council.
Yusef Salaam is one of the “Exonerated Five,” as they are now known, the teenagers who were wrongly convicted of raping a woman in Central Park in 1989. After fighting for his freedom, the Harlem native is ready to fight for his hometown.
Their convictions were overturned in 2002 and in December saw their name etched in stone on a gate to the park.
Salaam, who spent seven years behind bars, is running in Council District 9, representing the heart of Harlem, where he grew up.
“We are here now to chart a new path forward,” he said during a speech at the old Harlem YMCA on 135th Street.
Decades before he became president, Donald Trump took out a full-page ad calling for the Central Park Five to face the death penalty, which Salaam referenced in his announcement.
“In a country that’s supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, they saw the color of our skin and said ‘Guilty, guilty, guilty,’” he said. “It would have been OK if Donald Trump had taken out a full-page ad when we were found to be innocent.”
In 2002, a judge vacated the convictions of Salaam and the four other members of the Central Park Five after the Manhattan district attorney’s office filed a motion with a new theory of the case — and a different suspect. Prosecutors said that after conducting a new investigation, they no longer believed that Salaam and the others had committed the crime.
Since then, Salaam has written a memoir, become a motivational speaker and has advocated for criminal justice reform. His case has also been documented in books, a documentary and a Netflix miniseries.
Salaam is challenging Harlem Councilmember Kristin Richardson Jordan for her seat. The incumbent councilmember did not immediately respond to requests for comment. But after Salaam first shared that he was considering a run last fall, Richardson Jordan said in a statement to the news site Patch: “I think we have enough millionaires in office already. That is part of the problem.”
After teasing the release, Lil Wayne dropped his new single “Kant Nobody.” The single has a sample of DMX’s voice and is produced by Swizz Beatz. The single is the intro to Tha Carter 6.
Wayne spoke with Zane Lowe for Apple Music 1 and highlighted what Tha Carter 6 means to him.
I never even imagined,” Wayne said. “That didn’t even sound right years ago. I can’t believe we’re at Carter VI. My fans know I give my all. Go listen to my last feature and know it’s gonna be a thousand times better than that.”
Conway the Machine is set to drop two new albums in March. The Buffalo rapper has announced a collaborative album with rising Drumwork signee Jae Skeese, Pain Provided Profit, dropping on March 10, and his new solo album, Won’t He Do It, on March 31.
With the new album on the way, Conway has dropped the first single, “Super Bowl” featuring Sauce Walka and Juicy J.
“Super Bowl” is just one of them ONES! Big rings, big ice on, big money, celebrating BIG WINS. In life, you gotta be proud of yourself for all of your hard work paying off. A win is a blessing, and you always gotta count your blessings” Conway says of the single. “Shout out to my brother Juicy J, he sent me this hard ass beat, and I did a verse to it immediately. Then I’m like nah, what would REALLY be crazy is my bro Sauce Walka on it too! Sent it to bro, he smoked it, then I sent it to Juice Mane and he smoked it, and here you have it!”
Rihanna finally came out of hiatus after seven years with her Super Bowl LVII performance. Now the billionaire singer will be returning to the stage to burn down the 95th Academy Awards.
Variety reports the superstar singer will perform her Oscar-nominated song “Lift Me Up” from the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack when the 2023 ceremony goes down live on ABC on March 12.
The song, with music by Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Goransson and lyrics by Tems and Ryan Coogler, stands as her first Oscar nomination with a nod for Best Original Song.
Rih will make history with the performance, becoming the first Black woman to perform at the Oscars while pregnant. Catherine Zeta-Jones is the only other person to do so – being eight months pregnant when she performed “I Move On” from “Chicago” at the 2003 Oscars with Queen Latifah. Will you be watching?
Mount Westmore, the quartet of Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, E-40, and Too $hort, have dropped a new video for their single “MOTTO.”
The catchy Rick Rock Beats-produced music immediately hypnotizes the listener with its undeniable groove, which has you automatically bobbing your head while saying the infectious hook, AYYEE I ain’t trippin’… and before you know it, this song has become your “MOTTO.”
When you’re Lil Wayne, living average is simply not an option. In fact, the Young Money CEO recently went on record stating he hasn’t had fast food for the past two decades. A baffling fact, given the amount the superstar tours and performs across the country!
Recently, the 40-year-old did an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple 1, stating that he has avoided fast food for the past 20 years. If that’s not enough, he also hasn’t worked out in that time period either!
The convo sparked with Wayne reminiscing on moving to Miami at 19 years old. With his mom being a chef, she nudged him to hire one for himself. In fact, he tells Zane Low that he couldn’t even identify the smell of McDonald’s food if it was right in front of him. Fast food is simply not in his lifestyle; of course, mama knows best!
Good genes are also a factor here, with Wayne admitting he doesn’t ever hit the gym or workout. He even comments how Jim Jones is one of the only “gyms” he’s aware of.
On the music tip, Wayne is excited as ever to unveil his newest record titled “Kant Stop,” featuring Swizz Beatz and the late, great DMX. This serves as the first single off his highly-anticipated, forthcoming album Carter VI. Wayne also plans to give his fans a nationwide tour to promote the music.
Legendary MC, Ice-T recently revealed that the icon Jay-Z approached him at the 2023 Grammy Awards and questioned him about some internet beef over his song “99 Problems.”
Arguably one of Jay’s biggest hits, at the top 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 and going double platinum—the track’s iconic hook (“I got 99 problems, but a bitch ain’t one”) was actually borrowed from Ice-T’s 1993 original of the same name.
The correlation between the two songs came back into focus last November when a video of the gangsta rap pioneer expressing his grief at JAY-Z apparently never acknowledging the source material resurfaced.
“I’m at the Grammys and JAY-Z comes to me. He says, ‘Ice, you know I love you, right?’” Ice-T said during a visit to Big Boy’s Neighborhood. “I say, ‘Yeah!’ He says, ‘Well, it’s on the internet that you mad.’ I said, ‘I’m not mad! They’re bringing up all kinds of interviews about it and they asked me the story, and I told them the true story.’
“He goes, ‘Yeah man, but it’s no hard feelings.’ And he started talking about how me and him — ’cause I met JAY-Z way back in the day. Big Daddy Kane brought JAY-Z to my house back in the day when he was starting out. I used to take Jay around, roll my car, him and Dame Dash, so we’re friends.”
He added: “But I said, ‘Yo, well, you know, when you did ’99 Problems,’ at the end of the record you could’ve said, ‘Ice!’ You could’ve given me a little dap or something!’ I said, ‘But I’m not mad at it. What had happened was people wanted to know the story.’”
Ice-T then proceeded to tell the story behind “99 Problems,” explaining how 2 Live Crew’s Brother Marquis — who appears on his 1993 track — coined the phrase, before Chris Rock suggested JAY-Z remake the song more than a decade later.
“I’m in my house with Brother Marquis, I’m at my studio,” he began. “We were talking about ‘Whoomp! (There It Is).’ Now, ‘Whoomp! (There It Is)’ comes from Magic City. The Tag Team were the DJs at Magic City, and when the girls would bend over, they’d say, ‘Whoomp, there it is!’
“So Marquis says to me, ‘N-gga, I’m sitting there all them nights in Magic City, that was the phrase that pays!’ Then outta nowhere, he goes, ‘Man, I got 99 problems and a bitch ain’t one.’ I said, ‘What did you just say?’ I said, ‘That’s a song!’”
He continued: “Now, as the legend goes, Rick Rubin and Jay were getting ready to make a record and Chris Rock was around, and they said, ‘What record should we remake?’ And Chris Rock brought up ’99 Problems.’ JAY-Z remade the song, he changed the verses, but he even took the ‘hit me!’ So he did it. No harm, no foul.”
“It was a publishing deal. At that time, my publishing was owned, I think, by Warner Chappell or Universal. It paid, I had a deal and that was it,” he said. “I didn’t come out saying, ‘Oh, JAY-Z went after’ — this, that. But now we’re in the social media era and they’re like, ‘Let’s see what we can turn into a beef.’ I got no problems with JAY-Z … Jay didn’t steal it.
“If you listen to The Seventh Deadly Sin, JAY-Z does an intro for me. He’s on there talking, ‘Yo, Ice. What’s up, yo?’ I have no beef with JAY-Z whatsoever, it’s just how it happened … I love JAY-Z. JAY-Z is a very supernatural human being.” Watch the interview below.
