Pop Smoke’s 2020 passing continues to be one of the most tragic and talked about deaths in hip-hop. He was fatally shot at the age of 2020 during a home invasion, which reportedly involved several individuals. Corey Walker, the only adult defendant, is currently awaiting trial. Another defendant who goes by Blockstar, and who was 15 at the time of the shooting, was released in June of this year.
He’s since gone on to make various shocking comments, particularly during his interview with No Jumper. Blockstar admitted that he’s “not sorry about nothing,” said he thinks he got off lightly, and more. Regardless, he appears to be doing okay amid his newfound freedom. In a new clip shared by Akademiks TV on X, he’s seen hanging out in the studio with various LA artists.
Reportedly, these artists included FRosTydaSnowMann, Peysoh, and more. While social media users aren’t exactly surprised, they’re outraged nonetheless. The news arrives just a couple of months after Pop Smoke would have celebrated his 25th birthday. It also follows his mother Audrey Jackson’s interview with Tap In With TT, during which she weighed in on Blockstar’s disrespectful comments about her son and his death. According to her, it’s still hurtful to hear him discuss the murder the way he does. She refuses to let it get to her too much, however, as it’ll “eat [her] up” if she does.
“The bottom line is, your life is over,” she said of Blockstar at the time. “He’s living, but if that’s his approach to what he’s done, life is done for him.” What do you think of one of Pop Smoke’s alleged killers being welcomed by LA rappers? Are you surprised by this or not? Share your thoughts in the comments section down below and keep an eye on HNHH for more updates.
Conway the Machine and Ransom were getting some fans hopeful over this past weekend. Two of New York’s underground greats, along with producer V Don and Lloyd Banks, dropped a posse cut, “Higher Killer”. The single is dark and intense, and of course features great rapping from all three MCs. During its release, neither artist involved mentioned anything about it being a lead off track. However, if you were checking out the Genius page for it, it was saying that “Higher Killer” was off a project.
It was listed under Chaos Is My Ladder Too, a collab tape between Ransom, Conway, and V Don. Fans were wondering if this was actually the start to a project roll out last Friday. Now, those suspicions are confirmed, according to HipHopDX. Ransom shared a joint Instagram post with the Griselda affiliate on the main feed with a revealing caption and image. The official cover consists of intimidating black and white portraits of the two rappers.
It’s easily one of the coldest covers of the year. But Ransom wasn’t done spilling details. According to the caption, fans don’t have to wait hardly any longer for Chaos Is My Ladder Too. “Chaos Is My Ladder with @whoisconway The MACHINE & @vdonsoundz the Dark WIZARD FRIDAY!!!!”. To be clear that is this week, September 6. Everyone, including us, is clearly ready for this to happen as evidenced by all of the “” in the comments section.
What are your thoughts on Ransom and Conway the Machine dropping a project together? Is this going to be one of the best underground hip-hop records of the year? Have you been messing with the lead single, “Higher Killer”? We would like to hear what you have to say, so leave your thoughts in the comments. Additionally, always keep it locked in with HNHH for all of the latest news surrounding Ransom and Conway the Machine. Finally, stay with us for everything else going on in the music world.
In February, Megan Thee Stallion took shots at Nicki Minaj on “HISS” — and earned her first Hot 100 No. 1 in the process. The record prompted the New York rapper to respond with “Big Foot.” Aside from a few subliminal shots, the two have mostly let the beef rest where it stands.
Jamie Foxx has announced that he’ll be diving into more details about his ‘serious health scare’ during a string of stand-up shows in Atlanta in October.
The release of Doechii’s debut mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal has cemented the ascent of a brand-new rap superstar. Unfortunately, it also resurrected a tired, misogynistic conversation among rap fans – one that seems to resurface every time a new woman in rap asserts herself with a lyrics-forward project or a virtuoso demonstration of wordplay.
Ironically, it’s often the most enthusiastic fans of the new kid on the block who resuscitate the decrepit discourse that pits women in rap against one another. In their rush to praise an exciting young talent, they often end up downplaying the past accomplishments of dozens of artists in the sisterhood of hip-hop and denigrating the efforts of their newfound faves’ contemporaries and peers.
But don’t get it twisted; women have always been rapping — and if you think otherwise, you haven’t been listening.
Alligator Bites Never Heal rightly has fans uplifting Doechii’s rap skills. All across social media over the weekend, rap fans have extolled the Florida rapper’s delivery and gift for wordplay. Songs like “Bullfrog,” “Boiled Peanuts,” and “Denial Is A River,” have fans proclaiming that Doechii’s project isn’t just a stellar debut worthy of Doechii’s label, but is also one of, if not the best rap projects of the year.
However, as they’ve become more profuse with their praise for Doechii, some have become dismissive of her contemporaries. In one example, a fan wrote, “It’s time we celebrate the females in hip-hop who actually can RAP RAP and not the others.” Another wrote, “Doechii is an example of what REAL female hip hop should sound like.”
What these posters and others are really saying is evident in what they’re NOT saying. What “female hip-hop” should be, to coin a popular phrase, is demure, buttoned up, chaste — the opposite of the “others” who “can’t” RAP RAP. By the way, what a horrid way to segregate women and suggest that such classification is also somehow inferior to “default” hip-hop, which, per this phrasing, means “men.”
It’s no secret that the success of sex-positive rappers — like GloRilla, Latto, Megan Thee Stallion, or Sexyy Red (all of whom have released projects this year) — bothers lots of men. These women don’t submit to social standards based on men’s preferences; they encourage women to get their own or turn the tables on men seeking transactional relationships. They turn the male gaze against itself. “If you want some of this,” they say, “You’re going to pay for it.”
Here’s the thing, though. It’s not just them. Rappers like Lola Brooke, Rapsody, and Tierra Whack have also released projects this year preaching self-determination. Please Don’t Cry, Rapsody’s fourth album, foregrounded the North Carolina rapper’s learnings from therapy; Tierra Whack’s World Wide Whack addressed the survivor’s guilt of fame. They all embraced wordplay and delivery and breath control and performance — as did projects from Baby Tate, Flo Milli, and more.
Criticizing rappers like Glo, Latto, and Meg for “sexy” content, only to ignore the “thoughtful” releases from Brooke, Rap, and Whack proves that it’s not about the “right” kind of hip-hop for those fans who do so — it’s about putting women down. It’s about proving them inferior to male rappers — all of whom rap about the same stuff, just from a male perspective — by moving the goalposts.
The sad part is that women have been dealing with this since hip-hop’s inception. MC Lyte — who has a new album coming out this month, by the way — was criticized for being too masculine, but contemporary group Salt N’ Pepa were equally criticized for sexual content. Lil Kim and Foxy Brown were derided for raunchy raps, but Missy Elliott was demeaned for not conforming to beauty standards. Eve, Da Brat, and Trina all fell somewhere along the spectrum, earning attention and album sales for their skills, only to be forgotten anytime the opportunity arose to frame women in rap as one of two dichotomous “types” that were both somehow unappealing.
Those who complain about the “style” of the Cardi Bs and Meg Thee Stallions against the “substance” of Rapsody and Doechii, ironically spend way too much time focusing on the style and overlooking the substance of all of them. These women don’t fit neatly into boxes; Rapsody and Doechii both rap extensively about sex and Doechii’s worn her fair share of risqué fits — including nothing at all in one music video.
Meanwhile, songs like Latto’s “S/O To Me” or Meg’s “Hiss” prove the versatility of women who lead with their looks. While it’s great that so many people are catching onto the talent displayed by Doechii, that talent isn’t as isolated or singular as some have made it out to be. There are plenty of women rapping with plenty to say, and a wide array of ways to say it. There always have been, and there’s more than enough credit to go around.
During his recent appearance on Million Dollaz Worth of Game with Gillie Da Kid and Wallo, 50 Cent opened up about his decision not to sign Desiigner to G-Unit. He recalled meeting with the “Panda” rapper amid the success of his breakout hit. Sadly, he was disappointed after asking about what else he had in the vault. “The n***a came to me, what’s the n***a’s name? He sounded like Future. Panda, panda, panda,” he explained. “I met with him before he did the deal with Kanye and them.”
“I had him at the office, I was like, ‘Yo, let me hear the other records you got.’ And he’s like… ‘That’s it,’” 50 Cent also added. “And the sh*t was so hot that he had, I was struggling. But I was like, ‘Nah, I can’t give that n***a that money. Let them give him whatever the f*ck they gonna give him.’”
Desiigner caught wind of Fif’s comments and decided to fire back with a diss track, which he recorded from his car and posted on Instagram. “Response back to 50 Cent,” he wrote alongside the clip. “POV: Another HIT.” On the track, Desiigner brags about getting signed by Kanye West, claiming that’s what he would have preferred. “N****s talking that 50 Cent, I be talking 50 mil,” he spits. “I got signed to Kanye, lil n***a, you was never worth a deal.”
Obviously, Desiigner didn’t appreciate 50 Cent’s shady remarks. Fif has yet to respond to the diss for now, but social media predict that he’ll have plenty to say about it. What do you think of 50 Cent claiming he didn’t sign Desiigner because he didn’t have more than one hit? What about Desiigner firing back with a new diss track? Share your thoughts in the comments section down below and keep an eye on HNHH for more updates.
Megan Thee Stallion is always finding herself in the middle of some sort of controversy. Whether it been the Kamala Harris rally or the Tory Lanez incident, trouble always seems to track to her down. The former was one of the topics at hand during her recent chat with Billboard in July. That feature is out now, according to Uproxx, and during the interview, Megan Thee Stallion spoke on the persistent beef with Nicki Minaj. However, it seems that their differences are pretty one-sided, at least in the eyes of the “Cobra” songwriter.
Leading up to the question with her foe’s name in it, the questioner believed that she had a lot to do with kickstarting the competitive nature in hip-hop this year. The H-Town Hottie did admit that she thinks she did start it off. However, she also feels that she just had to clap back at Nicki when “HISS” came out in late January. “I would like to think that I start things. I don’t know; I just knew what I had to do and what I had to say”, Megan explained.
But when it came down to giving a conclusive answer as to why/when her and the NY legend began to have differences, she simply couldn’t do it. “I still to this day don’t know what the problem is. I don’t even know what could be reconciled because I, to this day, don’t know what the problem is”, Megan stated frankly. Based on her answers, it seems like she would open to burying the hatchet with Minaj. However, in that same breath, it sort of sounds like the “FTCU” MC needs to be the one to start off the conversation.
What are your thoughts on Megan Thee Stallion claiming to not know why Nicki Minaj doesn’t like her? Do you think she’s being truthful, why or why not? Who do you think started this ongoing feud? We would like to hear what you have to say, so leave your thoughts in the comments. Additionally, always keep it locked in with HNHH for all of the latest news surrounding Megan Thee Stallion and Nicki Minaj. Finally, stay with us for everything else going on in the music world.
Clipse have confirmed that their long-awaited reunion album, Let God Sort Em Out, is dropping at some point this year. Pusha T and No Malice revealed the information, as well as some other details about the project, during an interview with Rolling Stone’s Andre Gee published on Wednesday. For the piece, the two rappers played Gee the Pharrell-produced project in the studio.
Rolling Stone makes several revelations about it throughout. For starters, they reference a Nas feature that Push spent years trying to land. That information comes after he teased a mystery feature during a recent appearance on the Ghetto Runways podcast. Additionally, the album will include a noteworthy sample throughout. “The whole album is laced with a tag of a woman saying, ‘this is culturally inappropriate’; they tell me it was originally going to be a watermark for advances, but they liked it so much they kept it,” Gee wrote.
Pusha T & No Malice Attend Louis Vuitton’s Paris Fashion Week Show
PARIS, FRANCE – JUNE 18: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY – For Non-Editorial use please seek approval from Fashion House) No Malice and Pusha T of Clipse attend the Louis Vuitton Menswear Spring/Summer 2025 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on June 18, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Julien M. Hekimian/Getty Images)
Clipse premiered the first song from the project, “Birds Don’t Sing,” earlier this year. On it, Push addresses their mother, rapping: “I loved you met Nige’, hate that he won’t remember you,” while Malice turns the attention to their father: “I can hear your voice now, I can feel your presence/Askin’ ‘Should I rap again?,’ you gave me your blessing.” Speaking with Rolling Stone, Push reflected on how they lost both of their parents within three months of each other. “It’s been tough,” he said. “You never really get used to it. The only soothing feeling that I get out of it is knowing how good of a place we all were in — my mom, my dad, myself. But that’s about it.”
The song played during Louis Vuitton’s Paris Fashion Week show in June. Be on the lookout for further updates on Pusha T and No Malice on HotNewHipHop.
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