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LaMarcus Aldridge and the San Antonio Spurs have had a lengthy relationship with one another although with Aldridge getting up there in age, it’s clear that things have deteriorated a bit. The star is now 35 years old and over the past few months, it seemed inevitable that the two sides would be going their separate ways. On Wednesday, those rumors were confirmed as Gregg Popovich revealed that Aldridge and the team would be moving on from one another.

Popovich was quick to point out that Aldridge has been the ultimate professional throughout this entire process and that there are no hard feelings whatsoever. This was strictly a basketball decision for both sides, and moving forward, the Spurs are looking for a way to get Aldridge on a new team.

“He’s been a great teammate. No problem there,” Popovich said. “We just think this is a win-win for both LaMarcus and the club. When an opportunity arises, that’ll be up to management, his agent and that sort of thing, and we’ll all move forward. We’ve mutually agreed for him to work on some opportunities elsewhere. He’s done everything we’ve asked. At this point, we’d just like to do something that will work for him as much for our club, because he deserves that.”

It’s always good to see a player and the organization get along during these hard times, and by the looks of it, Aldridge will have no issues finding a new team to take him in.

Stay tuned for updates related to Aldridge, as we will be sure to keep you informed.

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We have long heard about 50 Cent’s exciting new series Black Mafia Family, which will center on the true story of two brothers, Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory and Terry “Southwest T” Flenory, and their major drug-trafficking operation. The series is currently in production in Detroit and Atlanta, where the already-announced castmembers have been teasing the show’s premiere. A new batch of stars has just been announced for the series, which will help to amplify the hype even more.

According to Complex, Snoop Dogg, La La Anthony, and Serayah have all been cast in the upcoming series. The new additions were announced on Thursday, with their roles being detailed. Snoop Dogg will reportedly be playing the recurring role of Pastor Swift, a spiritual advisor for the Flenory family. La La has signed on as a recurring guest star, appearing as Markaisha Taylor, the wife of a drug dealer who is friends with Big Meech. Serayah was cast as Meech’s girlfriend.

The original cast announcement included Big Meech’s son Demetrius “Lil Meech” Flenory Jr., Kash Doll, Russell Hornsby, and more. 50 Cent has been teasing the show for years, dropping hints that it could even end up surpassing the Power franchise, which has a handful of spin-offs in production.

With the additions of Snoop Dogg, La La Anthony, and Serayah, will you be watching when Black Mafia Family goes live?

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With the rise of TikTok as the latest social media platform to take over and command our attention, there have been a few viral videos of people making their grandparents rate rappers by their looks. The formula is seemingly foolproof, especially if you’ve got a grandmother that’s as expressive as the woman going viral right now for her reactions to DaBaby, Snoop Dogg, and plenty of other rappers.

Judging a group of rappers solely by their looks and without their musical prowess in mind, one woman’s grandmother shared her truth as she seemingly trashed everybody that came into the picture… except for Uncle Snoop. The video, in which the grandmother rates Rod Wave a 1/10, Lil Durk a 0/10, and Lil Baby a 5/10 for his dimples, has been picking up in views, with DaBaby and Snoop chiming in with their own reactions to it.

“Granny Rated,” boasted Snoop, reposting the video after receiving a 15/10 on her test. Snoop was the only rapper that the woman lit up for. DaBaby was the first to receive the underwhelming score of 1/10, which prompted him to respond in the comments. “Damn gma,” he wrote. “Yeen got no love for baby?”

Watch the funny video up top. Last year, a similar video went viral as a different woman lusted over Dave East, A$AP Rocky, Chris Brown, and others. Read about that here.

NFT’s, also known as non-fungible tokens, have been all the rage in the music industry as of late, with artists such as Azealia Banks, Tory Lanez, Grimes, and Post Malone all banking in on the cryptocurrency craze. However, one artist that was ahead of the NFT curve was the late MF Doom. The beloved artist sadly passed away on October 31, 2020, just one day following the close of his fall augmented reality NFT auction on Illust Space.

MF Doom’s Illust Space NFT auction made history as the first launch of an augmented reality NFT, and it remains as one of the Hip-Hop legend’s final collaborations. Now, in collaboration with Rhymesayers, MF DOOM’s wife Jasmine, and his estate, Illust Space is hosting a crypto auction in tandem with the platform’s unveiling of its marketplace, and the auction will feature a rare assortment of signed, limited edition, MF Doom augmented reality NFT’s.

Starting today, Thursday, March 11th, at 4:00 PM PST and continuing until Friday, March 12th, at 10:00 PM PST, MF Doom’s posthumous NFT auction is estimated to have a value of 10 to 50 ethereum, which roughly translates to $15,000 to$75,000. It is revealed that 10% of total proceeds from the sale will go back to MF DOOM’s estate in the form of royalties as well as individual donations from the current holders of the masks. 

Good luck to anyone hoping to score big in Illust Space’s Doom Legacy Auction later today, and of course, RIP MF Doom.

Though Dr. Dre has collaborated with damn near every legendary emcee in the rap game, he never ended up connecting with The Notorious B.I.G. At least, no actual music from the pair has ever surfaced; it should be noted that Rick Ross previously teased an unreleased collaboration between Dre and Biggie, telling Angie Martinez that curious parties should ask P Diddy about that particular vaulted cut. While many still cite the feud between the East and West Coast that transpired prior to Big’s death, all signs point to a mutual interest in collaboration between the Bad Boy rapper and the ex-Death Row producer. 

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In fact, Dr. Dre’s former protege Hittman, who played a pivotal role in the creation of the classic 2001 — read his own words on the process right here — recently shared an interesting tidbit about a posse cut that might have been. One that involved Dre, Biggie, and West Coast veteran King Tee, whose distinctive flow shares a similar bounce to the Brooklyn legend. In fact, Big is said to have held King Tee in high regard, having once praised the rapper as a primary influence.

“From what Mel-Man told me, Biggie was supposed to meet up with Dre at Creep Alley the following night about a possible collabo with him and King Tee,” reveals H.I.T.T.M.A.N, responding to a tweet from KXNG Crooked. “Can you imagine that?!” Interestingly enough, this revelation is in line with the one issued by Rick Ross, fueling speculation that Dre and Biggie were actively able to collaborate, though it’s highly unlikely we’ll ever hear the results.

Still, it’s nice to know that Dre, Biggie, and King Tee were able to rise above a coastal feud, and were they to have actually linked up, you’d have to bet that an absolute flow clinic would ensue. 

Check out H.I.T.T’s tweet on the topic below. 

Lil Durk can definitely get pretty emotional in his music. While a good chunk of his music details his movements in the streets, another portion of it is dedicated to his love for longtime girlfriend India Royale. Smurk also spends time connecting with his most introspective thoughts in the studio, which is the reason why so many people are confused by his latest message on social media.

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Recently seeing a lot of success with the release of his solo album The Voice, as well as the OTF compilation album Loyal Bros, Lil Durk has been attracting all kinds of mainstream attention in the last year. After spending nearly a decade buzzing on the underground, it’s about time that people finally take notice of Durkio’s talent. One of his main attributes is the fact that he can seemingly connect to fans’ emotions through his own storytelling. While he’s proven to be a big stepper in the streets, he often seems to be in touch with his feelings as well, but he’s apprently not too impressed when other rappers do the same.

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“Make raw music and stop crying like b*tches soft ass n***as,” wrote Smurk on Instagram Stories on Wednesday night. Many have pointed out their confusion, stating that Durk is also out here crying on his own songs. Others believe that he could be subliminally mentioning Quando Rondo, who released his new video for “Okay” on Wednesday, pointing out how he speaks about crying in the song. Others are mentioning Rod Wave in the comments, telling Durk that the Florida rapper has made an entire career off of crying in the booth.

Who do you think the message was geared towards?

Rolling Stone has recently published a fascinating piece on the presence of stream-manipulation, where third-party services artificially run numbers in order to boost an artist’s sales. The practice has become so frequent in the industry that it has been deemed the “black market for pay-for-play” by the Director of the International Confederation of Music Publishers Josh Phelan.

The piece centers around Digital Marketer Joshua Mack — whose services include an improvement in streaming numbers -, highlighting a conversation he held with Blueprint’s CEOs Gee Roberson and Jean Nelson, as well as head of digital strategy, Bryan Calhoun, and chief marketing officer Al Branch. The subject in question was a new G-Eazy single, though the piece does not mention which one (he recently dropped off the Chris Brown-assisted “Provide”). According to the audio recording Rolling Stone obtained, one member of G-Eazy’s team declared “I want this to be big,” before others inquired further about Mack’s methods.

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“We’re saving the album and running the numbers up across multiple devices, all premium,” he states, following a boast that his network can “generate 200 million streams a month,” which roughly translates into 133-thousand album-equivalent units. “We basically cracked the code, and understand how to manipulate the system and hit astronomical numbers,” explains Mack, speaking to the Blueprint team apparently considering his services. 

Despite Spotify’s efforts to combat the practice, with measures ensuring that songs utilizing stream-trolling will be penalized with potential removal from the service. Still, that in itself can end up causing problems for the artist, who isn’t necessarily involved in any of the behind-the-scenes practices. “It’s important for artists and managers to know that some promotional services use stream-manipulation methods without informing them, leaving artists to suffer the consequences.” 

Rolling Stone’s piece also quotes an anonymous A&R, who admits that his own label occasionally looks to these third-parties to illicitly fudge the numbers. “There are a few third-party companies out there running this for a lot of the major companies,” they reveal. “We use them too for some of our artists. We agree to a certain amount of money for a certain amount of streams, and we can spread that out among [our] artists. It’s like, we’re good; we just need performance-enhancing steroids to be a little bit better.”

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It should be noted that there is no indication that G-Eazy nor his team were aware that Blueprint ever spoke with Mack about the possibility of enlisting his services. In the recording, however, Mack can be heard promising a fifty-percent increase in album-equivalent units, promising that his services could change a projected twenty-thousand units into thirty-thousand. Such services are said to cost between $30,000 and $50,000. The publication also notes that there is no confirmation that Bluepoint ended up using Mack’s services.

The article itself, penned by journalist Elias Leight, is a fascinating read worth checking out. It’s no secret that stream-manipulation has been facing widening scrutiny, and many have watched the charts with a skeptical eye. Upon hearing how present services such as Mack’s truly are, one has to wonder how much smoke and mirrors are really going on. 

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