There’s nothing like showing love between artists with some well-crafted ink. Such was the case with Young Thug, who recently got a “Slaughter Gang” tattoo to show his strong bond and appreciation for rap colleague 21 Savage. Slaughter Gang is the name of 21’s sub-label and team under Epic Records, and the Atlanta rapper has cultivated an identity through his music and general aesthetic with that branding. A frequent collaborator with 21, Thug revealed his new arm tattoo on Instagram on Wednesday night.
The tattoo was done by artist Dee Cosey, who reposted the tattoo in its full form on his Instagram page, along with a close up of its details. Check out the tattoo below.
In response to Thug’s new tattoo, 21 posted it to his story with a simple “4L” caption, indicating his stamp of approval with a phrase he helped popularize that means “for life.” He has a song titled after the same phrase featuring fellow Atlanta rapper Young Nudy on his 2018 record i am > i was. Thug and 21 most recently collaborated on “Rich N**** Sh*t” off Savage Mode II, the 2020 sequel to his 2016 collaborative project with producer Metro Boomin that broke him into the hip-hop world as an up-and-coming artist out of Atlanta.
As far as Young Thug’s work goes, the last time the two collaborated on a Thug track was on “I’m Scared” with Doe Boy off his 2019 project So Much Fun, which was met with positive reception from fans and critics. Thug’s new era is in full swing after he appeared on NPR’s Tiny Desk last week to debut four new songs, which are presumed to be cuts off his forthcoming record Punk, due out on October 15th. Thug is generally not afraid to include multiple guest features on his records, so it is very much possible that we could be hearing 21 Savage on one of these new, punk-rock-influenced tracks.
What do you think of Young Thug’s new tattoo? Tell us your favorite 21 Savage x Young Thug collaboration in the comments below.
After winning the championship just a couple of weeks ago, Giannis has been spending a lot of time in his native Greece. Giannis has preached the importance of his home country on numerous occasions, and it would only make sense that he’s there to celebrate the biggest triumph of his career.
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In a tweet posted by the Milwaukee Bucks, Giannis could be seen surrounded by his brother’s Kostas and Thanasis on the beach, where fans were hanging out in the background. Of course, Kostas won a title with the Los Angeles Lakers last year, while Thanasis was on the Bucks during their title run. Among the three brothers was the Finals MVP trophy as well as the Larry O’Brien trophy. Needless to say, they have a family full of winners.
There is no telling whether or not any of these brothers will ever win another title. Regardless, they’ve accomplished so much and you can truly tell how much this experience means to all of them.
Today is, hopefully, the day that countless Kanye West fans have been looking forward to for well over a year: the day that DONDA finally releases. After inviting thousands of attendees to a listening event for his highly anticipated tenth studio album on Thursday, July 22, the entire music industry was caught completely off guard when the 22-time Grammy award winner failed to actually release it.
Since then, Ye has been living at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, and now, the Jesus Is King artist is welcoming fans and the industry’s brightest stars into his temporary home for the second DONDA listening event. Contrary to the last event, Kanye is now wearing an all-black Death Note-esque outfit, and in addition to the album listening later tonight, he is live-streaming his entire day via Apple Music.
So far, Yeezy’s live stream has been flooded with surprise guest appearances from artists such as Fivio Foreign, Chance the Rapper, and Vic Mensa, and now it appears that Atlanta-based artist Lil Yachty has linked up with Kanye in his tight Mercedes-Benz quarters as well. After making an iconic appearance during the Yeezy Season 3/Life of Pablo joint unveiling as well as pulling up to his Ye bonfire in 2018, Yachty has proven himself to be a true fan and supporter of Kanye West.
Today, the Michigan Boy Boat artist has shared a photo from the “Countdown To DONDA” live stream that shows him and Yeezy sitting side-by-side, both dressed in punk-inspired all-black outfits. Check out the grainy photos of Lil Yachty and Kanye West at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta below.
Radio veteran Funkmaster Flex turns 53 years old today, and wouldn’t have gotten here without the people by his side. He’d probably agree, as the Hot 97 host is always clocking in time with friends in the industry. From rappers to fellow hosts to whoever, honestly, Funkmaster has friends in high places. Here’s five shots […]
Logic is back — and we never even had a chance to miss him. Just a year removed from the declaration of his retirement, the Maryland rapper turned video game streamer (technically) bounced back last week with the release of his return mixtape, Bobby Tarantino III. Though technically, he did work out some of his itches to rhyme earlier this year with Planetory Destruction, the thinly-disguised, Kool Keith-like endeavor he dropped as Doctor Destruction, and the YS Collection Vol. 1, a collection of older songs cut from the Young Sinatra mixtape series that he was able to clear after a decade.
And look, we understand. When you have a long-lasting love for a thing that has been your whole life — literally, your job, your hobby, and your semi-living arrangement — for over a decade, it’s hard to let go. Logic is hardly the first rapper to have gone through separation anxiety upon realizing that retirement would upend his entire way of being. It was Jay-Z who first coined the bar, “Can’t leave rap alone, the game needs me,” nearly 20 years ago on “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” from his career-defining album The Blueprint. Yet, just two albums later, Jay had decided to gracefully bow out with The Black Album, only to return two years later with Kingdom Come.
Rappers, it seems, have a hard time committing to retirement in general. While they love to announce that they’re stepping away from the hustle of the rap game and hanging up their mics for good, they’re rarely able to stay on the wagon for very long. Here’s a short list of the rappers who have retired only to unretire shortly thereafter when they realized that while the game may not actually need them, they most certainly need the game.
The Game
The Compton rapper said he was done with the rap game with his 2019 album Born 2 Rap (a threat he’d already made once before), but it looks like he may have taken the title pretty literally. His manager Wack 100 recently told AllHipHop that Game’s been back in the studio working on a new album titled 30 For 30. He also dropped the single “A.I. With The Braids” in November of 2020, implying more material on the way, which would bring his total collection of projects to 30, including studio albums, mixtapes, compilations, and independent releases.
Jay-Z
The most infamous rap retiree on the list, Jay-Z famously delivered his swan song, The Black Album, in 2004, accompanying the farewell project with a massive show at Madison Square Garden, a documentary titled Fade To Black recording the creation of the album, and a press tour that saw him collecting his flowers ahead of his final curtain. However, it didn’t take long for him to feel the hunger again. After remixing a number of his songs for the Linkin Park mashup album Collision Course, Jay began popping up on other artists’ songs to find his sea legs before dropping the uneven (but still criminally underrated) Kingdom Come, garnering plenty of both fanfare and criticism, as the brevity of his retirement made it seem more like a gimmick to sell records.
Nicki Minaj
Midway through 2019, Nicki decided that she was finished with the rap game, deciding to trade in her lucrative career for the family life, despite a number of recent examples of women in music who have apparently been able to do both, such as Beyonce and Teyana Taylor. However, it took her all of a day to begin backtracking, posting on social media that she was “still right here” before making her unofficial return in February 2020 with “Yikes.” Although that song didn’t make much of a splash, she renewed her cultural ubiquity with appearances on Doja Cat’s “Say So” and Tekashi 69’s “Trollz,” and recently began teasing a new album after re-releasing her breakout mixtape Beam Me Up Scotty to DSPs for the first time.
Young Dolph
March 2020 was an eventful month for the Memphis mogul, who recanted just 15 days after making his initial retirement announcement by teasing the upcoming release of his album Rich Slave. Then, he followed up the release of his joint project with protege Key Glock, Dum And Dummer 2, with another retirement in March of this year before coming out and admitting straight up in a July interview that he can’t commit to it. “I can’t do it, real talk,” he said. “I’m the spokesperson for all of the street n****s.” His most recent release wound up dropping the same day as Logic’s own comeback, with the Paper Route Empire compilation album Paper Route Illuminati.
Meanwhile, even more rappers, from Denzel Curry to NLE Choppa to T.I., have announced their own intentions to walk away from the rap game after releasing a few more projects. T.I. is said to be working on Kill The King, his final album, while Denzel Curry said that he had three more releases planned before punching the clock for good. NLE Choppa wants to switch to selling natural health products, Chika and Noname are over the poor treatment they feel they’ve received at the hands of the industry, and even DaBaby gave himself a five-year limit — although recent events may have forced him to unwillingly accelerate those plans.
Time will tell whether any of those names manage to stick to it, or transition into other outlets for their creative faculties. But as long as rappers’ retirement announcements make headlines, it seems that they’ll keep making announcements — even if they can only stay retired for a few months at a time.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Conway The Machine has cemented himself as one of the most elite bar-spitters in the game right now, with two solid projects under his belt this year alone. Most recently, Machine delivered La Maquina,an album featuring guest appearances from J.I.D, Ludacris, Benny The Butcher, Westside Gunn, and more.
With the follow-up — Shady Records’ debut God Don’t Make Mistakes — on the way later this summer, Conway opted to take it back for a moment with a little bit of behind-the-scenes studio footage. The clip in question centers around La Maquina’s second track “6:30 Tip-Off,” produced by Bangladesh. In it, Machine can be seen laying down his vocals behind the mic, offering a little bit of trivia about the track’s creation.
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“The process…. Wrote that shit in 20 mins (I usually don’t write at all tho),” he captions. (It was literally 6:30 in the morning too lol) La Maquina Lp out now!! All streaming platforms.” Fans of Conway will likely enjoy seeing the song come to life. The acapella delivery really highlights the complexities of some of The Machine’s schemes, and it’s rewarding to hear how it all comes together on the final track.
With God Don’t Make Mistakes feeling like the end of an era — many have suggested that he’ll follow Westside Gunn’s lead and part ways with Shady after its release — it’s feeling like Machine’s next move will be an important one. No matter what he ends up doing, however, he’ll always have his formidable bars and technical prowess in the studio; check out his process at work below.
Donald Trump has always taken issue with those who don’t like him. The former president knows how to hold a grudge better than anyone, and whenever he has the opportunity to take a shot at his adversaries, he’s going to do it. One of his biggest foes of the last two years was none other than women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe who has been very vocal about her distaste for the former commander in chief. During the last women’s world cup, the United States team was seen engaging in anthem protests all while bringing awareness to certain issues, which did not sit right with the President.
For the most part, Rapinoe and her teammates have had the last laugh on Trump, although that all changed recently as the team lost to Canada in the semi-finals at the Olympics. As a result, the U.S had to go to the Bronze Medal game, where they eventually won. Despite getting the medal, Trump couldn’t resist as he made a statement to reporters about how Rapinoe’s mentality is what cost her team the win.
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“If our soccer team, headed by a radical group of Leftist Maniacs, wasn’t woke, they would have won the Gold Medal instead of the Bronze,” Trump said. “Woke means you lose, everything that is woke goes bad, and our soccer team certainly has. They should replace the wokesters with Patriots and start winning again. The woman with the purple hair played terribly and spends too much time thinking about Radical Left politics and not doing her job.”
This scathing critique of Rapino is to be expected coming from Trump, as we know he loves the attention something likes this brings. Regardless, Rapinoe has won numerous women’s world cups and she has also done just fine at the Olympics over the years. With this in mind, we’re not sure Trump’s soliloquy is going to hurt her in the grand scheme of things.
Over the last few months, fans and reporters have been badgering UFC President Dana White about Khabib and whether or not we will ever see him back in the Octagon. On numerous occasions, White has said it won’t happen, and recently during an interview with TMZ, White reiterated that reality.
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“I’ve abandoned all hope, so you should too. [Khabib’s] done. Believe me, I threw the kitchen sink at this kid, tried to get him to stick around and I think he’s done,” White said. “I think he’s sliding into this coach’s role. You know, he went undefeated in his career and retired undefeated, and now he’s undefeated as a coach too. So, the guy has had nothing but success, he continues to be successful, and I think he’s moving on to that next chapter of his life.”
If you are a big fan of Khabib, this news is going to be just a tad disheartening although you can’t blame the man for wanting to enjoy the finer things in life. Fighting can be a rough gig and when you’ve accomplished it all, there is no point putting your body at further risk. Hopefully, Khabib is able to find peace during this transitioning period in his life.
