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When the Wu-Tang Clan announced that they would be making a single copy of their Once Upon A Time In Shaolin album, many were disappointed to find that actually hearing the project wasn’t necessarily in the cards. See, the intention was to create a rare piece of art, one that could theoretically be placed in a museum. Though it was a difficult pill to swallow for Wu-Tang disciples, the boldness of RZA’s vision had to be respected — even begrudgingly so.

Alas, things took a dark turn when the album fell into the hands of the notorious “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli, who seemed to revel in hamming it up as the villain. Before long, he was exchanging heated words with Ghostface Killah, who did not seem too thrilled at the prospect of seeing his work in the hands of such a controversial figure. Ghost’s sentiments mirrored those of the Wu-Tang fanbase. Coming to terms with never hearing Once Upon A Time In Shaolin was hard enough — knowing that Shkreli, an open disrespecter of Ghostface Killah, could play it as his leisure was a more foul beast altogether. 

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The tides recently turned, however, after the incarcerated Pharma Bro was forced to forfeit the album. CNBC reports that lawyer Peter Scoolidge was charged with handling the purchase of Once Upon A Time by a new owner, who paid an unidentified price to secure the lone copy from the U.S government. The article reports that the sale was enough to cover a forfeiture judgment balance owned by Shkreli, who was on the hook for $2.3 million as of April. 

In an interesting turn, Scoolidge appears confident that the mysterious buyer will be identifying themselves to the public. “I’d say in the next 30 to 60 days,” says Scoolidge. Naturally, many theories emerged surrounding the buyer’s identity, with some even speculating that the group was somehow involved in reclaiming their project. The CNBC article also acknowledges that particular narrative, citing that Scoolidge actually represented  Shaolin co-producer Tarik “Cilvaringz” Azzougarh in a different album-related lawsuit. 

It will certainly be interesting to see how this whole saga plays out — do you think there’s a chance we’ll ever get to hear the two-disc Once Upon A Time In Shaolin? Stay tuned for more updates, including the seemingly confirmed identification of the album’s new buyer, projected to be within 30 to 60 days.

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Just two days in, this year’s NBA Free Agency has already been an exciting one for NBA fans. While there have been plenty of predictable deals made so far, like Steph Curry’s max extensions, there have also been plenty of bonafide shockers. Lonzo Ball, Kyle Lowry, Reggie Bullock, and Rudy Gay have all gone to new teams, and most notably, Carmelo Anthony has signed a one-year deal with the Los Angeles Lakers, where he will finally be teammates with longtime friend LeBron James.

That left important players like Kawhi Leonard, John Collins, Victor Oladipo. Andre Iguodala, DeMarcus Cousins, and more still on the Free Agency table. According to ESPN, one of those players has closed a huge deal, and as a result, restricted free agent John Collins will return to the Atlanta Hawks on a five-year deal. 

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According to ESPN, John Collins averaged 17.6 points and 7.4 rebounds per game over the last season and had a huge impact on the young team’s morale during their unexpectedly deep playoff run this summer, and apparently, that was enough for the Atlanta Hawks to secure his talents for $125 million over five years. This comes days after the basketball team re-signed Trae Young on a massive $207 million max extension.

Collins was selected as the 19th overall pick during the 2017 NBA draft, and he remains the longest-tenured player who is currently on the Atlanta Hawks roster. The lucrative deal is a major money move for Collins who made the polarizing decision to decline a $90 million extension with the Hawks last season. It’s safe to say that John Collins, the Hawks, and the city of Atlanta are satisfied with Collins resigning, as they hope to improve upon their awe-inspiring performance this past season.

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Kemba Walker is taking his talents back to Madison Square Garden. The veteran point guard has agreed to a contract buyout with OKC Thunder and will now be joining the New York Knicks, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports.

The Thunder acquired Kemba Walker from Boston back in June in Brad Stevens‘ first major roster move as the Celtics’ president of basketball operations. While the deal was considered a salary-dump, a report surfaced last week stating the Thunder believed they might be able to flip him to another team for an asset, but those efforts were unsuccessful as he is believed to be owed too much money. Kemba currently has two years and $74 million left on his original 4yr/$140 million deal.

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It’s unclear at the time of this post what Kemba will be signing for with the Knicks, but if it’s anything like these other NBA contracts, then it’ll be massive to say the least.

Kemba will join Evan Fournier and Derek Rose as the new back court in the Garden for next season. Can they take the Knicks on a deep playoff run? Let us know what you think about the move in the comments (below).

If it wasn’t already clear that Jadakiss was out for blood during last night’s Verzuz, his absolutely dominant performance of “Who Shot Ya (Freestyle)” served as an emphatic exclamation mark. Consider this. In a battle of hits, Jada dipped into the vault and drew a freestyle, performed it all without a backing track, barely missing a syllable. It was a statement, not only to his Dipset competitors — who seemingly had no idea what they were in for — but for the rap game at large. 

Though many have long-respected Jada’s pen game and presence, he appeared a man possessed, seemingly hellbent on scorching his enemies in front of a lively New York audience. That’s not to take away from his group-mates Styles P and Sheek Louch, nor the Dipset squad of Cam’ron, Jim Jones, Juelz Santana, and Freekey Zekey, but a narrative quickly took shape highlighting Jada as the event’s most valuable player. No easy feat, considering the combined legacies of both legendary crews. 

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It’s not the first time he gained Verzuz notoriety (remember Drunk Jada?) and now, his status in Swizzy and Timbo’s cultural celebration has been cemented. And perhaps most importantly, it would appear that many have since realized just how elite Kiss truly is. There’s a reason he once likened himself to rap’s Jason Voorhees, and in his mind last night, the Dipset squad was nothing but a bunch of teenagers at a summer camp. 

Naturally, Twitter found much enjoyment in Jadakiss’ unrestrained and merciless energy, firing off celebratory memes, clips, and words of appreciation. For many, the fact that he and his groupmates made a point of forsaking the backing track emblemized the art of emceeing, a culture in which The LOX has long taken pride. It’s no wonder they felt so confident going into the battle, going so far as to say that they’d make short work of any crew when it comes to lyricism and performance. 

Though every emcee involved in the battle deserves a major shout-out, it cannot be denied that Jadakiss has earned some time in the spotlight. Give the man his flowers, perhaps revisit his claim of Top 5 Dead Or Alive with fresh eyes, and check out some of the most celebratory, hilarious, and downright reverent reactions below. 

Kanye West isn’t the only Hip-Hop artist who has been leading his fanbase astray by not sticking to a release date. Trippie Redd is just as guilty as the DONDA artist because he’s been teasing his highly anticipated project Trip At Knight for several months without confirming an official release date or sharing a tracklist.

Having already released “Miss The Rage” with Playboi Carti in May and “Holy Smokes” with Lil Uzi Vert just a few weeks ago, fans are more ready than ever for Trip At Knight. Trippie Redd has promised that the album will arrive before he embarks on his similarly titled tour on August 25, leading fans to obsess over the project’s still unreleased tracklist.

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When revealing the cover art for Trip At Knight, the “Dark Knight Dummo” artist said that he would drop the tracklist once his forthcoming album received 100,000 pre-saves. That was on June 24, so now, more than a month later, fans are starting to get anxious.

Rather than just dropping the tracklist, however, Trippie Redd decided to acknowledge his failure to share the Trip At Knight tracklist by trolling his fans. Channeling his inner Roddy Ricch, the LIFE’S A TRIP artist shared a black and white picture of him in a black turtleneck against a white background. He also modified the title of the “Late At Night” rapper‘s debut album, scribbling the words “please excuse me for not dropping the tracklist” on top of the photo.

Check out Trippie Redd’s admittedly hilarious troll below.

Barry Hankerson, the record executive and uncle of the late Aaliyah, is reviving Blackground Records, his old record label, rebranded as Blackground Records 2.0. The label is being revived after almost twelve years since its last release, and the head honcho of the label has already found its first lady, artist and singer Autumn Marini. According to The Shade Room, multiple streets in Atlanta were shut down on Saturday as the artist’s first music video was shot ahead of the label’s relaunch.

Hankerson told TSR that Autumn Marini is an artist that can’t be compared to anyone else in the game. He also shared that Blackground was moved to Atlanta, where he has been taking meetings with multiple artists who need the right platform to get their music out. This is ultimately what inspired Hankerson to bring back Blackground Records, in order to carry out the mission of pushing young artists. He said it is an especially good time to promote young talent.

Background Records has previously been responsible for discovering other artists like Tank and JoJo. Hankerson has past experience in managing big artists like Toni Braxton and the late Aaliyah, though it hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing for the 73-year-old executive. Both Braxton and JoJo have filed lawsuits against Hankerson in the past for issues in how they were managed under him, both of which came to settlements. The Instagram comments of The Shade Room post are also primarily calling for Hankerson to put his late niece’s music onto streaming platforms, as the majority of it has been largely unavailable in recent years.

Check out some behind the scenes footage of the music video shoot below. What do you think about the revival of Blackground Records?

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If you missed it this week, Fetty Wap suffered a horrific tragedy when his 4 year old daughter suddenly passed away. It’s unclear at the moment what the cause of death was or when his daughter, Lauren Maxwell, died, but no one should ever have to bury their own child. Following this horrific news, several peers and fans of Fetty Wap took to social media to show their support and condolences, including Iron Mike Tyson.

Mike took to Twitter yesterday to share his condolences with the Jersey rapper, saying they met once and he left an impression on him. “Condolences to @fettywap and family.  Met you once and you left an impression on me.  Losing a child is devastating so praying for you all brother,” he tweeted out.

This all comes just a couple days after Mike Tyson made headlines for his refusal to support his own son in the boxing ring. Mike said the following: “I said, ‘Man, just chill the f— out.’ He wants to fight Logan Paul and those guys. He wants to do that. I said, ‘Man, just get a job. Get a real estate license. Just chill out, man. Why can’t you take advantage of your lightweight wealthiness? Just chill.’ You don’t want none of that heat. I’m telling you. This drives people to commit suicide, getting humiliated in front of millions of people. You gotta be able to take that pressure and heat. Not many people can do it. It seems like a lot of people, but the people doing it is such a small percent. It’s probably one percent.”

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It may have only been 24 days since Conor McGregor broke shattered his left leg during the Dustin Poirier trilogy fight, but that’s not stopping him from already standing on it and pushing his rehab. TMZ Sports caught a photo of McGregor outside of a Beverly Hills hotel yesterday wearing a walking boot, while standing freely with no crutches and chatting with a friend (see below).

Conor reportedly hopped on his motor scooter after this photo was taken and rode into the hotel gym where he put himself through a hard workout. He’s coming off a broken left tibia and fibula which required a titanium rod, plate and screws to hold his leg together.

For comparison, Tiger Woods, who also broke his tibia and fibula (amongst other injuries to the leg) in a February 23 car crash was still using crutches 155 days after his accident. Conor has seen 24 days since the injury and is already pushing the boundary. Hopefully this isn’t the last we hear from the Notorious one in the octagon.

Do you want to see Conor fight again or just retire already?