Check out the lyrics to the 2019 Music to Be Murdered By track. Continue reading…
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LeBron James Called Out By Zlatan Ibrahimovic For Being Political
It’s no secret that LeBron James is an athlete who has also been focused on activism over the years. From creating his very own school to forming a campaign that encouraged millions of people to vote, LeBron has always been active in the political world. This has rubbed some people the wrong way although it’s clear that LeBron doesn’t care. He stands by his convictions and when he feels like standing up for a cause, he does so to the best of his ability.
Recently, however, LeBron was called out by the likes of International soccer sensation Zlatan Ibrahimovic who claimed that while he likes LeBron as an athlete, he doesn’t like what the Lakers superstar is doing in politics. Simply put, Zlatan thinks that LeBron just needs to stick to sports.
“LeBron is phenomenal at what he’s doing, but I don’t like when people have some kind of status, they go and do politics at the same time what they’re doing. do what you’re good at,” Ibrahimovic said.
The “stick to sports” narrative is one that has been pushed a lot over the last few years although LeBron has counteracted it with his “More Than An Athlete” movement. Regardless, LeBron’s efforts will continue to be criticized, no matter how much good he really does.
Srdjan Stevanovic/Getty Images
Roddy Ricch Previews Some New Heat
Roddy Ricch has been steadily cooking up for a minute, be it on his studio album tentatively titled Love Is Barely Real Anymore or his often-teased mixtape return Feed Tha Streets 3. While concrete details have yet to be unveiled surrounding either project, all signs point to a young artist deep in the creative stages, which of course leads to an influx of studio snippets and unfinished demos ripe for previewing on IG Live.
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Last night, the Compton rapper took to the Gram to do exactly that, granting his twenty-thousand plus viewers a glimpse at what’s to come. From the sound of it, Roddy appears to be moving forward in an emotional direction, having landed on a sentimental piano-driven instrumental produced by Chopsquad DJ.
Following a heavy scheme revolving around the lyric “back-to-back,” Ricch spits some lines about his biggest frustrations. “I never liked em, I never liked none of you hoes,” he laments. “But a n***a fall real victim to this shit, I want real life, I want real bitches in this shit.” He proceeds to switch up the flow with some x-rated imagery, showcasing some melodic flourish with his singsong delivery. While hardly a banger in the vein of “The Box,” it seems like another strong track from Roddy Ricch, who continues to shine as one of the game’s most exciting young artists.
Check out the latest snippet, as captured by No Jumper, and sound off if you’re excited to hear a new album from Roddy Ricch.
Brandon Ingram Shades LeBron James With Zion Williamson Comment
Brandon Ingram is one of the biggest pieces on the New Orleans Pelicans right now and if that franchise wants to make it back into the postseason, they will need Ingram to be at his best. Of course, just two summers ago, Ingram, Lonzo Ball, and Josh Hart were all traded to the Pelicans in a deal that brought Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers. Since that time, Ingram has seemingly had some beef with LeBron James, and recently, he put fuel on that fire.
While speaking to reporters, Ingram was asked about his teammate Zion Williamson, who is about to go to the All-Star Game for the very first time. Ingram went on to say that he has never played with someone as good as himself and that Williamson is easily the best teammate he has ever had.
“I’ve never played with a player as talented as me,” Ingram said. “He’s a generational talent.”
Considering he has played with the likes of LeBron James, it’s clear that Ingram was taking a little bit of a dig here. After all, his time with the Lakers didn’t exactly end well, so it makes sense that he would have some sort of resentment towards the Lakers superstar, especially after they won a title in 2020.
Moving forward, Pelicans and Lakers games should prove to be a lot of fun as James and Ingram go back and forth.
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Jermaine Dupri & Curren$y Have Wholesome Exchange
The act of giving hip-hop’s legendary figures their flowers is becoming increasingly commonplace, and rightfully so. As the veterans of the culture continue to age, exploring new creative and entrepreneurial avenues, many emcees have moved to let their elders know that they remain appreciated. Sometimes, homages arrive on wax, as seen on Curren$y’s new Collection Agency track “Jermaine Dupri,” which finds him reflecting on a formative experiencing involving the So-So Def mogul.
Prince Williams/Wireimage/Getty Images
“As a teen I watched MTV Cribs, Jermaine Dupri had the Continental T in the garage,” raps Spitta. “And said you ain’t a big dog unless you got one of these, yeah / And now I’m driving precision because now I’m that ni**a.” Between the bars and the title, it didn’t take long for Jermaine to catch wind of Curren$y’s jam, taking to Twitter to share his own thoughts.
LISTEN: Curren$y – Jermaine Dupri
“I ain’t gone front and act 2 cool for school ,this is [mindblowing] on so many levels,the fact that I inspired someone to title a song after me,a kid from Collipark,is CRAZY!!” writes Jermaine, hyping Curren$y’s project on his IG page. “Then to know, the black artist I grew up studying and watching never got this type love until they were gone,man!!!”
Curren$y issued a reaction of his own, clearly floored by J.D’s appreciation and acknowledgment. “Mannnnnnnnnn what the fuck!!!!!!!!! Maaaaaaaannnnnnnnnn fuck man !!!!!!” he writes, utterly flabbergasted by the love. “Shit…… imma just roll up man…… fuck man. Love man love everybody…. fuck !!!!!” A wholesome exchange to be sure, and one that goes to show the respect that many artists have for one another; you never quite know who played an integral role in influencing who. Check out the messages for yourself below, and go stream that new Spitta while you’re at it.
Air Jordan 35 “Women In Power” Unveiled: Official Photos
Jordan Brand typically does a great job with their new basketball models, and the Air Jordan 35 is further evidence of that. The sneaker is actually modeled after the Air Jordan 5 which came out back in 1990. Over the past few months, Jumpman has loaded up on new colorways of the shoe and with plenty of time left in 2021, fans can certainly expect to see even more models make their way to the internet.
The latest to be announced is this “Women In Power” offering which seems to have Jayson Tatum branding on the tongue. As you can see from the images below, the shoe has a bright blue upper, all while red is placed on the tongue. From there, we have a white and green midsole, all while hints of purple are found throughout. There are various references to women in power, and overall, it’s a colorful model that will make a huge statement out on the court.
For now, a release date has not yet been revealed, so keep it locked to HNHH as we will be sure to bring you all of the latest updates. As always, let us know what you think of this shoe, in the comments below.
Image via Nike
Image via Nike
Image via Nike
Image via Nike
DaBaby Officially Adds His ‘Freestyle’ Verse To SpotEmGottem’s ‘Beat Box 3’
After brushing off the backlash resulting from his “Beat Box” freestyle, DaBaby officially joins Florida-based, TikTok-favorite, trap rap upstart SpotEmGottem on “Beat Box 3.” While the original “Beat Box” generated a wave of buzz for the 19-year-old rapper and “Beat Box 2” featured Pooh Shiesty and became the basis for a viral TikTok challenge, “Beat Box 3” finally connects SpotEmGottem with the North Carolina superstar who helped bring “Beat Box” to the mainstream with his freestyle.
That freestyle, though, was the subject of some controversy thanks to a throwaway line in which DaBaby name-checks 17-year-old pop star JoJo Siwa. The line, which rhymed the singer’s name with “see why,” posited an imaginary rival as a “bitch,” employing the hashtag flow for a clunky punchline that seemed to either call JoJo a bitch as well, or equate all women with bitches, with the most conveniently rhyming one falling within the category. Either way… not a great use of the form, which is always a danger with the hashtag flow.
Of course, DaBaby — no stranger to Twitter controversy after a couple of years’ worth of call-outs and missteps — dismissed the backlash as a case of wordplay going over listeners’ heads. That isn’t quite what happened here, but by combining his verse with SpotEmGottem’s original, at least SpotEmGottem can hope to benefit from the extra attention, and capitalize on it with his next release.
Listen to “Beat Box 3” above.
Police Think Lady Gaga’s Dog May Have Been Intentionally Targeted By The Thieves Who Shot Her Assistant
Police now believe Lady Gaga may have been the target of the thieves who shot her assistant and stole two of her French bulldogs, according to TMZ. The singer is currently offering a half-million-dollar ransom for the safe return of her pets, which may have been the point all along. Using a neighbor’s security video that caught the robbery in progress, police theorize that the assailants were aware of just whose dogs they were taking.
Adding to the fact that the thieves’ white sedan pulls up alongside Gaga’s assistant Ryan Fischer in the video, law enforcement sources told TMZ that Fischer wasn’t exactly secretive about his employer. He told “numerous people” in the neighborhood that the dogs belonged to the singer, so it was seemingly common knowledge. Meanwhile, due to the darkness of the street, police don’t think the thieves would have been able to tell that the dogs were valuable French bulldogs — although dognapping and pet ransom are pretty common in affluent neighborhoods, as residents usually offer rewards for “missing” pets that thieves often return to collect.
However, rarely is a case so high-profile as this one is, or as violent. The fact that Fischer was accosted and shot suggests the thieves may have targeted him specifically, knowing the dogs’ owner was one of the biggest pop stars on the planet and being willing to use extreme measures to get ahold of the ransom money. Further complicating things is the fact that Gaga’s dogs were never chipped, so identifying them if they are sold out-of-state — another common tactic of dognappers — will be very difficult.
Gaga’s father spoke out against the attack on Fox News, saying “Our whole family is upset and praying Koji and Gustavo are not harmed. Help us catch these creeps.”
Why Doesn’t Hip-Hop Have Many Cover Albums?
Samples have always been the backbone of hip-hop. The very first raps were performed over beat breaks, which were looped and extended to provide B-boys a platform for their gymnastic dance routines and rappers their bombastic bars. However, despite hip-hop’s preference for calling back to the past, making history as modern as a freshly-released single, the genre has oddly few examples of another tool for paying homage to the forebears and icons of days past.
Last week, M1 and Stic.man of revered revolutionary rap duo Dead Prez revealed that the late, great Los Angeles legend Nipsey Hussle reached out to them prior to his death for permission to remake their seminal 2000 debut album Let’s Get Free — but the idea was never executed, as Nipsey passed away before he was able to begin work on the project in earnest. Besides this one high-profile example, there aren’t very many other albums by current rappers that seek to recreate the classic works that have inspired and influenced them. So, why doesn’t hip-hop have many cover albums?
Part of the answer may stem from rap music’s status as a young genre. Just 30 years ago, the culture as a whole was still fighting for its legitimacy, dismissed as a passing fad. However, that didn’t seem to stop musicians in other disciplines from nearly constantly covering each others’ songs to the point that there is widespread debate about the “best” versions of hits like “Respect,” originated by Otis Redding and made classic by Aretha Franklin; “Proud Mary,” a Creedance Clearwater Revival turned rocking revue by Ike and Tina Turner; and “Strange Fruit,” the defiant ode to Black resistance in the face of monstrous treatment sung by Billie Holiday and further popularized by Nina Simone.
Rock artists have also had a long history of reinterpreting classics for new generations. Consider Dirty Projectors’ Rise Above. In 2007, bandleader David Longstreth set out to replay Black Flag’s 1981 album Damaged from memory despite not hearing in for 15 years prior. If that sounds ambitious, Beck’s 2009 project Record Club would seem downright obsessive, as the genre-hopping multi-instrumentalist sought to cover whole albums in just one day each with a fluid collective of musicians. These included Leonard Cohen’s Songs Of Leonard Cohen, The Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground & Nico, and INXS’s Kick.
The form is a staple of other genres, such as rock and soul, but seems foreign to hip-hop, despite the fact that hip-hop now has enough history behind it to have several generations of “old-school” music, as many a millennial has been dumbstruck to learn in recent years. Where a 35-year-old today may have cited NWA, Public Enemy, or Run-DMC as “old-school” based on their high school experiences, a 15-year-old today looks at that 35-year-old’s high school faves like Jay-Z, Ludacris, or Nelly, and sees only a pack of old fogeys — Public Enemy may as well have been recorded on Fred Flintstone’s Dictabird.
Further complicating hip-hop’s relationship to cover projects is its reliance on samples and insistence on originality. Biting lyrics is a no-no of the highest order in hip-hop, and while sampling is the foundation of the art form, rarely are songs recreated or reinterpreted — and sometimes, choosing a sacrosanct record to recreate is seen as blasphemous. Just look at the reaction to DJ Khaled’s Outkast sample on his 2019 song “Just Us.” Borrowing the melody of “Ms. Jackson” didn’t work out any better for him than J. Cole’s similar homage — borrowing the loop from “Da Art Of Storytelling, Part 1” on “Land Of The Snakes — did for the North Carolina MC.
However, there is one example of a hip-hop cover album that was both well-received and tastefully done. In 2011, former Slum Village member Elzhi set out to pay tribute to one of his favorite MCs, Nas, by recreating Nas’s revered debut album Illmatic with a live band. The resulting mixtape, cleverly titled Elmatic, saw Elzhi putting his own unique twists on both Nas’s rhymes and the ’90s masterclass beats; Elzhi deftly re-worded some of the more iconic lyrical sequences, keeping the familiar diction and cadences, channeling them to flip Nas’s autobiographical tales into narratives of his own Detroit upbringing. The band embellished on the Ahmad Jamal, Gap Band, and Michael Jackson samples, bringing their musicality to the fore, where previously the drum tracks were the centerpieces of the album.
Elmatic‘s success only highlights how intriguing the idea of hip-hop cover albums truly is. Rap music, despite its reputation as a youth genre with little use for its elder statesmen, has always held a deep reverence for the history, breadth, and depth of Black music. Puffy can sample Diana Ross for a celebratory posthumous Notorious BIG single and Three 6 Mafia can turn a 30-year-old Willie Hutch soundtrack cut into an international players’ anthem, thoroughly disproving the trope that hip-hop doesn’t respect its elders. Rappers and producers simply choose to reinterpret what has already been done. If that’s not the essence of a cover, nothing is.
Nipsey Hussle and Elzhi both understood this, and both were willing to take the plunge, risking the disapproval of hardcore hip-hop heads to salute their musical forebears. That’s to be applauded — and imitated. Hip-hop now has a rich history of its own, just waiting to be mined, paid homage to, and translated into new terms for younger ears that may not be familiar with it, but are certainly much more receptive than they are given credit for. Whether it’s a New York boom-bap standard, a West Coast G-funk essential, or a Dirty South crunk classic, it’s time for hip-hop to begin giving its older albums some fresh looks.
Nipsey Hussle is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Yung Bleu & Coi Leray Team Up For “Thieves In Atlanta”
Alabama-born crooner Yung Bleu and New Jersey-raised buzzing rapper Coi Leray team up for a brand new song about falling in love in Atlanta, dropping the music video for “Thieves In Atlanta” a few moments ago.
Spending time in one of the hip-hop world’s hubs, Yung Bleu and Coi Leray are no strangers to Atlanta. They especially know what it’s like to love in the city, making metaphors on how difficult it is to find that special someone for you in the industry and lamenting in the new song. The slow-paced ballad was produced by NOBY and the music video, which shows a hood love story primarily taking place inside the strip club, was directed by Kalani Kelly.
Yung Bleu has been buzzing for a minute, striking with “You’re Mines Still” and getting a co-sign and feature from Drake. Coi Leray has equally been making noise, leveling up with her hit single “No More Parties” and promising to follow up strongly with a Pooh Shiesty feature.
What do you think of the new record from Yung Bleu and Coi Leray?
Quotable Lyrics:
Thieves in Atlanta, that’s where I land here
I done beat the odds like a miracle
I swear she had it planned out on the low
They say hold my heart down in Atlanta
Word is, they stealing hearts now in Atlanta
I don’t need it anyway