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Despite what some detractors might suggest, Drake has long championed the bars. Aside from earning a reputation as a top-tier lyricist, Drizzy has been an ardent supporter of the battle rap scene, having previously held it down with a co-hosting appearance at Flatline in 2011, as well as another hosting gig at Blackout in 2013. Hell, he’s even engaged in a few rap battles in his own time, with tilts against Meek Mill and Pusha T lining his resume. 

This weekend, Drizzy will once again hold it down for battle rap culture with an appearance at URL’s upcoming NOME XI, or Night Of Main Events XI, which is set to take place on Saturday, June 12, 2021 at 6 pm EST. The night will feature ten battles: Geechi Gotti vs. Rum Nitty (UM3 Finals), Ave vs. Jey the Nitewing, Danny Myers vs. Real Sikh, JC vs. Fonz, Mike P vs. Lu Castro, Loso vs. Jerry Wess, B Dot vs. DNA, Tay Roc vs. Chilla Jones, T-Rex vs. Eazy the Block Captain, and T-Top vs. Swamp.

 Joseph Okpako/WireImage/Getty Images

As for Drake’s involvement, the 6ix God is set to take the stage to reward the UM3 winner with a one hundred thousand dollar prize. Speaking on the event, URL founder Smack White opened up about the rise of battle rap into a multi-million dollar industry — crediting Drizzy as having played a pivotal role. “Through our partnership with Caffeine and the friendship with Drake, URL has elevated the sport of battle rap,” White explains, in an official press release. “In one year, we shifted the conversation about battle rap from being a backyard-sport that one catches occasionally on YouTube — to a multi-million dollar industry, seen for free in an unprecedented number of homes.”

Should you be interested in checking it out, the event will be available to watch at Caffeine’s official channel right here. Be sure to check out the hype-inducing trailer below, and sound off with your predictions of who will walk away victorious in the epic night of battles. 

WATCH: NOME XI FULL TRAILER| URLTV 

Tyler Perry officially retired his beloved Mabel “Madea” Simmons character a few years ago and ever since then, our world was turned upside down. While there hasn’t been a scientific correlation made between the state of the planet and Madea’s retirement, Tyler Perry has announced that the character will be making a return on an even bigger stage, coming to Netflix next year.

Making the announcement on Instagram, Tyler Perry kept being interrupted by Madea herself, who made sure to get her two cents in before the camera turned off. “This is Tyler Perry saying– this is Madea speaking and I’m coming back on Netflix,” said the actor. 

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According to a press release, the media mogul will release the twelfth installment of the series, A Madea Homecoming, on Netflix in 2022. The film will be shot entirely at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta. 

The news has been celebrated on social media with fans of the franchise excitedly reacting to Madea’s return. It was believed that the character’s final screen appearance happened in 2019’s A Madea Family Funeral. While Tyler Perry has publicly stated a few times how much he dislikes wearing the Madea wig and portraying her, he noted that the world is in need of some laughter right now. Madea has never failed to make us giggle and her return couldn’t come at a better time.

Are you excited about Madea’s arrival on Netflix in 2022?

Ahead of the release of Slime Language 2, the entire Young Stoner Life crew stopped by for an episode of Million Dollaz Worth of Game, answering questions from Gillie Da Kid and Wallo267. Being the main man behind the label’s success, Young Thug was the loudest voice in the room, speaking candidly during the interview, which came as a surprise to his fans. 

The rapper clarified his controversial comments about JAY-Z from the last time he spoke to Gillie and Wallo, but he also shared plenty of other hilarious anecdotes that will live forever on the internet. One of them came after Thugger started speaking about DMX’s music.

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“You know how you buy a Jeep and then you start seeing Jeeps? You will never see that car until you buy it?” asked the rapper to set up his story. “It’s like, once I finally heard DMX’s music, I started seeing dogs. It’s like, oh damn, there really is a lot of dogs.”

Right after Thug made the comment, Gillie looked dumbfounded, as though he had no clue how to respond to the story. 

DMX’s brand was influenced by dogs, as he explained during his appearance on Drink Champs this year. “A dog doesn’t know how to lie to you,” said the legendary rapper. “A dog doesn’t know how to be fake, it is what it is.”

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While Thug’s comments make sense in context, people have been laughing at the way he told the story. Even his close friend and collaborator Chris Brown shared the clip on his page and joked. “Yeah twin,” he seemingly wrote sarcastically with plenty of laughing emojis.

Check out the video below, as well as the full interview underneath.

A$AP Rocky graces the streets of a re-opened New York while teasing upcoming music in a new advertisement for Klarna. After starting off as an investor in the company, which specializes in financial technology and allows users to make post-purchase payments in online shopping, he took on the role of CEO for a day last week, speaking praises of its commitment to making fashion accessible to everyone. The streetwear icon took to Instagram today to post the ad, which has his AWGE-branded creative fingerprints all over it.

The Harlem rapper is hard at work on his upcoming All Smiles record, and has been tapped to perform in a slew of festival lineups as live performances begin to slowly make a return to the music world. In the brief advertisement, Rocky sneaks in a preview of new music that might appear on the album, to match the tone of the ad’s narrative, which follows a post-lockdown Rocky through the streets of New York in search of a new and fashionable fit. He interacts with citizens who comment on his lackluster lockdown garb, convincing him to get some new attire.

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In the snippet, Rocky raps “Roll my blunt, fill my cup… They don’t know nun’,” all comfortable topics for the Testing rapper. At the end of the ad, UK grime legend Skepta steps into the New York bodega ready to get out of his lockdown robes, a short and sweet cameo for a friend of Rocky and his “Praise The Lord (Da Shine)” collaborator.

During his day-long stint as Klarna’s CEO, the A$AP Mob leader vowed to “renounce (the) global fashion hibernation” that took place in 2020 and sought to push people toward rediscovering “the joy of getting dressed” once again. Rocky is not foreign to the fashion world, making his sense of style a core component of his musical identity and garnering much deserved attention in both high fashion and streetwear realms, merging the two worlds together at many points.

With a recent GQ cover story, an album on the way, festival dates planned and the new ad giving fans a taste of upcominng music, A$AP Rocky is primed for an eventful second half of 2021.

Check out the advertisement below.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have filed for divorce after six years of marriage, but the two don’t hold any bad blood for one another. As Kanye celebrates his forty-fourth birthday today, for which he officially launched the first item from his YEEZY x GAP collection, his estranged wife has shared a message for his birthday, telling him that she’ll always love him.

Posting photos of her beautiful family, including children North, Saint, Chicago, and Psalm, Kim made sure to wish the love of her life a happy birthday. “Happy Birthday Love U for Life!” she wrote as her caption on Instagram.

Kim also posted a childhood photo of Kanye on Twitter, which was seemingly taken in 1987, adding a singular balloon emoji as her caption.

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Her message comes just days after it was reported that she was “doing great” amid her split from Kanye. On a recent episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, the sisters spoke about their divorce. “I just honestly can’t do this anymore,” she said through tears. “Why am I still in this place where I’m stuck for years? He goes and moves to a different state every year. I have to be, like, together so I can raise the kids. I think he deserves someone that can go support his every move and go follow him all over the place and move to Wyoming. I can’t do that. He should have a wife that supports his every move and travels with him and does everything, and I can’t.”

Check out her birthday posts for Kanye below. Happy birthday, Mr. West!

Wedding Crashers, starring Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn and quickly became a cult classic– that is, after it already grossed a mild $300 million internationally when it first hit theatres back in 2005. The film still gets referenced to this day, almost two decades later. A sequel to the iconic film has been rumored for some time now, in fact, we have some reports that go as far back as 2016, and as recently as 2020. However, right now it’s the closest it’s ever been to actually become a reality.

Last week Production Weekly (via @Jasonosia) posted a screengrab of a listing that states David Dobkin, the director of the original Wedding Crashers, has been brought on, with a script written by Evan Susser, Van Robichaux, and Rob McKittrick, and that production is projected to start in August, in Puerto Rico. The listing also states the film will be produced for HBO Max.

However, New Line Cinema has not green-lit the project yet, and there reportedly aren’t any actual contracts signed with the actors mentioned above. It is reported that Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn are in talks to reprise their roles, however, Rachel McAdams and Isla Fisher likely won’t be locked until both Vaughn and Wilson are a done deal, and that obviously will not be a cheap task. That being said, we’re still excited to hear about the possibility of a sequel happening, and we’ll be  curious as to how the story will play out. Stay tuned.

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2021 has been the biggest year of Freddie Gibbs’s career so far. Coming off of the success of Alfredo that earned him and The Alchemist a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album, the Gary, IN native has been steadily teasing the release of his forthcoming album, SSS. Though no release date has been set, it appears that he has even bigger plans outside of music this year.

 Michael Bezjian/Getty Images 

Gangsta Gibbs revealed that he would be making his acting debut in the upcoming film Down With The King, directed by Diego Ongaro. The rapper takes on the leading role of Money Merc, a rapper seeking to make his departure from the music industry. Merc is sent to the Berkshires to record his next album when he forms a bond with a neighbor who leads him towards farming. 

Down With The King will be making its world premiere later at this year’s Cannes Film Festival as part of the ACID (Association For Independent Cinema and its Distribution) section. 

“Freddie Gibbs and I worked intimately together to craft Mercury’s character and backstory; some of it pulled from Freddie’s experiences and values, much of it invented,” Ongaro told Complex earlier this year. “It was an absolute thrill working with someone as sharp and multi-talented as Freddie in this collaborative way.”

We’ll keep you posted on more details surrounding Down With The King. Cannes Film Festival takes place from July 6th to 17th.