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Rap veteran Akon is serious about investing into the future. The hip-hop entertainer is one of the latest high-profile musicians to crack into the NFT trend with his own AkoinNFT platform. Akon Cracks Into NFT Hustle While details are still coming together, Akon’s non-fungible tokens (NFTs) platform will aim to “supercharge and empower” fellow artists. […]
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Many prominent rappers have mobilized behind rapper Terrell “Ralo” Davis, who currently stands incarcerated on cannabis trafficking charges. Forbes has issued a report indicating that a letter has been sent to President Joe Biden, arranged by cannabis clemency group Mission Green. The publication has shared a copy of said letter, which received signatures of support from several prominent rappers among other public figures.
“The undersigned— musicians, actors, athletes, filmmakers, current and former elected and appointed government officials, advocates, and business leaders—strongly believe that justice necessitates the exercise of clemency in this case,” reads the letter. “Our nation’s view of cannabis has evolved, and it is indefensible to incarcerate citizens based on the unduly harsh attitudes of past generations.” Signing in support of the pardon are Drake, Lil Baby, Quavo, Gunna, Dave East, Young Buck, Meek Mill, Killer Mike, T.I, 2 Chainz, Freeway, Lil Yachty, Waka Flocka, Loon, and many more.
Upon receiving word that the letter had reached Joe Biden, Ralo took to Instagram to reflect on the outpouring of support. “TODAY MY LEGAL TEAM DELIVERED DOCUMENTS DIRECTLY IN THE HANDS OF PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN AND HIS ADMINISTRATION, BEGGING FOR A PARDON FOR MYSELF,” he writes, in a lengthy message. “DRAKE NAME WAS #1 ON THAT LIST IN SUPPORT OF MY PARDON, ALONG WITH DOZENS OF OTHER HIGH RANKING PEOPLE WITHIN OUR COUNTRY & THE HIP HOP COMMUNITY.”
“WE THANK HIM AND EVERYONE THATS PUTTING EFFORT INTO THIS CAUSE,” he continues. “@forbes AN OTHERS ARE USING MY CASE AS THE FACE FOR JUSTICE ON MARIJUANNA. WE CALLING FOR PUBLIC AN ALL INFLUENCERS SUPPORT.” In the Forbes report, it’s noted that Ralo specifically thanked Drake in particular, noting that it’s the first time the superstar has thrown his considerable weight behind a criminal justice initiative.
Given that President Biden has previously spoken of a desire to decriminalize marijuana, many are hopeful that he will indeed consider clemency for the Atlanta rapper. As of now, Ralo has served over three years in prison; all the while, the cannabis business has flourished into a multi-billion dollar industry. Should you be interested in reading the full letter, head over to Forbes right here.
Free Ralo.
When it comes to Dr. Dre’s impact on his home state of California, his importance cannot be understated. The tutelage, mentorship and unparalleled wizardry that he’s exhibited behind the boards has elevated generations of talent and allowed them to fulfill their dreams, often moving beyond just a regional concern. His track record is inimitable.
From providing the bedrock of gangsta rap’s pioneering sound with NWA, to harvesting the raw potential of a young Snoop Dogg, plucking The Game from obscurity, and even finding a conduit for soulful arrangements of Anderson .Paak, Dre has a keen radar that’s routinely found high calibre MCs lurking in the golden state. More importantly, he knows how to take the intangibles that they already possess and align them with the work ethic needed to become a legend.
Given that his era-defining album, The Chronic, was crucial to marking the West Coast as a hip-hop hotbed and taking control away from the East Coast, it’s only natural that Dre would aim to uphold this legacy by grooming many of Cali’s hopefuls for the bright lights. Dre has acted as a finishing school that equipped West Coast prospects with everything they’d need to make it in the wider world.
But for all the vigilance he’s shown in providing a platform for California’s brightest hopefuls, a co-sign from Dre isn’t a be-all or end-all requirement for a Cali-based MC to make it. While taking a trip through Aftermath’s hallowed halls has been a rite of passage for some of the West’s most cherished names, there is a small subset of rappers who planted their flag without any assistance from the region’s resident gatekeeper.
To begin with, there are those now-legendary stars who rose to prominence within a similar timeframe as Dre, but were never summoned to the studio to collaborate. Prone to using his rolodex of contacts to great effect, The Chronic, 2001 and Compton each saw Dre make space for an all-star team of Cali collaborators. From fellow Death Row signees such as The DOC, Nate Dogg, Daz, Kurupt, RBX and The Lady Of Rage to his own understudies of Hittman, Knock-turn’al and Cold187um, each of Dre’s landmark projects has given ample room for his fellow West Coast staples to shine.
As a result, the fact that it wasn’t until 2011 that Dre called upon the services of Oakland’s Too $hort seems like a gross oversight.
Well-versed in delivering the sort of fornication-filled content that’s always had its place on a Dre project, Todd Anthony Shaw has been making an artform out of on-wax pimpin’ since 1983. Although he’s proven himself to be a magnet for moral panic in a way that former NWA member Dre is certainly familiar with, there are admittedly ways in which Too Short and Dre exist in very different spheres.
For one thing, where Dre averages an album every generation, few rappers from the pre-internet era have been as prolific as Too Short. Sporting five platinum plaques to his name, this Bay Area icon managed to carve out a uniquely debaucherous legacy for himself without ever calling upon the doctor for assistance. But after years of being passing acquaintances, Dre and Short Dogg’s paths would finally cross during the producer’s fabled Detox sessions. Fittingly, on an unreleased track known as “Man’s Best Friend (Pussy).”
“Somebody suggested my name, so he called me in,” Too Short recalled to Vibe. “I didn’t write the rap. Kurupt’s little brother wrote it – Roscoe – and he pimped me one hell of a sixteen-bar verse. Dre had me in there, the first session was nine hours.”
However, while Dre had managed to convey his appreciation for one of the pillars of Bay Area rap, he has historically left Vallejo, CA’s resident innovator out in the cold.
“Snoop Dogg, shoot, he done been there. Dre, I got a lot of respect, but we’ve never done anything,” revealed the incomparable E-40 in 2018. “I sent messages and whatnot through other people saying, ‘hey, I’m right here if you need me’. Just from being a West Coast cat. All my life, I’ve sold records in LA. So, I’m like, how can you look over me? I’m a legend. Game recognizes game.”
Possessing one of the most influential discographies of any West Coast artist, E-40 has always brought his own flavour to the game. And by virtue of his unorthodox flows and ear for beats, he managed to fashion a brand new lane with the Hyphy movement, which itself meant he never required anyone else’s endorsement. As such, the sense that he represents his own subdivision of the West Coast has been a point of pride for the Sick Wid It CEO.
“I’m one of the pioneers of independent music and sold records without no airplay,” he informed XXL in 2010. “I didn’t get a deal from coming up under nobody. No disrespect to Dr. Dre but I didn’t come up under Dr. Dre. I came up under E-40. I didn’t spit a hot 16 to get on.”
Despite any reservations that either man may have had in the past, it seems that any ill-feeling is now water under the bridge. At long last, E-40 and Dre’s paths will intersect on the upcoming project between 40 and the supergroup of Snoop, Too Short and Ice Cube. As if finally hearing the progenitors of Hyphy and G-funk collide wasn’t exciting enough, it was recently revealed that Dre will be the only feature on this historic project.
For Short and E-40, their lack of interaction with Dre is understandable in that just as they were blazing their own trails through hip-hop, the doctor was fighting to carve out his territory in NWA, as Death Row’s de-facto creative director, or by himself. With so many irons in the fire, it’s natural that a couple of dream collaborations would slip by.
But even after Dre had cemented his legacy and had switched over to more of an ambassadorial, behind-the-scenes role, there have been a few immensely successful West Coast artists that had to make their way without so much as a consultation from Aftermath’s founder.
Resoundingly endorsed by Dre’s former label boss, Suge Knight, YG is one such artist who has placed his stamp on the West Coast in his own, bravado-filled fashion. Busting out of the gate with the now legendary My Krazy Life in 2014, the Bompton MC was content to pay homage to his coast’s hip-hop lineage without feeling the need to actively interact with the artists that paved the way.
As the successes kept racking up and his chemistry with Mustard– who declared himself and YG to be the new Dre and Snoop-– continued to deliver the hits, YG turned his attention to forming his own label under the 4Hunnid banner. Much like E-40 before him, the lack of recognition he received from Andre Young eventually became a badge of honour for YG. On the notably G-funk-tinged “Twist My Fingaz,” YG took things a step further by declaring himself to be “the only one who made it out the west without Dre.”
Iconic as this rallying cry has become, it’s not entirely true. As when you look at the West Coast MCs that have sprung up in YG’s midst, there’s a strong class of Californian creatives that have not only fended sans Dre, but flourished while doing so.
Wrongly portrayed as the enemy of all 90’s hip-hop heads after some of his comments were blown out of proportion, the LBC’s Vince Staples has been a Dr. Dre fan since his elementary days.
But aside from sampling “Bitches Ain’t Shit” on “Blue Suede” and contributing a freestyle to Dre’s now defunct The Pharmacy on Beats 1, Vince’s career has splintered off into avenues that are far removed from Dr. Dre. Attuned to the sort of abrasive, bass-heavy beats that producers such as Officer Kenny Beats specialize in, Vince has mapped out his own style of presentation that makes for not only arresting verses, but one of the most captivating personas in modern hip-hop.
Willing to touch on everything from UK garage to hyper-pop, Vince’s eclectic approach is something that a man with as famously-diverse taste as Dre would appreciate. And when you consider that Vince has fostered close ties to fellow LBC native Snoop Dogg and even previous Dre collaborators such as Tray Deee, it seems that there’s still plenty of time for them to make magic happen down the road now.
However, where time is on Vince and Dre’s side, there are other LA-based rappers for whom the window to work with the iconic producer has tragically elapsed.
The embodiment of the West Coast in many ways, Slauson’s Nipsey Hussle was earmarked to be one of the West Coast’s new torchbearers from the very moment thatBullets Ain’t Go No Names Vol 1 hit the airwaves in 2008. Although he was insistent that he didn’t need any co-signs, both uncle Snoop and Game were quick to anoint Nipsey as next up. As the Bullets Ain’t Got No Names series gave way to The Marathon, Slauson Boy 2 and, finally, his 2018 debut LP, Victory Lap, Nipsey proved exactly why he’d accrued so much goodwill on the West Coast. But no matter how many glass ceilings Nipsey breached, the line from 2010’s “Keys To The City” in which Hussle revealed that “Dre passed, Def Jam, Capital, Atlantic too” continued to ring true.
Over time, this feeling of being overlooked by Dre would turn to bemusement, but eventually, lead to him venting his frustrations during a 2013 interview with Bootleg Kev.
“I felt like if I’m sitting back in the game, and I’m watching Nipsey Hussle, and I’m watching Dom Kennedy, and I’m watching YG at that moment developing a situation, I just felt like what I would do — I wouldn’t spend money… I wouldn’t necessarily offer financial support, but I would do what I do to these young dudes that I see. I would acknowledge they grind,” Nipsey said while discussing what seemed to be a lack of recognition on Dr. Dre’s part. “Because when it’s impossible to miss, and you don’t acknowledge it, that becomes intentionally not acknowledging it.”
Sadly, Nipsey would never get the audience with Dre that he believed that he and his contemporaries had earned. Consequently, the West Coast kingpin’s decision to honour Nipsey after his death was actually met with allegations of clout chasing.
However, what Nipsey and his counterparts have proven is that just because they haven’t linked with Dre, it doesn’t mean that their careers are incomplete. From E-40 to Vince Staples to Dom Kennedy and the late Nipsey, this undercurrent of West Coast artists serve as the rebuttal to the notion that if you need Dr. Dre on your side if you want to transcend being a Californian MC and become an international star. Instead, these artists have triumphed off of their merits. Thus, if they choose to work with the Aftermath icon down the line, it won’t be the sum total of their legacy, but just another feather in their cap.
When the Brooklyn Nets were assembled this season, pretty well everyone expected them to be a top-tier team in the league, especially with the addition of James Harden. Despite having three superstars on the roster, the three haven’t been on the court together very often, as James Harden and Kevin Durant have dealt with injuries, all while Kyrie Irving has taken some leaves of absence. It’s been tough for head coach Steve Nash, but he’s helped guide the team to a first-place performance in the Eastern Conference.
After a win against the Houston Rockets, the Nets officially took that aforementioned top spot. Nash was asked by reporters how he felt about the whole ordeal, and as you can imagine, he is both excited and proud of his team.
“First and foremost I’m really proud of our guys,” Nash said. “They’ve had a lot thrown at them this year. We’ve had a lot of different lineups. Tough schedule and a new group. You know we’ve had three new groups. It’s impressive.”
With Harden and Durant coming back soon, the Nets are expected to get even better and most fans have them going all the way to the NBA Finals. At this point, it seems farfetched that anyone would even stop them.
The biggest vixen in the game are showing love to Taina Williams. Models Lori Harvey, Jordyn Woods, Erica Mena and more have stepped up to celebrate the mother-to-be’s 23rd birthday. Lori Harvey + Jordyn Woods Celebrate Taina’s B-Day Williams initially went to her Instagram page with a stunning set of pics. The shots feature her […]
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After dropping off the impressive nostalgic nine-track project 2000AND4EVA in November, Bree Runway is finally back with her first single of 2021, the fiery summer-ready smash “HOT HOT.” In contrast to her 2020 release — which boasted eye-catching collaborations with artists such as Missy Elliot, Yung Baby Tate, Maliibu Miitch, and Rico Nasty — the London-born artist’s latest release is an entirely solo effort.
“HOT HOT” is a summer-ready anthem that’s bolstered by the catchy and self-assured hook, “You think you hot hot/You ain’t got it like me.” “HOT HOT” also arrives alongside a vibrant new Jocelyn Anquetil-directed music video, with gorgeous visuals that bring the confident and carefree aesthetic of the song to life. From shots of Bree Runway knocking out some choreography at a car wash to steamy shots of the UK multihyphenate twerking in an oily puddle, the music video for “HOT HOT” is just as dynamic as her single.
Get ready for the summer with Bree Runway’s blazing new single “HOT HOT,” and check out its music video below.
Quotable Lyrics
Oh my god, look at all my Dior on the floor
He blow a bag just to get in my drawers
Make him say ah like the boy is Trey Songz
It’s a runway, kitty, like her name is Kate Moss
Lil Tjay is ready to deliver his upcoming album Destined 2 Win, a project that features guest appearances from 6LACK, Polo G, Fivio Foreign, Moneybagg Yo, Offset, Saweetie, Toosi, and Tyga. Upon previously delivering a Mike Tyson-narrated album teaser, Lil Tjay has officially followed up with an extensive behind-the-scenes album documentary, uploading the nine-minute video to his YouTube channel.
In the opening shot, Tjay can be seen laying down an energetic reference track, an insight into his creative process. “I was locked up five years ago exactly,” he reflects. “I was blessed that I caught all my charges and got that phase out of me. It’s definitely a reminder that I don’t want to go back there.”
The voiceover continues as Tjay outlines his surroundings growing up in the Bronx, stating that he often found himself surrounded by people lacking ambition. As the documentary continues, Tjay opens up about several learning experiences he’s faced, teasing that many such reflections will be included on his upcoming project. “I named the album Destined 2 Win cause I always felt I had something in me that was going to be great,” he explains. “It’s a body of work to highlight my accomplishments.”
In an interesting moment, the documentary explores Tjay and his team meticulously arranging the album’s tracklist, revealing the rapper’s desire for a cohesive experience. It’s evident that the rapper is determined to make a lasting impact with this one, and though the jury is still out on the final project, the singles we’ve heard so far have certainly been promising. Should you be interested in catching Destined 2 Win when it lands at midnight, consider checking out the official Album Documentary (Episode 1) below.
Carmelo Anthony has been having a massive career resurgence with the Portland Trail Blazers and it seems clear that this team is better with him on the roster. While he may not be at the peak of his career anymore, he can still hang with the best of them and his scoring has helped turn the Trail Blazers into playoff contenders this season. Last night, the Blazers got to play the Detroit Pistons, and they blew them out by a 23-point margin.
Despite the win, Melo couldn’t help but comment on the Pistons’ attempts at distracting his team. Prior to the game, the Pistons used an incredibly strong fog machine, and as you can see in the photo below, Melo wasn’t having a very good time with it. “You guys love that fog machine huh?” Melo joked.
Luckily for the Blazers star, the fog machine didn’t slow him down as he came away from the game with 16 points and the dub. Regardless, on April Fool’s Day, it’s good to see Melo joking around and giving the Pistons some crap for their antics.
At 29-18, the Blazers are starting to close in on the Lakers for fourth in the Western Conference, which is something many fans wouldn’t have expected at the start of the season. Needless to say, Melo continues to make an impact.
If there is one thing that has defined this NBA season, other than COVID-19, it would most certainly be injuries. It feels like every big superstar has undergone some sort of setback, and we are seeing that right now with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The injury bug has also affected the likes of Kevin Durant, who is easily one of the best players in the sport. He has missed several weeks with a hamstring injury and he hasn’t exactly been rushing back to the court. In fact, things got worse for the Brooklyn Nets, as James Harden went down with a similar injury.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Nets shouldn’t be too worried right now as it appears as though Harden’s injury is only a day-to-day injury. As for Durant, he should be back soon, as he is taking the time to make sure he is 100 percent and ready to go once he does hit the court.
As Charania noted, had this been the playoffs, Durant would have rushed back sooner but at this point in the season, there really is no point in forcing the issue and coming back sooner than what would be comfortable. Either way, this is good news for the Nets, who are looking poised for a championship run.
Stay tuned for more NBA news throughout the day, as we will be sure to bring it to you.
Earlier this week, hit TV series The Voice surprised fans by announcing that a big-name star would be joining their roster. Ariana Grande is officially replacing Nick Jonas as a judge for the series’ 21st season this fall. But that’s not the only celebrity they’ve recruited. The Voice announced that Snoop Dogg will also be joining their team to coach contestants and share his advice on how to make it in the music industry.
The rapper broke the news about his new guest role Thursday. He’ll be joining Blake Shelton, John Legend, Kelly Clarkson, and Nick Jonas as a “Mega Mentor,” or someone who offers contestants advice ahead of the Battle Rounds, the segment where two contestants go head-to-head to deliver a rendition of the same song.
In a statement, The Voice shared their excitement about Snoop joining the show, saying: “Drawing from his unique experience in navigating the music and entertainment industry as a renowned rapper, producer, and performer, Snoop Dogg will impart a new and fresh perspective to help the artists craft their performances. Coaches alone choose the winner to advance from their team. Each coach has one steal in the Knockouts.”
Snoop’s official The Voice appearance will take place on 4/19 and airs at 8 p.m. EST. Tune in here.
