With Chika having recently secured her first Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, Spotify has opted to spotlight her work as part of the ongoing Spotify Singles series. Now, Chika has delivered two reimagined versions of both “U Should” and “My Future,” with the former kicking off the two-pack. While this new interpretation retains the same laid-back energy as the album version, the Spotify take of “U Should” is even more stripped-down than its predecessor.
Over a delicately finger-picked acoustic guitar progression and some lush production flourishes, Chika’s vocal chops are given room to soar, highlighting her versatility. As she transitions into rapping, the percussion enters the mix, imbuing the track with the spirit of an old-school jam session. What really shines however is Chika herself, who delivers each line with a refreshing clarity not often seen in a live rap performance. While it’s not entirely different from the studio version, the Spotify version of “U Should” emphasizes how talented Chika really is, and we can only hope she continues to explore this acoustic sound on further releases.
QUOTABLE LYRICS
I’m always in the position Of sipping my drink, tryna make a decision Of how I can shoot my damn shot with precision I swear that it’s harder than what I envisioned Cause mama got ass for days But hold herself well, she got class for days
Soulja Boy and WWE Superstar Randy Orton have been at each other throats online for the last few weeks. After Soulja said that the rap game is “faker than WWE”, a number of wrestlers came forward to call out the rapper, calling him a “one-hit wonder” and challenging him to get in the ring to see for himself what sort of pain they go through every night.
While the outcomes in wrestling are pre-determined for the most part, the bruises and scars that they suffer for the entertainment of the audience are certainly not fake. Randy Orton attempted to show that to Soulja Boy on Tuesday, tagging him on a picture of WWE’s Drew McIntyre and Sheamus showing off their wounds of war from their hard-fought match on Monday Night RAW. In doing so, he also called out Soulja’s relationship woes, taunting him and saying, “Which one of yo baby’s mommas do I send the bill to for making you relevant again?”
Soulja Boy has officially responded and he’s seemingly ready to hop into the squared circle. He got something off his chest first and fought back against Randy’s claims.
“Yeah that sh*t is fake homeboy,” he said. “And I don’t got no baby mommas fool. Looks like your the one looking for relevancy. Enough talking set it up so I can slide on u for the gang, u think sh*t sweet huh.”
He proceeded to take a swift jab at his new rival, pointing out the fact that he’s allegedly made much more money than Randy in his career. Sharing a graphic comparing their net worth earnings, Soulja pointed out that he’s worth $30 million compared to Randy’s $11 million. Then, he fired back with a low blow. “I can’t argue with a man that wears leather thongs,” he wrote.
Do you think this will lead to a fight between Soulja Boy and Randy Orton at WrestleMania?
E! recently announced that they’d be doing a True Hollywood Story based on Cardi’s life but apparently, that never received the rapper’s stamp of approval. Though grateful for the support the network has offered, she said that it couldn’t be a ‘true’ Hollywood story if she wasn’t involved. “I love E! and I always been grateful for all the love but I did ot approve of the E Hollywood Story. My life is my story. How can someone tell my story without asking me?” She tweeted.
Cardi didn’t deny that it wouldn’t be good but ultimately, she said she wanted to tell her own story when the timing was right. “I been thru & influenced by a lot of bad shit since a teenager That when I’m ready I will like to talk about,” she added.
Many will be looking forward to the day when she’s ready to tell her story. In the meanwhile, Cardi’s story on E!’s True Hollywood Story debuts on March 15th. Will you be tuning in?
The other day, we reported on how Azealia Banks and her fiancee, Ryder Ripps, recorded a sex tape to upload to the blockchain, and sell as an NFT. NFT, a non-fungible token, has currently become the word du-jour, with Jack Dorsey even hopping on the trend to sell the first-ever tweet as an NFT, and Grimes selling video art.
Basically, the idea is that you can own a piece of “digital art” – i.e. a meme, GIF, video, piece of text, etc, as a crypto token. These items, however, are all non-fungible, in the sense that they are unique to themselves and there does not exist any one similar. For example, you cannot trade Jack Dorsey’s first-ever tweet for another of Jack Dorsey’s first-ever tweets – it simply does not exist, it’s a one-off item. Whereas bitcoin is fungible, and can be traded for other identical bitcoin that are not irreplaceable.
Purchasing an NFT, such as Azealia Banks’ sex tape with Ryder Ripps, gives the buyer ownership over the item, which itself has cache. Now that we’re done unpacking the jargon, the update on Azealia and her man’s sex tape is that it sold for more than $17,000. At the time we first posted about, it was going for around $16,000.
The buyer is reportedly Rulton Fyder, who purchased it for the asking price– 10.00 ETH, or $17,240.40– nine hours after it was listed. Thus, Fyder now in full ownership of the audio, the WAV file, a 1 of 1 signed LP vinyl record, as well as rights for distribution and display.
The description for the audio sex tape NFT reads as follows:
This sale is for the full rights and sole access to the first audio sex-tape to be minted on the blockchain. Recorded in February 2021 by Azealia Banks and boyfriend, Ryder Ripps, this sound based artwork is sure to titillate for its full 24:22 duration. Upon purchase, a WAV file will be delivered to the buyer in addition to a 1 of 1 signed LP vinyl record. Full ownership, including limitless distribution and display rights are included in this sale. Don’t miss out on this historic & sexy event.
Following the sale, Azealia Banks has taken to her Instagram stories to further express her opinion on the crypto world, NFTs, and why she chose to sell a sex tape, as well as congratulate her lover on their sale.
“Literally- the most expensive NFT ever,” she revealed in the caption. “Dont you love how We came saw and conquered this shit in a matter of 48hrs? The fucking iconnery @ryder_ripps.”
In her stories, she started with a message on why she feels like “this crypto shit is a scam,” and continued in another story where she spoke directly on the selling of her audio sex tape, and why she did it. Azealia basically reasons that the value of sex will remain high in 100 years from now (alongside things like food and drink), while the value of “your goofy 3D cherubs,” for example, will evaporate. From there, she spirals into democratizing food.
The rapper wrote:
“I sold a sextape on blockchain because I honestly feel like a lot of the digital art being collected is worth zero.
100 years from now absolutely no one is gonna give two shits about your goofy 3D cherubs or your stupid ass fuzzy teletubby….
100 years from now people will still be having sex, eating food and drinking water.
I don’t understand the crypto enthusiasts’ democratization of wealth rhetoric when the fact that many people barely have access to clean water nad basic hygiene… Like can we democratize the food first?”
What do you think about her reasoning? Check out her full IG Stories below.
No matter what ends up happening on March 9th, today will forever be marred by the death of The Notorious B.I.G, who died on this day twenty-four years ago. By now, it’s no secret that Biggie is a lyrical genius, easily one of the culture’s defining writers and an enduring example of excellent penmanship. It feels appropriate to highlight one of the rapper’s many brilliant tracks — as well as one of his most depraved — in “Dead Wrong,” a posthumous collaboration with Eminem.
Over an unsettling horn-driven beat, Biggie gives all the way into his villainous urges, embracing all the thrills of hedonism and violence as he spits methodical and brutal bars. “Biggie Smalls for mayor, the rap slayer,” he spits, introducing himself to the unaware. “The hooker layer, motherfucker, say your prayers / Hail Mary, full of grace, smack the bitch in the face.” Not long after, he declares himself to be more ruthless than Lucifer himself, leaving little reason to doubt him. “Disrespect me, my potency is deadly,” he warns. “I’m shooting babies — no ifs, ands or maybes.”
Who better to match Biggie’s madcap depravity than Slim Shady himself, who steps in to close things off with a dexterous verse. By now, his opening stanza has become iconic. “There’s several different levels to Devil worshiping,” he spits. “Horses’ heads, human sacrifices, cannibalism, candles and exorcism / Animals, having sex with ’em, camels, mammals and rabbits / But I don’t get into that, I kicked the habit.”
Easily one of the most twisted duets in hip-hop history, especially when you factor in the combined level of lyrical excellence, “Dead Wrong” remains an essential part of both Biggie and Slim’s respective catalogs. Check it out for yourself now, and show some love to the late, great Notorious B.I.G in the comments below.
QUOTABLE LYRICS
Disrespect me, my potency is deadly I’m shooting babies — no ifs, ands or maybes Hit mummy in the tummy if the hooker plays a dummy Slit the wrist of little sis after she sucked the dick
Gucci Mane previously had high hopes for Asian Doll, one of his signings for the original 1017 Eskimo crew. She was onboard with Hoodrich Pablo Juan, Yung Mal, Lil Quill, Lil Wop, and others who worked under the Atlanta rap legend to grow their own burgeoning careers in the business. Unfortunately, they were not able to reach the same level of success as The New 1017 has, with Pooh Shiesty, Foogiano, and BIG30 garnering lots of attention from Guwop’s refreshed label.
Following her departure from 1017, Asian Doll went fully independent and saw her career grow tremendously. She is one of the more well-known women in rap and, through her connection to the late King Von, she’s only seen her profile be boosted. The rapper is plotting out her next moves to take over the rap game, manifesting a move to Yo Gotti’s CMG label, which she spoke into the world in a quick post-and-delete on Twitter this week.
“I can see me signing to Yo Gotti,” said the Dallas-based rap artist. “Only deal I’ll sign is a Yo Gotti Deal. Other then that I’m independent.”
Yo Gotti has not commented on Asian Doll’s tweets, but word will surely get to the mogul eventually. The 39-year-old icon has achieved great success as an A&R and businessman, working with Moneybagg Yo, Blac Youngsta, 42 Dugg, EST Gee, and other buzzing artists out of CMG. Could Asian Doll offer them some representation as the next best woman in rap?
Do you think Asian Doll is a good fit with Yo Gotti and CMG?
During an appearance on Uncle Nick’s Word On The Street podcast, China Mac watched the clip on the spot, the disgust on his face notable throughout. “First of all, he look like he was high,” notes Mac. “He was obviously speaking to somebody. We don’t have the video beforehand. I don’t know what’s going on, who is he talking to, he’s not just talking about Asian people period. He’s talking specifically to somebody — I don’t know what the dude said before. But just watching that clip…what I would want to say to him, is I hope that is not your feelings toward a whole set of people.”
“I hope that was just out of anger,” he continues. “I hope that was you being coked-up, drugged up, not in the right state of mind. I hope that’s not how you really feel, but if you do, fuck you. Suck a dick. If that’s how you truly feel, then fuck you. Eat a dick. But I hope he did it in a way he was upset, cause I know people say crazy shit when they’re upset. I’m not condoning it, but I know people can get upset.”
Gunplay defends his position.
Mac explains that he’s seen Asian people get upset and resort to racist language, and it doesn’t always equate to deep-rooted racist sentiments. Still, he encourages Gunplay to think about he might feel had he been on the receiving end of such a vitriolic rant. “I want people to understand that power has a lot of words,” he says. “If you not a fucked up person, I want you to understand, the shit you say can cause some dumb muthafucka to push an old lady in the train track. An old Chinese lady. All because of some shit your stupid reckless-ass said.”
“I hope that is not how you really feel, and that you wouldn’t perpetuate something like that,” he concludes. “But if that is how you really feel toward my people, toward Asian people, then fuck you. Suck my dick.”
Check out Mac’s measured take on the Gunplay situation below.
It’s rare for an artist to double back and shoot a video for a newly popular song from a year-and-a-half-old album, especially when the song in question wasn’t originally planned as a single or have a video in the first place. Yet, that’s exactly what Doja Cat did with the release of her video for “Streets,” the Hot Pink song from 2019 that became the basis for the red-hot Silhouette Challenge on TikTok. Capitalizing on the sudden viral success of the non-single in the middle of the rollout for her third album, Planet Her, Doja Cat has just made a case for a new paradigm for how artists should maneuver in this post-TikTok era.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Doja Cat can handle fame so well, or that she always seems perfectly equipped to ride the changing tides in the wake of a song’s breakout popularity. When she released her debut album Amala in 2018, it seemingly came and went without making much of an impact — and then she made “Mooo!” for fun in her bedroom with a sheet for a green screen and a silly rap about being a cow. Overnight, she became a sensation — then, rather than letting the buzz fade away or announcing a new project, she tapped into the colorful sights and sounds it turned out her newfound fanbase couldn’t get enough of.
Within a year of the breakthrough represented by “Mooo!”, Doja Cat had put out the videos for “Tia Tamera” with Rico Nasty and “Juicy,” adding all three new songs to the deluxe version of Amala nearly a year after its release, boosting it onto the Billboard 200 just as her second album, Hot Pink, was about to drop. Where any number of artists might have expected these successful viral hits to turn up on Hot Pink‘s tracklist, Doja instead used them to bolster sales of her debut, keeping the rollout for the new album wide open(-ish). A remix of “Juicy” featuring Tyga helped lift Hot Pink to No. 9 in its first week, despite the relatively lukewarm reception for its other singles, “Bottom Bitch,” “Rules,” and “Cyber Sex.”
But then, six months after the release of the album, TikTok user Haley Sharpe used “Say So,” a song that wasn’t planned as a single, as the backing track for a choreographed dance that caught fire on the app — and caught Doja Cat’s attention. With the dance lifting “Say So” to bonafide hit status on the app, Doja pivoted, turning the song into a single and fast-tracking the music video for it, employing Sharpe’s dance steps and giving the viral video star a cameo in the disco-esque clip. While constituting part of the trend of artists releasing singles and pushing TikTok engagement as a way to drive streams, the truly innovative aspect was Doja Cat’s willingness to not just “let the fans pick the single,” but to completely change her gameplan to incorporate the fans’ eager involvement.
With the release of the “Streets” video, she’s doubling down on that bet, against shifting gears in the middle of an album rollout to take advantage of the surprise boost in popularity of a track from her last album, rather than focusing adamantly on the future. This time, the song in question was even older — nearly 18 months past the release date of Hot Pink, past any album’s usual promotion cycle. However, this time, the Silhouette Challenge had caught flame, its popularity becoming so great that Doja herself was pulled into the fervor to contribute a TikTok video embracing the trend.
She also embraces the trend in the official music video, employing the same sultry crimson backlighting and poses as a nod to the challenge that prompted the video’s creation. Meanwhile, the video also incorporates high-concept visuals of Doja as a black widow spider, lending the video the air of months of planning, when in reality, it was created as a reaction to a sudden pop of interest and attention, not as part of a detailed plan to stimulate engagement in a past or upcoming project. But Doja’s previous experience with “Mooo!” reigniting interest in Amala likely informed her willingness to backtrack despite having a new album on the way.
The benefits are obvious; Doja directs the new fans discovering her through her viral moments back to her old projects, where they can begin to build rapport with her previous work, converting casuals into hardcore supporters. It also builds rapport with existing hardcore supporters, making them feel acknowledged, which they’ll in-turn reciprocate when the time comes to release her new project. And finally — and possibly most importantly in today’s fast-paced, saturated attention economy — it keeps all eyes on Doja to see what she’s going to do next, increasing her public profile, and generating more streams, never a bad thing at a time when touring is still effectively out of the question.
For proof of these benefits, look no further than Doja’s nearly tyrannical stranglehold over award shows and late-night television in 2020. She performed “Say So,” the song that wasn’t meant to be a single until fans made it one, no less than five times on high-profile shows like the MTV EMAs and VMAs, The Tonight Show, and the Billboard Music Awards — making her an inescapable, unavoidable household name. She also won Best New Artist at the Billboard Music Awards, just two years after her debut album failed to make an impact on the magazine’s charts. Her successes are duplicable — she herself has repeated the feat three times in as many years — and should be considered an example for all kinds of artists looking to maximize their media footprint.
With the advent of streaming and social media, the rules have changed seemingly every day, but one rule has remained absolute all this time: Content is king. To paraphrase the poet, the best-laid plans of mice, men, MCs, and media moguls often go awry, but being able to adjust on the fly might be the one skill that ensures that they all get lucky anyway. Doja Cat’s method of letting the tide take her to her next port of call would not only have been impossible before these new technologies came along, but the lukewarm success of her planned singles might have also ensured that she became known forever as a flop, relegating each new album to whatever shelf countless other underperforming projects have ended up sitting on.
Instead, by being open, creative, and willing to use her unprecedented access to fans’ whims, Doja Cat has demonstrated how an artist can not only serve their established fanbase but also weaponize them against industry expectations and the apathy of casual listeners. The positive feedback loop she created by refusing to get stuck to one idea of the perfect rollout has ensured that all of her rollouts end up being perfect — eventually. Wise artists and execs will take note, using the greater wealth of tools at their disposal to maximize their projects’ potential for success instead of writing them off and leaving money on the table. Meanwhile, Doja’s fans, old and new, will continue to eagerly await Planet Her to see what songs they can convince her to turn into hits next.
Billboard reports Triller Network, the company behind the popular Triller app, has acquired the popular “hits battle” streaming show Verzuz, giving its creators Swizz Beatz and Timbaland positions on the Triller management team. Swizz and Tim will also receive equity in Triller, which they say they will share with the 43 artists who have appeared on the show to date. Verzuz exploded in popularity last year after an impromptu hits battle on Instagram Live between the two veteran producers expanded into a full-blown concert series, complete with corporate sponsors like Ciroc.
Over its first year, Verzuz invited such guests as Alicia Keys, DMX, Gucci Mane, E-40Patti LaBelle, and many, many more legends in the game to appear, celebrating their musical legacy in a nostalgic style similar to a sound clash in the West Indies/Caribbean. With little else to do during a partial shutdown of live entertainment nationwide, fans tuned in by the thousands to watch these celebrations of artists who may no longer be trendy, but who have all contributed greatly to the broad spectrum of Black music culture.
Meanwhile, Triller, a video-creation app similar in function to TikTok, has been a fixture on many young music fans’ phones for a while, although it hasn’t received as much attention in that time as its neophyte competitor. It’s likely Triller Network is hoping that the Verzuz acquisition can bring an influx of attention similar to TikTok’s so that it can likewise become one of America’s primary social media obsessions.
