Lil Baby was not kidding when he said he planned to take over 2022. The rapper has been relentless over the past couple of months as he prepares to release his upcoming yet-to-be-titled third album. Last month, Baby kicked things off with a pair of singles, “Right On” and “In A Minute,” which officially launched his 2022 campaign. He continued with the recently-released “Frozen,” a record that captured his laser-focused approach to the world. For his latest act, Baby teamed up with Memphis Grizzlies’ star point guard Ja Morant and Beats By Dre to preview a new song in a recent commercial.
The commercial was released prior to the Grizzlies game three playoff game against the Golden State Warriors. The 90-second black-and-white ad is soundtracked by Lil Baby’s unreleased track, “Dark Mode,” which the Atlanta rapper uses to comment on his position in the game while keeping his eye on the prize and keeping his family close.
“Ja has been one of my favorite players to watch,” Lil Baby said in a press release. “We’ve been locked in. This is not my first time partnering with Beats, but we took it up a notch with this original song. The world gets to experience ‘Dark Mode’ for the first time in a way that’s crazy!”
It remains to be seen whether or not “Dark Mode” will appear on Baby’s upcoming third album.
Beats by Dre (Beats) teams up with Grammy Award-winning artist Lil Baby and NBA All-Star Ja Morant in its latest campaign. The 90-second video will air in Game 3 of the NBA Playoffs, during which Morant will be playing.
The campaign is centered around Lil Baby and Ja Morant’s friendship and mutual admiration, which ultimately led to Lil Baby writing “Dark Mode” about the player. Both the track and the campaign play off Morant’s ethos around basketball, which can be summed up with the phrase, “welcome to the dark.” While many want to bask in the spotlight, one’s work ultimately illuminates itself as a result of relentlessly honing their craft in the darkness.
Lil Baby’s track focuses on “going into dark mode,” a behavior which has ultimately made Morant one of the most exciting players to watch in the league. The spot also visually reflects darkness, with both superstars appearing solely in monochromatic black and white throughout the entirety of the video.
“Ja has been one of my favorite players to watch. We’ve been locked in,” said Lil Baby. “This is not my first time partnering with Beats, but we took it up a notch with this original song. The world gets to experience ‘Dark Mode’ for the first time in a way that’s crazy!”
Beats first partnered with Lil Baby on its 2020 award-winning campaign titled “You Love Me,” while Ja Morant was recently signed as an ambassador to the brand. In the new spot, Lil Baby sports Beats Studio Buds in Moon Gray and Morant wears Beats Studio Buds in Sunset Pink, available exclusively at Target.
Dr. Dre famously said he became hip-hop’s first billionaire (a title actually held by Jay-Z) back in 2014 when he sold Beats Electronics to Apple, but his boasting about it caused an ungodly amount to get cut from the final sale price. According to HipHopDX via The New York Times reporter Tripp Mickle’s new book, After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul, when Dre talked about the deal in a video posted on social media, Apple took the sale down $200 million due to a confidentiality clause in the initial $3.2 billion agreement.
If you don’t remember, the video was posted to Facebook by Tyrese, who was hanging out in the studio with Dre, both apparently drunk. As they shouted out South Central Los Angeles (Tyrese is from Watts, Dre is from neighboring Compton), Tyrese boasted that “the Forbes list just changed,” referring to the publication’s annual lists of top earners in the world of hip-hop. Dre backed up the brag, touting himself as “the first billionaire in hip-hop.” Interscope founder Jimmy Iovine, Dre’s partner in Beats, found out about the video from Diddy, who called him in the middle of the night after the video went up, prompting him to panic as Dre and Jimmy were invited to Apple’s headquarters by CEO Tim Cook.
They worried that the deal would get the ax, but instead, Cook used the opportunity to save Apple some money, adjusting the sale price by $0.2 billion. Ultimately, the deal worked out; Dre got to keep his boast, and Apple got to keep Beats, which is still paying off to this day. And really, what can you buy with $3.2 billion that you can’t get with $3 billion (although I’m sure he’d have loved the extra $100 million to give to his ex-wife)?
Lil Baby and Ja Morant are two young stars dominating their respective fields. Lil Baby, the Hero, is currently the face of the Hip-Hop youth movement. At the same time, Ja is presently the most electrifying sports figure and will most likely be one of the more influential NBA players for years to come.
Despite having two different career paths, Beats By Dre saw the commonality between the two stars. The Beats company is aware of the grip Ja Morant and Lil Baby have over the youth. Thus they called on them for their new commercial.
Lil Baby, who is set to take over the summer, has been the unofficial leader of the new school. He’s participated in providing the sounds in the High-school McDonald’s All-American basketball game, and he recently performed at the 2022 NFL Draft.
Morant is averaging 30.5 points per game as his Memphis Grizzles team faces a tough Golden State Warriors squad. The series between him and Steph Curry is tied, but Morant’s popularity is rising among the youth.
Meanwhile, Lil Baby plans to drop an album soon. He’s been saying it’s his turn all year, and we’ve slowly witnessed him taking over. As we await the 4 Pockets Full President to drop his album, we can enjoy his latest new joints. This month already, Lil Baby has dropped “Right On,” “Frozen,” and “In A Minute.”
A new Diddy and The Weeknd single may be on the way. Fans got a taste of new music in the latest Beats By Dre campaign. The new Made In LA commercial features NFL prospect Kayvon Thibodeaux as he walks through Los Angeles, trains, and runs drills on a field.
The commercial opens with a voice narrating anecdotes about Thibodeaux’s life. “He didn’t arrive just from nowhere,” the voice says, “We put a lot of prayer into that boy.” In the background, we hear The Weeknd crooning and humming, before the audio cuts to a verse from Diddy.
“All I am is a man with ambition to be the best / When I failed they just gave me the vision to see the rest / Wasn’t even ready when God gave me the test / So I pray you find love in the pieces of me that’s left,” raps Diddy.
The screen then cuts to show a pair of the new Beats Fit Pro headphones, from Beats By Dre, as The Weeknd sings, “Another one of me won’t come around.”
Neither a title nor a release date for the collaboration was revealed, however, it is likely the song will appear on Diddy’s upcoming album, Off The Grid, Vol. 1.
Today we celebrate the birth of one of the most influential figures in Hip-Hop. Not only was this man the first rap billionaire, but he was also an instrumental part (literally and figuratively) in the creation of a new sub-genre of rap known as G-Funk. The living legend is described is none other than Dr. Dre.
Andre Romelle Young was born in Compton, California on February 18, 1965. He was the first child born to Theodore and Verna Young. His father had a history in music and was a member of an amateur R&B group called The Romells from which Dre gets his middle name.
In 1986, Dre met O’Shea Jackson aka Ice Cube while collaborating on some music for Ruthless Records. Ruthless Records was a famous record label founded by N.W.A. member Eazy-E and west coast rapper Ice-T. These two are widely credited with starting the gangster rap movement on the West Coast. This meeting and the addition of MC Ren birthed one of the greatest music groups of all time, N*ggaz With Attitude.
After a disagreement with Eazy-E, Dre decided to leave N.W.A. to build his own musical empire. Due to advice given to him by his close friend and fellow rapper, The D.O.C., and his bodyguard at the time, Suge Knight, Dre became the flagship artist of Death Row Records, a label started by Knight in 1992. On Death Row Records, Dre released his first solo album titled The Chronic. This album cemented Dr. Dre’s place as one of the top rappers out of California. While working with Death Row, Dre produced the majority of new artist Snoop Dogg’s music helping him in his rise to superstardom, along with tracks for 2Pac who was also a label member.
In ’96 due to a disagreement between Knight and Dre, Dre left Death Row to build his own label called Aftermath Records. This changed the path of Dre’s career forever. The growth began when the head of Interscope Records, Jimmy Iovine, suggested that Dre sign white rapper Eminem. The success of Eminem’s music made Dr. Dre not only one of the most respected rappers/producers in the game but also one of the more powerful moguls.
Dr. Dre was set to release his third album Detox in 2007 but decided to not and instead produce for other artists. Since then Dre has been mostly behind the scenes shaping the current state of rap music. Most recently he produced the uber-successful N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton, which has created a rise in N.W.A. support from a new generation. His third studio album, Compton, was released shortly after the film and finally ended the long wait for more work from Dre.
The life and career of Dr. Dre is one that has been able to make Rap and Hip Hop what they are today. Without his influence, who knows where rap music would be today. From everyone at The Source, Happy Birthday Dr. Dre, may you have many more success filled years.
Vince Staples’ musical output is an ever-evolving thing. When he started out, his music was abrasive and almost contrarian, intentionally flying against the prevailing wind of hip-hop’s mainstream sound. However, over time, he’s mellowed out, at times flirting with a more accessible sound, most noticeably on the hyperactive FM! and the depressive sound of his 2020 self-titled album. In recent months, signs have pointed to that flirtation becoming a full-blown love affair on his long-awaited album, Ramona Park Broke My Heart, which could be the moment he goes from critical darling to fan-favorite superstar.
First, he tapped DJ Quik earlier this year to help finish the project, and now, it’s clear he’s been working with another West Coast hitmaker in Mustard. A song Vince created with the latter has appeared in the unlikeliest of places: a new Beats By Dre ad featuring tennis superstar Naomi Osaka. In the ad, Osaka is shown putting in a brand-new pair of Beats headphones on the tennis court and laying on the net like a hammock while the new song, “Magic,” plays. Judging from the party-ready vibe of the single, it sounds like Staples is actually making a play for radio and playlist love for a change and he sounds every bit as cozy on the Mustard-standard beat as Osaka looks in her makeshift hammock. Staples’ Instagram post promises more on the way, and we can’t wait.
