After the entire Hip Hop world and beyond were ecstatic for Snoop Dogg’s acquirement of his former label Death Row Records, but now according to a report from Billboard, the Dogg’s deal will bot include the most revered projects to be put out by “the world’s most dangerous label.”
The Billboard report states that Tupac is no langer a Death Row Records signee, which makes All Eyez On Me and The Don Killuminati: 7 Day Theory exempt from the Death Row deal. Dr. Dre’s multi-platinum album The Chronic is not included but will make it to the Death Row catalog next year.
The Death Row catalog remains under MNRK Music and Blackstone’s ownership as the negotiation for the music is still in the air. Snoop’s Bacc On Death Row album was the first to be released post-signing.
On this date in 1993, KRS-One and the rest of the Boogie Down Productions crew dropped the Sex And Violence album, which was the fifth and last album put out by the pioneering Bronx-based Hip Hop collective.
The album produced less than lackluster sales, partially, according to KRS, because of his incident where he threw PM Dawn rapper Prince B off the stage during one of their performances. Kris also used this album to address his beef with X-Clan because of KRS’ proclamation of humanism rather than embracing X-Clan’s aggressive form of Afrocentricity.
This album touched on many of the social issues of the time, including the rape trial of Mike Tyson on “Say Gal,” “Build And Destroy,” where he addressed his humanist views and “13 And Good,” where Kris talks about the commonality of statutory rape.
Salute to “The Teacher” and the rest of BDP including Prince Paul, Heather B and Kenny Parker for making this album an underground classic!
Jay-Z has just closed a six-year-long legal battle with Parlux, the perfume company that claimed he had stepped out on contractual obligations to promote his now-defunct fragrance.
Parlux was seeking nearly $68 million from Jay-Z. In November, a Manhattan jury found that Jay-Z was not liable in the $67.6 million in requested damages, but also found that Parlux did not have to pay Hov the $6 million in requested royalties after Jay-Z countersued. However, the appellate court ruled in favor of Jay, awarding Hov $4.5 million in royalties from past sales which he had requested during the trial last year.
“The record is clear: Parlux sold licensed products after July 31, 2015, but failed to pay royalties on those sales,” Justice John Higgitt wrote.
“Parlux invested $29 million into that venture – it upheld its end of the bargain – the defendants didn’t uphold their end of the bargain,” Parlux attorney Anthony Viola said in his closing arguments. “If the defendants had fulfilled the contract, if they have upheld their end of the bargain, Parlux would have had a runaway success. We would have netter $67.6 million in net profits.”
Alex Spiro, who represented Jay-Z, said that his client never wanted the product to fail, had a year’s time to make up for the appearances, and was never mandated to show up to the product’s launch event.
Parlux first sued Jay-Z in January of 2016. They claimed that Hov breached his contract and cost the company millions by not showing up to promotional events to promote the “Gold Jay-Z” cologne.
Snoop Dogg might just be the most famous rapper alive. You’ve seen him on TV with Martha Stewart, at the Super Bowl, on beer commercials, and even has ties to the Royal Family. His ties to Buckingham Palace were revealed in an interview with DJ Whoo Kid where snoop revealed that Queen Elizabeth II kept Snoop from being exiled out of the U.K.
“You got to embrace this shit because you used to be a young n*gga,” Snoop Dogg began. “N*ggas didn’t understand us when I was 17. Look at all of the footage of me when I was a young n*gga. They was trying to — they kicked me out the U.K.!”
Snoop was referring to how multiple U.K. tabloids ran stories that pushed for his exile during his first tour in 1994 due to his infamous murder trial that happened the year before where he was acquitted.
“Kick this evil bastard out,” he said, reading the headline from the tabloid. “Look at me, It’s a headline n*gga. That shit is documented. They had a picture of me on the front, I had a handcuff on one of my hands — this a picture I took. I got a handcuff on one of my hands — and the other one was off. I had my hands up like this and they didn’t like it. They was like, ‘Kick this evil bastard out.”
Snoop went on to say how Prince Harry and Prince William had apparently loved his music and convinced their grandmother to let him in the country.
“But guess who came to my defense? The Queen n*gga. The Queen said ‘This man has done nothing in our country he can come.’ The Queen n*gga, bow down. When The Queen speaks bow down.”
“That’s Harry and William’s grandmother you dig. You think you think they weren’t there saying ‘Grandma please let him in grandma he’s OK, we love his music.’ ‘You know Harry, I’ll let him in for you he’s not so bad after all and he’s quite cute.”
Snoop ended the clip by giving a shoutout to the Queen, who recently tested positive for COVID and was subject to rumors being spread about her death.
This week there has been a lot of misinformation spread about the Tory Lanez and Megan Thee Stallion shooting case. DJ Akademiks caught heat earlier this week for sharing a false report that said that none of Tory’s DNA was found on the gun used to shoot Megan. Megan, along with reporters from the New York Post and Rolling Stone, responded to Ak saying that DNA hadn’t even been introduced during the hearing.
Megan Thee Stallion responds to DJ Akademiks’s tweet about the Tory Lanez case: pic.twitter.com/gKhRCfmflH
To clear things up, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office sent a statement to HipHopDX regarding the case, saying that they believe there is strong evidence that supports the charges against Lanez.
“Although we are legally prohibited from commenting on the evidence and will continue to abide by that obligation, our office is under an ethical duty to only proceed on charges which we believe can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt and which have already been upheld by a judge after presentation of evidence at the preliminary hearing,” the statement read. “We believe the evidence substantially supports the charges and allegations and that evidence will be borne out in court.”
Earlier this week, Megan revealed text messages that Tory Lanez sent her following the shooting, apologizing for what he did. However, Lanez still maintains his innocence and says that he was apologizing for sleeping with Megan’s best friend Kelsey.
Megan Thee Stallion shares text message evidence of Tory Lanez apologizing for shooting her in the foot:
Slim Jxmmi is clear from battery charges. TMZ reported Wednesday that the “Black Beatles” rapper’s battery case was dropped after his girlfriend, Kiara, recanted her story.
According to police, Kiara walked back on her allegations and would no longer cooperate with authorities. As a result, prosecutors in Florida say they don’t have a good faith basis to file any battery charges against the 30-year-old rapper.
DaBaby and NBA YoungBoy have been growing their catalog together within the last year with songs such as “Jump,” “Thug of Spades,” and their most recent hits, “Bestie” and “Hit.” It has been previously announced that the pair are gearing up to release a collab album together.
During an interview in 2019, DaBaby named NBA YoungBoy one of his favorite rappers to the Rap Pack Podcast. “I know he don’t get the credit he deserves for his music because of the stigma that’s around him. I just listened to his last project and he’s like crazy talented,” DaBaby stated at the time.
Ahead of the upcoming project, it is rumored that the two will be releasing another single titled “Neighborhood Superstar.” It’s safe to say NBA YOung Boy has been spending a lot of time in the studio while on house arrest. Just a day ago, the rapper released an on-the-spot diss track to Lil Durk titled “I Hate Youngboy,” where the rapper took shots at Lil Durk and a few of his loved ones, hours after the Chicago native released his single “AHHH HA.”
DaBaby and NBA YoungBoy may be two of the industry’s most hated at this point, so a collab album from the two comes right on time. The album Better Than You will release on all streaming platforms on March 4th. Check out the artwork for the project below.
The Notorious B.I.G.’s second and final album, Life After Death, is turning 25. To commemorate the LP, Biggie’s estate announced Wednesday that they plan to release a limited edition 25th Anniversary Super Deluxe Box Set of the project.
According to reports, the box set will include eight vinyl LPs, a special commemorative booklet with rare photos from the Life After Death cover shoot, liner notes from from music writer and editor Sheldon Pearce, as and contributions from multiple people who were involved with Life After Death’s initial 1997 release.
Life After Death, which turns 25 on March 25th, boasts tracks like “Mo Money, Mo Problems,” “Hypnotize,” “Ten Crack Commandments,” and “Kick In The Door.”
The super deluxe box set drops on June 10th and retails for $179.98.
Kelly Rowland has had a long run in the music industry as we have watched her emerge from the dynamic girl group Destiny’s Child to a rising solo artist with hits such as “Lay it on Me,” “Kisses Down Low,” “ICE” and more.
Just last year, after releasing her single “Coffee,” Rowland would sign a management deal with Roc Nation. “It just really happened to work and it’s working out really well so far. My team, I have a great team. It’s not to say I didn’t have a great team before, had a great team before. You evolve, you move on and that’s really it and Roc Nation is home now.”
In a recent interview, Rowland revealed that Ciara’s “Like a Boy” was originally written for her after being asked if Destiny Child had a song given to someone else. “Not that I know of that I know of. That’s happened to me personally and I didn’t find out till much later,” Rowland stated. “‘Like a Boy,’ that was Ciara’s, was actually written for me.”
“Funny enough, she is honestly one of the closest things to me. We bonded over motherhood. I wonder if she knows that,” she continued. “I’ll make sure to call her after this. But yeah, it was so funny. I found that out later and I was like, ‘Wait, what?’ The writers and producers told me and they were like, ‘Yeah, we wrote that in your session.’ I was like, ‘No, you didn’t.’ I was so mad. But now I’m happy for my girl.”
While Rowland may have had the single first, there is no doubt that Ciara’s vocals and performance brought the song to life. Ciara released “Like a Boy” in 2006. Her music visual for the single was nominated in 2007 for “Best Choreography” at MTV’s VMAs and “Video of the Year” at the BET Awards.
2 Chainz is back in his DOPE DON’T SELL ITSELF bag for the new video “Kingpen Ghostwriter” featuring Lil Baby. The new video is the latest in a run from Chainz and kicks off with a woman strolling in a warehouse in a flowing dress. Chainz then emerges with three Dodge cars before bouncing verses back and forth with Lil Baby.
DOPE DON’T SELL ITSELF features Roddy Ricch, Lil Durk, Stove God Cooks, and more. You can tap into more of the album’s details and the full release here.
BETTER THAN YOU
NBA YOUNGBOY & DABABY
MARCH 4TH, 2022 
