EST Gee and 42 Dugg work fast. Just last week, the duo announced that they were dropping a joint mixtape, now they dropped a video. “Everybody Shooters Too” is another single from EST and 42’s forthcoming mixtape Last Ones Left.
These CMG label mates seem to have formed cohesiveness in the booth. Every time they link up, they drop a definite banger. From “Gang Members,” to “5500 Degrees” every time Gee and Dugg make a song, it’s always something the hood can appreciate.
Last week when they announced the arrival of a collaborative tape, they also released “Free The Shiners,” another video of these two hustlers flaunting the flowers of their labor.
This style of Hip-Hop may not be suitable for all people, but for the ones who do keen on EST Gee and 42 Dugg killing the beats, then they should feel “Everybody Got Shooters Too.”
Russ and Bugus have teamed up for the new record label DIEMON. The two independent acts started DIEMON as a collective in Atlanta in 2010. Now that Russ is no longer signed to Columbia Records, he partnered with Bugus for the label, in which the name is an acronym for “Do It Everyday Music or Nothing,” Variety reports. Most recently, Russ released his Chomp 2 album as an independent artist.
“Everyone owns their masters; everyone owns their publishing. We don’t eat on your merch or your tours, and everything’s a profit split deal,” Russ said. “We’re not looking to invest in an artist just to change their music. If we like an artist enough to sign them, it’s because we like what they’re doing. It’s just a super artist-friendly situation, where we’re here to provide resources and mentorship to artists that we believe in.”
“We don’t want to have to chase you around and beg you to come to the studio. We want the kind of artist that we need to pull out of the studio and be like, ‘All right bro, you’ve done five songs tonight, take a break,’” Bugus added. “There’s a lot of rappers who have a label but it’s all rap, or R&B artists have a label and it’s all R&B. We want to be more like the big labels in that sense, where they have Garth Brooks and Lil Wayne and Wizkid from Africa.”
The first signee to DIEMON is LaRussell, a hip-hop star form Vallejo, California. “If you look at what he’s doing with his music, he’s putting out a bunch of content all the time — dropping albums here, dropping songs there. With him I was like, ‘Man, do whatever you wanna do. Whenever you need me, hit me,’” Russ says of LaRussell.
The label is expected to operate with laid-back deadlines and financial transparency. Signed artists will be able to sign into their distribution platform to track their earnins in real time. With the start of his new label, the two hope to spark change across the music industry.
“I hope that artists recognize that they’re the nucleus. They have more power than they realize and there’s alternative ways to win, you don’t have to go the major label way. You don’t have to give up your masters and do all of these really exploitative things,” Russ said.
He may be one of the highest podcast hosts in the world, but Joe Rogan is also one of the most controversial. This week, he doubled down on his right to free and uncensored speech when he told his listeners that he would rather walk away from his lucrative $200 million Spotify deal than acquiesce to censorship.
Rogan’s issues stem from the controversial comments that he has made on his popular podcast in the past, specifically with regard to hot button social issues and Covid-19 vaccination misinformation (Rogan has expressed skepticism about the vaccine and criticized vaccine requirements). Rogan’s presence on Spotify caused several high-profile artists such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell to pull their content from the streaming platform. Earlier this year, a group of 270 doctors and scientists sent an open letter to Spotify in which they accused Rogan of peddling misinformation, calling him a ‘menace to public health.’ This led Spotify to add a disclaimer to Rogan’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience.
Rogan has also made many other controversial comments regarding transgender and racial issues, even using the n-word in the past, although he has expressed remorse, describing it as ‘the most regretful and shameful thing I’ve ever had to talk about publicly.’
On Tuesday, Rogan addressed his relationship with Spotify during an interview with MMA fighter Josh Barnett, saying “‘If I become something different because it grew bigger, I will quit. If it gets to a point that I can’t do it anymore, where I have to do it in some sort of weird way where I walk on eggshells and mind my p’s and q’s, f*** that!”
The conversation stemmed from Rogan’s musing that his critics would “go through every single one of his statements with a fine-tooth comb” in order to look for something to be offended about.
As of Wednesday evening, Spotify had not publicly addressed Rogan’s statements.
Hip-Hop and basketball are synonymous with each other. Over the eras, both arenas had key figures who stood at the forefront of this cultural partnership. Examining the landscape today, one of rap’s most influential representatives is Lil Baby. The friendship of the My Turn rapper and James Harden is chronicled throughout the media, and Baby’s love for hoops has bled into his philanthropic efforts. In December, Lil Baby teamed with another basketball lover in Hip-Hop, Meek Mill, to give back to the youth of Philadelphia in partnership with the 76ers. As fate would have it, Harden would soon join the ball club in one of league history’s biggest trade deadline deals.
Fast forward to March, and Lil Baby finds himself once again around basketball. This time with the stars of tomorrow. The superstar is in Chicago, pulling the double duty of being the halftime performer of the McDonald’s All American Game and spending time with the future of hoops like Amari Bailey, Dariq Whitehead, and Mark Mitchell on the hardwood of Wintrust Arena before the big game. Speaking with The Source ahead of his halftime performance, the positive impact of his presence is not lost on Lil Baby.
“They make me go harder,” Lil Baby said. “You have the want to go hard and get to a certain level of money. Then it’s like another feeling that can make you go hard too. It’s not about the money. It’s about the future. They look up to me. I could guide the future.”
Once it’s his time to perform, you see the importance of Lil Baby to Hip-Hop culture. Draped in an oversized coat, dripped in dancing diamonds, Lil Baby’s stroll onto the halftime floor is deafening. The players, who have spent the last week under the spotlight, immediately turn into fans. As Lil Baby moves across the court to service areas of the crowd with verses from “We Paid,” “Drip Too Hard,” and more, the entire Boys and Girls teams follow him, nearly embodying a new wave of security. Fans from courtside to the top row are enamored with every word he raps. A sign that his forthcoming music will have, at minimum, the same rate of success as his last album.
Lil Baby knows he broke a 60-year-old Billboard record on that last album, but that’s not what his concern is. “I seen that somewhere,” he said. “I seen it the other day. That’s hard, but I’m not the type to get into that.”
Lil Baby’s focus is on what next. Weeks back, he put Hip-Hop on alert. His version of JAY-Z telling the game, “Y’all got less than two months to get y’all thing together” at the end of “Show Me What You Got” in 2006. Lil Baby kept it coy when asked for an update, “You’ll see in the summer. It’s definitely coming, though.” After some prodding, he became a bit more lenient.
“I gotta start out early. So the whole summer could be up. It ain’t gonna be late summer.”
Chris Rock started his Ego Death comedy tour that will run through a majority of 2022. Rock was in Boston to take the stage for his first show and fans both in the building and around the world were eager to hear what the comedy legend had to say. According to Variety, he decided to stray away from talking about the slap from Will Smith.
“How was your weekend?” Rock opened the set. “I don’t have a bunch of shit about what happened, so if you came to hear that, I have a whole show I wrote before this weekend. I’m still kind of processing what happened. So, at some point I’ll talk about that shit. And it will be serious and funny.”
During Rock’s opening moments on stage, a fan yelled “Fuck Will Smith.” Rock would not acknowledge the statement and proceeded to say “I’m going to tell some jokes. It’s nice to just be out.”
Chris Rock just addressed the Will Smith #Oscars slap for the first time during a sold-out stand-up show in Boston. https://t.co/Keka0MVhSd
The Boston show is one of six at The Wilbur theater. According to WCVB – Boston, Wednesday had two shows. A lengthy ovation led to an emotional moment as Chris Rock began to wipe away tears on stage.
“I’m still kind of processing what happened,” Rock said. “At some point, I’ll talk about that shit and it’ll be serious, it’ll be funny.”
Diddy said that Chris Rock and Will Smith were still good following the slap heard around the world, but his brother comedian Tony Rock said don’t break out the olive branches just yet.
Chris Rock’s younger sibling Tony Rock held a Q&A on Twitter yesterday, where he answered questions about his brother Chris getting slapped on stage at the Oscars on live television. When one of the participants asked Tony whether he accepted the apology, Tony replied matter of factly with a resounding, “No.” Asked by another if he and his brother were going to “fight fire with fire” or take “the professional route,” Rock responded, “It’s on bro.”
Rock himself finally addressed the ordeal during a stand-up set at The Wilbur in Boston and told the audience, “I’m still trying to process what happened.”
J. Prince already got Kanye West and Drake to share the stage once. He is asking again and petitioning Nicki Minaj and more to appear in a Hip-Hop shop opposite the Grammys. The ask comes days after Kanye West was banned from performing at the award show in Vegas.
J. Prince called for the change on Instagram, in a video clip containing his voice asking to make a change and not looking toward the Grammys for validation.
“I’ve been watching the Grammys control and dictate our culture to their benefit up close and personal for the past 30 years,” J Prince said. “And all the artists, managers and executives would do is complain, but never have the nuts to come together to do anything about it.”
He added, “This is a slave master, punish a nigga mentality and act to remind us that no matter how much money we have, we’re still niggas in their eyes. So they cancel Kanye and discriminated against Drake, The Weeknd, Nicki Minaj and many others over the years. This will only be broken by us uniting our powers to bring about change moving forward.”
J. Prince would close his request by bringing the No. 1 genre in the world to come together for a special show.
J. Prince is taking matters into his own hands after the Grammys confirmed that they rescinded Kanye West’s invitation to perform at the award ceremony this year.
J. Prince’s words are similar to those of Dame Dash. TMZ caught Dash in the airport and let out a clear statement: “Ye don’t give a fuck about the Grammys. We’ll make our own Grammys.”
“I’m not trying to fit into somebody else’s system,” Dash added. “So we just create our own so we ain’t gotta worry about nobody else’s rules. … It’s not for them to judge who’s hot. It’s for us. They really shouldn’t be giving us the awards. We should be giving them the awards. They gotta respect our culture.”
The Houston Hottie is continuing to push the needle. Megan Thee Stallion became the first female rapper to take the stage at the Oscars. Thee Stallion performed a verse in the world-premiere performance of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from the film Encanto. Thee Stallion performed alongside Becky G and Luis Fonsi.
“I was so nervous before I went out. And it was the first female rap performance at the Oscars ever!” Thee Stallion told Entertainment Tonight. “It feels like, ‘Yeah, I did that. Now what?’”
I literally was just in Puerto Rico less than 24 hrs ago performing, my dress had just came in last night from India, and that was thee FIRST FEMALE RAP PERFORMANCE at the OSCARS ever ! Im definitely in grind mode
A$AP Rocky is moving into the world of spirits. The New York City music and fashion superstar has announced Mercer + Prince, a new Canadian whiskey created alongside Global Brand Equities and E & J Gallo.
According to Billboard, the new spirit is named after Rocky’s favorite intersection in his hometown of NYC. The new whiskey is a hybrid of vanilla, caramel, and baked apple flavor.
“I’m so excited and grateful to finally introduce Mercer + Prince to the world,” founder Rocky said in a statement to Billboard. “I have been learning about whisky from all over the world for the past decade and wanted to defy the rules to create something unique, while honoring and respecting industry traditions.”
Chris Rock’s brother Tony Rock is calling cap on Diddy’s report that Chris and Will Smith are good following their viral Oscars moment. Tony was on Twitter answering questions from his fans when questions about his brother’s state poured in. The main takeaway is a sharp reply of “Yep” when asked was Diddy lying about the two patching up the moment.
Diddy was the first presenter to hit the stage following Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars. Diddy stated they would fix the issue like a family at The Gold Party after the ceremony, he later revealed to Page Six that it was solved at the Vanity Fair event.
“That’s not a problem. That’s over. I can confirm that,” Diddy said. “It’s all love, they’re brothers.”
Page Six also notes Rock and Smith agreed to work out their issues after the ceremony. You can see where Diddy had to operate on the fly during his presentation below.
Sean Combs addresses that wild Will Smith and Chris Rock moment at the #Oscars: “Will and Chris, we’re gonna solve that like family at the Gold Party.” pic.twitter.com/5r6WHHBdeE
