Hip-hop veteran T-Pain isn’t afraid to admit defeat. During a recent Drink Champs interview with N.O.R.E., he dishes out on who would beat him in a Verzuz battle. T-Pain Admits Who’d Beat Him In A Verzuz While he backed up his own tracks, T-Pain says Atlanta rapper Future would win in a faceoff – in […]
Music and sports have intertwined on countless occasions. There are a number of professional basketball players, including Damian Lillard, Javale McGee, Lou Williams, Marvin Bagley, Iman Shumpert, and others, that have successfully tested their skills in the studio. James Harden isn’t a rapper, and he’s not trying to be one, but he’s close friends with lots of the biggest rap stars in the world.
Over the years, we’ve seen JH13 form friendships with Lil Baby (revisit their antics in Paris here), Travis Scott, and more. It was only right for him to become the latest tastemaker to come through for Spotify’s new hip-hop/R&B playlist Taste, curating a page of his favorite music right now.
Harden has taken over the playlist until the end of this month, and he obviously had to add songs from his best buds La Flame and Lil Baby. Respectively, “way back” and “All In” were both highlighted on Taste. The extent of Harden’s personal music preferences is shown, with additions from Nipsey Hussle (“U See Us”), Lil Uzi Vert (“Sauce It Up”), Future (“Jumpin On A Jet”), and more.
“Music is the driving force behind my day to day motivation,” said Harden. “On the days that I lack, music helps me get the job done, in every area of my life. Curating a playlist for Spotify is an extension of what I do in my daily life. I find music I believe in, and I put people on.”
Check out the playlist below, which also features music from 42 Dugg, EST Gee, Chris Brown, Meek Mill, Roddy Ricch, Bino Rideaux, H.E.R., Gunna, and more.
Even the most avid and obsessed NBA fanatics probably know little about Janis Timma, the 29-year-old player from Latvia. Timma was drafted back in 2013 as the Memphis Grizzly’s 60th overall pick, but his NBA career petered out by the time his second season came around. However, Timma finally returned to the NBA from the EuroLeague this Summer for the NBA Summer League, and it seems fans can’t get enough of the tatted up European. On Monday, Timma became an immediate Twitter phenomenon with memes and praise alike for his impressive role in leading the Orlando Magic to victory against the Golden State Warriors in Las Vegas.
“Latvian sharpshooter Janis Timma quickly becoming a fan favorite for #OrlandoMagic at #NBASummerLeague, making his debut at 29 years old,” one Twitter user remarked about Timma’s performance. Not only did Timma catch the attention of fans with notable momentum- 11 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 blocks– but also with his eccentric look. Marked by bleached hair and tattoo sleeves on both arms, Timma received Eminem and vampire comparisons alike while others compared his tattoo sleeves to former NBA big man Chris “Birdman” Anderson.
Fans are now theorizing that if Timma can keep this run going, he could find himself with a contract with the Magic by the end of the Summer. His years of experience in the EuroLeague could be of great help to the team now straddled with players in their early ’20s.
“Nice, Eminem plays for the Orlando Magic Summer league team” and “This is a 2K create-a-player” both caption some of the hilarious tweets you can check out below.
Jay-Z’s empire continues to grow with his latest money move. Per CNBC, the rapper is among a new bunch of investors to back Michael Rubin’s sports merchandising company Fanatics. Rubin’s company is now valued at $18B after securing another $325M in investor funds. Fanatics’ latest financial stride will help them expand outside of simply merchandising. While Fanatics is expected to make $3.4B this year, the company is hoping to jump into other industries like sports gambling.
Hov has been making major plays since the top of the year. It was announced at the top of the year that his champagne brand, Ace Of Spades, entered a joint partnership deal with LVMH’s spirit’s branch, Moet. The rapper retained 50% of the company as its valuation spiked at $630M.
Along with his liquor deal, the rapper’s ventures into the cannabis industry have been fascinating. Monogram is Jay’s luxury cannabis line which is expected to produce upwards of 900,000 pounds of cannabis flower.
Additionally, Jay-Z’s TIDAL deal made massive airwaves after Square acquired an 80% stake in the streaming service for $302M.
On a music-related tip, Hov recently reunited with Kanye West for the first time in years for DONDA. Shortly after attending the second listening party in Atlanta, Justin LaBoy announced that Jay and Kanye would be locking in for Watch The Throne 2 and dropping it before the year ends.
Most celebrities today post all their moves, leaving constant breadcrumbs for fans to digest and (over) analyze. Everything from chill days in the studio with collaborators, to the behind-the-scenes clips from video shoots, are often shared for the whole world to see.
Beyonce takes a different approach to her celebrity status, remaining off of social media unless for promotional purposes. This leaves the Beehive in the dark until the rare occasion Queen Bey does an interview. Harper’s Baazar struck gold with an in-depth cover story that revealed things fans have been dying to know.
Some critics in recent times have claimed that Beyonce was more transparent earlier in her career, but the singer has no time to ruminate on the past.
She told Harper’s Baazar, “I’ve fought to protect my sanity and my privacy because the quality of my life depended on it. A lot of who I am is reserved for the people I love and trust. Those who don’t know me and have never met me might interpret that as being closed off. Trust, the reason those folks don’t see certain things about me is because my Virgo ass does not want them to see it….It’s not because it doesn’t exist!”
It’s been two years since the release of the soundtrack for The Lion King and five years since Lemonade changed the trajectory of her career. Beyonce announced that during her hiatus, she has been working on a new project.
The 28 time Grammy winner stated, “I feel a renaissance emerging, and I want to be part of nurturing that escape in any way possible. I’ve been in the studio for a year and a half. Sometimes it takes a year for me to personally search through thousands of sounds to find just the right kick or snare…After 31 years, it feels just as exciting as it did when I was nine years old. Yes, the music is coming!”
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Lil Baby has multiple chart-topping projects and songs, and he’s apparently working on something else that will generate some attention: a collaboration with Drake. He and Drake have linked up on some tracks before, and this time, Baby says he’s actually going to put effort into his lyrics, which he admits he tends not to do.
In a video of him chatting with a jewelry store associate, he said:
“I ain’t gonna lie, I got a song for him right now. I done went to the studio like two times. I ain’t feel it yet. But it’s like a slow song. All the slow songs, they really — and then it takes me longer to rap ’cause like, I don’t really care what I say on a song, you feel me? I just freestyle. But with Drake, I be trying to think about it. And that’s what makes it harder for me ’cause like, I’m thinking. When I don’t even think, I just rap. So then like, ’cause it’s Drake, I get kind of like, damn… So I gotta make sure. Now it’s kind of like, eh. But my next album, I’m writing it. Every song, I’m writing it. So it’s gonna be more detailed. Right now, I freestyle, only the top of my brain comes out.”
That’s not the only collaboration Baby has coming: he and The Weeknd seem set to appear on Kanye West’s first Donda single, and he seems to be working on something with Andre 3000 as well.
Check out the clip below.
Chris Brown traveled across the pond to spend some quality time with Ammika Harris, the mother of his son, Aeko, as evidence by reports on Monday. The two are reportedly not officially together at this time, but the reunion is sparking speculation of a reconnection that may be more than just familial.
Ammika decided to stay put with Aeko in Germany when COVID-19 hit, leaving Chris a world away from his son while he was quarantining in California. The last time the parents were spotted together was in October, when Chris was finally able to see his son, sharing a sweet picture to Instagram of the family reunion.
Now, almost a year later, the parents have been spotted out at dinner in Greece, with what appeared to be a large group of friends. Shots captured by the paparazzi show the two having a conversation across at the dinner table.
Ammika’s updates to her Instagram story revealed the two got in some family time after their night out, too. On Tuesday, the model shared a boomerang of the family lounging on a boat in the Mediterranean, while Chris playing with Aeko and his daughter, Royalty. The video appears to be from a few days ago, as Chris posted a picture of the same thing along with more family photos during the weekend.
Fans praised the former couple in the comments of TheShadeRoom‘s post for being mature parents, and doing what is in the best interest of their son. One stated, “Good to see him having a healthy relationship with his kids mother regardless if they’re together or not.”
Things seem platonic for now between the two, but only time will tell.
T.I. and wife Tameka “Tiny” Cottle recently celebrated their eleventh wedding anniversary with an extravagant evening – and a new Mercedes-Maybach SUV was the centerpiece. The couple hitched together in July 2010, and have weathered different marital issues and couples counseling to keep strong, much of which has been highly-publicized, whether it be through their own reality TV show or through blog headlines.
Nonetheless, the new gift from T.I. shows signs of a strong marriage, despite Tiny’s motion to file for divorce from him back in 2016.
“Feeling a lil rich this week….. Happy 11th Anniversary Mrs H,” T.I.’s anniversary post caption says. “Feeling rich” indeed – a 2021 Mercedes-Maybach SUV starts at around $160,000 retail price, while different customization options can easily push that price tag well over $200,000+. The long form Instagram video that T.I. shared shows a romantic path of red rose pedals eventually leading to the new car, which has split colors of silver on the top and black on the bottom.
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Tiny left a thoughtful response to her anniversary gift in the comments of T.I.’s video. “He got a lil tear out of me!! I love u baby! Thank you for this amazing entry home to my New Baby! U are full of love & great surprises!! Still celebrating love #11yrs,” she said in the comments.
The couple also embarked on an international journey to Amsterdam for their 11th wedding anniversary, which Tiny recently documented on her Instagram page. Check out photos from their trip below.
The married couple have been under heavy critical fire in the national spotlight in 2021 for allegedly being complicit in the sexual assault of multiple victims over the years. In March, a lawyer sought to move forward with a criminal investigation against the pair, after letters from the victims, detailing their experiences, came to light and were shared with The New York Times. More recently, speculation arose that their longstanding T.I. & Tiny: Friends & Family Hustle show may have been canceled as a result of the allegations against the two.
What do you think of Tiny’s anniversary gift? Let us know in the comments below.
On July 16th, Biz Markie passed away at the age of 57. His memory was celebrated by his many fans and hip-hop peers, with countless people queuing up hits like “Just A Friend” in his honor. Following his death, Biz’s longtime DJ and friend DJ Cool V caught up with HipHopDX for an extensive interview. While many topics are covered, one of the more surprising moments stems from a sad revelation about Biz Markie’s biggest hit.
First, V explains a bit about the track’s creation, highlighting their creative chemistry and trust with a behind-the-scenes story. “I got [Biz] in the booth and he was singing, and even though it might not be perfectly correct to anybody else, the feeling of it was good,” reflects Cool V. “He had his fist balled up and he was really trying. He was really, really crooning and I said, ‘That’s it.’ And he had one take. Then he had another take that was not as good as the first one. Right?”
““Everybody called us crazy,” he continues. “Like, ‘Yo, you going to really let him do that?’ I said, ‘Man, he feeling it. I got a good feeling about this record.’ And we did it. It just took off. It morphed into something that we could never imagine.” While “Just A Friend” would go on to be a game-changer for the duo, its success was also bittersweet. As V explains to DX, neither he nor Biz made any money off the song — not even to this day.
“The sweetness comes in that we were able to perform it for almost 31 years,” reveals DJ Cool V. “And now comes the other side of it — we never made money off the record. I still haven’t got paid for that record…We made the money off the shows and we had a great performing career. But now it gets back to the bittersweet because every time I hear it, it’s going to remind me of Biz, but it’s also going to remind me of how I can’t make more money off of it. Everybody’s feeding their family off our work and we’ve never made money off that record.”
WATCH: Biz Markie – Just A Friend
While he doesn’t elaborate on the business dealings that left the pair high and dry, HipHopDX points to a problem that has plagued many young and eager artists: a lopsided recording contract. It’s certainly unfortunate to see how many veteran emcees continue to face the negative ramifications of early-career business blunders. Consider that only recently, De La Soul was able to wrest control of their music catalog back from Tommy Boy.
Rest in peace to Biz Markie; while neither he nor DJ Cool V may have made a dime from the song, we can only hope that V takes solace in the joy it brought to the masses. For more from Cool V, check out the full interview over at HipHopDX.
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It’s been five years since Beyonce released her groundbreaking album Lemonade. While the singer has been hard at work on other projects since, like recording the soundtrack to The Lion King and making cameos in projects for other artists, fans have been patiently awaiting her new era of music. The Beyhive can finally rejoice as she has confirmed her music is coming sooner rather than later.
The last we heard about the possibility of new music from Beyonce, the singer had revealed she was cooking up some tunes when talking with her former Destiny’s Child crew. But the singer has now sat down with Harper’s Bazaar for a rare interview where she chatted about her career and the status of her impending release. Beyonce spoke to the difficulties we as a society have faced over this past year, saying that she hopes to offer escapism through song:
“With all the isolation and injustice over the past year, I think we are all ready to escape, travel, love, and laugh again. I feel a renaissance emerging, and I want to be part of nurturing that escape in any way possible. I’ve been in the studio for a year and a half. Sometimes it takes a year for me to personally search through thousands of sounds to find just the right kick or snare. One chorus can have up to 200 stacked harmonies. Still, there’s nothing like the amount of love, passion, and healing that I feel in the recording studio. After 31 years, it feels just as exciting as it did when I was nine years old. Yes, the music is coming!”
Read the full Harper’s Bazaar feature here.
