Hip Hop News

21 Savage Hosted His Sixth Annual ‘Issa Back 2 School Drive’ With His Leading By Example Foundation

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For the last several years, 21 Savage has been hosting a back to school drive, aptly titled Issa Back 2 School Drive, for the children of Georgia. This year’s event took place in Decatur earlier this week as the return to school looms large for some students with fall approaching. As this is the sixth installment of the event, it’s certainly not the first time the rapper has used his wealth and fame to give back to the community, and his emphasis on education has held strong, too. Last year he allocated $100,000 to scholarships for a virtual financial literacy fund.

As far as the event this week, it was held i n conjunction with the rapper’s Leading By Example Foundation,and Complex reports the drive reached over 1,500 students and families. It was co-sponsored by brands like Chime — who also teamed up with Savage for his scholarship initiative — Amazon Music, Reebok, and Juma.org. Other local partners included Momma Flystyle, Dekalb County, and Cosmopolitan Night Club.

Aside from school supplies, kids were also able to pick up shoes, play in a bouncy castle, and pose for photos with their friends. Check out a clip of the rapper speaking to the kids at the drive above.

Isaiah Rashad Paints A Portrait Of A Man On Fire With ‘The House Is Burning’

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The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

There’s a webcomic, one of those relatable, simply-drawn four-panel stories, in which a little cartoon dog sits at a table sipping from a mug of tea. The house he’s in is on fire, and in the second panel, he finally reacts to his situation: “This is fine,” he insists, although things around him are most certainly not in any way “fine.” The comic, a 2013 strip of the gag-a-day comic Gunshow has since been stripped down to these first two panels and re-shared into cultural ubiquity, a meme detached in many ways from its original context to describe most of our everyday existence in the era of Trump and COVID.

Isaiah Rashad’s new album, The House Is Burning, is very much the audio equivalent of this comic, with Isaiah playing the role of Question Hound, and his lyrics reflecting both of the juxtaposed states in play in the comic. On one hand, there is a creeping, nauseous sense of paranoia and dread. On the other, there is the Chattanooga rapper’s bemused insistence that everything is fine, the denial of the disaster in progress that threatens his very existence. The appeal of The House Is Burning is, yes, in its relatability, the tension between that sense of helplessness in the face of certain doom and our own (pardon) dogged need to press forward as though this is all normal, even though we know it’s not.

In the five years since we last heard from Rashad on the fan-favorite The Sun’s Tirade, the Tennesseean native has lived through his own version of this hell, in part of his own making. In the lead-up to his latest release, he’s been candid about the fires that burned around him; his twin battles with anxiety and addiction led him to nearly imploding his own career, spending nearly all his rap money, and returning home to Chattanooga, where family and friends couldn’t believe that Rashad, a Top Dawg Entertainment employee, was running on fumes and drinking himself to death as a result.

Tracks throughout the album augur this sense of weary, doomed resignation. “Some n****s gon’ die in the cardboard, some n****s gon’ die in the feds,” he observes on the hook to album opener “Darkseid.” On single “Headshots (4r Da Locals),” amidst seemingly celebratory fare about cars with bass and his indefatigable sex appeal, Rashad sneaks in the cutting line “I got a crib bigger than Budapest / And the shots ain’t bringin’ my soldier back,” making the double entendre and stiletto slice of the grim reflection slide by behind the cool glamor of his stolid facade.

However, these gloomy ruminations share equal time and space with party tracks like “Wat U Sed” with TikTok star Doechii and Kal Banks and “From The Garden” with Lil Uzi Vert, where Rashad indulges in the excesses and flexes expected of rap stars of his stature. On “Lay Wit Ya,” the first song he promoted as a single from the album, he calls himself “a cold piece of work” and smears his sweaty come-ons with a fine layer of affected disaffection — some might call this pimping — as he works hard to appear like none of this is work. In reality, all the water rolling off his back may not look like it affects him, but underneath, he’s treading for dear life — a lot like the rest of us.

So there is relief and release in the pure R&B songs that smatter the tracklisting. “Claymore” with Smino finds Rashad finding solace in the temporary company of a string of women — and even that can’t keep him from heeding the siren call of his addictions. He gets even more vulnerable on “Score” with 6lack and SZA as he details his “war scars and more sh*t” for a potential paramour, warning her before she gets too close how likely he is to run. As is usual in Rashad’s discography, the album is sprinkled with references to hip-hop classics and figures like Chad Butler (aka Pimp C) of UGK, for whom a track is named, and callbacks to Goodie Mob’s “Cell Therapy” on “THIB,” reinforcing that relatability factor that has so endeared him to fans.

What results is a portrait of a man on fire, struggling to find inspiration and hope in dire circumstances and coming out on the other side by the sheer will it takes to stop pretending everything is fine. In that comic I mentioned earlier, the part that often gets cut in its ongoing meme-ification is the final two panels, in which Question Hound eventually just melts away from the heat and his own refusal to take action. That’s the key difference here; recognizing that he needed help, Isaiah sought and received it with the support of his TDE cohorts and leadership. The real takeaway from the album isn’t even really on it: The house is burning, but the choice to burn with it is entirely up to you.

The House Is Burning is out now on TDE/Warner Records. Get it here.

Isaiah Rashad is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Lil Uzi Vert Ices Out JT With Four New Eliantte Necklaces

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Just a couple days after turning 27 26 and getting a new custom matte black Escalade from his girlfriend, Lil Uzi Vert is returning the favor and gifting JT with a set of necklaces. The City Girl rapper took to her IG story last night to show off 4 new necklaces from designer Eliantte, thanking Uzi for icing her out in the process.

“Thank you @LilUziVert for my new set up I love it,” she captioned along with the video of necklaces (see below). It’s unclear why Uzi decided to gift that to JT the day after his own bday, but he sure do love spoiling her. Hell, the Phily rapper reportedly dropped $30,000 on the couple’s first date last year.

“I had a little Chanel bag and he told me to take as much as you can. I could only fit $30,000, and I was so mad,” JT said. “I don’t want to keep talking because I don’t want it to seem like I’m bragging. I have a good man. I didn’t even know he was a good man. I was fucking with him for almost two years before I found out he was a good man.”

This all comes just a couple days after Uzi debuted some new music off his upcoming Pink Tape at Rolling Loud Festival. If you missed it, stream that unreleased song right here and look for more new music to be on the way.

Eminem Invests In NFT Startup “MakersPlace”

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Eminem is easily one of the biggest global superstars the music industry has ever known, and while he doesn’t quite have the entrepreneurial rep that some of his fellow lyrical legends have (think JAY-Z and Nas), Slim Shady is no stranger to the art of investment. Now, Variety has reported that Em is angel investing in NFT startup company MakersPlace, a market designed to sell NFT artwork among other creations.

The San-Francisco-based company recently raised thirty-million dollars in investments, with Eminem, his manager Paul Rosenberg, DJ 3ALU, football player Larry Fitzgerald, Sony Music, Uncork Capital, Dragon Digital Assets, and 9Yards Capitaand more acting as key financial contributors. 

Eminem

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Eminem’s investment arrives shortly after the launch of his first-ever run of NFT collectibles, as premiered during a recent ShadyCon. A report from Complex notes that Em’s collection earned him $1.78 million on Nifty Gateway, where the auction was held. It’s no wonder he decided to  pursue the NFT field further, and it should be interesting to see how he leverages his icon status in MakersPlace’s favor. In other words, don’t be surprised to see a second ShadyCon in the near future.

In 2021, MakersPlace apparently “facilitated” over $100 million worth of transactions. “We see this fundraise as continued validation for our mission,” says MakersPlace CEO Daniel Chu. “We will continue to push boundaries and empower digital creators with better tools and services, while finding more ways to introduce digital art and NFTs to a mainstream collector audience.” 

Congratulations to Eminem on his new investment, the latest step on his journey to join the exclusive club of hip-hop billionaires. Do you think we’ll ever see Em secure a billion? 

[via]

Iggy Azalea Pays Homage To “Scarface” With “The End of An Era” Album Cover

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Iggy Azalea is ready to signal the End Of An Era in her career. The Australian rapper recently informed her fans that she plans on taking a hiatus from making music following the release of her next studio album. During her time away from the music industry, Iggy will reportedly be working on other creative projects, and perhaps she will receive far less scrutiny from fans during her hiatus.

The mother of Playboi Carti’s son Onyx is now a little over one week away from the release of her anticipated third studio album, which has so far been led by recent singles like the Tyga-assisted “Sip It” and “I Am The Stripclub.” 

Now, the Australian femcee has gotten her fans even more excited for the imminent release of The End Of An Era by sharing the album’s Scarface-inspired artwork. “Standard edition cover art to my album: The End Of An Era…Releasing Aug 13,” Iggy Azalea wrote while unveiling the album cover. “Can anyone connect the reference? I’ve been a bit tony obsessed since my first tour…”

For those who haven’t seen the classic 1983 American crime drama, the film concludes with Tony Montana’s iconic death scene, after which he falls into a fountain. Rising from the fountain is a large golden statue with neon signage that reads “The World Is Yours.” That same golden statue has been repurposed for Iggy Azalea’s The End Of An Era album cover, redesigned with the album’s title instead of the classic mantra. 

According to HipHopDX, Iggy Azalea’s love of Scarface has been long-documented, as she has quoted Tony Montana on the intro to her 2018 song “Kream” and worn dresses with Tony Montana prints on multiple occasions.

Now that you’ve seen the inspiration behind Iggy Azalea’s The End Of An Era album art, are you excited for the Australian artist’s third studio album?

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Dr. Dre’s Eldest Daughter Says She’s Homeless & Living Out Her Car

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It was just revealed last week that Dr. Dre has to pay his ex-wife Nicole Young $300,000 a month in spousal support following their recent divorce. In the meantime, his eldest estranged daughter has been homeless and living out her car, according to a report from DailyMail.

LaTanya Young, 38, works as a delivery driver for DoorDash and Uber Eats and as an assembler at a warehouse, but claims that she can’t afford an apartment in California and is living out of a rental vehicle.

LaTanya is the eldest daughter of Dr. Dre by 53-year-old Lisa Johnson. The couple broke up when LaTanya was just five years old, and she admits she has not seen her father in 18 years. She claims she doesn’t have his cell phone number, and has to communicate with him through his team.

The single mother-of-four told DailyMail.com that she has repeatedly asked her dad, who is said to be worth $800 million, for financial help but she has not received a penny in 18 months. She did say the kids are not living out the car though and are with friends. “My kids are staying with friends – they are not living in the car, it’s just me,” she said.

“I’m taking odd jobs just to make it now – I got paid $15 an hour as an assembler at the warehouse. I’m trying to keep my head above water. I’ve been in debt for a while.”

Frazer Harrison/ Getty Images

LaTanya said she now fears she will lose her rental car as she has not been able to make payments. “The car is a pretty penny,” she said. “It’s an SUV that costs $2,300 for three weeks and I only paid for one week. Sooner or later they are going to take the car.”

LaTanya has been asking Dr. Dre’s lawyer for help but he has told her that since she has spoken about her father to the press in the past, he will not give her any money.

[Via]

Tyler The Creator Requests All Outlets To Update His ‘Call Me If You Get Lost’ Lyrics

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As lyrics videos and sites gain popularity among hip-hop fans looking to learn their favorite artists’ new songs, the disconnect between those artists’ intent and fans’ perceptions has become more starkly highlighted. In the old days, you just debated whether it was “five-two” or “fine too” among your friends. Now, though, fans like to post status updates and captions culled from their current jams, but then they run into problems when the sites they visit to learn the lyrics incorrectly transcribe them. As the problem becomes more common, many artists have begun to speak out.

In January, Doja Cat threatened to withhold her album Planet Her over incorrectly transcribed lyrics from her verse on Saweetie’s “Best Friend,” prompting fans to troll her with pictures of fish. Now, Tyler The Creator is taking matters into his own hands, posting all the lyrics from his new album Call Me If You Get Lost and politely — if loudly — requesting sites like Genius and DSPs like Apple Music to update their databases accordingly with an all caps tweet.

“YO @Genius AND @AppleMusic I POSTED THE LYRICS OF EVERY SINGLE SONG FROM CMIYGL ON TWITTER AND THE WEBSITE,” he wrote. “CAN YOU PLEASE HAVE SOMEONE UPDATE THEM BECAUSE WHOEVER TRANSCRIBED THEM ON YOUR SIDE IS INCORRECT, THANK YOU.”

For what it’s worth, Tyler posted the lyrics some two weeks ago when the album dropped, so there has been plenty of time to get the transcribers on it. Could having the artists post the transcribed lyrics themselves be the solution to the growing problem? Who knows, but you can bet rappers like Doja Cat and Tyler, who spend months making sure their rollouts are absolutely perfect, will probably continue calling out incorrect rhymes until there’s a major change.

Check out some of the lyrics Tyler posted below.