Hip Hop News

Young Dolph has been quietly enjoying a run as one of hip-hop’s most consistent artists, though the Paper Route Empire head honcho remains almost criminally underrated. Still, that hasn’t stopped him from continuing to line up strong releases, even after previously toying with the notion of early retirement.

Today, Dolph has come through to lift the curtain on his next endeavor, taking to Instagram to announce Paper Route Illuminati. Confirming a July 30th release date, Dolph shared the album and a few words on what to expect.

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“FAMILY. MONEY. SACRIFICES,” he captions, pointing to some of the likely thematic anchors of his next body of work. “You can’t provide for your FAMILY without MONEY, and you can’t make MONEY without making SACRIFICES.” He also unveiled the ominous album cover, on which he stares unflinchingly with a single blood-red eye. 

Given the Illuminati imagery present, many fans slid into his comment section with concerned messages, alarmed at the prospect that Dolph had thrown in with the notorious secret society. Perhaps we’ll hear the rapper shine a bit more light on the Illuminati affiliation when the album drops, and it should be interesting to see how the previously-teased themes of family, money, and sacrifice are handled. 

Look for Dolph’s upcoming solo album Paper Route Illuminati, set to drop on July 30th. Will you be tuning in?

Finally crumbling to the annoying bi-weekly debate about her ethnicity, Roc Nation singer Snoh Aalegra has addressed the confusion about her background, telling us the facts once and for all.

There have been many questions asked about Snoh’s ethnicity, especially as she continues to rise in the R&B world. Every other week, it feels like people have something to say about where she comes from, so much like BIA did a few days ago, Snoh spoke up and closed the conversation for good, revealing her ethnic background in a tweet.

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“I’m just seeing the usual bi-weekly debate on Twitter about my ethnicity. My heritage and bloodline is not a philosophical topic. I have hard facts for you all,” wrote Snoh on Twitter this week. “FOR THE LAST TIME: I am 100% IRANIAN, I am a part of the population from south of Iran where people have darker complexion. I was born and raised in Sweden as a second generation immigrant. I have zero Swedish blood but I do consider myself Swedish since that is the country I grew up in.”

Snoh was born in Uppsala, Sweden and grew up in Enköping, Sweden. After her parents divorced, she moved to Stockholm with her mother.

She recently released her third studio album Temporary Highs in the Violet Skies, which you can check out here.

What do 2021 and World War II have in common? Well apparently, historical dips in the average life expectancy in the United States. According to Complex, the CDC has released an updated report that reveals life expectancy at birth for the total U.S. population was 77.3 years, which is a decline of 1.5 years from 78.8 in 2019 and reportedly the biggest decrease since World War II.

As many would expect, the main culprit behind this significant dip in U.S. life expectancy is in fact COVID-19.

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Unfortunately, the dip in U.S. life expectancy is even worse for certain demographics. According to Complex, the life expectancies for Hispanic Americans and Black Americans were approximately two times as worse as the decline for the total United States population. In contrast to the previously mentioned 1.5-year decline, the expectancy for Hispanic Americans dropped by three years, from 81.8 to 78.8. Black Americans’ life expectancy suffered a similar decrease, having dropped 2.9 years from 74.7 to 71.8.

Although much of these numbers are simply the result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this troubling report does come roughly one week after the CDC announced that drug overdose deaths in the United States had climbed to a new record high, so stay tuned for more public health-related updates.

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Azealia Banks seemingly has a love-hate relationship with Kanye West– but that’s probably because of her Gemini energy. Upon Kanye’s return to social media on Tuesday night, the music legend posted a few pictures of his chains, which feature the names of his children. According to Azealia, Kanye stole the aesthetic of his photo from her, calling back to her 2019 “Billionaire Bully” cover, which shows her rocking a multitude of gold chains around her neck, much like ‘Ye did in his picture.

“Should have exfoliated before trying to bite me @kanyewest,” wrote Azealia on Instagram, sharing pictures of both covers and rudely telling the mogul to take better care of his skin. Considering this comes a few days after the release of Banks’ latest single “Fuck Him All Night,” which is apparently about Kanye, it’s a little confusing to determine whether the rapper is trolling Kanye or if she’s actually bothered about the picture. 

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Muddying the situation up even more, Azealia proceeded to post a picture wearing “Yeezy” nails, appearing to support the Donda artist.

A few weeks ago, Azealia rebooted her love affair with Kanye by telling her fans that she wants to have his child. When the post went viral, she took back her words and said she was joking. But now she’s doing all this… so? 

How do you think Azealia really feels about Kanye?

Kanye West’s aesthetic as of late has been one for the books. As a rapper whose changes in fashion choices typically align with the changes in his music, the Jesus Is King artist immediately caught the Hip-Hop community’s attention when he started rocking decorative full-face masks earlier this year. Several weeks after fans started theorizing that Kanye was returning to a Yeezus-esque sound due to his tendency to wear masks during that era of his career, Kanye West has officially confirmed the imminent release of his tenth studio album, Donda.

Fans will have to wait until Friday to hear what Donda sounds like, but in the meantime, they have been flooding Kanye’s Instagram for any and every update from the beloved rapper and producer. Luckily for them, Ye has gotten back active on the Gram, and although he hasn’t shared too much that relates to music, he has come through with an edgy new set of photos that pays homage to his four children: North, Saint, Chicago, and Psalm West. 

In the first handful of photos, Yeezy shows off an impressive new gold chain, and instead of a huge diamond-studded emblem, Kanye’s new chain keeps it simple, with the names of all four of his children separated by Cuban links. The artist is also seen wearing another full-face mask as well as gloves, and if you scroll past the photo of him posing Batman-style atop two metallic cans, you can see his full outfit laid out, complete with Nike socks.

Do Kanye’s recent fashion choices make you optimistic about his forthcoming album? Just in case you haven’t yet seen it, you can check out the snippet for “No Child Left Behind” from Donda below.

Giannis Antetokounmpo made history on Tuesday night, becoming part of an exclusive club of players to score fifty points in an NBA Finals game. His legendary performance, complete with highlight blocks and all, will not be forgotten anytime soon, resulting in a fourth-straight win for the Milwaukee Bucks, winning the team’s first championship trophy in a half-century. 

The Greek Freak was named Finals MVP for his tremendous outing, and he ended up proving something to himself (and millions of others) by completing Kobe Bryant’s challenge that he laid out in an old tweet.

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Back in June 2019, Kobe motivated the newer class of NBA athletes by issuing them a few challenges. For Giannis, he told the international superstar to reach for an MVP award and then set his sights on a championship. The former MVP ended up completing that challenge last night, and he’s overwhelmed with joy after doing so.

“Kobe Bryant thinks I can do this, I can play at a higher level and lead my team and win MVP. I had to do it,” said Giannis during his post-game presser. “I had to work hard and not necessarily let him down, I had to work hard because people believed that I could do it and that’s the thing, I’m a people-pleaser. I don’t like letting people down.”

Kobe’s old tweets to Giannis have been going viral with people sharing their own reactions to Antetokounmpo’s amazing accomplishment.

Congratulations to Giannis and the Bucks!

Conway The Machine is finally gearing up to release his long-awaited Shady Records debut album God Don’t Make Mistakes. And while it’s unclear as to whether or not he’ll remain on Eminem’s label after this release, many have been intrigued to hear how the Griselda lyricist’s upcoming project — his third of the year after La Maquina and If It Bleeds It Can Be Killed — turns out. 

To his credit, Conway has previously teased that God Don’t Make Mistakes will go heavy on his signature sound, with plenty of production from his longtime collaborator Daringer. Now, Machine has officially confirmed as much, unveiling the tracklist to God Don’t Make Mistakes on his Instagram page. 

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Clocking in at a respectable twelve tracks, the project features guest appearances from Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Jae Skeese, 7xvethegenius, T.I., Novel, Benny The Butcher, Westside Gunn, Jill Scott, and Keisha Plum. Production is set to be handled by Daringer, Cosmo, Hit-Boy, Bink!, and J.U.S.T.I.C.E League. 

Though he has yet to confirm a release date, when we last spoke with Machine, he teased that the album would be delivered before the end of summer. Perhaps we can expect to see this one land in August, as it would appear Machine is in the midst of kicking off a rollout. Stay tuned for more news on his upcoming Shady Records album, and check out the complete tracklist and production credits below.

1. Lock Load (prod. Daringer)
2. Tear Gas (feat. Lil Wayne & Rick Ross) [prod. Cosmo]
3. Piano Love (prod. The Alchemist)
4. Drumwork (feat. Jae Skeese & 7xve) [prod. Daringer]
5. Wild Chapters (feat. T.I. & Novel) [prod. Hit-Boy]
6. Guilty (prod. Bink!)
7. John Woo Flick (feat. Benny the Butcher & Westside Gunn) [prod. Daringer]
8. Stress (feat. Wallo) [prod. Daringer]
9. So Much More (prod. J.U.S.T.I.C.E League)
10. Chanel Pearls (feat. Jill Scott) [prod. Cosmo]
11. Babas (feat. Keisha Plum) [prod. Daringer]
12. GDMM (feat. Annette Price) [prod. The Alchemist]