Hip Hop News

The Pretty B*tch Music hype has arrived, and it’s looking as if Saweetie is preparing a release that will include a large amount of music. The Bay Area artist is slated to drop her debut studio album this year, and she sat down with Issa Rae for Apple Music’s Issa Raedio Show where they talked about the forthcoming album and the women in Rap that Saweetie grew up listening to. She dropped a few names but also shared that Lil Kim’s “Not Tonight” bars were some of her favorite.

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“My mom listened to a lot of Lil Kim and Foxy [Brown]. I’ve always liked their demeanor. Like, their demeanor is just—I know that when they step into the room, like you can just feel that boss-ness. They always just felt so powerful to me,” said the rapper. “I love me some Missy. I always tell people, ‘If I’m gon’ get nasty, I’ma get nasty like Missy ’cause she’s always creative and she’ll make you think.’ That’s what I drew from her.”

Saweetie added that she also loves “Trina’s attitude” and “how comfortable she was in her own body.” She also gave praise to Nicki Minaj by saying, “In high school, Nicki dropped like, two or three mixtapes that I just super loved and it opened my eyes to what a modern-day female rapper felt like ’cause everybody else, my aunties or my mom was listening to them, but I discovered Nicki on LimeWire.”

She called Lil Kim’s “Not Tonight” lyrics “the best bar in female history.” Saweetie said, “I like when she says, ‘Tryin’ to impress me with your five G stones / I’ll give you ten Gs, n*gga, if you leave me alone.’ When I heard that, I was like, I felt it. I knew what she meant and that’s just the most boss thing someone could ever say. I love that line.”

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Saweetie also gave some insight as to what fans can expect from Pretty B*tch Music. “It’s looking like more than 17 songs,” Saweetie revealed. “It’s hella long! I’m really excited. I really am… I used to struggle with my sound. I didn’t know how to properly deliver. I didn’t know what inflection was. I couldn’t find producers who made sense with my brand and my voice because all those things work congruently to make a good song.”

“Like, I definitely feel like Icy and High Maintenance were highly produced, great sound quality bodies of work, but I still feel like people didn’t understand me,” she added. “And while in quarantine people have learned about me through my content. I think this is a time for people to get to know me through my music, which is so important to me.”

Watch Saweetie’s interview with Issa Rae below.

We’re creeping up to another Grammy Award ceremony and The Recording Academy has once again been under fire over this year’s artists. Following the announcement of nominees, people were stunned by The Weeknd being snubbed across the board, but while chatter about the validity of the Grammys was discussed in various circles, those nominated were celebrating their efforts. Royce Da 5’9″ has had long-standing ire for the Grammys and has been quite vocal about his disdain for the ceremony, but this year his acclaimed project The Allegory is up for Best Rap Album.

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Royce recently revealed that he wasn’t aware that he was nominated until he received a call from Joyner Lucas. “I didn’t know that they submitted it. I didn’t know that they submitted the album. I didn’t,” the rapper told HipHopDX for their #Hack3d series. “You know who called me and told me? Joyner Lucas. Joyner Lucas called me and told me.” Royce explained that on the day the nominations were read, his phone kept going off and he didn’t know why because he wasn’t aware he was mentioned.

“It was people just, ‘Congratulations, congratulations.’ I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ So, first time it ring I answer, ‘Hello? What’s up?'” It just so happened to be Lucas on the other end. “‘Yo, congratulations motherf*cka!’ I’m like, ‘Yo what are you congratulating me for? What’s going on?’ I was startled. I honestly thought he was congratulating me for something with [Eminem’s] album. Because my album’s independent, so I wasn’t even thinking about the Grammy’s.”

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“He was like, ‘No it’s not for [Eminem’s] album, it’s for your album. So be happy motherf*cka.’ I was like, ‘Word.’ After we got off the phone I’m thinking to myself like, ‘Be happy? Did Joyner Lucas think I’m not happy?’” Who are you hoping takes home Best Rap Album?

Make sure to check out our interview with Royce where he spoke with us about his nomination: Royce Da 5’9″ Reflects On Grammy Nom, Lil Wayne’s Legacy, & If The Current Era Creates “Timeless” Music.

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He was once upset about how his former label reportedly treated him, but YG now reflects on it all as karma. The Los Angeles rapper recently sat down with No Jumper where he introduced his 4Hunnid artists to the world: Day Sulan, Mitch, and D3. The group spoke about how they all met one another and the artists discussed their career paths, and during the conversation, YG shared a bit about recently being free from his previous record deal that he claims didn’t make him any money.

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“When my sh*t start movin’ like, my record deal was f*cked up for ten years straight,” said the rapper. “I just got out of that sh*t some months ago. So like, hell yeah, my sh*t was all bad. I never owned none of my music I put out from f*ckin’ my last album back. I ain’t own nothin’ so I just got out of that. But like, the fact that I was in some f*cked up deal, you know what I’m saying, that made me start thinking about other sh*t.”

“I’m like, ‘I ain’t making no money with none of my music, I gotta do other sh*t.’ So, it turned me into whatever you want to call me, business n*gga that got a brand.” Adam22 wanted to know if YG ever felt defeated or found it difficult to be self-motivated to create new music while under his deal.

“It was hard. I was f*cked up. But I did a lot of stealing and robbin’ and sh*t when I was young so, I look at it like, that was my karma,” said YG. ‘Them motherf*ckin’ White people in offices stole from me and it was my karma ’cause I used to rob sh*t like, a lot… ‘YG, know how it feel to get stole from, n*gga. Don’t do no more stealing.’ Alright, thank you, God, I got you.”

Watch YG and his 4Hunnid crew chat with No Jumper below.

Undoubtedly, DaniLeigh has been taking hits from social media users at every turn. The Los Angeles singer has faced scrutiny throughout her career by naysayers, but things kicked up a notch after rumors of her relationship with DaBaby began to circulate, and after they went public, it seemed people near and far had something to say about the industry couple. Once that came to an end the jeers didn’t cease, and her “yellow bone” controversy caused a firestorm of backlash. Most recently, a meet-and-greet video circulated and DaniLeigh was teased about the way she walks while her body was criticized as she faced pregnancy accusations.

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DaniLeigh has seen some of the trolling and negativity tossed her way and had a few questions for people who continuously verbally attack her. “I got a question, ’cause it seems like y’all really just come for everything,” said the singer. “I just wanna know…y’all come for my walk, y’all come for my body, y’all come for my style, y’all come for my relationship history, y’all come for everything. Y’all come for everything.”

“What are you gonna do when you just can’t find sh*t to come for?” she asked. “What are you gonna do when you’re just like, looking so deeply into a picture or video that I have and you just like, ‘Damn, what can I say?’ What are you gonna do when you just can’t find anything? I just wanna know. What are gonna do?”

Like clockwork, people didn’t hesitate to respond in their own way. Check out the video, and a few reactions, below.

Today (March 9) marks the anniversary of the Notorious B.I.G.’s death and fans worldwide have taken to social media to pay tribute to the fallen Rap icon. It was on this day in 1997 in the wee hours of the morning following a Vibe afterparty for the Soul Train Awards that 24-year-old Biggie, real name Christopher Wallace, was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles. The perpetrators behind the crime have not yet been named or apprehended, but Biggie’s mother, Voletta Wallace, shared with Entertainment Weekly that she still holds out hope that one day there will be justice for her son.

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“As long as I have life there’s hope,” said Ms. Wallace as she promoted the new Netflix documentary Biggie: I Have a Story to Tell. “I’ll never give up. And I hope when I’m not in this world anymore, my friends and family will carry on the fight. There is always hope.” Elsewhere she added, “After his passing, I heard a lot of positive and negative things that were being said about him. As a mother, I only wanted to hear positive things because I’m biased. I decided then I wanted to know more about his music. I read something in a magazine about him where the writer said something like, ‘what do people expect when you give a bum from the ghetto a million dollars?’ I was very hurt by that.”

“I never raised my son to be a bum or a drug dealer,” she added. “So, I listened to his music and I asked a lot of questions. I cried like a baby while listening because what I heard was an intelligent human being.” Damion “D-Roc” Butler, Biggie’s good friend, and Wayne Barrow, executor of the rapper’s estate, reportedly partnered to release the documentary and explained why they believe the project is important.

“This might be the last March 9 we celebrate moving forward, focusing instead on May 21, his birthday,” said Barrow. “We’re going to forget March 9, but not in our hearts. By celebrating his birthday, we can focus on his life.” Butler was with Biggie in the vehicle when the rapper was shot. “I feel cheated. I feel like we went through all of that for nothing,” said Butler.

“I don’t feel like this so much anymore but I did for a long time,” he continued. “Now I can see that it wasn’t for nothing, he sacrificed a lot. That’s why we’re here today almost twenty-five years later because he’s still relevant. He’s still the hardest working rapper in the game today.”

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