Hip Hop News

Today marks Tay-K’s 21st birthday. The rapper, who was 17 at the time of his high-profile arrest, has been behind bars since being captured by U.S. marshals in 2017 in New Jersey after being on the run for three months. Notably, it was also the same day the iconic video for his hit “The Race” dropped, which depicted Tay-K lighting up in front of his own Wanted poster.

He was ultimately sentenced to 55-years in prison for capital murder, leaving many fans torn. Earlier today, the rapper announced he would be celebrating his 21st birthday by going on live Wednesday (June 16) to interact with his supporters. During the session, he answered questions about new music, updates on his case, his favorite artists, and more.

The Santana World artist phoned into the Instagram live on his account as someone held a phone up to the recording camera. After being asked about whether or not he was working on new music right now, Tay-K revealed he had a few in the vault already. 

“I elevated my whole sound, I can’t wait for y’all to hear that sh*t,” said the rapper with excitement. Elsewhere, Tay-K revealed hopeful news regarding his chances of getting out of prison. 

“As soon as I get it, that’s looking good too, you know. The coming home situation and sh*t I know a lot of people wanna know about that sh*t. My case is on appeal right now, so that’s looking good, you know,” said Tay-K. He added, “There’s still hope and sh*t, you know, there’s definitely still a chance for me to come home on an appeal bond. 

“It’s like when you bond out but you don’t appeal your case so they got to give you a bond, and I have a bond here so imma bond out on both of those. That’s kind of what I want to happen,” he finished. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by DJ Akademiks (@akademiks)

Elsewhere, he noted that he “loved” Doja Cat, and listed her, Rico Nasty, Yung Miami, Veeze, and Polo G as some of his favorite artists out right now. Check out the full live stream with Tay-K above and let us know your thoughts down below. 

Rapper Jay Park shared a cover of Kendrick Lamar’s famous “DNA.” on Monday featuring other Asian artists involved with the H1ghr Music rap label founded by Park himself in 2017. The song speaks to the artists’ pride in their Asian heritage, sharing similar themes with Kendrick’s 2017 track. Despite the lyrical emphasis on Asian culture, the visuals of the video reflect aspects of being Black. 

Many of the artists singing and rapping along with Park in the video sport dreads, durags, braids, and many fashion trends that originated in Black culture. Social media was disappointed at the disjointed effort, with some even calling Park flat-out racist for his actions. 

Park attempted to make amends, posting a lengthy half-apology stating, “If y’all can fangirl over young Korean dudes with dyed hair I don’t see why we cant fanboy over rappers with face tats and dreads.”

He also posted a video from a 2018 freestyle appearance on Sway in the Morning where he talks about race relations between Blacks and Asians. Neither effort was well received, with one Twitter user stating, “Jay Park ‘apology’ is just saying ‘please let me appropriate black culture to make money.'”

This isn’t the first time the rapper has faced criticism for his culturally insensitive actions. Park was under fire with the Muslim community just a few weeks ago for the offensive lyrics “worship me like Allah” in “Mukbang! (Remix)”.

Check out the social media reaction below. 

@hobisreal1

My people will never be free #jaypark#khh

♬ Follow me – Connor

The summer has kicked off, and with it comes the arrival of several prominent albums — including H.E.R’s upcoming Back Of My Mind, one of the most anticipated R&B releases of the year. 

It would appear that the singer has pulled out all of the stops for this one, with Apple Music having unveiled the gargantuan tracklist in full twenty-one song glory. Clearly, H.E.R had a lot to say, enlisting the help of several prominent guests to help effectively convey her message. Look for guest appearances from Ty Dolla $ign, Cordae, Lil Baby, KAYTRANADA, Thundercat, Chris Brown, Yung Bleu, DJ Khaled, Bryson Tiller, and YG.

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

While that may feel like a significant number of co-stars, rest assured that there’s plenty of room for H.E.R to shine. At twenty-one tracks, thirteen are solo cuts, which bodes well for those eager to catch up with the California melodist. As for the project itself, we’ve already been treated to a few singles, namely the intimate Chris Brown-assisted “Come Through,” as well as the recently released “We Made It,” available right here. 

Look for Back Of My Mind to land this coming Friday, June 18th, and check out the entire tracklist below.

1. “We Made It”
2. “Back Of My Mind” Feat. Ty Dolla $ign
3. “Trauma” Feat. Cordae & Hit-Boy
4. “Damage”
5. “Find A Way” Feat. Lil Baby
6. “Bloody Waters” Feat. Kaytranada & Thundercat
7. “Closer To Me
8. “Come Through” Feat. Chris Brown
9. “My Own”
10. “Lucky”
11. “Cheat Code”
12. “Mean It”
13. “Paradise” Feat. Yung Bleu
14. “Process”
15. “Hold On”
16. “Don’t”
17. “Exhausted”
18. “Hard To Love”
19. “For Anyone”
20. “I Can Have It” Feat. DJ Khaled & Bryson Tiller
21. “Slide” feat. YG

“Time Today” rapper MoneyBagg Yo took to Instagram to show off his new icy custom piece on Wednesday. Anchored by a thick diamond-encrusted chain, a massive traffic light pendant is decorated with three green traffic lights and green accents. 

MoneyBagg posted a picture on his story with the text saying, “aint a red light in sight,” boasting about his accomplishments. It was so nice that he had to share the impressive chain twice, sharing a video of all the details with his song “GO!” featuring BIG30 blasting in the background.

NYC Luxury, which commissioned the piece, continues to stand out as one of rap’s favorite custom shops. Managing Partner Izzy has also made custom creations for Lil Baby, Lil Durk, and DDG to name a few. In a post on his Instagram, Izzy writes that MoneyBagg’s quote-inspired jewelry was a “custom traffic light pendant with green and white diamonds all pave honeycomb with emeralds accented” and the chain was a “diamond Cuban with Green and White diamonds.”

The confident Memphis rapper is riding high on the success of his recent album, A Gangsta’s Pain. As we reported, he recently claimed the fan-favorite track “Wockesha” was the best song of the year.

Check out the chain in the video below and check out our latest cover story with MoneyBagg Yo here.

If the recently kicked-off rollout hasn’t clued you in yet, Tyler, The Creator appears to be on the verge of dropping a new album, his first studio release since the acclaimed 2019 project Igor.

Many fans wondered whether Tyler would continue down the experimental and melodic road he appeared to be laying. Evidently, a swerve appeared on the horizon with the release of his brand new single “LUMBERJACK,” a blistering assault of vintage Tyler lyricism evocative of his early Odd Future days. That’s not to say the entirety of his next endeavor will follow suit, but it certainly appears as if the rapper is eying a return to his roots, albeit with the tools and tricks he’s since picked up; a New Game+ of sorts.

Steve Granitz/WireImage/Getty Images

Upon having released the new single into the world, many fans were quick to note an interesting observation on his Instagram page. In the caption of his latest announcement, Tyler sparked tracklist speculation by writing “5. LUMBERJACK (out now everywhere).” One of his other recent posts featured a similar style, revealing another potential title with “10. SWEET.” 

It’s not the first time Tyler has employed such captions, as a gander through his IG feed shows his penchant for associating existing song titles like Westside Gunn’s “No Vacancy” and Lupe Fiasco’s “Paris, Tokyo” with his pictures. Still, the fact that he placed a five beside “LUMBERJACK” may very well mean he’s in the midst of slowly assembling a larger puzzle, and fans would be wise to keep an eye out for his next update.

In the meantime, be sure to give Tyler’s latest a spin, especially if you’ve been keen on seeing the Grammy winner get back to spitting bars.

Last year, Belly penned an open letter detailing personal struggles he’s endured that have prevented him from delivering music. The rapper has since recovered and is back in action, as seen with recent singles like “Zero Love” ft. Moneybagg Yo and “Money On The Table” ft. Benny The Butcher. The XO signee’s latest string of singles has been a promising look into what he has in store on his upcoming album, See You Next Wednesday.

FilmMagic/FilmMagic/Getty Images

The rapper’s forthcoming effort doesn’t have a release date set but the rollout appears to be in motion. This week, the rapper returned to the fold with his latest freestyle on L.A. Leakers. Hosted by DJ Sour Milk and Justin Credible, the Canadian rapper unloads with a barrage of bars over Nas’ “If I Ruled The World.”

“Tell ’em roll up the windows
We can smell the murder in the air when the wind blows
I got 10 toes in the mud like a Flinstone
We sold packs back when Soulja Boy sold ringtones”

The latest freestyle from Belly is proof that, even with a bit of time away from the game, he hasn’t lost his touch. His recent appearance on The Liftoff is the third freestyle he’s delivered and each time, he hasn’t missed.

Check out Belly’s L.A. Leakers freestyle below and keep your eyes peeled for See You Next Wednesday.

A video has been going viral over the past few days following an odd robbery at a Walgreens in San Francisco. A man was seen riding through a Walgreens on his bicycle as he dumped store merchandise into a black garbage bag. The man did not care that he was being filmed but made sure that he cleared the shelf of their goods. The video was first posted by KGO-TV reported Lyanne Melendez who stated that the robbery occurred at the Gough and Fell streets location.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

As the man dumps the goods into the bag, the store security did not attempt to prevent it from happening but instead, pulled out his phone, along with an employee, and began filming. Once the culprit sped off in the aisle with the bicycle, the security guard made a lackluster attempt at taking the bag. Essentially, there wasn’t an attempt to stop him. 

“It’s hard for me as a journalist to say ‘I won’t be involved, I can’t get involved,’ I have to be sort of neutral, but this is also my city. I live in this city and I see this constantly. Not only Walgreens, but cars, and my garage door has been broken into twice,” Melendez said, according to KGO-TV.

A rep for Walgreens said that the company told the Board of Supervisors that theft at their SF locations is 4x higher than the other stores in the country. 

[Via]