Hip Hop News

Southside — acclaimed producer and collaborator of Future, Young Thug, G Herbo, and many more — has reportedly been arrested, as per NBC Miami. The 32-year-old 808 Mafia beatmaker, real name Joshua Lullen, was apparently arrested in Miami on Sunday night. He was hit with charges of carrying a concealed firearm and knowingly driving with a suspended license. 

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The arrest report details that Southside was targeted after police observed a heavily-tinted Mercedes SUV. After the vehicle came to a stop, police discovered that Southside’s driver’s license had been suspended. The report also indicates that two weapons were discovered in the vehicle; a handgun near his feet and another behind the passenger’s seat, both loaded.

Though he claimed that he had a permit to carry a concealed weapon, though the report indicates that it too was suspended. He was eventually arrested only to be released on a $5,500 bond. At this moment, it’s uncertain as to whether or not these new charges will bear any serious ramifications for the prolific 808 Mafia producer. 

In other Southside news unrelated to legal matters — Sizzle recently teased his retirement from hip-hop following the release of the upcoming 808 Mafia album. “AFTER THIS 808mafia ALBUM IM DONE IM WHERE I WANNA BE IN LIFE AS A PRODUCER IM DONE JUST KNO THIS ALBUM IS GOING TO BE GREAT,” he wrote, in an Instagram announcement. “IM STILL GONE LEAD FOR THE CULTURE IM STILL GONE TRY TO PUT NEW PRODUCERS ON BUT AS A PRODUCER IM THROWING THE TOWEL IN AFTER THIS ALBUM I’m done.” 

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Drake just made history, debuting his three new releases at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. For the first time ever, an artist has debuted three songs at #1 (“What’s Next”), #2 (“Wants and Needs” featuring Lil Baby), and #3 (“Lemon Pepper Freestyle” featuring Rick Ross) on the chart. The feat is pretty crazy and it really wouldn’t be right to start off our Staff Picks playlist without one of the new Scary Hours 2 records.

With the Grammy Awards happening on Sunday night, it’s fair to say that it was one of the most exciting weekends for music fans in recent memory. Especially since we can’t go to any concerts, the performance-packed awards ceremony was the next best thing for music lovers, and there was plenty of new content for us to check out in addition to just the Grammys. While Roddy Ricch took the opportunity to premiere his brand new song “Heartless”, which makes an appearance on the playlist, other Grammy nominees like Chika, Giveon, Jorja Smith, and more pop up on the update with their new releases.

Of course, we’ve also got the latest from Benny The Butcher, various tracks from Clever’s new album Crazy, and music from Mozzy, FRVRFRIDAY, Blxst, and more.

Check out what each HNHH staff member picked for the playlist this week and let us know whose selections are your favorite. Subscribe to our page on SoundCloud here for more playlists, as well as TIDAL here.

Alex Zidel (Editorial)

Clever – Call Me Nobody (feat. Lil Wayne & Isaiah Lyric)
Clever – Skittles (feat. Lil Baby)
YNW Melly – Thugged Out (feat. Kodak Black)
Drake – What’s Next
Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, & Silk Sonic – Leave The Door Open

Alex Cole (Editorial)

Clever – Everything Beautiful
Lil Eazzyy – Yes Or No (feat. IV JAY)
FRVRFRIDAY – Time For You
Drake – What’s Next
Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, & Silk Sonic – Leave The Door Open

Mitch Findlay (Editorial)

DJ Muggs – The Chosen One
Benny The Butcher & Harry Fraud – Thanksgiving
Elcamino – Bucket Hat
Drake – Lemon Pepper Freestyle (feat. Rick Ross)
Mozzy – My Ambitionz

Erika Marie (Editorial)

Blxst – Fck Boys (feat. Russ)
Blxst – Don’t Forget (feat. Drakeo The Ruler)
Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, & Silk Sonic – Leave The Door Open
Drake – What’s Next
Chika – FAIRY TALES (feat. BJ The Chicago Kid)

Madusa S. (Editorial)

Drake – Lemon Pepper Freestyle (feat. Rick Ross)
Brent Faiyaz – Show U Off
KSI – Patience (feat. YUNGBLUD & Polo G)
Renni Rucci – Can’t Be
Benny The Butcher & Harry Fraud – Thanksgiving

Joshua Robinson (Editorial)

Giveon – All To Me
Kenny Mason – Pup
Roddy Ricch – Heartless (Live From LA)
Chika – FAIRY TALES (feat. BJ The Chicago Kid)
Baby Keem – no sense

Rose Lilah (Editorial)

Giveon – All To Me
Jorja Smith – Addicted
Key Glock – I’m The Type
Only The Family, Doodie Lo, King Von – Me and Doodie Lo

Cole Blake (Editorial)

Benny The Butcher & Harry Fraud – Thanksgiving
Roddy Ricch – Heartless (Live From LA)
Jorja Smith – Addicted
Brent Faiyaz – Show U Off
FRVRFRIDAY – Time For You

Rob Gronkowski is easily one of the best tight ends to ever play the game of football. When he came into the league with the New England Patriots, he made an immediate impact and he has continued to play at an elite level. After a brief retirement, Gronk eventually came back and linked up with his longtime friend Tom Brady, where they won a fourth Super Bowl together, this time on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Now, Gronk is a free agent and he has some massive decisions to make. While appearing on Kyle Brandt’s The Ringer show “10 Questions,” Gronk spoke about his upcoming free agency and what his plans are. As he explained, he would love to be back with Tampa Bay, although he fully plans on going through the free agency process, as it’s the first time he’ll ever be able to do that in his career. 

“I definitely want to be back with the Buccaneers. That’s where my eyesight is. That’s where I’m leaning toward, big time. But with the free agency process, you just never know what may happen. There’s some other teams interested out there, too. I’ve also never been a part of the free agency process, so I actually want to dip my toes in, just to see what’s out there,” Gronkowski said. “It’s pretty rare to see someone to ever even finish a contract in the NFL, so that was pretty special there. But I’ve never been a free agent before, but I’m planning on being a free agent after every season. I feel like I’m a one-year deal guy for the rest of my career — even if I play 10 more years. I’m going to be a one-year deal guy, a free agent every year, and just control my destiny every year.”

Gronk is fully aware of the fact that his long-term deal days are over. Based on his comments, it seems like Gronk is simply in it to win more championships, which is all that really matters at this stage considering he has nothing else to prove.

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On this week’s episode of BagFuel, E$SO and Hynaken chopped it up with Omar Gooding, 44-year old actor and rapper, who happens to be the younger brother of Cuba Gooding Jr., as well as his music producer ATG. The two are fresh off a release, and discuss Omar’s journey with music, how his acting career was beneficial, the influence of east and west coast rappers, and filming Baby Boy with Snoop Dogg in 2001. 

Following the release of Omar and ATG’s new record “Entourage,” Hynaken commented that he enjoys the fact that he’s able to hear the words in the song in contrast to some rappers today who “mumble.” Omar, instantly fired up about the topic, shared the importance of “diction” and how his natural gift gave him an advantage as both an actor and a rapper.  

“I have very clear diction which got me a lot of work. I was able to go into these auditions, speak a little clearer, and read their lines and I would beat people out so forth and so on,” Gooding said. “That carried on into my music.”

Gooding continued, citing the 90’s group Fu-Schnickens as the artists who made him want to dissect words and focus on annunciation in songs. However, he also noted that Tupac and Biggie were two of the most influential people for him when it came to navigating the music industry. 

“Tupac and Biggie… that was it for us,” Omar said. “For me, I went from east coast roots, west coast rap, and then Tupac and Biggie came together and that was it for me. I knew my direction as far as hip-hop.”

On the topic of west coast rappers, Hynaken joked by asking if Snoop Dogg had ever forgiven Omar for how he “bodied” him in the John Singleton-directed film, Baby Boy, and praised him for his acting skills in the role of Sweetpea. 

“When I got that script looking at it backward and forward, that’s the role that I would take no matter what, hands down,” Omar said while reminiscing on the movie. The rapper went on to say he would have never taken the lead role, because the character he played had so many parallels to his life that many people don’t know about.

Omar continued to discuss Snoop’s role in the film, revealing, “We filmed the movie, showed it to a couple of audiences, and the criticism that they kept giving was why did we kill Snoop Dogg so badly? What y’all saw was reshoots. We reshot the scene and killed him a little kinder and added shit that people in the movie didn’t see.” Gooding explained, “The whole prayer scene, the drive-by that happened at Sweetpea’s house, none of that was in the original movie. We added that so we had real reason to run him down.” 

Watch the full BagFuel episode below. 

Tristan Thompson was a major key when it came to the success of the Cleveland Cavaliers. During the LeBron James days, Thompson was one of those players you could always count on and when he became a free agent this past offseason, there were plenty of teams who were interested. One of those teams was the Boston Celtics, who signed Thompson to a two-year deal worth $19 million.

Now, however, it seems like the two sides might be moving on at the trade deadline. In a report from Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports, it was revealed that the Celtics are thinking of moving Thompson and the trade could even be within the Eastern Conference. The team that is most heavily rumored at this stage is the Toronto Raptors.

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The Raptors have been having some issues with their big-men this season and bringing in someone like Tristan Thompson would certainly be a great move. So far, the Celtics star is averaging 7.9 points and 8.3 rebounds per game, and the Raptors could use someone to add to their depth, especially with the playoffs just a few months away.

The trade deadline takes place on March 25th, so keep it locked to HNHH for more updates coming through from the NBA world.

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