Hip Hop News

T. Eric Monroe, a veteran photographer who captured some of the biggest Hip-Hop stars throughout the 1990s for publications such as Thrasher and The Source, has been revisiting his work in a new video series posted to his Instagram, titled Rare & Unseen Moments of 90s HipHop. Named after his photography book that published in 2019, the video series finds Monroe telling stories and giving insights into some of the most iconic shots that he has captured throughout his career, and one of the more interesting moments that he has recently reflected on involves none other than Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G.

During his first year working as a photographer in New York, Monroe took a picture of a group of artists following an Onyx and Public Enemy concert in 1993, and since the photo featured egregious shadows as well as someone throwing up their middle finger, he considered it useless at the time. According to Monroe, it took him about 20 years to realize that the photo that had been sitting in his archives featured friends-turned-rivals Tupac and Biggie. In the video below, the photographer talks about unearthing the rare Hip-Hop artifact.

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“I shot maybe six frames of Onyx as a group, just the four main guys. After the last frame, I knew I got the shot I needed. I let them know we were good and they could go back to the dressing room,” Monroe says in a statement on his website. “The group left the stage area, I packed up my camera bag and as I left the stage and started heading back towards the dressing rooms, I heard someone yell at me, ‘Yo, why don’t you take our picture?'”

“I turned around and looked, it was a group of seven guys. I didn’t know who they were but I also had enough respect to not blow them off because I didn’t know who they were,” Monroe continued. “For years, I didn’t think about that one frame I’d shot of those guys who yelled to have the picture taken, I would casually look at and only noticed a guy giving me the finger and a strong shadow cast on half of his face. That type of shot is not commercially usable in a magazine’s for their ‘who’s who’ celebrity picture page.”

T. Eric Monroe

Around 2011, Monroe finally realized his insane oversight, saying, “It wasn’t until 2011 when I was sorting through slide photographs and beginning to catalog my images that I seriously took a look at that one slide of a dude giving me the finger with a strong shadow on his face…”No f’n way!” I was shocked I didn’t know the guy with the shadow in his face was Tupac.” 

“As I pan around the image, I looked deeper and yelled to myself, “You’re f’n kidding me!” Biggie, Lil Ceaser are in this shot?!” he continued. “I start laughing at myself because as I stared deeper into the picture, I noticed all the guys, including Tupac, were wearing,”I’m a Bad Boy” t-shirts.”

The rare picture, like several other of Monroe’s gems, can be found in his three-volume photography book series Rare & Unseen Moments of 90s HipHop.

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There are a staggering number of hip-hop fans who appear fascinated by the romantic developments occurring within the rap game. For them, the on-again/off-again relationship between Lil Uzi Vert and JT of the City Girls has been premium entertainment. For everyone else, however, music remains the more important takeaway (as it should be). Sometimes, however, the two worlds collide — case in point, JT recently previewed an unreleased banger from Lil Uzi Vert, sparking hype for his next body of work.

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For many “newer” rappers, there appears to be an unspoken challenge to push one’s voice to the highest registers possible. And while Lil Uzi Vert doesn’t quite hit the difficult benchmark of “baby,” he certainly comes close. While the stylistic cadential choice might not be for everyone, it certainly works for Uzi, who has mastered the art of using his voice as an instrument. In this snippet, he becomes one with the synthesizers, singing barely intelligible lyrics as he fires off a barrage of ad-libs. 

Unfortunately, the snippet ends before we can get a genuine feel of what the upcoming track will sound like, with JT cutting the clip the moment Uzi scurries into his gargantuan vehicle. While it’s unclear as to whether we’ll ever see this one surface in full, remember that Uzi has been hard at work to his follow-up to Eternal Atake, having previously expressed his own disappointment in the project. 

Check it out for yourself now, and sound off if you’re excited to hear another new album from the self-styled Baby Pluto.

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott made the controversial decision to lift the mask mandate on Tuesday, which was set in place to protect Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic, also announcing the re-opening of all businesses one hundred percent. The executive order was immediately called into question by thousands of social media commentators who argued that it was too soon to risk the lives of Texans by re-opening non-essential businesses, especially with such a limited number of residents presently vaccinated. 

While many have spoken out to debate that the timing isn’t right to make a risky move like this, others are fully supporting Gov. Abbott’s decision to re-open, including 50 Cent, who may even be planning a move to Texas as a result.

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Re-posting a news report about Gov. Abbott’s divisive move, the rapper-turned-television producer chimed in on the matter and said that he wants to set up roots in Texas because of mask mandate being lifted. “I’m headed to Texas f*ck this,” he said on Instagram, adding a running emoji and a steam emoji to indicate how quickly he plans to pack his bags and fly over.

This has proven to be an eyebrow-raising decision from Gov. Abbott, but with President Joe Biden’s announcement that the United States will have enough vaccines for every American in the next few months, it does seem like we could be nearing a turning point in the pandemic. In due time, we’ll be outside. We just need to be patient and safe in the meantime.

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What do you think about Texas easing up on COVID restrictions?

Isaiah Rashad’s most recent album The Sun’s Tirade was released in 2016, the same year we last heard a full-length project from labelmate Ab-Soul. The year after came Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. and SZA’s CTRL. Suffice it to say, TDE fans have been forced to exercise patience, arguably more so than fans of any other label. And while good things tend to come to those who wait, many have simply given up hope that Isaiah Rashad’s long-awaited new album will ever see the light of the sun. 

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Or will it? There has admittedly been an increased level in pre-release teasers, though it would be premature to call it a rollout. Isaiah himself has been relatively open about the unfinished state of his project, though he was recently seen filming a music video with Quality Control’s Duke Deuce. Now, Zay has taken to Twitter once again, this time to highlight an upcoming banger he’s got in the cut.

“Second verse kinda hard lol,” teases Zay, sharing a solid forty-nine seconds worth of new music. Maintaining that he’s been “too busy getting his mental straight,” Rashad clearly hasn’t lost a step as he absolutely slides over the instrumental. There’s an effortless charisma exuded throughout, one that should please longtime fans eager to catch up with the elusive emcee. And should this new teaser be any indication, perhaps we should expect some concrete news to surface in the weeks to come. Or not — after all, TDE has been certainly making an artform out of the delay. 

Check out Isaiah Rashad’s new snippet below, and sound off if you’re excited to hear the full version. 

Eminem is at the center of a debate on social media right now as Gen Z and Millennials argue over the rapper’s cancellation on TikTok, with the former group pointing out his past problematic lyrics and the latter generation fighting back to combat the decision to leave Em behind.

You might have noticed Eminem’s name in the trending topics last night and this morning and wondered to yourself, did this man drop another surprise album? Always stirring the pot, even when he does nothing at all, quite frankly, Eminem is currently the latest to take on cancel culture, as a group of Gen Z TikTokers plead their case to leave the rapper in the past because of his lyrics, most notably for something he says at the end of a verse in “Love The Way You Lie” with Rihanna.

@snmmerr

to everyone that is canceling him I literally love u😁

♬ love the way you lie – sam

Dozens of people are angry at the Detroit rap legend for the following lines: “If she ever tries to f**king leave again/I’mma tie her to the bed and set this house on fire.” It’s understandable why they would react to this lyric in such a strong manner, but nobody expected the line, which was released eleven years ago, to cause such a ruckus on social media this week.

While Gen Z seems adamant about no longer supporting the 48-year-old superstar, millennials are fighting back on Twitter and TikTok with their take on the matter, laughing in the faces of their younger counterparts and claiming that Slim Shady will never be silenced. 

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Where do you stand on this issue? Are you a fan of Eminem or do you think cancel culture will get him this time?