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Rumors That ASAP Rocky Cheated On Rihanna With Amina Muaddi Are Refuted By Muaddi Herself

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Rihanna is famously pregnant with her first child, and it’s with her current partner ASAP Rocky. Though the couple seems to be thriving and happy — so happy that in a recent interview the “Umbrella” singer detailed a road trip that the couple took near the start of their relationship in 2020 that involved tie-dye T-shirts and a “little janky grill I bought from Walmart” — there have been rumors circulating that the pair broke up. This mostly comes from a Twitter thread by influencer Louis Pisano, claiming that Rihanna caught ASAP cheating with shoe designer Amina Muaddi.

Since then, reports have come out debunking this unfounded gossip. A source told Page Six: “They’re fine. It’s not true.” The publication also acquired footage of the couple holding hands as they left a restaurant last week.

Then, Muaddi refuted the accusations herself, writing in an Instagram Story this afternoon: “I’ve always believed that an unfounded lie spread on social media doesn’t deserve any response or clarification, especially one that is so vile. I initially assumed that this fake gossip — fabricated with such malicious intent — would not be taken seriously. […] While Rih is continuing to live her serene, best dressed pregnancy life and I go back to my business — I wish everyone a beautiful Easter weekend!”

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@aminamuaddi/Instagram

When Rihanna announced her pregnancy at the end of January, her father expressed excitement for the baby a few days later. He said, “When I got the news, I was so excited and ecstatic. And I’m just hoping it will have ten fingers and ten toes.” He added: “I’m looking for a girl. I already have two grandsons, so I’m looking for a daughter now.”

Trina And Latto Are Pretty Deadly In Their New Strip Club Anthem, ‘Clap’

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Trina really deserves more. The Miami icon has been so good for so long, that it seems as though her consistency gets her overlooked. She’s also well-known for extending her platform to younger female rappers, blessing them with both her encouragement and her cosign. Rappers whose careers she’s helped include City Girls, Kamaiyah, Latto, LightSkinKeisha, Nicki Minaj, Saweetie, and Tokyo Jetz. Fortunately, it seems at least some of the popular ladies she’s assisted remember her help and are willing to return the favor.

On her latest single, “Clap,” Trina reunites with Latto for a frenzied strip club anthem that finds the two rappers playing femme fatale, stressing both their beauty and their danger. I guess you could say that the song’s a warning that looks kill. In her verse, Latto goes from demanding a check for her attention to threatening, “If I reach inside this Birkin, bitch, you better duck.” On the energetic hook, the two encourage their strip club counterparts to make their backsides clap to make that money.

Perhaps having Latto return the cosign can spark a resurgence for Trina, who recently participated in a Verzuz with fellow millennial-era queen Eve. After all, since the pair last worked together, Latto has increased a bunch in standing, including dropping her second album, 777, which debuted at No. 15 on the Billboard 200 led by “Big Energy,” her biggest single to date (No. 3 on the Hot 100).

Drake And Taylor Swift Each Had More Streams Than Every Pre-1980 Song Combined Last Year

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Drake is the king of streaming. Even just looking at Spotify numbers, he’s been the platform’s most-streamed artists on three separate years (more times than anybody else) and he was the platform’s most-streamed artist of the 2010s. His popularity continued in 2021: Billboard reports last year, his music had more on-demand audio streams in the US than the combined total streams of every song from before 1980.

Billboard breaks it down:

“Music released in the 1990s generated 60 billion streams in 2021, which translates to 6.07% of streams; music released during the 1980s accounted for 33.84 billion streams, or 3.42%. Music released before then doesn’t even account for a single-digit percentage point: Music from the 1970s scored 3.51 billion streams, or 0.36% of the total; music from the 1960s had 2.64 billion streams, or 0.27%; and 1950s material generated just 212.85 million streams, or 0.02%. (The market share of music released before that is too small to count.) All told, music released before 1980 accounted for 0.6% of 2021 US on-demand streaming – while Drake himself generated 7.91 billion streams, or 0.8%.”

Looking at other data, it would seem Taylor Swift also beat everything pre-1980 last year (in a notably close call), as Billboard previously reported, “Drake racked up nearly 1.9 billion more on-demand audio streams [in the US] than Swift, the country’s second most-streamed artist, who accounted for 0.61% of all on-demand audio streams.”

While the all-time streaming charts tend to favor new music, there is one song from the ’70s that has thrived: Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” is the only song from the decade in the top 100 most-streamed songs on Spotify (and just one of two from before the 2000s, alongside Oasis’ “Wonderwall“). On Spotify’s official 240-song “BILLIONS CLUB” playlist, which collects songs with a billion streams on the platform, Queen has four songs, while Drake has eight. Swift’s sole entry on the playlist is her Zayn collaboration “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever.”

Cardi B Encourages Drill Rappers To Leave The Streets After Appearing On Kay Flock’s ‘Shake It’

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Cardi B is flying high this week, appearing on the cover of Essence with her family and popping up in an episode of Baby Shark’s Big Show! to perform a new song, “The Seaweed Sway.” She’s obviously making the most of her status as a crossover pop icon, but that doesn’t mean she’s forgotten where she started. Cardi also got back to her roots this week with another new song that’s completely the opposite of her Baby Shark guest role. Appearing on Kay Flock’s new single “Shake It,” Cardi shows she’s still got ties to the streets that raised her.

However, rather than simply dabbling in the controversial drill style to expand her own resume, she’s using the moment for good. Drill rap has come under fire recently for encouraging gun violence on the streets of New York. While the style’s practitioners say they’re simply recording the life around them, there’s no denying that there’s a link between the gang shootouts and the reporting that drill rappers do in their rhymes. Cardi, however, wants those rappers to make the most of their opportunities with music and leave the streets alone.

“On some G sh*t, yo, let me tell y’all little n****s something,” she said during an Instagram Live stream. “I know it’s a lot of smoke, I know how sh*t goes, but use y’all music to get signed and get the f*ck out the Bronx because it’s only death and indictments out there.” She has a point; even her host on “Shake It,” Kay Flock, is currently in jail, while another rapper who appears on the song, Dougie B, was recently picked up on a probation violation.

Meanwhile, in another video, Cardi explained the difference between the Bronx and Brooklyn drill styles. Check that out below.

Tekashi 69 Was Reportedly Sued For $2 Million For Missing Performances

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Tekashi 69 is past the worst of his legal troubles, but just because he’s not in jail anymore doesn’t mean he doesn’t have any more problems. According to TMZ, the controversial New York rapper is being sued by Streamusic over a pair of Hollywood shows he allegedly blew off last December. Streamusic, an app that streams live shows, apparently booked Tekashi for the two concerts, paying him $150,000 in advance. But when the company tried to get him to hold up his end of the arrangement, he stopped responding.

When he finally did get back to Streamusic to reschedule the shows in January, he ghosted them again, even after the company says it sent seven letters (who uses mail anymore?). So, they’ve sued Tekashi for breach of contract and fraud. However, the rapper’s attorney Lance Lazzaro told TMZ, “We have no comment at this time. Tekashi has not been served with any legal papers.”

Of course, the papers could have gotten lost in the veritable avalanche of paperwork the rapper has been served over the past couple of years. In 2021, he was sued by another concert promoter over bailing on a show after being paid in full, after he was sued by his security company over an unpaid bill. Also in 2021, he was sued by a Miami stripper who claimed he threw a champagne bottle during a fight, hitting her instead of the intended target. In 2020, Fashion Nova sued Tekashi for $2.25 million when he didn’t fulfill the terms of a promotion deal.

G Eazy’s New Single ‘Angel’ Is A Poignant Tribute To His Late Mother

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Last year, rapper G-Eazy shared on Instagram the tragic news of his mother’s passing. The post was as heartfelt as it was heartbreaking: “The shock still won’t let me accept the feeling that I’ll never get to hug you in person again,” he wrote. Today, he returned with a tribute to her with the song “Angel.”

The track watches the rapper settle into vulnerable territory, showcasing his more emotional music influences; against soft, slow sounds he speaks with patience and earnestness: “Can’t find what my faith is / I been lost in this basement / Keep searching and searching / I must be looking in the wrong places,” he contemplates.

But the song builds and grows hopeful; on the chorus, he sings, “‘Cause I met an angel, an angel.” In an interview with People, he explained: “As I was recording the song, I kept feeling the presence of her energy dancing to the chorus. Her favorite thing in the world was to come to my shows, and smoke her joints and dance to my music when I performed.”

In that same interview, he mentioned that he will be starting a scholarship program in honor of his mother. It will be called the Dandelion Scholarship, and it will reward $15,000 to one US arts major annually. Applications open this summer.

Listen to “Angel” above.

Lauryn Hill Shares Support For The FAIR Act, Which Would Limit The Control Labels Have Over Its Artists

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Ms. Lauryn Hill took to Instagram last night to share a statement in support of the FAIR act, a California bill that would repeal an amendment to the state’s “Seven-Year Statute” that allows record labels to sue artists for damages if they leave after seven years before fulfilling the required number of albums in their contract.

“Artists can easily fall prey to the internal politics of business, someone inside simply not liking them, or bullying and intimidation and the attacks that come when someone resists that coercion,” Hill writes. “Music is a most powerful medium. Often people want to influence the influencers and will stop at nothing less than treachery to accomplish their goal. Greed often perverts the creative intentions of young dreamers who don’t realize they’re up against a system with a history of using and crushing people who don’t comply with their agenda.”

Hill continues, “No institution should be allowed the opportunity to control the market by controlling the output of a creative being for some ridiculous, indefinite period of time. This is not only unjust, it’s dangerous, and at its core a violation of the principles of free expression. Artists’ expressions are their voices, and an extension of their free speech and should not be contained, caught-up or controlled beyond a reasonable amount of time by an institution with the money and power to obstruct and deny someone’s output indefinitely.”

It’s no secret that record labels have been treating artists unfairly for a while — just look at Megan Thee Stallion’s situation or Rowdy Rebel’s. Hopefully more artists will follow in Hill’s steps and share their support.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Cardi B And Offset Finally Reveal The Name And First Photos Of Their Son

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It’s been about seven months since Cardi B gave birth to her and Offset’s second child, a boy. They’ve been secretive about their latest bundle of joy, though, not sharing any photos of the baby or even his name. Now, though, they’ve made the big reveal, offering the first pictures of the boy and revealing his name is Wave Set Cephus.

Cardi and Offset both shared photos of the adorable kid last night, in which he’s decked out in chains. Offset made the name reveal, captioning his post, “WAVE SET CEPHUS.”

Furthermore, the family is the subject of a new Essence profile. In it, Cardi explains why she and Offset waited so long to share info about their son, saying, “We went through a lot of sad things when it comes to Kulture — terrible behavior that not even the older kids have ever been through. So many people will post mean, disgusting things, just to get a reaction from us. We want to protect our feelings, because we get very, very angry and upset.”

Offset also described the tone of his and Cardi’s relationship, saying, “It might sound weird, but we don’t always put love first — because sometimes you can put love before work and mess up your career, because you’re not focused. Love is important, but if you’ve got that foundation, we should respect each other and what we have going on. I had never experienced a woman that was working like me and doing what I’m doing. It turns me on. She does her own thing. She likes the hustle, so that ain’t never getting in between our love.”

Read the full profile here.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Gucci Mane Invalidates The Opposition And Calls Their Buff On The Haunting ‘Serial Killers’

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After dropping three projects last year, Ice Daddy, So Icy Boyz, and So Icy Christmas, Gucci Mane has been off to a great start so far in 2022. He kicked things off by teaming up with Lil Durk for “Rumors,” and a short time later, he followed that up with “Publicity Stunt.” Now, Gucci is back with his latest drop, “Serial Killers,” and it arrives with a stern message.

In the new song, Gucci takes a moment to address those who are faking the lifestyle that he actually lived. He uses the track’s haunting production to detail his experiences and uses them as proof of how he can tell that the opposition is lying. Gucci released the track with a video that finds him rapping in a room that’s covered in plastic from wall to wall. He also sports a pair of hoodies that calls for the release of Pooh Shiesty and Foogiano, who are both signed to his 1017 imprint, from prison.

“Serial Killers” is Gucci’s second track in three weeks after he previously teamed up with Key Glock and the late Young Dolph for “Blood All On It” earlier this month.

You can watch the video for “Serial Killers” above.

Gucci Mane is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Bas And Gunna’s ‘Admire Her’ Commits To Showering Their Ideal Partner With Love

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It’s been a really long time since we’ve received a full-length project from Dreamville’s Bas. His last project came in the summer of 2019 with Spilled Milk. The four-track EP had contributions from Earthgang, JID, Ari Lennox, and served as a follow-up to his vibrant 2018 third album Milky Way. Since Spilled Milk, Bas has laid off a few guest verses while showing up on Dreamville projects like Revenge Of The Dreamers III and D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape. At long last, Bas is back, and while it may not be with an album, he arrives with a batch of new records through a new EP.

Bas touches down with his [BUMP] Pick Me Up EP, and it features the highlight record from it is “Admire Her” with Gunna. On it, the duo takes time to shower their ideal partners with love after realizing what makes them special. They do so over production that complements Bas’ versatile ways as it does to Gunna’s slimy persona.

The EP also includes the previously-released “The Jackie” with J. Cole and Lil Tjay. Elsewhere, listeners will catch appearances from Galimatias on “Eyes On You” and Ari Lennox on “The Others.”

You can listen to “Admire Her” in the video above.

[BUMP] Pick Me Up is out now via Dreamville and Interscope. You can stream it here.

Gunna is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.