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Pusha T And No Malice Perform Together As Clipse For The First Time Since 2010 At Something In The Water

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Clipse, the duo of brothers Pusha T and No Malice, enjoyed its initial run from 1992 to 2010. While the pair took some time apart in the years following, they’ve staged a bit of a reunion in recent years, which kicked off when they featured on Kanye West’s 2019 song “Use This Gospel.” They’ve since hopped on other tracks together, but before this weekend, there had not yet been a live reunion on stage.

That was actually supposed to happen at Pharrell’s Something In The Water festival in 2020, which was ultimately canceled in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The fest also didn’t go on in 2021 but it did finally return this weekend. While Clipse wasn’t listed on the festival lineup, they did actually stage their reunion this time around, as part of the Pharrell & Phriends set. For their time on stage (about 18 minutes), they did “Mr. Me Too,” Birdman’s “What Happened To That Boy,” “Cot Damn,” and wrapped up with “Grindin’.”

Even before this, 2022 has been a good year for Clipse. In 1999, the pair was ready to release their debut album, Exclusive Audio Footage, but it was ultimately shelved by the label. This year, though, the LP finally hit streaming services. On top of that, Pusha landed his first No. 1 album with It’s Almost Dry.

Watch the Clipse performance above.

A Barber Kicked A Customer Out Of His Chair After Quavo Walked In

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Having a celebrity check out your business can be exciting, as was the case recently for Atlanta barbershop Diamond Cuts. It seems they bent over backwards to take care of Quavo when he recently came in for a cut, so much so that a barber actually kicked his current client out of his chair.

A video, filmed by the barber, shows Quavo and a couple of associates walking in. All the while, the barber tells his current client, “Hey! Lance! You got to go, Lance. You got to go, Lance [laughs].” The video is captioned, “What would you do if QUAVO Huncho walked into your barbershop? Get yo ass up, Lance, n do that dance.”

While it might seem rude of the barber to kick the original client out of the chair, it appears the two have a personal relationship beyond the barbershop and that they had an understanding about how this sort of situation would go down. In a comment on the post, Lance wrote (as XXL points out), “On the real me & Sef rock with each other not just as a barber/client. He always look out & I do the same. Like he said, he had already communicated with me.”

Still, the barber’s actions got some mixed reviews in the comments. One person wrote, “If there was communication and the customer is aware and understands..awesome sauce.” Another chimed in, “Unless he’s paying for my cut and double for his, i made a reservation like everyone else. Barber should honor who’s in the chair.”

Eminem Explains How Rapping Is ‘Therapeutic’ For Him

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Drake dominated the music news cycle on Friday with the surprise release of Honestly, Nevermind, but last week was actually pretty stacked for new music releases beyond that. Westside Boogie, for example, turned in the excellent new album More Black Superheroes, one of the week’s best hip-hop albums. On Friday, Boogie popped into SiriusXM’s Sway In The Morning show to promote the album and the program also got a call from his Shady Records boss, Eminem himself.

On the program, Em spoke about how rapping is “therapeutic” for him and how that connects to More Black Superheroes. He said:

“I think that’s one of the great things about rap music is that, you know, you can put so much of your life in it, you know what I mean? […] It’s therapeutic and that’s how it’s always been for me.

But with this album, with this new Boogie album — the title, everything, is f*ckin… everything’s great. And it’s like, watching him just keep getting better and better and better is incredible, too. And he’s got so much of his life weaved in this album. You know what I’m saying? Like, I think that it’s therapeutic.”

Listen to the interview below.

Doja Cat Demonstrates The Devastating Effects Of Her Throat Surgery By Rapping A Classic Nicki Minaj Verse

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Last month, Doja Cat canceled her upcoming tour with The Weeknd, warning her fans that she had to have tonsil surgery after they’d become infected and would require several months of rest to recover. The “Vegas” rapper apparently has undergone the required surgery, sharing a series of photos from a hospital bed on Twitter on Thursday. She also demonstrated the effect that the surgery has had on her vocal cords, attempting to rap Nicki Minaj’s fan-favorite verse from Trey Songz’s “Bottoms Up.” Unfortunately… well, you can see for yourself below.

So it looks like she’ll be out of commission for a while — which could turn out to be a blessing in disguise. After all, for much of the past year, she’s apparently been feeling the effects of burnout after skyrocketing to fame pretty quickly on the strength of her breakout hit “Say So” — which, ironically, features Nicki Minaj on the remix. The atypical pop star tweeted in October, “I’m just tired and i don’t want to do anything… I’m not happy. I’m done saying yes to motherf*ckers cuz I can’t even have a week to just chill. I’m never not working.” She also posted about feeling pressured by the demands of her flourishing career. “I’m doing all this shit that I don’t f*ckin’ wanna do,” she said in an Instagram Live stream. “I don’t want to do that. I want to be home. I wanna make music. I wanna play f*ckin’ video games.”

Doja’s time off could be a chance for her to check off some things on that to-do list while rediscovering her passion for rapping, which she says she wants to do more of on her next album. And for fans who’ll miss seeing her on tour, there’s at least some consolation; she’s always been highly active on social media, so her inevitable boredom will likely lead to some hilarious and interesting content.

Obie Trice, A Former Artist On Eminem’s Shady Records, Was Arrested In Michigan For Harassment

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Detroit rapper Obie Trice — a former artist on Eminem’s Shady Records — was arrested on Thursday on a charge of using a telephone to harass or threaten someone, according to The Detroit News. He was booked into Oakland County Jail and is being held on a $10,000 bond for the misdemeanor charge, punishable by a $1,000 fine, six months in jail, or both.

Obie Trice — real name, no gimmicks — was best known for his debut album Cheers, along with appearances on albums by D12, Eminem, and on the 8 Mile soundtrack. The lead single from Cheers, “Got Some Teeth,” peaked at No. 54 on the Billboard Hot 100. Trice left Shady Records in 2008 over concerns that his music wasn’t being promoted as much as other signees’ (a concern that future Shady artists would also share over a decade later), and he continued to release mixtapes and albums independently.

In December 2019, Trice was arrested for shooting his girlfriend’s son during an argument when the 18-year-old jumped between Trice and his mother. Obie was charged with a misdemeanor and spent 90 days in Oakland County Jail.

Last year, Eminem explained what it takes to get signed to Shady Records, saying, “Obviously we want anyone who signs with Shady to succeed. But first and foremost we’ve always focused on the raw talent and ability of the artist as an MC. We’ve always been pretty clear on that being the main thing we look for: high level fundamental skills and mechanics are definitely the priority.”

Pharrell Pays Off Five Students’ Debts At An NAACP Panel

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Over the past two years, student debt has become a hot-button issue, in part because of certain campaign promises made by Joe Biden during his successful bid for the Presidency. While conservative commentators have railed against debt forgiveness — mostly to oppose Democrats, despite the policy’s overwhelming popularity among voters — others have taken matters into their own hands. In 2019, Vista Equity founder and billionaire Robert F. Smith paid off the tuition of the entire Morehouse University graduating class. Now, Pharrell Williams, in an attempt to lead by example, has done the same for five student leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

During a Friday panel on the student debt crisis for Black scholars at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington, DC, Pharrell announced he was paying off all student debt for students of Southern University, Howard, and Florida A&M, as well as alumni of North Carolina AT, and Norfolk State. The panel’s organizer, NAACP National Director of Youth and College Wisdom Cole, said, “Pharrell forever changed their lives. This was a powerful moment. Now just imagine if President Biden made this a reality for all student debt holders in America.”

Meanwhile, NCAAP President and CEO Derrick Johnson posted photos of the youth leaders as they learned of their debt cancelation on Twitter, imploring President Biden, “It’s your turn now to do the same for all Americans plagued by student debt.” Hours later, Pharrell kicked off his Something In The Water Festival, where he’s set to perform with Clipse, Justin Timberlake, SZA, and more.

Roddy Ricch’s Something In The Water Festival Performance Salutes Lil Keed, Nipsey Hussle, And More

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Hip-hop fans have been through a lot in the last few years. There hasn’t been a single year in the past half-decade that hasn’t seen the death of one of rap’s most prominent rising stars. In 2019, Nipsey Hussle was shot and killed in front of his Marathon Clothing store in Los Angeles. Later that same year, Juice WRLD overdosed coming off a flight at Midway International Airport in Chicago. More recently, Drakeo The Ruler was stabbed to death backstage during Once Upon A Time in LA Festival, and Lil Keed died of apparent kidney failure earlier this year.

Last night, during his set at Something In The Water Festival, Compton rapper Roddy Ricch paid homage to these artists and more with a tender performance of his breakout hit “Die Young.” Images of his fallen peers and contemporaries flashed behind him as he crooned the all-too-fitting lyrics of his song’s chorus: “Tell me, why the legends always gotta die quick?”

Roddy was at least partly associated with many of the rappers to whom he paid homage Friday night; he won a Grammy with Nipsey Hussle for their song “Racks In The Middle,” while Keed was a member of YSL Records, a frequent Roddy collaborator via Gunna and Young Thug. Roddy shouted out Gunna on Instagram, calling for his release from Fulton County jail as he awaits trial on racketeering charges with the rest of the YSL crew.

Watch Roddy’s tender performance of “Die Young” above.

Joey Badass Denies That He Pushed Back ‘2000’ Because Of Drake’s Album: ‘I F*x With This New Drake’

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On the heels of Drake’s new surprise release album, Honestly, Nevermind, fans are suspecting the reason Joey Badass pushed back his album, 2000, is so he wouldn’t be in direct competition with Drake.

This past Thursday, before Drake had even announced the album, Joey took to Twitter to explain that 2000 wouldn’t be released this week, as originally planned.

“Man I got some terrible news,” he said. “my album won’t be coming out tonight due to sample clearance issues. Right now, it’s unclear how long I’ll have to postpone it but my hope is no more than 2 weeks. I wanted to have a new date before I told you guys but it’s out of my control.”

He continued, saying, “I’ll keep you guys updated obviously, I’m almost certain I’ll have a new date by Monday.”

Following the announcement of Honestly, Nevermind, fans theorized that this may have been a cover-up to hide the fact that he pushed it back as not to compete with Drake. Joey has since taken to Twitter to deny these rumors, saying, “Y’all thinking I pushed my album back because drake is comedy. Can’t say I ain’t happy tho hahaha.”

He later showed praise for the album, saying, “I f*x with this new drake tho.”

Had 2000 come out as originally planned, it would’ve coincided with the 10th anniversary of Joey’s breakthrough mixtape, 1999. As of now, there is no confirmed release date for 2000.

French Montana Raps All Over New York City In His New ‘Blue Chills’ Video

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Ahead of his upcoming album Montega, produced by Harry Fraud, French Montana has dropped a new video for “Blue Chills.” In the video, Montana is seen in various parts of New York City, including rapping from a rooftop and grabbing bites at a bodega.

Lyrically, the song features Montana addressing his haters and critics, some of which seem to come from within his own circle.

“The grеatest threat is always from the inside / Yessir, they put staples in my head, b*tch, they been tried / Killers wanna bag me or come see me in that dayroom / Shorty wanna rag me and throw me up on Shade Room,” he raps over the Fraud-produced track.

Fraud has worked with Montana on various projects since his mixtape days in the late aughts and early 2010s. In a recent interview with Connected With Wayno, Montana recalled his mixtape days pleasantly, however, he says the songs fans prefer aren’t what he considers his best work.

“Some people, when I dimmed it down, I sold more records,” he said, “and I’m competing in a numbers game. If I could put up numbers, why wouldn’t I put numbers, and I can still do the rap.”

Check out Blue Chills above.

Montega is out 6/24 via Coke Boys. Pre-order it here.

Lakeyah Sets The ‘Record Straight’ In Her New Video

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Quality Control’s new signee Lakeyah is ready to take the summer by storm. On her new, scorching single, “Record Straight,” Lakeyah asserts control. She knows she’s bossy, and wears that label with pride, not taking any sort of BS from any man.

“Let me set the record straight / I’m a young fine b*tch, but I’m a heavy weight / Know we shuttin’ down the function when we celebrate / And these diamonds on me shinin’ ball like Kevin Gates,” she raps.

In the song’s accompanying music video, she is dressed in two-piece suit and high-top stilleto boots. She arrives at a construction site and hands out orders to the men working.

“Record Straight” comes from Lakeyah’s new EP, No Pressure, Part One, which dropped today. When speaking of her project in an interview with Popsugar, she said. “It’s so much growth in the music, I stepped out of my comfort zone for sure, as everybody can see …I wanted to work with a lot of different and big producers, creative people, and you can hear the confidence in my music.”

Check out “Record Straight” above.

No Pressure, Part One is out now via Quality Control and Motown. Listen to it here.