Nas’ $5B Proposal to Rival JAY-Z for NYC Casino License

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In a bold move that could reshape the landscape of New York City’s entertainment scene, rapper Nas has unveiled a $5 billion proposal to transform Resorts World Casino New York City into a state-of-the-art casino complex in his hometown of Jamaica, Queens.

Partnering with Resorts World Casino, Nas aims to revitalize the neighborhood while creating new opportunities for local residents. The ambitious project includes plans for a multi-functional casino featuring a 7,000-seat capacity entertainment venue for hosting events and concerts. Additionally, the development will encompass park space, housing, hotels, restaurants, and upgraded transit options to JFK Airport and Manhattan, promising to generate an estimated 5,000 union jobs.

“This is an ambitious project that will give new opportunities to the hard-working families who call Queens home, attract top-tier talent, and build up the next generation of leaders,” Nas expressed during the unveiling, as reported by Rhyme Junkie. “It’s an honor to be here, to be a part of this with Resorts World, realizing the future, seeing what this can be and what it will be.”

The announcement comes as Nas’ proposal competes with fellow hip-hop icon JAY-Z’s bid for a NYC casino license. JAY-Z, through his entertainment company Roc Nation, has partnered with SL Green and Caesars Entertainment to propose a boutique-style casino at the iconic 1515 Broadway office tower in Times Square.

“New York is the epicenter of culture. We have the opportunity to create a destination at the heart of the true crossroads of the word,” JAY-Z stated in a press release. “My partnership with SL Green and Caesars has all the promise and commitment to economic opportunity, growth, and enrichment for the community and everyone that visits the Empire State.”

The competition for the coveted casino license underscores the potential economic impact and cultural significance of these projects. Nas and JAY-Z are not only vying for the license but also aiming to shape the future of entertainment and hospitality in New York City.

“When we stood here more than a dozen years ago to break ground on Resorts World New York City, our vision extended well beyond that already-ambitious original plan — today, that vision can soon become a reality,” remarked Robert DeSalvio, president of Genting America East, in a statement.

As both Nas and JAY-Z present their visions for the city’s entertainment landscape, the decision on the casino license remains in the hands of New York City officials. With their respective proposals, these hip-hop moguls are not only competing for a business opportunity but also aiming to leave a lasting impact on their communities and the city at large. The stakes are high, and the outcome will shape the future of entertainment in the Big Apple.

The post Nas’ $5B Proposal to Rival JAY-Z for NYC Casino License first appeared on The Source.

The post Nas’ $5B Proposal to Rival JAY-Z for NYC Casino License appeared first on The Source.

WATCH: Bow Wow and JAY-Z Link Courtside at Lakers-Clippers Game

Bow Wow and JAY-Z Link Courtside at Lakers-Clippers Game

Courtside at NBA games have long been the place where Hip-Hop elites link. During the final regular season, Los Angeles Clippers home game at Crypto.com against the Los Angeles Lakers, JAY-Z and Bow Wow greeted each other. The Clippers will move to Intuit Dome next season. Bow Wow delivered the game’s halftime performance.

You can see the moment below.

The post WATCH: Bow Wow and JAY-Z Link Courtside at Lakers-Clippers Game first appeared on The Source.

The post WATCH: Bow Wow and JAY-Z Link Courtside at Lakers-Clippers Game appeared first on The Source.

SZA, Isaiah Rashad, And More React To ScHoolboy Q Playing His New Album For Jay-Z

Earlier this year, Top Dawg Entertainment promised that it would be a big year for the label with new songs from almost all of their artists. That year is getting underway soon when ScHoolboy Q releases Blue Lips. It’s his first album since 2019’s CrasH Talk and fans are already loving the single he’s shared. He even got to play the record for Jay-Z when the pair recently crossed met up. Punch from TDE shared some pictures of the meeting to social media. And it was there where some of ScHoolboy Q’s labelmates like SZA and Isaiah Rashad has a field day.

“Played Q album for a couple good fellas. Blue Lips is out March 1. Ps I’m never wearing hard pants again. Hammer was in to something,” Punch captioned the post while making a joke about his own outfit. SZA pulled up in the comments right away with the jokes. “This is Sexism !!! I ain’t never played a LICK for Jigga 😂” her comment begins. But clearly it was all love as she went on to say “y’all look niiiice or whatever 😩🙄🥺😢🫶🏾💗.” Isaiah Rashad also got in on the fun making his own jokes about Punch’s pants. “The pants reflect the zen” his comment reads. Check out the post and all the comments reacting to it below.

Read More: Vince Staples Previews ScHoolboy Q’s New Album With High Praise

ScHoolboy Q Played His New Album For Jay-Z, SZA Reacts

Earlier this week, ScHoolboy Q unveiled the full tracklist of Blue Lips ahead of its release. The album is 18 tracks long and sports an impressive feature list. Rico Nasty, Devin Malik, Lance Skiiiwalker, AZ Chike, Ab-Soul, Freddie Gibbs, Jozzy, and Childish Major al contributed to the record. The album is due out later this week and has already been proceeded by four different singles.

What do you think of ScHoolboy Q getting to play his new album for Jay-Z? Which of his Top Dawg label partners do you think had the funniest response to the post about the meeting? Let us know in the comment section below.

Read More: Schoolboy Q Starts New Blog Series As New Album Approaches

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The post SZA, Isaiah Rashad, And More React To ScHoolboy Q Playing His New Album For Jay-Z appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

ScHoolboy Q Meets with JAY-Z to Play Forthcoming ‘Blue Lips’ Album

ScHoolboy Q Meets with JAY-Z to Play 'Blue Lips' Album

ScHoolboy Q is showing the Internet truly works. Hitting X, Q revealed his wish to play his new album for JAY-Z came true.

On Feb. 19, ScHoolboy wrote: “I wisH I could play tHis album for jay z🤞

Days later, ScHoolboy revealed an X user’s tweet to Hov got the job done. “HipHop twitter actually came tHru 😩 played Hov tHe album,” he later tweeted.

You can see the moment with Q and Hov, with special guest appearances from Emory Jones and Punch below.

On Feb. 25th, ScHoolboy Q celebrated the 10th anniversary of his album Oxymoron. According to research conducted by Megaways-Casino, it stands as his most popular work to date. On Spotify, the track “Collard Greens” has amassed 595,743,669 streams, while “Man of the Year” boasts 383,195,149 streams. Monetizing these two tracks alone, estimates suggest a revenue of approximately $3,916,444.44.

The post ScHoolboy Q Meets with JAY-Z to Play Forthcoming ‘Blue Lips’ Album first appeared on The Source.

The post ScHoolboy Q Meets with JAY-Z to Play Forthcoming ‘Blue Lips’ Album appeared first on The Source.

ScHoolboy Q Plays Jay-Z His New Album “Blue Lips” Ahead Of Release This Week

ScHoolboy Q is dropping his highly-anticipated new album Blue Lips this Friday (March 1), and he and fans just found yet another reason to be super excited for it. Moreover, you may recall that he shared this jitteriness with Twitter recently, expressing wishes to play this album for Jay-Z. Well, it looks like hip-hop Twitter did its thing and made it happen, because Hov and the TDE MC posed for some pictures online and the latter confirmed that he was able to fulfill his wish. “HipHop twitter actually came tHru, played Hov tHe album,” he tweeted on Monday (February 26).

“I lokey Hate HipHop Twitter, tHey looked out tHo so I love em again,” ScHoolboy Q expressed jokingly in a follow-up tweet. In fact, he even specifically shouted out Joey from @gothamhiphop for posting the tweet that got Jay-Z’s attention. Even though the California native doesn’t want a Bobbi Althoff interview, it’s nice to see that he was able to manifest the meetings that he actually wanted. All in all, this really builds up even more anticipation for Blue Lips, and sets it up as one of 2024’s biggest music moments.

Read More: Vince Staples Previews ScHoolboy Q’s New Album With High Praise

ScHoolboy Q & Jay-Z Pose For Post-Blue Lips Listening Pic

Furthermore, looking at ScHoolboy Q’s past comments on Jay-Z, this admiration is understandable. “Nas is my favorite rapper. I also think Jay-Z is the best rapper to ever rap,” he said back in a 2013 interview. “Just because he’s at his age and what he’s doing and he still is relevant. He’s been doing it for years and [he’s] consistent.” “Honestly, I think Jay-Z won [the Nas beef],” Q told VladTV around the same time. “I mean, Nas is my favorite rapper, but Jay-Z, he was pretty scandalous.

“Jay is the best rapper and everybody don’t wanna believe that,” he added. “Jay, even though Nas is my favorite, Jay is like LeBron, Kobe, Jordan, people just wanna say no or hate. He’s so good you got to hate him.” We can only wonder what the Roc Nation leader thought of the “Cooties” MC’s new record. For more news and the latest updates on ScHoolboy Q and Jay-Z, keep checking in with HNHH.

Read More: Jay-Z Protects Dame Dash From Having To Sell His Roc-A-Fella Shares

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Jay-Z Protects Dame Dash From Having To Sell His Roc-A-Fella Shares

Despite all that Jay-Z and Dame Dash have allegedly went through in the fallout of Roc-A-Fella, it looks like there’s still enough there for them to defend each other. For those unaware, according to legal documents reportedly obtained by AllHipHop, the latter might have to give up his shares in the Roc to pay off a debt to film producer Josh Webber and Muddy Waters Pictures. They sued the music executive in 2022, and to collect their $832,000 judgement, they want to go after his stake in the record company. But Hov and the label’s third co-founder Kareem “Biggs” Burke stepped in to prevent these shares from selling out.

Before getting into that, it’s important to bring things back to 2016, when Dame Dash was fired as the director of Webber’s crime thriller flick, Dear Frank. He was allegedly unfit for the directorial role, being verbally abusive to staff and showing up to set high. The 52-year-old thought Webber tried “to take credit for a Black man’s work” and attempted to sell his original directorial vision of the film independently under another title, The List. Webber and Muddy Waters Pictures sued for copyright infringement and defamation, and received a 2022 judgement, but Dash still hasn’t complied with this order at press time.

Read More: Jay-Z “Double-Dipped” From Roc-Nation, Dame Dash Alleges

Dame Dash At “The Prince Of Detroit” Premiere

<a href=Jay Z Dame Dash Roc A Fella Shares Sell Hip Hop News” class=”wp-image-766868″ srcset=”https://wp.hnhh.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Dame-Dash-Roc-A-Fella-1024×683.jpg 1024w, https://wp.hnhh.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Dame-Dash-Roc-A-Fella-300×200.jpg 300w, https://wp.hnhh.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Dame-Dash-Roc-A-Fella-768×512.jpg 768w, https://wp.hnhh.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Dame-Dash-Roc-A-Fella-1536×1025.jpg 1536w, https://wp.hnhh.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Dame-Dash-Roc-A-Fella-2048×1366.jpg 2048w” sizes=”(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px” />
DETROIT, MICHIGAN – JUNE 23: Entrepreneur/Director Damon Dash arrives at “The Prince Of Detroit” Detroit Premiere at Detroit Music Hall on June 23, 2023 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Monica Morgan/Getty Images)

Now, Jay-Z and Kareem “Biggs” Burke objected to this judgement’s collection, and argued that Roc-A-Fella’s bylaws call for the full board to approve of any significant sell-offs like this. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lehrburger criticized that this decision finalized at a 2021 board meeting in which Dame Dash was not present and didn’t vote for it. Regardless, the court ordered the Roc to make his stock certification available to the U.S. Marshal’s Service within 180 days.

“The question at the core of the instant dispute is whether the Roc-A-Fella By Laws’ prohibition on transfer and sale of Dash’s one-third ownership interest in shares of RAF without the consent of RAF’s board of directors legally prevents the sale of Dash’s interest in RAF to satisfy the Judgment,” Leherburger questioned. “The answer indisputably is no.” Hov and Burke still has equal opportunity to buy the shares, and Webber’s last attempt to collect the judgement was on Februrary 13. Meanwhile, for more news and the latest updates on Dame Dash and Jay-Z, stick around on HNHH.

Read More: Dame Dash Blames Kanye West’s Disorder For Controversial Comments

[via]

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ScHoolboy Q Builds Anticipation For “Blue Lips” Album, Expresses Desire For Jay-Z To Listen

As the release date for ScHoolboy Q’s highly anticipated album, Blue Lips, approaches, the Top Dawg Entertainment rapper has been actively engaging with fans and building excitement. The upcoming album may be an album of the year contender. And the rollout has been engaging so far! However, his recent tweet expressing a desire to play the album for none other than Jay-Z has sparked curiosity and speculation among his fan base. On Monday, February 19, ScHoolboy Q took to Twitter to not only hype up Blue Lips set to drop on March 1, but also to express a wish that carries significant weight in the hip-hop world. The tweet read, “I wisH I could play tHis album for jay z [fingers-crossed emoji].” This revelation adds an intriguing layer to the album’s pre-release buzz, as fans wonder about the potential impact of Jay-Z’s opinion on the project.

Despite the apparent desire to have Jay-Z listen to Blue Lips, ScHoolboy Q clarified that it isn’t a top priority for him. In response to a fan who suggested he could either take half a million dollars or play the album for Jay-Z, ScHoolboy Q humorously replied, “Half a mill wtf [laughing emoji] I ain’t dat crazy.” This lighthearted response showcases the rapper’s down-to-earth nature and highlights the financial reality of the music industry. He makes it clear that not even Jay-Z can dissuade him from picking the $500 million.

Read More: Rich The Kid Was Once Signed To Top Dawg Entertainment

ScHoolboy Q Tweets

ScHoolboy Q’s wish to share Blue Lips with Jay-Z could stem from a genuine appreciation for the mogul’s influence and expertise in the hip-hop scene. Jay-Z, often regarded as one of the most successful and respected figures in the industry, has a keen ear for talent and an ability to spot groundbreaking projects. Having his endorsement could undoubtedly elevate the album’s status and reach a broader audience.

Moreover, while artistic validation from a figure like Jay-Z is valuable, artists must also navigate the practical aspects of their careers, including financial considerations and strategic decisions. As the countdown to the release of “Blue Lips” continues, ScHoolboy Q’s engagement with fans and playful tweets add an extra layer of excitement. Whether or not Jay-Z gets an exclusive preview, the anticipation for the album remains palpable, and fans eagerly await the next chapter in ScHoolboy Q’s musical journey.

Read More: TDE’s Top Dawg Slams Police Officer For Traffic Stop Harassment

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Bradley Cooper Recalls His ‘Crazy’ Visit With Beyoncé, Which Featured Jay-Z Watching ‘Judge Judy’

There are many people who would pay good money to get a glimpse of what Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s home life is like. Well, Bradley Cooper is somebody who’s seen it, and he described the experience as “crazy.”

During a recent SAG-AFTRA Foundation interview with Willie Geist, Cooper explained that he was trying to recruit Beyoncé to star alongside him in A Star Is Born, and he reminisced about a time he visited her at home:

“I went to Beyoncé’s house, and Jay-Z was watching Judge Judy, I still remember. Yeah, I’m not kidding. And I was freaking… I was so… I remember I had this weird cough when I was pitching it to her, it was so crazy. And she was incredible and so was he. And we developed it for like a year together. I mean, she’s one of the greatest people of all time, and then that fell through.

For the record, the bit about Beyoncé nearly being in the movie isn’t news, as it’s mentioned in this 2018 Variety feature. Interestingly, as that piece also notes, the idea for the A Star Is Born remake (the original movie came out in 1937 and was remade in 1976) had been around since the ’90s. At one point, Whitney Houston was apparently considered to star.

Check out Cooper’s full interview above, with the A Star Is Born story starting at about 41 minutes in.

Usher Puts His All Into Rehearsing For The Super Bowl Halftime Show In A New Short Film Directed By Jay-Z

Just nearly a week after Usher killed it at the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show, fans are getting another glimpse into how exactly he pulled off all the surprises.

In a new short film that dropped via the music platform, it provides a look at Usher’s rehearsals and the changes that were made to the setlist and production. Oh, and it was directed by Jay-Z and Hamish Hamilton, as they shot the footage entirely on an iPhone.

“As I put together the songs, like a puzzle piece to represent this type of soulful music, R&B and mixture of this pop that is my own, I think God really blessed me with the right people to help build the artist that I am,” Usher shared in the ten-minute film. “I’m happy that I’m able to share this moment with them.”

“If you put in the work, people will respect what you do,” he added.

Throughout the video, he runs through the routine repeatedly with his backup dancers. Usher also takes some time to do vocal warmups, as he rehearses to pronounce the consonants a little stronger. It is also split with high-quality footage taken up close during the actual show.

Check out Usher’s behind-the-scenes film of his Super Bowl Halftime Show above.