Music

Moneybagg Yo’s ‘A Gangsta’s Pain’ Reclaims The No. 1 Spot On The ‘Billboard’ Albums Chart

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Prior to Sunday, only three albums had spent more than one week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2021. The first was Taylor Swift’s Evermore as it claimed the top spot twice in January. Next was Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Album, which spent its first ten weeks dominating the charts after its debut in late January — the most in Billboard history. Nearly three months later, Justin Bieber’s Justice would land two nonconsecutive weeks atop the album charts. Now, Moneybagg Yo can add himself to this list, as his latest album, A Gangsta’s Pain, is back on top.

Just two weeks ago, the Memphis rapper’s project debuted at No. 1 thanks to a total of 110,000 album units in its first week. Two weeks later, it’s back on top thanks to 61,000 album units, a number comprised of 60,000 streaming equivalent album units. The album’s sales last week are the second-lowest number by a No. 1 album this year behind Taylor Swift’s Evermore, which posted 56,000 when it topped the chart in January. On top of that, this week’s Billboard 200 makes the first time in two months that no albums debuted in the top ten positions of the chart.

After A Gangsta’s Pain debuted at No. 1, Moneybagg shared a video for “Free Promo,” with Lil Durk and Polo G, which made for the fifth song from the album to receive the video treatment.

Kash Doll Was Robbed Of $500,000 Worth Of Jewelry From Her Car

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Kash Doll fell victim to theft this past weekend. According to TMZ, the Detroit rapper was forced to call the police on Saturday after she discovered a thief broke into her car and made off with $500,000 worth of jewelry. The publication reports that the incident occurred between 11 p.m. and 5 p.m. while she was recording a music video in San Fernando Valley. The thief made off with a large sum of jewelry as well as a $50,000 Louis Vuitton bag. TMZ added that none of the windows on Kash Doll’s car were broken, which suggests that the items were taken through an unlocked door.

No arrests have been made so far but the hope is that Kash Doll can get her items recovered as soon as possible. The incident comes after a string of releases over the past couple of months from the rapper, including the flirtatious “Bossa Nova,” with Tee Grizzley, which later saw a video that put a wild twist on Goldilocks and the Three Bears. She also recently dropped the single “Thumbin” and joined fellow Detroiter Babyface Ray on “Allowance,” off his Unf*ckwitable EP.

As for what’s next, Kash Doll will join Snoop Dogg, La La Anthony, Steve Harris, and Russell Hornsby as actors on the upcoming series Black Mafia Family. She will play a character named Monique who’s described as a “paralegal for the biggest defense attorney in Detroit and a strong single mom determined to give her daughter a better life.”

Seth Rogen Shared A Hilarious Story About His Disastrous Attempt To Meet Beyonce

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Seth Rogen is one of the most famous people on earth, but you know who’s even more famous? Beyonce. The actor and filmmaker has been making the rounds, promoting his new tome, Yearbook, and he’s done everything from telling behind-the-scenes stories to slamming Ted Cruz (again). On top of it all he also has a pretty hilarious Beyonce story.

Rogen spilled the beans on E! News’ Daily Pop (as per Entertainment Weekly), recounting the time he saw her while presenting at the Grammys. (It appears to be the 2011 edition.) He saw her with Gwyneth Paltrow and he likely figured it wouldn’t be too big a deal if he just walked up to her, unannounced.

“And I charged over. Instinct took over,” he said. But one of her employees wasn’t having it. “I was hit so hard by her security guard that I spilled a drink. I was drinking a screwdriver, which is a bad drink. I deserved what I got.” He added, “I was humiliated and I didn’t get to meet Beyonce.”

What’s worse, he still had to present an award. And so he held his arms in what he called “a very weird position,” to obscure the spilled screwdriver on his clothes.

It’s a tale Rogen’s told before, both on Jimmy Kimmel back in 2019 and again in Yearbook, which is a collection of anecdotes and personal essays. When telling the tale to Kimmel, he said he’d learned his lesson about storming up to other famous people, especially if they’re Beyonce Knowles.

“So I was wary of going near her because I look like someone who you would want to keep away from Beyoncé in general,” Rogen said. “I waited for her to approach me, which they teach you. She was very nice and my beard actually got stuck in her sequin a little bit. If you look closely, you’ll see some gray hair on her shoulder.”

The two would eventually share the screen, sort of: They both appeared as voices in the 2019 “live-action” (but still CGI) remake of The Lion King.

(Via EW)

Nicki Minaj Admits Drake And Lil Wayne ‘Washed’ Her On Their Collaboration ‘Seeing Green’

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To the surprise of her extremely faithful fans, Nicki Minaj re-uploaded her beloved mixtape Beam Me Up Scotty to streaming services on Friday, with three brand new songs. One of them is “Seeing Green,” a collaboration with Drake and Lil Wayne, which marked the trio’s first song together since their 2018 effort “No Frauds.” While the song was extrmely well-received, she had to admit that she felt differently about it.

In a post on Twitter, Minaj confessed that her verse on the track was not the best out of the three in her eyes. “Way too many,” she wrote in response to someone who asked for her favorite Drake and Lil Wayne bar ever. “All I know is they washed me on #SeeingGreen. I’m woman enough to admit when I’ve been washed on a track by the Greats.” She added, “It’s ok #Barbz I’ve washed them b4. We’ll live through this one. I was still a lil rusty. I washed them in my head on #Fractions.”

Minaj also revealed how long it took for her to complete her verse. “Honestly I kept coming back to it for like a week,” she revealed. “I have like 7 diff versions of my verse on that song. and no I’m not gonna upload them. and I took out a very funny line from #Fractions a cpl days b4 we released. It was such a fkng Ki”

Beam Me Up Scotty is available now on all DSPs. Get it here.

J. Cole Had Three Points And Two Assists In His Basketball Africa League Debut

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It’s been a busy week for J. Cole, as he dropped his latest album, The Off-Season, to rave reviews last Thursday night and on Sunday, he made his debut in the new Basketball Africa League for Patriots Basketball Club in what turned into an 83-60 win for Cole’s squad in their season opener.

Cole has made clear his desire to make it in the basketball world for some time, and not just as a friend to NBA players and someone who name-checks his superstar friends on albums — although, to be clear, he does that too. Cole wants to prove he’s a real hooper and to show his commitment he tried out for and made the Rwandan squad in the new BAL. His debut was rather unspectacular, but he did get on the board with a putback bucket on a follow in transition for his first professional points.

He finished the game with three points, three rebounds, two assists, and three turnovers, doing the little things and not trying to impose his will too much. While he’s the superstar name on the team and in the league, J. Cole seems to understand and embrace being a role player for the Patriots. He’s happy to play defense, set screens, and try to space the floor for his teammates, while creating and taking opportunities when he can. Brandon Costner, former NC State star and a journeyman who’s played in the G League, China, and elsewhere, led the way for the Patriots with 20 points while Rwandan national Dieudonne Ndizeye added 13 points and six rebounds in the win.

Cole looks like another guy out there, which should be taken as a massive compliment. He doesn’t look wildly out of place with some really, really good basketball players, and for a 36-year-old who’s never played professionally otherwise, it’s a credit to him and the work he’s put in that he’s capable of doing that.

Tee Grizzley Urges His Fellow Rappers To Invest In Life Insurance

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Tee Grizzley is a few weeks removed from his latest project, Built For Whatever. The effort is the Detroit rapper’s seventh project since 2017 and it’s one that saw him work with the likes of King Von, Quavo, YNW Melly, Lil Tjay, Baby Grizzley, G Herbo, Big Sean, Babyface Ray, and Young Dolph. It also arrived after he joined Lil Yachty on his Michigan Boat Boy mixtape. While some might expect his focus to be on the project and its promotion, Grizzley took a second to speak about something he deems as important and a topic that fellow rappers need to look into.

In a video he shared to his Instagram story, Grizzly urged rappers to invest in life insurance. “So look right, as rappers, as successful Black men from the trenches, we the No. 1 target and the least prepared,” he said. “I feel like everybody should have life insurance. I need everybody to go get life insurance if you don’t got it. If you got kids, I need you to get a will set up for your kids so, God forbid anything happen, but if anything happen your people ain’t bold after you gone because you weren’t prepared and have your sh*t together.”

He added, “We’re the No. 1 target and we’re the least prepared bro. I need us to get on top of this sh*t, get life insurance, we need get to our wills right so the next generation don’t have to go as hard as we did and have to go through everything we did.”

You can listen to Tee Grizzley’s thoughts in the video above.

J. Cole Details How He Changed His Approach To Competing With Drake And Kendrick Lamar

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J. Cole’s The Off-Season is the talk of the music world this weekend. The project is his first solo effort in over three years and everyone is raving about it, from everyday fans to NBA players. And in what’s been a unique press run, at least on Cole’s term, the rapper has shown his face to the media more than some might’ve expected.

From a documentary and a SLAM Magazine cover that also arrived with an interview to an LA Leakers freestyle, it’s clear Cole is not sticking in his cave this time around. Just a little over a day removed from the release of The Off-Season, J. Cole sat down for another interview with Kevin Durant and Eddie Gonzalez on the duo’s podcast, The ETCs.

One highlight of the trio’s nearly 90-minute conversation came when Cole spoke about competing with fellow heavyweight rappers Drake and Kendrick Lamar and how he eventually realized it would be better to dial back his competitive nature.

“I’ve never been a reach-out [person], especially because when there’s competition involved,” he said. “It’s almost like working out together. I guess in the NBA, in the past, that was unheard of. Like, ‘Why would I work out with this n****? … I’m trying to destroy this n****.’ That was kind of my mentality early on.”

He added, “But as I’ve gotten older, I realize … no one is truly my peer or can relate to what’s going on in my life better than these people right here — just in terms of whatever pressures there might be … nobody can really relate to that like these dudes, and I really genuinely f*ck with these dudes.”

At that point, Cole realized he had to “strip competition” from not only his approach to Drake and Kendrick but music altogether. “I also see a time when I’m not doing this. That seems very realistic to me,” he revealed. “And in the time when I’m not doing this, I don’t wanna be like, ‘Damn, we never kicked it, we never really did nothing.’”

You can watch a clip of the interview above and listen to the whole episode, which touches on Cole’s family, basketball, and the new album, here. The Off-Season is out now via Dreamville/Roc Nation. Get it here.

Chance The Rapper Teases A ‘Home Alone’ Reboot That May Be Titled, ‘Hood Alone’

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It’d be inaccurate to label this stage of Chance The Rapper’s career as anything along the lines of idle or inactivity. The Chicago native is busy on the music side of things as he recently shared “The Heart And The Tongue,” as well as “Shelter,” a collaboration with Vic Mensa. He also premiered a new movie titled, Magnificent Coloring Book, to celebrate the fifth anniversary of his mixtape, Coloring Book, and he’s set to headline the Summerfest 2021 show with Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus.

While that’s an ample plate of tasks, the rapper is adding something else to the mix.

During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Friday night, Chance revealed that he’s working on a reboot for a particular classic movie.

“It’s a secret thing. I’m working on…I got this pitch for a Home Alone reboot,” he said. “As a lot of people know…I’m sure everybody here is a huge fan of Home Alone and John Hughes. Chicago guy, Macaulay Culkin, it’s a Chicago film. Since I was young, I always watched it and I was like, ‘What if there was a hood Home Alone?’ Or Hood Alone, if you will.”

He added, “Just a little more realistic story about what happens when people try to kick in the doors at the wrong house. Hilarity ensues. I can’t give you too many details, but yeah.”

You can watch him talk about the reboot in the video above.

Lil Reese Was Reportedly Shot In Chicago For The Second Time In 18 Months

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Lil Reese was reportedly caught again in the midst of gunfire in his hometown of Chicago. The city’s local news station, CWB Chicago revealed the rapper was among three men who were shot in Chicago’s River North neighborhood on Saturday morning. The outlet reports that two of the men are listed in critical condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital while the remaining individual was taken to Stroger Hospital in serious condition. It’s unknown to which of these two hospitals Reese was admitted.

CTWB says police officers were called to 6 West Grand Avenue around 9:53 a.m. on Saturday after calls about a shooting were made. When they arrived at the scene they discovered Reese and the two other victims, one who is 20 years of age while the other was 27 years old. Officers also found a stolen Dodge Durango riddled with bullet holes that crashed near the scene. A video of the aftermath shows cops investigating the scene and detaining a man.

The incident comes 18 months after Lil Reese was left in critical condition following a previous shooting that also occurred in Chicago. Here, according to WGN, the rapper was shot in the neck by a man with an AK-47 assault rifle in the Country Club Hills suburb of the city. Witnesses at the scene claimed to have heard as many as 12 gunshots. Fortunately, the rapper was able to make a full recovery following the shooting.

Lil Baby And Lil Durk Will Delay Their ‘Voice Of The Heroes’ Album Out Of Respect To DMX

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Lil Baby and Lil Durk both had a strong grasp on the hip-hop world in 2020. The former can credit this success to his sophomore album, My Turn, which turned out the be one of the year’s most-streamed albums, while the latter put forth two impressive projects with Just Cause Y’all Waited 2 and The Voice to reach a new level of popularity. Now, together Baby and Durk will make the most of their talents on their upcoming joint album, Voice Of The Heroes. While the effort was due for a May 28 release date, the duo reportedly chose to delay it in respect to DMX.

The move will not have Voice Of The Heroes compete with DMX’s posthumous album, Exodus, which will be released on the 28th. So, in order to allow the late rapper to have a day of his own for the project, Baby and Durk opted to push their joint album back. According to HipHopDX, the news about the delay was shared by Swizz Beatz during an album listening session for Exodus, which was held in partnership with Universal Music Group. It’s unknown when Voice Of The Heroes will be released, but hopefully, listeners won’t have to wait too long to get their hands on it.

Back in March, Baby spoke about the joint project during an interview with MTV News. “God damn, that’s the new one. We coming. Me and [Lil] Durk dropping an album, fa sho,” he said. “When it comes to that street sh*t, the streets is like, we the voices and the heroes of this sh*t. You know what I’m saying? Kids look at us like heroes. I know they look at me like one and [Lil] Durk, too. That n**** been holding it down for a minute.”