In recent days, an attention-grabbing rumor about Drake has been floating around. An Instagram model told the Too Much Hot Tea blog (as Rap-Up notes) that a few weeks ago, she and Drake had consensual sex at a hotel. After engaging in some intimate moments, the model says Drake went to the bathroom to dispose of his condom. At that point, the woman removed the condom from the trash and inserted the opening of it inside of herself, in an attempt to get pregnant. She quickly felt a burning sensation, after which Drake admitted that he poured a packet of hot sauce in the condom with the intent of killing sperm and thus preventing the outcome the model was hoping to achieve.
Now, Drake may have discretely addressed the rumors on Instagram via some low-key captions.
In a post from January 10, Drake shared various photos and wrote, “There’s a point in the ‘fake it til you make it’ theory where you actually gotta make it…” In his most recent post, from January 11, he wrote “You can have your 15 minutes of fame…I’ll take the other 23 hours and 45 mins.”
It’s worth noting that Drake rapped about pretty much this exact situation (minus the hot sauce) on his Brent Faiyaz collaboration “Wasting Time,” on which he says, “Flushed the Magnums just so they not collectin’ my specimens.”
In December, Polo G dropped Hall Of Fame 2.o, the deluxe edition of his Billboard chart-topping album Hall Of Fame. Adding 14 new tracks to the Chicago rapper’s 2021 output, Hall Of Fame 2.0features new cuts with Lil Baby, Moneybagg Yo, Yungliv, NLE Choppa, and Lil Tjay. While the release was definitely strategic in some regards, this was by no means cutting room floor material and these collaborations especially meant something more to the rapper.
On “Heating Up,” Polo G links up for the first time with Yungliv, the emerging rapper from West Philadelphia that is signed to Polo’s Capalot Records label, marking their first collaboration with each other. In a new video for the track, the pair are joined by a whole crew of friends, flexing their muscle in a barbershop, a bodega and then in the streets as guns, racks, and drinks abound. “Sundown ’til the sunup, pick a gun up, who you ridin’ with? / You would think the block a barbershop the way we linin’ sh*t,” Polo raps. It’s a fierce call out from one crew to anyone within an earshot.
Watch the video for “Heating Up” featuring Yungliv above.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Brockhampton dropped the bombshell today that fans have been fearing for a while. The group is breaking up after a nearly decade-long run as hip-hop’s preeminent “boy band.” A statement tweeted out from the @brockhampton account out at 10 a.m. PT explained that following their two shows in London in February and their two performances at both weekends of Coachella in April, the group will be on an “indefinite hiatus” and that 40-plus tour dates in 2022 will be cancelled. The full statement reads:
“Brockhampton’s upcoming shows at the O2 Academy Brixton in London and at Coachella will be our performances as a group. All other tour dates are canceled, effective immediately. refunds for all tickets and VIP packages will be available at the point of purchase.
Following these four performances, we will be taking an indefinite hiatus as a group.
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for being on this journey with us. We would not be here without our fans. We hope we’ve been able to inspire you as much as you have these past eight years.
Back in May of 2021, shortly after the San Marcos, Texas-forged group’s final album, Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine was released, de facto leader Kevin Abstract explained in a tweet that “everybody just getting a lil older and got a lot to say outside of group projects,” and that “this next project we’re just doing what’s rite.”
we all love each other and we wanna continue making the best music we can everybody just getting a lil older and got a lot to say outside of group projects. we’ve dedicated the last ten years of our lives to making music together this next project we’re just doing what’s rite
Way back before there was streaming but long after the rap game had gone digital, blogs ruled the music tastemaker scene. The right post on the right blog could garner an emerging artist a massive fanbase seemingly overnight and many of today’s biggest stars — Big Sean, Drake, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj, and Wale among them — owe their popularity at least partially to those posts.
However, for every success story, there were quite a few blog favorites who never quite panned out once they got broader exposure. Call it the “big fish, little pond” effect, but many eagerly anticipated newcomers often fell flat once they were called upon to repeat their successes on a larger scale. One of those rappers was Charles Hamilton, whose promising 2009 single “Brooklyn Girls” prompted an outsized buzz that he ultimately failed to capitalize on. When last we heard from Hamilton, he was the recipient of the punch heard ’round the net, and had quietly faded into quasi obscurity.
Recently, though, he experienced a renewed surge of attention on Twitter. Unfortunately for him, it wasn’t due to his music but once again due to his antics and his poorly timed comments to a woman who promptly put him in his place. His target? Doja Cat.
“Doja, you gotta chill,” he wrote. “The whole world is watching and, yes, judging you. Time to grow up. I know. Sucks. But… yeah.” Hamilton even had the audacity to tag the “Kiss Me More” performer in his tweet, which he followed up with another pointed missive undercutting Doja’s recently expressed desire to collaborate with well-respected producer 9th Wonder. “Also, @dojacat is talking about being on 9th beats,” he noted. “Meaning, she wants to be taken serious (as a spitter). I’m just saying she should take herself more serious. She, like I said, is already rockin’ the world.”
The backhanded compliments went over poorly with fans, and trying to head off the backlash, he dug the hole deeper. “I wasn’t hating on Doja Cat,” he lied. “I’m just asking her to take herself serious. She’s already one of the elite females in music [editor’s note: If that ain’t a red flag]. I don’t want to hear her ridiculed for being silly. Like I was at one point. Y’all can chill out now.” While he might feel like he has a point, he wasn’t ridiculed for being silly so much as lying about collaborating with J Dilla and, again, getting punched in the face on camera for overstepping his bounds while addressing a woman. Sounds familiar, I don’t know.
Twitter
To her credit, Doja — who is no stranger to the criticism of contemporaries and elders, having taken flak from NORE and Nas for online scandals that were twisted by detractors — handled the situation perfectly, with her usual blend of poise and absurdist humor. “Bro i thought you were Anthony Hamilton,” she joked. “i was about to tell my whole family I was so excited.” She followed up by ridiculing Hamilton’s biggest hit, clowning that “u that one dude that was like “’ABADABADABA BROOKLYN GIRLS.’” Ouch. Well, at least Charles Hamilton can take solace in the fact that this time, he only got dunked on instead of punched in the face. Maybe this time, he’ll learn his lesson.
Bro i thought you were Anthony Hamilton i was about to tell my whole family I was so excited. https://t.co/ffNgprXGmd
Russ is only a month removed from the release of his new album, Chomp 2, and he’s already back to releasing new singles weekly. However you feel about the guy’s personality, you absolutely cannot knock his hustle. His first new single of 2022, “Remember,” sees him getting back to the lilting lo-fi R&B that defines the other half of his catalog — after all, Chomp 2 is chock-full of brazen bars and punishing punchlines –, crooning to a former paramour with a few reminders of his commitment to their relationship and mourning its end.
In addition to his weekly single releases over the last year, Russ’ many, many hustles also included a strand of weed — fittingly named Chomp as well — he developed in conjunction with the LA cannabis brand Wonderbrett. By diversifying his portfolio, so to speak, he was able to have a lucrative year even though profits were mostly shaky across the industry as live entertainment returned with plenty of restrictions.
Of course, the key to his financial stability, as he’s so fond of pointing out, is passive income — much of which comes from the fact that he self-publishes most of his music and the major deal he did have licensed ownership of his masters rather than outright selling it. Russ continues to explain his business perspective in interviews, but it all starts with the music — and judging from how he’s kicking off the year, there will be plenty of it coming to help line his pockets.
Growing up in Chicago, Saba had, as many Midwestern kids did, a fascination with the melodic double-time flow of the five-piece Cleveland rap band Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Their relative proximity and mid-90s radio dominance would have contributed to that, but also, Saba just seems like exactly the kind of rapper to have rooted out every single example of the genre to absorb and learn from — you can occasionally hear the influence in his flows on projects like Care For Me and Pivot Gang’s You Can’t Sit With Us.
Now, with the release of his third album, Few Good Things, just over the horizon (it drops on February 4 on Saba’s own Pivot Gang imprint), the Windy City MC gets to link up with one of his musical heroes on his latest single from the album. “Come My Way,” produced (as usual) by Daoud and daedaePIVOT, features none other than Bone Thugs member Krayzie Bone, who once won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance with another disciple, Chamillionaire, and recently participated in his band’s Verzuz with Three Six Mafia.
In the press release for the single, Saba said, “When I think back on first discovering Bone Thugs-N-Harmony as a child, it immediately stood out to me as unique. I started paying attention and really learning how to rap from listening to them and trying to recite it. It felt honest and completely true to themselves — authentic in a way that doesn’t come around very often and in a way that will be impossible to recreate. Their mix of melody and rhythms that I had never heard is what connected with me in a way that other music just didn’t. It inspired me to be more creative.”
Meanwhile, the inspiration for the song itself is “nostalgia and growing up, and I think ‘hopeful’ and ‘soulful’ are accurate descriptions of the song… I’m describing many things that are normal on the westside of Chicago so that it plays like just any other day — pretty stagnant but having so much life. ‘We ain’t got no time to relax’ is a harsh reality for so many people experiencing this type of poverty where the focus is on work and survival.”
Listen to Saba’s new single “Come My Way” featuring Krayzie Bone above and check out the dates for his Back Home Tour here.
Few Good Things is due 2/4 via Pivot Gang, LLC. Pre-save here.
Cordae’s new album, From A Bird’s Eye View, is out after an impressive rollout that included the singles “Gifted,” “Super,” and “Sinister,” a lively Tonight Show performance, and an eye-popping LA Leakers freestyle. Now, he puts the cherry on top with a mellow NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert covering both songs from the new album and some of the fan favorites that got him here in the first place.
Opening with “Coach Carter,” Cordae and his band smoothly transition from song to song, including a melodic performance of “Want From Me,” then his Lost Boy hit “RNP” and a loving medley of “Thousand Words/Thanksgiving.” He returns to the new project to close out the set with a three-piece sequence including the single “Sinister,” the nostalgic “Momma’s Hood,” and the vulnerable “Chronicles.” Throughout, he raps, sings, and speaks with an easygoing charisma that shows exactly why he was able to secure two Grammy nominations for his first album and such an enthusiastic fanbase that eagerly awaited his second.
Their patience was rewarded with a number of fun collaborations, which include “Today” with Gunna and “Parables” with Eminem. Stevie Wonder also appeared on the tracklist, with Cordae spilling a funny story about the musical icon to The Breakfast Club.
2021 saw a lot of artists leave the year with a lot more money than they had at the start of it. Now, Rolling Stone has compiled a list of last year’s highest-earning musicians, and on top is Bruce Springsteen, who, largely to his massive catalog sale, brought in $590 million in 2021.
The rest of the list is mostly populated by artists who secured their bags with similar sales: Paul Simon is No. 3, Ryan Tedder is No. 5, Red Hot Chili Peppers is No. 6, Lindsey Buckingham is No. 7, Motley Crüe is No. 8, and Blake Shelton is No. 9. Meanwhile, Jay-Z is second on the list with $470 million and therefore No. 1 among artists whose 2021 earnings weren’t mostly thanks to catalog sales. Other big sales were involved, though: He sold half of his Armand de Brignac champagne for $300 million, and he and other Tidal co-owners sold 80 percent of the company for $302 million. The only other artists on the list who didn’t make bank from catalog sales are Ye (aka Kanye West) at No. 4 and Taylor Swift at No. 10. Swift is also the only woman on the list.
Zack O’Malley Greenburg, who penned the Rolling Stone post, also unveiled an extended version of the list in his newsletter, which includes Neil Young at No. 11 (the highest-ranking act not born in the US) and The Rolling Stones at No. 12.
As for the methodology used to compile the list, the publications notes, “The list measures pre-tax income for calendar year 2021 before deducting fees for agents, managers, lawyers, living expenses, etc. Estimates are generated by scouring public documents and interviewing individuals with direct knowledge of major deals.”
Today marks the release of Cordae’s new album From A Birds Eye View, and the week leading up to it was an eventful one for the young rapper. On Monday, he stopped by The Tonight Show for an interview and performance of “Sinister/Chronicles,” and earlier that day, he unveiled the tracklist for his new project, which includes a feature from Eminem of “Parables (Remix),” a rework of his 2020 single. Now that the album is out, so too is the Em remix, which represents the rapper’s first new verse of 2022.
There are a few points of note in the verse, like when he addresses cancel culture: “Whipped Gen-Z into a frenzy, but no give is in me, I’m stingy / And that is the motherf*ckin’ difference between them and me.” He has a few name-drop moments as well, like, “So I treat a beat like it’s Tekashi, spit on that b*tch like Meek Mill,” and, “I was painfully shy, now I’m proud of myself / Like Obama’s kids, I came outta my shell (Michelle).”
This isn’t the first time Eminem and Cordae have linked up, as Cordae previously featured on Eminem’s 2021 remix of “Killer,” as did Jack Harlow.
Listen to “Parables (Remix)” above.
From A Birds Eye View is out now via Atlantic. Get it here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Nearly three years after he released his debut album The Lost Boy, Cordae is finally back with a new body of work. The young rapper returns with his sophomore effort From A Birds Eye View and it comes complete with 14 songs including “Today” with Gunna which he just shared with a new music video. In it, Cordae transitions back and forth between the past and present as he reflects on his youthful determination to overcome struggles in his life in order to put himself and his family in a better place. It also captures him recording music with friends while Gunna joins him on the roof of a building to brag about their current successes.
From A Birds Eye View arrives with additional guest features from Lil Wayne, HER, Lil Durk, Freddie Gibbs, Stevie Wonder, Nas, Eminem, Roddy Ricch, and Ant Clemons. Cordae promoted the project with a fiery LA Leakers freestyle, a performance of “Sinister” and “Chronicles” on The Tonight Show, and a freestyle over Kendrick Lamar’s “The Heart Part 4.”
As for Gunna, the track arrives after he updated his DS4EVER album with “P Power,” his long-awaited collaboration with Drake.
You can watch the video for “Today” above.
From A Bird’s Eye View is out now via Atlantic. You can pre-save it here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
