Music

Yung Baby Tate Has Updated Her Rap Name — She’s Just Baby Tate Now

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For young rap stars, sometimes learning how to change and grow is the most important part of evolving into the artist they want to become. And for Uproxx cover star Yung Baby Tate, that evolution means a name change: She will now be going by just Baby Tate. She’s not the only rising female rapper to recently undergo a nomenclature shift — Latto is the second artist name that Alyssa Stephens has used since breaking out in the hip-hop world. While Tate’s shift isn’t due to backlash from fans like Latto’s was, it still represents a brand new era for the young artist.

Along with her name change, she let fans know that she’s now signed to a new label, Warner Records, and that new music is coming very soon. After initially signing a deal with Issa Rae’s record label Raedio, Tate has now made the jump over to Warner.

“New name, new label, new song drops 10/29,” she wrote in an Instagram post.

While she hasn’t shared any other previews of what the song might sound like, a tagline on the song’s artwork offers a hint: “I might be crazy but at least I’m authentic.” Keep an ear out for that new song dropping later this month, and lots more updates from the newly-minted Baby Tate.

Don Toliver Shares A New Merch Line With Cactus Jack And A Bathing Ape

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Don Toliver is currently one of the hottest names in rap, with his new album Life Of A Don debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard albums chart. It’s no surprise, though, as he’s signed to Travis Scott’s Cactus Jack label, sharing with his mentor a certain level of cool-kid clout — enough to warrant a look from perennial streetwear favorite A Bathing Ape, which teamed up with Toliver to release a new line of exclusive co-branded merch. In addition, Toliver’s listening party for Life Of A Don was held at BAPE’s New York store and captured for posterity in the video above.

The merch line consists of four T-shirts combining the streetwear brand’s trademark logos with Don’s name and the album title. The shirts are all $129 and can be purchased either at A Bathing Ape’s website or on Don Toliver’s online shop with album bundles.

Seeing Don Toliver teaming up with A Bathing Ape makes perfect sense when you consider Travis Scott’s propensity for licensing his likeness to practically any brand looking to raise its profile among young spenders: Travis counts Sony, McDonald’s, and more among his partnerships, even as he insists he’s not looking to be a “brand” of his own. Don’s following in his footsteps and well on his way, although he’s making sure to balance savvy money moves with fan-favorite singles like “Flocky Flocky” and “Drugs N Hella Melodies.”

Life Of A Don is out now via Cactus Jack and Atlantic.

Drake’s Reluctant Portrayal Of A Paralyzed Student Receives Praise From The Nonprofit Wheelchairs 4 Kids

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After Drake’s reluctance to allow his Degrassi character Jimmy to be paralyzed after an episode about a school shooting became public, his portrayal is now being praised by the leader of an organization dedicated to kids with mobility issues for helping normalize wheelchairs. Madeline Robinson, executive director of Wheelchair 4 Kids, told TMZ that Drake’s role — however reticent he initially was to play it — gave kids in wheelchairs confidence. “When was the last time you went to a mall and saw a kid in a wheelchair hanging out with other kids?” she wondered, saying it’s rare.

“It is great when we see our kids being represented,” Robinson asserted. That was the logic that the show’s producers used to get Drake on board with the character development when the actor threatened to quit after seeing the script, worried that it would have a negative effect on his then-nascent rap career. In AV Club’s oral history of Degrassi: The Next Generation, writer James Hurst recalled telling Drake, “Aubrey, there’s some kid somewhere in a wheelchair, who’s completely ignored, who’s never on television, never gets represented. I need you to represent this person. You’re the coolest kid on the show, and you can say there’s nothing wrong with being in a wheelchair.”

Drake is now arguably the biggest star in hip-hop, so it’s clear he’s surmounted his worries, however well-founded they may have been.

Nicki Minaj Has Filed For A Motion To Dismiss The Harassment Case Against Her

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Nicki Minaj’s attorney has filed a motion to dismiss the complaint against her and her husband Kenneth Petty for failing to respond to the harassment case against them, according to Complex. Court documents filed last week address the motion filed by attorney Tyrone Blackburn on behalf of Jennifer Hough requesting a $20 million default judgment in Hough’s witness intimidation case against the couple. Hough sued the couple in August, saying they have been hounding her to recant her initial account of her alleged 1994 rape by Petty, for which he served a decade in prison.

Hough says that ever since Nicki Minaj and Kenneth Petty were married in 2019, the couple and their representatives have intimidated, bribed, and cajoled her to change her testimony in the hopes of getting Petty removed from the sex offenders registry. As he did not update his address and file as a sex offender when the couple moved to California in 2019, he faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release. Last week, The Daily Beast reported that Blackburn filed the request for a default judgment after the deadline to respond to the lawsuit passed.

Now, however, Minaj and Petty’s lawyer, Judd Burstein, has filed a motion to dismiss the new complaint, saying that the delay in responding was “not willful.” Instead, the defendants maintain, it was the result of an innocent mistake after a Zoom conversation on September 22 ended with the impression that Burstein had been retained. However, Nicki says she learned on October 15 that her manager “had not understood” that she approved the lawyer, prompting her to contact him and ensure his services.

“My failure to respond to the complaint was the product of an innocent mistake, and I ask the court to excuse the delay so that I can defend what I believe to be an entirely frivolous case which plaintiff’s counsel has brought against me in an effort to use my name to generate publicity for himself,” the new documents read. The docs also assert that Nicki was never served the initial lawsuit, claiming that the person the process server handed the documents to was never at the residence.

Kanye West Is Officially Changing His Name To Just ‘Ye’

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Rolling Stone reports that Kanye West is no more — the Donda artist will now be known as simply “Ye,” according to the Los Angeles Superior Court and Judge Michelle Williams Court, who signed off on the change. Kanye initially filed his petition to have his name changed on August 24, citing “personal reasons.”

He later explained the change in an interview with Big Boy: “I believe ‘ye’ is the most commonly used word in the Bible, and in the Bible, it means ‘you,’” he reasoned. “So it’s I’m you, I’m us, it’s us. It went from being Kanye which means the only one to just Ye being a reflection of our good, our bad, our confused, our everything.”

Far be it from me to judge anyone on goofy name changes, but that reasoning seems muddled for what is essentially just a shortening of his actual name (also, it betrays a critical lack of understanding of how the English language evolved in the 500 or so years since the King James Version of the Christian Bible was thrown together — something that Ye’s Nebuchadnezzar line reading already prepared me for a couple of years ago).

The name change isn’t the only big move he’s making; it was recently reported that Ye had put his Wyoming ranch up for sale, just after closing on a new home in Malibu.

Young Thug Paid Lil Baby To Rap Because He Feared The Younger Artist Would Go Back To Prison

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Young Thug, who just released his new album Punk, has become one of the most influential rappers from Atlanta over the past several years, both artistically and culturally. Not only has his slippery approach to melody and rhythm inspired imitators and a legion of successors, including Gunna, Lil Keed, and more, but he has also helped launch the career of Lil Baby, who is currently Atlanta rap’s people’s champ, becoming an influential and beloved figure himself over the past two years.

In a prior interview with T.I., Young Thug confirmed that he had to pay Lil Baby to leave the hood behind for the rap game, corroborating Lil Baby’s own recollection to The Breakfast Club radio show that the elder rapper had put up an impressive sum to convince him to leave the streets alone. Today, Young Thug appeared on The Breakfast Club himself to promote Punk and revisited that story to provide a little extra context, explaining just why he felt the need to invest so much money into the burgeoning younger rapper.

“I just didn’t want him to go back to prison,” he admitted. “I was scared for him to go back to jail because he had just did a bid. He got straight out of jail and went straight back to the same neighborhood, the same house, that the police busted him and locked him up…. He was popular too. Before rap, he was getting a lot of likes on Instagram.” Thug also explained that he brought Lil Baby with him to show him the alternative lifestyle and show him that “it was easy.”

You can watch Young Thug’s full Breakfast Club interview above.

Nas Explains That Voice On ‘Who Killed It?’ From ‘Hip-Hop Is Dead’: ‘I Was Bingeing James Cagney Movies’

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Although its premise has long since been disproven, Nas’ album Hip-Hop Is Dead was one of his most successful albums commercially and remains in the upper half of his catalog in fan esteem — except for one song, the 1930s gangster movie-influence “Who Killed It?” While it’s technically a creative and innovative approach to the storytelling tracks for which Nas is known and loved, the song does find the Queens icon employing a cartoonish, film-noir detective voice that still puts off hip-hop fans to this day.

On Sunday night’s episode of Desus & Mero on Showtime, the two New York natives finally confronted the rap legend to find out why he chose to go with such an eyebrow-raising technique. Surprisingly, Nas is game; he’s probably far too deep in his career to be defensive about 15-year-old albums, but he still has a pretty good sense of humor about it as he admits, “I wilded out. I was bingeing on James Cagney movies at the time… It was like a joke to do that record and then I left it on the album — it happens.”

This leads to a broader discussion about the importance of details in Nas’ storytelling over the years, as well as a light flex about Nas having time to watch Regis And Kathy Lee in the morning. Also discussed during the interview: Nas’ relationship with DMX, his restaurant chain Sweet Chick, and his latest endeavor, a brand of cigars.

Watch Nas’ interview with Desus & Mero above.

Kanye West’s Latest Performance Was At A Wedding In Venice, Italy

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Guests at a wedding in Venice, Italy over the weekend were treated to an interesting surprise: A performance from none other than Kanye West. The rapper played a few of his hits at the wedding of D’Estree founder Geraldine Guiotte and Tiffany & Co. Vice President Alexander Arnault, wearing an Eyes Wide Shut-esque mask and an all-black Balenciaga ensemble. Videos from the event popped up on Twitter, confirming that the rapper performed renditions of “Believe What I Say” and “Come To Life” from his new album Donda, as well as fan favorites “Flashing Lights” and “Runaway.”

Prior to the wedding, Kanye’s last performance was arguably his stadium listening events for Donda, where he didn’t so much perform as he did play different versions of the album while hanging out with troubled stars like DaBaby and Marilyn Manson (and set himself on fire for the spectacle).

Meanwhile, Kanye’s got a lot on his plate looking forward to the end of the year, as he’s got a Netflix documentary on the way, he’s reportedly producing Ghostface Killah’s Supreme Clientele sequel, he’s launching a “Donda”-branded tech line, and he’s selling his Wyoming ranch. You can watch videos of him performing at the high-fashion wedding above.

Rick Ross Teams Up With Rap Snacks’ CEO And Founder For Their New Company ‘Hip Hemp’

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Rick Ross has a new business venture. The rapper recently teamed up with Rap Snacks’ CEO and Founder James Lindsay as well as the San Diego-based hemp manufacturing company Hempacco to create a new company that will deliver a line of smokeable products, which includes cannabinoid cigarettes and hemp blunt rolling papers. The company is called Hemp Hop Smokeables LLC and it seeks to use Hempacco to introduce something new to the smoking industry.

In a press statement, Ross said that his past health issues pushed him to help create safer and more beneficial products. “Having had my own health scares, and through my healing process, I decided I would develop a line of smokables to help others with the benefits of Hemp cannabinoids,” he wrote in the statement.

This news comes after Ross bought his son a Wingstop franchise for his sixteenth birthday. Prior to that, he appeared alongside Lil Wayne on Drake’s “You Only Live Twice” from Certified Lover Boy. He also recently signed Boston rapper Smoke Bulga to his label Maybach Music Group.

Hemp Hop is currently holding a giveaway for Ross fans who register on their website, where more information about the product can be found.

Jay-Z And Beyonce’s New Orleans Mansion Is Reportedly Up For Sale A Few Months After It Caught On Fire

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Jay-Z and Beyonce are reportedly putting their New Orleans mansion on the market for the price of $4.45 million, according to TMZ. The building, which is located in the city’s Historic Garden District and was originally a Presbyterian church, covers 13,292 square feet and features seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms. Spanish baroque architecture and four separate living spaces can also be found throughout the mansion. There’s also a rooftop garden, which one of them said was a kind of magical space: “I did my best writing ever, while watching the sunset from the rooftop garden!”

The musicians’ decision to sell the home comes less than two months after it caught on fire. The reports for the incident called it a one-alarm fire that required about two hours and 22 people to put out. An investigation afterward named cause of the fire as simple arson, but a suspect has yet to have been arrested.

As a part of the mansion’s sale, Jay-Z and Beyonce will have the house repainted to the preference of the new owner prior to the deal’s official deal. Altogether, the couple looks to make just under a $2 million profit on the mansion, having bought it in 2015 for a whopping $2.6 million.