Music

Aalyah’s Uncle And Founder Of Blackground Records Thanks Fans For Supporting ‘One In A Million’

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Nearly 25 years after its release, fans of Aaliyah are finally able to listen to her 1996 sophomore album One In A Million on digital platforms. The move came after years filled with her biggest supporters begging for her music to be made available on streaming services, as only her debut Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number could be heard.

One In A Million was re-uploaded following a deal between Blackground Records and EMPIRE Records, with the former being the label the project was released on. After the early success of One In A Million on streaming charts, Blackground’s founder Barry Hankerson released a statement that thanked fans for their support.

“As the owner of Aaliyah’s catalog and label Blackground Records, I want to thank you all for allowing One In A Million, to chart #3 in the world,” he wrote in the caption of an Instagram post. “I cannot take the credit for managing Aaliyah as that was never a title I held. That title belonged to Diane Haughton and her husband who managed Aaliyah from the start of her career until her passing. I want to thank Diane, Aaliyah’s manager, for allowing and choosing Blackground Records to become her label.”

Hankerson went on to thanks Jomo Hankerson for their contributions to the Blackground company during its music industry heights before he shifted his attention to the fans.

“Thank you to all of her many fans for keeping her music alive,” he added. “I’m sorry it took so long, but when you lose a family member so unexpectedly, it takes time to deal with that type of grief. I decided to release Aaliyah’s music in order to keep her legacy alive.”

You can view his message in the post above. Get it here.

One In A Million is out now via Blackground 2.0/EMPIRE. Get it here.

Megan Thee Stallion Addresses Her ‘Tuned In’ And Watchful Haters In A Relentless New Freestyle

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Megan Thee Stallion is riding high right now. After announcing a brief break — one that her team labeled a “period of regeneration” — back in April, the Houston rapper made her return in June and it’s been nothing but good things from her. In the more than two months that followed, Megan dropped her “Thot Sh*t” single, earned the second most nominations for the 2021 MTV VMAs, and impressed with her “Outta Town Freestyle.” Luckily for her fans, the Houston rapper is far from done.

On Sunday, Megan returned with the “Tuned In Freestyle.” She delivered the showcase of her relentless rapping abilities with a matching visual that captured her in the studio twerking and enjoying a nice glass of wine. The two-minute freestyle also delivered a reference to Normani’s “Wild Side” single, as Megan raps, “I wanna show my wild side, make them doo doo doo.”

The new freestyle comes after she shared an update about her upcoming sophomore album. “I feel like this project is definitely something very well thought out,” she says of her next album. “This project is me talking my sh*t, getting back comfortable with myself, getting back to the Megan that was on the come-up.”

You can listen to the rapper’s freestyle in the video above.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

SZA Releases ‘Random Thoughts’ In The Form Of Three New Songs: ‘I Hate You,’ ‘Joni,’ And ‘Nightbird’

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SZA’s musical releases have been far and few since she graced the world with her classic debut album, Ctrl. At one point the singer went two years without a single, a streak that ended with the release of “Hit Different.” She quickly followed up that single with “Good Days,” a track that grew to be her most successful track as it entered the top-10 of the singles chart. Since both efforts, things have quieted done a bit for the singer, outside of her “Kiss Me More” collaboration with Doja Cat, but it looks like things could change soon.

Early Sunday morning, SZA took to Twitter to share three new songs with fans, titled “I Hate You,” “Joni,” and “Nightbird.” The songs were shared to a Soundcloud account the singer created, one separate from the official one she has. In a tweet, she defined the release of the records as “dumping random thoughts” and promised to share more “word vomit” in the future. Additionally, a fan asked her if she can “start Sza Sunday’s and drop random thoughts once a week,” to which the singer replied “Yes .”

Another fan thanked her for the new records but also requested another song fans have patiently waited for. “We love you but we also love Shirt,” they wrote, speaking about her presumed next single, “Shirt.” The singer gave a comforting response and simply wrote, “She nex.”

You can listen to the three songs above.

Kanye West Promises To Never Back Down From ‘Nerd Ass’ Jocks In A Cryptic Group Chat Message

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The process leading up to the release of Kanye West’s Donda just got a little bit more interesting. On Saturday, the rapper posted a screenshot of a cryptic text message he sent to a group chat with eight other people, one of which included Pusha T. The message found the Yeezus rapper preparing for a battle of some sort.

“I live for this,” Kanye wrote. “I’ve been f*cked with by nerd ass jock n****s like you my whole life. You will never recover. I promise you.” Kanye sent the message at 12:28 pm on Saturday, and while it’s unclear who the rapper is targeting, fans certainly have their theories as to who he’s talking about.

Many believe that Drake is at least one of the “nerd ass jock n****s” Kanye is referring to. The rapper’s Instagram post came hours after Drake’s guest verse on Trippie Redd’s “Betrayal” was released. On the track, Drake raps, “All these fools I’m beefin’ that I barely know / Forty-five, forty-four (Burned out), let it go,” seemingly referencing Kanye and Pusha’s age, both being 44.

Drake adds, “Ye ain’t changin’ shi*t for me, it’s set in stone / Rollin’ stones, heavy stones (PinkGrillz) / Precious stone, let me make my presence known.” Fans believe that the group message screenshot is a warning of some sort of retaliation Kanye has in store for the diss.

You can read the group chat text message in the post above.

Young Thug’s Lavish Birthday Gifts Included A Hundred Acres Of Land To Build ‘Slime City’

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Earlier this week, Young Thug celebrated his 30th birthday with a large cast of celebrity friends that included 21 Savage, Lil Baby, Metro Boomin and Travis Scott. Thanks to videos that the rapper shared on his Instagram Story, fans were able to get a glimpse of the celebration.

For the most part, Young Thug showed off the gifts he received from his friends, which included a wide array of diamonds in the form of countless jewelry pieces, but that wasn’t the most unique thing the rapper received. Instead, that distinction would go to a hundred acres of land that the rapper was given.

The rapper received the area of open land in Atlanta from his manager and 300 Entertainment A&R Geoff Ogunlesi and realtor Trey Williams. The latter took to Instagram with a video of himself, Thug, and Ogunlesi enjoying the new piece of land together. “Happy Birthday to one of my top clients @thuggerthugger1 [balloon emoji] His manager @geoffo212 and I secretly locked down [100 emoji] Acres of land for his birthday and now he’s about to build Slime City!” Williams wrote. “This is hands down one of the best ways to invest your money![money bag] Thank you @geoffo212 for trusting me to get this deal done‼”

You can watch videos of Thug enjoy his new piece of land above.

Young Thug is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Polo G Recounts The Recent Moments In His Life Through A Celebratory Video For ‘Black Hearted’

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For the third consecutive year, Polo G has shared a full body of work. His new album, titled Hall Of Fame, arrived at the beginning of June, and it captured the rapper’s outlook on the world as a solidified star in hip-hop. It became his first No. 1 album. Two months after its release, Polo G continues returns with a video for “Black Hearted.”

The video captures some of the bigger highlights that have happened in his life over the past couple of months. It starts by showing some behind-the-scenes clips of Polo G throwing the first pitch at a Chicago Cubs baseball game last month. There’s also footage of his performance at this year’s Lollapalooza festival.

“Black Hearted” joins a number of other tracks from Polo G’s third album that received the video treatment, including “Gang Gang” with Lil Wayne, “No Return” with The Kid Laroi and Lil Durk, “Painting Pictures,” and “Toxic.” It also arrives after a string of collaborations, such as Gunna on “Waves,” Morray for a remix of “Trenches“, and Trippie Redd on “Rich MF” from his new album, Trip At Knight.

You can watch the video for “Black Hearted” above.

Hall Of Fame is out now via Columbia Records. Get it here.

Gunna is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Drake Seemingly Dissed Kanye West On A New Verse And Fans Are Reacting

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It’s been three years since Drake and Pusha-T’s beef reached its tipping point, with the rappers’ respective releases of “Duppy Freestyle” and “The Story Of Adidon.” While Drake certainly took issue with Pusha for his comments, the Toronto rapper has also cited problems with Kanye West. And since then the two have yet to see eye-to-eye. He seemed to address Kanye in his guest verse on Trippie Redd‘s “Betrayal,” the first collaboration between the two rappers, from Trippie’s new album Trip At Knight.

Drake seems to take a shot at Kanye in the song. “All these fools I’m beefin’ that I barely know / Forty-five, forty-four (Burned out), let it go,” he raps, which could be a reference to Kanye’s current age of 44. (Pusha T is coincidentally also 44 years old.) “Ye ain’t changin’ shi*t for me, it’s set in stone / Rollin’ stones, heavy stones (PinkGrillz) / Precious stone, let me make my presence known.”

It’s unclear exactly what Drake believes Kanye won’t change for him, but it could be a reference to his long-awaited Certified Lover Boy, as some believe Kanye is delaying the release of his tenth album Donda in order to share a release date with Drake.

You can listen to the song in the video above and check out comments from social media below.

Trip At Knight is out now via 1400 Entertainment/10K Projects. Get it here.

Trippie Redd And Drake Tackle ‘Betrayal’ On Their First Collaboration

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Trippie Redd is back with his latest project, Trip At Knight, which continues his streak of annual releases, dating back to 2017’s A Love Letter To You. The 18-track album comes attached with features from Drake, Lil Uzi Vert, Playboi Carti, Juice WRLD, Lil Durk, Polo G, SoFaygo, Ski Mask The Slump God, XXXTentacion, BabyFace Ray, Sada Baby, and Icewear Vezzo. The one that’s caught most people’s eyes is the collaboration between Trippie and Drake, titled “Betrayal.”

While Trip At Knight has been out for a little over a day, it was just hours ago that fans were finally able to listen to “Betrayal” after a technical issue left the song mysteriously unavailable online. The track sees Drake stepping into Trippie’s world over the track’s trap-punk production as the two reflect on the times they were betrayed by close friends.

“Betrayal” wasn’t supposed to be the duo’s first collaboration. “God’s Plan,” Drake’s Grammy-winning single from his 2018 album Scorpion, was initially set to feature Trippie, as unreleased versions of the track revealed. However, according to the rapper’s DJ, Trippie was left off the song after he failed to turn in his verse before the song’s deadline. Despite the missed opportunity, it’s good to see that the two rappers were finally able to regroup for a new track.

You can listen to “Betrayal” in the video above.

Trip At Knight is out now via 1400 Entertainment/10K Projects. Get it here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

R. Kelly Allegedly Married An Underage Aaliyah So She Couldn’t Testify About Her Pregnancy

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During R. Kelly’s racketeering and sex trafficking trial in Brooklyn, his former tour manager dropped a bombshell regarding Aaliyah. Billboard reports that Demetrius Smith, who served as Kelly’s tour manager for twelve years, from 1984 until 1996, testified Friday that Kelly married Aaliyah while she was underage because she was pregnant. Smith reportedly testified that Kelly “told me that Aaliyah was ‘in trouble,” and added “‘Don’t call Barry [Kelly’s manager and Aaliyah’s uncle, Barry Hankerson], it’s deeper than you think.’”

Smith’s testimony further incriminates Kelly and his business manager and accountant Daryl McDavid, who allegedly helped make plans for Kelly and Aaliyah to be married, so she couldn’t testify about the pregnancy if it came to that. “R. Kelly said, ‘Aaliyah, man. She thinks she’s pregnant,’” Smith stated in his testimony “It was a shock.” The pair were married in Cook County, Illinois in 1996 — Aaliyah had turned 15 six days before, though the marriage certificate was falsified to state she was 18 at the time. Their marriage was later annulled.

Kelly is charged with racketeering and 14 other underlying acts, which includes kidnapping, sex trafficking and forced labor, as well as eight counts of violating the federal Mann Act, an act that outlaws sex trafficking across state lines. He will face ten years to life in prison if convicted on all counts. After her tragic death, fans have been disappointed that her iconic album One In A Million wasn’t on streaming services, but it officially hit streaming today.