Cam’ron and Mase have had a long, bizarre history together. They played basketball together in high school, became rap superstars with different crews, and then became the hosts of the It Is What It Is podcast. There was some friction along the way, but Cam and Mase have become better friends than ever, and have even recorded music together. The former wants to release it, and loves talking about it. The latter, though, doesn’t want anything to drop until it’s time.
Time for what? Well, Cam’ron doesn’t know either. The rapper hopped on Instagram Live to confirm that him and Mase have enough music for a full-length album. He also revealed that Murda Mase has kept the music under lock-and-key. “Me and Mase got an album,” he asserted. “He said we can’t put it out! I don’t know what it’s about. We did six-seven songs. We do the songs and then he say, ‘No.’”
Cam’ron assured fans that he is eager to put them out, but he doesn’t want to go against the wishes of his partner-in-crime. “I don’t know what Mase is saving them for,” he added. “But we got songs together and not together. I’m just not allowed to play them.”
It’s obvious that Cam’ron is eager to put new music out. He dropped a freestyle to promote the fourth season of It Is What It Is, and fans flooded the IG comment section asking for a new album. Cam’s last release was the 2023 mixtape The Lost Tapes Vol. 1, but he’s repeatedly talked up how good his stuff with Mase is in particular. “Them sh*ts is hot too,” he noted. “I ain’t gonna front, he got some real, real, real good songs. What he holding onto them for? I can’t answer that.”
Hopefully Cam’ron coerces Mase into putting the album out. The former might take a long time with new releases, but Mase hasn’t dropped a project since Welcome Back in 2004. He put the battery back in the pack for the Diddy diss “Oracle 2: The Liberation of Mason Betha” in 2022, which has aged wonderfully given Diddy’s current legal situation. Excluding this standalone single, though, Mase hasn’t been on a song since Eric Bellinger’s “Nothing” in 2014.
It’s officially time for a comeback, and it seems like Cam’ron is slowly setting the stage for it.
Drake was the most talked-about man on the internet on April 30. Kendrick Lamar made sure of it. The Compton rapper dropped the monstrous diss record “Euphoria,” which left no stone unturned in terms of taking Drake to task. Fans were floored, but Drizzy is not letting the hype get to him. At least, not on the surface. The “Jimmy Cooks” rapper decided to surprise fans during the Toronto leg of Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday 2 Tour. The rap stars had fun onstage before Drake teased the next chapter in the Kendrick Lamar saga.
Drake’s appearance was likely, given the the show was in his city, but it was not guaranteed. Minaj has had plenty of tour dates in which the 6 God hasn’t appeared due to scheduling conflicts. Minaj brought him out and made sure to give him his flowers. “Make some noise for the king, Toronto,” she said during an embrace. “Make some noise for this icon, this legend.” The duo performed their latest collaboration, “Needle,” for the very first time. Drake was then given solo time onstage to perform one of his current hits, “Rich Baby Daddy.”
Drizzy reciprocated the love that Minaj and the Barbz showed him. “Toronto make some noise for the greatest female rapper of all time,” he announced. “Nicki, I love you.” The love fest came to an end as Drake left the stage, however. The rapper walked off while assuring fans that he has some business to take care of with Lamar. “You know what time it is,” he assured the fans. “You know what I gotta do.”
Both Drake and Minaj are currently involved in rap battles. Drake has taken on Kendrick Lamar, while Minaj has been swapping disses with Megan Thee Stallion. The battles have played out in strangely similar ways. Lamar’s “Like That” and Megan’s “Hiss” both topped the Billboard Hot 100, with many citing them as the favorites to win their respective battles. Drake and Minaj have dropped disses in response, but neither release managed to chart as high as their competitors (yet, at least).
Regardless, fans can take solace in the fact that the Young Money icons are still on good terms.
Round two begins. Drake and Kendrick Lamar did not disappoint with their first round offerings. The former dropped “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle,” while the latter opened and closed things out with “Like That” and “Euphoria.” These diss tracks have received critical praise across the board, but things are going to inevitably get uglier as the battle wears on. Lamar upped the ante by attacking the Toronto rapper from all angles. Drake made it clear he was unimpressed, though, and told DJ Akademiks that he’ll be dropping again soon.
The “soon” was communicated through DJ Akademiks, who shared a text exchange with Drake during his live stream. The internet personality has been an advocate for Drizzy throughout the battle, so it’ll come as no surprise that he’s excited for what lies ahead. The thing is, Ak did a good job of getting the rest of us excited as well. During his April 30 stream, Akademiks claimed to have to heard the response diss that Drake has cooked up. The response is allegedly titled “Hi Whitney.” Whitney is, of course, the name of Kendrick Lamar’s wife, Whitney Alford. Akademiks was, predictably “impressed.”
“I was super impressed by it,” he told viewers. It was the second part of Ak’s statement, though, that really ramped up the anticipation. He claimed that Drake played the diss for him and assured him that things only get tougher from there. “He literally said, ‘If you think this is fire you have no idea what I got coming,’” he recalled. Drake made reference to Whitney Alford in “Push Ups,” but naming an entire song after her opens up an entirely new level of disrespect.
This level of disrespect is something DJ Akademiks has warned Drake about in the past. He hopped on a stream once “Push Ups” dropped, and went on a rant about how bad things went for the 6 God when he referenced Pusha T’s wife by name. “Drake… you did the same thing twice now,” Ak rightfully said. “You mentioned Virginia Williams or whatever, Pusha T’s wife. And you saw that n**ga took the gloves off, and we saw what happened.” Drake evidently weighed the consequences and has decided to go all in against K. Dot. This next round sounds like it’s going to be intense.
It seems like Drake has responded to Kendrick Lamar‘s scathing diss track, “Euphoria.” Lamar has has had the internet abuzz after dropping the diss track today (April 30), and fans have been wondering when and if Drake will respond.
Earlier this evening, Drake took to his Instagram story, sharing a clip from the 1999 movie, 10 Things I Hate About You. In the clip, Julia Stiles’ character reads a poem directed at Heath Ledger’s character.
“I hate the way you talk to me, and the way you cut your hair/ I hate the way you drive my car. I hate it when you stare. I hate your big dumb combat boots, and the way you read my mind. I hate you so much it makes me sick; it even makes me rhyme! I hate it, I hate the way you’re always right. I hate it when you lie. I hate it when you make me laugh, even worse when you make me cry. I hate it when you’re not around, and the fact that you didn’t call.”
The clip in the Instagram story ends right before Stiles’ character says “But mostly I hate the way I don’t hate you. Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.”
Drake seems to have shared this clip mockingly in response to several gripes listed in Lamar’s song.
On “Euphoria,” Lamar raps “It’s always been about love and hate, now let me say I’m the biggest hater / I hate the way that you walk / the way that you talk / I hate the way that you dress / I hate the way that you sneak diss / if I catch flight, it’s gon’ be direct.”
But it looks like Drake is having a laugh about the whole ordeal.
Now, the question is, will Drake respond in the form of a new song.
Drake got what he wanted. Once the feuding flood gates were opened with Kendrick Lamar’s “Like That” verse, Drake has had a field day trolling him. He’s dropped two diss tracks, poked fun at Lamar’s pgLang manager, and even used the voice of AI-2Pac to hurry his opponent up. Lamar finally clapped back with “Euphoria” on April 30, and true to form, the 6 God has jokes. Drake got on Instagram the evening the song dropped and used a film clip to express how unimpressed he is.
The film in question is 10 Things I Hate About You, and the clip in question sees the female lead list off all the thing she hates about her love interest. “I hate the way you talk to me, and the way you cut her hair,” she says. “I hate the way you drive my car, I hate it when you stare.” The clip runs 32 seconds in length, but the longer it goes on, the more emotional the character becomes. In the film, the character realizes that she’s still in love with the person she’s describing. “I hate it when you’re not around, and when you don’t call,” she adds.
Drake really turns up the trolling by posting two emojis over the clip: a broken heart and a winking face. The rapper is alluding to the chorus of Kendrick Lamar’s “Euphoria.” In a style similar to that of the crying character in 10 Things I Hate About You, Lamar rattles off the things he despises about Drake. “I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk,” he raps. “I hate the way that you dress, I hate the way you sneak diss.” Drake is basically dismissing Lamar’s approach and alluding to the fact that Lamar is spending way more time than he should thinking about him.
This is not the first time Drake has used a film clip to troll an opponent. The rapper told Metro Boomin to shut his a*s up and make some drums on “Push Ups,” then posted a clip of Drumline on his IG Story. The rapper likes to sneak film references into his bars, so this approach should come as no surprise. He told DJ Akademiks that a Kendrick Lamar response will be coming “soon.”
YG Marley is making a lot of heat. Last December, the R&B and reggae singer released his debut single, “Praise Jah In The Moonlight.” The song garnered much popularity on TikTok and has reached No. 34 on the Billboard Hot 100. Since then, YG has released another single called “Freedom.”
In the realm of music, the name Marley carries a lot of weight. And with so many Marley musicians, including Skip Marley, Selah Marley, and the family patriarch, Bob Marley, many listeners are fascinated by YG Marley, and curious to learn more.
Who Is YG Marley?
YG Marley is the grandson of famed reggae musician, Bob Marley. He is also the son of former college football and Canadian Football League, Rohan Marley and rapper and singer Lauryn Hill.
His sister is model Selah Marley and former NFL player Nico Marley.
During Coachella 2024, YG performed a set. On the first weekend of the festival, YG was joined by his mother, Hill, as well as Wyclef Jean, which made for a mini Fugees reunion.
While YG only has two singles available for streaming on DSPs, he is carrying his grandfather’s legacy with honor. His vocal and lyrical abilities, paired with his stage presence make him a promising act to watch.
You can see the video for “Praise Jah In The Moonlight” above.
We’ve finally arrived at the main event. Kendrick Lamar started it with “Like That,” and Drake took it up a notch with “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle.” There was concern that Lamar wasn’t going to get back at Drake in a timely manner, but he dropped “Euphoria” on April 30 and got things back on track. The first round of the Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar battle is done with. Both artists are firmly prepped for battle. One, in particular, is excited for what comes next.
DJ Akademiks has been the conduit for Drake messages throughout the battle. He’s relayed the rapper’s feelings towards Lamar and his desire to hash things out after “10 years” of waiting. Akademiks dropped another bombshell revelation during his April 30 live stream when he shared a text conversation with the 6 God.
According to the streamer, Drake said “I’m energized by the elimination of Drake” with laughing emojis. This is a reference to an interview Kanye West recently gave, in which he claimed to be teaming up with rappers in an effort to bring Drizzy down. The rapper then left Akademiks and the fans with an ominous: “See you soon.”
Drake has chosen his works carefully over the last few months. He’s done his fair share of trolling, but he has made a point of revealing as little as possible. The text message to DJ Akademiks, for example, is the first time he’s technically spoken on the “Euphoria” diss. The rapper has been liking IG posts since it was released, though. Right after “Euphoria” went viral, Drizzy liked a comment asking: “That’s it??”
Drake’s comment about seeing fans “soon” supports DJ Akademiks’ theory. The streamer hopped on X (formerly Twitter) to claim that the Toronto rapper will respond faster than Lamar did. Ak went as far as to assert that Drake could get a diss out in a week. “I expect Drake to respond expeditiously,” he tweeted. “He got 17 days (same time as kendrick).. but I think he’ll respond in 7 calendar days NGL. He happy asf that Kendrick showed he got a pulse.”
Regardless of how long it takes, the battle has officially been taken up a notch.
The hip-hop world is still processing Kendrick Lamar’s new song. “Euphoria” dropped like an atom bomb on April 30, putting an end to the debate over whether he would respond to Drake. Lamar spent a dense six minutes dismantling the Toronto rapper from every conceivable angle. Most fans were impressed with what they heard, especially given how many flows and beat switches Mr. Morale busts out. The thing that is mind-blowing to consider, however, is that the song was originally four times as long.
Daylyt, an affiliate of Lamar’s former label, TDE, broke the news on X (formerly Twitter). He claimed that he got a chance to hear “Euphoria” before it was officially released, and it contained even more scathing bars about Drake. “Crazy part is this not even the full song,” he tweeted. “Smh. Sh*t I herd was like 19 min smh.” Bear in mind the official version already covers a lot of ground with regards to Drake’s weaknesses and controversies.
Kendrick Lamar has a documented history of cutting down his verses. He removed verses from To Pimp a Butterfly because he deemed them too “brutal.” He also took out disses aimed at Big Sean and Drake on the 2017 song “ELEMENT” (the OG version eventually leaked online). Dot also spoke about his very habitual writing habit during a 2018 profile with Vanity Fair.
“‘Execution’ is my favorite word,” he admitted. “I spend 80 percent of my time thinking about how I’m going to execute, and that might be a whole year of constantly jotting down ideas, figuring out how I’m going to convey these words to a person to connect to it. What is this word that means this, how did it get here… Then, the lyrics are easy.” This lengthy process makes sense, given that Drizzy has accused Lamar of working on a diss against him for four years.
Fans may feel short-changed to not have gotten the fill version of “Euphoria,” but the fact that it’s six minutes is being interpreted as a pointed dig against Drake for being the “6 God.” Lamar knows what he’s doing.
Benny Blanco single-handedly owned the pop radio landscape in the 2010s, soundtracking wild nights for a whole generation. In constant demand, even his non-album solo single “Eastside” — featuring Halsey and Khalid — went 6x platinum. But despite an absurd number of plaques over the past 17 years, Blanco’s latest release is a new entry for him. It’s literary — a cookbook titled Open Wide, which acts as the star’s love letter to food and, more specifically, hosting dinner parties.
Sprinkled with pinches and dollops of minutiae and personal anecdotes, Open Wide reads as much like an engrossing coffee table book as a cookbook. It’s chock full of Blanco’s hilarious musings (as well as featured guests like Eric Andre and Lil Dicky) and serves as a resource for dinner parties of your own. The book holds nearly 100 recipes and it should be no surprise that Blanco is beyond jazzed about every little detail.
We caught up with Blanco to get the detailed rundown on one of his favorites from Open Wide, the crowd-pleasing, Pop’s Chicken — which he describes as the perfect fried chicken recipe, originating from Benny’s friend Pop, who is known for cooking soul food at his house every Sunday. (Side note: We all need friends like that.) Blanco also gave us the rundown on the one dining spot we have to try in Virginia, what’s on his rider, his ability to be DJ-like in taking cooking requests in the studio, and where his dream first food pop-up would be (sorry Angelenos, it’s not LA).
We also got personal and asked Benny about the origins of the “Chuck” bit from “Dave,” learned about the time he shaved his Unibrow way too much (haven’t we all?), and how that led to his commitment to his trademark look.
What’s the first step in getting started with Pop’s Chicken? Let’s start with picking out a chicken?
First of all, you need to get the freshest ingredients, so you want to get the freshest, fucking most delicious chicken. I would go to your local butcher because you don’t want something that’s been sitting there for days. By the time you get them, they’re three, four days old. You want a chicken that’s fresh, you want to be able to see little feathers that were just plucked off of it.
And then, as far as breaking down a chicken, let’s say you’re in a hurry, don’t even worry about it, just ask the butcher. You ask your butcher, you’re like, “Yo, can I break this down? Can you give me the breast meat? Can you give me the legs separate?” And they’ll do all the dirty work for you. They’ll even do it at most supermarkets too, if you ask.
That’s a good tip. I noticed Pop’s Chicken involves an extensive list of different spices and seasonings. Where are you getting your spices and seasonings? Is there anywhere you really recommend? And then are there any specific brands that people should be checking for?
I think even more so than brands and where I’m getting them from, I think the most important thing to know is that spices go bad after a little while. They don’t go bad in the sense that you’re going to get sick from eating them. When you first get them, they’re like a fucking line of cocaine, but after they’ve been sitting there for six months, they might not hit the same way.
So where are you getting these fresh spices from?
I really like a place called SOS Chefs in New York. I like another place called Sahadi’s in New York. If I’m in LA I go to Farmer’s Markets. In the Grove (in LA), they’ll have a lot of stuff in there from farmer’s markets. Specialty international stores have really good spices as well. Usually, when you go to an international store, they’re going to have really fresh spices and ingredients.
And is there any specific brand that you’re kind of partial to or is it just kind of spice by spice, you get what goes best?
I’m always looking at the color. You want it to be bright, vibrant. You don’t want it to look like fucking sawdust that’s been sitting there for a while. You know what I’m saying?
Yep, so after you get your chicken and your spices, your recipe calls for eggs. You mentioned that egg whites are a really important part of the recipe, so how are you picking out your eggs and where are you getting your eggs from?
I really like to go to the farmer’s market and get my eggs. Again, I know this sounds crazy, but you want look and see if there’s a little bit of chicken poop on the side, a little bit of a feather, because it’s really going to ensure the freshness of your eggs. If you’re getting your eggs at a farmer’s market, you never have to put them in the fridge.
Putting your eggs in the fridge is like a Western thing, they don’t do that in most other countries, eggs do not stay in the fridge. This is some weird thing that America did. And if I am going to a grocery store, there is a brand in LA and on the West Coast, I’m not sure if it’s on the East Coast yet, but it’s called Happy Eggs, they’re like these really good farm fresh eggs.
Basically, you want the freshies, you want the big brown boys. Don’t ever buy the white eggs, unless you’re buying from a farmer’s market. I know the eggs are going to be good when they’re a little bit different shapes and sizes and colors. And although we’re not using yolk in this egg (for Pop’s Chicken), you want your yolk to be like radioactive orange. Yellow yolks are a thing that also doesn’t exist in a lot of other parts of the world. You go to Europe and you go to Italy, the yolks are like fucking ORANGE, they’re like radioactive orange yolks.
And so the reason we use the whites because it makes the bite. You know how when you bite fried chicken and you take off all the skin and it’s not with the chicken and it’s a little bit thick and crumbly; it just doesn’t hold to the chicken? The egg white helps it hold to the chicken so much better, it’s not like slipping around and sliding off the meat. When I’m at the last bite of my fried chicken, I still want it to taste like the first bite. You know what I mean?
The egg white helps you do that. And it gets it airy and crispy and crunchy.
What’s the first step once you get home? What’s next?
Another important thing is you need the perfect amount of time for buttermilk. And you don’t want too much time or then your chicken’s going to taste weird and sour and it messes with the science behind the chicken, and it’s mushy — you want your chicken to have bounce. And you want your fried chicken, when you bite into it, you don’t want some dry ass shit, you want that shit to be juicing out, like somebody injected water into the chicken.
If you’re going to be frying for a bunch of people, you can pre-dredge and flour your chicken and put it on a tray, (because) this batter and everything, it all holds pretty well. If you have people coming over, you can just prep it a little bit. If you want to do it 30 minutes or an hour before, that’s fine.
Tell us a little bit about the brining process, because it seems like you would be doing that before the dredging.
There’s so many ways to brine a chicken. For Pop’s Chicken, I put sugar and rosemary or some spices, I do it a little different every time. You can also totally brine in sweet tea, basically you just need the sugar and the salt to break down the chicken. A combination of salt and sugar always works, and water, because it’s going to help make the chicken juicier. I know it sounds like a lot of steps, but it’s really going to fuck it up if you don’t do this stuff. If I put a chicken that’s brined next to a chicken that is not brined, I can keep my eyes closed, you’re going to taste the difference.
So brine your chicken, it’s very important. And then for me, the dry rub is so important because you want your chicken to be seasoned. A lot of times when you bite a chicken, just the breading is seasoned a little bit, but you want it to penetrate and give the chicken the flavoring of the seasoning. It doesn’t need to be insane, but it’s just another layer; you’re just building layers of flavor.
What are some of your tips for creating and executing the dry rub?
Pat your chicken dry. I know it sounds like so stupid and that everyone’s like, “yeah, of course I do”, but you’d be surprised how many people forget to. And then if you don’t pat your chicken dry, you’re going to have a loose wet batter and it’s not going to hit the same way. You need it to really stick to that chicken.
I really love to use Bell’s Seasoning, it’s just like an old seasoning blend, it’s good. Poultry Magic is also such a good one to use. These are just staples, they’re in every supermarket and you’re going to be like, “oh, okay. I know that’s at least the right one”; they’ve been around for hundreds of years.
Once you got your dry rub going, what sort of hardware do you need in your kitchen to take the next steps? What are some things that you need?
You can fry in an industrial fryer, you can fry in a cast iron. Fuck, I’ve literally fried chicken in a bucket. Literally a trash can that we just poured (chicken) in and then put it on top of an induction burner and did it because we needed a bigger surface. You just need anything that can hold heat and just be big enough to put your chicken in.
You don’t want your chicken clumpy, you need your chicken to be spread out. You don’t want it to be too close together, you don’t want it to get attached, (the chicken) needs a little room to breathe, and you’re going to be flipping it and shit.
What are some tips on the dredging process? I know you said pat for the dry rub, but as far as doing the actual dredging, what’s the lay of the land there?
For my dredge, I need something tangy. I do stuff different all the time, but there’s always the three things I put in a dredge.
I don’t have the recipe in front of me, but I can tell you for sure I don’t even need to look – 1) I always put some sort of pickle juice in. 2) I’ll always put some sort of hot sauce. I like Crystal or Louisiana, anything that’s based out of Louisiana. 3) I’ll always put mustard, and I’m talking like shitty French’s Mustard, because there’s something with the tang, and that’s going to just give you another fucking flavor bomb.
Once you’re done dredging, what are some tips for the actual frying, and how do you know when your chicken’s done?
A lot of people fry their chickens and the outside will get done before their chicken’s ready. Don’t fry it too hot. Whatever you’re doing, always watch your temperature. Because when you put the chicken in, the heat’s going to go down. There’s so many different things, there’s so many different barriers.
So stay calm, always stay calm and make sure to just take your time. It’s not a battle, you’re not fighting to see who gets the best time. You’re making fried chicken, have fun, go talk to your friends, drink a beer.
How do you know when the chicken’s ready to go? What’s the telltale sign to be like, “okay, it’s good”?
After making it so much, I know the color and feel of it, but if you don’t know it, pull a piece out, put a little thermometer in the side and it’s going to help you (figure it out). Don’t be afraid to use tools to help you.
It’s going to take a while before you can really know. Also, always know, when you pull your chicken out, it’s going to get a little bit darker once it’s come out. So you have to just know that as it cools, it kind of browns up a little bit more.
With Pop’s Chicken what’s the biggest challenge or the easiest thing to mess up that takes a while to master?
Not taking your time. Some people skip steps and they’re like, ah, I don’t need to brine the chicken, oh, I don’t need to do this. Always, always, always lay your chicken on a wire rack when it comes out. If you lay it just on something flat that’s not porous, it’s going to steam the chicken more and then the bottom of your chicken’s going to get soft. You want to keep this crispy.
Afterwards I’m done frying, I put it in an oven at 150 or 200, just so it’s holding heat inside. It’s not going to cook anymore. If you’re making chicken for a bunch of people, sometimes I’m doing this for 30, 40 people, and you just want to put the chicken on a wire baking sheet and throw it back in the oven to hold the temp.
A lot of people are scared to fry things. They’ve never done it at their house, they’re frightened, they think it’s going to take over their house, burn their whole house down. It’s not, you’re going to be fine, just take your time. And don’t be afraid when you’re first starting, to pull a piece of chicken out, check it. Check it with the thermometer.
So in this food series that we’ve been doing, we ask a lot of musicians about their eating habits. We all know that musicians often have very unhealthy eating lifestyles just because of the nature of the times that you’re working and things like that. So first question is, when you’re performing what’s on your rider? Food, drinks and snacks.
I actually try to keep it healthy, you know what I mean? I actually don’t eat a lot before I’m filming or doing a show, it’s usually afterwards. Before, I’m probably just having carrots and dip and a coconut water or something, it’s not as exciting as it seems.
I usually have to take a shit right before I do anything, too. The nerves just come in and you’re like, uppp.
What about when you’re in the studio? What type of food or snacks do you like to have on deck?
I want to say I’m eating healthy because I don’t want to fall asleep while I’m working. But in reality, I mean sometimes you get nought, sometimes it’s who knows. Sometimes you open up, sometimes it starts with one skittle and then before you know it, I’m covered in crumbs and glazed doughnuts. I don’t even know.
So there’s nothing specific that is a go-to, you kind of just go with the flow?
No, I’m cooking a lot for people in the studio, so it’s like people’s favorite. I mean people want fucking banana pudding, lasagna, spicy rigatoni.
Oh, so you’re taking requests?
Oh yeah, I take requests, I’m like a DJ for food.
What are some foods that people might find gross or nasty but you think are amazing?
Sea urchin. Uni, it scares people. And caviar, I love.
And then what’s a snack or a food that most people like that you find unappetizing?
I don’t eat pork, so pork rinds maybe.
If you could own or operate any franchise of restaurant or food related business, what would it be?
You know what I would do? You know when you go to a basketball game or you go to a football game or a baseball game, I feel like we’re so slacking on the culinary experience at those.
I know they’re trying to get better, but I feel like if somebody just gave me one to take over, I feel like I could make it so much more special than what it already is. We’re so blinded, even having food at any game, we’re like, “whoa, we got nachos”, and you’re so stoked. But imagine if it was actually fire food.
So where are you popping up? Are you popping up at Dodger Stadium? Are we at the Staples Center? What are we doing?
I think I’d have to move back to New York just to… I feel like it’s got to be New York, we got to be at MSG or something.
And you’re selling Pop’s Chicken or what are we selling?
I don’t know what we’re selling. I mean, I’d have to get high and think up the whole little menu rollout.
And then being from Virginia, are there any foods native to Virginia, or restaurants, that people must try?
There’s these things that I’ve noticed I don’t see a lot on the West Coast, it’s kind of like a Southern thing. They have these things, they’re called Kitchens, there’s one, Virginia Kitchen, and basically you go in and it’s just the most delicious kind of diner, but it’s like soul food too. There’s biscuits and grits and gravy.
On the West Coast, the breakfast out here is so mid. There’s just no diners out here. So Virginia, I don’t know, Virginia has these really good, they’re almost like buffets, it’s hard to explain.
I don’t know if it’s still there because I haven’t lived there in a very long time, but I always loved Virginia Kitchen when I was younger.
I have to ask you a question about “Dave” and the “Chuck” greeting that you guys do. Did you guys get that from Peanuts and Charlie Brown?
No. We literally saw Peanuts, honestly like a week ago. We’ve been calling each other that for years, it has nothing to do with it. It started out because we used to call each other Buck, and then it was Suck, then it was Sook, then it was Book, then it was like Chuck, Chuck really kind of stuck. But we’ve had a like a million nicknames that evolved into Chuck, and it’s like we saw the Peanuts thing and we lost our mind.
Yeah, isn’t that weird?
I know. It’s so strange. There’s also, back when we used to call each other Buck, there’s also a thing called, there was a movie that Michael White made called Buck and Buck and we were like, “what the fuck?” It was crazy.
I was going to ask about your unibrow, but we can save that for another time.
I have a unibrow, you do not.
I used to though. In high school I started getting it waxed because I was very self-conscious about it. I’m probably 10 or more years older than you, so it was like a faux pas, and so I felt-
How old are you?
I’m 41. And I felt Like I had to, and so I started –
I’m 36. When I was younger, I used to do the same thing, I used to shave it. One time I messed up and I accidentally shaved my eyebrows so far to each side that it looked like I had two Hitler eyebrows, it was crazy. Because I kept trying to go more and more and it just…
Yeah, too much. So at what point did you settle into it and be like, “you know what? I’m just going to rock this unibrow for life”?
I think I was like 17 or 18, and I was like, “oh, this is me.”
Earlier this year 21 Savage released his new album American Dream. The project was met with mostly solid reviews from critics and spawned a few hits. While songs like “nee-nah” with Travis Scott and “n.h.i.e” with Doja Cat have been popular the biggest song from the record by far has been “redrum.” Right before the second chorus on the song he delivers this lyric. “Smack n*ggas then I get on live and sing.” That was a reference to his tendencies to sing along to his favorite song during Instagram Live videos.
In was once again the case during a recent stream when he put everything he had into performing for his fans. During the live he took the time to sing along to Arya Starr’s song “Commas.” While some in the comments point out how adorable his passion for singing is, others are focused on who he might be singing to. It’s long been rumored that Savage is in a relationship with “Big Energy” rapper Latto. The comments are full of speculation and theories about the potential rap super couple. Check out the singing video and Latto comments below.
Recently, 21 Savage was honored as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people. He made the cut this year as the only rapper on the list following the release of American Dream. He may not be done with new material though. Recently Metro Boomin shared an update, albeit a cryptic one on when fans can maybe expect a third edition of his Savage Mode series of albums with 21.
Metro has already dropped two albums this year with WE DON’T TRUST YOU and the even longer WE STILL DON’T TRUST YOU alongside Future. Both project hit the top of the Billboard 200. What do you think of 21 Savage singing his heart out on an Instagram Live video? Do you believe the fan theories that he’s secretly in a relationship with Latto? Let us know in the comment section below.
