Rap Radar Podcast

Giggs Recalls Pining For Music From Behind Bars

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During his recent appearance on the Rap Radar podcast, Giggs opened up about the time he spent in jail. The performer served around two years behind bars for a gun charge in back in 2003. He claims that one of the things he hated the most about serving time was the lack of access he had to music. Luckily, he was eventually able to get some CDs that his manager sent him. According to him, hearing 50 Cent had a major influence on him while he was in jail.

“That was ’03. It was all 50, G-Unit tapes,” Giggs began. “I remember I went to one jail and we couldn’t have music at all.” He continued, “I was in there for like three months and I was going crazy with no music, fam — I remember I heard one 50 tune, ‘Guns For Sale.’ I heard it on the radio one night, like half of it, I said, ‘I gotta the f*ck out of this jail. F*ck this place.’”

Read More: Giggs Has “Zero Tolerance” On His New Album

Giggs’ Manager Sent Him “Mad CDs”

“And I remember we got a transfer and moved to the next jail then,” he continued. “As soon as I got in the jail, I heard some yute playing some [DJ] Whoo Kid tape. I’m like, ‘Oh sh*t! Is that what I’ve been missing?’” He went on to describe urging his manager to send him music, in order to make his stay more comfortable. Fortunately, he eventually came through, sending him a ton of CDs to choose from.

“I hit [my manager] and I said: ‘Fam, just send me everything bro,’” the UK-born performer explains. “And he sent me mad CDs. I remember that was that time, like, G-Unit — and everyone had some new young buck. I remember Dipset had JR Writer. Busta – he had the youth M Dollars yute. Obviously 50, Lloyd Banks. Everyone that had that young yute with the punchlines. Cassidy [was with] Swizz. Them times was ringing.” Share your thoughts in the comments section down below and keep an eye on HNHH for more updates on Giggs.

Read More: Bobby Shmurda Parties With Fabolous & Giggs In London

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The post Giggs Recalls Pining For Music From Behind Bars appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

Burna Boy Said J. Cole Called Him ‘Tupac Reincarnated In Africa’ During Their First Meeting

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As Afrobeats continues to rise in prominence both stateside and abroad, Burna Boy has been the Afrobeats artist at the forefront of the movement. Earlier this year, he became the first Nigerian artist to headline a US stadium after also headlining the NBA’s All-Star Game halftime show and J. Cole’s Dreamville Festival while demand for his guest verses skyrocketed among contemporaries like J Hus and Byron Messia.

His popularity is such that J. Cole even compared him to Tupac. Sitting with the Rap Radar Podcast, Burna recounted how he ended up in the studio with J. Cole and a group of “tall as hell” basketball players, where the North Carolina rapper said, “This n****’s Tupac reincarnated in Africa” after hearing Burna “going off” for a few minutes. The bashful Burna says he shrugged off the comparison, but it wouldn’t be totally unfounded.

Although Burna hasn’t talked about it much recently, he’s been a proponent of the “One Africa” movement and refused to perform in South Africa for political reasons in 2020. Meanwhile, like Tupac, he’s been outspoken about authoritarian abuses, best embodied in his video for “Monsters You Made.” The two artists’ shared Pan-Africanist views are likely what prompted Cole to make the comparison, although they also share similar cultural impact and popularity as well.

The results of Burna and Cole’s collaboration will can be found on Burna’s new album I Told Them…, out now via Spaceship Records and Atlantic Records.

Jack Harlow Responds To Machine Gun Kelly’s “Renegade (Freestyle)” Diss

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For Jack Harlow fans, his Jackman album that landed earlier this spring was a pleasant surprise – especially for those who previously expressed a desire to see the budding actor work on his pen game following his sophomore LP. Unfortunately for Harlow, his project left a bad taste in the mouth of at least one of his contemporaries, who didn’t hesitate to diss the young rhymer in a freestyle over Jay-Z’s Eminem-produced 2001 hit, “Renegade.” Machine Gun Kelly shared his work shortly after Jackman made its debut, complete with bars from the artist declaring himself “the hardest white boy” since Slim Shady.

“I see why they call you Jackman, you jacked man’s whole swag / Give Drake his flow back, man, I eat rappers like Pac-Man,” the father of one rhymes, accusing Harlow of following too closely in the footsteps of Drizzy. The “Nail Tech” hitmaker didn’t respond at the time, but during a recent sitdown with Rap Radar, he was asked to share his thoughts on MGK’s bars. “How do you take it in? I guess you just f**king take it,” Jack said of the hate that comes along with being famous.

Read More: Why Is Machine Gun Kelly Beefing With Jack Harlow?

Revisit MGK’s Surprise Freestyle Diss

The White Men Can’t Jump star continued, “Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, and I feel great about what I said, and I feel great about the reaction. It just is what it is.” Harlow added that he feels “no reservations about what was said at all,” and that “talking [his] shit” is just part of being “an MC.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, the 25-year-old spills on making his acting debut in the recent 1992 remake, which Twitter has had mixed reactions to. On top of that, he also recalls receiving praise from Kendrick Lamar and shares his thoughts on the current state of the music industry.

Read More: Jack Harlow’s “White Men Can’t Jump” Remake Earns Mixed Reviews On Twitter

Jack Harlow on Rap Radar

Tap into Jack Harlow’s full Rap Radar interview on Spotify below. Do you think that MGK’s diss aimed at the Kentucky-born rapper was valid? Let us know in the comments, and check back later for more hip-hop/pop culture news updates.

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Tyler The Creator Thinks His ‘Goblin’ Album Is ‘F*cking Terrible,’ But He Doesn’t Totally Hate It

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Tyler The Creator appeared on the Rap Radar Podcast last Friday, June 9. He said several things that the aggregation machine swept up, such as his proclamation that “I f*cking hate Rap Twitter,” but he has a soft spot for his 2011 major-label debut album, Goblin.

“Bro, Goblin is f*cking terrible, but I still love it,” Tyler said at the 1:24:46 mark. “It’s an energy and an aura that it has — hearing my wonky synths and gross drums and me not realizing I’m yelling on every song and saying the most wild sh*t is what got people there. It’s not about the music. If you were there, that energy and that aura and that air just cutting through what everyone else was doing is so important.”

He continued, “And there’s still some ones on there. I still think ‘Yonkers’ is awesome. ‘She’ is awesome. The first two versions of ‘Nightmare’ is ill. ‘Tron Cat’ is still awesome. ‘Analog’ is still cool. Like, there’s still a few things on there, but people don’t know, like, a lot of songs on that album were just random songs I recorded after ‘Goblin’ that we kind of just [viewed as], ‘Yeah, here, I got these songs.’”

Tyler said nearly the exact same thing during an interview for WSJ Magazine in late 2019 — noting then that Goblin was “trash, but I don’t regret making it.”

“It’ll make the overall story sicker when I’m 43, and I own a billion-dollar company, and it’s, like, ‘Look what I was doing when I was 19. Who would have thought those skate rats who like the color pink would be doing this?’” Tyler told the publication at the time.

Watch the full Rap Radar episode with Tyler here.

Tyler The Creator ‘F*cking Hates Rap Twitter’ And Has No Patience For Top Five Rapper Lists

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For almost as long as rap has been at the height of popular culture, fans and professionals have carried on the tradition of ranking the top rappers, from “top five, dead or alive” lists to Mount Rushmores of rap. But there’s one practitioner you won’t find participating: Tyler The Creator, who not only explained why he has no patience for such things but also declared “I f*cking hate Rap Twitter” in a preview of his upcoming interview with Rap Radar Podcast.

When prompted by co-host Elliott Wilson, Tyler launched into an all-out tirade, rejecting the idea of an “objective” top rapper and denouncing the nonstop debates that take place on social media — especially “Rap Twitter,” the collective name for accounts that generate such discussion with provocative prompts and hot takes on the bird app.

“Bro, who gives a f*ck?” Tyler demanded. “You know what annoys me? When people are like, ‘This is my top five,’ and people argue it. You got 17-year-olds like, ‘Yeah, dude, Ready To Die and Enter The Wu-Tang is my top ten albums ever.’” After expressing his incredulity with one helluva metaphor he continued, “It’s performative. Again, some people might be right, but … you got YoungBoys and [Lil] Baby’s out here and that’s your favorite album?”

“I don’t care about people’s ‘objective’ top nothing,” he asserted. “Tell me what is your favorite sh*t. Because you learn so much from people. You get context. I wanna know why you think Pookie Dookie’s second album is your favorite… I wanna hear that.”

This isn’t the first time Tyler has discredited a hot topic. Early last year, he slammed the NFT craze (he was right) and earlier this year, he did the same with posthumous albums, revealing his ill expressly bans releasing any posthumous work of his (he’s right again, but whoever ends up in charge of his unreleased music may not see it that way).

SZA Has Enough Actual Rap Songs For A Whole Project, According To TDE President Punch

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One of the many praises that SZA often receives as a songwriter is that she pens R&B anthems in a style as complex as her rapper labelmates on Top Dawg Entertainment (especially on her new album, SOS). And although she’s not strictly seen as a rapper, she could release a whole album of straight-up rap if she wanted to because she has enough songs to do so, according to Top Dawg president Punch.

The longsuffering label head — he’s taken plenty of abuse from SZA fans over the years for the steps he’s taken to ensure her success, although he turns out to be right more often than not — sat down with Rap Radar Podcast and gave his takes on SZA’s growth since she signed to the label almost a decade ago.

“I think she’s adjusting [to fame] a lot better now,” he said. “I think it’s finally starting to set in as to what’s going on and who she is. Like, for the longest, I don’t feel she connected who SZA is to Solána. But I think now, she’s starting to see it, to understand.”

As far as her rap-infused songwriting style, he revealed that the “genre-bending” singer could easily hold her own with the rest of TDE’s roster. “She’s always bended the genre, so it wasn’t nothing new, it was just going, pushing it further,” he noted. “Like, she doing full rap records now … That’s all her, yeah, 100 percent. She got like an EP’s worth of full rap records, like all the way out, no singing.”

Hey Punch, here me out: A tag-team joint project with Doechii. Gangbusters, fam. Thank me later.

You can watch the full episode of Punch’s interview with Rap Radar‘s Elliott Wilson and Brian Miller above.

Ab-Soul Denies Dissing Kid Cudi On “Herbert”

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We’re officially only 24 hours away from receiving a new album from Ab-Soul. It has been six years since the Carson, Calif. rapper blessed fans with an album, so the anticipated arrival of Herbert has Hip Hop on the edge of its seat. The reclusive emcee has emerged with a press run to promote the project, and while speaking with the Rap Radar Podcast, Ab cleared up rumors about allegedly taking a verbal jab at Kid Cudi.

“It sounded like you were talking to a specific rapper,” said Brian “B.Dot” Miller. “It sounded like you were talking about Kid Cudi. You mentioned a name, and you said a lot of things in there.”

Read More: Ab-Soul Drops “Herbert” Cover Art & Tracklist

Ab-Soul seemed a tad confused and denied referencing Cudi. On a track, Ab mentions “cudi,” clarifying that it’s a street term.

“You think I would diss Kid Cudi? The great Kid Cudi? On a song called ‘Church on the Move’?” the rapper asked. “Peace be unto you. Come on, B.Dot. And y’all trust this guy with the lists?”

“No, look. Listen. ‘Cudi’ is a term that we use. It’s kinda on some Crip sh*t, you know what I’m saying?”

Read More: Ab-Soul Eviscerates L.A. Leakers Freestyle Over Tupac & Biggie Beats

We’ve received a flurry of singles from Herbert recently, and Ab-Soul’s stellar look on L.A. Leakers only emphasized the hype surrounding the record. Herbert hosts looks from Jhené Aiko, Joey Bada$$, Punch, and more. There were hints that Jay-Z could be making an appearance, as well, but we’ll have to wait to hear if that materializes.

Are you excited to hear more from Ab-Soul? Check out the video of the rapper addressing Kid Cudi rumors above.

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Jamie Foxx’s Donald Trump Impersonation Is Worth Every Second Of Your Time

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We’ve all seen our fair share of Donald Trump impressions, but Jamie Foxx might’ve just taken the cake. Foxx appeared on the Rap Radar Podcast with Snoop Dogg to promote their new action-comedy vampire movie, Day Shift, which is out now on Netflix. And in the midst of it all, Jamie Foxx might’ve just given Saturday Night Live’s James Austin Johnson’s Donald Trump impression a run for it’s money.

“I love Snoop D-O Double-G. Great person,” Foxx said in his Trump voice. Then host Brian ‘B. Dot’ Miller asked him if he loves Death Row Records and Foxx just went off and nailed Trump’s hip-hop wannabe-isms: “I love Death Row Records. I love Death Ro…” and as co-host Elliott Wilson started laughing, Foxx says, “Excuse Me. Excuse me, fake news. I love Death Row.” And added that his favorite Death Row record is, “All of them.”

If you close your eyes while listening to Jamie Foxx doing the bit, it’s pretty eerie how much he really sounds like Donald Trump. Foxx eventually can’t help himself and starts laughing at how ridiculous he sounds saying the exact things that Trump would say, like “They tried to give me the virus” and “I beat the virus.” Just another day in America y’all.

Migos Finally Explain Why Takeoff Wasn’t On ‘Bad And Boujee’

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The hosts of the Rap Radar podcast are still plugging their upcoming episode with Quavo and Takeoff of Migos. While discussing topics like the duo’s recording processes, it seems that they also got to the bottom of a longstanding Migos mystery that has plagued fans since 2017: Why Takeoff doesn’t appear on the group’s No. 1 hit “Bad And Boujee.” While the question has been asked before, Elliott Wilson and Brian “B. Dot” Miller are just higher caliber journalists than Joe Budden and Akademiks, so they were able to get a much more positive response.

In fact, in sharing the clip on Twitter, Wilson seemed to reference the past incident, writing, “Did it look I was too shook to ask the question? Ha.” In the clip, he asks (respectfully), “Was it something about ‘Bad And Boujee’ why you didn’t wanna rap on that beat? Why wasn’t you on that song when it came out?”

This time, rather than popping up to intimidate the questioner, Takeoff left much of the talking to his uncle. “I just think it was just timing,” Quavo replies. “We was just trying to get something out. We was actually pissed off because we ain’t have no music out. I think like a couple months before the whole little wave and we was going through the litigation with 300 [Entertainment, their former label], so we ended up leaking ‘Bad N Boujee’ on SoundCloud first. Sh*t, I wasn’t even gonna be on it. I had to do my verse on some quick fast in a rush sh*t. So it was just like everybody running to the song and trying to get it done.”

So, there you have it. It seems it was all a matter of bad timing and rushing to get the song to market. Sometimes, things just work out, though… “Bad And Boujee” was Migos’ first No. 1 single, making them a household name outside of hip-hop and setting off their pop culture dominance for the next three years. As for whether or not their current duo configuration is temporary or permanent, I suppose we’ll have to wait for the full episode, which drops on August 18.