young guru

JAY-Z Recorded An Iconic Drake Feature After A Grueling Two Hour Show

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Drake and JAY-Z have a lot in common. Both are among the biggest rappers of all time. Both have parlayed their success into other ventures. And both maintained relevance for decades. It’s no wonder these two see each other as kindred spirits. Drake and JAY-Z have collaborated five times since 2009 (six if you count “Off That”). “Talk Up” has become a fan favorite over the years, and a recent anecdote from JAY’s engineer, Young Guru, has given fans even more respect for the 2018 release.

Drake initiated the whole thing. The rapper dropped 100 GBs of unreleased material on August 6, which included footage of him and JAY-Z making “Talk Up.” Young Guru saw the footage, and decided to shed light on the unique circumstances in which the song came together. He detailed the experience on his IG Story, and revealed that JAY-Z recorded it right after a concert. “Hov has to do a verse [for Drake],” he recalled. “We are on On the Run 2. Remember I’m the DJ. Hov hit me and simply said ‘Set up a studio in the venue’ I’m like ‘what’? But of course I get it done… He literally wrote that verse after doing a full two-hour show.”

Read More: JAY-Z Scores Revenge As Cop Takes Plea Deal In Champagne Theft Case

Young Guru Shared The JAY-Z Story On Instagram

Guru’s account lines up with the footage that Drake released. The Toronto rapper is asked whether he plans to rest, but he insisted he stay up until JAY-Z sent his verse over. “I don’t want him to hit me and be like, ‘Hey, what do you think of this?’ and I’m not there to respond,” he said. JAY-Z and Guru were under the wire, but they managed to get the verse done in time. The latter recalls the lofi tech they had access to on such short notice. “I had to tether my phone to my computer to send the session to @ovo40,” he explained. “I made it too the club just in time for my set.”

Young Guru and JAY-Z were thrilled with outcome. Guru did note, on his IG Story, though, that the best musical moments often come from stressful situations. “When y’all hear this work I sometimes wonder if you understand how much goes into it,” he wrote. “Classic Nights!!!! And I killed my set lol.” “Talk Up” is not mentioned as often as other Drake and JAY-Z collabs like “Light Up” or “Pound Cake,” but the story behind it does make it an extra boost. Keep it’s creation in mind next time you listen.

Read More: Drake Reposts A Tweet Ruthlessly Clowning J Cole On His Finsta Account

The post JAY-Z Recorded An Iconic Drake Feature After A Grueling Two Hour Show appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

Young Guru Reveals Hidden Meanings In Kendrick Lamar’s “Euphoria”

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Young Guru has a bulletproof reputation within the hip-hop community. Not only has he produced and mixed for rappers like Jay-Z and Kanye West, but he’s dedicated his time to teaching the next generation of artists. He knows the history of the genre, and is able to contextualize it with a clarity that few mixers are capable of. This pedigree is what makes Young Guru’s comments on the new Kendrick Lamar diss “Euphoria” so insightful. There are plenty of insulting touches that resonated with listeners, but Guru pointed out two he felt have been overlooked.

Young Guru shed light on these two aspects via Instagram Stories. The first post addressed the audio that opens the song. The words are played in reverse, but Genius confirmed that they say “everything about me is true” when played forward. Guru confirmed the line to be taken from the 1978 film The Wiz, and explained the larger statement that Lamar is making about his opponent: Drake. “The dance scene in Oz is incredible but it points out that pop culture is fake,” he noted. “The Wiz changes the colors and people just go along with it. Richard Pryor later admits that he is a fake and a phony.”

Read More: Young Guru Claims “I Told Y’all So” After AI Song Given Grammy Eligibility

Young Guru Broke Down Dot’s Cultural References

Guru does not say he explicitly agrees with Lamar. He does, however, assert that the rapper is making parallels between Drake and Pryor’s character. Drake has been able to stay relevant for a decade and a half by embracing different sounds and trends, and K. Dot posits that he is changing the colors like the Wiz. The second part of Young Guru’s analysis had to do with the “Euphoria” beat. The song samples the Teddy Pendergrass classic “You’re My Latest, My Greatest Inspiration.”

It might not scan as a big deal on the surface, but the producer notes that Pendergrass suffered a debilitating injury late in his career. “Teddy Pendagrass [sic] got into a car accident,” he wrote. “And had to live the rest of his life paralyzed in a wheelchair.” Guru interprets this historical context as yet another dig at Drake, who rose to fame playing a wheelchair-bound character on Degrassi. The Toronto rapper also referenced Pendergrass on his 2016 single “Child’s Play.” The layers of meaning in “Euphoria” are seemingly endless, and Guru wants to remind listeners to keep digging.

Read More: Kendrick Lamar “Euphoria”: We Might Finally Get The Surgical Summer We Deserve

The post Young Guru Reveals Hidden Meanings In Kendrick Lamar’s “Euphoria” appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

Young Guru Concerned Over AI-Generated ‘JAY-Z Voice’

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A clip of an AI-generated JAY-Z verse has gone viral, and Young Guru is concerned.

Young Guru is JAY-Z’s long-time esteemed engineer. In an Instagram post, he went on to say, “We have to learn from past mistakes. You would be a fool to chase every person that is going to do this. We learned that lesson with Napster. The only way I see to deal with it is to change the law. There are so many different opinions. We could change the United States law tomorrow but the internet is world wide. What a time we live in!!” 

He went further to say that everyone else should be concerned and thinks that the government should step in and create laws prohibiting technology such as this one from using an artist’s image and likeness. “People should not be able to take your Name, Image and Likeness without permission. We have to add the voice to this law,” he wrote. “We have to learn from past mistakes. You would be a fool to chase every person that is going to do this. We learned that lesson with Napster.”

Young Guru signed to Roc-A-Fella in 1999 which sparked a career in working with artists like Jay Z. His most notable Jayz songs include “Dead Presidents,” “IZZO,” and “Girls, Girls, Girls.”

“I don’t even want to continue giving examples for fear that someone will go out and do it. The law has to change to protect everyone not just Public Figures,” he wrote. “And the super scary part is that we are just getting started, we feed the beast constantly everyday with more and more content to be studied.

The post Young Guru Concerned Over AI-Generated ‘JAY-Z Voice’ appeared first on The Source.

Reuben Vincent Is Decisive About Purpose On Debut Project ‘Love Is War’

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Hailing from Charlotte, North Carolina by the way of Liberia, West Africa, Reuben Vincent states his claim as a storyteller with guidance from some of Hip-Hop’s elder statesmen, 9th Wonder and Young Guru.

Through their coaching, Vincent embodies the phrase: Tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.

His “today” started at 13 years of age with his first encounter with producer 9th Wonder, who was impressed by Vincent’s dedication even in his youth.

Almost a decade later, 9th Wonder has witnessed the 22 year-old’s growth, which stems from his insatiable persona.

“I know what my purpose is, how I want to attack it and I’m fully immersing myself in it,” says the “February 13th” rapper.

That growth leads us to Love is War where Vincent’s flexes his lyrical prowess as a warm-up into his thoughts and experiences throughout his life thus far. The album title derives from a myriad of life experiences including battle with self, marital differences between his Liberian-born parents and Liberia’s Civil War that affected and displaced majority of the country’s population.

“At times we are not given to right tools to love properly,” says the “Bottle “That builds internal wars. We have to go to war with ourselves to figure out how we want to progress. It’s You vs. You.”

His album cover, where he gazes into his reflection, shows a man with a lot of questions for both himself and the world. By the projects conclusion with an outro entitled “Point of View”, Reuben Vincent is decisive about the objective of his journey.

He raps: 

You could be up or stuck
The choice is fallen on you
Til God is calling' on me
My only call is the truth

“When I look in the mirror, I see a warrior who’s ok with the good and bad that comes with life,” Vincent says. “I also realize things I was searching for were right here in front of me the entire time.”

Love Is War features cameos from Rapsody, TDE’s Reason, Ant Clemons and more. Reuben Vincent is set to make his Dreamville Festival debut on April 2.

The post Reuben Vincent Is Decisive About Purpose On Debut Project ‘Love Is War’ appeared first on The Source.

Young Guru Reacts To The Kendrick Lamar AI Voice Filter, ‘We Are In A Very Groundbreaking And Dangerous Moment…’

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young guru

Young Guru recently took to Instagram where he showed concern over a video where someone used a Kendrick Lamar AI voice filter to make their voice sound like the Compton MC’s.

“This has dominated my Howard group chat for a couple days,” Guru said in the caption.  “Ok I’m at the point where I can voice my concerns with our current state of AI. I have followed as many versions of what AI could do for some years now. I remember being at MIT and students showing me a project where they were actively feeding a computer ‘All’ the jazz records that ever existed. So that AI could analyze and create music in any style of any musician. I didn’t think we would get here this fast with the voice.”

He added that while he thinks the technology is impressive, he cant but think what could happen if or even when this technology gets into the wrong hands, saying that we are in a “very groundbreaking and dangerous moment.”

 “Of course my mind goes to the ethical and legal aspects of what can be done with programs like Tacotron 2. You add that to the power of ChatGPT and you realize we are in a very groundbreaking but dangerous moment. It’s not the tech, it’s the evil that men do with the tech. There are legal aspects because at this present moment you can’t copyright a voice.”

He then envisioned a scenario where someone could use AI technology to make a song with their favorite rapper’s voice, or even worse. “The ability to create a Manchurian Candidate scares me. Think about that in every industry,” he continued. “There are still states that don’t even have a law against revenge porn. I’m sorry to go there but imagine the repercussion on our kids when 5 years from now some high school kid gets mad at his ex-girlfriend and creates a whole ‘deep fake’ that sounds and looks real. Imagine the political landscape where we can’t believe anything we hear because someone will claim they didn’t say it.”

Guru concluded by pushing for laws that prevent AI from being used in certain ways, but adding that we’re just getting started and have yet to see all that will come with AI.

“I don’t even want to continue giving examples for fear that someone will go out and do it. The law has to change to protect everyone not just Public Figures,” he wrote. “And the super scary part is that we are just getting started, we feed the beast constantly everyday with more and more content to be studied. Maybe the Luddites had a point. The book by Gavin Mueller Breaking Things At Work starts to take on a way more urgent role!!”

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Screen Shot 2023 02 28 at 1.26.43 AM

The post Young Guru Reacts To The Kendrick Lamar AI Voice Filter, ‘We Are In A Very Groundbreaking And Dangerous Moment…’ appeared first on The Source.

Reuben Vincent Shares Roc Nation Debut “Love Is War” Ft. Rapsody, Reason, Ant Clemons & More

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This is shaping up to be quite the New Music Friday, and Reuben Vincent is making his triumphant Jamla/Roc Nation debut. The lyricist has impressed in his Sway in the Morning freestyle and contributions to the 2022 BET Hip Hop Awards Cypher. Anticipations have been building, and today (January 27), Vincent has shared his new album, Love Is War.

The project features looks from Stacey Barthe, Domani, Rapsody, Ant Clemons, Top Dawg Entertainment’s Reason, and more. Vincent, 9th Wonder, Young Guru, and The Soul Council hold down production credits.

Read More: Reuben Vincent Stays “Trickin’” On New Song With Domani

“I worked on Love Is War for two years. Conceptually, Love Is War is an acknowledgment that as young Black men, I feel like we aren’t taught and given the tools of how to love properly,” said Vincent.

“We don’t know how to love our people, our women, our brothers; and most importantly ourselves,” he also shared. “When you don’t know how to love yourself, you can’t love others the right way. Love Is War addresses that. These last two years, I’ve learned a lot about myself, but I still have much to learn. My goal is to love myself properly, and that comes with exploration (internally and externally).”

ATLANTA, GA – SEPTEMBER 30: Young Guru and Reuben Vincent attends BET Hip Hop Awards 2022 on September 30, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Prince Williams/Filmmagic)
Read More: Murs & 9th Wonder Connect With Rapsody & Reuben Vincent On “High Noon”

Further, “That is why I titled the album Love Is War, because it is a constant battle to get to that center in your life. We all battle ourselves to get to a place where we can both love and be loved.”

Stream Love Is War by Reuben Vincent, and let us know what you think of his latest.

Tracklist

  1. Butterfly Doors
  2. Geechie Suede
  3. Just Like A Dream ft. Ant Clemons
  4. Mon’e
  5. 2ime Flies
  6. February 13th ft. Rapsody
  7. Bottle Service ft. Reason & Stacey Barthe
  8. Look What You Did ft. Sonny Miles
  9. Trickin ft. Domani
  10. Levi Jeans Interlude ft. Jordan Ariel
  11. Point Of View ft. Josef Lamercier