New Hip Hop News

There hasn’t been much popping off this holiday season on the music and entertainment news cycle, so it makes sense that a two-year-old photo of Ja Rule and his son, Jeffrey Atkins Jr., is going viral on social media. The photo, taken from Jeffrey’s high school graduation in 2019, shows the young man standing next to his mother and father and fans are circulating the image, noting how much Jeffrey looks like his dad.

Headlines have been written from major hip-hop media outlets about the 21-year-old looking more like Ja Rule than Ja Rule does, and you’ll understand why when you check it out. Aside from his individualistic hairstyle, Jeffrey’s face matches Ja’s perfectly. It looks like Ja traveled back in time and cloned himself.

Brent N. Clarke/Getty Images — Ja Rule & his son Jeffrey Atkins Jr. in 2016

The rapper addressed the picture going viral on social media, retweeting a story from iHeartRadio and adding a heart emoji. Thousands have since shared the image from a couple of years ago, despite Jeffrey possibly sporting a different look these days. 

Ja Rule isn’t the only celebrity to have a child that looks almost identical to them. Fans of the late XXXTentacion have compared his baby Gekyume’s face to his, and Lil Wayne’s son Kameron has gone viral on numerous occasions, simply for looking like his famous dad. 

Do you think Ja Rule’s son looks more like Ja Rule than Ja Rule does?

Ever since streaming became widely accepted by fans and music professionals alike, there has been a constant discussion as to how much a stream is worth. Back when album-equivalent units were introduced, Billboard and Neilson infamously decided that 150 streams count as a song sale and 1,500 qualify as an album sale, but that doesn’t mean that the money paid out to artists follows those same guidelines.

To help fans understand how much artists are paid when their music is streamed, T-Pain came through on Tuesday night with an infographic that laid out the number of streams necessary for an artist to get paid one dollar on each streaming platform.

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According to T-Pain’s chart, extremely popular streaming platforms like YouTube Music, Pandora, and Spotify require 1,250, 752, and 315 streams respectively for an artist to be paid out just $1, while DSPs like Tidal, Apple Music, and Napster will reportedly pay artists a dollar for less than 130 streams.

“I see a lot of ‘well I guess I’ll use the best one’ and not ‘we gotta make our own,'” T-Pain commented after fans started responding to his tweet. “keep in mind, most artists don’t even get the whole $1. I’m just letting the up and coming know what the real is. I worked for mine and there are tons of ways around this if you move right”

In addition to being shocked by the payout rates of each streaming service, many fans were simply amazed that Napster is even still around in 2021, so check out some of the shocked reactions to T-Pain’s tweet below.

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Bronx-based rapper Kay Flock was being touted as the next big star to come out of New York’s booming drill scene, exciting fans with his unique vocal stylings and records that shook up this year’s hip-hop landscape, including “Being Honest” and “Is Ya Ready.” Most notably, Kay Flock appears as a feature on Lil Tjay’s record “Not In The Mood.” As the year comes to a close though, Kay Flock has found himself in quite the predicament, getting arrested on murder charges for allegedly shooting and killing a man outside of a barbershop earlier this month in Manhattan. There is some confusion over the case, especially regarding DJ Akademiks’ coverage of it, and now Flock’s future is in question.

As the teenage rapper’s freedom stands in the fold, he recently connected with one of his friends to share a quick freestyle from jail, showing off his aggressive flows as the world continues to wonder about his future. 

Kay Flock was set to have another big year in 2022, but now it’s unclear if he will even be able to continue with his music career. 

Similarly, Memphis rapper Pooh Shiesty, who is also currently incarcerated, shared a five-minute freestyle from prison this week, speaking about the details of his case and everything he’s missed in the six months since getting locked up. He revealed that his grandfather recently passed away and that he asked Gucci Mane to help him squash his beef with Kodak Black. Listen here.

Check out Kay Flock’s freestyle below.

Louisville-based rapper Jack Harlow is looking for help identifying a police officer who grabbed one of his female fans by the neck as she was trying to make her way into his concert. The 23-year-old recording artist shared a viral video of his fan being confronted by two officers before one of them grabbed her by the neck, calling the incident “sickening.”

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“This video came to my attention a few hours ago,” said the superstar rapper. “When I watched it I was disgusted by that cop and all I wanted to do was make something good happen for this girl immediately…I told the world to help me identify her so I could find a way to give her a hug and give her as many tickets to as many shows as she wants. But that’s not enough and its not a solution to a systemic issue that people who don’t look like me have to face. The next step is identifying this police officer and getting him unemployed as fast as we can. Assaulting a young woman and putting his hands on her neck is sickening. I look out in the crowd every night and see black women in my front row…screaming my lyrics, traveling to see me, supporting me, riding for me. I want this woman, and every black woman that supports me to know – I am so sorry. I want you to be protected and I want this guy to lose his job so fucking fast. I love you. Let’s find this officer.”

A very commendable move by Jack. Recently, the artist has been more open about his role as a white man in hip-hop, saying in an interview that he doesn’t want to do a “white version of the art form.” He claims that he raps from the heart and has “serious imposter syndrome” at times and tries not to be a “novelty” in rap.

Read through Jack’s post below and watch the video.

Atlanta rapper Quavo and other members of his entourage are being sued for allegedly brutally assaulting a limousine driver in Las Vegas. According to the driver’s lawsuit, five passengers in the vehicle, all part of Quavo’s crew, started repeatedly kicking and punching him after he forgot to pick up one of their friends.

According to a report from TMZ, the driver was hired to transport the Migos and their group from a nightclub to the Virgin Hotel on July 3, but things got ugly when he allegedly forgot to pick up one of their friends. After attempting to reason with the rapper and his buddies, somebody told him to “shut the f*ck up” and threw a bottle in his direction. After that, things escalated and he was getting the beats by over five people, claiming that they incessantly kicked and punched him. The driver says that hotel staff witnessed the assault but instead of helping, they stayed inside and took cover. 

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He says he was left with lingering injuries from the assault, suffering mental and physical pain, and even disfigurement. He’s suing Quavo, Migos Touring, and the hotel for an unknown amount.

We will keep you updated as more information is known.

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It’s a track that has haunted Melyssa Ford for nearly 16 years and she is once again speaking out about it. Back in 2006, The Game released his classic single “Wouldn’t Get Far” where he namedrops a few women in the industry, ranging from rappers like Lil Kim to then-video vixens like Melyssa Ford. While many of the women received lyrical praise from Game about their looks or style, Ford wasn’t as thrilled about the bars that included her name.

“And all these new video bitches tryin to be Melyssa Ford / But they don’t know Melyssa Ford drive a Honda Accord / She a video vixen, but behind closed doors / She do whatever it take to get to the Grammy Awards,” Game rapped.

During her recent visit to Drink Champs, Ford revisited the lyrics. “So he writes—I think that this was his love letter to me,” she said. “I think his love letter to me was, ‘Wouldn’t get far and Melyssa Ford—every girl wants to be Melyssa Ford, video girl, blah, blah, blah’.” Noreaga interrupted her to ask if she ever really had a Honda Accord. “I never—at the time, I was driving a f*ckin’ Mercedes F550… It was supposed to be a diss.”

When questioned if she truly believed Game was targeting her, Ford doubled down. “Everyone thought it was a diss,” she said before spouting off the lyrics once again and adding that she was invited to the Grammys that year. However, she initially didn’t want to name her potential suitors but quickly revealed she got two invites from Ludacris and Chingy.

Watch the clip of Melyssa Ford’s interview with Drink Champs below.