New Hip Hop News

The Brooklyn Nets have had a turbulent past week. It all began when F Paul Millsap entered health and safety protocols for COVID-19 on Monday (Dec. 13). The following days would see F Lamarcus Aldridge, F James Johnson, G DeAndre’ Bembry, G Jevon Carter, G/F Bruce Brown and All star PG James Harden also enter protocol in a team-wide outbreak.

Able to momentarily stave off any infection, Kevin Durant put on exceptional performances in back-to-back games to secure victories against the Raptors and 76ers with a depleted roster full of rookies and bench players. But, KD couldn’t dodge COVID for long, it appears.

On Saturday (Dec. 18), Kevin Durant entered health & safety protocols, after a COVID test came back either positive or inclusive. He would need to test negative two days in a row to return to the team.

But, that was not all the bad news for the Nets today. After re-instating Kyrie Irving to the roster yesterday, COVID continued to take its toll. Irving had missed the first 29 games of the season for his refusal to get vaccinated. The city of New York will not allow him to compete in home games without the vaccine, and the Nets organization sent him home instead of letting him play solely away games.

However, the team had a change of heart. Brooklyn announced yesterday that they will bring Kyrie back as a part-time player to suit up in away games, likely because injury and COVID have decimated their roster. But, less than 24 hours since this announcement, Irving was the 9th Nets player to enter health and safety protocol.

Since Irving is unvaccinated, he must test negative five days in a row to return to play, as opposed to two days for vaccinated players. 

Although things look grim for the Nets at the moment, they will still be a scary team to welcome into any arena when Harden,Durant and Irving return from quarantine. The Nets currently hold the 1-seed in the Eastern conference.

Former New York Giant linebacker Lawrence Taylor is widely considered as one of the best defensive players in NFL history. However, while being undoubtably an NFL legend, his run-ins with the law have tainted his legacy at times.

In 2011, Taylor was declared a registered sex offender after partaking in a romantic relationship with a 16-year-old, even though he claims he thought she was 19. Now, ten years later, that case is still causing trouble for him.

Tom Berg/NFLPhotoLibrary/Getty Images

While in Broward County, FL this week, Taylor was arrested for failing to register himself as a sex offender there, getting hit with two felony charges, according to TMZ. The 62-year-old was taken in on Thursday to jail to be held and had a mugshot taken.

In the aftermath of the arrest, LT’s lawyer Arthur Aidala explained the reasoning behind the arrest, and says he and Taylor expect him to be dismissed of the charges swiftly: “Lawrence Taylor has been compliant with all of the rules and regulations regarding his legal status for the past decade. Sadly he is in the middle of a divorce and his local police department suggested it would be best if he slept at a nearby hotel. Mr. Taylor was constantly a resident of the marital home where he was registered, but on advice of local law enforcement he was sleeping outside the home. We are confident that this will be dismissed at the first court hearing.”

It’s tough to see such an admired athlete fall from grace like this and continue to have it linger over his legacy. 

[Via]

Kanye West popped on Drink Champs last month where he gave one of his most compelling interviews in recent times. He touched on his issues with Drake, Jay-Z, and plenty of others but no one expected Ye to throw shots at Big Sean. Kanye went as far as saying that signing Sean was the worst decision of his life.

Finally, Sean joined the folks at Drink Champs to offer his side of the story. As you recall, Sean previously stated that he signed to G.O.O.D Music for a $15,000 advance. During the interview on Drink Champs, he revealed that his management described the deal as one of the worst they’ve ever seen.

On top of the unfair deal with G.O.O.D Music, Sean explained that he was missing millions of dollars. In one clip that’s surfaced online, Sean discussed spending money out of his own pockets to audit his label, Universal Music.

“I’m the only artist who has put out five albums under G.O.O.D Music. I’m the only one who put out back-to-back-to-back #1s, platinum albums, double platinum albums… By the way, being signed to Kanye is a golden opportunity,” he said, explaining that he’s always expressed his gratitude and shown his loyalty for Ye over the years, even if it’s unacknowledged. Sean also added that he was among the first to support Kanye’s presidential aspirations in 2015.

“When I heard what he was talking about, it didn’t make sense, bro, because you know, my manager saw my record deal and said, ‘this is a shitty record deal,'” Sean said, adding that he was speaking about Jay Brown from Roc Nation. “I had to spend my own money auditing my label because millions of dollars are missing and you could tell when millions of dollars are missing. I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars  on my label, thinking Universal owe me this money and the money had been paid to G.O.O.D. Music.”

Check out the full episode of Drink Champs below.

Iconic U.T.F.O. artist, best known for hits like “Roxanne, Roxanne” and “Fairytale Lover,” Kangol Kid, has died at just 55 years old, Rolling Stone reports. The Brooklyn native shared his diagnosis with colon cancer back in February of this year, and kept fans updated on the ups and downs of his battle over the course of the last few months.

In a recent Instagram post, Kangol sent out a sincere apology for failing to answer calls and messages, making it sound as though he’d found himself increasingly consumed with fighting off the disease. “Things have become, and are becoming a little more difficult than imagined. I’ve been admitted again for complications related to my condition. Thank you to those who have been instrumental in my latest ordeal. Your actions have been well received and greatly appreciated. I am blessed to have you by my side through this. I love you all,” he wrote.

Bennett Raglin/Getty Images

The tragic news was confirmed by Hip-Hop DX on Saturday, after hearing word from New York City promoter Van Silk, who’s reportedly undergoing treatment for the same type of cancer that Kangol was fighting. “I’m hearing Kangol passed,” he wrote via text message earlier today, then sharing that his suspicious were correct less than half an hour later.

“Early on, we discussed our fight with this disease because my fight with colon cancer is stage 2. He told me it had spread in October. I encourage all to get your prostate and colon checked. May my brother Kangol Rest In Heaven,” Silk reflected.

More and more tributes to the late star have been pouring in as the news spreads. “You made history with U.T.F.O. and ‘Roxanne, Roxanne’ is such a monumental song. Rest Well King!!!” Big Daddy Kane wrote on Instagram.

Check out more fond memories of the late, great Kangol Kid below. RIP.

[Via] [Via]

Anthony Davis has a well-documented history of being injury prone. And, during a season where the Lakers roster seems to be a revolving door of injured players and guys who have entered COVID protocols, AD’s injury scares have not helped the team work through struggles.

While AD has only missed three of LA’s 30 games so far this season, he has had a few occasions where has appeared to be injured during games. Most recently, he hit the floor twice in last night’s game (Dec. 17) against the Minnesota Timberwolves. In the first quarter, David tweaked his ankle and was slow to get up.

While he would return, things only got worse from there. After LeBron faked a cut to the rim in the third quarter, his defender flew into Anthony Davis’ knee, sending him to the ground in pain immediately.

After AD got up and tried limping to the locker room, he collapsed before he could even get there, causing concern that the injury could be bad.

Last week, AD missed two games from left knee soreness, so this re-aggravation was startling for LA. However, Lakers head coach Frank Vogel seemed optimistic about Davis getting MRIs taken today (Dec. 18): “So far all is in good structure, but want to take another image. Hopefully it’s something minor and he’ll be back soon. But we’ll find out tomorrow.”

LeBron James was asked about the injury, and said he is concerned, but that AD was not rushing to any conclusion: “I asked him how he’s doing. He said, ‘Find out more tomorrow.’ My concern is always for his health. You always wish for the best for any of your teammates but especially a guy like AD. So you wish for the best and leave it up to the man above’s hands.”

Aside from the injury, the Lakers struggles continued as they were pummeled by Minnesota last night 110-92, bumping their overall record to 16-14. Hopefully AD is not out for an extended period of time, for the Lakers’ sake.