Meek Mill’s Expensive Pain concert at NYC’s Madison Square Garden was short on talk and all action as Lil Baby, A$AP Ferg, Lil Uzi Vert, Fabolous joined the Philly rapper on stage and were seen backstage sipping on D’USSE while fans packed the capacity venue. Expensive Pain Highlights Meek kicked off the electrifying set with […]
With practically all of the major players of the rap game dropping music this year, we’ve yet to receive a body of work from Future. He’s blessed plenty of other projects, including Drake’s Certified Lover Boyand Young Thug’s PUNK, while his contributions to the former finally earned him his first #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.
We haven’t received an update on whether or not he’ll be dropping this year but Future’s clearly been keeping busy in other departments. Samsung tapped the Atlanta rap star for their new holiday campaign, The Best Gift w(R)ap, alongside Paloma Mami. Fewtch appears in two commercials; one for the Galaxy Z Flip3, and the other for Galaxy Buds2. Miles Cable & AJ Favicchio of SixTwentySix Productions direct the two ads which also includes original music from Future dropping a few bars about the two products.
Aside from recently linking up with Samsung, the rapper also extended his talents for the soundtrack of PS5’s Deathloop.
Earlier this year, Future hinted at the release of HNDRXX 2 during an exchange with Cash from XO who said that the sequel to the 2017 opus would be better for a 2022 release. Chances are, we’ll end up getting a tour from Future, as well.
Check out Future in Samsung’s new holiday campaign below and sound off with your thoughts in the comments.
The rich just got richer.
After major car-rental company Hertz announced their plans to purchase 100,000 electric vehicles from Tesla, the company became the sixth company ever in the United States to break the $1 trillion valuation mark.
Tesla shares grew 12% on Friday following the Hertz news, and the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, became the richest person in recorded history.
Musk, who is currently valued at $255.2 billion, is already the richest person in the world, besting the next richest person, Jeff Bezos, by more than $50 billion. However, following Tesla’s explosion into the $1 trillion stratosphere, Musk is expected to jump to $288.6 billion, according to Bloomberg‘s Billionaire Index, and $289 billion, according to Forbes.
This milestone comes 12 years after Tesla’s initial public offering, making it the second-fastest company to reach a $1 trillion valuation. Facebook was faster, but after weeks of shutdowns and turmoil, the Mark Zuckerberg-led social media platform currently sits at $927 billion.
Helping launch Tesla nearly 20 years ago, Musk currently holds a 21% stake in the company. That 21% stake is majorly responsible for Musk’s incredible net worth, and with Hertz buying up 100,000 Teslas to rent to its customers, this is surely just the tip of the iceberg. There is an increasing push for electric vehicles and, with the threat of climate change on the horizon, there is no good reason to expect the conversion to electric driving to slow any time soon. Tesla has been at the forefront of that conversion for two decades now, and it’s looking more and more like they will lead the charge into the next phase of American automobiles.
What do you think of Elon Musk becoming the richest person in recorded history? Let us know in the comments.
Queens premiered last week with Brandy, Eve, Naturi Naughton, and Nadine Velazquez giving us all the feels. Before hitting the couch to tune into Episode 2 of the sexy hip-hop musical drama, here’s a recap of Episode 1. The series opens with a musical throwback to 1999 of the all-female hip-hop group, The Nasty Girls, […]
For every label in hip-hop, there are ebbs and flows of relevancy. Despite having all of the necessary financial backing and talent scouting capacities, there are times when even the most megalithic record companies struggle to tune into the culture’s frequency. In some cases, they will slip into a rebuilding period. Like a prestigious NBA franchise, they will take time to replenish their roster and await the next superstar or blockbuster release that’s coming down the pipeline. For Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment, their history has been a constant process of waiting for that next creatively satisfying– and lucrative– boom period.
After leaving the ranks of Ruthless and Death Row when either environment became stifling, March 22nd, 1996, saw Dre announce that he would be launching his own Interscope-backed imprint where he’d “produce records exclusively for the new label.”
By the end of the year, Aftermath had laid out their manifesto with a compilation record which Dre has since largely discredited. While the record was passable, it didn’t have the spark that was needed for the upstart company to fully propel itself to the front of culture.
“That point of my life, musically, it was just off-balance. I was off track then and trying to find it,” he remarked to Maloud Achour. “It was a period of doubt… It happens with artists. Everything isn’t going to be out of the park… But I was trying to find it and fortunately, Eminem came along.”
Artists such as Em have ignited Dre’s notoriously interchangeable creative drive. And if West Coast production vet DJ Battlecat’s speculation is to be believed, the label is gearing up for a new era of prominence in which they’ll reclaim their place at the top.
“The Aftermath Takeover has started,” his Instagram post proclaimed, citing a prospective slot in December for long-awaited output from Dre himself. On top of that, the graphic pointed to new music from Xzibit, Californian supergroup Mt. Westmore and Aftermath’s modern-day leading light Kendrick Lamar as key components in Dre’s plan.
This would be a near-unprecedented busy year for Dre and his team at Aftermath if the rumors are true. Typically, the label averages a maximum of two releases a year. As such, it’s hard for them to ever really have a vice-like grip on the world of hip-hop. But as we stand on the precipice of a productive new era for Dre, it’s time to look back on the year in which Aftermath’s seal of excellence was almost inescapable.
With the industry in flux, 2005 was the year in which Aftermath would suddenly find itself commanding all of our attention. Aftermath artists would have four out of the five highest-selling first week numbers in hip-hop that year.
To chart Aftermath’s most productive 12 months, we need to begin in January with the release of The Game’s debut album, The Documentary. Certified as a classic today, the record propelled the Compton rapper to the status of West Coast torchbearer in one fell swoop.
Originally titled N***a Wit A Attitude Vol 1 before an injunction from Tameka Wright, Eazy E’s widow, the album earmarked The Game as one of the most riveting storytellers. Complete with a husky delivery and patented “name-dropping” style, it would seem as though the path to greatness was always paved for Jayceon Taylor. But as he’s since revealed, he was very narrowly dropped from the release schedule entirely until an unlikely supporter pleaded his case to Dr. Dre.
“Jay-Z was the determining factor in Dre really coming back in and locking in on The Documentary,” he told HipHopDX in 2019. “He probably thought in his mind, I’m assuming, I really got to listen, maybe he’s hearing something different… When that came on, Jay was like “that shit is a smash. He came back and locked in and I never knew what happened until one of the mutual homies in A&R told me that Jay Z said this needs to come out.”
Composed of 17 tracks that varied from reflective essays to readymade party anthems, The Game and his all-star cast of guests delivered a project that’d land G-Unit’s first West Coast recruit at the top of the Billboard charts on his first attempt.
On the subject of the famed, era-defining crew, its leader and fellow Aftermath artist, 50 Cent, played a crucial role in the album’s creation.
Unsurprisingly, he hasn’t held back when discussing his part in making the record what it was.
“I ended up flying to Los Angeles because [Interscope boss] Jimmy [Iovine] wanted to meet with me,” Fif told XXL. “They wanted to see if I would work with this other artist that Dre was working with, which was Game. And they said, “The kid can rap, but he’s not a great songwriter. When Jimmy called for me to do it I was like, “Alright, cool, I’ll fix it,” and I gave it [to Game]… I only worked with him for about, I think, four days. ‘Cause I had this album already planned so I was like, “Yo, just do this.” One by one he went through, ’cause he can rap; he wrote the verses and stuff. And when I got back the only one that wasn’t done was “How We Do.” ‘Cause Dre produced that one.”
With sales of 586,000 in its first week, The Documentary was the first step in signifying the arrival of a new force in hip-hop. And by the time that the first quarter was out, events that took place away from the mic would ensure that he was going to have a captive audience for a long, long time.
Two months after The Game’s debut dropped, Aftermath would hurtle back up to the top of the charts with 50 Cent’s sophomore project, The Massacre, Instantly rendered a superstar after his 2003 debut album Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ surpassed critical and commercial expectations, it’s no exaggeration to say that 50 had the Midas touch at this point.
Split between vindictive jibes at his rivals, rueful gangsta rap tales, and several tracks for the ladies, 50 admitted to feeling the pressure to follow up his landmark debut but contended that he’d actually made a more complete picture of himself as an artist.
“Overall I think the record is… I think it just has more details honestly,” he informed Rap Basement ahead of its release. “Like I just took my time to make the record exactly like I wanted to.”
As well as scoring a chart-topping single with “Candy Shop” and becoming Billboard’s number one album of the year, The Massacre promptly elevated 50 to the rank of icon after it became one of only 21 records in history to sell over a million in five days.
“They act like I only had one album. I got 2,” 50 wrote recently. “When I focus, I get it all the way right.”
Between The Documentary and The Massacre, Dre’s camp had two of the records that didn’t only help to define the sound of 2005, but an entire era in hip-hop. Yet where this partnership would have paid dividends for years, 50 and The Game’s personal relationship crumbled and kept Aftermath in the headlines for different reasons.
“He came back recently from overseas and he was disrespectful, I think he’s feeling himself,” 50 said during an interview at Power 105. “It’s incredible that he’d come back and forget how much I’ve done for him, personally. He’s not in my camp. No way…. Every record he’s selling is based on me being on his record with him.”
Although The Game had initially batted off claims that he would be leaving G-Unit and that it didn’t matter if they were friends so long as the music kept coming, this wouldn’t do for 50.
Quickly, battle lines were drawn and allegiances cemented, as 50 publicly kicked Game out of G-Unit during an appearance on Funk Flex. Soon, things would progress from interviews to a violent altercation outside Hot 97.
“Me and 50 stared at each other in the eyes with guns drawn. Guns drawn. Two ni**as that was friends and homies and came up in hip-hop together. I don’t even know who fired the first shot; I just know we were shooting at each other,” Game reflected during a trip to the People’s Party. “It wasn’t about nobody else that was there, even though I had 30 ni**as with me, and 50 had 30 ni**as with him, it’s almost a blessing that only one person got hit, and in the leg, for that matter.”
With neither man willing to back down, the beef between a duo as outspoken as 50 and Game meant that the audience was captivated by each diss track, soundbite, and declaration of war that followed. From there, it became the anchor of the news agenda, resulting in countless magazine covers and alleged scoops from ‘insiders’ within G-Unit, Black Wall Street, and Aftermath itself.
This meant that for the remainder of the year, Aftermath’s two warring stars were everywhere, and in 50’s mind, this highly publicized conflict played a pivotal role in The Massacre’s historic sales.
“You gotta shoot a n***a,” he reflected to XXL. “You gotta shoot a n***a at the radio station on the week of release. [Laughs] Or you gotta die like 2pac to do some shit like that.”
By the end of 2005, tracks from across the two rivals’ albums yielded 5 entries on Billboard’s top 25 songs of the year. Not to mention that in the midst of all of this, November saw 50 release a major, semi-autobiographical motion picture and an accompanying soundtrack that grossed over $46 million worldwide.
As if that wasn’t enough to make this a historic and financially unparalleled year for Aftermath, it was rounded off by a release that brought its flagship talent’s first chapter to a close.
In the throes of personal turmoil and addiction issues, Eminem announced his Curtain Call to the world in October of 2005. Billed as a greatest hits collection that’d feature two new songs in the form of “When I’m Gone” and the infamous “FACK,” the record was unambiguous in its purpose.
“I have some songs that a lot of people like,” Em declared. “I have some songs that only I like. This album is obviously for the ‘lot’ of people.” Titled due to the fact that Em believed that “this could be the final thing,” the record would be the last word from Shady until 2009’s Relapse and in time, would come to represent far more than a compilation.
As of March of 2021,Curtain Call had spent its 520th week on the Billboard 200, making it the longest-charting rap album by a massive margin, another historic feather in Aftermath’s cap, and above all, the final token of their sheer, unrivaled dominance throughout the year of 2005.
A year defined by both beginnings and endings, 2005 has yet to be equaled in Aftermath’s history and by the following year, they were back to releasing just one project per calendar year with Busta Rhymes’ The Big Bang. But with Dre making his presence felt in a way that his perfectionism would usually make difficult, Kendrick returning from the shadows to a massive amount of intrigue and even a star-studded Superbowl performance on the cards, it seems that if they’re ever going to rival that 12 month spell of prevalence, then the time is now.
BIA is having the hottest year of her career, coming through with her viral hit “WHOLE LOTTA MONEY” and a subsequent remix from Nicki Minaj. Last week, she dropped the deluxe edition of her project FOR CERTAIN, and on Tuesday, she released the music video for “CAN’T TOUCH THIS.”
It seems that all of the main women in rap are on a sampling spree right now, from City Girls to Saweetie to Latto to BIA. Coming through with the video for her new single “CAN’T TOUCH THIS,” which samples Kelis’ 2003 monster hit “Milkshake,” BIA continues to rise up the ranks of the rap game.
The song was produced by London Jae, DJ Pharoah, and IROCC, and the video was directed by BenMarc.
BIA is presently opening up for Don Toliver on his Life Of A DON tour, and she’s also set to perform at Rolling Loud this weekend in New York. Check out her new music video below.
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Quotable Lyrics:
No stylist, I don’t do repeats
I got money, bitch, I’m knee-deep
All hunnids, drippin’ in CC
Might pop that pussy like FreakNik
No mileage, boy, you can’t touch this
No bodies, boy, you ain’t fuck shit
I’m on islands, whippin’ them Porsches
Run shit, and your n***a endorse it
The Ben Simmons-Philadelphia 76ers saga has raged on for the better part of four months now, but after what seemed like an irresolvable stalemate between both sides, progress is being made.
After Simmons held out for the entirety of the team’s training camp, and all four preseason games, the team fined the 25-year-old for missed time. He eventually reported to Philadelphia, but after just one practice (which he completed with his phone in his pocket), Simmons was suspended by the team and amidst rumors of back stiffness and mental health concerns, it was clear that he was not ready to play.
Fellow Sixers star Joel Embiid initially ripped Simmons for his behavior, but after his teammate was loudly booed by Philadelphia fans, he quickly changed his tune. Urging fans to “continue to support us and our teammate Ben, cause he’s still our brother,” Embiid’s sentiments were echoed by small forward Tobias Harris.
Harris, who had been vocal on Twitter about the situation, blamed a lack of compassion for much of the vitriol directed at Simmons.
“I think we have to really understand that he’s a human first and if he’s going through something at that time, we have to respect that and be there for him as a team, an organization, fans, all the way down the line because when he’s in here putting on a show and helping the Sixers get wins, everybody’s cheering and praising, but we live in a ‘what have you done for me lately’ type of world and when that’s not the case, it’s easy to turn around … I think at this time, he needs more support than neglect,” Harris told Sixers Wire.
It appears Sixers president Daryl Morey agrees with Embiid and Harris.
In a recent VladTV report, it was noted that Morey is willing to do whatever it takes to get Simmons back on the court.
“Ben came in at the end of last week and said he had back stiffness and he’s dealing with some personal reasons off the court. Both we take very seriously, we’re working with Ben to provide every resource to help him with what is needed,” Morey said. “He spoke to his teammates, things seem to be moving very much in a positive direction. We’re going to provide all the resources, give Ben what he needs, and get him out there as soon as we can.”
Simmons, who addressed his teammates late last week, remains unavailable and there is no clear timetable for his return. There is, however, a newfound sense of support for the three-time All-Star and it will be interesting to see how it all unfolds.
What do you think of the Sixers offering their full support to Simmons? Let us know in the comments.
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Now that Megan Thee Stallion‘s got four Grammys to her name, her next accomplishment is set to be a college degree. The rapper has been taking classes at Southern Texas University and this semester, she’s slated to graduate with a degree in health administration. To celebrate her impending degree, Megan added some bling her graduation cap, but it wouldn’t be complete without her signature catchphrase.
The rapper shared photos of her sparkling hat on Instagram, showing that it reads “Real hot girl sh*t” in block letters. “2021 finna graduate collegeeee taking my graduation pics today,” she wrote in the post’s caption. “I can’t wait for y’all to see.” Of course, no look of Megan’s would be complete without a matching set of acrylic nails, which feature TSU’s letters and even a metal tassel.
Previously speaking about her degree in an interview with People last June, Megan said she is inspired to finish her degree not only for herself, but also for her late mother and grandmother. “I want to get my degree because I really want my mom to be proud,” she said. “She saw me going to school before she passed.” Megan added, “I want my big mama to be proud. She saw me going to school before she passed. My grandmother that’s still alive used to be a teacher, so she’s on my butt about finishing school. I’m doing it for me, but I’m also doing it for the women in my family who made me who I am today.”
Check out photos of Megan’s handiwork above.
Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
The post Megan Thee Stallion Gears Up For College Graduation By Bedazzling Her Cap With Her Signature Catchphrase appeared first on UPROXX.
Complex reports that Yeezy, the apparel brand founded by Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, is being sued in California for “failing to ship items within thirty days and failing to provide adequate delay notices” to customers. Recently elected L.A. County District Attorney George Gascón filed the suit last Friday, October 22 on behalf of the State of California, pointing out how Yeezy violated California state business codes.
Essentially, in California, any product purchased online must be shipped within 30 days. If there will be any delays, the merchant must either notify its customers, provide a refund, or inform consumers of any other possible solutions. Yeezy allegedly “made untrue or misleading statement regarding its ability to ship products within a certain timeframe, particularly where customers paid an additional charge for expedited shipping.”
Other counties included in the suit are Alameda, Napa, and Sonoma. The suit wants the company fined $2,500 per violation. The Yeezy brand has proven to be popular and lucrative for the artist, with Yeezy’s Gap deal approaching a $3-4 billion estimated value and items like the puffer jacket the producer wore at his Donda listening events and his Adidas sneakers sending fans clamoring and often selling out within hours of release.
The post Ye’s Yeezy Brand Is Being Sued Over Shipping Delays appeared first on UPROXX.
There is no more country music on the radio in New York now that The Block is here. 94.7 — better known as “New York’s Country 94.7” — has changed formats to classic hip-hop music. New York’s Newest Hip-Hop Station The new 94.7 station, The Block, has taken the place of New York’s last country […]
