New Hip Hop News

Isaiah Thomas is one of those players who has shown time and time again that he is great at what he does, however, luck hasn’t always been on his side. Ever since joining the Cleveland Cavaliers a few years ago, things have gone downhill for Thomas as he has bounced around the league all while failing to keep a steady home. It’s been tough to watch, especially when you consider just how good of a player Thomas can be in the right situation.

Over the past few months, Thomas has been working incredibly hard to get into playing shape so that he can prove to teams that he still has the goods. He has also been playing in Jamal Crawford’s Pro-Am league, which has proven to be the perfect stomping ground for Thomas to show off his skill set.

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In fact, Thomas recently scored 81 points in a pro-am game, which is nothing short of remarkable. While he may have been playing against amateurs, scoring 81 points in any sort of game is no easy task, but he seemed to make it look like just another day at the office. Thomas wore some Kobe shoes during the game, so it was only fitting that he scored 81 points, which is Bryant’s career-high.

What makes this performance so special is the fact that just a few days earlier, Thomas had tweeted about how much he missed Kobe Bryant. To score 81 just a few days later is definitely going to have people doing a double-take.

As for his NBA aspirations, hopefully a team takes a waiver on him soon, because he definitely seems ready to come back.

It was a momentous occasion for hip-hop fans when, after six long years, rapper Bobby Shmurda was released from prison in February of this year. The New York-based artist was locked up as part of the massive GS9 bust in 2014 and many expected Bobby to drop new music imminently after being freed. Unfortunately for the fans, that wasn’t the case.

There have been rumblings that his label, Epic Records, has been holding back any new releases from the rapper in the last few months but, according to Bobby himself, he’s getting back into the swing of things… just not right away.

Taking to Instagram to briefly explain why he’s taken such a long time to release new music, Bobby said, “I’m Bizzy running round needed some time to breathe they had me locked up In the pins doing 23!”

He attached a trio of photos, stunting expensive cars and enjoying his time as a free man with his friends. His release was a long time coming and we’re all happy to see him back home. It will take a little longer for some new music though.

Thankfully, he does have some recent features to hold us over until the moment he inevitably comes through with his first big drop, including his verse on Eladio Carrion and J Balvin’s new remix of “TATA.”

Are you looking forward to hearing what Bobby Shmurda has been up to in the studio? 

LiAngelo Ball is the middle brother in the Ball family and over the past couple of years, he has struggled to find his footing in the NBA. Gelo has tried out for various different teams, and just last year, he had a short stint with the Detroit Pistons where he was eventually cut in preseason. Since that time, Gelo and LaVar have been hard at work to make sure the former gets a spot on an NBA team, preferably alongside one of his brothers.

An opportunity was announced just last week as it was revealed that LiAngelo would be joining the Charlotte Hornets Summer League team, where he would get significant playing time in order to show off his skill set. On Sunday, Ball got to make his debut with the Hornets, and he made the most of his new gig.

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As soon as Gelo came into the game, he went to work shooting threes from everywhere on the court. He eventually finished with five three-pointers on just eight attempts and ended the game with 16 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals. His highlights were nothing short of impressive and they had fans salivating over the possibility of Gelo and LaMelo playing on the same court together this upcoming season.

Of course, Gelo still has a lot to prove in Summer League, however, if he continues at this pace, he could very well find himself on the Hornets roster by the start of the season in October.

These days, 6ix9ine gets the most attention when he’s being remarkably disrespectful to other rappers, their families, and their loved ones. For the last year, music has not been his core focus as social media has taken up much of his attention span, responding to anything that has to do with Lil Durk, King Von, or other Chicago-based rappers that he has beef with. After a mural was painted for the late King Von in his beloved O Block neighborhood this weekend, Lil Durk visited the street art, which warranted a reply from none other than Tekashi.

After DJ Akademiks – one of 6ix9ine’s close friends in hip-hop media – posted about Durk visiting the mural, 6ix9ine made his way to the comments section to make more disturbing comments about King Von. 

“Lil Tim put that man on on a Damn Wall,” wrote the much-hated Brooklyn rapper, referencing the street name of Von’s suspected killer Timothy Leeks. “Smh… he’s been on several T-shirts .. hats… he’s just a Diamond chain now… he reall said ‘if I was to die my ni***** gon slide every day…..'”

Lil Durk has not responded to the comment.

Recently, 6ix9ine has been ranting about Jim Jones, who was also named in his infamous court case a few years ago as a member of the Nine Trey Gangster Bloods. He’s also been at odds with Blueface, among others. 

Lil Durk was trending last night for other reasons. The rapper threw out the first pitch at the Chicago Cubs baseball game over the weekend but fans weren’t impressed with his underwhelming arm. They’ve been roasting him online ever since. Check that story out here.

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Not even Jack Dorsey is safe from DONDA fever.

After the second listening event for the album and yet another false start for the fans at home, Kanye West’s long-awaited DONDA still hasn’t touched streaming platforms as of yet with a new slated release date of August 15th. While the delay is no surprise considering Ye’s track record, it doesn’t make the masses any less restless, including Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

Dorsey recently took to Twitter to voice his opinion, even bringing along a suggestion to speed up the process.

“And…this is unlikely and maybe against the creative process…but it would be incredible if @kanyewest put out #DONDA as it is now and continued to update it until he feels it’s ‘finished’ …so we can all witness the work evolve in real-time,” he penned.

While many were quick to applaud the idea for its “innovation,” history will show that even that strategy won’t speed up any release from Kanye West. Case in point: The Life Of Pablo. Fans will recall that Kanye did, in fact, tweak the album several times after it was released on streaming platforms, although it wasn’t as strategically publicized as Dorsey suggests.

Still, that process didn’t arrive until after a number of delayed release dates and frustration from those of us on the outside looking in.

Yet, it’s likely that Kanye West is more concerned with a perfected finished product rather than his previously employed method. The perfectionist in him has popped out so much so that he even hopped on a phone call in the middle of the last DONDA listening event to immediately bring a mixing error to Mike Dean’s attention.

Onward to August 15th–maybe.

50 Cent as a hype man is a sight we’d like to see more often.

In a new clip, the OG could be seen supporting Bia onstage while the duo hosted a night at Miami’s E11EVEN as the ew England upstart ran through a performance of her “Whole Lotta Money” cut.

Initially, some assumed that it was a Lil Mama-esque situation with Fif hopping onstage unsolicited, but closer inspection simply shows the G-Unit boss was showing much-welcomed love

Naturally, the energy of the crowd in attendance was full-blown as Bia performed the track, which recently received a substantial boost from a Nicki Minaj-assisted remix of the selection.

Previously locking in success on social media, the song cracked the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 16 with the surprise remix.

“I have so much respect when bigger artists jump on smaller artists [sic] records bc so many people forget we all had to start somewhere,” Bia penned in a string of tweets following the release, indirectly saluting Minaj while adding commentary on more established artists who don’t tend to show love.

She added: “That’s the difference between who does it for the culture, and who does it for clout […] I’ve got taken off songs because I wasn’t ‘big’ enough even tho my verse was always LIKE THAT.”