New Hip Hop News

Whenever Nicki Minaj goes live on Instagram, the Queen rapper never fails to entertain, and Thursday night was no different. In a matter of hours, she publicly co-signed rising artist BIA and announced their new single “Whole Lotta Money (Remix),” stopped Drake from shooting his shot at BIA, and discussed why she doesn’t typically like to work with other female rappers.

Another interesting moment from Nicki’s recent IG Live session was when her mentor Lil Wayne hopped on for a bit to clear the air about rumors that he had gotten married as well as answer some of Nicki’s music-related questions. At one point, the Beam Me Up Scotty artist informs Wayne that Complex recently ranked his guest feature on “Seeing Green” as the fifth-best verse of the year, and fans were able to see his reaction to the news in real-time.

“So your verse one ‘Seeing Green’ won the fifth-best verse of the year so far,” Nicki tells Lil Wayne during the IG Live, and the legendary rapper immediately scoffs at the ranking.

“That sucks,” Weezy says, matter-of-factly. Nicki laughs at his response and questions if he feels that way because he’s not ranked at #1. “A fifth, what the hell?”

Nicki Minaj continues to egg him on by reminding him that his verse was judged against every single rap release of 2021, to which Lil Wayne says, “I’m colder than every f*cking rap verse that was released this year.”

In order from top to bottom, the rest of Complex’s top five verses of 2021 include Drake’s verse on “Lemon Pepper Freestyle,” J. Cole’s first verse on “Let Go My Hand,” Lil Baby’s feature on Drake’s “Wants and Needs,” and Tyler, the Creator’s fourth verse on “WILSHIRE.” Considering that one of his artists has two songs ranked in the top five slots, Lil Wayne is definitely still winning at the end of the day, but it’s inspiring to see the Funeral rapper remain so passionate about his output this deep into his career. 

If you haven’t listened to it in a while, you can revisit Young Money’s three-way lyrical onslaught on “Seeing Green” below. Do you agree with Lil Wayne? Is his feature on “Seeing Green” the pinnacle of rap verses in 2021?

Pop Smoke’s sudden death is one of hip-hop’s many tragedies, the impact of which can still be felt to this day. It’s no surprise that many were quick to turn to his first posthumous album Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon, executive-produced by 50 Cent and featuring guest appearances from Quavo, Roddy Ricch, Lil Baby, DaBaby, and more.

Though it was originally released in July of 2020, Pop’s project has been a mainstay on the Billboard charts, shattering records with an impressive run of nineteen weeks atop the hip-hop and r&b chart. At the time of this writing, Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon currently sits in the fifteenth position of the Top 200, impressive considering it’s been over a year since its initial release.

Joseph Okpako/WireImage/Getty Images

The longevity continues to net impressive statistics for the late rapper, who is currently holding the best-selling album of 2021’s first half, as reported by Our Generation Music. One has to wonder if his upcoming posthumous release, which is all set to be released on July 16th, will see similar success as its predecessor. If the longstanding support of Shoot For The Stars is any indication, it’s clear that the game still has love for Pop Smoke, which will likely translate to success on the Billboard charts.

Look for his next album to arrive next week, and sound off in the comments if you’re excited for another album from the breakout superstar.

Communities around the nation, and especially the majority POC communities, have exhibited a certain hesitancy and mistrust of the multiple iterations of the COVID-19 vaccine available right now. As President Biden urges community members to go door to door and inquire about their vaccination status, New Orleans rap legend Juvie has taken a more lighthearted approach in his partnership with the exclusively black dating app BLK.

Together, the collaboration released “Vax That Thang Up”, a hilarious remix to Juvenile’s 1999 hit “Back That Thang Up”, to mixed reviews from celebrities and fans— though Juvenile seems unfazed in his mission.  

“Vax That Thang Up” sees Juvenile, Manny Fresh, and Mia X promoting the hot new app, though not before highlighting the attractiveness of being vaccinated. Juvenile flexes vaccination cards and makes it rain with them, all while rapping “Girl you’ll look good once you vax that thang up.”

Though Juvenile joins the expansive pool of celebrities and influencers that are pushing for fans and communities to get vaccinated, the rapper’s efforts specifically are very important. According to TMZ, only 14% of African-Americans believe that the vaccine is safe; a staggering number as President Biden races to get 80% of adults vaccinated.

However, fans and celebrities have also come out against Juvenile and his message, which they see as ignorant to the past medical struggles of the black community. Notably, Chris Brown reposted a TikTok onto his Instagram story this week criticizing Juvenile for exploiting black people and advertising a vaccine that the TikToker felt could not be trusted. 

In an interview with TMZ live, Juvenile cites this mistrust: “[The remix] is a great idea to get to some of the youth, a lot of the people that look like me… I’m vaccinated, but a lot of us are still not educated on it and are scared of it.” He then asserts that he knows the remix will save lives: “just think about how many lives we will save and how many people will go out and get vaccinated because of this.”

The new, more contagious Delta variant that is ravaging through country right now threatens to overwhelmingly affect these vaccine-hesitant communities. TMZ reports that positive COVID-19 tests and hospitalization rates have increased significantly in the African American communities of L.A. County- rising to 18% and 11% respectively over the past two months.

Still, BLK and Juvenile are trying to bridge this gap and foster trust in black communities, while making fans laugh at the same time.

Check out the video and Chris Brown’s reaction below.

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The hip-hop community so badly wants to see Tekashi 6ix9ine get beaten up. The Brooklyn rapper has been the largest troll in the rap game for the last few years, dividing the public when he was arrested on RICO charges, getting out of prison early after snitching on all of his partners. While 6ix9ine’s antics are generally pretty entertaining, the rapper remains on most people’s bad side, but he doesn’t seem interested in gaining favor, embracing his role as hip-hop’s supervillain.

This week, 6ix9ine started antagonizing Blueface, who debuted a brand new head tattoo of his jeweler’s business name. Assuming that Blueface must have owed the jeweler some money, 6ix9ine trolled the “Thotiana” spitter with some harshly-worded comments on Instagram. They’ve gone back-and-forth over the last twenty-four hours and Blueface has expressed interest in setting up a celebrity boxing match against Tekashi. Wack 100, Blue’s manager, is down to see it go down, putting money on his client and predicting that 6ix9ine would get knocked out in the first round.

“@6ix9ine @bluefasebleedem was one of the #Violators whole lotta #smashing going on just ask Sarah,” wrote Wack 100 on Instagram, sharing a video where 69 speaks about how he went into a rage and beat up his ex-girlfriend. “Now come take it out on him I got the bag bet you go to bed the 1st round — it’ll be good for the culture you owe the world redemption anyways.”

There’s no question that this would actually be pretty fun for the culture. People want to see Tekashi get punched in the face, and he would walk away from the fight with a million-dollar bag, so everyone wins!

Do you want to see Blueface vs. 6ix9ine?

Though generally private where his business and personal life is concerned, JAY-Z tends to find himself making headlines on occasion. Unsurprising, really, given that he is one of hip-hop’s greatest rappers and the first emcee to hit billionaire status. Yet that doesn’t stop Dame Dash from disparaging his former Roc-A-Fella partner whenever the topic is raised, as it was during an interview with the Social Proof podcast. 

In it, Dame claimed that Hov’s unwillingness to do business with Kareem “Biggs” Burke played a pivotal role in the downfall of the Roc dynasty.”You know the funny thing is, Biggs was rockin’ with us so tough and the reason why Roc-A-Fella broke up in the first place was ’cause [Jay-Z] didn’t want to break bread with Biggs no more,” Dash said. “I was like, ‘we can start something different but I can’t do that to Biggs.'” 

Michael Bezjian/WireImage/Getty Images

Though JAY-Z didn’t respond with a direct quote, the legendary mogul certainly played a part in shifting the narrative back into his favor. Longtime collaborator DJ Clark Kent, with whom Hov worked closely on Reasonable Doubt, shared a picture from a recent meeting in which he, JAY-Z, and Biggs united for an iconic picture. 

“The Manager, The MC, The DJ,” captions Kent, who previously explained how he convinced JAY to switch from hustling to rap. “Always great to see my brothers.” Though not a direct response to Dame’s inciting accusation, the timing is certainly interesting, as the picture was shared mere days after the conversation. On the surface, it would appear that the friendship between Hov and his former collaborators remains strong, prompting many fans to represent the Roc legacy in the comments.

Check out the picture below. For more on JAY-Z, read our analysis on round two of his legendary beef with Nas right here.