New Hip Hop News

Giannis Antetokounmpo has been the most important player on the Milwaukee Bucks this season, although for now, the Bucks have to find a way to win without him. After hyperextending his knee in Game 4, Giannis had to miss Game 5 last night, which the Bucks ended up winning thanks to some massive performances from their role players. Now, the Bucks are up 3-2 in the series and they have an opportunity on Saturday to end the series and make it to the NBA Finals.

Many have theorized what Giannis will do in Game 6 as his knee doesn’t seem to be as bad as fans originally feared. Regardless, it seems like the Bucks are operating with an abundance of caution as according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Giannis is doubtful for Game 6.

An earlier report today stated that Giannis would have to miss the entirety of the Eastern Conference Finals, even if the series goes to seven games. As for the NBA Finals, there is a chance Giannis could miss some games in that series as well, although it will all depend on just how quickly he is able to recover.

Needless to say, the Bucks are going to have a tough road to the championship although if Game 5 was any indication, they seem ready for the challenge.

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Spider-Man: No Way Home isn’t set to hit theatres until much later this year on December 17, but the highly anticipated film’s two biggest stars have definitely brought some huge publicity to Marvel’s final film of 2021. According to People, Zendaya and Tom Holland were spotted enjoying a romantic link-up on Thursday, and the photographer who caught them immediately sent their photos into Page Six.

The photos show that the two movie stars — who have acted side-by-side in 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming and 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home — were spending some time with Zendaya’s mother, Claire Stoermer, while moving some items in or out of a house. The major bombshell, however, is that once alone in the care, Tom Holland and Zendaya were seen flirting, laughing, and sharing a passionate kiss.

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Longtime fans of Tom Holland’s reiteration of Spider-Man likely remember that romance rumors between the two actors have persisted since they started working together in 2017, but according to People, both Zendaya and Holland have repeatedly denied those claims, despite sources close to the couple suggesting that they often take private romantic vacations together.

As of the time of publishing, neither Zenday nor Holland have come forward to confirm or deny their alleged romance, so stay tuned for updates and see all of the newly surfaced pictures below!

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Who better to receive a birthday shoutout from than the Queen herself Beyonce? And that’s exactly what happened to singer/actress Chloe Bailey, who recently celebrated her 23rd birthday last week.

Queen Bee took to her Instagram Story yesterday to share a throwback pic of her and Chloe cuddling on what appears to the set of their 2003 film The Fighting Temptation, in which Chloe played the younger version of Beyonce’s character Lilly. Peep the sweet birthday shoutout (below).

Chloe, along with her sister Halle, signed with Beyonce’s Parkwood record label back in 2015 for $1.5 million. Since then, Chloe has been cast in a recurring role on ABC’s Grown-ish and sister Halle is currently filming Disney’s live action remake of The Little Mermaid. The duo were just nominated last week at BET Hip Hop Awards for four awards: including Best Group, Album of the Year (Ungodly Hour), Her Award (“Baby Girl”) and Video of the Year (“Do It”).

Stan Van Gundy was fired by the New Orleans Pelicans after just one season with the team. His firing came amidst rumors that Zion Williamson’s family wasn’t happy with his coaching style. Of course, this insinuated quite a bit, and it had some people wondering whether or not Zion is a coach killer.

Well, recently, Van Gundy got to speak his peace on the matter as he was a guest on “STUpodity” hosted by Stugotz. During the interview, Van Gundy made it clear that his firing had nothing to do with Zion and that at the end of the day, Zion is a competitive player who just wanted to win.

“Front offices and owners make decisions and they’re the ones that decide to fire people, and that shouldn’t ever, ever, ever be placed on players. I know this, regardless of what happened in that regard, Zion’s no coach killer,” Van Gundy said.

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The Pelicans have had problems with building their team over the last few years, and it’s clear they will need to give Zion some talent, otherwise, he could be off of the team very soon. At the end of the day, Zion has superstar potential, and the Pelicans won’t want to squander the opportunity that comes with having the number one overall pick.

As for their next head coach, they’re going to have to make a careful decision, as firing coaches after just one season is simply unacceptable.

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Earlier this week, Jay-Z linked up with Twitter CEO — and one of the new owners of TIDAL — Jack Dorsey for an insightful 30-minute discussion on Twitter Spaces. During the brief virtual conference, Hov and Dorsey talked about the Reasonable Doubt artist’s contributions to TIDAL over the past several years as well as how the streaming service is one of the best music discovery platforms that’s out. At one point in the interview, Jay-Z gives props to TIDAL’s algorithm for putting him onto so much great music, which he admits has helped him become a “top tier playlist creator.”

“I’ve found so many songs, my playlist game is A++,” Hov says while speaking with Dorsey. “I challenge anyone out there. I see a lot of people on this call, I’m not gonna call out individual names. I’m definitely, you know, in the top-tier of playlist creators.”

Apparently, Jay-Z caught wind of the online comments from the non-believers because to prove his point, Hov has dedicated an entire section of TIDAL to his manually curated playlists. Titled “Curated By: JAY-Z,” the aforementioned page on TIDAL features all 20 of the 4:44 artist‘s special playlists, from his first 16-track playlist in March of 2015 to his most recent Nas-centric playlist from this past April.

If you’re a fan of Hov’s past work as a music curator you’ll now be able to find all of his TIDAL playlists — from his Songs For Survival series to his annual Year End Picks — in one place.

TIDAL

Check out Jay-Z’s collection of 20 curated playlists on TIDAL here.

Despite being one of the biggest artists of 2020, Lil Baby knows what it’s like to be at the lowest point in one’s life after he served two years in prison nearly 5 years ago on weapons and drug charges at the age of 19. Today, he’s “lit like never before” and thankful for all his fans, but hasn’t forgotten about those tough times. On Friday, the ATL rapper took to his Instagram to reflect on his glow up over the years, saying it was just 5 years ago when he was in a level 5 prison and that anything can happen if you work towards it.

“5 Years ago I Was In level 5 Prison !! Fast Forward To Date I’m Lit Like Never Before ! I’m Living Proof That Anything Can Happen If You Work Towards It 🙌🏽 I Thank Each An Every Single Person Who Played A Part In Me Getting Were I Am Today,” he captioned the post.

Last year, Baby spoke a little more in-depth about his prison sentence years ago, comparing it to being a dog. “Prison is just sitting you in a room somewhere,” Baby said. “What does that do to better you for society? What does that do to help you change? To me, jail makes you worse…. You don’t have a leash on your neck, but you got handcuffs on your wrists. You’re not in a dog cage, but you’re in a human cage, which is not too much bigger than a dog cage.

“You live where you use the bathroom at. They feed you when they want to feed you. You eat when they tell you to eat. It’s almost like being a dog.”

In other news, Lil Baby is getting ready to hit the road with Lil Dark later this year on the “Back Outside” Tour. Peep tour dates right here if interested in going.

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It seems that there aren’t many rappers out there who are more deserving of the XXL freshman title as much as Lakeyah– and now she’s proved it. In her first performance as part of the XXL freshman team, Lakeyah stunned with an impressive acapella freestyle and proved that she belongs among male XXL freshmen Pooh Shiesty and 42 Dugg. This new freestyle comes after a few high-profile collaborations with Young Bleu, City Girls, Coi Leray, and Trapboy Freddy. 

The Milwaukee rapper brought the heat to XXL studios for her freestyle, dropping bars against those who’ve doubted rapper: ““They told me stay hungry and stay consistent/I’m standin’ on n*****’ necks, I ain’t worried ’bout competition, I did it/Killin’ these bitches, I’m here for the life sentence.”

Lakeyah signed to Quality Control last year after a string of viral “Keymixes,” her own brand of remixes. Notable “Keymixes” include her verse on City Girl JT’s “First Day Out” and Lil Baby’s “We Paid”– which triggered Quality Control label head P to contact her.

Lakeyah joins Flo Milli, Pooh Shiesty, and 42 Dugg who have already had their freestyles released. Stay tuned for the upcoming group cyphers as well.

What do you think about Lakeyah’s performance? Check it out below.