New Hip Hop News

If you’re a hip-hop fan, this past week has been pretty incredible when it comes to announcements. It all started with Kanye West who promised us that DONDA would be dropping on Friday. While Kanye ended up going back on that promise, he still delivered his live stream even in Atlanta which had Ye stans over the moon about his new body of work. Meanwhile, Travis Scott announced a new song called “Escape Plan” which he ended up performing at Rolling Loud last night.

In the midst of all of this, fans had been waiting for an announcement from Young Thug, who has been teasing his album PUNK for a long time. The hip-hop industry has been curious about this project, especially considering Young Thug has never shied away from experimenting with his voice and his music.

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On Saturday night at Rolling Loud, Thug fans finally got some good news as the artist announced that the album was, indeed, coming soon. In fact, Young Thug celebrated this news by performing a brand new song from the album called “Tik-Tok.” 

In the video clips below, you can see both the song and the announcement, which were met with some massive ovations from the fans. As for the song itself, there seems to be an upbeat feel to it and it is most certainly a song that works well in a concert setting.

Fans will still have to wait for the studio version of the song, although for now, the live snippet will do. You can see what people had to say about the song, in the tweets below.

Travis Scott premiered his new song, “Escape Plan” during his set at Rolling Loud in Miami, Saturday night. The performance did not disappoint, despite Scott being over an hour late to the show.

The track was teased by Scott, earlier in the day, with a short video. The Astroworld rapper also warned fans that’d he’d be performing the song during his Rolling Loud set on Twitter.

“OK IM UP TODAY NO GAMES. I WANNA SEE THE RAGE SWEAT AND TEARS,” he tweeted. “HMM SOME ONE ASK ME HOW IM STARTING I SAID THIS IS HOW. WHO CAN REMEMBER THIS BY TONIGHT.”

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The hard-hitting banger is likely from Scott’s upcoming album, Utopia, which he discussed during an interview with i-D, earlier this year.

“I never tell people this, and I’m probably going to keep it a secret still, but I’m working with some new people and I’m just trying to expand the sound,” Scott told the outlet. “I’ve been making beats again, rapping on my own beats, just putting everything together and trying to grow it really. That’s been one of the most fun things about working on this album. I’m evolving, collaborating with new people, delivering a whole new sound, a whole new range.”

Check out Scott’s performance below.

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Jermaine Dupri defended Kanye West on Twitter, Saturday, after the legendary rapper delayed the release of his upcoming album, DONDA. Dupri says the listening event was done so Ye could get feedback and make adjustments before he drops the project.

“I’m not sure many understand what Ye did because n****s don’t have listening parties much in this era but you play the music and gage what you got by the reactions, then prioritize by best reaction and fix where the response was weak real A&R shit,” he wrote.

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West is currently staying at Atlanta’s Mercedes Benz Stadium while he finishes working on the album. 

DONDA was originally planned to release on Friday; however, West’s collaborators Malik Yusef and Justin Laboy have since announced that it has been delayed. DONDA will, for now, release on August 6th.

“We R super grateful, thankful and appreciative of all the love we’ve been getting for the new upcoming album #DONDA This is the 9th album I’ve worked on with @kanyewest , Me and bro weren’t communicating during the process of Jesus Is King so I missed that one. But in my opinion it’s our best work thus far.Also, as a side note my homie @Justinlaboy is more kind and caring, than he is toxic,” Yusef wrote in an Instagram post, Saturday.

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Lil Baby brought out 42 Dugg and EST Gee at Rolling Loud in Miami, Friday night. The performance may have been the most hyped show of the night.

In a video from the set, fans were matching Baby word for word on all of his biggest hits.

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The aforementioned trio, in addition to Rylo Rodriguez, have a new track out titled, “5500 Degrees,” that released earlier this week. On the song, which flips Juvenile’s classic hit, “400 Degreez,” Baby declares himself to be the Lil Wayne of this generation.

“I’m going too crazy, I’m the Wayne of this new generation,” he raps on the track. “N***as fugazi, they can’t fuck with us no types of ways/ these n***as too lazy / I’m cut from a different cloth, I don’t know who raised em’.”

In another clip from the performance, an energetic Baby delivered “Freestyle” at the highest level. DJ Akademics even asked his followers to “Name another song in the last 5 years where ppl can sing the whole thing word for word from start to end.”

Earlier in the night, Bobby Shmurda presented new music during his highly anticipated Rolling Loud debut and brought back his hit, “Hot N***a.”

Check out clips from Baby’s performance below.

NLE Choppa came at the NFL on Twitter, Saturday, after it was reported that unvaccinated players would be subject to fines of $14,650 for violating their COVID-19 protocols. Deandre Hopkins and Leonard Fournette have also criticized the league’s decision in since-deleted tweets.

“Fuck the NFL And Them Vaccines,” Choppa wrote.

He added in a follow-up tweet: “Y’all gone start listening to me I been told y’all what’s really going on.”

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Hopkins said the policy has him unsure about his future in the league: “Never thought I would say this But being put in a position to hurt my team because I don’t want to partake in the vaccine is making me question my future in the NFL.”

Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians confirmed that it is “league policy,” and estimated that more than 85 percent of his team’s roster will be vaccinated by final cuts.

“We’re going to have a very serious conversation,” Arians said in an interview with Tampa Bay Times. “I don’t like fining players, but I’m not going to tell anybody to get a mask on. They’ll just get automatically hit with $14,000.”

He continued: “A vaccinated player will get tested 14 times this year. An unvaccinated player will get tested 140.”

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