New Hip Hop News

Though he passed away at the age of 50 in April, DMX will be forever immortalized through his musical legacy. Having impacted no shortage of emcees, X remains beloved by his peers, many of whom came forward to contribute to his recent Exodus project.

Now, it has been confirmed that the late rapper will receive a tribute performance at the upcoming BET Awards, which are set to take place on Sunday, June 27th.

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Lined up to take the stage are longtime DMX collaborator Swizz Beatz, as well as Busta Rhymes, who previously worked with DMX on Anarchy highlight “Why We Die.” Method Man is on board to pay homage to X, with whom he connected on “Grand Finale,” “4,3,2,1,” and Limp Bizkit’s “Urban Assault” remix to “Rollin.” The Griselda trio, who linked with X on Exodus cut “Hood Blues,” will also be holding it down for the Ruff Ryder legend.

Apparently, the artists will perform covers of some of DMX’s biggest hits, as well as several cuts from X’s latest album. Billboard confirms that “Party Up (Up in Here),” “Ruff Ryder’s Anthem,” “What’s My Name?” “Get at Me Dog,” and “DMX Prayer” are all slated to be included. In addition to the stacked list of contributing emcees, The Wire’s own Michael K. Williams will also appear in the memorial, which was put together by Swizz Beatz.

Be sure to check out the BET Awards this Sunday to catch the DMX tribute performance in full. Rest in peace to one of hip-hop’s greatest.

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The mother of Ace Hood’s children seemingly wants to get him in trouble with the law because she revealed during a recent live stream that the rapper allegedly received a $144,000 PPP loan from the government despite having no actual employees. 

A few days ago, Ace Hood and the mother of his children, Shanice, called each other out on Father’s Day. Ace said that Shanice wouldn’t allow him to spend time with their kids because of money problems. Shanice rebutted by claiming that the rapper owes her over $95,000 in child support. She didn’t stop there though because she felt like exposing her ex to a new degree, alleging that Ace Hood received a $144,000 Paycheck Protection Program loan during the pandemic, despite having nobody employed on his team.

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Claiming that Ace told the court that he only has $2,500 to his name, Shanice said, “We reported it so now he has to pay me what he owes me and he’s mad. I let you go two years without doing anything so what are you talking about? Make it make sense. And y’all can look up the PPP loan. Y’all know it’s public records. Ace Hood Touring. Go look it up, he got $144K. I’m trying to figure out how he got that much when he don’t got no employees.”

Ace Hood has not responded to Shanice’s claims. We will keep you posted when/if he does.

What do you think about this? Let us know in the comments.

In honor of Travis Scott’s birthday in April, the Jackboys artist announced the long-awaited return of the Astroworld Festival. Travis Scott’s third annual music festival has expanded to a two-day format, and it will hit Houston on November 5 and 6. Unfortunately, countless Cactus Jack fans won’t be able to pull up to Astroworld Festival because when tickets went on sale on May 5, tickets to the two-day festival were sold out in minutes.

However, nearly two months later, there may be hope for some persistent Travis Scott fans after all. On Wednesday, it was announced that Travis Scott has decided to channel his inner Willy Wonka and release 100 signed cans of CACTI that unlock free tickets to Astroworld.

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Similar to how thousands of candy-obsessed children did in the classic movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, disgruntled Travis Scott fans who were unable to secure their Astroworld Festival tickets last month will be able to hunt for specially wrapped and signed cans of strawberry-flavored CACTI that are hidden in the typical nine-count variety packs.

“Summer is back and all about going bigger,” Travis Scott says in a statement. “We really wanted to do something special with CACTI for the fans who weren’t able to get their hands on Astroworld tickets. The winners are going to get the opportunity to vibe out with us at the festival and get a full-on immersive experience. We can’t wait to share this with them and everything else CACTI has planned for the rest of the year.”

Fans who are able to track down one of the 100 signed CACTI cans will be rewarded with two tickets to the sold-out Astroworld Festival, so good luck to everyone on the hunt for those exclusive cans.

The Wu-Tang Clan is widely regarded as one of the greatest groups of all time, and rightfully so. Yet even beyond their excellent discography, which features such classic albums as 36 Chambers, Wu-Tang Forever, and criminally slept-on The W, many of the Clan’s members have held it down with timeless projects on the solo front.

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Three such classics include GZA’s Liquid Swords, Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx.., and Ghostface Killah’s Ironman, all debuts that remain integral pieces of the hip-hop canon. Now, the three rappers have united to celebrate their projects in a major way, announcing the upcoming 3 Chambers tour, set to kick off this October.

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Set to hit twenty-five different cities, the tour will feature plenty of material from the aforementioned albums, which happens to fall in tandem with the 25th anniversary of Ghost’s Ironman. Speaking on the upcoming endeavor, Raekwon shared a few exciting words with his fans. “As we start to approach a back to normal environment, which is overdue, I’m overly excited about seeing my fans again,” he states. “This 3 Chambers Tour will be something I recommend nobody misses. This shit will be bananas!!!! Get ready to enter the WU again…”

Check out the complete list of dates and venues below. Of the three albums in question — Iron Man, Cuban Linx, and Liquid Swords — which one is your favorite?

October 1 – Minneapolis, MN (Skyway Theatre)
October 2 – Sauget, IL (Pop’s)
October 3 – Fort Wayne, IN (Piere’s)
October 16 – Denver, CO (The Fillmore)
October 20 + 22 – Chicago, IL (Concord Music Hall)
November 5 – San Francisco, CA (Warfield Theatre)
November 6 – Las Vegas, NV (Brooklyn Bowl)
November 7 – Los Angeles, CA (NOVO)
November 19 – Rochester, NY (Main Street Armory)
November 20 – Boston, MA (House of Blues)
November 21 – Philadelphia, PA (Franklin Music Hall)
November 22 – New York, NY (Terminal 5)
November 26 – New Haven, CT (College Street Music Hall)
November 27 – Hampton Beach, NH (TBA)
November 28 – Portland, ME (TBA)
November 30 – Norfolk, VA (Norva)
December 1 – Silver Spring, MD (The Fillmore)
December 2 – Richmond, VA (Altria Theater)
December 3 – Baltimore, MD (Baltimore Soundstage)
December 4 – Greensboro, NC (Cone Denim Ent. Center)
December 5 – Atlanta, GA (The Tabernacle)
December 16 – Detroit, MI (The Fillmore)
December 17 – Cleveland, OH (House of Blues)
December 18 – Indianapolis, IN (The Vogue)

The second posthumous album from Brooklyn rap superstar Pop Smoke has officially been announced. The upcoming project, of which the title has not been revealed yet, will be released next month on July 16. The late rapper’s team broke the news with an album trailer on YouTube.

The trailer features footage of the rapper during interviews, as well as candid videos of him hanging around New York. “I feel like it’s coming back to New York,” he said about the booming hip-hop scene on the East Coast. “The fake can never succeed in nothing. When you know what you want, don’t let nobody get in between you and your creation.”

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The new album has been teased for weeks by Pop’s manager Rico Beats. 50 Cent, who executive produced Pop’s first posthumous album Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon, recently said that he isn’t sure he will be involved in the creation of the next album. 

During the press run for Culture III, Quavo also said that he was working with Pop Smoke on a collaborative album before the superstar passed away. It’s unclear if any of their collaborations will be included on the new album on July 16.

Are you excited about another posthumous album from Pop Smoke? What do you expect this time around?

Memphis rapper MoneyBagg Yo really loves his codeine. The “Wockesha” artist has an entire hit song about his love for lean, disguising his lyrics cleverly and singing about a purple-haired lady who keeps him feeling nice at all times of the day. So when NLE Choppa came forward and challenged the rapper to quit drinking lean by matching every bottle he drinks with a pint of chlorophyll, many believed that MoneyBagg Yo would laugh in Choppa’s face. However, his response was quite the contrary.

Seemingly accepting the challenge and preparing to lead a healthier lifestyle, MoneyBagg Yo responded to NLE Choppa’s tweet with a handshake emoji. From the looks of it, he’s open to receiving some hand-delivered health and wellness recipes from the rapper to help change his life. Maybe on the next album, we’ll get a record entirely about Bagg’s love of chlorophyll.

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NLE Choppa has been changing his life for the better over the last few years. Despite him breaking onto the scene with violent raps, he swore away from that type of content and promised to empower his audience by leading them to the light. He proceeded to launch a new website where he sells items that contain serious health benefits, like chlorophyll, to help his fans live longer and more fulfilled lives.

He wants to help rappers quit drinking lean and it looks like he’s starting with MoneyBagg Yo. We’ll keep you posted on his progress as he uploads updates.

Earlier this week, Trick Daddy may have started something that he can’t finish when leaked audio from a Clubhouse panel featured him sharing some extremely hot takes about two of the biggest stars in the music industry: Jay-Z and Beyoncé. 

While on Clubhouse, Trick Daddy stepped into the hot seat and shared a couple of incredibly unpopular opinions, saying, “Beyoncé don’t write music and barely can sing her motherf*ckin’ self. Man, I watched my godmama train Beyoncé, vocal lessons all her career.”

“Beyoncé is to R&B what Jay-Z is to New York,” Trick Daddy continued. “That’s why they together. Jay-Z ain’t never won the greatest rapper alive. Who ever put him on a level like that? New York lost Biggie, and they needed a hero. They wanted to be the Mecca of Hip-Hop, and they just handed it over to Jay-Z.”

Despite the backlash that he has been receiving for his comments, Trick has stood by his initial comments on Clubhouse, and during his 99Jamz morning radio show with Trina, he went on to further explained his position, saying, “That’s my opinion. I’ve said many times on the radio that they’re wonderful businesspeople. Jigga made a lot of money, he got a whole lotta money. But did I say anything disrespectful? No. Did I call them out they names? No, I didn’t.”

Now, the legendary Florida rapper is back with another Beyoncé-related hot take. In a recent post to his Instagram Story, Trick Daddy shared a shady message that simply read, “BARBZ >.” While he doesn’t call out The Beyhive, Beyoncé’s infamous fan base, directly, one can assume that he’s comparing Yoncé’s die-hard fan base to Nicki Minaj’s passionate followers because as of late, the Beyhive has been leaving extremely negative reviews at Trick Daddy’s restaurant.

Check out the “Nann N*gga” rapper’s quickly posted and deleted Instagram story below.

What do you think about Trick Daddy’s latest antics? Does he have a point about Nicki Minaj’s fanbase being better than Beyoncé’s or is he dragging the situation at this point?