New Hip Hop News

Kamau Bobb, the chief of diversity at mega company Google, has the internet clamoring over a blog post attributed to him discussing Israel’s place in the Middle East. The blog post, which Bobb reportedly made while a research associate at Georgia Tech in 2007, strongly condemns the Israeli government for their actions against other Middle Eastern nations, while applying it broadly to all Jewish people, which he categorizes as an “increasing insensitivity to the suffering (of) others.”

“If I were a Jew,” as Bobb named the blog post, finds itself generalizing members of the Jewish religion consistently, and Jewish leaders are concerned how such language went under the radar of Bobb’s employer, Google.

“If I were a Jew I would be concerned about my insatiable appetite for war and killing in defense of mysel,” becomes one of the most incendiary and charged moments of the blog post– directly deducing an entire religion of people into one harmful stereotype. Other standout quotes from the post include “Self defense is undoubtedly an instinct, but I would be afraid of my increasing insensitivity to the suffering (of) others. My greatest torment would be that I’ve misinterpreted the identity offered by my history and transposed spiritual and human compassion with self righteous impunity,” which asks Jewish people to use their experience during the Holocaust to evaluate their foreign policy.

Bobb faced sharp criticism from Jewish and Pro-Israel users. Author Michael Dickson blasted the blog post as anti-semitic and hypocritical and called for Bobb’s resignation from his post. The Jewish Simon Wiesenthal Center raised similar concerns about the post and questioned why Google would hire Bobb for a position as important as Diversity Chief. StopAntisemitism.com joined in on the discourse by referring to Bobb as a “bigot” who must be fired immediately. Just today, Meghan McCain, co-host of The View and daughter of late senator John McCain, condemned the statements while filming the show. 

Google has not provided any response or apology so far, and the blog has since been hidden from plain view on Bobb’s site (although you can still view it ‘hidden’ here), but keep yourself posted as a statement should be coming sometime soon.

Do you think Kamau Bobb will be removed from his position?

Check out the tweets below.

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It would appear that JAY-Z has taken quite the liking to Benny The Butcher, a widely regarded frontrunner in the “best current lyricist” category. It’s not entirely surprising, given Benny’s lyrical content and hustler’s ambition mirroring Hov’s own, especially during the Reasonable Doubt era. Not to mention the fact that The Butcher is signed to Roc Nation, thus keeping him firmly in JAY-Z’s camp.

As such, fans have concluded that a collaboration is all but inevitable. The only question is — whose album will house the first duet between The Butcher and JAY-Z after an earlier attempt fell through? Rumors of a new Hov project, his first since 2017’s 4:44, have begun to build up momentum. It’s certainly worth noting that JAY has been more active on the musical front these days, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him capitalize before the end of the year. As for the Butcher, he’s already dropped off one album with The Plugs I Met 2, but Tana Talk 4 remains on the horizon. 

Kevin Winter/PW18/Getty Images 

As for whether or not the pair have been cooking up new music, it’s certainly possible given the frequency of their meetings. In fact, Benny recently came through to share a picture of their latest meet-up, as snapped by photographer A Tribe Called Hip-Hop. “Hope these rooftop meetings never turn into jail visits,” captions Benny, teasing a few bars. “It only put a smile on my face when the scale tippin.”

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Check out the picture below, and sound off if you’d like to see JAY-Z and Benny The Butcher hitting the booth. 

DaniLeigh has been laying pretty low on social media ever since she lit platforms ablaze with her controversial “Yellow Bone” snippet. Explaining her hiatus, she chalked it up to all the negativity she’s been facing on the platform since the song. “Social media became hella negative,” she explained. “I used to be the happy curly-haired girl that was always dancing and smiling.” 

While laying low on social media herself, she’s managed to get people talking in another way. Viral footage of the “Easy” artist back in March had users speculating that she was carrying DaBaby’s child. She once again sparked rumors of a pregnancy by rocking a very rounded tummy. Although she’s yet to confirm the news, she again had folks buzzing after sending out a tweet speculated be about the bun in her oven. 

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“Fall asleeeep bruh,” penned the 26-year-old Miami artist on Twitter seemingly aimed at no one. Considering she’s been sporting a rounded tummy in most of her recent public outings, many instantly assumed it was directed at her incoming bundle of joy. 

“She happy asf to show that belly,” said someone in the comments of earlier footage of the artist walking around with her protruding stomach. “She definitely wanted that belly seen,” suggested another. 

Neither Dani nor DaBaby have confirmed whether or not she is actually carrying the rapper’s baby. What are your thoughts?

There are few stars who are as iconic as Jennifer Lopez. She’s transcended generations as a singer, dancer, actress, and now entrepreneur whose early proximity to hip-hop turned her into Jenny From The Block. On Tuesday, June 1st, she celebrated the 22nd anniversary of her debut album, On The 6 which catapulted her into the star she is today. 

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J. Lo took to the Gram where she celebrated the 1999 release of the album with a clip of herself reflecting one her extraordinary come up from her life in the Bronx to global stardom. “One day I was in the studio and somebody asked me, ‘How did you go from living in the Bronx, Puerto Rican parents not being connected in the business at all, doing movies, and making your album now? You know, you’re making your own album.’ And I said, ‘I usually get on the 6 train, down to the city, do my auditions, do my dance classes, my voice lessons, stuff like that. And that was the beginning of everything for me,'” she says in the throwback interview footage. “This album for me is very much the same girl that grew up there.”

In her IG caption, she expressed her gratitude for the album changing her life. “June 1st is always a happy day for me! It was the day I released my debut album On The 6. It changed my life forever… it’s taken me around the world and introduced me to the world of music and all of YOU,” she wrote.

On The 6 was a massive success, both critically and commercially, upon its release. With production from Diddy, Emilio Estefan, Jr. and more, the album moved 112K units in its first week as “If You Had My Love” spent a second week in a row at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. The album also produced other successful singles like “Let’s Get Loud” and “Feelin’ So Good” ft. Big Pun and Fat Joe. 

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Fashion designer and stylist Ian Connor is no stranger to controversy. He spent extensive periods in 2019 and 2020 dodging rape allegations from 33 women, though he never seemed to take them seriously. Connor is now taking his trademark abusive form of ‘trolling’ to twitter to air out his ex, Instagram model Raven Tracy, whom he has dated for five years and proposed to in 2019, for allegedly cheating on him. In a string of tweets last night, Connor essentially slut-shamed Tracy, to which Tracy clapped back at him strongly by defending herself as a faithful girlfriend while counter-accusing him of sleeping with other women. 

The Twitter tirade and subsequent exchange started with a very inflammatory accusation posted on Ian’s twitter account:

“Raven F***** Everybody and I Gave Her My Heart, I Could Never Trust Another B**** Ah Day In My Life Again.”

Although Raven had said that “The lady that i am i never even respond but this s***,” she then admits it’s “bad business” and “who does stuff like this to somebody they claim they love?”

Thus, Raven responded with “Ian let’s not get on this internet and drag s***,” she wrote. “U love slut shaming me in public and apologizing repeatedly in private. That’s weird s***. & i f***** everybody ? Huh?? You’ve been cheating on me for 5 years! I’ve literally stayed with u, literally took care of u… don’t do it,” reverberating accusations of cheating against Connor. 

While Raven continued to defend her name and her faithfulness to Connor, “His whole life is in my name , the man couldn’t even do anything for himself without me ! I get it, we broke up, i hurt you by testing the waters but damn… this what you want ? You wanna do this ? 4real? Lemme know. I loved this BOY unconditionally & the way he tries to bash me when he’s hurt is wack! That’s all ima say.” Conor did not return the respect his ex-girlfriend was showing him and instead replied with: “Might As [well] Start Selling That P****, You Handing It Out So Much.”

While the back and forth ended after Tracy threatened to have her property taken from him, it remains to be seen what will happen between the couple, though Tracy said she won’t be taking their drama to social media any longer. Who’s side are you on?

Check out the tweets below.

Nobody could have imagined the success of the Youtubers-turned-boxers movement that have prompted influencers like KSI, Bryce Hall, and the Paul brothers to step into the ring. The brothers have been the most effective at securing their names as serious boxers and athletes, especially Jake who is coming off of a win against wrestler Ben Askren last month. After it was confirmed that Jake’s next fight would be against MMA fighter Tyron Woodley, ESPN personality and beloved panelist Stephen A. Smith criticized Jake for not fighting a real boxing professional– only wrestlers, Youtubers, and an MMA fighter so far. 

In the ESPN segment, Smith blasted Paul: “I am not impressed, not one bit.” He then emphasized that “at some point, you have to fight a real boxer, you have to fight someone with some muscle memory in the sport”. As Jake continually tries to earn respect and solidify his name in the sport, Smith offered him some advice– “if Jake Paul is ever going to get the respect in Boxing that I know he wants, he has to face real opponents.” 

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Smith ended the segment by praising Jake Paul for bringing “attention to the sport of Boxing. That’s a good thing.” However, the praise was short-lived and culminated in “Jake Paul is good for the sport of Boxing. But here’s the thing– is it really boxing? If you’re not fighting an actual boxer?

The Paul brothers have largely had a successful entry into the sport. Jake stands with an undefeated 3-0 record, and though Logan has lost the only fights he has ever had to Youtuber KSI, his team and fans are confident in his ability to take on Floyd Mayweather, one of the greatest boxers in history, this Sunday. 

Will you be tuning in to watch Logan this Sunday? Do you think Jake Paul is scared to fight a real boxer? Let us know.

Watch the Stephen A. Smith segment below.

It’s another ugly Wednesday in the wacky world of wrestling. Following a shocking number of releases after WWE WrestleMania a few weeks ago, the company has announced yet another string of firings, getting rid of some of their top talents in a shocking move.

On Wednesday (June 2), WWE came to terms with the releases of Braun Strowman, Aleister Black, Lana, Murphy, Ruby Riott, and Santana Garrett. The news came as a serious shock to wrestling fans around the world, who had witnessed the rise of Braun Strowman as one of the company’s main priorities in recent years. Last year, the big man defeated hall-of-famer Goldberg to win the Universal Championship. It’s unclear why he was released– just a few days ago, he was part of a major pay-per-view match against Bobby Lashley and Drew McIntyre for the WWE championship.

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Aleister Black was another surprising release. The superstar had been introducing a new character in recent weeks with Smackdown airing promos debuting the new persona. “Im gathering my thoughts as this was a complete left field for me as obviously we just started the dark father character,” wrote Black on Twitter. “But this was it, thank you so much WWE universe for allowing me to create and give you small bits of myself.”

Lana is the wife of former WWE wrestler Rusev, who was released last year and performs as Miro in AEW now. Murphy was previously involved in storylines with Seth Rollins and Rey Mysterio. Ruby Riott was the former leader of the Riott Squad tag team and Santana Garrett was hailed as one of the rising stars in the women’s division. 

It will be interesting to see where each one of these talented wrestlers ends up in the coming months.

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

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Mad Skillz has quietly built up a reputation as one of the game’s respected lyricists and has since transitioned into the world of Academia by teaching a hip-hop course at the University of Richmond. Now, he’s making headlines following an impressive project, one that highlights the work of one of the game’s brilliant musical minds — the late Detroit legend, J. Dilla.

Taking to Instagram to share his discovery, Mad Skillz confirmed that he had restored a beat tape gifted to him by Dilla, showcasing the results on his IG story highlights. “Yes!!!” he captions, looking appropriately thrilled. “I found the original beat tape that Dilla gave me and fixed the tape so I could digitize it, to hear what I just heard? Go to my story.”

The process that he appears to have undergone is impressive to behold. Showcasing a picture of the tape in its original state — which is to say, having seen better days — Skillz confirmed that a “surgery” of sorts would be necessary. “I just found this,” he states, flashing the tape to his followers. “This is J. Dilla’s handwriting. I know it is cause he always used to spell my name wrong.” 

“I fixed the tape, and started listening to it,” he continues, proceeding to queue up some of the songs and musical fragments included. One such snippet features an eerie vocal sample, prompting Skillz to declare that he always wanted Dilla to make a proper instrumental out of it. Next up is an instrumental version of “The Jam,” which leads into a beat he compares to The Pharcyde’s “Drop.” Also showcased were instrumental versions of “It’s Goin Down” and “Runnin.” 

Fans of the late producer and his work with Mad Skillz would be wise to check out the rapper’s listening session, which doubles as a much-needed reminder of Dilla’s talent. Head over to his IG page and show some love to Skillz and Dilla in the comments below.

WATCH: Mad Skillz Surgically Saves & Previews Dilla Tape

Porsha Williams drew mixed reactions from social media after she confirmed her engagement to her Real Housewives of Atlanta cast member Falynn Guobadia’s estranged husband Simon Guobadia. Many criticized the reality TV star for the romance, particularly because of their speedy courtship. 

Williams, however, seems unbothered by the negative reactions and even got her new beau’s name inked on her skin. Gossip queen Wendy Williams took aim at her fiancé recently, suggesting the millionaire film executive owns a “hut.” He proved her very wrong with a few videos in his story flexing his large property. 

“Now, don’t be impressed. I’ve travelled a lot but you know how land is cheap and houses are cheap and you can say you have a house but really it’s a trailer on one property in one state. A straw hut in another, and a little something with a shared pool by the community in another. So you have ‘houses,'” said Williams on her talk show.

She continued, “I don’t need 3 weddings.” Guobadia tastefully dispelled Wendy’s suggestion in a story post flexing his massive home with the mocking caption, “‘Hut’ living. How you doing’, Porsha?”

He then panned over his amazing view from his decorated balcony that certainly doesn’t appear to be a “hut.” It appears Wendy’s title as Gossip queen still holds some truth.