New Hip Hop News

DMX’s posthumous album Exodus, originally finished prior to his passing on April 9th, is set to officially drop on May 28th. The late legend previously spoke about the project’s guest appearances, confirming that Snoop Dogg, Lil Wayne, Bono, Alicia Keys, Griselda, Usher, Pop Smoke, and more would be included.

Yesterday night, a private listening party hosted by Swizz Beatz and X’s team shone a light on what’s to come. According to several reports on social media, as well as one from HipHopNMore, a few interesting surprises were unearthed. For one, it would appear that the ten-track album features a collaboration between DMX, JAY-Z, and Nas, which would mark the first time the three emcees blessed the same track. They have, of course, worked together on a separate basis; DMX and JAY-Z blessed “Blackout,” “It’s Murda,” and “Money, Cash, Hoes,” while X and Nas have linked on “Life Is What You Make It” and “Grand Finale.”

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It’s unclear if the track in question will be the long-awaited collaboration between X, Nas, and Hov originally previewed during Swizzy and Just Blaze’s beat battle in 2017; if so, it would be a welcome addition to Exodus, though it should be noted that there is no mention of Jadakiss, who appeared on the track in its originally-previewed state. In addition to the surprising addition of JAY-Z and Nas, reports also indicate that Moneybagg Yo will make an appearance, while the Pop Smoke collaboration was ultimately cut for reasons unknown.

At this time, we have yet to receive any official confirmation on the Exodus tracklist, but based on these early reactions following the listening party, it’s shaping up to be a promising release. Check out some of the first responses below, and sound off if you’re excited to hear DMX’s new album when it drops on May 28th. 

Ally Brooke, who was a part of Fifth Harmony, says that she “didn’t enjoy” her time with the popular girl group and that there was “so much toxicity” and “so much mental abuse.”  Speaking during the debut episode of her new podcast, The Ally Brooke Show, she added that the experience was “traumatizing.”

“I hate saying this, you know, my time in Fifth Harmony … I didn’t enjoy it. I didn’t love it,” she admitted. “It was hard because there was so much going on. So much behind-the-scenes. So much toxicity. So much abuse. So much abuse of power. So much mental abuse. Verbal abuse. It’s just horrible, and to me it’s a shame, because we were so big. I should have enjoyed myself more.”

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Fifth Harmony was formed in 2012 by Camila Cabello, Dinah Jane, Lauren Jauregui, Brooke, and Normani. Prior to the beginning of their current hiatus in 2018, the group released three studio albums.

“And, again, I wanna just tell the fans that … I’m so proud to have been there. I’m so thankful for Fifth Harmony, it changed my life,” Brooke continued. “I got to see the world, meet people who completely changed my life and my world and the direction of my career path and all that, and I got to meet so many amazing friends … but it’s kind of a weird balance. It’s a balance of being grateful but also being OK with the fact that things were not OK for me in that. And I took a lot, me personally. It was traumatizing, and some things I’m comfortable sharing, and I’m comfortable talking about, but some things I’m still not yet ready.”

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Late Thursday night, Nicki Minaj went on Instagram Live to finally reveal what she had in store for her fans. To many fans’ surprise, the Queen rapper chose to honor the 12-year anniversary of her game-changing 2009 mixtape Beam Me Up Scotty by finally uploading it to streaming services. A small number of the songs that were on the original project — including “Mind on My Money” with featuring Rihanna, Brinx, and Busta Rhymes — didn’t make the cut for the rerelease, but Nicki made up for it by treating fans with the Young Money posse cut “Seeing Green.”

In the aftermath of her live stream (which included an unexpected Drake cameo), most of the Hip-Hop community experienced pure bliss as they were able to revisit Beam Me Up Scotty on their preferred DSP. However, other fans and artists drew negatives takes from Nicki’s live stream, and most notably, one of those people was Azealia Banks. 

Never one to hold her tongue, Azealia Banks initially reacted to Nicki Minaj’s physique in the pictures leading up to the highly anticipated Instagram event. While direct messaging one of her associates, Azealia Banks absolutely rips the Young Money artist by body-shaming her and criticizing the alleged plastic surgery that she has undergone.

Azealia Banks/Instagram

“It’s giving, I f*cked my body up so much all I can fit is spandex,” Azealia Banks says in response to Nicki Minaj’s figure. “All them years of calling b*tches her sons – she looks like a BREEDER LMAOO.”

Azealia Banks didn’t stop there, however. After body-shaming the Pink Friday artist, she also starts to criticize her for her demeanor during her live. For those who were unable to tune into Nicki’s live stream on Thursday night, the femcee appeared to have a case of the sniffles, which she attributed to having just cried prior to going live. Fans during the stream wondered if she was sick, and Azealia Banks toyed with that idea before eventually deducing that the sniffles were a result of drug use.

In a series of videos posted to her story Azealia Banks discusses her stance on Nicki Minaj’s alleged drug use, saying, “The girls love to kee and kackle on the rap girls, but we definitely just lost DMX to like loose drugs in the bag substance abuse. It’s not that funny.”

“Yeah, it’s funny like — your titties look like a butt. Your titties look like they’re about to f*cking shart,” Banks continues. “But, yes we need an intervention on Ms. Nicki Minaj. That sniffling? I’m not buying that. And I know from experience, okay? I know from experience, sis.”

What started off as jest and seemingly heartfelt commentary quickly became more scathing as Banks began criticizing Nicki for going live like that in the first place. “Hip-Hop, we need to discuss this because…that was very inappropriate,” she states. “That was very BCW [Bureau of Child Welfare], ACS [Administration for Children’s Services]. Like no, remove the child from that home. That was very inappropriate.”

Body shaming aside, do you think that Azealia Banks is worried about Nicki Minaj’s wellbeing or is her call for an intervention another jab at the Beam Me Up Scotty rapper?

Elon Musk’s net worth has reportedly taken a massive hit following his appearance on Saturday Night Live. During the show, the Tesla CEO joked that Dogecoin is a “hustle,” resulting in a 35% drop in its value. 

Additionally, Musk announced that Tesla would no longer be accepting Bitcoin as a form of currency to purchase their electric vehicles, causing a sharp drop in Bitcoin’s value. Musk cited environmental safety as the leading concern in his decision.

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“Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin,” Musk said. “We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel. Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at great cost to the environment. Tesla will not be selling any Bitcoin and we intend to use it for transactions as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy. We are also looking at other cryptocurrencies that use <1% of Bitcoin’s energy/transaction.”

To top it all off, Tesla shares have fallen 15% in value over the last week.

All-in-all, Forbes reports that Musk’s losses from this week total $20 billion.

Grimes, who is dating Musk and also appeared on the SNL episode, was hospitalized after the show, having suffered a panic attack.

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Last night, J. Cole delivered his sixth studio album The Off-Season, a project that may very well have played a role in crashing Spotify and TIDAL upon its release. Featuring production from Timbaland, DJ Dahi, Boi-1da, Jake One, T-Minus, and more — not to mention guest appearances from Morray, Lil Baby, and 21 Savage — many have already been quick to praise the project based on the early listening experience. 

One recurring point centers around J. Cole being at the top of his game, specifically at a technical level. Though the project is only a few hours old, it’s evident that Cole’s penmanship has elevated to yet another stage; few emcees can structure verses with such a dynamic approach, sliding in unexpected flow schemes without sacrificing the integrity of his lyricism.

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Case in point, the storytelling-driven standout “Let Go My Hand,” which finds Cole taking listeners on a stroll down memory lane, culminating in a direct reflection on his infamous fight with P Diddy:

“Kept a tough demeanor on the surface but was mostly just pretendin’/And luckily my bluff was workin’ way more often than not / But sometimes a ni*ga pulled my card, tryna expose me for a fraud/And with my reputation at stake, I was scufflin’ just to save face/Couple wins, couple losses/Some broken up too quick to call it/My last scrap was with Puff Daddy, who would’ve thought it?/I bought that ni*ga album in seventh grade and played it so much/You would’ve thought my favorite rapper was Puff/Back then I ain’t know shit, now I know too much.”

Beyond the rare exploration of masculinity in hip-hop, a refreshing admission from Cole in its own right, many were excited to hear the rapper finally address on that fateful night at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. Complex sources explained that the conflict stemmed after Diddy confronted Kendrick Lamar over his “king of New York” comments on “Control.” When Puff reportedly tried to pour a drink on Kendrick, Cole stepped in and the situation got physical between the rappers and their crews. 

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Afterward, Cole’s longtime right-hand man Ibrahim Hamad implied that much of the coverage surrounding the incident was overblown, though it was clear there was more to the story. Now, Cole took it upon himself to finally address his Diddy fight, providing a bit of context surrounding what might have driven him to scrap in the first place. “But sometimes a ni*ga pulled my card, tryna expose me for a fraud / with my reputation at stake, I was scufflin’ just to save face,” he spits, a telling and refreshing bit of honesty.

Check out “Let Go My Hand” now, and be sure to check out The Off-Season in full right here. 

LISTEN: J. Cole – Let Go My Hand

J. Cole’s long-awaited album, The Off-Season, has finally arrived and fans have had a lot to say about the 12-track project on social media. 

Thus far, HotNewHipHop readers are loving Cole’s KOD follow-up. On HNHH, the album has an 89% positive rating from fans with comments declaring Friday to be Cole’s day, despite another highly-anticipated release from Nicki Minaj.

“Cole didn’t not [sic] disappoint, this is just what the game needed,” one user wrote.

Other users celebrated the all-star lineup of producers who worked on the project. Timbaland, Boi-1da, DJ Dahi, Jake One, Frank Dukes, Tae Beast, Maneesh, Wa1o, Sucuki, Coleman, Tommy Parker, Mario Luciano, T-Minus, and Cole, himself, are all credited.

“DIFFERENT PRODUCERS FINALLY,” another user cheered.

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An early favorite on the tracklist appears to be “9 5 . s o u t h,” the Cam’ron assisted introduction to the album. Maneesh, COLEMAN, and Boi-1da are credited with the song’s production.

“The last :35 seconds of 95 south has me ready to beat up everybody in my house,” one fan wrote on Twitter.

Cole averted expectations by bringing in 21 Savage, Lil Baby, and others to appear on the album, a decision that fans seem to be loving.

Some fans are even suggesting that 21 and Cole should do a full project together: “If we can’t get the cole and kdot album we need cole and 21.”

Listeners were also shocked to hear Cole confirm that he got in a fight with Diddy, a story he references on “Let Go My Hand.”

Check out more responses below.