New Hip Hop News

We’ve seen A$AP Rocky touch the big screen on a few occasions in the past. DOPE became his breakout moment in the world of film but it also became his sole acting endeavor. However, fans have been anticipating the release of the film Monster since it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018 and finally, it will be hitting Netflix next month.

A trailer for the film, executive produced by Swizz Beatz, Nas, and Jeffrey Wright, was released this week which gave fans a glimpse of the upcoming legal drama. Nas and Rocky also make appearances in the film’s trailer which shows the rap legend as an inmate and the Harlem artist as a William King. 

Aside from Nas and Rocky, other stars in the film include Kelvin Harrison Jr. who takes on the leading role of Steve Harmon, Jennifer Hudson as Mrs. Hudson, and Jeffrey Wright as Mr. Harmon. 

Per Netflix, the story of the film, which is an adaption of Walter Dean Myers’ novel of the same name, revolves around a 17-year-old honors student from Harlem, Steve Harmon, who ends up being convicted of felony murder.

“I’m excited to share this beautiful, emotional, and important story with you all,” John Legend wrong upon unveiling the trailer.

Monster debuts on Netflix on May 7th. Will you be watching?

Morries Hall, a key witness in the trial of Derek Chauvin, is threatening to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination because his lawyer argues that any statement about his alleged drug activity with George Floyd could possibly lead to him being charged with third-degree murder in Floyd’s death.

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Hall was in the car with Floyd the day he died. The currently incarcerated man appeared at a court hearing via Zoom on Tuesday morning. His attorney stated that Hall has no immunity from the prosecution for the testimony about Hall and Floyd’s behavior while seated in a Mercedes Benz SUV before the police arrived and arrested Floyd. 

During his opening statement, Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, told the jury they would hear from Hall, who had been identified as an alleged drug dealer from whom Floyd purchased drugs. 

“This will include evidence that while they were in the car, Mr. Floyd consumed what were thought to be two Percocet [painkiller] pills,” Nelson said during his opening statement, naming Hall and Shawanda Hill, Floyd’s former girlfriend, as passengers in the SUV with Floyd outside the Cup Foods prior to police arriving on the scene.

The police were called to the store after Floyd allegedly used a fake $20 bill to buy cigarettes. 

Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

“Mr. Floyd’s friends will explain that Mr. Floyd fell asleep in the car and that they couldn’t wake him up to get going, that they thought the police might be coming because now the store [employees] were coming out,” Nelson said.

Nelson is undermining the primary allegation that Chavin killed Floyd by planting his knee in Floyd’s neck. Instead, the defense argues that a combination of the drugs fentanyl and methamphetamine is the main contributor to Floyd’s death. 

We will keep you updated as the trial continues. 

[via]

Rumors plagued the Obama team after it was reported that aides of the former president left dirty notes for the then-incoming Trump administration. It was denied by Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice but still, the rumors continued to spiral throughout the Internet. However, it seems that we have an independent third-party who can confirm that it was not President Obama but rather, celebrities who loathed Trump’s arrival to the White House.

ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images

Dave Chappelle recently sat down with Naomi Campbell for the one-year anniversary of her online series, No Filter. Both the comedian and the model reminisced about their trip to White House during Obama’s final days of presidency. “It was funny. We went to the White House, I forgot ID which is like a no-no in the White House. But the Secret Service was like, ‘We, we know who you are,'” said Chappelle. “The Secret Service said, ‘See you next time, Dave.’ I said, ‘Yep, see you next Black president.'”

Naomi brought up how lively the event was, especially with the amount of dancing and music being played. “It was one of the most beautiful things that I’ve ever seen. This was like, one of the last big parties the Obama’s threw,” reminisced Dave before recounting these apparent ‘dirty notes.’ “I’m not going to say these celebrities’ names… There was a thing. Remember when the Trump administration moved in? They said, ‘The Obama staff left dirty notes for us and all the drawers and all the cabinets.’ Now, I saw this happen — I’m not going to say who did it — but it was celebrities was writing all this crazy shit and puttin’ ’em all over there,” Chappelle recounted. “I saw them doing it and as soon as I saw it on the news, I laughed real hard.”

Immediately after, Naomi and Dave recounted a moment in the evening where Obama vanished upstairs before making a triumphant return to the party because the music was apparently too good. According to Dave, Obama walked into the room only to greet the attendees with a dab. 

On Tuesday, Vanessa Bryant posted a picture of 21-month old daughter Capri on Instagram, captioning the photo with: “It’s the KOBE stare for me. Capri Kobe … Daddy and Gigi’s twin.”

Capri is in her Easter pastel pink with face paint design on her cheek.

Vanessa also pointed out previously that Capri even walks like her late father and sister. 

Many people have commented on how strong and resilient Vanessa has appeared to be in the wake of her husband and daughter’s death last year. 

The Bryant family seems to be in high spirits lately.

Vanessa and her daughters celebrated Easter alongside Ciara and her children. Ciara and Russell Wilson hosted the holiday celebration, which was fun-filled with an Easter egg hunt, face painting, and a few egg-and-spoon races. 

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A post shared by Vanessa Bryant 🦋 (@vanessabryant)

Vanessa’s eldest daughter, Natalia, recently got accepted into her dream school, the University of Southern California. Vanessa gave her daughter a custom pair of Kobe Bryant signature Nikes in cardinal and gold.

Vanessa recently spoke to People magazine about raising her daughters and grief. “My girls help me smile through the pain,” Vanessa said. “They give me strength.”

Vanessa added that her children are “people that I would aspire to be if I was growing up with them.”

“I can’t say that I’m strong every day [and] I can’t say that there aren’t days when I feel like I can’t survive to the next,” she shared.

Rappers are known for having aliases and alter egos. We have seen it since the early days of Hip-Hop when Slick Rick adopted the moniker of “Rick The Ruler,” and recently, Tyler, the Creator’s last studio album fully explored his alter ego “Igor.” Another artist who is quick to refer to himself as something other than his stage name is Lil Durk, who is known to call himself “The Voice.” 

Taking his nickname quite literally, Lil Durk proclaims that he’s “The Voice” of everyone and everything in one of his recent tweets, but he also gives a quick disclaimer. According to the Chicago rapper, there are two types of people that he could never be “The Voice” for.

“The voice of everything just not snitches and b*tch n*ggas,” Lil Durk writes in the tweet, reiterating once again his immense hatred for snitches. 

Considering his neverending beef with 6ix9ine, Durk’s tweet makes a lot of sense, and seeing that Lul Tim — the man accused of killing King Von — has been having a good time on social media after being released on bond, one can only assume that Durk may be referring to people like him when saying “b*tch n*ggas.”

In other Lil Durk news, the rapper’s forthcoming collab tape with Lil Baby seems to be coming any day now, so stay tuned to see what The Voice and The Hero have in store for us.

Last week, 18-year-old Memphis rapper NLE Choppa was arrested on multiple charges for burglary, guns, and drugs. He claimed in a later statement that authorities planted some of the substances on him, setting him up to be arrested. As he fights for justice in his case, the teenaged rapper has been setting trends across social media, starting a new challenge associated with his “Beat Box (First Day Out)” freestyle.

Taking the original “Beat Box” challenge dance from SpottemGotem’s song and interpolating it into his own version of the dance, NLE Choppa tried to kick off the new “#ChoppaBeatBox” challenge. “This shit hard to do,” he wrote on TikTok, showing off the wacky new dance. Somewhat of a remixed version of the “Shoot” dance, NLE Choppa starts to convulse when the sound of bullets hits the audio. Then, he switches sides, does the “Shoot” again before convulsing a second time.

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Surprisingly enough, people are already starting to adopt the trend. Choppa’s video on TikTok has over a million likes and it has been viewed over 6 million times.

@nlechoppamusic

##stitch with @cnljayyx2 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂‼️ ##choppabeatbox

♬ original sound – NLE choppa

Known for his intense dancing skills, NLE Choppa has another trend in his bag with this one. Do you think it will take off?

Running into Drake at a bar is probably one of the top five things that you never expect to experience firsthand, but apparently, Instagram comedian and actor TravQue was more than prepared. The Instagram comedian is infamous for pulling up on artists and trolling them by pretending to be an up-and-coming rapper. However, when it comes time to “spit some bars,” he immediately recites lyrics from whichever artist he has chosen to mess with. He’s done it to rappers like Busta Rhymes, Wacka Flocka, and Dave East, and now, it appears that TravQue has caught one of the biggest artists in the world lacking: Drake.

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Like most rappers who are the subject to TravQue’s antics, Drake wasn’t here for it. In the video above, the Instagram comedian can be seen at a bar, standing next to the Certified Lover Boy artist and ordering “2,000 cases of Virginia Black, 40 cases of Bumbu, and three cases of tequila.” The clip quickly takes a turn when TravQue tells the bartender to put it on Drake’s tab and starts singing his lyrics aloud.

Viewers can see Drake getting uncomfortable and vocally expressing his distaste with TravQue, saying, “Relax bro, the f*ck?”  The Toronto artist then starts pushing the Instagram comedian away from him, and at one point Drake even reaches out and swats at TravQue’s phone.

Seeing as how bothered he was by TravQue’s antics, one can only imagine how Drake felt after realizing that it was a practical joke. Are you a fan of TravQue’s brand of Instagram comedy?