New Hip Hop News

As previously reported, Benny Blanco recently stopped by Apple Music for an interview with veteran radio host Zane Lowe. While there, the famed DJ and producer — who has helped provided beats for some of Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran, Rihanna, Juice WRLD, and The Weeknd’s biggest hits — shared plenty of anecdotes about his awkward personal experiences during his time in the music industry. One that stood out in particular, however, was when he recalled trying to kiss Beyoncé on the cheek and the moment immediately took a turn for the worse.

According to Benny, the embarrassing moment took place when he was leaving Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s house after playing beats for them roughly a decade ago, and somehow he ended up slightly kissing the Lemonade artist right in front of Hov. Benny recounts the situation, saying, “I went to do the kiss on the cheek, and I guess we just missed a little bit. I definitely hit the corner of some sort of lip. And I’m sitting there, and as I’m doing it, out of the corner of my eye, Jay-Z is right there looking at me. And I’m just like, my lip is here. Hers is there, and there’s definitely some corner things happening.”

Now that Benny Blanco’s comments have traveled around the internet, it appears that Chance the Rapper, an artist that is close to the Carters, has come forward to shut his story down completely. Commenting under The Shade Room’s coverage of Benny’s Zane Lowe, Chance dropped off a simple blue hat emoji, which roughly translates to “cap.”

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Chance the Rapper hasn’t given any details as to why he isn’t buying Benny’s latest comments, so stay tuned to see whether the Chicago artist further elaborates on the DJ and producer’s outlandish claims in the near future.

As music evolves, so do our tastes. New genres and subgenres of music are constantly created for us to immerse ourselves into, learning more about new artists as they develop and find out the stories that have birthed their art over the years. In hip-hop, we have a fascination with placing artists against one another, determining our personal “best rappers” lists, which always tend to blow up on social media. Whenever somebody states their own tastes, they’re generally challenged or praised as others are quick to remind them of who they skipped. 

Justin Bieber was the latest guest on DJ Khaled’s The First One podcast on Amazon Music, where he spoke about his brand new album Justice, which is set to debut at #1 on the Billboard 200. His new single “Peaches” with Daniel Caesar and GIVEON is also on pace for a #1 debut on the Billboard Hot 100. During Bieber’s conversation with Khaled, the artist revealed his updated Top 5 Rappers list, changing it from the one he gave a few years ago.

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Going down the list, Biebs revealed that Lil Wayne, Biggie, Eminem, Kanye West, and Drake topped his list. When he was asked the same question in 2015, he answered that Ma$e, Tupac, and Nas were also on that list, accompanied by Biggie and Eminem, who remain six years later. 

Explaining why Drake made his list, Bieber said that he’s “constantly pushing culture and the needle forward”. 

Watch an extended clip of their interview below, courtesy of The SpringHill Company.

Though Ja Rule’s involvement in the notorious Fyre Festival will forever remain part of his legacy, that’s not to say it’s entirely without benefits. Considering how many have subsequently seen the gallows humor in the whole Fyre Festival situation, it’s not entirely surprising to see this zany new development come to pass.

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As it happens, Ja recently staged an auction for a Fyre Festival painting he commissioned; according to Complex, the Tripp Derrick Barnes painting (commissioned for $2,000 dollars, as per Forbes) originally hung in the company’s New York office before being transferred over to Ja Rule’s home. Evidently, Rule moved to put the artwork up for auction, citing the negative energy he feels it carries. Though he originally intended to auction it off on eBay, he ultimately decided to go the NFT route, staging the auction on his own Flipkick NFT-trading platform.

Though you’d think Fyre fanaticism would have faded by now, the painting ultimately went on to fetch quite the hefty selling price, apparently being sold for an NFT worth an approximated $122,000. According to a report from Forbes, the winner also received a handwritten note from Ja, who playfully declared “fuck this painting” in the item notes. 

Following the purchase, Ja took to Twitter to celebrate accordingly, sharing a receipt of the final tally and offering up a decisive “goodnight.” Clearly, the former Murder Inc rapper-turned-cryptocurrency mogul is doing something right, and we’re curious to see how his foray into the world of Non-Fungible-Tokens develops in the future. 

Young Buck attempted to rewrite his narrative of the last three years by telling his followers that his entire feud with 50 Cent, which included years of insults and transphobic remarks, was staged with the sole intention of re-establishing Buck’s music career. The former G-Unit rapper said that the plan was orchestrated by Fiddy to tear down Buck in order to build him back up, but 50 has officially responded and he says that Buck is lying about their beef being staged.

In his reported response to Young Buck’s live stream where he claimed that 50 Cent planned this entire teardown of the rapper’s character by dragging him over an alleged relationship with a trans woman, Fif told Buck to “stop lying” and insulted him yet again, proving perhaps that their feud wasn’t orchestrated in the first place.

“SMH,” wrote 50 Cent in an alleged since-deleted reply, which was picked up by hip-hop blogs on social media. “He only makes a fool of him self and the transgender man he was dating for a year gets angry every time he says he got cat fished stop lying Damn!”

In a recent interview with VladTV, Young Buck claimed that he was catfished by a transgender woman, who he thought was a cisgender woman. He says that he never engaged in sexual intercourse with the woman or had any type of relationship with her.

Do you think Buck is lying about the beef being fake?

Make no mistake, DJ Khaled’s Khaled Khaled album is coming. He’s been making it abundantly clear that album mode is well underway, having recently teased collaborations with Post Malone, H.E.R, Migos, Travis Scott, and more. Though he has yet to confirm a release window for the forthcoming body of work, previous patterns indicate that a summer drop is certainly a possibility. Especially given that he appears to be working on new material for the project, taking to Instagram to tease a few key collaborations.

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For one, Khaled appears to have landed yet another verse from Nas, with whom he has previously worked on highlight tracks like “Nas Album Done,” “It’s Secured” with Travis Scott, and “Won’t Take My Soul” with CeeLo Green. Given how frequently the pair have collaborated on this point, it’s all but expected to see Nas popping up whenever Khaled delivers an album. “KHALED KHALED x NAS ALBUM MODE it’s special alert,” writes the mogul, alongside a few flicks of their reunion.

Shortly after linking up with Nas, Khaled went on to connect with Roddy Ricch and his team, presumably to facilitate the pair’s first collaboration. Unsurprising, given Khaled’s well-honed instinct for orchestrating hits and Roddy’s involvement in a few of the game’s biggest recent tracks. “Busy day! Amazing day ! BLESS Up!” captions Khaled. “@roddyricch ! Love brother ! KHALED KHALED ALBUM MODE!” Check out pictures of their meeting below, and sound off if you’re excited for a new album from the bestselling DJ.

Late Brooklyn rapper Pop Smoke was on pace to enjoy a seriously prolific career in the music industry, which is evidenced by the success of his debut studio album Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon. Executive produced by rap legend 50 Cent, the album was released in July 2020 and it has been an enormous victory for the late music star. Though it’s heartbreaking that Pop isn’t here to witness the impact he had on the world, the Brooklyn drill rapper has posthumously been in the driver’s seat for hit-after-hit, including viral sensations like “What You Know Bout Love” and “Mood Swings” with Lil Tjay.

On Tuesday, it was reported that Pop Smoke’s debut album Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon had spent an astonishing nineteen weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, tying a record with Prince’s iconic album Purple Rain. It is now being reported by Complex that the album also broke a record on Billboard’s Top Rap Albums list, clocking in twenty weeks at #1 and surpassing a previous record held by Eminem’s Recovery, which spent nineteen weeks at the top in 2010-11. 

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Eminem might have lost a record on this one but he gained a tremendous accomplishment this week with Curtain Call spending an entire decade on the charts at a total of five-hundred and twenty weeks on the Billboard 200. Will it ever leave?

Congratulations to Pop Smoke’s estate on the posthumous success of Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon. Long live Pop Smoke.

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Takeoff is the most underrated member of the Migos, but he’s also the quietest rapper within the group. While he has often been hailed as the glue that holds the three-man team together, Quavo and Offset always get a heightened spotlight shone on their lives. Recently, that much has been proven as true after Quavo’s highly-publicized split from ex-girlfriend Saweetie. Of course, Offset is also always in the news because of his relationship with Cardi B.

With Takeoff remaining the most low-key member of the Migos, he came through with a strong message as the lead-up for Culture III continues. With more and more scrutiny being laid upon Quavo and the bunch, especially on social media forums, Takeoff said that he hopes Migos fans start to give the group their flowers while they can still smell them.

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“One Of The Greatest,” said Takeoff on Instagram, sharing a gallery of recent pictures of himself. “Give Us Our [Flowers] While We Can Smell Em That’s All We Ask.”

This past week has undoubtedly been a rough one for Quavo, as well as Takeoff and Offset by extension. The “Lamb Talk” rapper has been slandered in the media because of his accused cheating ways, which, by attachment, have damaged the Migos’ press run by a touch. Many are still expecting this next Migos album to be a good one though.

Are you looking forward to the release of Culture III? Show some love to the Migos in the comments.

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