New Hip Hop News

Lil Durk can definitely get pretty emotional in his music. While a good chunk of his music details his movements in the streets, another portion of it is dedicated to his love for longtime girlfriend India Royale. Smurk also spends time connecting with his most introspective thoughts in the studio, which is the reason why so many people are confused by his latest message on social media.

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Recently seeing a lot of success with the release of his solo album The Voice, as well as the OTF compilation album Loyal Bros, Lil Durk has been attracting all kinds of mainstream attention in the last year. After spending nearly a decade buzzing on the underground, it’s about time that people finally take notice of Durkio’s talent. One of his main attributes is the fact that he can seemingly connect to fans’ emotions through his own storytelling. While he’s proven to be a big stepper in the streets, he often seems to be in touch with his feelings as well, but he’s apprently not too impressed when other rappers do the same.

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“Make raw music and stop crying like b*tches soft ass n***as,” wrote Smurk on Instagram Stories on Wednesday night. Many have pointed out their confusion, stating that Durk is also out here crying on his own songs. Others believe that he could be subliminally mentioning Quando Rondo, who released his new video for “Okay” on Wednesday, pointing out how he speaks about crying in the song. Others are mentioning Rod Wave in the comments, telling Durk that the Florida rapper has made an entire career off of crying in the booth.

Who do you think the message was geared towards?

Rolling Stone has recently published a fascinating piece on the presence of stream-manipulation, where third-party services artificially run numbers in order to boost an artist’s sales. The practice has become so frequent in the industry that it has been deemed the “black market for pay-for-play” by the Director of the International Confederation of Music Publishers Josh Phelan.

The piece centers around Digital Marketer Joshua Mack — whose services include an improvement in streaming numbers -, highlighting a conversation he held with Blueprint’s CEOs Gee Roberson and Jean Nelson, as well as head of digital strategy, Bryan Calhoun, and chief marketing officer Al Branch. The subject in question was a new G-Eazy single, though the piece does not mention which one (he recently dropped off the Chris Brown-assisted “Provide”). According to the audio recording Rolling Stone obtained, one member of G-Eazy’s team declared “I want this to be big,” before others inquired further about Mack’s methods.

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“We’re saving the album and running the numbers up across multiple devices, all premium,” he states, following a boast that his network can “generate 200 million streams a month,” which roughly translates into 133-thousand album-equivalent units. “We basically cracked the code, and understand how to manipulate the system and hit astronomical numbers,” explains Mack, speaking to the Blueprint team apparently considering his services. 

Despite Spotify’s efforts to combat the practice, with measures ensuring that songs utilizing stream-trolling will be penalized with potential removal from the service. Still, that in itself can end up causing problems for the artist, who isn’t necessarily involved in any of the behind-the-scenes practices. “It’s important for artists and managers to know that some promotional services use stream-manipulation methods without informing them, leaving artists to suffer the consequences.” 

Rolling Stone’s piece also quotes an anonymous A&R, who admits that his own label occasionally looks to these third-parties to illicitly fudge the numbers. “There are a few third-party companies out there running this for a lot of the major companies,” they reveal. “We use them too for some of our artists. We agree to a certain amount of money for a certain amount of streams, and we can spread that out among [our] artists. It’s like, we’re good; we just need performance-enhancing steroids to be a little bit better.”

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It should be noted that there is no indication that G-Eazy nor his team were aware that Blueprint ever spoke with Mack about the possibility of enlisting his services. In the recording, however, Mack can be heard promising a fifty-percent increase in album-equivalent units, promising that his services could change a projected twenty-thousand units into thirty-thousand. Such services are said to cost between $30,000 and $50,000. The publication also notes that there is no confirmation that Bluepoint ended up using Mack’s services.

The article itself, penned by journalist Elias Leight, is a fascinating read worth checking out. It’s no secret that stream-manipulation has been facing widening scrutiny, and many have watched the charts with a skeptical eye. Upon hearing how present services such as Mack’s truly are, one has to wonder how much smoke and mirrors are really going on. 

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With news breaking this week about Timbaland and Swizz Beatz inking a major deal to bring Verzuz to Triller, it’s about time that we hear about the next face-off planned for the celebratory music show. There were rumors that Ghostface Killah and Raekwon could be gearing up for the next battle, and that much was confirmed on Wednesday night with the official flier being revealed.

“Let’s take it back to the streets,” announced the official Verzuz account on social media. The epic showdown between The Tarantula and The Eagle will be the first face-off to take place after the rights were moved to Triller. Of course, you’ll still be able to watch on Instagram Live, as well as on the Triller app. Sponsored by Ciroc, the event will take place on March 20 at 8 PM ET.

The news was first teased following the star-studded D’Angelo & Friends Verzuz. The Wu Vs. Wu battle comes on the heels of RZA’s battle against DJ Premier, which happened a year ago when the show was just getting started out.

According to Billboard, Timbaland and Swizz Beatz are also set to be doing a Verzuz of their own on the one-year-anniversary.

Check out the details for the upcoming Raekwon vs. Ghostface Killah challenge, and let us know who you think will be winning.

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Kodak Black and Pooh Shiesty were briefly entangled in a back-and-forth social media feud, with the Memphis rapper seemingly taking offense after Kodak took credit for the recent money-spreading trend in pictures. In a video posted online, Kodak appeared to call out Lil Baby, checking him for his lyrics in “Finesse Out The Gang Way” where he says he “invented” showing money on the ‘Gram. Pooh went back over a decade to show that he’s been spreading his money on his arms and legs since long before Kodak was even in the rap game, which prompted heated comments on both sides. Lil Baby had been keeping quiet on the issue though.

Despite his initial silence on the matter, Lil Baby appears to finally be responding to Kodak calling him out, sub-tweeting somebody and asking them to quit sneak-dissing him online.

“Don’t sneak diss on the internet call me,” wrote Baby on Twitter on Thursday morning. While the Atlanta rapper doesn’t mention anybody in particular, the post was shared on multiple blog sites on Instagram, where commenters have been theorizing that this is meant for Kodak Black. 

The general consensus appears to be that this message can apply to Kodak, but others are saying that Baby is just running his mouth in general, not addressing anybody specifically.

Do you think this is meant for Kodak?

Kanye West may be currently going through a rough divorce with Kim Kardashian, but that isn’t stopping the acclaimed artist and businessman from working on his creative output. Last summer, it was revealed that Kanye West and clothing retailer Gap, Inc. were teaming up for a highly anticipated Yeezy x Gap collaboration, and less than a full year following the official partnership announcement, Gap has given fans a promising new update on the collection.

According to Complex, Gap’s chief executive officer Sonia Syngal has stepped forward to let fans know that the collaboration between Gap and Kanye West is still on track, despite the road bumps that manifested in the form of Kanye West tweets last fall. While reassuring business analysts, Syngal confirmed that she has recently talked to Kanye and checked in on the progress of the upcoming apparel line.

“I spoke to Yeezy last night and he’s very, very focused on this incredible opportunity,” Syngal said, reaffirming that everything is moving smoothly in regards to the Yeezy x Gap collab.

As mentioned earlier, Kanye’s Gap line didn’t appear to be moving in the best direction last fall when the multihyphenate took to Twitter to blast the brand, saying, “I DONT HAVE A BOARD SEAT AT GAP I DONT HAVE AT ADIDAS … BLAC BOARD SEATS MATTER.” West soon threatened to not drop any more products for either brand until he was granted a board seat, but judging from his recent slew of Adidas Yeezy releases and Syngal’s latest update, Kanye West is still dedicated to creating footwear and apparel for all. 

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Eugene “Big U” Henley raised some eyebrows with his recent comments about Quando Rondo on The Breakfast Club. Speaking about how younger rappers should be communicating more frequently with OGs when they’re traveling around to different hoods, the street legend and former Crips leader called out Quando Rondo and said that the rapper tried to contact him the other day, but because they hadn’t stayed in communication over the years, he chose to ignore the call. 

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“You can’t call me when the fire hot. You didn’t f*ck with me before that. You had my number, you could have called me, you could have did all that,” said Big U during his interview with Charlamagne Tha God. Quando responded promptly, explaining that he never called Big U to ask for protection and claiming that he wanted to team up with the big stepper for a charitable cause, telling fans that he’s trying to get out of the streets and focus on his image. Big U seemingly saw that video because he’s addressing the situation in his own message, and he appears to say it’s all good for Quando.

“I’m addressing this little thing with young nephew, with Quando. First of all, I never talked to Quando, it ain’t nothing but love with Quando,” said Big U. “I was only addressing something that Charlamagne had said to me. If nephew is reaching out to do something for the kids, definitely do that. I never talked to him. He just asked me if somebody reached out. I just feel like I know cuz and I been knew him. I never heard from him after we had a conversation a year or a year and a half ago. Maybe two years ago. So when he called me, I’m only on positive vibes. I’ma pull up on cuz or he can pull up on me. I’m in his town right now. I ain’t got nothing but love for nephew.”

Big U says that Quando had a conversation with his son about something a week ago, further showcasing that there’s no bad blood between them.

Watch the video above.