New Hip Hop News

On Saturday, Post Malone is going to hold a virtual concert to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Pokémon franchise. Fans were certainly shocked by this collaboration as it doesn’t seem the two things have much in common, but it got even more shocking when Post revealed one of the songs he’d be performing was a cover of “Only Wanna Be With You” by Hootie & The Blowfish. According to the Pokémon Company, “the song will be included as part of Post’s headlining appearance.”

Fans responded well to the cover, and it’s certainly an updated and quite enchanting version of a 90s classic. However, no one responded better to the release than Darius Rucker, lead vocalist and guitarist of Hootie & The Blowfish. 

“The smile in my face will not leave for a long time,” wrote Rucker in a Tweet on Thursday. “This is awesome. My bro@PostMalone bringing it. Hell yes man!!!!!!!!!”

The artist raved even more about the cover in an interview with Variety. “It’s awesome to see that a song we wrote almost 30 years ago continues to resonate as it really speaks to the lasting life a song can have when people connect with it. I love seeing someone like Post put his own spin on it like he does with everything he records.” 

Listen to the cover below, and check out Post Malone’s performance on Saturday at 7PM ET.

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Popcorned Planet has confirmed that Amber Heard has been fired from Aquaman 2 after rumors surfaced that she was being replaced by Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke. According to an inside source, Heard was fired by Warner Bros after failing to comply with some health clauses. Popcorned Planet also confirmed that Emilia Clarke was not replacing Heard, and that it’s currently unknown who will take over her role in the film. 

After the release of 2018’s Aquaman, a sequel was quickly taken up for discussion by Warner Bros. James Wan, an infamous director in the horror movie genre, was chosen to direct the sequel after having immense success with the franchise’s first entry. Jason Momoa and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II will reprise their roles as Aquaman and Black Manta respectively. Warner Bros has not yet announced a female lead. As of right now, the film is slated for release on December 16th, 2022. 

The news about Amber Heard’s removal from the film comes amid another postponement of a trial date for her and Johnny Depp for Depp’s $50 million defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife. The trial has now been rescheduled to April 11th and is expected to last for about two weeks while the court deliberates the events between the two ex-spouses. 

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Hopefully, we’ll hear new developments about the new Aquaman 2 female lead as well as the trial soon. 

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“I applaud Jeremy for his words and echo his sentiments regarding racism against the Asian American community,” Kerr said in regards to Lin’s Facebook post. “It’s just so ridiculous and obviously spawned by many people, including our former president, as it relates to the coronavirus originating in China. It’s just shocking.”

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People have never been more anxious for another stimulus check. More than half a million lives have now been lost to the Coronavirus, and most people have gone months without any kind of government support. Those who normally work full-time in-person are still struggling to stay afloat after the COVID-19 pandemic has left them quarantined and unemployed. On Friday, the first step in a new coronavirus relief package moved forward, with a $1.9 trillion relief bill being passed by the House of Representatives. 

The bill aims to infuse cash to struggling individuals and stimulate the economy, providing citizens with some form of assistance in paying for rent, food, and other bills. Many Republican representatives opposed the bill, saying it was too expensive and not enough money was going to be sent to immediately reopen schools. 

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“I am a happy camper tonight,” Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said Friday. “This is what America needs. Republicans, you ought to be a part of this. But if you’re not, we’re going without you.”

The goals of the bill are to provide $1,400 relief checks to individuals, increase tax credits for children, and extend emergency unemployment until August. The bill also uses billions of dollars to support schools, local government, COVID-19 vaccines and testing, and offer relief to struggling industries such as restaurants, bars, and airlines. The bill will now move to the Senate. 

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If you were a fan of “Chappelle’s Show” back in the day, then you certainly remember the Charlie Murphy Hollywood Stories in which he would recount hilarious tales about his time in the entertainment industry. While the Rick James story is easily the most quotable, the Prince basketball game may very well be the funnier of the two. In the story, Murphy assumes that Prince and his crew aren’t very good at sports but in the end, he is proven wrong as the Murphy brothers got decimated by a team full of men in blouses.

During an appearance on the Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, Eddie Murphy gave his side of the story and as it turns out, the late Charlie Murphy told it extremely accurately. Perhaps the only fact he omitted is when Prince actually gave his teammate some kicks that were three sizes too small.

“My brother was like, ‘Okay, it’s going to be shirts against blouses,’” Murphy explained. “The blouses won, they beat the s–– out of us. We had one dude on our squad Larry who could play and he didn’t have no shoes so Prince gave him some sneakers. And Prince wore like two, three sizes smaller than Larry, but Larry was so excited to have Prince’s sneakers on, he put those tiny sneakers on his feet and he couldn’t do his game right. So we lost. The one dude who could play, Prince’s shoes had him shutdown.”

It was great to hear Eddie add some credence to the original story, which will forever be a classic segment on “Chappelle’s Show.” If you want to see the original story told by Charlie, you can check that out down below.

Randy Shropshire/Getty Images for the Celebration of Black Cinema

Forced quarantine as the COVID-19 pandemic roars on has freed up a lot of time for many as they’re pushed to spend much more time at home than usual. Some people picked up new hobbies, while some used the increased free time to work on getting their post-quarantine body just right. Big Sean seemed to be keeping busy with the latter, debuting his impressive new quarantine body in a series of shirtless photos on the Gram. 

Photo by Jerritt Clark/Getty Images for Savage X Fenty Show Vol. 2 Presented by Amazon Prime Video

He shared the photos on Friday (February 26) to his Instagram account, wearing nothing but blue workout shorts as he posed, resembling an action-figure. He penned in the caption of the post, “Had to start catching up to my potential…Last pic a reminder to myself to keep this shit up,” with an arm flexing and laughing emoji.   

He attached a photo at the end of the set at the start of the Detroit rapper’s career, notably way less swole than he is now. As many pointed out, the rapper has accentuated the “Big” in his stage name with his new muscular build. Comedian Marlon Wayans joked that Sean had got so buff that it looked like he had just been released from an extended prison stint. 

“N*gga looking like he just got released from a 10 year bid #jailbuff,” commented Wayans. Another follower simply added, “Bigger Sean”

Big Sean recently celebrated the sixth anniversary of his third studio album Dark Sky Paradise, which featured hits like “I Don’t Fuck With You,” “Blessings,” and “Play No Games.”   

We’re almost at the end of February and there’s still no sign of whether we’ll be seeing Certified Lover Boy any time soon. The album was expected to drop in January and as the month came to an end, Drake said that it would not be dropping. Fans were saddened by the news, especially since he never mentioned exactly when we could expect it. However, he’s working hard and he’s made a concerted effort to remind us all of this.

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Even with a guarded vault filled with unreleased gems, Drake’s unreleased catalog continues to get breached to this day. An unreleased record was unearthed this weekend titled, “What’s Next.” Drizzy’s on his rapping shit this time around, cutting through the grungy trap production with grandiose flexes that only he could relate to. 

There’s some familiarity with the latest leak. Just a few weeks ago, an unreleased collaboration with Young Thug titled, “What A Time To Be A Slime” hit the web. It was quite unpolished but many hoped that it would land on either CLB or whatever Thug has coming next. There are a few bars from his collab with Thugger that are heard on “What’s Next.” It’s unclear whether either of those tracks will be seeing a release date in the future.

We’re hoping that we’ll be getting a new single from Drake in the near future. Most recently, his long-awaited collaboration with Drakeo The Ruler on “Talk To Me” was finally released on Drakeo’s The Truth Hurts. 

We can’t post the new Drake leak here but it shouldn’t be too hard to find. Are you excited about Certified Lover Boy?

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