J.I.D Releases Long Awaited J. Cole Collab Track “Off Deez”

If J.I.D had a dollar for every time his comment sections mentioned a J.Cole collab he’d have double whatever is in his bank account right now. The Dreamville signee is gearing up to release his sophomore studio album DiCaprio 2 on November 26th and has dropped another single to hold fans until the album releases. This one features J. Cole and some promotional artwork that has a clear message to a certain annual awards show. The track features rapid fire flow switch ups from J.I.D while Cole comes in with a slower tempo before kicking it into second gear with his own rapid fire contribution. 

“Off Deez” is available on all music streaming services now. 

 

Image via Instagram

A$ap Rocky Announces His Winter Tour- The Injured Generation Tour

At last! Asap Rocky announces he will be going on tour 6 months after releasing his third studio album, Testing. 

The tour will kick off November 11 at Camp Flog Gnaw. Following that, Rocky will have 20 more shows that will officially end the tour mid-February in Miami, Fl.

Presale tickets will go on sale October 30 at 12pm.

Here’s a list of the cities you can catch The Injured Generation Tour:

• 11/11/2018 – LA, CA
• 12/08/2018 – NYC, NY
• 01/08/2019 – Minneapolis, MN
• 01/09/2019 – Chicago, IL
• 01/11/2019 – Toronto, ON
• 01/13/2019 – Montreal, QC
• 01/15/2019 – Philadelphia, PA
• 01/18/2019 – Uncasville, CT
• 01/20/2019 – Washington, DC
• 01/22/2019 – Greensboro, NC
• 01/23/2019 – Duluth, GA
• 01/25/2019 – San Antonio, TX
• 01/26/2019 – Houston, TX
• 01/27/2019 – Grand Prairie, TX
• 01/30/2019 – San Diego, CA
• 01/31/2019 – Inglewood, CA
• 02/01/2019 – Sacramento, CA
• 02/02/2019 – San Francisco, CA
• 02/05/2019 – Portland, OR
• 02/06/2019 – Kent, WA
• 02/17/2019 – Miami, FL

Takeoff Releases His First Single, “Last Memory”, From His Upcoming Project, The Last Rocket

Takeoff announced his first solo project, The Last Rocket, last week. A day later, he then releases his first single from the project, Last Memory. 

Last Memory shows off the different flows and rages of Takeoff on a bass looped track. In the past year, Takeoff has gained the respect of his fans as being everyone’s favorite Migo after his trending meme “do it look like I was left off bad and bougie”. Well, now Takeoff is showing us his own style and creativity. 

Following Quavo’s solo album, Quavo Huncho- released October 12th, The Last Rocket is expected to release November 2nd. We can expect Offset to release sometime in December to close out 2018 with a solo album from all three Migos.

Drake’s New Record

Since he was first introduced to us in 2007, Drake has shown us time and time again that he’s a hit maker. 

Drake now holds the record of the most top 10 hits in a calendar year on the Billboard Hot 100 list. This record was previously held by The Beatles for over 50 years who held 11!

His latest single with Bad Bunny, “MIA” will now sit at number 5 on the October 27 listing of Billboard’s list. Here’s a list of Drake’s solo and collaborative projects that are currently on the list:

• “In My Feelings” 

• “Emotionless” 

• “Look Alive” By Blocboy JB ft. Drake

• “Walk It Talk It” By Migos ft. Drake  

• “God’s Plan” 

• “Nice For What” 

• “Diplomatic Immunity”

• “Yes Indeed” By Lil Baby ft. Drake  

• “I’m Upset”

• “Don’t Matter To Me” 

• “Nonstop”

Rapper, Key!, Drops New Song “Zach Morris”

Atlanta rapper, Key!, drops a new song on his SoundCloud titled “Zach Morris”. For the youngins, Zach Morris was a popular, stylish jock in the hit show “Saved By The Bell”.

On the track, Key! compares himself to the popular jock while everyone else was Screech – the clumsy nerd, opposite of Zach Morris. Listen to the track below and give us your thoughts.

 

Travis Scott Releases Video for ASTROWORLD Hit “SICKO MODE”

Travis Scott’s “SICKO MODE” hit has been celebrated and played at every gathering since it dropped. Now as with all hot songs it’s been given the video treatment and it was just as amazing as you’d expect it to be. Directed by Dave Meyers and Travis himself, we see Travis and Drake in a variety of settings (and colors). These include a room full of hanging lightbulbs (like a light), an enormous chalkboard, a school bus and space itself. Many are calling this Video of the Year. Do you agree? 

Watch the insane visuals below! 

 

Video via YouTube

BET Hip-Hop Awards: Here’s What Mattered

Let’s face it. Some things on BET are just annoying, wrong or irrelevant. But, when the Hip Hop Awards come around we at least get some good to decent musical performances and some entertaining cyphers. Here’s what went down that’s worth talking about. 

Performances 

This year we got about 3 performances that were noteworthy. T.I and Yo Gotti performed together accompanied by some dancers in traditional Mexican attire. T.I. proved he could still hang despite his age and gave more energy than most of the younger artists.  We were also treated to a performance by Cardi B from Club Liv. It would appear she’s taking the Beyonce route and “sending in” performance footage instead of actually appearing. The performance was energetic however, featuring the rapper twerking on the ground which was quickly turned into a GIF by Black Twitter. We also got a performance by up and coming Brooklyn rapper Flipp Dinero in which he ran across the stage multiple times, giving some well needed energy to the stage. 

(Lil Pump, Gucci Mane, A$AP Rocky, Lil Baby, Gunna, Lil Duval, YG, Yella Beezy and Young M.A. also performed)

Cyphers 

The cyphers this year were a mixed bag to say the least. With most viewers anticipating what Vic Mensa said about the late XXXTentacion there was not much to hold us until that happened. Each cypher had clear standouts with the others being average or worse. Clear standouts were Sharaya J, Shawn Smith, Flawless Real Talk, Neelam Hakeem, Tobe Nwigwe and YBN Cordae. Each group rapped over various versions of the “Banned From TV” instrumental, which was introduced to many (younger) listeners by Lil Wayne using it on his No Ceilings  mixtape. We also got a fun freestyle from Erykah Badu herself at the end of the second cypher. 

The Actual Awards

In the two hour runtime of the show a total of FOUR Awards that were given were televised. Yep. Probably the most surprising would have to be EVERYTHING IS LOVE winning over KOD and others for album of the year. Lil Wayne was also presented with the I Am Hip Hop Award and gave an inspiring and heartfelt speech, accompanied on stage by his mother and daughter. 

Do you still think the BET Hip Hop Awards are relevant?  

OTRII Tour Close Out- Jay Z And Beyoncé Grants Students With Over $1M In Scholarships

Hov and Bey closed out their OTRII tour this past Thursday in Seattle, Washington after hitting 15 UK/European cities and 21 cities here in the States. The power couple decided to give some of the tour earnings to qualified students through the Shawn Carter Scholarship Fund (SCSF) and BeyGOOD.

 

The recipients were chosen by the Boys and Girls Club of America in the following OTR II markets: Atlanta, Orlando, Miami, Arlington, New Orleans, Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Clara, and Seattle.

 

Beyoncè shared this video:

The SCSF averages about $500k in Scholarships a year, as seen on the foundation’s website.

BeyGOOD also does year-round charity work, especially in Bey’s local hometown in Houston. You can see more of the foundation’s contributions here. 

We just LOVE this giving family! #HovAndBey

 

Travis Scott Takes Us to ASTROWORLD in SNL Performance

On October 6 Travis Scott transformed the SNL stage into his own personal Astroworld. Performing the tracks “Skeletons” and “Astrothunder” viewers could see vibrant theme park style lights and smoke enveloping the stage. Positioned behind him on the left was a rotating carousel horse with a model, to continue the Astroworld theme. Seem crazy? Well positioned behind him on the right was long time collaborator producer Mike Dean as well as Kevin Parker of Tame Impala and John Mayer. The heavy hitters came together to create a very sonically pleasing performance. Watch it below!

Video via YouTube

 Travis also performed fan favorite “Sicko Mode” as a waterfall like affect covered the stage to begin the performance. In this waterfall we can see images of fellow Houston artist DJ Screw, who has a song dedicated to him on ASTROWORLD. For the majority of the performance we get a top down camera angle of Travis in a rollercoaster car rotating around, adding even more depth to the Astroworld theme.  Watch the performance below!

Video via YouTube

 Do these performances get you excited for Travis’ upcoming tour?

Anderson .Paak and Kendrick Lamar Release Collaborative Track “Tints”

2018 continues to give us wonderful music. Today we were blessed with a soulful jazzy collaboration from Anderson .Paak and Kendrick Lamar titled “Tints”. The track is the first single from .Paak’s upcoming album titled Oxnard which is set to feature J. Cole and Pusha T. This has us ready for the rest of the album coming out soon.

“Tints” is available on all music streaming services now.  

Photo: courtesy of @anderson.paak via Instagram