YUNGBLUD has already been leading a revolutionary musical movement spanning across generations, and now he’s aiming to inspire “the future of alternative and hip-hop.” Today, the UK artist has unleashed the collaborative single, “When We Die (Can We Still Get High?),” featuring rapper/hip-hop superstar Lil Yachty. The track unfolds with an artful array of graceful guitar strums that captures a 90s Britpop/alternative rock sound, ushering in a slow-burn, toned-down vocal delivery courtesy of YUNGBLUD. In the quiet recesses of introspection, he asks, “Does heaven have a dealer?/Do they sell the love cheaper than in Hollywood?” As the notes weave together,… Read more »
2023 signals the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip-hop, with the genre in some of the rudest health it has ever been in.
Sit down… and listen to beats from another era. I’ve heard that today’s youth doesn’t care about the roots of Hip-Hop. I think it’s just cause they haven’t heard the right tracks!… Enjoy!
Hip-hop pioneer and entrepreneur Russell Simmons on Wednesday pledged to raise awareness about slavery around the world after being appointed a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador. Simmons, who joins celebrity ambassadors including British soccer player David Beckham, tennis player Roger Federer and actress Angelina Jolie, was appointed as ambassador to honor past and present victims of slavery. “Providing awareness is a key factor, there’s ongoing suffering and new modern day slavery,” Simmons told reporters at UN headquarters. UN agencies have been trying to draw attention to human trafficking and the enslavement of women and children in the sex trade. Goodwill ambassadors… Read more »
Guess who’s back? Eminem appears on the cover of the latest issue of XXL magazine dressed as the Punisher – and, judging from the interview excerpts published on the magazine’s Web site, Em kept up with what was going on in hip-hop during his absence. “I stayed up on the music, and obviously I watch TV and saw what was going on,” he said. “And without naming any names, it just felt like hip-hop was going downhill. And it seemed like kinda fast. You know, in them three years, it was like everybody just cares about the hook and the… Read more »
When rapper Flo Rida set a digital sales record with his single “Low,” which moved 470,000 copies the first week of January despite not being available on an album, it was emblematic of an intriguing trend. Digital hip-hop song sales are at an all-time high, but in terms of digital album commerce, hip-hop is lagging behind other genres. In 2007, of 500.4 million albums sold industry-wide, 10 percent were sold digitally. In comparison, of the 41.7 million rap albums sold, only 7 percent (2.9 million) of those were digital. So far this year (through the week ending February 17), according… Read more »
Rap musicians and top record label executives defended the hip-hop business Tuesday, telling lawmakers it is wrong to single out the genre for congressional reprobation. Lavell Crump, who goes by the name David Banner, told the house consumer protection subcommittee that picking on rap unfairly singles out the black community. “When it comes down to it, it’s just a song,” Crump said. “Arnold Schwarzenegger is governor of California, but in his movies he killed half of Cambodia and he went to Mars and blew up Mars . . . but that’s OK because he’s a white man and he’s an… Read more »
Late in the afternoon of Jan. 16, a SWAT team from the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, backed up by officers from the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office and the local police department, along with a few drug-sniffing dogs, burst into a unmarked recording studio on a short, quiet street in an industrial neighborhood near the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. The officers entered with their guns drawn; the local police chief said later that they were “prepared for the worst.” They had come to serve a warrant for the arrest of the studio’s owners on the grounds that they had violated the… Read more »
Geneva, NY-based crossover rap/rock group Gym Class Hero’s are here to put fun back into hip-hop. As frontman Travis McCoy reveals, we couldn’t agree more; “Everybody takes themselves so seriously, it’s become a fashion show more or less. We want the vibe to be as fun as possible.” It’s hard to imagine anything less fun than their new single “Cupid’s Chokehold”, set for it’s UK release this month (February 12th) after already burning up across North America. The band have even catapulted themselves from relative newcomers to serious U.S. chart contenders with the cut – currently being featured atop MTV’s… Read more »
SEATTLE, Wash. – Dwango® Wireless (OTCBB:DWGN), a developer and publisher of entertainment content, applications and mobile lifestyle brands, announced today their release of exclusive audio voice tones from hip-hop artists Styles P and Sheek Louch, members of the LOX and D-Block. This exclusive content deal was done through digital record label INgrooves. Styles P and Sheek Louch first tasted fame as part of a trio for the LOX. After writing songs for Sean “Puffy” Combs’ record label Bad Boy Entertainment, they received international notoriety and multi-platinum status for their tribute to Biggie Smalls, “We’ll Always Love Big Poppa.” The LOX… Read more »
