This week in Hip Hop, JAY-Z unleashed his project 4:44, answering many of the questions brought up by Beyonce’s LEMONADE. Following the BET Awards, the talk mostly stemmed from Migos’ separate run-ins with Joe Budden and Chris Brown’s crew. Lastly, Remy Ma was named the Best Female Hip Hop Artist at the BET Awards, breaking Nicki Minaj’s years-long streak.
JAY-Z Releases “4:44”
JAY-Z released 4:44 exclusively through TIDAL this week. The mysterious project, which was initially assumed to be related to new music from Hov before it briefly flipped to possibly being a film after a confusing trailer, dropped Friday (June 30) at midnight with 10 tracks produced by No I.D.
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Only TIDAL subscribers who signed up before Jay’s release and Sprint customers have access to listen to 4:44 so far, which hasn’t sat too well with the fans. While some didn’t have any extra e-mail addresses to spare so they could sign up for a trial TIDAL account, others don’t have any plans on switching to Sprint just to listen to the album. Those who haven’t heard 4:44 yet because of these technicalities missed out on the overflowing wealth of tea the 47-year-old rap icon spit out over the mic.
Throughout the album, Mr. Carter opens up about his relationship with his wife Beyonce, responding to infidelity rumors sparked by her last album, LEMONADE. Through song, he hints at cheating and apologizes for all the wrong he’s done since they’ve been together. Jay also took a few jabs at Kanye West and Future on the album, while throwing out Eric Benet’s name in reference to his cheating ways while married to Halle Berry. The R&B singer made sure to respond on Twitter, assuring everyone that he’s happy where he is.
Hey yo #Jayz! Just so ya know, I got the baddest girl in the world as my wife….like right now! ✌?
— Eric Benét (@ebenet) June 30, 2017
4:44 has received overwhelming praise from the Hip Hop community. Kendrick Lamar, Joe Budden and Pusha T are just a few of the fellow rappers who took to social media to show love.
4:44. WOW. MASTER TEACHER.
— Kendrick Lamar (@kendricklamar) June 30, 2017
Read more about the release JAY-Z’s 4:44here.
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Migos Vs. Everybody
It seems like Migos’ newfound mainstream success has come with a lot of drama since Donald Glover declared “Bad & Boujee” his favorite song during his Golden Globe acceptance speech earlier this year.
During the day of the BET Awards, Chris Brown and Migos had an intense stand-off outside of an award show after-party. In a video captured by a nearby spectator, Chris seems to be nonchalantly chilling on his car while Migos’ team appears to be ready for whatever. It’s not exactly clear why things got heavy between the cliques, but it’s rumored that Quavo is now dating Brown’s ex-girlfriend Karrueche. Offset later vaguely blamed “paper and haters” for the issues.
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And that wasn’t the only squabble Migos got into that day. They looked ready to get into it with Joe Budden after he abruptly walked away from their red carpet Everyday Struggle interview, while his co-host DJ Akademiks was complimenting them after an awkward back and forth. Quavo, Offset and Takeoff stood up in quick succession, seemingly ready to mix it up with Budden or whoever else, and leaving behind them a trail of timeless gifs and memes.
Drama from the botched conversation carried over into the week, where Joe Budden would call Akademiks a “pussy” prompting a response from the self-made media guru to defend himself, revealing that Quality Control pressed Joey on-camera, though the moment was edited out of the final clip.
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In other Migos news, Culture 2 is slated to be coming this October.
Read more about the Migos drama here and here.
Remy Ma Breaks Nicki Minaj’s BET Award Streak
Congratulations to Remy Ma for winning the BET Award for Best Female Hip Hop artist, beating out Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Missy Elliott and Young M.A. The award is normally reserved for rap rival Nicki Minaj, who was missing in action from this year’s ceremony.
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Remy’s acceptance speech included a slight at Nicki, but the “No Frauds” artist also made it her mission to throw shots at Remy during her NBA Awards performance on Monday (June 26).
Read more about Remy Ma and Nicki Minaj’s ongoing rap rivalry here.
DXclusives: Z-Ro, Chuck D & Joe Budden
If you ever wanted to know more about the creation of Z-Ro’s Houston classic, “Mo City Don,” HipHopDX’s Justin Ivey got the scoop. The iconic freestyle is easily recited by anyone from the city, regardless of age, race or creed. We also get a breakdown of ‘Ro’s Top 5 albums from his own catalog.
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“I’m from the Screwed Up Click and if you know anything about that, you wasn’t writing that – you were freestyling,” he shares. “That’s what I was doing. I just went in. There ain’t no mystical explanation. It was just a muthafucka played the beat, the muthafucka rapped over the beat for however many minutes it was. We put that shit on a mixtape, went to jail, came home and put that shit on an album in ’05 on Let The Truth Be Told. And then in ’05, for some reason ‘cause I never liked the song that much, it took off. I’m really more into structure and talking about shit. I was just smoking and dranking and rapping on the beat knowing I’m on my way to jail. It was one of them, ‘Let me do something ‘cause I know I’m gonna be out for a while.’ And then when I come home, the shit is a staple here. There’s a whole lot of places I go and they’re full of people just listening to it. It’s nothing more than a freestyle.”
Public Enemy’s latest album Nothing is Quick in the Desert (Except Death) was released early and the group’s frontman Chuck D explained why the timing was so important.
“It was best to do it now as opposed to later on in the year,” Chuck D tells HipHopDX’s Kyle Eustice. “This is our 30th year as Public Enemy. Doing a Public Enemy record 30 years later was key. We’ve been working on it all along with the Prophets of Rage record. What more can we ask for from our fans that have been dedicated to us for 30 years? This one’s on us.”
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HipHopDX’s own Editor-in-Chief Trent Clark and Migos have something in common and that is a shared moment in different times stemming from Joe Budden being Joe Budden.
The whole world watched as Joey dropped his mic and walked away from the now infamous interview with Migos on Complex’s Everyday Struggle segment. Trent recalls a similar moment, where Budden just wasn’t interested in being the interviewee anymore and walked away from the interview.
“…Mr. Mood Muzik accused me of asking ‘bullshit’ questions, to which I snapped back and pointed out how he wasn’t even listening to what I was saying,” Clark recalls. “Immediately after that exchange, Joe made it a point to detach himself from the interview and walk through the alley as Beware filmed the entire ordeal with his camcorder.”
