After enduring a slight delay to recover from shoulder surgery, Puff Daddy kicked off the Bad Boy Reunion Tour in a major way on Thursday night in Chicago when he brought out hometown hero Chance the Rapper to perform his Coloring Book standout, “No Problem.”
“When he comes out here, I want y’all to make more noise than y’all made for anybody,” Puff told the crowd before the first notes of “No Problem” pumped through the speakers and an excited Chance stormed the stage. From there, the pair bounced off each other to deliver a high-energy performance. Of course, it’s interesting to note that the song pretty much denounces Chance’s struggle with major labels coming after him, while Puff is paying tribute to the past, current, and future success of his entire label with his Bad Boy Reunion Tour run.
It’s still nice to see Chance, an independent Chicago rapper on the come up, be recognized by his peers. In Kanye West’s eyes, both Puff and Chance are heroes. At last week’s MTV Video Music Awards, West told the crowd, “I’m standing in front of my idol, Puff Daddy…I’m standing in front of the future, Chance the Rapper.”
Puff wasn’t done with the surprises, either, as he also brought out Jeremih on stage to perform tracks off of his 2015 album Late Nights while both Chance and Puff stayed on the stage.
Lauryn Hill recently began her ‘MLH Caravan: A Diaspora Calling!’ tour. And now, she’s added some heavy hitters to beef up her lineup. Those heavy-hitters come in the form of Nas, Kehlani, Noname, and Little Simz.
Last week, Vince Staples dropped his new EP Prima Donna, featuring production from James Blake, and now the Def Jam rapper is officially set to join Blake on tour for the next few weeks. It’s good timing, especially since Blake just unleashed a new remix of “Timeless” with a feature from the west coast rapper.
Metro Boomin took to Twitter to let the fans know that his forthcoming project will be available on every music and streaming service.
“Apple Music, tidal, Spotify, Pandora, whatever you use, my album will be instantly available and accessible for you. Because thats the point,” he tweeted. “Fuck the money I do this for the culture.”
The whole thing started after Metro searched for Jay Z’s “Song Cry” on iTunes, but couldn’t find it. That’s when he “remembered tidal vs apple,” which spurned a series of tweets venting about the streaming war and current landscape of service exclusives. “Shouldn’t have to have subscriptions to 2 different services just to listen to blueprint and views. Makes me miss how simple CDs were.”
His decision brings up the big issue of music exclusives that has been a hot topic in the music industry lately. Frank Ocean’s visual album Endless and second new album Blonde were both released as Apple exclusives. Immediately following that release, the CEO of UMG instructed his company to stop making exclusive distribution deals with music services.
Meanwhile, Spotify executives have gone on record saying that exclusives are bad for business because they require users to pay for multiple streaming service subscriptions, which many do not, and that this practice leads to illegal downloads. The sentiment was shared by Kanye West who personally tried to end the Apple and Tidal beef because it’s “fucking up the music game.” “We all gon be dead in 100 years,” West said. “Let the kids have the music.”
Just weeks after Empire announced Kid Cudi as a season 3 addition, the Vincent-N-Roxxy star has exited the production entirely. Cudi has now been replaced by Romeo Miller (formerly known as Lil’ Romeo) in the role of Gram, Entertainment Weekly reported. This is, as they say in the industry, a big-ass bummer.
Though Cudi hasn’t publicly commented on the casting shakeup, EW reported he exited due to “creative differences.” Scenes involving Cudi’s take on Gram were already in the can, meaning reshoots ahead of the season 3 premiere are likely. Miller shared a picture from the Empire set on Twitter Wednesday, though he didn’t address any casting changes.
Representatives for Kid Cudi did not immediately respond to Complex’s request for comment. However, Cud fans shouldn’t sweat this bummer too much, as dude already has a super stacked 2016 lined up. That Pharrell-produced new track he teased at Trillectro last month would be enough on its own to verify a more-than-impressive year, but there’s apparently plenty more where that came from.
Tyga’s legal troubles keep piling up in a very public way. TMZ is reporting that his Ferrari was repossessed at the worst time possible: while he was shopping for a new Bentley in Calabasas with Kylie Jenner. According to the report, Tyga missed several lease payments on the car, and the dealership wasn’t willing to risk it considering his recent lawsuit against a former landlord. Someone from the dealership apparently showed up with a key and swiped the car while the celebrity couple were browsing for new whips. Not exactly a good look for someone in the process of shopping for another luxury car.
Tyga’s finances have become somewhat of a mystery recently. He was almost arrested after failing to show up for a court date earlier this month. The court appearance was in connection with a lawsuit brought against him my a former landlord in Malibu, who alleged that Tyga failed to pay his rent for months and caused extensive damage to the property. They ended up settling out of court, but for far less than the $450,000 the landlord originally wanted.
Tyga also recently purchased a Mercedes-Maybach for Kylie Jenner’s birthday, which became an issue during the landlord case, where it was referred to as a “fraudulent transfer of assets.” He continues to live a lavish lifestyle despite these financial issues, making it hard to tell exactly what’s going on.
In the meantime, let’s hope he can get his lease payments back on track, and maybe put a hold on that Bentley purchase.
Billboard has revealed how much Frank Ocean earned from the first week sales of his sophomore album and projects the money he would’ve made from Blonde by staying with a major label.
Power 105.1 announced the lineup for their annual Powerhouse event Tuesday morning, and the roster is undoubtedly stacked with some major talent.
This year’s Powerhouse concert is anchored by Wiz Khalifa and Usher as the leaders of this year’s lineup. Wiz is coming off a big year, having dropped two projects, Khalifa and his Juicy J and TM88 collaboration project, Rude Awakening. Meanwhile, Usher has just announced that his new album, Hard II Love, is set to drop September 16 and will boast features from Young Thug and Future.
G.O.O.D. Music’s Desiigner will be on deck to perform alongside the likes of Young M.A., Remy Ma, and Fat Joe, who have also been tapped for the event. Remy and Fat Joe have had a huge summer together since dropping their unstoppable “All the Way Up.” They recently shared the video for their newest single, “Cookin,” on location in Dubai with French Montana. Both bangers are indicators that their forthcoming collaborative album, Platas O Plomo, is shaping up to be one giant stream of anthems that they will hopefully bring to the Powerhouse stage. You can also expect newcomers like Bryson Tiller and Tory Lanez to be there.
This year’s Powerhouse is going down down October 27 at the Barclays Center in New York. Check out the event’s flyer above and keep your eyes out for more announcements as the event gets closer. Tickets go on sale Thursday, September 1 at 10 a.m.
Isaiah Rashad signed to the iconic Top Dawg Entertainment label back in 2013, but his substance addiction almost lost him his deal with the label several times.
In a new interview with Hot 97’s Peter Rosenberg and Cipha Sounds for their Juan Epstein podcast, the 25-year-old rapper opened up about his issue with Xanax and alcohol for the first time.
Rashad linked up with fellow TDE artist ScHoolboy Q for the Oxymoron Tour back in 2014, which is where Rashad says his addictions first started. “Honestly, I got off the Oxymoron tour kinda addicted to xans and an alcoholic,” he explained. “I fucked up…I fucked up pretty bad. I almost got dropped like three times.”
“I had access to shit I didn’t have before so I’d just wake up in the morning and go buy a pint,” he added before revealing that his substance abuse ultimately caused his stomach lining to tear. His addictions were also the reason the young rapper has been pretty much out of the limelight for the past two years.
Thankfully, he is committed to his sobriety and is gearing up for the release of his forthcoming debut album The Sun’s Tirade which is set to arrive this Friday (Sept. 2) and will include the previously released “Park,” and “Free Lunch,” which he crushed in a live performance with TDE’s Kendrick Lamar last weekend at FYF Fest.
Ray J is apparently feeling pretty heated at Kanye West for dragging his name into his latest speech during this year’s Video Music Awards.
According to TMZ, Ray J feels like Kanye embraces his wife’s sex tape with the singer only when it suits him and is a hypocrite since he publicly blasted Ray J for writing his song, “I Hit It First.” After Ray J dropped the song, Kanye clapped back on “Bound 2” with a quick diss. “Brandy’s little sister lame,” he rapped. He also referenced their rivalry on his The Life of Pablo cut, “Highlights.” “I bet me and Ray J would be friends if we ain’t love the same bitch/Yeah, he might’ve hit it first/Only problem is, I’m rich.”
Interestingly enough, Kanye actually called up Ray J before releasing “Highlights,” who was reportedly fine with the track, according to TMZ. Their reps also discussed the song before its release. Ray J also went on the record on his song, “Never Shoulda Did That,” rapping about his remorse for the sex tape.
If you missed it, Kanye casually name-dropped Ray J’s name since he included a Ray J look-alike in his “Famous” video.” “But for people to understand just how blessed we are, it was an expression of our now. Our fame right now,” Kanye said speaking on the video. “Us on the inside of the TV. Just the audacity to put Anna Wintour next to Donald Trump. I mean, like, I put Ray J in there, bro! This is fame, bro.”
There is definitely no love lost between the two, but it’s hard to understand why Kanye’s casual VMA namedrop would be the thing that set Ray J off after all that’s gone down these past few years. Not to mention, the “I Hit It First” video was pretty awful.