It looks like Swae Lee, the younger half of Rae Sremmurd, has his own project in the works. “[It’s] a retarded project called Swaecation,”. “I have eight songs right now that i feel like are candidates for the project, but I gotta make sure they’re all up to par.”
On top of that, Lee said that Katy Perry actually recorded something he wrote for her. “I wrote this track and she laid it and it’s pretty dope. It sounded pretty dope. She got a lot of style.”
As the interview pointed out, Slim Jxmmi cautioned the idea of solo projects from the duo, and pointed out that the industry is pushing for it to happen, despite their intentions to stay together. “The whole industry going to do shit to separate us,” he admitted before clarifying, “We got separate tracks, because we can both rap.” Unfortunately, we might not get the chance to hear what Jxmmi has been working on “because I don’t want to satisfy the world like that.”
Explaining his comments further, Lee pointed out that individual projects would never mean the end of their group together. “When we say solo projects, we say chances for the fans to get to see us individually. But we’re still Sremmed out. We might put them on the same disc—who knows? We definitely got different projects that we’re working on and tweaking.”
It’s pretty clear the brothers have no plans to stop being Rae Sremmurd anytime soon. Today, their much anticipated new album, SremmLife 2, arrived and it’s stacked with impressive features from the likes of Gucci Mane, Kodak Black, Juicy J, and SremmLife Crew artists Bobo Swae, Riff 3x, and Impxct. Still, we wouldn’t mind hearing what each of them bring to the table as individuals on their own projects. Check out their latest album here and catch them on the road with Lil Yachty this fall.
Chance the Rapper on His Music: “It’s About How It Is Made Accessible and About Artistic Power”
Chance the Rapper continues to dominate the music industry, scoring the latest cover of Billboard, where he opens up about his life as an unsigned artist, what fueled his need to return to Chicago, and working with his mentor, Kanye West.
The Chicago rapper is famous for refusing to sign with a major label, even though they have pretty much been banging down his door since the beginning. It’s a situation he references directly on Coloring Book’s “No Problem.” “It’s not about the music being free,” he tells Billboard, in reference to giving away his first projects. “It’s about how it is displayed and made accessible and about artistic power.”
There is no question that Chance has leveraged his artistic power with his latest album, Coloring Book. The release became the first streaming-only album to chart on the Billboard 200, opened in the top 10 and motivated the Grammy Awards to make streaming-only albums and songs eligible for awards.
The interview shifts to Chance’s Xanax addiction after moving to Los Angeles, which he admitted on his song, “Finish Line/Drown.” “I looked up and months had passed, and I hadn’t made enough music.” It was around this time that he also felt a need to get back to Chicago. I missed a lot of weddings and funerals.”
From there, Chance wrote his mantra, “Get back to work,” on the mirror. Kanye West invited him to work on The Life of Pablo and Chance witnessed his mentor and favorite rapper rent out an entire studio as he simultaneously directed the writers, engineers, and producers in each room. “I watched him knock out six, seven songs that way,” explains Chance before admitting he stole the method to finish Coloring Book, sleeping in the studio overnight on inflatable mattresses.
Chance has linked up with other impressive artists, including Donnie Trumpet and Vic Mensa, but he has never felt the need to compete against any of his rapping counterparts. “I never really liked the idea of rap being a competitive thing. It’s not. I can’t gain anything off of anyone else not succeeding.”
Now, Chance is focused on his girlfriend, Kirsten, their daughter, Kinsley, and preparing for his Magnificent Coloring Day in Chicago this September that will break the White Sox’s stadium’s attendance record with more than 50,000 tickets sold. “It’s bigger than me fucking with the Sox and bigger than me being a rapper…I think the city needs some happy moments.” After that, he will set out on his Magnificent Coloring World Tour this fall.
YG and DJ Mustard have officially backed up claims of rekindling their collaborative relationship with the announcement of a new mixtape. DJ Mustard hit social media with the news on Wednesday night, revealing they weren’t supposed to “give it away but fuck it.” The mixtape, entitled 400 Summers, is apparently coming soon and was later confirmed by YG himself:
400 SUMMERS MIXTAPE COMING ….. Wasn't pose to give it away but fuck it @YG pic.twitter.com/wOiYbGPm4l
— Dj mustard (@DJmustard) August 10, 2016
400 SUMMERS TAPE KOMIN SOON ON BOMPTON
— YG (@YG) August 11, 2016
Vic Mensa is one of the lucky people who has had the chance to hear Jay Z’s new music, which he told to Rap-Up is sounding good so far. “I’ve heard a little bit of some Hov shit and it’s fresh as fuck, but I can’t say anything about anything else.”
It’s understandable why Jay would trust Vic with hearing some of his very secretive new project considering his close relationship with both Jay and Beyoncé. The power couple might be the most influential pair in the game, but Vic affirmed they are just really good people.
“Hov and Beyoncé are people that I’ve seen, on mad occasions, just be real cool to people that they don’t know,” explained Vic. “Beyoncé has that queen personality where she makes people feel comfortable. Well, I mean, she probably makes people feel mad uncomfortable because they’re super fans, but she’s super cool to people that I’ve seen her interact with and she always has been really nice to me.”
The conversation shifted into what we can expect from Vic’s album, which he said will build off the message of his latest EP’s title track. “Lyrically, the records that I have for my album take after subject matter and delivery of the song ‘There’s Alot Going On.’ There’s a lot of really personal stories and social context within them but it’s more about me. It’s really poignantly personal, very vulnerable, and real.”
He has recruited his frequent-producer Papi Beatz for the project along with some unusual suspects for some big collaborations. “I’ve got a record with The-Dream that’s crazy. Rivers Cuomo from Weezer. It’s off-the-wall and unexpected. There’s Mike Dean production. Me production. A lot of me production.”
Jhené Aiko and Dot Da Genius are reportedly divorcing after just eleven months of marriage. As TMZ reports, Jhené filed the divorce papers and is asking the judge to deny Dot spousal support. She cited irreconcilable differences, meaning the split could be due to anything.
Jhené made headlines after kissing her Twenty88 collaborator Big Sean on stage in Anaheim, Calif. in June, but there’s no word about whether or not the split has anything to do with the pair’s relationship. Dot Da Genius is best known for his production work with Kid Cudi, including being one half of the duo WZRD alongside Cudi. He and Aiko confirmed their marriage back in March with a post on Instagram. The couple first started dating in 2014. Although they never directly collaborated together, Dot did once release a remix of Aiko’s Sail Out track “The Worst.”
Jhené has been mostly silent about the couple’s relationship since the original announcement, but back in April she did shoot down rumors that they had split up. After a fan tagged her in a Twitter post linking to an article about divorce rumors due to Big Sean, she fired back. “Put down the blog, pick up a book,” she said. “You like science at all? Art? Nature? Music? There are literally books for all these things.” There hasn’t been much to see in terms of proving or disproving her and Dot’s relationship since then. For his part, Dot Da Genius took to Twitter to respond to the story.
At this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, the superstar will join the ranks of Beyonce and Kanye West when awarded one of their most prestigious awards.
Drake’s dad has become a social media fixture as his son blew up to be one of the biggest rappers in the game, and people love him for it. But are they ready for Dennis Graham to make his big comeback in music?
If not, they’d better buckle up, because it’s on its way. TMZ obtained some footage of a music video Drake’s dad apparently shot recently. The song actually isn’t too bad, hitting a smooth R&B vibe that would probably sit pretty well with an adult contemporary crowd. “It’s kinda crazy, but I’m feeling you underneath my skin,” he sings. “I think it’s where my obsession begins.” The video finds him sitting on a grand throne in a smokey room with candles, rocking an OVO owl chain that Drake no doubt hooked him up with.
It looks like we’ll have to wait a little bit longer until we have Young Thug’s new project, Jeffrey. Lyor Cohen, the founder of Thug’s label 300, shared a Snapchat Tuesday with a whiteboard reading, “You know your name is Young Thug! No!! My name is Jeffery AUG 26.”
See original post from 8/3/16 below:
Young Thug has officially announced the release date for his upcoming project Jeffery, and it’s just adding to the musical dopeness that is the month of August. According to a post on Thugger’s Instagram page, Jeffery will be releasing on his birthday, Aug. 16.
“We really out here in Philly,” he told the camera. “Real Toronto niggas out here in Philly. Not them other guys” before later adding, “Unlike you, I’m good in Philly, nigga” with a laugh.
The initial assumption is that Lanez is referring to fellow Toronto native, Drake. The pair have a history of throwing shots at each other, especially lately. Still, Drake has been clapping back by throwing a shot on “Summer Sixteen.” He also told Zane Lowe that competitors should do less talking and more walking with their music and most recently slammed rappers doing “fake ‘Controllas,'” which was likely a reference to both Lanez and Tyga. Meanwhile, Lanez tried to brush off their issues while still throwing subliminal shots towards Drake when discussing his “Controlla” remix on Sway in the Morning.
There’s also Drake’s very public feud with Meek Mill, who is basically the fresh prince of Philadelphia these days. The two dissed each other several times over the past year with Mill claiming that Drake doesn’t write his own raps and releasing his own track against Drake that left many pretty underwhelmed. To many, Drake won the beef just by letting Mill beat himself with the rapper even admitting on stage, “he’s dead already.”
Lanez is gearing up for his new tour which kicks off this Friday August 12 in Somerset, Wis. It wouldn’t be surprising if his latest words on Snapchat were an indication of what he has in store—namely more shots aimed at a certain Toronto rapper. Fortunately, Drake is at his pettiest while on the road, which he’s proved recently through his choice words towards Hot 97.
50 Cent was making friends left and right on Instagram on Tuesday night. He started off his evening by linking up with Cam’ron. The two have beefed on and off for nearly a decade after exchanging diss tracks back in 2007. While things have quieted down between them recently, there was never much of an official reconciliation between the two camps.