In addition to the white version we received here in the U.S., Rhino UK released a limited gold vinyl of The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Ready to Die" for Record Store Day in the United Kingdom.
French Montana has released a packed remix to "Freaks" that features DJ Khaled, Rick Ross, Mavado, Wale and Nicki Minaj. You can download clean and dirty version for free care of the Bad Boy Records SoundCloud. Check out the artwork below.
Cassie, who is working with Forever 21 on a Summer 2013 campaign, answered some questions for their blog. When asked who she's been dying to collaborate with, she named Lana Del Ray.
"I love the way she writes and her swag," Cassie says.
Los has released his new mixtape, "Becoming King," for free download on DatPiff. It features collaborations with Diddy, Cassie, Wiz Khalifa, Ludacris, Pusha T, Yo Gotti, Twista, Tank, Fantasia and more alongside production by 1500 or Nothin, Rob Holladay, Harry Fraud and Sonny Digital, among others.
You can listen and check out the track listing below.
1. Becoming King
Produced by J. Oliver and FlightSch
2. Sky is the Limit featuring Fantasia
Produced by Harmony
When Machine Gun Kelly's tour rolled into Detroit, he took time to pay homage to Eminem, who is from Detroit. He performed some of "Lose Yourself" on the steps of St. Andrews Hall, the basement of which houses Shelter, a club depicted in the movie "8 Mile," which starred Eminem. At his Detroit show, MGK performed the final battle verse that was offer by B. Rabbit, Eminem's character in the film.
French Montana has shot a music video for his The Weeknd-featured "Gifted," which will be on his debut album, "Excuse My French." He shared a photo from the shoot.
French Montana will soon release his music video for "Ain't Worried About Nothin," his latest single. Watch a behind the scenes feature below, with cameos from Diddy, Rick Ross and DJ Khaled.
Los has released "Disappointed," from his upcoming "Becoming King" mixtape. The song features Diddy and Ludacris. It was produced by Dot and Pro. Listen below and download.
Los has released "Burn Slow," a new collaboration with Wiz Khalifa and Mickey Shiloh that was produced by Rob Holladay and 1500 or Nothin. It'll be on the rapper's new mixtape, "Becoming King," which will be out on April 25. Listen below and download.
In interviews with AllHipHop.com and MTV, Los talked about what "Becoming King" means, revealed a bunch of collaborations and previewed "Pay Up" and "O.D." Watch below.
Among the producers on the set are J. Oliver, Rob Holladay, Sonny Digital, Ryan and Smitty (who produced a song featuring Juicy J), Harry Fraud (featuring Pusha T and Yo Gotti) and Dot and Pro (featuring Diddy and Ludacris).
April 20 was Record Store Day, a yearly event that began in 2008 to celebrate record stores. As part of the festivities, exclusive vinyl releases are produced. Among this year's offering was a special white vinyl release of The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Ready to Die," with the alternate cover, from Rhino. It is limited to just 3,000 copies. You can find some on eBay.
Chinx Drugz has released the music video for "I'm a Coke Boy (Remix)" by Chinx Drugz. MTV2 has what appears to be the clean, drug reference free version, titled "Go Head Baby (Remix)" by Chinx. Watch both versions below. The video was directed by Spiff TV.
In an interview with Xclusives Zone, French Montana revealed that Max B would not just be featured on "Once in a While," the opening track to his "Excuse My French" album (view track listing), but would also appear on a Best Buy exclusive titled "Hey My Guy."
A music video for Wale's "Back 2 Ballin", which features French Montana, is on the way. He shared some of the imagery on Instagram and it appears to be heavily inspired by video games, likely from the 90s. Stay tuned.
Chinx Drugz has released his new mixtape, "Cocaine Riot 3," for free download on DatPiff. French Montana is featured on three songs: "Right There" (with Juicy J), "One Night" (with DJ Khaled and Roscoe Dash) and "I'm a Coke Boy (Remix)" (with Rick Ross and Diddy). Listen below.
Twitter has highlighted Ciroc as one of the case studies on their business site, where they show potential advertisers how to use the platform successfully. The case study focuses on the vodka brand's New Year's Eve promotion.
You can now pre-order the standard and deluxe editions of French Montana's "Excuse My French" on iTunes. With that, we get a look at the track listing.
1. Once in a While featuring Max B
2. Trap House featuring Birdman and Rick Ross
3. Ain't Worried About Nothin
4. Paranoid featuring C.A.S.H.
5. When I Want
6. F**k What Happens Tonight featuring DJ Khaled, Mavado, Ace Hood, Snoop Dogg and Scarface
7. Gifted featuring The Weeknd
8. Ballin Out featuring Jeremih and Diddy
9. I Told Em
10. Pop That featuring Rick Ross, Drake and Lil' Wayne
11. Freaks featuring Nicki Minaj
12. We Go Where Ever We Want featuring Ne-Yo and Raekwon
13. Bust It Open
The deluxe edition adds 5 more tracks:
14. Drink Freely featuring Rico Love
15. Throw It In the Bag featuring Chinx Drugz
16. Marble Floors featuring Rick Ross, Lil' Wayne and 2 Chainz
17. Ocho Cinco featuring Machine Gun Kelly, Los, Red Cafe and Diddy
18. If I Die
According to the YouTube description attached to the "Boss B****** & Fast Cars" unofficial video posted on his official channel, Red Cafe plans to release "American Psycho II," a follow up to the mixtape he released in December. This will be followed by his debut album in September.
Right now, they're asking, "Are #bloggers the real curators of culture or have BIG CHECKS and small cliques stolen the voice?"
Blogging is a medium, of sorts, which basically means to write online. It is a medium writers enjoy. Writers get paid, in general, from all sorts of sources. There are freelance writers, staff writers, people who write online, who write books, who write offline, etc. So, perhaps the more accurate question would be: "Are writers the real curators of culture..."
The answer is, of course, it depends. One writer is different from another writer. One could rightly suggest that Bad Boy Entertainment is among the many, many companies who write checks, either directly or by hosting parties, etc., in an attempt to influence coverage of their projects. Like most companies do. It takes some fortitude from the writer to maintain independence.
Janelle Monae has announced that her new single, "Q.U.E.E.N.," will be released on her website on April 22, 2013 at 7:54 PM ET. Essence reports that it will be from her next album, "The Electric Lady."
At the top of this month, Janelle Monae performed on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in support of the new Jimi Hendrix album, "People, Hell and Angels." She covered "Little Wing." Watch below.
"I worked on that with my labelmate Los and he just really coached me through it, and I was like 'Los I can not believe you have me rapping this fast, I never thought I could move my mouth this fast,'" she said.
Everybody's letting it marinate, but even when I played that record and "Bad B******" for one of my friends wh'’s known me since I first started in the music industry was like, 'Wait, this is Esther Dean.' Everyone has been like, 'What the hell? Where did you come up sounding like that? I don't ever remember you being loud and boisterous.' I'm like, 'I know, I'm so laid back in real life.'"
In an interview with ARTISTDirect, Machine Gun Kelly talked about the sequencing of his album, "Lace Up," the story behind his song, "End of the Road," and more. He also said that his new mixtape, "Black Flag," will feature a "new, revamped" version of himself.
"I love to read," he said when asked what influences him beyond music. "Reading is so powerful. One of my favorite books ever is 'Scar Tissue' by Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers. His story is so vivid and sweet. When I read '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,' I'm f****** underwater for real. That's how I feel. I'm like, 'I'm underwater with crustaceans and s***.' I think you're going to dig my new s*** even more. I was listening to Drake one day, and I asked my buddy, "Why is Drake so loved and revered? He's so good!" He pointed it out. He makes these timeless situations come to life by describing mad details. He'll talk about a girl sitting there, but he'll say little things that make the scene come to life in your heard. Once I realized that, I think my style improved. You'll hear that on the new Black Flag mixtape. It's a new revamped Machine Gun Kelly which I'm really excited for."
The rapper recently spoke to R HUSTLE IS OUR HUSTLE, answering 8 random questions. Watch below.
Coinciding with the release of his new mixtape, "Becoming King," Los will hit the road later this month on the Becoming King Tour. He posted a list of 16 stops on Twitter. More cities may be added.
Yesterday, Cassie's "Rock a Bye Baby" mixtape was released. Not included in the package was a back cover for the mixtape or the production or writing credits. Bad Boy has now released all of that information and here are the full details:
Executive Producers: Sean "Diddy" Combs, Cassie, Matthew "Matty Rich" Testa and Rob Holladay
1. Intro
2. Paradise featuring Wiz Khalifa
Produced by Da Internz and Rob Holladay
Written by James Fauntleroy II and Wiz Khalifa
3. Take Care of Me Baby featuring Pusha T
Produced by Mike WiLL Made It and Rob Holladay
Written by Pusha T and James Fauntleroy II
4. Addiction featuring French Montana
Produced by Rob Holladay, Magnificent, Knotch and BJONES!
Written by French Montana and J-Doe
Cassie has released her new mixtape, "Rock a Bye Baby," for free download on DatPiff. The 13 song set features collaborations with Wiz Khalifa, Pusha T, French Montana, Rick Ross, Jeremih, Fabolous, Meek Mill, Too Short and Ester Dean.
You can listen to it below and check out the cover and track listing.
XXL has an interview with Cassie talking about "Rock a Bye Baby," the mixtape she will release on Thursday, how she first felt about "Me & U" and more.
I remember when you were recording your first album at 18 or 19 that you were going through a process of sounds. What can you tell me about the direction of this tape?
It’s completely different than the beginning. I think that honestly. It’s been seven years later and going through making all of these different records and trying all of these different things that got me to this point. I am experimenting with sounds was experimenting with my voice and how far I wanted to take things and how minimal I wanna keep it. That’s kind of the quality of my work is in the simplicity of it. I don’t think I overdo anything. I leave it so DJs can remix it and it not be complicated. It’s creative. It’s made for the DJ. It’s made for people who wanna listen to music and vibe out, but it’s just a new sound.
It’s fun on it too because I experimented with sampling records that I personally really like. So I did a remix to “M.A.A.d City.” Kendrick Lamar’s “M.A.A.d City.” I’m actually singing on it, but its dope. I did a record with Too $hort and it’s a sample from the Tyga record “Do My Dance.” It’s all over the place and it’s really cool that we got people from all genres and walks of life, like Too $hort being from out here, Jeremih is from Chicago, everybody else is from New York, we got little pieces of everything on the tape.
AllHipHop.com reports that Trena Steward and Lorenzo Pryor are suing Kanye West, Bad Boy Records, Roc-A-Fella Records, Activision, Island Def Jam and others for copyright infringement.
The suit is tied to West's alleged sampling of "Bumpin' Bus Stop" by the father of Steward Pryor, David Pryor. TMZ has an audio breakdown.
What is unclear, at this time, is why Bad Boy was mentioned at all. Stay tuned.
Following the 106 & Park premiere, Cassie has released the music video for "Paradise" online. The song features Wiz Khalifa and the video was directed by Alex Nazari. Watch below.
On KarmaloopTV's That Life, Machine Gun Kelly said that his new mixtape "Black Flag" would be released around his birthday, which is April 22. He also revealed some new collaborators for the set, including Wiz Khalifa, French Montana, Meek Mill, Pusha T. Watch below.
In an interview with Vibe (watch below), French Montana revealed a few new collaborators for his upcoming album, "Excuse My French."
This includes Ne-Yo, Scarface and DJ Khaled. The latter two will appear on "I Got My Gun On Me" alongside Movado and Snoop Dogg. Montana also mentioned that Diddy and Jeremih will appear on a track together.
Cassie has released a trailer for the music video to a brand new song: "Paradise" featuring Wiz Khalifa." According to a message posted on Instagram, the song was produced by Kosine of Da Internz and written by James Fauntleroy of Cocaine 80s. Meanwhile, the music video was directed by Alex Nazari. Watch the trailer below.
TMZ reports that Diddy is the latest celebrity to fall victim to a "swatting" prank. Sources in law enforcement told the website that a 911 call was made, indicating that someone had been shot. This was not true, but a dozen police cars and two police helicopters had been dispatched.
Bad Boy Records has released the music video for Cassie's "Numb" featuring Rick Ross. It was directed by Alex Nazari and the song will be featured on the singer's upcoming release, "Rock a Bye Baby," coming April 11.
French Montana is featured on the remix to Omarion's "M.I.A.," alongside Rick Ross and Rockie Fresh. In Flex We Trust has the premiere, which you can listen to below.
If you played the audio clip on that story, you'll notice a hip-hop sounding beat - in this case, A Tribe Called Quest. But if you continue to listen, in comes Rick Astley singing "Never Gonna Give You Up," a song that best known these days for rickrolling.
At that point, listeners likely realized that, with today being April 1, it was an April Fools' Day joke. But, just in case, April Fools! I hope that you had a fun day.
French Montana's Bad Boy posse cut, "Ocho Cinco," has received a sequel. Montana brought Diddy, Los, Machine Gun Kelly and Red Cafe back together for "Ocho Seis." Listen below.
