Sometimes Hip Hop can move at a pace too frantic for even the most devoted fan to keep up with. Albums and mixtapes are released at breakneck speed, careers are made and broken with the swipe of a pen, and somewhere in between all the madness actual music (the quality of which vacillates between excellent and god awful) is being made. Twitter provides a nice summary of everything 140 characters at a time. And if you’re the type that would rather not be bothered with stepping into the Twitterverse to catch up on the latest in Hip Hop, we’ve filtered through the top rapper’s tweets and consolidated all the week’s events into one convenient feed.
This week, Jay Z and Notorious B.I.G. split the cover of New York magazine’s “Yesteryear” issue. Professor Questlove leads a Prince-based class at NYU, and Royce Da 5’9 gave Los a valuable cosign. Check the rest of the week’s top tweets below.
“New York” Magazine Unearths A Jay Z Throwback Pic
Jay Z covered the March/April issue of New York magazine. But in a twist, the iconic publication featured what appeared to be a pre-pubescent pic of Hov. As part of New York magazine’s “Yesteryear” campaign, the magazine ran vintage photographs of Jay Z and Notorious B.I.G. on its cover. In addition to Jay and Biggie, New York magazine included Nicki Minaj, Diddy, Nas, 50 Cent, DMC and others in a photo spread of 26 musicians who helped shape New York City. A preview of the feature, including how Rick Rubin incorporated feedback from Chris Rock into the song “99 Problems,” is available via HipHopDX’s News section.
AD LOADING...
Jay Electronica Comes Back With New Track
“Apologies go out to all of my fans because they waited so patiently,” raps Jay Electronica on the song that had everyone pumped up at the beginning of the week. The Jay Z-assisted track, “We Made It,” was quietly released on Sunday night but loudly made its way on to every music website. Three reasons: one, the track is fire, two, Jay Electronica hasn’t given us a track that left us with our jaws hanging open (“Control” happened last year but Kendrick completely stole that show) and three, Jay Z called Drake, Mrs. Drizzy (a nickname that might stick around for a while). Welcome back, Jay Electronica.
RiFF RaFF Calls His Own Album A “Classic”
Everytime RiFF RaFF talks about Neon Icon in an interview, the mood gets really serious. The carefree rapper confirmed in his tweet that he does everything in life for fun. Yay. And that the only thing he’s ever really worked on to make perfect is his album, Neon Icon, which he dubbed, via Twitter, a “classic.” It sounds like YG was right, “it’s easy to make a classic album.” Forgive me while I go blankly stare at a wall.
AD LOADING...
Kanye West Shares “Vogue” Images
Kanye West is riding cloud nine. “Dreams come true,” tweets the former College Dropout and attaches a picture of him and Kim Kardashian. In the picture, she’s wearing a feathery fairy tale wedding gown and they’re both ignoring the world while getting lost in each other’s eyes. Recently, the entire Vogue photoshoot with Annie Leibovitz came to light and there was one photo that stood out because it may have confirmed that Kanye West is not of this world aka a vampire. In this specific picture, Kanye is snapping a shot of Kim and North with his iPad while standing in front of a mirror but he’s missing his reflection. Major slip up by the famous photographer but maybe it’s a cluing us in to something bigger.
ScHoolboy Q Controls His Blunt Intake
Some people count calories, ScHoolboy Q counts how many blunts he smokes a day. No biggie. The TDE rapper is open about his love for weed and getting high. Cue “#BETiGOTSUMWEED.” According to his tally, Q smoked 20 blunts in one day earlier this week. Maybe he can ask Rick Ross where he can hire a professional blunt roller. Keep up with his daily counts on Twitter.
AD LOADING...
Ice Cube Throws Out Some Throwback Thursday Action
Back in the late ’80s/early ’90s, Ice Cube teamed up with Big Daddy Kane and Public Enemy on a single titled “Burn Hollywood Burn,” off Public Enemy’s critically acclaimed album, Fear of A Black Planet. The song served as a honest look at black stereotypes in Hollywood films. The 24th anniversary of Fear of a Black Planet just passed on March 20th and rapper-and-actor Ice Cube tweeted a little shout out to the single he was featured on.
Royce Da 5’9 Cosigns King Los’ New Project
From one rhymeslayer to another, Royce Da 5’9 gives King Los’ new project a nod on Twitter. Zero Gravity IIdropped on March 24th and featured appearances from Kid Ink, Lola Monroe, and more, including Royce Da 5’9 on “Don’t Get In My Way.” Earlier this month, King Los announced that he is leaving Bad Boy Records. “Forever in the Bad Boy family, just I’ve chose to explore other endeavors just like my mentor, just like Puff,” King Los said. Make sure you download and stream Zero Gravity IIto hear why Royce Da 5’9 called Los a “problem.”
AD LOADING...
Questlove Teaches A Prince Class At NYU
Questlove and Universal Music executive Harry Weinger are teaching a class on Prince at New York University. The new course marks the second class that Harry and Questlove have jointly taught at the Clive Davis School Of Recorded Music. Students can take a class on the artist formally known as Prince. Sounds awesome, right? For an in depth read on how the first day of class went, check out this article on VICE. It might make you want to enroll and sign up.
Lil B Waxes Poetic On Twitter, Always
The “Thank You Based God” college lecturer always provides a good dose of Hallmark greeting card lines to lighten even your darkest days. Enough said.
AD LOADING...
will.i.am Accidentally Curses On “The Voice”
Live television can always be full of surprises. During a live broadcast of the UK’s “The Voice,” Black Eyed Peas co-founder, will.i.am was so captivated by Lee Glasson’s performance, he broke one of the cardinal rules of network TV—don’t curse. “I’ve never seen anyone strangle the microphone like that before,” will told Glasson. “You were really feeling that shit.” The rapper/producer immediately realized his mistake, and clasped his hands over his mouth. But apparently, by then it was too late for the censors to catch him. will.i.am would later send an apologetic tweet. As the old saying goes, “Shit happens.”
RELATED:Tweets Is Watching: Top Tweets For The Week Of March 16, 2014
