This week in Hip Hop, Pusha T released his highly anticipated album DAYTONA, which also included a track taking shots at Drake and Birdman. Also, Nicki Minaj pushed back the release date of her forthcoming album Queen to this summer and Will Smith made a return to rap.
Pusha T Releases “DAYTONA” With A Drake Diss
Pusha T’s album DAYTONA dropped this part Friday (May 25). The album’s cover art depicts a picture of Whitney Houston’s bathroom, which cost Kanye West $85,000 to license and thoroughly displeased Houston’s cousin. The album, meanwhile, was met with high-praise and was called a “Modern day masterpiece” by Diddy and crowned a classic by Nas.
Check out DX’s own review of the project here.
The seven-track project also included a track titled “Infrared,” which takes shots at Drake and Birdman, causing Drizzy to take a break from recording Scorpion so he could respond properly with “Duppy Freestyle.”
Listen to DAYTONA here.
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Nicki Minaj Delays Album
Nicki Minaj’s Queen album was originally slated for release on June 15 and that date has now been pushed back to August 10.
After announcing news of her album being pushed back, she trolled fans about dating Eminem after name-dropping him on YG’s “Big Bank” featuring herself, 2 Chainz and Big Sean. Eminem kept stoking the rumors during his set at the Boston Calling festival over the weekend too.
Read more about Nicki Minaj’s album release delay here.
Will Smith’s Viral Return To Rap
Will Smith made headlines this week when a video of him rapping made the rounds on social media.
A few days later, he appeared on “Live It Up,” the Diplo-produced official song of the 2018 FIFA World Cup along with Reggaeton artist Nicky Jam and Albanian singer Era Istrefi.
Listen to “Live It Up” here.
DX Reviews
DXclusives: Speech & ALLBLACK
Speech Spent 10 Days In Jail To Shoot “16 Bars” Documentary
Arrested Development’s Todd “Speech” Thomas spent 10 days in a Richmond, Virginia city jail and set up a recording studio, where he worked with four inmates for his 16 Bars documentary. Speaking with HipHopDX about making the film, Speech says that he was impressed by the talent he discovered.
“It’s hard to sum it up into one but all the recording experiences and how talented the inmates were were the most memorable moments,” he says. “From classically trained dudes to hard rhymers, there’s some very amazing artists sitting behind bars and I wasn’t expecting that level of talent.”
Read the full interview with Speech here.
WhoIsALLBLACK Answered
Up-and-coming Oakland rapper ALLBLACK shares with HipHopDX the formula he has in place to help catapult him toward the type of success he wants.
“To me, it’s not difficult because I have a great team,” he said. “They always say it’s hard to come out the Bay, or it’s crabs-in-the-bucket; I don’t feel like that at all. I don’t even care where I’m from, if I got the same team I got now, we’re coming out scoring. Period.”
Learn more about ALLBACK here.
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Will has one of the most consistent catalogues in Hip Hop n smoked Eminem on “Mr Nice Guy”, cats need to wake up n stop sleeping on The Fresh Prince. Name another artist who has had a consistent Summer smash on the radio every single year for nearly 3 decades.
LMFAO you gotta relax dude..smh