May 2016 Blog Posts (127)

Recently, Rage Against the Machine -- inactive since 2011 -- launched a website counting down to June 1, adorned with #TakeThePowerBack, which also appeared on posters displayed around their hometown of Los Angeles. Naturally, people wondered if Rage was getting back together.

Well, not quite. ProphetsOfRage.com (a website that is no longer loading, as of press time)…

The bad boys of Bad Boy Entertainment took Barclays Center back to hip hop’s good old days Friday night in a showcase featuring Puff Daddy as host and legends Busta Rhymes, Mary J. Blige, Jay Z, Lil’ Kim and more.

Amped-up fans bought shirts bearing Notorious B.I.G.’s face and sipped cocktails made with Puff Daddy’s own Ciroc vodka.

The concert — the opener of…

One lucky buyer will be living his "ambitionz" as a rider of Tupac Shakur’s last-owned vehicle.

The 1996 vehicle — purchased by the rapper less than a month before his still-debated death — sold for a whopping $337,145, RRAuction.com said.

The black SVU entered a week-long online bidding war on May 12 and was expected to fetch at least $100,000.

The…

Drake leads the crop of nominations for this year’s BET Awards, according to the full list of nominations released by the network late Thursday.

The Canadian rapper-singer, whose latest album, “Views,” is currently atop the charts, scored nine nods, including two in the coveted video of the year race (last year’s song of summer earworm “Hotline Bling” will compete…

Aside from making a few guest appearances on songs with 2 Chainz, Chance The Rapper, and Ariana Grande, Lil Wayne has been fairly quiet lately. For fans who have been eager to get a little more from Weezy, it seems they will soon be getting what they want but not in the way they were probably expecting. The rapper is reportedly going to be starring in his own reality TV show…

Tyga’s trying to one-up Kylie.

The rapper was spotted at Cannes getting close with Demi Rose — a 21-year-old British lingerie model — just weeks after he and Kylie called in quits.

Rose — who has has been labeled as a Kylie doppelgänger —shared a Snapchat of her hanging with Tyga, 26, while out and about at the festival.…

The clock in Grand Central read 'Hammer Time' Thursday.

Veteran hip hop artist MC Hammer stopped by Vanderbilt Hall to break it down and lip sync with fans as part of a partnership with Command Brand. The event promoted the company's damage-free hooks for hanging on your walls—no hammer required. Commuters who didn't mind the unanticipated delay dressed up in on-site…

The second Brooklyn gangbanger in Bobby Shmurda's GS9 crew to be sentenced this week got 53 1/3 years in prison on Friday.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Abraham Clott ripped 22-year-old Alex Crandon who participated in a murder, shootings and other violent ordeals that terrorized East Flatbush over a two year period.

Clott, who sentenced Rashid Derissant, 24,…

Looks like the Notorious BIG, a k a Biggie Smalls, is about to get a second lease on life (after death).

The Brooklyn rapper and folk hero was murdered in 1997, but still casts a huge shadow on hip-hop culture. It’s about to get bigger, starting with this weekend’s Bad Boy Family Reunion (as in Bad Boy Records) at Barclays Center, just down the street from Biggie’s…

John Berry, one of the founding members of pioneering rap group Beastie Boys died Thursday morning in a Danvers, Mass., hospital. He was 52.

His father, John Berry III, told Rolling Stone magazine that his son suffered from frontal lobe dementia, which had grown worse in recent months.

Berry, who attended high school with singer Mike Diamond, was a crucial…

The legal battle between Master P and his estranged wife Sonya Miller has gotten beyond messy. There have been allegations of drug abuse. She sued her son Romeo, believing that her husband was using him to hide assets from her. The children had to speak on the state of their parents’ marriage. It’s been pretty bad.

But yesterday, TMZ reported that Sonya emerged…

Rapper Kanye West's latest raucous rant crescendoed to the topic of synesthesia.

Speaking on Thursday's episode of "Ellen," the ever-outspoken rapper credited his artistic genius to the neurological condition that allows him to physically envision every musical note as a colorful manifestation.

"I have a condition called synesthesia where I see sounds," West…

A federal bankruptcy court judge on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to a statement detailing assets of nearly $20 million of hip-hop businessman Curtis James Jackson III, who is known as 50 Cent, and millions of dollars in payments to settle claims by creditors.

Judge Ann M. Nevins praised lawyers, including Patrick J. Neligan, who represents 50 Cent, and lawyers…

Kylie Jenner might have a type.

Days after news of her breakup from rapper Tyga broke, the model and socialite is reportedly dating another hip-hop artist with an equally absurd stage name: PARTYNEXTDOOR.

The "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" star and her rumored new Canadian beau — real name Jahron Anthony Brathwaite — are "mad for each other," an insider told…

Jackson family patriarch Joe Jackson has reportedly been hospitalized with a high fever following a regular checkup.

The 87-year-old talent manager, who shepherded the Jackson Five to fame, has remained in a Los Angeles hospital since Friday after feeling weak during routine tests with his doctor, TMZ reported Wednesday.

The elderly Jackson was “doing much…

Rashid “Rasha” Derissant, one of the members of Bobby Shmurda’s GS9 crew, has been sentenced to 98 1/3 to life in prison. As XXL reported last month, Derissant and fellow GS9 member Alex “A-Rod” Crandon were convicted of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy. The two were found guilty of the February 2013 murder of a 19-year-old rival gang member. Bridget G. Brennan, New…

Chris Brown swears he didn’t join the mile-high club.

The embattled R&B singer vehemently denied a report Wednesday that he and his entourage had been booted off a private jet after the pilot got a whiff of their pot-smoking antics.

“I see something on TMZ about how we got escorted off a plane,” Brown addressed the camera in an Instagram video. “Well, how…

Rapper Tyga is shooting down rumors he's already moved on from Kylie Jenner.

One day after he was photographed outside Beyoncé's concert in Los Angeles with "Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta" star Karlie Redd, the "Faded" artist seemed to deny he was romantically involved with the reality star after a fan tweeted he got "caught" with her.

"Stop. Not w her," the…

Ciara's future won't involve sole custody of her child.

The R&B singer was denied a court plea to receive complete guardianship of her nearly 2-year-old son Future Jr. on Tuesday, TMZ reports.

The "Goodies" artist, who shares the child with rapper and ex-fiancé Future, reportedly told the judge that the young boy's father is a bad parent who isn't involved…

It could have been poetic justice—but it’s not true.

The internet fell for false rumors that rapper Kendrick Lamar bought the gun George Zimmerman used to kill Trayvon Martin and destroyed it on stage with a hammer to put an end to firearm’s senseless sale.

A story published on Freddymag.com, a site that refers to itself as the “Number One in Satirical Urban…