A pattern is beginning to take shape for Young Money Artists. Dominate the rap game only to transition into the radio game. In any case, Lil Wayne has recently launched Young Money Radio, a show where he sits down for discussions with many legendary voices in the rap game and beyond; we’ve already seen appearances from Dr. Dre, Eminem, Drake, DJ Khaled, Kevin Durant, Mike Tyson, Snoop Dogg, Killer Mike, and many more. 

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On tonight’s episode of Young Money Radio, Lil Weezy is taking it back to where his record label’s movement first began, once again connecting with longtime friend and collaborator Nicki Minaj. Though the hip-hop Queen didn’t appear on Funeral, she has remained loyal to Weezy’s cause and vice versa, with their last two collaborations arriving on Queen and Tha Carter V not too long ago. 

Still, Weezy himself feels the conversation is long overdue. In light of Minaj’s recent appearance on Tekashi 6ix9ine‘s Instagram Live feed, celebrating the release of their “FEFE” follow-up “Trollz,” it’s likely the pair will have no shortage of material to discuss. “The First Lady of Young Money, THE Queen @nickiminaj joins the show today,” writes Weezy. “Been waiting on this conversation for a min now.” And if that wasn’t enough, T-Pain is also set to connect with Wayne tonight, finally providing an answer to the long-pondered question of why T-Wayne never came out in the first place. 

Should you be interested in catching this upcoming episode, look for Young Money Radio to kick off this evening at 4pm PT/7pm ET, exclusively on Apple Music.

With all of the social and political unrest happening across the nation, many recording artists and labels decided to push back their upcoming releases to allow people to focus on what’s important. Although we were slated for another big drop day in hip-hop and rap, including new music from Smokepurpp, Tekashi 6ix9ine, and others, a minimal number of people actually followed through on their new music plans. 

XXXTentacion may not be around to witness what’s happening right now but, during his lifetime, he used his platform to speak on issues surrounding race. In fact, the music video for “Look At Me,” one of his most popular songs, recreated scenes from the racially-charged killings of Emmett Till and Philando Castile.

His estate has released two posthumous albums on his behalf — Skins and Bad Vibes Forever — and they came through this week by re-releasing one of his older songs called “Riot” to streaming services. 

Initially released in 2015, the song is back on Spotify, Apple Music, and other services. XXXTentacion speaks on racial tensions at the time and many of his lyrics are relevant today, especially when he speaks of lootings.

“Look in all the stores you wreckin’, n***a, I reckon/Think about the people who own it for ’bout a second/I know you got your problems, but brother, they got theirs/This is not a game, quit violence and grow a pair,” he raps. “But sure, you’d rather hear me say, ‘Fuck the black prejudice/Let’s murder different races, grow hatred, and form irrelevant/Views,’ and etcetera.”

Listen to the track below.

In 2015, Kendrick Lamar dropped off his third solo album, and second on a major label, To Pimp A Butterfly. Immediately hailed as a modern classic, the project was praised for its themes of racial identity and sociopolitical equality; songs like “Alright,” “Institutionalized,” “Complexion,” and the masterful “Blacker The Berry” continue to resonate to this day, perhaps now more than ever.

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Clearly, there are many who feel like revisiting the project amidst the George Floyd protests — so much so that the five-year-old album has once again entered the Top 100 charts on Apple Music. As of this moment, the album has managed to climb to the 76th spot on the U.S. Top 100, clocking in at 44th in the overall hip-hop charts — just behind Joyner Lucas‘ ADHD. Pretty impressive considering the album has been 

The return to the charts is a testament to Kendrick’s impact as a songwriter, one capable of shifting an entire zeitgeist. Though fans have been eagerly awaiting his triumphant return, the recent protests have once again breathed new life into the album — and should the revolution continue, it’s likely that To Pimp A Butterfly is only going to continue thriving. Have you been putting To Pimp A Butterfly back into rotation? 

New York rapper Joey Bada$$ is currently working on new music, teasing the arrival of a brand new album sometime soon but, right now, he's more focused on restoring his previous releases on streaming services.

This week, he started receiving messages from fans that they were unable to listen to his ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADASS album on Apple Music, which led him to address his supporters Instagram Stories.

"If my music is blocked on your streaming channels plz screenshot and send to me," wrote Jozif Badmon. "Also let me know what country/city you're in. They will not censor my messages with no reprucussion." 

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Multiple people reported errors as they tried to listen to songs like "AMERIKKKAN IDOL" and "LAND OF THE FREE." The album is more relevant now after the killing of George Floyd than ever before, so it's confusing why Apple Music would decide to axe it from their library. The 25-year-old addressed the topic on his Twitter account.

"WOKE UP TO MFS CENSORING MY MUSIC," he wrote, urging people to continue sending him screenshots so that he could build a case with the streaming services.

Hopefully, this issue gets resolved soon. Have you been having problems playing ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADASS by Joey Bada$$ this week?

Rosalía and Travis Scott just dropped their new collaboration, “TKN,” on Thursday (May 28th), which sees the rapper dipping his toe into the Spanish language. To promote the new single, Rosalía spoke to Zane Lowe on Apple Music about working with Travis and how the collab came to be. At one point during the interview, the songstress, originally from Barcelona, expressed how thrilled she was that Travis wanted to spit outside his native tongue on the track.

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“I really love that he wanted to sing in Spanish,” she tells Zane. “You know? Like you can hear Travis singing in Spanish. That’s historic. That’s history.”

She also spoke about the making of “TKN,” which has been in the works for quite awhile. “We started this song like almost one year ago,” Rosalía said. “It felt like we had something very strong, but it wasn’t finished. And I really work hard to figure out the production and it’s been like crazy to figure it out…The first time he came to the studio where I was working and I show him some music that I was working on…And then I show him ‘TKN.’ And I remember he fell in love with the song…He was like, ‘I love it.'”

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“I think that Travis is somebody who has a lot of energy,” she continued. “He has a lot. A lot. And also he’s extremely smart. I could tell you that being around him, he’s inspiring, he’s somebody that when he comes into the room, he has a lot of energy. He has strength and energy a lot…He’s a crazy musician.” Watch the full interview on Apple Music below.

Future is fresh off the release of his brand new album High Off Life. The Atlanta rap superstar dropped the new body of work today, including features from Drake, DaBaby, Young Thug, Lil Uzi Vert, Youngboy Never Broke Again, and more. The project was certified gold in the minutes following its release and, in order to spread the good word, the Fire Marshall dropped by Apple Music to speak with Zane Lowe on Beats 1 Radio.

Touching on several hot topics surrounding the album, including his new track “Accepting My Flaws,” his constant evolution as an artist, and more, Future also gave a rare admission about his children, predicting that they’ll all be big stars one day.

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“I’m just a studio junkie. It’s just what I am, I don’t love nothing else but making music,” said Future before touching on his family. “Jackson 5. Some Jackson 5 shit. Marley. Marley. More like Bob. Man, 1000%. All my kids, bosses, because I’m a boss. So one thing about that, you just create bosses. You got DNA. And their DNA, there’s boss in their DNA. So it’s a problem.”

With all the headlines this week about Future being confirmed as the father of 1-year-old Reign Wilburn, Eliza Reign’s daughter, it’s nice to see him praising his little ones. Do you think they’ll form a rap supergroup one day, as he envisions?

Well, well, well… It looks like today is going to be a good day after all. Lil Wayne just announced the third episode of his must-watch Young Money Radio series and his guest tonight is none other than one of the greatest rappers ever, Eminem.

It looks like we’ll be getting some GOAT talk between two of the all-time greats: Lil Wayne and Eminem. An announcement was made several moments ago with Tunechi breaking the news on Instagram.

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“Ready for some real GOAT talk?! Pull up at 4pm PT/7pm ET. A convo wit me and Mr. Mathers,” he wrote. 

The episode will be recorded live from the rapper’s studio in Miami. Considering they’ve both contributed to some of the finest moments in the history of hip-hop, we can’t even imagine what these two will talk about. There are so many possibilities on the table, which makes this one of the most exciting episodes of the Apple Music series yet. In fact, Tunechi might not ever be able to top this one.

Lil Wayne has been pulling out all the stops with Young Money Radio, previously inviting guests like Drake, DJ Khaled, Stephen A. Smith, and more.

Make sure to tune in tonight!

Several months ago, 50 Cent revealed that he would be stepping up as the executive producer of Pop Smoke’s first posthumous album. The Brooklyn rapper had been working on so much new music before he was tragically murdered at the start of the year, and 50 Cent made it his personal mission to bring the rapper’s mother to an award show to fulfill Pop Smoke‘s prophecy. 

The album is set for a release this month and, according to Fiddy, that’s still the plan. However, he will need to hunker down and get all of the featured artists to send their verses back pronto. During a new interview with Ebro Darden on Beats 1 Radio for Apple Music, Fif offered an update on the album.

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“We’re definitely gonna make the date,” he said, revealing that things are still on schedule. Noting that he still needs to get some collaborations back, 50 Cent said that he only wants things to happen organically. 

“I definitely want to get Roddy Ricch and a few of the people that I know that would fit on these records organically,” he said. “I’m going to send it to them and I’m going to say, ‘Play it. Listen, if you don’t just feel like this is it, don’t even touch it. Please send it back, delete, and just move on.’ Because he had so many pieces set up that were so good that it’s not tough to put it together.”

The album is set to release later this month. What are you expecting from it?

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Mac Miller‘s breakout mixtape, K.I.D.S., has finally made it to streaming services, almost a decade after its initial release in 2010. It appears to be a growing trend in recent weeks for artists to be putting some of their earliest (and most beloved) projects on streaming services, as fans find themselves with a lot more free time on their hands to listen to some old favourites. However, in this case, this plan was not a last minute decision as a result of the current circumstances. While Mac, is, of course, tragically not with us anymore, Rostrum Records founder Benjy Grinberg announced back in August that K.I.D.S., which is widely regarded as the body of work that put Mac on the map and launched his career, would be made available for streaming soon.

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Initially, Benjy promised that the mixtape would be available for streaming by the end of 2019, but it seems there were some delays that prevented that from happening. Still, it’s better late than never, and now all but two songs—”Traffic in the Sky” and “La La La”—are streamable on Spotify and Apple Music. “After Macadelic came out, Mac asked if we could clear this one next,” Benjy wrote in an Instagram post on August 13th, 2019, the ninth anniversary of the tape’s release. “It has been challenging but we are getting through it. We miss Mac every day and we see our job as making sure his music lives on. We love you, Mac.”

Along with the K.I.D.S. news, his team has also put the music video for one of the tape’s tracks, “Don’t Mind If I Do” (which famously samples Owl City’s “Fireflies”), on Youtube. The visuals begin with an excerpt from Larry Clark’s 1995 film, Kids, which played a part in inspiring the mixtape. Stream K.I.D.S on Spotify and Apple Music and watch “Don’t Mind If I Do” on Youtube below.

Lil Wayne kicked off his new Young Money Radio show on Friday night, and the inaugural episode included some sneak peeks at the upcoming Funeral deluxe album. The Young Money founder invited some exciting guests onto his Beats 1 radio show, such as Deion Sanders and New Orleans' mayor LaToya Cantrell, as well as call-ins from Lil Baby, Travis Scott, Babyface, and more. Wayne also made sure to talk to one of the artists featured on the deluxe edition of his thirteenth studio album, which dropped earlier this year. Wayne spoke to Jessie Reyez over the phone about her involvement with Funeral deluxe, and he even previewed their unreleased song that will be on the album.

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"I want to speak on some artists that is involved with the deluxe, and they're also artists that I have a lot of respect for and I think they're dope," Wayne said during his introduction of Jessie. "Reason I bring it up like that is cause maybe y'all didn't know too much about me knowing these artists." The two of them went on to speak about how they've been keeping busy and grounded during quarantine, before Wayne played a snippet of their collaboration.