The fight against COVID-19 isn't over. In fact, the virus has continued to run rampant throughout North America, with many states and provinces gradually relaxing their previously imposed restrictions. And while protests have been ongoing throughout both the United States and Canada, a passionate fight against systemic racism and police brutality, the lingering threat of COVID-19 should not be forgotten.

Christopher Polk/Getty Images  

Over the weekend, Eminem took it upon himself to remind his fellow Detroit residents that while Coronavirus may be a daunting foe, it can be conquered. To further inspire his fellow citizens, he made sure to call upon the Detroit state of mind during a guest appearance at the digital "Everybody vs. COVID-19" event, as organized by the city of Detroit. The aim of the event was to raise awareness about the upcoming census, as Em made sure to explain. 

"Detroit isn't just a city, it's also a feeling. A hustle. A state of mind," says Em, in a pre-recorded message. "Detroit is a city where we fight for what we believe in. We don't take shit lying down. And COVID-19 is no different. We got some work to do in order to stay safe. But one way is that we have to be counted. And the CENSUS is your way to do just that. So this month, we gotta bring the city together man."

Update: This incident happened earlier in the month, although the news was just revealed today.

Eminem had a home intruder at some point this month, so say the eagle eyes of TMZ. The famed Detroit rapper apparently had to deal with this intruder himself, as the dude slipped past his sleeping security team around 4 AM.

The intruder is 26-year-old Matthew David Hughes. He’s apparently an Eminem Stan– and he so happens to have the same name as “Stan’s brother” in Em’s “Bad Guy” Stan sequel, proving that art always imitates life. He managed to break into Em’s gated Detroit property, and made it all the way to the kitchen before coming face to face with Eminem. To enter the kitchen, Hughes reportedly used a stone he found on the pavement outside the property, and broke the kitchen window with it before forcing himself inside. This caused Em’s house alarm to go off, which despite not walking up Em’s security, it did wake up the man himself. 

When he saw the intruder, he reportedly yelled for his security guard, who finally woke up it seems and grabbed the guy. The police eventually arrived at the scene and arrested Hughes on two felony charges, first-degree home invasion and malicious destruction of a building.

Hughes is still being held on a $50,000 bail at Macomb County Jail.  

For what it’s worth, Hughes was apparently wearing a mask– he had it around his neck in the mugshot.

[]

42 Dugg is ready for his spotlight.

For much of his life, things have been uncertain. The rapper has had difficulty staying out of trouble, getting locked up for six years early in his life and being forced to grow up in the hole. Beginning to take rap seriously when he was in solitary confinement, 42 Dugg realized that he could make a career out of this, which would prevent him from needing to hustle to come up with money.

Signing a combination deal with Yo Gotti’s Collective Music Group and Lil Baby’s 4PF, 42 Dugg is easily one of the highest touted rappers in the country right now. He is in high demand and, after hearing his music, you’ll know exactly why.

Dugg brings a certain vulnerability to his sound that hasn’t been heard since Lil Baby came up. There’s a pain in his voice after having had to endure so much in his early days. When he gets in the studio, he taps in with his struggle to deliver some of the rawest and most emotive tracks in modern hip-hop.

Following the recent release of Young And Turnt 2, we hopped on a video call with 42 Dugg to speak about his newfound success.

Read our interview below, edited for clarity and length.

Prince Williams/Wireimage/Getty Images

HotNewHipHop: What’s up, Dugg? How’s it going?

42 Dugg: What’s good, my G. What you got going on?

Not much, man. I wanted to start off by congratulating you on the success of Young And Turnt 2.

Appreciate you.

What does it mean to be young and turnt? 

To me, it just means having fun and living your life how it’s supposed to be lived. Turnt, going crazy in yo bag.

A lot of your music pertains to your experience in prison. You spent 6 years in jail. What for?

Carjacking. 

And you started rapping when you were in solitary confinement?

Yeah.

What was that like? Right now we’re all in quarantine and, just recently, Ellen DeGeneres got in trouble for saying that quarantine is like jail. What would you say to something like that?

Ain’t too far from it. We still get to do whatever we want, they ain’t on our ass. You get to move freely but you still got rules. You still gotta be somewhere at a certain time. In a sense, it is.

What are you doing to stay busy right now?

I’m doing everything. I ain’t tryna hear it.

Prince Williams/Wireimage/Getty Images

It’s a really distinctive sound coming out of Detroit right now. Who do you think is running the city?

Me.

Is there anybody in the city that you’re trying to work with on the next project?

I wanna work with Baby Money, my youngin’. We fuckin’ with him on my next tape. I fuck with Big Sean, I really fuck with everybody. If I don’t fuck with you then you know, but other than that, I fuck with you.

Speaking of Big Sean, he’s working on the new Detroit project right now. Is that something you’d be down to get on?

He hit me up, hell yeah I’d get on that bitch. I’m Detroit. He hit me on DM and said we could kick it. He posted my project.

You’re signed to 4PF and to CMG, Lil Baby and Yo Gotti. What are the differences in working with them and what came together from that partnership?

It came together two different ways but it’s real organic. I met Baby kicking it on some other shit. We formed a little close relationship. He asked to listen to my music and everything was history from there. With Gotti, somebody put Gotti on my music. He was like, “sh*t, what do we gotta do to make it happen?”

Somebody like Lil Baby, he’s only 25 himself. Do you consider him a mentor?

I consider him like a brother.

Do you have anything in the works with Baby as well?

You know he’s about to put the deluxe out, I might be on there. I don’t know. Gotta wait and see but I’m telling you, we going crazy.

What happened after your feature on “Grace?”

Wait till you hear this new shit. We vibe in the studio. I already know how he gon’ come, he already know how I’m gon’ come. Ain’t nobody slacking when they get on that. I know when the beat go on, me and him know you gotta come with that shit or you’ll get fucked over on this muhfucka.

It’s like a competition every time?

Yeah. Fasho. It’s like a friendly competition. Ain’t even gotta be nothing said. He know what it is, I know what it is. Let’s get it soon as the beat come on. Come with that shit. That’s the only way the song gon’ be right.

Paras Griffin/Getty Images

In almost every song, you shout out your homies Nell, Reese, and others. What do they mean to you?

Them my uncles, you know? Nell got life, Reese died. They brothers. Nell, he still listen to the music. He still get to listen in jail. I just wanna let him know, I ain’t forgot about you bro. If there’s anything I can do, I’ma do it.

What was it like spending such a long time in jail? What’s your mentality in a situation like that?

Being safe. Getting home. That’s all you thinking about in that bitch. Just making it out how you came in that muhfucka. Muhfuckas will fuck you over in that bitch if you moving the wrong way, that’s why I just mind my business and get home.

After you got signed, once you got all that money, what was your first big purchase? 

Man, I been turnt. That shit just joined what I had. I already had my deal money, I was just gambling and losing that shit. I bought a few watches. I had cash before that shit though. I just bought a few watches and kept it going really.

Who’s been the most surprising co-sign in this last year?

Tyler, the Creator. I was a little surprised when he hit me. But I’m hard, can’t nobody fuck with me. 

On a song like “Been Turnt,” you’re communicating the prison experience with such anger and vulnerability. You can hear the emotion in your voice. How do you get back to that zone when you’re in the studio?

I really just trying to be very energetic. I was just tryna let you know, “bitch, I been on that shit. My n***as in jail still on this shit.” That’s the message I was tryna get across. 

When you’re able to perform again after the quarantine, how crazy do you think that’s gonna be?

It’s gonna be crazy. I can’t wait for the reaction. Obviously, my Detroit show got rescheduled to May, so hopefully it’s that one. You know we ’bout to go crazy.

Do you have any dream collaborations?

I ain’t gonna say no dream collaborations because I ain’t really dreaming about no shit like that. I fuck with everybody, you know? Thug, Roddy [Ricch], but these muhfuckas I done kicked it with before. Thug is who I’m looking forward to, I ain’t gonna say I dreamed about that shit though.

What do you have coming next this year?

I’ma try to go deluxe. I just wanna keep this shit going. Gotta keep the wave up. I know summertime we gon’ come with something crazy. We gon’ pipe this bitch up.

Absolutely, man. Thanks for taking the time to talk, Dugg.

I appreciate you having me.

Considering the fact that some deceased people are getting stimulus checks before the rest of us, Eminem is doing God’s work by announcing that he is also giving away relief funds for COVID-19. However, you’ve got to be tapped into the city of Detroit, keeping your finger on the musical pulse of Motor City to apply.

Sending out a message to Detroit’s DJ community, Eminem announced that he is offering a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be featured on his Shade 45 Radio station. 

Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

The top fifteen entries will be featured on his radio station and, in case that wasn’t enough incentive to show off your skills, the first 500 entries will all be getting a cash prize.

“Hometown DJ’s! @shade45 and me linked up for #LoveYourDJ – first 500 get $313,” wrote Eminem on Instagram.

Only Michigan residents will be able to enter the challenge. Of course, the dollar amount being sent to applicants is based on Detroit’s area code.

This is not all Eminem has done to help out during the coronavirus health crisis. This week, he also delivered spaghetti meals to a local healthcare facility, packaging them in Shady Records bowls and ensuring that all frontline caregivers had a meal that night.

Props to Eminem for this!

For several years, Eminem has breathed new life into his "Mom's spaghetti" lyric, opening pop-up restaurants at Coachella and around the nation serving the Italian classic. Hopefully, the meal doesn't end with vomit on your sweater. 

With all of us currently getting through this global health crisis together, many have done their part in helping the frontline caregivers risking their lives to serve us. The nurses, doctors, delivery people, and more that have been stepping outside and doing their part to ensure we can stay home and safe. Eminem has reportedly followed the footsteps of many of his fellow celebrities, donating meals to a local hospital in Detroit. He did so in his own special way though.

Christopher Polk/Getty Images

According to several people on social media, Shady Records and Eminem gifted meals to DMC Hospital healthcare workers in Detroit this week, packaging them in his "Mom's Spaghetti" bowls and dropping them off to ensure our frontline caregivers are well-nourished during their shifts.

Eminem has not commented on the good deed as of yet.

In other news pertaining to the rap legend, Eminem recently celebrated his twelve-year sober anniversary, showing off his new chip and proving that anybody can change their life for the better.

Thanks, Em!

The coronavirus pandemic continues to take a heartbreaking toll on all of us. It has been reported that five-year-old Skylar Herbert has passed away due to complications after testing positive for COVID-19.

The daughter of two first responders has died in Detroit, Michigan after the virus left her with irreversible brain damage, which caused a form of meningitis and swelling on her brain.

The young girl first complained about bad headaches last month before testing positive for strep throat on March 23. She was sent home with antibiotics but Skylar's parents ended up taking her to the ER when she was unable to sleep. The five-year-old tested positive for coronavirus the next day and, when her father was being tested, she suffered a seizure.

Skylar is the first child to have passed away from COVID-19 complications in Michigan. During her last moments, she was breathing through a ventilator, likely left brain-dead.

"We decided to take her off the ventilator today because her improvement had stopped, the doctors told us that it was possible she was brain-dead," said LaVondria Herbert, her mother. "We basically just knew she wasn’t coming back to us."

Please protect yourself and your loved ones by continuing to practice social distancing to the best of your abilities, and by washing your hands often and thoroughly.

Rest in peace, Skylar.

The details surrounding the early years of Eminem and Proof‘s friendship are best left unpacked through the music itself. Songs like “Groundhog Day,” released as a bonus track on The Marshall Mathers LP 2, paint a picture of their dynamic; two young aspiring emcees eager to show off their new music, gauging each other’s improvements and providing constructive criticism as equals. “I remember Proof would visit, couldn’t wait to play him my new shit, he’d go cuckoo ballistic,” rapped Em, lost on memory lane’s scenic route. “Go through the roof for his shit / It’s like we knew the instant we touched a mic that both of us two existed to do this shit.”

During his recent appearance on Mike Tyson’s Hotboxin’ podcast, Eminem opened up about the role Proof played in sparking his hunger for battle. “We came up rapping together but he would kind of go do his own thing,” explains Em. “I’d be working at factories and Proof was out there on the grind and he started making connections and then he met J Dilla from Slum Village and a lot of the early Detroit hip-hop that was exploding onto the scene.” At Proof’s insistence, Eminem tried his luck at the Hip-Hop Shop, where he was tasked with winning over an audience of ten.

It didn’t take long for Em to acclimate himself, and before long he was a mainstay in the Hip-Hop shop battle circuit. Due to Proof’s practice of deciding the match-up’s by way of a random draw, Em even found himself going up against Kuniva, who would later become his D12 groupmate. As Von quickly found out, Em was well deserving of his reputation as a formidable battler. One has to wonder, would Slim Shady have come to such a conclusion without the confident co-sign of Big Proof?

Despite the fact that Em and Proof are among hip-hop’s storied bromances, they never really connected for a fleshed-out collaboration on wax. That’s not to discredit the expansive catalog of D12, which found Em and Proof sharing the stage on no shortage of tracks, but rather to lament the absence of a Bad Meets Evil style duet. For the most part, the lone times they connected as a partnership was strict to kick freestyles. Excluding the extensive and highly amusing nineteen-minute epic that is “I’m Rockin Babe,” a song that might very well be one of Eminem and Proof’s first pieces of recorded music.

Things would only go up from there, and their sharpening skills ultimately paved the way for equally well-honed freestyles. A classic video recorded on March 13th, 1999, a few weeks removed from the release of The Slim Shady LP, found Em and Proof gleefully trading bars off the top of the dome; a testament to not only their comfort as friends, but as creatives. “We all up in your sight like cataracts,” spits Proof. “Me and Em tag-team, beat any ya’ll on some battle rap.”

It would be altogether irresponsible to overlook what might very well be their crowning achievement, the seven-plus minute freestyle known as “Just Rhymin’ With Proof.” Originally released as a B-side on the “Quitter” single release in 2000, this masterclass in off-the-dome back and forth freestyling finds both parties deftly toeing the line between outlandish lyricism and genuinely solid rhyme schemes. Based on the sample size of recorded freestyles, Em and Proof are seldom in a serious state, seeming to spur one another into fits of giddy laughter and mutual appreciation for a clever line. The trend continues within D12’s classic half-hour freestyle on Tim Westwood, a cypher that once again finds Em and Proof rhyming as equals — though never missing an opportunity to crack a joke. “Hey ‘Em, your nuts are large as hell,” spits Proof, only for Em to close the scheme with “thanks, I was in the garage and fell.”

Away from the mic, their friendship becomes evident in the remaining pieces of behind-the-scenes D12 footage circulating the internet. One particularly enlightening snapshot arrived during the creation of Tony Touch’s “Get Back,” which found Em, Proof, and Bizarre laying down verses in the studio. In the clip, Em can be seen laughing at Proof’s inability to record a specific line, going so far as to mercilessly troll his inadvertently melodic delivery. “Y’all slipped something into my weed, or something,” remarks a flabbergasted Proof, prompting further laughter from his D12 compatriots. In fact, examining a few old school D12 interviews reveals the importance of comedy within their inner circle; the camaraderie was seemingly built around laughter. With Proof being acknowledged as the unofficial general, it’s clear he played a pivotal role in keeping the morale high. It’s no wonder that his passing all but spelled the end of the Dirty Dozen — at the very least, Eminem’s involvement within it.

Twenty-four years removed from Proof’s death, his spirit continues to live on. Not only through his music, which includes his solo debut Searchin’ For Jerry Garcia and contributions to two D12 studio albums, but through Eminem’s as well. Songs like the tragic “Difficult” and the triumphant “You’re Never Over” paint two different pictures of the complexities of grief, highlighting the lowest points of loss and the valuable lessons learned through life. It’s not entirely fair to say there would be no Eminem without Proof, but perhaps there would be no Eminem as we have come to know him. Take a moment to reflect on one of hip-hop’s great friendships, and show some love to Big Proof. Rest in peace. 

Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images

Healthcare workers are on the frontlines of this COVID-19 pandemic, exposing themselves to a virus that has been deadly for tens of thousands of people worldwide. As people complain about being bored while stuck quarantined inside, “essential workers” like medical staff, food service workers, mail carriers, and others are allowed, and somewhat required, to interact with the public. According to a report by Detroit’s ABC 7 Action News, the Motor City has been hit hard by coronavirus after nearly 700 Henry Ford Health System workers tested positive.

WPA Pool / Pool / Getty Images

“When you are talking about testing positive in the midst of this pandemic… if we are to test the whole population, you are going to see staggering numbers of people who are testing positive,” said Dr. Adnan Munkarah with Henry Ford. “We need to remember that testing positive is just a measure of how contagious this virus is at the present time.”

Rapper Jeezy took to his Instagram to share a screenshot of a news report regarding the staggering numbers for Henry Ford Health System. “Praying for Detroit… We gotta to stay inside and be safe,” he wrote in the caption. “Not put the same people trying keep us safe in harms way. These are mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers. They have families too.” Check out his post below.

[]

Two weeks after posting a Facebook video about his passengers coughing, Detriot bus driver Jason Hargrove has died from complications of COVID-19.

Dia Dipasupil / Getty Images

Hargrove’s video posted on March 21 was made after a female passenger got on his bus and repeatedly coughed. Hargrove encouraged anyone with coronavirus symptoms to stay home: “We out here as public workers doing our job, trying to make an honest living to take care of our families. But for you to get on the bus and stand on the bus and cough several times without covering up your mouth and you know that we in the middle of a pandemic, that lets me know that some folks don’t care.

“It’s folks dying out here. I’m mad right about now because that s**t was uncalled for. And I’m trying to be the professional that they want me to be, so I kept my mouth closed … I feel violated. I feel violated for the folks that were on the bus when this happened.”

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan confirmed Hargrove’s passing and says that the bus driver began feeling ill days after posting the video: “He knew his life was being put in jeopardy, even though he was going to work for the citizens of Detroit every day, by somebody who just didn’t care. By somebody who didn’t take this seriously. And now he’s gone.”

Hargrove is survived by his wife.

[Via]

Citizens in major metropolitan cities across the country are hitting their local pubs in celebration of St. Patrick's Day despite the novel coronavirus being declared a national emergency. With major productions like Coachella, the NBA, and more postponing their seasons and festivities, that isn't stopping the Irish communities around the nation from gathering in tight enclosed spaces to celebrate St. Patty's Day this weekend. One city, in particular, Chicago, known for its Irish population, has seen people come out in droves to commemorate the annual holiday. As reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, the streets are flooded with patrons wearing their green festive gear.

One man told the publication he traveled from Colorado to celebrate St. Patty's Day with his Chicago cronies. Kyle Thomas told the publication:

"I’m not about to put my life on hold because this is going around. I’m being careful, I’ve got my hand sanitizer, and I’m washing my hands. So much has already been canceled and we might be overreacting."