At this point in his career, Drake can afford just about anything he could possibly want. While financial wealth isn't the end goal for all recording artists, it certainly is a motivator for the majority of rappers. People see the flexing that occurs on social media and they think to themselves: "if I perfected my skills as a rapper, maybe I could get this rich?" The reality of the situation is that most people will never get to Drake's level of success. The Canadian artist has calculated his rise to superstardom for years, taking advantage of certain situations and screwing his head on tight for a long ride. We've seen glimpses of the interior of Drake's lavish Toronto mansion in the past and today, he felt like showing off a number of high-ticket collectables that he's got laying around the crib. Some of them are so special that a price can't even be estimated for them.

Is Big Sean prepping for Detroit II? Internet sleuths think so. The Motor City rapper has been hyping up his new project for months now, sharing that he’s gone through his sort of spiritual awakening that caused him to self-reflect. Sean has also stated that he’s making the best music of his career and as fans await his forthcoming LP, there may be another mixtape on its way, as well.

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On Tuesday, YK Osiris shared a few photos of himself in the studio with Sean Don. Initially, fans were questioning what these two artists were working on, but then they began to notice that there was a whiteboard in the background that listed features for Detroit II. While it’s small print and difficult to read when one tries to zoom in, some people say that they can clearly see a few noteworthy names on the list.

After the internet started buzzing about the sneak peek, Sean decided to stir the pot by re-posting the image with the caption, “Ready to eat! Swipe to see a glimpse of the menu. ??.” Decipherable names are Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Future, and Young Thug, but the others are a bit of a toss-up. Check it out for yourself below and let us know what other names you can spot. If you haven’t already, make sure to give Big Sean’s acclaimed 2012 mixtape Detroit a few spins.

Dating back to his tenure as a “Hot Boy,” Dwayne Carter went from Cash Money’s resident prodigy in 1996 to claiming to be the “Best Rapper Alive” within a dizzying ten-year period. From there, he resuscitated the genre at a time where many believed it to be DOA and even dramatized those life-preserving maneuvers on “Dr. Carter.” Undeterred, even as his own label seemed hellbent on derailing him. Closing in on his 25th year in the game, Tunechi aims to deliver a new project album Funeral this February. And if a September 2019 interview with Vibe is to be believed, he’s approaching the art form he’s long since perfected with a renewed zeal.

“It’s different now,” he explained. “I can’t wait to get in the studio now every night, just to see what I can come up with. [Before] it was just me going to the studio and saying, let me kill ten more songs and then I’m going to go home or do whatever I was doing. Now, it’s let me see what I come up with. Self-discovery, rebirth – call it whatever you want to call it but it feels awesome, I swear to God.” Creating with a clear-cut sense of purpose, Weezy F’s unwavering focus adds fuel to speculation over whether or not this album could serve as the perfect opportunity for the NOLA veteran’s fond farewell.

It wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that Funeral has a symbolic meaning based on the title alone. But when you take both the stop-start nature of his past five years and the contradictory reports of impending retirement, it becomes not only a plausible but a potentially wise course of action. For Weezy, retirement is a subject on which he’s voiced some strong, albeit oxymoronic, feelings. Beginning a decade deep into his career, Wayne attempted to reconcile with the concept of eventually riding off into the sunset during a skit on 2006’s Dedication 2. In that era, he believed little would be gained from quitting when he’s always going to need a vehicle to express himself. “You retire out when you die out straight up, cause you never retire out what you do,” he explained. “Meaning, if you put so much into– if what you do is your life, like mine. You know what I mean like, my career is my life.”

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Incapable of fathoming a world without hip-hop, this stands at odds with a 2011 interview with GQ in which he formally flipped the hourglass towards his 35th year.“I have been doing this for eighteen years,” he reflects. “That’s reason number one. I have accomplished all that I have set out to accomplish and more. Also, I have a label, and I’ve only put out two artists [Drake and Nicki Minaj]. I have a lot more work to do, and it’d be selfish to not focus on being the boss and focus on their projects.” Supplemented by wishing to spend more time with his kids, Weezy would double down on these sweeping claims during an appearance on Katie Couric’s talk show, claiming that “I know I’ll be ready to retire at thirty-five because I am so ready to retire now!”

As the prospect of The Carter V began to circulate in 2014, Wayne believed that the album, in its original incarnation, would represent his last standalone project (though he’d still pitch in when required by his labelmates). Pledging to “leave gracefully” on Twitter in 2016  amid the ensuing war with Cash Money, the constraints he was under made it possible that would Wayne end his career on an embittered note. Actively attacking his label, the eventual release of C5 was cathartic for both artist and his loyal fans. As such, the elation that he felt might have contributed to Weezy rescinding those previous remarks to Billboard in 2018, as he claimed, “I do think about retirement. I think about how I don’t think I ever will.”

Granted a new wave of enthusiasm at 37, it raises the question of whether his thoughts of bowing out were a by-product of the internal friction with Birdman. Now, he’s back to the heady days of “mixtape Wayne” where metaphors and exquisite wordplay rolled off the tongue at high volume. But no matter who you are, the law of diminishing returns is important to be mindful of. Among the elite-level wordsmiths that operate without pen or pad since he purged everything he’d written on “10,000 Bars”, Weezy’s skills have remained indisputable. Dropping 77 songs and two projects in 2018 alone, Wayne has always kept his nose to the grindstone and how this sets him apart is something he’s been cognizant of since The Carter 3. “I used to tell Cortez [Bryant, manager], ‘my work ethic is going to sell me,'” he told Rolling Stone in 2009. “Nobody ain’t doing what I’ve done. People will have to recognize that.”

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This has remained true to this day. Compounded by years of anticipation, The Carter V skyrocketed to the top of the charts upon arrival, racking up first-week sales of 480,000. Yet artistically, the record wasn’t without its sticking points. Which, aside from its oppressive length, centralized around the feeling that both he and audience had been there and done that. Save for a few moments of self-reflection on “Famous” or “Let It All Work Out” and the plaintive narration from his mother Jacinda, C5 is overrun with punchlines or puerile bars that fall on the wrong side of familiarity. Trapped between a rock and a hard place, it seems that the forthcoming Funeral will be a fork in the road for Wayne’s career. Either he sticks to his guns and potentially teeters towards stagnancy, or he overhauls his style and potentially faces the wrath of critics and fans. 

Infamously slaughtered for his attempt at reinvention on the rock-indebted Rebirth, any fretfulness he’d feel about switching up would be understandable. But that doesn’t make it any less of a necessity. As he’s proved at irregular intervals of his career, Weezy heading into a more demure, less youthfully brazen direction a la latter-day Jay-Z, could yield greatness. Case in point, his verse on Solange’s “Mad” from 2016’s A Seat At The Table. Not only rappelling him into the view of snobbier audiences that had likely expelled him from consideration years earlier, but the introspective look at his previous attempt at suicide also demonstrated an aptitude for soul-baring lyricism:

“Are you mad ’cause the judge ain’t give me more time?
And when I attempted suicide, I didn’t die
I remember how mad I was on that day
Man, you gotta let it go before it get up in the way”

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Similar to the Hurricane Katrina-inspired “Tie My Hands,” his feature on Nas & Damien Marley’s “My Generation Will Make The Change” or the touching ode to his father that is “Everything” from 2000’s Lights Out, Wayne has always been capable of appealing to the heart. Yet beyond emulating the change in tact that his own GOAT pick pulled off on 4:44, Weezy should perhaps consider a line uttered during Hov’s own retirement phase: “they say they never really miss you till you’re dead or you gone, so on that note I’m leaving after this song.”

These lines from The Black Album’s “December 4th” allude to something that’s been inapplicable to Weezy’s career. Between mixtapes, EPs, compilation projects, a collaborative album, his own solo studio album discography and his time with The Hot Boys, Dwayne Carter has released a grand total of 41 bodies of work. As a result, Wayne has been an omnipresence and aside from 1998 and 2001, has released something every single year that he’s been an artist. Therefore, there’s every chance that these prolific levels of productivity haven’t given us a chance to properly digest the scope of his influence.

Alongside 2 Chainz’ remarks that he wouldn’t be here “if it wasn’t for Wayne,” 2013 saw ASAP Rocky rally against what he saw as a culture of negligence towards Tunechi’s contributions. “Are we forgetting that Wayne made everybody switch their flow up and start using the E’s and R’s, and “I’m ir-regul-ar, seg-ular”? he told Complex. “Are we forgetting that Wayne changed hip-hop, too? Are we forgetting that he made all these motherfuckers want to have tattoos? Are we forgetting that? It wasn’t Wiz, it was Wayne… This is a guy who went from being the youngest underdog in his crew to saving his company, and saving his “Daddy.” I’m not a fucking Lil Wayne dickrider, I’m just speaking facts.”

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Although Wayne has retained this status as a top-tier MC, there is something to Rocky’s suggestion that his tangible impact on the game has been overlooked on account of his continued presence. Consequently, this state of affairs takes us all the way back to his comments on Dedication 2. Ever the deep thinker, Wayne unknowingly foretold his own future on the skit and made the case as to why Funeral could be an appropriate time for him to call it a career: “Y’all gonna remember that that was a rapper. But hopefully, I’ll go down known for something different. Not different, but known for something else also, you know what I mean.”

Both gifted and afflicted with one of hip-hop’s greatest drives, Wayne’s influence— whether that be style or the careers of Young Money artists—often falls to the wayside as the hip-hop consumer focuses on what’s coming down the pipeline from “The Martian” himself. And by the looks of things, this can’t be righted while he’s still an active participant. With the world’s collective attention still in the palm of his hand, there’s a lot to be said for Funeral acting as Wayne’s offramp to the same high road that The Game and Fat Joe have recently claimed to be travelling on. Having given us more music than many record labels have ever produced, Lil Wayne deciding to draw a line under his career while at the top may be bittersweet, but no one would feel short-changed.

Twitter account, Culture Central, shared a tweet on Sunday that features photos of "36 of your favorite rappers as kids." It appears as though nearly all of the photos are from yearbooks or school photoshoots, and the ages of the artists range from as young as toddlers to as old as high school seniors. Though it got a few details wrong—the photo claiming to be T-Pain is actually a young Lil Jon, A$AP Rocky's dollar sign is missing from his name, 50 Cent has a dollar sign in his name, for some reason—that were pointed out by Twitter users in the replies, the post is mostly accurate. Photos of plenty of the best (and some of the most mid) of the rap game are included, from OGs to newcomers, and some who are no longer with us. 

Once upon a time, Rick Ross and Drake teased a collaborative project. You could determine exactly how long ago this occurred based on the fact that they planned on naming their mixtape “YOLO”. It was first mentioned in 2011, before this acronym became played-out and started eliciting physical reactions of discomfort. While the topic of “YOLO” was rehashed in a few interviews over the years, it was pretty much filed in the drawer of music collab folklore alongside other teased projects that never materialized (Migos x Young Thug, Chance The Rapper x Childish Gambino, J. Cole x Kendrick Lamar, etc.).

In a new interview with Complex, Rick Ross was asked once again about “YOLO”. While there is a zero percent chance that he and Drake ever release a joint venture under this expired title, Rozay only had nice things to say about Drake and claimed there is always a possibility that their chemistry results in a collab project. 

“[‘YOLO’] was just a vibe. You never know what could happen in the future, but me and Drake, him being in Miami at that time [in 2011-2012], and him coming by the crib every day, we was spending a lot of time together. And it was a serious possibility. We wasn’t just talking shit. We really was in the studio a lot. It’s just not the same no more. Meaning, the way he travel and the way I move. But is it a possibility? There’s always a possibility for that, because it would be simple for us.”

Ross continued to express his fondness for his collaborative work with Drake:

“…Whenever I collaborate with the homie, it’s always the best of the best. So, if we just kicking some street shit, and if it feel like some YOLO shit or if it feel like some “Aston Martin Music” shit or “Gold Roses,” I always find the best in it. Because whenever we collaborate, I love when I hear him go from bars to switching that shit all the way to the tune of Keith Sweat. That’s something that keeps him in his own lane. So I enjoy both.”

After Complex pointed out that the rapper duo apparently has ten songs in the stash already, Ross shared that he’s sitting on mountains of instrumentals ready to be used. He imagined three projects that could divvy up these beats: “I’ve got enough production to do a me and Drake project and a Nas project. The next Maybach Music Self Made 4.”

It looks like the Drake curse has struck again. For years the 6 God has been a so-called bandwagon fan and has been spotted supporting several high-profile programs and professional sports teams, particularly the cream of the crop in their respective sport. Regardless of his love & support, Drizzy has had a costly effect on his teams. For instance, Drake was spotted wearing an Alabama sweatshirt just days before they lost to Clemson last year, and British boxer Anthony Joshua, who lost his fight to Anthony Ruiz, posed with Drake and vowed to “break the curse,” which he couldn’t. Elsewhere, there’s the Conor McGregor support right before he lost to Khabib, and let's not forget about Serena Williams who entered the U.S. Open in 2015 as the top seed and ended up losing to unranked Italian player Roberta Vinci, which Drake happened to be in attendance watching live when that happened. We could go on with other Drake curses, but you get the point.

Earlier this week, Drake decided to show some love to superstar QB Lamar Jackson and wish him a happy birthday on January 7th. He did so by giving him a shoutout on IG, while sharing a pic of his sweatpants that read “Trusss” on it, the famous catch phrase of the Ravens this year and Mark Ingram.

Following a strong start to the year last week, our weekly “FIRE EMOJI” playlist is back with another update filled with the hottest releases from the last seven days.

To kick things off, Drake and Future reunited for a new banger titled “Life is Good,” a self-evident truth for all of us, now that we’ve got this track to vibe to. Drake starts the track off with smooth verse before a beat switch that introduces an expectedly hard verse from Future. All and all, the track brings fans back to the What A Time To Be Alive days.

Also to be found is a new posthumous release from Mac Miller, “Good News.” The lo-fi, sleepy vibe is one that’ll leave fans with waterworks before the full release of Miller’s upcoming Circles, which releases next week. This single is accompanied by a somber music video with trippy visuals and two quick clips of Miller in the studio.

Also included are new tracks from Mick Jenkins, Lil Baby, Megan Thee Stallion and more. Check out the full playlist below. 

Follow HNHH on Spotify.

Follow FIRE EMOJI on Spotify.

Follow R&B SEASON on Spotify.

Follow our freshly-updated Wake & Bake playlist here.

Follow our G.O.O.D. Music playlist (for a GOOD ASS FRIDAY) here. 

Kodak Black may be behind bars at the moment, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t browsing social media from time to time. The South Florida rapper was perusing Instagram on Friday, when he came across a photo of one of his idols, Drake, and decided to show his love for the “Life Is Good” rapper.

Drake shared two photos of himself in a post on January 4th wearing a white Nike hat and showing off his recently pierced ears. Of course, since Kodak doesn’t have access to IG at all times, he didn’t see the photos until 6 days later on January 10th. Despite the fact that Mr. Champagne Papi has plenty of more recent posts, Kodak chose to share his feelings on this one. “I Am Your Biggest Fan Sir. I Love Your Music Sir,” he wrote in the first comment, followed by a separate comment stating, “If We Can’t Do A Whole Album Together, I Never Want To Do A Song With You Sir.” The love and respect is definitely mutual for Drake, as he gave Kodak immense praise when he dropped his album, Dying To Love, back in 2018 before he was sentenced to forty-six months in prison in November on charges related to obtaining firearms illegally. In December, Kodak shared an awful story from his time in jail in which he claimed to have been laced with drugs by prison staff and kept in solitary confinement in abhorred conditions.

So much can change in a few years. Despite being bitter enemies for a brief spell, Drake and Meek Mill have since forged an unbreakable bromance much to the delight of their respective fanbases. Though we've only seen one collaboration in "Going Bad" since their mutual decision to bury the hatchet, it seems as if Meek and Drizzy will remain in constant communication whenever new music is being created. So much so that Meek recently took to IG to further pledge his loyalty to the Champagne Papi.

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When Nas dropped off “Life Is Good” in 2012, it felt like reassurance. A reminder that, in spite of a few concerting personal narratives, his equilibrium was back on track. Fast forward to 2020, where Future and Drake have borrowed the expression for their first major single since What A Time To Be Alive. One might think a moment of humility was upon us; both men have witnessed their personal baggage going public, with Drake admitting to having been “caught slipping” in this very chorus. Yet the stakes have become too high, the fortune too vast. When Future and Drake connect, it’s opulence over everything. It’s part of what makes them such an enjoyable partnership; the hip-hop equivalent to Fraiser and Niles Crane.

For the most part, Drake’s contributions to “Life Is Good” dwell on his material gains, and how they serve to contextualize his cultural dominance. Within the opening lines, he’s already dropped an elite level flex about his acrobatic Patek -- courtesy of Virgil Abloh, esteemed designer and writer of “Brick” on bricks. Shortly thereafter, he’s boasting about a “manor house in Rosewood,” establishing his reach as international. Essentially, he’s reminding his haters that they’re simply beneath him, a brazen cockiness no doubt emboldened by Future Hndrxx, the self-proclaimed “well-known nuisance.” He even makes reference to Kanye West hijacking June 2018 for his Surgical Summer, a move Drizzy deemed to be on some serpentine energy.

It’s interesting to note that while Drake remains adamant that “Life Is Good,” many of his chosen exhibits lead back to material wealth. For an artist who often speaks candidly about his insecurities and doubts on a personal level, some of his material with Future can feel a bit shallow in comparison. Even his section of the instrumental seems to lack any urgency, like a formidable mobster who may or may not have gained a wine gut. Still, what he loses in substance he makes up for in swagger; the duo have a formula and little reason to dete from it. Perhaps Drizzy is simply content to sit shotgun, as he did back on What A Time To Be Alive. In reality, “Life Is Good” remains Future’s show through and through.

Driving that point home further is a beat switch, a tactic that has become a staple in Future’s arsenal. Cementing Fewtch as a man of action, the spooky instrumental picks up the pace accordingly. While Drake opted for a success-is-the-best revenge approach, Future seems content to return to the trenches and handle his business accordingly. “I'm tryna avoid nonsense, get Osama sprayed in this bitch,” he raps. “They had the candlelight lightin' it up, n***a anybody could get it.” Cementing himself as a "poor high class" individual, there's a validity there that speaks to the appeal of Future's image. Even at his bougiest, there's an underlying sense of menace arisen from a hustler's personal experience. And damn it, the formula works. Perhaps simply it's a shared sense of expensive tastes that allow Future and Drake to find common ground -- neither one seems inclined to challenge themselves during a collaboration. It's not like they need to -- when it comes to providing elite-level threatening luxury raps, Future and Drake are the logical conclusion.