Tekashi 6ix9ine is home to reclaim his supposed throne as the King Of New York. In the past 24 hours alone, he’s caused a storm with the release of his new single “GOOBA” as well as his return to Instagram Live. Prior to all of that happening, he got into a bit of a back-and-forth with Meek Mill which seemingly bled into his Instagram Live when 6ix9ine began ranting about his numbers.

Though many members of the hip-hop community expressed their disdain, the curiosity of the general public was stronger and helped 6ix9ine earn 2M simultaneous viewers on his IG Live and apparently, rack up 16M views on the release of “GOOBA” in a matter of hours. Even still, the media closely followed the rainbow-haired rapper in the last 24 hours including renowned hip-hop journalist Elliott Wilson. A series of photos surrounding 6ix9ine’s Live and single were shared to his IG profile, though it was met with criticism.

“Durkio dropped today and he the streets cmon Elliot? Post Durk shit it’s [fire],” Meek wrote. “No post from Durk on a hip hop page but this????? you the of Elliot.”

Snoop Dogg quickly doubled down on Meek’s sentiment writing, “They gotta stop pushing this [rat] all these media outlets making snitching cool.” Adding, “I’m old school fuck 69 and everybody pushing his line right now all New York. Gz. Feel me on this and if u don’t fuck u2. @meekmill if u allow sucka shit then u a ducks. Love u cuz stay sucka free.”

Though it should be noted that Meek made it clear that he’s friends with Elliott Wilson, he clearly expects a higher standard. 

During the 2019 Holiday Season, Drake spoke rather highly of the Griselda movement during his interview with Rap Radar. “In a mainstream space I feel like the art of bars and that traditional long verse is kind of going extinct,” he reflected, chopping it up with Elliot Wilson and B. Dot Miller. “Then you got guys like Griselda making it wavy again to be on your gutter, straight rap shit. The interesting structures — that gutter shit.” When Miller asked if a Drake and Benny The Butcher collaboration was a possibility, Drizzy took a sip of his wine. “I’m down. Benny showed me love one time in an interview. He did show me love.”

Though Westside Gunn, Conway, and Benny are used to high-profile co-signs — they’ve already been endorsed by Eminem, J. Cole, Jay-Z, Raekwon, Royce Da 5’9″, and Ghostface — many were excited to see Drake showing love to such a bar-centric collective. Especially those who value Drake getting back on his BS, spazzing on lyrical slow burners like “Omerta.” While there’s certainly a strategic benefit of securing the Drake feature, as seen for Lil Baby, Blocboy JB, and even Migos, the Griselda trifecta have already established themselves as key players in the game without Aubrey’s blessing. Be that as it may, the idea of these particular worlds colliding is enticing on a purely stylistic level. 

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As luck would have it, what started as a what-if fantasy has become a reality. Seizing the opportunity presented by Drake’s Rap Radar interview, Benny The Butcher stepped up and slid an instrumental to Drizzy’s camp, the confirmation of a full-scale collaboration all but locked in. Taking to social media to fan the flames of hype, The Butcher made is known that the wheels are in motion. “Sent Drake a record and I kno imma wanna drop it as soon as he send it back,” he wrote, in a screencap captured by Elliot Wilson (the man who may have inadvertently helped spark this unexpected friendship in the first place).

To make things even more exciting, Drake slid into the comments with a simple Typewriter emoji, roughly translated to “I’m writing as we speak.” Of course, going toe to toe on wax with Benny The Butcher is no easy feat — one must bring their best bars to the table, and in no small dose. Benny is used to lyrically trading with the likes of Conway The Machine, another formidable wordsmith. While Drake is certainly competitive, a collaboration with Benny might be the biggest challenge he’s faced in a minute. On the other hand, it might be exactly what the game needs right now — a reminder that when inspired to do so, the 6ix God can spit at elite levels. No matter how things turn out, it’ll be exciting to see whether he’s capable of keeping strides with The Butcher on Benny’s home turf.

Concrete details surrounding the track are scarce. We can speculate that it will be produced by Daringer or Alchemist, but that’s about it. All we know is that, much like The Butcher himself, it’s coming. 

Roots Picnic has established itself as one of the premier music festivals catering to hip-hop fans around the nation and, this year, with headliners like Meek Mill, DaBaby, and Summer Walker, we’re in for another amazing show. While most festivals pack a weekend full of activities, performances, and music-centric showcases into three days, the Roots Picnic is doing so in one single day, choosing Saturday, May 30 to return to Philadelphia’s Mann Center. 

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Questlove officially announced the line-up for the 2020 edition of Roots Picnic, confirming some of the most exciting profiles for performances at the festival. The headliners will surely be enough to bring out a sell-out crowd to Philly but, further down the card, a slew of discovery-worthy names are listed for you to enjoy. The soulful Snoh Aalegra will be bringing her brand of R&B to the stage with Burna Boy, Thundercat, Griselda, Baby Rose, SiR, Buddy, and more all slated to make additional appearances. The Roots will also be presenting a soul showcase featuring the likes of Brandy, SWV, and Musiq Soulchild.

If you’ve had enough of music and you just want to chill and dive into a conversation with some of the top minds in the game, you’ll have a chance to do that too with Elliott Wilson and Questlove both bringing their shows to Roots Picnic.

The event will take place on May 30. Tickets are available on Friday at noon.

If you ask Omarion, he'll tell you that Jermaine Dupri has a pretty peculiar routine in the studio. At times, it may not feel as though the legendary figure is actually working as hard as he can on things. Obviously, that's not the case. His catalogue does all the necessary talking for him. However, his longtime collaborator and mentee Bow Wow just wasn't feeling things when he and Omarion got to work with the producer on Face Off and, in the new episode of the Rap Radar podcast, they revealed that JD was given the boot one day into the project's inception.

In their first-ever joint interview, Omarion and Bow Wow linked up to speak about their reconnection on the upcoming Millennium Tour. Both artists are entering their twentieth years in the entertainment industry and their talk with Elliott Wilson and Brian Miller was incredibly nostalgic, including one moment when Bow's relationship with Jermaine Dupri was called into question.

"At one point in time, we were doing the Face Off album and, I'm thinking to myself, 'alright, we gon' have Jermaine [Dupri] do this half and then we gon' work with these other two producers,'" recalled Omarion. "The first day in Atlanta, Bow fires Jermaine. 'No no no, fuck that, we going, O.'" Omarion's impression of Bow had everybody cracking up before the man himself interjected to explain his side of the story. 

"We didn't even get a chance to record over a Jermaine Dupri track," said Bow Wow. "Day one, we go to the studio and I believe me, O, and Jermaine were just talking. And I'm just like 'you know, I'm just not really feeling what the fuck you doing.'"

Bow Wow and JD were on their "father-son shit" at that point and things got so heated that Bow and O ended up moving their studio sessions to Los Angeles, finishing up there and still making a hit, even without Jermaine. Listen below at the 11-minute mark.

With Funeral only a few days old, Lil Wayne hit up Elliott Wilson's TIDAL series Car Test for a conversation about the project. Explaining that Funeral was titled in keeping with his own thematic tradition, Weezy drew a connection between Rebirth, his latest album, and a possible new project called Born Again. Hitting up the "Super Jeep" for the occasion, Wilson opens the door by asking whether Funeral was a more carefree process than Carter V was. "I would agree when you said carefree," replies Wayne. "More freedom. Everybody knows freedom is a feeling, and that was the feeling. The knowledge knowing that it was coming out." 

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He reveals that while he might eventually grew tired of some of his older material, there are other songs that withstand the test of time -- some of which even made it onto Funeral. "These days they don't do no intro these days," laments Wayne. "Since it's so different these days, we don't have the official album in our hands no more. We don't want that no more -- back in the day we couldn't wait to get home and get the packaging off that CD." When Wilson asks whether he's aiming to bring that feeling back, Wayne has a much simpler answer. "Oh no, I'm old! I still do intros, outros, interludes and skits. I forgot ya'll don't do it." 

"Back when we was in Hot Boys, Mannie Fresh did all the hooks," recalls Wayne. "Juvie made up all the hooks." Wilson wonders how Weezy manages to keep the bars sharp, a quality the legendary rapper is quick to attribute to a higher power. "It's a blessing," he says. "It's God's gift. I've been rapping since I was seven." He also reveals that he finds the validation of his skill "very rewarding," a testament to his competitive spirit. "I do it for the recognition of the skill."

Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett are back, y’all! 

Columbia Pictures’ highly-anticipated trilogy in the hit Bad Boys series premieres next week, and to get fans excited TIDAL decided to host an intimate conversation in Harlem at the iconic Apollo Theater with the two stars of Bad Boys For Life, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. As it ended up being the first stop on the press tour here in America, you already know they had a lot to share with the fans who’ve made this dynamic trilogy such an iconic series ever since it debut almost a quarter century ago. HNHH was in the building to get an earful of all the gems they were willing to reveal about Bad Boys 3, and we got all that and tons more. 

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Keep scrolling to check out 10 prominent highlights from Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s talk with TIDAL, hosted by seasoned music journalist Elliott Wilson, which includes behind the scenes tales, little known facts about the first two films, how DJ Khaled plays into all of this and if in fact there will be a Bad Boys 4

Fans Are Excited To See Bad Boys For Life — Like, A Lot!

The entire Apollo Theater was packed — there was literally standing room only. It proved that even after 17 years since the last sequel premiered back in 2003, there’s still a very high demand for people to see Will and Martin back in action together on the big screen.

A Good Portion Of Bad Boys and Bad Boys 2 Was Improv

Two key examples that were brought up were scenes from Bad Boys 2: the “date interrogation” and the one where Martin’s character, Marcus Burnett, is tripping off ecstasy. Both actors joked about the guy who plays Reggie in that scene being so genuinely scared that he never acted in another role again. We checked the IMDb page for the actor, Dennis Greene, and they were right — absolutely nothing!

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SPOILER ALERT: The Movie Begins With A “Shock” And A “Break-Up”

While no big spoilers were given away during the sit-down, Will and Martin did allude to a “big shocker” at the beginning that might make you tear up, as well as a “breakup” scene between the two partners that will test their friendship. Sounds like big drama!

Prince Had A Club In Miami That Martin & Will Partied At During The First Bad Boys Film

Both guys say it lived up to its name, with Martin even saying that he’d “have to kill you” if he shared memories from partying at the Miami hotspot.

SPOILER ALERT: The Opening Scene In Bad Boys For Life Reveals That Marcus Becomes A Grandfather

In one of the few scenes they actually showed to the crown on big screens set up throughout the Apollo Theater, we see the guys embracing on a high speed chase only to end up at a hospital to witness the birth of Marcus Burnett’s (played by Martin Lawrence) grandchild. It’s pretty charming to say the least.

DJ Khaled Has A Role In The Film As “Manny The Butcher”

Will said that Khaled was so excited to be a part of the film that he showed up “4 weeks before his scene” just to hang out on the set.

Bad Boys Was Originally Given To Martin Lawrence First, Who Was Then Tasked With Finding His Own Co-Star

Martin says his sister was the one who suggested Will. They eventually had dinner to see if the chemistry was there, and within five minutes Martin says knew he had met his match. Will confirmed this and said the chemistry had to be on point like the first two films in order to even make the third one. He concluded that “friendship” is the key to Bad Boys 3, even quoting the series’ classic slogan, “We ride together, we die together — Bad Boys for life!”

Dealing with Michael Bay on the first two Bad Boys films was tough for both Martin & Will

The tension was real on set. Both guys confirmed that Bay just simply didn’t have “people skills”  and they each had to learn how to work with him. Will tells a hilarious story about almost attacking Michael Bay on the set of Bad Boys 2, with Martin having to literally hold him back by the waist.

Hip-Hop Was A Huge Influence For The Bad Boys Series And The Personal Careers For Both Lead Actors

With Will Smith being a rapper first, and Martin embracing Hip-Hop dating back to the House Party films, both men credit rap culture to being one of the key components to even bring them to a film series like Bad Boys. Martin brought up The Notorious B.I.G. as an example, saying that during that now-classic episode of Martin where Biggie makes a guest appearance that they spoke extensively about his relationship with Faith Evans. Will went a step further and added that he actually met Biggie for the first time on the night he died.

Bad Boys 4 Is 100% Possible

Without giving any official confirmation, Will Smith said that if people liked Bad Boys 3 that he would definitely be up for Bad Boys 4. Fingers crossed! 

Be sure to catch Martin Lawrence and Will Smith return for Bad Boys For Life when it hits theaters next Friday (January 17).