French Montana was among the rappers Young Chop claimed weren't 'bout that life after Gillie Da King asked him, "Who's the scariest tough guy [in the rap game]?" This was a shocking claim seeing as how several of the rappers he listed were artists that he worked with in the past. Meek immediately issued a public response saying it was "obvious Chop having some mental issues."

While DaBaby is easily one of the most entertaining new voices in hip-hop, there remains one constant criticism that has long-dogged the Kirk rapper: the “same flow” critique. It’s become somewhat of a meme, to the point where Baby himself even acknowledged it on “Bop”: “Ayy, when you gon’ switch the flow? I thought you’d never ask.” Clearly, the man’s formula remains successful in spite of the flow haters, though skeptics have reasoned that evolution is a crucial component of longevity.

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Fast forward to today, as DaBaby took to Instagram to preview an upcoming banger. And guess what — he’s exploring new territory in the flow department, arguably the most radical departure he’s taken thus far. It also happens to be the most melodic work we’ve seen from Baby, as he rides the acoustic guitar progression with an autotune-tinged cadence. “You know how people like to come out when you level up,” he spits, finding a solid pocket and going in. “I made a change you stayed the same, I got ahead of ya.”

The change was not lost on Lil Yachty, with whom Baby recently collaborated on “Oprah’s Bank Account.” “Someone’s looking for a new flow,” teases Boat, sliding into the comment section with the googly-eyes. Lil Durk also chimed in with the co-sign, inviting himself to the party with promises of a “dumb dumb” verse. No matter how it plays out, it seems as if Baby is continuing to evolve as an artist, and this as-of-yet untitled track signals great things for his next album. 

Love him or hate him, you can’t deny that Canadian rapper Nav has earned his place at the table. Coming off the release of last year’s Bad Habits, Nav has kicked off 2020 on a relatively subdued note. Now that he’s stuck in quarantine mode like the rest of us, the producer slash rapper has been forced to revise his schedule and kick things into overdrive — if only to defeat the ever-looming threat of boredom that affects everyone from the artist to the blue-collar worker. 

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Luckily, Nav is feeling generous enough to share one of his most stacked posse cuts, a reunion of the “Yosemite” gang, Travis Scott and Gunna. Taking to Instagram, Nav revealed he’d be delivering their next group effort “Turks” as soon as tomorrow, after consulting with Gunna and asking the man’s permission. “Should I drop it tomorrow?” asks Nav, prompting a staunch affirmation from Gunna — “That’s what I want you to do!”

“Fuck it, they’ve been begging me for it, I’ll just put it out tomorrow,” vows Nav. “That’s it, fuck it, tomorrow ‘Turks’ coming out.” Good news for those praying for an influx of bangers, especially given how strong “Yosemite” was before it. Keep an eye out for Nav, Gunna, and Travis’ new single to land at some point tomorrow, and if the hype is any indication — it should be a good one. 

Ari Lennox has one of the best r’n’b albums of the year with her highly-perfect Shea Butter Baby album. From artwork to sounds to theme– it was on point. If you haven’t heard it, now is the perfect time to dive right in, especially since we’re all just chilling around the house. Many (or rather, Wiz Khalifa) are predicting a baby Quarantine boom, and undoubtedly Ari Lennox’s music can help us achieve such a goal.

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Not only that, she’s really doubling down on the help, opting to release the remix EP for Shea Butter Baby this Friday. She revealed the news on Instagram, unveiling a “remixed” cover art in the process. Her original, nude-themed and muted artwork which showcased her elegantly posing is swapped for something a bit bolder, and much more orange, while her pose is equally has a bit more swagger and give-no-fucks attitude to it.

While she hasn’t left us any details as to what we might expect from the remix EP, we are excited to add this one into the Quarantine Life rotation.

Shea Butter Baby has several appearances on our R&B Season playlist, so keep it locked, as we’ll definitely be adding a few more Ari records to it come Friday.

As Ebro Darden tells it during the onset of their Beats 1 conversation, Conway The Machine is looking “dapper even at the crib.” Clearly, the Griselda lyricist has been reaping the spoils of his prolific and triumphant musical run, which is set to continue this Friday with the release of Lulu; you can check out the Alchemist-produced, ScHoolboy Q-assisted “Shoot Sideways” right here. As he tells it, the hard work is only getting started, as his goals remain the primary focus. 

“Keeping my sword sharp, keeping my pen game right, and trying to make my best song,” he reflects. “Every song I want to get better, every album, every EP…I want to be the best ever one day.” He proceeds to break down his dynamic with ScHoolboy, going so far as to tease the potential of a collaborative project one day. “I would love to,” he says. “I don’t object to that. Hopefully we get to that point. I be doing so much, he be doing so much, we ain’t get the chance to lock in the studio for a couple of days. But we see each other in passing, like at Alchemist’s house. We just vibe like that.”

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He also takes a moment to provide an update on his upcoming musical plans. “God Don’t Make Mistakes is the project we doing for Shady, we’re dropping on Shady,” he explains. “My solo. In the meantime, we still gotta keep mashing the gas. I can’t let up. After Lulu I’m giving you that From A King To A God, then [me and Westside Gunn] going to give you Hall & Nash 2.”

“I want people to respect my pen like Eminem pen, or Hov pen,” he continues. “Or Kool G’s pen, or LL’s pen. The top tier elite dudes…I want to be remembered forever in the history books, on that Mount Rushmore of rappers. Having that embrace from Jay and Em, and some of my producer big homies like Premier and Alchemist and Pete Rock, guys like that who really paved the way for the sound people say I’m bringing back, that’s what meaning the most to me.”

When Ebro asks whether Eminem will appear on God Don’t Make Mistakes, Conway breaks it down. “Yeah man, he definitely going to be on there,” confirms The Machine. “Actually, ‘Bang’ was a record off God Don’t Make Mistakes. It got leaked somehow on the internet. It got on Instagram somehow, so we decided to drop it now to put that single out there…That was actually a record for my Shady project.” 

Tory Lanez is unstoppable. Not in the sense of being the greatest of all time or wielding god-like power. No, Lanez is unstoppable in another way. Four years ago, Lanez debuted his album I Told You for Interscope Records. He generated a worthy buzz but wasn’t granted that next level of praise because another Canadian rapper/singer was flooding the airwaves. No worries. Lanez had already released over a dozen mixtapes prior to signing with Interscope, so he was no stranger to hard work. He went into the studio and came out with the mixtapes Chixtape IV and The New Toronto 2 before releasing his sophomore album, Memories Don’t Die. A few months later, Lanez’s third album dropped, Love Me Now? The sheer will power and work ethic of Lanez is what truly makes him unstoppable. His grind doesn’t appear to have any inkling of what “stopping” even means, it’s a driving force pushing his creative efforts.

After blessing Interscope with 4 albums and a handful of mixtapes, Lanez is ready for his departure project. Lanez announced the album, The New Toronto 3, and its release month on Twitter at the end of February. Although he tweeted that there was “no bad blood with the label,” fans of the artist know this to be untrue. Just a few months ago, Lanez hopped on social media to deliver a scathing warning to Interscope, asserting, “If y’all n***as don’t stop playing w/ me … I’ma expose what’s really going on in that fucking building!” Now that the relationship is coming to an official end, what should we expect from Lanez’s final album for Interscope?

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Bars

Lanez’s last album was Chixtape 5, which makes his shift to The New Toronto 3 thematically sound. Chixtape 4 was released alongside The New Toronto 2, so for Lanez to continue his penchant of placing these two mixtape projects near each other makes sense, at least from a continuity with fans perspective. What we determined from Chixtape 4 and The New Toronto 2 is that Lanez tends to shift to R&B bangers for one, and aims to keep it more hip-hop on the other. With that in mind, fans are expecting The New Toronto 3 to be more of a hip-hop/rap effort with Lanez showing off his lyrical strength. Chixtape 5 was a gorgeous and nostalgic R&B thrill ride, but let’s not forget Lanez can rap his ass off. Just based on his past moves, it looks like Lanez will be putting the bars front and center on this project. The first indication that this is correct comes by way of yesterday’s single, “W,” which is a nostalgic, bar-riddled effort.

Limited Collabs

The number of features on Chixtape 5 was impressive, and everyone played their part. And we know Lanez has several friends and peers in the industry he enjoys collaborating with. Still, The New Toronto 3 would work best as a lightly collaborative project. Lanez should keep the features to a minimum. It will give him the maximum amount of creative freedom while crafting his last piece of art for Interscope. Much like Jay-Z’s Black Album, Outkast’s ATLiens, or Nas‘ Stillmatic, the philosophy of including just a few other rappers on the record adds to the mysticism of the classic. We have seen Lanez go featureless before on his debut for Interscope, and it would be perfect timing to employ that method one more time.

Production

So far, fans have gotten two tracks from Lanez that are either on the new album, or are throwaways that almost made it. “Broke In A Minute” and “W” both came with colorful visuals that make us feel it’s the former option. “Broke In A Minute” features a repetitive horn that spirals around angrily as Lanez drops dizzying bars. “W” has a more cinematic instrumental, a calming vibe that is best suited for night time, introspective driving. Based on the two opposite directions in production we have seen so far, fans can expect an eclectic sound to this project. Since bars seem to be the center focus for Lanez, we expect him to explore beats that aren’t too complicated. “Broke In A Minute” and “W” may have different vibes, but they are both simplistic beats. This allows Lanez’s listeners to hear his bars more clearly– these beats were made for bars. Busy instrumentals weighed down by layers upon layers of samples or instrumentals that consistently evolve as the song progresses probably won’t make a big splash on The New Toronto 3. “W” was produced by Saint Mino & 2one2 and “Broke In A Minute” was crafted by Papiyerr. While Papiyerr has worked with Lanez on several occasions (“The Take,” “Jerry Sprunger,” “Luv Ya Gyal // Love Sounds”) Saint Mino & 2one2 are new to the Lanez catalog. This shows that Lanez will be experimenting with new production on this album as well.

Final Thoughts

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The clear cut path here for Lanez is to create a classic to leave Interscope on that is lyrically potent but still delivers radio quality singles. Lanez has earned plenty of success on Billboard with his more R&B sound; The New Toronto 3 must exceed those expectations from a hip-hop standpoint. 

“I remember being so broke shit I ain’t wanna have no babies, We was project planning, the clip came with that black Mercedes,” raps Lanez on the new single “W”. “If you was pussy then, you pussy now, you can’t erase it, I never saw us becoming famous in my imagination, Sat in too many rooms with losers who was procrastinating.” His bars are vivid and the instrumental is eerily marvelous. This may just be a track that missed the cut, judging on its length, but it is still an indication of where Lanez is heading on this one. What would you like to hear from Lanez’s new album The New Toronto 3? Sound off in the comments below.

Pleasure P, the musician and singer whose real name is Marcus Ramone Cooper, actually tried to pull the do-you-know-who-I-am card with police while being detained in a Miami fast-food eatery altercation earlier this month. Unfortunately for him, the officers either didn’t know, or care, who he was. 

Body cam footage from the arrest, available on the TMZ site, shows the R&B star in a very confrontational mood with police officers at a Checkers drive-thru in Miami Gardens, Fla. He can be heard exclaiming “I’m Pleasure P” before the cop responds, “I don’t care who you are.” Seriously, when has the ol’ “do you know who I am?” line ever worked? 

Still, ever persistent, he made yet another attempt to escape arrest, by explaining to the officer that much was at stake for him because he is a part of the Millenium tour with a host of other 90’s artists. Pleasure P was a member of the group Pretty Ricky, which started in Miami in the 1990s and released top-selling albums well into the 2000s.

But Pleasure P’s most entertaining performance of late can be seen on that video as he gets increasingly irate and cops try to calm him down. While an employee of the fast-food joint is being interviewed by the cops, she gets into an extreme shouting match with Pleasure P, who, according to the police report, had shoved her in the chest and thrown his food at her through the drive through window. 

Pleasure P was arrested and detained in a Miami-Dade jail, though later released. The agitated singer has since insisted he was a wrongful arrested and that his main concern now is to get back to “making new baby making music that you can quarantine and chill with your loved one while at home.” 

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With so much uncertainty in the world right now, music is one of the only things keeping us afloat. There’s not much to look forward to, but the current slate of upcoming musical releases is looking promising, so at least there’s that. 21 Savage and Metro Boomin have been hard at work on their sequel project Savage Mode 2, teasing its arrival since last year. With a drop date currently unspecified, it’s looking like it could arrive within the next few weeks or months as the hints keep on getting clearer. Now, the producer-rapper duo plan on saving the world from the mess we’ve found ourselves in with a worldwide remedy.

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“Cooking up a cure,” wrote Metro Boomin on Instagram, sharing an old photo of himself and 21 Savage in the studio and explaining that they’re both social distancing right now. Hopefully, they got a good chunk of their project complete before the coronavirus outbreak began because we could all use some Slaughter Gang vibes in our lives right now. 

There is no release date yet for Savage Mode 2 but the fact that both artists keep referring to its existence is promising, to say the least. We will continue to keep you updated on any developments pertaining to the album.

As Big Sean celebrates thirty-two years on this planet, the rapper has also given a gift to the fans: an album announcement. The rapper is bringing us a second instalment in his fan-favorite mixtape Detroit, titled Detroit 2.

The first glimpse at the album comes by way of an Instagram video trailer for it. The teaser gives us a glimpse at Sean's Detroit mentality, as he big ups his city. We're also treated to new sounds, and a look at life in Detroit, and the behind-the-scenes of album creation. From the teaser, we can at least discern that it's probable Young Thug will be on the album. 

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In the summer, Big Sean began rolling out new music like "Bezerk", "Single Again" and "Overtime." However nothing really came of the music, so perhaps he's rewinding the clock to re-do the roll out. Time will tell what actually makes Detroit 2. No release date has been confirmed yet, stay tuned.

Check out the album trailer below and let us know what you think of the music through out. Fire? Or nah?

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A post shared by BIGSEAN (@bigsean) on Mar 25, 2020 at 12:13pm PDT

We are living in unprecedented times right now. The world has effectively been shut down for an undetermined amount of time because of the coronavirus outbreak. In order to protect the millions of people at risk, governments worldwide have instated shelter-at-home measures, urging people to stay inside and practice social distancing. Every industry has been affected by the outbreak, including the music business. However, leaders like TIDAL are trying their hardest to make these next few days/weeks/months comfortable by digging through the archives and providing ample live-stream concert material for us to enjoy.

Announcing the At Home With TIDAL live-stream series, TIDAL revealed that daily live-streams will be available for music fans to connect with their favorite artists while still social distancing. Beginning today, the streaming service will shuffle through genres to cater to a wide array of music fans. The 12-hour daily live-streams will feature exclusive content from past performances by some of the industry's finest.