Over a year ago, Lil Uzi Vert was set to release Eternal Atake, his second studio album. After experiencing a slew of drama with his label, the project was indefinitely delayed but, in typical Uzi fashion, it looks like we'll be getting it in two weeks on Match 13, which just so happens to be a Friday. While that much has not been confirmed, the Philadelphia staple has been teasing an imminent release for EA and, with the arrival of his new single "That Way," the rumours intensified. Now, a couple of possible cover artworks were uploaded to the singer's Twitter page and one of them is standing out to fans, earning a major stamp of approval.

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Asking fans to choose between three artworks, Lil Uzi Vert only uploaded two before he presumably fell asleep and forgot about the third. Still though, the second cover was a favorite for many, with some even saying that it's better than the original art.

If you recall, the rapper was using imagery from the Heaven's Gate cult, which resulted in legal action being taken by the leaders of the organization. The potential new cover shows three human beings on the moon, looking out into the colourful bliss of outer space. A UFO flies in the background. 

Alternatively, Baby Pluto shared another cover, which follows the orange theme he has stuck by so dearly. Pointing out the "featuring Syd" marking up top though, fans believe this could be for an upcoming single. 

What do you think of the artwork? Which are you feeling more?

Previously on Complex and Spotify’s Infamous: The Tekashi 6ix9ine Story podcast… Angie Martinez narrated how the FBI surveilled the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods and eventually took down many of its members, including Tekashi himself. On this week’s episode, titled “Heavy Is The Head”, we “look at the split inside Nine Trey itself.” 

The primary riff that the episode tracks is that between two Nine Trey members, Kifano “Shotti” Jordan and Anthony “Harv” Ellison, who both wished to benefit off of Tekashi’s rising career. Once the godfather of the gang decided that Shotti would handle the rainbow-haired rapper’s affairs, Harv became resentful. The tension between Shotti and Harv ultimately led to Harv kidnapping Tekashi. 

Not long after the incident, Tekashi went on Angie Martinez’s Power 105.1 radio show to discuss his kidnapping. At the time, he didn’t mention that Harv was the one who conducted it, even though he was well aware of this. As revealed in court, during the abduction, Harv had pressured Tekashi into relinquishing his status as a Nine Trey member. Harv disapproved of how the social media star had dodged the traditional initiation process and managed to obtain a relatively high status within the gang. He ended up handing over hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry to satisfy Harv before fleeing to a hospital. Tekashi and Shotti planned to put a hit on Harv, but little did they know that the feds were right on their tails at this point. Find out what happened by listening to the full episode below. 

Eminem and Lord Jamar, two men who quite simply will never be friends, have been at odds for well over a year now. It all started when Jamar sought to diminish Em’s impact on hip-hop culture, likening him to a houseguest and maintaining that his predominantly white fanbase disqualifies him from the GOAT conversation. After Jamar made Eminem a recurring talking-point throughout his various press runs, Em fired back on songs like Kamikaze’s “Fall” and Music To Be Murdered By’s “I Will.”

Things seemed destined to drag on until Slim hit up KXNG Crooked’s Crook’s Corner, where he openly acknowledged himself to be a “guest” in hip-hop. Naturally, Jamar was all but committed to address the development. It didn’t take long before he was having another face to face with Vlad of Vlad TV, wasting little time in addressing the “elephant in the room.” Making the distinction that Vlad brought it up, not him, Jamar maintains that he never had a “beef” with Eminem in the first place.

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Vlad reflects on how Eminem openly admitted to being a guest in hip-hop, which leads Jamar to wonder why it took so long to come to such a conclusion. “This could have been ended a long time ago,” he maintains. “Not that it’s even anything. He even used the word beef in there. This was just me stating my fuckin’ opinion and a bunch of fuckin’ Stans having a problem with it. They were just amplifying it so much back to him that he had to respond. Really, the Stans are responsible for a lot of this back and forth shit.”

“At the end of the day, this was never no beef,” continues Jamar. “All of my points were proven. I don’t consider this a personal victory. This just speaks to the power of the soil. I represent the voice of the soil of hip-hop. You can plant many seeds in the soil but the soil decides what grows. Not the seed, the soil.” Elaborating on the metaphor, Jamar explains that “the soil” is what dictates quality, not record sales or technical prowess. “The soil will decide if you are the GOAT. It was never personal to Eminem — if anything it was a fuck you to white supremacy. It was the fact that [they] think they can come into all genres and dictate everything. We were saying, as the soil, no you can’t.”

While fans and colleagues were quick to rally behind Megan Thee Stallion after she revealed on Sunday (Mar. 1) that her record label has been blocking her from releasing new music, the force of the law intervening on her behalf has been a crucial development. TMZ has reported that Meg filed a $1 million lawsuit against her label, 1501 Certified Entertainment, and has been granted a temporary restraining order against them. The TRO prevents the label’s representatives from slandering the Houston rapper on social media and allows her to drop new music, as she wishes, this Friday (Mar. 6).

A district judge in Harris County Texas was sympathetic to Meg’s claim that she should be protected from her label’s “bullying and strong-armed tactics.” According to the lawsuit, 1501’s label head, Carl Crawford, leverages his connections to Rap-A-Lot Records founder, J. Prince, to carry out his intimidation tactics. J. Prince has been a powerful and respected figure in the Houston hip hop landscape for decades. An example cited in the suit of Crawford benefiting from J. Prince’s imposing stature is Crawford pressuring a producer to hand over beats by warning that Prince would be pissed if not. Megan states, “Prince is notorious in the industry for strong-armed intimidation tactics, and the comment was taken as a physical threat of harm.”

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Furthermore, Meg suspects that Prince was involved in a smear campaign against her. Although he’s not listed as a defendant in the lawsuit, it’s suggested that Prince was responsible for the recent surfacing of Meg’s five-year-old mugshot. 

1501 was allegedly halting Meg’s output because she had requested to renegotiate her contract, which is described in the lawsuit as “purposefully and deceptively vague.” The lawsuit also reveals some staggering stipulations in her deal that she signed when she was 20. As reported by TMZ, the label is granted 60% of her recording income. The remaining 40% that goes to her is expected to cover costs of engineers, mixers and featured artists who work on her songs. Given this arrangement, one would assume that Meg relies on touring to pay the bills, but her contract requires that the fees for her performances are paid directly to the label. Therefore, who knows if she has been getting her deserved cut? 

#FREEMEGANTHEESTALLION. 

Billion Dollar Baby artist Stunna 4 Vegas continues to carve out his own lane outside of DaBaby‘s success. The young North Carolina artist’s career has been fine-tuned by DaBaby, but as he releases more projects—including his latest, Rich Youngin—Stunna is picking up steam and reveling in the successes his rap star life affords.

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Stunna caught up with DJ Smallz to talk about Rich Youngin and what the process was like weeding through songs to come up with the final 12 that ended up on the record. He said he had plenty of tracks to choose from, but he and DaBaby took about an hour and a half to hand-pick the final dozen. Smallz wanted to know if there was a method they leaned on when deciding the order such as something like choosing two high-energy tracks and then something more mellow.

“I’m up all the time,” Stunna said of his music’s vibe. “So, it’s up, I’d say it don’t go down. It’s probably neutral like, ‘Walk Up’ [and] ‘Russian,’ but I’m up on them, too, at the same time. I’m up on everything. It’s energy. I make energy music. I’m not a sad-ass rapper. Ain’t no girl break my heart. Sorry, I don’t make that type of music for y’all,” he added with a laugh.

“But hey, I’m versatile, though,” Stunna continued. “I got that mellow music. I got that in the cut. But even then, the way I come on the track is up at the same time so it’s gonna be energy every time with me.” Watch Stunna 4 Vegas with DJ Smallz below.

Chicago was in the building on Sway in the Morning. G Herbo has been steadily promoting his latest release PTSD, and to show that he “still got bars,” he visited Sway in the Morning to partake in their famous freestyle session. The 24-year-old was eager to drop a few bars over Jeezy‘s “The Real is Back” from the rapper’s 2011 mixtape of the same name. 

“Never seen penitentiary / But the streets been sentenced me / How the f*ck he try and protect himself and get a century / I’m smarter than my enemies / Not give them my energy / I’m too rich to be in the streets but too street to be industry / In serenity, that’s where I like to be / Keep enemies close like they right with me / I’m paranoid as f*ck but got the right to be / Steady poppin’ pain pills to try and fight my sleep,” Herbo rapped methodically.

The Walking Dead‘s Norman Reedus had a front seat for the freestyle as he was also a guest on Sway in the Morning and sang Herbo’s praises. Meanwhile, as Herbo has been promoting his latest release, he’s been using the opportunity to highlight the importance of addressing mental health. “It’s like, we kind of don’t know that we suffer from these mental health issues,” he told HipHopDX. 

“I’m a product of that. I was shot at. I seen my first murder at nine-years-old,” he added. “A lot of this stuff that we encounter on a day-to-day basis, we think is normal just because it’s our reality. We think it’s something we’re supposed to be going through. I feel like in the poverty-stricken neighborhoods, a lot of us are suffering from PTSD. I thought it was important for me because I know it’s a lot of people who are like me.” Watch G Herbo’s freestyle session below.

The hype surrounding Jadakiss‘s forthcoming album Ignatius has been a well-crafted rollout. The New York rapper has been making the media rounds to discuss his upcoming record that was initially slated for release on Friday, February 28. There was even a song, “Hunting Season” with Jadakiss featuring Pusha T that made its way to TIDAL, but almost immediately it was taken down. Pusha T would later come forward and say that they decided not to move forward with the track’s release at this time because of Pop Smoke’s murder, and since the song talks about hunting fellow rappers, it didn’t seem appropriate.

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During a chat with For The Record, Jadakiss explained that both he and Pusha didn’t even talk about taking down the song but they were on the same page about its removal. In fact, Jadakiss delayed the release date of his album altogether. “Yeah, we held back to pay respect for Pop Smoke, the untimely passing and demise of Pop Smoke,” said Jadakiss. “We actually pulled that song back and we pulled the project back as well [by] a week. Instead of February 28, the album is gon’ come out March 6. The song, the video is very artsy but it’s a little crazy so, just to pay respect and shed light on that whole…you know.”

“Even with Kobe and his daughter and the memorial and all that, it just didn’t seem like the right time to release the song or the visual,” Jadakiss added. “Or the project, so we just pulled it back for a week. The song will be on the album…just after stuff dies down a little we’ll let the visual out.” Watch Jadakiss chop it up with For The Record below.

We're kicking off March with a bang as Megan Thee Stallion recently called out her label, 1501 Certified Entertainment. The Fever rapper hopped online to accuse music executives of hindering the release of her new music because she's asked to renegotiate her contract. After it was reported that the Houston rapper sued 1501 for over $1 million, it was shared that Megan has now been given the green light to drop new tunes as she sees fit.

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#MeganTheeStallion says the first label she signed too @1501_certified_ent will not allow her to release any music... ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀ Follow @uwantmoe

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TMZ caught up with Hitmaka also known as Yung Berg and asked the superproducer what he thinks about Megan's current label drama. "You just gotta pretty much make sure your legal team is right when you take these deals and knowing you doing big business," he said. "A lotta artists get into situations where they end up signing contracts and things of that nature without really thoroughly going through the paperwork or whatever. So, I mean, for Meg's situation, I hope everything works out. I got love for both parties."

Hitmaka went on to say, "There's no such thing as bad deals when you actually sign the paperwork yourself. You just gotta be well-educated no matter how young you are. This game ain't got no love for nobody. You see my journey. One minute you up, the next you down. It's a transition through everything."

Hitmaka was asked what advice he would give to Megan Thee Stallion, but he didn't have much to say. "She already got a good team and good things going for her... Shout out to Roc Nation. I think she's gon' make it through and they'll figure it out. They'll negotiate and they'll work out for the best." Watch Hitmaka's clip below.

The history between Lupe Fiasco and Joe Budden is riddled with scathing words and heated exchanges, but when Lupe joked that he would take over the podcast host's vacant Slaughterhouse spot, hip hop fans were divided. Many who are hoping for another Slaughterhouse project seemed eager to entertain such a possibility, while others couldn't see anyone taking Budden's place. Royce Da 5'9" was recently questioned about Lupe's suggestion, and we'll let you guess what side he's on.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, 112’s was one of the reigning R&B groups. The Bad Boy Records quartet was one of the biggest singing groups in the world at the time with hits like “Only You” with Mase and Notorious B.I.G, “Anywhere” with Lil’ Zane, “Peaches & Cream,” “Cupid,” and “It’s Over Now.” Like many other singing groups of music history’s past, 112 eventually disbanded over personal differences, but Q Parker sat down with TV One for Life + Lyrics to chat about what it was like in 112’s heyday.

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“Being signed to Bad Boy was a dream come true,” Q recalled. “It was sort of like, our gift, because all we watched were Boyz II Men, Jodeci, Take 6. So when we finally put our group together it was like, that’s gonna be us one day. Jermaine Dupri passed on us, Dallas Austin passed on us, Teddy Riley passed on 112.”

Then, the R&B group got their big break. “Here comes Puffy who had this edge about him,” said Q. “I believe the gift for us was we were supposed to sign with Bad Boy because he brought an element out of us that I don’t know would have been brought out of us had we signed to those other executives. We would’ve still been the balladeers and the crooners and all of that, but Bad Boy gave us like—we were the guys you could take home to mom, but we were the guys mom want you to stay away from. We had a nice blend of bad boy but church boy, too.”

He said Bad Boy’s era from 1194-2004 is something that is etched into R&B and hip hop history. “And you can’t mention that era, and the dominance of that era, without mentioning 112,” he said. Q added that the group met Diddy outside of the nightclub 112 and they sang for him on the spot. They soon became the fourth artist to sign to Bad Boy.

Check out Q Parker talk about his Bad Boy memories, his relationship with Diddy now, and why he’ll always show the hip hop mogul love.