Pretty Ricky's Spectacular had better check his facts before he opens his mouth because, after accusing Tory Lanez of sampling the group's music without his permission, the Toronto native proved him wrong.

This weekend, Tory Lanez commented on the surprising collaboration between Akon and Tekashi 6ix9ine.

When it comes to hip-hop Instagram pages, few can boast as varied a profile as the legendary Snoop Dogg. Not only does the Doggfather fire off top-tier memes on a daily basis, but he also provides plenty of historical hip-hop flicks, many of which range from his own tenure within the rap game. Clearly, Snoop appreciates his fellow artists — not only on the basis of their musical talent but on their personal qualities as well.
 

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As we all know, authenticity is an important quality for Snoop, a proud rebel against the pro-snitching movement and all it represents. Yet there remain enough who meet his criteria for realness, many of whom have served prison time over the course of their lives. Yesterday, Snoop took to Instagram to share a collage of iconic hip-hop mugshots, belonging to himself, 2Pac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G, and 50 Cent.

With many ranging from the early nineties, it goes to show that rappers have been dealing with the prison system for decades, with Snoop himself nearly derailing his entire career over a murder charge from which he was acquitted; that incident, which took place in 1993, formed the basis of his classic song “Murder Was The Case.” It’s not entirely clear what prompted Snoop to share the collage, but it seems possible that he aimed to highlight those who experienced the justice system first-hand. Check it out for yourself below, and show some love to four of the game’s enduring voices.  

It’s not often that a rap collective produces several top-tier MCs that withstand the test of time, though it’s not unheard of. Perhaps that’s why Wu-Tang Clan is indisputably one of the best hip-hop groups of all time. In a recent interview with MC Serch on The Serch Says podcast, Method Man revealed not only his top 5 MCs of all time but also who he believed is the most underrated member of the group — Inspectah Deck.

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“I think a lot of the appeal to Deck is … remember back in the days, before videos, and you heard an MC, you had to kind of — you never knew what they looked like, all you could focus on was the words,” Meth told Serch. “I think if Deck came in that era right there where all they could focus on was the words and not the spectacle of what’s going on around him, he would have blew up much more than he did.”

He added, “He’s very well respected but when you think of Wu-Tang, honestly his name doesn’t come up first. But when you think iconic verses, his name is coming up first.”

Meth continued to explain Cappadonna’s position as the person who essentially showed everyone in Wu-Tang Clan how to rap. “People frontin’ on Capp and shit, but Capp damn near taught all of us to rhyme and shit. He was doing that way back before we was even thinking about fuckin’ rhymin’,” he said before declaring Deck as top 5 dead or alive. ““I’m giving him his roses now. Deck. Top 5, dead or alive,” he said before Serch inquired about the other four slots. “Nobody. Deck. Deck. Deck. Deck. Fuckin’ Deck. My shit might change in the future but right now, my Top 5 is Deck.”

Serch explained to HipHopDX in an interview about his new podcast that he already knew a lot about Meth but many of the questions were laid out so he can hear these answers come out of Method Man’s mouth. 

“We have a research team,” Serch told HipHopDX. “Our podcast, I really mirror it the way Howard Stern runs his show. We have people that do pre-interviews before the artists come up and do their show. We do a lot of research before every show so that when they come on to the show, we’re not asking the dummy questions like, ‘Where are you from?’”

Check out clips from their podcast below.

Kendrick Lamar hasn't released a new album since 2017's DAMN, but there's something he has that many of his peers lack -- longevity. When K Dot drops an album, said album can sustain its presence for years on end; such is the benefit of writing songs packed with meaning, a testament to his Pulitizer Prize-winning pen-game. Now, with the world standing up against police brutality and systemic racism following the death of George Floyd, many have once again turned to the wisdom of Kendrick Lamar for inspiration.

While it goes without saying that To Pimp A Butterfly is an appropriate protest record, so much so that it recently re-entered the Apple Music Charts, Kendrick Lamar's Good Kid, maad City and DAMN have also seen renewed signs of life. As of last week, both of those projects re-entered the Billboard Top 200, with Good Kid climbing to 97 and DAMN sitting pretty at 106. 

According to Chartdata, To Pimp A Butterfly has also experienced a massive boost in numbers, with Chartdata pointing to a one-hundred-and-twenty percent increase in sales -- look for that to appear in the updated Top 200, unsurprising given that songs like "Alright" and "The Blacker The Berry" have regained life as protest anthems. Clearly, the world is hungry for some new music from Kendrick Lamar, and given everything that has transpired in the world since his last release, we can only assume that he's about to come out swinging.

Have you been revisiting some K Dot classics?

Though nothing that can bring back the Black lives lost to police brutality, thousands upon thousands have rallied across the world to ensure that change can pave the way for improvement. Since the tragic death of George Floyd, which arrived in quick succession after those of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, among others, the streets have been lined with protestors standing up for the Black Lives Matter movement. 

While in some places it has lead to heightened tension between police and civilians, other places have embraced the idea of change -- in Minneapolis, the City Council recently announced plans to "disband" the police force, explaining their decision following a City Council meeting. Council Member Jeremiah Ellison announced the decision on June 4th, writing "We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department. And when we’re done, we’re not simply gonna glue it back together. We are going to dramatically rethink how we approach public safety and emergency response. It’s really past due."

In the midst of all of the protests yesterday, Akon and 6ix9ine had the entire internet buzzing as they linked up for a preview of a new song. As many figured out, the song was a remix to Akon's smash hit "Locked Up." 6ix9ine was dubbing this song as "Locked Up Part 2" and fans are already split on how they feel about it. On one hand, some think the song sounds good while others are appalled that Akon would associate himself with someone like 6ix9ine.

After hearing about the collaboration, Tory Lanez took to Twitter in utter disappointment. As he explained, he couldn't believe Akon had given the "Locked Up" remix to another artist. However, all was not lost for Tory as Akon quickly chimed in noting that he would allow him to be on "Locked Up Part 3."

The Prince estate has re-released the artist's track "Baltimore" in response to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and everyone else who has been a victim of police brutality. The re-release includes a new music video uploaded to YouTube.

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"Baltimore" was originally released in 2015 after the death of Freddie Gray. In the track, Prince sings:

Does anybody hear us pray
For Michael Brown or Freddie Gray?
Peace is more than the absence of war
Are we gonna see another bloody day?
We’re tired of the crying and people dying
Let’s take all the guns away.

Prince would have turned 62-years-old, Sunday. In honor of his birthday, his estate wrote on Twitter, "Prince dedicated his life to speaking out against injustice, advocating for black excellence, and spreading the message of 'Love 4 One Another.' In this note that he kept in his personal archives, he wrote a message that still resonates today."

"Nothing more ugly in the whole wide world than INTOLERANCE (between) Black, white, red, yellow, boy or girl, INTOLERANCE," the note reads.

Tekashi 6ix9ine has returned, though it seems the public interest has decreased significantly since "GOOBA." Nonetheless, he's still up to his trolling ways with a new single supposedly coming at the end of the month. The song apparently has a major feature which many suspected could be Nicki Minaj, though there hasn't been any actual confirmation of that.

p>What we can tell you is that he's been in the studio with Akon. Earlier today, 6ix9ine shared a clip of himself in the studio with the Akon working on "Locked Up Pt. 2." Now, for anyone born post-2000, you may have been too young to recall how big of a song it was. With Styles P delivering a guest verse on it, Akon came through with an anthem for the streets that reached beyond the borders of the United States. That being said, many began tagging Styles P after the clip emerged with some sort of anticipation that he'd be upset. That isn't the case. In fact, Styles P is making it abundantly clear that he won't let Tekashi's recent IG post distract him from sending out his reminder to boost your immune system.

"My job is 2 remind you 2 boost the immune system n not get distracted by minor things i will always consider Akon a brother but we have not spoke or seen each other In years I don’t know 6’9 meaning all 3 of our paths are different.I live by my code n don’t hold others 2 my code," he wrote. "To make this even simpler 4 u wondering how I feel about the song.I honestly don’t give a fux the fact that this is even a topic 2 discuss with all the racial tension n plandemic/ pandemic makes me want to focus in harder on reminding y’all 2 stay golden n boost the immune!"

Check the tweet out below. 

Fans clowned Akon to no end for actually going ahead and collaborating with 6ix9ine, after the rapper posted a clip of them vibing to their unreleased song "Locked Up Part 2," a remix of Akon's 2006 track of the same name. It's no secret how Akon feels about 6ix9ine, as the singer has defended his snitching ways on multiple occasions, insisting that he would've done the same thing. The two of them were even supposed to go head-to-head for a hit battle last month, but it never panned out. Akon might be one of the only artists in the industry that still associates themselves with 6ix9ine—at least publicly—so it should come as no surprise that the two of them are working together, but for some reason, it still does.

6ix9ine posted the clip of the two of them previewing the remix on Sunday (June 7th), and it didn't take long for fans to pass judgement on Akon for his questionable choice of a collaborator. 6ix9ine's curious rainbow wig was also a big point of focus, for obvious reasons. 

This week on our “R&B Season” playlist, we decided to highlight a few of the protest anthems that R&B artists have recently dropped in order to show our solidarity with those speaking out against systemic racism and police brutality in light of the police killing of George Floyd and countless others. These past few weeks have been heavy and emotional, as they’ve served to further highlight these issues that have been prevalent in America for decades. People across the globe have been protesting these injustices in many different ways: signing petitions, donating to organizations that help Black communities, standing on the frontlines at rallies. Others have been using music to get their message across, including artists like Trey Songz and Eric Bellinger.

On Wednesday, Eric dropped his new song, “ENOUGH,” drawing on his own experiences with racism and calling for the end of this treatment of Black people. Trey Songz also protested through the art of music with the thematically similar tune, “2020 Riots: How Many Times.” We’ve also decided to include Trey’s duet with Summer Walker titled “Back Home” on “R&B Season” this week. Although “Back Home” already dropped earlier this year, Trey included it in the single release for “2020 Riots: How Many Times.” Check out our “R&B Season” playlist below, and stay safe out there.

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