Charlamagne Tha God is one of the most respected voices on hip-hop culture, chiming in on the hottest topics on a daily basis with DJ Envy and Angela Yee on The Breakfast Club. His skills as an interviewer are unmatched but sometimes, it’s nice to get him behind the hot desk to answer some questions of his own. Kicking off 2020 with a new episode of Where’s Wallo, Wallo 267 had the radio host on his show to answer some heated inquiries about the current state of rap, who is going to have the next twelve months on lock, and who he could do without. When it came down to naming two people he would kick out of hip-hop (if he had that authority), only one name came to mind: Post Malone.

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“Post Malone definitely, and for no other reason other than I’m just probably hating,” said Charla, continuing his string of hatred toward Posty’s music and brand. “I don’t really dig his music like that. I think he’s a fake Future and Future gets so much flack for being Future but then you got a guy out there pretending to be Future, and that’s Post Malone.”

After giving the topic a lot of thought, Charlamagne couldn’t come up with a second name, even somewhat turning back on his original pick. “There’s nobody that I really hate in rap right now,” he said. “There’s nobody that I absolutely despise, I don’t even despise Post Malone like that. Just at the top of my mind, you ask me who I would get up out of [the rap game] and he would definitely be one.”

Do you agree with Charlamagne Tha God when he says that Post Malone is “pretending” to be Future? Watch below at the 5:30 mark.

Action Bronsonbecame a proud papa last year for the third time, this time welcoming a baby boy to the team. Of course, as any new dad who happens to be a sneakerhead will typically do, the Queens-bred emcee decided to blessed the child with a pair of a classic signature shoes out of the Nike vault.

Rocking an infant-sized pair of the Nike Air Max CW, now known as the Air Max Sensation, baby Bron became the absolute envy of fans everywhere who could only gawk over the deadstock kicks and the cuteness overload of seeing his pops gush over his offspring’s kick game. “BABY BRONSON SHOE GAME SILLY,” Action Bronson said while sharing the pic on Instagram (seen above), following up with a few sneaker stats by writing, “BABY MAX CHRIS WEBBER 1995.” You’d be hard pressed to find these anywhere, vintage or in-store alike, and ironically the only pair we could find was a deadstock size 4.5c pair over on Roots BK, which has since been sold. We think we might know who bought that pair.

Congrats again on the newborn, Action Bronson! Check out his music video below for “Baby Blue” featuring Chance The Rapper, because, well, babies:

One of Offset‘s last shares to Instagram detailed how the Father of 4 rapper had his 20/20 vision strong and wasn’t letting the behaviour of others determine how he feels. The rapper’s mantras have been keeping him going in the right direction since his latest share to his feed sees him posted up in the studio working on something that we can only assume will be pure fire. 

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The caption for the image sees Offset sharing a little pre-studio ritual that involves asking the higher power for some support. “SOMETIMES I PRAY BEFORE I RECORD GOD ALLOW ME TO CREATE A VIBE!!!” he wrote. Father of 4 was the last studio album by Offset and we can only hope the next tape arrives sooner than later. 

“I cried to myself while I was doing this album ’cause I was talking about my story and my kids,” he said of his last project. “When I did a song, I started getting memories of my grandma, my struggles, my partner that was killed, the thoughts I had while I was incarcerated, and my kids’ faces were there in my head. I love my kids, this is who I do it for.”

“You was easy mac with the cheesy raps, who the FUCK is Mac Miller?” 

In November of 2018, the unfinished legacy of Mac Miller was memorialized by a prominent cast of his peers. To say the evening was emotional can’t begin to describe it. A celebration sprayed with a mist of sorrow. A coronation with the stench of resignation. As much as everyone tried to drum up good feelings and memories it was nearly impossible to ignore the 300lb knot in all our throats and barbed wire wrapped around our stomachs. In a tragic fashion, the music world suffered a terrible loss. One of its brightest stars faded to black. I’ll never forget the looks on the faces of those in the crowd. 

I had seen that look before. A sight so visceral, it was like something reached out and touched you. I didn’t quite grasp why my uncle cried when 2 Pac died. 10 year-old me was conscious enough to digest his music but not cognizant enough to grapple with his gravity. In the days that followed, everyone bore t-shirts wielding his likeness and quotes he said while still breathing. His face superimposed with Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Muhammed Ali. A year later I remember watching the television in silence as images screamed through in colored pixels for Biggie’s precessional crawling through the Brooklyn streets. The path lined heavily with onlookers hoping to catch a fleeting glimpse of hip-hop’s chosen one. It was here I first realized how connected people became with artists. Not to say that Mac is Pac or Biggie, but for some soul out there, Mac was a distant friend, a voice to null the drudgery of life. Even as I write this, it still seems strange to be referring to him in the past tense.   

A makeshift Mac Miller memorial in Los Angeles, September 2018 – Katharine Lotze/Getty Images 

Rewind back to 2018, at Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre on that somber Wednesday night. Friends and fans communed the rapper once known as “Easy Mac.” Hundreds looked on while hundreds of thousands watched live stream. The most gripping moment came when Action Brunson took the stage to perform “Red Dot Music.” With what I’m sure was a heavy heart Bronson consummated the celebration by delivering the song which created the Mac Miller we mourn but was writing on the wall for his inescapable fate. Yet without the Excalibur moment that was “RDM,” we would not have The Divine Feminine nor Swimming or the soon to come Circles.

Pittsburgh native Mac Miller grew into an independent hip-hop star with Blue Slide Park, his freshman album. It was the first independently-distributed debut to top the US chart since 1995. The project’s success didn’t nullify its aversion. Some critics took aim at the album and Mac was sincere about how that affected him in a 2013 interview with Billboard. He said, “You’re 19, you’re so excited to put out your first album, you put it out — and no one has any respect for you or for what you did.”On his promethazine (or lean) addiction, Miller said this: “I love lean; it’s great… I was not happy and I was on lean very heavy,” Miller says. “I was so fucked up all the time it was bad. My friends couldn’t even look at me the same. I was lost.” 

Miller’s follow up album, Watching Movies with the Sound Off produced in part by Pharrell Williams and Diplo, etched his name onto the stone tables of 21st-century rap. The best way I can describe the album is as a dark inspiration. A now drug-addicted Miller delivered a further sunken sort of expression. Diving deeper into oblivion by the day, Miller was now, perhaps, fueled differently by this poison. It verified him. The first cobblestone on his road to crafting a legacy. No more “cheesy raps,” like “Knock Knock” and “Donald Trump.”

If Miller’s maturity as a rapper could be surmised in one song, the delineation would come at “Red Dot Music.” The track is forthright in addressing central themes in Mac’s life and career. The record is an earthquake that terminated Easy Mac and out of its ruble survived Mac Miller. For better or for worse, this is who grew to become a universally-loved figure in the hip-hop community. It was a shot of real hip-hop injected directly into the veins of anyone who felt Mac was simply another white boy garnering more acclaim outside rap’s wall than inside it. An allegory of his inner torment. The silent battle he chose to face alone. It is an underrated but integral part of Miller’s story arc. “Red Dot Music” was where he demanded – no, he took, his respect. But growth is pain. Progress is pain. And in the end, the scars of his transformation were maybe too much to bear. 

In an interview with Billboard, Miller said his favorite part of the song was the hook where he says: 

“They looking down, keeping watch ’til I’m dead (I said it must be the drugs)

So how’d I get this red dot on my head? (I said it must be the drugs)”

Chilling to read, is it not? The root of his demise came from his own lips, not just in “RDM” but often. As he battled with drugs and alcohol Miller spoke frequently of bouts with vices in his music.  

“Think I can see a fucking halo bout to meet my maker brought a double cup of draino and soda for the flavor…” 

I remember scrolling through twitter the day the news broke of Miller’s death. This song was mentioned by masses who suggested it got them through a rough time in their lives. He gave so much to his craft. You can hear the overflow of his blood and tears leak from every song. As I’ve stated in prior pieces, true artistry begins at the point of full vulnerability and transparency. Both come with a heavy price for artists and musicians. For them, drugs become tranquilizers that ease the skeleton’s voices bouncing off the closet walls, for a moment.    

“I said it must be the drugs

I said it must be the drugs

I said it must be the drugs

I said it must be the drugs

I said it must be the drugs

I said it must be the drugs

I said it must be the drugs

I said it must be the drugs”

The fact he used “must be the drugs” as a mantra is chilling because drugs are what took from us. Later in the song, he says:

“I said it must be the drugs that got us thinking crazy shit

Looking up into the clouds where the angels sit

They looking down, keeping watch ’til I’m dead

So how’d I get this red dot on my head?”

The red dot marks an impending doom Miller feels will befall him sooner or later. No matter what he does. The heavens have a target on him.  

On a 2014 track titled “What Do You Do” Milled said, “A drug habit like Philip Hoffman will probably put me in a coffin.” 

In a Vulture interview published a day before his death, Miller discussed the immense pressure he and other artists feel from the public. “I used to rap super openly about really dark s–t because that’s what I was experiencing at the time,” he continued “That’s fine, that’s good, that’s life. It should be all the emotions.”

Mac Miller performs at the Smokers Club Festival on April 29, 2018 – Scott Dudelson/Getty Images

In 2018, Miller released the single “Self Care.” In this track, the rapper addresses the state of his mental health and the now undeniable effects of his substance abuse. He looked to acknowledge that change is needed to live a better life. Though he would pass shortly after this, it presented that things were on the up-and-up. 

Miller made a lot of music about appreciating life for what it is. Accepting its realities and living with the best you can. I theorize Mac wanted to say these words himself, but it was more profound coming from a third party:

“You can’t match your killer with that wigger

I’d rather attack Tigger or Jack Triller

He got track fillers for a album

If he had Jigga on an ad-sticker

Wouldn’t go cat litter where I’m from

Malcolm, I knock the thoughts off your balcony

King, you’re from a home of funny bones

Not like quite the one I’ve known

You look like, before you punched in flows

You were struckin’ blows, bloody nose for your honey row

In the lunchroom gettin’ yo money stole

You’re a bully’s Best Day Ever

With them Nike’s on your feet

Coming through Blue Slide Park

I’m gon’ rob this chump

On a party on Fifth Ave like he Donald Trump

Nigga give me that shit

I liked you better when you was Easy Mac

With the cheesy raps

Who the fuck is Mac Miller?”

Loaded Lux said these lines in the outro of “Red Dot Music.” It gave a voice to the inner thoughts of hip-hop fans across the spectrum who questioned how thorough this goofy kid from Pittsburgh was. In this soliloquy Lux slew the old Mac Miller or Easy Mac. By the artist’s own request. As Loaded Lux alludes, people loved the image of the primitive Mac more than his substance. As time passed that changed. He made believers out of countless eventual listeners who detested the “Best Day Ever” version of Miller.  

Miller told Billboard: “I was too worried about the legacy that I would leave behind — how I would be remembered if I died. That was my whole thing. Like, you never know, man, so I’ve got to make sure I make all this music so when I die there’s albums and albums,” he said when talking about his fear of dying. 

Mac Miller performs at Camp Flog Gnaw on October 28, 2017 – Rich Fury/Getty Images

Miller’s passing rocked the music world. Though he could not finish life’s race, his legacy will trot on by way of his catalog. The permutations of his voice shall forever live in the hearts of those who loved his music. Vexed by the battle an internal tug-of-war, Mac gave of himself in the purest way for us, his fans. “Red Dot Music” and other songs like “Self Care” opened the doors and debate needed for mental health-probing in hip-hop. Songs followed such as Logic’s “1-800-273-8255,” addressing suicide. The tragic nature of his death is a wound hip-hop won’t soon forget but I hope that his final inspiration was to encourage someone who feels like they are barely holding on to seek help. I want that person, if they are reading to know, you are never alone.

Beyoncé’s new IVY PARK collaboration is set to release this Saturday (January 18), but Cardi B was lucky enough to get the items early. Cardi shared a video of her coming home to discover a large orange box waiting for her. The ribbon wrapped around the box that had “IVY PARK” written along it gave away the container’s contents, but that clearly didn’t make Cardi any less excited. “Bitch, Beyoncé dead done gave me a closet,” she screeched while filming the unboxing. The transportable closet was opened to reveal that Cardi dead done got every piece from Bey’s collection, including all the colorways of the IVY PARK Ultra Boosts. 

Beyoncé announced IVY PARK’s new partnership with Adidas in December. This news was revealed through the Lemonade artist’s cover story for Elle. The profile in that issue focused on the return of her athleisure company that she became the sole owner of in 2018. It was heavily reported when Beyoncé bought out the company to nudge out a British billionaire partner, who faced accusations of sexual harassment. IVY PARK will feature gender-neutral styles going forward, a decision which resulted from Bey seeing so many men rocking her previous collections. 

Remember that the IVY PARK collection drops on Saturday so you can get to it before it sells out! You know the BeyHive will be prepared to attack. 

Last year, J. Cole and his Dreamville squadron set 2019 off with an ambitious goal: call the banners and craft in album in a two-week time frame. What followed was an instantly legendary recording session, which found rappers from across the country uniting at Tree Sound Studios in Atlanta. Everyone from Griselda to DJ Khaled, T.I. to Rick Ross and Wale came through to bear witness. Upon its release in April, Revenge Of The Dreamers 3 proved an instant success, going on to secure a Grammy Award nomination. And yet still, many were quick to lament what was left on the cutting room floor.

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Fair, considering the wealth of unreleased bangers previously teased in the official Dreamers 3 documentary. Especially that reflective final track from J.I.D; those who watched the short film already know. Perhaps there's hope for us yet, as the official Deluxe Edition has finally landed a release date -- January 16th, this Thursday. The news was confirmed the Ville's Twitter page, alongside the unveiling of two new tracks: one from Ari Lennox, and one from EarthGang and Reason. 

Though details surrounding length and guest appearances remain scarce, we don't exactly have to wait much longer to see for ourselves. Are you still excited for Revenge Of The Dreamers 3 Deluxe? 

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”

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

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.

Yesterday, it was reported that the father of Meechy Darko (of Flatbush Zombies) was fatally shot by Miami police officers. The incident occurred this past weekend after Meechy’s father Ryan O. Simms allegedly attacked and stabbed an officer named Ricardo Castillo. XXL shared a press release from the Miami police department detailing their account.

Apparently, Castillo and several officers had received a call from Mango’s Cafe, after claims that Simms was threatening employees. Upon their arrival, Simms then proceeded to stab Castillo, prompting his fellow officers to open fire. Though Castillo was sent to the intensive care unit, his current condition is confirmed to be stable. Though Simms was also brought to the hospital, he did not survive. He did not have a local arrest record. 

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images 

Last night, Meechy Darko shared an emotional message on Instagram in homage to his father. “My heart is shattered,” he begins. “Never ever in my life felt pain like this before. I’m trying to stay strong and be tough for him. I’m filled with so many emotions right now. I don’t want to come on here for any type of sympathy. I want to spread this message. To Any and everyone out there dealing with Mental illness. Please get help.”

“This has been a Battle that My Family and I have been dealing with for over a decade, suffering in silence,” he continues. “I used to think there was strength in that…I love my father. So Much. Never once was ever ashamed of him despite what may have been going through mentally or what he may have thought in his head.”

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Meechy Darko in this difficult time.