All posts tagged: hip hop

Rosalía Has the Best Show of the Summer

Rosalía Has the Best Show of the Summer

Published by Jenni Sidey

This is an edition of the weekly newsletter Tap In, GQ senior associate editor Frazier Tharpe’s final word on the most heated online discourse about music, movies, and TV. Sign up here to get it free. The parking lots on Prairie Street in Inglewood love to see me coming. Whenever I’m running late to a show at the Forum or Sofi—i.e., always—I find myself at the mercy of the same corner lot and whatever they deign to upcharge as we get closer to showtime. They saw a fair amount of me in the past week or so, thanks to an especially loaded tour schedule in LA that brought A$AP Rocky and Rosalía to the Forum within days of each other, while Don Toliver tore down the Staples Center (referring to it as Crypto is like calling Twitter “X”) in between. It’s to the point where I’ve inspired my own one-man loyalty program: when I pulled up at Rocky, the garage owner Derrick recognized me—“My man always be at everything”—and gave me a homie discount; days …

A Jay-Z HBO Documentary Is Coming This Fall

A Jay-Z HBO Documentary Is Coming This Fall

Published by Jenni Sidey

Jay-Z’s year of offense continues. With today marking the official 30 year-anniversary of Reasonable Doubt and fans gear up for a Jigga Summer with his impending takeover of Yankee Stadium for a full weekend in July, it appears Jay has plans to keep his run of being outside so to speak going well into the fall. HBO just announced a new documentary, Jay-Z in 8, directed by Rick Rubin where the legendary rapper and legendary producer sit down—in a casually rich and ornate setting, of course—to discuss Jay’s “music, lyrics, life experiences, and creative process.” This is a big deal for the simple fact that Jay doesn’t really talk, at all. Before his April GQ cover story, it had been close to a decade since his last honest-to-goodness interview. Now he’s gotten the bug to keep talking, and to a yapper like Rick Rubin, for an eight-part series. Jay and Rick are no strangers when it comes to chopping it up on camera. Rick provides one of the most memorable scenes of Jay’s 2004 documentary …

Jay-Z Locks Back In | GQ

Jay-Z Locks Back In | GQ

Published by Jenni Sidey

This is an edition of the weekly newsletter Tap In, GQ senior associate editor Frazier Tharpe’s final word on the most heated online discourse about music, movies, and TV. Sign up here to get it free. “I would have written a shorter letter, but did not have the time.” Back in January, on set for his GQ cover story, Jay-Z told me that quote—often attributed to Mark Twain, but initially credited to French philosopher Blaise Pascal—was not only a favorite, but one that’s affected him in all aspects of his writing. There’s genius in brevity: Compared to successfully communicating an open and closed idea in eight bars like “Frontin,” an extendo verse like “God Did,” while still impressive, might be the easier exercise. I found myself thinking back to that exchange this past Saturday night in Philadelphia, when Jay kicked off his set at Questlove’s annual Roots Picnic festival by going full third-act Michael Corleone and settling a bunch of previously unrebutted scores in a searing three-minute freestyle—which, considering it’s his first true verse in …

‘Iceman’ Is Drake’s Best Album in 10 Years, If You Don’t Listen Too Closely

‘Iceman’ Is Drake’s Best Album in 10 Years, If You Don’t Listen Too Closely

Published by Jenni Sidey

The first sign that Drake actually pulled his comeback off? The music videos. Great, distinct, rich visuals, nearly 20 of them, from an artist who is typically extremely hit-or-miss in this area (give or take an “HYFR” and that time Karena Evans took over creative duties for an entire album rollout). But it’s deeper than thinking back to “Energy” or the limp short film that accompanied Views; just last summer Drake tried to jumpstart his Iceman rollout with a series of ambitious but increasingly conceptually-laborious livestream “episodes,” and the thematic vision (or lack thereof) for this album seemed concerning. I was expecting more bullshit like Drake personifying his 2024 beef loss as Pinocchio killers chasing him around Europe but instead, Iceman Episode 4 is more of a visual album of loosely connected videos. Despite being in Europe myself for the stream’s 9:45 ET drop, I’m glad I woke up for it; the unified visuals made the new music hit even harder, their cohesion and range—from thermal imagery, to explosion-porn, to an animated interlude—was almost as …

The Real-Life Wardrobe of Earl Sweatshirt and MIKE, Whose Style Icons Are Jadakiss and MF Doom

The Real-Life Wardrobe of Earl Sweatshirt and MIKE, Whose Style Icons Are Jadakiss and MF Doom

Published by Jenni Sidey

Where are you guys shopping before tour? MIKE: I’ve got spots. Lowkey, every time I go to LA, I hit Dover Street [Market]. Earl Sweatshirt: I feel like people don’t know about the Nepenthes store in LA. I was talking to a homie that worked there last time. They have all of that shit. All the Needles, all the Engineered Garments. MIKE: Nepenthes is tough. I love it. Earl Sweatshirt: But it’s off the [beaten path]. You’re not going to stumble across it. MIKE: There’s this spot 18 East [in New York] that has hella good blanks. Maybe hit up Margiela for just the one-off. Earl Sweatshirt: I hit Dover. I check downstairs at the H.Lorenzo in LA. They always got the Japanese pants. I’m at Stone Island. I’m at Margiela. I’m at RRL. Are there any newer brands you guys are fucking with? Earl Sweatshirt: I’m fucking with Dertbag. That’s my dog forever, Phil [Post]. He’s just a guy. Just an actual real legend. I like what my dog’s doing at Saint Mxxxxxx. Cali …

CyHi the Prynce Finally Goes on the Record

CyHi the Prynce Finally Goes on the Record

Published by Jenni Sidey

How did it feel to get all this stuff off your chest after so long? It felt good. To me, it doesn’t really move me because I’m okay either way. But I feel like the fans appreciated that song more than I could ever appreciate it. Because someone’s finally telling it. Yeah. Man, I don’t want to get too personal, but it hurts my heart, seeing him out here by himself. There was a dude that he knew from back in the day who came to the sessions, he was vibing with us. When Ye offered to take him home, we learned he was homeless. Man, a week later this man’s living in a $3 million house in Calabasas. He ain’t got no money to furnish it or nothing. But that’s not in public. And I’m talking about a thousand situations like that. That’s how I got my Bentley. I wish I could tell you a lot of the stories, if everybody gave me permission to tell their stories, y’all would look at him, like, …

Don Toliver Steers Into the Fast Lane on ‘Octane’

Don Toliver Steers Into the Fast Lane on ‘Octane’

Published by Jenni Sidey

The results are clear, at least off of the first few spins: Don’s dexterous versatility, his different musical zones, are represented at their best and sharpest here, from tender crooning (on “Rosary,” his vocals sound so vulnerable it’s almost as if his voice is faltering) to spaced-out Texas swang with crazy double-time sing-songy flows and earworm hooks (“Opposite,” which went over especially well live.) Don points to a more reflective track called “Pleasure’s Mine” as his favorite, because “it’s very new and fresh, but it has a certain nostalgic melody,” calling back to the sounds on earlier tapes like Donny Womack, released when he was just getting on. “I just kind of put my twangs on that whole vibe.” Despite quietly being one of hip-hop’s most malleable hook men at the moment, Toliver goes light on guests this time around. One of the few is Teezo Touchdown, whose standout verse about relationship woes on “All the Signs” is spirited in the Teezo trademark way (animatedly drawn-out syllables, croons that bleed into yodels, r’s rolled for …

Fetty Wap Explains Why His Prison Sentence Was Much-Needed

Fetty Wap Explains Why His Prison Sentence Was Much-Needed

Published by Jenni Sidey

In 2023, Willie Junior Maxwell II was sentenced to six years in prison. Maxwell is much better known as Fetty Wap, a rapper who gained mainstream popularity with the release of his hit “Trap Queen.” Fetty Wap’s imprisonment was a bit mysterious, as it was one of those things most people heard about, but no one really seemed to know why the rapper was incarcerated. Now, he’s been released from prison early, and he’s sharing why he thinks it was actually a good thing for him to spend time behind bars. Fetty Wap was in prison for drug trafficking charges. In 2023, the U.S. Attorney’s Office from the Eastern District of New York shared a press release about Fetty Wap’s sentencing. According to the press release, Joanna Seybert, a United States District Judge, sentenced Fetty Wap to six years in prison and five years of post-release supervision. He was sentenced for conspiracy to distribute cocaine and was part of a larger drug trafficking ring that included five other co-defendants. DFree | Shutterstock The press release …