Radio UTD is proud to announce the return of the one and only Weekly Rap Up, helmed by your’s truly, Yusof Nazari! A couple notes on house-keeping and we’ll begin our run through of this week’s biggest songs, videos, and all the hip-hop news you’ll need. First, even though this feature is called “The Weekly Rap Up“, we’ll most likely be posting them bi-weekly (unless the week is just packed with news and important releases). Even though music moves at a faster pace than it ever has, not enough happens in a week to warrant a full post, so instead we’ll be giving you all the important and wonderful content, twice a month, making it both easier to digest for our readers, and easier to organize. Secondly, even though this post is being made on a Friday, The Weekly Rap-Up will be posted every Monday, so as to “rap-up” the previous week’s hip-hop news at the end of that week and the beginning of the new week, so we don’t miss any big news. With that being said, here’s the first installment of the new Weekly Rap Up. We’d like to thank Aarin Brown for being a pioneer and a scholar, and hope we can do this feature justice. Let’s get it poppin’.
This week was filled to the brim with Drake, Drake, Future, and more Drake, and we’re not even mad about that. 2 of hip-hop’s biggest artists absolutely dominated the airwaves and timelines this week, and some wild news in the hip-hop world makes us think the Cash Money Records dispute between Birdman and Lil Wayne is getting closer and closer to being a staging of a 1980’s mafia film set in 2015.
- As previously stated, the beef between Birdman and Wayne has been heating up with the recent release of Wayne’s (released exclusively on Tidal)
and video surfacing of Birdman and his crew throwing drinks at Wayne at a nightclub in Miami
- . These are all relatively harmless occurrences in light of recent news that Birdman and
Young Thug
- have allegedly plotted to kill Lil Wayne. This news surfaced after the recent arrest of Young Thug for making “terroristic threats” in a mall in Atlanta, and as of today,
police have raided Thugger’s house and found a lot of drugs and guns
- . This only gets wilder with the allegations against Young Thug, Birdman, and their affiliates who are being named in an indictment for
allegedly attempting to kill Wayne on his tour bus
- . If you’re confused, you can read a short history of the Cash Money beef
- and watch with us as this situation only gets crazier. Could Young Thug be locked up for a career-destroying amount of time? Could Birdman be behind a big Cash Money conspiracy? Is Birdman trying to gun down Wayne so he can posthumously release “Tha Carter V” and make Wayne go down as a legend like Pac or Biggie, thus allowing him to mold Young Thug into his successor à la
Jay-Z
- ? That’s just one theory. Keep up with us for more in the coming weeks in what’s sure to be this year’s most interesting story in hip-hop.
- https://twitter.com/MPetchenikWSB/status/621386641106546688
UPDATE: Birdman is now suing Jay-Z and Tidal for 50 million dollars for releasing Wayne’s FWA tape. And we thought it couldn’t get wilder.
In actual music news, this week was absolutely dominated by another Cash Money member, Drake. During the inaugural episode of Drake’s OVO Sound show on Apple Music’s Beats 1 Radio, Drake, OVO co-founder Oliver El-Khatib, and producer Eric Dingus played some of their favorite new songs during the 2 hour set and dropped not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 new songs featuring Drake himself.The first was a remix of Nigerian artist Wizkid’s “Ojuelegba” from his second studio album (2014). With the rapper doing his best West Indian accent that we heard so much on and some Nigerian twangs for good measure, Drake drops a feel good singsongy verse. This however is nothing compared to an awesome verse from Drake’s good friend and Britain’s hottest rapper right now, Skepta. With previous co-signs from Drake (trusss me daddi), Skepta’s first collaboration with him sees the rapper speaking about being proud to African, Nigerian, and loving who you are overall. The whole song is very danceable and fun, and you’ll definitely be hearing this one at both your next campus party and your auntie’s get-together you were dragged to by your parents. Ting!
A few months ago, a song surfaced by an artist named Ramriddlz, a young musician, possibly from Toronto, who’s music video for “Sweeterman” picked up some attention because it sounded like there were some backing vocals by Drake on the track. Whether that was true or not, Drake obviously paid attention because the remix rumors were true and a full remix of the song was featured on the OVO Sound show. The original is incredibly absurd, with lyrics like “She say she want my banana, and she wanna give me the adunana-ne” and “She no sing song, when she catch ding dong, she gon’ hit these high notes”. The remix pales in comparison to the ridiculousness of the original, until Drake puts his own spin on it with a beat-switch that sounds like textbook 40 production and a great verse from Drake to back it up. With these, Drake takes a ridiculous but fun song and makes it his own. It is, in this writer’s opinion, one of the most fun, catchy, and amazing songs released all year. It’s that good.
On top of all this, Drake also dropped collaborations with OVO signess Majid Jordan and Roy Wood$, both of which you can listen to below, along with the full OVO Sound Beats 1 show (tracklist in the description).
In non Drake related news (which will still turn out to be Drake related) after his run of 3 mixtapes in the Monster series, Future is ready to release Dirty Sprite 2 today. The much anticipated album was announced only a week ahead of time, and Future went on Huffington Post TV of all places to promote it, clearing the air about rumors regarding his relationship with Ciara and addressing a “beef” with OG Maco that had arisen on that very day (spoiler: they made up and never even fought). Dirty Sprite 2 is set for release today, and the only feature on the entire album is Drake on the song “Where Ya At”. Future opened for Drake on his recent Jungle Tour and it seems like the partnership has been more fruitful than ever. Be sure to look out for DS2, and let us know what you think in the comments. Also check out a great track Future previously released, called “News or Somthn”.
And some final notes to wrap it all up,Travi$ Scott finally confirmed a release date for his much anticipated debut album (Friday, September 4th). The G.O.O.D. Music rapper and Kanye West protege, who’s recently been in the headlines for kicking cameramen off the Summer Jam stage and raging at a fan who tried to steal his Yeezy Boost’s, will release the sequel to his acclaimed mixtape from 2014. Definitely check it out, it’s one of the best and most forward looking projects in recent memory, and listen to released singles from the album, “3500” with Future & 2 Chainz and his second single “Antidote“.
DMX is going to jail, again. FREE THE DARK MAN.
50 Cent filed for bankruptcy shortly after a judge rules that he has to pay 5 million to Rick Ross’ ex-girlfriend, Lastonia Leviston, who 50 leaked a sex tape of. We’re as confused as you. 50’s next album, Street King Immortal, is slated for later this year.
The Weeknd announced the release date of his next album, Beauty Behind the Madness, set for release on August 28th. You can pre-order the album now on iTunes.
Lil B is apparently a big Bernie Sanders fan, and Bernie Sanders followed him back on Twitter, becoming the first and only presidential candidate to do so. Watch out Hillary.
Vince Staples absolutely bodies this freestyle over Kanye’s “Get Em’ High” instrumental on *yells in British* TIM WESTWOOD TEEVEE. Be sure to check out one of raps most promising up-and-comers, who recently released his debut album, Summertime 06′, on Def Jam.
That’s all for this week’s weekly rap up. Catch us here again next time, and follow Radio UTD on twitter and Facebook for all your music needs. We’ll see you soon.
