“This project is a culmination of correcting not only myself, but hopefully putting N.Y. music on the right path.” Harlem rapper Show TuFli wants to put New York rap back on the map by nodding to its heritage. On his new 10-track project, R.A.W (Right All Wrongs), TuFli pays homage to the influence of Harlem rap — Cam'ron and The Diplomats, Vado, and Dave East — with flashy lyrics and murky storytelling over slow-tempo, soul sampled production. The up-and-coming rapper tells stories of his early brushes with success and fame, while also acknowledging the hardships of coming up in Harlem. "The past year I've had the opportunity to go through a lot — both right and wrong," he told The FADER over email. "I've seen right and wrongs in my city, and seen some right and wrongs in myself. This project is a culmination of correcting not only myself, but hopefully putting N.Y. music on the right path." Listen in full below.
About a week ago, it was reported that XXXTentacion had signed a multi-million-dollar record deal with Capitol Records. Now, he's saying he's going to terminate it, and we shouldn't be expecting new tracks from him any time soon. "I am not a signed artist, and I will not be releasing music for a very long time, I’m tired of this shit," he wrote in one part of his Instagram story. While the specifics of X's deal have been debated, it appears his arrangement with Capitol Records was actually one with their Caroline label, which was going to distribute releases from X's Bad Vibes Forever imprint. But now it looks like that may not happen.
This isn't the first time X has announced a rap game sabbatical. Back in July, the rapper used social media to tell fans he was, for a time, saying peace to the game. "I'm going to disappear for a little while," he said in a cryptic post. "I love you all." The rapper had been assaulted in concert the last time he claimed he was leaving the music scene alone for a while, Of course, X came back with his 17 album in August, so no one had to wait too long for new music. His upcoming domestic abuse trial is scheduled to start in December. Take a look at XXXTentacion's Instagram story below.
The 2018 Grammys Awards are just around the corner, but there’s one huge album that may not be represented. According to a report from the Associated Press, Drake declined to submit his March playlist More Life for consideration in the categories of Album of the Year or Best Rap Album. The AP source also noted that he didn’t submit any of More Life’s tracks for categories like Song of the Year, Record of the Year, or Best Rap Song. Although he hasn’t spoken out about the decision yet, Drake expressed his frustration with the awards process in an interview with DJ Semtex back in February. “I don’t even want them,” Drake said about his pair of 2017 Grammys for "Hotline Bling.” “It just feels weird, it doesn’t even feel right to me. I almost feel alienated… I’m a black artist, I’m apparently a rapper, even though ‘Hotline Bling’ is not a rap song. The only category that they can manage to fit me in is in a rap category, maybe because I’ve rapped in the past or because I’m black." He also declined to appear at the 2017 show, joining artists like Justin Bieber, Kanye West, and Frank Ocean, the latter of whom didn’t submit Blonde or Endless for consideration, either.
Drake has previously won three Grammys: Best Rap Album for Take Care and the aforementioned Best Rap Solo Performance and Best Rap song awards for “Hotline Bling.” He has 35 total nominations throughout his career. More Life is one of the most successful projects of 2017, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and eventually going double-Platinum. It spawned Billboard Hot 100 hits like “Passionfruit,” “Fake Love,” and “Portland” featuring Travis Scott and Quavo. Although it would have faced a strong challenge in the rap categories from Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN., More Life seemed likely to pick up at least a few nominations had Drake submitted it for consideration. This year’s Grammy Awards nominees will be announced on November 28 Listen To More Life Here : https://open.spotify.com/user/drake/playlist/2gEzAOf6gi1SvJzRy3cpfg
Prior to today, the re-designed Big Baller Brand ZO2 Prime Remix had only been seen in the black and gold launch colorway. However, with the Lakers breaking out their MPLS throwback uniforms for the first time in 15 years, Lonzo Ball decided to debut a new colorway. The latest ZO2 Prime Remix is white-based, with gold BBB branding and a black carbon fiber heel counter. Unlike the black colorway of the $495 sneaker, this pair isn't yet available to purchase on bigballerbrand.com, but that could very well change in the near future.
According to a report from Billboard, South Florida rapper XXXTentacion has inked a $6 million deal with Capitol Music Group’s subsidiary Caroline. The report states that the deal will cover yet-to-be-released material, and represents a huge vote of confidence from the label. XXX scored one of the biggest debut albums of 2017 with 17, which moved 87,000 equivalent album units in its first week and 313,000 copies to date. The project was distributed through Bad Vibes Forever/Empire, and represented the latter label’s best first-week sales ever. It also spawned a number of Billboard Hot 100 hits, including “Jocelyn Flores” (No. 31), “Fuck Love” (No. 41), and “Everybody Dies in Their Nightmares” (No. 54). His success, however, comes alongside significant controversy. XXX (real name Jahseh Onfroy), is set to stand trial in December for a number of domestic violence charges; he’s accused of savagely assaulting his then-girlfriend in 2016. Onfroy faces charges including battery and aggravated assault of a pregnant victim, battery by strangulation, and false imprisonment. A September 2017 Pitchfork article detailed the alleged abuse in grim detail. Meanwhile, XXX has vocally maintained his innocence and even mocked the allegations in a series of crude Instagram videos back in September. Caroline’s decision to sign XXX for such a reportedly large sum seems to indicate that the label is confident he will not be convicted in his trial. He’s hardly the only rapper to be involved in a domestic violence scandal recently; his “Roll In Peace” collaborator Kodak Black was recently indicted for criminal sexual conduct in South Carolina, and Chicago rapper Famous Dex was caught on camera assaulting his girlfriend last year.
Brand says it's working to fix the issue. The regular season debut of Nike's new NBA uniforms was marred by wardrobe malfunction this week when LeBron James, one the brand's biggest endorsers, had his jersey ripped during the first game of the 2017-18 season on Tuesday night. For its part, Nike says it's trying to find a solution to the problem. "The quality and performance of all our products are of utmost importance," a spokesperson told Sole Collector. "We are obviously very concerned to see any game day jersey tear and are working with the NBA and teams to avoid this happening in the future."
James' isn't the first jersey to rip—those of Tyler Ennis and Nikola Jokić suffered similar fates in the preseason.
Five minutes. The new-look Boston Celtics' lineup lasted all of five minutes before prized free agent acquisition Gordon Hayward leapt for a pass and came down horribly wrong on his left leg. The arena fell into a troubled silence as Hayward was attended to and stretchered off—and once the season opener resumed, it was a different game. The Cleveland Cavaliers held on to win despite a brilliant 22-point, 10-assist Celtics debut from Kyrie Irving, but the result was overshadowed by Hayward’s injury—initially reported as a dislocated ankle and fractured tibia—that could potentially see him miss the remainder of the season. The remainder of the season, of course, is 81 games. The Celtics, despite a near-complete turnover of their roster, were predicted to be contenders in the East once again, having swapped the solo brilliance of Isaiah Thomas for a more balanced team built around an All-Star backcourt of Hayward and Irving. Now, with 26 NBA teams yet to even play their openers, that balance is gone. In order for the Celtics to contend, Irving will have to take on more of the load.
What happened to Hayward is a tragedy, yet the season continues. The "sports as war" metaphors are all tired and overused, but in a sense, it does apply here—despite the fallen, the fight goes on. And, for Irving at least, this seems to be a case of be careful what you wish for. He asked out of Cleveland, in part, because he was apparently tired of being overshadowed by LeBron James. Seeking a team of his own, he wound up being a key piece of one in Boston—and now, with their other big-time acquisition sidelined, Irving is the undisputed centerpiece. The exciting part, and yes, there is an exciting part, is we still don’t know exactly what to expect from Irving. Not after one game. He proved himself to be a tremendous one-on-one player even alongside James, but outside of a few games here and there, he hasn’t had the reins of a team fully in his hands since he was 22. Since then, he’s played in three NBA Finals and hit the biggest shot in Cavaliers history. Still just 25, he has his whole future ahead of him. And with 81 games remaining, Irving can dictate the direction in which said future goes. He’ll be an All-Star again this season, no question (oh, the East), the question is just how he’ll get there. Will he be a ball stopper or a distributor? On Tuesday night, he stayed within the team concept, as second-year forward Jaylen Brown scored a team-high 25 points and rookie Jayson Tatum added 14, all in the second half. Marcus Smart, filling in for Hayward, scored 12 in 35 minutes off the bench. The way the Celtics are constructed, even with Hayward out, Irving should be able to direct the offense early before taking it over late. If all goes well, the Celtics can still contend, if not with Cleveland, then at least with the likes of the Toronto Raptors and Washington Wizards. They’ll have to continue to see development from Brown and Smart, Tatum will need to be the player everyone thought he’d be coming out of Duke (joining Dave Cowens and Larry Bird as the only Celtics to post double-doubles in their rookie debuts was a good start), and Al Horford will have to regain some of his Hawks fire. But this is indisputably Kyrie Irving’s team now. It’s what he wanted. Let’s see what he does with it. The ball is in his hands.
What does the ceiling look like for resale prices of rare Kanye West sneakers? Footwear consignment destination Flight Club is suggesting a bold $100,000 with this just-listed sample of the Air Yeezy 1, West's first signature silhouette with Nike. This isn't the first time this shoe has surfaced for sale; New York City consignment store Rare Pair listed this pair on Ebay in 2016 for $65,000, but doesn't appear to have successfully sold the shoe. The description for that listing describes the sneaker as a one-of-one and the first pair of Air Yeezy sample ever made. Like the Ebay pair, Flight Club's is a size 12, which suggests that it's the same sneaker. While this Nike Air Yeezy 1 colorway was never released to the public, the shoe doesn't feature too many drastic changes that set it apart from the retail version of the shoe that dropped in 2008.
The star of the new movie "Crown Heights" — and Mr. Kerry Washington — explains how to transition from shut-down corner for the Oakland Raiders to having three films at Sundance at the same time. I still drive the car I had in high school. It was passed down from my brother to me, a ’97 Nissan Maxima, the car I drove to prom. I was never a big spender. We didn’t have much growing up, so I guess I got used it. Even when I was a Pro Bowl player in the NFL, I lived the same way because that’s what I knew. But that car is the one thing that everyone makes fun of me for. Even after I started earning good money, I was still in the mentality of “I know this is all I need so I’m doing fine.”
Bad grades landed me my first job. My mom was a pharmacist at a small mom-and-pop drug store in Los Angeles. In high school I was an athlete, of course, but it was basketball that was my favorite sport. When I started bringing home bad grades in my junior year, particularly in math, my mom pulled me off the team. Instead of going to basketball practice after school, I had to go work in the pharmacy where my mom worked. That was my punishment. Every day after school I had to stack shelves and sweep floors and do things like that. My teammates would go to practice, and I’d go to work and stay there until closing, then come home and do homework. I had to do that for the whole season. It was actually a really tough time for me! I was heartbroken. I mean, this was basketball. The coach would call my mom every week, saying, “Please. Come on!” Finally, with two games left in the season, he called and she said, “OK, he can play these last couple of games.” It’s not always “Look at this idiot who got paid all these millions of dollars and lost it all.” It may be more like, “This naive kid put his faith in the wrong people.” I majored in finance at the University of California at Berkeley, but even that didn’t prepare me for protecting my money as a professional athlete. For athletes, it’s extremely tough to trust people with your finances. It’s so easy to be victimized. It’s crazy. It’s happened to me as an NFL player, to be honest. I think it’s happened to 99% of players in the league. When I hear about a player losing his money, I’ll rarely, if ever, point a finger at the player because I know how difficult it is. It’s not always “Look at this idiot who got paid all these millions of dollars and lost it all.” It may be more like, “This naive kid with a million things going on in his life put his faith in the wrong people.” I know because I was that person. Almost every one of my closest friends in the league has gone through it. I learned early in my career that I had to be prepared for life after football because you never knew when it would end. I had a buddy who played with me on the Raiders, and he needed to go to his brother’s wedding, which was on a Thursday for some reason. It was during the off-season when the workouts are officially voluntary, but our coach told him, “If you go to your brother’s wedding and miss our workouts, you’ll be off this team.” So my buddy didn’t go to the wedding. In the second week of training camp, he was cut. He missed his brother’s wedding because he was so afraid of leaving, and he got cut anyway. It was a clear message that as a player, you’re not really in control of your destiny and the way you make a living. It’s always weird when people say, “It was that exact moment…” but for me that was that moment! Something clicked, and I was like, “I gotta be prepared. This could end at any time.” That was my second year in the league. From that point on I started doing broadcasting and things like that in an attempt to find my passion — something I could do after football. I remember walking back to the trailer after shooting a Nike commercial, and the director was like, “Hey, I want to talk to you. You were really great! We get guys coming in all the time, and they just kind of phone it in. You actually went for it.”
Then he asked, “Have you ever thought about acting?” I said, “Yeah, a little bit but not really.” Two months later I got a call from a guy saying, “I want you to start taking acting lessons so I can put you in my TV show. The show was Friday Night Lights. The director was Peter Berg. I had no clue who Peter Berg was at the time, but I was like, “Yeah, OK, cool. I’ll do your show!” It was one of those moments. He was saying, “You have something here. Start to nurture it a little bit.” So I did. After 11 seasons, I retired from football; four months later I was in Ghana shooting Beasts of No Nation as an executive producer. I looked around, like “This is what I’m doing now. This is a very different world from four months ago!” Daniela Lundberg was another producer on Beasts of No Nation. One of the first things she ever said to me was, “You have great taste in films.” I don't know if that's true. But I like what I like and there’s no compromising. Over the past few years Daniela and I have worked on a few films together, and I’ve had a really good time with her. All of the films I’ve been involved with have worked out, so I guess I do have great taste in films! Very early in our relationship Daniela told me about a project. She said, “There’s this film that I’m going to do. Would you be interested in it?” She sent me the script for Patty Cake$, and I loved it. She asked, “Would you help me to finance it?” I went along with her—I had no idea where it was going to go. With anything I’m involved with, my goal is always to make something great and then see where the chips fall. I knew Patty Cake$ was a crowd-pleaser when I read it. As I started to see the cast involved and their work, it felt like one of those films that could do well regardless of the outlet. It just had that feeling. Suddenly last year I found myself at Sundance for my first time, and I had three films there: Patty Cake$, which I executive produced; Crown Heights, which is based on the story of an innocent man who was wrongfully convicted; and Waiting for Hassana, a short documentary I executive produced about two Nigerian girls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram. It was a crazy, awesome week. At one point I had to stop doing press for Crown Heights so I could run over to the premiere of Patty Cake$. On the way I kept bumping into people. As we passed, they were like, “I’m going to Crown Heights tonight!” Then I had to leave halfway through the screening of Patty Cake$ to finish press for Crown Heights. As I was walking out with my publicist, we were like, “Yeah, the energy is there. The crowd is loving it.” It had that good feeling. In the end Patty Cake$ sold for more than any Sundance film ever. It was a pretty great week. And a better job than sweeping up at the pharmacy, that’s for sure.
Harlem Businessman & Rapper A Thug has been preparing his fans and his haters with new quality music and videos ... Last seen chopping it up with DMX and pushing the Black Rolling Stones clothing Line on 125th in Harlem New York CLICK HERE FOR MORE .Nearing the completion of his upcoming album MEGASTAR A Thugga has been traveling to California, Hawaii, The Dirty AKA South Cakalaka, South Carolina, and many other exotic locations so he could drop these singles for the ladies such as HENNY D, & MILKY WAY as well as classy sophisticated songs and videos like Billionaires Boy Club...peep the videos below and show A - Thug some love on Itunes & CDBaby... MILKY WAY
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/mil... NEW SMASH HIT A-thug - Milky way ft pharaoh (world DEBUT ) THIS IS A GROWN , EXTRA SPICEY AND MELODIC SOUND. A-THUG TOOK IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL WITH THE VIDEO #XXL HOT AND STEAMY!!! CREDITS +DIRECTED BY MEGASTAR FILMS - SHOT BY LOU BANZ -CO STARRING MEGASTAR FAME -FILMED IN HARLEM EDITED BY GEO SPECIAL THANKS TO MASTTER GEGE , TONE & COOLIN CAM . Henny D "HENNY D" VIDEO DEBUT -A-THUG +FILM IN HAWAII , NEW YORK & MYRTLE BEACH S.C. (MEGASAR T.V.) BUY SONG FROM https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/im-... scenes from #Harlem#SouthCarolina#Myrtle Beach to #Hawaii this this is a big project and I'm saying so I hope you all enjoy this is a little snippet video coming soon make sure you have downloaded on my #IMABLACKROLLINGSTONEVOL2 !!! Im black one of stone volume 2 on #iTunes#Amazon#CDbaby#Spotify ect . ..leave some comments Billionaire Boys Club BILLIONAIRE BOYS CLUB (B.R.S) - VIDEO -A-THUG 2017"HALL OF FAME ALBUM https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/h-o... Black Rolling Stones DEFINETLY Stepped It Up On this Track, Speaking Upon Manifesting Billions Of Dollars To His Company Video Shot By Megastar T.v
Since joining the Knicks this offseason, Michael Beasley has said some pretty strange things. Over the last couple weeks, in particular, the new Knicks forward has talked about everything from why he wears wristwatches on his ankle to why he’s confused over the whole "humans only use 10 percent of their brains" concept. But he may have said the strangest thing yet during a recent interview with Bleacher Report. While talking about how he’s a changed man after enduring a series of personal and legal setbacks through the early part of his NBA career, Beasley was asked about why he thinks he never developed into the type of player many people expected him to be when he was selected No. 2 overall by the Heat in the 2008 NBA Draft. And Beasley said that part of the problem for him has always been perception. Because he has often struggled to keep his name out of the news for things that he’s done off the court, he believes it has hurt his reputation on it. And he thinks that, if not for the negative news, he would be considered one of the best players in the NBA today, right up there with the greats who grace the court every night.
"[It’s] mostly perception," he said. "As far as talent wise, I match up with Kevin [Durant], LeBron [James]. I match up with the best guys in the world. I’m not being cocky; it’s just always how I felt. But I got into trouble as soon as I got into the NBA, and it left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths." But he may have said the strangest thing yet during a recent interview with Bleacher Report. While talking about how he’s a changed man after enduring a series of personal and legal setbacks through the early part of his NBA career, Beasley was asked about why he thinks he never developed into the type of player many people expected him to be when he was selected No. 2 overall by the Heat in the 2008 NBA Draft. And Beasley said that part of the problem for him has always been perception. Because he has often struggled to keep his name out of the news for things that he’s done off the court, he believes it has hurt his reputation on it. And he thinks that, if not for the negative news, he would be considered one of the best players in the NBA today, right up there with the greats who grace the court every night. "[It’s] mostly perception," he said. "As far as talent wise, I match up with Kevin [Durant], LeBron [James]. I match up with the best guys in the world. I’m not being cocky; it’s just always how I felt. But I got into trouble as soon as I got into the NBA, and it left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths." Beasley isn’t wrong about his perception playing a part in the way people compare him to other NBA players. The perception is that Beasley was a bit of a bust as a No. 2 overall pick, and it’ll always be hard for him to shake that. His career stats—12.6 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game—also
But good news: Beasley is going to be playing on a Knicks team this season that is expected to stink. So if Beasley—who is still relatively young at just 28—is able to make the Knicks look even slightly competitive over the next six months, it could go a long way towards changing the way people perceive him. He’s going to need to do more than just say and do strange things, though, if he wants people to do anything other than laugh when he compares himself to the KDs and LeBrons of the world.
LaVar Ball said Monday he plans to remove son LaMelo from Chino Hills High School in Chino Hills, California, and home-school him for the next two years, the Los Angeles Times' Eric Sondheimer reported. LaMelo averaged 27.5 points and shot 43.2 percent from the field in 30 games for Chino Hills as a sophomore in 2016-17. He's the No. 30 player overall and No. 5 point guard in the 2019 recruiting class, according to Scout. "LaMelo is not going to be at school tomorrow with his Lamborghini parked in front," LaVar said, per ESPN.com's Darren Rovell. ESPN.com's Jeff Goodman provided context for LaVar's decision:
When I spoke to Lavar a month ago, it was easy to see this coming. He was already frustrated with new coach Dennis Latimore. https://t.co/agWWJNEq8U
Chino Hills let Stephan Gilling go as head coach in April. Gilling had told For The Win's Andrew Joseph in March that LaVar had undermined his coaching at times by entering the locker room and offering instructions from the stands that contradicted what he had coached the team to do. LaVar will take over LaMelo's training, telling Sondheimer he's "going to make him the best basketball player ever." While LaMelo can still play AAU ball with Big Baller Brand, removing him from the high school circuit altogether would be a surprising move. The Missouri Tigers' Michael Porter Jr., the No. 3 recruit in 2017, per Scout, was home-schooled but still played for Nathan Hale High School in Seattle. According to Sondheimer, LaMelo still plans on signing a letter of intent with the UCLA Bruins, though there's the matter of whether his signature Melo Ball 1 sneaker will impact his NCAA eligibility.
