Los Angeles was the epicenter of Hip Hop and R&B Sunday night (June 25) as the stars of black entertainment assembled for the 2016 BET Awards.
"Black-ish" stars Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross returned to host the TV event at the Microsoft Theater, with a ceremony that opened with a surprise performance from Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar.
Going into the awards, Drake led the nominations with nine, with Rihanna and Beyoncé tied for second place with five.
Drake won the prize for Best Male Hip Hop Artist, beating out last year's winner Kendrick Lamar, as well as the other nominees Fetty Wap, Future, J. Cole and Kanye West. The Toronto rapper also took home the prize for Best Group for his What A Time To Be Alive mixtape with Future, and Best Collaboration with Rihanna, for their track "Work."
The man behind that video, Toronto's Director X, took home the honor of Video Director Of The Year.
Beyoncé was voted Best Female R&B/Pop Artist, and her video for "Formation" won for Video Of The Year, the Coca-Cola Viewers' Choice Award, and the Centric Award.
Nicki Minaj continued her dominance in the Female Hip Hop Artist category, taking home the trophy for the seventh straight year.
Two prizes were pre-announced for the show: a Lifetime Achievement Award that went to actor Samuel L. Jackson for his body of work in film, and a Humanitarian Award that went to "Grey's Anatomy" star Jesse Williams for his contributions to the Black Lives Matter movement.
BROOKLYN, NY - 2016 has been a breakout year for Brooklyn's own Desiigner. Not only is his debut single "Panda" a platinum chart dominator, but Kanye West gave him a legitimate co-sign after signing him to GOOD Music and placing him on Life of Pablo track "Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 2."
Future comparisons aside, the big question was whether or not he could deliver a project. Now after weeks of building up anticipation and catching a spot on the Freshmen 10 List, Desiigner has dropped his debut mixtape New English exclusively on Tidal.
The 14-track project was originally posted on Audiomack before being taken down. New English only features two guest appearances, with GOOD Music president Pusha T and fellow Brooklynite King Savage contributing.
LOS ANGELES, CA - Kanye West is a homewrecker, crazy as hell and a nuisance, according to a fraction of the butt-naked celebrities who appeared in his new "Famous" video in their wax figure form.
Former president George W. Bush — who was infamously outed by West for "not caring about black people during a 2006 Hurricane Katrina telethon — already said his piece over the intentionally controversial video and there are a lot of suspect "quotes" from Taylor Swift's camp floating around the Internet. But now Chris Brown and Ray J are speaking out with two polar opposite reactions.
Breezy, whose nude likeness is wedged in between former girlfriend Rihanna and Taylor Swift, laughed it off, wondering, of all things, why his ass had to be the center focus of his portrayal in the nearly 10-minute video.
"Why I gotta have the plumbers butt/ crack showing WAX figure?," he said on Instagram with a barrage of emojis before adding, "This nigga KANYE CRAZY, talented, but crazy ????."
Unfortunately for Ray J, who previously dated Kanye's wife Kim Kardashian (and created a fame-inducing sex tape with her circa 2003) didn't find the short film art piece too funny, seeing that it's making his fiancée and fellow Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood co-star Princess Love an unhappy bedmate.
"Man, I'm just trying to stay positive," Ray J, 35, told Entertainment Tonight during the 2016 BET Awards at the Microsoft Theater in L.A. on Sunday, June 26.
"I'm engaged. My marriage is all messed up 'cause of craziness. I'm not part of nothing crazy. I walk down a good path," he continued. "[My fiancée] tripping. It's all bad in my world, and that ain't cool. "Don't put me part of nothing that's weird, that don't make no sense," he said before asking "Can I grow up?"
Fans of LHHH can attest to Princess Love's physical way of expressing herself but Ray J can't exactly hide his hands in this cold war over KK either. In 2013, he released a self-explanatory titled single in "I Hit It First," and the video featured a Kim Kardashian look-a-like and Kanye is just getting around to responding. On The Life of Pablo, the album that hosts "Famous," Ray J is mentioned on another record titled "Highlights" where Yeezy raps: "I bet me and Ray J would be friends/If we ain't love the same bitch/Yeah, he might have hit it first/Only problem is I'm rich."
On the flipside, Ray J's manager Wack 100, had nothing but heat and tough talk for Kanye,telling TMZ's cameras "If they didn't show Ray J with his dick in Kim Kardashian's mouth, tell Kanye to go back and reshoot that shit."
"Tell that nigga he a long way from Chicago. He better watch his muthafuckin' mouth," he snarled.
Wack 100 also manages The Game, who has been close with Kanye for years, so don't be surprised if this ordeal is resolved without a hint of violence.
One thing is for certain, Kanye is getting the attention he sought out when he created the video. In a recent tweet & delete scenario, he begged one of the 11 celebrities to take legal action over the clip.
Take a look at all the recent madness caused by the Kanye West "Famous" video below.
Wale’s 5th studio album, Shine, is set to release later this year and will mark his 10th year in the industry. Mainly carving his niche during the fast-paced consumerism of this past decade, the D.C. rapper has showcased an almost Darwinian instinct for remaining marginally relevant. With each release he stretches the confines of his artistry enough to modernize his approach, but unfortunately remains safe and familiar. Remember when he did a sunny collab with the indie band fun.? Refurbish that, mix in a lot of alcohol and fairweather friends, and you get the mixed bag of triumphs and setbacks presented on Summer on Sunset.
The singer who is also a member of Black Eyed Peas shared a photo of yet to be released album Double Duchess. She is topless in the black and white photo
Police on Thursday, June 23, arrested a 21-year-old man over the murder of a female major with the Ministry of Defence in the capital’s Tuol Kork district, Cambodia.
The victim, identified as Ly Davy, 36, was stabbed to death on Wednesday, June 22 as she was walking down the street to buy food. She was stabbed to death with a vegetable knife in the back, on the left side. The knife pierced the heart and she died instantly.. *graphic pics after the cut - viewer discretion advised*
During a radio chat on the B Real with Bethenny, Amber revealed her marriage to Wiz Khalifa didn't work out because they rushed in too early. The 32-year-old explained the pair got married too young - and that things could have worked out differently if they'd wed when they were more mature.
Kim Kardashian stepped out with her husband Kanye and daughter, North on Saturday wearing a white baggy shirt as she walked into a movie theatre in Calabasas. More photos after the cut...
Kanye West has dared 'somebody' to sue him following the release of his controversial video 'Famous'. The rapper tweeted this afternoon: "Can somebody sue me already #'ll wait" The video comes from his album The Life of Pablo, and includes the nude likenesses of himself and his wife Kim K, Donald Trump, Taylor Swift, Bill Cosby, Caitlyn Jenner, Amber Rose, Ray J, Chris Brown, Rihanna, Anna Wintour and George Bush.
Famous Dex’s “2 Times” is infectious enough on its own; one listen proves that much. But now the Chicago rapper has grabbed Pittsburgh’s own Wiz Khalifa and Dex’s ATL homie Rich The Kid for the official remix, which you can hear above.
Dex and Rich The Kid can be seen all over the place together, but especially on Rich’s label Rich Forever Music, where he signed Dex earlier this year. We hear there’s also a joint venture in the works between Rich Forever Music and 300 Ent., but more on that later. (The logos for Quality Control and 300 can be seen on the cover for the remix.)
The song, produced by Kronic Beats, is carried by the croaking production and Dex’s quick delivery, but while the original was a little short, Wiz and Rich appear here to extend the song’s mood.
For now, Rich is gearing up to release his new mixtape Rich Forever Music 2on July 4, just in time for your summer cookout. It’ll include the above remix.
Dex, meanwhile, just dropped his Heartbreak Kidmixtape a couple weeks ago. With records like “2 Times” and “Drop From My Walk” heating up like crazy, Dex is one of the hottest artists coming out of the Chi these days, so it’d be wise of you to start paying attention if you don’t already know.
Congratulations to two of rap’s biggest acts – ScHoolboy Q and Rae Sremmurd. Each of their albums Oxymoron and SremmLife are now certified platinum by the RIAA.
Q’s album came out in early 2014 while Slim Jxmmi and Swae Lee’s LP came out in January 2015. Now both acts are prepping their follow-up projects: Q’s Blank Face drops July 8th while SremmLife 2 was just pushed back to August 12.
It’s interesting to see albums like this go platinum now, though each act may be experiencing recent increases in sales and streams because they’ve both been rolling out new albums. But what these plaques – and the increasing amount of them doled out each week – really indicate is how streaming is changing the way we see a platinum record. For awhile in the late ’90s and early ’00s, platinum albums were events and double platinum always seemed within reach. Then the internet fucked everything up, sales were chopped down at the legs and platinum albums became as rare as yetis.
But now that the RIAA has factored streaming into their certification algorithm, platinum albums are becoming more common again. Some argue that it simply takes less to make an album go platinum now; after all, where you used to have to spend over $10 to go out and buy one album, now you can spend that amount to stream millions of albums per month. But while that may be true, the RIAA still had to adjust their formula to reflect the consumption patterns of the general public, and since streaming is clearly the future (if not the present), they made the wise choice.
So while debate will continue about whether or not platinum certification holds as much weight as it does a decade ago, industry standards will hopefully continue to adapt to technology and the rapidly-shifting music industry. We have nothing but congrats for Q and the Rae Sremmurd brothers.
Today ScHoolboy Q dropped a trailer for his upcoming album Blank Face, and in it you can hear shards of a new song that’ll apparently be on the LP. The piano is especially ominous as the trailer shows Q, Jay Rock and company rolling through the neighborhood before police beat down the block and the homies scatter like mice. You can watch the quick clip above.
Last week Q ran fans through a circus of fake album covers as he trolled the world with a crying MJ version and a Donald Trump version before revealing the official art. The final album cover could have multiple references embedded in it, but we found at least two – not only is it shaped like an H, but it’s also shaped like a razor. We’ll leave the rest up to interpretation.
Q’s only dropped two songs from the album so far – “Groovy Tony” and “THat Part” – so the new music in the trailer above is welcome. That beat sounds like something Alchemist might have touched, but maybe it’s just wishful thinking: every time those two collab, they make fire.
With the release of his Summer on Sunset mixtape and the anticipation for his SHINE album, the nation got Wale fever and the RIAA announced that the DC rapper has four new certifications.
His 2013 album, The Gifted was certified gold, selling 500,000 units. The project was released three years ago this week. The single, "Bad," which features Teyana Taylor, has reached double platinum status, selling two million units.
Other songs to be applauded by the RIAA are "The Matrimony," the single featuring Usher that was on Wale's most recent LP, The Album About Nothing, which received gold certification. 2011's "Lotus Flower Bomb," which co-stars Miguel, was awarded a platinum plaque.
Rakim appears in a new ad promoting the Missy, J. Cole, and 2Pac lyric cans. Fans can pick up the 16 different special items through September 16 or while supplies last.
Former Nigeria captain Joseph Yobo, who has played for Fenerbahce and Everton is set to play in the Nigeria Professional Football league for the remaining matches of the season, in what will be a major coup for the Nigeria league.
Heartbroken after her ex husband Gavin Rossdale destroyed their 13-year marriage by cheating with their nanny, she has now moved on! Gwen Stefani and her new beau Blake Shelton kissed and embraced on the tarmac in front of the plane's engines after they touched back down in Los Angeles.
Sorry but I have to say this. This guy is a maniac disguising as a man of God and needs to be stopped. The South African pastor, who has in the past committed outrageous acts with his congregation and has had his church shut/burnt in the past, has struck again.
Lionel Messi is now Argentina's all-time leading scorer with 55 goals, overtaking Gabriel Batistuta as his nation's top scorer after leading his country to a 4-0 win over U.S in the Copa America early this morning.
Ezequiel Lavezzi scored through a header after just three minutes before Argentina captain Lionel Messi doubled their lead with a stunning free-kick which was his 55th goal - making him Argentina's outright record goalscorer.
Napoli striker Gonzalo Higuain added a third from close range on 50 minutes before Higuain doubled his tally for the night on 86 minutes via a Messi assist making it a miserable match for the U.S.
