S mack in the center of Paris’ Trocadéro esplanade stands 21 Savage, face-to-face with the Eiffel Tower for the first time. It glows in the distance, across the Seine river, as a light rain falls and dusk settles around us. He’s flanked by four security guards, all dressed in black …
Read More »Nicki Minaj, Peso Pluma, Tate McRae and All the Songs You Need to Know This Week
Welcome to our weeklyrundown of thebest new music — featuring big singles, key tracks from our favorite albums, and more.This week,Nicki Minaj brings Drake back for the highly anticipated Pink Friday 2, Peso Pluma switches up genres with Anitta, and Tate McRae chronicles a tumultuous relationship. Plus, new tracks from …
Read More »Nicki Minaj Waved a Wand Over the Entire Rap World — and Four Other Takeaways From 'Pink Friday 2'
Nicki Minaj has dropped her long-awaited new album, Pink Friday 2. Something of a follow-up to 2010’s Pink Friday, the album has a whopping 22 tracks and offers fans plenty to dig into. From big-budget samples like Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” to features including Drake, Lil Wayne, …
Read More »Drake Celebrates Albanian Independence Day in 'Polar Opposites' Video
Albanian Independence Day was yesterday, but Drake doesn’t think it’s too late to join in on the festivities. On Wednesday, the Canadian rapper shared the music video for “Polar Opposites,” the closing track to his latest album, For All the Dogs, which prominently features a group of Albanian men hanging …
Read More »In Hollywood, Criticizing Israel's Assault on Gaza Comes With a Price
Jews are not a monolith. And yet, for the past several decades, those in favor of Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration have mendaciously branded any criticisms of the Israeli government as antisemitism. It is a curious conflation, given how a 2021 Pew Research Center survey revealed that only 58% of Jewish adults …
Read More »Andre 3000 Already Won The Rap Game–He Has Every Right to Flute
It doesn’t seem that long ago that Game sniped at Jay-Z with the line: “You 38 and still rappin’? Ugh!” from his 2006 track “It’s Okay (One Blood).” Yet some of this era’s biggest rap heroes are nearing — and above — forty. A “Tale Of The Tape” scene in …
Read More »Drake Questioned Over Deadly Astroworld Tragedy
Astroworld lawyers deposed Drake on Thursday regarding the deadly Astroworld crowd, two sources confirm to Rolling Stone. Drake was questioned for several hours in a deposition tied to hundreds of lawsuits filed in Harris County after the crowd rush, which killed 10 people and injured hundreds of others. The sources …
Read More »Inside DJ Khaled's Relentlessly Joyous World
L ately, DJ Khaled has been listening to a lot of Jay-Z. Namely The Blueprint, the 2001 opus that helped solidify Hov as a commercial juggernaut in hip-hop. On an August afternoon in Miami, in the living room of the more-than-12,000-square-foot South Beach mansion he’s affectionately dubbed “the Resort,” Khaled …
Read More »The Nominations for Best Rap Song Grammy Could Be a Battle of Hip-Hop Heavyweights
Leading up to the Grammy nominations on Nov. 10, Rolling Stone is breaking down 16 different categories. For each, we’re predicting the nominees, as well as who will (and who should) win on Grammy night. Prestige carries weight in the Best Rap Song category. In the 20 times this particular …
Read More »Rick Ross Is Living Large and Loving Life in Las Vegas
R ick Ross was having a moment. The Falstaffian rapper and entrepreneur was a mere two songs into his inaugural performance at Drai’s, a raucous 30,000-foot nightclub inside Las Vegas’ Cromwell hotel, and “halfway drunk” when he ordered the DJ to stop the music. He found himself transfixed by the …
Read More »