This week in Hip Hop, the music world lost a great talent after Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington took his own life at his Palos Verdes home. Meanwhile, Meek Mill has been making media rounds for his third studio album, Wins & Losses. During an interview with with Hot 97, he admitted he was a bit out of control during his beef with Drake. Lastly, R. Kelly, Usher and Kevin Hart are all swimming in salacious scandals.
R.I.P. Chester Bennington
The death of Linkin Park’s lead singer Chester Bennington on Thursday (July 20) has left the music world in mourning. He was discovered at his Palos Verdes home, where he had reportedly committed suicide. Linkin Park was one of the few successful rock bands to seamlessly weave Hip Hop and rock together through its work with JAY-Z, Busta Rhymes and Pusha T. Many members of the Hip Hop community reacted to the news on social media, including Talib Kweli, Chance the Rapper, Pusha T, Rihanna and Questlove.
DJ Rob Swift of the X-Ecutioners and DJ Z-Trip, both Linkin Park collaborators, also shared fond memories of Bennington exclusively with HipHopDX.
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Read more about Bennington here.
Meek Mill Celebrates All “Wins & Losses” With New Album
Meek Mill is not letting his past with Drake stop him from being the Dream Chasers artists that he is. This week, he released his 17-track album Wins & Losseswith features from Future, Chris Brown, Lil Uzi Vert and Rick Ross among others. It’s the follow-up to his Platinum-selling album Dreams Worth More Than Money, which most probably don’t remember because his beef with Drake overshadowed anything having to do with Meek musically.
Two years later, the Philly-bred artist has admitted he might have gone overboard when dealing with the Drake drama.
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“I was like out of control at that point,” Meek said in an interview with Hot 97. “The way I was coming at everybody. I offended a lot of people at that point.”
Read more about Meek and his latest project Wins & Losseshere.
What Do R. Kelly, Usher & Kevin Hart Have In Common?
It’s been an eventful week for R. Kelly, Usher and Kevin Hart. All three men have been entangled in some kind of scandal that had their names being dragged all over social media.
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Kelly is allegedly holding a cult of young women against their will. After a scathing report was published on BuzzFeed, one of the “victims” made a video denying the allegations. Kelly also denies any wrongdoing. Despite it all, Kelly’s shows are still selling out even though there’s a petition going around for Sony to release him from the label.
Then, the news of Usher’s million dollar payout to a woman who he had given herpes to hit the web. As if that wasn’t enough, comedic actor and sometimes rapper Kevin Hart got exposed for cheating on his “rib,” who happens to pregnant at the moment. Hart laughed it off and clearly wants everyone to mind their business.
Read more about the Kelly scandal here, Usher scandal here and Kevin Hart scandal here.
#DXclusives: Bun B, DJ Screw, Digable Planets’ Butterfly & Murs
DX’s Shirley Ju spoke to Houston legend Bun B of U.G.K. who revealed Big K.R.I.T. is his new album’s musical coordinator.
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“This album is crazy,” he shared. “I don’t think people are really gonna have an idea of what I’m coming with. There’s going to be songs from me that you would expect but there’s going to be a level of depth that I’m going to in these songs. I’m thinking of naming this album after my real name, Bernard, because this is a side of myself that took basically 43 years to get to and to really be able to lay everything out. This is what everything has been, this is what everything will be.”
DJ Screw
July 20 marked what would have been DJ Screw’s 46th birthday and DX honored the cultural innovator in a piece that looked back at his influence on the culture years after his death. In a 1995 Rap Pages interview dug up by Gino Sorcinelli, Screw went over the moment he discovered slowing down his music was something he liked.
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“I thought the music sounded better like that. It stuck with me, because when you smoking weed and listening to music, you can’t bob your head to nothing fast,” he said.
Digable Planets’ Ishmael “Butterfly” Butler
Ishmael “Butterfly” Butler — member of Digable Planets and Shabazz Palaces — talked to DX’s Kyle Eustice about Digable Planets’ 1993 magnum opus “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)” and said he never tires of it. The Seattle-based MC/musician is currently pushing Shabazz Palaces’ two new albums, Quazarz: Born On A Gangster Star and Quazarz Vs. The Jealous Machines.
“I guess some people might get tired of the song,” Butler explained. “But every minute of a performance is an opportunity — you’re participating in a spiritual ceremony,” he continues. “It’s what you make of it. A song isn’t anything until you perform it. There’s a lot you can do. It should never get the best of you. It’s your imagination that’s at the core of what happens.”
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MURS
Murs came on to #DXLive armed with a special announcement on Thursday (July 20) — Paid Dues festival will have Jay Electronica on the bill. The Paid Dues fest takes place on September 16 and 17, and features Ab-Soul, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, PRhyme, Freddie Gibbs, Nipsey Hussle, Rapsody, The Cool Kids, Mozzy and G Perico at Pershing Square.
