T.I.’s Stepdaughter Zonnique Buys Her First House
Zonnique Pullins shows off the keys to her first house.
We’ve seen Zonnique Pullins grow up before our very eyes as a featured member of T.I. and Tiny’s reality show. As the on-again-off-again couple works through their differences, they’ve always been there for their children. T.I. may not be Zonnique’s biological father but he treats her as if she were, sending so much love her way. As she continues to grow up and expand her own business, Zonnique has purchased her first-ever house today, which Tiny made sure to document on social media.
Much of Tiny and T.I.’s life is shared with their fans on TV but Zonnique’s appearances have become more and more sparse as of late. She’s got her own responsibilities now and she’s just added one more to her plate. Pullins is a first-time homeowner after she purchased her first house today. Tiny shared a photo of her daughter with the realtor as she happily held onto the keys to the front door. Of course, it was an emotional moment for Tiny as she wrote, “Super proud of My 1st. she bought her first house today!! Congratulations my beauty Queen… Your mama loves u lady!”
Congratulations to Zonnique for buying her first house. Maybe she’ll have her own reality show someday.
Article via HotNewHipHop
Check out Lovleyti’s video:
Tiny’s Daughter Zonnique Says She Regrets Eye Color Surgery+ She May Go Blind
Cardi B Explains Jet Ski Photo With Offset: “I Just Had To Get F-cked”
It’s that simple…
Contrary to previous reports, Cardi B has asserted that her latest rendezvous with Offset in Puerto Rico was not the result of any reconciliation, but rather a transactional interaction when she and her ex were photographed on a jet ski in the Caribbean nation. On Saturday, Cardi took to Instagram to clear the air and give the backstory behind the photograph.
According to the “Money” rapper, the jet ski instructor tricked Cardi into letting him take her picture
“Let me tell you something about the jet ski n-gga, right?” she says in the video. “ The instructor or whatever the fuck he is — he was taking pictures of us on his phone like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna send you these pictures so you guys can have a memory and I’m going to delete it.’ I’m like, ‘Oh ok.’
“What type of professional shit is that,” she adds after revealing that the instructor is the one who sold the photo to the media.
She goes on to hold up a copy of the company’s brochure and warns those online to stay away from the company. Before the clip ends, someone seems to ask Cardi why she was with her estranged husband in the first place, and the answer is quite simple: “I just had to get fucked. That’s all,” she says before turning to look back at the camera.
Article via HotNewHipHop
Cardi B Becomes 1st Woman to Headline Rolling Loud Festival, Then Rolling Loud Becomes 1st Festival to Allow Its Headliner to Be Harassed on Stage
Was security on break?
Last night was a lot.
As the first woman to headline last
night’s Rolling Loud Festival, we should be celebrating this pivotal
moment in Cardi B’s career. But instead of showering Cardi with praise
for her achievement, the Internet is abuzz with this:
During her set, Migos rapper Offset crashed the stage to apologize in front of the world for cheating on his wife. Which in theory sounds like a well intended public display of contrition until you remember:
1. He stole Cardi’s moment.
2. Had he kept that same energy from the jump instead of embarrassing the mother of his child in front of the entire world, he would’ve never needed to apologize in the first place.
3. His overtures were ill-timed, unwanted, selfish, manipulative and the textbook definition of harassment.
4. He stole Cardi’s moment.
But despite Offset’s selfish actions, it’s important to remember that this fiasco involves real people with real feelings going through a very real divorce.
Which put Cardi in the uncomfortable position of having to be the bigger person and defend him—as if he didn’t just steal her moment.
“Right, wrong, or indifferent, I don’t want people to keep doing fuck shit,” she said in a clip posted on Instagram. “Violating my baby father is not going to make me feel any better.”
However, in a subsequent clip she posted about an hour afterward, she clarified that she wasn’t condoning Offset’s behavior. Instead, she was merely trying to protect her estranged husband from relentless harassment and abuse online.
“I see a lot of people bashing me because they see my baby father and think that I’m gonna get back together with him,” she said in the clip. “I just don’t like that bashing online thing. You just saw how Pete Davidson was talking about how he don’t even wanna be on this Earth because mad people be coming at him every single day.”
None of us have any idea how this ordeal will play out, but I do know that if Offset really loved his wife as much as he claims he does, he wouldn’t have tried to clean up a mess he made on her time.
But also of note, Rolling Loud should be ashamed of their role in this debacle. Because they made a conscious decision to sacrifice Cardi’s moment—as well their reputation—in exchange for some retweets and Google search results.
Article via TheRoot
Ty Dolla Sign Indicted on Felony Drug Charges
Cocaine and marijuana charges could reportedly lead to up to 15 years in prison
Ty Dolla Sign has been indicted on felony charges of cocaine and marijuana possession, TMZ reports and documents viewed by Pitchfork confirm. The charges could lead to a prison sentence of up to 15 years, according to TMZ. The indictment includes two felony charges—possession of a Schedule 1 controlled substance and possession of cocaine—and one misdemeanor charge, for possession of less than one ounce of marijuana.
Ty Dolla was arrested and detained in September in Atlanta after officers searched his vehicle, claiming they smelled marijuana. Skrillex and several others were also in the vehicle, but police pressed charges only against Ty, TMZ reports. Pitchfork has reached out to Ty’s reps for comment.
Article via Pitchfork
Elfen’ s EXTRA! EXTRA! Hip Hop Music Video Tobe Nwigwe RAKIM & Z RO TRIBUTE FREESTYLE
I just added this this brown skined Brother to my Neosoul hip hop collection!! He’s got a quick flow to his rhymes.
After Posting a Sex Tape Featuring an Underage Girl, Tekashi 6ix9ine to be Re-Sentenced
According to Page Six, it looks like rainbow-haired rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine will possibly be re-sentenced to time served next week for posting a video online that features a 13-year-old girl engaged in a sexual act.
The rapper, born Daniel Hernandez, was not in attendance during the closed-door conference Friday in which Justice Felicia Mennin, his defense lawyer, and prosecutors made the decision.
Previously, Mennin sentenced the controversial artist to four years probation and 1,000 hours of community service for the 2015 charge, despite prosecutors insisting on one to three years behind bars. But since he’s being held without bail on new federal charges, he can’t be on probation. Hence, being given time served.
Since being indicted on racketeering and firearm charges last month, he’s been in federal custody.
Article via TheRoot
Police Believe Video of 6ix9ine Seemingly Ordering Hit Is Related to Attempted Chief Keef Shooting
6ix9ine‘s big mouth may have gotten him implicated in the attempted Chief Keef shooting, which happened in New York City back in June.
Last week video surfaced that appears to show Tekashi ordering a hit on Sosa affiliate Tadoe, with whom he was beefing with at the time. Now police sources are telling TMZ, they believe the video has a direct correlation with Chief Keef and crew being shot at near Times Square.
A source inside the New York Police Department told the site, “This is no coincidence. We believe the video is directly related to the crime. We believe Tekashi69 ordered the hit on Tadoe — who we now believe is the intended target.”
The video that leaked last week shows 6ix in a heated FaceTime conversation with Tadoe. After hanging up, the Dummy Boy rapper seems to imply he is willing to pay a bounty on the Chicago rapper.
“I got a 30 pack on him, right now, Blood,” 6ix9ine brags. “Thirty pack. Swear to God I got a 30 pack. Thirty-thou cash, right now.”
The following month, Chief Keef, Tadoe and crew were shot at outside the W Hotel in NYC. 6ix9ine denied involvement in the shooting afterward, blaming Chief Keef’s violent lyrics on someone wanting to lick shots at him. Police are investigating two people in connection with the shooting. One of them has ties to Tekashi, according to TMZ.
XXL has reached out to the New York Police Department and 6ix9ine’s lawyer for comment.
Article via XXLMag
Meet Skull Snaps A Forgotten Funk Band That Soundtracked Hip-Hop
New Haven, Connecticut rapper Dooley-O and DJ Chris Cosby were digging through a neighbor’s record collection when they found a peculiar album, the cover of which boasted a drawing of three menacing skulls, with skeletons dancing on or near each one. The back cover had an image of a presumably female skeleton, wearing a fancy Victorian hat. The band was called Skull Snaps, and there was no photo of the artists anywhere to be found.
Dooley-O assumed this was a heavy rock album, and since he was a crate-digger who happily sampled any and everything, he decided to give it a listen. As it turned out, the album wasn’t rock, but funk—one song in particular, “It’s a New Day,” boasted a killer opening beat that was just begging to be sampled. And so, in 1988, Dooley-O did just that on a track called “Watch My Moves,” but since he didn’t have any industry connections that could help promote the song, it languished in semi-obscurity. (It was eventually released 14 years later by Stones Throw Records.)
One year after Dooley-O recorded “Watch My Moves,” his cousin Stezo, who’d gotten a gig as a backup dancer for EPMD, scored a record deal and asked Dooley if he could use the Skull Snaps break. Dooley didn’t like the idea at first, but he eventually relented. Stezo’s song, “It’s My Turn,” went big, reaching Number 18 on Billboard’s “Hot Rap Songs” chart.
That was only the beginning. Since Stezo let the sample play out naked in the song, it quickly became fodder for hundreds of other rappers. It now appears on nearly 500 songs, making it one of the most sampled breaks in hip-hop history.
“That thing sounds good. You can put any kind of groove to that and it sounds good. Any groove,” Stezo says today. “I remember Dooley being like, ‘Don’t leave the beat open because people are going to steal our beat.’ I said, ‘Man, what do we care about, as long as we’re the first ones.’”
That Skull Snaps break was sampled on a host of prominent rap songs—among them, the Pharcyde’s “Passing Me By,” Mobb Deep’s “Give Up The Goods (Just Step),” and Gang Starr’s “Take It Personal”—but even at the height of its usage, few people knew anything about Skull Snaps.
All of that is about to change. In 2011 and ‘12, Stezo shot a documentary about the group in 2011-2012 called The Birth Beats of Hip-hop: The Legend of Skull Snaps. And in October, Mr. Bongo reissued Skull Snaps on vinyl with support from band members themselves. As it turns out, Skull Snaps were a three-piece band consisting of Sam O. Culley, Erv Littleton Waters, and George Bragg. The members were also in soul group called The Diplomats, who released a number of singles in the ’60s. As for the album’s mysterious cover, Culley says it wasn’t intended to misdirect people. The band had a tough time being a funk trio who played their own instruments and did all their own singing, and funk and soul labels just didn’t know how to market them.
“My favorite artist was Three Dog Night. Record companies weren’t really accepting black bands back then,” Culley explains. “So we said, ‘We’ll have no pictures on the album. The guy who did the artwork put the three skeletons on top of the damned skull and I’m like, ‘Damn that’s crazy looking. It’s the scariest shit I’ve ever seen.’ It made me think of bikers. That was my first thought. They’re going to think this is a bunch of bikers, you know what I’m saying?”
That strange record cover would likely have never come to pass without the group’s unusual name, which was inspired by R&B vocalist Lloyd Price. One night, Price was hanging out with the group and enthusing over their funky sounds. During one session, he blurted out that their music “made his skull snap.”
The Skull Snaps record was released in 1973, but the famous beat that would inspire a generation of rappers goes back to the mid ’60s, when the band members would play it at the beginning of shows as a way of getting the energy going. The unique sound and pop of the beat was made by taking a small 12-inch snare and dampening its sound by taping a wallet to it.
“It basically was a tune-up kind of thing,” Culley says. “The drums started playing, and I would start playing on the bass, and then Erv started playing on the guitar, and from that, we would just bam to another song which would be our show.”
That Skull Snaps break was sampled on a host of prominent rap songs—among them, the Pharcyde’s “Passing Me By,” Mobb Deep’s “Give Up The Goods (Just Step),” and Gang Starr’s “Take It Personal”—but even at the height of its usage, few people knew anything about Skull Snaps.
All of that is about to change. In 2011 and ‘12, Stezo shot a documentary about the group in 2011-2012 called The Birth Beats of Hip-hop: The Legend of Skull Snaps. And in October, Mr. Bongo reissued Skull Snaps on vinyl with support from band members themselves. As it turns out, Skull Snaps were a three-piece band consisting of Sam O. Culley, Erv Littleton Waters, and George Bragg. The members were also in soul group called The Diplomats, who released a number of singles in the ’60s. As for the album’s mysterious cover, Culley says it wasn’t intended to misdirect people. The band had a tough time being a funk trio who played their own instruments and did all their own singing, and funk and soul labels just didn’t know how to market them.
“My favorite artist was Three Dog Night. Record companies weren’t really accepting black bands back then,” Culley explains. “So we said, ‘We’ll have no pictures on the album. The guy who did the artwork put the three skeletons on top of the damned skull and I’m like, ‘Damn that’s crazy looking. It’s the scariest shit I’ve ever seen.’ It made me think of bikers. That was my first thought. They’re going to think this is a bunch of bikers, you know what I’m saying?”
That strange record cover would likely have never come to pass without the group’s unusual name, which was inspired by R&B vocalist Lloyd Price. One night, Price was hanging out with the group and enthusing over their funky sounds. During one session, he blurted out that their music “made his skull snap.”
The Skull Snaps record was released in 1973, but the famous beat that would inspire a generation of rappers goes back to the mid ’60s, when the band members would play it at the beginning of shows as a way of getting the energy going. The unique sound and pop of the beat was made by taking a small 12-inch snare and dampening its sound by taping a wallet to it.
“It basically was a tune-up kind of thing,” Culley says. “The drums started playing, and I would start playing on the bass, and then Erv started playing on the guitar, and from that, we would just bam to another song which would be our show.”
When it came time to record the Skull Snaps record, they felt that jam needed to be included somewhere. They decided to append it to the beginning of “It’s a Brand New Day” because that was the first song they recorded. Just like in their live shows, they needed the beat to help them get calibrated in the studio.
“We said, ‘We can’t leave that out, because we know what that does to us mentally. It makes us tight, it pulls us right together,’” Culley says. “Once we started the beat like that and we had put vocal arrangement on ‘It’s a New Day,’ it was almost a surprise that the damn thing sounded the way it did, because we have never heard how it sound recorded.”
That beat, like much of the record, was a one-take situation. Just like that, unbeknownst to them, an important piece of hip-hop history was born.
Unlike a lot of rediscovered ’70s soul/funk gems, Skull Snaps clearly sounds like it could have been a hit in its own time. The album strikes the perfect balance of heartbreaking ballads, uptempo soul songs, and gritty funk jams, all of them boasting impressive vocal harmonies.
“We said we were going to do every kind of song on the album. That’s what we set out to do, and that’s what we did,” Culley says. “Each one of us could sing lead. That made it even better, so when you switch off on different things, no one is not more powerful than the other.”
In the end, the strange album cover and lack of band photo probably didn’t help the band in their quest for stardom. But the biggest problem they faced was the fact that, just six months after releasing the record, their label GSF went belly up and completely disappeared, leaving the band in the lurch. The musicians were experienced, but they had hardly ever gigged under the name Skull Snaps.
“I can count the gigs on one hand that we did [under that name],” Culley says. “We were still using the name Diplomats, and we were all over the place. But they didn’t know it was Skull Snaps. And because we didn’t know what the record was going to do and once the company folded, we sort of pulled back on it.”
The members of the group have continued to write and record new music, and are gearing up to release a whole new Skull Snaps record sometime in 2019.
“It’s going to be different kinds of music—the same setup as the first album,” Culley says. “Very diverse, you know what I mean. It’s going to be really nice. I’m really appreciative of that fact that it’s happening now, and the idea that we’re still around and we’re still recording. We’re still in the business.”
Stezo and Culley are still in contact and talk regularly. Stezo hopes his documentary brings more awareness to who Skulls Snaps are as people and how talented they are. And he’s hoping most of all that the hip-hop community pay their respects. While shooting the documentary, he introduced the band to several rappers who had sampled the break for their own songs.
“Immediately everyone’s thoughts went to, ‘Oh my God, they’re here to sue us,’” Culley says. “But they found out it was just the opposite. We wanted to meet those people who had used that sample,” Culley says. “All of them were like, ‘You know how many careers you saved, how many lives you saved with that breakbeat?’ That’s amazing. And they’re still using it.”
Stezo, on the other hand, thinks that some of these rappers, particularly the more famous ones, should do the honorable thing and cut Skulls Snaps a check.
“They live. They’re here. They’re healthy. Talk to them now while they can enjoy the money. Not when they’re gone,” Stezo says. “I heard it on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air one time. Jazzy Jeff was cutting it up while Will Smith was dancing. It was crazy. Where the fuck is Skull Snaps’ money? That was my mission. I’m still on that mission.”
Orginal article from BANDCAMP DAILY