Erykah Badu Offers Response To Kendrick Lamar Romance Rumors

Erykah Badu clears up any misconceptions about her relationship with Kendrick Lamar. Apparently, since Kendrick Lamar dropped the lyric "Um, well cutie, I like your bougie bootie/Come Erykah Badu me/Hell, let’s make a movie," on Kanye West's "No More Parties In L.A." the internets have been abuzz with rumors that this means that K. Dot and the legendary singer are an item. For whatever reason, Badu has just this morning decided to respond to said rumors. There's nothing happening between Badu and Lamar, according to the singer, the rapper is actually quite shy. She starts by saying, "Kendrick aint called me since y'all made up some shit about us being in the trailer makin out so he missed his award." The two have apparently only met once, and that would be at the BET Awards in 2013, which the singer included a photo from in her tweet. She throws in a bit of wisdom in response to a fan: "It's not always betwixxx the thighs .. Sometimes it's between the ears."

Drake & Kendrick Lamar's "Beef" Nearly Escalated To 50 Cent & Ja Rule Proportions, According To Marcellus Wiley

The former NFL player suggests an interview that would have increased tension between the two rappers was destroyed. Ever since Drake was mentioned in Kendrick Lamar's "Control" verse, there has been speculation of a tension between the two rappers. While Drake did seem to be a bit offended by the namedrop on Kendrick's record, the proposed bad blood between the two rappers has depended on the assumption of a number of "subliminal" disses and no concrete evidence. However, according to a new report from former NFL player and current ESPN host, Marcellus Wiley, the beef was very real, and came close to escalating exponentially due to an interview which was never aired. “All I know is there was a beef, and all I know is I was witness to when the beef would have ignited to proportions we have not seen since Ja Rule/50, maybe even Ice Cube/N.W.A," the host said on an episode of his ESPN podcast, not specifying which side the alleged diss came from. "Like it went there. But that was destroyed from everyone’s property. That was destroyed, that interview, that moment was destroyed. That’s all I’m gonna say. But I was there and I heard the shots fired." Wiley attests that what he heard came from only one of the two rappers, but he feels it would have been enough to inspire a full-fledged beef. "It was one-sided, and the other side was about to retaliate if that would’ve got out, but they destroyed the evidence. And I ain’t lying," he said.

Watch Kendrick Lamar Induct N.W.A. Into The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame

Kendrick's speech was one for the ages. It's always great to see an act as important as N.W.A. recognized for their influence, but it's even better when it's the right person doing the honoring. You couldn't really ask for a better speaker for the group's induction to the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame than Kendrick Lamar, and he lived up to expectations at the ceremony yesterday. Lamar went through the contributions of each member of the group with the enthusiasm of a fan, while also illustrating the group's larger importance within history. "I know each and every one of them said they never wanted to be role models," he said. "But look … The first time I see Eazy bust through that screen out the jail cell on stage on “We Want Eazy,” I felt like every single one of them was black superheroes where I come from. Because it shows, like I said, people from our community can be on that television screen, be on awards, and still have their voice and be real to themselves. So make some noise for that because that’s the realest thing." Of course, the members of the group also made their own speeches, with Ice Cube and MC Ren taking a moment to address Gene Simmons of KISS' negative comments about rap (he said it would last ten years at best, and he was looking forward to its death), to which they responded "hip-hop is here forever!". They also took a pretty epic photo with Kendrick that Cube later threw up on his Instagram.

Kendrick Lamar Calls Lil Wayne "The Greatest"; Weezy Responds

Kendrick Lamar says Lil Wayne is one of his biggest style influences. Kendrick Lamar recently sat down with The Coveteur while out in Manchester, England for an in-depth interview about his new deal with Reebok, fashion, style, and how the youth are shaping the culture. But it was his comments about Lil Wayne, that not only caught the internet’s attention, but the YMCMB boss man himself. It all started when K Dot named Lil Wayne as one of his biggest style influences, before adding that he was “the greatest,” not just musically, but for what he’s down for the culture. K Dot can be quoted, “Yeah, man, we was heavy. That’s a real story like, we was just huge, still to this day, huge Lil Wayne fans. Lil Wayne is the greatest. Not only because of his music but also because of the culture he put behind it. It was a big part of what he was talking about, so we always hold Lil Wayne in high regards. Juvenile as well. And yeah, it’s the impact of them man. To be a part of it the same way he was a part of it years later is just a great feeling.” Not long after the interview had been published, Weezy caught wind of the compliment and took to twitter to acknowledge K Dot. Tune simply stated “Kendrick Lamar a real one #Respek." Read Kendrick’s full interview here, and peep Tunechi’s tweet below. Who would like to see these two do another collab?

Kendrick Lamar's "Untitled Unmastered" Goes No. 1

Kendrick Lamar gets his second No. 1 album in under the year. Kendrick Lamar's surprise compilation album untitled unmastered. tops this week's Billboard 200 chart. According to Nielsen Music, the album moved 178,000 equivalent album units (and 142,000 pure album sales) for the week ending March 10. With this week's top spot, Kendrick Lamar has earned two No. 1 albums in the past year, following To Pimp a Butterfly, released on March 15, 2015. Unsurprisingly, untitled unmastered. did not outsell To Pimp a Butterfly, which sold 363,000 album units in its first week. Still, seeing that the new album was released with zero promo and that each of its eight tracks are both untitled and unmastered (obviously), the sales speak volumes to Kendrick's star power. Billboard reports that Kendrick is the third act since the beginning of 2015 to achieve two No. 1 albums in less than a year -- the other two being Drake and Future. Man, hip-hop is really dominating these days. For this week's chart, the other notable hip-hop release is 2 Chainz' ColleGrove, which is effectively a joint album with Lil Wayne, with Weezy guesting on eight of twelve tracks. The album, Chainz' first since 2013 B.O.A.T.S. II, makes its debut at No. 4 on the chart with first week sales of 53,000 units. Ahead of ColleGrove is Rihanna's Anti, which holds steady at No. 3, and Adele's 25, which has been fluctuating between No. 1 and 2 since its November release.

Swizz Beatz' 5-Year Old Son Produced On Kendrick Lamar's "Untitled Unmastered" Project

Swizz Beatz' 5-year old son, Egypt, is responsible for some of the production on Kendrick Lamer's new album "untitled unmastered." Kendrick Lamar surprised fans late Thursday night when he dropped off those “untitled” tracks from the late night appearances in the form of an album via iTunes dubbed untitled unmastered. However, what might be more of a bigger surprise is the news that surfaced following the album drop of one the track’s producers…Swizz Beatz’ 5-year old son Egypt. Taking to Instagram, Swizz boldly announced that he was having a proud dad moment when his son’s production was responsible for track 7, “2014-2016,” on the album. His caption read, "This is the best Dad moment everrrrr!!! Congrats to my son Egypt for producing his 1st track on this amazing Kendrick Album […] he’s only 5yrs old wowwwwwww @aliciakeys look at our lil guy baby […] #blessingsonblessings thx #Kendrick for investing in the future !!! Track 7.” For further evidence, Swizz later posted a clip of Egypt playing the beat in the studio. He wrote, “Egypt making the beat for Kendrick !!!! Only 5yrs old🙏🏽 #Kendrick ⚡️⚡️ ⚡️⚡️⚡️ shout out to the youth !!!!!!#blessingsonblessings FYI no help on the beat!!!” For what its worth, the entire track wasn't completely done by Egypt. According to producer Cardo, Swizz is responsible for the second half of that beat. And let's be real, he maybe heavily involved in the first half too, but his son definitely had his hands on it.

Danny Brown Hints At New Album, Lists Favorite Projects From Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar & Young Thug

The rapper also gives an update on his upcoming follow-up to "OLD". Danny Brown has been quiet for a minute, but it seems he may have something big planned for 2016. The rapper, whose last project was 2013's two-faced opus, OLD, granted fans a Q&A on Twitter, answering questions both as an artist and a fan. The rapper hinted at a new album, which he seemed to be preparing to promote sometime soon. He also confirmed that the structure of the project would be much different from the two very distinct sides of OLD, promising the album is "all fucked up" in terms of sequencing. Danny also answered some questions about his favorite albums from a few different artist, reporting that his go-to Ye albums are Late Registration and Yeezus, while he prefers Section.80 to Kendrick Lamar's other work. As for Young Thug, who Brown has been praising for a while now, he picked early fan favorite I Came From Nothing 2 as the rapper's best. Always having his ear to other genres, Danny named Sufjan Stevens' tribute to his parents, Carrie & Lowell and Natalie Prass' self-titled album as his top picks for 2015, going on to praise Sufjan's very personal songwriting. Elsewhere he credits Sauce Twinz with his favorite rap of the year, praises Macklemore's "White Privilege II," and says he "laughed real hard" at Kid Cudi's last album. He closes things off by answering a fan's question about his Twitter activity, wondering if the Q&A meant the album was on its way. The rapper replied, "Nah I was just bored on the plane". We're still holding out hope.

Kanye West Hits Studio With Swizz Beatz & Kendrick Lamar

Kanye West was posted up in the studio with a couple of G.O.O.D. friends. Last week we received our G.O.O.D. Friday release a tad late, because Kanye West jetted off to Italy for a Yeezy Season 3 fitting. This Friday, though, all signs are pointing to the fact that we should receive our G.O.O.D. Friday record on time, if only because Kanye was hard at work in the studio last night. The rapper took to Twitter to share a photo of Swizz Beatz seated in front of a mic and a laptop, captioning it, "the monster." CyHi The Prynce followed suit with his own share of a studio pic, as did Swizz on Instagram. Oh yeah, Kanye also shared a photo with Kendrick Lamar, citing that Madlib gave them "6 beat CDs."

Kendrick Lamar Tried To Crash A Wedding And Got Kicked Out

Who wouldn't want Kendrick Lamar to dab at their wedding? Sure, Wedding Crashers was a pretty good movie, but Kendrick Lamar has proved that it would've been a whole lot better with one additional element -- dabbing. K-Dot and his crew rolled up on a random wedding party with a camera in-hand, and while the rapper pulled out some impressive elbow-sneezing upon arrival, his very relevant dance moves seemed to pinpoint his posse as intruders, with a guest approaching the crashers and asking them to leave the event. The buzz-kill of a guest didn't stop K-Dot from throwing down, but when his friends couldn't answer the simple question "who got married," they were ordered to "get the fuck out". The funniest part might be that no one manages to recognize Kendrick as this is all going down... their loss. UPDATE: according to TMZ someone actually DID recognize K-Dot eventually, at which point they stopped hassling the rapper.

Arron Afflalo Says He Once Sold Kendrick Lamar A Bootleg Copy Of 'Reasonable Doubt'

Arron Afflalo just dropped the greatest article in the brief history of the Player's Tribune and it's not even close. Afflalo, who joined the New York Knicks this offseason, grew up in Compton, California and was a hustler from day one. He begins his story, talking about donuts. Not a game. Not the game. We talkin' about donuts. When Afflalo was just 13 years old he would buy donuts before school at 50 cents a pop, and flip them for $1 to all of the kids at school. He would later graduate to moving bootleg CD's by the time he got to High School, and his business was booming by the time 50 Cent's 'Get Rich Or Die Tryin' dropped. Using Napster and Kazaa, he would downloaded the entire CD, track by track, and burn bootlegs throughout the night- selling them the next day for $5. Soon, the word was out: If you need a CD, talk to Arron. When 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’ album was coming out, I literally had so much demand that I started taking pre-orders. People were giving me money up front to be the first on the list. It was crazy. If you heard “In Da Club” coming from a car stereo in Compton in 2003, there’s a really good chance that CD was burned by Arron Afflalo. 50, I’m sorry man, but I probably took $200 from you that summer. It got addicting. I would stay on the computer all night downloading songs. I had a setup in my room where I had some weights and I’d work out while I was waiting for the CDs to finish burning. If you heard “In Da Club” coming from a car stereo in Compton in 2003, there’s a really good chance that CD was burned by Arron Afflalo. Every 15 minutes, a CD would pop out of the tray. It was like a bakery. Every 15 minutes was another $5. I’d stay up until three or four in the morning. There was a point during high demand when I’d set an alarm every 15 minutes and I’d just pass out asleep right on my desk, then the alarm would go off and I’d swap in a new CD. Eventually, Arron met a guy from his school named Kendrick Duckworth who asked if he could burn Jay-Z's 'Reasonable Doubt,' which he gladly sold him for $5. Of course, Kendrick Duckworth is now known as Kendrick Lamar. This one guy from my school named Kendrick Duckworth was really into hip-hop. He asked me to burn him Jay Z’s Reasonable Doubt. That’s an all-time classic from ’96. You couldn’t just go to the store and buy all these albums, you know? It would cost too much money. But you could come to me and get it for $5. Kendrick eventually started making his own music. He got pretty good at it, too. You’ve probably heard of him. He goes by the name Kendrick Lamar.