Metro’s response to “shut your ho ass up and make some drums” has gone viral on TikTok.
Metro Boomin’s “BBL Drizzy” diss beat directed at Drake has gone viral on TikTok and everyone is getting in on the fun by remixing it.
The producer responsible for the beat behind the track that kicked off the war between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, “Like That,” decided to join the sparring rappers by dropping his own sort of diss track with “BBL Drizzy” last week. The track samples comedian King Willonius’ AI-generated parody song of the same name, which Metro acknowledged in a tweet.
When the 30-year-old producer shared the beat on SoundCloud, he also made a proposal. “Best verse over this gets a free beat just upload your song and hashtag #bbldrizzybeatgiveaway,” he tweeted, later adding that the winner will also get $10,000 and a runner-up will get a beat. The song, which references Rick Ross’ nickname for the Toronto rapper, alludes to the allegation Drake got cosmetic surgery on his abs.
Following the release of the beat, it’s been blowing up on TikTok and other social media platforms thanks to its catchy nature and the litany of remixes coming through. We’ve got everything from rapped verses on the beat, to someone adding a saxophone solo to the instrumental.
Itâs hard to define âabsolute victoryâ in something as subjective as a rap battle, but landing a No. 1 single with a diss song has to be pretty close. With his monstrous Drake disses âEuphoriaâ and âNot Like Usâ doing historic streaming numbers, Kendrick Lamar will likely add the accomplishment to his accolades when the Billboard Hot 100 chart is updated next week. Outdoing Drake on his own turf would be a fitting punctuation for a contest thatâs seen Kendrick turn the Toronto rapperâs customary weapons of internet savvy, infectious hit-making and strategic release tactics against him. In repurposing Drizzyâs tools, Kendrick bested Drake at his own game; he beat Drake by being Drake.Â
Kendrick kicked things off by reimagining Drizzyâs famous quick-release barrage into an even more potent product. During the Meek Mill, Drake war of 2015, Drizzy dropped his first diss, âCharged Up,â only to spin the block and unload the far superior âBack to Backâ four days later. The move left Meek shell shocked. Kendrickâs variation began with âEuphoria,â a freeform Drizzy diss he dropped on an unceremonious Tuesday morning. Amid a flurry of quippy insults, Kendrick teased his subsequent back-to-back release. Riffing on Drakeâs timestamp series, he followed up with â6:16 in LA,â a pensive, yet stylish Friday morning drop that oscillates between warning shot and condescending advice. To be sure, the double-play was a moment. But it was also a Trojan Horse.
That same night, Drake fired what should have been a kill shot, âFamily Matters.â The shapeshifting diss track was an incisive barrage of quips aimed at The Weeknd, Rick Ross, Metro Boomin, ASAP Rocky and Kendrick himself. In it, he accuses K.Dot of physically abusing his wife. Itâs an accusation thatâs as weighty as it is unsubstantiated (for now), and the song itself quickly became a trending topic. But Kendrick quickly delivered a counterstrike with âMeet the Grahamsâ less than 40 minutes later. Laced with a grim Alchemist beat, the track captured even more attention with the claim that Drake had a hidden 11-year-old daughter. The move effectively swallowed Drakeâs momentum. It was a character decapitation via surprise attack â think Afro Samuraiâs dad getting his head lopped off with Justiceâs hidden third arm.Â
Pushing Drakeâs back-to-back strategy to even wilder extremes, Kendrick came back with âNot Like Us,â a bouncy, Mustard-produced bop that both expanded on the tactic and opened the door to another one: framing your diss track as a banger. Speaking to XXL in 2013, Drizzy described the virtue of creating a diss song that was also an inescapable hit, saying that itâs âmore painful than anythingâ for the loser. He did it to Common in 2012 with his verse on Rossâ âStay Schemin,â and, by 2015, he would also do it to Meek with âBack to Back.â You have to think heâs having a mean case of deja vu following the release of âNot Like Us.â Laced with West Coast bounce, indelible one-liners and an anthemic hook, âNot Like Usâ is an early contender for Song of the Summer, alongside the song that launched this beef, Future and Metroâs âLike That.â
Beyond the obvious club-ready elements, âNot Like Usâ also embodies the social media-centrism of modern times. Drake famously used his 2015 OVO Fest to post Meek Mill memes on-screen and get laughs from the audience. Kendrick is ostensibly extremely offline, but much of âNot Like Usâ feels designed for virality. The beat itself is fit for krumping, and Kendrick stretches his vocals to accentuate his one-liners in a way that makes them ideal TikTok and Twitter fodder. âTryna strike a chord and it’s probably A minor,â Kendrick raps, turning his elongated syllable into a wink. Itâs all a subtle way of repurposing Drakeâs time-tested songwriting tools. (That line is a cousin of a Drizzyâs lesbian pun from âEvery Girl.â) Substitute the âToosie Slideâ dance for Crip-walking TikToks. Drake had people in the club screaming about Twitter fingers; Kendrick will have them shouting pedophilia accusations.
Kendrickâs stratagems go beyond song construction, too. He usually dropped during Akademiks livestreams, with the presumed goal of being able to capture Akâs exaggerated looks of disappointment. The subsequent reactions go viral, which only fortifies the Kung-Fu Kenny hype machine. Kendrick also took off the copyright strikes from reaction videos so creators can make money. Itâs an indirect, altruistic form of profit-sharing and another way to beat Drake, who once gave away $1 million to random strangers during the âGodâs Planâ video.
This yearâs Grammyâs is set to take place on Sunday, Feb. 5, at 8 p.m. on CBS, and it will stream live and on-demand on Paramount+.
âCelebrating the miracle of music is at the core of everything we do at the Recording Academy and today we are proud and honored to celebrate musicâs power to lift people up and to bring them together,â said Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of The Recording Academy. âIâm energized by this yearâs slate of nominees and how each of them uses their craft to inspire us, and to remind us that music is our universal language. Each of these deserving nominees has helped provide the world with an incredible soundtrack and is a true testament to how vibrant our entire music community truly is.â
Below is a list of all the 27 fields and 91 categories for the Grammy Awards.
âGOD DIDââ Tarik Azzouz, E. Blackmon, Khaled Khaled, F. LeBlanc, Shawn Carter, John Stephens, Dwayne Carter, William Roberts & Nicholas Warwar, songwriters (DJ Khaled featuring Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, JAY-Z, John Legend & Fridayy)
âThe Heart Part 5â â Jake Kosich, Johnny Kosich, Kendrick Lamar & Matt Schaeffer, songwriters (Kendrick Lamar)
âJust Like Thatâ â Bonnie Raitt, songwriter (Bonnie Raitt)
âGOD DIDâ â Tarik Azzouz, E. Blackmon, Khaled Khaled, F. LeBlanc, Shawn Carter, John Stephens, Dwayne Carter, William Roberts & Nicholas Warwar, songwriters (DJ Khaled featuring Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, JAY-Z, John Legend & Fridayy)
âThe Heart Part 5â â Jake Kosich, Johnny Kosich, Kendrick Lamar, & Matt Schaeffer, songwriters (Kendrick Lamar)
âWAIT FOR Uâ â Tejiri Akpoghene, Floyd E. Bentley III, Jacob Canady, Isaac De Boni, Aubrey Graham, Israel Ayomide Fowobaje, Nayvadius Wilburn, Michael Mule, Oluwatoroti Oke & Temilade Openiyi, songwriters (Future featuring Drake & Tems)
Best Country Solo Performance
âHeartfirstâ â Kelsea Ballerini
âSomething in the Orangeâ â Zach Bryan
âIn His Armsâ â Miranda Lambert
âCircles Around This Townâ â Maren Morris
âLive Foreverâ â Willie Nelson
Best Jazz Vocal Album
The Evening : Live at APPARATUS â The Baylor Project
Linger Awhile â Samara Joy
Fade to Black â Carmen Lundy
Fifty â The Manhattan Transfer with The WDR Funkhausorchester
Over the past decade, DJ Dahi has established himself as one of Kendrick Lamarâs most trusted producers. Five years after crafting the beat for one of the standout songs from Kendrickâs 2012 debut album good kid, m.A.A.d. city (âMoney Treesâ), Dahi and Lamar teamed up on the Compton rapper 2017 album DAMN, which featured five Dahi-produced tracks (âYah,â âLoyalty,â âLust,â âXXX,â and âGodâ). Once again, DJ Dahi is credited with producing five songs off of Kendrickâs latest full-length offering Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, including album highlights like âRich Spiritâ and âCount Me Out.â In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Dahi opened up about the five-year creative process behind the album, revealing that Kendrickâs hard drive is filled with countless songs that didnât make the LPâs final tracklist. âI can tell you, for sure, he has probably like 30 songs from me,â Dahi shared. âI mean, he obviously has songs heâll complete but also a lot of it is an idea, and itâs a really dope idea. Then we plug that idea in as a hook or a verse line. With this creative process itâs really just getting those ideas out and then being able to come back and be like, âOh, I can use this or this part of this.ââ Dahi went on to tease the possibility of Kendrick having âthousandsâ of unreleased songs on his hard drive. âHis process of recording is pretty nuts,â he explained. âSo I wouldnât be surprised if we looked at the hard drive and he has thousands of songs.â
âDark Lane Demo Tapesâ is a collection of rough drafts about the struggles of success and hints at what his next album might sound like.
Credit Drake for being both the most sonically consistent pop star of the last decade and also a work in progress. From album to album, year to year, he draws from a standard palette of moody R&B and puffed-chest rap, emotionally charged hip-hop and muscular soul. But at the same time, heâs always slathering his approach atop new inputs: dancehall, grime, Houston rap, Afrobeats and beyond. Unlike many of his peers, heâll put his credibility on the line for a chance to absorb and repurpose new sounds.
Which is why âDark Lane Demo Tapesâ â a largely effective album-length odds-and-ends collection but not, you know, an album â may be more valuable as data than as songs. As music, itâs a mostly sharp document of top-dog anxiety and solipsism. But itâs also perhaps a spoiler for the proper album Drake announced will be released this summer,his first since the blustery âScorpionâ in 2018.
âDark Laneâ shows Drake songs at various developmental points â full-fledged experiments in a range of regional and microscene styles, half-cooked ideas from old projects, classicist exercises, formal rhymes, informal rhymes. Omnivorous and osmotic, he feels his way around new production styles and tries out new flow patterns, attempting to make them jibe with the soft-edged style he excels at.
âWarâ is a U.K. drill song, ominous and sneering and full of deeply studied slang. âDemonsâ explores Brooklyn drill, a little jumpier than its overseas cousin. (It features two of that sceneâs up and comers, Fivio Foreign and Sosa Geek.) âToosie Slide,â which recently went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 thanks to its baked-in virality, is a quasi-dance song. And âPain 1993,â a long-promised collaboration with Playboi Carti, is a chance for Drake to ably mimic his collaboratorâs chirps.
Lizzo has never been one to shy away from sharing her honest opinions, especially regarding body positivity.
Now, the singer has touched on the topic once again in an interview with Brazilâs TV Folha, after her debut performance in Rio de Janeiro.
âI think that women are always going to be criticized for existing in their bodies,â Lizzo said. âAnd I donât think Iâm any different than any of the other great women whoâve come before me that had to literally be politicized just to be sexual, or sexualized just to exist. Things on them that were beautiful were called flaws and they persisted against that and fought against that.”
She continued, âNow, Iâm able to do what I do because of those great women. And they all look completely different. They donât all look the same. And they all had to deal with the same type of marginalization and misogyny.â
She then called out the double standard between women and menâs physical appearances: âSo what does that tell you about the oppressorâwhat does that tell you about men? Get it together. We donât talk about your dick sizes, do we? And say thatâs not a conventional dick sizeâitâs too small. We still let yâall asses run all over the goddamn place.â
Lizzo also touched on the âlack of representation in the worldâ with Brazilâs G1.
âThere is a lack of representation in the worldâfull stop. Especially for women who look like me,â she said. âBut my choice process was to make myself visible, not to shrink. To be heard and use my platforms to raise other women. That’s why I put black and big dancers and also an entire orchestra of black women on the Grammy stageâbecause I think that if I can help them, I must help them.â
After over a decade, NIGOÂź and Kid Cudi have inspired many of the biggest names in music, fashion, and pop culture. But how did they do it, and whatâs next? The two cultural icons get together for the first time since they met 11 years ago and open up about their beginnings, new projects, and legacy.
Kid Cudi was 20 years old when he decided to leave his hometown of Cleveland and move to New York City. He had tried college for a year, but wasnât feeling it, and even considered joining the Navy, though that didnât work out, either. Ultimately, he wanted to pursue music, and craved an environment where he could âgrow and meet interesting people.â New York, he thought, could be that place.
So one day he bought a one-way ticket to New York, packed up his thingsâclothes, sneakers, the demo he made in college, and $500 in cashâand left. It wasnât easy. He still remembers the day his mom dropped him off at the airport. âShe was crying,â Cudi recalled during his TEDx talk in 2015. âShe was giving me a hug at the airport and leans in and goes, âI can always turn back around and we can go back home. You can change your mind. Everything will be fine.ââ But Cudi stuck to his guns. âI was on a mission,â he added. âIt was bigger than just wanting to be a musician or do movies. It was about finally showing the world what Scott could do.â
Except things didnât immediately pop off for him. His first few jobs in New York were in retailâat American Apparel, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Dean & DeLuca. He held most of the jobs just to cover his bills and studio time. But there was one that Cudi, to this day, calls a âdream job.â
Shortly after relocating to New York, Cudi learned about A Bathing Ape, the wildly popular and exclusive Japanese brand founded by NIGOÂź in 1993, and fell in love with its loud graphics and bright colors. At the time, Bapeâs two-story, million-dollar flagship in SoHoâthe labelâs first store outside of Japan, a strategic move by the designer to expand his empire internationallyâhad just opened in 2004. Cudi desperately wanted to work there, so he applied. And then applied again. And again. Until he finally got hired in 2008.
At the time, Cudi was so broke he didnât have a bank account (he used his momâs instead). And for the first few weeks on the job, he wore the same outfit every day or borrowed clothes from co-workers. It didnât matter, though; he was just happy to be there. âI didnât own anything [Bape] prior to being hired,â he told Hypebeast. âSo it was a dream come true to be able to work at the store I dreamed of shopping in one day.â
But Cudiâs stint at Bape wouldnât last long. The year before, while he still worked at Abercrombie & Fitch, he met Dot da Genius through a co-worker. They clicked instantly and began making music together, including what wound up being Cudiâs first single, âDay âNâ Nite.â
Hello, my name is Christopher Kenji. Iâm a 24-year-old singer-songwriter, graduate of Berklee College of Music and a print/runway model.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO BOTH MUSIC AND MODELING? Ever since I was a young kid, Iâve always had a deep passion for music. I picked up the guitar when I was about 10 years old and fell in love â I would spend all my free time playing and writing music (sometimes seven hours a day until my fingers hurt and I couldnât play anymore). Music has always been and will always be my biggest passion in life; thereâs nothing that compares to performing on stage, wearing your heart on your sleeve with your lyrics and melodies and having people connect with you so purely and intimately. Before anything else, I am first and foremost a musician.
As for modeling, itâs kind of funny â I never in a million years ever thought I would become a male model. I know a lot of people grow up having dreams of becoming a supermodel and living that glamorous lifestyle or something but that was never me as a kid. Growing up, I never really thought of myself as a physically attractive person; if anything, I was told the opposite at times so itâs still kind of surreal to me when I think about it. Anyway, my modeling journey started last September when I was at my friendâs show in LA and he introduced me to a woman there who happened to have spent years working in the fashion industry (little did I know, she would go on to become my mentor). She told me that I should become a model and I kind of laughed it off at first but then I realized she was actually very serious about it. I was kind of tipsy at the time, but I told her I guess I could give it a shot and she held me to it.
She then signed me up for a runway show casting in San Francisco. I went, got placed in two shows and ended up being awarded best model of 2018. They made me make a speech in front of the whole audience and it was one of the few moments in my life where I was truly and utterly dumbfounded. It almost felt like the world was playing a big joke on me but it wasnât a joke; it was real. Having that experience really gave me the motivation to seriously pursue modeling and ever since then, itâs become a huge part of my life.
DO YOU DO ANYTHING SPECIFIC TO KEEP UP YOUR APPEARANCE FOR MODELING?
Yes, I actually kind of changed my life for modeling. I treat modeling like a job now because, well⊠it is my job. So, that means I canât just make poor lifestyle choices all the time anymore. I remember getting an interview with IMG Models in New York City, which was pretty much the biggest interview of my entire life and asking my mentor what I should do to prepare. The first thing she told me was to completely cut out booze for the two weeks before I met with them. I said to her, âIâll cut it out after tonight when Iâm done performing at the barâ and she said âno, cut it out starting right nowâ. I remember feeling super weird playing 100% sober to a packed crowd of wasted people that night but it really taught me something. After just four days, I noticed that I looked and felt better than I had in literally years. Nowadays, I donât drink alcohol, donât eat sugar, I work out super hard in the gym at least 3-4 days a week, I donât drink any caffeine and I take ice cold showers to wake myself up every morning. Despite it seeming like I gave up all the things that I love in life, as a byproduct, I feel the most healthy and confident in myself that I have ever been. To me, thatâs the most rewarding feeling of all.
DID YOU ALWAYS BOTH SING AND PLAY GUITAR OR DID ONE COME AFTER THE OTHER?
No, I used to never sing. I was terrified of the idea. I remember specifically not applying to a music school I was really interested in because they required all of their students to sing. Singing always really fascinated me but I was always too nervous to try to do it myself. When I first ever tried to sing, I immediately realized my voice was weird. An astounding majority of the famous male vocalists we all know and love such as Freddy Mercury, Michael Jackson, Sting, Bon Jovi, Paul McCartney, etc. are all tenors with very beautiful, clear, high-pitched voices. I am basically the complete opposite (a bass/baritone with a very low, gritty voice) and I found out pretty quickly that I would never sound like any of them no matter how hard I tried.
It took me a long time to really find my voice. When I finally first gathered up the courage to start singing in front of people, I remember getting comments like, âyouâre good at guitar, I think you should stick to thatâ and whatnot. It was a lot of work behind the scenes to get my singing to where it is today but itâs interesting âthe qualities of my voice that I used to view as imperfections are now often the things that people tell me they like most about my voice. Itâs crazy how things work out like that ââIâve come to realize that sometimes a lot of the things in life that seem like curses really are just blessings in disguise. DO YOUR TATTOOS HAVE MEANINGS? IF SO, WHAT DO THEY SYMBOLIZE?
Yes, all of my tattoos have meanings. Iâm a very OCD person and all of my tattoos are organized. The right side of my body reflects my internal qualities (my birth name, birth year/place and birth order) and the left side of my body reflects my external qualities (my music and my martial arts). On my right side: being a quarter Japanese, I have my Japanese middle name âKenjiâ (which translates to âhealthy; ruleâ) on my right upper arm. I was born in New York City in 1994 and when I was in New York last year, I got that tattooed on my right forearm. Iâm also the oldest of three boys and under my right collarbone, I have an arrow with three circles in it symbolizing me and my brothers; the biggest circle represents me (the oldest) and the other two smaller circles represent my two younger brothers.
As for my left side: I have a guitar fretboard which symbolizes my passion for guitar/music on the back of my left forearm ââpretty self-explanatory. And lastly, after training three days a week for 14 years, I wanted to have something on my body representing my black belt in mixed martial arts, so on my left shoulder, I have a rising sun blended with an American flag, which is a symbol that was on the wall of my martial arts studio all the years I trained there.
WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST GOAL FOR THE FUTURE?
The short simple answer is that I just want to be a rockstar â not going to lie that would be pretty cool. But really, the bigger answer is I want to create art that brings people together. Itâs so easy to feel lonely and lost in this world and I hope to make art that helps people feel less alone and inspires them to use their own voice and be heard. When you feel like no one in the world understands you or knows what youâre going through and you hear that one song that just somehow you gets you when no one else does ââa song from a person youâve never even met but whoâs music and lyrics help you know that theyâre there living somewhere in this same, big world as you and they feel it too; thatâs power. It could also be a character from a story you connect with or a piece of art â itâs something bigger than you or me or anyone.
Thatâs the reason I chose to be an artist. If I could just even make one personâs life a little bit better or inspire them to express their own individuality whether that be through my music, fashion/modeling work, art, etc., it would make my purpose feel served. I would rather have one person really connect with my art and be invested in what I am trying to say than a million people who donât really care that much. Iâll either shoot for the stars or die trying but I refuse to be mediocre â thatâs how itâs always been and thatâs how itâll always be for the future!
The artist, who’s ready to
drop long-awaited new music, redefined hip-hop vocally and visuallyâand
lifting up other artists only burnishes her superstar legacy.
This spring, Melissa Arnette Elliott stood before a mass of Berklee College of Music students and faculty in Boston. She requested a moment to gather herself. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and tears began to fall freely over her smiling face. She opened her eyes. She began to speak to the graduating class, herself among them, just before being awarded an honorary doctorate.
Dolce & Gabbana orange coat, tweed coat, and plaid pant; Jennifer Fisher earrings; Left hand: David Webb gold leaf ring, Jennifer Fisher gold ring on pinky finger; David Webb rectangular gold-diamond-and-ruby ring (on ring finger), David Webb rectangular gold-diamond-and-ruby ring (on pinky finger); Jennifer Fisher gold cylinder ring and gold tube ring. Iconic Necklace Missyâs Own.
A few days later, I watched Elliottâs speech on YouTube from my living room couch. I scrolled back to when she closed her eyes and counted the seconds until she spoke again. Altogether, there were 20 seconds of what I assumed was silent meditation, perhaps gratitude, in service to a life so successful, it had fashioned itself into this spectacular moment.
Two weeks later, at a recording studio just outside
Atlanta, where sheâs working on a long-anticipated seventh album, I ask
Elliott if she remembers standing there for those 20 seconds. She
hadnât known it had been quite that long. I confirm. I counted to make
sure. Her eyelids, painted green and shimmering under the overhead
lights, flutter a few times while she thinks about it more.
âI
didnât even realize,â she says. âYou know whatâs so funny? I wrote a
speech and got up there and choked up, and before I knew it, I was like,
âOh my God, whereâs the paper?â And it was just crumbled up on the
podium.â However, she hadnât closed her eyes to remember her speech or
make a harried backup plan for giving one on the fly. Sheâs Missy
Elliott. She went somewhere else entirely.
âI went to the side of my grandmotherâs house where I used to play church. I used to shout and sing all kinds of gospel songs. Ones I had made up, ones that existed in the church…I was at that place.â Elliott considers herself a very spiritual person. For her, âGod is real because I went to that place and felt like he had his hands on me from a child.â
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