New music Friday brought us two more big-time albums with PartyNextDoor's P3 and Rae Sremmurd's SremmLife 2. The Sremm brothers were kind enough to welcome us to their LA abode to get the inside scoop on the inspiration behind their sophomore album. Read about our experiences with the hedonistic duo in our latest Digital Cover story.

Desiigner's "Panda" was crowned the #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 Monday afternoon. It marked the culmination of a wild four months in which the 18-year old Brooklyn rapper went from complete unknown to G.O.O.D. Music signee, The Life of Pablo feature, and internet sensation.

Joell Ortiz is fully a student of New York hip hop, and he wears those influences on his sleeve in his new album That’s Hip Hop. That means dope lyricism that never slows down throughout the album and some OG features in the likes of Billy Danze and Kool G Rap. Fans of turntablism will also be pleasantly surprised to find some work on the ones and twos throughout the album.

With Slaughterhouse' Glasshouse finished up and presumably coming soon, the gang decided it was time to announce a new tour, kicking off in New York City on September 21.

Today's a big day for album releases, although the most anticipated is Future's DS 2. Apart from Future taking over this week with his documentary series and general excitement for Dirty Sprite 2, Drake had a pretty big week when he debuted three different remixes on his Apple Beats 1 radio show. One of those songs, the WizKid remix, appears on today's Staff Picks playlist.

Joell Ortiz and producer !llmind teamed up for a joint album, Human, which comes on the heels of a new Slaughterhouse record, "R.N.S." Nonetheless if you're a fan of the Slaughterhouse lyricist, Human should hold you over as the group works on their upcoming album Glass House.

Joell Ortiz is currently prepping a new project with storied producer !llmind, but as soon as their album Human drops next month, it looks like he could be right back into rollout mode with Slaughterhouse. In a new interview, the crew member revealed that the foursome's highly anticipated album Glass House has been completed. 

Coming soon after announcing their joint album Human, Joell Ortiz & !llMind announce they will embark on 13-city "Human" tour this summer. They'll kick it off on July 22 in Stanwick, NJ in suburban Philadelphia, hit Brooklyn real quick and then head west. Looks like they're hitting the Midwest pretty hard and not dabbling much in the South, but then again wouldn't come as a surprise if they added a few dates. 

Aside from a few random tracks and features, Slaughterhouse's Joell Ortiz has been relatively quiet so far this year. However, that all looks to be changing soon as it was announced on Monday that he’s releasing a joint album with producer !llmind this Summer called Human.

Last week we featured some of the game's heaviest hitters on Samples Of The Week, with Action Bronson and The Alchemist getting jiggy over a classic drum break and Drake once again paying homage to country music star George Strait. The biggest tracks this week may have had more modern sounds and not featured identifiable samples, but reliable traditionalists came through in a big way, delivering some tracks that got us nostalgic.

Joell Ortiz changed this album’s title from Yaowa, basically because this is him at his most comfortable. In Hip Hop, getting too comfortable can sometimes lead to a decline in effort due to loss of hunger. Anyone familiar with Joell Ortiz would probably find it hard to imagine him not putting effort into a project, comfortable or not. Joell is always known for remarkable lyricism and authenticity.

Earlier this week we premiered a new leak, "Q & A", off Joell Ortiz's new album House Slippers. Today the Slaughterhouse MC gives fans an even bigger treat, with a full album stream via Soundcloud. This stream precedes the album's official release on September 16th. House Slippers features his Slaughterhouse companions, Royce Da 5'9", Joe Budden and Crooked I, as well as B.o.B, Mally Stakz, Maino, among others.

Joell Ortiz has been gearing up for the release of his solo project House Slippers for a few months now, signing to Penalty Entertainment and explaining the album's concept in an interview.

After hearing what feels like every other rapper on the planet remix "Hot Nigga" (we posted freestyles from Ace Hood, T.I., Gunplay, and Lil Kim in the past 24 hours alone), we can officially add Slaughterhouse's Joell Ortiz to the Bobby Shmurda hype machine. In an exclusive interview with ThisIs50 radio, Ortiz praised Schmurda for bringing his music to the streets, saying he's displeased with how "shiny" hip-hop music has become.

Ramping up the press for his upcoming solo LP House Slippers, Joell Ortiz sat down with Crazy Hood to talk about his new lifestyle and how it has affected his third studio album.

Things are looking up for Joel Ortiz, the emcee/poet from Brooklyn, as he announced that he inked a new deal with Penalty Entertainment to facilitate the release of his new album, House Slippers, with The Heatmakerz serving as executive producer. An elated Joell Ortiz made a statement about the new deal, saying: "I truly believe it’s going to be a big year for Joell Ortiz. Neil Levine over at Penalty gets it and is giving me, the Yaowa, a platform to do exactly what I wanna do…ME!"

For those unfamiliar, Awkword is an emerging rapper/activist/sociologist from New York City. For the past five years, he's been creating a "100% for-charity global hip-hop" compilation titled World View, which features the likes of Joell Ortiz, Sean Price, Chino XL, KRS-One, Slug (of Atmosphere), Jadakiss, The Kid Daytona, ILL BILL, Vast Aire, Pace Won (of the Outsidaz), Rickie Jacobs and Beretta 9 (of Killarmy), with production from Harry Fraud, Domingo, Numonics, ATG, Steel Tipped Dove, Fafu and more.

Lyrical super group Slaughterhouse were busy in the studio last year with their mixtape, solo projects, and first record under Shady Records,  welcome to: Our House.  Now the rapping foursome says they are already in the studio working on their next collaborative album.