Top News Stories Of 2014

2014 may have been a terrible year for hip-hop in terms of record sales, but don't let the numbers fool you into thinking the year was uneventful. In this case, the numbers most definitely do lie. Aside from numerous relationship gossip, 2014 saw the return of Lil Boosie, the rise of August Alsina, and the (maybe) beginning of the end for Cash Money Records. The following news stories were among the most popular that HNHH had to offer over the past 12 months, sequenced chronologically. Take a trip down memory lane and re-live the top twenty most-viewed new stories of 2014. May 2015 be even more successful.

For more year-end content, peep the hashtag #HOTNEW14. Stay tuned as we roll out the Hottest Songs of 2014, the Hottest Albums, and more. If you missed previous lists, check out the Hottest Viral Videos of the year here, the Hottest Instrumentals, and Breakout Artists of 2014.

August Alsina's hit single "I Luv This Shit" became even bigger hit when he enlisted Trey Songz and Chris Brown for the remix. While talking to Rap-Up, the singer explained how the mix came about, and revealed he wasn't cool with Trey Songz, despite having him on the remix.

Alsina said that Trey reached out initially about the record. However, something turned sour between the two, as Alsina then said, "I don’t really fuck with Trey right now. We don’t get along right now." The New Orleans native continued, "We ain’t on the same page. He did some other shit and we just don’t rock."

He explained somewhat further, making the claim that Trey is fake, "Like I tell people all the time, show me that you’re this person on day one… You should always be that person. We were supposed to have a show together and it just went left ’cause I can’t deal with niggas’ egos and attitudes ’cause I’m just a real nigga comin’ through and I’m rockin’."

"Once niggas go to talkin’ a certain type of way, that shit ain’t gon’ fly with me and that’s all that was and I just had to not do the show ’cause I can’t stand on side of a nigga if I really got something that I feel in my heart. It just ain’t gon’ work, so I just had to dip and we didn’t do it, but it is what it is."

For a while, Trey remained silent on the topic, refusing to speak on it until the beef was settled.

"We had a discrepancy and he didn’t know how to deal with that," said Trey. "He hasn’t been in the situation where he has to answer the same question a million times, that’s frustration.

"He probably said some things he really didn’t mean. Out of pressure. I really care about him. He got a lot going on in his life outside of music and I know that about him. So, I didn’t feel the need to speak out against him."

The beef came to a public end when August and Trey performed "I Love This Shit" live at the BET Awards.

Lil Boosie was released from Angola State Penitentiary on Wednesday night, March 5th, at 7:10 p.m. EST. Warden Burl Cain confirmed the rapper, whose real name is Torrence Hatch, was released and later transferred to a sheriff’s department facility in St. Francisville where family members and friends waited for him.

Although found not-guilty in a 2012 murder charge, Boosie remained locked up since 2009, for a third-offense marijuana possession charge, as well as violation of probation.

Since his return from prison, Boosie has become increasingly proactive in the game, releasing one acclaimed mixtape while promising a new LP, Touchdown 2 Cause Hell, arriving in 2015.

Kanye married Kim Kardashian on May 23rd. 

The ceremony went down at Fort di Belvedere in Florence, Italy. Friends and fellow celebrities like John Legend, Jaden Smith, Big Sean, Tyga, Blacc Chyna, and Rick Rubin were spotted at the festivities. Not in attendance was Ray J, who decided to send the couple a check for $47,000 in sex tape earnings as a gift. This is Kanye's first marriage, and Kim Kardashian's third (Damon Thomas wed it first).

Since that day in Italy, the two have enjoyed what seems to be a very happy marriage, buying a $20 million dollar home together and throwing a hell of a birthday for their daughter, North West.

In April, Lil Durk took to Instagram to preview his verse on an upcoming remix to "Chi-Raq." Uploaded with the caption "chiraq remix @meekmill u ready," Durk's video fired shots at Tyga.

"Heard Tyga sneak dissing on me, tell the thot bitches I'm not right, Tyga only got one name, but that nigga ain't got one stripe, you backpack...," he rhymed. "This Chi-raq don't come here, you ain't from here, then don't come here."

The drill rapper explained in a subsequent interview that Tyga had requested that Durk change a line about Blacc Chyna in one of his raps. Durk, who was apparently paying tribute to Tyga's girl, rather than dissing her, agreed to change it in exchange for a collaboration with T-raww. Tyga was apparently cool to do a song with Durk, but later dodged the rapper's texts when it came time to work together. At that point, Durk decided to diss him on record.

Days after the "Chi-Raq" remix hit the web in full, Tyga responded with an Instagram of his own. "Niggas think that they MCs/ Can't get touched/ Well it's hammer time/ Who the fuck is Lil Durk?" he retorted.

When Tyga's rendition was released, we learned that he wasn't alone. Game, appearing on the record, used the opportunity to send shots towards 40 Glocc, with whom he has a long-standing beef, before directing bars toward Durk ("Tyga hit me like "Durk dissing"/ Dirk Nowitzki? Dirk who nigga? / Never heard of these niggas / Some of the nerve of these niggas").

Durk took to Twitter to give his two cents on the whole diss record. "Wtf tyga was talkin bout lol he let game get all the song so tyga can feel tuff", he wrote. Soon after, Compton Menace joined the fun, mentioning Game in his tweets, which resulted in some back-and-forth between the two West Coast rappers.

Ultimately, Durk decided not to respond to the record with a diss track of his own. “Nah, we ain’t gon’ release no track,” Durk’s management told XXL. “Everybody that Game mentioned that he say he know in Chicago is releasing a track. G Count already released a track. Bump J is finna get on the phone from the federal penitentiary to say he don’t know Game.”

As to Game's involvement in the situation, management claims, “Game is trying to get a buzz off of us. We ain’t gon to feed into that. We gon drop our single and our album. He might get a response on the album. Everybody gonna have to wait and see. Durk don’t acknowledge Game; he’s wondering where Game came from. They say Tyga paid him to get on the track. He can’t handle that by himself.”

There's no word on whether Tyga is still feeling animosity towards Durk, but Game announced on Twitter that he worked out his own issues with the emcee.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. may be undefeated in the ring, but that didn't stop T.I. from getting up in his face at a Fatburger is Las Vegas. 

According to TMZ, Mayweather was eating at the restaurant when T.I. approached him and began "jawing" at him. One thing led to another, with T.I. throwing a punch, bodyguards jumping in to intervene and an all-out brawl being started. Police arrived just as Maywether was leaving, and after T.I. had already left, but found another man injured with a "slash" wound from the incident. 

Floyd Mayweather Jr. gave an exclusive interview to the blog Necole Bitchie to explain the origins of the brawl. He claimed that it all started with a picture that Tiny posted on Instagram of her and Mayweather after his May 4th fight.

"[T.I] came to me when I was in New York. He stepped to me when I was at the jewelery store like, 'Yo, let’s go outside and talk.' We went outside to talk, but he talked about, basically, 'These girls tryna play us against each other.' I said, 'I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re talking about your wife?' I never put up a picture of her on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook. I was basically like, 'Listen. I’m letting you know I ain’t got…me and your wife don’t have nothing…if you think so.'"

Things escalated to a more heated level last night after Mayweather's daughter's birthday party in Las Vegas:

"I throw my daughter [Iyanna] a big [14th] birthday bash today. I’m eating at Fatburger and next thing you know, he walk in talking about we need to talk again. And then I told him, 'You need to get the f-ck outta my face. That’s what you better do.' And then he said, 'I ain’t talking to all these people so you ain’t gotta talk loud.' I said, 'Listen, don’t come to my face with no disrespectful sh-t. Like I told you before, you must’ve forgot what I did for a living.' He said, 'You do in the ring, I do it in the streets.' I said, 'My man, I do it everywhere. You can find out if you want to.' Just like that.

T.I. quickly brushed the rumors aside and continued on with his life. In time, so did Mayweather.

Fans who were convinced that Shady's "Total Slaughter" battle rap event would be rigged to favor Shady Records signees were in for a surprise when Hollow Da Don narrowly defeated Joe Budden. Perhaps no one was more shocked than Hollow himself, however, who expressed concern that the event would be rigged publicly before the event. 

Budden took the loss in stride, tweeting that it was a "great night" regardless of the outcome.

Just before getting sentenced to jail time, Meek Mill was starting up a little bit of drama in the MMG camp, firing shots at labelmate Wale on Twitter for not promoting Dreams Worth More Than Money on social media.

Wale responded in a lengthy Instagram post:

"Few weeks ago. (7w) I posted this .but ok. Movin along . My Avi always changed when it's THAT time .. Ok that's not enough y'all see "razor ramon " post on his no. But I don't care.. I wrote a long ass post day before his single dropped .. Mariah record dropped nobody said a word I didn't care .. I still don't... I carry myself with confidence and humility ., I always try to have a lighter side to MMG.. Cuz I understand I don't "fit the mold" so if I'm tryna spruce an interview up to show that we not tryn be "serious tough guys" on the red carpet Or try to be a bit more engaging to broaden our audience forgive me . I never wanted anybody to think we take ourselves THAT serious. (Were rappers )I don't need to take anybody shine.. Or hate on anybody . I walk in a completely different world .. Where I look for slp jeans and Shanghai dunks online and know what "kayfabe" means. I check nbadraft.net daily . I'm on whatculture allll day I enjoy shyt like that. I play fuckin Zelda and fuck wit bitches who teach yoga and paint... I get it . I'm different . I always embrace that shyt.. I encourage y'all to embrace what y'all like or the person y'all wanna be.. I text niggas happy Father's Day and get no reply .. I laugh it off .. I laugh at how I write songs about "chain music" and y'all get lost or "600benzz" i like to have fun with our culture. Because I beleive I add THAT to a "gangster rap" faction. I made my opportunity work for me that way. I write poems . I watch wwe . I collect kicks. I'm sensitive ok. Maybe bi polar. But one thjng I'm not is a hater.. I see Daquan jokes all day yesterday and patted myself on the back that I'm regarded as the aforementioned adjectives and not "Daquan". I'm me and I'll be me and do this shyt wit my "dew" till I don't wanna do it. I encourage you to wake up soon as you find time. This was a post about #nothin"

Will people ever stop caring about Young Thug's sexual preferences? According to the massive amount of traffic this article received earlier this year: not quite. 

Thugger got the readers talking earlier this year after posting an Instagram photo in which he called Birdman his "lover" in the caption ("Me and my lover dripping!!! Like always!!!@birdman5star fuck with me fool...."). This came just days after he referred to frequent collaborator Rich Homie Quan his "hubbie" on the same account, which also sparked some Twitter fervor.

Thug's sexuality is still in question, but should we really care?

Much to the dismay of a very particular HNHH troll, MMG's Meek Mill found himself behind bars this year after violating his probation. After delaying the release of Meek's Dreams Worth More Than Money LP, Rick Ross responded with a lengthy statement:

“I created MMG years ago, my desire was to create a space where the most talented artists in the world could be nurtured and supported," he began. "With that came a commitment. I vowed to support these artist, through the good and the bad. Every individual signed to MMG is not just an artist, they are my family. And with family you ride, or you die. Yesterday, my brother, Meek Mill ran into some unfortunate legal issues. It happens. However, his team, our team, will continue to execute Meek’s plan as close to schedule as possible. His album is coming. We ask that the fans and the media continue to support him and his music during this time. He’ll be home soon. “Dreams Are Worth More Than Money”, and family is worth more than Everything. MMG FOR LIFE.”

Meek would eventually be released from prison earlier than expected. Dreams Worth More Than Money should be well on its way.

In one of most hilarious beefs in hip-hop history, 50 Cent and former friend Floyd Mayweather went at each other earlier this year after 50 challenged Mayweather to read a chapter from a Harry Potter book in support of ALS. 

While this may have sounded like it was all in good fun, The Breakfast Club took it a step further by airing unreleased audio of Floyd Mayweather actually struggling to read his drops when he visited the station. While DJ Envy says this would usually take someone around 10 seconds to do, Floyd is heard frequently stopping and re-starting, fumbling his words, etc.

Taking to Instagram, the boxer shared a picture of two fat checks and wrote "Read this $72,276,000.00. God bless." Fif responded in the same medium with a series of images mocking Mayweather for not even attempting the challenge. 

Amber Rose & Wiz Khalifa got married in July of 2013. Just over a year later, Rose filed for divorce.

According to Pete Rosenberg, Rose walked in Wiz in the middle of a threesome with twins. Wiz, however, denied being caught in the act as being the cause of his marriage's failure, claiming the marriage was over before the incident ever happened. According to TMZ -- the king of intrusive details -- the Pittsburgh rapper was quoted saying, "I just didn't want to be married to her anymore."

Since the divorce, Rose was rumored to be dating French Montana's brother. Wiz, on the other hand, just narrowly dodged having a sextape with a Playboy bunny landing on the digital market.

Iggy Azalea isn't known to get a lot of love around these parts. Her sex tape on the other hand? Readers couldn't seem to want it enough.

It all started on September 12th when a former boyfriend of Azalea approached Vivid Entertainment in the hopes of scoring a deal. The porn distributor, known for releasing numerous celebrity sex tapes, immediately offered Azalea a seven-figure sum for the distribution rights. Initially, she denied any existence of the tape. Her tune changed, however, a few days later. Claiming that she was under 18 when the tape was recorded, Iggy made the case that distribution of the tape would be illegal.

Apparently, Vivid didn't buy that story and pushed forward. According to TMZ, Iggy's sex partner in the tape was a rapper by the name of Hefe Wine. Hefe said that the tape definitely exists and that Iggy was aware they were filming it. According to Hefe, she was 18-years old at the time, thus making it legal for the marketplace.

Things became even more complicated when Hefe revealed that he actually got Iggy to sign a lengthy contract back in 2009 (a piece of said contract can be viewed in the gallery above), which gave him the exclusive rights to "manufacture, sell, distribute and advertise 'any' recording embodying visual images." The contract was apparently signed in reference to songs and music videos, but Wine believed he can also safely release the sex tape, and that Iggy has no legal right to block it.

Since then, the tape has slowly escaped our collective consciousness. Whether or not it will ever hit the web is currently unknown.

While performing in front of a jam-packed sold out crowd in NYC, August Alsina had himself a serious health scare when he fell unconscious during the middle of his set. Security instantly rushed to his side and called for assistance, but August didn’t look to be in any good shape.

It was later reported that Alsina experienced multiple seizures due to exhaustion and dehydration. After being in a coma for three days, he began a slow road to recovery that required the unfortunate cancellation of a few tour dates.

On the bright side, he did get a visit from Nicki Minaj.

Yeah, HNHH posts a whole lot of Drake on these pages, but the page views are talking and the readers seem to love them some Drizzy. Selected (for some reason) to host this year's ESPYs, the OVO head honcho successfully blended musical performances and comedy for a successful night both critically and commercially. Highlights of the event included the debut of "Side Pieces" and Chris Brown's appearance in the show's cold opening, ending the public dispute between the two.

Migos have been involved in a few altercations over the past year, but things took a turn to the serious during an appearance in DC. After getting into a scuffle with GBE's Capo, and being hit with subsequent threats from Fredo Santana recently, the trio were jumped at their show in the nation's capital.

According to multiple tweets from various DC locals, a brawl ensued. When things cleared up, Quavo's chain was allegedly stripped of him.  

After the attack, Chief Keef briefly posted a photo of the chain to his Instagram before deleting it, while Fat Trel sent out a warning to visitors of DC, stating that rappers need to "check in" with him when they come to his territory.

Fortunately, it now looks like they've put the past in the past. Chief Keef and former sparring partners Migos posed for a photo last night, after the two parties met up in L.A. Migos tweeted the image, combining their two movements with the caption "Miglo." (Check the photo above.)

Taking a break from his new peace-offering Snoop Lion persona, the Dogg made unprovoked jokes at Iggy Azalea. Offended that Snoop would do such a thing when they got along fine in person, Iggy responded to Snoop on Twitter. Snoop, enjoying the chaos, only upped the ante in his meme-posting.

Fortunately for Iggy, a rapper that Snoop does have some respect for gave him a call to stop the bullying. After receiving a call from T.I., Snoop diffused the situation and apologized for his behavior.

T.I. maintains that Snoop made the decision to stop himself.

Months before Wayne expressed his own frustrations with Cash Money Records, Tyga was starting things up, not just with Baby, but with his own labelmates too. Claiming that he "doesn't get along" with Drake or Nicki Minaj, the "Rack City' emcee sent the internet ablaze.

"I don’t like Drake as a person," he said in an interview with VIBE. "He’s just fake to me. I like his music; you know what I’m saying? I think his music is good, but we’re all different people. We were forced together and it was kinda’ like we were forcing relationships together. It is what it is. But I been friends with Chris [Brown] for like six years. That’s my real genuine friend. We hang out all the time. He lives up the street from me, so we don’t just do music we hang. I think being signed to Young Money, everybody felt like they had to force a relationship ‘cause Wayne put us together. At the end of the day the reason why I signed to Young Money is because of Wayne. Not because of Drake, not because of Nicki. It was because of Wayne and my relationship with him. I try to be cool with everybody, but sometimes, everybody just has different personalities, motives, and different characters. When you realize that, you realize that’s not a place where you want to continue to grow."

Following the statements, Drizzy liked three consecutive photos (all selfies) posted by Blac Chyna, who Tyga split up with a few months ago. Tyga responded by casting Drake's ex-chick Dollicia Bryan as his co-star in the "Make It Work" video.

Since then, the beef has largely come to a stop. Tyga did announce, however, that his upcoming Gold Album will be an independent release.

After a relatively quiet year, J. Cole shocked the hip-hop world when he announced a brand new LP, 2014 Forest Hills Drive, just weeks prior to the release. Distributed without any singles, the album went on to sell 100,000 more copies than was initially projected by industry experts, instantly making it the biggest rap album of the year. Not even Nicki Minaj was able to outperform the record with three hit singles and months of backing. If that's not a sign that lyrical hip-hop can still sell without compromise, nothing is.

The roll out of the LP was a massive success story as well. With no radio singles, Cole played fans the record at their private homes and invited several to hear the work at the place that inspired it.

For over a decade now, Lil Wayne has been Cash Money Records' shining star, a multiplatinum artist and one of the most acclaimed hip-hop artists of all time. In 2014, that may have come to an end. Following multiple delays of his Tha Carter V release, Weezy took to Twitter to say that Birdman and Cash Money were holding the record back. Fans, initially, were hesitant to believe what they were reading, suspecting that the tweets came from a hacker. After days went by without any further comment, however, suspicions subsided.

Since the initial statements, Wayne has said outed his (former) label publicly during performance and sent out a follow-up tweet stated that it's "YM. Nothing else."

Nicki Minaj recently stated that she thinks Baby & Wayne will work things out. 2015 will determine if she's right.

Diddy and Drake reportedly got into a bit of a brawl while the two were celebrating DJ Khaled's birthday party at Club LIV in Miami.

Following the incident, rumors began circulating about the fight and the reason behind it. Reliable information seemed to say that Diddy slapped Drake mid-conversation when the two were outside of the club. TMZ reported that before smacking Drizzy upside the head, Diddy told him "You will never disrespect me.."

TMZ's sources claimed that the conversation was centered around a Boi-1da beat. Apparently the producer sent both Diddy and Drake the same instrumental about eight months ago, and after Diddy sat on the beat for months, Drake finally decided to record over it and release it. It did really well, which pissed Diddy off, and hence the whole "you will never disrespect me" thing.

The beat in question? "0 to 100."