Awake NY is a New York-based streetwear brand founded by Angelo Baque. The brand has built a reputation for collaborations that feel rooted in the city without leaning too hard into obvious New York references. Their previous Jordan Brand work has been well received, and this AJ6 looks like a natural continuation of that relationship.

The colorway mixes midnight navy and light blue across the upper. Also there’s coral red stitching and accent details adding contrast throughout. The Awake NY branding appears on the heel tab underneath the Nike logo, keeping the co-branding clean and subtle. An embossed “A” logo sits on the side panel near the lacing area.

The midsole uses an aged cream finish rather than a bright white. That gives the shoe a slightly worn-in feel straight out of the box. The outsole is black, and the Air unit at the heel picks up the coral red from the stitching.

Overall the shoe looks cohesive and well executed. Awake NY tends to let the materials and colorwork do the talking rather than loading a shoe with graphics, and this one follows that same approach.

Read More: Drake Continues ICEMAN Rollout With Custom Iced-Out Grill

Awake NY x Air Jordan 6 “Midnight Navy”

Awake NY was founded by Angelo Baque, who previously served as brand director at Supreme for nearly a decade. He launched Awake in 2012, and the brand has grown steadily since then through a mix of apparel drops and high-profile collaborations.

FUrther, he has worked with brands including New Balance, Salomon, and Jordan Brand over the years. The label is based in New York and draws heavily from the city’s visual culture without being too literal about it.

The Air Jordan 6 is a good fit for Awake NY’s aesthetic. The silhouette has enough surface area to work with, but it doesn’t require a lot of added graphics to look finished.

Read More: Very Exclusive Air Jordan 3 “Playground Graffiti” Pack Surfaces Online

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Johnny Dang is the Houston-based jeweler who has been making grills for rap’s biggest names for over two decades. He’s worked with Travis Scott, Lil Wayne, and plenty of others. Drake commissioning a piece specifically for this album makes sense given how locked in the visual direction has been throughout the rollout.

The blue diamond grill fits right alongside everything else Drake put together for ICEMAN. The Chrome Hearts trapper hat from the music video shoot used the same ice blue palette. The quilted baby blue puffer jacket from those same photos followed the same color story. The grill is just another piece of a rollout that stayed visually consistent from start to finish.

Now that the album is actually out, looking back at all the pieces together makes the creative direction feel pretty deliberate. Drake and his team built a clear aesthetic around ICEMAN and stuck to it across clothing, accessories, and jewelry.

The Johnny Dang grill was one of the last things to surface before the album dropped, and it landed exactly on theme.

Read More: 50 Cent Isn’t Happy With Tony Yayo For Spoiling G-Unit Reebok Sneaker Reveal

Drake’s New ICEMAN Grill

Johnny Dang is one of the most recognized jewelers in hip-hop. He opened his Houston shop in the early 2000s and built his name working with artists out of the Texas rap scene before expanding to a much wider client list.

He is best known for custom grills made from gold, diamonds, and precious stones. The ICEMAN grill also uses blue diamonds set in a style across every visible tooth on both rows.

The setting means the stones sit packed tightly together with very little metal showing between them. The result is a fully iced-out look that reads as one solid surface of blue stones.

Read More: Chaos Ensues At AP x Swatch Royal Pop Release

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Swatch put out a statement later in the day addressing what happened. They acknowledged the high demand and confirmed that some locations shut down in coordination with security staff and local authorities. Then they added something that probably surprised a lot of people standing in those lines.

“We remind you that the Royal Pop Collection is not a limited edition.”

That line got a lot of attention online. The post from KicksFinder pulled in 2 million views. People were fighting over a watch that Swatch says will continue to be available. The irony wasn’t lost on anyone.

It’s a familiar pattern at this point. The MoonSwatch launch in 2022 saw similar scenes, with long lines and crowded stores on release day. That collection also wasn’t a limited edition, but the initial frenzy drove resale prices up significantly before supply caught up with demand.

Whether the same thing happens with the Royal Pop Collection is still to be seen. For now, Swatch is telling people to calm down. The watches aren’t going anywhere.

Read More: Very Exclusive Air Jordan 3 “Playground Graffiti” Pack Surfaces Online

AP x Swatch Madness

The Swatch x Audemars Piguet Royal Pop Collection is a set of pocket watches that combine the Royal Oak’s octagonal shape with Swatch’s colorful, accessible design language. The collection references AP’s original 1972 Royal Oak design alongside Swatch’s 1986 POP watch line.

Each piece uses Swatch’s Bioceramic material, which blends ceramic and bio-sourced plastic for a lightweight feel. The collection comes in multiple colorways, including bright green, yellow, red, navy, and white.

Each watch functions as a pocket watch rather than a wrist watch, which makes it a bit of an unusual format for both brands. Also the pricing sits well below anything AP normally releases.

AP x Swatch Official Statement

The Royal Pop Collection story has been building for weeks. First came the rapper backlash, then the debates about exclusivity, and now pepper spray at a mall in Long Island.

All of this for a watch that Swatch is telling people they can come back and buy another day. It’s hard to script a stranger launch than this one.

Read More: The Air Jordan 7 “Miro” Has Been Pushed Back

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The Broward County self-surrender was over an alleged traffic stop in February, during which Kodak allegedly attempted to flee or elude law enforcement and non-violently resist an officer. He allegedly hopped in another vehicle and drove off when police attempted to pull his pink Jeep Grand Cherokee over for blocking traffic.

The judge in this case set bond at $3,500, and the rapper reportedly walked free yesterday. The court warned him not to posses firearms, weapons, or ammunition as a bail condition.

“This is a self surrender from yet another ‘investigation’ that just happened to also take five months to ‘investigate’ for allegedly fleeing and eluding,” Kodak Black’s lawyer Bradford Cohen reportedly told TMZ. “It’s not unexpected, as this is usually the procedure we go through where there is an unfounded weak arrest and then followed up by yet another arrest for cases that allegedly take five or six months to investigate. At this point I think everyone agrees that Kodak is consistently being targeted.”

Read More: Kodak Black Keeps Circling The Same Cycle Of Controversy

Why Did Kodak Black Go To Jail?

Sadly, Kodak Black has another case to handle. He pleaded not guilty and posted a $75K bond in another legal matter, which Cohen also blasted as a “total joke.

The Florida MC faces drug trafficking charges after police arrested him just over a week ago. They allegedly discovered MDMA in his car that exceeded the trafficking weight limit. Yak faces strict release conditions over this as well: no illegal drugs, no contact with associates, no trips back to the alleged crime scene, and no guns.

Kodak Black’s family is also facing legal trouble. Police also recently arrested the mother of his child, Jammiah Catera Broomfield, on drug trafficking charges in a separate case unrelated to Kodak.

As such, there are a lot of difficulties on the road ahead. With next steps in both cases on the horizon, Kodak Black hopes to overcome them and get back on track.

Read More: “ICEMAN” Episode 4 Is Drake’s Greatest Homage To Toronto Since “Views”

The post Kodak Black Posts Bail Over Fleeing Charges, His Lawyer Slams Prosecutors appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

According to Talk Of The Charts on Twitter, first-day streaming numbers for “Make Them Cry” indicate the song will challenge for a number one placement on the charts. It would mark Drizzy’s 14th chart-topping record (since “SICKO MODE” with Travis Scott doesn’t technically count), and would make him the male solo artist with the most number one tracks in Hot 100 history.

Of course, this adds a lot more context to the heap of meaning already attributed to ICEMAN‘s cover art. It features a hand with the iconic diamond-sequined glove of Michael Jackson putting up a hand sign to represent the 6ix.

The Toronto superstar already tied the King of Pop for the most Hot 100 No. 1s by a male soloist. So “Make Them Cry” could be the final, official moment with which he takes the crown. Maybe it ends up being another song from ICEMAN or the other LPs HABIBTI and MAID OF HONOUR. Or maybe none of this goes number one, which would be even more shocking.

We’ll have to see what the final numbers are in the next two weeks. In any case, “Make Them Cry” is a commercial titan and a critical darling from this tracklist, and it’s very clear to see.

Read More: “ICEMAN” Episode 4 Is Drake’s Greatest Homage To Toronto Since “Views”

Drake’s ICEMAN First Week Sales Projections

Drake’s three new albums also have chart-dominating aspirations, as we just got first week sales projections for each. All in all, The Boy could walk away from this triple threat drop having moved anywhere between 705K and 785K album-equivalent units in the trilogy’s first week of availability.

ICEMAN is specifically aiming for a number one debut on the Billboard 200 albums chart with 480K to 520K units. HABIBTI (110K-130K) and MAID OF HONOUR (115K-135K) are challenging for top five consideration at the very least. The best-case scenario for OVO is for all of them to land in the top three, which would be a staggeringly historic feat.

Read More: The Drake & Future Fallout Was Never Built To Last

The post Drake’s “ICEMAN” Intro “Make Them Cry” Aiming For No. 1 Billboard Debut appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

Drizzy’s OVO imprint launched these LPs under Republic Records, which is itself a division of UMG. Amid Drake’s dismissed lawsuit appeal against UMG for defamation, specifically for releasing the Kendrick Lamar diss track “Not Like Us,” many fans wondered what this triple threat meant. The leading theory became that he got out of his UMG contract with these full-lengths, and is now able to go independent or seek a new home.

According to HITS Daily Double, this may just be true. “And if, as we’re hearing, this troika of albums fulfills Drake’s contract with UMG, it sure feels like a win-win for both parties. The artist’s fabulously successful catalog is said to be remaining with Universal,” the publication recently claimed in a new report.

Of course, this is not an explicit confirmation of this presumption. So we’ll have to wait for more official information to make heads or tails of the move in full.

Read More: “ICEMAN” Episode 4 Is Drake’s Greatest Homage To Toronto Since “Views”

Who Did Drake Diss On His New Album?

In any case, Drake’s animosity towards UMG was very clear on ICEMAN, so we can’t imagine they have a good relationship right now no matter what his contract looks like. That was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to disses.

More specific or subliminal shots also appeared for Drake’s rival Kendrick Lamar, past foes like Pusha T and A$AP Rocky, former NBA friends like DeMar DeRozan and LeBron James, and a whole lot more. Fans also caught disses or negative references towards J. Cole, Jay-Z, DJ Khaled, Rick Ross, Pharrell, Joe Budden, Mustard, and UMG’s CEO Lucian Grainge.

We’ll see if this is the end of Drizzy’s Universal tenure. In any case, with the commercial success this trilogy is boasting so far, it goes to show how valuable any contract for The Boy must be.

Read More: The Drake & Future Fallout Was Never Built To Last

The post Drake Reportedly Fulfilled UMG Contract By Dropping “ICEMAN” Trilogy appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

The collective already reportedly offered the product to retailers and might host a July release. Their initial collaboration boasted many models, including the G6, the G XT, a Runner version, a boot, and one for the ladies. It emerged in 2003 when Fif made his stamp as a top-tier hip-hop name… And he might have wanted Yayo to hold off on revealing this return.

In a video caught by Complex on Instagram, you can see 50 react to Tony’s revelation while riding around in a car. “I can’t tell Yayo nothing,” he said with an annoyed expression on his face. Then, the clip of Tony Yayo making the announcement played, and Curtis Jackson looked at the camera with an exasperated expression.

Yayo commented under Complex‘s IG post with some crying-laughing emojis, so it looks like this isn’t turning into a serious rift. We’ll just have to wait and see when G-Unit and Reebok bring back the iconic collaboration.

Read More: “ICEMAN” Episode 4 Is Drake’s Greatest Homage To Toronto Since “Views”

50 Cent’s G-Unit History

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50 Cent has come a long way with G-Unit since its 1999 inception with Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo. They dominated with huge mixtapes, made it big with Get Rich Or Die Tryin’, and expanded into seemingly every corner of hip-hop in the early-to-mid-2000s. Regional scenes, cross-state collaborations, rap feuds, marketing, business partnerships, entertainment ventures, brand deals… You name it.

What’s more is that 50 Cent’s G-Unit history continues to come up. During a recent club appearance in New York, former G-Unit affiliate The Game, whom has since had a strong beef with 50 and company, he talked about being kicked out of the group and told the crowd to “tell Fif I’m here.”

Elsewhere, Tony Yayo reflected on G-Unit’s iconic conflicts. Recently, he spoke on Ja Rule refusing to bury the hatchet with them, seemingly affirming they will always be at war.

Read More: Rolling Loud Is What Happens When Everything Becomes Content

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Release Date: May 16, 2026

Genre: Hip-Hop

Album: EXPERIMENTAL RAP

Quotable Lyrics From ¥ (Yen)

Pop the geese, I play for keeps, that money make her go weak,
That money make me elite, my young bucks ain’t got no leash,
I can’t hit what I can’t see, that money make her go free,
That money gon’ make you bleed, b***hes fall up out the scene

The post ¥ (Yen) – Song by JPEGMAFIA appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

ICEMAN is leading the way with 480K-520K as first week sales projections, according to Kurrco on Twitter. This is unsurprising given the album’s length, its singles and leaks building anticipation, and its rap-centric direction being what many fans longed for.

As for the R&B-centric HABIBTI, it could reportedly move anywhere from 110K to 130K album-equivalent units in its first week. This seems to be the most agreed-upon LP of the bunch when it comes to overall consensus, avoiding criticisms of beef narratives and tapping into Drizzy’s lovelorn melodic talents.

Finally, the clubby and divisive MAID OF HONOUR is projected to sell anywhere between 115K and 135K album-equivalent units in its first week. While some of its playful risks and poppy appeals didn’t land for fans, others see it as refreshingly fun and genuinely challenging for his artistry.

All in all, these early first week sales projections for these full-lengths suggest the Toronto superstar could amass a combined strength of 705K-785K album-equivalent units in their first week. We’ll have to wait another week to see what the final Billboard tally is, and where their tracks will land on the Hot 100 chart.

Read More: “ICEMAN” Episode 4 Is Drake’s Greatest Homage To Toronto Since “Views”

Why Did Drake Drop Three Albums?

Some fans speculate Drake employed this release strategy to exit UMG. They think this may have fulfilled his contract with the major label, which he sued for defamation for dropping the Kendrick Lamar diss track “Not Like Us.” The OVO team is currently appealing that legal move’s dismissal.

No matter what the play was with this trilogy, it will certainly pay off. Whether it’s this commercial astonishment or critical reappraisal of The Boy’s abilities, we will have a lot more to dissect when it comes to H.I.M. That’s the acronym many fans have attributed to this triple threat, and with these numbers, it’s not hard to see why.

Read More: The Drake & Future Fallout Was Never Built To Last

The post Drake’s Three New Albums Get Gargantuan First Week Sales Projections appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

Chromazz, real name Janessa Melina Mendez, is a 27-year-old rapper, singer, and social media influencer from Toronto who adopted the moniker of the 6ix’s “First Lady.” Her family is from Ecuador, something her musical style partially pays homage to. Mendez works with everything from gritty hip-hop to bouncy reggaetón, bright pop. She’s also reportedly an adult content creator on OnlyFans, and has a massive social media following across her many endeavors.

For almost a decade now, Chromazz has been steadily building her Internet presence and dropping a slew of new tracks for fans to enjoy. Most recently, the cuts “Rocket,” “Set You Free,” and “Olvidate” give a good idea of where she’s at artistically these days. Hopefully Mendez has even more great music to share on her journey as “Toronto’s First Lady,” maybe even in collaboration with the 6ix God. He just dropped three new albums, though, so that might have to wait.

Read More: “ICEMAN” Episode 4 Is Drake’s Greatest Homage To Toronto Since “Views”

Chromazz’s Kendrick Lamar Diss

Fans might remember Chromazz’s previous defense of Drake months almost two years after the Kendrick Lamar battle began. This past February, Mendez appeared on No Jumper and questioned why the OVO mogul even bothered to battle K.Dot in the first place.

“Kendrick’s a wasteman. He’s just a little– I don’t think he had anything– Well, I have said that Drake shouldn’t have did so many songs,” she began. “He should’ve did like a one bar. I guess he’s like an artist and he wants to, but I just feel like he has nothing to prove. Like, this guy’s a loser. Why did you give him so much attention? […] I guess because I don’t know any Kendrick songs, I didn’t see him as a big rapper at all. I’m just not knowledgeable on that. I just thought he was a nobody, like this guy’s a hater.”

Read More: The Drake & Future Fallout Was Never Built To Last

The post Who Is Chromazz? The Toronto Star Drake Featured On “ICEMAN” Stream appeared first on HotNewHipHop.