Then, at a recent backyard performance, LaRussell introduced a song called “Heaven Sent” with a warning. He told the crowd his engineer didn’t think it should be released, but performed it anyway. In the song, he named himself, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. as “heaven-sent.” A few lines later, he said the same about Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, and Adolf Hitler.

“I’m not perfect, and neither is the president / What’s guiltier than a n*gga hiding evidence? / You can’t be mad that they heated if you don’t let them vent / Even the devil was heaven-sent.”

Read More: LaRussell Blasts Critics For “Fake Outrage” Over Epstein, Trump & Hitler Lyrics

The clip didn’t need time to travel. It moved quickly, and so did the response. For a lot of people, the issue wasn’t confusion but recognition. They understood what he was trying to say. They just didn’t agree with how he chose to say it.

What LaRussell Meant Vs What People Heard

LaRussell didn’t leave much ambiguity about his intent. After the clip began circulating, he addressed the backlash directly. He said his point was spiritual. In his view, everyone comes from God. That includes figures people revere, and figures people condemn. From that standpoint, calling someone “heaven-sent” was about origin, not approval.

“Y’all been complicit in supporting serial killers, murderers, drug dealers, pimps, and n*ggas destroying the community for yeeeeaaaars!!!!” he wrote on social media. “But me saying God made me and he also made these sick ass n*ggas is where the line is drawn?”

The pushback wasn’t rooted in confusion. People understood the argument. What they rejected was how it was delivered. Once Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. were placed in the same line as Adolf Hitler and Jeffrey Epstein, the phrase “heaven-sent” stopped reading as abstract and started to feel like a leveling of harm. That distinction mattered to listeners who heard something different than what LaRussell intended.

Read More: LaRussell Deactivates Social Media Amid Backlash To “Heaven Sent” Track

Writers and commentators focused on the language itself. “Heaven-sent” carries an implication. It suggests purpose and even a form of divine placement. Applied to figures responsible for genocide or systemic abuse, it doesn’t land as neutral theology. It lands as a distortion, and still, LaRussell positioned the backlash as “fake outrage.”

“The homies briefed me yesterday on all the outrage. My first thought was, ‘n****s ain’t that slow.’ But I go and look, and n****s that slow. Just listen to the music. It’s no way n****s hear to that clip, and they like, ‘You support Epstein.'”

Rappers and independent artists pushed back in a different way. Some questioned why that comparison needed to exist in the first place. Others pointed out that invoking Malcolm and Martin in the same breath as Hitler and Epstein forces a false proximity that ignores what those names represent historically.

There were also defenses, but they were quieter. A few listeners argued that LaRussell was speaking about creation, not morality. Even then, the same issue kept surfacing. The language made the idea harder to stand behind. That’s where the divide settled.

Why “Heaven Sent” Collapsed The Moment He Made That Comparison

The problem was never just the phrase. It was the company he put inside it. LaRussell didn’t name a random list of public figures. He brought together Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., two men whose names carry the weight of Black struggle, political sacrifice, surveillance, assassination, and an unfinished fight for liberation. Then he placed Trump, Epstein, and Hitler in that same frame. He also included himself. That matters, too.

Because once those names share the same spiritual language, the comparison starts doing work whether the artist intended it or not. Malcolm and Martin are not simply “famous people who came from God.” They are historical figures whose lives have been used, misused, sanitized, and fought over for decades. Their names are tied to Black resistance, moral courage, state violence, and the cost of speaking against power. Hitler’s name is tied to genocide. Epstein’s to the sexual abuse and trafficking of women and children. Trump, for many people, represents cruelty as policy, racial grievance, immigrant scapegoating, and the mainstreaming of open contempt. These are not neutral references.

Read More: LaRussell Responds To Heaven-Sent Controversy In The Worst Way Possible

So, the issue is not that LaRussell believes everyone was created by God. The concern is that he asked the same phrase to hold radically different kinds of human meaning, then seemed surprised when people rejected the collapse. Language cannot flatten history without consequence.

Once Malcolm and Martin are grouped with Hitler and Epstein, the frame no longer reads as philosophical. It reads as moral compression. It suggests that what separates a freedom fighter from a fascist, or a civil rights leader from a sexual predator, can be absorbed into one broad spiritual idea. For many people listening, that did not sound comprehensive. It dinged careless.

Read More: LaRussell Gets Torn Apart Online For New Song Referencing Jeffrey Epstein

Moreover, people weren’t rejecting complexity. They were deserting a framework that treated names shaped by very different kinds of consequence as though they could all be made legible through the same spiritual shortcut. Some comparisons don’t deepen a conversation. They empty it out.

A Community Artist Who Misread The Room

That kind of collapse doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It lands differently depending on who’s speaking. In this case, the voice came from someone who built his career on closeness. Backyard shows in Vallejo with fans standing within reach. A model that made the process feel visible and shared instead of packaged. It built trust, and, for a long time, that trust was the point. The music mattered, but so did the transparency. The sense that nothing was being filtered before it reached the people listening. That’s what separated this run from the usual independent grind. It felt direct. It felt honest.

Read More: LaRussell Provides More Context For His Controversial Lil Wayne Comments

Further, the audience isn’t as small as it used to be. The reach has grown. The platform is wider now, with industry alignment entering the picture, including ties to Roc Nation. That changes how moments travel. What might have once stayed local now moves across timelines in minutes, landing in spaces that don’t share the same context or familiarity.

Then, instead of pulling the idea back or clarifying the language, he reinforced it. In follow-up posts, he stood on the same point. Everyone comes from God. That includes people the world sees as evil. The problem, in his view, wasn’t what he said. It was how people chose to hear it. Following the wave of pushback, LaRussell returned to announce that he was taking a hiatus from social media. Quickly, his accounts disappeared.

“I’ll be off the grid for a while just working on myself and being in my community. I’ve been online every single day spreading my message to the masses for the past 5 years! I’m tiiiirrred boss!” he said. “I would still love to have your support during this time offline. I’ll still be throwing shows and finding out new ways to push my product. You may see more text and emails from me than usual.”

Read More: Kyrie Irving Shows Love To LaRussell By Purchasing His Album For $11,000

The audience LaRussell built his career with doesn’t struggle with nuance. They’ve supported him precisely because he speaks directly, because he doesn’t hide behind abstraction. That’s what made this moment feel off. The clarity that once defined his voice gave way to something looser, something that couldn’t carry the weight of what it was trying to hold.

The idea itself wasn’t new. People have debated questions of good, evil, and everything in between for as long as those words have existed. However, those conversations require precision. They require care and an awareness of what happens when those ideas leave private thought and enter public space. Moreover, his engineer was right about keeping “Heaven Sent” in the drafts, not because they may not have believed in it, but because they sensed that LaRussell’s intention may have landed flat to a wider audience. Some ideas don’t fail because they’re too complex. They fall apart because they’re not grounded enough to be said out loud.

The post LaRussell’s “Heaven Sent” Controversy Isn’t Being Misunderstood appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

Release Date: March 24, 2026

Genre: Hip-Hop / Rap

Album: N/A

Quotable Lyrics from “Rumors 2026”

I’m a no good lil thief, wack rapper
The tough guy sh*t is a front, big actor
Living in a world where the truth barely matters
It’s a few things I heard about me, more chatter

The post Rumors 2026 – Song by Maino appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

“If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, or any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases that’ll make you die in two to three weeks, then put your cellphone lighter up,” he told the crowd. “Ladies, if your p—- smell like water, put your cellphone lighter up. Fellas, if you ain’t sucking d— in the parking lot, put your cellphone lighter up.”

The backlash started immediately, but the following day, the rapper doubled down. “My gay fans, they take care of themselves,” he explained on his Instagram Story. “They ain’t no nasty gay n—as. See what I’m saying? They ain’t no junkies in the street. The hell you talking about, n—as? Then I said if you ain’t sucking d— in the parking lot, put your cellphone lighter up. You know what my gay fans did? Put that motherf—ing light up, n—a, ’cause my gay fans ain’t going for that. They got class. They ain’t sucking no d— in no parking lot.”

Read More: DaBaby Appears To Shut Down MAGA Valentine’s Day Event Rumors

DaBaby Homophobia Controversy

DaBaby later issued an apology on Twitter/X, but the damage had already been done. He lost brand deals, was dropped from various festival lineups, and more. He also got called out by several of his celebrity peers for homophobia, misogyny, and spreading misinformation. Now, he says his career still isn’t what it used to be.

During a recent appearance on the Million Dollaz Worth Of Game podcast, he revealed that he used to make anywhere from $300K to $500K per show. After the controversy, however, those numbers took a nosedive. Despite the considerable hit to his earnings, DaBaby kept performing, making it clear that he had no intentions of giving up.

“I went back down to like $30K,” he admitted. “I went and got that.”

Read More: Funk Flex’s Hot 97 Guest Spot Off To A Rocky Start Thanks To DaBaby & Birdman Mix-Up

The post DaBaby Admits Show Rates Plummeted After Homophobia Controversy appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

When 50 shared his post, many fans in the comments section agreed with his take on the situation. “Usher don’t want them tapes released,” one user remarked. Another added: “‘Misrepresented?’ He stomped out a girl in the lobby of a hotel.”

Read More: Usher Has Nothing But Praise For Diddy Despite Everything That’s Happened

Usher’s Relationship With Diddy

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As for Usher’s stance on Diddy, he opened up about the music industry mogul during an interview with Forbes. “I think certain people are prosecuted and maybe not recognized for the greatness that they offer,” he said. “I don’t have anything negative to say about Sean Combs. My experience was not what the world has seen and how he’s been, you know, misrepresented.”

“I’m not saying that every man is perfect,” he continued. “I’m not saying that all of us don’t have flaws, but I can’t with any sense of humanity not recognize the valuable contributions that this man made for us as Black entrepreneurs, for us as people who transition culture and ideas into something that’s tangible. So many people benefited from what he created. And I acknowledge that. That’s why I see him as legacy.”

After describing Diddy as a “mentor,” Usher added that he chooses to remember the positive times from his career. “That’s who I see that man as. And that’s what I choose to remember,” he said. “I put respect on his name because I realized that, you know, what I learned as a businessman before I even understood what business was came as a result of seeing the incredible things that he was able to do, and the way he positioned himself as a businessman. There are trials and tribulations that come with the pressures of success and power. But what we choose to do with it is what I hope that you see with me and hopefully other people that I’m involved with, right?”

Diddy has been behind bars since his conviction on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution last year.

Read More: 50 Cent Blames Diddy For Usher & Justin Bieber’s Alleged Confrontation

The post 50 Cent Calls Out Usher For Coming To Diddy’s Defense appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

Her remarks quickly went viral, but now, it looks like she’s changed her mind. During a recent appearance on Today with Jenna & Sheinelle, she was asked about her big plan, prompting her to admit that it’s no longer in the cards.

“I was saying that but I’m not gonna do it,” she explained. “I was just gonna take a little bit of butt out. But I don’t have time for that.” Moreover, Cardi says she’s happy with her body the way it is, so she feels no need to go under the knife. “I feel really comfortable where I’m at right now with my body,” she shared.

Read More: Cardi B Disses Offset Onstage During “Little Miss Drama Tour”

Cardi B’s “Little Miss Drama” Tour

This isn’t the first time Cardi has had to set the record straight after going viral for something she said on tour, however. During her stop at San Francisco’s Chase Center a few weeks back, she went on a rant before launching into a performance of “Principle.”

“It’s called the principle. You can’t be out here playing with a b*tch like me. There’s n***a out here praying for a b*tch like me. You hear me?” she began. “You ain’t never had a bad b*tch like this, n***a. Never in your motherf*cking life! None of them b*tches ain’t f*cking with me!”

Some fans speculated that the rant was directed at her ex, Stefon Diggs. She shut this theory down in a tweet, claiming that the rant was actually directed at nobody, as she was simply quoting her own lyrics.

Read More: Tasha K Thanks Nicki Minaj For Donating To Her Fund For Cardi B Debt

The post Cardi B Cancels Butt Reduction Plans appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

The post came after the vinyl version of the release leaked online. Fans have been extremely critical of what they’ve heard thus far. The leak arrives after months of delays to the project’s release date.

Read More: Kanye West’s “Bully” Leaks Online And Fans Already Hate It

Does Kanye West’s “Bully” Use A.I.?

One point of criticism regarding the leaked version of Kanye West’s Bully comes down to his use of artificial intelligence. According to numerous users on social media, the project is loaded with the technology. “I can confidently say after listening to the full album leak, this is Kanye’s worst project in his discography. Let alone the abhorrent use of ai on majority of the songs, the new production is COMPLETELY inferior to previous versions of bully as is genuinely atrocious,” one fan argued on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday. Another wrote: “This is NOT ONLY the worst Ye project. It is one of the worst albums ive heard. Honestly this sounds like Yuno Miles remix of the V1. I feel sorry for Ye, this is awful. Actually I dont feel sorry, what was he thinking?”

Kanye West previously defended the use of A.I. during an interview with Justin Laboy in February 2025. “It’s like the next version of sampling,” he said at the time. “Like when sampling happened, they hated it.”

Bully will mark Kanye West’s first solo studio album since dropping Donda 2 in 2022. In 2024, he teamed up with Ty Dolla Sign for the collaborative albums Vultures 1 and Vultures 2. In the upcoming months, West will be headlining several concerts in Los Angeles, the Netherlands, and Italy. The shows come after he penned a lengthy apology in the Wall Street Journal for his antisemitic antics in recent years.

Read More: Kanye West Disappoints Fans With Apparent AI Vocals On “BULLY” Vinyl

The post Kanye West Affiliate Defends “Bully” Amid Harsh Reactions To Leaked Album appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

Subsequently, Sharpe went on to be a co-host over at First Take with Stephen A. Smith. Sharpe was going to be the big replacement for Max Kellerman. However, a few scandals in Sharpe’s personal life forced ESPN to pull the plug on his employment.

Now, Sharpe continues to host Club Shay Shay. Furthermore, he hosts Nightcap with Chad Ochocinco. During a recent episode of Nightcap, Sharpe spoke at length about his experiences with both Stephen A. and Skip.

Read More: Afroman Beat The Case—So Where Are Free Speech Warriors When Hip-Hop’s On Trial?

Shannon Sharpe On His Previous Co-Hosts

As Sharpe explains, there was a very key difference between the two men. When it came to Skip’s style, the show was a true debate. The entire point of the show was to win the debate and bring forth the best possible arguments. Things would sometimes get pretty testy between the two, and it proved to be the downfall of their relationship.

Meanwhile, Sharpe feels as though Smith provides a much more conversational space on First Take. There are usually multiple panel members, and while everyone disagrees, it’s not meant to be some heavyweight bout of intellectualism.

With that being said, it is easy to see why someone might prefer working with Stephen A. over Skip Bayless. Having said that, working with Stephen A. comes with its own set of pitfalls. We know just how petty Stephen A. can get when he is called out.

As for Bayless, he continues to work with Gilbert Arenas and make some TV appearances here and there. One many remains the biggest personality on his network, while Bayless is as close to retirement as ever.

Read More: Jack Harlow’s “Monica” Problem Isn’t Just The Music

The post Shannon Sharpe Explains Key Difference Between Stephen A. Smith & Skip Bayless appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

According to new legal docs, Los Angeles prosecutors hit the mother of one with two misdemeanor charges in December for allegedly driving on a suspended license in Hermosa Beach, California. She was supposed to appear in court for a hearing over a traffic ticket last month. Allegedly, she didn’t show up, resulting in the warrant.

At the time of writing, Chrisean has yet to publicly address her latest legal woes.

Read More: Chrisean Rock Shows Off New Video Of Chrisean Jr. As Disability Discourse Continues

Chrisean Rock & Karlissa Saffold Beef

This isn’t the only hot water Chrisean has found herself in recently, either. Earlier this month, the former Baddies star appeared on The Danza Project, where she discussed her son with Blueface. She shut down rumors that the child is disabled, whilst also admitting that a doctor told her he is. “If a doctor speaks about your kid you shouldn’t accept it,” she insisted. “I can’t wait till my son start walking and talking.”

For obvious reasons, this sparked tremendous concern among viewers. Babies usually start walking and talking at around a year old, and Jr. is two.

Blueface’s mother, Karlissa Saffold, later weighed in on her remarks. She claimed that Chrisean was informed of her child’s alleged disabilities before he was even born. “No one is to blame but the mother who chose to ignore me during that pregnancy and her slow a** fans who convinced her I was hating,” she wrote. “All that can be done is the best for him and that’s what y’all should be promoting.”

Read More: Chrisean Rock Reveals The Identity Of Her New Boyfriend

The post Chrisean Rock Arrest Warrant Issued After Missed Court Date appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

“I can confidently say after listening to the full album leak, this is Kanye’s worst project in his discography. Let alone the abhorrent use of ai on majority of the songs, the new production is COMPLETELY inferior to previous versions of bully as is genuinely atrocious,” one fan argued on X (formerly Twitter). Another wrote: “This is NOT ONLY the worst Ye project. It is one of the worst albums ive heard. Honestly this sounds like Yuno Miles remix of the V1. I feel sorry for Ye, this is awful. Actually I dont feel sorry, what was he thinking?”

One more added: “This is making me sad fr. Not only ai, but also completely unfinished with the same repeating choruses. Almost no song has verses (h&l, beauty and the beast ect) this is bad. Even if the dsp version aint ai, with no verses its the same bs.”

Read More: Kanye West Disappoints Fans With Apparent AI Vocals On “BULLY” Vinyl

When Is Kanye West Releasing “Bully”?

Kanye West will be releasing the official version of Bully on Friday, March 27. The news about the use of A.I. on the vinyl version of the project comes after Ye’s team denied that there would be any of the technology, earlier this year. “(There) is no AI on Bully,” manager Peter Jideonwo wrote on X in January. Milo Yiannopoulos added at the time: ” For those who need to hear it from a white man, No AI on Bully.”

Fans Reactions

Those comments came despite Kanye West previously defending the use of A.I. during an interview with Justin Laboy. “It’s like the next version of sampling,” he said in February 2025. “Like when sampling happened, they hated it.”

Read More: Kanye West Adds Yet Another Southern European Show To His World Tour

The post Kanye West’s “Bully” Leaks Online And Fans Already Hate It appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

Release Date: March 25, 2026

Genre: Hip-Hop

Tracklist for 5 Problems

1. RL Gang
2. I’m Upset
3. Drop That Bag
4. Beat It
5. Hootie Hoo ft. b4l.Scrap
6. My Ho
7. Chopstick
8. Ain’t Wok
9. Domain Expansion
10. I Know
11. I’m Scared
12. 4Ever
13. What I Was Sayin
14. Gun Kick ft. yotti
15. Tin Foil
16. Night Site
17. Lies

The post 5 Problems – Album by Pradabagshawty appeared first on HotNewHipHop.