Now representing himself, AllHipHop reports that Howard is asking the court to formally consider testimony and filings from Combs’ criminal trial. This reportedly includes the government’s sentencing memorandum, arguing they support his claims. Cassie’s attorneys disagree, arguing a complaint cannot be strengthened by attaching outside materials after it has already been filed. They also contend that characterizations contained in a criminal case should not automatically be treated as established facts in separate civil litigation.

Read More: Clayton Howard Denies Threatening Cassie In New Court Filing

The Lengthy Legal Battle Rages On

The filing also points to what Cassie’s lawyers describe as a fundamental problem with Howard’s request. The same sentencing memorandum he wants the court to consider identifies Cassie as one of the victims connected to Combs’ conviction. It’s a designation her attorneys say conflicts with Howard’s allegation that she helped orchestrate the encounters. They also argue the criminal jury reached conclusions about Combs’ conduct, not Cassie’s, making those findings inapplicable to the claims against her.

Cassie was a central witness during Combs’ federal trial, spending several days on the stand detailing years of alleged abuse and coercion. Howard, meanwhile, continues to pursue his civil claims while both defendants seek to have the lawsuit dismissed. A judge has yet to decide whether the disputed criminal records will become part of the case.

The post Cassie Opposes Clayton Howard’s Bid To Add Diddy Trial Records To Civil Lawsuit appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

The social media user also added that there was “no amount of money” that would cause him to travel with a baby in that manner. Not one to shy away from a good clapback, Latto had little patience for the criticism. She kept things brief when she replied, “Good thing this not yo child bitch boy.”

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Read More: Latto Seemingly Confirms She Gave Birth And 21 Savage Is The Father

A Happy First-Time Mom

The rapper welcomed her first child earlier this year after months of speculation surrounding her pregnancy. Although Latto has largely kept details about the birth private, fans have long suspected that she’s in a relationship with fellow Atlanta rapper 21 Savage. Upon the arrival of her baby girl, Latto has seemingly confirmed the rumors to be true. Still, the rapper has continued to keep that part of her personal life out of the spotlight while occasionally sharing moments from her transition into motherhood.

This time, one of those moments came with a blunt response for a critic who questioned how she was traveling with her newborn. Check it out below.

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The post Latto Shuts Down Critic Over Travel With Her Newborn appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

25 years later, it’s still showing up on the feet of the people closest to Jay-Z’s world. Here’s how it all happened:

Read More: Kim Kardashian Honors Grandmother Mary Jo Campbell With Emotional Tribute Following Her Death

What The Air Force 1 Meant In Harlem

The Nike Air Force 1 has deep roots in New York City street culture. Nowhere was that connection stronger than in Harlem.

For the founders of Roc-A-Fella Records, the white-on-white AF1 wasn’t just a sneaker. It was a symbol of aspiration. Kareem “Biggs” Burke has spoken about seeing pairs in store windows as a kid on 125th Street, knowing that owning a pair meant something.

The shoe had been part of Harlem’s identity since the mid-1980s, when it first earned the nickname “Uptown” in the neighborhood. It was the shoe you saved up for, the one that signaled you were doing something right. By the time they were building Roc-A-Fella in the early 1990s, the AF1 was already deeply important.

How Roc-A-Fella And The AF1 Became Inseparable

Long before any official collab existed, Roc-A-Fella had already made the Air Force 1 its signature shoe. The crew became known for buying pairs in large quantities and only wearing each pair once.

The ritual gave the AF1 a specific cultural identity tied directly to the Roc-A-Fella name. By the time the label was at its commercial peak, the two were already inseparable in the public eye.

It was a flex rooted in where they came from more than where they had arrived. Growing up, a fresh pair of AF1s meant you had made it. Now that they actually did make it, wearing a new pair every single time was the natural extension of that mindset. The label’s relationship with the shoe wasn’t manufactured for marketing purposes.

How The Collab Actually Came Together

The original Roc-A-Fella AF1 didn’t come together easily. A Nike employee named Drew Greer pushed the idea forward despite resistance from within the company, at a time when Nike’s entertainment division wasn’t interested in making products specifically for artists.

When the design was eventually presented to Jay-Z with color options, he turned them all down immediately. His direction was simple: white-on-white only, with the Roc-A-Fella logo on the heel and nothing else added.

That single decision defined everything about the shoe. The restraint was the point, and it made the final product far more powerful than any colorway could have.

The Original 1999 Sample Pairs

The first Roc-A-Fella AF1s were produced in 1999 and never sold at retail. Only around 100 pairs were made, distributed exclusively within Jay-Z and Roc-A-Fella’s inner circle. The design was exactly what Jay had asked for: clean white leather, the Roc skull logo embroidered on the heel, and nothing else to distract from it.

Because those pairs never hit stores, they took on a myth of their own in sneaker culture. They became some of the most talked-about and sought-after pairs in hip-hop history without ever being publicly available.

The scarcity wasn’t a marketing strategy. It was the reality of what the shoe was, and that authenticity made it more desirable than almost anything Nike had produced for the hip-hop world up to that point.

The 2004 and 2017 Retail Releases

The shoe eventually made it to retail in limited form in 2004, giving a slightly wider audience access to a design that had previously existed only as a promo item. For most sneaker fans, it remained a shoe they knew about more than one they had ever actually held.

Nike brought it back again in 2017 as part of the Air Force 1’s 35th anniversary AF100 collection, first debuting at ComplexCon before a wider release on November 30th of that year at a retail price of $150.

Despite being nearly two decades removed from the original, it sold out again. The design had lost none of its appeal, and a new generation of sneakerheads responded to it the same way the original audience had.

The Legacy Of The Roc-A-Fella AF1 In Sneaker Culture

The Roc-A-Fella AF1 mattered because it arrived before the celebrity sneaker collab was an established category. At the time Nike made those first 100 pairs, the idea of building product specifically around a rap label was unconventional enough.

What it ultimately proved was that hip-hop’s relationship with a sneaker could carry enough cultural weight to make a shoe desirable without any traditional marketing behind it.

30 Years Later: The “Reasonable Doubt” Anniversary AF1

This month, Jay-Z played 3 sold-out nights at Yankee Stadium, celebrating the 30th anniversary of Reasonable Doubt, his 1996 debut album. The shows brought out Beyonce, Nas, Alicia Keys, and dozens of other guests, drawing 45,000 people per night to the Bronx.

Roc-A-Fella-branded merchandise and anniversary pop-ups appeared across New York City in the days surrounding the concerts, and the energy around the whole event felt like a genuine cultural moment rather than a nostalgia tour.

Alongside the concerts, a new Nike Air Force 1 Low emerged tied to the anniversary. The shoe keeps the triple white build, with an embossed Roc-A-Fella Records logo on one heel and “Reasonable Doubt 1996” on the other.

Read More: The Internet Confirm Long Awaited New Album Is Finally Coming In Early 2027

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Weezy and WFAN’s Carton will film the first episode live at Fanatics Fest later this weekend, specifically on Sunday (July 19). Special guests at the New York City taping reportedly include Darelle Revis, Amar’e Stoudemire, and Eli Manning. The three athletic titans will chop it up with Wayne and Carton about a whole bunch of topics, and we’ll see how their dynamic plays out.

“The best podcasts feel like you just kicking it with your people, talking the same way you do when nobody’s listening,” the New Orleans MC stated. “I’ma light one up with the homie Craig and we gonna talk our s**t about whatever the day brings. You never know who’s gonna pull up or where the conversation’s gonna go.”

“There’s nothing better than swapping takes with Wayne on sports, pop culture and a whole host of other topics,” Craig Carton stated. “The Joint Venture show gives us a great excuse to keep doing what we’ve been doing for years, while also having some famous friends stop by and chop it up with us. There’s no better job in the world.” Tunechi was previously on Carton’s WFAN radio show back in March.

Read More: JAŸ-Z Isn’t The Hypocrite You Think He Is

Lil Wayne On Craig Carton’s WFAN Show

Elsewhere, Lil Wayne is on the road for his Tha Carter anniversary shows, which have been pretty divisive online. That’s because of concert cancelations and lateness, which fans have been pretty disappointed by. Nevertheless, the show goes on.

Also, Weezy is moving on from a past relationship, and he revealed he never actually got engaged with Madi Cannon. That was another big development for him this year, but it faded as quickly as it sprouted.

Regardless of what’s going on in Wayne’s orbit these days, fans hope to hear some dope conversations with Craig Carton on The Joint Venture. Whether it’s sports, pop culture, or questions about a certain Yankee Stadium three-night run, they will always have a lot to discuss.

Read More: Is Yung Miami’s “Spend Dat” Bad For Hip-Hop?

The post Lil Wayne Is Launching New Podcast “The Joint Venture” With Craig Carton appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

There are some rumblings on social media that scheduling issues might get in the way here, but nothing confirmed at press time. In any case, it represents another big move for the Chicago superstar around the world, and he has more shows to look forward to this year. He will perform next in Madrid, Spain on July 30 and Portugal on August 7.

Kanye West also has Chicago shows on the docket for September 3 and 4, which will follow a performance in New Orleans on August 28. With how quickly and suddenly these announcements have arrived, we wouldn’t be surprised if there are more announcements to come for 2026 and into the next year.

Read More: JAŸ-Z Isn’t The Hypocrite You Think He Is

Kanye West’s Kazakhstan Show

Tickets for the Kazakhstan show are not available yet as of writing this article, but fans can sign up for access via the Yeezy website. We will see if this one goes as successfully as previous 2026 shows have so far.

Elsewhere, Kanye West showed love to other artists’ concerts this year, specifically a very surprising one. Jay-Z recently rocked Yankee Stadium for three nights in a row, and Ye showed love to the stage design and even retweeted a fan’s coverage of it.

Of course, this is no indication that their feud is over or that they settled their differences. But it is a promising sign that Ye might be more apologetic and graceful these days concerning his “Big Brother.” They both have a lot to hash out… We’ll see if hip-hop history takes another turn down the road.

But others believe Kanye West should leave Jay-Z behind. In a recent Art Of Dialogue interview, Dame Dash proclaimed Ye is leagues ahead of Hov. While this is always a debate, hosting stadium shows around the world certainly indicates a widely unparalleled level of pull.

Read More: Is Yung Miami’s “Spend Dat” Bad For Hip-Hop?

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The two were on Entertainment Tonight for an interview with Nischelle Turner to promote their new fashion line, 12TWINTY1. Turner asked them if they are afraid to “put themselves out there” publicly in the wake of Puff’s criminal reckoning.

“No, not at all,” they remarked, with D’Lila expanding on this assessment. “People fail to realize that just because he’s our dad doesn’t mean… His press is his own press. Our press is our own press. Our clothing line is our clothing line. It’s not his clothing line. People fail to understand that we are also individuals. It’s separate. So I don’t have any fear.”

“Also, I just feel like we’ve never allowed any of that to stop us,” Jessie added. “We have to keep going. It’s honestly made us push and work harder because we’re not going to stop.”

Read More: JAŸ-Z Isn’t The Hypocrite You Think He Is

Jessie & D’Lila Combs’ Interview

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“We wanted to have a clothing line for many, many, many years,” D’Lila expressed. “Now is the time because we’re becoming adults…”

“[Our relationship with Diddy] is great,” Jessie shared. “We definitely are very close. He gives the best advice. He’s very, very knowledgeable in that aspect. We ask him all the time, ‘We need help on this, we need help on that.’

“Success won’t be handed to you,” D’Lila added. “You have to put in the work, you have to put in the time. That advice has really, really shaped us today because we put in so much work. He’s really, really, really been helpful.”

“He’s been very focused, being a better person for his family,” Jessie remarked. “And he’s just always been there for us.”

Jessie and D’Lila Combs graduated high school amid Diddy’s federal trial, and now they are moving onto bigger and better things. While the shadow of Sean Combs will always loom, they are ready to start their own journey and move on from the past.

Read More: Is Yung Miami’s “Spend Dat” Bad For Hip-Hop?

The post Diddy’s Twin Daughters Speak Out About His Scandal For The First Time appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

For those unaware, this G-Unit Shreveport situation is currently at a standstill. After 50 threatened to pull out of the studios’ development due to allegedly not receiving enough help and assurance from authorities, Shreveport’s mayor called his bluff. On the other hand, Hurricane Chris urged the G-Unit mogul to continue working on this, although he previously criticized the move for not spotlighting local Louisiana talent.

After 50 clowned Chris online, he responded with an AI-generated video of Fif walk-dancing with a paper that says “lease.” “@akademiks Yu got his bm now he mad at all us come help me talk her into staying bro,” the Shreveport MC captioned the post.

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He also added another post with him holding up a stack of cash, captioning it with “All road lead to Shreveport since 2007 big dummy big dummy.” This seems mostly like a social media conflict right now. But maybe it will actually evolve into a business dispute over where Shreveport should go next.

Read More: JAŸ-Z Isn’t The Hypocrite You Think He Is

What Is 50 Cent Doing In Shreveport?

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For those unaware, 50 Cent is investing in Shreveport as an entertainment hub, hoping to launch G-Unit Studios specifically around the Red River District. Reports suggested that 6,000 new jobs and billions in economic impact could result from this move. But issues with repairs and the pace of development caused a rift in these talks, which brought us to where we are today.

As for Hurricane Chris, he just wants to see his city do well, and believes G-Unit Studios will help outsiders more than locals. At least, under its current structure and planning.

Maybe these two will sit down one day to talk about these issues and reach some mutually beneficial understanding. After all, if Shreveport is winning, so are they. But with mostly trolls and financial clowning on the radar, it seems like this feud isn’t going away anytime soon.

Read More: Is Yung Miami’s “Spend Dat” Bad For Hip-Hop?

The post Hurricane Chris Trolls 50 Cent’s Shreveport Woes With AI Video appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

As caught by The Neighborhood Talk on Instagram, Chris Blake recently took to his IG Story to post a series of alleged DMs between him and Diggs from May of 2023. “Lol cmon get your a** bust,” Stefon allegedly wrote. “Lol I commend ya confidence champ,” Griffith allegedly replied. “Sick of you,” Diggs allegedly added.

“YOU can even be bisexual, or gay, or whatever you wanna me in life – as I champion you living in ya truth…” Chris Blake captioned his IG Story post. “…that said – when I continually decline your advances and attempts to get me to ‘party-party’ w/ you, your ego can’t handle ‘no’ and resorted to violence to protect what you seem to be so afraid to admit.”

Read More: Is Yung Miami’s “Spend Dat” Bad For Hip-Hop?

Stefon Diggs’ Alleged Messages

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Recently, Chris Blake Griffith settled an offshot lawsuit from this Stefon Diggs situation. He and Stefon’s brother Darez Diggs settled a lawsuit against Darez claiming he and others had physically assaulted Griffith in May of 2023. This alleged altercation was supposedly over the allegations Chris Blake levied against Stefon.

Elsewhere, the mother of Stefon Diggs’ child defended him amid this scandal, which led to some debate. Cardi B recently doubled down on her support of the wide receiver, clapping back at folks online who continue to scrutinize the case.

All in all, these leaked messages and other alleged interactions will be part of the court’s deliberations and assessments. We will see how this whole situation actually wraps up soon, but a resolution will not delete the drama. After all, this is just one part of a wider legal whirlwind for Diggs. Throughout it all, he has maintained his innocence and plans to fight back hard in court. We will see if Chris Blake Griffith is successful or not.

Read More: Future’s Not Quite Done Being Our Toxic King

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Thirty years later, that same mantra exists in a different light. The Lexus that appeared in the “Dead Presidents” video was once a symbol of aspiration, proof that someone from Marcy Projects could dream beyond his circumstances. It represents the evolution of a street hustler into a rap savant, entrepreneur, and hip-hop’s first billionaire. It’s also the key to understanding why the criticism surrounding JAŸ-Z feels louder than ever. 

The past weekend at Yankee Stadium celebrated the unlikely journey that turned Shawn Carter into one of the most influential figures in music history. The first night, celebrating Reasonable Doubt‘s 30th anniversary, featured a crowd larger than the number of people who purchased the album during its opening week. It was a reminder that one of rap’s definitive debut albums has only grown more influential with time.

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Reasonable Doubt established the foundation for everything JAŸ-Z would eventually become: Roc-A-Fella’s defiance as an independent alternative to the major labels that rejected him, the dissolution of that empire, and the creation of Roc Nation as a corporate powerhouse. From corner boys in Marcy Projects to billionaire boardrooms and corner offices, JAŸ-Z’s career has become the clearest example of what happens when the hustle evolves into something much bigger than its original surroundings.

But revisiting Reasonable Doubt today reveals something else. The album wasn’t simply documenting the psychology of a hustler. It was laying out a philosophy that JAŸ-Z has remained remarkably faithful to, even when that philosophy has become increasingly uncomfortable to defend. From the beginning, Reasonable Doubt wasn’t interested in separating right from wrong. It was interested in explaining why those distinctions often became blurred for people born into circumstances where survival came before morality. “D’Evils” explores how childhood relationships can become corrupted by competition and greed. “Politics As Usual” frames territorial conquest through the lens of something almost sinister, while “Can I Live” wrestles with the benefits that come from morally complicated decisions.

Across the album, JAŸ-Z never glorified greed as much as he examined the compromises that accompany the pursuit of money. Every accomplishment came with an understanding that success could carry consequences, even when the rewards outweighed them.

“Most of us had choices, but the choices were bleak. The street life was tough and morally compromised, but a dead-end nine-to-five job at permanent entry level wasn’t all that attractive either,” JAŸ-Z later explained in Decoded. Few sentences explain his entire career better.

JAŸ-Z was never keen in presenting himself as a revolutionary in the mold of Tupac Shakur or Public Enemy. He might believe that he’s as complex as Che Guevara with bling on or feel as though there’s significance that his birthday lands on the same day that Fred Hampton died. The reality is that neither of them would’ve f*cked with JAŸ’s politics. 

Yet in Hov’s mind, his approach to revolutionary efforts was different. He acknowledged that capitalism was flawed, but he never expressed a desire to dismantle it. His approach was less about challenging capitalism and more about understanding how to navigate it successfully. In the music, he argued that the system was broken long before he became one of its biggest beneficiaries. Wealth wasn’t portrayed as inherently virtuous. It was portrayed as necessary. JAŸ’s portrayal of the hustle was always complicated. He understood the appeal of money and power while acknowledging the moral compromises that often came with pursuing them.

“The only thing I heard coming up was the American dream. You could make it if you pull yourself up by the bootstraps,” JAŸ-Z told GQ earlier this year. “I heard that my entire life—until we started being successful. Then it was like: You’re selling out because you’re making money.”

That perspective has always defined him. JAŸ-Z has consistently viewed the world through the lens of reality rather than idealism. His belief has always been that systems exist regardless of whether they are fair, and success comes from understanding how those systems operate.

That’s why Reasonable Doubt has always resembled The Sopranos more than a political manifesto. Like Tony Soprano, JAŸ invites listeners into the mind of someone navigating an environment where survival and dominance become inseparable. The appeal wasn’t necessarily in excusing those decisions, but in understanding the logic behind them. Reasonable Doubt functioned less like a morality play and more like a psychological study of someone trying to justify the compromises required to reach a better life.

That honesty is why people connected with JAŸ-Z for decades. He wasn’t the poster child of moral purity. He was embraced because he admitted that success often requires compromises that many people would rather ignore. Perhaps that’s why the Illuminati rumors followed him long before he became a billionaire. JAŸ always understood the appeal of power, and he never pretended otherwise.

But those compromises look different when the stakes change. The hustler trying to escape poverty and the billionaire protecting an empire might operate under the same philosophy, but they do not occupy the same moral landscape. We’ve seen that evolution throughout JAŸ-Z’s career, especially when he transitioned from rapper to executive. The resurfacing of DMX discussing his frustrations with JAY-Z’s time as Def Jam president highlighted one of the more complicated parts of his evolution. The instincts that helped JAŸ survive the politics of the rap industry followed him into executive spaces, where the competition simply took a different form. The hunger that made him successful as an artist also influenced how he approached business, and that transition has always created complicated conversations about where ambition ends and accountability begins.

This evolution is what makes the recent criticism surrounding JAŸ-Z more complicated. His Roots Picnic freestyle was aimed at familiar targets: former friends, business partners, and artists who have questioned his integrity and business decisions. Given the history between JAŸ and many of those figures, responding to those criticisms was not surprising.

But when he returned with his Yankee Stadium acapella celebrating Reasonable Doubt while addressing online criticism, the target shifted. The conversation was no longer about industry rivals but ordinary consumers questioning the ethics behind the institutions JAŸ-Z now represents. The people questioning his partnership with Target, his relationship with the NFL, or the broader role of billionaire capitalism were no longer just critics from within his industry. They were everyday listeners trying to reconcile the person they saw in the music with the businessman he had become. He was pushing back against the same working-class audience willing to spend hundreds of dollars celebrating Reasonable Doubt. That disconnect is what made the moment feel off-key.

That’s the crossroads of where the expectations placed on Hov collide with the reality of who he has always been. His contributions to culture and philanthropy cannot be ignored. He has created opportunities for artists, invested in communities, and used his platform in meaningful ways. His philanthropy also helped establish him as more than a businessman. It positioned him as someone whose wealth and influence could be used in the service of broader social causes. But becoming a symbol of the American Dream also means inheriting the responsibility that comes with representing what that dream should look like. The Target criticism reflects that tension.

JAŸ-Z’s response suggested that critics were being unrealistic, arguing that capitalism is capitalism and that nearly every major corporation operates within the same economic framework. JAŸ wasn’t wrong to point out that most major corporations operate under the same profit-driven incentives. That observation, however, doesn’t really address why Target became the focus of a boycott in the first place. The criticism came from consumers who felt those structures still deserved scrutiny when they impacted communities that already carry the burden of those decisions. To criticize the same people spending money to celebrate such a milestone is tone-deaf, especially when the disappointment comes from putting him on the same pedestal that helped him accumulate such wealth. 

For many consumers, especially within marginalized communities, boycotts are not symbolic gestures. They are sacrifices. Choosing where to spend money carries consequences when affordability and accessibility matter. Treating those concerns as though everyone occupies the same marketplace ignores the difference between navigating capitalism as a consumer and navigating it as someone who profits from it. It’s a perspective that feels far removed from the JAŸ-Z, who once rapped about having limited choices, even if it follows the same philosophy that guided him from the beginning.

His relationship with the NFL presents an even more complicated example. The debate was never simply about Colin Kaepernick’s re-entry into the league. Kaepernick’s decision carried weight because he accepted the possibility that speaking out could cost him his career. JAY-Z’s decision reflected what he described as a different calculation: that influence could be gained by entering those spaces and attempting to create change from within them. Through Roc Nation’s partnership with the NFL and initiatives like Inspire Change, investments have been made in areas including education, criminal justice reform, economic advancement, and community programs. Those accomplishments deserve acknowledgment as much as the questions. Kaepernick’s influence came from accepting the possibility that his stance could cost him his career. JAŸ-Z ‘s approach was rooted in the perception that access could become another form of leverage. And yet, the real issue surrounds whether he threw Kaep under the bus in order to push himself into the NFL’s sphere. “I think we have moved past kneeling. I think it’s time for action,” he said during a press conference announcing the partnership. “We forget that Colin’s whole thing was to bring attention to social injustice. In that case, this is a success.”

The same tension appears throughout JAŸ-Z’s career. His proximity to figures like Harvey Weinstein, R. Kelly, Diddy, the Kushners, and the Bronfmans isn’t evidence of guilt by association. It does, however, reinforce a pattern that has followed him throughout his career. Access has often mattered enough to justify occupying rooms where ethical lines become increasingly blurred.

Ironically, those questions become an extension of Reasonable Doubt. The album understood that money complicates morality. It warned that ambition does not eliminate ethical dilemmas, it often magnifies them. Thirty years ago, those compromises revolved around surviving the streets. Today, they revolve around maintaining corporate influence. The psychology has remained consistent.

That’s why accusations that JAŸ-Z “sold out” have always felt slightly misplaced. Selling out was never the nightmare his music warned against. His songs repeatedly suggested that every opportunity comes with a price tag, and every form of success requires deciding which compromises you’re willing to accept. The hustle wasn’t a righteous one but part of an inevitable cycle.  

Perhaps that’s why one line from his recent freestyle landed differently than intended. “They say I sold out. Yeah, I did sell out. Three nights. I sold Yankee Stadium the hell out.” Nevermind that the freestyle itself was rather subpar, and that punchline hardly cracks among his most clever bars, it’s a revealing line. JAŸ-Z has never been offended by accusations of selling out because commercial success has always been the metric through which he measured victory. That has been true since Reasonable Doubt. What’s changed isn’t his philosophy, but the position from which he now applies it.

Over the course of three decades, JAŸ-Z went from documenting what it meant to survive within a flawed system to becoming someone with the influence to shape parts of it. JAŸ-Z’s greatest contradiction has always been rooted in that evolution. The worldview that made him such a compelling figure has followed him through every stage of his career, even as his circumstances have become almost unrecognizable from where he started. That’s why the contradictions surrounding Hov aren’t new. They’ve simply become harder to overlook.

The post JAŸ-Z Isn’t The Hypocrite You Think He Is appeared first on HotNewHipHop.

As you could imagine, there’s been a variety of responses to the snippet. For the most part, people felt like it was a rather shallow attempt to regain footing in a genre of music that propelled his career, which he eventually abandoned when it seemed less profitable. However, many Post Malone fans also believe it’s a step in the right direction. The reality is that a lot of Post Malone fans don’t care about hip-hop in the first place. So the snippet was naturally met with some resistance from hip-hop heads.

“Ah yes. Post Malone, the ultimate culture vulture. Dude went from metal to hip hop to pop to country,” one user wrote. “Bro used the image of what he assumed a black rapper was to gain profit then separated himself from it saying ‘i’m not a rapper i’m an artist’ once he started to become a household name. NOW he’s making hip hop AGAIN? Bro fuck Post Malone,” another wrote. 

Read More: The 10 Best Low-Top Air Force 1 Collabs Of All Time

Post Malone To Perform At FIFA World Cup Closing Ceremony 

The snippet comes right before Post Malone is expected to touch the stage this Sunday to close out the World Cup. FIFA announced Posty as the headliner for the closing ceremony and will be joined by Tom Cruise and more. It’s unclear what to expect, but it seems like this upcoming song could be riding off the momentum of his upcoming performance. 

Read More: Is Yung Miami’s “Spend Dat” Bad For Hip-Hop?

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