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NYC Mayor Eric Adams Announces Hip-Hop 50th Anniversary Celebration

New York City mayor Eric Adams announced a yearlong celebration for hip-hop’s 50th anniversary on Monday. During an event for the Universal Hip-Hop Museum, Adams was joined by hip-hop historians and pioneers as they announced a collaborative effort to celebrate the genre throughout 2023.

The panel included trailblazers such as Grandmaster Flash and Roxanne Shante, alongside the museum’s executive director Rocky Bucano. The Universal Hip-Hop Museum is not expected to open until 2024. The museum’s goal is to preserve the contributions from people around the world to hip-hop culture.

Eric Adams and hip-hop

Eric Adams declared himself New York’s first “hip-hop mayor” following a $5.5 million dollar investment for the museum in August. While the mayor has spoken out against the city’s drill scene, he has shown full support for the museum’s construction.

“Whether you are in Co-op City or Canarsie, New Yorkers deserve the opportunity to learn about some of the unique cultures in their backyard,” Mayor Adams said in August. In his announcement on Monday, he took the opportunity to reflect on the history and progression of hip-hop.

“You go back and you look at when these brothers and sisters were starting this amazing genre of music,” he remarked. “No one wanted it. It was denied, it was bastardized, you couldn’t see it anywhere and it was even criminalized. But they pushed ahead, and they were just bold enough to be true to their arts and crafts.”

The mayor also praised the pioneers of hip-hop for inspiring him to pursue politics. He even offered words of hope to prisoners detained on Rikers Island, as well as homeless people throughout the city.

“To those young people on Rikers Island right now, you can say that your mayor was arrested so you could move forward,” Adams proclaimed. “Those young people who are in homeless shelters, you can say your mayor lived on the verge of homelessness.”

Adams then proclaimed that New York would celebrate hip-hop’s 50th birthday throughout 2023.

Written by Olan Bryant

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10 Labelmates Who Became Enemies

Kodak Black and Jackboy have had beef on and off the past few years.  Just recently, Jackboy responded with a diss track to Kodak’s EP, Closure.  Jackboy and Kodak were “best friends” and Jackboy is signed to Sniper Gang, Kodak’s record label.  This is not a strange thing in hip-hop.  There have been numerous times where rappers on the same label have dissed each other.  Let’s look at some of them.

10. Megan Thee Stallion and 1501

Megan Thee Stallion and 1501 Certified Entertainment have been feuding for a while now.  She claimed the label was preventing her from releasing new music.  She filed a lawsuit against Carl Crawford, head of 1501 claiming she was only paid $15,000 by them.  Carl Crawford claims Megan started to keep her financial information from the label after doing a deal with Roc Nation.  He said that was a tactic to try to get him to renegotiate her deal.  Recently, Meg was at a concert where she put her middle finger up during a song where the lyrics are “I’m the 1501 queen”.  Their beef is still unsettled.

9. Kanye West and Consequence

Consequence was already apart of Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. music label.  He appeared on tracks with Ye on The College Dropout and Late Registration.  After his absence in the G.O.O.D. Music Cypher at the 2010 BET Awards, Consequence made a diss track towards Kanye called “Man Purses”.  He claims Kanye did not help him with his second album with the label causing him to feel that they weren’t brothers.  Later, Consequence claimed that he wrote a lot of Kanye’s lyrics on The College Dropout.  In 2015, they patched things up as Consequence worked on Kanye’s album, The Life of Pablo.

8. Drake and Tyga

Tyga and Drake were both on the label Young Money for quite some years.  In 2014, Tyga called Drake “fake” when he did the cover story for VIBE magazine.  He mentioned he didn’t get along with Young Money, Nicki Minaj, or Drake.  Tyga adds that he likes Drake’s music, but just doesn’t like him as a person.  Chris Brown is his close friend and Drake, and Chris Brown were feuding at the time.

Drake responded by liking a few of Blac Chyna’s pictures on Instagram, the mother of Tyga’s son.  Tyga then took a few shots at Drake on “Make It Work”.  Drake stayed on Instagram and posted a photo with Kylie Jenner, Tyga’s fling at the time.  Then Drake went to the booth to drop “6 PM in New York” that included some lines for “Rack City” rapper.  In 2016, Tyga said he and Drake were on good terms because of Kanye West.

7. Jeezy and Freddie Gibbs

Freddie Gibbs was signed to Jeezy’s CTE record label in 2010 after making the XXL Freshman list.  Two years later though, he revealed he was no longer with Jeezy.  He even put out a few diss tracks including “Real”.  Jeezy dropped his single “Therapy for My Soul” where he spoke on the situation with Freddie Gibbs.  He says he couldn’t trust Gibbs after he invested in him and adds that he isn’t “gangsta” at all.

After hearing the track, Gibbs hopped on Twitter to poke fun at the Atlanta rapper, saying BMF put him in a headlock and posted a video of Jeezy dancing.  Jeezy claims that when Freddie was with CTE, he put him on songs with T.I. and Eminem, took him on tour, and paid for his music videos.  When it was time to go to the labels to get Freddie a deal, no one wanted to sign him, so Jeezy cut ties with him over the phone.  Recently, Freddie said he is interested in clearing the air between them two.

6. Wale and Meek Mill 

Meek Mill & Wale were leading the charge for the Maybach Music Group in the 2010s.  Along the way, Meek Mill felt that Wale was hating on him as his album was about to drop.  He went to Twitter to vent his frustrations about his D.C. labelmate.  Wale responded on Instagram with a photo and a lengthy caption stating he supports Meek but doesn’t feel Meek’s support.  The boss of MMG, Rick Ross, stepped in and said both artists were on the phone, and everything was “all love”.  A year later, Wale discussed Meek’s beef with Drake on The Breakfast Club where he said Meek brought a “pencil to a gun fight”.  Meek didn’t like that and let Wale know through an Instagram post as he berated him.  Rick Ross stepped in again and now the two continue to make millions together.

5. Gillie Da Kid and Lil Wayne

Gillie Da Kid and Lil Wayne were both on Cash Money Records.  He left the label in 2003 over disputes with money with label heads Birdman and Slim.  Lil Wayne decided to diss Gillie on the song “Problem Solver” in 2006.  Gillie retaliated by making statements about Wayne and Birdman being frauds in street DVDs.  He even appeared in some videos with Wayne’s Squad Up members who weren’t too happy with Lil Wayne either.  Gillie finally responded to “Problem Solver” with his own diss over the “Cannon” beat.  A beat Lil Wayne rapped over on his Dedication 2 mixtape with DJ Drama.  They traded diss songs once again after that.  Today, when they see each other, they greet each other and that’s about it.

4. Eminem and Royce da 5’9

In 1997, Eminem linked up with Royce da 5’9 to form the duo Bad Meets Evil.  They made a lot of songs together and Royce was on Eminem’s debut album, The Slim Shady LP.  Shortly thereafter, Royce’s manager made comments about Dr. Dre in 1999 that Dre didn’t like.  Dre cut ties with Royce and his manager leaving him and Eminem to be disconnected.  A few years later, Royce Da 5’9 gave Eminem a freestyle for the ‘Anger Management’ mixtape.  Eminem took one of Royce’s lines on the freestyle as a diss.  D12 dissed Royce and Royce dissed D12, which ultimately led to Proof and Royce fighting one night at a nightclub.  Proof was killed three years later, slowing down the beef.  They continued their beef on and off again, but today Eminem and Royce da 5’9 have no issues.

3. Cam’ron and Jay-Z

Dame Dash named Cam’ron president of Roc-A-Fella Records, to which Jay-Z was not aware of.  Jay-Z deleted Cam’ron’s verse on the song “One For Peedi Crakk”.  Cam’ron then decided to take Jay-Z’s verse off the “Oh Boy” remix.  Cam sent shots at Jay-Z on his song “Let Me Know” in 2000.  As Dame and Jay-Z were feuding, Cam’ron took Dame’s side.  He made another diss track at Hov called “You Got to Love It”.  After Jay-Z released his album, Kingdom Come, Cam’ron and Jim Jones dissed him again on “Kingdom Done”.  The beef continued for a while but was recently deaded.

2. Ice Cube and N.W.A.

Ice Cube was the lyrics to N.W.A., simply a poet.  He was smart too as he was the first one to scope out how Easy E was the only one getting paid.  Cube left the group and started his solo career, to which N.W.A. didn’t like.  They dissed him on their EP, “100 Miles and Runnin” and Cube retaliated on his song ‘Jackin For Beats’.  N.W.A fired back and that’s when Ice Cube made the infamous “No Vaseline”.  This attributed to the breaking up of N.W.A.


1. The Game and 50 Cent

When 50 Cent was brought in to help with The Game’s debut album, tension started to rise.  After helping write Game’s biggest singles on the album, 50 felt the label was focusing all their attention on Game after they pushed his album back.  The Game was on HOT 97 and said he was going to do a song with Nas, who at the time was beefing with 50 Cent.  A few days later, G-Unit went to HOT 97 and declared Game out of the group.  Game came down there while G-Unit was on the air and a shootout took place.  Game then disses 50 on “300 Bars N Runnin” and 50 retaliated with “Not Rich, Still Lyin”.  They went back and forth over the years, and they are still not cool today.

 

Written by: Brandon Simmons