News

Jay Rock was arrested in Los Angeles yesterday, March 14, after police allegedly found a gun in his car.

The longtime Tde rapper — whose real name is Johnny Reed McKinzie — was arrested early Thursday evening in Nickerson Gardens, a public housing complex in Watts. Per NBC 4, the LAPD said they originally stopped McKinzie for trespassing and drinking in public. When McKinzie ran from his vehicle, police caught up with him and detained him

Later, a gun was allegedly found in McKinzie’s car, and he was booked on felony possession of a firearm.

Exclusive: Music label Top Dawg Entertainment (Tde) has launched Tde Films with the new division behind the urban action horror movie The Zone.

Dallas Jackson is directing off a script by David Hayter of the 20th Century Fox X-Men franchise and Jackson. Tde Films is producing alongside former Lionsgate boss Rob Friedman. 20th Century Studios acquired the project. Plot details are being kept quiet other than it has a high concept sci-fi twist.

Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith founder of Tde said, “This partnership with 20th Century Fox aligns strongly with our mission at Top Dawg Entertainment—to innovate, elevate, and expand the cultural conversation. Together, we’re building a bridge between music and film that will leave a lasting impact on audiences around the world.”

Scott Aversano and Rashonda Joplin are overseeing the project at 20th.

Jackson was the writer/director of Thriller for Blumhouse/Netflix, writer/director of...

In 2024, Kendrick Lamar released his sixth studio album, Gnx. One of the standout songs on the surprise album was "heart pt. 6." Beyond the lyrics and the sound, the song is a standout for one specific line that some listeners latched on to: a major suggestion that Lamar was the reason why his supergroup, Black Hippy, failed. In his own words, he says, "Black Hippy didn't work 'cause of me."

The Tde branded supergroup Black Hippy, which featured Lamar, Jay Rock, Schoolboy Q, and Ab-Soul. The rap collective was active between 2008 before ending unceremoniously in 2022. K. Dot blames himself for the uneventful nature of their disbandment. While there are some truths to Kendrick being one of the key reasons for the group breaking up, to call Black Hippy a failure might be an overstatement. Black Hippy's run together may not have generated the same success as Kendrick, but their separate careers...

After a commanding slew of spring 2024 releases and a prolific hip-hop beef with Drake, Compton's Kendrick Lamar has solidified himself as the greatest rapper alive. If the sold-out Juneteenth concert at the Kia Forum was Kendrick's victory lap after Record Of The Year contender "Not Like Us" decidedly knocked Drake out of the competition, consider his sixth studio album Gnx – named after his beloved limited edition 1987 Buick Regal variant – his newly renovated trophy case. Kendrick is celebrated beyond his rap abilities as a poetic songwriter, an impactful community leader, and a distinctively rare generational voice who simultaneously reflects and defines culture.

Kendrick hopes to add to his long list of accolades – which includes 17 Grammy Awards, 5 Number-One songs on the Billboard Top 100, and a Pulitzer Prize – at the 2025 Grammys in February, which takes place one week before his highly-anticipated Super Bowl Lix Halftime Show. Kendrick first gained a fanbase as K.

Ab-Soul is giving us a bit of a break from Ab-Soul. The Carson, California rapper’s last album, Herbert, sheds his alter-ego and gives listeners their clearest glimpse of who the man born Herbert Anthony Stevens IV is. And for Soul Burger, released today, he’s decided to rap from the perspective of a new rapper who’s a fusion of Ab-Soul and Doe Burger, his friend who passed away in late 2021.

The Tde studios served as Ab’s grounds for cathartic creation, as songs like “Peace” show him rapping...

Each week, Consequence rings in New Music Friday by highlighting new albums to stream.

Among the highlights today is a massive box set reissue of Talking Heads’ debut album, and Primal Scream’s first album in eight years, along with fresh music from Girl Scout and Xg. Plus, Ab-Soul is back with a features-heavy record, and The Body have put out an exciting ninth album.

Here are six new albums to stream today.

Ab-Soul – Soul Burger

Ab-Soul is back with Soul Burger, and he’s brought some friends along with him: Vince Staples, Doechii, Jid, Ty Dolla $ign, and Lupe Fiasco are all guests on the album, as well as Tde label boss Punch. But Ab-Soul is front and center, and the Los Angeles rapper works well in the spotlight.

Stream: Apple Music | Spotify | Amazon Music

The Body – The Crying Out of Things

Experimental extreme metal duo The Body...

Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter is much more than a country album — it’s actually a tour through the Black roots of American music that manages to be both thematically rich and stuffed with indelible pop songs, in multiple genres. Kendrick Lamar’s virtuosic “Not Like Us,” meanwhile, completely transcends its status as a killing blow in the Lamar-Drake battle, packing in an astonishing amount of lyrical and musical density — and it’s somehow also the year’s most entertaining, endlessly replayable track.

In the new episode of our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast,...

“Love.,” the four-time platinum single from Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning opus Damn., was made an inescapable earworm and a breath of fresh air with a timeless hook from Zacari. At the time, the young singer was not yet signed to Kendrick’s label, Top Dawg Entertainment, but was managed by Tde co-president Moosa Tiffith. Back then, his discography had only consisted of a few tracks on SoundCloud. “I [was] still figuring out how even to record and what type of music I want to make when that happened,” he tells Rolling Stone.

In his first live performance since his beef with Drake, Kendrick Lamar took the stage in Los Angeles on Juneteenth in a historic, electrifying evening filled with special guests, exhilarated fans, and continued jabs at his arch-rival.

The one-off concert titled The Pop Out — Ken and Friends, presented by pgLang and Free Lunch was jam-packed with a long line-up of artists, mostly from L.A. and California, who performed in Lamar’s hometown at the Kia Forum. From top to bottom, the entire event was a love letter to West Coast hip-hop culture,...

Kendrick Lamar’s hometown Juneteenth show at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum was a star-studded ode to West Coast rap that culminated with dozen of artists and entertainers joining Lamar for an unprecedented moment of unity on stage. The concert had been announced less than two weeks before, on the back of Lamar’s victorious nine-song-long rap battle with Drake.

The Pop Out: Ken & Friends was curated into three sections, the first collection of West Coast artists under DJ Hed, the second under storied “Not Like Us” producer Mustard, and the third headlined by Lamar.

In a moment that may go down in rap history, Kendrick Lamar performed his Drake-eviscerating hit “Not Like Us” for the first time at his Juneteenth concert, The Pop Out: Ken & Friends. The show took place at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum and was announced less than two weeks prior. It was livestreamed on Twitch by Amazon Music.

Kendrick performed the track five separate times, each more explosive than the last. “Y’all ain’t gonna let nobody disrespect the West Coast, huh?” Kendrick Lamar asked after holding out the...

As J. Cole put a bow on this year’s Dreamville Festival, he worked an apology heard-’round-hip-hop into the introduction to one of his biggest and most sentimental songs, “Love Yourz.” “The past two days have felt terrible,” he said, earnestly admitting he’s lost sleep over “7 Minute Drill,” his nuanced but ill-received jab back at Kendrick Lamar for dissing him and Drake (mostly Drake) on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That.”

On stage, Cole explained that “Love Yourz” signified a turning point a decade ago, one where...

J. Cole is back with a “surprise” new album, Might Delete Later, arriving via Dreamville and Interscope Records.

Spanning 12 tracks, Might Delete Later’s release comes after a few weeks of Cole teasing the project via vlogs online. Alongside Cole, a number of artists appear on the album, including Ari Lennox, Gucci Mane, Daylyt, Cam’ron, Young Dro, and more. Check out the full tracklist below.

Of note is the closing track, “7 Minute Drill,” which includes Cole’s response to Kendrick Lamar’s diss on Future and Metro Boomin’s March 2024 song “Like That.” On the track, Cole raps, “I got a phone call that said somebody was dissing… He fell off like The Simpsons.”

Cole then alludes to Lamar’s discography, rapping, “Your first shit was classic, your last shit was tragic/ Your second shit put n***as to sleep but they gassed it/ Your third shit was a massive hit,...

“Gang shit, I invented that, huh?” asks Schoolboy Q on “Pop,” a track from Blue Lips, his first album in nearly five years. It’s clearly an overstatement. But give the former Hoover Street Crip credit: Back in the early 2010s, he fused the open-eared, genre-less sensibility of Tumblr rap with vintage L.A. gangsta flows in classic moments like “Hands on the Wheel” and “Druggys Wit Hoes Again.” Along with Vince Staples, Boogie and others, Q marked a clear break from the city’s G-funk identity, even as he...

For 24 hours only, Schoolboy Q is offering a glimpse into the world of Blue Lips, his first studio album in nearly five years, set for release on March 1. The rapper, who announced the album with a trailer featuring its apparent track list, has yet to share any official singles from the project. But just for today, listeners can tap into “Blueslides” and “Back in Love,” a collaboration with Devin Malik.

The two songs have been uploaded to YouTube with fully developed visuals. In the clip for “Blueslides,” Schoolboy Q raps...

Chance the Rapper has added concerts in Brooklyn and Los Angeles to his celebration of the 10-year anniversary of his breakout mixtape, Acid Rap.

The two new shows will take place on August 26th at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center and on September 21st at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum. Chance previously announced a hometown show at Chicago’s United Center scheduled for August 19th. See his full tour schedule below.

Tickets go on sale Friday, May 5th at 10:00 a.m. local time via Ticketmaster, with a Live Nation pre-sale occurring one day earlier on Thursday, May 4th (use access code Iconic).

Once tickets are on sale, you can also find them at StubHub, where orders are 100% guaranteed through StubHub’s FanProtect program. StubHub is a secondary market ticketing platform, and prices may be higher or lower than face value, depending on demand.

This past weekend, Chance shared a 10th anniversary...

Rappers/actors Freh & Mike Zombie are shooting the Masked Killa music video for the horror feature (Camp Pleasant Lake) Thomas Walton will be directing and Jared Safier Producing. David M. Parks is the Dp and Snake Child will serve as the music producer.

Walton announced some of the cast will be returning for the video, including Mike Ferguson who plays the character of Lou.

Mike Zombie Produced the song “Started from the Bottom” for Drake. His other major production credits are; They Don’t Love you No More by DJ Khaled. And recently produced the song “A.I. With The Braids” for the Game, featuring Lil Wayne.

Freh (formerly Short Dawg) known for his March Madness 4 EP, which featured appearances by Rl, Iamsu, 2 Chainz, and Trinidad James. His debut full-length as Freh was released that autumn. Frehism included “Petty” with 50 Cent and 2 Chainz. He recently was featured on...

In the parking lot of Anderson Memorial Park in Carson, California, just south of Compton and north of Long Beach, Ab-Soul chain-smokes Newports and speaks gently. We’re close to the houses he grew up in alongside his mother, aunts, and paternal grandparents. “I kinda like to call it the ghetto suburb,” the rapper, 35, says from the open back seat of a Tesla SUV. “Because it is a suburb, but it’s got all the other stuff, too.” And yet, as is typical of neighborhoods in the southern half of the county,...

We’ve reinvented our Songs You Need to Know franchise as a weekly playlist of the best new music — featuring the week’s biggest new singles, key tracks from our favorite albums, and more. This week we’ve got the triumphant return of Taylor Swift, as well as highlights from new albums by Carly Rae Jepsen and Tegan and Sara, as well as Roddy Rich, Smino, Jeezy and more. Check out the list, or cue it up on Spotify.

Taylor Swift, “Anti-Hero” (youtube)

Lil Uzi Vert, “Just Wanna Rock” (youtube)

Arctic Monkeys,...

Working in the Carson, California, studio from which Top Dawg Entertainment was launched has become something of a rite of passage for new artists on the label. After building the studio in the back of his unassuming suburban home around 2004, founder Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith rounded up four of the most-talented MCs in the L.A. area — Kendrick Lamar, Jay Rock, ScHoolboy Q, and Ab-Soul — and brought out the best in them. Nearly two decades later, Tde’s first female rapper found herself in the wood-paneled, windowless cave known as the House of Pain.

Isaiah Rashad got one of his first tastes of the spotlight in the fourth grade, as a horse in a school play in his native Chattanooga, Tennessee. Isaiah had no lines or memorable moments. He got on stage and did his little gallop, but went on to live a big life. The Top Dawg Entertainment rapper was so introverted as he bounced around schools in the city as a child that he’s not convinced his old elementary classmates would even remember him. In reality, Isaiah’s rise may have...

Between 1971 and 1997, if you said “The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers,” you were talking about comics artist Gilbert Shelton’s illustrated pothead underground series. Stoned being the way of the walk, Shelton characters like Phineas T. Phreak and Freewheelin’ Franklin Freek were busy buying weed, selling weed and talking about weed.

It is fitting then that Lionsgate and its partners, Wtg Enterprises, chose 4/20 to announce further casting for their new joint animated series, “The Freak Brothers.” Pete Davidson, Tiffany Haddish, Woody Harrelson, La La Anthony, John Goodman and the stars of Comedy Central’s “Workaholics,” Adam Devine and Blake Anderson, had already signed on. (Devine and Anderson also serve as executive producers on the series.) Today comes word that Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, the founder of Top Dawg Entertainment (Tde) has produced the show’s theme song and is serving as executive producer on the series, and ScHoolboy Q will play a character based on himself.

Dave Free is no longer working with Top Dawg Entertainment — the label known for elevating the careers of Kendrick Lamar, Sza, and Schoolboy Q — according to two insiders with knowledge of the move who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Sources said Free has been working on his own for several months. He is helping the rising rapper Baby Keem, whose July album Die for My Bitch has amassed more than nine million streams to date. Last year, Free also announced his intention of “getting heavy into the film game.

Kenny Beats leans back and forth in a swivel chair, his movements matching the rhythm of his words, his face darting in and out of the conference room shadows. He’s describing L.A. rapper 03 Greedo’s last days of freedom before he turned himself in to serve 20 years in prison for drug and gun possession. It’s a subject he feels strongly about. Kenny’s voice is a mixture of reverence and pain as he speaks about his collaborator — half lamenting, half mythologizing.

“I can’t understand anything about that,...

Save your voice, Sza! Last week, Top Dawg announced one of the most popular artists on his label had been pushing herself too hard on the Championship Tour, which kicked off May 4 in Vancouver; other artists on the 30-date trek include Ab-Soul, Kendrick Lamar, ScHoolboy Q and Jay Rock. In an Instagram update, he wrote, "I got some bad news. I have to take Sza off for a few days on the tour. Her vocal chords are swollen and she have to rest her voice to prevent any permanent damage. We been monitoring her close and this is the reason she missed the Arizona and New Mexico dates. She'll see the doctor again in a few days and I'll update you guys on her status." "As for the dates she missed," he...

Before embarking on their upcoming Championship tour, which kicks off on May 4 in Vancouver, Kendrick Lamar, Sza, Schoolboy Q and other Top Dawg Entertainment artists are seen undertaking some tough workouts in a hilarious Lyft-sponsored commercial posted by the label.

The promo features all of the touring artists: Lamar, Sza, Schoolboy Q, Jay Rock, Ab-Soul, SiR and Lance Skiiwalker along with Isaiah Rashad.

The video begins with Schoolboy Q swinging golf clubs on the course with Lance Skiiwalker before phoning Lamar who is attempting to teach Jay Rock how to play tennis. Meanwhile, Sza is shown hiking in the middle of nowhere, then zooming around in a golf cart.

Eventually all the artists come together to run a few laps on the track, lift some weights, and play more sports — badly.

On a more serious note, Lamar has been making headlines recently after receiving a Pulitzer Prize for his latest album “Damn.

The Black Panther soundtrack is out...and it might be one of the most amazing soundtracks Marvel's released to date. Where Guardians of the Galaxy is known for its incredibly awesome 80s mixtapes, hopefully, the Black Panther soundtrack continues the precedent of getting together hip-hops biggest names for original songs that are in touch with modern hip-hop trends. If you follow Hip-hop and RnB at all...check out his tracklist and tell me you aren't impressed: 

1. Black Panther Kendrick Lamar

2. All The Stars (Album Version) by Kendrick Lamar & Sza Lyrics

3. X (Ft. 2 Chainz, Saudi & ScHoolboy Q)Lyrics

4. The Ways by Khalid & Swae Lee Lyrics

14.8K

5. Opps by Vince Staples & Yugen BlakrokLyrics

6. I Am by Jorja Smith Lyrics

7. Paramedic! by Sob x Rbe (Ft. Kendrick Lamar & Zacari) Lyrics

8.Bloody Waters by Ab-Soul (Ft. Anderson .Paak & James Blake) Lyrics

9. King's Dead by Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar, Future & James Blake Lyrics

10. Redemption...

“Black Panther” bares it’s claws at the box office next weekend, but Marvel is eager to get audiences pumped in advance so the soundtrack is dropping today. Be forewarned, however, that while the album is curated and produced by Kendrick Lamar and Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, and features Sza, Schoolboy Q, Vince Staples, Ab-Soul, The Weeknd and more, there’s only one song you’ll hear in the actual movie.

Kendrick Lamar has revealed the full track list for the Black Panther soundtrack. It was revealed in December that the Grammy-winning artist was going to be involved with the music for Marvel's Black Panther, but it turns out he's contributed heavily to the movie's original soundtrack, along with many other big names from the current rap and hip-hop landscape. Lamar took to Twitter to reveal not only the full tracklist for Black Panther The Album, but also the cover art.

The cover art for the Black Panther soundtrack is simple yet effective, featuring a black background with T'Challa's very recognizable necklace on the front. As for the music, Kendrick Lamar is featured on a total of five of the album's tracks, including the title track Black Panther, All the Stars with Sza, King's Dead with Jay Rock, Future and James Black, Big Shot with Travis Scott and Pray for Me with The Weeknd.