*(AllHipHop News)) Chance the rapper has linked up with Obama again, for a new Public Service Announcement. Chance, the POTUS and NBA star Steph Curry star in the :60 second spot for the Obama Foundation’s My Brother’s Keeper Alliance. “I want you to know, you matter. There is nothing, not a single thing, that’s more important to the future of America than whether or not young people all across this country can achieve their dreams,” Obama says in the PSA. In November, Chance curated and performed at the inaugural Obama Foundation summit.

(AllHipHop News) A new true crime series on the Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur murders will get a ritzy debut during the Sundance Film Festival. USA Network’s “Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.” centers around the police investigations into the 1996 and 1997 murders of Tupac Shakur and Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace. The investigations, which were conducted by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Las Vegas Police Department, yielded no arrests. According to Deadline , Sundance will host a screening and panel discussion with directors and cast members during on January 20th during the festival. “Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.” debuts on USA Network on February 27.

(AllHipHop News) Eminem’s daughter Hailie Jade Scott Mathers sent the internet into a frenzy over the holiday weekend. The 21-year- old, who has been the subject of numerous Eminem songs, including “Castle” his new album Revival, posted a revealing picture of herself on her Instagram page. The photo features Hailie in a sheer, see-through top, with a little bit of underboob exposed. The sexy picture, which she shared with her 714,000 followers, is meant to celebrate Hailie’s birthday, because she turns 22 on December 25th. Take a look at Em’s daughter as a baby and how she looks now: https://www.instagram.com/p/BdB8Ol8g1LM/

(AllHipHop News) Gangsta rapper Snoop Dogg is planning on getting into the “spirit” next year. According to the Long Beach native, he is planning a full-fledged gospel album in 2018. “I have always wanted to try Gospel. This may surprise some people but all I gotta say is get ready for some good for your soul music in 2018,” Snoop Dogg told Billboard. “Ya know I’m always cookin’ up something. I’ll have some new projects for y’all in the New Year.” While the project has yet to be named, Snoop has been teasing the gospel project since June. According to Snoop, the project was inspired by his mother, who gave her stamp of approval for the album. Check out a snippet below: https://www.instagram.com/p/BWPbmVJDYKY/

Goldlink, Statik Selektah Heading To Croatia As Part Of Fresh Island Festival The first round of rappers performing at the Fresh Island Festival has been revealed. (AllHipHop News) Washington, DC rapper Goldlink, producer Statik Selektah, J-Hus and DJ Tim Westwood are heading to Croatia next year. The rappers are among the first wave of artists announced for the annual Fresh Island Festival. Each year, DJ Phat Philly and his Blackout Entertainment team host one of the biggest events in the entire country. Headliners over the past years have included Nas, Giggs, Rae Sremmurd, Rick Ross, Snoop Dogg, French Montana, Wiz Khalifa, Chris Brown and others. This year, Fresh Island Festival takes place on Zrće beach Novalja, Croatia from July 10-12 in 2018. Take a look at a recap of 2017’s Fresh Island Festival below. https://www.google.com/sorry/index?continue=https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=em-uploademail%26v=PqENC17mOHY&q=EgQ0Gqq7GOLpgvkFIhkA8aeDS36ZOdUDYGDboH6p1iTTLtT2i24eMgFy

(AllHipHop News) A news reporter who went viral for blasting Sean “Diddy” Combs’ desire to purchase the Carolina Panthers is attempting to end a growing feud with the Hip-Hop community. Henry Wofford, who is a reporter for San Francisco’s KRON4 went viral last week for making fun of Diddy, claiming the mogul isn’t fit to be the owner of an NFL team because he always looks “drunk and high.” Rapper Nipsey Hussle became involved in the feud and threatened to beat up Henry Wofford during an interview with TMZ.com. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bc3iHrhBYzK/ The feud continued over the weekend when Henry Wofford challenged Nipsey Hussle to a boxing batch via Twitter. “I saw you on @TMZ saying you’ll beat me down when you see me. Here’s your opportunity. I’m old school and only fight for a cause,” Wofford tweeted at the rapper. “Let’s raise money for the Black Community. We can box or go MMA style in a celebrity fight. Hug when it’s over,” Wofford, continued. Nipsey Hussle wasted no time in replying to Wofford with some strongly-worded words of his own. “I’ll beat yo white washed Samuel L Jackson in DJANGO ass. We rejected you from the black community after you COON’d you own people to try to fit in on mainstream TV,” Nipsey said. “I don’t hug Uncle Toms. You ain’t hard enough… yo knuckles ain’t scared enough.” But now, it appears the men have peaced things out. There will be no boxing match. according to Wofford, the beef has ended as fast as it started. “Nipsey Hussle and I did it the right way. Talk behind closed doors, get it all off your chest, listen to one another, and grow from the experience,” the reporter said. “There’s not going to be a fight. I got nothing but respect for the man. Time to move forward,” Wofford concluded.

(AllHipHop News) Model Blac Chyna is insisting she acted in self-defense when she allegedly attacked her ex-fiance Rob Kardashian in a vicious fight last year. Rob filed suit against the mother of his baby daughter Dream in September, claiming she was intoxicated when she reportedly tried to strangle him with an iPhone power cord on December 14th, 2016. He accused Chyna of chasing him around the home he was renting from his sister Kylie Jenner, and playing with his gun, while she repeatedly struck him in the head and face as he tried to get away. She is said to have then trashed the place, damaging walls, a door, and a television, and destroying cell phones – prompting Kylie to join the suit as a plaintiff, estimating the cost of damages totaled more than $100,000. Chyna has since hit back at Rob’s accusations, maintaining any violent acts she may have aimed at him were all in self-defense. According to court papers obtained by TheBlast.com, she has denied any wrongdoing and dismissed claims suggesting she is responsible for damage done to Rob or Kylie’s possessions, insisting her reported behavior was “caused and necessitated by the actions of Plaintiffs, and was reasonable and necessary for Defendant’s self-defense and defense of others”. She is demanding Rob and Kylie’s lawsuit for assault, battery and vandalism be thrown out of court. The bitter exes split at the beginning of 2017. Their baby girl turned one in November. It’s not the only lawsuit Chyna is involved in with the Kardashian/Jenners – she is also suing the famous family for causing the cancellation of the former couple’s reality show, Rob & Chyna.

(AllHipHop News) British rapper Stormzy performed at one of his fans’ father’s funeral after receiving a request on Twitter. Nas Bockarie’s dad died on December 8th, the same day he graduated as a high school physical education teacher. After his father’s death, Nas reached out to Stormzy, 24, to ask him if he could perform his track “Blinded By Your Grace” at the funeral, as it was a family favorite. “Bro my Dad passed away on the day of my graduation last week Friday,” the fan wrote in a tweet to the grime star. “Our favorite song of yours was blinded by your grace. Would love it if you could preform (sic) this at his funeral next Thursday 21st December. Don’t worry if you can’t, I just thought I’d try my luck.” Stormzy, real name Michael Ebenazer Kwadjo Omari Owuo, Jr. responded by asking Nas to message him privately, an act which the fan wrote rendered him “speechless.” Yesterday (December 21, Nas’s friend Deji posted a picture of Stormzy singing at the funeral on Twiter, writing, “Massive respect for @Stormzy1 for honoring this…God Bless You.” Performing at the memorial is not the rapper’s only generous act this Christmas, as last week he joined the actor Idris Elba in donning a Santa outfit to visit wards at two children’s hospitals in London.

(AllHipHop News) Will Smith is reportedly set to return for a sequel to his new Netflix movie “Bright,” making it the first blockbuster film franchise from a streaming service. The fantasy buddy cop action-comedy stars Will as a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officer forced to partner with a mystical orc, played by Joel Edgerton, to hunt down a nuclear weapon everyone is prepared to kill for. Bright, which was made on a $90 million budget, launches online and in select theaters today (December 22), and although it’s been savaged by critics, Netflix officials have already ordered a follow-up with Will onboard, according to Bloomberg.com. It’s not yet known if Edgerton or director David Ayer will also be involved, but the filmmaker has embraced critics’ negative reviews, declaring on Twitter, “Highest compliment is a strong reaction either way.” Acknowledging that his work often splits opinion, the “Suicide Squad” director continued, “Every movie is a labor of love for me. I’ve never chased the audience, and I know my work can be polarizing. I’ve lived a crazy love and I guess my movies reflect that.” Even Will is the first to admit the concept for “Bright” is an odd one. During a pre-taped appearance on Britain’s “The Graham Norton Show,” which airs on Friday night, he said, “It’s really a fun and bizarre action movie. It takes some time to get your head around.” “It’s ‘Training Day’ meets ‘Lord of the Rings’…,” the “Men In Black” star added to U.S. breakfast show “Good Morning America.” “If you imagine the creatures from ‘Lord of the Rings’, imagine that was 4,000 years ago, but then all of those creatures came forward into modern day, and now we’re in modern day Los Angeles, but there’s orcs.” Both Will and Joel were also drawn to the film because of its social commentary. “In the movie, I’m a black police officer, but my character’s racist against orcs. It’s sort of a flip of social hierarchy,” Will explained, as Joel added, “It’s a fairytale that allows you to talk about stuff that we don’t like to talk about or don’t talk about enough, in terms of how we treat other people in society.” “We just have to treat each other a little bit nicer,” Will concluded. ​ ​ ​ ​

(AllHipHop News) CeeLo Green and Danger Mouse are reuniting after a decade to create a new Gnarles Barkley album. The singer and producer created two Gnarls Barkley albums, 2006’s St. Elsewhere, which included their biggest hit, “Crazy,” and 2008’s The Odd Couple. After a decade apart, CeeLo says he and Danger Mouse, real name Brian Joseph Burton, have been working on new material. “We have already started on a new (Gnarls Barkley) album,” the 43-year-old told DJBooth. “We’re halfway in and we have some overtures from the other projects that may not have stood the test of time, we don’t know yet.” He revealed that he planned to meet with Danger Mouse at the “top of the year” for an intensive week-long recording session. CeeLo hopes the swift recording period will emulate the creative process behind their acclaimed 2006 debut. “That’s pretty much all the time we had to do St. Elsewhere because we were heating up around that time,” he explained. Since storming the charts alongside CeeLo as Gnarls Barkley, Danger Mouse, 40, has emerged as one of the world’s most sought-after producers – working on recent albums by Adele, U2, A$AP Rocky and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

(AllHipHop News) Kendrick Lamar’s Damn has been crowned music critics’ favorite record of 2017. Damn, released in April, roundly beat some of the best-selling albums of 2017, such as Ed Sheeran’s ÷ (Divide), Taylor Swift’s Reputation and Drake’s More Life project, thanks to its combination of self-examination, politics, and commentary on American society. Female artists did well in the poll, with second place going to Grammy-nominated artists SZA, for her partially-improvised R&B album CTRL, and Lorde, who came third with her sophomore effort, Melodrama. Kendrick’s album topped a “poll of polls” compiled by BBC News from 30 “album of the year” shortlists, published by the most influential magazines, newspapers and blogs in music – from specialist magazines like Billboard and NME to more mainstream outlets, such as Cosmopolitan and PopSugar. Records were assigned points based on their position in each list – with the number one album getting 20 points, the number two album receiving 19 points, and so on. Sheeran’s album only received one point, for a mention from People magazine, who put it in seventh place on their year-end list. But the Compton-born rapper emerged the clear winner after he took first place on 10 of the polls surveyed by the BBC, with his album garnering 28 poll mentions. Critics gushed over the 30-year-old’s fourth studio album, with Q magazine dubbing it “a flawless hip-hop masterclass” and Billboard magazine stating: “It is the unimpeachable truth that Kendrick Lamar recorded the greatest album of 2017.” The poll contained a diverse range of artists including Kelela, Khalid, Charli XCX, Kesha and Tyler, the Creator. Even excluding non-U.K. publications from the BBC’s survey, Kendrick still held the top spot, but U.K. rappers J Hus, Stormzy and Loyle Carner moved higher up the rankings.

(AllHipHop News) Hip-Hop star Lauryn Hill has been slapped with legal action from a former trombone player over allegations of unpaid wages. Musician Matthew Hartnett claims he was hired for a series of live recording sessions over the summer and was then invited to join Hill on tour, but he was reportedly cut from the autumn shows before they began, despite signing a 10-week contract. According to TMZ.com , he has yet to receive payment for his music contributions, and insists he is entitled to at least half of the value of his touring agreement. Hartnett is now demanding compensation for just over $ 11,500, in addition to damages. The “Ex-Factor” hitmaker has been named as a defendant in the lawsuit, alongside her touring manager and her touring company bosses. They have yet to respond to the accusations. It’s not clear which series of concerts Hartnett was recruited for, but Hill embarked on the “Powernomics Tour” with rapper Nas in September.

(AllHipHop News) Rap mogul Jay-Z has teamed up with streetwear designers at Fear of God to launch a clothing line inspired by his new album. The collection was exclusively released at The House of God Pop-up Shop at luxury boutique Maxfield L.A. last night (December 21), hours before the “Empire State of Mind” hitmaker wrapped up the North American leg of his “4:44 Tour” at Los Angeles’ The Forum. The range features black and white T-shirts, long-sleeved tops, hooded sweatshirts, a leather jacket, and hats, with the words “Fear of God” emblazoned across many of the pieces, which also include references to the Bible verse John 4:44. The religious text, which states, “A prophet is without honor in his own country,” was agreed upon by both parties as it aligns with the theme of JAY-Z’s 4:44 album. “From the wristbands and bandanas to the proportions, we wanted to modernize Jay’s approach and contribution to fashion through our lens,” Fear of God founder Jerry Lorenzo told Vogue . “Jay gave us feedback and direction along the way. He’s a true artist in every sense of the word.” It’s not the first of Jay-Z’s releases to inspire a fashion line. Retail bosses at Urban Outfitters also began selling a capsule collection based on the hip-hop icon’s 21-year-old debut album, Reasonable Doubt, last month. Fans of the rapper have previously been able to share his style through his Rocawear clothing brand, which he co-founded in 1999 with his Roc-A-Fella Records business partner Damon Dash.

(AllHipHop News) Will Smith struggles to watch early episodes of “The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air” as he’s embarrassed by his acting. Will started out as a rapper in the 1980s, but became a major TV star after playing a fictionalized version of himself in the hit sitcom – which debuted in 1990. Despite the show making his name as an actor, the “Men In Black” star confesses he finds it difficult to watch some episodes as his enthusiasm got the better of him during filming. “It was my very first role and I was very, very focused on being successful so I learnt the whole script and everyone else’s lines,” the 49-year-old actor told U.K. chat show host Graham Norton. “If you watch the first four or five episodes you can see I’m mouthing other people’s lines. It’s terrible and I can’t bear to watch it.” The Hollywood superstar reunited with his old music partner DJ Jazzy Jeff, who also played Will’s best pal Jazz in “The Fresh Prince,” earlier this year for two gigs. After their musical reunion Jeff expressed his hopes that Will would agree to bring back “The Fresh Prince.” “There have been talks with people about doing something,” he confessed to British newspaper The Sun. “I think it would be cool if they did it and go down memory lane again.” Will is less optimistic, however, and jokes he’d now have to take on the role of Uncle Phil, his character’s adopted guardian, who was played by the late James Avery. He told Graham, “Man, I’d have to be Uncle Phil in that one now I’m nearly 50!” James passed away in 2013, and Will’s co-star Alfonso Ribeiro has said the show will never be revived as it “doesn’t work” without the late actor. 

(AllHipHop News) Hip-Hop sensation Cardi B nearly abandoned her rap dreams last Christmas after she was cut from a star-studded song. The former “Love & Hip Hop: New York” reality star took the charts by storm this summer with the success of her debut single “Bodak Yellow,” but Cardi almost walked away from the industry following a devastating setback. In a recent chat on Instagram Live, she explained to fans, “I did a verse to somebody’s song, and other artists was in the song as well, and I was so excited because I felt like my verse was so poppin’ (hot). “Then, the artist told me that I couldn’t be on the song anymore because one of the artists that was on the song felt like I was too small (not famous enough), and they were too big for me to be on the same song with them (sic).” Cardi didn’t name the track or the musician she had recorded the song for but revealed it took place around the holidays, shortly after quitting Love & Hip Hop: New York. She left the show at the end of season seven last year. “That s##t broke my heart so bad, it broke my heart to pieces,” she continued. Despite wanting to give up on her music career, Cardi pressed on, and has since scored features on G-Eazy’s “No Limit,” Migos and Nicki Minaj’s collaboration “Motorsport,” and Latin singer Ozuna’s new release, “La Modelo,” while she is planning to drop another single, “Bartier Bardi,” with 21 Savage on Friday. Cardi is currently working on completing her debut album, but she has urged fans to be patient. “A b##ch is gonna put something out,” she assured viewers. “You think I’m gonna hold s##t, or (label bosses at) Atlantic is gonna hold s##t because we just blatantly feel like it? No. We wanna make money as fast as we can.” She went on to blame sample clearance issues and other factors for the album delay.

(AllHipHop News) Rapper French Montana has reportedly struck up a romance with U.S. reality star Evelyn Lozada. The “Unforgettable” hitmaker is said to have helped celebrate the “Basketball Wives” beauty’s recent 42nd birthday with a bash at his Los Angeles home, where she was pictured blowing out candles on her cake. Evelyn posted the image on social media, making no mention of Montana, but eagle-eyed fans noticed the decor was strikingly similar to that of the hip-hop star’s pad and began speculating about a possible new relationship. Now sources tell The Blast the new couple is getting to know one another, and although the stars have yet to make the romance official, they are “taking things slow”. French previously dated fellow rapper Iggy Azalea, as well as another reality TV regular, Khloe Kardashian, who is now expecting her first child with basketball star Tristan Thompson. Lozada is also no stranger to high-profile romances – she used to be married to retired American footballer Chad Ochocinco and called off her engagement to former baseball player Carl Crawford in August.