Might be the craziest seven days in years.
For the past few weeks we’ve been waiting for this sh*t to blow. Every week there was a storm brewing, a series of waves bubbling under, and it was only a matter of time before the blitzkrieg arrived. As the entire industry awaited the fateful June 18th, when J. Cole, Kanye West, Mac Miller & Statik Selektah would all release albums, Jay-Z pulled a, well, a Jay-Z, and put a stop to the entire freight train. While everyone thought they were innocently watching Game 5 of the NBA Finals, they were really watching the Heat and the Spurs open up for Pharrell, Timbaland, Swizz Beatz & Rick Rubin. And there it was, the announcement everyone knew was coming but no one really expected to actually come to fruition, two days before Yeezus at that. And then the madness didn’t stop. Dom Kennedy blessed us with the first Get Home Safely single on the first day of summer, in that classic Dom Kennedy timing, Drake shut down the internet on the one day most struggle rappers feel safe putting their music out, J. Cole made Nas proud, Wale brought all the clappers to the front, SOB’s formally introduced Chance The Rapper to New York City, J. Cole & Drake pulled a fast one at Irving Plaza, then ran in Best Buy & boosed Born Sinner’s soundscan. And just when you thought Big Sean was hopelessly on the backburner, Barry Weiss gave the Detroit player a release date (how exciting!), and N O T H I N G W A S T H E S A M E I S N O W O F F I C I A L L Y C O M I N G O U T O N S E P T E M B E R 1 7 T H. So, for those of you looking forward to June 18th, it was a great day but it really just set the stage for the rest of the year. Enjoy your Sunday, and look back at one C R A Z Y week in hip-hop.
RIP Lil Snupe. Your soul lives on.
-Khari Nixon (@KingVanGogh)
