Hov, why was it two dots?
You was just trying to look expensive.
You calling it X?
Twitter, my fault.
I thought maybe they converted you.
We got to keep an eye on that.
Anybody that calls Twitter X, keep your eye on them.
B If you get converted and start calling Twitter X.
I got to watch.
Not a religion.
Which halftime show did you watch, Lo?
Did you watch Bad Bunny or the other one?
Juice Planet 147 said, Eddie's killing me with the Ross department store Prada branding.
They don't make that, Eddie.
I would rather have kids listening to JID than a lot of y'all niggas.
I'ma keep it 100.
Let's go back to the crux of this situation.
Talk to me.
Who wins in a versus 50 scenes?
Who wins in a versus?
T.I. wins in a versus.
Yo, Nick be knowing.
Nick, I know we haven't jumped to your segment yet.
Did Lowe yell at me last week?
Yeah, he raised his voice, man.
You were agitated.
But we're not talking about me, though.
All right, well, fuck out of here.
All right, let's start the show.
Oh, my.
This is rolling.
He doing it.
He doing it.
No, because y'all getting me out of character.
It's not out of character if you continue to do the same thing.
That is your character.
No, y'all doing this on purpose.
No, I'm not doing it.
That's what I don't like when y'all do this shit.
Yo, man, rap life review.
That's Eddie and Nick.
I'm Ebro Low.
The snow got Nadeska caught up, you know.
So we're not going to see her this week.
It's a mess outside.
Yo, does y'all news carry how bad the snow was here in New York?
Did y'all see it in LA, Eddie, Nick?
I mean, we get Instagram, so we didn't go through it, man.
I heard y'all making our Dasani water with all that dirty-ass snow.
That's what I've been seeing.
I said, I heard y'all curbs is gone.
I heard there were curbs, there were sidewalks.
Yo, look, I like when the snow happens like this.
It calms everybody down.
You know what I'm saying?
No, it drives everybody crazy.
Everybody in the crib can't move, can't order food.
No, I like that.
All y'all go sit down.
Everybody go sit down.
Slow down.
Take your time.
School is canceled.
That's the toughest part for parents is the school being- I know for you it's hard.
Yeah, the kids is at home.
You got to find stuff for them to do, but you can't really go nowhere.
Me and Selassie, we built a snowman.
That's good.
You know what I mean?
Which was nice.
By the way, the snow is great.
Snowman snow.
I don't know.
It's great.
This is that good quality snowman snow.
Me and Nick feel you because it rained pretty heavy here last week.
I was going to ask y'all about how y'all had a serious downpour where people had like a foot of water they was walking through in their neighborhoods or something, floods and everything.
Yeah, for sure.
Melrose flooded a little bit because we're not built for it at all.
Yeah, our Trader Joe's in Silver Lake.
Oh, man.
Rest in peace, Trader Joe's in Silver Lake.
That's a pivotal Trader Joe's, man.
Man, they are having a fit in Silver Lake without their Trader Joe's.
What is next?
Irwan?
What are we going to do?
What is next?
Yo, one of the first things we need to get to is Salute.
And it's going to be a big year.
A lot of Jay-Z talk.
And we haven't had new material from Hov.
And there's been speculation of new material.
But we are definitely locked in on a 30-year celebration of his first album, Reasonable Doubt.
It kicked off just this past week with the jz30com site launch adding the two dots, the umlaut, back to the top of the Y.
I don't know if you pronounce J different with the two.
No, you don't.
You don't.
You don't pronounce it different.
Still J-A-Y.
No, I know, but I never really paid attention.
Was that ever investigated why the two dots was there?
Just made it look international or something?
It was just... Didn't Rob have something like about that?
Well, Rob Markman talked about the two umlauts going back on it and he brought up a clip of him talking to Biggs about the verse.
Shout out to Rob Markman about how the verse on the single and the album was different.
In that whole situation.
Rob Markman Yes.
Rob Markman Matter of fact, let's run the clip of Rob talking about the two dots at the top.
Rob Markman All right, Jay-Z put the Omelette back on his name.
Omelette, that's the two little dots above the Y.
He put the Omelette back in his name and officially started the 30-year anniversary celebration for his debut album, Reasonable Doubt.
This morning he put up a new site jay-z30com, and offered a vinyl reissue of his original Dead President single and put the song up on streaming for the very first time.
The original Dead Presidents was officially released on this day, February 20th.
Back in 1996, by the time Reasonable Doubt dropped in June, Jay had replaced the lyrics from the original over the same ski beat and offered us dead presidents too, for the album.
So I don't know what's next, but I'm guessing maybe there'll be a 30th anniversary reissue of the Reasonable Doubt vinyl.
I'll find a spot for it on the wall for sure.
Maybe a box set, right?
Maybe we get joints that didn't make the original album like 95 South or Reach the Top.
Maybe the Can't Knock the Hustle remix.
We also know that there was the 10 year anniversary concert in 2006 at Radio City Music Hall.
Maybe we finally see that footage.
Maybe there's a new album as well.
Hov did go to the Super Bowl rocking the hoodie that said, the game needs me across the chest.
Of course, the full lyric is, can't leave rap alone.
The game needs me.
I don't know.
I'm just guessing.
We're going to have to wait and see, man.
Should be good though.
Rob Markman But as you can see, Rob doesn't explain why the two dots.
Hov, why was it two dots?
He was just trying to look expensive.
That's the shit Hov would do.
You just try to look expensive.
Sounds about right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, like around that time, that's what it was.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's like, all right, let me add some foreign shit.
I'm in a national hov.
Yeah, let me add some foreign shit to it and have everybody confused.
Get some foreign shit.
Like, I don't know what the fuck it mean.
Like, what are we doing?
No, that's what it was.
We landed on it.
We figured it out.
But anyway, all this year, at least up and through June, we're going to be celebrating this milestone because, no matter, I think, what you feel about Jay-Z as a businessman and an icon and all of that, I think hip hop universally.
And Nick, you maybe chime in on this generationally going back and looking at 30 years of this album.
I think everybody can agree is a good time, right, Nick?
Absolutely.
Yeah.
When this came out I obviously went back to listen to Reasonable Doubt and I got through like the first seven songs and I was like you could cut the album off right here and it's already a classic.
You know what I mean?
There was still like three or four more joints left.
And I was like, yeah, it's already a classic six songs in.
I mean, I think that's what Jay-Z signifies.
Jay-Z is the north star of rap.
Like in basketball, we have Michael Jordan.
Like everyone wants to play.
Everyone wants to be Mike.
And whether it's the rapping aspect, whether it's making the music, whether it's the business acumen like everyone looks at Jay-Z.
You know what I mean?
Like when you make your greatest album, people say, I'm trying to make my thriller.
Like in rap...
People look to Jay-Z, that's what they aspire to be.
And, you know, Reasonable Doubt was an album that put them on the map.
So, of course, this is a milestone in hip hop.
There's the 30th, let's see.
They released the 30th anniversary limited edition vinyl, CD and cassette tape.
The version of the Ski Beats produced original is on the website.
And it's available for streaming for the first time.
And it's available for streaming for the first time.
Yeah, so.
Also just another note.
I did about five years ago a 25-year anniversary of Essential's album Reasonable Doubt with DJ Clark Kent.
And that was five years ago?
Yes, five years ago.
Yeah, rest in peace, Clark Kent.
Pivotal in the Jay-Z story.
I wish he was here to celebrate with us, but I think he- He produced Brooklyn's Finest.
Yeah, Brooklyn's Finest.
I think he did so much work Clark Kent did in the past telling the story of Reasonable Doubt and his relationship with Jay and his relationship with Big and the role he played in that and the role he played as a producer back then up until now and as a DJ, where I think we will see a lot of material and a lot of story being told about- That we haven't seen.
Or that just people didn't pay attention to.
And even with Nick saying he went back and listened to Reasonable Doubt.
I think that's another thing I would love to see happen here and hopefully it will, for some hip hop fans is going back and listening to something in a different way, with a new ear, or maybe a more mature ear uh, than they have in the past.
Because we are living in a time right now um, i don't know if you guys feel this, but where uh lyricism and lyrics and mcs are really being pushed to the forefront of not just the algorithm on social media but the material uh being put out, because a lot of the labels now, I feel like, have deprioritized hip hop in some ways.
And so now that noise is out of the ecosystem and you see just hip hop fans gravitating to great material,
And I want to shout out On The Radar and what they did with this cypher and the individuals they chose to highlight in this cypher.
Eddie, did you see these clips?
I didn't see it.
Carly sent it.
Shout out to the homie Carly Hustle.
I didn't see it yet.
What happened?
What was it?
No, it's just quality rap.
Pretty much what he's saying is display of lyricism.
It's just young MCs who are on the come up right now who are phenomenal at rapping.
Ray Vaughn.
And having something to say, including artists you've heard of, like Ray Vaughn.
Who else was in there?
Proof Son.
Yeah.
Nassan.
Nassan.
Yeah.
Him and Rob Markman had a little spicy exchange, which I love.
Rob Markman always got something spicy.
Always?
Nah, don't put that on Rob.
Not always, but people are always testing his credibility, testing his... Really?
Yeah, I don't like it.
I don't like what they be doing to Rob.
Nah, I don't see that.
That's not on my algorithm.
That's my guy.
That must be a Twitter thing.
Yeah, yeah, it's an ex thing.
It's not, it's not... You calling it ex?
It's Twitter, my fault.
I thought maybe they converted you.
We got to keep an eye on you.
Anybody that called Twitter ex, keep your eye on them, B. Nah, Twitter.
If you get converted and start calling Twitter ex...
Bro, it's not a religion.
It's not a religion.
I was trying to be professionally correct.
Am I lying, though?
Am I lying about this?
No.
Oh, no.
Which halftime show did you watch, Lo?
Did you watch Bad Bunny or the other one?
This is what we doing.
I'm just saying.
Word.
This is what we doing on the left coast.
No, no, no.
I'm letting you know.
No, no, no.
This is a thing, bro.
I call it Twitter.
I was trying to be, like, just professional.
Oh, you was trying to be professional.
That's all it was.
That's clean.
That's clean.
His mama named it Twitter.
I'm going to call him Twitter.
When you do see the broadcasters, when they're being professional, they refer to it by the business name, which is X.
However, when you hanging out with your friends, if you call Twitter X as a pedestrian, we got eyes on you.
I'm saying you know.
I agree.
I agree.
Wholeheartedly, I agree.
If anybody ever catch me out, lounge, chilling, whatever, and I call an ex, report to this nigga.
No, no, no.
We need to know, because then he's wearing a wire.
We don't know what content he's sharing, what misinformation.
We don't know what's going on.
Get to him, get to Eddie, or get to Nick on the desk and report it immediately.
If you ever hear me call an ex in public, Yeah, that's hilarious.
E, why you jump the gun?
I thought we supposed to start with the comments.
I'm sorry, bro.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Okay, go to the comments, man.
Yeah well, I think the Jay-Z conversation is a great segue into the comments, because there were a lot of people talking about the King of New York conversation last week and we got a couple comments from some people.
Let me go to Realist with a five in it.
It says, no Rocky mention on King of New York is wild.
Okay.
Okay, that's fair.
That's valid.
No, it's not.
It's not wild.
That's valid.
No, it's not.
I mean, if we're going to say Ice Spice and not say Rocky, yeah, that's valid.
Who the fuck said Ice Spice?
I did.
Well, no, I think, now, if you're thinking about specifically Rocky, What, music, rhymes?
Music.
We brought up A Boogie.
There is a discussion.
We brought up influence.
OK, that's one sector.
All right.
I'm talking about music.
I'm talking about impact.
I'm talking about bodies of work.
OK.
I'm talking about outreach outside of the city.
We were talking about A Boogie.
Rocky don't get to mention the same breath as A Boogie.
No, I mean... Well, no, A Boogie was a music convo.
Yeah, I think that's what... But that's what started it.
Right, and that's why I agree with you, Eddie.
This person saying Rocky not being mentioned is wild.
You have, listen, no matter how you feel about Rocky as an MC, all right, put that over there.
Yeah, rocky's ability to be in multiple places on multiple platforms and have impact as a rapper from harlem okay, is very, very loud and big.
Yeah, bro is ray-bans.
Yeah, i mean, bro was on the l i do what was the commercial?
He's on the elevator with the vogue, his fashion thing, his movie thing.
Bro is like yeah, like he's yeah, be bigger than just rap.
OK.
But as a music thing, I see where you're saying.
That's all.
That's it.
His last project didn't take over the charts.
It was number one.
It was number one.
That makes you King of New York.
It's a thing.
It's a really good album.
Yeah.
No, I love A$AP Rocky's latest release.
No, that's not even where I'm getting it.
But somebody says King of New York title is fake.
I don't know if that's a shout to Ido Gray.
It's not that it's fake.
It's non-existent.
Again, we had this conversation last week.
The only heavyweight that we can consider is A Boogie and based on his consistency and the love.
Oh, wait, wait, wait.
There was Cardi B. She's touring.
She's selling out.
Like, let's be real.
Yeah, that's another candidate.
Okay.
Well no, but then Brooklyn Bully here and Bless Fresh.
One says Rocky outsells all these rappers from New York.
Let's be honest.
Why do y'all always ignore it?
Rocky is the king of New York right now.
Brooklyn Bully outsells.
What are you talking about?
Outsells who?
Other New York rappers.
Like, just albums?
Yeah, like shows?
Are we just talking about albums now?
And I'm really just asking.
Because Rocky does sell a lot of merch and a lot of fashion stuff and all that.
But you go look at the top 25 in New York right now, A Boogie's on there.
Like, people are streaming A Boogie.
That's not like we just making shit up.
So he's not outselling A Boogie.
And A Boogie sold out of Radio City Music Hall in like five minutes and MSG last year.
So that number, I don't know where that number falls into place at.
Yeah, outselling is a weird metric.
Are you talking about first week sales?
Are you talking about consistent streams every year?
Yeah, that's what I mean.
Now, the comments, y'all want to go back to Russell's comments on Lil Wayne?
We still doing this?
I think it's interesting that SammySung718 says, Lil Wayne pretty much destroyed hip hop culture.
That's a heavy statement to put on somebody.
That's insane.
What are we talking about, man?
This is why I don't always go to comments.
No, come on.
Keep going, Nick.
What else you got?
Now we're doing everybody got an asshole thing.
Everybody got something to say type shit.
Like, what are we doing?
They were honest a little bit about the Iceman freestyle and wondering where it came from.
And apparently it came from Central C doing that freestyle on one of the Iceman streams, the episode three of the Iceman streams.
I can admit what I'm wrong.
Pardon, sir.
Yeah, that was partly on me for not doing research on that.
You know, I'll take that.
And shout out to... I saw what you did with that.
You let me drown.
Oh, my bad, Lo.
Yeah, I apologize.
I know I should have been there at the time.
Yeah, I was slacking.
Yo, Nick, they putting little dents in your armor over there.
They are a little bit.
You were infallible just before this Iceman debacle.
And you know.
If you're going to have a misstep and it has any proximity to Drake, you are about to get fried.
Yeah, they fried me a little bit.
Someone named Jason.
Someone named Jason jumped in and his first sentence of his comment was let me correct you, Nick.
So, you know, that happened.
And then somebody commented under his post and said, Jason be knowing.
That was a good one.
That was a good one.
That was a good bar.
I take that personally.
Yeah, so you're on my head.
Some of the viewers wanted to roast us a little bit last week.
Somebody said Juice Planet 147 said Eddie's killing me with the Ross Department Store Prada branding.
They don't make that, Eddie.
First of all, you just told on yourself.
Eddie, you was wearing bootlegs?
I'm not going to let him do you like that, Eddie, because he don't be doing the bootlegs.
That said to Allie, Juice Planet 147.
First of all, Juice Planet 147.
You just told on yourself because we know you broke because you don't know what real look like.
And another thing is, y'all don't even see the shoes half the time.
Oh, he came back with the Prada this week.
I had to just look, bro.
I'm known at the Prada store, bro.
Like, I got representatives.
They call me for the, we got a new line.
Do you want to come here?
Y'all don't even see the shoes half the time.
So since you think I'm wearing Frank Prada, are these fake yours, too?
And for the viewers, I am currently unhappy with Eddie's addiction to Melrose.
And I'm the one that often is like, my man, relax.
Calm down.
I got over it.
Eddie don't give a damn.
He's like, bro, this is how I want to spend my money.
These people will see me on the avenue.
Yes.
So Juice Plant 147, get your money up, my boy.
Yo, relax, man.
Yo, chill.
And I also want to formally apologize.
There's multiple comments here saying we cut off from the desk.
I don't know if it was me.
I don't know if it was Lowe.
They say Lowe be completing sentences.
They said you got to stop trying to complete everybody's sentence, brother.
They said that's your move.
That's like your Chun-Li thousand kicks thing.
You just want to finish sentences.
That's it for the comments this week.
I just wanted to start there.
Nice to engage with our audience.
You know, whether they're saying nice things about us or not.
Now y'all know why I skipped over it.
Cause I don't really, some of y'all.
Anyway, Baby Keem got an album and it's on fire out here.
Yes, it is.
Yeah.
Number one on Apple Music right now while we're talking to y'all.
A great execution.
I was so excited about the Momo Boyd feature her, her sibling group i don't know if y'all know about her before the infinity song.
Infinity song.
They've been on rock nation for a few years.
She's a songwriter.
She's a songwriter and producer, excuse me uh, already performed at carnegie hall like super talented all her, her siblings and family members um, and so i was really excited about that.
The way they used too short on the album, the way kendrick appears on the album the, the rollout of the album with the youtube docs uh, the way, just everything about this project and the fact that he nailed it in 11 songs like bravo salute, and the listening session and the live listening and the live listeners.
Look, it's all, it was all just great execution.
I want to shout out pg lang.
Um, i look man, i'm really excited about where hip-hop is.
I don't know about y'all, but 2026 continues to deliver phenomenal hip-hop projects and i know i'm hearing there's a lot more coming this year.
That's just something for us to listen to, uh and engage, and i hope it's inspiring people too to not chase Because the things that we've loved so far about hip hop have not been chasing this kind of appeal to whatever is trending, popular TikTok, all this.
It's been chasing doing right by the culture and doing great by hip hop.
Eddie, how you feel about this, Baby King?
I'm going to say it, bro.
It's hard to say this after an album's only been out for at the time of recording.
It's less than a week.
It's my favorite album of the year so far.
A lot of times I've been known to complain about albums that have heavy subject matter.
But when you rap it like this, like I can deal with your trauma if I can bob my head to it.
Cause he's unpacking a lot.
Like, and that's the beauty of the rollout as well.
As I was seeing those videos come out early on, I was like yo his aunt's talking and his uncle and what's going on with his mom.
How come his mom's not involved in his rollout?
And then when you hear the album, You know why.
And with Melodic Blue.
As I listened to it I didn't feel like I knew Baby Keem, but when I listened to this project I felt like I knew him.
I knew his family, I knew what he was going through mentally spiritually, with the loves of his life.
And I think that goes to the visual storytelling, along with the musical storytelling, that accompanied not only this album but everything they've done to this point.
And if you break it down and you go track by track and I'm not gonna talk about every track, but when you start with No Security, absolute banger.
Casino, the B-Switch, Slapper, Birds and the Bees seems like that's the standout.
You already talked about Momo Boy, so I'm not gonna go.
Sex Appeal.
Big shot at the Too Short, because I think it was on the Jill Scott album too.
Yeah, he was.
So now too too short having a renaissance sex appeal.
The dollar sign absolute banger.
And the only song i would skip on here is not because it's a bad song, because by the time you get to track 11 uh, no blame, it's such a personal story.
After you already heard his relationship with his mom and you, you legit start to feel bad for baby keem throughout this project, bro.
But that's the beauty of it, it's two things at once.
It's this, this album, where um He's letting go of his pain and letting his listeners and his fans in on everything he's gone through, whether it's his illness, his grandma passing, but he's also giving you some absolute heat with it.
So look, bro, so far this year, my favorite album.
There you go.
Yeah, you took the words right out of my mouth.
Like, I just, you know, I pretty much can't say anything else after that, aside from the production.
The production is so dark and heavy, and the texture of it is beautiful.
You know, the joint with Kendrick is a radio-ready record.
Yeah, Eddie, I can't, I'm not going to try to regurgitate everything you said, so I'm still with it.
I love the fact that it's only 11 songs.
Get In, Get Out is dark, but it's still heavy at the same time, so...
You know, he's got a fan.
I mean, he already had a fan, but I'm vibing with it.
Now it's on us, hip hop.
Same thing with the Cole, same thing last year with Clipse, the JID album, the Gunna album.
You know, these phenomenal releases that came out for us to continue to talk about it, continue to tell the story, continue to listen to the music uh, and listen to the music some more and work that in, because i think that's one of the you know um, my or at least my issues with where things are at today is a lot of talking, not enough listening um, and not enough of us continuing to keep a story going on behalf of this uh, great artistry that's being made.
And go out and see these and see these guys.
Yeah, go to the.
Go to the shows, man.
Go see these guys and girls.
Go out there and make your presence known.
Go out there and try to meet these artists, connect with these artists.
Whether they're new or old.
Whatever the case is, go out there and make sure your presence and your face is seen.
Because if we're not at the shows, if we're not cheering for these people, aside from cheering on the couch then a lot of this shit don't really matter.
So yeah, please, let's go out there, especially this summer.
There's a lot of fucking shows to choose from.
So let's get out there and have some fun with these.
And when you listen to the Baby Keem you'll hear also a very underground aesthetic in some of the production too.
And that's purposefully done.
I'm bringing up right now as a segue into talking about some of the underground material that's even available in the marketplace that's really focused on lyricism, the aesthetic and storytelling and a feel right.
Where, you know, shout to Stove God Cooks, who's got a new single with Swizz.
And I want to shout out my bro, Rock Marciano, you know, from New York City.
I had to sit down with him about his latest project.
He's one of the godfathers and the reason we even have the West Side Guns of the world and the Benny, the Butchers and the Conway, the Machines and this feeling, this kind of gritty New York sample, heavy aesthetic.
Roc Marcy's been on this.
Now we're talking 15 years, maybe longer at this point.
Young cat from Harlem that's moving around with him right now Errol Holden.
If you guys are looking for some storytelling and some of that real gritty hip hop aesthetic and real lyricism.
But I caught up with Rock Marcy on the Ebro show right here on Apple Music.
You know, pimp pie, you know that's the essence.
But I ain't want to be scaring folks away with.
You know what I'm saying.
Pimp shit, you know what I'm saying?
But quiet luxury is like, that's how I'm moving.
It's more grown and sophisticated right now.
So it's felt like you know this rebrand right.
Here is more.
You know what I'm saying, in alignment to where I'm at right now as a man.
You have always been on your grown man-ish, never played around with the stupidity, even all the way back.
And were always very confident about what you was trying to accomplish in hip-hop.
How did you stay locked in on your focus and not Chase?
Well, I mean, I came up on the stupid shit, and I just already knew the pitfalls.
That's right.
So I just knew I was like, all right, I'm going to do something.
You know, it got to a point where I was just moving around and doing too much, even being in the industry for a little bit, and then going back to the streets, losing close friends and stuff like that.
Shout out to my brother Dre.
You know, I just felt like I was being, like I got saved from things that I felt like I could have easily been swept up in.
So, you know, that just made me change my whole focus.
Hip-hop save your life type.
Pretty much, yeah.
So I just said you know what, I'm going to stay over here because that's the most high pushing me this way.
So I was like, I'm going to just make that change.
So there you have it, man.
Other things that y'all could definitely go check.
Speaking of lyricism, Larry June Currency and the Alchemist out here cooking.
They got a project.
And then Mozzy and ESTG, this is my type of carrying on.
I don't know how y'all feel about Mozzy and ESTG.
I know Nick and them love that shit.
Yo, crazy.
I ain't got a chance to listen to it.
I love Mozzy, though.
I love the fella.
You know what I'm saying?
That's my guy.
It almost sounds like if The Departed was a rap album, kind of.
There you go.
That's a great gutter.
That's a great violin.
Is it better than the Mozzy 42 Doug?
Better than Mozzy 42 Doug?
I didn't even think about it through that lens.
That was heat, too.
They're all in a very similar lane.
You know, Mozzy's not playing when it comes to his rap.
And you know, it's storytelling and it's slang.
It's all authentic if you know anything about his story.
So it's great.
Now, how y'all feel about this J.I.D.
Frosted Flakes commercial?
Get the money, man.
Get the money, brother.
Get the money.
Yes.
I love it.
I love it.
I love that it feels hip hop.
I love that it's lyrical.
I love that he's getting the brand move.
All that.
I saw some people trying to hate on it.
That was... on the internet and I was like, wait, so did these people hate on the St.
Ides and the Sprite?
You know they wasn't around for that.
I'm just, you know, I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know who they are, but this sort of thing has been happening in hip hop for a long time.
Bring in newer, like Travis Scott got a McDonald's, all kind of collabs.
Yeah, for sure.
But just like Ludacris in the game having the Boost Mobile song.
Remember that?
Yeah, there you go.
Peezy was in that.
Kanye was in that.
Hip hop has always been a part of that brand commercial aspect, you know, putting brands on a higher pedestal.
And you're mad that, like some of your favorite artists, are getting them checks and being represented.
Well, that's why I asked the question.
No, I'm not mad at it.
Get your money.
No, but I was asking it for the people out there.
It was kind of rhetorical, but just asking where are these people not liking it?
Because it's JID and he's kind of an artistic underground kind of dude.
Right.
And this is like a mainstream.
It looks mainstream and branded.
And, you know, because that's always been a thing in hip hop.
And it's kids cereal.
Like, it's not even adult content.
Like, it's corny?
I mean, it is Corn Flakes-ish.
It's Corn Flake adjacent.
Well, no, I don't know if they were, maybe they were saying it was corny.
That's the only way I'm looking at it.
I see.
He's somebody who's lyrical, who's definitely making content about community and upliftment and consciousness and family.
Yo, I did an interview.
You can watch it on Apple Music.
He took me out to his family's property in Georgia.
And I interviewed his mom.
Brothers, he's always been about family.
So seeing him do something that's kind of like a family friendly lyrical.
It's a family cereal.
It's a family branded cereal.
I would rather have kids listening to JID than a lot of y'all niggas.
I'ma keep it a hundred.
Oh, they didn't have to catch the straight.
No, I'm just saying if we having a combo about like hip hop and kids and all that, I would rather sit down with my 11-year-old breaking down JID lyrics than I would a lot of hip hop out there.
And playing this for them.
Say names.
Say names, E-Bro.
The name, the list is too long.
It's like 95% of the game.
Just make it a clip, man.
Say someone's name for it.
Y'all want me to get my click farming on?
Get your rage baiting on.
Yeah, rage bait.
Come on.
Also to add, for the lyricists and fans of pure hip-hop though, if JID is able to sustain himself financially from a corporate brand that allows him to continue doing the real hip-hop things, that might not be the most lucrative.
You know what I mean?
What's your serial choice?
Frosted Flakes.
I'm the big Frosted Flakes guy.
Shout to whoever's in marketing at Kellogg's.
Another big story that was moving around.
I don't know what to think about this, but I'll just read it.
Even UMG partnership raises some questions around independence.
Even becomes UMG's official direct-to-fan infrastructure.
Universal Music Group signed a multi-year agreement making even a direct-to-fan platform available across UMG labels globally.
Artists can sell music, merch and exclusive content directly to fans before it hits DSPs, integrating into UMG's fan engagement strategy.
I don't get that.
I don't get the controversy.
I don't know if Eddie, you saw any of this or care about any of this.
Listen, guys.
Man, look, y'all sent this in a group text, and I was like, who's Evan?
I didn't know what y'all was talking about.
Listen, bro, I don't know what y'all was talking about.
I thought you was going to enlighten me, man.
You're the super music insider guy.
Like, I thought you was about to educate me.
I think, even as its own company did a deal with another company saying hey, if you have artists who would like to use our platform to get directly to fans, we could do a deal.
And UMG, obviously having deals with artists, could say hey, we're going to monetize your content this way before we monetize it or while we monetize it this other way.
I think it's that simple.
It doesn't mean that even is not also still doing deals with independent artists.
It doesn't say that they're exclusively working with Universal.
They just did a deal.
I got a question.
I don't want to finish your sentence or cut you off.
Well, that's good.
You're listening to the comments.
I like that.
Growth, brother.
So does this mean UMG gets a cut of what even is making with these artists?
Well, if those artists are signed to UMG.
So there's already a cut being made from UMG with the artist just off rip.
That's the way record deals work.
Yes.
OK.
So then, even with them being specifically direct to the consumer, how much does that shave off the pie for the artist?
That's whatever UMG's deal is with that artist.
OK, OK.
You know, because even I think I don't know what percentage even takes from transactions.
That's what I was.
I don't know what that is.
So like when you go to, even when we went to, even for J Cole's release, and you could pay what you want to pay.
Yeah.
And I gave J. Cole in my brain.
I gave J. Cole a dollar.
I don't know if he actually got a dollar.
Which one is it?
Like in your brain or did you actually give him a dollar?
No, no, no.
I'm just saying, let me finish my thought.
In my brain, when I gave him a dollar, I'm thinking I gave J. Cole a dollar.
I might only gave J. Cole 50 cents and even took the other 50 cents.
Right.
Gotcha.
Okay.
I don't know what they're... The split, the joint venture, whatever.
When Kyrie gave LaRussell whatever thousands of dollars that he gave LaRussell.
I don't know what percentage he even got of that money.
I have no idea.
So, yeah, I don't see the controversy here.
If you're signed to UMG and UMG wants to make direct-to-consumer money instead of going through a DSP or going through physical, this is another option.
They cut the middleman.
No, there's a different middleman now.
It's just a different middleman.
No, even as the distributor.
The middleman is the label and then the artist, because you signed a deal with Universal.
Now Universal's saying, hey.
Kind of added another middleman.
Yeah.
You kind of did.
Well, it depends on what the thing is, because if you're going through a DSP, DSP is taking a percentage right which is small, and then the label's taking whatever money.
You still have your publisher, which is taking money.
There's a lot of people in these spots.
All right, so they even just replaced the DSP.
In this physical, in this direct consumer, yes.
It gave you another avenue in which you can use.
Yes, okay.
In which you can sell your product.
That's right.
All right, we'll see how this goes as the story continues.
Right, but yeah.
So I don't know for the fans.
Y'all leave comments on, maybe why you guys saw or the internet saw this as controversial, but I didn't really delve deep enough into the feelings of everyone to know.
I guess it's just because, from what I saw observed through the comments, it's just because even has aligned themselves with a label based on their Yeah, because they're supposed to be strictly independent, right?
Based on their idea and their logic.
That's the only discrepancy.
Once I saw J Cole do a thing with them him as an artist that also works with Universal Interscope, whatever that system is I was like, oh they're doing, They'll work with.
Anybody that wants to use their platform can use their platform, because Cole did it for a mixtape but not for his actual album.
Right.
You know what I'm saying?
And then some people, like La Russell, been using Even for a long time.
Yeah, Even's been around for a minute.
You know what I mean?
So I think it is the perception you guys are talking about, where the perception was that they only were available to independent artists.
Yeah, and that's obviously not the case.
Yeah, but direct-to-consumers is what people want to do.
Let's go to, before we get up out of here, I think we got to go to Nick.
Do y'all want to hit TI-50?
That's what I was about to say.
What about TI-50 would you guys like to get into?
50 ain't rapping, TI is.
What else y'all want to talk about?
Didn't I say this shit?
Didn't I say this shit about a month ago, when Fab and Mane and East and Jim, I said the exact same shit?
I said all- Well, this one's supposed to be different though.
I mean, you're good.
I cut you off, honestly, that time.
So that's on me.
My apologies, Lord.
I'm sorry.
No, me, I should have raised my hand.
But this was supposed to be different, because this was supposed to be promo for a potential, versus apparently.
That's the root of this.
So T.I.'
's thinking it's one thing.
Like, all right, cool, we have a business opportunity.
Say what you want about T.I.
He is a businessman.
Say what you want about 50.
50's a businessman.
We all going to eat.
Like Ebro says, everything's promo.
So, after we do our verses, I'm going to drop speaking like I'm TI.
I'm going to drop this album that people seem to be receptive to these songs.
So T.I. thinks it's one thing.
Next thing you'll know, his wife's being brought up his kids on the internet yelling 50s talking, calling him a snitch.
And you're like, yo, what's going on?
And TI being on the streets as a 46-year-old man, or however old he is Now.
He's engaged in war like he used to be back in his 20s.
Now, I agree with you guys.
I'm going to be real with you.
As someone who likes conflict and beef and rap, at some point, I don't want to see it, man.
It's like, what are we doing?
Like, 50...
They should be like just different stages at the, they're supposed to be the OGs, man.
Like y'all supposed to be doing something to like help younger careers, show them how it's done.
We supposed to get your flowers like what the Clips are doing, which is kind of ironic to Clips be beefing too.
So what the fuck am I talking about?
But it just seems like, you know what, I quit.
He was going good.
He was going good.
Listen, the truth of the matter is no matter your age or whatever right, just like you, Eddie was going at the dude who was talking about your Prada and this guy you don't even notice, man.
He was in the comments talking about your Prada, and he was ready to light his ass up.
Right?
And you took your shoe off, all type of shit.
People get in their feelings about shit that's important to them.
You know what I'm saying?
And one thing that's important to T.I. clearly is rap and his legacy and this album rollout.
And one thing that's clearly not important to 50 Cent is versus making music and beefing with rappers.
So everybody's got their priorities.
And clearly, these two priorities are not aligned.
Now, what I missed, I just saw the Gilly Wallo convo. that T.I. was talking.
Did I forget or did I, when was T.I. and 50 talking about verses?
I don't think it was ever publicly mentioned, because this is my first time hearing about them having a conversation offline about doing the verses.
And I guess they had verbally agreed to do it.
According to T.I.
According to T.I.
And I guess 50 had did some sucker shit and T.I. said I lost respect for him.
That's where, I think that's where all this started to reboil over.
But when did that?
That, I don't know.
I don't know the timeline of that.
Before T.I.'
's convo with Gilly and Wallo.
Can somebody point me in the direction of them going at each other publicly?
I think 50 called them a snitch.
They had some- Was this a while?
I vaguely remember some internet shit.
They had some Instagram shit back a couple of years ago.
I do believe that.
It's been a while.
And you got to think back in 2008, I think 50 had called out TI on one of them.
G-Unit records.
You So Tough.
He had said something about paperwork or whatever the case is.
So they've been... So there's been a thing.
And then there was the Mayweather, Tiny, T.I.
T.I. rolled on Mayweather.
Tiny about to make that man fight the heavyweight or the lightweight champion.
Like, come on, Tiny.
Our boy about to get his ass whooped.
So I look at it like, I think the fact that is with T.I. is like he felt the disrespect of...
50 backing out and not wanting to do the verses or whatever the case is.
And now everybody's looking at it like, oh, this is a rollout for Kill the King album, T.I.'
's last album.
I don't think it's that.
I don't think that's the case.
I think because now 50 is getting disrespectful.
50 is now leaning into the meat.
It's all promo.
It all works for T.I.
Yeah, it's leading somewhere.
And it works for 50, too.
Didn't 50 just announce a Broadway play or something?
I think I'm joking.
No, no, March 30th.
March 30th.
He got a Broadway play with Cedric, the Entertainer, and Taraji P that Debbie Allen's producing on Broadway.
He's posted photos with Tyler Perry and him.
They both promoting.
I don't see a world where you're as well off and seasoned as these individuals.
And this devolves into utter chaos like it would if they was in their 20s.
That record came out, the right one, the diss record he put out.
Where he's sitting at the table with his family?
Yeah, that record came out pretty fast.
Yeah, but T.I. is a rapper.
He's a rapper.
That's like work.
Lowell, can I ask you a question?
Go ahead, sir.
This is right up your lane.
All right, let's go back to the crux of this situation.
Talk to me.
Who wins in the versus 50 Cent and T.I.?
Who wins in the versus?
T.I. wins in the versus.
I'm shocked.
First of all, respect, my brother.
If you want to go there, you can go there.
Respect?
OK, I didn't think he was going to say that.
No, no, T.I. was in the verses.
Again, 50's no slouch.
50 has one album that can last in any verses with anybody.
We know that.
He has the mixtape run.
We know that.
He has the features.
We know that.
He has the group albums.
We know that.
But there's a lot of albums that TI has that he can pick from and do what he wants and a lot of feature verses that TI has that he can do what he wants.
And club bangers.
And club bangers.
T.I. is not a fucking slouch.
So you're saying this because...
50 has a moment in time, and T.I. has moments on the timeline.
Yes, 50's moment in time is insanely huge, which is why you can throw his name in the ring with pretty much anybody.
Any verses
You can throw his name in there.
But if we have a long night and we have records that need to be placed and sequenced, TI has a better selection and a collection of records to do so.
A top 18.
If we go like Mike Will and Hip Boi, they did 18.
So you're saying 18 songs versus 18 songs.
I mean, if you look at it, bro.
T.I. definitely has 18 songs versus solos to do by himself.
Well, and the thing is, 50 got the pop records, crossover records.
So does T.I.
Yeah, live your life.
He could have.
Uh rihanna, come out there and yodel like us yeah, yeah.
And you gotta realize bro, from 2003 to 2008, ti was cooking trap music, urban legend, king cooking TI vs TIP and Paper Trail.
And then after that, it kind of, you know, whatever.
But man, there are, and you get, and you get all the features.
All the remixes.
Ain't he on, what's that, Soldier with Destiny's Child?
Come on, dawg.
Now look, like you said, 50 ain't no slouch, though.
No, no.
No, no.
There's no doubt he in the park.
Now, get Richard Dye trying.
By himself.
By himself.
By himself.
By himself, that could have somebody else on there.
And then you got, you still, listen, he's still got a couple of them G-Unit heat rocks.
Yes, he does.
For sure.
He does.
He got a few of them G-Unit heat rocks.
The mixtape joints, the covers.
The real question is, where is this happening?
If it's at a neutral location like LA, where their crowd participation, because you're going to need some crowd energy.
He can bring Dr. Dre out, and they can do, it can get weird in LA.
Him and Marshall been riding for a minute.
Marshall pop out, tip, listen.
Oh, they're so happy in the comments, you finally brought up Eminem.
They get, oh, you guys never bring up Eminem.
You not with a disrespect to Eminem.
Look, they're happy now.
Not that patiently waiting.
Listen, bro.
Listen, bro.
But here's the beautiful thing about both of those artists.
No matter where you do this versus.
If it ever were to be true, the energy based on both of their catalogs and their songs and just their temperament would go crazy in any city.
Personally,
Nah, it's going nuts.
It's going nuts.
In any city.
Atlanta, New York.
It's very cool.
Execution is key here, just like we saw with Mike Will and the Cash Money No Limit.
Whoever has the best execution and really takes it serious.
Is going to win.
That's because, listen, T.I. could flub if he picks the wrong record.
Yes, absolutely.
And so could Phib.
Or the energy's whack.
Yeah.
Or you get up there and you start, you know, like.
You're just not focused.
You go Birdman on them and you start talking about some shit.
People are like, yo, what the fuck is going on, man?
What happened here, man?
Or you throw on a record, you think you got a feature pop out and the person don't pop out.
And you end up playing the Lil Wayne version.
Nobody's there.
Damn it.
But Eddie, to your question, yes, I do think T.I. can win.
Clip that up.
That was festive.
Clip that up.
Listen, I got news for y'all.
It ain't happening.
Just enjoy that little moment.
Never going to see it.
And that's Rap Live Review.
Before we wrap up, Nick, what did we screw up?
Yeah, just going back to trying to originate the beginning of the 50 Cent T.I. diss.
Apparently 51st dissed T.I. in 2008 on Terminate On Sight album on a song, You So Tough.
Good call.
So that goes back then and might have been the beginning of some of those conversations.
Jumping to the evenbiz conversation.
According to, the website even keeps 20 of each sale to cover platform and transaction fees.
That's a very small percentage.
20%?
It means the game she turns?
For some artists, that's high.
It depends.
It depends.
Okay.
And the reason why I think maybe some people might be hesitant that even is doing business with UMG or that the fact that they're just out right now and like making moves is, according to digitalmusicnewscom, they're battling a lawsuit over discrimination, sexual misconduct and a labor violation.
So that might be why some people feel a little bit.
So that's more the dealings of staff and the company versus the business of the platform and what it offers to artists.
The business model, yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Going back to the Jay-Z album, we mentioned Clark can't rest in peace.
And we mentioned that he produced Brooklyn's Finest.
Also wanted to mention that he produced Cashmere Thoughts and Coming of Age with Memphis Bleak.
I want to jump now to the Baby Keem album and just kind of going back into it and not so much what we missed, but just some of the holes that I think could be filled.
It's really interesting.
We like this about J Cole where he told us everything in the music, right?
And Baby Keem has been absent for about four and a half years leading up to this album.
And I love that he chose the first two tracks on this album to catch us up and tell us exactly where he's been, what he's been doing.
And I wish Nadeska was here, because I think that Baby Keem does do a lot.
He does do a lot of pussy rap.
Oh, my God.
He said the word.
Baby Keem does do a lot of pussy rap.
Yeah, he got the video with the shorty out.
Like, that's his thing.
So I like that he takes the first two songs to catch us up.
Third song, he gets right into it, right back into the old Baby Keem, right?
But just going back to some of the things also, the Kendrick Iceberg goofy line on Good Flirts.
When he's talking about the jeans.
The booty filling up my booty?
No, no.
He says, where the icebergs are to truly.
Duckworth, you know, street smart, but goofy.
That's like one of the best rap lines I've heard in a long time.
It just hit me.
In a long time.
Okay, that's a good one.
So I wanted to make sure we talked about that.
And I think it was just kind of special.
Some of the stories he continues threading on this project where we get a highway 95 part two that goes back from the highway 95 part one on the melodic blue.
And, for lack of a better comparison, I think this might kind of end up being like his timestamp series in a way, where it does seem like he's kind of taken us really into the depths of his psyche on both of those songs.
And they both start with like the soul sample at the beginning.
So I thought that was super cool to kind of pay attention to.
This is more personal for me man, but Baby Keem has an Uncle Andre, who I believe passed, who stole things from him because he was addicted to crack cocaine.
I also have an Uncle Andre who has stolen things from me because he's addicted to crack cocaine.
So some of these- Shout out to Uncle Andre.
Free him, too, by the way.
You know what I mean?
And you're sure that you and Keem don't share the same uncle?
You're positive?
No.
No, I don't think we do.
But you're not positive.
I do think his uncle passed.
But you're not positive.
Well, I think his uncle passed.
Yeah.
His uncle.
We got to free his uncle.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Listen.
Free Uncle Andre.
Crazier things happen.
Crazier things happen.
You're not funny.
I'm just talking to myself.
It's not funny.
But also on the personal note, just things like having the Circus Circus freestyle, right?
And I know, like for us growing up like that was the one place you could afford to stay when you went to Las Vegas.
You know what I'm saying?
Shorty did not want to do the thing when she got there.
She was like, yo, I was fucking young.
That's at the end of the strip.
One of the more affordable things there.
Circus Circus in Vegas was one of the cheaper hotels on the strip.
So when you were young and you really didn't have a lot of money, but your family wanted to take you to Vegas, that's where most of the people that was on a budget.
Or you just went to Vegas.
Or you just went to Vegas.
Okay, okay.
One thing I think we did miss is on Sex Appeal with Too Short.
That is a flip of I Need a Freak, right?
That Too Short did in 97.
And I think what was interesting about this Keem album and why it's hitting us so hard, is that for the first couple Keem albums he spent so much time giving us like style right.
We know he produced, the beat sounded really good.
He was having a good time on the track, but he gave us very little substance.
And you know there's a song on Melodic Blue where he says In two years I'll tell you guys, like the real story, what happened to me, some of the trauma that he went to.
And so I think Casino is him following up on that promise from the melodic blue like well, this is the trauma and real life stuff that I thought you know, that I thought I was going to give you guys in two years.
It took him four.
But just it was beautiful for him to kind of weave that throughout his catalog and end up where we are now, which is like oh, Keem's here with all the style, all the substance.
And we got a great album on our hands.
I forgot to say this, Biz. is I am not a lyricist super Andre 3000 coded to anybody else.
Absolutely.
I swear I was about to go in.
I was like, yo, okay, I see you.
Yeah.
And I thought on that song too, like some of the drums sounded like Kendrick's Art of Peer Pressure a little bit too right.
So, yeah.
No, it's beautiful.
Shout out to Baby Kim.
I think we also need to big up PG Lang, you know?
Yeah, for sure.
Like when you think about having artists or in artists, or artists actually think about Kendrick and Keem and whoever else on PG Lang, where they could actually take their time and put the level of detail into the music and have this rollout and this moment.
Once again.
I'll say it again.
Maybe it's corny or whatever, but as a fan of hip hop, having people who care this much, I think it's important.
Like you got to actually stop and go yo.
People really care about this hip hop shit and doing a great job.
You know what I mean?
It's valuable and it's important.
Low in the back of the class.
Just want to say I agree.
Wale chimed in on Twitter and said something similar.
Just how much he loved the intentionality behind this album and how inspired he was by listening to me.
Wale would get it.
Yeah, he would get it.
You know what I mean?
Another album we need to keep. paying attention to as we get through 2026.
Like, that Wale thing.
That's my favorite album of the year so far.
When did that come out?
It was late last year, but yeah.
But Eddie was saying how you like trauma over good beats and that.
That's what we think is a lot worse.
Don't make that shit all the way depressing.
Give me like depressing with some sugar.
God damn.
Combine that shit, man.
Yeah, man.
Let me bob my head to your fucking world colliding and crashing down.
Yeah.
Before we go, can I shout out Big Sad?
He dropped an album called Until Then 2 last week and he's an artist coming up out of LA right now.
That's kind of playing into a little bit of that, Larry June.
You know soul sample, street rap space.
Oh, Say No More.
Yeah, so shout out to Big Sad.
Big Sad.
Big Sad, yeah.
Check him out today.
Yeah, he's incredible, man.
Babyface E dropped an album called The Realest, which is really good.
And Rayvon and AZ Chike.
Yo, that Rayvon, AZ Chike.
Also dropped one.
I love seeing that.
I love seeing that.
Yo, Nick, thanks for all of that, man.
Appreciate that, Nick.
Appreciate you.
Are you guys excited about this Future release that's about to happen?
We saw a little trailer-ish thing on Free Bands.
I mean, I guess it's Future, and Styrofoams, and Lean, and yeah, cool.
Where you trying to act like?
No, no, I'm just saying.
Where you trying?
Listen, I know what I'm getting, and I'm cool with it.
Well, you don't know, because Future's like three different things.
It's true.
Well, you know what you got in that promo vid.
OK.
The clips that have been coming out that I've been seeing.
So you've heard some songs.
I've heard, I've seen clips like that.
OK.
So I've seen, like, the previews.
So it's like, I accept what that is, because that's great future.
Do you not want future to do that?
No, no, no.
I'm just saying, like, I'm not, like, so excited, like, oh my, this is.
Here we go.
It's going to be mature.
I'm like, yeah, I'm like, OK.
Because I remember a time.
What time did you... I remember a time you was outside.
Oh, no, I was... And you was... When that March Madness came out.
Now, see, hold on.
That's a different person.
That's a different person back then.
Calm that shit down.
You're an asshole.
I just remember.
I remember.
I was like, oh, they really like this song.
No, no, no.
No, but yeah, I'm excited to see what future has in store.
But if that's what it is, then that's what it is.
I'm not mad at it though.
Look, you would love to see somebody like I guess the critique is always like artists maturing but man, We don't want future mature.
We don't want future mature.
There's one artist that does not need to mature.
Yo, Pusha and Malish found a way.
You know what I'm saying?
Fine wine.
They found a way.
Don't mature future.
Stay you, man.
Stay there.
We good.
Bring me that styrofoam.
Or mature in your private life, but continue to act like a person, a toxic individual.
I don't give a fuck how much you go behind closed doors.
Let's keep that toxic shit.
Yo, for Nick and Eddie and Lo, I'm Ebro.
It's Rap Life Review, man.
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