Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar Honored at BET Hip-Hop Awards
Snoop Dogg received the "I Am Hip Hop" award at the 11th annual BET Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta on Saturday.
Kendrick Lamar introduced Snoop Dogg in front of a packed crowd at the Cobb Energy Performing Centre. Lamar said Snoop Dogg "paved a way into many hearts" with his authentic rap flow and infectious persona.
When Snoop Dogg accepted his award, he said he felt misunderstood at the beginning of his career and made feel-good music for listeners.
Lamar took home Lyricist of the Year. After claiming his award, Lamar continued to praise Snoop Dogg. The rapper also told the crowd music is one of the best ways to bring people together, and thanked BET for putting together the show.
Fat Joe and Remy Ma won Track of the Year award for their song "All the Way Up." The Hustler of the Year honor went to DJ Khaled, and Best New Hip-Hop Artist was earned by Chance The Rapper, who was not in attendance.
Desiigner closed out the show with "Tiimmy Turner."
T.I. and several others offered passionate statements against police brutality of African-Americans.
Wearing all black, T.I. performed his politically charged song "We Will Not" as a stage full of people sporting the same dark attire held up "Black Lives Matter" signs. The rapper said he was motivated to write the song after hearing about a series of deaths of unarmed black people who were shot by police including Sandra Bland and Philando Castile.
Big K.R.I.T and Lecrae, a Christian rapper, expressed their thoughts on the matter through their own poems, and radio host Sway Calloway stood alongside Khaled and said, "We're at war." Actor Shameik Moore encouraged people to cast their vote.
T.I. said at the end of his performance that blacks should unite, adding, "They can't kill us all."
Gucci Mane, recently released from prison, was the first to hit the stage at the show. He performed four songs, kicking his set off with "First Day Out" and "First Day Out Tha Feds." The rapper was released in late May from a Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute, Indiana.
He served a three-year sentence after pleading guilty to aggravated assault for attacking a fan at an Atlanta nightclub. That sentence ran concurrently with a 39-month federal sentence he was given in 2014 for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
First-time host DJ Khaled followed with "Holy Key" with soul singer Betty Wright and a choir dressed in gold.
For the third straight year, Drake topped the nominees with 14 nominations.
The show will air Oct. 4 on BET.
Kendrick Lamar & Snoop Dogg At BET Hip-Hop Awards 2016 Source: BillBoard
2016-09-07
Gucci Mane Teases New Music With OutKast, Lil Wayne & More
Gucci Mane has long built a reputation as one of the hardest-working rappers in the game, and following his release from federal prison in late May of this year, he's gotten right back to business. In a Snapchat video posted over the weekend, Gucci claimed to have recorded verses with Lil Wayne, Project Pat, Boosie Badazz, E-40 and OutKast, all in one day.
Slight work for Guwop, perhaps, but alarm bells went off for fans at the mention of OutKast. Big Boi and Andre 3000 haven't appeared together on a record since the 2007's collaborative record "International Players Anthem (I Choose You)" with UGK, and while the ATLiens' 2014 reunion tour sparked rumors of a new release, nothing has materialized so far. Lately, however, Three Stacks has been more active than usual with guest appearances on albums from Frank Ocean and Travi$ Scott, while Big never truly faded from the scene, having release two solo albums and a collaborative project with Phantogram in recent years.
So Gucci's assertion that he did a record for OutKast (as opposed to with OutKast) seems like it could be significant; or it could just be a slip of the tongue. After all, it's possible that any of these collabs could wind up on Gucci's own upcoming project, Woptober, which will be his second full-length release since becoming a free man once again.
After featuring just Young Thug, Kanye West and Drake on his comeback LP Everybody Looking, Gucci's been getting back in the saddle in terms of doling out verses, contributing to cuts from West, Dreezy, Rae Sremmurd, Kodak Black, DJ Khaled and more in recent months. But if he can get Andre and Big Boi back on the same track again for the first time in almost a decade, it could be his greatest accomplishment to date.
But before fans get too excited, Gucci's claim was tempered by a rep for Andre 3000, who tells Billboard, "There is no OutKast album in the works."
XXL captured the snap on Instagram.
Gucci Mane's 50 pound weight loss Source: BillBoard
