New York Celebrates Biggie's 50th Birthday In An Epic Way // Kendrick Lamar's Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers Top 5 Hits // TEMS - AFROBEATS Newest Queen // Lauryn Hill Performs For Lovers and Friends // Dave East #HDIGH Miami Yacht Listening Party // Kanye Drops 'Life of the Party' Visuals on Mother's Day // TUPAC 'Wake Me When I'm Free' LA Experience
May 21st 2022 marked the beginning of Gemini season, and also; highlighted one of the world's favorite Hip Hop artists' birthday....
Christopher Wallace, known to most as the Notorious B.I.G or simply Biggie; would have turned 50 years old, on the 21st of May, and New Yorkers celebrated his legacy in the most epic way!
Biggie's family and friends, including his Mother, Voletta Wallace, daugher T'yanna Wallace, and son (shared with Faith Evans) Christopher Wallace Jr. aka CJ, Lil' Kim, Lil' Cease and D-Roc were honored at the Empire State building.
New York Mayor Eric Adams, also presented the Wallace family with a Proclamation, announcing May 21st as Christopher Wallace Day.
Amongst the many festivities held around the city, Lil' Kim hosted the Notorious B.I.G's 2nd Annual Birthday Gala at Guastavino's - a star-studded event.
Sway, Havoc ♊, Fat Joe, DJ Enuff, Datwon of VIBE Magazine, Shaheem Reid of Polaris and many more came out to honor B.I.G.
Happy Birthday, Biggie Smalls!
— alaunchmag (@alaunchmag) May 21, 2022
Biggie is on set for Crush on You but won’t appear in video. He wants Lil Kim to shine on her own pic.twitter.com/0CntNDZOCW
Lexus partnered with Lil' Kim as an event sponsor.
The luxury car company, infamous for a number of name drops in Biggie records; including Unbelievable and Hypnotize, also partnered with Frank White, a lifestyle company created by CJ Wallace.
Frank White's initiative is to bring awareness to social issues, combat Autism, highlight the benefits of Cannabis, design fresh streetwear, and keep B.I.G's legacy alive.
Read more about Lexus x Frank White partnership here.
The celebratory festivities continued around the city with an annual block party, in B.I.G's old Clinton Hill neighborhood, and a pop-up pizza shop hosted by Juicy Pizza LA; a venture between T'yanna and Tyra Myricks (Jam Master Jay's daughter) .
In true New York fashion; the events were topped with an even bigger BANG 💥.... Notorious B.I.G MetroCards!! Yep! Thousands of people lined the subways around Brooklyn, to cop a, limited edition; Christopher Wallace MetroCard.
Lil’ Kim and Ray J at Lovers & Friends Festival. pic.twitter.com/hqmLkAQHeX
— Lil’ Kim Media (@LilKimMedia) May 18, 2022
Kim hosted the Gala, fresh off the Lovers and Friends Festival in Vegas.... Posing along side Ray J and NeYo; Kim joined the line up of music legends including Usher, Ludacris, Lil Jon, and the infamous Lauryn Hill.
MS. LAURYN HILL 💜 pic.twitter.com/KsKn77rOuC
— Lovers & Friends Festival (@lvrsnfrndsfest) May 15, 2022
Hip Hop/R&B fans are always excited to see Ms. Hill perform, because we can never be sure she'll actually show up....
Ms. Lauryn Hill 👑, me, @therealrahdigga @wyclefjean @youngzeebars and @john_forte backstage @ the Lovers and Friends Festival warming up for stage. 🎤🎼🎵🎶🎙️🎚️🎛️🎷🎸🎹🎺🥁🔋🔌💻 pic.twitter.com/WjuQaUzpWw
— Pace Won (@Pacewon) May 17, 2022
Well, not only did she show up, she brought Rah Digga, Wyclef and John Forte (The Fugees) with her, and sent the crowd into a frenzy! Thank you Queen. xo
Not only in Africa and abroad; her feature on Wizkid's hit song Essence, propelled the two to go 2x platinum in the United States!
Essence hit the airwaves last year, and the hype around TEMS grew immensely, although, she released her hit album, For Broken Ears, a year before, in 2020.
Essence by @wizkidayo feat. @temsbaby is the best selling African song in USA (2.6 million sales).—The first African song to go Platinum and 2x Platinum in USA. 🇳🇬 pic.twitter.com/nG6JW4v5LQ— Akpraise (@AkpraiseMedia) May 22, 2022
We heard her name, but dragged our feet to listen to TEMS music; and now we can't stop!
I personally became invested after hearing Free Mind and learning her birthday was right before mine 😉 - Gemini Twins ! ♊ 😄
A voice so soulful. TEMS is just a vibe. It almost doesn't matter what your mood is; you can listen to her music and feel like everything's gonna be alright.
Her lyrical truth and Naija dialect makes you feel whole again.
I intentionally started listening to TEMS, because... you know... life. But, I really can't stop!
I've been playing her music at least once a day... For the last four months!
My favorite song is currently Damages.
A whole two years later!
Not to mention, Future featured her on his new single Wait for U ft. Drake; which is actually a sample of TEMS' single HIGHER.
.... Either way - happy we're vibin' to TEMS across the globe.
"Take off the foo-foo, Take off the clout chase, Take off the WiFi....," Kendrick Lamar raps in new hit song, N95, off his come back album; Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.
True to his Gemini sign, Kendrick surprised fans once again, dropping a video for The Heart Part 5, a week before album release date.
The video - a visual of Lamar morphing into several of the biggest celebrity names including; Kanye West, Nipsey Hussle, Will Smith & Jussie Smollett.
The symbolism; Black Men who have had not only been at the top of their game, but also the face of salacious American headlines.
Kendrick not only depicts these men in the video, his lyrics mirror their stories, and have a way of making us question our own morals.
Instantly iconic; The Heart Part 5 will be talked about for years to come....
Particularly the verse where Kendrick speaks to Nipsey Hussle's brother Black Sam; as if Nip is speaking through him.
But for some reason the video premiered as a single, and isn't featured on Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.
It just makes you wonder, what else Kendrick has up his sleeve.... Out of the 18-track record, this one single isn't featured on the album??
Well the album didn't disappoint. Kendrick dropped on the 13th, as promised, and our Top 5 favorites are Die Hard ft. Blxst & Amanda Reifer, Rich Spirit, N95, Father Time ft Sampha and Purple Hearts ft. Summer Walker & Ghostface Killer.
Kanye West, the most controversial, present day Gemini, released a video for Life of The Party, Mother's Day weekend, as a tribute to his mother Donda West.
A sweet gesture but what happened to the version with Andre 3000?
We can't mention controversial Geminis without mentioning TUPAC SHAKUR. Coincidentally while peeking through IG Stories; I saw, my homegirl visited an immersive exhibit in LA "Wake Me When I'm Free", which pays tribute to TUPAC through memorabilia and media clips.
The exhibit will run through the Summer, so there's time to purchase tickets if you're on the West Coast and wanna take a trip down memory lane.
We're cappin' off our entertainment news with Harlem bred Gemini, Dave East, who's birthday is quickly approaching....
East, hosted a second album release party for "How Did I Get Here? " on the luxurious, Maryam Yacht, in Miami; a few weeks ago.
The experience curated by Roseay's LLC & SocialXchange Miami, allowed guests to listen to selected tracks from East's album, while sipping Tequila Herradura cocktails, and sailing the tropical waters.
The Founder of Paris Laundry, was in attendance along with a number of other VIP guests.
The MediaCoin sponsored event, ended with Dave East turning up at LIV Nightclub, where he partied with 2 Chainz, Jim Jones...
... and gave an impromptu performance of two of his records, Phone Jumping and Handsome.
Welp! 😂 #GeminiGang ♊
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