Latest / Hip-Hop Now Podcast / Is 2026 A Slow Year?

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Is 2026 A Slow Year? · Hip-Hop Now Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Coming up on this week's episode of Hip Hop Now podcast,
0:04
Speaker 1: The Wool gets inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
0:07
Speaker 1: of Fame Africa Being Body passes Away? Are we canceling
0:13
Speaker 1: krus One? And it's twenty twenty six a slow year
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Speaker 1: for hip hop albums? Let's talk about it, Let's do it.
0:29
Speaker 1: Welcome to Jipop Now Podcasts. If you from the future,
0:36
Speaker 1: you know what, the dude, get your ass out of past,
0:41
Speaker 1: so disrespectful legs like hip hop can say to stay.
0:47
Speaker 1: Let's get right into the business. What up, y'all? I
0:50
Speaker 1: am your host Vegas and this it's hip Hop Now Podcasts,
0:54
Speaker 1: a podcast specifically designed to keep you caught up on
0:58
Speaker 1: all things hip hop music and culture that happened throughout
1:02
Speaker 1: the week. Big shout out to the supporters that have
1:05
Speaker 1: been supporting this podcast through your ears in audio form
1:10
Speaker 1: for ten years. This is the ten year anniversary. If
1:14
Speaker 1: you've seen it right, you see it in the background,
1:18
Speaker 1: you see the logo, you see it in the thumbnail right.
1:23
Speaker 1: The gold logo is commemorative piece for ten years of
1:30
Speaker 1: Hip Hop Now podcasts. And you can get some merch
1:34
Speaker 1: that is only going to be available this year. Twenty
1:39
Speaker 1: twenty six, So father the link in the description, this
1:43
Speaker 1: description of this episode, and please know the merch proceeds
1:47
Speaker 1: from the merged go all right back into the production
1:50
Speaker 1: and promotion of this podcast. And you know, in general,
1:57
Speaker 1: you know, support a brother in that way. It's cool,
2:00
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And there's everything from T
2:02
Speaker 1: shirts to hoodies, stickers, so whatever way, appreciate those who
2:08
Speaker 1: have already supported. And this is what I really wanted
2:11
Speaker 1: to say. If you're going to support the podcast by
2:14
Speaker 1: buying merch, wait for the sales. I mean it'd be
2:20
Speaker 1: from thirty five percent off forty percent off to me,
2:23
Speaker 1: which brings like something like a T shirt down to
2:26
Speaker 1: a reasonable price. I'm old school, so I'm not paying
2:30
Speaker 1: like fifty dollars for no damn T shirt. Not saying
2:33
Speaker 1: that's how much it costs, but you know what I mean.
2:34
Speaker 1: If the T shirt is on sale and now it's
2:37
Speaker 1: sixteen dollars, like to me, it's like, all right, that's cool,
2:41
Speaker 1: But when it's like thirty, it's like, nah, dog, I'm
2:43
Speaker 1: not I'm sorry. I love your podcast, but no, okay. Also,
2:47
Speaker 1: big shout out to those watching right here on YouTube,
2:50
Speaker 1: whether you got here via the shorts or special content
2:53
Speaker 1: that I produced, or the weekly show like this, so
2:59
Speaker 1: big shot out to Hip Hop DX dot com Complex
3:04
Speaker 1: and a couple of places where I'm getting some of
3:05
Speaker 1: my stories from. Let's get right into the business. Same.
3:12
Speaker 1: So the WU finally made it. They finally got into
3:15
Speaker 1: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. There was a
3:17
Speaker 1: moment there where they were kind of outside of making it.
3:22
Speaker 1: So they had like this online push, you know, Ray
3:26
Speaker 1: Ghosts method, man Rizza, like everybody was on their social
3:31
Speaker 1: media platforms like yo, go vote for the WU. So
3:35
Speaker 1: they were able to get in. They were right outside
3:38
Speaker 1: and I remember they were right outside and probably the
3:42
Speaker 1: person with the lowest votes that they could surpass with
3:46
Speaker 1: Shade and I'm not gonna front. There was a part
3:49
Speaker 1: of me that was like, nah, I'm not trading Shade
3:53
Speaker 1: for the Woo or vice versa. Like something gotta happen now.
3:57
Speaker 1: I did vote. I voted for Shade and Knew and
4:00
Speaker 1: Luther Vandros also voted for New Addition, who at the
4:05
Speaker 1: time when the Wool was making this campaign, the New
4:09
Speaker 1: Addition was right at the top. But they wound up
4:12
Speaker 1: not making it in I believe. So it's kind of crazy,
4:16
Speaker 1: but I know we are hip hop. Well, let's just
4:19
Speaker 1: go real quick, just for those who are interested on
4:22
Speaker 1: who were actually inducted, so Shade, Luther Vanros, Oasis, Iron Maiden,
4:31
Speaker 1: Phil Collins, Billy Idol Enjoyed Division New Order also getting
4:37
Speaker 1: a nod. Damn. I didn't even see them on there now.
4:41
Speaker 1: And you know who was another top candidate, Pink and
4:44
Speaker 1: then she fell out of so New Audition in Pink
4:46
Speaker 1: fell out of the top. If you're interested, those who
4:49
Speaker 1: I did vote for that guy in Shade, Luther Vanros,
4:53
Speaker 1: I voted for Iron Maiden, Yes, Ostavish and Phil Collins
4:58
Speaker 1: and the woof SO. Now hip hop rock and Roll
5:05
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame? What does that mean? Do we care
5:12
Speaker 1: a lot of questions regarding that. I'll say this because
5:16
Speaker 1: we've covered this recently when the nominations came out. I
5:22
Speaker 1: think it's an honor for hip hop in general. Honestly,
5:27
Speaker 1: rock and roll Hall of Fame has become the music
5:31
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame, right because Luther is not rocking either
5:34
Speaker 1: Shade or Phil Collins right, definitely not wu Tang. I
5:41
Speaker 1: ain't Maiden, right they are, but I think it's become
5:46
Speaker 1: something else. I think it's the Music Hall of Fame.
5:50
Speaker 1: And for a group like Wu Tang that's extremely popular
5:54
Speaker 1: and worldwide and all of that, it's just a way
5:57
Speaker 1: to celebrate them, you know, celebrate these artists regardless of genre.
6:03
Speaker 1: You know, it's really like celebrating an impact on the
6:07
Speaker 1: music game. And so like when we think about Wu Tang,
6:10
Speaker 1: you think about everything they've been through, you know, like
6:14
Speaker 1: the final tour that now has another tour. You know,
6:19
Speaker 1: it's at the show, the television show, even though some
6:22
Speaker 1: of the members wasn't feeling it. Nevertheless, you know, we
6:26
Speaker 1: thought it was good. I just I'm not gonna lie.
6:30
Speaker 1: Sometimes I just get a little bit like, damn, we
6:33
Speaker 1: can't get an album, Like we didn't get an album
6:36
Speaker 1: when the TV show was going and and when the
6:41
Speaker 1: you know, like the final tour basically with nas and
6:44
Speaker 1: all that was happening. I'm like, damn, we can't get
6:46
Speaker 1: an album. And now they're being inducted into the Rock
6:49
Speaker 1: and Roll Hall of Fame. So I don't think we'll
6:51
Speaker 1: ever get another Wu Tang Clan album. And that sucks
6:55
Speaker 1: because I know we've technically got one like last year
7:01
Speaker 1: with Mathematics as the producer, and it was. It was decent,
7:07
Speaker 1: but I kind of feel like that's not a Wou
7:11
Speaker 1: Tang album. I'm talking about riz on the boards one
7:16
Speaker 1: last time. You know, all the Wool members, you know, affiliates,
7:22
Speaker 1: like just almost like this is the final album from
7:25
Speaker 1: the Woul But it gotta be Rizza behind the boards completely.
7:30
Speaker 1: I don't care if he go get help. I don't
7:31
Speaker 1: care if mathematics is working or he did one or
7:34
Speaker 1: two tracks. Okay, cool, you know if that happens, but
7:38
Speaker 1: my preference Rizza did all of it. That's that's what
7:42
Speaker 1: I would want. But I just don't think Rizzi's there
7:47
Speaker 1: headspace wise, Like I think Rizz is not a producer.
7:50
Speaker 1: And if you checked out any of his interviews in
7:53
Speaker 1: recent years in particular, well, I know he did drink Champs,
7:58
Speaker 1: but the one he did with Rick Rubin I thought
8:01
Speaker 1: was really good. And there's a moment in there where
8:04
Speaker 1: I just realized, as a fan, I was like, res
8:08
Speaker 1: it not going back. He ain't going back to no
8:12
Speaker 1: sound he did ever, He's not going back. He's not interested,
8:18
Speaker 1: he's not inspired by it. And that's a little disappointing
8:23
Speaker 1: and frustrating, right. It's the same frustration people have with Andre,
8:29
Speaker 1: Like we know, some people, especially in social media side
8:34
Speaker 1: of things, will have expectations for you to drop another
8:38
Speaker 1: classic and it to be the best album, better than
8:41
Speaker 1: all your albums, which is impossible. But then there are a
8:45
Speaker 1: lot of us who just want to see you continue
8:48
Speaker 1: to do the thing that you seem to love, Like,
8:52
Speaker 1: don't let criticisms, be it positive or negative, deter you
8:59
Speaker 1: from doing it. Thank you love, Like that's that's the
9:02
Speaker 1: main thing for me as a fan, you know. So
9:06
Speaker 1: like with rizzare kind of feeling like Mathematics is kind
9:09
Speaker 1: of making those beats y'all want, and it is, but
9:15
Speaker 1: come on, man, I want to risid on this joint
9:18
Speaker 1: or at least like it, Like, just let let hip
9:20
Speaker 1: Boy do it. Just say, hit boy, we need some
9:23
Speaker 1: Rizzo style beats. Hip Boy will jump right in that bag.
9:26
Speaker 1: It will be like, Okay, this basically sounds like rizzom.
9:29
Speaker 1: Mathematics doesn't really sound like risk. It sounds like whoo.
9:35
Speaker 1: But I don't know. We can't. At the same time,
9:39
Speaker 1: I can't expect thirty six Chambers and Wu Tang forever
9:44
Speaker 1: like it just can't. So that's that next. So recently,
9:53
Speaker 1: hip hop pioneer Africa bing Bad that passed away, and
10:00
Speaker 1: we all know pedophile, hip hop pioneer, but pedophile and
10:12
Speaker 1: not just pedophile, just all kinds of things, right that
10:16
Speaker 1: are obviously negative. But I ain't do it. He did, okay,
10:24
Speaker 1: and that's and look all right. So for those who
10:27
Speaker 1: don't know, I'll just rewind because they're like, what put
10:30
Speaker 1: pioneer but pedophile? Like double p what hold up? So
10:36
Speaker 1: a few years back, probably like ten ten years ago,
10:42
Speaker 1: a bunch of victims came out who were underage at
10:46
Speaker 1: the time, underaged boys at the time, came out and
10:49
Speaker 1: accused him of essay, I'll just say I could I
10:54
Speaker 1: shouldn't even said the other one, but I don't. I
10:56
Speaker 1: don't make money off this podcast. So like, well, I'm
11:01
Speaker 1: not gonna say anyway, I don't want Tom Block in
11:03
Speaker 1: my video, like damn telling a story but very convincing.
11:10
Speaker 1: I was going to sue him, like all this stuff
11:12
Speaker 1: and all this information about him, and probably most telling
11:18
Speaker 1: was the fact that a lot of people knew at
11:22
Speaker 1: least that he was gay, because I'm honestly like, it
11:28
Speaker 1: wasn't just underage boys, it was just men in general. Right,
11:32
Speaker 1: So a lot of it seemed like a lot of
11:33
Speaker 1: people knew that, but they wouldn't say anything about that,
11:37
Speaker 1: and I did. I did an episode before about homophobia
11:41
Speaker 1: and hip hop, and there was a reason why nobody
11:44
Speaker 1: would say anything because you know, if this homophobia within
11:48
Speaker 1: hip hop, especially back then, no way are you going
11:52
Speaker 1: to turn around and say this pioneer of the hip
11:56
Speaker 1: hop game is gay. It was just that was just
12:00
Speaker 1: the way things were, right, even though we know there's
12:02
Speaker 1: probably a couple of dudes who even now our game,
12:06
Speaker 1: which is fine, but within the context of hip hop,
12:09
Speaker 1: that hip hop was homophobic. So it was kind of like,
12:12
Speaker 1: that's the last thing you need to be right. But
12:18
Speaker 1: so all those stories came out and it was just like, oh, yeah, confirmed,
12:24
Speaker 1: we don't need a court case. Really, this guy's this
12:28
Speaker 1: and he didn't really say anything, you know, until he
12:33
Speaker 1: got kicked out of the Zulu Nation, which was another sign, right,
12:39
Speaker 1: which is weird, right, because everybody knew. I'm pretty sure
12:42
Speaker 1: they knew, but now that it was, you know, out
12:45
Speaker 1: in the public, and you know, it just got to
12:49
Speaker 1: a point where Africa ban bad, it was pushed down.
12:52
Speaker 1: I even did a whole episode on it because I
12:57
Speaker 1: started thinking about what car Us wanted and said at
13:00
Speaker 1: the time. He seemed to defend Africa Bambada not because
13:07
Speaker 1: he had like some kind of well I don't know,
13:10
Speaker 1: but what I assume, not because he had some first
13:13
Speaker 1: hand knowledge of whether he did these things or not.
13:17
Speaker 1: And I'm not talking about to being gay. I'm talking
13:19
Speaker 1: about being with underage boys. Right. He was. The whole
13:25
Speaker 1: defense of Africa Bambada was he's a hip hop pioneer
13:29
Speaker 1: and he's great and blah blah blah, and he should
13:31
Speaker 1: be revered and blah blah blah. And it's like, yo,
13:34
Speaker 1: are you told death kids were abused as a result
13:41
Speaker 1: of this cat, right, So there was I'm not gonna
13:46
Speaker 1: lie to you. It was a while where I was like,
13:48
Speaker 1: I don't want to have anything terrorist one has to say,
13:54
Speaker 1: and then I kind of got off it later because
13:57
Speaker 1: he kind of backtracked a little bit. It was a
13:59
Speaker 1: little bit more clear about his opinion because we can't
14:05
Speaker 1: like pretend as if Africa being bad it wasn't a
14:10
Speaker 1: hip hop pioneer. He was, but that doesn't excuse his behavior,
14:17
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, It just doesn't, right whatever.
14:20
Speaker 1: His real name is Larry Leroy, the third green whatever.
14:27
Speaker 1: He's the person who we're talking about when we speak
14:30
Speaker 1: negatively about him. Right, So when karas One was like,
14:36
Speaker 1: all right, you know, my bad, but this is what
14:38
Speaker 1: I meant. You know, we kind of went on without
14:41
Speaker 1: about our business. But then Africa being body passes away
14:46
Speaker 1: and from every publication I could see, you know, hip
14:50
Speaker 1: hop icon, you know forefather Pioneer, like these things happen right,
14:58
Speaker 1: Planet Rock happened right, It had the influence. The influence
15:04
Speaker 1: was there early on, so we all acknowledge that. But
15:09
Speaker 1: here comes caress One again, defecting, deflecting, ignoring the victims
15:20
Speaker 1: and Africa band Badi's behavior. So I asked, you, are
15:28
Speaker 1: we canceling caress one because we cancel people for far
15:34
Speaker 1: less sometimes on social media. I don't cancel anybody because
15:38
Speaker 1: I do what I want, right, not saying that I
15:40
Speaker 1: agree with him, but maybe I just don't mess with
15:43
Speaker 1: them anymore. And maybe that's what canceling is. I just
15:47
Speaker 1: don't go out of my way to be like a
15:49
Speaker 1: oh b blah blah blah blah. Because the same could
15:53
Speaker 1: be said about Caress One. Whereas again the teacher is
15:57
Speaker 1: being ignorant and it's God We also can't take away
16:03
Speaker 1: his contributions. We can't pretend that's not the blast master
16:09
Speaker 1: k r as One, but we can say we disagree
16:15
Speaker 1: with him when it comes to this, this situation, African
16:20
Speaker 1: band body as a whole. We can't take what he
16:24
Speaker 1: did in hip hop and cover up all the bad
16:27
Speaker 1: stuff and say look what he did, because you know
16:30
Speaker 1: who else we could do that for. You know what
16:33
Speaker 1: I'm talking about here, trying to get out of here
16:34
Speaker 1: every day and it's not Diddy, Okay, Like we can
16:39
Speaker 1: look at his contributions to R and B and they
16:43
Speaker 1: are massive. But are we just gonna take that in
16:49
Speaker 1: and in itself and ignore everything he was doing? No,
16:53
Speaker 1: we didn't. They took him off the radio, all kinds
16:55
Speaker 1: of stuff, so same energy all around. I just feel
17:01
Speaker 1: like with Kris One is I strongly disagree with him,
17:06
Speaker 1: but I can't cancel him for a bad opinion. He
17:11
Speaker 1: didn't do it, Africa Bamboda did. So let me know
17:16
Speaker 1: in the comment section below, how do you feel about
17:18
Speaker 1: this situation? How you feel about kros One's stance kind
17:23
Speaker 1: of putting Africa Bambada's history with hip hop above his
17:28
Speaker 1: personal and now public exploits leave your comments in the
17:32
Speaker 1: comment section below. And lastly, so I saw a post
17:40
Speaker 1: on Twitter. You can follow me there and everywhere at
17:44
Speaker 1: Vegas World, I n c from. I think let me
17:49
Speaker 1: just let me just get it right, y'all before because
17:51
Speaker 1: I don't want to misquote anybody over they will Vegas
17:54
Speaker 1: steal it. I'm really not steal what. Okay, you ain't me,
17:58
Speaker 1: but shout out to fresh Out hip Hop. I think
18:03
Speaker 1: that's the name. They basically had a quote from push
18:07
Speaker 1: a T where pushr T was saying the Clips album,
18:13
Speaker 1: like God soort them out, is still the best album,
18:17
Speaker 1: even in best hip hop album, even in twenty twenty six.
18:22
Speaker 1: And for a minute, I had to think, like, all right,
18:25
Speaker 1: for me, it was definitely the best album for twenty
18:28
Speaker 1: twenty five, but is it the best for twenty twenty six?
18:33
Speaker 1: So y'all know, I'd be reviewing albums and listening to
18:36
Speaker 1: albums and I was like just going through my phone, like, yo,
18:42
Speaker 1: let me go back and see what dropped and see
18:47
Speaker 1: if I actually agree. And though there's some you know,
18:51
Speaker 1: there's some stuff here that you know dropped on a
18:53
Speaker 1: lower level and all of that as far as status,
18:58
Speaker 1: and then you had bigger releases like j Cole's double album,
19:03
Speaker 1: Baby King's album that I keep on repeat, y'all. I'm
19:06
Speaker 1: just that's gonna be at my top five end of
19:09
Speaker 1: the year unless something crazy happens and we just get
19:12
Speaker 1: all this dope hip hop and I'm caught like Baby
19:16
Speaker 1: King Casino. I've been listening to y'all like crazy. I'm
19:19
Speaker 1: not gonna lie like all the time. But you know,
19:23
Speaker 1: as I was going through the different albums, and it's
19:25
Speaker 1: some dope stuff in twenty twenty six, but then I
19:29
Speaker 1: kept going and I was like, nothing's better than the
19:33
Speaker 1: Clips album. So I totally agree with Pusher t the
19:43
Speaker 1: Clips album as a complete package. It's still the best
19:48
Speaker 1: album since it dropped, which was summer of twenty twenty five,
19:53
Speaker 1: I believe. I think it was like July something like that,
19:56
Speaker 1: a long time ago, almost coming up on a year,
20:00
Speaker 1: and why is that now? I think? You know, I
20:04
Speaker 1: have some theories, right, like when the year starts out,
20:08
Speaker 1: it's always slow. It just is. But typically by now
20:14
Speaker 1: we'll have at least one or two joints that I
20:17
Speaker 1: know I would consider like, Okay, this is like one
20:20
Speaker 1: of the best of the year, and I kind of
20:23
Speaker 1: said what I said about Baby King, but it's not
20:26
Speaker 1: even close to the Clips in my opinion, at least
20:28
Speaker 1: for my taste. And even J Cole right, I thought
20:32
Speaker 1: J Cole put out a solid double album, probably would
20:36
Speaker 1: have been really good as just one album. But then
20:41
Speaker 1: also he did all these interviews and he kind of
20:44
Speaker 1: muddied the water and calling, you know, pretending Drake's a victim,
20:49
Speaker 1: and like he just kind of keeps messing up. Okay,
20:52
Speaker 1: like he's messing up. He don't make me want to
20:54
Speaker 1: go back and listen to his album at all, even
20:57
Speaker 1: though I thought it was one of the better ones
20:59
Speaker 1: of the year, but better than the clips. Let God
21:02
Speaker 1: sort them out. Man. No, we haven't had an album
21:08
Speaker 1: that polished lyrically the way it's mastered, engineered sonically, like
21:17
Speaker 1: everything the quality of the voices, the quality of the music,
21:22
Speaker 1: the elements within the music right, and then the precision
21:27
Speaker 1: on the lyrics by Malice and Pusher t right from
21:33
Speaker 1: delivery to wordplay to just crazy bars right stuff the
21:41
Speaker 1: Blizzard and a Honda Civic like just memorable lines. There
21:48
Speaker 1: just isn't a project available right now or album available
21:52
Speaker 1: right now that's touching. That just isn't, which is crazy
21:57
Speaker 1: when you think about it, because there's been some really
21:59
Speaker 1: good album right, like Jid put out a really good album,
22:03
Speaker 1: like a couple of people did, So in general, I agree,
22:09
Speaker 1: what do you? Oh, well, let me just say this
22:12
Speaker 1: one thing, one album, and I'm not saying this would
22:16
Speaker 1: have been better, but as far as like highly anticipated
22:20
Speaker 1: sounding like it could be crazy, well, Stove God Cook's
22:24
Speaker 1: album that was supposed to drop that has been pushed
22:27
Speaker 1: back indefinitely, so we at least would have had that
22:33
Speaker 1: by now, but we don't. So here we are twenty
22:37
Speaker 1: twenty six. It's feeling like a slow year because we've
22:43
Speaker 1: already cleared the first quarter and we're making our way
22:46
Speaker 1: through to the second quarter, which will be half the year,
22:50
Speaker 1: and usually in June everybody does their best of the year.
22:53
Speaker 1: So far, I'm assuming we're going to get some heat.
22:58
Speaker 1: But will it be better than the Clips last album?
23:02
Speaker 1: You tell me in the comment section below. Do you
23:06
Speaker 1: feel like the Clips album is still the best album
23:09
Speaker 1: even in twenty twenty six? Leave your comments in a
23:12
Speaker 1: comment section below. Follow me on social media at Vegas World.
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Speaker 1: I NC subscribe to the podcast, whether that be an
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Speaker 1: next time, y'all. I'm not a critic, I'm a fan
24:12
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