Jay-Z and Kanye West Were the Highest Paid Hip-Hop Artists of 2021

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorKanye West has been barred from performing at the Grammy Awards due to his “concerning online behavior,” a rep for the artist confirms to Variety. Reps for the Recording Academy, which presents the Grammys, did not immediately respond to Variety‘s requests for comment on the claim early Saturday.West’s rep cited a report in the Blast posted late Friday claiming that the artist’s team received a phone call Friday night informing him he had been “unfortunately” removed from the lineup of performers for the show due to his “concerning online behavior.” While West was not among the first list of performers, which was announced on Tuesday, he may have been a planned performer.

Pete Davidson isn’t the only celeb feuding with Kanye West at the moment. D.L. Hughley has entered the chat and he’s not holding back. D.L. took to Twitter to sling insults at the “Gold Digger” rapper and on top of that, unofficially declared war by using the hashtag #TeamDl and indicating that there are sides to choose. “Ye is at it again huh??” he tweeted, kicking off his string of tweets. “Welp at least I wasn’t crying on the phone about how big Pete’s Peter is! If you want her back instead acting up why don’t you try doing some d**k ups! #TeamDl.”

Kanye West is back on social media with some more bones to pick with ex-wife Kim Kardashian.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSlimkid3, Imani and Fatlip of the Pharcyde were never supposed to rap together again. After producing two classic ‘90s hip-hop albums — “Bizarre Ride: The Pharcyde” and “Labcabincalifornia” — the galvanizing West Coast hip-hop group crumbled and went their separate ways.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe family of legendary singer-songwriter Nat King Cole, one of the most important and influential musicians of the 20 th century, has entered into an agreement with Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group to manage and expand his legacy to new generations, the company announced today.Details of the transaction were not disclosed, beyond the fact that it “encompasses a broad range of rights from Cole’s legendary career including his recorded music, publishing, television shows, and name and likeness.”In the decades before his 1965 death from lung cancer at the age of just 45, Cole scored more than 150 singles across Billboard’s pop, R&B, and country charts and has sold an estimated 50 million-plus records worldwide. While best known as a crooner, he was a formidable jazz musician as well, and is best known for classics like “The Very Thought of You,” “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” “Unforgettable,” “Nature Boy,” “Stardust,” “When I Fall In Love,” “Mona Lisa,” “L-O-V-E,” and the holiday staple, “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire).” As the announcement notes, Cole, who was born in Alabama in 1919, was subjected to all the barriers of the Jim Crow era, yet his success played no small role in advancing Black Americans’ presence in entertainment and public perception.

Kanye West and The Game have shared a second video for their recent joint single, ‘Eazy’, which – like the first video the pair released earlier this month – sees Pete Davidson meet a violent demise.While the first clip sported a crude, monochromatic claymation aesthetic, the new one is animated with 3D models. Starring alongside West and The Game is an animated version of the skinned money from the ‘Eazy’ single’s cover art.The monkey launches an attack on Davidson in this clip, pinning down a blurred-out avatar of the Saturday Night Live star (who is currently involved with West’s ex-wife, Kim Kardashian) and walloping him with a string of punches over West’s lyric, “God saved me from that crash / Just so I can beat Pete Davidson’s ass.”Take a look at the new ‘Eazy’ video below:The first video for ‘Eazy’ earned widespread criticism for its portrayal of violence against Davidson.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editortoday (March 9). He is based in the Republic Records Los Angeles office.Most recently, Beard  spent a decade at APG, where he rose from intern to senior VP of A&R and brought in Charlie Puth, Alex Benjamin and Pink Sweat$; he also has worked closely with David Guetta, Jason Derulo, Pitbull and Flo Rida, in addition to songwriters such as Amy Allen, Sean Douglas, Madison Love, Salem Ilese, and others. He also worked extensively as a DJ in nightclubs across the U.S., on-air for KIIS-FM and at private events.Goldstein said, “Miles has really set the pace for pop music with an unbelievable winning streak of incredible signings throughout the past decade.

Pete Davidson is starting to fizzle out. Kim feels that all the drama that Kanye West is too much for Pete to keep dealing with on a daily basis.Pete claims that he is not letting Kanye West’s jabs at him bother him in the least.

Kim Kardashian, 41, is enjoying her new romance with Pete Davidson, 28, but she apparently has fears that he may eventually walk away. The Keeping Up with the Kardashians star “understands” that her ex Kanye West‘s public messages and actions regarding the Saturday Night Live comedian, including a scene in his new music video that made it look like he was burying him alive, may eventually get to him and cause their relationship to end.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe world’s largest music company, Universal Music Group, posted a record $9.4 billion in revenue for 2021, the company announced in its earnings report on Thursday. That marks a 14.4% increase over 2020, although comparisons with the pandemic year are obviously skewed.Recorded music revenues were up 14.3% to around $7.52 billion, while streaming soared nearly 17% to just under $5 billion.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorASCAP Experience, the performing rights organizations annual conference for songwriters, composers and creators, returns virtually this month. It kicks off on Tuesday (March 8) with an International Women’s Day panel featuring three of the industry’s leading composers and songwriters.

Kanye West has shared a music video for his recent collab with The Game, ‘Eazy’, in which he kidnaps and buries Pete Davidson alive, before seemingly decapitating him.The video was shared to West’s Instagram page overnight (March 2). In it, a claymated caricature of the rapper stands on a bed of roses while holding a severed head.

a list compiled by former longtime Forbes editor Zack O’Malley Greenberg.Jay-Z topped the list with $470 million after selling portions of his music streaming service Tidal and Armand de Brignac champagne last year, bringing his net worth to $1.5 billion. The “Big Pimpin'” singer sold 80% of Tidal to Jack Dorsey’s Square for a reported $350 million last May.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe “chopped and screwed” sound has become such a staple of hip-hop that most fans probably don’t even wonder where the slowed-down, stop-start sonic approach came from — and thus, the late DJ Screw, a.k.a. Houston native Robert Earl Davis Jr., is one of the truly unsung heroes of the genre.During the 1990s, he developed the revolutionary mixing technique from his Houston home, adding new rhythms to instrumental tracks, slowing them down and bringing in local rappers to freestyle over the tracks.

Hip-Hop artists brought in some big dollars this past year.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorMissy Elliott, Wizkid, Ozuna, Kali Uchis, Anderson .Paak & the Free Nationals, Jhené Aiko and many more will perform at a new festival in New York called LetsGetFr.ee, taking place at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens on August 20-21, with a special opening night gala on the 19 th.The festival, which also features Jorja Smith, Yendry, El Alfa, Ferg, Lido Pimienta, Flatbush Zombies, Tems, ​​Bomba Estéreo, Major Lazer Sound System and many more, is presented by Afropunk festival founder Matthew Morgan and longtime partner Jocelyn Cooper in partnership with global creative agency Anomaly.The full lineup appears below.According to the announcement, the festival is “the largest diversity-focused, purpose-driven music experience in the U.S. Its mission is to close the equity gap for Black, Brown, Asian, and other underrepresented people in the entertainment industry, with the aim of achieving a diversified workforce across all levels in the industry by 2030.” The festival pledges that it will only work with brands and companies who commit to long-term systemic change.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorPerforming-rights organization ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers,  announced record-setting financial results for 2021, notably a record-high revenue of $1.335 billion.Increases in collections from the audio streaming and audio-visual sectors pushed ASCAP’s domestic revenue to $1.011 billion in 2021, up 4.4%, an increase of $42.5 million over 2020. This was the first year that ASCAP domestic revenues from U.S.-licensed performances surpassed $1 billion.According to the announcement, since ASCAP launched its strategic growth plan in 2015, revenues have hit a 5% compound annual growth rate and ASCAP members have benefited from a 6% compound annual growth rate in overall distributions, and an 8% compound annual growth rate in domestic distributions.  ASCAP’s identification, matching and processing of trillions of musical performances drove record-setting distributions that exceeded $1 billion for the fifth year in a row and increased $41 million over the previous year, for a total of $1.254 billion available for distribution to its more than 850,000 songwriter, composer and publisher members in 2021.Total monies available for domestic distributions of licensed and administered performances amounted to $912.6 million, a 2.4% increase of $22 million over 2020. A solid domestic performance helped to offset the challenges in foreign revenues, due to the ongoing global impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the announcement continues. Revenue from foreign societies in 2021 totaled $323.5 million, down 9.7% from 2020 due largely to business closures and the lack of vaccinations.

In the latest installment of Kanye and Pete’s Instagram feud, Kanye credits himself for changing the ‘SNL’s actor name to ‘Skete.’

Kanye West has once again hit out at his estranged wife Kim Kardashian's new boyfriend, Pete Davidson. Despite reality star Kim reportedly begging him to leave the Saturday Night Live host alone during a text message, the rapper shared a screenshot of Pete's Instagram account being deactivated.The screenshot mentioned that Pete, who had only launched his Instagram account on February 16, had "no posts yet" was "not found".