Drake has co-signed many artists over the years and one of them, UK drill rapper Loski, is now facing jail time after being found guilty of possessing a loaded revolver following a three-year investigation.

The Evening Standard reported the findings from Loski’s trial that finished on Wednesday (January 4), confirming a jury found him guilty of three counts – possessing a prohibited firearm, possessing a firearm when prohibited for five years and possessing ammunition for a firearm when prohibited for five years. The charges are in relation to a 2019 incident where he was stopped in an Uber.

The 23-year-old (real name Jyrelle O’Connor) is part of the Kennington-based drill group Harlem Spartans, but according to Metropolitan Police, he was also a high-profile member of a south London gang who were involved in “violent disputes” with other gangs.

Detective Constable Snazell said there was “no doubt” Loski or his gang associates would have used the revolver in future. He also said the drill rapper was “fascinated” with guns and had Googled firearms and ammunition “numerous times” in the months leading up to his arrest.

“[Loski] was an influential individual and had many followers on social media,” Snazell added. “No amount of fortune or fame justifies his serious criminal actions and I’m confident this will be reflected in the sentence that will be handed down by the judge.”

Loski’s Uber was stopped that day in 2019 because officers wanted to question him in relation to the events that led to his friend Latwaan Griffiths’ death the year prior. Investigators believe that Griffiths was fatally stabbed following an attempted shooting of a rival gang.

That same year was when Drake had co-signed Loski by attending one of his concerts – and was subsequently dubbed a “culture vulture” by grime legend Wiley because of it.

“I hate that people think that me being into music from these kids that are trying to make it and trying to build a name for themselves is like, ‘Oh, that’s some culture vulture,’” Drake said in response at the time. “What does that even mean? I don’t understand what that means. Would you rather me not acknowledge anything or support?”

Loski is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday (January 6) at Croydon Crown Court in London.

Article source: https://hiphopdx.com/news/drake-approved-loski-uk-rapper-guilty-gun-possession

French Montana and Fabolous rang in the New Year together overseas and they brought their harsh sense of NYC humor with them on the trip.

The pair of Big Apple-bred rappers vacationed in St. Barts for a star-studded voyage to the tropical island to celebrate the New Year’s Eve holiday.

Fab has become notorious for his daring wardrobe choices and French clowned the Brooklyn native for his non-ocean-friendly attire while taking in the sunset on the beach.

“My n-gga Fab dressed like he in Brooklyn — sneakers on, socks. First sunset of the year,” Montana said with a laugh.

 

 

A post shared by DJ Akademiks (@akademiks)

St. Barth’s was the place to be for New Year’s Eve as Drake, Quavo, Meek Mill, Lil Baby Yung Miami, Diddy and more were spotted partying together with Fabolous and French Montana throughout the weekend.

Fab recapped his weekend with a clip of him popping bottles with Puff on a yacht, while French rode quads through the town and posted pics with actor Cuba Gooding Jr. and Yung Miami.

 

 

A post shared by Fabolous (@myfabolouslife)

 

 

A post shared by French Montana (@frenchmontana)

While Fabolous doesn’t have much cooking on the burner music-wise, French Montana is back to work and ready to heat up the streets in the frigid winter upon his return to the States.

Earlier this week, Montana announced that his new Coke Boys 6: Money Heist Edition mixtape hosted by DJ Drama will be arriving on Friday (January 6). The project was originally slated to drop last month before being pushed back to 2023.

“WAVE GODS !!! From st barts back to the block free max b ! COKE BOYS 6 gangsta grillz edition @djdrama THIS FRIDAY,” he wrote on Instagram while sharing a snippet of a new music video.

Coke Boys 6 will serve as French’s first full-length project since last year’s Montega LP with Harry Fraud, which dropped back in June.

Article source: https://hiphopdx.com/news/french-montana-roasts-fabolous-outfit

Waka Flocka Flame has weighed in on TakeOff’s death, urging rappers to move smarter and stay out of the hood once they achieve success.

The Flockaveli rapper appeared as the latest guest on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast, where he reflected on his evolution from Brick Squad bruiser to shrewd businessman.

Around the 35-minute mark, Sharpe asked Flocka about the tragic trend of rap murders in recent years, reeling off names like Pop Smoke, PnB Rock, Trouble and TakeOff — the latter of whom was killed by stray bullets outside a Houston bowling alley in November.

“I can’t tell you why, and I never want to speak on nobody’s death, but I could tell you this: when God blesses you, you have to change your ways, you have to evolve — you have to,” Flocka offered. “I could just say wrong place, wrong time for these guys.”

“So, in other words, once you ascend to a certain level, you gotta leave that alone,” Sharpe added, mentioning the fact that TakeOff’s death stemmed from a dice game involving Quavo and other men that turned violent.

“Oh yeah, I don’t roll dice,” Waka interjected. “With all respect, why would I roll dice with somebody that ain’t in my tax bracket? It’s liable that some shit could happen.”

While Sharpe admitted that he, too, is guilty of going back to the hood to “show you that I don’t think I’m better than you,” Waka said he’s never felt the need to prove himself to anyone but himself.

“Boy, I ain’t never been that n-gga,” he scoffed. “I watch people die everyday like that — that’s why I ain’t never been him … I ain’t got nothing to prove to y’all.”

Earlier in the interview, Waka Flocka Flame explained why he stopped going back to his old neighborhood, crediting the late comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory for changing his mindset.

“My whole shit coming up was to make it out the hood,” he said. “I’m not one of those n-ggas who go be a billionaire and go sit in the hood and roll dice and smoke weed; I want to buy the block, I want our name on the block. But what made me actually stop hanging in the hood was Dick Gregory.

“I watched this clip, Dick Gregory was like, ‘N-gga, why you buy this Rolls-Royce? To ride through the hood, to show you the richest muthafucka? That I can’t buy one?’ And it’s crazy because that’s why I bought it. I was young like, ‘N-gga, we getting money on the Southside! I’m finna pull a Phantom out here!’ But I was ignorant.”

He added: “I could have bought this condo in downtown Atlanta that I ride by everyday today, and it’s fucking five times the value. Egg on my face, right? So when I saw Dick Gregory [say] that, I actually got out that car. I ended up getting an Escalade, and I’ve been driving an Escalade ever since 2011.”

Waka went on to explain that he achieved his life goals at just 23 years old thanks to his music career taking off, but quickly realized how little he knew about maintaining — and growing — that success.

“I was sitting so high on top of my mountain, I just kept smelling something. It smelled like manure. I was standing on top of Shit Mountain,” he reflected. “I didn’t have no business, I didn’t have no financial literacy, I didn’t have an insurance policy, I didn’t know what trust accounts was, shell companies, I didn’t know how to buy tangible businesses. I didn’t know nothing!

“So I was like, ‘How am I this famous guy and I’m the big homie and y’all respect me, but I can’t even tell you how to open up a bank account?’ I didn’t even know how to open up a bank account, Sharpe! My mother ain’t have time to teach me that; she was too busy paying bills and making sure we alive.”

He added: “It felt so good learning that. Usually, if I want to run money up, I’d have to go in the streets. Now, y’all got good credit, some holding companies. I could go get me a loan. I could get a loan right now for $10 million, $20 million, $100 million. It’s just perspective and a good business plan.

“So when you start learning things like that, why would you be be a edge monster? I don’t care how gangsta you are; my boy, if you start learning this real business, man, you ain’t thugging! I’m not going nowhere where all the odds are against me. It’s stupidity. That’s what made me stop. I was on top of Shit Mountain and I wanted to build Mount Everest.”

Article source: https://hiphopdx.com/news/waka-flocka-flame-questions-takeoff-death-dice-game

Quentin Miller has revealed he was never properly compensated for his work with Drake, despite landing multiple songwriting credits on his triple-platinum album If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late.

Miller made the revelation during an interview with VladTV, explaining his “horrible” publishing deal with Grammy-winning producer/songwriter Tricky Stewart at the time meant he never received a publishing check for his contributions to Drizzy’s 2015 project.

The Atlanta native was outed as Drake’s “ghostwriter” by Meek Mill during their high-profile feud that summer, with the Philly rapper suggesting Miller penned the OVO hitmaker’s verse on their “R.I.C.O.” collaboration. Funk Flex also played Miller’s alleged reference track for “10 Bands” on Hot 97.

Miller denied the ghoswriting allegations and clarified that he was credited for working on a “few songs” on IYRTITL. However, Meek didn’t take too kindly to his denial and allegedly jumped Miller in a Nike store in Los Angeles.

“It was really inconsiderate,” Miller said while reflecting on his name being dragged through the mud during Drake and Meek’s beef. “It’s like I don’t matter. Maybe ’cause I was a writer, I don’t know. Even with [DJ] Drama and them, just throwing my whole life on the back burner just to get at a n-gga. But what about me taking care of my family?”

He added: “I’m working with a n-gga that literally is about to change my life, even though I was in my horrible, horrible, horrible publishing situation with Tricky so I never got a publishing check off of any Drake songs.”

When DJ Vlad quizzed him about his claim, Quentin Miller revealed he was forced to survive on money that was paid to him “under the table.” It wasn’t until almost a decade after signing the contract that he finally managed to extricate himself from his publishing deal with Stewart.

“I never got a single publishing check off any songs,” he added. “I had to feed my family off getting paid under the table in that situation, because Tricky and them wouldn’t let me go and it took me — I didn’t get out that deal ’til 2019, 2020; I signed [it in] 2011. I had to let go of a lot of shit just to get out.

“Even while I was in it, I never got a publishing check or nothing. I was just grinding, bro. I was grinding it out just hoping that one day that one song or working with that one artist is gonna change something — and that was the Drake thing! But it just didn’t change anything.”

Miller’s comments come after he was thrust into another ghostwriting debate involving a Hip Hop heavyweight. A clip of the WDNG Crshrs MC revealing he has worked with Nas circulated in November, rekindling long-running rumors that the Queensbridge MC doesn’t write all of his own lyrics.

But in video posted on Instagram, Miller — who is credited as a co-writer on Nas’ King’s Disease II track “The Pressure” — angrily set the record straight.

“OK, so apparently this whole Quentin-worked-with-Nas conversation is going a little more viral than what I thought ’cause now people are reaching out to me and asking me to clear it up,” he said. “I pulled up on Hit-Boy, I’m in the [studio] … I just bounced some ideas, a couple ideas win. That’s it.”

He added: “Writers post their work and talk about their work all the time. You know why? It helps with the business of writing. When people know that you were a part of certain things, it makes people more prone to work with you. It’s kind of part of the job.

“But it’s not that way with me, because I just so happened to have had a situation with the biggest artist in the world and it turned into a whole fucking ghostwriting scandal. Now anytime people work with me, it’s like I’m supposed to be a ghost. But I’m not a fucking ghost!”

Article source: https://hiphopdx.com/news/quentin-miller-never-paid-drake-songs-ghostwriting

Mac Critter, a rapper signed to Gucci Mane‘s 1017 Records imprint, has been formally charged with first-degree murder in relation to a fatal December 2022 shooting.

According to a report from Fox13 on Tuesday (January 3), Mac Critter (real name Daniel Bates) is one of four men involved in the shooting, which occurred in North Memphis on December 21. Following a court hearing, Critter’s attorney told the outlet he was surprised that his client didn’t get bond.

“I thought that my client would have gotten a bond,” he said. “It’s alleged, in the affidavit, that he was there but he is not the shooter. When [fellow suspect] Gary Taylor got bond, he was the alleged shooter. I was optimistic that we were going to get bond today but we didn’t.”

Markeith Taylor was found dead at the scene after being shot “several” times by four men in an SUV, according to a witness. The four men approached him and pulled out their guns after he was called over to their vehicle, then was shot to death allegedly by the aforementioned fellow suspect, Gary “Lil Gary” Taylor.

All suspects will remain behind bars and are scheduled to be back in court on January 10.

Gucci’s 1017 artists have not had a good run in recent months. Pooh Shiesty is currently behind bars, serving a five year sentence for a firearm conspiracy case – and is apparently facing horrible conditions while there.

Foogiano, who was named as one of HipHopDX‘s Rising Stars for 2021, is also serving a five year sentence, though his is for removing his ankle monitor and running from the law after being out on bail for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Hoodrich Pablo Juan is serving five years as well for a RICO case. Artists Ralo and Yung Mal are also now behind bars, and last month, Big Scarr passed away at just 22-years-old.

Article source: https://hiphopdx.com/news/mac-critter-gucci-mane-1017-records-murder-charge