The Generation of Infamous

Kanye West made his chaotic return to Instagram on Monday (June 13) to blast Adidas for allegedly copying his YEEZY slides design.

The Chicago native fired away at the apparel giant he’s been in business with since 2015 by calling out their CEO as Adidas gears up to release its Adilette 22 sandals on June 23.

 

“THIS IS YE driving down the same street Kobe passed on,” he wrote. “Maybe I feel that Mamba spirit right now To Kasper I’m not standing for this blatant copying no more To all sneaker culture To every ball player rapper or even if you work at the store This is for everyone who wants to express themselves but feel they can’t cause they’ll loose their contract or be called crazy Bravery is not being afraid Bravery is overcoming your fear for your truth.”

“This Ye with the blue paint on my face These shoes represent the disrespect that people in power have to the talent This shoe is a fake Yeezy made by adidas themselves I’m not talking to DC about this either Kasper come talk to me Happy Monday.”

 

Adidas CEO Kasper Rørsted is yet to respond to Ye’s allegations. Everything seemed to be going smoothly in the lucrative partnership between Adidas and YEEZY, as the empire they’ve created is a major component of Kanye’s billionaire status.

The Adilette 22 is scheduled to still be released on June 23 with a retail price of $55. The slides will ultimately come in five different colorways.

 

 

Fans are counting down the days until JID unleashes his anticipated The Forever Story album. While that time isn’t just yet, the Dreamville rhymer fed his fans’ appetite with “29 (Freestyle)” and an accompanying visual, which arrived on Monday (June 13).

Even though he was raised on the Eastside of Atlanta, JID heads to the country for a day of outdoor activities. The 31-year-old races ATVs through the plains and then straps on some boots to try out fly fishing.

He even catches a fish at the video’s end, but it slips out of his grasp after he poses for a photo with the catch of the day.

“Long time, legacy, legend to his primetime/Like Deion, HBC, you caught your own kind/Blindside, I look out for yours, you look out for mine/Like you Michael Oher or them crackers, Michael Myers at my door,” he raps.

JID didn’t put a release date on his forthcoming album, but provided some context as to what fans can expect sonically from the body of work.

“We pushing these envelopes of sound and flow and pockets and all that shit in this next body of work, I appreciate Christo always being light years ahead with his ear and experimentation, jus a lil freestyle for ya,” he wrote on Twitter. “Real light ’29.’”

 

Monday was a busy day for JID. In addition to dropping “29,” he appeared in John Legend’s music video for “Dope,” which finds the duo performing at a vintage house party.

 

Jim Jones isn’t sure about getting involved in a rap battle. During a sit-down with Level, the New York legend said he’s far more comfortable in a studio than duking it out lyrically with another MC.

Done as part of a new segment titled How I Got Here, Jones explained his come-up in short candid tidbits and said quaintly that rap battles just never seemed like something he was cut out for.

“I’ve never rap battled,” Jones said. “I’ve partaken in some cyphers, but I don’t got thick skin like that to have somebody talk about me in their music. I don’t think it’s gonna go the way they want to.”

Jones then explained how this doesn’t mean he’s afraid to push outside his comfort zone.

“I don’t see too many hustles that I’m scared of doing,” he said. “The hustling came from Harlem. The rap game just enhanced my hustle.”

While Jim Jones might not feel built for a rap battle, this doesn’t mean he’s one to back out of a confrontation. The “We Set The Trends” rapper recently teamed up with Maino to form the Lobby Boyz, but during a visit to Gillie Da Kid and Wallo’s Million Dollaz Worth Of Game podcast, the Big Apple rhymers revealed that they actually weren’t the biggest fans of each other when they first met. Thankfully, they both decided to hash it out inside an Atlanta mall.

“We had a Mexican standoff,” Maino said of the encounter. “I was on the escalator going up, Lenox Mall. Jim Jones had to have 30 n-ggas with him I had my brother 80 with me, it was like four or five of us. I’m going up, and I see these n-ggas going down, and they see me and I start counting and I’m like ‘Damn, that’s a lot of n-ggas.’ So I got to the top of the escalator, something say turn around and them n-ggas coming back up.”

Jones continued, “80 and Sheek, Sheek is my OG, similar to how [Maino] and 80 move. But they knew each other very tight from being in the street. So at that point, they kind of intervened, and they was saying what they was saying and it was just somehow me and him walked by ourselves to Bloomingdale’s.”

They ended up stepping to the side and talking, and the rest is history.

Check out the Lobby Boyz most recent single, “Slide” with Fivio Foreign, below.

 

Oh, the internet. The power of group think has evidently convinced Lizzo to change a lyric from her latest song “GRRRLS” after she was shamed for using the word “spaz” in one of the verses. As one person wrote, “Hey @lizzo my disability Cerebral Palsy is literally classified as Spastic Diplegia (where spasticity refers to unending painful tightness in my legs) your new song makes me pretty angry + sad. ‘Spaz’ doesn’t mean freaked out or crazy. It’s an ableist slur. It’s 2022. Do better.”

Another person said, “I’m disappointed @lizzo for using the word “sp@z” in her new song ‘Grrrls.’ There’s no excuse for using an ableist insult in a song in 2022. As someone who champions women, plus size people and others whom society treats poorly, Lizzo preaches inclusivity and should do better.”

Lizzo heard their cries and decided to spring into action. On Monday (June 13), Lizzo accepted culpability for offending anyone with a Twitter post that read, “It’s been brought to my attention that there is a harmful word in my new song ‘GRRRLS.’ Let me make one thing clear: I never want to promote derogatory language. As a fat Black woman in America, I’ve had many hurtful words used against me so I overstand the power words can have (whether intentionally or in my case unintentionally).

“I’m proud to say there’s a new version of ‘GRRRLS’ with a lyric change. This is the result of me listening and taking action. As an influential artist I’m dedicated to being a part of the change I’ve been waiting to see in the world. Xoxo, Lizzo.”

 

Lizzo dropped “GRRRLS” last week, which uses a sample of the 1986 Beastie Boys’ single “Girls” from the trio’s debut Licensed To Ill. Had those offended by “spaz” been more familiar with the song’s origins, they’d probably be more outraged by the lyrics Ad-Rock, MCA and Mike D were spitting at a time when misogyny, offensive language and sexism was basically celebrated. Live shows of that era featured women in cages dancing onstage and a giant hydraulic penis.

“Girls, to do the dishes,” they rapped. “Girls, to clean up my room/Girls, to do the laundry/Girls, and in the bathroom/Girls, that’s all I really want is girls/Two at a time, I want girls/With new wave hairdos, I want girls/I ought to whip out my…”

“Girls” was one of the songs MCA had in mind when he addressed some of Beastie Boys‘ less evolved lyrics later on in his career. On the 1994 song “Sure Shot,” Beastie Boys famously included a verse in which MCA explicitly apologized for the group’s past misogyny.  Ad-Rock also wrote a letter to Time Out New York apologizing for the band’s past. In 1998, the Beasties publicly beefed with the  Prodigy, asking them not to play the song “Smack My Bitch Up” at a festival where both acts were appearing.

As for “GRRRLS,” Lizzo originally sings, “Hold my bag, bitch, hold my bag/ Do you see this shit? I’m a spaz.” The new version has been updated to: “Hold my bag, bitch, Hold my bag/ Do you see this shit? Hold me back.” Listen to the updated version below before Special arrives on July 15.