French Montana is in a contemplative mood on his latest track, “Suicide,” which dropped on Tuesday (September 16).

“Sometimes I look at my son, then I picture my father/ When he looked at his son and understood his story,” he raps to open the track, which has a somber tone throughout.

There are other moments that are a bit more classically Montana, with French delivering his seasoned street talk: “I’m talkin’ 500 murders, about 100 I knew/ I’m talkin’ 500 cases, ’bout 400 that blew.”

It’s not yet clear if this is off the rapper’s upcoming sophomore album, Mac & Cheese 4, which is due in November. French told MTV News over the summer that he had already recorded five tracks with Kanye West for the project.

Plus, he’s got Yeezy, Lil Wayne and Rick Ross on his next single, which we’re guessing will be a little more upbeat than this.

Adam Fleischer

It’s one of the great moments in hip-hop storytelling: The Nororious B.I.G.’s “I Got A Story To Tell,” where he gives a detailed account of sleeping with a woman and then robbing her man — who, he said, was “a player off the New York Knicks” — when he came home. But there’s one question that’s been left to lyrical lore: Which player is he talking about?

It’s often been rumored that the guy Big’s rhyming about is John Starks, a now-retired former fan-favorite. But on an episode of the ESPN show “Highly Questionable,” Starks said not only is it not about him, but he knows who it was about.

“That wasn’t me,” he said. “First and foremost, I’m not 6’5″; I’m 6’2″, actually.” The height comment is a reference to the late rapper’s line on the Life After Death track where he says he was at the house of, “One of them 6’5″ n—as.”

Related: Our Notorious B.I.G. Ready To Die Quiz Is Guaranteed To Stump You

“I know who it was about, but I’m not gonna say,” Starks added, with a smile. “I can’t tell you. But I just want to get it clear that it wasn’t about me.”

There’s actually been some digging and research done on this question before, but a sure answer still eludes us. What we know now is that Starks insists it wasn’t about him.

“I had never met Biggie before.”

Adam ...

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Eminem has had plenty of beefs in the past — from issues with Benzino to George W. Bush — and now he’s got another on his hands. The star rapper and his publishing companies are suing New Zealand’s National Party for copyright infringement on his song “Lose Yourself,” saying they used the track in a campaign ad.

“It is both disappointing and sadly ironic that the political party responsible for championing the rights of music publishers in New Zealand by the introduction of the three strikes copyright reforms should itself have so little regard for copyright,” Joel Martin, a spokesman for the publishing companies, Eight Mile Style and Martin Affiliated, told The Guardian.

The party, however, says they weren’t in the wrong. According to the Associated Press, the defendants say the track was originally published by a Los Angeles company called Spider Cues Music, and the party then bought it from an Australian-based supplier.

“We’ve got all the licensing, we’ve told them that and made it clear again this afternoon. We also incidentally moved on from this song about two weeks ago at the same time they first started to raise questions,” Campaign manager Steven Joyce said.

Check out a version of the commercial below, with clips of Em’s chart-topper interspersed throughout.

Adam Fleischer

As an expert in Thug Motivation, Jeezy surely has plenty words of advice for anyone trying to come up in whatever endeavor they may be focused on. And in his new video for “Holy Ghost,” the Atlanta rapper drops some wisdom on an up and comer.

“You remember what I told you? What’d I tell you?” Jeezy asks the young whippersnapper at the beginning of the Seen It All video, which dropped on Monday (September 15).

“Stay true and keep my eyes open at all times,” he responds to the rapper, who’s sitting, of course, in the back of a Rolls-Royce.

“All times, man. Don’t forget that, alright?”

“When I grow up, I’mma be just like you.”

“You gonna be better than me, man,” Jeezy says. “But you gotta stay focused out here.”

Only time will tell if the kid becomes better than the Def Jam rapper, but if he becomes just like him, then that means he’ll be rolling around in he back seat of an expensive car, like Jizzle does here.

It seems like this will be the next single from the album; in addition to the new visuals, earlier this month, Kendrick Lamar remixed the track.

Adam Fleischer

At this point, we don’t know much about Kendrick Lamar’s upcoming sophomore album — besides the fact that he’s hard at work and we’re eagerly anticipating its release.

One thing that we now know for sure: The project will have an abundance of “aggression and emotion,” according to an interview K. Dot gave Rolling Stone for their most recent issue, with Taylor Swift on the cover, on newsstands now.

In many ways, that sounds like it’ll be a thematic cousin to Kendrick’s major label debut, 2012′s good kid, m.A.A.d city, which was brimming with emotion in its own right. But it also had moments of sadness, as he told tales of abundant violence and slain friends. The follow up, it sounds like — though, of course, we won’t know for sure until it drops — may channel that tragedy into anger.

“There was a lot I left out of good kid — it could have been a 30-track album,” the Compton native said, adding that there may be some carry over content-wise. “There are a few [new] songs that can tie in with what I was talking about.”

After enlisting Drake, Jay Rock, MC Eiht and Dr. Dre for guest verses on the last album, the 27-year-old doesn’t have any features yet this time around.

What he does have, though, is “a bunch of tracks” with Dre on the boards.

That’s a lot to look forward to.

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The last video from Jon Bellion, “Simple and Sweet,” which dropped last month, was a cinematic experience for the viewer — the singer bounces between belting his song in the snow and backed by fire light. His latest visual, “Carry Your Throne,” is equally aesthetically gripping.

Set in sort of desolate forest, there’s a fight — presumably for love — with a bit of a medieval vibe.

“The record was produced and recorded in an actual castle cathedral in France,” the singer told Complex. “Live orchestration and all. Me and award-winning country producer Chris DeStefano looked at each other after the final playback and just hysterically laughed for about an hour. We knew how progressive and incredible this sh– was.”

This is the third single from his upcoming album, The Definition, which drops on September 23.

The Visionary Music Group signee is also heading out on The Beautiful Mind Tour beginning in October.

Adam Fleischer

After dropping very little new music in 2014, Big Sean returned with a vengeance on Friday (September 12) with four new songs. One of those records was “I Don’t F–k With You,” a track that’s both catchy and exhibits the rapper’s nimble wordplay — and also sounds a lot like a breakup song, following his broken engagement with Naya Rivera.

But Sean says he was actually in a relationship — presumably with Naya — when he wrote the track.

“I wasn’t angry, man,” the Detroit native told MTV News of the DJ Mustard, Kanye West and DJ Dahi-produced banger. “You know, the funny thing about ‘I Don’t F–k With You’ is that I actually wrote that while I was in a relationship. I wasn’t bitter. I wrote that while I was with my ex.”

Still, he admits it may have taken a new form in the time since — which makes sense, given lines like, “And everyday I wake up celebrating, sh–, why?/ ‘Cause I just dodged a bullet from a crazy bitch.”

“Then, obviously, after a few things went down, I went back and changed a couple words — but, mainly, the song was already there,” he said. “It’s funny how things play out.”

And the MC, newly-aligned with Roc Nation, feels like the track’s content — which touches on issues like moving on from a past relationship — is something anyone can relate to.

“It’s just real, man. I feel it’s ...

Remy Ma has been out of jail for just over a month, and what better way to make her mark in the current music climate than by remixing one of the year’s most buzzed-about tracks? That’s exactly what Rem did on Thursday (September 11), with her take on Bobby Shmurda’s “Hot N—a.”

Aptly renamed “Hot B—h,” the Bronx rapper’s version finds her bouncing over the Jahlil Beats-produced banger with ease. She talks greasy for a while, and also kicks an impressive string of alliteration at one point. Plus, she brings up her recent bid.

“I just came home, I’m tryna get this shmoney, attempted shmurda was the case that they gave me,” she says as the track opens, before launching into her rhymes, referencing the recent six-plus bid she did behind bars.

It’s unclear if this is just a one-off giveaway or will be included on Remy’s upcoming mixtape, I’m Around, which she told MTV News is dropping soon, and will address what she’s gone through over the last few years.

“It’s kind of impossible, after being in prison for six-and-a-half-years, and being home for 19 days, to only talk about what I’m going through right now,” she told us last month. “It’s very hard not to bring up what I went through. Even though, in the future, I don’t want to keep dwelling on the past. I don’t want to dwell in the past now, but that was a large part of my life, so it has affected ...

Through her music, social media and videos, Nicki Minaj gets to speak to millions of kids all the time. But she says that she wasn’t allowed to do so in person at her old high school, even though she wanted to.

“I wanted to go back to my HS and speak to the students but the new principal declined,” Nicki wrote on Twitter on Thursday (September 11). “No need for me to inspire them, I guess.”

In the past, the Young Money rapper has spoken highly of her alma mater, LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, located in New York. “It was the first time I felt like I really fit in,” she told Teen Vogue last year of her high school experience. “Everyone there was creative. For once, I didn’t feel like there was something weird about me.”

Maybe they took exception to her Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded – The Re-Up track “High School”?

Check out Nicki’s tweets below.

Adam Fleischer

With his new album, The Gold Album: 18th Dynasty, set to drop in two months, Tyga looks like he’s getting ready to kick things into full gear. On Thursday (September 11), he dropped the video for the album’s latest single, “Real Deal.”

For both the track and the video, the Los Angeles rapper goes back to where he found his biggest success, thanks to his breakout hit, “Rack City”: the strip club. Things don’t get too explicit this time around, as the Young Money MC navigates his way through a dimly lit club — though there are a few scantily clad ladies, stripper poles and airborne one dollar bills showing up throughout.

“Real Deal” is the third song Tyga has dropped from the album, which is scheduled to come out on November 18, and will be executive produced by Kanye West.

“I met Kanye like six years ago and it’s always been cool,” Tyga told MTV News in March. “Every time we chopped it up or been around each other it’s always been cool vibin’, and he was just like, ‘Yo, man I’ll produce your joint. I’ll produce your joint if you want me to,’ and I was just like, ‘Hell yeah, man, that’s a blessing.’”

Adam Fleischer