Kendrick Lamar has been busy putting the finishing touches on his next album, but when Prince calls, you got to make time, right?

On Tuesday night, K. Dot joined the Purple One at a special livestream and concert that was broadcasted on the Internet to celebrate the release of Prince’s pair of new albums, Art Official Age and PlectrumElectrum. For his part, Lamar added a brand-new verse to Prince’s 1998 track “What’s My Name.”

“This is yours, this is ours/ Look in my eyes, tell me you want me/ Tell me you see me, I know you haunt me/ I know you love me, I know the truth/ I know the real, I speak it to you,” Kendrick raps.

Check out the clip, which we found on MissInfo.TV.

Rob Markman

Mentally been many places, but I'm Brooklyn's own. Hip-hop gives me life!

@RobMarkman

We’re sure that Sean “Diddy” Combs has to make tough decisions every single day, but on Tuesday the Bad Boy CEO had to make the most difficult call: Deciding who has the better booty — Kim Kardashian or Jennfier Lopez?

More specifically, “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush asked him: Is Kim Kardashian even in the same conversation as J. Lo?

“Noooooo waaaaaaaaaaaay,” Diddy answered yesterday when he appeared on the show. “No disrespect to Kanye and Kim but that thing right there, that thing right there is something special.”

After plugging his various ventures, the show hosts played Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea’s video for “Booty” to get Diddy’s reaction and react he did. “Oh my God. I’m so lucky to have that great woman in my history. She is one of the greatest I’ve ever seen,” he gushed about his ex-girlfriend J. Lo.

“It’s great, it’s a work of art, it’s something that will go down in history for real,” he said of her backside, before also complimenting Lopez on her talent, drive and determination as well. “She’s a great friend of mine, she will always be my friend. That thing is just incredible man.”

After the show aired Access Hollywood caught up with J. Lo to get her reaction to Diddy’s reaction to her. “As much as he roots for me and as proud as he is of me, and the time we had together, I am just as proud,” she responded.

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Throughout his illustrious 20 year career, Nas has surely heard a ton of rumors about himself, but the latest tidbit surrounding him has God’s Son truly baffled.

Back in June, a Brooklyn-based rapper by the name of Your Old Droog dropped his debut self-titled EP on his Soundcloud without much of a visual presence. He wasn’t pictured on his album cover and there were no accompanying music videos, a rarity for a new MC in 2014.

What Droog did have was a 10-track project with vintage New York beats, and a vocal tone and flow which reminded many of Nas.

Initially comments on various blog sites and reddit went from: “Hey, Droog sounds like Nas” to “Nas put out a secret EP under the name Your Old Droog.” Things get even more strange when you’re the one who has to explain this hip-hop conspiracy theory to Nas for the first time.

“What do you mean a secret Nas album,” he questioned during an interview with MTV News on Monday (September 29).

The focus of the interview was Nas’ new documentary “Time is Illmatic,” which is set to open in select theaters on October 1 and then become available On Demand on October 3. We spoke about the doc and then took a bit of a turn.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Nas said with a puzzled look on his face.

Droog, has since released a freestyle video and preformed at a sold-out show ...

Birdman has guided the careers of a few rap greats. His resume includes the Hot Boys, Lil Wayne, Drake and Nicki Minaj, so when Baby told us he has a vision for Young Thug and Rich Homie Quan, we couldn’t help but be excited.

On Monday (September 29) the duo (with Birdman in tow) released their first joint project, Rich Gang: The Tour, Part 1.

“I met Thug, flew him to L.A. to come see me and we connected from there, then Quan came to the table. I always believed in unity, that’s always been my thing,” Birdman told MTV News on September 11, when we traveled to Atlanta to cover a video shoot for “Flava.”

“They were already working on a project, them two, and I said, ‘Let’s do it together. Let me take it to the next level for y’all, ’cause I see y’all got the potential and the talent’,” he continued.

Rob Markman

Mentally been many places, but I'm Brooklyn's own. Hip-hop gives me life!

@RobMarkman

Jon Bellion had two things on his mind when he was recording his latest album The Definition, which he released online for free on Tuesday.

“A lot of the album, The Definition was made from two things, Pixar movies and J. Dilla,” the singer, songwriter, producer, rapper and video director told MTV News on Thursday.

Bellion is currently overflowing with creativity, last year he wrote the chorus for Eminem and Rihanna’s number one single, “The Monster” and he also produced Jason Derulo‘s current single “Trumpets,” but it’s on The Definition where he is truly himself, blurring the lines between hip-hop, pop and soul.

Sometimes he’s singing (“Carry Your Throne”), sometimes he’s rapping (“Pre-Occupied”) and sometimes he breaks the boundaries and does both without you even noticing.

The truth is, on The Definition it’s impossible to find the seams in Bellion’s varied creativity, instead Jon soaks up inspiration and spits it back out in one steady stream. It all started with his binge-watching cartoon habits. “I’d watch Pixar movies for like six hours, back-to-back. I’d watch ‘Finding Nemo,’ twice a week, back-to-back-to-back, three times in a row,” he admitted.

Jon was so inspired by the Disney-backed animation house that he chose to animate his self-directed “Luxury” video as well. For him it’s the aesthetics and complex simplicity that films like “Finding Nemo” and “Cars” carry. Bellion admires how the story lines are sophisticated enough to hold the attention of adults and colorful and ...

Remember when everyone thought that Kevin Gates and Young Thug were beefing? Well, what you thought was a beef between two of the newest and hottest hip-hop acts isn’t a beef at all.

“Everything okay with Kevin; me and Kevin ain’t got no problem,” Young Thug told MTV News on September 11, when we visited a Rich Gang video shoot in Atlanta. “Everybody thinking it was me and him goin’ at each other, that’s my brother. Ain’t no problem with me and Kevin Gates, everybody just trippin’.”

All of the speculation started earlier this month when Gates posted an Instagram video, seemingly bothered that someone (we all assumed Thug) wasn’t answering his calls. Gates ended his video saying “I don’t get tired,” a popular line from his single “#IDGT.”

Shortly after, Thug dropped an IG video blasting someone for sneak dissing, repeatedly using the same line: “I don’t get tired.”

Well, it turns out that the world got it wrong, because both Gates and Thug say things are all good between them.

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” Gates told Hip-Hop Since 1987 when they asked him about the beef on the 2014 BET Hip Hop Awards green carpet. “That’s my little brother, God bless him, I love him.”

Rob Markman

Mentally been many places, but I'm Brooklyn's own. Hip-hop gives me life!

@RobMarkman

Birdman has vision. The Cash Money co-founder, alongside his brother Ronald “Slim” Williams, has guided the careers of some of the biggest names in hip-hop music. With artists like Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj and Drake carrying the torch for the brand, Bird sought out a couple of other newcomers to build with: Young Thug and Rich Homie Quan.

“I met Thug, flew him to L.A. to come see me and we connected from there, then Quan came to the table. I always believed in unity, that’s always been my thing,” Birdman told MTV News on September 11, when we traveled to Atlanta to cover a video shoot for an upcoming Rich Gang single.

Baby brought Thug and Quan together on “Lifestyle,” the #5 rap single in the country, according to Billboard. Next, Birdman plans to drop a Rich Gang mixtape, which will star Thugger and Rich Homie, and then an upcoming tour for the three of them.

“They were already working on a project, them two, and I said, ‘Let’s do it together. Let me take it to the next level for y’all, ’cause I see y’all got the potential and the talent,’” Baby told us of his pitch to the rising stars.

Both Thug and Rich Homie had solo success before meeting Birdman. Young Thug’s 2013 breakout “Stoner” launched him into a national spotlight, and Quan scored major points with his singles “Type of Way” and “Walk Thru.”

“I just thought by them being together, it would ...

50 Cent has never held back his feelings when it came to his late-grandmother Beulah Jackson, always praising her in song and in interviews. On Tuesday (September 23), the tough-as-nails rapper posted a heartfelt message on Instagram for the woman that raised him.

“My angel (Beulah Jackson) God has blessed me with letting her see me win. She was proud of me, now how i see my self is all that matters,” he wrote to caption the photo collage, which placed his grandmother alongside two white doves.

MTV News confirmed Mrs. Jackson’s passing through a source last week, but the exact time and cause of her death is unknown. Back in June, Fif revealed to New York radio host Angie Martinez, during her former show on Hot 97, that his grandmother was recently sick.

“If I had one person in the world that I could give everything that I have to and I’d be comfortable with it, it’ll be my grandmother,” he said then.

Rob Markman

Mentally been many places, but I'm Brooklyn's own. Hip-hop gives me life!

@RobMarkman

Jon Bellion is still a relative unknown when it comes to pop music’s heavy hitters, but the singer, songwriter, producer and sometimes rapper has been making quite a name for himself lately and creating some of the best music videos around.

Bellion’s new project, The Definition, will drop on Tuesday, so to lead up, he released his video for “Luxury” on Monday (September 22).

The animated clip finds a cartoon version of “The Monster” writer waking up in a dark house, before he runs from the ghouls and goblins that are to represent the horrors that fame and fortune bring. “It’s so plain to see, one can lose his way so won’t you pray with me, that I don’t lose my soul in luxury,” he sings.

“Luxury” is the third video from the upcoming The Definition. Last week Bellion, released the beautifully-shot “Carry Your Throne,” which incorporated a “Game of Thrones” type of a feel. Before that, he dropped the elegant “Simple and Sweet.”

That’s three different videos, with three different feels — and all of them great.

Rob Markman

Mentally been many places, but I'm Brooklyn's own. Hip-hop gives me life!

@RobMarkman

YG had big plans this weekend, but he claims that the Los Angeles Police Department is preventing him from performing at two California shows with Lil Wayne and Drake.

The My Krazy Life MC sent a tweet yesterday putting the LAPD on blast for blocking him from performing at last night’s Irvine date and on Monday’s L.A. stop of the Drake Vs. Lil Wayne Tour.

Yesterday MTV News reached out to a media relations representative for the Los Angeles Police Department and was told that the department had no information regarding the matter. However, a source close to YG’s camp told us that the police department put a call into the tour promoter demanding that they add extra police security to the concert if YG was to perform.

The added muscle could cost the promoter an extra $120,000, thus making YG a real financial liability and making it nearly impossible for him to perform.

Our source called the order “unfair,” claiming that the rapper is being judged on his gangsta music and not his real life track record. The source cited two sold out shows in Orange County, plus YG’s recent appearance at the Budweiser Made in America Festival in Los Angeles that went on without incident. His team also reminds that the rapper has done some positive work in the community as well, calling out a recent event where he gave out free back to school supplies to kids in ...