SIGT HIP HOP STOP W/RON GRANT | Gene Simmons Disses Rap, Drake’s In The Alcohol Game, Sway Joins VH1, Machine Gun Kelly Sued For Concert Incident, Kendrick Lamar Surprise Cypher And Battle, Questlove Loses His Father

by Ron Grant • March 18, 2016

Alright … so maybe the week in Hip Hop music news wasn’t quite as dramatic as it has been in the past few months. With SXSW dominating the music news headlines, it’s expected. But there were still notable stories in hip hop over the last seven days. 70s rock stars with a history of ill will towards hip hop coming out of the woodwork, rappers arrested for altercations with disabled people. Damn … maybe it was still pretty dramatic! Anyway, peep some of the biggest stories of the week below.

GENE SIMMONS LOOKING FORWARD TO RAP’S DEMISE

Simmons, the lead singer for the legendary 70s rock band KISS, has a long history of taking shots at Hip Hop. He was a leading voice against artists like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious five and Run DMC being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame. Simmons told Rolling Stone magazine that he’s “looking forward to the death of rap,” and that he’s looking forward to “music coming back to lyrics and melody, instead of just talking.” No, no, Gene: tell us how you really feel! The full interview is available on the Rolling Stone website.

DRAKE PREVIEWS NEW WHISKEY BRAND

Giving a tease on his Instagram account, the Champagne Papi showed everyone this week what he’s been up to besides working on View From The 6 album: his new Virginia Black American Whiskey brand. And it only follows a natural progression of hip hop artists with their own brand of, or partial stake in, a liquor company. Diddy, Ludacris, Jay Z, and now Drizzy himself has joined the ranks of hip hop’s 1 percenters! Should we drink to that?

SWAY CALLOWAY JOINS VH1

Sway is known for his work on MTV, his own Sway In the Morning show, as well as for being a top tier historian, curator, host, producer, radio personality, and all-around ambassador of hip hop. But, he’ll now also continue to be an on-air personality and a producer with the longtime music cable channel. “I’m looking forward to hosting and creating groundbreaking, meaningful and fun programming for VH1,” Sway said in an interview. We should all look forward to what this living legend will bring to the table.

MACHINE GUN KELLY BEING SUED

In an incident from 2013, Cleveland’s own MGK was performing at a local Arkansas venue. He attempted to jump off the stage into the crowd but instead landed on concert attendee Kenneth Elsleger Jr., who was in a wheelchair. Elsleger is now suing both MGK and the now out of business venue for an undisclosed amount. Bet Kells will be a little more careful with where he stage dives next time.

KENDRICK LAMAR SURPRISES KIDS IN ENGLAND WITH A CYPHER AND BATTLE

Yeah, it was a PR move by Reebok. Still, it would be hard for any fan not to get excited about an artist of Kendrick Lamar’s stature performing and battling on the fly. That’s what happened at a promotional event in Machester, England this week. Kendrick used the art of improvisation and even battled some young fans as part of the event. Full video of Kendrick’s battle/cypher can be seen below.

LEE ANDREWS, QUESTLOVE’S FATHER, PASSES AWAY

Not merely just the father of one of the greatest drummers that has ever walked the face of the earth, Lee Andrews was also lead singer for Lee Andrews & The Hearts. Questlove wrote about the influence of his father on his music career in his book Mo’ Meta Blues. Andrews was 79 years old.