By: Richie Valentino

New York rapper Richie Valentino returns to the scene with a fire new EP titled Multiple Personality. As he carries that east coast swag like most New York emcee’s do, this release is by far his most impressive body of work to date. He does an excellent job of creating a project that his thriving fanbase can enjoy any day of the week. I had the pleasure of catching up with Richie for a candid interview centered around his new Multiple Personality release. Check it out below.

Richie Valentino Interview

Respect: What city are you from and where are you based now?

Richie: I represent Long Island, New York. I moved out here to attend Stony Brook University and I never left. I felt like I could contribute a lot to the area with my Queens mentality. NYC in general is super competitive. I feel like it made who I am. Super competitive be daring enough to move my own direction and take my own risks.

Respect: At what point in your life did you decide to pursue a career in music?

Richie: I been deejaying since I was 13. I took those talents to college with me then eventually got into club and concert promotion. I was always freestyle rapping as a kid. “Ready To Die” by Biggie is when I can say I really feel in love with rap. But the moment I decided to take music seriously is when Chinx passed. I felt connected to his music, and I took the pain of his loss and took turned into courage.

Respect: Has your upbringing played a role in shaping who you are and defining your
sound today? If so, how?

Richie: Growing up in Queens, New York made me tough. There was no such thing as crying. No such thing as complaining. You dealt with the cards God gave you. You can hear it in my rap voice, its full of determination and power.

Respect: How would you describe your sound to readers who may not be familiar with
you?

Richie: I would like to think I’m two artists in one. That’s why I called my first project “Multiple Personality.” I rap and I sing. I’d describe my rap voice as powerful with a lot of vibrato. My singing voice is calm and soulful. If you didn’t know me or you weren’t a fan of me, you would say that I sound like two completely different people. On my track “Blow My High,” for example, I rap the verses and sing the hooks.

Respect: What ultimately inspired you to dedicate yourself to a music career?

Richie: Like I mentioned before, I’ve been surrounded by music my whole life. My pops was a DJ. I became a DJ and then a nightclub and concert promoter. I guess you can say it was just a matter of time until I built up the courage to show the world my talent.

Respect: What’s one reason you are passionate about music and what inspires you?

Richie: What I would consider to be good music is hard to find on the radio these days. Often times I find myself listening to old school R&B and Hip Hop. So my goal is to make new- style hip hop infused with real lyrics that make sense with solid metaphors and plenty of soul.

Respect: Who are some of your main musical influences?

Richie: I respect a lot of artists. Kanye, Nas, Jodeci, and Biggie to name a few, but personally I don’t think I sound like anyone. I really tried to build my own sound.

Respect: What are some of your music career goals for the future?

Richie: I would like to win a Grammy and give it to my parents.

Respect: Tell us about the latest project that you’ve released? What is it about?

Richie: My debut album is called “Multiple Personality.” I can best describe it as a collection of
one of voices in my head. It has seven tracks which basically serves as an introduction to my talent.

Respect: What has the response been like to that project?

Richie: The response has been incredible, it has gotten about 30,000 streams in the first month. Over 100 people reposted my album cover on social media. I was actually shocked how many people showed me love on it without me even having to ask.

Respect: What’s next for you? Are you working on any upcoming projects we should be on
the lookout for?

Richie: Soon as outside opens back up, I plan on throwing a huge album release party. I am
also dropping a Latin project Mid-Summer 2020.

Respect: What message do you hope fans take away from your music?

Richie: I want my fans to know all my music is from the heart and I take it very seriously. I hope
they can feel my love my energy and dedication in every word I say.

Be sure to follow Richie Valentino @kingoflongisland_ to stay up to date on his music journey.

The post New York Rapper Richie Valentino Releases New “Multiple Personality” EP appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

California rapper Dough The Freshkid is one of the premiere artists coming out of west coast. As he rolled out his latest project Tals Cafe today, It is clear that his talent is unmatched and superb. I had the pleasure of catching up with the hotshot for a quick interview to discuss his new project and inspiration.

Check it out below.

Dough The Freshkid Interview

Respect: What city do you rep?

Dough: I am from Crenshaw District Arlington of California.

Respect: At what point in your life did you decide to pursue a career in music?

Dough: I was around 13 years old when my homeboy asked me to write a rap for him for the school talent show and he ended up winning.

Respect: Has your upbringing played a role in shaping who you are and defining your sound today? If so, how?

Dough: Absolutely. I was born back east and raised a G on the West which, gave me an open range on sounds and culture.

Respect: How would you describe your sound to readers who may not be familiar with you?

Dough: I consider myself a street-conscious MC. I have a classic 90s Hip-Hop sound mixed with some of today’s sound. Most of my music production includes heavy bass instruments, classic pianos and soul samples.

Respect: What ultimately inspired you to dedicate yourself to a music career?

Dough: I live music on a daily, I am music, it’s not a career to me it’s a lifestyle. So, I said, “Why not get paid for it?” and show the whole world how gifted I am.

Respect: What’s one reason you are passionate about music and what inspires you?

Dough: I was born in Gary, Indiana on Jackson street where the great Michael Jackson lived. That played a major part of it. I am inspired by the outcome of the music I create; I love to continue to challenge myself each project. I’m actually a big fan of myself.

Respect: Do you have any hobbies outside of music? What do you do to stay creative?

Dough: I love watching old movies from the ‘60s and ‘70s. I’m a big kid so I’m looking for that PS5 to drop, and I love working out staying healthy.

Respect: Who are some of your main musical influences?

Dough: My influences are some of the veterans like Ice Cube, Nas, Jay-Z , Biggie, Pac, 50 Cent, and Redman. I also pay attention to Kendrick Lamar, J.Cole, the late great Hussle and all my brothers from the Crenshaw District and my brothers in NY.

Respect: What are some of your music career goals for the future?

Dough: Continue to build my brand where I’m respected as a major and hopefully connected with a major on a Distribution partnership.

Respect: Tell us about the latest project that you’ve released? What is it about?

Dough: Tal’s Café is my latest project (album) that is out today. It’s simply about bringing the hustle aspect back into the game. We got way too many people glorifying junkies in Hip-Hop these days. Never get high on yo own supplies.

Respect: What are some projects you’ve done that you are most proud of and why?

Dough: I’m proud of all three of my projects that I’ve released through stores. I have a few mixtapes that are on DatPiff that you can’t sleep on either. Arlington Avenue, Black Rome and Tal’s Café demonstrates and shows my supporters the range I have when it comes to composing albums. Each of these albums speak of times that we currently live in. I write movies!

Respect: What’s next for you?

Dough: I’m writing in my head as we speak. I also have a title idea but, I am going to hold on to it for a while. I don’t want nobody biting my style lol.

Respect: What message do you hope fans take away from your music?

Dough: That I’m original and that I’m not concerned about what people thing about me. I’ll put my message out there regardless if it’s mainstream or not. I don’t play by the rules; I create my own rules. As Frank Sinatra said “I did it my way.”

Respect: Where can we find you on social media?

Dough: You can find me on Instagram @doughthefreshkid, and on twitter @doughfreshkid. You can also find me on Spotify, Youtube and Apple music by typing in Dough The Freshkid.

Be sure to press play below to stream his latest EP Tals Cafe.

The post RESPECT. Interview: Dough The Freshkid Talks New EP “Tals Cafe” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

As previously reported, Nicki Minaj dropped her highly anticipated album Queen and decided to spill some tea with the release. After previewing the song “Barbie Dreams” on her latest venture with Apple Music, Queen Radio, fans couldn’t wait to rewind and assess the victims of the verbal dragging on the Lil’ Kim inspired track.

“Reading the reactions to Barbie Dreams is fucking hilarious,” Nicki said as soon as the song was released. “Everyone is saying how disrespectful ‘Barbie Dreams’ is, and that’s why I fucking love it.”

The track which samples the Notorious B.I.G‘s original song “Dreams”, jokingly takes aim at the rappers who have tried to sleep with the “Bed” emcee. Tapping into her mixtape days, Nicki Minaj calls out a slew of rappers including Young Thug, Lil Uzi Vert, Eminem, and Young Money labelmate Drake, who Nicki claims all wanted a piece of the Barbie cakes.

“Drake worth a hundred milli, always buying me shit/ But I don’t know if the pussy wet or if he’s crying and shit/ Em copped a Barbie dream house and you can play the part/ I ain’t tryin’ to bust it open in a trailer park/Used to fuck with Young Thug, I ain’t addressing this shit/ I caught him in my dressing rooms stealing dresses and shit”

Nicki even threw a few shots at her ex-boyfriend Meek Mill, claiming that the “Dreams and Nightmares” emcee has still been creeping in her DMs on the low shooting his shot.

“Meek still be in my DMs, I be having to dump him/ ‘I used to pray for times like this,’ Face ass when I fuck him”

With the release of the album, of course, the BARBZ went in on Twitter, adding hilarious reactions to the track.

Nicki wasn’t letting up on these rappers with Barbie Dreams #Queen #QueenRadio pic.twitter.com/BJuEUDK1Rc

— Bri (@LovelyOTPs) August 10, 2018

https://twitter.com/marie_brownsuga/status/1027958991895154688

https://twitter.com/sentravin/status/1027958006888194048

https://twitter.com/r3al__AJ/status/1027968023888637952

Although Nicki came with it on “Barbie Dreams”, many Hip-Hop fans were unimpressed at her shout out to Biggie, but ignoring of Lil Kim who came up with the original concept of the “Dreams” flip for her 1996 debut Hard Core.

You know Nicki Minaj spittin over Notorious B.I.G.’s “Dreams” has Lil Kim feeling a ways. You just know.

— A Phizer A (@Aqua174) August 10, 2018

https://twitter.com/MarkChang_/status/1027329219666305026

https://twitter.com/Sincerely_Tanya/status/1027960752425066496

Despite the seemingly purposeful jabs and clear influence she’s had on Nicki’s career, Lil Kim said she’s over the Nicki drama. During an interview with 92.3 The Real in Los Angeles, Lil Kim let her frustrations be heard with constantly being asked about Minaj while she’s promoting her own projects.

“Oh God. Let me ask you this. Do you f*ck with me for real?” Kim said. “Okay, so if you f*ck with me, right? Why isn’t this about Kim? Yeah, see if we’re gonna mention one female we’re gonna mention them all. We need to mention them all. We need to bring everybody in and we need to give everybody love. God bless her. What she did she did. But you know what? I wish her the best. I’m past that and over that. At the end of the day, stop asking me about that chick – she did what she did – y’all don’t do that to her. I don’t think you would [ask her about me?]”

Check out “Barbie Dreams” below.

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The post Nicki Minaj Channels B.I.G. & Lil Kim with “Barbie Dreams,” Takes Aim at Rappers appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

ATLiens Outkast was literally in the house as celebrities and actors alike showed up for the screening of USA Network’s Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G..

On February 20th as Big Boi hosted a private advanced screening in Atlanta, held at the mansion of retired NBA baller Theo Ratliff, other attendees at the intimate showing included singer/actor Luke James, Porsha Williams of Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Upfront Entertainment’s Devyne Stephens, singer Alexis Branch and Praise 102.5 Radio personality K.D. Bowe.

Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. premieres on the USA Network features veteran actor Bokeem Woodbine while newcomers Marcc Rose and Wavyy Jonez make their intros portraying Tupac and Biggie.

UNSOLVED — “Pilot” — Pictured: (l-r) — (Photo by: James Minchin III/USA Network)

Fresh off of playing Johnny Gill last year in The New Edition Story, Luke James also stars in the series as Sean “Diddy” Combs. The 10-episode scripted true-crime limited series chronicles the dual investigations of Detective Greg Kading (Josh Duhamel) and Detective Russell Poole (Jimmi Simpson) and revisits the controversial murders of the Hip-Hop icons.

As for what to expect, here’s an excerpt from NY Times‘ review:

“So the most conspicuous aspect of “Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.,” a lightly fictionalized 10-part limited series on USA that has its premiere on Tuesday, is its certainty. Here is a show that offers answers, a ticktock of the various investigations into the killings that have resulted in no arrests but not, if “Unsolved” is to be believed, in no answers. The series is inspired by “Murder Rap: The Untold Story of the Biggie Smalls & Tupac Shakur Murder Investigations,” a book by Greg Kading, who led a task force investigating the shootings in the late 2000s. (There is an accompanying documentary as well.) In that book, Mr. Kading lays out his theories about who pulled the triggers, and why.”

Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. airs Tuesday at 10 p.m. EST on the USA Network.

Check out some of the photos and video of the Atlanta premiere below (All photos below by Marcus Ingram/USA Network).

A post shared by Big Boi (@therealbigboi) on Feb 20, 2018 at 5:43pm PST

Words by Michael Harris

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The post Outkast Spotted at the Atlanta Screening of ‘Unsolved’ appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

While you’ve been paying attention to Van Jones and Jay-Z’s interview yesterday, with U.S. President Donald Trump’s follow up on Twitter, here’s a quick hip hop fact for you:

To this day, Big L and Jay-Z’s exclusive 1995 Stretch and Bobbito freestyle is the most viewed hip hop freestyle on YouTube.

That’s pretty significant for hip hop which will be graced by multitudes of hip hop overtures in this evening’s awards show. 

Before the internet, did you ever wonder where some of your favorite lyrical emcees got their huge break?

Stretch and Bobbito introduced the world to a multitude of unsigned artist in the 90s. 

I mean, we’re talking:  Big L, Nas, Biggie, Wu-Tang, Big Pun, Jay-Z, Eminem and the Fugees!!

Many of your favorite lyricists rocked the mic on NYC’s Stretch and Bobbito Show, which aired Thursday nights from 1-AM – 4 AM out of a basement studio with an old operating board from the 60’s.

According to Bobbito their underground rap show “put the street corner in a box.” The impact of that show was the subject of “Stretch and Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives.”

So how did that come about?

“This is actually my second film, my first was titled Walk In The Park: Pick Up Basketball in NYC,” Bobbito Garcia told me on Scoop B Radio.

“I co-directed and co-produced that project which aired on PBS in January of 2014. A young producer by the name of Omar Costas was blown away by it and reached out to me by way of mutual contact and asked me about my next film. I told him that I just had a child and that my first film had aired on public television, so I wasn’t even trying to think about another film. He told me that he used to listen to me and Stretch and a lightbulb went off in my head. So I looked up his reel and knew that we needed to explore and literally three days later we were filming.”

The rest was like logical clockwork.

“I met Omar on Wednesday and on Saturday we were shooting. Riggs Morales who is the former editor of The Source Magazine and Noah Callahan, the Editor In Chief of Complex. 18 months later is when we started getting the big names like Jay-Z, Nas and Eminem because it took a long time to get them on camera. They were all willing and happy to be apart of it because they all premiered on our show as unsigned up and coming artists and that list runs long.”

The long list included Nas, Biggie, Wu-Tang, Mobb Deep, Eminem, Big Pun, Mase, Cam, Big L and more. As a matter of fact, total record sales for all the artists that premiered on their show exceed 300 million. The late-night program had a cult following in the art/fashion world and prison population.

Stretch and Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives from Saboteur Media on Vimeo.

As to the infamous Jay-Z and Big L freestyle, Bobbito says folks are still in awe. “I actually mentor a couple of kids in Harlem and they’ll talk about the freestyle,” said Bobbito.

“And I’ll tell them you know that’s me saying “ooh wee” on the freestyle right and they don’t believe me at first, but they go back and listen to it and tell me: ‘yo that’s crazy, I heard you on the freestyle.’”

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The post Scoop B: Before the Grammy Awards, did you know Jay-Z’s big break came from a 90s NYC radio freestyle with Big L? appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Today is a very special day in the hip-hop community. Today we celebrate the life of The Notorious B.I.G., one of the greatest MC’s to ever pick up a microphone. Although his murder remains unsolved, one thing we know for sure is that his music will always be relevant. Today marks the 20^th year of the passing so in loving memory of the late rapper, we gathered a few big artists that have featured Biggie’s work in songs of their own. Today’s biggest artists are heavily influenced by him and they continue to keep his legacy alive.

With all due RESPECT. here are some artists that have sampled Biggie’s music.

1. Back in 2007 Nicki Minaj covers Biggie’s “Warning”

2.  In the intro “Villuminati” from J.Cole’s second studio album Born Sinner, he sampled Biggie’s lyrics from “Sky’s The Limit”

3. Lil Wayne borrows Biggie’s voice as a feature for his hard-hitting track “Lost Boys”

4. In the first verse of Jay Z’s “I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)” he features a sample from B.I.G.’s song “The World Is Filled”

5. Nothing Was the Same is definitely one of Drizzy Drake’s hottest projects, but he definitely had some help from The Notorious B.I.G. The Toronto artist used Mase’s verse from Biggie’s record “Mo Money, Mo Problems” as the cherry on top for “Worst Behavior”

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The post #BIG20Years – A Few Artists That Sampled Biggie in Their Music appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

It’s been 20 years since Hip-Hop lost an icon.

The Notorious B.I.G. was more than Brooklyn’s son, he was one of Hip-Hop’s reigning kings who was known for dominating any track he touched. Although his tenure was cut short on March 9, 1997, Biggie’s two before death album releases and one posthumous produced a slew of hits that can rock any party today, but for every record on his album was an even hotter collaboration that shined due to his infamous “uh” adlib and story-like flow.

In his three short years in the mainstream game, Biggie managed to cause the greatest debates on who the greatest rapper of all time is, but one thing everyone will agree on is that Biggie Smalls was the illest. In celebration of the life and legacy of the Notorious B.I.G., RESPECT. has curated a list of some of Biggie’s most dope collabs, honoring one of the most “unbelievable” lyricist that ever touched the mic.

“Flava In Your Ear” (Remix)- Craig Mack feat. Notorious B.I.G., LL Cool J, Rampage, Busta Rhymes

“Can’t You See” (Remix) – Total feat. Notorious B.I.G.

“Brooklyn’s Finest”- Jay Z feat. Notorious B.I.G.

“Notorious Thugs”- Notorious B.I.G. feat. Bone Thugs in Harmony

“The What”- Notorious B.I.G. feat. Method Man

“Dead Wrong”- Notorious B.I.G. feat. Eminem

“All About the Benjamins”- Puff Daddy feat. Notorious B.I.G., The Lox, Lil Kim

“F*cking You Tonight”- Notorious B.I.G. feat. R. Kelly

“Mo Money, Mo Problem”- Notorious B.I.G. feat. Ma$e

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The post We’ll Always Love Big Poppa: 10 of Biggie’s Most Dope Collabs appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.