Jay-Z selling Tidal to Twitter- There has been rumors of Tidal being sold to Twitter for the past two years it seems like. And the more time that Hova spends with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, the closer the deal is getting. Hova was spotted numerous times with Dorsey in 2020, and we can’t imagine they are doing so, just to shoot the shit. Twitter wants Tidal to add to its collection of assets, and although the platform has less members than Spotify or Apple, Jay-Z’s investment has grown a lot in the last five years. 2021 might just be Jay-Z’s time to maximum his investment and focus on even bigger business deals.
More Virtual Concerts- With Covid-19 still expected to be around for most of 2021, expect more rap acts to throw “virtual concerts” as more and more entertainment venues remain closed. Earlier this year, Brooklyn rapper AZ threw on a virtual concert that was primarily promoted over social media. The idea has been gaining a lot traction in other genres with country and rock acts perfuming concerts for their fans entirely online. With more and more bars and concert halls keeping their stages empty this year, expect more rappers to do the same.
Endless Speculation On Dr. Dre’s New Album- Word from pretty much everywhere is that Dre is working on “new” music. Rumors also say that Eminem is on some of the new tracks as well. Rumors also say that this is for a brand new album. Is this Detox? It’ not. Is it Compton 2? That’s been the speculation, but you know how Dre is, and by the time this comes out, it could be titled as a completely new project. What’s the possibility that this actually reaches the fans’ ears and doesn’t get put away like so many Dre projects? Pretty high actually. Everyone knows how Dre works, so it could come out during this calendar year or maybe never. It doesn’t actually matter how much chatter is going on Twitter about it, either Dre decides its getting released or it gets put away forever.
Podcasts to reach all time highs- One trend hip-hop fans should be looking at, is the increasing number of podcasts as well as podcast subscribers. Former rappers are starting their own podcasts. Current rappers are doing interviews on podcasts and just about every blog or website has one as well these days. Hip-Hop related podcasts have been trending for the last two or three years, and with artists releasing less music due to the global pandemic, expect the amount of podcast listeners to reach an all time high.
2021 might just be the year for the old heads. So, if you are an old head and like old head music, there might be some heaters coming out this year. When you look at this list of artists with upcoming projects to be released this year, the list includes LL Cool J, Ja Rule, Nas, DMX, Kanye West, Yo Gotti, Xzibit, Lil’ Kim, Ludacris, Snoop Dogg and more big names. There are still a bunch of young rappers releasing albums too this year, it just seems as if they are in the minority. We are putting our money on Nas that he puts out the album of the year. That’s our big prediction. There have been tweets and posts online saying Jay-Z will also be releasing a new album this year, but so far we haven’t heard anything concrete about it.
