issue 5️⃣0️⃣: timely + timeless content
hip hop's new daily operation | 6.22.20
TheMotto No. 50. Wow, fifty editions! Fifty days straight. Thank y’all for the early support. We’ve grown a lot in a short time. I love how TheMotto’s clicks into culture, and it’s also really important to me, as I work out what my past means to the present. Please share your thoughts about TheMotto— in fact just hit reply. We aim to be timely and timeless. And we’re still a work in progress.
top billin’ ⏬
watch:
Drake spends Father’s Day with his li’l man 👶🏽⏬
Onika and Mr. Controversy did it. 6ix9ine celebrates his first No. 1 record ⬇️
Nicki praises her Barbs for the song’s pure sales 🛒⏬
I move by results / Not by friends / Or things that’s televised. From cash to cars to guns to children, Youngboy shares his world in this raw declaration 🎤🔽
Bronx and Philly connect: A Boogie + Lil Uzi Vert take center stage at a theater and showcase their chemistry. Directed by Kid Art 🎨🎵🔽
song association fun: Gunna shows Elle that he can hold a note or two — for real. From Al Green’s “Love & Happiness” to Sade’s “Sweetest Taboo” 🎼🔽
read:
It’s Time To Go To Work: Noname’s Necessary Truth on “Song 33” (author: Clarissa Brooks/DJ Booth)
Run The Jewels Wish Their New Album Didn’t Make So Much Sense Right Now (author: David Fear/Rolling Stone)
Freddie Gibbs’ Name Holds Weight (author: Patrick Johnson/Hypebeast)
The Breakfast Club Calls Itself “The World’s Most Dangerous Morning Show”—Maybe It’s Time We Listen (author: Shamira Ibrahim/Okayplayer)
The World Is Endin’: Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. Premonition Came True (author: Yoh31/DJ Booth
look:
Teyana Taylor at her listening party at a private mansion in Beverly Hills ⤵️ photo: Jen J.
Diddy and Christian Combs 🔽 (OGTHH)
Tunechi and his three sons ⬇️
Thee Stallion for Savage Fenty 👙🔽
Conway pays homage to Prodigy: I rap like no one out there can fuck with me 🔽🎤
listen:
Detroit’s strongest join forces as Tee Grizzley and Big Sean unleash long verses over Hit-Boy’s kinetic track ⤵️
Your grind must diversify/ If you intend to survive/ Trying to get millions/ It’s a pandemic outside. Spitta says a lot in this short offering off his Spring Clean (JetLife)
Wale not only did it for himself with The Imperfect Storm, Folarin also plays co-pilot on Young Chris’ new soulful composition 🎧🎼⬇️
Brooklyn’s Skyzoo keeps it jazzy but gritty on this Illmind produced-tribute to his father 💥⏬
producer/rapper Pi’erre Bourne adds a gang of tracks to the new deluxe The Life Of Pi’erre 4 (Interscope). But to me? This is the one✌🏾🎤🔽
what more can I say:
Thank you, Danyel, for nurturing, pushing, and challenging. You brought my pen back. How crazy is that?!
@elliottwilson tweets | @elliottwilson IG | follow HRDlist
a danyelliott production
Danyel Smith + Elliott Wilson
Big fan all the way from Brazil. Been keeping up with every edition from the start. In an age where social media is so plagued by algorithms, hype and saturation, this newsletter really stands out as the perfect source for credible news, curation and a celebration of the culture's past and present history. Congratulations and please keep them coming.