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Recently, rapper/actor Shad Moss, AKA Bow Wow, sent out a tweet about his ambitions to become a WWE superstar after his final album.

Bow Wow, 33, sent Twitter into a frenzy with tweets to WWE legend, Rey Mysterio, about forming a tag-team. The Like Mike star even engaged in smack talk with superstars from WWE's main roster and NXT.

Hip-Hop and professional wrestling have a storied history. Both billion-dollar industries have crossed paths on several occasions in attempts to create moments that fans of either will love.

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Music Reviews

On "Only for Dolphins," Action Bronson Takes Us to the Tropics

The rappers fifth studio album caters to our collective wanderlust

Photo by: FPVmat A / Unsplash

In the 2011 music video for "Brunch," Action Bronson transports a woman's corpse to his lakehouse, hoping to dispose of it off the side of his boat. While en route, he pulls off the side of the highway and stabs her a few more times to make sure she's dead. "I thought I took care of this f*cking *unt," he says.

The track itself isn't nearly as menacing. Dr. Lectar's jazzy instrumental is hushed and inviting. Bronson speaks over it conversationally, detailing how he crafted a bacon and bleu cheese salad while getting head and how he "slices and dices the mic like the yakuza."

The contrast between the two Bronson's was drastic and sometimes crude but always unique enough to warrant a conversation. His rapping was eloquent, his backstory as a gourmet chef-turned-emcee compelling, and his wordplay nimble and devoid of any fluff. As the years have gone on, he's relaxed on his serial killer aesthetic and has practically turned into a walking reality TV show, but for a good reason. His talent for translating unique taste in refined culture into bouts of braggadocious exuberance is perfect for hipster smoke sessions and cocktail parties alike.

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MUSIC

What A "Wonderful World" with Action Bronson, The Soul Rebels & More

Action Bronson & Co pay homage to Jazz great Louis Armstrong this past Saturday in Queens

This past Saturday was the fifth annual Louis Armstrong's Wonderful World festival.

The festival is an eclectic mix of musical acts and genres who represented Louis Armstrong's philosophy that people should listen to ALL kinds of music. The all-day gathering was scheduled to take place at Flushing Medows-Corona Park which was in the same vicinity of Armstrong's residence when he was living in Queens. However various weather advisories of a terrible storm hitting the Northeast forced event organizers to call an audible and relocate to the Kupferberg Center for the Arts located on the Queens College campus.

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xxlmag.com

Hip-hop today is as thriving as it's ever been. Even your parents know who Cardi B is. Migos might be the hottest group in the world as of this writing. 2017 was the first year in history that it became the most popular genre in the United States. If there's any problem with hip-hop right now, it's that it's becoming too popular, to the point where mainstream pop music threatens to dilute some of the heart of what made it great in the first place.

With all the extra cash flow coming in, rappers have been able to expand their horizons and take creative risks at a level we haven't seen before. One of the rewards we've seen as a result is better, funnier music videos. Artists like Tyler, the Creator, and Young Thug made their bones doing subversive comedy, and now even those acts who haven't previously been known for their personality are getting into the game.

When Migos released their "Walk It Talk It" video last week, it was both "dumb-funny" and a step towards maturity for the group. The '70s throwback aesthetic was pure, and even though Drake kind of messes it up with his modern dance moves, the Migos members themselves stuck dutifully to the shtick.

Dressing up like the Isleys and doing this whole Hustle routine doesn't come out of nowhere, though. Migos have always prefigured themselves as "the culture"--the artists who define the sounds and look of the youth today. Referencing the groovy '70s seems like their way of acknowledging that, yes, this boy band dress-up thing they do may be corny, but it isn't just a gimmick: it's them, as artists, carrying the torch from those music taste makers that came before.

The Walk It Talk It video was directed by the same artist--Daps--who made the first funny Migos music video -for "T-Shirt"- off their first Culture album. It dropped only a few weeks after Offset's "Ric Flair Drip", which featured a ludicrous, geriatric Ric Flair doing his catch phrase, and ogling women young enough to be his granddaughters.

It will be a good sign if rap videos keep going in this direction. Historically speaking, humor has been a sign of good health for the genre--an indicator of artists ditching tropes, and being comfortable enough to experiment. " The Real Slim Shady" and "Pass the Courvoisier" arrived at a coming-together point of hip-hop and mainstream pop culture at the turn of the century. When Kanye did "Touch the Sky" and "The New Workout Plan", he ushered in an entirely new era of the game. A decade later, Tyler, the Creator with Odd Future did so much good satire that they actually managed to get their own sketch show on Comedy Central. Perhaps we're now approaching another wave.

If you're in the mood for it: here are, the top five funniest hip-hop music videos of the past couple years...

5. Ain't it Funny by Danny Brown

4. Moonlight by Jay-Z

3. Baby Blue by Action Bronson

2. Freaky Friday by Lil Dicky

1. Wyclef Jean by Young Thug


Nate Nelsonis an NYC-based writer and podcast host.


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