Free music is hard to come by these days. The industry seems obsessed with having us rent music via subscription services instead. Even Apple has done away with its Free on iTunes section (after bringing it back for a few months earlier this year) so it can push its new Apple Music service.
But free, legally downloadable music still exists online; you just have to know where to find it. Here are five services that offer free tracks with few strings attached.
Google Play
Google Play no longer offers a free daily track, but the Android app store still features free music—usually from up and coming artists—if you know where to look. Google Play now has a section called the Antenna Sampler, where you can find a selection of free songs (updated monthly) from up-and-coming artists in a variety of genres. To find this free music haven, go to the Google Play music page (not to be confused with Google Play Music—Google’s paid streaming music service) and either scroll down or hit Ctrl-F on your keyboard, type ‘free,’ and hit Enter.
Near the bottom of the page you’ll see a section called Free Music—click See More to open up the current month’s Antenna Sampler. The September Antenna Sampler currently showcases 19 free 320Kbps MP3 files with album art included. In addition to free tracks, Google often gives away entire albums for limited periods of time: Last week it was Sia’s 1000 Forms of Fear; this week it’s Jason Derulo’s Everything is 4.
Downloading free songs from Google Play is a multi-step process. First, you’ll need to “purchase” the track and add it to your Google Play library. To do this, click on the track to open the album page. At the top of the page you’ll see the price for the entire album (plus a Free Trial button if you haven’t yet tried out Google Play Music), but scroll down and you’ll see that the price next to the individual track is listed as ‘Free.’ To add this song to your library, click Free and go through the Google Play checkout process. You can also listen to a 30-second sample of the song before you “buy” it by clicking the play button that appears when you hover over the track.
To actually download the free song to your PC, so you can add it to iTunes or put it on your phone, you’ll need to open your Google Play music library. To do this, go to the Google Play music page and click My Music. Under Recent Activity you should see the song or album you just downloaded.
Hover over the album art and click the vertical ellipsis button that appears to open up a menu.
Click Download or Download Album(depending on whether it’s a track or an album) and the website will prompt you to either download the Google Play Music browser extension, which lets you download the track multiple times, or download the song directly (which you can do a maximum of two times).
Amazon
Amazon has thousands of tracks available for free: 46,480, to be exact (don’t get too excited, for some strange reason, hundreds of those tracks are Bible readings. In Bulgarian). But what’s nice about Amazon’s free music is that it’s easily sortable by genre, artist, release date, and even the average customer review score.
Genres include country, folk, rock, gospel, pop, rap & hip-hop, and soundtracks, though most of the free titles are simply categorized as “Miscellaneous.” The tracks you download from Amazon include album art and are of good quality (MP3s with bitrates between 217kbps and 271kbps).
Like Google Play, Amazon first makes you “purchase” free tracks before you can download them. To buy a track, find the song you want to purchase and click the Freebutton to buy it right away, or click the cart button to add it to your shopping cart. Go through the Amazon checkout process and once you’ve paid (nothing, if you’re only buying free tracks), a screen will pop up with the option to download your purchases.
Click Download Purchases and Amazon will ask you if you want to download your songs through the Amazon Music app or if you’d rather just download them directly.
If you choose to download them directly, you will be asked to authorize your device (you can authorize up to 10 devices) before choosing where to download your file. Unlike Google Play, Amazon does not limit how many times you can download each song.
Free Music Archive
As you might expect from the name, all music on the Free Music Archive is free. Some of it is even pre-cleared for derivative work (if you want to use it in an online video, for example) under Creative Commons licenses. Most of the music you find on the FMA is from independent and/or lesser-known artists, but there are a few big names (Nine Inch Nails, for example) floating around. The FMA lets you browse music by curator (curators are mostly public radio stations) and genre, and you can also search for music based on CC license type.
Downloading music from the FMA is ultra-simple: Just find the track you want to download and click the down arrow button to download it. You don’t even have to create an account. You can also click the play button next to any track to hear a full streaming version through FMA’s website. Tracks are good quality (MP3s with bitrates between 256Kbps and 320Kbps) but do not download with album art.
If you want to use an FMA track in a project, you can find out the specific licensing for each track by clicking on the track name to open up the track’s page. In the lower right corner of the page, you’ll see what type of license the track has, as well as a link to exactly what that license entails, and a link to directly contact the artist if you want additional permissions.
2015 was such a great year for rap that 2016 is looking like a good year too just off the promise that we'll finally get to see all of the heavily hyped albums last year neglected to deliver. On the horizon still are new albums by Kanye West (Feb. 11!), Frank Ocean, Vic Mensa, Pusha T, Drake, Young Thug, Rihanna, and, one would hope, Chance the Rapper. There's three Lupe Fiasco albums on the way, if that's your thing, Future promised us a tape or two in addition to Purple Reign, and there's that weird rumor about a secret J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar project to contend with. Personally, I don't believe it.
Just about all the big names we're expecting to bless us with new music are eagle-eyed talent scouts in their own right; Jay Z taught us that in order to stay on top, it helps to be mindful of and accessible to who's got next. This inevitably means cool placements for up-and-coming talents from big dogs looking to keep their ear to the streets. The game is wide open for smart, offbeat producers right now.
Below you'll find a list of names you're bound to hear more out of in the coming year on the production end of things, present and future East Coast hitmakers, Cali underground soldiers, Toronto dons, UK tech wizards, and much more. Like we always do at this time, here are 10 producers to watch out for in 2016.
Wheezy
Image via Wheezy
Notable production credits: Young Thug “Constantly Hating,”“Amazing,”“She Notice,”“Beast,” and many more From: Atlanta Twitter:@wheezy5th
Young Thug had a supremely productive 2015, thanks to April’s very strong Barter 6 and the two Slime Season mixtapes engineer Alex Tumay helped cull from the wealth of material in Thugger’s vaults. If you paid close attention to production credits you’d see a new name all over the tracklist beside usual suspects like London on da Track: Mississippi-born beatmaker Wheezy is responsible for a good half of Barter 6’s tracks, among them, the very best, as well as loosies on both Slime Season tapes. That’s him with the pillowy bass on “Constantly Hating” and the gangly bounce on “Amazing,” the soothing calm of Slime Season’s “Wood Would” and SS2’s “She Notice.” Wheezy told Complex he visited Atlanta a bunch with family growing up, eventually moving there and connecting first with T.I.’s Hustle Gang before migrating over to Thug’s camp. With a direct line to one of the game’s sharpest, most unpredictable rhymers, Wheezy’s bound to make major waves in 2016.
Notable production credits: Big Sean “One Man Can Change the World” From: Chester, Penn. Instagram:@amairejohnson
Amaire Johnson is a church pianist from riverside Philly and Wilmington tributary Chester whose talent carried him to bigger and better ventures when he picked up and moved to Los Angeles to hone his craft. By 2013 he’d earned a spot backing an opener on a Maroon 5 tour, and the next year, he’d land in Big Sean’s touring band. Johnson’s only getting his feet wet as producer, but the track he scored on Sean’s Dark Sky Paradise, the rousing, inspirational, Kanye West and John Legend assisted ballad “One Man Can Change the World,” sold half a million copies and netted an MTV Video Music Award and a Grammy nomination. The list of producers who can say they landed a Kanye feature on one of their first proper production jobs is exceedingly short; Amaire’s future looks bright.
Daxz
Image via Daxz
Notable production credits: Drake “6 Man,” “Back to Back” From: Toronto Twitter:@Daxz416
Drake used last winter’s “mixtape” If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late to branch out from his go-to production team and work with younger names many might not have heard of (ourselves excluded, ha). One of those was Toronto producer Daxz, who linked up with Noah “40” Shebib to provide the drums for the Lou Williams tribute “6 Man” after Drake’s right hand caught wind of the newcomer’s production chops on Instagram. As Daxz told Complex over the summer, he continued sending beats to 40, and one fateful night, he was called into the studio to find Drake writing a response to Meek Mill’s ill-fated Twitter diss over one of his. The fruit of the session was the menacing “Back to Back,” which would tumble out of car stereos from coast to coast alongside the sunnier “Hotline Bling,” unfurling a campaign of terror that ended in a meme-filled anti-Meek OVO Fest pep rally and a Grammy nomination. Things pick up fast when you can count your city’s biggest stars as collaborators.
Brian “Peoples” Garcia
Image via Marlon Lopez Photo
Notable production credits: Fetty Wap “679,”“Again,”“Trap Queen,” and many more From: Passaic, N.J. Instagram:@peoples456
While 2015’s year-end hip-hop wrap-up revolved around Drake, Future, and Kendrick, for much of the year the singles chart belonged to Fetty Wap. The New Jersey native’s record-breaking string of singles carried him from obscurity to nationwide fame at a remarkable speed, and if you peek through the credits of his hits-collection-as-debut-album, Fetty Wap, you’ll note producer/engineer Brian “Peoples” Garcia as the guiding hand on the production end. In addition to mixing the album in full, Peoples produced half of it, from underrated slaps like “I Wonder” and “Time” to hits “679” and “Again.” His productions present a vision of trap somehow airy and heavy, spacious and busy at the same time. It was Peoples who saw hit potential in “Trap Queen,” rearranging Fetty’s quick vamp over the Tony Ladd beat into the world-beating chart monster we know today. Peoples’ skill and proximity to a chart-topping dynamo like Fetty ensures a promising 2016.
Play Picasso
Image via Matt Adam
Notable production credits: Meek Mill “Lord Knows,”Tory Lanez “Diego,”“Makaveli,” and many more From: Toronto Twitter:@PlayPicasso
Toronto mainstay Tory Lanez pulled a rare feat on Christmas day last month and released two mixtapes in two lanes at the same time: Chixtape 3 featured Lanez’s delicate singing over deconstructed R&B classics, and The New Toronto showcased his coarse but still melodic bars over louche trap joints. It’s a rare feat for each to sound like a million bucks in its own way, and it’s a testament both to Tory’s skills as rapper, singer, and producer, and to his chief collaborator Play Picasso’s production genius. Play (formerly PlayBack) can bring operatic intrigue, as he does on The New Toronto should-be smash “Makaveli” and Meek Mill’s Dreams Worth More Than Money opener “Lord Knows,” or he can pitch in spectral late night longing like on Chixtape 3’s “N.A.M.E,” a shipwrecked redux of Alicia Keys and Kanye’s “You Don’t Know My Name.” Play and Tory have been making strikingly weird rap and R&B together for a minute, but the laser-like focus of the new tapes will blow both names sky high if there’s any justice in the world.
Richie Souf
Image via @GUNNERSELLWHITE
Notable production credits: Makonnen “Where Your Girl At?,”“Flippin All Night,”“Big Gucci,”MADEINTYO “I Want (Skr Skr),” Two-9 “Get Thru This” From: Atlanta Twitter:@RichieSouf
Makonnen’s new weird Atlanta trap got extra rare last year as he tightened up the kooky based styles of Drink More Water 5 in and around his iLoveMakonnen 2 EP. A common name you might’ve noticed among the loosies he’d release through the year is Richie Souf. The Atlanta producer provided soundscapes for all the year’s brashest Makonnen cuts, from the disrespectful philanderer’s anthem “Where Your Girl At?” (HEUUUGHHH!) to “Flippin All Night” and the 10/17 Day Guwop tribute “Big Gucci.” Souf’s mad scientist sound feeds quirky and sometimes downright dark keys and sound effects through booming 808s, making him a natural fit for an oddball like Makonnen or a florid counterpoint to more laid back MCs, like on Two-9’s “Get Thru This.” He can also tone it down and sculpt a melodic pop-minded nugget when he wants; for more of this, check out Souf’s work with ATL singer Villa on his debut project, Vertical. Richie Souf’s ear and versatility know no bounds, and that’s a priceless look in a town brimming with rappers desperate to stand out from the pack.
Knxwledge
Image via Theo Jemison
Notable production credits: Hud Dreems instrumental album, Kendrick Lamar “Momma,”NxWorries Link Up & Suede EP From: L.A. Twitter:@Knxwledge
If you’re an underground hip-hop head who keeps up with beat tapes at all you’ve probably heard like 20 tapes from the East Coast-raised, West Coast-based producer Knxwledge, who’s been making heads nod with his Hexual Sealings series and others for some time. Last year marked a turning point for him, though, as he found footing with a number of powerful allies in the Cali rap scene, from dedicated Los Angeles indie Stones Throw, who’d release his formidable instrumental studio album Hud Dreems, to TDE ringleader Kendrick Lamar, whose bars over Knxw’s syrupy Lalah Hathaway chop for To Pimp a Butterfly’s “Momma” made for this writer’s enduring favorite TPAB cut, and in-demand singer Anderson .Paak, who parlayed a star turn on Dr. Dre’s swansong Compton into a hotly anticipated solo album, all the while stepping out with the producer as NxWorries to fry up crispy hip-hop soul in boiling fish grease. For these reasons, 2016 looks bright for Knxwledge.
Bongo the Drum Gahd
Image via Roger McKenna
Notable production credits:Jeremih “Feel Like Phil,”The Game “On Me,” “Step Up,” “Circles,” and more From: L.A. Twitter:@BongoByTheWay
Born in Nigeria and raised in New England, Bongo got his start producing and writing with his cousin as the duo L&F (Lost and Found), the team behind cuts on recent albums from Big Sean, Omarion, Trey Songz, and others. They recently parted ways to pursue solo ventures, and Bongo hit the ground running, linking up in Los Angeles with the Game as the Compton MC readied the sequel to his breakout debut album, The Documentary. Bongo ended up producing 10 cuts across The Documentary 2 and 2.5, from the Erykah Badu-inspired Kendrick Lamar collab “On Me” to the Gang Starr and Brandy homage of “Step Up” to the soulful he said/she said story song “Circles.” Bongo’s style is very much informed by his early work with singers; no matter how hard the track might be, it’s couched in a confident musicality and melodicism. Chops like that are always in demand, and Bongo’s strong resume will no doubt keep him working well through the year.
Deputy
Image via Troy Benjamin
Notable production credits: Rihanna “Bitch Better Have My Money,”Vic Mensa “Married to the King Freestyle,”DJ Mustard “Tinashe Checks In” From: Brooklyn Twitter:@deputy718
Brooklyn beatsmith Deputy’s rise is a network of unpredictable turns: Looking for a good job out of college, he first landed in finance at Morgan Stanley before plotting a more personally rewarding career pivot toward hip-hop that would lead to production placements on records from Wale and French Montana. Signing with Roc Nation, he’d gain access to the top tier of hip-hop radio stars, pitching a mammoth industrial trap banger toward Rihanna that we all know now as “Bitch Better Have My Money.” He also scored his Roc Nation neighbor Vic Mensa’s “Married to the King Freestyle” and claims credit for the sultry “Tinashe Checks In” from DJ Mustard’s 10 Summers. A producer with great connects and a fantastic ear for sound and song structure is a beast. As one who marries both talents to a working understanding of the nebulous business and publishing aspects of the music world, Deputy is a problem.
Mura Masa
Image via Mura Masa
Notable production credits: Soundtrack to a Death mixtape, Someday Somewhere EP, “Firefly,”“Love for That” From: Sussex, UK Twitter:@mura_masa_
English producer Alex Crossan is barely 20 years old, but his work as Mura Masa is accomplished beyond his years. Like the legendary Japanese sword maker his name invokes, Crossan’s works are marvels of precision, chopped-up vocals, drum tracks comprising armies of moving, interlocking parts, and melodies gleaned from tiny bits of things scattered throughout the mix. All these skills and more come into play on Mura Masa’s 2015 Someday Somewhere EP, the follow-up to his debut Soundtrack to a Death mixtape from the year prior. In under half an hour, he swings from soulful house through a beat-less choral interlude, a foreboding hip-hop track, and back, shifting sounds and guises but holding onto a unifying sense of the intricacy of his building blocks. This is saying nothing of the bangers: The Nao-assisted “Firefly” has lodged well over 2 million YouTube views, and the recently released Shura collab “Love for That,” with its breathtakingly choreographed music video, is steady on the rise. International renown feels just a hit away.
Fourteen years ago, when Taylor Swift was just 12, a woman named Whitney Houston asked for the receipts. It was a simple request. Journalist Diane Sawyer had asked Houston to comment on an alleged $730,000 drug problem."I wanna see the receipts." Houston calmly replied, daring Sawyer to come up with an itemized list of purchases from Houston’s alleged dealer. She repeated: "I wanna see the receipts."The logic: No matter how off Houston might have seemed at the time, she wanted to see proof that she was consuming enough illegal substances to pay for a one-bedroom Manhattan apartment. Sawyer could not manifest that proof. And even if Houston was most likely not of sound mind, no one had the receipts to pin her down.On that glorious day, the concept of receipts — the damning, smoking-gun evidence that something occurred — was created. It wasn’t common to demand "receipts" yet, but it would be. Taylor Swift, then 12, had no idea that Kim Kardashian would one day release the most damning pop music receipts in recent memory: Taylor Swift lied about Kanye West, and there’s video to prove it.Kim Kardashian released THE conversation between Kanye and Taylor Swift on SnapchatOn Sunday night, Kardashian posted a series of videos on Snapchat in which West, her husband, was talking to Swift on the phone about his song "Famous" — a song that Swift has labeled as offensive and derogatory. Because Snapchat is a strange beast and everything on the social media platform is temporary, here is a (hopefully more permanent) video of what Kim posted, as recorded by a Kanye West fan Twitter account:https://twitter.com/TeamKanyeDaily/status/754886671007645697In it, you can hear West clearly talking to Swift about his song in a really polite voice. She’s pretty cordial too. "I really appreciate you telling me about it. That’s really nice," she says. "It’s all very tongue-in-cheek either way." If you’re just tuning in to the ongoing drama between Swift, West, and Kardashian, the video looks like two friends chatting. To unlock the full, swirling vortex of feuds you actually have to go all the way back to the beginning of the year. In February, Swift and West had a very public fight over lyrics he rapped in "Famous," then a new song. During West's fashion show/album drop live event at Madison Square Garden, he dropped a verse about having sex with Swift someday, because he believes he made her famous: I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex Why? I made that bitch famous God damn I made that bitch famous Swift took offense to this. In a statement to the press, her team said the lyrics were inappropriate, noting, "Kanye did not call for approval, but to ask Taylor to release his single 'Famous’ on her Twitter account. She declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message."The fight between the two became a he-said-she-said version of events thatculminated in a Grammys speech wherein Swift famously shaded West, implying that he was trying to take credit for her success."As the first woman to win Album of the Year at the Grammys twice, I want to say to all the young women out there, there will be people along the way who will try to undercut your success," she said. "Or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame." Essentially, this new video from Snapchat shows that Swift is being inconsistent, or not telling the entire truth. This video contradicts Swift and her publicist's claim that West didn’t call Swift to get her approval of the "Famous" lyrics, and that she tried to talk him out of releasing the song and the verse. "If people ask me about it, I think it would be great for me to be like, ‘Look, he called me and told me about the line,’" she says in the recording — a sentence that’s so out of line with the public feud we’ve been watching ever since, you'd think it would be made up. Swift says the video only tells one side of the story To be clear: The video that Kardashian posted is edited. Due to the nature of Snapchat, which limits the length of continuous video you can post, there are several jump cuts and stops and starts. It’s possible that Kardashian could have simply omitted any portions that were unfavorable to West. But for the most part it doesn’t appear that Swift’s words are spliced together or edited in a misleading way — the videos use her full sentences. After Kardashian posted the recording to Snapchat on Sunday, Swift posted a response on Instagram, explaining that though she was cordial and encouraging when West called her to discuss the song, West ultimately pulled a bait and switch on her.Swift’s story changes a bit. In that initial denial, she made it sound like there was no conversation with West — just a plea for her to release the song on Twitter. If you go by that account, all the politeness that's seen in the video isn't supposed to exist. But now that Kardashian made Swift and West’s conversation public, Swift’s new story is that when she and West talked, he didn’t tell her he was going to call her a "bitch." She says he didn’t give her the full story on the phone. In the recording, she and West discuss the line "I think me and Taylor might still have sex" and West saying that he made Swift famous, but not the part where West calls her "that bitch.""While I wanted to be supportive of Kanye on the phone call, you cannot ‘approve’ of a song you haven’t heard," Swift wrote on Instagram on Sunday. "Being falsely painted as a liar when I was never given the full story or played any part of the song is character assassination."This fight is really about Taylor Swift’s imageTaylor Swift and her success are a strange phenomenon. Critics and her biggest fans will openly tell you that she doesn’t have the best voice or the best technical skills. Her songwriting, while impossibly catchy, isn’tmind-blowing or complex.What she’s fantastic at is creating songs that crystallize a messy, usually teenage feeling that somehow speaks to everyone, even people who have never felt it, and weave it in with slips of her personal life. The personal life part of that skill is crucial.Every song she’s released throughout her career, every post she’s shared on social media — it’s all helped paint a portrait of Swift as your best friend. Her latest album, her tour, her Instagram photos, and her Facebook posts are all wrapped around the fantasy of being her pal and joining her coven of female friendship. With some pop stars, you want to be them; with Taylor Swift, you just wanna hang out with her.Kardashian’s Snapchat video cuts through that veneer — throwing doubt on what your BFF Taylor Swift is telling you, making you wonder, well, if Taylor could lie about that conversation with West, what else could she be lying about?The timing of this Snapchat is interesting too. Kardashian was featured in GQlast month, where she addressed Swift, West, and the song. She maintained that Swift knew about the song:"She totally approved that," Kim says, shaking her head in annoyance. "She totally knew that that was coming out. She wanted to all of a sudden act like she didn’t. I swear, my husband gets so much shit for things [when] he really was doing proper protocol and even called to get it approved." Kim is on a roll now, speaking faster and more animatedly than at any other point during our time together. "What rapper would call a girl that he was rapping a line about to get approval?"And on Sunday’s episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, this interview was teased out. To be fair, Kardashian isn't just releasing this video to clear her husband and her name — she (and her team) knows how to market a video-fueled scandal.Further, Swift’s ex, Calvin Harris, had some not-so-nice things to say about Swift after it was revealed that she co-wrote one of his songs. It was implied that Harris never gave her the credit."I know you're off tour and you need someone new to try and bury like Katy [Perry, who was part of a feud with Swift and the alleged subject of Swift’s song "Bad Blood"] but I'm not that guy, sorry," Harris tweeted. "I won't allow it."Harris paints Swift as cold and calculating. Her fights, Harris suggests, aren’t organic, free-range fights that happen out of nowhere. Instead, he implies they are actually planned out in advance, as marketing stunts.Swift’s celebrity hinges on the air of authenticity, which means her feuds are supposed to be real. They’re supposed to be genuine stories of her being wronged. They’re supposed to involve her showing all of us that even our best friend can get angry, and that we need to stick up for her.And when it comes to Swift’s feuds, none of them compare to her ongoing feud with Kanye West.Swift has, since that infamous Video Music Awards interruption in 2009, cast Kanye as a bully to her innocence, a liar to her truth teller. At the 2016 Grammys, she accused him of trying to take credit for her fame. Now she’s been recorded not only being nice and cordial to him about his song but also insinuating that it’d be good marketing for her and Kanye."You guys wanna call this a feud, you wanna call this throwing shade," she imagines herself saying to reporters and fans. "But right after the song comes out I'm gonna be on a Grammy red carpet and they're gonna ask me about it and I'm gonna be like, he called me."Hearing Taylor Swift think out loud about how to spin the story, to me, is more damaging than learning that Taylor Swift lied about Kanye West. It’s very possible that she thought taking offense to "Famous" would be better for her career than showing the public that she and Kanye have patched things up. Harris’s Twitter outburst also makes that point — that there’s no hard feelings, just a savvy album and marketing strategy.Kim Kardashian’s Snapchat video reveals a Taylor Swift and Kanye West interaction that we didn’t know existed. But it also confirms that underneath the thick coating of bubblegum pop known as Taylor Swift, there’s a shrewd, savvy woman who puts a lot of effort into shaping and maintaining her public image — a person who we sort of knew existed but never really had the proof. Until now.
Roll up, roll up: it's the hip-hop feud of the century. Heavyweight titans Drake and Eminem have locked horns in what could be the most ferocious fallout in rap history. Or have they?
It's 2016 and so by now you should be more than aware of how a simple comment can snowball into a 'reported' feud, with numerous sources, insiders and any number of social media opinions helping fuel the fire.
Have Drake and Eminem really fallen out? Digital Spy has put together an explainer to get to the truth behind all the hyperbole.
How did this 'feud' between Drake and Eminem start then?
Well, first off let's make this clear: this is how the rumour started, not the actual feud. But there is a feud involved, of course. Basically, Drake and New Jersey rapper Joe Budden have thrown a few jabs over the past month or so. Budden did the unthinkable and criticised Drake's chart-topping album Views on a podcast (gasp!), and the Canadian star responded with a few on-stage mentions as well as some direct messages on social media. Then Budden released four diss tracks but no-one really batted an eye-lid, let alone Drizzy. But Joe Budden isn't Eminem, so why has Slim Shady got involved?
Okay, so Joe Budden is a member of rap group Slaughterhouse and he's also signed to Eminem's record label. Saying that though, Slim has shown no signs of getting involved in this particular beef. His apparent involvement stems from elsewhere.
Essentially, Ebro Darden - a radio host on Hot 97 - revealed to his listeners that he was recently speaking to Drake about a rumour that Eminem was preparing to weigh in on this feud. "I [Ebro] told Drake that I heard the rumour was Eminem was going to gear up to come after him," he explained. "He laughed. He was like, 'That's not gonna happen.' He's like, 'He'd never do that. And if he did, I got something for him, too.'"
Naturally, within minutes the whole of the internet was anticipating a blockbuster rap feud. Speculation spread quickly. Hollywood Life called upon all their reliable sources close to each camp and gave us lines about Shady taking the whole rap battle seriously and Rihanna being worried about which side she'd have to pick. All nonsense, of course.
And behold, a rap 'feud' was created.
Surely Ebro would want to quickly clarify this rumour he'd just started?
Oh yeah, Ebro was very swift in making sure people knew he was just messing. "It was such a joke and people ran with it... Slow news day. Drake got too much respect for all that..." he tweeted, before adding: "Facts we was joking...Talked about in jest & fools jumped out the window. I ain't even think it was a big deal ." Eminem's manager Paul Rosenberg simply tweeted: "Slow news day I see."
As for Drake, well he cooly responded with one of his own lyrics in an Instagram post.
So Drake just let it lie and didn't say anything else?
Well, not really. Being one of the biggest stars in the world, you'd want to put the record straight in a more dramatic rap star-worthy fashion. So what did he do? He addressed it in front of a sold-out crowd at New York City's Madison Square Garden.
Drizzy pulled out a new freestyle, criticising Hot 97's "lies" and demanding DJ Funkmaster Flex be fired before he appears on the radio station again. But why Funkmaster and not Ebro, we hear you ask? When Drake was beefing with Meek Mill last summer (yep, these feuds pop up all the time), Funkmaster Flex spent a lot of time hyping up Meek's diss track on the station.
The DJ also brought up the whole controversy around Drake's alleged ghostwriter Quentin Miller and basically just very much sided with Meek Mill. Hence why Drizzy now wants Flex fired.
So now back to Ebro: after Drake made his demand at Madison Square Garden, the Hot 97 DJ said that he's now just going to sit back and watch it all unfold. Get the popcorn etc etc.
Oh jeez. What's Funkmaster Flex's response been to all this?
He's had a lot to say over the weekend actually. The most notable being that the whole controversy around claims Drake uses a ghostwriter was brought upon by himself. Apparently, Meek Mill's team was suspicious that Drake's 'R.I.C.O' verse had a few subtle digs at him, so the Canadian star's team allegedly sent over the reference track to them to deflect the accusations. That's when all the trouble started. APPARENTLY. https://soundcloud.com/ifreshz/funkmaster-flex-rant-on-drake-wanting-him-fired-reference-tracks-diddy-fight-and-more
But other than that, Funkmaster Flex also had an almighty put-down up his sleeve for Drake. "First of all, Drake, I'm not really worried about you making me lose my job," he said. "You want me to tell you why? Seventy percent of your fans wear high heels. The other 30 percent are guys who wear sandals. I'm not concerned about you, bro." Ouch.
So Drake is in a feud, but it's actually with Hot 97 and Funkmaster Flex and not Eminem?
That's correct.
But why is everyone reporting that Drake's in a feud with Eminem then?
Because 'Drake versus Eminem' makes a better headline than 'Drake is angry with a radio station DJ'. That's why you clicked on this piece and read all the way through, isn't it?
You don’t have to find a group of like-minded aviation enthusiasts on a message board and join their virtual squadron to enjoy War Thunder. You don’t have to choose between realism or accessibility. You just download it, and then you’re flying - or driving. This massively-multiplayer WW2 combat game effortlessly encompasses all of the explosions and excitement that planes and tanks are capable of generating. PLAY WAR THUNDER FOR FREE
Everything’s better in space, as Warframe proves with its Ninjas in space theme. It’s a co-op third-person game where teams of ninjas suited up in powerful ‘Warframe’ armours head out to slice up bad guys, or just hang out at the dojo. It blends some MMO elements with the sensibilities of a more straight-forward action game, creating something slick, exciting, and very sociable. PLAY WARFRAME FOR FREE
One of mightiest PC free-to-play games there has ever been, World of Tanks is an accessible and exciting tank simulator that hides some complex game mechanics. It pits two sets of tankers against each other in team deathmatch. There are hundreds of vehicles to unlock across ten different tiers, from speedy scouts to hulking heavies. You’ll never believe so many tanks existed. PLAY WORLD OF TANKS FOR FREE
This isn’t a sim, and it isn’t an arcade game. World of Warships is something in-between - a pastiche, but a loving one. The controls are simple and welcoming, but allow for interesting tactics. It's more fun than Total War’s pondering naval engagements, definitely more approachable than Silent Hunter, and far-far deeper than the Pirates games. Surprising depth, if you'll excuse the submariner humour. PLAY WORLD OF WARSHIPS FOR FREE
A plush, colourfully-paletted space sim that takes the genre massively multiplayer,Star Conflict drops you right in the middle of an interplanetary skirmish that encompasses both PvE and PvP. Its void is as roomy as any other sector of space you might name, while its busy, man-made surface environments recall the twisty tunnels of the Descent series. PLAY STAR CONFLICT FOR FREE
Rift was a phenomenal subscription based fantasy MMO - World of Warcraft in new trousers, essentially. It made its name by updating and improving itself at a ferocious pace: with new raids, new zones, new world events appearing on a monthly basis. Now, it's entirely free-to-play: you can play it without spending a penny. It's a brilliant option: you can sink hours into it. Highly recommended. PLAY RIFT FOR FREE
Archeage is the closest thing we’ve got to a proper pirate MMO. You can try and master the endless sea as a notorious pirate or choose to be a humble peddler of crafted goods. Its labour system - how it gates content - may take time to get used to, but nevertheless it’s a really solid free-to-play experience. There’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t give this a try. PLAY ARCHEAGE FOR FREE
At its heart, Hex is a two player card game. Hex’s rules are a little more complex than Hearthstone’s but we found it to be a more rewarding game. Both players have 20 health and draw cards from their decks to summon creatures and cast spells against each other. The spells and creatures can weave their abilities together to make powerful combinations. Hex is in free open beta right now, and with hundreds of different cards available, players are still finding new ways to combine them. PLAY HEX FOR FREE
Lots of people like and play golf, and golf games. MMOs are designed for lots of people. Therefore… And the good news is that this has all the trappings you’d expect from that genre, wrapped around a perfectly serviceable set of thwack-the-ball-into-the-hole mechanics. There are plenty of upgrades to be had, wardrobe items, and all kinds of friendly and competitive play options. Plus a man with a really nice voice gently encourages you throughout - something which, frankly, more games should have. Winning Putt is new to our list and one to try for sure. PLAY WINNING PUTT FOR FREE
Guild Wars 2
Guild Wars 2 is one of the best MMOs available. Even better, you can play a huge chunk of it for free. There’s a lot to do, from traditional questing for NPCs to zone events where everyone can suddenly get involved and work as a massive team to bring down a boss, or help a burning village. You’ll need to pay to get into the Heart of Thorns expansion, but the base game is huge enough as it is, and the backlog of Living World stories now available to play means there’s plenty to see, explore, and get involved with.
Trove is the MMO equivalent of Minecraft, and exactly as good as that sounds. It's fast paced and fluid, with you exploring and dominating voxel worlds. What's neat is just how much you can customise the look of your character: every item dropped can be used to change your style. PLAY TROVE FOR FREE
Inspired by the original Dota, this takes the same concept but introduces a different roster of playable characters that is constantly being expanded. Many players findLeague of Legends is both easier and more accessible than Dota, but it’s still extremely nuanced. 12 million players play it every day. You won’t struggle to find a game. PLAY LEAGUE OF LEGENDS NOW!
An action RPG in the mould of Diablo, Path of Exile is one of the most polished, well-executed games on this list. Adventure with a friend or two through hundreds of areas in a dark fantasy world that provides a dizzying collection of monsters to repeatedly click on until they squish. Path of Exile does feature a microtransaction system but it’s admirably unobtrusive and ethical. PLAY PATH OF EXILE FOR FREE
If you want to have a crack at conquering the ever-growing Collectable Card Game genre, you'd best do something different, something special in order to make your mark. Chronicle: Runescape Legends' USP is that it features a book. A big, open, colourful, animated book, laid out on the table in front of you, acting as the playground where you and your opponent do battle. It’s an approach that leads to a seriously beautiful card battler, and one that also benefits from featuring characters lifted from Jagex’s MMO Runescape, instantly opening the game up to an established fanbase. PLAY CHRONICLE: RUNESCAPE LEGENDS FOR FREE
Two teams of five choose their Dota 2 heroes from a selection of hundreds, before taking to the battlefield to destroy the other side’s base. It’s no mean feat, as both bases spawn waves of creatures and are protected by powerful towers. Each player will need to make the best of their hero’s abilities in what is not only a game, but a sport. It’s tough, complex and it inspires fanaticism in its fans.
After a long, slow start, SWTOR is now pretty great - particularly thanks to the Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion, which is basically 'Bioware does Star Wars'. It’s a fast-paced action-RPG with lightsabers and space combat and Jedi houses and bounty hunters and, if you go full dark side, you can fire lightning from your fingertips. Really.
Blizzard's world dominating card game is about as addictive as chips. Who's ever had enough chips? You've always got room for more chips, and you've always got time foranother game of Hearthstone. Oh, and it looks pretty great on phones and tablets too.
It wasn’t going to be long until Blizzard entered the MOBA fray, and Heroes of the Storm is their stab at taking on Dota and League of Legends. Yet this 5v5 arena game isn’t just another Dota clone. Instead of a single map, Heroes of the Storm has many themed arenas that ask you not only to defeat the enemy but also complete side quests to help improve your chances. Not only does this provide variety, but it’s intensely fun.
Valve’s class-based shooter, Team Fortress 2, has achieved legendary status thanks to its varied game modes, impeccable sense of fun, and being home to more hats than the world’s millinery stores combined. The whole game is free to play these days, from the standard shoot-everything-that-moves deathmatches to the fantastic Mann vs Machine co-op mode where teams fend off waves of robots.
Blade & Soul's story is of a journey to the West: well-regarded enough in Asia to prompt a 10,000 signature petition for wider release, this martial arts MMO has since blown up under NCSOFT West's stewardship. The keys to its success? High-wire swordplay from Crounching Tiger and a propulsive revenge plot from Kill Bill.
Wildstar is built for lapsed World of Warcraft players. It's a sci-fi MMO that looks and feels like a Blizzard game, but with one important difference: it's for the hardcore. Ignore the cutesy looks: at the top end of the game, you'll find raids that make Warcraft's easy-mode dungeons look like something for kids.
Following the same formula as League of Legends and Dota 2, Smite has teams of five gods trying to fight their way into their opponent’s base. Rather than giving players a top-down view of the battlefield, it chooses a third-person perspective, switching the focus of the game from tactics to action.
Warface is a fast action military shooter: but less concerned with realism than it’s po-faced peers. Warfare wants you to do two things: co-operate with your team in fast urban deathmatches. And slide along on your arse while firing a machine gun.
