After a lot of promo and hype, LL Cool J‘s Rock The Bells seem to have cancelled their highly anticipated Rock The Bells Resort, scheduled for April 23-26, 2024, in Cancun, Mexico. Although no public announcement was made, the event’s official website now reads:

Due to unforeseen circumstances we are canceling the Rock The Bells Resort. It’s important to us that we give our fans the most amazing experience possible. We do it well or not at all. Stay tuned.

Brooklyn-based MC, Talib Kweli, who has been labelled as one of the most lyrically-gifted, socially aware, and politically insightful rappers to emerge in the last 20 years, has given us, hip-hop lovers, a seven-track album for Christmas.

Titled Holy Daze, the record has a few gems that’s definitely worth checking out. As a matter of fact, aside from track-six, which is a beautiful instrumental, and track number 7, which comes across as the project’s outro, all the other songs are solid hip-hop records. Additionally, all the beats are considered authentic rap rhythms.

Producers that have worked on this record are: Juni Ali, Nottz, Oh No, and the man himself, Talib Kweli. As of this writing, Holy Daze is only available on Bandcamp, and Kweli‘s own website kweliclub-dot-com.

Arrested Development, the hip-hop pioneers credited for bringing a fresh spiritual sound to the genre, will close out 2023, the indelible year of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary, with back-to-back Billboard Live performances.

Billboard Live is a restaurant and live music venue, located in various cities in Japan. That said, Arrested Development will do sets in Yokohama on December 28th, Tokyo on December 30th and 31st, and Osaka on January 3rd.

Yasiin Bey, formerly referred to as Mos Def, one-half of the hip-hop duo Black Star, will be performing at La Cigale – 120 Boulevard de Rochechouart – in Paris, France, on Thursday, January 18th.

The unusual show will see Bey doing songs by British-American rapper and record producer MF Doom, effectively paying tribute to him. Doom, who is known for his intricate wordplay, signature metal mask, and “supervillain” stage persona, was a major figure in underground hip-hop before he passed away in 2020. Click here for tickets.