What The Hell Just Happened In Music This Week?

BOOTS premiered new music, President Obama wrote a letter to Frankie Knuckles' family, and Nicki Minaj makes it clear she's sticking to rap.

Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Besides another Justin Bieber Instagram fail moment on Instagram, there was a ton of new music released to the world this week, including one from Biebz late last night. BOOTS, the producer behind a handful of tracks off Beyoncé's surprise release, premiered two new songs—one of which features Bey—that will appear on his next project WinterSpringSummerFall.

Lil Boosie made his first trip to New York since his return to rap and stopped by Complex to announce the release date for his next album. Plus, Nicki Minaj, who confirmed that her next album, The Pink Print will not include pop songs like "Super Bass" or "Starships," re-instilled faith in her rap fans after announcing that she'll be returning to her "hip-hop roots" for the project.

Check out all that and more on What The Hell Just Happened In Music This Week?

Nas one upped Jay Z's surprise Coachella performance by bringing out Ms. Lauryn Hill during his final show at the festival.

Date: April 21

Nas had more surprises up his sleeve as he took the stage for the second weekend of Coachella on April 19. While officially celebrating the actual 20th anniversary of Illmatic, Nas brought out the lovely Ms. Lauryn Hill to join him onstage. Together they ran through "Ready Or Not" and "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)," while the crowd vibed along in amazement. If bringing out Jay Z last weekend wasn't enough, Nas surely made it worth it for the fans this weekend with a rare appearance from Ms. Lauryn Hill.—Zach Frydenlund

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An engineer who worked with Jay Z between 1998 and 2002 was arrested after trying to extort him for $75,000 with unreleased records.

Date: April 21

Jay Z isn't the type of guy you want to try and extort. Unfortunately, that is exactly what Chauncey Mahan recently tried to do. Apparently, Mahan was in possession of some of Hov's masters that were recorded between 1998 and 2002, which Jay and Roc-A-Fella presumed were lost. However, they've been sitting in Mahan's storage locker in California this entire time. After doing a quick search on Mahan, it appears that he has engineer credits for three Jay albums. The last being Collision Course, which was released in 2004.

On April 18, Mahan attempted to cash in on the recordings, and called Live Nation to set up a deal with Jay to sell them back to him for $100k as a so called "storage fee." Mahan eventually agreed upon $75k for the recordings and set up a meeting with Hov's people. He didn't realize that the LAPD was waiting for him and eventually took him into custody for questioning. Mahan was not arrested, but Jay and his lawyers have filed a grand larceny complaint against him. —Zach Frydenlund

Lil Boosie stopped by Complex and announced that he'll be dropping an album sooner than we thought.

Date: April 22

Lil Boosie stopped by the Complex offices earlier this week in New York City to chat about life after prison, working on new music, and more. In his sitdown interview with Complex News, Boosie revealed that his next album will be released on July 15, although he doesn't quite have a title just yet. He also told Complex News that he currently has 1,000 songs written at the moment, and that he'll be collaborating with 2 Chainz, Young Jeezy, T.I., and more.

Boosie says he's pretty much finished with his album but that he's trying to lock down features and sample clearances. "I ain't wanna come home and play with the mixtape game, I wanted to come home and hit 'em hard," he told Complex News. —Lauren Nostro

We had BOOTS take over our Twitter account and premiere new music earlier this week.

Date: April 22

The "mysterious" producer behind Beyoncé's self-titled release last year named BOOTS is readying his forthcoming project titled WinterSpringSummerFall and has spent the last few weeks releasing a handful of stunning tracks.

There's a lot to say about BOOTS' career thus far, and his future. He's been associated with a number of bands from his past, and we're aware that he signed a publishing deal with Roc Nation sometime last year. He might still be known as a producer, but now that he's releasing solo material, he's writing and producing every song on his forthcoming project. This week, we premiered "A Day In The Life of Jordan Asher," a song he recorded in a Toronto hotel earlier this year.

Boots also dropped his track "Dreams" with Beyoncé this week. In a Facebook post, BOOTS explains that after a friend told him about a non-profit organization called "Day One" in NYC, he's decided to dedicate every cent from "Dreams" to the organization.—Lauren Nostro

President Obama wrote a letter to Frankie Knuckles' family honoring the Godfather of Chicago House Music.

Date: April 22

The mourning of DJ Frankie Knuckles passing is still ongoing, and even President Barack Obama was touched by his death. At the recent memorial service for the legendary DJ, a letter from the President and First Lady was read aloud for the crowd. This letter from President Obama follows the lead of Elton John, who recently established a charity fund in honor of Frankie Knuckles. —Zach Frydenlund

Nicki talked about going back to her "hip-hop roots" on her upcoming album, "The Pinkprint."

Date: April 22

Nicki Minaj wants to get back to her roots, in more ways than one. While talking to MTV, Nicki was promoting her upcoming film, The Other Woman, and spoke about how she transformed back to an all natural look.

She also touched on her transformation musically, stating that she wants to get back to her hip-hop roots, which is very evident on her last two drops, "Lookin Ass Ni**a," and "Chi-Raq." Nicki also promised new music next week, but said it's nothing like her last two drops, but also replied with, "Hell no," when asked if it mirrored her smash hits "Starships," and "Super Bass." —Zach Frydenlund

Justin Bieber pissed off China and pretty much the rest of Asia after posting a photo on Instagram at a shrine that honors WWII war criminals.

Date: April 23

So Justin Bieber's had a fairly interesting year, no? Between visiting brothels in Brazil, getting arrested for drag racing in Miami, and having the cops called on him by his neighbors for throwing eggs over his property line, dude's kept it lively.

And yet: Bieber's biggest blunder this year went down this week, and involved his posting of two photos to Instagram, while visiting a Japanese shrine in Tokyo called Yasukuni. The photos have since been deleted, but not before millions of Bieber's fans across Asia absolutely freaked out, which is to say nothing of the offense they took.

But it was also a screw-up most people in North America didn't exactly understand at first, which is to say nothing of Bieber, who clearly had no idea what he had gotten himself into. Let's put it like this: The fact that the shrine even exists is offensive to those people, let alone the fact that Bieber was praying at it. —Brandon Jenkins

Beyonce covered TIME's "Most Influential of 2014" issue, and dropped her new music video all on the same day.

Date: April 24

The wins keep rolling in for Beyoncé. TIME Magazine unveiled the cover of their "100 Most Influential People of 2014" issue with Queen Bey front and center. This was her second straight year on the list, and to celebrate she released her new video for "Pretty Hurts" from her self-titled album. Other notable members of the music community to make it this year include Pharrell and Miley Cyrus, as they join the likes of Barack Obama, Serena Williams, and more on the list. —Zach Frydenlund

RZA responded to Raekwon's "strike" from Wu-Tang Clan and gave him a 30 day ultimatum to either get down with the new Wu-Tang album or it won't drop.

Date: April 24

At this point, the tension between Wu-Tang Clan is pretty obvious. Both RZA and Raekwon have stated why there have been recent differences between them regarding the upcoming Wu album, A Better Tomorrow. Now it seems a resolution is coming, as RZA told Sports Illustrated that he is giving Rae 30 days to either get involved with the project, or it may never get released. The album is currently scheduled to drop in July.

Raekwon previously told Rolling Stone that he is currently on strike from the group, while RZA explained that the differences came down to a lack of communication. —Zach Frydenlund

Drake single-handedly began a "no new lint" movement after innocently cleaning his pants during a Raptors game, and now there's OVO fan-made lint rollers.

Date: April 22 and 25

The NBA playoff fever is taking over Toronto, as they are pulling out all the stops in their series against the Brooklyn Nets. The latest is an OVO lint roller, which a loyal Raptors fan made in preparation for game three tonight. The lint roller is of course in response to Drake pulling a lint roller out during the middle of game two of the series. The entire thing blew up into one big joke, with even Drake commenting about it on his Instagram. —Zach Frydenlund

What The Hell Just Happened In Music This Week?

BOOTS premiered new music, President Obama wrote a letter to Frankie Knuckles' family, and Nicki Minaj makes it clear she's sticking to rap.

Nas one upped Jay Z's surprise Coachella performance by bringing out Ms. Lauryn Hill during his final show at the festival.

An engineer who worked with Jay Z between 1998 and 2002 was arrested after trying to extort him for $75,000 with unreleased records.

Lil Boosie stopped by Complex and announced that he'll be dropping an album sooner than we thought.

We had BOOTS take over our Twitter account and premiere new music earlier this week.

President Obama wrote a letter to Frankie Knuckles' family honoring the Godfather of Chicago House Music.

Nicki talked about going back to her "hip-hop roots" on her upcoming album, "The Pinkprint."

Justin Bieber pissed off China and pretty much the rest of Asia after posting a photo on Instagram at a shrine that honors WWII war criminals.

Beyonce covered TIME's "Most Influential of 2014" issue, and dropped her new music video all on the same day.

RZA responded to Raekwon's "strike" from Wu-Tang Clan and gave him a 30 day ultimatum to either get down with the new Wu-Tang album or it won't drop.

Drake single-handedly began a "no new lint" movement after innocently cleaning his pants during a Raptors game, and now there's OVO fan-made lint rollers.

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