‘Billboard Unfiltered’: Drake’s ‘Fighting Irish’ Freestyle, Lil Baby’s ‘WHAM’ & LiAngelo Ball’s ‘Tweaker’
2025 is already off to a fast start in the hip-hop/R&B world and Billboard Unfiltered is tackling it all in a jam-packed first week of the year.
Drake seemingly laid out his issues with LeBron James on the “Fighting Irish” freestyle while Lil Baby’s WHAM album arrived. LiAngelo Ball makes his case for rapper of 2025 with the viral “Tweaker” and the fellas take a few guesses at what Beyoncé has up her sleeve on Jan. 14.
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Staff Writer Kyle Denis was a fan of Drake’s latest work with Conductor Williams, which he labeled “some of the greatest rapping we’ve heard from him in recent months.” However, he doesn’t think playing the victim role and taking it toward LeBron was the right move.
“I wouldn’t waste this on LeBron James right now,” Denis said. “It just feels like there’s more important things he needs to be addressing culturally within himself which he does talk about a little bit throughout the song. But LeBron? He’s still tatted on you, bro.”
Carl Lamarre speculated that Drake has denied olive branches extended from LeBron to have a conversation.
“It was the best-received Drake song in a long time,” Damien Scott said. “I think people are thirsty for the Drake they love.”
Lil Baby returned with his WHAM album in what’s set to be a loaded 2025 for the 4PF rapper, and while there’s been mixed reaction to the LP on social media, Damien Scott believes Baby delivered in a major way with his latest output.
“I think it’s a good album,” he said. “It’s not my high-water mark album for him. I think coming off his last project, I think this is very strong. I think he’s regaining his footing.” Scott also told a story about hearing the project everywhere in the Atlanta airport this week while traveling. “That’s all you hear,” he proclaimed.
Nobody had LiAngelo Ball delivering the first rap moment of 2025 with his viral “Tweaker” track infiltrating NBA and NFL locker rooms and racking up millions of views as fans “bend that corner.”
With the third Ball brother breaking through and earning a slot at Rolling Loud, it’s a matter of how far he can parlay this momentum. “Sources say he’s going to have a busy [NBA] All-Star Weekend as well,” Lamarre added.
Still, charts expert Trevor Anderson says it’s nearly impossible to predict the trajectory of “Tweaker.” “It’s hard to tell five days in how much longtail this has,” Anderson said. “We like to criticize some of the institutions for not jumping on things… Why wouldn’t you jump on this thing that clearly people are interested in?”
Watch the full episode below.
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