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Timothée Chalamet is both hosting this weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live, in addition to performing as the musical guest. In a new promo clip for the upcoming episode, he appears alongside the show’s cast member Sarah Sherman for a series of hilarious conversations. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, […]
Brazilian musician and DJ Alok reveals his new ‘Something Else’ alias and how he plans to experiment and create various types of new music, and more. “Miçanga” is out now. Read the full interview here! Alok: I think that the main goal about ‘Something Else’ is really like you just become that big, that so […]
Alok has a new musical alias, Something Else, with which the Brazilian superstar marks a significant departure from his usual, more pop-leaning work, Billboard can exclusively announce.
“When you think about Something Else, the idea that I had, [it’s that] I really love to connect with people. Sometimes when you get into a certain level of your career, [you find] you cannot fit into these places. I feel that Something Else gives me the freedom to express my creativity in different places,” Alok tells Billboard Español in a Zoom call. “It gives me the opportunity to go to places where Alok wouldn’t fit, but my heart fits. Even though Alok is my name, it’s my project, I really respect what we have build up with Alok. That’s always gonna be my main goal. But I also feel that my heart fits into other places as well.”
Known globally for his electrifying electronic pop anthems that have captivated millions, Alok, who launched his career 20 years ago, is branching outside of pop territory, and returning closer to his “psych trance and underground” roots. He debuted his latest venture Something Else to fans last year at global festivals such as the Universo Paralello in Brazil and the Zamna Tulum Festival in Mexico.
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The announcement of his new project arrives with the release of “Miçanga”, a tropical house remix of an eponymous BaianaSystem track of which Billboard Español offers the first exclusive stream. Created under his new moniker, the artist joins Stephan Jolk and Kawz in this collaboration with BaianaSystem, five years after the release of the original song. “I felt that this [song] could really fit in our universe,” he says. “[BaianaSystem] does very solid conceptual work that is singular and unique.”
The inspiration for the new DJ/producer project arrived when he performed at his brother’s wedding in Thailand for about a small group of 50 family and friends. “We just started to play, and it was all about the vibe. It was all about just being there and connecting in a very introspective way. I missed that so much,” he says. “I don’t wanna say [Something Else] is one kind of style of genre. I just wanna be like, it’s something else from the ‘Alok’ and ‘pop’ that you saw at Belém.”
Last November, Alok — famed for pioneering and popularizing Brazilian bass on a global scale — performed a massive concert at the Mangueirão Olympic Stadium’s parking lot in Belém, Pará in northern Brazil, to kick off the one-year countdown of COP30 which will take place in said city this year. Just 100 miles south of the equator and close to the Amazon rainforest, 250,000 attendees arrived to experience is AUREA show, where he stood above a ten-story-high pyramid stage.
The “Hear Me Now” hitmaker gave his fanbase a taste of his more experimental side with his 2024 album, The Future Is Ancestral, where he collaborated with the Yawanawa tribe of Brazil, and other indigenous poets, scholars and musicians. “It’s also totally, completely different from what Alok releases,” he adds.
“With Something Else, with ‘Miçanga,’ for example, it’s just a place where I don’t have to be pressured. I can just do stuff that I like, even though I know they won’t work in the same [way] as Alok’s songs,” he adds. “But at the end of the day, I feel that as a DJ, and all DJs, we are here to serve. We’re here to please people. And to do stuff that we believe, stuff that we like.”
In April, the two-time Latin Grammy nominee will make his Coachella debut.
Check out Something Else, Stephan Jolk, and Kawz’s “Miçanga” featuring BaianaSystem below.
As wildfires continue to threaten Los Angeles amid dangerous “red flag” conditions, the boutique bank Raine has announced that its Grammy Week event will be reframed as a fundraiser for music professionals affected by the massive Palisades and Eaton blazes.
The event, to be held on Jan. 30 at the San Vicente Bungalows in West Hollywood from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., will be co-hosted by Raine, the National Music Publishers’ Association, and music industry publications Music Business Worldwide and HITS. Donations will go to the Recording Academy and MusiCares’ Los Angeles Fire Relief Effort supporting music workers impacted by the disasters. Those interested in attending are being asked to donate a minimum of $250, which can be done at the event’s RSVP page. Questions can be directed to wildfirefundraiser@raine.com.
Raine partner Fred Davis says they chose to turn the event into a fundraiser — rather than cancel it altogether — to make the most of the attendees’ “enormously charitable” nature.
“So many in our music community have been devastated by their losses. It hurts,” Davis tells Billboard. “I have grown up in this industry. I have a responsibility to help.”
The Raine event would have been the music and entertainment industry-focused bank’s second Grammy Week cocktail party, but invitations went out one day before the Palisades Fire broke out on Jan. 7. That blaze went on to destroy more than 6,600 buildings and homes across more than 23,000 acres, while 11 people lost their lives. The Eaton Fire, which started later the same day in Altadena, is estimated to have destroyed more than 9,000 structures and killed 17. Both of those fires continue to burn but are nearing full containment, though a newer blaze, the Hughes Fire, exploded on Wednesday (Jan. 22) north of L.A. and prompted widespread evacuations in the Castaic Lake region. It has since burned more than 10,000 acres and is at 24% containment.
Notably, the Raine event is one of the few to remain on the Grammy Week calendar in the wake of the wildfires, with the majority of the major bashes either canceled or postponed. Those that remain, including the annual MusiCares Person of the Year and Clive Davis Galas put on by the Recording Academy, have similarly been re-spun as fundraisers for wildfire relief.
The Grammys themselves, which are still scheduled to be held on Feb. 2 at Crypto.com arena in Downtown Los Angeles, will go forward, according to academy, “with a renewed sense of purpose: raising additional funds to support wildfire relief efforts and honoring the bravery and dedication of first responders who risk their lives to protect ours.”
Bruno Mars is reportedly rounding up his girl gang for his newest collaboration! The singer is teaming up with Sexyy Red this week for a fun new single tentatively titled “Fat, Juicy & Wet,” and it seems like he’s including his recent collaborators in the corresponding music video. In a leaked teaser clip circulating social […]
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1. So Trump lied basically
2. It sure will haunt him.
3. Suckers
4. Listen to Black women
5. It was never about the economy
6. We tried to warn folks
8. It’s going to be a spooky 4 years
Barry Michael Cooper, the journalist who coined the term “New Jack Swing” to describe the music Teddy Riley was making during the ’80s and wrote the screenplays for influential movies like New Jack City featuring Wesley Snipes’ iconic role as Nino Brown, Above the Rim starring 2Pac in one of his most memorable roles as street hustler Birdie, and Sugar Hill (also starring Snipes) passed away Tuesday (Jan. 22).
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Nelson George, another influential hip-hop journalist, broke the news on his Substack. “Barry Michael Cooper died today in Baltimore, according to his son Mathew,” he wrote. “It’ll take me a minute to gather all my thoughts, but just wanted to thank him for recommending to Robert Christgau at the Village Voice when I was trying to write for the Riffs section back in 1981. It was a key moment in my career and life.”
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Adding, “Barry helped define pop culture in the ‘80s and ‘90s with his early reporting on crack, by naming Teddy Riley’s sound ‘new jack swing’, and writing star vehicles for Wesley Snipes (New Jack City, Sugar Hill) and Tupac (Above the Rim.) Though he lived much of the last decades of his life in Baltimore, he was Harlem to his core.”
Michael A. Gonzales, who co-wrote the important Bring The Noise: A Guide to Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture with Havelock Nelson, tweeted out the Village Voice article profiling Teddy Riley where the term New Jack Swing was invented and referred to Cooper as one of his “main inspirations.”
A&R extraordinaire Dante Ross wrote a lengthy caption on Instagram about how much of fan he was of his writing and acknowledged the influence his movie scripts had on the hip-hop genre and community. “His Harlem trilogy of flicks, New Jack City, Sugar Hill and Above The Rim were beyond influential in terms of Hip Hop cinema, they literally changed the game,” he said.
New Jack City, Above the Rim, and Sugar Hill continue to be referenced by rappers and meme’d online by fans 30 years later.
So far, no cause of death has been announced. He was 66 years old.
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It’s been years since we’ve heard any new material from Jay-Z and even longer since his former protégé, Memphis Bleek released any new work, but now it’s looking like Bleek is ready to once again ride for the Roc as he returns to the rap scene with some fellow hustlers who know a thing or two about the street game.
Linking up with Smoke DZA and Benny The Butcher for his new visuals to “3 Kings,” Memphis Bleek returns to his old stomping grounds of Marcy Projects in Brooklyn to hold down the hallway and bodega with his peoples along with DZA and The Butcher. It’s always nice to go back to your old hood just to show love.
Elsewhere Larry June, 2 Chainz and The Alchemist enjoy the good life and in their clip for “Bad Choices,” the three artist break bread over a fancy dinner before rolling the streets in some exotic automobiles you only see in big budget Hollywood films and, well, rap videos.
Check out the rest of today’s drops including work from Eddie Kaine and RIM featuring Fred The Godson, DC2TRILL, and more.
MEMPHIS BLEEK FT. SMOKE DZA & BENNY THE BUTCHER – “3 KINGS”
LARRY JUNE, 2 CHAINZ & THE ALCHEMIST – “BAD CHOICES”
EDDIE KAINE & RIM FT. FRED THE GODSON – “MADE MEN”
DC2TRILL – “TRIPS”
THE MUSALINI FT. CARA – “ON MY MIND”
FFAWTY – “JUMP”
PRACTICING P – “WHO ARE YOU”
DUSTY LOCANE – “BATTLEFIELD”
Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s “Lilac” continues to rule the Billboard Japan Hot 100 for the fifth week, on the chart dated Jan. 22.
Downloads, streams and video views for the Oblivion Battery opener are down to 67%, 89%, and 95%, respectively, compared to the week before, but karaoke is up to 104%. The track holds at the top spot for the third consecutive week and for fifth time in total, with a huge lead over the track at No. 2 and below.
At No. 2 is Rosé & Bruno Mars’ “APT,.” also holding for the third week. While the track is slowing down in downloads, streams and video, it gained slightly in radio and karaoke.
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STU48’s “Chiheisen wo miteiruka?” debuts at No. 3. The title track of the girl group’s 11th single sold 165,727 copies in its first week to hit No. 1 for sales.
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Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s “Que Sera Sera” slips a notch to No. 4. Streams are down to 93% and downloads to 50% week-over-week, but radio and karaoke are up to 170% and 105%, respectively.
“CBZ (Prime time)” by BSS, a group consisting of members SEUNGKWAN, DK, and HOSHI of SEVENTEEN, bows at No. 5. The lead track of the trio’s second single “TELEPARTY” sold 63,797 copies to come in at No. 2 for sales, while also hitting No. 94 for downloads, No. 86 for radio and No. 41 for video. “’Shohikigen,” by SEVENTEEN released last year, also came in at No. 3 for sales, and the track rises to No. 20 on the Japan Hot 100 after six weeks.
In other chart moves, a number of rapper Chanmina’s tracks have climbed the Japan Hot 100 again, due to the final judging of the audition project she’s producing, No No Girls, airing on Jan. 11. “Harenchi” came in at No. 51 and “Never Grow Up” at No. 79. Also, after the movie 366 Days hit domestic theaters on Jan. 10, the song the story was inspired by, HY’s “366 Days,” has returned at No. 84. The last time this classic ballad charted was about six months ago, in July 2024.
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Jan. 13 to 19, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English Twitter account.
Future laments over the loss of his friend to fentanyl in the new “Lost My Dog” music video that he dropped on Thursday (Jan. 23). Henri Alexander Levy directed the black-and-white accompanying visual for the poignant penultimate track from Future’s Billboard 200-topping Mixtape Pluto last year. Future, who typically conceals his face behind a dark pair […]