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Lil Wayne’s new album “Tha Carter VI “just dropped, and it sold 110,000 units in its first week.
Out of that, only 35,000 were actual purchases; the rest came from streaming. While those numbers aren’t bad, they’re a step down from his last solo album “Funeral“, which sold 139,000 first week and hit No. 1. It’s an even bigger drop from Tha Carter V, which had a huge debut with 480,000 in 2018.
If things stay on track, Weezy’s new album will land at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, with country star Morgan Wallen holding on to the top spot.
Reactions to the album have been mixed. Some fans who’ve been riding with the New Orleans legend since day one were let down, saying the album didn’t live up to the hype. However, there are still some standout moments. One of the most talked-about tracks is “The Days,” where Wayne teams up with U2’s Bono. It was first previewed during the NBA Finals, and on the song, Wayne raps about getting older and owning his place in Hip-Hop: “I ain’t getting younger, but I’m getting better…”
Even with the mixed reviews, Wayne’s getting love from some big names. Nicki Minaj jumped on a remix of “Banned In NO” and took some shots at Shannon Sharpe and Jay-Z. Justin Bieber also showed support, posting a FaceTime with Wayne and telling fans to check out the album.
It might not be Wayne’s biggest project, but he’s still making noise.
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There’s no better pairing than music and ice cream, and Jeni’s Ice Cream and Goose are taking that sentiment to heart.
Both parties have collaborated on a new ice cream flavor that plays on the ever-classic black raspberry chip. You can shop the ice cream nationwide and at jenis.com starting June 24. You can sign up on Jeni’s website to be notified when the dessert drops. Inspired by the rock band’s explosive live sets and genre-bending sound, “Goose Tracks” features a base of juicy raspberries and blackberries with textural bittersweet chocolate flakes folded in.
The resulting flavor combo is sweet and tart with a slight crunch that’s slightly nostalgic but fresh, much like Goose’s music. The bittersweet chocolate cuts through the sweet berry-forward base, creating an addicting contrast that’ll have you coming back for seconds.
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Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams
Jeni’s Ice Cream x Goose Goose Tracks
A raspberry and blackberry ice cream with bittersweat chocolate flakes.
Goose has done it all this year, from embarking on a national tour to releasing new music and hosting their own festival. The band also recently headlined their first-ever show at Madison Square Garden. “This was a really fun collab,” said drummer Cotter Ellis. “We are big fans of Jeni’s ice cream, what they stand for, and how they source their ingredients. We hope our fans enjoy Goose Tracks!”
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The pint packaging for “Goose Tracks” was illustrated by Brian Blomerth, the same artist who did the cover art for the band’s new album released in April titled Everything Must Go. The packaging is pink with swirling graphics of animals and berries spotted throughout. A limited-edition screen-printed poster designed by Blomerth will also be available to commemorate the release.
Goose testing out their Jeni’s Ice Cream “Goose Tracks” flavor.
Jeni’s Ice Cream
“On a Venn diagram comparing Jeni’s and Goose, where the circles overlap would be called Things That Bring People Together and Make People Feel Good,” said Jeni’s Head of Brand Ryan Morgan in a press release. “Music and ice cream are two of life’s greatest connectors. A live Goose show is about the joy of the moment and sparking the type of emotional connection that only comes through a shared presence in real life. A Jeni’s experience is about the same thing.”
Jeni’s Ice Cream Brambleberry Crisp
An oat and brambleberry jam ice cream inspired by the flavors of a brambleberry crisp.
While you’re waiting on “Goose Tracks,” fans of Jeni’s can shop “Brambleberry Crisp,” a berry-forward ice cream inspired by the flavors of a brambleberry crisp. You’ve got toasty oat streusel and brambleberry jam all layered throughout the sweet vanilla ice cream. What’s not to love?
In the past, Jeni’s has collaborated with many institutions in the music and media scenes including a Biscuits With The Boss shortbread cookies flavor inspired by Ted Lasso and a Bastani Sonnati saffron and pistachio flavor with apparel brand The Hundreds.
The Coca Cola Company and Universal Music Group have partnered on the launch of a new imprint, Real Thing Records. or rtr.
The venture will focus on signing and developing emerging talent from around the world, with the label focused on all genres. The first signees are French-New Zealand artist Max Allais, who clocked a hit this year with his single “When The Party Ends.”
Real Thing Records. has also signed Indian singer, songwriter and producer, Aksomaniac, whose music fuses jazz, hip-hop and R&B with traditional Carnatic music.
Each new signing will be a joint effort between Real Thing Records. and a Universal Music Group label counterpart in each artist’s respective territory, to provide both local support and global growth. For Allais these frontline labels will be Better Now Records and Universal Music Germany) and for Aksomaniac they will be Def Jam Recordings India/Universal Music India.
“The Coca-Cola Company has a rich legacy, one of deep human connection and cultural resonance—breaking barriers and bringing people together across borders and generations,” says Joshua Burke, The Coca-Cola Company’s global head of music and culture.
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“Real Thing Records. is designed to unlock greater potential for artists, fans, and our brands—where creativity fuels growth and the combined power of our network and key global music partners create value greater than the sum of its parts,” Burke continues. “It’s our intention to let artists shine and give them the flexibility to develop their identities with the support of global reach and expertise. It’s a long-term commitment to music—enabling us to reinvest in our programs, champion the next generation of talent, and stay rooted in what matters most: music and fandom.”
This is not the first partnership between The Coca Cola Company and UMG, with UMG also previously serving as the label partner for Coke Studio, an initiative that has recruited superstar artists like Usher, Tyla, Karol G, Peggy Gou and NewJeans to participate in projects like original songs, festival experiences and live performances.
“For years, Universal Music Group and The Coca-Cola Company have shared a belief in the power of music to spark connection and shape meaningful experiences,” says Universal Music Group for Brands executive vice president Richard Yaffa. “With the launch of Real Thing Records., we are taking that vision further – joining forces to build a modern label that champions artistry and amplifies emerging voices on global and local stages, while giving fans the cultural moments they crave.
“Both companies recognize the long-term value of investing in artistic innovation,” Yaffa continues, “and our past work together has consistently demonstrated how music can move people and create lasting impact. The evolution and continued success of our several collaborations stands as a testament to what’s possible when we align creativity with cultural relevance.”
To draw his K-pop fan army onto the new OpenWav app, pop singer Kevin Woo schooled his nearly 4.4 million social-media followers on how it works. Then he sold stuff to them: $10,000 worth of hoodies and water bottles and $1,200 worth of tickets to a Los Angeles listening party in March for his single “Deja Vu.”
“It’s very refreshing,” says Woo, formerly of hit boy band U-KISS. “It gives me so much freedom to do what I want and not have to stress about ‘Where am I going to get my next paycheck? How do I know when the label’s going to pay me out?’”
OpenWav, co-created by tech entrepreneur Jaeson Ma, who co-founded influential label 88rising and was an early investor in what became TikTok, launches Wednesday (June 11) with a splashy Indie Music Week party in New York attended by Ma and artist/OpenWav executive Wyclef Jean. It’s one of many platforms designed to help indie artists reach their most devoted followers and participate in a superfan market that Goldman Sachs predicted could reach $4 billion over the next five years. The app joins a crowded market that includes SoundCloud’s “fan-powered royalty” system and a long-promised Warner Music Group (WMG) app that launched a test version starring Ed Sheeran in April.
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Ma’s invention, which has drawn $30 million from investors such as WMG and CAA’s Connect Ventures, has an all-in-one smartphone interface that allows artists to stream new songs and videos, sell tickets and quickly design (through the use of AI tools), sell and ship merch. Ma spent two years setting up an international network of 200 factories that accommodate orders of any size. “I can put my design on a premium hoodie that’s like Yeezy off-white level, and if one fan buys that hoodie, we will make it and ship it to their doorstep directly — with zero inventory,” Ma says. “It’s pretty crazy what we’ve been able to do.”
“I call this the Gen-Z Sears catalog,” Ma says on a Zoom as he scrolls through the custom golf balls, water bottles and other products available through the app. “I don’t want to say we’re faster than Amazon or Alibaba — we’re not faster. We’ve built a similar supply-chain ecosystem and made it specifically to be on-demand for artists and creators.”
In a music business where few artists can make a living from streaming revenue alone, and must tour, sell merch and develop sizable loyal fanbases to buy their products, “superfan” has become a gold-rush buzzword. (OpenWav fits this category even though Ma avoids using the term “superfan app.”) In March, Australian producer Alan Walker launched an app designed to interact more directly with fans than he could on Instagram or TikTok; Boston metal band Ice Nine Kills’ app, Psychos Only, offers exclusive merch and exclusive ticket pre-sales with a $7 monthly membership fee.
“This started out several years ago with Patreon, and we learned that for premium content, fans will pay if you create something valuable,” says Dan Tsurif, vp of digital marketing for 10th Street Entertainment, Ice Nine Kills’ management company.
Ma’s bet for OpenWav is that dedicated fans will pay $10 a month — “a Starbucks coffee,” he says — and 1,000 of them will provide each participating artist with $120,000 in annual salary. But some in the music business wonder whether such artist-to-fan tools will be relevant for a broad range of artists. K-pop stars like Woo benefit from a loyal fanbase built meticulously over years of savvy music-company marketing, and veteran touring stars from Taylor Swift to Umphrey’s McGee have spent decades building fanbases on the road, but everyone else may struggle on this kind of app.
“In K-pop, they’re already obsessive about collecting things and buying merch. With a touring artist, they’re used to buying VIP [tickets] or merch,” says Aidan Schechter, a partner at management and publishing company 1916 Enterprises and founder/CEO of management music-tools venture Patchbay. “I don’t think artists and artist teams are able to keep up with the demands of consistent posting and exclusive content creation on a lot of these apps. Artists and their teams don’t have enough stamina.”
For Woo, 33, who came up in the South Korean K-pop industry, OpenWav is a crucial tool for remaining independent. The app, which he has been beta-testing most of this year, pays 80% of merch and ticket sales to the artist and keeps 20%. Woo says OpenWav allows him access to all his sales data and analytics — he has used it, for example, to discern that he has a surprisingly large listener base in Austin, Texas, leading him to a recent South by Southwest showcase.
“I’ve been in a K-pop boy band for over a decade, and knowing how the whole system worked, I wanted to start my own venture,” he says. “As I started to learn more about the app, I fell in love with how easy and seamless it was. It’s like TikTok meets Spotify.”
All the Jewish groups that have traditionally participated in the San Diego Pride Festival have pulled out of this year’s event due to headliner Kehlani‘s vocal support for Palestine. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, eight organizations and synagogues issued a joint statement this week saying that their decision was due to “serious safety concerns” prompted by what they called the R&B singer’s “repeated amplification of violent antisemitic rhetoric.”
Among those pulling out of the event slated to take place on July 19-20 in San Diego’s Balboa Park — Kehlani is slated to perform on the first day of the fest — are the Jewish Federation of San Diego, Anti-Defamation League of San Diego and the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center. In a statement released last week, the organizations said their decision came after “The Finest Community Coalition released a statement last month, signed by nearly three dozen Jewish organizations, urging San Diego Pride to reconsider giving Kehlani a platform. That appeal has thus far gone unanswered, and as a result, there will be no organized Jewish presence at San Diego Pride this year.”
In addition to those organizations, the Chronicle reported that festival’s current director of medical operations and her assistant director have stepped down from their volunteer roles. In response to the actions, San Diego Pride’s board of directors said in a statement that it does not endorse the political views of any of its performers.
“Each member of our community must make their own decision about attending this year’s events, but we hope everyone will come out as a sign of solidarity for our queer community,” read their statement. “We honor the value of artistic integrity, the importance of free expression and the role that artists play in shaping culture, challenging systems and amplifying voices while respecting each other’s differences.”
Kehlani has been hit by a series of boycotts and cancellations due to her pro-Palestinian comments throughout Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas following the militant group’s terror attack on the Jewish state on Oct. 7, 2023, during which raiders killed more than 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages. In the ensuing war, Israeli bombing and incursions into the Gaza Strip and other Palestinian-majority territories have resulted in the deaths of more than 55,000 Palestinians according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not make distinctions between military and civilian deaths.
In May, Kehlani’s Central Park Pride concert in New York was canceled under advisement from the city’s mayor. The festival announced that the Pride with Kehlani show slated for June 26 as part of New York’s SummerStage series of shows was called off after it was notified by Mayor Eric Adams’ office that “they have concerns for security and safety issues.” Kehlani responded to that cancelation with a “lol” on their Instagram Stories. The SummerStage cancelation came after Cornell University pulled the plug on a planned Kehlani appearance at the school’s annual Slope Day event on May 7 over her public support for Palestinians and what they deemed her “antisemitic, anti-Israel sentiments.”
Kehlani responded the the Cornell cancelation with a statement on April 26 in which they said, “I am being asked and called to clarify and make a statement yet again, for the millionth time, that I am not antisemitic nor anti-Jew. I am anti-genocide, I am anti the actions of the Israeli government, I am anti an extermination of an entire people, I am anti the bombing of innocent children, men, women — that’s what I’m anti.”
The singer added, “In fact, the very first Live that I did in the beginning of this genocide was with a really beautiful Jewish organization called Jewish Voices for Peace, and I still continue to learn from and work alongside really impactful Jewish organizers against this genocide.”
Oakland native Kehlani was also slated to be a headliner at SoSF, a new San Francisco pride festival, but they announced last week that they had pulled out of that June 28 event. Kehlani’s 2024 “Next 2 U” video featured the phrase “long live the intifada,” a reference to the two violent uprisings in the West Bank and Gaza Strip aimed at ending Israel’s occupation of those territories. It also depicted the singer and their background dancers waving Palestinian flags and wearing suits made of traditional keffiyeh scarves. In a since-removed Instagram video last May, Kehlani called out their musical peers for not joining in and commenting on Israel’s war against Hamas, saying, “You can’t speak? Disgusting… It’s f–k Israel. It’s f–k Zionism. And it’s f–k a lot of ya’ll too.”
Wicked anthem “Defying Gravity” changed very little from its initial composition, except for one key change requested by Idina Menzel. The title for Funkadelic’s iconic “One Nation Under a Groove” came from a fan. The co-writer of timeless classic “Build Me Up Buttercup” tried desperately to get the word “Buttercup” out of the song. And […]
Elizabeth Hurley is feeling fabulous at 60. The actress/model who has made headlines lately for her whirlwind romance with Billy Ray Cyrus celebrated her diamond jubilee bday on Tuesday (June 10) by stripping it all the way down to her birthday suit for a footloose and pantsy-free naked picture in a field in which she […]
Jin sat down with a group of playful puppies for a new interview released Monday (June 10), in which the BTS vocalist opened up about his new solo album Echo, his dream collaboration, and what fans can expect from his first-ever solo tour.
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In a new episode of BuzzFeed’s The Puppy Interview, BTS’ Jin answered fan questions while playing with a group of adorable pups, offering insight into his solo career, musical influences and tour ambitions.
“I’ve only met him in passing, but I’d love to collab with Bruno Mars one day. It’d be a lot of fun, I’m a huge fan of him,” Jin said, adding, “I often practised my vocals by singing ‘Just The Way You Are’ before debut, it’s one of my favourite songs.”
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On May 16, the K-pop star unveiled the project featuring seven tracks: “Don’t Say You Love Me,” “Nothing Without Your Love,” “Loser” featuring YENA, “Rope It,” “With the Clouds,” “Background” and “To Me, Today.” JIN first announced the mini-album about a month before its release, with a statement describing Echo as offering the musician’s “perspective on universal life experiences, capturing everyday emotions with warmth and sincerity.”
The new EP arrived about a year after JIN became the first member of BTS to be discharged from the South Korean militaryEcho follows the November release of Jin’s debut solo EP Happy, which reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200. The project featured single “Running Wild,” which marked Jin’s second Billboard Hot 100 entry separate from his mega-famous boy band, following 2022’s “The Astronaut”; the two tracks reached Nos. 53 and 51 on the chart, respectively.
“Built on dynamic band sounds, the album showcases his versatile vocals across a spectrum of moods and styles,” the description continued at the time. “It reflects a deeper layer of vocal maturity and personal storytelling that underscores Jin’s evolving artistry.”
Watch Jin’s full BuzzFeed Puppy Interview here.
One of two irreplaceable instruments stolen from the band Heart at a New Jersey venue two weeks ago has been retrieved. According to the Associated Press, on Tuesday (June 10), police in Atlantic City said they had recovered the purple baritone Telecaster guitar with ah hand-painted headstock belonging to guitarist Nancy Wilson from a woman […]
Over the past week, Pitbull has embarked on a run of arena shows in the U.K. and Ireland, but he may be experiencing a sense of déjà vu. Fans have thrown themselves into a viral fancy dress trend for his shows, donning black suits, bald caps and sunglasses and meeting up for flash mobs outside of the venues.
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Pitbull, real name Armando Christian Pérez, has now responded to the long-running trend in an interview with the BBC, calling it “priceless” to see fans replicate his look at his shows.
“Every time I’m at a show, I let them know that when you put on a bald cap, I hope you’re ready to have the time of your lives – it feels deeper than just music,” he said. “It’s the ultimate trophy to be able to go on stage and see all the hard work that you put into the music. I’ve been in the game for 25 years and to see every demographic, everybody [dressing up] at the shows is priceless.”
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On recent tours, fans, male and female, have adopted the Pitbull attire for the evening and meeting up outside the venue. The rapper and singer toured the U.K. and Ireland earlier this year in February, and has returned for an extended European run with two shows at London’s O2 Arena (June 9, 10) and concluding in Stockholm, Sweden on June 29.
Speaking to the BBC, Pitbull expanded on his continued popularity on a global scale. “There’s an irony as I’m kind of an anomaly in the music business,” he said. “In the Latin world they said I was too English, and in the English world I was too Latin, so to bring it together now, when it all really started around 2010, feels really good.”
Pitbull, who performs in both English and Spanish, has had a number of hits both in the U.K. and U.S. throughout his career, including two No. 1s on the Billboard Hot 100 (2011’s “Give Me Everything” and 2013’s “Timber”). He released his most recent LP, Trackhouse, in 2023 and over his career has collected nine Billboard Latin Music Awards.
