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07 Feb 2024

Watch North West Rap in Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign’s ‘Talking/Once Again’ Music Video

North West is officially a rap star after appearing in dad Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign’s music video for “Talking/Once Again.”

Ye and North hold down “Talking” while Ty and his daughter, Jailynn Griffin, twin in the “Once Again” portion. Kanye unleashed the visual to his Instagram and X accounts on Wednesday morning (Feb. 7), with the Feb. 9 release date of his and Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures album fast-approaching.

Directed by the D’innocenzo brothers, North raps while getting her hair braided and matches with her father, rocking black threads in the clip that features the earworm of a chorus she debuted at December’s Vultures rave in Miami.

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“It’s your bestie, Miss, Miss Westie/ Don’t tryna test me/ It’s gonna get messy/ It’s gonna get messy/ Just, just bless me, bless me,” she raps. In January, Miss Westie and Kanye hinted at her music video debut, as she suggested a treatment that included her driving a Lamborghini to Nobu Malibu and fending off paparazzi.

Ty Dolla $ign takes the baton and gazes at his daughter, Jailynn, before delivering a candid verse about her growing up and hoping he’s raised her correctly.

“How much to stop my daughter from growing? I just can’t take it now/ ‘Cause she just doing all the s–t I did when I was her age/ I don’t know how I’m gonna tell her, but her dad’s just afraid/ Of her choices, know that I’ve been through it/ I just hope I haven’t been the wrong influence,” he warbles.

Kanye gets his croon on and takes the clip across the finish line: “Once again the clouds are gathering to release what they held in.” The final visual is of Ty Dolla $ign’s daughter adorably resting her head on her dad’s shoulder while looking into the camera.

Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign are slated to host another Vultures listening party for volume one of their joint album on Thursday night (Feb. 8) in Ye’s hometown of Chicago at the United Center. Tickets for the event allegedly sold out in seven minutes.

The much-delayed project is scheduled to land on streaming services at some point on Friday (Feb. 9). Vultures will mark the first project for West since his string of hate speech and antisemitic remarks, which resulted in companies such as Adidas and Def Jam distancing themselves from the 46-year-old.

Watch the “Talking/Once Again” music video below.

07 Feb 2024

‘Big Foot’ Spotted in Top 10 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart

As the dust settled on a whirlwind week for Nicki Minaj, Megan Thee Stallion and the rappers’ millions of fans, both acts can claim a new hit to their catalogs. Megan Thee Stallion’s “Hiss” launches at No. 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts for her third champ on each, while Minaj’s “Big Foot” opens at No. 10 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.

For “Hiss,” the spitfire track registered 29.2 million first-week streams, 2.9 million radio airplay audience impressions and 104,000 downloads sold in the tracking week of Jan. 26-Feb. 1, according to Luminate. The song’s profile grew throughout the week, largely due to controversy surrounding the lyric “These h–s don’t be mad at Megan, these h–s mad at Megan’s Law.”

Many commenters interpreted the line to refer to Minaj and her husband, Kenneth Petty, who was convicted of an attempted rape in 1995 and is required to register as a sex offender. (Megan’s Law is a 1996 federal law mandating public disclosure about convicted and registered sex offenders).

In response, Minaj fired off a series of tweets about her former “Hot Girl Summer” collaborator, culminating in the “Big Foot” release on Jan. 29. Due to the Monday drop, the song only accrued four days of activity for the standard Friday-Thursday tracking week. Still, “Big Foot” captured 10.6 million official U.S. streams in that period and 37,000 sales downloads, with 588,000 in radio airplay audience – notably, unlike “Hiss,” “Big Foot” is not being promoted as a radio single.

With “Big Foot,” Minaj secures her 46th top 10 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. She remains in second place for the most among women, behind Aretha Franklin’s 52 titles and in sixth place on the overall count.

Elsewhere, “Big Foot” starts at No. 8 on Hot Rap Songs and No. 23 on the all-genre Hot 100.

07 Feb 2024

Taylor Swift Reveals When She Started Working on ‘The Tortured Poets Department’

Taylor Swift is back on the road for her global Eras Tour, and soon, she’ll be adding a new “era” to the mix: The Tortured Poets Department, her 11th album which she announced during her best pop vocal acceptance speech at the 2024 Grammys.

And at her returning show in Japan on Wednesday (Feb. 7), she revealed exactly how long she’s been crafting her April 19-slated record. “I’ve been working on Tortured Poets since right after I turned in Midnights,” Swift shared at Tokyo Dome, adding, “You turn in albums months in advance.” 

“I’ve been working on it for about two years,” she continued. “I kept working on it throughout the U.S. tour and when it was perfect — in my opinion when it’s good enough for you — I finished it and I am so, so excited that soon you’ll get to hear it. Soon we’ll get to experience that together.” 

Fans were shocked Sunday (Feb. 4) when the 34-year-old pop star, while accepting the first of two Grammys she would earn that night for her fall 2022 album Midnights, revealed the title and release date of Tortured Poets on the Crypto.com Arena stage before immediately sharing its cover art on Instagram. But according to Swift, the album’s announcement would have come this week no matter what — even if she hadn’t won either best pop vocal or album of the year at the awards show. 

In fact, the “Anti-Hero” singer said she’d planned to drop the news at Wednesday’s concert had she not taken home any golden gramophones a few nights prior. “Luckily enough that ended up happening,” she told the crowd, thanking fans for indirectly securing Midnights‘ AOTY win. “My backup plan was I was gonna do it tonight in Tokyo.” 

“I’m over the moon about the fact that you guys care about my music, it still blows my mind,” she concluded. “Everyone’s like, ‘Why do you make so many albums?’ I’m like, ‘Man, because I love it. I love it so much.’ I’m having fun, leave me alone.” 

Swift has three nights left at Tokyo Dome this week before she’s expected to fly back to the States to support boyfriend Travis Kelce at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, where the Kansas City Chiefs will face off against the San Francisco 49ers. The next week, she’ll embark on the Australian leg of the Eras Tour before doing a string of Singapore shows early March. 

This week of Eras shows also means four nights’ worth of new surprise songs, which, at Wednesday’s show, were “Dear Reader” and “Holy Ground.” 

See clips from Swift’s comeback Eras Tour show in Tokyo below. 

07 Feb 2024

Deb Antney Searches For Next Big Female Rap Star In New Reality Series

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Source: Paras Griffin / Getty

Music management mogul Deb Antney is looking for the next queen of rap with a new reality competition series. ‘Deb’s House’ will feature eight up-and-coming female artists who move into a shared house to compete to become Antney’s next “rap protégé,” according to a report from Deadline.

The series will air on ALLBLK, which is part of the AMC Network. The announcement was made this week at the Television Critics Association panel.

“I envisioned a competition show that deviates from the norm—one centered around personal growth and self-competition,” Antney said in a statement. “Collaborating with (co-creator and co-EP) Rasheed to bring this vision to life has been an incredible journey. Witnessing the music industry veer away from artist development towards a focus on superficiality and explicit content prompted my desire to return to the core values of true lyricism and mentorship.” 

She added, “The search for the next female rap sensation in Deb’s House is my way of reigniting that passion. The selection of our show as ALLBLK’s first commissioned competition reality series is truly thrilling. My sincere appreciation goes to my AMC Networks family, particularly Brett Dismuke, for their steadfast belief in this transformative project.” 

This isn’t Antney’s first time on reality tv. She and her son, Waka Flocka Flame appeared on two WETv series, Growing Up Hip Hop Atlanta, Waka & Tammy. 

Antney has managed several iconic rap stars including Gucci Mane, French Montana and Nicki Minaj.

Brett Dismuke, head of content for ALLBLK and WETv said in a statement that “Ms. Deb is a pioneer and influential voice across the music industry who has discovered, established, and guided the careers of some of hip-hop’s most prolific and successful artists.” 

He added, “We cannot wait for our ALLBLK audience to join the search and ultimately see who Ms. Deb crowns as the next iconic female MC.”

07 Feb 2024

Lupita Nyong’o Stars In New ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ Trailer

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A Quiet Place: Day One

Source: Paramount Pictures / A Quiet Place: Day One

Back in 2018, John Krasinski (Jim from The Office) really dropped a sleeper of a hit with his cult classic sci-fi film A Quiet Place, and with an equally successful sequel in 2020. Paramount is ready to revisit the world where an alien invasion made the planet go dead silent.

Earlier today (Feb. 7) Paramount Pictures released their first trailer for A Quiet Place: Day One which stars Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o as an everyday New Yorker who has to live through the very first day of the alien invasion that was the premise for the first two films in the franchise. With both films having taken place well into extraterrestrial occupation of earth, Day One will show how it all went down in the streets of New York and the bloody mess the “Death Angels” leave in their wake.

With only a handful of Death Angels having wrecked all kinds of havoc on the countryside of the original two films, imagine the kind of damage that hundreds can inflict on an city like New York.

While we know that Lupita won’t be saving the world by the end of the film (A Quiet Place takes three months after Day One) the trailer promises an intense ride as Nyong’o tries her best to survive the invasion alongside co-star Djimon Hounsou.

We can’t wait for this one.

Check out the trailer for A Quiet Place: Day One below and let us know if you’ll be checking for this when the film releases in theaters on June 28.



07 Feb 2024

Watch Celine Dion’s Soulful, Impromptu Singalong With Sonyae Elise Backstage at the 2024 Grammy Awards

Celine Dion couldn’t help breaking out into song at Sunday night’s 2024 Grammy Awards. Though the pop superstar has not performed in public since her 2022 reveal of a diagnosis of Stiff Person Syndrome, after a surprise appearance during the broadcast to present the evening’s final award — Taylor Swift’s record-breaking fourth album of the year trophy — the Canadian siren proved she hasn’t lost a note in a backstage video.

The clip posted by R&B singer Sonyae Elise, 26, on Tuesday captured the two vocalists doing a soulful duet amid the behind-the-scenes activity, with Elise clearly savoring the opportunity to harmonize and ad-lib as she and Dion, 55, took turns crooning the line “ain’t no tellin’ the world.”

“Highlights of an ICONIC night [champagne flute emoji] So inspired & proud of my girls,” Elise captioned the video montage. The video also featured footage of the 2021 Grammy nominee hanging backstage and goofing around with SZA and Victoria Monét and filming Swift accepting her best pop vocal album Grammy for Midnights before surprise-announcing her upcoming The Tortured Poets Department album. The montage also included a clip of Dion singing to a delighted Stevie Wonder backstage.

Dion revealed in Dec. 2022 that she had been diagnosed with the rare neurological disorder that can cause uncontrolled muscle spasms that make it difficult to move. The “Power of Love” singer then postponed all of her planned 2023 tour dates — before canceling the outing — and retreated from the public eye amid a difficult period in which her sister, Claudette, revealed that the star had “no control” of her muscles.

During her onstage appearance and backstage videos from the Grammys, though, Dion showed no signs of weakness or difficulty singing. Before the Grammy pop-in, Dion was most recently seen in public at an NHL game in November in Las Vegas to support her hometown team, the Montreal Canadiens.

Watch Elise’s video below.

07 Feb 2024

Capitol Music Group Names Tom March Chairman/CEO and Lillia Parsa Co-President

Tom March has been named the new chairman/CEO of Capitol Music Group, and Lillia Parsa has been named co-president of the label group alongside co-president Arjun Pulijal, Interscope Geffen A&M chairman/CEO John Janick announced in a memo today (Feb. 7). The new leadership group was announced one day after previous CMG chair/CEO Michelle Jubelirer announced she was stepping down with immediate effect yesterday (Feb. 6).

March, who has spent the past two years as U.S. president of Geffen Records, becomes the fourth head of Capitol in the 2020s, after longtime label chief Steve Barnett retired at the end of 2020, then A&R veteran Jeff Vaughn led the label for less than a year before Jubelirer took over in December 2021. Prior to his stint at Geffen — which is the home to Olivia Rodrigo, and has a high-profile partnership with BTS and HYBE, among other artists — March was the co-president of Polydor Records in the U.K. for six years, where he helped develop Glass Animals and worked the Interscope roster in the U.K. In his new role, he’ll oversee Capitol Records, Blue Note Records, Motown Records, Astralwerks, Harvest Records and Capitol Christian Music Group, and report to Janick.

Parsa arrives at Capitol after six years at Universal Music Publishing Group, where she worked with the likes of recent best new artist Grammy nominees Ice Spice and Gracie Abrams, as well as Renee Rapp, Julia Michaels, Louis Bell, Omer Fedi and many more, with clients that worked on No. 1 Hot 100 songs like The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber’s “Stay,” Lizzo’s “About Damn Time,” Ariana Grande’s “Positions” and more. Parsa will report to March and join Pulijal, who has been president of CMG since January 2022, as co-president. Both March and Parsa will be based at the Capitol Tower in Hollywood.

“I’ve worked closely with Tom for the better part of a decade, first as he looked after IGA repertoire in his role as co-president of Polydor in the U.K. and more recently in his position as president of Geffen,” Janick said in a statement. “He is a passionate and savvy executive who is a relentless advocate for artists and is committed to building successful executive teams. I know he will thrive in this important new role. Lillia is a gifted creative executive with very strong relationships throughout our business. I’ve personally gotten to know her over the years through artists we’ve signed together and via the amazing roster of songwriters she’s assembled at UMPG. I’m excited for her to take on this key position at Capitol, working alongside Arjun to continue to build a powerful platform for Capitol Music Group.”

These executive moves come amidst a broader restructuring happening at parent company Universal Music Group, which chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge announced in an internal memo last week. As part of that overhaul, Janick will now oversee Interscope, Geffen, Capitol, Motown, Priority, Verve and Blue Note, while Republic Records CEO Monte Lipman will oversee Republic, Def Jam, Island and Mercury. That memo also included a note that said, “In the coming weeks, John and Monte will be making further announcements about structure, resources and next-generation partnerships.” Jubelirer’s exit yesterday was the first exit since the announcement was made.

Jubelirer had been at Capitol for more than a decade, and had begun to turn around a recently-flagging label in her two years in charge: In 2023, Capitol racked up a 6.66% market share in the U.S., including a 5.90% current market share — which measures releases from the past 18 months — which was fifth among all labels for the full year. Both numbers were up significantly over her first year at the helm in 2022, when Capitol’s overall market share stood at 6.40% and current market share was 4.97%. That responsibility for the 80-year-old institution will now fall to March.

“I’m thrilled to be charged with leading Capitol Music Group,” March said in a statement. “The company’s deep legacy includes so many iconic artists and records that have long played important roles in my life, and the opportunity to help write CMG’s next chapter is a dream come true. I’m excited for Lillia to be joining me to define the creative direction of the company; she is spectacularly talented, and one of the most respected A&R executives in the business today.

“Together, we’ll work with Arjun and the brilliant CMG team to enhance the careers of artists on our current roster, as well of those who will be joining us in the future,” March continued. “John Janick and I have forged a great working relationship over the past decade, and it’s only become stronger with our amazing run at Geffen. That will absolutely intensify as we take CMG to the next level and share in even greater success together. I’m grateful to all of the artists at Geffen for their incredible music I’ve had the privilege to work on these past two years, and for the teams at Geffen and IGA who have been so supportive along the way.”

Capitol has a long history in the music business, having been the home of The Beatles, Bee Gees, ABBA, The Beach Boys, Nat King Cole and many iconic artists, and more recently the label for Katy Perry, Sam Smith, Maggie Rogers, Lewis Capaldi, Niall Horan, Toosii, Queen Naija, Ice Spice, Kodak Black and many more. Having been under the EMI Music umbrella for decades, Capitol was sold to Universal Music in 2012 in a $1.9 billion deal, after which it became a standalone frontline music group until this month, when it was shifted under Janick’s purview.

“I’m excited to be working with Tom to write the next creative chapter for Capitol Music Group; to work with an array of artists that currently call CMG home, as well as those that will be joining us in the near future,” Parsa said in a statement. “I’m also looking forward to working alongside Arjun as co-president of a company with such an illustrious and ongoing legacy. I thank John Janick for this great opportunity, and my longtime mentor [UMPG Chairman & CEO] Jody Gerson for always supporting me and encouraging this next important step in my career.”

07 Feb 2024

Hot 100 First-Timers: Conner Smith Debuts With Country Hit ‘Creek Will Rise’

Singer-songwriter and Nashville native Conner Smith reaches the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time with his single “Creek Will Rise.”

Released in February 2023 on Valory Records, the track debuts at No. 89 on the Feb. 10-dated chart with 14.4 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 2%) and 3.3 million official U.S. streams (up 177%) Jan. 26-Feb. 1, according to Luminate.

The song’s profile was boosted by the Jan. 26 release of his debut full-length, Smoky Mountains. The 12-song set, which includes “Creek Will Rise,” debuts at No. 42 on Top Country Albums with 6,000 equivalent album units earned in its opening week.

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“Creek Will Rise” also holds at its No. 14 high on Country Airplay and jumps 31-23 for a new best on the multimetric Hot Country Songs chart.

Previously, the 23-year-old charted two tracks on Country Airplay: “Learn From It” (No. 38 peak, 2021) and “Take It Slow” (No. 52, 2023). He scored his first overall chart appearance in October 2021, when “I Hate Alabama” debuted and peaked at No. 21 on Country Digital Song Sales after going viral on TikTok. The song surged after the third-ranked University of Georgia defeated top-seeded University of Alabama in the College Football Playoff National Championship on Jan. 10, 2022, giving Georgia its first trophy since the 1980 season. The timely lyrics, “I hate Alabama/ I hate crimson red/ I hate how they yell ‘Roll Tide’ when I got a Braves hat on my head” were particularly prescient.

That breakthrough helped Smith ink a deal with Big Machine’s Valory imprint. In January 2022, Billboard named him Country Rookie of the Month. “The Lord’s timing is perfect and that was true with [“I Hate Alabama”]. We put out this song on a Friday and the very next day, Alabama lost in football for the first time in two years,” Smith told Billboard at the time. “That is what made the song explode. So now anytime Alabama is playing, the song gets some love.”

Smith is the first Valory signee to debut on the Hot 100 in 2024. Three songs on the label entered in 2023: Justin Moore and Priscilla Block’s “You, Me, & Whiskey” (No. 37 peak), Thomas Rhett’s “Mamaw’s House” featuring Morgan Wallen (No. 55), and Rhett’s “Angels Don’t Always Have Wings” (No. 69).

07 Feb 2024

Hot 100 First-Timers: Rich Amiri Debuts With Breakthrough Single ‘One Call’

Rich Amiri banks his first career entry on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (dated Feb. 10), as his breakthrough single “One Call” debuts at No. 79.

Released in November on Internet Money Records/10K Projects, the track opens on the strength of its streaming sum: 6.8 million official U.S. streams (up 44%) in the Jan. 26-Feb. 1 tracking week, according to Luminate. It also bounds 45-33 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, which uses the same streaming-, airplay- and sales-based methodology as the Hot 100.

The song appears on Rich Amiri’s latest LP, Ghetto Fabulous, also released in November. TikTok has been a factor in the song’s growth, as the track has been used in over 350,000 clips on the platform to date. The song soundtracks one growing trend involving creators comparing themselves to lovestruck TV/film characters when asked about their crushes. The virality of the song sparked its debut at No. 17 on the Feb. 3-dated TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart.

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“I don’t trust a soul, I don’t trust nobody,” the 19-year-old raps in the self-empowering track. “Extra green up in my pocket look like spinach/I put gold all in my mouth, I hate the dentist.”

Rich Amiri hails from Randolph, Mass., in the South Shore area outside Boston. He has released two additional LPs: For the Better in 2022 and Evolution in March 2023. On the latter album, he collaborated with Lil Tecca on the track “Poppin.” He first began releasing music on streaming services in 2019.

Thanks to “One Call,” Rich Amiri also jumps 28-22 for a new high on the Emerging Artists chart.

07 Feb 2024

Stars at Clive Davis’ 2024 Pre-Grammy Gala

Front row, from left: Public Enemy’s Chuck D, Victoria Monét, The Isley Brothers’ Ernie and Ronald Isley, Keyshia Cole, Clive Davis, Dionne Warwick and Rickey Minor. Back row, from left: Lainey Wilson, Andrew Wyatt, Harvey Mason Jr., Mark Ronson, Maluma, Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav, Noah Kahan, Jelly Roll, Josh Groban, The War and Treaty’s Michael Trotter Jr., Green Day’s Tré Cool, The War and Treaty’s Tanya Trotter, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, Andra Day and Green Day’s Mike Dirnt photographed on February 3, 2024 at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Sami Drasin