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28 Apr 2023

Kendrick Lamar’s ‘The Big Steppers’ Tour Is Highest Grossing Rap Tour, Ever

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You can add another notch to Kendrick Lamar’s already impressive belt. His most recent tour outing is now the highest grossing Rap tour ever.

As spotted on Hype Beast the Compton, California native has set another record within our genre. According to newly released report from the Touring Data website, The Big Steppers Tour is now the most highest earning concert series ever headlined by a rapper. This 73 show run sold 929,056 tickets and generated a whopping 110.9 million dollars. In addition the average price for a ticket throughout all the concert venues was just a bit over $100 dollars. Considering some of his peers are selling shows at $1,000 a seat; K-Dot might have just proved that keeping the price point affordable is the right way to go.

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These numbers now top Drake’s Aubrey & The Three Migos, Drake and Future’s Summer Sixteen and Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch The Throne. This outing was in support of Kendrick Lamar’s fifth solo album Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers which was largely hailed as a brilliant effort and marked his last recording under his Top Dawg Entertainment record label contract.

28 Apr 2023

Beyoncé Battling $2.7 Million Tax Bill From IRS

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65th GRAMMY Awards - Show

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Much like the song from her latest album, Beyoncé is heated over the Internal Revenue Service which claims she owes them $2.7 million in unpaid taxes.

According to reports, the singer filed a petition on April 17th protesting a decision by the I.R.S. to serve her with a tax bill demanding that she pay $2.7 million dollars in conjunction with a Notice of Deficiency back in January 2018 over the matter. The documents of Beyoncé’s motion include her stating that the I.R.S. committed multiple errors in reviewing her taxes from 2018 and from 2019. The full detail from the agency’s billing claims that the singer owes $805,850 in taxes and $161,170 in penalties for 2018. For 2019, the estimation was $1,442,747 in taxes plus $288,549.40. The interest added to those figures totals $2.7 million.

“We are working with the IRS and anticipate that the matter will be resolved shortly,” said Michael C. Cohen, an attorney representing Beyonce’s legal team. The singer notes in the petition that if there were discrepancies that occurred, she should not pay the penalties because she “acted in good faith”. The petition also alleges that the I.R.S. disallowed multiple deductions related to her business income, including utilities, insurance, management fees, legal services, and professional services for both years. An example presented by the lawyers in the petition state that the I.R.S. disallowed a charity contribution of $868,766 the singer claimed as an itemized deduction. The charity itself was unnamed.

Beyoncé has donated to numerous causes in the past and present. She created the BeyGood Foundation in 2013 to assist communities with mental health, education, and disaster relief among other issues. She and her husband, Jay-Z, have also jointly made charitable contributions. The most publicized in recent times was tied to their appearance in a new campaign for Tiffany in 2021, where a pledge of $2 million was made to Historically Black Colleges & Universities.

The news comes as the 41-year-old is on the verge of embarking on a highly anticipated world tour for her latest album, Renaissance. The tour is already projected to earn $275 million, which will add to her considerable net worth of $500 million.

Beyoncé also counts her Ivy Park streetwear brand in her portfolio, which she fully acquired in 2018 through her Parkwood Entertainment company.

28 Apr 2023

Lizzo, Olivia Rodrigo, Dolly Parton & More Named to People’s ‘Beautiful Issue’

People unveiled its annual “The Beautiful Issue” on Friday (April 28), with Lizzo, Olivia Rodrigo, Dolly Parton and more making the 2023 list.

While Melissa McCarthy is the issue’s cover star ahead of her starring turn as Ursula in the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, Lizzo and Parton are each part of the magazine’s “A Year of Beautiful” feature, along with the likes of P!nk, Rihanna, Jennifer Aniston, Riley Keough, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Elizabeth Banks, Margot Robbie, Michelle Yeoh, Florence Pugh, Ali Wong and more.

Rodrigo, meanwhile, kicks off the yearly “Beauty at Every Age” list. The 20-year-old hitmaker is followed by fellow musicians Halle Bailey (23), Latto (24), Zara Larsson (25), Doja Cat (27), Meghan Trainor (29), JoJo (32), SZA (33), Jhené Aiko (35), Lindsay Lohan (36), Ashley Tisdale (37), Mel B (47), Alanis Morissette (48) and Tanya Tucker (64). Living legends like Pat Benatar, Bonnie Tyler, Charo, Bernadette Peters and Gladys Knight go on to populate the upper echelon of the list in their confident and gorgeous 70s.

In another section, Kelsea Ballerini speaks about her divorce from ex-husband Morgan Evans and how the “turmoil” of the split inspired her latest EP Rolling Up the Welcome Mat. “When I sing ‘Penthouse,’ it’s a guttural moment with every woman in the room relating to some heartbreak,” the country singer says. “It’s a really healing thing.”

Elsewhere, Taylor Swift poses with her cats Benjamin Button, Olivia Benson and Meredith Grey for the “Beauties and Their Beasts” segment, while Demi Lovato, Victoria Beckham, Selena Gomez, Mandy Moore, Jennifer Lopez and more all write letters to their younger selves in a feature called “Cuties to Beauties.”

People‘s “The Beautiful Issue” is out on newsstands now.

28 Apr 2023

Jimin, Anitta, Katy Perry & More Musicians Dazzle at Tiffany & Co. Flagship Reopening Party

The iconic Tiffany & Co. has reopened it flagship store in New York on 57th Street and Fifth Avenue, and to celebrate, they threw a party with several notable musicians and celebrities in attendance for the opening-night festivities.

Jimin took a break from promoting his debut solo album FACE and showed up to the Tiffany blue carpet in a black-on-black tuxedo ensemble with stain lapels, a diamond-encrusted flower brooch and leather shoes. Later in the evening, Jimin was joined by Pharrell Williams, who arrived in a multicolored ensemble, leather pants, chunky boots and angular sunglasses. The pair smiled for a photo together — a welcome treat for BTS ARMY who are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the K-pop group’s yet-untitled collaboration with Pharrell, which the all-star producer teased in 2022.

Katy Perry, meanwhile, was an attraction at the Tiffany & Co. reopening — she took to the stage in a fitted strapless gown (in Tiffany blue, of course) to perform a series of smashes from her catalog, including her breakthrough hit “I Kissed a Girl,” “Never Really Over” and “Firework.”

Elsewhere on the blue carpet was Anitta, who fiercely posed in an undone tuxedo and white button-down look; Zöe Kravitz, who took a sweet candid with friend Hailey Baldwin; newlyweds Brooklyn and Nicola Peltz Beckham; and actress Florence Pugh. Anya Taylor Joy, Blake Lively, Tiffany Haddish, Jacob Elordi and Tracee Ellis Ross were also among the famous faces in attendance.

See all the celebrities and musicians at the Tiffany & Co. flagship reopening in the photos below.

28 Apr 2023

How Sen. Klobuchar’s Bill to Clamp Down on Ticketmaster’s Deals Could Backfire

Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Richard Blumenthal’s new legislation aims to take on Ticketmaster by clamping down on the use of long-term contracts to lock up the exclusive ticketing rights of U.S. venues and festivals. But it could backfire in a way that would negatively affect venues and fans.

Titled the Unlocking Ticketing Markets Act, the legislation — introduced on the same day as a second bill from Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that would ban hidden ticket fees — is a clear attempt to break Ticketmaster’s grip on the ticketing industry, although it never actually mentions the Live Nation-owned company by name. (A press release announcing the Unlocking Ticket Markets Act says today’s concert marketplace is dominated “by one company” with a “70-80 percent market share” thanks in part to the long-term contracts its clients sign for its services.) But while Klobuchar and Blumental believe shortening ticketing contracts will promote competition, the proposal doesn’t seem to consider the benefits these contracts offer the venue clients.

Ever since Ticketmaster dethroned Ticketron as the top ticket seller in the 1980s, the company has built its dominance by offering large upfront cash payments in exchange for exclusive deals. This practice has become commonplace from ticketing companies in live entertainment, and venues and sports teams have come to rely on these advances — which can equal hundreds of thousands of dollars for smaller venues and millions of dollars for arenas and stadiums, increasing in value based on the length of the term — that are paid off over the term of the deal through fees added to the face value of each ticket.

This is a bargaining tool the ticketing companies use to acquire more venue customers, but within that, it’s at the venues’ discretion what kind of deal to take, passing the cost of that loan onto their customers as ticketing fees. If venues haven’t repaid the advance at the end of the contract term, they typically have two options: cut a check to the ticketing company to cover the difference or re-up their deal and borrow more money.

Klobuchar and Blumenthal’s bill would essentially shorten the length of the exclusive ticketing contracts by ordering the Federal Trade Commission to “prevent the use of excessively long multi-year exclusive contracts,” according to a press release announcing the proposed legislation. (The text of the Unlocking Ticketing Markets Act is not public, so it’s not clear how “excessively long” is defined, though average ticketing contracts are about five to six years.) If the FTC opted to limit ticketing to half of the average terms, Ticketmaster’s competitors would have twice as many opportunities to bid for those contracts the company holds.

Shorter contracts would either mean less money for venues, or greater risk that they would fail to repay the advances — in which case venues would either need to repay the remaining balance or negotiate that debt into a contract renewal. For example, a temporary four-month downturn in business is going to have a greater impact on a two-year, $2 million loan than it would on a four-year, $4 million loan. To protect themselves, ticketing companies would likely increase the fees added to tickets to recoup faster, thereby reducing the heightened risk of default — likely meaning higher costs to consumers.

A bill focused on contract length also fails to address long-standing complaints that venues often work with Ticketmaster because of a perception that it means parent company Live Nation will bring more events to their building. This sort of business practice is prohibited under the consent decree that has governed Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s operations since merging in 2010, but that hasn’t stopped accusations of anticompetitive behavior. While Live Nation has long denied this charge, during a January Senate Judiciary hearing probing Ticketmaster’s botched sale for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, Sens. Klobuchar and Blumenthal indicated they believed that Ticketmaster’s relationship with Live Nation was the main reason Ticketmaster held a such a large market share of the ticketing business. Term lengths of the company’s contracts, however, were rarely mentioned.

In response to the introduction of the Unlocking Ticketing Markets Act, a Ticketmaster spokesperson told Billboard, “The ticketing industry is more competitive than ever. Ticketmaster wins business because it offers the best product available for venues, and the length of contracts is generally decided by venues and the guaranteed payments they want to help support their expenses. We do not expect any of the proposed changes to have a material impact on our business as we historically add clients in competitive marketplaces.”

Changing the terms of those loans, as Klobuchar and Blumenthal seek to do by limiting exclusive ticketing deals, could either cause venues to earn less money on the ticketing deals or increase the fees they charge consumers to repay those loans — making ticket prices even more expensive in a climate where most Americans already feel they’re paying too much.

28 Apr 2023

Gayle Reveals Advice From Taylor, New Music From SEVENTEEN, Bebe Rexha, & More | Billboard News

It’s Friday which means we’ve got some new music! Kesha dropped two new singles, SEVENTEEN’s ‘FML’ is finally here, Jack Harlow surprised everyone with a new album called ‘Jackman’, and more! Gayle credits Taylor Swift with helping her put backlash into perspective when it comes to her success or her polarizing smash hit “abcdefu.” Doechii shared some of her Florida slang with us. And more!

28 Apr 2023

Like Her Dad, P!nk ‘Never Walks Away From a Good Fight’ — Especially When It’s Against Childhood Hunger

P!nk has always been a fighter. Whether it’s rising up for women’s reproductive rights or slamming body-shaming trolls on Twitter, the “Just Like Fire” singer is always there to use her platform to speak for the voiceless — a trait, she says, she got from her father.

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“My dad was my first God. He was a fighter, a boxer, a scrapper, street fighter. He never walks away from a good fight,” the star tells Billboard before the Los Angeles No Kid Hungry Dinner on Thursday night (April 27), where she was honored as a National Champion for her longtime work for the No Kid Hungry organization to ensure children across the country have access to food every day.

“He was also military, and we did car washes every weekend and I was marching on Washington at three years old. My stepmom was an army Vietnam nurse. She was partially responsible for erecting the nurses’ monument in Washington, D.C., and my mom’s an ER nurse,” P!nk continued of her “civic minded” family that inspired her from a young age. “Everybody but me was of service. I was like, ‘Oh, I guess I want to be a social worker,’ because I was a pretty messed up kid and my guidance counselor in junior high was the first adult that ever stuck up for me.”

While she didn’t turn out to be a social worker, she found that music was the perfect way for her to create a sense of human connection. “I love to sing and perform, and I figured out a way to make it matter to me and to make it more than just about selling songs,” she adds. “To, me it’s a life of trying to bring service into it, with being as honest as I can be about where I’ve been, what I’ve done, what I think and all my flaws and what I struggle with. So yeah, I think I was born this way.”

Her 10-year childhood hunger fight with No Kid Hungry began after she watched the documentary, A Place at the Table, which displays the harrowing reality of three individuals trying to find adequate nutrition in different parts of the United States.

She was so moved by the documentary, she reached out to Billy Shore, the founder and executive chair of Share Our Strength, which is the parent organization for the No Kid Hungry campaign. The two met for coffee in Venice Beach, Calif., and according to Shore, it took “five minutes” before P!nk was dedicated to the cause. “She’s just so down,” Shore tells Billboard, adding that P!nk has taken part in all types of No Kid Hungry events over the years, and even had a booth setup with info about the campaign throughout her Beautiful Trauma tour.

“My favorite thing about what Billy said to me was that this is a solvable problem,” P!nk recalls of first meeting Shore. “I’m like, ‘Oh, I like solvable problems, because most problems feel completely overwhelming. We look at the world and we’re like, ‘What do we go to first? Is it climate change? Is it racial injustice? Like how do we fix that?’ So for this, they’re actually fixing. I mean, in the last 10 years alone, there are three million more kids getting school breakfast. Their moms have a little bit less to worry about.”

She continued, “That makes me want to cry. As a mom, I’ve got two kids, I would do anything to feed them,” before lovingly looking over at her 11-year-old daughter, Willow Hart, who was sweetly reading a book nearby while sipping on a Shirley Temple. “I’m really happy to have her here with me tonight to be able to see what we do, because she’s finally old enough to really understand something outside of bake sales,” P!nk added.

Later on in the night, both P!nk and Willow were all smiles while celebrating the evening’s honorees at the dinner, which included Chez Panisse founder and food activist Alice Waters; chef and cookbook author Sherry Yard; and popular home furnishings company Williams Sonoma, Inc.

The evening also included a dynamic live auction to support No Kid Hungry, as well as a special dining experience curated by renowned culinary legends Waters, Yard and Mary Sue Milliken in partnership with talented chefs across California.

To wrap up the evening, P!nk accepted her National Champion honor from beloved actor Jeff Bridges (“It’s not every day that Jeff Bridges pats you on the back and says, ‘Job well done,’” the singer tells Billboard with a laugh). She also treated attendees to a stripped-down, acoustic performance of a few of her hits, including “What About Us” and “F—in’ Perfect.”

“When we hit a wall, we knock it down. When there’s no path, we create one. When someone says it’s not possible, we show them how it is,” P!nk powerfully told the crowd of 400 people while accepting her honor, proving once again that she’ll never stop fighting for the causes she believes in.

28 Apr 2023

Drake & 21 Savage’s ‘Spin Bout U’ Rules Rap Airplay Chart

Drake and 21 Savage’s “Spin Bout U” lifts to No. 1 on Billboard’s Rap Airplay chart dated May 6, extending Drake’s record for the most leaders in the list’s history.

In the April 21-27 tracking week, “Spin” accumulated 20.5 million airplay audience impressions, according to Luminate.

The song is Drake’s chart-leading 41st Rap Airplay No. 1, pushing him 28 leaders ahead of the next-closest act, Lil Wayne, with 13. (Rap Airplay began as a weekly survey in February 1999.)

“Spin” is 21 Savage’s fourth Rap Airplay ruler, and his and Drake’s second each of 2023, following their “Rich Flex,” which led for five weeks beginning in January. It’s their third together overall; the pair also reigned with “Jimmy Cooks,” for two weeks last November.

Most No. 1s, Rap Airplay:
41, Drake
13, Lil Wayne
10, Kanye West
9, Jay-Z
8, Nicki Minaj
7, 50 Cent
7, Cardi B
7, T.I.
6, Chris Brown
6, Nelly

Drake first topped Rap Airplay with “Best I Ever Had” in 2009, while 21 Savage first reigned as featured on Post Malone’s “Rockstar” in 2017.

Concurrently, “Spin” rises 4-2 on the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart and 6-5 on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay.

The latest, April 29-dated Billboard Hot 100 shows “Spin” at No. 45, after hitting No. 5 upon its debut in November. In addition to its radio airplay, the song earned 7.5 million official U.S. streams in the April 14-20 tracking week.

Drake and 21 Savage’s Her Loss, the parent album of “Spin,” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in November and has earned 1.7 million equivalent album units to date.

28 Apr 2023

Billboard Explains: Women in Reggaeton

Reggaetón is becoming one of the most popular genres of music globally, but how did it get there and, more importantly, who are the women making their mark in the male-dominated genre?

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The latest episode of Billboard Explains dives into the women who are carving their own paths within the genre, breaking barriers and setting new records within the space.

Reggaetón started in Panama and later continued evolving in Puerto Rico, combining elements of reggae music, Latin dancehall and hip-hop influences through the 1990s. Tego Calderón and more led the first wave of the genre, while Daddy Yankee brought the genre to the masses in 2004 with his hit “Gasolina.”

Ivy Queen, also known as the first lady of reggaetón, was the first female artist to break barriers within the genre. She got her start at a club called The Noise in Puerto Rico, where she was the first woman to ever step onto the stage and won in her very first battle. Her rebut single “Muchos Quieren Tubarme” stemmed from her performance at the club and cemented her status as a reggaetón star. In the time since, artists like Becky G, Natti Natasha and more have popped up, with Karol G and her album Mañana Será Bonito marking the first time an all-Spanish language album by a female artist reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

After the video, catch up on more Billboard Explains videos and learn about how Beyoncé arrived at Renaissance, the evolution of girl groups, BBMAs, NFTs, SXSW, the magic of boy bands, American Music Awards, the Billboard Latin Music Awards, the Hot 100 chart, how R&B/hip-hop became the biggest genre in the U.S., how festivals book their lineups, Billie Eilish’s formula for success, the history of rap battles, nonbinary awareness in music, the Billboard Music Awards, the Free Britney movement, rise of K-pop in the U.S., why Taylor Swift is re-recording her first six albums, the boom of hit all-female collaborations, how Grammy nominees and winners are chosen, why songwriters are selling their publishing catalogs, how the Super Bowl halftime show is booked and why Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” was able to shoot to No. 1 on the Hot 100.

28 Apr 2023

Neverland Awaits: How to Watch ‘Peter Pan & Wendy’ on Disney+

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Peter Pan & Wendy, a new installment of the classic fairytale, premieres Friday (April 28) on Disney+.

Jude Law, Yara Shahidi, Ever Anderson, Alexander Molony, Jacobi Jupe and Joshua Pickering star in the live-action movie directed by David Lowery.

Peter Pan & Wendy introduces audiences to a young Wendy Darling, who meets Peter Pan and travels to Neverland (with Tinker Bell in tow). In Neverland, Wendy and the gang encounter Captain Hook and set out on a “thrilling and dangerous adventure that will change her life forever.”

Peter Pan & Wendy was written by Lowery and Toby Halbrooks and based on the novel by J. M. Barrie and the 1953 animated film. Jim Whitaker produced Peter Pan & Wendy with Adam Borba, Thomas M. Hammel and Toby Halbrooks serving as executive producers.

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Peter Pan & Wendy: How to Stream Free on Disney+

Disney+ subscribers can begin streaming Peter Pan & Wendy on Friday. The movie, which streams at no additional cost to subscribers, is located in the carousel of new releases at the top of the page when you sign into the Disney+ app.

Not subscribed to Disney+? Plans start at $7.99/month (or $79.99/year) for ad-supported streaming and $10.99/month (or $99.99/year) to stream without ads.

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$7.99/month

What’s streaming on Disney+? As the go-to destination for Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic, subscribers will find a variety of bingeable movies and TV series including Disney+ exclusives like The Mandalorian, Prom Pact, Secrets of the Elephants, Marvel Studio Legends, Loki, The Book of Boba Fett, SUGA: Road to D-Day, Miley Cyrus: Endless Sumer Vacation, and Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming.

Marvel fans can stream Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and other MCU movies such as Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, which will begin streaming on the platform on May 17.

Subscribe to the Disney+ bundle to get even more bang for your buck. The Duo Basic with Disney+ and Hulu is $9.99/month; the Trio Basic (Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+) is $12.99/month and the Trio Premium plan is $19.99/month to stream without ads.

Although Disney+ no longer offers free trial, you might be able to score one through Verizon. For a limited time only, Verizon customers can subscribe to the Disney+ or the Disney+ Bundle for free for six months with select Verizon Unlimited plans. This special offer ends May 17.

Watch the trailer for Peter Pan & Wendy below.