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20 Apr 2023

Troye Sivan Would Like to Know Why Kelly Clarkson Is (Not Really) Mad at Him: ‘I’m Ready to Fight’

We bet you didn’t have “Kelly Clarkson writes a Troye Sivan diss track” on your 2023 bingo cards — yet the “Angel Baby” singer would like a word with Miss Independent herself over a recent lyric.

In a TikTok posted late Wednesday night (April 19), a shirtless Sivan looked bewildered as he asked his audience, “What did I do to upset Kelly Clarkson?” The clip then cut to Clarkson’s recent debut performance of her new single “Mine” on her daytime talk show.

The captions of the video appear to show Clarkson wailing the words “Troye Sivan/ Who the hell do you think you are” at the song’s final bridge. Adding one final jab, Sivan wrote a demand to the American Idol alum in the caption of his clip, saying “@kellyclarkson drop your location im [sic] ready to fight.”

Of course, Clarkson wasn’t actually taking a swing at the “My My My” singer on her latest single — the real lyrics to “Mine” see Clarkson examining the fallout of her relationship with ex-husband Brandon Blackstock. The bridge lyrics that led to the mondegreen that got Sivan so concerned are actually, “Sabotage, your choice of art/ Who the hell do you think you are?”

Clarkson released “Mine” alongside her other recent single “Me” on Friday (April 14), saying in a statement that she wanted the two songs to speak to the emotional weight of her forthcoming album, Chemistry. “We decided to release ‘mine’ and ‘me’ at the same time because I didn’t want to release just one song to represent an entire album, or relationship,” she said. “There are many stages of grief and loss on this album. Each song is a different stage and emotional state.” 

Check out Sivan’s hilarious reaction to the misheard lyric below.

20 Apr 2023

Not97: The Podcast Where Your Favorite Artist Finds Their Favorite New Artist

Matthew Schonfeld and RaShaad Strong used to play a simple game to pass the time while working at Manhattan’s Only NY boutique.

“We started going on SoundCloud to find the artist with the least followers [who had] the song that was more fire than the next one,” Schonfeld says. The pair would alternate playing “SoundCloud rabbit hole” finds from now-established acts. While Strong usually had the best picks, Schonfeld unwillingly admits, both music lovers emerged as winners.

In 2016, the duo began their music discovery podcast Not97 — its name, of course, a “tongue-in-cheek” reference to renowned New York hip-hop FM station Hot97. “We love Hot97,” Schonfeld says. “It does its thing for [big] artists, and we’re going to do what we do for [emerging] artists.”

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Five years later, Not97 was picked up by Human Re Sources and The Orchard after seven seasons, and recently landed at No. 2 on the Apple Music Podcasts Chart. Along with their newest co-host Athena Yasaman, the trio of music lovers — who double as professional managers, curators and fashion industry creators — search the depths of the internet to find the best under-underground artists and pass the aux back and forth, highlighting their favorite finds across genres.

“What I liked most about Not97 is how it felt similar to our mission as a company of being disruptive,” says Human Re Sources CEO and EVP of creative development at Sony Music, Jay Erving. “They have a very high taste level and batting average in terms of picking artists that are ultimately going to have success.”

Each episode also features guests who bring two of their own music picks — including fashion designers, curators, DJs, A&Rs, music journalists, artists, music executives and directors. This season’s guests will include artists Jordan Ward, Fana Hues and Alex Vaughn.

“[Not97] has given artists an outlet that’s less abrasive,” explains co-founder Strong. “We’re one of the few platforms that if you come on to the show, we’re not even going to ask you many questions about your actual artistry. It’s a safe space.”

Instead, the artists spend their time uplifting other artists smaller than them that they admire, leaning into a community-based approach that is uncommon in the world of music interviews.

Founded in 2016, Not97 carved out its own uncharted space amidst an influx of music podcast start-ups, including Drink Champs and The Joe Budden Podcast (formerly known as I’ll Name This Podcast Later), among others. While wildly popular podcasts from known veteran music personalities like N.O.R.E., Joe Budden and Angie Martinez have thrived with superstar guests, co-founders Schonfeld and Strong made a name for themselves by leaning into the exact opposite.

“I got bored of blogs — I didn’t feel like I was finding new music there,” Schonfeld explains. “I was trying to figure out how I could effect some sort of change within music discovery for young artists. The podcast is kind of built as a means to an end for that.”

Schonfeld’s strategy has remained the same over the years: going down those SoundCloud rabbit holes in the hopes of finding a diamond in the rough. And his strategy has worked: Not97 featured Baby Keem, King Princess, Giveon, Kenny Mason, Arlo Parks, Tierra Whack, Fousheé and plenty of other now-notable acts before their breakout moments.

“You can read 500 words about an artist and still not press play on the song,” he says. “So [we thought], ‘Let’s streamline it and create a way to listen to a podcast and to eight songs.’”

Not only does Not97 expose small artists to an audience of thousands, but the platform has also become a strong networking tool for small acts to secure otherwise inaccessible opportunities. Schonfeld says he and his collaborators spent the first year of Not97 building relationships with artists, reaching out to ask permission before playing their songs. Featuring recorded tracks soon turned to holding full performances, when the team began their Not a Showcase series in Los Angeles and New York, setting the stage for a few acts to perform live for a ticketed audience and creating opportunities for those acts to profit from their art.

Beyond opportunities directly tied to Not97, the podcast allows for the show’s guests to be exposed to music from acts with small audiences. Over the course of nine seasons, Not97 has had music industry guests including artists, sync licensing coordinators, label executives and music journalists, with some artists whose music was featured going on to secure booking agents and performances thanks to their inclusion on episodes.

“When we started this, we didn’t set out to be the biggest podcast — we were using the podcast medium as a means of sharing music,” Schonfeld says. “We were like, ‘This is the easiest way for us to play this music, have these conversations and get it out there.’ In the last, like, four or five years, everybody started a podcast — it’s just gone crazy. That being said, I do think that the music podcast world is still fairly untapped.”

But despite the boom of podcast listenership, some companies are cutting back. In March, NPR announced that it would be canceling four podcasts — Invisibilia, Louder Than a Riot, Everyone & Their Mom and Rough Translation — to close a $30 million budget gap. In an article from NPR announcing the cancellation and a layoff of 10 percent of their staff, the platform attributed the slashing of those podcasts to “advertisers’ growing reluctance to spend money, particularly on podcasting, in an uncertain economy.”

“The problem is a lot of these companies don’t necessarily know what they’re doing with this content,” Schonfeld says. “I don’t think NPR realizes how important what they have is. They’re going to be producing Louder Than a Riot for this whole season and I hope by the end of it, NPR rethinks their [decision].”

When asked if he worries for Not97, Schonfeld is confident. “Not97’s tagline is, ‘Not a podcast, not a radio show.’ That has put us in a space that’s one foot in, one foot out,” he says. “A lot of our success up until now has been on the music side of things. I think of Not97 as an overarching brand and the podcast being the nucleus of that.”

Schonfeld says that the collaboration with Human Re Sources and The Orchard will allow them to provide resources to artists that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to. “Having a global distribution platform behind us where I can pitch artists to internal teams that [handle] music distribution, marketing, digital marketing services,” he lists. “The Orchard really builds itself out to be a full support system for artists.”

“Both Spotify, Apple and others are really leaning into podcasts,” says Erving. “I think we’re gonna start to see them behind the paywall, which will lend itself to a lot more revenue in the space.”

When it comes to the future of Not97, co-founder Strong has big plans for expansion. “[We’re thinking about] potentially going to a larger platform to amplify what we already do in terms of video,” he says. “Matt has always wanted to do a label from when I met him, before we even did the podcast. So a label would be the next thing. That was the ultimate goal.”

20 Apr 2023

Weed Songs: 25 Tokin’ Tunes Ranked By Potency

It’s hard to imagine that Bob Dylan, Three 6 Mafia and Toby Keith have much in common, but all three artists understand the power of a knockout stoner track. 

Marijuana has served as the inspiration for smoking cuts in rock, hip-hop, pop, and (of course) reggae, and is still influencing more than a few of our biggest artists today. Whether it’s Dylan’s “everybody must get stoned” double entendre or Wiz Khalifa boasting, “Roll joints bigger than King Kong’s fingers/ And smoke them hoes down until they’re stingers” on “Young, Wild & Free,” his collab with the doggfather of all stoners, Snoop Dogg, musicians have bravely fought cottonmouth and given voice to the sticky icky for decades. Most of them, in fact, began singing or rapping about the ganja back when it was straight-up illegal in America. But now, as people wise up and draconian regulations about marijuana roll back, it’s safe in many states to roll one up and enjoy (responsibly, of course).

A number of artists, from Willie Nelson (duh) to the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart to Jay-Z to Travis Barker, have gotten in the game, either endorsing or becoming owners (or partial owners) in various brands of THC and CBD, which you can read about here.

Since it’s probably 4:20 somewhere, Billboard has put together a countdown of 25 tracks that talk about toking up, with each song including a “potency” level that measures their inebriated energy on a scale of one (mildly buzzed) to 10 (totally stoned).

20 Apr 2023

Nick Cannon Says Dem Babies ‘Enjoy’ Being the Oldest of His 12 Kids

Nick Cannon spilled the tea in a new interview on Wednesday (April 19) about how his twins with Mariah Carey feel about having 10 younger half-siblings.

“At this point, they enjoy it,” he said of Moroccan and Monroe during an appearance on the Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast. “They have fun and they’re the oldest. But who knows where that will go when 16 hits?”

The host of The Masked Singer also opened up about the twins, who were born in April 2011, growing older, saying, “It’s my first time having 12-year-olds and I have a set of them! And we’re having real conversations. Because, you know, their lives are far from normal. Their mom is one of the biggest entertainers to ever live and their dad is me.”

“They’re so intelligent, they’re so in tune with their own values,” he continued. “One thing they do know is that dad f–ks up. [They know] Dad makes mistakes.”

Along with Dem Babies, Cannon also shares his 10 other kids with five different women including Brittany Bell, DJ Abby De La Rosa, Alyssa Scott, Bre Tiesi and LaNisha Cole. However, despite calling himself a “man of abundance,” he’s not sure he’ll be adding to the large brood anytime soon. “Everything is challenging, but the fact that I get to see all my children in one day, and get to see them each and every day when I’m in town, even when I’m not in town, I take them with me. I love the challenge,” he said. “I’m good with my dozen.”

Listen to Cannon’s full conversation with Howie Mandel below.

20 Apr 2023

Watch BTS Give J-Hope an Emotional Send-Off Before Starting His Military Service

J-Hope entered South Korean military boot camp on Tuesday (April 18) in order to fulfill the country’s mandatory 18-month service requirement, but before heading off, the members of BTS gave him an emotional send off as captured in a video shared to the K-pop group’s BANGTANTV.

Suga, RM, Jung Kook, Jimin and V all arrived at the drop-off location to send off the rapper and lift his spirits. While the military service hung heavy among the members, the Bangtan Boys tried keeping the mood light by making several comments on J-Hope’s newly buzzed hair.

“It really suits you,” several of the members remarked throughout the video, with V cheekily telling the rapper to “think of me when you wash your hair.” J-Hope couldn’t help but be delighted by the praise, and frequently ran his hands and fingers though his shortened hair. “The rain just bounces off,” he joked.

Once Jimin arrived, he told the camera, “Our J-Hope … they’re leaving one by one,” before embracing the rapper in a long hug. “You’ve come a long way. How do you feel? Did you get some sleep?” J-Hope replied that he only got three hours and drank a cup of coffee before heading out.

Jung Kook added a few jokes of his own. “I was fine when Jin left, but with J-Hope leaving, I’m pretty sad. I’m kidding!” he said. Meanwhile, V made sure to keep the tears at bay, telling the group, “If someone cries here, won’t it be too different than it was with Jin?”

Jin — who took a day off from service — showed up later in the video, but due to restrictions, was not shown.

After taking several pictures with his fellow BTS members, J-Hope gave BTS ARMY one final message: “Yes, ARMY, I’m off now. I’m fulfilling my duty as an able-bodied Korean man. I’ll be sure to make a safe return and be better than ever and greet you then. Fighting! I love you.”

J-Hope’s entrance into the military makes him the second BTS member to fulfill the requirement after Jin, who started his mandatory military service last year. The remaining BTS members will also be required to complete their mandatory military service over the next couple of years. 

Watch J-Hope’s send off in the video above.

20 Apr 2023

Jennifer Coolidge to Receive Comedic Genius Award at 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards

Actress Jennifer Coolidge is slated to receive the Comedic Genius Award at the 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards. Drew Barrymore is set to host the show, which airs live on Sunday, May 7 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. 

Coolidge will become the sixth recipient of the award, following Will Ferrell (2013), Kevin Hart (2015), Melissa McCarthy (2016), Sacha Baron Cohen (2021) and Jack Black (2022). The award “honors actors who have made incomparable contributions to the world of comedy, providing a major influence through their work and transforming the genre at large,” according to MTV. 

Coolidge is nominated in two competitive categories at this year’s show. She is up for best comedic performance for the rom-com Shotgun Wedding, in which she starred opposite Jennifer Lopez, and most frightened performance her portrayal of the wealthy, unstable, and oblivious Tanya McQuoid in HBO’s The White Lotus. The latter performance has brought her several awards, including her first Primetime Emmy last year for outstanding supporting actress in a limited or anthology series or movie.

Coolidge, 61, has been a Hollywood mainstay ever since playing Stifler’s mom in the 1999 comedy classic American Pie. She is well-known for her role as the love-starved beautician Paulette in the Legally Blonde franchise opposite Reese Witherspoon, and for her frequent collaborations with director Christopher Guest in Best In Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003) and For Your Consideration (2006).

The actress and comedienne recently starred in Ryan Murphy’s Netflix series The Watcher opposite Naomi Watts, and in Netflix’s family adventure We Have a Ghost opposite David Harbour. She has also made scene-stealing appearances in A Cinderella Story opposite Hilary Duff, and Promising Young Woman opposite Carey Mulligan.

Bet you didn’t know: She is a sixth cousin twice removed of Calvin (“Silent Cal”) Coolidge, who served as U.S. President from 1923-29.

Executive producers of the 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards include MTV’s Bruce Gillmer, Wendy Plaut and Vanessa Whitewolf along with Den of Thieves’ Jesse Ignjatovic and Barb Bialkowski. Jackie Barba and Alicia Portugal are executives in charge of production; Lisa Lauricella and Mike Ostolaza serve as music talent executives.

20 Apr 2023

Usher & Roberta Flack to Receive Honorary Doctorates From Berklee College

Usher and Roberta Flack are upgrading to doctors. As announced Thursday (April 20), Berklee College of Music will award the the artists with honorary doctorate degrees at this year’s commencement ceremony.

The ceremony will take place the morning of May 13 at Boston University’s Agganis Arena, where multi-instrumentalist Sona Jorbarteh will also receive an honorary degree. All three of the honorees will have the chance to address the 2023 class of graduates at the ceremony, and each will be further celebrated with a reception and concert on the eve of commencement, featuring more than 200 student vocalists, musicians, dancers, arrangers and producers from the graduating class performing a musical tribute to their work.

Usher and Flack join an impressive and diverse list of musicians who’ve received honorary degrees from Berklee in years past, including Duke Ellington, Aretha Franklin, Quincy Jones, Celine Dion, B.B. King, Joni Mitchell, Chaka Khan, Esperanza Spalding, Willie Nelson, Missy Elliott, Ringo Starr, Gloria Estefan and John Legend. An eight-time Grammy winner and nine-time Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper, the “Yeah!” singer is being recognized for his accomplishments in music, film and activism.

“No. 1 is always going to mean a lot to everybody. But it doesn’t, and shouldn’t, change your passion,” he told Billboard in 2021. “It hasn’t changed mine, whether I put out a record that hit No. 1 instantly or took time to get there. I have a record company that’s willing to fight for it and get it heard, to connect with my audience and prospective new fans. I’ve tried a lot of stuff. There’s a way to play in R&B where you can be as creative as you want. Don’t cut yourself off — don’t feel you need to be tied so authentically to one thing.” 

Four-time Grammy winner Flack has topped the Hot 100 three times: “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face” in 1972, “Killing Me Softly With His Song” in 1973 and “Feel Like Makin’ Love” in 1974.

20 Apr 2023

The Revivalists Crown Adult Alternative Airplay Chart With ‘Kid’

The Revivalists reach No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Alternative Airplay chart for a third time with “Kid,” which jumps to the top of the April 22-dated survey.

The song is the band’s first leader since “All My Friends,” which ruled for three weeks in 2018.

Previously, the band led with “Wish I Knew You” for two weeks in 2016.

In between “Friends” and “Kid,” The Revivalists appeared on the chart twice, paced by the No. 2-peaking “Change,” the other of its four top 10s, in 2019.

Concurrently, “Kid” bullets at its No. 3 high on Alternative Airplay. There, it’s the band’s top-charting song since “Wish” ruled for a week in 2017; in between those hits, the group notched its other of three top 10s, “Friends,” which rose to No. 7.

On the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, “Kid” rises 5-4 with 4.1 million audience impressions, a 10% boost, according to Luminate. The band’s best is “Wish” which peaked at No. 2.

The Revivalists’ new Adult Alternative Airplay No. 1 follows the solo sojourn of lead singer David Shaw, who released an eponymous album in May 2021. “Shaken,” a song from the set, hit No. 21 on the chart that January. He told Billboard ahead of the project’s release, “From the beginning, this album was all about self-exploration and the joys that come from finding strength and confidence in places that might not have been accessible before.”

“Kid” is the lead single from Pour It Out Into the Night, The Revivalists’ upcoming fifth studio album and first since 2018’s Take Good Care. The new LP is due June 2.

20 Apr 2023

Michelle Obama Says She’s ‘Fangirled Out’ Over These 2 Iconic Musicians: Watch

During Michelle Obama‘s time as the first lady of the United States, she was one of the most famous — and identifiable — people, but that didn’t stop her from becoming a superfan after meeting some of her favorite musicians. Obama appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday (April 19) and revealed that she, too, has been a fangirl in her day.

The topic came up when Fallon inquired whether the former first later ever gets starstruck by people anymore, to which she replied, “Absolutely I do.”

“Just imagine the people that we met,” she continued. “Stevie? You know, when I first met Stevie Wonder? I was just like ‘Stevie!’ I fangirled out. Prince? I mean … Prince played at the White House months before he passed, actually. I fangirl out.”

Later in the program, The Light We Carry author dished on her Netflix special with Oprah Winfrey about the book, and shared that Oprah has been nothing but a generous friend to her and husband Barack Obama.

“Oprah was one of the very open supporters before Barack was even thinking about running. She spotted him when he was a U.S. senator,” the 59-year-old revealed. “Oprah is that person who never asks for anything, but is always there with her generosity, her love and support. There isn’t anything you can’t ask her to do if you’re a friend that she won’t try to do. She is who she appears to be, and I’m lucky to call her a friend.”

Watch Obama talk about fangirling over Stevie Wonder and Prince in the video above, and her friendship with Oprah in the clip below.

20 Apr 2023

GloRilla Accused of Taking Unauthorized Sample From ’90s Rap Song For ‘Tomorrow’

A new lawsuit claims that GloRilla used unlicensed samples from a decades-old New Orleans hip-hop song in her hit songs “Tomorrow” and “Tomorrow 2.”

The case, filed Wednesday in Louisiana federal court, alleges that GloRilla’s tracks “misappropriated many of the recognizable and key protected elements” from “Street of Westbank,” a 1994 song by the group Dog House Posse.

The complaint is light on specifics, but claims that GloRilla copied many elements from the earlier song, including “musical arrangements, percussion tracks, synthesized orchestration, including but not limited to piano, cello, violin, contrabass, and drum set, and tone and melody.”

Beyond the sample itself, the lawsuit says GloRilla’s songs also “mimic and copy the arrangement of ‘Street of Westbank’ by the choice of the instrumentation accompanying the rap lyrics, the choice of when the instruments drop out and reenter and what instruments drop in and reenter.”

A rep for GloRilla did not immediately return a request for comment on the allegations.

While GloRilla broke out with “F.N.F. (Let’s Go),” her biggest hit to date is “Tomorrow 2” – a remix featuring Cardi B that reached No. 9 on the Hot 100 in October and ultimately spent 22 weeks on the chart.

Based on a comparison of the two songs, the alleged sample appears to be the first few notes of “Street of Westbank,” which are then looped throughout the song; a similar-sounding sequence appears to be looped throughout GloRilla’s song. But the extent to which those similarities actually constitute any violation of copyright law will be litigated in court.

Listen to both songs here:

Read the entire lawsuit here: