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03 Mar 2023

Method Man “Grand Prix,” Plies “Welcome To Death Row” & More | Daily Visuals 3.3.23

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The Wu-Tang Clan may not be making a reunion album anytime soon, but luckily we still get work from the likes of Ghostface Killah, Raekwon and Method Man from time to time and today the Ticallion Stallion lets off a new clip for the Wu-Tang faithful to take in.

Coming through with some new visuals to “Grand Prix,” the Iron Lung returns to the forefront with some friends in tow who help him burn down some tical (hence, the moniker “Iron Lung”), while he drops his bars and flexes his biceps that he’s been training in hopes of landing the role of Bishop in a future X-Men movie. Marvel should just cast him already cause Meth’s been going hard in the gym.

From Staten Island to the Florida keys, the goon known as Plies shows he has a softer side and in his clip to “Welcome To Death Row” he wines and dines a thick young lady with black roses, black balloons, and black panties. Well, at lease he’s creative.

Check out the rest of today’s drops including work from YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Bankroll Fresh, and more.

METHOD MAN – “GRAND PRIX”



PLIES – “WELCOME TO DEATH ROW”



YOUNGBOY NEVER BROKE AGAIN – “DEMON PARTY”



BANKROLL FRESH – “M.O.B.”



J.I. – “SAVE YOU”



RAYE – “ICE CREAM MAN.”



YOUNG SCOOTER & EST GEE – “COME EAT WIT US”



TINK – “SAVE YOUR SOUL”



QUELLY WOO – “T.A.P”





03 Mar 2023

Travis Barker Thanks Fans for Support After Finger Surgery: ‘See You Guys on Tour Soon’

Travis Barker gave fans an update via social media on Friday (March 3) as he recovered from an operation on his broken ring finger.

“Thank you for all the love and prayers and understanding this week as I went into surgery,” the drummer wrote on Instagram alongside a slideshow of pictures from the hospital. “It was a hard decision to make but ultimately I couldn’t continue to play the drums without it. It was inevitable that my finger would have dislocated again without fixing the torn ligament surgically.

“So grateful for Dr. Shin and that my surgery was a success so that I can keep doing what I love,” he continued before promising, “See you guys on tour soon. (trigger warning: last photo is hard to look at).”

Blink-182‘s wildly anticipated world tour — marking the first time Barker, Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge have played live together since 2014 — was forced to be postponed due to the drummer’s injury, which happened during rehearsals early last month before he hurt it again two weeks later.

“This has been something we’ve been aiming to do for so long and we work so hard and we just kind of had one of those freak accidents that nobody saw coming,” DeLonge explained while making the announcement on Wednesday (March 1). “This is just so sad. These were the biggest shows we ever played. These are some of the most important places in the world for for a band this is like the pinnacle of our career was coming down and playing for you guys. So I really want you all to know, we are devastated and we plan to come back.”

The global trek was originally schedule to start in Latin America next week with shows booked in Tijuana, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Bogotà, Lima and elsewhere, but will now be pushed back until Barker has fully recuperated.

Check out Barker’s post-surgery message and photos here — and consider yourself warned before scrolling to the second pic.

03 Mar 2023

Eden Muñoz Reflects on Solo Career Ahead of ‘Consejos Gratis’ U.S. Tour


The moment Eden Muñoz has waited for his entire life has become a reality: The Sinaoloan singer-songwriter is hitting the road with his first U.S. tour.

Presented by Live Nation, Muñoz’s Consejos Gratis Tour (Free Advice) is set to kick off on Aug. 25 at Kings Theater in Brooklyn, NY, and will visit key cities such as San Antonio, San Diego, El Paso, and more before wrapping on Nov. 22 at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving, TX.

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With the 14-day stint, the artist and producer—who hit No. 1 on Regional Mexican Airplay as a Soloist With “Chale!”—feels that with this tour he will give back to his fans and the Latin community in the U.S. “It’s a well-done tour, well structured, beautiful, where people enjoy themselves and in the end live an experience because that is what it is all about,” he tells Billboard.

On social media, concertgoers can already have a feel as to what to expect at a Muñoz concert.

“They [his fans] bring their posters and ask me to let them play the accordion, and if it’s their dream, I let them do it,” he explains. “I think that this is part of the interesting things about life. You don’t know how good I feel when people tell me, ‘I fulfilled my dream of going to see you’ or ‘I fulfilled my dream of playing a song with you.’ I was also someone who had those dreams.”

Muñoz launched his solo career in January 2022 after forming part of the Regional Mexican group Calibre 50. He was named songwriter of the year at the 2021 SESAC Latin Music Awards for penning hits such as Banda MS’ “La Casita” and La Arrolladora Banda El Limón de René Camacho’ “Mi Primer Derrota.” But in addition to composing, he’s also a producer, which can be best seen in Yuridia’s first Regional Mexican album, Pa’ Luego Es Tarde, which debuted at No. 7 on the Regional Mexican Albums chart.

“I want to make an album, but visual,” he said of his own upcoming project. “Show how I work in the studio and how much fun it is for me to play with things. Part of the things I do is purely ignorant because I don’t know about acoustics. I know how to play the guitar very limited, but I like to see what sound it gives us. I listen to my intuition, so I feel that part of the success of my music is that.”

As for the best “consejo gratis” the “Te Invito a Ser Feliz” can share with fans? “To find themselves and be happy—especially to be happy with what they have.”

Tickets for the Consejos Gratis Tour can be purchased on LiveNation.com.

03 Mar 2023

Kelly Clarkson Gives Death Cab for Cutie’s ‘You Are a Tourist’ a Spin for Kellyoke: Watch

Ever felt “just like a tourist in the city you were born?” Kelly Clarkson can relate, as she covered Death Cab for Cutie‘s 2011 track “You Are a Tourist” for The Kelly Clarkson Show‘s opening Kellyoke segment on Friday (March 3).

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Accompanied by her band Y’all, the three-time Grammy winner put her own peaceful spin on the alternative track, using her signature belt to execute soaring high notes and stunning vibrato moments. “‘Cause when you find yourself a villain/ In the story you have written/ It’s plain to see/ That sometimes the best intentions/ Are in need of redemption/ Would you agree/ If so, please show me,” Clarkson passionately sang on her rendition of the track.

“You Are a Tourist” was released as the first single from Death Cab for Cutie’s seventh studio album, Codes and Keys, in 2011. The track topped Billboard‘s Alternative Airplay chart, one of the band’s now eight No. 1s on the tally.

Clarkson’s cover of Death Cab‘s hit comes at an appropriate time, as the band just collected its eighth Adult Alternative Airplay chart-topper with “Pepper,” which crowns the chart dated March 11. The single marked the band’s second No. 1 in a row, following the eight-week ruler “Here to Forever,” which led in August-October 2022.

Listen to Clarkson cover Death Cab for Cutie’s “You Are a Tourist” for the latest Kellyoke in the video above.

03 Mar 2023

Omar Apollo Dazzles at Joyful Secret Show in New York: 5 Best Moments at Irving Plaza

Omar Apollo was supposed to be in Philadelphia on Thursday night. The R&B singer had been slated to open for SZA on her SOS Tour stop at the Wells Fargo Center, but that show was postponed at the last moment, leaving the best new artist Grammy nominee with an unexpectedly free evening.

Rather than waste it, he decided to give his loyal cadre of fans a special treat by announcing a secret show at New York City’s Irving Plaza.

With just a few hours’ notice, the concert was sold out, and Billboard was on the scene inside the packed ballroom for Apollo’s intimate, off-the-cuff set, which took place just two days before he’s slated to take the stage at Madison Square Garden to open for SZA. “You’re getting the real, unscripted vibes, you know what I’m saying?” the singer — clad in a black puffer jacket, sweats and backward baseball cap — told the electrified crowd after revealing he and his band hadn’t even had time to come up with a setlist or run through a full rehearsal for the spontaneous show.

Below, Billboard rounded up all the best moments from Apollo’s secret show in NYC.

‘Thoughts of a Third Make Me Weak‘

After a one-two punch of “Useless” and “Killing Me,” Apollo treated fans to a live performance of his newest single “3 Boys.” The heartsick ode to queer desire and casual non-monogamy translated perfectly from record to stage as he yearned, “Seems like everything I do take me further from you/ Three boys would work if I wasn’t so tethered to you/ What should I do? I can’t even choose/ I’m tethered to you, baby” while bathed in cool blue light. Apollo’s heart may not be ready to juggle multiple guys, but the crowd couldn’t get enough of the romantic ballad.

Playing with His ‘Tamagotchi‘

No song got the jam-packed room going throughout the night quite like Ivory single “Tamagotchi,” which was produced by Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of The Neptunes. The bouncy Latin trap jam had Apollo engaging in a teasing back-and-forth with the audience, flashing some skin as he motioned to the band of his underwear (“Feel on my waistline”) and miming a sexually charged hand gesture on the song’s steamy chorus.

On Such a Winter’s Day

It may have been a chilly 40 degrees outside, but Apollo decided to bring some sunshine indoors by injecting a number of tender, off-the-cuff covers into his set. “So, yo, I didn’t, like, have a full entire set, but I do have some covers if y’all want to hear some covers,” he said as the crowd erupted into enthusiastic screams, leading him to admit, “Thank god. Thank god, it relieves me.”

First up was “California Dreamin’” by The Mamas and The Papas. Leaning into his fluttering falsetto, the alt-R&B sensation transformed the 1965 classic into a slow-burning groove, singing, “Stopped into a church/ I passed along the way/ Well, I got down on my knees/ And I pretend to pray/ You know the preacher likes the cold/ He knows I’m gonna stay/ California dreamin’, dreamin’, dreamin’/ On such a winter’s day” before letting out an excited yelp.

Next, the singer offered up an impromptu take on “You’ve Got a Friend” by Carole King. The only problem? He wasn’t quite sure of the lyrics, leading him to borrow someone’s phone to read off the words — but only after stopping momentarily to make sure a distressed fan was all right in the audience. “I was kind of nervous, I’ve never sang that before,” he admitted to the crowd after finishing the song, later adding, after a cover of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Californication album cut “Porcelain,” “We didn’t rehearse sh–! I’m letting y’all know right now, we didn’t rehearse nothin’! We had to put it together for New York!”

An ‘En El Olvido’ Sing-Along

Following the trio of covers, it was time to get back into Apollo’s own discography, which he did by jumping into the Spanish-language “En El Olvido.” The rising star’s Mexican-American roots have always been a central tenet of his musical brand, and from the first jaunty notes of the guitar, fans went wild with appreciation. So much so that partway through the song, Apollo decided to pass the mic around to a number of fans in the front row, giving them the chance to prove that they did, in fact, know every single word of the deep cut en Español.

‘Evergreen’ Is Evergreen

Naturally, there was no more obvious choice for closing out the secret set than “Evergreen (You Didn’t Deserve Me At All).” After all, the breakout hit was Apollo’s first entry on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as an array of charts around the world, and has since been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.

And for his big finale, Apollo demonstrated precisely why the midtempo jam made the leap from TikTok virality to a bona fide radio hit. “Evergreen/ She don’t know you like me/ She could never love you more, more than me/ But sometimes I pray that you fall in love/ I’ve cried, I’ve cried so much for you, baby,” he crooned as the house sang each word back to him in full force. Not even the thrilling encore of “Go Away” could match the energy of the rising star’s biggest hit.

03 Mar 2023

Get an Inside Look at Billboard’s Women in Music 2023

Billboard‘s 2023 Women in Music Awards kicked off Women’s History Month on Wednesday evening (March 1) by bringing the best, brightest and baddest bosses in the music industry together.

This year’s extravaganza spread girl power and upbeat energy to every corner of the YouTube Theater at SoFi Stadium, from last year’s Woman of the Year recipient Olivia Rodrigo and this year’s Chartbreaker Award winner Kim Petras uniting with this year’s Breakthrough Award-winning act TWICE backstage to executives like Dina LaPolt, Mary Harrington and Angelique Jones showing off their fabulous pink suits at the cocktail reception.

SZA‘s mother and father watched their daughter and recent Billboard cover star receive the 2023 Woman of the Year honor, and they weren’t the only proud parents in the building. Doechii‘s mother introduced her daughter before giving her the Rising Star Award presented by Honda. Bad Bunny made a surprise appearance to present Ivy Queen with the Icon Award. Other honorees included Impact Award winner Becky G, Rulebreaker Award winner Lainey Wilson, Powerhouse Award Latto, Visionary Award winner Lana Del Rey and Rosalía, who received our inaugural Producer of the Year Award presented by Bose. Epic Records CEO/chairwoman Sylvia Rhone received the 2023 Executive of the Year Award. Meanwhile, Sabrina Carpenter, Dove Cameron, Chloe Bailey, Coi Leray and Wondagurl were on hand as presenters.

Petras, Wilson, Becky G, Doechii, TWICE and Latto with “Lottery” collaborator LU KALA also took to the stage to perform during this year’s ceremony, which was hosted by Emmy-winning Abbott Elementary actress and writer Quinta Brunson. Check out what was happening inside the 2023 Billboard Women in Music event below.

03 Mar 2023

Are Older Listeners the Key to Unlocking Streaming’s Growth Potential?

The areas of the audio marketplace with the highest growth rates don’t involve music or young people. As online listening growth slows and smartphone ownership is nearly ubiquitous, podcasts and audiobooks stand out in Edison Research’s The Infinite Dial 2023 report.

In 2023, weekly podcast listening reached 40% of people aged 12 to 34, up from 33% in 2022; and 39% for the 35-to-54 age group, up from 31% the year before, the report states. The 55-and-over audience remained at 14% after falling from 17% in 2021. The average U.S. podcast listener averages nine podcasts per week, with 19% listening to 11 or more.

Those growth rates contrast with slowdowns in smartphone penetration (now at 91% of the U.S. population), social media usage (flat at 82% of the population for three straight years) and monthly online audio listening (up slightly from 73% in 2022 to 75% this year).

But podcasts appear to have room for more growth. The percentage of people who listened to a podcast in the last month was 42% — 28 percentage points lower than online audio listenership.

About 183 million people — 64% of the U.S. population 12 and over — has ever listened to a podcast. That’s up from 44% of the population five years earlier and 27% a decade ago.

Audiobooks are also growing. The percentage of Americans who listened to an audiobook in the last year rose to 35% of the U.S. population — up from 28% a year earlier — or about 100 million people. Still, there’s lots of room for growth, and companies will likely see that percentage as an opportunity to introduce the format to new listeners.

Podcasts and audiobooks are tangentially related to music in the streaming age. Digital platforms increasingly combine music and non-music content to keep listeners engaged and make the apps more attractive to subscribers. To improve both its product and margins, Spotify has invested handsomely in podcasts — from DIY tools like Anchor and Megaphone to content creators Gimlet, Parcast and The Ringer — as well as audiobooks, through the acquisition of audiobook distribution platform Findaway.

Streaming companies tend to obsess about young consumers, but the growth opportunity appears to lie in older age groups. Edison found that 89% of the 12-34 age group listened to audio online in the previous month, up from 87% in 2022 and 86% in 2021. The 35-54 age group’s monthly listenership rate improved from 72% in 2021 to 81% in 2022 and 85% this year. The 35-54 age group’s podcast listening improved from 43% in 2022 to 51% this year — a big leap, but still below the 12-34 age group’s 55% mark.

The often overlooked 55-and-over age group has significant room to grow. Its monthly online listening rate stands at just 53%, up from 52% in 2022 and 46% in 2021. The age group is also slow to adopt podcasts. Just 21% of people 55 and over listened to podcasts in the last month. Worse yet, the 55-and-over crowd is losing enthusiasm: Its monthly podcast listening rate was 22% last year and 26% in 2021.

The other major trends found in the report reflect smartphone penetration, the prevalence of mobile broadband and the use of mobile operating systems in cars such as Apple CarPlay and Google’s Android Auto. In the last decade, the percentage of U.S. consumers who have listened to AM/FM radio in the car dropped from 84% to 73%, while CD listening declined from 63% to 29%. SiriusXM satellite radio use in the car improved from 15% to 20% over that time, while online audio jumped from 12% to 37% on the same metric.

03 Mar 2023

Amazon Pauses Construction on Second Headquarters in Virginia

Amazon is pausing construction of its second headquarters in Virginia following the biggest round of layoffs in the company’s history and its shifting plans around remote work.

The Seattle-based company is delaying the beginning of construction of PenPlace, the second phase of its headquarters development in northern Virginia, Amazon’s real estate chief John Schoettler said in a statement. He said the company has already hired more than 8,000 employees and will welcome them to the Met Park campus, the first phase of development, when it opens this June.

“We’re always evaluating space plans to make sure they fit our business needs and to create a great experience for employees, and since Met Park will have space to accommodate more than 14,000 employees, we’ve decided to shift the groundbreaking of PenPlace (the second phase of HQ2) out a bit,” Schoettler said.

Schoettler also emphasized the company remains “committed to Arlington” and the local region, which Amazon picked – along with New York City – to be the site of its new headquarters, known as HQ2, several years ago. More than 230 municipalities had initially competed to house the projects. New York won the competition by promising nearly $3 billion in tax breaks and grants, among other benefits, but opposition from local politicians, labor leaders and progressive activists led Amazon to scrap its plans there.

In February 2021, Amazon said it would build an eye-catching, 350-foot Helix tower to anchor the second phase of its redevelopment plans in Arlington. The new office towers were expected to welcome more than 25,000 workers when complete. Amazon spokesperson Zach Goldsztejn said those plans haven’t changed and the construction pause is not a result – or indicative of – the company’s latest job cuts, which affected 18,000 corporate employees.

The layoffs were part of a broader cost-cutting move to trim down Amazon’s growing workforce amid more sluggish sales and fears of a potential recession. Meta, Salesforce and other tech companies — many of which had gone on hiring binges in the past few years — have also been doing the same.

Amid the job cuts, Amazon has urged its employees to come back to the office. Last month, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company would require corporate employees to return to the office at least three days a week, a shift from the prior policy that allowed leaders to make the call on how their teams worked. The change, which will be effective on May 1, has ignited some pushback from employees who say they prefer to work remotely.

Goldsztejn said the company is expecting to move forward with what he called pre-construction work on the construction in Virginia later this year, including applying for permits. He said final timing for the second phase of the project is still being determined.

When Virginia won the competition to land HQ2, it did so less with direct incentives, and more with promises to invest in the regional workforce, particularly a graduate campus of Virginia Tech that is currently under construction just a couple of miles from Amazon’s under-construction campus in Crystal City.

Still, there were significant direct incentives. The state promised $22,000 for each new Amazon job on the condition that the average worker salary for those new jobs is $150,000, annually. But those incentives — about $550 million for 25,000 projected jobs — are not supposed to be paid out until 2024 at the earliest. Goldsztejn, the Amazon spokesperson, said the company “has not received any incentives to date related to the construction of HQ2 and the 8,000 jobs that we’ve created in Arlington since 2018.”

Arlington County also promised Amazon a cut of its hotel-tax revenue on the theory that hotel occupancies would increase significantly once Amazon builds out its campus. That incentive, projected initially at about $23 million, is dependent on how many square feet of office space Amazon occupies in the county.

The county said in a statement it “values the ongoing partnership” it has with Amazon throughout the creation of the second headquarters, which it noted has always been a multiyear project.

“We’re confident Amazon remains committed to the second phase of the project – PenPlace – and its benefits to the community,” it said.

Amazon had previously said it planned to complete the project by 2025.

03 Mar 2023

Lil Baby to Perform at 2023 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards

Lil Baby will perform his hit “California Breeze” on the 2023 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards. The show will air live on Saturday at 7 p.m. (ET/PT) from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

“California Breeze” debuted and peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in October. It’s drawn from the rapper’s third studio album, It’s Only Me, which was his third album to top the Billboard 200.

Dove Cameron, Miranda Cosgrove, Dwayne Johnson (The Rock), Jenna Ortega, Olivia Rodrigo and Kelly Rowland will also appear on the show. Optimus Prime, Transformers’ heroic leader of the Autobots, will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Previously announced participants on the show, which is being hosted by Nate Burleson and Charli D’Amelio, include Bebe Rexha, who will perform her top five Hot 100 hit “I’m Good (Blue)”; Adam Sander, who will receive the King of Comedy award; as well as Awkwafina, Halle Bailey, Pete Davidson, Peyton List, Melissa McCarthy, MrBeast, Chris Pine, Anthony Ramos, Michelle Rodriguez, Seth Rogen, Michael Le, Bella Poarch and Lil Uzi Vert.

The show will simulcast across Nickelodeon, TeenNick, Nicktoons, Nick Jr., TV Land, CMT and MTV2, and livestream on Nick.com and the Nick App.

Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards 2023 is produced by Nickelodeon Productions and overseen by Ashley Kaplan, executive vice president, Nickelodeon & Awesomeness Unscripted & Digital Franchise Studio; Paul J Medford, vice president, Unscripted Current Series; Luke Wahl, vice president, Unscripted Creative; Jennifer Bryson, vice president, production, tentpoles, events & music & specials; and Ellen Rydzewski, senior vice president, celebrity, events & talent relations. Jesse Ignjatovic, Evan Prager, and Barb Bialkowski serve as executive producers, with Harriet Cuddeford and Andria Parides serving as co-executive producers.

03 Mar 2023

Just Raise Your Glasses High for These ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Music Moments

Vanderpump Rules has focused largely on the drama-filled lives of Lisa Vanderpump’s employees since its debut on Bravo in 2013. But while these glamorous SUR-vice workers might be slinging drinks and bringing you fried goat cheese balls in between screaming matches and drunken rage texts, they’ve also been dishing up some mind-boggling but always entertaining musical moments.

It makes sense, if you think about it. Several members of the cast — including Scheana Shay and James Kennedy, for example — are in Los Angeles not just for modeling and acting jobs, but also to try to make it in the music industry. She’s “Good as Gold” as a singer (as far as she’s concerned), and he’s a relatively successful DJ with his “See You Next Tuesday” gigs at Sur.

And who can forget Tom Sandoval’s band Charles McMansion and its unforgettable (and somewhat naughty and 100 percent catchy “T.I.P” – that’s “Touch in Public”)? There’s also his newer project, Tom Sandoval and the Most Extras (the members of whom he pays just to attend band practice, as he revealed in season 10), which the reality star and TomTom partner has taken on the road while trying to launch his and best bud Tom Schwartz’s lounge, Schwartz and Sandy’s.

Yes, many of the cast’s musical endeavors – some fun, some great just to give viewers laughs — have fortunately been captured on camera over the seasons for posterity. From their music videos to live performances, here are the moments on the reality TV hit that we’re always happy to revisit.