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09 Nov 2022

Nicki Minaj Teases Her Fifth Album Is Coming ‘Soon’

Nicki Minaj hinted at her long-awaited fifth studio album in a new cover story on Wednesday (Nov. 9).

In a wide-ranging chat with City Girls‘ JT for i-D, the superstar rapper opened up about her follow-up to 2018’s Queen, which has been in the works for nearly half a decade. “The fifth album,” she told the publication when asked what projects she has planned for the near future. “I’m not gonna say when it’s gonna come out, but the album will be out soon.”

Not giving away any other details, Minaj then pivoted to tease her nail art company, where, she said, “people will be able to buy my press-on nail with dope designs.” (“I was already working on that before someone auctioned my press-on nail for $50,000 or whatever they spent on it,” she mused.)

Later, Nicki also revealed she plans to get back into the TV and film industry, telling JT, “I’ve been speaking to a director about doing something in a movie. In terms of TV, we’ll see. But I love acting, and I’ll never abandon acting for too long. That’s one of my biggest passions.”

Though as for her place in the music industry, the Trinidadian star got vulnerable about some of the ways she’s been misunderstood since rocketing to fame in 2010 with Pink Friday.

“There’s a huge misconception with people who come across as outspoken,” the “Super Freaky Girl” rapper said. “The misconception is that we’re so strong. Just because a person fights back, doesn’t mean they’re not afraid. I have suppressed years’ worth of things that I’ve wanted to say.”

Confessing that there’s “always been a level of fear” over losing her place as an artist, she went on to say, “I’ve decided that I have to speak up now. You know, I see the hip-hop community praise so many other people for speaking up for themselves, but for some reason they seem to have an issue when I do it. Once I realized that there’s that double standard, I decided I don’t give a s–t anymore. The last part of it is that if I never rap again, I will still leave this earth as an icon. I guess there is a little less fear now at this point in my career because I realize that my fans aren’t going anywhere. I’ve paid my dues.”

Get a look at Nicki Minaj’s i-D cover below.

09 Nov 2022

Music in the Metaverse: How Lil Nas X Became a ‘Lighthouse’ & Where We Go From Here (Guest Column)

Roblox is the most active platform for music in the metaverse, showcasing interactive and immersive virtual performances from artists ranging from Lil Nas X and Zara Larsson to KSI, 24KGoldn and Charli XCX. Given the current success, it is hard to believe that just three years ago, when I started working with Roblox, there was little awareness of the creative and commercial potential for artists in the metaverse. In fact, other than a few execs who knew their kids were on there playing and asking for some Robux, most music industry stakeholders hadn’t heard of Roblox at all.

When they heard the platform had over 100 million users, they were excited by the size of the audience. Roblox was also appealing as — compared to other major consumer platforms with anywhere near the same reach — it was and still is less crowded and free from traditional interruptive advertising. And yet, a few mavericks like Scott Cohen from Warner Music aside, none had yet thought about Roblox from an artist marketing or monetization perspective.

From those initial conversations in 2019, fast forward to 2022 and many artists from different genres have been able to express themselves in new, creative ways by building fun, immersive virtual concerts that have generated tens of millions of net new revenue for all parties. Major music brands like Spotify and consumer brands like Samsung and Deutsche Telekom have now also created their own persistent music worlds.

How did we get here? What are the long-term implications for the music industry? How will fans continue to deepen their engagement with their favorite artists?

How Lil Nas X Became a Lighthouse

Any time there is a new medium like the internet, then mobile, social and now the metaverse, the Music Industry initially treads lightly. Understandably so, as the whole industry is primarily based on the exploitation of rights, which are inherently complicated. So even when interest in metaverse experiences picked up speed, there were still roadblocks to overcome.

Even with the help and expertise of first movers at Sony and Adam Leber from REBEL management in launching the Lil Nas X virtual concert, it’s always hard doing things that haven’t been done before. In particular, new virtual deal structures for the industry to adopt needed to be created from scratch. There was also no “metaverse production studio” to tap to produce the virtual concert. So, with the help of Rafael Brown and Duane Stinnett, we basically had to spin up an entirely new production entity on the fly in order to get the experience built, working with many Roblox colleagues led by Morgan Tucker (now head of product), and Philippe Clavel (senior director of engineering), who managed the platform’s internal social experiences group.

The concert was a creative, technological, and commercial success that reached nearly 40 million people, but there were many points along the way where we weren’t sure we were going to land the plane: It really took a village to make it happen. It was worth the risk, as the Lil Nas X concert began to act as a lighthouse for the other labels and artists to follow. Now, music events have reached, delighted and engaged well over 100 million global fans on Roblox.

Creating Scale and Choice

Since the days of those early Roblox experiences, more and more platforms have emerged that only serve to give the music industry more choice when they want to activate music experiences and reach their fans in the metaverse. If Lil Nas X was a lighthouse, his beacon soon hit a prism that brought to light new formats. From launch parties with video driven performances to listening parties, with artists like Poppy, which were activated in existing Roblox experiences, the richness and diversity of musical experiences exploded.

The scale of the opportunity created a whole new market for metaverse studios to partner with labels, artists and brands to keep pushing the limits of creativity for these metaverse experiences. The process is now there to maintain the end quality but reduce time to market and cost of production. All parts of the music industry are now focused on innovating old ways of doing things to capitalise on the opportunities presented by the metaverse and Web3. Dubit, for example, created metaverse awards show parties for the BRITs and Grammys this year on Roblox, which were the first of their kind in the metaverse. Then, perhaps most notably, the MTV VMAs announced the inaugural best metaverse performance award, bringing virtual concerts into mainstream pop culture. Nominees included Charli XCX for her Samsung Roblox gig, Twenty One Pilots, and K-pop stars BTS for their performance in Minecraft, with BLACKPINK winning for their performance in PUBG.

Collectively, we as an industry are all building a better platform for artists to express themselves and connect with their fans, unlocking new creative and commercial opportunities that will significantly grow the overall business in the next three to five years.

Authenticity, Interactivity and Value for Players

What does all this mean for users? I mentioned earlier that metaverse platforms are relatively free of traditional interruptive advertising that has plagued mobile games, web-based content, and linear television. Will we be able to say the same after the next five years of growth? I’m optimistic. Top of mind with all activations and experiences should be authenticity to the nature of the platform; and providing interactive fun and value to players. The Logitech activation with Lizzo and Gayle was a great example of branded entertainment done right. The experience was super fun for players, featured top artists and was also able to meet the brand’s marketing objectives with close to 7 million people attending the event and engaging with Logitech products like flying “Logitech mouse” cars.

Moving forward there is going to have to be continued focus on ensuring that experiences really need to exist and are not just done to check off a metaverse activation to-do list for a brand or media company. As more professional brands and ad agencies start getting involved in metaverse projects and the builder economy around them grows, I expect the level of creativity to go up. There will also be a lot of discussion about whether an artist or brand needs a persistent experience or whether they should just build an ephemeral experience that coincides with their campaign windows. Generally, I think it will be more of the latter once the market matures.

The more we can all focus our time and energy on building a sustainable ecosystem for artists, platforms, developer studios and builders, brands, labels and publishers that provides values for all parties the more likely that the market will be able to grow and reach its full creative and commercial potential.

Exploring Web3 Connections

The metaverse represents a new platform shift that started with web to mobile and then mobile to social. The brands and media companies are paying attention to where their customers are spending time. Over the coming years, billions of dollars will move to the metaverse which is a more interactive, more immersive platform where hundreds of millions of young people are spending hours of each day hanging out and playing with their friends.

In the medium term, the size of platforms like Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft and Meta will be hugely appealing to the music industry. As they evolve and all parties continue to creatively collaborate, the music industry will need to see not only marketing exposure from metaverse platforms but also get access to their fans and see new, repeatable revenue streams that justify their focus and investment. Many brands and artists are also already looking towards Web3 — the next iteration of the internet built on blockchain technology.

Whether it’s exploring the possibility of selling tracks as NFTs with perpetual royalties, NFT powered artist fan clubs, new streaming services that can be owned by users and artists directly, or blockchain powered contracts; Web3 offers the potential to bring major innovation to an industry that hasn’t materially changed since the birth of digital music some 20 years ago. It will hopefully create a more equitable market for artists to earn a living by directly connecting with their fans. For example, a universal blockchain wallet would be an incredibly powerful way for brands and artists to connect with their most loyal fans directly by adding value to their lives with exclusive digital rewards. Concert goers will be able to get rewarded for attending events by getting collectable NFTs that could in turn unlock virtual after party events in metaspaces powered by platforms like Vatom. We are at the very beginning of the birth of one of the most exciting and transformative marketing eras since the birth of the Internet.

Where Next?

Three years on from Lil Nas X, we are still at the beginning of building the future of music in the metaverse, and there is still massive upside ahead. For it to keep growing and realise its full market potential, platforms will need to help their music partners protect their IP, market directly to their fans, easily create compelling multimedia experiences, create sustainable new revenue streams, and have their experiences discovered by the right users.

Even more importantly, anyone building a music experience in the metaverse needs to ensure that their primary focus is always on delighting the fans. Music in the metaverse represents a fundamental shift in the way fans engage with music. Music is becoming a far more interactive, immersive and hyper social experience that also allows the fan to participate in the creative process along with their favorite artists. If a music experience isn’t authentic, fun, immersive and social, it doesn’t belong in the metaverse.

Jon Vlassopulos is an advisory board member at Dubit and the chief executive officer at Napster.

09 Nov 2022

Snoop Dogg Biopic In the Works From ‘Wakanda Forever’ Writer

Universal has enlisted Black Panther: Wakanda Forever co-writer Joe Robert Cole and director Allen Hughes, who with his brother Albert directed movies such as Menace II Society and Dead Presidents, to tackle a definitive biopic of the influential, iconic rapper and entertainment mogul Snoop Dogg.

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Snoop is heavily involved with the project announced Wednesday, which will incorporate music from his cast catalog. He is also producing the feature along with Sara Ramaker and Hughes. The project will mark the inaugural film from Snoop’s Death Row Pictures which he runs with Ramaker.

“I waited a long time to put this project together because I wanted to choose the right director, the perfect writer, and the greatest movie company I could partner with that could understand the legacy that I’m trying to portray on screen, and the memory I’m trying to leave behind,” said Snoop in a statement. “It was the perfect marriage. It was holy matrimony, not holy macaroni.”

Snoop, whose real name is Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., shot to fame in the early 1990s West Coast rap scene thanks to his collaborations with Dr. Dre and then his one-two-punch albums, Doggystyle and The Doggfather. He parlayed that into a media and business empire, becoming an actor, DJ and media personality as well as an entrepreneur with ties to technology, global consumer brands, food and beverage industries, and of course, the cannabis world.

With 35 million albums worldwide, he is a 17-time Grammy nominee, an American Music Award winner, and a Primetime Emmy Award winner. He has played himself in countless series and appeared in movies such as Training Day, Starsky & Hutch and this summer’s Jamie Foxx vampire action movie Day Shift.

“Snoop Dogg’s life and legacy makes him one of the most exciting and influential icons in popular culture,” stated Donna Langley, chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group. “We met with Snoop shortly after he acquired Death Row Records and had the opportunity to hear his story in his own words. We are humbled to be able to create the lasting document of this singular artist.”

Universal has had previous success tapping into rap culture with musical biopics focusing on key artists. In 2015, it released Straight Outta Compton, centered on the West Coast hip-hop scene and N.W.A, the seminal group that Dr. Dre was a part of. The film grossed over $200 million and earned an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay. With 2002’s 8 Mile, it told a thinly-veiled autobiographical story of Eminem and his rise into an industry and genre dominated by Black artists. That movie grossed over $250 million and won the Oscar for best original song with “Lose Yourself.”

With the Snoop biopic in development, Universal will now have a trifecta of the artists — Snoop, Dr. Dre, and Eminem — who performed during this year’s Super Bowl halftime show.

Hughes and his brother, both born in Detroit and grew up in Southern California, made their names by telling stories of the Black experience with Menace and Dead Presidents at the same time as Snoop was making his rise. In 2017, he tackled the music scene by directing The Defiant Ones, the award-winning four-part HBO documentary focused on Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine.

“Snoop Dogg is one of the most internationally beloved figures in hip-hop,” states Hughes. “There’s just something about his energy that brings people of all walks of life together. Snoop Dogg, not just the artist, but the man and his brand, has transcended generations with his connection and appeal to audiences. His story is so authentic and utterly inspiring, and to have the opportunity to tell his story allows me to go back to the hood 30 years after Menace II Society, and say more now than I could then.”

Cole is a generation younger than Snoop and Hughes and grew up influenced by their work as he made his mark as a screenwriter. He’s notably worked with Ryan Coogler on the two Black Panther movies as well as a writer-producer on the Emmy-winning FX series American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpson, for which he received an Emmy nomination for writing the episode “The Race Card.”

“I’ve been a fan of Snoop since ‘Deep Cover,’” says Cole. “His music and the films of Allen Hughes have left an indelible mark on me over my life. What excites me most is the humanity of Snoop’s journey to international icon. Universal has proven they can guide a movie like this to something special. I’m proud to be a part of the team.”

NBCUniversal’s president of music and publishing, Mike Knobloch, will supervise the project’s music. Universal’s senior vp of production and development Ryan Jones will oversee the project for the studio.

Snoop is repped by Stephen Barnes of Morris Yorn. Hughes is repped by WME and Hansen, Jacobson while Cole is repped by Circle of Confusion and Jackoway Austen.

This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.

09 Nov 2022

Japan’s ‘EGAKU -draw the song-’ YouTube Series Strives to Visually Revitalize Existing Songs

EGAKU -draw the song- is a Japanese YouTube channel featuring videos capturing the process of popular manga artists, illustrators and animators drawing illustrations inspired by their favorite songs. The series launched a year ago on Oct. 31 with the first episode featuring manga artist Miki Aihara (Hot Gimmick), who chose Rhymester’s “Tousou no Funk” (Funk on the Run) as her inspiration. The first season featured other prominent artists including Kamome Shirahama (Witch Hat Atelier) who illustrated milet’s “Grab the Air” and designer daisukerichard who drew his rendition of Creepy Nuts’ “Nobishiro.” 

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Through these videos of professional artists drawing illustrations set to tracks of their choice, the series aims to encourage people to enjoy existing songs from a new perspective. Emi Harada of Sony Music Entertainment explains that the initial purpose of EGAKU -draw the song- was to revitalize previously released music.

Harada: I’m usually in charge of theme song tie-ins for animated TV shows and video games, and I coordinate the creation of music by artists to go along with those works. I thought it might be interesting to kind of reverse that process and came up with the idea of asking the visual artists to choose pre-existing songs and have them draw a picture based on how they perceive it.

The videos are created by Takehiro Kanou and Ku Misan of zona inc. Kanou says he enjoyed the process from the start. “It was our first time creating YouTube content from scratch, and we had a lot of fun from the initial stage of discussions,” he says, but Ku notes that she had some misgivings. “At first, I was thinking that it’d be difficult,” she shares. “I wasn’t sure if we’d be able to convey the process of drawing a picture within the space of a song, and since we also had to make the music appealing as well as include the atmosphere of the artists’ workplaces, I thought we had a lot to overcome.”

The original plan was to shoot in a studio, but after repeated meetings, it was decided that the shooting would take place in the visual artists’ respective workplaces. This added to the difficulty of the production.

Kanou: EGAKU is essentially an excerpt, a summary. The shooting itself takes five to six hours. Each artist works at a different pace, so it was up to us to decide which elements to highlight and how to bring them together.

Ku: We spoke to (the visual artists) about which parts we’d be using and the tempo we had in mind in connecting them. Sometimes we’d face issues about the balance between the BPM of the song and the illustrators’ drawing speed, or run into something like, “this scene is too subdued compared to the excitement of the song’s chorus.” The tools people use and the way they draw are all different, and for example, the way each artist draws eyes shows their individuality. We also made an effort to include items from their workplaces. We figured it’d be fun for fans to imagine how a manga artist might have used those items as references by showing the books and other things they have.

Using the entire song is another characteristic of the video series.

Harada: Some suggested that using the whole song would be too long, but the stories and worlds depicted in each song can’t be conveyed with just a portion of it. We also stick to having the visual artists choose the song they really want to work with [instead of requesting the song]. It takes a lot of time to get permission for each track, but we think it’s best to have them draw their works based on music they really like.

The first episode featured manga artist Miki Aihara’s interpretation of Japanese rap pioneers RHYMESTER’s “Tousou no Funk.” How did the producers of the series go about booking and shooting the inaugural video?

Harada: We first made a sample video, then made offers to the visual artists we wanted to feature in our series. We then met with the ones who kindly agreed to work with us and asked them to choose a song, then shot the episodes. I heard that our first featured artist, Ms. Aihara, is really a huge RHYMESTER fan. I did kind of wonder if it was appropriate to launch the series with an act that had switched labels [laughs], but I’m glad we were able to make it happen.

We asked the series producers which of the videos released so far has left the greatest impression on them.

Ku: For me it was the video of Kamome Shirahama drawing milet’s “Grab the Air.” She used analog tools, as in dip pens on paper, and it felt really live. It helped me see that there’s a different quality to it compared to digital art. Her workplace shows her style and we also got shots of her dogs. Shooting and editing was so much fun, and it was also viewed a lot, too.

Kanou: Shiqako was also great. The thing is, he and I were friends back in school. He used to work as an assistant for manga artist Yasuhisa Hara on his Kingdom series, and then later Siqako’s own Manshu Ahen Sukuwaddo (“Manchurian Opium Squad”) series became popular. When I asked him about participating in EGAKU, he said sure and chose Denki Groove’s “Ichigo Musume wa Hitorikko” for his episode. 

Harada: The first episode of Season 2, featuring Blue Period’s Tsubasa Yamaguchi drawing PornoGraffiti’s “Tsukikai” (“Moon Keeper”) was also memorable. While most of the illustrators had already decided on the composition of their works or had their sketches finished before the shoot, Ms. Yamaguchi started by drawing many rough compositions on a piece of paper. She even decided to start over again from scratch after she’d started coloring it. I thought the entire process was like a real-life version of her manga series Blue Period.

Season 2 started on Oct. 7 with new videos — Yamaguchi’s episode, plus Mayu Yukishita drawing Yurufuwa Gang’s “Strobolights (Yurufuwa Gang version),” Paru Itagaki drawing Chara’s “PRIVATE BEACH,” and Miki Yoshikawa drawing ORANGE RANGE’s “Ishindenshin” — dropping four days in a row.

Kanou: In the beginning, our intent was to focus mainly on the visual side of the presentation, but in Season 2 we shifted towards taking the fans of the music into consideration even more. The songs start from the beginning of the clip now because people wanted to hear them as soon as possible.

Ku: We’ve also expanded the range of how we show the process. Miki Yoshikawa’s (Flunk Punk Rumble, A Couple of Cuckoos) episode is kind of comical because she suggested we do it that way.

Tsubasa Yamaguchi is a manga artist with a degree from the prestigious Tokyo University of the Arts. She is currently working on her popular series Blue Period, which depicts a young man’s efforts to get into art school and his life at the university once he passes the demanding entrance exams. Yamaguchi chose to work with PornoGraffiti’s “Tsukikai,” the B-side from the J-pop duo’s smash-hit single “Melissa” from 2003.

“It was the first music CD I ever bought, and I especially loved the B-side,” she says of her song choice. Elaborating on the illustration she drew based on the poetically heartbreaking number, she shares that “the song contains many memorable scenes, and I wanted to give form to the one that the protagonist would probably recall many times in the future.” The song’s appeal is effectively drawn out in the video series because the illustrators’ own tastes and memories come first regardless of the song’s popularity or how well known it is. 

The collaboration between manga artists/illustrators and music presented in the EGAKU series holds considerable potential as visual content. What do the producers envision for its future?

Harada: Like I said earlier, our first goal is to revitalize previously released music. We’re hoping to introduce the appeal of these songs through the series and channel the renewed interest towards making the songs popular again on streaming platforms. The next goal we now have is how to make the best use of the drawings. We could hold exhibitions and sell merchandise based on them and such, so there’s lots of business potential there.

Kanou: I think it’s also important to accumulate and archive the videos. For example, if we have pictures of 30 songs, we can turn them into some other format, like art books. As for exhibiting them, it might be nice to display them as installations. Make the space itself a work of art, not just limited to just showing the drawings and the process of creating them.

Ku: I’m sure there are many ways we could transform what we have, like the artworks, videos, and song lyrics into an exhibition. It’d be great if we would bring it to that level by continuing with the series.

Harada: I’m glad that the illustrators who participated had fun drawing their works and that the musicians are also happy with the series. In response to Ms. Yamaguchi’s video, frontman Akihito Okano of PornoGrafitti commented, “(Thanks to her art) I was able to further expand the image of this song when I sing it. It’s a great honor as a musician.” We wanted to make the content meaningful for both the visual artists and the musicians in that way. Of course, we can’t keep doing this unless there are viewers who enjoy it, so we’ll do our best to promote EGAKU and bring it to as many people as possible. 

—This interview by Tomoyuki Mori first appeared on Billboard Japan.

09 Nov 2022

2022 MAMA Awards Unveil Second Round of Performers Including LE SSERAFIM, (G)I-DLE & More

The 2022 MAMA Awards are set to take place later this month, and to further drum up anticipation for the K-pop awards ceremony — which is set to take place in Japan at the Osaka Kyocera Dome on Nov. 29-30 — the second set of performers for the two-day event were revealed on Wednesday (Nov. 9).

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The new set of performers will be split between two days — HYOLYN, Forestella, BIBI, NMIXX, LE SSERAFIM and Street Man Fighter dance crews will take on the MAMA Awards on Nov. 29, while ZICO, Lim Young Woong, (G)I-DLE, NiziU, INI and NewJeans will hit the stage on Nov. 30.

Previously announced artists that are set to perform at the MAMAs include Stray Kids, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, JO1, Kep1er, ITZY, TREASURE, ENHYPEN and IVE; additional lineup and signature special stages will be unveiled at a later date. 

The 2022 MAMA Awards shared the official list of nominees on Oct. 24. BTS‘ J-Hope racked up a total of six nominations for his work on Jack in the Box and his collaborative efforts with Crush on “Rush Hour,” while V and Jimin scored solo noms in the best OST (original sound tracks) and song of the year categories — V for “Christmas Tree” (Our Beloved Summer) and Jimin alongside Ha Sung-woon for “With You” (Our Blues). BTS as a group earned five noms in the best male group, best vocal performance group and song of the year for “Yet to Come,” as well as artist of the year and worldwide fans’ choice top 10.

BLACKPINK also earned five nominations for this year’s MAMAs in the best female group, best dance performance female group and song of the year (“Pink Venom”), as well as artist of the year and worldwide fans’ choice top 10. Other artists who secured recognition for this year’s MAMAs include NCT Dream (five), SEVENTEEN (five), Stray Kids (five), IVE (five), NCT 127 (three), TWICE (three) and ITZY (three).

09 Nov 2022

Official HIGE DANdism’s ‘Subtitle’ Scores Third Week at No. 1 on Japan Hot 100

Official HIGE DANdism’s “Subtitle” sits at No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 for the third week in a row on the chart dated Nov. 9.

The “Pretender” hitmakers’ latest hit racked up over 20 million streams again after breaking the record for highest weekly streams of 2022 in Japan last week. The track logged 21,044,966 streams this week, up by 1.3 percent from last week (20,781,069), and is currently still the only song that has recorded over 20 million weekly streams this year. The drama theme also scored 3,098,136 video views, up by 23.7 percent (2,505,102), and keeps at No. 2 for the metric. The song has increased points overall for the fourth week in a row after also adding points in radio and karaoke.

Kenshi Yonezu’s “KICK BACK” follows at No. 2 on the Japan Hot 100 for the third week, also increasing streams from 15,051,990 to 15,337,414 (up 1.9 percent, No. 2). Although Chainsaw Man opener  appears to be slowing down in video, it still sits at No. 1 for the metric after racking up 4,060,395 views (down by 1.3 percent). The track also performed well in radio and karaoke.

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SixTONES’ new single “Good Luck!/Futari” launched with 398,252 CDs to bow at No. 3 on the Japan Hot 100. Although this figure is fewer by a little over 80,000 copies compared to the Johnny’s group’s previous single, “Watashi” (479,949 first-week copies), “Good Luck!” comes in at No. 1 for physical sales and look-ups, while also performing well in radio and Twitter (both No. 2). The track comes in at No. 23 for video, so while it fared relatively well in a number of metrics, it still wasn’t enough to overturn the two long-running mega-hits lodged at the top of the Japan Hot 100.

The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, Twitter mentions, YouTube and GYAO! video views, Gracenote look-ups and karaoke data.

See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Oct. 31 to Nov. 6, see here.

09 Nov 2022

‘Weird Al’ Yankovic Digs Up Original 16mm Footage of ‘Eat It’ Video for Tasty 4K Update: ‘It’s Literally Never Looked Better’

As he revels in the accolades for his Weird: The Al Yankovic Story biopic on Roku, parody king “Weird Al” Yankovic is sharing one of the biggest Easter eggs in his joke basket.

In the new film, the music video for Al’s Grammy-winning 1984 Michael Jackson parody “Eat It” is playing on a TV in the background (with Weird star Daniel Radcliffe’s face superimposed on his body), and according to the singer, the movie’s producers had to jump through some hoops to brush up the nearly four-decade-old footage.

“‘Eat It’ was my breakthrough music video, but the online version always appeared to have been recorded with a potato,” Al told Billboard about the degraded quality of the deliciously silly food-focused visual. “Now, with this new 4K version, it’s literally never looked better.”

During filming, producers asked Al’s team to find the best-quality version of the original “Eat It” clip, which led them on a deep-dive into the vaults, where they found the raw 16mm film footage from the 1983 shoot.

While they worried that handling the brittle original film stock — which had sat untouched in a storage unit for nearly 40 years — might result in it crumbling after so many years, it miraculously held up and ended up in the finished movie.

A new description of “Eat It” that accompanies the polished-up video explains: “In order to create that particular scene, the producers had to track down source material that was considerably better quality than the existing standard-definition version. So Yankovic went into his personal video vault and had all the original 16mm film that was shot for the video in 1983 lovingly transferred to 4K. Then, while traveling the country on his 2022 tour, he painstakingly re-edited the video on his laptop, matching the original video frame for frame. The resulting video is not without scratches and artifacts (even in a temperature-controlled storage unit, film will start to degrade after a few decades) but it is exponentially better quality than any version that has ever existed before.”

Watch the 4K “Eat It” video below.

09 Nov 2022

Alex Anwandter Talks ‘Maricoteca’: Dance Music with Shades of BDSM

After a three-year hiatus from releasing new music, Alex Anwandter has reemerged more built looking like a sex idol, and armed with an anthem for weekend reveries. “Maricoteca” is a risky wide-eyed NSFW statement, where spectators can see Anwandter fortifying his identity politics with a side of mischief — an alluring-yet-provocative queer artist with an unmatched talent for glimmering dance music. The single, however, is an excitingly pervasive dance cut that sinks into the sins of party culture and BDSM… and cautions, like the song affirms in Spanish, “Don’t look for your mother, nobody will save you here.”

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The video for “Maricoteca” was co-directed by himself and Josefina Alen and filmed in Buenos Aires. “I wrote ‘Maricoteca’ as an ode to losing yourself on the dancefloor, a place where you might find love, heartbreak, and the ‘perversion’ of society,” he explains in a statement. “‘Maricoteca’ is also the first song of a new album coming next year, which will explore dance culture and discothèques as the ultimate world where you can become who you really want to be.”

The Chilean multi-hyphenate artist broke into the spotlight at the start of the 2010s with the cult classic album Rebeldes, at a time when Chilean indie pop acts with a passion for electronic productions began to rise — the beloved Javiera Mena, Dënver, Adrianigual, and Astro. Anwandter has always displayed his insatiable knack for dancefloor music persuasions with a riveting queer perspective — look no further than his 2011 breakout single “Como puedes vivir contigo mismo,” which highlights New York ball culture à la Paris Is Burning, or to the iridescent synths and glowing production throughout his discography, including albums like Amiga (2016) and Latinoamericana (2018). 

Recently, Anwandter teamed up with Argentina’s Juliana Gattas of electro-pop duo Miranda! fame as the producer for her upcoming debut solo album, due out next year. The dance electronic artist is also the beatmaker behind Mexico’s esteemed Julieta Venegas’ highly anticipated eighth studio album Tu Historia, out Friday, Nov. 11. Billboard caught up with the now Brooklyn-based provocateur to discuss his recent rendezvous. 

Warning! NSFW. Press play with caution.

“Maricoteca” is your first single in three years — what did you do during that break?

The break had to do with the pandemic, obviously — but it wasn’t so much of a break because I was making this new album, and I’m going to start releasing singles; I was also producing two other albums, one for Julieta Venegas which comes out this Friday, and the debut album of Juliana Gattas of Miranda! which is coming out next year. So between these two albums, and my album, [it’s been] a lot.

Then “break” is the wrong word. 

All good. The world stopped and I stopped doing shows too. For me it is very important to be with people physically. I didn’t feel like doing shows on Zoom either.

Well, thank you for having this Zoom call with me and talking about your single. It’s a dance track about wildly partying, and indulging in pleasures. What inspired it?

Part of it was moving to New York, which put me in more direct contact with a subculture in dance music that have always been interested in. I’ve made dance music before, but I found it stimulating to be here, and experiencing it as well.

You helped spearhead the Chilean indie-pop wave of the 2010s. Talk to me about that transition — from having participated in that movement in your native country to now mixing new sounds with New York influences. 

It was a quite natural expansion actually. Being Chilean is not the only thing I am. I’m also Latino, and I’m part of the, quote unquote, queer community. Those identities are beginning to blur. For me it is a purpose to transcend identity politics in music. To be honest, I wanted to make a very entertaining record that was about having a good time, feeling pleasure — which is a pretty close thing to me — and in my case, in dance music. It’s a less cerebral and more corporeal record.

You bring to the forefront topics of identity that can feel profound because they are associated with a political movement. But at the same time the music is playful, and ready for the dance floor. How do you balance expressing your identity politics while making music to release?

That’s a good question. On the one hand, [it’s important for me] to make music that I find entertaining, music that really makes me dance and have a good time — and on the other hand, to be genuine, which I always tried to cultivate. Sincerity is very important in my art. And when you combine those two things, you can read an identity, but I’m not trying to sell it.

I find it a bit tiring that at this point in time identities have been commodified. This music has to do a little bit with getting away from discourses that don’t mean much anymore. It’s a little more abstract, but at the same time it’s much more entertaining, dark and mysterious.

Can you share some details about your upcoming album?

It’s an album that will explore dance music and dance culture as a place of expression and pleasure.

I heard you moved to Brooklyn — what brought you to New York? 

I moved to the U.S. five years ago. I lived two years in L.A. and moved three years ago to New York. It’s very crazy here, but it’s very crazy everywhere. Life is very crazy. [Laughs.] Chile is far away, but it’s still intense. I think the world is an intense place, and you just have to get used to the idea. [New York] is very entertaining and I have met very special people. I really like being in a place where people from all over the world live. That’s very nice for me.

Julieta Venegas’ next album, which you produced, maintains her unmistakable style, but your essence and impulse is also noticeable.

The collaboration was a dream for me, in the sense that I have always admired Julieta very much. She is one of the most talented musicians we have had in Latin America. It was a dream in the sense that we had a great time. We have been friends for ten years. I feel that this took our friendship to a different artistic level.

It was a really beautiful experience. As a composer and producer, it was incredible to see someone of Julieta’s level working. When I was with her in the studio, I was thinking, “Wow, that’s why Julieta is doing amazingly well — because she’s a genius.” To see a genius working for me was very impressive. I had a great time.

The minimalist guitar on Venegas’ “La Nostalgia” is beautiful. Her love letter to Tijuana is very poetic, a reflection on her hometown. In your case, do you feel nostalgia for Chile? 

I think I go there too much to feel nostalgic. I’m there all the time — I mean, not all the time, but I travel a lot to do shows. But I’m not a person who looks back, for now, maybe because I’ll feel nostalgic.

Aside from the crazy partying shown in the video for “Maricoteca,” it looks like you’ve been working out. Can you tell me a bit about your fitness routine? 

Is this also going to be in GQ Magazine? I do normal types of exercise, but nothing crazy. I think the music video has that gymnasium imagery — a prison for physical standards and stuff like that. It’s a very gay world, and [the video is] about being a fan of that.

This interview was originally conducted in Spanish.

09 Nov 2022

Which ‘Savage x Fenty Show Vol. 4′ Performance Was Your Favorite? Vote!

The fourth iteration of Rihanna‘s Savage x Fenty Show premiered on Amazon Prime Video on Wednesday (Nov. 9) with everyone from Cara Delevigne and Simu Liu to Sheryl Lee Ralph and Taraji P. Henson walking the runway in RiRi’s sexy creations.

During the fashion show, Anitta, Don Toliver, Maxwell and Burna Boy all hit the stage as well for a quartet of soulful and steamy musical numbers, and we want to know which one you couldn’t take your eyes off of.

Anitta was first up, and delivered a solo rendition of the baby-making Versions of Me cut “Practice” sans collaborators A$AP Ferg and HARV. Later, the Brazilian sensation got up close and personal with a male backup dancer for her global smash “Envolver.”

For his part, Toliver used the Savage x Fenty platform to tease a new song, which interpolated The S.O.S. Band’s debut 1980 single “Take Your Time (Do It Right)” before segueing into his 2021 track “Way Bigger” off Life of a DON.

Later, Maxwell kicked off his own performance with his animated doppelgänger fully immersed in water, leading to the real R&B legend emerging with a full band to run through his 1996 throwback hit “Whenever, Wherever, Whatever,” which earned a nomination for best male pop vocal performance at the 40th annual Grammy Awards.

Burna Boy closed out the musical numbers for the evening with a one-two punch of this summer’s “Last Last” followed by “It’s Plenty” from his sixth and latest studio album Love, Damini.

Vote for your favorite performance from Savage x Fenty Show Vol. 4 below.