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Source: Alvaro Keding / AMNH
Hip-Hop is at the American Museum Of Natural History. Ice Cold: An Exhibition of Hip-Hop Jewelry opened at the famed New York City museum on Thursday, May 9 and it is must attend for any proper Rap fans.
The special exhibition features an impressive collection of custom-made jewelry from fashionable current and old-school Hip-Hop stars including Nicki Minaj, A$AP Rocky, Slick Rick and Jay-Z. There are also cherished pieces from artists the culture has lost including the Notorious B.I.G., Biz Markie and Young Dolph.
Source: Alvaro Keding / AMNH
The exhibit is a continuance of the celebration of Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary and its aim is to highlight Hip-Hop’s cultural influence and its indelible impact on fashion and the globe in general. The pieces, which include watches, chains, rings and more, is being held in the Melissa and Keith Meister Gallery in the Museum’s Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals.
“Bringing the Ice Cold exhibit to the American Museum of Natural History is a testament to the cultural significance of this art form and culture,” said Ice Cold guest curator Vikki Tobak in a statement. “It’s time to celebrate the artists, jewelers, craftsmen, and everyday people who contributed to the storied history of hip-hop jewelry. This exhibit not only pays homage to hip-hop’s roots with pieces from Biz Markie and Jam Master Jay for example but also highlights its enduring impact on style and society with pieces from contemporary artists like Tyler, the Creator, A$AP Rocky, and FERG.”
Ice Cold follows Hip-Hop jewelry’s evolution over its 50 years, from gold rope chains to iced-out necklaces and watches. Besides Tobak, who authored Ice Cold: A Hip-Hop Jewelry History, the guest curators are Kevin “Coach K” Lee of Quality Control Music, and Karam Gill, the filmmaker behind the 2021 doc series ICE COLD.
And for any haters saying the jewels were just money poorly spent, Roxanne Shante dropped some knowledge at a preview of the exhibit. “If you wanted to think of it in a negative way, it made people think we took all our money and we spent it on jewelry,” said Shante, whose Juice Crew ring is part of the exhibit. “In all reality, we didn’t. Because some of those pieces were acquired after we purchased homes. You didn’t want to have that type of jewelry, and didn’t have a safe place to go put it in.”
Other advisors involved in putting the exhibit together include familiar names like Slick Rick (who is a senior advisor, naturally), Lenny S. of Roc Nation and jewelry designer Alex Moss.
Source: aqua / hiphopwired
This writer’s favorite piece, of many, had to be Ghostface Killah’s eagle bracelet aka The Wings of the Wu. Bong bong.
Source: aqua / hiphopwired
You can see Ice Cold: An Exhibition of Hip-Hop Jewelry, which runs through January 5, 2025, at the cost of general admission, which for NYC residents is “pay what you wish.” Check out some detailed photos of the exhibit below.
Source: Alvaro Keding / AMNH
Source: Alvaro Keding / AMNH
Source: Alvaro Keding / AMNH
Billboardhttps://www.billboard.com
Music Charts, News, Photos & VideoThu, 09 May 2024 17:05:40 +0000en-US
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1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.4200641670Travis Kelce’s Teammate Recalls How Tight End Was ‘Blushing’ When Taylor Swift Went to Her First Gamehttps://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/taylor-swift-made-travis-kelce-blush-first-nfl-game-teammate-1235678832/
Thu, 09 May 2024 17:05:30 +0000https://www.billboard.com/?p=1235678832
Travis Kelce was enchanted to have Taylor Swift at her first Kansas City Chiefs game in October, his teammate recalls.
On the latest episode of the Like a Farmer podcast Wednesday (May 8), long snapper James Winchester opened up about the pop star’s first Chiefs game at Arrowhead Stadium toward the beginning of her romance with Kelce — who was apparently rosy-cheeked due to her attending the Chiefs’ match against the Chicago Bears. “We’d heard rumors,” Winchester said. “We kinda heard, but [were] just like, ‘Ah, whatever.’”
It wasn’t until Winchester had a conversation on the sidelines with Chiefs equipment manager Jay White that he realized Swift was actually there in the flesh. “I just made this comment, I said, ‘Jay, I think this whole thing is just made up. I think it’s just a big rumor,’” the athlete recalled. “And Jay looked at me and he goes, ‘No dude, she’s here … she’s right there.’”
“I walked up to Trav,” Winchester continued. “I just said, ‘Hey, man, that’s cool she’s here. He’s like, ‘What do you mean? Did they put her up on the jumbotron or something?’ I’m like, ‘No, Jay just told me. That’s awesome, man, good for you.’ He’s just kind of smiling and, you know, blushing.”
The University of Oklahoma alum also revealed that he was present at the very beginning of Swift and Kelce’s love story, as he and his teammate both attended one of the “Anti-Hero” singer’s Eras Tour shows at Arrowhead in July. That’s where Kelce had originally intended on wooing his now-girlfriend by slipping her a bracelet with his phone number on it, an unsuccessful plan that the tight end lamented on his New Heights podcast shortly before he started dating Swift that summer.
Three months later, Swift made her first of many visits to Arrowhead to watch Kelce play, an event that absolutely blew up the internet at the time. Following the Chiefs’ victory against the Bears, the couple rode off into the distance together in Kelce’s convertible — and the rest was history.
“Later on that night I got to meet her, and the first thing she said was, ‘Hey, you’re the guy with the cute kids,’ because we’d had my son and daughter out on the field,” Winchester added on the podcast. “So I’m like, ‘Hey, I think I just became a T. Swift fan.’ We’re the same age, so I always heard her music. I’m a fan of her, yeah. Being around her this year and hearing everything … she’s just such a genuine person.”
Watch Winchester’s Like a Farmer interview below.
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]] >1235678832How Seth England Turned Big Loud Into A Multifaceted, Mainstream Hit Machinehttps://www.billboard.com/music/country/seth-england-big-loud-country-executive-of-the-year-2024-1235677389/
Thu, 09 May 2024 17:03:46 +0000https://www.billboard.com/?p=1235677389
By the time Morgan Wallen began working on his 2023 album, One Thing at a Time, he was no hit-making novice: He had earned six Billboard Country Airplay No. 1s, and his previous release, Dangerous: The Double Album, had spent 10 weeks atop the Billboard 200.
Still, Wallen listened when Seth England — partner/CEO at Big Loud, where Wallen is signed in a joint deal with Mercury Records/Republic — suggested he include a particular song on the new album.
“Musically, Seth has one of the best ears in the business,” Wallen says. “On my last record, there was a song that I almost didn’t record, but he felt strongly about it and I trusted him.” That song was “Thinkin’ ’Bout Me,” which ended up ruling Billboard’s Country Airplay chart for five weeks last year, peaking at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and going triple-platinum.
For nearly two decades, England’s golden ear, entrepreneurial skill and penchant for strategic risk-taking have transformed what was once a boutique music publishing operation into a multifaceted hit machine with label and management components. Big Loud was named Billboard’s top country label of 2023, one of 24 year-end charts the label and its artists landed on.
Much of that success came courtesy of stadium-filler Wallen. One Thing at a Time led the Billboard 200 for 19 nonconsecutive weeks, tying Garth Brooks’ 1991 album, Ropin’ the Wind, for the most weeks at No. 1 on the chart for a country album. Wallen’s One Night at a Time World Tour, which spanned three continents and over 50 shows last year, won him the top country touring artist honor at the Billboard Music Awards. But Wallen isn’t Big Loud’s only standout signee: HARDY broke through in 2023, earning Country Airplay hits with “Truck Bed” and the Lainey Wilson collaboration “wait in the truck,” and this year, Ashley Cooke notched her first top 20 Country Airplay song with “Your Place.” Big Loud’s roster also includes rising country artists ERNEST, Hailey Whitters, Charles Wesley Godwin, Lily Rose, Stephen Wilson Jr. and Jake Worthington.
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But more than chasing hit records, England, 37, has cultivated and supported a dynamic creative community — one with significant impact on music’s mainstream — at Big Loud.
On a shelf in his office at the label’s Nashville HQ, England has a small replica of Hitsville, U.S.A., home of the first recording studio and headquarters of Motown Records, one of his biggest inspirations. Close by sits a first pressing of The Miracles’ 1960 hit “Shop Around,” written by Smokey Robinson and Motown founder Berry Gordy.
“I’ve walked [Motown’s] buildings in Detroit because I’m so fed by the energy they had,” England says. “It wasn’t without complication, because when you’re so intertwined that way, the successes are big, but the failures sometimes hurt more because you’re all trying together.”
England grew up in small-town Illinois and studied music business and marketing at Greenville University, pursuing Nashville internships during his college summers. One was at publisher Harlan Howard Songs, where he met Sara Knabe (now Big Loud head of A&R), who connected him in 2006 with Big Loud Shirt Publishing, founded by songwriter Craig Wiseman (Tim McGraw’s “Live Like You Were Dying”).
“He was like, ‘I’ll do whatever needs to be done.’ He had volunteered to intern for the summer, even though he wasn’t getting college credit for it,” Wiseman recalls, noting that England’s initiative extended to even pulling weeds outside the office. “I thought, ‘This is an industrious young guy.’ ” England aspired to become a song plugger, and Wiseman eventually granted him a three-month tryout.
“He gave me a trial by fire as a publisher,” says England, who began pitching songs, including “Hillbilly Bone,” recorded by Blake Shelton and Trace Adkins. His talent for calculated risk quickly became apparent: During that time, the then-22-year-old directly pitched the song “Ain’t Back Yet” to Kenny Chesney.
“He hung on to an email I had sent and emailed the song to Kenny himself,” Wiseman recalls. “Seth has always been a cowboy; he’s like a six-shooter and has been from day one. That’s what you got to be.” The song became a top five Hot Country Songs hit for Chesney in 2010. About a year later, Big Loud Shirt Publishing had “an implosion on the business side,” Wiseman says. “Basically, I fired all the adults in the building and realized, ‘Me and the intern that pulls weeds are going to be running this company.’ It was the best thing that ever happened.”
Seth England
Over the subsequent years, England rose through the ranks, eventually becoming vp of A&R. In 2008, he helped bring another future Big Loud leader to Nashville for the first time: writer-producer Joey Moi, best known then for his work with Nickelback.
“I would go to events with him and probably shake hands with 50 to 75 people I’d never met before,” Moi says. “He was effortlessly introducing me to the entire industry. He’s a natural-born CEO. And he’s such a good pitch guy. If he wants something — he’s going to convince you.”
Moi moved to Nashville from Canada, and in short order, he, England and Wiseman partnered to launch Big Loud Management in 2011. “I’m a song person and Craig’s all creative. Seth’s that grounding force to make sure the ship is on course,” Moi says of the trio’s complementary talents. “That’s the magical thing about our partnership — we’ve all occupied our corners, and none of us is trying to be each other.”
The trio took an artist-development approach with its first three management signings: Chris Lane, Dallas Smith and duo Florida Georgia Line (Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard), which would put Big Loud on the map. FGL’s debut single, “Cruise,” released on Republic Nashville, ruled Hot Country Songs for 24 weeks, hit No. 4 on the Hot 100 and was certified diamond by the RIAA. The duo, which is now on hiatus, has 16 Country Airplay chart-toppers under its belt.
The act also arrived at a pivotal time. In the early 2010s, England watched how streaming boosted Sweden’s music industry into a rebound — and though country music in general was slow to embrace it, he was an early believer and took steps to ensure FGL’s streaming success. “I thought, ‘This is the future,’ ” he says. Initially, his team sifted through data to create their own streaming reports; now Big Loud has a Ph.D. statistician on staff.
England’s bullishness on streaming directly influenced his release strategy for FGL’s “H.O.L.Y.” in 2016. Sensing the song “could be bigger than your standard country moves,” he brought it to Spotify’s then-global head of country programming John Marks, who in turn connected England with pop-oriented Spotify executives Doug Ford and Mike Biggane.
“I sat in a Manhattan recording studio and played [“H.O.L.Y.”] for them and they were floored,” England recalls. “I believe we got the cover and the first or second slot on [the all-genre] New Music Friday.” When “H.O.L.Y.” came out, he continues, “it was reactive right away. I could’ve gotten in big trouble when people really thought I was renegading too hard. But I didn’t want that rollout to happen without maximum potential. You win some, you lose some — but we won that one.”
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In 2015, England and his team launched Big Loud Records, with Lane and Wallen their first two signees. In the process, they created an all-inclusive powerhouse of publishing, management and label services, where artist-writers like HARDY and ERNEST pen hits for a range of artists (like Wallen) while propelling their own recording careers.
“[Seth’s] expertise is connecting people and I have a passion for connecting people, so on the business side of things, I look up to him in how he runs the label and is a manager and manages relationships within work, which can be hard to do when you are really good friends with people you’re doing business with,” ERNEST says. “He has provided a perfect playground for me to develop my skill over the past decade.” HARDY is still grateful for England “taking a chance on me early as a songwriter — not a guy playing shows and showcasing my songs only — and saying, ‘I think this guy could be an artist.’ ”
Big Loud Management guides roster artists including Wallen (whom England co-manages with Kathleen Flaherty), HARDY, ERNEST, Cooke and Worthington. While that might seem like a conflict of interest, Moi says England’s experience as a manager only enhances his work as label CEO. “Some managers can come through a record company and be very combative,” Moi explains. “They’re always thinking they have to fight for their artists. Seth’s able to see that perspective right away, and it diffuses any kind of combative process that might be there.” England says multiple artists outside of Big Loud have approached him to manage them, but he has turned all of them down: “That’s not the centerpiece of my mission. My mission is Big Loud.”
In recent years, that mission has required England, in his capacity as both manager and label head, to offer difficult guidance for Wallen, who was caught on video using a racial slur in 2021 and more recently was arrested on three felony counts in connection to a chair-throwing incident at Eric Church’s Nashville bar.
“Morgan and I have always had a very close relationship. We’ve onboarded some new teammates in his life to give him well-rounded help. In a lot of cases, that decays relationships between manager and artist; in his case, it feels like the best year we’ve had,” England says. “But [we always ask] the same question: ‘How are you? What do you need for what is going on?’ I think if you’re a good manager, you’ll know when the right time is to ask that. We don’t condone it. We don’t enable it, we don’t encourage it. We trust that he’s making progress and is heading in the right direction.”
For now, between shows on tour, Wallen is in the studio working on his next album, which England says “is staying true to who he is, but there’s a new creative inspiration happening. There are different sides of him and music he has listened to that will fuel a few of the choices on this next album.”
England has led Big Loud’s progression into a multifaceted music organization, creating independent ventures under its publishing and label umbrellas. In 2019, Big Loud Records teamed with singer-songwriter Nicolle Galyon to launch label and publishing company Songs & Daughters with a combined roster including Whitters, Tiera Kennedy and Lauren Watkins. In 2021, Big Loud introduced imprint Big Loud Rock, which has helped push HARDY’s music to rock radio. Other partners include ERNEST’s publishing company, Cadillac Music, a joint venture with Severance Records, and Back Blocks Music, founded and run by publishing executive Rakiyah Marshall, who is married to England. (The couple have two children.)
Big Loud also recently announced a deal with Mercury Records/Republic, which expanded its distribution services for Big Loud artists beyond the initial three it had already worked with (Wallen, Rose and Dylan Gossett) to the entire Big Loud roster. And in November, Big Loud partnered with Miranda Lambert and Jon Randall to launch Big Loud Texas. The partnership with Lambert is multidimensional: Following her April move to Republic, Big Loud will handle her country radio promotion and marketing.
Over the past year, Big Loud grew even more, adding offices and label managers in Australia and the United Kingdom and bolstering its Toronto branch. But despite occasional rumors that the expanding company is on the market, England says, “The fairest and shortest answer is no.”
Big Loud 2.0, he continues, will “spread wider and collaborate faster. I’m a subscriber [to the idea of] having people around you that you want to be like. Certainly, that’s [Republic executives] Monte and Avery [Lipman] for me. I’m not saying Big Loud is trying to become Republic Records in any way, but we are in a new era — making sure we are staying best in class and, most of all, providing for the artists.”
This story will appear in the May 11, 2024, issue of Billboard.
]] >1235677389WME’s Jay Williams Wins Billboard Country Power Players’ Choice Awardhttps://www.billboard.com/pro/jay-williams-wme-billboard-country-power-players-choice-award-2024/
Thu, 09 May 2024 17:03:44 +0000https://www.billboard.com/?post_type=billboard_pro_post&p=1235677499]] >
Billboard Pro members have selected Jay Williams, partner and co-head of WME’s Nashville office, as the recipient of this year’s Billboard Country Power Players’ Choice Award. The peer-voted accolade honors the country music executive who Billboard Pro members believe made the most impact across the industry in the past year.
Williams helps guide the careers of artists ranging from stadium and arena headliners to rising acts, with a roster including Dierks Bentley, Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Brothers Osborne, Chris Stapleton, Luke Combs, Lainey Wilson, Ashley McBryde, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, Marty Stuart and Zach Top. In 2023, WME expanded in music beyond mainstream country, acquiring Red 11 Music and True Grit, which brought artists such as Charles Wesley Godwin and Cody Jinks into the fold.
Williams began his agency career over two decades ago in the William Morris mailroom, ascending the ranks and transitioning to WME in the 2009 merger. Earlier this year, he was featured in Billboard’s 2024 Power 100 list and won his third talent agent of the year honor at the CMA’s Touring Awards.
“I’m incredibly grateful and humbled by this honor,” Williams says. “Our WME team in Nashville is unparalleled, and I’m proud every day to be surrounded by their knowledge, expertise, passion and teamwork. We help and learn from each other constantly. This leads to having the strongest presence on festival lineups and dozens of successful stadium, arena, amphitheater and theater tours. It has been a great year, especially with the additions with Red 11 and True Grit and seeing huge growth in areas outside of mainstream country.”
This story will appear in the May 11, 2024, issue of Billboard.
]] >1235677499Bryan Adams Calls Out Canadian Armed Forces Over Bearskin Caps: ‘End the Cruelty and Go Fur-Free’https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/bryan-adams-slams-canadian-armed-forces-bearskin-caps-1235678769/
Thu, 09 May 2024 16:46:16 +0000https://www.billboard.com/?p=1235678769Billboard.]] >
In 1998, Bryan Adams was promoted to the rank of Officer of the Order of Canada for his contributions to popular music and his philanthropic work across a number of causes. Twenty-six years later, the (Everything I Do) I Do It for You” singer’s commitment to animal rights has landed him a new target that’s quite close to home — the Canadian Armed Forces.
In a new PETA video shared exclusively with Billboard, the Grammy winner details how bears suffer harrowing, drawn-out deaths for the fur used to make decorative headpieces worn by the CAF’s Ceremonial Guards. As PETA’s graphic, investigative footage depicts, recreational hunters in Ontario bait the animals with buckets of food before shooting them with crossbows and then disemboweling and dismembering them. While hunters save the bears’ body parts as trophies, according to PETA, they also sell the skins to buyers who make ceremonial headgear.
“Shot bears don’t always die right away. Desperate and in pain, some bears flee the hunters and endure a slow, painful death from infection or blood loss,” Adams narrates in the video. “Nursing mothers are sometimes shot, leaving behind cubs who starve, unable to survive on their own.”
“The Canadian government is endorsing this cruelty by using real bear fur on its military caps, even though military-grade faux bear fur now exists,” the musician concludes in the video. (PETA U.K. and luxury faux furrier ECOPEL have developed a replacement state-of-the-art faux fur for use.) “Tell the Canadian government to end the cruelty and go fur-free.”
In a statement to Billboard, Andrée-Anne Poulin, a spokesperson for Canada’s Department of National Defence, explained that the DND and the CAF have already switched over to using synthetic fur “where possible,” citing the shift away from the fur-lined winter accessories that dominated the 19th century.
“It’s important to note that most of the bearskin hats worn by the Ceremonial Guard are more than 20 years old and are well-maintained from the thorough care they have received over the decades,” Poulin says. “DND/CAF refurbish and extend the life of the existing hats, taking every effort to only re-use bearskins that were previously acquired.”
Animal rights are not the only cause Adams is raising his flag for. In February, the Grammy winner shared “Someone’s Daughter, Someone’s Son,” an original song written for the Lorna Tucker-helmed documentary of the same name that stands as call to action against the worldwide struggle of homelessness.
Watch Bryan Adams and PETA’s new video calling for the Canadian Armed Forces to end its use of bearskin caps. (Warning: The video contains graphic content.)
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]] >1235678769Supreme Court Rules Against Warner Music In Producer’s Battle Over Flo Rida Songhttps://www.billboard.com/pro/supreme-court-ruling-warner-music-producer-flo-rida-song/
Thu, 09 May 2024 16:33:01 +0000https://www.billboard.com/?post_type=billboard_pro_post&p=1235678800
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday sided with a Florida music producer in a legal battle against Warner Music over a song by the rapper Flo Rida, ruling that he can seek monetary damages dating all the way back to the 2008 release of the track.
Resolving a case that music companies had called “exceptionally important,” the justices ruled by a 6-3 vote in favor of Sherman Nealy, a Miami producer who sued Warner over claims that Flo Rida’s “In the Ayer” featured an unlicensed sample from the 1984 song “Jam the Box.”
The case before the high court dealt with a major unresolved question: Are copyright damages limited to just the last three years before a case was filed? Or can owners like Nealy seek damages ranging back decades, adding potentially many more millions to the total?
In Thursday’s ruling, the justices said it was the latter, affirming a lower appeals court that had rejected the three-year cap. “There is no time limit on monetary recovery,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her brief opinion. “So a copyright owner possessing a timely claim for infringement is entitled to damages, no matter when the infringement occurred.”
Though it dealt with esoteric questions of copyright law, Nealy’s case was closely-watched by the music industry, which has seen a large increase in decades-delayed copyright lawsuits over the past decade, targeting Led Zeppelin, U2, Meatloaf and many others. Thursday’s ruling, which creates a far larger potential prize in such cases, could encourage even more accusers to try their hand at litigation.
Crucially, however, the ruling sidestepped questions that could have created an even bigger impact. In her opinion, Kagan explicitly noted that she was not deciding an even-more-important issue: Whether someone like Nealy could file a lawsuit in the first place many years after his song was first infringed.
That question, which has divided lower courts in dueling camps with two different approaches, will need to be resolved in a future case. In Thursday’s decision, Kagan simply said that, assuming that such years-delayed cases can indeed be filed, then there should be no cap on how far back an accuser can seek to recover money.
“We do not resolve today which of those two rules should govern a copyright claim’s timeliness,” the justice wrote, referring to the split over the issue. “But we reject applying a judicially invented damages limit to convert one of them into the other.”
Neither side immediately returned requests for comment on the decision.
Nealy sued Atlantic Records, Warner Chappell and Artist Publishing Group in Florida federal court in 2018, arguing he had never actually granted them a valid license for his “Jam the Box” to be sampled in Flo Rida’s “In the Ayer,” which reached No. 9 on the Hot 100 after being released in July 2008.
In 2021, the judge overseeing ruled that Nealy couldn’t win any money from earlier than 2015, citing the three-year cap on damages. He cited a 2014 Supreme Court ruling on the movie Raging Bull, which seemed to impose that limit by saying that copyright accusers can “gain retrospective relief running only three years back.”
But earlier this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit overturned that ruling and said he could seek damages going back to the release of Flo Rida’s track. Adopting a so-called “discovery rule” approach used by certain other courts, the appeals court cited the fact that Nealy claimed he had only learned of the illegal sample in 2016.
Warner quickly appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, warning that the “discovery” approach would unfairly expand the “financial exposure” of a copyright defendant and potentially lead to frivolous lawsuits that aimed to “extract settlements.”
“Deprived of a predictable limitations period and faced with expensive, time-consuming, and difficult litigation in order to defend years-old uses of copyrighted works, defendants will often be left with no choice but to settle claims early even in the absence of wrongdoing—or potentially never enter valuable agreements in the first place,” Warner wrote.
Ahead of Thursday’s ruling, labels and publishers were watching Warner’s case closely. In a brief filed last year, the Recording Industry Association of America and National Music Publishers’ Association called the case “vitally important to the music industry.”
“Because copyrights are the music industry’s most consequential asset, music labels and music publishers regularly find themselves both enforcing and defending copy right lawsuits,” lawyers for RIAA and NMPA wrote. “Without a clear national rule setting the temporal limits of recoverable damages, amici and their members face serious uncertainty.”
Go read the entire Supreme Court ruling here.
]] >1235678800How Adult R&B Became a Young Person’s Game On the Airwaveshttps://www.billboard.com/pro/adult-r-and-b-airplay-more-competitive/
Thu, 09 May 2024 16:01:00 +0000https://www.billboard.com/?post_type=billboard_pro_post&p=1235677142
In March, the singer Maeta hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart after a dogged 35-week climb — the second-longest in the history of the format. “Through the Night” is a ballad modeled after seductive soul classics. But Maeta is 23, far younger than the veterans who often reign supreme in the world of adult R&B — singers like Charlie Wilson, with 10 No. 1 singles in the format, and Kem (8).
Maeta is not the only younger artist venturing into this territory, however. The last week of March, for example, just three adult R&B staples were in the top ten on the chart. They were vying for position with a younger generation represented by Victoria Monet, Muni Long, Tyla, Mahalia, and SZA.
Historically, adult R&B is “where you would go to hear the music of legacy acts,” says Mike Street, Audacy’s format VP of mainstream hip-hop and R&B. “Then you would sprinkle in some newer acts. You’re starting to have to put more of these newer, talented artists in the same space as the staples and let them slug it out.”
And “post-pandemic, the younger R&B is now dominating,” according to Colby Tyner, svp of programming for Radio One. “It’s tougher for some of the core adult R&B artists to break through today because they’re competing with SZA and Muni Long.”
Many believe this competition has re-energized this space on the airwaves. “It feels like the younger artists are reviving the format,” says George “Geo” Cook, head of content and audience for Service Broadcasting Group, which includes Smooth R&B 105.7 in Dallas. “It got a little stagnant just focusing on the staples.”
“We think the format should be for all R&B artists,” adds J Valentine, who manages Tank (seven No. 1s on Adult R&B Airplay). “It shouldn’t sound old.”
But as adult R&B’s priorities shift, some artists may be left out in the cold. At this point, “the chart is named wrong,” says Michael Paran, founder of P Music Group, which manages Wilson, Babyface, and Jodeci, among others. “Let’s call it what it is: It’s just R&B. The sad thing for me is the name [‘adult R&B’] was probably the only thing that was giving any kind of leverage to my acts like Charlie and Babyface. And there aren’t a lot of acts doing it at that age and actually winning.”
The adult R&B format has been around for more than three decades. Tony Gray, president of Gray Communications Inc., helped launch three of these stations: V103 in Chicago in 1988, WALR in Atlanta in 1989, and WYLD in New Orleans in 1990. At the time, a younger generation of listeners was becoming increasingly enamored with hip-hop or punchy fusions like New Jack Swing. The new format “would appeal more directly to the adult audience,” Gray says.
Billboard launched its Adult R&B Airplay chart in the fall of 1993. The ranking “is expected to benefit such artists as vocalist Phyllis Hyman and instrumentalists Grover Washington Jr. and Najee,” the magazine reported. “Record companies will now be able to build a story that can be used to gain acceptance at R&B mainstream stations, and hopefully for general market AC stations,” Terri Rossi, Billboard’s director of operations, said at the time.
During the streaming era, the format has served as a haven for golden-voiced singers like Leela James and Ledisi. But it has not often functioned as a springboard for artists “to gain acceptance” at either mainstream R&B/hip-hop stations, which typically focus on hip-hop, or Adult Contemporary outlets, which tend to ignore R&B altogether. Adult R&B was often “reserved for people who didn’t have a shot on the mainstream side,” says Rex Rideout, a longtime producer and songwriter and management partner at Benchmark Entertainment.
“There was a time when there were some barriers,” Valentine acknowledges.
Because of the perception that adult R&B could be receptive but also potentially confining for those with mainstream ambitions, younger singers could be wary of it. “Artists were like, ‘I don’t want to be on the adult chart, that makes me old,’” Rideout explains.
And the major labels weren’t always enthusiastic about the format either. “What I’ve been told by many people on the label side is they don’t really like the R&B format because it didn’t generate revenue on streaming like the mainstream side,” Tyner says. Labels typically make money from artist’s streams; it’s not always easy to justify paying for radio promotion with little return.
But as hip-hop became the dominant form of contemporary music, adult R&B’s unwavering commitment to an underserved genre started to work in its favor. “When hip-hop became so prevalent, it pushed a lot of the R&B records to the side at the mainstream format,” says Jeff Robinson, who co-manages Maeta along with Jeanine McLean. “A lot of great records were not getting airplay over there. Younger R&B artists needed a home.” And some of them — like Daniel Caesar and H.E.R. — were welcomed at adult R&B.
It also helps that adult R&B stations are now enjoying excellent ratings relative to their mainstream counterparts. Radio listening is down overall, but for those who believe the airwaves still have influence, Nielsen’s top 10 stations — ranked according to the percentage of radio listeners tuned into a particular station in a given market — included four different adult R&B outlets in February. By way of comparison, there was just a single mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop station in the top 50.
In this environment, it’s becoming common to see more interplay between the two formats. “There’s a lot of sharing going on in both directions, “ says Chris Malone, program director of KJLH, the Los Angeles R&B station owned by Stevie Wonder.
And importantly for adult R&B, some artists are finding that they can use it as a launching pad to reach a wider audience on the airwaves. Lionel Ridenour, president of Anchor Promotions, used this strategy last year when promoting October London, whose “Back to Your Place” was a pitch-perfect homage to 1970s Marvin Gaye. (Maeta is now testing mainstream stations as well.)
In other words, now that more young artists are fighting for airplay at adult R&B stations, the format has regained some of the power that Rossi hoped it would have when it launched. Adult R&B “is now a place to incubate records; it’s become more of an active participant in terms of breaking these acts,” Ridenour says. “When the mainstream side is so hip-hop heavy, it takes a while to get an R&B record going. Adult R&B airplay gives you an opportunity to get audience and seed the market for mainstream.”
One effect of the sharing between formats is that adult R&B becomes less distinct — increasingly, it’s no longer the case that the format mainly offers a space for artists that aren’t played elsewhere. It’s a no-brainer to play Muni Long’s “Made for Me” on these stations; it has the gloss and bounce of vintage hits from Brian McKnight and Mariah Carey, and a sterling vocal from Long, steely but tender. At the same time, “Made for Me” is also on mainstream radio, on prominent streaming service playlists, and all over TikTok.
Paran welcomes the newcomers — they prove that “the adult R&B vibe is resonating with a broad audience” — but he knows that radio playlist space is limited. “The last couple years have been the hardest ever when it comes to radio promotion,” he says. And veteran R&B singers aren’t welcomed at other formats; while artists soaring on the Hot 100 can waltz over to adult R&B if they choose to, that’s often a one-way street.
“I can see why it could be a concern to some of the older artists as the charts are being dominated now by younger-leaning folks,” Robinson says. But he remains hopeful that there’s “room for everyone.”
]] >1235677142Lay Bankz’s ‘Tell Ur Girlfriend’ Is No. 1 for a Third Week on TikTok Billboard Top 50https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/lay-bankz-number-1-tiktok-billboard-top-50-third-week-1235677156/
Thu, 09 May 2024 16:00:00 +0000https://www.billboard.com/?p=1235677156
Lay Bankz’s “Tell Ur Girlfriend” is No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart for a third week, followed by Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby,” which vaults to No. 2 on the May 11-dated tally.
The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity April 29-May 5. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
“Tell Ur Girlfriend” tops the chart for the third week in a row amid its continued dance trend. It concurrently accumulates 10.9 million official U.S. streams toward the Billboard charts April 26-May 2, according to Luminate, good enough for a return to its peak so far of No. 58 on the multimetric Billboard Hot 100; the vast majority of its Hot 100 points come from streaming.
It’s followed by a new challenger for No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 in “Million Dollar Baby,” which debuts at No. 2. That’s the same spot as its Hot 100 premiere, thanks to 38 million streams.
The story of “Million Dollar Baby” begins on TikTok; Richman debuted the sound on April 13, and the original clip has since racked up more than 9 million views. A subsequent clip on April 23 cleared that number by accumulating over 13 million so far, with the official full-song release coming on April 26.
A dance trend featuring the song has followed, alongside lip-synch clips, plus a photo trend where users post pictures of them meeting celebrities.
Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” jumps to No. 3 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 after debuting at No. 9 on the May 4 ranking. The tune is buoyed by a dance trend as well as multiple lip-synching videos, some highlighting the “Someone pour me up a double shot of whiskey” verse for comedic effect to imply that they need a stiff drink.
“A Bar Song” reigns on the Hot Country Songs chart for a second week and also leaps 27-3 on the Hot 100, garnering a 67% increase in streams to 35 million.
After Shaboozey, two more songs hit the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s top five for the first time: Laila!’s “Like That!” at No. 4, and Phoebe Bridgers’ slowed-down version of “Scott Street,” which rounds out the top five. “Like That!” has been a steady gainer since April, debuting at No. 19 on the April 20-dated survey; most uploads incorporate its “Do you want me?/ Do you wanna love me like that?” chorus, sometimes accompanied by a caption in which the user is trying to distract their significant other from something by dancing and lip-synching the lyrics. “Scott Street,” meanwhile, remains tied to its aforementioned assortment of clips soundtracking reunions, emotional moments and more.
Then there’s Johnny Cash’s “The Chicken In Black,” the second-highest debut after “Million Dollar Baby,” premiering at No. 6. Released in 1984, the song spent 11 weeks on the Hot Country Songs chart that year, peaking at No. 45 amid a general downturn in chart success for the country legend.
“The Chicken In Black” has new life four decades later due to a TikTok trend generally using creators’ pets, with users holding their (usually) small pets or even children like guns while mouthing the “Stick ‘em up, everybody, I’m robbin’ this place” lyric.
It’s turned into chart-eligible streams for Cash, with 1.3 million April 26-May 2, a 266% leap.
See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 here. You can also tune in each Friday to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the premiere of the chart’s top 10 countdown at 3 p.m. ET, with reruns heard throughout the week.
]] >1235677156Gracie Abrams Says She ‘Blacked Out’ While Singing With Taylor Swift on the Eras Tourhttps://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/gracie-abrams-taylor-swift-eras-tour-duet-black-out-1235678716/
Thu, 09 May 2024 15:58:12 +0000https://www.billboard.com/?p=1235678716
Just call her Professor Swift. Gracie Abrams made her late-night interview debut Wednesday (May 8) and opened up on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon about how touring with Taylor Swift on The Eras Tour felt like going to pop-star college, which culminated in some field experience when the “Anti-Hero” singer invited her to perform a duet during one of the shows — an event during which Abrams says she “blacked out.”
“It’s a real masterclass to watch her do what she does,” the California native — who has previously performed on late-night programs — told Fallon on his show, where she later performed her new single “Risk.” “I felt like I was at college for this job. I watched every single one of her shows that I was lucky enough to open. I watched from every place possible in each stadium, just trying to pick up on how she’s able to do what she does.”
“What she does so unbelievably well in these kinds of rooms is, sometimes you feel like you’re on Mars and sometimes you feel like the only two people in the stadium are you and her because she’s just so connected to her audience,” Abrams continued. “It’s really magical and to have been in their orbit for a summer was a crazy dream.”
The musician went on to recall the surreal experience of singing her breakthrough 2020 hit “I Miss You, I’m Sorry” with Swift during the surprise song section of one of her Cincinnati shows in July. Abrams’ supporting set had been canceled earlier in the night due to rain delays, leading the 14-time Grammy winner to graciously give her opener a second shot at performing a couple hours later.
“Even Taylor can’t control the sky, apparently,” Abrams joked to Fallon. “My set was canceled for safety reasons. Then Taylor texted me being like, ‘Hey, come out with me and do ‘I Miss You, I’m Sorry?” We ran it one time in her room and then did it there. I blacked out.”
Abrams and Fallon also revealed during the interview that they’d been seated next to each other at the 2024 Met Gala two nights prior. “We danced the whole time,” the “21” singer told viewers. “You can’t be sitting when it’s Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.”
Grande headlined a short fairytale-inspired concert at this year’s event, and at one point was joined by her Wicked costar for a duet of Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey’s “When You Believe.” “It’s pretty remarkable being in the same room as voices like theirs,” Abrams added. “They’re just unbelievable, as we all know.”
Watch Abrams on The Tonight Show below.
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]] >1235678716Naomi Osaka Reveals Whether She’s Team Kendrick Lamar or Team Drakehttps://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/naomi-osaka-team-kendrick-lamar-drake-feud-1235678683/
Thu, 09 May 2024 15:32:40 +0000https://www.billboard.com/?p=1235678683
Naomi Osaka might lead a pacifist lifestyle, but that hasn’t stopped her from indulging in the spicy Drake and Kendrick Lamar feud as a fan of the genre.
The tennis star shared her thoughts on the beef sweeping the rap world following her match on Wednesday (May 8) at the Italian Open, and although the 26-year-old identifies as a “neutral party” in the bout, she seems to be riding with Kendrick.
“Kendrick dropped some heat. That last song,” she began while revealing “Not Like Us” provided the soundtrack to her pre-match playlist. “That last song is amazing. And I played it walking onto the court. Currently, I think Kendrick’s doing another song.”
With Drake getting the final word in for now with “The Heart Part 6,” Osaka wants to see Kendrick respond with another diss track.
“Yeah, sorry,” she said when asked if he should drop again. “Technically, Kendrick dropped that song and then Drake dropped ‘The Heart Part 6,’ so technically Kendrick could drop another two if he wanted to.”
Osaka is thrilled with the influx of new K. Dot tunes since he typically doesn’t flood the market. “And me being a Kendrick fan, I haven’t gotten this many Kendrick songs in a very long time so if he wants to keep dropping,” she concluded.
The bouncy Mustard-produced “Not Like Us” has Osaka on the verge of another victory in the round of 64. She’s built a healthy lead in set two against Marta Kostyuk before play was suspended due to weather on Thursday (May 9).
Outside of being a hip-hop fan, Osaka has ties to the rap world through dating Cordae. The DMV-bred rapper and four-time Grand Slam champion welcomed a baby girl — the couple’s first child — last summer.
As far as the Drake-Kendrick feud, it’s been permeating all walks of life. Past the tennis world, President Joe Bidens’s team even made a video clowning Donald Trump earlier this week, using lyrics from the Compton rapper’s “Euphoria” diss track.
Watch Naomi Osaka’s comments on the rap feud below.
]] >1235678683From Collaborations With The Weeknd to Beyoncé, Belly Chronicles Three Decades of Musichttps://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/belly-billboard-arabia-cover-1235676708/
Thu, 09 May 2024 15:20:32 +0000https://www.billboard.com/?p=1235676708
With a prolific body of work that has graced the albums of music icons like The Weeknd and Beyoncé, Belly’s artistic journey stands as a testament to his ability to craft lines that cut through the hearts of hip-hop fans over nearly three decades.
In this time, he has produced three studio albums, including The Revolution (2007), Immigrant (2018), and See You Next Wednesday (2021), in addition to 12 mixtapes, his most recent being the acclaimed Mumble Rap 2 (2023) via Roc Nation. But it doesn’t end there. Over the years, he’s also been featured on tracks by Jay-Z, Nas, DJ Khaled, Young Thug, the late Nipsey Hussle and more, all serving as a testament to Belly’s unwavering versatility. Since 2016, Belly has had three tracks land on the Billboard Hot 100, including “Might Not” (2016) and “Better Believe” (2021), both featuring The Weeknd, and “Double Up” with Nipsey Hussle and DOM KENNEDY. In 2019, he co-wrote The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” alongside Max Martin, Oscar Holter and DaHeala, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks.
In this two-part interview with Billboard Arabia, hosted by Yassin Alsalman (aka Narcy, a rapper and a professor of hip-hop at Concordia University), the two musicians walk down memory lane, unpacking Belly’s legendary career, his favorite rap bars and his philosophies on life.
The conversation between Belly and Yassin, who both grew up in the Arab diaspora in Canada, finds a point of departure within the immigrant experience in North America, a plight woven by a tapestry of stories reflecting challenges and triumphs to build a compelling narrative of struggle, resilience and choice. All of which we hear in Belly’s prolific body of work, which kicked off with his first mixtape, Death Before Dishonor: Vol. 1, and the subsequent release of eight additional projects in six years, including his debut studio album, The Revolution (2007).
Belly walks Billboard Arabia through his entrance into hip-hop, teaching himself English through rap and how making music became a therapeutic tool to deal with complex emotions. “When situations happen, I’m not the type of a person that opens up very easily to people,” says Belly, “I think I open up to the pen and the paper.”
As a rapper with ten albums and EPs under his belt, and a steady stream of singles, Yassin transmits an intimate knowledge of both hip-hop and Belly’s work. Quickly finding a flow, part one of the conversation travels through Belly’s artistic history, but also what it means to find a sense of belonging in hip-hop.
Belly’s music isn’t just a collection of songs; it’s a sonic voyage that moves through continents, proving the power of the pen can find a home in the hearts of hip hop fans and artists alike. In Part Two of the deep dive with Belly, we learn about his artistic process, and the many ways he “changes his approach” to songwriting, be it in his own work, or when writing for others. “I’ve been blessed to work with a lot of legends,” says Belly. “I’m so enamored by what they do, sometimes I get imposter syndrome… It’s a balance of humility and remembering who f–k you are.”
Belly talks about joining Jay-Z’s legendary label Roc Nation, and the impact he had on his work, particularly his album, Midnight Zone. “Looking up to someone like HOV my whole life, studying his bars… how he layered it with three different meanings,” he says. “He made me explore words and rap way further than I would have if he wasn’t around.”
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Collaborating with everyone from Beyoncé to The Weeknd and other “giants,” Belly often reminds himself in moments of doubt that he’s always been “there for a reason.” Despite a hip-hop career spanning almost three decades, Belly feels a pull towards exploring new artistic avenues. “It’s time for me to channel this creativity elsewhere and explore different paths,” he reflects. He’s currently working on what might become his final albums, starting with Mumble Rap 2 and the upcoming release 96 Miles From Bethlehem.
“Making this album wasn’t so much the decision I struggled with making,” says Belly in a follow up interview with Billboard Arabia. “I’ve always known that I was gonna make an album for Palestine and I’ve even had this title for a decade now. The decision was based on everything happening in Palestine now and the need for an unapologetic album that can voice the frustrations most of us feel and the love we share for our homeland. As far as impact goes, I just pray it finds its way to whoever needs it most.”
The album is executively produced by Belly, DannyBoyStyles and DaHeala while featuring other Palestinian pop and hip-hop artists including Saint Levant, MC Abdul and ELYANNA. In December, Belly posted, “I’ve got a lot to say…” in relation to the forthcoming album, which emerged in the wake of the war on Gaza.
Belly goes on to mention that “Hip-hop, has always been deep rooted in resistance. It’s rhythmic poetry, and historically, poets and artists in general have changed the course of history more than once.” For Belly, this aspect of impacting change isn’t only limited to albums with strong messaging. He aims to continue engaging Light Sonic Division, the studio he founded, as a “support system for young Palestinian artists with a story to tell.”
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The conversation took place in Belly’s L.A. studio, hosted by Yassin Alsalman, better known by his stage name Narcy. He’s released ten albums and EPs, while collaborating with artists like Yasiin Bey, in addition to having his track “Hamdulillah” featured in Mo Amer’s hit Netflix show Mo.
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Questlove opined on the ongoing beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar but some fans called his statements dramatic after the war of words largely concluded. The veteran drummer from The Roots band believed that the battle between the two titans took nasty turns, thus signaling a death knell for Hip-Hop.
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, 53, took to social media to issue one of the loudest detracting statements yet to emerge against what is one of the biggest Hip-Hop beef battles in the history of the genre.
“Nobody won the war,” Questlove opened his statement with. “This wasn’t about skill. This was a wrestling match level mudslinging and takedown by any means necessary — women & children (& actual facts) be damned.”
The statement continued with “Same audience wanting blood will soon put up ‘rip’ posts like they weren’t part of the problem. Hip Hop truly is dead.”
The caption of the Instagram post with the statement read “Here We Are Now…Entertain us?,” which seems to be aimed at Drake and Kendrick Lamar.
As it stands, K-Dot doesn’t seem to want any manner of reconciliation with Drizzy and said as much on the track “euphoria” where the Compton lyricist rapped, “Whoever that’s f*ckin’ with him, f*ck you n*ggas, and f*ck the industry too” and once more on “Not Like Us” with the lines, “The industry can hate me, f*ck ’em all and they mama.”
As far as responses go, Drake’s last missive was “The Heart Part 6” and the two have left it at that. The Canadian superstar is contending with other issues after a security guard was shot outside his home in a drive-by shooting along with another incident in which a man was arrested for trying to break into the the massive mansion.
On X, formerly Twitter, the comments from Questlove garnered some sharp responses. However, we’ve got reactions from all sides below.
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Photo: Getty
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Travis Scott and Live Nation have reportedly settled a majority of the wrongful death lawsuits brought against them in the wake of the Astroworld tragedy. Out of 10 wrongful death lawsuits to emerge after the incident, one case went to trial this week.
As reported by the Associated Press, the bulk of the wrongful death lawsuits have been settled including the case of Madison Dubiski, 23, a Houston native who was one of the people killed in the tragic incident. Although the Dubisiki matter was set to go to trial this past Tuesday (May 7), that case was also settled.
“Mr. Scott is grateful that a resolution has been reached without the need for a trial,” Ted Anastasiou, a representative for the rapper, offered in a statment. “The confidential agreement will honor Madison Dubiski’s legacy and promote improvements for concert safety.”
The last open lawsuit is from the family of Ezra Blount, 9, who was the youngest person to lose their life at Astroworld. The judge overseeing the matter said that if the family doesn’t settle, this may be the next trial instead of the several injury cases brought against the defendants. ‘
Neal Manne, an attorney for Live Nation, said that around 2,400 injury cases are still pending. Over 4,000 plaintiffs filed hundreds of lawsuits after the conclusion of the concert.
After an investigation into the Astroworld tragedy was conducted, a grand jury did not indict Travis Scott along with five other individuals.
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Photo: Gilbert Flores / Getty
There’s not much you can do after getting a botched tattoo, but in the case of one fan, Olivia Rodrigo may have a solution. The 21-year-old pop star hilariously reacted to a recent video posted by a Livie who had just gotten one of her lyrics inked on her skin, sans the correct spelling of […]
Warner Music Group said on Thursday that revenues increased 7% during its fiscal second quarter to $1.5 billion, with the company pointing to the strength of its publishing business and a boost in subscription streaming revenue in recorded music.
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Hits like Teddy Swims‘ “Lose Control” and Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” drove an 11% increase in recorded music streaming revenue, including a 13% uptick in subscription streaming revenue. Swims and Boone held the No. 1 and 2 spots on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart in the first quarter, while Megan Thee Stallion‘s “Hiss” debuted in the No. 1 spot in February.
“This quarter, we saw massive hits from artists across different genres and all stages of development – exactly the kind of mix we want,” said WMG CEO Robert Kyncl on a call with investors. “[The increase in streaming revenue] was driven by stronger music performance as well as subscriber growth and subscription price increases.”
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Recorded music revenue grew by 4% to $1.19 billion overall in the quarter compared to a year ago, as the termination of Warner’s distribution agreement with BMG was a drag on the division’s streaming and digital revenue growth and made for a challenging year-ago comparison. Excluding the impact of BMG terminating its distribution agreement and not renewing its digital license deal with WMG, total revenues were up 8.8%.
Music publishing revenue grew by 19% to $306 million as WMG songwriters’ contributions to hits like Jack Harlow’s “Lovin On Me,” Ariana Grande’s “We Can’t Be Friends” and Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign’s “Carnival” drove a more than 30% uptick in music publishing streaming revenue.
Kyncl said Warner’s growing global market share in music publishing was thanks to organic growth — like signing decorated British singer/songwriter Raye early in her career. But it was the company’s inorganic growth plans that generated the first question from analysts on the company’s earnings conference call.
In April, WMG called off plans to submit a binding offer to acquire French music company Believe.
“We decided not to pursue it for a variety of reasons that I cannot go into,” Kyncl said in response to an analyst’s question about the decision. “We have a clear strategy in expanding our offerings to serve more artists across a wider array of their careers. We are building against that … We always look at ways to accelerate beause all of this work takes time. Any time there is an option in the market to accelerate our roadmaps, we will look at it.”
Ultimately, the acquisition and bidding process for Believe pushed Warner to disclose publicly it was considering making an offer, but the time WMG had to conduct due dilligence was brief and “not in our control,” Kyncl said, which also played a part in WMG walking away.
The company is “staying vigilant about M&A opportunities” that could enhance it’s goal of providing “lower-touch services that many independent artists, labels and songwriters rely on.”
Warner Chappell announced a partnership with BandLab and its artist service platform ReverbNation that aims to provide administration and a full-service JV tier to develop BandLab’s most promising writers.
A former YouTube executive and advocate for technology and music, Kyncl ended the call with a plug for “Where That Came From,” an AI-generated song by Grammy-award winning country star Randy Travis. Travis has suffered from aphasia since 2013, limiting his ability to sing. That he was able to release new music for the first time in years last week, was “a wonderful example of what is possible with AI,” Kyncl said.
Singer-songwriter Scotty McCreery co-wrote nearly every song on his fifth studio album, Rise and Fall (out May 10 on Triple Tigers), but his steady hand throughout the writing process didn’t come courtesy of the typical, regimented writing sessions on Nashville’s Music Row.
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The North Carolina native brought some of his closest songwriting collaborators, including Brent Anderson, Monty Criswell, Derek George and writer-producer Frank Rogers, on a writing retreat some 500 miles away from Music City, to McCreery’s home outside of Raleigh.
“It’s heaven on earth,” McCreery told Billboard of the writing retreat. “It moves at a slower pace. It puts your mind in a creatively different space than a scheduled write at 11:00. It was just more of hanging out and seeing what happens. These are some of my favorite songs we’ve ever written.”
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That unhurried stretch of time led to hours of teasing out song ideas, fashioning melodies and refining lyrics — resulting in many of the album’s songs such as “Fall of Summer” and radio single “Cab in a Solo,” which hit No. 2 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. A later Nashville-based mini-retreat with many of the same writers, plus Jeremy Bussey and Bobby Hamrick, produced more of the album’s songs, such as “Lonely” and “Little More Gone.”
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“For me, having a personal connection to a song makes me believe it and feel it more,” McCreery says. “It makes it feel like my album, as opposed to just a collection of songs.”
McCreery’s commitment to quality songs has been key to his garnering five Country Airplay No. 1s, including the three-week chart-leader “Damn Strait” in 2022. Along the way, McCreery has made his devotion to country history known, following in the footsteps (and burnished vocal stylings) of genre forebears like Randy Travis and Keith Whitley on such songs as nostalgic 2018 hit “Five More Minutes” or the small-town ode “Water Tower Town.”
That mission emanates throughout Rise and Fall. McCreery, 30, grew up immersed in ‘80s and ‘90s country sounds, which also happen to be experiencing a resurgence in the genre’s modern day. Light-hearted fare such as “Stuck Behind a Tractor” and “And Countin’” mesh with heartbreak brushoffs such as “Lonely,” the bluegrass-inflected album-closer “Porch” and the faith-filled “Red Letter Blueprint.”
“It’s no secret why [the album] sounds that way, but we weren’t chasing a certain sound,” says McCreery, who is managed by Triple 8 Management’s Scott Stem. His vision for the album was simpler: “We wanted to make country music. I said, ‘Let’s make an album that just feels good to me.’”
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Though another album track, the rowdy “Can’t Pass the Bar,” doesn’t share the seemingly requisite parenthesized title of songs like John Michael Montgomery’s “Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident)” or Garth Brooks’ “Ain’t Goin’ Down (‘Til The Sun Comes Up),” it features a similar galloping pace that helped make those songs into classic hits — and a challenge for any vocalist.
“I was thinking as we were writing it, ‘Holy cow, this is going to be tough,’” McCreery says, “but I knew I wanted to write a song like that, because I grew up listening to those kinds of songs. The song was quick, so our minds were moving at a mile a minute, but it was a fun write. Once I tried to sing the demo, I was like, “Oh boy, this is going to be something to sing.’”
“No Country for Old Men” longs for the classic sounds of years gone by, and showcases McCreery sinking lower than ever into his deep bass register, while name-checking Conway Twitty’s “Tight Fittin’ Jeans,” Ernest Tubb’s “Walking the Floor,” and Merle Haggard’s “Swinging Doors.” He wrote it during the retreat with Anderson, George, Rogers and Criswell.
“We’d had a long day of writing, some cold beers, and sat around the kitchen tables with our guitars and got to work,” McCreery says. “Everybody loved this idea and wanted to be in on it. It was fun to mention those names and weave in song titles and influences. I wish there was a camera filming us while we were writing the song. We were laughing, hootin’ and hollerin’ just with how it came together — it was a fun way to write a song.”
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Some of McCreery’s biggest hits have drawn directly from his own story, such as “Five More Minutes,” inspired by his grandfather’s death, and “This Is It,” which highlights his love story with his wife Gabi. That arc continues on his new album, with the cover (the shot was taken at the same place in the North Carolina mountains where McCreery proposed to Gabi) as well as “Love Like This,” written after the couple welcomed their son Avery in October 2022.
“The minute Avery was born, I just felt a different kind of love,” McCreery says. “Seeing your kid for the first time, I’d never felt that feeling before. If you go back and look at the caption of the Instagram post I did after Avery was born, that was the caption — ‘Never known a love like this.’ This is my daddy song to Avery, and every time I listen to it, it still gets me choked up a little bit.”
“Hey Rose,” the lone song on the album not from McCreery’s pen, he had held onto for nearly 10 years. He was taken with the song’s redemptive love story and tucked it away, hoping for the right time to record it.
“We were making a record when it got pitched to me [in 2015], but it didn’t feel like it fit that album,” McCreery says. “When I was recording [Rise and Fall], we had an hour left in the studio and we pulled this song out. The whole band, everybody in the studio, was like, ‘This has to make the record.’ I pleaded with the label a little bit to let me have an extra song and they graciously agreed.”
Like the album’s title, McCreery has seen his share of career mountaintops and low points. His debut album, 2011’s Clear as Day, spent six weeks atop Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart and his debut country single “I Love You This Big” become a top 15 Country Airplay hit following his coronation as winner of the 10th season of American Idol. Afterwards, his career temporarily stalled, and he parted ways with Universal Music Group Nashville before signing with Triple Tigers in 2017. The WME client has painstakingly rebuilt his hitmaker status through his music and multiple headlining tours.
In late April, two of McCreery’s heroes, Travis and Josh Turner, welcomed him as the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry — with that induction ceremony representing three generations of renowned singers who have remained committed to preserving and furthering country music’s traditional sounds. Joining the lineage of more than 200 artists who have been part of the esteemed Opry family is a nod that keeps McCreery focused on what he does best — writing (and performing) country music.
“I love writing songs. I love sitting down with a blank sheet of paper and a few hours later, you’ve got a piece of art — it’s a sense of accomplishment when you write something you’re proud of,” McCreery says.
Nick Ditri’s career as a dance music producer got a big boost when Tiesto used a 2013 bootleg remix of Avicii’s “Silhouettes” by his duo, Disco Fries. But like countless other unauthorized remixes, “Silhouettes” isn’t found on most of the popular streaming platforms. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t live anywhere outside of YouTube when Tiesto played it,” Ditri tells Billboard.
That could soon change. Eleven years later, Ditri is trying to give commercial legitimacy to tracks in that commercial gray area. He is a managing partner of ClearBeats, a startup that enables derivative works — remixes, interpolations, mashups and alternate versions — to become properly licensed tracks. ClearBeats’ other managing partner, Bob Barbiere, is a former Dubset executive and veteran in digital technology and rights clearances. Ditri and Barbiere created the company with Suzanne Coffman and Yolanda Ferraloro of veteran music sync company Music Rightz.
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Digital platforms are awash in unauthorized derivative works because “it’s the easiest way to get your foot in the door, especially in dance music and in hip hop,” says Ditri. In a perfect world, those tracks would be licensed for distribution to digital platforms or synchronizations in TV shows, advertisements or movies. “But the problem is it usually ends at SoundCloud where it might get muted or pulled down,” he says. “[Or] it ends at YouTube or a DJ pool.”
ClearBeats wants to address what Barbiere calls the “90/90 irony.” He estimates that 90% of artists who create derivative works want publicity and promotion, not the original artist’s rights or royalties. Additionally, 90% of rights owners would rather make money from a derivative work than take it down from a digital platform. But because the proper infrastructure doesn’t exist, Barbiere estimates that less than 5%, and maybe as little as 1%, of derivative works have proper attribution and are earning money for rights holders.
“Why shouldn’t 90% of that content live in an ecosystem where everybody can distribute into it, consume it, be properly attributed to it, and royalties paid downstream?” asks Barbiere.
The status quo not only prevents original recordings’ ability to generate revenue from derivative uses, but it also limits creators’ ability to build their careers, says Ditri. “If [producers] built a playlist network of five amazing Spotify playlists or Apple music playlists, and that’s their main source of promo and then they go and do a bootleg, that bootleg’s only gonna live wherever they posted — which is not going to be Spotify. So, they can’t even tap into their own networks. And it’s limited on Instagram and other socials as well.”
Currently, ClearBeats is helping labels, distributors and artists with bespoke licenses, working on a few long-term, strategic projects and helping companies identify and collect unpaid or suspended royalties. Barbiere says he has been contacted by distributors who want to help clients get licenses for tracks that incorporate samples as well as streaming platforms that want to license music catalogs to allow their users to create derivative works. A subscription-based registry for licensors and licensees is expected to roll out at the end of 2024 into 2025.
As for Ditri, co-founding ClearBeats provides him an opportunity give Disco Fries’ derivative works like “Silhouettes” a life outside of YouTube. “I’m thankful for the video clip,” he says, “but wouldn’t it be wonderful if this had existed back then?”
It’s been two years since Young Thug and 27 others were indicted on Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) gang charges in Atlanta and more than five months since the state of Georgia began presenting its case against six of the defendants. To say the trial, which is already the longest in Georgia history, has been lengthy and full of complications would be an understatement.
It’s a case that has garnered national attention because its star co-defendant, Jeffery Williams, aka Young Thug, is accused by Fulton County prosecutors of co-founding and leading the gang Young Slime Life. The indictment alleges a number of crimes starting in 2013, just a year before the rapper first entered the Billboard Hot 100 with songs such as “Stoner” and “Lifestyle.” Thug’s charges include conspiracy to violate RICO, participation in criminal street gang activity, violation of the Georgia Controlled Substances Act and possession of a machine gun.
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In addition to Young Thug, several other rappers signed to his record label Young Stoner Life were charged in the indictment. Gunna, whose real name is Sergio Kitchens, and Slimelife Shawty, whose name is Wunnie Lee, were both charged with one count of conspiracy to violate RICO and negotiated plea deals in the case in December 2022. Yak Gotti, whose real name is Deamonte Kendrick, remains on trial alongside Young Thug and is facing a count of murder and conspiracy to violate RICO.
During opening arguments last November, Fulton County Chief Deputy District Attorney Adriane Love repeatedly referred to Young Thug as “King Slime” and said, “The evidence will show that the members of YSL knew who their leader was, and they knew the repercussions of not obeying him.” In an indictment that spans more than 60 counts and 191 overt acts, prosecutors allege that members of Young Slime Life committed a number of crimes ranging from armed robbery to attempted murder and murder.
From the early 2010s until today, Young Thug has risen to become one of the most influential rappers of his generation, earning three Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s and one Grammy. The YSL indictment alleges that while the rapper was rising to prominence globally, he was also leading a criminal street gang and authorizing a number of violent crimes.
Thug isn’t the first rapper to recently be charged in a RICO case. In 2019, 6ix9ine was sentenced to two years after pleading guilty to racketing conspiracy and eight other charges. In 2021, rapper YFN Lucci faced RICO charges in the same Fulton County courthouse as Young Thug before he negotiated a plea deal earlier this year.
The YSL trial has reignited conversations about the use of rap lyrics in criminal cases. During opening arguments, Love said prosecutors “chased the murders and found the lyrics,” not vice versa. She referenced the lyrics “hundred rounds in a Tahoe,” alleging that Young Thug was referencing the murder of a rival gang member who was standing next to a Chevy Tahoe. Prosecutors say Thug rented the 2014 Silver Infiniti Q50 sedan that was used in the January 2015 drive-by shooting that killed Donovan “Nut” Thomas.
Defense attorneys such as Doug Weinstein, who represents Yak Gotti, have repeatedly argued that the use of lyrics in this way is a harmful practice. “You have a situation where they’re bringing in lyrics, they are using them out of context, they are reading into the lyrics whatever they want to read into them and they’re taking them separate and apart from their artistic use. They’re assuming whenever they’re bringing in these lyrics that everything that any of these guys rap about is autobiographical,” he tells Billboard. “It’s just outrageous.”
Music executives have also been vocal about their support of the rapper as well as their criticisms about the use of lyrics in the case. In addition to creating the Protect Black Art Petition, both 300 Entertainment’s Kevin Liles and Atlantic Music Group’s Julie Greenwald have visited the Fulton County Courthouse in support of Young Thug. “If this were country music, rock music…we wouldn’t be here,” Liles told reporters outside of the courtroom before listening to the first day of opening arguments in November.
“Artists and labels should not underestimate the precedent the Fulton County District Attorney has created by taking the weaponization of lyrics mainstream,” Liles said in a new statement to Billboard. “When obviously figurative lyrics like ‘ready for war like I’m Russia’ are claimed to be ‘an overt act in furtherance of conspiracy,’ no artist in any genre is safe. This case is a radical assault on creative freedom.”
Throughout the trial, Young Thug has garnered support from a number of artists, including Drake, Killer Mike and The 1975’s Matty Healy. Recently, Chance the Rapper referred to the trial as a “circus” on Instagram and said he wished Young Thug was able to receive bond during the lengthy process. “For my birthday I just wish my brother was home with his family,” he wrote. The singer Mariah the Scientist, who is dating Young Thug, was a regular in the courtroom before her tour started in February. Quavo also sat in on the trial one day in April.
Despite an already lengthy process, this case is likely to last at least through the remainder of 2024. To date, prosecutors have called more than 60 witnesses to testify to a number of overt acts, but in early April they told Judge Ural Glanville they still had about 150 remaining witnesses on their list. At that time, they estimated they’d need roughly 120 trial days to complete their case, but this didn’t account for administrative days or cross examinations by the defense. Testimony in the trial has also notably been delayed several times for a number of reasons, including the behind-bars stabbing of co-defendant Shannon Stillwell in December and, in late April, a juror’s medical emergency.
“From the absence of bond to the extraordinary weaponization of creative expression, this case has always been an outrage. Now as the longest trial in Georgia history and with no end in sight, it’s also become a farce,” Liles said about the ongoing trial. “I’m looking forward to embracing Jeffery when he is finally granted his freedom.”
“I’ve been practicing for over 25 years, most of that time in federal court. I’ve been involved in significant civil cases, for example, involving up to a dozen or more [corporate] defendants,” Weinstein says. “I’ve never seen any case like [this]. I’ve never seen any case drag out for this expected length of time.” The defense attorney said he believes the state’s witness testimony has become “duplicative” and “unnecessary.” He estimates the state’s case is “going to drag well into 2025.”
“And that’s before we present our case,” Weinstein adds, referencing that all six defendants will then be allowed to call their own witnesses.
Anthony Michael Kreis, assistant professor of law at Georgia State University, says retaining the attention of the jury might provide incentive for defendants to make their cases quickly when it’s their turn, however. “I don’t think the state, for whatever reason, seems to acknowledge so far that the longer this drags out, the more irritated your jurors are going to be that you brought this case in the first place,” he says. It took nearly 10 months to select a jury for this trial, after many of the prospective jurors said sitting on a trial for six months to a year would be a hardship. Jurors in this case are paid $25 dollars per day by Fulton County and are unable to work during the trial.
Even beyond the impact the trial has had on the rap community, the prosecution of Thug and the other co-defendants has implications for the rapper’s hometown, too. Defense attorney Suri Chadha Jimenez says the trial has “shut down the entire court system in Georgia,” noting he’s had several instances where a case was delayed because the defendants’ attorney was stuck in court for the YSL trial. And Weinstein says this lengthy trial is expensive for taxpayers, too. He estimates the sheriff deputies involved with the case “easily” work 60 hours per week due to the time it takes to transport defendants to court and their work providing security within the courtroom. “You’re looking at a lot of overtime,” he says. “That’s just the deputies. That’s not all of the other expenses of this case.”
The case has also been seen by many as a litmus test for how the Fulton County RICO case against former president Donald Trump might play out. “I think there’s a lot of lessons that the DA’s office is going to have to learn from this case for the Trump case,” Kreis says. “If the election trial operates anywhere near as inefficiently and [is] bungled as often as this trial has [been], I think they’re going to be very sorry. And there’s going to be a lot of political backlash.”
Jimenez was previously a Fulton County prosecutor before he began representing one of the defendants in the YSL trial. Prosecutors dropped the charges against Cordarius Dorsey, aka YSL Polo, before opening arguments began. Still, the defense attorney says trying cases on behalf of the state helped inform his opinion that Georgia’s broad RICO statute has allowed for its overuse. “I think RICO is a weapon of last resort to go after true mob bosses for organized crime that are operating in plain sight and they’re doing things that seem legit, but when you put them in context, they are predicate acts of a bigger organization [and] conspiracy. We ain’t got that in Atlanta. We don’t have any crime bosses. If we do, they’re probably developers or politicians. But they’re definitely not the guys out here robbing houses and shooting people. That’s not organized crime,” the defense attorney says. “If you have a murder, prove a f–king murder. It will take you a week [to try] and the person will go away for life.”
Jimenez was working for the district attorney’s office during the time in which many of the incidents in this case took place and he prosecuted Walter “DK” Murphy for an alleged attempted murder that’s listed as an overt act in this indictment. (Murphy had been released from prison on that charge nearly three months before he was arrested and charged with conspiracy to violate RICO in this case. He subsequently accepted a plea deal and was released in December 2022.)
The attorney believes a part of the reason this trial is taking so long is because prosecutors have long been struggling to prove some of their allegations. “These are instances that didn’t get prosecuted 10 years ago for a reason. They didn’t have it,” he says. “So now, what they’re doing is throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks.”
With several months left of the prosecution’s case alone, it’s not yet clear how jurors are processing the evidence they’re receiving. Young Thug’s bond has been repeatedly denied, however, meaning he’ll remain in jail – effectively halting his career – at least until a verdict is reached.
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spanish state prosecutors recommended Wednesday (May 8) that an investigating judge shelve a probe into another alleged case of tax fraud by pop star Shakira. The Colombian singer is under investigation for the alleged evasion of 6.7 million euros ($7.2 million) in taxes on her 2018 income via an offshore company. […]
