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As Billboard / VIBE’s 50 Greatest Rappers of All-Time list continues to spark debate amongst fans and rappers on social media, Missy Elliott expressed her gratitude about making it into the top 20 with during a chat with Billboard.
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“Oh man, being on a list like that with the names I saw, sometimes you still have to pinch yourself,” says Missy, who entered the tally at No. 19. “Sometimes, even if you think you’re great, you still look around and see so many icons and legends in this list, and you’re just humbled to be a part of that list. And to be in the top 20 when talking about that many people. I am blessed. I am thankful, and yeah, it feels good. It most definitely feels good, especially when you work hard. I was thinking of something Lil Wayne said the other night along the lines of just being acknowledged. That is everything to an artist.”
Missy also just participated in the GRAMMY’s HipHop50 performance, which included a sea of heralded icons including Grandmaster Flash, LL Cool J, Ice-T, Nelly, Run-D.M.C., GloRilla and many more. From a fan perspective, it was a one-of-a-kind experience for Missy, who relished watching some of her favorites perform as much as she loved sharing the stage with them.
“It was such nostalgia because I remember sitting in my living room and watching Public Enemy and Eric B. and Rakim and De La Soul and [Queen] Latifah and Salt-N-Pepa and once again, just like that [Billboard] list I am a part of this 50-year hip-hop tribute. And I tell you — this is no lie — no matter how many awards or accolades I have collected, I still pinch myself when I’m in those spaces because those people are so legendary to me,” she said.
On Sunday night (Feb. 12), Missy starred alongside Jack Harlow in a Doritos Super Bowl commercial that left the “First Class” MC similarly starstruck. “[She’s] completely down to Earth and an open book,” raved Harlow about Elliott. “She left me inspired.”
You can watch the full commercial here.
Bizarrap and Shakira’s new collaboration “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53” debuts at No. 9 on the latest Billboard Hot 100 chart (dated Jan. 28).The track, recorded entirely in Spanish, earns Bizarrap his first career top 10 hit on the chart, and Shakira her fifth, and first since her Beyonce team-up “Beautiful Liar” in 2007. It also earns the distinction as the 30th non-English-language song to reach the top 10 of the chart in history. That total is out of over 5,000 top 10s to date in the chart’s 65-year history.
“Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53” debuts with 20.2 million U.S. streams, 7.9 million radio airplay audience impressions, and 9,000 downloads sold in the latest Jan. 13-19 tracking week, according to Luminate. Shakira’s previous four top 10s were sung in primarily English: “Whenever, Wherever” (No. 6 peak in 2001), “Underneath Your Clothes” (No. 9, 2002), “Hips Don’t Lie” featuring Wyclef Jean (No. 1 for two weeks, 2006) and “Beautiful Liar” with Beyonce (No. 3, 2007).
Looking at the other 29 non-English-language top 10s, Bad Bunny boasts the most, with seven (four of which appeared on his 2022 smash album Un Verano Sin Ti), followed by BTS (five) and PSY (two).
Nine of the 30 songs have reached No. 1, including Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito,” featuring Justin Bieber, which spent a then-record-tying 16 weeks at No. 1 in 2017, and Los Del Rio’s “Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix),” which ruled for 14 weeks in 1996. The most-recent such hit was Coldplay and BTS’ “My Universe, which contains both Korean and English, in 2021.
Spanish is the most common non-English language listed below (15 of 30 top 10s), followed by Korean (seven), German (three), French and Italian (two each) and Japanese (one).
Notably, the 30 top 10s below are sung entirely or mainly in a language other than English. The list does not include songs with portions in other languages, such as “Enrique Iglesias’ “Bailamos” or Cardi B, Bad Bunny and J Balvin’s “I Like It.”
In chronological order of their peak dates, here are all 30 non-English-language songs to reach the Hot 100’s top 10 (with thanks to Paul Haney at Joel Whitburn’s Record Research for research assistance).
Artist, Title, Peak Date, Peak Position (weeks at No. 1), Language
Domenico Modugno, “Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare),” Aug. 18, 1958, No. 1 (five weeks), Italian[embedded content]
Lolita, “Sailor (Your Home Is the Sea),” Dec. 19, 1960, No. 5, German[embedded content]
Emilio Pericoli, “Al Di La’,” July 7, 1962, No. 6, Italian[embedded content]
Kyu Sakamoto, “Sukiyaki,” June 15, 1963, No. 1 (three weeks), Japanese[embedded content]
The Singing Nun (Soeur Sourire), “Dominique,” Dec. 7, 1963, No. 1 (four weeks), French[embedded content]
The Sandpipers, “Guantanamera,” Sept. 17, 1966, No. 9, Spanish[embedded content]
Mocedades, “Eres Tu (Touch the Wind),” March 23, 1974, No. 9, Spanish
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Nena, “99 Luftballons,” March 3, 1984, No. 2, German
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Falco, “Rock Me Amadeus,” March 29, 1986, No. 1 (three weeks), German[embedded content]
Los Lobos, “La Bamba,” Aug. 29, 1987, No. 1 (three weeks), Spanish[embedded content]
Enigma, “Sadeness (Part 1),” April 6, 1991, No. 5, Latin/French[embedded content]
Los Del Rio, “Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix),” Aug. 3, 1996, No. 1 (14 weeks), Spanish[embedded content]
PSY, “Gangnam Style,” Oct. 6, 2012, No. 2, Korean[embedded content]
PSY, “Gentleman,” May 4, 2013, No. 5, Korean[embedded content]
Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee feat. Justin Bieber, “Despacito,” May 27, 2017, No. 1 (16 weeks), Spanish[embedded content]
J Balvin & Willy William feat. Beyoncé, “Mi Gente,” Oct. 21, 2017, No. 3, Spanish[embedded content]
BTS, “Fake Love,” June 2, 2018, No. 10, Korean[embedded content]
Bad Bunny feat. Drake, “MIA,” Oct. 27, 2018, No. 5, Spanish[embedded content]
BTS feat. Halsey, “Boy With Luv,” April 27, 2019, No. 8, Korean[embedded content]
BTS, “On,” March 7, 2020, No. 4, Korean[embedded content]
BTS, “Life Goes On,” Dec. 5, 2020, No. 1 (one week), Korean
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Bad Bunny & Jhay Cortez, “Dakiti,” Dec. 12, 2020, No. 5, Spanish
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Jose Feliciano, “Feliz Navidad,” Jan. 2, 2021, No. 6, Spanish
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Bad Bunny, “Yonaguni,” June 19, 2021, No. 10, Spanish
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Coldplay x BTS, “My Universe,” Oct. 9, 2021, No. 1 (one week), Korean
[embedded content]
Bad Bunny, “Moscow Mule,” May 21, 2022, No. 4, Spanish
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Bad Bunny, “Tití Me Preguntó,” May 21, 2022, No. 5, Spanish
[embedded content]
Bad Bunny, “Despues de La Playa,” May 21, 2022, No. 6, Spanish
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Bad Bunny & Chencho Corleone, “Me Porto Bonito,” July 23, 2022, No. 6, Spanish
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Bizarrap & Shakira, “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53,” Jan. 28, 2023, No. 9, Spanish
[embedded content]
Willie Nelson, who turns 90 in April, is the subject of a five-part documentary debuting this week at the Sundance Film Festival. “Willie Nelson & Family” is an engrossing, unflinching and ultimately loving portrait of a cultural icon who has lived “a rich life of beauty and struggle,” says Thom Zimny, who shares director credits with Oren Moverman.
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The film captures the complexity of Nelson, who dreamed in his boyhood of becoming a singing cowboy like his movie idols, and became one of the most acclaimed songwriters and singers of his age, as well as a celebrated actor, author and activist, living through decades of tragedies and triumphs.
“Dad has been homeless, he’s had his house burned down, he’s been through four marriages, he’s been up and down, he’s been broke, he fought the IRS, he’s lost a child… that’s what makes him inspiring to me, his resilience in the face of adversity,” says Lukas Nelson in the film.
Nelson is “one of the great musical artists of all time,” says producer Don Was.
To frame Nelson’s saga, the filmmakers were in Luck – literally. The documentary opens on the Luck Ranch, the Western town built on the singer’s property outside of Austin as a movie set for Nelson’s film of his landmark 1975 album The Red Headed Stranger. The site has been used in recent years for the Luck Reunion festival and other concerts.
A weather-beaten, white, wooden chapel stands at the entrance to Luck — it’s seen on the cover of Nelson’s most recent, Grammy Award-nominated album A Beautiful Time — and the singer’s Zen-like spirit is a recurring theme of Willie Nelson & Family. It is reflected in the entrancing, often impressionistic visual style of the film. But the five episodes also are packed with the energy of a Willie Nelson concert, beginning with a Fourth of July 1974 performance of “Whiskey River,” the song Nelson has used to open every one of his shows in recent memory.
The directors, Moverman and Zimny, are longtime friends — but this is their first collaboration. Moverman, credited on more than 30 independent films over the past two decades, is the co-founder (alongside Julia Lebedev and Eddie Vaisman) of Sight Unseen Pictures, an independent production and financing company. He co-wrote the screenplay of the Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy and won an Emmy Award, as part of Sight Unseen, as producer of the 2019 school scandal film Bad Education on HBO. Zimny, who has directed documentaries on Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, is best known for his long association with Bruce Springsteen, including his Emmy-winning work as director of Springsteen on Broadway for Netflix.
The team behind the film also includes associate producers Adrienne Gerard and Rob Rauffer, editors Brett Banks and Chris Iverse, cinematographer Bobby Bukowski and composer Ron Aniello. The producer of Springsteen’s albums for the past decade, Aniello creates a masterful sonic backdrop for the film, which complements Nelson’s own music.
“I related to Willie’s story on many levels,” says Zimny, who was joined by Moverman for a recent Zoom interview with Billboard. Nelson’s music “is very cinematic” and his story tells of “a person who connected to music deeply and also had a rich life of beauty and struggle. With both Oren and I, what was really important was that we got the trust and support of the family to sit down with Willie and really explore a lot of those different chapters.”
The pandemic shaped the film, Moverman explains. “The shutdown allowed us to go through the history and do our own deep dive. Because we know how beloved Willie is and how much people care about him, we felt a responsibility to go into the real life. And the real life involves some dark stuff. It’s not just the image of how much fun Willie is. But there were real struggles and real dramatic moments in his life. And to our great privilege, Willie was really open about that. He and his wife Annie just opened the house to us and said, `Let’s talk.’”
Notably, the pandemic also forced the always-touring singer off the road, increasing his availability for this project. The filmmakers acknowledge the deep trust and cooperation they also received from Nelson’s longtime manager Mark Rothbaum – while also noting they had full editorial control over the documentary.
Nelson speaks throughout the film, in both current and archival interviews (with aging audio often supplemented by helpful subtitles). But the filmmakers also present extraordinary insights from numerous family members, friends and fellow artists, including Dolly Parton, Kenny Chesney, Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, Nelson’s longtime bandmate and harmonica player Mickey Raphael and more. They found a technique to elicit compelling commentary. Most interviewees sit alone in darkness, strikingly lit, facing a camera, with interviewers heard but not seen.
“So you end up with reflections, not sound bites,” says Zimny. “We refer to these as the witnesses in Willie’s life,” adds Moverman.
The witnesses attest to Nelson’s years of financial struggle in Nashville, as the father of three young children, when he contemplated suicide. Yet this was the era in which also he penned three of his greatest classics, “Crazy,” “Night Life” and “Funny How Time Slips Away,” one after the other.
Nelson and others describe the December night, just before Christmas, when the singer was drinking with buddies in Nashville and received a phone call reporting that his ranch in Ridgetop, Tenn. was on fire. (Nelson recalls dodging flames to rescue both his guitar, “Trigger,” and a stash of choice marijuana, before the house burned to the ground). While his family escaped injury, the fire led Nelson to abandon Nashville — where he’d recorded 18 albums without significant success — and return to his native Texas.
Back home in Texas in 1975, with a new Columbia Records contract that gave him full creative control, Nelson recorded Red Headed Stranger. The concept album sounded like nothing coming out of Nashville at the time. It hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart and included Nelson’s version of Roy Acuff’s 1947 hit “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain.” The track topped the Hot Country Songs chart—Nelson’s first No. 1 as a performer — and reached No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Although Willie Nelson & Family touches upon almost every significant point in the singer’s career, it is less a linear, chronological story than an excursion into “Willie World,” say the filmmakers. “You have to sort of be in that flow of Willie World where you’re sort of connecting these dots and then all of a sudden you arrive at something that’s very, very meaningful,” says Moverman.
One of those meaningful moments is Nelson’s creation in 1985 of Farm Aid, the all-star benefit concert first staged in reaction to the foreclosure crisis throwing family farmers off their land. Nearly four decades later, Nelson’s commitment to Farm Aid and family farmers continues.
That sustained commitment “means everything,” says Moverman. “We try to put it in perspective and say, well, he grew up in a farming community, with a sense of what being a farmer living off the land is. But it’s so much more than that. Annie says it in the movie. I mean, he’s just for the underdog and for the people who are suffering.
“There’s a moment that we kept in the film where he says, `You know, I know my responsibilities. You know your responsibilities. Like, nobody has to tell us.’ And if you can do something [to help others], as he says, f–king do it. And it’s just as simple and complex as that.”
Annie Nelson, the singer’s wife and mother of Lukas and Micah, is one of two women with an essential presence in Willie Nelson & Family. The other is Nelson’s older sister Bobbie, whom the filmmakers interviewed before her death in March 2022.
“There’s no telling Willie’s story without Bobbie,” says Moverman. “She was a very modest person and I think many people actually who are Willie fans didn’t know that his sister was playing piano with him. But once they’re exposed to this story and understand the relationship… it’s beyond inspiring.”
In one of the most poignant scenes in the film, Willie and Bobbie Nelson return to their hometown of Abbott, Texas, where they were raised by their grandparents, the couple “who gave us two gifts that saved our lives— love and music,” says Nelson. They enter the church in Abbott to sing gospel songs together “without anyone saying this could be the last time,” says Moverman.
The passing of Bobbie Nelson begs the hard question: did the filmmakers fear the loss of Willie Nelson during the pandemic?
“Not really,” says Moverman. “He makes you feel like he’s gonna live forever.”
Says Zimny: “My reflection on the time with Willie was [the challenge] to keep up with him. We were filming interviews and Willie wanted to stop and play us some new tracks he had just recorded for an album. We stepped into his universe. There wasn’t any feeling of anything coming to a close or an end.” (On March 3, Nelson will release his latest album, I Don’t Know a Thing About Love, featuring ten new studio performances of songs by Harlan Howard).
“The only time we felt any kind of danger around Willie,” adds Moverman, “was when he asked us very innocently if we wanted to play dominoes for money.”
As Willie Nelson & Family debuts at Sundance, Zimny says his wish is that “the viewer just learns about the power of song with Willie, the healing qualities of music and can step into a space to relate to his journey. That’s what you just hope for.”
For Moverman, telling Nelson’s story now is more important than ever. “This is arguably the last consensus artist we have in this country,” he says. “This is the guy that everybody loves. We recently went to two separate concerts, but had the same experience where we looked around and, as Shelby Lynne says in the movie, there’s one of everybody. People come out to see him, they have fun, they see each other’s humanity.
“Willie Nelson is someone who not only has covered every genre of music, but also has really united people from all sides of the political conflict. All sides of every conflict,” Moverman continues. “So, yeah, we need him. We need his healing.”
Since the business of Christmas music is growing so fast – it occupies five of the top 10 places on the Billboard Hot 100 this week – we are re-presenting some of our stories from Christmas past. This piece, about how two former Billboard staffers produced the holiday hit “Christmas Rappin’” for then-up-and-coming rapper Kurtis Blow, originally ran in 2019. Since then, in 2020, Robert Ford passed away.
One groundbreaking Christmas hit didn’t just make the Billboard charts — it was produced by two former employees. In 1979, J.B. Moore and Robert Ford left the magazine to produce “Christmas Rappin’ ” for an up-and-coming rapper named Kurtis Blow. Released on Mercury Records, the single went gold, and Blow became the first rapper to sign a major-label deal.
At Billboard, Moore was an ad salesman who sometimes wrote music reviews, and Ford was a production manager who also wrote a column about R&B. They both knew that hip-hop represented the future of music — Public Enemy’s Chuck D has cited a 1978 article by Ford as one of the first mentions of the genre in a national publication. Even so, they didn’t get any interest from A&R executives in New York, so they took “Chrismas Rappin’ ” to Chicago-based Mercury Records, where John Stainze, a recent transfer from the label’s U.K. office to its West Coast operations, convinced Mercury that the song would recoup its costs (about $6,000, remembers Moore) in the United Kingdom alone.
“Christmas Rappin’ ” — a song “ ’bout a red-suited dude with a friendly attitude” — wasn’t originally intended to be a Christmas tune. Moore, who wrote the lyrics, decided to give it a holiday theme because labels like songs they can sell every December. “Christmas Rappin’ ” turned out to be one: It peaked at No. 53 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart in 1995 and at No. 35 on Hot Rap Songs in 1999.
“It took Mercury forever to realize how big it was,” says Moore, who with Ford went on to produce Blow’s landmark “The Breaks” and work with the R&B group Full Force. “I’m sitting here staring at my gold record that should be platinum.”
This article originally appeared in the Dec. 21 issue of Billboard.
Since the business of holiday music is growing so fast – it occupies five of the top 10 places on the Billboard Hot 100 this week – we are re-presenting some of our stories from Christmas seasons past. This piece, about a Hannukah compilation, originally ran in 2019.
Two years ago, Verve Forecast approached Grammy-winning music supervisor Randall Poster (Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Irishman) with a proposition: curate and produce a Hanukkah album. “I had just finished doing the soundtrack to the movie SuperFly with Future, and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a great follow-up: Hanukkah,’ ” recalls Poster, who grew up celebrating the holiday. He started reaching out to friends and collaborators, “convincing them that I wasn’t kidding.”
But it wasn’t until longtime pal Jack Black sent in two recordings — one of which was actually a Passover song — that Poster felt he had the foundation for an album. “Jack gave us the substance, so everything [else] would feel like it was part of a whole.” The additional song ended up inspiring the title of Hanukkah+ (out now, and on vinyl Dec. 13), which boasts a mix of covers and original music from the likes of HAIM and The Flaming Lips.
Randall Poster
Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for SXSW
The market for Christmas music is massive. What was the strategy behind putting out a Hanukkah album?
It’s not an easy thing. It doesn’t have the built-in Christmas music collectors, so we talked about trying to have a longer view — there’s an evergreen quality to it. But also, making it available at nontraditional retailers, like all of the synagogue gift shops, and seeing if we can make contact with the built-in audiences that the various artists on the record have [helped].
How did you ensure it wouldn’t come off as parody?
Probably the most famous Hanukkah song at this point is Adam Sandler’s “The Hanukkah Song.” That’s why I was searching for a spiritual component, which allowed me to approach artists who weren’t Jewish, who had no real sense of the holiday or the history. I tried to find balance, because I wanted to have some of that silly, joyful element.
Was it tough to get artists onboard?
It’s not an easy one where you can say, “Hey, let’s do ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside,’ ” and set the stage for somebody to just come in and sing. My hope is if this goes well, maybe next year we do another five songs and just add to it. One person that I really wanted to get — he said he would but just got caught up in the sweep of his new record — was Ezra Koenig.
Hanukkah+
Courtesy Photo
Why such fondness for Hanukkah?
It was always the fun Jewish holiday, really. And as far as the musical repertoire [went], “The Hanukkah Song” was pretty much the favorite, or “Dreidel Dreidel.” I had a sense of it being a musical holiday, though there aren’t that many to choose from.
What will success for the album look like to you?
To tell you the truth, I feel like it already is a success. For me as a Jew, it was important to focus on more of the spiritual component, and I think we’ve captured that. I’m waiting for my rabbi to hear it.
This article originally appeared in the Dec. 21 issue of Billboard.
There’s much to be said about the deep lineage connecting the symbiotic worlds of basketball and hip-hop. Former NBA star Zach Randolph is looking to write a chapter in that book and add to his own decorated legacy with his NLess Entertainment record label.
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Going on his fourth team in as many seasons, the power forward affectionately known as Z-Bo arrived in Memphis in 2009 as a polarizing 28-year-old with a chip on his shoulder. The blue-collared city wrapped its arms around the burly Randolph, who became the face of Memphis’ Grit N’ Grind era.
After stops in Portland, New York and Los Angeles, Randolph helped lead the Grizzlies to seven straight playoff appearances in the 2010s. His jersey now hangs in the FedEx Forum rafters after the franchise retired his famous No. 50 last year.
A few years before closing the book on his NBA career, Randolph already had his next endeavor lined up with the launch of NLess Entertainment in early 2016. The Michigan State alum co-founded the independent label alongside Marcus “Head” Howell, and made Memphis rap staple Moneybagg Yo its inaugural signee.
Z-Bo and Head bonded over their love for exotic cars, and they now own a used car dealership together in Memphis. They initially met through a mutual friend and Memphis native by the name of Qyntel Woods, who was drafted in the first round by the Portland Trail Blazers in 2002, a year after Randolph joined the West Coast team as a heralded rookie out of Michigan State.
Moneybagg Yo was creating a buzz for himself around Memphis in the mid-2010s, and a local DJ by the name of Larry brought the neophyte to Z-Bo and Head’s car dealership in late 2015 to gauge their interest in potentially signing him.
The NLess heads weren’t completely sold, until heading to a Thanksgiving weekend concert where Moneybagg rocked the stage opening for Young Jeezy and had the entire crowd shouting every lyric to his Relentless mixtape trap anthem “I Need A Plugg.”
“When I came to the show, everyone in the whole club was singing his ‘I Need A Plugg’ song word-for-word,” Head recalls. “I got back in the car and told Zach, ‘We need to sign this kid tonight.’ He’s like, ‘You sure?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, we need to.’ I had him come back to the [car] lot the next morning and we drew up the paperwork. Moneybagg pulled back up, and we got the business part done and we was a family.”
There wasn’t much hesitation on Bagg’s part in putting pen to paper on a deal with Z-Bo and Head to run the three-man weave at the top, as he felt the spirit was “genuine” from the start since their initial meeting at the car lot office.
“I felt the vibe,” Moneybagg states on Zoom. “I’m good with people’s intentions, and they had nothing but the best for me. Even before teaming up with Gotti, this situation happened off mutual relationships with each other.”
With the label finally taking shape, the NLess Ent. execs suddenly had to deal with a pair of devastating losses. Bagg’s right-hand man Muhammad “ELO” El-Amin, along with Z-Bo and Head’s close friend John “King Fish” Jones, were both murdered within weeks of each other in December 2015. The tragedies only made the bond between the NLess bosses that much stronger to power ahead.
Moneybagg Yo kept his foot on the gas, and he continued his ascent in 2016 by flooding the streets with another four mixtapes, and pledged his allegiance to the Collective Music Group family by year’s end when Yo Gotti planted $200,000 in cash in front of him.
Head, Z-Bo and Moneybagg Yo were all complimentary of Gotti sharing his secrets to success when it comes to navigating the cutthroat music business. “[Yo] Gotti took me all around the world and under his wing and showed me a lot about the music business,” Howells adds. “I understood the game through Yo Gotti.”
Of course, Zach Randolph wanted to show off having one of the hottest rappers in the city signed to his label, so he’d often bump Moneybagg Yo’s music before games on the team’s speaker system — but not all of his Memphis Grizzlies teammates were impressed. Some (like defensive stalwart Tony Allen) were non-believers, and often tried to turn off the hometown rhymer’s tunes. (“Ay Z-Bo, did you tell ‘em when you used to bump me in the locker room they would turn that off?” Bagg reminds Randolph matter-of-factly on the video call.)
While he’s now a proven commodity and pre-game playlist favorite for plenty of hoopers league-wide, the trio can laugh off the early doubters filling the Grizzlies’ locker room. “I used to put it in their face, and a couple of the guys like [Tony Allen] and a few more [didn’t like him],” Z-Bo remembers about trying to put his teammates on. “They wouldn’t get out of line with me, so whatever I wanted to do, I did. I knew he was so talented listening to him. The sky’s the limit for him — and you see what he’s doing [now].”
Moneybagg Yo has developed into a bonafide rap titan, and has played an integral role in Memphis’ streaming era renaissance over the last five years or so. Bagg’s even bossed up in his own right, with the creation of his Bread Gang label imprint, in addition to his NLess and CMG affiliations.
The 31-year-old cemented his star status with 2021’s Billboard 200 chart-topping set A Gangsta’s Pain, powered by hits such as the platinum-certified “Time Today” and “Wockesha.” Both records are produced by Tennessee-bred beatmaker Turn Me Up YC, who signed to NLess and Warner Chappell Music in a joint partnership in late 2021.
“My brothers Marcus ‘Head’ Howell and YC along with the whole NLess Entertainment crew have been incredible partners, and we look forward to continuing to rack up the hits with this incredible team,” Warner Chappell Music President Ryan Press relays in a statement.
The budding label has continued to add a mix of talent with a roster that currently consists of BIG30, who signed in partnership with Interscope Records, Big Homiie G, Dee Mula, Lonely Girl, SouljaaOnGo, Leebo, and Mud. Randolph and Head have also beefed up the NLess staff, with a pair of new hires in executive roles. Kemario Brown will serve as the General Manager/Senior Vice President of Business Operations while publicity wizard Breon Robinson joins the team as the Senior Vice President of Branding.
Being a fan of Jay-Z and signed to his Roc Nation Sports agency, Z-Bo is looking to manifest a business meeting with Hov in 2023, where he can soak up endless gems to apply back home at NLess.
“I’m supposed to be having a meeting with Hov next year to pick his brain and get to chop it up with him,” he says. “I’ll take some gems and some advice. I want to grow this thing internationally and do it big like a Roc-A-Fella.”
Randolph chuckles when the “dinner with JAY-Z or $500,000” debate is brought up. “I’m sitting at the dinner, I don’t need the $500,000,” Z-Bo confidently answers, as someone who made nearly $200,000,000 in on-court earnings throughout his 17-year NBA career.
All three of the NLess honchos tease a banner year in store as Randolph hopes to eventually get the sports agency branch of the business off the ground in 2023 too. The low-post bruiser believes his reputation and relationships around the NBA will allow him to build a strong client list and compete with the premier agencies.
“Just having a relationship with all these young guys and being a guy in the league that treated everyone with respect, I get a lot of respect back,” Z-Bo explains. “Just knowing I’m a man of my word and 100 percent genuine, so we hang our hat on loyalty and integrity.” (Moneybagg Yo saluted Randolph last year for his being a man of his word, gifting Z-Bo’s daughter a Mercedes-AMG for her sweet 16.)
The Memphis rapper is readying a new album as well, which he has penciled in to arrive in “January or February,” after setting the tone with his Outkast-sampling “Quickie” single earlier this month. “We gon’ be the biggest for sure,” he boldly predicts of his label ventures. “All of our labels. 2023 gonna be the year that I really see this.”
Going back two decades, when a young Randolph suited up for Portland’s “Jail Blazers” era, it would be tough to predict he’d evolve into the ultimate selfless teammate and a beloved franchise player, but he did just that — so he shouldn’t be doubted in his second career here.
“Memphis is on top,” he proclaims. “Teamwork makes the dream work, and the sky’s the limit for us.”
By 1987, Belinda Carlisle had become a chart mainstay. Five years earlier, she and her Los Angeles pop-punk band The Go-Go’s became the first all-female group to top the Billboard 200 when their debut album, Beauty and the Beat, spent six weeks at No. 1 in 1982. The same year, the quintet followed with the top 10 LP Vacation and, in 1984, the top 20 Talk Show. They also scored five top 40 Billboard Hot 100 hits, including “Our Lips Are Sealed” and “We Got the Beat.”
The Go-Go’s went on hiatus after Talk Show, but Carlisle didn’t slow down. Her 1986 debut solo LP, Belinda, reached No. 13 on the Billboard 200 and spawned a No. 3 Hot 100 hit, “Mad About You.”
It wasn’t until the end of the following year that Carlisle, then 29, made her first solo trip to the top of the Hot 100 with “Heaven Is a Place on Earth,” which crowned the Dec. 5, 1987, chart. The song’s popularity was helped by an artsy music video directed by actress Diane Keaton featuring women in bandit masks holding illuminated globes.
In 2013, Rick Nowels recalled the process of co-writing “Heaven”: “[Co-writer] Ellen [Shipley] had the title ‘Heaven on Earth.’ I was playing around with a Prince-type rhythm and sang ‘Heaven Is a Place on Earth.’ We both decided it was more original.
“The first draft of the song had a different minor-key verse along with the minor-key chorus,” Nowels recalled. “We actually recorded it with Belinda and I began to feel that the chorus was a hit, but the verse was not great. So, Ellen and I got together and quietly rewrote the verse. I knew I wanted to modulate into the chorus, which is why the pre-chorus goes to a different key and then back to the original key for the chorus. I had to tell Belinda that we rewrote the song … and had to rerecord it. As soon as we played it for her, she agreed.”
For all involved, including engineer/mixer Shelly Yakus, the rewards were clearly worth the efforts. “I put a lot of time into the arrangement of the song,” said Nowels, who has also penned hits for Stevie Nicks, Madonna, Santana, John Legend and Lana Del Rey, among others.
This June, Nowels was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Heaven on Earth generated two more Hot 100 top 10s, the Diane Warren-penned “I Get Weak” (No. 2 peak) and fellow Nowels-Shipley composition “Circle in the Sand” (No. 7). 1989 follow-up Runaway Horses added the top 40 hits “Leave a Light On” and “Summer Rain” to her catalog.
Having overcome drug addiction, which she chronicled in her 2011 biography Lips Unsealed, “It’s surreal for a Valley Girl to go from working as a secretary to hitting the top of the charts,” Carlisle told Billboard in 2013. “It still makes me smile to think about it now.”
In October 2017, Carlisle’s latest album, Wilder Shores, a collection of Buddhist chants and mantras (inspired by her longtime passion for Kundalini yoga), hit No. 4 on both the New Age Albums and World Albums charts.
In 2021, The Go-Go’s were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “What a great way to cement the legacy,” Carlisle told Billboard.
On Dec. 15, Carlisle is set to celebrate the season with a holiday show at The Abbey in West Hollywood, Calif., with special guests including Lisa Loeb, Margaret Cho and Wilson Phillips’ Carnie and Wendy Wilson. (Carnie Wilson and Wilson Phillips’ Chynna Phillips provided backup vocals on Heaven on Earth.) The charity fundraiser will benefit Animal People Alliance.
There’s no surer mark of true pop stardom in the 21st century than endurance: Can your hits define not just a single cultural moment, but multiple, spanning decades and eras? Can you evolve enough to stay relevant amidst changing trends and industry shakeups? If so, then maybe you fit the criteria for entry in the Three-Decade Club: an exclusive group of artists who’ve managed to score top 10 hits in each decade of the 21st century thus far. To do so requires a high level of creativity, awareness and popularity — both with fans and with fellow artists — and of course, a little luck with timing never hurts either.
Here are the 18 artists to notch the Hot 100 three-decade feat so far — now also accounting for a French star DJ who scored a 2022 pop revival with a mid-’10s demo built around the hook from an ’00s hit.
Taylor Swift: Already the proud artist behind five top 10 hits this decade — including three No. 1s, with 2020’s “Cardigan” and “Willow” and 2021’s “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” — Taylor Swift has been a relatively consistent visitor to the Hot 100’s top tier since first getting there with Fearless smashes “Love Story” (No. 4) and “You Belong With Me” (No. 2) in 2009. That includes another 20 top 10 hits in the 2010s alone, with five No. 1s: “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” (2012), “Shake It Off” (2014), “Blank Space” (2014), “Bad Blood” (with Kendrick Lamar, 2015) and “Look What You Made Me Do” (2017).
M.I.A. Maya Arulpragasam first made her Hot 100 debut in 2008 with the Clash-sampling “Paper Planes,” a surprise No. 4 hit that September. In 2012, she appeared as a featured guest on Madonna’s “Give Me All Your Luvin’,” which peaked at No. 10 that February after she performed it (somewhat infamously) with the pop legend at that year’s Super Bowl. Then in 2020, she appeared as a featured artist on Travis Scott’s No. 1-debuting “Franchise.” (She’s the first artist to have her only three top 10 hits be spread across the last three decades.)
Jason Derulo. Derulo first visited with the Hot 100-topping “Whatcha Say” in late 2009, then scored an additional five top 10 hits over the 2010s, the biggest being the No. 3-peaking (and 2 Chainz-featuring) “Talk Dirty” in 2014. He returned to the top of the Hot 100 for the first time in over a decade in 2020 with his Jawsh 365 collab “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat),” which also included BTS on the remix that helped put the song over the top on the chart.
Mariah Carey. Mimi’s chart-busting days go back to the ’90s, of course, when she scored 19 Hot 100 top 10 hits over the course of the decade, including 14 No. 1s. In the 2000s, she landed another eight top 10s, with four No. 1s (“Thank God I Found You” featuring Joe and 98 Degrees, 2000; “We Belong Together,” 2005; “Don’t Forget About Us,” 2005; “Touch My Body,” 2008). Then she knocked out the ’10s and ’20s with one song: holiday perennial “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” whose first-ever trip to No. 1 stretched from late 2019 to early 2020, and which has returned to pole position each holiday season since.
Maroon 5. As consistent a hitmaker as the 21st century has seen, Maroon 5 first graced the Hot 100 top 10 in 2004 with “This Love,” visiting twice more that decade, and reaching the chart apex with “Makes Me Wonder” in 2007. In the 2010s, they scored 12 more top 10 hits, including three No. 1s (“Moves Like Jagger” featuring Christina Aguilera, 2011; “One More Night,” 2012; “Girls Like You” featuring Cardi B, 2018). This decade, they ducked their head into the top 10 early with “Memories,” which peaked at No. 2 in January 2020.
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Drake. The new all-time record-holder for most Hot 100 hits scored the first of his 40 with the No. 2-peaking “Best I Ever Had” in 2009, one of two top 10s of his that decade. He then went on to totally dominate the 2010s, with 33 top 10 hits that encompassed six No. 1s (as the featured artist on Rihanna’s “What’s My Name”, 2010 and “Work,” 2016; “One Dance” featuring WizKid and Kyla, 2016; “God’s Plan,” 2018; “Nice For What,” 2018; “In My Feelings,” 2018). He’s made quick work in the 2020s, notching a staggering 23 top 10 hits this decade — including nine in one week with the release of Certified Lover Boy in autumn 2021 — led by five total No. 1s: “Toosie Slide” (2020), “What’s Next” (2021), “Way Too Sexy” (alongside Future and featuring Young Thug, 2021), “Wait For U” (featured along with Tems on the Future-led single, 2022) and “Jimmy Cooks” (featuring 21 Savage, 2022).
Eminem. Though Eminem broke out in the late ’90s, his first trip to the top ten came in 2000, when “The Real Slim Shady” hit No. 4. One of the biggest stars of the ’00s, he landed 11 top 10 hits that decade, with two No. 1s (“Lose Yourself,” 2002; “Crack a Bottle” with Dr. Dre and 50 Cent, 209), and then added another 10 in the 2010s, including three No. 1s (“Not Afraid,” 2010; “Love the Way You Lie” featuring Rihanna, 2010; “The Monster” featuring Rihanna, 2013). This decade, he hit No. 3 with the Juice WRLD-assisted “Godzilla,” from his surprise Music to Be Murdered By LP.
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Lady Gaga. Gaga came out scorching, topping the Hot 100 with her first two singles in 2009 (“Just Dance” featuring Colby O’Donnis and “Poker Face”) and hitting the top ten twice more that year. She kept it going in the 2010s with another 11 top 10 hits, led by the chart-topping “Born This Way” (2011) and “Shallow” with Bradley Cooper (2019), and made the top 10 twice in 2020 with the Chromatica singles “Stupid Love” (No. 5) and “Rain on Me” with Ariana Grande (No. 1).
Beyoncé. After a dominant turn-of-the-century run as part of Destiny’s Child, Beyoncé scored her first top 10 as a guest artist on Jay-Z’s “’03 Bonnie & Clyde” (No. 4, 2002), then broke out as a solo star in 2003, with her first charting two singles (“Crazy in Love” with Jay-Z and “Baby Boy” with Sean Paul) shooting to No. 1. Bey scored 13 total top 10s that decade, including three more No. 1s (“Check On It” featuring Slim Thug, 2005; “Irrepleaceable,” 2006; “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),” 2009), and added another five to her tally in the 2010s, with one more No. 1 in her guest appearance on Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect.” She made it Hot 100-toppers in three straight decades in May 2020, with her guest spot on the remix to Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage,” and returns to the top 10 on her own this week with her Renaissance lead single “Break My Soul.”
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Lil Wayne. Speaking of Destiny’s Child, rap icon Lil Wayne scored his first top 10 hit with a verse on their “Soldier” in 2005, and racked up a total of 10 top 10 hits before the decade was out, led by the Hot 100-besting “Lollipop” featuring Static Major in 2008 and “Down” with Jay Sean in 2009. An additional 14 top 10s followed in the 2010s, with a third No. 1 coming via his featured turn on DJ Khaled’s “I’m the One” alongside Justin Bieber, Chance the Rapper and Quavo. In 2020, Wayne found himself back in the top 10 when he was added to the remix of Jack Harlow’s “Whats Poppin,” a No. 2-peaking hit.
Chris Brown. The then-teen star hit No. 1 with his breakout hit “Run It!” in 2005, the first of his nine top 10 hits that decade (also encompassing a second No. 1, “Kiss Kiss” featuring T-Pain). The ’10s saw Brown amass another six top 10s (led by “No Guidance” featuring Drake, a No. 5 hit in 2019), and he hit the top 10 for the first time this decade with Young Thug collab “Go Crazy,” which peaked at No. 3 in March 2021.
Miley Cyrus. After breaking out as a pop-rock hitmaker under her own name, the entertainer formerly best known as Hannah Montana scored four top 10 hits in the 2000s, beginning with the No. 10-peaking “See You Again” in 2008. She returned to the region another four times in the 2010s, one of which marked her first (and to date, only) visit to No. 1 on the chart, with her “Wrecking Ball” spending three non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 in 2013. She’s added on more visit so far in the 2020s, with her appearance alongside The Kid LAROI on his No. 8-peaking “Without You” remix in 2021.
Kanye West: The first decade of Kanye’s superstardom saw him make 12 trips to the top 10, including three to the top spot: as a featured guest (alongside Jamie Foxx) on Twista’s “Slow Jamz” (2004), as a lead artist (with Jamie Foxx again featured) on “Gold Digger” (2005) and on his own with “Stronger” (2007). He made another six appearances in the top 10 in the 2010s, though only one topped the chart: “E.T.,” led by Katy Perry, in 2011. This decade, he’s returned to the region twice, both with cuts from his 2021 Donda album: “Hurricane” (No. 6) and “Jail” (No. 10).
Jay-Z. Like Mariah Carey, Jay-Z’s hitmaking days go back to the ’90s — and in fact, the rapper’s second top 10 visit (and first Hot 100 No. 1) came as a guest on Mimi’s “Heartbreaker” in 1999. In the 2000s, Jay was a Hot 100 fixture, reaching the top 10 an impressive 14 times and topping the chart three times (as a featured artist on Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love” in 2003 and Rihanna’s “Umbrella” in 2007, and as a lead artist alongside Alicia Keys on “Empire State of Mind” in 2009). He kept the momentum going in the 2010s with five top 10 hits — with the Mr. Hudson-featuring “Young Forever” (No. 10, 2010), the Kanye West collab “N—as in Paris” (No. 5), the Justin Timberlake-led “Suit & Tie” (No. 3, 2013), the JT-featuring “Holy Grail” (No. 4, 2013), and another Bey-led smash, “Drunk in Love” (No. 2, 2014). This decade, he’s reached the region just once so far, via a feature appearance on Drake’s “Love All” (No. 10, 2021).
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Coldplay. The U.K. pop-rock outfit hit the top 10 twice in their breakout decade of the 2000s, including the Hot 100-topping “Viva La Vida” in 2008. They continued to be a fixture on the chart throughout the 2010s, reaching the top 10 twice — with “A Sky Full of Stars” (No. 10) in 2014, and “Something Just Like This” (No. 3) alongside The Chainsmokers in 2017. In late 2021, they scored their first Hot 100 No. 1 since “Viva La Vida” 13 years earlier, with their BTS team-up “My Universe.”
Snoop Dogg. The West Coast rap icon broke into the top 10 for the first time in late 1993, with the eventually No. 8-peaking “What’s My Name?” — a peak matched just a couple months later by Doggystyle follow-up “Gin & Juice.” Snoop’s hitmaking prowess stretched into the 2000s with a number of subsequent top 10 hits, including his first two Hot 100 No. 1s: as lead artist on the Neptunes-produced solo smash “Drop It Like It’s Hot” (2005) and a featured artist on Akon’s “I Wanna Love You” (2006). He hit No. 1 for a third time at the outset of the 2010s for his guest turn on Katy Perry’s massive “California Gurls” — his final No. 1 to date — and he now also has a 2020s top 10 hit to his credit, with his No. 10-debuting Benny Blanco and BTS collab from 2022, “Bad Decisions.”
Britney Spears. Another ’90s alum whose contemporary relevance never seems to fade for long. Britney Spears emerged this summer from a six-year hiatus, following her 2016 album Glory — during which she successfully fought to be freed from an involuntary conservatorship — and immediately resumed occupation of her place in pop music’s inner circle, with her Elton John collab “Hold Me Closer” debuting at No. 6 on the Hot 100 this September. It’s her first top 10 entry since will.i.am teamup “Scream & Shout” went to No. 3 in 2013, and the latest hit in a career that boasts five No. 1 hits, dating back to “…Baby One More Time” in 1999 and also including “Womanizer” and “3” in the 2000s.
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OneRepublic. For most of the late ’00s and early-to-mid ’10s, OneRepublic were among the most consistent hitmakers in pop-rock. The Ryan Tedder-led outfit first broke out as the featured artist on Timbaland’s “Apologize” (No. 2, 2008), and went to score eight more Hot 100 top 40 hits over the next seven years, with “Counting Stars” matching their prior No. 2 peak in early 2014. They hadn’t reached the top half of the chart since 2015 when their Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack contribution “I Ain’t Worried” started gaining momentum this summer; on the chart dated Sept. 17, the song jumped from 14-8, becoming their first top 10 hit since “Stars.”
David Guetta: A renowned DJ in Europe dating back to the 1990s, David Guetta became a global star in the late ’00s as a hitmaking producer — first hitting the Hot 100’s top 10 as a lead artist in 2009, with the Akon-assisted “Sexy B–ch” (or “Sexy Chick”), which ultimately peaked at No. 5 in Feb. 2010. Guetta revisited the chart’s top tier five more times as a lead or featured artists in the 2010s, including a pair of No. 4 hits (the Usher-featuring “Without You” in 2011 and the Nicki MInaj-assisted “Turn Me On” in 2012). He returned to the region again this November with the Bebe Rexha collab “I’m Good (Blue)” — a teamup recorded as a demo in the mid-’10s (and prominently lifted from Eiffel 65’s 2000 smash “Blue (Da Ba Dee)”), before finally being released to viral success and a No. 7 Hot 100 peak (to date) in 2022.
Drake and 21 Savage delivered their anticipated Her Loss joint project after a week’s delay on Friday (Nov. 4).
After teaming up for Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “Jimmy Cooks” to close out Drizzy’s Honestly, Nevermind album earlier this year, the “Knife Talk” duo decided to go ahead with a full collab album.
It’s been a deceiving yet fascinating rollout for Her Loss as Drake and 21 cooked up a fake Vogue magazine and teased a Tiny Desk Concert that won’t be debuting on NPR anytime soon. The 6 God even joked about his porn fetishes in a sham interview with radio legend Howard Stern, which led to his bizarre hentai posts on his Instagram Story hours before showtime.
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Drake is certainly no stranger to the art of collaboration as he’s been dishing out assists like an NBA point guard for more than a decade. Her Loss is a rollercoaster ride, boasting 16 tracks with a lone credited guest appearance sprinkled in from Travis Scott.
Pour up and run through our song rankings below.
16. “Privileged Rappers”
Being a “privileged rapper” is a label Drake is tired of hearing about. He calls out those walking around the industry with their head high even though they haven’t made a hit in years while 21 uses his 16 bars to get raunchy about a certain love interest. Either way, this isn’t going to be anyone’s favorite record.
15. “Treacherous Twins”
There’s not enough bromance in rap. The Atlanta-bred rhymer and Drake show love to each other as “Treacherous Twins” — or they might be talking about other people altogether. Regardless, there are times when simplicity wins. That was the case for 21 Savage when he gets off a cheeky bar about how he never gets ID’d at night clubs because they already know he’s 21.
14. “Hours In Silence”
The pace is slowed down for a six-minute intermissions of sorts. Drake refills his glass of wine and recalls some of his mishaps in romantic encounters. “Hours in Silence” finds Drizzy running into the same toxic women issues that plagued him on Take Care while essentially boxing 21 Savage out of the marathon. Whether it’s the regret of buying her a Rolex or even a condo within the first month, that’s simply a reality most listeners can’t relate to.
13. “Broke Boys”
21 Savage finally gets the best of Drizzy on a record by a unanimous decision. The “Sneakin” duo won’t talk to broke boys, but unfortunately for fans, that’s about 99.99 percent of listeners compared to Drake and 21. They both flip the middle finger to adidas while proudly wearing their Nike stripes, which should make Kanye happy. “Broke Boys” sits toward the back of the line when it comes to album favorites though.
12. “I Guess It’s F–k Me”
First off, what a song title for a worthy album closer. Drake is always calculated and precise with what message he wants to leave fans with before heading into the next era of music. Here, Drizzy gets evocative about a certified lover girl where he painfully admits at times he has no choice but to avoid the truth even if that’s followed up with a flex about how his Air Drake plane couldn’t even land in the small Hamptons airport. “Truth or dare, I’ma take a double dare/ Truth is a suicide/ I would rather live a lie, keep you on the outside,” he raps.
11. “Pussy & Millions”
The solo credited feature comes to the rescue on “Pussy & Millions” giving the album a different texture thanks to the Houston rager. Travis Scott heats up while leaving fans feigning for more as UTOPIA‘s landing shortly awaits.
10. “More M’s”
Metro Boomin’ reuniting with 21 Savage is always a dangerous yet welcomed combination. “More M’s” adds to the list of Metro-21-Drake collabs that includes “No Complaints” and “Mr. Right Now.” The 6 God invades the beat “skating like a Montreal Canadien.” Drake confidently claims a Verzuz match with his catalog is an unfair advantage as no opponent is worthy of his time.
9. “Jumbotron S–t Poppin”
Drake on a F1LTHY beat is the upset of the year. Although, Drizzy doesn’t embarrass himself while trying to find his pocket inside the distorted sound where the likes of Playboi Carti and Destroy Lonely call home. We’re even letting Drake get away with referring to himself as a Vamp at 36 years old because he’s the 6 God.
8. “Major Distribution”
Drizzy’s pompous singing about success leads the listener astray before the dark beat makes a hard left turn off the road. The OVO boss stick shifts up a gear and tries to match the acceleration with the fastest he’s rapped all year. He hands the baton to 21 for one of his more forgettable verses on the album outside of somehow name-dropping NBA players Steve Francis and Andrew Wiggins in back-to-back bars.
One of the many headline-snatching lyrics comes when Drake references a beautiful girl trying to rap, but he’s not impressed “She a 10 tryna rap, it’s good on mute,” he admits. Many fans tried to connect the dots to emerging “Munch” rapper Ice Spice, whom Drake unfollowed on Instagram after an initial meet-up in the 6. The first solo venture is a bullseye for Drizzy.
7. “Spin Bout U”
While Her Loss might be the album title, Drizzy stands up for women while jabbing U.S. politicians fumbling decisions about their reproductive rights. He then flexes on broke boys who can’t get reservations at Italian hotspot Carbone while he’s got the last table any night.
Savage also gives out free game when admitting he asks girls for their “Finstas” to find out who they really are instead of their actual Instagram accounts. However, it’s almost halftime and Drake has shined while bringing 21 along for the ride to this point of the album.
6. “On BS”
The tag-team champions pass the baton back-and-forth with one looking to outdo the other. The braggadocios rhymes reach a crescendo when the Slaughter Gang CEO and Drake flex about their feature prowess. 21 admits he has no issue turning someone else’s song into his own while the 6 God boasts about how his simple presence will have labels blowing up an artist’s phone.
“I jump on your song and make you sound like you the feature,” 21 raps over OZ’s ethereal production before Drizzy hops in. “I jump on your song and make a label think they need ya, for real!”
5. “Backoutsideboyz”
Lil Yachty tags in for 21 and provides ad-libs across the horn-tinged record. Drake is back to his bragging ways while simultaneously second-guessing his romance decisions. It’s rare to hear the king of Canada comment on politics where he admits he’s never voted, but if he did adult film star Teanna Trump has his ballot.
4. “3 AM On Glenwood”
With Drake not breathing down his neck, 21 Savage enjoys another bona fide moment defining Her Loss. It’s usually Drizzy blacking out over pitched-up samples, but 21 shows that two can play this game as he took a page out of the 6 God’s book by making use of a time stamp song title, which is usually reserved as a Drake specialty, but the OVO captain even had to be impressed.
21 displays his matured lyrical sparring ability with Steph Curry and Stephon Marbury references and then disses Mase’s artist relations. He even gets candid about turning to Kim Kardashian to get his brother out of jail while taking listeners on a journey of what’s going on in his turbulent life.
3. “Rich Flex”
Drake takes his intros very seriously and he and 21 don’t miss here by setting the tone for the project. The 6 God steals the show on the menacing Tay Keith beat switch in the second half where Drake interpolates T.I.’s classic “24’s” flow while flexing on the industry, which he then shrewdly flips into an homage to the late great Kobe Bryant.
2. “Middle of the Ocean”
This is peak Drake in his Goyard bag. A pitched-up sample and plenty of space to breathe — just give Drizzy enough room on the tarmac to take off like LeBron James in 2008. Drake opens up about his opulent life of luxury eating food most people can’t even pronounce and in the same sentence takes a snipe at Serena Williams’ husband, Alexis Ohanian, letting him know they still got beef. That’s the type of versatility lacking in hip-hop.
He even checks the box for hip-hop nerds with the shrewd AZ and Nas “Mo Money, Mo Murder” sample. Isn’t that what Drake does? He checks every box as a rapper. Receiving a Birdman TED talk was a nice touch for the outro too.
1. “Circo Loco”
A certified standout from Her Loss. Sampling a classic like Daft Punk’s “One More Time” can easily go corny — which it did on DJ Khaled’s “Staying Alive” — but Drake bottles this up into greatness. He wants smoke with everybody and even admits he only agreed to stand alongside Kanye West at the Larry Hoover concert last year because of his admiration for industry titan J. Prince. Megan Thee Stallion has already responded to a bar Drake possibly targeted her with when referencing the shooting case she’s entrenched in.
Drake used this album as the chance to reassert himself as the top dog on the rap food chain once again with Her Loss serving as a stark reminder for fans who may have been distracted by his dance-leaning Honestly, Nevermind album from earlier this year that he is not to be played with.
Takeoff — born Kirshnik Ball — was reportedly murdered in Houston early Tuesday (Nov. 1) following an altercation outside of 810 Billiards & Bowling when gunfire rang off and fatally struck the Migos rapper while leaving two others hospitalized.
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In the hours since Takeoff’s death, there’s been an outpouring of support from the hip-hop community with touching tributes coming from the likes of Drake, Gucci Mane, Nas, Rich The Kid, Metro Boomin’, Chance The Rapper, Chuck D and more.
As one-third of Migos alongside Quavo and Offset, Takeoff served as the backbone of the seminal trio, which played an integral role in changing the sound of 2010’s rap and turning Atlanta into the hip-hop capital of the world.
Fans had the privilege of witnessing Takeoff go from a reserved teenager blossoming to one of the most consistent wordsmiths the genre had to offer over the course of the past decade.
What made Migos’ meteoric rise from the North Atlanta bando to the Met Gala even more special was that it was always a family affair. For those that don’t know, Takeoff was Offset’s cousin and Quavo’s nephew.
At 28-years-old, Takeoff seemed to just be entering his prime as a rapper. Migos shifted the genre with their decorated Culture series, which produced three installments and a pair of Grammy Award nominations.
Takeoff also branched off to unleash his The Last Rocket solo album in Nov. 2018, which eerily turns four years old on Wednesday (Nov. 4).
More recently, Takeoff teamed up with uncle Quavo under the alias of Unc & Phew for their Only Built For Infinity Links joint album in October. The critically-acclaimed project peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard 200.
“Personally, I feel like it, because we had to work hard,” Takeoff told Billboard of being more proud of Infinity Links compared to previous albums. “We went back in that bat cave. Dirty, grimy, no cut and scruffy — just ain’t even worried about nothing.”
“Just in that basement cooking up, going in, editing and coming back… Those changes made the album. You think you got it and then you keep painting that picture until you come up with that Picasso.”
Billboard commemorates Takeoff by highlighting some of the lyrical brilliance he displayed throughout his career.
8. “Casper” – The Last Rocket (2018)
“Before we jump in, my n—a we gotta say grace/ My grandmama gone but can’t be replaced/ Jenna, she paved the way (Jenna Lou)/ I’m turnin’ the page on n—s (Turnin’)/ I waited days, remember/ Been had that fame on the side of my hood/ Swear it couldn’t change a n—a.”
7. “John Wick” – (2014)
“The trap game is Madden, no need to ask Madden/ I just hit the plug with the hit stick (boom)/ No Santa Claus, I’m on my Grinch s–t/ F–k it, might light the block up like it’s Christmas.”
6. “L.A. Leakers Freestyle” – (2021)
“They talking about COVID when I heard the news I started sipping a remedy/ If I got an opp and you say you my brother, then he better be your enemy/ I’m taking them back to the bando way back to when a n—a was breaking and entering.”
5. “Bars Into Captions” – Only Built For Infinity Links (2022)
“And we are creatures that come from another planet (Creature)/ The rocket ship take off, I’m ’bout to land it (Takeoff)/ I got a stick, the switch is automatic (Brrt)/ Ain’t never average, keep that ‘shh’ in the attic.”
4. “Stir Fry” – Culture II (2017)
“Don’t discriminate, ball players come in all sizes/ Finger roll, post move or the pick and roll/ They mad the way we win, they think we used a cheat code/ Why you keep lookin’ at me?/ I feel like n—-s got static/It must be the Patek.”
3. “Call Casting” – Culture (2017)
“Draco on me, it’s attached/ Name a n—a with the pack (Pack)/ Name a n—a with the sack (Sack)/ Elem’ o’clock, I got the MAC (MAC)/ She eat the molly like a snack (Eat it up)/ This gold on my neck a plaque.”
2. “Fight Night” – No Label II (2014)
“Broke n—s stand to the left (Left)/ My rich n—-s stand to the right (To the right)/ Lil’ mama, she keep looking at me (Lil’ mama)/ I’ma knock the pussy out like fight night.”
1. “T-Shirt” – Culture (2017)
“I’ma feed my family, n—a, ain’t no way around it (Family)/ Ain’t gon’ never let up, n—a, God said show my talent (Show it)/ Young n—a with the Anna, walkin’ with the hammer/ Talkin’ country grammar, n—a, straight out Nawf Atlanta.”