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Burna Boy lands his first No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart as “Last Last” captures first place on the chart dated Oct. 15. The single climbs from the runner-up spot after a 9% increase in weekly plays made it the most-played song on U.S. monitored R&B/hip-hop stations in the week ending Oct. 9, according to Luminate.
“Last Last” gives Burna Boy his first Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart-topper with his second career entry. He previously reached a No. 26 best with “Ye” in 2019. With its ascent, “Last” also halts the record-breaking stay of Future’s “Wait for U,” featuring Drake and Tems, which logged an unprecedented 14th week at No. 1 on the chart last week.
Plus, the new champ brings a former R&B hit to the summit via a sample. “Last” prominently samples Toni Braxton’s “He Wasn’t Man Enough,” which reached No. 6 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay in 2001.
The new champ adds to the Afrobeats genre’s mounting presence on R&B/hip-hop radio. It’s the genre’s third No. 1 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay in the past year, after the 10-week reign of Wizkid’s “Essence,” featuring Tems, beginning last November and a one-week visit for CKay’s “Love Nwantiti” in February. “Last Last” also retains its status as one of the top Afrobeats songs in the U.S., ranking at No. 2 on the latest Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart. The track previously clocked eight weeks at No. 1 from July to September.
Elsewhere, “Last” repeats at its No. 3 peak thus far on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, which ranks songs by combined audience at adult and mainstream R&B/hip-hop radio stations. There, the single adds 8% in weekly audience to reach 14.6 million in the week ending Oct. 9. Similarly, “Last” holds at its current No. 8 peak on Rhythmic Airplay, with a 9% improvement in weekly plays.
Thanks to its strength at R&B/hip-hop and rhythmic radio, “Last” advances 29-24 on the all-genre Radio Songs chart. There, it surges 18% to 22.3 million in total radio audience. Radio airplay, in turn, helps the track lift 49-44 on the Billboard Hot 100, which combines radio airplay with sales and streams to arrive at its rankings.
It’s a new era for Quavo and Takeoff. With the Migos chapter at least temporarily closed, Unc & Phew went forward by returning to their grimy roots, in order to recapture the essence of what made them two-thirds of the ATL trio that shifted the sound of hip-hop in the mid-2010s.
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“A lot of artists might get caught up in that space, but you got to go back to what you started from and what you know,” Takeoff says over Zoom. “It’s okay to try different things, but you just got to bring it back to what got you to where you at now.”
Quavo and Takeoff pressed reset, headed to the bat cave, and started with a diverse mood board featuring their favorite duos, like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, and didn’t come back up for air until they finished “that Picasso.”
For the first time in a long time, Huncho and Take were free of distractions, and it wasn’t about the ice they were rocking or the luxury car in the driveway, but making “bando music.” If you let Quavo tell it, it was like he was right back home at the 530 house on Atlanta’s Northside.
“It feel like we starting all over again,” Huncho gushes while walking around his mansion. “It feel like something new, and you know you [going] in the right direction.”
The finished product, Only Built For Infinity Links, arrived last week (Oct. 7) — with Raekwon’s blessing, given the title reference — and the joint album is looking at a top 10 debut on the Billboard 200.
Get into the rest of our interview below with Quavo and Takeoff as the fellas sum up the Culture series’ legacy, share Kobe stories, and explain why Huncho wants Jack Harlow as his next joint project teammate.
What was the mindset for you guys coming into recording Only Built For Infinity Links?
Quavo: We just broke it down and wanted to be very aggressive. I think starting with taking it back to the essence [and how we] came up with the title. We had a mood board and put a lot of pictures together. We put a lot of dynamic duos up. We didn’t want to come out there on some regular collab s–t. We wanted to make this look like a movie.
Takeoff: We been had records. We were supposed to drop the project a minute ago. Me and Quavo was gonna drop a duo project, but we pushed it back for Culture III. We stayed cooking up.
How was it getting Raekwon’s blessing? Was there talks of him getting on a record?
Quavo: I wasn’t thinking about a record, but we was thinking like a skit or something like that. It’s fun. We came up with the album title and then ran into him in the club. We was looking for him, and I think Take reached out to him and we saw him on ground in Atlanta.
You guys said, “It runs in the blood.” What does that mean as far as this album?
Quavo: Blood thicker than friendship. Me and Takeoff — Unc and Phew — this my nephew. When I say run in the blood, it’s deeper than rap.
What were the advantages of recording as a duo rather than a trio? Quavo, did you pull anything from the Huncho, Jack sessions that applied to this?
Quavo: Nah, I feel like this was going back to the roots of what I do. Doing other songs with other people, I feel like that’s taking the sauce somewhere else. I feel like when it gets down to me and Take, it’s an automatic link that automatically syncs like a Bluetooth phone. We can go win championships elsewhere, but when we come back and get together, it’s like six, seven, eight rings.
It’s like when LeBron came back to Cleveland. Do you guys feel more proud of this album than your others?
Takeoff: Personally, I feel like it, because we had to work hard. 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 like, “We got it right here.” Then come back a day later like, “Yo, nah, we need to bounce this off of this.” Those changes made the album. You think you got it and then you keep painting that picture until you come up with that Picasso.
A lot of the album rollout saw you guys comparing yourselves to Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant as a duo. Those are some big shoes to fill.
Quavo: No it ain’t, I got big shoes too! Them our OGs, so anything less than would be like, “What the f–k are you doing?” We get it from them.
Takeoff: I got Mamba Mentality too. Anything less than would be disrespectful.
Did you guys ever link up with Kobe?
Quavo: Absolutely. I seen Kobe at an Atlanta Hawks-Lakers game, and I think a month later he passed away. I think that was one of the last times he was in that building. I met him and he was straight authentic. I feel like my life was straight complete when I met him.
One of my partners had tears in his eyes. Like we said, them our OGs, and coming from a spot with no father figure or no real dad in the hood, we look up to those athletes, those Kobe Bryants, those Michael Jordans, those LeBron Jameses, to get some type of motivation. Outside looking in, even though you watching on a TV screen. It’s the mentality, the way he work, the way he put in work and go at people about work is all something that I really take pride in, using his methods. It’s a blessing to have met the man.
Takeoff: Kobe was in that gym when nobody was in that gym. You wasn’t in that gym with me, and you wasn’t in that basement with me, and we stayed cooking up that whole time, perfecting our craft and sharpening our tools. We in that basement 24/7, and we actually got a studio in our house. We wake up and go right downstairs.
Quavo: We had just bought a factory. A place so high it’s on the moon.
“Bars Into Captions” does justice by the Outkast sample. Speak to using the “So Fresh, So Clean” beat and turning it into your own.
Quavo: I just wanted to give these folks a “Welcome to Atlanta,” and another feel-good Atlanta record. Lately, everyone been spinning off these old samples and making it into drill and kill zone music and shoot an opp. I just wanted to make a great party song, and let these folks know we grateful for our city.
The best way to do it is on an Outkast beat. That’s somebody who laid down bricks in the city and we just walking on it. We laid our own bricks, and we marrying these two worlds. We been here for 10 years, and they been here for way longer than 10. We just trying to put that hip-hop pocket back onto the music scene. Put the gun down.
Takeoff, how was meeting Lil Wayne and getting to work with him? I know that’s one of your guys.
Takeoff: That’s my brother. I talk to him and have personal conversations, and I can call him. That’s a bucket list as one of my favorite rappers. You don’t think you’ll get the chance to be close to him, and now I did a song with him and have a relationship with him. That’s who I learned the game from. Just learning how to record music — he don’t even write. Just looking at him go off the top of the head, the jewelry — he the GOAT. He gives me good advice.
On “Nothing’s Changed,” Takeoff, you rap, “The money, the car, the chains, the fame, I’d give up everything to see my grandma.” Expand on those few bars.
Takeoff: All this is just material. I could give everything up for my grandma. That was the backbone of the family. I love her. She everything. The love you got for your grandma. That’s my grandma, she made me gentle. Just to care for ya.
How about just seeing Offset and Quavo in high-profile relationships, is that something you shy away from?
Takeoff: I just do what I do. I just chill and stay out the way. I’m enjoying life. I’m blessed, so I’m not really tripping. I don’t like to be in the light of this s–t too much. I’m a laid-back type of person, and keep my life a mystery — like the old days when you didn’t know everything. Now you got the internet, where you know a whole bunch of bulls–t. I just keep my little personal to myself. You know, everything’s on the motherf–king internet.
I saw you guys posing in Kanye’s YZY SHDZ, have you spoken to him recently?
Quavo: Yeah, I talked to Ye. Anything I talk about with somebody that’s Kanye, I keep it private.
Takeoff: Shout-out to Ye. You hear me, y’all stop f–king with my boy.
Has Travis Scott given you guys a call for the UTOPIA sessions? We need that.
Quavo: Yeah, that’s Jack. Whenever Jack call, Huncho in the bat cave watching everything.
Takeoff: Come on, man. You know that.
If the Culture series is really over, how do you feel about its legacy in hip-hop?
Quavo: Most definitely a great, great series. One, two, and three. It’s history — you can’t repeat it, you can’t duplicate it and you can’t beat it. We’re proud of ourselves for that, and we want to see what the new Infinity Links bring. I feel like we laid down the groundwork to let y’all know that we was here to stay.
Takeoff: It’s legendary. We’ve been here a long time. People don’t even get to do it that long, and we’re blessed to keep doing it. We’re gonna feed y’all with more hot music, and we feel like we owe the fans to go back in and take it back to that feeling when we didn’t have the money. We’re taking it back to the hungry vibe. It’s that grime and hunger again.
Jim Jones said rappers have the most dangerous job in the world right now. Following the murders of rappers and most recently PnB Rock, does that change how you guys move in other cities? Quavo, I know you said you have a stalker out there too.
Quavo: It’s hard for us all. RIP to PnB Rock. It’s tough, bruh. It’s either go out with security, or go out with none. It’s either give it all up, or give it all up without a gun. You just gotta protect yourself and get yourself out of situations the best way you can. You can’t run from situations, and you can’t hide. It’s life, bro. I can’t speak on nobody situations because it can happen to anybody. If it do happen, just hope that you make it out that motherf–ker.
Takeoff: Just do what it takes to make it home. You gotta make it to the crib, since you got a family to feed. Something go down, it’s ,”Oh, you had security.” Something go down then it’s, “You dumb for not having security.” So at this point which one is it?
What else is left on the bucket list?
Quavo: Collab albums with everybody. I want to sauce this s–t up. When I took that picture with Jack Harlow, it would be fire if we do Huncho, Jack 2 with Jack Harlow.
Takeoff: Shout out that boy, Jack. Yeah, just taking over. Getting verse of the year, and just ain’t letting up. I ain’t really worried about awards, but [that’s] the cherry on top.
Quavo: He’s right. Takeoff is the best rapper out here, period. It’s been like that for a long time and people need to give him his flowers.
Streams of Loretta Lynn‘s catalog shot up 615% in the week of the country legend’s death, according to Luminate.
In the Sept. 30-Oct. 6 tracking period, Lynn’s catalog earned 8.7 million official on-demand U.S. streams, a 615% jump from 1.2 million the previous week (Sept. 23-29).
The primary bump occurred on Oct. 4, the day of Lynn’s death. Her music was streamed 3.2 million times that day, up 1,841% from 167,000 on Oct. 3.
Her signature hit, 1970’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” led the pack at 1.3 million streams Sept. 30-Oct. 6, a 399% boost from 253,000 the previous period.
It’s followed by 1966’s “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)” (768,000 streams, up 381%), 1966’s “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind)” (593,000, up 351%), her 1973 Conway Twitty collaboration “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man” (575,000, up 209%) and 1968’s “Fist City” (427,000, up 424%).
Additionally, Lynn’s catalog moved 7,000 digital downloads Sept. 30-Oct. 6, a gain of 2,691% from a negligible amount the previous week. “Daughter” makes a pair of Billboard charts dated Oct. 15 as a result, appearing at Nos. 12 and 36 on Country Digital Song Sales and Digital Song Sales, respectively, on the strength of 2,000 downloads.
Lynn’s 2022’s greatest hits package, All Time Greatest Hits, also debuts on Top Country Albums with 5,000 equivalent album units earned.
Lynn died Oct. 4 at age 90 in her sleep in Tennessee of natural causes.
Lynn earned 10 Top Country Albums No. 1s over a career that spanned seven decades from 1960 through 2021, plus 16 No.1s on Hot Country Songs.
M.I.A. is courting controversy once again, this time with a tweet which reiterates her anti-vax stance.
Like so many others, the veteran British rapper and singer (real name Mathangi Arulpragasam) weighed in on the damages bill Infowars host Alex Jones has been ordered to pay to families of Sandy Hook victims.
A Connecticut court this week slapped the right-wing commentator with a $965 million payable sum, for falsely and repeatedly claiming the 2012 massacre was staged by actors, as part of a conspiracy to take away Americans’ guns.
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M.I.A. has an entirely different angle on it.
“If Alex Jones pays for lying shouldn’t every celebrity pushing vaccines pay too?” she writes.
If Alex jones pays for lying shouldn’t every celebrity pushing vaccines pay too ?— M.I.A. (@MIAuniverse) October 12, 2022
M.I.A.’s comments are at odds with the vast majority of the medical community, and they come ahead of an album release, MATA, her sixth studio set and first via Island Records through a recently-announced global deal.
The hip-hop artist has always followed the beat of her own drum. When she extended her middle finger during Madonna’s Super Bowl performance on Feb. 5, 2012, the gesture landed her in hot water with the NFL, a dispute that would finally be resolved some three years later.
Along the way, she has beefed with her label (Interscope), the Grammys, fellow artists and more.
As the novel coronavirus spread in March 2020, the rapper chimed in on social media, “If I have to choose the vaccine or chip I’m gonna choose death.”
When a follower called her out for being an “anti vaxxer,” the rapper responded with, “Yeah in America they made me [vaccinate] my child before the school admission. It was the hardest thing. To not have choice over this as a mother. I never wanna feel that again. He was so sick for 3 weeks then Docs had to pump him with antibiotics to reduce the fever from 3 vaxins.”
M.I.A. will celebrate the 20th anniversary next year for Arular, her debut, Mercury Prize-shortlisted album. In the United States, she has landed a string of top 10 hits including “Paper Planes,” “Give Me All Your Luvin’”, on which she appeared with Madonna; and Travis Scott’s Billboard Hot 100 leader “Franchise” with Young Thug.
In 2019, she was awarded an MBE for services to music.
Rapper Offset did not disappoint when it came to his wife Cardi B’s birthday on Tuesday (Oct. 11). The “Tomorrow 2” rapper, who turned 30, was gifted larger-than-life bouquets made up of red roses all over her house, in addition massive candles.
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“Thank you, baby daddy” Cardi said in the Story posted to her Instagram on Wednesday (Oct. 12).
Offset didn’t stop there, though. A video released on Twitter shows him gifting Cardi not just any watch, but a rare Richard Mille watch. The expensive gift comes on the heels of their baby Kulture receiving a 500k Richard Mille watch just months ago, in July.
Cardi celebrated her birthday with a burlesque-themed function hosted at Poppy Nightclub in Los Angeles. The rapper shared an Instagram Story of herself in a rose-red burlesque gown, seemingly captured before taking on her dirty thirty.
Her soiree was nothing short of star-studded. Chance The Rapper, Ice Spice, GloRilla, Jamie Foxx, and Chloe & Halle Bailey were just a few of the celebrities in attendance.
While it seems like everything’s swell in Cardi B and Offset’s relationship, the extravagant gifts follow cheating rumors for the couple. His former collaborators Quavo and Takeoff recently released a debut album as a duo, Only Built for Infinity Links. The album’s song “Messy” features some questionable lyrics from Quavo.
“B—- f—ed my dawg behind my back, but I ain’t stressin’ (Not at all)/You wanted the gang, you shoulda just said it, we would have blessed it (You shoulda just said it)/Now s— got messy (Uh),” raps Quavo. Many believe the lyrics allude to an affair between Quavo’s ex-girlfriend Saweetie and his cousin, Offset.
EBONY’s Power 100 Gala, a night of Black excellence, released its list of 100 honorees on Wednesday (Oct. 12). The gala is set to be hosted by Emmy-nominated comedian Amber Ruffin and will include names like Emmy award-winning Quinta Brunson, Usher, and TikTok influencer Khaby Lame.
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The annual gala is dedicated to honoring Black trailblazers in various professions and crafts such as business, entertainment, and science and technology. The formal event’s 10 categories range from Entertainment Powerhouses to Community Creators. In addition to announcing its return, executives shared their reimagined commitment to “Moving Black Forward.”
“The EBONY Power 100 Gala is one of our tentpole events,” said Eden Bridgeman Sklenar, EBONY Media Group chief executive officer in a release. “This year’s list represents the best and brightest across fields, and we are proud to celebrate and salute each of our honorees who we recognize as influential members of the community based on their impactful contributions to the culture and society at large.”
In addition to Usher and Brunson, Tems and H.E.R. also graced the list of Entertainment Powerhouses. Makeup mogul and YouTuber Jackie Aina, rapper Saucy Santana, and comedian Elsa Majimbo also join Lame in the influencer category.
This year’s Dynamic Duo slot features both romantic and platonic power couples like Russell Wilson and Ciara, Idris and Sabrina Elba, and the City Girls. In addition to hosting, Ruffin is a Media Mavens honoree this year.
The Gala will take place in Los Angeles at the Milk Studios on Oct. 29., and is to be presented by Coke Zero Sugar.
Actor Jonathan Groff shared a touching tribute to his pal and former Spring Awakening co-star Lea Michele — and New York through her eyes — in a self-penned essay published by Variety on Wednesday (Oct. 12).
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The actress, known most notably for her role as Rachel Berry in Glee, is back in the Big Apple 13 years after her debut in Les Misérables to make her return to Broadway as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl. “By bringing big business back to Broadway, Lea isn’t just making audiences happy, she’s helping support the restaurants and hotels that thrive when Broadway draws a huge crowd,” wrote Groff. “By welcoming her back to Broadway, New York is giving Lea the power to reconnect with her truest self. The power of New York finally brought her home.”
Funny Girl has been an economic powerhouse, making $1.6 million in Michele’s first box office week ending Sept. 11. The stunning success is no surprise for Groff, who met Michele in 2005 and knew her primarily as a Broadway star. He fondly painted a picture of his friend in the essay that is authentically New York, complete with one of her grandfathers being involved in the mob. “Lea was New York to me. After our time together in Spring Awakening, Lea ascended to fame with the success of Glee, and left the city,” Groff recounted.
While Groff speaks fondly of Michele’s return to the theater main stage, not everyone is rushing to see her Funny Girl performance. Michele’s Glee co-star, Chris Colfer refused an invite to see her performance, he said in an interview with Sirius XM, referencing rumors of mean-girl behavior displayed by Michele on the Glee set. “My day suddenly just got so full,” Colfer said. “No, I can be triggered at home.”