bbnews
Page: 310
Related Images:
Related Images:
Daniel Johns is back in a familiar place — at No. 1 on Australia’s albums chart.
The ex-Silverchair frontman sets a chart record as FutureNever (BMG/ADA), his third solo album, returns to the summit on the ARIA Chart.
Following its release April 22, FutureNever bowed at No. 3 in Australia, then lifted to No. 1 in its third week.
Now, thanks to its release on vinyl, the album stages another return to the top.
Its 22 weeks between stays at the chart penthouse is the biggest gap for an album by an Australian artist, ARIA reports.
FutureNever, the best-seller on wax this week, earned Johns a nomination for best artist at the 2022 ARIA Awards, announced Wednesday (Oct. 12).
“To have FutureNever go to No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart twice in 2022 and spend 6 weeks in the ARIA Top 10 is amazing,” Johns says in a statement as the chart was published late Friday, local time.
“Thank you to the incredible people who worked on this album with me and a very special thank you to everyone who has listened to FutureNever and helped spread the word. For an album with no singles and no music videos, I’m truly grateful that the music is speaking for itself.”
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Johns’ album also lends its name to the veteran rocker’s not-for-profit FutureNeverFund, which announced it would work closely with EquiEnergy Youth, a Newcastle, Australia-based charity dedicated to helping communities reduce instances of mental health distress, self-harm and suicide risk in young people, an alliance that coincides with Mental Health Month.
FutureNever is Johns’ first solo leader in Australia, and sixth in total, including all five of Silverchair’s studio LPs, from Frogstomp through to Young Modern, a feat no other band can match.
Meanwhile, a pair of new releases impact the ARIA top five, led by Stray Kids’ Maxident (ING), new at No. 4, a debut that easily eclipses the K-pop band’s previous chart peak, No. 14 for 2021’s Noeasy.
Close behind is Charlie Puth’s Charlie (Atlantic/Warner), which debuts at No. 5, for the U.S. pop singer’s third ARIA top 10.
Beyonce’s Renaissance (Columbia/Sony) roars back into the top 10, up 29-7, following its own release on vinyl. Over on the national singles chart, “Cuff It” becomes the second Renaissance single to crash the top 10, lifting 16-8 after going viral on TikTok.
There’s no change at the top of the ARIA Singles Chart, as Sam Smith & Kim Petras’ “Unholy” (Capitol/EMI) holds at No. 1, ahead of David Guetta and Bebe Rexha’s “I’m Good (Blue)” (via Warner) and OneRepublic’s “I Ain’t Worried” (Interscope/Universal), respectively.
The highest debut on the latest singles chart, published Oct. 14, is Ed Sheeran’s ”Celestial” (Atlantic/Warner), new at No. 37. Sheeran’s latest top 40 hit will appear on the Pokémon “Scarlet” and ”Violet” games, set to rollout Nov. 18 on the Nintendo Switch.
Nicki Minaj has called out The Recording Academy for switching her hit “Super Freaky Girl” out of the Grammy Awards’ rap category, and into pop, a decision she reckons is a contradiction, and part of a broader agenda to celebrate rising rap artists over veterans.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Earlier this week, Billboard’s sister title The Hollywood Reporter disclosed the Grammys change-up, despite “Super Freaky Girl” logging its eighth week on top of Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs chart.
Minaj’s team submitted the track to the rap categories at the Grammys, but the decision was overturned by the Recording Academy’s rap committee, a source told THR.
The Trinidadian star addressed the situation in a series of tweets, and went deeper still in a 17-minute rant posted on social media.
“’Super Freaky Girl’ was removed from the rap category, we found out today in the Grammy submission. ‘Super Freaky Girl,’ where I only rapped on the song, was removed out of the rap categories at the Grammys, right. And put it in pop,” she explains.
It should be noted that MC Hammer also sampled Rick James’ “Super Freak” for “U Can’t Touch This,” which won the best rap solo performance Grammy back in 1991.
Drake’s “Hotline Bling,” however, in 2017, took out best rap song and best rap/sung collaboration, she points out, though even Drake himself admitted it was a pop number.
On the flip side, Minaj wants the same rules applied to Latto’s pop leaning “Big Energy”.
“Now, let’s say that ‘Super Freaky Girl’ is a pop song. Let’s just say that, right. What is ‘Big Energy?’ If ‘Super Freaky Girl’ is a pop song, what song is ‘Big Energy.’ What genre is ‘Big Energy?’
Suggesting she’s been hard done by, Minaj continued, “If you know something is unfair as an artist, speak on that shit. Drake could’ve just let that shit slide and added it to his collection, but he spoke up.”
If you move “Super Freaky Girl” out of rap and “put it in pop,” she adds, “do the same for ‘Big Energy’. Same producers on both songs, by the way. So let’s keep shit fair.”
Minaj’s “Super Freaky Girl” was a mainstream hit, blasting to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August. Its shift into the pop frame, or “moving the goal post,” she says, is part of a process to “uplift the people who they want to shine, the people who these corporate giants can make the money off of the people, control things behind the scenes, they have to elevate someone that they profit off.”
Minaj also issued a warning, claiming unnamed power players had an agenda that would eventually upend diversity in hip-hop.
“If you can’t tell by now that there is a concerted effort to give newer artists things that they really don’t deserve, over people who have been deserving for many years, then you’re not paying attention. And soon female rap will really not have any black women. If you pay attention, you’ll see, you’ll understand.”
The Recording Academy doesn’t reveal reasons when its screening committees relocate tracks into categories other than those that eligible recordings were submitted in, THR notes. The general ballot, which can include thousands of submissions in a single category, isn’t released to the public.
Despite it all, Minaj insists she’s still the queen of rap.
“I know one thing,” she says, “even when I’m rapping on a pop track, I still out-rap.”
Blink-182 are back, they’re playing in a huge venue near you next year, and they’ll road test some new tunes.
One of those tracks is “Edging,” the first taste of new music from the reunited classic lineup of Blink-182, which set social media ablaze this week with news of Tom DeLonge’s return to the band.
“Edging” is the first cut from the pop-punk favorites’ forthcoming album, the first with DeLonge since the singer/guitarist left the band for a second time, in 2014.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
DeLonge returns to the trio alongside singer/bassist Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker for an upcoming Live Nation-produced trek that’s being called their biggest international tour to-date.
Dropping at this stroke of midnight, “Edging” marks the first time in a decade that Mark, Tom and Travis have been in the studio together.
If you thought the lads were all grown up and graduated to soft ballads, fear not. “Edging” is straight-up Blink-182 material, hewn from misspent youth and with all the bluster, swagger and stop-on-a-dime detail that made the threesome one of the most popular alternative rock acts of its era.
“I’m a punk rock kid, I came from hell with a curse/ She tried to pray it away, so I f***ed her in church,” Delonge and Hoppus sing at the top.
The tour is slated to kick off on March 11 in Tijuana, Mexico at the Imperial GNP festival and keep the band on the road in South America and Mexico through April 12 before shifting to North America on May 4 with a show at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota; those dates will run through a July 16 gig in Nashville at the Bridgestone Arena and then move on to Europe in September and Australia/New Zealand in early 2024.
Along the way, Blink-182 will play multiple festivals in Latin America and the U.S., including Lollapalooza and the 2023 edition of We Were Young.
Stream “Edging” below.
AC/DC have done it all in the rock ‘n’ roll, from dropping multi-million selling albums, filling stadiums around the globe, induction into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. Heck, even Iron Man is a fan.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Now, the Aussie rock titans are playing a different note, with a children’s picture book.
Angus Young and Co. signed off on The AC/DC AB/CD High-Voltage Alphabet, available in-stores from Nov. 11 and online at lovepolicebooks.com.
Illustrated by Paul “The Mayor” McNeil, it’s the fourth in a series of kid’s picture books released by Australian merch and lifestyle company, Love Police, after Never Mind Your Ps and Qs, Here’s the Punk Alphabet, M Is For Metal, and the Country and Western Alphabet Book.
“From the greatest rock n roll band in history, comes the most rockin’ alphabet book ever,” reads the blurb on the new page-turner, priced at A$24.95 ($15.80).
“Join Angus, Malcolm, Bon, Brian and the boys for a classic stroll through the alphabet. Every page leaps out with color, humor and the band’s history as you wind down the Highway To Spell.”
The latest look at Akka Dakka, as they’re known in these parts, came about when Young got his hands on M is for Metal while in Australian during the pandemic. He contacted Love Police chief Brian Taranto, and conversations moved from rock ‘n’ roll tales to the written word.
“What an honor it is to work on this book, and to have had a connection to Angus for the real deal stuff makes it even more wild and special,” comments Taranto. “Yeah, it’s a kid’s book, but any AC/DC or music fan will find something on every page.
The Mayor “has done a sweet and rockin’ job. We are looking forward to educating another generation of rock and rollers.”
AC/DC has already educated several generations. The band’s 17th and latest studio album, 2020’s Power Up, went straight to the top in the U.S. (their third leader), the U.K. (fourth No. 1) and Australia (sixth). The band was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame at its inaugural edition, in 1988, and into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.
Björk begins at No. 2 on Billboard‘s Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart (dated Oct. 15) with Fossora. The set starts with 10,000 equivalent album units earned, including 9,000 in album sales, in the Sept. 30-Oct. 6 tracking week, according to Luminate.
It’s the Icelandic songstress’ sixth top 10 dating to the chart’s 2001 inception, a run that began with Vespertine (three weeks at No. 1, 2001). Björk’s other top 10s are Greatest Hits (No. 2, 2002), Family Tree (No. 6, 2002), Volta (nine weeks at No. 1, 2007) and Biophilia (No. 1, 2011).
Björk landed five earlier titles on the Billboard 200, led by Homogenic (No. 28, 1997). Volta brought Björk her highest rank, and lone top 10 to date, on the chart (No. 9).
Concurrently, Fossora arrives on Top Album Sales (No. 7), Vinyl Albums (No. 7; 5,000 vinyl copies), Top Alternative Albums (No. 9), Independent Albums (No. 15) and the Billboard 200 (No. 100), among other tallies.
Additionally on Top Dance/Electronic Albums, Shygirl (aka Blane Muise) starts at No. 7 with Nymph (3,000 units). The U.K.-based DJ/singer has scored two hits on the multi-metric Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart: “Sour Candy (Mura Masa Remix),” with Lady Gaga and BLACKPINK (No. 24, September 2021), and as featured on FKA Twigs’ “Papi Bones” (No. 32, this January).
Speaking of Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, Farruko flies20-12 with “Nazareno,” earning top Streaming Gainer honors following the Sept. 29 drop of a remix and video with Ankhal. The track, which reached No. 7 in June, earned 1.2 million U.S. streams, up 102%, in addition to gathering 2.6 million in all-format radio airplay audience impressions.
Shifting to the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart, MK collects his fourth top 10 and BURNS earns its first with “Better,” featuring Teddy Swims, who adds his second (13-10). The song is drawing core-dance airplay on Music Choice’s Dance/EDM channel, iHeartRadio’s Evolution and KMVQ-HD2 San Francisco, among other outlets. (The Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart measures radio airplay on a select group of full-time dance stations, along with plays during mix shows on around 70 top 40-formatted reporters.)
Related Images:
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.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“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.