feature
Page: 2
Two years after Avril Lavigne released her game-changing debut album Let Go, another pop-punk princess arrived on the scene and made quite a splash. Unlike her sister Jessica, who had emerged as a more traditional pop artist, Ashlee Simpson came with an edge: jet black hair, grunge style, and an affinity for rock music. In […]
On Friday (July 19), the music world received something it hasn’t gotten often over the last 10 years: a new “Weird Al” Yankovic song.
“Polkamania!” is not a new parody, but a polka medley, the type of which he would often include on his full-lengths — a mash-up of pop smashes performed by Yankovic, with his accordion coursing through the different melody snippets. Since he hasn’t released an album since 2014’s Mandatory Fun, which made history as the first comedy album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, Yankovic had a decade’s worth of pop hits to select from, and created a pastiche of Hot 100 chart-toppers from across the past 10 years.
That list ranges from Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” to Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire” to the Encanto smash “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” — to, rather improbably, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP.” And the new song was also given an eye-popping music video, which sews together different styles of animation from some of Yankovic’s favorite filmmakers and collaborators.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
[embedded content]
Yankovic — who has kept busy over the past decade by touring, releasing a handful of remixes and scattered tracks, and working on the 2022 fictionalized biopic Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, which he co-wrote and co-produced — hopes that “Polkamania!” scratches an itch for longtime listeners, who have been waiting years for his new takes on popular music. “For some, I suppose it will be nostalgic,” the 64-year-old tells Billboard, “because it sounds very much like every other polka medley I’ve done, and they haven’t heard that in a while. And for some people, this will be a time capsule — if you’ve been out of touch and not listened to pop radio in the last 10 years, this is a good four-minute refresher course!”
Trending on Billboard
Below, Yankovic discusses his new song, his decision to move away from the album format, and the artist who immediately OK’ed his latest parody. (Note: this interview has been edited for clarity.)
When did the idea for “Polkamania!” start coming together?
A while ago, maybe even a year ago. It’s been in the back of my mind for a while — I figured that I wanted to do something to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Mandatory Fun. I wanted to come up with something new, so I’d have some new material to play next time I went out on the road. And a lot of years went by where I hadn’t done any parodies or polka medleys, and I just figured I had to kind of catch up — I had to do at least some commentary on the last decade in music. So this is my version of that.
Why was the 10th anniversary of Mandatory Fun important for you to commemorate?
Mandatory Fun is probably my last traditional “Weird Al” album. We released a double LP, the soundtrack to Weird, last year, and I’m sure there will be other projects like that. But in terms of actual “Weird Al” albums, I think that’s the last one, for a number of reasons.
But obviously I’m still trying to put out new material — it’s just that the album format for me has always felt a little restrictive, and not the best way for me to get my music out into the world. And I know that sounds a little ironic, because it’s not like I’ve exactly been prolific in terms of my recorded output in the last 10 years! But I still just feel like, I like the freedom of not having to release 12 songs all at once.
You spoke about moving away from the album model 10 years ago, when Mandatory Fun was released. Looking back on the past decade, do you feel like you made the right call?
Yeah, I think so. I don’t know if it makes sense in terms of a career or staying relevant, but those aren’t driving forces on my life — at this point in my life and career, I basically just want to do what feels right for me, what I enjoy doing. And I’ve taken a little bit of a break from recording, and have been focused on TV and film projects, and obviously a lot of touring as well. Recording is something that I would like to think will always be a part of my life and my career — it’s just that, now, I’m not beholden to a record label, I don’t owe anybody anything, and I just kind of work at my own pace.
Did “Polkamania!” come together like your previous polka medleys, in terms of the composition and squeezing the different melodies together?
Very much. I hadn’t done it in a few years, but it was kind of like riding a bike. I think this is my 13th or 14th polka medley, so it’s second nature to me. So the arrangement came together pretty quickly, once I had an approved list of songs that I could use.
Was it always going to be a smattering of different hits released over the past decade?
Yeah, that was always the idea. I think I actually even limited it to songs that had hit No. 1 on [the Billboard Hot 100], to have it narrowed down a little bit while looking at a decade’s worth of music. Then I made a little chart — like, how many weeks was this No. 1? Based on that, and based on my general feeling about how important each song was in the zeitgeist, I submitted my list to my manager, who then had the job of going out to all the artists and agents and managers and publishers and reps to see if we could actually get them cleared.
Did it take a while to get all the songs cleared, compared to previous songs or medleys?
It’s always about the same. Some people get back to your right away — I think [“Bruno” songwriter] Lin-Manuel Miranda took about 30 seconds. And some took a while, and I had to be more aggressive and track people down, see if I had any friends of friends that knew the artists, that kind of thing.
Listening to the medley for the first time and not knowing which songs are going to appear, I immediately recognized when you launched into “Shake It Off” or “Old Town Road,” but it took me a few seconds for “WAP,” and then I went, “Wait… is this…”
I have to say, that’s my favorite! Once we got the Taylor Swift song, I thought, “Okay, we’ve got a medley now” — but “WAP” was the one I was really, really hoping we would get, just because I thought that would be my personal favorite.
Who was behind the concept of the animated video?
A lot of people that I’ve worked with before, like Bill Plympton and Augenblick Studios and Ghostbot, and some people that I’ve been fans of for a long time – li-ke Cyriak, who’s a British animator who does these amazing surrealistic pieces, and Vivienne Medrano, who does Hazbin Hotel. It’s really an amazing list of talented animators, and I’m just thrilled with what they’ve come up with.
What’s it been like to prep a traditional song and video release like this again?
It’s fun! I mean, I haven’t had this kind of deadline and anxiety, everything that comes with a new release — the suspense of “How’s it going to do?,” and this kind of media blitz. We did a bit of that with the movie, but it feels a bit more personal when it’s your recorded work. So I’m very excited to be doing this project, and hopefully it’ll lead to more.
So what’s next? You’re always working on different projects…
I have five or six things that are in current stages of development, and I can’t speak of them, because some of them will probably happen and some of them probably won’t. So I’ve learned my lesson not to talk too much about things that might happen because, this town being what it is, oftentimes, things never work out. But hopefully a few things well! That’s what I’m counting on.
Scott Stapp remembers feeling young and determined — an unknown singer, certain he wouldn’t be for long — when Creed started in the mid-’90s, more than half a lifetime ago. “We wanted to write timeless songs,” Stapp asserts to Billboard.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Practicing with his new band members in Florida’s panhandle roughly 30 years ago, Stapp would discuss his outsized dreams in drummer Scott Phillips’ living room. “That was an actual goal,” Stop continues, leaning forward in his chair, “that the band would write things that would stand the test of time. It was a lofty goal! And I don’t think we ever knew, during our run, if we really accomplished that.”
Indeed, the general longevity of Creed’s biggest hits was something of a question mark for a while. In their turn-of-the-century heyday, Creed’s burly post-grunge anthems were everywhere, as Stapp, guitarist Mark Tremonti, Phillips and bassist Brian Marshall scored multiple top 10 smashes on the Hot 100 and sold millions of albums behind them. Chest-thumping sing-alongs like “Higher,” “With Arms Wide Open” and “My Sacrifice” earned prime MTV plays and crossed over to pop radio; for years, the quartet was undoubtedly one of the most bankable rock bands in the world.
Trending on Billboard
Then: a breakup, personal problems, haphazard reunion and prolonged hiatus. By the dawn of the streaming era in the early 2010s, post-grunge had receded from popular rock and Creed’s mainstream footprint had evaporated. Their biggest songs could have been shrugged off as relics of a bygone moment in music history — maybe, in spite of the towering initial success, they wouldn’t endure after all.
Yet as the four members of Creed sit together in midtown Manhattan on a Tuesday afternoon in June 2024, the mood is light, and the guys — all of whom have entered their fifties over the past year-plus — are clearly enjoying a sea change in how their catalog is being treated. They’re at the SiriusXM offices, prepping for an in-studio performance of songs like “Higher” and “My Sacrifice”; the day before, they played both hits on Good Morning America.
[embedded content]
Earlier that month, a mariachi band made the Internet rounds for covering “Higher” at Globe Life Field, the same stadium that was blasting the song throughout the Texas Rangers’ run to a World Series victory last fall. And of course, the latest viral moments follow the Super Bowl commercial in February, the SZA shout-out last November, and plenty of TikTok remixes in between.
As they pal around ahead of a SiriusXM showcase and crack jokes about too-early call times (their GMA soundcheck was at 5:30 AM), Marshall slips in that his five-year-old daughter was singing their 2002 power ballad “One Last Breath” that morning, albeit with some misplaced lyrics. Stapp adds that he’s noticed a lot of the social media championing and TikTok trends engineered by younger listeners — proof positive that, even as the nostalgia cycle plays a major factor in the band’s reunion and resurgence, his decades-old goal for Creed’s music to persist was ultimately accomplished.
“To see that happening for Creed, with a whole new generation of fans and listeners? It’s just… very rewarding,” Stapp says, his voice catching. “I mean, we’ve been through a lot, man — individually, as a band. I mean, this,” he continues, gesturing toward his band mates, “it’s just so emotional. Your eyes water. You tear up. You’re just grateful, because it really could have gone in another direction.”
Creed’s catalog has not just endured — now, there’s real demand to experience its full power live. The band’s 2024 North American reunion trek, which kicked off last night (July 17) in Green Bay, has turned into one of the hottest rock tickets of the year. A pair of Creed cruises got the reunion started in April, and after announcing a summer 2024 amphitheater run last October, Creed added 20 fall arena shows to their itinerary in February, citing “overwhelming fan demand.”
During a topsy-turvy year in the touring industry, with other arena tours being downgraded or canceled as the market readjusts following a post-pandemic boom, Creed’s team expects most of the band’s upcoming dates — including the band’s first headlining show at New York’s Madison Square Garden since 2000, set for Nov. 29 — to sell out, and is already eyeing opportunities for 2025.
“It’s a pretty unbelievable comeback, as comebacks go,” says Ken Fermaglich, the band’s longtime agent at UTA. “The consumers are out there and want to connect with the music, whether it’s on the nostalgia side for the fan that was aware of it from years ago, or the newer fan that’s never gotten to see them.”
[embedded content]
Although it’s been over a decade since Creed last toured together in 2012, plenty of rock fans remember their commercial apex, which began with singles like “My Own Prison,” “One” and “What’s This Life For” garnering airplay in the band’s local Tallahassee scene before debut album My Own Prison was scooped up by Wind-up Records in 1997 and spread across the nation. Commanding the post-grunge strain of popular rock that sprouted up from the alternative explosion of the mid-‘90s, Creed turned My Own Prison into a smash debut, with 6.5 million copies sold to date, according to Luminate. Their 1999 follow-up Human Clay turned even bigger singles — “Higher” was an uptempo anthem ripe for stadium halftime shows, and “With Arms Wide Open” actually topped the Hot 100 for a week in November 2000 — into RIAA-certified diamond status: a whopping 11.7 million copies sold.
When Creed became a mega-selling act, “We were kids, really — 24 or 25, as things went through the roof,” Marshall recalls. “Having to navigate that at that time in your life is really tough. And I turned to substances.”
Marshall departed the group due to substance abuse issues in 2000, and Stapp also struggled with personal issues, including depression and problems with self-medicating, in the following years. Creed’s third album, 2001’s Weathered, sold another 6.5 million copies, but a rocky tour in support of the album led to prolonged inactivity, then a 2004 breakup.
Creed reunited for 2009’s Full Circle, but the industry had changed, the hits had dried up and the mainstream had moved on. The album sold less than one-tenth the copies (455,000) of their previous three. By Creed’s 2012 tour, the arena shows were a distant memory, and theaters were filled only with the most diehard supporters. That run grossed $2.3 million and sold 49,000 tickets over 20 reported shows, according to Billboard Boxscore — compared to a $39.5 million gross and 932,000 tickets sold over 86 shows for their 2002 tour.
All four members stayed busy after Creed went back on hiatus after the 2012 tour: Stapp has released three solo albums since 2013, including this year’s Higher Power, while the other three members performed with singer Myles Kennedy in Alter Bridge, in addition to Tremonti leading his own band, Tremonti. Meanwhile, Marshall got sober in 2012, and Stapp’s well-documented road to recovery commenced in the mid-2010s. And while their other musical projects earned live followings, none of them scored hits of the stature of “Higher” or “With Wide Arms Open.” Plus, as Stapp puts it, “There’s a chemistry and synergy that we have when we play together — that only we have when we play together.”
According to Fermaglich, discussions of a Creed reunion began in 2021, when the touring industry was still working through COVID-related uncertainty. “The time wasn’t quite right yet,” he says, “but it got everybody talking, to a point of, ‘Oh, maybe this is a good idea.’”
Conversations picked up last year, and all four members concluded that 2024 would be a strong window for a reunion tour, in between side projects and personal commitments. Meanwhile, the band members came back in touch last fall during the Rangers’ World Series run, after the eventual champs had adopted “Higher” as their unofficial anthem at home games. “The four of us were on a text thread together, watching the game and cheering on the team, celebrating a win or lamenting a loss,” Phillips recalls. “It was a nice bond to have again, where it was just the four of us communicating with each other, reconnecting as friends — not only as band mates, but as people.”
The band tested the waters for ticket demand with the July 2023 announcement of the Summer of ’99 Cruise — setting sail in April 2024, featuring post-grunge contemporaries like 3 Doors Down, Tonic, Buckcherry and Fuel, and boasting a reunited Creed as the main draw. Tremonti was responsible for the Summer of ’99’ idea, and the band partnered with immersive festival producers Sixthman on the cruise, which Fermaglich says “sold out very, very fast. We started to realize, ‘Wow, there’s a lot of demand here,’” so they added a second cruise for the following week.
[embedded content]
Phillips felt the nerves return during Creed’s first performance in over a decade on the inaugural cruise — but after the first few songs, he witnessed how locked-in the crowd was, exhaled, and could “sit back and enjoy the moment,” he says. Tremonti chimes in that the energy provided by Stapp, who has circled in and out of the lives of the other members over the years, gave him the boost he needed during the band’s first performance back.
“The most nerve-racking thing about it was that you knew every cell phone in the boat is going to be out, filming those first few songs,” Tremonti says. “Those first performances are gonna live forever on YouTube! But Scott stepped on stage like this was just another day, confident as can be, which makes us go, ‘All right, we’re good.’”
When the amphitheater tour dates that would follow the cruises went on sale last fall, Fermaglich says that Creed’s team was “blown away by the initial sales,” and that the feedback received about ticket buyer demographics encouraged them to consider adding arena dates to follow the summer run. “Some of the ticketing data made us understand that younger ticket buyers were out there,” Fermaglich explains, “and that got everyone pretty pumped, because it meant that we were turning it over to some extent. We would have the fans who remembered the band from the late 90s and early 2000s, but also a new fan who is learning the catalog, potentially via social media.”
The current numbers back up that theory: radio stations, primarily at rock and alternative formats, are still playing Creed’s hits, with 31,000 plays of their songs on U.S. terrestrial and satellite radio over the first six months of 2024, according to Luminate. But over that same time period (Dec. 29, 2023 – June 27, 2024), the band’s catalog earned a robust 263 million official on-demand song streams, with the Spotify generation either returning to or uncovering Creed’s discography.
“They had big songs, and those records crossed over to pop radio,” says Brad Hardin, COO of national programming at iHeartMedia. “And when you see the show, it’s hit after hit after hit.” (Indeed, at last night’s tour opener at Green Bay’s Resch Center, the band rolled out all of their biggest songs, and often accompanied them with flame-spitting pyrotechnics.)
Creed’s 2024 return is a perfect storm of a touring proposition: longtime fans haven’t seen them live in over a decade, and the hits hold up well enough to attract new listeners. Although the bands that made up the macho-leaning post-grunge movement of a quarter-century ago made for a critical punching bag at the time, Creed’s wide-reaching sing-alongs “have aged in a way that we hoped they would back in the day,” says Fermaglich. “The production really stands the test of time, and the songs, the melodies, still work well right now, and don’t sound out of place with contemporary rock.”
With that in mind, Creed and their team are already mapping out a future following this year’s big reunion: The Summer of ’99 Cruise will return and set sail on Apr. 9, 2025, and beyond that, Fermaglich says the plan is “take a look at different opportunities that are out there.” Although nothing is yet confirmed, those possibilities could include international dates following this year’s focus on North American markets, and that could also mean more North American gigs — including festivals and “bigger shows in bigger buildings with other bands,” he says. “We’ll see! I think the short answer is, we’re open for business.”
Will the Creed revival eventually extend to new music, and potentially the band’s first album together in over 15 years? “We haven’t written anything or thrown anything out there, but I think it’s definitely something that’s on our minds,” says Stapp. Phillips points out that a lot of Creed’s early music resulted from soundcheck sessions — kernels of ideas that were drawn out by the quartet’s natural chemistry, then fashioned into global hits. Maybe that same connection can spring back to life all these years later.
Stapp nods in agreement. “We’ve always been a band that functions better just being in the moment, instead of making a decision and then having to force it,” he says. “Let’s just let it happen. That’ll be where the best material comes from.”
For now, the response to the band’s live return — watching one cruise turn into two, then amphitheater shows beget arena gigs — has been humbling for the members. “We were hopeful — but, you never know,” Phillips says of fan interest ahead of the reunion launch. Creed is thankful to be in a position where more shows need to be added, and venue sizes need to increase. It’s a professional moment that was never promised, and the band is savoring it.
“We’re sort of listening to the universe,” Phillips continues. “If you tell us ‘Don’t do it,’ we won’t do it. But everybody’s saying, ‘Go for it.’”
Cash Cobain is up to his old antics again. The Bronx rapper and producer has been known to post snippets of songs he’s making on social media. Sometimes he releases the finished product, sometimes he doesn’t. So there’s no telling if he will ever officially drop his remix of Laila!’s viral “Not My Problem” song. […]
We detail the back-and-forth that exploded on social media last night and carried over to this morning.
We witnessed a coronation last night.
Kendrick Lamar is now unequivocally the King of Rap, and has officially entered god status on the West Coast.
He walked on stage dressed in a red hoodie with a white tee underneath and an iced-out crucifix draped over it, blue jeans, white, silver and red Nike Shox, and a red baseball hat. Why is this significant? The outfit was eerily similar to the one 2Pac wore during the 1994 Source Awards when he performed “Out on Bail” with his rap group Thug Life.
Pac, who at the time was dealing with a bunch of legal issues in his personal life, hijacked the Source stage while A Tribe Called Quest were accepting their award for Rap Group of the Year. As the story goes, this performance wasn’t planned: Members of Pac’s entourage pressed the person in charge of sound and made him play the track. The rapper and the rest of Thug Life then went on stage, snatched the microphone from Q-Tip and started performing the song, which caused a brief rift between 2Pac and Tribe. Whether the outfit was intentional or not, we quickly understood the message Kendrick was trying to send.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
[embedded content]
The Compton emcee rose up from underneath the stage draped in red light and started his set with “Euphoria” — a song some said held little replay value. However, the lie detector determined that untrue, because the crowd at the Forum knew every single word and went bar-for-bar for the entire six-minute song. And, to circle back to the outfit he was wearing on stage, Kendrick added a new line to the song’s last verse: “Give me Tupac ring back and I might give you a little respect.” As if to say, “Hey, man, we can start to resolve this situation if you just return this West Coast artifact” — like a plot to an Indiana Jones movie. He also snuck in the first verse of “6:16 in LA”, and performed his “Like That” verse, adding insult to injury.
However, the highlight of the night wasn’t Black Hippy reuniting onstage or Dr. Dre whispering “I see dead people” after performing “California Love.” It was when Kendrick performed “Not Like Us” not once, not twice, but six times in a row. He held the crowd in the palm of his hand, like only a true MC could. They hung onto every word, even doing the rapping for him and finishing his verses at times.
Trending on Billboard
A crowd of people screaming “OV-Hoe” and calling you a “certified pedophile” already can’t be a good thing. But every time you thought things couldn’t get worse for Drake last night, they did.
When Dot and Mustard were in the middle of the third or fourth replay of the song, and NBA stars (and fellow L.A. legends) DeMar DeRozan and Russell Westbrook went onstage and started doing their dance, that’s when I realized just how bad things have gotten for Drake. Every artist, celebrity and friend of Kendrick’s in attendance danced on the Toronto rapper’s proverbial grave in the name of West Coast solidarity. It seemed as if a big chunk of the culture chose a side.
I think some are underestimating the impact this can have on Drake’s overall appeal within the hip-hop community. I’m not talking about some kid in some suburban cul-de-sac, I’m talking about the kids in the streets. They’re the real tastemakers, and a lot of them who hold influence in Los Angeles were on that stage last night.
After the back-and-forth ended and Kendrick was crowned the de facto winner of the battle, many wondered how this would affect both artists’ careers. Would Drake still have the golden touch that he’s enjoyed for the past decade or so? Would he shake off this loss, much like he did with the Pusha T beef, and drop an undeniable hit like “God’s Plan?” Would he still be the top guy in rap? Would Kendrick take the W, but refuse the crown, and retreat back into his fortress of solitude until it was time to drop his next album?
Well, now we seem to have some answers: It’s too early to tell if The Drake Effect is truly a thing of the past, but his collaboration with Sexyy Red debuting at No. 44 on the Hot 100 and sliding from there is not a great look. Neither was the parody redo of “Hey There Delilah” that he hopped on for some reason.
Meanwhile, Kendrick has continued to do the opposite of what everyone, including Drake, thought he would do: Instead of vanishing, he stayed put and threw one of L.A.’s biggest rap shows in recent memory. Dot’s appeal in the hip-hop community was always A1, but after last night, it’s safe to say he’s now occupying the top spot in rap. Kendrick is the king. And he’s not the king because some critics and talking heads or kids tweeting from a suburban cul-de-sac said he’s the king. He’s the king because last night everyone — the streets, the music industry, the fans, the athletes — showed us that he is. They all popped out for their friend, their peer, their idol, their king.
“F—k that, this s—t making me emotional, man. F—k that, we been f—d up since Nipsey died, hold up. We’ve been f—d up since Kobe died, hold up,” he told the crowd as he wrangled everybody for a family picture. “Let the world see this. You ain’t seen this many sections on one stage keeping it together and having peace, hold up.”
Drake will be fine mainstream-wise, but he’s always wanted to be accepted by hip-hop, and right now he’s on the outside looking in. Last night proved Kendrick has more respect and cultural cachet than Drake can ever imagine having, and the must sting to an artist as massive and influential as Drake is.
Meanwhile, there’s not another artist in his generation that would be able to pull off what Kendrick pulled off last night. He had rival gangs on stage for L.A., for California, for Hip-Hop. Kendrick was running around like he was Pac fresh out on bail last night, and showed the rest of the rap game that no region is quite like the West.
There’s a lot that goes on in a Big Body Bes video. He might be posted up in his favorite bodega drinking an ice cold Country Club, curling an EZ bar dipped in flames, or breaking bread at a cuchifrito. One thing is for certain, though, he’s going to be outside with the back block […]
We very well may be nearing the end of basketball’s most legendary studio show, Inside the NBA — and what a ride it’s been.
The 2024-2025 NBA season will likely be the last for hosts Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal together on TNT, with all signs pointing to NBC replacing Turner Sports as the league’s primary TV partner starting with the 2025-26 season. Barkley was on The Dan Patrick Show and revealed that “morale sucks, plain and simple,” when asked how the vibe was on the set.
Charles Barkley says morale sucks amid the uncertainty of “Inside the NBA” moving forward. And discusses the possibility of hiring the crew to his production company, continuing to do the show, and selling it. pic.twitter.com/gLoiKm7SM3— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) May 23, 2024
And after last night’s series-clinching win by the Dallas Mavericks, eliminating the Minnesota Timberwolves and punching Dallas’ ticket to the NBA Finals, Mavs guard Luka Dončić brought the drama up — telling the guys they have to figure something out, to which Ernie confirmed they don’t know their fate past the next season.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“We’re gonna miss you. We’re done after tonight.” – Charles Barkley “You ain’t done yet. We gotta figure out something.” – Luka Dončić”We got all next year too. And then who knows after that.” – Ernie Johnson 🏀🎙️📺😂 pic.twitter.com/neHy0NpqI8— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 31, 2024
The winner of 19 Emmys, Inside the NBA is like family to most basketball-obsessed households; especially for those who came of age during the late ‘90s and early ‘00s. This was a time when rap, basketball and sneakers were exploding. We watched and played whenever we could. We read SLAM magazine, tried to buy the latest basketball sneakers, listened to rap music, and stayed up late on Thursday nights during the NBA season to watch Inside the NBA.
Trending on Billboard
To keep it a buck, to us basketball is just as much a part of hip-hop as rapping and graffiti. So, when we got a show starring an NYC basketball great like Smith and NBA and sneaker legend like Barkley, we had to tune in. And while shaky at first, Shaq’s addition at the start of the 2011-2012 season further ingratiated the crew to a generation that grew up buying his rap albums and signature Reeboks, watching his movies, and playing Shaq Fu on Sega Genesis. Inside the NBA is so hip-hop, its hosts were known to kick a few flows. Kenny Smith kicked a freestyle on BET’s Rap City back in 2001.
[embedded content]
And Shaq was recently featured on a Rick Ross and Meek Mill song with Damian Lillard, and had arguably the best verse in the whole song.
[embedded content]
I have to also acknowledge the show’s music selection. They’ve always seemed to be tapped into rap music, new and old. I remember hearing A Tribe Called Quest’s “Electric Relaxation” instrumental during breaks — and there’s this medley of rap songs Street Cred EJ knew off top.
[embedded content]
Shaq, Kenny and Chuck come from the hip-hop generation and helped take the culture mainstream. Even Kenny would sometimes find himself impressed and surprised with a producer’s music picks. When they first played Kendrick’s recent Drake diss tracks, he was saying they shouldn’t pick sides, that they should play Drake’s songs too. They may be older, but the three former players are tapped in. They took what the late, great Stuart Scott was doing at ESPN in the early ‘90s and perfected it, carrying on his legacy of bringing hip-hop culture into households across the country.
During these playoffs. The producers have been in their bag playing the hits. “Like That” and “Not Like Us” have been TNT favorites during the Kendrick and Drake beef. They also played the “No Vaseline” instrumental — an absolutely insane thing to hear during a national sports broadcast. And just last night they played Don Toliver’s “Attitude” featuring Cash Cobain and Uncle Charlie Wilson faintly in the background. It doesn’t get more tapped-in than that.
A friend and I had a routine back in the early 2000s. We were fresh out of high school, and worked the same part-time job while taking classes at local colleges in North Jersey. After we got off work, we would cop some trees on the way home and link up later that night to watch the NBA on TNT. We did this every Thursday night during the NBA season. Sometimes we would catch both the 8 p.m. game and the 10:30 p.m. game — but we always made sure to watch Inside the NBA afterwards, even if it meant staying up until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning.
Now that I’m older, whenever I’m able to stay up to watch the best sports show on TV, I think about those days. Appointment television is a rarity in the age of streaming, and for 24 years, the guys over at Inside the NBA have made you regret falling asleep and missing not only their veteran basketball analysis and arguments with one another, but also all the jokes and shenanigans. “Elevator” Ernie Johnson deserves some love as well. He brings it all together by controlling the chaos while also letting Kenny, Chuck, and Shaq be themselves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=47jriBjlxT_WXAYc&v=G1ZMviEik3U&feature=youtu.be
If next season really is their last, they deserve to have a legit farewell tour. Bringing back John Tesh’s “Roundball Rock” isn’t worth losing these four family members. Prime Bob Costas isn’t walking through that door. The only way NBC can get back into our good graces after forcing Inside the NBA to hang it up early, is to bring back NBA Inside Stuff without making it corny.
BREAKING: NBC has contacted John Tesh about reviving the iconic NBA on NBC theme song ‘Roundball Rock’ amid NBA rights dealnegotiations. “At the end of June, we’re heading to Nashville, we’ve got a full orchestra on hold & we’re going to re-record it.”https://t.co/J2Tb1XxPY9 pic.twitter.com/F6YUXSRpk4— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) May 21, 2024
Inside the NBA had one of the greatest runs in sports TV history these past 24 years. I’m looking forward to having one last NBA season with my guys. Now that I think about it, ending things at 25 just sounds right.
Now I leave you with some Yo Momma jokes from the crew.
[embedded content]
How does a rock band that scored enormous hit singles in the pre-streaming era approach the process of selecting a single in 2024? For Kings of Leon, the answer is: they don’t.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“We don’t know what we’re doing,” bassist Jared Followill declares, then lets out a laugh, when speaking to Billboard about the modern hit-making process. The Tennessee quartet has been steadily releasing albums every three to five years since bursting into the mainstream in the late 2000s with crossover smashes “Use Somebody” and “Sex on Fire,” both from 2008’s Only By the Night; the former song won the Grammy for record of the year in 2010, while the latter’s official U.S. streams top 650 million, according to Luminate.
Those hits helped balloon Kings of Leon’s listenership during a very different iteration of the music industry; 15 years later, Followill admits that he and his bandmates (brothers Caleb and Nathan Followill, plus cousin Matthew Followill) wouldn’t even know how to attempt to replicate that crossover success of those songs.
Trending on Billboard
For new album Can We Please Have Fun, out tomorrow (May 10), the band went with the shaggy rocker “Mustang” as the lead single due to their team’s recommendation, and the song has reached No. 3 on Adult Alternative Airplay and climbs to No. 5 on Alternative Airplay. But Followill says that they could have easily gone with the mid-tempo sway of “Actual Daydream,” or the spry sing-along “Nowhere to Run,” if that had been the feedback they received.
[embedded content]
“Our only rule is to not have any songs on the album that we would be embarrassed if they were a single — so we try to make the album great, because we don’t know anything about the business side of things or algorithms or which song will do well,” he explains. “Now, it seems like you just need a great 15-second piece of a song to make it big on TikTok — slow it down, reverb it, make it huge. But we don’t know what works anymore, and I don’t think anybody knows … You just have to play ball a little bit, and hope that you’re with the right people who know what they’re doing.”
Kings of Leon surrounded themselves with a new cast of characters for their ninth studio album: after working with Markus Dravs on their last two full-lengths, the quartet tapped Kid Harpoon last year to helm the follow-up to 2021’s When You See Yourself. Kid Harpoon was in the middle of a red-hot streak when Kings of Leon came calling, after co-producing smashes like Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” and Harry Styles’ “As It Was”; in fact, a recommendation from Styles helped steer the band toward the veteran pop-rock producer, after they had started the writing process for the album at the top of 2023.
“We’re buddies with Harry, and he had worked with [Kid Harpoon] a ton and had great success,” Followill says. “We met him and it was just the right vibe. He’s almost childlike in the studio — so happy, trying anything, no negativity. He’s not judgmental at all, so it was just like having a buddy in there.”
Meanwhile, Can We Please Have Fun is Kings of Leon’s first album with new label home Capitol Records, after spending nearly the first two decades of their career on RCA’s roster. The band played the new album for prospective labels at Kid Harpoon’s L.A. home last year, and it was the pitch by Tom March, recently named Capitol Music Group’s chairman and CEO, that they found most appealing. “He just seemed on board, and bought in really quickly,” Followill says. “We’re very hands-on, which can be weird for a new label who’s excited to bring their own stuff to the table. But it’s been perfect — they’ve been super supportive, and it’s been a great relationship so far.”
Kings of Leon will head out on the road in August for a 26-city North American tour, and will be releasing visual components for every song on Can We Please Have Fun along the way. More than anything, however, Followill hopes that listeners can identify the new album as a progression for the band — a looser, more playful entry in their catalog, at a moment when Kings of Leon could have stuck to a tried-and-true formula.
“We’re not completely reinventing ourselves, but this is definitely a refresh,” Followill says. “It was a gradual thing, but we’ve evolved and changed ourselves. We’ve put a lot of effort into letting people know that we’re still here, and we’re not phoning it in 20 years down the road, just trying to squeeze a few dollars out at the end. We’re still trying.”
The dog days are not that far away, and we already have some summer-song competitors. Here are the singles and artists we think you need to watch.