genre hiphop
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Ray Vaughn has arrived at New York’s Billboard office for the second time in just over a week. He previously popped in and played a few tracks off his first official release with TDE, The Good The Bad The Dollar Menu, before flying out to continue his first-ever project rollout.
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As Vaughn settles in the second time around, his voice is gruff, worn from rapping, recording, interviewing, and flat-out existing. Regardless of the physical wear-and-tear, he’s chatty, in high spirits, and devoid of exhaustion. When asked if he’s feeling winded at all, he says with a laugh, “I don’t wanna go back to that f—in’ car.”
The Good The Bad The Dollar Menu is a product of years of strenuous grinding. Born in Long Beach, California, Vaughn was raised by a family of local rappers; he says his uncle nearly signed a deal with DMX before he “crashed the f—k out,” and his mother went by the rap moniker Sassy Black, hosting “Freestyle Friday” sessions at their house for friends and family.
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Vaughn’s earliest indicator that rap could be in his future came to him during those sessions in his living room. When he’d spit, people would listen. He locked in to rapping almost immediately, and at 15, Vaughn’s reputation had made the rounds in his community. A few labels even came calling, including Def Jam.
“My mom kept blowing meetings,” Vaughn says. “She just kept being like, ‘Oh, you’ll go next time.’ We was already so thorough, she didn’t even know. We was already robbing houses, shooting at people, we was doing s—t that could have got us real f—kin sentences. I was moreso like, ‘Let me go!’”
His mom had fallen down the rabbit hole of early YouTube conspiracy theories, believing the Illuminati had infiltrated major labels like Def Jam. No matter how hard he pushed, she always said no. After one particular nasty fight, she threw Vaughn out and he turned to the streets to make ends meet while still clutching onto his rap dreams.
Success trickled in and out of Vaughn’s life: he went viral a few times for various freestyles, but they didn’t lead to anything concrete. A promising moment came in 2019, when he ran into Ye’s cousin Ricky Anderson, who was managing G.O.O.D Music at the time, at a New Year’s Eve party. After Vaughn stealthily queued up his own songs to play at the party, Anderson suggested he meet with Ye face-to-face.
“He’s crazy, but he’s a genius,” Vaughn said of his meeting with Ye. The conversation went well, and Vaughn penned a few songs for Ye before arranging a meeting about a label deal. On the day of the meeting, however, Vaughn showed up to an empty room. He never spoke with Ye or the G.O.O.D. Music camp again.
“That same day I said to my manager, ‘Bro I’m still sleeping in my car, I don’t know what the f—k I’m doing!’” Vaughn recalled. His manager brought up an opportunity to record a song with an artist who was trying to get Jay Rock on as an additional feature. Two weeks later, Vaughn received a call from Top Dawg Entertainment CEO Anthony Tiffith.
“I hung up on him — I didn’t know what he sounded like, so I thought it was a joke,” Vaughn remembers. Tiffith called back, invited him to Interscope Records for a sitdown, and the rest was history.
After Vaughn’s first TDE project dropped on Friday (Apr. 25), the rapper spoke about it with Billboard.
Just to clarify, this is a mixtape and not an album.
Yes. I never wanted to call nothin’ an album if it wasn’t an album. I always was like, “With my first album, I wanna go crazy.” I’m very, very careful about calling something an album. That s—t counts. You could have 1,000 mixtapes and flop, but if you have an album and it flops? I know that’s something internally that’s gonna scratch my soul.
You don’t waste a bar on this mixtape. How did you approach writing for this project, and how do you approach writing in general?
Just make sure you keep it full of integrity. That’s the lost art form, period. Some records I don’t have bars on, it’s just a message, like ‘Pac. He didn’t have metaphors in every song. He was just very direct, and said what needed to be said, and you felt it.
I feel like nowadays we got so many people who punch in. It’s not even a cohesive thought. What is that verse about? What is this song about? Who are you talking to? Who is the audience? I still believe in that art form. If I rap this a cappella, does this s—t make sense? It’s like poetry. If you can’t say it a cappella and it [doesn’t] makes sense, it’s like rambling.
Now that you’re officially entering the game, how do you feel about your place in rap?
Once I turn into the star I’m supposed to be, where other people see the star that I am, the influence will come after. Like Kendrick [Lamar], the fact that he’s making music that slaps, but it’s still got some conscience to it. People wanna follow that because they’re like, “Oh, he’s talkin’ about something.”
Outside of the Drake and Kendrick situation, it does feel like mainstream rap is heading away from lyrics. What are your thoughts on the more party-oriented rap?
We need those type of artists too! It’s a talent in being succinct. [Starts singing]”Soulja Boy off in this oh, watch me crank it, watch me roll, watch me crank dat Soulja Boy, Then Superman dat oh.” That s—t is hard to make for people who actually write lyrics, and nobody wants to feel like they’re being preached to all the time.
When you were writing songs like “DOLLAR menu,” how did you toe that line, to make sure you weren’t being too preachy?
I feel like there’s a very thin line between being preachy and delivering a message with wittiness. I have to change lines sometimes. I’m just speaking from my experiences, mostly. This is me and how I look at it from my perspective. I don’t want people to put me in a box with Kendrick. When Cole made “Grippy” with Cash Cobain, people tried to cook him. If [Cole] had been somebody else, it’d be like, “Oh this song is hard.” The expectation for his lyrical content is set so high that if he dumbs it down too low, then they be like, “What the f—k are you doing?” So they don’t even get to have fun.
With that in mind, what are you hoping to communicate with The Good The Bad The Dollar Menu?
I’m just perfecting a pepperoni pizza before I say I have wings, salads and calzones. That is my pepperoni pizza.
On songs like “FLAT Shasta” and “Cemetery Lanterns,” how do you revisit such traumatic memories and not get bogged down by it? How do you make sure the resulting art is authentic?
I just tell it like it is — exactly like it is. I’m in a good space. I’m signed to a f—king label that’s at the f—king peak of their career. I got nothing to complain about right now. Reflecting? That’s easy.
There’s a lot of soul-baring on the project. Do you ever worry you’re revealing too much for a first mixtape?
There were songs we moved out of the way because they were too heavy. I don’t want to go too crazy, because I want people to actually listen, but I also want people to know that if you listen to it and feel something? You just witnessed the super power.
About a month after officially announcing Jackboys 2, Travis Scott is teasing a release date for his Cactus Jack label compilation sequel. La Flame essentially confirmed the project was done on Monday (April 28) when he wished his mother, Wanda, a happy birthday on Instagram, where Scott revealed that he played JB2 in full for […]
A video of Belfast hip-hop trio Kneecap allegedly calling for the death of British MPs (Members of Parliament) is being assessed by anti-terror police in the U.K. The clip from November 2023 appears to show one member of the band saying: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.” At the time, the Conservative Party – also known as the Tories – were in government with a large majority.
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This follows news last week that a historic video of the band expressing support for Hamas and Hezbollah – both of which are ascribed terror group status by the U.K. government – was being assessed by London’s Metropolitan Police. Under anti-terror laws, it is an offence to express support for such groups. A spokesperson for Kneecap did not respond to a request for comment.
On Sunday (April 27), a spokesperson for the Met said: “We were made aware of a video on 22 April, believed to be from an event in November 2024, and it has been referred to the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) for assessment and to determine whether any further police investigation may be required. We have also been made aware of another video believed to be from an event in November 2023.” The group are yet to be charged with any offence.
A U.K. government spokesman told the BBC: “We unequivocally condemn threatening remarks made towards any individual. Political intimidation and abuse must have no place in our society. We recognise the chilling effect that harassment and intimidation of elected representatives can have on our democracy. All reports of intimidation, harassment and threats are taken extremely seriously. We work with the police and Parliament to do everything in our power to crack down on threats to elected officials.”
The news comes in the wake of the fall-out following the band’s sets at Coachella earlier this month. During their performance, the band displayed a message stating, “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. It is being enabled by the U.S. government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes. F–k Israel; free Palestine.”
On Friday, news emerged that the group had split with their U.S. booking agent IAG, and there have been calls for the group’s U.S. work visas to be revoked. Sharon Osbourne, wife and manager of Ozzy, said, “This behavior raises concerns about the appropriateness of their participation in such a festival and further shows they are booked to play in the USA.” Kneecap are due to perform a headline tour in North America this October.
Kneecap have alleged on social media they have “faced a co-ordinated smear campaign,” saying their shows have previously “called out” the conflict in Gaza. They also suggested that they were considering legal action against the “malicious efforts.” Kneecap’s manager Daniel Lambert said the band had received “severe” death threats after Coachella.
Doechii lands her first top 10-charting album on the Billboard 200 as Alligator Bites Never Heal jumps 24-10 on the May 3-dated chart. The set shoots up the list following its wider availability on vinyl, as well as its first release on CD.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new May 3, 2025-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on April 29.
The 2025 Billboard Woman of the Year’s Grammy Award-winning Alligator Bites Never Heal climbs the Billboard 200 following a wider availability on vinyl and its first release on CD. The set earned 33,000 equivalent album units in the tracking week ending April 24 (up 43%) in the United States, according to Luminate. Of that figure, SEA units comprise 18,500 (down 3%, equaling 25.9 million on-demand official streams of the songs on the streaming edition of the set; it moves 28-27 on Top Streaming Albums), album sales comprise 14,000 (up 325% — the best sales week for both the album and the artist; it reenters at No. 1 on Top Album Sales, the set’s first week atop the list) and TEA units comprise 500 (down 12%).
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Vinyl purchases comprise just over 11,000 of the album’s sales for the week.
Alligator Bites Never Heal was released in 2024 as a 19-song album. It was reissued in March with one bonus track — the gone-viral breakout hit “Anxiety” — on “extended” digital download and streaming editions. The addition of “Anxiety” helped the album hit its previous high of No. 12 on the March 29 chart.
All physical versions of Alligator Bites Never Heal contain the original 19-song tracklist. Through April 17, the set was only available to purchase as a download and in two vinyl variants. On April 18, it garnered a wider availability on vinyl, including two new vinyl editions (both color variants) exclusively available via Target and Urban Oufitters, along with a widely available CD.
“Anxiety” reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart dated March 29 (rising 13-10), marking Doechii’s first top 10. The album yielded an earlier top 40-charting hit with “Denial Is a River” (hitting No. 21 in February).
Kehlani got on camera to give a statement regarding the cancellation of their upcoming performance at Cornell after the university’s president said the singer “has espoused antisemitic, anti-Israel sentiments.”
Cornell had booked Kehlani to headline the school’s Slope Day, an annual celebration following the last day of classes, set for May 7 this year. Earlier this week, the invite was rescinded.
Kehlani’s performance was officially canceled on Wednesday, per an email Cornell president Michael I. Kotlikoff sent to students and faculty. According to a New York Times report, Kotlikoff wrote in the email that “the selection of Kehlani as this year’s headliner has injected division and discord … In the days since Kehlani was announced, I have heard grave concerns from our community that many are angry, hurt and confused that Slope Day would feature a performer who has espoused antisemitic, anti-Israel sentiments in performances, videos and on social media.”
“I am being asked and called to clarify and make a statement yet again, for the millionth time, that I am not antisemitic nor anti-Jew,” Kehlani said on Saturday (April 26) in a video uploaded on Instagram.
“I am anti-genocide, I am anti the actions of the Israeli government, I am anti an extermination of an entire people, I am anti the bombing of innocent children, men, women — that’s what I’m anti,” they spelled out.
Kehlani continued: “In fact, the very first Live that I did in the beginning of this genocide was with a really beautiful Jewish organization called Jewish Voices for Peace, and I still continue to learn from and work alongside really impactful Jewish organizers against this genocide.”
“I want to be very clear in stating that I do believe God has plans for me and that’s not gonna stop nothing that I have going on, but I’m asked to clarify because this keeps coming up as a means to silence me, as a means to stop things that happen in my career, as a means to change the course of my life, and I just don’t believe that,” said Kehlani, who also noted they were in the studio working on new music. “So here’s the clarification that you needed. I hope this is everything you needed. Straight from my mouth, not a written statement with a white background from my notes.”
“Back to my album,” they concluded. Kehlani’s next full-length release will be the follow-up to 2024’s Crash.
Kehlani has been transparent about their support for Palestine and criticism of Israel in the Israel-Hamas war. In the singer’s 2024 “Next 2 U” video, they wore kaffiyehs, had dancers waving Palestinian flags, and featured the phrase “Long Live the Intifada.” In 2023, the musician joined a coalition of musicians to sign the Artists Against Apartheid letter, which called for a ceasefire.
Watch Kehlani’s Instagram reel from this weekend below.
SZA’s SOS scores a 13th nonconsecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated May 3), as the set rises 3-1 with 52,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the week ending April 24 (down 1%), according to Luminate. The album continues to profit from its expansive deluxe reissue on Dec. 20, 2024 (dubbed SOS Deluxe: LANA), with 15 additional tracks, in addition to a Feb. 9 reissue with four more bonus cuts.
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SOS was originally released on Dec. 9, 2022, as a 23-track album and spent 10 weeks at No. 1 in late 2022 and early 2023. It then returned to No. 1 for two more weeks, following the LANA expansion — on the Jan. 4 and 11, 2025-dated charts, and now on the latest tally. All versions of the album, old and new, are combined for tracking and charting under the title SOS.
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With SOS earning 52,000 units in the latest tracking week, that marks the smallest weekly sum for a No. 1 album in over three years, since the April 23, 2022-dated chart, when Lil Durk’s 7220 returned to No. 1, for a second week at the top, with just a little more than 47,000 units.
For the first time in a little over two months, no albums debut in the top 10 on the Billboard 200. We last had a top 10 absent of a debut on the Feb. 22-dated list, when the highest arrival was outside the top 40 (Dream Theater’s Parasomnia at No. 41).
While there are no debuts in the top 10 on the latest chart, there is a title reaching the region for the first time, as Doechii’s Alligator Bites Never Heal flies 24-10 following its wider availability on vinyl, as well as its first release on CD.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new May 3, 2025-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on April 29. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of SOS’ 52,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending April 24, SEA units comprise 49,500 (down 1%, equaling 68.29 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs; it rises 2-1 on the Top Streaming Albums chart, for a third nonconsecutive week on top of the year-and-a-half old ranking), traditional album sales comprise 2,500 (down 5%) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum (up 2%).
With a 13th total week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, SOS has the most weeks atop the chart for an R&B/hip-hop album by a woman, or an R&B album by a woman, since Whitney Houston’s self-titled set tallied 14 weeks at No. 1 in 1986. (Honorable mention to the Houston-led soundtrack to The Bodyguard, which logged 20 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 in 1992-93. The 12-track album has six songs by Houston and six songs by other artists.)
The last R&B/hip-hop album with at least 13 weeks atop the Billboard 200 was Drake’s Views, which notched 13 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 in 2016 (May 21-Oct. 8). The last R&B album with at least 13 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 was The Bodyguard, with its 20-week reign. (R&B/hip-hop and R&B albums are defined as those that have hit or are eligible for Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Top R&B Albums charts, respectively.)
SZA launched her co-headlining Grand National Tour on April 19 in Minneapolis at U.S. Bank Stadium with Kendrick Lamar, who sees his chart-topping GNX hold steady at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with nearly 51,000 equivalent album units earned (down 7%).
The titles at Nos. 3-9 are all former No. 1s. Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time climbs 6-3 (48,000 equivalent album units earned, up 4%); Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet is steady at No. 4 (47,000; down 9%); PARTYNEXTDOOR and Drake’s $ome $exy $ongs 4 U is a non-mover at No. 5 (46,000; down 11%); Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos falls 6-8 (39,000; down 7%); Playboi Carti’s MUSIC is stationary at No. 7 (38,000; down 15%); Lady Gaga’s MAYHEM is up 10-8 (37,000; down 6%); and Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album jumps 14-9 (34,500; up 6%).
Doechii earns her first top 10-charting effort on the Billboard 200 albums chart as the 2025 Billboard Woman of the Year’s Grammy Award-winning Alligator Bites Never Heal flies 24-10 following a wider availability on vinyl and its first release on CD. The set earned 33,000 equivalent album units in the tracking week (up 43%). Of that figure, SEA units comprise 18,500 (down 3%, equaling 25.9 million on-demand official streams of the songs on the streaming edition of the set, it moves 28-27 on Top Streaming Albums), album sales comprise 14,000 (up 325% — the best sales week for both the album and the artist; it reenters at No. 1 on Top Album Sales, the set’s first week atop the list) and TEA units comprise 500 (down 12%).
Alligator Bites Never Heal was released in 2024 as a 19-song album. It was reissued in March with one bonus track — the gone-viral breakout hit “Anxiety” — on “extended” digital download and streaming editions. All physical versions contain the original 19-song tracklist. Until April 18, the set was only available to purchase as a download and in two vinyl variants. On April 19, it garnered a wider availability on vinyl, including two new vinyl editions (both color variants) exclusively available via Target and Urban Oufitters, along with a widely available CD.
“Anxiety” reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart dated March 29 (rising 13-10), marking Doechii’s first top 10. The album yielded an earlier top 40-charting hit with “Denial Is a River” (hitting No. 21 in February).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
T-Pain is ready to take on his third straight weekend in Indio, California, this time at Stagecoach. The beloved musician shares his journey of performing on the main stage at Coachella, discusses the new ideas he’s bringing to Stagecoach, reflects on Beyoncé, Shaboozey and other Black musicians breaking through in country music, talks about how Wiscansin Fest came to life and how he got GloRilla to join, and opens up about his resurgence and more!
Are you excited to see T-Pain at Stagecoach? Let us know in the comments below!
Tetris Kelly:
Out here in Indio, hanging out with my boy T-Pain, this is what? Weekend three of this for you?
T-Pain:
Weekend three!
Most people say Oh, weekend one, weekend two… weekend three. This is three for T-Pain, this is wild, man, I’m so proud of you, but you’ve been streaming the whole time, like, keeping people involved. So how’s that been to, like, have people along for this journey?
It’s OK, man, you know what I’m saying? It’s, it’s, it’s more frustrating than anything. Can’t get in the pool as much as I want to. That’s why I’m so ashy right now. Just got out the pool. So, you know, everything, I’m just ash. I’m just made of all ash.
Living the life. And I mean, how is it to, like, kind of have people in your personal space? Because, like, some people, I don’t know how many hours you do in sets, but like, when you got a shower, use the bathroom, you need some private time. Like, how was it to be doing that?
I don’t really have, like, personal time, you know what I mean? Like, I’ve grown up, like I got signed when I was 18. So I don’t, I don’t even know what personal life is like, you know what I’m saying? So it’s always been public. You know, going to the bathroom is pretty easy, set the camera just right above, right above the nipple, but no man, people know. You know people understand. Like, when you’re letting them into your life, you can leave them in places.
Keep watching for more!
JaQuel Knight came up with the choreography for Megan Thee Stallion’s iconic 2025 Coachella set, and we’re taking you behind the scenes of how it came to life.
What did you think of Megan Thee Stallion’s Coachella set? Let us know in the comments!
JaQuel Knight
It gets crazy. It gets really wild, and I’m happy we made it here today. It’s all feeling surreal. You know, I’m very numb in this moment because, you know, we’ve been birthing this thing. So we’ll see.
Tetris Kelly:
You said it’s been months and months and months of prep. So tell me, like, when is the first concept? What’s the first meeting like? What are you establishing there?
The first meeting is, like, what the hell are we doing? What do you say? What do you want to say? How can we say it? You know? Boom. She tells me everything. I take a beat, and then we come back, we look at photos, and we start to go from there, once we have a point of reference.
I’ve seen Megan at Coachella before, so when she’s already kind of been at the surroundings, how does she say, “I want to make this different.”
It’s her just being in a different space right now. She’s been through so much in the two years of like her last performance, so for me, it’s about just making sure she has a voice and something to say and something to bring to the table. And how does that voice feel elevated, feel like she’s grown, feel like she’s learned a lot in those two years.
You, as a choreographer, have a very specific style. How do you mix those two styles where you’re like, I gotta be me and I also gotta be Megan at the same time?
Keep watching for more!
Ye (formerly Kanye West) had four children with Kim Kardashian while they were married, but this week, he said he wishes he had kids with another celebrity instead.
While ranting on Digital Nas’ Twitch stream earlier this week, West said that in an alternate universe, he wishes he had children with Paris Hilton instead of Kardashian. Once upon a time, in the mid-2000s, Kardashian served as Hilton’s personal assistant before becoming a reality superstar in her own right.
“Kim was Paris Hilton’s assistant,” he said. “I should’ve had babies with Paris Hilton over Kim Kardashian. Could you imagine if I had kids with Paris Hilton? How many hotels I’d have now. Think about that — the Hilton. I think y’all staying at the Hilton right now. The Edition Hotels is a Hilton.”
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Ye went on to compare Kardashian learning from Hilton to the relationship he had with the late Virgil Abloh. “Paris Hilton had the vision, and that’s what happened,” he added. “Kim was like the Virgil [Abloh]. Kim was like Paris Hilton’s Virgil.”
West also brought up how Arnold Schwarzenegger cheated on his wife, Maria Shriver, and had a kid with his nanny, Mildred Baena, when his partner was out of town in the 1990s.
“If you’re like Arnold Schwarzenegger and you have a kid with a nanny, the nanny’s only power is to take your kids,” Ye continued. “So Kim’s only power is to take my kids. I had a baby with a f—ing assistant, bro.”
West and Kardashian began dating in the early 2010s and tied the knot in May 2014. They have four kids together: 11-year-old North, 9-year-old Saint, 7-year-old Chicago and 5-year-old Psalm. The former couple finalized their divorce in November 2022 after filing in early 2021.
Ye, who is currently in Spain, began dating Bianca Censori in late 2022 and got married shortly after.
As for Hilton, who is the great-granddaughter of Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton, she married businessman Carter Reum in 2021, and the couple has two children together.
West has been under fire for his antisemitic rants and targeting peers like Kendrick Lamar, Tyler, the Creator, J. Cole and more in recent months. He’s been teasing a new album, which will be titled Cuck or WW3, and is written entirely by rapper Dave Blunts.
Young Thug is officially back. Today, he dropped a new song and video, “Money on Money,” featuring one of his favorite collaborators in fellow Atlanta native Future. The two superstars channeled Watch the Throne‘s classic “Otis” music video where Jay-Z and Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) dismantled a very expensive car and welded it […]