genre hiphop

14 Feb 2025

GloRilla Denies BBL Rumors as She Preps for ‘The Glorious Tour’

GloRilla is trying her best to beat the BBL allegations.

On Thursday, the Memphis rapper posted a video to her X account taking a break in the gym while wearing a waist-trainer. “Hey, y’all, I’ve been seeing everybody with all the BBL allegations and I wanna come on here and be honest,” she told her followers, responding to people accusing her of getting a Brazilian butt lift. “So, I didn’t get a BBL, but I did get some ‘discipline shots.’”

Glo then pointed at her head and joked, “So, I got ’em inserted right here and right here. And, you know, they just flow all the way through my brain. Just a few shots of discipline and that’s it. And that’s how you gon’ get a fat a–. But I ain’t get no BBL.”

Just last month, Glo addressed the allegations and patted herself on the back for her hard work and dedication. “Yall Dey pushing da bbl allegations on me again as dey should,” she tweeted. “I’m doing some right.”

Trending on Billboard

Glo seems to be preparing for her upcoming tour. She’s currently in the middle of a 30-day fast where she’s abstaining from smoking, drinking, sex, beverages that aren’t water, clubbing and frivolous spending, among other things. She’s also going to the gym three times a week. She posted a list on X and challenged her fans to join her.

The Glorious Tour is set to begin March 5 in Oklahoma City and will end in her hometown of Memphis on a date yet to be announced.

14 Feb 2025

Drake & PartyNextDoor Drop ‘$ome $exy $ongs 4 U’ | Music You Should Know | Billboard News

Drake & PartyNextDoor have released their joint album ‘$ome $exy $ongs 4 U’ for Valentine’s Day, and he had more to say about his beef with Kendrick Lamar on the album.

What do you think of the new album? Let us know in the comments below!

Tetris Kelly:

Drake is back, and he’s not being shy about his beef with Kendrick Lamar. He dropped a brand-new album with PartyNextDoor, and we’re breaking it all down. In this week’s Music You Should Know: ‘$ome $exy $ongs 4 U.’ Happy Valentine’s from Drake and PartyNextDoor, as they gift you with 21 new tracks on ‘$ome $exy $ongs 4 U.’ And Drake’s ready to move on from the drama saying: “F— a rap beef, I’m tryna get the party lit.”

And after Kendrick performed his Drake diss track “Not Like Us” on the world’s biggest stage. Drake went in even more on the new album. The PartyNextDoor collab album is mostly feature-less outside of them bringing on Yebba, Chino Pacas and Pim. There’s a lot to unpack. Is this Drake’s big comeback? Let us know in the comments.

14 Feb 2025

Suge Knight Claims 2Pac Wanted to Sign Aaliyah

While talking over the phone from prison with The Art of Dialogue, Death Row co-founder Suge Knight made an interesting revelation involving two late superstars. Apparently, 2Pac was a big fan of Aaliyah — so much so that he not only wanted to make music with her, he also wanted to sign her to Death Row.

Suge explained that the first time the late rapper/actor learned about the young singer was when they went to check out a Gladys Knight show. “We had a thing,” Suge remembered. “I would always listen to oldies, and Pac would listen to rap. He didn’t like oldies, so I told him, ‘I gotta show you what oldies are about.’ So, I took 2Pac to go see Gladys Knight perform in Vegas.”

Trending on Billboard

He then says that eventually Aaliyah came out to perform and blew 2Pac’s mind. “Aaliyah starts singing and 2Pac said, ‘Don’t get up! Don’t get up!’” Knight recalled. “I said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘Because Gladys Knight knows you, you’re gonna speak to Gladys Knight, and then you’re gonna talk to that little girl singing. And the next thing you know, you’re gonna be doing an album.’ He said, ‘I’m gonna go talk to her, you come later on, because I want to do an album with Aaliyah.’”

Knight added of 2Pac, “He wasn’t thinking about signing nobody else. He thought she was the biggest star and had the best voice ever. Me and that dude spent hours and hours and days and days together. Me, personally, I never seen him get so excited about no female artist. … He lost his mind over Aaliyah. He talked about her for days and days. I got tired of hearing him talking about that little girl. He said, ‘I got these songs I want do with her. I’m gonna do this song with her.’ … He was super, super, super excited.”

“I always looked up to 2Pac because he was such a real brother,” Knight continued. “I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to get over his death, but I do know his music will live on forever. All of us have suffered a major loss, including those who tried to destroy his name, reputation and spirit when he was alive.”

A day after 2Pac’s fatal shooting in 1996 at age 25, Aaliyah told MTV News, “I was very saddened, truthfully, at the tragic and senseless loss of such a multi-talented young man.” Aaliyah also passed away tragically early, dying in a plane crash in 2001 at age 22.

Check out Knight’s new interview below.

14 Feb 2025

How Can Drake Release an Album While He’s Suing His Record Label?

On Valentine’s Day, Drake teamed up with OVO signee and frequent collaborator PARTYNEXTDOOR to release the collaborative album Some Sexy Songs 4 U, a 21-track project that marks his first release since the three-track project 100 Gigs last August. 

More significantly, it’s his first release since he filed a lawsuit against his record label, Universal Music Group (UMG), on Jan. 15 for defamation over the release of Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” the searing, chart-topping diss track aimed at the Canadian rapper that was released by UMG’s Interscope Records. In the lawsuit, lawyers for Drake alleged that “UMG intentionally sought to turn Drake into a pariah, a target for harassment, or worse,” by pushing a “false and malicious narrative” that the star rapper was a “certified pedophile,” as Lamar rapped on the track. (UMG, in response, said in part, “Not only are these claims untrue, but the notion that we would seek to harm the reputation of any artist—let alone Drake—is illogical.”)

That raises the question: How is Drake able to release an album while he’s actively suing the record label to which he’s signed?

Trending on Billboard

First, the logistics: The new album was released jointly through OVO Sound, to which PARTYNEXTDOOR is signed, which is distributed by Santa Anna, a company under Sony Music Group’s Alamo Records umbrella; and OVO, which is Drake’s vehicle through UMG’s Republic Records. They are co-billed that way and in that order on digital service providers like Spotify and Apple Music. These types of joint releases are relatively common; think Future and Metro Boomin’s back-to-back We Don’t Trust You albums last year, released jointly via Future’s label Epic Records (also a Sony label) and Metro’s label Republic Records. (Coincidentally, We Don’t Trust You contained the song “Like That” featuring Lamar, the track that kicked off the Drake-Kendrick beef in earnest.) Another, more current, example is the Lady Gaga–Bruno Mars collaboration “Die With A Smile,” currently sitting at No. 1 on the Hot 100 for its fifth week, which is co-billed to Gaga’s Interscope and Mars’ Atlantic Records.

That means UMG would have had to legally clear Drake’s appearance on the album, an outcome that a handful of lawyers consulted by Billboard say would not necessarily be affected by any ongoing litigation. “Suing UMG shouldn’t preclude him from working with them legally,” one lawyer says. “As for their desire to be in a contractual relationship with him while he is litigating against them, that’s a different story.” Adds another, who agreed that it would not affect his ability to release an album: “Whether or not UMG decides to properly fund and support a release that Drake wants to do while Drake is suing UMG is another question.”

A UMG spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In its response to the initial lawsuit last month, the company wrote, “We have invested massively in [Drake’s] music and our employees around the world have worked tirelessly for many years to help him achieve historic commercial and personal financial success. … Throughout his career, Drake has intentionally and successfully used UMG to distribute his music and poetry to engage in conventionally outrageous back-and-forth ‘rap battles’ to express his feelings about other artists. He now seeks to weaponize the legal process to silence an artist’s creative expression and to seek damages from UMG for distributing that artist’s music.”

An artist suing their record label is not an unheard-of occurrence; it has happened several times through the years, often over royalty payments or other contractual disputes. Suing their own record label for defamation over a diss track, however, is unprecedented; given the mutually beneficial financials involved in an artist and an album’s commercial success, it would stand to reason that UMG would not aim to materially harm one of their superstar artists. But that’s a determination for the courts to make.

Additional reporting by Elias Leight.

14 Feb 2025

Every Song From Westside Gunn’s ‘12’ Project Ranked

Westside Gunn is back like he said he would be.

The Buffalo rapper and Griselda Records head honcho dropped a project today entitled 12. The tape is 11 tracks long and features Estee Nack, Stove God Cooks, Brother Tom Sos, AA Rashid and Eljiah Hook, plus production from The Standouts, Denny Laflare, Daringer, Crucial Guillotine, Cee Gee, Myles and Conductor Williams. Earlier this week, he surprised fans with the lead single and announced the release date.

Gunn said last year that he would get back to “dumpin’,’ and so far, he’s delivered on his promise — as this is the third project he’s released since Halloween of 2024, when he dropped the five-song 11 EP. He then came out with Still Praying the next day, with late Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious on the cover. And Westside has no plans of letting up anytime soon, as he looks to finish up the Fly God trilogy this year — and he finally wants to give fans his Michelle Records collab tape with Stove God, something the two have been teasing for a while now.

Earlier today, Gunn shot a promo from Tokyo aimed at his fellow rappers and posted it on his X account. “Can’t nobody f—k with me. I’m that one,” he sang to himself, before telling us that our favorite rapper isn’t really that good. “Listen, your favorite rapper is f—kin’ trash. We don’t need no gimmicks over here, none of that f—kery. This sh—t is art, this sh—t is culture. Them n—as need 50 n—as in the office and it’s only me rockin’ all this f—kin’ Louis Vuitton just being Super Fly Godzilla, man. We live in f—kin’ Tokyo, we got the hottest album in the street.”

With that being said, check out our rankings of every song on 12.

14 Feb 2025

NFL Exclusive: Creating Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show | All Access | Billboard News

Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show was one of the most watched shows of all time. We’re taking you inside the big day with an exclusive interview from the NFL’s Head of Music sharing how the show was created, talking with the hottest stars about his performance and more!

What did you think of Kendrick’s halftime show? Let us know in the comments!

E-40:
Man, I’m so happy for him overall. Man, that’s a bad man. 

Seth Dudowsky: 
And when you look at an artist like Kendrick in terms of the talent to be able to execute in a way that very few artists — let alone hip-hop artists — can, and it’s a production and a musical performance that isn’t just about understanding music and art, then how do you display it for broadcast and in media in a way that makes sense on a global scale? 

Tetris Kelly:
We were on the field and behind the scenes with the creators to find out the real story of Kendrick Lamar’s epic halftime show at Super Bowl 59. 

Megan Thee Stallion: 
That’s why we came. 

Tetris Kelly:
We take you there in Billboard All Access. 

Flavor Flav:
Come on, man. I’m humble, just like him, and I hope that’s what he opens up with.

Kendrick Lamar: 
The passion I have now is still the passion I had then. And I think that carried on to the Super Bowl. 

Seth Dudowsky: 
For this year with Kendrick Lamar, we announced him the first weekend of the season. We already have a set playground for them to play in. So when they come with their ideas, they’re not coming with staging ideas that can’t fit through the tunnel. And then shortly after that, his creative team, Dave Free, Mike Carson, a few weeks later, came to us with the initial seeds of what they wanted to do narratively.

Keep watching for more!

14 Feb 2025

21 Rap, R&B & Afrobeats Songs That Sample & Interpolate Sade 

Billboard rounded up rap, R&B and Afrobeats songs by Rema, MF DOOM, Snoop Dogg, Burna Boy, Ashanti, Nipsey Hussle and Queen Latifah that sample and interpolate Sade.

Sade

Sade at the Ambassador East Hotel in Chicago, Illinois on Jan. 27, 1985.

Paul Natkin/Getty Images

Rema‘s latest single “Baby (Is It a Crime)” made a lot of noise last November when the Afrobeats star first teased it with its super-recognizable sample of Sade‘s 1985 hit “Is It a Crime.” The English band, led by quiet storm icon Sade Adu, has been a source of inspiration (and sample material) for plenty of R&B singers, rappers and Afrobeats artists over the decades.

Rema isn’t the only Nigerian artist who’s paid homage to the British-Nigerian frontwoman (real name Helen Folasade Adu). Burna Boy interpolated the band’s 1985 classic “The Sweetest Taboo” 35 years later on his Sauti Sol-featuring track “Time Flies.”

While MF DOOM has sampled Sade’s timeless records like “Is It a Crime” and “Kiss of Life,” indie U.K. producer Seanh2k11 fused their brilliance on his 2016 mashup EP Sadevillain (à la MF Doom and Madlib’s 2004 joint album Madvillainy). Snoop Dogg, who has interpolated “Smooth Operator” in two different songs and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame alongside Sade in 2023, said he “would love to smoke” with her and “hopefully get a record out of her, too” while appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last month.

And even though Eminem never officially sampled Sade, he wrote in his 2000 book Angry Blonde that he originally wrote “I’m Shady” from his 1999 Grammy-winning album The Slim Shady LP to “one of Sade’s tracks [‘Turn My Back on You’]. I thought of the bassline and we made the song.”

Billboard rounded up 21 rap, R&B and Afrobeats songs that have sampled and interpolated Sade, in order from newest to oldest.

14 Feb 2025

‘Billboard Unfiltered’: Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Performance ‘Was a Real Rap Show’

2025 is already off to a wild start in the hip-hop world, and Billboard Unfiltered is back to break it all down with a new episode on Friday (Feb. 14), tackling all things Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl performance and Ye’s (formerly Kanye West) crashout.

Billboard‘s Damien Scott gave his stamp of approval to Lamar’s performance, as he loved to see Kendrick bring an “unadulterated rap show” to the biggest stage in America.

“We’ve had rappers before, but we’ve never had a rapper headline, and I’m glad it was Kendrick because what we got was a real rap show. He didn’t lean into his pop bag,” Scott said. “He kept his setlist outside of the SZA collabs it was super rap. You know how hard it is to rap ‘DNA’? I can’t imagine doing that in a leather jacket.”

Staff writer Kyle Denis enjoyed Kendrick remaining in his “imperial phase” and performing his new album rather than “mining for hits,” as we’ve seen plenty of other artists turn their Super Bowl sets into a greatest hits medley of sorts to appease the wide-ranging audience.

“You’re at the top of your game right now. As much as I wanted to hear the old stuff, I really respect what he did up there,” Denis said.

Unfiltered newcomer and hip-hop editor Angel Diaz admitted he was initially “underwhelmed” by the show, but after leaving the chaotic environment he was watching the game at and ran it back, he developed more of an appreciation for what Lamar delivered.

“It was impressive,” he said. “His wind, voice control — I kinda wanted some of the features to pop out like the mariachi singer, AzChike — I wanted to see him do ‘Peekaboo.’ When he announced SZA and people were trashing him, I thought she was gonna do more.”

Scott wonders how Kendrick’s set will translate to stadiums across the country on the Grand National Tour because of how “tightly wound” the songs are he performs. He even compared the tracks to “Swiss watches.”

Scott declared the Kendrick-Drake beef over and warned the 6 God to never say Kendrick’s name again going forward. “Don’t ever mention his name again. Just leave this alone, it’s over, bro,” he said.

Where does Ye go from here? West delivered a series of antisemitic, homophobic and hate-filled rants on X over the weekend ,which saw him praise Hitler and call for Diddy’s freedom.

“I don’t know how Ye gets back if you don’t have a built-in base to bolster you when you need it,” Scott adds. “Because we’re done. We should be the ones, ‘Get some help and we’re here for you.’ We’re like, ‘It’s over, peace.’”

Denis thinks we’ve hit a point where we have to ask ourselves if it’s worth covering Ye to this extent if he’s looking for attention.

Watch the full episode above.

14 Feb 2025

Billboard Reacts To Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show & Ye’s X Rants | Billboard Unfiltered

In today’s episode of ‘Billboard Unfiltered,’ Billboard staffers Kyle Denis, Damien Scott, and Angel Diaz react to Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show, highlighting the best and controversial moments, discussing Ye’s X rants and more.

What did you think of Kendrick’s performance? What do you think of Ye’s X rants? Let us know in the comments!

Damien Scott:

It’s hard to wrap that as a fan. I can’t imagine doing that in a leather jacket  on the field, under the lights. 

Kyle Denis:

I don’t know if I can sit through two years of the most ridiculous rants ever and cluttered albums for 30 seconds of one great verse that reminds me of ‘College Dropout.’ I can’t do it anymore. 

Welcome back to a new episode of Billboard Unfiltered. We got to introduce our hip hop editor, Angel Diaz. Welcome to the show. How you feeling?

Angel Diaz:

I’m good man, excited to be finally on here. 

Damien Scott:

First time? 

Angel Diaz:

Yeah first time .Well, first time caller. Long time listener.

Kyle Denis:

Well this weekend, we had the Super Bowl Halftime Show featuring Kendrick Lamar. The performance featured SZA, Samuel L. Jackson, Serena Williams and Mustard. It was a very ‘GNX’ heavy set list. He started off with an extended teaser of the unreleased track from that album, but then quickly went into “Squabble Up,” which then gave into “HUMBLE” and “DNA,” some older classics. He brought out SZA for “Luther” and “All the Stars.” Closed things off with “Not Like Us,” featuring a very funny sh*t eating grin, of course, and closing with “TV Off.” But we got to talk about the response of this show. It’s officially broken the record for the most watched halftime show of all time, over 133.5 million viewers. What are your thoughts, guys? 

Keep watching for more!

14 Feb 2025

Drake Takes Shots at Kendrick Lamar & Joe Budden on ‘Gimme a Hug’: Listen

It wasn’t all kisses and hugs on Drake and PartyNextDoor’s new collaborative album, $OME $EXY $ONGS 4 U, as on Friday (Feb. 14), the OVO captain had time to denounce not only his 2024 feud with Kendrick Lamar, but also his one-time friendship with Joe Budden.

The blockbuster album includes 21 songs — mostly R&B — with a few exceptions, most notably, “Gimme a Hug.” Here, Drake puts his rap muscles to work, first questioning Lamar’s lyricism and how it doesn’t spark any fanfare from the ladies at the club. “Cause if I die, it’s these n—as that become the sole beneficiary/ And what the f–k are they gon’ do with it?/ Have the girls up at 29 on stage twerking with a dictionary?” he says.

Not only does he claim to be over the smoldering beef with Lamar that included a whopping total of seven disses records last spring, but he’s shifting his energy toward making hits for the fans. “Damn, they be droppin’ s–t, but we be droppin’ harder s–t/ F–k a rap beef, I’m tryna get the party lit,” he spits.

Trending on Billboard

Drake also commended his Her Loss rap partner, 21 Savage, for his unwavering loyalty during the contentious feud before ultimately blitzing Budden. “Savage, you the only n—a checkin’ on me when we really in some s–t, brother/ Melyssa Ford, you a legend from the 6, hate to see you with a d–k-sucker.”

This isn’t the first time Drake has jabbed the famous podcaster this week. He posted an unflattering picture of Joe Budden on his Finsta account on Instagram, which irked the “Pump It Up” rapper.

“Drake, don’t shoot at me now that you’re ice cold,” he said on his eponymous podcast. “I’m not doing the back and forth with a corpse. Don’t go get shot all year and then pop up like Bernie in Weekend at Bernie’s wanting to shoot at me now. No n—a, go spin. Spin the f–king block.”

Listen to “Gimme a Hug” below.