Hip-Hop
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Winning looked real good on the U.S. women’s gymnastics team when they took home the team gold in Paris on Tuesday (July 30). It sounded good too, as team members Simone Biles, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee and Hezly Rivera spent much of the day luxuriating in the golden glow of the champion’s circle […]
Houston-born rapper Travis Scott has announced an expansion of his Circus Maximus World Tour in Australia, adding a second date at Sydney’s Allianz Stadium due to overwhelming demand.
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The tour expansion is part of a purple patch for Scott, marked by record-breaking album sales and tour performances.
The Australian and New Zealand leg of Scott’s tour will kick off after stops in Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Puerto Rico, and Mexico in September.
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On Oct. 9, between the Latin American and Australian legs, Scott will also perform for one night only at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
Scott’s latest album, UTOPIA, released on July 28, 2023, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 496,000 album-equivalent units in its first week and earning Scott his third consecutive leader.
UTOPIA held the No. 1 position for four consecutive weeks, making it the longest-running top rap album of 2023. The album’s debut week also saw an impressive 330.68 million on-demand streams.
Featuring collaborations with music icons like Drake, Beyoncé, and The Weeknd, UTOPIA showcases Scott’s ability to create chart-topping hits. The album’s lead single, “ESCAPE PLAN,” peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The North American leg of the Circus Maximus World Tour has proved equally impressive, grossing $95.7 million across 44 dates with a total attendance of 686,000 and making it the highest-grossing rap tour of 2024. He also made history with a show at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, where he became the first rapper to headline the venue in 2023.
Currently on the European and U.K. leg of his tour, Scott has already grossed over $23.6 million with nearly 200,000 attendees across the first seven dates.
His performance at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium drew over 48,500 fans and grossed more than $6.6 million, marking his largest headline show to date and breaking the stadium’s merchandise sales record.
K-pop has been gathering commercial momentum in the U.S. over a decade, and this week it achieves a historic milestone on the Billboard 200. As Billboard reported on Sunday, this current chart (dated Aug. 3) marks the first time that the top two spots are both held by K-pop (Korean pop) albums. Stray Kids’ ATE debuts […]
The Tampa Police Department announced the arrest of three people on Monday (July 29) in connection with deadly shooting of rapper Julio Foolio last month. According to WFLA, three individuals — Sean Gathright, 18, Alicia Andrews, 21, and Isaiah Chance Jr., 21 — were arrested in Jacksonville and charged with premeditated first degree murder and […]
Big Sean has signed a new management deal with Brandon Silverstein’s S10 Entertainment, Billboard has learned. The Detroit rapper was previously managed by Roc Nation, with whom he had been for a decade.
“Brandon shares the vision, understands where I’m headed, and I’m incredibly excited to work with him and the S10 team,” Sean said.
The news comes on the heels of another major announcement: the Grammy-nominated artist recently revealed his sixth solo full length will arrive on Aug. 9 and is titled Better Me Than You. The album follows a return to the charts for Sean, who earlier this month hit No. 24 on the Hot 100 thanks to his feature on Eminem’s “Tobey” alongside BabyTron. It became his 55th entry on the chart.
“Big Sean is an incredible talent who, even after topping charts, breaking records, winning awards and headlining across the world, is just getting started,” says Silverstein, S10 founder and CEO. “I can’t wait for fans to hear the new music.”
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As the artist wrote on social media after sharing the album’s release date: “Its Been a journey i cant wait to share with you all.”
Over on the Billboard 200, the rapper has charted seven albums in the top 10. His last three solo albums — 2015’s Dark Sky Paradise, 2017’s I Decided and 2020’s Detroit 2 — all topped the chart.
So far, Big Sean has released the lead single “Yes,” on which he dismisses critics, rapping: “Would rather give y’all my soul, I don’t have to sell it.” He’s keeping busy outside of his own rollout as well, and last week appeared alongside Rick Ross and Lil Wayne on a new DJ Premier track titled “Ya Don’t Stop.”
Silverstein currently manages Myke Towers. His previous management clients include Anitta and Normani. The company’s publishing division, S10 Publishing, boasts chart-topping clients including Jasper Harris (Tate McRae), Harv (Justin Bieber), Kavi (Tommy Richman) and more.
Drake is poking fun at his beef with Kendrick Lamar now that their feud has seemingly died down.
On Sunday (July 28), Drizzy took to social media to repost a viral clip of a lookalike performing his hit song “Hotline Bling” at a boxing gym in New York.
“Sometimes you gotta pop out,” Drake captioned the Instagram Story post, quoting a line from Lamar’s smash hit “Not Like Us.”
This isn’t the first time the Toronto MC has referenced K. Dot’s diss track, which spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Last month, Drake comically named himself “69 God” during a bowling match, quoting another famous line from the Compton rapper’s infectious song.
The fallout from Drake’s feud with Lamar apparently hasn’t put a damper on the 6 God’s summer. Drizzy’s Honestly, Nevermind collaborator Gordo recently said he hasn’t seen Drake happier.
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“Ever since all this has happened … I’ve seen him happier. It’s really weird. He’s pretty jolly,” the Grammy-nominated producer told People in late July. “The internet makes it seem like, ‘Oh, that photo, he’s all sad and s—.’ That’s just a bad photo from a bad camera. But because it’s him, it’s put under a magnifying glass like, ‘Oh, look at his eyes. He’s looking a little droopy. He hasn’t slept.’ But the guy’s been happy as s—, to be honest. He’s chilling.”
Gordo, formerly known as Carnage, claims Drake has moved on from the battle with K. Dot and is ready to focus on himself again. “He’s been past it,” the producer added. “The thing is that he was just on the longest tour ever. He literally did a tour for like a year. I think he’s just chilling.”
During their feud, the Canadian superstar dropped numerous disses against Lamar, including “Euphoria,” “Family Matters” and “The Heart Pt. 6.” While Lamar didn’t formally respond to “The Heart Part 6,” he performed multiple diss songs at his Juneteenth Pop Out concert and released a music video for “Not Like Us” that features him beating down an owl piñata and ends with an owl in a cage in reference to Drake’s OVO logo.
Machine Gun Kelly and Jelly Roll get some serious help from their significant others in the emotional video for their new team-up, “Lonely Road.” In the Sam Cahill-directed clip for the song that pays homage to John Denver’s iconic 1971 hit “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” KellyRoll — as they’ve dubbed themselves — are joined by MGK’s girlfriend, actress Megan Fox, and Jelly’s wife, Bunnie Xo, who both have prominent roles in the tear-in-your-beer storyline.
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KellyRoll play a pair of old pals struggling to provide for their families in the visual that opens with the duo clad in all black at a funeral before jumping to footage of the pair grinding away at an auto shop in matching tan jumpsuits. “I probably could’ve saved us/ But instead I let us crash/ Cuz I don’t trust no one to love me back,” MGK sings while strumming an acoustic guitar. “But she say I do/ And this is not the place for you.”
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As the past due notices continue to pile up, we see MGK kiss one-time fiancé Fox’s swelling belly and Jelly Roll standing in a field singing about using alcohol on the road to fill the hole of loneliness he feels when he’s thousands of miles from his love. “Will our home ever be the same/ I hear the devil wears Prada, but I couldn’t read the tags/ And your horns started showing when I see you mad,” he sings as he and Bunnie console each other after receiving a letter confirming an infertility diagnosis.
The storylines are particularly poignant and personal for both men, as Jelly revealed last month that Bunnie, 44, is undergoing IVF as they try to conceive their first child together and in November, mother of three Fox opened up about the “very difficult” miscarriage she suffered with MGK.
After the two couples share a quiet home meal together, MGK tries to rope Jelly into a scheme to make some quick money, a road the “Save Me” country star says he can’t go down anymore. Following one more shot of MGK kissing Fox’s stomach, the rapper-turned-rocker-turned-country crooner hops on his motorcycle and pulls off a bank heist that ends with his arrest as he’s kissing his love and their unborn child goodbye one last time.
Cut to eight month later and Jelly, Bunnie and Fox are all cooing over the baby, who MGK kisses through the glass in the prison visiting room.
The long and winding road to “Lonely Road” has taken more than two years, with MGK recently saying that the duo have been working on the track over “2 years, 8 different studios, 4 different countries, [and] changed the key 4 times.”
Watch the “Lonely Road” video below.
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As the U.S. Department of Justice initiates a review of the fatal shooting of Sonya Massey, a number of artists have amplified the name and memory of the 36-year-old mother of two while decrying the latest police-involved killing of a Black person by a white officer.
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“The Department of Justice is aware of and assessing the circumstances surrounding the tragic officer-involved death of Ms. Sonya Massey and extends condolences to her family and loved ones,” the federal agency wrote in a statement, according to ABC News.
“First words Sonya Massey said at her front door were ‘don’t hurt me’ she was told ‘why would we hurt you, you called us,’” Solange posted to X on Tuesday. “When have those words meant anything when [you’re] black and woman in this country when do those words protect you from not being murdered in your kitchen, in your bedroom, with your babies, or on your lawn what is ‘reassurance,’ in this place ? rest in power Sonya Massey, and an abundance of love and power to Sonya’s family on this journey.”
According to reports, Massey called 911 in the early hours of July 6 to report seeing an intruder outside her home in Springfield, Illinois, and a half-hour later, the responding officers reported shots fired and that Massey had been struck by bullets. According to ABC 7, former sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson, 30, was indicted on first-degree murder charges last week and is currently being jailed without bond until trial.
Per video of the incident, after checking for intruders, police went inside and Massey asked if she could walk in the other room to turn down a boiling pot on the stove. An unidentified officer who responded to the call with Grayson then moved aside and Massey is heard saying, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.” Grayson, standing in the living room, then threatened to shoot Massey in the face, drawing his weapon.
Massey, in her sleeping clothes, dropped to the ground below the kitchen counter between them and put her hands up while apologizing. As she stood up with what appeared to be the upside down pot in her hand, Grayson fired three shots, including the fatal one to Massey’s head, immediately saying, “F—!,” as he realized he’d fired a fatal shot and telling his partner not to bother getting a medical kit because of the “head shot” he’d unleashed.
After bouncing around between a handful of small police departments, Grayson was hired by the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office in May 2023 and has since been fired in the wake of Massey’s fatal shooting and has not yet entered a plea to three charges of first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct.
Meek Mill — who has had his own yearslong battle in Pennsylvania over a prison sentence tied to parole violations tied to a decade-old drug and gun conviction — reposted a video of Massey’s devastated son describing a call from the hospital informing him that his mother was shot in the eye while refusing to tell him who had shot her. “Can you imagine the cops killing your mom on camera like that … she didn’t even have a pot in her hand she put it down … and we need to erase police reports humans lie!!!” Mill wrote Wednesday on X, adding in another post, “She didn’t even have the pot in her hand if you slow it down!”
In an X Spaces post Wednesday night, Cardi B discussed Massey, saying, “There was no argument, there was no conflict, there was no raise the voice. And she got shot. He [Grayson] didn’t say nothing racial, right? He didn’t say nothing like a racial slur, but one thing for sure is that we definitely know that he knew in the back of his head because she was a Black woman that he was going to get away with it… she got shot for no reason.” (The Massey discussion begins at the 14:29 mark.)
Canadian R&B duo Dvsn were equally horrified by the footage, writing Tuesday on X, “That Sonya Massey video really hurt to watch… that man claiming she ‘CAME at him with boiling water’ just made me think what if there was no body cam?… and how many times they’ve gotten away with these stories when it comes to us… smh. Hurts man.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running to be the Democratic nominee for president, also reacted to the startling footage. “Sonya Massey deserved to be safe,” she wrote Tuesday on X. “The disturbing footage released yesterday confirms what we know from the lived experiences of so many — we have much work to do to ensure that our justice system fully lives up to its name. President Biden and I call on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a bill that I coauthored in the Senate. We must come together to achieve meaningful reforms that advance the safety of all communities.”
In a separate post, Biden added, “Sonya Massey, a beloved mother, friend, daughter, and young Black woman, should be alive today. Sonya’s death at the hands of a police officer reminds us that all too often Black Americans face fears for their safety in ways many of the rest of us do not.”
Rapper Yung Miami also weighed in, writing, “Let her f—ing just what?????? Die this is beyond sickening!!!! Pure evil!!!”
See some of the tweets about Massey’s killing below. (Warning: Some of the posts below include footage from Massey’s fatal shooting.)
Can you imagine the cops killing your mom on camera like that … she didn’t even have a pot in her hand she put it down … and we need to erase police reports humans lie!!! https://t.co/i9S99BATZq— MeekMill (@MeekMill) July 25, 2024
first words Sonya Massey said at her front door were “don’t hurt me” she was told “why would we hurt you, you called us” when have those words meant anything when your black and woman in this country when do those words protect you from not being murdered in your kitchen,…— solange knowles (@solangeknowles) July 23, 2024
That Sonya Massey video really hurt to watch… that man claiming she “ CAME at him with boiling water” just made me think what if there was no body cam?… and how many times they’ve gotten away with these stories when it comes to us… smh. Hurts man— dvsn ÷ (@dvsn) July 23, 2024
Sonya Massey deserved to be safe.The disturbing footage released yesterday confirms what we know from the lived experiences of so many — we have much work to do to ensure that our justice system fully lives up to its name.President Biden and I call on Congress to pass the…— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) July 23, 2024
Sonya Massey, a beloved mother, friend, daughter, and young Black woman, should be alive today.Sonya’s death at the hands of a police officer reminds us that all too often Black Americans face fears for their safety in ways many of the rest of us do not.— President Biden (@POTUS) July 22, 2024
the police department is not a broken systemit is working according to plan as the militarized arm of the system of white domination sonya massey was asked to check on boiling waterthen disrespected in her home for no reason to which she responded only w godthen murdered— Vic Mensa (@VicMensa) July 23, 2024
Many streams for “Many Men (Wish Death)” power 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’ album flying back to No. 22 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart dated July 27. The set enjoys its highest chart rank since its original 2003 release run, spurred by a “Many Men” streaming boost after many social media users used the song to comment on the July 13 shooting at former president Donald Trump’s rally.
For the tracking week of July 12-18, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ earned 13,000 equivalent album units, according to Luminate, a 62% surge from 8,000 units in the previous week. “Many Men” drove much of the improvement, with the song registering 6.4 million official U.S. streams in the tracking week, a 224% rally from its 2 million total in the prior frame. It was the best-streamed Get Rich or Die Tryin’ cut for the week, eclipsing usual frontrunner “In Da Club,” which pulled 3.9 million clicks.
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Accompanying the streaming boost, “Many Men” also experienced a sales lift to 3,000 downloads sold, up from a negligible amount in the previous tracking week. Thanks to the purchases, the track launches at No. 4 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales chart and No. 14 on the all-genre Digital Song Sales list.
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“Many Men” — with the chorus starting with the line “Many men wish death upon me” — surged in online popularity in the wake of July 13’s apparent attempted assassination of Trump near Butler, Pennsylvania. Social media users soundtracked memes with the song and shared altered Get Rich or Die Tryin’ album covers with the former president’s head superimposed on 50 Cent, who famously survived being shot nine times. The rapper himself joined in on the trend, even promoting his own “Many Men” T-shirts.
With its No. 22 return on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ attains its best showing since its No. 21 rank on the chart dated Oct. 4, 2003. At the time, the album was enjoying its third consecutive top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, “P.I.M.P.,” after prior singles “In Da Club” and “21 Questions,” featuring Nate Dogg, both topped the chart. Notably, although “Many Men” wasn’t pushed as an official single and never charted on the Hot 100, its fan-favorite status gave it 12 weeks on the Bubbling Under Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in 2003.
Elsewhere, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ returns at No. 17 on the Top Rap Albums chart and rockets 185-75 on the all-genre Billboard 200.
There are plenty of songs you could pick to get pumped up for your one big moment. But if you only have one shot at an opportunity that comes once in a lifetime, there is only one that guarantees that you will own it and never let it go: Eminem‘s iconic Oscar-winning 2002 8 Mile […]