Hip-Hop

‘Out of Time?’ More Like Way Out of Tune: The Weeknd Cringes After Handing His Mic to a Fan

It’s a sweet gesture familiar to any fan who regularly attends concerts: a star hands their microphone to an enthusiastic audience member who is visibly psyched to show off their knowledge of the artist’s songs by crooning a few lines. And, if they’re lucky, that fan might just surprise them by actually killing the vocal.

The Weeknd learned the hard way recently that it doesn’t always go to plan. During a show on the current swing of European After Hours Til Dawn shows, the Canadian singer/actor (who now goes by his birth name, Abel Tesfaye) spotted a woman shouting out the lyrics to his 2022 Dawn FM song “Out of Time.”

As seen in a video posted by HipHopDX, he appeared to reach out to the unseen fan and sang the lyrics of the tune directly to her, crooning, “Say I love you girl, but I’m out of time,” before pushing the mic her way, seemingly expecting the woman to seamlessly add the next line.

What came next clearly shook Abel, though. Instead of charming him with her vocal talents, the woman flat-out caterwauled “out of time” in a shriek so shocking that the singer looked genuinely stunned, closing his eyes momentarily, shaking his head and then grasping her hand as he moved on without making eye contact.

The comments on the video said it all: “LMFAO! He’s never gonna do that again. hahahha,” as well as “she had one chance and blew it lmaoo.”

Tesfaye recently announced an extension of the tour, which will now play stadiums in Australia and New Zealand in November and December after breaking attendance records at London’s Wembley Stadium with attendance of 87,000 for a one-night-only show on Aug. 18.

Anitta, D-Nice, Sofia Carson Join Megan Thee Stallion, Conan Gray & More For 2023 Global Citizen Festival

Anitta, D-Nice and Sofia Carson have joined the star-studded lineup of the 2023 Global Citizen Festival slated to take place on the Great Lawn of New York’s Central Park on Sept. 23. The artists join a previously announced list of headliners that includes the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Megan Thee Stallion, Conan Gray and Stray Kids.

Other performers, activists and actors slated to appear at the event include Bill Nye, Bridget Moynahan, Busy Philipps, Carmelo Anthony, Common, Connie Britton, Danai Gurira, Gayle King, Jordan Fisher, Lewis Pugh, Padma Lakshmi, Phoebe Gates, Rachel Brosnahan and Sophia Bush.

This year’s Global Citizen Festival campaign is focused on urging governments to take immediate action to address systemic issues around extreme poverty. “We’re thrilled to join forces with these passionate artists and advocates to call for urgent action to address the climate crisis, demand equity for women and girls and disrupt the cycles holding people in extreme poverty,” said Katie Hill, SVP, Head of Music, Entertainment and Artist Relations, Global Citizen in a statement. “This year’s campaign is driving a record number of actions from global citizens around the world, and we’re grateful to this year’s performers and presenters for leveraging their voices and joining us on the Great Lawn on September 23.”

Tickets for the 2023 Global Citizen Festival are free and can be earned by taking action on the Global Citizen app or here. The festival be broadcast and streamed on ABC, ABC News Live, Apple Music and the Apple TV app, Prime Video and the Amazon Music channel on Twitch, Facebook, Hulu, iHeartRadio, Instagram, Mediacorp, SABC, TikTok, TimesLIVE, Veeps, X, YouTube, the Global Citizen app and globalcitizen.org.  

Drake Shouts Out LeBron James During L.A. Show: ‘It’s An Honor to be Inside His Building’

Normally, when Drake pulls up to a venue the room belongs solely to him for the night. But on Monday (Aug. 21) when the Six God’s It’s All a Blur tour touched down at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena, he was more than happy to share the spotlight with the venue’s resident big dog: LeBron James.

According to ET, the Lakers superstar and his son, Bronny James, 18, walked into the venue behind Drake, who escorted them through the crowd to their VIP seats and hugged both men before starting the show. And then, during the concert, Drake paid homage to the NBA legend who has had his back from day one.

“In 2009, when nobody believed in anything I had going on, that same guy showed up to a release party for a mixtape that was called So Far Gone,” Drake said of the four-time NBA champ. “He came all the way to Toronto, Canada, to support me when I was trying to figure out how I could live my dreams. And so tonight, however many years later, it’s an honor to be inside his building while we’re both still on this earth. I gotta do this building justice tonight. So I came to L.A. and I’m about to give you everything I got, I promise you that.”

ET also reported that LeBron later shared some footage from the show’s after-party on his Instagram Story, which appeared to show that the celebration went late into the night, or morning, based on the 5:17 a.m. timestamp and the message, “No excuses. Just work. Say less.”

Drake even rocked the Lakers’ colors for the show in a nod to the home team, strolling out of the locker room in yellow sneakers and shirt and a purple jacket/pants combo. The show also marked Bronny James’ first major public appearance since the University of Southern California Trojans freshman guard suffered cardiac arrest during a practice last month.

Also on Monday night, Drake revealed the too-cute cover art for his upcoming For All the Dogs album, which he said was created by his five-year-old son, Adonis.

16 People Hospitalized for Heat-Related Illness at Snoop Dogg Show in Houston

The sweltering summer concert season sent more than two dozen people to the med tent on Saturday at Snoop Dogg‘s show at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion outside of Houston. According to USA Today, in addition to the 35 people who showed signs of “heat-related illness” who were examined at the venue, another dozen-plus were hospitalized at the show where temperatures reached 104 during the day.

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“Out of these, MCHD EMS transported 16 adults to nearby hospitals in stable condition,” said Montgomery County Hospital District public information officer Misti Willingham. In the midst of one of the hottest summers in the planet’s history due to the effect of global climate change, the local fire department was dispatched to the venue as a precaution during the show in case the patient number continued to rise.

“This is a common practice and very effective if done early on,” Atascocita Fire Department public information officer Jerry Dilliard told the paper. During the show, the Fire Dept. tweeted that they were “headed to the Woodlands Pavilion to assist with overheated concert attendees at the @SnoopDogg concert.”

Snoop is on the road with Too $hort and Wiz Khalifa on their High School Reunion tour, which is slated to hit the Isleta Amphitheater in Albuquerque, NM on Tuesday night (Aug. 22).

The incident was just the latest heat-related bump in the road this summer, following an Ed Sheeran show in Pittsburgh on July 8 during which 17 people were hospitalized due to “heat-related” illnesses and Jason Aldean’s scratched kick-off of his Highway Desperado Tour on July 15 in Hartford, CT, which he had to exit early due to dehydration and heat exhaustion.

Drake’s Son Adonis Drew the Cover of His ‘For All the Dogs’ Album and It’s Exactly as Cute as You Think

Drake has long kept his inner circle pretty tight and when it came to the cover art for his upcoming For All the Dogs album he didn’t have to look very far at all. In a truly “awww” moment, the rapper revealed on Monday night (Aug. 21) that his five-year-old son, Adonis, drew the album’s cover image.

The result is a truly adorable, rough sketch of a red-eyed pooch with tall ears and a white body that had one commenter saying, “ADONIS COMING THRU WITH THE PICASSO.” The news about the cover art appeared to be confirmed in a post from OVO Sound, which featured the same image.

At press time there is no official release date for his follow-up to last year’s surprise-release Honestly, Nevermind, which featured the singles “Sticky” and Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single “Jimmy Cooks” with 21 Savage.

It’s been a busy few weeks for Drake on stage lately on his It’s All a Blur tour, with the rapper dodging things tossed at him on stage as part of the disturbing trend of fans hurling random objects — including bras and vapes to cell phones — at musicians. Over the weekend, Drizzy showed off his quick reflexes at a show in San Francisco when he avoided getting beaned by a copy of his new poetry book, Titles Ruin Everything: A Stream of Consciousness when he caught the paperback with one hand.

“You lucky I’m quick. Would’ve had to beat your a– if that hit me in the face,” Drake sternly warned the fan.

Last week, the rapper teased a new collaboration with Bad Bunny during a show in L.A. when he brought Bunny up to announce the pair’s first joint song since 2018’s “Mía”; at press time the title of the song had not yet been announced.

Check out the For All the Dogs cover art below.

Travis Scott’s ‘Utopia’ Notches Third Straight Week Atop Billboard 200

Travis Scott’s Utopia scores a third total and consecutive week atop the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Aug. 26), as the album earned 185,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Aug. 18 (up 26%), according to Luminate. With three total weeks at No. 1 (the set debuted atop the tally), Utopia has the most weeks at No. 1 for a rap album in nearly two years, since Drake’s Certified Lover Boy spent five nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 (Sept. 18-Nov. 6, 2021, charts). Plus, Scott ties his longest Billboard 200 reign, among his three No. 1s; Astroworld led for three weeks in 2018.  

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Also in the top 10 of the Billboard 200, Karol G logs her second top five-charting set of 2023 (and of her career), as Mañana Será Bonito (Bichota Season) launches at No. 3. The new effort follows the similarly titled Mañana Será Bonito, which debuted at No. 1 on the March 11-dated list. (Though they have nearly the same title, the albums’ tracklists are different.)

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 Aug. 26, 2023-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Aug. 22. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Of Utopia’s 185,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Aug. 17, album sales comprise 99,000 (up 169%), SEA units comprise 86,000 (down 22%, equaling 124.13 million on-demand official streams of the streaming set’s 19 songs) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum (down 38%).

Utopia’s album sales grew in the set’s third week thanks in part to a promotional offer in Scott’s official webstore, which discounted the Utopia vinyl LP from $50 to only $5 for a limited time. Of Utopia’s 99,000 sales for the week, vinyl accounted for 93,000. That sum marks Utopia’s best week on vinyl yet, the seventh-largest sales week on vinyl for any album since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991, and the biggest week for an R&B/hip-hop or rap album on vinyl in that same period.

Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time is a non-mover at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, with 94,000 equivalent album units earned (up 2%).

Karol G collects her second top five-charting album of 2023, as Mañana Será Bonito (Bichota Season) debuts at No. 3 with 67,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, SEA units comprise 49,000 (equaling 68.26 million on-demand official streams of the streaming set’s 10 tracks), album sales comprise 17,000 (it was available as a digital download album, CD and vinyl LP) and TEA units comprise 1,000.

The Barbie soundtrack dips 3-4 on the Billboard 200 with 65,000 equivalent album units earned (down 12%).

Taylor Swift’s former No. 1 Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) falls 4-5 with 61,000 equivalent album units earned (up 1%). It’s the first of four Swift albums in the top 10. It’s joined by former leaders Midnights (5-6 with 58,000; up 3%), Lover (6-7 with 54,000; up 6%) and 1989 (13-9 with 45,000; up 13%). The lattermost album, which debuted at No. 1 in 2014, returns to the top 10 for the first time since early 2016. It surges up the list thanks to publicity and consumption generated by Swift’s announcement on Aug. 9 that 1989 would be her next re-recorded album, and that it will be released on Oct. 27. Swift holds four albums in the top 10 for a fourth time, having become the first living artist to achieve the feat in nearly 60 years last month.

Rounding out the top 10 of the new Billboard 200, Peso Pluma’s Génesis is stationary at No. 8 (46,000 units; down 1%), while Wallen’s chart-topping Dangerous: The Double Album sits still at No. 10 (nearly 44,000 units; up 2%).

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.

Drake Impressively Catches Copy of His Poetry Book Hurled by Fan at S.F. Concert: Watch

Drake showed off his lightning-quick reflexes during the Bay Area stop of his It’s All a Blur Tour.

On Friday (Aug. 18), during his first of two concerts at the Chase Center in San Francisco, the 36-year-old rap superstar effortlessly avoided being struck in the head by a copy of his new poetry book, Titles Ruin Everything: A Stream of Consciousness.

In a fan-captured video from the show, Drizzy is seen impressively catching the all-blue paperback book, which he wrote alongside his friend and songwriting collaborator Kenza Samir. After the save, the Toronto MC was quick to point out the person who hurled the book.

“You lucky I’m quick. Would’ve had to beat your a– if that hit me in the face,” Drake sternly told the fan.

Titles Ruin Everything, a book of lyrics, poems and one-liners, dropped earlier this summer through the “Rich Flex” rapper’s merchandise store drakerelated.com and other select retailers, including publisher Phaidon.

Drake isn’t a stranger to random objects being thrown at him during live performances. In recent months, the artist has fended off everything from bras and vapes to cell phones. He’s the latest victim of a dangerous trend in which musicians are being struck by random items at concerts. Bebe Rexha, Lil Nas X and Kelsea Ballerini are among the slew of artists who have recently had their shows interrupted by the launching of various items, including a phone, sex toy and bracelet, respectively.

Drake will be on the road with his joint It’s All a Blur Tour with 21 Savage through early October, visiting U.S. and Canadian arenas before closing out with a final show in Columbus, Ohio. The trek marks Drake’s first North American tour in five years, following 2018’s Drake & The Three Migos Tour. In 2019, he toured through Europe with support from recently imprisoned rapper Tory Lanez and Radio 1 DJ Tiffany Calver.

Tyler, The Creator Announces 2023 Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival Lineup in Mural Painting Livestream

Tyler, the Creator‘s Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival will end its four-year hiatus this November 11 and 12 when it returns with a stacked lineup at L.A.’s Dodger Stadium. This year’s roster was slowly revealed on Friday (Aug. 18) during a livestream in which the names of the acts were painstakingly painted onto a mural over the course of three hours.

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This year’s Camp Flog Gnaw will be headlined by SZA, The Hillbillies and Tyler, the Creator. Other performers include Ice Spice, Clipse, Lil Yachty, Kali Uchis, Earl Sweatshirt, Rex Orange County, Syd, PinkPantheress, Teezo Touchdown, Kevin Abstract, Dominic Fike, WILLOW, Ravyn Lenae, Turnstile, Khamari, Maxo Kream, Paris Texas, Beabadoobee AG Club, Balming Tiger, Left Brain, Liv.e, Spinall, Baby Rose, Redveil, Cuco, Toro y Moi, Fuerza Regida, BADBADNOTGOOD, d4vd and Domo Genesis.

The Odd Future leader launched Camp Flog Gnaw in 2012 (originally named OFWGKTA) as a combination music festival and carnival, with rides and midway games and a lineup featuring Odd Future, Lil Wayne, Trash Talk and Action Bronson.

Subsequent lineups included Frank Ocean, Mac Miller, Earl Sweatshirt and Flying Lotus in 2013, Pharrell Williams, Rick Ross, Hodgy Beats and Freddie Gibbs in 2014 and Snoop Dogg, Atmosphere, Miller, The Internet, YG and A$AP Rocky in 2015. The event spread to two days in 2016 with sets from Lil Wayne, Chance the Rapper, Kaytranada, DJ Mustard and more and Lana Del Rey, Mac DeMarco, Brockhampton, Justice and Migos in 2017.

Tyler continued to mix in more rock and indie acts over the next three years — including Rex Orange County, Little Dragon, Jorja Smith, Billie Eilish, Dominic Fike and Willow Smith — before taking a break in 2020, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and skipping 2022 due to Tyler’s busy schedule. All passes for this year’s event were sold out in June well before the lineup was announced.

Commemorative Jay-Z Library Cards Have Seriously Boosted Brooklyn Public Library Accounts

Jay-Z has told us before that he’s a business, man. And if you ask the folks at the Brooklyn Public Library business is good these days. According to CNN, since Jay’s career-spanning “The Book of Hov” exhibit opened on July 17 at the Library, a spokesperson tells the news outlet that it has resulted in 14,000 new library accounts.

“The community’s enthusiastic response to this exhibition is a testament to Jay-Z’s immense impact,” Linda E. Johnson, President and CEO of the Brooklyn Public Library, told CNN of the reaction to the 40,000-square foot career retrospective. As part of the yearlong celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, Jay’s Roc Nation and the Brooklyn Public Library released 13 limited-edition library cards featuring artwork from different Jigga albums as part of the exhibit that takes viewers on a deep-dive into Jay’s career via videos, rare photos, artifacts and original recordings.

The library cards — which will be available through the end of this month — were offered for free for New York State residents; only one can be activated at the library to check out resources. As you might expect, a library employee said some people have been trying to sell the limited-edition cards online, though they said that represented a small fraction of the thousands who’ve signed up for a new card so far.

Due to the overwhelming response, the “Book of Hov” was recently extended through October. If you can’t make it there in person, the interactive “Book” website has a chapter-by-chapter recap of the items in the exhibit, with New York radio legend Angie Martinez providing the narration for the collection whose name was inspired by a lyric from DJ Khaled’s 2022 Grammy-nominated anthem “God Did.”

Check out images of the cards below.

Post Malone Gets Shout-Out From Allen Iverson After ‘White Iverson’ Notches 1B Spotify Streams: ‘The Whole World Loves This Song’

Post Malone got the ultimate shout-out this week when his debut breakthrough 2016 single, “White Iverson,” crossed the 1 billion streams mark on Spotify and the man who inspired it gave Austin some love.

“Congrats on 1 billion Spotify streams,” retired 11-time NBA All-star Allen Iverson said in a video tribute posted by Spotify. “The whole world loves this song and I’m honored to be a part of it. Keep that same form, Post.”

According to the commemorative clip, “White Iverson” became the 10th song to cross that magic mark back on April 10, a momentous occasion that was celebrated with a memorial plaque sent to the rapper during his two-night stand at London’s O2 Arena in May.

In the video — which was part of Monday’s roll-out of the second episode of Spotify’s Billion Club: The Series show — we see Malone unwrap his latest shiny honor, and in typical fashion he wonders if he could shotgun a whole beer through it. He then promptly sets up a game of Backstage Plaque Pong, using the Spotify honor as an excuse to play his favorite drinking contest. He also takes time to tell the story behind the music.

“I made the beat and I wrote the song but I didn’t know how to work ProTools and so I took it over to my buddy’s house,” he explains as he, of course, pours a full beer into the plaque after promising to find a “cool spot” for his new hardware in the studio he’s building at home.

“It’s such a cool thing looking at something and saying ‘we did that… the team did that and the people like the music that much enough to play it a billion times,’” he said. “I couldn’t be more… I guess grateful is the word I’m looking for. It feels super cool that the song does connect with people, and I’m just happy to bring joy into anyone’s life when I can. It’s an amazing feeling for me, and that really gave me the confidence and courage to keep attempting to do what I love. I just appreciate all the support, and it’s the most beautiful feeling in the world for me.”

Malone also noted that beloved point guard Iverson’s shooting inspired his own legendary lights-out beer pong game — which AI also gave props to in his message — ending with footage of Iverson miming a jumper fading into Posty arcing a perfect shot into the suds-soaked plaque. “White Iverson” debuted on Malone’s SoundCloud channel in 2015 and then served as the lead single from his 2016 debut album, Stoney.

The singer is currently on tour in support of his Austin album, with the final show on his North American summer tour slated for Saturday (Aug. 19) at Glen Helen Amphitheater in San Bernardino, CA.

Check out the Spotify video below.


https://youtube.com/watch?v=Sm9vNQ9ZcYQ&version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent