State Champ Radio Hip-Hop
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You know Lizzo loves to rock. The “About Damn Time” singer proved it this summer when she covered German metal maniacs Rammstein‘s signature hit “Du Hast” while on tour in Berlin. And on Monday night (April 11) Nickelback reminded us that she once heaped praise on them on Canadian network CBC Music’s “Jam or Not Jam” segment in 2020 in an Instagram post in which they thanked her for the kind words.
“Thank you @lizzobeating for the kind words!,” they wrote alongside of a clip from the show. “Open invite any show any time… maybe see you in Houston this summer?”
The bit’s conceit revolves around the artist listening to a series of songs while wearing headphones and proclaiming the song a “jam” or “not jam.” When the strains of Nickelback’s 2001 Silver Side Up rock anthem “How You Remind Me” bubble up, Lizzo wastes no time singing along to Chad Kroeger’s grunting vocals, proclaiming, “it has a beautiful climax.”
“Why do people not like Nickelback? I feel like Nickelback gets way too much s–t,” she says, alluding to the frequent scorn heaped on the Canadian band. “I think that this is a jam.”
“Here we go, five, six, seven, eight,” the classically trained flutist counts off as the song builds to said climax and she begins banging her head, even as she admits she doesn’t know all the lyrics. “I like you… sorry,” she sings in her best strained Kroeger impression, fumbling the words, but praising the inescapable melody. “The beat drop-out, b—h?”
So, why does Lizzo think Nickelback get so much s–t? “Because he [Kroeger] had a curly blond perm,” she opines. “That’s the only reason they get s–t, because this is an amazing song.”
In the rest of the segment, she freaks out over the slam-dunk jam, Black Eyed Peas’ “My Humps,” gets hyped to hear BTS for the first time on their “ocean jam” collab with Halsey, “Boy With Love” and has to give it up to the Canadian pop queen Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On,” if only for the “whimsical” pan flute opening.
Watch Lizzo rock out to Nickelback below (“How You Remind Me” bit begins at the :30 second mark).
One of four men charged in the killing of rapper Pop Smoke during a robbery at a Hollywood Hills mansion pleaded guilty Thursday (April 6) to voluntary manslaughter.
The 20-year-old man, who was 17 when the killing occurred, also pleaded guilty in Inglewood juvenile court to home invasion robbery. He was sentenced to four years and two months in a juvenile facility.
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The judge has barred the public use of his name because he was a minor at the time of the shooting.
The 20-year-old New York rapper, whose legal name is Bashar Barakah Jackson, was killed on Feb. 19, 2020, at a rented home where he was staying while on a four-day trip to Los Angeles. A 911 call from a friend of someone in the house reported armed intruders inside the home, police said.
The robbers knew the address because a day earlier, Jackson had posted a photograph on social media of a gift bag he had received and the address was on a label, authorities said.
Jackson was in the shower when masked robbers confronted him. During a struggle, one attacker, who was 15, pistol-whipped the rapper and shot him three times in the back, according to court testimony cited by the Los Angeles Times.
The attackers stole Jackson’s diamond-studded Rolex watch and sold it for $2,000, a detective testified.
The teenager, whose name also is being withheld, was charged in the case along with Corey Walker, who was 19 at the time, and Keandre Rodgers, who was then 18. They are accused of murder during the commission of a robbery and burglary.
Pop Smoke arrived on the rap scene in 2018 and broke out with “Welcome to the Party” a gangsta anthem with boasts about shootings, killings and drugs that became a huge sensation, and prompted Nicki Minaj to drop a verse on a remix.
He had several other hits, including the album “Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon,” which was released posthumously.
As soon as Billboard‘s Zoom call with Dave star Lil Dicky was over, you better believe the first Google search that followed was for “ScroGuard.”
Just as advertised in the call and in the premiere episode of the FXX sitcom’s third season — which debuts Wednesday night (April 5) with two new chapters — there used to be a male sexual safety device by that name, and he has a real-life story about it. He’s turned that personal embarrassment into another hilariously cringe-inducing scene for his series about a painfully honest, endearing rapper trying to make it in a game that values grittiness, bravado and ruthless climbing over being a good guy.
“That came from reality,” Lil Dicky (real name: Dave Burd) tells Billboard about the gag gift a friend bought for him years ago on the eve of an anticipated date with a woman the “Earth” rapper met on tour. After an intimate shaving incident, Burd says he realized his nick couldn’t be covered by a standard-issue condom, so he had to break the news that there would be no backstage bump-and-grind that night unless he wore the cumbersome device that looks like a pair of latex grandpa undies.
That look-away moment is replayed in the first episode after a show-opening sex rap that manages to incorporate lyrics about delicious soup, General Custer and “leakage,” that Burd — chilling on a couch in a pink sweatsuit — says was part of making this season more musical, and even more relatable.
“I wanted to start the season off with something interesting,” he says of the desire to set the table for his search for true love and romance while on tour. “For a long time, I found having sexual opportunities were more stressful than gratifying. My life as a single guy was less like the great sex I had in Albuquerque than some awkward incident.”
And man does Burd love, and lean all the way into, awkward. The first episode opens with Dave meeting a potential love interest in Texas for a possible hookup that involves the aforementioned ScroGuard. It winds up at a house party where the rapper explains to a room full of drunk fans that life on the road is weird and confusing and mostly includes people looking at him like he’s a C-list alien.
“It is therapeutic and liberating to have things you’re super insecure about and that you kept to yourself for 27 years… and not only am I going to release it, but I’m going to release it in such a public way,” he says about his self-identified inability to understand the parameters of modern celebrity cool.
“Everyone has their own things they struggle with in life, and what I want this show to do is if someone sees me dealing with insecurities about my penis in a proactive way, then maybe it will inspire them to look at their insecurities and not be so affected by them,” Burd says about the I-see-you-and-sometimes-I-am-you message bubbling under the surface at all times. “I want the show to inspire people to live their best lives.”
Dave certainly tries to do that this season, whether it’s taking a few moments to drop trou on the side of the road for some fresh vitamin D rays on his nether regions, or re-creating his first love. The latter comes via the hectic, drum-thumping, Birdman-style series of action shots in the second episode, which is set on a video shoot that reunites the rapper with his 8th-grade crush. In true Dicky style, though, the maniacal shoot takes place at his parents’ house, where his mom complains about the gaffer tape tearing up her freshly painted walls just before she walks in on what is the most embarrassing sex scene involving a geyser-like stunt device ever committed to film.
“I think that’s always been my biggest strength, how unabashedly honest I am,” Burd says about always leaning into his awkward small-D energy.
Dave airs Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. ET on FXX and streams on Hulu the next day.
An alleged victim of last month’s deadly stampede at a GloRilla concert in western New York is formally preparing to sue over the incident, saying she suffered emotional distress and needs access to video footage, emergency plans, and other key information.
In a court filing Tuesday, attorneys for Ronisha Huston said she was the sister of Rhondesia Belton, one of three people who died in the March 5 incident at Rochester’s Main Street Armory, which police believe may have been triggered by unfounded fears of gunfire.
“Petitioner Ronisha Huston and her now deceased sister, Rhondesia Belton, got caught up in the crowd surge,” her lawyers wrote. “Huston witnessed her sister getting crushed in the stampede.”
Tuesday’s court filing came in the form of a “petition for pre-action discovery” – a maneuver under New York state law that allows a potential plaintiff to seek a court order to obtain key information that might be important to the case. In it, Huston’s attorneys said they had been retained to “pursue claims for personal injuries and infliction of emotion[al] distress” and that she has a “meritorious” case.
The filing demanded that Main Street Armory hand over a wide range of potential information, including the security firms involved, video footage of the entire concert, fire exit and emergency plans, floor plans, regulatory permits, and “communications with private entities involved with the concert.”
The Main Street Armory did not return a request for comment on the filing. No other individuals or organizations involved in the show were named in the petition.
Last month’s deadly stampede came after GloRilla had concluded the concert. According to the city officials, people exiting the venue just after 11 p.m. began to surge dangerously after hearing what they believed to be gunshots; police have found no evidence of actual gunfire.
Belton, 33, and Brandy Miller, 35, died shortly after the incident; a third women, Aisha Stephens, 35, died a few days later. Several other people were injured in the stampede. The next day, GloRilla shared on social media that she was “devastated & heartbroken” over the incident: “My fans mean the world to me 😢praying for their families & for a speedy recovery of everyone affected.”
Investigations into the incident by local police and regulatory authorities are currently underway, and Rochester has effectively shuttered the Main Street Armory by refusing to renew the venue’s entertainment license.
If history is any guide, a case filed by Huston could be the first of several against the organizers of the GloRilla concert.
The deadly crowd surge incident during a Travis Scott concert at the Astroworld music festival in 2021 has spawned hundreds of such lawsuits, albeit over a tragedy that claimed far more victims. The lawsuits, which are still pending, claim the festival’s organizers (including Scott and Live Nation) were legally negligent in how they planned and operated the event.
Other lawsuits over the Rochester stampede already appear to be in the works. The family of Aisha Stephens, one of the women killed in the stampede, has hired well-known civil rights and wrongful death lawyer Benjamin Crump, who said last month that her death was “completely preventable” and vowed to “learn what happened and hold those responsible accountable.”
Beyond the references to “personal injuries” and emotional distress, it’s unclear exactly what legal claims Huston will eventually bring and against what defendants, or when a full lawsuit will be filed. Huston’s attorney, Richard A. Nicotra, did not immediately return a request for comment on Tuesday’s filing. A label representative for Glorilla, who was not named in the filing, did not return a request for comment.
The image of a grim-faced Donald Trump at the defendants’ table on Tuesday (April 4) during the former president’s arraignment on 34 felony charges of falsifying business records to cover up hush payments to a porn actress made history for a number of reasons.
But amidst the avalanche of coverage of the first former commander in chief to be criminally arraigned — Trump pleaded not guilty to all the charges — one thing you may have missed was an Instagram Story from Meek Mill about another bizarre wrinkle to the tale.
“Trump graduated from the streets… sharing criminal lawyers [with us]… Joe Tactical,” Meek wrote below the now-iconic image of a glum Trump seated in a Manhattan court room flanked by his lawyers, according to Complex. Meek was moved to weigh in because the man to Trump’s left was none other than lawyer Joe Tacopina, who was part of Mill’s legal team during the rapper’s successful bid to overturn his sentence for violating probation form a decade-old gun and drug case.
Another slide in the Story printed up the receipts tying Meek to twice-impeached Trump, depicting the MC standing next to Tacopina after a hearing. The two worked together when Tacopina — a tough-talking attorney known for representing rapper YG on suspicion of robbery, Sopranos actor Lillo Brancato on murder/weapons charges and actress Taryn Manning on assault charges — helped get Meek sprung from jail after serving five months on the probation violation.
Trump has denied the claims that he personally wrote checks to reimburse his former fixer, Michael Cohen, to pay for the silence of two women the former Apprentice star allegedly had affairs with during the 2016 presidential election. Trump, who is running for president for a third time, is due back in court in December.
Childish Gambino‘s “This Is America” was praised upon its 2018 release as a searing, poignant commentary on race and police brutality in the nation. But, honestly, according to a new GQ cover story interview with Donald Glover, the song started as something much less noble: a jokey Drake diss track.
“I had the idea three years before. I told [director] Hiro [Murai] the idea, and he’s like, ‘I really want to do that.’… The idea for the song started as a joke,” he said in a video accompanying the interview in which the actor/rapper broke down his most iconic roles, including Lando Calrissian in Solo, Earn in Atlanta and Troy Barnes in Community. “To be completely honest, ‘This is America’ — that was all we had was that line. It started as a Drake diss, to be honest, as like a funny way of doing it. But then I was like, this s–t sounds kind of hard though. So I was like, let me play with it.”
Glover’s Gambino heated up a mostly one-sided feud with Drizzy in 2014 when he said during an Australian gig this his rapper alter ego was better than Drizzy, Kendrick Lamar and ScHoolboy Q combined. He later said his bravado was just part of the gig, no hate intended and the two have reportedly become friends in he years since.
He said he and Murai studied Michael Jackson’s iconic 1983 “Thriller” video for a long time to figure out “how do you make something… how do you make people care about anything anymore?… Well, you have to have a moment in real time.” What informed the song that went on to win record and song of the year at the 20919 Grammy Awards, he said, was all the Black Lives Matter social protests at the time, which inspired him to make what he described as a “‘We Are The World,’ like for trap [music.]”
And, in addition to shooting it on film for added drama, he said it was three total takes to give it that “continuous” feel.
The interview also touched on Glover meeting Ludwig Göransson when the future Oscar-winning composer (and Gambino collaborator) was working on the music for Community while describing their “amazing chemistry.” Glover also talked about how not getting a shot at Saturday Night Live — pal Amy Poehler reportedly told him his edgy stand-up is what scotched the deal — was probably a good thing.
“I dodged so many bullets. Me being on SNL would’ve killed me,” he said. “I got friends who made it on SNL and, at the time, I was like, damn. But if I got on SNL, my career wouldn’t have happened. Thank God I didn’t get some of those pilots. I wanted so desperately to be on Parks and Rec because it was the cool, hipster show.”
The interview about Glover’s new production company Gilga, included news of Glover mentoring former first daughter Malia Obama on her first short film. “The first thing we did was talk about the fact that she will only get to do this once. ‘You’re Obama’s daughter,’” he recalled telling her. “So if you make a bad film, it will follow you around.”
His longtime collaborator and Gilga creative partner, Fam Udeorji, said the plan was to support Malia in her creative endeavors however they can. “Understanding somebody like Malia’s cachet means something,” he said. “But we really wanted to make sure she could make what she wanted — even if it was a slow process.”
Watch the GQ interview below.
After getting to know each other this weekend at the 2023 CMT Music Awards, country music legend Shania Twain said she’s totally down for a possible collaboration with rapper Megan Thee Stallion. The two got acquainted when Meg presented the Equal Play Honor to Twain at the show and Twain told ET Online that it got her thinking about how they might sound together.
“I love her… what a sweetheart!,” Twain said of the “Body” MC, who was seated near the country queen in the audience during the broadcast. She added that they got along “very well… I love her as a person.”
There is one question, however, Twain is very glad Megan didn’t ask her. “She is a great talent, I was just glad she didn’t ask me to twerk out there. I would had to have said no,” Twain said. “She was amazing and said so many sweet things and I was really flattered she was there for me.”
The bond was so immediate, Twain added, that she revealed she “was thinking” they might vibe in the studio as well. “I think that that would really work… I love her whole mind,” the singer said.
If it happens, it would mark a hip-hop crossover first for Twain, who has typically leaned into the country/pop vein in the past when it comes to sharing the mic, including songs with Orville Peck (“Legends Never Die”), Alison Krauss & Union Station (“I’m Gonna Get You Good”), Sugar Ray’s Mark McGrath (“Party For Two), her musical hero Anne Murray (“You Needed Me”), and, at this year’s Coachella, Harry Styles for a live run through her “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”
It would also be a first for San Antonio-bred Megan, who has also mostly stayed in her lane, teaming up with Beyoncé for the “Savage” remix, Key Glock on “Ungrateful,” Juicy J for “Simon Says,” Dua Lipa for “Sweetest Pie” and, of course, Cardi B on their Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 smash “WAP.”
Even though he just co-headlined Dreamville Festival with J. Cole over the weekend, Drake‘s made a lot of headlines over a song he didn’t perform but might be releasing soon.
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On Friday, the superstar rapper previewed a new track titled “Rescue Me” during an episode of Sound 42’s The Fry Yiy Show on SiriusXM Radio. The song samples Kim Kardashian discussing her divorce with Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) during the series finale of E!’s Keeping Up With the Kardashians. “I didn’t come this far, just to come this far and not be happy. Remember that,” she tells her mother Kris Jenner in the audio.
Last week, producer BNYX shared a clip from Drake’s Instagram Story of “Rescue Me” playing from a DJ controller. “I remember when I used to add the Drake acapellas to my beats to see if they was hard. Now look,” he wrote.
Taunting Ye is a classic move in Drizzy’s playbook, considering both rappers’ historic beef. In August 2021, Drake reignited their feud by dissing Ye in his verse off Trippie Redd‘s “Betrayal.” The Donda rapper then leaked the OVO boss’ home address on social media, and the Certified Lover Boy MC retaliated by taking shots at him on his song “7am on Bridle Path” and later leaking the then-unreleased “Life of the Party” collaboration between Ye and André 3000 on SiriusXM, before the track eventually found itself on the track list for the deluxe version of Donda. The two seemed to have squashed their beef by the end of year, when they came together to perform at the “Free Larry Hoover” benefit concert at Los Angeles’ Coliseum, which was organized by J. Prince.
During the concert, Ye pleaded with his ex-wife Kardashian to “run right back to me” while performing his “Runaway” magnum opus from his 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Their divorce was finalized on Nov. 29, 2022, and less than two months later, he reportedly remarried to Yeezy’s head of architecture, Bianca Censori.
Snoop Dogg showed up to this weekend’s WrestleMania 39 at Los Angeles’ Sofi Stadium to provide ringside commentary. But in classic WWE fashion, he somehow ended up in the ring as part of the action. The hometown rapper was supposed to co-host a segment between bouts with wrestler Mike “The Miz” Mizanin when he spontaneously provoked the rapper into a tangle with Shane McMahon.
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The son of WWE founder Vince McMahon — returning after a year off — ran into the ring ready to take on The Miz. According to reports, though, he quickly suffered a torn quad in the opening minutes of his first bout in 14 months while executing a leapfrog move while trying to escape The Miz’s grasp.
With the medical crew looking McMahon over, Snoop did the noble thing and hopped into the ring to keep the match going, landing two punches on the former Real World star and two-time WWE champ and sending him crashing to the mat. Tossing aside his microphone, Snoop strolled around The Miz’s prone body and kicked Miz’s arms closer to his sides before striking a few poses and tossing his shades into the crowd. The Doggfather then flapped his arms and bounced his way across the ring and off the ropes before unleashing The Rock’s signature “people’s elbow” to win the match.
“My hat’s off to Snoop, just picking it up and like, ‘oh man, he’s hurt? That’s alright, I’ll fix that.’ Just a natural born entertainer,” WWE head of creative Paul “Triple H” Levesque told the AP. “I’ve known Snoop for years in this environment and what kind of a fan he is, but tonight he put himself on a different playing field and respect factor for me. I know a lot of guys that have been in business a long time; if that happened, they’d go, ‘what do we do?’ It was amazing.”
After the surprise slam, Snoop spoke to WWE’s Cathy Kelley backstage, who reminded the rapper that he had warned her to “expect the unexpected” during his appearance. When she said she didn’t expect him to win a match on night two, a glassy eyed Snoop said he didn’t either. “I didn’t even know I was gonna be in that match until the match actually took place,” he said of the completely unexpected ring appearance.
“But that’s what I love about WrestleMania, it’s always so much that’s unpredictable, it’s always something to keep you on the edge of your seat,” he continued. “And tonight I was able to be a part of it from the inside and not just on the outside. It was a great feeling to be able to be a part of it, to be able to do what I did and to hold my belt up high at the end of the night.”
Watch Snoop in the ring and post-match below.
Usher had Saturday night’s Dreamville Festival crowd convinced Beyoncé was a surprise guest — until he reminded fans what day it was.
The singer was headlining the Raleigh, North Carolina, fest at the city’s Dorothea Dix Park on April 1.
“I said I would have a special surprise for you tonight, ladies and gentlemen. You guys wanna know what that surprise is?” Usher teased the audience during his set.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he continued, “without further ado, put your hands together for the one, the only, Beyoncé!”
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As the crowd went wild, Usher pretended that he was patiently watching and waiting for Bey to take the stage, even signaling to fans to wait a moment while he checked in on her.
When Usher returned to the mic, he delivered the dreaded punchline: “April Fools.”
See Usher disappoint a whole lot of people with his April Fools’ Day joke below. Dreamville Festival continues Sunday night, with J. Cole and Drake headlining.
