Music News

25 Jun 2024

Watch Morgan Wallen Get Hit in the Face With a Pair of Women’s Underwear Mid-Concert

At one of his recent shows, Morgan Wallen got hit in the face with a pair of women’s underwear while he was in the middle of performing his Billboard Hot 100-topping Post Malone duet “I Had Some Help.” Luckily, he didn’t need any help when it came to handling the interruption like a pro.

In a clip posted by a fan who attended the country star’s Friday concert in Minneapolis, Wallen smiles while singing in front of an enormous audience at U.S. Bank Stadium. As he crouches down on the catwalk to get slightly closer to fans in the front row, a baby-blue thong flies into frame, gently smacking the hitmaker’s forehead.

Wallen then instinctively catches the undergarment in his non-microphone-wielding hand. Grinning, he stands up and chucks it back into the crowd before walking away.

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The incident comes amid the “Last Night” singer’s One Night at a Time World Tour, which kicked off in April. He will next take the stage in Denver, with back-to-back shows scheduled for June 28 and 29 at Empower Field at Mile High.

Just days after he launched the trek, Wallen was arrested and briefly jailed for allegedly throwing a chair off the roof of Eric Church’s bar in Nashville. He later posted an apology to X, writing, “I’m not proud of my behavior, and I accept responsibility. … I have the utmost respect for the officers working every day to keep us all safe.”

“Regarding my tour, there will be no change,” he added at the time.

The Tennessee native is fresh off a five-week run at No. 1 on the Hot 100 with his and Posty’s collaboration, which dropped mid-May. The track was dethroned this week by Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please,” which tops the chart dated June 29, 2024.

Watch the moment Wallen got hit in the face by a pair of panties here.

25 Jun 2024

Crystal Aikin Scores Her First Gospel Airplay Chart No. 1 With ‘He Can Handle It’

Crystal Aikin’s “He Can Handle It” ascends to No. 1 on Billboard’s Gospel Airplay chart (dated June 29). The single increased by 2% in plays June 14-20, according to Luminate.

The song, which was recorded live, was co-written by Nate Bean and Ayron Lewis.       

Aikin, from Tacoma, Wash., banks her first chart-topper in her third Gospel Airplay appearance. It follows “So Amazing,” which peaked at No. 21 in March 2015, and “I Desire More,” which hit No. 18 in June 2009.

Aikin has achieved two top 10s in her two appearances on Top Gospel Albums. All I Need arrived at its No. 8 best in February 2015 after her self-titled debut set opened and peaked at No. 3 in January 2009.

Aikin, who earned a nursing degree from Pacific Lutheran University, won the first season of BET’s Sunday Best in 2007. Genre cornerstone Kirk Franklin hosted the talent show from that year to 2021.

‘Look At’ Koryn Hawthorne

Also on Gospel Airplay, Koryn Hawthorne adds her fourth top 10 as “Look at God” rises 12-9 (up 23%). The song, which the Abbeville, La., native co-penned, follows “Speak to Me,” which became her second No. 1 in April 2021, leading for a week. Her rookie entry “Won’t He Do It” began a 19-week command in March 2018 and “Unstoppable” reached No. 5 in June 2019.

On the multimetric Hot Gospel Songs tally, Hawthorne has three chart-toppers. As a finalist on the eighth season of NBC’s The Voice, she first led with “How Great Thou Art,” which she performed on the show, for a week in April 2015. “Won’t He Do It” dominated for 41 weeks beginning in March 2018, the chart’s longest reign ever by a female artist, and “Speak to Me” ruled for 19 frames beginning in November 2020.

25 Jun 2024

The Alchemist Wants to Work With Jay-Z: ‘He’s Always Been on My List’

During a conversation with fellow producer Cardo for Lucid Monday’s cover story, The Alchemist said he still wants to work with Jay-Z.

“Jay always been on my list. I’ve been saying it for 100 years,” the producer said, after claiming there’s not many artists left on his bucket list. “At this point, I hope it would be a mutual thing, like I would want to work with somebody that would wanna work with me. There’s a couple that’s brewing that’s like bucket list s–t for me that I hope happens. I still have hopes like that.”

While admitting Jay Electronica indirectly made the dream happen when he featured Jay on the Alchemist-produced song “The Neverending Story,” he still hasn’t made a beat specifically for the Brooklyn legend.

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However, that collab almost happened back in 2001. During an appearance on the podcast A Waste of Time in 2015, the Los Angeles producer told hosts ItsTheReal he played the “We Gonna Make It” beat for Jay, but he passed on it. “I actually played him the ‘We Gonna Make It’ beat,” he said. “I was playing it for Hip-Hop and then he told Jay come in the room and he was just like, ‘Yeah, it’s dope,’ and just walked out, he just stuck his head in.” The beat was also offered to Nas, but eventually landed in the hands of Jadakiss.



He then said he ran into Jay at a popular New York City nightclub after Jada’s version blew up and the rapper had a message for him. “He leaned in my ear and was like, ‘Yo, when you gonna stop wasting them beats?’” he recalled. “And it was ill because it was very confident and he wasn’t trying to be funny, he was deada–. Like, that was the first thing he said to me. I looked at him and he was serious, it threw me for a loop.”

The Alchemist then said he suggested they go to the studio after the club to which Jay agreed to meet up at Baseline, but he never showed. “Got my drum machine, went over to Baseline… he did not show up.” However, that session ended with a placement on State Property’s second album The Chain Gang Vol. 2 with the song “Still in Effect” featuring Freeway and Neef.

Check out a clip from The Alchemist’s interview with Cardo below:

25 Jun 2024

BTS’ V Surprises Fans With ‘Type 1’ Music Announcement

V is back!

The BTS superstar surprised fans on Tuesday (June 25) by announcing a new musical project called TYPE 1, though it’s not immediately clear if the announcement is for a song or an album. The new release is set to arrive on July 9.

The announcement, shared to social media, also included a steamy cover photo which features a shirtless V leaning against a wall, with his hand grabbing the waistband of his pants. “I still wonder wonder beautiful story/ Still wonder wonder best part/ I still wonder wonder next story/ I want to make you mine,” the text on the photo reads in white script.

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Back in March, V dropped his first post-military enlistment single, “FRI(END)S,” which was written entirely in English. The song followed his September 2023 EP Layover, which the K-pop star dropped just a couple months before beginning his mandatory service in the South Korean military alongside bandmates RM, Jimin, Jung Kook, Jin, J-Hope and Suga, who have also enlisted.

V previously confirmed that he had banked a few projects to release during his time away, writing in a December statement that he’d “prepared a lot of things” for the 18-month period. “I will miss you so much,” he penned at the time, as translated to English. “Actually, I’m really sad that I can’t make happy memories with my ARMY for the time being […] it’s the hardest not to see the ARMY.”

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As a soloist, V has notched four songs on the Billboard Hot 100 — including “FRI(END)S.” He reached his highest peak to date in 2023 with “Slow Dancing,” which debuted at No. 51 on the chart.

25 Jun 2024

Ice Cube Says a New ‘Friday’ Installment Is in the Works: ‘We Finally Got Some Traction’

Fans might be getting another Friday movie after all. Ice Cube recently made an appearance on Flavor Flav‘s SiriusXM show, Flavor of the Week, and gave a promising update about a rumored fourth Friday film.

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“We’re working on it. We finally got some traction with Warner Bros.,” Cube told Flavor Flav after being asked if a new movie was on the way. “They have new leadership. My man Mike DeLuca — who used to be at New Line when I first started, when I first did the first Friday and Players Club and All About the Benjamins — Mike DeLuca was there. So, now he’s running Warner Bros. And him and my man Michael Gruber was like, ‘Yo, what the f—k is going on with Friday? Man, let’s get this s—t back online.’”

The filmmaker has been trying to get the fourth movie off the ground for a while now. Back in 2022, Cube was on Mike Tyson’s Hotboxin’ podcast and expressed his frustration with the film studio. “I don’t know. Warner Bros. is weird right now. I don’t know what they’re doing, they don’t know what they’re doing,” he told the legendary boxer at the time. “We’d love to have it back. I think it’s going to be close to a time when we get it back. So, we’ll either wait for that time, or we’ll keep trying to convince them that they need to let us control the movie. It’s my movie, but they have distribution control.”

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Chris Tucker, who became a star after appearing in the first Friday movie, is open to reprising his role, but also put the blame on Warner Bros. for the delay. “It’s studios, and they gotta want to do it, and then it’s producers and all that stuff. It’s a lot that goes with it,”he told host Big Tigger during a March interview on Atlanta’s V-103 radio station.

Tentatively titled Last Friday, it would be the franchise’s first installment since 2002’s Friday After Next. Since the first film was released in 1995, three of its stars have passed away. Cube expressed his frustration on that subject as well.

“You know, I was a little hot because they had took so long,” he admitted to Flav. “John Witherspoon passed away, [Tommy ‘Tiny’ Lister Jr.] passed away, [Anthony ‘AJ’ Johnson] passed away. I’m like, ‘Man, we keep losing people, and y’all keep dicking around, not doing the movie the way it needed to be done.’”

Watch Cube talk about the possibility of another Friday movie below:

25 Jun 2024

Sexyy Red Announces 2024 Sexyy Red 4 President U.S. Tour

Sexyy Red is hitting the campaign trail later this year — except her rallies will come in the form of concerts. The “SkeeYee” rapper announced the Sexyy Red 4 President Tour on Tuesday (June 25), which will hit arenas across the U.S. to close out the summer.

Big Sexyy — who previously leaned into the presidential theme with her In Sexyy We Trust project, which arrived via Rebel/Gamma in May — tapped Hunxho, Loe Shimmy and fellow St. Louis native BlakeIANA to join her as opening acts on the 26-city trek.

Kicking off in Seattle on Aug. 22, Sexyy Red will also hit Portland, San Diego, Oklahoma City, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Orlando, New Orleans and plenty of more stops before wrapping up in Nashville on Oct. 1.

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For those looking to pledge allegiance to Sexyy while twerking and turning up, tickets will go on sale to the general public starting this Friday (June 28).

Before returning stateside for tour, the rapper is set for a festival run across Europe with appearances at Wireless Festival, Roskilde and Rolling Loud Europe.

It’s been another scorching year for Sexyy Red as she continues to build on the success of her rookie of the year campaign in ’23. Her “Get It Sexyy” anthem gave her a lead top 20 entry on the Billboard Hot 100 and currently sits at No. 38 on the chart.

The 26-year-old reunited with Drake for another hit when he rapped over Metro Boomin’s “BBL Drizzy” beat for their “U My Everything” team-up. That’s also holding strong on the Hot 100 at No. 59.

Find all of the dates of the Sexyy Red 4 President Tour below.

Sexyy Red

Sexyy Red

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25 Jun 2024

Tiffany Haddish Opens Up About Working With Diane Warren on Empowering Track ‘Woman Up,’ How She Deals With Negativity & More

Tiffany Haddish is leaning into her musical talents. The multi-talented entertainer recently dropped her Diane Warren-written track, “Woman Up,” and she sat down with Billboard‘s Rania Aniftos to discuss how the song came to be.

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“Diane Warren had slid in my DMs back in 2017,” Haddish recalled. “I had no idea because I decided to stay out of the DMs, ’cause there were too many d— pics coming through and that was just shocking. […] Then, I ran into her at a party and she was like, ‘I was in your DMs, you never responded!’ I was like, ‘I didn’t know you were in my DMs. Oh my gosh, we need to work together!’”

Her team eventually set her up with Warren, and the duo ultimately worked together on three songs that the songwriter wrote. Haddish also shared that she worked with Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, E-40 and more on tracks she’s hoping to release. “My whole mission was to create songs to put in my projects, my TV shows and movies,” she explains.

The song, which captures the spirit of female empowerment and overcoming obstacles, follows Haddish’s equally inspirational 2024 book I Curse You With Joy, which details her learned lessons of childhood trauma, being a Black woman in the entertainment business and reuniting with her estranged father.

Elsewhere in the interview, Haddish discussed dealing with negativity online. “If you don’t have no haters, nobody’s rejecting you, something’s not right,” she says. “You have to learn the difference between constructive criticism and just hate. You have to be so aware in yourself and knowing what you bring to the table, and knowing how you want to evolve and how you want to grow, you need to know you. If everything everybody is saying about you is hurting you that bad, you need to get your butt off the Internet, stop listening to everybody else and sit with yourself and fall in love with yourself. You have to really know you and know what your weaknesses are and know what your strengths are, so when the haters are talking that mess, it won’t matter because you already know.”

Watch Billboard’s full interview with Tiffany Haddish above.

25 Jun 2024

Rapper Julio Foolio Dead at 26 After Being Fatally Shot in Florida

Rapper Julio Foolio is dead at 26 after being shot outside a hotel in Florida early Sunday morning (June 23), his attorney confirmed to NBC News.

The “Pain” rapper — born Charles Jones — was celebrating his 26th birthday Saturday night (June 22) before relocating to a Holiday Inn, where, according to his lawyer Lewis Fusco, the musician was ambushed by assailants.

The Tampa Police Department tells Billboard that law enforcement arrived to the scene after receiving a 911 call around 4:40 a.m. ET. There, they found a pair of vehicles that had been peppered with bullets in the parking lot. Jones was pronounced dead, and three others were taken to a local hospital and were in stable condition.

Before arriving to the hotel, the rapper and a crew were celebrating his birthday at a nearby Airbnb, but he claimed authorities “shut us down and kicked us out,” NBC News reported, citing his Instagram Story.

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Police are working to identify those involved, and are investigating for a motive. The Tampa Police Department requests that anyone with information related to the shooting call 813-231-6130.

Jones’ most recent project arrived in April with Resurrection. When announcing the album, Foolio admitted there had been “multiple attempts” on his life, but he’s continued to persevere.

“THESE LAST COUPLE MONTHS/YEARS OF MY LIFE BEEN TRAGIC,” he wrote to Instagram on April 4. “GOD BEEN TRYNNA SEND ME A MESSAGE MULTIPLE ATTEMPTS ON MY LIFE I KEEP SURVIVING..I KEEP LOSING MY BRUDDAS TO JAIL AND GRAVEYARDS BUT I KNOW THE MOST HIGH DOING EVERYTHING FOR A REASON HE LET ME WALK AGAIN FOR A REASON.”

25 Jun 2024

Camila Cabello Reveals the Songwriting Advice Taylor Swift Gave Her When They First Met

Camila Cabello is closing in on the release of her new album C,XOXO, complete with several new tracks written by her. But in a new interview, the star revealed that songwriting didn’t always come easily to her — that is, until Taylor Swift gave her a piece of advice that helped her hone her craft.

Speaking to 11-year-old influencer Taylen Biggs, the “Bam Bam” singer recalled meeting the 14-time Grammy winner for the first time a decade ago at the VMAs, which she attended while still in Fifth Harmony. “I was maybe about 16 or 17 where I met one of my songwriting heroes, Taylor Swift,” Cabello said, noting that she had just started getting interested in composing lyrics at the time.

“I see her and Lorde sitting together,” she continued. “I’m like, ‘Oh my god, that’s Taylor Swift. I have to go up to both of them, and I have to tell them I love them.’ They were both so sweet.”

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“I was having a hard time getting out of this creative rut,” Cabello went on. “I was like, ‘Who is the person to ask about songwriting? It’s Taylor Swift.’ I was like, ‘What would you say if you’re having a lot of self doubt and you feel a little stuck?’”

That’s when Swift imparted words of wisdom that changed the X-Factor alum’s outlook forever. “I don’t even know if she remembers this, it was so long ago,” Cabello recalled. “She said, ‘When that happens to me, [I] just keep writing through it. You just gotta keep going, keep writing through it.’”

“When you feel those voices of self doubt, just keep going,” the vocalist added. “You will find yourself on the other side of it.”

Cabello has since released three solo albums, with her fourth slated to arrive Friday (June 28). The project will feature 14 tracks, including lead single “I Luv It” with Playboi Carti as well as not one, but two cameos from Drake.

The former Voice coach has also developed a friendship with Swift since meeting the superstar all those years ago. In 2018, the former served as an opener on the latter’s Reputation Stadium Tour, something Cabello called a “full-circle” moment in an interview with Billboard later that year.

“I’ve been a huge fan of Taylor Swift since I was like 13 years old,” she added at the time. “I know literally all of her songs. She was one of the people that really inspired me to start songwriting.”

Watch Cabello’s full interview with Biggs below.

25 Jun 2024

Anderson .Paak to Play Entire ‘Malibu’ Album on 2024 Fall Tour: See the Dates

Anderson .Paak is hitting the road! As his Grammy-nominated Malibu LP celebrates its eighth anniversary this year, the “Come Down” crooner is launching a new tour which will feature him playing the LP in its entirety.

The Live Nation-produced Malibu Tour will commence on Sept. 18, in Bend, Ore., at Hayden Homes Amphitheater and concludes on Oct. 13 in Atlanta at Lakewood Amphitheatre. In the interim, the eight-time Grammy winner will visit major U.S. cities such as Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Chicago and Philadelphia. Jazz trumpeter Maurice Brown and rising R&B duo GAWD will join the “King James” singer on all dates, while Grammy-nominated R&B group Free Nationals will serve as his backing band.

Fans can begin securing tickets during the official artist presale on Wednesday, June 26, at 9 a.m. local time. Additional presales will follow throughout the week ahead of the general onsale beginning Friday, June 28, at 9 a.m. local time on .Paak’s official website.

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.Paak’s last headlining tour was back in 2019, when he mounted his Best Teef in the Game Tour in support of Ventura, which became his first solo LP to reach the top 10 of the Billboard 200 (No. 4). In 2020, he opened for select dates of Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ ongoing global stadium tour and completed a 47-show Las Vegas residency alongisde Bruno Mars, with whom he performs as the Billboard Hot 100-topping supergroup Silk Sonic.

On June 7, the “Tints” rapper released his first post-Silk Sonic project. Why Lawd? — which features collaborations with H.E.R., Thundercat, Snoop Dogg, October London, Rae Khalil, Charlie Wilson, Earl Sweatshirt and Dave Chappelle — served as the second LP from NxWorries, a duo .Paak formed with acclaimed hip-hop producer Knxwledge. The melancholy record was met with acclaim from critics and fans alike, debuting at No. 7 on Top Album Sales with the superduo’s best sales week yet (11,000 copies sold). On June 21, “Have Mercy” singer Chlöe Bailey confirmed that .Paak will appear on her forthcoming sophomore solo studio album, Trouble In Paradise.

Find the Malibu Tour dates below. 

  • Sept. 18 – Bend, OR – Hayden Homes Amphitheater
  • Sept. 19 – Auburn, WA – White River Amphitheatre
  • Sept. 21 – Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre
  • Sept. 24 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Bowl
  • Sept. 26 – Santa Barbara, CA – Santa Barbara Bowl
  • Sept. 27 – Phoenix, AZ – Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
  • Sept. 28 – Las Vegas, NV – Fontainebleau Las Vegas
  • Oct. 2 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
  • Oct. 4 – Chicago, IL – Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island
  • Oct. 5 – Sterling Heights, MI – Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre
  • Oct. 8 – Philadelphia, PA – TD Pavilion at The Mann
  • Oct. 9 – Columbia, MD – Merriweather Post Pavilion
  • Oct. 11 – Wantagh, NY – Northwell at Jones Beach Theater
  • Oct. 13 – Atlanta, GA – Lakewood Amphitheatre