Music News

24 Oct 2023

Jay-Z Explains Origin of ‘One-Take Hov’ Nickname: ‘I Didn’t Waste Time’

You already knew that Jay-Z doesn’t write down any of his rhymes. But in a preview of his upcoming two-part interview with Gayle King for CBS Mornings slated to air on Thursday and Friday (Oct. 26 and 27), the morning anchor takes a walk through the Brooklyn Public Library’s smash “Book of HOV” exhibit honoring the MC, where she discovers the origin story of Jigga’s famed “one-take HOV” nickname.

“This was when you were recording to actual tape. So, you can’t mess up, ‘cause then you got to go all the way back and cut the tape,” Jay explained as the pair stroll by a display of his master tapes. “That’s where the whole ‘One-Take HOV’ came from. Because if you wanted a fly chorus on this thing, you had to go to dinner. It took an engineer hours to cut the tape… fly it over here… So I start learning my lyrics really good so I could do them one time—you understand—straight down, and I didn’t waste time.”

On Monday, King teased another bit from the interview in which Jay finally settled a long-running social media debate that asks fans to choose between lunch with Jigga or a $500,000 check. “You’ve gotta take the money,” the rapper said, noting that his best fiscal wisdom in already in his work. “You’ve got all that in the music for $10.99… I wouldn’t tell you to cut a bad deal. Like, take the $500,000, go buy some albums, and listen to the albums,” he continued. “It’s all there. If you piece it together and really listen to the music for the words, well, what it is, it’s all there.”

The two-parter will feature a private tour of the library’s “Book of HOV” exhibit, which pays tribute to Jay’s sprawling career, from his Grammy-winning catalog to his landmark business deals in sports, music, alcohol, film and public service.

Check out a preview of the Jay-Z/King interview below.

24 Oct 2023

Billboard’s Top Streaming Albums Chart Launches: Bad Bunny’s ‘Nadie’ Leads Inaugural List

Top Streaming Albums joins Billboard’s portfolio of weekly album charts, commencing with the chart dated Oct. 28, reflecting activity in the week ending Oct. 19. Bad Bunny’s Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana is the chart’s inaugural No. 1, with 176,000 streaming equivalent album units (equaling 239.56 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs) earned in the U.S. in the tracking week, according to Luminate.

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Top Streaming Albums, like Top Album Sales (also 50-positions deep), is a component chart to the overall Billboard 200 albums chart. Top Album Sales tallies the top-selling titles of the week, by traditional album sales.

Rounding out the top five of the first Top Streaming Albums chart is Drake’s For All the Dogs, Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time, Rod Wave’s Nostalgia and Zach Bryan’s self-titled album at Nos. 2-5, respectively.

The 50-position chart lists the most-streamed albums of the week in the U.S., as compiled by Luminate. Titles are ranked by streaming equivalent album (SEA) units, where each SEA unit equals 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. If an artist has multiple albums with the same song, SEA units for that song are generally assigned to whichever album sells the most by traditional album sales in a given week.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multimetric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. 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.

24 Oct 2023

Green Day Announce ‘Raw and Emotional’ Album ‘Saviors,’ Drop ‘The American Dream Is Killing Me’ Zombie Video

Green Day announced the release date for their 14th full-length studio album, Saviors, on Tuesday (Oct. 24), revealing that the collection will drop via Reprise/Warner Records on Jan. 19, 2024. The follow-up to 2020’s Father of All Motherf–kers was recorded by singer/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirt and drummer Tré Cool in London and Los Angeles and marks a reunion with longtime producer Rob Cavallo.

The trio advanced the album with the strident “The American Dream Is Killing Me,” which they debuted live last weekend during a sold-out club show at the 800-capacity Fremont in Las Vegas, as well as at back-to-back headlining performances at the city’s When We Were Young festival.

“As soon we cut it, we said, `Okay, that’s going first,’” Billie Joe Armstrong said in a statement about the topical song that was one of the final ones tracked during the Saviors session. He described the single as “a look at the way the traditional American Dream doesn’t work for a lot of people — in fact, it’s hurting a lot of people.”

The accompanying black and white video that dropped on Tuesday is timed perfectly for Halloween, with the band rocking corpse makeup as they play to a crowd of punk rock zombies in the Brendan Walter/Ryan Baxley-directed clip. “People on the street/ Unemployed and obsolete/ Did you ever learn to read the ransom note/ Don’t want no huddled masses/ TikTok and taxes/ Under the over pass/ Sleeping in broken glass,” Billie Joe sings on the track.

“Saviors is an invitation into Green Day’s brain, their collective spirit as a band, and an understanding of friendship, culture and legacy of the last 30 plus years. It’s raw and emotional. Funny and disturbing. It’s a laugh at the pain, weep in the happiness kind of record,” the group said in an Instagram announcing the project.

“Honesty and vulnerability,” they added, explaining that the album is about, “Power pop, punk, rock, indie triumph. disease, war, inequality, influencers, yoga retreats, alt right, dating apps, masks, MENTAL HEALTH, climate change, oligarchs, social media division, free weed, fentanyl, fragility.”

In addition to “American Dream,” Green Day debuted “Look Ma, No Brains!” at the Las Vegas club show that celebrated the 30th anniversary of their Cavallo-produced breakthrough album, Dookie. They also announced during the show that they are hitting the road next year for a stadium tour featuring support from Smashing Pumpkins, Rancid and the Linda Lindas.

Watch the “American Dream” video and see Green Day’s album announce below.

24 Oct 2023

Megan Thee Stallion Says ‘We Must Shed Our Past’ in Latest Snake-Themed Tease

Megan Thee Stallion is ready for her next act. After recently reaching a settlement with her former label, 1501 Certified Entertainment, following three years of litigation over a record deal the rapper called “unconscionable,” the Houston MC teased “ACT ONE” of her new era in a social post on Monday night (Oct. 23).

The caption also featured a snake emoji, the latest in a recent string of teases that has employed slithery language and imagery. With the camera zeroed in on Meg’s lips floating in a black void, she says, “Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past, over and over again” with what sounds like bits of an ominous new track in the background.

As the focus pulls back to reveal Meg’s face — complete with vertical snake eyeballs — the short clip ends with a shot of a pair of dripping fangs. The title card reads: “A story by Megan Thee Stallion” and “Directed by Douglas Bernardt.” The Brazilian director is best known for his work on videos by Arlo Park, Masego and Gregory Porter, as well as the 2019 Cannes Lions Grand Prix-winning short film Bluesman.

Though she hasn’t announced her new project, the “Bongos” MC has been leaning into snake imagery lately, including a tweet earlier this month with serious Hottieween vibes in which she appeared to bear her vampire fangs. The post featured a cryptic message, “Let’s begin…,” accompanied by a sliver of a picture with a slime green filter that animated into a 3-second video in which Meg bared her sharp teeth. The clip did not have any sound, but Megan followed it with a series of Instagram posts with additional scary scenes.

The trio of posts dubbed “Act One” featured an O made up of a red snake swallowing its own tail. The captions on the slides also spotlighted the snake emoji, accompanied by a video of a white snake coiled on someone’s hand, a close-up of Megan’s face and a third of her wrists covered in thorny bracelets. The second slide added the caption “Begin [snake emoji],” and a glimpse of a green-skinned Megan reclining on a dark red divan, her long nails sharpened to sharp points.

The tease also seemed to preview what looked like a music video, with a shot in which Meg bared her vamp fangs again, as well as an image of a bowl of fruit and other totems on an altar. At press time Megan had not officially announced any new music as she eases her way back into the game following the end of the trial of Tory Lanez, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in August for shooting Megan in the feet in July 2020. Since then she’s released her hit Cardi B collab “Bongos” and “Out Alpha the Alpha,” the lead single from the A24 move Dicks: The Musical, in which she also co-stars.

Either way, it seems like she’s going to go it alone this time, after revealing in an Instagram Live earlier this month that she’s not signed to a label and will be funding her own music projects moving forward “This part of my album is very much so funded by Megan Thee Stallion because we’re trying to get off… Y’all know what’s the tea. But I have no label right now,” she said at the time. “We’re doing everything funded straight out of Megan Thee Stallion’s pockets. So, the budget is coming from me. Motherf—ing Hot Girl Productions! The next s— y’all about to see is all straight from Megan Thee Stallion’s brain and Megan Thee Stallion’s wallet. We are in my pockets, hotties, so let’s do our big one.”

Check out Megan’s latest snake-themed tease below.

24 Oct 2023

Travis Kelce’s Dad Is Definitely on Team Taylor Swift: ‘A Very, Very Sweet, Very Charming, Down-to-Earth Young Woman’

Taylor Swift has definitely met the parents, and it seems like they are on Team Taylor. After Swift attended her fourth Kansas City Chiefs game in support of reported boyfriend Travis Kelce over the weekend, the tight end’s dad gave the singer said she belongs with them.

Speaking to People magazine, Trav’s dad, Ed Kelce, said that Swift is a “very, very sweet, very charming, down-to-earth young woman.” As the NFL continues to double-down on the unexpected bounty of having a pop superstar in the family suite almost every weekend, the cameras caught Swift chatting with Ed Kelce during the team’s Oct. 12 game, with the family patriarch saying he found her “very genuine” during their first meeting.

In fact, despite having the No. 1 movie at the box office for a second weekend in a row with her Eras Tour film, Ed Kelce said he noticed something “very special” and endearing about the pop princess the first time he met her.

“We’re sitting in the suite, she gets up and in the front room, she gets up to go get a drink or something and she starts picking up empty bottles, cans, plates that are scattered around,” he said. “Because in the suites everybody gets stuff and you empty it down wherever you can.”

The small gesture meant a lot, but it also revealed something else to Ed Kelce about Swift that was even more telling. “I’m just thinking, I don’t think she got the diva memo,” he said of Swift’s impeccable manners. “She didn’t get the spoiled musician. She doesn’t know how to pull that off. And that really to me said a whole lot… She’s very smart. I mean, very. That comes through right away.”

Swift has already met Travis’ mom, Donna, who she sat next to at the team’s Sept. 24 game, followed a week later by a shot of Taylor with her arm around Donna during the Chiefs’-Jets game at MetLife Stadium. On Sunday, she made it to her fourth Chiefs game, where she showed off her secret handshake with Brittany Mahomes, wife of KC QB Patrick Mahomes. More importantly, she was spotted holding hands and dropping a kiss on Kelce’s cheek after KC’s 31-17 roll over the Los Angeles Chargers.

Last weekend, Swift and Kelce basically confirmed their long-rumored romance by holding hands on their way to the Oct. 14 SNL afterparty, just after they each made cameos on the show’s season 49 premiere. The next day, they grabbed dinner at a restaurant in the West Village, hand-in-hand again; to date neither Swift nor Kelce have confirmed their reported romance.

24 Oct 2023

Busta Rhymes Announces ‘Blockbusta’ Album, Exec Produced By Timbaland, Pharrell, Swizz Beatz

With so many Hollywood movies on ice as the strike by actors drags on into the fall, Busta Rhymes is prepping his own blockbuster. Actually, make that Blockbusta, the MC’s 11th solo studio album, which is due out on Black Friday, Nov. 24.

Busta announced the project in a video posted on his socials on Monday (Oct. 23), in which he held a Zoom sit-down with the project’s four AAA-list super producers: Pharrell Williams, Timbaland and Swizz Beatz. “This project right here is executive produced by the f—ing committee,” Swizz said in the clip. “Pharrell the Pharaoh, Timbo the King, Swizz Beatz the student.”

Timbaland gave thanks for the Transformers-like gathering of production legends, telling Busta that he is, “so grateful that you chose me to be a part of your legacy.” Pharrell also gave some insight into the project, whose track list has not yet been released.

“You really feel illuminated,” Skateboard P said of the collection that also lists Busta as an exec producer. “This illumination is good because I think people gonna be able to get and feel that.” Timbaland had a one-word description for the follow-up to Busta’s 2020 sequel album, Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God, which featured guest spots from Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Rick Ross, Mary J. Blige, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Anderson .Paak, Mariah Carey and more.

“Timeless,” Tim said, as Swizz scatted, “The Blockbusta, Busta Rhymes…zaa zaa za, zone, zone, zone.” The clip ends with a volcano erupting the album’s title into the sky.

In September, Busta dropped the “Luxury Life” single featuring Coi Leray and last week he teased a new single, “Chooky,” featuring Elesia Limura and O.T.; at press time it was unclear if either song will be featured on the new album.

Check out Busta’s Blockbusta announcement below.

24 Oct 2023

Katy Perry Gets Her Game on For Inaugural Fundraising Pickleball Tournament

Celebrities, tunes, outdoor sport, fundraising and grown dudes dressed as food: these are some of Katy Perry’s favorite things, and she brought them all together over the weekend for the first annual Light Up The Court Pickleball Tournament.

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Perry hosted the tourney Sunday (Oct. 22) at Montecito Club in her hometown of Santa Barbara, CA, with a slew of high-profile pickleball players including Meghan Trainor, Rob Lowe, Kate Hudson and her partner Orlando Bloom.

“My mom brought (maybe even forced) her love for pickleball upon our family,” she writes on Instagram, “and now we’ve decided to use those pickle powers for good.”

All proceeds benefited Firework Foundation, founded in 2019 by Perry and her sister Angela Lerche, with a mission to empower children from underserved communities by “igniting their inner light through the arts.”

For the record, Eric Geeb and Brett Williams took the championship title, while Perry got her game on for a mic’d exhibition in which she and Federico Staksrud took on Bloom and Maggie Brascia. Team Katy took them out 13-11.

Celsius sponsored the VIP Players Lawn, while Stanley, The Pick, Malk Milk, CRBN and Selkirk were among the sponsoring brands for the debut event, produced by Ngoc Nguyen (Nguyen Strategies).

Money raised will go towards “scholarships, more camps, and programming to bring the arts to kids from underserved communities,” Perry explains.

The pop superstar is currently in her sixth consecutive season as a judge on American Idol and, simultaneously, performing her Las Vegas residency, PLAY.

In 2011, she became the first woman, and second artist overall following Michael Jackson, to land five No. 1s on the Billboard Hot 100 from an album. That album, Teenage Dream, is one of her three leaders on the Billboard 200 chart. All told, she has scored nine leaders on the Billboard Hot 100 and she was the first artist in RIAA history to earn three RIAA Diamond Song Awards – for three of those No. 1s, “Firework,” “Dark Horse” and “Roar.”

23 Oct 2023

Ty Dolla $ign Announces ‘Multi Stadium Listening Event’ for Kanye West Joint Album

On Monday (Oct. 23), Ty Dolla $ign announced a “multi stadium listening event” for his reported joint album with Kanye West.

The simple IG announcement — the lone post on Ty’s otherwise-wiped-clean account — has a black background with white text that shows the yen “Y” symbol with a dollar-sign symbol and the words “multi stadium listening event November 3rd.”

Billboard reported on Oct. 13 that Ye and Ty were shopping a joint project to distributors and that West would “make a decision soon.” The album would mark the first release for Ye since a series of antisemitic comments late last year, which led to Def Jam parent company Universal Music Group distancing from the artist. “Def Jam’s relationship with Ye as a recording artist, Def Jam’s partnership with the GOOD Music label venture and Ye’s merchandise agreement with Bravado all ended in 2021,” a label rep told Billboard at the time.

On Oct. 15, Billboard reported that West’s team was working to produce a concert in Italy to promote the collaborative album. The rapper was spotted in Italy with wife Bianca Censori and a stage was even built at RCF Arena in Reggio Emilia, but the plan appeared to have fizzled as of late last week, with Billboard Italy conceding via sources that it was “very unlikely” to move forward.

According to Ty’s post, it appears that the promo plan has pivoted to a “multi stadium listening event” on Nov. 3, though that could still potentially include international locations.

Ye and Ty last collaborated on “Junya Pt 2” from West’s 2021 album, Donda. Before that, they worked together on Ty Dolla $ign’s “Ego Death” (2020) and on West’s “Everything We Need” (2019), “Real Friends” (2016) and “Only One” (2014).

West is no stranger to massive listening events for his new albums, hosting three sessions at stadiums for Donda back in 2021: two in Atlanta and one in his native Chicago.

See Ty’s post below:

23 Oct 2023

Garth Brooks’ The Garth Channel Relaunches on TuneIn

A little more than a year after Garth Brooks’ popular The Garth Channel ended its six-year run at SiriusXM, the station is resurfacing on streaming audio platform TuneIn.

The Garth Channel is the third TuneIn channel announced as part of Brooks’ Sevens Radio Network, a suite of stations Brooks launched in June with The Big 615. The country music channel bowed simultaneously on more than 200 connected devices and vehicle platforms, according to TuneIn CEO Rich Stern, and is available to TuneIn’s more than 75 million global monthly users.

In August, Sevens Radio Network bowed Tailgate Radio, hosted by sports commentator and producer Maria Taylor. While the station does not air the games — TuneIn provides access to live play-by-play from more than 100 Division 1 colleges and universities on other channels — Tailgate Radio plays pre- and post-game entertainment for sports fans.

Now, the Garth Channel, similar to its programming on SiriusXM, will feature Brooks’ favorite artists across different genres, as well as feature stories from Brooks. “The Garth Channel has always been my music, my heroes, my favorites. So, how do you make it better? You make it global for starters so the whole world can see how much I love music and where it comes from,” said Brooks in a statement. “More stories … from me and other artists. It seemed what people loved most on the Garth Channel were the stories. The new Garth Channel will now send out invitations for other artists to tell their stories behind the music and their careers.”

The Garth Channel will bow this fall — exact date still to be determined — and will broadcast from Brooks’ Friends in Low Places Bar & Honky Tonk  in Nashville. “You’re going to put Haggard right next to Beyoncé, Luke Combs right now to Ray Charles, Bruno Mars right next to the Statler Brothers. Great music works,” Brooks explained further on Monday’s (Oct. 23) Inside Studio G. Brooks’ songs will be interspersed with the other selections.

Though the official opening date for Friends in Low Places has not been announced, Brooks will host one of his dive bar concerts at the venue on Black Friday, Nov. 24. Fans could win free tickets to the intimate concert through The Big 615, with more than 1.7 million applications for tickets already registered, according to Brooks. Previous Dive Bar concert stops included Joe’s on Weed Street in Chicago, Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace in Bakersfield, California, and Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Texas. It’s named after Brooks’ 2019 duet of the same name, with Blake Shelton.

Though TuneIn did not provide specific numbers, Rich Stern said in a statement that Sevens Radio Network is already a success even with only two out of its seven stations on the air. “What we have seen already in terms of listener engagement and excitement on The BIG 615 and Tailgate is remarkable,” Stern said. “Simply put, people want as much Garth as they can have.”

Fans will get more Brooks this fall as the singer has announced plans to release a new limited series seven-CD box set, including a new album, exclusively through Bass Pro Shops starting Nov. 27. Brooks continues his Las Vegas residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on Nov. 29.

23 Oct 2023

Rihanna Tour Reports Are ‘Bogus,’ Says Source

Reports that singer Rihanna has inked a multi-year contract with Live Nation are “bogus” a source tells Billboard, pouring cold water on news that a live comeback for the superstar singer is imminent.

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On Sunday, the London-based Daily Mirror reported that the singer was planning a major world tour through 2024 and 2025 as part of a 32 million pounds ($39 million) deal with Live Nation. On Monday (Oct. 23), ET also ran a report saying Rihanna was “planning a world tour for 2024/2025 after striking a deal with Live Nation.”

But a high-level source who would be involved in such the talks said the 32 million pounds figure sounds made up and noted that “no tour has been confirmed for Rihanna.”

While promoters like Live Nation, or their competitive rival AEG, would be more than happy to book and a promote a global Rihanna tour, the source says “Bitch Better Have My Money” singer hasn’t yet committed to any touring projects for 2024.

As well, Live Nation has not placed any holds on venues for a potential tour. Typically, when a promoter begins booking a tour for a major artist, they will call different venues on the tour route and ask venue bookers to reserve various dates on their calendar to accommodate different routing scenarios for an upcoming tour. If Rihanna and Live Nation were to sign a deal, it would likely take several months to hammer out a potential tour route.

The demand for a Rihanna tour, and new music, is arguably unparalleled. She is one of the most commercially successful artists of all time, with 14 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, a record surpassed only by The Beatles and Mariah Carey. Her last album was 2016’s Anti and her last tour was the one that followed that year. It generated more than $110 million in sales worldwide, and since its final stop in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 27, 2016, she has not performed a commercial concert. She has since only performed three times, including at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2023 and the 2023 Oscars.

While a new global tour would surely net hundreds of millions in ticket sales and merchandise, Rihanna doesn’t exactly need that money. A March 10 story from the Wall Street Journal estimated Rihanna’s business empire to be worth $1.4 billion, thanks to the success of her record sales and cosmetic company Savage X Fenty, which she owns in partnership with luxury brand LVMH.

She also has a compelling reason not to want to hit the road – in August, she gave birth to her second child Riot Rose, whom she shares with rapper A$AP Rocky. The couple’s oldest son RZA was born in 2022.