Music News

Here Are the 10 Biggest Changes to the Grammy Awards Process for 2024

A track and singles category that includes recordings that utilize unique local expressions from across the African continent. Highlighting regional melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic musical traditions, the category includes but is not limited to the Afrobeat, Afro fusion, Afro Pop, Afrobeats, Alte, Amapiano, Bongo Flava, Genge, Kizomba, Chimurenga, High Life, Fuji, Kwassa, Ndombolo, Mapouka, Ghanaian Drill, Afro-House, South African Hip Hop, and Ethio Jazz genres.

Previously, such performances competed for best global music performance, a category that will continue, albeit without African music performances.

Told that some critics have said that one category isn’t enough for an entire continent, Mason responds, “I don’t disagree. It’s a starting point, though. It’s a way for us to celebrate music that’s coming from that continent which is really impressive.”

The larger significance of this new award is that it shows that the Academy, which was founded and long known as the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, is taking a more international view.

“It’s an acknowledgment that music is coming from many different places and that we as an Academy are going to have to make some changes to what we’re doing to make sure we’re honoring it,” Mason says. “It’s not just about Western music. It’s not just about what happens in the U.S. at this point. It’s beyond that. It’s what’s happening around the world. You’ll see us in the future listening and going to different countries. I went to Africa three times in the last year, traveling the world to understand what’s happening, what’s next in music, where are music pockets bubbling, where is the next scene that’s going to explode globally. What does it mean to have borderless music? This is a step in that direction.”

Person of Interest in Young Dolph Murder Found Shot to Death

A man who was named by police as a person of interest in the 2021 murder of rapper/music exec Young Dolph has been killed. According to Memphis’ ABC 24, family members identified Joshua Taylor as the victim of a fatal shooting in the city on Wednesday afternoon.

At press time it was reported that there was no suspect yet as the investigation is ongoing; a spokesperson for the Memphis Police Dept. had not returned calls requesting additional information on the case at press time. Taylor (who reportedly went by the alias CEO Teezy) was named as a person of interest in the Dolph murder case in February 2022 and according to the repot he was wanted on a number of other charges, including theft of property between $10,000-$60,000 and possession of a prohibited weapon.

Fox 13 reported that Taylor was found shot to death inside a car and that he was thought to have been a friend of Justin Johnson, one of the two alleged shooters who’ve been charged in Dolph’s killing. Police never charged Taylor directly in the killing and he had not been mentioned in the case, though investigators reportedly wanted to find out if Taylor knew where Johnson was on the day of Dolph’s killing or if he knew anything about the murder.

Dolph (born Adolph Robert Thornton Jr.), was gunned down while shopping at Makeda’s Cookies near his boyhood home in Memphis in Nov. 2021. Last week, Jermarcus Johnson, 26, pleaded guilty to three counts of accessory after the fact after officials said he helped two other men during the daytime ambush killing.

Johnson was the first of four defendants to plead guilty or be convicted in Dolph shooting.

Trent Reznor’s Daughter Turned Him on to Dua Lipa and the NIN Singer Said Her Songs Made Him Cry: ‘It Felt Good’

Trent Reznor has spent 35 years making the most outrageously dissonant, elegant and dark rock possible. But, as it turns out, the Nine Inch Nails leader is not totally immune to the charms of a great pop song. On the latest edition of producer Rick Rubin’s Tetragrammaton podcast, Reznor fessed up that not only has he learned to appreciate a well-crafted pop ditty, but, thanks to his kids, he’s actually been brought to tears by one of today’s biggest mainstream stars.

“For while, I kept them in a kind of hermetically sealed way from pop music. Because I think it sucks generally —  I had thought that,” Reznor said of his kids with wife singer Mariqueen Maandig. Then, Reznor said, he heard his six-year-old daughter singing along to Dua Lipa recently and it gave him pause.

“She is so into it and it is so cool. Like this is her music, you know, this is her thing,” he said. “It really reminded me the art of writing a well-crafted song — I teared up listening to a Dua Lipa track. Because it was just a really well-done piece of music, you know? It was clever. It felt good.”

The Grammy, Oscar and Golden Globe-winning songwriter then made a startling admission. “It’s a difficult thing to do. I don’t know how to do that,” Reznor said. “When I’m trying to think of what to say, I’m saying it from the unvarnished me. And that requires me thinking about who I am and where my position is now and all of that together becomes something that feels the stakes are higher.”

That’s why he said he prefers film scoring, which has become his second full-time job thanks to acclaimed work on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl, Mank, The Social Network, Soul and Empire of Light, among others. “Sitting there and arranging stuff — I know what’s right… I don’t have to assess my thoughts on how I feel about a thing,” he told Rubin. “What it comes down to is I really enjoy weirdly working in service to something. It’s like cracking a code. It feels good to crack the code, whatever it is.”

As for the future of NIN, Reznor said because he has young kids at home he’s not really interested in “endlessly” touring any more and, frankly, given where he thinks the culture is now and the importance of music in it, “[it’s] a little defeating,” he said during the pair’s two-hour chat that ranged from the very beginnings of Reznor’s life and career in Cleveland through his thoughts on working with director David Fincher and his songwriting process.

“It feels to me in general, and I’m saying this as a 57-year-old man, music used to be the thing that, that was what I was doing when I, when I had time, I was listening to music,” Reznor said. “I wasn’t doing it in the background while I was doing five other things, and I wasn’t treating it kind of as a disposable commodity.”

Reznor also fessed up that he missed the attention music used to get, even from critics, who’s opinions he still doesn’t really care about. “But somebody heard it, it got validated in its own way culturally. Culturally, that feels askew,” he added. “Like I can’t think of any review I care about today that I even trust. I could write it before it comes out because it’s already written. In fact, ChatGPT could probably do a better job, you know? Or is currently doing the job. That makes for what I feel is a less fertile environment to put music out into –in the world of Nine Inch Nails.”

Listen to the full chat with Reznor below (Dua Lipa segment begins at 1:49:00).

Slowthai Denies Rape Charges

Slowthai has pleaded not guilty plea to two charges of rape, stemming from an alleged incident in September 2021.

The 28-year-old artist entered his plea in a British court on Thursday (June 15).

Born Tyron Frampton, the hip-hop artist was charged last month with the oral and vaginal penetration of a woman without her consent.

Frampton’s co-defendant, Alex Blake-Walker, pleaded not guilty to one count of rape and two sexual assaults, the BBC reports.

Both men are accused of raping the same woman, but Blake-Walker is also accused of sexually assaulting another woman.

Both men were released by Oxford Crown Court, and have been placed on conditional bail until their trial begins in July 2024.

During that earlier court appearance, where he appeared before Oxfordshire, England, magistrates court via video link, The Guardian noted, Frampton did not enter a plea and only confirmed his real name, date of birth and Northampton address. 

Prosecuting lawyer Adam Yar Khan said at the time that the rape charge must be heard at crown court, due to it being an indictable-only offense. 

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Slowthai made his break into the music mainstream with his Mercury Prize-nominated 2019 album, Nothing About Great Britain, which hit the U.K. top 10. The following year, he collected the “hero of the year” at the 2020 NME Awards, though the talking point from the evening was his behavior towards host Katherine Ryan, which erupted into a fracas with members of the audience. He later admitted in an apologetic tweet that his actions were “shameful”.

Slowthai’s popularity soared. His sophomore album, 2021’s Tyron, topped the Official U.K. Albums Chart, and, in the same year, he earned a Grammy Award nomination for dance recording. Earlier in 2023, his Ugly LP peaked at No. 2.

When the allegations were made public, the rapper was quietly scrubbed from the lineup for the U.K. summer festivals, including Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds, and Australia’s mid-winter event, Splendour In The Grass, and he withdrew from a July 8 concert at Wembley Stadium with Blur.

Doja Cat Commands ‘Attention’ With New Single: Stream It Now

She’s back! Doja Cat‘s long awaited new single “Attention” was officially released on Friday (June 16).

“Look at me, look at me/ You lookin?” she asks on the track, which arrived along with a music video that puts an eerie twist on fame.

The star announced the song on Twitter earlier in the week, posting the release date as well as the corresponding cover art featuring a bloody, upside down letter “A” — which she has since called a “placeholder.” 

Leading up to the drop, Doja had been sharing some The Scarlet Letter-themed hints, tweeting back on May 24 that “scarlet was here” along with the same blood drop emoji. On June 9, the emoji made another appearance with the tweet, “scarlet’s watching.” Finally, over the weekend, she wrote, “let myself heal, scar finally sealed.”

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Doja is also working on unveiling a full-length album. While she has yet to reveal a title or release date, the project would follow her 2021 breakthrough LP Planet Her, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart dated July 10, 2021, and produced a number of long-lasting hits including “Need to Know,” “Woman,” “Ain’t S—” and “Get Into It (Yuh).”

Listen to “Attention” in full and watch the music video below.

French Montana Shares How His Mother’s Journey Moved Him to Create ‘For Khadija’ Documentary

French Montana stepped into the world of filmmaking at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival, where he premiered his touching documentary about the unbreakable bond he shares with his single mother. To celebrate, the rapper sat down with Billboard‘s Rania Aniftos to discuss the doc, titled For Khadija.

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“Going through everything that I went through in my career, it felt like it finally made sense,” the Morocco-born artist reveals as to why he decided to make the documentary. “It’s a story from the beginning to the end of a chapter. It’s a chapter where my mother, sacrificed for us and then went back after 25 years. I feel like that was the closure of us coming, me struggling in the Bronx, not knowing English, being culture shocked by the whole move that we made.”

He continued, “One thing about the wounds, that’s where the light enters. It’s showing people that if you only work on sunny days, you’ll never reach your destination.”

He also opened up about navigating a private life amid being in the spotlight, especially back during his 2013 relationship with Khloe Kardashian. “I just go with my groove. I also don’t like nothing that have to do with reality TV. I don’t like nothing that have to do with anything besides my music to be publicized. When you broadcast that, it just takes away for why I’m really here.”

Watch Billboard‘s full interview with French Montana above.

Amazon Calls This the World’s ‘Smallest Bluetooth Speaker’ & It’s On Sale for Just $10

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

Taking your music on the go has never been this easy — or this portable — thanks to this mini Bluetooth speaker from Amazon. Measuring less than 1.2 inches tall and just 1 inch in diameter (or about the size of a quarter), the tiny speaker slips easily into your pockets so that you’re never too far from your tunes.

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The mini speaker pairs easily to your device via Bluetooth, with a range of up to 36 feet. While you won’t get the same big audio as regular speakers, the tiny speaker delivers decent sound for its size (up to 90 decibels to be exact, which is comparable to the sound generated by a lawnmower or power tools).

A single charge gets you up to three hours of playtime. You can also leave it plugged in via the included micro-USB port to keep the music going.

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Smallest Bluetooth Speaker with HD Sound & Bass

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This mini portable speaker is perfect for parties, beach days, camping trips and park hangs alike. We also like having it on our desk to play music at the office without disturbing coworkers in the room next to us. Pair the speaker with your phone and use it to take calls hands-free as well.

Everything is controlled via a simple on/off button at the top of the speaker. The button doubles as a remote shutter to take pictures when paired with your camera phone.

With its tiny size and weighing under 60 grams, Amazon calls this the world’s “smallest Bluetooth speaker.” Reviewers love the small size and ease of use, and the speaker currently has a solid 4-star review (out of five) from dozens of shoppers online.

Even better: Amazon’s smallest Bluetooth speaker is currently on sale for a tiny price too — just $9.99 as part of a current offer online. That’s a 12% discount off the regular price. It’s an easy pickup for yourself and it makes a great gift idea too. Get the pocket-sized portable speaker here.

Someone Help Troye Sivan Get in Contact With Stray Kids’ Hyunjin

Looks like Troye Sivan has got a new celebrity crush, and he’s playfully made a plea to his followers on Thursday (June 15) to help reach out to him.

While teasing his upcoming single “Rush,” the singer posted a thirst trap fan edit of Stray Kids‘ Hyunjin, in which the 23-year-old K-pop star is seen dancing onstage in slow motion. “I feel the rush / Addicted to your touch,” the chorus of the unreleased song chants over a thumping beat to accompany the video.

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“Anyone know how to reach this man,” Sivan hilariously captioned the clip. Watch it here.

So far, there’s no update on Sivan’s quest to find Hyunjin, but in the meantime, the Australian star has been teasing his first full-length album in five years. “It’s not lost on me that some of you guys have been following along since i was the kid w the stye in my eye in that first video,” The Idol captioned a series of videos posted to Instagram last week. “Btw — I didn’t mean to take 5 years to make this album.”

“Enough excuses now. Enough saying ‘soon’ [upside down smile emoji] this is for YOU and it starts NOWWW,” he wrote. “I love you from the bottom of my heart.”

While he didn’t reveal any more information about the upcoming album, his third project will mark a follow-up to 2018’s Bloom.

Don Omar’s ‘Forever King’: All 14 Tracks Ranked

The reggaeton star returns with a richly textured album.

Los maté, si señor/ Y si vuelvo a nacer, yo los vuelvo a matar” (I killed them, yes sir/ And if I’m born again, I’ll kill them again). The plaintive words, sung with a single acoustic guitar accompaniment, are the opening to Don Omar’s new album Forever King for Saban Music Latin, which has been teased with a succession of singles over the past 18 months.

It was worth the wait. That opening confession then segues into “Carcelero,” a variation on a Cuban danzón that may be Don Omar’s new magnum opus and the harbinger of a new artistic direction. While Forever King has plenty of the reggaetón that made Don Omar a pioneering leader in the genre, it also highlights an artist taking risks with different tropical beats, navigating from hard-core reggaetón in collabs like “Flow HP” with Residente and “Bandidos” with Cosculluela to evocative lyricism in songs like “Carcelero” and “Sincero.”

The collaborators here — ranging from Residente (whose mere presence on a reggaetón album is noteworthy) to relative newcomers like García and more pop-leaning names like Maluma — indicate that Don Omar is doing what he wants. With clean yet impactful lyrics, he covers a broad base and sends an unspoken message: He’ll do urban music on his terms, and he’ll venture into whatever waters he pleases at this moment in time.

Originally announced for June 22, the album was surprise-dropped early on Thursday night (June 15). Here are all 14 tracks, ranked:

Olivia Wilde Subtly Shows Support for Harry Styles’ Love on Tour

While it’s not the same “As It Was,” Olivia Wilde is still supporting Harry Styles (albeit subtly) in the months after the duo’s breakup.

The Booksmart director recently liked one of the singer’s sister Gemma’s Instagram posts, in which Harry is singing “Treat People With Kindness” and One Direction’s breakout hit “What Makes You Beautiful” during one of his Love on Tour shows at London’s Wembley Stadium. “Good GRIEF this show is fun,” Gemma wrote in the caption. “so proud of you @harrystyles and what a privilege to see you experience this much joy doing what you love.”

See her post here.

Styles was first confirmed to be dating his Don’t Worry Darling director and costar more than two years ago, when they were spotted holding hands at a friend’s wedding in January 2021. Wilde — who shares two children with her ex, Ted Lasso star Jason Sudeikis — attended a number of Love on Tour shows during their relationship, and was often seen dancing in the crowd. However, their romance came to an end in November 2022, when it was confirmed that the couple had parted ways.

Since then, the “Late Night Talking” singer was filmed kissing model Emily Ratajkowski against the side of a car during a rainy day in Tokyo in March, after Styles closed out the Asian leg of his ongoing Love on Tour with two shows at Ariake Arena.