Music News

18 Jan 2023

Hot 100 First-Timers: NewJeans Debut With Global Smash ‘Ditto’

South Korean K-pop group NewJeans hits the Billboard Hot 100 (dated Jan. 21) for the first time, as “Ditto” debuts at No. 96.

The song, released Dec. 19 via ADOR/Geffen/Interscope Records, enters on the strength of 5.1 million U.S. streams (up 62%) in the Jan. 6-12 tracking week, according to Luminate. It concurrently ranks at No. 5 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart (after hitting No. 4 a week earlier) and No. 9 on the Billboard Global 200 (after reaching No. 8). The song became the act’s first of two top 10s on the tallies – “OMG” becomes its second on each chart this week. “Ditto” also ranks at No. 7 on World Digital Song Sales (after rising to No. 4 two weeks earlier).

TikTok has been a big factor in the song’s growing popularity, as the track has been used in nearly 300,000 clips on the platform to date. (TikTok does not currently contribute directly to Billboard’s charts.)

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NewJeans are not just newcomers to Billboard’s charts, but to the music scene entirely. The group was founded by Min Hee-jin, CEO of ADOR (a newly created subsidiary under the HYBE labels umbrella), through BigHit Entertainment. The act released its first single, “Attention,” on July 22. The track debuted on Global Excl. U.S. (Aug. 13) at No. 174 and surged to a No. 34 high two weeks later. Concurrent with the song’s chart arrival, the group’s debut four-track EP NWJNS arrived at No. 22 on Heatseekers Albums, before hitting No. 9 two weeks later. The EP also reaches a new No. 10 best on this week’s World Albums chart.

After “Attention,” the group has charted four more songs on Global Excl. U.S., with “Cookie” (No. 198 peak in August) and “Hype Boy” (No. 32, September) preceding its two top 10s.

The five-piece group comprises Danielle, Haerin, Hanni, Hyein and Minji. Minji co-wrote “Ditto” with Hongchul Cho, Yiva Dimberg, Oohyo and 250. 250 (real name Hohyung Lee) also produced the track solo. He’s previously produced songs for BTS, E SENS, iTZY and NCT 127.

NewJeans additionally climb 7-4 on the latest Emerging Artists chart, reaching the top five in its ninth week on the survey.

18 Jan 2023

Boygenius Surprise Drops 3 New Songs & Announces Highly Anticipated Debut Album

After five years of wishing, hoping and praying for new music from Boygenius — the indie rock supergroup comprised of Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker — fans finally have cause to rejoice. On Wednesday (Jan. 18), the trio dropped three surprise new songs and, at last, announced their upcoming debut album via Interscope, a highly anticipated follow-up to their beloved 2018 self-titled EP.

None of the three musicians gave fans any sort of heads-up leading up to their comeback, nor had they given any hint that a full-length album was in the works. (The only indication that something was brewing was an announcement a week prior that they’d be performing together for the first time in years at Coachella 2023.) Instead, Bridgers, Dacus and Baker simply posted Spotify links to the new singles — titled “$20,” “Emily I’m Sorry” and “True Blue” — on Instagram Stories.

News of Boygenius’ return was also run in a Rolling Stone article, which revealed The Record‘s track list and release date: March 31. The article also revealed that Bridgers had initiated a band reunion right after her 2020 sophomore solo record, Punisher, was released.

According to the publication, she’d sent Dacus and Baker “Emily I’m Sorry” after writing it alone, asking them, “Can we be a band again?”

“We were all nervous to bring it up,” Bridgers said. “We all thought that we were more excited than the other person.”

The track list for The Record is as follows:

  1. “Without You Without Them”
  2. “Emily I’m Sorry”
  3. “True Blue”
  4. “Cool About It”
  5. “Not Strong Enough”
  6. “Revolution 0”
  7. “Leonard Cohen”
  8. “Satanist”
  9. “We’re in Love”
  10. “Anti-Curse”
  11. “Letter to an Old Poet”

Listen to “$20,” “Emily I’m Sorry” and “True Blue” below:

18 Jan 2023

Vaultboy Unmasks His Struggles with Anxiety and Depression

In January 2021, pop artist vaultboy teased his single, “everything sucks,” on TikTok as part of a challenge titled “writing a song everyday and posting it.” On day 12 of the challenge, the video hit three million views and the rest is history. vaultboy’s debut single has now reached over 140 million streams on Spotify and he’s been steadily growing ever since. The Jacksonville, FL native chose his moniker after being inspired by a character in his favorite video game series, Fallout. 

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This month, vaultboy is featured on Sound Mind’s latest episode of Unmasked, a video series that features artists opening up about their personal mental health journeys. In the new episode, he speaks out about his own struggle with anxiety and depression. 

“The amount of people silently struggling with mental health issues is immeasurable. We’re all going through this similar thing, to different degrees, and sometimes we need to be reminded that this fight isn’t our own,” he told Billboard. 

In early 2022, vaultboy was experiencing massive success in music, but was also feeling very depressed and struggling to appreciate where he was at in life. He channeled those feelings into songwriting and wrote more honest, vulnerable tracks. The latest episode of Unmasked includes never-before-seen footage of vaultboy recording some of his most personal lyrics to-date. 

vaultboy strives to be a mental health advocate for his fanbase and believes in the importance of destigmatizing the difficult conversations that mental health discussions can bring.

“The most important thing for me is keeping the conversation around mental health in the light and normalizing checking in with each other and ourselves,” he continued. By keeping this conversation in the forefront of our culture, we can make it easier for people to be aware of when and how to get care.”

Unmasked is focused on promoting mental health resources, as well as fostering an open dialogue about mental health for artists and audiences alike. Check out vaultboy on the latest episode of Unmasked above and stay tuned for more from Sound Mind. 

This content was created in partnership with Sound Mind. 

18 Jan 2023

A$AP Rocky Teases Rihanna’s ‘Going to Bring It’ for Her Super Bowl Halftime Show

Her biggest fan! A$AP Rocky dished on just how much he’s looking forward to Rihanna‘s Super Bowl Halftime Show in a new interview on Wednesday (Jan. 18), and teased that she’s going to impress.

“Oh, man. I’m just as excited as you guys, if not more,” he told Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1. “Yeah, I’m super excited. This is huge. This is incredible. I’m so glad that my lady’s back making music again and whatnot, and getting back out there.”

“It’s just incredible,” the rapper continued. “Especially for both of us — it is a good year for both of us to be more active and be out there. But the Super Bowl is huge, and her being the creative she is, she going to bring it, man. I’m excited. I’m more excited than everybody else, honestly.”

RiRi’s big game-day performance may still be a few weeks away, but she’s already released a teaser for the show as well as a limited edition Savage X Fenty Game Day collection filled with merch for fans to wear as they watch her return to the stage after a six-year hiatus.

During the interview, Rocky also opened up about what it’s been like becoming a father. “I’m a member of our club now, like the dad club. You see a dad, you see me. I’m playing on, I’m a full dad now,” said the rapper, who welcomed a son with Rihanna in May. “Being outside and working and being creative, it drives more energy for you to obviously to think and soak things up like a sponge now that I’m a dad, because I have a whole ‘nother perspective. But it honestly helps you get home to your family and get home to your baby. And I can’t even explain it, man. You come home to heaven every day. I’m so thankful. God is good, man.”

18 Jan 2023

A$AP Rocky Honors Hip-Hop Artists Who Recently Died With New Song ‘Same Problems?’: Listen

Fresh off celebrating the 10 year anniversary of his debut studio album Long. Live. ASAP, A$AP Rocky is giving fans a taste of new music, all while honoring people within the hip-hop community who have died in recent years by releasing his new track “Same Problems?”

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The song — which Rocky debuted in December as part of his Amazon Music Live Thursday Night Football performance — sees the rapper getting introspective about the role he’s potentially played in perpetuating violence in rap music.

“How many problems get solved?/ Am I a product of things that I saw?/ How many problems get solved?/ Am I proud of the things in my songs?” he muses in the chorus.

The song also arrives on the eight-year anniversary of A$AP Yams’ death. The 26-year-old founding member of A$AP Mob died of acute mixed drug intoxication in January 2015.

Speaking with Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe about the track, A$AP revealed that he wrote the song because he “was feeling remorse.”

“I think I was feeling plight. I think I was also feeling a sense of guilt, because every time we lose somebody in our community, we all — especially me — have a habit of just saying things like, ‘It’s messed up. It’s wrong. Why do these kind of things happen?’” he shared. “You ask a bunch of questions and usually … I never took time out to really understand that I was part of the problem because I was contributing those kind of lyrics and whatnot to songs.”

He continued, “Without preaching too much, I just wanted to touch on something a bit different opposed to just being braggadocios, flamboyant and just regular rap content for me. I just kind of wanted to express myself and tell how I felt without preaching. And I think we can all relate. We all got the same problems. The irony that my biggest hit to date was … My first hit was’ ‘F—in’ Problems.’ And now, 10 years later exactly, I’m putting out a song named ‘S’ame Problems.’ It’s just like problems, problems, you know what I mean?”

As for the 34-year-old’s forthcoming, yet-to-be-titled album, he assured Lowe that it is indeed on the way. “It’s coming. It’s finished and we just putting the finishing touches on it,” he said. “The new stuff is me being vulnerable, and it’s just no filter, and just where I’m at, at my stage. My age and how I see things, my peers, the younger kids, the older cats, it’s just my perspective.”

Listen to “Same Problems” in the video above.

18 Jan 2023

Dua Lipa Named Met Gala 2023 Co-Chair

Glitter in her eyes, glitter in the sky, Dua Lipa will be shining just the way she likes at this year’s Met Gala. As announced by Vogue on Wednesday (Jan. 18), the 27-year-old pop star has signed on to be one of four 2023 co-chairs for the A-list fashion event that comes around every first Monday in May.

Joining the pop star as fellow co-chairs are Penélope Cruz, Michaela Coel and Roger Federer, a lineup that spans “every realm of popular culture,” according to Vogue. The four of them will assist Anna Wintour in planning a night based around this year’s theme — Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty — which pays tribute to the late German fashion designer.

The “Levitating” singer posted the news on her Instagram account, writing, “Excited to announce that I am one of the #MetGala 2023 Co-Chairs… See you for the First Monday in May #CostumeInstitute Benefit ?”

As explained by Dua further down in her post, this year’s gala will celebrate the May 5 opening of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty” exhibit. Every year, the exclusive event also provides the museum’s Costume Institute with its primary source of annual funding.

“Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty” will showcase more than 150 original looks designed by Lagerfeld, who died at 85 years old in 2019, delving into the former Chanel creative director’s expansive seven-decade career. Many of his original sketches are also set to appear alongside the objects on display.

Last year’s Met Gala, themed “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” was co-chaired by Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, Regina King and Lin-Manuel Miranda. So far, Dua has attended the event just once, making her Met Gala debut in 2019 dressed in Versace for that year’s theme, “Camp: Notes on Fashion.”

See Dua Lipa’s post about co-chairing this year’s Met Gala below:

18 Jan 2023

Is Bassnectar Staging a Direct-to-Fans Comeback?

After three years of silence and in the midst of an ongoing legal battle, Bassnectar (real name Lorin Ashton), appears to be staging a comeback.

On Tuesday evening, a new mix was uploaded to the Bassnectar Mixcloud account, with the producer’s official Instagram account wiped clean around the same time. Most significantly, however, is a new website, UnlockTheOtherSide.com, which went live around the same time and features the signature Bassnectar logo. Fans discovered the site — the landing page for which was live but password protected on Tuesday evening but is currently offline — with copy describing it as “the new home for the Bassnectar universe & beyond,” according to screenshots reviewed by Billboard.

Access for a membership to the site, according to additional screenshots, costs $150 with an “early bird” discount being offered for $100. Membership promises access to “tickets to curated events,” “exclusive access to music,” archived content, “in-depth conversations,” “unreleased mixtapes and radio shows” delivered monthly, behind-the-scene access, remastered albums, a new album and more.

Despite these developments — which have spurred chatter in online Bassnectar communities on Reddit, Twitter and a longstanding private Bassnectar Discord channel — there has been no official announcement of a return from the artist himself. Ashton’s last public remark was a social media post on July 3, 2020, that has since been deleted, addressing sexual misconduct allegations made against him at the time and announcing an indefinite hiatus. He has not performed any known shows or released any new music since — until now.

On April 6, 2021, Ashton was sued by two women, who allege that he engaged in sexual abuse of minors, child pornography and human trafficking. Just a month later, two more women joined the lawsuit. (One of these women who joined the suit anonymously later removed herself when the court required her to reveal her legal name in order to proceed.)

Ashton, alongside the four other defendants named in the case (his management, label, and others), filed motions to dismiss. On Jan. 11, 2022, Judge Aleta A. Trauger granted all motions to dismiss except for Ashton’s, which was denied. The case is currently in discovery with a target trial date set for September.

Ashton now appears to be taking a comeback strategy with his Bassnectar project that goes directly to fans without reliance on intermediaries such as record labels and promoters, who may be reluctant to work with him. That tactic has already proven successful for Louis C.K., the comic who similarly stepped back from the public eye in 2017 after facing numerous sexual misconduct allegations. (Unlike Ashton, C.K. has not faced any criminal or civil charges.) Three years later — the same length of time as Bassnectar’s hiatus — in April 2020, C.K. announced a new comedy special called Sincerely Louis CK that he released directly to fans through his own website, with no advance notice. That album went on to win a Grammy for best comedy album last year and the comedian is performing at Madison Square Garden next week. He continues to release material strictly on LouisCK.com.

As for Bassnectar, Ashton’s fans appear thrilled about the return of an artist who for many represented the apex of the bass music realm. “THE KING IS BACK!! Happy Nectar Day to all the Fam!!!,” posted one fan to Twitter on Tuesday.

A representative from Ashton did not respond to Billboard‘s request for comment at time of publishing.

18 Jan 2023

Iggy Azalea Won’t Confirm Rumors of a Six-Figure OnlyFans Debut: ‘Number Was Pulled Outta Thin Air’

Just days after launching an OnlyFans to help kick off her year-long Hotter Than Hell multi-media project, Iggy Azalea is tamping down rumors about how much her paywalled site raked in on day one. After a report that she earned $307,000 in the first 24 hours, Iggy took to Twitter to throw cold water on that hot figure.

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“Lol, Y’all just be saying s–t to say s–t at this point cause that number was pulled outta thin air,” she said of the gaudy number the rapper claimed was totally fake news. In a second tweet Azalea further explained, “With love. I won’t share what I make on OF, in the same way I didn’t share what I earned selling my music catalog. amounts being reported don’t come from a valid source. Thanks to everyone supporting me. Crazy excited for where things go! Hot ass summer on the way!”

In November, Billboard reported that Azalea sold her master recording and publishing catalog to Domain Capital for an eight-figure sum, according to a source close to the deal. The wide reaching deal included 100% of Azalea’s share of her existing catalog, including No. 1 hit “Fancy” (featuring Charli XCX), “Black Widow” (featuring Rita Ora), and “Problem” (with Ariana Grande), and it included “an additional trigger” for Azalea to earn future revenue on master recordings.

According to a statement about Azalea’s Hotter project, it will encompass illustration, poetry, photography, video, music and her fourth studio album. The roll-out kicked off with the launch of her “Hotter Than Hell X OnlyFans,” a $25-per-month subscription deal that promises “first-look access and exclusive content from the project,” which is slated to wrap up in December with the release of a coffee table book.

Friday’s (Jan. 13) press release also promised that Hotter will be a “creative, colorful, tongue-in-cheek fun and unapologetically hot. The project takes visual inspiration from the supermodels of the 90s, Pamela Anderson, the conception of the centerfold model, sexuality and its differing viewpoints between men and women, and Madonna’s book Sex. It is a collaborative project and features exclusive collaborations with producers, visual artists, and fashion photographers.” At press time a release date for the album had not yet been announced.

Check out Iggy’s tweets below.

18 Jan 2023

Watch Danielle Deadwyler Sing a ‘Precious’ Cover of ‘Baby Got Back’ as Gollum

At the end of the day, Gollum is a simple guy. He likes all-powerful magical rings and … big butts? During her Tuesday (Jan. 17) appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Danielle Deadwyler did her expert impression of the famous Lord of the Rings creature while performing Sir Mix-A-Lot’s hit “Baby Got Back.” And as the cursed Stoor Hobbit himself would say, it was absolutely precious.

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Deadwyler began the interview by telling Fallon’s audience about how she fell in love with performing, revealing that she was inspired heavily by the first film in the LOTR franchise — specifically, Andy Serkis’ portrayal of Gollum, aka Sméagol. The Till star confessed that she watched the movie — which was inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien’s popular 1954 fantasy novel — at least “20 to 30 times the summer it came out.”

“Andy Serkis as Gollum, as Sméagol, is divine,” she gushed. “It’s vocality, it’s physicality, it’s all of the things.”

Noting that Deadwyler had practiced acting by mimicking Serkis’ portrayal of Gollum, Fallon asked the 40-year-old actress whether she could show off some of her skills on the spot. “When I was on From Scratch with Zoe Saldana, I did a song,” she said. “I did ‘Baby Got Back’ for her.”

“Are you ready?” she added, her voice suddenly morphing into Gollum’s sickly warble. “Here we go!”

“I like big butts and I cannot lie/ You other brothers can’t deny,” Deadwyler — or should we say Gollum — sang as she broke into song.

At the very end, she personalized one of the lyrics with Gollum in mind: “My homeboys tried to warn me/ But that butt you got makes me so … precious!”

Watch Danielle Deadwyler perform Sir Mix-A-Lot’s 1992 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 on Fallon above.

18 Jan 2023

Fall Out Boy Announces New Album ‘So Much (for) Stardust’ & Offers a Preview With First Single

Fall Out Boy is back. On Wednesday (Jan. 18), the pop punk group announced its eighth studio album, So Much (For) Stardust, on Ramen/Elektra.

The band — which consists of members Patrick Stump, Pete Wentz, Joe Trohman and Andy Hurley — revealed the album title and its release date via Instagram in an intimate letter to fans.

“‘Time is luck.’ Finish another tour. You reflect but not like a gem in the sun – more like a year long stare into yourself in another airplane bathroom,” the band wrote. “Sometimes you gotta blow everything you were and put the pieces back together in a new shape. The same but different – the foundation dynamited and the dust used to create the concrete pour. I have a tendency to get a little sad whenever I think about anything…but I also feel pure joy when I think that I exist at the same time as whales or that read happens to rise at a certain temperature. And that we happen to be spinning on this little blue rock at the exact same time together. So much (for) stardust.”

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The group captioned the post — which also included the album’s cover art featuring a dog attempting to eat bubbles — “New Album So Much (For) Stardust, produced by Neal Avron, out March 24th.”

The album announcement also arrived with the LP’s first single, “Love From the Other Side,” and its fairy-tale-themed music video.

“Sending my love from the other side of the apocalypse/ And I just about snapped/ Don’t look back/ Every lover’s got a little dagger in their hand/ Love from the other side of the apocalypse/ And I just about snapped/ Don’t look back/ Every lover’s got a little dagger in their hand,” Stump sings on the chorus.

Wentz also offered a little more insight into the album in a press release. “Our band has been an ongoing art project for 20 years, and we know there have been many inception points along that journey,” he said. “We wanted to create an album that merged those points together – something new, but carved from our foundation. Fueled By Ramen and Elektra seemed like the perfect home for this.”

Added Stump in the release: “We wanted to get back to the way we used to work. We wanted to make a record that was really lovingly crafted and deliberate and patiently guided – like someone cooked you a delicate meal. I’m not a very proud guy, but I’m pretty proud of this record.”

Stump also spoke with Apple Music 1 about writing for So Much (For) Stardust, and shared that a large driving force for the album was making sure it was filled with meaning.

“Honestly, for me personally, coming out of the pandemic and just being quarantined or with my family, I was like, if we’re going to do this, and if I’m going to leave again … I was like, it’s got to be, for me at least, it’s got to be with purpose,” Wentz said. “It can’t just be like, this … big show here. Yeah, it couldn’t be that anymore to me … Anybody who loves the thing that they do, their craft, you want to do it for the reason you originally loved. And it’s great actually to me to have these moments where you can reorganize the apartment of your mind or whatever. Life is short and long.”

See Fall Out Boy’s album announcement below and watch the video for “Love From the Other Side” above.