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2024 is coming to an end. Billboard Unfiltered has returned with a final installment and 26th episode of the year to put a bow on the year in music.
Co-hosts Carl Lamarre, Kyle Denis, Damien Scott and Trevor Anderson reunited to highlight some of their favorite rap and R&B projects of the year while breaking down some of the misses on Billboard‘s year-end lists in both respective genres.
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The crew also discussed the top storylines from hip-hop culture this year and made some bold predictions for who they see having a massive 2025.
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While Future is well-represented with We Don’t Trust You (No. 2) and Mixtape Pluto (No. 9), Scott actually enjoyed the second installment We Still Don’t Trust You the most of any of Future’s output in 2024.
“That one reminded me more of HNDRXX,” he said for his snub. “That was the bag I liked him most in, so when that came in I was like, ‘He’s back in his pop-adjacent bag.’”
Denis would have liked to see LL Cool J’s The Force and BigXThaPlug’s Take Care get some love. He sang the praises of Leon Thomas’ Mutt once again, which came in at No. 1 on the best R&B albums list. “It’s really such a fantastic album,” he said. “He just sounds phenomenal on the album and he also had one of my favorite live shows of the year … I really hope next year is the year he gets a breakthrough single of his own.”
Anderson spotlighted Bryson Tiller’s self-titled album, while Lamarre saluted what Chris Brown’s been able to do on his dynamic two-decade run and his 11:11 deluxe. “Chris is entering his 20th year and the 11:11 deluxe, him being able to have ‘Residuals’ take off. That brother stays with a hit,” he added.
There was plenty of juicy storylines to choose from in what was a messy yet jam-packed 2024 in the rap world, but Anderson believes Drake’s legal action against Universal Music Group will have the biggest impact in the years to come.
“The longtail from the Drake-UMG will be the most impactful,” he declared. “I mean that just from an industry-shaking sense. It’s been a long time — if almost never — that we’ve had a star of this magnitude going against a label of that magnitude.”
Denis is anticipating Doja Cat’s return, while Anderson thinks there’s a big year on the horizon for Cardi B with the arrival of her long-awaited sophomore album. But the crew seems to agree that the stars have aligned for Doechii to make a quantum leap.
Watch the full episode below.
Sabrina Carpenter, fresh off the North American leg of her first-ever arena tour, is now accustomed to playing 20,000-seat concert halls. But at NPR’s offices in Washington, D.C., the short and sweet pop star finally found a venue that’s just her size. On a Monday in early December, Billboard was on hand to watch Carpenter […]
The Viña del Mar International Song Festival announced on Friday (Dec. 20) that Incubus and The Cult are the final two acts to complete its lineup for 2025. Both rock bands will make their first appearance at the Chilean festival on Feb. 27.
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“Viña’s Festival should always have a lineup in which everyone feels represented,” said the Mayor of Viña del Mar, Macarena Ripamonti, in a press release. “By confirming these important rock bands, we are catching up with various generations who grew up with this style of music, a longing they constantly expressed to me.”
Formed in 1991 in Calabasas, Calif., Incubus is an alternative rock and nu metal band that also combines elements of heavy metal, hip-hop, funk and grunge. It is known for hits such as “Stellar,” “Adolescents” and “Drive,” the latter of which reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. On the Billboard 200, the band has placed 11 albums, seven of them in the top 10 and one, Light Grenades, at No. 1. Comprised of Brandon Boyd (vocals), Mike Einziger (guitar, piano, backing vocals), José Pasillas (drums), Chris Kilmore (keyboards) and Nicole Row (bass), the band has sold more than 23 million records worldwide and has received dozens of multi-Platinum and Platinum certifications.
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Meanwhile, English band The Cult emerged in 1983 and since then, has positioned itself as a major exponent of gothic post-punk with singles such as”She Sells Sanctuary,” “Love Removal Machine,” “Spiritwalker” and “Rain,” among others. The band’s 11th album, Under the Midnight Sun, was released in 2022, marking its return after several years away from the recording studios.
In its 64th annual edition, the festival will take place from Sunday, Feb. 23, to Friday, Feb. 28, at the Quinta Vergara in the coastal city of Viña del Mar, Chile.
Incubus and The Cult join a lineup of musical stars performing at the world’s largest Latin festival, headlined by Marc Anthony, Myriam Hernández, Morat, Carlos Vives, Duki, Bacilos, Ha*Ash, Sebastián Yatra, Carín León, Eladio Carrión and Kidd Voodoo
Produced for the first time by Megamedia and Bizarro Live Entertainment, the Viña del Mar Festival will be broadcast on Mega and Mega Go. It will also be available on the Disney+ platform throughout Latin America, and globally on the Billboard website with specials and exclusive content.
Rihanna has a new snack she’ll be making for her kids — assuming she doesn’t take all of it for herself.
In a fun new video posted to the superstar’s Instagram Thursday (Dec. 19), Ri and a friend try out an unorthodox pairing: chicken nuggets and caviar. “Oh my god, I don’t like how much I like this,” the Fenty mogul says after smearing the spread on a nugget and taking a bite.
“Am I about to steal my kids nuggets?” she continued while going in for seconds and thirds. “I hate when I like my kids’ food, because I be stealing that s–t. I’m actually really nervous what my near future looks like.”
“In the spirit of Christmas, this one is for all the ‘snoccer moms,’” Ri captioned the clip.
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Assuming she actually shares with her kiddos, the caviar nuggets will go to 2-year-old RZA and 1-year-old Riot Rose, whom Rihanna shares with A$AP Rocky. In an October interview with Access Hollywood, the “Love on the Brain” singer opened up about being a mom to two boys, gushing, “It’s fun, I literally, I enjoy it so much.”
“I am just looking at them and living through them, and I’m amazed by every new discovery of theirs, even their boundaries,” she added at the time. “They’re teaching me how to be their mom as much as I’m teaching them how to be in this world and guide them as best as I can.”
Ri’s new “snoccer mom” snack tutorial comes shortly after she enjoyed a mom’s night out at Mariah Carey’s final 2024 holiday concert Dec. 17 at Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. While there, the “All I Want for Christmas Is You” vocalist stepped down into the audience to greet her famous friend, who asked Carey to autograph her chest in a hilarious moment captured on video.
“Mariah Carey is signing my t-t y’all,” Ri hilariously said into Carey’s microphone at the time. “This s–t is f–king epic! … Look at that s–t, y’all!”
Ben Stiller would drive all night for SZA. In fact, in the new visual for the singer’s track “Drive,” which dropped on Friday morning (Dec. 20), the Nutcrackers star looks entranced as he lip-synchs along to the song while barreling down a dark road in his SUV.
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In the Bradley J. Calder-directed clip, Stiller enthusiastically sings the moody ballad’s lyrics about hitting the road to clear your head while trying to not get too in your head about everything that’s going on. “I been up ’til up midnight, drivin’ to nowhere/ Bumpin’ a slow song, can’t get my head clear/ I been up ’til sunrise, headed to nowhere/ Hopin’ that someone’s missin’ me somewhere,” SZA sings over gently plucked acoustic guitar.
After worrying that she’s balled so hard she’s hit her peak, SZA brags about all the exes who still want to hit her up and how she has no time to waste on haters. And while he’s hitting those lines, Stiller closes his eyes and begins to drift to sleep before waking up with a renewed energy that inspires him to lean out of the window and rip doughnuts in the middle of the street. Eagle-eyed viewers noticed that the midnight ghost ride is similar to a lip-synching cameo Stiller had in Jack Johnson’s “Taylor” video in 2003 — only this time around, the actor’s hands are wrapped around a steering wheel instead of a guitar.
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Things then get super weird as Stiller drives off and SZA pops up in the woods dressed as a sexy alien insect as the second half of the song turns into a slow-grind R&B jam and the singer crawls her way across the marsh. The costume is similar to one in the teased artwork for SZA’s long-awaited deluxe edition of her blockbuster SOS album, Lana, which is due out on Friday, as well as her Hot Ones look from September.
SZA first revealed the Lana title during a show in New York in September 2023, during which she told the audience that the deluxe version of SOS would be like “a whole ‘nother album … It’s seven to 10 songs, and it’ll be out this fall.” Then in a November British Vogue interview, she described Lana and the SOS deluxe as two entirely different albums.
But then earlier this month, SZA confirmed that Lana is the title of the SOS deluxe album, and teased the tracklist. SOS debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums charts following its 2022 release, shattering the record for the biggest streaming week for an R&B album by a woman at the time with 404.6 million official on-demand streams for the album’s songs, according to Luminate.
SZA will embark on the Grand National stadium tour with Kendrick Lamar beginning in April.
Watch the “Drive” video above.
It was a busy year for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, and it looks like 2025 will be just as jam-packed. According to a press release recapping the Boss’ 2024, next year will find the 75-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Fame legend extending his global tour with the band, as well as celebrating some milestones and dusting off unheard gems from the archives.
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“Upcoming releases in 2025 will include a look back at Springsteen’s storied recoding career, featuring never-before-heard material,” read the release, which did not specify when the songs are from or what format they will be released in. In 1998, Springsteen dropped the hefty four-disc box set Tracks, which featured 66 songs, mostly never-before-released, as well as b-sides, demos and alternate versions of previously released material.
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It also noted that Springsteen will “continue his involvement” in the upcoming biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere, in which The Bear star Jeremy Allen White will portray a young Bruce.
Next year will include a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Springsteen’s landmark 1975 album Born To Run, which helped turn Bruce into a rock legend thanks to such beloved classics as the title track, “Thunder Road,” “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” “Backstreets” and “Jungleland,” among others.
Other anniversaries that will be marked in 2025 include the 45th anniversary of 1980’s double-album masterpiece The River, as well as the 30th anniversary of the Grammy-winning acoustic folk rock album The Ghost of Tom Joad and the 20th of 2005’s Devils & Dust.
The E Street Band will keep on keepin’ on next spring when they kick off a spring/summer run of European dates, which will kick-off with the first of three show at the Co-Op Live arena in Manchester, U.K. on May 14 and include stops in France, Germany, the Czech Republic and Spain before winding down on July 3 in Milan, Italy at San Siro Stadium.
Charli XCX has invited Troye Sivan to Sweat with her some more. The Brat star opened the door for a one-time re-boot of her 2024 sold-out Sweat tour with Sivan on Thursday (Dec. 19) when she invited the “Rush” singer to join her on stage again next year. “ok so i know it’s already been […]
Katy Perry left an early gift under Katy Cats’ trees on Friday morning (Dec. 2) when she dropped a surprise deluxe edition of her 143 album, re-dubbed 1432. Even better, if features the previously unreleased tune “OK,” a Dr. Luke-produced mid-tempo pop bubbler on which Perry promises to stick with you, no matter what. Explore […]
A new waxwork captures the Rocket Man, out in space and at his gravity-defying best.
The Madame Tussauds wax museum in London pulls the curtain back on what reps describe as its most structurally ambitious figure to date – the Rocket Man suspended in the air over a baby grand piano.
Unveiled today, Dec. 20, the new figure depicts a moment from Elton John’s high-flying early days, when America came calling and the artist was at the peak of his considerable powers.
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The Baker Street attraction is styled from Elton’s legendary 1975 Midsummer Music one-day festival at Wembley Stadium — hands on the key, bejewelled jumpsuit, flamboyant glasses, and platform-shoed feet in the air.
“Elton John is a true living legend and a dazzling personality to behold, so we knew we had to go above and beyond for this figure,” comments Steve Blackburn, general manager at Madame Tussauds London in a statement. “Capturing Elton’s phenomenal stage presence – and that iconic keyboard handstand – in figure form is quite the challenge, and the result is one of our most technically ambitious figures to date.”
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The Rock Hall-inducted singer has worked collaboratively with the the wax works’ artists since his measurement-taking sitting back in 1976 for his first figure.
At Madame Tussauds London, Elton’s model joins likenesses of pop and rock giants Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa, Amy Winehouse, Freddie Mercury and David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust.
The “I’m Still Standing” singer’s impressive contributions to music have been celebrated in every imaginable way, from a collection of postage stamps, countless awards, the Rocketman biopic, and more.
In 2023, Elton’s five-year farewell tour officially secured the highest-grossing tour of all time, with $939.1 million raked in across 330 shows. While on tour, John’s career earnings grew to about $2 billion, making him the highest-grossing solo artist of all time.
Ringo Starr joined his Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney on the final night of the latter’s global ‘Got Back’ tour at London’s The O2 arena yesterday evening (Dec. 19).
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The drummer got behind his kit during the show’s encore to perform “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)” and “Helter Skelter.” Watch footage of the moment below.
After honoring his late bandmate John Lennon during “I’ve Got A Feeling,” McCartney said to a giddy crowd, “We’ve got another surprise for you. Bring to the stage the mighty, the one and only Mr Ringo Starr.” The pair hugged on stage before McCartney quipped, “Should we rock? Get on your kit la” to Ringo before the two-song appearance.
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The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood also appeared onstage during the show, playing guitar on “Got Back.” McCartney introduced the song by talking about his old bass guitar that was stolen over 50 years ago, and was eventually returned after a public appeal. Holding the Höfner onstage, McCartney revealed that it was the bass’ first stage appearance since it had gone missing: “I haven’t played it in 50 years.”
The “Got Back” tour kicked off in 2022 and has seen the 82-year-old perform all over the globe, and included a headline performance at England’s Glastonbury Festival in June of that year. He then continued the run in the United States and through Latin America, eventually concluding with a run in Europe and a number of shows in the U.K. over the past few weeks.
The evening was a star-studded event with big-names such as Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa, Kate Moss, Dame Judi Dench, Greta Gerwig and more all spotted in the crowd.
There was also a festive surprise with a performance of his 1979 song “Wonderful Christmastime,” accompanied by the Capital Choir who provided backing vocals on the song as snow confetti filled the venue.
Elsewhere he performed a number of Beatles classics, including “Let It Be”, “Hey Jude” and “Something”, alongside Wings and solo material cuts like “Live and Let Die” and “Band On The Run”. He looked visibly emotional at the conclusion of “Now and Then,” the ‘final’ Beatles song released in 2023 which was completed through the use of assistive AI. McCartney has no more shows lined up in the near future, but promised the crowd at the conclusion that “we’ll see you again soon”.