Music News

14 Nov 2024

Offset Involved in Physical Altercation With French Rapper’s Crew in Paris

Offset was reportedly involved in a street brawl earlier this week in front of his hotel in Paris. According to TMZ, the Atlanta native and his crew were throwing hands outside Hôtel du Collectionneur with members of French rapper Gazo’s entourage.

TMZ alleges that the argument started over Offset’s appearance in a music video, which apparently didn’t meet Gazo’s standards, and they demanded back the $150,000 in cash they forked over.

Billboard has reached out to Offset’s reps for comment.

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In video of the incident, punches are thrown between the crews as a security guard holds Offset pinned to a Sprinter van against his will while he shouts: “I’ll fire your a– up!”

A kick was thrown and Offset narrowly escaped the guard’s grasp so he could kick the opposition back.

The chaos continued into the hotel while women screamed before security locked the door to separate the rowdy crews. One woman was smashed to the pavement before officers arrived on the scene. Per TMZ, no arrests were made following the street brawl.

Cooler heads appeared to prevail as the check cleared and Gazo posted a photo with the Migos rapper announcing the collaboration on Instagram. ‘Set will be appear on “Wemby” — named after French NBA star Victor Wembanyama — which will be part of Gazo’s Apocalypse project releasing on Nov. 29.

Offset had a relatively quiet summer on the music front. as his last notable moment came in June with his slippery guest feature on Gunna’s “Style Rare.”

Watch footage of the brawl below.

14 Nov 2024

Cardi B Says She ‘Didn’t Get Paid a Dollar’ for Kamala Harris Rally Appearance

There’s nothing in this world Cardi B likes more than checks, but that doesn’t mean she took any money from the Kamala Harris campaign to attend a rally in Milwaukee.

On Thursday (Nov. 14), the politically outspoken rapper cleared up any misconceptions on the matter with a tweet aimed at conservative commentator Candace Owens, who’d written on X, “Hey @iamcardib — Working on a story and was wondering if you were in any way paid to speak at the Kamala campaign event you spoke at.”

Cardi quickly replied with, “I didn’t get paid a dollar and that’s on my three!!”

“I actually came out of pocket for glam and travel because it’s somewhere I wanted to be..,” the “WAP” artist continued. “Like please girl you know damn well I’ll argue you down about politics FOR FREE.”

The interaction comes a week after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, beating out the Democratic Harris-Walz ticket. Cardi — as well as numerous other A-list musicians — had staunchly supported the VP’s White House bid, with the Whipshots founder even speaking at a Nov. 1 campaign event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to help drum up some last-minute support.

“Like Kamala Harris, I’ve been the underdog, underestimated, and had my success belittled,” she said at the time. “Women have to work 10 times harder and still face questions about how we achieved success. I can’t stand a bully, but just like Kamala, I always stand up to one.”

When Harris’ campaign efforts proved unsuccessful, Cardi shared an emotional letter to the politician. “This may not mean much but I am so proud of you!” the hip-hop titan wrote, addressing the former prosecutor directly. “No one has ever made me change my mind and you did! I never thought I would see the day that a woman of color would be running for the President of the United States, but you have shown me, shown my daughters and women across the country that anything is possible.”

Cardi also issued a warning to Trump’s supporters post-election. “So you know, Trumpettes, y’all won, I know y’all happy,” she said in a video posted to X Nov. 6. “Ain’t nobody acting like they’re the losers. However, y’all need to leave me the f–k alone. Because I got one more f–king cigarette in me before I start lighting your asses up. Aight?”

The “Up” artist’s history with Owens goes back years before their latest X exchange, with the latter first calling the former “illiterate” and suggesting that Black Americans should be “insulted” by Biden’s partnership with Cardi in 2020. The two women have sparred multiple times in the years since, but unexpectedly found a fleeting piece of common ground in 2023 when Owens backed up Cardi’s assertion that Brian Szasz — the stepson of a billionaire who died in the Titanic submersible implosion that year — was merely looking for “clout.”

“We all know this day would come,” Owens tweeted at the time. “Finally, I agree with [Cardi B] and everything she said about the submarine stepson from hell.”

See Cardi’s tweet to Owens below.

14 Nov 2024

Jon M. Chu Says Upcoming Britney Spears Film Is About Treatment of ‘Stars That We Think We Own’

Jon M. Chu is giving a bit of insight into the highly anticipated film about the life and career of pop princess Britney Spears.

“I cannot talk much about the Britney story other than I have been a Britney fan for many years,” the director told The Hollywood Reporter in a recent interview. “I saw her when she was one of 12 acts at the Shrine Auditorium. I’ve gone to many of her shows, and she’s always been someone I’ve looked up to. She represents a generation of people growing up in the 2000s and late ’90s, and she has a story that deserves to be told properly. There’s a lot about us in it.”

He continued that “we haven’t written the script yet, we haven’t hired a writer yet. But in this initial conception, I think it’s a lot about how we treat people, young people, stars that we think we own, women, mothers.”

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According to Variety, Universal Pictures landed the rights to the pop princess’ best-selling memoir The Woman in Me. The best-selling book chronicles Spears’ rise to fame, her relationship with fellow child star Justin Timberlake — which included her getting pregnant and having an abortion during their time together — as well as her life under a highly restrictive 13-year conservancy. Chu was tapped to direct, and Marc Platt will produce.

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“The project I might be doing isn’t a biopic story … it’s a fictional musical where I play an extremely intelligent character !!!,” Spears wrote on Instagram in September. She added, “It’s flattering to be in such good company like Jon Chu !!!”

14 Nov 2024

John Summit Details His Rapid Rise at Billboard Live Music Summit: ‘If You Don’t Know the Rules, You Can’t Break Them’

When the music world was shutting down for most artists in 2020, it was just gearing up for John Summit.

At Thursday’s Billboard Live Music Summit, Summit and his manager, Metatone’s Holt Harmon, joined a panel discussion titled “Inside the Rise of John Summit,” moderated by Billboard‘s Katie Bain, to detail how they managed to take the dance world by storm over the past four years.

Summit’s Billboard-charting career began in 2020 with “Deep End,” which peaked at No. 26 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs that year. Since then, he’s racked up his first two top 10 hits on the chart — “Where You Are” and “Shiver” (both peaking at No. 8 and both with singer Hayla) — and crisscrossed the globe to play the biggest festivals, set up shop in dance havens like Ibiza and Las Vegas, and wow crowds around the world.

Below, find highlights from Summit and Harmon’s conversation, starting from the beginning of their journey through the release of his first full-length album Comfort in Chaos over the summer.

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No Rules

Holt Harmon: “Part of the beauty of working with young people and being young ourselves is, nobody had put a title on what we were already. So honestly, it was like the beauty of the unknown and the beauty of being able to tackle anything — not living by rules that we didn’t know about.”

John Summit: “If you don’t know the rules, you can’t break them.”

Picking Up During Shutdown

Summit: “I just knew that the whole world was online because everyone was stuck at home. So I was doing streams every single day, posting every single day, sharing my music, sharing the process. … I think a lot of artists took it as a time to relax and see their families for once. But because I was living in my mom’s basement at the time — shout-out Tamara in the crowd! — she kept me fed while I cooked the beats.” [Laughs]

Harmon: “COVID was kind of like the great reset. It’s like, anybody who was leaning or — I hate to put it like this — but anybody who was being lazy and leaning on touring, and that was their entire career, not putting out great music, not putting out great art, but just leaning on that they could tour, didn’t have that to lean on anymore. Didn’t have that crutch. So it more or less reset the industry.”

Changing It Up

Harmon: “You come to a John Summit show, expect the unexpected. He’s gonna play whatever he wants stylistically. He might throw dubstep in. He’s gonna throw drum and bass in. He’s gonna do his thing. … For me, it’s so cool to watch him be able to be like a chameleon. But it allows him to do different things and not get pigeonholed.”

Summit: “That’s where I think songwriting really comes into play, that I can change the productions for a song. … I think kind of changing around the production for songs and adapting, but then also, you know, staying true to yourself.”

His Second Home…To a Point

Summit: “What makes Vegas so nice is that I do 20 days a year, and it’s a different crowd every single weekend. You can’t do like 20 weekends in Chicago, because it would just be the same. Because [Vegas is] a tourist destination, much like Ibiza. That’s what keeps it really fun and entertaining, that keeps things fresh, and the hospitality is so great there that I feel like it’s a second home for me. … But it would my hell if all I did was a residency and it was the same thing every weekend, so that does freak me out.”

14 Nov 2024

Cher Says Meeting Sonny Bono ‘Wasn’t Love at First Sight’ Because He Didn’t Find Her ‘Particularly Attractive’

All Cher ever needed was Sonny Bono — but for his part, it took the late singer-songwriter a little more time to fall for his famous ex-wife and collaborator.

In a new interview with CBS Sunday Morning, the “If I Could Turn Back Time” musician gave her unfiltered side of the story of first time crossing paths with her Sonny & Cher counterpart. “I thought it was like when Tony met Maria,” she said, recalling how she met him at a coffee shop in 1962. “I mean, everybody disappeared.”

“And it was just the two of us,” Cher continued. “But he didn’t like me. It wasn’t love at first sight. It was something. I never felt it before.”

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But while the “Believe” artist was all about Bono from the start, she says he preferred her friend. “He said, ‘You know, you can come and stay with me,’” she reflected. “And I was like, ‘Okay, you know.’ And he went, ‘No, no, I don’t find you particularly attractive.’ So, I was upset and happy at the same time.”

Cher was famously 16 when she met a then-27-year-old Sonny, with the couple eventually getting married in ’64 and rising to fame via their husband-and-wife band. They split up a decade later and finalized their divorced in 1975, and the former politician died in a 1998 skiing accident at age 62.

While speaking to CBS, Cher also disputed that their age gap ever felt “strange.” “He was kind of childish,” she said. “He got to be with me … because I didn’t expect anything. I didn’t want money. I didn’t think about anything, you know. And all these other women that were his age, they wanted him to be grownup.”

After the dissolution of Sonny & Cher, the Burlesque star nurtured a successful solo career that was recently celebrated by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which inducted her into its 2024 class in October. “I have a kind love hate relationship [with the Rock Hall],” she told Billboard at the time. “Because I thought, ‘What do I have to f–king do , you know, to be inducted into this place? What do you have to do to be a part of it?’”

Also in October, Cher lead an all-female lineup of performers at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. LISA of BLACKPINK also took the catwalk, as did Tyla.

Cher is now gearing up to release the first part of her autobiography, Cher: The Memoir, Nov. 19. It’s expected to chronicle her childhood and tumultuous marriage to Bono, while the second volume is slated for 2025.

Watch the clip of Cher recounting her earliest memories with Sonny Bono below.

14 Nov 2024

Jay-Z’s Sean Carter Foundation Launches Financial Education Program for HBCUs

Jay-Z’s Sean Carter Foundation is looking to help out students at historically Black colleges and universities in a major way.

The foundation announced the launch of the Champions for Financial Legacy (CFFL) on Wednesday (Nov. 13). The educational financial initiative was formed in collaboration with the esteemed Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and Toyota North America.

The program will look to empower HBCU students around the country and equip them with the proper tools and resources to improve managing their finances as they enter America’s workforce.

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“Every day at the Shawn Carter Foundation, we dedicate ourselves to uplifting students and communities that are underserved,” Jay-Z’s mother, Gloria Carter, who co-founded the foundation, said in a statement. “To launch a financial education program that will reach more students and communities, along with dedicated partners like Toyota and the Wharton School of Business, is a vision we are finally seeing come to fruition. We are so excited to see the incredible impact of CFFL unfold and look forward to its growth.”

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Topics covered in the initiative’s curriculum include budgeting, market risks and returns, mutual funds, credit scores, stock markets and much more.

“One way to strengthen the resiliency of middle-class households is to increase their ability to generate wealth,” said Dr. Keith Weigelt, a professor at The Wharton School. “I thank both the Shawn Carter Foundation and Toyota for their foresight in addressing a long-neglected social disparity.”

The Champions for Financial Legacy program will go live in the spring 2025 semester at HBCUs including Lincoln University, Norfolk State University and Virginia State University. Following the first semester, The Sean Carter Foundation plans to extend its reach to additional schools in the coming years.

14 Nov 2024

Boyz II Men Biopic Is in the Works

Boyz II Men have joined the list of beloved artists getting the biopic treatment.

The group — which includes members Nathan Morris, Shawn Stockman and Wanyá Morris — have partnered with Compelling Pictures and Primary Wave to develop the film, according to Variety. Additionally, Compelling is working on a documentary about the group’s rise and impact throughout the 1990s and 2000s, and how their success continues today.

Producers for the upcoming film include Denis O’Sullivan and Jeff Kalligheri for Compelling; Larry Mestel for Primary Wave; Joe Mulvihill for the Mulvi Group; and Jeremy M. Rosen for Roxwell Films. All three members of Boyz II Men will serve as executive producers for the project, along with Ori Allon, Dennis Casali and Steven Garcia. The producers are reportedly in talks with writers and directors to lead the project.

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“We’ve been waiting to find the right partners who understand our story and are willing to tell it all,” Morris said in a press statement. “Denis and Jeff at Compelling Pictures understood us day one.”

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Among the musicians whose biopics are currently in production include Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Jenni Rivera, Janis Joplin, Queen Latifah, Sublime and more.

Biopics have proven to be wildly successful over the past few years. 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody (which grossed over $900 million globally) gave Queen’s discography a major boost. In the six months following its release, Queen’s music streams tripled, from 588 million to 1.9 billion. Sales, too, had a 483% increase from the previous year. In mid-2019, the band occupied the top two spots on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart.

Meanwhile, Elton John’s hits collection Diamonds occupied the No. 4 slot thanks to a biopic boost from the 2019 musical Rocketman. In June, the set also catapulted to No. 7 on the Billboard 200, making it John’s 20th top 10 album.

14 Nov 2024

Lil Baby Is Back From a ‘Dark Period’ With Album Announcement & New Single: Watch

“Whatever Wham say goes.” That’s the phrase that popped up on billboards in L.A., referencing a Young Thug jailhouse tweet from June. The YSL boss teased new music with his fellow Atlanta rapper Lil Baby, tweeting, “Wham let’s drop one on these rats peter,” shortly after coming home from Fulton County Jail.

Now, Baby is ready to say his piece with a brand new album — his first since 2022’s It’s Only Me. On Thursday (Nov. 14), the rapper released the lead single and video to his project WHAM: Who Hard As Me.

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“5AM” (produced by Wheezy and Sean Momberger) shows Baby trying to come to terms with the pressure of expectations and celebrity. He starts the song off by talking about those pitfalls, rapping, “How you managed to get everything you want and still ain’t happy?/ Half of me done died, the other half alive, I’m tryna balance it/ Granny said if it’s worth something to you, then it’s worth the challenge.”

Later in the song he raps about struggling with vulnerability and survivor’s guilt, saying, “Five in the mornin’, just me and a ‘Rari, don’t know where I’m goin’/ Thinkin’ ’bout all this sh—t, honestly, I don’t know how I be doin’ this/ Can’t be vulnerable, who I’m gon’ talk to when I’m going through it?/ Am I delusional? Keep tellin’ myself that it’s all good/ All I know is survival and dollars, I come from the hood.”

Last night, the Atlanta rapper took to Instagram and posted footage of himself shooting the new music video and recording the song with a caption that mentions he was going through a rough patch the last two years. “Ain’t it crazy how they tryna play me like i ain’t the one!!! It’s that time! I would say again, but this run will be totally different!!” he wrote. “I had the darkest period of my life these last two years, but I stayed down and overcame that sh—t now I’m back to f—kin sh—t up as usual…, Sincerely, Wham!! Who hard as me. Let’s go.”

While no release date for the album has been announced, Baby wrote on X that he was dropping another single and video this week. He was recently spotted in the studio with Young Thug and Future, so there could be something from the trio coming soon.

Check out Lil Baby’s new video for “5AM” above.

14 Nov 2024

Chris Brown Earns His First Diamond-Certified Record With ‘No Guidance’ Featuring Drake

Chris Brown‘s 2019 summer smash “No Guidance,” featuring Drake, becomes his first diamond-certified record by the Recording Industry Association of America, the RIAA announced on Wednesday (Nov. 13).

Diamond certification is given to artists whose songs have moved 10 million units. According to the RIAA, one equivalent song unit is equal to a single digital song sale, or 150 on-demand audio and/or video streams.

“DIAMOND. COOK AND REMAIN HUMBLE,” he wrote on Instagram in reaction to his feat.

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This marks Drake’s eighth diamond-certified record, following “God’s Plan,” “One Dance” (with Wizkid and Kyla), “Hotline Bling,” “Work” (with Rihanna), “Life is Good” (with Future), “Sicko Mode” (with Travis Scott), and “Love Me” (with Lil Wayne and Future). He’s the second artist in history to achieve this milestone, and ia only one away from tying Post Malone‘s all-time record with nine.

“No Guidance” was the fourth single from Brown’s 2019 album Indigo, release via RCA Records. The song reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and hit No. 1 on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay (27 weeks), Adult R&B Airplay (11 weeks) and Rhythmic Airplay (four weeks). He had broken the record for most weeks at No. 1 on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay in 2020 and surpassed his own mark a year later with “Go Crazy” with Young Thug. It was also nominated for best R&B song at the 2020 Grammy Awards and won song of the year, best collaboration and best dance performance at the 2019 Soul Train Music Awards.

14 Nov 2024

Tyler Childers Sets Headlining On the Road Tour for 2025: See the Dates

Tyler Childers is gearing up for an extensive headlining tour in 2025, when his Tyler Childers: On the Road makes stops at venues including Lexington’s Kroger Field (April 19), two nights at New York’s Forest Hills Stadium (Sept. 29-30) and two nights at Nashville’s GEODIS Stadium (Oct. 10-11), as well as shows at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl (June 10), Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena (June 7), Minneapolis’ Target Center (April 9) and Boston’s Xfinity Center (Sept. 25).

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The tour launches April 3 in New Orleans and runs through Nov. 15, ending with a show at the 02 in London.

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Joining Childers on the trek are guests Wynonna Judd, Charley Crockett, Robert Earl Keen, The Hold Steady, Medium Build, Deer Tick, Hayes Carll, S.G. Goodman, Cory Branan and SOMA.

Artist presale tickets will be available beginning Nov. 19 at 10 a.m. local time, with general onsale launching Friday, Nov. 22, at 10 a.m. local time. Presale registration is open now through Sunday, Nov. 17, at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Those who purchase tickets on Ticketmaster and can’t attend will have the option to resell their tickets at the original price paid using the Face Value Exchange. To protect the Exchange, Childers has requested that all shows ticketed by Ticketmaster — except those in New York and Virginia, where Face Value Exchange can’t be mandated — use tickets that are mobile-only and restricted from transfer. For AXS-ticketed events, fans will be able to resell their tickets for face value plus fees through AXS Official Resale Marketplace.

Last year, Childers’s Rustin’ in the Rain album debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard 200. The album’s single “In Your Love” was nominated for Grammys including best country song and best country solo performance, and marked the singer-songwriter’s debut on Billboard’s Hot 100.

$1 from every ticket sold will benefit both Hickman Holler Appalachian Relief Fund (HHARF) and REVERB. Established in 2020 by Childers and Senora May, HHARF brings awareness and financial support for philanthropic efforts in the Appalachian Region. REVERB’s efforts reduce environmental impact in live music and fund carbon impact programs.

See the full list of tour dates below:

https://twitter.com/TTChilders/status/1857109117543833902