Music News

The planets have aligned and it’s Pluto season once again. The third time’s a charm for Future as he returned with his guest-less Mixtape Pluto album last week, which leads the discussion surrounding the new episode of Billboard Unfiltered.

Future is angling for his third No. 1 album of 2024 and his eighth consecutive leader on the Billboard 200. For staff writer Kyle Denis, there’s never enough Future in his life. “Never too much Future for me, to be honest,” he said. “‘Told My’ is my favorite song. ‘I told my b—h if I gotta be faithful, I might fall off.’ That’s a bar.”

Denis continued: “That’s gonna be something I live by for the next eight months or so until the next tape drops maybe. I had a great time with the Future record. I just feel like he never lets me down in terms of giving me a collection of solid tracks that I like to bump for the next couple of months.”

Deputy Director, Editorial Damien Scott lent his stamp of approval to the project. “I love the album, I think it’s great. I also love the other two albums he dropped. There’s only so many hours I could devote to Future. I can’t play him around my kids,” Scott admitted. “It’s not like too much Future, but you could’ve held off on this while we’re still enjoying this other album that still has legs.”

He added: “He’s great at making the story. He’s great at furthering the narrative. Everything we’ve learned about Future is through The Shade Room, which is hilarious because we don’t learn much from his music about him, but he’s able to continue this narrative that we all buy into album after album.”

Over the weekend, Janet Jackson made headlines when she told The Guardian that presidential candidate Kamala Harris is “not black” and she “heard that she’s Indian.” She faced plenty of backlash on social media over the false claims.

Guest anchor and senior producer Tetris Kelly chalked this up to being a classic case of misinformation being spread. “No matter how famous you are, she’s still an auntie,” he said. “That’s the way I look at it. That’s your Black auntie that be at the cookout that be like, ‘Yeah, I saw on Facebook.’ We talk about misinformation and that’s kind of how it works.”

Kyle Denis took a different approach expecting more from Ms. Jackson. “I’m expecting her to be a knowledgable person because she’s a voting citizen who’s grown.”

The discussion took a turn when breaking down Chloe Bailey’s solo career as the fellas gave her advice on how she could capitalize on her talents and fully blossom into a star.

“I think she would do well with an editor or an executive producer to streamline the visions that she has that feel too much on a single song let alone an entire album,” Denis said. “She probably does have too much freedom. Sometimes you need to hone it in.”

Denis thinks there needs to be a realignment for Chloe’s branding so she could reap the benefits like we saw with Sabrina Carpenter and her Short ‘n Sweet summer of dominance.

“When I think of the name Chloe Bailey, a lot of things come to mind, but they’re not really a uniform brand of what Chloe Bailey is or represents,” he continued. “Half the reason people were so into the Sabrina Carpenter arc this year was how well she branded herself across those singles aesthetically, style-wise all that stuff. There’s a disconnect there on that level with Chloe.”

Damien Scott wants to see her hit the studio with a sonic savant like the Grammy-winning Darkchild to help steer her next era’s direction.

“I think there could be a lot of success had if she were to sit down with somebody we all threw out Darkchild. I think she needs a direction. The way that Darkchild talked about working with Brandy, that’s the type of work she needs,” he said. “What are you really trying to say? Let’s find some sounds that match that. Let’s find some themes that match that.”

Watch the full episode below.

Kendrick Lamar star has never shined brighter.

Earlier this month, he once again brought the rap world to a halt with the release of an untitled song on his Instagram account just a few days after he announced that he would be headlining Super Bowl 59. For the cover art, he used a picture of a pair of tattered black Nike Air Force 1s. The artwork matches the same aesthetic as the the artwork for “6:16 in LA” and “Meet the Grahams,” but as far as we know, there’s no backstory behind the sneakers in the picture.

However, there is a nice little wrinkle that came up a couple days ago. The picture is from an eBay listing posted by “Good2BYou” that belongs to Billy Lingo and Darla Wilson, a couple from North Little Rock, Arkansas. The Internet had already figured out that the picture came from eBay, but no one knew who was behind the account until now.

Local news station THV11 caught up with the couple to talk about the absurdity of the situation. “What happened was I sold the shoes and I said, ‘Oh great,I sold a pair of shoes,’” Wilson recalled of that fateful September night. “So I got ‘em, boxed ‘em up, printed the label, and all of a sudden, my phone was blowing up.” They sold the sneakers for the asking price of $70, but cancelled the order when they were made aware of Lamar and the song.

“Well, I’m not gonna lie to you,” Lingo explained while wearing a shirt with a picture of the sneakers on it. “I didn’t know a whole lot about him. and I knew who he was — my son told me about him and my daughter told me about him — But, I really know about him now.” Adding, “We had an opportunity put before us, and I’m not a greedy person. I’ve got the ‘Buy It Now’ for $100,000 or ‘Buy It Now’ for $75,000, and I know that’s probably not going to happen, but it could.”

If you want a piece of rap history, the bidding starts at $5,000 with this Sunday (Sept. 29) at 1:00 a.m. or you can cut in front of the line for a mere 75 racks. There are zero bids, so far.

Billboard reached out to Kendrick’s camp for comment.

Justin Johnson, one of the suspects in the November 2021 murder of Young Dolph (Adolph Thorton Jr.), was found guilty on first-degree murder as well as charges of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, per FOX13.

A jury reached the verdict during a court hearing in Memphis on Thursday (Sept. 26) after about four hours of deliberation.

Following the fourth day’s closing arguments, Johnson was sentenced to life in prison on the first-degree murder charge by Judge Jennifer Mitchell and he will learn his fate when it comes to the additional charges during a November court date. Johnson never took the defense stand.

“Every murder’s a tragedy, and we take them all seriously,” said Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy. “This one generated extra public interest because Young Dolph was a prominent and beloved member of the community. We will continue to fight hard to make sure that all of those responsible for his death are brought to justice.”

Johnson and fellow alleged gunman, Cornelius Smith, ambushed Young Dolph on Nov. 17, 2021, at Makeda’s Homemade Butter Cookies in his hometown. They allegedly fired 22 shots while striking and killing the Paper Route Empire CEO.

Smith took the stand on Monday (Sept. 23) after pleading guilty to murder charges. He implicated himself along with Justin Johnson as well as Hernandez “Quett” Govan and Yo Gotti‘s brother Anthony “Big Jook” Mims in Dolph’s murder.

Smith claimed that Big Jook put a $100,000 bounty on Dolph and explained that he and Johnson were each supposed to collect $40,000 after killing the Memphis rapper.

However, Smith testified that he only ended up receiving $800, but Big Jook did step in to pay $50,000 in lawyer fees once he was apprehended. Although, Jook was murdered while leaving a funeral in January.

The same day Dolph was killed also happened to be Smith’s daughter’s birthday. Smith said he had no money and wanted to make sure she had a “beautiful birthday” if he got his hands on the cash.

“Man, I was trying to make it right for her,” he told the court on Monday. “I ain’t have no money, I’m trying to get some money that day. So I’m trying to make sure my baby girl have a beautiful birthday.”

Dolph released seven studio albums while he was alive and a posthumous LP, Paper Route Frank, arrived in 2022. He also has four Billboard Hot 100 hits to his name. The Memphis trailblazer is survived by his fiancée Mia Jaye and their two children. Young Dolph was 36 years old.