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Ice Spice has shut down rumors claiming she’s taking Ozempic for weight loss. The Bronx native dispelled the allegations in an X Spaces on Monday (Aug. 19) while sniping at those speaking about her figure.
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“I actually came on here to talk about that real quick. I wish y’all never learned the word Ozempic,” she said. “That’s one thing I wish. Oh my God! Like, what even is Ozempic? What the f–k is that? Genuinely, what is that?”
Ice continued to spew. “You lazy-a– b—–s never heard of a gym? It’s called the gym, it’s called eating healthy, it’s called being on tour,” she added. “Like, what the hell? Maybe if I was sitting at home all f–king day, it’d be easier to stay big.”
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Sexyy Red chimed in on Instagram, coming to Ice Spice’s defense regarding people constantly commenting on her weight. “Y’all act like people can’t b stressed or not eat as much and she still look good so next,” she wrote.
Ozempic is an FDA-approved prescription medicine for those diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, but also has been used off-label for weight loss.
The 24-year-old has brushed off the speculation and continues to rock the stage as part of her first headlining trek on the Y2K! World Tour. She took over L.A.’s Hollywood Palladium on Monday night (Aug. 19) and brought out her “Bitch I’m Packin’” collaborator Gunna for a special surprise for the fans.
The rest of the tour will make stops in Oakland, Tempe, Dallas, Houston and Atlanta before wrapping up in Miami on Aug. 31.
Ice Spice’s anticipated Y2K! debut album arrived in July with features from Gunna, Travis Scott and Central Cee. The LP reached No. 18 on the Billboard 200. However, the rapper never saw the project as a make or break for her and is enjoying connecting with her fans on the road.
“I think people try to put that pressure on me just because I have been so successful,” she previously told Billboard. “I don’t really put too much weight into it. Of course, I appreciate it and I prefer it, but it’s not a make-or-break for me. I’m just happy with the album I made.”
Hear what Ice Spice had to say about Ozempic below.
#IceSpice reacts to discourse about her weight loss, via spaces: “Its called gym? It’s called being on a tour[…]maybe if I was staying home all day it’d be easier to stay big.”pic.twitter.com/ndhELax8me— All Tea All Shade (@TeaTimeTips2) August 20, 2024
Bottle in her hand, the whisky up high, two hands to heaven, wild horses run wild. Beyoncé is now the latest celebrity to launch her own line of alcohol, partnering with Moët Hennessy to craft her very own flavor of what has long been her drink of choice in honor of her great-grandfather.
As unveiled Monday (Aug. 19), the superstar’s new SirDavis whisky is described as a “harmony of spice with sublime hints of fruit” and retails online for $89. It’s currently only available for pre-order, but will hit stores in the U.S., London, Paris and Tokyo — as well as in select airports — starting in September.
“I’ve always been drawn to the power and confidence I feel when drinking quality whisky and wanted to invite more people to experience that feeling,” Bey said of the venture in a statement.
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According to the product’s website, the 32-time Grammy winner personally sought out Hennessy and distiller Dr. Bill Lumsden to develop her own whisky flavor profile, during which she discovered that her paternal great-grandfather, Davis Hogue, was a successful Prohibition-era moonshiner in the American South and used to hide bottles on his farm for friends and family to find.
After years of working on SirDavis, the trio finally came up with a liquor that properly honors Hogue’s legacy. “I think together we’ve risen to something that I’m hugely excited about,” added Lumsden in a statement. “And I think whisky drinkers are going to be blown away because it’s really quite different from anything I’ve tasted before.”
One day after the brand’s launch, Bey marked the occasion on Instagram by sharing a photo of her posing with a glass of SirDavis. She also posted a snap of the whisky’s chic bottle, which features a horse-silhouette decal that looks similar to the steeds that appear on her Renaissance and Cowboy Carter album covers.
Her new venture follows in the footsteps of numerous other musicians who’ve entered the alcohol industry, from Cardi B’s Whipshots company to Ciara’s Ten to One Rum. Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton, Nick Jonas, Katy Perry and more have also all come out with various lines of rums, tequilas, vodkas and virgin cocktails.
With the first quarter of the 21st century coming to a close, Billboard is spending the next few months counting down our staff picks for the 25 greatest pop stars of the last 25 years. We’ve already done our Honorable Mentions, and now at No. 25, we remember the century in Katy Perry — whose dizzying, era-defining early-’10s peak still burns bright in the minds of pop fans, even as it gets farther away.
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For anyone who lived through her commercial peak, Katy Perry will always be one of the names most synonymous with pop music. There’s a lot of reasons for that, but perhaps the biggest is that few performers of the last 25 years have felt as committed to maxing out top 40 superstardom at its biggest, brightest and best: When Katy Perry ruled the mainstream at the turn of the 2010s, it felt like she was wringing every ounce of potential from her albums, singles, videos, live performances, TV appearances, fashion and branding choices and general public persona. It was pop as the most legendary icons of early MTV once envisioned it – and perhaps unsurprisingly, it matched their success in ways no other artist this century has managed.
Few would have imagined that fate for Katy Perry when she initially emerged – first briefly in the early ‘00s as Katy Hudson, contemporary Christian artist, and then rebranded as snotty Warped Tour singer-songwriter Katy Perry later in the decade. “Ur So Gay,” the metrosexual-taunting title track to her first Perry-era EP release, suggested great promise for word-of-mouth cult success, but seemed too cheeky, too edgy and too problematic for top 40 success. At the time, the mainstream had been dominated for years by hip-hop, Auto-Tune and post-American Idol pop-rock seriousness; there didn’t seem to be too much of an opening for the kind of technicolor, attitude-driven turbo-pop Perry was bringing to the table.
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But whatever opening was there, Katy Perry’s next song was forceful enough to guarantee that it pushed its way through. The bicurious “I Kissed a Girl” arrived sounding and feeling like an absolute juggernaut, a barnstorming electro-rock singalong with writing credits from pop royalty Max Martin and Cathy Dennis and cutting-edge production from Martin’s long-time collaborator Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald and Luke’s protege Benny Blanco. Rather than softening Perry’s edges, the song just made them sharper: “Girl” was louder, brasher and even more divisive than “Gay,” drawing criticism both from moral-outrage conservative groups offended at the song’s homosexual flirtations and from LGBTQ critics annoyed by the song’s perceived queerbaiting.
Ultimately, the noise around “Girl” just ended up pumping up the volume of the song itself, which blazed its way to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July 2008. By then, parent album One of the Boys had been released, with the major-label debut set entering the Billboard 200’s top 10 and spawning another three hit singles. Two of those were Hot 100 top 10s: the bubbly relationship eye-roller “Hot n Cold,” which was arguably both her rudest and most unstoppable pop-rock blast yet, and the widescreen morning-after anthem “Waking Up in Vegas,” a less-bratty but still delectably post-hedonistic story song. In between them was the more straightforward ballad “Thinking of You,” her first single that sounded like it could’ve been done by one of her then-top 40 peers; the song tapped out at No. 29 on the Hot 100, suggesting audiences preferred Katy Perry at her Katy Perriest.
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That notion would be confirmed by Perry’s sophomore set, a one-woman home-run derby that ultimately made the tremendous success of her One of the Boys era look like a couple of practice swings. Teenage Dream was first trumpeted in May 2010 with the arrival of the irresistible “California Gurls,” a Jay-Z-and-Alicia-Keys-responding, Beach Boys-and-Big-Star-quoting love letter to the Golden Coast, blessed by no less an esteemed West Side representative than Snoop Dogg. The song was every bit as big and bursting as Perry’s One of the Boys singles – and with enough PG-13 content to keep it from getting too bubblegum – but without any of the sneering or snarkiness that punctuated those hits, ensuring nothing stood in the way of its summer dominance. Meanwhile, the song’s candyland fantasia of a music video made iconic images out of a dramatically wigged Perry laying nude on a cloud and shooting whipped cream cans from her breasts, ensuring she was just as unavoidable on MTV and YouTube as she was on the airwaves.
That song shot to No. 1 on the Hot 100 in June, and by the time of Teenage Dream’s August release, its follow-up – the album’s title track, an immediately immortal young-love anthem as daydreamy as “Love Story” and as fist-pumping as “Livin’ on a Prayer” – was also on its way there. Teenage Dream itself debuted atop the Billboard 200, and went on to blanket pop culture for the entire next year and a half, with a jaw-dropping three more Hot 100 No. 1 hits to follow: the inspirational electro-pop floor-filler “Firework,” the beat-heavy out-of-this-world love song “E.T.” (with a guest verse from Ye, then Kanye West, on the single edit) and another winking how-wasted-were-we remembrance in “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.).”
Katy Perry
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Katy Perry
Michael Caulfield/Getty Images for VH1
With the fifth No. 1 off Teenage Dream, the album famously made chart history, as just the second set (after Michael Jackson’s 1987 blockbuster Bad) to ever spawn five Hot 100 No. 1 hits. The achievement capped one of the most successful album rollouts in pop music history, with each single essentially becoming its own mini-universe, given its own sound, look, aesthetic and narrative different from the other four. It also showed Perry and her team to be at the forefront of finding ways to build excitement and consumption for late-cycle singles in the digital age; adding Ye to the single release of “E.T.” and Missy Elliott to the remix of “Last Friday Night” helped get those songs to No. 1 on the Hot 100 years before adding after-the-fact A-listers became standard practice for big pop singles.
And Perry’s ubiquity at the time went far beyond the Billboard record books: For about two years at the beginning of the decade, she was absolutely unavoidable throughout pop culture. She appeared in Proactiv commercials and on Sesame Street, she walked red carpets with star comedian Russell Brand (her then-husband) and sat next to fellow pop megastar Rihanna at award shows, she hosted SNL, she kissed a Smurf and she liked it. She traversed the globe on her kaleidoscopic California Dreams tour, racking up nearly $60 million in box office for just her second headlining trek, according to Billboard Boxscore. She racked up additional honors across the pop culture spectrum, from video of the year (for “Firework”) at the MTV Video Music Awards to most beautiful woman in the world on the Maxim Hot 100. And oh yeah, she also released a Complete Confection deluxe edition of Teenage Dream that spawned another No. 1 in the defiant shout-along “Part of Me” and nearly another still in the No. 2-peaking post-breakup ballad “Wide Awake.”
Katy Perry
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More than that, Katy Perry also helped define the sound and look of a particularly fertile and oft-romanticized period in pop music history. The early 2010s represented something of a golden age for pop enthusiasts, one defined by epochal stars like Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and even a resurgent Britney Spears, as well as massive radio hitmakers like Kesha, Pitbull, Flo Rida, LMFAO and the Black Eyed Peas. EDM, Young Money, Glee, Adele – it was all happening at once. And the most omnipresent, most dead-center star of the era was almost certainly Katy Perry. It was her turbo-charged pop and kitchen-sink visual aesthetic that set the tone for the era of massive pop songs and even bigger personalities, and her collaborators (Martin, Luke and Blanco, as well as “Firework” producers Stargate) who would create the default sonic palate for the top 40 of the time.
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While Perry became more central to pop music in the early 2010s than anyone would have guessed possible of her years earlier, her time at top 40’s core would also be briefer than many would have predicted once she arrived. She spent one more album as a no-doubt superstar: 2013’s Prism, which topped the Billboard 200 and spawned a pair of massive, Hot 100-besting smashes in the motivational anthem “Roar” and the trappy, Juicy J-featuring seduction jam “Dark Horse.” (Both songs would make the setlist when she took a career-peak victory lap in February 2015, as she headlined halftime at Super Bowl XLIX, in what was at the time the most watched halftime show in Super Bowl history.) Despite being a big win overall, the album didn’t quite have the legs of Teenage Dream, and later singles “Birthday” and “This Is How We Do” would end up missing the top 10 altogether.
Subsequent albums fared no better. Witness became her third straight No. 1 LP upon its 2017 release, but its release was marred by an uncharacteristically messy and confusing rollout – as Perry tried to pivot to a more conscientious, “purposeful” approach to pop – and it only spawned a single top 40 hit, with the No. 4-peaking, Skip Marley-featuring lead single “Chained to the Rhythm.” That song, which was released in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election win (after Perry had been one of pop’s most vocal and visible Hillary Clinton supporters), was indicative of the difficulty she had fitting into the back half of the 2010s – a pop scene more defined by light, swaying trop-pop and muddy, downtempo SoundCloud rap than the kind of frothy pop-rock missiles she’d made her name on. When 2020’s Smile became the first Katy Perry album not to produce a top 10 hit, it suggested that her time at popular music’s forefront had perhaps come to an end.
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However, even as her presence in the pop mainstream became less overwhelming, Perry hardly ever vanished. She joined American Idol as a judge in 2018, helping the show remain a ratings draw for seven seasons. She began the highly successful Las Vegas residency Play in 2021, cementing herself as one of pop’s pre-eminent legacy performers. She also scored a number of hit collaborations, taking hook duties on superproducer Calvin Harris’ “Feels,” teaming up with reggaetón star Daddy Yankee on the bilingual banger “Con Calma” and enlisting EDM hitmaker Zedd to co-produce the Smile lead single “Never Really Over.” None of them quite reached the four-quadrant smash status that Perry routinely managed in the Obama years, but all were fairly well received – with “Over” in particular remaining something of a fan favorite and should’ve-been-bigger pet cause among diehard KatyKats.
`In 2024, Perry has parted ways with Idol and wrapped her Vegas residency, as she prepares for a big career comeback with September’s 143 album. That’s gotten off to a somewhat rocky start with lead single “Woman’s World,” which only reached No. 63 on the Hot 100 and drew mostly negative reviews – with many critiques from fans and critics focusing on the jarring nature of the women’s empowerment anthem being co-produced by Dr. Luke, who was sued by Kesha in 2014 over allegations that he had been abusive in their professional and personal relationship. (Dr. Luke denied the allegations and countersued for defamation; the long legal battle ended in 2023 with the two parties settling the countersuit out of court.)
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But even if Katy Perry’s songs are no longer omnipresent in today’s pop, her fingerprints still are. You can feel her in the eye-popping costumes and theatrically vivid world-building of Chappell Roan and the sticky sweet and slightly naughty hooks of Sabrina Carpenter. And even the backlash to “Women’s World” is indicative of Perry’s enduring level of stardom – the song dominated headlines for a week, as folks couldn’t resist weighing in on it one way or the other – and the fact that so many fans are still rooting for her. At her apex, Katy Perry was as proud and formidable a pop purveyor as we’ve seen this century, and she will forever be associated with the highest highs of that fondly remembered era: a teenage dream that countless millennial and Gen Z pop fans will never totally wake up from.
Read more about the Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century here and check back on Thursday when our No. 24 artist is revealed!
Releasing a debut album is understandably daunting, but releasing your first album on a major label is a much different ball game. Not many people can say that their major label debut LP follows a head-turning stint on a Netflix hip-hop reality competition show (Rhythm + Flow) and a Grammy win alongside Billboard Hot 100-topping cross-genre savant Anderson .Paak. Then again, there’s only one Rae Khalil.
Speaking with Billboard via Zoom just days before the release of Crybaby – a luscious 13-track R&B fantasia that finds her moving from low-key neo-soul to jaunty new jack swing – Rae Khalil is on the precipice of a life-changing career shift to complement the turbulent tides of her personal life. Across the four-year journey to Crybaby, grief has relentlessly reared its head; Khalil lost her grandmother this year and her great-aunt passed “a couple [of] weeks ago,” which significantly altered her approach to completing her new LP and sharing it with the world.
“I would say I’m now dedicating this project and this part of my life to her and my family,” Khalil muses. “I think the No. 1 [thing] is being intentional and accepting all the emotions as they come. Some days are stronger than others.”
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As she awaits Crybaby’s arrival on DSPs, some of those days were spent watching House of the Dragon – which she namechecks as the last time she shed a few tears herself. Officially released on Aug. 9, Crybaby cements Khalil’s major-label metamorphosis by way of slick production contributions from a bevy of craftsmen, including .Paak and Nascent, as well as winning collaborations with the likes of Freddie Gibbs, Benny Sings, Khal!l, Tiana Major9, Zacari, AA Rashid and .Paak himself.
Sure, the cast of characters has gotten exponentially larger, but Crybaby is perhaps Khalil’s most honest and arresting work yet. The anxiety that comes from weighing the sacrifice of aligning yourself with the label system against maintaining complete independence grounds the LP, giving the record a worthy thematic center to match its generally gritty grooves. “My compass does just fine on its own/ So much pride, it built a second home/ I can’t hide behind me no more,” she croons on the stunning lead single “Is It Worth It?”
With a deluxe edition in the works and her eyes on an upcoming tour, Rae Khalil is ready to fully step into and own her own spotlight with Crybaby. In an intimate conversation with Billboard, she opens up about her four-year recording process, what she’s learned from Anderson .Paak, and the unfortunate mishap that gave way to a collaboration with her favorite rapper.
A lot of people got to know you through Rhythm + Flow back in 2019. What lessons did you bring from that experience to the creation of Crybaby?
I would definitely say trusting my guts. It’s five years ago now, [it was] such a great time period in my life. I remember taking advice from a lot of people at that time and listening to what other people thought I should be doing. I learned that this is my career, I’m the one [who’s] going to be standing on the brand of Rae Khalil. If there’s anything that I’m making or doing, I really want to stand behind that 100%.
Why did “Crybaby” feel like the appropriate title track for this album?
I thought it’d be a cool idea to change the narrative for what that means. “Crybaby” originally has a negative connotation, of someone who’s a whiner. I wanted to switch it to be someone who doesn’t have a problem with being vulnerable and sharing the parts of themselves that are maybe a little bit more on the sensitive side… not being worried about what others think. Kind of repurposing the word, making it more positive.
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When was the last time you cried?
S–t, I’m telling you that episode [of House of the Dragon] was so good last night, I did shed a couple of tears! But in all seriousness, this has been a pretty tough year for my family. We lost a matriarch in our family in my grandmother, and a couple weeks ago, we lost her sister as well, so it’s kind of a generational shift happening, but it’s allowing me to be more present. I think it’s making me focus on the lessons and values that my grandma taught me my whole life and implementing that in my career and my personal life.
How has it been for you suffering these kinds of losses, but also rolling out this project which obviously marks a major moment in your career?
Life will always happen, and it’s up to us to figure out how we are going to endure and persevere. I do think that there’s some type of poetic thing happening with losing people [who] were in my life and shaped my ideology. That chapter of my life is now closed, and [there are] so many new opportunities, especially in my career. I have opportunities to travel and meet new people and get to know myself more. I look at it as a beautiful tapestry of good and bad. It’s what’s required to happen for more growth.
What were you listening to in the house growing up and what were you listening to during the sessions for Crybaby?
When I work on albums, I’m just so in the music process that I’m not really listening to music. I love driving back from the studio with just silence, and then I’ll dabble with some of the new songs coming out, but it really takes me a second to get back into the groove of being an avid music listener of what’s new.
But what shapes any talented artist is the diversity in what you listen to, right? [Growing up], I had Motown and soul and R&B, but I also really enjoyed *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys. That was my era of pop music — Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Destiny’s Child. Then I would hear Anita Baker and The Jackson 5 on the weekends while we’re cleaning. And my brother would be listening to Evanescence and my aunt would be listening to David Bowie and then my grandma’s listening to f—king Jean Carne and Sarah Vaughan.
Talk to me about how “Come Home” came together. There are really strong New Jack Swing vibes on that one, which gives the tracklist a nice jolt of energy.
I made that song two weeks before I had to turn in the project. It was really just a magical moment. I had another song [in its place], but certain things about it wouldn’t get cleared in time. So, I was in panic mode and I was like, “Well we need something with high energy because [the album is] just going to be a very R&B thing if we don’t have some type of upbeat moment.”
I just recently met Khal!l through Instagram, and he sent me a collection of songs, and “Come Home” was one of them. I went to the studio the next day and I made that song in three hours. I love that song so much.
How did you get AA Rashid on the intro?
“Hot Track” is my favorite song, and Shid is a mentor of mine, a very good friend and spiritual adviser. He just loves me. Obviously, I listen to Griselda, I’m a big fan — but a friend of mine would talk to me about his lectures. Some of them are on YouTube, and I watched a couple and really gravitated towards some of the things that he talks about.
Randomly, I was just in downtown LA with my partner at a liquor store and he was in there, and I was just like, “Wait, Oh my God!” We started talking and he had a book on him that he wrote, and he told me to buy it and I did – that was years ago. Then we just became friends; I just met him on the street and that night we ended up going to his house and hanging out. He’s just the best and has always been in my corner and always been a fan of my music.
It really was just me asking, “Hey, I know you do this for Westside Gunn, is there any way you could just come and sit and talk?” So, we just recorded him talking for about 10 minutes, and it was really me and my engineer that pieced it all together. I like how it sounds like a sequence, but it really is not. We had to move things around, that’s what’s so fun.
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“Hot Track” is such a powerful song. My longtime collaborator and producer Jared Rubens found that sample; that song was probably one of the first songs we made in our New York sessions for this album, which had to be December 2022. I’m sitting there and I’m listening and asking about the sample and he’s like, “I don’t know, some song [“When Morning Comes”] by O.C. Smith.” I got chills because I’ve been hearing that name my whole life; he was a longtime friend of my grandmother’s. They traveled to Africa together. He had a church that my grandma went to, and he married my mom and my dad.
Jared didn’t even know any of this! Out of all the songs he could have sampled, it’s this song by this guy who was very close to my family. It was so reaffirming and reassuring that this is exactly what I’m supposed to be doing. That song means so much to me, especially now that my grandmother has passed. She had the opportunity to hear the song, and she really loved it.
Who is Cisco and why did he get a song named after him?
Cisco Swank! He’s a super-talented multi-instrumentalist, a Berkeley grad, who makes his own music. I forget how we met, but I think it was in New York. He’s just a whiz kid and a good friend of mine in the jazz community. We had a session and that song came together and he played everything. That’s why I named it that. It was really cool to see him hopping on the drums and then the organ and then the guitar. He spent like an hour and a half on the whole thing. These sessions were very intentional. We didn’t waste any time.
I believe we might have started something else before, but once we did this song, it just felt right. I’ve been working on Crybaby for about four years and I’d say there are probably four songs out of the 13 that have made it through that whole four years. There’s been a lot of rearranging. In that specific spot where “Cisco’s Song” is, I had a couple of different ideas, but I wanted to honor him.
Obviously, you and Anderson .Paak have a rich history together. What kind of official and unofficial rules governed the Crybaby sessions?
I think the unofficial rule was: do your best and go as hard as you can. Even when you think you’ve done your best, go harder. In the span of four years, I’ve workshopped over 50 songs and I enjoyed them all. I was just trying to elevate how I [could] push until I felt like I said everything I needed to say. I wanted to make sure I didn’t feel like there’s anything missing or anything [that was] still required in the song.
A spoken rule was: We get an opportunity to do what we love, so let’s be grateful and show up with a positive attitude every time we’re in the studio. Every time that I’m with Anderson, whether it’s with my music or working with his or other artists’, I think there’s just a level of gratitude that’s in the room that derives from him. He’s really one of the hardest-working people I know. When I asked him about it, [he was] like, “Well, why wouldn’t I be? These are my dreams, right? Everything I wished for.” I try to take that in every session, even if I’m tired or we’ve been there for hours. These are literally my dreams, so we’re gonna be here till we get that snare sound right.
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You also appeared on the new NxWorries album. Were there any songs that you guys had to decide if they would end up on that record versus yours?
No, that’s a big boy album! [Laughs.] Those guys have been doing it for a long time. I was just blessed [to be included]. But I will say that I had to f—king fight for me to be on “OutTheWay” — because, at the end of the day, that’s my big bro and I think he wants me to do my best. When I first did the song, he was like, “It’s cool.” But I think he was nervous. He said to me, “You’re already on another song. I don’t know… two songs?”
He kept telling me, “Every time I play it for other people, they’re like, ‘This one’s my favorite.’” I had to really prove my worth in a very humorous, sibling-like way. We have a lot of demos together; there’s a version of “Lockdown” somewhere that I have a verse on. I’m just happy that I got to be on such an iconic album.
This album skews primarily R&B, but we got to know you as an MC. Was that an intentional choice?
I’ve been singing since I was five, so I just wanted to be considered as good a rapper as I’m a singer. I had a chip on my shoulder for so long, but it wasn’t really until Anderson helped me realize that we can do everything. Why wouldn’t you put your best foot forward and showcase your strong suit? I believe that my rap ability is up to par with my singing, but I feel like I catch more ears with my singing voice. So why wouldn’t I sing very beautifully, in hopes that it’ll make people interested in what else I can do?
I thought an R&B album would be a perfect introduction to the huge tapestry of all the different things I want to do in music, you know. I kind of get nervous, that’s why it’s important for me to put “She’s A Bore” on there or “Hot Track” or “Overcast/Overture” because I still like to be myself and sing and rap, but I’m also giving you what you want from me.
Were there any particular pressures that you felt in crafting this album versus your other projects?
I was born in 1996, so I grew up with album rollouts. Loving music my whole life, it’s like, “Wow, I’m on a major label.” That means I have to make major label moves. I think it was December 2022, I had a full 13-track album called Crybaby with a bunch of songs that are not on there anymore, and I played it for Anderson. He was like, “This is good, but it’s not great.” I remember being crushed; I had been dedicating everything to these songs and he told me to dig deeper.
That’s where the “Is It Worth It” idea came from — just me asking myself those questions of, “Do I even want to do this to the extent of being in these rooms I don’t want to be in?”
I knew the gravity of being on a label like Def Jam, and I wanted the music to mirror that, and I think I did it. Songs like “Come Home,” “Is It Worth It,” “It Is What It Is,” and “Bittersweet” are all really strong and took a long time. This didn’t happen in a couple of months, so I just want people to feel the care and the time in the songs.
How do you think this album fits in conversation with your other projects from a thematic standpoint?
I think it’s an evolution and an elevation artistically. I think it’s more introspective. The last album’s called For the World, so I was making music for the world. I think these songs are more like diary entries, it’s not necessarily for the world. If anyone wants to listen, that’s awesome. But this is very personal, and I’m building on my own personal story as a person and an artist.
You are credited as executive producer on this record. How do you understand that term and what did that look like for you during the album-making process?
I think executive producing this album for me meant that I was a part of every single process. I can’t wait for the day when I can make an album and it’s like “Okay, I recorded it bye!” But I was there every day like, “Move this there. Turn me up here. Move me to the right a little bit. We need something like this, I’m going to call my friend. He’s going to come put violin. Who can I add [to] this? Now I need to call my homegirls, get some backing vocals.”
I was there in the mastering process, the mixing process. I saw some songs get mastered by tape. We didn’t choose those, but it was really cool to be in the room watching it. I wanted to make sure I was an integral part of every single aspect of the album. Even [with] the art direction, I’ve had that album cover for four years. Ever since the artist drew it, I knew I was going to work with it and have the picture inspire some of the songs. I was the catalyst and the crux to bridge the gap from the old Rae Khalil to coming into a major label and what that looks like.
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Not everyone can say they have their favorite rapper on their major label debut album! What was it like working with Freddie Gibbs?
I originally had a different rapper on “Carpinteria,” and he was just lazy. The recording that he sent me… the audio was just shit. I asked him to redo it and he left me on seen. It was just a bunch of bullshit. I enjoy your music, but I’m not gonna put up with you not being communicative. I remember sharing that with Anderson and being so bummed out and crying, and he was like, “We’ll just get Freddie to do it.”
I just didn’t think it was real. I remember teasing him like, “Yeah, I remember you said that. We’ll see!” And then all of a sudden, it happened. I was like, “Oh my God, oh man, you made my dreams come true.” I’ve been able to hang out with him more frequently, and he’s just so fun. I’m such a fan girl, so I’m always [asking him questions]. He blessed me with a beautiful verse. It was supposed to be a short verse, but he did such a long one. Apparently, he really loved the song!
Do you have any plans to tour the album?
Oh, that’s the dream! I would hope so. My manager’s telling me Billie Eilish is going on tour — and that’s really far-fetched, but if I could open up for her, I think that would open up a lot of doors. That’s who I have my eye on, you know. Hopefully, she reads this article.
Are you happy with the major label version of Rae Khalil?
I am so happy. This is coming from the girl who started rapping when Acid Rap was popular. I was like, “I’m never gonna sign!” [Laughs.] I had no idea what I was talking about. There’s a reason why Beyoncé is still at Columbia. I’m that type of artist [who wants] to build a working symbiotic relationship [with a label]. It’s a business at the end of the day, so I want to do well in the business aspect so much so that I have more creative freedom in the music aspect. I love Tunji. I love Def Jam. I’m just really happy to be where I am.
I’m a little nervous. I started putting music on SoundCloud in high school, so to be at this point is really cool. I’m approaching everything with open arms.
Rauw Alejandro returns to No. 1 on Billboard’s Latin Pop Airplay chart with “Touching the Sky,” as the song jumps 2-1 to rule the Aug. 24-dated ranking. The new champ marks his fifth No. 1 overall and second as a soloist after “Todo De Ti” dominated for 28 weeks between 2021-22.
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The disco-infused “Touching the Sky,” released through Duars/Sony Music Latin on May 23, lands at the summit on Latin Pop Airplay with a 7% gain in audience impressions, to 3.8 million, earned in the week of Aug. 9-15, according to Luminate. Thanks to its audience improvement the song trades places with Piso 21 and Wisin’s “La Misión,” which dips 2-1 with an 11% drop, to 3.8 million impressions.
“‘Touching The Sky’ is out! Thanks for the loveeee siempreeeee,” the Puerto Rican announced on his Instagram account almost three months ago. The song’s connection with the Latin pop audience and programmers comes after the first taste of Rauw Alejandro’s new art direction overall, where he steps out of his rhythmic music chapter and embraces the pop side he occasionally showcased in prior releases, plus welcomes a more dapper wardrobe, as he’s been teasing on socials.
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“Touching the Sky” also marks Rauw Alejandro’s first No. 1 on Latin Pop Airplay as a soloist, unaccompanied by any other act, since the 28-week ruler “Todo De Ti” in 2021-22. In between, Raúl placed another champ, the Shakira collab “Te Felicito” (one week atop in May 2022). Plus, two top 10s followed: “Beso” with Rosalía (No. 2 high) and the No. 9-peaking “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 56” with Bizarrap (both in July 2023).
In sum, Rauw Alejandro has logged five career No. 1s on Latin Pop Airplay, dating back to 2020. Here’s his collection of champs:
Peak Date, Title, Artist, Weeks at No. 1:
June 6, 2020, “TBT,” with Sebastian Yatra & Manuel Turizo, three
March 13, 2021, “Baila Conmigo,” with Selena Gómez, two
May 8, 2021, “Vacío,” with Luis Fonsi, six
June 19, 2021, “Todo De Ti,” 28
May 7, 2022, “Te Felicito,” with Shakira, one
Aug. 24, “Touching the Sky”
Beyond the Latin Pop Airplay coronation, “Touching the Sky” rebounds to its No. 24 peak on the overall Latin Airplay chart, his first appearance as a solo singer since “Cúrame” ruled the March 5, 2022, chart.
It may be the week of the Democratic National Convention — where Vice President Kamala Harris will reiterate that “we’re not going back” — but hip-hop is pretty into nostalgia right about now.
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Travis Scott’s iconic 2014 mixtape Days Before Rodeo is finally set to hit streaming platforms (Aug. 23), and Pitbull and Kesha’s 2013 Billboard Hot 100-topping “Timber” came back to the news cycle after Kesh’a name mysteriously disappeared from the title of the track’s accompanying music video on YouTube. With “Team Pitbull” on the case, that was quickly rectified, which is all anyone can really ask for, right? Dale!
In other news, Future & Metro Boomin showed NYC that they really are “Like That” with their We Trust You Tour which featured a Big Apple showcase of special guests and a Travis Scott cameo for “Type S–t” and his “FE!N” anthem.
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Houston mourned homegrown “Scream” rapper and producer BeatKing, while Nicki Minaj announced Tyga, BIA and Skillibeng as the openers for the second leg of her Pink Friday 2 World Tour kicking off in September.
With Fresh Picks, Billboard aims to highlight some of the best and most interesting new sounds across R&B and hip-hop — from Cash Cobain & Laila’s monster “Problem” collaboration to Kalisway’s witty new jam. Be sure to check out this week’s Fresh Picks in our Spotify playlist below.
Freshest Find: Skylar Simone, “Permission”
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An R&B hidden gem radiating in the same neighborhood of the genre as Victoria Monét. Skylar Simone impresses with her robust Def Jam debut project SHIVER, which arrived packaged into an appetizing five-pack last week. Any of the EP’s tracks could make the cut here, but we’ll spotlight Simone’s angelic vocals engulfing a guitar riff on the racy “Permission.” “Every day of the week, get me weak in the knees/ Can you do that for me? Cus’ I want your addiction,” she begs while schooling her love interest in a game of chess in the official visualizer clip. At 22-years-old, the Florida-born singer is just coming into her own as a woman, indulging in all that life has to offer. Although, Simone isn’t the typical wet behind the ears early 20-something looking to find their way. She’s been calloused with the release of three albums and another three EPs, which have her well-prepared for a quantum leap to stardom.
Lord Sko & Statik Selektah, “Lesson Learned”
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Much has been made recently about emerging white rappers and their place in hip-hop. As for Lord Sko, he tastefully pays homage to the classic New York City rap scene that raised him and the 20-year-old recruited Statik Selektah’s attention in the process. “Lesson Learned” is the latest offering from the Newport Lord’s upcoming 14-track PIFF project (arriving in October). He’s brushed off flow comparisons to A$AP Rocky, and continues to graffiti his own path out of the Big Apple. Certain jarring yet witty bars like Sko’s plans for “saving up to buy the devil’s soul” have listeners doing a double-take while skating over Statik’s knocking production. Keep an eye on him heading down the stretch of ‘24.
Jean Dawson feat. Lil Yachty, “Die for Me”
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Jordan Peele just found the perfect fit for another ominous song to soundtrack the trailer to his next thrilling blockbuster. Menacing piano keys send chills up your spine as a possible score to a horror film, while Jean Dawson welcomes fans to the Glimmer of God era with fresh co-signs from SZA and A$AP Rocky. “Don’t show up at my funeral If you won’t die for me,” Dawson delivers as a sobering truth. Enter Lil Yachty, who shows off his chameleon-like artistic ability when matching the diabolical themes Dawson sought out. Look for Glimmer of God to land this fall when JD hits the road for his North American headlining trek.
Cash Cobain & Laila!, “Problem”
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Move over Busta Rhymes (“Touch It”), the posse cut has returned to the Big Apple. Cash Cobain and fellow NYer Laila! heat up ahead of their highly-anticipated projects on the way with “Problem,” which is built around a mash-up of a Cash sexy drill beat and Laila!’s “Not My Problem” single. 14 different artists hop onto the conga line in total with Big Sean, Fabolous, Rob49, Anycia, Kenzo B, Flo Milli, 6LACK, Lay Bankz, Luh Tyler and more spanning the near eight-minute gauntlet of a track. The Slizzy Summer continues for CC leading into his PLAY CASH COBAIN album later this week.
Xenia Manasseh, “Bad Side”
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Ahead of her forthcoming sophomore album, Love/Hate, Pt. 2, L.A.-based, Kenyan-Ugandan singer-songwriter Xenia Manasseh has one simple message: don’t get on her bad side. “I don’t want you getting on my bad side, don’t suffer for nothing/ This here is my warning to you,” Xenia proclaims in a chorus that layers chugging kick drums, snappy snares and tasteful synths, making for the perfect soundscape for her voice to lord over. There’s a distinct ’00s R&B vibe going on here, but Xenia doesn’t fall into the trap of pastiche, instead using different vocal filters and snazzy descending melodies to add some dimension to the largely understated production.
Kalisway, “Sex”
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Kalisway’s got the funk! On this standout cut from her new A Kid From Toronto album, she reminds us that “Sex/ Is not everything.” She employs a tone that starts off somewhere between bratty and brassy before she lifts into a dizzying falsetto in the song’s second half, her journey through her vocal range perfectly mirroring the limitlessness of funk music. It’s no secret that sex is one of the most covered topics in R&B for a reason — it’s the genre of love and pain for a reason! But R&B, and its sister genres of funk and soul, can cover much more, and sex is indeed not everything.
“Covered emotions could make you feel blind/ You might not see it that way, then you might as well sleep tight/ Who cares if I’m feeding my fears? I’m wanting desire/ Having a way with life filled with power,” she croons. When we treat sex as everything it strips it of the elements that make it such a transformative experience. Everything is sex, except sex, which is power — but what good is that power if it doesn’t truly satisfy what you most desire and crave?
Country singer-songwriter Drew Baldridge is officially a Billboard Hot 100-charting artist as his breakthrough single, “She’s Somebody’s Daughter (Reimagined),” debuts on the latest chart (dated Aug. 24) at No. 93.
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The song enters led by 26.5 million all-format radio audience impressions (up 2%), as well as 565,000 official U.S. streams in the Aug. 9-15 tracking week, according to Luminate.
“She’s Somebody’s Daughter (Reimagined)” has had a long journey leading up to its Hot 100 arrival. Baldridge originally self-released the song in 2019, followed by a second mix in 2021 (the “Wedding Version”) and a third in 2023 (“Reimagined”).
The track recently made history on Country Airplay by becoming the first self-released song in the chart’s 34-year history to reach the top five. The only other such song to reach the top 10 is Aaron Watson’s No. 10-peaking “Outta Style” in 2017. “Daughter” holds at its No. 5 high on the latest list.
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The Patoka, Ill., native first appeared on Billboard’s charts in January 2016 with his single “Dance With Ya” (No. 48 peak on Country Airplay). Since then, he’s charted four additional songs at the format: “Rebound” (No. 50, 2017), “Guns & Roses” (No. 51, 2018), “Senior Year” (No. 50, 2020) and “She’s Somebody’s Daughter (Reimagined).” Plus, his debut studio album, Dirt on Us, released on his former label, Cold River, reached No. 11 on Top Country Albums and No. 111 on the Billboard 200 in July 2016.
In a recent interview with Billboard, Baldridge explained that after recording the original “She’s Somebody’s Daughter,” Cold River didn’t release it as a single because fellow country artist Tenille Townes was already working a similarly titled song, “Somebody’s Daughter,” and the label wanted to avoid confusion. Two years later, after Cold River closed, he recorded a new version for his wedding titled “She’s Somebody’s Daughter (Wedding Version)” that quickly went viral on TikTok. That version’s official audio has soundtracked more than 900,000 clips on the platform to date.
Baldridge later recorded a third version, “She’s Somebody’s Daughter (Reimagined),” at the end of 2022 with the intention of garnering radio play, and formed a promo team for his own Lyric Ridge Records to make it happen. He had some insider radio knowledge from his three years as a weekend jock on KKGO, Los Angeles’ country station. Though he doesn’t program his shifts, “I got to intro my own song and intro out my own song, which is the coolest thing on the planet,” he said. “And with these DJs and [programmers], I have a way to connect with them that I didn’t have four years ago.”
On the heels of releasing his The Hood Poet album on Aug. 9, Polo G is set to hit the road in support of his latest LP. Polo announced a 26-city North American trek on Tuesday (Aug. 20) with The Hood Poet Tour slated to kick off in Denver on Oct. 24.
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“I’ve always put my heart into my music, and now I’m bringing that energy to the stage,” Polo G said in a statement. “This tour is for the fans who’ve been with me since day one and for everyone who’s been part of this journey. I can’t wait to share this experience with y’all.”
The Hood Poet Tour will see support from Vonoff1700, Skylar Blatt, Diany Dior, Scorey and Twotiime. Tickets will be available with a local presale on Wednesday (Aug. 21), with the general public getting a chance on Friday (Aug. 23) at 10 a.m. local time. VIP packages are also available on Polo’s website.
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Following the Denver kickoff, The Hood Poet Tour will be making stops in Kansas City, his hometown of Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, NYC, Boston, Philly, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco before wrapping up in Los Angeles on Nov. 29.
Polo G’s The Hood Poet served as his fourth studio album, and featured appearances from Future, GloRilla, 42 Dugg, Offset, The Kid LAROI, Lil Durk, G Herbo, Hunxho and Fridayy. The LP was Polo’s first to debut outside the top six on the Billboard 200 as the project came in at No. 28 in its first week on the chart while hitting No. 5 on the Top Rap Albums chart.
Find all of the dates below:
Oct. 24 – Denver, Co. @ Fillmore Auditorium
Oct. 27 – Minneapolis, Minn. @ Uptown Theater Minneapolis
Oct. 29 – Kansas City, Mo. @ The Midland Theatre
Oct. 30 – St. Louis, Mo. @ The Pageant
Nov. 1 – Milwaukee, Wis. @ The Eagles Ballroom
Nov. 2 – Chicago, Ill. @ Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
Nov. 3 – Grand Rapids, Mich. @ GLC Live at 20 Monroe
Nov. 4 – Detroit @ The Fillmore Detroit
Nov. 5 – Toronto, Ontario, Canada @ REBEL
Nov. 7 – New York City @ Palladium Times Square
Nov. 8 – Hartford, Conn. @ The Webster
Nov. 9 – Providence, R.I. @ The Strand Ballroom
Nov. 10 – Montclair, N.J. @ The Wellmont Theater
Nov. 11 – Boston @ Citizens House of Blues Boston
Nov. 13 – Philadelphia, @ The Fillmore Philadelphia !
Nov. 14 – Washington, D.C. @ Echostage
Nov. 15 – Raleigh, N.C. @ The Ritz
Nov 16 – Atlanta @ The Eastern
Nov. 18 – Charlotte, N.C. @ The Fillmore Charlotte
Nov. 20 – New Orleans, La. @ The Fillmore New Orleans
Nov. 21 – Houston, Texas @ Bayou Music Center
Nov. 22 – Austin, Texas @ Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater
Nov. 23 – Dallas @ South Side Ballroom
Nov. 26 – San Diego @ House of Blues San Diego
Nov. 27 – San Francisco @ The Midway
Nov. 29 – Los Angeles @ The Wiltern
Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners earn their first career entry on the Billboard Hot 100 dated Aug. 24 thanks to the group’s seven-year-old viral hit, the aptly named “Evergreen.”
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Released in May 2017 on the group’s debut studio album RMCM, the track launches at No. 83 on the Hot 100 almost entirely from its streaming sum: 5.7 million official U.S. streams (up 22%) Aug. 9-15, according to Luminate. The song was boosted by a new remix, featuring Caamp, released Aug. 9. (Caamp is not credited on the Hot 100 as the remix did not account for the bulk of the song’s consumption in the tracking week.)
The single also re-enters the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart at No. 14 after reaching No. 11 in March.
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Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners and Caamp performed the new remix together for the first time at the FairWell Festival in central Oregon on July 20. “This is 7 years in the making and we’re fortunate enough to have a band that we’ve looked up to from the beginning on it,” the group shared on Instagram. “Excited for you all to finally hear it and excited that this song will finally be out in the world.”
“Evergreen” has been growing in popularity since its original release thanks in large part to TikTok, where its official audio has soundtracked over 300,000 clips to date. The song is typically used in inspiring and wholesome videos using the #hopecore hashtag.
“Evergreen” also became the band’s first overall chart entry in January, when it arrived on Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs charts.
At just 1 minute and 26 seconds long and encompassing only two verses, “Evergreen” is also one of the shortest Hot 100-charting songs in history. In fact, it’s shorter than the shortest No. 1 song (in terms of run time): Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs’ 1960 leader “Stay” (1:38). The shortest song ever on the Hot 100 ever is Kid Cudi’s 37-second-long “Beautiful Trip” in 2020, followed by Piko-Taro’s 45-second “PPAP (Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen)” in 2016. (The new remix of “Evergreen” with Caamp clocks in at 2:57.)
Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners — from Colorado Springs, Colo. — is comprised of lead singer Mitch Cutts, Jakob Ervin, Nicolas Haughn and Ryan Lavallee. The band released RMCM the same day that its members graduated high school. Since then, the act has released two additional albums: Solstice in 2018 and Subliming in 2019.
The band’s upcoming October Moon Tour kicks off in October and runs through November.
Today (Aug. 20) signals the impending launch of the Gunna x BMAC 30349 Guaranteed Income Program. The Gunna-supported $500,000 initiative — a new alliance between Gunna’s Great Giveaway and the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) — will provide a $1000 monthly stipend to 30 families living in the 30349 zip code of South Fulton, Georgia.
Applications for the Gunna x BMAC 30349 Guaranteed Income Program, which officially launches Sept. 18, are now available HERE. In a release announcing the initiative, the program’s stated goal is to “give families a guaranteed monthly income via cash placed directly in their hands for a year and, most importantly, provide support services ranging from financial empowerment to mental health.” Gunna and BMAC will work in tandem with South Fulton Mayor Khalid Kamau and community organizations that service South Fulton to identify the recipients.
“As mayor of South Fulton, I am deeply committed to fostering economic opportunities and uplifting our community,” said Kamau in the announcement. “The partnership between Gunna, BMAC, and the City of South Fulton represents a transformative step in addressing the economic disparities that some of our residents face. The Gunna x BMAC 30349 Guaranteed Income Program is not just an investment in our city’s future, but a powerful example of how we can create meaningful change through collaboration and innovation. I am proud to support this initiative and look forward to seeing the positive impact it will have on the families in our community.”
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Four-time Grammy Award nominee and multiplatinum rap icon Gunna, who was raised in South Fulton, added, “When I launched Gunna’s Great Giveaway, my goal was to uplift my hometown by providing resources that could make a tangible difference in at least one household. Partnering with BMAC to introduce the Guaranteed Income program in South Fulton is a significant step toward enhancing these communities and transforming the economic landscape of the city.”
The new program is the latest addition to Gunna’s other ongoing community initiatives. Those include Gunna’s Drip Closet, a free in-school clothing store, and the Goodr Grocery Store at McNair Middle School, through which students are given access to free necessities. Once the Guaranteed Income program begins, BMAC will also help mentor the grant recipients through its network encompassing music, film, fashion and technology.
“BMAC’s mission to achieve systemic equity must begin with economic justice,” said BMAC co-founder/president & CEO Willie “Prophet” Stiggers. “Black Americans are too often locked out of critical opportunities and pathways to climb the socioeconomic ladder despite being central to every cultural and financial movement in this country’s history. Partnering with Gunna to bring needed financial relief and, more importantly, mentorship and other services leading to sustainable change is very powerful. Our organization will continue to partner with artists and others looking to put equity in action so our community can tap into its fullest potential.”
Gunna and Stiggers will spotlight the Gunna x BMAC 30349 Guaranteed Income Program during the BMAC Gala in Los Angeles on Sept. 19, with celebrations continuing Sept. 29 to commemorate Gunna Day (whose official date is Sept. 16). Announced earlier this month, the fourth annual BMAC Gala will pay tribute to LL COOL J and Usher, among other honorees.