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Billie Eilish Shares Snippet of Loved-Up Unreleased Song ‘Feather’ in New ‘Heartstopper’ Teaser: Listen

Billie Eilish is giving fans a sneak peek at her fast-approaching new album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, by debuting a snippet of one of its lovey-dovey tracks, “Feather,” in a brand-new teaser for Netflix’s Heartstopper season three. 

In the clip posted Monday (May 13), Joe Locke’s Charlie practices telling Kit Connor’s Nick that he loves him, but struggles to find the words. As tension builds, the 22-year-old pop star’s track — which plays throughout the minute-long teaser — gets louder and louder, culminating in a vibrant, upbeat chorus that finds the nine-time Grammy winner belting with full force. 

“I love you ’til the day that I die, ’til the day that I die,” she sings. “‘Til the light leaves my eyes. Forever, it’s even better.” 

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The clip is one of the first tastes of Hit Me Hard and Soft fans have gotten ahead of the album’s arrival, which is slated for Friday (May 17). Eilish hasn’t released any singles in anticipation of her third studio LP, telling fans on social media when she first announced the project, “i wanna give it to you all at once.” 

She has, however, teased that the record is something of a return to the sound and style she cultivated on her 2019 debut. “I feel like this album is me,” she told Rolling Stone in April. “It’s not a character. It feels like the When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? version of me … This whole process has felt like I’m coming back to the girl that I was. I’ve been grieving her.” 

This season of Heartstopper, which is based off the book series of the same name by Alice Oseman, is set to premiere on Netflix in October. The eight-episode installment will pick up with Charlie and Nick getting ready to start the school year at the end of summer holidays.  

“As they learn more about each other and their relationships, plan social events and parties and start thinking about university choices,” reads the press release. “Everyone must learn to lean on those they love when life doesn’t go to plan.” 

Watch the new Heartstopper teaser featuring Eilish’s “Feather” below. 


https://youtube.com/watch?v=fi_SS34W4J8&version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent

Anitta to Perform a Medley of Songs From Her New Album on ‘The Voice’

Anitta‘s Brazilian funk will take over The Voice when she performs on the singing competition Tuesday, May 14. The trilingual superstar is set to sing a medley of songs from her latest album, Funk Generation, which was released April 26.

“I can’t wait to bring the Brazilian Funk to The Voice stage tonight,” Anitta tells Billboard. “‘Ahi’ and ‘Lose Ya Breath’ are two amazing songs from my new album, Funk Generation, and I’m so excited to perform them together for everyone.”

Anitta’s performance on The Voice takes place just days before she will embark on her first-ever North American tour later this month. The trek is in support of Funk Generation, on which she sings in Spanish, Portuguese and English, doubling down on her efforts to globalize Brazilian funk. The set includes collabs with Brray, Bad Gyal, Dennis, Pedro Sampaio and Sam Smith.

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“Funk is ingrained in the culture of those who live in Brazilian favelas, where I come from, and has often been unfairly judged as lacking artistic value, even associated with organized crime,” Anitta previously said in a statement. “It reflects the classism and racism that haunt our society. I’m part of a generation that embraced the rhythm, emerged from the favelas, and conquered Brazil.”

Currently in its 25th season, The Voice features coaches Reba McEntire, John Legend, Chance the Rapper and Dan + Shay. For season 26, NBC confirmed on Monday during the upfronts in New York that Snoop Dogg and Michael Bublé are joining the singing competition’s coaching panel. McEntire and Gwen Stefani will return for the new season, set to premiere on NBC this fall.

Rapsody Reveals the Real Meaning Behind Her New Album ‘Please Don’t Cry’ & Says the Resurgence of Women in Hip-Hop Is a ‘Beautiful Beginning’

Rapsody has been in the rap game for over a decade, and she always sings the praises of the great female rappers who came before her while feeling excited to see a new generation find success.

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“This is a beautiful beginning. We’ve never seen it like this,” she said in her Billboard News interview Tuesday (May 14) about the resurgence of women in hip-hop. “I think there was a time, ’90s ‘course you know we had MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, Lauryn [Hill], Lil’ Kim, Foxy [Brown], Missy Elliott, Charlie Baltimore…. I could go on and on. But I think with social media, you just see it in such a heavy force that’s everywhere. I’m excited about it.”

The 41-year-old MC named Ms. Hill, MC Lyte and Queen Latifah as her main hip-hop influences, as well as Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., DMX and Erykah Badu (“She’s hip-hop to me,” added Rapsody). But she credits Nicki Minaj and Cardi B for paving the way for a newer crop of femcees.

“Nicki coming in, doing what she did, definitely opened the door. And then when Cardi came in, you have two huge women that are very, very, very successful. And if you know the industry, you see one success, it’s like ‘Great. Let’s really pour into this,’” she told Billboard‘s executive director, R&B/hip-hop Gail Mitchell. “I think that women’s stories were needed…. And I think the way that Cardi supported so many women also helped as well. Because of who she was and the success she had and to speak people’s names, to work with the artists that she did, it definitely made room and space for other artists.”

Cardi has worked with many of the newer female rap stars like GloRilla on “Tomorrow 2,” which earned Glo her first top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100; Latto on the Hot 100 No. 13 hit “Put It on da Floor Again;” FendiDa Rappa on “Point Me 2,” which earned her her first Hot 100 entry; and Flo Milli on the remix of her Hot 100 No. 15 hit “Never Lose Me” (also featuring SZA).

Rapsody is set to release her fourth studio album Please Don’t Cry on Friday, May 17 via Jamla and Roc Nation. “It’s supposed to be ironic, right. It’s Please Don’t Cry, but the real message is please do cry. Allow yourself to be human, allow yourself to feel, to sit in your emotions, to grow from it. And think of all the reasons that we do cry. Of course, we cry when we’re sad, but we cry when we’re happy, too, and joyful. And we cry when we’re in love. It’s just about allowing yourself to really be imperfect and embracing the human that you are,” Rapsody said of the album’s title, adding that it’s her most vulnerable body of work to date.

Please Don’t Cry arrives five years after her album Eve, which reached No. 76 on the Billboard 200 and No. 42 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. “After Eve and I did two tours, I had an idea of where I wanted to go next with the album. And then we went into the pandemic. Everybody having to sit with themselves, be alone, the volume of the world turned down and everything internal turned up. You have some healing to do, you have a lot of growing to do and evolving,” she recalled. “And going through the process, it started in March of 2020. I started working on three albums at one time. I’m thinking Eve is done, I know which one I want to do next, but then I had this other idea, but then I’m feeling so much emotionally that I need to purge. And I think it was a week once we were in lockdown, I did 10 or 12 songs in two or three days. And I just kept going. And it took me about three-and-a-half, four years, 360 songs. I had a lot to say, I had a lot to get out. But I was relearning myself.”

Watch Rapsody’s full Billboard News interview above.

Obituary for Eminem’s Slim Shady Appears in Detroit Newspaper Ahead of Rapper’s Upcoming Album

It seems Eminem may be taking his upcoming album title The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) literally. A fake Slim Shady obituary recently ran in the Detroit Free Press, in which the piece bids farewell to the “controversial rapper.”

“Slim Shady Made Lasting Impressions” the headline in the DFP reads with the subhead, “Fans ‘Will Never Forget’ Controversial Rapper.’”

The ad/obituary appears to be in support of Em’s upcoming 12th studio LP — titled The Death of Slim Shady (Coupe De Grâce) — and features a photo of Eminem in a white Jason Voorhees hockey mask.

“Fans ‘will never forget’ controversial rapper,” the piece reads. “A product of Detroit who began his career there as a rogue splinter in the flourishing underground rap scene of the mid to late 1990s, Shady first became a household name in 1999 with the debut of his playfully deranged single ‘My Name Is,’ which — along with its uniquely eye catching video — exposed the young artist and his lyrics to a wider audience.”

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The obituary continues: “Ultimately, the very things that seemed to be the tools he used became calling cards that defined an existence that could only come to a sudden and horrific end. His complex and tortured existence has come to a close, and the legacy he leaves behind is no closer to resolution than the manner in which this character departed this world. May he truly find the peace in an afterlife that he could not find on Earth.”

Billboard has reached out to Eminem for comment.

In April, the rapper popped up at the 2024 NFL Draft, which was hosted by his hometown of Detroit. Shortly after his appearance in support of the Detroit Lions, the rapper announced plans for his The Death of Slim Shady (Coupe De Grâce) album, which is slated to arrive this summer.

The album announcement came in the form of an Unsolved Mysteries episode featuring Em meeting his demise in search of “who killed Slim Shady?” 50 Cent even makes a cameo in the crime show-styled bloody teaser.

The Death Of Slim Shady will serve as the followup to the rapper’s 11th studio album, Music to Be Murdered By, which was released in 2020. That album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 to give Em his historic 10th consecutive leader.

It was his frequent collaborator/mentor Dr. Dre who broke the news of an Eminem album on the horizon when he made his first late-night appearance in 30 years on Jimmy Kimmel Live in March.

“Let me tell you something, let me explain something to you right now: Eminem is working on his own album which is coming out this year,” Dre said. “And I actually talked to him and he said it was OK for me to make that announcement right here on this show. So he has an album coming out, I’ve got songs on it and it’s fire. I’m actually gonna hear the entire album for the first time for tomorrow.”

See Slim Shady’s obit in the Detroit Free Press below:

Chuck E. Cheese Pulling Plug on Animatronic Robot Band For Good

To the likely delight of parents everywhere — as well as some seriously freaked-out kids — the Munch’s Make Believe Band is headed to the scrap heap. The animatronic group that has been a staple at the Chuck E. Cheese pizza and arcade chain for four decades is going into a permanent deep freeze by the end of this year due to changing tastes among the ball pit set.

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According to The New York Times, the mechanical animal band fronted by singers Chuck E. Cheese and Helen Henny, with Jasper T. Jowls on guitar, Mr. Munch on keyboards and Pasqually on drums, will be removed from all but two locations (Los Angeles and Nanuet, N.Y.) of the chain’s more than 400 U.S. locations amidst what CEO David McKillips described as its “most aggressive transformation” to date.

The band known for its stilted movements and blinking, shifty eyes, will be replaced by giant TV screens, digital dance floors and trampoline gyms just a few years after the chain temporarily closed a number of locations during the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the summer of 2020. “Kids are consuming entertainment differently than they were 10, 20 years ago,” McKillips told the paper. “Kids, really of all ages, are consuming their entertainment on a screen.”

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For now, the company is not saying what will happen to the hundreds of animatronic figures once they exit the stage more than four decades after Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell had the brainstorm to match a pizza restaurant with then-novel video games. In a 2017 interview, Bushnell said he was originally inspired by watching the animatronic animal show in the Tiki Room at Disneyland, tasking his engineers with coming up with a mascot for what was then called Coyote Pizza.

After mistakenly buying a rat costume — and briefly considering the name Rick’s Rat Pizza — Bushnell went with the friendlier name Chuck E. Cheese (Charles Entertainment Cheese) for the chain that opened its first outlet in May 1977 in San Jose, California. In the decades since, the restaurant became a staple of affordable children’s birthday parties, even as the band has spawned dozens of memes as well as inspiring the 2023 horror flick Five Nights at Freddy’s, in which a security guard at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza battled murderous animatronic characters.

Check out a message from the chain and some fond memories below.

Jason Aldean to Perform Tribute to Toby Keith on 2024 ACM Awards

Jason Aldean will pay tribute to the late Toby Keith by performing Keith’s 1993 debut hit “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” on the Academy of Country Music Awards on Thursday, May 16. The song was Keith’s first hit on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. It reached No. 1 that June, his first of 20 No. 1 country hits. Keith died on Feb. 5 at age 62 following a two-year battle with stomach cancer.

Aldean’s performance will be a case of one ACM entertainer of the year paying tribute to another. Keith won the award in 2003 and 2004. Aldean won it three years running from 2016-18.

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Keith won 14 ACM Awards. Aldean has won 15, including artist of the decade for the 2010s.

Hosted by 16-time ACM Award-winner Reba McEntire, the ACM Awards will stream live for a global audience on Prime Video from Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, on Thursday, May 16, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. A Prime membership will not be required to watch live. The full rebroadcast will be available directly following the stream on Prime Video and available the next day for free on Amazon Freevee and the Amazon Music app.

The 2024 ACM Awards will feature collaboration performances by Kelsea Ballerini and Noah Kahan; Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani; and Nate Smith featuring Avril Lavigne. In addition, Post Malone is booked for the show. He is expected to perform “I Had Some Help,” his new single featuring Morgan Wallen, though that has not yet been announced.

The show will also feature performances by McEntire, Kane Brown, Jelly Roll, Cody Johnson, Miranda Lambert, Parker McCollum, Thomas Rhett, Blake Shelton, Chris Stapleton and Lainey Wilson.

The 59th Academy of Country Music Awards is produced by Dick Clark Productions. Raj Kapoor is executive producer and showrunner, with Patrick Menton as co-executive producer. Damon Whiteside serves as executive producer for the Academy of Country Music, and Barry Adelman serves as executive producer for DCP. John Saade continues to serve as consulting producer for Amazon MGM Studios.

DCP is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a Penske Media Corporation (PMC) subsidiary and joint venture between PMC and Eldridge. PMC is the parent company of Billboard.

Mustard Earns His First Hot 100 No. 1 as a Producer Thanks to Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’

As Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” launches at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (dated May 18), the rapper lands his fourth leader on the list as a recording artist. Meanwhile, its producer, Mustard, tops the Hot 100 for the first time in that role.

Mustard produced five previous Hot 100 top 10s, dating back over a decade. Here’s a recap of his top-peaking hits on the chart as a producer:

  • No. 1, one week to date, May 18, 2024, “Not Like Us,” recorded by Kendrick Lamar
  • No. 5, July 21, 2018, “Boo’d Up,” Ella Mai
  • No. 6, Oct. 25, 2014, “Don’t Tell ‘Em,” Jeremih feat. YG
  • No. 7, July 2, 2016, “Needed Me,” Rihanna
  • No. 7, Feb. 18, 2012, “Rack City,” Tyga
  • No. 8, April 7, 2018, “Freaky Friday,” Lil Dicky feat. Chris Brown

As for Lamar, he solely wrote “Not Like Us,” the top-charting Hot 100 hit amid his fiery diss track battle with Drake. He co-wrote his previous three No. 1s as a recording artist.

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Solely-written Hot 100 No. 1s have all but disappeared since the start of the 2000s. Here’s a look at the share of leaders authored by a single person over the past seven decades (following the survey’s 1958 start):

  • 1960s: 29%
  • 1970s: 44%
  • 1980s: 42%
  • 1990s: 24%
  • 2000s: 6%
  • 2010s: 4%
  • 2020s: 7%

This decade, just five of 76 songs to hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 for the first time have been written by one person (a 7% showing that, while diminished compared to much of the chart’s history, marks the highest since the ‘90s). Unexpectedly tying holiday cheer to Lamar and Drake’s chilly clash, “Not Like Us” is the chart’s first solo-penned leader since Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” led for three weeks beginning in December; Johnny Marks wrote the carol, which was originally released in 1958.

Before that, Oliver Anthony Music’s self-authored “Rich Men North of Richmond” ruled the Hot 100 for two weeks beginning last August. The other two solely-written No. 1s in the 2020s led back-to-back in 2022 (marking the first set of consecutive such leaders since 2000): the ensemble Encanto hit “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves,” penned by the group’s Dave Bayley.

Michelle Wie West Says Taylor Swift Wearing Her Custom ‘TNT’ Diamond Bracelet Was ‘The Craziest Thing’

Retired golf champ Michelle Wie West is still a bit shocked at the killer product placement she scored earlier this year when Taylor Swift modeled a piece from Wove’s Michelle Wie West collection during some celebratory PDA at the AFC championship game.

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While hugging boyfriend Travis Kelce, Swift was spotted wearing the diamond-encrusted “TNT” friendship bracelet. Fallon put up a pic of the now iconic squeeze Swift laid on Kelce on the field, with Wie West saying that the precious moment was all thanks to the Super Bowl champ star tight end.

“It’s like a really upscale friendship bracelet really inspired by Taylor,” Wie West said of the nearly $6,000 customizable piece that has diamonds and beads and is likely out of the range of most Swifties looking to spice up their outfits for the Eras Tour.

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“I messaged him [Kelce] and I was like, ‘hey, we made a bracelet inspired by Taylor, like, we would love to just give her one. I don’t care what she does with it,’” Wie West said of her message to the NFL player who she’d previously met at Justin Timberlake’s annual celebrity golf tournament. “‘I just want it to be given to her… in the proximity of her,’” Wie West added.

Noting that she doesn’t normally “really care about football” that much, Wie West said after the game she started screaming at her phone. “I was like, ‘Oh my God!’,” she recalled yelling, which alarmed her husband, who thought something bad had happened. “I was like, ‘Taylor Swift is wearing my bracelet!’” she told him. “It was just like the craziest thing.”

Playing dumb, Fallon asked if “TNT” was a reference to dynamite, with Wie West helpfully suggesting it might also refer to “Travis ‘n Taylor.”

“I was just… I can’t believe it,” Wie West said, still looking shocked.

Watch Wie West on The Tonight Show below.



Kelly Clarkson Talks Losing ‘A Lot’ of Weight on Prescription Medication: ‘Everybody Thinks It’s Ozempic, But It’s Not’

Kelly Clarkson and Whoopi Goldberg bonded on Monday (May 13) over their recent weight loss journeys. While appearing on Clarkson’s daytime talker, Kelly complimented The View co-host, telling her, “Every time I run into you, you look younger! You’re like Benjamin Button. It’s like crazy every time you walk in!”

Goldberg, 68, in turn, said that’s because of all the weight she’s lost, which she pegged as “almost two people,” with Clarkson noting “I’ve lost a lot as well,” which Whoopi said she’d noticed.

In a rare public comment from an A-lister about their use of the weight loss drugs that have come into vogue over the past few years, EGOT winner Goldberg said she’s been using “the wonderful shot that works for folks who need some help.”

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“Mine is a different one than people assume,” said Clarkson, 42. “I ended up having to do that too because my blood work got so bad.” While Clarkson did not specify which drug she was using, Goldberg noted that the decision to try medical weight loss intervention is good for people like them who have “issues.”

Clarkson said she wasn’t planning on discussing her weight loss with Goldberg, but once the subject came up the singer said, “I didn’t see it,” describing reviewing tape of a birthday show she did last April at the Belasco Theatre in Los Angeles that surprised her. “We were watching it back and I paid to have it taped and I was going to release it… and then my doctor chased me for like two years and I was like, ‘no, I’m afraid of it. I already have thyroid problems.’ I was afraid. Everybody thinks it’s Ozempic, it’s not, it’s something else.”

Ozempic is an FDA-approved injectable medication originally formulated to help adults with type 2 diabetes manage their blood sugar. But the drug, as well as others like it, have proven to have weight loss properties that have led to a surge in off-label prescribing due to its additional ability to trick the brain into thinking the patient is full. Clarkson said the unnamed drug she’s taking “aids in helping break down the sugar [because] obviously my body doesn’t do it right.”

Clarkson described screening the footage of the birthday show in her house in New York as she was preparing to release the performance, “and then all of a sudden I paused it and I was like, ‘who the f–k is that?!’ I swear to God! It sounds insane.” Goldberg said she had a similar experience while on the set of the historical drama Till, where she said a woman on the set thought the comedian/actress was wearing a “fat suit.” At her heaviest, Goldberg said she was around 300 pounds, with Clarkson, 5’3″, noting that at one point she weighed 203 pounds.

“I was indignant! I was like, ‘this is not a fat suit! This is me!’ And then I saw…” Goldberg said. “You see it and you’re like, ‘she’s about to die of a heart attack,’” Clarkson responded. The strangest part, Clarkson said, was that she never saw herself as being overweight, was never insecure about her body, and, despite what she said some people thought, she was happy.

Goldberg put it in relatable comedic terms, joking that Clarkson was just living her life, then adding, “If you’re not rolling over on somebody…” which led to Kelly getting real about how unconcerned she was. “I’m gonna be real with you, I was ridin’ high with someone and I did not know!… I watched that show and I was like, ‘she is… any second now gonna die.’”

In an interview in February on her show with Kevin James, Clarkson said she was diagnosed as pre-diabetic, which motivated her to lose weight. At the time she said, “I wasn’t shocked. I was a tiny bit overweight. So, yeah, I wasn’t shocked by it. But they did. They were like, ‘You’re prediabetic. You’re right on the borderline.’ And I was like, ‘But I’m not there yet.’ And then I waited two years and then did, however, move into the — I was like, ‘OK, I’ll do something about it.’”

Around the same time, Clarkson said after moving to New York with her two young children she began to lose some weight by walking around the city constantly, watching her diet and using an infrared sauna. “I eat a healthy mix. I dropped weight because I’ve been listening to my doctor — a couple years I didn’t,” she said at the time. “And 90 percent of the time I’m really good at it because a protein diet is good for me anyway. I’m a Texas girl, so I like meat — sorry, vegetarians in the world!”

Watch Goldberg on the Kelly Clarkson Show below.



Snoop Dogg Talks Olympics, ‘The Voice’ Coaching Roles: ‘I’m The People’s Champ’

The year of the Dogg is upon us.

Hip-hop veteran Snoop Dogg has his hand in everything right now, from cocktails to cooking shows, an international tour, movie roles, coaching spots on NBC’s The Voice and a spot on the sidelines for the world’s greatest multi-sport event, the Olympic Games.

On Monday night (May 13), Snoop dropped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon for a brisk walk through his busy schedule.

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This Dogg is having his day, again and again.

Rocking a customized Olympics kit, Snoop talked of taking his talents to Paris this summer, where he joins the NBC team for nightly reports from the 2024 games. “I wanna do something special with you over there, I don’t know what it is,” he tells Fallon. “Something musical. Something comedic.”

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That once-in-a-lifetime gig will slot into a stint as coach on NBC singing competition show, The Voice, alongside fellow newcomer, the Canadian crooner Michael Bublé.

Announced earlier this week, the 52-year-old joins a panel for this fall’s 26th season which is rounded out by returning coaches Reba McEntire and Gwen Stefani, with the former notching her third consecutive season on the series and No Doubt singer and solo star Stefani adding yet another notch with her eighth go-round.

“If you know anything about me you know I love all forms of music,” he says of his pivot to the musical chairs of The Voice. “So this is a great opportunity for me to show that I really understand music. And be a real coach and really give direction to some of these artists that can be today’s next big thing.”

Snoop insists, “I’m not one-sided, I’m not just for you. I’m for everybody. I’m the people’s champ.”

Before the gun goes off in the French capital, Snoop will embark on a Canadia-exclusive trek this June with fellow G-Funk trailblazers Warren G and DJ Quik, for the Cali to Canada Tour. “We’ll be doing what we do,” he tells Fallon, “representing that west coast hip-hop and giving up a great show.”

Watch the interview below.