Music
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The Recording Academy has issued an emailed call to action for its voting members on Monday (Aug. 5) to submit smartphone videos in which they answer such questions including, “Why do you take the time to vote in the Grammy Awards each year?” The academy will then combine excerpts from the submitted clips to create […]
While The Weeknd is wrapping up his final trilogy of albums, he has another horrifying one on the way this Halloween. The superstar announced on Wednesday (Aug. 7) that he’ll be returning to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood with a new haunted house, The Weeknd: Nightmare Trilogy. The one-of-a-kind horror experience will feature […]
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the upcoming Billboard 200 dated Aug. 10, Ye looks for his 12th consecutive charting album to debut at No. 1 – but he’ll have to get past a familiar longtime foe first.
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Ye & Ty Dolla $ign, Vultures 2 (YZY): We must be nearing the 15th anniversary of the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, because Ye (formerly Kanye West) and Taylor Swift are mixing it up again. This time, it’s not particularly personal: Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department has been the album to beat on the Billboard 200 for over three months now, and Ye & Ty’s typically long-expected and long-delayed sequel o set Vultures 2, originally set for March, finally saw release last Saturday (Aug. 3), after being announced for the day before.
Nevertheless, the race is now on, and Ye and Ty are in it to win it. As is typical of last-second new Ye releases of the past decade, Vultures 2 is not available for physical purchase upon its release – it is available only in digital format, on iTunes and Amazon and at his webstore, and is currently being sold for just $5. Late on Tuesday night (Aug. 6), Ye released a new deluxe edition to the album as a webstore exclusive, featuring a new song currently not available on streaming, “Take Off Your Dress.”
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Given these maneuvers and Ye’s history on the chart, Vultures 2 would seem a likely frontrunner for the No. 1 spot. However, the set’s performance on streaming has not been equivalent to the dominance of his and Ty’s first Vultures: On Apple Music, the album only claims three of the top 50 spots, and it only has a single entry in that range on Spotify: “Field Trip,” which appears to be the closest thing to a breakout hit on the album – and still nowhere near a threat to debut atop the Billboard Hot 100 like runaway smash “Carnival” did off the preceding set. Add to that some middling notices from fans and critics, many of whom have deemed the album unfinished-sounding, as well as a partial first tracking week (thanks to the delayed Saturday release), and Vultures 2 is fighting an uphill battle to claim the 200’s top spot this week.
Still, with “Take Off Your Dress” drawing a highly positive fan response so far, the new deluxe edition of the album should help its numbers a decent amount. And the bar has been lower to clear with Tortured Poets in the last couple weeks than it was in the first few months – Swift’s album reigned last week with just 71,000 total units, the lowest total for a No. 1 album on the chart since March.
Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department (Republic): It’s been a lucky 13 weeks now for Taylor Swift’s massive blockbuster atop the Billboard 200, as the set returned to the top spot in a slow release week after having bequeathed it to Eminem (The Death of Slim Shady) and Stray Kids (ATE), respectively, in the two prior frames. The album has already set a career-best mark for Swift, though it still has a way to go to match the 19 weeks notched by Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time for the longest-reigning No. 1 album of the decade.
Swift doesn’t appear to be giving up the fight just yet. She introduced a new digital variant of the album on her webstore over the weekend, with an exclusive bonus track: “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys (First Draft Voice Memo).” (At the same time, she re-released three of her previously available digital variants, each of which had a different first draft voice memo as their own exclusive bonus track.) She also held a sale on Aug. 4 where 16 previously available physical variants of the album (across CD, cassette and vinyl) were discounted by 13% — presumably in tribute to the album’s new landmark number of weeks ruling the chart – while also restocking the signed CD edition of the album on her webstore, which (as usual) quickly sold out.
If totals between Ye and Swift remain tight through these final two days of the tracking week, there may likely be more reissues and releases to come on both sides, as the two historic rivals look to gain an edge in one of pop’s preeminent battlefields.
Chappell Roan, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (KRA/Amusement/Island/Republic): Don’t forget about the Midwest Princess! While Roan’s debut album is now nearly 10 months old, it continues to gain in overall momentum – climbing to a new peak of No. 4 on the Billboard 200 this week, as five of its tracks continue to slowly ascend the Hot 100. The ubiquitous Roan has also benefitted from additional headlines and exposure following her historically well-attended late-afternoon Lollapalooza set on Thursday, and even from the announcement of Minnesota governor and Nebraska native Tim Walz as Kamala Harris’ running mate – with many pop fans dubbing him the “Midwest Prince(ss)” to Harris’ Brat, and even seeing parallels between their campaign hats with Roan’s own merch.
Rise and Fall was still well behind Tortured Poets this week in terms of overall units – 53,000 to 71,000, with the former actually dipping a little from the previous week, despite the chart gain – so it’s unlikely to bridge that gap in one or even a couple weeks. However, given the unstoppable growth of the album over the past four months, it seems practically inevitable that it will be a true contender for the top spot before long – particularly if Roan ever releases any kind of physical reissue or deluxe edition for the well-loved set.
Charli XCX, Brat (Atlantic/AG): And of course, you can’t talk about Midwest Princess this summer without mentioning its across-the-pond counterpart. While Brat has also been gradually gaining in public awareness throughout the warm-weather months – with breakout hits “360” and “Apple” bounding up the Hot 100 — this week it gets a particularly notable adrenaline shot: the release of a new Billie Eilish-featuring remix to Brat bonus cut “Guess,” which also received an extended rollout over the past week, including an eye-popping music video.
The “Guess” remix, which topped both the Spotify Daily Top Songs USA and YouTube’s Trending Music charts on Friday in its first full day of release, looks poised to become Charli’s biggest Hot 100 hit of the whole Brat era. It should give the album a major boost on the chart this week — though posing a true challenge to Swift’s juggernaut may also still be too lofty a goal for it at the moment.
Conservative political commentator Candace Owens interviewed Ye — formerly Kanye West — in 2022 and kept the 72-minute chat shelved until releasing it on her YouTube page on Wednesday (Aug. 7).
The explosive interview finds Yeezy touching on a myriad of topics as he was feeling the impact of his antisemitic remarks, which resulted in companies such as Gap, Balenciaga, Def Jam and Adidas severing ties with the Chicago-bred artist.
At one point, Ye gave flowers to rival Drake and mentor Jay-Z as the best to ever do it in the rap world.
“This makes me think, Drake is the best rapper ever by the numbers. Jay-Z is the greatest rapper ever by the inspiration,” he stated.
The follow-up comment from Ye took a drastic turn when it came to Hov and Beyoncé’s marriage. “I just think Beyoncé need to let him go get some p—y, serious,” West suggested in jarring fashion. “Go to the [Dominican Republic] or something, you know what I mean?”
Fans couldn’t believe where the conversation about Jay-Z ended up. “50 cent is gonna have a field day with this,” one person wrote on X, as another added, “Ye is definitely crazy for saying that out of the blue like that.”
West and Jay-Z haven’t been spotted together in recent years so it’s unclear where their relationship stands today. However, on the music side, Jay made a surprise appearance on Donda standout “Jail” in 2021.
Ye and Drake have been frenemies with on-and-off-again beefing for much of the decade. West attempted to insert himself into the Kendrick Lamar-Drizzy feud on behalf of K. Dot, but his “Like That” remix didn’t make much noise.
Yeezy also name-dropped Drake in what appears to be a dissing fashion on Vultures 2 track 530, which centers around his divorce from Kim Kardashian. “You a fake b—h/ You don’t really love Ye, go listen to Drake, b—h,” he raps.
Watch the 2022 interview below in full, which finds West also dishing on allegedly being drunk when firing off the antisemitic “death con 3” tweet, wanting to change his name to Christian Billionaire Ye and more.
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Two suspects were arrest for allegedly plotting an attack at Taylor Swift’s concerts in Vienna, Austria, this week, according to ABC News. The two people — one of whom is a 19-year-old Austrian citizen — were taken into custody on Wednesday (Aug. 7) after they reportedly “radicalized” themselves online, with Swift’s concert marking the target […]
With the raw energy of corridos and the dance-floor fervor of Jersey club, Fuerza Regida’s latest creation, Pero No Te Enamores, forges a bold, unprecedented fusion. At the helm, frontman Jesús Ortiz Paz, a.k.a. JOP, embraced the risk of blending these distinct styles.
“When I first heard [Jersey club] about one to two years ago, I loved it. I was like, ‘Man, I wanna do something with it.’ I just didn’t know how. But I knew that when I did, they were gonna talk sh–t,” he tells Billboard Español. “So when it got to the point to make a new album, I was like, ‘I wanna do Jerseys and dance music, I want to move something different but still keep the original Fuerza Regida [essence], with the guitars.”
The gamble paid off. This week, the album, which was released on July 25, made an immediate impact on the Billboard charts, debuting at No. 2 on the Top Latin Albums and No. 23 on the Billboard 200. The focus track, “Nel,” marked by its emotional-yet-disillusioned tone, entered the coveted Billboard Hot 100 at 91. Additionally, eight cuts from the album appear on Hot Latin Songs.
For this new sound, Fuerza Regida enlisted music producers Gordo — known for his work on Drake’s Baltimore club hit “Sticky” — and Synthetic, the architect behind Lil Uzi Vert’s Jersey club smash “Just Wanna Rock.” “Gordo has the dance s–t on lock, he’s the man; and Synthetic, he’s killing it with the Jersey club,” adds JOP.
The San Bernardino band’s innovative leap into Jersey corridos does more than fuse two disparate genres: It carves out a fresh niche in the musical lexicon, affirming that the barrios and dancehalls can, in fact, share a singular, resonant heartbeat.
Below, Billboard ranks all 15 songs from Pero No Te Enamores, from worst to best.
“Britney”
Image Credit: Courtesy of Fuerza Regida
If there is a single image that pops to mind in many fan’s brains when they think of late MC Juice WRLD it’s likely of the rapper’s laconic face sticking up from a hole in the floor in the video for his breakthrough 2018 hit “Lucid Dreams.” That might explain why it’s the first one […]
Drake’s “Hotline Bling” was inescapable following its release in 2015. The 6 God gave fans a peek behind the curtain with his 100 Gigs drop of content on Tuesday (Aug. 6), which included clips of him at the studio explaining how the diamond-certified hit came to be. According to the artist, an anonymous woman he […]
Steph Curry is Team Drizzy. The basketball superstar sat down with GQ recently, where he was asked about his thoughts on Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s recent rap beef, in which he was briefly mentioned on Lamar’s “Meet the Grahams.” “Ay, LeBron, keep the family away. Hey, Curry, keep the family away,” Lamar rapped on the […]
If you see a camo-print baseball cap with orange lettering in the wild, it could mean one of two things: The wearer is either a Chappell Roan fan or a voter supporting Kamala Harris and Tim Walz’s 2024 White House bid — unless, of course, they’re both.
Shortly after the sitting VP announced that the Minnesota governor would serve as her running mate, the duo unveiled campaign merch that instantly reminded some people of an item in the “Good Luck, Babe!” artist’s store: a woodsy trucker hat with a neon orange message over the brim. Harris and Walz’s version simply reads their names, while Roan’s says “Midwest Princess,” as a reference to her Billboard 200 top 10 album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.
Upon seeing Harris’ new apparel, Roan simply tweeted Tuesday (Aug. 6): “is this real.”
The LGBTQ+ singer also retweeted someone’s joking comment, which read, “How gay do u have to be to see hunting colors and think it’s a Chappell roan thing.”
Billboard has reached out to a rep for Harris for comment.
For the record, the hat — whether or not it’s a purposeful nod to Roan — is very much real. The item is currently available for $40 on Harris’ campaign website, which reads, “You asked, we answered … The most iconic political hat in America,” digging at the red “Make America Great Again” caps worn by Republican opponent Donald Trump’s supporters. Purchasing the hat counts as a donation to the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s Harris Victory Fund.
Roan’s tweet comes about a week after she took the stage at Lollapalooza, drawing an enormous crowd that a spokesperson told CNN was the biggest turnout to a daytime performance that the Chicago event has ever seen. The Missouri native has been on a roll with her headline-making festival performances this year, attracting unanticipated numbers to her sets at Coachella, Boston Calling and Gov Ball.
Speaking of her Gov Ball set, Harris and Walz may have to go the extra mile to add Roan’s endorsement to their growing list of musical supporters. The “Hot to Go” singer previously called out the Biden-Harris administration during her time on stage at the New York City festival, claiming to have turned down the White House’s request for her to perform at its Pride Month celebrations.
“We want liberty, freedom and justice for all,” she said at the time. “When you do that, that’s when I’ll come.”
See Roan’s tweet about the Harris-Walz hats below.