Music

06 Feb 2024

Usher Breaks $100 Million in Las Vegas — And He Could Do It Again on His 2024 Arena Tour

It’s a big week for Usher. On Friday (Feb. 9), he’ll release Coming Home, his first studio LP in eight years. Two days later, he’ll perform as the official headliner of the 2024 Apple Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show. On Tuesday morning (Feb. 6), he announced Usher: Past Present Future, his first solo headline tour in a decade.

But that doesn’t mean that Usher has been away from the concert stage. In July 2021, he kicked off Usher: The Las Vegas Residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. A year later, he moved down the strip to MGM’s Dolby Live for My Way: The Vegas Residency. As he looks forward to a new album and some of the biggest performances of his career, he can celebrate the success of these two residencies: According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, Usher has grossed more than $100 million across these Vegas stints.

The Caesars residency was relatively brief, with 14 shows in July and August 2021, and another six around the turn of the new year. Those 20 dates earned $18.8 million and sold 84,000 tickets. The MGM run was more extensive, hitting 80 shows between July 15, 2022, and Dec. 2, 2023. There, he grossed $95.9 million and sold 394,000 tickets.

Altogether, these theater shows grossed $114.6 million and sold 479,000 tickets across 100 dates. That’s a higher revenue total than any of Usher’s prior tours, previously topped by the OMG Tour, which brought in $76 million in 2010-11. That lined up with Usher’s other Super Bowl halftime appearance, when he made a cameo during the Black Eyed Peas’ 2011 set.

On a per-show scale, My Way: The Vegas Residency has averaged $1.198 million each night, surpassing $1.026 million from the OMG Tour and $698,000 from Truth Tour (2004-05). The latter run supported Confessions, the 2004 album that spawned four Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s and was the top Billboard 200 album of the year.

By almost any metric, that album and tour was a rare commercial peak for an artist with multiple No. 1 singles before and after. To improve upon his demand as a live act by more than 70% with his Vegas residencies proves the strength of his talent, discography, and brand, more than 30 years after he first hit the Billboard charts with “Call Me A Mack (From “Poetic Justice”)” in the summer of 1993.

Of course, inflation and an ever-changing ticketing market make comparing concert revenues from 20 years apart a difficult task. But in a Vegas theater a third the size of most North American arenas, Usher is a high-demand destination ticket. Both residencies have averaged a $239 ticket, far beyond the post-pandemic highs at Resorts World Theater and Caesar’s Bakkt Theater.

And while Usher arrived in Vegas in 2021 with new-and-improved demand, he leaves Sin City with even bigger momentum thanks to word-of-mouth around both residencies, a well-received Tiny Desk Concert and a run of single releases. His first stretch of shows at Caesars averaged $928,000, before increasing on almost every leg, peaking at $1.5 million on his last run of 21 shows from Oct. 11-Dec. 2.

After he releases Coming Home and plays the Super Bowl stage this weekend, he will embark on Usher: Past Present Future later this year. The arena trek launches on Aug. 20 in Washington D.C. and is scheduled through two shows in Chicago on Oct. 28-29. The initial announcement’s 24 North American stops could yield more than $50 million at the box office. But a successful album rollout and Super Bowl performance could lead to additional dates, extending his routing and pushing potential earnings further toward the $100 million threshold that he cleared after two and a half years in Las Vegas theaters.

06 Feb 2024

Hot 100 First-Timers: Ben Shapiro Debuts With Tom MacDonald Team-Up ‘Facts’

Ben Shapiro, the conservative political commentator and editor for The Daily Wire, makes his debut on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (dated Feb. 10), thanks to “Facts,” his new collaboration with Canadian rapper Tom MacDonald.

Released Jan. 26, the song enters at No. 16 with 5.6 million U.S. streams and 96,000 downloads sold in its opening week (Jan. 26-Feb. 1), according to Luminate. Its sales sum is the second-biggest in a single week this year, after Megan Thee Stallion’s “Hiss,” which concurrently arrives with 104,000 sold. “Hiss” and “Facts” launch at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, on the Digital Song Sales chart.

Notably, Shapiro directed his audience to engage with the song on his verse, rapping, “All my people download this, let’s get a Billboard No. 1.” He also taunts Nicki Minaj, saying, “Nicki take some notes, I just did this for fun” – presumably alluding to recent beef between Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion.

Shapiro had not appeared on any Billboard chart before this week, with “Facts” marking his first and only musical release to date.

The song earns MacDonald his fourth and highest-charting Hot 100 entry, after “Snowflakes” (No. 71 peak), “Brainwashed” (No. 89) and “Fake Woke” (No. 96), all in 2021.

Elsewhere, “Facts” debuts at No. 6 on Hot Rap Songs and No. 8 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, both of which use the same multimetric methodology as the Hot 100. As MacDonald reaches each genre list for the first time, MacDonald achieves his first top 10 on the tallies. He had previously peaked as high as No. 22 on Hot Rap Songs with “Brainwashed” and No. 31 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs with both “Snowflakes” and “Brainwashed.”

06 Feb 2024

The Grammys’ New Pop Dance Category Functioned Pretty Much Perfectly at the 2024 Awards

After years of of the dance community firing off hot takes on how the Grammys’ dance/electronic fields didn’t quite get the nominees — and occasionally the winners — right, the realm has been uniquely quiet since the close of the ceremony on Sunday.

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This general calm (minus a few predictable naysayers) suggests a mutual agreement that the 2024 Grammys finally, more or less, nailed dance/electronic music.

This success is largely due to the best pop dance recording award, newly introduced in 2024 to honor dance music that crosses over with pop, while also freeing up space in the dance/electronic recording category for more traditional thump-thump, womp-womp, boot-and-cats dance/electronic music.(Albeit more traditional dance/electronic music that’s still, most often, very commercially popular.)

You couldn’t have come up with two more apt figureheads for these factions than Kylie Minogue and Skrillex, with the former winning the pop dance Grammy for her culture-penetrating “Padam Padam” and the latter winning for his widely beloved bass bomb “Rumble,” a collaboration with U.K. grime MC Flowdan and Fred again.., who both also received awards for the win.

It is, of course, difficult to say what the nominee field would have looked like this year if pop dance hadn’t been introduced, but it’s almost certain it wouldn’t have represented the both sonic ends of the dance/electronic world thoroughly. (Racial and gender representation is a different matter: Flowdan was the only person of color nominated in the fields and Romy was the only female producer, encapsulating the dance category’s persistent issue with nominating mostly straight, white men. This issue was particularly acute in 2024, given the big four categories were dominated by women, including three winning queer women.)

Without the extra space provided to dance with the new category, it’s possible the dance/electronic recording category’s most left-of-center nominee, Aphex Twin’s “Blackbox Life Record 21F”, wouldn’t have made the cut. Or maybe only one David Guetta song instead of two would have been nominated.

It’s also possible that “Padam Padam” might have beat “Rumble,” the victory of which is particularly important given the spotlight it puts on grime, a sonic and cultural phenomenon in the U.K. but not yet a commercial force in the U.S. “I think you can put a bit more respect on the [grime] name,” Flowdan told Cracked Magazine following his win, “because in certain areas I feel that the music or the genre or the culture’s kind of downplayed as if it’s not something that’s really influential.”

What’s almost certain, though, is that like in so many years past, without pop dance, the nominee field would have likely ended up being just kind of odd, with dance-oriented pop stars like Minogue potentially up against an avant-garde electronic artist like Aphex Twin. This issue was vividly demonstrated last year, when Beyoncé was up against Bonobo, Kaytranada, Diplo, Rufus du Sol and ODESZA when her “Break My Soul” was nominated for (and won) best dance/electronic recording.

In the category’s early years, the nominee field commonly included artists like Minogue (who won the award in 2004), as well as fellow dance-leaning pop greats Madonna, Cher, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake. It started more frequently rewarding electronic-world producers like The Chemical Brothers and Daft Punk in the late ’00s. A few years after that, the category was taken over by a new strain of pop-leaning dance music, EDM, for an era when mainstage bangers by artists like The Chainsmokers competed against more underground acts like Riton — exacerbating the issue that ultimately resulted in the addition of the new category.

Competition between such different artists may have been technically fair, but it never totally made sense. But this year, the pop dance category eradicated the strange-bedfellows phenomenon that’s plagued the dance/electronic recording category since it was introduced to the awards in 1998.

The pop dance category not only made a formal space for producers like Guetta, whose work generally has major crossover with pop, but, by awarding Minogue in particular, pulled off the neat trick of returning an artist like her — one whose work is so often inspired by and at home in the club world — to the dance field where she rightly belongs. Minogue is as much of a dance act as Skrillex, and this year, finally, they didn’t have to fight for space or recognition.

06 Feb 2024

Watch Ariana Grande Get Emotional While Reflecting on Her 14 Songs in Spotify’s Billions Club: ‘So Thankful’

As she gears up to release her latest album, Ariana Grande is taking a trip down memory lane. In the latest episode of Spotify‘s Billions Club on Tuesday (Feb. 6), the 30-year-old pop star reflected on the stories behind all 14 of her hits that earned a billion streams on the platform — the most of any female artist in history — and got emotional about the years of work she’s put in to get to the place she is now.

To celebrate the singer’s historic accomplishment, Spotify arranged for plaques representing each of Grande’s billions-streamed songs to be set up in her recording space at Jungle City Studios. While sorting through the plaques, the “Yes, And?” vocalist joked about her “Bang Bang” collaboration with Jessie J and Nicki Minaj — “Bang bang into the room, profound lyricism” — and praised her past duet partners, Lady Gaga and The Weeknd, for their respective roles in the streaming prowesses of “Rain On Me” and “Save Your Tears.”

The Victorious alum also shared a funny memory about the music video for her flagship Christmas song, 2014’s “Santa Tell Me.” “It was a backup video,” she revealed, laughing. “In the original video, I was in weird Christmas lingerie and I was hitting Santa with a cane pole. I was like, ‘That is the right vibe for this song, believe you me.’ And the label was like, ‘Hey, honey … I don’t think we can use this.’”

The “Positions” singer will next release music on March 8 with Eternal Sunshine, her highly anticipated seventh album. She’s already dropped its lead single, “Yes, And?,” which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, but has since confirmed she will not share any other songs from the album ahead of the LP’s arrival.

“I’m excited ’cause I also feel like I haven’t even really started,” Grande concluded in the Spotify clip. “I’m so, so grateful and I can’t wait for you to hear what’s next. I must go finish it now.”

Sharing the Billions Club video on Instagram, the Grammy winner wrote that “filming this little episode was such a sweet little commemoration and gratitude meltdown, if you will.” She went on, saying that she didn’t anticipate getting emotional during filming, “but it really, truly hit me! so much of my life has been spent doing this, with and for you all. so many little pieces of my life are stowed away all snug in these little, silly songs forever…”

“you aren’t just listeners but you are people that i feel so held by and appreciate deeply,” she added, addressing her fans. “the most special part of all is experiencing so much beautiful human connection (this is a lot / too much / sorry).. i’m so thankful for the memories we have made over the years and the goodness and sense of home we have found in each other! i remind myself of this when i need it most.”

Watch Grande’s Billions Club episode with Spotify below.

06 Feb 2024

10 Years In, Cole Bennett’s Lyrical Lemonade Keeps Growing With New Def Jam Album

Ten years ago, Cole Bennett was just another teenager with a blog who loved Chicago hip-hop, at a time when the city was bursting at the seams with rising talent. Chicago drill had taken over, with Chief Keef and Lil Durk leading a wave of young MCs; Chance the Rapper and Vic Mensa were riding a different wave, but no less creative and influential; and music lovers (and the music industry) were focused in on the city intensely, making bets on who would be the next to emerge from the hotbed of creativity.

It was in that era that Lyrical Lemonade was initially born — with Bennett, 17 at the time and still in high school in Plano, Illinois, launching what he calls “truly just a passion project, something that I could do in my free time that allowed me to be creative.” A few years later Bennett was living in Chicago, with the kind of freedom that only a summer break between college semesters can offer, when he really began to focus in on what Lyrical Lemonade could be.

Shortly after that he dropped out of college entirely, beginning the process of turning his blog and passion for hip-hop into a career as one of the go-to music video directors and creatives in the business. He shot videos for budding stars Juice WRLD, Lil Xan, Lil Pump, Ski Mask the Slump God and Jack Harlow, eventually working with luminaries like Eminem, Kanye West and J. Cole, all with his signature bright hues and lemonade-carton logo in the corner.

“When I started doing videos, it was really like the second layer of Lyrical Lemonade,” he says. “The first layer was the blog — I loved writing and covering new local talent that wasn’t being covered, and I thought I wanted to go to school for journalism and take that route. But I also loved film and shooting videos and that side of things. And then that started to catch its stride and became the forefront of it all.”

Since then, Lyrical Lemonade has continued to grow and evolve, encompassing a music festival that he launched in 2018, called Summer Smash, alongside festival partner Berto Solorio; working with brands like Jordan and the Minions; and, now, partnering with Def Jam for the first Lyrical Lemonade album, All Is Yellow, released on Jan. 26. The collaborative album is a kaleidoscope of features and cuts from the vast web of Bennett’s network, including Durk, Keef, JID, Kid Cudi, Lil Yachty, Lil B, Juicy J, Cordae, Latto, Joey Badass and Eminem. Bennett has shot a music video for each song, which he plans to stitch together into a visual album once they’re all released.

“It was really about breaking down that door and bringing people together,” he says about the album. “When there’s someone who can act as the glue within it all, people really put their egos down. I want rap music to be more unified, I want there to be more collaboration. Growing up, this is what I was into — I loved posse cuts, I loved left-field features that you wouldn’t expect, I loved seeing my favorite artists from two completely different sides of the spectrum in a photo together. These are all things that fed me, so I wanted to create a world where that was the theme.”

At this point, Lyrical Lemonade has grown into one of the most trusted brands in hip-hop, with a social following in the millions and more than 21 million subscribers on YouTube, where his 400-plus videos have racked up over 11 billion views. Bennett spoke to Billboard to reflect on the past decade of Lyrical Lemonade, the various avenues through which the company has expanded and where he plans to go from here — eventually.

“I’m gonna spend some time with my family and just take a second to see what I want to do next,” he says. “That’s never been the answer; I’ve always had some extravagant thing I wanted to tackle next, and I think right now I’m just going to give myself a breather to figure out what that is, but do it at my own pace.”

You just celebrated 10 years of Lyrical Lemonade last year. What’s the significance of that for you?

For me, it’s the idea of time. Ten years goes by quick, but I also feel like I lived 10 lives within those 10 years. So it’s really just trying to wrap my head around understanding how fast time can go, how slow time can go — and also understanding how many memories can be packed into a few years. It’s made me more aware of how I want to spend my time. Ten years ago I was 17; you’re starting to become an adult, and I started Lyrical Lemonade and stepped into my professional career. So it’s my first time fully understanding what 10 years feels like.

When you first started, what were you hoping to accomplish?

Nothing: It was solely, honestly, truly just a passion project, just something that I could do in my free time that allowed me to be creative and have an outlet for my creativity and my imagination and the things I was into. I just loved Chicago rap music. Then one thing led to the next, and I was like, “Wow, I’m also being productive — this isn’t just a form of entertainment for me, this is also something that I can do.”

In 2018 you launched your festival. Why did you want to get into that and what did you learn from that experience?

I’ve been throwing shows since 2013. The first Lyrical Lemonade show, we spent $150 that I had made from mowing lawns to rent this rehearsal room that fit 90 people, and it was a free show. The festival thing was one of those dreams that didn’t feel realistic; you grow up around Chicago and go to Lollapalooza every year and you just look at that as this heaven on earth, this thing that you look forward to all year round that feels bigger than life. It didn’t feel like a real, tangible thing, but it was this far-fetched dream that I would ponder on sometimes.

We kept doing shows, and the venues started getting bigger. I went to Chicago shows my whole life, and there were venues I dreamed of doing shows at: Reggie’s Rock Club, then Lincoln Hall, then the Metro. These were all on the bucket list. Then on the west side of Chicago, there was a local festival that was happening on a Saturday, one stage — and they weren’t doing it on the Sunday, but they already had the fencing, the stage, everything was prepared for it. So we got in contact with the city and asked if we could take it over and extend it one day and do our own show. And we got approved for it and we ran with it. Berto and I had already thrown a lot of shows together, I had built a lot of great relationships with artists through doing videos with them, so getting people on board was really easy, and we just went for it. It was one day, 11,000 people, sold out.

Once you do something once, your idea of tackling the next step of that is so much more realistic. So it was like a slow build up. I won’t lie, going from the shows we were throwing to that festival was a big leap, but the opportunity presented itself and we took it. But it wouldn’t have been possible without Berto. Working with Berto on this whole journey is something that I’m thankful for and it wouldn’t have been possible without him.

How has that grown since? It’s now three days, over 100,000 people.

One thing led to the next and it was gradual. I think there was a need for it in Chicago and there was an audience for it that loves rap music and wanted a rap festival in the Midwest. We pay attention to detail, we’re very passionate about what we do and making it an experience for the audience. And I think that’s felt by the consumer and it’s allowed us to continue to grow.

You’re very intentional with your color schemes. How important is that to what you do?

I think storytelling can be done in so many different ways. I remember when I first started making music videos, it was a lot of point-and-shoot and then having fun in the edit; there was no storyline. I do want to eventually do films, that’s a dream of mine — but I didn’t love trying to create a narrative within a music video.

That then led me to realize that you can storytell in a lot of different ways. You can storytell with a strong color palette. You can do it with wardrobe, set design, shapes, all these different things. And when I started to understand that, I really became comfortable with the idea of how my eye reacts to color and having fun with what these different colors mean and how they make people feel, and how wardrobe and shapes make people feel, and how all these worlds can live together in a really profound and visually appealing way.

It also plays into the album — the title of the album, the videos for each song. When did you first decide that you wanted to do an album?

It was always something in the back of my head, an idea that was floating around for a long time, but I knew I wasn’t ready for it. A project of this size, you’re going to look back at for the rest of your life. I knew how much love and care and attention to detail it would take.

In 2018 and 2019, which a lot of people would consider a really big moment in time for Lyrical Lemonade, it would have been a perfect time to do it. But I think there would have been some collaborations and things that wouldn’t be true to who I am now. And some of the collaborations I worked on now probably won’t be true to me in three or four years, too. But I will be able to be thankful and appreciative of where I was at when I made this, because I know how much effort and care that went into it, whereas I don’t know if I would’ve been able to give this type of effort and care four or five years ago.

How did this partnership with Def Jam come about?

There’s been a part of me, for better or for worse, that was really anti-label for a long time, so doing an album I really thought I wanted to take the independent route. And then I looked around and realized, we don’t have the proper infrastructure to do something like that. The point of a label is to add that stability and infrastructure to make these things possible. For a lot of artists, you don’t need that, but for a compilation album and doing all these videos, with 30-plus artists, and all that goes into that, it’s such a mountain that I needed a team, someone in my ear giving me deadlines, structure that I didn’t have.

If I would’ve went into this trying the independent route, it probably wouldn’t have come out — you just keep making the album, and then it never gets finished because it never stops getting made. Working with a label, it gave me structure and deadlines. Not in a forceful or uncomfortable way, but in a way that they were keeping on me and I felt comfortable with it, like I was doing it properly.

What does this partnership entail? Are you forming a label, or is this a one-off thing?

It’s just a one-off project. I was never into the idea of doing a Lyrical Lemonade label and signing artists. I’ve never been interested in the business side of the music industry; it’s not a passion of mine, and anything I’m not passionate about I try to stay away from.

What was the process like for putting this together?

It was really about trying to bring different worlds together and throwing things at the wall that, for the most part — there’s maybe three songs that could have happened without this universe that was created — but these are pretty left-field collabs in terms of people coming together. That went for the music, and trying to create music that made me feel something, working with incredible people and just long, sleepless nights in the studio.

“Flyaway,” which is the intro to the album, was inspired by watching a movie; there was a scene in the movie and I was like, “I want to create a song that sounds like this.” A lot of these songs came together perfectly as I envisioned it. And the there were some songs where I was like, “Let me just try something here and let’s see how it starts to build.” And some of those songs didn’t end up making the album, but I learned so much from those songs and working on those ideas. “First Night” is a good example of a clusterfuck of a song that was like, “I don’t even know what the fuck this is, but it exists and it’s here and it’s going on the album.”

Any songs on there that you can’t believe you pulled off?

A lot of the songs, some of these artists didn’t even know the other people on the song — and those are some of my favorite stories. That lets me know that I’m trusted and that I’ve built solid, pure relationships, where an artist can literally not know who someone is that they’re getting on a song with. There’s probably six or seven songs on the album where that’s the case. And I don’t even mean they didn’t know each other like they hadn’t met; they didn’t even know this person existed.

But I mean, “Fly Away” is cool for me because it came out exactly how I envisioned from the beginning. “Hummingbird” is just beautiful; it’s a song that I truly feel is timeless. I feel like that about “Fallout” as well. The fact that Eminem is on the album; I could go on and on about how grateful and blown away I am by that. I still can’t believe it. And he said my name on the song; it just doesn’t feel like real life. There are so many things that I can’t believe actually happened.

Have you thought about the next 10 years of Lyrical Lemonade?

I always talk about how I think it would be cool to do an amusement park one day, but we’ll see how that goes once I dive further into that; it may be something that excites me, or it may be something that I’m not as into as I thought it would be. I want to be doing movies, that’s a big goal of mine. But I don’t know. It’s gonna be interesting. I’m trying to just let it happen as it’s supposed to happen.

06 Feb 2024

How Did Megan Thee Stallion’s ‘Hiss’ Become the Rare Rap Beef Song to Debut at No. 1?

Hip-hop history has been littered with world-stopping, game-changing diss tracks — but you wouldn’t find many, if any, at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Historically, most of the great feud-starting moments on wax have met with little chart success, often being deemed too raw for radio, if they were even released or promoted as official singles in the first place.

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That’s changed some in the streaming years, as fans have been able to bypass gatekeepers to stream and purchase the most conversation-dominating diss tracks to their hearts’ content. Still, Megan Thee Stallion’s “Hiss” — whose venomous (though unspecified) disses set off a social media frenzy, including responses from some of the presumed targets — certainly is in rare air as a beef cut with its debut atop the Hot 100 this week, making for the rapper’s third No. 1 and first since 2021.

How was “Hiss” able to do it? And will it inspire other rappers to try something similar? Billboard staffers discuss these questions and more below.

1. “Hiss” debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week — Megan Thee Stallion’s first No. 1 since 2021, and her first without a credited co-collaborator. On a scale from 1-10, how big a deal do you think this debut is for the rapper?

Rania Aniftos: Honestly, a 10. Meg has been dealing with haters claiming that she fell off since her 2022 Traumazine album didn’t do quite as well as expected. If I were her, this accomplishment would feel like a big middle finger to those people, and a solidification that she’s here to stay in the rap game.

Hannah Dailey: 10! I think a first unaccompanied No. 1 is a huge deal for any artist, and Meg is no exception. It’s solid evidence that she’s come to a place in her career where she’s on the same level as the artists she used to need to collaborate with in order to elevate her songs to the place “Hiss” is now. 

Jason Lipshutz: A 9. Megan Thee Stallion has established herself as a brand name in popular rap music, but since “Savage” and “WAP” each hit No. 1 in 2020, her singles catalog has been commercially spotty, with last year’s Traumazine album failing to spawn a top 10 hit. Meg would still be a major play in modern hip-hop in 2024 regardless of her Hot 100 performances, but “Hiss” hitting No. 1 gives her another chart win, signature song and flash point in a highly impressive professional run. “Hiss” hitting No. 1 wasn’t essential for Meg, but make no mistake, it’s a very big deal.

Meghan Mahar: 10. Objectively, this is HUGE. The only other solo No. 1 debuts by a female rapper are “Doo Wop (That Thing)” by Lauryn Hill and “Super Freaky Girl” by Nicki Minaj, both of which are undeniable hits by some of the most iconic women in the game. Megan was already a force, but this proves that she has the skill and staying power to make a long-term impact on the genre. On a personal level, this is especially touching to see, knowing that Megan is continuing the legacy of her late mother and rapper Holly-Wood and rising above the hate.

Andrew Unterberger: Let’s say an 8. It’s a big win for her, and along with her excellent guest appearance on Renée Rapp’s well-received Mean Girls near-hit “Not My Fault,” gives her some real momentum for the beginning of 2024. Is it a game-changer for her career? That’ll mostly depend on what comes next, I think.



2. While obviously the incendiary buzz surrounding “Hiss” and the responses it inspired were obviously a big part in driving interest in the song, diss tracks have not traditionally been contenders for the Hot 100’s top spot — what do you think the biggest reason is “Hiss” was able to become the rare rap beef track to hit No. 1?

Rania Aniftos: Sadly, people love to see women go up against each other. It’s been a long time since there has been a female rap feud this high-profile, and watching a newer rapper like Megan square up against a longtime rap staple like Nicki Minaj will always lead to floods of people listening to and analyzing every lyric — and subsequently sharing their thoughts on social media.

Hannah Dailey: It doesn’t feel like a traditional diss track to me. Sure, certain lines here and there feel like digs at specific people, but overall, the song reads like a more general “F–k the haters” anthem in my opinion, making it more relatable and palatable across the board. Contrary to what a certain pink-haired rap queen might think, the song isn’t aimed at just one person. 

Jason Lipshutz: “Hiss” may have picked up buzz due to its place in an A-list rap beef, but the track is brimming with quotable lyrics that got shared around social media and extracted for various TikTok clips. Part of the reason why Megan Thee Stallion can excel in a rap feud is because she has always understood how to deliver a scorching one-liner — so while some of the best lines of “Hiss” are aimed at one particular adversity, others are just top-notch bars meant to be repurposed against any and all haters. Those instantly memorable lyrics being packaged into a must-hear diss track is why “Hiss” took off. 

Meghan Mahar: I like it! I love it when Megan comes out swinging – I think that’s when she’s at her best (see also: “Plan B”). And while I would be pleasantly surprised if it nabbed a second week at No. 1, I also don’t think it will completely fall off the Hot 100 anytime soon.  

Andrew Unterberger: Megan just does this stuff really, really well. “Thot Shit” from 2021 and “Plan B” from 2022 were arguably even more effective diss tracks with even more fiery bars — just with more general targets, and none that felt the need to respond at length. I think after a particularly drama-filled past few years for the star rapper, folks have also been waiting for a scorched-earth song like this from her. She teased it well without risking overhyping it, and then just let the song take over from there.

3. Extraneous drama and outside context aside — how do you rate “Hiss” as a single? Does it sound like a real hit to you, or do you think it’ll die down quickly once the fury around it does?

Rania Aniftos: It’s a hit for sure. It’s fiery and has plenty of remix wiggle room. Meg could surely ride the wave of success with a club remix of the track or adding a collaborator. I mean, she could even get really messy and reunite with Cardi B for a verse.

Hannah Dailey: I like it! I love it when Megan comes out swinging – I think that’s when she’s at her best (see also: “Plan B”). And while I would be pleasantly surprised if it nabbed a second week at No. 1, I also don’t think it will completely fall off the Hot 100 anytime soon.  

Jason Lipshutz: If the high-water mark for a diss track like this is “Hit ‘em Up,” in which 2Pac’s rage transcended the feud that provoked it and defined an all-time lyrical takedown, “Hiss” gets about halfway there. The song will always be associated with this beef, but I do believe “Hiss” stands on its own as a showcase for Meg’s authoritative flow and inimitable wordplay, especially since so many of the lyrical shots exist as general flexes more than specific disses. Its chart fortunes are a little harder to read — maybe it hangs around the top 10 for a few more weeks? — but I don’t think of “Hiss” as a stunt single that will quickly be forgotten.

Meghan Mahar: I think the best thing she could possibly do is continue keeping the drama to her music. The more she stays quiet about her feuds outside of the studio, the more intrigue she generates for her next single. So long as she doesn’t speak on it publicly, people are going to be tuned in to her music to discern what she really thinks about it all. 

Andrew Unterberger: It’s not “Savage” or “WAP,” and we’ll see what radio ends up thinking of it, but it’s definitely a real hit. As much as folks may love the drama, they’re not streaming this song over 29 million total times in one week just to rubberneck at the car-crashiness: Numbers like that mean the song is almost certainly a heater in its own right.

4. If you were in Megan Thee Stallion’s team, how would you advise her to best take advantage of the extra interest and momentum generated by “Hiss” for the rest of 2024 — if at all?

Rania Aniftos: Stay sassy, stay spicy! That’s what fans have always loved about her and while “Hiss” is a diss track, at its core, it has those biting, clever liners that Meg is so uniquely good at. 

Hannah Dailey: I think the best thing she could possibly do is continue keeping the drama to her music. The more she stays quiet about her feuds outside of the studio, the more intrigue she generates for her next single. So long as she doesn’t speak on it publicly, people are going to be tuned in to her music to discern what she really thinks about it all. 

Jason Lipshutz: I’d get that new album ready pronto. Obviously a full-length that includes “Hiss” coming sooner than later would help capitalize on this injection of buzz, but also, “Hiss” and preceding single “Cobra” seem to have clarified Megan Thee Stallion’s current aesthetic, after Traumazine contained bright spots but felt a bit disjointed. Let’s hope these more urgent recent singles coalesce into an album worthy of Meg’s dynamite rap approach, and that we get that project while “Hiss” is still riding high.

Meghan Mahar: I think the best thing she could possibly do is continue keeping the drama to her music. The more she stays quiet about her feuds outside of the studio, the more intrigue she generates for her next single. So long as she doesn’t speak on it publicly, people are going to be tuned in to her music to discern what she really thinks about it all. 

Andrew Unterberger: Yeah let’s get that new album out post-haste. Megan has often been the victim of unfortunate timing in her career, and she’s had some difficulty building further momentum off her wins. “Hiss” is a real moment for her, but the heat from it might not last all winter. She’s gotta make her next big move sooner rather than later.

5. Now that “Hiss” has come to loom so large over the early year, do you think we’ll see an uptick in diss tracks among rappers looking to create a similar moment for themselves in 2024?

Rania Aniftos: I think we’re going to see a rise in diss tracks from female rappers. I hate to see it, because in a male-dominated genre, women should be lifting each other up, instead of tearing each other down. But unfortunately, sometimes, streaming numbers and chart success speak louder than the right thing to do.

Hannah Dailey: I don’t think we’ll see any uptick in diss tracks among any artists we’d actually be interested in hearing a diss track from. Less-established rappers may try to manufacture drama to attract more ears, but I doubt anyone as relevant as Megan will waste their time with it. 

Jason Lipshutz: Yes, but also, trying to re-create a diss track debuting atop the Hot 100 will be like movie studios trying to figure out the next Barbenheimer — these things have to happen organically, or they’ll never work, which is why Barbie vs. Oppenheimer was a fun pop-culture moment and any following attempts to pit two movies against each other on opening weekend have done nothing to move the general public. So while I’m sure we’ll see plenty of attempts at headline-grabbing takedowns post-“Hiss,” they’ll likely come across as contrived, and come up short.

Meghan Mahar: I don’t think we’ll see any uptick in diss tracks among any artists we’d actually be interested in hearing a diss track from. Less-established rappers may try to manufacture drama to attract more ears, but I doubt anyone as relevant as Megan will waste their time with it. 

Andrew Unterberger: Yeah, I’m a little worried that rappers will see this moment and attempt to get some secondhand warmth for it — or worse, that their teams/labels will push them to try. Beef is a vital part of hip-hop and pretty much always has been, but when it becomes an established as a way to get to No. 1, the risks of it leading to some genuine ugliness that leaves no one looking good are very real.

06 Feb 2024

Travis Kelce Finally Addresses Those Taylor Swift Engagement Rumors

As Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce‘s relationship continues to heat up, fans are hoping for wedding bells in the future.

However, as he gears up for Super Bowl XVIII, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end somewhat addressed engagement rumors during a press conference on Monday (Feb. 5). “I’m focused on getting this ring,” he said, in reference to a Super Bowl championship ring. “That’s all my mind is focused on right now.” 

Kelce did take a moment to gush over Swift’s history-making night at the Grammy Awards this week, in which she became the first artist to win album of the year four times. “She’s unbelievable,” he said. “She’s re-writing the history books herself, and I told her I’d have to hold up my end of the bargain and come home with some hardware too.”

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Swift and Kelce’s real life “Love Story” began back in July, when the football player tried to give a friendship bracelet to Swift during her Eras Tour stop in Kansas City. Since then, the singer has attended countless Chiefs football games and the duo have stepped out together on dates on multiple occasions.

It’s unclear if Swift will be able to make it out to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl on Sunday (Feb. 11), in which the Chiefs will face off against the San Francisco 49ers. She’ll be kicking off the Asian and Australian legs of her Eras tour on February 7 to 10, with four shows at the Tokyo Dome in Japan. She then has a few days off before heading to Melbourne, Australia, for her show on Feb. 16.

06 Feb 2024

T-Pain Says He’s Removed His Songwriting Credits From Country Songs Due to Racism

T-Pain’s ranging artistry has seen him dabble outside the lines of R&B/hip-hop plenty of times throughout his decorated career, but he’s recently opened up about even writing country songs.

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The Florida-bred singer-rapper said in a recent TikTok that he’s penned some country tracks for artists, but ended up removing his name from the songwriting credits because of racism he’s experienced.

“Good music is good music. I don’t give a f–k where it come from or what style it come in,” he began in the video. “All the people I know feel like it’s not cool to listen to other genres of music. Country music is where I get all my harmonies.”

T-Pain continued: “I done wrote a lot of country songs [but] I stopped taking credit for it because as cool as it is to see your name in those credits and s–t like that, the racism that comes after it is just like, ‘I’ll just take the check. Don’t put me on that s–t. I’ll just take the check, bro. Nevermind, dude.’”

The 38-year-old didn’t reveal any context as to who he’s written country songs for or if he’s doing it under a different alias. (his real name is Faheem Rashad Najm.)

But just last week, The Breakfast Club dug up a years-old interview during which T-Pain delved deeper into his ghostwriting phase, and during the chat said he’s worked with the likes of Taylor Swift and Luke Bryan during his two-year stint living in Nashville.

“I write a lot of country music for huge country artists that would rather not have it known that I write for them,” he said. “I got back up with Taylor Swift, Luke Bryan, Rhett Akins [and] Dallas Davidson. So, you know, I’ve written a lot for a lot [for] very important country artists.”

Per Songview, T-Pain isn’t credited as a writer on any songs by the aforementioned artists. However, he did connect with Swift for a parody of her “Love Story,” which the duo flipped to “Thug Story” and performed a recorded version of it at the 2009 CMT Awards.

Billboard has reached out to T-Pain’s reps for comment.

Last year, T-Pain leaned into his affinity for country music when he covered David Allan Coe’s “Tennessee Whiskey” as part of his On Top of the Covers album.

“Tennessee Whiskey” has been covered a ton over the years, and Chris Stapleton delivered a memorable performance of the record at the Country Music Awards with Justin Timberlake in 2015.

Listen to the “Buy U a Drank” artist’s explanation as well as The Breakfast Club‘s discussion below.

06 Feb 2024

Toby Keith’s 20 Biggest Billboard Hits

Toby Keith, the iconoclastic country music singer, songwriter and hitmaker behind songs including “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” “American Soldier” and “Red Solo Cup,” died Feb. 5 at age 62, following a battle with stomach cancer.

Since his career debut in 1993, Keith lobbed 20 songs to the pinnacle of Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart. Born in 1961, the Oklahoma native worked in the oil fields alongside his father after he graduated from high school. He also launched the Easy Money Band and began playing small clubs around Oklahoma and Texas. In the early 1990s, Keith moved to Nashville to continue pursuing music. After Keith’s demo tape was given to producer Harold Shedd, Keith signed a deal with Mercury Records.

His first hit came in 1993, when “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” a solo write from Keith, hit No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart, while his eponymous debut album was certified 4x multi-platinum by the RIAA. His early career hits were marked by ballads that showcased his strong baritone and emotional range, such as “He Ain’t Worth Missin’” and “Who’s That Man,” as well as the romantic “Me Too.”

In 1998, seeking greater creative control, Keith left Mercury for DreamWorks Nashville. Beginning with 1999’s “How Do You Like Me Now?!,” Keith’s image and song selections began to shift, embracing an in-your-face swagger and braggadocio, along with more novelty-oriented songs such as “Who’s Your Daddy?” In 2001, inspired by both the loss of his father and the 9/11 attacks, Keith released “Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue (The Angry American),” with the controversial line “We’ll put a boot in your a–/ It’s the American way,” which both underscored the rage that many Americans felt, but also garnered garnered backlash. Not long after, he would release “American Soldier,” which depicted the everyday sacrifices of military personnel.

Keith co-founded the label Show Dog Nashville in 2005 and released his album White Trash With Money in 2006, earning top five Country Songs hits from the album including “A Little Too Late.” He continued scoring hits patriotic-themed songs such as “Made in America” and “American Ride.” In 2011, another novelty song, “Red Solo Cup,” gave Keith his highest-charting song on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, reaching No. 15.

Keith won three Billboard Music Awards during his career, and was named the Country Music Association’s male vocalist of the year in 2001. He earned the ACM’s Merle Haggard Spirit Award, and was inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was named a BMI Icon in 2022, and won BMI’s country songwriter of the year honor three times.

From 2002-2013, he also went on 11 USO tours, performing for active-duty service members in over 15 countries. He also supported organizations including his own Toby Keith Foundation, as well as Ally’s House (an Oklahoma organization dedicated to aiding children with cancer), and the OK Kids Korral, a cost-free home for families of children battling illness.

In October, bolstered by his performance on the inaugural People’s Choice Country Awards, Keith’s “Don’t Let the Old Man In” topped the Country Digital Song Sales chart.

As the world remembers the burly-voiced singer, the hitmaker, the heartfelt songwriter, the staunch, outspoken American military supporter, and businessman that was Toby Keith, Billboard recounts his 20 biggest Hot Country Songs chart hits.

Toby Keith’s Biggest Billboard Hits chart is based on actual performance on the weekly Hot Country Songs chart through the list dated Feb. 10, 2024. Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at lower ranks earning less. Due to changes in chart methodology over the years, eras are weighted to account for different chart turnover rates over various periods.

06 Feb 2024

Addison Rae Makes a Cameo in ‘Flashdance’ Inspired Nerds Super Bowl Ad

For Addison Rae, Nerds Gummy Clusters are “2 Die 4.”

The actress and TikTok star makes a cameo in the new commercial for the fruity candy, which is set to air during the 2024 Super Bowl on Sunday (Feb. 11). In the 30-second ad, an animated red gummy candy steps on a stage to the tune of Irene Cara‘s “Flashdance… What a Feeling,” from the 1983 film Flashdance.

The gummy character then performs the iconic wet chair scene from the movie, but instead of water falling from the ceiling, Nerds candies pour onto the gummy, turning him into a Nerds Gummy Cluster. The scene then cuts to Rae enjoying the sweet treat on a couch.

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Cara’s “Flashdance…What a Feeling” spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1983, timed to the success of the film, which was the third-highest-grossing film of that year at the U.S. box office.

Strangely enough, the video not the only Super Bowl ad this year that features Cara’s Flashdance hit. Jason Momoa, Zach Braff and Donald Faison made a convincing case for T-Mobile Home Internet by putting their own spin on the classic for a commercial, which you can watch here.

Check out Addison Rae in the clip below, and catch the Nerds Gummy Clusters commercial when it airs during Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday (Feb. 4), with kick-off at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT. During the game, the Kansas City Chiefs will face-off against the San Francisco 49ers and Usher will take the stage for the halftime show.