Music

10 Nov 2023

T-Pain & Snoop Dogg Link Up For New Anthem ‘That’s How We Ballin’

Snoop Dogg is a man of his word. After promising to return a verse to T-Pain within the next 48 hours upon receiving it, The Doggfather delivered, and as a result, the “Buy U a Drank” crooner released his new single “That’s How We Ballin.”

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Pain and Snoop play a clever game of double-dutch on the booming production. “Her dude be trippin’ and I’m gonna leave him six feet/ I wrap him up in a pack, I serve him as minced meat,” Pain dishes out on his opening verse. Snoop matches Pain’s intensity with wittiness of his own, rapping: I’m just silly over Snoopy, yeah, b–ch, oh, she’s a groupie/ Yeah, b–ch, Doggy still a Mac, just like the movie.”

“That’s How We Ballin’” marks the first time Pain and Snoop have worked together on a record since the rapper’s 2011 song “Boom.” They also collaborated on DJ Khaled’s platinum-selling hit “All I Do Is Win.” Both performers are also video game fanatics. Snoop and his son Cordell recently started Death Row Games, anchored around minority creators developing and publishing using Fortnite’s Unreal Editor.

“Let’s really put resources into building Death Row Games and making a home for diverse creators in the gaming ecosystem and be a part of the narrative, the storytelling of what the next game should be looking like.” Broadus told Afrotech. “And I keep saying ‘show representation of the culture in these sectors,’ versus us just being the talent. We wanted to make sure that we’re part of the decision that’s being made and more importantly tell these stories from diverse creators and focus on creatives in underserved communities.”

Listen to “That’s How We Ballin’” below.



10 Nov 2023

Chris Brown Drops 11th Studio Album ’11:11′: Stream It Now

Chris Brown just dropped his aptly named 11th studio album 11:11 on Friday, Nov. 10 via Chris Brown Entertainment and RCA Records.

As the title suggests, the hip-hop star was originally set to release the album on Saturday (11/11, get it?) — but on Instagram, he announced in a short clip that “I’mma give [the album] to y’all a day early, album come out tomorrow.” He later wrote in the video caption that “the album was supposed to drop Saturday.. but we dropping early.”

He previously released singles “Summer Too Hot,” “Sensational” (featuring Davido and Lojay) and “Nightmares” (featuring Byron Messia) ahead of the album. “Summer Too Hot” hit No. 2 on Rhythmic Airplay, while “Sensational” hit No. 2 on World Digital Song Sales. Brown previously announced Future and Fridayy as featured artists on the double-disc project, with 11 tracks being on each side.

11:11 arrives a year after his 10th studio album Breezy, which he released on June 24, 2022, via CBE and RCA. The album — which was preceded by singles “Iffy,” “WE (Warm Embrace)” and “Call Me Every Day” (featuring Wizkid) — reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and No. 2 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

The new LP also comes after a year of major collaborations for Brown, including songs with fellow stars like Ciara (on “How We Roll”), Chlöe (on “How Does It Feel”), Fridayy (on “Don’t Give It Away”), Ty Dolla $ign (on “Motion”) and Tee Grizzley with Mariah the Scientist (“IDGAF”).

Listen to Chris Brown’s latest album 11:11 below.

10 Nov 2023

Jack Harlow Releases New ‘Lovin On Me’ Single: Stream It Now

Jack Harlow dropped a new single “Lovin On Me” Friday (Nov. 10) via Generation Now and Atlantic Records.

“Thank u for allowing me to reset this year. I moved back to Kentucky and gave u an album I could not have made on the road. Surrounded by family & childhood friends this has been one of the happiest years of my life. But now…a new era begins. Lovin On Me at midnight EST,” he wrote on Instagram the day before.

“Lovin On Me” arrives less than two months after his Billboard Hot 100 No. 5 “3D” collaboration with BTS‘ Jungkook, but it’s his first solo single since his Hot 100 No. 1 hit “First Class” last year. “First Class,” which spent three non-consecutive weeks at the top, is Harlow’s first solo No. 1 and second overall, following his “Industry Baby” collab with Lil Nas X. It won song of the year at the 2023 SESAC Awards in September, while Harlow was named songwriter of the year for the third year in a row.

“Lovin On Me” is also his first solo new music release since his semi-surprise third studio album Jackman., which he released on April 28, 2023. It reached No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and No. 2 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.

Harlow is set to kick off Formula 1 Grand Prix in Las Vegas with an exclusive concert next Thursday, Nov. 16 for SiriusXM and Pandora inside The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan hotel. He’s also taking the stage at the halftime show during Detroit Lions’ 84th annual Thanksgiving Day Classic on November 23 against the Green Bay Packers.

Listen to “Lovin On Me” below.



09 Nov 2023

PinkPantheress Drops Her Debut Album ‘Heaven Knows’: Stream It Now

After years of making her mark on the music scene, PinkPantheress is ready to properly introduce herself with her debut album, Heaven Knows, out Friday (Nov. 10) via Warner UK.

“This album is an accumulation of music i’ve made over the last two years,” she wrote in her Instagram announcement last month. “I love everyone here, i cried the other day thinking of how lucky i am to have people willing to listen to me, you are never taken in vain. to my fanpages, i love you, you’re always there for me and i will never forget about how safe you make me feel. it’s been a long time comin from pain to capable of love, i hope you love each song you hear from me!”

Heaven Knows arrives two years after her debut mixtape To Hell With It, which she released on Oct. 15, 2021, via Parlophone and Elektra Records. To Hell With it reached No. 73 on the Billboard 200. She dropped the remixes edition of the project on Jan. 28, 2022.

But in her recent i-D cover story, she said she “had to level up” with her first full-length album. “I couldn’t just use loops anymore. I had to get other people to come in,” PinkPantheress said of her previous sample-heavy musical style. Heaven Knows includes features from Rema (“Another Life”), Central Cee (“Nice to Meet You”), Kelela (“Bury Me”) and Ice Spice (“Boys a Liar, Pt. 2”) — the latter of which reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 — as well as previously released singles “Mosquito” and “Capable of love.”

Listen to Heaven Knows below.

09 Nov 2023

Jung Kook Performs Surprise Times Square Show in NYC

Jung Kook is fresh off the release of his highly anticipated solo album, Golden, and he celebrated by giving fans a special treat.

The 26-year-old BTS superstar took the stage at TSX Entertainment on Thursday (Nov. 9), the first permanent stage located in the heart of New York City’s Times Square, to give a surprise show. Dressed in all Calvin Klein, Jung Kook performed several songs from Golden.

Fans who didn’t get to watch the show in person got to tune in from Xbox’s Twitch channel and had the chance to win custom Jung Kook Xbox Series X consoles and also score themselves Game Pass codes to play their next favorite game

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“We are honored to co-create this historic moment for Jung Kook and the entire BTS group,” said TSX Entertainment co-CEO Nick Holmsten in a press statement. “His solo journey has already made history with multiple chart-topping singles, and we’re fully confident that this album will continue the trend. This marks a pivotal moment in music, particularly for K-Pop fans, and holds great significance for both Times Square and New York City.”

Golden, which dropped Friday (Nov. 3), features Jung Kook’s Billboard Hot 100 chart No. 1 hit single with Latto, “Seven,” as well as his new song with Jack Harlow, “3D.” His favorite song on the album, however, is “Standing Next to You,” and he says he’s looking forward to performing it live. “Of course, the song itself is great, but more than that, it just allowed me to see this grandiose picture when I heard the song and I could see myself right away performing on stage with that song,” he told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe earlier this week. “It has a very special place in my heart because the recording process was really difficult. But one thing that I would like to ask of ARMY is to not listen to it with earphones on or with their smartphone, but to listen to it loud on a loud speaker.”

09 Nov 2023

Kelly Clarkson Reminisces on Her Debut Album With Acoustic ‘Low’ Performance

Sure, Kelly Clarkson typically chooses to cover other artists’ songs during her talk show’s popular Kellyoke segment, but on Thursday (Nov. 9), she decided to add some nostalgia to the mix by performing one of her older songs.

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Joined by her guitarist Jaco Caraco, Clarkson performed an acoustic rendition of “Low” off her debut album, Thankful, which was released in 2003 via RCA Records, just seven months after she won the first season of American Idol in 2002.

“Have you ever been low? / Have you ever had a friend that let you down so? / When the truth came out / Were you the last to know? / Were you left out in the cold? / ‘Cause what you did was low,” she sang in the chorus of the heartbreaking track, dressed in a black velvet, low-cut maxi dress.

Thankful, which featured hits like “A Moment Like This” and “Miss Independent,” which topped the Billboard 200 albums chart upon its release. “A Moment Like This,” which Clarkson famously performed during the American Idol finale when she was announced as winner, also topped the Hot 100 songs chart in 2002.

Watch Kelly Clarkson perform “Low” below.


https://youtube.com/watch?v=EK3sLbBOg2g&version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent

09 Nov 2023

Dua Lipa’s ‘Houdini’ Is Elevated Nu-Disco With All the Right Moves

Three years ago, Dua Lipa gifted us with one of the strongest dance-pop albums of the past decade at the precise moment we were all stuck inside. Future Nostalgia, the U.K. pop star’s sophomore album, arrived in March 2020 just as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world it was entering, offering sleek escapism during a hellish global period. As quarantine dissipated, Lipa’s music naturally made the leap from cooped-up bedroom dance breaks to packed clubs and arena shows, the thrills of her unflappable delivery and chorus construction translating to large crowds and turning Lipa into a superstar.

While her new single “Houdini,” which kicks off her third album era, arrives with plenty of anticipation, Lipa’s Barbie soundtrack single “Dance The Night” — which has blossomed into one of the bigger hits of 2023 — offered a subtle hint at the direction in which the 28-year-old is steering her discography. Future Nostalgia is both behind and in front of Lipa: she is tinkering with the edges of popular dance music, refining her pop stylings, doubling down on a successful sound while heightening its pressure points. “Houdini” is an immediate blast, but it’s also a high-wire act, each second whirring with production tidbits that coalesce into a three-minute wallop.

Working with producers Danny L Harle and Tame Impala mastermind Kevin Parker, Lipa operates above a thicket of nu-disco flourishes while deploying the titular metaphor to demand that no one waste her time (“I’m not here for long / Catch me or I go Houdini,” she declares). From the opening seconds, “Houdini” establishes a deep, neck-snapping rhythm as its foundation — fans of Tame Impala’s “Is It True” will also be getting down with this sick beat — and then the song adds star-crossed synths, call-and-response harmonies and fuzzed-out riffs. Yet Lipa’s steady sense of cool is unquestionably the glue of the single, capable of knocking that hook into your brain as well as make a line like “Maybe you could cause a girl to change… Her! WAYS!” sizzle on the bridge.

Some of us will have to wait until next summer to experience “Houdini” as a staple of beach playlists and backyard barbecues, but Lipa’s brand of pop has proven durable, and she keeps polishing her craft. If the rest of Lipa’s third full-length is elevated nu-disco in the vein of “Houdini,” we’re in for a hits-packed 2024.

09 Nov 2023

Dua Lipa Conjures Up ‘Houdini’ Single: Stream It Now

Dua Lipa is ushering in a new era. After weeks of cryptic teasing, the three-time Grammy winner has finally unleashed her highly anticipated new single, “Houdini.”

On Nov. 1, Lipa announced the song’s title and release date in the caption of a post displaying the cover art. The announcement arrived after weeks of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it teasers sporadically posted to Lipa’s social media pages, a nod to the elusive air of Harry Houdini, the iconic Hungarian-American escape artist and illusionist from whom the song’s title derives.

With its twinkling synths and pounding drums, “Houdini” finds Lipa beginning to move away from the nu-disco love affair she began on 2020’s Future Nostalgia. “Do you think about it night and day?/ Maybe you could be the one to make me stay,” she sings. The new single features production and writing contributions for a slew of notable names including Kevin Parker, Tobias Jesso Jr. and Lipa herself.

“Houdini” marks Lipa’s first solo non-soundtrack single in two years. Since the release of Future Nostalgia — which spawned several Billboard Hot 100 hits including “Don’t Start Now” (No. 2), “Levitating” (No. 2) and “Break My Heart” (No. 13) — Lipa has appeared on just a handful of official releases. The most recent of those releases is “Dance the Night,” her Barbie soundtrack smash that could be a contender for a song of the year and record of the year nomination at the 2024 Grammys. The Mark Ronson-produced banger climbed to a peak of No. 6 on the Hot 100 and topped both the Adult Pop Airplay and Pop Airplay charts.

Listen to “Houdini” and watch the music video above.

09 Nov 2023

Kelly Clarkson Says Taylor Swift Sends Her Flowers After Every Re-Recording Release

Kelly Clarkson knows all too well how sweet Taylor Swift is.

The superstar revealed to E! News that the “Anti-Hero” superstar sends her gifts after album releases. “You know what’s so funny? She just sent me flowers,” The Kelly Clarkson Show host shared. “She’s so nice. She did. She was like, ‘Every time I release something’—’cause she just did 1989. I got that really cute cardigan, too.”

Clarkson also maintained that Swift would have come up with the idea of her re-recordings on her own, despite the American Idol alum taking to Twitter back in 2019 amid Swift’s battle over masters with Scooter Braun to make the suggestion. “@taylorswift13 just a thought, U should go in & re-record all the songs that U don’t own the masters on exactly how U did them but put brand new art & some kind of incentive so fans will no longer buy the old versions,” she wrote at the time.

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“I love how kind she is though,” Kelly told E! News. “She’s a very smart businesswoman. So, she would have thought of that. But it just sucks when you see artists that you admire and you respect really wanting something and it’s special to them. You know if they’re going to find a loophole, you find a loophole. And she did it and literally is, like, the best-selling artist I feel like of all-time now.”

She added of the Swifties, “It’s so cool to see a fanbase really get behind her in that too because it’s important. She’s known for being such an incredible songwriter and the soundtrack to a lot of people’s lives and that’s her life. So, you should have the option of owning that.”

Following the release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) last month, Swift earned the biggest sales week of her career, earning 1.653 million equivalent album units in its debut week, scoring her 13th No. 1 on the Billboard 200; that’s the biggest equivalent album units total for an album since Adele’s 25 in 2015, and also marks Swift’s largest sales week (1.359 million) to date.

Meanwhile, “Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version),” one of five “From the Vault” tracks from the album, debuts at No. 1 on this week’s Hot 100 chart, giving Swift her 11th career chart-topper.

09 Nov 2023

BE:FIRST, Kanjani Eight, Sakurazaka46 & More to Be Featured in ‘NHK WORLD-JAPAN’ Music Program

NHK WORLD-JAPAN is set to broadcast a music program featuring some of today’s hottest J-pop acts titled NHK WORLD-JAPAN Music Festival 2023 in 160 countries and regions around the world. Part 1 is set to air on Nov. 19, followed by Part 2 on Nov. 26.

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The show is the revamped version of the SONGS OF TOKYO Festival, which has been on air since 2018. Kanjani Eight’s Shingo Murakami will continue to host the show along with co-host Chiaki Horan and introduce the cutting edge of contemporary Japanese music to music fans in other countries.

The show was recorded live at NHK Hall on Oct. 28, with 18 acts, Aina the End, ASCA, imase, Yuki Kajiura, CHAMELEON LIME WHOOPIEPIE, Kanjani Eight, Kessoku Band, Sakurazaka46, Queen Bee, Masayuki Suzuki feat. Reni Takagi (Momoiro Clover Z), Yoko Takahashi, BAND-MAID, BE:FIRST, Mrs. GREEN APPLE, Yuka, Ryokuoushoku Shakai, ReoNa performing their most popular songs and latest hits.

The program will also be broadcast on NHK’s terrestrial channel in Japan on Jan. 3. Broadcast times can be found here.