Music

20 Apr 2023

BLACKPINK’s Lisa & Rosalia Are Friendship Goals in Post-Coachella Hang Session: See Photos

Rosa-Lisa are in your area!

Rosalía set her and BLACKPINK‘s respective fanbases ablaze on Thursday (April 20) after sharing a series of photos hanging out with K-pop star Lisa, in which they look like true friendship goals.

The series of photos, shared in a carousel post, featured the two artists engaging in what looks like a fun-filled day. The bulk of the photos sees Lisa and Rosalía enjoying art and posing for pictures together at The Broad Museum in downtown Los Angeles, including the Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirror Rooms and the oversize table installation, the latter of which made the two pop stars look smaller than school-age children. Elsewhere in the images, the pair show their appreciation for contemporary art and excitedly grab food from a grub cart.

“Mi amiga es más bonita que un Basquiat,” Rosalía captioned the series of photos, which sweetly translates to “My friend is prettier than a [Jean-Michel] Basquiat [painting]” in English. Fans in the comments section, naturally, could not get enough of the partnership. Several users commented that Lisa and Rosalía are “the duo we didn’t know we needed,” while another remarked, “THE FRIENDSHIP OF LISA AND ROSALIA IS SO BEAUTIFUL.”

The friendship moment arrives after Rosalía and Lisa, alongside BLACKPINK, performed sets at Coachella this past weekend; both will return to their respective stages for weekend 2 of the festival.

See the photos from Lisa and Rosalía’s hang-out session below.

20 Apr 2023

David Guetta, Anne-Marie & Coi Leray’s Haddaway Update Debuts in Hot Dance/Electronic Songs Top 10

David Guetta, Anne-Marie and Coi Leray leap onto Billboard’s multimetric Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart (dated April 22) with “Baby Don’t Hurt Me” at No. 8. The track starts with 2.5 million official streams, 1.4 million radio airplay impressions and 900 downloads sold in the April 7-13 tracking week, according to Luminate.

The reworking of Haddaway’s Eurodance classic “What Is Love,” which reached No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1993, amounts to Guetta’s 21st Hot Dance/Electronic Songs top 10, the fourth-most among all acts since the chart began in January 2013; Kygo leads with 24 top 10s, followed by Calvin Harris and The Chainsmokers, each with 22. “Hurt” is singer Anne-Marie’s second top 10 and rapper Leray’s first.

The debut also gives prolific DJ/producer Guetta a record-extending 76th charted title, the most of all acts. (Kygo is next, with 62.)

Concurrently, “Hurt” begins on the Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart at No. 3.

The track traces the model of Guetta’s collab with Bebe Rexha, “I’m Good (Blue),” a reimagination of another Eurodance smash, Eiffel 65’s “Blue (Da Ba Dee),” a No. 6 Hot 100 hit in 2000. “Good” scores a 30th frame at No. 1 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, becoming only the fourth track to have logged 30 or more weeks on top, after Marshmello and Bastille’s “Happier” (69 weeks; 2018-20), Elton John and Dua Lipa’s “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix)” (36; 2021-22) and Zedd, Maren Morris and Grey’s “The Middle” (33; 2018).

‘Dancing’ to No. 1

Frank Walker and Ella Henderson ascend to the Dance/Mix Show Airplay summit with “I Go Dancing.” The first leader for both acts, among three and four top 10s, respectively, is drawing core-dance airplay on Music Choice’s Dance/EDM channel, KMVQ-HD2 San Francisco and WCPY (Dance Factory FM) Chicago, among other supporters.

It’s a busy week on Dance/Mix Show Airplay, with three tracks reaching the top 10. John Summit scores his third top 10 and Hayla, her second, with “Where You Are” (12-6); Kaleena Zanders earns her inaugural top 10 and Shift K3Y presses his second with “V I B R A T I O N” (15-8); and Duke and Jones draws their first top 10 and Marlhy, her second, with “State of Mind” (21-10).

(The Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart measures radio airplay on a select group of full-time dance stations, along with plays during mix shows on around 70 top 40-formatted reporters.)

‘Hammer’ Time

On the Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart, Brooklyn-based DJ/producer/singer Yaeji arrives at No. 9 with her first album, With a Hammer. The set arrives with 3,500 equivalent album units, including 2,600 from traditional album sales. With vocals in Korean and English, the release also hits World Albums (No. 13) and Heatseekers Albums (No. 18).

Yaeji is known for her underground hit “Raingurl,” from her five-track EP2. The short set hit No. 5 on the now-defunct sales-only Dance/Electronic Album Sales chart following its November 2017 release.

20 Apr 2023

Taylor Swift’s ‘Willow’ & ‘Cardigan’ Were Originally Meant for The National

“Willow” and “Cardigan” are two of Taylor Swift’s most beloved tracks on Evermore and Folklore, respectively. But what if they didn’t make it into her discography?

That was almost the case, according to the superstar’s frequent musical collaborators The National. In a new interview with The Telegraph published on Thursday (April 20), the band’s Aaron Dessner and Matt Berninger revealed that the two songs were originally intended to be for The National.

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“I’d taken a swing at [‘Cardigan’] and ‘Willow’ and a couple of others, and I wasn’t having a lot of luck, so Aaron sent them to Taylor,” Berninger recalled. “I always have a lot of music to work on, and I am looking for something to connect emotionally. The reverse has happened, too, where Aaron wrote something for Taylor, and I dove right in. It works both ways.”

The National is gearing up to release their ninth studio album, First Two Pages of Frankenstein on April 28, and previously revealed that Swift will be featured on the track “The Alcott.” The group previously collaborated with Swift on Evermore‘s “Coney Island.”

“We’re all big fans of Taylor, and she’s been really generous with us, inviting us to be part of ‘Coney Island,’” Aaron’s brother Bryce Dessner previously shared in an Apple Music interview. “And obviously my brother’s worked with her a lot, and I’ve done a bunch of orchestration for her albums.”

He continued, “‘The Alcott’ is a song that she co-wrote with Matt [Berninger], where she co-wrote the lyrics. It’s really amazing to hear her, the way she was able to take what Matt had done and then reinvent the song, and it’s really a special song.”

20 Apr 2023

‘Ziggy Stardub’: Inside the Reggae Recast of David Bowie’s Glam Rock Classic

From its grim, cinematic observations about the apocalypse on opening track “Five Years” to the haunting reassurance that we’re not alone on concluding song “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide,” David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is a masterpiece that’s often hailed as one of the greatest albums of all time.

The glam rock classic, loosely based around the narrative of a red-headed, androgynous, extraterrestrial rock star, quickly elevated Bowie to superstar status in 1972. Fifty-one years later, Ziggy Stardust has received a spectacular reggae recasting: Ziggy Stardub, a new album by the Easy Star All-Stars, due April 21 on Easy Star Records. It’s the latest in the New York City-based independent’s series of reggae tributes to landmark rock and pop albums. Other titles include 2012’s Thrillah (based on Michael Jackson’s blockbuster Thriller) and the series’ best-selling release, 2003’s Dub Side of the Moon (inspired by Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon).

“Ziggy Stardub is like taking David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars band [bassist Trevor Bolden, guitarist Mick Ronson and the sole surviving member, drummer Michael “Woody” Woodmansey] on an airplane traveling back to Jamaica in the late 1970s; what would happen if we did that? People aren’t used to hearing music they are familiar with in a totally different light, but hopefully, they’ll come along for that ride with us,” explains Michael Goldwasser, the producer and arranger of Ziggy Stardub (and the other Easy Star tribute albums. Goldwasser is also a co-founder of Easy Star Records with Lem Oppenheimer, Eric Smith and Remy Gerstein, and is bandleader, producer and multi-instrumentalist for the Easy Star All-Stars). “All of our tributes start with great source material because it always comes down to the songs, and the great artists we work with.”

Each of the featured vocalists on Ziggy Stardub brings their distinctive styling to Bowie’s powerful, otherworldly lyrical imagery. British lover’s rock crooner Maxi Priest delivers a smooth, soul-inflected rendition of the “hazy cosmic jive” that is “Starman,” Ziggy Stardub’s first single; veteran Brooklyn/Jamaican singer Carlton Livingston’s joyous take on “Star” incorporates a rollicking ska tempo mixed with 1950s rock n’ roll; “Hang On To Yourself,” featuring Fishbone, Johnny Go Figure and Living Color’s Vernon Reid, fuses early digital dancehall sonics into soaring rock riffs; Macy Gray offers a gritty interpretation of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide”; and British reggae band The Skints bring the requisite crunching guitars to “Ziggy Stardust.” Representing a younger generation of Jamaican singers, Mortimer’s exquisite vocals capture the essence of “Soul Love” and Naomi Cowan integrates a “rock and rollin’ bitch” persona into her gorgeously trippy reading of “Moonage Daydream,” complemented by Alex Lifeson’s blistering guitar lead.

As a teenager in England in the 1970s, David Hinds — lead singer/songwriter and founding member of Grammy-winning British reggae band Steel Pulse — describes David Bowie’s influence as inescapable. Even so, he never heard “Five Years” prior to Easy Star presenting it to him. To gain a greater understanding of Bowie’s artistry while recording the song, Hinds abandoned his usual approach to executing melody and syncopation. “Steel Pulse is all about rhyme, bounce, singing on a particular rhythm; with the Bowie song, it was about expressing word by word, phonic by phonic, syllable by syllable, without that being too overdone,” Hinds tells Billboard. “In making that effort, I experienced what Bowie was about, and I just hope justice was done to the song.” The restrained anger in Hinds’ vocals conveys Bowie’s striking, poetic vision of Armageddon, punctuated by the evocative lyric, “Five years, that’s all we got.”

Ostensibly, there’s little sonic overlap between reggae’s roots rock and British glam rock, yet Goldwasser’s nuanced, layered arrangements and crisp production create an expansive common ground, seamlessly meshing the originals’ celestial impressions with signature Jamaican sounds, including thunderous basslines, bubbling keyboards and flying cymbal drum patterns. “When working within the framework of a song with an established melody and harmonic structure, I consider what to include or interpolate; that’s why the tribute albums take longer than the original albums I have produced,” says Goldwasser. “I put in many interesting details to give the listener something different to focus on each time. I treat these tribute albums with reverence and humor: music should be fun, but I have reverence for the original material, and anyone listening will recognize both of those facets.”

Goldwasser’s admiration for the original songs and his meticulousness in transforming them into finely sculpted reggae tracks for Easy Star tribute albums has turned many rock fans into reggae enthusiasts. “Before the release of Dub Side of the Moon, we got hate from people on Pink Floyd and classic rock message boards who said things like ‘Dark Side of the Moon is sacred, how dare they?’ After the album came out, on those same message boards, people said ‘Easy Star did a great job.’ People have told me that listening to our tribute albums got them into reggae. That’s part of Easy Star’s mission: to break down barriers. If you can open your mind and your heart to different music, you can open your mind and your heart to different people.” 

20 Apr 2023

Joey Bada$$ Is Chasing His ‘EGOT’ Dreams: ‘That’s Something I See in My Future’

Last year, Joey Bada$$ stampeded his way back into rap contention when he released his third studio album, 2000. 

Dubbed a sequel to his lauded 2012 mixtape 1999, the album showcased the now-28-year-old’s growth as a charismatic rhyme slinger. While his steely Brooklyn bravado outclassed the competition as proven in “One of Us” and “Make Me Feel,” Joey also unapologetically unpacked his trauma and grief (“Survivors Guilt” and “Head High”), making 2000 an indelible hip-hop gem last year. 

“I recently successfully grieved, if that makes sense,” Bada$$ says retrospectively. “I can’t tell you what it looks like for me now. I don’t even want to think about grieving anything or anyone right now, but my approach now at this age would be more direct and head-on. I buried things and would substitute grieving time with work and anything that would take my attention away from grieving a loved one or a situation. Now, I would try to do my best to deal with it.”

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And though Joey enjoyed his 2022 wins — including rave reviews on the acting side for his roles on popular TV series Power Book III: Raising Kanan and Wu-Tang: An American Saga, he’s ready to take a sharp pivot musically. His first step was releasing “Fallin’,” a one-off single glazed with R&B sensibilities, last month. After flexing his rap muscles last year, Joey slows the tempo down on his new release, providing a slick offering about falling deeply in love. Though he’s clearly in his R&B bag, he does a great job keeping his rap base enthralled with a meaty verse, rapping “They say all is fair in love and war and I ‘fraid to risk it all/ F–k it, if I trip and fall, barely do I miss your call.”

Below, Joey speaks to Billboard about piecing together his third album 2000, almost making an entirely different album, his EGOT aspirations and more.

You’re already dropping new music after releasing an acclaimed album last year. Where’s the urgency coming from?

Well, it doesn’t feel like urgency on my end. It’s just hunger and excitement. It’s more activation. Prior to 2000, it was a five-year gap. So, 2000 has me feeling activated again. There was a lot of music that I made at the time … but to me it was never a dull moment. I was working on our craft the whole time. Now, I’m feeling activated again and feeling excited about making some music. I got so much music. Imagine taking five years off?

Last year, J.I.D said you were sitting on the album and keeping it hostage before releasing it.

Well, respectfully, that was a whole different album. I played him 50 different albums. It was more so a matter of me deciding what I actually wanted to do. What really happened was I put out All-Amerikkkan Badass, experiment with some new s–t, and still doing the s–t that comes naturally easy for me. But by the time I looked up, I’m like, “Oh s–t, five years went by and we lost two.” All this time had elapsed.

So I felt like it was only right that I had to feed my core [fanbase], because they kept me afloat. Even with so much time away, I was able to still do shows and pack them out. Like, my streaming was never down, so I felt like it was only right. I feel eager to tell people something new. All these experiments that I’ve been working on in that block of time. 

I read that while you were making 2000 you and almost made an album similar to K Dot’s Mr. Morale and The Big Steppers. How true is that? 

Yeah — so around that time I was working on an album called Survivor’s Guilt. It was more moving in that direction, [around] the title track of that. You know, after a while I just wasn’t solid about that music anymore. I don’t want you to think I’ve been sad this whole time. I want [fans] to see me grow, and where I’m actually at now. It just became a matter of me spiritually, how I didn’t align with that music anymore. So I pivoted from the more therapeutic introspective sound.

Which records were most therapeutic to you? 

Definitely “Survivor’s Guilt” and “Head High” for sure. “Survivor’s Guilt” was a moment — and I recorded that song [probably around] 2020 and had that for like three years. 

That was a lot of heavy s–t.

It wasn’t the session that was crazy, it was going through it that was crazy. And I wrote that in the midst of the pandemic. I just thought about the concept of being rich, and just the spoils of living a life of luxury, and where that takes a person. I just kinda expanded on this idea — and then it just became a song about me grieving the loss of my brother. I didn’t intend to write about that. I actually didn’t write it — it came from the heart. It was one of those things with me just rehearsing some lines in the shower, going over it in my head, and then I went downstairs and it was a piecing back-and-forth type of thing until I had this whole verse. 

I didn’t even know how much bars it was, because I was just spitting from the spirit — from my heart — and it was magical. I remember following that experience, for the first time I went to get a reading from a psychic. And one of the things she told me — which was crazy to me — I told her about the spirits that are following me and my angels, and at the end of the session she asked me if I wrote a song about him. I feel like I finally mended my heart with that song, when it came to that situation with my brother and how I felt about it. 

How do you find that balance in being away, but also finding the urgency to be present and release music constantly?

I’m still trying to figure it out. You talking about, “Why you so ready already?” I’m tryna stay consistent. It’s a balance. I feel like that was successful for me, especially when I started in the blog era in the early 2010s. Like that was good, that was cool — drop a tape, take some years and come with another joint. Yeah, people were waiting for that. But the climate of the game’s so different. Like, now it’s about numbers on the board. It’s like, “Let’s go to the gym and put some shots up and whatever sticks, sticks.” I’m taking so much time to record quality s–t, so I’m able to put it on rapid-fire if that makes sense. 

Do you look at features differently now versus when you were coming up?

Well when I was coming up, features got way more … people wouldn’t care if the dude wasn’t Jay-Z to get on a record like mine. But now I look at it as an opportunity to keep the ball rolling. Also, when we was young, we had people hit my phone [while] we at the studio. If people sending me records, it’s like, “OK, cool. Let’s get to it and send it right back out.” It still feels like work, but I’m more engaged and I’m more in it, too … I’m trying to get to that 2000s Lil Wayne. It’s just all hunger and excitement right now. I’m outside.

You’ve worked with Larry June twice this past year. What makes him a unique artist to work with? 

One, June got incredible consistency. Two, like myself, June has a street core. That’s somebody that has hustled and he continues to send that message. [starts rapping June’s song] “That’s a solid plan.” He’s so simple that it’s hard as f–k. There’s s–t that you’re gonna be replaying. These are the types of messages you want to have buried into your self-consciousness. I feel like June has figured out how to speak to them, and he’s constantly giving you that concept. I’m even at that point in my career I’m thinking, “Who could I make a collaboration album with?” And he’s somebody that’s on my radar [for that]. 

Do you still want a Grammy?

I don’t. I’d appreciate one. I just look at it as something that’s recognition. When I was younger, I felt it was an accolade that I needed to validate myself. I’m actually very firm on the idea we [as Black people] need [our own] Grammys. We need to take it back. We had The Source Awards and s–t like that — because it really comes down to misrepresentation. That’s something that we’ve been dealing with for a long time — and, unfortunately, we’re going to have to continue to deal with it until we take the wheel. It would be cool. I got a spot in my house where it’d look real nice. 

I heard you were interested in playing Big L in a biopic. Is that something you’re still trying to do?

I’ve definitely been approached about that. I didn’t say I’d want to play him. I think the question somebody had asked me was, “Who was somebody I like?” And I feel like Big L is somebody — because coming up, I always got good comparisons with him. Honestly, I don’t want to play a rapper. Even with Wu-Tang, it was a hesitation for me — but I did it, really because I have such admiration for RZA. But I want to stay clear of things that are actually too similar to who I actually am. 

Seeing BMF and Ghost, where does Raising Kanan rank?

It’s the best show. I think BMF is a great story, but I think we got more talent at Raising Kanan. We got an Oscar winner and a Tony winner who spearheads the show. They got Oscars at BMF? 

I know you said you don’t care about Grammys, but you starred in Two Distant Strangers, which won the Oscar for best live action short. Has the thought of EGOT crossed your mind?

Absolutely. Before I even got the Oscar, it’s funny, because that was gonna be one of my album titles at one point. It was gonna be The EGOT. That’s definitely something that I see in my future that I feel that I will manifest. 

When I got the Oscar, the next day I was sitting on my couch and there was a whole bunch going on and I just needed to meditate. I could get a Grammy too! I wasn’t striving for a f–king Oscar — it just came.

 

20 Apr 2023

U.K. Dance Phenom Yuné Pinku on Her ‘Music For Introverted Ravers’

In Billboard’s monthly emerging dance artist spotlight we get to know Yunè Pinku, the 20-year-old artist building fantastical realms with her otherworldly voice and textured sonics.

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The Project: Babylon IX EP, out April 28 on Platoon

The Origin: Born and raised in London, Malaysian-Irish artist Yunè Pinku worked a number of odd jobs before becoming a musician — including, as she told The Line of Best Fit, as a bartender, and as an intern both at Prada and at a crystal shop. Though she had learned to play piano, she seemingly found her comfort zone at her computer, where she began carving out ambient soundscapes with downloaded production software. Soon after, she started writing songs inspired by bedroom pop and what she described as “Bladee-weird Drain Gang stuff.”

During lockdown, Pinku channeled the energy she missed from dance music and going out into her experimentations. “Then I tried adding vocals on top of that, which were originally just gonna be placeholders,” she tells Billboard. By the time restrictions were lifted, she had made over 150 songs.

Despite not having any official releases to her name, Pinku earned a big co-sign from U.K. stalwart Joy Orbison (with whom she worked in music sessions), who invited her to contribute a guest mix to his Radio 1 residency in July 2021. Two months later, she featured on Logic1000’s single “What You Like,” followed by her solo debut “Laylo” in November. 

To start 2022, she found another big supporter in The Blessed Madonna, who named Pinku one to watch on her BBC Radio 6 New Year’s Day broadcast. Last April, she released her debut EP, Bluff, which led to billboard support from major streaming services and one of its tracks, “DC Rot,” landing on the FIFA 23 video-game soundtrack. (“My inner hooligan’s gassed,” she wrote on Instagram).

The Sound: Pinku has called her work “music for introverted ravers.” It juxtaposes electronic productions — an ever-evolving blend of U.K. garage, breakbeats, house, trance and more — with pop-structured songwriting to create a sound that’s animated enough for bedroom raving, yet mellow enough for introspective night drives.

But beneath the dance-y beats, a shadowy undercurrent runs through Pinku’s lyrics. Bluff, for instance, reflects the anxiety and angst of spending lockdown in isolation before re-learning how to navigate the outside world. Newer song “Night Light” takes the perspective of an AI searching for its maker.

“I would say I’ve got a default setting in my brain that’s quite existential,” she says. “A small thing could send me off into a doom scenario where I’ll be like, what’s the meaning of life, who are we? So I think it’s sort of these traces that come through.”

Part of Pinku’s strength is her use of textures, no doubt a remnant of her early soundscape sketches. Subtle sonics such as glittering synth constellations, the whirs of a machine powering up and softened glitches make her songs seem like they transcend the aural into the physical world.

“I’ve always really liked anything that sounds a bit twinkly or sparkly,” she says. “Textures are to me like 50% of a song, ‘cause you could have like a really good beat, but the textures and extra effects are how you make it interesting and more emotional.” Pinku even often treats her own otherworldly vocals as an instrument to blend and manipulate. But as she’s grown confident in her voice, she’s more open to bringing it closer to the forefront.

The Record: As Pinku was writing her new EP, she envisioned it taking place in a metaverse or cyber-realm — “So I thought, like, the idea of Babylon,” she says, “or like, the hanging gardens and cloud nine, where it’s these fantastical realms of existence.”

Pinku’s own fantastical realm took time to mold. Before Bluff, music had simply been a hobby. Post-release, she realized just how many eyes were on her. “There was like a five-month period where I literally couldn’t come up with any music, ‘cause I was like, ‘Oh god, they’re all gonna hate the music,’” she recalls. Then, during a breakthrough studio session in which she says she felt like she was “dying of hay fever,” she made two tracks in one day. One of those was recent single “Fai Fighter,” a bright, bouncy track which opens with an unhinged scream and features Pinku’s voice slicing through the air with its piercing whoops.

Whereas Bluff dons a shield of bravado and toughness, Pinku describes Babylon IX as being “gentler” and “more vulnerable on the lyrical side”: “This one is more about a delve into parts of desperation or being honest with yourself about yourself.” Her newest single, “Sports,” laments the idea of someone putting their screens before their IRL relationships over barraging drums and thunderous synths, while on opening track “Trinity,” she softly muses, “I never wanna be this lonely.” Additional tracks “Heartbeat” and “Blush Cut” bring out the EP’s dreamier, more delicate side with their crystalline production. It’s intimate yet vast, sad but sweet.

“Me and my friend were talking about it the other day,” Pinku says, “and we were saying [the EP sounds as] if a DJ was trying to summon a spirit on a mountain or something.”

Managed By: Emma Reid & Ferdy Hall, Outlier Artists

Management Strategy: “Our main aim managing Yunè has always been to make sure that this whole process remains not only fun and creative for her, but grows at a rate that she’s comfortable with,” say Reid and Hall. “This means saying ‘no’ to things is just as important as saying ‘yes.’ Growing her team independently via artist services company Platoon has allowed us the space and time to consider each step forward. Focusing on her long term ambitions rather than being preoccupied with short term trends that can often box in an artist’s growth rather than encourage it. This plays into our measurement for success, as long as we take a step forward with every move, then our plan and strategy is working. 

“Her biggest strength as an artist,” they continue, “is the quantity of quality music she’s able to make fast and her ability to envision the world that should sit around her releases. All we need to do is lean into that and put the pieces around her to make sure it’s all coming to life.”

First Song That Made Her Love Dance Music: Pinku was not a dance music fan growing up, thinking it to be only the trance her mother played around the house, but lockdown led to a change of heart. When she left her Spotify running in the background, the algorithm’s resultant “clubby drums” breached her subconscious. Pinku specifically remembers hearing songs from New York-based artist Eartheater’s 2019 album Trinity during those run-ons:

“They’re like trappy, kind of electronic, weird, blend stuff,” she says. “It’s cool ‘cause it’s quite experimental. It’s a mix of multiple genres and it kind of made me think, club music and electronic are like a whole [spectrum], and not just this or that.”

Advice Every New Dance Artist Needs to Hear: “Don’t be afraid to experiment or get quite weird with it. It’s electronic: you have so much space and there’s no rules with it, really.”

Why She Makes Music: “I think it’s just something I just do regardless of if anyone was listening to it. To me, it’s like getting things out of your soul in a way, which sounds very deep, but it’s like a diary for me. You free yourself a bit when you put it into a song.”

Up Next: In Pinku’s words: “A lot of shows.” She embarks on the next leg of her U.K./European tour next month, and in June she’ll venture this side of the pond for her first U.S. live shows at Brooklyn’s Elsewhere (June 15) and Los Angeles’ El Cid (June 22). SoCal fans can catch her again at HARD Summer (Aug. 5).

The rest of 2023 isn’t all planes and stages, though. Pinku’s also thinking about her eventual debut album. “I always enjoy the early stage of putting a project together ‘cause you’re just throwing out ideas of what you want it to be,” she says. “So I’m still kind of in the early stage where I’m just making tracks here and there and seeing if there’s any sound overall that’s coming out clearly and then just tweaking away at them.”

20 Apr 2023

Not97: The Podcast Where Your Favorite Artist Finds Their Favorite New Artist

Matthew Schonfeld and RaShaad Strong used to play a simple game to pass the time while working at Manhattan’s Only NY boutique.

“We started going on SoundCloud to find the artist with the least followers [who had] the song that was more fire than the next one,” Schonfeld says. The pair would alternate playing “SoundCloud rabbit hole” finds from now-established acts. While Strong usually had the best picks, Schonfeld unwillingly admits, both music lovers emerged as winners.

In 2016, the duo began their music discovery podcast Not97 — its name, of course, a “tongue-in-cheek” reference to renowned New York hip-hop FM station Hot97. “We love Hot97,” Schonfeld says. “It does its thing for [big] artists, and we’re going to do what we do for [emerging] artists.”

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Five years later, Not97 was picked up by Human Re Sources and The Orchard after seven seasons, and recently landed at No. 2 on the Apple Music Podcasts Chart. Along with their newest co-host Athena Yasaman, the trio of music lovers — who double as professional managers, curators and fashion industry creators — search the depths of the internet to find the best under-underground artists and pass the aux back and forth, highlighting their favorite finds across genres.

“What I liked most about Not97 is how it felt similar to our mission as a company of being disruptive,” says Human Re Sources CEO and EVP of creative development at Sony Music, Jay Erving. “They have a very high taste level and batting average in terms of picking artists that are ultimately going to have success.”

Each episode also features guests who bring two of their own music picks — including fashion designers, curators, DJs, A&Rs, music journalists, artists, music executives and directors. This season’s guests will include artists Jordan Ward, Fana Hues and Alex Vaughn.

“[Not97] has given artists an outlet that’s less abrasive,” explains co-founder Strong. “We’re one of the few platforms that if you come on to the show, we’re not even going to ask you many questions about your actual artistry. It’s a safe space.”

Instead, the artists spend their time uplifting other artists smaller than them that they admire, leaning into a community-based approach that is uncommon in the world of music interviews.

Founded in 2016, Not97 carved out its own uncharted space amidst an influx of music podcast start-ups, including Drink Champs and The Joe Budden Podcast (formerly known as I’ll Name This Podcast Later), among others. While wildly popular podcasts from known veteran music personalities like N.O.R.E., Joe Budden and Angie Martinez have thrived with superstar guests, co-founders Schonfeld and Strong made a name for themselves by leaning into the exact opposite.

“I got bored of blogs — I didn’t feel like I was finding new music there,” Schonfeld explains. “I was trying to figure out how I could effect some sort of change within music discovery for young artists. The podcast is kind of built as a means to an end for that.”

Schonfeld’s strategy has remained the same over the years: going down those SoundCloud rabbit holes in the hopes of finding a diamond in the rough. And his strategy has worked: Not97 featured Baby Keem, King Princess, Giveon, Kenny Mason, Arlo Parks, Tierra Whack, Fousheé and plenty of other now-notable acts before their breakout moments.

“You can read 500 words about an artist and still not press play on the song,” he says. “So [we thought], ‘Let’s streamline it and create a way to listen to a podcast and to eight songs.’”

Not only does Not97 expose small artists to an audience of thousands, but the platform has also become a strong networking tool for small acts to secure otherwise inaccessible opportunities. Schonfeld says he and his collaborators spent the first year of Not97 building relationships with artists, reaching out to ask permission before playing their songs. Featuring recorded tracks soon turned to holding full performances, when the team began their Not a Showcase series in Los Angeles and New York, setting the stage for a few acts to perform live for a ticketed audience and creating opportunities for those acts to profit from their art.

Beyond opportunities directly tied to Not97, the podcast allows for the show’s guests to be exposed to music from acts with small audiences. Over the course of nine seasons, Not97 has had music industry guests including artists, sync licensing coordinators, label executives and music journalists, with some artists whose music was featured going on to secure booking agents and performances thanks to their inclusion on episodes.

“When we started this, we didn’t set out to be the biggest podcast — we were using the podcast medium as a means of sharing music,” Schonfeld says. “We were like, ‘This is the easiest way for us to play this music, have these conversations and get it out there.’ In the last, like, four or five years, everybody started a podcast — it’s just gone crazy. That being said, I do think that the music podcast world is still fairly untapped.”

But despite the boom of podcast listenership, some companies are cutting back. In March, NPR announced that it would be canceling four podcasts — Invisibilia, Louder Than a Riot, Everyone & Their Mom and Rough Translation — to close a $30 million budget gap. In an article from NPR announcing the cancellation and a layoff of 10 percent of their staff, the platform attributed the slashing of those podcasts to “advertisers’ growing reluctance to spend money, particularly on podcasting, in an uncertain economy.”

“The problem is a lot of these companies don’t necessarily know what they’re doing with this content,” Schonfeld says. “I don’t think NPR realizes how important what they have is. They’re going to be producing Louder Than a Riot for this whole season and I hope by the end of it, NPR rethinks their [decision].”

When asked if he worries for Not97, Schonfeld is confident. “Not97’s tagline is, ‘Not a podcast, not a radio show.’ That has put us in a space that’s one foot in, one foot out,” he says. “A lot of our success up until now has been on the music side of things. I think of Not97 as an overarching brand and the podcast being the nucleus of that.”

Schonfeld says that the collaboration with Human Re Sources and The Orchard will allow them to provide resources to artists that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to. “Having a global distribution platform behind us where I can pitch artists to internal teams that [handle] music distribution, marketing, digital marketing services,” he lists. “The Orchard really builds itself out to be a full support system for artists.”

“Both Spotify, Apple and others are really leaning into podcasts,” says Erving. “I think we’re gonna start to see them behind the paywall, which will lend itself to a lot more revenue in the space.”

When it comes to the future of Not97, co-founder Strong has big plans for expansion. “[We’re thinking about] potentially going to a larger platform to amplify what we already do in terms of video,” he says. “Matt has always wanted to do a label from when I met him, before we even did the podcast. So a label would be the next thing. That was the ultimate goal.”

20 Apr 2023

Weed Songs: 25 Tokin’ Tunes Ranked By Potency

It’s hard to imagine that Bob Dylan, Three 6 Mafia and Toby Keith have much in common, but all three artists understand the power of a knockout stoner track. 

Marijuana has served as the inspiration for smoking cuts in rock, hip-hop, pop, and (of course) reggae, and is still influencing more than a few of our biggest artists today. Whether it’s Dylan’s “everybody must get stoned” double entendre or Wiz Khalifa boasting, “Roll joints bigger than King Kong’s fingers/ And smoke them hoes down until they’re stingers” on “Young, Wild & Free,” his collab with the doggfather of all stoners, Snoop Dogg, musicians have bravely fought cottonmouth and given voice to the sticky icky for decades. Most of them, in fact, began singing or rapping about the ganja back when it was straight-up illegal in America. But now, as people wise up and draconian regulations about marijuana roll back, it’s safe in many states to roll one up and enjoy (responsibly, of course).

A number of artists, from Willie Nelson (duh) to the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart to Jay-Z to Travis Barker, have gotten in the game, either endorsing or becoming owners (or partial owners) in various brands of THC and CBD, which you can read about here.

Since it’s probably 4:20 somewhere, Billboard has put together a countdown of 25 tracks that talk about toking up, with each song including a “potency” level that measures their inebriated energy on a scale of one (mildly buzzed) to 10 (totally stoned).

20 Apr 2023

Nick Cannon Says Dem Babies ‘Enjoy’ Being the Oldest of His 12 Kids

Nick Cannon spilled the tea in a new interview on Wednesday (April 19) about how his twins with Mariah Carey feel about having 10 younger half-siblings.

“At this point, they enjoy it,” he said of Moroccan and Monroe during an appearance on the Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast. “They have fun and they’re the oldest. But who knows where that will go when 16 hits?”

The host of The Masked Singer also opened up about the twins, who were born in April 2011, growing older, saying, “It’s my first time having 12-year-olds and I have a set of them! And we’re having real conversations. Because, you know, their lives are far from normal. Their mom is one of the biggest entertainers to ever live and their dad is me.”

“They’re so intelligent, they’re so in tune with their own values,” he continued. “One thing they do know is that dad f–ks up. [They know] Dad makes mistakes.”

Along with Dem Babies, Cannon also shares his 10 other kids with five different women including Brittany Bell, DJ Abby De La Rosa, Alyssa Scott, Bre Tiesi and LaNisha Cole. However, despite calling himself a “man of abundance,” he’s not sure he’ll be adding to the large brood anytime soon. “Everything is challenging, but the fact that I get to see all my children in one day, and get to see them each and every day when I’m in town, even when I’m not in town, I take them with me. I love the challenge,” he said. “I’m good with my dozen.”

Listen to Cannon’s full conversation with Howie Mandel below.

20 Apr 2023

Watch BTS Give J-Hope an Emotional Send-Off Before Starting His Military Service

J-Hope entered South Korean military boot camp on Tuesday (April 18) in order to fulfill the country’s mandatory 18-month service requirement, but before heading off, the members of BTS gave him an emotional send off as captured in a video shared to the K-pop group’s BANGTANTV.

Suga, RM, Jung Kook, Jimin and V all arrived at the drop-off location to send off the rapper and lift his spirits. While the military service hung heavy among the members, the Bangtan Boys tried keeping the mood light by making several comments on J-Hope’s newly buzzed hair.

“It really suits you,” several of the members remarked throughout the video, with V cheekily telling the rapper to “think of me when you wash your hair.” J-Hope couldn’t help but be delighted by the praise, and frequently ran his hands and fingers though his shortened hair. “The rain just bounces off,” he joked.

Once Jimin arrived, he told the camera, “Our J-Hope … they’re leaving one by one,” before embracing the rapper in a long hug. “You’ve come a long way. How do you feel? Did you get some sleep?” J-Hope replied that he only got three hours and drank a cup of coffee before heading out.

Jung Kook added a few jokes of his own. “I was fine when Jin left, but with J-Hope leaving, I’m pretty sad. I’m kidding!” he said. Meanwhile, V made sure to keep the tears at bay, telling the group, “If someone cries here, won’t it be too different than it was with Jin?”

Jin — who took a day off from service — showed up later in the video, but due to restrictions, was not shown.

After taking several pictures with his fellow BTS members, J-Hope gave BTS ARMY one final message: “Yes, ARMY, I’m off now. I’m fulfilling my duty as an able-bodied Korean man. I’ll be sure to make a safe return and be better than ever and greet you then. Fighting! I love you.”

J-Hope’s entrance into the military makes him the second BTS member to fulfill the requirement after Jin, who started his mandatory military service last year. The remaining BTS members will also be required to complete their mandatory military service over the next couple of years. 

Watch J-Hope’s send off in the video above.