Music
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Streaming has carried Latin music to the top of the Billboard charts, but the magazine covered it for more than 100 years before Bad Bunny hopped to No. 1. From genre architects like Xavier Cugat to current hit-makers such as Karol G, and from “Bésame Mucho” to “Despacito,” the many subgenres of Latin music have for over a century added flavor to U.S. airwaves — and the pages of Billboard. What’s living without La Vida Loca?
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Lingo Duo
“A great artist most certainly,” raved the Aug. 24, 1926, Billboard about Raquel Meller, a Spanish-born Broadway headliner. “These are folk songs, street ballads of her Barcelona…. For all the talk of not needing to know the language to understand there is frantic searching of librettos to appreciate” it. Billboard got the rhythm for the Nov. 2, 1940, cover story on Cugat, which described the bandleader as “aiding and abetting the present craze for the conga and tango,” and credited him for the “skillful integration of Latin American syncopation into the daily lives of the American public.”
‘Apple’ Music
“Pérez Prado’s waxing of ‘Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White’ has passed the 1,000,000-mark in sales,” reported the May 21, 1955, Billboard when the Cuban orchestra leader’s single was still No. 1 on various pre-Hot 100 singles charts. (When the Hot 100 debuted on Aug. 4, 1958, Prado’s hit “Patricia” was No. 2.) By the Aug. 18, 1956, issue, Tito Puente was big enough that his Cuban Carnival was reviewed alongside the new Frank Sinatra album. It “should attract some jazz fans as well as the more conventional Latin-American buyer.”
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Latin Calling
“The U.S. Latin market had been a widely scattered field with radically different musical tastes,” reported the Sept. 6, 1986, Billboard. To make sense of it, the Oct. 4 issue introduced a new chart to address “the growing needs of the Latin market.” That chart, now called Hot Latin Songs, was compiled by staffers by “calling the top 70 Latin (Spanish-speaking) radio stations in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.” (Don’t ask about the phone bills.)
Big ‘Mac’
A multipage package in the Aug. 17, 1996, Billboard covered the “exploding regional-Mexican market,” which grew because of “down-to-earth, hard-gigging performers” such as Los Tigres del Norte and La Mafia. That same year, Los de Río’s “Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)” topped the Hot 100 for 14 straight weeks. “ ‘Macarena’ was largely a Top 40 event, and a sorely needed one,” noted the Sept. 7 issue. An article the following week declared that the dance craze had become a staple at “weddings, bar mitzvahs and family reunions nationwide.”
Nuevo Mundo
“English isn’t the only language of value” J Balvin told Billboard in an April 29, 2017, cover story. Prophetic words: On May 27, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito” began its 16-week run atop the Hot 100 — an unheard-of feat for a song in a foreign language. Since then, many Latin artists have gone mainstream en español. “When I came into this industry,” Bad Bunny said in an article in the Feb. 16, 2019, Billboard, “I was never afraid to be myself.”
It would be difficult to describe hip-hop in 1994 without being hyperbolic. Just look at all the albums celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Without pulling out the clichéd “Golden Age” descriptor, this period was to hip-hop what the Michael Jordan-led 1984 draft class (or even the Kobe-faced 1996 class) came to be for the NBA. So many great debuts arrived that year: There’s Nas’ 10-megaton blast of an introduction, Illlmatic; Outkast’s landscape-shifting Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik; Common’s ascension to the main stage, Resurrection; Pete Rock and CL Smooth’s sonic food for the soul, Main Ingredient; Scarface’s unrepentant opus, The Diary. And then there was Ready to Die.
Released in September 1994, The Notorious B.I.G’s debut album provided a slice of Brooklyn life. But what made it a work of art was its master class showcase of hip-hop’s key elements at play: beats, rhymes, and storytelling. It had a coterie of the genre’s esteemed beatsmiths: Easy Mo Bee, DJ Premier, and Trackmasters, among many others. They all had the greatest voice to lyrically lace up their tough-as-Timbs production. The combination of these ingredients blurred the lines between fiction and documentary, bringing raw vulnerability and behind-the-roving-lens realism to the stories from the underbelly of the beast, or as Big referred to it, “the everyday struggle.”
In this way, you heard the echoes of the cracked out aftermath of the Reagan era (“Things Done Changed,” “Everyday Struggle”), felt the stomach-rumbling reality that forces everyday people to make do with making do (“Gimme the Loot”), and got the fractured interiority of the trauma (“Suicidal Thoughts”) — all told through the lens of the buddha-bellied narrator’s stoop at 226 St. James Place in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn USA. “My life is real,” a 23-year-old Christopher Wallace told reporters on the red carpet of the 1995 Billboard Music Awards, where he won Rap Single of the Year (“One More Chance”) and Artist of the Year. “I wrote about it.”
Even with his honest calculations on the throes of life on the “crack side,” Big made the “rap side” seem both effortless and flawless, too. Against the backdrop of a volatile minefield of circumstances and emotions, Biggie lightened the mood with his sense of humor, wit, and warmth. For every unflinching depiction of hardships (“Used to sell crack, so I could stack my riches”), his wittiness kicks in to air out the cloudy fog (“Making money, smoking mics like crack pipes”). Whether unleashing his taekwondo flows over the funk of “The What” or outlining the 357-ways he can leave an emcee cooked on “Unbelievable,” his talent was as wide as his belt size. What came as a result was an album that shook up the rap landscape, taking it from the Bed-Stuy corners to the pop charts, and beyond. And to to think, it arrived on Friday the 13th.
Three decades since its arrival, Big’s bellow from the ghetto debut remains as prevalent as the sound of sasquatch feet. To celebrate, see how we ranked all 17 tracks.
“#!*@ Me (Interlude)”
Nicki Minaj isn’t letting anyone play with her name. After voicing her frustration with the NFL for overlooking Lil Wayne for the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show performer in favor of Kendrick Lamar, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith criticized her history of feuding while he defended Jay-Z.
“Who else you gonna get in a beef with. Lil Kim, Mariah Carey, Cardi B, Gucci Mane, Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato. Every time we turn around it’s something, Nicki,” the sports commentator began on the Stephen A. Smith Show Thursday (Sept. 12). “You disagree with the decision, you disagree with the decision. You got to talk about [Jay-Z] like that? And why are we talking about Jay-Z like he’s some sort of sellout or something?”
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The First Take host continued: “You know how hard it is for a Black man to pull off what Jay-Z has pulled off in terms of making sure Black folks get that kinda center stage to promote their brand and build their profile. How unappreciative can you be? It ain’t about you as an individual — it’s about all of us as Black people. And that brother Jay-Z has been front and center pushing envelopes.”
Minaj didn’t waste time getting back on the offensive, sharing harsh words with Smith on X Thursday, when she essentially called him a sellout.
“Oh look yall another paid laughy taffy alien who only comes off his knees to turn around & back dat azz up. LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Stephen, we don’t care. Ima tell u right now. We don’t care. If I say more it’ll be your fault. Sit down ugly,” she replied.
Oh look yall another paid laughy taffy alien who only comes off his knees to turn around & back dat azz up. LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Stephen, we don’t care. Ima tell u right now. We don’t care. If I say more it’ll be your fault. 🤨 Sit down ugly 😅🤣 #GagCityBUFFALO TONIGHT #Dtlr https://t.co/qFNq19DafN— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) September 12, 2024
Stephen wasn’t you just moanin & groanin on live in your bedroom ? LMFAOOOO. And since we here in women’s business…ladies; when should men just shave their full head? Should it take its normal course like SAS Sassy ass or should he look into lace fronts? #GagCityBuffalo TONIGHT— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) September 12, 2024
The rapper then appeared to sarcastically mix Smith up with his First Take partner Shannon Sharpe, who accidentally went on Instagram Live while getting intimate earlier this week. She also clowned Smith’s receding hairline.
“Stephen wasn’t you just moanin & groanin on live in your bedroom ? LMFAOOOO. And since we here in women’s business…ladies; when should men just shave their full head,” she added, insult to injury. “Should it take its normal course like SAS Sassy a– or should he look into lace fronts?”
Lamar was announced as the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show performer Sept. 8, and Lil Wayne publicly spoke out about the NFL’s decision early Friday (Sept. 13), admitting that it “hurt” him to not be selected.
“It hurt a whole lot. I blame myself for not being mentally prepared for a letdown. And for automatically mentally putting myself in that position like somebody told me that was my position,” he told fans in a video posted to Instagram. “So I blame myself for that. But I thought that was nothing better than that spot and that stage and that platform in my city, so it hurt.”
Hurry up, it’s time for supper — order up, because Lizzo is hot to go! In a new post to her Instagram on Thursday night (Sept. 12), the “Good as Hell” singer shared her own rendition of Chappell Roan‘s runaway hit “Hot to Go!” Dressed in an oversized T-shirt stating that she’s “100% that b—h,” […]
Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.
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This week, The Weeknd brings us back to the dance floor, Playboi Carti is still seeing red, and Charli xcx extends Brat Summer. Check out all of this week’s picks below:
The Weeknd, “Dancing in the Flames”
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The Weeknd triumphantly returns with “Dancing in the Flames,” the first single from forthcoming album Hurry Up Tomorrow, that continues the synth-pop fantasia of Dawn FM but offers an even meatier chorus and more vocal fragility; it’s a big swing that would work well in an ‘80s radio block or any collection of modern streaming hits.
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Playboi Carti, “All Red”
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The hip-hop world has been eagerly awaiting Playboi Carti’s next album, and the release of “All Red” not only suggests that the follow-up to Whole Lotta Red is right around the corner (and a thematic continuation, natch), but that the MC is as locked-in as ever, as he tosses out catchphrases and ad-libs over a combustible beat.
Charli xcx feat. Troye Sivan, “Talk Talk” remix
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We may be past Labor Day and beyond the glories of Brat Summer, but Charli xcx is not done gifting us compelling remixes to her lauded full-length — this time, her pal and tour partner Troye Sivan offers perfect balance on a new version of “Talk Talk,” with his soulful tone complementing Charli’s elastic bounce amidst the song’s constant motion.
Tate McRae, “It’s ok I’m ok”
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Continuing a breakthrough year in which she’s been able to show off pinpoint choreography and smashing hooks, Tate McRae positions new single “It’s ok I’m ok” as a collection of breathless melodies that work well for dance routines; we’re hearing a pop singer find her sound and style in real time.
Miranda Lambert, Postcards From Texas
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For her first album with new label partners Republic and Big Loud — and since entering her forties — Miranda Lambert returns to her roots on Postcards From Texas, with one of country music’s smartest storytellers utilizing her home state as inspiration for stories of singular characters, post-betrayal revenge and women who are underestimated while being experts in their craft.
Katy Perry feat. Doechii, “I’m His, He’s Mine”
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One week before unveiling new album 143 and a few days after her Video Vanguard showcase at the MTV VMAs, Katy Perry is lending some of her pop prowess to rising star Doechii on “I’m His, He’s Mine,” who in turn injects the track with ample amounts of confidence, as they play a pair of queens who can beguile any stray man.
Shawn Mendes, “Nobody Knows”
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In his rustic return, Shawn Mendes has shrugged off pop bombast in favor of guitar strums and unguarded vocals — and “Nobody Knows,” a swaying new anthem that allows Mendes’ upper register to hoot, holler and fully bloom, sounds like the most naturally rendered track released so far from his upcoming album.
Editor’s Pick: FKA Twigs, “Eusexua”
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Like most of FKA Twigs’ hypnotic tunes, “Eusexua,” the title track from her next album, juxtaposes the gentle contours of Twigs’ voice with jarring production elements — this time, skittering beats that grow and threaten to burst before congealing into a dance-floor throb, then unexpectedly evaporating. Breathtaking and accessible, “Eusexua” is a dazzling return from a one-of-a-kind creator.
John Legend has long been open about his political views, as well as his opposition to Donald Trump. But after the presidential debate on Sept. 10 — during which the Republican candidate regurgitated rumors that Haitian immigrants are eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio — it got personal for the EGOT winner.
In a video posted to his Instagram account Thursday (Sept. 12), two days after Trump’s first debate with Kamala Harris, Legend — who is from Springfield — shared his thoughts on the easily debunked claims about his hometown’s immigrant community. “Springfield has had a large influx of Haitian immigrants who’ve come to our city,” he explained. “Now, our city had been shrinking for decades. We didn’t have enough jobs, we didn’t have enough opportunities.”
“Of late, during the Biden administration, there’ve been more jobs that opened up — more manufacturing jobs, more plants, factories — that needed employees and were ready to hire people,” the “All of Me” singer continued. “During the same time, there had been upheaval and turmoil in Haiti. Our demand in Springfield for additional labor met up with the supply of additional Haitian immigrants.”
After outlining how the federal government assisted the Haitian population in legally moving to the United States, Legend compared the situation to other international communities — Polish, Irish, Italian, German, Jewish and Jamaican, to name a few — who’ve also immigrated over the years in pursuit of the American dream. “All of us need to have the same kind of grace that we would want for our ancestors,” he said into the camera.
“Nobody’s eating cats,” he added. “Nobody’s eating dogs. We all just want to live and flourish and raise our families in a healthy, safe environment. Don’t spread hateful, xenophobic, racist lies about them.”
The post comes as Springfield finds itself thrust into the center of the 2024 presidential race thanks to the false pet-eating rumor, which started with a post in a local Facebook group that alleged a neighbor’s daughter’s friend had found their missing cat hanging from a branch at a Haitian neighbor’s home. With anti-immigration sentiment being a core tenet of Trump’s platform, his campaign was quick to use the rumors as fuel for his third White House bid, as conservative outlets spread the false story online.
“There have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” a spokesperson for Springfield recently told CNN, while Mayor Rob Rue said Thursday that the hoax is “hurting our citizens and hurting our community.”
The Springfield controversy is just the latest topic Legend has spoken about amid the 2024 presidential race, with the musician being one of the earliest and most outspoken supporters of President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris’ campaigns this year. In a recent interview with BBC Newsnight, for instance, he opened up about the importance of reproductive healthcare — another hot-button issue in this year’s race — and detailed how it played a crucial role in his family in 2020.
“We were losing a pregnancy we wanted, a baby we wanted — we were losing him,” Legend recalled of Chrissy Teigen’s pregnancy loss four years prior. “We had to have abortion care to resolve that, to make sure that Chrissy didn’t die. She was bleeding profusely, and her life needed to be saved. We had to have abortion care to do that.”
Watch Legend call for peace in Springfield, Ohio, and share his thoughts on healthcare for women below.
“We had to have abortion care… to make sure that Chrissy didn’t die”Musician John Legend on the personal tragedy that informs his family’s battle for reproductive rights in America #Newsnight pic.twitter.com/n7avHTcYVi— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) September 12, 2024
Janet Jackson is opening up about another wardrobe malfunction. In an interview with British Vogue in which the 58-year-old pop icon flipped through a look book of some of her most iconic costumes, Jackson stopped on one of the military-inspired looks from her 1989 Rhythm Nation album.
“Funny story. I was performing for the Queen of England, and we were doing Rhythm Nation,” Jackson said of the late British monarch who died at age 96 in Sept. 2022. “Sure enough, as soon as I squatted, my pants split right up my booty crack.” Jackson said she “couldn’t believe” her terrible luck before realizing it was worse than she imagined.
“Then I started feeling air back there, so I knew it had really happened,” she said, revealing her quick-thinking fix for the sartorial nightmare. “I never turned my back to her, which, some of the choreography, I was supposed to. I just faced forward.”
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The story from the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is extra poignant given the other wardrobe malfunction she is most commonly associated with. As you may recall, back in 2004 Jackson performed with Justin Timberlake at that year’s Super Bowl halftime show in Houston, during which JT famously ripped off a piece of Jackson’s costume, exposing her nipple for 9/16th of a second.
The moment that was probed in a 2021 New York Times Presents documentary led to a raft of complaints from viewers, as well as fines and significant professional implications for Jackson. For years, many fans and pundits noted that Timberlake appeared to emerge from the pre-social media viral moment with little or no backlash, while Jackson’s career was dealt a blow from the incident after her videos were pulled from Viacom properties including MTV, VH1 and CBS and she was uninvited to that year’s Grammy Awards.
The Super Bowl slip dubbed “Nipple-gate” also introduced the phrase “wardrobe malfunction” into common parlance and, in the wake of the #FreeBritney movement that blew up in 2019, led to Timberlake issuing public apologies to both Jackson and his ex Spears for the way he’d treated them.
“I’ve seen the messages, tags, comments, and concerns and I want to respond,” Timberlake said at the time after the 2021 Framing Britney Spears documentary portrayed the “Cry Me a River” singer as acting callously following his split with Britney in 2002. “I am deeply sorry for the times in my life where my actions contributed to the problem, where I spoke out of turn, or did not speak up for what was right. I understand that I fell short in these moments and in many others and benefited from a system that condones misogyny and racism. I specifically want to apologize to Britney Spears and Janet Jackson both individually because I care for and respect these women and I know I failed.”
Jackson is gearing up to launch her Las Vegas residency with back-to-back performances on Dec. 30 and New Year’s Eve at Resorts World Las Vegas.
Watch Jackson describe her royal de-pantsing below.
Miranda Lambert returns with her 10th studio album today (Friday, Sept. 13), and in the process, she’s revisiting and celebrating her Lone Star State roots even as her career propels forward, as her new album is her first since signing with Republic Records, in conjunction with Big Loud, earlier this year.
For more than two decades, Lambert has been defiantly and triumphantly carving her own sonic territory, setting herself apart by skillfully writing and recording songs that detail life’s idyllic and messy moments, capturing both blazing zeniths of confidence and hazy shadows of doubt — always with a tumbleweed spirit. The result has been seven Billboard Country Airplay No. 1s, and and seven albums that have reached the pinnacle of the Top Country Albums chart.
On previous albums, this three-time Grammy winner has veered from country’s glam-rock edges to its moody, soulful precipices. But on her latest, she’s in classic Lambert form — though the spunky, something-to-prove edge of her early albums has cemented into a surefooted, calm-yet-keen creative spark, as she bends every note and lyric in her distinct Texas twang.
The sounds emanating from this project’s 14 songs are entrenched with stinging wit and shot through with unadulterated frankness, as Lambert worked at Arlyn Studios in Austin, co-producing the album with longtime collaborator Jon Randall. On her latest, Lambert and her collaborators etch detailed imagery of the neon-lit honky-tonks, homey back porches, pastures and stretches of open spaces that embody where the album was created.
Many of the songs here center on loving and leaving, acknowledging free-spirit ways, while it’s understood that allegiances to country music and the Lone Star State are likely to outlast just about everything else.
“I have not made a record in Texas since I was 18, my little independent album, so this is full circle – coming back home to the root, to kind of start fresh with a new label and sound and some new band members I haven’t played with,” Lambert said via a release before the album’s drop. “Being back home and really remembering why I love country music, it’s already leaning way more country which I love.”
Billboard ran through Postcards From Texas upon its arrival on streaming services, ranking all 14 tracks from the project below.
“Wildfire”
There’s a uniqueness to Luis R Conriquez’s humble beginnings. The gas station worker-turned-hitmaker, now known as the king of corridos bélicos, began writing songs for an unlikely group of early listeners who turned into some of his first clients.
Soon after writing his first corridos in his early 20s, the Sonora-born artist started getting direct messages on Instagram from construction workers in the United States who were wondering if he could write corridos about them.
“If it wasn’t for Instagram I wouldn’t have been known. Instagram was how I got my first jobs,” Conriquez told Billboard‘s Griselda Flores in his latest cover story. While an odd request to get, it was, after all, a source of income for Conriquez, who worked at a gas station and made music on the side. “I asked them to send me a short summary describing themselves so I could get inspired,” he continued. “I’d write, record and send it to them.”
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Conriquez admits he didn’t even know how much to charge them. At the time, he explained, “I was my own manager at the time, my own distributor, collecting my own money.” So, initially, he charged $150 per corrido, but as demand grew, he tripled his fee. “The most I asked for was $1,000 for a corrido.”
The “Si No Quieres No” singer-songwriter has since only fueled the regional Mexican music movement after catapulting to stardom once he signed with Kartel Music in 2019, an also up-and-coming indie label based out of Santa Maria, Calif. Its founders, Alfredo “Freddy” Becerra and Leonardo Soto, discovered Conriquez at an audition in Mexicali, Baja California.
Today, Conriquez has become a go-to collaborator for regional Mexican and nonregional Mexican acts alike, including Nicky Jam, Ryan Castro and Peso Pluma. With 1.42 billion on-demand official streams in the United States, according to Luminate, he has 20 entries on Hot Latin Songs, and most recently scored his first Billboard Hot 100 entry with “Si No Quieres No,” a collaboration with up-and-comer Neton Vega. His Corridos Bélicos, Vol. IV, released in January, earned him his first entry and top 10 on any albums chart, debuting at No. 5 on Top Latin Albums and No. 3 on Regional Mexican Albums. It also became Conriquez’s Billboard 200 entree with a No. 36 debut.
He is set to headline the RUMBAZO 2024 event in Las Vegas this weekend. Conriquez will perform on Saturday, Sept. 14. See the schedule here.
Billboard Latin Music Week is returning to Miami Beach on Oct. 14-18, with confirmed superstars Gloria Estefan, Alejandro Sanz and Peso Pluma, among many others. For tickets and more details, visit Billboardlatinmusicweek.com.
To those closest to him, he was Isaac Freeman III, but around the world, he was renowned as Fatman Scoop. Hip-hop’s premier hype-man and entertainer, Scoop died on Aug. 30 after collapsing on stage at a show in Connecticut doing what he loved — rocking the crowd. He was 56.
Less than two weeks later, Scoop’s peers, friends and family gathered not far from the Harlem projects he was raised in, at the famed Apollo Theater on Thursday (Sept. 12) for a celebration of life ceremony.
Hundreds filed into the legendary venue and felt the full spectrum of emotions. There were laughs shared from funny stories, heartfelt moments, tears shed and some partying to music along the way.
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While Scoop showed up for so many whenever called upon in his decorated life, plenty of recognizable faces returned the favor to be in attendance at the ceremony. For perhaps the final time, Scoop and his recognizable bark brought people from different walks of life together for one last party.
Sway Calloway played MC for the night, while fellow Harlem native Teddy Riley, Jim Jones, A$AP Ferg, Busta Rhymes, DJ Webstar, Angie Martinez, Kid Kapri, Ron Browz, DJ Enuff and more either spoke or performed in some capacity throughout the evening. Other familiar faces spotted in the crowd included LL Cool J, Maino, DJ Self, Treach, Datwon Thomas and more.
Beyond the hits such as “Be Faithful,” Grammy award wins and working with the likes of Missy Elliott and Mariah Carey, there were a few characteristics that continued to pop up in people’s pensive stories on Thursday, which spoke to Scoop’s infallible nature as a great human being past his art.
For one, he was always a phone call — or voice note text message — away and came through for his friends, even if it didn’t come with a bag. Two, Scoop doesn’t get enough credit for how prolific of an MC he was before charting a different path as a trailblazing entertainer. “[Scoop] told me one story how he was supposed to be the first Biggie. And, like, Biggie jacked his style,” Ferg said, which drew laughs from the audience.
Three, he never had issues or beef with anyone in the industry. “Fatman Scoop is probably one of the most beautiful human beings I’ve ever met on this planet,” Busta Rhymes declared. “I don’t think I’ve ever ran into Fatman Scoop having an off day. I’ve never seen him angry, I’ve never seen him upset, I’ve never seen him perspire and worry about things outside of when he was on that stage busting a–.”
And four, the man stayed fresh and kept a bottle of Scope mouthwash on him at all times. “We had a crowd of people around and some girls were around, and Scoop was around and all the girls gave him the attention,” Teddy Riley said. “Why? He had the cologne. He had the cologne game on lock, but he had the Scope game on lock, and that’s why girls wanted to be around him. He didn’t have bad breath. I said to myself, ‘If I do that, would I be biting?’”
Fatman Scoop’s contributions to Missy Elliott and Ciara’s “Lose Control” earned him a Grammy award and a top five Billboard Hot 100 hit (No. 3) in 2005. Outside of music, he made waves as a reality star and overnight host at Hot 97, where he claimed to bring the first video camera into the station.
Hip-hop will be a bit quieter without Fatman Scoop’s signature raspy and resonant shout, but his life of the party legacy is etched into rap lore. Scoop is survived by his two children — Torrance and Tiana Freeman — and brother Kendall “Young Sav” Freeman.