State Champ Radio Music
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This week, Billboard is publishing a series of lists and articles celebrating the music of 20 years ago. Our 2005 Week starts here with a discussion of 50 Cent’s game-running 2005 — possibly an even higher commercial and cultural peak than his hallowed 2003 run, but also the clear beginning of the end for his superstardom.
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With his inescapable Get Rich or Die Tryin’ album and its Billboard Hot 100-topping smash “In Da Club,” 50 Cent became the hottest rapper in the game in 2003, matching even his mentor Eminem for ubiquity and cultural dominance. After expanding his G-Unit empire in 2004, 50 returned in 2005 with his second album The Massacre, a couple smash collabs with his new West Coast lieutenant The Game, a huge tour with Eminem, new business ventures, new beefs, and even a film debut in his very own prestige quasi-biopic. He was arguably bigger than ever — but after two years where it felt like 50 couldn’t miss, his strike rate was finally starting to slip a little.
In this week’s Vintage Pop Stardom episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, host Andrew Unterberger is joined by a pair of Billboard Hip-Hop staffers and GPS regulars in Carl Lamarre and Michael Saponara to talk about the year that ended up being the top of the rollercoaster for the artist born Curtis Jackson. We start at with 50 playing kingmaker with his G-Unit crew in late 2004, including those couple classics alongside The Game, and then move into his ’05 — beginning with an album that sells over a million copies in its (abbreviated) first week, launches feuds with half of the hip-hop world and returns him to the top of the Hot 100 with his second straight lead single smash, and ending with a film debut that doesn’t totally do any of the things he hopes it will.
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And of course, along the way, we ask all the big questions about 50 Cent’s too-big-to-fail sophomore campaign: Could 50 and Game have been the Dre and Snoop for another generation? Is a “Candy Shop” even really a thing? Were the deep cuts on The Massacre better than the singles? Was 50 Cent: Bulletproof worth playing? Can you actually hoop in G-Unit sneakers? And if you catch the Get Rich or Die Tryin’ movie on cable, should you bother sticking around for the whole thing?
Check it out above — along with a YouTube playlist of some of the most important moments from 50 Cent’s 2005, all of which are discussed in the podcast — and subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom!
And as we say in every one of these GPS podcast posts — if you have the time and money to spare, please consider donating to any of these causes in the fight for trans rights:
Transgender Law Center
Trans Lifeline
Gender-Affirming Care Fundraising on GoFundMe
Also, please consider subscribing to the trans legislation journalism of Erin Reed, and giving your local congresspeople a call in support of trans rights, with contact information you can find on 5Calls.org.
Lil Wayne is officially no longer down with the Super Bowl after organizers chose Kendrick Lamar for the 2025 Halftime Show. (And no, he didn’t watch Dot’s performance.)
Following the controversy surrounding this year’s headliner selection, Weezy revealed in the Rolling Stone cover story published Thursday (April 17) that he’ll never again consider playing the Big Game after being passed up to perform in 2025. The piece comes about seven months after the NFL announced that Lamar would take the stage at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans — the “Lollipop” rapper’s home city — after which Wayne told Instagram followers that he was “hurt” by the decision.
“They stole that feeling,” he tells the publication now of the NFL. “I don’t want to do it. It was perfect.”
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On that note, Wayne adds that he didn’t even watch Lamar’s February performance. Instead, he played pool with Lil Twist and went outside to smoke during the set. And every time he did peek at his TV screen during the show, he says there “was nothing that made me want to go inside and see what was going on.”
And despite saying that he’s on good terms with the “Euphoria” hitmaker, Tunechi did throw a little shade Lamar’s way. While listening back to some of the music he’s working on for upcoming album Tha Carter VI, Wayne apparently said of Dot’s halftime show: “They coulda had some music. But instead they got rappin’.”
“They f–ked up,” he added of the NFL.
Though Wayne technically wasn’t one of them, Lamar’s Halftime Show performance brought in 133.5 million viewers on game day — more than any other Super Bowl set in history. In addition to performing his smash Drake diss track “Not Like Us,” the Compton rapper also cycled through a number of the songs on his November album GNX, which spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
One song Lamar didn’t play from the LP, however, was opener “Wacced Out Murals” — the lyrics to which feature one of the only comments Lamar has made on the Wayne Super Bowl situation. “Irony, I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down,” he spits on the track. “Whatever though, call me crazy, everybody questionable.”
In the Rolling Stone piece, however, Wayne opened up more about why he took the snub so personally, revealing that he more so takes issue with the NFL for allegedly leading him to believe that he was a frontrunner for the gig.
“To perform, it’s a bunch of things they’re going to tell you to do and not do, a–es to kiss and not kiss,” he said. “If you notice, I was a part of things I’ve never been a part of. Like [Michael] Rubin’s all-white parties. I’m doing s–t with Tom Brady. That was all for that. You ain’t never seen me in them types of venues. I ain’t Drake. I ain’t out there smiling like that everywhere. I’m in the stu’, smokin’ and recording.”
Wayne claimed that his contacts at the NFL later apologized and told him that they weren’t “in charge” of the selection process after Lamar’s slot was announced. (Per producer Jesse Collins, Jay-Z — whose company Roc Nation oversees the alftime show — has selected every headliner since 2019. Even so, Wayne says he’s still cool with his “Mr. Carter” collaborator.)
“All of a sudden, according to them, they got curved,” Wayne added to the publication of the NFL. “So, I’m going to have to just settle with whatever they say.”
Billboard has reached out to the NFL for comment.
See Weezy on the cover of Rolling Stone below.
Bruce Springsteen dropped the second preview of his upcoming sprawling Tracks II: The Lost Albums collection on Thursday morning (April 17). The beat-heavy mid-tempo song “Blind Spot” will appear on the box set as part of the Streets of Philadelphia Sessions, a 10-song LP that a release noted has long been referred to by fans as the Boss’ “loops record.”
Opening with a sampled voice grunting over a mechanical-sounding drum beat, it finds Springsteen singing, “We inhabited each other/ Like it was some kind of disease/ I thought that I was flyin’/ But I was crawlin’ on my knees,” in a haunted cadence. The chorus leans into the notion that it’s the things we miss in love that are our undoing: “Everybody’s got a blind spot that brings ’em down/ Everybody’s got a blind spot they can’t get around.”
“That was just the theme that I locked in on at that moment,” Springsteen said in a statement about the song exploring doubt and betrayal in relationships that became the thesis for the Philadelphia Sessions. “I don’t really know why. [Wife and bandmate] Patti [Scialfa] and I, we were having a great time in California. But sometimes if you lock into one song you like, then you follow that thread. I had ‘Blind Spot,’ and I followed that thread through the rest of the record.”
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The song was written following the rock icon’s 1994 Oscar- and Grammy-winning song “Streets of Philadelphia,” which accompanied the 1993 Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington movie Philadelphia, Jonathan Demme’s legal drama about an attorney suing his former employer for his firing after the firm discovers he’s gay and has AIDS.
The never-released companion album “found Springsteen exploring an interest in the rhythms of mid-1990s contemporary music, and particularly West Coast hip-hop,” according to the release. “Initially poring over CDs of drum samples at his home in Los Angeles, Springsteen began making his own loops with engineer Toby Scott — which formed a rhythmic base he’d build on with keyboards and synthesizers. Both a revelation and departure in his home recording, Springsteen is the primary instrumentalist throughout most of Streets of Philadelphia Sessions.” Among those lending an assist during the sessions were his 1992-1993 touring band, as well Scialfa, E Street band members Soozie Tyrell and Lisa Lowell.
Though it never saw the light of day, the album was completed, mixed and slated for release in the spring of 1995, then shelved when Springsteen opted instead to reunite with the E Street Band after a seven-year hiatus. “I said, ‘Well, maybe it’s time to just do something with the band, or remind the fans of the band or that part of my work life,’” the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer said. “So that’s where we went. But I always really liked Streets of Philadelphia Sessions’… during the [2017-2018] Broadway show, I thought of putting it out [as a standalone release]. I always put them away, but I don’t throw them away.”
Earlier this month, Springsteen announced the June 27 release of Tracks II, which will contain seven previously unheard full-length records. The 83-track collection will “fill in rich chapters of Springsteen’s expansive career timeline — while offering invaluable insight into his life and work as an artist,” according to a release, which noted that some of the LPs got so far as the mixing stage before being put on hold.
Among the albums included are the lo-fi LA Garage Sessions ’83, described as a “crucial link” between the stripped-down Nebraska and the rocking Born in the U.S.A., the sonically experimental Faithless film soundtrack he wrote for a movie that was never made, the country-leaning Somewhere North of Nashville and the border tales LP Inyo, as well as the “orchestra-driven, mid-century noir” Twilight Hours.
The box set covering the years 1983-2018 was previewed by the first single, the turbulent “Rain in the River.” The Lost Albums will be issued in a limited-edition 9-LP set , as well as 7-CD and digital formats, with distinctive packaging for each, along with a 100-page cloth-bound hardcover book with rare archival photos. A 20-track compilation, Lost and Found: Selections From The Lost Albums, will be released on June 27 on two LPs and one CD.
Listen to “Blind Spot” below.
Ethel Cain’s Preacher’s Daughter debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Alternative Albums chart dated April 19 nearly three years after the album, her debut, was first released.
Preacher’s Daughter earned 39,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending April 10, according to Luminate. Of that sum, 37,000 units are via album sales, begetting a No. 1 debut on the all-genre Top Album Sales list.
In fact, nearly all of its sales are vinyl copies, as Preacher’s Daughter benefits from its first-ever vinyl release, 35 months after it first premiered on May 12, 2022. That count also leads to the set debuting at No. 1 on the Vinyl Albums chart.
Cain becomes the first act to rule Top Alternative Albums in their first appearance on the tally since Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts premiered atop the Sept. 23, 2023, list. As Rodrigo’s was not her debut album, Cain is the first to do so with a first release since The Smile, with A Light for Attracting Attention, in July 2022.
Preacher’s Daughter also begins at No. 2 on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums and Top Rock Albums charts, and on the all-genre Billboard 200, it bows at No. 10.
In addition to its album sales, Preacher’s Daughter also earned a total of 2.8 million official U.S. streams in the week ending April 10.
The chart-related activity around Cain is her first, with the majority centered around Preacher’s Daughter, though she also debuts on the Billboard Artist 100 chart at No. 4.
Cain followed Preacher’s Daughter with the nine-song ambient/drone release Perverts earlier this year, with a new album, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, also expected in 2025.
The Academy of Country Music revealed the winners of the ACM Radio Awards bright and early on Thursday (April 17). Ella Langley, this year’s top nominee at the upcoming 60th ACM Awards with eight nominations, called the radio on-air personalities and radio stations to surprise them with the news of their ACM Awards.
Winners announced include multiple first-time honorees. In the On-Air categories, first-time winners include: Lorianne Crook and Charlie Chase of Crook & Chase Countdown for National Weekly On-Air Personality of the Year; Josh Holleman, Rachael Hunter, and Steve Grunwald of Josh, Rachael and Grunwald in the Morning for Major Market On-Air Personality of the Year; Joey Tack and Nancy Barger of Joey & Nancy for Medium Market On-Air Personality of the Year; and Mel McCrae of The Cat Pak Morning Show for Small Market On-Air Personality of the Year.
Among radio stations, WIVK in Knoxville, Tenn. won Radio Station of the Year, Medium Market for the ninth time, a longer winning streak than any of this year’s other winners.
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The 60th ACM Awards are set to take place on Thursday, May 8 at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas and streaming exclusively on Amazon’s Prime Video. Reba McEntire is set to host the show, which will feature performances by Blake Shelton, Eric Church, and Lainey Wilson, with more to be named. A limited number of tickets to the 60th ACM Awards are available now at SeatGeek.
The 60th Academy of Country Music Awards is produced by Dick Clark Productions (DCP). Raj Kapoor is executive producer and showrunner, with Patrick Menton as co-executive producer. Damon Whiteside serves as executive producer for the Academy of Country Music, and Jay Penske and Barry Adelman serve as executive producers for DCP. John Saade will also continue to serve as consulting producer for Amazon MGM Studios.
Here’s a complete list of the 2025 ACM Radio Award winners, with a notation indicating how many times each has won in this category.
On-Air Personality of the Year Winners
National Daily: Big D, Bubba | Big D & Bubba (fourth wins)
National Weekly: Lorianne Crook, Charlie Chase | Crook & Chase Countdown (first wins)
Major Market: Josh Holleman, Rachael Hunter, Steve Grunwald | Josh, Rachael and Grunwald in the Morning – WYCD – Detroit, Mich. (first wins)
Large Market: Big Dave, Stattman | The Big Dave Show – WUBE – Cincinnati, Ohio (fourth win, third win, respectively)
Medium Market: Joey Tack, Nancy Barger | Joey & Nancy – WIVK – Knoxville, Tenn. (first wins)
Small Market: Brent Lane, Mel McCrae | The Cat Pak Morning Show – WYCT – Pensacola, Fla. (third win, first win, respectively).
Radio Station of the Year Winners
Major Market: KYGO – Denver, Colo. (second win)
Large Market: WQDR – Raleigh, N.C. (fourth win)
Medium Market: WIVK – Knoxville, Tenn. (ninth win)
Small Market: WXBQ – Bristol, Va. (second win)
The ACM Awards are produced by Dick Clark Productions, which is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Eldridge Industries and Billboard parent company Penske Media.
At the beginning of the year, Gracie Abrams found herself in a rare bind. For one of the first times in her life, she says, “I felt like I had nothing to say.” The 25-year-old musician had scheduled a week to spend at Long Pond Studio working on new music with her longtime collaborator, Aaron […]
Zak Starkey has spoken out about his apparent firing from The Who after a nearly 30-year run, saying in a statement that he was shocked to hear that, according to reports, singer Roger Daltrey had taken issue with his playing at a recent Royal Albert Hall show in London.
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“I’m very proud of my near 30 years with The Who,” Starkey said in a statement on Wednesday (April 16) according to People. “Filling the shoes of my Godfather, ‘uncle Keith’ [Moon] has been the biggest honor and I remain their biggest fan. They’ve been like family to me.”
The veteran session and live drummer and son of former Beatles timekeeper Ringo Starr and his first wife Maureen Starkey noted that he suffered a “serious medical emergency” in January when he was treated for blood clots in his right calf. “This is now completely healed and does not affect my drumming or running.”
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In a statement to The Guardian earlier this week, a spokesperson for the group said: “The band made a collective decision to part ways with Zak after this round of shows at the Royal Albert Hall. They have nothing but admiration for him and wish him the very best for his future.”
The shows in question took place on March 18 and 20 in benefit of the Teenage Cancer Trust, a charity that singer Roger Daltrey has long been a patron of. According to Metro, Daltrey — who recently revealed that he is losing his hearing and eyesight — appeared to get frustrated about Starkey’s playing and stopped several songs mid-performance after saying he was having trouble hearing the band over Starkey’s drums.
During the band’s first-ever run through the show-ending Who’s Next track “The Song Is Over,” Daltrey reportedly told the audience, “To sing that song I do need to hear the key, and I can’t. All I’ve got is drums going boom, boom, boom. I can’t sing to that. I’m sorry guys.”
In his statement, Starkey expressed shock that “anyone” would find fault with his playing that night. “After playing those songs with the band for so many decades, I’m surprised and saddened anyone would have an issue with my performance that night, but what can you do?” Starkey said in seeming reference to the Metro report. “I plan to take some much needed time off with my family, and focus on the release of ‘Domino Bones’ by Mantra Of The Cosmos with Noel Gallagher in May and finishing my autobiography written solely by me. 29 years at any job is a good old run, and I wish them the best.”
Starkey, who first began playing with the Who in 1996 when they got back together for a reunion tour on which they played their 1973 double album Quadrophenia in its entirety, seemed to predict his sacking in an Instagram post on Saturday, in which he said he thought Daltrey, 81, was “unhappy” with him.
“HEARD TODAY FROM INSIDE SOURCE WITHIN WHOSE HORSES NOSE THAT TOGER DAKTREY LEAD SINGER AND PRINCIPAL SONGWRITER OF THE GROUP UNHAPPY WITH ZAK THE DRUMMER’S PERFORMANCE AT THE ALBERT HALL A FEW WEEKS AGO,” he wrote alongside a pic of him sitting next to a smiling Daltrey. “IS BRINGING FORMAL CHARGES OF OVERPLAYING AND IS LITERALLY GOING TO ZAK THE DRUMMER AND BRING ON A RESERVE FROM ‘THE BURWASH CARWASH SKIFFLE ‘N’ TICKLE GLEE CLUB HARMONY WITHOUT EMPATHY ALLSTARS’ THIS HAS BEEN CONFIRMED BY WHOSE LONG TIME MANAGER WILLYA YOUWONTYOUKNOW.”
Starkey got his start behind the kit when the Who’s original drummer and close family friend, Keith Moon, gave him a drum set for his eighth birthday. In addition to his longtime gig with the band, he has also played with Oasis, Johnny Marr, Paul Weller and Graham Coxon and also performs with the new supergroup Mantra of the Cosmos, which features Happy Mondays/Black Grape members Shaun Ryder and Bez and Andy Bell of Oasis and Ride.
Brad Paisley is set to headline the NFL Draft Concert Series presented by Bud Light on April 26, closing out three days of the 2025 NFL Draft in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Paisley will perform at the Draft Theater near Lambeau Field, offering a free concert to conclude Round 7 of the NFL Draft. “There’s nothing […]
Lil Nas X says he is on the mend after being hospitalized earlier this week with partial facial paralysis. Sparking fan concern with video from his hospital bed in which the right side of his face appeared to be frozen, the “Hotbox” MC provided an update on Tuesday (April 15) via an Instagram Story in which he said “I’ve been chewing a lot so I can get this muscle stronger,” pointing to the right side of his mug while wearing a pink shower cap.
“It’s much better, it’s much better,” he assured viewers, adding, “my eye still has to play catch-up. But like, but like I can give a genuine smile, so that’s good. I’m still winkin’ at mothaf–kers, but…. yeah.” To date, Lil Nas has not provided any additional information on what caused the condition or what his prognosis is for a full recovery.
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And while the medical issue appeared to throw him off his game a bit, in the next slide he posted a snap of a palm tree and the moon shining on the surf at night, with the caption: “Can’t s–t ruin dreamboy summer. ITS TIMEEE” to the strains of his recent Pharrell-esque pop funk jam “Hotbox.”
The original video detailing the facial freeze found Lil Nas, 26, in his hospital gown laughing at the medical issue, saying “And when I smile? This is me doing a full smile right now by the way,” pointing out that the left side of his mouth was open as the right side sat immobile. “It’s like, what the f–k? I can’t even laugh right, bro. What the f–k?”
That video was captioned, “Soooo lost control of the right side of my face 😭,” with the MC displaying a chipper attitude about the unexpected health issue. In a follow-up Story he provided a close-up video of his face, panning from one side to the other and explaining, “We normal over here, we get crazy over here!,” with the caption, “I’m so cooked [two crying laughing emoji].” In another slide he assured fans, “Guys I am OK!! Stop being sad for me! Shake ur ass for me instead!,” with the final slide offering yet another assurance that things are going to be fine and a photo of the rapper promising, “Imma look funny for a lil bit but that’s it.”
No additional information was available at press time about what caused the paralysis and a spokesperson for Lil Nas had not returned a request for comment.
Fans are awaiting word on a release date for Lil Nas’ Dreamboy LP, the follow-up to his 2021 debut full-length album Montero. Last month he released the 8-track Days Before Dreamboy EP that pulled together his recent run of singles.
Haim are coming home. The Los Angeles sister trio announced two surprise hometown shows happening next week on April 23 and 24 — their first live performances in nearly two years. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “This is for everyone who’s been there since day one.. […]
