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Forget espresso — Sabrina Carpenter is ready to start sipping on eggnog. This holiday season, the 25-year-old pop star is helping fans get festive with a Netflix special titled A Nonsense Christmas, as announced Thursday (Sept. 19). In a teaser clip posted to her Instagram, a camera pans up Carpenter’s body to show fur-trimmed boots, […]
With the first quarter of the 21st century coming to a close, Billboard is spending the next few months counting down our staff picks for the 25 greatest pop stars of the last 25 years. We’ve already named our Honorable Mentions and our No. 25, No. 24, No. 23, No. 22, No. 21, No. 20, No. 19, No. 18 and No. 17 stars, and now we remember the century in Jay-Z — who redesigned crossover hip-hop stardom in his image and became one of the biggest pop culture icons of the entire century.
The best is not always the best-selling. Take the Porsche 911: Considered by many experts and fans alike to be pound-for-pound the best sports car money can buy, the rear-engined coupe sells only a fraction of what America’s number one pony car, the Ford Mustang, sells. Despite its motor being in the wrong place, the 911 is thought to be the platonic ideal of a sports car. It can do it all: deliver a transcendent driving experience, win prestigious motor races, do the weekly chore run, ferry a (small) family around, and look cool when parked on the block. Instead of introducing radical new ideas every model year, Porsche has worked to intensely refine and perfect the 911 over the course of its 75-year run.
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The closest thing Hip-Hop has to the Porsche 911 is Brooklyn’s own Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter. Throughout his storied three-decade career, Jay-Z never reached the commercial heights of some of his contemporaries but, much like the 911, he represented the platonic ideal of what a rapper should and could be – including as a crossover star, who was able to have major hits and top 40-level success without ever really changing who he was or sounding like he was actively chasing any of it.
Jay-Z
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Hitting the scene in earnest in 1996 with his debut album Reasonable Doubt, Jay shared underworld tales and street knowledge in a cool unaffected manner that made it seem as if he was letting you in on a secret. With Death Row and Bad Boy dominating the charts in the mid-’90s, Jay worked to carve out a lane for himself as the guy who had one foot on the block and one foot in the boardroom. After not finding high-level commercial success with his debut, Jay recruited the team behind his friend The Notorious B.I.G.’s classic albums to create In My Lifetime, Vol. 1. Debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, Vol. 1. boasted minor hits in “The City Is Mine” and “(Always Be My) Sunshine” but proved that Jay had the propensity to make music that appealed to both radio program directors and true hip-hop heads.
But the real breakthrough came with 1998’s Vol. 2… Hard Knock Life. This time around there was no big-name executive producer, just Jay-Z and his Roc-A-Fella partners Dame Dash and Kareem “Biggs” Burke. The star of the show was the 45 King-produced, Annie-sampling “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)” that peaked at No. 15 on the Hot 100, becoming Jay-Z’s biggest hit up until that point and pushing Vol 2. to be Jay’s first No. 1 debut on the Hot 200. Suddenly the hustler from Marcy Projects was no longer toiling away in the shadow of NYC’s towering MCs — he was now one of its brightest stars. Over the next four years Jay-Z proved success does indeed beget success. He launched the careers of a few successful rap stars under his Roc-A-Fella imprint and stretched his earning potential with new clothing and liquor endeavors. But despite all that — as well as a bevy of rap hits and back-to-back Billboard 200 No. 1 albums — Jay’s best days were still far ahead of him.
The new millennium got off to a crazy start for Jay, as he connected with the Neptunes for the first time for the lead single of what was supposed to be a label compilation album. The fun and uproarious “I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)” became Jay’s first single to top the Hip-Hop/R&B chart and peaked at No. 11 on the Hot 100. The song was so big it reportedly inspired Britney Spears to tap the Virginia Beach-based production duo to work on her Britney album. The Dynasty: Roc-La-Familia also served a greater purpose still for the young rap mogul: It set the groundwork for what would become the best album of his career. Featured on Dynasty were three then-unknown producers – Ye (then Kanye West), Bink! and Just Blaze — who gave Jay a bunch of sample-based beats that were shimmering, soulful and gritty all at once. That sound would go on to anchor Jay’s sixth album, The Blueprint.
In 2001, Jay was fighting battles on multiple fronts. He was taking verbal fire from NYC artists — Nas, Prodigy, and Jadakiss — who were none too happy with Jay’s claim to be the King of New York. And he was fighting two criminal cases: one for illegal gun possession and one for assault. During all that, Jay absconded to Miami to record what would become his magnum opus. Legend goes that Jay heard the beats and was so inspired he recorded the album in less than a week. The result would be a project that completely reordered the pantheon of rap greats: Sure, Reasonable Doubt is considered a classic, but the wider world didn’t take notice of it until years later. With The Blueprint, everyone knew immediately that Jay-Z had made the best rap album anyone had heard in years. From the scathing diss track “Takeover” to the tender “Song Cry” — and a pair of irresistible ‘00s pop-rap staples in the triumphant “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” and the hilariously rude “Girls, Girls, Girls” — The Blueprint, as Noah Callahan-Bever wrote, became just that: “Everything a great rap album should be, and, perhaps as importantly, nothing that it should not be.”
Throughout his career, Jay always looked at himself as more than a rapper. Yes, he also claimed to be a hustler, but he more so saw himself as an enterprise. The famous bar wouldn’t come until 2005 when he hopped on a remix to Ye’s “Diamonds” record—in Jay’s eyes he’s not simply a businessman, he’s a business, man. And that sentiment really began to show in the early 2000s: So much so he felt he’d outgrown his role as a rapper to the point that he decided to retire, dropping a farewell project in The Black Album. And why not? By then he felt he had it all: He had five consecutive No. 1 albums, Roc-A-Fella was chugging along just nicely — and, in his immortal words, he had “the hottest chick in the game” wearing his chain in Beyoncé. He’d just scored two of his biggest pop hits to date alongside the then-burgeoning pop/R&B diva: His No. 3-peaking “Bonnie & Clyde ‘03” from the overstuffed sequel album Blueprint 2: The Gift and Curse, and her “Crazy in Love,” the Hot 100-topping breakout hit from Bey’s Dangerously in Love that set her on the path to all-time solo greatness. Things couldn’t be going better.
But what other rapper could have made the entire world care about their retirement? He made culture stop. Fans actually mourned his career! We’d never seen someone go out on top; on their own terms. Especially after making what appeared to be all the right moves. It was no wonder the documentary he made about the making of his “last” album – 2004’s Fade to Black, which also captured his “retirement party” concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden, bringing hip-hop to the World’s Most Famous Arena at a time when it rarely got to command such stages — was itself a hit.
Jay-Z
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Of course, he couldn’t leave the game alone, and wound up returning three years and a Def Jam Presidential stint later with the forgettable Kingdom Come. Tapping his usual list of producers to craft his comeback special, Jay suffered his first great misstep: He underestimated just how much the rap game had moved on in the time he was away. The South, and Atlanta in particular, was now the dominant force in rap– a reality helped bring forth by signing Young Jeezy to Def Jam. And with younger guys like T.I. able to seamlessly flow between grimy street records and wide aperture radio hits, Jay’s attempt felt, well, old. It didn’t help that he himself was struggling with how to be a rapper touching 40 years old.
But Jay-Z’s true gift remained his ability to make people believe Jay-Z is the coolest person in the world. His ability to sell that idea has helped him sell everything else. When, on Blueprint 3, he declared Auto-Tune dead at the late height of its use within hip-hop in 2009, most people said “hm,” but went with it. (He had less success with getting people to stop wearing Timbs, but you can’t win ‘em all.) Nonetheless, his coolness is what made his BP3 collaboration with Alicia Keys, “Empire State of Mind” — a song that could have fallen flat and tumbled into cringe in the hands of a lesser artist — his first song to hit No. 1 on the Hot 100, and an enduring Big Apple anthem that even folks who couldn’t name a second Jay-Z song still know most of the words to.
Another gift has been his ability to align himself with the right people at the right time. When he retired from rap and released The Black Album, Jay released a cappella versions of the album and let DJs and producers make new mash-up versions of the album. Danger Mouse’s career was birthed on the back of that release when he mixed it with beats sampling the Beatles’ White Album to create The Grey Album. That album also inspired Linkin Park and Jay to combine some of their songs together to create a six-song EP called Collision Course that wound up selling 368,000 copies first week and winning a Grammy for “Numb/Encore.”
But Jay’s greatest collaborations would come years later. In 2011, he and his mentee Ye traversed the globe to record what would become Watch the Throne. A fully immersive experience, WTT spawned a roving art exhibit, a listening at NYC’s Hayden Planetarium, and a global tour that had them performing their smash hit “N—as In Paris” multiple times at every stop and 11 times in Paris. Lush, lavish, and luxurious, Watch the Throne had was the cultural high point of the past 24 years for both Jay-Z and Ye, positioning them both as not just rap stars but pop culture titans.
Jay-Z
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A few years later, in 2014, Jay’s legend (and pop star bonafides) only grew greater when he and his now-wife Beyoncé decided to team up for what would become one of the best tours of the past 25 years, with the On the Run Tour. Boasting 21 shows across three countries, the all-stadium tour became one of the most successful in history, with $109 MM in ticket sales, according to Billboard Boxscore. It was so successful, the duo re-upped and did it again four years later. Could Jay have headlined a solo stadium tour 18 years into his career? Maybe, maybe not. But the important thing to remember is that he did embark on global stadium tours at a time in his career when most rappers from his generation wouldn’t be able book midsize venues in their home cities.
Just like the venerable 911, Jay’s game was constant improvement. He didn’t sell like 50 Cent or Nelly or Eminem at their respective peaks. The only time he was able to sell a million in a week – sort of — was when he made a deal with Samsung to pre-load his Magna Carter…Holy Grail album on their phones, giving him a platinum plaque before it even hit stores. But his stranglehold on pop culture and his influence on cultural trends was unmatched (remember when he told everyone not to drive a BMW X5 and everyone, even people who couldn’t afford one in the first place, listened?). No one, besides Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Ye back when his name was still Kanye, has been able to affect the commercial decisions of young music fans as much as Jay had.
Jay-Z
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Don’t take our word for it, though. Listen to Jay at the end of “What More Can I Say”:
The soul of a hustler, I really ran the streets/A CEO’s mind, that marketing plan was me/ And no I ain’t get shot up a whole bunch of times/ Or make up s—t in a whole bunch of lines / And I ain’t animated, like say, a Busta Rhymes/ But the real s—t you get when you bust down my lines/ Add that to the fact I went plat’ a bunch of times/ Times that by my influence on pop culture/ I supposed to be number one on everybody’s list.
Read more about the Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century here — and be sure to check back on Tuesdsay when our No. 15 artist is revealed!
Linkin Park‘s recent reunion has sparked a lot of complicated feelings and opinions, the latest of which comes from late vocalist Chester Bennington’s mom.
In interviews with Rolling Stone published Thursday (Sept. 19), Susan Eubanks shared that she feels “betrayed” by the entire ordeal, alleging that no one in the band told her that they had plans to reunite, much less that they were adding Dead Sara’s Emily Armstrong as its new lead singer. “They told me that if they were ever going to do something, they would let me know,” she told the publication. “They didn’t let me know, and they probably knew that I wouldn’t going to be very happy. I’m very upset about it.”
Instead, Eubanks says she learned of the news — which Linkin Park announced via livestream Sept. 5 with plans to release a new album, From Zero, and embark on a tour — on Google, after which she tuned in to the stream to find Armstrong singing Bennington’s part in one of the band’s songs. “I’m just going to say it, [Armstrong was] screeching her way through a very high note,” she said, adding that she immediately clicked off and started crying.
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“I feel like they’re trying very hard to erase the past,” Eubanks continued. “They’re performing songs that Chester sang. And I don’t know how the fans are taking it, but I know how I take it. And having [Armstrong] singing my son’s songs is hurtful.”
Eubanks also alleged that guitarist Mike Shinoda used to threaten to replace Bennington with a female vocalist — whose range might be more naturally suited for Linkin Park’s songs — when her son was still alive. “He often put Chester down,” she claimed of Shinoda. “He said Mike told him at rehearsal that, ‘If you decide you’re leaving, we’re going to replace you with a girl.’ And Chester was dumbfounded and hurt.”
Billboard has reached out to Linkin Park’s reps for comment.
Linkin Park’s reunion follows a seven-year hiatus that came after Bennington’s death in 2017. While some fans are happy to see the group back at it again, others took issue with the addition of Armstrong, be it her perceived inability to fill Bennington’s shoes or her past affiliations with Scientologist and convicted rapist Danny Masterson. The latter issue lead Armstrong to release a statement Sept. 6 distancing herself from the That ’70s Show actor, emphasizing that she hasn’t spoken to him since supporting him at a single court date in 2020.
Another person who’s spoken out against Linkin Park’s reunion is Bennington’s son Jaime, who also claims the band didn’t consult him ahead of its reunion and slammed Armstrong’s involvement as “quietly erasing [his] father’s life and legacy in real time.” Later, Jaime said that he’d received abuse online from Linkin Park fans in response to his comments.
For Eubanks, a better way forward would’ve been leaving Linkin Park’s previous work in the past. “Don’t put [Armstrong] out there to sing Chester’s songs and then act like this was always the way it should have been,” she told Rolling Stone. “Now you can just put out new songs. But don’t bother to put out Chester’s songs with Emily singing them.”
For the second time in 2024, Mark Morrison’s “Return of the Mack” reigns on Billboard’s Top TV Songs chart, powered by Tunefind (a Songtradr company), this time following its synch in the first season of Apple TV+’s Time Bandits.
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Rankings for the Top TV Songs chart are based on song and show data provided by Tunefind and ranked using a formula blending that data with sales and streaming information tracked by Luminate during the corresponding period of August 2024.
“Return of the Mack” can be heard in the eighth episode of Time Bandits, which premiered on Aug. 14 (as did episode seven). It earned 19.5 million official on-demand U.S. streams and 2,000 downloads in August 2024, according to Luminate.
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“Return of the Mack” previously ruled Top TV Songs this year when it was heard in an episode of The Equalizer in May. It also led the November 2015 survey via a synch in Master of None.
The song was Morrison’s breakthrough in America, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1997.
In all, Time Bandits boasts three appearances on the 10-song Top TV Songs ranking. The Cardigans’ “Lovefool” and Spice Girls’ “Wannabe,” both also featured in episode eight, rank at Nos. 6 and 7, respectively; “Lovefool” earned 12.1 million streams and 1,000 downloads in August, while “Wannabe” racked up 8.7 million streams and 1,000 downloads.
The success of Time Bandits on the chart comes despite its recent cancellation by Apple TV+; after one season, its final episodes aired Aug. 21.
Kaos is the other top performer on the latest Top TV Songs ranking, with songs heard in the Netflix series’ first season (all of which premiered Aug. 29) taking Nos. 2 and 3.
Rupert Holmes’ “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” appears at No. 2 via 7.2 million streams and 1,000 downloads, while Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” is at No. 3 thanks to 6.4 million streams and 2,000 downloads.
See the full top 10, also featuring music from Reasonable Doubt, The Umbrella Academy and Industry, below.
Rank, Song, Artist, Show (Network)
“Return of the Mack,” Mark Morrison, Time Bandits (Apple TV+)
“Escape (The Pina Colada Song),” Rupert Holmes, Kaos (Netflix)
“Money for Nothing,” Dire Straits, Kaos (Netflix)
“Sativa,” Jhene Aiko feat. Swae Lee, Reasonable Doubt (Hulu)
“This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody),” Talking Heads, The Umbrella Academy (Netflix)
“Lovefool,” The Cardigans, Time Bandits (Apple TV+)
“Wannabe,” Spice Girls, Time Bandits (Apple TV+)
“C.R.E.A.M.,” Wu-Tang Clan, Reasonable Doubt (Hulu)
“Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money),” Pet Shop Boys, Industry (HBO)
“Ambitionz Az a Ridah,” 2Pac, Reasonable Doubt (Hulu)
After three weeks at No. 2 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart, Surf Curse’s “Disco” rises to No. 1 for the first time, reigning on the tally dated Sept. 21.
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The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity from Sept. 9-15. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
“Disco” takes over the top spot from Clean Bandit’s Zara Larsson-featuring “Symphony,” which drops to No. 3 after reigning for three weeks.
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The dominant trend sparking the rise of “Disco,” which was initially released in 2019, continues to be a dance challenge. Though it usually features two people, with one leaning in toward the other for a few beats with the other leaning back, and vice versa, the trend has also seen three or more dancers in the same video – and sometimes even just one.
“Disco” concurrently debuts on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 91, Surf Curse’s first appearance on the ranking. It also lifts 18-17 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs. In the week ending Sept. 12, it earned 5.4 million official U.S. streams, up 20%, according to Luminate.
Behind “Disco” comes a slew of songs new to the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s top 10, including three debuts. Topping that group: BabyChiefDoit’s “Rollin’,” which bows at No. 2. “Rollin’” marks the Chicago rapper’s first chart appearance, buoyed mostly by lip-synchs set to the song’s “Don’t slip, don’t trip, don’t fall/ Come to the crib and take off your drawers” lyric.
Released in 2023, “Rollin’” has scored strong subsequent streaming gains, leaping 211% to 481,000 listens in the week ending Sept. 12.
STAR BANDZ’s “Bigger Better Badder” starts at No. 4, another rapper making one of her first chart appearances. The similarities to BabyChiefDoit don’t stop there; “Bigger Better Badder” has also risen thanks to lip-synch clips highlighting the song’s “bigger, better, badder” refrain.
In the week ending Sept. 12, “Bigger Better Badder” accumulated 193,000 official U.S. streams, a leap of 353%.
The final top 10 debut of the week is from a veteran artist: Ashanti’s “Rain on Me,” which breaks onto the ranking at No. 5. Where did the 21-year-old song, which peaked at No. 2 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in 2003, come from? Mostly from users posting photos, clips and memes from the long-running Nickelodeon series Henry Danger, which aired for five seasons between 2014 and 2020.
Though the streaming gains of “Rain on Me” are not as substantial as the preceding two songs, it’s nothing to sniff at: 676,000 streams in the week ending Sept. 12, up 15%.
Level’s “Dumb D*#k,” which features Ms. Trill, isn’t a debut, but it’s already in the top 10 in its second week on the TikTok Billboard Top 50, leaping 32-6. Released in 2016, “Dumb D*#k” did not appear on a Billboard chart until its TikTok Billboard Top 50 appearance, thanks to a dance trend.
And then there’s Chappell Roan’s “Casual.” So far, the The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess cut had been a meager presence on the chart; after debuting at No. 44 on the Aug. 17 survey, it returned at No. 48 on Sept. 7 and remained there Sept. 14.
But “Casual” zooms 48-9 on the latest tally, becoming Roan’s first TikTok Billboard Top 50 top 10 (let alone top 40, for that matter). That’s because of a new trend featuring creators uploading photos and video following the prompt of “casual things we did before we started dating”
“Casual” has peaked so far at No. 59 on the Hot 100, coming on the Aug. 24 rankign. It appears at No. 72 on the most recent survey.
See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 here. You can also tune in each Friday to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the premiere of the chart’s top 10 countdown at 3 p.m. ET, with reruns heard throughout the week.
Former Bad Boy rapper Moses “Shyne” Barrow has spoken out following Diddy’s arrest earlier this week on racketeering and sex-trafficking charges.
Shyne, who serves as the Leader of the Opposition in the Belize House of Representatives, shared his thoughts regarding his former boss’s legal troubles with the media on Wednesday (Sept. 18).
“When I was an 18-year-old kid just wanting to do nothing other than make my mother proud and make Belize proud and be recognized for my talent and take over the world,” he said. ‘I was defending him, and he turned around and called witnesses to testify against me. He contributed … he pretty much sent me to prison. That is the context by which you must always describe that [relationship]. I forgave. I moved on. But let us not pretend as if I was in Miami for Thanksgiving and Christmas.”
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Shyne is referencing the case surrounding a December 1999 NYC nightclub shooting at he, Diddy and Jennifer Lopez (the mogul’s girlfriend at the time) were all present during; Shyne ended up being charged with assault and sentenced to 10 years behind bars in June 2001. He was ultimately released in 2009 and deported to Belize.
He continued: “So, let us not lose sight of what the cold, hard facts are. This is not someone who I vacationed with and who he and I enjoyed this great, intimate relationship of brotherhood. This is someone who destroyed my life and who I forgave and who I moved on and for the better interest of Belize, because he was in a position at that time to give scholarships and to maybe invest, I would not deny attempting to bring the investment to Belize and contribution to education to Belize.”
“Don’t distort it as if he and I were boom bally. This is someone that destroyed my life,” he continued. “But do I take any joy with what he is going through? Absolutely not. I am different than other people — no one needs to fail for me to succeed.”
While Shyne has forgiven Diddy for their past, earlier this year, he admitted that the 1999 shooting case that sent him to prison still “opens wounds” when brought up.
Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested earlier this week on federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges in New York City. He was once again denied bail on Wednesday (Sept. 18) after a federal judge cited concerns that the embattled music executive would pose a flight risk and might intimidate witnesses if he was released.
Diddy’s legal team drew up a $50 million bond package featuring strict requirements, but the judge was not moved. The rapper will remain in a Brooklyn federal prison until trial.
When “Big Dawgs,” the riotous song by Indian rapper Hanumankind and producer Kalmi, began spreading across the world in July, its creators couldn’t fully appreciate its impact. Despite sites like YouTube and Reddit signaling the song’s crossover appeal, Hanumankind and his team were largely in the dark about its impact on TikTok — including the more than 1 million posts using the track to date — since India banned the platform in 2020.
“We’re hearing about this going crazy, but we can’t wrap our heads around [it],” Hanumankind tells Billboard. “We’re sitting at home like, ‘I guess this is happening. Let’s strap in.’ ”
Born Sooraj Cherukat in India’s southern state of Kerala, Hanumankind was a self-described “child of chaos.” His family bounced around the globe with his father working in the oil sector, making stops in Nigeria, Qatar, Dubai and Egypt before moving to Houston in the early 2000s during his formative years.
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“Houston has a way of shaping a person,” he says, wearing a No. 34 Hakeem Olajuwon Houston Rockets throwback jersey. “Whether you talk about UGK or DJ Screw, you hear it in everything. It was important to be there and absorb so much of that.”
Hanumankind
Samrat Nagar
Talking over Zoom, the 32-year-old has photos of 2Pac, MF DOOM and The Notorious B.I.G. in his living room — but even with his vast hip-hop knowledge, he says his parents hoped he would pursue “a real job and build a career.” He moved back to India for college in 2012, and after graduating, he burned through jobs at Goldman Sachs and different marketing agencies while living like “a f–king idiot.” (Upon turning 30, he temporarily gave up drinking entirely. Nowadays, he says, he drinks in moderation.)
Still, rapping largely remained a party trick he’d pull out at gatherings. But things changed in late 2019 following a performance at the NH7 Weekender Festival in India, pulling inspiration for his stage name from religion. (Hanuman is the half-monkey, half-man Hindu God of wisdom, strength and courage.)
“There was a mob of people running over from different areas, like, ‘Who the f–k is this guy?’” he remembers. “[After] that set, I was like, ‘This feels like something I can do. I just want to do something that gives me purpose. Am I decent at this? Can I make money off this? Cool.’ That’s all I needed.”
A year later, Hanumankind signed a management deal with Imaginary Frnds’ founder Rohan Venkatesh, with the company’s Abhimanyu Prakash helping as part of the management team. “He charmed the pants off me when I met him,” says Prakash. Adds Venkatesh, who first met the rapper backstage in 2018: “I knew this could go global. I believed in the art from day one.”
Hanumankind spent the next few years as an independent artist, releasing a pair of EPs and a handful of singles before his team decided to explore the major-label route, ultimately signing with Def Jam India at the start of 2023. “They were so ready to help us from day one,” says Prakash. “We’ve had this moment, and they’ve been pillars for us in figuring out how to grow it.”
Hanumankind
Samrat Nagar
That January, Hanumankind released the twitchy “Go to Sleep” — but nothing else for the year. With time ticking on his next move, he hopped on a Zoom in early 2024 with frequent collaborator Kalmi while living in Bengaluru. They began with a creative exercise they’d done before: Kalmi would queue up a beat for Hanumankind to rap on and they’d build an idea from whatever came out. “We didn’t want boundaries on us, and the minute [I heard the] beat, I was like, ‘Oh s–t.’”
After taking a liking to the engine-revving production and bristling synths, the hook came next, followed by the first verse. Within 30 minutes, the basic structure for “Big Dawgs” was set. “Instantly, this flow came in,” Hanumankind says, though he admits he began to overanalyze it. “I didn’t think it was a single at all — this song just came to be as a byproduct of being f–king weird, experimental folks.”
But Kalmi and Venkatesh changed his mind. “We knew this was the one instantly, there was a shock value to it,” Venkatesh says. “[Kalmi and I] went for a drive and played it four or five times. Next morning, we called Hanumankind and convinced him to drop.”
Kalmi tightened up the production, adding the chopped-and-screwed element to the song’s outro, and Hanumankind tacked on a second verse. On July 9, “Big Dawgs” arrived on streaming services.
Instead of a traditional marketing budget, Hanumankind’s team allocated much of their financial resources to the music video, which arrived the next day and opened the world’s eyes to a popular Indian spectacle known as the “Well of Death.” Two-stroke engine bikes and vintage cars whiz around in circles on the walls of a vertical pit, testing the limits of gravity — and in the video, Hanumankind even hangs out the window of one of the cars. “It was more of a culture shock for people, which was a unique selling point for us,” says Venkatesh. To date, the video has more than 116 million YouTube views.
Within a few days, Hanumankind realized the reception to “Big Dawgs” was different than any prior work, as it started extending well beyond India and into popular American music. “American hip-hop makes the world react. But this is the first time a lot of people were like, ‘There’s this video coming out of India,’” he says. Popular streamers like IShowSpeed and No Life Shaq reacted to the hit across social media platforms, boosting its visibility to another level.
By mid-August, “Big Dawgs” debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 57; two weeks later, it reached a No. 23 high. The hit has also topped the R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales chart and to date has earned 72 million official on-demand U.S. streams and 288.5 million official on-demand global streams through Sept. 5, according to Luminate.
“Everything came in a huge tidal wave,” says Hanumankind. “I feel like someone’s going to slap me in the face and wake me up.” Its reception has indeed been a dream for the rapper: both Project Pat and Bun B separately joined him on Instagram Live — in “Big Dawgs,” the former receives a name check and Hanumankind interpolates a lyric from UGK’s “Int’l Players Anthem” to pay homage to the latter.
Hanumankind is now eager to perform outside of India, and in September signed with Wasserman Music. He also plans to release a remix for “Big Dawgs” with an American rapper, though specifics on who or when are unknown. And while a debut album isn’t ready just yet, he’s still basking in what his breakthrough hit represents.
“I am just the tip of the iceberg of what can come from this side of the world,” he says. “If some random dude from India can make music and shoot a cool video that pops off, it allows people to dream a little harder.”
A version of this story will appear in the Sept. 28, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Grupo Frontera, Álvaro Díaz, Debi Nova, Jasiel Núñez, Junior H, La Joaqui, Luck Ra, Mario Bautista, Nacho, Saiko and Tito Double P are set for the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Week. Additionally, soccer stars Leo Campana (Inter Miami CF) and Igor Lichnovsky (Club América) have also joined the weeklong event taking place Oct. 14-18 at The Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater.
Grupo Frontera will take centerstage for the Making the Hit LIVE panel on Oct. 15. Exclusive to Billboard Latin Music Week, members of Frontera will show fans how they create a hit from scratch. Later that evening, the group will headline Billboard En Vivo, presented by Smirnoff Ice, with Majo Aguilar opening the show at the Wynwood Marketplace. Grupo Frontera En Vivo tickets start at $40 and are available for purchase at BillboardLatinMusicWeek.com. Latin Music Week INSIDER pass holders will receive free access to this event and do not need to purchase additional tickets.
Meanwhile, Álvaro Díaz, Albert Hype, Caleb Calloway and Miguel Armenta will join the How I Wrote the Song: The Urban and Música Mexicana edition panel presented by BMI. Debi Nova has been added to the The Women’s Panel, Global Rising: A Conversation with Female Stars from Around the Globe presented by Ulta Beauty.
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Jasiel Núñez, Junior H, and Tito Double P will join the Nuevo Mexicano: Peso Pluma and Friends panel. La Joaqui and Luck Ra will be part of the Entre Amigos panel presented by Billboard Argentina. Nacho will join the Venezuela Rising panel, Mario Bautista will participate in the From Viral Hits to Billboard Charts: The Power of Content Creators panel, and Saiko will perform at the Next Gen Reggaeton: An Evening Curated by J Balvin.
Furthermore, for the second year in a row, Billboard Latin Music Week will host a special sports panel featuring Leo Campana, who plays for Inter Miami and Igor Lichnovsky, from Club América and the Chilean national team. The conversation between the athletes will be moderated by Emmy-winning Didi Sports CEO Daniella Durán. Titled Sports and Music: The Winning Combination, the panel will delve into how athletes and musicians are collaborating more closely to promote both industries, highlighting the powerful synergy between sports and music.
Celebrating its 35th anniversary, tickets for Billboard Latin Music Week are available for purchase here.
The newly announced group joins a stellar lineup of previously announced participants for Billboard Latin Music Week, including Alejandro Sanz, Bad Gyal, Belinda, Camila Fernández, Chiquis, DANNA, Danny Ocean, Dei V, Domelipa, Eden Muñoz, Eslabon Armado, Fat Joe, Feid, Gloria Estefan, J Balvin, JOP, Keityn, Kunno, Lele Pons, Leo Campana, Luis Alfonso, Lupita Infante, Majo Aguilar, Maria Becerra, Marko, Mau y Ricky, Mon Laferte, N.O.R.E., Omar Courtz, Paola Jara, Peso Pluma, Pipe Bueno, Sophia Talamas, Thalia, Yahritza y Su Esencia, Yandel, Yeison Jiménez, Yeri Mua, Yisin and Young Miko, as well as Zhamira Zambrano.
Billboard Latin Music Week will coincide with the Billboard Latin Music Awards, which will air on Telemundo. Latin Music Week tickets will not include access to the awards show this year. Instead, Billboard will host a special 35th-year anniversary celebration on the evening of Oct. 18, where INSIDER badge holders will receive exclusive invitations to this star-studded event.
For more information on Billboard Latin Music Week, updates on the schedule and more exciting announcements, visit BillboardLatinMusicWeek.com.
JENNIE doesn’t shut down when it comes to taking accountability. After a video of her vaping indoors sparked backlash this summer, the BLACKPINK star issued an apology almost immediately — and in her new Harper’s Bazaar cover story interview published Thursday (Sept. 19), she explains why. “What can I do? If Korean people think it’s […]
Molly Tuttle, a two-time Grammy winner and the first woman to win the IBMA’s guitar player of the year honor (she won in both 2017 and 2018), has become one of Nashville’s most coveted musicians and a mainstay in the bluegrass scene.
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But Tuttle and her group Golden Highway — who’ve issued five albums since 2017 — have also leaned closer to musical troubadours rather than devout traditionalists, melding bluegrass with a range of styles. The group continues that ethos on the wide-ranging new EP Into The Wild, out Sept. 20 on Nonesuch Records.
“It’s a reflection of the last few years and what we’ve worked on as a band,” Tuttle tells Billboard.
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But the six-song EP, which follows the group’s 2023 Grammy-winning City of Gold, also nods to Tuttle’s northern California roots, where the Santa Clara-born Tuttle spent much of her youth practicing guitar and attending bluegrass and folk music festivals. At age 13, she recorded The Old Apple Tree, a collection of duets with her father. By 15, she had joined her family band The Tuttles, along with friend A.J. Lee.
She was inspired to write the EP’s title track with her partner Ketch Secor (of Old Crow Medicine Show), after spending a week in California’s Redwood National Forest. Far from a typical ode to the enduring nature of beauty, “Into the Wild” also offers a searing message, on the lines, “Times ain’t like they used to be/ The wilderness is hard to find at all/ The magic slipped way and the fires start in May/ Making way for another shopping mall.”
“We felt really inspired by the natural setting, but the song is also about the effect humans have on nature and how we need to protect these wild spaces,” Tuttle says.
Thus, “Into the Wild” also connects to another song on the project: a rendition of the late California folk singer Kate Wolf’s 1981 song “Here in California.”
“She’s someone who writes a lot about the natural world, and she’s one of my absolute favorite songwriters,” Tuttle says of Wolf, noting also the influence of the Kate Wolf Music Festival, held from 1996-2022 in northern California. “Her music kind of echoed throughout the Bay Area music scene and people were always jamming on her songs. She’s just very beloved in that area.
“I never got to go to that festival, and I remember writing emails to the festival every year asking them to book me,” Tuttle continues. “But I met a lot of people who played with her, like Nina Gerber, who was one of my first mentors who was a female lead guitarist.”
Tuttle considered a few Wolf songs to include on the album, but when she thought of “Here in California” and began researching versions of the song, she realized just how deep Wolf’s influence is embedded in her own musical history.
“I was like, ‘I want to cover a Kate Wolf song on this album,’ and I sent a few different songs to the band. When I Googled to find some live versions of [‘Here in California’], I actually found a video of myself playing it at age 15 and I forgot that I ever played it live before — but it was a video of me, my dad and AJ Lee performing it. Here I thought I had this new idea about covering this Kate Wolf song, but I had already covered it. It was kind of uncanny to see a video of myself playing it. But I loved how this version turned out. We got the old family band harmonies going again and A.J. is singing a verse, and it sounds amazing.”
Into The Wild’s eclectic set also spans covers of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” and a glistening pop punk-meets-bluegrass rendering of Olivia Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U,” (which features Sierra Hull on mandolin) — a song Tuttle previously recorded as part of the Spotify Singles campaign. The EP also nods to City of Gold with an alternate version of “Stranger Things.” The new version is pared back, with Tuttle joined by mandolin player Dominick Leslie and cello/synth player Nathaniel Smith.
From those early bluegrass festivals, Tuttle’s journey has taken her to Boston, where she majored in guitar performance at Berklee College of Music, before moving to Nashville in 2015. She had released two projects of pop-tilted music before teaming with bluegrass legend Jerry Douglas, who co-produced the group’s albums Crooked Tree and City of Gold (both sets earned Grammy accolades for best bluegrass album).
Into the Wild releases just a week prior to this year’s International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Awards, set for Sept. 26 in Raleigh, North Carolina, where Douglas will be inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame.
“I am so proud to have worked with him and just count him as a mentor and a friend, and someone who I really look up to,” Tuttle says. ‘I feel lucky to have made so much music with him, and he’s so deserving of this achievement. I’m really happy to see his name up there.”
Leading into this year’s ceremony, Tuttle and her Golden Highway bandmates — fiddler Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, Leslie, bass player Shelby Means and banjo player Kyle Tuttle (no relation)– are also foremost nominees, up for a total of eight accolades, including entertainer of the year, vocal group of the year, instrumental group of the year and album of the year (City of Gold). Tuttle is up for female vocalist of the year and guitar player of the year, while bandmate Keith-Hynes is up for fiddle player of the year and new artist of the year.
“For me, when I’m making an album, I’m not thinking ‘Oh, I hope this wins a bunch of awards,’” she explains. “But then, when it’s out there in the world, you do hope people are resonating with it — and something like being nominated for the IBMA Awards is just that kind of affirmation that people are listening to it and liking it. I grew up going to the IBMAs and seeing so many of my heroes on stage there. So we’re excited to play a song off our latest record and it’s going to be a fun night. It always feels like a family reunion-meets-prom night, since we’re all dressed up.”
Thanks to Tuttle’s skills as a writer, musician and vocalist, she has become not only a multi-award winner, but an in-demand collaborator, recording and/or performing with artists including Jason Isbell, Lainey Wilson, Bela Fleck, Old Crow Medicine Show, Billy Strings, Yola, Bobby Osborne and Emmylou Harris. In 2018, she also teamed with Missy Raines, Alison Brown, Sierra Hull and Becky Buller for the supergroup First Ladies of Bluegrass.
But given the ample talent in Nashville, there are still plenty of artists on Tuttle’s bucket list. “I feel fortunate to have gotten to play with so many of my heroes,” she says. “One person who I’ve always wanted to sing with is Alison Krauss. That would be super fun.”
Ahead, in addition to a slate of tour dates, Tuttle says she’s in the “writing phase” of her next record. “I’m not sure what it will turn into yet, but I’m always working on new stuff and looking to go into the studio soon and hopefully have something out next year,” she says.
If she does release a new project next year, she’ll likely be performing some of that new music at next year’s IBMA Awards, which will relocate from Raleigh to a new venue in Chattanooga, Tenn.
“We were just in Chattanooga on Sunday and it’s such a great city,” Tuttle says. “I’m really excited that it’s going to be closer to Nashville, although I do love Raleigh. I just thought Raleigh was a great place for it to be. There were such great venues for bands to get to play all throughout Raleigh and then the Street Fest was really fun. So I hope that Chattanooga has kind of a similar setup. I think that works really well to have a few stages outdoors on the streets so that people can just walk around and enjoy music. Hopefully Chattanooga’s going to embrace IBMA in the same way and celebrate this big week that we have every year. But as a city, I’m really looking forward to spending time there for IBMA and seeing what it turns into.”