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The Doors’ story, strange days and otherwise, has been told many times to date — by writers, by filmmakers, by the band members themselves in their respective memoirs. But the new Night Divides The Day: The Doors Anthology book puts all of their accounts (and more) alongside each other for the first time ever.
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The opulent, coffee-table sized 344-page book was created by England’s Genesis Publications, in partnership with the Doors camp, as part of the group’s 60th anniversary celebration. Featuring about 800 photos and other illustrations (many never before seen), the tome includes new interviews with surviving members Robby Krieger and John Densmore, along with material from the autobiographies and archival comments from Krieger, Densmore and late members Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek. Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic wrote the foreword, while Van Morrison, Alice Cooper, Patti Smith and others join members of the Doors’ camp in offering commentary throughout the book.
Key events in the band’s history are recounted in depth — including the making of each album, the legendary Hollywood Bowl concert in July 1968 and the March 1, 1969, Dinner Key Auditorium show in Miami, after which Morrison was arrested for profanity and indecent exposure. And for gear aficionados, Night Divides The Day is awash in images of guitars, keyboards, drums and even Morrison’s microphones and harmonicas.
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“It really shows you a lot of the hidden Doors stuff that a lot of people don’t know about,” Krieger, who published Set the Night on Fire: Living, Dying, and Playing Guitar With the Doors in 2021, tells Billboard. “Just seeing the old pictures — a lot of pictures I’ve never seen, which is pretty cool. And reading a lot of interviews, stuff that I’ve forgotten all about…To go back in time and read the original stuff that you might have forgotten about or had the wrong idea of, it is nice to have everything in one (book) like this. I think it’s really done well.”
Krieger is also happy that in addition to the limited edition — 2,000 copies signed by the guitarist and Densmore, with a 7-inch vinyl single featuring rare demo versions of “Hello, I Love You” and “Moonlight Drive” and other memorabilia for $495 — there’s also a standard book store edition, which weighs in at $75.
“I think over the past sort of 10 years Genesis has been doing this more and more with selected titles,” the company’s Nick Roylance explains. “With the amount of work that goes into a book like this it’s nice to share it with a broader audience and…share their story more widely. It’s really lovely to do the limited edition that’s so special for those fans that can afford it; it’s a different experience of the book. But it’s genuinely meaningful to make it more widely available.”
The Doors
Genesis was introduced to the Doors’ world via A Guide to the Labyrinth: The Collected Works of Jim Morrison, featuring poetry, lyrics, essays and unpublished notes that the company published in May 2022. “We started there and got to know the archives and what we were working with photo-wise,” recalls Night Divides The Day editor Megan Lily Large. “So we had an idea of what we wanted with the design, and then it was just what (the Doors) wanted to tell with the text…We wanted to present their stories as authentically as we could, through their own words, through their own archives and give readers an insight they might not have been afforded until now.”
Lily Large considers the gear photos to be among the book’s holy grail content; some of the instruments had to be tracked down in private collections. And getting Van Morrison’s fresh remembrance of Jim Morrison joining him and his band Them during the last night of a 1966 stand at the Whisky A Go Go for “Gloria” and “The Midnight Hour,” filled with praise for Morrison’s performing chops, was a particularly rare get.
“I think he was quite excited to see the photos” from the performance by Whisky photographer George Rodriguez, Roylance says. Lily Large adds that, “We had these great photos of both of them, so we reached out to Van — ‘Have you seen these? We would love to get a couple of words from you, if we can, even a quote.’ And he came back with a full piece. My favorite part is when he describes Jim as ‘a brother from another mother.’ Which is quite a shock.”
Night Divides The Day is one of a number of projects for the Doors’ 60th celebration, which began last November with Rhino’s High Fidelity audiophile vinyl The Doors 1967-1971 and a Record Store Black Friday vinyl edition of The Doors — Live in Detroit. That show is also part of a series of concert releases from the Doors’ own Bright Midnight label from 1967-1970 streaming for the first time. The group acquired a recently discovered two-channel stereo recording of the final show with Jim Morrison — albeit a disappointing night on Dec. 12, 1970, at the Warehouse in New Orleans — that it’s working to turn into an official release.
“That’s gonna be coming out one of these days,” says Krieger, who was joined by Densmore on stage May 3 at during his monthly Doors album show at the Whisky. “We’re trying to get that together. We know there’s a tape that exists; that’s half the battle right there. I haven’t actually heard it, but I heard it’s pretty damn good, quality-wise.”
Krieger is staying busy with his own work as well these days. He’s planning a second album by the Soul Savages to follow up its 2024 debut, and he’s already recorded a rock-reggae album, featuring the late Phil Chen on bass, that he hopes to release this year. Krieger also guests on “Black Mamba,” the first single from The Revenge of Alice Cooper — a reunion of original band members who became tight with Krieger and the Doors during the late ‘60s in Los Angeles. “That was fun,” he says. “We would hang out together quite a bit back in the day. That (song) was right up my alley.”
Meanwhile, Krieger says he plans to keep enjoying the Doors anniversary celebration – and see what may transpire in the future.
“It’s amazing,” he says. “Even 20 years ago, the 40th anniversary, I was telling people I couldn’t imagine this happening. The only ones that have beaten us are the Stones and the Beatles, pretty much. There’s plenty of groups out there who were formed around the same time as we did, and they don’t have the (continuing) interest that we do. It’s definitely (because of) the songs, the words and the music. It was just an amazing combination of people, the four of us, who came together, and it probably happens once every 60 years. We don’t take it for granted.”
Elizabeth Hurley has anything but an achy breaky heart when it comes to Billy Ray Cyrus, with whom she said she’s “very happy” in a new interview.
While walking the red carpet for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation’s 2025 Hot Pink Party Tuesday (May 13), the actress looked slightly caught off guard when Entertainment Tonight asked about her connection with the country star — but that didn’t stop her from gushing about her new sweetheart.
“Billy’s a very, very fabulous person,” she told the outlet. “He’s a very gentle man, very nice.”
Smiling, Hurley added, “We’re very happy.”
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The comments come nearly a month after the British model and Cyrus debuted their romance on Instagram, celebrating Easter by posting a photo of a sweet kiss they shared outdoors. Both parties have since shared more PDA-filled snaps with each other on the app, and two days prior to the BCRF event, the Hannah Montana actor praised Hurley’s performance in Bryan Adams’ new “Never Ever Let You Go” music video.
“I should be jealous, but WOW !!!!!!” he wrote on Instagram. “Congratulations @bryanadams for your great new video with my beautiful girlfriend @elizabethhurley1.”
Of getting Cyrus’ seal of approval on the video, Hurley told ET, “It’s fabulous.”
“It’s very nice when people close around you are happy for you when you do well,” she added.
The couple’s romance comes about three years after they filmed Netflix’s Christmas in Paradise together. The two stars reconnected this year when Hurley reached out to Cyrus via text, something he recounted on Apple Music’s The Ty Bentli Show in April.
“She’s so impressively brilliant,” he said of Hurley at the time. “She reminds me a lot of Dolly Parton. She’s a very smart businesswoman. If you can laugh together, you can make it through everything.”
Watch Hurley gush about Cyrus below.
Just five months after delivering his Missionary album with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg has announced plans for his Iz It a Crime? album, which will arrive on Thursday (May 15).
The project boasts 21 tracks in total, with features sprinkled across the effort from Pharrell Williams, Sexyy Red, Wiz Khalifa, Charlie Bereal, Jane Handcock, October London and more. The title track also fittingly heavily samples Sade’s “Is It a Crime.”
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“Just some of the things that I do, that I’ve done, that have been speculation, and I just want to ask the question, ‘Is it a crime? Is it a crime for me to do the things that I do,” Snoop told Access Hollywood of the project on Tuesday (May 13). “Is it a crime for me to take care of people, to love people, to be there for people? Is it a crime for me to be me?”
With Snoop back at the helm of Death Row Records, he stopped by The Breakfast Club Wednesday (May 14) to open up about feeling inspired to continue rapping even as an elder statesman in hip-hop.
“I’m an MC and I love to rap and I love to make music, and people love my voice and they love when I make great records,” he said. “When I don’t make great records, people let me know that as well.”
Snoop continued: “I hear all of that and it makes me say to myself, ‘I should treat myself like a musician and not like a rapper.’ If you a musician, you can make music until you die, but when you’re a rapper they try to put a cap on you.”
An accompanying Iz It a Crime? short film is also set to serve as a visual companion to the music project. The flick was previewed during a private screening in NYC on Tuesday night.
Iz It a Crime? is set to be Snoop Dogg’s 21st studio album. He’s been busy in 2025, as Snoop contributed to Death Row’s Altar Call compilation gospel album in April, which is a tribute to the Long Beach legend’s late mother.
Find the Iz It a Crime? cover art and tracklist below.
Billboard’s Producer Spotlight series highlights creatives currently charting on Billboard’s producer rankings. Whether they are new to the industry or have been churning out hit after hit, the intention is to showcase where they are now, and their work that’s having a chart impact.
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Regional Mexican group Fuerza Regida scores a historic week thanks to the arrival of its new album, 111XPANTIA. The project launches at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 (dated May 17), behind Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos, with 76,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in its opening week (May 2-8), according to Luminate. It becomes the highest charting Spanish-language album in history by a duo or group, and sets a new mark as the highest charting regional Mexican album ever.
This week also marks the first in the 69-year history of the Billboard 200 in which Spanish-language albums hold the top two spots.
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The forces behind Fuerza Regida’s record-breaking debut include lead singer Jesús Ortiz Paz and producers Moisés López and Meñostyle.
Ortiz Paz, López and Meñostyle rank at Nos. 1, 2 and 3, respectively, on Billboard’s Latin Producers chart, thanks to their work on the album. The group places 15 songs on Hot Latin Songs, including all 12 from the non-deluxe version of 111XPANTIA. (The three songs below not on the set are noted with an asterisk.)
Fuerza Regida on the May 17 Hot Latin Songs Chart:
No. 2, “Me Jalo,” with Grupo Frontera*
No. 3, “Por Esos Ojos”
No. 11, “Peliculiando”
No. 14, “Marlboro Rojo”
No. 16, “GodFather”
No. 22, “Aniesdad”
No. 25, “Tu Sancho”
No. 26, “Ayy Weyy”
No. 31, “Caperuza”
No. 32, “Como Capo,” with Clave Especial*
No. 34, “Nocturno”
No. 35, “Chavalitas”
No. 37, “Chaka”
No. 38, “Chufulas”
No. 40, “Coqueta,” with Grupo Frontera*
Ortiz Paz tops the Latin Producers chart thanks to his production on all 15 songs above, along with Clave Especial and Edgardo Nuñez’s “Tu Tu Tu” (No. 13). López ranks at No. 2, thanks to his work on 13 of the songs above (he didn’t produce “Como Capo” and “Coqueta”). Meñostyle follows at No. 3, with production on nine cuts above, including “Por Esos Ojos” “Peculiando” and “Marlboro Rojo.”
Additional collaborators on 111XPANTIA impact Billboard’s Latin Songwriters and Latin Producers charts. Miguel Armenta ranks at No. 7 on Latin Producers (and No. 4 on Latin Songwriters) via his production on six songs above, as well as Los Dareyes de La Sierra and Tito Double P’s “Vita Fer” (No. 33 on Hot Laton Songs); Jorsshh places at No. 3 on Latin Songwriters for co-writing nine Fuerza Regida tracks; and Daniel Gutiérrez places at No. 8 on Latin Songwriters on the strength of seven credits.
Ortiz Paz has helped Fuerza Regida play a key role in helping regional Mexican music cross over to the mainstream. The group became one of the first regional Mexican acts to appear on the Hot 100, when it debuted in 2023 with its Grupo Frontera collaboration, “Bebe Dame.” The band has now charted 13 songs on the Hot 100, part of a growing wave of regional Mexican acts finding mainstream success in the U.S. that includes fellow rising stars Gabito Ballesteros, Ivan Cornejo, Junior H and Peso Pluma.
Billboard launched its songwriters and producers charts in June 2019, including those for individual genres. The charts are based on total points accrued by a songwriter and producer, respectively, for each attributed song that appears on their respective “Hot” or “Top” chart. As with Billboard’s yearly recaps, multiple writers or producers split points for each song equally (and the dividing of points will lead to occasional ties on rankings).
The full Latin Songwriters and Latin Producers charts, plus those for other genres, can be found on Billboard.com.
The “She Wolf” is on the prowl again. Global superstar Shakira performed to a sold-out crowd at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., on Tuesday (May 13), kicking off the U.S. leg of her successful Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour. As the tour slogan suggests, “women don’t cry,” they dominate stadiums! […]
Benson Boone, Taylor Swift and Teddy Swims took top honors at the 2025 BMI Pop Awards, which were held on Tuesday (May 13) at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. The private event was hosted by Mike O’Neill, BMI president & CEO; Barbara Cane, vp of worldwide creative; Samantha Cox, vp of creative, NY; and Tracie Verlinde, vp.
Boone was presented with the BMI Champion Award by O’Neill, who praised his “boundless talent and creativity.” Previous recipients include Peso Pluma, SZA, Jonathan McReynolds, Khalid, Mark Ronson, Residente, Sebastian Krys, Keith Urban and Lee Thomas Miller.
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After receiving the award, Boone thanked BMI, his team, family and the songwriters in the room, sharing “This is not my award, this is for everyone who has been a part of working on this project. To the songwriters, producers, to my mother and father… to my label to Warner Chappell, to everyone who has played a part… it takes a huge powerhouse of a team to do what I’m trying to do, and I have a wonderful team.”
Boone also paid tribute to his cowriter and collaborator Jack LaFrantz, sharing, “If you’re a songwriter or producing or have anything to do with the creation process of music, you understand how incredible it is when you find someone you really like to work with and work well with. I would just like to give a special thank you to Mr. Jack LaFrantz. Any of these songs that you hear you would not be hearing them without him. If you’re trying to release songs, find people that you love and make it something that you love. I promise you it is the best thing ever when you find gold in the room.”
Boone then took to the stage for an intimate three-song performance backed by piano. He started off with “Slow it Down,” followed by “Drunk in My Mind” and “Beautiful Things.”
In addition to his BMI Champion honor, Boone received two BMI Pop Awards for “Beautiful Things” and “Slow It Down,” with co-writer LaFrantz. The backflipping singer-songwriter received his first BMI Pop award in 2023 for “GHOST TOWN.”
Swift was named BMI’s Pop Songwriter of the Year, which ups her collection of BMI Awards to a staggering 72 – including the BMI President’s Award in 2009 and the BMI Taylor Swift Award in 2016.
This was the second year in a row Swift has been named Pop Songwriter of the Year. She co-wrote seven of the previous year’s most-performed songs: “Don’t Blame Me,” “Down Bad,” “Fortnight,” “I Can Do It with a Broken Heart,” “Is It Over Now?,” “Now That We Don’t Talk,” and “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?.”
BMI’s Pop Song of the Year went to “Lose Control” written and performed by Teddy Swims with BMI co-writers Julian Bunetta, Marco “Infamous” Rodriguez and Mikky Ekko. The smash hit has spent a record-breaking 60 nonconsecutive weeks in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, reaching No. 1 in March 2024.
Universal Music Publishing Group was named Publisher of the Year for representing 28 of the previous year’s most performed songs, including “Agora Hills” performed by Doja Cat, “Espresso” performed by Sabrina Carpenter and “Houdini” by Eminem.
Throughout the ceremony, the 50 most-performed pop songs of the previous year in the U.S. were also awarded. BMI welcomed 61 first-time Pop Award winners, including J. Cole for “All My Life” by Lil Durk, Jesse Fink; Peter Finn for “Stargazing” performed by Myles Smith; Djo for “End of Beginning”; and Nevin Sastry for “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey. This also marked the first BMI Pop award for country superstar Morgan Wallen for “I Had Some Help,” co-written with Charlie Handsome and other first-time BMI Pop winners Hoskins, ERNEST and Chandler Paul Walters.
For a full list of the 2024 honorees, visit the BMI site.
Megan Thee Stallion has shut down rumors she’s been banned from the Met Gala over using her phone from inside the venue at this year’s event. People caught up with the Houston Hottie on Tuesday (May 13), and she dispelled any notion of being banned for posting to social media from the Met Gala, as […]
Celine Dion went back to the start on Tuesday (May 13). The singer sent a surprise video to the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest expressing her gratitude and love for the singers, organizers and viewers during the first semi-final round.
“Dear Eurovision family and contestants. I’d love nothing more than to be with you in Basel right now. Switzerland will forever hold a special place in my heart. It’s a country that believed in me and gave me the chance to be part of something so extraordinary,” Dion, 57, said in the video that was broadcast on a big screen on the main stage on Tuesday night.
“Winning the Eurovision song contest for Switzerland in 1988 was a life-changing moment for me and I’m so thankful for everyone who supported me,” she continued. “Now, 37 years later, it’s so beautiful and emotional to see Switzerland winning and hosting this incredible event once again. To the people of Switzerland, thank you for your love. This night is yours and I hope you feel as proud as I do.”
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Before she became a global phenomenon, Dion won the Eurovision Contest representing Switzerland in 1988 with the song “Ne partez pas sans moi.” Dion, who had already released more than half a dozen French-language albums at that point, issued her first English-language LP, Unison, two years later, in 1990.
Her message also included a French-language portion in which she said, “Music unites us, not only this evening, not only at the moment. Wonderful. It is our strength, our support and our support in the moments where we need it. I love you all, Europe and the rest of the world, of course. Kisses, I love you.”
Among the acts who made it through during Tuesday’s cut-down round are Norway’s Kyle Alessandro, Albania’s Shkodra Elektronike, Sweden’s KAJ, Iceland’s VÆB, the Netherlands’ Claude, Poland’s Justyna Steczkowska, San Marino’s Gabry Ponte, Estonia’s Tommy Cash, Portugal’s NAPA and Ukraine’s Ziferblat, with Azerbaijan, Belgium, Cyprus, Croatia and Slovenia getting eliminated. The next semi-final round will take place on Thursday (May 15) and feature performances from Armenia, Australia, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, Georgia, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Serbia, and the United Kingdom, with the top 10 advancing to the Grand Final.
According to CNN, after the Dion message aired a number of singers from last year’s contest performed a cover of the diva’s winning song from 1988.
The video from Dion was her latest appearance in the wake of a long lay-off due to the singer’s battle with the rare neurological disorder Stiff-Person Syndrome, which caused her to call off all live dates and resulted in a retreat from the spotlight for nearly two years as she battled the debilitating effects of the disorder. She made her triumphant return to the spotlight last summer when she performed at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics.
Check out Dion’s message below.
Rihanna fans who are desperate for new music don’t need to feel blue any longer — the superstar finally has a new song coming out soon, recorded for the Smurfs movie soundtrack.
As revealed Wednesday (May 14) with the release of the film’s new trailer, Ri will drop a track called “Friend of Mine” on Friday (May 16). The teaser also features snippets of the song, which finds the Fenty mogul singing over a dreamy Afrobeats-inspired dance track, “You’re looking like a friend of mine.”
Starring Ri as the voice of Smurfette opposite John Goodman, James Corden, Nick Offerman, Sandra Oh and more, the Smurfs movie is set to hit theaters July 18. In addition to the “Umbrella” singer’s new song, its soundtrack will also feature Tyla as well as a song called “Higher Love” by DJ Khaled, Cardi B and DESI TRILL, which dropped in February.
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The new teaser opens with a shot of Rihanna — aptly wearing a blue jacket and blue beads in her hair — dancing in the studio as she records some of Smurfette’s lines. It then shows a preview of the film’s storyline, with the residents of Smurf Village traveling to the real world to save Papa Smurf (Goodman) after he’s kidnapped by evil wizard Gargamel (J. P. Karliak).
In addition to starring and singing in the film, Ri also served as an executive producer on the latest addition to the Smurfs franchise. While announcing the project back in 2023 at that year’s CinemaCon alongside Paramount and Nickelodeon, the musician — who was pregnant with second son Riot Rose at the time — said, “I get to show up in my PJs in my third trimester … I hope this gives me cool points with my kids one day.”
“Friend of Mine” will mark Ri’s first release since 2022’s “Lift Me Up” from the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack. She hasn’t dropped an album since 2016’s Anti, which spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
The new trailer comes a week after Ri attended the Met Gala with partner A$AP Rocky, who was one of the event’s co-chairs this year. On the red carpet, she showed off her baby bump, revealing that she’s expecting her third child with the rapper.
And though fans have been waiting for a new Rihanna album for nine years at this point, the musician says that her latest pregnancy isn’t going to stop her from working on Anti‘s follow-up. “Noooooo!” she told Entertainment Tonight when asked whether that would be the case on the Met red carpet May 5. “Maybe a couple videos! I can still sing!”
Watch the new Smurfs trailer and listen for snippets of Ri’s new song “Friend of Mine” below.
On “Loosies With Matches,” the ninth track off Millyz’ latest project Blanco 7, the rapper at one point abruptly stops rapping to just speak his mind to his supporters.
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“You gotta have courage just walkin’ out the door in the mornin’, because you know dudes will kill you for this dream you’re trying to maintain,” he says. “That same success you’re chasing after, someone will murder you for it.”
I ask Millyz about those bars because last Saturday, the Cambridge-bred spitter had more eyes on him than ever before: During what became a record-breaking headlining night at MGM Music Hall near Boston’s Fenway Park, Millyz captivated the sold-out crowd alongside Skrilla and Benny The Butcher. With MGM’s 5,000-plus seats all filled, Millyz estimates it might be the most tickets a Boston rapper has ever sold for one show in their home city. The colossal experience obviously put a battery in Millyz back, but he admits the monumental nature of it was at times “spooky,” especially because there are no Boston-area rappers doing it at his level.
“It’s not the easiest to come home sometimes, because of the level of misunderstanding,” Millyz says. “A lot of people are just really out of the loop when it comes to this music thing. It’s not the same level of understanding as people in New York have, because they’ve seen people fly. Out here there’s almost a sense of…” He pauses for a moment, choosing his words carefully: “Like it’s almost this impossible thing that you did, and they kinda wanna deny that.”
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Billboard chats with Millyz about his record-breaking night, his new album and the Celtics rough season below.
How we feelin’ man? The Celtics aren’t doing so great. Jayson Tatum is down with an achilles tear looks like. What are your thoughts on the Celts right now?
I’m pretty devastated, you know? I’m also somebody who — I was able to witness a championship, man. I caught the confetti. Nipsey Hussle’s got a line where he says, “Even if it’s only temporary, at least we had the s—t.” I don’t think that it’s all over, but it’s definitely a sad day to see Tatum go out with a non-contact injury.
What were your thoughts when you saw it happen?
It was bad to be going down 3-1 to the Knicks regardless. So it just put everything in perspective on how much that didn’t even matter, compared to Tatum getting injured. I think it would be amazing if we could just beat the Knicks without Tatum. I don’t think we can win a championship without him. Hopefully, we could, you never know, but it would be cool to beat the Knicks in a couple more games just to stress out the fanbase.
How are you feeling about the reception to Blanco 7 so far?
I feel great about it, it’s something I wanna stay on and sink my teeth into. Projects come and go so fast nowadays. I’m fully intending to do it the way that they used to back in the day, when they would drop the album and then push singles off the album. That’s my goal with this. I wanna see if I could replicate that formula.
Take me a bit more through the Blanco mindset versus the Katrina’s Son or Holy Water mindset. When did you know you were making a Blanco record?
I kinda gotta build the foundation first, it’s like building a house. So I gotta have 3-4 foundational records, and I think one was “I Understand” with NoCap, “Dope Sellers” with East and a few others and that’s when I knew I gotta go full throttle with this thing.
You just came off a historic show in your hometown. Before the show even happened, when did you decide you wanted to pursue MGM Fenway as a possible venue? Was it nerve-racking?
I went back and forth on whether I should do House of Blues again or the MGM. The number [of seats] they told me for the MGM was so fundamentally shocking when I first heard it compared to House of Blues. House of Blues is like 2,500 and then MGM is 5,700. It’s a big jump. The MGM is spooky because just the floor holds the whole capacity for the House of Blues. So that was a little scary for me, but I just had to commit to it after a certain point.
I study Boston history as far as Boston rap, and there’s never been a Boston rapper that’s sold more than 2,600 in the Boston area, so I knew as far as we passed that 2,600 mark I knew we were in uncharted territory. It was very Hail Mary-ish, and the way ticket sales are going these days, people are buying closer to the actual show now because of how the economy is, so that wasn’t the most comforting feeling.
You’re hands down the most popular rapper to emerge out of Cambridge and Boston in years. What do you think it is about the Cambridge and Boston rap scene? Why do you think it’s so hard for rappers to break out into the mainstream from those cities?
I actually think there’s not enough examples. When you’re in these other cities, there are people that blew up, that you can point to and it’s tangible, it’s there, it’s like, “Look at this guy down the street he blew up.” Even if you’re a pessimist, you could still see the examples of people that took it to another level. When it comes to Boston, because there’s no example for 30 something years, people start to think it can only be one person. That there’s gotta be the one savior. Other cities don’t look at it like that. They have more of a casual mindset towards artists blowing up compared to here. We just have nothing to look at. I had to really go to New York and look at rappers that were already lit.
Is that what inspired your move to New York early on in your career?
Nah, for sure. Then you get around the circles and you realize there’s kind of a formula to this thing.
How does it feel knowing you might be that example for Boston?
I just hope people can see it and reverse engineer what I did as much as possible, but I do try to bring people around to see it. I try to show them this s—t in all its glory. Anything I’m doing when I know I’m doing it on a grand scale, and I’m not even a mainstream artist, but I am somebody who’s made this my profession. So I try to bring people around just so they can witness and have a point of reference now.
That’s important because like you said those superstar examples haven’t been around. I imagine certain people may have less tact when approaching you though.
Yeah, for real. People don’t really know how to deal with artists and it kinda becomes mythical. I’m somebody who talks to anybody, I have a lot of relationships. If you’re from Massachusetts, it’s not too hard to know somebody who actually knows me, but that word of mouth could go either way. But on the other spectrum of it, it’s super love!… So its polarizing.
When you were backstage, what was it like to feel all that energy at MGM?
I didn’t know it was packed out like that. I was just hoping the floor was packed, but I was [dealing] with that hometown s—t. You start getting all those calls about people not gettin’ in, “My girl’s family can’t get in,” little s—t like that. So I was going through those annoying things all the way up until showtime, but once I walked out I was like, “Oh, we did it,” You know?
What song really set the fans off?
A lot of my catalog went well, but of course “Risk Takers” went crazy. It was cool to see songs like “Swim” and “High Beams” and some of my singing songs go crazy. There was a lot of girls up front, so the ratio keeps getting better at my shows. I strive to have it to have it [70 percent] girls one day, and I’m seeing that shift, so it’s a beautiful thing.
When did you learn it was a record-breaking show?
I knew just optically just seeing it, cause like I said I studied this Boston rap s—t. There’s three rappers that sold out the House of Blues. Joyner [Lucas] has done bigger numbers in the 508, but just as far as a kid from the 617 born in a Boston hospital and raised in this area it’s the biggest in the actual city. It feels dope.
What’s next for you? Where does Millyz go from here?
Just more goals that seem hard to accomplish and scratching them off the list.