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LeBron James just shared his excitement for Kendrick Lamar‘s fast-approaching Super Bowl Halftime Show performance with a post on Instagram — something that might be a little pointed considering that, hours before, Drake had made headlines for dissing the basketball star.
Reposting an NFL video of the Compton rapper’s performance at Dr. Dre’s halftime exhibition in 2022 — “Ready to see @kendricklamar run it back,” the league wrote in its caption — James wrote Wednesday (Feb. 5), “HE GONE KILL THAT [S–T]!!!!”
“CAN’T WAIT *Bart Scott voice,” the Los Angeles Lakers power forward added on his Story.
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James’ show of support for Lamar comes shortly after Drizzy switched around one of his lyrics at his Wednesday concert in Australia, seemingly to throw shade at the athlete. Instead of performing his Scorpion track “Nonstop” as written — “How I go from 6 to 23 like I’m LeBron?” — Drake rapped for the crowd, “How I go from 6 to 23 but not LeBron, man.”
The NBA star is believed to be someone who, in Drake’s eyes, might have turned on the Toronto musician at the height of his feud with Lamar last year. James attended Dot’s Juneteenth Pop Out concert last year and rapped along to songs such as “Euphoria” and “Not Like Us,” both of which are famously diss tracks dragging the “God’s Plan” rapper (the latter being so personally upsetting to Drake, his legal team is suing Universal Music Group on accusations of defamation which the label has vehemently denied).
On his 2025 freestyle “Fighting Irish,” Drake addressed the people he thinks switched sides on him, spitting, “The world fell in love with the gimmicks, even my brothers got tickets, seemed like they loved every minute/ Just know the s–t is personal to us and wasn’t just business/ Analyzing behavioral patterns is somewhat suspicious.”
Lamar is now just three days away from taking the stage between halves at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, where the Kansas City Chiefs are gearing up to play the Philadelphia Eagles for the LIX Lombardi Trophy. In January, the “DNA” artist announced that frequent collaborator — and soon-to-be tourmate — SZA, will join him for the highly anticipated performance.
Dot is also fresh off of big wins the 2025 Grammys Sunday (Feb. 2), with “Not Like Us” taking home both song and record of the year.
Both Lil Wayne and Drake earn their first No. 1s on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart as Lil Wayne’s “She Will,” which features Drake, jumps 4-1 on the Feb. 8-dated tally.
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 accumulated Jan. 27-Feb. 2. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
“She Will,” which was originally released in 2011 on Lil Wayne’s album Tha Carter IV, has exceled on TikTok thanks to a dance trend that features creators performing leg-shaking moves, often up against a wall of some sort.
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Usages of the song generally highlight the “Ladies and gentlemen, Drizzy” lyric before the outro, though the most utilized sound then drops out the vocals in favor of the synth-led instrumental.
Drake previously reached No. 2 on the chart twice: on his “IDGAF” featuring Yeat in 2023, and on the Sexyy Red collaboration “U My Everything” last year. As for Lil Wayne, “She Will” is his second top 10, following the No. 9 peak of Tyler, the Creator’s “Sticky,” on which he’s featured alongside GloRilla and Sexyy Red.
“She Will” debuted and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 2011. In the Billboard tracking week ending Jan. 30, the song earned 5.4 million official U.S. streams, up 30%, according to Luminate.
Lil Wayne and Drake’s coronation isn’t the only thing happening in the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s top 10 this week. Former No. 1 Stepz’s “Rock” rebounds 8-2, while 5 Seconds of Summer’s “She Looks So Perfect” is the week’s top debut at No. 3.
“She Looks So Perfect,” which peaked at No. 24 on the Hot 100 in 2014 as 5 Seconds of Summer’s breakout song, benefits from a TikTok trend in which users respond to the hypothetical compliment “you’re so funny,” often with the creator responding by talking about trauma that made them that way – so much so that 5 Seconds of Summer’s Michael Clifford reacted to the trend with a video captioned, “’you’re so funny’ thanks our song is now the theme song for trauma bonding.”
The song sports a 31% gain in the week ending Jan. 30 to 1.4 million streams.
Former No. 1 “Champagne Coast” by Blood Orange also returns to the top five, leaping 7-4, while 7dnight’s “Khong Sao Ca” vaults 24-5 in its second week on the chart. Featured on the Vietnamese music competition show Rap Viet and released in November 2024, “Khong Sao Ca” rises via a dance trend, while some top-performing clips also highlight pets and stuffed animals.
Earth, Wind & Fire’s classic “Let’s Groove” shoots 11-6, marking the group’s second top 10 after “September” in 2023. As the title and song’s general vibe suggests, its rise is made up mostly of dance videos, some following a specific trend and others simply featuring the dancer showing off their best moves.
“Let’s Groove” peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100 in 1981 and accumulated 2.3 million streams in the latest tracking period, up 17%.
The other newcomer to the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s top 10 is Fetty Wap’s “Again,” which debuts at No. 8 a week after his “Jimmy Choo” appeared on the ranking at No. 9. Many of the videos reference listening to the song on JBL speakers and setting it to TV and movie scenes, alongside dances, lip-synchs and more.
“Again,” which peaked at No. 33 on the Hot 100 in 2015, is up 250% in streams to 4.8 million in the Jan. 24-30 tracking week.
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.
Most musician biopics follow a familiar arc — a rise and fall, fueled by the childhood trauma behind it all, then a third-act redemption tied to a career peak. The rise usually involves a montage of tour buses and adoring audiences, the fall a montage of drug use and mistreatment of friends or colleagues. By 2007, the formula was so well established that it inspired the parody Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. More recently, Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman, imaginative as they were, leaned on some of the same tropes.
As the producers behind the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown developed the project, they faced the challenge of making a film that didn’t rely on those plot points, about an iconic singer-songwriter who seldom reveals much. Dylan never derailed his career with a debilitating drug problem (his 1966 tour was fueled by amphetamines, by many accounts, and a motorcycle accident that summer gave him the chance to take some time off), and his career doesn’t have a clear arc so much as a series of sudden left turns. He established himself as a folk singer, then left that scene behind to become a rock star — then veered into country, made an album about his divorce and recorded three gospel albums as a born-again Christian, all in the first two decades of a career that has lasted more than six. It’s not an easy story to make into a film, let alone one with commercial appeal.
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The film works, though. As of the first week of February, the movie has grossed more than $67 million in the U.S. and more than another $20 million abroad, according to Box Office Mojo, and it’s already one of the 10 most successful music biopics in history. It has also received critical acclaim, and numerous Academy Award nominations — including for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (for Timothée Chalamet as Dylan), Best Supporting Actress (for Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez), and Best Supporting Actor (for Edward Norton as a note-perfect Pete Seeger). Just as important for Dylan and the companies that have the rights to his music — Universal Music Group owns his publishing, Sony Music his recordings — the film has introduced both his story and his music to a younger generation.
From the beginning, the idea behind the film was to focus on a few years of Dylan’s life, from his 1961 arrival in New York to the summer of 1965, when he “went electric” by performing live with a rock band at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Dylan’s company had been developing a project set at this time, and in 2016 it optioned the rights to the Elijah Wald book Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties, which HBO planned to develop into a film. Jack Cocks, who is credited with co-writing the screenplay to A Complete Unknown, wrote a script, but the project never moved forward.
A few years later, Alex Heineman asked his friend and fellow film producer Fred Berger if he would be interested in making some kind of Dylan biopic. “I asked, ‘How did you get the rights?’” Berger remembers. “And he said, ‘I don’t have them.’” The two went to Dylan’s management, which told them that HBO had the rights to another project.
Meanwhile, Berger and Heineman reached out to Chalamet, who was interested in playing Dylan. When the rights to the project became available in 2019, it ended up at Searchlight Pictures, with James Mangold directing — but it didn’t start shooting for another few years. “We got Searchlight and then we got Jim [Mangold], and then we got COVID,” says a source close to Dylan. After that came the writer’s strike.
By then, Mangold, along with Berger and Heineman and Dylan’s team, had the story, as well as an approach. “James Mangold and I and the other producers have a similar feeling about biopics, which is that a cradle-to-grave approach is an expanded Wikipedia page,” Berger says. (Mangold shares a co-writing credit with Cocks.) The director “focused on a narrow period of time” that offered a compelling story to make a larger point about Dylan and what drives him.
In his book, Wald shows that Dylan’s decision to go electric wasn’t just a matter of instrumentation but of leaving the folk scene, with its focus on authenticity and leftist politics, for a rock band and a style that involved more leather jackets than workwear. The original approach for the movie would have spent more time on that political context but the film casts the conflict in more personal terms: Dylan needs to turn away from familial figures, including Pete Seeger, in order to follow his muse. Mangold “approaches story from character,” Berger says. “It’s not about acoustic versus electric — it’s about the family that lifted him up and how those relationships are on the line.”
The stakes are personal, in other words, so A Complete Unknown lacks a rousing resolution, as well as rousing music to accompany it. (The last song Dylan is seen playing in the film is the same song that ended his actual Newport set, “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” an acoustic kiss-off to a scene he had outgrown.) Afterward, Dylan seems to be contemplating his next move, rather than rejoicing in triumph, as Queen is seen doing in Bohemian Rhapsody after the scene set at its Live Aid performance.
It’s hard to know what the success of A Complete Unknown might mean for future music films, but it certainly opens up more possibilities. Coincidentally, one of the next rock biopics to come out will be Deliver Me from Nowhere, a movie about Bruce Springsteen essentially going acoustic, on his 1982 album Nebraska. (It’s Springsteen’s darkest and least commercial album, so don’t expect anthemic music there, either.) It will be interesting to see how that does — and what other stories will follow it to the big screen.
GELO— yes, former NBA G-League hooper and middle Ball brother, LiAngelo Ball — delivered rap’s first hit of 2025 with “Tweaker.” Imagine going back in time and uttering that sentence to your cousin at Thanksgiving dinner a few months ago?
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“Definitely caught me off-guard for sure, it’s crazy,” GELO tells Billboard of his meteoric rise to rap stardom. “I’m here for it. I knew something was gon’ happen. I’m ready to get stuff moving now.”
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Equal parts inspired by the Big Tymers and YoungBoy Never Broke Again, “Tweaker” began to take shape about three weeks before the world would be swerving and bending that corner when the 26-year-old penned the track in his garage in December.
“Tweaker” ended up being one of four tracks he recorded in the session, but he bumped his eventual breakout hit the entire ride back home before sending it to his brothers Lonzo and LaMelo for approval. “At the end of that s–t, I knew that s–t was gonna be great,” GELO says like it was all part of his masterplan.
Hype for “Tweaker” exploded in late December following a preview on popular streamer N3on’s platform, which spawned a plethora of 2000s-themed memes and others crowning the snippet as a banger while keeping GELO’s earworm of a hook on a loop.
It’s also a sign of the times and music landscape in 2025 with streamers serving as powerful newschool gatekeepers with more cultural currency than radio staples like Hot 97.
GELO played into the nostalgia factor and had “Tweaker” premiere on WorldStarHipHop — a move straight out of the 2011 playbook along with it landing on streaming services on Jan. 3. The track dominated social media conversation and infiltrated NBA and NFL locker rooms, who instructed the in-house DJ to “Put that GELO on!”
“Tweaker” debuted at No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 and a month later is holding strong in the top 50. It also remains at No. 3 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50. GELO didn’t waste any time parlaying his momentum into a record deal with Def Jam, which was first reported by ESPN‘s Shams Charania on Jan. 13 — pointing to his crossover pop culture impact.
For his next move, GELO heads to New Orleans to play one-on-one with Lil Wayne for the anticipated “Tweaker” remix, which arrives on Friday (Feb. 7). “That’s like hooping with [Michael] Jordan,” says GELO. “He back on that Dedication type of sound. That boy was flowing.”
Learn more about our hip-hop R&B Rookie of the Month for February’s triple-double to start 2025 in our interview as we touch on all things “Tweaker,” his father LaVar’s reaction to his rap career, plans going forward and much more.
Billboard: Can you believe this right now? Is this crazy? First press run diving into it and a major hit to start the year.
GELO: Yeah, I signed a deal and I have music since a long time ago. I’ve been writing new stuff so I got a lot of stuff to put out. I think I could blow up soon. We’ll see.
Growing up, who were some of your favorite rappers?
I always listened to YoungBoy growing up, of course. DMX, 50 Cent, Ludacris, Nelly – my dad used to play all them. Ice Cube.
Do you remember your first time writing raps?
I didn’t record nothing until I was 18, 19. Before that, I wrote my first rap in the 3rd grade in my little notebook. That s–t was hard. I had some bars in there about Vince Carter.
Did you keep writing? Was that a consistent exercise?
It was all for fun. I’d be with my cousins, my brothers – we’d always rap battle and freestyle and s–t. I was practicing without even noticing for real. Random beats, we’d all just hop in on.
“Tweaker” going crazy out here. Walk me through how this came together… Paint that whole picture for us.
I always get a little itch to write. If I feel like that I’ma go make some songs. I wrote it in the garage and then I got to thinking and writing and s–t and that’s what I came up with. I was like, “Wow.” I played it all the way home I’m like, “This one hard!”
Does Lonzo or LaMelo hear it?
I sent it to Melo, Zo and two of my friends. I don’t be spreading like that. I do that with all my music. I got other songs I like more than “Tweaker.” It’s coming.
How long before we heard it did you write and record it?
I wrote that like three weeks [before]. That was one of my fresh songs. I made four songs that day. I think they all gon’ do some damage.
Where’d you find the beat?
My boy found it he lives back home by Chino Hills. His name’s Pat and he searched up all the beats and stuff and he’ll link with the producers and sent it my way. They’ll send me a pack and I’ll listen to 10 beats or so and I’ll pick three great ones.
Obviously, everyone’s saying it has this 2000s feel to it. Did you feel that and were you on that type of vibe?
The 2000s didn’t cross my mind at all. I was just in the garage like, “This s–t hard.” How I make music I’ll do a little melody in my head at first. I’ll freestyle some s–t.
So that’s how the chorus came together?
All the hooks and stuff I always hum something in my head.
When did you notice “Tweaker” started to pick up steam on social media? Like we got something going crazy out here and a legit hit.
Really after the day I went on NEON’s stream. My s–t was blowing up. My phone was going crazy. NEON hit me like, “Bro, your song going crazy.” I’m like, “Iight gang.” I’ma tap in with him down the line. He cool. That was random as hell. We didn’t plan none of that. He was like, “I’m in L.A.” I’m like, “Alright, I’ll pull up on you.” I was trying to do a stream for real.
That’s the new cable TV in a way. I love that you intentionally premiered it on WorldStarHipHop.
Oh yeah, that was intentional. That’s what I grew up on too. I was like, “Let me drop my s–t on WorldStar and see what happens.” I just let them rock with it. I hit them up directly.
What was LaVar’s first reaction to hearing [“Tweaker”]?
He asked me, “How’d you come up with that s–t, man? I guess all them times they called home saying you was rapping in class, I guess that s–t paid off!” He’s happy.
Are you bouncing ideas off Lonzo?
Nah, I write all my own music, he writes his. I don’t know how it said he wrote it on there. I don’t know. I’m not about to be like, “I wrote it!” I don’t care for real. I be writing my own music.
It was dope to see it become a locker-room anthem for the Cavs, Damian Lillard and the Detroit Lions.
I love that my music spread to the sports world because what I grew up in. I feel like that’s my people whoever play the song. I feel like I’m putting on for the sports for real.
Do you have any favorite memes or videos that came about?
I reposted one of the AND-1 videos. He was doing the AND-1 mixtape like, “How the Gelo got me feeling.” On a bigger scale, when Darius Garland played my shit I was like, “Yeah, that’s hard.” I’ve seen bro workout and he’s a cool dude. The Lions were like, “Put that Gelo on!” Everybody be commenting that now.
“Tweaker” debuted at No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100. What was your initial reaction to seeing you got a top 40 hit out here?
That’s hard. I’m proud, but personally I feel like I could get on there a lot. I got music, bro. I listen to my own music and I sent it to my homies and the people I send it to they be like, “This is all I be listening to for real.” I feel good about it and I’m ready to see what happens.
“Tweaker” remix on the way. What we got coming on there?
We got Lil Wayne getting on there. The legend, GOAT. You know I had to for real.
How was connecting with him and what was his reception to the record?
I didn’t connect with him until my manager’s and them showed me his song. I hit him up on the Gram like, “Your verse is hard as hell. That’s what we was missing on our s–t.” He was a cool dude. He was like, “I hope you mess with the verse.” That verse is tough. Watch out ya’ll gon’ see?
How quick was the label process when you went to take meetings? Why’d you end up choosing Def Jam?
My guys DMO and Tony helped me out with that. They set up some meetings with all the main labels and we took em and had to feel everybody out. They just had the best deal. Def Jam was the most excited. They had the best deal for real. They wasn’t just talking. They was ready to cooperate with us. We was telling them what we expect, what we need and what we want and they was like, “Yeah, that’s smooth.” Giving us feedback that we was rocking with. They put it together nice. That’s love right there.
What’s next music-wise for you? Do you have another one in the tuck you’re going with?
I’ma follow-up with “Can You Please?” A little different – still could rock to it.
Do you have plans for an album?
Yeah, for sure. Be expecting an album soon. I got some songs to put together for y’all.
How much percent of that do you have done?
Me, personally, I feel like I’m done. I gotta make three more songs. I gotta make songs for fun right now. I could put out an album. It’s not for fun, it’s very official. I could put an album together right now, but I still want to touch up some things, put some new songs, get some features going.
Do you feel any pressure to follow-up “Tweaker” with another hit?
I like some of my songs better than “Tweaker.” I don’t think so. I think y’all gonna like ‘em more too.
Performing at Rolling Loud – that’s cool to see you on there. Have been you practicing?
I don’t know exactly what I’m doing, but they got me practicing. I do a little stage practice. I’ll be ready. I’m looking forward to that.
Do you have a dream collaboration?
I would like to do a tape with YoungBoy [Never Broke Again]. A little collab tape. 10 songs or some s–t. Bangers though — I think I could hold my own with him.
Do you think fame prepared you for stardom in a way?
Yeah, it helped a lot. Since babies, my pops always had us in the spotlight — like, we flexing in front of 30 people and s–t. “Show em your muscles!” I just never been shy like that. You know the little class presentations people be nervous? I never felt that — I just be chatting. That’s how I came up. It doesn’t feel new for real.
You performed at the Detroit Lions game. Talk to me about that experience.
That was crazy. 70,000 right there, first performance. I just wanted to see what it was about for real going into an NFL stadium. It was a great experience. It was different for me. If I could touch some s–t up, I’ll give myself a seven out of 10. Fans be like that’s a 10 but I know I could do better. Great start I feel like. Shout-out to the Lions.
I saw Cam’ron try to blame you for the loss for the Lions.
I’m not hearing that. I came to give them love. I should be mad, y’all lost on my time. I’m just trying to turn the fans up.
Is there a reality show coming up?
Yeah, I think so. I think it’s in motion right now. We’ll see.
What was your first tattoo?
My chest piece. That s–t hurt, bro. I was about to stop mid-tatt. I said, “Ay bro, hold on.” Had to get a little break. I finished it up. I always loved tats though. In second grade I used to draw a lot. 50 Cent on one of his covers had all the tats on his back. The “Southside” 50. I was like, “That’s hard.” I’ma get tatted when I get grown.
Did you put any pressure on yourself after seeing LaMelo doing his thing and Lonzo doing his thing?
Nah, I never put no pressure on myself. Even growing up – even if something was terrible I always told myself I’d never be regular, for real. I always knew I was gonna get [millions] and be big or something. I can’t just sit down.
If somebody asked you for advice, what do you think is the best way for kids to get to the NBA?
If you wanna make the league go to AAU and play up a lot of ages. When I was 12 I was playing 16 anf 18 year olds. It’s what it takes. You might get your a– whooped first two or three games but you gon learn to adapt and when you play kids your age it’s over. That’s the base of things. The rest it don’t matter what school you go to. Just make sure you tap into college I feel like it would help with the NIL and all that. There’s the recipe.
What’s your main goal for 2025?
Probably to have the biggest album out and be one of the biggest rappers. The top rapper. Tap into that new stuff.
A compilation of previously unreleased songs benefitting Los Angeles wildfire relief efforts, Los Angeles Rising, was released on Thursday morning (Feb. 6) exclusively on Bandcamp. The 16-track compilation pulled together by Bauhaus/Love and Rockets drummer Kevin Haskins and producer Nick Launay (Nick Cave, Yeah Yeah Yeahs), features songs by PJ Harvey, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Gary Numan, Primal Scream, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea and John Frusciante, Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Devo and U.S. Girls, among others.
“As the wildfires were raging and destroying thousands of homes around Los Angeles, both my neighbourhood and Nick’s were instructed to evacuate,” wrote Haskins in a statement announcing the comp whose proceeds will go to the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund. “But we were the lucky ones. The fire threatening our homes and recording studios was thankfully extinguished by firefighters just minutes away, but countless musicians and friends lost everything.”
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The collection is only available by purchasing a download on Bandcamp, with previews of the songs available here now.
“This harrowing experience and witnessing the monumental destruction of entire communities, inspired Nick and I to team up to create a compilation album to raise money for the less fortunate,” Haskins added. “We reached out to our musician friends for unreleased recorded gems and the response was incredible! PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker, Primal Scream, Gary Numan and Devo are just some of the artists that rushed in to help.”
The album is just the latest in a series of charitable efforts to help out Angelenos impacted by last month’s devastating wildfires, which resulted in at least 29 death and the destruction of 16,000 homes and structures. Earlier this week, organizers said the recent FireAid all-star benefit show raised an estimated $100 million, while the Recording Academy and MusiCares’ said they raised $24 million for fire relief over Grammy weekend.
Check out the track listing for Los Angeles Rising below:
1) PJ Harvey with Danni Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans – “The Red River”
2) Grinderman – “Worm Tamer” (LaunayVauz remix)
3) Gary Numan and Titan – “Dark Rain”
4) Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Turn Into Redux”
5) Band Of Skulls – “Cold Cold Sweat” (LaunayVauz remix)
6) Jarvis Cocker – “California Dreamin’”
7) Primal Scream – “False Flags” (Orchestral version)
8) Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – “Michelangelo”
9) Haskins, Vandermolen and Lohner – “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything”
10) Danny Elfman – “Monkeys On The Loose” (LA Rising version)
11) Devo – “Shoulda Said Yes”
12) Siobhan Fahey and Titan – “Deep In LA”
13) CRX – “Blip On The Radar”
14) David J – “No New Tale To Tell” (Original demo version)
15) Flea, Frusciante, Haskins and DeAngelis – “A System For Shutting Everything Out”
16) U.S. Girls – “Four American Dollars” (Demo version)
“But who are you? That was the question I kept getting while talking to people around me about what was next. I hated that question, largely because I couldn’t grasp it. I’m like, the f–k you mean?” … The more I got that question, the more I realized I was a man trapped in my own public image, that transition from being a teenager to an adult.”
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That frank excerpt about feeling boxed in is just one example of the many intriguing moments that can be heard on the latest Audible Original debuting today (Feb. 6): Usher’s Words + Music installment, The Last Showman. The project, written and produced by Usher and journalist/author Gerrick Kennedy, finds the eight-time Grammy winner in deep personal and professional introspection as he reflects on the past, present and future of his 30-year R&B/pop career.
Usher also delves further into detailing the process behind creating and writing one of his game-changing and record-breaking career hallmarks, 2004’s Confessions album. In addition, the Audible Original illuminates Usher’s reflections by featuring live excerpts of classic gems from his vast catalog, including “Burn”, “Confessions Pt. II”, “Can U Handle It?” and “Bad Girl.”
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“Confessions, right? It started exactly like that, sitting around with my guys and confessing the things that we were going through,” recalls Usher in part during another revealing excerpt. “The studio was a safe place for us to just lay out, you know, the s–t that we were doing or going through or experiencing; no pretense, no judgment, just real talk. We didn’t go to the studio with our minds on creating a record that day. Nope. We spent two months working talking, chilling, no women, but just having real conversations about real life, just brutal honesty from a male’s perspective. And for that reason, I called the project real talk.”
With Audible Original’s The Last Showman, Usher adds his own volume to the popular Words + Music series, whose prior releases feature John Legend, Snoop Dogg, Sting, Smokey Robinson, Mariah Carey, Common and Sheryl Crow, among others. In fact, it was listening to Snoop Dogg’s installment and how listeners responded to it that convinced Usher to set his own project in motion.
That’s one of the insights Usher shared with Billboard during a recent Zoom interview ahead of today’s debut of the Audible Original, The Last Showman. Here are several soundbites from that chat with Usher, who begins the European leg of his Past Present Future tour with an eight-date sold-out run at London’s The O2 on March 29.
Usher
Audible
On writing and producing The Last Showman: Within the hectic schedule that I had, it was definitely a feat but one worthwhile. Audible gives you the perspective of being able to share nuances because it’s your voice. Writing a book be great; I’m going to do that in the future. But this is a step in the direction of beginning to talk about things that are personal to me. Creating a narrative or a voice in this space was part of the reason I did it. I’d heard about Snoop’s when he did it and how people responded to it.
And we’d been trying our hardest to find the best way to not necessarily reimagine but just give a different perspective of Confessions. What are other nuanced things you can offer that give people perspective? Like what did happen? Better yet, what didn’t happen? What didn’t happen was having a camera available; that wasn’t the culture of that time. Imagine if I’d had a camera set up, walking through all of the emotions and the nature of what we were talking about; where inspiration for the songs came from and even what goes into being a showman within that process of my life. I didn’t get a chance to do that.
So this gave me an opportunity to take myself and my fans back to where I was mentally and creatively [in my 20s] while making Confessions. It gives nuance to who I am, how I think and what makes me who I am as a showman.
How the Last Showman title originated: Gerrick and I worked primarily over last summer, creating the project through a series of conversations and interviews around certain things. Then we went through our notes and made certain they were in my voice and I recorded it. That gave me the freedom to really freelance and create nuances on top of what we wrote based on our initial interviews. And from that, we both landed on this as a title that’s necessary.
Artist development is slowly but surely becoming less of a priority. But when you hear this [project], it leads you to understand that if you want to be an artist like this artist, you’re going to have to do some work that’s different than what you normally would do with the intention of becoming a sustainable artist forever. I’m hoping that’s the inspiration that people take away from this. The title in itself is hopefully going to instigate the conversation of what it is to be a showman, and maybe even pose a question: Are you the last showman — and the last showman in comparison to what? So all of those things are kind of like the catch, the hook. You’ve got to have a hook that’s going to get people’s attention. But my intention is not just about that. It’s about making people understand the importance of artist development.
His own takeaway from the experience: I really put my heart into this opportunity. I think music at this point sells everything but itself. So this does help people have a perspective, a different viewpoint, about music and the creation of it. I want people to look at Audible in that way; I want other artists to understand the value of doing this. I’ve been very fortunate to have had a life and a whole host of experiences that have helped me be the artist I am. I’m just trying to offer that back to the people who care to listen.
The trailer for the next Smurfs movie has dropped, featuring Rihanna making her debut as Smurfette and a new song from Desi Trill featuring Cardi B, DJ Khaled, Natania and Subhi.
The Fenty mogul personally introduces the new trailer, which went live Thursday (Feb. 6), waving to the camera before she’s joined by a few of the film’s famous blue miniatures on screen. “Hey, everyone!” she says with a smile. “I’m Rihanna, and I play Smurfette in the new Smurfs movie, and I can’t wait for you all to see it this summer.”
The trailer then begins with Ri’s character — self-identifying as “the coolest Smurf in the whole village” — giving viewers a guide through Smurf Village, where “every day is a party.” But the colony’s dance party to Rihanna’s own “Don’t Stop the Music” is cut short when Papa Smurf is abducted by what looks like a UFO, after which Smurfette and her friends must travel to the human world to save him.
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As clips of the Smurfs’ adventures unfold, viewers are treated to snippets of what sounds like the “Umbrella” singer’s voice covering Belinda Carlisle’s 1987 hit “Heaven Is a Place on Earth.” They also get a taste of “Higher Love,” the new Desi Trill song featuring Cardi’s distinct voice at the end.
Also starring James Corden, Nick Offerman, JP Karliak, Dan Levy, Amy Sedaris, Natasha Lyonne, Sandra Oh, Octavia Spencer, Nick Kroll, Hannah Waddingham, Alex Winter, Maya Erskine, Billie Lourd, Xolo Maridueña, Kurt Russell and John Goodman, Smurfs is set to hit theaters July 18. The trailer comes nearly two years after the Paramount and Nickelodeon joint venture was first announced at 2023’s CinemaCon, where Rihanna — who also serves as a producer on the film alongside Jay Brown, Ty Ty Smith and Ryan Harris — was on hand to share the news. “I hope this gives me cool points with my kids one day,” she joked at the time.
Rihanna first teased that the trailer was coming the day prior to its release. Sharing a clip of Smurf Village on her socials, she wrote coyly, “In my blue era.”
Watch the new Smurfs trailer above.
It’s been 489 days since Drake said he was planning to take a break from music “for a little bit” to focus on his health. And though he hasn’t released a solo album since October 2023’s For All the Dogs — followed by August 2024’s 100 Gigs EP — his time out turned out to be a working vacation thanks to last year’s Kendrick Lamar beef, which gave us “First Person Shooter,” “Push Ups,” “Taylor Made Freestyle,” “Family Matters” and “The Heart Pt. 6.”
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Now, in the midst of his Anita Max Win tour in Australia, Drizzy is hinting at his next solo venture. “I got a new album coming out on Valentine’s Day with PARTYNEXTDOOR. It’s called $ome $exy $ongs 4 U,” Drake said on Wednesday night (Feb. 5) during his second gig at RAC Arena in Perth according to video of the moment. “And you know, eventually when the time is right, Drizzy Drake alone by himself is gonna have to have a one-on-one talk to y’all.”
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The announcement of the as-yet-untitled album — whose release date is also not yet announced — was accompanied by shouts of approval from the crowd, as Drake added, “When the time is right, I’ll be back with another album, a one-on-one conversation with y’all that you need to hear.”
The talk of a new album was news to the fans, coming more than nine months after Kendrick scored a by-almost-all-accounts knockout blow in the beef with the lacerating “Not Like Us.” Drake went mostly radio silence after that song dropped last May, but at Tuesday’s kick-off of the Australian tour the 6 God promised fans, “The year is now 2025, and Drizzy Drake is very much still alive.”
He proved it on Monday with the surprise release of a trailer for the upcoming PND joint album, less than 24 hours after Lamar’s devastating diss track won five Grammy Awards. “$OME $EXY $ONGS 4 U FEBRUARY 14,” Drake captioned the clip featuring an untitled, moody PartyNextDoor snippet from the album. The trailer also featured Drake seemingly in a trance while chilling in the corner of a neon-lit club, staring into space surrounded by chatty women completely ignoring him.
The Anita Max Win Tour will head to Melbourne on Super bowl Sunday — when it’s expected that K-Dot will perform “Not Like Us” during his halftime show for the biggest TV audience of the year — for the first of four gigs at Rod Laver Arena, followed by stops in Sydney, Brisbane and Auckland, New Zealand on the MC’s first shows Down Under since 2017.
A long-running legal battle over the rights to Jimi Hendrix’s music is going to trial after a U.K. appeals court rejected Sony Music’s bid to dismiss a lawsuit filed by his former bandmates.
The estates of bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell say they own a share of the rights to three albums created by the trio’s Jimi Hendrix Experience, and they’ve been battling in court with Sony and Experience Hendrix LLC for more than three years to prove it.
In a ruling Thursday, the U.K.’s Court of Appeal upheld a decision issued last year that said the dispute must be decided at trial, rejecting Sony’s request to overturn that ruling and dismiss the case: “In my judgment the judge was correct,” Lord Justice Richard Arnold wrote in the new ruling, obtained by Billboard.
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In a statement celebrating that ruling, a rep for Redding and Mitchell’s heirs say that their case is now scheduled to proceed to trial in December – more than four years after they first sued.
“Noel and Mitch first issued their complaint in November 2021 and after the latest delaying tactic of Sony to deny them justice the case now moves to a full trial,” said Edward Adams, a director for the heirs. “We retain our faith in the justice system that they and [Experience Hendrix] will be finally held fully to account at that time.”
A spokesperson for Sony did not immediately return a request for comment on the ruling.
Hendrix teamed up with Redding and Mitchell in 1966 to form the Experience, and the trio went on to release a number of now-iconic songs including “All Along The Watchtower,” which spent nine weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968 and peaked at No. 20. The group split up in 1969, a little over a year before Hendrix died suddenly at the age of 27 from an accidental drug overdose.
The current fight kicked off in 2021, when Redding and Mitchell’s heirs sent a letter in the U.K. claiming they own a stake in Hendrix’s music and arguing that they’re owed millions in royalties.
Experience Hendrix, a company that owns his intellectual property, and Sony, which distributes his music under a licensing deal, responded a month later by preemptively suing in New York federal court, aiming to disprove those allegations. Redding and Mitchell’s heirs then filed their own case against Sony in British court, seeking control of the records and accusing the label of copyright infringement.
After months of jockeying, a U.S. federal judge ruled in 2023 that the English litigation could take precedence.
Seeking to end that lawsuit, Sony argued that Redding and Mitchell both signed away their rights shortly after Hendrix died. In a 1973 legal settlement cited by Sony, the two men purportedly agreed not to sue Jimi’s estate and any record companies distributing his music in return for one-time payments — $100,000 paid to Redding and $247,500 to Mitchell.
But last year, a judge on London’s High Court ruled that the dispute – over “arguably the greatest rock guitarist ever” — was close enough that it would need to be decided at trial.
“My overall conclusion is that the claims in respect of copyright and performers’ property rights survive and should go to trial,” Justice Michael Green wrote at the time. The judge wrote that Redding and Mitchell’s heirs had “a real prospect of succeeding” on their argument that the decades-old releases “do not provide a complete defence” for Sony.
Sony appealed that ruling, setting the stage for Thursday’s decision. In doing so, the company didn’t actually challenge judge’s ruling on the core issue of the 1973 settlement; instead, Sony’s lawyers argued that Redding and Mitchell’s heirs were ineligible to file their case under various U.K. statutes.
Joined by two other appellate judges on the panel, Lord Justice Arnold rejected those arguments on Thursday, ruling that the heirs’ claims were fair game under the statutes cited by Sony.
It’s unclear if Sony will file further appeals, or whether such additional challenges might delay the trial beyond December. Such rulings can typically be appealed to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, the country’s highest appeals court; but like the U.S. Supreme Court, the British top court only accepts a limited number of cases, based on whether they raise big and important legal questions.
If the case does proceed to trial, attorneys for the Redding and Mitchell estates said Thursday that they were looking forward to the showdown. In the statement, they compared their late clients to the Freddie Mercury’s bandmates in Queen.
“No one is denying that Jimi Hendrix was one of the greatest guitarists of all time, just as Freddie Mercury was a great singer. But neither of them made their recordings alone,” said Lawrence Abramson of the law firm Keystone Law. “It has never been suggested that Brian May, John Deacon nor Roger Taylor should not have participated in Queen’s success so why should Noel and Mitch lose out from the success of the Jimi Hendrix Experience?”
What were some of the most notable trends among No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart during 2024? Hit Songs Deconstructed, which provides compositional analytics for top 10 Hot 100 hits, has released its 2024 No. 1 Hit Focus report.
Here are three takeaways from Hit Songs Deconstructed’s latest in-depth research.
Hip-Hop/Rap Rose
Hot 100 No. 1s were represented by six primary genres in 2024, according to Hit Songs Deconstructed. Hip-hop/rap led for the first time since 2018 with a 38% share. Country followed at a one-quarter take and pop rounded out the top three with just under a one-fifth share.
The report also notes that hip-hop/rap’s share of Hot 100 No. 1s more than doubled from 2023 to 2024. Kendrick Lamar led the genre with two chart-toppers: “Not Like Us” and “Squabble Up.”
Meanwhile, country remained strong among Hot 100 No. 1s last year as a primary genre. Notes Hit Songs Deconstructed: “After rising from 0% to 24% in 2023, country’s share of No. 1s held steady in 2024 with one-quarter of songs.” Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” was the longest-leading such smash in 2024, running up a record-tying 19 weeks at No. 1.
‘80s in the ‘20s
Along with six primary genres, “17 diverse subgenres and influences shaped the sound and vibe of 2024’s No. 1 hits” on the Hot 100, according to Hit Songs Deconstructed’s report. “Pop’s influence was particularly prominent, appearing in three-quarter of songs. Hip-hop/rap followed at 38% and retro influences in general rounded out the top three at 38%.”
Notably, “The 1980s continued to be the retro decade of choice,” per Hit Songs Deconstructed’s findings about subgenres’ influences on Hot 100 No. 1s, heard in such as hits as “Squabble Up,” Taylor Swift’s “Fortnight” featuring Post Malone, and Ariana Grande’s “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love).”
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Also among subgenres’ influences on Hot 100 No. 1s in 2024, “Country’s rose to nearly one-third of songs in 2024,” per Hit Songs Deconstructed. “All stemmed from the country primary genre except for Sabrina Carpenter’s country-influenced pop smash ‘Please Please Please.’”
Plus, dance/club’s subgenre influence “rose slightly to one-quarter of songs” atop the Hot 100 in 2024. Among them: Jack Harlow’s “Lovin on Me,” Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” and Grande’s “We Can’t Be Friends” and “Yes, And?”
More Choruses, But Later & Longer No. 1s
“The average amount of time it takes for No. 1 hits to get to the first chorus has been increasing since 2021, rising from 33 seconds to 45 seconds in 2024,” Hit Songs Deconstructed reports.
The 0:40-0:59 range for a first chorus tripled from 18% of Hot 100 No. 1s in 2023 to 44% in 2024. Plus, a quarter of choruses in No. 1s occurred after the 1-minute mark, spanning genres from R&B/hip-hop (Lamar’s “Not Like Us” and Future, Metro Boomin and Lamar’s “Like That”) to rock (Hozier’s “Too Sweet”) and dance/club (Grande’s “Yes, And?”)
Also noteworthy, “The majority of No. 1s – 69% – had three choruses in their framework” in 2024, per Hit Songs Deconstructed. That share has more than tripled from 2022 (31%). Conversely, songs with two choruses have fallen from 46% to 29% to 19% among Hot 100 leaders since 2022.
Overall, Hit Songs Deconstructed notes, the average length of 2024’s Hot 100 No. 1 was 3:30, eight seconds longer than the 2023 average. The 4-minute-plus range has “generally been on the rise since 2019, increasing from 0% to 25% of songs. Its representatives were all hip-hop/rap songs except for Hozier’s “Too Sweet.’ ”