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Looks like Gloss Up & Quality Control Music may have parted ways. The Memphis rapper recently interviewed with Khaotic, where she revealed that QC didn’t let her release new music because they thought her sound had become repetitive, “It’s like people don’t be giving me the motivation. The only thing I’m hearing when I go to the studio is this ain’t, this ain’t, this ain’t it? So it’s like, ok, I just want to step back and f**king catch my breath because I don’t know what the f**k y’all want from me.”Someone from Gloss’s close circle must have leaked a screenshot of a close friend post on Instagram of her basically confirming that the rumors are true about being a free agent. Stating “Finally free! Finna pop it”. Which seems like our girl is in good spirits.
If you remember, in the Season 3 trailer of Impact ATL, she was told that if she had been signed to a different label, she probably would’ve been dropped already. Gloss first hit the scene when she, Slimeroni, Aleza & Hitkidd linked up for the smash ‘Shabooya’ in September 2022. In this smash, each rapper took a moment to pop their ish and hype themselves up (with some fire adlibs of course) showing off their personalities and their humor. They all joke about men tirckin’ and dumping them if they don’t keep the spoiling going. This instantly hit the soul of each material girl out there listening to the track.
Check out Gloss Up’s recent visit to Bossip’s ‘Alright, So Boom!” Podcast:
While Eminem has not yet commented on the death this week of his mother Debbie Nelson at 69 due to complications from advanced lung cancer, the rapper’s half-brother Nathan “Nate” Mathers issued a terse, five-word reaction to the loss.
“Hatred and mixed emotions today,” Nate Mathers wrote on his Instagram Stories on Tuesday (Dec. 3) in a curt message in keeping with the sometimes contentious Mathers family dynamic between mother and sons. Nelson died in St. Joseph, MO on Monday and at press time Marshall had not yet issued a public statement about the loss of the woman who was frequently a subject of disdain and ridicule in his songs before their more recent rapprochement.
Music producer Nate was Nelson’s youngest son, born to her and partner Fred Samra when Eminem was 13-years-old; she married the MC’s father, Marshall Mathers Jr., when she was 16 and gave birth to Eminem (born Marshall Mathers) two years later in 1972. Eminem became Nate’s legal guardian when his half-brother turned 16.
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Eminem was often at odds with his mother in his music, lashing out at her on such hits as 2002’s “Cleanin’ Out My Closet,” on which he rapped about his mother abusing prescription pills and said, “Wasn’t it the reason you made that CD for me, Ma?/ So you could try to justify the way you treated me, Ma?/ But guess what, you’re gettin’ older now, and it’s cold when you’re lonely/ And Nathan’s growin’ up so quick, he’s gonna know that you’re phony.”
He also took aim at her on his iconic 1999 Slim Shady LP track “My Name Is,” rapping, “99 percent of my life, I was lied to/ I just found out my mom does more dope than I do/ I told her I’d grow up to be a famous rapper/ Make a record about doin’ drugs and name it after her.”
Nelson sued Eminem for defamation in 1999, seeking $11 million in damages; the judge ruled in her favor, but she was only awarded $25,000 in a 2001 judgement. She later delved into their prickly relationship in her 2007 tell-all memoir My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem. Years later, on the 2013 Marshall Mathers LP 2 track “Headlights” he extended an olive branch when he apologized with the lyrics, “I went in headfirst, never thinkin’ about who, what I said hurt/ In what verse, my mom probably got it the worst/ The brunt of it, but as stubborn as we are, did I take it too far?/ ‘Cleanin’ Out My Closet’ and all them other songs/ But regardless, I don’t hate you ’cause, ma/ You’re still beautiful to me, ’cause you’re my ma.”
The thaw continued in 2022, when Nelson gave her son kudos for his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, saying in a video, “Marshall, I want to say, I could not let this day go by without congratulating you on your induction into the Hall of Fame. I love you very much. I knew you’d get there. It’s been a long ride. I’m very, very proud of you. And also I’m very proud of [granddaughter] Hailie Jade, my big girl. I want to tell you, Hailie, great job on your podcast and God bless you guys. I love you very much.”
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A new report contains serious allegations against Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, claiming that he’s a rabid drunkard.
A new report has revealed more bombshell allegations about Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Defense, being “repeatedly intoxicated” in several public instances. The report details these instances occurring while Hegseth ran two non-profit veteran advocacy groups, Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America.
“A previously undisclosed whistle-blower report on Hegseth’s tenure as the president of Concerned Veterans for America, from 2013 until 2016, describes him as being repeatedly intoxicated while acting in his official capacity—to the point of needing to be carried out of the organization’s events,” wrote reporter Jane Meyer in The New Yorker. The article goes on to reveal that “at one point, Hegseth had to be restrained while drunk from joining the dancers on the stage of a Louisiana strip club, where he had brought his team. The report also says that Hegseth, who was married at the time, and other members of his management team sexually pursued the organization’s female staffers, whom they divided into two groups—the “party girls” and the “not party girls.”
Another former colleague claimed that Hegseth drunkenly chanted “Kill All Muslims!” at a bar in Ohio, while another stated: “I’ve seen him drunk so many times. I’ve seen him dragged away not a few times but multiple times. To have him at the Pentagon would be scary.” The report comes days after the New York Times published a damning email that was sent to Hegseth in 2018 by his mother, where she called him “an abuser of women” and decried his lack of character. Penelope Hegseth stated that she apologized to him in a follow-up email when contacted by the press.
The added controversy is expected to weigh heavily on Hegseth as Senate confirmation hearings will take place in January when Trump takes office. Those on social media didn’t waste time in seeing the situation as a disaster, noting that it’s another example of Trump’s desire to fill his cabinet with more disreputable people who are loyalists to him.
Despite the fact that Wicked is undeniably “Popular,” the film won’t be making an appearance in Kuwait theaters any time soon. According to a report from Variety on Wednesday (Dec. 4), the Jon M. Chu-directed musical adaptation has been removed from theater listings across Kuwait just days before its slated release in the country on […]
Attorneys in the music industry are a competitive bunch. They vie for high-performing clients and duel with each other over deal points; battle is in their blood.
Perhaps unexpectedly, a number of these attorneys have joined forces recently, unified by a common goal: Getting their producer clients paid for their contributions to Vultures 1, the first of two 2024 albums from Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) and Ty Dolla $ign.
Since its February release, Vultures 1 has earned more than 817,000 album equivalent units in the U.S., according to Luminate — including over 1 billion on-demand streams — and a Grammy nomination for the hit “Carnival.” But more than 10 producers on the album do not have signed agreements in place with Ye, meaning they are unable to collect fees, as well as potential producer royalties and publishing income, for their work. And several of the producers who worked on Vultures 2, which came out in August, share the same unpaid fate as their colleagues who worked on the first installment.
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“We have clients who’ve produced music on the Vultures album(s) and have still not been paid for their services even though both albums have been released,” Bob Celestin, a music attorney, told Billboard via email. “Presently, we have no idea when payment will be made, which is so unfortunate and unfair. You would think Ye would be more sensitive to this issue because he is a producer.”
“We’ve had trouble receiving a producer agreement from Ye,” adds Brittney Trigg, another lawyer who represents a producer on Vultures 1. A representative for the star did not respond to a request for comment.
This problem continues to plague the music industry at its highest levels. Jason Berger, a partner at Lewis Brisbois, estimates that in “nine out of 10 deals, the producer has not been paid the day the music comes out.” And due to the volume of new releases, the high number of collaborators on some albums, shrinking major-label staffs, and the mercurial nature of superstars — who have to sign off on producer agreements even if they are running around the world on tour — Celestin says that producers often don’t get paid for a year or more after albums come out.
“The more convoluted the system gets, the less money comes down to the people that are actually making the product,” says Nima Nasseri, who manages the producer Hit-Boy. (Hit-Boy was not involved with Vultures 1.) “Why do people have to fight to get paid?” Nasseri asks.
In Ye’s case, five lawyers with clients on Vultures 1 say that getting them compensated for their work has been even more challenging than usual.
The superstar has cycled through at least two attorneys to help with clearances and is now relying on a third, the lawyers says. Longtime Ye associate 88-Keys was initially involved in negotiations with producers; more recently, Matt Geffen from the Revels Group has taken on a prominent role. (Geffen did not respond to a request for comment.) On top of that, Ye also changed distributors, leaving Label Engine, which is owned by Create Music Group, in favor of Too Lost. (Vultures 1 and 2 were released independently.)
In a typical distribution deal, artists are responsible for clearing songs and disbursing royalties to collaborators. Distribution companies are usually shielded from legal liability, though many offer tools to help streamline the royalty splitting process once clearances are completed.
Still, earlier this year, attorneys for a number of producers on Vultures 1 banded together, coordinating their efforts via a group chat, to draft threatening legal letters to send to Create, since no royalties were flowing to their clients. They hoped that, in a relatively small industry that places a premium on maintaining good relationships, their collective weight might convince Create to try to help them. (A representative for Create declined to comment.) Before the messages could be sent, however, Ye switched distributors.
The producers on Vultures 1 may find cold comfort in the fact that even Atlantic Records — the label to which Ty Dolla $ign is signed — is having a tough time getting paid, according to a source close to the situation. (West alluded to this in an Instagram post in September.) The source says Too Lost is now holding money for Atlantic and other rights holders and working with Ye’s team to clear the records accordingly. Representatives for both Atlantic and Too Lost declined to comment.
The challenges that producers face in getting paid in a timely manner seem all but certain to persist. “The industry’s ‘back of house’ infrastructure really isn’t designed to handle dozens of producers and other collaborators on a single project,” says Tim Kappel, an entertainment attorney. “There are inevitably going to be delays even when everyone is operating in good faith. Throw in a few bad actors here and there, and it’s easy to understand why producers are feeling aggrieved.”
The sad truth is that producers can’t do much to redress those grievances. They have very little leverage once they have turned over the files containing the music that will appear on an artist’s album.
At this point, “we have no recourse besides to try to sue [Ye],” says one attorney with a client on Vultures 1. “But that’s costly.” And, as another music lawyer points out, “Legal claims against Ye don’t really seem to go anywhere.”
In situations where producers are frustrated because they haven’t been paid for their work, their representatives often “threaten to file a takedown notice on the recording,” according to Kappel. “But this is inappropriate since the DMCA takedown process can only be used to report copyright infringements,” he continues. “There is simply no cause of action for infringement among co-authors.” There have been several attempts to take down tracks on Vultures 1, all unsuccessful, according to multiple lawyers with knowledge of the back-and-forth behind the scenes.
Some producers who contributed to the album did receive deal offers from Ye’s team this fall. However, those offers were buyouts, according to multiple attorneys, meaning the producer would accept a flat fee and not receive any royalties if the album recouped its costs. Recoupment may be out of reach — as Ty Dolla $ign told Billboard in June, Vultures 1 is “a very expensive album” recorded between Las Vegas, Miami, Los Angeles, Japan, Italy, Saudi Arabia and Dubai. Still, buying out producers in this fashion is atypical, and multiple lawyers for Vultures 1 producers rejected the offers.
Sources close to Ye now believe he is planning to release another album soon, meaning that the star could put out three uncleared projects in a single year. “It’s a mess,” says one attorney involved with Vultures 1 clearances. “I just keep going back to that word.”
ROSÉ of BLACKPINK is giving her apt. some holiday spruce.
While at BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge Tuesday (Dec. 3), the 27-year-old pop star covered Wham!’s 1984 classic “Last Christmas” as well as performed a solo rendition of her smash Bruno Mars duet “APT.” For the former, she channeled her inner George Michael, melancholy while sitting on a stool, reading the heartfelt lyrics off a music stand in front of her, and dancing along during the Billboard Hot 100 No. 4 hit’s musical high points.
“A face-on lover with a fire in his heart/ A man undercover, but you tore him apart,” she sang before letting her New Zealander side shine through with a spoken-word “Well, maybe next year, mate.”
“I’ll give it to someone, I’ll give it to someone special,” ROSÉ softly crooned to finish out the track, clapping her hands.
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For “APT.,” the K-pop phenom ramped up the energy, joining her backup singers and keyboardist in doing hand movements to pay homage to the Korean drinking game that inspired the song’s title. Without Mars on hand for the second verse, ROSÉ confidently rapped her duet partner’s parts while dancing along.
“It’s whatever, it’s whatever, it’s whatever you like,” she belted. “I’m talking drink, dance, smoke, freak, party all night.”
ROSÉ’s pair of performances arrive as “APT.” spends its sixth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 chart. The musician’s debut solo album, rosie, is set to drop Dec. 6, featuring 12 tracks including November single “Number One Girl.”
In a recent interview with Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe, the star opened up about feeling “pressure” to deliver a solid LP during her limited time away from full-band duties with BLACKPINK, which is currently on break until some time in 2025. “We got together and decided, ‘Let’s promise ourselves a good year to be inspired,’” she said of bandmates JENNIE, LISA and JISOO. “The first thing that happened was anxiety, because I was privileged to have this one year in my hands to do whatever I wanted with it, but I wanted it to be the right decision and it had to feel right … What if I don’t believe in my thing? And what if I’m in a place where I’m having to do things that I don’t feel like it’s me?”
Watch ROSÉ cover “Last Christmas” above, and check out her performance of “APT.” below.
Dead & Company are headed back to Las Vegas’ Sphere for their second run of shows at the mind-bending wrap-around venue. The group announced their 2025 Dead & Company: Dead Forever – Live at Sphere Las Vegas on Wednesday morning (Dec. 4), an 18-show residency that will celebrate the Grateful Dead offshoot band’s 10th anniversary. […]
If you thought that we were finished with major releases for the 2024 calendar as we approached Thanksgiving and the beginning of year-end season, Kendrick Lamar let you know real quick that the year ain’t done yet.
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Two Friday afternoons ago (Nov. 22), Lamar snuck up on an unsuspecting public with the sneak-release of his previously announced new album GNX. The 12-track set builds on the momentum he established earlier this year with his Drake feud — which produced a pair of Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s in the Future and Metro Boomin collab “Like That” and his own “Not Like Us” — and produces a third Hot 100 No. 1 with “Squabble Up,” tops among the seven new songs the rapper launches into the top 10 this week, while also topping the Billboard 200 with 319,000 units moved.
Which is the most impressive of his current chart achievements? And how do we rate Kendrick Lamar’s 2024 at this point? Billboard staffers discuss these questions and more below.
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1. Kendrick Lamar’s GNX debuts atop the Billboard 200 with 319,000 first-week units — the biggest debut week for a rap album in 2024, despite no physical release and just 12 tracks’ worth of streaming totals — while also capturing seven of the top 10 spots on the Hot 100, including the entire top five. Which of the two achievements is more impressive to you?
Kyle Denis: I think the Hot 100 feat is a bit more impressive. The first-week units total for GNX is commendable, but the figure is squarely in Kendrick’s usual ballpark. Occupying the Hot 100’s entire top five – in the face of the fast-rising holiday songs and some of the most stable smashes of the year – is the kind of feat that moves Kendrick into a different column. Tons of acts have had albums debut with over 300,000 units, but only three other acts – The Beatles, Taylor Swift and Drake – have simultaneously held the top five spots on the Hot 100. That’s the kind of stat that helps get you to GOAT status.
Angel Diaz: I think both are equally as impressive. Selling that many units off pure streams and debuting No. 1 with no lead up or warning other than the GNX trailer he posted minutes before the album hit, is crazy when you look back on that fateful Friday afternoon here on the East Coast. But it’s also very cool to see “underground” West Coast rappers like Lefty Gunplay and Dody6 getting their first Hot 100 looks thanks to Kendrick. That’s unheard of in today’s landscape.
Jason Lipshutz: The latter, not just because it’s a chart achievement that only Taylor Swift, Drake and The Beatles have done before, but because flooding the top 5 of the Hot 100 demonstrates how much bigger GNX is than Kendrick Lamar’s other recent output. After all, 2022’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers debuted with two songs in the top 5 of the Hot 100 and three total in the top 10 — impressive for any artist, but literally half as impressive as what Lamar just accomplished with GNX. A new Kendrick Lamar album was always going to be in contention for the biggest rap debut of the year, but we’ve never this level of consumption of his songs on the Hot 100, and that chart feat showcases the album’s true enormity.
Michael Saponara: MUSTARDDDD. I’d have to go with occupying the entire top five of this week’s Hot 100 as, ironically enough, Drake was the only rapper to ever do that before him. Kendrick’s had a commercial resurgence that just wasn’t as potent earlier in the decade and there’s something to be said that the Compton rapper has notched more No. 1 hits in 2024 than the rest of his decorated career combined. He’s also the first rhymer to have three No. 1 debuts on the Hot 100 in the same calendar year.
Andrew Unterberger: Hot 100 for sure. He’s had Billboard 200-dominating albums before but he’s never blanketed the Hot 100 like this — to the point where he might even end up in the mix to have multiple No. 1s from the album before all is said and done. It’s crazy to see him so central to popular music right now, but obviously well-deserved.
2. GNX fell out of the sky on Friday at noon ET, with no advance warning. Do you think that promotional strategy ultimately helped, hurt or had no major effect on the album’s first-week performance?
Kyle Denis: I honestly think it may have hurt the album’s first-week performance. With his run of diss tracks this spring and summer and a general elevation of his celebrity, Kendrick had millions of consumers ready to eat up whatever project he put out. I think giving people some notice, even if it was just 24 hours, would have resulted in slightly better numbers than a full-on surprise drop. A bit of notice would have allowed fans to mobilize and create their own listening experiences and made for a seamless DSP uploading process — GNX reportedly took over an hour to appear on streaming platforms for some users. These are small things, but they’re the kinds of moves that could have at least helped the album get closer to the 350,000 range. Not to mention, a pre-announced release date would have also given Team Kendrick time to get physical copies of the album available upon release – but that would also depend on when K.Dot finished the album.
Angel Diaz: First of all, I’m sick of these surprise releases, man. I am begging for artists to chill out because they are making us lose our minds on a Friday and into the weekend. With that being said, as a fan, I love it and everyone I knew that’s not in this business were playing that album. You heard it at the barbershop over the weekend and out of car speakers, so yeah I definitely think that strategy had a major effect, especially for the casual fan seeing the chatter on social media and hitting play out of pure curiosity. The album being so good and having so much replay value also helped.
Jason Lipshutz: The surprise release has become a tactic generally reserved for superstars… and since Kendrick Lamar is one of our biggest, the out-of-nowhere drop absolutely helped him here. The shock of GNX — no leaks, no heads-up, just a brand new Kendrick album to stream on your Friday lunch break — defined the pop culture discourse of that day, and immediate reactions began to bubble up on social media to keep streams high through the weekend. Not every A-lister could pull off that type of unveiling, but Lamar did here, and scored one of the biggest debuts of his career in the process.
Michael Saponara: I don’t think there was much of a major impact with the surprise release. To be honest, I kind of expected something along those lines from the elusive K. Dot rather than a traditional rollout. He only lost 12 hours so that resulted in a minimal lagtime in spreading the word that rap’s boogeyman had returned. Between the Drake feud and the anticipation from fans for a new project, there really was no wrong way for Lamar to deliver his next album.
Andrew Unterberger: I don’t think it really matters for its commercial performance — he could have released this album any which way and it still would’ve probably done about this well. But for maintaining the overall excitement level of his 2024, this was probably the best way to go.
3. “Squabble Up” debuts atop the Hot 100 this week as the top-performing song from the new album, but it has already been passed on the daily streaming charts of both iTunes and Spotify by both “TV Off” and “Luther.” Which of the three songs do you think will ultimately be the biggest hit from the set?
Kyle Denis: Of the three songs, I think “TV Off” will have the biggest peak, but I also anticipate “Luther” following a similar trajectory to that of “Love,” Dot’s 2017 duet with Zacari. “Luther” might not ever reach the top of the Hot 100, but I expect it to have impressive longevity and stay on the charts longer than any other GNX track.
Angel Diaz: I love “Luther”, but I really hope the West Coast street anthems like “Squabble Up” and “TV Off” stand the test of time and continue to perform in the future. So, to answer the question, I’ll put money on “Squabble Up.”
Jason Lipshutz: “TV Off” and “Squabble Up” are the album’s two turn-the-volume-way-up anthems, and while “Squabble Up” likely benefited from being placed second on the track list and gaining listeners’ immediate attentions, “TV Off” is the more enduring battle cry, thanks to the stronger K. Dot flow, positively nasty beat switch and the instantly meme-able “MUSTAAAAAAARD” moment. Who knows? Maybe once the holiday music onslaught subsides, Kendrick can kick off 2025 with another Hot 100 chart-topper.
Michael Saponara: I’m gonna go with “TV Off” as the winner here. It’s topped the Apple Music charts and spurred a ton of chatter on social media with endless meme-ability thanks to Kendrick’s pair of “MUSTARDDD” shout-outs to the track’s producer. Lefty Gunplay’s ominous chorus has also been going viral. We’ll see what kind of staying power the trio has at the top of the Hot 100, especially with rumors of a deluxe falling out of the sky from K. Dot.
Andrew Unterberger: Yeah prepare for a lot of out-of-nowhere “MUSTAAAAAAAAARD” howls in casual conversation this holiday season.
4. Between his three No. 1 singles and now a No. 1 album as well, this is undoubtedly Kendrick Lamar’s biggest year on the Billboard charts. Do you think he ever would have had a year like this if not for the Drake feud that initially ignited it, or do you think he was due for such a legacy year at some point in his career regardless?
Kyle Denis: I think he was definitely due for a year like this – and the DAMN./Black Panther period would have sufficed if this year had never happened – but I’m not sure he gets it in 2024 specifically without the Drake feud.
Angel Diaz: I think he was due for a legacy year, but this is the way you do it in rap. This is the same thing Jay-Z did when he dissed Nas on “Takeover” the summer before he released his seminal album The Blueprint in 2001. However, Nas was nowhere near the level Drake was commercially, and Jay dissing him ironically resurrected his career while also placing Jigga on the throne. Rap really hasn’t had a power struggle for the crown since then. Did it benefit him? Sure. But he took the throne fair and square.
Jason Lipshutz: This type of year was always lurking within Kendrick Lamar, a singular superstar with a nearly unanimous approval rating, but 2022’s Mr. Morale suggested that he was turning away from commercial prospects in favor of idiosyncrasies and self-examination. Maybe a course-correction was coming, but the Drake feud — and before that, the talk of a “Big Three,” placing Kendrick on the same field as his peers when he believed he was playing a different sport — helped focus his superpowers, and provoke a year-long assault against his naysayers, October’s Very Own included. GNX is not about Drake, per se, but the album punctuates the assertion that Kendrick has spent 2024 making: there is no competition.
Michael Saponara: To this level, I can’t say I saw that coming. He hasn’t been that same kind of commercial titan since DAMN. and that’s over seven years ago at this point. There’s an argument Lamar was due for a “legacy year,” but I think the Drake feud added kerosene to the fire and gave him the lane to become rap’s undoubted MVP for 2024. It’s the biggest rap battle in decades between two of the greatest to do it, so of course it’s going to have a profound impact on the winner. But again, I’ll say I was wrong in that if there was a hit record to come out of the battle, I thought that was going to be Drake.
Andrew Unterberger: He might’ve been due for more of a commercial on cycle — since Kendrick has long sort of been on a one-for-them, one-for-me career path — but you have to imagine that he needed the Drake thing to take him to this. We’ve just never seen Kendrick Lamar get his blood up like this for an entire year before. It must have been something that was stewing in him for some time.
5. Is this the best year a rapper has had this decade?
Kyle Denis: I’m going to say yes. Shoutout to Megan Thee Stallion’s 2020 and Doja Cat’s 2021, though!
Angel Diaz: I think that’s fair to say, but going back a little further, we must remember Future’s 2015 run when he dropped Beast Mode, 56 Nights, DS2 and What a Time to Be Alive. Big Fewtch also had himself an impressive 2024 — with three Billboard 200 No. 1 albums — that was a bit overshadowed by Drake and Dot’s main event.
Jason Lipshutz: Yes, because Kendrick Lamar’s 2024 combines great music with a great narrative — enormous singles, blockbuster collaborations and a no-skips album coalescing around a battle that’s heated, personal and entertaining as hell. His year has transcended stats and honorifics, and become a cultural phenomenon. It’s one that hip-hop fans are never going to forget.
Michael Saponara: Yeah, I can’t see there being much debate about that. Not only the decade, but let’s open that up to the century. Then you’re talking Drake’s ‘18, Ye’s 2010-11, Wayne’s ‘07-’08 and 50 Cent’s 2003 off the top of my head, and Kendrick belongs in that discussion. Three No. 1 hits, one of which flipped the script against rap’s pop deity to defeat him in battle, and an acclaimed album that popped up as a late contender for album of the year honors. Oh, and it’s possible he’s sweeping at the Grammy Awards a month into 2025 before heading out on a stadium tour. This was one for the history books, Dot.
Andrew Unterberger: Hell yeah.
The cast of the new Wicked film has an explosive week on Billboard’s charts, thanks to the release of the film’s soundtrack on Nov. 22.
The set soars in at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales, Soundtracks and Vinyl Albums charts (all dated Dec. 7, 2024), while also opening at No. 2 on the overall Billboard 200. It scores the highest Billboard 200 debut for a big-screen adaptation of a stage musical ever, dating to the list’s 1956 launch as a regularly published weekly chart.
Seven songs from the Wicked soundtrack concurrently debut on the Billboard Hot 100, led by “Defying Gravity,” by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, who play the film’s leads, Elphaba Thropp and Galinda Upland, respectively. Meanwhile, multiple members of the cast, including Erivo, earn their first career Hot 100 entries.
Here’s a recap of every song from the Wicked film on this week’s Hot 100.
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Rank, Title, Artist Billing
No. 44, “Defying Gravity,” Cynthia Erivo feat. Ariana Grande
No. 53, “Popular,” Ariana Grande
No. 68, “What Is This Feeling?,” Ariana Grande & Cynthia Erivo
No. 86, “No One Mourns the Wicked,” Ariana Grande feat. Andy Nyman, Courtney-May Briggs, Jeff Goldblum, Sharon D. Clarke & Jenna Boyd
No. 90, “Dancing Through Life,” Jonathan Bailey feat. Ariana Grande, Ethan Slater, Marissa Bode & Cynthia Erivo
No. 93, “The Wizard and I,” Cynthia Erivo feat. Michelle Yeoh
No. 94, “I’m Not That Girl,” Cynthia Erivo
Erivo, Nyman, Briggs, Goldblum, Clarke, Boyd, Bailey, Slater, Bode and Yeoh all score their first Hot 100 entries. Grande, of course, is a veteran of Billboard’s charts, having now charted 90 total Hot 100 hits. She boasts eight No. 1s, including two this year: “Yes, And?” and “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)” from her latest solo album, Eternal Sunshine.
While Erivo and Goldblum appear on the Hot 100 for the first time, both have previously appeared on other Billboard charts. Erivo’s debut solo studio set, Ch. 1 Vs. 1, reached No. 44 on Billboard’s Top Current Album Sales chart and No. 77 on the overall Top Album Sales chart in October 2021. Plus, her song “Stand Up,” from the 2019 Harriet Tubman biopic Harriet, hit No. 31 on Digital Song Sales. Erivo played Tubman in the film, a portrayal that earned her a nomination for best actress at the 92nd Academy Awards in 2019. “Stand Up” also earned her a best original song nomination.
Erivo previously played the lead in the Broadway revival of the musical The Color Purple. She won several accolades for her performance as Celie, including the Tony for best leading actress in a musical at the 70th ceremony in 2016; a Grammy for best musical theater album (for The Color Purple soundtrack); and a Daytime Emmy for outstanding musical performance in a daytime program in 2017.
Goldblum, who plays the Wonderful Wizard of Oz in Wicked, reached Billboard’s charts for the first time in 2018 with his debut studio album, The Capitol Studios Sessions. The set, with the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Jazz Albums and Traditional Jazz Albums charts. It includes collaborations with comedian-actress Sarah Silverman, jazz trumpeter Till Brönner and singers Imelda May and Haley Reinhart. He returned to the charts in 2019 with his follow-up album, I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This, which reached No. 2 on both Jazz Albums and Traditional Jazz Albums.
Nyman, Briggs, Clarke, Boyd, Bailey, Slater, Bode and Yeoh are all brand new to Billboard’s charts. In Wicked, Nyman portrays Governor Thropp (Elphaba and Nessarose’s father), Biggs plays Mrs. Thropp (their mother), Clarke voices Dulcibear, Boyd voices Wolf Doctor, Bailey plays Fiyero Tigelaar, Slater plays Boq Woodsman, Bode plays Nessarose Thropp and Yeoh plays Madame Morrible.
Wicked has even generated a radio chart hit, as Grande’s “Popular” debuts at No. 40 on Pop Airplay, thanks to plays on stations including KMVQ San Francisco, WBLI Long Island, N.Y., and SiriusXM’s Hits 1.
The creators of the hit Broadway play Stereophonic have reached a settlement to resolve a copyright lawsuit claiming they stole elements of the show from a memoir about the infamous recording of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.
The deal will resolve a case, filed last month by music producer Ken Caillat, that called playwright David Adjmi’s Tony Award-winning show an “unauthorized adaptation” and “willful infringement” of the 2012 book Making Rumours, a memoir detailing his work on the famed album.
In a court filing Tuesday, attorneys for both Caillat and Adjmi said that they had “resolved the dispute in principle as to all claims and defendants, and are working to commit their agreement to writing.” And in a brief order, the judge seemed pleased that the case would not be moving forward.
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“I cannot say I am surprised by this news but it is the wisest resolution for all concerned,” Judge Colleen McMahon wrote. “Feel free to come in and (hopefully) memorialize the settlement [at a hearing later this month].”
Terms of the deal were not disclosed in court filings, and neither side immediately returned requests for comment.
Stereophonic debuted on Broadway last fall, eventually winning five Tony Awards including best play, best direction of a play and best featured actor in a play. Featuring the music of Arcade Fire’s Will Butler, it tells the story of a fictional rock band struggling to record an album in the mid-1970s.
Critics quickly noted the similarities to the difficult process behind Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, which featured high tensions and heavy drug usage. A reviewer for the Wall Street Journal said the play was “fictionalizing Fleetwood Mac”; another critic said the play “isn’t literally about Fleetwood Mac, but c’mon.”
In their Oct. 2 lawsuit, Caillat and co-author Steven Stiefel said the hit play “presents a nearly identical story arc as Making Rumours,” told from the same perspective of a sound engineer in a recording studio, about five characters who are “undeniably analogous to the members of Fleetwood Mac.”
“Stereophonic is undoubtedly a play based on plaintiffs’ memoir Making Rumours because substantial similarities exist between the two works, a reality that has been independently confirmed by those familiar with plaintiffs’ book who have also had the opportunity to review the play,” the duo’s lawyers wrote at the time.
If the case had gone to trial, it would have presented tricky legal questions. Under U.S. law, historical events cannot be monopolized under copyrights, and nobody can claim exclusive ownership over the real story behind the making of Rumours. But specific creative elements of how such a story is told can be protected by copyrights, and film, TV and stage producers often license non-fiction books as the basis for their works.
Caillat and Stiefel claimed that Adjmi copied those exact kinds of creative choices when he created his play, saying show depicted not just a historical event but did so “as it is described in Making Rumours.”