News
Page: 277
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
Source: Gary Miller / Getty
Kendrick Lamar may have taken the slow approach during his days with Top Dawg Entertainment but as his own man, he’s delivering music and content at a higher clip. Just like the surprise drop of his latest musical project GNX, Kendrick Lamar delivered a video for the fan-favorite track “squabble up” filled with plenty of Easter eggs and nods to West Coast culture.
Kendrick Lamar delivered the “squabble up” video on Monday (November 25) while many fans were still trying to digest the bars and scope of GNX. Directed by Calmatic, the video features K-Dot in a sparsely decorated room decked out in blue and hitting a casual, almost disaffected two-step while his face remains monotone and serene all at once.
In the background, several moments unfold that, at least in our first watch, we didn’t catch. What does stand out is that every scene that pops off in the back is related to the West Coast in some fashion, most especially the Southern side of California.
Eagle-eyed fans on the X social media platform are already piecing together the images within, including a nod to Ice-T’s Power album cover and its cover model, Darlene Ortiz. Gang unity is also promoted in the video, along with the realities of the street such as a couple socking out and robbing a man.
There was also a clever moment where Lamar was seen reading a book titled How To Be More Like Kendrick for Dummies along with some ruckus going on behind as he casually reads the title.
On X, Kendrick Lamar is the talk of the online streets and we’re capturing the best reactions we’ve seen and sharing them below.
—
Photo: Getty
Gojira may have wowed viewers around the world as red streamers mimicking a torrential downpour of blood rained from the windows of Paris’ Conciergerie palace — where beheaded Marie Antoinettes stood — into the Seine during the band’s performance at the Summer Olympics’ Opening Ceremony, but frontman Joe Duplantier wants fans to take a less sanguineous route for the holidays. And so, the French rocker has partnered with PETA to urge fans to forgo meat and animal products not just when gathering with friends and family, but every day.
“The holidays are the perfect time for people to try out new traditions with their friends and family that leave cruelty behind. It makes sense to celebrate kindness and peace on Earth with a delicious vegan feast that didn’t cost anyone their life,” Duplantier tells Billboard. “When I chose to go plant-based, I thought I would miss all the foods I grew up on, but surprisingly, the transition was painless. A vegan diet brings joy, energy and an unexplainable sense of relief knowing nobody’s getting slaughtered for my food.”
Trending on Billboard
“Nowadays it’s so easy to switch to a vegan diet with all the meat replacements and different plant-based milks and cheeses,” he notes. “Join the revolution! End the torture!”
Gojira’s Joe Duplantier for PETA
Courtesy of PETA
In an accompanying video for the PETA campaign, the rocker — who has been vegan for 10 years — shares that he chose a cruelty-free diet because of his love for animals. “It’s about the life of the animals and what they go through. But another benefit of being vegan is for your own health,” he explains while discussing the topic in a studio, as the metal band’s “The Trails” plays. “There’s no way eating animals or animal products that are a product of violence can be good for you. I have more energy now when I perform since I became vegan.”
Duplantier also highlights the horrors of the meat industry. “The way we treat animals — animal farms, the factories, the slaughterhouses — is unacceptable,” he declares as clips of the abuse pigs, cows and chickens endure appear. “Even non-vegans, I think, if they would spend a day in a slaughterhouse, they would come out of that vegan.”
“It’s not just an ethical question anymore, but it’s also a question of survival for our species,” he concludes, alluding to the massive amount of resources that goes into factory farming and the damage it does to the planet. “You have to go vegan.”
Watch Duplantier urge fans to try a vegan diet in the video below:
Rosé is less than two weeks from dropping her debut solo album, and the BLACKPINK superstar is adding to the hype by dropping the track list on Monday (Nov. 25). Rosie is set to arrive on December 6 via Atlantic Records/THEBLACKLABEL and features 12 tracks. Among the song titles are “3am,” “Two Years,” “Toxic Till […]
Travis Scott closed out the Circus Maximus Tour on Halloween after more than a year of cross-continental shows. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, the trek grossed $209.3 million and sold 1.7 million tickets over 76 dates.
Those numbers are massive without qualification, but they are monumental in hip-hop. No solo rapper has ever sold that many tickets on one tour. Previously, Jay-Z cracked two million while co-headlining the On the Run II Tour with Beyoncé in 2018. The only other unaccompanied rapper to report more than a million tickets on a single tour is 50 Cent on last year’s The Final Lap Tour (1.1 million), celebrating the 20-year anniversary of Get Rich or Die Tryin.’
Though the Circus Maximus Tour began in arenas, Scott interspersed stadium dates as 2023 rolled into 2024. First, amid 43 arena shows in the U.S. and Canada, he sold out SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. (12 miles from downtown Los Angeles). And while his European leg began indoors, he broke stadiums in London, Koln, and Milan, selling more than 71,000 tickets in the lattermost city.
Stadiums followed in Sao Paulo, Mexico City, New York and across Oceania. The last nine shows of the tour in September and October moved 415,000 tickets, or 24% of the tour’s total attendance, despite accounting for just 12% of the trek’s shows.
Melbourne, Australia, was the biggest stop of Scott’s tour. Two shows on Oct. 22-23 grossed $12.6 million and sold 115,000 tickets.
The scale of the Circus Maximus Tour – stadiums on four continents – is unprecedented in hip-hop. 50 Cent and Nicki Minaj, each of whom cracked $100 million on tours of their own over the last two years, played in North America and Europe. Drake, who has crossed the nine-figure mark multiple times, only played in the U.S. and Canada on It’s All a Blur. The language barrier for a particularly wordy genre could mean that extensive touring in Europe and Latin America is difficult, but Scott’s global hits and onstage spectacle helped translate his show to international audiences.
Even stateside, Scott’s 2023-24 stadium shows are groundbreaking for rappers. Eminem and Jay-Z have played similar venues, but the former toured alongside Rihanna and the latter has done it next to Beyonce and Justin Timberlake. Eminem and Jay-Z did play stadiums together in 2010 during a commercial boom for both, but just two in Detroit and two in New York on The Home & Home Tour.
As a soloist, Eminem played two shows at Detroit’s Ford Field in 2003, plus a show in Hawaii in 2019. He’s also a proven stadium sellout in Australia and New Zealand. 50 Cent has one reported solo stadium show in Sao Paulo.
Scott’s world tour improved upon his previous outing in every conceivable way. Scott sold 53% more tickets per show on The Circus Maximus Tour than on Astroworld: Wish You Were Here in 2018-19 (22,494 vs. 14,692), he played more than 20 more shows (76 vs. 55) and commanded 65% more per ticket ($122.46 vs. $74.43).
In total, the Circus Maximus Tour sold more than twice the tickets of its predecessor (1.7 million vs. 808,000) and grossed more than three times as much ($209.3 million vs. $60.1 million).
The Circus Maximus Tour was in support of Utopia, Scott’s fourth studio album. The set debuted atop the Billboard 200 and stayed there for four weeks, and sent three songs – “Meltdown,” featuring Drake; “FEIN!,” featuring Playboi Carti; and “K-Pop” featuring Bad Bunny and The Weeknd – to the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100.
Dating back to a sold-out show at Los Angeles’ The Fonda Theatre ($42,000; 1,200 tickets), Scott has grossed $275.3 million and sold 2.6 million tickets.
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Matthias Nareyek / Getty
Not too long ago Kanye West was hit with a lawsuit in which he was accused of antisemitic behavior and weird sexual deviancy, but now, the College Dropout artist is facing more serious allegations as a former America’s Next Top Model contestant says that Kanye West sexually assaulted her.
According to Rolling Stone, Jennifer An filed a lawsuit in New York Federal Court Friday (Nov. 22), suing Kanye West for sexual assault and strangulation during an incident that took place back in 2010. In the legal filing, An says that the assault took place when she was working as a background actor for a video shoot for La Roux’s “In for the Kill.” She says that during the shoot, Kanye West arrived on set and bluntly stated, “Give me the Asian girl” before he got in her face while “breathing heavily” and actually instructed the camera crew to focus on her face while he turned the shoot into his “own production.”
That’s when things got disturbingly uncomfortable for everyone.
Per Rolling Stone:
“On camera, defendant West began to choke plaintiff with one hand. He then wrapped his other hand around her neck and continued to strangle her with both hands,” the lawsuit alleges. “He then rammed several fingers down her throat, continuously moved them in and out, and gagged her.”
An says West used his fingers “to emulate forced oral sex” as he allegedly screamed, “This is art. This is fucking art. I am like Picasso.” The lawsuit claims West assaulted An “in a manner similar to pornographic gagging/deep throat/BDSM fetishes.”
As she panicked under West’s “gyrating hand,” An says she looked around the room, hoping someone would intervene. She alleges no one helped her. “Plaintiff struggled to breathe and felt as if she had temporarily blacked out. When defendant West decided that he was finished with plaintiff, her face was covered in saliva and smeared makeup,” the lawsuit states.
We’re low-key surprised this wasn’t big news on social media even though it was only a few years old at the time.
While An is suing Kanye for the assault, she also names Universal Music Group as a co-defendant as they were behind Kanye’s cameo in the video and failed to investigate the incident afterwards or take any kind of action.
Jennifer An is suing for compensatory and punitive damages.
Kix Brooks is marking the end of an era, as he steps down from his nearly two-decade role as host of the national country music radio show American Country Countdown. Brooks’s final broadcast will air the weekend of Dec. 28-29, 2024.
Beginning the weekend of Jan. 4-5, 2025, country radio personality Ryan Fox will take over as host of American Country Countdown with Ryan Fox. Fox currently serves as on-air host, mornings, at Dallas country station KPLX/99.5 The Wolf.
Brooks took on the hosting role at American Country Countdown in January 2006, guiding listeners through each week’s top hits, while both entertaining them with his wit and humor, but also offering deep insights into artists, the country music genre and its rich history.
Trending on Billboard
“I never dreamed I would be asked to host a legendary international radio show like American Country Countdown,” Brooks said in a statement. “The fact that I have been supported by hundreds of affiliates and an amazing team of radio professionals for 18 years has made this one of the greatest experiences of my professional life. It’s time to turn my primary focus back to writing, recording and touring with Brooks & Dunn. It’s been an honor, to say the least, that I was trusted with a microphone that had such an iconic history. Special thanks to all the fans who listened and participated, to ensure that I was being the best that I could be. Keep counting ‘em down!”
Brooks’s work leading American Country Countdown, which is broadcast to more than 300 station affiliates nationwide through Westwood One, was honored with the Country Music Association’s national broadcast personality of the year in 2009, 2011 and 2013, making Brooks the first person to win a CMA award in both artist and broadcast categories. He also claimed the Academy of Country Music’s radio award for national personality in 2021.
Fox said in a statement, “To be given the opportunity to take the reins on one of the longest running, most successful, Country countdown shows in the world and sit in the same chair as Hall of Famers like the legendary Kix Brooks and the late, great Bob Kingsley, is a tremendous honor. This is a terrific era for country music, and I cannot wait to count down the biggest country hits from coast to coast!”
As part of Brooks & Dunn, Brooks just picked up a 15th win in the Country Music Association’s vocal duo of the year category during last week’s CMA Awards, held Nov. 20 in Nashville.
Drake made an appearance on Canadian streamer xQc’s livestream on Sunday night (Nov. 24), and the 6 God didn’t hold back on a multitude of topics. At one point in the stream, Steve Lacy’s Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Bad Habit” was playing, and Drake seemingly shaded the artist. “This guy’s like a fragile […]
Lizzo is the latest star to weigh in on the always heated debate over the top MCs of all-time. In a post on Bluesky on Friday (Nov. 22) the “About Damn Time” singer offered up her top three rappers, in no particular order she said, and the first two on the list happen to be freshly at odds.
Lizzo’s trifecta includes Lil Wayne, Kendrick Lamar and Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott, a fine roster of world-class mic technicians by any account. The post came just hours after K-Dot shocked the world with the surprise release on Friday of his sixth studio album, GNX. The 12-song R&B-inflected lyrical barrage includes an opening track, “wacced out murals,” which takes on Wayne’s publicly aired frustration over being passed over to perform during the halftime show at next year’s 2025 Super Bowl in his home town of New Orleans.
“Used to bump Tha Carter III, I held my Rollie chain proud/ Irony, I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down,” Kendrick raps on the song in reference to Weezy posting a video about how hurt he was about not being tapped to pay the plumb gig at the Caesars Superdome in February.
Trending on Billboard
“Won the Super Bowl and Nas the only one congratulate me/ All these n—-s agitated, I’m just glad they showin’ they faces,” Lamar continued. Wayne did appear to take kindly to the shout-out, responding on Saturday morning, “Man wtf I do?! I just be chillin & dey still kome 4 my head,” he wrote. “Let’s not take kindness for weakness. Let this giant sleep. I beg u all. No one really wants destruction,not even me but I shall destroy if disturbed. On me. Love.”
Lizzo’s list is also interesting because it appears to continue the storyline of the explosive Drake/Kendrick feud, which was kicked off in 2023 with the Drizzy/J. Cole song “First Person Shooter,” on which Cole claimed the “big three” of modern hip-hop are himself, Drake and Lamar. That song set off a flurry of back-and-forth diss tracks between Drake and Lamar earlier this year that culminated with what most consider the final nail: K-Dot’s lacerating “Not Like Us.”
Comments on Lizzo’s Bluesky top three list included many fans rubber stamping the inclusion of Elliott, with one person writing, “Missy is Goated. Like golden statue goated. Like rename her childhood street goated” while another said, “I almost got into a fist fight with someone at a New Year’s Eve party when they said Missy Elliott wasn’t impactful to music.”
Two out of three of Lizzo’s picks made it into the mix for Billboard’s Best Pop Stars of the 21st Century, with Elliott gaining an honorable mention and Lil Wayne grabbing the 21st slot. For the record, Drake took the No. 4 spot while the top two pop icons have not yet been revealed.
Queen Latifah, who was a 2023 Kennedy Center Honors recipient, is set to host the 2024 ceremony, which will be taped on Sunday, Dec. 8, and will air on CBS two weeks later on Dec. 22. It is Latifah’s first time as host. She joins a short list of previous or future Kennedy Center Honorees […]
11/25/2024
Surprise the music fan in your life with a celeb-approved gift they’re sure to dance with excitement over.
11/25/2024