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10 Jan 2024

Black Coffee Injured in ‘Severe Travel Accident’ in Argentina

South African house producer Black Coffee suffered injuries after being involved in a “severe travel accident” in Argentina.

A statement posted Wednesday (Jan. 10) on the artist’s Instagram account says that the situation occurred “on a flight en route to his scheduled show in Mar Del Plata. The incident resulted in unforeseen complications and left him with some injuries.”

“We can confirm that he is receiving the best possible medical attention and is surrounded by a supportive family and team,” the statement continues. “In respect of his privacy, we kindly request understanding and patience from the media and his fans.”

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The Grammy-winning producer had been scheduled to play a show at the nightclub Mute in Mar del Plata, a coastal city in Argentina’s Buenos Aires province. A representative for Black Coffee did not immediately respond to Billboard‘s request for comment.

“Despite the challenges presented,” the statement concludes, “Black Coffee is optimistic and recovering well! He looks forward to being back with you all very soon”

Black Coffee won for best dance/electronic music award at the 2022 Grammys for his album Subconsciously, becoming the first South African artist to ever get the prize. Born Nkosinathi Innocent Sizwe Maphumulo, the artist has been a fixture of the global electronic scene for nearly two decades and has long flown flags for both house music and the vibrant electronic scene of his native South Africa. He played a headlining show at Madison Square Garden in October.

“While I was working on this album, it was so important for me to make it accessible to as many people as possible,” the producer told Billboard of Subconsciously in 2022. “The album challenges many sounds and styles, all while staying true to my roots. I wanted to make an album that could be listened to not only in the car or in the club, but while you’re cleaning your house, going through a hard time and everything in between. It breaks boundaries, and I think that’s where the appeal ultimately lies.”

10 Jan 2024

Jennifer Lopez Drops Breezy, Sexy ‘Can’t Get Enough’ Single, Elaborate Wedding-Themed Video

Jennifer Lopez dropped the first single from her upcoming ninth album, This Is Me… Now (Feb. 16), on Wednesday (Jan. 10). The breezy, summery “Can’t Get Enough” was accompanied by a cinematic Dave Meyers-directed wedding-themed video that appears to make winking references to the singer’s love life.

“I’m still in love with you/ You know I can’t get enough/ I love that/ You know I can’t get enough/ You love that,” Lopez sings in a breathy voice over the beachy arrangement of the song co-written by the Shotgun Wedding star and produced at her home studio in Los Angeles alongside Rogét Chahayed (Doja Cat), HitBoy (Drake), and Jeff “Gitty” Gitelman (H.E.R); additional songwriting/production on the track comes from Angel Lopez (Jack Harlow), Drew Love (G-Eazy, The Chainsmokers), INK (Beyonce) and Prince Chrishan (Meek Mill, Chris Brown).

The sumptuous video opens with Lopez in a daring peekaboo bellybutton- and-thigh-baring wedding dress pledging “til death do us part” to her beloved (spoiler: it’s not hubby Ben Affleck) at a lavish, rain-soaked wedding as a skeptical attendee snipes, “I told you she couldn’t be alone.”

After the groom takes JLo’s veil off, the singer busts into the song, dancing in front of an enormous fountain amid a lush garden, waving her bouquet in the air as she sings, “I feel like startin’ somethin’/ You got my engine running,” while the wedding party fall in line for a dance routine. The happy couple jet off in a classic white convertible, with Lopez emerging in a new poufy white dress for the first dance, as the naysayer doubles down on a cynical bet about the couple’s chances. “This guy don’t stand a chance,” says another reception attendee.

The happy couple show off their dance moves as the groom transforms into a series of different men with an onlooker sneering, “third time’s a charm,” in a seeming winking reference to Lopez’s four marriages. “Don’t catch it, it’s cursed,” one of the guests says as Lopez tosses her bouquet. Cue an elaborate group dance number amid a rain of flower petals as the camera zooms in on Lopez dancing with her handful of grooms. The clip ends with a forlorn JLo staring out as the unseen men complain about her defensiveness and “constant criticism.”

The video — with a story by Meyers, Lopez and Chris Shafer — will be part of the upcoming This Is Me… Now: A Love Story, a Prime Video special debuting on Feb. 16 described as “a narrative-driven, cinematic musical odyssey, steeped in storytelling and mythology, humor and healing.” The special was co-written by Lopez and husband Affleck along with Matt Walton.

This Is Me… Now, Lopez’s first album in almost a decade, is available for pre-order here now. The follow-up to 2014’s A.K.A. will be available in a number of bespoke and limited edition versions, including a deluxe CD with a 40-page booklet featuring exclusive photos, standard vinyl in Lopez’s favorite color of green and eight additional exclusive vinyl configurations with a variety of covers and vinyl colors; fans can also order a signed vinyl with an emerald disc and exclusive cover available here.

A release accompanying the single describes the album as a collection featuring “an unprecedented rawness, vulnerability, and searing honesty,” crafted by Lopez as a “powerful and heartfelt ode to her journey of self healing and everlasting belief in fairy tale endings.” It promises a “rich tapestry of sounds and emotions, seamlessly blending elements of pop, R&B and hip-hop influences to create a fusion of genres,” with lyrics that plumb the highs and lows of “life, love, and relationships with unflinching honesty and introspection as she unveils a genuine story of growth, resilience, hard work, and the transformative power of self love.”

Additional producers on the album include: HitBoy, Tay Kieth, Yeti Beats, Carter Lang, Kim “Kaydence” Krysiuk, Jason Derulo, and Brandon Riester.

Watch the “Can’t Get Enough” video below.

10 Jan 2024

Paramore Teases a Talking Heads Cover in Collaboration With A24: Watch

Paramore is kicking off the new year with a special project with A24. The band announced Wednesday (Jan. 10) that it will be one of 16 artists to contribute a song to upcoming tribute album Stop Making Sense put together by the production company, sharing a sneak peek of its corresponding music video on Instagram. 

In the clip, frontwoman Hayley Williams opens a big cardboard box sent to her door and pulls out a large gray suit jacket — one that looks remarkably like the oversized staple worn by Talking Heads’ David Byrne. After exchanging confused looks with bandmates Taylor York and Zac Farro, she pulls a Talking Heads cassette tape off a shelf and the camera cuts to black. 

Then, a snippet of Paramore performing Talking Heads’ 1983 hit “Burning Down the House” plays. “Stop Making Sense. Track 1. Paramore x @A24 Music,” reads the band’s announcement on Instagram. 

“We’ve got a tape we’d like to play you,” adds A24 in a separate post. “16 tracks from 16 artists. Track 1: @paramore. Coming soon.” 

The upcoming project is a relief to fans who worried something was wrong with the pop-rock trio after Paramore’s social media accounts were wiped clean last week. The group also dropped out of this year’s iHeartRadio ALTer EGO show “due to unforeseen circumstances” without giving any explanation, only adding in a statement at the time, “The band apologizes for any inconvenience.” 

The “Still Into You” musicians also recently made headlines for being released from their 20-year contract with Atlantic Records, making Paramore a free agent. Their sixth album, This Is Why, arrived last February and peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200.  

See Paramore and A24’s announcements below: 

10 Jan 2024

Selena Gomez, Bradley Cooper & More Receive 2024 SAG Awards Nominations: Full List

For the third year in a row, Selena Gomez was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a comedy series for her role in Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, but passed over for a nod for outstanding performance by a female actor in a comedy series.

Two other artists who, like Gomez, have topped the Billboard Hot 100, are nominated for 2024 SAG Awards – Bradley Cooper for his performance as conductor Leonard Bernstein in Maestro, and Fantasia Barrino as part of the ensemble of The Color Purple.

Succession is this year’s top nominee. The HBO series is nominated for five awards – best drama ensemble plus individual acting nods to its stars Kieran Culkin, Jeremy Strong, Matthew Macfadyen and Sarah Snook. The Bear, The Last of Us and Ted Lasso were runners-up on the TV side with four nods each.

On the film side, Barbie and Oppenheimer were the top nominees with four nods each, followed by American Fiction and Killers of the Flower Moon with three nods each.

The nominees for best film ensemble – the closest thing at the SAG Awards to the Oscar for best picture – are American Fiction, Barbie, The Color Purple, Killers of the Flower Moon and Oppenheimer.

Comedy and drama performances are combined in the SAG film awards, but are handled separately in their TV awards. Nominees for best TV comedy ensemble are Abbott Elementary (which won last year), Barry, The Bear, Only Murders in the Building and Ted Lasso (which won in 2022).

Nominees for TV drama ensemble are The Crown (which won in 2020-21), The Gilded Age, The Last of Us, The Morning Show and Succession (which won in 2022). These are the first nominations in this category for both The Gilded Age and The Last of Us.

Everything Everywhere All at Once made history at last year’s SAG Awards, becoming the first film to win four awards – best film ensemble plus individual honors for Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis and Ke Huy Quan. This success was repeated at the Oscars two weeks later, where the film won best picture and those three actors also won.

The 30th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, produced by SAG-AFTRA and Silent House Productions, will stream live on Netflix on Saturday, Feb. 24, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT from the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall in Los Angeles. This will mark the show’s live debut on Netflix. Last year’s ceremony was broadcast on Netflix’s YouTube page.

The awards are voted on by SAG-AFTRA’s membership of 119,515 eligible voters, the largest voting body on the awards circuit. Final voting opens on Wednesday, Jan. 17, and closes at noon PT on Friday, Feb. 23.

As previously announced, Barbra Streisand will receive the 2024 SAG Lifetime Achievement Award. She is the 59th recipient of the tribute; she follows Sally Field, who received it during the 2023 telecast.

Here’s the complete list of nominees for the 2024 Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Motion Pictures

Outstanding performance by a male actor in a leading role

Bradley Cooper – Maestro

Colman Domingo – Rustin

Paul Giamatti – The Holdovers

Cillian Murphy – Oppenheimer

Jeffrey Wright – American Fiction

Outstanding performance by a female actor in a leading role

Annette Bening – Nyad

Lily Gladstone – Killers of the Flower Moon

Carey Mulligan – Maestro

Margot Robbie – Barbie

Emma Stone – Poor Things

Outstanding performance by a male actor in a supporting role

Sterling K. Brown – American Fiction

Willem Dafoe – Poor Things

Robert De Niro – Killers of the Flower Moon

Robert Downey Jr. – Oppenheimer

Ryan Gosling – Barbie

Outstanding performance by a female actor in a supporting role

Emily Blunt – Oppenheimer

Danielle Brooks – The Color Purple

Penélope Cruz – Ferrari

Jodie Foster – Nyad

Da’vine Joy Randolph – The Holdovers

Outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture

American Fiction — Erika Alexander, Adam Brody, Sterling K. Brown, Keith David, John Ortiz, Issa Rae, Tracee Ellis Ross, Leslie Uggams, Jeffrey Wright

Barbie — Michael Cera, Will Ferrell, America Ferrera, Ryan Gosling, Ariana Greenblatt, Kate Mckinnon, Helen Mirren, Rhea Perlman, Issa Rae, Margot Robbie

The Color Purple — Halle Bailey, Fantasia Barrino, Jon Batiste, Danielle Brooks, Ciara, Colman Domingo, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Louis Gossett, Jr., Corey Hawkins, Taraji P. Henson, Phylicia Pearl Mpasi, H.E.R.

Killers of the Flower Moon — Tantoo Cardinal, Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brendan Fraser, Lily Gladstone, John Lithgow, Jesse Plemons

Oppenheimer — Casey Affleck, Emily Blunt, Kenneth Branagh, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Josh Hartnett, Rami Malek, Cillian Murphy, Florence Pugh

Television

Outstanding performance by a male actor in a television movie or limited series

Matt Bomer – Fellow Travelers

Jon Hamm – Fargo

David Oyelowo – Lawmen: Bass Reeves

Tony Shalhoub – Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie

Steven Yeun – Beef

Outstanding performance by a female actor in a television movie or limited series

Uzo Aduba – Painkiller

Kathryn Hahn – Tiny Beautiful Things

Brie Larson – Lessons in Chemistry

Bel Powley – A Small Light

Ali Wong – Beef

Outstanding performance by a male actor in a drama series

Brian Cox – Succession

Billy Crudup – The Morning Show

Kieran Culkin – Succession

Matthew Macfadyen – Succession

Pedro Pascal – The Last of Us

Outstanding performance by a female actor in a drama series

Jennifer Aniston – The Morning Show

Elizabeth Debicki – The Crown

Bella Ramsey – The Last of Us

Keri Russell – The Diplomat

Sarah Snook – Succession

Outstanding performance by a male actor in a comedy series

Brett Goldstein – Ted Lasso

Bill Hader – Barry

Ebon Moss-Bachrach – The Bear

Jason Sudeikis – Ted Lasso

Jeremy Allen White – The Bear

Outstanding performance by a female actor in a comedy series

Alex Borstein – The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Rachel Brosnahan – The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Quinta Brunson – Abbott Elementary

Ayo Edebiri – The Bear

Hannah Waddingham – Ted Lasso

Outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series

The Crown — Khalid Abdalla, Sebastian Blunt, Bertie Carvel, Salim Daw, Elizabeth Debicki, Luther Ford, Claudia Harrison, Lesley Manville, Ed McVey, James Murray, Jonathan Pryce, Imelda Staunton, Marcia Warren, Dominic West, Olivia Williams

The Gilded Age — Ben Ahlers, Ashlie Atkinson, Christine Baranski, Denée Benton, Nicole Brydon Bloom, Michael Cerveris, Carrie Coon, Kelley Curran, Taissa Farmiga, David Furr, Jack Gilpin, Ward Horton, Louisa Jacobson, Simon Jones, Sullivan Jones, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Nathan Lane, Matilda Lawler, Robert Sean Leonard, Audra McDonald, Debra Monk, Donna Murphy, Kristine Nielsen, Cynthia Nixon, Kelli O’Hara, Patrick Page, Harry Richardson, Taylor Richardson, Blake Ritson, Jeremy Shamos, Douglas Sills, Morgan Spector, John Douglas Thompson, Erin Wilhelmi

The Last of Us — Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey

The Morning Show — Jennifer Aniston, Nicole Beharie, Shari Belafonte, Nestor Carbonell, Billy Crudup, Mark Duplass, Jon Hamm, Theo Iyer, Hannah Leder, Greta Lee, Julianna Margulies, Tig Notaro, Karen Pittman, Reese Witherspoon

Succession — Nicholas Braun, Juliana Canfield, Brian Cox, Kieran Culkin, Dagmara Dominczyk, Peter Friedman, Justine Lupe, Matthew MacFadyen, Arian Moayed, Scott Nicholson, David Rasche, Alan Ruck, Alexander Skarsgård, J. Smith-Cameron, Sarah Snook, Fisher Stevens, Jeremy Strong, Zoë Winters

 Outstanding performance by an ensemble in a comedy series

Abbott Elementary — Quinta Brunson, William Stanford Davis, Janelle James, Chris Perfetti, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Lisa Ann Walter, Tyler James Williams

Barry — Anthony Carrigan, Sarah Goldberg, Zachary Golinger, Bill Hader, Andre Hyland, Fred Melamed, Charles Parnell, Stephen Root, Tobie Windham, Henry Winkler, Robert Wisdom

The Bear — Lionel Boyce, Jose Cervantes Jr., Liza Colón-Zayas, Ayo Edebiri , Abby Elliott, Richard Estera, Edwin Lee Gibson, Molly Gordon, Corey Hendrix, Matty Matheson, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Oliver Platt, Jeremy Allen White

Only Murders in the Building — Gerald Caesar, Michael Cyril Creighton, Linda Emond, Selena Gomez, Allison Guinn, Steve Martin, Ashley Park, Don Darryl Rivera, Paul Rudd, Jeremy Shamos, Martin Short, Meryl Streep, Wesley Taylor, Jason Veasey, Jesse Williams

Ted Lasso — Annette Badland, Kola Bokinni, Edyta Budnik, Adam Colborne, Phil Dunster, Cristo Fernández, Kevin “Kg” Garry, Brett Goldstein, Billy Harris, Anthony Head, Brendan Hunt, Toheeb Jimoh, James Lance, Nick Mohammed, Jason Sudeikis, Jeremy Swift, Juno Temple, Hannah Waddingham, Bronson Webb, Katy Wix

Stunt Ensembles

Outstanding action performance by a stunt ensemble in a motion picture

Barbie

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

John Wick: Chapter 4

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

Outstanding action performance by a stunt ensemble in a television series

Ahsoka

Barry

Beef

The Last of Us

The Mandalorian

10 Jan 2024

StockX Lays Off 40 Execs, CMO Gets Pink Slip Too

HipHopWired Featured Video

StockX x Air Jordan 11 Cherry

Source: StockX / StockX

After a tumultuous 2022 and 2023, the struggles for StockX seem to be following them into 2024. The embattled sneaker reselling site is undergoing yet another round of layoffs to kick off the new year.

According to Nice Kicks, 40 corporate members were recently given the pink-slip including the company’s Chief Marketing Officer, Deena Bahri, who undertook the role back in the fall of 2019. On the bright side, those who were laid off were blessed with severance packages including health benefits, extended stock option exercise window, professional outplacement services, employee assistance plan (i.e. mental health support) and 401K match vesting. Heck, they were even given the option to keep their company laptops.

You’d think they’d be given some free sneakers as well, but who knows if they’d be authentic (no shots).

Nicekicks reports:

As a result of the layoffs, senior leadership positions were consolidated and several senior team members from within the organization are expected to serve in new capacities.

“Our business is multifaceted and continues to evolve. To better align with StockX’s current strategic priorities, today we announced an organizational restructuring,” stated a statement via StockX. “This includes consolidating and shifting several leadership roles to create a flatter, more streamlined organization that enables faster decision-making, increased visibility, and better cross-functional collaboration. We remain focused on our mission to empower everyone to trade what they love and thank the many team members who have contributed to this effort.”

How this will help the company, which has developed a reputation for passing off bootleg sneakers as “authentic” over the years is anyone’s guess. But it will be interesting to see if StockX actually has a plan to redeem their once fine name in the sneaker community.

What do y’all think of StockX’s latest moves? Can they save whatever’s left of their reputation? If so, how? Let us know in the comments section. In the meantime, peep the video below to see just how far StockX’s reputation has fallen thus far.

10 Jan 2024

Country’s Killing It, Hip-Hop’s Slipping and Taylor Swift Could Be Her Own Genre

By almost every metric, the music business in 2023 has been defined by Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen. Collectively, they have led the Billboard 200 and the Hot 100 for 23 of the 52 weeks of the year, with Swift topping Billboard’s year-end Top Artists chart and Wallen ruling both the year-end Billboard 200 Albums and Hot 100 Songs charts with One Thing at a Time and “Last Night,” respectively.

Combined, the two recording artists have an astounding 2.49% in overall U.S. album consumption unit market share, according to Luminate. (Year-to-year percentages are based on data from Dec. 29, 2022, through Dec. 28, 2023.) Their domination underscores a year of explosive growth for country — of the two rerecorded albums Swift released in 2023, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) qualified in the genre — which is up 21.8% year over year. That’s almost double the 12.6% year-to-year growth of recorded music overall for the same period and nearly five times the 4.8% increase the genre had from 2021 to 2022.

Country music accounted for 8.40% of the recorded-music market in 2023, up from 7.76% the year prior — and Swift and Wallen weren’t the only acts fueling those gains. Hit albums by Zach Bryan, Luke Combs and Bailey Zimmerman helped country’s current market share — defined as releases that arrived within the past 18 months — surge from 7.97% to 10.37% year over year, a 30% gain. And while that’s only good enough for third place when the genres are ranked by current market share, No. 1 hip-hop and No. 2 pop both fell year over year: the former from 26.72 % to 22.32%, the latter from 13.07% to 11.13%.

Country’s growth almost outstripped Latin music’s strides. Which isn’t to say Latin had a down year — the genre grew 21.9% year over year, the third-highest mark in the industry, largely due to the mainstream success of such new acts as Peso Pluma and Eslabon Armado, and its volume growth (13.5 million units year over year) bested that of pop (11.6 million). In 2021, Latin’s share of the overall industry was 6.33%; in 2023 that number has jumped to 6.86%, and its 37.8 billion on-demand streams for current releases is the third-highest among genres.

R&B/Hip-Hop Slips Again

R&B/hip-hop remains firmly entrenched as the No. 1 U.S. genre with 25.27% of the market, largely because of its outsize percentage of on-demand streams. (The genre accounts for more than one in four streams.) But some metrics indicate that hip-hop’s dominance — it commanded nearly 30% of the overall market in 2020 — may be waning.

The genre’s market share has dipped every year since that 2020 peak, as has its share of on-demand streams, which stood at 30.11% in 2021 and is now at 26.63%. Current consumption of R&B/hip-hop has also slipped 7.4% from 2022 to 2023 and is down in every format for the same period — including the genre’s strong suit, streams, which dropped 7.0% to 93.2 billion. Despite No. 1 Billboard 200 releases from Travis Scott, Drake and Rod Wave, among others, hip-hop albums have continued to lose share since the midyear headlines that the genre had not produced any full-length chart-toppers. That said, its 93.2 billion current streams is more than double the 38.8 billion racked up by 2023’s second-place genre, pop, which sustained overall growth this year. And while R&B/hip-hop’s overall growth, at 5.9%, was 10th among genres, it finished third on that metric in overall volume, adding 15.6 million equivalent album units over last year, behind only rock and country.

Tipping The Sales Scales

While overall album sales have seesawed over the last few years, they have shown growth this year — up 5.2% after a down 2022. Driving sales once again is rock, which has a monumentally large share of the market: 41.47% of all album sales and 43.36% of physical sales. Those numbers are larger than the next four genres — R&B/hip-hop, pop, country and World music, in that order — combined and largely stem from immense catalog sales. Rock sales account for 47.50% of the entire catalog category — defined as music older than 18 months — a 4.0% year-over-year increase. Rock catalog album sales totaled 30.8 million units in 2023, more than the combined sales — current and catalog — of the next two genres, pop and R&B/hip-hop.

Latin music’s album sales growth is the inverse of rock. With just 0.57% of overall album sales in 2023, the genre ranks 14th out of the 15 core genres tracked by Luminate — lower than blues, jazz, classical and holiday/seasonal. Only new age placed below it.

Like hip-hop, Latin’s huge overall growth comes mostly from on-demand audio streams, but also a big chunk of the on-demand video streaming market, 10.0%, which is larger than its 6.86% overall market share. Pop is the only other genre on this chart where its market share of on-demand video streams exceeds its overall percentage by that much: 17.35% to 12.33%.

World Music’s Gains

Latin is just one genre of non-English-­language music that occupies more and more of the mainstream U.S. music market. The umbrella genre of World music, which includes K-pop and Afrobeats, among other styles, has grown massively. In 2019, World music accounted for 1.69% of the overall industry; in 2023, that’s up to 2.73%, a 35.3% jump. That growth is most evident when looking at album sales. World music captured 6.93% of the market this year, with physical sales totaling 7.96% of that figure. The bulk of those sales is attributable to K-pop, which surged 88.8% year over year. Afrobeats also had a big impact on the genre, particularly in on-demand streaming, where it was up 54.3% year over year.

Titanic Taylor

Swift’s dominance of music and popular culture this year has been well documented. But how big is she in genre terms? With 18.89 million in album consumption units so far this year, her industry market share is 1.79%. If Swift was her own genre, she’d rank at No. 9 based on the data used here — just a few thousand units shy of Christian/gospel’s 1.76% market share and ahead of children music’s 1.11%. In 2023, Taylor Swift is bigger than jazz.

10 Jan 2024

Matt Stell ‘Boots’ Up 2024 With a High-Energy Heartbreak Drama

One of the most engaging singles of Carrie Underwood’s early career was “Cowboy Casanova,” a warning to other women about a “snake with blue eyes” posing for his next victim in a barroom, delivered as big, KISS-quality guitars bashed out power chords underneath.

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Matt Stell’s “Breakin’ In Boots” is the male version of that song. Though the artist says, “I’ve never thought about that,” the similarities are all there: the night-spot locale, the exhortation to another guy about the danger an alluring female patron poses and even a reference to snakeskin. In this case, the serpentine comment is a note about the other man’s leather boots, but it’s easy to see the reptillian innuendo as an allusion to the woman’s forked tongue.

More than anything, it’s Stell paying homage to an item in his own closet.

“Years ago, I bought this pair of boots that I had no business buying,” he says. “It took them, I don’t know, about a year’s time to make ‘em. They drew ‘em to my foot and made ‘em and I remember when those boots came in. I’ll be married and buried in those boots. They’re python.”

The storyline of “Breakin’ In Boots” is personal, too. Stell had spotted a woman at a Nashville bar in March wearing boots that looked quite similar to his. He was in the process of closing his tab, and by the time he was free to go introduce himself and compare footwear, she was gone.

Within a few days, Stell staked out a writers room at Apple Music’s office in Nashville’s Wedgewood-Houston district for a local writing retreat. After a morning co-write, he shared the space that afternoon with writer-producer Joe Fox (“Last Night Lonely”); Los Angeles-based Nate Cyphert (“H.O.L.Y.”); and Ben Stennis (“’Til You Can’t,” “Make You Mine”), who presented the “Breakin’ In Boots” title. Everyone liked it, particularly Stell.

“The great thing about Stell,” says Stennis, “is he knows what he wants to do, and he’s very direct about it.”

The title allowed them to paint a barroom Barbie as someone who gets a kick out of using and abusing men’s emotions, and it was ideal for an aggressive musical framework, which would assist Stell’s concerts. With that in mind, Fox kicked into a four-chord progression on guitar that’s either in the key of C-major or the related A-minor; since each chord keeps rolling into the next, the home base isn’t as clear as it would have been if they were adhering to the rules that guided music-theory icon J.S. Bach.

“If you understand Bach, you could definitely understand Matt Stell,” Fox deadpans.

Stell wanted to drop John Anderson’s “Straight Tequila Night” in the opening line – that 1992 chart-topper documented a similarly bitter beauty – and it set a proper tone, but the writing wasn’t entirely linear. They bounced a bit between the opening verse and chorus.

“It’s like tightening up the lug nuts on a tire you’re changing,” Stell says. “You get them all started, and then you cinch ‘em down in kind of a star pattern. You don’t go one after the other. Somehow that kind of works.”

Midway through the chorus, they ID’d the woman as a “cowboy killer” who’s “shootin’” bourbon.

“Cowboy Killer” was a title Stell had tried to write previously – it’s also been the hook for album cuts by Jason Aldean and by Ian Munsick and Ryan Charles. And Dustin Lynch named his current album Killed the Cowboy.

“We all grew up talking about Marlboros being cowboy killers, at least in Georgia,” Stennis says. “We knew cigarettes are called cowboy killers, and so we kind of just thought calling a girl a cowboy killer instead was kind of cool.”

It certainly implies that she’s smokin’…

“Smokin’ cigarettes or just smokin’ beautiful,” Stennis quips. “Either one.”

The writing progressed without a lot of setbacks, but “Boots” still needed a bridge, and maybe a little more work on the second verse. Apple, unfortunately, was closing up shop for the day, and since they had maybe just a half-hour of work left, they went out to Stell’s Ford F-150 in the parking lot and kept writing there in public, undeterred by the prospect of passersby hearing their unfinished work.

“I didn’t really think about it at the time,” Cyphert says. “But I think we were excited about the song and were pretty wrapped up in it. We already had the chorus where we knew there’s something here. So I think that we didn’t even put that much thought into who could have heard or who was walking about.”

Despite that public-facing scenario, the parking lot is where “Boots” reached its most vulnerable moment. They fashioned a bridge that temporarily broke the repetitive chord structure, and the singer doubled down on his warning that the smokin’-hot woman would leave potential suitors broken. He implied that he had firsthand knowledge.

“Bridges are always my favorite part of the song,” Cyphert notes. “I think it’s nice to give a listener one more new little piece of something before you launch them back into a chorus, and in this case, I feel like the bridge is the most emotional part of the song. It’s kind of the soft side of the whole situation.”
In the ensuing days, Stennis built a demo with a four-on-the-floor drum pattern that felt sort of danceable. Stell liked it, but had other ideas, and asked Fox to work something up with a little more of a rock tone. Fox infused more dynamics into it, paring back at the end of the first verse to a haunting piano background, which made the launch of the anthemic chorus even more pronounced. He also developed a down chorus for the post-bridge section, and rolled in a high-energy banjo part on the chorus to amp it even further.

“There’s a banjo on meth cranking through that song,” Stennis says.

Stell began using “Breakin’ In Boots” as the closer for his concerts almost immediately, replacing “Shut The Truck Up.” They subsequently recorded the final master at the Black River compound on Nashville’s Music Row during the summer with a cadre of studio musicians playing on top of Fox’s demo. Most of his playing on that demo bit the dust, though some of it remained intact.

“I would have programmed drums, but those would be replaced,” Fox says. “It was mostly the little things [that stayed in] — the baritone electric guitar that’s in there, that’s my guitar from the demo. Same with some of the other guitars that are in there, and there was my banjo from the demo.”

RECORDS Nashville released “Breakin’ In Boots” to digital service providers on Oct. 6, then shipped it to country radio via PlayMPE on Nov. 6. The woman who inspired it will likely never know she’s the subject.

And Stell still doesn’t know if she really is the heartbreaker the song implies.

“She could have very well been,” he allows. “I never got a chance to find out.”

10 Jan 2024

Reneé Rapp Says Megan Thee Stallion Has the ‘Best A–‘: ‘I’ve Actually Never Seen Anything Like This!’

We all know and love The Plastics: Regina, Gretchen, Karen and … Megan? In a new Extra interview, Mean Girls star Reneé Rapp gushes over Megan Thee Stallion and recounts her journey with the character of Regina George.

“It’s been like five years of my life now,” Rapp joked. “I’m milking this IP for jobs until I can’t anymore.” Before taking Regina George to the big screen in the new Mean Girls movie musical, Rapp portrayed the character in the Broadway stage musical for several months during 2019-2020. The original Broadway production of Mean Girls earned 12 Tony nominations. Although her stint on The Great White Way eventually gave way to her reprisal of the role in the film adaptation, Rapp quipped, “I’m tired of wearing pink! I’ve had it, I’m good on it!”

Rapp handles most of the film’s soundtrack — alongside co-stars Auliʻi Cravalho, Jaquel Spivey and Avantika — and she even co-wrote and recorded some new original songs for the album. In addition to co-writing “What If’s” with Nell Benjamin, Rapp collaborated with Grammy-winning rapper Megan Thee Stallion for the single “Not My Fault.” Paired with a pink-tastic choreography-laced music video, “Not My Fault” features the two stars thriving in all of their plastic glory. The pair’s joint dance scenes have gone viral across social media, and those happened to be the scenes that made Rapp swoon.

“Actually best a– I’ve ever seen in my life,” she gushed. “We were in dance rehearsal and I was like, ‘Wow, this is incredible! ‘I’ve actually never seen anything like this.” “Not My Fault” has so far peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 — Rapp’s first entry on any Billboard singles chart. The “Tummy Hurts” singer — who unleashed Snow Angel, her Billboard 200-charting debut studio album last year (No. 44) — continued: “I’m a true Meg supporter. I hate that other man, so I love Megan Thee Stallion. I love her. If anybody tries her when it comes to that sorry a– man, it’s a do or die fight for me.”

Rapp is likely referencing Tory Lanez, the Canadian rapper and singer who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot back in 2020. On the Mean Girls premiere red carpet Monday (Jan. 8), Megan told Entertainment Tonight, “I love Reneé. As soon as I met her I was like, ‘Oh, you my friend. OK.’ I love it. I love her and I love Mean Girls!”

Mean Girls hits theatres this Friday, Jan. 12, and the accompanying soundtrack will be available on all digital streaming platforms the same day.

Watch Rapp chat about Megan Thee Stallion below.

10 Jan 2024

House Lawmakers Unveil No AI FRAUD Act in Push for Federal Protections for Voice, Likeness

A bipartisan group of U.S. House lawmakers announced a new bill on Wednesday (Jan. 10) that regulates the use of AI for cloning voices and likenesses. Called the No Artificial Intelligence Fake Replicas And Unauthorized Duplications Act of 2023 (“No AI FRAUD” Act), the bill aims to establish a federal framework for protecting one’s voice and likeness and lays out First Amendment protections.

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More federal and state legislation regulating artificial intelligence is expected to be announced later today, including a bill from Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee also regarding AI voice and likeness cloning. On Jan. 5, Gov. Lee hinted at the subject of his forthcoming legislation: “As the technology landscape evolves with artificial intelligence, we’re proud to lead the nation in proposing legal protection for our best-in-class artists and songwriters.”

The No AI FRAUD Act was introduced by Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL), the lead Republican sponsor of the bill, alongside Reps. Madeleine Dean (D-PA), Nathaniel Moran (R-TX), Joe Morelle (D-NY) and Rob Wittman (R-VA). It is said to be based on the Senate discussion draft Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe Act (“NO FAKES” Act), which was announced last October.

“It’s time for bad actors using AI to face the music,” said Rep. Salazar. “This bill plugs a hole in the law and gives artists and U.S. citizens the power to protect their rights, their creative work, and their fundamental individuality online.”

AI voice synthesis technology poses a new problem and opportunity for recording artists. While some laud it as a novel marketing, creative or fan engagement tool, it also leaves artists vulnerable to uncanny impersonations that could confuse, scam or mislead the public.

An artists’ voice, image or likeness may be covered by “right of publicity” laws which protect them from commercial exploitation without authorization, but this is a right that varies state by state. The No AI FRAUD Act aims to establish a harmonized baseline of protection. Still, if one lives in a state with an even stronger right of publicity law than the No AI FRAUD Act, that state protection is still viable, and may be easier to address in court.

This bill is keeping with regulations that a number of music business executives, including those at Sony, ASCAP, UMG, have called for in recent months — following incidents like the viral fake-Drake song “Heart On My Sleeve.”

Mitch Glazier, chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), released a statement, showing support for the No AI FRAUD Act. “The No AI FRAUD Act is a meaningful step towards building a safe, responsible and ethical AI ecosystem, and the RIAA applauds Representatives Salazar, Dean, Moran, Morelle, and Wittman for leading in this important area. To be clear, we embrace the use of AI to offer artists and fans new creative tools that support human creativity. But putting in place guardrails like the No AI FRAUD Act is a necessary step to protect individual rights, preserve and promote the creative arts, and ensure the integrity and trustworthiness of generative AI. As decades of innovation have shown, when Congress establishes strong IP rights that foster market-led solutions, it results in both driving innovation and supporting human expression and partnerships that create American culture.”

Lucian Grainge, chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group, also shared his praise for the new bill in a statement: “Universal Music Group strongly supports the ‘No AI FRAUD Act’ because no one should be permitted to steal someone else’s image, likeness or voice. While we have an industry-leading track record of enabling AI in the service of artists and creativity, AI that uses their voice or identity without authorization is unacceptable and immoral. We call upon Congress to help put an end to nefarious deepfakes by enacting this federal right of publicity and ensuring that all Americans are protected from such harm.” 

10 Jan 2024

This Is The Way: The Mandalorian & Grogu Announced By Lucasfilm

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'The Mandalorian & Grogu' Film Goes Into Production This Year

Source: Lucasfilm / The Mandalorian & Grogu

This isn’t shocking news, but it’s very much welcomed. Tuesday, Lucasfilm announced that Din Djarin and his lovable sidekick, Grogu, aka Baby Yoda’s adventure, will also reach the big screen.

This is the way.

The Mandalorian and his trusty sidekick lived on Disney+ for three seasons, with rumblings of the duo possibly teaming up for the feature-length film.

Finally, Lucasfilm has made the dreams of fans of The Mandalorian come true by announcing that a film based on Star Wars favorite duo is happening with Jon Favreau directing and producing alongside Kathleen Kennedy and the current architect of the Star Wars universe, Dave Filoni.

The film’s name will be The Mandalorian & Grogu, but it’s always subject to change. Production of the movie will begin later this year.

The Star Wars film franchise has been in limbo following 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, closing the chapter of The Skywalker saga and leaving fans arguing about how good the last three films were.

A Rogue Squadron movie from Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins was originally on the slate before Disney removed it from the slate. It looks like the House of the Mouse is relying on one of its most popular franchises to reinvigorate the Star Wars film machine.

Lucasfilm wasn’t done with the announcements. Fans of the most recent Star Wars Disney+ series, Ahsoka, starring Rosario Dawson, will be happy to learn the show will be getting a second season.

The production company announced that the show’s next season is in development, and Dave Filoni will oversee the project.

It looks like the future is bright for Star Wars fans.

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Photo: Lucasfilm / The Mandalorian & Grogu