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19 Nov 2023

Jermaine Dupri, Ludacris & T.I. Salute ‘Hip-Hop Through the Charts’ for 2023 Billboard Music Awards

In addition to honoring the top hitmakers of the year, the 2023 Billboard Music Awards are also celebrating hip-hop’s 50th anniversary with the invaluable assistance of three rap pioneers.

“Hip-Hop Through the Charts” finds Jermaine Dupri, Ludacris and T.I. sharing insider memories about their various career-building Billboard chart achievements as well as their reflections on hip-hop’s musical and cultural impact.

Watch all three interviews below with Vibe editor Datwon Thomas for illuminating sound bites excerpted from the trio’s individual chats :

Jermaine Dupri on…

“Money Ain’t a Thang,” featuring Jay-Z, from Dupri’s 1998 debut studio album Life in 1472 (No. 3 on Billboard 200; No. 1 for two weeks on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums): “When I did ‘Money Ain’t a Thang,’ the company, Columbia, they didn’t have really no idea what Jay-Z meant to the culture. They were actually asking me like: Why did I want this song to be my first single when I had ‘Sweetheart’ with Mariah [Carey]? … They thought they could do more with ‘Sweetheart.’ It’s crazy, because that’s just like this era and this time of these 30 years ago. [It] was such a learning period for so many people.”

Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby” (Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 for two weeks, 1996): “That record taught me that it wasn’t really about first and second singles. It’s just about great songs.”

Ludacris on…

What hip-hop means to him: “Hip-hop is everything to me. It’s how we talk, it’s how we dress, it’s how we walk. … Like, everything I do is to give back to the culture that gave me.”

Usher’s “Yeah!” featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris (Hot 100 No. 1 for 12 weeks, 2004): “Soon as Lil Jon sent me the record, I was like, ‘This is out of here’ before I even got my verse on there. That’s why you see me at the beginning of the record, a verse, and at the end: ‘Take that and rewind it back.’ I’m trying to get on as many parts of the record as possible. I knew what it was. It’s crossed three generations. … That’s when you have the hit record of a lifetime.”

T.I. on…

His long and successful career in hip-hop: “Man, it feels like a lot of work, a lot of hard work that paid off. I’m the proudest of the music we made then. It inspired so much to happen that has evolved to still be relevant now.”

“Whatever You Like” (Hot 100 No. 1 for seven weeks, 2008): “I think that was my first solo No. 1. We was on a run, you dig? And had a great time in spite of a pretty dark moment that I was going through. I was fighting a fed case and preparing for prison. My whole thing was just focus on doing the most we can … being as productive as we can and progressive as we can with this time. And ‘Whatever You Like’ was definitely the catalyst of that moment.”

19 Nov 2023

David Guetta Shares the Story Behind Making ‘I’m Good (Blue)’ With Bebe Rexha | Billboard Music Awards 2023

David Guetta shares the story behind making his hit song “I’m Good (Blue)” with Bebe Rexha at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards Presented by Marriott Bonvoy.

David Guetta
The story of “I’m Good” is actually crazy because we’re just jamming in the studio four years ago and we didn’t want to put it out really. I just played it as a tool in a DJ set and someone sampled it. It all started with TikTok because someone used it as a TikTok sound and now here we are a full year No. 1 Billboard. This is really incredible.

19 Nov 2023

Jack Harlow Unseats The Beatles For First U.K. No. 1 With ‘Lovin On Me’

Move over the Beatles, Jack Harlow is now in charge of the U.K. singles chart.

The Louisville rapper reaches the summit at the first attempt with “Lovin On Me” (via Atlantic), his fourth top 10 and debut leader on the national singles tally.

“Lovin On Me,” which samples Cadillac Dale’s 1995 R&B track “Whatever,” is the most-streamed track in the U.K. during the latest cycle, with 5.1 million streams, the Official Charts Company reports.

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Previously, Harlow cracked the top frame with 2021 Lil Nas X collaboration “Industry Baby” (No. 3 peak), 2022’s “First Class” (No. 2) and 2023 Jung Kook collab “3D” (No. 5). As previously reported, “Lovin On Me” is the new leader on Australia’s singles survey.

Also new to the Official U.K. Singles Chart, published Friday, Nov. 17, is Dua Lipa’s “Houdini” (Warner Records) which pulls a magic trick with its appearance at No. 2.

The first track from Lipa’s forthcoming third studio album, “Houdini” features production from Tame Impala maestro Kevin Parker and Danny L Harle. Lipa now boasts 14th U.K. top 10 hits, including four No. 1s.

After a record-setting stint at No. 1, and taking honors at the midweek stage of the chart race, the Beatles’ “last” song “Now And Then” (Apple Corps) is dislodged from the summit, tumbling 1-6.

Meanwhile, notes the OCC, drum & bass pair Chase & Status (Saul Milton and Will Kennard) become the first group to collect four simultaneous U.K. top 40 singles since 2010. The duo rack them up with “Baddadan” featuring Bou, Flowdan, IRAH, Triggah and Takura (down 9-10 via EMI), “Liquor and Cigarettes” with Hedex and ArrDee (unchanged at No. 17 via EMI), Stefflon Don collab “Selecta” (new at No. 27 via EMI) and “Disconnect” with Becky Hill (down 27-37 via Polydor).

British drill rapper Mazza L20 snags his first Official Singles Chart entry with “Murdaside” (Mazza L20), new at No. 18, while PinkPantheress and Central Cee arrive at No. 20 with “Nice to Meet You” (Columbia/ Parlophone). PinkPantheress already has three solo U.K. top 40 appearances, and Central Cee has 21.

Finally, the Christmas bells are ringing once again on the U.K. chart as yuletide favorites from Wham! and Mariah Carey make their annual pilgrimage into the top 40. Just one week after setting a record for the earliest appearance of a Christmas song on the tally, Wham‘s “Last Christmas” (Epic) improves 37-26 and “Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” (Columbia) lifts 40-28.

19 Nov 2023

Ludacris Breaks Down His Biggest Hits Through the Years | 2023 Billboard Music Awards 

Ludacris breaks down his biggest hits in Hip-Hop Through the Charts at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards Presented by Mariott Bonvoy.

Ludacris:
Hip-hop is everything to me. It’s how we talk, it’s how we dress, it’s how we walk. Like, everything that I do is to give back to the culture that gave me.

Datwon Thomas:
My man Luda, thank you for rocking with us on Billboard Music Awards.

Ludacris:
Always a pleasure, man. It’s always great. Let’s talk the hits, man.

Datwon Thomas:
Got a lot of them.

Ludacris:
Man, appreciate you, bro.

Datwon Thomas:
We are going to run the stats real quick.

Ludacris:
OK.

Datwon Thomas:
You have five Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s, four No. 1 albums, 56 charted singles.

Ludacris:
That’s dope.

Datwon Thomas:
That’s crazy, bro.

Ludacris:
It is crazy.

Datwon Thomas:
That’s crazy.

Ludacris:
I never knew that’s love. Wow.

Datwon Thomas:
I’m gonna start with “Money Maker” featuring Pharrell. You were on there for 25 weeks.

Ludacris:
I remember winning a Grammy for that single, man, and it was like a long time coming. It definitely put the stock up for them shows a little more. You could say that.

Datwon Thomas:
“Stand Up.” 2003. Twenty-eight weeks on.

Ludacris:
Yeah, man. My best memory of that is Irv Gotti. We were all at Def Jam. I just remember Irv coming up to us like, “That’s how you put out a first single right there.” For soon as he heard it, I was just like, yeah, man, we knew we had one man. It was like, tempo, you know, subject matter, just it was it was everything all balled in one.

Datwon Thomas:
And the video?

Ludacris:
Yeah, video with the big shoes. Yes. You know what I mean? So we made something that lasted.

Watch the interview above!

19 Nov 2023

2023 Billboard Music Awards: Behind-the-Scenes Photos

See all of the behind-the-scenes photos from the 2023 Billboard Music Awards in the gallery below.

Karol G

Karol G at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards at Line 204 in Los Angeles. The show will air on November 19, 2023 on BBMA.watch.

Christopher Polk

The 2023 Billboard Music Awards rolled out Sunday night (Nov. 19) across BBMAs.watch and BBMA and Billboard social channels, delivering eight brand-new performances, plus acceptance speeches from some of the night’s biggest winners.

But beyond the show, what went down behind the scenes?

Now that you’ve seen the 2023 BBMAs, you can enjoy all the backstage magic that went into creating these new performances.

We have photos from inside each of the night’s performances, including Mariah Carey’s winter wonderland; KAROL G’s water-soaked stage; Tate McRae’s “greedy” gala; NewJeans’ colorful display; Peso Pluma’s boxing ring; Bebe Rexha & David Guetta’s cinematic set; Stray Kids’ “S-Class” and “LALALALA” medley; and Morgan Wallen’s ballpark home run.

There are also backstage portraits of the performers and more moments you didn’t catch during Sunday’s show.

In a first-of-its-kind collaboration, the BBMAs and Spotify Fans First teamed up to identify fans who consumed the most hours of music over the past year and helped drive their favorite artists to the top spots on the Billboard charts. These fans received a “golden ticket” granting them access to attend the BBMA performances curated by their favorite artists. Marriott Bonvoy, Marriott’s travel program and marketplace, presented this year’s BBMAs. Other sponsors included Lexus, who surprised one lucky fan with VIP treatment with a private ride in a luxury Lexus vehicle to a one-of-a-kind performance.

See all of the behind-the-scenes photos from the 2023 Billboard Music Awards in the gallery below.

19 Nov 2023

Mariah Carey’s Production Manager & Creative Director Go Behind the Scenes of Her Performance | Billboard Music Awards 2023

Mariah Carey’s production designer and producer Rohit Kapoor and director, creative director and choreographer Debbie Allen share a behind-the-scenes look at the star’s performance of “All I Want For Christmas Is You” at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards Presented by Marriott Bonvoy.

Rohit Kapoor:
I’m Rohit Kapoor, and I’m production designer and producer on the show. You know, it all comes from the music. There’s nostalgia to it. There’s tradition to it. And for this performance, she really just wanted to kind of take us out of what we’re used to seeing for the song. But it still feels really Christmas and really magical. Everything really starts with Mariah, and she’s just this amazing collaborator. She really wanted it to be something different that we hadn’t seen, and exploring Christmas in the song in a different way. This process started, I think it was like, two in the morning, and I just texted her an image saying, “What do you think of this?” And it just led to us having a three-hour-long creative call, going back and forth on what she loved, and so we took that and we look to recreate that feeling and that look on stage. Debbie just added her magic to it, and she’s incredible, you know. She made this happen in two days.

Debbie Allen:
I’m Debbie Allen. I’m the creative director, the director and the choreographer for Mariah Carey’s performance. The concept started way before two days ago. But I’ve been working with Mariah Carey since her Butterfly Tour many many years ago.

Watch the full video above!

19 Nov 2023

Karol G’s Makeup Artist Patrick Ta on Creating Her BBMAs Look | Billboard Music Awards 2023

Karol G’s makeup artist, Patrick Ta, explains how they collaborated to create the makeup look for her Billboard Music Awards performance at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards Presented by Marriott Bonvoy.

Patrick Ta:
I’m Patrick Ta and I’m Karol’s makeup artist. I started working with Karol G almost three years ago and it has been such a delight because I feel like there’s not that many artists out there that like treat their team like family and she is definitely one of them. And she hugs you every single time she comes into the room, so it’s a really great environment to be in.

This is actually my first time doing a artist completely dancing, doing choreography, and singing in water. My first thought when I heard that she is going to be in water, being dragged in water, I was so nervous because we wanted to do a smokey eye. And obviously when there is sweat involved and when there is oil and when there is water, black makeup on the eye is definitely not something that you want to do. But we figured out a way to use black in her eye shadow. Just a little bit of like a black smudge in her water lines something to just make her eyes look a little sultry.

I am so excited for fans to recreate this look because it’s the whole entire package.

Watch the full video above!

19 Nov 2023

Jermaine Dupri Talks Working With Mariah Carey, Jay-Z & More | Billboard Music Awards 2023

Jermaine Dupri breaks down his biggest hip-hop hits throughout the years with Billboard and more for Hip-Hop Through the Charts at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards Presented by Marriott Bonvoy.

Jermaine Dupri:
Once I break through 20 on any song, you’ve got problems out of me. Especially if you’ve ever tried to combat what I’m doing.

Datwon Thomas:
First and foremost, man, congrats on all the love you’ve been getting lately, man, These flowers are coming in. They come in by the boatloads, man.

Jermaine Dupri:
Thank you.

Datwon Thomas:
How’s it been just being able to get all this love?

Jermaine Dupri:
This was a real true era of life that I would have hated to miss it.

Datwon Thomas:
Exactly. But it’s so funny you helped start it.

Jermaine Dupri:
Yeah.

Datwon Thomas:
You know, the endpoint is there. You’ve had your hand in over eighty Hot 100 hits. Twenty-eight top 10 hits on the Hot 100. It’s either you producing or writing. Your first album Life In 1472 man.

Jermaine Dupri:
Yeah.

Datwon Thomas:
Now, you’re stepping out, you’re like, “Yo, look, this is me. Here I am, I could rap. I can make beats and I make stars.”

Jermaine Dupri:
Yeah. It’s crazy because when I did “Money Ain’t A Thang,” the company, Columbia, they didn’t have really any idea what Jay-Z meant to the culture.

Datwon Thomas:
Right?

Jermaine Dupri:
Right. They were actually asking me like, why did I want the song to be my first single when I had “Sweetheart” with Mariah? And they thought they could do more with “Sweetheart” than they could do with “Money Ain’t A Thang.” And it’s crazy. Because like, that’s just this era and this time of these 30 years was such a learning period for so many people.

19 Nov 2023

Bebe Rexha’s Choreographer Shares Backstage Look at Bebe’s Performance | Billboard Music Awards 2023

Bebe Rexha’s choreographer Ruby shares a behind the scenes look at Bebe Rexha’s performance of “I’m Good (Blue)” and “One In A Million” with David Guetta at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards Presented by Marriott Bonvoy.

Ruby
I am Ruby and I am choreographing Bebe Rexha’s BBMAs performance it has been nothing but amazing. We’ve had so much fun in the rehearsal process and it has been such a collaborative experience getting in flow and, this is such an up tempo song so you know we’re hitting some steps. When it came to creative for this, it was really like just the location and some lights. The location is amazing and it’s such a unique space to be dancing in. But with that being said, there’s definitely some elements that we’re going to have to adapt to to make it be the best that it can be. They really gave me a lot of freedom when it came to the choreography and what I felt the movement direction should go for this. So it was very freeing and it felt really great to be trusted with this performance. This whole experience altogether has been amazing and I’m super thankful to be here.

19 Nov 2023

Morgan Wallen, Taylor Swift & More Set Records at 2023 Billboard Music Awards

Morgan Wallen amassed 11 Billboard Music Awards wins on Sunday (Nov. 19), which represented the greatest one-year tally by any artist since Drake received 12 awards in 2019. Taylor Swift won 10 BBMAs this year, bringing her career total to date to 39 – which puts her in a tie with Drake for the most of all time. (Drake won five awards this year to advance to that same total.)

Wallen won awards for both top Billboard 200 album (One Thing at a Time) and top Hot 100 song (“Last Night”). It’s the first time one artist has swept both of those key awards in the same year since Usher scored in 2004 with Confessions and his megahit “Yeah!” (featuring Lil Jon & Ludacris). (Note: The BBMAs were on hiatus from 2007-10.)

Wallen had previously won four BBMAs. His new career total of 15 awards puts him second only to Garth Brooks among country artists. Brooks has won 20 BBMAs.

Swift won top artist for the third time, which puts her in a tie with Drake for the most wins in that category. Swift also won top Billboard 200 artist for a record-extending sixth time, and top female artist for a record-extending fifth time.

Wallen thoroughly dominated the country categories, winning top country artist, top country album, top country song and top country tour.

Drake was equally dominant in the rap field, winning top rap artist for a record-extending fifth time, top rap tour for the second time, and top rap album (Her Loss) and top rap song (“Rich Flex”) for his successful collaboration with 21 Savage.

SZA and Zach Bryan were nearly as dominant in R&B and rock, respectively. SZA won top R&B female artist, top R&B album (SOS) and top R&B song (“Kill Bill”). But the award for top R&B touring artist went to Beyoncé.

Bryan won top rock artist, top rock album (American Heartbreak) and top rock song (“Something in the Orange”). But the award for top rock touring artist went to Coldplay.

Bryan and SZA each won four BBMAs this year. Bryan’s wins include the key category of top new artist. He was a first-time BBMAs winner. SZA had won two BBMAs previously.

21 Savage, Bad Bunny, Beyoncé and Miley Cyrus each won three awards. This brings Beyoncé’s total to 16, which puts her in a tie with Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey for the most BBMAs by a woman of color. Carey won a special Chart Achievement Award this year for the historic success of her single “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 every year from 2019 through 2022, and may return to the top spot this year as well.

Beyoncé and Bad Bunny nearly swept the top awards in their fields. Beyoncé won top dance/electronic artist and album (Renaissance), but the award for top dance/electronic song went to David Guetta and Bebe Rexha for “I’m Good (Blue).”

Bunny won top Latin artist for the fourth consecutive year and top Latin album for the third time in four years (Un Verano Sin Ti), but Eslabon Armado x Peso Pluma won top Latin song for “Ella Baila Sola.”

Fuerza Regida, KAROL G and The Weeknd each won two awards. Fuerza Regida won the all-genre top duo/group award over Eslabon Armado, Fifty Fifty, Grupo Frontera and Metallica. Impressively, three of these five groups come from the Latin music world.

The Weeknd’s two awards bring his career total to 22, which puts him in fourth place on the all-time BBMAs leaderboard, behind Drake and Swift with 39 each and Justin Bieber with 26. Garth Brooks is in fifth place all-time, with 20, followed by Adele, Usher and Kanye West, with 18 each.

Ye, as West is now known, won one award this year – top gospel artist. This is his fourth consecutive win in that category, which extends his record as the category leader. Kirk Franklin and Tasha Cobbs Leonard have each won twice in the category.

Lauren Daigle won top Christian artist for a record-extending fourth time.

Luke Combs was a finalist in 10 categories, but didn’t receive any BBMAs. He went up against the unstoppable Wallen in eight of those categories. Ariana Grande was a finalist in five categories and likewise didn’t win any. She lost to the red-hot Cyrus in three of those categories.

Metallica is the only rock group to be a finalist for the overall top duo/group award. So, one might logically expect them to win top rock/duo group. They lost to Arctic Monkeys. How can that be? These two awards measure success on different charts. The overall top duo/group award is based on performance on the Hot 100 and the Billboard 200. The top rock duo/group award is based on performance on Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs and Top Rock Albums charts.

Harry Styles’ “As It Was” was a finalist for top BB global (excl. U.S.) song. The song was released on April 1, 2022, seven months before the beginning of this year’s eligibility tracking period (Nov. 4, 2022 through Oct. 12, 2023). It’s remarkable that the song still had enough firepower to be a finalist when its first seven months of activity weren’t counted. You already knew the song was a monster hit. Here’s more proof.

The 2023 Billboard Music Awards Presented by Marriott Bonvoy took place Sunday night on BBMAs.watch and across BBMA and Billboard social channels.