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From artists to executives, hip-hop luminaries flooded Academy LA on Thursday (Nov. 17) night in Los Angeles to celebrate Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players event.
Billboard cover stars Future (who opened up about fatherhood and marriage) and SZA (who promises her new album S.O.S. is finally for real coming) were in attendance, as was Amazon Music’s Head of Hip-Hop & R&B Tim Hinshaw, who is Billboard’s executive of the year, topping our annual R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players list.
“When I thought about the [music industry] landscape, it was like, ‘Amazon is already in everybody’s homes,’ ” Hinshaw told Billboard of his initial strategy. “I knew if I could authentically bridge the gap between company and artist and tell that story to consumers in an authentic way, I could help Amazon be a major player in this entertainment space.”
City Girls and Flo Milli performed, bringing down the house late into the night. Past Billboard cover star Pusha T was also in attendance, as was our rookie of the year Blxst, who has worked with everyone from Kehlani to Kendrick Lamar in 2022.
“I’m more about the art,” Blxst told Billboard about his approach to collaborating. “If I’m a fan of the song or if it fits with the direction that I’m going in, I’mma jump on a song off the strength. If I don’t like it, I’mma just not do it.”
SAINt JHN stopped by, as did Isabel Laurent, Sylvia Rhone and many more. See who else chopped it up at Billboard’s 2022 R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players event.
The 2022 Latin Grammy Awards are finally here, taking over the Michelob Ultra Arena at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas on Thursday (Nov. 17).
The Latin Recording Academy announced this year’s nominees back in September, with Bad Bunny leading the way with 10 nods. Mexican songwriter and producer Edgar Barrera follows closely with nine nominations, while Rosalía and Rauw Alejandro both have eight. Christina Aguilera, Jorge Drexler and Tainy have seven nominations each.
As is the case every year, the 2022 Latin Grammys has a slew of star-studded performers ready to take the stage, including Aguilera, Camilo, John Legend, Elvis Costello, Karol G, Marc Anthony, Nicky Jam, Rosalía, Rauw Alejandro, Sebastian Yatra and many, many more.
The jam-packed event is hosted by Anitta, Luis Fonsi, Laura Pausini and Thalía, and Mexican icon Marco Antonio Solís was honored as Person of the Year at a gala on Wednesday (Nov. 16).
With so many A-listers joining the party, the red carpet was equally as fun, with Latin music’s biggest stars showing off their best looks. Check out our gallery of photos from the red carpet and the 2022 Latin Grammys below.
The public funeral for the beloved Migos member Takeoff took place on Friday (Nov. 11) at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, near where the late rapper grew up.
Free tickets to the memorial service were available to Georgia residents, but the State Farm Arena said well before Friday that the event had reached capacity. Alongside fans who made it inside the venue, stars including Offset, Cardi B, Drake, City Girls, Chloe Bailey, Justin Bieber and more gathered to remember the life of a star gone too soon.
During the event, Atlanta mayor Andre Dickens honored Takeoff’s family with the city’s highest honor, the coveted Phoenix Award. Drake spoke onstage remembering his late friend, while Chloe Bailey, Justin Bieber and Byron cage performed at the touching memorial event.
Takeoff (born Kirshnik Khari Ball) was just 28 years old when he was shot and killed on Nov. 1 during a private party at a bowling alley in downtown Houston with Quavo. The musician was killed by “penetrating gunshot wounds of head and torso into arm” according to a report from the Harris County coroner’s office. A woman and another man were also wounded in the shooting, though no arrests have been made.
Migos’ song streams surged 182.2% in the seven days following his death, while his solo material grew 434.9% in the same period, according to initial reports to Luminate.
In honor of the slain star, see below for our gallery of photos from Takeoff’s Celebration of Life in Atlanta, Georgia.
Aaron Carter, a fixture of Y2K era pop music, died on Saturday (Nov. 5) at age 34. The singer, actor and TV personality passed away at his residence in Los Angeles. He is survived by his son, Prince.
In 1998, Carter — the younger brother of Backstreet Boys singer Nick Carter — made his solo debut in America with Aaron Carter, featuring the singles “Crush on You,” Crazy Little Party Girl” and “I’m Gonna Miss You Forever.”
His follow-up album, Aaron’s Party (Come and Get It), was released in September 2000. Aaron’s Party peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and went triple platinum. It featured the singles “I Want Candy” and two Billboard Hot 100 hits, “Aaron’s Party (Come Get It)” (No. 35) and “That’s How I Beat Shaq” (No. 95). He supported the album as an opening act for Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears on the Oops!… I Did It Again Tour. His third album, Oh Aaron, went platinum in 2001, and he has released two albums since then, most recently LØVË in 2018, where he had a writing credit on every track.
Carter also appeared in TV shows such as Lizzie McGuire, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and 7th Heaven. He made his Broadway debut in 2001 as JoJo the Who in Seussical the Musical and also enjoyed a long stint in the off-Broadway production of The Fantasticks. In a 2019 interview with Billboard, Carter talked about his drive to keep going in the music business: “I’m not going to give up. I’m not going to stop. I’m going to succeed. If something is broken, I’m going to f–king fix it.”
Takeoff, born Kirshnik Khari Ball, was shot and killed on Tuesday (Nov. 1) in Houston, Texas. According to a spokesperson from the Houston police department, Takeoff was at a private party at a bowling alley in downtown Houston when shots rang out around 2:35 a.m.
As one third of Migos (alongside his uncle Quavo and cousin Offset), the rapper was an influential force on the mic and on the charts for the last decade. Migos’ 2013 single “Versace” just scraped the Billboard Hot 100 (peaking at No. 99) but set the tone for the next several years of hip-hop. By early 2017, the trio topped the Hot 100 with their Lil Uzi Vert collab “Bad and Boujee,” hailing from the group’s Billboard 200-topping album Culture. Overall, Migos has earned 9.39 million equivalent album units in the U.S. for their catalog of albums, per Luminate, and 14.09 billion on-demand official streams of their songs.
Takeoff himself netted 558,000 in equivalent album units for his solo albums, including the recent collab set with Quavo, this year’s Only Built for Infinity Links.
“There are so many artists,” Takeoff told Billboard in a 2017 Migos cover story. “You got to keep coming like bow! bow! bow!, making so much music that they wonder, ‘Who are the Migos?’ We play a beat for 15, 20 seconds and know if we want to get on it. When we record a verse, it’s no more than 15, 20 minutes. We don’t have a pen and paper. We bounce off each other.”
“I try not to be cocky,” Takeoff continued. “But hey, we the sh-t, man.”
Whether or not you’re a fan, it’s impossible to deny Taylor Swift’s impact on music. With hundreds of songs and dozens of hits in her career, she is a master singer-songwriter (and officially, Billboard’s Woman of the Decade in 2019).
These days, however, music isn’t just about music — it’s about the visual execution, too. And though the age-old saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” is generally true, an album’s cover can play a big role in making a great album. For Swift, a handful of her biggest albums feature some of the most memorable art. When 1989 was released in 2014, for example, everyone from Swifties to casual listeners attempted their recreations of the iconic half-faceless Polaroid cover. And that album went on to win album of the year at the Grammys.
At the same time, not all hit covers are hit albums, and vice versa. So, Billboard decided to rank each of the pop star’s covers since her debut in 2006.
Now, let us be clear: this list is only taking album artwork into account. If you’re looking for how the albums stand against each other musically and lyrically, you’ve come to the wrong place. We’re simply looking at covers: filters, styling, framing and how the creative represents the album as a whole. And, yes, this list is completely subjective, so it’s ok to disagree. No hard feelings.
Including both her re-recorded Taylor’s Versions and original master recordings, as well as that oft-forgotten 2007 Christmas record, see how we rank each of the Swift’s album covers, from worst to best, below.
With fall and spooky season in full swing, October has been filled to the brim with highly anticipated concerts and awards shows.
Just a day after Blink-182 announced a reunion with former singer-guitarist Tom DeLonge for a 2023 global tour and new music, singer-bassist Mark Hoppus was seen chucking up the deuces at Ball Arena for the Denver Avalanche vs. Chicago Blackhawks game.
It was a month of throwbacks for rock fans in general, as Taking Back Sunday and My Chemical Romance took over the Kia Forum in Los Angeles for their own respective concerts. Marcus Mumford also headed out on tour in support of his debut solo album, and took over the Ventura Theater on Oct. 4 in Ventura, Calif.
October was also a month of fashion, as members of K-pop groups SEVENTEEN and Girls’ Generation dressed to the nines while attending the ‘AMI’ 23 SS collection show in Seoul, South Korea. Meanwhile Renjun, Jeno, Jisung, Jaemin and Chenle of NCT Dream attended the 2022 The Fact Music Awards.
Over on the theater side, Lin-Manuel Miranda and the cast of Hamilton headed over to Hamburg, Germany, on Oct. 6 to celebrate the wildly popular production’s German premiere at Stage Operettenhaus. In one of the sweetest photos from the month, Miranda is seen walking onstage to take his bow at the end of the performance, with a hand on his heart and a grateful look on his face.
Look through Billboard‘s favorite photos from throughout the month of October below.