R&B/Hip-Hop
We finally know what led to Reason and TDE going their separate ways.
While sitting down with Bootleg Kev, the Carson, California, rapper talked about the fan reaction to his unceremonious split from Top Dog Entertainment and explained the strategy he used to get out of his deal.
“Honestly, the fans have been consistent all the way throughout,” he began about the vitriol he was experiencing. “The fans that didn’t like me before are consistent and still don’t like me. Because when you sign with TDE, there’s gonna be TDE fans that don’t f— with you, it’s just how it works. The only fans I really lost were fans that I shot myself in the foot [with], but I had to do that to get out of the label deal.”
He added that Kendrick Lamar — the flagship artist signed to TDE from 2005 to 2022 — played a role in his exit strategy. “When the Dot [Lamar] and Drake beef started, I felt like Top and them were kinda dragging their feet a little bit,” he said of label co-founder Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith. “I don’t think purposely, I think they just had a lot of sh– going on. And I knew that if I sparked a fire a little bit, that they’d be like, ‘We gotta separate from this.’ So I started tweeting sh– on the side of Drake purposely. … So there’s fans that hate me for that and rightfully so.”
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The X post in question was a positive review of the first diss record Drake dropped as the battle was kicking off.
“It was right after ‘Push Ups‘ dropped,” he said. “And I tweeted: ‘Y’all hatin’, this beat switch up is fire’ and then I let it sit for 10 minutes and deleted it. It went crazy, and I still had the ‘Reason TDE’ [in my handle], so it looked insane.”
He then talked about how deciding to drop his On the Radar freestyle over Drake‘s “8am in Charlotte” beat added fuel to the fire.
“So [On the Radar] hit me, they were like, ‘Yo, we was about to drop it but we don’t wanna damage your situation. Should we hold it?’” he recalled. “‘Run it, run it, let’s do it.’ … I just knew it was sensitive times and I knew business-wise, it would make the most sense for them to separate from me at that point. That sh– worked. A month later, I was gone.”
Reason is gearing up to drop a new project in I Love You Again on Feb. 28.
You can watch the full conversation below.
Tyga is paying tribute to his mother, Pasionaye Nguye, who died on Jan. 18 at the age of 53. The rapper revealed the tragic loss with a heartfelt Instagram post on Friday (Feb. 21).
The “Rack City” rapper was close with his mother, whom he championed as the “best and most supportive” person in his life.
“I been trying to understand and process why God takes the most meaningful and most beautifulest people away from us,” he wrote. “But I know I’ll never get an answer that will fill the emptiness in my heart. Can’t imagine life without you by my side. You were the best and most supportive person in my life, you always made things better when I felt at my lowest and worst.”
Tyga continued by writing, “I would trade anything just to be able to be with you again I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. and I can’t wait for the day until we’re together again I’ll see you soon and save me a spot right next to you in paradise.”
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He concluded: “I Love you forever mom and I’ll do my best to celebrate you with every moment that I have left. Pasionaye Nicole Nguyen 9/11/71- 1/18/25 You took one of your best angels back GOD. I hope you know that.”
The sincere post to social media included a slideshow of photos featuring Tyga with his mother throughout his life, and one that appears to show her hand in a hospital bed.
Condolences and uplifting messages poured into his comment section from the music community, including notes from 2 Chainz, Pusha T, Sabrina Claudio, Big Sean, Jhené Aiko, Fat Joe, DDG, Casey Veggies and many more.
Amid the heartbreaking loss, Tyga released his first studio album since 2019 earlier in February with NSFW. The 17-track project featured assists from Lil Wayne, Shenseea, Big Sean, Flo Milli, Lil Tjay, Ty Dolla $ign and more.
Find Tyga’s post about his late mother below.
Almost a year later, there are still plenty of debates about the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle that shook up the rap landscape in 2024.
Adin Ross joined the Full Send Podcast earlier this week, and when the Drake-Kendrick Lamar feud was brought up, the popular streamer sided with the 6 God, as he believes the OVO boss won the battle.
Ross, who had Drake on his stream earlier this year, slammed Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show and gave Drizzy the win in their feud.
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“In my opinion, I think Drake won the rap battle because, obviously Kendrick made the hit song ‘Not Like Us,’ but it’s all lies. He said [Drake] had a daughter, which was debunked,” Ross said. “It wasn’t even real, but people don’t bring that up.”
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Ross continued to argue that “Drake put Kendrick” on in his career. “In 2011, I was 11 years old. It was called Would You Like a Tour? I believe,” he said. “It was when [Drake] first dropped Take Care, he took Kendrick, J. Cole, A$AP Rocky, The Weeknd — he took all these guys on tour. Gave them all a feature. French Montana, Meek Mill, all of them. He helped put them on and you’re doing him like this.”
The streamer thinks with Drake on top of the rap game for so long, other artists were eager to knock him off the throne.
“It’s all built up,” he added. “He’s been No. 1 for so long they just tried to knock him out. You can’t knock him out, though. He’s in Australia selling out crazy shows. … This guy just dropped an album, it’s amazing. No disrespect to Kendrick, he has classics, he has hits, [and] he is a legend, technically. But his last album before GNX, Mr. Morale, horrible. Drake revived Kendrick’s career.”
Many considered Lamar’s “Not Like Us” the kill shot in the battle against Drake, which debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100 in May. Kendrick picked up another five Grammys and performed at the Super Bowl halftime show earlier this month. He’ll head out on the Grand National Tour with SZA starting in April.
As for Drake, he’s currently in Australia on the Anita Max Win Tour. He unleashed his $ome $exy $ongs 4 U joint project with PartyNextDoor on Valentine’s Day.
Watch the full interview below. Talk about Drake and Kendrick begins around the 10-minute mark.
Cardi B and DJ Khaled are part of the Smurf family. While they won’t be starring in the blockbuster, the “Wish Wish” collaborators joined forces on Friday (Feb. 21) to contribute “Higher Love” to the Smurfs Movie Soundtrack. “Higher Love” also features vocals from Desi Trill’s Natania and Subhi. The track samples Belinda Carlisle’s iconic […]
02/21/2025
With the New Orleans rapper making appearance on the new Ransom & Dave East tape, we take a look back at some of his best early songs.
02/21/2025
Voletta Wallace, mother to rap icon The Notorious B.I.G., is dead at 78. Billboard confirmed Wallace’s death with Monroe County Coroner’s Office in Pennsylvania on Friday (Feb. 21).
“Voletta has died, on hospice care, at her residence in Stroudsburg, Penn.,” Monroe County Coroner Thomas Yanac tells Billboard. “Voletta died of natural causes.”
TMZ was the first to report that Wallace had passed away.
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A Jamaican immigrant, Wallace gave birth to The Notorious B.I.G. (born Christopher Wallace) on May 21, 1972, in Brooklyn, where she worked as a preschool teacher and raised Biggie as a single mother.
He went on to reach superstar status in a short time as a rapper while signed to Diddy’s Bad Boy Records, where he released a pair of albums, Ready to Die and Life After Death, the latter of which debuted atop the Billboard 200 and arrived just weeks after he was gunned down in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997, at just 24 years old.
Much of the the Brooklyn rap icon’s catalog is etched in rap lore as one of the pillars of East Coast hip-hop during the ’90s “golden era,” including hits such as “Juicy,” “Hypnotize,” “Ten Crack Commandments,” “Going Back to Cali,” “Mo Money Mo Problems” and many more.
Wallace launched the Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation in her son’s memory and did whatever she could to uphold his legacy and protect his estate while building on the foundation he laid prior to his passing in 1997. She also served as a producer on the Notorious biopic, which brought her son’s life story to the silver screen in 2009. She was portrayed by Angela Bassett in the film.
The Notorious B.I.G. was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020, and Voletta was present to accept the honor in her son’s place. “Today, I’m feeling great,” she told Billboard at the time. “As a mother, I’m extremely proud of his accomplishments. You know, I still see such a young man at a young age, and sadly, he’s not here to witness all this. But it’s an astute honor, and as a mother, I’m just elated for that.”
In recent months, Wallace’s Instagram account made posts celebrating her son’s rap achievements, which included 992 million Spotify streams in 2024 and eclipsing 2.5 billion all-time streams on Apple Music.
Voletta Wallace is survived by her grandchildren C.J. Wallace and T’yanna Wallace, who are Biggies kids.
Jerry Butler, the beloved Chicago soul singer, producer and, later, politician who began his career in the late 1950 singing alongside childhood friend Curtis Mayfield in the Impressions, has died at 85. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Butler died on Thursday night (Feb. 20) of undisclosed causes after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
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Motown legend Smokey Robinson told the Sun-Times that Butler was “one of the great voices of our time,” lauding the singer who the Miracles vocalist had admired since he was a young man listening to the Impressions’ 1958 Billboard Hot 100 No. 11 hit “For Your Precious Love.”
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Working alongside singer/guitarist Mayfield — whom he’d met as a teenager singing in a church choir — Butler began his career in the Northern Jubilee Gospel Singers group before joining the Roosters, who in short order became known as The Impressions. The group struck gold off the bat with the Butler co-written “For Your Precious Love,” a slow-burning, yearning song inspired by a poem Butler wrote in high school — credited to Jerry Butler & the Impressions — that melded the friends’ church-based gospel roots with a stirring soul sound.
The single, released by Vee-Jay Records and ranked in 2003 as the No. 335 on Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, would be one of only two Butler recorded with the group, followed up by that same year’s No. 29 Billboard R&B chart hit “Come Back My Love.” Tensions in the group over Butler’s first-billing status led to the singer going out on his own, though his first solo hit was a reunion with Mayfield on the 1960 Vee-Jay co-write “He Will Break Your Heart.” That song peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.
While Mayfield soon became a star in his own right thanks to his funky soul soundtrack to the 1972 blaxploitation film Superfly and such civil rights anthems as “People Get Ready,” Butler embarked on run of hits in the 1960s and 70s that included 38 career Hot 100 entries — including three top 10s — as well as 53 songs on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts.
In 1961, Butler’s impressive vocal range and always fresh attire earned him the career-long nickname “The Iceman” from WDAS Philadelphia DJ George Woods, bestowed on the singer after he kept his cool and continued to sing after the PA system burned out on him at a Philly show.
He scored another top 10 hit in 1964 with the hopelessly-in-love ballad “Let It Be Me,” a collaboration with singer Betty Everett on the Everly Brothers-written song that appeared on their joint Delicious Together album and peaked at No. 5 on the Hot 100. Butler’s third top 10 song came in 1969 with the inspirational soul stirrer “Only the Strong Survive,” one of the singer’s collaborations with the hit songwriting team of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. The song appeared on his The Ice Man Cometh album and served as his highest-ever charting single after reaching No. 4 on the Hot 100, as well as spending two weeks at the top of the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart (then called the Billboard Black Singles Chart).
One of his most enduring hits, the song would later be covered by, among others, Elvis, Rod Stewart and Bruce Springsteen, who also made it the title of his 2022 R&B/soul covers solo album.
Gamble and Huff released a joint statement honoring their friend on Friday, saying, “We deeply and sincerely mourn the loss of our dear and longtime friend the great Jerry Butler, aka ‘The Iceman,’ for his cool, smooth vocals and demeanor,” they wrote. “Our friendship with Jerry goes back for more than 60 years both as an iconic artist and music collaborator with hit songs such as ‘Only the Strong Survive,’ ‘Western Union Man,’ ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ and many more. We will really miss Jerry. He was a one of a kind music legend!”
Butler, whose vocals often climbed from a deep baritone to a crystal falsetto, would land Hot 100 hits in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, last charting on the singles tally in 1977 with “I Wanna Do It To You,” which peaked at No. 51.
His 53 career entries on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop songs chart included 18 top 10s and four No. 1s, including “He Will Break Your Heart,” “Let It Be Me,” 1968’s “Hey, Western Union Man” and “Only the Strong Survive.” He last appeared on that chart in 1982 with the No. 83 hit “No Love Without Changes.” The singer also co-write a 1965 hit for then climbing soul singer Otis Redding, “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” one of Redding’s most beloved songs, which has been covered over the years by everyone from the Rolling Stones to Aretha Franklin, Ike & Tina Turner and country singer Barbara Mandrell.
In addition, Butler had 15 career entires on the Billboard 200 album chart, with The Ice Man Cometh representing his peak at No. 29, followed by 1969’s Ice On Ice (No. 41) and 1977’s Thelma & Jerry with Thelma Houston topping out at No. 53.
Butler was born in Sunflower, MS on Dec. 8, 1939 and moved to Chicago at age three, where he grew up in the since-demolished Cabrini-Green housing projects. With is biggest music years behind him by the early 1980s, Butler — who had earlier set up his own short-lived record label, Memphis Records and production company — pivoted to running a Chicago beer distributorship. He entered politics a few years later after being inspired by the city’s first Black Mayor, Harold Washington. Former Black Panther and longtime Chicago alderman Bobby Rush encouraged Butler to run for the Cook County Board of Commissioners in 1985, where the singer served three four-year terms before his retirement from public office in 2018.
The singer kept performing live into the early 2000s and hosted oldies R&B specials (Doo Wop 50, Rock Rhythm and Doo Wop) for PBS, as well as serving as the chairman of the board for the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 as a member of the Impressions.
Over the years, his songs were sampled by a number of hip-hop acts, including Method Man on his 1994 Tical single “Bring the Pain” (which used bits of 1974’s “I’m Your Mechanical Man”), as well as Missy Elliott’s song of the same name from 2002. Snoop Dogg tapped Butler’s 1972 song “I Need You” for his 2006 Blue Carpet Treatment song “Think About It.”
Butler published his autobiography, Only the Strong Survive: Memoirs of a Soul Survivor, in 2000.
Check out some of Butler’s classics below.
J. Cole is back with his first new song of 2025, and used the track to express some fears about AI.
Cole returned with the song “Clouds” via his Inevitable blog on Thursday (Feb. 20). While the Dreamville leader used the track to ruminate on multiple topics, he also used DZL and Omen’s lush beat to speak on the power of artificial intelligence.
“Don’t buy, subscribe so you can just stream your content/ Like rent, you won’t own a thing/ Before long, all the songs the whole world sings’ll be generated by latest of AI regimes/ As all of our favorite artists erased by it scream/ From the wayside, ‘Aye, whatever happened to human beings?’” Cole spits.
The North Carolina rapper didn’t clarify much in his blog post about “Clouds,” but did detail his motivation behind dropping new music.
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“Just wanted to share,” he wrote. “Made this a few days ago, then I added a second verse and was like, ‘Man I got a blog now, I can put whatever I want up there.’ I didn’t have a title 20 minutes ago when I decided to really put this up. But now I got one…”
Elsewhere in the song, Cole also spit some bars about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a Philadelphia rally in June.
“I’m that bass in your trunk, the bullet that missed Trump/ The gun that jammed ’cause it seemed God had other plans,” Cole raps in the second verse.
The new track comes after J. Cole promised in a previous blog post he’d be more communicative with his fans.
“I knowwww mannnn. I’m off to a bad start with the consistency, but I’ma do better! Watch,” he wrote in part. “I been locked in on the music while also balancing family life. It’s a juggling act that a blog post wouldn’t do justice in explaining. But with that said, I’m back tending to this garden.”
“Clouds” is Cole’s first new song to emerge since he dropped the YouTube loosie “Port Antonio” last October. On the latter track, Cole addressed his divisive decision to apologize for dissing Kendrick Lamar and step away from a brewing rap battle with the GNX rapper.
Listen to “Clouds” here.
Music festivals are more than just concerts — they’re entire worlds where fans lose themselves in the sound, the energy, and the moment. But what happens when an artist doesn’t just play festivals, but makes music that feels like one? With his latest album Festival Season, SAINt JHN delivers an electrifying experience that blurs the line between live spectacle and studio magic.
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Led by high-energy singles like “Glitching” and the genre-bending “Poppin,” Festival Season arrived on Friday (Feb. 21) as JHN’s most ambitious project yet. The album fuses elements of house, hip-hop, punk and electronic music, capturing the thrill of a headlining set and the intimacy of a late-night afterparty. Inspired by the euphoric highs and unpredictable chaos of real-life festivals, SAINt set out to craft a project that feels just as immersive as the events that shaped it.
“Festivals are like a different universe,” he tells Billboard just a day before the album’s release. “I wanted to make something that sounds like you’re in the middle of one – something that makes you want to move, scream, and lose yourself in the moment.”
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After making waves with While The World Was Burning, SAINt JHN has spent the last few years pushing his sound to new heights. Whether performing on massive stages or collaborating with some of the most forward-thinking artists in music, he’s built a reputation for tearing down genre boundaries and delivering electrifying music. Now, with Festival Season, he’s bringing that same energy straight to the speakers.
Billboard caught up with SAINt JHN to discuss Festival Season, his genre-blurring sound, the electrifying energy of live performances, and how he’s elevating the festival experience on his own terms.Festival Season is your first full project in four years. What inspired the album’s title, and what’s the overarching theme you want listeners to take away?The reason why it’s called Festival Season is because it sounds like you’re at a live SAINt JHN concert.
And if you’ve ever heard any of my music – and even if you haven’t – I’m genre divergent. I’m a bit disrespectful when it comes to genres. I don’t really play to any one particular sport. I just like what I like. I like the sounds of music. So when you hear this collection from top to bottom, from tip to toe, it sounds like you’re in the middle of a festival, and you’re running from stage to stage to hear your favorite artist.
It’s all just me. But the songs change, and the theme changes, and the mood changes. But if you’ve never been to a performance, this sounds like a pocket performance. You can hear crowd interaction, chants. You’re hearing yelling. You’re hearing fans screaming my name.
Because that’s what it’s like to be at a SAINt JHN show. It’s an enormous concert. The mood changes, the theme changes, the sound changes, but the energy never dies. So Festival Season was born from that. I wanted the people who might have been on the other side of the planet, in a place that I’d never been and never visited, to be able to take home a pocket performance from me.
It’s a world where I perform on a stage in front of you. But you get to see some of the things I go through—the emotions, pains, the curiosities, the uncertainties, the doubts—but everything is at a maximum level. Nothing is low. The decibel is on 10-plus the entire time.
With so many different sounds on this project — Afro-fusion, alternative pop, introspective moments — what song do you think will be the breakout hit, and why?I feel like it’d be a stupid response of mine to tell you what I think would be the breakout hit. I don’t know. I’ve never known what people want. I don’t know what people want from me. I don’t know what people want for themselves. I know the way art works in the best format and the best possible thing is you make the thing that you love, and then people decide from that what they love.
It’s like – I was going to say something stupid, like the guy who probably invented the cheeseburger was probably just trying to make a milkshake, and the cheeseburger came out of it, and they were like, “We like that.” So I think maybe some of that will happen. I do have a creeping suspicion. I got a song I think is gonna go crazy.
I think a bunch of them are gonna go crazy. Well, I think for “The Gangsters,” it’s gonna be sort of undeniable, especially when you hear it live—like, when you really see it presented, I think it’d be hard to deny that. But I don’t got no predictions. I don’t want to be the guy at the Super Bowl going, “Yo, this is the team.”
When fans press play on this album, how do you want them to feel? What emotions or experiences do you hope to evoke?I hope when people listen to this collection, I hope they feel bolder than they’ve ever felt. There’s a feeling that you get when you leave a concert, when you leave a festival.
There’s a certain type of energy that you get to take home with you that doesn’t last a long time. For some people, it lasts a couple of days, for some people maybe a couple of weeks, and for some people, it just lasts moments after it. There’s a heightened endorphin, a certain surge of energy, and I want people to get that.
But I want you to be able to press play again and do it again. Usually, you have to venture back to the performance, into a field where you wore an outfit, where you brought a date, where you spent the money on the tickets. Usually, you have to go hunt the thing that you’re looking for. I wanted you to be able to take it home with you so you could restart it every time you felt something that you needed.
Every album has an ideal setting for full immersion. Where do you think Festival Season is best experienced? Is it a car ride, a morning commute, a late-night listen?I think the best place for you to immerse yourself, to hear this, to experience this, is at a tiny rave. That tiny rave could happen in so many different places, right? But your mindset needs to be a “tiny rave.”
It could happen in your bedroom, but you gotta be ready to ruffle up the bedsheets. It could happen in your living room, but you’re gonna have to be ready to spill some coffee, spill some champagne. It could happen in a car ride, but maybe it’d be hard to focus on driving.
It’s an immersive experience, and in order for you to take it in, you gotta be willing to submit to it. This isn’t like a vending machine where you say, “I want Coca-Cola and Sprite.” This isn’t that.This is — show up. I’m gonna make you something really special. This is omakase. This is when you show up, and the chef says, “I’m going to make you something. It’s going to be exceptional. Don’t make any requests. Just be hungry when you get here and be appreciative when you leave here.”
This album also marks a big moment for you—your signing with Roc Nation Distribution. How does this partnership elevate your vision for the next phase of your career?
I think it’s just more freedom. My entire career, my entire purpose in life — the only things I’m looking forward to and the things that I’m hunting, the thing that drives me in the morning and keeps me up at night – is this type of unbridled freedom that only creatives who reach their maximum peak get to feel.
That’s what I look to feel every day. So to be in partnership with people who share a similar vision, who’ve been disruptive from the beginning of their historic run, it just means I’m in league with the right people. I’m just on the right team.
You’ve always pushed boundaries sonically, but Festival Season feels like an expansion of your artistry. How do you think this album reflects your growth since While the World Was Burning?
I always tell a tale from where I’m at at the time. While the World Was Burning, the world was on fire.Collection one was my first collection. So you get to hear the presentation. You get to see exactly where I’m at. I’m centered in the middle of my universe, but I’m telling a story from the seat of the couch, wherever the couch is positioned. Festival Season – you can tell I’m going back on the road. I’m living in my purpose.I’m in my path. My garden has become the stage, and I just want to introduce you to what I’ve been harvesting.
You can hear the maturation in my language. You can hear the maturation in my tone. You can tell I’m not in the same place you left me at, and I think that’s the purpose. That’s an artist’s purpose—to continue growing and evolving.To find new paths. To find new places to venture. To find scarier formats. To find things that are unexplored. It doesn’t seem like I’m tracing myself.
What tends to happen is, when an artist becomes successful, people want them to run the same route—like, “Keep this. Do it again. Do that same lap again. Do it again so I can see it. I didn’t get to see it the way you started the race. Alright, run it again. Alright, cool, cool. We saw it twice. Now do it three times.” But that’s not what artistry is. That’s not what creativity is. Creativity is complex. Creativity wants to continue creating. Creativity designs itself to continue finding new places.
So to be an ultimate, consummate creative, you have to be willing to break through your own glass box that you’ve built. You have to be willing to run the lap backwards, sideways, on your hands. That’s what I’m doing. It might look like the same race, but I’m definitely not sprinting at the same pace.
You chose “Glitching” and “Circles” as your recent singles. Why did you choose those two?
“Circles” is from [my upcoming album] Fake Tears From a Pop Star, and as I was about to roll out Collection Two entirely, I was starting there because Fake Tears From a Pop Star was going to lead.
But I made a pivot. And I think that’s really incredible – when an artist can actually change paths, change course mid-move. I feel like Michael Jordan in the air, about to go for a dunk and turning it into a layup because I saw the block coming. I saw the contender coming, and I was like, “Nope, watch this.”
And the point – the reason why I did that – was because I thought people weren’t ready for it. That’s the truth. “Circles,” for me, is an incredible song. It’s almost like indie rock meets whatever I am naturally. And without me intending to make indie rock music – I’m just doing whatever I feel. I’m just letting my freedom find its own path. But as I was doing that, I was like, “Ah, this isn’t the right timing.”
And I felt this way before. Because I remember how I felt on Collection One, and I trust my own instincts. If you get there before the audience gets there – if you get there long before they get there – your wait to build a foundation is going to be really aggressive. I’d rather build right as they’re showing up.
So I pushed Fake Tears From a Pop Star back a couple months so that I could get the full expression of what needs to happen. As I’m coming back out, running out the gate four years later, I want it to be disruptive. I don’t want it to be harmonious. I don’t want it to be pretty pastels. I want aggressive colors. I want rage. I want dysfunction.
Because I think we need that. I think in the time that we’re in, simple harmony gets overlooked and misunderstood. So we need to fight before we kiss. So that’s why “Circles” led, and that’s why “Glitching” followed “Circles.” Because when I pivoted from Fake Tears, moving on to Festival Season, there was an energy I was looking for. A certain, unfamiliar, progressive energy.
And the strange thing is, my core audience – the people who have been following and loving SAINt JHN since 2018, 2016, 2017 – they want to hear super melodic music. They don’t actually want to hear things that make them dance. The tempo is strange to them. “Glitching” is strange to them. It’s progress that they don’t want. But I know I have to get there before they arrive — because that’s my job.
You’re heading on your Festival Season North American tour next month, and you’re also hitting Coachella. What’s your vision for the live show experience this time around?
Tough question, because I don’t know what my Coachella set is going to be. I don’t know what the stage design is yet. I’m having a thousand conversations. This is my first time really, really collaborating with any degree of people – just considering how else I can see myself.
It almost feels like Alexander McQueen, shifting from creative direction by him – it’s his brand – and someone else stepping in to execute his vision, but with their taste. So I’m considering that. I’m looking at my world in a completely new way. I want to see what somebody else’s perspective on me is.
So I’m entertaining new conversations. I don’t have a complete vision for what that’s going to look like. Because I’ve always satisfied myself on the road by telling my truth. It’s always been loud. But the way I want to present my story now – I’d like it to be theatrical. That’s the truth. I want you to feel a sense of theater with the same sense of journey, passion, commitment, and pride.
Beyond music, you’ve been making moves in fashion with your new clothing line Christian Sex Club and appearing at major fashion weeks. How does your personal style influence your artistry, and vice versa?
I think it’s just another language for me. Style is just language. Sound is just language. Like when you hear a Trinidadian accent, it’s just the melody of the accent that separates it from a Guyanese accent. So style, for me, is just another type of melody.
It’s a visual melody. When the denim hits the leather, and the leather hits the silk, or the fur hits the canvas, and the canvas hits the viscose. By the way, I hate viscose. They inform each other because I get to live in the world that I create.
Like when you see a movie, and you’re listening to the audio from it, you can see the theatrics of it, and you hear the script and the character development. But what really tells you and informs you how to feel is what they look like and what the wardrobe is. So it gives you a different color and dimension.
It’s just another part of it – another part of storytelling for me, another part of the language. Another way to be more dialed in.
You also made your acting debut in The Book of Clarence last year. What was that experience like, and do you see yourself exploring more roles in the future?
Yeah, I’m gonna be doing a lot more acting. I always thought I would. You know what’s funny? I thought I preferred to be behind the camera – and I probably do. But the people who care enough about me are like, “Yo, shut up. Don’t be stupid. Stand in front of the camera. Do the thing that you do incredibly well.”
James Samuels – he is my brother – he directed The Book of Clarence, wrote it, scored it. He did everything you possibly could do. And I’m like, “Yo, I think I want to direct.” He’s like, “Bro, your magic don’t hide.”
So I won’t hide. I intend on doing a lot less hiding. So you’ll see me in more cinematic presentations, even though I just prefer to be the guy that coordinates. Because I think the people who don’t want to be seen, who aren’t looking for attention, can really do their art and execute it at a maximum level. And I think the people who want to dance in front of the lights end up being just performative. And I never wanted to be performative. I really wanted to do the thing I cared about because I really cared about it.
But with all that bulls—t being said – yeah, you are gonna see a lot more acting from me, because it seems to be something that comes naturally to me.
With Festival Season setting the tone for this next chapter, where do you see yourself creatively and personally in the next few years?
Oh, I can see the next 18 months really, really clearly – without giving away anything, My life works best, and my art works best, when I can see 24 months, 36 months – when I can clearly see my vision for the future. And over the course of the last four years, I’ve been building. The next iteration of it is this year.
I really want to put out three collections. That’s the truth. So I’ve been working on the third collection, because Fake Tears from a Pop Star is done. I won’t give away the name of the third collection, but I’m really excited about it – just as excited as I am for Festival Season. And if I can see the third collection this year, that means I can see the first quarter of next year and what touring next summer looks like.
And that gives me an immense amount of clarity. That means I know where I need to be. I feel overconfident that I’m where I need to be. I’m in lockstep.
Drake has been shelling out cash to lucky fans throughout his Anita Max Wynn Tour in Australia, and he even hooked up a member of the OVO faithful who challenged him to a game of rock-paper-scissors earlier this week.
Drizzy scoured the crowd in the midst of his Sydney show on Wednesday night (Feb. 19) and found a fan holding up a sign that read, “Rock-paper-scissors to buy my dad a birthday car.”
“I like this sign right here,” he said when it caught his eye. “You ready? … This my game, boy.” Drake ended up beating the fan in round one, but gave him another shot. “I’ll give you one more. Think about it. 1, 2, 3,” Drake told him.
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After a statement in the next two rounds, Drake ended up winning again in round four, which drew a laugh from the crowd. Luckily for the fan, Drake’s hooked him up with some money anyway. “I’m still gonna give you $20,000 so you can buy your dad a car,” he said while touting his rock-paper-scissors ability. “Don’t ever f–k with me on rock-paper-scissors, though. I will win.”
Drake has been generous while on tour. During the same Sydney show at Qudos Bank Arena, Drake noticed a pregnant fan in the pit holding up a sign reading, “I’m 20 weeks pregnant.”
He immediately gave her a VIP ticket upgrade and $30,000 to ease the financial burden of welcoming a child into the world.
“Are you 20 weeks pregnant? Get out of the pit. Get outta there,” Drake told the fan, later identified as Tiana Henderson. “Give her some VIP tickets immediately and like $30,000 … Who the f— brings a baby to a mosh pit?”
The Anita Max Wynn Tour scene switches to Brisbane on Feb. 24 as the Australia/New Zealand tour leg winds down. Drake delivered his $ome $exy $ongs 4 U joint project with PartyNextDoor on Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14), which could net The Boy his 15th Billboard 200 No. 1 album.