R&B/Hip-Hop
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The pumpkins and skeletons are just starting to fill the aisles, but Jennifer Hudson is fully in Christmas mode thanks to two big announcements on Wednesday (Sept. 18). The singer and daytime talk show host is teaming up with Hallmark to celebrate the 15th anniversary of their annual “Countdown to Christmas” roll-out of holiday movies and content and the 2024 “Joy To Your World” holiday campaign by teasing the new song “Let There Be Joy.”
In a preview shared with Billboard of the raucous, gospel-tinged holiday anthem, the EGOT performer joyfully wails, “Let there be joy to your world/ Every boy and girl/ Peace on Earth, good will to men/ And may we wall shine our light, make the season bright/ Share a little love again.”
In addition, Hallmark announced that songs from Hudson’s upcoming debut holiday album, The Gift of Love (Oct. 18), will appear across upcoming Hallmark holiday programming. “No one does the holidays quite like my friends at Hallmark, so I couldn’t be more thrilled to celebrate the season together with my new song ‘Let There Be Joy,’ as we Countdown to Christmas,” Hudson said in a statement. “Music and movies have always been a favorite holiday tradition for me and my family, so I hope this song can become the same tradition for everyone on Santa’s list this year!”
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Hallmark chief brand officer Darren Abbott added, “As we mark 15 incredible years of Countdown to Christmas, we continue to focus on our mission of bringing joy and happiness to the world during the holidays. Partnering with Jennifer Hudson couldn’t be a more perfect fit. The original song ‘Let There Be Joy’ captures the heart and soul of what we aim to share each holiday season — pure, genuine joy. We’re excited to share this magical experience and continue our tradition of making the holidays brighter and more joyful than ever.”
In addition, Hudson announced a limited-engagement holiday tour, The Gift of Love: An Intimate Live Experience, which will launch on Nov. 24 in Brooklyn, followed by shows in her native Chicago (Dec. 13), Los Angeles (Dec. 18) and Las Vegas (Dec. 21-22); tickets for the gigs will go on sale on Friday (Sept. 20) at 10 a.m. local time here.
Hudson’s first holiday album will feature covers of such standards as “Jingle Bells,” “O Holy Night,” “Winter Wonderland,” “Little Drummer Boy” and “Auld Lang Syne,” along with a number of originals.
Check out Hudson’s tour announcement below.
Cardi B won’t be backing down in a lawsuit in which the rap star and her estranged husband Offset are accused of using a mansion for the purposes of shooting content, and underpaying for the privilege.
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The “Bodak Yellow” rapper turned to her social accounts, where she responded to allegations that the pair had broken an agreement over money, blamed the property’s “greedy owners,” and claimed to have receipts.
“We paid those people $10,000 IN CASH to rent the property for a whole 24 hours that same day 6am to 6am the next morning and we went over by ONE hour which we paid overage fees to the realtor for in March,” she writes on X. “Now they wanna finesse us trying to say we told them it was a TikTok video when that was nowhere in the contract and like they didn’t hear the whole song playing and see how long we was shooting….Why would it take us 24 hours to shoot a TikTok.”
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According to an 11-page complaint, the hip-hop heavyweights targeted a distinctive property and “devised a plan” to use it “without paying full market value,” according to Rolling Stone.
The document alleges that reps for Cardi and Offset had booked the property anonymously “under the false pretense” it would be used for a TikTok video.
Now, notes Cardi, the gloves are off. “The problem is people wanna find loopholes and get over but IRON YOUR BEST SUIT BITCH I’ll see you in court!!!!,” she writes.
And this is not the realtors fault…they been trying for months to settle this.Its them greedy owners wit their ugly ass house— Cardi B (@iamcardib) September 17, 2024
In a separate tweet, she adds, “And this is not the realtors fault…they been trying for months to settle this. Its them greedy owners wit their ugly ass house.”
The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, and noted that the music video produced during the shoot, “Like What,” had garnered more than 26 million views on YouTube since its release six months ago.
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It’s been an eventful time for Cardi and Offset; the artists welcomed their third baby together on Sept. 7. Cardi announced she was pregnant with baby No. 3 in August on the same day Billboard confirmed she’d filed for divorce from the rapper for a second time.
While appearing on Nightcap with hosts Shannon Sharpe and Chad Johnson, Snoop Dogg gave a balanced take on the Kendrick Lamar and Lil Wayne Super Bowl Halftime Show controversy.
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Snoop, who himself performed along with Dr. Dre and friends during the Super Bowl 56 Halftime Show in LA in 2022, reminded viewers that rap being featured during one of the biggest nights of the year wasn’t the norm once upon a time. “I don’t really have no opinion, but what I do wanna say is that, just remember where the NFL was 15 years ago when it comes to Hip-Hop,” he answered. “How many Hip-Hop artists was able to grace that stage 15 years ago? So, I understand both sides of the coin and I understand how people feel.”
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Adding, “I have no answer, no opinion, because I had the opportunity to get up there via Dr. Dre. I didn’t do any Snoop Dogg songs. I was up there helping Dr. Dre and it became a great moment for all of us. So, any time anybody can get on that Super Bowl stage, remember this: it’s a 12-13-minute performance and you’re not getting paid. It’s more or less you have to spend money to upgrade your show to make it mass appealing for the audience that’s home watching.”
He then mentioned that he watched Wayne’s career unfold when he was signed to Master P’s No Limit during the late ’90s before highlighting that he has great relationships with the parties involved. “Lil Wayne is the GOAT of New Orleans rap,” he said. “Remember, I was at No Limit Records for three years and I watched his whole career come to life and then watched him get bigger than me and I was gigantic at the time and I loved seeing his growth.
“Me and Wayne is family to this day, me and Kendrick is family to this day, and me and Jay-Z, and me and Roger Goodell. I don’t know who is the decision maker, all I know is that I’ll be at home watching the Super Bowl and when the halftime show comes on, I’ll be watching that as well.”
Much has been made about the NFL’s decision to have Lamar headline the the Super Bowl 59 Halftime Show this upcoming February. The Compton rapper hasn’t acknowledged the chatter, instead choosing to release an untitled song on his Instagram. Wayne, however, posted a video expressing his disappointment, saying not being chosen to perform at the Super Bowl in his hometown “broke” him. While some speculated that it may’ve been Jay-Z who made the call, it was recently revealed by Super Bowl Halftime Show executive producer Jesse Collins the the rapper and mogul does have the final say.
You can watch the full interview here.
Druski and Rubi Rose made waves earlier this spring when they revealed they had been dating. While some fans were skeptical, the social media star and the rapper continued to post content of themselves together as if they were indeed in a relationship.
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Well, on Tuesday (Sept. 17), Rubi Rose took to X and blew a lid off this conspiracy in a series of since-deleted tweets. First, she denied sleeping with Druski and that he paid her “for PR,” tweeting, “And for the record i never slept with that man, n—a paid for PR. Not the p—y.” She then made sure to compliment him, saying, “He is funny and nice tho,” before adding, “I only give it up if I’m in love, ion care how much money a n—a got. I’m rich asf lol.”
Rubi Rose reveals that her relationship with Druski was fake just for marketing that he paid for”And for the record i never slept with that man, n*gga paid for PR. Not the p*ssy ✌🏾… he is funny and nice tho!… I only give up if I’m in love, ion care how much money a n*gga… pic.twitter.com/6RNVZ4O3Hf— SOUND (@itsavibe) September 17, 2024
Druski hasn’t said anything, but he did post a meme of himself as Nick Cannon in Love Don’t Cost a Thing on his Instagram Story.
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During Paris Fashion Week back in June, Rubi was stopped in the street by U.K. social media personality Rambo and said she was single after being asked what her favorite love song was. “F— love. Okay, I’m single, guys,” she answered before walking away.
Druski seemed to confirm fumbling a baddie while visiting The Big Tigger Morning Show With Jazzy McBee on V-103 in Atlanta. “God blesses you sometimes with situations. It’s a learning situation and that’s what it’s all about,” he said after McBee asked him why his relationship with Rose ended. “It wasn’t nothing bad that happened. She’s a beautiful girl, she’s doing great in life, she’s making money, I’m doing the same.“
Adding, “When you have a beautiful woman of that caliber, it comes with a lot, and I don’t know if I was prepared yet. But I learned a lot from it, so I think I’m coming out of that, you better have them pockets ready. I ain’t saying that’s what happened… You just gotta be ready because you don’t know when you’re gonna have to be pulling that wallet out.”
We’re not sure what prompted Rubi’s tweets, but we’ll have more as this story develops.
GloRilla has much to celebrate this week as her single “TGIF” tops Billboard’s Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart. The track rises from No. 2 to crown the list dated Sept. 21 and was the most-played song on U.S. monitored mainstream R&B/hip-hop radio stations in the tracking week of Sept. 6-12, according to Luminate.
The song’s coronation comes after a 15% gain in plays for the tracking week, compared with the previous frame. Thanks to the surge, “TGIF” wins the Greatest Gainer award, given to the song with the week’s largest increase in play count.
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With “TGIF,” GloRilla grabs her fourth No. 1 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay. The Memphis-raised rapper first led the chart with her breakthrough hit, “F.N.F. (Let’s Go),” with producer HitKidd, which reigned for one week in 2022. The 10-week juggernaut “Tomorrow 2,” with Cardi B, followed in 2022-2023, while her third visit to the summit came via “Yeah Glo!,” a two-week champ earlier this year.
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“TGIF” evicts Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” from the penthouse after the latter ruled for the last nine weeks, of 11 total in charge. By taking the throne from Lamar’s culture-shaping hit, GloRilla enjoys a bit of revenge. Her previous single, the Megan Thee Stallion collaboration “Wanna Be,” parked in the runner-up spot for five weeks in August – September, blocked from the No. 1 spot by “Not Like Us.”
A standalone single, “TGIF” scored viral popularity, with plenty of Internet posts playing off several lyrics, including the track’s “it’s 7 pm Friday / it’s 95 degrees” opening lines. Rihanna also elevated the track’s popularity soon after its release, with a TikTok post of her rapping alongside the song having just over 157 million views on the social platform.
Elsewhere, “TGIF” repeats at its No. 2 high on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, which ranks songs by combined audience totals from adult R&B and mainstream R&B/hip-hop stations. Despite remaining in second place, “TGIF” improved to 15.8 million in weekly audience, up 13% from the previous week and enough to capture the Greatest Gainer honor. It also advances 3-2 on Rap Airplay (up 14% in audience) and 16-12 on Rhythmic Airplay (a 19% increase in plays).
Continued ascent across the radio formats help “TGIF” soar 30-22 on the all-genre Radio Songs chart, where it jumps to 22.7 million in total audience, a 14% weekly gain. The airplay strength, in turn, pushes “TGIF” to new heights on the multi-metric Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, which blends radio airplay with streaming and sales data for its ranks. There, “TGIF” steps 7-6 to a new peak, in its 12th week on the list.
50 Cent isn’t letting up in his trolling of his longtime rival Sean “Diddy” Combs following the music mogul’s federal indictment, which was unsealed on Tuesday morning in New York City (Sept. 17).
The G-Unit boss has been on a media tour in support of his new book The Accomplice, but he still made some time to take a jab at Diddy surrounding the details of his sprawling sex trafficking indictment on Tuesday.
50 posted a photo with Drew Barrymore to promote his appearance on her show, but didn’t waste any time sneaking in a shot at Diddy, hinting at the indictment’s report that federal agents allegedly seized over 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant from his Miami and Los Angeles homes as evidence during a federal raid in March.
“Here I am keeping good company with @DrewBarrymoreTV and I don’t have 1,000 bottles of lube at the house,” he wrote alongside his photo with the actress.
One fan replied: “I was waiting on 50 to chime in and here it is.” Another added: “I know you got more coming for us today bro.”
The 1,000 bottles of lube 50 is referencing came from the Sept. 12 indictment, which was unveiled during Tuesday’s presser by U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, who claimed the bottles confiscated from Sean Combs’ possession were used in the alleged sexual “freak offs.”
Williams also claimed that Combs’ staff would stock hotel rooms with lubricant and baby oil for the “freak offs.” Electronic devices were seized containing evidence of the “freak offs” with multiple victims.
Diddy was reportedly arrested at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Monday night. Combs faces charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution, per the indictment obtained by Billboard. The conspiracy charge also came with allegations of forced labor, kidnapping, arson and bribery from 2008 through the present day.
“For decades, Sean Combs … abused, threatened and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation and conceal his conduct,” the indictment reads. “To do so, Combs relied on the employees, resources and the influence of his multi-faceted business empire that he led and controlled.”
If convicted on the charges, Combs will be facing a minimum sentence of 15 years jail time, while the charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. Diddy is expected to appear in court on Tuesday.
Quavo and Ty Dolla $ign are taking their cinematic tunes to the silver screen. Huncho and Ty teamed up with Brian Tyler on Tuesday (Sept. 17) to unleash the futuristic visual to Transformers One‘s “If I Fall.”
Tyler is on double-duty as the uptempo song’s producer while also directing the robot-themed clip under his immersive audio-visual project Are We Dreaming.
Huncho and Ty dish out motivational rhymes over the thumping production while moving around a dark room dodging the flashing lights. Chaos ensues with scenes mixed in from the new film, and it’s easy to see how the sci-fi clip could align with the action-packed blockbuster.
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“Ain’t no plan B and we won’t stand for defeat/ I’m in my prime, Optimus (Optimus), I’m goin’ big, Megatron/ I’ma sting, Bumblebee, now crown the king, hope you proud of me,” Quavo raps while incorporating Transformers characters into his bars.
Tyler, who is also on board as the film’s composer, reflected on having the opportunity to team up with the pair of hip-hop titans on the track that arrived earlier this month. “It was so dope getting to work with legends Quavo and Ty Dolla who both killed it in the video for ‘If I Fall,’ which has a sick sci-fi feel that brings you into the world of Transformers,” he said. “The sets were epic, it felt like we were on Cybertron.”
He continued of his all-encompassing involvement in the creative process: “It’s kind of crazy directing your own music video when you are also singing on it, playing the drums, editing the cut, and creating the visual effects. Being so integrated in the entire process has been insane but amazing.”
Transformers One hits U.S. theaters on Friday (Sept. 20) along with the release of the blockbuster’s soundtrack. With a reported budget of $75 million, the animated flick stars Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne, Jon Hamm and more in the loaded cast.
Watch the “If I Fall” video below.
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Eve was intent on proving the doubters wrong with her Let There Be Eve…Ruff Ryders’ First Lady debut album back in September 1999. As told in her new Who’s That Girl? memoir, which was released on Tuesday (Sept. 17), Eve recalled a phone call from Jay-Z where he tried to temper the Ruff Ryders rapper’s expectations when it came to her debut LP’s commercial performance.
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Jay allegedly told Eve that female rappers “don’t really do that well” on the day her ’99 project arrived. However, Let There Be Eve…Ruff Ryders’ First Lady went on to top the Billboard 200 with more than 200,000 total album units sold in the first week. With assists from Swizz Beatz, DMX, Missy Elliott, The Lox, Faith Evans, Beanie Sigel and more, Let There Be Eve has sold more than two million copies to date.
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Eve appeared on The Breakfast Club on Tuesday (Sept. 17) in support of her memoir, and she provided context on the phone call with Hov, which was not intended to come off as malicious at all, but put a battery in her back.
“That was one of those things we were like, ‘Do we put that in?’ Because you know how people get,” she explained. “It was nothing bad about that. It was one of those things where it was a very amazing phone call that I needed.”
Even continued: “That was one of those I always felt like I was the underdog anyway. He wasn’t saying it out of malice or mean. It was facts, really. But I was like, eh, OK, let me see. I’ma show you. It’s all good. And it went on to be fine. Like I say in the book, we all have that person.”
Billboard has reached out to Jay-Z for comment.
Throughout the book, Eve disclosed she had to deal with plenty of doubters when it came to executives who continually disrespected her. “The audacity that these men had,” she wrote in the book. “Now I have age and experience on my side, nobody’s coming at me like that.”
Let There Be Eve…Ruff Ryders’ First Lady spawned a pair of hits with the Swizz Beatz-produced “Gotta Man,” which reached No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the “What Ya’ll Want (Remix)” featuring Dru Hill’s Nokio, which was added as a bonus track and topped the Hot Rap Songs chart.
Watch her interview with The Breakfast Club below:
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The New Orleans Saints shocked the NFL community on Sunday (Sept. 15) with a dominant victory over the Dallas Cowboys 44-19 to keep their undefeated season going. With vibes through the roof after pulling off the upset inside Dallas’ AT&T Stadium, Saints head coach Dennis Allen quoted Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” during his postgame […]
The first year of the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart featured an array of music that reached the fledgling ranking’s upper reaches, with 21 songs topping the weekly ranking from its inception as of the Billboard charts dated Sept. 16, 2023.
Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby,” however, was a leg above the rest.
From its coronation at No. 1 on the May 18 survey (after debuting at No. 2 the previous week) to its to-date final week atop the ranking (July 20), Richman’s summer hit crowned the TikTok Billboard Top 50 for 10 uninterrupted weeks. What’s more: as of this writing, “Million Dollar Baby” has never fallen below No. 6. In fact, the latest weekly chart (Sept. 14) finds it up one spot to No. 5.
But “Million Dollar Baby” is a fitting longest-running No. 1 for the chart’s inaugural year. To recap the story you’ve probably already been told: on April 13, Richman uploaded a 14-second clip of the song to his TikTok. It exploded immediately, having racked up nearly 14 million plays as of mid-September. Two days later, he was posting more clips featuring different music, but the demand in the comments was clear: “Drop million dollar baby rn,” one read. He released the song “Selfish” a few days later on April 19, and yet the pleas persisted: “More million dollar baby clips.”
The next week, it happened. After a few more videos promoting its impending release (including one from April 23 that has even more views – over 18 million – than the original), Richman dropped “Million Dollar Baby” on April 26, and the song immediately shot to the top of the TikTok Billboard Top 50, as well as charts worldwide. On the multimetric Billboard Hot 100 (which does not include any TikTok activity), it both debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the May 11 tally and spent the next nearly four months in the top 10.
Pent-up demand for the song helped drive initial numbers, but in the months since, “Million Dollar Baby” has had its own dance trend that’s dominated the conversation. By the end of the summer, TikTok crowned the tune its song of the summer.
Read on for more highlights of the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s chart’s first year. You can see the latest TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart here, and you can also tune in each Friday to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the premiere of the chart’s top 10 countdown at 3 p.m. ET, with reruns heard throughout the week.
‘Love’ for Mitski