R&B/Hip-Hop
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Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby” spends its 10th week at No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart dated July 20, becoming the first song to reach the 10-week milestone since the list’s September 2023 inception.
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The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity July 8-14. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
All but one week of the 11-week history of “Million Dollar Baby” on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 have been spent at No. 1; the song debuted at No. 2 on the May 11 survey and has led since its coronation the following week.
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Its TikTok Billboard Top 50 rule has coincided with success on the multimetric Billboard Hot 100; it debuted at No. 2 on the May 11 tally and has fallen no lower than No. 6 since, appearing at No. 4 on the July 20 list via 65.4 million radio audience impressions, 28.5 million official U.S. streams and 4,000 downloads sold in the week ending July 11, according to Luminate.
“Million Dollar Baby” initially reigned thanks to pent-up demand for the song following a snippet of the track that was uploaded to Richman’s TikTok account on April 13, prior to its April 26 premiere in full. A variety of trends using the tune have followed, paced by dance challenges.
BlackMayo’s “Jus’ Know” holds at its No. 2 best on the TikTok Billboard Top 50, while Ian’s “Magic Johnson” lifts one spot to No. 3. “Jus’ Know” remains dominated by a dance trend first popularized by basketball player Jared McCain and Twitch star Kai Cenat, and “Magic Johnson” has found recent success thanks to a mashup that adds the countdown of Chappell Roan’s “Hot to Go!” to the sound. LeoStayTrill and Mr Reload It’s “Pink Lemonade (Str8 Reload)” vaults from its No. 8 debut July 13 to a new peak of No. 4 thanks to lip-synch uploads.
Nos. 5 and 6, meanwhile, are new to the top 10: Blood Orange’s “Champagne Coast,” which jumps 21-5, and Megan Thee Stallion’s Yuki Chiba-featuring “Mamushi,” which leaps 12-6.
“Champagne Coast,” a nearly 13-year-old song released on Blood Orange’s 2011 album Coastal Grooves, has risen to prominence on TikTok in recent weeks thanks mostly to a trend with the prompt “did we get rich?” or “did we win the lottery?,” usually talking to their younger selves. Another trend talks about how they’ll stay single until someone looks them in the eyes and the result sounds like “Champagne Coast.”
“Champagne Coast” did not make a Billboard chart upon its initial release (nor has parent album Coastal Grooves). The song boasts a 65% jump in official U.S. streams to 3.9 million in the week ending July 11.
“Mamushi” is comparatively a much newer song, released June 28 on Megan Thee Stallion’s new album Megan. It sports a 40% gain in its second week (ending July 11) to 10.3 million chart-eligible streams, spurring a 68-45 leap on the Hot 100.
Its No. 6 rank on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 is helped by a dance trend that highlights the chorus, featuring alternating verses from Chiba and Megan Thee Stallion.
As for the chart’s top debut of the week, that honor goes to El Alfa and Nfasis, whose “Este” starts at No. 11. Released July 4, the Spanish-language tune is mostly driven by lip-synch videos to its chorus.
See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 on Billboard.com. 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.
A couple of weeks before Dr. Dre whispered “I see dead people” to introduce the first-ever live performance of “Not Like Us” and send the Kia Forum crowd into a frenzy, an early June phone call from an old friend got the wheels churning to bring Kendrick Lamar’s Pop Out concert to Amazon Music.
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Tim Hinshaw spent five years as Amazon Music’s head of hip-hop and R&B before leaving his post in 2023 to launch the Free Lunch agency. Free Lunch teamed up with Lamar to seek out a livestreaming partner for the Pop Out & Friends concert, and Hinshaw made it a family affair when turning to his former employer.
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Two of the individuals tasked with bringing the Juneteenth concert to fruition were Sierra Lever, who succeeded Hinshaw’s role at Amazon and now leads the company’s R&B and hip-hop brand Rotation, along with the company’s global head of content and artist marketing Kirdis Postelle.
Sierra Lever
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Before eventually landing at Amazon, Postelle spent 17 years as general manager of Dr. Dre’s record label Aftermath Entertainment. Amazon Music also served as the streaming home of K. Dot’s The Big Steppers Tour stop in Paris in October 2022, so the familiarity from all parties was already established, and a reunion made sense.
“Having worked for Dre for so long [and] Kendrick has worked with me in the past — they know my bar for excellence is really high,” she confidently boasts. “They knew we were gonna deliver exactly what [Kendrick] wanted.”
Kirdis Postelle
Courtesy of Amazon Music
The plan came together in a matter of days, and things were quickly put into motion with all teams involved working in symbiosis when it came to the global livestream.
“Moving Amazon, these are big wheels to make turn – to get everybody on board,” Postelle asserts. “I feel like we had 10 days to turn this around. Get the marketing on point, Prime Video on point, to get [Amazon’s livestreaming partner] Twitch on point. To get all these teams rallied behind this one thing.”
While refusing to pull back the curtain on fires that had to be put out in the days leading up to the concert, Postelle allows that “there were some really late nights and some really early mornings trying to get this done.”
June 19 quickly approached, and while most of corporate America had Juneteenth off, it was showtime for Amazon Music and Kendrick Lamar at Kia Forum. Postelle anxiously watched along at home with millions of fans as her Oregon State University alum colleague was on site outside the Inglewood arena, calling plays overseeing the operation from the trucks.
K. Dot had the culture in the palm of his hand as he ran through the live debuts of his Drake psychoanalysis shakedown “Euphoria,” his atomic guest verse on Future & Metro Boomin’s “Like That” and, of course, his climactic “Not Like Us” killshot”– running back that last one an additional four times.
Dr. Dre’s arrival brought upon the biggest surprise of the night, with Dot welcoming his mentor to the stage for a mini-set of ‘90s classics “Still D.R.E.” and “California Love,” before Dre returned the favor and introduced “Not Like Us.”
Seeing the pair of Compton deities on stage together especially hit home for Postelle, an Aftermath Entertainment alum. “I got that pang of nostalgia,” she admits. “I couldn’t have asked for a better hip-hop history moment for myself.”
Kendrick’s victory lap reportedly broke Amazon Music’s streaming record when it comes to live events. Without putting a specific figure on it, the team confirmed there were “millions and millions of people watching,” as the live broadcast posted the most minutes watched of any Amazon Music production ever on Twitch and Prime Video.
And yes, Postelle and Lever – along with the Amazon Music team – saw some of the viral memes joking about how Amazon executives didn’t understand exactly what they signed up for, with Pirus, Crips and various gang sets linking up on stage together, alongside other L.A. luminaries.
“We talked about it a little bit,” Postelle admits. “I saw some meme, ‘Amazon executives didn’t know what they were getting themselves into’ and we laughed about it because the truth is we’re the executives.”
Lever adds: “People would be surprised who some of the executives are at Amazon Music. The reason we’re able to make quick decisions is because we have people who are experts in the genre.”
The phone continues to ring as Amazon looks for its next cultural moment in the live streaming sector. However, they’re not worried about working with Kendrick on the Pop Out potentially severing their relationship with Drake, whom they previously collaborated with on the Larry Hoover Benefit concert alongside Ye in December 2021. ”This was about culture for us,” Postelle says. “ I don’t think that [feuding element] even came into it. We don’t take sides.”
While Amazon released HD footage of Kendrick’s epic debut of “Not Like Us,” the entire live stream is still missing in an official capacity for fans hoping to rewatch the historic show. Somehow, Amazon didn’t foresee the craze surrounding the concert and is now working toward releasing the concert’s livestream in its entirety on their platform.
“We didn’t anticipate, and neither did Kendrick, this kind of outpouring for the video on demand,” Postelle explains. “We hadn’t planned for it. Everyone is actively — between Kendrick’s team and our team — figuring out what it’s going to take to get this up.”
With weeks to look back on the concert, Lever hailed the Pop Out experience as the “biggest cultural moment this year,” while Postelle championed being part of it as one of the “top five amazing things” she’s accomplished in her decorated career.
“Not Like Us” isn’t going anywhere either, as the Drake diss returned to top the Billboard Hot 100 and is a bona fide song of the summer candidate. The Pop Out concert served as the perfect playground for Kendrick’s championship parade while promoting West coast unity with his love letter to Black culture. With concert ticket prices sky-rocketing across the industry, livestreaming shows and bringing fans intimate experiences from thousands of miles away is providing a more important service than ever.
“When you think of underserved communities that don’t necessarily have the capability to go to a show in person, this is an outlet for fans to continue to dive deeper into having these moments with their favorite artists,” Lever asserts. And Postelle guarantees: “The strength of livestreaming is going to continue to grow.”
Travis Scott‘s Cactus Jack Foundation hosted an emergency Hurricane Beryl relief drive in Missouri City, TX on Tuesday (July 176) to aid the thousands of Texans who are still struggling in the wake of the devastation left behind by Hurricane Beryl last week. According to a release announcing the effort undertaken in partnership with the […]
“Not Like Us” has become an anthem that’s inescapable at this point, and ubiquitous in pop culture as it returns to the top of the Billboard Hot 100. But not everyone is thrilled to hear Kendrick Lamar’s Drake diss track everywhere — including Steph Curry.
Following USA Basketball’s dominant 105-79 exhibition victory over Nikola Jokic and Serbia on Wednesday (July 17), the arena DJ in Abu Dhabi bumped the Mustard-produced banger, and the Golden State Warriors superstar was caught voicing his frustration.
“Damn with this song. It’s not the only song in America,” Curry pleaded. LeBron James pushed back as he seems to be enjoying the “Not Like Us” explosion. “I love it,” James can be heard saying at mid-court while rounding up his teammates.
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Shooting guard Anthony Edwards appears to be on LeBron’s side, as he can be seen at the end of the clip dancing to “Not Like Us.”
Steph’s reaction caused quite a stir on social media, as Jermaine Dupri, responded, essentially saying today’s rap culture just isn’t used to massive hits such as “Not Like Us” dominating the landscape.
“I just saw Steph’s reaction to the Kendrick record and I thought it was very ironic because what he is feeling (Pause ) is a record impacting the streets and this new generation is not use to that,I’m sure many of yall don’t understand what I’m saying,” he wrote on Instagram.
JD continued to share his thoughts in an accompanying video while walking. “The goal in hip-hop used to be impact, not sales, not charts — impact. How hard you could impact the streets,” he said. “That’s no longer the goal and — to me — that is the sole reason why rap isn’t what rap used to be because n—-s don’t care about impacting the streets no more.”
DJ Jazzy Jeff chimed in on the matter in the comments, saying, “I think what the issue is we used to have a few songs with this impact at the same time to spread it out alil more…because we haven’t had a Lean Back or a In Da Club in so long.”
Kevin Durant defended his former teammate in a comment online, saying, “Maybe bro just wanna hear another song.”
Perhaps Curry was surprised to be hearing “Not Like Us” across the globe in the United Arab Emirates. Although, Team USA could be making “Not Like Us” their victory song, as they fittingly played Kendrick’s hit after defeating Canada last week.
Time will tell if the arena DJs keep playing the hit, or listen to Curry and pull back following the team’s next exhibition contest, which comes on July 22 against Germany in London.
Watch the clip of Steph Curry talking about “Not Like Us” below.
The Childish Gambino chapter is coming to a close for Donald Glover. The final installment is set to arrive on Friday (July 19) with his Bando Stone & The New World album.
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Glover sat down with The New York Times on Wednesday (July 17) ahead of the LP hitting streaming services later this week. The multi-hyphenate felt it was time to move on from the Childish Gambino moniker as it wasn’t “fulfilling” to him anymore.
“It really was just like, ‘Oh, it’s done.’ It’s not fulfilling,” Glover admitted. “And I just felt like I didn’t need to build in this way anymore.”
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Gambino isn’t holding back with his final act, which will serve as the soundtrack companion to the blockbuster of the same name. He doesn’t seem to have any regrets about moving forward.
“I think grace is undervalued in the world,” he added. “When I put my son on my shoulders, I feel deep joy. That’s real. No one on their deathbed is going to look back and say, ‘Thank God I avoided being cringe.’”
The 40-year-old previewed his genre-blending album, which finds him embracing an array of influences, for an intimate audience with a listening experience curated on NYC’s Little Island earlier in July.
Bando Stone boasts a versatile lineup of guests including Jorja Smith, Yeat, Chloe Bailey, Steve Lacy, Flo Milli, Amaarae, Foushee and more. Glover’s son even makes an artistic cameo.
The album is Gambino’s fifth under the moniker and first since 2020’s 3.15.20, which received an update with the release of Atavista (3.15.20 reimagined versions) in May.
It’s a celebratory week for Donald Glover who picked up a pair of Primetime Emmy nominations on Wednesday for his role as John Smith in Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
He’s nominated in the outstanding lead actor in a drama series and outstanding writing for a drama series categories. Glover previously won the Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series for his work in his previous show, Atlanta.
Co-stars in the Amazon Prime Video series Donald Glover and Francesca Sloane released a statement reacting to the Emmy noms exclusively to Billboard.
“What is happening! Thank you to the Television Academy! We really weren’t expecting this, but damn did we put in some work — it’s not every day you get to make something with a bunch of your best friends and it’s definitely not every day that it then receives love this way,” they said.
The joint statement continues: “We want to do a quick shout out to the people who deserve some recognition — Jen, Vernon, Kara, Carina, and the entire Amazon team for your unwavering support in making this our way, Michael Schaefer (the muscle), Yariv and New Regency, Anthony ‘I’ll never say no’ Katagas (you’re the man), Kaitlin (the glue), Fam (the secret sauce), Hiro (the visionary), Christian (the heart), Carmen Cuba (queen), Doug, Karena, Amy, Christina, Steve, Carla, Adamma, Adanne, Yvonne, Julia, Schuyler, Kyle, Isaac, Kate and especially Greg, Dave, Gerry, Ruth, Madeline, Blair, Cody, Stephen Murphy, Pope and his amazing team, Nathan, Rob, Eric, Glen, Emile, all of our ridiculously talented guest stars, the rest of the tirelessly committed cast and crew, including and especially to all of the PAs and assistants. And most importantly, thank you to Maya for your generosity and incomparable genius in being our Jane. We love you all!”
Catch the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards live on ABC on Sunday Sept. 15 (8:00-11:00 p.m. ET/5:00-8:00 p.m. PT) from the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live.
How many rising stars can say their first collaborations were with Drake, Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) and Usher? 4batz can. The 20-year-old star has tapped Usher for the official “act iv: fckin u again (18+)” remix, which will be released on Friday (July 19.) The remix arrives more than two months after 4batz […]
More Sexyy Red news is coming out of her weekend at London’s Wireless Festival. While chatting backstage with British interviewer Rambo she was asked her dream collab and not only did she say it who it was, the two have already done something together. “I did my dream collab already — Tyler the Creator,” she […]
Ice Spice revealed all 10 songs that will be featured on her debut album Y2K! on Wednesday (July 17). Y2K! will also feature three collaborations with Travis Scott (“Oh Shhh…), Gunna (“B*tch I’m Packin’”) and Central Cee (“Did It First”), the lattermost of which was released last week. Scott previewed their collaboration during his London […]
Memphis Bleek has his sights set on a major collaboration. Jay-Z‘s former understudy has dropped two singles this year — he and Just Blaze linked back up and released “Durag Bleek” last month, and he followed that single up last week with “Bands Up” featuring Kruziano & Dre. Fans have noticed Bleek getting back in […]
Eminem’s latest album, The Death of Slim Shady (Coupe de Gråce), is the funeral rites for one of rap’s most popular and divisive characters.
Slim Shady, the foul-mouthed alter-ego of Detroit’s most famous MC, was first seen by the masses in the video for “My Name Is,” the debut single from Em’s major label debut, The Slim Shady LP. With a slightly eerie but bemused grin, Slim Shady told kids to “stick nine-inch nails through one of my eyelids.” From there, the character went on to help Eminem, né Marshall Bruce Mathers III, sell millions of albums with an ingenious mix of up-to-the-minute cultural commentary, razor-sharp wit, and a fondness for boundary pushing.
But as rap grew up, Eminem has had to reckon with a changing listenership that increasingly views Slim’s trademark blue bars as inappropriate and offensive. So, now at 51-years-old, Em’s decided that it’s the right time to say goodbye to his beloved alter ego for good. Earlier this year, his team took out an ad in the Detroit Free Press in the form of a fake obituary for Slim Shady that read in part, “His complex and tortured existence has come to a close, and the legacy he leaves behind is no closer to resolution than the manner in which this character departed this world.”
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To properly say “peace,” Em decided to not only bring Slim Shady back in song, but in video form, too. “Houdini,” the first single from The Death of Slim Shady (Coupe de Gråce), is a throwback of sorts. Produced by Eminem and Luis Resto, it has the same feeling of Em singles of old. With a playful beat (partially lifted from The Steve Miller Band’s 1982 smash “Abracadabra”) that sounds like the music for a demented carnival ride, “Houdini” could be “Without Me Part 2.” The refrain at the top of the song even drives the point home by quoting that 2002 single: “Shady’s back. Tell a friend.” But what puts it over the top is the comic book-brought-to-life nature of the video, and the inclusion of a young Slim Shady starring alongside a modern-day Eminem.
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But just how did Eminem manage to recreate a version of himself from 20 years ago? With the help of AI and Metaphysic. Founded in 2021, Metaphysic offers a suite of tools that allows artists to create and manage digital versions of themselves that they can then manipulate and use for their own projects or license out to third parties for movies, tv shows, or other commercial projects.
Metaphysic Pro, its premiere offering, allows creatives and artists to, as the website says, create a “portfolio of high-quality data assets used to create your AI, voice, and performance.” So, if you were a platinum-selling rapper who wanted to protect your image and likeness against the pending artificial intelligence onslaught, you could register with Metaphysic to build a database of your face, voice, and performance videos from any point in your career. Metaphysic will then help you paper licensing deals with so you remain in control of your AI self.
Right now, the law is trailing behind the state of the art, so there is little to stop companies and rogue actors from exploiting celebrity’s image and and likeness. But if some third party decides to just create a digital version of you without your approval, Metaphysic will alert you to any instances they find on any social networks or video platforms. At a time when actors, musicians, and other creatives are increasingly terrified about unauthorized use of their face or voice, Metaphysic works to provide some sort of protection and control.
“We’re here to help people protect themselves and at least understand what’s going on,” says Ed Ulbrich, chief content officer and EVP of production at Metaphysic. He’s running to catch a flight, but is able to still exuberantly extol the virtues of Metaphysics and AI. “It is not unreasonable to believe that people should own their own likeness. They should own their own biometric data. They should have access to their AI self. They should be able to control it. And if you are an individual that is in command, we don’t own that. We maintain it for them, but it’s up to them if they want to license it to someone.”
On paper, Ulbrich is the last person you would expect to tout the benefits of the AI revolution. He went to art school and traditionally trained to be a painter, but when he got his first glimpse of CGI he knew everything was going to change. After short stint in advertising, he saw James Cameron’s 1991 blockbuster Terminator 2: Judgement Day and realized what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. So, after packing up and moving to L.A., Ulbrich managed to get a job with his filmmaking hero working at Cameron’s Digital Domain VFX shop. After rising to the role of CEO, he left to lead Deluxe Entertainment’s VFX and virtual reality teams.
In the over 30 years he’s worked in VFX, Ulbrich worked on some of Hollywood’s biggest movies including Titanic, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Black Panther, and most recently, Top Gun: Maverick. By all measures, he’s had a hell of a career, one that he believes may no longer be accessible to young artists.
Ed Ulbrich
Courtesy of Metaphysic
“I watched what I love doing back in the ’90s and the early 2000s become factory work,” he says. “The movie business expanded so much. No longer were we sitting with filmmakers in the theater [with] laser pens looking at shots and getting notes and helping craft the movie together with the directors. It became a global business. It became [a business where you had] to have factories all around the planet to get government rebates that get passed back to the studios. I found myself running manufacturing facilities. I never set out to do factory work. I went to art school.”
He believes the tools Metaphysics is building will bring about a “whole renaissance of creativity.” That brings us back to “Houdini.” The video for the lead single from Eminem’s 12th album was made possible by Metaphysic’s Live product — which allows for, among other things, real-time photoreal face swaps driven by live actor performances. The tool allowed Eminem to look 20 years younger without much time (or, according to Ulbrich, money).
Here’s how it works: The Metaphysics team first learns what exactly the scope of the project is, i.e. who is going to be de-aged or have their faceswapped. They then gather all the assets — old photos, videos, and audio samples, etc. — they need to build their models. It takes a little under two months for Metaphysic to train its AI model on all the collected assets. The team tests the model to make sure it looks accurate and works properly before setting up all its production equipment on location. Then it’s showtime.
“If you would have asked me if we could produce a video like this in the amount of time we had with the budget we had two years ago, I would have laughed,” he says.
Resources aside, the most impressive part of the video is just how lifelike and real the younger Slim Shady looks. Everything from his facial features to his movements could be mistaken for a real person. Ulbrich says that’s because it is: “People said, ‘You created Slim Shady!’ We did not create Slim Shady. Let’s be very clear … the real Slim Shady played the real Slim Shady. We just helped by giving him something that makeup couldn’t pull off. We let him play himself but through the interpretation of CGI or any other technology. It’s him playing him.”
To help Em channel his younger self, Metaphysics provided another other its products, the AI Mirror. Built around a huge 85-inch LED monitor, the AI Mirror has a camera and a soft light that work together to allow people to walk up and see live AI projected onto their face. So before the cameras started rolling, Em could see exactly what a young Slim Shady would look like and how he would move to help him better get into character. “You can see yourself 30-40 years ago looking right back at you,” Ulbrich says. “It’s pretty magical to actually go through that.”
Abracadabra, indeed.