R&B/Hip-Hop
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For the second year, Billboard is presenting the peer-voted R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players’ Choice Award, an accolade chosen by Billboard Pro members to honor the executive they believe has made the greatest impact across the hip-hop and R&B music business over the past year. After three rounds of voting, Billboard Pro members have chosen WME partner […]
Like clockwork, as soon as the West Indian Day Parade rounded its final Brooklyn block, the temperature dropped to unambiguously autumn levels. The teasing is done. Brat summer is over, and fall is here.
After dominating both the spring and the summer with Kendrick Lamar‘s string of Drake disses, TDE’s current roster is gracefully ushering us into the fall. Led by Doechii‘s dazzling Alligator Bites Never Heal mixtape, TDE undoubtedly dominated the long weekend’s cultural conversation amid marquee releases from Big Sean, Muni Long and Destroy Lonely.
The biggest story of the past week has been the heated Billboard 200 chart battle between Sabrina Carpenter‘s star-cementing Short n’ Sweet LP and the ten-year anniversary wide release of Travis Scott‘s debut mixtape, Days Before Rodeo. Coming down to just a few hundred units, Carpenter ultimately trumped Scott, but not before the rapper put up the second-biggest pure sales week of the year across all genres (331,000 copies sold). The Houston-born rapper also debuted atop Top Album Sales and earned 2024’s biggest opening week for any rap album (361,000 units shifted).
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Few stories were able to break through that nail-biting chart showdown, but the ones that did were equally arresting. Buju Banton, Masicka, and Spice were some of the bigger winners at the 2024 Caribbean Music Awards last week (Aug. 29). Ice Spice found herself embroiled in an imploding friendship and working relationship with fellow Bronx rapper and Y2K! Tour opener Cleotrapa, and Playboi Carti graced Billboard’s latest cover.
With Fresh Picks, Billboard aims to highlight some of the best and most interesting new sounds across R&B and hip-hop — from Tyrese and Tamar Braxton’s heart-melting new reimagining of an R&B classic to Erica Banks and Skilla Baby’s sultry new collaboration. Be sure to check out this week’s Fresh Picks in our Spotify playlist below.
Freshest Find: Doechii, “Denial Is a River”
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Real ones have been locked in with Doechii for a minute now, and after she got a taste of top 40 success with 2023’s Hot 100 hit “What It Is” (No. 29), now the whole world has no choice but to get on the train. Alligator Bites Never Heal, her first mixtape under Capitol/TDE, won the weekend, arriving as one of the year’s best hip-hop projects — with its sleek blend of boom-bap and house-inflected melodic rap. Boom-bap reigns supreme on “Denial Is a River,” the tape’s buzziest cut, in which Doechii recounts a head-spinning tale of betrayal. In short, she found out she was being cheated on… while she was in the middle of a therapy session. “Took a scroll through his IG, just to get a DM from his wifey/ I was so confused, what should Doechii do?/ She didn’t know about me and I didn’t know ’bout Sue,” she spits over a crisp, Iain James & Joey Hamhock-helmed beat. The track is a masterclass in both hip-hop storytelling and the infinite powers of shifting intonation to denote different characters and timelines. It’s one of the best rap performances of the year, plain and simple.
Tyrese & Tamar Braxton, “Neither One of Us”
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For those who have been paying attention, Tyrese has been dropping small teases of that good ol’ soulful R&B with each pre-release single from his new Beautiful Pain album. Now that the full set is finally available on DSPs as of last Friday (Aug. 30), the standout cut is undoubtedly his and Tamar Braxton’s moving rendition of Gladys Knights & The Pips’ 1972 classic, “Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye.” Tyrese buttery timbre marries with Tamar’s piercing soprano to deliver a luscious blend of goosebump-inducing harmonies that beautifully color their dynamic interpretation of the track. The best thing about “Neither One of Us” is that neither artist’s vocal performance sounds labored; their takes have an ease and earnestness that add some earthy elements to complement their sometimes superhuman riffs and belts.
Syleena Johnson feat. Twista & Shawnna, “Burning in My Soul (Just a Freak)”
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Just a few days after Billboard and Tres Generaciones counted down their top Chicago “get up anthems,” R&B diva Syleena Johnson has a late entry of her own. Recruiting fellow Chicago music stars Twista and Shawnna, Johnson delivers a crash course in Chicago music history. For the first half of the track, Johnson’s voice sits at the intersection of soul and rock n’ roll, with voice ripping through the line “I’m on fire baby,” just as raucous guitars crash into the arrangement. Twista gifts her a characteristically rapid-fire voice before Shawnna comes in on the song’s back half — parenthetically titled “Just a Freak” — with a Beenie Man-referencing verse that blends hip-hop and soul with a small dash of reggae. In one of the lighter moments on her moving Legacy album, Johnson still finds time to speak to R&B’s preoccupation with love and pain while giving her late father a well-deserved send-off.
Erica Banks & Skilla Baby, “One Wish”
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Erica Banks returned with her Cocky on Purpose 2 EP, and as always, the Dallas-bred rapper is unapologetically expressing herself with brash rhymes. However, she takes a more gentle approach for the pensive “One Wish,” which finds Banks opening up about a temporary fling, but she’s here for a good time not a long time. “Could I f–k you out here on the spot/ Could I smoke while you giving me top/ He gon’ think I’m in love but I’m not,” she softly raps. The ball bounces to Skilla Baby, who helms the guy’s perspective. He’s had an affinity for making romantic records the ladies enjoy, and adds another to his resume here. “I’m not playing when it come to you/ I just want to see you comfortable/ Spit in your mouth when I’m f–king you,” he flows in his raunchy assist.
YTB Fatt, “Free Bank”
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YTB Fatt kicks off his On Zai deluxe EP with a jail phone call recording featuring his friend Bankroll Freddie, who is popping his s–t from behind bars. Fatt reflects on signing to Moneybagg Yo and the vultures surrounding him like a cousin who wants him dead. Trust means a lot to the Arkansas-bred rapper. He brushes off the women who deaded his messages, and vows to bless anyone who lent a helping hand in his journey to stardom. “I was down bad on my d–k, every b—h I wanted, they left me on read/ My broke days over, I put a chain on every n—a that gave me a bed,” he raps over the thrilling production, which could score an action movie scene.
Diany Dior & Fivio Foreign, “Sex Love Demons”
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There’s something in the water in The Bronx, because the charisma of any BX resident will change the temperature of any room. Diany Dior can attest as one of the queens of the sexy drill movement led by fellow Bronxite Cash Cobain. Brooklyn drill sergeant Fivio Foreign tangoes with the “Favorite Lady” rapper for their hedonistic “Sex Love Demons” collab. “I could f–k you in Paris but I’m not a French kisser,” Fivio cheekily raps. Dior grabs the mic and boasts about flipping the script on an ex. “I made him leave his side b—h/ First I was his baby, now I made him my b—h,” Dior brags. Check out the rest of The Bronx firecracker’s Big Dior debut project, which arrived via GoodTalk.
It’s the first night of July’s Broccoli City Festival in Washington, D.C., and actor-writer-producer Issa Rae has some exciting news to share with the 30,000 fans in attendance: She’s releasing her first rap album. Although moments later she clarifies that it was a joke, the Hollywood polymath reveals what might deter her if she was really angling to become music’s top female rapper. “Megan Thee Stallion has bars and body,” Rae says as she introduces Megan’s headlining set. “She’s actually intimidating. I can’t look into her eyes for too long.”
It’s easy to see why Megan Thee Stallion would give anyone pause. Standing at 5 foot 10 inches, she’s bold, bright and bodacious — an awe-inspiring trifecta. When I meet Megan at D.C.’s Four Seasons Hotel the next morning, her larger-than-life persona is in full force: Clutching a Louis Vuitton Murakami bag, she walks into the plush hotel suite with model-like precision as if it were her personal runway. But her imposing aura quickly melts away to reveal her signature wit. When we last spoke two years ago, Megan gave me a hard time when she learned I’d never had Flamin’ Hot Cheetos — and neither of us has forgotten it. “So, you really never tried Hot Cheetos?” she asks before giving me a quizzical look. “What kind of childhood did you have?”
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In 2020, Megan’s two Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s — her “Savage (Remix),” featuring Beyoncé, and her Cardi B collaboration, “WAP” — helped her become one of pop culture’s biggest names, and her three Grammy Award wins in early 2021 cemented her critical bona fides. Since then, she’s been omnipresent, becoming one of just 40 artists to pull double duty as both host and musical guest on Saturday Night Live (and on Sept. 11 she will host the MTV Video Music Awards), guest-starring in the Disney+ Marvel series She-Hulk and later appearing in 2022’s campy Dicks: The Musical as well as 2024’s big-budget musical remake of Mean Girls. She expanded beyond entertainment through savvy brand partnerships with Nike (her sneaker collection The Hot Girl Systems) and Popeyes (her signature Hottie sauce), and she even has her own tequila coming, Chicas Divertidas, which was inspired by a conversation with Beyoncé. “ ‘You better have your own s–t,’ ” Megan quips, imitating her fellow Houstonian. “You better know the next time she saw me, I said, ‘Hey, Beyoncé. Look what I got.’
“I’m proud of all my business deals because everything I do is personal to me,” she continues. “I put 100% into my partnerships, and I’m always so grateful when people want to step into my world. When I see a brand I f–k with and they want to come into the Hot Girl World, I’m like, ‘Thank you, this makes sense. I love that you’re recognizing me as much as I was already recognizing you.’ ” She’s stepping into worlds outside her immediate orbit, too: In July, Megan performed at Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign rally in Atlanta, using her Hot 100 top 20 hit “Body” as a vehicle to speak up for reproductive rights.
But while the 29-year-old enjoys wearing multiple hats — college graduate, philanthropist, actress, mogul — she’s always happiest when she’s rapping, and her extra-musical pursuits have made her a wiser businesswoman as she pursues her passion. Following a yearslong legal dispute, Megan and her label, 1501 Certified Entertainment, amicably parted ways in 2023, making her an independent artist. In February, she partnered with Warner Music Group for distribution, gaining complete ownership of her masters and publishing — an unprecedented move for a female rapper. Her third album, Megan, is her first under this new arrangement.
Released in June, Megan debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with 64,000 equivalent album units in the United States, according to Luminate, making it the biggest debut for any rap album released by a woman in 2024. Megan also topped Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart for the second time in her career — the sixth female rapper to do so.
On Megan, the Houston MC’s world of bruising Southern rap and rump-shaking anthems is alive and well, as is her deep and abiding love for Japanese culture. “Otaku Hot Girl” samples the popular anime series Jujutsu Kaisen, while she performs alongside Japanese rapper Yuki Chiba on “Mamushi.” After the latter track broke out on TikTok — bolstered by Megan creating and demonstrating the song’s dance in a Sailor Moon-inspired outfit — she shot its video in her second home: Japan.
“When I’m out there, I always feel happy,” she says with a smile. “The air is clear, the people are polite, the food is good. The culture is so interesting to me. I learn something every time I go out there. I learn a little bit of Japanese every time I go. The shopping is good. It just feels super positive every time I’m there. I really like being there because I’m big on energy. As soon as I touch down, I always feel like I can take a breath. Everybody good.”
House of JMC dress, Anabela Chan earrings.
Ramona Rosales
On Megan, the Houston Hottie lives up to her nickname, returning to her hometown roots — including her pairing with hip-hop duo UGK on album standout “Paper Together.” Megan grew up a fan of UGK’s Chad “Pimp C” Butler and received a gift from his widow, Chinara Butler, during the recording process: unreleased vocals by the late legend that she sent Megan to use. “From the first time I met Meg, I knew she was meant to work with Chad,” Butler tells Billboard. “She’s an extremely talented MC, and I’ve always appreciated her genuine love for my husband’s music. She’s helped introduce Chad to a new generation of hip-hop fans.”
Though Megan can be an aggressive rhymer, she knows how to calm things down and keep it sexy, too — like on the Magic City-ready anthem “Spin,” featuring Victoria Monét. “She’s a very confident and strong woman,” Monét says. “Megan knows exactly who she is. She doesn’t let people push her off her dot. There’s a lot of respect there. Also, she makes great music that brings people together and makes them dance. You want to watch her shake something and learn to shake something because of her. She’s inspiring.”
But at her core, Megan is still an MC — and like a coiled snake, this fierce iteration of her strikes on album opener “Hiss,” released in January. Aimed at collaborator-turned-detractor Nicki Minaj, “Hiss” ignited the year of competitive rap — in which Kendrick Lamar and Drake have also feuded, as well as Latto and Ice Spice — as Megan delivered a searing diatribe at Minaj, following the Pink Friday star’s slights against her on 2023’s “FTCU,” when Minaj rapped: “Stay in your Tory Lanez, bitch, I’m not Iggy,” referencing the rapper found guilty of shooting Megan in 2020 who was sentenced to 10 years in 2023. A year later, Megan lashed back: “These hoes don’t be mad at Megan, these hoes mad at Megan’s Law,” she raps on “Hiss,” referring to the federal law mandating that law enforcement make information about registered sex offenders public. (Minaj’s husband, Kenneth Petty, is a registered sex offender who was convicted of rape in 1995 for assaulting a 16-year-old.) The song debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 — Megan’s third chart-topper on the list.
“I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing,” Megan says. “If people feel like I’m somebody to aim at, then I must be pretty high up if you’re reaching up at me. I must be some kind of competition. That makes me feel good. That makes me feel like I could rap because if I wasn’t the s–t, y’all wouldn’t be worried about me.”
Though Megan relishes competitive battles, she prefers championing her peers. Following the success of her first-ever headlining tour, this year’s Hot Girl Summer, she reconnected with the run’s opener and her new bestie, GloRilla, on “Accent.” Earlier this year, she’d scored a top 15 Hot 100 song with Glo’s “Wanna Be,” and the sold-out arena tour created a rock-solid bond between the female MCs that sharpened their studio chemistry; now, they want to release a joint project together.
“Megan is a real rapper, and I’m also a real rapper,” GloRilla says. “We actually be talking and coming with bars on some down South gangsta s–t. [It would be] some down South, real turnt, real rap [s–t].” (“I think that would be very fire,” Megan says. “I ain’t gon’ say too much, but it feels like it’s going to get done.”)
While being the face of female rap may sound enticing, it doesn’t move Megan, who, during her three-month tour, happily shared the spotlight with not only GloRilla but also Cardi B and Latto, who made guest appearances at the tour’s New York and Atlanta stops, respectively.
“I got a lot of people trying to critique me and tell me what I am and what I’m not. I feel like I’ve proved myself over and over again,” she says. “If there’s a question if Megan Thee Stallion can’t rap, you need to go ahead and quit asking that question. We know I could rap.”
Ramona Rosales
You began your career playing the Texas circuit and now you’re an arena-caliber superstar. How did your beginnings prepare you for this?
It definitely taught me how to be the performer that I am. It made me understand, “OK, all you got to do is get out here and have fun.” So every time I get onstage, I’m not thinking too hard. I’m thinking like, “I’m partying with my people.” Going around my home state definitely set me up to be prepared to be comfortable with people everywhere else.
Because of the pandemic, Hot Girl Summer was the first time you hit the road since 2019. Was the extended layoff a blessing in disguise?
It wasn’t a blessing in disguise — it was a blessing outright. I was so happy to see that so many people came out and sold out a bunch of these dates. People were genuinely excited to see me, genuinely excited to see [GloRilla]. You had people like, “Oh, we don’t know if she can [sell out arenas].” Bitch, it ain’t no question about it now.
Take me back to your concert at Madison Square Garden, where you, Cardi B and GloRilla shared that stage. It was a powerful moment.
It was a little East Coast-Southern sandwich we had going on. I was very happy. I genuinely love Cardi. I genuinely love Glo. In the industry, you really don’t meet a lot of girls who want to see you be successful. You meet people, and I’m not just going to say girls, but you don’t meet a lot of artists that want you to have success because they’re scared sometimes it’s going to take away from their success. Music is competition, rap is a competition, but those two ladies, I feel like we all like to see each other do good things. We like to see each other win. Sharing the stage with people that want to see you do good and you want to see them do good, it felt very uplifting. I felt like we were feeding off each other. I felt like we helped each other. Being onstage with them made me feel good because I knew we were proud of each other.
In 2022, I spoke to Q-Tip about you, and he said, “People still haven’t even seen her full artistry yet.” Is Megan the peak of that artistry?
I still feel like I have more to give. With this album, I wanted to show people my personal interests and thoughts. I wanted to touch on my love for all things anime, all things Southern, how much I like to have fun, and I wanted to be myself. I feel like I did that. A lot of people were expecting me to come on this album talking one way and I wanted to introduce myself — this version of myself that I am right now. Sometimes, people listen to me with ears of “I don’t like her, so I don’t want to like it.” The more people sit with the album, the more and more they’re like, “OK, you know what? This s–t is banging.”
Ramona Rosales
On “BOA,” there’s a bar where you say: “Y’all do this s–t for TikTok/Bitch I’m really hip-hop.”
Nothing wrong with TikTok. TikTok is fun. It’s for people to get on there and have fun. Show me what you’re eating, show me how you’re dancing, show me what you’re doing. I feel like TikTok is happy.
I say that because you’re one of the biggest stars in the world. How do you still maintain that hip-hop essence?
Because I really like to rap. Where I come from, people are really freestyling. What I come from is hardcore rap, Southern rap. The one thing in my life that I knew I was really good at was rapping. I don’t ever want to get away from that. I don’t ever want to play with it. I don’t ever want people to think I don’t take it seriously. I’ll be the rapper that is good for a bunch of verses and freestyles because that’s what I like to do.
Your mother, Holly-Wood, was a rapper. What did you learn from her, skillwise?
Just that attitude. My mama was so feisty. She had a lot of aggression in her rap voice, and because in her nature she was naturally an aggressive woman, she sold it. I feel like the main thing for me is always selling it. Making sure who I am comes through in my voice when I’m rapping. You’re not going to believe what I’m saying if I don’t deliver it strong. My delivery lets people know that I’m strong.
What was it like when you received Pimp C’s verse, which you used on “Paper Together,” while in the studio with your producer, LilJuMadeDaBeat?
We both cried. Like, “Oh, my God. I can’t believe we got this verse.” I love Pimp and Ju love Pimp, and we share that same love of Southern rap. Pimp C made me feel so gangster, he made me feel so cool. To have my voice on a song with my favorite rapper ever, an unreleased verse? Motherf–kers ain’t walking around with Pimp C verses. And I got blessed with one.
I heard you’re sitting on more unreleased Pimp C verses.
I mean, we might [have] some more stuff. It’s more stuff in the chamber, but I want to keep Pimp C alive. Not saying it’s not alive; [his wife] Chinara keeping it alive, his children keeping it alive, people in Texas keeping it alive. I really want people to know who the f–k Pimp C is. As much as I get to put his voice on wax, I will.
House of JMC corset, Jimmy Choo shoes, Anabela Chan earrings.
Ramona Rosales
You’ve said that your relationship with Warner Music Group is based on trust. How has the label proved its trustworthiness?
They ain’t told me “no” yet. They did exactly what they said they was gon’ do. Everybody that I work with there, we’re on calls together all the time talking about how we feel like we could make the partnership better. Everybody’s been so cool, and they’re so easy to work with. Everybody’s been super nice, and I like nice people. They’re just nice at Warner.
Very few artists can say they got their masters before they turned 30. Why was that a priority for you?
I’ve been fighting for my freedom my whole rap career. I just couldn’t take no for an answer. I don’t ever want to be in a situation where somebody got their foot on my neck ever again. You got to do things to make yourself be your own boss.
How has it been navigating that road as an independent artist?
Being independent is hard. When you got a label that does everything for you, all you got to do is wake up and be the celebrity. That’s a very easy life. I have to do s–t other people aren’t doing. I do work as my own label. I do fund a lot of my own things. There’s a lot of things I’m still learning as I go. The s–t is not just handed to me in my lap — I really got to go figure out, “OK, now I’m doing it by myself.” Not that I’m doing it only by myself, but I’m in a position to be my own boss, so I got to figure out how to be the boss and how to be the employee. It’s tough, but I like figuring it out. I like doing things on my own. I like working. I’m not going to stop. The more I know, the better I’ll get.
You’ve been so open about your love for Japanese culture, especially anime. As a Black creative, how influential has it been on you?
I really like the storytelling in anime. The thing that resonates with me while watching a lot of the anime I like is watching the character development — seeing the character go from nothing to everything. When I feel like I’m getting beat up in life, I remember some of my favorite characters. I see that they had to go from literally zero and getting their ass whooped in their training. Even when they start popping and getting their muscles — because you know they be skinny as hell, then they start getting a little ripped — even when you start seeing the character getting a little swole, you like, “All right, he’s going to defeat all you motherf–kers. It’s over with.” Then he still getting his ass whooped and it’s like, “Man, I feel bad for my boy.”
Even after getting his ass whooped, because you got to fall down a few times, the character doesn’t ever get discouraged. They always like, “All right, I may have got my ass whooped but Imma get back up, and watch how I come back 20 times stronger.” I resonate with that. No matter how many times I get knocked down, I never feel like, “F–k it, Imma quit.” I just need to get better. I need to get back, try again, train harder and go harder so I can keep evolving into my best self.
When you did “Pressurelicious” with Future in 2022, you paid him $250,000 for a verse and said you treat your features like a business. Why, and how?
When you cool with somebody, you should support their business. You shouldn’t ask them to do nothing for free because you cool with them. I feel like that’s a lot of people’s problem with their homies. Just because your homie got a clothing line, that don’t mean he got to give you clothes for free — like, support your friend. Don’t expect anyone to give you something just because we cool. That’s how I treat my artist friends. I’m not asking you to do nothing for free. I wouldn’t come in your house and take all your food out your house and I invite you to my house and it’s like, “Oh, what?” Just as much as I give, I can receive. I just feel like it’s a back-and-forth thing. I just want them to know I really respect what they do. I go all out for myself. I splurge on myself, I love myself, I love what I do, and I want everything to look right. I want everything to be right. I feel like you’re going to take me seriously once I let you know: This is not a favor; I’m asking for this.
Natalia Fedner dress, Alexis Bittar earrings, XIV Karats rings.
Ramona Rosales
I think you started this competitive rap energy we’ve seen in 2024 when you released “Hiss.” Do you feel you’re the reason MCs are rapping competitively again?
I would like to think that I start things. I don’t know; I just knew what I had to do and what I had to say. If it opened up the door for everyone else to get s–t off their chest, well, I’m glad.
You took shots at Nicki Minaj. Is there a chance for a reconciliation or even another collaboration one day?
I still to this day don’t know what the problem is. I don’t even know what could be reconciled because I, to this day, don’t know what the problem is.
Does being the face of female rap for the next 10 years drive you? Is that something that you want?
I just want to rap. I want to be Megan Thee Stallion. I want to rap for as long as I can.
After he made some inappropriate comments about you last November, Shannon Sharpe apologized. Do you feel you’ve been getting more support from Black men over the last few years, or is that something you’re still looking for more of?
At this point in life, I really don’t care. Maybe if you would’ve asked me this last year or two years ago, I would’ve wished I had more Black people in general in my corner. It would’ve felt nice to be protected by some Black men in this instance, but the more I wasn’t getting it, the more and more I realized I wasn’t going to get it. Who should feel safe and important at the end of the day is me, and I was going to have to make myself feel that way. I wasn’t going to find it in people I don’t know at all. Now I don’t care. As long as I make myself feel happy, then that’s what matters to me.
I’ve seen a lot of Black men rapping your lyrics at your shows. That must be a dope feeling.
Because we actually are going the hardest right now. The women are killing it right now. We are the hardest MCs right now. We going harder than the boys, for sure.
Ramona Rosales
How do you maintain personal peace while living a good chunk of your life as Megan Thee Stallion?
I feel like Megan and Megan Thee Stallion are the same person. When I’m Megan Thee Stallion, I’m having to wear armor. I definitely got to go onstage and get in that mode, but I’m still the same person. Just when I’m not in public, I can really decompress and slouch, and I could watch anime all I want. I can play with my puppies, I can talk on the phone with my cousin, I could be with my best friends in peace. I don’t have to worry about being too strong. I could just be me.
You’ve been extremely vulnerable on songs like “Cobra” and “Moody Girl.” How therapeutic were those to make?
It felt really good to make them because it used to be hard for me to be vulnerable on songs. I could be upset and make a song like “Freak Nasty.” [I’ll be] pissed and I’ll go make that. I’ll be sad and make something like “Body.” I’ve always wanted to open up and not make it too preachy or too sad. I still want to ride the beat. Now I’m getting in a space where I can figure out how to express myself over beats that still allow me to be hard. It’s tough, but I use it like a diary now. I really do it because I know there are other Hotties that like to listen to those songs, and they resonate with the lyrics. I feel like it makes them understand, “OK, this my girl and she might appear to be Superwoman, but she going through it just like me.” I don’t want everyone to think I’m a goddamn robot, because I’m not a robot. I want them to know it’s OK to be human, to feel anxiety, depression and to feel low. You’re not going to feel like that all the time.
How inspiring is it for you to see Kamala Harris running for president, especially as a young Black woman?
To be alive in a lifetime where a Black woman or a woman at all could be the president, I feel so blessed. This is what the future is about. We really about to get a strong, Black female in there. I feel like America needed a woman to come in here and put a woman’s touch on it. It’s been going a little crazy lately, and we need somebody to put their foot down. I feel like Kamala, she gon’ do that.
I never thought we’d be in a situation where we could have two Black presidents…
Yeah, in the same lifetime. We are really doing the damn thing. I’m proud of us. Now we just got to get out there and go vote. I don’t like it when I see people saying, “I’m not voting. F–k it.” What the f–k are you talking about? You’re going to complain about what you don’t like but you’re not going to help the cause? I think that’s very irresponsible because if you don’t like what Trump has going on, why even aid in him being the president again?
You’ve said this is your “selfish era.” Do you feel like you’ve been able to reclaim some of your power?
Yeah. I used to really care how I made a lot of people feel before how I made myself feel, before how they made me feel. Somebody could make me feel like complete s–t, but I still never wanted to do anything to make anybody else feel like s–t. I still don’t want to make people feel like s–t. At least now I know, “Let me put up my boundary.” As soon as you make me feel a way that I don’t like, I just don’t want to deal with you anymore. You don’t got to fight evil with evil, but I don’t have to deal with this at all. I don’t have to do things to make other people smile. What am I going to do to make me smile? What you going to do to make me smile? Everything was about making other people smile and other people happy. Now I’m in a space where I want to be happy. I’m not going to take away [from] being happy so I can put other people’s life and happiness as a priority over mine.
This story appears in the Aug. 31, 2024, issue of Billboard.
It’s the first night of July’s Broccoli City Festival in Washington, D.C., and actor-writer-producer Issa Rae has some exciting news to share with the 30,000 fans in attendance: She’s releasing her first rap album. Although moments later she clarifies that it was a joke, the Hollywood polymath reveals what might deter her if she was […]
Cam’ron and Mase’s It Is What It Is returned for the fall on Monday (Sept. 2) and the co-hosts didn’t waste any time addressing Mase’s new look.
Mase debunked any Ozempic allegations or rumors of using a weight loss drug to fuel his 70-pound transformation. “You took the needle,” Cam poked at his co-host with a laugh. “So what did you do to lose the weight, man?”
The rapper-turned-pastor brushed off the allegations and explained the new diet a bodybuilder put him on. “That’s the hate I want. That’s the hate I needed,” Mase replied. “I signed up with this coach named Ricky Moore, that’s a professional bodybuilder, and he just put me on the alkaline diet. I’m only eating fruit, vegetables and water for now.”
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Cam ultimately expressed he was happy to see his friend turn the clock back with a slimmer figure to go alongside his fuller hairline and whiter teeth.
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“You look great, man. You look like back in high school,” Killa said. “I’m happy to see it.”
Fans began debating if Mase was telling the truth on social media. “Comment section sad fr,” one person wrote on X. “I see a bunch of dudes hating on someones progression and speculating stuff vs just genuinely being happy for one of the OGs . I hate social media fr!”
Expect to see plenty more of Mase and Cam this fall with It Is What It Is returning just in time for football season. With O.J. Simpson passing away earlier this year, the co-hosts tapped Dallas Cowboys legend Michael Irvin to replace the late Juice on their weekly NFL spots.
Mase isn’t the only artist facing Ozempic allegations. Ice Spice shut down rumors of taking any weight loss medications last month while on tour sporting a slimmer figure.
“I actually came on here to talk about that real quick. I wish y’all never learned the word Ozempic,” she said in an August Twitter Spaces. “That’s one thing I wish. Oh my God! Like, what even is Ozempic? What the f–k is that? Genuinely, what is that?”
She continued: “You lazy-a– b—–s never heard of a gym? It’s called the gym, it’s called eating healthy, it’s called being on tour. Like, what the hell? Maybe if I was sitting at home all f–king day, it’d be easier to stay big.”
Watch the episode of It Is What It Is below.
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After a false start at this year’s Essence Fest, the long-rumored Hot Boys reunion is finally happening (hopefully). On Tuesday (Sept. 3), Lil Wayne announced on his X account that the reunion will take place at his annual Lil’ WeezyAna Fest later this year. The festival will take place Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Smoothie […]
Before the days of “Patiently Waiting” and “Crack a Bottle,” there was an initial meeting between 50 Cent and Eminem that laid the foundation for one of the most fruitful partnerships in all of hip-hop.
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50 sat down with the hosts of Million Dollaz Worth of Game over the weekend and took a trip down memory lane to recall his first encounter with Eminem, which he described as “wild.” The Queens legend even wore his signature bulletproof vest, as he wasn’t going to be taking any chances on the West Coast.
“It was wild,” he said. “Remember that show they had, Punk’d on MTV? I thought they had cameras and they was gonna come out and say, ‘You’ve been Punk’d.’ I was in California. He flew me to L.A. I came out, I was so bugged out from the experience that I came through the airport with the [bulletproof] vest and sh– on. I’m lucky I took the shock plate out the front of the joint because when I came through it [didn’t go off].”
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50 continued: “I get there, he’s like, ‘Yo!’ Hugs me, feel the vest and sh– and was like [shocked expression]. [I said,] ‘Yo, this is going to be the biggest sh– ever, right?’ He’s like, ‘Yo, so excited.’ It made me question whether what was happening was happening was right. It felt so good that it couldn’t be right. I’m like, ‘Yo, nah.’ When I left that meeting, I didn’t want him to feel like he bought a problem so I wouldn’t say anything about Ja Rule and them.”
The G-Unit honcho couldn’t process how excited Em was to meet him and potentially collaborate while he was already dominating the industry and coming off the fresh release of his iconic The Marshall Mathers LP.
“When I met him, the first night I met him, he had an event. The Marshall Mathers LP just came out,” 50 went on to provide more context to the initial meet-up. “The first week he sold 1.7 million records. And he was so excited about me that I’m looking like, ‘[Are] you serious?’”
50 would end up signing a joint venture deal in June 2002 to Eminem’s Shady Records and Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment. “Wanksta” served as the first single out of the partnership in November 2002, which landed on the 8 Mile soundtrack and peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.
“In Da Club” arrived in January 2003 and set the stage for 50 Cent to make the quantum leap to superstardom with his Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ album in February 2003. The glass-shattering debut LP launched at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 872,000 album units sold in the first week.
Watch the interview below. Talk of 50 meeting Em starts around the 51-minute mark.
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Lil Boosie is looking for a pardon, and it doesn’t matter who the U.S. president will be in 2025. Over the weekend, he went on X to vent about a case he’s been fighting since May of last year. “My case got dismissed for a ruling that was made n the 9th circuit court .2 […]
Future’s third project of the year is on the way. The Atlanta superstar announced plans for his Mixtape Pluto project back in May, but its arrival appears to be on the horizon. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news A snipped to a blistering track titled “Lil Demon” […]
“1994 to 2024 it’s a dream. Thank y’all for getting me here,” Nas told the Encore Theater crowd on Saturday night (Aug. 31) for the second of three sold-out shows at Wynn Las Vegas as part of his Labor Day Weekend residency with the Las Vegas Philharmonic and AEG Presents, who provided accommodations for Billboard to be on-site.
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Most of the 1,400-plus on hand – including special guest Ceelo Green – for the intimate Sin City show basked in the nostalgia as couples and groups of friends took a time machine back to the first time pressing play on Esco’s Illmatic debut in 1994 as teenagers.
Nas stepped to the stage shortly after 8:30 p.m. PT in front of the 25-piece live orchestra. Rocking a slick black tux, God’s Son looked as timeless as his legendary debut. He hasn’t aged as much as a day in the 30 years since Illmatic shook up the East Coast and landscape of hip-hop.
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Esco sported his signature fade with braids tied into a bun without a speckle of gray hair and a hairline that hasn’t flinched an inch. Just weeks shy of his 50th birthday, Nas’ raspy and resonant vocals translated live with a stage presence that runs laps around rappers half his age. No backtrack here, kids.
New York was definitely in the building as plenty of NYers made the cross-country trip to support the hometown hero and the album that changed the way hip-hop records were made. West Coasters and a contingent of native Las Vegas residents also rounded out the rest of the predominantly Generation X/Millennial audience.
The Queensbridge rap prodigy kicked things off with Illmatic opener “The Genesis,” and then a classical rendition of “N.Y. State of Mind.” Nas took a moment to thank DJ Premier for working with him on the album. It might seem obvious now, but at the time, beat maestros like Preemo and Q-Tip took a chance on the neophyte MC. “I was lucky to get these producers on the album as a nobody,” he said, while showing his appreciation.
Looking back, It’s still amazing that Nas boasted this kind of profound perspective as just a teenager, while detailing the “bullet holes in the backboards” of the unforgiving environment that raised him. “I just tried to see if I was good enough. Talk about the society that I was living in,” Nas reflected. “It came out raw – the language is raw – you gotta be that way. That’s what rap is. You gotta say the things that people could relate to.”
The album’s lone feature appearance was made by AZ, who popped out in a dapper silver metallic tux during the show to join his The Firm running mate for their “Life’s a Bitch” collaboration, which brought the crowd to its feet again. Nas’ father Olu Dara’s cleansing trumpet outro was done justice by the Philharmonic.
Pete Rock’s “The World Is Yours” drums were traded out for a jazzier soundscape from the Philharmonic, as Nas ran through more Illmatic cuts, like the vivid storytelling of “Memory Lane” and the poignant letters penned to incarcerated homies from the Q-Tip-assisted “One Love.”
Ahead of album closer “It Ain’t Hard to Tell,” Nas shouted out Michael Jackson for clearing the sample for his use of his 1983 hit “Human Nature.” “I was happy and grateful he cleared the sample,” he said. “That’s what really put me on the map, because I think MTV played it.”
While the curtain came down on the Philharmonic, that didn’t mean the show was over — as burlesque dancers briefly hit the stage. “This has been a dream; life is good,” Nas said while taking in the moment. “I didn’t know I’d still be making records to this day.”
Nas and DJ Green Lantern then took fans on a subway ride through the decorated MC’s catalog with plenty of hits over the years, including “Made You Look,” “Street Dreams” and “If I Ruled the World.” Finally, they wrapped the 70-minute set up with Stillmatic anthem “One Mic.”
The celebration of Illmatic’s 30th anniversary might not be over in Las Vegas, which Billboard‘s staff ranked as our No. 1 greatest rap album of all-time. Nas continued to tease keeping the Sin City residency alive. “I could get used to doing this Vegas thing,” he admitted. “I might extend it.”