R&B/Hip-Hop
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If you plan on listening to Eminem‘s new album The Death of Slim Shady, you may want to make sure you have tissues handy before you get to track 15. On “Temporary,” the 51-year-old rapper featured recordings of his daughter Hailie Jade back when she was just a toddler, promising that he’ll always be with her even after he dies.
The emotional song opens with Em soliloquizing, “A lot of people ask me, am I afraid of death?”
“The truth is, I think what scares me the most is not being able to say all the things I wanna say to you when I’m no longer here,” he continues in spoken-word form. “So this song is for Hailie, for when that day comes.”
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The track then cuts to an old audio clip of the 15-time Grammy winner speaking to baby Hailie, who’s now 28. “Where’s Hailie? Where’s she at?” his younger self asks, before his small daughter adorably roars, “This ain’t Hailie, it’s a monster!”
“Hailie Jade, I wrote you this song/ To help you cope with life now that I’m gone,” current-day Em raps. “How should I start? Just wanna say look after Alaina, Stevie, and Uncle Nate/ And sweetie, be strong.”
The Detroit artist is also Dad to adopted kids Alaina, 31, and Stevie, 22, whom he mentions in the previous line; Nate is the rapper’s half brother, Nathan Mathers. He continues to urge Hailie to move on after his death — “Don’t you dare shed a tear, what I tell you?/ ‘Straighten up, little soldier’” — in between more throwback recordings of his daughter’s voice and a stirring chorus performed by Skylar Grey.
Though it might be the most heartbreaking, “Temporary” isn’t the only time Eminem addresses his kids on the 19-track Death of Slim Shady. On “Somebody Save Me,” which features Jelly Roll, the rapper includes a clip of Alaina speaking to him when she was a little girl and apologizes to all three of his children for missing out on their lives due to his struggles with substance abuse. (The rapper celebrated 16 years of sobriety earlier this year.) And on lead single “Houdini,” the Detroit icon raps, “F–k my own kids, they’re brats,” while in the video, he gives Hailie, Alaina and Stevie the finger on FaceTime.
It’s also far from the first time Hailie – who married Evan McClintock in May with her famous dad at her side — has been on one of Eminem’s songs. The hip-hop star also featured her on 1999’s “97 Bonnie and Clyde” and 2002’s “My Dad’s Gone Crazy,” as well as dedicated “Hailie’s Song” on The Eminem Show to her.
Listen to “Temporary,” featuring a young Hailie Jade, below.
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Eminem returned with his first album in four years as The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) hit streaming services on Friday (July 12). Tapping into his Slim Shady alter ego at times throughout the LP, Em doesn’t hold back when targeting fixtures around pop culture and within hip-hop, especially when it comes to Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The embattled mogul caught the Detroit legend’s wrath on multiple tracks, as Eminem sniped the Bad Boy CEO regarding the litany of sexual misconduct allegations made against him in recent months.
The only clean name-drop of Combs from Em came on the jarring “Antichrist,” in which he seemingly references the 2016 footage of Diddy assaulting his ex Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel. (Diddy apologized days after for his actions and said his “behavior on that video is inexcusable” in a self-recorded video posted to Instagram; the apology was later deleted when he wiped his account clean of all posts.)
“Next idiot ask me is getting his a– beat worse than Diddy did,” Em raps, but stops short of naming Cassie. “But on the real, though/ She probably ran out the room with his f—ing d—o.”
Billboard has reached out to Diddy’s reps for comment.
Fans believe there were another pair of disses on the J.I.D-assisted “Fuel,” on which Em pays tribute to The Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac, and appears to insinuate Diddy had a role in the deaths.
“R.I.P., rest in peace, Biggie/ And Pac, both of y’all should be living/ But I ain’t tryna beef with him (Nope)/ ‘Cause he might put a hit on me like Keefe D did him,” Marshall Matthers spews.
Just the bar before, Em seemingly uses “P, did he?” as a homonym of P. Diddy. “I’m like a R-A-P-E-R/ Got so many S-As (S-As), S-As/ Wait, he didn’t just spell the word, ‘Rapper’ and leave out a P, did he?” he asks.
Part of Cassie’s sprawling 2023 lawsuit alleging rape and years of physical abuse against Diddy included an allegation that the decorated music executive attempted to blow up Kid Cudi’s car in 2012 after finding out that the “Day ‘n’ Nite” rapper was romantically interested in her.
“Mr. Combs told Ms. Ventura that he was going to blow up Kid Cudi’s car, and that he wanted to ensure that Kid Cudi was home with his friends when it happened,” Ventura’s lawyers wrote. “Around that time, Kid Cudi’s car exploded in his driveway.”
Em seems to rap about it on “Bad One”: “The f—ing bomb with the puffy on/ I’m blowing up for Kid Cudi’s car/ In front of his house where all his buddies are.”
Cassie and Diddy ended up settling the lawsuit less than 24 hours after she filed in November 2023. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Diddy and his legal team have vehemently denied all of the sexual misconduct allegations made against him in other lawsuits.
Listen to “Antichrist,” “Fuel” and “Bad One” below:
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Jelly Roll‘s “Save Me” is getting a second life on Eminem‘s new album The Death of Slim Shady, which dropped Friday (July 12) and features a surprise duet with the country star on its final track, an emotional open letter to the rapper’s children.
The song, titled “Somebody Save Me,” heavily samples Jelly’s 2023 hit, which reached No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November after Lainey Wilson jumped on the remix. The Detroit rapper’s new track opens with a recording of him shrugging off a younger version of his 31-year-old daughter Alaina’s pleas for him to come eat with her, after which the “Son of a Sinner” musician’s voice jumps in.
“Somebody save me, me from myself,” Jelly sings in the snippet. “I’ve spent so long living in Hell.”
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Em proceeds to dedicate bars to all three of his kids — he’s also Dad to 28-year-old Hailie and 22-year-old Stevie — openly apologizing for his past history of choosing drugs over his children. “I don’t even deserve the father title/ Hailie, I’m so sorry/ I know I wasn’t there for your first guitar recital,” he raps. “Alaina, sorry that you had to hear me fall in the bathroom … Stevie, I’m sorry, I missed you grow up and I didn’t get to be the dad I wanted to be to you.”
In between Slim’s verses, Jelly’s emotional chorus fades in and out. “They say my lifestyle is bad for my health,” he belts. “It’s the only thing that seems to help.”
The surprise collaboration comes about a month after Eminem and the “Need a Favor” artist teamed up for a live performance of the former’s “Sing for the Moment” as part of NBC’s Live From Detroit: The Concert at Michigan Central special. Jelly sang the portion of Aerosmith’s “Dream On” sampled in the hip-hop titan’s The Eminem Show hit.
“Em reached out, his team reached out and said, ‘Would you be interested in doing this?’” Jelly gushed to Entertainment Tonight of the performance in June. “I couldn’t believe it. I thought it was a joke until I met Eminem himself … As soon as I met Eminem, it was like the coolest moment ever, man.”
The Death of Slim Shady features a total of 19 tracks, including the previously released singles “Houdini” and “Tobey,” the latter featuring Big Sean and BabyTron. It comes four years after 2020’s Music to Be Murdered By, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Listen to Eminem and Jelly Roll’s surprise duet “Somebody Save Me” below.
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With a simple, yet wildly effective couplet — “Just love me/ I wanna be with you, ayy” – Zacari and Kendrick Lamar crafted a generational love anthem. Aptly titled “Love,” the heart-melting duet served as the third and final single from Lamar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning DAMN. LP, peaking at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and launching Zacari into the mainstream spotlight.
A guest appearance on a hit single from one of the most important albums of the 2010s would normally kickstart a grueling campaign to solidify solo stardom – but Zacari didn’t rush out his first LP. In fact, the 30-year-old, Bakersfield-bred multi-instrumentalist took over seven years to craft Bliss, his official debut solo studio album. “When I look back on my career now over the seven years, all I knew was that I wanted to find this sound for my album and it took [a lot of] time,” he remarks.
In the time between “Love” and Bliss, Zacari has remained musically active, dropping a pair of EPs – 2019’s Run Wild Run Free and 2021’s Sol – and a slew of collaborations, including link-ups with James Fauntleroy, Blxst and Denzel Curry. And although he had already appeared on records from several TDE artists – including close friend Ab-Soul – the indie label officially announced Zacari’s signing in early 2019. Now on the same roster as cultural phenoms like SZA and (previously) Lamar, Zacari spent the past few years soaking up as much knowledge as he could.
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“These artists like Kendrick and SZA are real prophets,” Zacari muses from Encino, CA, via Zoom. “If I can even reach a fraction of the people they reach, I’m happy.”
In opting for a longer road to his debut album, Zacari arrives at Bliss with not only an interconnected catalog of other projects, but also with a fully realized iteration of his sound. The reflective R&B energy of “Love” anchors the LP, but Zacari juxtaposes those murky synths against raucous rock-leaning guitars, unexpected forays into rap and successful stabs at club records. With his versatility on full display, Zacari has delivered a record that makes the seven-year wait feel worth it.
“When [we] go in these meetings for playlists, we don’t know what to play,” he notes. “I try my best to not even think about that, and just make what I want to make and what feels right to me.”
In an expansive conversation with Billboard, Zacari opens up about the making of Bliss, what he’s learned from his TDE labelmates, how A24 movies inspired his visuals and the hilarious story of his first interaction with Skrillex.
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It’s been over seven years since your voice captivated millions of people on “Love” from Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. Album. Where’s your head out right now a couple years removed from the peak of that song’s popularity?
Man, I was so thankful for that song to this day, because it put me in the position where I could be able to take my time with music. Even being around Kendrick, aside from making that specific song, he allowed me to be around the studio for years to watch him create albums. ScHoolboy Q too. Being around [them in] the studio was like, Okay I see how much time and effort and work they put in. I [was] so new to this [that] I just soaked up everything.
Does it really feel like seven years since “Love?”
It comes in waves where you’re patient and you’re impatient and [then] you’re frustrated and then you’re like, Damn, this is why it took so long. When I listen to the music, I’m thankful for how long I took on it and I’m also thankful for the features that have carried me over the years and the smaller projects that I’ve dropped. That’s what’s taking the pressure off me trying to rush out a first album. Even nowadays [with] how people are consuming [music,] people aren’t too pressed about receiving albums.
I spoke to SiR about his new album earlier this year, and he was talking about the TDE mindset of “we come when we’re ready.” Did you have to adjust to that way of thinking at all, or was that your vibe?
I think I had to adjust to that mindset a little bit, because when [TDE co-president Anthony “Moosa” Tiffith, Jr.] first found me, I was just dropping music on SoundCloud and it’s such a different feeling. When you’re in the room with these people like Kendrick and ScHoolboy, and they have their track record of albums and you’re watching them do it, [you see] what it really takes. It’s super important for the quality to not only be in the sound, but [also] in the writing and introspectiveness. Your pen is going to grow, you’re going to experience more things, and then you have to learn how to put them out in in the right way. I think that’s what takes time.
I think there’s moments when you just go in and make whatever you feel, but I think there’s still an important art element to an album where there’s a concept it’s put together as a whole. I think it’s a different category than a mixtape or a single. It’s like a movie. You’re writing a whole movie rather than putting a bunch of good songs together.
Over the past six years, did the album’s concept change in any significant way?
It really changed with me. I have high highs; I have low lows. I went through relationships, so there’s love songs in there. And then I fell out of a relationship over these years. Things with my faith and lifestyle changed too. Each song that I’ve collected over the years for [this] album comes from a place in my life over the past seven years. I feel like every song on my album has to have come from a real place or it doesn’t even connect with me.
I think “Ave Maria” is one of those is where it was about my faith journey. “Trust Is” is a big one [about] the relationship. I knew one day we were gonna break up, but it’s not going to be today. This was years before it happened, but I wrote that song when I kind of knew. There’s moments all over the album like that.
Who from TDE have you learned the most from since signing?
I learned so much from everybody, but I would definitely have to say [Ab-] Soul. Before I even signed to TDE, I was living with him in the same crib for a year, thanks to Moosa. When I was first around him, I was pretty new to LA and his way of thinking blew my mind so much. It was hard for me to even understand… even his spiritual awareness is on a different level. His knowledge of everything is on a different level.
I remember Lupe Fiasco visited one time and they had a conversation together, and I couldn’t even understand what they were talking about. It felt like they were rapping to each other in conversation, it was insane. Soul has always been there for me as far as reminding me to be myself and stick with my own tone and not [get too concerned with] what other people are doing. Having him on my outro too, I’ve listened to that verse for years on my own to help me get through things. The way he’s talking about the cycle of life and how to keep hope, I think he really helped me bring this album back to the light.
There was a time I sent him a song – it might have been “Nocturnal” or one of the darker songs – and he was like, How are you gonna bring this to the light, though? He never let me leave anything too dark.
You grow up singing in church. Are there any moments on this album where you feel like your cultural background in general really shines through?
The core intention of everything I make comes from growing up in the church, making music there. I [found] out that I actually loved music when I was playing for my church. I think growing up and seeing the power in performing and what it can do for others and healing myself… that put a life mission in me. From [childhood,] I was connecting with [and] healing people through music. I think that’s what happened with this album. You can get distracted from that sometimes, but that’s why it’s [the] whole journey through this album is losing yourself and finding yourself and asking questions and bringing it back to yourself.
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I love the mix of rock and R&B on “Truth Is.” Talk to me about how that track came together.
That song has traveled. That’s one of the older ones too, probably had that for like four or five years. I remember I started this with [Teddy Walton and Aaron Bow] at an Airbnb one night. I had that version for probably two ears, and then we found out the keys got used on a different beat or something. Years later, I was in this session with Skrillex and he replaced all the keys for me on my laptop. He replayed them all.
So, we got Skrillex and Teddy on that beat, and then the switch up was something Aaron was making and I was like, Bro, that just fits, so I just threw it at the end of it. If I would have just made that two years ago and dropped it, it wouldn’t have been nearly as incredible as it is today. That’s a good example of a three-year wait being worth it for one song.
What was it like working with Skrillex?
Man, that’s one of the more beautiful, brighter times of the pandemic was. Rex Kudo has been such a good person and an incredible producer. He’s mentored by Rick Rubin, so over pandemic, when the studios were closed, he kind of let us stay. We were working at Shangri-La over at Rick Rubin’s spot, and Rex would bring Skrillex through.
I pulled to the studio and there’s ten people in the room. They’re all asleep on the couches and the floors of the studio, and I got there at like 2:00 a.m. after another session. So, I just start recording stuff and this fool Skrillex wakes up from his sleep, and he’s like, “I believe in you,” and went back to sleep.
It’s hilarious, but we connected from that day on. When he woke up in the morning, we were making beats on my laptop. Super cool guy, I’m thankful to meet those types of people in the industry who are so embracing and welcoming and inspiring.
He’s a beast on Ableton too, so I learned a lot from him. The stuff he did on “Truth Is,” he literally didn’t even get on his laptop. He just came to my laptop and created the sounds from scratch. His sound design is on a different level. He can make a bass out of just the synth note.
How did the Doechii record, “No Judgement,” come together?
I had that hook for probably two years. I really wanted a more club record. This was around the time though she was first coming around TDE, and she blew me away. Honestly, when I first met her and heard her music, I was like, Holy s—t, she’s crazy. She came through on the verse on that one, just set the whole tone. That switch-up at the end wasn’t on the beat until she did her verse. I kind of produced the whole switch-up around her acapella. She changed the whole direction of the song.
You’ve previously mentioned SZA as a dream collaborator. Who else is on that list?
That would be amazing, but she is so busy. And she’s such an artist where it has to happen organically. We’ve done sessions and hung out. But that’s my real friend, I don’t ever want to like [get in the way of that.]
One of the biggest artists I want to work with is Yung Lean. [I’ve] always wanted to do a song with A$AP Rocky. I’ve always loved the psychedelic-ness of his music in the hip hop space.
As your fanbase has grown over time, do you feel like there’s a struggle between keeping them pleased and making what feels right to you?
Yeah, I think there was a time when I [didn’t] care what anybody thinks, but when I look at my fans and everything they’ve done for me, I want to make sure I’m still hearing what they want to hear and at least understanding and being aware of it. I still want to give them things they want. I feel like it’s about finding that balance. That’s what artists like Kendrick mastered with the DAMN. album, his balance of all these concepts and deep ideas with a space where everybody can love them.
The intention has always been to connect with people, so I don’t think you can be deaf to what people want from you.
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You’re opening for SiR on tour this year. What are you most excited for?
I’m so excited. I [have] performed some of this music, but I really haven’t put together a live set for this thing yet. I’m hoping to get it at least a two-piece band where I have a key and bass player DJing for me and I have a drummer. We’re supposed to start rehearsals pretty soon. It’s gonna be fun to put together, because I do production and sound design and things like that too. I’m just excited to get up and sing. Performing is probably my favorite part of all of this.
What are some of your favorite performances?
My favorite performance I’ve done to date was Day N Vegas. That was right before the pandemic, we were starting to do all the festivals, but that was one of my favorite.
[Also] just growing up in the and playing for church. I go back home, and my mom is in a bunch of bands too, so I’ll perform with her just in random places in Bakersfield sometimes. Live music has been a big part of my life.
Who are some of your biggest influences when it comes to live performance?
My mom, bro. My mom is in more bands [and] doing more gigs than me right in Bakersfield. She’s going crazy right now. She’s practicing every day, and I need to be where she is! She’s actually locked in.
Speaking of the pandemic, how did that impact your relationship with music and your career?
That was a rough time. I was in a relationship that ended during pandemic, So that inspired a lot of the of the stuff I would be writing about. [Everything] slowed everything down career-wise too. I was just starting new festivals and we [were] going to start dropping music. I really had to go back into myself and figure out what I want this to do, but I also didn’t feel as rushed anymore because the whole world slowed down. It wasn’t just me.
The pandemic changed the whole trajectory of my life, honestly. I haven’t felt the same since then.
Do you want to go back to who you were before? Are there parts of that person that you want to go back to?
I want to grow past that anxiety that I built. I feel like I never [overthought] things as much as I did until you’re just trapped in a house for years. It was hard to get out of that. But this year has been great for me, I got my brother with me too. He moved in with me. I’m excited for the future.
What are your biggest hopes for Bliss?
I’m most excited to really connect with more people with this music that I’ve had for so long on my own. No matter how far it goes or where it goes, I just want to be able to connect with more people. I got this message from a kid around the time that I dropped my EP, and he was talking about how my music kept him from committing suicide. I felt like, Damn, whatever I make after this could go anywhere. One person’s life has been saved [by my music.] My hope is for this album to help people through things [and] remind them they’re not alone.
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How do you view Bliss in relation to your Run Wild Run Free (2019) and Sol (2021) EPs?
Run Wild Run Free was [the] brighter side of loneliness. This [album] is where I go through some revelations and darker times and even darker thoughts. Run Wild Run Free is the daytime, and this is the journey through the night.
The whole theme for it is an eclipse too. In the visuals, if you look at Sol as the sun, that four-song EP, it’s like what is blocking the sun? It’s about making it through that. It was all premeditated.
Talk to me some more about the visual world you want to create for this record. Where are you drawing your influences from?
We were just shooting yesterday, like a 14-hour shoot. The eclipse is one of the biggest themes of the album. We still have the wolf. The wolf has always been a big theme.
We’re working on this short film, it’s probably seven or eight minutes. It’s a trailer with the music sprinkled throughout. We have music videos ready too. We’re just making sure we get all the visuals ready before we drop.
I really love psycho thrillers. I love A24. Old Korean films are really good too, that has helped me a lot visually. Rocky’s visuals too; I feel like he’s one of the goats when it comes to visual concepts too. I really like Travis [Scott’s] Utopia short film. I was surprised by that, it was really sick the way they did that.
What’s your favorite A24 movie?
Hereditary — that was the one that put me on.
Did you watch Midsommar?
Oh, I forgot about that one! I remember I rented an Airbnb and the people had all the Midsommar stuff. They had the pole, and we worked on the album there. We watched [the movie] too. I liked how dark of a movie it was, but it’s just in the sunlight, bro. Hella in your face. We ran the cables through a window so we could record acoustic guitar over the river. that was like probably a year or two ago.
Are you a big outdoors guy?
I love hiking. I used to work In Alaska as a fly-fishing guide. I love riding bikes, I’ve been active since I was a kid. I love martial arts as well. I was all over the place as a kid. I’d go to school, then [I had] tap dance, gymnastics, singing, playing for the church, jazz band, etc.
What else do you have planned for fans this year?
The biggest goals of the year [is] to go on tour, so that is what I’m most excited for. I’m so excited to get on the road and get some time out of LA for a little bit and get out of the crib. And dropping more music, man. Once this album’s out, I’m getting really excited to be able to start [the] next one with the slate.
I want to [drop] more loosies or just singles. My second album will probably take about two years, [but] I want to drop more consistently in between.
On July 13, 2019, Blanco Brown’s “The Git Up” began a 12-week reign on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.
Brown’s debut entry, released as the first single from his album Honeysuckle & Lightning Bugs, was sparked by a viral dance challenge on TikTok and YouTube. He helped spur the craze by personally posting a tutorial.
“I grabbed spoons, tambourine, anything I could find that made a nice sound,” Brown told Billboard in 2019 of solely writing “The Git Up.” “When I got finished, it was so full of joy. I was doing the dance as I was writing it. I said, ‘This is going to be a song that makes people dance and brings joy.’ ”
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While the single marked Brown’s first hit as a recording artist, he had previously produced songs for pop acts including Chris Brown, Fergie and Pitbull.
Brown followed “The Git Up” with “Just the Way,” his collaboration with Parmalee that led Country Airplay in March 2021 and hit No. 3 on Hot Country Songs.
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In 2020, Brown, who hails from Athens, Ga., was involved in a motorcycle accident, breaking his wrists, arms, legs and pelvis, resulting in a 12-hour surgery. “I was broken, but it didn’t break my spirit,” he told Billboard in his first interview after the accident six months later.
In June, Brown released a four-song EP, Cedar Walls & Whiskey. “I’m gonna keep on manifesting everything I do in life,” he mused to Billboard at the 2024 ACM Awards on May 16. “I’m gonna stay positive no matter what and just keep thriving and striving to get where I need to go.”
It has been a long time since LL Cool J grabbed the mic. How long? One of the most beloved MCs of all-time has been away for the game for such an extended period that some newer fans might only know him as the host of the Grammy Awards (2012-2016) and that jacked guy from Hawaii Five-O and NCIS: Hawai’i.
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He is, of course, a Grammy- and Billboard Music Award-winning rap legend and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honoree who has merely taken a powder from his MC duties to pursue some other interests for the past decade-plus.
That pause will end on September 6, however, when LL drops his 14th studio album, THE FORCE (Frequencies of Real Creative Energy), via Def Jam Recordings/Virgin Music Group. In an interview with the Associated Press, LL said that while he’s always “tinkered around” in the studio, over the past few years he felt more inspired before hitting a wall with the producer he was working with on new music.
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“I just felt like the tracks that this producer was giving me were better than the songs that I was writing,” he said. When late A Tribe Called Quest member Phife Dawg appeared to him in a dream, LL said he got an inspirational message from beyond. “He told me, ‘Yo, man, that new music you’re working on is great, man.’ But he had a look on his face like a Cheshire cat, like he was lying to me.”
That wake-up call led to LL tapping fellow ATCQ rapper Q-Tip, who produced the entire album and made all the beats. Inspired again, LL said that it had been so long that he needed to brush up on his mic technique. The process required, “going back to the drawing board and learning how to rap again … making sure I was really inspired by the things I was saying. That’s why there isn’t a lot of fluff on this album. The LeBrons, the Stephs, the Jordans and the Kobes, they all go back to the drawing board, they always try to make themselves better. I wasn’t trying to do trendy, and I wasn’t trying to recapture anything I did before.”
The rapper also released the track list for the anticipated 14-track album on Friday morning (July 12). Among the guests joining him on the collection are: Snoop Dogg (“Spirit of Cyrus”), Rick Ross and Fat Joe (“Saturday Night Special”), Sona Jobarteh (“Black Code Suite”), Saweetie (“Proclivities”), Busta Rhymes (“Huey in Da Chair”), Nas (“Praise Him”), Eminem (“Murdergram Deux”) and Mad Squablz, J-S.A.N.D. and Don Pablito (“The Vow”).
According to a press release, the album covers a number of relevant topics, touching on “themes like racial injustice, law enforcement abuses, isolation and observations brought on by the pandemic, legacy, and musings on LL’s place in the canon, while remaining vital, fun, and some of LL’s most urgent lyrical work.”
After previously dropping the album’s first single, the Ross and Joe collab “Saturday Night Special,” Friday also saw the release of the bubbling single “Passion.”
Check out the full track list for THE FORCE here and watch the “Passion” video below.
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Yep, he’s back. Shady’s back, tell a friend. Eminem returned on Friday (July 12) to deliver his highly-anticipated The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) album. The new LP marks Em’s first album since 2020’s Music to Be Murdered By as he seeks a 10th consecutive chart-topper on the Billboard 200. Mere hours before […]
Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) and Ty Dolla $ign’s collaborative album Vultures 1 mysteriously vanished from Spotify just before midnight on July 11, only to re-appear several hours later without explanation.
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The album, which has had a tumultuous release history, remained available on Apple Music, but its sudden disappearance from Spotify left fans and industry insiders puzzled for several hours until it reappeared on the streaming platform.
Vultures 1 has been embroiled in issues from its inception, including delays and canceled listening events.
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The album was first removed from Apple Music and iTunes just five days after its release on February 10. On Feb. 15, it returned to Apple Music without explanation.
The album’s distributor, FUGA, had initially declined to release the project, only for it to be delivered through the platform’s automated processes by a long-standing client, violating FUGA’s service agreement.
This led to the album’s temporary removal as FUGA worked with DSP partners to rectify the situation.
The project then faced its first streaming issues on Feb. 14, when Spotify removed “Good (Don’t Die)” from its platform due to claims of “copyright infringement” made by Donna Summer’s estate. The song was later also removed from Amazon Music.
Despite the drama, Vultures 1 debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart on February 24, marking Kanye West’s 11th career No. 1 album and Ty Dolla $ign’s first. The album accumulated 148,000 equivalent album units in its first week in the U.S., according to Luminate data.
Billboard has reached out to Spotify for clarification. However, a few hours later, the album was reinstated, suggesting the disappearance might have been due to a glitch.
The incident follows recent speculation about West’s career. Earlier this week, Rich The Kid shared an alleged text from West claiming he was “retiring from professional music.”
“I am retiring from professional music Not sure what else to do,” Ye wrote in the message while seemingly caught in a state of uncertainty.
Rich replied trying to convince him otherwise: “Retire? Why? How? The ppl NEED you the music you & Ty & we have made the BIGGEST STAMP in culture to this date in 2024. Drop Ye about mine & V2 and we do it all over again the kids need you big bra fasho maybe some time to chill but retiring ain’t it.”
However, Rich The Kid later posted that West would be featured on his upcoming album Life’s A Gamble, set for release on July 19.
The “New Freezer” rapper deleted the text message exchange featuring Ye’s alleged retirement from his Instagram Story about a half-hour after originally posting it.
Shady’s back, back again. Eminem returned to unleash his 12th studio album on Friday (July 12) with The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce). The LP boasts 19 tracks and includes previously released singles “Houdini” and “Tobey” featuring Big Sean and BabyTron, along with a sequel to 1999’s “Guilty Conscience” with Dr. Dre. Eminem […]
Serena Williams may have gotten the last laugh against Drake. On Thursday night (July 11), Williams hosted the 2024 ESPY Awards and, during her monologue, made a joke referencing the feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, where she poked fun at the OVO MC.
“If I’ve learned anything this year, it’s that none of us, not a single one of us, not even me, should ever pick a fight with Kendrick Lamar,” quipped Williams before breaking out and dancing to Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” “He will make your hometown not like you. The next time Drake sits courtside at a Raptors game, they’re going to Forrest Gump him. Seats taken.”
In 2022, Drake fired shots at Williams’ husband and co-founder of Reddit, Alexis Ohanian, rapping on “Middle of the Ocean”: “Sidebar, Serena, your husband a groupie. “He claim we don’t got a problem but no, boo, it’s like you comin’ for sushi/ We might pop up on ’em at will like Suzuki.”
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Ohanian responded to the Her Loss track on social media: “The reason I stay winning is because I’m relentless about being the best at whatever I do – including being the best groupie for my wife & daughter.” Williams and Drake do have history, as it was reportedly rumored that the two dated in 2015.
Lamar also came to Serena’s defense on “Not Like Us” when he stood up for his fellow West Coast native. “I’m glad DeRoz’ came home, y’all didn’t deserve him neither / From Alondra down to Central, nigga better not speak on Serena,” he rapped.
Earlier this week, Williams spoke on “Not Like Us” and dubbed it the song of the summer. “I love that song. It’s like the hit of the summer,” she said. “When they play that jam, I’m jamming. That jam is jamming.”
Watch the video of Williams clowning on Drake at the 2024 ESPYs below.
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