State Champ Radio R&B/Hip-Hop
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There have already been rumors about real estate developers offering up money to homeowners impacted by the recent fires in the Los Angeles area, and Vince Staples may be one of those people. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The Long Beach rapper took to X and […]
From “Big One” to “Come Here,” Florida rapper Bossman Dlow kept the hits coming throughout 2024. After scoring a string of viral bangers from his mixtapes, Dlow dropped his debut studio album, Dlow Curry, on Dec. 13. For one of his first interviews of the new year, the fast-rising star caught up with Billboard News to break down Dlow Curry and his upcoming tour.
Last year, Dlow earned his first two Billboard Hot 100 entries with “Get In With Me” (No. 49) and “Mr. Pot Scraper” (No. 93), both from his RIAA Gold-certified Mr Beat the Road mixtape. Those two tracks kicked off a run of hit singles — all of which reached the top 50 of Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs — including “SportsCenter” (No. 34), the Glorilla-assisted “Finesse” (No. 37), “Shake Dat Ass” (No. 12), “Talk My Shit” (No. 50), “2 Slippery” (No. 29, with Luh Tyler) and the Lil Baby-featuring “PJ” (No. 28).
For Dlow, his breakout hit, “Get In With Me,” remains his “most shocking” success. “I put that one to the side,” he explains to Billboard staff writer Kyle Denis. “I was shooting a video to ‘Finesse’ [at the time], so when I seen the numbers going up on Instagram, I was like ‘Oh!’ But [I was] shooting a video, so I [couldn’t] really watch it, but every time I checked, [the song] was going crazier and crazier.”
“Get In With Me” ultimately finished at No. 38 on the 2024 Year-End Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs ranking, his highest of four entries.
Dlow announced his debut LP through a SportsCenter appearance, playing on his love for sports. In addition to Steph Curry — whose name inspired the album’s title — Dlow’s top five basketball players include Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Anthony Edwards. Dlow Curry spun off more hits for Big Za, and that’s because the Tallahassee MC finally perfected his formula. “You gotta really think about what everybody else wanna hear,” he reveals. “It’s what you wanna hear at the same time, but it’s 90% what they wanna hear. Nowadays, it’s about [being] catchy. You wanna say something that they can repeat and remember.”
Dlow has used this formula not just to make “get that motion” music, but also to collaborate with rising stars like Loe Shimmy, who he says is his favorite artist to work with in the studio. In the years ahead, Dlow hopes to collaborate with Future, Usher and The Weeknd; hopefully, his forthcoming Wiz Khalifa collaboration sets the stage for those link-ups.
With goals of going No. 1 and getting Diamond-certified guiding him into the 2025, Bossman Dlow is ready to put on a yet-to-be-announced tour that will also involve the kids.
“I know all the kids like my music,” he says. “So they gon get a chance to win money, prizes, all that. I’m putting on a show everytime.”
Former Fox Sports host Skip Bayless and Lil Wayne have a friendship that runs deep. Less than a month out from Super Bowl LIX, Bayless went to bat for Weezy and his belief that the New Orleans icon should be headlining the Super Bowl Halftime Show in his hometown.
“Sorry, Lil Wayne should obviously be the Super Bowl halftime show in New Orleans,” he wrote to X on Sunday (Jan. 12).
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Of course, Kendrick Lamar has been tapped by the NFL to headline the Super Bowl Halftime Show in the Big Easy, which drew criticism from a range of Wayne’s rap peers, including Nicki Minaj, Master P and Cam’ron.
“Denying a young black man what he rightfully put into this game for no other reason but your ego,” Minaj said on X last year while seemingly targeting Jay-Z and Roc Nation, who has served as the league’s live music entertainment strategist since 2019.
Many Kendrick fans flooded Bayless’ replies, citing the recent lawsuit accusing the former host of sexual harassment. “Weird case???? Still around,” a TDE fan account responded while quoting Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.”
According to the Associated Press, a hairstylist accused Bayless of repeatedly making unwanted sexual advances against her. She also claimed he offered her $1.5 million to have sex with him. Bayless has yet to address the lawsuit.
After Lil Wayne found out he’d been passed over for Kendrick, he admitted that the news was difficult for him to hear. “It hurt a whole lot,” he said at the time. “I blame myself for not being mentally prepared for a letdown, and for automatically mentally putting myself in that position like somebody told me that was my position. So I blame myself for that.”
However, in the time since, Weezy revealed he and Kendrick had been in contact. “I’ve spoken to him, and I wish him all the best and I told him he better kill it,” Wayne explained to Bayless in December.
“It just makes no sense to me. I don’t get it … their politics played … I don’t know,” Bayless said to Weezy, who replied: “That’s another part of it, there’s things I can’t control.”
Super Bowl LIX is slated for Feb. 9 in New Orleans where Lamar will hit the halftime show stage. Find Skip’s tweet above.
Ye — the artist formerly known as Kanye West — has certainly never lacked confidence in himself. West took to Instagram on Tuesday (Jan. 14) to tout himself as the GOAT while running through his decorated career résumé. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “YOUR FAVORITE GOATS […]
Cardi B might just be in her Reputation era. The rapper posted on X Tuesday (Jan. 14) that she’s had it with “acting nice,” using a hilarious Taylor Swift meme to get her point across.
Cardi told followers, “I was acting nice and nonchalant but today I’m going to violate and show the real me 🙂”
The “WAP” musician didn’t specify what grievance inspired her post, but to illustrate her point, she did attach a video of the Eras Tour headliner performing at the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge in 2019. Instead of the original audio, however, the clip of Swift is paired with what sounds like a snippet of Beyoncé absolutely going off while riffing during a live performance of “Crazy in Love.”
Cardi’s post comes less than a week after an update to her long-running legal battle with gossip blogger Tasha K, who claimed in a new response motion that the Grammy winner is trying to “sabotage” her career. Weeks prior, Cardi’s legal team had submitted a claim to a federal bankruptcy judge accusing Tasha of hiding money to avoid paying the rapper nearly $4 million in damages, which a federal jury awarded Cardi in 2022 after finding the blogger’s past claims about the star defamatory. In the new filing, Tasha’s attorneys countered by saying Cardi had failed to “identify a cent of undisclosed value.”
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The “Up” musician is also still at odds with Offset, from whom she split in July after seven years of marriage. The two stars — who share three children — were still very publicly hammering out their divorce as of mid-December, with Cardi at one point posting on X at her ex, “F–k off and sign the papers TODAY.”
“When u split the custody I will [sign the papers],” the Migos rapper countered at the time.
As for her thoughts on the subject of her meme of choice Tuesday, Cardi has only had positive things to say about Swift. In 2021, the hip-hop star praised the “Karma” singer’s “All Too Well” short film, and last year, Cardi gushed about the singer-songwriter’s relationship with Travis Kelce.
“I think it’s cute,” Cardi said of the couple last February. “She looks so happy. I feel like she’s really private with her relationships, so I really feel like she likes him a lot because she’s like, ‘I don’t give a f—. I’m going to kiss him. I’m going to touch him. I’m going to kiss him! Yeah, I’m here. Yeah, I’m taking a jet to see my man.’”
See Cardi’s tweet below.
LiAngelo Ball is officially a Billboard Hot 100-charting artist, as his breakthrough viral hit, “Tweaker,” debuts at No. 29 on the Jan. 18-dated chart.
The song debuts almost entirely from its streaming sum: 12.4 million official streams in the U.S. in the Jan. 3-9 tracking week, according to Luminate. It also sold 2,000 downloads. The song concurrently tips off at No. 7 on Hot Rap Songs and No. 9 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
Ball is one-third of the famed Ball brothers, the sons of Big Baller Brand co-founder Lavar Ball. Eldest son, Lonzo Ball, was the second overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft and is now the starting point guard for the Chicago Bulls. The youngest son, LaMelo Ball, was the third pick in the 2020 NBA draft and is now the starting point guard for the Charlotte Hornets — he was voted rookie of the year in 2021 and named an all-star in 2022. LiAngelo, the middle child, played basketball in Lithuania and Mexico, but hasn’t made the NBA. He is, however, the first of the siblings to score a Billboard chart hit.
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LiAngelo released “Tweaker” on Jan. 3 via Born to Ball Music Group, and it almost immediately went viral. The song has already soundtracked nearly 30,000 clips on TikTok. His upward momentum even earned him a slot to perform at Rolling Loud California 2025 in March. The song also helped him, reportedly, sign a deal with Def Jam/Universal Music Group.
LiAngelo isn’t the first basketball star to reach Billboard’s charts. Shaquille O’Neal charted five Hot 100 hits in the 1990s: “What’s Up Doc? (Can We Rock),” with Fu-Schnickens (No. 39 peak in 1993); “(I Know I Got) Skillz” (No. 35, 1993); “I’m Outstanding” (No. 47, 1994); “Biological Didn’t Bother” (No. 78, 1995); and “Men of Steel,” with Ice Cube, B-Real, Peter Gunz and KRS-One (No. 82, 1997). He has also charted four albums on the Billboard 200: Shaq Diesel (No. 25, 1993); Shaq-Fu: Da Return (No. 67, 1994); You Can’t Stop the Reign (No. 82, 1996); and Respect (No. 58, 1998).
Milwaukee Bucks point guard Damian Lillard, who raps under the name Dame D.O.L.L.A., has also charted an album on the Billboard 200: The Letter O reached No. 119 in 2016. During a postgame interview on Jan. 8 with ESPN’s Michael Eaves, Lillard co-signed LiAngelo’s “Tweaker.”
“I rock with it, man,” he said. “I’ve been hearing it a lot, it gives me that 2003, 2004 vibe. … And as an artist, you gotta respect other people’s artistry, and when something is going, it’s going. … I’m happy for him, it’s a big record, you’re hearing it everywhere.”
Mary J. Blige enters a select club as just the fourth artist to earn at least 10 No. 1s on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart. The Queen of Hip-Hop Soul achieves the feat on the list dated Jan. 18, as “You Ain’t the Only One” rises 3-1 to become her 10th career leader on the […]
Soulja Boy went on a fiery Twitter rant — now X — over the weekend and even managed to sneak in a shot at Drake while tweeting about the devastating fires torching Los Angeles County. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “Time to disappear,” Big Draco wrote to […]
Streamer, rapper, producer, and engineer Plaqueboymax made news last week when he asked rappers Fivio Foreign and Lil Tjay to stop smoking weed during a livestream, which then led to the NYC rappers leaving early and a back-and-forth online. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Over the […]
Professional basketball player and “Tweaker” rapper LiAngelo Ball has signed a label deal with Def Jam and Universal Music Group (UMG), according to ESPN reporter Shams Charania. On Monday (Jan. 13), Charania, whose main beat is NBA news, tweeted that the recording deal for Ball, who performs under the name G3, was confirmed by “a […]
