R&B/Hip-Hop

17 Dec 2024

SZA Confirms ‘Lana’ Deluxe Album With Ben Stiller Cameo

After months of delays and speculation, SZA has finally announced the release date for Lana, the long-awaited deluxe edition of her chart-topping album SOS. The project is set to arrive on Friday, Dec. 20, as confirmed via a teaser video shared on social media.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

In the clip shared Monday (Dec. 16), Stiller channels his inner superfan, dramatically lip-syncing to what’s presumed to be SZA’s new track “Drive” while driving through a rainy night.

If the scene feels familiar, it’s because Stiller also once made an iconic lip-syncing cameo in Jack Johnson’s “Taylor” video back in 2003 — except this time, he’s swapping a guitar for a steering wheel.

Trending on Billboard

Lana has been in the works for over two years, with SZA first teasing it as “a whole other album” packed with outtakes and new tracks. In a recent interview with British Vogue, she reflected on her evolving creative process. “I think I am making music from a more beautiful place. From a more possible place versus a more angsty place,” she explained.

“I’m not identifying with my brokenness. It’s not my identity. It’s shit that happened to me. Yeah, I experienced cruelty. I have to put it down at some point. Piece by piece, my music is shifting because of that, the lighter I get.”

The deluxe release marks another chapter in the SOS era, which has been nothing short of massive.

Following its release, SOS debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with 318,000 equivalent album units – the third-highest debut week of 2022 – and shattered the record for the biggest streaming week for an R&B album by a woman, with 404.6 million official on-demand streams for the album’s songs, according to Luminate. It spent 10 total weeks atop the chart, and became the first R&B album by a woman to hit the double-digit mark since Mariah Carey’s self-titled debut posted 11 weeks at No. 1 in 1991.

With Lana now confirmed, the release perfectly aligns with SZA’s upcoming stadium tour alongside Kendrick Lamar, kicking off in 2025. As part of their highly anticipated Grand National tour, presented by Live Nation, pgLang and Top Dawg Entertainment, the duo are setting off on a North American stadium tour beginning in April 2025.

The Grand National tour will kick off in Minnesota on April 19 and make its way through major cities across the country including Houston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, the New York area, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Detroit, Chicago and even Toronto before wrapping up in Washington, D.C., on June 18.

16 Dec 2024

The Outlawz’s Young Noble Walks Off Interview When Recalling 2Pac’s Last Days

As the chapter of who was responsible for 2Pac‘s death finally closes with the arrest of Keffe D, more stories from that fateful night are being told.

Young Noble of the Outlawz, who frequently collaborated with the late rapper and actor — sat down with The Art of Dialogue to talk about Pac’s final days in the hospital after he was shot in Las Vegas after a Mike Tyson fight in 1996.

Trending on Billboard

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

He began talking about the day the Notorious B.I.G. got shot in Los Angeles by revealing that the group had recently signed to Death Row and that he remembered them getting kicked out of a hotel after the staff accused them of pimping due to “too much female activity.” Noble then recalled watching the news about Biggie and feeling like “hip-hop was dying.”

Adding, “This ain’t how it’s supposed to be. We didn’t wish that on Biggie or nothin’ like that. It felt devastating,” before acknowledging that some members of the Outlawz were featured on 2Pac’s “Hit ‘Em Up” where he dissed Big.

Towards the end of the interview, Noble started speaking on being there with Pac in the hospital. “I was right there, front and center,” he said before referring to the longstanding rumors that the late rapper allegedly faked his death and moved to Cuba.

“Let them tell it, he’s still alive underground like Bin Laden somewhere hiding or in Cuba… Nah, he really died. I really was in the hospital. I really saw him with tubes in his body. I really saw his body full of fluid real big. He wasn’t skinny with the six-pack; his body was full. He really f—king died on us.”

The New Jersey rapper then claimed Pac’s mother made the decision to “let her son go,” saying, “He probably could have lived. His momma said, ‘Nah, f—k all that. I think he lost his finger, he was gonna lose a lung, they were gonna do all these surgeries. You know how strong your momma gotta to be to say, ‘Damn, he’s probably could make it. I don’t want my son to endure no more pain in this world. Y’all tear him down.’ That sh—t is devastating.”

He then added, “She let her son go. ‘Pac ain’t die; Afeni said, ‘Let my son fly,’” before getting emotional and walking off set as he continued to talk about how his friend’s life has been “dissected” since his untimely passing.

You can watch the full clip below.

16 Dec 2024

André 3000 Reflects on Working With Beyoncé: ‘We Have a Kinship’

André 3000 and Beyoncé have teamed up for collaborations in the past and he even named a song after Queen Bey on his New Blue Sun album.

The Hollywood Reporter caught up with Three Stacks on Monday (Dec. 16) for a rare sit-down interview, where he reflected on working with the pop icon.

“Really just being excited about working together because we performed together during the ‘Hey Ya!’ times in England [in 2003],” the Outkast legend recalled. “That was some of the first times I’ve met her, so being able to record, I think we’ve always had respect for each other and been fans.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

He continued: “To be reached out by Beyoncé, ‘Hey, can you get on this song?’ I’m like, ‘Hell, yeah, you know I’m with it.’ Yeah, it was a cool musical family thing. I think people from a certain era, we have a kinship.”

Trending on Billboard

Three Stacks and Bey joined forces for “Back to Black” from The Great Gatsby soundtrack in 2013 and “Party” a couple of years prior. He detailed the vision of naming his “Ninety Three ‘Til Infinity And Beyoncé” after the Houston-bred music deity.

“The title was really a play on words, just referencing things that I was into,” he began. “Souls of Mischief, one of their most famous songs was called ’93 ‘Til Infinity,’ and that’s when I was coming out of high school. That was one of my favorite rap tracks. Then I thought it was funny to put that together with a Toy Story proclamation, ‘Until infinity and beyond.’”

Dre even received Jay-Z and Bey’s blessing: “That was a thing that the character would say in the movie, and I would say, “Why not Beyoncé?” It was funny; it was a play on pop culture stuff. I reached out to Jay-Z and Beyoncé and asked if it was cool. She’s like, ‘Yeah.’ So I was happy.”

Elsewhere in the interview, André 3000 voiced his frustration with the media continuously referring to New Blue Sun, which is nominated for album of the year, best alternative jazz album and best instrumental composition at the 2025 Grammy Awards, as a “flute album.”

“The media has touted it as this flute album and I think it’s a misrepresentation of the album,” he said. “It’s way more than a flute album. They belittle it by calling it a flute album because there are actual flutists that have made flute albums, like Jethro Tull and Paul Horn. I think it could be a turnoff to some people if they think, ‘Yo, he’s just in a room playing this flute.’”

16 Dec 2024

Sexyy Red Reacts to Owen Wilson Filming ‘Rolling Loud’ Film in Miami: ‘Dats My Baby Owen’

It looks like Owen Wilson is a fan of the hood’s hottest princess.

The actor went viral over the weekend, as a fan in attendance captured him with his jaw on the floor as he watched Sexyy Red perform her song “Hellcats SRTs” on the Rolling Loud stage in Miami. The St. Louis rapper caught wind of the video and responded with “Dats my baby Owen” along with some cat kissing emojis.

Wilson also hit the stage with Travis Scott as his hype man while he performed his Utopia hit record “FE!N” and shouted to the crowd, “I’m feigning for more.”

His attendance at this year’s festival shouldn’t come as a surprise. It was recently reported that the Wedding Crashers actor will star opposite standup comedian Matt Rife in a movie centered around the rap festival.

Trending on Billboard

Inspired by a true story, Wilson will play a dad that sneaks his 13-year old son into Rolling Loud’s 10th-anniversary weekend in Miami as his co-worker (Rife) tags along for the ride as they try to navigate security, rappers and rowdy attendees. Rolling Loud will be directed by Jeremy Garelick and is produced by Live Nation Productions.

Fans took some behind-the-scenes footage of Wilson and Scott filming what looks like a scene from the upcoming movie, where the actor can be heard referring to the rapper as Mr. Scott and thanking him for his time before saying he’s “got a little bit of an emergency.”

There’s no official release date yet, but the movie should be out sometime next year.

16 Dec 2024

Steve-O Says Kendrick Lamar ‘Oozes Coolness,’ But Drake Doesn’t

Steve-O is on Team Kendrick.

The Jackass star joined Hardy’s Wild Ride podcast this week, during which they talked about their top five rappers. While discussing André 3000 and Kendrick Lamar, Steve-O explained that the Outkast star “oozes coolness,” as does the “TV Off” rapper.

Steve-O then chimed in on the headline-making feud between Lamar and Drake earlier this year. “It’s just a cool factor that you just can’t put your finger on,” he shared. “I will go as far as to say that Drake doesn’t have it.”

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

He continued to gush over Lamar, particularly his recently released album GNX. “It’s so fire, and I’m not even claiming to know anything about hip-hop,” he said. “I was super into 50 Cent and G-Unit and haven’t paid attention since. I played this new Kendrick album, and I was like, ‘Oh my god, my 81-year-old dad would be like oh s—, this is fire.’”

Lamar’s GNX debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart (dated Dec. 7), marking his fifth chart-topper. On the Hot 100, “Squabble Up” topped the chart, becoming Lamar’s fifth Hot 100 No. 1, and his third of 2024 – the most among all artists this year. The SZA-assisted “Luther” came in at No. 3, “Wacced Out Murals” hit No. 4, “Reincarnated” at No. 8 and “Man at the Garden” at No. 9. He joins only Taylor Swift, Drake and The Beatles in having placed at Nos. 1-5 in a single week.

Trending on Billboard

Watch Steve-O’s full discussion with Hardy below, with the rapper conversation beginning at around the 45-minute mark.

16 Dec 2024

Japan’s Hip-Hop Stars Creepy Nuts On Their Surprise Mega-Hit — And Their Vision For Their Future

As Billboard Japan unveiled its 2024 year-end charts, the hip-hop duo Creepy Nuts — rapper R-Shitei (also known as R-rated) and DJ Matsunaga — land the No. 1 song of the year for the country, with their mega-hit “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” taking the top spot on the all-genre Japan Hot 100 chart (which applies six metrics to songs: physical sales, downloads, streaming, airplay, video views and karaoke). The high-octane track also tops the year-end Global Japan Songs Excl. Japan ranking by a huge margin after holding the No. 1 position for 24 weeks, the longest ever in the history of the chart that ranks songs from Japan that are listened to internationally. In total, “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” has dominated 12 year-end Billboard Japan roundups.

Amid the song’s success, Creepy Nuts have stayed extremely busy, traveling the world for festival performance dates while working on their new album. Billboard Japan caught up with the two artists as they wrapped their whirlwind year.

Trending on Billboard

How do you feel about the success of “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” on the year-end charts?

DJ Matsunaga: It kind of hasn’t really sunk in yet.

R-Shitei: Yeah, it’s like my brain hasn’t been able to keep up at this stage. I’m like, “Oh… Awesome…” (Laughs.) … Compared to the first half of the year, the reaction to our shows [helps bring it into perspective]… But I think we’re a lot more confused about it all than people might think.

DJ Matsunaga: It’s still hard to believe we’re at the top of any kind of ranking. (Looks at R-Shitei.) Right?

Still, after “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” became a global hit, your follow-up track, “Otonoke,” continues to do well: On Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales chart, it reached No. 1 five times (on the charts dated Oct. 19, Nov. 2, Nov. 16, Nov. 23 and Dec. 14). You’ve been on a roll in 2024.

DJ Matsunaga: Wow…

R-Shitei: That’s amazing. Both “Otonoke” and “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” were written around the same time. We were working on the former when we had no idea that the latter would become such a hit. “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” is a work we’re really proud of, but when we were making those songs, “Otonoke” was the one we felt the most confidence in. So when the year started and “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” became pretty popular, I was like, “So people seem to like this a lot,” and “Well, we’re really proud of ‘Otonoke,’ too” when we released it. So I’m genuinely happy to see that people seem to accept “Otonoke” as well.

DJ Matsunaga: [The chart results are] too much of a blessing, so I don’t think it’s right to use it as a precedent…

R-Shitei: That’s true. It’s hard, isn’t it? Rankings can be both a source of encouragement and poison for artists.

DJ Matsunaga: For real.

R-Shitei: We’re happy and grateful, but don’t want to focus too much on that… Our goal isn’t to do well on the charts. It’s to keep updating our own definition of “good.” We’re making new songs with that in mind, too.

“How do you interpret chart rankings?” is a question we often ask various artists. In a recent interview, Ayase from YOASOBI said he’s now working with “a really fresh feeling” after becoming the No. 1 Artist of the Year on Billboard Japan’s Artist 100 ranking in 2023 with “Idol,” because a weight has been lifted from his shoulders.

R-Shitei and DJ Matsunaga: What?!

DJ Matsunaga: The way he approaches music is completely different. When I first started out, it felt like the notion of making enough money to get by by doing hip-hop was just a pipe dream, so being able to make a living from hip-hop and quitting my part-time job was a huge weight off my shoulders. (Laughs.) Like, I don’t have to be chasing my dream while working part-time in my 30s, you know?

R-Shitei: That’s normal, and I’d still like it regardless, so I was vaguely thinking that I’d be doing hip-hop [like that in my 30s] when I first got started.

DJ Matsunaga: Yeah, we have proper respect for those who keep at it while working part-time jobs in their 30s.

R-Shitei: When I was able to make a living doing music, I thought I was really lucky… Now when you look around, [many hip-hop artists in Japan] are making a living and there are even hit songs… all of this, including the fact that hip-hop is so popular in Japan, makes me really happy.

DJ Matsunaga: I really agree.

R-Shitei: We never planned to make songs that would be listened to around the world. It’s really just about expressing what we want to get out and releasing the pent-up [feelings] we’ve been holding in, basically.

Tell us a bit more about “Otonoke.” How did you go about making it?

R-Shitei: Usually, I get the beat from Matsunaga and add my rap to it, but this time, because we made it around the same time as “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born,” I was like, “I’ll go to a completely different place by extension of the same mindset.” I was in a period where I wanted to make songs using a fundamental rhythm as the key, rather than language. And I thought that a non-verbal rhythm like “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” would be good. It was going to be the theme song for [the anime series] Dandadan, so I thought I’d try making it by using “Dandadan” as the starting rhythm, and decided to use the same rhyme as “Dandadan Dandadan” [in the intro] for the verse. I recorded something like scat that wasn’t really a language, sent it to Matsunaga and had him flesh out the track.

I see! So the rhyme came first.

R-Shitei: Right. So the sound that was going “Dandadan Dandadan” a cappella became more and more like language, and then it became a slightly slower melody, and then a more bouncy melody, and so on. The rhythm stays the same, but the flavor changes. I’d only imagined it as a straight line climbing up, but Matsunaga expanded it horizontally with the track. The scenery changes suddenly when you get to the bridge that goes “Haireta Haireta,” and it’s because he really opened it up there during the scat stage, adding that completely different development. And the lyrics changed to “Haireta” (“I’m in”) at that point. I thought, “This feels like I’ve ‘gone in.’ ” Like, if I were a “specter of sound (oto no ke),” a music monster, I’d probably enter people’s brains through their ears at the moment when the scenery changes suddenly. So, words also appear during our back-and-forth.

DJ Matsunaga: What was good about this time was that I had the a cappella version, where R had already gone the distance with the same rhymes and prosody, so I was able to add crazy development to the track. No matter how much I changed it, the rap maintains the same groove as it develops, so the song doesn’t fall apart at all. He’d given me that kind of guarantee first, so I was able to make bold developments that wouldn’t ordinarily have been possible. I mean, it’s possible to make [tracks like that] at any time, but it’s not easy to make something that works beautifully after it’s done, even if you intend to make it that way.

You appeared at festivals in the United States, South Korea and Taiwan this year. What was the response like?

R-Shitei: There were moments when I could tell people knew our songs and were responding to them, and that made me really happy. And of course I feel it when people are really grooving and partying. But I think we’re only starting to understand how people really feel about us.

DJ Matsunaga: The main reason is that we haven’t done any tours. We’ve only appeared in events so far. Each country is completely different, and the audience in each country is also completely different, so it’s not like we can compare them…

R-Shitei: We don’t have enough data yet inside ourselves, right?

DJ Matsunaga: It feels like we’re still at the entry level. Even if we were talking about Japan, festivals that you’re invited to perform in are irregular spaces.

R-Shitei: Yeah.

DJ Matsunaga: So we can only get a real feel for it by doing our own tours while performing in those invited events, then adding up and dividing them.

What is your vision for the future?

R-Shitei: To make things feel good to me from the end of this year and on to the next, I need to focus on the things that are right in front of me… I’m in the middle of making an album, so my mind’s still on that. Rather than any kind of vision, I’m thinking about what I should do with the next bar or the next line, you know? I mean, just now…

DJ Matsunaga: Yeah, we were talking about it for a long time just now [before the interview].

R-Shitei: Yeah! We were coming up with themes and ideas nonstop, so I guess that’s the biggest thing occupying my mind right now. That’s exactly my vision for the future.

DJ Matsunaga: Me too. Ninety percent of my private life is like that. (Laughs.)

R-Shitei: Also, my way of thinking might have reverted to the way it was before. While the content of our songs has evolved a lot and we’ve grown from around 2013 to 2014 when Creepy Nuts began, it’s like… I can’t find the right words to describe it. But if you listen to the album, you might understand.

DJ Matsunaga: It’s like we’ve gone back a decade. We’ll lose our social position.

Lose your what?

R-Shitei: (Laughs.)

DJ Matsunaga: Our social position will go down. (Laughs.) I mean, when you do work and stand in front of people and appear in the media and advertising… When you branch out from just making music and become involved with people in companies, you inevitably have to take on social responsibilities. Now that we’ve returned to a lifestyle focusing on music, it feels like the irresponsibleness that I had before is back.

R-Shitei: If the stages in our career had continued to visibly rise in an easy-to-understand way like from 2020 to 2022, and we’d kept busy, constantly appearing in the media and so on, I probably would have felt that I should only say proper things. I might have just ended up trying to say good things in my songs. But we stopped doing that and just focused on the music and our expression and the things we like. As a result, I figured I might be able to express the bad and ugly parts of myself in an irresponsible way, which is something I used to think about when I first started rapping. Because the thing that makes hip-hop interesting to me is how it allows you to express the dirty stuff in its raw form.

DJ Matsunaga: That’s true. Express bad stuff like it is.

R-Shitei: As a listener you go, “Dude shouldn’t be saying that!” but the way it’s so bad and crazy makes it exciting as hip-hop. And then there’s “Dude says some good stuff once in a while, doesn’t he?” (Laughs.) So it’s a balance. It’s hard to express succinctly, but we’ve evolved in certain ways while still being like, “No way, we’re no good at all to begin with as human beings.” It’s about being able to go, “So what?” and expressing that as well next time.

DJ Matsunaga: It feels like we’ve regained the courage to do that.

R-Shitei: Feels like we got it back, doesn’t it?

DJ Matsunaga: That’s so true! We got it back and somehow… I’ve found a balance. It’s more natural and I actually feel more level-headed now.

Feature, Billboard Japan, Creepy Nuts, Global No. 1s

16 Dec 2024

Cardi B & Offset Make It Rain in Same Miami Nightclub During His Birthday

While they’re not back together, Cardi B and Offset were spotted in the same Miami nightclub making it rain over the weekend. The Migos rapper made a guest appearance during Don Toliver’s Rolling Loud set and celebrated his 33rd birthday in South Beach.

Cardi pulled up to support her baby daddy, but she remained in a separate section and not interacting with Set outside of essentially seeing who could throw more cash in the air.

Footage surfaced of Cardi B twerking in a nearby section as Offset caught a look peeking at his estranged wife. Cardi filed for divorce a second time over the summer after giving birth to their second daughter. They also share 6-year-old Kulture and a 3-year-old son Wave.

Trending on Billboard

An alleged leaked text message hit social media recently, which found Offset looking to rekindle the flame with his Grammy Award-winning ex. However, while Cardi remains uninterested in getting back together, she downplayed the timing of the texts in question claiming they were “old.”

“S–t is old. It’s not on purpose,” she said in an X Spaces. “I will never get back with this n—a. I’m not even gonna lie, we’ve been peaceful for a week. So, we like the energy … I don’t bother you, you don’t bother me. You heard I’m with a n—a, don’t bother me. I hear you with a b—h, I don’t bother you. So, we been on good terms.”

Billboard has reached out to reps for Cardi and Offset.

While she didn’t perform at Rolling Loud, a blonde Cardi had a busy weekend in the 305, where she also performed at popular nightclub E11EVEN.

As 2024 comes to a close, next year is setting up to be a major campaign for the the Bronx native, who is expected to finally deliver her long-awaited sophomore album in ’25.

16 Dec 2024

How Kendrick Lamar Turned a Bitter Feud Into a Mainstream Smash

A 67-year-old billionaire adopting a pop culture catchphrase should be cringe-worthy — but for Drake, it was a reminder of the ubiquity of Kendrick Lamar.

After Drake disparaged NBA star DeMar DeRozan, who had previously played for his beloved Toronto Raptors, Vivek Ranadivé (the owner of DeRozan’s current team, the Sacramento Kings) fired back at Drake in defense of his forward. While sitting courtside for a November contest between the Kings and the Raptors, Ranadivé donned a black T-shirt with four words emblazoned across his chest: “They Not Like Us.”

Count Ranadivé among the Lamar fans who have puffed out their chests since the Compton, Calif., rapper served up “Not Like Us,” the game-winning shot in his feud with Drake, on May 6. And while hip-hop purists would’ve bet on Drake as the one to walk away from a battle with a hit record, it was K. Dot who flipped the script on the Toronto rap deity.

Trending on Billboard

The OVO honcho attempted to land a direct hit of his own with the three-part blitz “Family Matters,” but Lamar didn’t even give the track a chance to breathe as he followed up 30 minutes later with the diabolical “Meet the Grahams.” Smothering “Family Matters” shrewdly allowed K. Dot to clear the lane and counter with “Not Like Us.” On the latter track, Lamar used producer Mustard’s Cali bounce to peel back the layers of Drake’s cultural identity while repeatedly accusing him of pedophilia.

In response, Drake could only muster up an addition to Lamar’s “The Heart” song series with “The Heart Pt. 6,” which found him losing his footing and backpedaling to the defensive. And when the dust settled, the consensus was clear: Lamar had emerged as the champ. Not only was “Not Like Us” a knockout blow, but a pro-Black Los Angeles anthem that is now cemented into rap battle lore alongside classic West Coast dis tracks like Ice Cube’s “No Vaseline” and 2Pac’s “Hit Em Up.”

“When I was growing up, I watched 2Pac, ‘California Love,’ Dr. Dre, Snoop [Dogg], the Death Row days,” Mustard told Billboard in October. “It’s like being a part of that again, but in this day and age.”

While Drake has been one of pop music’s architects — collecting 338 Billboard Hot 100 entries to Lamar’s 87 — K. Dot won the rap charts battle when “Euphoria” (No. 3) and “Not Like Us” (No. 1) became the only dis tracks in the feud to reach the Hot 100’s top five. “Not Like Us” not only debuted atop the chart but also set a record on Hot Rap Songs: 25 weeks at No. 1 through Nov. 23.

“That’s hard to ignore, especially when you’re evaluating an artist who’s taken pride in being so much bigger than everyone else based on his numbers,” Spotify head of urban music/creative director Carl Chery says of Lamar besting Drake. “There were moments where it felt like Drake had the advantage, but in hindsight, Kendrick was ahead every step of the way and his win feels more decisive every day.”

In retrospect, March 29, 2024, was a seminal date in rap history. Lamar chose violence with a show-stealing assist on “Like That,” the centerpiece of Future and Metro Boomin’s collaborative album We Don’t Trust You. On the track, Lamar responds to a line from J. Cole and Drake’s 2023 collaboration, “First Person Shooter,” on which Cole questions who’s leading rap’s “Big Three”: “Is it K. Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me?” On “Like That,” Lamar defiantly replies: “Motherf–k the Big Three, n—a, it’s just big me.”

“Like That” launched at No. 1 on the Hot 100, and Lamar’s guest verse shook the tectonic plates of hip-hop. Cole dipped his toes into the feud before bowing out with a public apology onstage at his Dreamville Festival in May — leaving Drake to fight for himself.

Far before Lamar and Drake were ever dubbed part of rap’s Big Three, their paths were intertwined near the start of their careers. The titans traded verses on each other’s Take Care and good kid, m.A.A.d city albums, and Drizzy brought Lamar on the road as an opener on his 2012 Club Paradise Tour. Things turned icy the next year when Lamar put the entire rap game on blast with his maniacal verse on Big Sean’s “Control.” And while their feud was mostly dormant ever since, “First Person Shooter” poked the bear — and Lamar returned battle-ready.

Through the first weekend of May alone, Drake and Lamar exchanged haymakers at a relentless pace, dropping a collective eight dis tracks in total — all of which highlight their opposite backgrounds. Drake, who is biracial and from Toronto, was a child actor before becoming rap’s pop-leaning hit-maker. K. Dot, a Compton native with a Dr. Dre co-sign, quickly emerged as one of rap’s storytelling savants, with a penchant for illustrating the distressing Black experience in America.

“A lot of fans assumed that Kendrick is a slow writer because he took a five-year break between [2017 album] DAMN. and [2022’s] Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, so I think people were shocked to see him release four songs in five days,” Chery says. “I don’t think we’ll ever see such a high-stakes battle unfold this way ever again.”

50 Cent, an artist well-versed in rap beef, thinks the back-and-forth was “good for hip-hop” by forcing both artists to become more prolific. “It was about the lyrics, but that s–t was on a different level,” he said in an October Billboard interview. “The f–king [good kid, m.A.A.d city] car in the [“Family Matters”] video — that shit was a mystery. Everything was tied to something.”

Chery also credits Lamar’s shrewd strategy and instincts as what got the better of Drake. “I think Kendrick won because his strategy was arguably better than his music,” he says. “[Lamar] predicted the way the battle was going to play out on ‘Euphoria’ and ‘6:16 in L.A.’ He also gave Drake a taste of his own medicine [by releasing] back-to-back dis songs twice.”

And not only was his strategy better, but it was built to last. Lamar’s music zeitgeist has carried momentum all year long: In September, it was announced that he would headline the Super Bowl LIX halftime show in February 2025. By November, “Not Like Us” had yet to depart the Hot 100’s top 20 since its release, Lamar scored five Grammy nominations for the upcoming 67th annual awards ceremony and he capped off his banner campaign with the surprise release of his GNX album on Nov. 22. Just days later, Billboard reported that Drake filed legal documents alleging Universal Music Group and Spotify had conspired to “artificially inflate the popularity” of “Not Like Us.”

But consumption aside, “Not Like Us” has transcended traditional popularity: Snoop credited Lamar with unifying the West Coast during Lamar’s The Pop Out: Ken & Friends concert on Juneteenth at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif. The hit even permeated different alleys of pop culture, adopted by the Los Angeles Dodgers on their journey to winning the 2024 World Series.

“The song took on a life of its own beyond the battle,” Chery says. “You saw viral clips of kids dancing to it at bat mitzvahs. The U.S. basketball team played it after every win during the Summer Olympics. It’s weirdly become universal. Almost everyone can identify with representing a specific idea and feeling like someone else represents the antithesis of who they are.”

This story appears in the Dec. 14, 2024, issue of Billboard.

16 Dec 2024

Post Malone Hops on Stage With Sublime To Sing ‘What I Got’ At Corporate Cancun Gig

Post Malone loves Sublime. The “I Had Some Help” singer has covered the band’s songs before and over the weekend he was at it again during the “Santeria” group’s corporate gig for Power Home Remodeling.

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

The annual company retreat referred to as “Quest,” found Posty casually strolling out during Sublime’s set to join them on a run through their signature 1996 hit “What I Got,” trading vocals with the band’s singer, Jakob Nowell, son of late band front man Bradley Nowell.

In a clip posted by the band Bradley is doing his thing when Malone rolls onto the stage in jeans, a flannel shirt and baseball hat rapping the iconic lines, “Well, life is too short, so love the one you got/ ‘Cause you might get run over, or you might get shot/ Never start no static, I just get it off my chest/ Never had to battle with no bulletproof vest.” The two men then join forces on the song’s chorus as Nowell strums an electric guitar and they sing “Lovin’ is what I got/ I said remember that.”

Trending on Billboard

Sublime captioned the clip “take a tip from Posty.”

This isn’t the first time Malone has hit the stage with Sublime. Back in 2019, when the group was fronted by singer Rome, Posty collaborated with them on another one of their signature hits, “Santeria” during one a stop on his Dive Bar Tour. A month later, Sublime with Rome returned the favor by covering Posty’s Young Thug collab “Goodbyes.”

The mutual admiration society action continued during Malone’s 2023 tour of Australia and New Zealand, when the rapper-turned-country-crooner dipped into the tiny Danny Doolan’s Irish Pub in Auckland to sit in with the house band for a country-fied cover of “What I Got.”

Watch a drummers-eye-view of the Cancun collaboration here.

16 Dec 2024

7 Best Moments From Rolling Loud Miami 2024: Travis Scott’s Helicopter, Playboi Carti’s New Music & One Fiery Future

The most unforgettable moments of Rolling Loud’s 10th anniversary — from country music newcomers to grandiose, cinematic sets.

Travis Scott performs onstage during the 66th GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on February 4, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.

Travis Scott performs onstage during the 66th GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on February 4, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

In the ten years that Rolling Loud has grown into the world’s premiere hip-hop music festival, the genre has expanded into one of the most consumed styles of music as the Internet continues to function as a home for myriad subcultures. With the Miami, Fla. iteration of Matt Zingler and Tariq Cherif’s iconic festival returning for its tenth anniversary amid one of the most culture-shifting years in hip-hop history — Kendrick v. Drake, anybody? — Rolling Loud achieved the delicate balance of honoring the fest’s legacy while also positioning it for a markedly genre-expansive future.

In addition to being Billboard 200 chart-toppers and visiting the Billboard Hot 100‘s top 10 this year, all three of the weekend’s headliners — Future, Travis Scott and Playboi Carti — have also previously headlined Rolling Loud Miami. A staple of the festival, Future rocked the first night of the weekend on Friday (Dec. 13) with a flaming career-spanning set that served as a tasteful victory lap to his seismic 2024. The “Like That” rapper closed out a day that included praiseworthy sets from Atlanta MC Anycia, 2024 breakout star Bossman Dlow, R&B newcomer Isaiah Falls, Tyga, Rick Ross, JT and We (Still) Don’t Trust You collaborator Metro Boomin.

On Saturday, the festival began its foray into the country scene, tapping Cowboy Carter collaborator Reyna Roberts to help kick off the day. Her spunky, rock-infused country set prepared the stage for a stacked day of notable sets including sexy drill pioneer Cash Cobain, R&B star 4Batz, NOLA MC Rob49, and the horrorcore-nodding Kxllswxtch.

Scott — who has previously headlined Rolling Loud Miami four times over — closed the night with an elaborate performance that combined cinematic video interludes and megastar power (shoutout to Owen Wilson) with an approach to performance that prioritized both physicality and intimacy. Finally, Playboi Carti closed out Sunday (Dec. 15) — which included the festival’s first-ever Christian hip-hop set, courtesy of Jon Keith, GAWVI and Alex Jean of Darkchild‘s Alienz Alive label — by debuting new music from his forthcoming I Am Music album and delivering a set that combined the starling powers of raging, moshing and streaming.

Here are seven of the most unforgettable Rolling Loud Miami’s tenth anniversary.