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Donald Glover is preparing for Childish Gambino’s final act, and before Bando Stone & The New World arrives, the multi-hyphenate put his taste buds to the test on Hot Ones Thursday (July 18).
Glover has experimented with hallucinogenics such as ayahuasca, but didn’t realize eating spicy chicken wings would be a comparable experience. “This does feel shamanic,” he told host Sean Evans. “It feels pretty intense already. I feel like I’m about to do ayahuasca.”
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In the midst of chowing down on some spicy wings, the 40-year-old put a bow on his Childish Gambino moniker. “A collaborator of mine, fam and I, we talked about the death of Superman a lot … I always knew Childish Gambino was like a character, and on some level I wanted it to end,” he explained. “I almost feel like Childish Gambino is like the boss from The Office, like, ‘That stuff worked 10 years ago.’ All that stuff worked, but now it’s like a different thing. It’s like, ‘Oh it’s a little sad, but its like, wow, the cycle kinda continues, which is great, I think.’”
A quick history lesson: Childish Gambino discovered the name of his alter ego when messing around with a Wu-Tang Clan name generator in college. At the end of the episode, Glover revealed what RZA told him about what the name meant.
“The Childish Gambino story from the Wu-Tang Clan RZA told me it’s a story of a child turning into a boss,” said the actor-musician, who earned his fifth Primetime Emmy nomination for acting July 17. “This last sunset walk is for the fans. This is for you.”
Glover also continued to offer unhappy fans a refund at his upcoming show, which is sure to upset his attorneys. “If this isn’t the best live show you’ve seen — after the first song if you’re like, ‘I gotta go,’ you can leave and I’ll give you your money back,” he promised. “That’s how much I care about all of this. That’s not a joke. My lawyers will be like, ‘It’s a joke,’ but it’s not a joke. I will set it up so you can go.”
The “This Is America” rapper hits the road for a world tour, which kicks off in Oklahoma City on Aug. 11 with support from Willow and Amaarae.
After powering through the hot wings, Glover credited his Community co-star Joel McHale for helping build up his hot-sauce tolerance.
“Joel was literally, like, only eating espressos and eggs because he had a shirt-off scene. He was like, ‘Hot sauce, it’s the only flavor.’ So I started putting hot sauce on everything and then we started getting into a thing with each other,” he added in the post credits. “I realized, ‘Oh yeah, that must’ve boosted my tolerance.’”
Bando Stone & The New World hits streaming services on Friday (July 19). Gambino’s last album is a genre-blending effort featuring guest appearances from Jorja Smith, Flo Milli, Yeat, Steve Lacy and more.
Watch Donald Glover on Hot Ones below.
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Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby” spends its 10th week at No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart dated July 20, becoming the first song to reach the 10-week milestone since the list’s September 2023 inception.
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The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity July 8-14. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
All but one week of the 11-week history of “Million Dollar Baby” on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 have been spent at No. 1; the song debuted at No. 2 on the May 11 survey and has led since its coronation the following week.
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Its TikTok Billboard Top 50 rule has coincided with success on the multimetric Billboard Hot 100; it debuted at No. 2 on the May 11 tally and has fallen no lower than No. 6 since, appearing at No. 4 on the July 20 list via 65.4 million radio audience impressions, 28.5 million official U.S. streams and 4,000 downloads sold in the week ending July 11, according to Luminate.
“Million Dollar Baby” initially reigned thanks to pent-up demand for the song following a snippet of the track that was uploaded to Richman’s TikTok account on April 13, prior to its April 26 premiere in full. A variety of trends using the tune have followed, paced by dance challenges.
BlackMayo’s “Jus’ Know” holds at its No. 2 best on the TikTok Billboard Top 50, while Ian’s “Magic Johnson” lifts one spot to No. 3. “Jus’ Know” remains dominated by a dance trend first popularized by basketball player Jared McCain and Twitch star Kai Cenat, and “Magic Johnson” has found recent success thanks to a mashup that adds the countdown of Chappell Roan’s “Hot to Go!” to the sound. LeoStayTrill and Mr Reload It’s “Pink Lemonade (Str8 Reload)” vaults from its No. 8 debut July 13 to a new peak of No. 4 thanks to lip-synch uploads.
Nos. 5 and 6, meanwhile, are new to the top 10: Blood Orange’s “Champagne Coast,” which jumps 21-5, and Megan Thee Stallion’s Yuki Chiba-featuring “Mamushi,” which leaps 12-6.
“Champagne Coast,” a nearly 13-year-old song released on Blood Orange’s 2011 album Coastal Grooves, has risen to prominence on TikTok in recent weeks thanks mostly to a trend with the prompt “did we get rich?” or “did we win the lottery?,” usually talking to their younger selves. Another trend talks about how they’ll stay single until someone looks them in the eyes and the result sounds like “Champagne Coast.”
“Champagne Coast” did not make a Billboard chart upon its initial release (nor has parent album Coastal Grooves). The song boasts a 65% jump in official U.S. streams to 3.9 million in the week ending July 11.
“Mamushi” is comparatively a much newer song, released June 28 on Megan Thee Stallion’s new album Megan. It sports a 40% gain in its second week (ending July 11) to 10.3 million chart-eligible streams, spurring a 68-45 leap on the Hot 100.
Its No. 6 rank on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 is helped by a dance trend that highlights the chorus, featuring alternating verses from Chiba and Megan Thee Stallion.
As for the chart’s top debut of the week, that honor goes to El Alfa and Nfasis, whose “Este” starts at No. 11. Released July 4, the Spanish-language tune is mostly driven by lip-synch videos to its chorus.
See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 on Billboard.com. You can also tune in each Friday to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the premiere of the chart’s top 10 countdown at 3 p.m. ET, with reruns heard throughout the week.
A couple of weeks before Dr. Dre whispered “I see dead people” to introduce the first-ever live performance of “Not Like Us” and send the Kia Forum crowd into a frenzy, an early June phone call from an old friend got the wheels churning to bring Kendrick Lamar’s Pop Out concert to Amazon Music.
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Tim Hinshaw spent five years as Amazon Music’s head of hip-hop and R&B before leaving his post in 2023 to launch the Free Lunch agency. Free Lunch teamed up with Lamar to seek out a livestreaming partner for the Pop Out & Friends concert, and Hinshaw made it a family affair when turning to his former employer.
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Two of the individuals tasked with bringing the Juneteenth concert to fruition were Sierra Lever, who succeeded Hinshaw’s role at Amazon and now leads the company’s R&B and hip-hop brand Rotation, along with the company’s global head of content and artist marketing Kirdis Postelle.
Sierra Lever
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Before eventually landing at Amazon, Postelle spent 17 years as general manager of Dr. Dre’s record label Aftermath Entertainment. Amazon Music also served as the streaming home of K. Dot’s The Big Steppers Tour stop in Paris in October 2022, so the familiarity from all parties was already established, and a reunion made sense.
“Having worked for Dre for so long [and] Kendrick has worked with me in the past — they know my bar for excellence is really high,” she confidently boasts. “They knew we were gonna deliver exactly what [Kendrick] wanted.”
Kirdis Postelle
Courtesy of Amazon Music
The plan came together in a matter of days, and things were quickly put into motion with all teams involved working in symbiosis when it came to the global livestream.
“Moving Amazon, these are big wheels to make turn – to get everybody on board,” Postelle asserts. “I feel like we had 10 days to turn this around. Get the marketing on point, Prime Video on point, to get [Amazon’s livestreaming partner] Twitch on point. To get all these teams rallied behind this one thing.”
While refusing to pull back the curtain on fires that had to be put out in the days leading up to the concert, Postelle allows that “there were some really late nights and some really early mornings trying to get this done.”
June 19 quickly approached, and while most of corporate America had Juneteenth off, it was showtime for Amazon Music and Kendrick Lamar at Kia Forum. Postelle anxiously watched along at home with millions of fans as her Oregon State University alum colleague was on site outside the Inglewood arena, calling plays overseeing the operation from the trucks.
K. Dot had the culture in the palm of his hand as he ran through the live debuts of his Drake psychoanalysis shakedown “Euphoria,” his atomic guest verse on Future & Metro Boomin’s “Like That” and, of course, his climactic “Not Like Us” killshot”– running back that last one an additional four times.
Dr. Dre’s arrival brought upon the biggest surprise of the night, with Dot welcoming his mentor to the stage for a mini-set of ‘90s classics “Still D.R.E.” and “California Love,” before Dre returned the favor and introduced “Not Like Us.”
Seeing the pair of Compton deities on stage together especially hit home for Postelle, an Aftermath Entertainment alum. “I got that pang of nostalgia,” she admits. “I couldn’t have asked for a better hip-hop history moment for myself.”
Kendrick’s victory lap reportedly broke Amazon Music’s streaming record when it comes to live events. Without putting a specific figure on it, the team confirmed there were “millions and millions of people watching,” as the live broadcast posted the most minutes watched of any Amazon Music production ever on Twitch and Prime Video.
And yes, Postelle and Lever – along with the Amazon Music team – saw some of the viral memes joking about how Amazon executives didn’t understand exactly what they signed up for, with Pirus, Crips and various gang sets linking up on stage together, alongside other L.A. luminaries.
“We talked about it a little bit,” Postelle admits. “I saw some meme, ‘Amazon executives didn’t know what they were getting themselves into’ and we laughed about it because the truth is we’re the executives.”
Lever adds: “People would be surprised who some of the executives are at Amazon Music. The reason we’re able to make quick decisions is because we have people who are experts in the genre.”
The phone continues to ring as Amazon looks for its next cultural moment in the live streaming sector. However, they’re not worried about working with Kendrick on the Pop Out potentially severing their relationship with Drake, whom they previously collaborated with on the Larry Hoover Benefit concert alongside Ye in December 2021. ”This was about culture for us,” Postelle says. “ I don’t think that [feuding element] even came into it. We don’t take sides.”
While Amazon released HD footage of Kendrick’s epic debut of “Not Like Us,” the entire live stream is still missing in an official capacity for fans hoping to rewatch the historic show. Somehow, Amazon didn’t foresee the craze surrounding the concert and is now working toward releasing the concert’s livestream in its entirety on their platform.
“We didn’t anticipate, and neither did Kendrick, this kind of outpouring for the video on demand,” Postelle explains. “We hadn’t planned for it. Everyone is actively — between Kendrick’s team and our team — figuring out what it’s going to take to get this up.”
With weeks to look back on the concert, Lever hailed the Pop Out experience as the “biggest cultural moment this year,” while Postelle championed being part of it as one of the “top five amazing things” she’s accomplished in her decorated career.
“Not Like Us” isn’t going anywhere either, as the Drake diss returned to top the Billboard Hot 100 and is a bona fide song of the summer candidate. The Pop Out concert served as the perfect playground for Kendrick’s championship parade while promoting West coast unity with his love letter to Black culture. With concert ticket prices sky-rocketing across the industry, livestreaming shows and bringing fans intimate experiences from thousands of miles away is providing a more important service than ever.
“When you think of underserved communities that don’t necessarily have the capability to go to a show in person, this is an outlet for fans to continue to dive deeper into having these moments with their favorite artists,” Lever asserts. And Postelle guarantees: “The strength of livestreaming is going to continue to grow.”
Travis Scott‘s Cactus Jack Foundation hosted an emergency Hurricane Beryl relief drive in Missouri City, TX on Tuesday (July 176) to aid the thousands of Texans who are still struggling in the wake of the devastation left behind by Hurricane Beryl last week. According to a release announcing the effort undertaken in partnership with the […]
“Not Like Us” has become an anthem that’s inescapable at this point, and ubiquitous in pop culture as it returns to the top of the Billboard Hot 100. But not everyone is thrilled to hear Kendrick Lamar’s Drake diss track everywhere — including Steph Curry.
Following USA Basketball’s dominant 105-79 exhibition victory over Nikola Jokic and Serbia on Wednesday (July 17), the arena DJ in Abu Dhabi bumped the Mustard-produced banger, and the Golden State Warriors superstar was caught voicing his frustration.
“Damn with this song. It’s not the only song in America,” Curry pleaded. LeBron James pushed back as he seems to be enjoying the “Not Like Us” explosion. “I love it,” James can be heard saying at mid-court while rounding up his teammates.
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Shooting guard Anthony Edwards appears to be on LeBron’s side, as he can be seen at the end of the clip dancing to “Not Like Us.”
Steph’s reaction caused quite a stir on social media, as Jermaine Dupri, responded, essentially saying today’s rap culture just isn’t used to massive hits such as “Not Like Us” dominating the landscape.
“I just saw Steph’s reaction to the Kendrick record and I thought it was very ironic because what he is feeling (Pause ) is a record impacting the streets and this new generation is not use to that,I’m sure many of yall don’t understand what I’m saying,” he wrote on Instagram.
JD continued to share his thoughts in an accompanying video while walking. “The goal in hip-hop used to be impact, not sales, not charts — impact. How hard you could impact the streets,” he said. “That’s no longer the goal and — to me — that is the sole reason why rap isn’t what rap used to be because n—-s don’t care about impacting the streets no more.”
DJ Jazzy Jeff chimed in on the matter in the comments, saying, “I think what the issue is we used to have a few songs with this impact at the same time to spread it out alil more…because we haven’t had a Lean Back or a In Da Club in so long.”
Kevin Durant defended his former teammate in a comment online, saying, “Maybe bro just wanna hear another song.”
Perhaps Curry was surprised to be hearing “Not Like Us” across the globe in the United Arab Emirates. Although, Team USA could be making “Not Like Us” their victory song, as they fittingly played Kendrick’s hit after defeating Canada last week.
Time will tell if the arena DJs keep playing the hit, or listen to Curry and pull back following the team’s next exhibition contest, which comes on July 22 against Germany in London.
Watch the clip of Steph Curry talking about “Not Like Us” below.
The Childish Gambino chapter is coming to a close for Donald Glover. The final installment is set to arrive on Friday (July 19) with his Bando Stone & The New World album.
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Glover sat down with The New York Times on Wednesday (July 17) ahead of the LP hitting streaming services later this week. The multi-hyphenate felt it was time to move on from the Childish Gambino moniker as it wasn’t “fulfilling” to him anymore.
“It really was just like, ‘Oh, it’s done.’ It’s not fulfilling,” Glover admitted. “And I just felt like I didn’t need to build in this way anymore.”
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Gambino isn’t holding back with his final act, which will serve as the soundtrack companion to the blockbuster of the same name. He doesn’t seem to have any regrets about moving forward.
“I think grace is undervalued in the world,” he added. “When I put my son on my shoulders, I feel deep joy. That’s real. No one on their deathbed is going to look back and say, ‘Thank God I avoided being cringe.’”
The 40-year-old previewed his genre-blending album, which finds him embracing an array of influences, for an intimate audience with a listening experience curated on NYC’s Little Island earlier in July.
Bando Stone boasts a versatile lineup of guests including Jorja Smith, Yeat, Chloe Bailey, Steve Lacy, Flo Milli, Amaarae, Foushee and more. Glover’s son even makes an artistic cameo.
The album is Gambino’s fifth under the moniker and first since 2020’s 3.15.20, which received an update with the release of Atavista (3.15.20 reimagined versions) in May.
It’s a celebratory week for Donald Glover who picked up a pair of Primetime Emmy nominations on Wednesday for his role as John Smith in Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
He’s nominated in the outstanding lead actor in a drama series and outstanding writing for a drama series categories. Glover previously won the Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series for his work in his previous show, Atlanta.
Co-stars in the Amazon Prime Video series Donald Glover and Francesca Sloane released a statement reacting to the Emmy noms exclusively to Billboard.
“What is happening! Thank you to the Television Academy! We really weren’t expecting this, but damn did we put in some work — it’s not every day you get to make something with a bunch of your best friends and it’s definitely not every day that it then receives love this way,” they said.
The joint statement continues: “We want to do a quick shout out to the people who deserve some recognition — Jen, Vernon, Kara, Carina, and the entire Amazon team for your unwavering support in making this our way, Michael Schaefer (the muscle), Yariv and New Regency, Anthony ‘I’ll never say no’ Katagas (you’re the man), Kaitlin (the glue), Fam (the secret sauce), Hiro (the visionary), Christian (the heart), Carmen Cuba (queen), Doug, Karena, Amy, Christina, Steve, Carla, Adamma, Adanne, Yvonne, Julia, Schuyler, Kyle, Isaac, Kate and especially Greg, Dave, Gerry, Ruth, Madeline, Blair, Cody, Stephen Murphy, Pope and his amazing team, Nathan, Rob, Eric, Glen, Emile, all of our ridiculously talented guest stars, the rest of the tirelessly committed cast and crew, including and especially to all of the PAs and assistants. And most importantly, thank you to Maya for your generosity and incomparable genius in being our Jane. We love you all!”
Catch the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards live on ABC on Sunday Sept. 15 (8:00-11:00 p.m. ET/5:00-8:00 p.m. PT) from the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live.
How many rising stars can say their first collaborations were with Drake, Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) and Usher? 4batz can. The 20-year-old star has tapped Usher for the official “act iv: fckin u again (18+)” remix, which will be released on Friday (July 19.) The remix arrives more than two months after 4batz […]
More Sexyy Red news is coming out of her weekend at London’s Wireless Festival. While chatting backstage with British interviewer Rambo she was asked her dream collab and not only did she say it who it was, the two have already done something together. “I did my dream collab already — Tyler the Creator,” she […]
Ice Spice revealed all 10 songs that will be featured on her debut album Y2K! on Wednesday (July 17). Y2K! will also feature three collaborations with Travis Scott (“Oh Shhh…), Gunna (“B*tch I’m Packin’”) and Central Cee (“Did It First”), the lattermost of which was released last week. Scott previewed their collaboration during his London […]
Memphis Bleek has his sights set on a major collaboration. Jay-Z‘s former understudy has dropped two singles this year — he and Just Blaze linked back up and released “Durag Bleek” last month, and he followed that single up last week with “Bands Up” featuring Kruziano & Dre. Fans have noticed Bleek getting back in […]