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Nicki Minaj has long been a fan of Beenie Man, and she had the chance to perform alongside the “King of Dancehall” at her London tour stop on Tuesday night (May 28).
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Draped in all black, Beenie Man made a surprise guest appearance on the Pink Friday 2 World Tour and brought the dancehall vibes as the decorated Jamaican artist ran through a few hits from his discography, including “Who Am I,” “Dude” and “Rum & Red Bull.”
Minaj watched on in awe and danced along while also providing some background chorus vocals to assist Beenie Man.
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The dancehall icon gushed, “Nicki, I love you baby. You got one more song for me?”
“No, mi nuh have nothing else fi you. I just have a hug,” she replied in Patois while bowing toward the Jamaican legend.
Minaj showered Beenie Man with love following the show, as she paid homage to him, referring to the artist as one of her heroes.
“I just performed with the KING OF DANCEHALL,” she tweeted. “One of the most talented musicians that I looked to for inspiration my entire career. I can’t believe this is my life sometimes. Wow. came to #GAGCITYLONDON yall!!!!!!! One of my heroes. I love this man so much. @KingBeenieMan.”
Minaj added on Instagram: “#GagCityLONDON what’s left to be said that I haven’t yet said about my “2nd home” London in 15 years? I adore you. I do. Always have. One of my biggest music heroes came out for me last night. He’s inspired me well b4 & beyond my 1st album. Thank you, King. @kingbeenieman Thank you @officialstylog & @officialgiggs London, I’ll see you @ again @ wireless real soon.”
Beenie Man wasn’t the only special guest, as Stylo G and Giggs also made cameos in London’s edition of Gag City.
Nicki will bring the Pink Friday 2 World Tour to Glasgow, Manchester, Paris and Amsterdam to close out the rest of this week.
While she already has the highest grossing tour in rap by a woman to date, Nicki will be coming back to North America for round two, as she announced the second leg of dates kicking off stateside in September with a show in Philadelphia.
Find some of the highlights from the London show below.
Nicki Minaj already made history with her Pink Friday 2 World Tour, and she’s only going to raise the bar with another leg coming up.
Minaj announced plans for leg two of North America’s Pink Friday 2 World Tour on Wednesday (May 29), as the Queens rapper plots another roundtrip to Gag City this fall.
The Barbz will have their chance at pre-sale tickets starting on Thursday (May 30) on Ticketmaster with the code “social.” The rest of the tickets hit the general public market on Friday at 9 a.m. local show time.
“PRE-SALE STARTS TMRW & TICKETS AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE THIS PINK FRIDAY,” she wrote on Instagram. “Added Miami, Los Angeles, St. Louis, & so many more to the 2nd North American Leg of the #PinkFriday2 #GAGCITY WORLD TOUR. GAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!”
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Minaj will kick off leg two in Philadelphia on Sept. 4, with shows on deck for NYC’s Madison Square Garden, Cleveland, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Diego, Kansas City, Jacksonville, Miami and wrapping up with a hometown show on Oct. 11 at Long Island’s UBS Arena, which borders Queens.
The 22-date run will bring the Pink Friday 2 World Tour total to more than 80 shows, as she’s currently trekking across Europe.
The Pink Friday 2 World Tour is a record-breaking run, with Minaj now holding the title of the highest grossing rap tour by a woman. The trek is also in the top 10 for highest grossing rap tours of all-time. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore earlier in May, the Pink Friday 2 World Tour grossed $67 million and sold 439,000 tickets for the North American leg.
It’s been an eventful last week overseas for Nicki Minaj, who wasarrested for allegedly carrying drugs in Amsterdam, which forced her to reschedule her Manchester concert for June.
She also made headlines while paying tribute to the late Princess Diana during her Birmingham, U.K., concert over the weekend, as sheheld a moment of silence for the Princess of Wales, who was killed in a 1997 car accident.
Find all of the dates to leg two of the Pink Friday 2 World Tour below.
Nicki Minaj
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As the R&B and hip-hop worlds prepare to descend on Philadelphia, PA, for Roots Picnic 2024 (June 1-2), a bevy of the scenes’ hottest stars kept the headlines jumping.
Between Sean Kingston‘s arrest for fraud and theft last Thursday (May 23) and Nicki Minaj‘s live-streamed Amsterdam arrest for allegedly “carrying drugs,” legal woes continued to plague hip-hop in a year that’s included watershed cases — including several levied against Sean “Diddy” Combs, whose transgressions were painstakingly detailed in a harrowing Rolling Stone exposé on Tuesday (May 28).
In lighter news, Drake took a stab at the viral “BBL Drizzy” beat, Sexyy Red made her WWE debut and Kehlani gave an impassioned plea for her peers to speak up against the atrocities in Gaza. “[I don’t care] about the roll out the formula the strategy the algorithm at this point i’m begging U TO BE PEOPLE. BE A F–KIN HUMAN BEING,” she wrote on Instagram (May 28).
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With Fresh Picks, Billboard aims to highlight some of the best and most interesting new sounds across R&B and hip-hop — from Sugarhill Ddot’s Ginuwine-sampling banger to ASTN’s introspective take on navigating troubled waters in relationships. Be sure to check out this week’s Fresh Picks in our Spotify playlist below.
Freshest Find: Sugarhill Ddot, “Like This”
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The sexy drill movement has taken over the NYC rap scene, and its momentum is only going to grow with the block parties and outside antics in store for the summer. The 15-year-old Sugarhill Ddot is a burgeoning star helping push the sub-genre to the mainstream, and he’s not even old enough to drive just yet. Luckily, since he hails from Harlem’s Sugar Hill neighborhood, he doesn’t need a car to maneuver around the Big Apple. Ddot returned on Friday (May 23) with a love story putting his drill spin on Ginuwine’s classic “Differences,” which arrived nearly a decade before the Dominican rhymer was even born. An accompanying music video was also released depicting an all-too-familiar date night scene for teens at the local bowling alley. With co-signs from Drake and Lil Durk, the future is bright for the Priority Records signee.
FLO, “Caught Up”
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For their second release of 2024, U.K. pop&B trio FLO pivot away from the lovestruck tone of March’s “Walk Like This” and return to the head-over-heart sensibilities of fan favorites like “3 of Us” and “Cardboard Box.” “I found some receipts last night/ That didn’t quite match up with your time/ You say that you’re with your boys on vacation/ And you just post a picture with the girl you say you ain’t hit,” Renée Downer [sings] over a mélange of sexy, skittering guitar licks and bouncy drums. The trio’s harmonies are as tight as ever, lifting into a slight modulation in a bridge that elevates the entire affair while helping the group zero in on a sound that evokes ’00s pop&B without falling into the pitfalls of pastiche. With names like Sevyn Streeter, Pop Wansel and Jay Versace in the credits, “Caught Up” earns its rightful spot in the lexicon of well-crafted warnings to doggish men.
Vince Staples, “Justin”
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Vince Staples put a bow on his decade-long odyssey with Def Jam last week. Some of the Long Beach rapper’s most vivid storytelling comes on Dark Times standout “Justin,” where Staples recounts nearly falling for a love interest from Qatar. The ecstasy of a euphoric date night in Venice quickly becomes a nightmare when he’s stonewalled with an introduction to her actual boyfriend. She saves face by referring to Vince as her “little cousin Justin,” and Staples is left with DJ Khaled shouting in his head, “Congratulations, you played yourself.” While a story like this would surely spark intense debate with arrows shot across “relationship Twitter,” Staples says his piece on the outro, “Women lie a lot, put that on the dead homies/ Women lie a lot, on God.”
ASTN, “The Makeup Song”
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Perhaps best known for his viral R&B-tinged reimagining of Billie Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever,” emerging R&B/pop singer-songwriter ASTN has unleashed the latest single from his forthcoming What a Night to Be in Love EP. The new self-penned, Jake Melvin-helmed track finds him perusing the rough patches of a relationship over sparse, forlorn guitars, airy synths, plucky 808s and a catchy staccato flow. “If you look my way, I’m in front of you/ Make that angry face, it made me fall for you/ I got time today, and you got nothin’ to lose/ So don’t stress all the little things,” he croons. Side-stepping flowery metaphors and opting for a more direct and upfront approach to lyricism, “The Makeup Song” is yet another winner from ASTN.
Groovy feat. Kanii, “Mariah”
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Meshing the worlds of Jersey club and intoxicating R&B (which he’s coined as luv club), Groovy makes good on his name, all while hailing from the Garden State himself. His latest luv club offering comes in the form of his Crying in the Club EP filled with atmospheric tunes including an infectious collaboration with DMV singer Kanii titled “Mariah.” Over warm pulsating synths, Groovy comes to grips that the woman he adores is actually a liar (fittingly named Mariah), and the lust hypnotizes him into trying to look past the dishonesty. “You drive me crazy,” he comes clean. With Groovy’s father making waves as a Jersey club DJ, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
Kehlani, “After Hours (Cater 2 U Mix)”
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Kehlani is living her best 2004 life. After sampling the coolie riddim used in Nina Sky’s iconic “Move Your Body” for the hip-rocking dance tune “After Hours,” the Grammy-nominated R&B star turned to another 2004 hit to reimagine her latest single. Borrowing the sparkly synths of Destiny’s Child’s beloved “Cater 2 U,” Kehlani ups the breathless sexual tension of “After Hours” with an instrumental that focuses on dancing the night away in the bedroom instead of on the dancefloor. There are no new lyrics in this version of “After Hours,” and that’s probably for the better; the change in production does enough heavy lifting to highlight the duality of the song’s tone and concept.
Sexyy Red was born to be involved with wrestling. Big Sexyy felt right at home as she made her dynamic debut on WWE‘s NXT on Tuesday night (May 28). It was a Sexyy Red takeover throughout the night. She first made her way to the ring with her “Get It Sexyy” hit booming through the […]
Sean Kingston signed papers in California on Tuesday (May 28) waiving his right to fight extradition to Florida, where he and his mother are charged with committing more than $1 million worth of fraud. According to the Associated Press, the “Beautiful Girls” singer/rapper, 34, did not make a public court appearance, but representatives from the San Bernardino courts and sheriff’s office confirmed to AP that Kingston signed papers in which he agreed to skip extradition.
In singing the papers, Kingston agreed to be turned over to authorities in Florida, though as of Tuesday afternoon he reportedly remained in a Southern California jail while sheriff’s officials coordinate his transfer to Florida. Kingston was arrested last Thursday on the Army training base in Fort Irwin, Calif. in the Mojave Desert, where he was booked to perform. His mother, 61-year-old Janice Turner, was also arrested on Thursday during a SWAT raid at Kingston’s rented mansion in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
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According to warrants from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, both son (born Kisean Paul Anderson) and mother have been charged with 10 counts, including conducting an organized scheme to defraud, grand theft, identity theft, issuing faulty checks, probation violation and related crimes alleging that the pair stole money, jewelry, a Cadillac Escalade and furniture; Kingston was already on two years’ probation for trafficking stolen property.
On Tuesday, Kingston’s attorney, Robert Rosenblatt, told NBC News that the singer was in the process of returning to Florida after his gig on the base. “We want him back asap so we can show this is merely a civil case and not criminal. We look forward to challenging this case in court,” said Rosenblatt.
The charges and arrests stem from a lawsuit reportedly filed by attorney Dennis Card, whose suit alleges that Kingston has allegedly displayed a pattern of not paying for items. “My client has a $150,000 television sound system that’s in there, there’s also about $1 million worth of watches that are in there, there’s a $80,000 custom bed that was ordered. This is an organized systematic fraud,” Card told NBC Miami. He added, that Kingston has “basically a script. He says that he works with Justin Bieber, and that he obviously puts on a big show here, this is a rental house, he doesn’t own it, and he lures people using his celebrity into having them release things without him paying for it and then he simply never pays.”
According to the AP, warrants in the case say that from October to March, Kingston and his mother allegedly stole nearly $500,000 in jewelry, more than $200,00 from Bank of America, $160,000 from an Escalade dealer, more than $100,000 from First Republic Bank and $86,000 from the maker of customized beds.
For his next trick, Eminem will release a new single.
On Tuesday (May 28), Em posted a joint Instagram video with magician David Blaine to announce the name and release date for his new single: “Houdini” will arrive first thing Friday.
In the video, Eminem rings up Blaine on FaceTime to ask for his help. “Yo, listen, I need your help with something,” the rapper says. “Yeah, whatever you need,” Blaine replies. “Well first of all, I just want you to know you’re the greatest to ever do it,” Eminem says, to which Blaine responds: “We should do something together one time.”
“What I was wondering is, how far can we go with this magic? Can we do a stunt or something?” Eminem asks. Blaine then grabs a glass of red wine from a nearby cafe and proceeds to down the wine before biting into the glass itself, eliciting gasps from onlookers as the glass shatters into his mouth.
“Well for my last trick,” Eminem says in response, “I’m gonna make my career disappear.”
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“Wait, what?” Blaine says with glass shards still in his mouth, before the screen goes black except for this message: “‘Houdini’ 5.31.24.”
The song will be the lead single from Eminem’s already-announced 11th album, The Death of Slim Shady. The project will be his first in four years, following 2020’s Billboard 200-topping album Music to Be Murdered By.
Notably, this is the second major single called “Houdini” to be released in the past year, with Dua Lipa dropping her own ode to the Hungarian-American escape artist in November.
While we don’t have an exact release date for The Death of Slim Shady, a teaser released last month promised it would arrive in “summer 2020.”
Watch Eminem and David Blaine’s video below:
Singer/songwriter Sean Kingston is facing 10 charges in Broward County, Florida after being arrested for fraud and theft in California last Thursday (May 23). Kingston’s arrest happened the same day Broward County Sheriff’s deputies and Davie Police SWAT members raided his home in Miami and took his mother, Janice Turner, who also faces fraud and […]
While Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” Drake diss has swept the rap world by storm and permeated other dimensions of pop culture, Ice Cube wants everyone to know that he still reigns supreme in the diss track category.
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Cube took the stage at the California Roots Festival in Monterey on Sunday, and ahead of performing “No Vaseline,” he let the crowd know that it remains the premier diss record in the hip-hop culture.
He replayed scenarios of fans telling him that 2Pac’s “Hit ‘Em Up” or Nas’ “Ether” and K. Dot’s “Not Like Us” have the top spot over him, but the West Coast icon doesn’t think they measure up.
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“I love Nas, but it’s not. I love Kendrick Lamar now — maybe it’s him. I love those songs, but ‘No Vaseline’ is the best diss song in the history of hip-hop,” he said before explaining his reasoning. “And I’ll tell you why: One MC — myself — I took out four motherf—ers and the manager. You can’t beat that.
All of these decades later, the hate has subsided and Cube made sure to reiterate he’s got nothing but love for Dr. Dre and the late Eazy-E, along with the rest of N.W.A. “But we did that over 30 years ago,” he added. “So as it stands today, I ain’t got nothing but love for N.W.A.”
After leaving N.W.A in late 1989 due to what he perceived as shady business practices by the group’s manager, Jerry Heller, the group provoked him with jabs on their 100 Miles and Runnin‘ EP and N—az4Life project, which led to Ice Cube redefining the standard for diss tracks with his eviscerating “No Vaseline” in 1991.
The bristling diss landed on Cube’s Death Certificate album and saw him shredding his former groupmates Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Yella, MC Ren and manager Jerry Heller one by one.
While “No Vaseline” remains No. 1 in Cube’s mind, the track actually came in at No. 4 on our 15 Most Scathing Hip-Hop Diss Songs of All-Time list. 2Pac’s “Hit ‘Em Up” took home the No. 1 spot, with Pusha T’s “The Story of Adidon” and Jay-Z’s “Supa Ugly” rounding out the top 3.
Watch Ice Cube’s “No Vaseline” speech below.
The Queen of Rap shouted out the people’s princess. Nicki Minaj took her Pink Friday 2 World Tour to Resorts World Arena in Birmingham, United Kingdom, on Sunday (May 26) when she took a moment to chat with fans in the crowd. In a video circulating social media, the rapper asks a group of fans […]
Dame Dash is making news again, and this time it’s for saying something about his former business partner and friend Jay-Z. Dame recently sat down with Omari Heflin and Terone Johnson of the “Moguls in the Making” podcast and made a big claim about one of the most legendary rap songs of the early 2000s: Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin’.”
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After giving his thoughts on the Drake and Kendrick feud, Dame was asked about Future using his name in a bar on a recent song. “Big pimpin’, rockin’ wit her like I’m Dame Dash,” Future raps on “Fried (She’s a Vibe)” off his and Metro’s No. 1 album We Don’t Trust You. “I f—k with Future for that,” says Dame.
The hosts then throw a curveball, saying that they heard the entire song was actually about him. Dame takes a beat and then reveals, “everything Jay said, he was pretending to be me.”
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Dash reiterated after co-host Terone Johnson said, “I heard that whole song was actually about Dame Dash.” Co-host Omari Heflin tries to confirm asking, “So you saying he ain’t tellin’ his story, he tellin’ your story?” to which Dame answered with a simple, “Duh.” You can watch the full interview here.
Billboard reached out to Jay-Z’s representatives for comment.
Surprisingly, this isn’t the first time Dame has made this claim. Last month, when he was a guest on the “My Expert Opinion” podcast, Dame was asked about getting name-dropped by Future. The Roc-A-Fella co-founder gave big ups to Future, saying, “Shout out to Future, ’cause he said my name on a current record. And, don’t think I don’t appreciate it. You know what’s cool about it? Future was talking about my past in the present.”
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Dame then asked the room why Future would name drop him when he’s not the guy who made the record. “You were one of the stars of the video,” said Mecca, one of the hosts. “‘Cause n—s know it was about me,” Dame replied, as all the hosts started laughing.
It’s been reported that Dame regrets his behavior in the “Big Pimpin’” video — in a video released via TMZ back in 2017, Dash said he was “embarrassed” when he looked back on those days. “I would never want my daughter to have to go through that and if I ever saw my son Boogie doing that, we would have some serious issues,” he said.
Check out a clip from Dash’s appearance on “Moguls in the Making” below:
Dame Dash says Jay-Z was pretending to be him and was rapping about his story in the song “Big Pimpin.”Also, Dame Dash reacts to Future mentioning him in the song “Fried” with the lyrics “Big pimpin’, rockin’ with her like I’m Dame Dash,” and also says there was no fear of… pic.twitter.com/iPq1uIgnFX— The Art Of Dialogue (@ArtOfDialogue_) May 27, 2024