R&B/Hip-Hop
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You won’t see Ty Dolla $ign’s name in the production credits for Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” But without him, the song that this spring put an exclamation point on Lamar’s long-simmering beef with Drake — a jovial but menacing track primarily produced by Mustard, built around a pulsating set of strings — might very well not exist.
Long before Mustard became the top purveyor of Cali bounce, he was a friend and student of Ty’s. They both rolled with a crew called Pu$haz Ink that included artists across disciplines — rappers, singers, graffiti artists, producers and even a few gangsters for good measure. As part of the group’s in-house production squad, Ty would host the crew at his home while he cooked up beats for them. And while he toiled away, the young DJ Mustard steadily documented everything he saw, clocking Ty’s every move to see just how the magic was made. One night, the crew was having a party at a house in Los Angeles’ Baldwin Hills neighborhood when Mustard played the song “Scotty” by Atlanta snap group D4L; Ty still remembers how everyone went crazy and started dancing. He was blown away by the beat’s simplicity, which reminded him of the jerk music then growing in popularity in California.
The next morning, still inspired, Ty started making some new beats. One of his production partners, Chordz, gave him a record to sample that Ty slowed down and pitched perfectly to accentuate the 808s, hi-hat, a snare and a piano sound. The beat became “Toot It & Boot It,” the 2010 debut single for Ty’s Pu$haz Ink peer, the rapper YG — and Ty’s first hit record. But, more importantly, the beat laid the foundation for what became the de facto sound of the West Coast for the next decade, one that Mustard perfected and made his own.
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“Mustard [was] always in my ear like, ‘Yo, you got to stop, the sh-t is done, the sh-t is done, stop adding all that sh-t,’ ” Ty remembers today. “I guess it was irritating him so bad that he was like, ‘I’m finna do my own beats. Give me some sounds,’ ” he adds with a laugh. So he did. “The same sounds he’s using, I gave him years ago.”
Ty’s easygoing nature can mask his intense work ethic and deep musical knowledge. But that combination has helped him endure and soar in this industry for more than a decade. In addition to a solo career that has redefined the sound of R&B, he has worked with an astounding number of artists across genres, from 21 Savage to Fifth Harmony to Charli XCX to Post Malone.
“To me, he is someone who is such an ambidextrous player,” says Julie Greenwald, chair/CEO of Atlantic Music Group, where Ty is signed to Atlantic Records. “You could put him in any room, any studio environment, and the guy will always rise to the occasion of making great music. He’s so comfortable in his own skin and with what kind of contributor he is. Ty is that guy who makes great music on his own and makes great music with whoever you put him with.”
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That comfort is why Ty didn’t think twice about helping Mustard find his sound. “Mustard brought it to a whole ’nother level,” he says today over Zoom from his house in L.A. At 42, Ty still looks like the baby-faced crooner who first appeared back in 2010. His hair is longer, of course, and he’s a bit heftier, but he still loves blowing trees. As he’s talking, he preps a pile of spliffs to take with him as he runs errands; you get the feeling that Ty’s checklist before leaving the crib is, “Keys, phone, wallet, spliff.” “I tell people when it comes to music, people have already played every single line — there’s just different ways you can do it,” he says. “Mustard just brought it to a whole ’nother level. I’m super proud of what he’s doing, and we’re just setting it up for the next generation.”
These days, the artist born Tyrone William Griffin Jr. has a lot to be proud of. It has taken him a while, but 20 years after starting his first musical group, the R&B duo Ty & Kory, Ty has finally attained the one accolade that had thus far eluded him: a No. 1 as lead artist on the Billboard Hot 100. Earlier this year, his collaborative album with Ye, Vultures 1, topped the Billboard 200, and one of its songs, the uproarious “Carnival,” rose to the Hot 100’s top spot. It was a feat many believed wouldn’t or couldn’t happen — not because either artist lacked the ability to make a No. 1 album or single today (before 2024, Ye already had 10 Billboard 200 No. 1s and four Hot 100 chart-toppers to his name), but because, well, no one really understood why or how the project was happening in the first place.
By 2022, Ye (the artist formerly known as Kanye West) had ostracized himself from nearly every industry of the many he had participated in, following a ceaseless series of offensive remarks and actions, both in person and on social media. He lost his lucrative sneaker deal with adidas after he made inappropriate sexual comments to employees and following a series of antisemitic remarks he made publicly. He lost his longtime deal with Def Jam Records and Universal Music Group, and high fashion brands like Balenciaga, which Ye once helped find success in the hip-hop world, cut ties with him. The usual Ye redemption cycle — which has historically involved him doing something public and widely considered offensive, then releasing a remarkable piece of art that makes much of the public all but forget the offense — would not work this time. Despite making a public apology on Instagram for his harmful antisemitic comments, it seemed as if Ye had finally crossed the Rubicon and become radioactive.
So when news broke last fall that Ye and Ty were dropping an album together, many fans were perplexed. But the pair’s alignment made sense in multiple ways. The two had worked together many times before: Ty wrote and lent vocals to songs on 2016’s The Life of Pablo (“Real Friends” and “Fade”) and produced and sang on its 2018 follow-up, Ye. Historically, Ye has relied on someone else to help him bring a project across the finish line — Rick Rubin famously helped him assemble what became Yeezus in 2013, and most recently, Mike Dean has been his go-to homestretch guy. On Big Boy’s Neighborhood, a popular L.A.-based radio morning show, Ye explained why Ty was that essential player for Vultures 1. “Mike Dean was the kind of person that you can hand him something and he’ll hand you a finished product back. That’s how Ty is,” he said. “You can give him something, even a murmur, and he’ll bring it back with the words, he can fix all the notes on it, he can bring in the drums, the music.” Today, Ty agrees with his collaborator’s assessment. “I remember Thundercat’s dad [drummer Ron Bruner Sr.] telling me one time that he used to teach his son to be a master of one thing instead of trying to do all the things,” he says. “But what I feel like I was the master at was completing songs — whatever [their] f–king genre.”
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As for the why of Vultures 1 — why Ty, a low-key, affable guy who seemingly gets along with everyone, would align himself with someone as caustic as Ye — as Ty sees it, the answer is pretty simple.
“Ye is the best artist of this generation, besides me, and I don’t give a f–k about what people were talking about. I know my n—. He’s one of the best people I’ve ever met,” he says. Ty also shrugs off the notion that he might have feared the album would perform poorly because everyone else thought Ye’s musical career was over. “Just with my analysis of how it goes with him, he goes all the way to the top. And something may happen and he’ll say [something people find offensive] — and then people [get] right back, you know. Because this sh-t is undeniable.”
The “how” of Vultures 1 is a bit more complicated.
Coming off his 2023 single “Motion,” a Chris Brown-featuring track heavily inspired by South African amapiano music, Ty wanted his next album to reflect the sounds he has loved while traveling. When Ty ran into Ye at a club in Tokyo in the spring of 2023, he was just starting work on the project, and he asked Ye to executive-produce. Ye agreed, and the two started working on music together the very next day. Ye’s involvement moved the music away from the Black diasporic and house and club influences that Ty was experimenting with — and marked the genesis of Vultures 1.
Ty already had a bunch of songs in the can that he says he started right where we’re sitting a few weeks before our Zoom, in his studio in downtown Hollywood. He has had this space for just about a year, and a remodeling is ongoing; the only signs that a major hit-maker owns the spot are the vintage cars parked in the back in various states of restoration and the collection of rare synths and keyboards usually housed in the main studio.
Despite its current appearance, this is where Ty feels most at home creating. The freedom he has here led to the experimentation that yielded “Burn” — probably the warmest, most soulful track on Vultures 1. “The ‘Burn’ that I brought [Ye] was a completely different song. It had a whole different beat. A whole different direction,” Ty remembers. “He took it, loved it, stripped it down, redid the beat, and we got ‘Burn’ — and it’s the second-biggest streaming song on Vultures.”
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That’s pretty much how the entire album went: Ty would bring Ye a track, and the two would then deconstruct it and build it back up — a laborious, time-intensive undertaking, especially amid the globe-trotting the two did while making the project. Largely at Ye’s behest, Vultures 1 was recorded in Las Vegas, Miami, Los Angeles, Japan, Italy, Saudi Arabia and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. In trademark Ye fashion — he famously recorded Watch the Throne with Jay-Z between European castles and the Mercer hotel in New York — the duo set up in wildly varying locales at each stop.
“Japan was hotel rooms, Italy was hotel rooms. Then we got Sting to let us use his [Italian] villa,” Ty says. “At first we were just recording in the living room, recording by the pool, setting up recording equipment out there, and then we found out that there’s an actual recording studio there,” he adds with a laugh. In Dubai, Ye and Ty took over an empty building in a hotel complex and built a bunch of makeshift studios throughout it. That’s where they made “Do it,” the YG and Nipsey Hussle-featuring track that sounds like a baroque strip club anthem. “It’s a very expensive album, I will say that,” Ty admits. “It would make for a crazy documentary.” (Ty has footage of some of the songs being made, but probably not enough for a movie, he allows.)
The Ye and Ty world tour of sorts was, Ty says now, nothing new for him: “I’ve always done that. All of my songs; all of my albums — traveling everywhere, laptop, mic, speakers. I’ve done music that way ever since you could make music that way.” But he got his start much more traditionally. Born in South Central L.A., Ty was raised in a musical home. His father, Tyrone Griffin Sr., was a session musician who played all over L.A., sitting in with acts ranging from rap royalty (2Pac and Snoop Dogg) to R&B rising stars (Immature) and the legendary funk band Lakeside (best known for the 1981 hit “Fantastic Voyage,” sampled by Coolio on his track of the same name).
Griffin Sr. and Ty’s mother, a real estate agent, separated when Ty was young, and he stayed with his mom while his older brother went to live with his dad — but Sr. left a lasting impression on Jr., who had started fiddling with his dad’s instruments before he could talk and later amassed his own collection at his mom’s place. (Today, Ty can play a multitude of instruments by ear, including the drums, keyboard and guitar.) When Ty started making beats as a 12-year-old, he would use two cassette tapes to make his own loops. Realizing that method’s inefficiency, Griffin Sr. bought his son his first MPC and set him on his way.
Listening to the ambrosial blend of ’90s R&B, G-Funk and rap that constitutes Ty’s solo catalog today, it’s easy to hear his musical DNA and the complementary influences of his funk musician dad and the gangsta rap that dominated the airwaves of his youth. Both powered Ty’s fresh vision for what popular Black music could be.
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In the early 2000s, Ty worked to fine-tune that vision — and the world got its first glimpse of what he had in mind with Free TC, his 2015 debut studio album dedicated to his incarcerated brother, Jabreal Muhammad. (The project’s title references Muhammad, nicknamed Big TC, who has been serving a life sentence since 2004 for a murder he says he didn’t commit.) At the time, most fans knew Ty from “Toot It & Boot It” and his Beach House mixtapes and EP, which birthed his first top 40 hit, “Paranoid.”
Those songs were good and catchy but belied Ty’s true musical dexterity, revealed more wholly on Free TC. Thanks to his songwriting and production résumé by that point, Ty was able to call on a stunning list of heavy-hitter guest stars for his debut — Lamar, Ye, Future, Brandy, Wiz Khalifa and Babyface, among many others. Combining classic R&B melodies and styles with modern rap energy, he melded the two worlds in a way few had successfully done before. Think Future, if he could sing traditionally well, produce and play instruments, and you start to scratch the surface of Ty’s capabilities.
“[When we signed Ty in 2012] R&B was in kind of an uncool space. He was, like, bringing it into the future with his songwriting, with his production, with his melodies, the way he was approaching songs,” recalls former Atlantic A&R executive Shawn Barron, who signed Ty to the label after hearing some of his early music. “It was just all so new. And I feel like really he’s the forefather of the R&B that we hear today.”
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In person, Ty is usually humble. When prodded about his influence over modern R&B, he impishly acknowledges some similarities between what he has done and the R&B currently dominating the charts. But when it comes to his love of the genre, he’s unabashed.
“I love R&B. You see outside [the studio], I got my 1964 Chevy Impala on chrome spokes. When I’m in that I’m listening to old R&B — you know, love songs and that vibe that just fits the car because it’s the time,” he says, putting his spliff down to indicate how much he means what he says. He’s just as fulsome when it comes to giving props to R&B’s newer stars. “I love SZA. Chris Brown is a legend — he’s like, The One. I love Bryson Tiller and what he just dropped. Brent [Faiyaz] is hard. There’s so many people I can name… Coco Jones, as far as like, the new ones coming out. Yeah, she’s killing it. Tyla. There’s a lot of dope R&B right now.”
He trails off a bit and then blurts out one more name: “Leon Thomas!” A 30-year-old, New York-raised singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist, Thomas earned a modicum of fame as a kid actor on Nickelodeon’s Victorious. A former member of the Rascals songwriting and producing crew, Thomas went on to write and produce for Babyface, Drake and Ye. But his biggest placement came in 2022 when he co-wrote SZA’s “Snooze,” the song that would win him his first Grammy. And if it’s up to Ty, Thomas will become a household name soon: He’s the first signee to Ty’s label, EZMNY Records.
“When he took a liking to my music, one thing I noticed is that he always respected what I did as a live musician and never really wanted to change me into something quote unquote more palatable. He really respected who I was truly as a human being and as an artist,” Thomas says. “We’re doing our best to garner the best numbers we can get. But I love the fact that he’s investing in someone like myself who’s really focused on doing my best to make art and to stay true to being a musician.”
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Making the music that inspires the next generation of R&B artists is one thing; taking charge of the career of one of that generation’s most promising artists is another entirely, especially for someone like Ty who has made a career out of following his own creative north star and rarely having to make tough compromises. But Barron, Ty’s partner in EZMNY, believes he’s actually the perfect person to lead a label. The two started EZMNY in 2022 as a place to showcase what they consider to be real music. “I just want to find the best artists on the planet,” Ty explains. “To me, it’s like, ‘OK, popularity is one thing, all that sh-t that a lot of people look for, how many streams did they do? How many followers do they have?’ [But] I wasn’t worried about that. Because I know that’s not what it takes. That’s one thing to figure out. But you got to be good in order to last now.”
“Ty’s a great artist, and I feel like he knows certain things that it took for him to get where he needed to be on certain things that I don’t even know,” Barron says. “I feel like he takes those thoughts and actions [on the artist side] and he brings them over to being a label executive. And he’s very artist-friendly. He’s able to describe and break down things that may be confusing to some people because he has been through it already.”
As he launched his own label and traveled the globe making an album with one of the most famous/infamous artists on the planet, Ty was also confronting personal news that seems to still surprise him: His 19-year-old daughter, Jailynn, aspires to follow in her father’s footsteps and make music, too. “She came to me the other day, and was like, ‘Dad, I want to record one record.’ I’m like, ‘What you want to do, rap or sing?’ She’s like, ‘I want to sing on my art.’ So she just made one song. It’s hard. And she’s going to keep on going.” He jokes that Ye’s oldest daughter, North, must have inspired Jailynn after North’s fan-favorite verse on Vultures 1’s “Back to Me.” “I’m like, ‘Wow, I really never heard you sing before.’ [Jailynn] really just never sung in front of me,” he recalls. “And she told me she didn’t want to do music. She was playing basketball.”
His own solo project — the one he intended to focus on when that first fateful meeting with Ye happened in Japan — will have to wait: Now he has a trilogy to finish. Today, in his main studio room, he plays music, some of which he says is from Vultures 2. As Ty tells it, the album is almost done and could be released any day now. (The album art features a masked Ty holding a portrait of his incarcerated brother, Muhammad.) As with Vultures 1, his label may well be among the last to find out, which Greenwald says isn’t a problem: “He has earned that right with us. When he calls to say, ‘I made a project, it’s coming out,’ we always say, ‘Listen, this is your name and we got you.’ ”
When asked about the rumors that he and Ye will circumvent streaming platforms and sell the album directly to fans, Ty replies, “Why not? Switch it up. He’s always got something up his sleeve. I always got some[thing] up my sleeve.” To Ty, the album’s distribution comes second to the music. He’ll let Ye worry about the marketing and distribution. His focus, as he works with an artist he believes has unlimited creative potential, is to get the rest of this trilogy out into the world — just like he has always done.
“We got all the songs. Basically, it’s just like, ‘How can we get it there? How can we go bigger than the first album?’ ” Ty says, clearly amped. He won’t say it explicitly, but it’s within reason that, as we’re speaking, he’s trying to piece together the puzzle that will become Vultures 2. After all, that’s why Ye — and everyone else — loves working with Ty. He can do anything and everything. But unless the album makes fans move and adds something new to music — something that has never been attempted before — then to him, it’s not done. “Certain people will probably expect you to just do the same exact sound,” he says. “But that sound’s already out.”
This story will appear in the June 22, 2024, issue of Billboard.
You won’t see Ty Dolla $ign’s name in the production credits for Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” But without him, the song that this spring put an exclamation point on Lamar’s long-simmering beef with Drake — a jovial but menacing track primarily produced by Mustard, built around a pulsating set of strings — might very […]
Pharrell unveiled his latest Spring/Summer 2025 Men’s Collection for Louis Vuitton earlier Tuesday (June 18) during Paris Fashion Week, and for the second year in a row, a new Clipse song made its debut. Around the 40-minute mark, haunting piano keys started to play for about a two minutes before you can hear John Legend‘s […]
Ashanti revealed earlier this year that she and Nelly were engaged, but now she’s opening up about how the “Ride Wit Me” artist orchestrated the low-key proposal.
Nelly surprised Ashanti when he got down on one knee with a ring as they were just hanging out in their bedroom. The St. Louis native kept it casual and caught Ashanti off-guard with the at-home proposal.
Ashanti admitted to Entertainment Tonight on Tuesday (June 18) that she was just wearing a pair of Nelly’s boxers and one of his T-shirts during the intimate moment.
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“It was just such a beautiful, intimate moment. We were not dressy. I definitely had on one of his T-shirts and his boxers. I had no idea. Completely,” she said. “I felt like it was gonna come soon, I didn’t know when. The way that it happened was just so funny.
The “Foolish” singer continued: “I’m sitting in the bed watching TV with boxers on — it’s not literally sexy! I cried, I gave him the biggest hug and kiss ever, I FaceTimed everyone I know… I was overjoyed and shocked and surprised and happy kinda like all in one.”
Ashanti and Nelly are also expecting their first bundle of joy together later this year. It will be the “Always on Time” artist’s first child and Nelly’s fifth.
The former Murder Inc. staple has an idea for the month she wants to get married, but stopped short of disclosing it. However, she plans to not be pregnant and wants to give birth before tying the knot. “I think it’s gonna be a combination of fashion, glam, Caribbean vibes. Like I have to have like a beach, an ocean, sunshine and palm trees,” she said of how she envisions the big day.
Nelly and Ashanti began dating in 2003 and were together on-and-off before splitting for what they thought was for good in 2013. The couple rekindled their romance after being spotted together for several public outings a decade later in 2023 and will welcome a child later this year.
“The growth has been like superb, you know, like on both ends,” she explained when it comes to the maturity between her and Nelly this time around. “We are both at a place where like before, sometimes we would argue and walk out, slam the door, and not talk for a few days.”
Watch Ashanti’s interview detailing the proposal, pregnancy and her upcoming wedding below.
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Hoops star Jayson Tatum reached the apex of the basketball world when capturing his first NBA championship with his Boston Celtics defeating the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 on Monday night (June 17). Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news After all the champagne and cigars ran dry at the […]
Tinashe’s viral sensation “Nasty” has hit a new peak on the Billboard Hot 100, and she’s pretty excited about it. Originally debuting at No. 90, “Nasty” jumped up 21 spots to No. 69 (nice) this week. .@Tinashe‘s “Nasty” debuts at No. 90 on this week’s #Hot100. It becomes her fourth career entry on the chart, […]
Ever since Fifth Harmony’s Alice in Wonderland-inspired performance of Ellie Goulding’s “Anything Could Happen” at the 2012 X Factor semifinals, Normani’s calm cool and subtle swagger have cut through the noise. Over the course of the decade that followed, that noise evolved — from the racism she faced (from inside and outside of her band) as the sole Black girl in Fifth Harmony to an audience that claimed to support her solo work while refusing to acknowledge the personal circumstances that caused her years of delays.
On the arduous seven-year road to her debut solo studio album, she’s periodically turned up the intensity with breakout moments — like that iconic “Love Lies” performance at the 2018 Billboard Music Awards or her star-cementing first solo music video, 2019’s Ariana Grande-penned “Motivation.” Nonetheless, the sensuous allure of Janet Jackson, Ciara and Aaliyah has always been the anchor of Normani’s artistic profile, and it’s that palette that she meticulously expands upon throughout Dopamine.
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Arriving on June 14, alongside an album photo shoot that pulls inspiration from the dominatrix-lite imagery of Jackson’s 2008 album Discipline, Dopamine finds Normani properly establishing her solo sound for the first time, embracing and amplifying the parts of her identity that were flattened in her output with Fifth Harmony. She paints fearless self-portraits of her sexuality across a soundscape that combines her love for ‘00s southern hip-hop with the intricate vocal stacks of Janet and Brandy, as well as the smooth rap-sung cadences of Aaliyah and Beyoncé.
Relative to her peers, Normani’s social media presence is notably scant; her recent promo run in the months leading up to Dopamine is the most she’s spoken to the public since her “Wild Side” promo run back in 2021, which netted the Cardi B-assisted track a No. 14 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Instead of playing the forever-doomed game that is the blog circuit, Mani uses her music to issue a public service announcement about who exactly we’re dealing with on Dopamine.
“Bling-bling-blow, that’s all them platinum hits/ Bling-bling-blow, that’s all that Billboard s—t,” she spits on the grimy Starrah-assited opener, “Big Boy.” Across a brooding bassline peppered with funky horns, Normani immediately sets up shop in the South, namechecking icons like André 3000, Big Boi and Pimp C, while boasting about being “cornbread-fed.” Fifth Harmony may have exclusively consisted of women of color, but Normani’s specific identity — ‘00 Southern Black culture – didn’t often get a chance to shine. With Dopamine, Normani makes it a point to center those parts of herself, reclaiming the past ten years she’s spent in an industry that would rather pillage the South for its sound than use their resources to amplify those artists.
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That Southern flair courses through “Still,” on which Mani floats over an atmospheric flip of Mike Jones’ “Still Tippin’.” Lead single “1:59” and de facto ballad moment “Distance” help Dopamine flash forward from ‘00s influences to the late ‘10s by way of a melodic Gunna feature on the former and heavy trap drums on the latter. One of the album’s lyrical highlights, the Sevyn Streeter-penned “Distance,” addresses both an inconsistent lover and the tension that exists between the artist and their fans and the industry at large.
“Distance” also happens to be the one record that might have benefitted from moving away from the dominant synthetic production to give her voice more room to fully display her vulnerable tone. Pre-release single “Candy Paint” is another track with which the vision is clear but the execution falters slightly: It’s a dancefloor-ready banger that doesn’t explode on its final chorus like it should. The missed opportunity doesn’t completely kneecap the song, but it does demonstrate how Dopamine occasionally sacrifices sonic variance for the sake of cohesion.
In the same way “Candy Paint” recalls Ciara’s dance performance-minded hits, Dopamine’s most sensual moments recall the sexual liberation of ‘00s Janet Jackson. Standout “All Yours” revels in lush vocal stacks that build a world in which onomatopoeias of sexual gratification are the dominant language. “In your head like, mm-ah, mm-ah/ In your bed like, mm-ah, mm-ah,” she coos. “Lights On” continues down that sensual path, with Victoria Monét lending her Grammy-winning pen for sly double entendres like, “You’re f–kin’ with a star, give me rounds of applause.” With a seductive spoken interlude to boot, “Lights On” is the progeny of Janet Jackson from its very first second to the last.
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In her quest to carve her own spin on these blueprints, Normani incorporates other sonic influences in a few surprising ways. There are flashes of Rated R-era Rihanna in the rollicking pop-rock of enrapturing album closer “Little Secrets” — “Wild Side” fells like more of an encore – and Grammy-winning cross-genre savant James Blake helps Mani shift her sound toward the chilly electronica of FKA twigs on the hauntingly gorgeous “Tantrums.”
Nonetheless, it is Brandy’s signature ethereal approach to vocal stacks that reigns supreme throughout Dopamine — primarily on “Insomnia,” on which she shows up herself to supply some marvelous countermelodies and harmonies, giving her latest star pupil an official co-sign with her presence.
At times, the wait for Normani’s debut solo studio album threatened to permanently dwarf whatevr pop culture impacct the LP itself would end up making, but Dopamine cuts through the noise by simply firming up the foundational elements of her artistry. There isn’t anything as Top 40-minded as “Motivation” or as pop-facing as “Dancing With a Stranger,” and it’s for the better. Dopamine heralds Normani as an artist with a fully realized sound.
While the record often shies away from exploring Normani the Person – maybe she’s saving some of that for album No. 2 – it unequivocally solves the enigma of Normani the Artist, after years of singles that pointed in myriad different directions. A smooth, succinct listen that feels unique to its artist, Dopamine is both a win for Normani and a victory for the fans who have always believed her capable of crafting such a strong record.
After delighting fans with her flashy new Michael and Janet Jackson-nodding “Alright” music video, Victoria Monét is keeping the Black Music Month celebrations going with an appearance in Amazon Music‘s new Save The Music: Inspiring Music’s Next Generation documentary (June 18) alongside frequent collaborator D’Mile.
The latest in a string of programming in honor of Black Music Month, Save the Music follows Monét and D’Mile as they visit public school students at Brooklyn’s Transit Tech High School, gifting them valuable insight on the music industry and providing them musical equipment and a D’Mile production masterclass.
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The Transit Tech students are undoubtedly learning from the best. D’Mile’s work with R&B stars such as H.E.R. and Lucky Daye have earned him several Grammys and an Academy Award for best original song, while Monét picked up her first three Grammys earlier this year thank to her acclaimed Jaguar II album. D’Mile produced every track on Jaguar II — save the Kaytranada-helmed “Alright” — earning him and Monét a shared victory for best R&B album.
The journey back to the classroom was also a trip down memory lane for D’Mile, who recently re-teamed with Monét for “Power of Two,” a new original song for Disney+’s The Acolyte. “I used to cut class just to stay in band class or my school gospel choir almost all day,” he muses. “I met my now wife at jazz choir class. My favorite memories are the friends I made there, they were all like-minded and talented. I’m still great friends with and still playing or working with [them] professionally in some way. It’s a bond you can’t replace.”
Firmly rooted in R&B, Jaguar II finds the two musicians exploring the vast expanse of Black music, dabbling in reggae, house, hip-hop and soul. Save the Music: Inspiring Music’s Next Generation grants both D’Mile and Monét the space to reflect on the importance of Black Music Month and take part in the sacred traditions of educating younger generations on their cultural history.
“So many genres stemmed from Black artists and musicians: rock and roll, country, disco, house, R&B, soul, techno, rap … the list goes on,” notes Monét. “I love that there’s a month dedicated to educating others on and celebrating Black music, but my hope is that in general, music by Black artists is celebrated in all genres one day. Motown was a breeding ground for so many incredible Black musicians and icons (from The Jacksons to Diana Ross to Stevie Wonder to Smokey Robinson) who truly made quality, POPular music.”
Fittingly, Monét and D’Mile chose to record a new version of “Hollywood,” the penultimate Jaguar II track, for Save the Music. Earning a Grammy nod for best traditional R&B performance, “Hollywood” is a prime showcase of the cross-generational appeal of Black music. The track features the legendary Earth, Wind & Fire, as well as Monét’s adorable two-year-old daughter Hazel Monét Gaines. The new acoustic version of “Hollywood” strips away the grandiosity of the original’s cinematic drum-heavy arrangement, making for a much more intimate and introspective affair.
“I knew I wanted to keep in all the organic elements from the original,” reveals D’Mile. “Which was interesting because about 90% of the song already was organic. But sometimes when you do something as simple as just taking drums out, you start hearing things that you want to be heard more. You get to focus more on some of the string work or even background vocals on the song. It was as simple as taking the groove out and just holding down the chords and letting everything else shine.”
Just as she does on “Hollywood,” Monét’s music is both a love letter to Black music history and a way for her to expose her fans to styles and influences from decades past. The music video for her breakout hit “On My Mama” exalts ’00s Southern Black culture, while Jaguar II standout “How Does It Make You Feel” recalls the classic soul of The Isley Brothers. “Some of my first memories are of the music my mom would play around the house and that helped shape me as I grew older,” she says. “‘My Girl’ by The Temptations is already my daughter Hazel’s favorite song – I’ve played it since I was pregnant with her. Great music really can stand the test of time.”
The reimagined version of “Hollywood,” whose creation is documented in Save the Music, can be streamed in full exclusively on Amazon Music, where the mini-documentary can also be viewed starting Tuesday (June 18).
With Chris Brown performing on another arena tour across New York and New Jersey, Fat Joe thinks it’s time to “move past” Brown’s legal history and give the singer his flowers.
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The Terror Squad boss hopped on Instagram Live over the weekend, where he claimed that the culture would be looking at Chris Breezy on the same level as Michael Jackson if it weren’t for his 2009 assault of Rihanna, Brown’s then-girlfriend.
“If Chris Brown never got into the controversy with Rihanna, we would be calling him Michael Jackson right now,” Joe declared. “Not like Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson. He’s the most talented singer, artist, performer, hitmaker of our time. There’s nobody even close to Chris Brown. And it’s time we move past it, it’s been 20-something years. That I know of, there’s no more incidents. Man, we gonna let this lifetime go by without saying the truth?”
Since Brown’s 2009 assault on Rihanna, he has faced various legal issues, including punching a man in the face in 2013, for which he pled guilty to simple assault; being accused of punching a photographer in 2017, with the charge later dropped due to “insufficient evidence”; ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran being granted a restraining order against the singer after she accused him of abuse; and more.
Continued Fat Joe: “When the truth is an unpopular decision, everybody gets scared to say it, they get canceled. Especially famous people. The streets, they know what it is. The streets always know to tell you the truth. The streets still bumping R. Kelly. He’s in jail, he did terrible things. They still bumping R. Kelly.”
Fat Joe went on to come to Brown’s defense while declaring him the “King of R&B,” and said he was “a little kid” at the time of his assault on Rihanna.
“So what I’m trying to say is, it’s a shame we’re lying and we’re giving up to the king of R&B. The king of music,” the Bronx native added. “We thinking he could battle Michael Jackson, that’s all I’m trying to say. If you really look at his body of work, you look at all his hits, you see what he does … You remove from your mind that we don’t like it. We don’t like that he had a controversy … He was a little kid 20-something years ago.”
The “Lean Back” rapper is seemingly referring to the February 2009 felony assault of Rihanna, which took place when Chris Brown was 19. The singer was arrested for physically abusing Ri in a car before a Clive Davis Grammy Awards party; he pleaded guilty to felony assault in June that year.
Billboard has reached out to Rihanna’s reps for comment.
Brown reflected on the night in his 2017 Welcome to My Life documentary. “I look back at that picture and I’m like, ‘That’s not me, bro, that’s not me.’ I hate it to this day. That’s going to haunt me forever,” he admitted.
CB’s still on the road for his 11:11 Tour, which will head north of the border for dates in Montreal and Toronto before returning stateside next week with shows in Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore.
Watch Fat Joe’s share his thoughts below.
Baseball has always felt lightyears behind basketball and football when it comes to the sport’s connection and crossover ability with hip-hop.
Bossman Dlow’s “Get in With Me” checked off another box in its ascension last month (May 5) when Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Brandon Marsh quoted lyrics to the braggadocious breakout hit from the Florida native during an ESPN Sunday Night Baseball broadcast against the San Francisco Giants.
“Bae these Off-White, these ain’t no Huarache,” Marsh rapped while mic’d up for an interview mid-game after being tee’d up with a question from teammate Alec Bohm. “He did not just ask me that, Bossman Dlow!”
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The reference went over the announcers’ heads, so Marsh schooled the broadcasters (and millions watching at home), who didn’t understand Dlow’s flexing about the gold-certified song he’s listened to “religiously.”
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“Get In With Me” arrived in January and hit the Hot 100 for his first entry a month later where it debuted at No. 68 and currently occupies the No. 88 slot in its 19th week on the chart. It’s not just “Get In With Me” making waves on the charts, either as Dlow’s boss-talk formula led to the boastful “Talk My S–t” (No. 34) and “Mr. Pot Scraper” (No. 38) landing on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart with the former also invading the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart and even spending one week on the Hot 100.
Bossman Dlow looks to add to his winning streak in 2024 — which has been reminiscent of DaBaby’s scorching 2019 run, where everything the Charlotte native touched seemingly turned to gold — with his “Sportscenter” single, named after the flagship ESPN highlights show
With all the momentum he’s garnered, the Port Salerno rapper doesn’t have plans of stopping either. Dlow’s promising another project before the year expires, and has collaborations on the way with Lil Baby, Veeze and Wiz Khalifa.
Check out of our interview below with Billboard‘s R&B/Hip-Hop Rookie of the Month, which finds Bossman Dlow explaining about keeping songs under two minutes, linking with the aforementioned Marsh and much more.
You’re our Rookie of the Month for June — congrats on that. What’s your thoughts on receiving that and how it fits as far as a snapshot into your career right now?
We gotta keep it going. It means a lot. I’m seeing a lot of success for real. I feel great about it. I appreciate it too.
“Get in With Me” is still popping and holding strong on the Hot 100, is it crazy for you to see how far it’s gone in these last few months? I even saw a video of Cardi B dancing to it in the club.
I ain’t see that. Was that on her page? I gotta go check that out. That’s cool.
We gotta get her on a remix or something.
For sure, we gotta get her on something.
Have you had those type of moments where an artist you admire is showing you love or bumping your music?
It’s been a lot of artists. Plies. I seen Ciara post it to her TikTok. That was crazy.
How was linking up with Brandon Marsh on the Philadelphia Phillies? I loved seeing him quoting “Get in With Me” during a game when he was being interviewed. I’m sure the reference went over the broadcasters’ heads.
You know my bars when I rap I refer to sports and stuff like that. It’s cool to see players [quote them], so I appreciate that for sure. I had went before the game. I couldn’t stay because I had to catch a flight. I got to talk to him thought and that was cool. He gave me a bat too. That was hard.
“SportsCenter” is your newest song. What can you tell us about it?
Yeah, that’s one we’re gonna make it the sports anthem. You could damn near play that before your games. We’re gonna try to make it a broad song.
Was ESPN’s SportsCenter a big part of your life growing up?
Yeah, for sure. That will get a lot of attention from people like that — they love sports. We gonna have it playing on every commercial. We ain’t got time to play.
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In the “Talk My S–t” video, I saw you linked up with Deion and Shadeur Sanders. What were your conversations like?
Yeah, we was in Colorado. We saw all of them. It’s dumb love over there, and they on my music hard. Especially Deion — he’s got encouraging words for you. It was cool to meet them. He’ll take you to the bad days and all that. I’m damn sure gonna try to get out there [to a game this season].
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I saw one of your new chains they’re saying it was worth $100,000. Is that true and what does it mean to you?
Yeah, it’s a motherf–king shark with a suit on, with a briefcase standing on that business. I’m just getting what I like. I feel like I’m a shark in that water and I stand on business. Suit and tie… that’s just how I’m going. I just felt like dropping that chain, and that for damn sure was $100,000.
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What do you got planned for tour coming up? How have you improved on your live performance? We’ve seen younger rappers tend to struggle with it when they get in the game.
Nah, we not doing no damn struggling. We gon keep this s–t going. We got plenty of gas and this tour coming up. We got creative with the shows. We gon’ entertain and improve and keep it going. We damn sure gonna be giving away money the whole God damn tour. It’s gonna be little money games and little basketball shots. S–t like that. It’s gonna be dancers there. We gon’ be smoking everywhere — Big Za. That’s just how it’s going. We gonna be entertaining.
I always see rappers like Busta Rhymes and Wiz Khalifa in your comments section on Instagram. Have you connected with any of them, and do you have any mentors like that in your career that you’ve gotten advice from?
Yeah, for sure. Definitely talked to Wiz. We supposed to do a song. Busta Rhymes definitely be talking to me. We got each other’s phone number and we stay in contact. It’s just good to link to these kinda people. They really know what’s going on. They been here for years.
There’s a singer, PinkPantheress, that went viral with her saying that songs don’t need to be longer than 2.5 minutes and I was listening to your music and I’m seeing some of the time stamps with you keeping your songs two minutes and some just have one verse. Is that something that’s done purposefully and do you agree with her?
I agree with that 100 percent. Most definitely. I purposely do one verse — and it’s just because nowadays, people just want so much music from you. They want more songs, and less time on the songs, basically. They don’t have the attention span to listen to the same beat for five minutes. It’s just how it goes. You’d rather just give them five two-minute songs than two five-minute songs.
What collabs do you have coming up that you can tell us about? I saw something with Babyface Ray and Veeze.
Me and Veeze definitely got some s–t coming. Me and Babyface got two [coming]. I got some s–t with Lil Baby on the way.
If there was a pop star or someone outside of the rap world that you could work with, who would it be?
All of them, to be real, because I kinda wanna switch lanes on them people. Definitely Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, all that different kinda s–t.
TikTok has been a pretty big tool for you helping some of your records blowing up. Can you speak to working records and connecting to a different part of your fan base on there?
That’s that out. That s–t will take you further than damn YouTube. People just network and catch on. There’s a dance to a song and they catch on fast.
Do you look at that differently compared to your fanbase at shows?
There damn near is, because some of the kids on TikTok ain’t going out to no clubs.
Do you think any rappers of your generation could have a battle to the magnitude of Drake and Kendrick?
It be getting a little too personal. I don’t really do the beefing s–t. All that making songs and beefing, I don’t really do that, but to each his own. I don’t feel no type of way toward the beef.
So no Dlow diss records coming in the future?
Nah, we don’t do that.
What are your plans for the rest of the year?
We gonna stay busy. Stay in the studio and keep this hits going, keep active with videos and singles. Drip, living life, and everything. We popping s–t.
Do you plan to come back with another project before 2024 ends?
Yeah, for sure. We definitely gon’ have another project before the year [ends]. We ain’t formed a name and all of that yet, and we don’t got a date yet. But as far as the music, they’re getting made, so we’re definitely gonna put it together.
Are there any other artists you’d want to see pop on there with you?
I definitely gotta get Future on there. I might get one with Wiz Khalifa on there. Try to put some different s–t on there. Fridayy, some s–t like that.
Do you want to show more versatility with your next project?
Yeah, we gon’ try to do things differently. You know, get some vibe songs. I might talk to the ladies a little bit. We gonna try to sauce it up.
Is it tough creatively to want to stick to what’s working and what the fans love, but also want to take the fans to this place and try something new for myself?
Yeah, that’s definitely hard when you already know what they liking and you gotta try to transition into something else hoping they like that too. You ain’t gonna hurt to try so you gotta try something. You don’t veer too far off. You keep it a little different, but keep it to where you know it’s still on their type of vibe.
I got you, maybe switching lanes but staying on the same highway.
Yeah, we on the same road, but we just switched the lane up.
When we talked a couple of months ago, you had some pretty big business plans when it came to real estate, trucking businesses, carwashes, restaurants. Have any of those started to come to fruition?
Nah, right now we gon’ deal with these houses, and property and we gon’ eventually start to sell and rent cars. We gonna have hands in all pots really.
[Management: He just signed for a house — he’s being modest. He got his people a house.]
I just do what I do. I don’t even really like speaking on s–t like that, ya feel me? But yeah. That’s my momma and them, though. I’m supposed to do that. I’m not speaking on that. I’m telling you. Anybody that gets some cheese, you supposed to know, you supposed to get your people a house.