R&B/Hip-Hop
Page: 21
Three years into a 30-year sentence for sex trafficking and racketeering, R. Kelly broke his silence this week during a seven-minute phone call into the Inmate Tea With A&P podcast, in which the disgraced former R&B star claimed that he’s written more than two dozen albums since his imprisonment in 2022.
Kelly called in on a monitored prison phone line and told the show’s hosts that he was told he was supposed to sing someone “Happy Birthday,” as the two women giggled and referred to the 58-year-old singer born Robert Sylvester Kelly as the “King of R&B,” as well as by his once honorific title: “the Pied Piper of R&B.”
Saying he was feeling “great,” Kelly broke into the opening lines of his 1998 song “When a Woman’s Fed Up,” singing a cappella as one of the hosts danced in her seat, laughed and enthusiastically sang back-up vocals. Asked if he’s continued to used his talents while incarcerated, the vocalist — whose daughter, Buku Abi, now 26, claimed in a documentary last year that her father had sexually abused her as a child, claims his lawyer denied — referred to singing as “a beautiful disease that’s uncurable. That’s not gonna happen, not singing.”
In fact, Kelly, claimed that he’s written “like 25 albums” since he was sentenced to three decades in prison in 2021 following a conviction on racketeering and sex trafficking charges; in 2022, Kelly was also convicted of three counts of sexual exploitation enticement of a minor child via production of child pornography as well as three counts of coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity.
Before his sentence, Kelly was known for his prolific nature, releasing 18 studio albums from 1992 through 2016 as well as 33 chapters in his bizarre “Trapped in the Closet” musical soap opera series between 2005 and 2012.
In addition to writing songs from his cell at a federal prison in North Carolina, Kelly said he’s working on trying to get out of prison so he can get back to “what it is God gave me, my talent.” Last month, Manhattan’s 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected Kelly’s bid to appeal his New York conviction, which, given the singer’s age, could keep him locked up into his 80s if he serves the full term.
Kelly was long dogged by allegations of sexual and physical abuse of women, as well as an illegal marriage in 1994 to a then-15-year-old Aaliyah when he was 27. He was accused in 2017 of holding half a dozen women hostage, some allegedly underage, as part of what was described as a “cult,” in which he allegedly controlled every aspect of their lives, from when they ate and bathed to how they dressed and when they had sex with him.
Multiple women later came forward to claim that Kelly sexually and physically abused them, including a number who spoke for the first time in public about his alleged abuse in the bombshell Surviving R. Kelly series; Kelly and his legal team have denied the allegations.
Drake, a Toronto native, represented for Canada when the 2026 World Cup host cities were announced last year, and he could be making an appearance at the 2026 games as a performer.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino pulled up to FOX 5’s Good Day New York on Thursday (March 6), and co-host Rosanna Scotto pressed Infantino about the possibility of Drake performing at the World Cup next year.
“I have a great idea for you for the halftime — Drake,” she said. “Because you were at the Super Bowl — Kendrick Lamar dissed him at the Super Bowl.”
Trending on Billboard
“So we can create a bit of a rivalry,” Infantino quipped about Drake’s feud with Lamar. “That’s a good idea. Actually, Drake was with us when we announced the host cities. I should have his number saved somewhere.”
Infantino called the World Cup halftime show — which is produced by Coldplay’s Chris Martin — the “best halftime show ever.”
“We’re thinking big,” he told FOX 5. “We’ll have 2 billion viewers from every corner of the world. It’s like 20 times the Super Bowl. So, we are very excited about that. You have to watch it – that’s the surprise. … It will be global, different languages, different countries.”
Toronto will be playing host to the first tournament game of the World Cup on June 12, 2026. Vancouver, B.C, will also host a match north of the border.
“Canada as a whole, we have an incredible melting pot. But in Toronto, there are just so many different cultural experiences,” Drake told Infantino in February 2024. “So when the world comes, it’s going to be beautiful.”
Eleven U.S. cities will also host, including Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, Seattle, Houston, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Boston, Dallas, San Francisco (Bay Area) and the greater New York City area.
Watch FOX 5’s full interview with FIFA’s Gianni Infantino below.
Beloved 1990s R&B trio Tony! Toni! Toné! issued an update on the group’s 64-year-old lead singer/guitarist D’Wayne Wiggins on Thursday (March 6), announcing in an Instagram post, “We wanted to share that D’Wayne Wiggins is experiencing medical complications. He is working through it one day at a time.”
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
At press time no additional information was available on what health issues Wiggins has been dealing with and a spokesperson for the group had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment. The post continued, “We know how beloved he is by so many, and we are grateful for your prayers and concern. We also request that you respect the family’s privacy during this time.”
Wiggins is the co-founder of the 1980s/90s soul funk/R&B trio that also featured his half-brother, Raphael Saadiq, on bass and vocals and cousin Timothy Christian Riley on drums/keyboards. The band was formed in their native Oakland, CA in 1986, releasing their debut single, “One Night Stand,” a year later.
Trending on Billboard
After signing with Wing Records, the group released their debut album, Who?, in 1988, which featured the hit single, “Little Walter,” a prime example of the band’s signature mixture of funk, soul, R&B and gospel that rode the wave of the mid-1980s New Jack Swing revolution spearheaded by producers Teddy Riley and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and groups including Guy, Blackstreet and Keith Sweat. The song peaked at No. 47 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, while the album hit No. 69 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
The band’s second, mostly self-produced studio album, The Revival, was released in 1990 (No. 34 on the Billboard 200) and it featured their signature feel good dance funk anthem “Feels Good,” which hit No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. They followed with 1993’s classic R&B-leaning Sons of Soul LP– which contained their highest-charting single, the Ice Cube-sampling New Jack Swinging classic “If I Had No Loot.” That song ran up to No. 7 on the Hot 100, with the album hitting their highest mark on the Billboard 200 at No. 24.
Their final studio effort was 1996’s House of Music, which hit No. 32 on the Billboard 200 chart. In total, the group landed five chart-toppers on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hops songs charts, as well as seven other songs in the top 10 on that tally.
The group went quiet for several years before reuniting in 2003 — without Saadiq — to appear on Grammy-nominated The Diary of Alicia Keys song “Diary” (No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100)) and then again in 2023 for a U.S. reunion tour to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of Sons of Soul.
In addition to his work with the group D’Wayne Wiggins was the bandleader for comedian D.L. Hughley’s short-lived Comedy Central series Weekends at the D.L. He also released a solo album, Eyes Never Lie, in 2000, which charted at No. 197 on the Billboard 200 album chart, with single “What’s Really Going On (Strange Fruit)” hitting No. 84 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart that year.
Wiggins is also credited with helping to develop and shape the early career of Destiny’s Child, who recorded several tracks produced by him before they signed with Columbia Records, as well as being one of the major promoters of Oakland’s grimy, relentless late ’90s “hyphy” hip-hop offshoot thanks to his vocal work on fellow East Bay native Too $hort’s 1992 singles “Hoochie” and 1999’s “How Does It Feel.” He also lent his elegant guitar playing to “BabyLet’sHaveABabyBeforeBushDoSomethin’Crazy” from another East Bay group, The Coup, on their 2006 Pick a Bigger Weapon album.
Lizzo leans into a classic kiss-off on the just-released second preview of her upcoming Love In Real Life album. In a snippet released on Instagram on Thursday (March 6), the singer rocks a bedazzled red bodysuit with a series of cut-outs down the front as she shimmies and shakes her way through a 20-seconds of […]
After spending the last two years navigating the fulfilling experience of writing for her peers, Sabrina Claudio is entering a new chapter of her career as the R&B singer signs with EMPIRE, Billboard can reveal. “I think my uniting with Empire was divine timing,” says Claudio, who was signed to Atlantic Records from 2018 to […]
Less than a year after dropping his Jamaican Situation EP, two-time Grammy-nominated Jamaican reggae star Protoje is set to embark on a world tour — and he’s also just dropped his highly anticipated new single.
On March 9, Protoje will hit the stage at Australia’s WOMADelaide festival before spending the rest of the month hitting stops across Europe, including Lisbon, Portugal; Berlin; and Copenhagen, Denmark. On April 4, the “Who Knows” singer will kick off the U.S. leg of the tour with an appearance at the Reggae Rise Up festival in Tempe, Ariz. Over the following month and a half, Protoje will visit fans in Southern cities across the states, including Miami, Atlanta and Asheville, N.C. By July 25, he’ll return to Europe for the final leg of the tour, playing festivals across the continent, including Sweden’s Uppsala Reggae Festival (July 25) and Austria’s One Love Reggae Festival (Aug. 9). The international trek will conclude on Nov. 29 at La Cigale in Paris.
To accompany his tour announcement, Protoje also unveiled a new single titled “Big 45.” Inspired by Jamaica’s iconic sound system culture, the St. Elizabeth-hailing artist-producer has crafted a booming, bass-driven track that playfully teases a rap-sung cadence over a sultry, groovy instrumental. “Big 45” — produced by The Indiggnation and Winta James — also arrives alongside a SAMO-helmed music video. The clip prominently features the massive sound systems traveling through the streets of JA.
Trending on Billboard
“This is just a reggae and dancehall anthem,” Protoje said in a press release. “It’s talking about sound system, it’s talking about live music … the moment we started [playing] it, everybody got excited because we knew it was one of those ‘bring everyone together’ type of songs.”
After teasing “Big 45” on socials and in his live shows, Protoje has finally released the song. The new track is a natural progression from the national pride that colored tracks such as “Where We Come From” from last year’s Jamaican Situation EP. Protoje’s last solo full-length album was 2022’s Third Time’s the Charm, which featured collaborations with Jorja Smith, Lila Iké, Samory I and Jesse Royal.
Protoje has sent five consecutive projects to the top 10 of Reggae Albums, including two chart-toppers: 2015’s Ancient Future and 2018’s A Matter of Time. In 2018, he entered the Emerging Artist chart for the very first time at No. 42.
Check out the dates for Protoje’s 2025 world tour below.
March 9 — Australia @ WOMADelaide
March 14 — New Zealand @ Womad Aotearoa
March 19 — Aarau, Switzerland @ KIFF
March 21 — Barcelona, Spain @ Razzmatazz
March 22 — Lisbon, Portugal @ Disaster Club
March 25 — Berlin, Germany @ Maaya Club
March 26 — Hamburg, Germany @ Fabrik
March 27 — Cologne, Germany @ Die Kantine
March 28 — Copenhagen, Denmark @ Grey Hall
March 29 — Legorreta, Spain @ Legoreggae
April 4 — Tempe, Ariz. @ Reggae Rise Up
April 16 — Miami, Fla. @ Miami Beach Bandshell
April 17 — St. Petersburg, Fla. @ Jannus Live
April 18 — Ormond Beach, Fla. @ Granada Theatre
April 19 — Atlanta, Ga. @ Sweetwater 420 Fest
April 20 — Asheville, N.C. @ Orange Peel
May 23 — Monterey, Calif. @ California Roots
May 30 — Durango, Colo. @ Rise and Vibes
July 12 — Marshfield, Mass. @ Levitate Music Festival
July 25 — Uppsala, Sweden @ Uppsala Reggae Festival
July 26 — Fraga, Spain @ Monegros Desert Festival
Aug. 1 — Geel, Belgium @ Reggae Geel Festival
Aug. 2 — Milton Keynes, U.K. @ Reggaeland
Aug. 9 — Wiesen, Austria @ One Love Reggae Festival
Aug. 10 — Saint-Malo, France @ No Logo BZH
Nov. 20 — Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso
Nov. 21 — Zurich, Switzerland @ Rote Fabrik
Nov. 29 — Paris, France @ La Cigale
YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s fourth compilation album More Leaks is out. The embattled rapper out of Baton Rouge is currently serving 23 months in prison after pleading guilty to a federal gun charge late in 2024 and will have to do 60 months of probation after he gets out. His team announced the new project […]
Cam’ron has responded to former Terror Squad rapper Cuban Link alleging that Cam and Mase stole the chorus to Cam’s early hit song “Horse & Carriage.” Cuban Link told the story of how he originally came up with the hook in a resurfaced clip of his Link & Panda Show podcast. He explained that he […]
Prakazrel “Pras” Michel was found guilty in his 2023 federal fraud case, and he’s looking for President Trump to grant him a pardon. The Fugees rapper is accused of participating in multimillion-dollar political conspiracies that have spanned the last two presidencies. TMZ caught up with Pras earlier this week while riding around in his Lamborghini, […]
Ye (formerly Kanye West) is giving the sound of his next album a new label, which finds the Chicago native digging his heels into a recent string of antisemitic remarks. “This next album got that antisemitic sound,” West posted to X on Thursday afternoon (March 6). “My new sound called antisemitic.” It’s unclear if this […]