R&B/Hip-Hop
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For the first time in the league’s history, the WNBA will be expanding outside the United States by adding a team in Toronto starting with the 2026 season. So naturally, the Global Ambassador for the Toronto Raptors was in attendance. Drake — spotted out in public for the first time since his ugly feud with […]
In the third episode of ‘Billboard Unfiltered,’ Billboard staffers Damien Scott, Carl Lamarre and Trevor Anderson discuss the aftermath of the 2016 video of Diddy physically assaulting ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura as well as new sexual assault allegations against him and how this will forever tarnish his legacy. They also debate whether Lauryn Hill’s singular album […]
Metro Boomin has already unleashed two albums with Future and teased a third unknown project, but the grind doesn’t stop there for the St. Louis native.
While in Egypt for a concert at the Great Pyramids of Giza in April, Spotify caught up with Young Metro where he divulged his plans for the year, which include more collaborations with The Weeknd, who’s working on his Dawn FM follow up.
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“The songs we did with The Weeknd, frequent collaborator of mine, ‘Low Life’ I feel like that was the beginning of our journey to now,” he said while thinking back to their first collab alongside Future that appeared on Pluto’s 2106 EVOL album (“Low Life” reached No. 16 on the Hot 100). “Which was with Future so I feel like it was just a full-circle moment.”
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He continued: “For him to appear between the two albums like four times. That’s big. You know, that’s family. Me and him working on a lot of stuff. You know, we cooking up for his new album. I know a lot of people are gonna be real pleased and even more happy.”
The Weeknd’s signature falsetto was sprinkled throughout Metro and Future’s We Don’t Trust You and We Still Don’t Trust You albums, both of which topped the Billboard 200.
“I really took it personally, in the past couple years, seeing different outlets and people sh—ing on hip-hop, saying ‘hip-hop is dying, hip-hop is this, it’s been this long since there was a hip-hop No. 1,’” Metro told Billboard Arabia earlier in May. “Just trying to spin that whole hip-hop is dying narrative, at the same time trying to celebrate 50 years of hip-hop. I felt they were trying to wash our genre and culture away. I’m still in the game and I take it personal. Those kind of things disturbed me, at the same time, it was the kind of fuel I needed.”
Metro Boomin headed to the Middle East to rock the Kundalini Grand Pyramids with a two-hour set for quite possibly the most unique concert he’s ever put on and it all went down in Egypt on April 30.
“I’ve always wanted to see this [the pyramids] with my own eyes, but I could never even fathom doing a show and performing in front of something as crazy and legendary and history as this,” Metro said. “I’m grateful for everyone, for the whole country.”
It’s been over two years since The Weeknd’s Dawn FM album — which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 — and it sounds like he’s back in album mode, and there could be more heat in the stash from Abel and Metro.
Watch the clip below.
What if we told you one of the greatest clips on the Internet involved Safaree doing the robot? We’ll get to that in a few, but first lets talk about what Safaree recently posted on X. Nicki Minaj’s ex-boyfriend and former collaborator took to the social network and questioned what he was doing in Nicki’s […]
05/23/2024
Rappers have been going too far for a long time.
05/23/2024
Yasiin Bey hopped on Instagram Live a few days back and kicked a freestyle over Metro Boomin’s “Like That” beat. The socially conscience rapper did his variations of what he called the “Petty Big 3” rapping, “Greedy, seedy, and creepy/ Corny, horny and boring/Bougie, goofy and moody/Foolish, ruthless and clueless/Variations on a petty Big 3/ […]
Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby” is the No. 1 song on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart for a second straight week, while Kendrick Lamar hits the top five, and a pair of Future and Metro Boomin tracks debut within the top 10 of the May 25-dated tally.
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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 May 13-19. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
A flurry of trends and viral usages continues to contribute to the success of “Million Dollar Baby” on TikTok, as previously reported, after its virality was initially kicked off thanks to a tease of the tune on the app on April 13.
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“Million Dollar Baby” concurrently falls 2-3 on the multimetric Billboard Hot 100, albeit with a rise in consumption; it’s the chart’s greatest gainer in both streams and sales, racking up 66.3 million official U.S. streams (up 14%) and 7,000 downloads (up 17%) in the May 10-16 tracking period, according to Luminate.
It reigns over Lay Bankz’s “Tell Ur Girlfriend,” No. 2 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 for a second week after a previous three-week reign, and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” which lifts one spot to a new peak of No. 3.
Laila!’s “Like That!” rounds out the top five, but one position ahead of it at No. 4 is Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” which in its second week on the list jumps 9-4. One of the more viral uploads featuring the Drake diss in recent days shows Billie Eilish rapping along to the song’s “they not like us” refrain, and the majority of the top-performing creations either express surprise at the lyrical content or show users dancing along to the track.
Like “Million Dollar Baby,” “Not Like Us” is also up in overall consumption despite dropping 1-2 on the Hot 100, landing a 2% boost in streams to 72 million.
A pair of songs from Future and Metro Boomin’s joint album We Don’t Trust You debut in the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s top 10 after becoming available on TikTok following Universal Music Group’s new deal with the app. “Type Shit,” featuring the rapper and producer plus Travis Scott and Playboi Carti, starts at No. 6, while “Fried (She a Vibe)” bows at No. 9.
The lead trend for “Type Shit” is one in which a creator responds to the prompt “You was ugly anyway” with a CapCut of themselves since, while “Fried” largely includes a lip-synch motif to the “I’m fried, yes, fried/ I’m f–ked up” lyric.
There’s one other song in the top 10 of the TikTok Billboard Top 50 for the first time: Adrianne Lenker‘s “Not a Lot, Just Forever” leaps 30-7 in its second week on the survey. It’s the second top 10 for Lenker, whose “Anything” reached No. 8 in April (her band Big Thief has an additional top 20 with “Vampire Empire” in January).
Like “Anything,” “Not a Lot, Just Forever” is featured on Lenker’s 2020 album Songs. Its current prevailing trend utilizes the “Not a lot, just forever/ Intertwined, sewn together” lyric to show off bracelets and other jewelry users created, as well as one where an app shows what their pets’ “bouquets” would be.
“Not a Lot, Just Forever” sports a 21% jump in streams to 946,000 in the latest tracking week.
A pair of songs just outside the top 10 that could soon challenge for that region debut at Nos. 12 and 13, respectively, in Tinashe’s “Nasty” and Eilish’s “Blue.” “Nasty,” originally released April 12, has become viral on TiKTok via a dance trend, and “Blue,” premiered May 17 on Eilish’s new album Hit Me Hard and Soft, benefits from a lip-synch video from Eilish herself to usher in the LP’s premiere, while others either do their own lip-synch clips to the song or talk about how the tune was initially an unreleased track called “True Blue” before being reworked for the new album.
“Nasty” bursts 56% in streams to 1.6 million, while the full impact of “Blue” will be known on the June 1-dated Billboard charts.
See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 here. 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.
Cassie has issued a statement in response to the outpouring of support she’s received following the release of the video of her then-boyfriend Diddy physically assaulting her at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
The “Me & U” singer hadn’t spoken out since CNN posted the footage on May 17, with only her attorneys issuing statements. That changed on Thursday morning (May 23) when she addressed the situation and thanked those who have supported her.
“Thank you for all of the love and support from my family, friends, strangers and those have yet to meet. The outpouring of love has created a place for my younger self to settle and feel safe now, but this is only the beginning. Domestic Violence is THE issue. It broke me down to someone I never thought I would become. With a lot of hard work, I am better today, but I will always be recovering from my past,” she wrote on Instagram, making no mention of Diddy by name.
“Thank you to everyone that has taken the time to take this matter seriously. My only ask is that EVERYONE open your heart to believing victims the first time. It takes a lot of heart to tell the truth out of a situation that you were powerless in.”
Cassie continued: “I offer my hand to those that are still living in fear. Reach out to your people, don’t cut them off. No one should carry this weight alone. This healing journey is never ending, but this support means everything to me. Thank you. Love Always, Cassie.”
Kelly Rowland, Chloe Bailey, Lala Anthony, Taraji P. Henson and more showered Cassie with love and commended her bravery in her IG comment section.
In the footage dated March 5, 2016, and released by CNN, Diddy is seen striking Cassie at an elevator bank of a Los Angeles hotel and dragging her through the hallway after kicking her.
“The gut-wrenching video has only further confirmed the disturbing and predatory behavior of Mr. Combs,” said Ventura’s attorney, Douglas Wigdor, in a statement to Billboard at the time. “Words cannot express the courage and fortitude that Ms. Ventura has shown in coming forward to bring this to light.”
Diddy issued an apology on Sunday (May 17), saying his actions in the video were “inexcusable,” and added he was “disgusted” with his behavior.
“It’s so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life, but sometimes you got to do that,” Diddy said in the video posted to Instagram. “I was f–ked up. I mean, I hit rock bottom. But I make no excuses. My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I’m disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it, I’m disgusted now.”
Cassie and Diddy met in 2005 and dated on-and-off for a decade before splitting for good in 2018. Ventura filed a lawsuit against Diddy in Manhattan federal court in November 2023, alleging rape, sexual assault, physical abuse and more.
The two parties settled the dispute less than 24 hours later. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. “I have decided to resolve this matter amicably on terms that I have some level of control,” Ventura said in a statement issued by her attorney at the time. “I want to thank my family, fans and lawyers for their unwavering support.”
With additional sexual assault lawsuits piling up, Combs has continued to deny all allegations made against him. “Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged,” he said in a statement on Dec. 6. “I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.”
Read Cassie’s statement in full below.
Normani‘s fans have been waiting a long time for the former Fifth Harmony member’s debut album. And on Wednesday (May 22) the singer really gave them something to look forward to with the super sexed-up trailer for the project entitled “Dopamine (First Dose).”
The 1:52 clip kicks off with a set of massive doors opening up to reveal Normani sitting on a desk in a spare office. Wearing a second-skin leather catsuit as stock images of space 1960s space footage flashes by, she slips on a headset and purrs, “Hello, Hotline 159. Yes, here to satisfy your deepest, darkest, wildest desires. No rules, no restrictions, straight dopamine,” as a mysterious man in an old-school phone booth breathes heavily on the other side.
As the strains of her previously released collab with Gunna, “1:59,” bubbles up and she pops a red lollipop between her lips, the phone rings and footage from the pair’s video streams. Cut to ‘Mani giving an acrobatic lap dance in just a bra, underwear and tights, intercut with subtle shots of rockets taking off.
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The clip ends with the phone ringing again an a close-up of Normani’s face while the camera slowly pans out to reveals her entire naked body encased in silver paint as she teases another song from the collection, “Candy Paint.”
“Bank roll, thubmin’, baby you know how I’m comin’/ Booty on bubonic, and I move it how I want it/ Big girl s–t, baby I don’t do no runnin’/ I can make it boom-boom clap, like I’m drummin’,” she sings as the camera pans out to reveal her stride a provocatively shaped silver rocket, which she proceeds to twerk atop.
Normani’s debut album, Dopamine, is due out on June 14. Its release comes after the singer has dropped a series of singles since leaving 5H in 2018, including her Billboard Hot 100 No. 9-charting solo debut collab with Khalid, “Love Lies,” as well as the No. 7 2019 collab with Sam Smith, “Dancing With a Stranger.” That same year she unleashed the ear worm single “Motivation” and the Charlie’s Angels soundtrack song “Bad To You” with Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj, followed by tracks with Megan Thee Stallion (2020’s “Diamonds”), Cardi B (2021’s “Wild Side”) and Calvin Harris (2022’s “New to You” with Tinashe and Offset).
Now, though, it is her time. As she recently told ELLE magazine about the LP that she thinks is the truest “representation of my resilience,” she promised myself, ‘If God gives me another opportunity to do things in my own way, I’m not going to take that for granted,’” she said of the collection that mixes uptempo dance songs with others that dig into her struggles during and after 5H’s split. “I think that there’s a false narrative that because of how long this process has taken, that means I don’t care, or that means I’m more interested in doing other things than putting this body of work out. Nobody wants this project to come out more than me. I think that at the end of the day, if I stand behind this wholeheartedly, it doesn’t matter what the world thinks.”
Watch the “Dopamine (First Dose)” teaser below.
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Don Toliver announced on Wednesday (May 22) that he’ll release his fourth studio album Hardstone Psycho on June 14. He also released the third single from the album, “Attitude” featuring Charlie Wilson and Cash Cobain, along with the official music video, which maintains the same leather jacket-wearing biker gang aesthetic from his previous visuals and […]