State Champ Radio R&B/Hip-Hop
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Redman revealed to Black Thought that The Roots once hurt his feelings after rejecting a guest verse he submitted for an album.
As part of Rolling Stone‘s Musicians on Musicians interview series that published Tuesday (Oct. 21), Redman was candid with Black Thought about how he was upset when The Roots — of which Black Thought is a member — never included his verse on one of their albums.
“I did a verse for The Roots, and I ain’t never tell you this,” Redman said to kick off the interview. “I did a verse for The Roots, and I ain’t never heard back from you guys. I said, ‘Damn, you know what, I was cursing a little bit too much. I might have said ‘b—h’ or something derogatory that they probably didn’t like, and yo, I was actually hurt from that, bro.’”
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Black Thought explained that the rejection was due to The Roots’ late manager Rich Nichols, who was known for being cutthroat about decisions regarding the band’s records.
“You know what happened? Rich, rest in peace, who was very much the brains of The Roots’ operation, ran such a tight ship,” Black Thought explained. “It was hard for me to place verses on The Roots’ albums. He would shoot down every submission, and there was something about that verse — something that Rich didn’t like about it. I can’t remember what it was. I’m gonna find that verse. I was over the moon! I loved that s—t.”
Thought then added that Redman would have a placement on Black Thought’s upcoming solo album, Streams of Thought Vol. 4.
“I mean, in many ways, I feel that it’s my opus,” Thought explained. “It’s got the most features, the most elaborate beats, crazy samples. A part of that is trying to get all this stuff cleared, but yeah, your verse on that song and on that record is definitely coming out.”
Check out the full conversation below.
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A trip to Honolulu might be in store for Kid Cudi, as 2008’s “Maui Wowie” debuted on the latest Billboard Hot 100 (for the week of Oct. 25) at No. 71, which comes 17 years after its initial arrival.
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A viral TikTok trend has sparked renewed interest in the A Kid Named Cudi standout, which has thousands of fans hanging from street crosswalk signs, singing along to the breezy cut.
Kid Cudi celebrated the track’s revival and chart entry on Tuesday (Oct. 21) with a post to social media.
“This is MEGA!!! Debuting #71 on the @billboard charts 17 years later,” he penned to Instagram. “This is a true example of timeless music. To all the fans who made this happen, I LOVE YOU!! Lets keep it going yall!!!”
Last week, Cudi himself joined in on the trend while dangling from a crosswalk sign in front of Progressive Field in his hometown of Cleveland. “Goin’ back to Honolulu just to get that/ That Maui Wowie, that Maui Wowie,” he crooned.
A TikTok user by the name of @aaronxbrownn has widely been credited with sparking the trend in September. “Yeeaaaaaaaaa Thank u to everyone for posting my song and havin fun and showing love!!! 17 years old and timeless,” Cudi captioned the clip of himself getting in on the viral trend, which has over 22 million views.
Last week, the track debuted at No. 24 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and hit No. 2 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100.
This is a welcome surprise for Cudi and his fans, as the Ohio native explained he’d be stepping away from music to pursue other creative endeavors for the immediate future. “It’s gonna be a while between now and the next Kid Cudi album,” he said in September. “So I wanted to leave you with a little something that could motivate you, uplift you… I made it earlier this year, just f—ing around in the studio.”
Listen to “Maui Wowie” below.
Trending on Billboard Drake is always repping for Toronto, and he celebrated in style with the Blue Jays punching their first ticket to the World Series since 1993 on Monday. The 6 God was living and dying with every pitch of game 7 as the Blue Jays won a classic behind a George Springer go-ahead […]
Trending on Billboard Ice Cube took some time to fire back at a critic of his new song, “Act My Age,” and said the troll should get a sense of humor. Cube dropped off the music video for his “Act My Age” song with Scarface on Oct. 15, and one viral post on X noted […]
Cavin Yarbrough, half of the 1980s R&B duo Yarbrough & Peoples, has died at the age of 72. The singer-musician-producer passed away on Thursday (June 19) owing to complications from heart disease. “He was the love of my life, my protector. Now he’s my guardian angel,” Yarbrough’s wife and longtime music partner, Alisa Peoples, said […]
Erykah Badu and The Alchemist are really making an album together, and their first single is finally here. Badu and the West Coast producer dropped their new song “Next to You” at midnight after she performed Badu Presents: Echos 19 in her hometown of Dallas as part of Forever in Rotation, Amazon Music’s Juneteenth celebration. […]
Jim Jones makes his case after a 22-year-old college student from New Jersey said he was influenced more by the Harlem rapper than by Nas on the Don’t Quote Me podcast.
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While stopping by the Joe and Jada podcast posted Thursday (June 19), Jimmy discussed the viral video. “I admired Nas,” Jones admitted. “When it came to dressin’, the wordplay, the music, everything. I was a superior Nas fan, period. I’ll never take that away from him.”
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However, once Jones became a professional rapper and found himself on the frontlines of the Jay-Z and Nas beef when the Diplomats were signed to Roc-A-Fella during the early 2000s, the rapper he once looked up to became an adversary. “But then, as I got in the game, you gotta realize, your idols become rivals,” he said, “Not to take away anything from that. I developed my own style and my own lane that these kids started to gravitate towards to, the same way I gravitated towards Nas when I younger.”
Jadakiss pushed back a bit on that claim, though, and said his son is around the same age and is aware of Nas’ impact on the genre, but Jim brushed it off, attributing it to him being around Jada. “He’s your son,” he retorted. “My son can’t tell you one Nas record. Let’s keep it a buck here. There must be some type of misconception when it comes to Jim Jones and what Jim Jones has done in this game. A lot of these rappers have done a tremendous job. And I take nothing away from them. But they forget, I got a helluva catalog. Gold records, platinum records. Gold albums, platinum albums … Check my track record. Then check everybody else track record.”
“I’m not taking anything away from nobody,” Jones adds. “But I hear the comparisons. N—as be trying to act funny. No, I been spanking a lot of this s–t. I’m talking about the industry. I been putting on … If you want to go to the Billboard entries, pull up Nas’ Billboard entries and pull up my Billboard entries.”
For the record, Jim Jones has two songs (“We Fly High” and “Pop Champagne”) in his catalog that have hit the Billboard Hot 100 with one top 10 hit and no No. 1s. Nas, on the other hand, has 27 songs that reached the Hot 100 with two top 10 hits while also having no No. 1s.
When it comes to albums, Jim has nine entried in the Billboard 200 with three top 10 albums and no No. 1s, while Nas has 27 entries, 16 top 10 albums, and six that have reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
You can watch the full episode below.
Public Enemy has new rhymes designed to fill your mind. The iconic hip-hop group dropped new protest song “March Madness” in honor of Juneteenth on Thursday (June 19).
“PUBLIC ENEMY IS STILL FIGHTING THE POWER,” Flavor Flav wrote in a statement posted to X that day before noting how President Joe Biden signed the national holiday into law on June 19, 2021, and that 160 years have passed since the Confederates surrendered in the Civil War in 1865. “But it feels like we are on the brink of something similar with ongoing efforts to dismantle diversity equity and inclusion. We don’t want what’s going on in Israel vs Palestine and now Iran. We don’t want what’s going on Ukraine vs Russia,” he continued. “I hate war. I hate what’s going on around the world and in US. We are supposed to be THE UNITED STATES and war ain’t about Unity. We have our rights and can use them while we still have them. I have this platform and will use it will I still have it.”
Flav then went on to share that the song was a collaboration with students from three universities. “It was an honor to work with the students from Harvard, Berklee, and Howard Universities to create a protest anthem about important issues we are facing as human beings right now,” he wrote before ending with, “MARCH ON,!!”
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The ominous “March Madness” kicks off with audio from a 911 call, with the operator asking if the caller is still hearing shots, with a newscaster then reporting, “You hear the teacher asking for helpAs she also tries to keep her students calm.”
“Now I’m America’s nightmare/ A debonaire black millionaire/ Checking these crooked politicians who ain’t playing fair/ Shut up! Too much talk/ We know you don’t care,” Flav begins in verse one before throwing in one of his famous “Yeaaaah boys.” He goes on to rhyme: “911 is still a jokе/ So no, motherf–ka, you ain’t getting my vote.”
Chuck D comes in on the second verse with a scathing commentary on the numerous school shootings that have taken place in the United States in recent years. “Trigger happy, hi, I wanna ask a question/ Does a gun need to be in a school to teach or nones?/ Kids supposed to have fun, none of this ‘Run for cover for your life, son,’” he raps before blasting lawmakers for “acting scared off the NRA.”
He also addressed the issue in a separate statement. “Gun violence is not normal behavior, but it’s been going on for so long that it’s normalized,” Chuck D said. “We need to treat it like the sickness and the epidemic that it is.”
The Grammy-nominated group is currently on a world tour, which kicked off earlier in June in Florence, Italy. Public Enemy will also be the support act for Guns n’ Roses on several of the rock band’s European tour dates this summer.
Listen to “March Madness” and see Flav’s full statement below:
PUBLIC ENEMY IS STILL FIGHTING THE POWER ✊🏾Today is Juneteenth.It became a federally recognized holiday on June 19, 2021 signed into law by The President. This was only 4 years ago and 160 years since the confederation surrendered during the civil war. But it feels like we… pic.twitter.com/N9AysjcI2S— FLAVOR FLAV (@FlavorFlav) June 19, 2025
When JayDon springs into the Billboard offices in late May, there’s an unmistakable bounce in his step. At just 17, the wiry triple-threat appears taller than expected — his spry frame helping explain the explosive dance moves that have the R&B world buzzing. As soon as the elevator doors part, he launches into performance mode. With no mic and zero hesitation, he starts crooning with such clarity and control that his voice slices through the office walls, prompting staffers to pop their heads out and ask, “Who’s that?”
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That kind of chutzpah is what landed JayDon a coveted spot with Mega, the newly minted label helmed by L.A. Reid and Usher.
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“Being with Mega — L.A. Reid, Usher, and that whole camp — helped me develop as an artist substantially,” JayDon tells Billboard weeks later during his June Rookie of the Month interview. “I’ve learned the ins and outs of stardom — what to look for, what to pay attention to, and studio etiquette. That was my first time being in the studio every day, back-to-back-to-back for months. Like six months straight. Twelve to fifteen hours a day. From two to four A.M., just singing a lot of songs.”
Now, JayDon has the R&B sphere abuzz with his undeniable skill set. Drenched in ’90s and early-2000s R&B nostalgia, tracks like “I’ll Be Good” and “Lullaby” have both Gen Z fans and millennials swooning. And when he’s not melting hearts with buttery vocals, it’s his hypnotic dance moves — reminiscent of a young Chris Brown or Omarion — that are filling timelines and turning heads.
“I still want to be authentic and brand new at the same time,” he says. “As I keep going forward, I can’t stop. I want to be the best version of me –and keep doing what I’ve always dreamed of doing.”
Today (June 20), JayDon keeps the momentum going with the release of “Bougie Baby,” a fast-paced collaboration with social media standout Zeddy Will. The track marks a stylistic shift, showcasing Jaydon’s ability to push the tempo without losing his soulful edge.
Check out our conversation with June’s R&B Rookie of the Month, JayDon, below.
Do you remember when you wrote your first song?
On the writing side, I was 12 years old. I really got into it 12, 13. The summer of last year, I ended up being with Mega and working with different writers — being in the studio everyday. That’s what got my pen working. [The first song I wrote] was called “Text You.” Shout-out my cousin Chuck Heat. He’s a producer, writer, overall musician — dope.
My own family does music. I got a beat from Chuck Heat and you know, I been recording music since I was eight years old, but this was my first time actually sitting down by myself with my phone. I used to write in my notebook — I have it somewhere — and I wrote the whole song. I was inspired by by [starts singing “Girlfriend” by Heavyweight]. I wanted to make a song like that or [starts singing “Jennifer” by Trinidad Cardona]. This was 2020 and that’s when the songs were resurfacing. I wanted a song like that. Real R&B smooth. It’s actually dope. I still listen to it to this day.
When did your family first discover that you had a talent for music?
About six years old. I was already dancing. My family doesn’t really dance. My grandpa taught me how to do Michael Jackson [moves] and everything like that. Him and my Uncle Robert. They showed me a little bit of how to dance. That was kind of it. Around that time, I was learning how to dance like Chris Brown. I was teaching myself things. They saw that I really wanted it. That’s what it was. They were already molding me to be a singer and a musician because I already had music around me. It’s a family thing, but when it comes to the entertainment, that’s when they were like, “He wants it.”
You’re morphing into this incredible triple-threat in real-time with being a singer, dancer and actor. How would you rank your talents from top-to-bottom?
My talents? What would I rank from top-to-bottom [laughs]? Why can’t they all just be at the top?
I’m not mad at that. Talk your sh-t.
Right now, I’m dialed in on the music. So, of course, that’s my forefront, but I’m an entertainer and artist of all realms.
Cats from your generation don’t dance like how they used to back in my day. How important was it for you to incorporate the choreography into what you’re doing on the music side, especially in something like your “I’ll Be Good” music video?
Man, I just want to show what I’m already am: dancing, being fun and doing it all in a way that I love. Every with all the movies that I’ve been in, I’ve been able to dance and sing or [solely] sing in ’em. So I love tying everything into one knot and definitely being able to show that in “I’ll Be Good” was the goal.
The video was giving Step Up and Save The Last Dance vibes with how heavily involved the dancing elements were. Was that intentional?
Absolutely! With all my videos, I wanna do something different.
Whether it’s “I’ll Be Good” or “Lullaby,” your music has some ’90s and ’00s influence to it. How important was it sonically to include that kind of music into your foundation?
It’s already an authentic thing for me. There’s some other artists that I’ve seen out here trying to purposefully attach their name to that like, “I’m a ’90s R&B artist from today.” They’re trying to do that. That’s definitely a piece of my music and what I want to bring to the table, but that’s just who I am. I feel like if you put me back in time, I’d belong there. It’s a natural thing for me.
The first comment I saw when watching “I’ll Be Good” was along the lines of “this guy is a fusion of Chris Brown, Mario and Omarion.” As you continue to build your artistry, how often do you look into some of your R&B heroes and try to infuse them into your style?
I’m not gonna act like I’m not inspired, man. I’m inspired by so many different artists, different times. From back in the day to old school R&B to the founders of it like Sam Cooke and Donnie Hathaway to all the way to Chris Brown, Usher and Miguel. Different artists, man. I love to study. I definitely take pieces from everybody. So if you see a move and it looks like it was for Chris Brown, it probably was.
“I’ll Be Good” samples Usher’s “How Do I Say.” Was there hesitation on your end to sample a record like that knowing that your boss made it?
Man, shout-out Sweata. He produced the track and everything. He wrote it with me. Great, amazing writer. Y’all go check him out. He’s also signed to Mega. It just felt right for that type of vibe that we was on that day being in the studio. We just wanted to capture something [good]. It was actually his idea. He came to me with the track and played it for me and everything. He said, ‘Let’s go for this feel’ and we wrote it together. It definitely combined well.
What was Usher’s reaction to the record when he first heard it?
He loved it, man. I never played it for him in person, but I’ve seen some of his reactions. I’ve talked to him and everything. He loves it and I appreciate him for blessing me with the sample.
Let’s pivot to the acting. You were in The Paynes and played Simba in the Lion King. How did acting better prepare you for the music world?
[Learning] to be comfortable in front of a camera. Definitely that. Being able to connect and when you’re shooting music videos or preparing yourself for that. Being an actor and having experience with that, it definitely helps to put that emotion in your face and show what you’re singing about. I feel like I’m already a little developed there.
We’re seeing a lot more double-threats from the acting and music side like Coco Jones and Chloe Bailey. Do you plan to further pursue acting as you continue to step into music?
Absolutely. Right now, my launch pad and my focus is on the music and everything that I have coming forward. It’s definitely that, but I’ll never let go of acting, man. I really want to pick it up [again]. I don’t wanna put no time-stamp or limitations, but I love acting, man. If the role is right, if the time is right, I’ll be there.
You have a great relationship with your dad. How do you maintain that father-son bond and keep it sacred without stardom getting in the way?
Man, you trying to hype my head up. I ain’t even famous like that yet. [Laughs.]
I know you go outside and the girls see you.
I do get spotted, though. That’s really the crazy part. When I was in New York, there was a bunch of people [coming up to me]. But the relationship between me and my dad, it’s more brotherly, honestly. That’s my dog. Whatever I go through, he’s gonna understand me. He wants to see me win. There’s nothing that’s going to come between us.
Do we have a tape dropping?
The tape is coming. Got an EP on the way. Y’all keep y’all eyes peeled.
Do we have a name and date?
I’m thinking Me, My Songs and I. I wanna name my album Jaydon. When I come with an album, I do want it to be self-titled. This one, I think it just represents what it is: It’s Me, My Songs and I. It’s my spirit in music.
Cardi B is back. The Bronx bombshell returned on Friday (June 20) with her thumping “Outside” single, as she’s ready to take over the summer. Cardi announced plans for the song on Tuesday (June 17). “We OUTSIDE this Friday,” she wrote on Instagram, which sent the Bardi Gang into a frenzy. She also unveiled the […]
