R&B/Hip-Hop
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Usher pulls back the curtain on the intense prep he did for his 2024 Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII halftime show in a new mini-doc that dropped over the weekend. The nearly 11-minute black and white film was shot entirely on an iPhone 15 Pro by director Mike Carson. “I think everybody is blessed with […]
Nas, Jill Scott and Lil Wayne will headline the 2024 Roots Picnic. The June 1-2 annual throw down in The Mann in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia will feature Weezy celebrating the music of his hometown of New Orleans with Trombone Shorty and PJ Morton, as well as other superstar collaborations, including the Roots’ Black Thought […]
Beyoncé was ready for her renaissance back in 2013 when she chopped off her long locks for a stylish pixie cut, and now, she’s explaining why she made the major hair transformation at the time. “I remember the day I decided to just cut all my hair off. I didn’t have a particular style in […]
Usher may have taken some heat from spectators for getting cozy with Alicia Keys during his 2024 Super Bowl Halftime Show on Feb. 11, but while he has no apologies for that moment, he does want to walk back something else he did on stage a decade earlier.
While chatting with Charlamagne Tha God and Jess Hilarious on a previously recorded interview that aired during The Breakfast Club on Monday (Feb. 19), the eight-time Grammy winner reflected on a moment from his 2014 MTV Video Music Awards performance alongside Nicki Minaj, during which he got a little handsy at one point. “Have you seen some of your old moments, like when you were on stage with Nicki Minaj and you were headbuttin’ her a–? Why was you so unhinged?” host Charlamagne asked him of the performance, which also included Usher slapping the “Super Freaky Girl” rapper’s bottom.
At first, the “Burn” crooner tried to explain and laugh it off a little. “Absolutely! That was Jamaican culture! So you gotta go to Jamaica. That was just a moment that was fun,” Usher — who just released his ninth studio album, Coming Home, days before the Super Bowl — said of the island nation’s dance culture. “By the way, it was me playing my bass, so I probably would’ve bumped my shoulder or my hand, but I had my bass in my hand and I was playing, so I kind of bopped off her body a little bit. If you go back and look at the video, you’ll understand because I did it there for the first time.”
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During the pair’s performance of their 2014 collab “She Came to Give It to You,” the crooner is down on one knee playing his guitar as he bumps his shoulder and his head against Minaj’s backside to the beat before getting up and spanking her behind.
“Oh no it was on beat and everything!” Charlamagne marveled as he reflected on the performance. “It was on beat, and I was like, ‘D–n!’”
“I think I was reaching a bit when I smacked her, though,” Usher admitted. “I shouldn’t have smacked her. I shouldn’t have did that.”
Jess then chimed in, throwing it back to how Usher had earlier in the interview talked about supporting fellow Black artists, “See, you gotta lift her up!”
Replied the crooner, “I was lifting!”
Watch Usher discuss his 2014 VMAs performance on The Breakfast Club below:
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It’s work work work work work for Rihanna — according to A$AP Rocky. The “Babushka Boi” rapper was out and about in Paris recently when fans asked him for an update on the singer’s highly anticipated next album. In a video shared on X, fans are snapping photos of the Grammy-nominated rapper when one asks […]
When Drake first debuted at No. 92 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated May 23, 2009 with breakthrough hit “Best I Ever Had,” few could’ve guessed that it would mark the start of one of the successful careers the chart has ever seen. But a little over a decade and a handful of historic chart runs later, the artist born Aubrey Graham has again etched his name in the Billboard record books — as the artist with the most hits in the Hot 100’s 60-plus-year lifespan.
As if that wasn’t enough, “First Person Shooter,” Drake’s blockbuster collaboration with J. Cole from his For All The Dogs album topped the Hot 100 on October 21, 2023. The accolade gave the OVO head honcho the same amount of number ones as the legendary Michael Jackson. It’s a feat many thought would never be topped, but Drake’s career has been a showcase of broken records.
Of course, with Drake’s chart ascent coinciding with the rise of streaming, it’s not like all 328 of these songs were “Drake hits,” at least in the old-fashioned, single-oriented sense. The majority of these entries are album cuts that charted along with the rest of their parent sets, while featured appearances that Drake lent to trusted collaborators like Rick Ross, DJ Khaled, Future, and (of course) Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne over the years are equally numerous.
Yet despite the staggering number of entries Drake has notched on the Hot 100 over his chart run — an average of nearly 20 a year since his mid-2009 chart debut — the rapper’s entire catalog is hardly represented here. Missing of course is anything from pre-fame mixtapes Room For Improvement or Comeback Season, along with such early fan favorites as “Houstatlantavegas,” “Fear,” “Karaoke,” “Lord Knows,” “The Ride” and “Draft Day.” (Also worth noting that despite prominently featuring Aubrey, Travis Scott’s Hot 100-topping “SICKO MODE” does not technically list him on its official artist credit, nor does Young Money’s No. 2-peaking crew cut “BedRock” — thus neither is included here.)
Still, the great majority of the singer-rapper’s best-known work can be found here, spanning from his first pop breakthroughs to his diaristic deep cuts to his harder mixtape tracks to his meme-courting later smashes. Read on below and see how we rank an already unprecedented chart run — one that, by all indications, is still far from over.
“Charged Up” (Hot 100 Peak: No. 78, Date of Peak: 8/22/15)
Usher lands his fifth No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Feb. 24) as his new studio album, Coming Home, arrives atop the list. The set sold 53,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 15, according to Luminate. Usher previously topped the list with Looking 4 Myself (in 2012), Raymond V Raymond (2010), Here I Stand (2008) and Confessions (2004).
Elsewhere in the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart, the latest albums from P1Harmony, Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign, and iTZY arrive.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. The new Feb. 24, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Feb. 21, one day later than usual, owed to the Presidents’ Day holiday in the U.S. on Feb. 19. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
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Of Coming Home’s 53,000 copies sold, digital sales comprise 47,500 and physical sales comprise 5,500 (4,000 on CD and 1,500 on vinyl). Its start marks the largest sales week for an R&B album in more than four years, since Lionel Richie’s live set Hello From Las Vegas sold 65,000 copies in its first week (on the list dated Aug. 31, 2019). Richie’s first-week sales were boosted by a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer. Ticket/album bundles ceased to count toward chart sales as of Oct. 9, 2020. (R&B albums are defined as those that have charted on Billboard’s Top R&B Albums chart.)
Coming Home was available to purchase in its first week as a standard digital download, a standard CD, five different vinyl variants, two deluxe boxed sets and a deluxe digital album with a bonus track and alternative cover art. The latter was promoted as a SKIMS exclusive (alongside Usher’s new starring role in a SKIMS campaign) and sold for a limited time via SKIMS’ official store and Usher’s own webstore. Both versions of the digital album were deeply discounted during the set’s opening week.
Coming Home was released on Feb. 9, two days before Usher took the stage as the 2024 Super Bowl halftime headliner. The 2024 Super Bowl was the most-watched broadcast in American TV history, with 123.4 million viewers across CBS and the game’s simulcasts across Nickelodeon, Univision, Paramount+ and other digital platforms. Usher didn’t perform any material from the new album during the halftime show, focusing instead on familiar favorites from the past, such as “My Boo” (with Alicia Keys), “U Got It Bad” (with H.E.R.) “OMG” (with Will.i.am) and the show-closing “Yeah!” (with Lil Jon and Ludacris).
P1Harmony’s Killin’ It debuts at No. 2 on Top Album Sales with 18,000 copies sold – nearly all from CD sales. Like many K-pop projects, the set was issued in collectible CD packages, 16 in total, each containing branded merchandise and randomized elements. It’s the best sales week for P1Harmony, its highest-charting effort, and second top 10.
Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) and Ty Dolla $ign’s collaborative album Vultures 1 starts at No. 3 with 18,000 sold – all from digital downloads.
Vultures 1, released on Feb. 10, was initially only available to purchase as a digital download. The original 16-track set sold through leading digital retailers, as well as Ye’s own official webstore. Physical versions of the album on CD and vinyl are expected to be released at a later date, and Ye’s store is accepting pre-orders for both presently. The set’s first-week sales were boosted by aggressive sale pricing. Vultures 1 is the 12th top 10 for Ye and first for Ty.
Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) falls 1-4 with 15,000 copies sold (though up 28%).
iTZY’s Born to Be bows at No. 5 with 14,000 copies sold, largely from CD sales. It’s the fifth top 10-charting effort for the Korean pop act. As is customary for many K-pop project, the album was available in multiple collectible CD editions – 10 in total – all containing branded merchandise with randomized elements.
Swift has three more albums in the top 10, as Lover falls 3-6 (12,000; up 13%), Midnights dips 2-7 (11,000; down less than 1%) and Folklore rises 10-8 (9,000; up 57%). Toby Keith’s 35 Biggest Hits drops 4-9 with 7,000 sold (down 35%) and Noah Kahan’s Stick Season climbs 14-10 with nearly 7,000 (up 48%) following its deluxe reissue on Feb. 9 with additional tracks.
In the week ending Feb. 15, there were 1.258 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 7.8% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 906,000 (up 9.3%) and digital albums comprised 353,000 (up 4%).
There were 435,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Feb. 15 (up 11.3% week-over-week) and 467,000 vinyl albums sold (up 7.7%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 2.933 million (down 31.5% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 3.314 million (down 46.7%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 8.341 million (down 35.5% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 6.279 million (down 40.5%) and digital album sales total 2.062 million (down 12.7%).
A star-studded group chat filled with NBA ballers and rappers provided the genesis for a cross-industry collaboration between Stalley and Kevin Durant.
The Phoenix Suns All-Star temporarily traded in his buttery jump shot for a microphone as he teams up with the Blue Collar Gang rapper for the thumping “Scared Money,” which hit streaming services on Friday (Feb. 16).
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“One day we was talking and he was like, ‘Yo bro, send me a record to hop on,’” Stalley recalls being surprised to hear Durant was hungry to put his rhyming chops to the test late last summer.
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The Ohio-bred rapper listened to some unreleased Durant songs through a mutual friend to get acclimated with the EasyMoneySniper’s flow. Then it clicked in Stalley’s head to send over what became the beat for “Scared Money,” filled with bristling drums growling behind starry production.
“I had that sitting not for long [because] I was working on my album,” Stalley says. “I had just put the hook and verse on it and there was an open verse. I’m like, ‘I’ma send it to him and see what he thinks.’”
Much to the shock of Stalley, KD’s turnaround time was quicker than his release behind the three-point line. “He sent it right back,” Stall adds. “[Durant] sent it back faster than some rappers.”
Durant’s introspective bars find him comparing himself to the enigmatic NFL icon Randy Moss and paying tribute to his grandma, who passed away in Feb. 2022. He waxes poetic about his status among the NBA’s legends, while still displaying his hunger for more: “In this hoop world I’m Freddie, Jason/ I’m sitting in the places of greats but never complacent.”
The former NBA MVP isn’t exactly foreign to the rap world, as he’s had verses floating around dating back to the 2011 NBA lockout.
Drake also tapped KD to serve as an executive producer on his For All the Dogs project, as well as its Scary Hours reissue edition. Lil Wayne recently called Durant a “jewel” and a “backpack” rapper, while revealing they have a collaboration that the New Orleans legend is contemplating putting on Tha Carter VI.
As for Stalley, the 41-year-old was extremely impressed with Kevin Durant’s lyrical talents and thinks listeners will be “really shocked” in a good way after pressing play.
“You can tell he’s spent time finding his voice and comfortability while creating,” Stalley salutes Durant. “I didn’t want it to feel like we just jumped on a beat and started rapping. I wanted it to feel like a complete record. I wanted us to complement each other. It wasn’t about trying to out-rap somebody.”
Don’t expect this to be the last time Stalley and KD join forces on wax, as the former MMG rapper predicts they’ll have more records down the line — and even teases the possibility of a joint project.
“We been talking and possibly been shooting some ideas about maybe doing a collab project,” Stalley admits. “Finding a dope producer to produce maybe an EP with us. We definitely been having those conversations. We definitely will have more records that will drop.”
“Scared Money” serves as a single to provide momentum for Stalley to ride into his next album, titled Peerless, which will arrive at some point in mid-to-late March via his independent label.
Stalley hopes people seeing him work with Durant “inspires more athletes to make music.” “I’m hoping this gives them the confidence and excitement to step into the music,” the rapper states. “I’m all for people doing everything and expressing themselves.”
He circles back to credit the “brotherhood” formed in his group chat for ultimately leading to the collaboration with the two-time NBA Finals MVP. “Without us, maybe, speaking every day, this would have never happened,” Stalley admits.
Watch the “Scared Money” video and stream the single below.
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Gunna kicked off the year on a pensive note, looking inward with his first single of 2024 titled “Bittersweet.”
After teasing the icy record, which many thought to initially be a freestyle on social media earlier this week, the YSL rapper dropped his first single of the year to streaming services on Friday (Feb. 16).
Gunna doesn’t mince words coming out of the gate, as he possibly addresses his fallout with Lil Baby as his Drip Harder partner has repeatedly criticized Gunna for taking a plea deal in the YSL RICO case in 2022.
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“S–t been rough, but I ain’t too tough to say I love and I miss you/ You my dawg, I don’t care if we fall out, n—a, I never could diss you/ For the chains and the fame, only we seen the vision/ Bout my name, let it bang, goin’ out with my pistol/ Got me a taste of this fame, it was sweet, now it’s bitter,” he raps.
Even after all they’ve been through and still with some of the YSL members’ fates hanging in the balance, Gunna hopes to eventually reunite the crew.
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“My fans coming through for me, you think they entitled/ Thinking bout the crew again, could we reunite ’em/ As show they hate before they do something positive/ N—-s just want you to fade away and hope that you forgot ’em.”
Gunna unleashed a frosty accompanying visual for the Working on Dying-produced single. The Spike Jordan-directed clip finds the “Fukumean” rapper trudging through the blizzard conditions surrounding his snow-lodge property.
After showing off his flashy designer winter fits, Gunna changes into his gym gear for some boxing training in a testament to his discipline and hard work leading to his body transformation.
Gunna is gearing up to drop his A Gift & A Curse follow-up album later this year, and he’s teasing more “substance” on his records and is expected to tap into some Afrobeat sonics.
Watch the “Bittersweet” video above.
Bow Wow has opened up about his former lean addiction, which led to him being hospitalized at one point.
Lean, according to the National Institutes of Health, is a combination of codeine and promethazine that is also known as “sizzurp.”
The Like Mike star recently appeared on The Art of Dialogue, where he opened up about his addiction and what forced him to eventually get clean after seeing the stranglehold lean had on his life circa 2007.
“I was sipping lean,” he said. “I was sipping so much syrup. I said this after Mac Miller died. I spoke on this s–t. I was drinking that s–t like crazy. If you go back and watch The Road to Platinum series on BET, you’ll see so many white Styrofoam cups. I was losing my f–ing mind. That lean s–t had me f—ed up. I was just always irritated.”
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Bow Wow reached a point of no return and knew something had to change after collapsing on stage one night while touring with Chris Brown.
“We were on our tour, I was co-headlining with Chris Brown, and the opening night was in Cincinnati and when I got off stage, I collapsed,” he recalled. “I went straight to Cincinnati University Hospital. My stomach was so f–ked up that I ended up going back home to Atlanta after the first show.”
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Bow continued: “I’m sitting in the hospital not knowing what the f–k going on, and I get back home and the s–t gets worse. I’m throwing up, I’m shivering in the bed, I’m sweating, I’m going through it. I didn’t know I was having withdrawals. That’s how much lean I was consuming.”
He credited his former publicist for making up an excuse of dehydration for the reason behind him dropping out of the tour when it was really because of lean.
“I had the best publicist ever, Pattie Webster,” he added. “She put out a press release [saying I dropped out] for dehydration. Wasn’t no dehydration — I was f—ed up off lean … That’s just good PR. We didn’t want the world to know that 18, 19-year-old Bow was heavy on the drank.”
Bow Wow and Soulja Boy ruminated about their days pouring up “Lean” on a track from their 2016 joint project Ignorant S–t, named after the “purple drank.” “This my first time f–king with that DJ Screw/ I can’t even stay awake, that’s what that lean will do/ Pour it out that baby bottle right into that juice/ If I take another sip of it, I am through,” Bow raps.
Watch the clip of Bow Wow detailing his lean addiction below.
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If you or anyone you know is struggling with substance abuse, reach out to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration for free and confidential support 24/7. You can also call the national helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).