R&B/Hip-Hop
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Drake got his folks in the frame in his hometown for the first time in more than a decade over the weekend. In a rare Graham fam snap, Drake posted an image to his Instagram Story featuring his meme-tastic mustachioed dad, Dennis Graham, standing next to the rapper’s beloved mother, Sandi. The exes were both, […]
Diddy will not be attending the 2024 Grammy Awards on Feb. 4, despite his nomination for best progressive R&B album for his The Love Album: Off the Grid, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The news comes amid a series of sexual assault accusations against the musician and entrepreneur. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news […]
RodeoHouston’s 2024 lineup is set to once again showcase some of the loftiest talents in a range of genres, including rock, rap, country, Latin, Christian and more.
Jelly Roll, Blake Shelton, 50 Cent, the Jonas Brothers, Lainey Wilson, Eric Church, Los Tigres del Norte and for King & Country are a few of the artists slated to headline when RodeoHouston gets underway at Houston’s NRG Stadium from Feb. 27 through March 17.
“The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is proud to bring such a wide range of musical genres to the RodeoHouston stage,” said Chris Boleman, Rodeo president and CEO, in a statement. “We’re welcoming 10 new entertainers who will make their debut on the star stage, as well as many fan-favorites from a variety of genres from our country roots, to EDM and hip-hop.”
Among the newcomers to this year’s RodeoHouston stage are Carly Pearce, Oliver Anthony, 50 Cent, HARDY, current CMA new artist of the year winner Jelly Roll, reigning CMA entertainer of the year Lainey Wilson, “Rich Men North of Richmond” singer Oliver Anthony Music, Ivan Cornejo, Nickelback and Whiskey Myer.
These artists further add to RodeoHouston’s nearly 100-year legacy, in which time the rodeo has committed more than $600 million to aid education and youth-focused efforts in Texas. Each year, RodeoHouston draws more than 2 million people to its mix of rodeo/Western activities, musical performances and carnival midway.
Tickets go on sale at rodeohouston.com on Thursday, Jan. 18, in two waves — at 10 a.m. and2 p.m.
See the lineup of performers below:
Feb. 27 – Opening Day, presented by Texas Capital – Blake Shelton
Feb. 28 – Armed Forces Appreciation Day, presented by Crown Royal – Carly Pearce
Feb. 29 – for KING + COUNTRY
March 1 – Black Heritage Day, presented by Kroger – 50 Cent
March 2 -HARDY
March 3 – Ivan Cornejo
March 4 – First Responders Day, presented by BP America – Hank Williams Jr.
March 5 -Oliver Anthony
March 6 – Community Day, presented by TC Energy – Jelly Roll
March 7 – Volunteer Appreciation Day, presented by Phillips 66 – Luke Bryan
March 8 -Major Lazer
March 9 -Lainey Wilson
March 10 – Go Tejano Day, presented by Fiesta Mart – Los Tigres del Norte
March 11 -Whiskey Myers
March 12 -Bun B
March 13 -Nickelback
March 14 – Zac Brown Band
March 15 – Jonas Brothers
March 16 – Brad Paisley
March 17 – RODEOHOUSTON Finals – Eric Church
He’s pole-danced to hell, he’s broken out of prison and he’s even eloped with his football-playing boyfriend. Now, Lil Nas X is ready to strut his way through the Pearly Gates.
On Friday (Jan. 12), the rapper shared his much-hyped music video for “J CHRIST,” taking the Biblical title to its furthest extent. The clip opens with a series of celebrity lookalikes — ranging from Taylor Swift to Kanye West to a moonwalking Michael Jackson — as they climb the stairway to heaven. Upon arrival, they’re greeted at the entrance by a dragged-up Lil Nas X, declaring he’s reading to “walk up in the club poppin’ s–t like it was Doublemint.”
The video — directed by Lil Nas X himself — then proceeds to show a series of callbacks to his hellish video for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” showing the oft-discussed pole to hell and a demonic Lil Nas X stirring a cauldron of arms and legs. Flying back up to heaven, Lil Nas reunites with his former flame the Devil, this time in a one-on-one basketball game where the rapper soars over his head, dunks the ball, and celebrates with a personalized cheerleading routine.
For the remainder of the video, fans are treated to a host of Biblical vignettes — Jesus’ crucifixion, Nabal shearing David’s sheep, Moses parting the Red Sea — before the rapper transforms into Noah, ushering the denizens of Earth onto a massive ark to survive the flooding of the world. “Back up out the gravesite/ B—h, I’m back like J Christ,” he declares over a pounding beat. “I’m finna get the gays hype/ I’m finna take it yay high.”
As a storm subsides and Nas’ Noah survives, the screen declares that this is “Day Zero” of “a new beginning,” sharing a quote from 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
The “J CHRIST” video comes after Lil Nas X spent much of the week promoting his single the best way he knows how — trolling. Whether he was posting a fake acceptance letter to Liberty University or declaring that his new music would be released independently, the singer made sure that his name was on everyone’s lips throughout the week.
Check out the official video for “J CHRIST” below:
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Take that, rewind it back, Usher is about to make the Super Bowl go smack! This year’s Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show star dropped the trailer for what promises to be a super-hype game break on Friday morning (Jan. 12).
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The first look at what Usher has in store came via a one-minute hype video taking viewers on a kaleidoscopic trip through 30 years of Ush. It opens with a gospel choir singing “Peace Up,” as various other fans second that emotion over a church organ and the choir adds “A-town down” in a tribute to the clip’s soundtrack song: 2004’s smash with Lil Jon and Ludacris, “Yeah!”
After a woman says “take that and rewind it back,” the camera rolls into the past to 1998, after Usher’s second album, 1997’s My Way, blew the singer up into a global superstar thanks to such hits as “You Make Me Wanna…” and “Nice & Slow.” The clip even includes some old video of a pre-fame, teenage, babyfaced Usher smiling in the studio as a group of double-dutching girls reveal that “Yeah!” is their favorite song.
The song that topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 12 consecutive weeks in 2004 bubbles up and gets reworked by a marching band, subway flutist, teenage string quartet, late night diner beatbox crew, pianist and pal J Balvin — who recreates the famous oven door meme — amid footage of Ush killing it on stage. Another friend, BTS singer and “Standing Next To You” collaborator Jung Kook makes a brief cameo, along with NBA superstar LeBron James, who also can’t help singing along to the hit’s indelible chorus.
The clip ends with Usher, 45, standing against a red background wearing shades and an open-to-the-navel shirt black shirt and matching gloves as he swings his signature U pendant around his neck framed by the words “One performance. 30 years in the making.”
Usher announced he was taking on the iconic gig in September, saying in a statement, “It’s an honor of a lifetime to finally check a Super Bowl performance off my bucket list. I can’t wait to bring the world a show unlike anything else they’ve seen from me before. Thank you to the fans and everyone who made this opportunity happen. I’ll see you real soon.”
The inaugural Apple Music-sponsored Super Bowl Halftime Show took place last year with Rihanna setting new viewership records as she unveiled her second pregnancy during a performance. Usher will bring his hits to the stage in Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium for this year’s game on Feb. 11 as he gets ready to release his upcoming ninth studio album, Coming Home, on Feb. 9. The big game will air live on CBS and stream live on Paramount+, NFL+ and Vix.
Watch the Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show preview below.
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21 Savage turns the dream into reality by unleashing American Dream (via Slaughter Gang and Epic Records), his first solo studio album in nearly six years.
Dropping at the stroke of midnight, Savage’s third set features a dreamy lineup of collaborators, including Brent Faiyaz, Summer Walker, Travis Scott, Young Thug, Lil Durk and Mariah the Scientist.
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In a novel campaign for the LP, the Atlanta, GA-based British-American rapper revealed his guest artists ahead of release by sharing their baby pictures on his Instagram.
Fifteen tracks in total, American Dream was announced earlier in the week, and is said to serve as the soundtrack for 21 Savage’s debut film American Dream: The 21 Savage Story, for which he unveiled a trailer on Monday (Jan. 8).
American Dream is the followup to his 2018 sophomore album I Am > I Was, which earned the hip-hop artist his first Billboard 200 No. 1 album and was nominated for best rap album at the 2020 Grammy Awards. Its hit single “A Lot,” featuring J. Cole, won the Grammy that year for best rap song.
Then, in 2020, Savage Mode II with Metro Boomin went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Another collaborative project, Her Loss, recorded with Drake, bowed at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart in 2022, for his third leader. In December of that year, the state of Georgia recognized Dec. 21 as 21 Savage Day in recognition of his philanthropic efforts, which include his foundation Leading by Example, established in 2018 to provide financial literacy education to underserved youth nationwide providing thousands of scholarships, access to bank accounts and job placement for youths and more.
Directed by Donald Glover, American Dream: The 21 Savage Story rolls out in theaters on Independence Day 2024. Savage’s live commitments this year include spots on the U.K.’s Reading and Leeds Festivals.
Stream American Dream in full below.
After going to hell and back (literally) during his last album cycle, rapper and pop provocateur Lil Nas X is ready to walk through the Pearly Gates.
On Friday (Jan. 12), the singer unveiled his long-awaited new single “J CHRIST,” a pounding pop-rap track that sees the “Call Me By Your Name” singer reveling in his own comeback — much like the “MAN WHO HAD THE GREATEST COMEBACK OF ALL TIME” Jesus Christ, as Lil Nas X described him.
Lil Nas X wrote and directed the official music video, which arrived at midnight and features the artist in various roles — playing hoops, as a cheerleader, in the gladiatorial ring, and strapped to the cross.
“Is he up to somethin’ only I-I know?/ Is he ’bout to hit ’em with the high-igh note/ Is he ’bout to give ’em something vi-iral,” he sings on the slick chorus, before later declaring that “B—h, I’m back like J Christ.”
“J CHRIST” marks Lil Nas X’s first official release in over a year — his last release, the League of Legends collaborative anthem “Star Walkin’,” released in September 2022.
The release comes on the heels of a major marketing push from the “Industry Baby” singer, who spent much of the week promoting the single through a series of viral posts. In one string of TikToks, Lil Nas X joked that he was releasing new gospel music independently, while threatening to “expose y’all favorite artists” with his new song. An Instagram post, meanwhile, saw the singer post a fake acceptance letter to Christian college Liberty University, telling his followers that “not everything is a troll” (representatives for the university have since said that they did not admit Lil Nas X for the fall 2024 semester).
The rapper drew intense criticism in the run-up to releasing “J CHRIST” for his use of religious iconography, with commentators claiming that he was “mocking” and “disrespecting” Christianity.
Lil Nas shut down the claims in a tweet, saying “Jesus’s image is used throughout history in people’s art all over the world. I’m not making fun of shit. yall just gotta stop trying to gatekeep a religion that was here before any of us were even born. stfu.”
Watch Lil Nas X’s “J CHRIST” below:
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A few things are fundamentally true about the world: The sky is blue, grass is green and Lil Nas X is an expert troll. Now, the “Call Me By Your Name” singer is catching the ire of Twitch streamer Kai Cenat over the rapper’s latest string of posts.
In a stream on Thursday, Cenat went on a screaming rant about the rapper following the artist’s latest string of promotions for his new single. “No, f–k that! Yo, Lil Nas X, you could eat my whole d–,” he yelled, cutting himself off before finishing the last word. “I hate that n—a, bro. Now that’s just popping in my head, bro … God is going to handle you in the right way. I don’t even want to talk about that yet, bro. But, look — God is going to handle you, bro.”
When a friend on the stream asked Cenat to explain what he was upset about, Cenat refused to get specific, instead saying to “go to his page, bro. He disrespected God himself … he disrespected the whole culture, mocking it, making fun.”
Billboard has reached out to Lil Nas X’s reps for comment.
Over the last week, Lil Nas X posted across his social media, promoting his new single “J CHRIST,” dedicating his new track to Jesus Christ, “THE MAN WHO HAD THE GREATEST COMEBACK OF ALL TIME.” Along with sharing teasers for the new song and video, the singer announced that he was entering his “Christian era,” joked that he’d release his gospel music independently and even shared a fake acceptance letter to conservative Christian college Liberty University, prompting the school to clarify that he had not actually been admitted.
But amid his persistent trolling, Lil Nas X also got real with his fans, explaining that the backlash to his use of religious themes throughout his music reeked of hypocrisy. When commenters lambasted the cover art of his new single — which features him being hoisted up on a black cross — as disrespectful to Christians, the rapper clapped back quickly. “the crazy thing is nowhere in the picture is a mockery of jesus,” he wrote. “Jesus’s image is used throughout history in people’s art all over the world. I’m not making fun of s–t. yall just gotta stop trying to gatekeep a religion that was here before any of us were even born. stfu.”
In another post, Lil Nas addressed claims that he trolls Christians too often. “y’all judge everything at face value. i’ve never released a visual without an underlying meaning and y’all know that. but since i’m a troll y’all discount my art as just ‘pissing ppl off,’” he wrote.
In a later post, he elaborated further, saying he didn’t appreciate the comparisons he received to artists such as Madonna and Lady Gaga, who also used Christian iconography in their art. “the problem with a lot of yall gays is yall think im trying to be like gaga or madonna when in reality with all due respect idgaf what they did and im doing what i want with my career.”
As Lil Nas X ascends into his Christian era, one Christian organization is making it clear that it has nothing to do with the superstar — and that’s Liberty University. In a post to his Instagram on Tuesday (Jan. 9), the “Industry Baby” rapper claimed that he had been accepted into the Christian school founded […]
Donald Trump tried to lash out at N.Y. Attorney General Letitia James’ fraud case against him in a post on his social media platform on Tuesday, but the often spelling-challenged one-term former president accidentally shouted out a famous rapper instead. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “Even my […]