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Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign have unveiled the cover art to their upcoming album Vultures. Posted on Ty’s Instagram page, the hazy cover finds a bird perched on a shovel atop a coffin in a grassy field. The album art comes after Ye and Dolla $ign previewed new music during Art Basel and performed at […]
It appears the long-awaited Kanye West song “New Body” will finally arrive after Ye previewed the elusive track featuring Nicki Minaj and Ty Dolla $ign at a Vultures listening party in Miami on Monday night. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Initially slated for a 2018 release on West’s shelved […]
Following the Art Basel Miami Beach festivities, Kanye West surprised fans at Wynwood Marketplace early Tuesday morning (Dec. 12) with an album listening party. During the introduction to his forthcoming joint project with Ty Dolla $ign, titled Vultures, Ye appeared onstage wearing what appears to be a black Ku Klux Klan hood to perform the album’s […]
After embarking on a joint tour with Nas earlier this year, Wu-Tang Clan is gearing up for a series of headlining dates in 2024 — which will double as the iconic rap group’s first ever Las Vegas residency. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The group took […]
The opening seconds of Pink Friday 2 sound a lot more like a Billie Eilish record than a Nicki Minaj one. That’s because the album’s first track, “Are You Gone Already,” is built on top of a sped-up sample of Eilish’s “When the Party’s Over,” particularly its harmonized intro.
But Minaj doesn’t stop there. Nine of the 22 tracks on Pink Friday 2 contain a prominent sample (using a section of a previous recording) or interpolation (using a section of a previous melody or lyric without its original recording) of a previous song, from the Notorious B.I.G. sample in “Barbie Dangerous” to the Blondie sample in “My Life.”
This reliance on sampling and interpolating older songs on Pink Friday 2 will not come as a surprise to anyone who has followed the Hot 100 in recent years. Many of the chart’s top hits this decade were built on top of older songs — for example, take Jack Harlow‘s No. 1 “First Class” (which borrows the chorus from “Glamorous” by Fergie), “I’m Good (Blue)” by David Guetta and Bebe Rexha (which takes after “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” by Eiffel 65 and Gabry Ponte), “Kiss Me More” by SZA and Doja Cat (which interpolates “Physical” by Olivia Newton-John), and even Minaj’s own hit “Barbie World” with Ice Spice (which is based on “Barbie Girl” by Aqua).
Sampling has been around since the advent of hip-hop, but this more recent influx seemed to take root at the turn of the decade due to a convergence of factors. In 2020, amid COVID-19 lockdowns, millions of music fans flocked to TikTok, making it an important destination for music discovery. The app tends to favor songs that feature catchy, short sound bites and sampling is an easy way to catch users’ attention quickly. Meanwhile, pop radio remained cautious about adding new songs into circulation, and recognizable samples became a good short-cut to an earworm hit.
At the same time, the music catalog market grew red-hot. Legends like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen sold their catalogs for some of the highest prices in music history, and those steep price tags encouraged buyers to get creative to earn a return on their investments. Companies like Primary Wave began popularizing “flip camps” — songwriting camps dedicated to encouraging the use of their catalogs in newer songs. Even more catalog owners started creating playlists of their songs that are available to sample and pitch them out to songwriters and producers.
While there are great potential upsides to these samples and interpolations, there’s a catch: Minaj will have to share a sizable portion of her publishing and master ownership with the rights holders of those older songs.
Typically, the more integral the sample or interpolation is to the new song, the more leverage the sample or interpolation rights holders have. Ariana Grande‘s “7 Rings” famously had to cede 90% of its publishing to the owners of the Rodgers and Hammerstein catalog because the melody of “My Favorite Things” was such an essential part of “7 Rings.”
Still, as an executive at Primary Wave told Billboard last year about sampling: “if you’re starting off [the songwriting process] with a hit, that’s a great place to be.”
See below for a breakdown of every sample and interpolation on Pink Friday 2.
1. “Are You Gone Already”Sample: “When the Party’s Over” by Billie Eilish
2. “Barbie Dangerous”Sample: “Notorious Thugs” by Notorious B.I.G. and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
3. “FTCU” Sample: “Fuck The Club Up” by Wacka Flocka Flame (Ft. Pastor Troy & Slim Dunkin)
4. “Beep Beep”
5. “Fallin 4 U”
6. “Let Me Calm Down” (ft. J. Cole)
7. “RNB” (ft. Lil Wayne and Tate Kobang)
8. “Pink Birthday”Sample: “Pornography” by Travis Scott
9. “Needle” (ft. Drake)
10. “Cowgirl” (ft. Lourdiz)
11. “Everybody” (ft. Lil Uzi Vert)Sample: “Move Your Feet” by Junior SeniorInterpolates: “I Just Wanna Rock” by Lil Uzi Vert
12. “Big Difference”
13. “Red Ruby Da Sleeze“Sample: “Never Leave You Uh Oooh, Uh Oooh” by Lumidee
14. “Forward From Trini” (ft. Skillibeng and Skeng)
15. “Pink Friday Girls“Sample: “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” by Cindi Lauper
16. “Super Freaky Girl”Sample: “Can’t Touch This” by MC Hammer and “Super Freak” by Rick James
17. “Bahm Bahm”
18. “My Life“Sample: “Heart Of Glass” by Blondie
19. “Nicki Hendrix” (ft. Future)
20. “Blessings” (ft. Tasha Cobbs Leonard)
21. “Last Time I Saw You”
22. “Just The Memories”
BigXthaPlug lands his first appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (dated Dec. 16) as his song “Mmhmm” debuts at No. 93.
The track, released Oct. 6 on BigXthaPlug/UnitedMasters, debuts almost entirely from its streaming sum: 6 million official streams (up 54%) in the United States in the Dec. 1-7 tracking week, according to Luminate. The bump can be partly attributed to a new remix with Finesse2Tymes, released Dec. 1 on BigXthaPlug’s new seven-track set, The Biggest. The cut also enters at No. 17 on Hot Rap Songs and jumps 33-20 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
The Biggest debuts at No. 138 on the Billboard 200 with 11,000 equivalent album units earned in its opening week. It’s BigXthaPlug’s first entry on the chart.
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TikTok has been a contributing factor to the song’s recent gains, as the track has been used in more than 20,000 clips on the platform to date.
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“Mmhmm” samples the Whispers’ classic single “And the Beat Goes On,” which spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and two weeks at No. 1 on Dance Club Songs in 1980. It also reached No. 19 on the Hot 100.
BigXthaPlug (real name Xavier Landum) hails from Dallas. He scored his first chart appearance in February with his debut studio album, AMAR. The set debuted at No. 34 on Independent Albums and No. 4 on Heatseekers Albums, before spending 13 weeks at No. 1 on the latter list; it ranks at No. 2 on the latest Dec. 16 chart, below The Biggest. He’s just the second artist ever to claim the top two spots of the survey simultaneously, after Slidawg in 2007. AMAR also reached No. 129 on the Billboard 200 in November.
Elsewhere, BigXthaPlug’s single “Whip It” places at No. 34 on the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, after reaching No. 33. His new collaboration with Offset, “Climate,” also debuts at No. 48 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
Outside of his 2023 releases, BigXthaPlug has dropped three other collections: Bacc From the Dead in 2020, and Big Stepper and its remixed version Big Stepper (OG Ron C Chopped Not Slopped), both in 2022.
In 1970, a genre-bending band from Long Beach, Calif., called War teamed up with Eric Burdon, former singer for The Animals. Eric Burdon Declares “War” included the No. 3 Billboard Hot 100 hit “Spill the Wine,” and the May 2, 1970, Billboard declared Burdon was officially “now a full-fledged soul singer.” After one more album, Burdon collapsed onstage and then left the group, leaving War’s future uncertain. The band’s next album, as well as its first for United Artists (UA), only advanced to No. 190 on the Billboard 200.
The group proved it wasn’t a Cold War when its next album, All Day Music, hit No. 16 on the album chart in 1972. That same year, The World Is a Ghetto established the group — which still performs today with founding member Leroy “Lonnie” Jordan — as a musically fearless funk group that soared even higher without the burden of a famous frontman. The album topped the Billboard 200 on Feb. 17, 1973 — a half-century ago this year.
War Effort
After Burdon left, War waged a marketing blitz — the March 13, 1971, Billboard reported that the campaign “included saturation of trade and underground press with ‘War Is Coming’ ads,” as well as “distribution of 10,000 plastic war helmets to disk jockeys, music writers and key record dealers across the country.”
War Is Declared
The “Soul Sauce” column in the Nov. 11, 1972, Billboard hailed War’s The World Is a Ghetto as the “best new album of the week.” “Sparked by their current single and title cut, War have come up with [an] excellent package that is destined for big sales,” predicted a review in the same issue, citing the 13-minute “City, Country, City” as an “excellent example of talent in the group.”
War Cry
“War is a dynamic act in person and its single of ‘World Is a Ghetto’ on UA continues its quest toward the top,” read a “Hot Chart Action” dispatch in the Feb. 3, 1973, issue. The single would eventually reach No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 3 on what is now the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. War didn’t stop there — the April 21, 1973, Billboard reported that “The World Is a Ghetto has gone gold for War together with their other United Artists single, ‘Cisco Kid’ ” — which eventually hit No. 2.
Spoils of War
The World Is a Ghetto became “the top pop album of the year,” according to the Dec. 29, 1973, issue, beating out Seals & Crofts’ Summer Breeze, Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book and Carly Simon’s No Secrets. “The well-made AM [radio] hit of today must have impeccable production and great energy,” read an analysis of the album’s success in the same issue. “This War LP was a sterling example of crossover and of the increasing demand for danceable records with free-form Latin rhythms.”
This story originally appeared in the Dec. 9, 2023, issue of Billboard.
2 Chainz is counting his blessings after a scary car crash on Saturday morning in Miami that landed the rapper in a hospital. The 46-year-old MC posted a video soon after in which he was seen being loaded into the back of an ambulance on a stretcher, with a zoom out to show a black […]
Tyla got her first Billboard Hot 100 hit with the steamy track “Water,” which boosted into the mainstream in part thanks to a hip-swaying TikTok dance challenge.
The track, which peaked at No. 10 on the tally, also topped Billboard’s Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, as well as the U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart. The rising star is gearing up to release her debut album in 2024.
If you need a guide to follow along with Tyla’s “Water,” find the lyrics below:Make me sweatMake me hotterMake me lose my breathMake me waterMake me sweatMake me hotterMake me lose my breathMake me water
NormallyI can keep my cool, but tonight I’m wildin’I’ma beIn a dangerous mood, can you match my timing? MmTelling me (yeah)That you really ’bout it, why try hide it? OohTalk is cheap, so show meThat you understand how I like it
Can you blow my mind?Set off my whole bodyIf I give you my timeCan you snatch my soul from me?I don’t wanna wait, come take itTake me where I ain’t been beforeCan you blow my mind?Set off my whole bodyWhole body
Make me sweatMake me hotterMake me lose my breathMake me waterMake me sweatMake me hotterMake me lose my breathMake me water
HopefullyYou can last all night, don’t get too excited (ooh)Oh, privacyYou ain’t gotta go nowhere, you can stay inside it
Can you blow my mind? OhSet off my whole bodyIf I give you my time (give you my time)Can you snatch my soul from me?I don’t wanna wait, come take itTake me where I ain’t been beforeCan you blow my mind?Set off my whole bodyWhole body
Make me sweatMake me hotterMake me lose my breathMake me waterMake me sweatMake me hotterMake me lose my breathMake me water (make me sweat)Make me sweatMake me hotterMake me lose my breathMake me waterMake me sweat (make me sweat)Make me hotterMake me lose my breathMake me water
Make me sweatMake me hotterMake me lose my breathMake me waterMake me sweatMake me hotterMake me lose my breathMake me water
Lyrics licensed & provided by LyricFind
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Spirit Music Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Ariowa Ogheneochuko Kennedy Irosogie, Christopher Collin Stewart, Corey Lindsey Keay, Imani Lewis, Jackson Paul Lomastro, Olmo Zucca, Rayan El-Hussein Goufer, Samuel Awuku, Tyla Seethal
Jack Harlow delivered yet another viral hit with “Lovin on Me,” his groovy 2023 single that samples R&B singer Delbert “Dale” Greer’s 1995 track, “Whatever,” in the hook.
“Lovin on Me” marks Harlow’s third No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Warming up. More coming,” he captioned his victorious Instagram carousel after the achievement. He previously topped the tally with “First Class” and his Lil Nas X collaboration, “Industry Baby.”
If you need a guide to follow along with Jack Harlow’s “Lovin on Me,” find the lyrics below:
I don’t like no whips and chains, and you can’t tie me downBut you can whip your lovin’ on me, babyWhip your lovin’ on me, baby
I’m vanilla, baby, I’ll choke you (I don’t like no whips and chains)But I ain’t no killer, baby (and you can’t tie me down)She twenty-eight, tellin’ me I’m still a baby (but you can whip your lovin’ on me, baby)I get love from Detroit like Skilla Baby (whip your lovin’ on me, baby)And the thing about your boy is I don’t like no whips and chains, and you can’t tie me downBut you can whip your lovin’ on me, baby (that’s right, that’s right)Whip your lovin’ on me, baby
Young J-A-C-K, AKA Rico, like Suave, Young EnriqueSpeakin’ of AKA, she’s a alphaBut not around your boy, she get quiet ’round your boy, hold on (shh)Don’t know what you heard or what you thought about your boyBut they lied about your boy, goin’ dumb and it’s some’ idiotic ’bout your boyShe wearin’ cheetah print, that’s how bad she wanna be spotted ’round your boy
I don’t like no whips and chains, and you can’t tie me downBut you can whip your lovin’ on me, babyWhip your lovin’ on me
I’m vanilla, baby, I’ll choke you (I don’t like no whips and chains)But I ain’t no killer, baby (and you can’t tie me down)She twenty-eight, tellin’ me I’m still a baby (but you can whip your lovin’ on me, baby)I get love from Detroit like Skilla Baby (whip your lovin’ on me, baby)And the thing about your boy is I don’t like no whips and chains, and you can’t tie me downBut you can whip your lovin’ on me, baby Whip your lovin’ on me, baby
Young M-I-S-S-I-O-N-A-R-YYou sharp like barbed wireShe stole my heart, then she got archivedI keep it short with a bi—, Lord FarquaadAll the girls in the front row, ayyAll the girls in the barricade, ayyAll the girls that been waitin’ all day, let your tongue hang outF— everything, ayyIf you came with a man (yeah, yeah)Let go of his hand (let go of this sh–)Everybody in the suite, kickin’ up they feetStand up, bi—, dance
I don’t like no whips and chains (I see you) And you can’t tie me down (and all the guys in the back waitin’ for the next track)But you can whip your lovin’ on me, baby (cut your boy a slack)Whip your lovin’ on me (it’s young Jack)
I’m vanilla, baby, I’ll choke you (I don’t like no whips and chains)But I ain’t no killer, baby (and you can’t tie me down)She twenty-eight, tellin’ me I’m still a baby (but you can whip your lovin’ on me, baby)I get love from Detroit like Skilla Baby (whip your lovin’ on me, baby)And the thing about your boy is I don’t like no whips and chains, and you can’t tie me downBut you can whip your lovin’ on me, baby (that’s right, that’s right)Whip your lovin’ on me, babyI don’t like no whips and chains, and you can’t tie me downBut you can whip your lovin’ on me, babyWhip your lovin’ on me, baby
Lyrics licensed & provided by LyricFind
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Delbert M. Greer, Jackman Harlow, Nickie Jon Pabon, Nik Frascona, Ozan Yildirim, Reginald Nelton, Sean Momberger