R&B/Hip-Hop
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Busta Rhymes is coming to a city near you next year. On Tuesday (Nov. 28), the rapper announced his Blockbusta North American Tour, which will see him making stops across the United States and Canada starting in March. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The trek — […]
Jeymes Samuel, director of the critically acclaimed 2021 film The Harder They Fall, is now busy spreading the word about his second film, The Book of Clarence. And coming ahead of the Legendary Entertainment film’s Jan. 12, 2024 nationwide theater arrival is the first song from its soundtrack.
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Released today (Nov. 28) along with the film’s official trailer, “Hallelujah Heaven” is performed by Samuel himself and also features Lil Wayne, Buju Banton & Shabba Ranks.
Jay-Z and Kid Cudi are among the additional featured guests and collaborators on the Roc Nation soundtrack, more details of which will be revealed in the coming weeks. Beyond writing and performing on the soundtrack, Samuel also composed the film’s score.
“The Book of Clarence is a film that I wanted to make for many years,” says British filmmaker Samuel in a release announcing the soundtrack’s lead song. “While I was working on The Harder They Fall and all my other projects, the story and the music for The Book of Clarence were always there percolating in my mind. There was never a question as to whether I would compose the score and write and perform on the soundtrack, as well as write and direct the movie. It was all one amazing journey where one depended on the other. But I also worked with the most awesome artists on our track ‘Hallelujah Heaven.’ Collaborating with Lil’ Wayne, Buju Banton and Shabba Ranks was so dope; I loved getting them all on the same track.”
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Samuel’s reimagined take on Hollywood’s classic Biblical epics stars LaKeith Stansfield as the streetwise Clarence, a man who is struggling to make a better life for himself and his family. Inspired by the rising power and glory of the Messiah and his disciples, Clarence stakes his own claim to a similar life as he embarks on a journey that encompasses risks as well as redemption and faith. A lyric sample from “Hallelujah Heaven” further illuminates Samuel’s unique twist on the movie’s Biblical theme:
“Hallelujah
From Hollygrove to Honolulu (Hallelujah)
Me Shabba Buju, the holy ghost will probably spook you
It’s kinda coo coo, it’s New Orleans a lot of voodoo (Hallelujah)
Pour holy water in my codeine sippin’ like yoo hoo
Goodness gracious I look at faces they look like satans (Heaven)…”
Being released through TriStar Pictures, The Book of Clarence boasts a cast that includes David Oyelowo, Alfre Woodard, Teyana Taylor and Benedict Cumberbatch. Working alongside Samuel as the film’s producers were Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, James Lassiter and Tendo Nagenda.
The Book of Clarence
Courtesy Photo
‘Tis the season to get turnt — with some help from Cardi B. The “I Like It” rapper’s alcoholic whipped cream company, Whipshots, re-launched its festive peppermint flavor for the holiday season, and Cardi stuns in the campaign photos, in which she’s seen sitting amid a winter wonderland full of trees and presents in a […]
Jack Harlow is lovin’ being on top. The Kentucky rapper took to social media Monday (Nov. 27) to celebrate his latest single, “Lovin on Me,” reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Warming up. More coming,” he captioned his victorious Instagram carousel, which featured a text exchange between Harlow and one of the song’s […]
Jean Knight, the R&B singer best known for her 1971 hit “Mr. Big Stuff” died at 80 on Wednesday (Nov. 22). “New Orleans and the music world mourns the loss of one its most treasure musical daughters, Jean Knight,” her family said in a statement shared with USA Today. Rolling Stone also confirmed the singer’s […]
Brent Faiyaz took a trip to London just to hear how they talk, and soon, fans all over the world will get to see him sing during an exclusive Apple Music Live stream of his recent concert. Faiyaz just wrapped the European leg of his F–k the World It’s a Wasteland Tour, which is in […]
Thanksgiving week is historically a pretty slow week for new music, but that didn’t stop the hip-hop and R&B worlds from chugging through the rest of the calendar year. On Sunday night (Nov. 26), Keke Palmer hosted an intimate edition of the Soul Train Music Awards featuring performances by Muni Long, Dante Bowe, legend award winner T-Pain, Spirit of Soul award winner Janelle Monáe, SWV and Keke herself. SZA was the night’s biggest victor with four wins, including album of the year for her nine-time Grammy-nominated SOS, and fellow 2023 Grammy nominees Victoria Monét (two) and Coco Jones (one) also took home some hardware.
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Even as the Thanksgiving weekend forced everyone to prioritize leisure, a bevy of artists seized the opportunity to unleash some new music upon the world. With Fresh Picks, Billboard aims to highlight some of the best and most interesting new sounds across R&B and hip-hop — from Coco Jones’ aptly-tiled new Christmas anthem to Senth’s shape-shifting amalgam of Afrobeats and R&B.
Be sure to check out this week’s Fresh Picks in our Spotify playlist below.
Freshest Find: Senth, “Bend It”
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Placed directly in the middle of Senth’s Wayyy Saucy EP — his first body of work this year — “Bend It” achieves peak sensuality with a tantalizing mixture of booming brass, pounding drums, and a lead vocal that morphs from whispery mumble to impassioned exclamations of sexual tension. Between notes of house, soul, hip-hop, and a rhythm that pulls from both Afrobeats and dancehall, “Bend It” traverses the musical multitudes of the Black diaspora with startling ease.
Otis Kane, “Closer”
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Steeped in the same reverence for the warmth of soulful old-school R&B that permeated 2023 records from the likes of October London and Lucky Daye, Otis Kane’s “Closer” channels the steady grooves of Marvin Gaye for a tender ode to the never-ending process of growing closer to your lover. There’s a levity to “Closer” that immediately separates it from the murkier contemporary R&B scenes; Kane’s slight rasp adds some dimension to his vocal performance, but it’s the way he floats over the instrumental that truly encapsulates the track’s dynamism.
Luh Tyler, “Change My Wayz”
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A year removed from the viral success of “Law & Order,” Florida rapper Luh Tyler takes a moment to reflect on his whirlwind rise with the introspective “Change My Wayz” — from his growth in relationship to his transition to real chains and jewelry. Unlike some of his most popular tracks, “Change My Wayz” does not rely on a quirky sample or a familiar hook-reliant song structure. Instead, Luh Tyler delivers a singular stream-of-consciousness verse over a mellow CashCache-produced beat. “Know I got to stay on ten, I got to keep my head on/ She mad cause I done fucked her friend, she like, ‘You know you dеad wrong’/ Damn, I gotta change my ways,” he spits.
Tink, “40x”
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Tink has helped shape the sound of R&B for close to a decade now, and her new single “40x” offers yet another dose of morose, guitar-inflected balladry. “Real bitches can’t be bought/ So tired of being strong/ Someone come keep me soft,” she croons. By the time she reaches the chorus, Tink has attached the “40” quantifier to everything from the number of nights since she’s cried to the amount of lies her ex-lover told her. Here, Tink balances her lyrical focus on the “blues” part of R&B with a melodic cadence that brings her closer to contemporary hip-hop while still showcasing the different shades and capabilities of her voice.
Adam Blackstone & Boyz II Men, “Greatest Gift”
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Mere weeks after adding two more Grammy nominations to his belt, Emmy-winning music director Adam Blackstone has gifted fans A Legacy Christmas, his first holiday album and second solo LP. Of the project’s 11 tracks, Blackstone’s collaboration with iconic R&B vocal group Boyz II Men was the instant standout. In characteristically pitch-perfect fashion, the trio delivers their trademark ear-melting harmonies with all of the wide-eyed earnestness that holiday music requires. Blackstone’s twinkling jazz-rooted arrangement offers the group a playground of pockets to play around with, making for a winning original Christmas collaboration in a year filled with them.
Coco Jones, “A Timeless Christmas”
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Coco Jones’ recent momentum is borderline unstoppable. As if securing five Grammy nominations and a Soul Train Music Award victory for best new artist wasn’t enough, the “ICU” singer also dropped off a terrific new original Christmas song, aptly titled “A Timeless Christmas.” Co-written with Tiyon “TC” Mack, the new holiday tune smartly employs Jones’ rich voice over lyrics that paint a gorgeous winter pastoral. “There’s laughter in our hearts, a special kind/ Sharing love and kindness in every rhyme/ Every rhyme/ We gather ’round with friends by our side/ And feel all the magic in the sky/ In the sky,” she coos. Complete with chugging percussion that offers a sleek sonic contrast to the background strings and jingle bells, “A Timeless Christmas” is yet another home run for Coco Jones.
50 Cent has made many, many millions during his long run as the G-Unit general. But in a new chat on Apple Music’s The Rebecca Judd Show recorded backstage at his Nov. 21 show at London’s O2 during the European leg of Fif’s The Final Lap tour, 50 tackled some burning questions tied to the 20th anniversary of his breakthrough debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ and the first purchase he made after hitting it big.
“I bought my grandmother a C220 Benz. I’ll never forget because when I got the car, I got it right away is the first thing I bought when the deal was done,” 50 (born Curtis Jackson) said of his 2002 signing to Em’s Shady Records, which was under the umbrella of Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Records.
“And then I went on the tour and I came back and my grandfather was on the porch and he was having a moment,” 50 continued. “So he was like, ‘I just went to work. I went to work, hurt my back, came back, and she done brainwashed my kids.’ And he was talking about my grandmother because he was looking at her car in the front yard and he didn’t have a car. He had the older car and he said, ‘I went to work, hurt my back. Until my back hurt, everything.’”
Though he has since punched his own ticket and racked up millions through acting and brand extensions, 50 still can’t believe he was able to buy Mike Tyson’s fabled 50,000-square foot mansion in Farmington, CT. “We went on a world tour and we came back. I had $38 million in my account. The IRS are coming, [so it’s like] – buy it,” he said of the thought process behind buying the massive home in the interview in which he also pointed out his least favorite song on the Get Rich album. “Whatever you want, buy that s–t because they’re just going to take the money anyway. At that point, buy it or they need take it. You need expenses.”
Needed to show some expenses on his books, 50 said he could not think of something else that would “create a bigger comfortability for me at the time. And then anybody that you talked to in finances would look at it and say, yeah, you can… If you buy a property, it’s $3 million or $4 million and you just made $38 million. And yes, this is good for your taxes actually, that you made the purchase and you should buy some cars.”
That’s all well and good, but 50 also admitted that despite all that room to roam he still can’t walk around the house naked. You say, “How much did I pay to live in this motherf–ker and I can’t be naked, at all,” said the father of 11-year-old son Sire, who also has a 26-year-old son from a pervious relationship.
But it’s not because of the little one that 50 can’t participate in Naked Tuesdays.
“Other people can actually walk around their house naked if they feel like it. They bought the motherf–ker, they own it,” he said. “They can do what they feel like. Right? And I couldn’t because I bought a place that had a staff people there. And look, if I came out of the room naked and they saw me…”
As 50 Cent continues to celebrate the 20th anniversary of her magnum opus Get Rich or Die Tryin’, the G-Unit luminary is revealing more tidbits about the making of his lauded debut effort. In an interview with The Rebecca Judd Show on Apple Music 1 during his pit stop in the U.K., 50 disclosed his least favorite song from the decorated rap album.
“‘Many Men’ was my least favorite at that point because, musically we was in the boom-bap phase,” he explained. “We was in that hard-hitting intensity, the energy on the records, and it’s the slowest song on Get Rich or Die Tryin’. And it’s now the tempo that the artists are rapping to. So the fast tempo, hard-hitting beats, that was that era, that time period. And the whole album had it.”
Speaking about the 2003 set, which earned a Grammy nod for best rap album, the rapper reflected on what he wanted two decades ago and his thoughts on one-hit wonders. “If you had asked me to make a wish in 2003, I would’ve just wish that my music was a hit. I didn’t see 20 years ahead in music like that,” he told Judd. “I’m just that at the moment for it to work.”
“And then what’s crazy is most artists, they think they’re ready before they are,” he continued. “Most good artists, they’ve thought they were ready before they actually could at it, but they’ve had that window of time to work that allowed them to actually become good enough. That’s why we have one-hit wonders in hip-hop culture. Because when that happens, they have that first hit and then it takes them out of the studio to go perform and to go meet all the distractions to come with being a successful artist, and then they land back in the studio without being trained to know how to create the next song. So they be stuck with that one hit.”
Earlier this month, 50 celebrated “In Da Club” — the album’s lead single — earning a diamond certification from the RIAA. The record soared to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 2003, marking his first single to reach the summit. It stayed on top for nine weeks, and remained on the chart for 30 weeks.
“My run was so uncomfortable that everyone would like to forget that it happened,” 50 said in an interview for Billboard‘s Feb. 9 digital cover story this year. “That’s just the way it is with the artist community. I didn’t come in being friendly because I had to find a way into it — not find a way to be good enough to work in the community. The biggest compliment in the early stages was that artists felt like they’d made it when they got the deal. You had to earn the right to have the deal.”
Ludacris made a huge entrance on Sunday afternoon (Nov. 26) during the Atlanta Falcons-New Orleans Saints game. The Fast & Furious co-star rappelled from the rafters of Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the stunt as he rapped along to his 2001 hit “Move B–ch.” Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and […]