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by DJ Frosty

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R&B/Hip-Hop

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“All Girls are the Same” served as Juice WRLD’s introduction into the rap game as his debut commercial single, and six years later, his team is posthumously serving up the sequel. Nicki Minaj and Halsey joined Juice WLRD — who died in December 2019 — on “All Girls are the Same 2 (Insecure),” which hit streaming services on Friday (Nov. 15).

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“This is a brand new song,” Minaj revealed on Instagram while promoting the single’s cover art. She provides a guest verse, while Halsey lends backing vocals to Juice’s track.

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Fans were excited to hear about the trio joining forces. “I already know this gonna be one of those songs that I won’t be able to put down,” one Barb wrote in Nicki’s comment section on IG.

Produced by Nick Mira, “All Girls are the Same” arrived in April 2018 and reached No. 92 on the Billboard Hot 100. The emotive anthem eventually eclipsed 1 billion streams on Spotify.

It’s still unclear is “All Girls are the Same 2 (Insecure)” will land on Juice’s final posthumous album The Party Never Ends.

The Chicago native teamed up with Halsey when hopping on her “Without Me” anthem, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 in January 2019 to give Halsey her first chart-topper. She returned the favor to join Juice on Legends Never Die‘s “Life’s a Mess.”

Juice and Nicki both guested on Young Thug’s “Money” from his Business Is Business album, which was released in 2023 while Thugger was still behind bars. She also popped up on “Transformer” from Juice WRLD and Future’s WRLD On Drugs joint effort.

The “Lucid Dreams” rhymer opened up for Minaj on her Nicki Wrld Tour in February and March 2019, which consisted of 19 shows overseas, but a few were canceled due to technical and production matters.

“That s–t was lit,” Juice said in April 2019 of the European trek on The Breakfast Club before they pressed him about the cancellations. “It was deeper than that. Some of the venues that we went to didn’t have the capacity to deal with the production… F–k was we gonna do have a dark show? … It was a learning experience. That was my first time doing consistent stadiums night after night.”

While teasing a Pink Friday 2 deluxe, Minaj also previewed a snippet of a Juice WRLD track. “So, the question is do you guys think I should put the Juice World song on the deluxe?” she reportedly said in August. “It would be incredible for me I think to have Juice WRLD on this album.”

Stream the track below.

As our current political discourse gets especially dark, Lil Nas X is going out of his way to find the “Light Again” with his latest song. On Friday (Nov. 15), the rapper unveiled his new single “Light Again,” which comes off of his recently announced sophomore album, Dreamboy. Throughout the pounding, house-inspired new song, Lil […]

Carmelo Anthony is finally telling his “Is Stevie Wonder really blind” story. Celebrities and fans alike love telling tales about the legendary Stevie Wonder doing and saying things that may or may not prove that he can see. There are full-on (tongue-in-cheek) conspiracy theories about this subject. One famous story was told by Shaq a […]

Offset was reportedly involved in a street brawl earlier this week in front of his hotel in Paris. According to TMZ, the Atlanta native and his crew were throwing hands outside Hôtel du Collectionneur with members of French rapper Gazo’s entourage. TMZ alleges that the argument started over Offset’s appearance in a music video, which […]

Jay-Z’s Sean Carter Foundation is looking to help out students at historically Black colleges and universities in a major way. The foundation announced the launch of the Champions for Financial Legacy (CFFL) on Wednesday (Nov. 13). The educational financial initiative was formed in collaboration with the esteemed Wharton School of Business at the University of […]

Boyz II Men have joined the list of beloved artists getting the biopic treatment.
The group — which includes members Nathan Morris, Shawn Stockman and Wanyá Morris — have partnered with Compelling Pictures and Primary Wave to develop the film, according to Variety. Additionally, Compelling is working on a documentary about the group’s rise and impact throughout the 1990s and 2000s, and how their success continues today.

Producers for the upcoming film include Denis O’Sullivan and Jeff Kalligheri for Compelling; Larry Mestel for Primary Wave; Joe Mulvihill for the Mulvi Group; and Jeremy M. Rosen for Roxwell Films. All three members of Boyz II Men will serve as executive producers for the project, along with Ori Allon, Dennis Casali and Steven Garcia. The producers are reportedly in talks with writers and directors to lead the project.

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“We’ve been waiting to find the right partners who understand our story and are willing to tell it all,” Morris said in a press statement. “Denis and Jeff at Compelling Pictures understood us day one.”

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Among the musicians whose biopics are currently in production include Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Jenni Rivera, Janis Joplin, Queen Latifah, Sublime and more.

Biopics have proven to be wildly successful over the past few years. 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody (which grossed over $900 million globally) gave Queen’s discography a major boost. In the six months following its release, Queen’s music streams tripled, from 588 million to 1.9 billion. Sales, too, had a 483% increase from the previous year. In mid-2019, the band occupied the top two spots on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart.

Meanwhile, Elton John’s hits collection Diamonds occupied the No. 4 slot thanks to a biopic boost from the 2019 musical Rocketman. In June, the set also catapulted to No. 7 on the Billboard 200, making it John’s 20th top 10 album.

“Whatever Wham say goes.” That’s the phrase that popped up on billboards in L.A., referencing a Young Thug jailhouse tweet from June. The YSL boss teased new music with his fellow Atlanta rapper Lil Baby, tweeting, “Wham let’s drop one on these rats peter,” shortly after coming home from Fulton County Jail.
Now, Baby is ready to say his piece with a brand new album — his first since 2022’s It’s Only Me. On Thursday (Nov. 14), the rapper released the lead single and video to his project WHAM: Who Hard As Me.

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“5AM” (produced by Wheezy and Sean Momberger) shows Baby trying to come to terms with the pressure of expectations and celebrity. He starts the song off by talking about those pitfalls, rapping, “How you managed to get everything you want and still ain’t happy?/ Half of me done died, the other half alive, I’m tryna balance it/ Granny said if it’s worth something to you, then it’s worth the challenge.”

Later in the song he raps about struggling with vulnerability and survivor’s guilt, saying, “Five in the mornin’, just me and a ‘Rari, don’t know where I’m goin’/ Thinkin’ ’bout all this sh—t, honestly, I don’t know how I be doin’ this/ Can’t be vulnerable, who I’m gon’ talk to when I’m going through it?/ Am I delusional? Keep tellin’ myself that it’s all good/ All I know is survival and dollars, I come from the hood.”

Last night, the Atlanta rapper took to Instagram and posted footage of himself shooting the new music video and recording the song with a caption that mentions he was going through a rough patch the last two years. “Ain’t it crazy how they tryna play me like i ain’t the one!!! It’s that time! I would say again, but this run will be totally different!!” he wrote. “I had the darkest period of my life these last two years, but I stayed down and overcame that sh—t now I’m back to f—kin sh—t up as usual…, Sincerely, Wham!! Who hard as me. Let’s go.”

While no release date for the album has been announced, Baby wrote on X that he was dropping another single and video this week. He was recently spotted in the studio with Young Thug and Future, so there could be something from the trio coming soon.

Check out Lil Baby’s new video for “5AM” above.

Chris Brown‘s 2019 summer smash “No Guidance,” featuring Drake, becomes his first diamond-certified record by the Recording Industry Association of America, the RIAA announced on Wednesday (Nov. 13). Diamond certification is given to artists whose songs have moved 10 million units. According to the RIAA, one equivalent song unit is equal to a single digital song sale, or 150 […]

SZA’s back.
After taking over the music scene with her record-breaking sophomore album, SOS, in December 2022, the 35-year-old star has maintained a relatively low profile since. In a new British Vogue interview, she’s ready to return to the music scene, revealing that she has not one, but two releases up her sleeves.

According to the publication, both the deluxe version of SOS and her third studio album, Lana, are on the way. “I think I am making music from a more beautiful place. From a more possible place versus a more angsty place,” she explained. “I’m not identifying with my brokenness. It’s not my identity. It’s shit that happened to me. Yeah, I experienced cruelty. I have to put it down at some point. Piece by piece, my music is shifting because of that, the lighter I get.”

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Elsewhere in the story, her TDE label mate Kendrick Lamar praised her creative openness. “I recognize a more expressive SZA. The shy s— is completely out the window – to a degree, at least,” he said. “She has the answers to some of the things she was curious about and is willing to tell it all in the most disruptive yet beautiful compositions this generation has ever heard.”

Following its release, SOS debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with 318,000 equivalent album units – the third-highest debut week of 2022 – and shattered the record for the biggest streaming week for an R&B album by a woman, with 404.6 million official on-demand streams for the album’s songs, according to Luminate. It spent 10 total weeks atop the chart, and became the first R&B album by a woman to hit the double-digit mark since Mariah Carey’s self-titled debut posted 11 weeks at No. 1 in 1991.

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The album’s longstanding hit single, “Kill Bill,” dominated on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, racking up 21 weeks at No. 1, surpassing the 20-week run of Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, as the song with the most weeks at No. 1 on the chart since it became an all-encompassing genre survey in 1958. 

At the 2023 Grammy Awards, she led the nominees with nine nods, and ended up taking home three awards. SOS won best progressive R&B album, “Snooze” snagged best R&B song and her Phoebe Bridgers collaboration, “Ghost in the Machine,” won best pop duo/group performance.

A$AP Rocky adds to his “Fashion Killa” with more hardware. Footwear News announced on Thursday (Nov. 14) that the Harlem-bred rapper will be honored with the 2024 Collaboration of the Year alongside his creative partner Puma at the Footwear News Achievement Awards. Rocky will accept the coveted award during a gala for the FNAAs — […]