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For the last few shows of her record-breaking Renaissance World Tour, Beyoncé is headed back home. The Houston-bred megastar is set to play two shows at the city’s NRG Stadium — just two days after gracing Arlington’s AT&T Stadium — and her hometown is pulling out all the stops in her honor.
According to a Sept. 21 KPRC 2 report, the Harris County Commissioners Court passed a resolution to temporarily rename itself “Bey County” in honor of Beyoncé’s first tour stops in Houston since 2016, when she graced the stage for her Formation World Tour.
On Sept. 19, the official X (formerly Twitter) page for the city of Houston tweeted a graphic announcing an event called “Hou Run The World” — a tribute to the “Breaky My Soul” singer in collaboration with Houston First and Central Houston, complete with a “homecoming party on the plaza.”
At her Thursday night (Sept. 21) show in Arlington, Beyoncé squealed, “It feels so good to be home! Texas girl!” Born and raised in Houston, both the city and the larger state of Texas have provided a sturdy foundation for Beyoncé’s personal life and a bevy of musical throughlines for her catalog — from country music to Southern hip-hop.
Beyoncé’s homecoming will also coincide with the launch of the Knowles-Rowland House, which was first teased back in June. On June 27, officials announced that Harris County would be collaborating with Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland to create 31 permanent housing units using $7.2 million in American Rescue Plan funds. “Initiatives like this one I certainly will be supportive of it no matter who’s behind it, but it’s especially interesting… because there are these names of Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland, who, of course, have been supportive of the community for a very long time,” Judge Lina Hildago said during a press conference.
Officials also teased an “even bigger launch” for the project — which will include case managers, peer specialists, service specialists and support services, like transportation, mental health and physical and behavioral health support — upon Beyoncé’s homecoming. Queen Bey was spotted with her mother Tina Knowles at the renovation celebration for the Knowles-Rowland House on Friday morning (Sept. 22).
The “America Has A Problem” singer is riding out the final four shows of the tour’s North American leg. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, Beyoncé earned $141.4 million in the first 12 Renaissance shows in the U.S. and Canada, selling 553,000 tickets and putting the tour’s figures at $295.8 million and 1.6 million tickets (as of Aug. 1). With more numbers yet to be reported, the Renaissance World Tour is already Beyoncé’s highest-grossing tour yet, passing 2016’s The Formation World Tour ($256.1 million) and 2018’s Jay-Z-assisted On the Run II Tour ($253.5 million).
Although Grammy-nominated R&B trio Tony! Toni! Toné! — comprised of Raphael Saadiq, D’Wayne Wiggins and Timothy Riley — has been musically absent for nearly three decades, their impact can still be felt across popular music. One of the group’s members, producer Saadiq, lent a hand to two standout tracks from Beyoncé’s Renaissance album: the ballroom banger “Pure/Honey” and the Grammy-winning Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit “Cuff It” (No. 6).
From “Anniversary” to “Feels Good,” Tony! Toni! Toné!’s late ’80s to late ’90s run was one of the most seamless in R&B history. With music for every occasion, the trio is cemented not just in music history — but also in the hearts and traditions of Black audiences across generations. Newly reunited for their first headlining tour in 25 years, Tony! Toni! Toné! is in a mode of gratitude and reflection as group returns to the stage as some of R&B’s most beloved elder statesmen. In a new interview with Billboard, the trio recounts the origins of their band name, details the inspiration behind their reunion and surveys the state of new school R&B.
“I think it’s just a lot of nostalgic memories, people having kids to the music,” Saadiq muses when asked why he thinks the group’s music still resonates so deeply today. “We didn’t just put out a record and it was on the radio and we didn’t go to that market. We would stay in that market for, like, three or four days, so we met a lot of people, have a lot of friends. So people probably wanna bring their kids to see these three guys, and they have the opportunity now.”
Wiggins adds, “I guess you could call it the soundtrack to a lot of people’s lives.”
The group’s ability to simultaneously craft music that syncs with pivotal life moments and cultivate a sense of community with their audience has been a large part of why they remain so beloved. Tony! Toni! Toné! plans to continue those intergenerational efforts among their own families with the help of the forthcoming tour. Saadiq notes that while he doesn’t have any children of his own, he has a lot of nieces and nephews who “wonder why” he and his bandmates “might’ve been famous or popular.”
“I think it was time to come together and show them what we did … it’s important to see people come together,” Saadiq says.
Wiggins chimes in, “Twenty-five years later, it’s a lot of kids around us — our kids — that have never seen us together gettin’ down … it’s gonna be special!”
In addition to scoring a slew of seminal hit singles, the trio’s moniker is also an indelible part of their legacy. During the interview, they recounted how Tony! Toni! Toné! came to be. (Hint: It involves a critically acclaimed film.)
Check out the Billboard’s full conversation with Tony! Toni! Toné! — including their thoughts about the R&B scene today and more — above.
Four years ago, Doja Cat scoffed at the notion that her debut album Amala was anything special. While her sophomore effort, 2019’s Hot Pink, was enjoying white-hot success courtesy of its trifecta of hits (“Streets,” “Like That,” and her eventual first Hot 100 No. 1 single, “Say So”), she was indifferent to Amala during her 2019 Billboard visit, blaming marijuana usage for what she considered to be a lackluster effort.
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“A lot of people liked Amala, and that’s great. However, I don’t think it was a finished album,” she told Billboard in 2019.”II was smoking hella weed. I was high all the f–king time and it wasn’t even helping me perceive what was going on musically. I was just really out there partying.”
To be fair, Doja’s first album did peak at No. 138 on the Billboard 200, though it failed to gain mainstream traction initially. But what makes Doja’s ascension into superstardom in the years since so intriguing is the slow burn behind her push as she looks to secure her first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with the release this Friday (Sept. 22) of her fourth album, Scarlet.
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Because Cardi B and Olivia Rodrigo’s careers detonated faster than most, scoring No. 1 albums with both their first official singles and albums, fans forget that becoming a superstar overnight is a rare feat, and that artists should be embracing their careers as marathons, not sprints. An artist like Teezo Touchdown, who earned cosigns from Drake and Travis Scott ahead of his debut album How Do You Sleep At Night?, failed to debut on the Billboard 200 this week and became internet fodder because of his paltry showing. This is becoming increasingly common as social media users quickly thrash new artists for failing to immediately impact the Billboard 200. They’re torn apart if their debut projects fail to enter the top 10. Still, many artists, like Teezo, should hold their heads high – because Doja’s route into superstardom wasn’t always scenic.
After Amala underwhelmed commercially, Doja returned to the drawing board and scripted a kooky, tongue-in-cheek rap song titled “Mooo!” The comedic cow-themed song erupted and became an instant hit, as she milked every bit of virality from her song’s and video’s absurdity. Lyrics like “Bitch, I’m a cow” became meme-fodder, as the visual was celebrated by Missy Elliott and Chance The Rapper.
“I just like to do the fun stuff. If I’m not having fun with it, I’m not going to do it for the rest of my life,” Doja relayed to Billboard in 2018. “I just wanna bring something fun — the current climate is so uptight and serious, and it’s just good to have something stupid to laugh at. It’s funny because it’s a joke, but it sounds kinda good. People listen to it like it’s a song.”
Beyond the lo-fi video, cow costumes, and green-screen pastures was an artist adept at carving out indelible punchlines. Her wit was uncontested as her bars made punny references to Ludacris’ “Move,” Kelis’ “Milkshake,” and Raekwon’s “C.R.E.A.M.” The success of “Mooo!” made RCA repackage Amala as a deluxe in March 2019 with three new songs.
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With a buzzier presence, Doja crept back into the studio and doled out her second album, Hot Pink, within the same year. The gleefully sophmoric release oozed with flavor and versatility as she mapped her road to being a rap/pop virtuoso. First, she secured a feature from Tyga to revamp her Amala standout “Juicy,” which became her first Hot 100 record, peaking at No. 41. Then, she tapped Gucci Mane for the upbeat “Like That.” She also became a favorite on late-night television, delivering fun-filled performances on Late Night with Seth Meyers and later The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
With seven singles off Hot Pink, Doja swept her underperforming debut album under the rug, as she witnessed the longevity of her second LP on the Billboard charts — courtesy of TikTok favorites “Streets” and “Say So,” which took time to heat up and become fireballs of their own. Even the top brass at RCA didn’t know the former would become a success story. “We all love that song,” Tunji Balogun, former executive vp A&R at RCA, told Billboard of “Streets” in 2021, “but we never really focused on it from the beginning of the project.”
As for the latter, Doja partnered with Nicki Minaj for the song’s remix, which gave “Say So” its final push to No. 1 on the Hot 100 in May 2020. The album’s sustainability and Doja’s torrid streak of incredible performances at award shows, most notably at the 2020 VMAs and the 2021 Grammys, made her an artist to watch in the most literal sense. Despite those big wins, Hot Pink only peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard 200.
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Entering her third album, 2021’s Planet Her, Doja was on the cusp of becoming one of Generation Z’s most defining stars, and she unabashedly ran the table that calendar year – even though she was thwarted by Tyler, The Creator, as the album opened at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 behind his Call Me If You Get Lost. Even though she didn’t nab that elusive No. 1, she still debuted with 109,000 album equivalent units and scored a No. 3 single on the Hot 100 with “Kiss Me More” featuring SZA. She landed her first Grammy win from that record and continued to scorch the Hot 100, reeling in three total top 10 hits during that run.
On Planet Her, the chaotic edge lord took creative leaps, exploring the sounds of Afrobeats on “Woman” and aligning herself with pop behemoths such as The Weeknd (“You Right”) and Ariana Grande (“I Don’t Do Drugs”), all while maintaining her image as one of music’s preeminent trolls. By doing it her way, Doja rocketed past the major stars still trying to do things conventionally and shined with arguably the strongest album in the pop solar system that year.
As we reach our fourth stop on Doja’s roller-coaster adventure with Scarlet, we still have yet to reach the mountainous peak of her career. Though she has the daunting task of competing against new albums like Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour and Rod Wave’s Nostalgia, she’s closer than ever to securing her first No. 1 album. While toppling Olivia and Rod would be a feat, Doja still has room to hit certain checkpoints, including being a potential headliner at Coachella in 2024 and eventually morphing into a Stadium-billing artist one day. But she’s still racking up the accomplishments: this month, “Paint The Town Red” became the first rap song in 2023 to top the Hot 100 — and the first of Doja’s career as an unaccompanied solo artist — illustrating the artist’s supremacy and evolving pen-game. She also delivered an exhilarating three-song Scarlet medley at the VMAs last week, in one of the night’s best-received performances.
So, just because your career didn’t take off at the starter pistol doesn’t mean the race is already over. Sometimes, you have to “moo” before you can run.
As a fresh generation of artists elevates música urbana to new heights, two influential genre legends — Latin hip-hop’s “Rap Godfather” Vico C, and reggaetón hitmaker Chencho Corleone — are reasserting their dominance.
After more than a decade away, the Latin hip-hop legend returned with new music — but the same strong ethos.
To a casual fan, it may have looked like Latin hip-hop legend Vico C completely fell off the map for the past 14 years. But he never stopped writing songs during that time, even if he couldn’t release new music due to business-related legal issues.
“Having faith that those issues would soon resolve, I just kept writing so that I would be prepared for when I could finally release something again,” says the 52-year-old artist, known as the Rap Philosopher. “I couldn’t visualize what that ‘comeback’ would be like, but I just knew that I couldn’t die without releasing new music ever again.”
The socially conscious lyricist, born Luis Armando Lozada Cruz in Brooklyn, gained fame in the 1990s thanks to his vivid, thought-provoking storytelling that addressed topics such as faith and societal values. His sound, a melodic take on rap that fused reggaetón and hip-hop, was similarly bold.
Vico C returned in May with Pánico, a 13-track set released by his new label, Nain Music (a subdivision of Rimas Entertainment), and his first album since 2009’s Babilla. But he’s still reluctant to describe this stage in his career as a comeback. “It’s hard for people to follow a weird career like mine that isn’t super consistent. There have been controversies,” he explains, nodding to a turbulent past — which includes a near-fatal motorcycle accident in 1990 that led to drug addiction and six months in jail for drug possession — that precipitated a spiritual journey to recovery. “But I never stopped creating music or performing. It was just not being able to release a new album, and for many, no new albums means no career, period.”
His resurgence comes as música urbana has taken over the global charts thanks to a new generation of acts — many of whom have credited the wordsmith as a foundational influence. In the crowded field of urbano artists, Vico C has stuck to his values, sharply criticizing oversexualized, violent and materialistic lyrics.
That industry outlier status drew Nain Music to sign him earlier this year. “He’s fresh air to the genre,” says Nain CEO Fidel Hernández, calling Vico C the label’s “flagship” artist. “From an audience perspective, he represents that option to hear deep lyrics that transcend simple entertainment, with impeccable interpretation paired with contagious and creatively unlimited urban rhythms.”
And as Vico C sees it, his unique perspective explains his staying power. “My lyrics aren’t the type that typically sell in my genre. And I don’t want people to think that because I don’t have that sexual element in my music means that it will be out of place. That’s why I’m working hard to polish my lyrics, make them shine thanks to all I’ve learned as a producer. I feel calm and prepared. I’m not reinventing myself here. It’s a matter of just commercializing what I want to give to people.”
On the heels of mega collabs, the Puerto Rican hit-maker arrives as ‘a new artist.’
After nearly 20 years as half of the reggaetón duo Plan B, Chencho Corleone will release his first solo album through his new label, Sony Music Latin, by the end of 2023. The highly anticipated set — Chencho’s first since going solo in 2018 — follows several big collaborations for the Puerto Rican hit-maker, including the blockbuster “Me Porto Bonito” with Bad Bunny, which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.
“Once I started collaborating with all these artists, I saw that people wanted more from me,” says Chencho, 44. “There came a moment, after teaming up with Bad Bunny, Rauw Alejandro and they were all becoming hits, when I said, ‘OK, it’s time to give fans a more complete project.’ God’s timing is always perfect, and I’m ready to give it my all.”
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Chencho laid the foundation for his solo career with Plan B. Alongside partner Maldy, the iconic two-piece rose to fame in the 2000s with reggaetón anthems such as “Mi Vecinita,” “Frikitona” and “Fanática Sensual,” ultimately placing 11 songs on Billboard’s Latin Airplay chart and 10 on Hot Latin Songs. Plan B’s highest-peaking album was also its last: 2014’s Love and Sex, which landed at No. 3 on Top Latin Albums.
But Chencho prefers to enter this new era with a clean slate. “When I started this journey alone, I didn’t want to live in the past. I never want to enter a space and say, ‘I’m Chencho, and this is everything I was able to do with Plan B,’ ” he explains. “I have no ego when I go into a studio with someone else. I consider myself a new artist, and I’m here to prove that just how I was there before, I am here today.”
Since going solo, he has scored two No. 1s on Latin Airplay: “Desesperados,” with Rauw, and “Me Porto Bonito,” which ruled Hot Latin Songs for 20 weeks. But Chencho’s collaborations hint at what fans can expect from his new album, which he promises will stay true to his reggaetón roots. “It’s what my fans know me for,” he says. “My style is singing songs that people can identify with but still dance along to and be transported to a specific time in their lives. The album is everything Chencho Corleone is known for, but amplified.”
Vico C and Chencho Corleone will speak at Billboard Latin Music Week, taking place Oct. 2 – Oct. 6. To register, click here.
This story will appear in the Sept. 23, 2023, issue of Billboard.
Beyoncé fan Jon Hetherington posted a video last week in which he lamented that he would not be able to achieve a lifelong dream of seeing Queen Bey in concert in Seattle at Lumen Field because he said the airline he was flying on was unable to accommodate his wheelchair. In a TikTok video, Oregon native Hetherington said he got the airport and was told by the unnamed airline that his chair was four inches too tall to be loaded onto the plane.
“They checked every possible flight, every airline, and nothing is available. So after 25 years of waiting, I’m not seeing Beyonce tonight. So ableism strikes again,” he lamented in the video that went viral and racked up more than 360,000 likes and 1,500 comments.
He was quickly flooded by comments from the Bey Hive, with some offering to give him their tickets for upcoming shows, and many others tagging Beyoncé, her Parkwood Entertainment management company and Columbia Records. “I’ve waited so f–king long for this,” Hetherington said in a follow-up video in which he said was demoralized, frustrated and sad about missing the show; two weeks earlier he said he was left stranded in Seattle for hours after a Janelle Monáe show because he could not find an accessible taxi in Seattle.
The groundswell of support and offers of help for the Oregon native turned into a dream come true on Thursday night (Sept. 21) when Hetherington, 34 — who has cerebral palsy and uses an electric wheelchair — was able to attend Bey’s Renaissance tour date at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX after a member of the singer’s team reached out to him, according to the New York Times; at press time a spokesperson for Beyoncé could not be reached for confirmation of the report.
The Times reported that Bey’s team arranged for a new flight and after the show Hetherington reported that not only did his dream come true, but he met Beyoncé’s mom — Tina Knowles-Lawson — as well as the singer herself. “Beyhive, you made this happen, you pushed and tagged like the internet has never seen. Tonight, for the first time ever, I had a seat on the floor for a concert. Welcome to the RENAISSANCE,” he wrote alongside a shot of him awaiting the beginning of the concert.
In a second photo, next to a smiling Knowles-Lawson, Hetherington was elated about his magical night and told his followers that he planned to keep the special words Beyoncé shared to himself. “There is much that I will say in the coming days about what tonight means to me. There are some things I’ll keep for myself. Truly an honor to meet you, @mstinaknowles! Thank you for all that you’ve done and given the world. We’re so grateful,” he said.
“To the Queen herself, @beyonce, I will treasure those words you said and the hugs you gave,” he added. “I meant every word I said. No, for anyone and everyone reading this, I will not ever share with you what was said to me, don’t even try it. That moment is between the two of us.”
See Hetherington’s posts below.
At Houston’s NRG Stadium on Aug. 29, Karol G invited a special guest to join her onstage: her international tour’s opening act, the Puerto Rican rapper Young Miko. Clad in a vibrant pink crop top and matching baggy pants, Young Miko took Karol by the hand as the two sang their collaborative hit, “Dispo,” moving in perfect harmony in an undulating perreo-style dance.
Amid the ecstatic cheers of fans, it was Karol, not the newcomer, who betrayed a rare glimpse of nerves as she admitted, “Ahora soy yo la que me puse nerviosa!” (“Now it’s me who has gotten nervous!”)
Miko’s meteoric rise from nascent local sensation to captivating performer capable of holding her own beside a global superstar is a testament to her undeniable talent. In just over one year, Billboard‘s 2023 Latin Rookie of the Year has broken out of her native Puerto Rico’s música urbana scene, performing with heavyweights like Karol and Bad Bunny as well as headlining her own Trap Kitty world tour of nearly 50 cities across the Americas and Spain.
“I feel incredible — a world tour! At least this early in my career,” Miko says, still sounding awestruck.
She has also been ascending the Billboard charts. “Dispo” peaked at No. 22 on Hot Latin Songs, and she made her Billboard Hot 100 debut in July with “Classy 101,” a smooth reggaetón number with Colombian star Feid. “It was definitely a shocker,” Miko told Billboard in June. “Usually one sees Beyoncé, Taylor Swift or The Weeknd on the Hot 100. To see my name is very surreal, a reminder that this is really happening and that people are consuming [my music].”
Lia Clay Miller
Lia Clay Miller
While her name now shares the charts with music’s biggest stars, not long ago, the 24-year-old artist born María Victoria Ramírez de Arellano Cardona was leveraging another form of artistic expression — tattooing — to finance her music. “The goal was always to start tattooing so I could afford my music dreams and eventually let go of the machine,” she says. “Thanks to tattoos, I was able to start paying for studio time.”
Since arriving on the global Latin pop scene, Miko has both played into and inverted male-centric Latin tropes with bold and raunchy lyrics that draw on her experience as a queer woman while boosting the LGBTQ+ community. “When I started writing music, I was like, ‘F–k it. People already know I’m gay, and why would I sing to men?’ Respectfully,” she adds with a chuckle, “if I don’t like men, I’m not going to dedicate a song to one.”
Her commitment to authenticity allowed her to carve out a place as a singular, hyper-femme queer rapper in música urbana with an unmatched, unhurried flow that has captivated a growing fan base that she calls Mikosexuals.
“For a lot of people, I came out of nowhere and caught a drastic boom — but in reality, we’ve been doing this for a really long time,” she explains. “SoundCloud played a big role in letting me test these waters that I had never explored before. We didn’t have any other resources. We had the talent, the idea, the vision, the work ethic.”
Lia Clay Miller
That drive paid off when Angelo Torres, co-founder and head of Puerto Rican indie label Wave Music Group, came across Miko while scrolling through Twitter on a flight in 2020. “This SoundCloud link popped up of this girl with pink hair and tattoos,” Torres remembers. “I was instantly captivated when I heard her tracks. There was something undeniably intriguing about her sound. [I thought,] ‘I really need to meet this person.’ ”
Torres and producer Caleb Calloway established Wave in 2021 and signed Miko several months after. Calloway, who would become pivotal to her rise, first collaborated with her on “Puerto Rican Mami” when she only had a couple of songs released on SoundCloud. That track arrived in December 2021. By July 2022, Miko was onstage at Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot in San Juan with Bad Bunny, performing her viral trap song “Riri.”
To Calloway, Miko’s sincerity remains the key to her success. “She has always maintained her originality, never letting fame alter her essence,” he says. “Miko was that artist that was able to finally fit in exactly to where my sound was and then take it to another level with her Y2K flow, with her singing and then rapping, and me doing the beat. It just sounds like we’ve been together our whole lives, and we’ve only been working for three years.”
Lia Clay Miller
Young Miko photographed on September 11, 2023 in New York.
Lia Clay Miller
Alongside Calloway and her longtime producer Mauro, Miko has crafted hits like “Riri” and this year’s “Wiggy” and “Lisa.” Her debut album, Trap Kitty, and the singles that have followed showcase her laid-back approach to trap, rap and reggaetón — a refreshing blend of boldness and nonchalance.
“We sensed tremendous excitement around Young Miko,” says Jeremy Vuernick, president of A&R at Capitol Music Group, which locked in a long-term distribution deal with Wave in April. “One of the most exciting things about Young Miko, aside from her incredible ability as a songwriter and storyteller, is the way that she’s able to connect with her audience.” And her unwavering authenticity and fiery passion have struck a chord with fans across the globe.
“It has been a year filled with a lot of learning, both professionally and as a person. It all happened so fast, but I’m surrounded by people who just want the best for me — people who have been with me since day one,” Miko says. “There are many new things that seem unreal, but I’m grateful. I’m growing, I’m learning, I’m evolving. I just know that the best is yet to come.”
Young Miko will speak at Billboard Latin Music Week, taking place Oct. 2 – Oct. 6. To register, click here.
This story will appear in the Sept. 23, 2023, issue of Billboard.
It somehow feels like both yesterday and a decade ago that Doja Cat lambasted her fans, told them to “get a job,” and lost nearly 250,000 Instagram followers. The road to Scarlet has been littered with potential blockades, but like a true feline, Doja Cat flexed her nine lives and turned the campaign for her new featureless album into a run that included not just her first unaccompanied Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper, but also the first hip-hop song to reach No. 1 on the chart in 2023.
The last time Doja put out a studio album, she went intergalactic. Wrapping in trap, Afrobeats, slinky R&B and sugar straightforward pop, Planet Her netted Doja a No. 2 peak on the Billboard 200, her first Grammy, and a litany of hits, including the SZA-assisted “Kiss Me More” (No. 3), “Woman” (No. 7), “Need to Know” (No. 8), “You Right” (No. 11, with The Weeknd), and “Get Into It (Yuh)” (No. 20).
Prior to that, the cross-genre marvel joined forces with Nicki Minaj for her first Hot 100 No. 1 single, “Say So” — a nu-disco quarantine anthem that helped launch both its parent album (Hot Pink) and Doja’s career to staggering new heights. In many ways, Scarlet — with its moody overtone and horrorcore-nodding aesthetic — is a response to the precariousness of those heights and the pressures they place on an artist who simply just wants to make music and find happiness in her life.
In many ways, Doja prepped Scarlet as a back-to-basics record that would focus on flaunting her skills as an emcee. She launched the era with the boom-bap-indebted “Attention,” doubled down on the pop-rap with the Dionne Warwick-sampling “Paint the Town Red,” and dabbled in punk-rap and lo-fi on promotional singles “Demons” and “Balut,” respectively. As a complete unit, Scarlet finds Doja flexing her muscle in different rap subgenres as she relies on a fiery new love to release from the twisted hamster wheel of the fanatic-artist dynamic. From jazz rap and punk rap to neo-soul and pluggnb, Doja is at the height of her chameleonic powers on Scarlet.
With a plethora of new songs to sort through and a tour on the horizon, which tracks are the true highlights of this record? Here is a preliminary ranking of every song on Doja Cat’s Scarlet.
“Shutcho”
In one of her first public appearances since a trio of former dancers filed a lawsuit accused her of turning a blind eye to toxic working conditions, Lizzo took the stage at Thursday night’s (Sept. 21) 2023 Black Music Action Coalition gala to receive the night’s final honor: the BMAC Quincy Jones Humanitarian Award.
The award was presented by the Big Grrrls from Lizzo’s Emmy-winning reality show, Watch Out For the Big Grrrls, just hours after the singer was hit with the latest lawsuit from a former employee, this one alleging sexual and racial harassment, disability discrimination and illegal retaliatory termination; the suit from Special Tour clothing designer Asha Daniels filed in L.A. Superior Court named Lizzo, along with tour manager Carlina Gugliotta and the Big Grrrl Touring company as defendants. It’s the second such lawsuit in two months, alleging sexual and racial harassment.
Before Lizzo came onstage, one of the cast members spoke about her being the “first person to ever believe in us, show us love and believe in our talent and our craft.” Another said, “When we found out Lizzo was being honored, we knew that we had to be here. This has always been somebody that gives back. She cares deeply. She loves with her whole heart … she put in the work to get to this moment.”
Stepping onstage to accept the statuette, an emotional Lizzo said, “BMAC thank you because I needed this right now. God’s timing is always on time! I’ve been blessed to receive a lot of incredible awards. But this one truly hits different because humanitarianism is selfless. And to be kind to someone isn’t a talent. Everyone can do it. It’s a gift that you give. In all my years of activism and outreach, I have witnessed at the core of every organization, every movement, every march is just people helping people. And they do it every damn day. I get to come in, help and go back to my life as a musician. These people are still helping people because they’ve dedicated their lives to service. And they don’t get awards; they don’t get a round of applause. Because of that, I’ve dedicated my life and decided to share my platform to shine a light on those people. Because I so badly want to live in a world where we award goodness with our attention.”
Lizzo further shared that she donated a quarter of a million dollars in June to several Black-led organizations dedicated to helping Black youth, Black women, the Black queer/Black trans communities. To applause and shouts, she went on to name the organizations, which included the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, Black Girls Smile, Sphinx Organization, Save Our Sisters and a scholarship partnership with the University of Houston.
“It’s easy to do the right thing when everybody’s watching you,” Lizzo continued in the speech that did not directly address any of the allegations. “But it’s what you do in those moments where nobody’s watching that defines who you are. I’m going to continue to be who I am, no matter who’s watching. I’m going to continue to amplify the voices of marginalized people because I have a microphone and I know how to use it. And I’m going to continue to put on, represent and create safe spaces for Black fat women because that’s what the f–k I do! My family’s here, Nice Life is here … the Big Grrrls. This support right now means the world to me.”
Lizzo responded to the first suit alleging sexual harassment and weight-shaming in August, calling them “false allegations” and “sensationalized stories.”
“I am not the villain that people and the media have portrayed me to be these last few days,” Lizzo wrote in a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter). “I am very open with my sexuality and expressing myself but I cannot accept or allow people to use that openness to make me out to be something I am not.”
At press time it did not appear that Lizzo had responded to the allegations in the latest lawsuit. Daniels is being represented by attorney Ron Zambrano, who is also representing former dancers Ariana Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez, who claimed in their suit that they were subjected to sexual harassment and a hostile work environment, including being pressured to touch nude dancers during a live sex show.
The 2019 murder of rapper Nipsey Hussle is the subject of a just-launched limited true series entitled Behind the Crime. The show, which premiered this week on Fox’s Tubi network on Wednesday, is a collaboration with Dan Abrams’ Law&Crime network and it follows the killing of Hussle, as well as the murder trial of Eric […]
After months of teasing and controversy, Doja Cat is finally ready to transport fans to “Agora Hills.” The Grammy-winning cross-genre artist unveiled Scarlet, her fourth studio album, on Friday (Sept. 22).
After signaling her new era with a shaved head and a rebuke of her earlier music, Doja launched Scarlet in June with the release of “Attention,” a boom-bap-indebted hip-hop track that prioritized showcasing the dexterity of her rapping ability. The track debuted and peaked at No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100, and its music video — which previewed the era’s overarching horror aesthetic — picked up six nominations at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards, ultimately winning best art direction.
“Paint the Town Red,” the record’s first radio single, soon followed with a catchy hook and a bouncy Dionne Warwick-sampling beat. The song became Doja’s second Hot 100 No. 1 — her first unaccompanied — becoming the first hip-hop song to reach the top of the ranking in 2023. A punk-rap promotional single titled “Demons” arrived on Sept. 1, complete with a music video starring Emmy-nominated Yellowjackets star Christina Ricci. A Ric Flair-nodding promotional single called “Balut” was released on Sept. 15. In the final weeks leading up to the album, blood-covered life-size mannequins made in Doja’s likeness appeared in major cities across the United States.
Scarlet boasts a completely featureless tracklist and eye-popping titles such as “Wet Vagina,” “Skull and Bones” and “F—k the Girls (FTG).” The standard edition houses 15 tracks, while two extra songs can be found on digital versions of the album: “Shutcho” and “WYM Freestyle.”
To support the new record, Doja will embark on The Scarlet Tour. The 24-date trek will kick off on Halloween at San Francisco’s Chase Center, and hit major cities across the U.S. before wrapping Dec. 13 at Chicago’s United Center. Ice Spice and “What It Is (Block Boy)” rapper Doechii will serve as opening acts for the tour.
Doja Cat’s new album is the follow-up to 2021’s Planet Her. That album, her third studio effort, peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and spawned a litany of Hot 100 hits, including the SZA-assisted “Kiss Me More” (No. 3), “Woman” (No. 7), “Need to Know” (No. 8), “You Right” (No. 11, with The Weeknd), and “Get Into It (Yuh)” (No. 20).
Stream Scarlet now: