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Kanye West is trying to lead with love as he clarified that name-dropping Taylor Swift on Vultures 1 standout “Carnival” came with no ill will. “I mean since Taylor Swift, since I had the Rollie on the wrist/ I’m the new Jesus b—h, I turn water to Cris,” he raps on the anthem.
West posted a photo to Instagram on Wednesday (Feb. 14) screenshotting a fan’s tweet calling for Swifties to support Beyoncé’s pair of singles to help block Kanye from debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Carnival.”
“WHEN I SAID THAT I’M THE NEW JESUS B—H I WASN’T EVEN THINKING ABOUT TAYLOR SWIFT THAT WAS A WHOLE LINE BEFORE BUT I APPRECIATE THE FREE PROMO,” he wrote.
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The Chicago-bred rapper — who now goes by Ye — went on to explain that he actually had Swift’s back when Scooter Braun purchased the masters to the pop star’s first six albums through a 2019 deal. (West dissed Braun on “Vultures,” with the rapper claiming that he had been intimate with the record exec’s wife in one lyric.)
“REMEMBER I WAS ON TAYLOR’S SIDE WHEN SCOOTER BOUGHT HER MASTERS BEHIND HER BACK,” he continued in his post. “SHE AND BEYONCÉ ARE BIG INSPIRATIONS TO ALL MUSICIANS WE ALWAYS SAY HOW BOTH SELL OUT TOURS AND MOVIES.”
Ye believes he’s been more “helpful” to Swift’s massive career as a pop titan than “harmful,” but wouldn’t exactly call himself an ally to the Swifties.
“ALSO, I’M SURE I’VE BEEN FAR MORE HELPFUL TO TAYLOR SWIFT’S CAREER THAN HARMFUL,” he added. “TO ALL TAYLOR SWIFT FANS I AM NOT YOUR ENEMY UUUM IM NOT YOUR FRIEND EITHER THOUGH LOL.”
Ye and Swift have a complicated history, to say the least. Their relationship is famously headlined by the infamous 2009 MTV Video Music Awards moment when the rapper crashed the stage during Swift’s acceptance speech to highlight Beyoncé’s video. He also took credit for making her “famous” on a The Life of Pablo track in 2016.
In the same IG post, West reflected on the turbulence of the last year caused by his antics and antisemitic remarks, which saw just about every brand associated with the rapper sever ties.
“LAST YEAR WAS INCREDIBLY CHALLENGING FOR ME, MY WIFE, MY CHILDREN, FRIENDS AND FAMILY. I’VE BEEN BANNED FROM HOTELS, KICKED OUT OF COMPANIES, AND EVEN NOT ALLOWED TO EAT IN SOME RESTAURANTS,” Ye penned. “EVERYONE SAW VULTURES 1 GET TAKEN OFF OF PLATFORMS TO LIMIT OUR FIRST WEEK NUMBERS. THIS REMINDS ME OF THE MISTREATMENT OF MY PEOPLE BECAUSE OF THE COLOR OF OUR SKIN.”
Even through all of the controversies, Yeezy is vying for what could be his 11th album earning the No. 1 spot atop the Billboard 200 after this week thanks to Vultures 1.
See West’s post below.
Fresh off a Las Vegas wedding to his longtime girlfriend, Jenn Goicoechea, over Super Bowl Weekend, Usher is opening up about one of his first true loves in a new People magazine cover story. The singer, 45, spoke to the magazine about his intense romance with TLC’s Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas, whom the “Yeah!” singer met when he moved to Atlanta from his home in Chattanooga, TN as a teenager.
Describing himself as someone who “was always charming the older ladies,” Usher said he was smitten when he met Chilli, now 53, who was seven years older than him when they began dating in 2001. “If I am to be honest, I was her No. 1 fan, and she was my superstar,” he said, adding that he had Chilli’s poster on the wall of his childhood bedroom when he was eight-years-old.
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“[I] said, ‘Man that girl is so beautiful. One day I’m going to meet her,’” he recalled saying at the time. And though meeting the woman of his dreams and beginning a relationship with her was magical, Usher said the affair ultimately fizzled because of differing priorities. “I was a young man, and she had very specific rules that didn’t work for me,” he told People of the singer who starred in the videos for Usher’s hits “U Remind Me,” “U Got it Bad” and “U Don’t Have to Call.”
“We were missing each other. I really did want to have a different type of relationship where she was there with me, and she couldn’t be,” said Usher, who wowed the crowd at Allegiant Stadium in Vegas during Sunday’s Super Bowl LVIII halftime show. “She didn’t believe that I was actually in love with her as much as I was.”
Despite the difficulties, Usher said his plan to marry Chilli went sideways. “I proposed and she told me no. I went through a great deal of pain after that, not trusting women or wanting to open up,” Usher said. “I hurt her too,” he added, noting that the split also “broke my heart.”
Usher, now married for a third time, and Chilli — who began dating actor Matthew Lawrence in 2022 — reportedly remained friendly after their split; Chilli previously told People that they were on-and-off for years after the break-up, reconnecting when they weren’t dating other people. But Usher told the mag that when it ended, he was done for good.
“We were cool with each other, but I was very careful with that,” he said. “I really did love that girl, and I was like, I don’t want to play with you. Like, ‘I can’t give you what I gave you. I did everything that I thought you would’ve wanted me to do, but I guess my good wasn’t great enough.’” But, he noted, these days the two are “cool with each other” and it’s “always light” when they see each other.
Usher dropped his new album, Coming Home, last week. The 20-track collection boasts guest spots from BTS’ Jung Kook, Burna Boy, H.E.R. and more, and is expected to compete with Kanye West’s Vultures for the top spot on the Billboard 200 next week.
Say it ain’t so. After 54 years, nine gold albums and a string of hits including “Before I Let Go” — which Beyoncé lovingly covered on her live album Homecoming — Maze frontman Frankie Beverly is announcing his farewell tour. The I Wanna Thank You Farewell Tour kicks off in Atlanta at the State Farm Arena on […]
Drake has been giving back to his fans quite a bit while on the road. During his Monday night (Feb. 12) stop in St. Louis asking, the “6 God” rapper spotted a fan asking for his help covering an upcoming costly surgery — and Drizzy stopped the show to let them know that he would […]
Lil Yachty shocked the world with his Let’s Start Here psychedelic rock album, and now he’s gearing up to make another creative pivot with his next body of work. Lil Boat revealed on Tuesday (Feb. 13) that he’s readying a genre-blending joint project with James Blake titled Bad Cameo.
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“I think James has worked with a quite substantial amount of hip-hop artists,” Yachty said in a clip posted to Instagram. “But this project is so left for both of us. Then, aside from the one picture that James posted, which he doesn’t have many followers actually, I don’t think people know that we know each other exist.”
While they are yet to release anything together in an official capacity, Blake is no stranger to the hip-hop world, as he’s earned recent production credits working on Kanye West’s Vultures 1 and Travis Scott’s Utopia.
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Fans figured that Blake and Lil Yachty could have something in the stash when a photo of them in the studio went viral last March. The British singer-songwriter detailed meeting up with the “Poland” rapper months later in an interview with DIY Magazine.
“[Yachty and I] had been working on something, and it just happened that he was in London. I asked him if he fancied going out to a club. I don’t think he probably knew what it would be like,” Blake said. “He happened to turn up at exactly the moment that the Ragga Twins came on stage. Suddenly, he was just stood there like, ‘Oh f—ing hell, this is a bit different.’”
Yachty dropped his “Cold Sunday” single earlier this month, and has notched guest verses with Kid Cudi, Chief Keef, Faye Webster and Fred Again in 2024.
Let’s Start Here arrived in January 2023, and debuted at No. 9 on the Billboard 200 with 36,000 album-equivalent sales in the first week.
“I did what I really wanted to do, which was create a body of work that reflected me,” Yachty told Billboard in his cover story of the solo album last year. “My idea was for this album to be a journey: Press play and fall into a void.”
Watch Yachty announce Bad Cameo below.
Killer Mike visited The Daily Show on Tuesday night (Feb. 13) to talk about taking home three 2024 Grammy Awards for his deeply personal Michael album, as well as his arrest that night for what police said was a physical altercation with venue security. But what host Jordan Klepper really wanted to know, though, was […]
There’s a double celebration on Billboard’s Rhythmic Airplay and Rap Airplay charts as Nicki Minaj’s “Everybody,” featuring Lil Uzi Vert crowns both lists, dated Feb. 17. The track, which samples Junior Senior’s 2003 dance hit “Move Your Feet,” is the rappers’ third collaborative single but first champ on either list.
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On Rhythmic Airplay, “Everybody” jumps from No. 3 to the top slot after an 11% gain in plays for the week of Feb. 2-8 that made it the most-played song on U.S. monitored rhythmic radio stations in that span, according to Luminate. With the ascension, Minaj captures her 12th No. 1 on the list and ties Beyoncé for the second-most among women in the chart’s history. Rihanna claims first place in that race, with 17 leaders.
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Here’s an updated list of the acts with the most No. 1s on the Rhythmic Airplay chart, which launched in 1992.
39, Drake
17, Rihanna
13, Chris Brown
13, Bruno Mars
13, The Weeknd
13, Usher
12, Beyoncé
12, Lil Wayne
12, Nicki Minaj
11, Doja Cat
10, Post Malone
Featured act Lil Uzi Vert, meanwhile, gets their second Rhythmic Airplay No. 1, after their featured spot on Migos’ “Bad and Boujee,” which reigned for two weeks in 2017.
Switching to the Rap Airplay chart, “Everybody” rises from the runner-up spot with a 5% jump in audience in the Feb. 2-8 tracking window. As is the case on Rhythmic Airplay, “Everybody” evicts Jack Harlow’s smash hit “Lovin on Me,” from the summit. Harlow’s hit led for six weeks on Rhythmic Airplay and seven weeks on Rap Airplay, and slips to No. 2 on both lists. On the former, it sheds 7% in weekly plays, while losing 3% in audience on the latter.
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Thanks to “Everybody,” Minaj achieves her ninth No. 1 on Rap Airplay, extending her record for the most chart-toppers among women. She moves to two ahead of runner-up Cardi B, who has seven leaders.
Here’s a refreshed rundown of the artists with the most No. 1s on Rap Airplay:
43, Drake
13, Lil Wayne
10, Ye (Kanye West)
9, Jay-Z
9, Nicki Minaj
7, 50 Cent
7, Cardi B
7, T.I.
For Lil Uzi Vert, meanwhile, “Everybody” puts a third Rap Airplay champ on their ledger. They previously reached No. 1 through a featured role on Migos’ six-week champ “Bad and Boujee” in 2017 and their own “Just Wanna Rock,” a four-week leader in 2023.
“Everybody” appears on Minaj’s latest studio album, Pink Friday 2, which was released last December. The track is the third collaborative single from Minaj and Lil Uzi Vert, following two previous Uzi-led hits with Minaj in the featured spot: “The Way Life Goes” peaked at No. 13 on Rhythmic Airplay and No. 14 on Rap Airplay, while “Endless Fashion” hit No. 10 on Rhythmic Airplay and No. 14 on Rap Airplay last year.
Elsewhere, “Everybody” wins a second week at No. 1 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay through a 3% improvement in plays. It also inches 18-17 on Pop Airplay from a 10% gain in plays on mainstream top-40 stations. Thanks to the favorable momentum across multiple formats, the single pushes 12-10 on the all-genre Radio Songs chart. There, it added 7% in listenership to reach 40 million audience impressions in the tracking week.
Eminem coined the term “Stan” with his 2000 hit in a pre-cursor to what the evolution of superfan culture would look like in the social media era decades later. Now, Slim Shady is set to co-produce a Stans documentary, diving deeper into the multilayered relationship between artists and their audience, with fans having more access than ever to their heroes.
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According to Variety, Stans will arrive later this year, with the 15-time Grammy winner involved via his Shady Films, along with DIGA Studios and Hill District Media.
Steven Leckart has reportedly been tapped as the film’s director, according to Variety. A synopsis says that the doc will be a “revealing, edgy and disarmingly personal journey into the world of superfandom, told through the lens of one of the world’s most iconic and enduring artists, Eminem, and the fans that worship him.”
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Eminem’s manager Paul Rosenberg said in a statement: “Stans will be the opportunity for us to to turn the camera around and ask the audience about being fans — and in some cases, fanatics. This is a study of the relationship between fanbase and artist through the lens of one of Eminem’s most fascinating songs and one of the world’s most important entertainers.”
While Stans is reported to be a working title, the documentary will initially be distributed by MTV/Paramount.
“Paul Rosenberg and I have known each other since my days on MTV’s TRL, a show that was driven by the power of fandom, bringing artists and their fans together. So when he told me about the idea for this film, it felt like we had come full circle,” DIGA CEO Tony DiSanto added. “Stans will explore the complex relationship between fame and super fandom, told through the lens of one of the world’s most Iconic artists, Eminem, his music, and, especially, his most extreme fans.”
Eminem’s “Stan” was included on the Detroit rap icon’s The Marshall Mathers LP in 2000. Produced by The 45 King, the multiplatinum track reached a peak of No. 51 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 2000. The Oxford English Dictionary added the term “Stan” to its pages in 2017.
Watch the “Stan” music video below.
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SZA’s forthcoming tour of Australia and New Zealand swells to nine concerts, with the addition this week of two new dates.
The U.S. R&B star will make the long haul in support of her hit album SOS, starting with two shows at Auckland’s Spark Arena (April 15 and 16), and followed by a run of Australia’s three main east coast cities: Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. A second concert at Brisbane Entertainment Centre is added for April 20, and a third show is slotted in at Qudos Bank Arena for April 26.
Live Nation Entertainment is producing the tour of ANZ, SZA’s first of these parts in almost five years.
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SOS (via RCA/Sony Music) connected with Australian audiences like few other albums in 2023. Released at the back-end of 2022, the album came in at No. 5 on the ARIA year-end chart for 2023, behind collections from Taylor Swift, The Weeknd and Morgan Wallen.
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SZA’s hit “Kill Bill” logged one week on top of the ARIA Singles Chart in 2023 and finished the year as the No. 3 single, according to ARIA, behind Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” and Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night,” respectively.
Also, the St. Louis, MO-born artist was shortlisted for most popular international artist at the 2023 ARIA Awards, a category ultimately won by Taylor Swift.
More than a year after its release, SOS is still busting records. The single “Snooze” recently earned an unprecedented 30th week at No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, the most by any song in the list’s 31-year history.
SZA collected three trophies at the Grammy Awards, with best R&B song for “Snooze,” best pop duo/group performance for “Ghost in the Machine” collaboration with Phoebe Bridges, best progressive R&B album for SOS.
SZA’s The SOS Australia & New Zealand Tour Dates:April 15 – Auckland, New Zealand – Spark ArenaApril 16 – Auckland, New Zealand – Spark ArenaApril 19 – Brisbane, Australia – Brisbane Entertainment CentreApril 20 – Brisbane, Australia – Brisbane Entertainment Centre (* new show)April 23 – Sydney, Australia – Qudos Bank ArenaApril 24 – Sydney, Australia – Qudos Bank ArenaApril 26 – Sydney, Australia – Qudos Bank Arena (* new show)April 29 – Melbourne, Australia – Rod Laver ArenaApril 30 – Melbourne, Australia – Rod Laver Arena
Award-winning singer, songwriter and musician H.E.R. has signed with Lighthouse Management + Media for management across all facets of her career.
The announcement follows in the wake of the H.E.R.’s guest appearance at Usher’s acclaimed halftime show during Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday (Feb. 11). According to the press release announcing the news, the signing represents the artist’s next career chapter and underscores “her commitment to expanding her artistic reach and exploring new creative avenues.”
H.E.R.’s former manager is Jeff Robinson. In 2022, the artist sued Robinson’s record label, MBK Entertainment, in an attempt to get out of her contract, citing California’s so-called “Seven-Year Statute.” (Her releases on MBK have been distributed by RCA Records, which was not named as a defendant.)
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In addition to winning five Grammys, an Oscar and an Emmy, the 26-year-old has since branched into acting. She most recently portrayed the character Squeak in the musical film adaptation of The Color Purple and also released a duet with Usher, “Risk It All,” for the movie’s soundtrack. H.E.R. made her acting debut in December 2022 as Belle on ABC’s Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration.
The R&B/pop singer and guitar virtuoso, who signed with MBK Entertainment/RCA Records at age 14, made her breakthrough with 2016’s H.E.R. Volume 1 — the first of five EPs. Her catalog also includes two compilation albums: 2017’s platinum-certified H.E.R., which garnered her first two Grammys with wins for best R&B album and best R&B performance for “Best Part” with Daniel Caesar; and 2019’s gold-certified I Used to Know Her. She released Back of My Mind, her gold-certified debut studio album, in 2021. The RCA artist, along with her producer partner Live Nation, launched the Lights On Festival in 2019 — the first female-owned and curated R&B festival in decades.
H.E.R. later won the Academy Award for best original song for “Fight for You” from the Warner Bros. film Judas and the Black Messiah. That was followed by a Children’s and Family Emmy for outstanding short form program on behalf of her work on the animated series We the People.
Lighthouse Management + Media’s client roster also includes Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Selena Gomez, Gwyneth Paltrow, Olivia Rodrigo, Paul Rudd, Mark Ruffalo, artist Petra Collins and supermodel Miranda Kerr.