R&B/Hip-Hop
Page: 300
Following four lawsuits filed against Sean “Diddy” Combs alleging sexual assault, the rapper and Bad Boy Records founder is speaking out in a statement posted to Instagram on Wednesday (Dec. 6). “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH,” he wrote. “For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my […]
Barbz, get ready for a fun upcoming episode of Watch What Happens Live. Host Andy Cohen took to Twitter on Wednesday (Dec. 6) to reveal that Nicki Minaj will appear as a guest on the show, asking fans to tweet in questions for the “Super Freaky Girl” rapper. However, he did not share when Minaj’s […]
Three weeks after Victoria Monet claimed her first No. 1 single on a Billboard chart, the singer-songwriter adds a second chart-topper to her ledger as “On My Mama” tops the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay list. The track, which led the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay tally for two weeks in November, ascends from the runner-up spot to lead the […]
André 3000’s conflicted feelings toward hip-hop were again highlighted in a new interview with CBS Mornings on Wednesday (Dec. 6).
With this year dubbed the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, many heralded luminaries expressed their unconditional love for the culture, including Nas, LL Cool J, Will Smith and more. 3000 noted that while he received a bevy of offers to participate in this year’s festivities, he turned them down. “I wouldn’t want to be — I’m doing it just because I’m trying to meet an expectation,” he said. “I didn’t get into OutKast for that, you know.”
Last month, 3000 released his debut album, New Blue Sun, which is comprised of eight songs. To the dismay of many rap purists, he didn’t provide any bars, and instead devoted his attention to his newfound love for woodwind instruments.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“When people ask me about a rap album, ‘Man, I would love a rap album,’ I’m with you,” he said. “But it’s like, I want to be with you when I’m really on it.”
He added, “I don’t sit and try to rap every day like when I was younger, and that’s all I did when I was younger. I miss those times a lot, but it’s like life changes: life moves on.”
New Blue Sun debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard New Age Albums chart and bowed at No. 5 on the Top Alternative Albums chart. New Blue Sun also earned 24,000 equivalent album units, according to Luminate, with 15,000 coming through streaming equivalent units and 9,000 via album sales.
Watch Andre’s interview with CBS News here.
[embedded content]
Travis Scott is one of the most successful musical artists of his generation. But in his heart of hearts, he’s really a product person. He relishes creating new things and finding new ways to express his artistic desires. It’s why he told GQ that he’s “going to Harvard for architecture school.” He just wants to make things at the highest level. So, after partnering with Nike, Sony’s PlayStation, McDonald’s, Dior and Fortnite, it wasn’t a shock to hear that he partnered with the Swiss luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet to produce a small batch of the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Afterall, he mentioned it on “Meltdown” off his latest album Utopia when he rapped, “Wrappin’ the cheese, wrap around me ’cause I’ve got property/ Chocolate AP and chocolate the Vs.” The watch is the final project overseen by Audemars Piguet CEO François-Henry Bennahmias, who has run the company since 2013, and was announced at an event on Nov. 30.
The super-limited 41MM timepiece, encased in a chocolate ceramic case with a brown calfskin strap and “Utopia Is a State of Mind” engraved on the back, was limited to 200 pieces, and, like most Scott collabs, completely sold out.
Cactus Jack
If you didn’t have $200,000 to drop on a brown watch but still want to rep Cactus Jack and AP, Scott has you covered. On Tuesday (Dec. 5), the “K-Pop” rapper released a capsule collection featuring everything from sweatshirts and T-shirts to robes and slippers. Prices range from $60 for a dad hat to $1,850 for a leather bomber jacket. Every piece is bathed in a familiar brown hue that Scott has used on everything from his Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen to his infamous Batman halloween costume, and now his very own Royal Oak.
Cactus Jack
“Watchmaking, to me, is the ultimate combo of engineering, fashion, tech and design — a harmony of precision, craftsmanship and perfect timing,” Travis Scott said via press release. “I approached this collaboration similar to sampling or starting a beat, taking inspiration from classics while introducing innovation to push them into the future.”
Cactus Jack
The entire collection is currently available at Travis Scott’s web shop.
Baby Keem unveiled The Melodic Blue visual to go along with his 2021 debut album Tuesday (Dec. 5) on Prime Video. Directed by Savannah Setten, The Melodic Blue “takes you through Keem’s internal battle and leads you through fragments of memory and temptation as he navigates the depths of The Melodic Blue,” according to a […]
Rap’s biggest couple may be in trouble again. Fans are speculating that Cardi B and Offset are splitting up after the “WAP” artist shared some cryptic posts about outgrowing relationships, with some noticing that the pair seem to have unfollowed one another on Instagram. On Monday (Dec. 4) via Instagram Stories, Cardi posted two written […]
The Weeknd stars in a new trailer for Festival, a game from Rock Band studio Harmonix in which the singer — who now goes by his birth name, Abel Tesfaye — is the headliner in a music-experience slated to launch inside Fortnite on Saturday (Dec. 9). Like Harmonix’s most beloved games, Festival lets fans tap […]
If anyone enjoys kicking someone while they’re down, it’s 50 Cent. This past Sunday (Dec. 4), 50 continued his onslaught of Diddy when he posted a photo merging the faces of the shamed Bad Boy legend and the disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and […]
Did anything else happen in the past week besides the premiere of Beyoncé‘s Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé? The music icon’s latest concert documentary vogued to the top of the weekend box office with $21 million — the biggest opening for a film on this historically sleepy first weekend in December in 20 years. With a pair of star-studded (Taylor Swift! Lupita Nyong’o!) premieres in Los Angeles and London, Queen Bey dominated all things music last week.
Nonetheless, the hip-hop and R&B worlds had plenty happening outside of the Renaissance rush. Debates around who belongs on the “mixtape Mount Rushmore” dominated social media, while other conversations continue to deal with the barrage of high-profile lawsuits filed under New York State’s recently-expired Adult Survivors Act.
On the music side, Sexyy Red repackaged her breakout Hood Hottest Princess tape with a tracklist that doubled the size of the original, Lil Wayne joined forces with Shabba Ranks and Buju Banton for the lead single for the forthcoming Book of Clarence soundtrack and Usher commemorated the close of his Las Vegas residency with his appearance on the remix of Jung Kook‘s “Standing Next to You.”
With Fresh Picks, Billboard aims to highlight some of the best and most interesting new sounds across R&B and hip-hop. Get into these seven new picks and be sure to check out the rest of our recs in the Spotify playlist below.
Freshest Find: Antha Pantha feat. A$AP Ferg, “Catwalk”
[embedded content]
Harlem native Antha Pantha unleashed her debut album, Feline Season, last week, with guest appearances from A$AP Ferg (twice!) and HuntDawgg. Ferg lent his talents to the album’s second track, “Catwalk,” an electric tribute to the late ’90s New York hip-hop. He interpolates DMX‘s iconic “meet me outside” chant from “Party Up,” and uses it to evoke the brash energy of the late rapper and his era of high-octane party-rocking crossover hip-hop hits. Antha Pantha skates across the track with the flirtatious charisma of classic-era Lil Kim, always tempered by her own comedic idiosyncrasies in her lyricism and tone. New York’s female rappers just keep on winning.
Beyoncé, “My House”
[embedded content]
Would it be a Beyoncé film event if we didn’t get a new song? Just like the Queen’s winning cover of Frankie Beverly & Maze’s “Before I Let Go” accompanied her Homecoming documentary, “My House” arrives as Beyoncé’s bonus treat for the Renaissance doc. Equal parts marching band-infused dirty South trap and ballroom-ready house, “My House” is Beyoncé’s signature (and somewhat literal) take on house music. Between her animated vocal delivery and those ridiculously lush vocal stacks, the track is unmistakably Beyoncé despite featuring the singer at arguably her most experimental.
BigXthaPlug, “Back on My BS”
[embedded content]
On Friday (Dec. 1), BigXthaPlug capped off his banner year with the release of a new EP titled The Biggest. “Back On My BS” opens the project with a swaggering combination of jazz brass and skittering bass. “The one who put all this together/ They gave me somethin’ good and I made that s–t better/ Turnt up the notch, my watch changed up the weather/ I’m bigger and better, shit bigger than ever,” he spits on the single-verse track. Between his charismatic cadence and Tony Coles’ smooth beat, “Back on My BS” is a knockout opening track.
Dee-1, “Lines Drawn”
[embedded content]
Hip Hop 50 has been wracked with conversation regarding the current scope of the genre’s messaging, the state of hip-hop culture at large and the alleged precariousness of its current position in the music industry. Dee-1, a NOLA rapper, has been vocal about his opposition to the redundancy of mainstream contemporary rap and its glorification of violence. On his new track “Lines Drawn,” which will is presently exclusively available on Audiomack, Dee-1 demands more from both consumers and creators in hip-hop: “I said that glorifying murder in our music is bad/ Now people saying ‘Stop speaking up, we like to hear that!’/ If that’s your preference, that’s cool, but when you get on the defense/ That lemme know my spirit irritatin’ your demons,” he spits over a chugging trap-infused instrumental.
Flo Milli, “Never Lose Me”
[embedded content]
The Alabmama rapper’s long-gestating “Never Lose Me” is finally here — and it was, in fact, worth the wait. A snippet of this song went viral on TikTok, amassing over 100,000 posts in just under two months. The new track, and latest taste of her forthcoming Fine Ho, Stay album, finds Flo delivering smooth, sultry bars over a sample of Babyface Ray & 42 Dugg‘s “Ron Artest.” “Yeah, he my man, he was never your type/ If you try me, ho, it’s on sight/ He totin’ the Uzi, but he actin’ real bougie/ I like to fight over d–k, ho, don’t get hit with the two-piece,” she spits over the synthy instrumental, using her sweet tone as a Trojan horse for hard-hitting barbs.
Tyla, “Truth or Dare”
[embedded content]
As the newly Grammy-nominated South African breakout star continues to rides the waves of “Water” to new commercial heights around the world, she’s already racing to her forthcoming eponymous debut studio album. She released three strong new tracks last week (Dec. 1), including the sensual standout “Truth or Dare.” On the mellow new Afropop-infused track, Tyla employs a staccato delivery in the verses to glean the truth from a lover who got away, ultimately delivering subtle riffs and ear-candy harmonies in the chorus. “Truth or dare? Is it true you care?/ Now that you can see the love from everyone,” she croons.
Hillari, “Blind Then”
[embedded content]
Backed by mournful acoustic guitar, rising Filipina-Norwegian artist Hillari spends “Blind Then” parsing the difficulties of prioritizing music over certain relationships in her life. “Wish I would’ve noticed I was/ Blind then, silenced/ But I never noticed you was/ Right there, beside me,” she sings. It’s a simple arrangement — mostly reliant on a soulful collage of guitar and drums — but it’s Hillari’s weighty voice that illuminates that simplicity. Each quiver of her vibrato rings with the doubt, frustration and yearning she describes in her lyrics.