R&B/Hip-Hop
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The United Nations World Food Programme announced on Friday (Dec. 1) that WFP Goodwill Ambassador The Weeknd (who now goes by his birth name, Abel Tesfaye) has directed $2.5 million from his XO Humanitarian Fund to aid the WFP’s humanitarian response in Gaza. The organization said that the donation — equal to four million emergency […]
It’s been a decade since Beyoncé set the Beyhive buzzing with a surprise album release. Bey does it again, this time dropping a new single,”My House,” without any prior warning.
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Set to a cracking trap beat and bold, brassy tones, “My House” (via Parkwood Entertainment/Columbia) is both an early Christmas present, and a gift from the superstar U.S. singer to kick-off the opening weekend of her Renaissance concert film.
The tune comes with a parental warning for its “explicit lyrics”. On it, she sings, “I will always love you, but I’ll never expect you to love me when you don’t love yourself/ Let’s heal the world one beautiful action at the time/ This is real love.”
Terius “The-Dream” Gesteelde-Diamant contributes lyrics and production to “My House,” Bey’s first solo release since Beyonce’s hit seventh studio album Renaissance arrived in July 2022.
Arriving at the stroke of midnight, “My House” is accompanied with eye-catching artwork, with Queen Bey front and center, donning dark shades and a futuristic chrome helmet and top combo.
Ten years ago to the month, Bey dropped her self-titled fifth studio album without notice. Many have since copied the strategy, though few have replicated the success of Beyonce, which led the Billboard 200 for three weeks and is one of her seven leaders on the chart.
Bey continues to have it her own way. She bagged the year’s top-grossing tour, with Renaissance World Tour, which grossed $579.8 million and sold 2.8 million tickets, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore between May 10 and Oct. 1.
Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé is expected to put up impressive numbers.
On what is typically a slow post-Thanksgiving period, the movie is aiming for a $30-$40 million global opening, Deadline reports.
Distributed by AMC, the Renaissance movie is booked into 2,539 theaters domestically and another 2,780 abroad in 94 territories, with U.S. previews beginning at 7 p.m. on Thursday (Nov. 30) before settling into a Thursday-Sunday schedule. Beyonce directs the two-and-a-half-hour flick.
Stream “My House” below.
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Ari Lennox is refusing to be another victim of the dangerous trend in which concert attendees throw objects at artists onstage. The “Pressure” singer was performing her opening slot for Rod Wave’s Nostalgia tour at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles on Wednesday night (Nov. 29), when someone threw a water bottle onstage and hit […]
While Tyla‘s hit single “Water” hasn’t lost its steam yet, she’s quenching fans’ thirst for new music. The South African “popiano” singer performed her new single “On and On” on Colors Thursday (Nov. 30). Over a warm vanilla background, Tyla’s honeyed, old-school R&B vocals transport viewers back to 1995. “Let’s take it back in time/ […]
Once upon a time, years before she was one of Spotify’s most streamed musicians of 2023, SZA had no choice but to hand over her song “Consideration” to an artist who was a much bigger star at the time — Rihanna, who ended up using the track on her 2016 album Anti. And though it was tough to accept at first, the “Kill Bill” singer now says she’s thankful it happened.
“I cared so much,” SZA reflected in a video interview with Variety published Wednesday (Nov. 29). “I was so, just, frustrated. And I felt like, ‘I’ll never have anything this cool again.’ I’ll never make anything this cool again, and that was so crazy and so wrong.”
SZA had recorded “Consideration” for her 2017 album Ctrl and even filmed a music video for the track, she told the publication. Days before its release, however, she says Rihanna asked to have the song for Anti and negotiations were made without SZA knowing. “It was already done,” the Grammy winner recalled. “Whatever the conversation, label-wise, was already done. It was just a matter of accepting.”
“[The song] was like the centerpiece to my album at the time,” she added. “And for her, it was just, like, part of her album. And I was like, ‘Please, no.’”
“Consideration” ended up serving as the opening track on Anti, with SZA billed as a featured artist whose voice can be heard singing the song’s refrain in between Ri’s verses. The exposure she gained from the switcheroo turned out to be a blessing in disguise, though, as difficult a pill as it may have been to swallow at first.
“Now I’m so glad that that happened, and that it didn’t cost me anything,” SZA said. “If anything, I gained a bunch from it. And I thank God that I made cool music outside of that. I don’t know why I just really thought my creativity would just stop, and this was the pinnacle of what I could make.”
Watch SZA’s Variety interview above.
Nicki Minaj offered up a stern warning and an exciting promise about her upcoming Pink Friday 2 album in a series of early morning tweets on Thursday morning (Nov. 30). “December 8th is COMING SOON,” she wrote about the collection due out on her birthday, before adding an ominous alert.
“If you on my $h!t list, you will never EVER recover. The. Fkng. End.”
Nicki also teased that her fifth studio collection is a certified classic that she can’t wait to share with the Barbz. “This album is just beyond anything I could have imagined,” she tweeted hours before. She also appeared to share some lyrics from an unnamed track on the collection, which read, “I just wanna watch him do his push-ups w/his sweats on/ Every time he hit it, he gon nail it like a press-on/ When I ride his d!&@ the only time he gettin flexed on/ Hit it from the bak with my pumps & my dress on.”
The hard-hitting bars are just the first in what Minaj promised would be a series of new lyrics, with a line slated to drop every day until Dec. 8. But before that, she let the Barbz decide something crucial: “on a scale from 1-10, how hard you want me to go on #PinkFriday2,” she asked, with the options including “TEN (to the white meat), EIGHT (foot on necks), FIVE (let’m live but ntm) and ONE (#NiceNicki #PopStar).”
Never one to soft-pedal her skills, Minaj has been stoking the hype train all week, assuring Barbz on Monday that it had just dawned on her that she is about to release “one of the greatest albums of ALL TIME.” She followed that promise up on Wednesday with an all caps second assurance that minds will be royally blown. “Right now as a type this mthaPHUCKAZ HAVE NO PHKNG IDEA WTF IS ABOUT TO PHKNG HAPPEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY WILL CHANGE AFTER DECEMBER 8th, 2023!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I SHALL APOINT BARBZ ONLY!!!! EVERY CONGRESSMAN, SENATOR, PRESIDENT, MONARCHY, YOU NAME IT!!!!!”
She also responded to a tweet from the Walmart account (“nothing but respect for the queen of rap! [heart emoji],” writing, “Can’t wait to go to Walmart & pick up my 5th album. My goodness [crying face emoji].”
Minaj pushed the album’s original Nov. 17 release date back earlier this month to avoid a conflict with good friend and longtime mentor Lil Wayne’s joint album with 2 Chainz, Welcome 2 Collegrove. The rapper previously said that she delayed the collection because she had writer’s block during her pregnancy and didn’t want to say “freaky” stuff. Pink Friday 2 is the follow-up to Minaj’s 2018 album, Queen.
Check out Minaj’s tweets below.
This Album Is Just Beyond Anything I Could Have Imagined— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) November 30, 2023
December 8th is COMING SOON. If you on my $h!t list, you will never EVER recover. The. Fkng. End.— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) November 30, 2023
LETS LET THE INFAMOUS BARBZ DECIDE. (And I still have to post an official PF2 lyric, coming right up)- but first… on a scale from 1-10, how hard you want me to go on #PinkFriday2 12/08/23😅— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) November 30, 2023
I just wanna watch him do his push-ups w/his sweats on. Every time he hit it, he gon nail it like a press-onWhen I ride his d!&@ the only time he gettin flexed on Hit it from the bak with my pumps & my dress on#PinkFriday2 12-08-23 ▶️— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) November 30, 2023
Rihanna and Drake’s sultry “What’s My Name?” music video has officially reached one billion YouTube views, 13 years since its release in 2010. In the clip, the rumored ex-couple gets cozy in a convenience store, before cuddling up in a New York apartment, drinking wine, holding hands and even having a little pillow fight. RiRi […]
SZA is Variety‘s Hitmaker of the Year, and the “Snooze” singer sat down with the publication for a wide-ranging interview about her career as one of 2023’s most prominent songwriters and artists. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The Grammy-winning superstar is one of many artists that […]
The King of Pop reigns forever. Despite coming from a completely different era of media, Michael Jackson‘s seminal “Beat It” music video has become the latest clip to reach one billion views on YouTube, as confirmed by the streaming giant on Wednesday (Nov. 29). “Beat It” is Jackson’s third music video to enter the Billion […]
Drake scores another pair of top 10 hits on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart as “You Broke My Heart” and “Evil Ways,” featuring J. Cole, debut at Nos. 5 and 10, respectively, on the list dated Dec. 2. Both songs spring from the deluxe “Scary Hours” edition of the rapper’s latest studio album, For All the Dogs, which rebounds to No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 and grabs a seventh straight week in charge of Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.
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In addition to a top-five start on the multi-metric Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart — which combines streaming, radio airplay and sales into its rankings — “You Broke My Heart” also leads the six new deluxe Dogs additions in streams for the week. The cut registered 18.3 million official U.S. streams in the tracking week of Nov. 17 – 23, according to Luminate, and opens at No. 2 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Streaming Songs chart.
“Evil Ways,” meanwhile, wins the sales race among the new half-dozen tunes. The collaboration sold 2,500 downloads in the week, enough to nab a No. 3 entrance on R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales.
With two new top 10 deposits, Drake’s account swells to 130 such hits on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. It extends his record for the most top 10s among all artists, which the superstar took from James Brown in February 2018. Here’s an updated count of the acts with the most top 10s on the chart, dating to October 1958, when the chart became the first all-encompassing songs survey for the genre:
130, Drake
57, James Brown
52, Aretha Franklin
51, Lil Wayne
48, Stevie Wonder
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Plus, the “Evil Ways” arrival secures J. Cole’s 27th top 10 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and third of 2023. Both prior visits this year – also through featured roles – captured the No. 1 slot, with the Lil Durk-collab “All My Life” leading the list for seven weeks and another Drake teamup, “First Person Shooter,” reigning for one frame.
Beyond the new top 10s, the other four deluxe Dogs cuts all land in the top 25 on this week’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. “Red Button” begins at No. 15, with “The Shoe Fits” (No. 16), “Stories About My Brother” (No. 18) and “Wick Man” (No. 23) closely behind.