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Baby2Baby Gala is returning to Los Angeles on November 11, and Snoop Dogg will be taking the stage to perform at the charitable event, Billboard can exclusively reveal. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news In honor of his performance, Baby2Baby is set to provide nearly 300,000 essential items […]
“I don’t go on TikTok,” says PinkPantheress when asked whom she pegs as future TikTok stars. It’s surprising, to say the least. Few musicians have utilized the platform as expertly as she has over the past three years. What started out as a bet with a friend to prove she could crack its algorithm — “I told her I could make a viral video if I wanted to. And then I did,” she remembers — wound up launching what has turned out to be a fruitful career IRL.
“Once I figured out the algorithm, I was like, ‘Well, surely this would be able to blow up the music, too,’ ” she says. The 22-year-old English musician (who goes by various pseudonyms in lieu of her real name) is sitting in a midsize meeting room at the 1 Hotel in Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood, where the décor — black leather, bare metal and treated wood everywhere — is working hard to make nature feel modern, but she looks effortlessly cool in baggy denim and a comfortable tank top. She’s polite and cordial, even though it’s clear she would rather be doing anything but an interview. “I was like, ‘Well, I might as well just try and see what happens. And even if I don’t get anyone listening to it, at least it’s out there and not just stuck on my laptop.’ ”
The songs that were hiding out on her laptop quickly found an audience. Her brand of drum’n’bass-meets-’90s pop/R&B tapped right into the heart of the zeitgeist, resonating with a generation of kids who don’t know life before the internet, smartphones and social networks but are downright tickled by the idea of a more analog lifestyle.
“When I posted my first song, people were commenting saying it was really good. And I saw people using the sound — like 200 uses in a day or something,” PinkPantheress says. “At that point I was like, ‘Wow, this is crazy.’ Imagine you have a song that you didn’t think anyone was going to listen to, to suddenly way more people than you expected listening to it.”
Lia Clay Miller
Uploaded three years ago on Christmas Day, the song was the Michael Jackson-sampling “Just a Waste,” and it showcased what has become her trademark style: throwing a disco ball drenched in despair into a blender to create something deceptively fun. But while PinkPantheress loves sampling, she’s weary of relying on its easy pleasures. “I always like to think that I’m adding something to [the sample], which is, like, relevant enough that suddenly it’s a new song. I just think too many songs these days are just an interpolation,” she says.
With hordes of new fans clamoring for more, PinkPantheress uploaded “Pain” in January 2021, a song that would have fit in perfectly with the Euro alt-pop invasion of the late 1990s. At only a minute and 39 seconds long, it’s really more of a ditty than a song — but manages to perfectly convey forlorn teenage love.
“Just a Waste” and “Pain” showcased a young, gifted songwriter, one who could succinctly capture and clearly telegraph universal feelings to make listeners feel as if she might be reading their DMs. Early on, unrequited love dominated her music. The feeling of “having someone that you’ve always wanted to see romantically but you’ve never managed to be able to and stuff like that,” she says. Now that she’s getting more famous, though, her music may soon have a more optimistic glint. “I guess the more I create music, the less I want to be stuck in that world.”
Born in Bath, England, to a Black Kenyan mother and a white British father, PinkPantheress was raised in Kent with her older brother. She took to music at an early age, learning to play piano and forming a rock band with a few friends while in grammar school. She spent most of her free time watching music videos and interviews on YouTube. By the time she got to college, she started making electronic music and experimenting with musical software to create her own productions.
To try out her songs, she wrote and produced for her friend MaZz. “I think, objectively, the songs were good songs,” PinkPantheress says. “She was kind of the [voice] and face for my writing.” But, like many talented songwriters, PinkPantheress soon “wanted more control over how I sounded.” She registered for SoundCloud under the name of her favorite Steve Martin movie and began uploading songs.
Lia Clay Miller
Nothing caught on — but when she took to TikTok in December 2020, seemingly overnight, she became an indie pop darling. “Pain” broke onto the U.K. Singles chart in August 2021 and peaked at No. 35. Later that year, she signed a deal with Parlophone and Elektra Records and released her first mixtape, To Hell With It. As booking offers came in for PinkPantheress — who had yet to perform live — her management at Upclose took things slowly, opting for smaller shows that allowed her to build an audience rather than going for festival stages.
“I remember my first few shows after my mixtape was out at the end of 2021 and [my management] were making me do rooms of like 100 people and 150 people,” she recalls. “The biggest room I did was probably 800. I remember thinking, ‘Why are these rooms so small?’ ”
“It has been superintentional,” says Jesse Gassongo-Alexander, PinkPantheress’ co-manager, when asked about helping her build a fan base after finding so much success online. “It was always a case of putting in the hard work and taking the slower route to build a foundation that is solid that’s going to allow her to stay here for a while.”
Her story resembles that of another young female artist who managed to parlay massive online success into real-world results: rapper Ice Spice. On paper, PinkPantheress and Ice Spice may seem like photo negatives of each other — one’s a brash rapper from the Bronx who has no problem putting herself in the spotlight; the other’s an introverted singer who prefers the solitary pursuit of songwriting to industry glad-handing — but to PinkPantheress, they’re more alike than different. So much so that she offered Ice a spot on the remix to her hit song, “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2,” earlier this year.
“I feel like I don’t have that many peers that exist in a similar space to me,” she says. “I’m not talking about levels. I’m talking about internet space. I think a lot of people see me as being this, like, internet cutesy teen-pop girl. I feel like she was one of the newcomers whom I got drawn to because, even though she does drill and rap, it still feels like she’s in the same cutesy world to me. And she’s Black too, and that was a big important part of it to me. I prefer to collaborate with other Black artists.”
Lia Clay Miller
The song became an instant hit, her biggest so far, debuting at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 after going viral on TikTok. For many in the United States, “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2” was the first time they had heard PinkPantheress. It got her her first BET Award nominations (best collaboration, BET Her Award), landed her an MTV Video Music Awards nod (best new artist) and ultimately peaked at No. 3.
Many believe she’s a lock for her first Grammy nomination thanks to the song — if she had to guess, probably for best pop duo/group performance. She’s taken aback and amused when told about the drama that has surrounded the Grammy Awards’ classification of certain albums by Black artists — even more so when she learns how disappointed Justin Bieber was when his album Changes got the nod for best pop vocal album instead of best R&B album.
But even without a Grammy nomination, she can count this year as an unequivocal success. In addition to her biggest single yet, she appeared on Barbie: The Album — as good an “I’ve arrived” moment as any. But still, even as her career explodes, it’s surprising to hear that TikTok has taken a back seat.
“I didn’t leave it behind. I still post on it,” she says reassuringly. “I love using it to post my own videos, but I do not watch videos on there. Because like a year ago, I would scroll and I’d see too many TikToks about me. I was like, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ ”
Makes sense. Her management team trusts her to make the best decisions for herself. “I think she has shown how globally intelligent she is by being one of the earlier trendsetters,” Gassongo-Alexander says. “Coming from TikTok and appealing to a wider audience and then knowing how to retain that wider audience.”
How does PinkPantheress plan to keep growing that audience? By keeping on keeping on, it seems. She’s uninterested in sacrificing her core audience at the altar of pop stardom. Thankfully, her music is naturally easy on pop fan ears. “What I’ve realized is that my natural way of writing is more pop-friendly than anything,” she says. “So even though the beats can be kind of alternative, I still write in a very standard structure. And I make sure all the lyrics are tangible. And because of that, I think that it has made the [music] that I’m doing very accessible to mainstream audiences. But my biggest fear is having people hear me do a [song] and recognize that I’m doing it for the wrong reasons.”
This story will appear in the Oct. 7, 2023, issue of Billboard.
After the release of Drake’s “8 AM in Charlotte,” Billboard takes a look at Drake’s celebrated timestamp series.
Offset‘s upcoming Set It Off solo album features two collaborations with wife Cardi B, as well as a raft of other A-list guests. The Migos MC unveiled the track list for his upcoming solo album on Wednesday afternoon (Oct. 4); the album is due out on Oct. 13. In a song roster posted on his […]
Drake is in an introspective mood on the gospel-tinged surprise track “8AM in Charlotte,” which the 6 God dropped early Thursday morning (Oct. 5). The Conductor Williams-produced track rides on a laconic beat and finds Drizzy backed by a soulful choir as he flexes about his nine-figure lifestyle while dropping an awards show-worthy list of A-list names.
The video for the track co-stars the rapper’s five-year-old son, Adonis, who opens the five-minute visual by showing off a cute drawing he made for his pops. “Tell me about your beautiful piece of artwork that you sold me,” Drake says to his son, who goes on to describe a tale of a goat running away from monsters amid images of flaming flowers, race cars and jail stairs.
“Daddy’s name is next to the goat, does that mean that he’s the GOAT?” the MC wonders. “Yes, so it’s Daddy GOAT,” Adonis confirms. Clearly already a chip off the old block, when Drake asks Adonis how much he earned for his beautiful drawing, the kindergarten controller laughs and says, “Oh please.”
Then dad gets to business, rapping, “Preachin’ to the dogs about wantin’ more for themselves/ It’s weighin’ heavy on my moral scale/ Knowin’ they gon’ sell another citizen ‘cane, they think they Orson Welles,” in the bare-bones visual in which Drizzy sports colorful hair curlers, baggy black vinyl pants and a jacket with a series of colorful V’s on it. In one shot, Drake sits surrounded by a group of men, and Adonis, all wearing black shirts that read “Hate Survivor.”
The avalanche of bold-faced names continues, with a shout-out to a fellow GOAT (“the restaurant clears out faint echoes of Lauryn Hill”), a spooky szn-appropriate ref (“I say we gotta talk about us, I feel like Jordan Peele”), as well as stops at 21 Savage (“got a green card straight out of the consulate”) and Michael Jackson (“I feel like Mike switched out the glove for the pen”).
Plus, he gets political with a clever geography bar, rapping, “Where I go, you go, brothers, we’re Yugoslavian/ Formal is a dress code, dawg, so many checks owed/ I feel Czechoslovakian.”
The second verse drops references to a country icon (“Shania Twain, notepad, I’m making it line dance”), a megachurch preacher (“I swear I’m like a young T.D. Jakes to my menaces/ Long kiss goodnight, PDA for my nemesis”), anti-vax presidental candidate RFK jr. (“Conspiracy theories start floatin’ around like the Kennedy guy”) and the late DJ Screw (“R.I.P. to the DJ from Houston, we loose screws”).
The Adonis cameo is fitting, since Drake revealed last month that his son’s line-drawing of a pooch would be the cover art for his upcoming For All the Dogs album, which is due out on Friday (Oct. 6) and is expected to also include his SZA collab, “Slime You Out.”
Watch the “8AM in Charlotte” video below.
Whether it’s her “Icy” calling card or her “I know that’s right” catchphrase, two-time Grammy-nominated rapper Saweetie has been cementing herself as a branding queen since she first hit the Billboard charts with “Icy Girl” back in 2017. In the years since then, she’s notched a bevy of platinum singles — “Tap In,” “My Type” and “Best Friend” (with Doja Cat), among them — and collaborated with everyone from John Legend to Gwen Stefani.
For her latest partnership, Saweetie has joined forces with Tinder — the dating app used by millions of love-seekers around the world. Dubbed “Swipe-Off,” the collaboration is a nationwide challenge where the college with the most Swipe activity on Tinder wins a free double feature concert headlined by Saweetie and special guest and fellow rapper Baby Tate. “She was definitely one of the top choices and I’m happy she went with us,” Saweetie gushes.
Swipe-Off — which alludes to Saweetie’s “Tap In” lyrics, “You better get the card and make it swipe like Tinder”— is the latest step in a busy year for the “Icy Chain” rapper. Earlier this year, she released a pair of singles titled “Shot O’ Clock” and “Birthday” (with YG & Tyga), the latter of which peaked at No. 16 on Billboard‘s Rhythmic Airplay chart. Before she debuted those two songs, Saweetie also hopped on the remix of Baby Tate’s viral hit “Hey Mickey,” which the pair will “absolutely” perform at the Swipe-Off concert. Just last month, the rapper and USC alumna co-hosted the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards pre-show.
In a lively conversation with Billboard, Saweetie speaks on new music, that VMAs teleprompter gaffe, a return to acting and her dating tips for a Tinder home run.
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What can fans expect to hear and see at your Tinder Swipe-Off concert, should their campus win the competition?
Icy Girls love to have fun, and I’m a college girl, so I would love to bring my energy to whatever campus wins. I think it’s a great way to bring communities together in such a fun and youthful way. I’m jealous too, I wish I was still in college. It’s been some time! I’m really happy to go to the students. I’m happy that they’re excited to see me with my new music. I just dropped “Birthday” and “Shot O’ Clock,” which is doing really well right now. So, I’m excited to see who’s gonna go up because they can expect a really fun show. The surprise is out now, I’m bringing Baby Tate, who is also amazing. So, we’re going to bring all of that!
The focus on college campuses in this Tinder collaborations lines up with your advocacy for education. What are your long-term plans and goals for your ICY Baby Foundation?
My longtime goals and plans is to give back to Black and brown communities, and to come back and to be a living example for what they could become. Whether it’s music, business, education, whatever their heart desires. I want them to know that accomplishing their dream is possible. I think it’s important that somebody who looks like them is coming back and speaking on this, just to give them the fuel they need to engineer their dreams.
My goal is to go back and to inspire and to help them not only learn about financial literacy, but to discover what their passion is. I think that when we used to have career fairs as children, we were often only shown the traditional careers, but it’s 2023-2024. There’s so many more opportunities out there. So, I think it’s important to show them that someone that looks like them did it, and they can do it too.
As you prep for the Swipe-Off concert, what have you found are your favorite songs to perform live?
So there’s two songs. For a popular cut, I love to perform “My Type,” of course. The energy is always so crazy. A deep cut I love to perform is “Back Seat,” it’s such vibe, it’s so special, and it just puts me into this magical trance on stage.
You put out “Birthday” and “Shot O’ Clock” earlier this year, which of the two do you prefer?
I feel like every day is your birthday. I’m the type of person that celebrates my birthday the whole month. So, “Birthday” was really special to me, because I feel like everyone should celebrate life for, if not the whole month, then — I don’t know what’s more dramatic than that — but give me a whole month and I’m good.
What I love about “Shot O’ Clock” is that it’s a triple entendre. It could be alcohol shots, but it could also be like healthy and wellness shots. They could be NBA shots. There could be some type of other shots! [Laughs.] It can go in so many different ways. What made those two songs the perfect combination is that they’re a celebration of life. I’m an Icy Girl, I love to have fun. I like to work hard, but I also like to celebrate hard as well, and I feel like those are what those two songs exhibit.
Those two songs were your first releases (as a lead artist) of the calendar year, why return with those particular tracks?
I think it was all about getting new music out. It was the summertime — you know, summertime is for the girls stepping out, getting ready and having fun — so I think it matched that energy. Now, as far as my next couple of releases, I’m still deciding on what those are, but I just wanted to give the girls something to get ready to and to party to.
In terms of new music, where is your head at sonically? What sounds and styles are inspiring you right now?
I don’t want to give the name of my sound out — because, you know, people be studying and they be stealing, girl. But this music I’m creating…
I literally tell people that I don’t like writing camps. Don’t do any writing camps without me, because I have to be in the room. I produce my own music and I also write my own music. It’s a co-production between me and the creatives, and I think once I put my foot down in that way, the music got so much better. I need to be in the room. My soul and my spirit needs to be in the production. All I can say is when you hear this sound — it’s just gon’ be that Saweetie Sound. So, I’m really excited to share that with the world. It’s that Saweetie Sound, baby, let’s just call it that!
Let’s get into your Tinder history for a bit. When you use the app, do you do so as Saweetie or Diamonté, or are you a lurker?
Honestly, I was a lurker for one day. I was like, “Oh no, this is a new world for me. I gotta come back to this.” But I never came back to it, so I’m excited that I’m actually able to work with them in a bigger way.
What are you green flags and red flags on a Tinder profile?
Green flags are somebody who’s well-traveled, who likes to have fun, who has a job…? A J-O-B. [Laughs.] A job that makes tangible money, not just social currency. A red flag is someone who has no other hobbies besides partying. I think that’s a very one-dimensional personality, and for a girl like me, you need to be multi-dimensional to keep me interested. That’s definitely what I’m looking for: someone who has more to offer than just one side.
What was your approach to dating in college and how does that differ from how you move in the streets now?
I definitely recommend that people shouldn’t be tied down to one person in college, I think college is all about experience — which is why Tinder is great because, you’re able to see what you like and what you don’t like. Hopefully, the girls are out there vetting because we’re the prize. So, who wins the prize? We’re gon’ see!
In the Swipe-Off ad, you were giving us some acting vibes and you’ve done that in the past. Is a return to acting on the table for you in any capacity?
Well, before the writers’ strike, I actually filmed with a really big TV show, so I’m really excited for whenever they decide to release it. I know it’s going to be a huge moment. They stripped me down: no lashes, barely any makeup, I had this wig on! They were like, “No lashes, take ‘em off!” And you know, I’m a lash girl, so I’m just like, “All right, cool. Let’s get into this acting bag, what’s up?!”
Obviously the SAG-AFTRA strike is still ongoing, but could you give fans any hints as to what the show could be?
I’m going to give you one of my lyrics: “Cocaina tiptoes/ Ride it like the whip stole/ Benjis in my bra when my titties need a lift though.” The answer’s in there!
Outside of the Swipe-Off concert, where else can fans expect to see you performing?
That is something we are working on when it comes to this top-secret rollout we’ve been planning, but they gon’ see me outside!
Now, I have to get into the VMAs because obviously everybody had a lot to say. Take me inside your head while you were hosting the pre-show and reading off that teleprompter. Do you have anything you’d like to say to the commenters at home?
I do have a response for that actually. I think a simple response is no matter what happens, baby just keep going. Imma always keep going. I love to motivate. I love to inspire, and because I got back up on that stage, makeup still intact, hair still intact, outfit still intact, still on my Icy Girl ten white toes — I just keep going no matter what happens. That’s all I gotta say about that.
I know your DMs probably be flooded daily, what’s the corniest pick-up line anyone’s ever tried on you? And have you ever used a pick-up line on somebody else?
I think my brand is so strong that the way I’m approached or the way fans — you know, fans shoot their shot — I think I don’t get corny lines cause I think people just know me so well. They be like, “You want some crab legs? You want a Birkin? What you wanna do?” It be cute stuff!
I think that I don’t get corny pickup lines, I get creative pick-up lines. The pickup lines I be getting to see have me laughing. And I think that when people are trying to link on Tinder, make them laugh, be creative, don’t do the “Yo,” “Hey,” “Wassup.” Don’t do the simple stuff. It’s Tinder, baby! Let’s spice it up and let’s have fun in life. It’s something about making the girl laugh. If you could make me laugh, what else can you do?
You puttin’ everyone on game, I know that’s right!
I know that’s right! You know what I love? I love when a man come up to me and they do that line and they go, “I know that’s right.” I be like, “Look at you!” It makes me giggle because to hear a man say it in my tone?! [Laughs.]
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony member Krazyie Bone is giving fans an update on his health after being hospitalized for nearly two weeks. In a Tuesday (Oct. 3) Instagram post, Krazyie Bone shared a photo of himself from his hospital room. “Just fought for life Literally for 9 days straight,” he wrote in the caption. “And I only […]
Sexxy Red is the latest rapper to show support for former president Donald Trump. Her comments came during recent interview with comedian Theo Von on his This Past Weekend podcast, during which she praised the mercurial figure for freeing Black people from prison and giving out stimulus checks during his controversial four-year term. “I like Trump,” […]
SZA don’t miss no ex, don’t miss no text — especially when it’s Drake. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, the “Good Days” singer opened up about the time she casually dated Drizzy back in 2009, when the two were “really young.” She admitted, “It wasn’t hot and heavy or anything. It was like […]
Usher‘s Rendez-Vous Á Paris residency at La Seine Musicale may be coming to a close on Oct. 5, but the “Confessions” singer is making sure to treat fans to some special surprises as he nears the end of his eight-date run — and that includes a surprise performance with Offset.
In a clip posted to Usher’s Instagram page on Sunday (Oct. 1), the Grammy-winner directed the packed crowd as they chanted “that s—t cray” at the top of their lungs — a nod to Kanye West’s verse in his Jay Z-assisted 2011 hit single “N—-s in Paris,” which peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. After completing the chant, the “Good Good” singer then said, “OK, well that’s what it feels like when New York is in the house, but when the South run it, we Southern n—-s in Paris!”
Migos 2017 No. 1 hit “Bad and Boujee” then began to play as Offset joined Usher onnstage after entering through the crowd. In the caption for his Instagram post, Usher remixed a lyric from the song, writing “We from the SOUTH yeah THAT WAY 👉🏾👉🏾.”
Offset’s surprise performance comes just a little over a week before the arrival of his forthcoming sophomore studio album, Set It Off. The record — his first solo outing since 2019’s Grammy-nominated Father of 4 — is set to feature the Cardi B-featuring “Jealousy,” which peaked at No. 55 on the Hot 100 a few months ago, as well as “FAN,” which recently received a Michael Jackson-inspired music video complete with a Kai Cenat cameo.
Usher, on the other hand, is gearing up for months of live performances. When he returns from Paris, the iconic singer will resume his My Way Las Vega residency, which has shows lined up through October, November and the beginning of December. On Feb. 11, 2024, the R&B superstar will take the Super Bowl Halftime Show stage at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, the first time the big game will be played in that city.
Last week (Sept. 26), Billboard exclusively reported that Usher is planning to launch a global tour following his Super Bowl performance, with tickets ready for purchase just after he finishes his final note. In addition to the tour, Usher has already confirmed the release of his ninth solo studio album, Coming Home, which is slated for a Feb. 11, 2024, release and includes the chart-topping single “Good Good” (with Summer Walker and 21 Savage).
Check out Usher and Offset’s surprise performance here: