R&B/Hip-Hop
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Normally, when Drake pulls up to a venue the room belongs solely to him for the night. But on Monday (Aug. 21) when the Six Godâs Itâs All a Blur tour touched down at Los Angelesâ Crypto.com Arena, he was more than happy to share the spotlight with the venueâs resident big dog: LeBron James. […]

As Southern California braced for its first tropical storm in 84 years, Salt-N-Pepaâs Cheryl âSaltâ James made history as the first female keynoter at the Guild of Music Supervisorsâ (GMS) ninth annual State of Music in Media Conference (Aug. 19). Her invigorating speech fittingly kicked off the daylong event at The Los Angeles Film School in Hollywood.
In addition to a suite of panels celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, the conference schedule â a collaboration between GMS and L.A. Film School â was packed with sessions ranging from âMusic Clearance 101â and âThe Global Craft of Music Supervision: We Are Worldwide!â to âAI and the Art of Music Supervision: Finding Harmony in the Age of Automationâ and âThe Ethics of Music Supervising Projects That Tell Diverse Stories.â Among the host of industry participants and guests: rap pioneer/Public Enemy frontman Chuck D, Joel C. High of Creative Control Entertainment (a GMS founder and its outgoing president), Stax Records icon/Songwriter Hall of Famer David Porter, Format Entertainmentâs Julia Michels, producer Steve Schnur (Star Wars Jedi: Survivor), Singularity Songs founder/president Andre Marsh and Cue the Creatives founder Qiana Conley Akinro.
Lindsay Wolfington and Joel C. High
Khalid Farqharson
Just before the keynote speech, the ongoing challenges facing music supervisors during the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strike were addressed by incoming GMS president Lindsay Wolfington and High. Speaking to the attendees, the pair referenced a page in the conference booklet featuring a list of resources for strike-impacted workers. The intro to the page said in part, âMusic supervisors do not have a union and the AMPTP and Netflix continue to refuse to recognize a Music Supervisior union. We continue in our fight ⌠and GMS fully supports this mission.â
It was also announced that Heather Guibert is the GMS boardâs new vp.
Here are a few more highlights from GMSâ 2023 State of Music in Media Conference:
âThe Showstopperâ
Walking onstage to rousing applause, James riffed on a phrase from the Salt-N-Pepa classic âShoopâ (âHere I go, here I go âŚâ) then asked the audience a question. âCan we not call me the keynote speaker?â said a smiling James. âThat makes me nervous. I just came here to talk to you.â
And that she did, taking the audience back to her growing up on Motown and jazz in Brooklyn. Then she heard The Sugarhill Gang on the radio in 1979. Before segueing into an impromptu audience rap-along to that groupâs âRapperâs Delight,â James said, âI fell in love even more [with the fledgling genre]. There was something about it that just grabbed me deep in my heart.â
After sharing milestones that the Grammy Award-winning group has achieved during its barrier-breaking 38-year career, starting with 1986 debut single âThe Showstopper,â James noted, âI remember the question journalists used to ask in the beginning, âWill hip-hop last?â Now weâre here 50 years later, growing from a novelty genre into a whole entire culture. Hip-hop started a whole movement from fashion, movies, politics and beyond to becoming the music of a generation. I would go so far as to say itâs actually shaping generations.â
Drawing a through line between hip-hopâs evolution and that of music supervision, James concluded her keynote by adding, âI know we all can relate to having good intentions and then possibly becoming jaded in our different vocations or callings. But when something is our calling and it gets hard, we have to just put one foot in front of the other and keep going because this is what weâre called to do.â
The Next 50Â
âThe Global Impact of Hip-Hop: Passing the Torch for the Next 50 Yearsâ was the first in the dayâs quartet of sessions dedicated to the genre and the fact â as noted in the conference booklet â that âhip-hop has proven itself to be a soundscape for any genre of music and can be used to tell any story.â Kobalt Music Publishingâs senior vp of global creative Chris Lakey moderated this panel, orchestrating a conversation between artist Igmar Thomas, Peermusic Publishing vp of A&R Tuff Morgan, En Homage artist/producer Camille âIll Camilleâ Davis and artist/educator Medusa aka The Gangsta Goddess.
Lakey questioned the panelists on a variety of subjects from their first inkling of hip-hopâs international reach beyond its Bronx birth to trends/hybrid sounds theyâre seeing on the horizon. Asked to share some of the hottest areas theyâre most excited about in terms of hip-hopâs evolving sound, the panelists shouted out locales such as Ghana, Nigeria, Johannesburg, London, Mexico City and Jamaica. âEvery single piece of music thatâs out today has undertones of hip-hop,â said Morgan. âItâs influenced every genre at this point.â
Global Impact of Hip Hop
Jay Farber
Medusa and Davis also advocated for more female presence in the hip-hop arena. âI definitely want there to be more reverence for female producers and MCs,â said Davis. âI want more women to experiment with the music. There are women that I revere, the same way that I revere [late hip-hop producer] J Dilla, who are constantly making music but you donât hear about them. I would like more women to make DJ and MC collectives. I just want more of that energy where we take more ownership, and autonomy over the sound, the brand, the look; you feel us and see us in everything. I want more women in hip-hop to put their flag down.â
Lorrie Boula, Chuck D and Carol Dunn
Jay Farber
Rounding out the dayâs quartet of hip-hop sessions: âFight the Power: How Hip-Hop Changed the Worldâ featuring Channel Zero.net co-founders Chuck D and Lorrie Boula with Human Worldwideâs Carol Dunn as moderator; âThe Origins of Hip-Hopâ featuring James, Berklee College of Musicâs John Paul McGee, artist/Likwit Radioâs King T, Salamani Musicâs Amani âBurt Blackarachâ Smith and composer Jae Deal; and âThe Golden Age of Hip-Hop: A Cultural Phenomenaâ with moderator/Moonbaby Mediaâs Angela âMoonbabyâ Jollivette, television host/activist Ananda Lewis, veteran A&R executive Dante Ross, Universal Hip-Hop Museum OM/curator SenYon Kelly, DJESQâs Paul Stewart and Rich + Tone Productionsâ Rich & Tone Talauega.
Close-Up on Daisy Jones
One of the afternoonâs popular offerings was the session spotlighting the hit television series Daisy Jones & the Six, adapted from Taylor Jenkins Reidâs novel of the same name about a â70s band. The session centered on whatâs involved in âpreparing for successful on-camera performancesâ as outlined in the conference program. Moderator/music supervisor Amanda Krieg Thomas of Yay Team Inc. was joined by Daisy Jonesâ music supervisor Frankie Pine of Whirly Girl Music and Lauren Neustadter, president of film & TV for Reese Witherspoonâs Hello Sunshine production company. Among the showâs nine 2023 Emmy Awards nominations are nods for outstanding limited or anthology series, outstanding music supervision and outstanding sound mixing.
Neustadter spoke first about the showâs origin and the challenge of doing on-camera performances. âMy husband read the book and created the show. But we had no idea really of how to do a project that was music driven in the way that this is. But we also knew that we had carte blanche from Taylor. She said, âIâm excited for you guys to work with experts in the music field to actually bring the soundtrack and the different albums in the book to life on screen.âÂ
So the next move was to bring in showrunner Will Graham. âWe chose him for a bunch of reasons,â said Neustadter. âBut one of them was he had worked on Mozart in the Jungle, so he knew how to do a show that had a huge music component. And the first person that Will introduced us to was Frankie.â
Picking up the story, Pine said, âThe first thing that I did was put together a list of executive music producers that I thought would be right for the time period; to be able to give us that â70s vibe, but also not pigeonhole us too much into that world where these songs [can] kind of live outside of the â70s. After reading the book, the one thing I wanted ⌠was for this to feel organic and real. I wanted everybody that watched it to think literally in their minds, âThis band was in the â70s? I swear I missed this band.ââ
Pine also shared a major lesson from her experience. âThe sooner you can get [started] with an on-camera project the better. Because that gives you all kinds of time to curate and work not only on the music but to also take your time in assembling the right music team and giving your actors [enough] time. That really is the key to a successful run.â
Hired in March 2019, Pine initially wanted to spend four months with the actors. Then she and Neustadter received an unexpected extension when their April 2020 shoot start was delayed by the pandemic. So music lessons were done instead over Zoom. In addition to explaining the genesis of the on-camera performances in two show clips that were shown, Pine and Neustadter touched on several other topics such as Pine collaborating in the casting and writing process as well, mic tips and why trust is an important factor.
âWhat we witnessed was these actors becoming musicians and these musicians becoming a band,â said Neustadter. âIt was totally awesome.â She also noted that Pine will be working with Hello Sunshine on two more productions, one of which is Run, Rose, Run. Starring Dolly Parton, the upcoming show is an adaption of the same-titled book by Parton and James Patterson. Parton also released a companion album to the book in 2022.

Music wasnât part of Jaboukie Young-Whiteâs plan. âIt just kind of happened,â he tells Billboard with a laugh.
The 29-year-old performer spent the last few years carefully building his profile as a comedian, writer, actor and professional Twitter (err, X) troll. Between standup, writing for Big Mouth, working as a correspondent on The Daily Show, getting banned from the social media platform for impersonating CNN and starring in Disneyâs Strange World alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Gabrielle Union, Young-White has seen his star rise immensely over the last five years.
As he tells it, music was a hobby that kept him occupied throughout the pandemic. âI had been making instrumental music since college, and it was mostly something that I kept to myself,â he says. âFast forward, pandemic hits, and I was working on some animated stuff during that time. I had a vocal setup in my apartment, so I was like, âYou know what, let me just do this.’â
Three years later, those quarantine sessions have transformed into All Who Canât Hear Must Feel, the starâs debut album out Friday (August 25) via Interscope. On the expansive project, Young-White (performing under his first name, Jaboukie) hops into the nebulous spaces between genres like industrial hip-hop, bedroom rock and hyperpop to deliver immediately catchy insights on his life and his occasionally intrusive thoughts. And yes, the album is also very funny.
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The album also nearly didnât happen. Young-White says that he never had any intention of releasing music until he began working on a script for an upcoming animated film inspired by Juice WRLDâs music. When pitching himself to Interscope Films as a writer-director for the project, he was asked if he had any experience with music that he could share.
âI sent a few little songs along, thinking that they were just gonna be like, âOK, this man is competent. He can write, he has taste,’â Young-White says. âThen [John Janick] offered me a record deal, and there just wasnât a good enough reason to for me not to do it. I knew I would regret not doing thisâ
With a major labelâs resources now at his disposal, Young-White could have worked with high-level producers and songwriters to put his first project together. The album does have plenty of assists â Grammy-winners Alex Tumay, Neal Pogue and Mike Bozzi mixed and mastered All Who Canât Hear, respectively.
But in terms of production and songwriting, Young-White knew that creating an album that felt authentic meant doing it all solo, with the occasional help from his brothers Javaughn and Javeigh. âBecause Iâm so new to releasing music, if I got in the studio with somebody, I would want to be like, âWhatever you want to do is good by me, because youâre so great!â I needed to put my stake in the ground first before I start inviting more people into the process,â he says.
After a beat, he canât help but go for the punchline. âListen, [Jack Antonoff] was so desperate to get in the studio with me,â he says, smirking. âI was like, âHey, Iâm so sorry, but itâs a no, Jack.’â
That urge to go for the joke is still present on Young-Whiteâs album, but not in the same way that fans of his comedy would expect. While bars declaring himself a âmidwest hoe, churning out magnum opesâ on songs like âBBCâ certainly land with laughs, All Who Canât Hear is not a comedy album; it just so happens that hip-hop has always been naturally funny, Young-White says.
âRappers have been some of my favorite comedians,â he says. âYoung Thug is one of the most fâking hilarious surrealist comics alive. Wayne is so funny. Thereâs a Nicki song on the radio right now [âRed Ruby Da Sleazeâ] where she says âI donât fâk with horses since Christopher Reeves,â which is insane ⌠for me, itâs not difficult to hold something as being sincere and funny at the same time.â
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Even the albumâs title is a play on words â All Who Canât Hear Must Feel, taken in its most literal sense, states what listeners can expect from the albumâs sonics. âI was putting so much weight in the low end of these songs. I wanted you to really, truly feel this, and let it be a physical experience,â he says. âI was just alone in my apartment and my neighbors were probably mad as hell, but I was like, âI need to feel something, I gotta dance.â That was the conversation that I was having with myself â I was trying to wake something up.â
But the phrase is also a Jamaican proverb â Young-White was raised by Jamaican parents in Harvey, Ill. â about learning from consequences after not heeding warnings. With his Saturn return in full effect while penning his album (âYou could start and stop with that explanation alone depending on how good your astrological understanding isâ), the comic says he couldnât stop thinking about the oft-cited expression.
âThere are so many lessons where no one can tell you what it means; you really do have to experience it for yourself,â he says. âThatâs what life is like â you can be given so much advice and be told so many things, but thereâs so much that will not be real to you until you feel it.â
One of those lessons Young-White simply had to experience was what it meant to have a career in the music industry. Despite his rapidly-building profile in film and television, he says that trying to figure out how to be a signed recording artist came with a significant learning curve.
Some of the lessons have been more positive than others â Young-White found creative output came much easier to him when writing songs. âI wish I could be as prolific with writing jokes as I was with music â I probably had 40 or 50 songs written for this album,â he says. âYou really gotta go up in front of a bunch of audiences to work out a good joke. With songs, so many of them will suck, but every once in a while you hit on something and just say âOK, letâs run with this.’â
Other lessons have been harder to explain, like showing up on time to meetings when no one was expecting him to. âThere have been people who were like, âWow, you showed up? I didnât think you would!â And Iâm like, âWhat do you mean? We had a meeting, I said I was gonna be here!’â he recalls, laughing. âYou feel like such a goody two shoes in music just for being punctual.â
With his lessons learned, Young-White is now confident that a career in music can officially join his growing list of professions in entertainment; heâs already started planning out where he wants to go next. âI did industrial, I did experimental, now I want to do something thatâs really pop, catchy, clean and glossy â kind of in the Charlie XCX blueprint,â he says. âHonestly, my ideal pop song kind of sounds like Animal Collective. Structurally and lyrically, itâs like, âThis is a pop song,â but then the sounds are absolutely wild, like kitchen appliances fighting each other.â
The rising star is quick to temper his ambitions; he knows that âeverything is so a la carteâ when it comes to music consumption nowadays, which makes marketing an entire album that much harder. âI know damn well you could be listening to any-the-fâk-thing after you listen to this project,â he says.
But that inherent understanding keeps Young-Whiteâs music â and for that matter, his point of view â as fresh as it is. âWhy would I stay in one lane when I can just give you everything right here?â
The sweltering summer concert season sent more than two dozen people to the med tent on Saturday at Snoop Doggâs show at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion outside of Houston. According to USA Today, in addition to the 35 people who showed signs of âheat-related illnessâ who were examined at the venue, another dozen-plus were […]

Drake has long kept his inner circle pretty tight and when it came to the cover art for his upcoming For All the Dogs album he didnât have to look very far at all. In a truly âawwwâ moment, the rapper revealed on Monday night (Aug. 21) that his five-year-old son, Adonis, drew the albumâs […]
Ciara is standing up to the haters. The â1, 2 Stepâ singer took to Twitter on Sunday (Aug. 20) to reply to a tweet accusing her of making âTikTok music.â The user is an assistant coach at William & Mary Tribe Womenâs Basketball in Virginia, according to her Twitter profile. âAnd.. ..youâre watchingâŚ:) taking time […]

As 50 Cent considers expanding his family, heâs made it abundantly clear who he will not be seeking advice from. In a new Forbes interview with contributor Brian Roberts, the âMany Menâ rapper questioned Nick Cannonâs decision to father 12 kids with six different women over the past 12 years, a choice that has garnered […]
Quavo has unleashed the official music video for âHold Me,â a heartfelt BNYX-helmed track off new solo album Rocket Power that grapples with the intricacies of grief and mourning. In the visual, which he uploaded to YouTube on Saturday (Aug. 19), Quavo shares footage from a memorial for Takeoff in Atlanta. Attendees convene and foster […]
Happy Monday! As we inch towards the end of summer, you can count on this weekâs Fresh Picks to keep things hot. From the R&B sounds of Jessie Reyez (with Miguel), Samaria and Dylan Sinclair, to rap bops from 4TUNAT, Larry June and Lil Darius (with Nardo Wick) â weâve got something for every moment of your week.
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See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
And of course, donât forget to check out this monthâs Fresh Picks (so far) in our Spotify playlist, linked below.
Freshest Find: Jessie Reyez feat. Miguel, âJeansâ
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Jessie Reyez and Miguel âfit better than a pair of jeans.â The two join forces here for a sexy, stripped-back collab about a couple being each othersâ better halves. âYou fit, like your mama made you just for me, baby/ Stroking making me forget to breathe, baby,â Reyez sings. âJeansâ is the singer-songwriterâs first offering since her sophomore album, 2022âs Yessie. She is gearing up to release her first poetry book, Words of a Goat Princess, in the fall. Meanwhile, Miguel has been rolling out music of his own ahead of his new album, also due this fall.
Samaria, âTight Ropeâ
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Samariaâs âTight Ropeâ was created from a place of uncertainty for the Bay Area singer-songwriter, who brings listeners on a journey of losing herself, then discovering her self-worth on her own terms. ââTight Ropeâ was a final plea to make something work at the time that was showing me exactly why it absolutely would never work,â she shares in a press release.Â
4TUNAT feat. Destroy Lonely, âLOOK AT IT GOâ
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4TUNAT proves his synergy with Destroy Lonely on their new track, âLOOK AT IT GO.â â The Geffen Records newcomer is carving a lane in Atlanta rapâs scene with his glitchy, high-energy SEE YOU SOON EP, on which this collaboration appears.
Dylan Sinclair, âFly Girlâ
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Dylan Sinclair only likes fly girls. While he makes his preferences known, the song marks a sonic expansion for the JUNO-winning artist, who first gave listeners a glimpse into his sound with his 2022 EP, No Longer in the Suburbs. âKeeping this girl âround me, I like the way that she talk/ Sending me playlists straight to my phone, she putting me on,â he sings in a soft falsetto.
Lyfe Harris, âSunkissâÂ
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âWhen youâre alone, does the sun kiss you just like me?â asks Lyfe Harris. The Atlanta singer likens his love to the sunâs warmth, delivering an infectious hook and lingering chorus. With âSunkiss,â Harris captures the essence of intimacy with a bit of a nostalgic touch, as he uses a talk box effect for his vocals.
Larry June & Cardo, âThe Good Kindâ
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Catch Larry June âlooking at the ocean, eating smoothie bowls.â The Bay Area rapper links with Cardo Got Wings for âThe Good Kindâ â a typical West Coast-feeling track where June raps about riding his bike while maintaining his âstreet nâaâ attitude.
Lil Darius feat. Nardo Wick, âLamborghini Boysâ
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Known for crafting hits for Drake and Travis Scott, Memphis producer Tay Keith connects with Georgia upstart Lil Darius for his new song âLamborghini Boys,â featuring Nardo Wick. The two rumble through Keithâs trunk-rattling production seamlessly, racing to the finish line with their unmatched wit. âFine, she lookinâ like GloRilla, eat it like Tianna Trump,â spits Darius. The rapper and producer duoâs forthcoming mixtape, Young & Turnt, drops later this month.
Drake showed off his lightning-quick reflexes during the Bay Area stop of his Itâs All a Blur Tour. On Friday (Aug. 18), during his first of two concerts at the Chase Center in San Francisco, the 36-year-old rap superstar effortlessly avoided being struck in the head by a copy of his new poetry book, Titles […]