R&B/Hip-Hop
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Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar are back with new music. On Tuesday (May 30), the “Family Ties” tandem delivered a VHS-style visual for their latest collaboration, “The Hillbillies,” which shows outtakes from their time on tour together and features a cameo from Tyler, the Creator. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, […]
Gorillaz is heading out on the road for a special tour this fall. On Tuesday (May 30), the group announced The Getaway 2023 tour, which is scheduled to take place in September. The limited run of shows will take place across four dates in the United States — as explained in the tour’s official description […]
Matty Healy made a lot of people upset after he laughed at racist, body-shaming comments about Ice Spice in recent podcast appearance. But now, he thinks the controversy “doesn’t actually matter.”
“Nobody is sitting there at night slumped at their computer, and their boyfriend comes over and goes, ‘What’s wrong, darling?’ and they go, ‘It’s just this thing with Matty Healy,’” the 1975 frontman told The New Yorker in a Monday (May 29) profile. “That doesn’t happen.”
“You’re either deluded or you are, sorry, a liar,” he continued, addressing fans who claimed to be offended by the remarks. “You’re either lying that you are hurt, or you’re a bit mental for being hurt. It’s just people going, ‘Oh, there’s a bad thing over there, let me get as close to it as possible so you can see how good I am.’ And I kind of want them to do that, because they’re demonstrating something so base level.”
The controversy in question went down in February when Healy went on The Adam Friedland Show to promote The 1975’s latest album, Being Funny In a Foreign Language. After bringing up that Ice Spice had once said she was a big fan of the band, the show’s hosts proceeded to make jokes about the “Princess Diana” rapper sounding like an “Inuit Spice Girl” and a “chubby Chinese lady.” They went on to mockingly imitate Chinese and Hawaiian accents, and joked about what Healy should say when sliding into Ice Spice’s DMs. The podcast episode has since been removed from Apple and Spotify.
Healy later half-apologized for laughing at and engaging with the hosts’ remarks during a 1975 concert in Auckland, New Zealand. “I just feel a bit bad, and I’m kind of a bit sorry if I’ve offended you,” he said onstage. “Ice Spice, I’m sorry. It’s not because I’m annoyed that me joking got misconstrued. It’s because I don’t want Ice Spice to think I’m a d–k. I love you, Ice Spice. I’m so sorry. I don’t want it to be misconstrued as mean.”
Since then, Ice Spice has teamed up with Taylor Swift — whom Healy is rumored to be dating — for a blockbuster remix of the pop star’s Midnights track “Karma.” When announcing the remix, the pop superstar said of the rising star, “I’m a massive fan of this brilliant artist and after getting to know her I can confirm: she is THE ONE to watch.” The two have since released a joint music video for the project, and the “Munch” artist also joined Swift onstage for three nights in a row at MetLife Stadium to debut the remix live at the Eras Tour.
While some fans may be questioning the motives behind the remix, Jack Antonoff — who has collaborated with both Swift and The 1975 — he’s standing by Healy. “I think Matty is a deeply sincere person, who can, at different points, be misunderstood because of how much he enjoys a bit,” Antonoff said in the New Yorker piece. “If you don’t know him, if you don’t get him, because you’re not really tuned in to the work, you might assume a cynicism that is literally not there.”
Moneybagg Yo can read the writing on the wall. And on Thursday night (May 25) it read Midnights (Til Dawn Edition), which is, of course, the name of the second deluxe version of Taylor Swift‘s 10th album that debuted last night. So while earlier this month the rapper pledged to drop his new Hard to […]
Cardi B had some emotional words to share Friday (May 26) about her late friend. Nearly seven months after TakeOff was killed in a shooting in Houston, the “Up” rapper posted a tender tribute, urging fans to keep friends and family close while they still can.
“What a angel god [blessed] this earth with,” Cardi began, sharing a photo of the late Migos rapper on her Instagram Story. “Protect your brothers and your family.”
Her post comes hours after TakeOff’s alleged shooter, Patrick Xavier Clark, was formally indicted on murder charges by a Texas grand jury Thursday (May 25). The fatal Nov. 1, 2022, shooting went down at a private party at 810 Billiards & Bowling in downtown Houston, which TakeOff had attended with his uncle and Migos bandmate, Quavo.
“I know you see the tears I know you see them looking at the sky asking why…,” Cardi added in her post. “What a beautiful soul to take.”
Cardi’s husband, Offset, was the third member of Migos. She has opened up about her and her family’s grief several times since the young rapper, who would have turned 29 this June, passed away.
“I have been feeling so hopeless trying to make my husband happy,” she confessed in a voice note a few weeks after TakeOff’s death. “Trying to make him crack a smile, f—in’ seeing him randomly cry, see him trying to distract his mind completely, f—in’ schedules been changing, trying to keep up with work after everything that he’s been going through these past couple of weeks.”
Offset himself recently addressed how hard Takeoff’s death has been on him. “Talking about Take is hard, man. Talking about all this s–t is hard. That’s why I don’t, to be honest. That s–t hurts,” he told Variety. “He’s not here. That s–t feels fake, bro. I get through my day thinking it’s fake. And I don’t say nothing to nobody about it.”
Leave it to Lil Nas X to find the most hilarious way to smack down the conservative freakout over Target’s Pride Month products. Days after the mega-retailer removed or moved some Pride merch following backlash from conservative activists and media — which reportedly included some threats against the safety of its workers — the “That’s What I Want” rapper clowned the criticism with a hysterical tweet of his own parodying the tempest in aisle 20.
“Can’t believe target is supporting this nonsense, im never shopping there again, my son is not ‘too cool for school’ these shirts are ridiculous,” Lil Nas joked in a post that did not specifically mention the backlash, but instead alluded to it using the his signature arch comedic voice. “He is going to school and he WILL learn.”
In the midst of a wave of conservative legislation targeting the LGBTQ community — from bills restricting attendance at drag shows to laws banning gender-affirming treatment for transgender minors and adults — Target became the latest business to come under scrutiny after outrage from right-wing media over some of its pride products. According to NBC News, some Target customers posted TikTok videos showing Target Pride merch displays that had been moved to less visible locations, including in the back of some stores.
On Tuesday (May 23), a Target spokesperson told NBC News the company had “offered an assortment of products aimed at celebrating Pride Month” for more than a decade. But since rolling out this year’s collection, “we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and wellbeing while at work.”
“Given these volatile circumstances,” the spokesperson added, “we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior. Our focus now is on moving forward with our continuing commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community and standing with them as we celebrate Pride Month and throughout the year.”
After Target rolled out some of this year’s products for June’s Pride Month — which includes rainbow tops, tees that read “Trans People Will Always Exist” and more — it reportedly began to get pushback on items from the LGBTQ brand Abprallen, which offers items featuring “spooky, gothic imagery, such as skulls and Satan, in pastel colors.” The AP reported that among the items conservatives were outraged about was a “tuck-friendly” women’s swimsuit that allows adult trans women to hide their genitalia.
One tweet showed a man tossing a Pride display to the ground and stomping on it. Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson reacted to the latest culture war firestorm with a tweet featuring a dire warning: “Extremist groups want to divide us and ultimately don’t just want rainbow products to disappear, they want us to disappear.”
In April, transgender actor-activist Dylan Mulvaney reacted to a Fox News story over Bud Light sending one-off, not-for-sale commemorative cans to Mulvaney that spurred musicians Kid Rock, Travis Tritt and John Rich to swear off the popular brew.
“I think it’s OK to be frustrated with someone or confused, but what I’m struggling to understand is the need to dehumanize and to be cruel. I just, I don’t think that’s right. Dehumanization has never fixed anything in history, ever,” said Mulvaney, 26, in a video to her 13 million followers. After describing her childhood in a conservative family and in the church, Mulvaney said she still had faith, but that it’s been a struggle to hold on to it in the midst of attacks that reminded her of similar criticism she faced as a child for being “too feminine.”
“Now I’m being called all those same things, but this time it’s from other adults,” she said. “And if they’re going to accuse me of anything, it should be that I’m a theater person and that I’m camp. But this is just my personality and it always has been.”
See Lil Nas’ tweet mocking outrage over Target’s Pride Month products below.
can’t believe target is supporting this nonsense, im never shopping there again, my son is not “too cool for school” these shirts are ridiculous. he is going to school and he WILL learn.— pussy (@LilNasX) May 25, 2023
No one is more excited for Ice Spice‘s feature on the new “Karma” remix than Taylor Swift. In a clip shared by Spotify, the pop star gushed about her latest collaborator and explained how the team-up — which dropped at midnight Friday (May 26) — came to be. “Collaborating with Ice Spice on ‘Karma’ was […]
After scoring a No. 2 debut on the Hot 100 this week with his J. Cole-assisted single “All My Life,” Lil Durk looks to topple that feat on the Billboard 200 with the release of his new album Almost Healed. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Released today (May […]
After taking the reins as executive producer for the forthcoming Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Soundtrack, Metro Boomin’ left breadcrumbs on his Instagram about who fans can expect on the project. On Wednesday (May 24), Metro revealed the first three features: Future, Don Toliver and James Blake. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest […]
Rising rapper Kali races to her first top 10 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart with her breakout hit “Area Codes,” which sprints 16-10 on the list dated May 27. The viral smash hit continues its impressive journey, having debuted at No. 48 just two weeks ago, and continues to swell in streams and sales.
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“Area Codes,” released on Trump Card/Atlantic Records, rang up 12.5 million official U.S. streams in the week ending May 18, according to Luminate, a 35% surge from the prior week. The improvement pushes the track 11-6 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Streaming Songs chart. Sales, too, are up by double-digit percentage gains: “Area Codes” sold 2,000 downloads in the same period, up 65% and prompting an 8-6 rise on R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales. Thanks to the sales boost, “Area Codes” nabs the week’s Sales Gainer honor for the biggest increase among the chart’s 50 titles.
Emphasizing the song’s viral appeal, “Area Codes” has reached the top 10 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart with minimal airplay, the third metric – along with sales and streams – that factors into the chart’s rankings. The single registered 1.4 million in audience impressions, the 13th lowest among the chart’s 38 songs with airplay activity.
By reaching No. 10, Kali’s “Area Codes” also matches the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs peak rank of the song it interpolates, Ludacris’ song of the same name, featuring Nate Dogg, from August 2001.
TikTok has been a significant factor in the song’s growing profile, as a portion of it has soundtracked more than 400,000 clips on the platform to date. (While activity on TikTok does not contribute directly to Billboard’s charts, some of the most popular songs experience corresponding gains in digital sales and streaming on contributing services.)
Elsewhere, “Area Codes” dials up other advances on several charts, including an 8-5 jump on Hot Rap Songs and a 54-33 flight on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100.