R&B/Hip-Hop

11 Dec 2023

Nicki Minaj Announces Pink Friday 2 World Tour: See the Dates

Nicki Minaj is bringing Pink Friday 2 to a city near you.

Just days after the release of her latest studio album, the Queen of Rap has announced dates for a world tour in support of the Pink Friday sequel. Kicking off Friday, March 1, in Oakland, Calif., the three-month trek will find Minaj performing in arenas across the United States and Europe.

“BARBZZZ!!,” she announced on Instagram Monday (Dec. 11). “It’s time for the #GagCity TOUR. So excited to see you guys!! Presale this week and tickets available FRIDAY ??”

Also on the schedule are festival performances at Rolling Loud in Inglewood, Calif., and Dreamville Festival in Raleigh, N.C. Tickets for North American shows will be available starting with a Citi presale on Tuesday (Dec. 12), followed by a general onsale beginning at 9 a.m. local time on Friday (Dec. 15). More details are available on Minaj’s website.

As for the European dates, tickets are already available with artist presale access. The leg’s general onsale also starts at 9 a.m. local time on Friday.

Released Friday (Dec. 8) on Minaj’s 41st birthday, Pink Friday 2 marks the rapper’s first proper album since 2018’s Queen, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. Fans including Kim Kardashian and North West have been passionately celebrating the 22-track set since it arrived, with many taking to social media to contribute artwork and lore to the Barbz fictional Gag City designed around the album.

See the dates for Minaj’s Pink Friday 2 Tour below:

Nicki Minaj

Nicki Minaj

Courtesy Photo

11 Dec 2023

What SZA’s Long-Awaited Return Taught Us About The Future of R&B

In the five years that followed the release of SZA’s groundbreaking debut album, Ctrl, the acclaimed artist teased fans with the occasional one-off or collaboration — as the wait for the official follow-up continued to grow. So when she finally did return at the end of 2022 with her much-anticipated second album, SOS, the stakes were high. And throughout 2023, her record-breaking chart wins exceeded expectations.

With SOS, SZA ventured outside R&B’s boundaries by diving into gospel, grunge, pop-punk and rap; meanwhile, as her producer-engineer, Rob Bisel, previously told Billboard, “Her pen got sharper and more personal.” SOS debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and spent 10 nonconsecutive weeks there, the most of any R&B/hip-hop album by a woman since Mariah Carey’s self-titled debut spent 11 weeks at the top in 1991. Instead of its impact being limited to the final weeks of 2022, SOS became one of this year’s biggest releases.

It started with the groovy yet gruesome “Kill Bill,” which arrived as a single in January and eventually became SZA’s first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100; it also made history with an unprecedented 21-week siege atop the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The following month, she embarked on the SOS tour, telling Billboard at the time that she was “deeply excited to pop ass and cry and give theater” during her first-ever arena headlining stint, compared with her more intimate, stripped-down shows in the past. “When I finally saw the tour and how insane she was going with her choreography, range and stamina … it really hit me,” her producer Carter Lang previously told Billboard. “The transformation was super apparent.”

SZA found ways to keep SOS in rotation while on the road. In April, “Snooze” was released as the album’s sixth single and slowly grew into its next smash. It was serviced to (and succeeded at) rhythmic, R&B/hip-hop and pop radio, all of which culminated in a star-studded music video that arrived in August and featured Justin Bieber. Soon after its release, she recruited him for the song’s acoustic version. “Snooze” ultimately peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100 and dethroned “Kill Bill” on Hot R&B Songs, where the former had ruled for 16 nonconsecutive weeks.

By September, SOS became the longest-running No. 1 title on Top R&B Albums, logging 50 weeks and counting at the summit. And to top it all off, SZA finished at No. 1 on four major Billboard year-end R&B/hip-hop rankings: Top R&B/Hip-Hop Artists, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songwriters, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (SOS) and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (“Kill Bill”). SZA was also crowned the No. 2 Hot 100 artist of the year and No. 5 Hot 100 songwriter of the year, while SOS landed at No. 3 on the year-end Billboard 200 recap.

“We had a lot of really big moments in R&B this year, obviously SZA being one of those,” says Alaysia Sierra, head of R&B at Spotify. “She’s pop, alternative, R&B. She doesn’t want to be put in a box, but she can’t deny her foundation.”

But SZA wasn’t the only R&B artist earning rave reviews following a prolonged album break. Janelle Monáe returned with The Age of Pleasure, which is Grammy-nominated for album of the year and blends more Afrobeats, reggae, funk and soul sounds compared with her 2017 left-of-center pop album, Dirty Computer. Jorja Smith released the kaleidoscopic Falling or Flying five years after her critically acclaimed debut, Lost & Found. And Kelela dropped the rapturous Raven, the follow-up to her first full-length album, Take Me Apart, from 2017. Taking their time to further develop their sound — regardless of expectations to make a specific type of music — wasn’t just better for their peace of mind but also for their artistry.

“It’s hard making music as a Black woman [because] we don’t get the luxury to try something and have it be something that’s genuinely part of us,” SZA previously told Billboard. “You have to allow people to get to know different parts of it.”

She’s following the trajectory laid out by artists like Beyoncé and Usher, who have R&B roots but later crossed over and found mainstream pop superstardom. Decades into their careers, they are dominating the world’s biggest stages: Beyoncé’s Renaissance world tour grossed $579.8 million, according to Billboard Boxscore — making it the highest-grossing tour by a woman, a Black artist and any American soloist — while Usher will headline the Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show next year in Las Vegas, the home of his two residencies that combined are expected to exceed $100 million in earnings by early December, according to Billboard’s estimate.

SZA is well on her way. She is the most nominated artist at the 2024 Grammys, with SOS up for album of the year and six different songs nominated in various genre categories. More Black women R&B artists are present in the Big Four categories: Victoria Monét is the second-most nominated, with seven nods, while Coco Jones has five.

Sierra believes that R&B artists like Monét and Jones, both of whom are up for best new artist, have the best shot at elevating to pop music’s upper echelon. “Our next superstars are R&B artists,” Sierra says. “When you think about a pop star, they’re going to be making R&B music.” 

This story originally appeared in the Dec. 9, 2023, issue of Billboard.

11 Dec 2023

What Hip-Hop’s 50th Birthday Told Us About Its Future

There’s no agreed upon birthdate of the term “rock’n’roll.” Ohio DJ Alan Freed is widely credited with popularizing it in the early 1950s to describe a new upbeat version of R&B music that was gaining traction with young audiences throughout America. Almost 70 years later, in 2017, it was R&B/hip-hop that surpassed rock as the country’s dominant music. And unlike rock, hip-hop does have an agreed upon birthdate, resulting in the current 50th-anniversary celebration.

Despite chatter to the contrary, a large segment of rap sounds very similar to what it was like at 30, 25 or even 15 years old. A clear line can be drawn between Big Daddy Kane or Rakim and the deliveries of Jay-Z, Nas, Drake, Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole. The aesthetics may have changed a bit, as well as the effectiveness of the techniques, but the artistic values shared by the first group of MCs are also shared by the latter.

And yet, until this September, hip-hop had gone an entire calendar year without a song topping the Billboard Hot 100, for the first time since 1993. The concern was understandable, but when it’s considered that the artist who broke the streak isn’t even a traditional rapper — Doja Cat, whose “Paint the Town Red,” the Dionne Warwick-sampling single from her most recent rap-flavored project, Scarlet, did the honors — the genre seems to be just fine. And to be fair, when the genre’s most consistent hit-makers did return — Drake and Cole’s collaboration “First Person Shooter” debuted at No. 1 in October — things more or less went back to normal.

And that’s what has been so remarkable about this yearlong celebration of hip-hop’s anniversary. The palpable sense of doom and gloom between the innumerable star-studded events — the pop-up performances, special segments on airings of the BET Awards and the MTV Video Music Awards and a multigenerational gathering at Yankee Stadium that capped off the festivities — all just proved that the principles that catapulted the genre into the mainstream are alive and well. Some aspects of the music’s past have even miraculously returned to the forefront — like a strong contingent of women rappers.

For years, fans and critics alike have decried the fact that hip-hop didn’t make enough space for women artists to thrive. It may have taken a few years, but that’s what they’re getting today. As a matter of fact, outside of “The Big Three” (Drake, Cole and Lamar) it’s the women — rappers like GloRilla, Cardi B, Ice Spice, Nicki Minaj and Latto — who seem to be carrying on the tradition the most. They’re the artists rapping as if they’re standing 10 toes down in the middle of a cypher. And their fixation on bars has netted them great success.

Minaj is already one of the most successful artists of her generation and Cardi B can’t seem to make a song that doesn’t turn into a hit, while Latto and GloRilla, two relative newcomers, have both managed to land top 10 hits and sell out their own shows. Even Doja Cat, an already successful pop artist, has released a rap album to critical acclaim and commercial success. To top it off, she took arguably the hottest new female rapper in the game, Ice Spice, on tour with her.

Meanwhile, a new generation of rap stars like Lil Uzi Vert and Playboi Carti have taken the music in a different direction that eschews its traditional form and most resembles a new brand of punk. They don’t focus on crafting 16-bar verses or making sure to stay within the pocket of the beat. Hell, fellow newcomer Yeat doesn’t even use real words at times. But it seems to be working. Uzi’s Jersey club-influenced “Just Wanna Rock” dominated radio, and their Pink Tape album went No. 1 earlier this year. Carti’s last full-length, 2020’s Whole Lotta Red, debuted at No. 1, and Yeat has notched two top 10 entries on the Billboard 200, while hitting No. 1 on the Hot 100 with his recent collaboration with Drake, “IDGAF.” Traditional rap fans may feel that, if this is the future, then hip-hop won’t last another 50 years.

But hip-hop has always been this way — a fearless cultural and artistic lab that works to push itself forward. If anything, it’s the world that has changed the most. “Rap has always come in waves,” says Maurice Slade, SoundCloud’s head of marketing, artist relations. “Similar to a garden, rap needs rain for things to grow. And whenever it gets real rainy — which I think is the time we’re in right now — shortly after that there’s fertile soil and sunshine, and then you see the fruit after.”

According to Slade, the state of the world is responsible for the type of music new hip-hop artists are creating. “The rain right now is post-pandemic — these kids went through some crazy shit with that. You got a recession, you got high interest rates, you got wars going on. The world is f–ked up. When the world is really f–ked up, right after that is when we get some of the best sh-t when it comes to rap and hip-hop.”

This story originally appeared in the Dec. 9, 2023, issue of Billboard.

11 Dec 2023

Megan Thee Stallion & Reneé Rapp to Release a New Song for ‘Mean Girls’

Megan Thee Stallion and Reneé Rapp are gearing up for the ultimate hot girl crossover. 

In a Sunday (Dec. 10) Instagram video shared to Rapp’s official updates account, the “Plan B” rapper — dressed appropriately in all-pink attire — broke the news that a duet between the two women is in the works for the upcoming Mean Girls musical film. “What’s up y’all?” she said. “It’s Megan Thee Stallion, aka the Black Regina George, and I’m excited to introduce my girl to the stage.”  

“We have a new song coming out for Mean Girls,” she added in the clip, which Rapp shared to her personal Instagram Story. “That’s right, give it up for the new fantastic plastic, Renee Rapp.” 

Meg didn’t give any details about the song’s title or release date, although Mean Girls arrives in theaters Jan. 12, 2024. Rapp stars in the project as queen of the Plastics, Regina George, a role she first played on Broadway in the musical adaptation of Tina Fey’s original 2004 Mean Girls film. 

Fey will reprise her role as Ms. Norbury, and Tim Meadows will also return as Principal Duvall. Bebe Wood and Avantika will flesh out the Plastics squad as Gretchen Wieners and Karen Shetty, respectively, and The Summer I Turned Pretty‘s Chris Briney will star as Aaron Samuels. Angourie Rice will take over the role of Cady Heron from Lindsay Lohan, flanked by Auliʻi Cravalho as Janis, and Jaquel Spivey as Damian. 

The collab announcement comes just over a month after the full Mean Girls trailer dropped, showing Rapp in her element with a perfect sync placement from Olivia Rodrigo. In November, Rapp also released the deluxe version of her debut album Snow Angel, which debuted at No. 44 on the Billboard 200 chart dated Sept. 2. 

As for Ms. Stallion, the three-time Grammy winner is fresh off the arrival of her new single “Cobra,” her first independent release since announcing that she was no longer signed to a record label. Prior to that, she joined Cardi B in releasing “Bongos,” a follow-up to their smash duet “WAP.” 

11 Dec 2023

Cardi B Confirms Break Up With Offset: ‘I’ve Been Single For a Minute Now’

According to Cardi B, she’s a single woman. Early Monday morning (Dec. 11), Cardi went on Instagram Live to tell fans that she and Offset are no longer together after rumors of them breaking up last week circulated on social media.

“I’ve been single for a minute now but I have been afraid to like — not afraid, I just don’t know how to tell the world,” she said in the clip. “But I feel like today has been a sign. The last time I got on Live, I kind of wanted to tell you guys, but I didn’t know how to tell you, so I changed my mind. But it has been like this for a minute now. I just took it as a sign.”

“I wanna start 2024, like, fresh, open,” she added. “I don’t know. I’m curious for a new life, for a new beginning. And yeah, I’m excited.”

The sign Cardi was referring to was Blueface’s claim in a now-deleted tweet that his ex-girlfriend and mother of his son, Chrisean, was intimate with Offset.

He later went into specifics, claiming that Chrisean hooked up with the Migos rapper at Offset and Cardi’s L.A. home in November.

Chrisean appeared to deny the accusations on X, replying in part that Blueface was “making up s–t.”

Offset also refuted those claims on X with a tweet of his own. “I ain’t never talk or touch that lady,” he said in his rebuttal. “Real Talk man you need some help!”

Billboard reached out to Offset’s reps for comment.

Last week, Cardi B and Offset unfollowed each other on Instagram, fueling speculation of a possible breakup. She also shared cryptic posts about outgrowing relationships. “You know when you just out grow relationships,” read the first, followed by, “I’m tired of protecting peoples feelings…I GOTTA PUT MYSELF FIRST!”

In 2020, Cardi filed for divorce, but months later, she called it off. Two years prior, Offset was at the center of a cheating scandal, which led him to deliver a public apology to Cardi.

In an interview with the Call Me Daddy podcast in October, Offset spoke on how the two worked amicably to re-establish trust in their relationship.

“We’re both public figures, we’re both in the eyes of people. Stop being selfish,” he said. “You’re married to this woman, be dedicated to this woman. And also, just like being more communicative about s–t. Like, we just talk more and, because, you know, work was getting in the way, sometimes and it was like, [phew] and we would talk all the time but communication is key. If you don’t like some s–t, tell me, and if I don’t like some s–t, I’ll tell you. We talk and communication is key. Not communicating f–ks s–t up.”

Watch Cardi’s video below.

11 Dec 2023

The Weeknd Fans Celebrate Fortnite Festival Launch With Times Square Flash Mob

If you happen to be waltzing through Times Square over the weekend and you got a glimpse of The Weeknd, or 300 Weeknds, then you weren’t seeing things. The eye-popping downtown New York scene on Saturday night (Dec. 9) came courtesy of a 300-person flash mob assembled on the TKTS staircase in the heart of Times Square to celebrate the new Fortnite Festival game.

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The dancers were all dressed in a variety of After Hours-era Weeknd looks — which are available as skins in the game — to celebrate the singer’s (who now goes by his given name, Abel Tesfaye) debut as the headliner for the game in which players can jam out with friends. The outfits modeled by the dancers included the red jacket and black pants outfit the Weeknd wore throughout the After Hours era, as well as the white mask and white shirt and white mask and black outfit as they all danced to “Blinding Lights” for a reported crowd of 15,000.

Fortnite Festival launched on Saturday and it allows players to perform their favorite songs solo or with their friends by tapping out notes, with Tesfaye serving as the game’s first headliner. On the Main Stage, users can choose songs for their setlist and used their preferred control method to rip it up on guitar, bass, keytar, drums or vocals; up to four players can be on the Main Stage at once.

The Weeknd is the latest artist to team up with Fortnite for a music event, following virtual concerts by Eminem, Ariana Grande, Travis Scott, Marshmello and Kid Cudi. In April, Coachella teamed up with Fortnite for a game called Coachella Island, which featured a virtual world inside the Fortnite universe with mini-games, Coachella-themed merch, art installations and virtual versions of the fest’s iconic ferris wheel and Spectra building.

Check out footage of the flash mob below.

11 Dec 2023

Beyoncé’s ‘Renaissance’ Concert Film Suffers Big Drop in Second Weekend

Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé took a major tumble during its second weekend in movie theaters. The tour doc easily topped the box office tally on opening weekend, but in its second frame it is expected to tumble more than 77% from its initial peak.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie directed, written and produced by the Queen Bey tumbled from No. 1 to a seeming tie for No. 5 with Disney’s animated Wish, with an estimated $5 million haul; the final Renaissance number could be closer to $5.5 million when complete numbers are released on Monday morning.

Either way, it was a swift and steep fall from the movie’s $21 million opening last weekend, which marked the first film to open with over $20 million in the typically slow post-Thanksgiving period in 20 years, not accounting for inflation. THR reported that the big second-week drop suggested that the movie was “frontloaded and is relying primarily on superfans”; like Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour film run, the Beyoncé movie only played Thursday-Sunday.

Swift’s Eras film made more than $92 million in its first frame on its way to more than $250 million in global receipts to date. The two superstars have supported each other, with Swift recently flying to London for the Renaissance premiere. Sunday (Dec. 10) was the final day in theaters for Renaissance.

The movie had more robust competition during its second go-round, especially from The Boy and the Heron, acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki’s latest animated spectacle. The Studio Ghibli-produced film scored a record-breaking $12.8 million open, marking the first anime title in history to debut atop the North American box office chart.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes was expected to end up at No. 2 on a projected $9-$10 million, followed by Godzilla Minus One and the Justin Timberlake-topped threequel Trolls Band Together.

10 Dec 2023

Quando Rondo Arrested on Federal Drug Charges in Georgia

Quando Rondo was arrested on federal drug charges on Friday night (Dec. 8) in his hometown of Savannah, Georgia.

The 24-year-old rapper, whose real name is Tyquian Terrel Bowman, was taken into custody by the FBI after being pulled over in a vehicle, according to ABC’s Savannah affiliate WJCL. The Savannah police served as the arresting agency.

Quando’s car was reportedly pulled over around midnight with the intention of arresting the rapper and not because of a traffic violation. None of the other people in the vehicle were taken into custody.

A Savannah Police Department spokesperson told WJCL that the rapper, who was a passenger in the vehicle, was arrested without incident. He is expected to appear in court next week, according to Rolling Stone.

Quando’s arrest arrives nearly six months after he 18 others were indicted on drug and gang charges in Savannah. He is accused of being a manager of the Rollin’ 60s street gang, and conspiring with others to distribute marijuana and to buy hydrocodone pills, the Associated Press reported in June.

He was released on a $100,000 bond shortly after being jailed.

09 Dec 2023

2 Chainz Hospitalized Following Car Accident in Miami

2 Chainz was rushed to the hospital after being involved in a car accident early Saturday morning (Dec. 9) in Miami.

The Atlanta rapper, 46, took to his Instagram Story following the crash to share a video of himself being loaded into the back of an ambulance on a stretcher. In the brief clip, he zooms in on a black Tesla with a massively smashed front end.

2 Chainz suffered neck injuries and possibly other injuries as a result of the accident, but was in stable condition at the hospital, according to TMZ.

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The “It’s a Vibe” rapper’s vehicle was reportedly struck from behind by a Tesla while the artist was driving on I-95. There were no fatalities, but at least one other male was transported to the hospital, TMZ reports. Authorities suspect the other driver may have been under the influence.

2 Chainz, who was in Miami for Art Basel, was reportedly leaving a local strip club shortly before the crash.

See 2 Chainz’ video of himself being loaded into an ambulance on Instagram here.

08 Dec 2023

Ty Dolla $ign Shares Tracklist From His & Ye’s Upcoming Joint Album

Ty Dolla $ign is continuing to tease his and Ye‘s (formerly Kanye West) upcoming joint album by sharing a tracklist on Friday (Dec. 8).

He shared the 17-track listing on Instagram, which includes their latest single “Vultures,” featuring Bump J and Lil Durk, that was previewed on WPWX Power 92 Chicago prior to the song’s independent release on Nov. 18. The tracklist also notably includes “New Body,” the long-awaited record with Ye, Ty and Nicki Minaj that has been teased since 2018 and was originally supposed to be featured on Ye’s scraped album Yandhi.

Minaj released her own new body of work Friday: her highly anticipated fifth studio album Pink Friday 2, the sequel to her 2010 debut album.

Billboard reported in October that Ye and Ty were shopping a joint project to distributors and that the former would “make a decision soon.” The set would mark the first release for Ye since his antisemitic comments, which led to Def Jam parent company Universal Music Group distancing from the artist.

Prior to “Vultures,” the last time West and Ty released a collaboration was “Junya Pt 2” on Ye’s 2021 album, Donda. Before that, they worked together on Ty’s “Ego Death” (2020) and on Ye’s “Everything We Need” (2019), “Real Friends” (2016) and “Only One” (2014).

In November, Ty teased on social media that the two were planning a multi-stadium listening event for their joint album, similar to the three massive listening events Ye hosted for Donda in 2021. However, the event didn’t take place and a release date for the album has still not been announced.