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Nick Cannon clapped back at the haters calling him a bad dad in a new interview published on Sunday (May 7) by sharing his yearly salary.
“I’ve been villianized,” he said in a sit-down with The Los Angeles Times regarding his decision to have 12 kids with six different women, including five new additions in the last year. “I hear all the time: ‘You can’t be present for all those children.’ So therefore I get this deadbeat dad title.”
The host of The Masked Singer used the interview to address a report from last fall that he pays $3 million in child support each year. “That’s not a lot of money. When you think about my lifestyle, I have to generate at least $100 million a year,” he countered, before confirming to the paper he brings in $100 million annually. “Everybody thinks Ryan Seacrest has tons of money. I do everything that he does times 10. Well, not times 10 — times three. Because he does a lot.”
Elsewhere during the chat, Cannon also maintained that part of the reason he fathered so many kids in the past year was due to his people-pleasing personality. He said of his partners, “A lot of them are in the same age group” and added, “I just wanted to give them what they desired. I kept saying, ‘I can handle it.’”
Though Cannon is currently juggling multiple projects including The Masked Singer, Wild ‘n Out and his new AMP radio show The Daily Cannon, he’s currently stepping in to guest host FOX’s Beat Shazam while his close pal Jamie Foxx recovers from his recent hospitalization.
Diddy kicked off F1 race weekend in Miami by bringing some special guests on stage during a private performance at Major Food Group’s “American Express Presents Carbone Beach” event on Friday (May 5).
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In front of guests like Venus Williams, Dak Prescott and Luis Fonsi, Diddy ran through a string of hits at the exclusive supper club pop-up, which featured specially-curated dishes from celeb chef Mario Carbone and his namesake Italian restaurant.
Diddy took to the stage shortly after dinner wound down, launching into “Bad Boys for Life,” before following with crowd pleasers “I Need a Girl” and “Been Around the World.” He soon announced that he had some “friends” joining him for the night, as the opening refrain to Fabolous’ “Make Me Better” played over the speakers. The Brooklyn rapper hopped onstage to trade lines with Diddy on the track before a solo performance of “Say Aah.”
Fabolous wasn’t the only surprise guest during Diddy’s set. Busta Rhymes came out shortly after (alongside Spliffstar), plowing through hits like “Pass the Courvoisier” and “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See” before ending with his rapid-fire verse on “Look at Me Now.”
Diddy hopped onto a table in the middle of the room to close out his set, as the crowd sang along to “Mo Money, Mo Problems.” The rapper made sure to end the night on a positive note, reminding everyone that he was now going by the moniker “Love.”
“We in the Love era now,” he said, “and I want you all to be love, and show love, to everybody around you.”
Diddy’s performance followed a surprise set by Diana Ross during the first night of Carbone’s South Beach popup. The ultra-exclusive event has seen a number of celebrities come through, and Friday’s dinner included stars like Madelyn Cline, Lukas Gage, Chris Appleton, Mason Gooding, Madison Bailey and Nigel Sylvester, who joined Tommy Hilfiger at his table.
The designer (and celeb crew) were in town to celebrate the launch of the Tommy x Mercedes-AMG F1 x Awake NY collection, a new capsule designed by Awake founder Angelo Baque and inspired by auto racing and Miami. Timed to the weekend’s Formula 1 race, the collection of graphic tees, polos, baseball jerseys and rugby shirts are available to shop on Tommy.com.
Despite his big, bright smile and sweet demeanor, Armani White has been through some of life’s toughest battles. In his 2021 EP, Things We Lost in the Fire, he shares some of the traumatic moments that came from two separate house fires in 2006 and 2020.
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“I lost a lot in those fires. I lost some friends, I lost my best friend Melinda, my three cousins and my aunt in the house fire growing up,” he tells Billboard‘s Tetris Kelly at SXSW, three years after the most recent fire. “Then, we had a house fire in 2020 and that house fire was the moment — the first one, I was nervous to talk about it for the majority of my life and then second became something like, maybe this is a calling to say, ‘Get this out. Go through this.’ It might be something fruitful for you, so that’s what we did.”
During his SXSW performance, White also mentioned the death of his father. “My dad definitely inspired me,” White tells Billboard. “He taught me to be resilient, be fearless and go for what you want. That’s the mentality he always had. He had good intentions, he didn’t necessarily have the best execution with those intentions, but that also inspired me because it taught me to be human.”
But the tough moments haven’t stopped him. Following the viral success of his 2022 track, “Billie Eilish,” White is looking forward to another Hot 100 hit with his freshly dropped debut EP under Def Jam, Road to Casablanco. “It’s very much focused on all the wins, all the trophies and all the success we’ve been getting,” he shares. “Me being from Philly and an artist on the happy side […] it gives you a peek inside the hood side that shows you why I feel like I deserve to be this happy and why I feel like I’ve been through so much that I’ve merited the right to walk in the building with a smile on my face.”
Watch Billboard‘s full interview with Armani White above.
Cardi B was spicing things up in the kitchen with Offset (literally), and took to TikTok to share the process.
“My man been asking me to do this spicy bowl, this trendy spicy bowl s—, so I’m going to do it for him,” the rapper shared in a video posted on Thursday (May 4), before delving into the ingredients of her mouth-burning concoction, which included sausages and “lots and lots of hot sauce.” The camera then panned to Offset, who looked apprehensive about his decision to take part in the challenge as Cardi continued to dump hot sauce over the sausages.
But Cardi didn’t stop there. The “I Like It” superstar added crushed red pepper, pickles, pickle juice, jalapeños, jalapeño juice, Pepperoncinis, banana peppers, smoked paprika “for color and flavor,” blackened seasoning, Old Bay seasoning and hard boiled eggs before mixing it all together and presenting the stew to the Migos rapper to try.
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“Wait! Let me get him water!” the couple’s four-year-old daughter Kulture sweetly shouted before the taste test, anticipating that the meal might be a little too spicy. However, Offset didn’t need the water, and actually ended up liking the spicy bowl. “It’s good, I would put this in a soup,” he shared.
Kulture felt differently. She tried a tiny taste for herself, before hilariously immediately making a grossed-out face, screaming and running off.
Watch it all go down below.
Like just about everything Marshall Chess discusses during a 45-minute zoom, the story behind his upcoming album New Moves is long, complicated, full of record-business drama and enthusiastically related. “I run at the mouth very easily with stories,” understates the 81-year-old son of the late Leonard Chess, co-founder of Chicago label Chess Records, home of Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Howlin’ Wolf, Etta James and other pioneering blues artists.
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The white-haired Chess dishes on Zoom like a friendly stranger at the bar: His father, Leonard, once made James cry, “to get her to do stuff”; the late guitarist Michael Bloomfield was so anxious about collaborating with Waters on 1969’s Fathers and Sons that a friend had to take him to a hospital for a tranquilizer; Marshall attended college at the University of Denver in the ’60s, taking time off from studying to exercise horses outside of town and shop Chess records to radio stations as a promo man. His more reserved son Jamar – an indie label exec and publisher – interrupts to correct dates and keep the conversation focused on New Moves, the father-and-son album due out this spring by a supergroup of hip-hop and rock ‘n’ roll artists calling themselves The Chess Project.
The tale of New Moves begins in the late 2000s, when Chess and some musician friends who’d worked at hip-hop label Sugar Hill Records in the ’70s and ’80s wanted to make an album of classic blues samples mixed with drum machines and contemporary electronic music. To achieve this, Chess needed permission from publishers to use samples of Wolf and Muddy and the others from his family label – which Leonard and his brother, Phil, had sold to indie label GRT in 1969.
Eventually, Universal Music Group took over Chess’ catalog, and Chess could not convince the major label’s Los Angeles executives to approve the samples — he even tried an end-run, traveling to the U.K. and pulling top international exec Lucian Grainge out of a meeting to give his blessing. (Grainge, of course, went on to take over UMG as its chairman and CEO.) But when the L.A. execs found out, according to Chess, they “squelched” the project; 2008’s U.K.-only album Chess Moves quickly fell out of print and is only available on eBay. “I don’t know if I should say who got mad about it,” Chess recalls. “He’s still there.”(A UMG spokesperson did not reply to requests for comment.)
Over time, Chess and collaborator Keith LeBlanc – the experimental hip-hop drummer who’d been in Sugar Hill’s house band – adjusted their idea. Instead of using the Muddy and Etta samples, they turned the tracks into quasi-covers, modern interpretations of blues songs from the ’50s and ’60s. Chess approached BMG to administer the deal, and they hammered out the details, from the marketing budget to the launch party. “Then,” Chess says, “I collapsed.”
Chess wound up undergoing two spinal surgeries and was recovering on his couch in Phoenicia, N.Y., when the COVID-19 pandemic kicked in, forcing BMG, and all the labels and publishers, to close their offices. All seemed lost for the project. “We were quite disillusioned. We let it go,” LeBlanc, the heart of The Chess Project, says by phone from his home studio in Meriden, Conn. “I took a couple tracks and put some live drums on it, and realized, ‘This sounds really good.’ So I called Marshall, and said, ‘Let’s just do a whole other album using a different slant on it.’”
BMG kindly returned the rights to the album to Chess — for free. New Moves, starring LeBlanc on drums, Skip “Little Axe” McDonald on guitar and longtime Rolling Stones backup singer Bernard Fowler on vocals, will come out sometime this year under a new label, CZYZ Records. (This is a reference to the Chess family’s original name in Poland before Leonard and his brother, Phil, immigrated to Chicago and changed it to something more American. In the zoom, Chess wears a red hat with CZYZ in white letters.) Owned by Marshall and Jamar Chess, CZYZ will retain the album masters, and BMG will oversee the publishing.
New Moves contains no actual Howlin’ Wolf vocals, Muddy Waters guitar solos or Little Walter harp riffs, but LeBlanc’s Chess Project crew surrounded Fowler’s moans and murmurs with blasts of electric guitars and harmonicas so they capture the vibe of what happened so many years ago at Chess in Chicago. The songs aren’t covers, per se, but they show their inspirational source material by copying titles of Chess blues classics: “Nine Below Zero,” “Smokestack Lightning,” “Goin Down Slow.”
Sometimes, Marshall Chess says, he had to summon the spirits of Leonard and Phil Chess to get to the heart of a track. On “Help Me,” he says, “We had trouble getting Bernard to do the vocal — he wouldn’t do it the way Keith wanted it.” So naturally, Chess, who was president of Rolling Stones Records from 1970 to 1978, told Fowler a story: In the ’50s, when Marshall was 16, Leonard Chess enlisted him to supervise a session with a prominent Chess artist while he went to the bank. Leonard’s advice to Marshall? “Tell him, ‘Keep taking another one.’ Otherwise, he’s going to sit around and bulls–t about women. One of those takes will be great.” Years later, Marshall applied this advice to Mick Jagger while the band was recording “Moonlight Mile.” From a remote truck, he repeated to the singer, “Take another one,” until they hit the version used on 1971’s Sticky Fingers. “When [Fowler] heard that Mick listened to me,” Chess recalls, “he immediately did what we wanted.”
Marshall Chess was born into the record business. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame doo-wop group the Flamingos played his bar-mitzvah dinner. As a 25-year-old in 1967, he steered the family blues label into the psychedelic counter-culture – starting his own imprint, Cadet Concept, and nudging Waters and Wolf into stretched-out, funky blues with their respective albums Electric Mud and The Howlin’ Wolf Album. Traditionalists hated the albums, and Rolling Stone panned Electric Mud – but the album was a top label seller for years, and wound up inspiring a generation of rappers, including Public Enemy’s Chuck D.
“Marshall brought the youth vision to Chess,” says Robert Gordon, a Memphis blues historian who wrote the definitive Waters biography, 2002’s Can’t Be Satisfied. “It was ahead of its time. I dismissed it upon hearing it, and not until Chuck D turned me onto it did I go back with open ears. It was f–kin’ rockin’, man! It took me 40 years to catch up to Marshall’s vision.”
The elder Chess, as ever, is delighted to play promo man for his latest venture. “High Temperature,” the slow-burning first single from New Moves, is scheduled for release next Friday (May 12), before the album comes out. “I want you to listen to two cuts, ‘Goin Down Slow,’ followed by ‘Mother Earth,’” Chess instructs on the Zoom, referring to tracks inspired by Howlin’ Wolf and Memphis Slim classics that deal with contemplating mortality. “I’m 80 years old, and they’re about dying with a smile. They helped me! Because I’m the epitome of going down slow.”
YoungBoy Never Broke Again makes it five straight years with a No. 1 project on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart as his latest album, Don’t Try This at Home, starts at the summit of the list dated May 6. The set begins with just over 60,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending April 27, according to Luminate.
Streaming fuels nearly all the album’s activity, with 59,000 of the first-week units deriving from the consumption method. The sum equals 87.7 million official U.S. on-demand streams for the album’s songs. One-thousand units of the remaining lot comes from traditional album sales, while a negligible amount is owed to track-equivalent units. (One unit equals the following levels of consumption: one album sale, 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams for a song on the album.)
Don’t Try This at Home gives the 23-year-old YoungBoy Never Broke Again, whose real name is Kentrell Gaulden, his eighth career champ on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. He previously ruled with AI Youngboy 2 (2019), Still Flexin, Still Steppin, 38 Baby 2 and Top (all 2020), Sincerely, Kentrell (2021), Colors and The Last Slimeto (both 2022). All of his leaders debuted at No. 1 and held the rank for one week. The new champ also brings YoungBoy Never Broke Again to a milestone 25th entry on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.
Elsewhere, Don’t Try This at Home launches at No. 2 on the Top Rap Albums chart and at No. 5 on the all-genre Billboard 200.
As a result of the album’s strong streaming performance, four of its cuts debut on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. “Big Truck” leads the new arrivals at No. 28, and was the week’s most-streamed Don’t Try This at Home track at 6.6 million clicks. “Mr. Gaulden” (No. 39), “What You Say,” featuring Post Malone and The Kid LAROI (No. 47) and “Rear View,” with Mariah The Scientist (No. 50) round out the crew. Plus, previous release “WTF,” featuring Nicki Minaj, rebounds 46-43 after having reached a No. 32 best.
“Big Truck” also debuts in the anchor slot of the Billboard Hot 100, and the No. 100 bow gives YoungBoy Never Broke Again a milestone 100th title on the flagship chart. He becomes the 13th – and youngest – artist to reach triple digits.
Nick Cannon updated fans on the status of Jamie Foxx‘s recovery on Wednesday (May 3) amid the actor’s hospitalization for an undisclosed medical issue.
Speaking on his new AMP radio show The Daily Cannon, the host confirmed that he’ll be filling Foxx’s shoes on the set of the FOX game show Beat Shazam, and reflected on their friendship.
“I gotta tell you, there would be no Nick Cannon if it wasn’t for Jamie Foxx,” Cannon said. “I love this brother and in a real family-type way, man. He looked out for me when I didn’t have a place to sleep as a teenager. This brother let me sleep on his couch…It was good times and those good times will continue ’cause I am expecting that my brother is gonna just recover fully.”
Cannon’s statements came just one day after Foxx himself broke his silence to thank his fans and supporters via social media. “Appreciate all the love!!! Feeling blessed,” he shared in a brief Instagram post, and also used his Stories to specifically thank Cannon for taking over his hosting duties while he’s in the hospital.
Kevin Hart also spoke out about Foxx’s recovery on Wednesday (May 3) during an appearance on Logan Paul’s podcast Impaulsive, saying, “I think the dope thing is that he’s getting better in his situation, and everybody’s prayers, everybody’s love, energy, all that stuff is seen and felt.”
He then went on to add: “I don’t know the details or the exact details as to what’s going on, but to my knowledge, there’s a lot of progression and a world of better. My love, synergy goes out to him. He’s needed, he’s necessary and I know he knows that. I know that he feels that because there’s been an outcry and outpour of support and I can only hope that it continues.”
On the heels of Mary J. Blige’s second annual Strength of a Woman Festival and Summit in Atlanta (State Farm Arena, May 11-14), event co-presenter Pepsi announced it has partnered with Blige to present a scholarship to a deserving HBCU female student this fall. The forthcoming award is among $200,000 in donations to organizations and initiatives dedicated to securing empowerment, education, elevation and equity for Black women.
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In addition to the inaugural PepsiCo x Mary J. Blige Strength of a Woman Scholarship, Pepsi is funding several local Atlanta organizations selected in collaboration with Blige. Focused on empowering women in the areas of wellness, technology, finance and creative arts, the chosen organizations include Silence the Shame, City of Refuge, Right Hand Foundation and Earth Girl ATL.
“Between Pepsi and [music partner] Live Nation Urban, I have some great heavy hitters that are helping me to benefit our people and all the women who are coming out; that are helping to uplift, encourage, inspire, give back and donate,” Blige tells Billboard. “And speaking of donate, I’ve partnered with Pepsi to donate $200,000 on behalf of a college scholarship as well as organizations that support and amplify women across the city. To keep doing things like this to help the community is why I’ve partnered with such heavy hitters.”
Among Pepsi’s other programming initiatives at the Mother’s Day weekend event, which expanded to an additional day this year, is Pepsi Dig In. Supporting Atlanta-based female-operated, Black-owned restaurants, the platform will provide complimentary food from Ms. Icey’s Kitchen, Gocha’s Breakfast Bar, Twisted Soul and Local Green Atlanta. Pepsi will also turn its spotlight on Black women entrepreneurs and changemakers through its Stacy’s Rise Project and Doritos SOLID BLACK platform, hosting a dinner to honor women who have made an impact at the company and in the Atlanta community.
In a statement, PepsiCo senior vp, industry relations and multicultural development Kent Montgomery said, “The Strength of a Woman Festival and Summit has proven to be a powerful platform for Pepsi and its brands to create opportunities that bring long-lasting change to amplify and elevate women. This year, with even more events for fans to experience, we want to recognize, celebrate and support the voices of the community from the incredible onstage talent, including the iconic Mary J. Blige, to the on-the-ground local restauranteurs and entrepreneurs whose vision and passion inspire others.”
Rounding out the four-day Strength of a Woman Festival and Summit are two nights of concerts and a comedy showcase. The former includes an R&B show starring Ms. Lauryn Hill, Summer Walker and Muni Long. The evening before will feature a special “MJB B-Sides” set in celebration of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary. Nine-time Grammy winner Blige and friends — Jodeci, Busta Rhymes, Jeezy, Jadakiss, Method Man and DJ Drama — will roll out rarely performed hits.
Says Blige of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary, “It means so much because we held on to our voices and to our expression. And we continue to give and to inspire other generations to speak their truth through hip-hop. And that makes me feel good. As for the show that night, you’ve just got to come and see.”
Closing out the festival on May 14 will be a new event, The Purpose Ball. It will honor the LGBTQAI community and feature a special performance by Saucy Santana. “The Strength of a Woman Festival and Summit is about showing love and the LGBTQAI community is a part of our community,” says Blige. “We love and support them.”
Tying in with her festival theme, Blige executive produced two Lifetime original movies through her Blue Butterfly production banner. Borrowing their titles from her catalog of hits, both will premiere in June: Mary J. Blige’s Real Love (June 10) and Mary J. Blige’s Strength of a Woman (June 17).
“At the end of the day, real love is something we’re all searching for,” notes Blige. “But once we find it for real, we find it in ourselves. And that’s when we become really strong women.”
The annual Celebration gathering at Prince‘s Paisley Park is back this year with the promise of another trove of unreleased music from the late rock icon’s vault. The party will take place from June 8-11 and a release announcing the lineup promises appearances and conversations with Public Enemy’s Chuck D, Chaka Khan, as well as DJ D-Nice and Doug E. Fresh and performances from Minnesota gospel groups Sounds of Blackness and The Steeles.
Also on tap for the event are Mint Condition’s Stokley, DJ Rashina, members of Prince’s NPG band, his backup singer and solo artist Shelby J and the Minneapolis youth choir Known MPLS. The gathering at the “Purple Rain” star’s iconic studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota will also include a Prince Legacy Tribute show honoring one of the New Power Generation’s founding members, Rosie Gaines.
But perhaps the high point for any Prince fanatic is the annual opportunity to get exclusive access to the singer’s vault of unreleased recordings and live tapes, with attendees, as usual, split into two groups, “Diamond” and “Pearl,” for their intimate tours of the 65,000 square foot complex.
At press time organizers had not revealed which recordings would be pulled from the legendarily packed vault, but they did say that this year’s theme is tied to the number 7, which was very significant to the singer, who was born on June 7, 1958. He frequently referenced the number, including on the song “7” from his 1992 Love Symbol album.
“This year marks 7 years of uplifting Prince’s legacy and carefully preserving his prolific artistic output and his creative sanctuary,” read a statement. “At Celebration 2023, guests will take a deep dive into understanding the cultural significance of 7 and how it has been reflected throughout history. Click here for more information on tickets.
Yung Miami may be in a situationship with Diddy, but that doesn’t mean she can’t acknowledge what a beautiful woman Megan Thee Stallion is.
During a recent appearance on Revolt’s The Jason Lee Show, Miami (aka Caresha) and Lee played a rapid-fire game of “smash or pass” with a series of celebrity photos. When Megan Thee Stallion came up, the “Rap Freaks” rapper wasted no time answering. “I’ma smash all day and tomorrow,” Caresha said. “Megan just gives me like … she really could take me up and throw down.”
Lee immediately followed up by asking if Miami had ever been with a woman before and whether or not she identified as bisexual, and the rapper nodded in confirmation. “Sexually I have been with a woman before,” she said. “I love it … I really do like girls, [but] I won’t be in a relationship with a girl.”
The City Girls star has been open about her adoration for Megan Thee Stallion before — and the feeling might be mutual. In a 2021 tweet, the “Savage” rapper wrote that she “was too shy to tell her in person but @YungMiami305 I want to date.” Miami quickly quoted Megan’s tweet, adding, “I been wanted you too, so what’s up?”
This isn’t the first time Yung Miami has made headlines when talking about sexuality, either — back in 2013, the rapper wrote in a since-deleted tweet that if she ever found out a son of hers was gay, that she would “beat that boy so baddd [sic].” In an interview on The Breakfast Club in 2018, the rapper defended her comments, saying, “I have absolutely nothing against gay people, but I wouldn’t want my son to be gay.”
Check out Yung Miami’s interview with Jason Lee above.