State Champ Radio R&B/Hip-Hop
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The Weeknd and Future team up on their latest single “Double Fantasy,” which was released Friday (April 21).
The Weeknd has been teasing “Double Fantasy,” which will be featured on the soundtrack for his upcoming HBO series The Idol, on Instagram over the last week. Last Friday, he performed it for the first time during Metro Boomin‘s Coachella set. “Temperature rising, bodies united, now that I tried you in my arms. No need to fight it, no need to hide it, now that I’ve seen what’s in your heart,” The Weeknd sang during the festival. Even though Future didn’t join him on stage for the song’s live debut, the two performed “Low Life” from Future’s 2016 album EVOL. Metro and Mike Dean co-produced “Double Fantasy.”
The song marks The Weeknd and Future’s fifth collaboration after the two first came together as featured artists on producer Mike WiLL Made-It‘s 2015 single “Drinks on Us,” which also featured Swae Lee. In 2016, the dynamic duo came together one-on-one on “Low Life,” and at the end of that same year, The Weeknd tapped Future on “All I Know” from his Starboy LP, which got the deluxe treatment last month following his and Ariana Grande‘s Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “Die For You” remix. In 2017, the two collaborated on “Comin Out Strong” on Future’s album HNDRXX.
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The “Double Fantasy” cover art shows The Weeknd as his Idol character Tedros, a leader of a modern-day cult and the love interest of rising pop star Jocelyn, who’s played by Lily-Rose Depp (also featured on the single’s artwork). The latest teaser trailer for The Idol revealed the show will premiere on HBO on June 4. The long-awaited drama series has also been selected by Cannes Film Festival as one of four Out of Competition Selections.
Listen to “Double Fantasy” below.
After allegedly exposing himself on an international flight, Desiigner says he’s checking himself into a facility for mental health treatment.
As TMZ first reported, the “Panda” rapper is accused of exposing himself on a plane this past weekend from Asia back to the United States and was reprimanded by a flight attendant. Police were waiting for him when the plane landed in Minneapolis, where he was questioned about the incident and released.
On Thursday (April 20), Desiigner posted a statement to his Instagram Stories, saying he’s “ashamed” of his behavior on the plane — which he attributed to medication he was prescribed while hospitalized in Asia — and that he is seeking mental health treatment.
“For the past few months I have not been ok, and I have been struggling to come to terms with what is going on,” the statement begins. “While overseas for a concert I performed at, I had to be admitted in to a hospital, I was not thinking clearly. They gave me meds, and I had to hop on a plane home. I am ashamed of my actions that happened on that plane. I landed back to the states, and am admitting my self in a facility to help me. I will be cancelling all of my shows and my obligations until further notice. Mental health is real guys, please pray for me. If [you’re] not feeling like yourself, please get help.”
The chart-topping rapper was overseas to perform at Rolling Loud Thailand on Friday last week, alongside festival headliners Cardi B, Chris Brown and Travis Scott, and at a nightclub in Tokyo over the weekend.
Desiigner’s breakthrough hit “Panda” spent two weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 back in 2016, and he’s scored two other top 40 hits on the chart: “Tiimmy Turner” in 2016 (No. 34 peak) and as a featured guest on BTS’ “MIC Drop” in 2017 (No. 28). Over on the Hot Rap Songs chart, “Panda” — which was nominated for best rap performance at the 59th annual Grammy Awards — spent 17 weeks at No. 1 in 2016.
See Desiigner’s statement before it expires here.
As E-40 taught us, everybody’s got choices. The Sacramento Kings chose to eject the Bay Area rapper from the April 15 game against E-40’s hometown Golden State Warriors, and now they’ve released a joint statement addressing the incident.
E-40 made the trek to Sacramento to enjoy courtside seats at the Warriors’ game against the Kings only to be kicked out by security after a verbal altercation with a woman whom E-40 referred to as a heckler in his section. “Security saw a disagreement between a Black man and a White woman and immediately assumed that I was at fault,” he wrote in his initial statement, attributing the incident to “racial bias.”
Now, the Kings have released a joint statement with the rapper, born Earl Stevens, setting the record straight. “After a series of thoughtful and transparent conversations, both parties agree that there was a miscommunication regarding the circumstances that occurred during the Kings vs. Warriors game on Saturday night,” the statement begins.
“Contrary to speculation, Mr. Earl ‘E-40’ Stevens did not stand excessively from his ticketed courtside seat; the outcome resulted from an unfortunate misunderstanding between both parties. The Kings will continue to equitably enforce the NBA Fan Code of Conduct to ensure guests can comfortably enjoy games free of disrespectful heckling and other disruptive conduct. The organization has been a longtime leader in promoting social justice and racial equality with a track record of measurable results and community impacts. Mr. Stevens has previously attended games at Golden 1 Center without incident, and the Kings look forward to welcoming him back to our arena in the future.”
Following E-40’s ejection, the rapper received an outpouring of support, with the Philadelphia 76ers, the Warriors and TNT’s Inside the NBA playing his songs during games and programming. Jalen Rose also posted a video addressing the matter and demanding an apology from the Kings.
E-40 called the experience “jarring” in his initial statement. On Thursday, he released his latest single, “Front Row 40,” which a source told Complex was recorded months ago and was slated to drop “during the Warriors’ postseason.”
Last year, Joey Bada$$ stampeded his way back into rap contention when he released his third studio album, 2000.
Dubbed a sequel to his lauded 2012 mixtape 1999, the album showcased the now-28-year-old’s growth as a charismatic rhyme slinger. While his steely Brooklyn bravado outclassed the competition as proven in “One of Us” and “Make Me Feel,” Joey also unapologetically unpacked his trauma and grief (“Survivors Guilt” and “Head High”), making 2000 an indelible hip-hop gem last year.
“I recently successfully grieved, if that makes sense,” Bada$$ says retrospectively. “I can’t tell you what it looks like for me now. I don’t even want to think about grieving anything or anyone right now, but my approach now at this age would be more direct and head-on. I buried things and would substitute grieving time with work and anything that would take my attention away from grieving a loved one or a situation. Now, I would try to do my best to deal with it.”
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And though Joey enjoyed his 2022 wins — including rave reviews on the acting side for his roles on popular TV series Power Book III: Raising Kanan and Wu-Tang: An American Saga, he’s ready to take a sharp pivot musically. His first step was releasing “Fallin’,” a one-off single glazed with R&B sensibilities, last month. After flexing his rap muscles last year, Joey slows the tempo down on his new release, providing a slick offering about falling deeply in love. Though he’s clearly in his R&B bag, he does a great job keeping his rap base enthralled with a meaty verse, rapping “They say all is fair in love and war and I ‘fraid to risk it all/ F–k it, if I trip and fall, barely do I miss your call.”
Below, Joey speaks to Billboard about piecing together his third album 2000, almost making an entirely different album, his EGOT aspirations and more.
You’re already dropping new music after releasing an acclaimed album last year. Where’s the urgency coming from?
Well, it doesn’t feel like urgency on my end. It’s just hunger and excitement. It’s more activation. Prior to 2000, it was a five-year gap. So, 2000 has me feeling activated again. There was a lot of music that I made at the time … but to me it was never a dull moment. I was working on our craft the whole time. Now, I’m feeling activated again and feeling excited about making some music. I got so much music. Imagine taking five years off?
Last year, J.I.D said you were sitting on the album and keeping it hostage before releasing it.
Well, respectfully, that was a whole different album. I played him 50 different albums. It was more so a matter of me deciding what I actually wanted to do. What really happened was I put out All-Amerikkkan Badass, experiment with some new s–t, and still doing the s–t that comes naturally easy for me. But by the time I looked up, I’m like, “Oh s–t, five years went by and we lost two.” All this time had elapsed.
So I felt like it was only right that I had to feed my core [fanbase], because they kept me afloat. Even with so much time away, I was able to still do shows and pack them out. Like, my streaming was never down, so I felt like it was only right. I feel eager to tell people something new. All these experiments that I’ve been working on in that block of time.
I read that while you were making 2000 you and almost made an album similar to K Dot’s Mr. Morale and The Big Steppers. How true is that?
Yeah — so around that time I was working on an album called Survivor’s Guilt. It was more moving in that direction, [around] the title track of that. You know, after a while I just wasn’t solid about that music anymore. I don’t want you to think I’ve been sad this whole time. I want [fans] to see me grow, and where I’m actually at now. It just became a matter of me spiritually, how I didn’t align with that music anymore. So I pivoted from the more therapeutic introspective sound.
Which records were most therapeutic to you?
Definitely “Survivor’s Guilt” and “Head High” for sure. “Survivor’s Guilt” was a moment — and I recorded that song [probably around] 2020 and had that for like three years.
That was a lot of heavy s–t.
It wasn’t the session that was crazy, it was going through it that was crazy. And I wrote that in the midst of the pandemic. I just thought about the concept of being rich, and just the spoils of living a life of luxury, and where that takes a person. I just kinda expanded on this idea — and then it just became a song about me grieving the loss of my brother. I didn’t intend to write about that. I actually didn’t write it — it came from the heart. It was one of those things with me just rehearsing some lines in the shower, going over it in my head, and then I went downstairs and it was a piecing back-and-forth type of thing until I had this whole verse.
I didn’t even know how much bars it was, because I was just spitting from the spirit — from my heart — and it was magical. I remember following that experience, for the first time I went to get a reading from a psychic. And one of the things she told me — which was crazy to me — I told her about the spirits that are following me and my angels, and at the end of the session she asked me if I wrote a song about him. I feel like I finally mended my heart with that song, when it came to that situation with my brother and how I felt about it.
How do you find that balance in being away, but also finding the urgency to be present and release music constantly?
I’m still trying to figure it out. You talking about, “Why you so ready already?” I’m tryna stay consistent. It’s a balance. I feel like that was successful for me, especially when I started in the blog era in the early 2010s. Like that was good, that was cool — drop a tape, take some years and come with another joint. Yeah, people were waiting for that. But the climate of the game’s so different. Like, now it’s about numbers on the board. It’s like, “Let’s go to the gym and put some shots up and whatever sticks, sticks.” I’m taking so much time to record quality s–t, so I’m able to put it on rapid-fire if that makes sense.
Do you look at features differently now versus when you were coming up?
Well when I was coming up, features got way more … people wouldn’t care if the dude wasn’t Jay-Z to get on a record like mine. But now I look at it as an opportunity to keep the ball rolling. Also, when we was young, we had people hit my phone [while] we at the studio. If people sending me records, it’s like, “OK, cool. Let’s get to it and send it right back out.” It still feels like work, but I’m more engaged and I’m more in it, too … I’m trying to get to that 2000s Lil Wayne. It’s just all hunger and excitement right now. I’m outside.
You’ve worked with Larry June twice this past year. What makes him a unique artist to work with?
One, June got incredible consistency. Two, like myself, June has a street core. That’s somebody that has hustled and he continues to send that message. [starts rapping June’s song] “That’s a solid plan.” He’s so simple that it’s hard as f–k. There’s s–t that you’re gonna be replaying. These are the types of messages you want to have buried into your self-consciousness. I feel like June has figured out how to speak to them, and he’s constantly giving you that concept. I’m even at that point in my career I’m thinking, “Who could I make a collaboration album with?” And he’s somebody that’s on my radar [for that].
Do you still want a Grammy?
I don’t. I’d appreciate one. I just look at it as something that’s recognition. When I was younger, I felt it was an accolade that I needed to validate myself. I’m actually very firm on the idea we [as Black people] need [our own] Grammys. We need to take it back. We had The Source Awards and s–t like that — because it really comes down to misrepresentation. That’s something that we’ve been dealing with for a long time — and, unfortunately, we’re going to have to continue to deal with it until we take the wheel. It would be cool. I got a spot in my house where it’d look real nice.
I heard you were interested in playing Big L in a biopic. Is that something you’re still trying to do?
I’ve definitely been approached about that. I didn’t say I’d want to play him. I think the question somebody had asked me was, “Who was somebody I like?” And I feel like Big L is somebody — because coming up, I always got good comparisons with him. Honestly, I don’t want to play a rapper. Even with Wu-Tang, it was a hesitation for me — but I did it, really because I have such admiration for RZA. But I want to stay clear of things that are actually too similar to who I actually am.
Seeing BMF and Ghost, where does Raising Kanan rank?
It’s the best show. I think BMF is a great story, but I think we got more talent at Raising Kanan. We got an Oscar winner and a Tony winner who spearheads the show. They got Oscars at BMF?
I know you said you don’t care about Grammys, but you starred in Two Distant Strangers, which won the Oscar for best live action short. Has the thought of EGOT crossed your mind?
Absolutely. Before I even got the Oscar, it’s funny, because that was gonna be one of my album titles at one point. It was gonna be The EGOT. That’s definitely something that I see in my future that I feel that I will manifest.
When I got the Oscar, the next day I was sitting on my couch and there was a whole bunch going on and I just needed to meditate. I could get a Grammy too! I wasn’t striving for a f–king Oscar — it just came.
Nick Cannon spilled the tea in a new interview on Wednesday (April 19) about how his twins with Mariah Carey feel about having 10 younger half-siblings.
“At this point, they enjoy it,” he said of Moroccan and Monroe during an appearance on the Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast. “They have fun and they’re the oldest. But who knows where that will go when 16 hits?”
The host of The Masked Singer also opened up about the twins, who were born in April 2011, growing older, saying, “It’s my first time having 12-year-olds and I have a set of them! And we’re having real conversations. Because, you know, their lives are far from normal. Their mom is one of the biggest entertainers to ever live and their dad is me.”
“They’re so intelligent, they’re so in tune with their own values,” he continued. “One thing they do know is that dad f–ks up. [They know] Dad makes mistakes.”
Along with Dem Babies, Cannon also shares his 10 other kids with five different women including Brittany Bell, DJ Abby De La Rosa, Alyssa Scott, Bre Tiesi and LaNisha Cole. However, despite calling himself a “man of abundance,” he’s not sure he’ll be adding to the large brood anytime soon. “Everything is challenging, but the fact that I get to see all my children in one day, and get to see them each and every day when I’m in town, even when I’m not in town, I take them with me. I love the challenge,” he said. “I’m good with my dozen.”
Listen to Cannon’s full conversation with Howie Mandel below.
Usher and Roberta Flack are upgrading to doctors. As announced Thursday (April 20), Berklee College of Music will award the the artists with honorary doctorate degrees at this year’s commencement ceremony.
The ceremony will take place the morning of May 13 at Boston University’s Agganis Arena, where multi-instrumentalist Sona Jorbarteh will also receive an honorary degree. All three of the honorees will have the chance to address the 2023 class of graduates at the ceremony, and each will be further celebrated with a reception and concert on the eve of commencement, featuring more than 200 student vocalists, musicians, dancers, arrangers and producers from the graduating class performing a musical tribute to their work.
Usher and Flack join an impressive and diverse list of musicians who’ve received honorary degrees from Berklee in years past, including Duke Ellington, Aretha Franklin, Quincy Jones, Celine Dion, B.B. King, Joni Mitchell, Chaka Khan, Esperanza Spalding, Willie Nelson, Missy Elliott, Ringo Starr, Gloria Estefan and John Legend. An eight-time Grammy winner and nine-time Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper, the “Yeah!” singer is being recognized for his accomplishments in music, film and activism.
“No. 1 is always going to mean a lot to everybody. But it doesn’t, and shouldn’t, change your passion,” he told Billboard in 2021. “It hasn’t changed mine, whether I put out a record that hit No. 1 instantly or took time to get there. I have a record company that’s willing to fight for it and get it heard, to connect with my audience and prospective new fans. I’ve tried a lot of stuff. There’s a way to play in R&B where you can be as creative as you want. Don’t cut yourself off — don’t feel you need to be tied so authentically to one thing.”
Four-time Grammy winner Flack has topped the Hot 100 three times: “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face” in 1972, “Killing Me Softly With His Song” in 1973 and “Feel Like Makin’ Love” in 1974.
Killer Mike is hopping back on the saddle as a solo artist for this forthcoming album, Michael. Announced Wednesday (April 19), the Run the Jewels rhymer also dished out a new record with his partner El-P titled “Don’t Let the Devil” and revealed the project’s June 16 release date.
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“[Run the Jewels] is the X-Men. This is my Logan,” Mike told Rolling Stone. “It’s our 10-year anniversary, and Michael is an origin story, so I wanted to start with El.”
“Don’t Let the Devil” is co-produced by El-P, No I.D. and Little Shalimar, with Thankugoodsir relegated to hook duties. The soulful tune finds Mike in his element, boasting about the potency of Run the Jewels as a duo, rhyming, “The jewels runners, the product of many cruel summers/ And the description was fittin’, they say it’s two gunners.”
In a post on Instagram, Mike spoke about his high hopes of making his 12-year-old self happy with his latest collaboration with El-P. “I want to time travel and tell 12-year-old #MICHAEL that he dropped a 🔥 song with his rap potna El-P and had some dope Nike SB collabs on his born-day, plus he had a party,” he wrote. “Life is great, kid. Stay focused and Don’t Let The Devil coerce ya!
Michael will serve as Mike’s first solo album in 10 years following the release of 2012’s R.A.P. Music. He previously released solo tracks, including “Run” with Young Thug and Dave Chappelle, and “Talk’n That Shit!”
Run the Jewels will also embark on a 10th-anniversary tour in select cities.
Listen to “Don’t Let the Devil” below.
NF reasserts his rule on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart as his newest album, Hope, starts at the summit of the chart dated April 22. The set begins with 123,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending April 13, according to Luminate.
With Hope, the rapper achieves his third No. 1 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. His first two entries, 2017’s Perception and 2019’s The Search, both debuted at No. 1 and held the rank for one week, while 2021’s Clouds (The Mixtape), entered and peaked at No. 2.
In addition to its Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums coronation, Hope likewise opens at No. 1 on the Top Rap Albums chart and at No. 2 on the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart.
Eighty-one thousand units of Hope’s debut sum come from traditional album sales, bolstered by the album’s availability in an autographed CD edition in his webstore, a Target-exclusive CD with a poster packaged inside, four deluxe CD/merch boxed sets, and a both a white vinyl and a standard black vinyl edition. The figure makes Hope the top-selling album of the week across all genres and debuts at No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart.
Of the outstanding balance, 42,000 units derive from the streaming sector, equal to 56.8 million official on-demand streams of Hope’s songs. The remaining 1,000 units are from 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.)
As Hope arrives, five of the album’s tracks debut on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. “Careful,” with Cordae, enters the highest, at No. 29, followed by “Pandemonium” (No. 41), “Mama” (No. 46), “Suffice” (No. 47), “Bullet” (No. 48). Plus, two previous Hope releases return to the 50-position list: The title track re-enters at No. 33 after having reached a prior No. 16 peak, while “Motto” comes back at No. 40 after a No. 29 best.
A huge week for NF’s Hope album and its songs prompt the rapper’s re-entry at No. 3 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart, which measures artist activity across key metrics of music consumption — album and track sales, radio airplay and streaming — to provide a weekly multidimensional ranking of artist popularity. By earning the bronze medal on this week’s recap, NF earns his highest Artist 100 rank since he claimed a week at No. 1 in August 2019.
Drake widens his lead for the most No. 1s in the history of Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart as “Search & Rescue” debuts atop the tally dated April 22.
In its first week (April 7-13), the track earned 33.8 million official U.S. streams, according to Luminate.
The song’s sum of raw streams marks the week’s second highest, after Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night”; “Search,” however, tops the chart due to the application of weighting to all titles’ paid/subscription and ad-supported on-demand streams and programmed/radio streams.
“Search” is Drake’s leading 16th No. 1 on Streaming Songs – 10 more than the next-closest acts, dating to the ranking’s 2013 inception. Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift are tied for the second most with six apiece.
Most No. 1s, Streaming Songs:
16, Drake
6, Justin Bieber
6, Taylor Swift
4, Cardi B
4, Miley Cyrus
4, Ariana Grande
4, Lil Baby
4, Travis Scott
Drake achieves his first Streaming Songs No. 1 of 2023. He last reigned with the three-week leader “Rich Flex,” with 21 Savage, beginning with its debut atop the Nov. 19, 2022, list.
On R&B/Hip-Hop Streaming Songs, “Search” is Drake’s 19th ruler (over The Weeknd, his closest competitor, with eight). On Rap Streaming Songs, he notches his 16th (ahead of runner-up Lil Baby with eight).
Concurrently, as previously reported, “Search” bows at No. 2 on the multimetric Billboard Hot 100, where it’s Drake’s record-extending 68th top 10. It launches at No. 1 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, where Drake claims his record-furthering 27th leader.
“Search” is currently a stand-alone single. Drake’s last full-length, the 21 Savage collaboration Her Loss, was released in November, after his dance detour, Honestly, Nevermind, arrived in June.
Meek Mill joined the annual pilgrimage to honor the victims of the Holocaust this week when he traveled to Poland for the March of the Living. The rapper posted a picture from Tuesday (April 18) from the meaningful mission in which he was seen walking with longtime friend and fellow activist New England Patriot owner Robert Kraft and Warner Bros. Discovery president/CEO David Zaslav in an Instagram post captioned “VERY IMPACTFUL DAY !!!!”
The program that draws hundreds of people from around the world for the educational program about the history of the Holocaust has attendees marching down the same 3-kilometer (1.8 mile) path from the Auschwitz death camp to the Birkenau camp on Holocaust Remembrance Day (also known as Yom Hashoah in Hebrew) as a tribute to the six million Jews slaughtered by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.
According to the organization, the goal of the March is to help ” inspire our participants to fight indifference, racism and injustice by witnessing the atrocities of the Holocaust. Our hope is that the program will help strengthen Jewish identity, connections to Israel and build a community of future Jewish leaders.”
More than 1.1 million people died at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of the Nazi concentration camps — one million of them Jews — from 1940-1942.
Meek and Kraft have worked closely together since 2019, when the Patriots owner joined the rapper and Jay-Z in the ongoing REFORM Alliance campaign for criminal justice/sentencing reform. Last month, Kraft enlisted Meek (born Robert Rihmeek Williams) and former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in a new multi-million dollar effort to combat the unprecedented wave of antisemitism in America.
The 81-year-old billionaire has pledged to invest $25 million in a multi-level campaign to fight antisemitism through his Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (FCAS), which has been promoting stories about efforts to combat anti-Jewish hate on it social feeds.
See Meek’s post below.
