State Champ Radio R&B/Hip-Hop
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With less than 10 days until the release of TOMORROW X TOGETHER‘s forthcoming mini album, The Name Chapter: Temptation, more goodies hinting at the project’s contents continue to arrive. Thursday (Jan. 19) saw the K-pop group unveil the project’s tracklist, which includes a feature from rapper Coi Leray.
The tracklist was revealed in a poster shared to the K-pop group’s social accounts, and revealed the songwriting credits. The new tracks on the studio set include “Sugar Rush Ride” — the project’s lead single — “Devil by the Window,” “Happy Fools (feat. Coi Leray),” “Tinnitus (Wanna Be a Rock)” and “Farewell, Neverland.”
While MOA will need to wait a little while longer for the release of “Sugar Rush Ride,” the idols shared a snippet of the track via their TikTok account in videos of each member
The Name Chapter: Temptation and its lead single “Sugar Rush Ride” will arrive on Jan. 27, with an album preview to be released on Jan. 22. Two additional teasers for the project’s lead single will be shared on Jan. 24 and 25. Following the EP’s release, the K-pop group will perform a special showcase on Jan. 28.
The Name Chapter: Temptation will be the group’s first music release since the arrival of its fourth mini EP, minisode 2: Thursday’s Child. That project was a hit for the K-pop stars. It spent a total of 14 weeks on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart, where it peaked at No. 4. Thursday’s Child achieved even more success on the Top Current Album Sales chart, where it spent 20 weeks on the tally and hit No. 1.
See TXT’s tracklist for The Name Chapter: Temptation, and get an early taste of “Sugar Rush Ride”:
The Kid Laroi is gearing up to release his debut studio album, The First Time, and to drum up anticipation, the “Stay” singer gave fans a taste of the LP with new single “I Can’t Go Back to the Way It Was (Intro)” on Thursday (Jan. 19).
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The track sees Laroi sharing intimate details about his life, such as his relationship with his mother and father, and the difficulties that life often holds. The 19-year-old also struggles to keep up with the fast pace of his existence, and feels bad for the bridges he’s burned in the process.
“I did things I that knew were wrong/ But time just keeps movin’ on/ And no matter which way I run/ I can’t go back to the way it was/ I broke bones and I shed some blood/ I talked to a few friеnds I love/ No matter which way I run/ I can’t go back to the way it was, no,” the Australian rapper spits over atmospheric instrumentals.
At the end of the song’s accompanying video, The Kid Laroi reveals that the next track will be “Love Again,” which arrives Friday, Jan. 27.
“I Can’t Go Back to the Way It Was (Intro)” arrives after the artist shared a teaser trailer for the album on Jan. 12. In the 30-second visual, Laroi’s voice is heard over a series of vintage-looking clips of everyday life, saying, “You never forget the first time: the first time you fall in love, the first time you get caught, the first time you feel shame, the first real kiss.”
The new single marks the first track that Laroi has released since April’s “Thousand Miles,” which charted at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. Prior to “Thousand Miles,” Laroi’s Justin Bieber collaboration “Stay” was a massive hit, and crowned the Hot 100 in August 2021.
Listen to “I Can’t Go Back to the Way It Was (Intro)” in the video above.
Remember the summer of 2020 when Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion‘s “WAP” was inescapable? The first female rap collaboration to debut at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 had the nation (and the world) entranced, even as the true meaning of the acronym resulted in some embarrassed mumbling when grannies asked us what it stood for.
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The latter might explain why the dynamic duo didn’t submit the song for Grammy consideration that year. In fact, during a sit down with Jason Lee for his REVOLT show this week, Cardi — never shy about sharing her most intimate feelings and thoughts online — said she held the song back because she was worried about what the internet would say.
“You know what? This is something that — it’s like, I need to stop letting the internet control my life,” Cardi told Lee. “Because I didn’t want to submit ‘WAP’ because I was afraid that if I win or if I… You know what’s so crazy? The internet got me even afraid of winning. That is insane.”
Lee said when he heard that Cardi was shy about submitting the sex-positive anthem for potential Grammy gold, “I wanted to jump through the phone and scream at you. Because what I loved about this song is that it united two superstars.” The song, which was Cardi’s fourth No. 1 and Megan’s second in the U.S., spent four weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and became the first No. 1 on the inaugural Billboard Global 200.
Watch the “WAP” talk below.
J. Cole is helping fans get through the week with a surprise drop.
Producer Bvtman unveiled the rapper’s new track “Procrastination (Broke)” on Wednesday night (Jan. 18), along with a text message from Cole, in which he notes that the song wasn’t meant to be released. However, he decided to drop it as a “thank you” to Bvtman and “every producer out there cooking up and sharing their work with the world.”
“It’s a million artists out there right now just like me, hungry and searching every day for something to spark a word, a melody, a hook, a verse, a punchline, a way to vent, or a way to cut through,” the text reads. “On a day when I couldn’t find much motivation, I was looking for anything to inspire me. Out of curiosity, I typed in ‘J. Cole type beat’ into YouTube. Yours was the first I saw. I pressed play, focused, and wrote this.”
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Cole concluded by writing, “This is some s— that would normally stay in the vault, but I don’t want to hold onto the music like that no more. This is for you and whoever else need to hear it. God bless bro and keep doing what you do!”
The new song comes more than a year after J. Cole dropped his six studio album, The Off-Season, in 2021 via Dreamville/Roc Nation/Interscope. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart dated May 29, 2021. A number of his other albums, including KOD (2018), 4 Your Eyez Only (2016), 2014 Forest Hills Drive (2014), Born Sinner (2013) and Cole World: The Sideline Story (2011), also topped the Billboard 200.
Listen to “Procrastination (Broke)” below.
We’re weeks away from Rihanna taking over the Super Bowl LVII halftime show on Feb. 12. But before the superstar makes her sure-to-be-triumphant return to the stage, let’s look back on the halftime spectacles that have come before her.
The 2023 game marks 30 years since Michael Jackson‘s Super Bowl performance of 1993, which marked the beginning of a new kind of halftime show — one where fans began expecting to see the superstars they love enlisted to put on a career-defining set filled with lights, music and often a special surprise or two.
Throughout the last three decades, everyone from Katy Perry and Madonna to Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones have graced center stage between the goalposts, and we want to know which halftime performance is your all-time favorite.
In Billboard‘s official ranking, staffers put Prince‘s 2007 set at the very top thanks to The Purple One’s mix of his own hits with covers of Queen (“We Will Rock You”), Bob Dylan (“All Along the Watchtower”) and Creedence Clearwater Revival by way of Tina Turner (“Proud Mary”), though the defining act of his halftime show was the extended coda of “Purple Rain” as actual rain poured down in the stadium.
Then there’s U2‘s set just months after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, which brought the still-mourning nation together for a special tribute that included “Beautiful Day,” “MLK” and “Where the Streets Have No Name.”
Of course, the most memorable Super Bowl moment of all time occurred in 2004 when Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake headlined and an accidental tear-away (or expertly planned shock to the system, depending on who you ask) in the closing strains of “Rock Your Body” rocketed the phrase “wardrobe malfunction” into the cultural vernacular.
Other modern triumphs at the Super Bowl halftime show have come in recent years courtesy of Beyoncé, whose incredible 2013 set shut down the power in the third quarter of the game; Lady Gaga, who kicked off her 2017 performance by singing “God Bless America” and jumping from the roof of the stadium; and Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, whose combined dance moves and costumes sparked a flood of controversy just weeks before the coronavirus pandemic took over the world.
And last year, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg headlined an epic hip-hop show with help from Mary J. Blige, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, 50 Cent and Anderson .Paak that electrified the hometown crowd at L.A.’s SoFi Stadium with hits like “California Love,” “No More Drama” and “Still D.R.E.”
Vote for your favorite Super Bowl halftime show below!
Stephen A. Smith walked back the comments he made comparing Rihanna to Beyoncé on Wednesday (Jan. 18).
The moment occurred when the firebrand sports commentator stopped by Sherri Shepherd’s eponymous talk show to discuss the “Needed Me” singer’s upcoming Super Bowl LVII halftime show. “Ladies and gentlemen, she’s a lot of things; she’s spectacular, actually,” he said. “There’s one thing she’s not: She ain’t Beyoncé.”
Obviously, the ill-suited comparison sparked a vocal outcry from the studio audience — as well as backlash among Rihanna’s fans on social media — and hours after the interview aired, Smith hopped on Instagram ready to eat crow. “I’m gonna own it,” he said. “I know what y’all tryin’ to do. But I’m gon’ own it because I get paid to speak for a living, so I need to be more careful.
“I want Rihanna to know: You’re a superstar, you’re sensational, you’re spectacular,” the ESPN personality continued. “You’re no joke. And you are a worthy person to be doing the Super Bowl halftime show.”
However, Smith then attempted to justify his comment by blaming Shepherd for asking a question in front of her largely female studio audience. “Now I’m a Beyoncé fan,” he stated. “I think that Beyoncé is not only a phenomenal performer, but the phenomenal performer. And the only reason any kind of comparison came into play is because Beyoncé performed at halftime at the Super Bowl not just by herself, but one separate Super Bowl performance with Bruno Mars and Coldplay. And I thought that those were two of the greatest shows that I’ve ever seen.
“So what I’m saying is anybody has to measure up to that,” he concluded. “Last year with Snoop and Dre and Mary J. and Eminem, I was like, ‘Bruno Mars! Beyoncé! Coldplay! Big time! They’ve got to measure up to that.’ Anybody who does a Super Bowl halftime show, forever I’m gonna say, ‘Beyoncé, Bruno Mars, Coldplay, and Beyoncé by themselves.’ Michael Jackson could still be alive and I would say, ‘It’s gotta measure up to that.’”
Watch Smith’s gasp-inducing Sherri interview and subsequent mea culpa to Rihanna below.
The 16th annual Jazz in the Gardens Festival will continue its “sweeter level” celebration of Black music and culture this spring in Miami Gardens, Fla. Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Jodeci, Charlie Wilson, Keyshia Cole, Ari Lennox, El DeBarge, Sean Paul, Mike Phillips and the Adam Blackstone Experience lead the stacked lineup of R&B, neo-soul, reggae and gospel artists, which also includes a special soulful Sunday performance by Chandler Moore, Kierra “Kiki” Sheard and Pastor Mike Jr.
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The two-day festival will return to the Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday, March 11, and Sunday, March 12.
“Over the years, Jazz in the Gardens has evolved on many levels. Now, in our 16th year, the festival continues to showcase some amazing talent and different genres of music for all those who attend to enjoy,” said Miami Gardens Mayor Rodney Harris in a statement. “People come from all over for this unique experience. Jazz is the means by which we celebrate grandly music, food, and culture, together.”
On top of live performances, the 2023 Jazz in the Gardens Festival will feature exotic cuisine and offer exquisite retail buys in the Merchandise Village.
Last year, Queen of Hip-Hop Soul Mary J. Blige and Miami Gardens native Rick Ross performed at the Jazz in the Gardens stage following the festival’s two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. Mayor Harris declared March 13 as “Rick Ross Day” during the festival in honor of his global success as an entertainer, entrepreneur and philanthropist.
Tickets are currently on sale at Jazz in the Gardens’ official website.
Her biggest fan! A$AP Rocky dished on just how much he’s looking forward to Rihanna‘s Super Bowl Halftime Show in a new interview on Wednesday (Jan. 18), and teased that she’s going to impress.
“Oh, man. I’m just as excited as you guys, if not more,” he told Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1. “Yeah, I’m super excited. This is huge. This is incredible. I’m so glad that my lady’s back making music again and whatnot, and getting back out there.”
“It’s just incredible,” the rapper continued. “Especially for both of us — it is a good year for both of us to be more active and be out there. But the Super Bowl is huge, and her being the creative she is, she going to bring it, man. I’m excited. I’m more excited than everybody else, honestly.”
RiRi’s big game-day performance may still be a few weeks away, but she’s already released a teaser for the show as well as a limited edition Savage X Fenty Game Day collection filled with merch for fans to wear as they watch her return to the stage after a six-year hiatus.
During the interview, Rocky also opened up about what it’s been like becoming a father. “I’m a member of our club now, like the dad club. You see a dad, you see me. I’m playing on, I’m a full dad now,” said the rapper, who welcomed a son with Rihanna in May. “Being outside and working and being creative, it drives more energy for you to obviously to think and soak things up like a sponge now that I’m a dad, because I have a whole ‘nother perspective. But it honestly helps you get home to your family and get home to your baby. And I can’t even explain it, man. You come home to heaven every day. I’m so thankful. God is good, man.”
Fresh off celebrating the 10 year anniversary of his debut studio album Long. Live. ASAP, A$AP Rocky is giving fans a taste of new music, all while honoring people within the hip-hop community who have died in recent years by releasing his new track “Same Problems?”
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The song — which Rocky debuted in December as part of his Amazon Music Live Thursday Night Football performance — sees the rapper getting introspective about the role he’s potentially played in perpetuating violence in rap music.
“How many problems get solved?/ Am I a product of things that I saw?/ How many problems get solved?/ Am I proud of the things in my songs?” he muses in the chorus.
The song also arrives on the eight-year anniversary of A$AP Yams’ death. The 26-year-old founding member of A$AP Mob died of acute mixed drug intoxication in January 2015.
Speaking with Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe about the track, A$AP revealed that he wrote the song because he “was feeling remorse.”
“I think I was feeling plight. I think I was also feeling a sense of guilt, because every time we lose somebody in our community, we all — especially me — have a habit of just saying things like, ‘It’s messed up. It’s wrong. Why do these kind of things happen?’” he shared. “You ask a bunch of questions and usually … I never took time out to really understand that I was part of the problem because I was contributing those kind of lyrics and whatnot to songs.”
He continued, “Without preaching too much, I just wanted to touch on something a bit different opposed to just being braggadocios, flamboyant and just regular rap content for me. I just kind of wanted to express myself and tell how I felt without preaching. And I think we can all relate. We all got the same problems. The irony that my biggest hit to date was … My first hit was’ ‘F—in’ Problems.’ And now, 10 years later exactly, I’m putting out a song named ‘S’ame Problems.’ It’s just like problems, problems, you know what I mean?”
As for the 34-year-old’s forthcoming, yet-to-be-titled album, he assured Lowe that it is indeed on the way. “It’s coming. It’s finished and we just putting the finishing touches on it,” he said. “The new stuff is me being vulnerable, and it’s just no filter, and just where I’m at, at my stage. My age and how I see things, my peers, the younger kids, the older cats, it’s just my perspective.”
Listen to “Same Problems” in the video above.
Just days after launching an OnlyFans to help kick off her year-long Hotter Than Hell multi-media project, Iggy Azalea is tamping down rumors about how much her paywalled site raked in on day one. After a report that she earned $307,000 in the first 24 hours, Iggy took to Twitter to throw cold water on that hot figure.
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“Lol, Y’all just be saying s–t to say s–t at this point cause that number was pulled outta thin air,” she said of the gaudy number the rapper claimed was totally fake news. In a second tweet Azalea further explained, “With love. I won’t share what I make on OF, in the same way I didn’t share what I earned selling my music catalog. amounts being reported don’t come from a valid source. Thanks to everyone supporting me. Crazy excited for where things go! Hot ass summer on the way!”
In November, Billboard reported that Azalea sold her master recording and publishing catalog to Domain Capital for an eight-figure sum, according to a source close to the deal. The wide reaching deal included 100% of Azalea’s share of her existing catalog, including No. 1 hit “Fancy” (featuring Charli XCX), “Black Widow” (featuring Rita Ora), and “Problem” (with Ariana Grande), and it included “an additional trigger” for Azalea to earn future revenue on master recordings.
According to a statement about Azalea’s Hotter project, it will encompass illustration, poetry, photography, video, music and her fourth studio album. The roll-out kicked off with the launch of her “Hotter Than Hell X OnlyFans,” a $25-per-month subscription deal that promises “first-look access and exclusive content from the project,” which is slated to wrap up in December with the release of a coffee table book.
Friday’s (Jan. 13) press release also promised that Hotter will be a “creative, colorful, tongue-in-cheek fun and unapologetically hot. The project takes visual inspiration from the supermodels of the 90s, Pamela Anderson, the conception of the centerfold model, sexuality and its differing viewpoints between men and women, and Madonna’s book Sex. It is a collaborative project and features exclusive collaborations with producers, visual artists, and fashion photographers.” At press time a release date for the album had not yet been announced.
Check out Iggy’s tweets below.
With love. I won’t share what I make on OF, in the same way I didn’t share what I earned selling my music catalog. amounts being reported don’t come from a valid source. Thanks to everyone supporting me 🙇♀️🥹🔥Crazy excited for where things go! Hot ass summer on the way!— IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) January 17, 2023
