State Champ Radio R&B/Hip-Hop
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The Los Angeles breeze hugged the air as the exclusive invitees to this year’s Billboard Hip-Hop/ R&B Power Players cocktail reception poured into the patio of the Academy LA for an evening honoring excellence and industry recognition. Annually, Billboard and VIBE team up to publish an esteemed list of executives and personnel shaping the music culture. On Thursday, November 17, those honored gathered around, embracing familiar faces, and exchanging laughs. The energy of the evening was unmatched, as guests sipped on iconic Rémy Martin cocktails throughout the night, including The Rémy Ginger made with VSOP, The Rémy Sidecar made with 1738® Accord Royal, and The Rémy Old Fashioned made with XO. The event was kicked off by a rotation of hits played by DJ Meel, DJ TJ Banks, and DJ R-tistic, courtesy of the luxury cognac brand who were the presenting sponsor of the party.
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Before honorees made their way into the venue for the second part of the evening which featured headlining performances and a myriad of Rémy Martin bars, the evening of celebration concluding with the award presentation of the Rémy Martin and VIBE Impact and Excellence Award, an extension of the historical award that prior honored the likes of Mary J Blige, Nas, Nipsey Hussle, and Meek Mill. To join the ranks of honorees, this year’s recipient was SAINt JHN.
Having split his childhood between his birthplace of Georgetown, Guyana, and Brooklyn, New York, SAINt JHN drew from both his Caribbean and American influences, carving a niche for himself within the music scene as a singer/songwriter, philanthropist, and fashion enthusiast. His sound is a fusion of the rockstar nodes and Brooklyn grit; SAINt JHN describes his music as a medium of expression and therapy.
In the spirit of Team Up for Excellence, celebrating collective success for the coveted cognac house, Rémy Martin, Billboard and VIBE editors gathered to discuss the musician’s career and contributions to the genre.
Check out photos from the night, featuring Rémy Martin HERE.
Visit Rémy Martin to view the collection and cocktails recipes mentioned.
© 2022 E. Rémy Martin & Co., Imported by Rémy Cointreau USA, Inc., New York, NY. All rights reserved, trademarks owned by E. Rémy Martin & Co.. PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY.
Bowen Yang just can’t get it straight in this week’s Saturday Night Live promo featuring SZA and host Keke Palmer. “Hi, I’m Keke Palmer and I’m hosting Saturday Night Live this week with musical guest SZA,” Nope star Palmer says in the first video bit.
“And I’m Brown Yang and we’re gonna have such a… did i just say ‘Brown Yang?’,” an embarrassed Yang asks this week’s guests as they laugh nervously. “I can’t even read my own name. Sorry Guys! I am Bowen Young and we’re gonna… oh my God. Brown Yung! What’s happening right now?,” a melting down Yang stammers.
“Are you okay Bowen?,” a concerned Palmer asks. He assures her he’s totally fine and repeats his first name as evidence, before inexplicably calling himself “Cohen Yang” and then insisting that he’s Bravo star Andy Cohen and then, once again Brown Yung. “I’m worried about you Bowen,” SZA says before he refers to her as “Scissors” and says he’s going to take a long nap before tomorrow night’s (Dec. 3) show.
In a second promo, a recovered Yang promises that the episode is going to be epic, clapping out every syllable, a tactic Palmer then employs to ask where the bathroom is. In an earlier video, Palmer revealed that she’s an “octuple threat,” busting out her singing, acting and dancing chops before adding that she’s also a beekeeper, painter, magician and fitted sheet folder; she’s also admittedly bad at math.
The clip dropped a day after SZA shared the cover art for her upcoming S.O.S. album, which does not yet have an official release date. Donning a football jersey with S.O.S stitched on the sleeve, SZA sits on the edge of a diving board planted over a large body of water in the image.
Earlier this month, SZA released her newest single, “Shirt,” which debuted at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100. Along with doling out another high-charting single, SZA recently covered Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players issue. In the cover story, she questioned her longevity in music and where she sees her career going forward.
Watch this week’s SNL promo below.
Cardi B dropped by The Breakfast Club on Thursday morning (Dec. 1) and dropped some crumbs about when to expect her next studio album.
When Cardi called in for Angela Yee’s last day with The Breakfast Club, host Charlamagne Tha God asked if the rapper had a release date in mind for the highly anticipated follow-up to her Grammy-winning debut album Invasion of Privacy, which she released in April 2018 via Atlantic Records.
“I have no choice, I have to put it out,” she replied. “I have like a couple of songs that are like definite, I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going on with me. I need to just make up my mind and put it out.”
DJ Envy gassed her up by saying since “every record you put out went No. 1” (for the record, Cardi has five No. 1s on the Billboard Hot 100 so far), it’s time for her to put out more music. But the “Up” rapper still feels like the new project is “missing something. I gotta put it out, I gotta put it out next year,” she said, revealing a timeline.
Charlamagne threw out the idea of releasing it on April 6, 2023, to coincide with Invasion of Privacy‘s fifth anniversary, and it sounded like Cardi could be up for it. But time will only tell when exactly to expect her sophomore studio album.
Earlier in the interview, when Charlamagne asked why Cardi was calling in today, she woefully responded, “Because Angela Yee is leaving.” Back in August, Yee revealed she was leaving The Breakfast Club to host her own nationally syndicated daily show, Way Up With Angela Yee, which will launch on iHeartRadio. Cardi topped off her farewell with an a cappella performance of “Until We Meet Again,” the closing theme song from the Playhouse Disney series Out of the Box.
“You’re such a huge part of the show too,” Yee told the chart-topping MC, who’s been a guest a handful of times. But Cardi might be expanding her role on The Breakfast Club as soon as next year: Charlamagne suggested she fill in as a guest-host during the week leading up to her album release date. “Ooh that would be fun,” she replied.
Watch the entire interview below.
It’s hard to know what is going on at Twitter from minute-to-minute these days. New owner Elon Musk has been tweaking (and untweaking) so many features that even veteran users feel like they don’t know what to expect. So imagine Lil Nas X‘s surprise when he spotted a clearly deepfake video of the billionaire Chief Twit saying he’s going to hand the keys over after just one chaotic month.
“OMG is this real,” the “Industry Baby” MC wrote on Thursday night (Nov. 30) alongside a retweet of a superfan’s post of a doctored video in which Musk appears to say, “As of today at 6 EST I will be relieving myself of all duties and giving the CEO position of Twitter to Lil Nas X. Only users who agree that he’s cute, fun and petite will be allowed to keep their accounts effective immediately.”
And while the video is bunk, you might recall that back in July 2019 Lil Nas actually did become the social media company’s CEO, if only for a day when CEO Jack Dorsey handed over the title. Nas’ first order of business back then was firing Dorsey and trying to add some features that users had long demanded, such as an edit feature. It was all a goof, of course, but one that ended deliciously when the Atlanta native hit the Twitter cafeteria to serve up some paninis to the team, who presented him with a cake celebrating the Hot 100 record-setting run of his breakthrough single, “Old Town Road.”
The phony Musk video hilariously closed the loop on a joke Lil Nas made in early November shortly after the Space X/Tesla CEO took over, when he appointed himself Top Twit with a similar statement. “As of today at 5:30pm est. i will be relieving Mr. Musk of all duties and taking position as ceo of Twitter HQ,” Lil Nas tweeted in a clearly jokey post at a confusing time when some users had to say the joke out loud out of fear that they would get booted for employing parody to taunt Elon. “Only users who agree that i am cute, fun, and petite will be allowed to keep their accounts. effective immediately.”
Check out the Musk deepfake below.
Drake is just like music fans. After Spotify released its annual Wrapped campaign on Wednesday (Nov. 30), the Canadian MC is sharing who he’s been listening to this year.
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In an Instagram Story in the early morning hours of Dec. 1, Drake revealed that his top artist is another hip-hop star — and it was none other than the late Tupac Shakur. According to the “Jimmy Cooks” artist’s post, he listened to 2Pac for 246 minutes, putting him in the top 7 percent of Pac listeners in 2022.
That Shakur would be Drake’s most listened to artist this year isn’t a huge surprise. Drake has always sung the late artist’s praises in and out of the studio. “If there was anybody that I wish I could be a little more like, it’d probably be ‘Pac,” he said in a 2011 Boombox article.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Drake has previously sung Shakur praises in and out of the studio. “If there was anybody that I wish I could be a little more like, it’d probably be ‘Pac,” Drake told Boombox in 2011. “I think more than anything, aside from his music, which was absolutely incredible, I think he just drove people with who he was, the way he carried himself. He was somebody who was a free spirit and he did not care, he just did what he felt. I wish I could have a little more ‘Pac to my persona. I’m working on it.”
In 2017, the OVO Sound CEO referenced Pac again on the “Bring It Back” track with Trouble and Mike Will Made-It. “Do it for the six because we started there/ I got a girl that used to ride around with ‘Pac an’ them.”
Spotify’s annual Wrapped campaign, which launched in December 2016, allows the music streamer’s users to view data about their activity on the platform over the past year, and then share it on social media.
A man who has been accused of illegally having a gun at the time that rapper Takeoff was fatally shot last month following a private party at a downtown Houston bowling alley has been charged in connection with the case, authorities said Wednesday (Nov. 30).
But during a court hearing, prosecutors said the suspect, Cameron Joshua, 22, is not believed to have fired a weapon during Takeoff’s shooting. Joshua is facing a charge of unlawful carrying of a weapon for allegedly having a handgun when the rapper was killed around 2:30 a.m. on Nov. 1 as gunfire erupted outside of 810 Billiards & Bowling following a private party.
Takeoff, whose off-stage name was Kirsnick Khari Ball, formed one-third of the Grammy Award-nominated rap trio Migos with uncle Quavo and cousin Offset from suburban Atlanta.
“We believe Cameron Joshua has been appropriately charged in this case and we’re continuing our investigation into the death of Takeoff,” Matt Gilliam, a prosecutor with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, told reporters in a brief statement after Wednesday’s hearing.
Christopher Downey, Joshua’s attorney, told reporters that he has not seen anything to suggest that his client fired a weapon or had anything to do with Takeoff’s shooting; police have not named any suspects in the incident to date.
“The bottom line is … Cameron Joshua did not shoot Takeoff,” Downey said.
When asked if Joshua knows who shot Takeoff, Downey said, “We will discuss that with the DA’s office if we decide to. Right now, we’re charged with offenses and we’re not saying anything.”
During the hearing, a judge decided to keep Joshua in custody until a bond hearing set for next week.
Joshua is also facing a charge of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon for allegedly having a weapon when he was arrested on Nov. 22. He had already been out on bond after being charged in Harris County with having a fake ID in September 2021 and with burglary of a vehicle in April. He had also been convicted in October in Los Angeles County of grand theft.
Houston police have said that least two people discharged firearms when Takeoff was killed. Takeoff’s primary cause of death was listed as “penetrating gunshot wounds of head and torso into arm,” according to an autopsy.
Two others were hit by gunfire but had non-life-threatening wounds.
After the shooting, investigators sought to speak with the 40 people who attended the party and fled after the gunfire.
Migos first broke through with the massive hit “Versace” in 2013. They had four Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, though Takeoff was not on their multi-week No. 1 hit “Bad and Boujee,” featuring Lil Uzi Vert. They put out a trilogy of albums called Culture, Culture II and Culture III, with the first two hitting No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
At a memorial service earlier this month in Atlanta, fans as well as recording artists such as Justin Bieber and Drake celebrated Takeoff’s musical legacy.
Three rising rappers from the land Down Under are getting their shot at NBA 2K23.
ARIA Award-nominated hip-hop artist Chillinit, teen vocalist Sahxl, and Barkaa, a Malyangapa, Barkindji woman from western New South Wales, have contributed fresh tracks which will be ingested into the game.
The three artists were challenged to incorporate sound effects from the court into their creations — the bounce of the ball, shoe squeaks, the stomping of fans’ feet.
With points on the board, in the form of “Big Swish” (Chillinit), “The One” (Sahxl) and “Ball ‘on Em” (Barkaa), the music makers are living a hoop dream.
“I have always been a huge fan of the NBA and the video game, as a kid I would play for hours, then fast forward years later to see my own billboard within the game while I play with my own little brothers is surreal,” comments Chillinit (real name Blake Turnell), whose Family Ties (via 420 Family/Virgin Music Australia) was nominated at the 2022 ARIA Awards in the best hip-hop/rap release category.
“It’s been such an honor to work with the team at 2K and to be a part of a game that I genuinely love and grew up playing. I can’t thank the team enough and can’t wait to welcome you all to the 2K with‘Big Swish’”.
According to reps, it’s the first time NBA 2K has engaged with artists who’ve specifically written tracks and utilized sounds from the basketball court.
The original songs enjoy a lift away from the virtual court with music videos, which feature in a new hip-hop-meets-ball “cultural” forum, Court in Session.
Helming the clips is Gabriel Gasparinatos, the music video and commercial director who has cut ads and campaigns for Adidas, Beats by Dre, Spotify and Google.
The hip-hop trio make the journey from Australia to NBA 2K23, as a wave of Aussie athletes impact the Association, a growing list that includes young guns Josh Giddey, Josh Green, and Dyson Daniels, veterans Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavedova and Joe Ingles, and three-times All-Star Ben Simmons.
The Court in Session campaign was powered by BRING Universal Music for Brands for 2K23, developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K Sports.
