State Champ Radio R&B/Hip-Hop
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Travis Scott delivered a major surprise for fans during the Japanese leg of his Circus Maximus tour over the weekend, bringing out Kanye West for an unannounced set at the Belluna Dome in Tokorozawa on Saturday (Nov. 8).
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In fan-shot footage circulating online, West — who had his face covered — pulled off his mask mid-show to roaring applause before launching into his 2007 anthem “Can’t Tell Me Nothing.”
Scott remained onstage as a hype man and support act throughout Ye’s mini-set, which included hits like “Runaway,” “Heartless,” “Flashing Lights,” “Stronger,” and “All of the Lights.” The duo performed together in front of a packed Tokyo crowd as part of Scott’s two-night Japan stopover.
Scott previously hinted at a potential reunion with West during a Circus Maximus show in October, telling fans, “We might have to do something special.”
In April, La Flame spoke of his relationship with the controversial rapper in his Complex cover story. “S–t, man. That’s my kid’s uncle,” he said in the interview, which appears to have taken place in February. “That guy took me in when I was young, when I was like 19. He taught me a lot about music. And not even just ‘taught’ me, but he allowed me to experience the creation of music.”
The surprise performance comes just days after West made headlines for a sit-down with Israeli Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto, where he addressed past antisemitic comments and expressed a desire to make amends.
“I feel really blessed to be able to sit here with you today and just take accountability,” Ye told Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto in a video posted on social media.
“It’s a big deal for me as a man to come and take accountability for all the things that I’ve said, and I really just appreciate you embracing me with open arms and allowing me to make amends. And this is the beginning and the first steps, and the first brick by brick to build back the strong walls.”
West’s last major live performance was his Vultures listening event earlier in 2025, while Scott continues to tour globally.
Trending on Billboard As Jamaica picks up the pieces in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa’s historic devastation, the global reach of their artists remains cause for celebration. On Friday (Nov. 7), the Recording Academy revealed the five nominees for best reggae album at the 2026 Grammy Awards — and Jamaican musicians snagged every single spot. […]
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Drake is back in his acting bag. The 6 God teased a clip from his cameo in an episode of season 2’s The Office Movers, which landed on the Crave streaming service on Friday (Nov. 7).
Drake posted a hilarious interaction from his scene on Instagram, which finds him in a misunderstanding with one of the show’s creators, Jermaine “Jae” Richards, as they have different contexts when using the word “guy.”
“Like, you guys have movers, but do you guys have guys, you know, like real guys,” Drake repeatedly asks. He thinks it’s a joke at first and continues to hammer away until realizing they’re just not on the same page.
Drake added in some comic relief, which felt like he was having his Justin Bieber “It’s not clocking to you” moment. “It’s not making sense to you? Maybe I’m not even speaking English. I don’t know,” he continued. “Maybe I’m speaking Guyanese. Everything we use to live is made in Guywan. I’m losing it, bro.”
Plenty of Drake’s rap peers had a laugh in his Instagram comment section, with Boi-1da, Oz, Reese LaFlare, Chinese Kitty and Niko Brim chiming in.
Season 2 of The Office Movers arrived in full on Canadian streaming service Crave on Friday. Created by brothers Jae and Trey Richards, the comedy series follows the Richards brothers’ journey working for an office moving company in Toronto.
“The Office Movers is a hilarious slapstick comedy that also has some heart,” said Justin Stockman, who serves as the vice president, content development and programming at Bell Media said in a statement. “Jae and Trey’s sharp, culture-savvy comedy keeps the show perfectly tuned to the pulse of the moment, and we’re ecstatic they’ve landed a special appearance by one of Canada’s most iconic cultural ambassadors.”
Drake has teamed up with the Richards brothers in the past, as he sampled their work on his 2017 More Life project. Obviously, the OVO boss is no stranger to the acting world, as he previously got his start starring in Degrassi. More recently, he’s made cameos in shows like Lil Dicky’s Dave series.
Watch Drake’s scene below.
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It’s a dog-eat-dog world, and Leon Thomas leads the pack.
On Friday, the singer woke up to a whopping six 2026 Grammy nominations, including album of the year, for his breakthrough sophomore album Mutt.
“Thank you God, my team, every collaborator, every producer, family, friends and most especially my fans, I couldn’t have done it without you,” he wrote in an Instagram caption for a graphic listing his nominations. “I got a show tonight and I’m gonna continue working harder on this next album.”
In addition to album of the year, Thomas — who won his first Grammy in 2023 thanks to his production contributions to SZA’s “Snooze” — also earned a nomination for best new artist. Poetically, his two general field nominations come 15 years after Victorious, the television series that established him as a Gen Z child star, premiered on Nickelodeon. Thomas earned his first Grammy nod back in 2020 in the best rap song category for his work on Rick Ross and Drake’s “Gold Roses.”
Mutt also earned a nomination for best R&B album, while several tracks were individually recognized, including “Yes It Is” (best R&B song), “Vibes Don’t Lie” (best traditional R&B performance), and the NPR Tiny Desk live version of “Mutt” (best R&B performance).
Six Grammy nominations cap a whirlwind breakthrough year for Thomas. Outside of earning his first Hot 100 top 10 hit as a performer with “Mutt” (No. 10), the multi-hyphenate also won best new artist at the BET Awards, made his late night TV debut on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and shared a new funk-forward EP titled PHOLKS. Last week, he played Austin City Limits and kicked off his headlining Mutts Don’t Heel Tour at Dallas’ House of Blues. The R&B star’s new trek will visit venues across the U.S., Europe and Australia, before concluding on April 19 at Perth’s Metro City.
In Thomas’ Billboard cover story, his manager, Jonathan Azu, remarked, “I hope he’s the guy with the Lauryn Hill photo [holding multiple trophies]. Every year, there’s somebody and I hope it’s him. He is a man of his peers, and I think over the past year he has proven to them that he’s here to stay.”
Looks like Leon Thomas is one step closer to re-creating that iconic photograph. Check out the “Mutt” singer’s reaction to his 2026 Grammy nominations below.
Trending on Billboard Big Sean has responded to rumors that he split with Jhené Aiko for another woman seen in a recent video. Sean Don hopped on X to respond to a fan’s inquiry, who asked: “You broke up with the queen over a powdered donut, my n—a?” The question was in response to a […]
Trending on Billboard Quavo, Yeat, and producer BNYX have dropped off their new track “New Trip,” along with an accompanying music video that finds the trio partying it up in Las Vegas. Explore See latest videos, charts and news Over a glitchy beat, Quavo and Yeat trade bars about their fast-paced lifestyle while the video […]
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After winning his first Grammy this year for best R&B song with SZA’s “Snooze,” Leon Thomas could sweep almost every R&B category at the 68th annual Grammy Awards, as the nominations were announced Friday morning (Nov. 7).
While the continued success of his Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit “Mutt” has proven Thomas is no underdog anymore, its “Live From NPR’s Tiny Desk” version is up for best R&B performance. (The original version was commercially released on Aug. 8, 2024, during the eligibility period for the 2025 Grammy Awards, and it was submitted for consideration then. Thomas released the 5-song Mutt (Live From NPR’s Tiny Desk) EP on Aug. 15, 2025, which qualifies for next year’s ceremony.) Its parent album, which shares the same title, is nominated for best R&B album, while its tracks “Vibes Don’t Lie” and “Yes It Is” are up for best traditional R&B performance and best R&B song, respectively.
Following Thomas, Durand Bernarr has the second most nominations in the R&B field with three: best traditional R&B performance (“Here We Are”), best R&B song (“Overqualified”) and best progressive R&B album (Bloom). He only scored his first Grammy nod ever this year in the best progressive R&B album category. “Folded,” arguably the biggest song of Kehlani’s career to date, has earned her her first Hot 100 top 10 hit and No. 1 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot R&B Songs (charts dated Nov. 8), and now two Grammy nods for best R&B performance and best R&B song. While Kehlani has yet to win a Grammy, they’re poised to take home the gold for the first time next year.
“I’m not big [on letting] any award validate how great your art is. But it’s nice when the system in place or the hierarchy of what you’re doing in art recognizes that what you’re doing is great,” Kehlani told Billboard earlier this year while reflecting on her debut commercial mixtape You Should Be Here, which earned the star her first Grammy nod 10 years ago for best urban contemporary album.
Ledisi could snag her first best traditional R&B performance win in five years with “Love You Too,” the lead single from her 12th studio album The Crown, which is up for best R&B album. After the deluxe edition of 11:11 won best R&B album this year, Chris Brown returns to the best R&B performance field one year later with “It Depends,” featuring Bryson Tiller, which is also up for best R&B song. This week, “It Depends” rose to the No. 1 spot on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and spends a fifth week atop Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay. And one week before Summer Walker’s third studio album Finally Over It drops, its lead single “Heart of a Woman” earns two nomination for best R&B performance and best R&B song.
Five years ago, Teyana Taylor called out the Recording Academy for the male-dominated best R&B album category after she dropped her third studio album The Album. “Y’all was better off just saying best MALE R&B ALBUM cause all I see is d–k in this category,” she wrote on X. Now, she’s up for her first Grammy ever in this female-dominated category, with Escape Room coming alongside Ledisi with The Crown and Coco Jones with her debut album Why Not More? Bilal’s first album in nine years, Adjust Brightness, earns the dynamic singer/songwriter/musician his first Grammy in 10 years for best progressive R&B album. After their “Peaches” collaboration with Daniel Caesar scored Justin Bieber and Giveon a hefty sum of nominations at the 2022 Grammy Awards, where both lost in every category they were up in, both could avenge themselves in the R&B field, as Bieber is up for best R&B performance (with “Yukon”) for the first time since “Peaches” and Giveon is up for best R&B album (for Beloved) for the first time since Take Time scored a nod in 2021.
U.K. R&B acts like kwn and Odeal have made a lot of noise from across the pond this year, but FLO is the only one nominated for a Grammy next year, as the girl group earns its first nod for best progressive R&B album with its debut album Access All Areas. And after five songs from SZA’s blockbuster 2022 album SOS earned Grammy nods at the 2024 awards ceremony, where SZA was the most-nominated artist with nine total nods, one more is added to her collection: “Crybaby,” from the deluxe Lana edition of SOS, is up for best traditional R&B performance.
While Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. welcomed The Weeknd back with open arms during the ceremony earlier this year, where he performed “Cry for Me” and “Timeless” with Playboi Carti, Grammy voters did not. His repeat shut out includes “Baptized in Fear” from his sixth studio album Hurry Up Tomorrow not being included in the best R&B song slate. Ravyn Lenae also surprisingly received zero nominations despite her R&B/pop crossover hit “Love Me Not” reaching No. 5 on the Hot 100 and, as Billboard’s awards editor Paul Grein put it, being “played on every pop radio station in America every hour on the hour during the voting period.” While “Love Me Not” competed in the pop field, “Love Is Blind” from the same Bird’s Eye album was submitted for best R&B song, and received no love.
Drake and PartyNextDoor’s “Somebody Loves Me” is nominated for best melodic rap performance, but its parent album $ome $exy $ongs 4 U isn’t up for best progressive R&B album as some might’ve expected. Mariah the Scientist’s breakthrough year isn’t captured by the 2026 nominations either, as “Burning Blue,” her first Hot 100 top 40 hit and first Rhythmic Airplay chart-topper, is looked over for both best R&B performance and best R&B song, and its parent album Hearts Sold Separately, her highest-charting Billboard 200 album (No. 11), isn’t up for best R&B album.
The 2026 Grammy Awards will be held on Sunday, Feb. 1 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California, airing live on CBS and Paramount+ Premium at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
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Not much rocked the Caribbean in October like Hurricane Melissa.
The historic storm made landfall in Jamaica (Oct. 28) and Cuba (Oct. 29), wrecked parts of Haiti, and caused heavy rain that resulted in fatal flooding across New York City. With a death toll of 75, as of Tuesday (Nov. 4), the devastation of Hurricane Melissa has spurred immediate action and support from some of Jamrock’s biggest stars. Shenseea, Beenie Man, Sean Paul and Spice have all documented their respective relief efforts via their respective social media channels, and, on Monday, Shaggy spoke with Billboard about what he saw on the ground in the immediate aftermath of the storm.
“We got [to Jamaica] early enough to reach the people, because it took me around six hours to get from Kingston to St. Elizabeth in Black River, which is normally a two-and-a-half-hour drive at most,” the reggae icon told Billboard. “We had to chop [tree] limbs down, move things out the way, and drive through high puddles of [runoff], so we got there in the middle of the night. At that point, all we could do was pass water out, so we had to regroup and drive six hours back to Kingston. The next day, we went to the Junction side of St. Elizabeth, which took us four hours. The square itself was shut down. It was ground zero because it wasn’t livable anymore. Nobody could stay there.”
In addition to Shaggy’s efforts alongside the Global Empowerment Mission, verified aid channels include World Food Programme, Project HOPE, GiveDirectly, American Friends of Jamaica, Food for the Poor and Friends of Caritas Cuba.
In lighter news, Trinidadian soca star Mical Teja made headlines after he shared a picture with his locs cut off, A$AP Rocky once again stoked marriage rumors by referring to himself as Rihanna’s “loving husband,” and Chronixx returned with Exile, his first new album in eight years.
Naturally, Billboard’s monthly Reggae/Dancehall Fresh Picks column will not cover every last track, but our Spotify playlist — which is linked below — will expand on the 10 highlighted songs. So, without any further ado:
Trilla-G & V’ghn, “Take Me as I Am”
The genre proves to be very much alive and well with The Recording Academy unveiling the 2026 Grammy nominations on Friday (Nov. 7).
11/7/2025
Nicki Minaj showed love to Ye (formerly Kanye West) for taking accountability for his hurtful actions against the Jewish community after meeting with a rabbi.
West met with Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto on Tuesday (Nov. 4), during which he expressed remorse and apologized for his previous antisemitic remarks about the Jewish community.
“So happy to see Kanye publicly take accountability for the pain his words may have cause to so many,” she wrote to X on Thursday (Nov. 6), praising West. “Standing with our Jewish brothers & sisters.”
Footage surfaced of West’s meeting with Rabbi Pinto when an Instagram account for Pintoposted the exchange on social media on Thursday.
“I feel really blessed to sit here and take accountability,” West began. “I was dealing with various issues. I was dealing with bipolar also, so I would take the ideas I had and forget about the protection of the people around me and myself. So I wanted to take accountability.”
Ye added: “So it’s like if you left the house and you left your kid at the house and your kid went and messed up the kitchen and messed up the garage and messed up the living room. Then when you get back, it’s your responsibility because that’s your job. That’s the way I look at it. It’s like I gotta go clean up the kitchen, I gotta clean up the living room, I gotta clean up the garage.”
West saw his meeting with Rabbi Pinto as the “first steps” in rebuilding “brick by brick” for the “strong walls” as far as his damaged relationship with the Jewish community goes.
Rabbi Pinto appeared to accept Ye’s apology. “A person is not defined by his mistakes, but by the way he chooses to correct them,” he replied in a translated statement. “This is the true strength of man: The ability to return, to learn, and to build bridges of love and peace.”
The Chicago rapper has been slammed for his repeated antisemitic rhetoric over the last few years, which includes a tweet saying he was going to go “death con 3” [sic] on Jewish people in 2022, and again praising Hitler on X in February this year.
As a result, just about all of his business deals vanished, as companies such as Universal Music Group, Balenciaga, Adidas and Gap ended their partnerships with the rapper.
