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Page: 62

11/22/2024

Dot continues to shake up the game with this surprise album drop.

11/22/2024

In a setting designed to evoke a cozy, intimate living room, Maeta performed “Back” for a unique and behind-the-scenes Honda Stage and Billboard showcase. Directed by renowned creative, Child, the space is warm and inviting, scattered with vintage accents and dim lighting that creates an atmosphere of personal reflection, setting the perfect stage for a song rooted in raw emotion. Maeta opens the performance herself, seated at a piano in the corner of the room. She begins playing the tender, four-chord ballad, each note grounding her lyrics with soulful vulnerability. Her voice fills the space, warm and rich, as she brings listeners into her world.

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Reflecting on her journey, Maeta describes how her creative process has transformed over time, leading her to become an artist who now insists on emotional depth in every track she creates. Songs like “When I Hear Your Name” carry an emotional weight that lingers with her, reflecting her commitment to making music that resonates not only with her audience but also with her own experiences. In “Back,” she lays bare her struggles with self-sabotage and love, a theme that resonates deeply with her and one that she channels through every lyric and melody of the performance.

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As the song progresses, Maeta rises from the piano and transitions to center stage, allowing her pianist, Louis, to take over the keys. The two seamlessly trade roles, each adding new layers to the track. With Louis grounding the melody, Maeta is free to express the full force of her voice, which pours over the audience like a confession. Her introspective lyrics capture the complexities of self-doubt and love, her emotions palpable as she moves through the chorus, revealing her innermost struggles with striking vulnerability.

In the closing moments of the song, Maeta’s voice softens, winding down to a final, haunting note as the last chords fade. The set, with its intimate design, feels like an extension of her own heart, a private space where she shares her most personal thoughts with the audience. As she finishes, there’s a sense that Maeta has invited everyone into her living room, laying her vulnerabilities bare in a performance that captures her growth, resilience, and honesty as an artist.

About Honda Stage:

Honda Stage is a music platform that builds on the brand’s deep foundation of bringing unique experiences to fans while celebrating determined artists and their journeys of music discovery. Honda Stage offers exclusive, behind-the-scenes music content and inspirational stories from on-the-rise and fan-favorite artists, giving music fans access to the moments they love while celebrating the creativity and drive it takes to make it big.

Kendrick Lamar is ending 2024 with a bang.
The hip-hop heavyweight took fans by surprise when he unveiled his sixth studio album, GNX, without any warning on Friday (Nov. 22). The 12-track project features contributions from SZA — who appears on  “Luther” and “Gloria” — Jack Antonoff, Kamasi Washington, Roddy Ricch and more.

GNX serves as Lamar’s official follow-up to Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers in 2022, which topped the Billboard 200 with 295,000 total units earned in the first week. In the spring, he contributed a guest verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s Hot 100 No. 1 single “Like That,” which launched a high-profile rap beef with Drake. The back and forth between the two ultimately culminated in Lamar’s anthemic “Not Like Us,” which not only served to end the feud but also became a longstanding hit, topping the Hot 100 for two nonconsecutive weeks.

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It’s gearing up to be an even more groundbreaking new year for Kenny, who will be taking the stage for the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show, set to take place on Feb. 9, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. “Rap music is still the most impactful genre to date,” he said at the time of announcement. “And I’ll be there to remind the world why. They got the right one.”

The 17-time Grammy winner is also up for seven awards at the 2025 ceremony. “Not Like Us” is up for record of the year, song of the year, best music video, best rap performance and best rap song. Meanwhile, “Like That” is nominated for best rap song and best rap performance.

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With the release of GNX, fans quickly flooded social media with overwhelmingly positive reactions to the project. “Look me dead in the eyes and tell me Kendrick Lamar isn’t the greatest ever,” one user wrote on X, for example, while another added, “Kendrick just opened his mouth, someone go hand him a Grammy right now.”

See below for more fan reactions to Kendrick Lamar’s GNX.

Kendrick is the best rapper alive. Period.— Ray Vaughn (@rayvaughn) November 22, 2024

look me dead in the eyes and tell me Kendrick Lamar isn’t the greatest ever— SK⚡️ (@raptalksk) November 22, 2024

Redman couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the first six-figure publishing check for hopping on Christina Aguilera’s “Dirrty” in 2002. The New Jersey rapper was blown away by the astonishing sum and revealed to Red Bull Spiral earlier this week that it was actually for more than $250,000, and it ended up being one […]

More than 100 million people around the world tuned in to the ultra-hyped boxing match between former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson and YouTuber Jake Paul on Nov. 15. Well, that many people reportedly tried to watch it, but due to the crush of interest and tune-ins, many reported experiencing buffering problems and glitches that interrupted what turned out to be a surprisingly banal slugfest.
That got some pundits wondering if Netflix is fully ready to provide reliable streams during its upcoming Christmas Day NFL double-header over the internet’s point-to-point communication system, which at the moment is not always as reliable as traditional broadcast TV’s multipoint infrastructure when millions, or tens of millions of people try to stream an event at the same time.

In particular, the Beyhive is buzzing about whether Beyoncé‘s planned halftime show during the streamer’s first-ever Christmas Day NFL two-fer might fall prey to similar buffering issues as the at-times pokey prizefight. But when TMZ caught up this week with Bey’s mom, Tina Knowles, to ask if she’s sweating the streamer’s technique in advance of her daughter’s performance during the game between the Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens, Ms. Knowles said she’s confident the good lord will provide a strong, steady connection.

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“Everything’s going to be good. God is going to be there,” Knowles said of her expectations for the 4:30 p.m. ET game that will stream live on Netflix from NRG Stadium in Beyoncé’s hometown of Houston. The spot will be Bey’s first live performance of tracks from her lauded country-inspired Cowboy Carter album, which gave the singer her eighth consecutive No. 1 LP on the Billboard 200, as well as topping the Top Country Albums tally.

Earlier this week, Netflix dropped a dramatic preview video of the special event featuring Beyoncé in which the singer was draped in red, white and blue Western gear and a white cowboy hat while standing on top of a tricked out vintage car covered in red roses. With an a cappella version of the Cowboy Carter song “AMERICAN REQUIEM” playing the background, Bey casually catches a football in the brief clip hyping the game.

NPR reported that a spokesperson said that Netflix is confident it has the infrastructure needed to prepare for the two games and is working to “optimize its systems and add more capacity” to make improvements based on lessons learned from the Tyson-Paul fight, including working with internet service providers to grows its “interconnection capabilities.”

According to The Wrap, Nexflix was sued this week in a class action complaint over the “streaming glitches” in the Tyson-Paul fight. “Sixty million Americans were hyped to see ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson, ‘The Baddest Man on the Planet’ versus YouTuber-turned-prizefighter Jake Paul. What they saw was ‘The Baddest Streaming on the Planet,’” read the lawsuit filed on Monday in the 13th Judicial Circuit Court in Hillsborough County, Florida.

Though the massive tune-in was deemed a success by Netflix, in a statement the streamer said there was room to do better, according to Bloomberg. “This unprecedented scale created many technical challenges, which the launch team tackled brilliantly by prioritizing stability of the stream for the majority of viewers,” Netflix CFO Elizabeth Stone reportedly wrote in a note to employees about the event that the streamer said racked up 65 million live concurrent streams and 108 million total live viewers around the globe.

“I’m sure many of you have seen the chatter in the press and on social media about the quality issues,” she continued. “We don’t want to dismiss the poor experience of some members, and know we have room for improvement, but still consider this event a huge success.”

In this episode Billboard Unfiltered, Billboard staffers Kyle Denis, Trevor Anderson and Damien Scott recap J. Cole’s Inevitable episode 1 and the fan reactions, what to expect from Beyonce’s Christmas halftime show, debate if celebrities were paid for their endorsements, monitor celebrity movement from X to Bluesky and more! Damien Scott:For someone like Jermaine, who is […]

Kendrick Lamar stamped his 2024 rap MVP campaign with a brand new album when GNX hit streaming services without any sort of warning on Friday (Nov. 22) around noon ET. Initially, a GNX teaser arrived on YouTube in the form of a one-minute snippet, and fans hoped it meant the start of a rollout. But […]

Entertainers need to be well-versed in business, and rappers like Lil Baby understand that — especially in today’s music industry. Earlier this year, the Atlanta rapper recently graduated from the Harvard Business School Program “Launching New Ventures” and his family celebrated with a party. A video surfaced online showing Lil Baby attending class and then […]

The party’s just getting started. Juice WRLD’s team released the trailer for the late rapper’s final posthumous album The Party Never Ends on Thursday (Nov. 21). The Party Never Ends is set to arrive just days ahead of the fifth anniversary of Juice’s death on Black Friday (Nov. 29). “Been 5 years kid, still missing […]

Mac Miller‘s family is planning on releasing a second posthumous album on the fifth anniversary of 2020’s Circles —his first posthumous album in which the late rapper was working on prior to his untimely passing in 2018. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The Pittsburgh rapper’s family […]