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Kendrick Lamar star has never shined brighter.
Earlier this month, he once again brought the rap world to a halt with the release of an untitled song on his Instagram account just a few days after he announced that he would be headlining Super Bowl 59. For the cover art, he used a picture of a pair of tattered black Nike Air Force 1s. The artwork matches the same aesthetic as the the artwork for “6:16 in LA” and “Meet the Grahams,” but as far as we know, there’s no backstory behind the sneakers in the picture.
However, there is a nice little wrinkle that came up a couple days ago. The picture is from an eBay listing posted by “Good2BYou” that belongs to Billy Lingo and Darla Wilson, a couple from North Little Rock, Arkansas. The Internet had already figured out that the picture came from eBay, but no one knew who was behind the account until now.
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Local news station THV11 caught up with the couple to talk about the absurdity of the situation. “What happened was I sold the shoes and I said, ‘Oh great,I sold a pair of shoes,’” Wilson recalled of that fateful September night. “So I got ‘em, boxed ‘em up, printed the label, and all of a sudden, my phone was blowing up.” They sold the sneakers for the asking price of $70, but cancelled the order when they were made aware of Lamar and the song.
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“Well, I’m not gonna lie to you,” Lingo explained while wearing a shirt with a picture of the sneakers on it. “I didn’t know a whole lot about him. and I knew who he was — my son told me about him and my daughter told me about him — But, I really know about him now.” Adding, “We had an opportunity put before us, and I’m not a greedy person. I’ve got the ‘Buy It Now’ for $100,000 or ‘Buy It Now’ for $75,000, and I know that’s probably not going to happen, but it could.”
If you want a piece of rap history, the bidding starts at $5,000 with this Sunday (Sept. 29) at 1:00 a.m. or you can cut in front of the line for a mere 75 racks. There are zero bids, so far.
Billboard reached out to Kendrick’s camp for comment.
Justin Johnson, one of the suspects in the November 2021 murder of Young Dolph (Adolph Thorton Jr.), was found guilty on first-degree murder as well as charges of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, per FOX13.
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A jury reached the verdict during a court hearing in Memphis on Thursday (Sept. 26) after about four hours of deliberation.
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Following the fourth day’s closing arguments, Johnson was sentenced to life in prison on the first-degree murder charge by Judge Jennifer Mitchell and he will learn his fate when it comes to the additional charges during a November court date. Johnson never took the defense stand.
“Every murder’s a tragedy, and we take them all seriously,” said Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy. “This one generated extra public interest because Young Dolph was a prominent and beloved member of the community. We will continue to fight hard to make sure that all of those responsible for his death are brought to justice.”
Johnson and fellow alleged gunman, Cornelius Smith, ambushed Young Dolph on Nov. 17, 2021, at Makeda’s Homemade Butter Cookies in his hometown. They allegedly fired 22 shots while striking and killing the Paper Route Empire CEO.
Smith took the stand on Monday (Sept. 23) after pleading guilty to murder charges. He implicated himself along with Justin Johnson as well as Hernandez “Quett” Govan and Yo Gotti‘s brother Anthony “Big Jook” Mims in Dolph’s murder.
Smith claimed that Big Jook put a $100,000 bounty on Dolph and explained that he and Johnson were each supposed to collect $40,000 after killing the Memphis rapper.
However, Smith testified that he only ended up receiving $800, but Big Jook did step in to pay $50,000 in lawyer fees once he was apprehended. Although, Jook was murdered while leaving a funeral in January.
The same day Dolph was killed also happened to be Smith’s daughter’s birthday. Smith said he had no money and wanted to make sure she had a “beautiful birthday” if he got his hands on the cash.
“Man, I was trying to make it right for her,” he told the court on Monday. “I ain’t have no money, I’m trying to get some money that day. So I’m trying to make sure my baby girl have a beautiful birthday.”
Dolph released seven studio albums while he was alive and a posthumous LP, Paper Route Frank, arrived in 2022. He also has four Billboard Hot 100 hits to his name. The Memphis trailblazer is survived by his fiancée Mia Jaye and their two children. Young Dolph was 36 years old.
During a conversation with Bootleg Kev, Consequence was asked about a rumor involving Ye and Kendrick Lamar having “an album’s worth of unreleased songs together” and if he’s heard them. Not only did the Queens rapper confirm that said songs exist and that he’s heard them, he also said that the tracks were produced by […]
As 50 Cent once rapped, “When It Rains It Pours.” On the heels of continuously trolling Diddy over his arrest, the G-Unit honcho reacted to Eric Adams’ indictment on Thursday (Sept. 26).
With a documentary surrounding Diddy’s allegations already on the way, 50 teased his fans by asking if he should do a separate doc about the NYC mayor’s legal troubles and turbulent tenure.
50 reposted a September 2023 clip of Mayor Adams referring to himself as the “Bad Boy of politics” before presenting Diddy with the Key to New York City, which he rescinded in June following a myriad of lawsuits filed against the Bad Boy CEO.
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“This s–t is getting crazy out here! Do you want a docu series on Eric Adams ? I want to know what the fvck is going on here,” he captioned the clip.
Uncle Murda shared a laugh in the comments while 50’s fans seemed to be into the idea. “50 might be the funniest non comedian to ever live I applaud it,” one person wrote.”These documentaries are gonna be fyah,” another added.
According to CNN, Eric Adams was hit with five federal charges of “bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy and soliciting campaign contributions” from foreign parties on Wednesday (Sept. 25). The alleged illegal actions date back to 2014.
“For nearly a decade, Adams sought and accepted improper valuable benefits, such as luxury international travel, including from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him,” the indictment reportedly reads.
On Wednesday (Sept. 25), Variety reported that 50 Cent’s Diddy docuseries will be calling Netflix home. The untitled doc will center around Combs’ lawsuits, sexual assault and abuse allegations, but also include his recent federal charges for racketeering and sex trafficking.
50 is onboard as an executive producer through his G-Unit Film & Television division while Alexandria Stapleton is directing. “This is a story with significant human impact. It is a complex narrative spanning decades, not just the headlines or clips seen so far,” 50 and Stapleton relayed in a joint statement to Variety. “We remain steadfast in our commitment to give a voice to the voiceless and to present authentic and nuanced perspectives.”
A spokesperson for 50 Cent previously confirmed to Billboard that proceeds received from the project will go toward helping victims of sexual assault and rape.
Check out 50 Cent’s posts about Eric Adams below:
Cardi B has long been a wrestling fan, but has yet to step foot inside the ring. Perhaps that could be changing when WWE’s SummerSlam comes to New Jersey next year, because the WWE has enlisted her to help announce that 2025’s SummerSlam is headed to East Rutherford’s MetLife Stadium for the first-ever two-night event of its kind. The action’s all going down on Aug. 2 and Aug. 3, 2025.
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Cardi stars in the ad alongside WWE superstar Bianca Belair while her spicy Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit “Enough” provides the soundtrack.
“Here’s to the Streets.. and to my girl @BiancaBelairWWE !SummerSlam. 2Nights. MetLife Stadium. August 2nd and 3rd,” she wrote to Instagram on Thursday (Sept. 26).
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The clip finds the Bronx native in the glam room giving her friend Bianca Belair a call to break the good news. “I got two words for you: SummerSlam,” she said. “MetLife.” The WWE Women’s Tag-Team Champion responded: “I’m pretty sure that’s one word.”
Cardi continued with her idea of the two-word trend: “Two nights.”
The Bardi Gang began theorizing that the Grammy-winning rapper could be involved in a match and speculated her long-awaited sophomore album would be out by the time SummerSlam rolls around.
“Love this! You gotta DDT someone at SummerSlam,” USA Network chimed in on her post.
A fan even had an idea for her finishing move, writing in the comments, “Cardi’s finisher should be called Ms. DANGEROUS… ns that would eat!”
While she’s never made an appearance during a show, Cardi B has had her name thrown around inside the WWE universe. Back in 2021, WWE Hall of Fame diva Torrie Wilson gave her a shout-out during an episode of RAW. WWE legend Trish Stratus also lent her stamp of approval to Cardi on X. “Cardi knows,” she wrote.
To which an ecstatic Bardi replied: ““OMMMMMMMGGGGGG !!!!! Bitch I’m gagging !!!! I’m so hype !!!”
The momentum didn’t stop there as former WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez professed their hopes of seeing “WAP” collaborators Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion team up in the ring.
“I would love to see Cardi and Meg The Stallion,” the tandem offered in May 2023. “I think Meg would be incredible. They’ve also been so active with us on Twitter and just responded to different things. Those two would be interesting to see in the ring. Us versus Cardi and Meg. Make it happen.”
Watch the SummerSlam announcement clip below.
Cardi B and Offset‘s relationship issues spilled over publicly onto social media on Wednesday night (Sept. 25).
The Migos rapper set things off during Cardi’s Instagram Live when he accused her of cheating on him while pregnant with their third child. (She gave birth earlier in September.) “U f–ked with a baby inside tell the truth!!” he wrote in a comment on her Live session.
She tweeted, “AND DID !!!!!!,” which left some fans on X wondering if she was confirming her estranged husband’s accusation. (Billboard has reached out to Cardi and Offset’s reps for comment.)
Cardi — who is in Paris for Fashion Week — then carved out some time to blast her estranged husband on Instagram Live. “All weekend you was blowing up my phone, I blocked you … You tryna get me mad, ‘Let me show you the b—-s I’m f–king,’” she said. “I don’t care. … You’re f–king lame.”
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Cardi continued to explode on Offset, from whom she filed for divorce over the summer. “I’m too much woman for you. I’m too much of a boss b—h for you. And I always been too good for you … I don’t make you feel like you’re that n—a in this home,” she said. “I make you look good.”
While she’s thankful for her three kids with Set and credited him as a father, Cardi admitted she regrets her relationship with the Atlanta native. “All three of them — I don’t regret none of them, but I regret you,” she claimed. “I don’t regret my kids. You a good daddy. You aight. I don’t regret none of them. … But f–k you. I regret you. I’m too good for you. I’ve always been too good for you, n—a.”
Offset fired back in the comment section of her live, as captured by DJ Akademiks. “Insecure,” he wrote. Another captured by Akademiks saw the Migos rapper write: “The fact u keep going shows you hurt leave along don’t you got a n—a ain’t we divorced.”
Cardi and Offset married in 2017. She filed for divorce the first time in September 2020, but quickly called it off. The former couple share three kids — Kulture, 6, Wave, 3, and welcomed their third on Sept. 7.
Watch Cardi’s explosive IG Live session below.
Macklemore‘s “f–k America!” chant has drawn condemnation from a trio of the Seattle-bred MC’s hometown sports franchises. According to Fox 13 Seattle, The MLB’s Seattle Mariners have joined the NHL’s Seattle Kraken and MLS’ Seattle Sounders FC in calling out the “Thrift Shop” rapper for controversial comments he made at last weekend’s Palestine Will Live Forever concert in the city.
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“We are aware of the incident and agree with the other teams in town: Sports and music should connect, not divide us,” Mariners vice president of communication Tim Hevly reportedly said in a statement to the station. “We continue to monitor and research latest developments.”
Macklemore performed a new song at the event, “Hind’s Hall 2,” the sequel to his May song of the same name whose proceeds are meant to help the United Nations Relief and Words Agency (UNRWA), which provides assistance to Palestinian refugees. “Straight up, say it, I’m not gonna stop you,” Macklemore told the crowd in fan video from the show. “I’m not gonna stop you… yeah, f–k America.”
On Tuesday, Macklemore was dropped from the Las Vegas Neon City Festival lineup with no reason given for the scratch. In a lengthy statement on Wednesday, Macklemore — who has been a loud supporter of the Palestinian people in the midst of the yearlong war sparked by Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel — explained his mindset at the show.
“Unfortunately, the historic event in my hometown that brought thousands of people together to raise awareness and money for the people of Palestine has become overshadowed by two words,” he said, adding that he hasn’t been “OK” in the months since the Israel-Hamas war broke out after the militant group’s murder of more than 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping of more than 250 others. ”I have been in utter disbelief with how our government is showing up at this moment in history. I don’t think I’m alone. Some days I don’t know how to love something that is hurting others so much. I don’t think I’m alone.”
In the wake of Hamas’ surprise attack almost a year ago, Israel has waged a relentless bombing campaign on Gaza that Palestinian health authorities say has killed more than 41,000 people and driven most of its two million-plus residents from their homes; Israel recently opened a second front in the war in Lebanon, where attacks on the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah this week have already killed more than 500 as the Pentagon fears a potential Israeli ground invasion that could lead to a devastating regional war.
Macklemore’s 2012 song “Can’t Hold Us” has been a staple of the seventh-inning stretch at Mariners games and the statement from Hevly comes after the Sounders and Kraken also distanced themselves from the rapper earlier this week; Macklemore and his wive, Tricia Davis, are among the minority co-owners of the Sounders and the Kraken.
“We believe that sports bring people together and unite us. We are aware of Macklemore’s increasingly divisive comments, and they do not reflect the values of our respective ownership groups, leagues, or organizations,” the Sounders and Kraken said in a joint statement on Monday. According to Fox 13, as the backlash over the comment continues to build, the Mariners, Kraken and Sounders are “evaluating their next steps regarding his involvement with their respective organizations.”
At press time a spokesperson for Macklemore had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment.
A week after its strong No. 2 debut on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart dated Sept. 21, BabyChiefDoit’s “Rollin’” is the ranking’s latest No. 1, lifting 2-1 on the tally dated Sept. 28.
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The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity from Sept. 16-22. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
“Rollin’” reigns thanks largely to lip-synchs set to the song’s “Don’t slip, don’t trip, don’t fall/ Come to the crib and take off your drawers” lyric, as well as a dance.
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In the latest Billboard chart tracking week ending Sept. 19, “Rollin’” earned 1.1 million official U.S. streams, a gain of 135%, according to Luminate. So far, the TikTok Billboard Top 50 is the only chart on which the song appears, and it became BabyChiefDoit’s first Billboard appearance overall upon its Sept. 21 bow.
Like many of the chart’s top-performing songs these days, some of the highest ranking TikTok uploads using “Rollin’” also set the song to footage from the Nickelodeon live action series Henry Danger, which aired between 2014-20. The song that originally sparked the trend of Henry Danger-related memes, Ashanti’s “Rain on Me,” concurrently remains at its No. 5 peak.
Alphaville’s 1984 single “Forever Young” follows “Rollin’,” leaping 7-2 for a new peak after previously rising as high as No. 4. The song, which eventually rose as high as No. 65 on the Billboard Hot 100 four years after its release in 1988, has fluctuated on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 the past month; after debuting at No. 50 on the Aug. 3 survey, it initially broke into the top 10 the following week and then rose into the top five on the Sept. 7 list.
Trends involving “Forever Young” have ranged from one where one person lifts the other in the air and spins them around while water sprays down on top of them from a bottle, to general content about getting older and reminiscing about one’s younger days, to edits of content about fictional characters who passed on early in their respective universes.
IV of Spades’ “Come Inside of My Heart” ranks at No. 3, jumping into the top 10 after debuting at No. 13 on the Sept. 21 tally. The song was released as part of IV of Spades’ 2019 album CLAPCLAPCLAP! and has largely been used in general viral content rather than with a major throughline trend. The track concurrently jumps 63% to 215,000 streams in the week ending Sept. 19.
Jack Johnson’s “Upside Down,” which peaked at No. 38 on the Hot 100 in 2006, debuts at No. 4 on the latest TikTok Billboard Top 50. Written for that year’s film Curious George, Johnson’s fan favorite nabs a place on the survey with a two-person trend in which one person flips the other upside down – with varying results.
Now that the TikTok Billboard Top 50 has existed for a year, celebrating its first birthday two weeks ago, the chart is sure to see songs connected to or affiliated with certain times of the year make what could be an annual return. This week, it’s Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September,” which re-enters at No. 13.
“September,” which spikes in all music-related consumption every year due to its opening Sept. 21-related lyric (“do you remember/ the 21st night of September”), debuted at No. 3 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 dated Sept. 30, 2023. It’s back for another round via dances, lip synchs, sketches and other uploads celebrating the track’s yearly bump in attention, 45 years after it peaked on the Hot 100 at No. 8 in February 1979.
As the TikTok Billboard Top 50 tracked the Sept. 16-22 period, overall gains for “September” on the rest of the Billboard charts will be known on the Oct. 5-dated tallies, which comprise the Sept. 20-26 tracking week.
See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 here. You can also tune in each Friday to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the premiere of the chart’s top 10 countdown at 3 p.m. ET, with reruns heard throughout the week.
A month after his shocking death following a collapse at a concert in Connecticut, that state’s medical examiner’s office has released the cause of death for beloved rapper/hype man Fatman Scoop. According to People magazine, the Connecticut Medical Examiner’s Office announced on Wednesday (Sept. 25) that Scoop (born Isaac Freeman III) died due to hypertensive […]
Suge Knight and Diddy have been rivals and enemies since the ’90s, when their respective labels — Death Row and Bad Boy — fought for rap supremacy in a feud that culminated in the tragic murders of both 2Pac and The Notorious B.I.G.
Knight, who is currently serving 28 years in California for voluntary manslaughter, caught up with Chris Cuomo on NewsNation to talk about Diddy’s arrest. Suge started the conversation with a disclaimer, saying that he doesn’t “jump up and cheer for no Black man going to prison or any other human being going to prison.”
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However, he suggested that Diddy may be in for a tough time behind bars because of his fame. “I mean, one of the things is this: I don’t care who you are, prison and jail is a negative environment,” Knight said. “Somebody can do something to him and get a name for themself, they gonna actually do it. Or if they can do whatever they feel they gotta do to prove themself.” He added: “But we also gotta learn… We gotta learn from our mistakes. Everything don’t have to be a mistake, you gotta better yourself. But we all know what we signed up for in life.”
Cuomo also asked the founder of Death Row Records if he felt like Diddy was in danger and if he had any advice for him. “I don’t wanna say he’s in danger and neither should he say that,” he advised. “Because once he gets to the point where they feel he’s gonna be suicidal… you don’t have the rights to nothing: no sock, no drawers, no T-shirt, no blanket, no sheets. You’re naked in a cell as a crazy man, so he definitely don’t wanna do that.”
His other words of wisdom were to ask for kosher meals because they’re difficult to be tampered with. “Maybe he should get on the Jewish diet because the kosher meals is way better than the food somebody else is making for you,” he said. “At least they gonna come hot. They gonna come sealed and you’re gonna be the one to open them. That’s very important.”
Diddy is currently being held in Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, a jail notorious for its violence and subpar living conditions. MDC Brooklyn has housed high-profile prisoners like R. Kelly and Ghislaine Maxwell, and some judges have even refused to send people there, according to The Associated Press. He’s been placed on “procedural” suicide watch, something that is common when it comes to detainees of his stature. A spokesperson has maintained that he’s “strong, healthy and focused on his defense.”
You can watch the full interview here.