R&B/Hip-Hop
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Druski and Rubi Rose made waves earlier this spring when they revealed they had been dating. While some fans were skeptical, the social media star and the rapper continued to post content of themselves together as if they were indeed in a relationship.
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Well, on Tuesday (Sept. 17), Rubi Rose took to X and blew a lid off this conspiracy in a series of since-deleted tweets. First, she denied sleeping with Druski and that he paid her “for PR,” tweeting, “And for the record i never slept with that man, n—a paid for PR. Not the p—y.” She then made sure to compliment him, saying, “He is funny and nice tho,” before adding, “I only give it up if I’m in love, ion care how much money a n—a got. I’m rich asf lol.”
Rubi Rose reveals that her relationship with Druski was fake just for marketing that he paid for”And for the record i never slept with that man, n*gga paid for PR. Not the p*ssy ✌🏾… he is funny and nice tho!… I only give up if I’m in love, ion care how much money a n*gga… pic.twitter.com/6RNVZ4O3Hf— SOUND (@itsavibe) September 17, 2024
Druski hasn’t said anything, but he did post a meme of himself as Nick Cannon in Love Don’t Cost a Thing on his Instagram Story.
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During Paris Fashion Week back in June, Rubi was stopped in the street by U.K. social media personality Rambo and said she was single after being asked what her favorite love song was. “F— love. Okay, I’m single, guys,” she answered before walking away.
Druski seemed to confirm fumbling a baddie while visiting The Big Tigger Morning Show With Jazzy McBee on V-103 in Atlanta. “God blesses you sometimes with situations. It’s a learning situation and that’s what it’s all about,” he said after McBee asked him why his relationship with Rose ended. “It wasn’t nothing bad that happened. She’s a beautiful girl, she’s doing great in life, she’s making money, I’m doing the same.“
Adding, “When you have a beautiful woman of that caliber, it comes with a lot, and I don’t know if I was prepared yet. But I learned a lot from it, so I think I’m coming out of that, you better have them pockets ready. I ain’t saying that’s what happened… You just gotta be ready because you don’t know when you’re gonna have to be pulling that wallet out.”
We’re not sure what prompted Rubi’s tweets, but we’ll have more as this story develops.
GloRilla has much to celebrate this week as her single “TGIF” tops Billboard’s Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart. The track rises from No. 2 to crown the list dated Sept. 21 and was the most-played song on U.S. monitored mainstream R&B/hip-hop radio stations in the tracking week of Sept. 6-12, according to Luminate.
The song’s coronation comes after a 15% gain in plays for the tracking week, compared with the previous frame. Thanks to the surge, “TGIF” wins the Greatest Gainer award, given to the song with the week’s largest increase in play count.
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With “TGIF,” GloRilla grabs her fourth No. 1 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay. The Memphis-raised rapper first led the chart with her breakthrough hit, “F.N.F. (Let’s Go),” with producer HitKidd, which reigned for one week in 2022. The 10-week juggernaut “Tomorrow 2,” with Cardi B, followed in 2022-2023, while her third visit to the summit came via “Yeah Glo!,” a two-week champ earlier this year.
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“TGIF” evicts Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” from the penthouse after the latter ruled for the last nine weeks, of 11 total in charge. By taking the throne from Lamar’s culture-shaping hit, GloRilla enjoys a bit of revenge. Her previous single, the Megan Thee Stallion collaboration “Wanna Be,” parked in the runner-up spot for five weeks in August – September, blocked from the No. 1 spot by “Not Like Us.”
A standalone single, “TGIF” scored viral popularity, with plenty of Internet posts playing off several lyrics, including the track’s “it’s 7 pm Friday / it’s 95 degrees” opening lines. Rihanna also elevated the track’s popularity soon after its release, with a TikTok post of her rapping alongside the song having just over 157 million views on the social platform.
Elsewhere, “TGIF” repeats at its No. 2 high on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, which ranks songs by combined audience totals from adult R&B and mainstream R&B/hip-hop stations. Despite remaining in second place, “TGIF” improved to 15.8 million in weekly audience, up 13% from the previous week and enough to capture the Greatest Gainer honor. It also advances 3-2 on Rap Airplay (up 14% in audience) and 16-12 on Rhythmic Airplay (a 19% increase in plays).
Continued ascent across the radio formats help “TGIF” soar 30-22 on the all-genre Radio Songs chart, where it jumps to 22.7 million in total audience, a 14% weekly gain. The airplay strength, in turn, pushes “TGIF” to new heights on the multi-metric Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, which blends radio airplay with streaming and sales data for its ranks. There, “TGIF” steps 7-6 to a new peak, in its 12th week on the list.
50 Cent isn’t letting up in his trolling of his longtime rival Sean “Diddy” Combs following the music mogul’s federal indictment, which was unsealed on Tuesday morning in New York City (Sept. 17).
The G-Unit boss has been on a media tour in support of his new book The Accomplice, but he still made some time to take a jab at Diddy surrounding the details of his sprawling sex trafficking indictment on Tuesday.
50 posted a photo with Drew Barrymore to promote his appearance on her show, but didn’t waste any time sneaking in a shot at Diddy, hinting at the indictment’s report that federal agents allegedly seized over 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant from his Miami and Los Angeles homes as evidence during a federal raid in March.
“Here I am keeping good company with @DrewBarrymoreTV and I don’t have 1,000 bottles of lube at the house,” he wrote alongside his photo with the actress.
One fan replied: “I was waiting on 50 to chime in and here it is.” Another added: “I know you got more coming for us today bro.”
The 1,000 bottles of lube 50 is referencing came from the Sept. 12 indictment, which was unveiled during Tuesday’s presser by U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, who claimed the bottles confiscated from Sean Combs’ possession were used in the alleged sexual “freak offs.”
Williams also claimed that Combs’ staff would stock hotel rooms with lubricant and baby oil for the “freak offs.” Electronic devices were seized containing evidence of the “freak offs” with multiple victims.
Diddy was reportedly arrested at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Monday night. Combs faces charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution, per the indictment obtained by Billboard. The conspiracy charge also came with allegations of forced labor, kidnapping, arson and bribery from 2008 through the present day.
“For decades, Sean Combs … abused, threatened and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation and conceal his conduct,” the indictment reads. “To do so, Combs relied on the employees, resources and the influence of his multi-faceted business empire that he led and controlled.”
If convicted on the charges, Combs will be facing a minimum sentence of 15 years jail time, while the charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. Diddy is expected to appear in court on Tuesday.
Quavo and Ty Dolla $ign are taking their cinematic tunes to the silver screen. Huncho and Ty teamed up with Brian Tyler on Tuesday (Sept. 17) to unleash the futuristic visual to Transformers One‘s “If I Fall.”
Tyler is on double-duty as the uptempo song’s producer while also directing the robot-themed clip under his immersive audio-visual project Are We Dreaming.
Huncho and Ty dish out motivational rhymes over the thumping production while moving around a dark room dodging the flashing lights. Chaos ensues with scenes mixed in from the new film, and it’s easy to see how the sci-fi clip could align with the action-packed blockbuster.
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“Ain’t no plan B and we won’t stand for defeat/ I’m in my prime, Optimus (Optimus), I’m goin’ big, Megatron/ I’ma sting, Bumblebee, now crown the king, hope you proud of me,” Quavo raps while incorporating Transformers characters into his bars.
Tyler, who is also on board as the film’s composer, reflected on having the opportunity to team up with the pair of hip-hop titans on the track that arrived earlier this month. “It was so dope getting to work with legends Quavo and Ty Dolla who both killed it in the video for ‘If I Fall,’ which has a sick sci-fi feel that brings you into the world of Transformers,” he said. “The sets were epic, it felt like we were on Cybertron.”
He continued of his all-encompassing involvement in the creative process: “It’s kind of crazy directing your own music video when you are also singing on it, playing the drums, editing the cut, and creating the visual effects. Being so integrated in the entire process has been insane but amazing.”
Transformers One hits U.S. theaters on Friday (Sept. 20) along with the release of the blockbuster’s soundtrack. With a reported budget of $75 million, the animated flick stars Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne, Jon Hamm and more in the loaded cast.
Watch the “If I Fall” video below.
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Eve was intent on proving the doubters wrong with her Let There Be Eve…Ruff Ryders’ First Lady debut album back in September 1999. As told in her new Who’s That Girl? memoir, which was released on Tuesday (Sept. 17), Eve recalled a phone call from Jay-Z where he tried to temper the Ruff Ryders rapper’s expectations when it came to her debut LP’s commercial performance.
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Jay allegedly told Eve that female rappers “don’t really do that well” on the day her ’99 project arrived. However, Let There Be Eve…Ruff Ryders’ First Lady went on to top the Billboard 200 with more than 200,000 total album units sold in the first week. With assists from Swizz Beatz, DMX, Missy Elliott, The Lox, Faith Evans, Beanie Sigel and more, Let There Be Eve has sold more than two million copies to date.
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Eve appeared on The Breakfast Club on Tuesday (Sept. 17) in support of her memoir, and she provided context on the phone call with Hov, which was not intended to come off as malicious at all, but put a battery in her back.
“That was one of those things we were like, ‘Do we put that in?’ Because you know how people get,” she explained. “It was nothing bad about that. It was one of those things where it was a very amazing phone call that I needed.”
Even continued: “That was one of those I always felt like I was the underdog anyway. He wasn’t saying it out of malice or mean. It was facts, really. But I was like, eh, OK, let me see. I’ma show you. It’s all good. And it went on to be fine. Like I say in the book, we all have that person.”
Billboard has reached out to Jay-Z for comment.
Throughout the book, Eve disclosed she had to deal with plenty of doubters when it came to executives who continually disrespected her. “The audacity that these men had,” she wrote in the book. “Now I have age and experience on my side, nobody’s coming at me like that.”
Let There Be Eve…Ruff Ryders’ First Lady spawned a pair of hits with the Swizz Beatz-produced “Gotta Man,” which reached No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the “What Ya’ll Want (Remix)” featuring Dru Hill’s Nokio, which was added as a bonus track and topped the Hot Rap Songs chart.
Watch her interview with The Breakfast Club below:
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The New Orleans Saints shocked the NFL community on Sunday (Sept. 15) with a dominant victory over the Dallas Cowboys 44-19 to keep their undefeated season going. With vibes through the roof after pulling off the upset inside Dallas’ AT&T Stadium, Saints head coach Dennis Allen quoted Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” during his postgame […]
The first year of the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart featured an array of music that reached the fledgling ranking’s upper reaches, with 21 songs topping the weekly ranking from its inception as of the Billboard charts dated Sept. 16, 2023.
Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby,” however, was a leg above the rest.
From its coronation at No. 1 on the May 18 survey (after debuting at No. 2 the previous week) to its to-date final week atop the ranking (July 20), Richman’s summer hit crowned the TikTok Billboard Top 50 for 10 uninterrupted weeks. What’s more: as of this writing, “Million Dollar Baby” has never fallen below No. 6. In fact, the latest weekly chart (Sept. 14) finds it up one spot to No. 5.
But “Million Dollar Baby” is a fitting longest-running No. 1 for the chart’s inaugural year. To recap the story you’ve probably already been told: on April 13, Richman uploaded a 14-second clip of the song to his TikTok. It exploded immediately, having racked up nearly 14 million plays as of mid-September. Two days later, he was posting more clips featuring different music, but the demand in the comments was clear: “Drop million dollar baby rn,” one read. He released the song “Selfish” a few days later on April 19, and yet the pleas persisted: “More million dollar baby clips.”
The next week, it happened. After a few more videos promoting its impending release (including one from April 23 that has even more views – over 18 million – than the original), Richman dropped “Million Dollar Baby” on April 26, and the song immediately shot to the top of the TikTok Billboard Top 50, as well as charts worldwide. On the multimetric Billboard Hot 100 (which does not include any TikTok activity), it both debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the May 11 tally and spent the next nearly four months in the top 10.
Pent-up demand for the song helped drive initial numbers, but in the months since, “Million Dollar Baby” has had its own dance trend that’s dominated the conversation. By the end of the summer, TikTok crowned the tune its song of the summer.
Read on for more highlights of the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s chart’s first year. You can see the latest TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart here, and 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.
‘Love’ for Mitski
After giving birth to her third child earlier this month, Cardi B says the public pressure on performers to quickly shed baby weight is both unrealistic and unfair. On Monday (Sept. 16), the “Bongos” rapper reacted to a fan who commented on Cardi’s post from the day before featuring footage of the MC’s first postpartum workout. “It’s barely been a week. Yoh, the pressure women in the industry are under? Insane,” the person wrote.
The comment came after Cardi shared a [since timed-out] video on Instagram Stories on Sunday in which she hit the gym for 30 minutes of hard late night cardio on a StairMaster, just two weeks after giving birth on Sept. 7 to her third baby, a girl, with estranged husband rapper Offset. “This is my third baby and postpartum is a little different from my first two… I’m not doing heaving lifting, no muscle straining, squatting none of that… just cardio,” Cardi wrote.
“Sometimes to avoid postpartum depression you gotta keep your mind busy and for me that’s work and staying active… but you know what’s funny?? Y’all dragged me down when I gained 15 pounds because I was 5 months pregnant but now yall fake concerned and wanna talk about pressure???” she added. “Y’all said I was pregnant to avoid working now that you see I’m still at it it’s something else?? So yeah I’m taking this personal but its FOR ME because either way y’all are gonna have something to say.”
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The fan quickly clarified that she didn’t “mean any harm” with her tweet and did not intend it as an indictment on Cardi, “but rather society’s expectations of women and ‘snap back’ culture. Cardi said it was all good, responding, “Totally babe!! And I do agree about society and pressure…I just was never the type to care about snap back after birth. I don’t know what it is about this time around but I have this burst of energy where I want to do EVERYTHING… It’s like I want to complete all my goals in one day.”
On Monday Cardi also posted some home movies from the hospital in which she and Offset spend quality time with their baby girl, whose name has not yet been revealed. In the TikTok clip we see Cardi breastfeeding and snuggling with her third bundle of joy, as well as Offset enjoying some skin-to-skin contact as their two other kids together, Kulture, 6 and Wave, 3, meet their new sibling.
Cardi, who filed for divorce from Offset for the second time earlier this summer, has been hard at work on her long-awaited follow-up to her 2018 debut studio album, Invasion of Privacy, whose release date has not yet been announced.
This is my third baby and postpartum is a little different from my first two… I’m not doing heaving lifting, no muscle straining, squatting none of that… just cardio. Sometimes to avoid postpartum depression you gotta keep your mind busy and for me that’s work and staying… https://t.co/I6VFBsAxGO— Cardi B (@iamcardib) September 16, 2024
Totally babe!! And I do agree about society and pressure…I just was never the type to care about snap back after birth. I don’t know what it is about this time around but I have this burst of energy where I want to do EVERYTHING… It’s like I want to complete all my goals in one… https://t.co/0NheAYu5kh— Cardi B (@iamcardib) September 16, 2024
Get ready to talk about the Super Bowl halftime show some more. During a new interview, Super Bowl halftime producer Jesse Collins was asked about the controversy surrounding Kendrick Lamar‘s pick as headliner and the supposed snub of New Orleans native Lil Wayne. “We love Wayne,” Collins told Variety when the subject was raised. “There’s […]
After Wednesday night’s (Sept. 11) VMAs ceremony treated viewers to performances by Megan Thee Stallion, Eminem, GloRilla, DJ Khaled, Fat Joe, and a special Def Jam 40th Anniversary medley featuring LL Cool J and Public Enemy, the past weekend in hip-hop and R&B had a lot to live up to.
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Playboi Carti and The Weeknd both launched their new eras with the release of their lead singles “All Red” and “Dancing In The Flames,” respectively; Nicki Minaj announced a forthcoming third installment of her Pink Friday album series; and NYC banded together at the Apollo Theater to honor the life of Grammy-winning Harlem native Fatman Scoop (Sept. 12). It’s been a heavy few weeks for the world of hip-hop and R&B, with the losses of Scoop, Rich Homie Quan, Frankie Beverly and Tito Jackson hitting the community in quick succession.
With Fresh Picks, Billboard aims to highlight some of the best and most interesting new sounds across R&B and hip-hop — from Leon Thomas and Ty Dolla $ign’s scorching new duet to Jdot Breezy’s emotional new track. Be sure to check out this week’s Fresh Picks in our Spotify playlist below.
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Freshest Find: Leon Thomas & Ty Dolla $ign, “Far Fetched”
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Is it really toxic if you’re up front about it? With their latest collaboration, Leon Thomas and Ty Dolla $ign lay all of their cards on the table, and that commitment to honesty ultimately trumps the darkest parts of those cards. “She got dreams of love and marriage/ But that’s far-fetched, far-fetched/ ‘Cause if we don’t work out, girl, that’s a large check,” Thomas explains over a heavily percussive beat peppered with electric guitar and morose piano, courtesy of Oshi and Thomas himself. Ty smoothly slides in with a verse of his own that recounts all the money he’s put up for this lady, but there’s a hint of exasperation in his tone that calls back to Thomas’ overarching message: anything beyond the current state of this relationship isn’t feasible. “Far Fetched” follows “Mutt” as the second single from Thomas’ forthcoming Mutt LP, giving him two standout singles in a row.
Jay Swishes, “Mona Lisa”
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On this Afrobeats-infused hip-hop joint, Ontario-born, Brooklyn-raised rapper Jay Swishes sings the praises of a woman so beautiful her only point of comparison is the Mona Lisa. “Melanin hit her like the sun, her complexion/ 5’2,” one not the two, no contestant/ She a lil freak, we Minaj with her best friend,” he sing-raps before dipping into a more dancehall-adjacent cadence, with X-rated bars like, “Make her suck pon di c–ky like breadfruit/ Put mi wood inna her belly, don’t run.” Accented by shimmering synths and fingerpicked guitar, “Mona Lisa” combines different elements from the year’s hottest sounds into one sultry banger.
Yolanda Adams, “On God”
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Last week (Sept. 13), gospel icon Yolanda Adams dropped off Sunny Days her first studio album in 13 years, and she wasted no time to get things started with the terrific opener, “On God.” A sleek mélange of contemporary R&B and gospel, “On God” finds Adam honoring the Man Above for all of the times he showed up for her — even when times looked especially dark. “That’s my God, that’s my Rock, that’s my King, my Messiah/ Gave His all for mе/ He made a way out of no way/ That’s on God, on God, on God, on God, on God,” she croons over a sparkling R&B-infused arrangement crafted by John Jackson and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis.
Ray Vaughn & SiR, “Everybody Dies”
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The Top Dawg Entertainment rapper wastes no bars with his layered messaging. “Everybody Dies” is a sobering reality and Ray Vaughn confronts a cross-roads in his life while internally grappling with if the juice is worth the squeeze when attempting to conquer your dreams. SiR takes the baton and angelically croons on the soulful chorus as he asserts his legacy will live on long after his physical existence on earth is over. With a handful of singles under his belt in 2024, it’s gotta be album time for Vaughn.
Babyface Ray & Hunxho, “Delusional”
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Babyface Ray is The Kid That Did It. The Detroit spitter narrates his rags to riches story with his fourth studio album. “Delusional” serves as a project standout and the first team-up between Ray and Hunxho. A certain woman in Babyface’s life is using him, but he doesn’t even care at this point as he’s blinded by her beauty. Love can make you do crazy things and Hunxho promises to ink her name on his body so she knows it’s real. “I’m stuck on you, get a new b—h and look for you underneath/ I don’t even put names on my body, but I put you on my neck,” he raps with a heavy dose of AutoTune.
Jdot Breezy, “Heart of Flames”
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It’s a game of fire and ice. If Rod Wave has his “Heart on Ice,” Jdot Breezy flips the script with “Heart of Flames” to serve as his apologetic Sorry I Took Long project opener. The Florida rapper vulnerably opens up about going to great lengths to win over a potential girlfriend. While he fits into the melodic rap landscape, Breezy has an old soul with shout-outs to Phil Jackson and shrewd wordplay referencing Morgan Freeman’s 1989 film Lean on Me. Look for Jdot to hit the road with his woozy tunes for the Straight Madness Tour next month.