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Billboard Women in Music 2025
The calendar has turned to April. With quarter 1 of 2025 officially in the rear view, which was a busy three months in the hip-hop world, Billboard Unfiltered is back with a new episode on Wednesday (April 2).
The trio is joined by Hot 97 and proud Duke University hater Peter Rosenberg for the discussion, which touches on Drake’s “NOKIA” video and what it means for Kendrick Lamar, Mustard’s comeback, Ye’s interview with DJ Akademiks and more.
Directed by Theo Skudra and shot in IMAX, “Nokia” arrived on Monday in black-and-white, and some fans perceived certain scenes to be jabs at Lamar.
“I saw connections people were drawing, and it felt like a reach,” Rosenberg said. “It wasn’t enough to warrant major conversation to me.”
Rosenberg thinks Drake should continue to dish out the hits and shy away from the Kendrick Lamar snipes. “If I’m Drake, I’m probably staying away from the Kendrick stuff,” he said. “And focusing on this. No matter what people say about this man, the hits are coming. Drake is fully back on the Hot 100.”
The Hot 97 radio host called Mustard’s hot streak one of the “greatest comebacks” in music history after the producer helmed “Not Like Us” and then hit the stage at the Grammy Awards, as well as Lamar’s Super Bowl LIX halftime show.
“That comeback to producer of the year to onstage at the Grammys to at the Super Bowl,” he said. “That may be one of the greatest music comebacks of all time. And It’s not really being talked about.”
Ye sat down with DJ Akademiks for an explosive interview last week, which saw him double-down on his hate for Jay-Z following his flagrant tweet about Jay’s twins, Sir and Rumi.
“There’s so no coming back from where he’s going,” Rosenberg said. “There’s no response at this point to Ye that I would think is inappropriate.”
Hot 97’s Summer Jam is back in 2025 with A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Gunna, GloRilla and more performing. While the event has moved indoors to Prudential Center, Rosenberg reflects on how the festival has transformed from its heyday in the ’90s to now.
“What I’m not gonna do is get up here and say, ‘Summer Jam’s the same as its ever been.’ It’s definitely not the same and it’s not coming back,” he added. “But I’m not gonna get up here and say it’s not a good time. … It’s not 2001, it’s not Michael Jackson with Jay-Z.”
Watch the full episode below.
Billboard Women in Music 2025 After dropping the highly anticipated “Nokia” video, Drake made some merch available on his website, andJoe Budden Podcast co-host Melyssa Ford isn’t happy about it. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news On DrakeRelated.com, the Toronto rapper is selling a “Hot Moms Vixen” hoodie […]
Billboard Women in Music 2025
Ye — formerly Kanye West — blasted J. Cole and his music during another X rant on Tuesday night (April 1), but it didn’t seem to be any sort of April Fools’ Day joke.
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“I hate J Cole music so much,” West said matter-of-factly. “It’s like between Kendrick and J Cole I bet you industry plants asked J Cole to diss Drake then we would have been accosted with a J Cole Super Bowl commercial with no SZA song to save it.”
The embattled Chicago native went on to diss Cole’s artistry by claiming that the Dreamville leader’s music was strictly for virgins. “No one listens to J Cole after loosing [sic] their virginity,” he wrote.
Ye also brought up purported conversations around 2021’s Donda era when he pleaded with Drake that he was “hurting hip-hop” by giving J. Cole a bigger platform.
“When I met up with Drake during Donda most of the convo was me telling him he was hurting hip hop by giving J Cole a platform and I was saying how much I loved Future,” he added.
Kanye previously dissed J. Cole last year when adding a verse to the “Like That” remix. “Play J.Cole get the p—y dry,” he raps.
The relationship between Ye and Cole has been icy for some time. The North Carolina rhymer jabbed at West on multiple occasions in the past. While he respects Ye’s artistry, Cole hasn’t had any issue checking him on tracks like 2016’s “False Prophets” and 2019’s “Middle Child,” saying he feels West hasn’t lived up to the billing.
The 48-year-old has been draped in controversy in recent months while his unhinged X rants have found him doubling down on his antisemitic remarks and appreciation for Hitler while wearing a Swastika shirt and chain.
West provided context about some of his recent rants when he spoke with DJ Akademiks last week for an hour-plus-long interview, which saw him wearing a black KKK-inspired hood and touching on Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Kim Kardashian, Diddy, Virgil Abloh, Jay-Z, Playboi Carti and more.
Find Ye’s rant sniping at J. Cole below.
I hate J Cole music so much It’s like between Kendrick and J Cole I bet you industry plants asked J Cole to diss Drake then we would have been accosted with a J Cole Super Bowl commercial with no SZA song to save it https://t.co/djbn491rpv— ye (@kanyewest) April 2, 2025
When I met up with Drake during Donda most of the convo was me telling him he was hurting hip hop by giving J Cole a platform and I was saying how much I loved Future— ye (@kanyewest) April 2, 2025
No one listens to J Cole after loosing their virginity— ye (@kanyewest) April 2, 2025
Billboard Women in Music 2025
Playboi Carti and Ariana Grande are battling for another week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Carti took to social media on Tuesday night (April 1) and quoted some of his Music lyrics about his plans of “goin’ three for three” atop the charts.
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“F–k it, I’m goin’ three for three,” he raps on “MOJO JOJO.” He followed up the IG Story post with a photo of Ariana Grande.
Fans were surprised to see Carti post Grande as he sent social media into a frenzy. “CARTIANA FANS STAND UP,” one fan of both artists wrote to X.
Carti has gone back-to-back weeks owning the top spot on the Billboard 200 coming off the release of Music, but Grande entered the mix with the arrival of her eternal sunshine deluxe: better days ahead on Friday (March 28).
The Atlanta rapper released his long-awaited Music album on March 14 and the set debuted at No. 1 with 298,000 album-equivalent units earned as all 30 tracks landed on the Billboard Hot 100.
He added another four previously released tracks to streaming services packaged in the form of the Music – Sorry 4 Da Wait deluxe.
Weeks later, Carti still occupies 10 slots on the Hot 100, including nine Music cuts and “Timeless” with The Weeknd. He’s also been teasing the release of Baby Boi, which appears to be his next project.
Grande released her Eternal Sunshine album in March 2024, and the LP debuted atop the Billboard 200 with 227,000 units earned. Just over a year later, the pop star returned with the six-track deluxe, which boasts fan-favorites “Twilight Zone” and the heartbreaking ballad “Hampstead.”
As for Carti, he spent his April Fool’s Day hanging with his supposed girlfriend, Giovanna Ramos, as the couple was spotted courtside at the Atlanta Hawks game.
King Vamp is set to join The Weeknd on his After Hours Til Dawn Tour, which will invade stadiums across North America starting on May 9 in Arizona.
Billboard Women in Music 2025
If you think wrestling is all fake, ask Cody Rhodes how he was feeling after last month’s bloody WWE Elimination Chamber match in Toronto where Travis Scott went wild during a beatdown of the undisputed WWE champ.
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After Wrestling Observer Radio revealed that Rhodes suffered a broken ear drum and a black eye after Scott slapped the hapless wrestler as he lay bloodied in the middle of the ring at the March 1 event, Rhodes told Complex this week that he kept the receipts and that payback is in the cards.
As he gears up for his third consecutive WrestleMania — where he will defend his world title against fellow great John Cena in the latter’s final WrestleMania match– Rhodes had a stern warning for La Flame. “That’s wrestling,” Rhodes said of the injuries he endured after the rapper teamed up with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Cena for the beatdown. “I am not mad so much, but I am looking and my eyes are open for what we inevitably, what we’ll call a receipt.”
At press time it’s unknown if Scott will be on hand when WrestleMania 41 takes place in Las Vegas on April 19-20, but Rhodes didn’t pull punches about the Elimination Chamber incident. When Complex simply noted that Scott was a “major part” of the Elimination Chamber match, Rhodes cheekily responded, “Oh, he was?”
Asked how hard Scott hit him — and if he gave him the “hey man, just really let me have it” license to do so — Rhodes said, “Well, the next day after the incident, I told everyone, ‘He didn’t hit me.’ I didn’t realize there was a fan video circulating of him hitting me with the power of a thousand suns and the noise deafening. And then I had a Tommy Boy situation where the entire side of my face was black and blue and I kept saying, ‘Oh no, I’m good. I’m good.’”
He said he then had a “little flutter in the eardrum” because it was popped. “Again, I’m a weirdo, this is going to sound so strange, and I apologize to your viewers and your listeners, but man, that’s wrestling. You know what I’m saying? Beat me up. I’m going to beat you up. That’s wrestling… If Travis Scott ever makes his way back into the WWE fray, maybe there’s a receipt for Travis. Prior to this though, by the way, I was a Travis Scott fan.”
Rhodes noted that he went sneaker shopping with Complex last July and that he once owned a pair of Scott’s Air Jordan’s, but that after the match “let’s say they might’ve gone somewhere. The shoes are not there anymore.”
That said, when asked who hits harder, Scott or part-time wrestler/YouTuber Logan Paul, Rhodes gave the rapper his props, kind of. “Well, Travis Scott hits pretty hard, but that’s not the hardest I’ve ever been slapped,” Rhodes said, adding that the hardest he’s ever been slapped was by female Canadian wrestler Nattie Neidhart. “If Travis Scott hit me with the force of a thousand suns, Nattie Neidhart sent me to the phantom zone. Legit, I was lost in space for a second, so that was the hardest one I ever got.”
La Flame has been all over WWE this year. His “4×4” song served as the RAW theme song in January when the show jumped to Netflix and he escorted Jey Uso to the ring for his match on Jan. 6 in Los Angeles. In addition, in January, Triple H teased that fans can expect to see more of Scott in the future. “Everybody should expect to see more things from Travis Scott in a big way,” he said.
Scott recently teamed up with WWE for a “Wrestling Is Real” T-shirt, presumably in response to the online chatter about the smack heard ’round the world.
Billboard Women in Music 2025 Lil Nas X feels lucky to have Camila Cabello in his friend orbit. The rapper who has been sprinkling singles all over the place in the lead-up to the release of his as-yet-unscheduled Dreamboy album, told Paper magazine that the “I Luv It” singer was really there for him when […]
Billboard Women in Music 2025 Muni Long is the latest artist to join the Honda Stage program as part of their music discovery platform and Saturday night, March 29th, saw the brand take their support to the main stage as they presented her with the Rising Star Award at Billboard Women in Music 2025 in […]
The Weeknd has shared another glimpse into his upcoming Hurry Up Tomorrow film ahead of its nationwide theater release on May 16. The ominous thriller received a second trailer on Tuesday (April 1) as the Toronto singer/actor took viewers further into his bewildering odyssey. Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan serve as The Weeknd’s co-stars in […]
Billboard Women in Music 2025 Cardi B is continuing to tease her long-awaited sophomore album, and recently gave fans some more details on what to expect. On Monday, Cardi B hopped on X Spaces to discuss her highly anticipated sophomore effort, which fans have been clamoring for for over eight years. “The features on my […]
The Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show won’t be the only time Kendrick Lamar and Mustard share the stage together this year. Mustard revealed on Tuesday (April 1) — and this is no April Fool’s Day joke — that he’s joining the Compton rapper and SZA’s Grand National Tour as an opening act. Fans can expect […]
