R&B/Hip-Hop

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.

On DrakeRelated.com, the Toronto rapper is selling a “Hot Moms Vixen” hoodie with an image of Ford and lettering that says videovixens.ca on the back. And while the web address redirected to the podcast’s Patreon page at first, it now redirects to Ford’s Hot & Bothered with Melyssa Ford podcast YouTube page.

Of course, the pod talked about the hoodie, and when asked if she was given a head’s up, Melyssa Ford said she wasn’t and “woke up to it” like everybody else. She then mentioned that the website that’s printed on top of her image redirects to the pod’s Patreon page. “There is a jacket with my image on it,” she explained. “And underneath it, it says ‘videovixex.ca.’ So, dot c-a is dot com in Canada. You click on that link and it take’s you to Joe’s Patreon.”

She added: “What the f—k is going on? Where’s my check? Where’s my f—king check? That’s what the f—k I want to know.”

She then claimed that she may own the image because it’s from her first calendar and said that she sent Drake a DM about the situation. “There’s a possibility that I do own it,” she suggested. “There’s a possibility that I shot that for my first calendar… I sent a DM, said, ‘Hey.’”

While Drake and Budden’s rift goes back a ways, the former recently mentioned Budden and Ford on the $ome $exy $ongs 4 U song “Gimme a Hug” where he raps, “Melyssa Ford, you a legend from the 6, hate to see you with a d—ksucker,” in reference to Joe’s analysis of his battle with Kendrick Lamar last year.

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 he was having a crisis of faith in his personal and professional lives.

“We did a great job at uplifting each other and showing each other how we view the situation and how we view each other from outside of ourselves,” he said of his bestie, who he teamed up with last summer for her “He Knows” single. “Once you made up your mind: ‘Oh, the world doesn’t see me as something great or feels like I’ve done anything amazing.‘ To hear [affirmation] from somebody who you greatly respect and you love what they’ve done, it feels great, especially because you can feel like it comes from a genuine place, and not like someone trying to get something from you.”

Lil Nas said he had fun hanging out with Cabello at a time when he was just getting comfortable “going out places. It was just genuine fun. It didn’t feel like work. Camila made me feel so good, she made me feel so great,” he said. “And that was the beginning of me getting my confidence back. To finally be at this place, where I’m like, ‘Okay, I know who the f–k I am. I know where I’m going. I don’t care what none of these b–ches say. I didn’t care at first. Why do I care now?’”

The rapper also said he’s taking a completely different approach on the new album than he did with his 2021 full-length debut album, Montero. Whereas last time he said he brought the world to him, this time “I’m bringing myself to the world,” describing Dreamboy as a collection of “everything and anything I’ve ever loved or hated… it’s just me going out there and doing me in whichever form I feel.”

So far, Lil Nas has released eight songs that could be featured on the album, including “Hotbox,” “Light Again,” “Need Dat Boy,” “Dreamboy,” “Big Dummy!,” “Swish,” “Right There!” and “Lean on My Body,” which he recently collected on the Days Before Dreamboy EP.

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 the movie directed by Trey Edward Shults.

Abel plays a fictionalized pop star version of himself while Ortega (Anima) serves as his love interest and brings him on a psychotic journey, testing the depths of his soul.

“Have we met before,” The Weeknd asks Ortega’s Anima character while driving. Things get eerie when Ortega’s shown lighting a home on fire and tying the XO frontman up while performing some sort of satanic ritual on him.

The movie serves as the film companion to The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow album, which arrived in February and saw him retire his artistic alias.

“I tried to make the movie in a way where, for his fans and people who want to approach it at that level, I hope it’s very satisfying and you get a good meal out of it,” Shults told EW. “And for people that aren’t his fans and don’t know anything about him or even care about the final capping of the Weeknd, I think you still have a great movie to go through.”

Hurry Up Tomorrow notched The Weeknd his fifth No. 1 album atop the Billboard 200 when the set earned 490,500 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 6, per Luminate.

Just ahead of Hurry Up Tomorrow hitting theaters on May 16, The Weeknd will embark on his After Hours Til Dawn Tour on May 9 in Phoenix. The trek will invade stadiums across North America this summer with Playboi Carti and Mike Dean serving as the tour’s special guests.

Watch the trailer below.

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 album are really good,” she said in the clip below. “I don’t have a lot of features but I’m working with artists, some that I have worked before and some that I haven’t worked before. And the ones that I have not worked before, I feel like it’s gonna really, really surprise y’all.

She went on to say that “It’s such a vibe,” and that she’s getting closer to giving fans what they’ve long wanted.

“I can tell y’all this, I’m 100 percent confident with this album,” she continued. “I just don’t think what I got is out there. That’s all I’mma say. I gave y’all some clues on my features, that’s it.”

Billboard has reached out to Cardi’s team for further comment.

Cardi B dropped off her debut Invasion of Privacy in 2018, and has continued to push back her sophomore effort time and time again. Bardi most recently said she was swearing off sex to finish the new project, which she hopes will finally drop this year.

“I don’t even want to take dick right now, because every single time I take dick, I get distracted. I don’t want no distraction,” Cardi said on social media back in January.

Listen to a clip of Cardi B’s X Spaces conversation below.

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 Mustard to perform a nightly DJ set to warm up the crowd.

“I’m joining Kendrick Lamar and SZA on the Grand National Tour,” he wrote on his Instagram. With Mustard joining the show, the tour released additional floor seats for those who missed out on the first batch.

“Had to look out for my fans. Cash App Card Holders have exclusive access to purchase newly released tickets on the floor,” he added. “On-sale tomorrow at 10AM local time.”

The North American trek okicks off on Saturday, April 19 in Minneapolis, and will take over 19 stadiums in total with stops in Philadelphia, Houston, Atlanta, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Detroit, Chicago and Toronto before wrapping up in Washington, D.C., on June 18.

Mustard popped out with Lamar as a special guest during “TV Off” for the rapper’s Super Bowl LIV Halftime Show in New Orleans earlier this year.

Mustard delivered one of the best years of his career in 2024 as he produced the “Not Like Us” Drake diss, which went on to win record of the year and song of the year and the Grammy Awards in February. He also helmed production on Lamar’s GNX tracks such as “TV Off” and “Hey Now.”

Check out Mustard’s Instagram announcement below: