State Champ Radio R&B/Hip-Hop
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Young Scooter died Friday night (March 28) on the rapper’s 39th birthday, according to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and details from Atlanta Police.
Atlanta Police Lt. Andrew Smith led a news conference late Friday night to share details about what reportedly led to the death of Young Scooter (real name: Kenneth Edward Bailey). According to Smith, police responded to a call about a dispute with a weapon at a home and then set up a perimeter outside the house after a man shut the door on officers. Two men fled from the rear of the house, Smith said, with one returning to the home and the other jumping two fences as he was fleeing.
According to the AJC story, Young Scooter was the man who jumped the fences, and Smith said, “When officers located him on the other side of the fence, he appeared to have suffered an injury to his leg.”
Atlanta Police say the man was taken to Grady Marcus Trauma Center and died there.
During the news conference, Smith denied widespread reports spreading on social media that Scooter had been fatally shot by Atlanta PD officers. “Just to be very clear, the injury that was sustained was not via the officers on scene. It was when the male was fleeing.”
Young Scooter’s peers mourned the late rapper on social media, with Playboi Carti sharing the news on Instagram Stories with the caption “SMFH.” Quavo took to X with broken-heart and prayer-hands emojis, writing, “ion understand,” alongside a video of Scooter performing. The late rapper’s Instagram Stories shared dozens of posts wishing him a happy birthday throughout Friday.
While Scooter was born in South Carolina, his family moved to Atlanta when he was just 9 years old, and his music career has been based in the rap mecca ever since. He broke out locally with the song “Colombia” in 2012 before joining forces with hip-hop heavyweights Future, Juicy J and Young Thug for “DI$Function” in 2014. He hit the Billboard charts as a featured artist on Young Thug’s “Guwop,” also featuring Quavo & Offset of Migos, in 2016 (peaking at No. 45 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart) and on Future & Juice WRLD’s “Jet Lag” in 2018 (his only Billboard Hot 100 appearance, peaking at No. 72).
Billboard has reached out to the Atlanta Police and a rep for Young Scooter for further information.
Find Quavo’s X post about Scooter below:
GIVĒON, whose latest single “Twenties” reached No. 6 on Hot R&B Songs, celebrated another momentous milestone last night (March 27): the five-year anniversary of his debut EP Take Time. Released on March 27, 2020, the eight-track project features the seven-time Grammy nominee’s two breakthrough singles, “Like I Want You” and “Heartbreak Anniversary.” Both are now RIAA-certified at 3x and 6x platinum, respectively,
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Celebrating with GIVĒON inside the Los Angeles club Living Room were members of his Epic Records team, headed by chairwoman/CEO Sylvia Rhone, president Ezekiel Lewis and general manager Rick Sackheim. Also spotted at the intimate gathering were Grammy-winning songwriter-producer Jimmy Jam, fellow R&B singer Amerie and actress/producer Lena Waithe.
Nominated for best R&B album at the 2021 Grammy Awards, Take Time was followed by GIVĒON’s top 10 R&B album When It’s All Said and Done in October 2020 and his guest turn on Justin Bieber’s 2021 multiplatinum smash “Peaches.” Now the singer-songwriter is at work on his sophomore set, which will include current hit “Twenties.” The Long Beach, Calif. native has also scored a second top 10 this year with his feature on Teddy Swims’ Hot R&B Songs No. 4 hit “Are You Even Real.”
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Giveon
Sam Balban
A couple of days prior to his Take Time celebration, Billboard caught up with GIVĒON during a phone interview. Here are a few soundbites from that conversation.
Who he was as an artist five years ago: When I wrote the songs for Take Time, I was only 23-24. But I was also very confident in myself, especially for someone who hadn’t released a body of work on a major label. That’s because I knew this EP was my life’s work at the time. It took 24 years to make because it was all of my life experiences wrapped up into one unique project.
Who he is as an artist now: I feel a lot more aware when it comes to my process and what I need to do to grow at all times. I never want to become stagnant with my creative process I’ll also say I’m more polished, more professional; I just understand things more. And I’m a lot more decisive: I don’t really waste too much time when I’m creating. I just get right down to it, saying, “This is exactly what it is that I want to say.”
What he’s been doing between albums: I get that question a lot [laughs]. I always tell people that I’ve just been absorbing bodies of work that inspire me. Not just music but multiple mediums like paintings films, life itself. Because there’s a lot of inspiration that comes from life and all of my music is autobiographical. So I don’t have a choice but to experience life and then write it out while working on my craft.
Jimmy Jam and Amerie
Jerritt Clark/Getty Images
Tapping into the aching and yearning that music: I grew up in a house with all boys, so there wasn’t a lot of expressing emotions. So this [music] has always been an outlet to express my emotions. Sometimes the story I’m telling comes off more on the somber or melancholy side because it’s something I’m not comfortable in freely telling people. But I’m a lot more than just that emotion [laughs]. My biggest goal is always to just be believable and honest.
The inspiration behind “Twenties”: I love to just keep it vague so people can leave it up to their own interpretation and apply it to whatever it specifically means in their life. But I will say it’s just trying to capture that feeling of wasting time on something. It could be a person, it could be a place, it could be an idea or a career. For me, it was a specific person in a relationship. But, yeah, I was just trying to capture the emotion of feeling like you spent time on something or somewhere that you can’t get back.
Hints about his sophomore album: Just that I’m excited for people to hear it. With my first album, I was just making music and having fun. Now I’m still having. But I’m also like, “Oh, I have a responsibility with this music because I see how it touches and helps people.”
Giveon and Lena Waithe
Sam Balban
The Breakfast Club co-hosts Jess Hilarious and Loren LoRosa addressed their recent drama in the best way possible — by joking about it. Earlier today, they posted a parody music video of Monica & Brandy‘s hit song “The Boy is Mine” and called it, “The Job is Mine.” And while they can’t sing as good […]
Sauce Walka has said that he doesn’t plan on avenging his artist’s Sayso P’s recent murder in Memphis. The Houston rapper sat down with Wikid Films to talk about the unfortunate situation he found himself in last weekend (Mar. 22), and while he feels like his people have his back, he doesn’t want to retaliate. […]
Rapper Yella Beezy was released on bond Friday morning (March 28). According to The Dallas Morning News, Beezy (born Markies Conway) posted a $750,000 bond to secure his release after being reduced by a judge from $2 million on Thursday. After being indicted by a Dallas County grand jury on March 18, Beezy was arrested […]
Downtown Nashville is no stranger to musically-themed bars, and Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg are bringing some hip-hop flair to 2nd Avenue. The Still G.I.N. Lounge is set to open on April 4 in the same four-story building that hosts Nashville Live! and will bring a “smooth sophistication of a top-tier cocktail lounge with the […]
Tyler, the Creator and Nardwuar linked up at VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver, B.C., for their seventh interview in 14 years, and of course, Tyler had some things to say in the chat that dropped Thursday (March 27).
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Nardwuar asked him about how he felt about all the Hip-Hop 50 celebrations, and Tyler expressed gratitude for being able to make a living doing something he loves. “I’m so happy that in some timeline that I get to be apart of something so special,” he said. “Hip-hop has changed so many of our lives, kept so many of us out of trouble. I’m so grateful for it. I’ve had my criticisms of it and all types of s—t, but that’s out of love ’cause man, I love music and hip-hop specifically so much. I’m a true student, I’m a true nerd.”
He continued by bringing up how much the Black Eyed Peas‘ debut album, Behind the Front, and Dr. Dre‘s album 2001 helped shape his ear and inspired him to write his first raps. “I love hip-hop, I love rap. It’s one of the most beautiful things to exist on Earth,” he said before criticizing rappers who get into the game to make a quick buck.
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“We the coolest ever,” he began. “And all these motherf—kers want to copy us and do everything and some n—as be mimicking and mocking it and they just ain’t got the juice, ’cause they don’t really believe it [in their heart]. You can see it, man, some of these folks, man. They be like, ‘I fell in love with hip-hop on this day.’ I don’t know what that is because it’s been around me my whole life. I am rap. I am hip-hop. That’s all I know.”
He added: “Some of these folks, they look at this as a quick money-getting thing. They look at it as a commodity. They look at it just to criticize it, and, like, y’all ain’t grow up the same.”
Tyler has broached this subject before during an interview with Maverick Carter, during which he criticized Ian for biting flows and even rapped, “White boys mocking this s–t and y’all mad at me/ Y’all can suck my d–k” on the Chromakopia track “Thought I Was Dead.” Ian then addressed Tyler’s allegations in a Lyrical Lemonade freestyle earlier this month, rapping, “Back then, I really loved Odd Future/ I ain’t never sat down tryna mock Future/ I ain’t wanna show no disrespect, so I kept my mouth shut and that’s not human.”
Tyler then brought up some of the chatter he noticed online when he dropped his well-received “Hey Now” freestyle in December. “I saw someone say, ‘How Tyler just gonna take Kendrick’s song right after it comes out, and do the same flow over the same beat,’” he recalled. “And I’m like, ‘Damn, that’s somebody else who did not grow up listening to rap or hip-hop.’ ‘Cause if you grew up listening to rap or hip-hop, you know that’s f—king normal … You should have to do a survey and show your ID before you could say s—t on the internet ’cause folks be saying dumb s—t.”
Watch the full interview below.
03/28/2025
Here’s how we feel about Durk’s latest LP.
03/28/2025
Will Smith is back. The West Philly native returned with his first album since 2005’s Lost and Found on Friday (March 28) as Based on a True Story hit streaming services.
Smith doesn’t hold back on the LP as he confronts topics such as his infamous Oscars slap of Chris Rock in 2022, and the constant chatter surrounding his relationship with his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith.
“Took a lot, I’m back on top, y’all gon’ have to get acclimatеd/ Won’t stop, my s–t’s still hot even though I won’t get nominatеd/ Personal life with my wife, mind your business, it’s complicated,” he raps on “You Lookin’ For Me?”
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Smith uses the opener “Int. Barbershop — Day” to set the tone for the project, which consists of a conversation between multiple people discussing various narratives that have shaped The Fresh Prince’s career.
“I heard he won the Oscar but he had to give it back/ And you know they only made him do that s–t because he’s Black,” one person says.
Another chimes in with a reference to the Chris Rock slap: “Him and Jada both crazy, girl, what you talkin’ bout/ You better keep his wife’s name out of your mouth.”
The conversation continues to touch on Will Smith being “canceled” temporarily, and how some may never forgive him for his actions. (The actor-rapper ended up receiving a 10-year ban from the Oscars for slapping Rock, which saw him tell the comedian to “keep my wife’s name out of your f—ing mouth” following a G.I. Jane joke about Pinkett-Smith.)
Smith has since resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and has been apologetic to Rock for slapping him onstage.
Earlier this week, the 56-year-old told the Associated Press that he’s “looking to be the best human I can possibly be, and I’m gonna take what I get with that” regarding his mindset going forward amid the fallout from the Oscars slap.
Smith’s Based on a True Story arrived on Friday. Before diving into the project, Smith revealed he called Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar to solicit their advice on how he should go about getting back into rap.
Flashback to Oct. 19, 2024: Lil Durk was celebrating his 32nd birthday and hosted his first Birthday Bash concert a day later, taking over the United Center in Chicago, and left inspired to revamp what became his Deep Thoughts album.
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However, less than a week later, the Chitown rapper’s universe was flipped upside down when he was arrested in South Florida on federal murder for hire charges tied to a 2022 shooting allegedly targeting Quando Rondo that left another individual dead at a Los Angeles gas station.
Enter Cedrick “SB” Earsery and Kelvin Sherman, Durk’s managers, who were left picking up the pieces and tasked with delivering Deep Thoughts while having limited communication with the OTF leader behind bars in MDC Los Angeles.
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“[Lil Durk] was at a space in life where he was just ready for elevation and transitioning,” Earsery tells Billboard. “He was getting toward religion more. He got married last year on Father’s Day. He was in a new place. He had went to rehab and [was] bettering himself.”
Earsery has known Durk since he was about nine years old and was the rapper’s first manager while returning to the role close to two years ago. Sherman came into the team’s mix around the time Durk was rolling out his 2023 album, Almost Healed.
The duo worked in collaboration with in-house A&R DJ Bandz, Durk’s engineer Justin (Jusvibes) and Fred Foster on the creative direction side to execute Durk’s vision to the fullest extent for Deep Thoughts, which arrived on Friday (March 28) – about five months after the rapper’s arrest.
“Everything was with [Durk’s], blessing so we were definitely making sure he was present in all of this with phone calls,” Sherman says. “Even though we tweaked some things, the bulk of this is really Durk. We wanted to make sure it sat in the intention he went when he set out.”
What started off as the next installment of Durk’s fan-favorite Love Songs for the Streets series developed into what eventually became Deep Thoughts. Durk seemed to be intentional with every couplet while showcasing his entire artistic repertoire. The rapper’s latest includes wistful trap anthems ruminating on his trials and tribulations, as well as menacing drill tracks and more melodic songs tapping into his romantic side to cater to his female fan base — all of which were run by Durk’s legal team before heading to streaming services.
“We went into the hard drive and listened to the stuff that might fit the direction that we’re going and we pieced a masterpiece together,” SB proclaims.
I WASN’T GON PUT THIS OUT BUT THEN I REMEMBERED THE STREETS NEED THIS.NOT BEING OUTSIDE WITH Y’ALL WHEN I DROP IS HARD, BUT I KNOW I WILL FEEL Y’ALL LOVE AND ENERGY THROUGH THESE WALLSTHANK Y’ALL FOR ROCKING WITH ME THROUGH EVERYTHING. I TELL THESE STORIES SO OUR VOICE IS… pic.twitter.com/wANrqIR0xe— THE VOICE (@lildurk) March 28, 2025
Guest appearances from Future, Lil Baby, Jhené Aiko and Hunxho are sprinkled in throughout Deep Thoughts, and were all completed prior to Durk’s arrest. Sherman recalls Durk being ecstatic when Aiko’s celestial vocals came in as he bumped the duet “1,000 times” on repeat at the studio around his birthday last year.
“I feel [the] weight of responsibility because fans are gonna cook us,” Sherman adds of the pressure to nail the project. “They gonna be like, ‘It’s y’all fault! Y’all should’ve been communicating with him the best.’”
The Recording Industry Association of America quelled Sherman and SB’s worries heading into release day when the RIAA announced on Thursday (March 27) that Durk collected another 53 plaques, giving him the most certifications of any rapper in 2025 and placing him among the top 50 artists of all-time with 52.5 million units.
SB spoke with Durk a day before our interview and claims the rapper’s “mindset is good, very positive” from behind bars. “He’s happy with how things are going,” he adds.
With plenty of heat in the stash, a deluxe for Deep Thoughts is in the works. While nothing is confirmed on that front, Durk’s management team wants to keep his name alive heading into his trial, which has been pushed back to October. Durk has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him.
“A lot of people miss him in the marketplace,” Earsery states. “We got his career in our hands, and he’s trusting us to [tend to] that.”
