R&B/Hip-Hop
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Tyrese ends a nine-year absence from the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart as “Wildflower” rules the list dated Nov. 9. The single rises from the runner-up slot and becomes the most played song on U.S. monitored adult R&B radio stations in the tracking week of Oct. 25 – 31, according to […]
Tyler, the Creator earns his first No. 1 on Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart with “St. Chroma,” featuring Daniel Caesar, which debuts atop the Nov. 9-dated ranking.
“St. Chroma,” which was released on Oct. 28, earned 24.3 million official U.S. streams in the tracking week ending Oct. 31, according to Luminate. That means the song was able to reign despite having three fewer days of tracking than the vast majority of its competition.
The rapper’s previous top-performing songs on Streaming Songs, which began in 2013, had been “Earfquake” and “Wusyaname” (the latter featuring YoungBoy Never Broke Again and Ty Dolla $ign), both of which peaked at No. 3 in 2019 and 2021, respectively.
In fact, two songs from Chromakopia, Tyler, the Creator’s new album, top his previous bests. “Noid,” the album’s lone pre-release single (it premiered Oct. 21), appears at No. 2 with 23.2 million streams in its first full frame.
It’s the first time since the Sept. 7-dated Streaming Songs that the same act holds the top two of the chart. Sabrina Carpenter did so with “Taste,” which debuted at No. 1 that week, followed by “Please Please Please” at No. 2.
As for Caesar, “St. Chroma” is the singer’s second No. 1 on Streaming Songs, both coming as a featured act and also as No. 1 debuts; he previously appeared on Justin Bieber’s “Peaches,” alongside Giveon, which ruled for a week in 2021.
In all, Tyler, the Creator boasts 13 songs – including five of the top 10 on the latest Streaming Songs list. Only Chromakopia’s “I Hope You Find Your Way Home” misses the 50-position survey.
“St. Chroma” also becomes his second leader on R&B/Hip-Hop Streaming Songs, following the one-week reign of “Wusyaname.”
Concurrently, as previously reported, “St. Chroma” sports Chromakopia’s top rank on the Billboard Hot 100 – No. 7 – and the album bows atop the Billboard 200.
Young Thug has a new lease on life after being released from jail last week on a plea deal, and he’s thankful for attorneys like his lawyer Brian Steel.
Thugger made a virtual special guest appearance over FaceTime during Steel’s Emory Law School class lecture on Wednesday (Nov. 6), where he was preaching the importance of defense attorneys, as videos online show.
“We had a situation that was daunting towards my life and I think that the justice system could be bad,” Thug said to the group of students while reflecting on his 700-plus-day stint behind bars. “You know, sometimes it could be bad, and you gotta always look at it, like, they’re there to put us in prison and you guys are here to keep us from prison.”
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The 33-year-old Atlanta rapper then made the case for the aspiring legal experts to become defense attorneys rather than working as prosecutors.
“I think you guys should become lawyers,” he suggested. “I think it’s very important to help people out of the situations they’re in the best you can. I mean, what side do you wanna be on? You wanna put people in prison for mistakes? Because everybody makes mistakes — we’re human.”
Thugger added: “And everybody in this classroom, you always need to know that you want one mistake away. Anything you need from me, I’m here always. We need y’all.”
Thug got a belly laugh out of the class while hyping up Steel as “the best person possible” and claimed that defense attorneys are doing a version of “God’s work.”
Young Thug — born Jeffery Williams — reached a plea deal on Oct. 31, and was released with no more time to be served, but will be on probation for the next 15 years.
“I know you’re talented, and if you choose to continue to rap, you need to try to use your influence to let kids know that is not the way to go and that there are ways out of poverty besides hooking up with the powerful guy at the end of the street selling drugs,” Judge Paige Reese Whitaker said to Thug.
Thugger ended up serving more than two years in jail after repeatedly being denied bond since his arrest in May 2022. The YSL RICO case became Georgia’s longest-running criminal trial ever, and isn’t finished yet, with two co-defendants still on trial.
Halle Bailey says she’s “extremely upset” after DDG and their son Halo made what she says was an “unapproved” appearance on Kai Cenat’s livestream Wednesday night (Nov. 6).
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The Little Mermaid actress voiced her frustrations on X about unknowingly having her almost 1-year-old son in front of millions of eyeballs on Kai’s stream.
“Hi everyone,” she began. “Just so you know I am out of town and I don’t approve of my baby being on a stream tonight. I wasn’t told or notified and I am extremely upset to have my baby in front of millions of people. I am his mother and protector and saddened I wasn’t notified especially when I am out of town.”
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Per Essence, Bailey added in a separate tweet that she was going through “severe postpartum” and wrote, “Nobody knows what somebody is going through until they snap.”
Footage of Halo’s appearance quickly went viral along with Bailey’s tweets. Cenat showered DDG and Halle’s son with plenty of gifts to take home.
Bailey later deactivated her X account.
Billboard has reached out to reps for Bailey and DDG.
DDG and Bailey went public with their relationship in January 2022, and Halle gave birth to Halo in late 2023. The couple announced their split in October when DDG posted a message to his Instagram Story that he and Halle would be going separate ways.
“After much reflection and heartfelt conversations, Halle and I have decided to go our separate ways,” he wrote at the time. “This decision was not easy, but we believe it’s the best path forward for both of us. I cherish the time we’ve spent together and the love we’ve shared.
DDG continued, “Despite the changes in our relationship, our love for each other remains deep and true. We are still best friends and adore each other. As we focus on our individual journeys and our roles as co-parents, we cherish the bond we’ve build and the beautiful moments we’ve shared.”
Halle opened up about her battle with “severe” postpartum depression as a new mother in April. She posted to Snapchat at the time, “I have severe, severe postpartum [depression], and I don’t know if any new moms can relate, but it’s to the point where it’s really bad, and it’s hard for me to be separated from my baby for more than 30 minutes at a time before I start to kind of freak out.”
Beef has been the flavor of the year for hip-hop in 2024. Ice-T is well-versed going to battle for his fair share of wars over his career with the scars to prove it, but the rapper-turned-actor doesn’t believe it’s smart for rhymers to engage in feuds with social media prevalent.
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The West Coast legend hopped on the Boss Talk 101 podcast on Monday (Nov. 4) where he compared today’s rap beef to his previous decades, and pointed to social media as an amplifier in spoiling the fun to raise tensions.
“The disses that’s going on, like, I can outrap you is one thing. But then when you take it to the next level, like, ‘When I see you it’s a problem,’” he said. “The problem with beef is that it can escalate away from you. Say I have beef with Treach and I’m talking s–t about Treach. I could run into one of his fans on the street who wants to get active.”
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Ice-T continued: “Having beef is just not smart if you can avoid it… They didn’t have social media, big difference. Social media is an amplifier to everything. It amplifies everything… It forces reaction that really could be squashed so much simpler.”
The 66-year-old explained that when beef goes to the internet and millions know about it, then it warrants a further response. “It forces reaction that really could be squashed so much simpler,” he added. “Why people have beef and take it to social media is beyond me, especially if you know a n—as’ phone number.”
When continually asked about the Drake-Kendrick Lamar feud earlier this year, Ice-T brushed off the commentary and only offered up that he was concerned with securing the bag at this point.
“I’m sorry if I’m not interested in current Rap Beef or random Male Gossip. I’m a HUSTLER. I’m only focused on the Bag,” he said on X at the time.
In the same vein as social media amplifying beef, Ice-T revealed he cleared up any static he had with Jay-Z when speaking to Big Boy earlier this year.
Jay’s multi-platinum top 40 Billboard Hot 100 hit “99 Problems” interpolates Ice’s 1993 track of the same name and Hov caught up with Ice at the 2024 Grammy Awards to show him love and make sure there was no issue.
“I’m at the Grammys and Jay-Z comes to me. He says, ‘Ice, you know I love you, right?’” Ice-T said. “I say, ‘Yeah!’ He says, ‘Well, it’s on the internet that you mad.’ I said, ‘I’m not mad! They’re bringing up all kinds of interviews about it and they asked me the story, and I told them the true story.’”
Watch the clip below.
50 Cent is back on the Trump train. A week after boasting that he’d turned down a purported nine-figure payday to appear at former and now-future President Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden campaign stop, the “Wanksta” rapper appeared to be back in The Donald’s corner.
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“I don’t care how the fight goes, I’m leaving with the winner s–t,” 50 (born Curtis Jackson) wrote on Instagram on Wednesday morning (Nov. 6) in a post that featured two pictures of the rapper with Trump, who defied odds on Tuesday night to join Grover Cleveland as the only American to be voted into the nation’s top office to non-consecutive terms.
“I still don’t know what’s going on,” 50 added along with a face palm emoji and “congratulations!”
In an appearance on The Breakfast Club last week, 50 claimed that he’d been offered $3 million to appear at Trump’s MSG rally. “Yeah. They offered me $3 million!” said 50, confirming co-host Charlamagne Tha God’s query about that event, as well as reports that 50 was also offered an undisclosed amount to perform his song “Many Men” at this summer’s Republican National Convention as well.
50 did not appear at either event, explaining to the Breakfast Club crew why he rejected the lucrative offer. “I didn’t even go far,” he said of the offers. “I’m afraid of politics, you understand? I do not like it. … It’s because when you do get involved in it, no matter how you feel, somebody passionately disagrees with you. Look, if you say ‘I stay away from religion,’ I stay away from politics. Religion, that’s the formula for the confusion that it sent Kanye to Japan. He said something about both of those things and now he can only go to Japan. So you know I’m like I don’t want to get in that, man.”
At the time, a Trump campaign source told Billboard that the story was not true, though they did not specify which part was erroneous — that Trump wanted 50 at the rally or that the offer was $3 million.
After a comedian referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage” at Trump’s MSG event, a number of major Puerto Rican artists spoke out in support of Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost Tuesday’s closely contested election to the former reality TV star who has continued to deny that he lost his second bid for the White House in 2020 to President Biden.
During that failed 2020 bid 50 initially supported the twice impeached former commander-in-chief before retracting his endorsement after former girlfriend Chelsea Handler called him out. “F–k Donald Trump, I never liked him,” the rapper later said in a retweet of Handler’s appearance on The Tonight Show in which she criticized her ex for his support of Trump, 78, who will become the oldest man, and first convicted felon, to ascend to the nation’s highest office when he is inaugurated on Jan. 20.
Flavor Flav has no problem uplifting those around him. He’s basically been on a tour giving fellow celebrities he adores their flowers, and now it’s Selena Gomez’s turn. Flav took to X on Monday (Nov. 4), where he applauded Gomez’s strength and how candid she’s been with her mental health publicly. “I don’t know her […]
Queens recognize queens. Pamela Anderson had nothing but love for Beyoncé‘s Halloween tribute to her Barb Wire character. On Tuesday (Nov. 5), Bey dropped the first music video from her Cowboy Carter era with “Bodyguard,” in which the singer channeled a trio of Anderson’s most iconic looks for what she dubbed “Beylloween” in an Instagram […]
Pharrell Williams may be a music mogul today, but his first job at McDonald’s wasn’t exactly a resounding success.
Reflecting on his early days, the 51-year-old—now a Grammy-winning artist and fashion entrepreneur worth an estimated $250 million—recalled how his love for McNuggets landed him in trouble during his fast-food stint.
“McDonald’s was my first and only job,” he told BBC Radio 2. “I got fired three times. I was eating the chicken nuggets.”
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Pharrell admitted that his McDonald’s career was short-lived. “The first two times it was just because I was lazy,” he explained. “The third was like, ‘What are you doing? You’re just sitting there eating nuggets?’”
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While his time in fast food ended quickly, Pharrell would go on to achieve monumental success on the Billboard charts, kicking off his musical career in music production duo The Neptunes with Chad Hugo in 1992. In 1999, Pharrell, along with Hugo and drummer Shay Haley, formed the band N.E.R.D and released their debut album, In Search Of… in 2002.
As one of the defining artists of the 2000s, Pharrell has topped the Billboard Hot 100 four times, including a remarkable run with his single “Happy,” which held the No. 1 spot for 10 consecutive weeks in 2014.
Despite his early struggles at McDonald’s, “Happy” demonstrated Pharrell’s knack for creating a hit, leading Billboard’s Digital Songs Sales chart with 402,000 downloads in one week. It also marked his first No. 1 as a lead artist—a milestone that took 12 years and one week from his debut entry, setting a record for the longest wait for a Hot 100 No. 1 as a lead artist.
Pharrell’s talent for creating hits extends beyond his solo work. In 2013, he made Billboard history by holding the No. 1 and No. 2 spots simultaneously with “Blurred Lines” and Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky,” making him only the 12th artist ever to achieve this feat.
His work on these chart-toppers solidified his reputation, earning him the title of Billboard’s “Producer of the Decade” in 2010. His illustrious career has earned him 1,544 weeks across 68 different Billboard charts.
Beyond music, Pharrell’s influence has reached fashion with his Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream labels, and in 2023, he was appointed as the men’s creative director for Louis Vuitton.
There’s been an update about the upcoming Drake and PartyNextDoor collab album. PND hopped on his Instagram Live as he wraps up the European leg of his Sorry I’m Outside Tour and revealed his project with his label boss Drake is nearing the finish line. “Guys, I have one more show on this tour,” he […]