R&B/Hip-Hop
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Carmelo Anthony is finally telling his “Is Stevie Wonder really blind” story. Celebrities and fans alike love telling tales about the legendary Stevie Wonder doing and saying things that may or may not prove that he can see. There are full-on (tongue-in-cheek) conspiracy theories about this subject. One famous story was told by Shaq a […]
Offset was reportedly involved in a street brawl earlier this week in front of his hotel in Paris. According to TMZ, the Atlanta native and his crew were throwing hands outside Hôtel du Collectionneur with members of French rapper Gazo’s entourage. TMZ alleges that the argument started over Offset’s appearance in a music video, which […]
Jay-Z’s Sean Carter Foundation is looking to help out students at historically Black colleges and universities in a major way. The foundation announced the launch of the Champions for Financial Legacy (CFFL) on Wednesday (Nov. 13). The educational financial initiative was formed in collaboration with the esteemed Wharton School of Business at the University of […]
Boyz II Men have joined the list of beloved artists getting the biopic treatment.
The group — which includes members Nathan Morris, Shawn Stockman and Wanyá Morris — have partnered with Compelling Pictures and Primary Wave to develop the film, according to Variety. Additionally, Compelling is working on a documentary about the group’s rise and impact throughout the 1990s and 2000s, and how their success continues today.
Producers for the upcoming film include Denis O’Sullivan and Jeff Kalligheri for Compelling; Larry Mestel for Primary Wave; Joe Mulvihill for the Mulvi Group; and Jeremy M. Rosen for Roxwell Films. All three members of Boyz II Men will serve as executive producers for the project, along with Ori Allon, Dennis Casali and Steven Garcia. The producers are reportedly in talks with writers and directors to lead the project.
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“We’ve been waiting to find the right partners who understand our story and are willing to tell it all,” Morris said in a press statement. “Denis and Jeff at Compelling Pictures understood us day one.”
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Among the musicians whose biopics are currently in production include Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Jenni Rivera, Janis Joplin, Queen Latifah, Sublime and more.
Biopics have proven to be wildly successful over the past few years. 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody (which grossed over $900 million globally) gave Queen’s discography a major boost. In the six months following its release, Queen’s music streams tripled, from 588 million to 1.9 billion. Sales, too, had a 483% increase from the previous year. In mid-2019, the band occupied the top two spots on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart.
Meanwhile, Elton John’s hits collection Diamonds occupied the No. 4 slot thanks to a biopic boost from the 2019 musical Rocketman. In June, the set also catapulted to No. 7 on the Billboard 200, making it John’s 20th top 10 album.
“Whatever Wham say goes.” That’s the phrase that popped up on billboards in L.A., referencing a Young Thug jailhouse tweet from June. The YSL boss teased new music with his fellow Atlanta rapper Lil Baby, tweeting, “Wham let’s drop one on these rats peter,” shortly after coming home from Fulton County Jail.
Now, Baby is ready to say his piece with a brand new album — his first since 2022’s It’s Only Me. On Thursday (Nov. 14), the rapper released the lead single and video to his project WHAM: Who Hard As Me.
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“5AM” (produced by Wheezy and Sean Momberger) shows Baby trying to come to terms with the pressure of expectations and celebrity. He starts the song off by talking about those pitfalls, rapping, “How you managed to get everything you want and still ain’t happy?/ Half of me done died, the other half alive, I’m tryna balance it/ Granny said if it’s worth something to you, then it’s worth the challenge.”
Later in the song he raps about struggling with vulnerability and survivor’s guilt, saying, “Five in the mornin’, just me and a ‘Rari, don’t know where I’m goin’/ Thinkin’ ’bout all this sh—t, honestly, I don’t know how I be doin’ this/ Can’t be vulnerable, who I’m gon’ talk to when I’m going through it?/ Am I delusional? Keep tellin’ myself that it’s all good/ All I know is survival and dollars, I come from the hood.”
Last night, the Atlanta rapper took to Instagram and posted footage of himself shooting the new music video and recording the song with a caption that mentions he was going through a rough patch the last two years. “Ain’t it crazy how they tryna play me like i ain’t the one!!! It’s that time! I would say again, but this run will be totally different!!” he wrote. “I had the darkest period of my life these last two years, but I stayed down and overcame that sh—t now I’m back to f—kin sh—t up as usual…, Sincerely, Wham!! Who hard as me. Let’s go.”
While no release date for the album has been announced, Baby wrote on X that he was dropping another single and video this week. He was recently spotted in the studio with Young Thug and Future, so there could be something from the trio coming soon.
Check out Lil Baby’s new video for “5AM” above.
Chris Brown‘s 2019 summer smash “No Guidance,” featuring Drake, becomes his first diamond-certified record by the Recording Industry Association of America, the RIAA announced on Wednesday (Nov. 13). Diamond certification is given to artists whose songs have moved 10 million units. According to the RIAA, one equivalent song unit is equal to a single digital song sale, or 150 […]
SZA’s back.
After taking over the music scene with her record-breaking sophomore album, SOS, in December 2022, the 35-year-old star has maintained a relatively low profile since. In a new British Vogue interview, she’s ready to return to the music scene, revealing that she has not one, but two releases up her sleeves.
According to the publication, both the deluxe version of SOS and her third studio album, Lana, are on the way. “I think I am making music from a more beautiful place. From a more possible place versus a more angsty place,” she explained. “I’m not identifying with my brokenness. It’s not my identity. It’s shit that happened to me. Yeah, I experienced cruelty. I have to put it down at some point. Piece by piece, my music is shifting because of that, the lighter I get.”
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Elsewhere in the story, her TDE label mate Kendrick Lamar praised her creative openness. “I recognize a more expressive SZA. The shy s— is completely out the window – to a degree, at least,” he said. “She has the answers to some of the things she was curious about and is willing to tell it all in the most disruptive yet beautiful compositions this generation has ever heard.”
Following its release, SOS debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with 318,000 equivalent album units – the third-highest debut week of 2022 – and shattered the record for the biggest streaming week for an R&B album by a woman, with 404.6 million official on-demand streams for the album’s songs, according to Luminate. It spent 10 total weeks atop the chart, and became the first R&B album by a woman to hit the double-digit mark since Mariah Carey’s self-titled debut posted 11 weeks at No. 1 in 1991.
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The album’s longstanding hit single, “Kill Bill,” dominated on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, racking up 21 weeks at No. 1, surpassing the 20-week run of Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, as the song with the most weeks at No. 1 on the chart since it became an all-encompassing genre survey in 1958.
At the 2023 Grammy Awards, she led the nominees with nine nods, and ended up taking home three awards. SOS won best progressive R&B album, “Snooze” snagged best R&B song and her Phoebe Bridgers collaboration, “Ghost in the Machine,” won best pop duo/group performance.
A$AP Rocky adds to his “Fashion Killa” with more hardware. Footwear News announced on Thursday (Nov. 14) that the Harlem-bred rapper will be honored with the 2024 Collaboration of the Year alongside his creative partner Puma at the Footwear News Achievement Awards. Rocky will accept the coveted award during a gala for the FNAAs — […]
Moses “Shyne” Barrow is gearing up for the release of his candid The Honorable Shyne documentary, which will land on Hulu on Nov. 18.
The former Bad Boy rapper-turned-politician stopped by the Tamron Hall Show on Wednesday (Nov. 13), where he discussed overcoming hardships, Belize and his turbulent relationship with his embattled ex-boss Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Hall pressed Shyne about reuniting with Diddy to perform “Bad Boyz” with him at the 2022 BET Awards, which he labeled a “legacy moment” and a chance to honor hip-hop as well as Belize, where he serves as the the Leader of the Opposition in the Belize House of Representatives. “I didn’t want to do it, but he said, ‘Listen, this is about Belize. Imagine this platform,’” Shyne explained.
She then cited a time on stage when Diddy — who is currently behind bars awaiting trial after being indicted on charges for sex trafficking and racketeering — referred to Shyne as his “brother” after all they went through.
“I wish I was his brother in 2000 when we were on trial,” Shyne quipped in reference to their fallout after the 1999 NYC nightclub shooting which saw him charged and Diddy walking away scot-free. “I wish I was his brother for the last 26 years when my mom, who is here with me, never got any assistance. He never helped to dry her tears.”
Shyne was sentenced in 2001 to a decade behind bars on first-degree assault, gun possession and reckless endangerment charges, while Diddy was acquitted on gun possession and bribery in the case.
“I keep having to put into context without spitting on someone’s grave that this is the person that destroyed my life,” he declared to Hall. “You hear my mom, she’ll probably start crying when she comes on this couch. People ask, ‘Do you think that he did those things?’ Well, I know what he did to my family so the potential is there.”
After serving eight years in prison, Shyne was released in 2009, but was immediately deported to Belize, where he began his redemption arc and pivoted to a career in politics.
“I moved on and I healed,” he reflected. “I didn’t see him shooting, but I know that he made me take the fall. I know that he called witnesses to testify against me. We sat here and I said, ‘Please, don’t call that witness. That witness is going to destroy me and the witness is lying.’ So I had to tell that truth.”
Billboard has reached out to Diddy’s reps for comment.
Watch the video below. Stream The Honorable Shyne on Hulu on Nov. 18.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Maps” ties Mitski’s “My Love Mine All Mine” for the second-longest rule in the history of the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart, while the lower half of the top 10 dated Nov. 16 features new blood, paced by Beyoncé‘s “Diva.”
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The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity from Nov. 4-10. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
With its sixth week at No. 1 (all consecutive), “Maps” takes over sole possession of the second-longest streak at No. 1 since the chart began in September 2023 (“My Love Mine All Mine,” which also led for six weeks overall, reigned for a pair of three-week periods). Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby,” with its 10-weeks-in-a-row streak, holds the all-time mark.
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“Maps,” released on Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ 2003 debut album Fever to Tell, remains driven by a pair of TikTok trends, one a dance challenge and the other using a filter where the user’s facial features are removed and then cascade back down onto their face. One of the utilized sounds is a sped-up version of the song.
For the fourth week in a row, “Maps,” Alphaville’s “Forever Young” and Akon’s “Akon’s Beautiful Day” rank as the chart’s top three, in that order. While No. 3 remains the latter’s peak, “Forever Young” reached No. 1 for a week in October.
From there, the ranking’s top 10 is far less static. Tyler, the Creator’s “Like Him,” featuring Lola Young,” breaks into the top five for the first time, lifting 6-4 in its second week. The song from the rapper’s new album Chromakopia (which tops the Billboard 200 for a second week, as previously reported) rises thanks to another week of the “do I look like him” trend, with creators using the clip to showcase complicated father-child relationships (fictional or real), comparisons to athletes and people past and present, and more.
“Like Him” jumps 10% to 13.7 million official U.S. streams in the week ending Nov. 7, according to Luminate. Concurrently, it vaults 45-29 on the multimetric Billboard Hot 100.
Aphex Twin’s “QKThr” rounds out the top five of the TikTok Billboard Top 50 (up 10-5, one spot away from its No. 4 best), while Beyoncé’s “Diva” follows at No. 6, its first time in the top 10. “Diva,” from the 2008 album I Am…Sasha Fierce, reached No. 19 on the Hot 100 back in 2009.
“Diva” has found new life on TikTok in 2024 via a trend where creators show off their diva-like behavior. It jumps 17% to 2.3 million streams in the Nov. 1-7 tracking week.
Two other songs appear in the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s top 10 for the first time: Gracie Abrams’ “That’s So True” at No. 8, and the live version of Michael Prince’s “Finesse,” featuring Koncept P, at No. 9.
Abrams’ “That’s So True,” released Oct. 18 on the deluxe version of her The Secret of Us album, has gone viral since, paced by lip-synching trends. It zooms to 18.9 million streams, up 26%, in the latest tracking week, good for a 25-13 rise on the Hot 100.
“Finesse,” meanwhile, was released in May on Prince’s Limitless – A Trap Symphony, with its recent gains tied to a trend using the song’s “do you not get the concept?” lyric, generally a two-person dance trend with one person mimicking playing a violin. It earned 437,000 streams in the tracking week ending Nov. 7, up 67%.
And returning to the top 10 after an 11-month respite is Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which shoots 17-7. It spend eight weeks in the top 10 during last holiday season, from the charts dated Nov. 18, 2023, to Jan. 6, 2024, sitting at No. 1 those final two frames.
“All I Want for Christmas Is You” paces holiday-related content on the latest tally, ahead of Wham!’s “Last Christmas” (No. 13, up from No. 48) and Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” (a re-entry at No. 22).
See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 here. 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.