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Alt-pop singer Alemeda has signed with Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) and Warner Records, Billboard can exclusively announce Friday (Sept. 20). She becomes the third female act to be signed to TDE, following SZA and Doechii.
âTDE placed trust and time in me to find my sound and develop as an artist at my own pace. I think to be signed to them means to be more than just an artist but to be a pivotal part of Black art and culture,â Alemeda said in a statement. âIâm honored to be the third woman ever signed to this historic roster of talented culture pavers. Warner also has a great understanding of who I am as an artist, and their historic success in the rock and pop genres makes me confident in our future together. I feel they were the right team to support my growth as an artist and I am excited for what is to come working with them alongside TDE.âÂ
The news coincides with the release of the Ethiopian-Sudanese artistâs debut EP, FK IT. The 8-track project includes previously released singles like her viral 2021 debut âGonna Bleach My Eyebrows,â âGuyâs Girlâ and âI hate your face.â She also performed her latest single âI already dug your graveâ on popular German performance series platform COLORSxSTUDIOS earlier this month. âThis EP is the truest expression of who I am right now,â she adds. âItâs about letting go of what doesnât serve me and embracing the chaos and beauty of being real, unapologetically.â
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âOne late night in December 2019, a few months before the pandemic, I was stuck in a rabbit hole scrolling Instagram when I happened to stumble across Alemeda. She was going by Rahema Alameda at the time and was doing a cool little bop with the brightest smile to a song of hers that she hadnât released. I immediately felt she was gonna be great,â said TDE co-president Anthony âMoosaâ Tiffith in a statement. âAfter reaching out to her, I learned that she hadnât put out any music yet or even recorded in a studio before, so I flew her out to Los Angeles to give her that opportunity. When she told me about her strict upbringing and how she moved from Ethiopia to Arizona, I knew she had a story to tell.â
Tiffith continues: âSheâs been here for the last four years, staying focused as a student of music and developing her sound. For most managers that must sound like a long time, but artist development is the most important thing to me. Itâs a blessing to work with an artist like Alemeda who shares that vision and is willing to do the work. Iâm happy and beyond excited to announce her to Top Dawg Entertainment, and equally enthusiastic for our partnership with Warner!â
Warner is also excited to work alongside TDE for Alemeda.âSheâs an electrifying artist with a unique voice and vision, and FK IT is just the beginning of what will be an extraordinary journey. Her ability to channel her personal experiences into raw, boundary-pushing music makes her a perfect fit for our roster,â said Warner Records co-chairman/CEO Aaron Bay-Schuck in a statement.
He adds, â[Warner Records co-chairman/COO] Tom Corson, [Warner Records executive vp/head of A&R] Karen Kwak and our entire team is thrilled to be joining forces with Top Dawg Entertainment to bring Alemedaâs innovative artistry to an even wider audience. Collaborating with TDEâs exceptional team only amplifies our excitement for this groundbreaking partnership.â
Itâs been five years since SiR launched a full-length album â and the world is a very different place from what it was back in 2019. More importantly, however, SiR is also a different person. The Inglewood-bred R&B crooner has kept a relatively low profile over the past half-decade, as he took some time to […]
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Source: Earl Gibson III / Getty / DJ Akademiks
Keyboard warrior DJ Akademiks had time for TDEâs president Terrence âPunchâ Henderson after he claimed he tried to âbullyâ him for being out-of-pocket while talking about SZA.
Last week, DJ Akademiks continued his trend of being extremely disrespectful to women when he hopped on the alt-right network Rumble and engaged in a ridiculous rant where he disgustingly talked about the singerâs body, weight, and appearance, calling her âa fat mini Lizzo,â and claiming she a âbotched BBL.â
Spotted on HipHopDX, Punch, who is known for speaking his mind on social media, responded to Akademikâs foolishness over the weekend.
Punch Was Tired of DJ Akademiks Nonsense
âMan Iâve been so conflicted the [past] couple of days as to address this dude publicly or not,â Punch wrote in a since-deleted X post. âIâm not playing no internet games⊠He have to answer for those disrespectful things he said about SZA.â
Akademiks couldnât help but respond, hopped in his dark room, turned on his video camera, and âclapped backâ at the record executive, accusing Punch of trying to âSuge Knightâ him.
âNone of yâall are Suge Knight. You donât strike fear in my heart. There is no, âOh my God, heâs going to get me!â Akademikâs rant begins. âI did content about the biggest killers in the world in Chicago. Iâve talked about the worst people you could imagine ⊠I wonât be sitting here scared of an older n-gga who claims heâs a âthug.â
He continues his rant, puffing up his chest, saying, âMr. Punch from TDE, you didnât have to delete your tweet ⊠Iâm not scared of you. I donât know nobody thatâs scared of you, and I donât know nobody that would think you be doing nothing.
âSo please, pipe down, and rather than delete the tweet, donât send the tweet. Because if you look at my tweet history, I leave them up for all to see.â
DJ Akademiks Claims Punch Is A Hypocrite
He wasnât done, accusing Punch of being a hypocrite, adding, âThis is why weâre laughing: youâre tweeting [about how] youâre not playing internet games while youâre tweeting it! This is why I said yâall are not Suge Knight. Suge Knight wouldnât give a nice proper warning and then delete the tweet. I donât think heâd tweet at all.
âI just want to let you know, if [the tweet] was even remotely aimed at me, it was received, laughed at, and sent back. Weâre not scared of none of you n-ggas.â
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Oh The Irony
Hilariously, the man best known for popping sh*t from behind his keyboard accused Punch of being an âonline gangstaâ telling him to focus on running his record label.
âListen, you guys have some great artists, and Iâm hoping you guys can put out music a little more frequently, just as the fan in me speaking,â he added. âPut your record out, be quiet. Thatâs about it ⊠Stop acting gangsta online. If you was gonna do something, you wouldnât tweet it. Stop it, brother, please. You look pathetic.
âAnd by the way, I donât want a response for this neither. Work your record, youâre a record executive. Yeah, you got a couple gangstas on payroll. Whoop de doo! Weâre all millionaires. Everybody could pay for some dumb shit to get done. You donât wanna die, I donât wanna die. You donât wanna go to jail, I donât wanna go to jail. Shut up with your tweeting.â
We are VERY SURE DJ Akademiks would never say any of these things to any of these individuals in person.
â
Photo: Earl Gibson III / Getty
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Reason, a member of the sprawling Top Dawg Entertainment operation, is prepping for the release of his upcoming album Porches this Friday (August 11). The Carson, Calif. rapper aired out some grievances with TDE, getting into a heated discussion with label co-president Anthony âMossaâ Tiffith Jr. over features that didnât happen.
Reason was a guest on the BACKONFIGG podcast with hosts T-Rell and Smac. During the chat, the artist born Robert Gill Jr. had plenty to say about the practices of TDE as a label, explaining that features from Latto and EST GEE were lined up but lost due to time.
âWe had certain features lined up that couldâve went through,â Reason said. âWe had the budget, we had the feature lined up, takes too long to get pushed through, feature price ended up going up or something goes away. Content ideas lined up, not executed. Rollout ideas lined up, not executed.â
He went on to explain that Latto was all but set to go as well as EST GEE but TDE execs held up the process.
âI had Latto lined up for something, not executed. I had EST Gee lined up, not executed. Like, us not pushing through. Features lined up, we got a price set, video and verse for the love, takes too long,â Reason added.
The EST GEE feature in particular jumped in price by $25,000, which apparently wouldâve been a huge hit to the albumâs marketing budget.
During the interview, Moosa called into the podcast to challenge some of the points made by his artist. Moosa explained that much of what TDE does is a process and kept pointing to the âmotionâ that TDE artists Ray Vaughn and Doechii have managed to garner as far as fan interest goes.
Moosa then challenged the co-hosts, self-proclaimed fans of their guest, to name 10 Reason songs, which they both failed to do. Also in the call, Moosa explained that former TDE exec Dave Free didnât want to sign Reason, citing that the rapper gave off, âsubstitute teacherâ vibes.
Reason took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to explain that heâs very much releasing his album on TDE and seemingly wants to remain on the label.
âI appreciate ppl thatâs reached out to me. Trust Iâm as good as I can be. Weâll have a real convo at some point about what happened, just trust that wasnât a ârollout moveâ lol that actually happened! All positive energy as of now moving forward tho! Porches Friday! Love yâall!â he tweeted.
Check the full BACKONFIGG podcast episode with Reason below. Hop to the 1:24:00-minute mark to see the moment in question.
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Kendrick Lamar may have released his last album on TDE with Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers, but the label isnât going to be deterred from continuing to give the streets what they want. TDEâs top dog, no pun intended, teasing a new project thatâs been raising many eyebrows as it may involve K. Dot.
Over the weekend, Top Dawg Entertainment founder, Anthony âTop Dawgâ Tiffith was fielding questions from fans on Twitter. When someone asked whether weâd get a new Black Hippy song, Tiffith not only said thereâs a chance of a new song but suggested an entire project may be forthcoming. âI think they will⊠they owe yâall an album or EP,â he tweeted.
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Featuring the labelâs heavy hitters of Kendrick Lamar, ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock, and Ab-Soul, Black Hippyâs pleased fans over the years with a few songs under their belt. But they never actually dropped an entire project together. With each artist experiencing solo success and focusing on their own careers, they probably havenât had time to get together and hammer out an entire record together.
While we await word on a potential Black Hippy project, Tiffith does have a slate of projects planned to release throughout 2023. Jay Rock, Reason, and Q amongst others should have new work out in these streets if they âdo their part.â
Thatâs good and all, but we want a Black Hippy album above everything else now that it seems like an actual possibility. In an interview with MIC back in 2022, TDE President Terrence âPunchâ Henderson explained why a Black Hippy album never happened.
âEverybody was never in the same timeframe. So we didnât want to hold back; we wanted to keep going and just push further into their individual careers,â Henderson said.
Hopefully, for the sake of their fans, Black Hippy can carve out some time to create something special thatâll live in Hip-Hop lore forever. We mightâve never gotten a Murder Inc. album (Jay-Z, Ja Rule & DMX), but maybe we can get a Black Hippy album in our lifetime when itâs all said and done.
Do yâall think Black Hippy should make an album or EP happen? Let us know in the comments section below.
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The holiday season is usually a wash when it comes to new music releases: the charts are dominated by the likes of Brenda Lee, Mariah Carey, Michael BublĂ© and Bing Crosby, and carols are dominating the radio on just about every channel. But this year has been different: while the top 10 of the Hot 100 has been full of the usual suspects, the Billboard 200 has been dominated by SZAâs S.O.S., the first album by the alt-R&B singer/songwriter in five years that roared out of the gate upon its Dec. 9 release with the fifth-biggest debut of 2022 and that has ruled the Billboard 200 for three straight weeks, bridging the gap between the holiday season and the opening of 2023. (And the Hot 100 found room for 20 songs from the album for good measure.)
The success of that release has been no accident. SZAâs fans have been patiently â or not so patiently â waiting for the follow up to her critically and culturally acclaimed 2017 album CTRL for years and, over the course of 2022, have been eating up each single that SZA has released, with âI Hate U,â âShirtâ and, lately, âKill Billâ all seeing huge success not just at streaming but also at radio as the release date crept nearer. And the payoff was worth it: S.O.S. is now the first R&B album by a woman to spend three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in a decade, since BeyoncĂ©âs self-titled album accomplished that feat in 2013. And it helps make TDE president Terrence âPunchâ Henderson Billboardâs Executive of the Week.
Here, Punch breaks down the rollout of the album, the way that both RCA and TDE helped build anticipation for the release and how the quality of SZAâs music helped push a hotly-anticipated album into commercially-successful and universally-acclaimed territory once again. âS.O.S. is what the fans have been waiting on and theyâve shown that. Itâs been so much love and support since it dropped,â he says. âBut it literally takes an army to make this whole thing work. It starts with SZA â she wrote and sang these songs with her whole heart and mind and soul and pain and life and her whole being. She put everything she had into it.â
This week, SZAâs S.O.S. spent its third week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?
The key decisions were picking the songs and literally putting them out. The people have been waiting for SZAâs next offering for a long time. It takes time to create quality art that will last and really stand the test of time. Thatâs what we aim to do every time. Once it got to a comfortable space, we put it out and the people responded.
Itâs been more than five years since SZAâs last album. How did you roll this out differently, with how much things have changed in that time?
Everything is the rollout. Every time we drop a single we attach another record to it just to keep people engulfed in whatâs to come next. Thatâs something weâve been doing since 2014. Once we got the album concepts pretty much locked in, I wanted to start sending out some clues for the core fan base. So we loaded the âShirtâ visual with a bunch of bread crumbs hinting at whatâs to come. Then the Morse Code thing to further the conversations surrounding the album. Mix that with the amazing promo videos that SZA shot, and it was a good recipe. Even the spats online. Though they be real â and a bit out of context [Laughs] â itâs still all about the conversation surrounding the album.
December is traditionally a tough month to release an album, given the holiday music that often dominates. How did you set this up before its release to help it cut through the holiday noise?
There was talk of possibly pushing to January for that very reason. But personally, Iâm not scared of the holiday season at all. To me, if everyone is thinking the same thing about NOT dropping during the holidays, that just means itâs wide open. [Laughs] We dropped âGood Daysâ on Christmas! The main issue was radio during that time, but with streaming itâs different; you donât have to wait on programming, etc. The furthest I wouldâve pushed it to was Dec. 30th. And thatâs because it was mentioned in Billboard that we were dropping in December. Once a date is said, Iâm sticking to it.
âI Hate U,â âShirtâ and âKill Billâ all succeeded on both streaming and on radio. What did you do to help those songs cut through?
Again, the main thing we can do is provide the music. It does what it does after that. The streaming team and radio team do a great job at pushing the records, but they need the records first.
How have you been able to keep the albumâs momentum going through the New Year and keep it atop the charts?
Most of the work comes in the setup and it carries over from there. First, you have to have great records and then you have to know where you can get the records from. You have to know that the album is out. [RCA execs] Zay [Isiaih Bonds] and TĂo Matty [Matt Bernal] have to be engaging the DSPs. Jordan [Blaugrund] has to have a sales strategy. Baby Sam [Selolwane], Keith [Rothschild], LG [Lori Giamela] and Inca [Kevin Valentini] have to be on the phones with radio people. Camille [Yorrick] need to be speaking to directors and producers to make sure we good to shoot visuals through the holiday season. Ashley [Monae] has to be on with photographers and videographers and BTS people to make sure the images are right for exclusives, etc. I know itâs a ton of people Iâm missing who played a role in this, but all of these things and people were in place to deliver the record.
S.O.S. is the first R&B album by a woman to spend three weeks at No. 1 in a decade, since BeyoncĂ©âs self-titled project in 2013. It also had the fifth-biggest debut week of all of 2022. What is it about her, and this project, that have made those stats a reality?
S.O.S. is what the fans have been waiting on and theyâve shown that. Itâs been so much love and support since it dropped. But it literally takes an army to make this whole thing work. It starts with SZA â she wrote and sang these songs with her whole heart and mind and soul and pain and life and her whole being. She put everything she had into it. Then you have all of the producers involved laying the soundscape. You have MeLisa Heath on the management side of things making sure everything is streamlined and running how itâs supposed to run. The whole TDE staff and the whole RCA staff on the front lines. The executive branch with [RCAâs] Peter [Edge] and Fleck [John Fleckenstein], Top [Dawg] and myself. Miss Carolyn [Williams] overseeing everything. Theola [Borden] overseeing press and TV, etc. And the fans. It literally takes an army of people. Itâs also a full circle moment being that BeyoncĂ© was the first person of that caliber to reach out to SZA and have her come in to work. Now to be mentioned in the same breath as her is truly amazing.
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