08 Nov 2022

2023 Grammy Nominations Will Reveal the Answers to These 14 Burning Questions

Grammy nominations day is fast approaching. The Recording Academy will announce the nominations for the 65th Annual Grammy Awards live from the Grammy Museum at L.A. Live in Los Angeles and as part of Latin Grammy Week on Tuesday, Nov. 15, at 9 a.m. PT/12 p.m. ET. The event will stream live on live.Grammy.com and on the Academy’s Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok channels.

At long last, we’ll have answers to 14 burning questions that have kept us up nights for months.

The answers to some questions are so obvious that we’ll dispense with them right here and not even put them on our list.

Will Harry Styles finally land a nomination in a Big Four category? Yes. And most likely in each of the three top categories – album, record and song of the year.

Are Beyoncé and Adele headed for a rematch in the Big Three categories? It sure looks like it. The superstars went head-to-head in each of the Big Three categories six years ago. They are likely to square off again this year with their albums 30 and Renaissance and their hit singles “Easy on Me” and “Break My Soul.”

Will Kendrick Lamar be nominated for album of the year? He will. Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers would be his fourth studio album to be nominated, which would put him in a tie with Ye (a.k.a. Kanye West) for the most nods in this category by a rapper (as a lead artist). And unlike Ye, Lamar’s nominations will be for four consecutive studio albums.

Will Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti become the first Spanish-language album to receive an album of the year nomination? It will. Related factoid: It will become the first album to receive album of the year nods at both the Grammys and the Latin Grammys.

With those “no brainer” questions out of the way, here are 14 burning Grammy questions that aren’t so easily answered.

08 Nov 2022

Post Malone Officiates Fan Wedding at Seattle Show: ‘In the Eyes of Space, I Declare These Two Lawfully Wedded’

Post Malone is seriously stacking up the side hustles. After helping a couple with their gender reveal during a Tulsa tour stop on his Twelve Carat Tour last month, Posty was at it again over the weekend when he stepped in to officiate an onstage wedding during a Saturday tour stop in Seattle.

Couple Jana and Randy’s friend Heidi Lavon posted video of the blessed event that appeared to take place near the end of the show, with the couple nervously exchanging vows and then Malone pronouncing them universal partners in his own unique way: “You may kiss your partner right now… In the eyes of space, I declare these two lawfully wedded,” the rapper enthused while raising the newlyweds’ hands in triumph as audience members howled in the background.

“Dude, I am shook, Post Malone married my best friends yesterday,” Lavon said in a TikTok video that featured footage of the on-stage nuptials. “But it doesn’t end there,” Lavon added in her clip. “We need everybody’s help to see if we could get Posty to come to the wedding in March.”

During a meet-and-green last month, Malone helped a couple with the gender reveal for their baby after they asked him to open an envelope taped to one of his posters. “You want me to just tell you?” Post asked them, before confirming, “You didn’t see it? Y’all didn’t see it?” He then opened the envelope and his jaw dropped as he excitedly help up a piece of paper that read “It’s a girl!”

“You’re going to be a girl dad!” the star — who welcomed his first child, a daughter, earlier this year –sweetly told the father-to-be. Malone will wrap up the North American swing of his Twelve Carat Tour in Los Angeles at Crypto.com Arena on Nov. 16 before heading overseas in December for a run of shows in the Middle East.

Check out images from the wedding below.

08 Nov 2022

8 Can’t-Miss Moments From Rihanna’s ‘Savage x Fenty Show Vol. 4’

If Rihanna‘s Super Bowl halftime show is going to be anything like her Savage x Fenty Show Vol. 4, then viewers are bound to break a sweat.

Rihanna, who’s also the fashion show’s executive producer and creative director, assembled an all-star team of models, actors and musicians on the 87-acre South Coast Botanic Garden in Palos Verdes Estates, California, for the event. But this isn’t some typical runway walk in the park. The latest installment of Savage x Fenty plays out like a wildly entertaining fever dream that’ll keep us wanting to relive it night after night.

Savage x Fenty Show Vol. 4 will premiere Wednesday on Prime Video, where Navy stationed in more than 240 countries and territories can tune in from around the world. And the latest Savage x Fenty collection — with all-inclusive sizing that ranges from 30A to 42H/46DDD for bras and XS-4X/XS-XXXXL for underwear, sleepwear and loungewear — will be available for purchase at the Amazon Fashion store and at Savage X Fenty on Wednesday, the same date the show airs.

Here are the eight can’t-miss moments from the Savage x Fenty Show Vol. 4.

08 Nov 2022

Snoop Dogg Signs With WME in All Areas

WME has signed Snoop Dogg in all areas, the agency announced Tuesday (Nov. 8).

The multi-hyphenate rapper, who previously worked with agent Bobby Dee, recently acquired his original label home Death Row Records from Blackstone-controlled MNRK Music Group in February, with plans to turn it into an “NFT label.” According to a press release, Snoop is handling all label and catalog-related business in music, film, apparel and merchandise for Death Row as well as signing new artists and re-releasing music that was put out under the original Death Row regime. He is additionally developing a Death Row TV series.

“WME is the only place that can handle the career I’ve built and grow it even further,” Snoop said in a statement. “I look forward to gettin’ it with the WME team to continue innovating across music, film, TV, business, and digital and break barriers across entertainment.”

Snoop Dogg’s output extends far beyond music. Since breaking through with his multi-platinum 1993 debut album Doggystyle, his career has branched off into acting, producing for film and TV, esports, fashion, food and beverage, cannabis and Web3, among other ventures. Most recently, he starred in the Netflix original movie Day Shift opposite Jamie Foxx, launched the YouTube children’s show Doggyland and landed a spot on the board of directors at gaming and esports collective FaZe Clan. Earlier this year, he opened a storefront in Inglewood, Calif. called Snoop Dogg’s Clothing, with plans to open a Snoop-curated Funko store in the same plaza in early 2023. He also recently launched Broadus Foods, a family-owned food product company.

But the rapper has made some of his biggest splashes as of late in Web3. Over the past year, he’s launched multiple NFT collections, including Dr. Bombay (the name of his NFT character from Bored Ape Yacht Club) as well as his NFT album BODR (Bacc on Death Row) — a partnership with Death Row’s exclusive metaverse partner Gala Games — which reportedly grossed over $50 million. A recent trademark application suggests Snoop is planning a digital store that sells NFTs centered around cannabis, virtual clothing and more (with possible plans for a physical retail location as well). In April, he also partnered with metaverse platform Sandbox to create a virtual world called “Snoopverse.”

In the philanthropic space, Snoop has launched initiatives including the Snoop Youth Football League, which aims to provide opportunities for inner-city kids in football and cheer.

WME says it will leverage the Endeavor network to further Snoop’s work across a number of ventures.

08 Nov 2022

Morgan Wallen’s ‘You Proof’ Leads Country Airplay for Career-Best Fifth Week

Morgan Wallen‘s “You Proof” rules Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart (dated Nov. 12) for a fifth week, as it drew 31.2 million audience impressions in the tracking week ending Nov. 6, according to Luminate.

Wallen wrote the song with ERNEST, Ashley Gorley and Charlie Handsome, the latter of whom also produced it with Joey Moi.

The Sneedville, Tenn.-born Wallen’s seventh Country Airplay leader becomes his first to dominate for five weeks. His former longest-leading hits each reigned for three frames: “Wasted on You,” this July, and “Whiskey Glasses,” in June 2019. His additional four chart-toppers led for a week each: “Sand in My Boots” (this February); “More Than My Hometown” (November 2020); “Chasin’ You” (May 2020); and “Up Down,” featuring Florida Georgia Line (June 2018).

“It’s pretty awesome to see Morgan become one of the biggest stars on the planet,” Alpha Media KBAY, San Jose, Calif., operations manager/program director Bo Matthews tells Billboard. “I think Wallen’s music includes characteristics, like his warmth, which are inviting people from other genres to become fans. ‘You Proof’ is mainstream and inviting people to listen to the radio. I also think his new single ‘Thought You Should Know’ can be his biggest song yet.”

Non-album track “Thought,” now being promoted to the format, debuts at No. 45 on Country Airplay with 1.9 million impressions.

Concurrently, “You Proof” rewrites Wallen’s longest stay atop the streaming-, airplay- and sales-based Hot Country Songs chart. It reigns for a 12th week, passing the command of “Wasted on You,” which logged its 11th and most recent week at No. 1 in August. “You Proof” drew 12.7 million official streams and sold 3,000 downloads in the United States in the tracking week ending Nov. 3.

Meanwhile, Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album (which houses “Wasted”) rules Top Country Albums for a record-extending 81st week, with 41,000 equivalent album units earned.

‘Bottom’ Up

Lainey Wilson’s Bell Bottom Country debuts at No. 12 on Top Country Albums with 10,000 equivalent album units earned in its first week (ending Nov. 3). Wilson makes her third appearance on the chart, following two No. 40-peaking projects: Sayin’ What I’m Thinkin’ reached its high in October 2021, after Tougher started at the rank in April 2016.

The new set, released Oct. 28, includes 14 tracks, of which Wilson co-penned 13. It was produced by Jay Joyce. First single “Heart Like a Truck” ranks at No. 22 on Country Airplay (7.6 million). Wilson is also featured on HARDY’s “Wait in the Truck,” which places at No. 26 (6.7 million).

08 Nov 2022

Drake and 21 Savage Keep Phony Promo Tour Rolling With Faux ‘COLORS’ Performance of ‘Privileged Rappers’

Drake and 21 Savage kept their April Fools-like promo tour for joint album Her Loss by dropping a low-key video for the album’s “Privileged Rappers” in a studio faked-up to look like the one used in COLORS. It came on the heels of a deepfake Howard Stern “interview” that the legendary SiriusXM host raved about on his show, as well as a never-happened NPR Tiny Desk concert and a totally fictitious Vogue magazine cover.

The pair also didn’t appear on Saturday Night Live together, in a clip for “On BS” introduced by actor Michael B. Jordan. “Privileged Rappers on @colorsxstudios,” Drake captioned the his tease of the performance with the Colors Studio account commenting, “Wait…hold up” alongside a side-eye emoji. In the two-minute clip the rappers perform the low-key track from inside an all-gold room, with Drake rocking cornrows and a wheat-colored leather Duster.

On Monday (Nov. 7), Stern reacted to the deepfake interview during his show, joking, “Whenever I have to visit my mother, I wish I could do this… “Drake did such a good job that news outlets are reporting on it as if it’s real, and that’s sort of the weird thing about our lives now,” Stern said before playing a clip from Good Day Atlanta, in which the two reporters discussed Drizzy’s comments on settling down and marriage.

“We have enough material from all the shows we’ve done, we could do a whole show like that,” Stern said. “How great is that?” Drake postponed his planned show at Harlem’s Apollo — his first date since the release of Her Loss — to mourn the death of Migos’ Takeoff. “The Apollo show has been moved to allow us to pay respect to our dear friend this weekend,” the superstar wrote on his Instagram Stories beneath an updated poster announcing the new dates of Dec. 6 and 7. “We have added a second date for the fans.”

Check out the video below.

08 Nov 2022

John Lennon’s Killer Admits There Was ‘Evil In My Heart’

The man who murdered John Lennon back in 1980 has admitted he knew his actions were wrong, he was seeking fame and that he had “evil in my heart” when he killed the Beatles great.

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Mark David Chapman made the comments to a parole board in August, when he was denied for a 12th time, citing his ”selfish disregard for human life” among the reasons to keep him locked up.

Chapman’s comments were published in a transcript, released Monday (Nov. 7) under a freedom of information request and reported by the Associated Press.

His decision to shoot and kill the legendary songwriter was “my big answer to everything. I wasn’t going to be a nobody, anymore,” he told the board.

“I am not going to blame anything else or anybody else for bringing me there,” he added. “I knew what I was doing, and I knew it was evil, I knew it was wrong, but I wanted the fame so much that I was willing to give everything and take a human life.”

Chapman shot Lennon several times on the night of Dec. 8, 1980, as the British artist and his partner Yoko Ono were returning to their Upper West Side apartment. Earlier in the day, Lennon had signed an autograph for Chapman on a vinyl copy of his recently-released album Double Fantasy.

Lennon died from his wounds. He was 40.

The Liverpool singer, songwriter and peace activist posthumously won the 1981 Grammy Award for album of the year, was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1997 and elevated twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a member of the Beatles in 1988 and as a solo artist in 1994.

Chapman is serving a 20-years-to-life sentence at Green Haven Correctional Facility, north of New York City, according to state corrections records published online. He is expected to appear before the parole board again in February 2024.

The Fab Four are back in the charts with Revolver, widely regarded as one of the greatest rock albums of all time. Originally released in 1966, the collection was reissued on Oct. 28 in a new “special edition,” which landed at No. 2 on the latest albums charts in the U.K. and Australia, and at No. 4 on the Billboard 200.

08 Nov 2022

Justin Aaron’s ‘Gift’ Is on Show During ‘The Voice’ Knockouts

Gwen Stefani has made some solid choices in season 22 of NBC’s The Voice, and on Monday night (Nov. 7), she had some tough choices to make.

One of those solid choices is Justin Aaron, who impressed with a performance of “Glory” by Common and John Legend. Aaron, a paraeducator from Junction City, Kansas, lifted the spirts once again during the Battles, when he faced off against Destiny Leigh with a rendition of Mary J. Blige’s “No More Drama.”

The competitors are now at the Knockouts stage. As the name suggests, there are no second chances.

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Aaron went up against fellow Team Gwen performers Cara Brindisi and Kayla von der Heide, for what panned out to be an impressive round. And a tough choice for Gwen.

“I’m so emotional right now, we had so much fun together,” she explained, stifling tears. “Just to be able to share and to, like, watch you grow, is just so unbelievably fulfilling to me,” she added. “I’m just proud, can you tell I’m proud right now.”

There could be only one, and it was Aaron who progressed to the Live rounds.

When Aaron performed for Stefani during rehearsals, she explained, “I was like, ‘there was no swag. And it was, like, 10 times flirtier on this stage right now. It was so good.”

What he’s got, it’s a “gift,” she remarked, and he took it to “another level.”

There’s so much more to come, the former No Doubt singer reckons. “He doesn’t fully realize how gifted he is. He’s so coachable. There’s no way that America’s not going to fall in love with him. We’re just getting started.”

Watch below.

08 Nov 2022

Drake And 21 Savage Set to Dethrone Taylor Swift on U.K. Albums Chart

After two weeks at the top of the U.K. albums chart, Taylor Swift’s golden run could come undone by Drake and 21 Savage.

The hip-hop pairing leads the midweek U.K. chart with Her Loss (via OVO/Republic Records), their first collaborative collection.

If it holds its position, Her Loss will become Drake’s fifth leader, after Views (from 2016), Scorpion (2018), Dark Lane Demo Tapes (2020), and Certified Lover Boy (2021), and Savage’s first.

Swift’s 10th and latest album Midnights (EMI) dips 1-2 on the Official Chart Update, after a two-week stint at the summit. Though nothing is certain as the race enters the second half. Swift, meanwhile, is en route to a third consecutive week atop the Official U.K. Albums chart with “Anti-Hero,” which leads the midweek survey.

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Further down the albums chart blast, Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit eye third spot with Palomino (Columbia), their fifth studio album. If it maintains its course, Palomino will give the act (Johanna and Sara Söderberg) a second top 5 effort, after 2018’s Ruins peaked at No. 3.

Close behind is Welsh entertainer Luke Evans’ A Song For You (BMG), new at No. 4 on the midweek survey, for what would be a career best chart position.

The top 5 on the chart blast is completed by the Prodigy’s third album The Fat of the Land (XL Recordings), which is re-issued to celebrate its 25th anniversary. The set, which yielded the hits “Breathe,” “Firestarter” and “Smack My B**** Up” hit No. 1 on both sides of the Atlantic following its original release in 1997.

Veteran Irish crooner Daniel O’Donnell could bag his 20th top 10 album with I Wish You Well (DMG TV), new at No. 6 on the midweek survey, while Japanese-Australian singer and songwriter Joji (real name George Kosunoki Miller) could snag his second top 10, with Smithereens (12Tone Music) eyeing a No. 8 bow.

Finally, Girl Power is back, as Spice Girls’ 1997 album Spiceworld (UMR/Virgin) makes a splash on the midweek chart at No. 12. The pop group’s sophomore album debuted at No. 1 following its initial release, and enjoys boost thanks to the release of a 25th anniversary edition.  

All will be revealed when the Official U.K. Albums Chart is published late Friday (Nov. 11).

08 Nov 2022

Tame One, Artifacts & The Weathermen Rapper, Dead at 52

Tame One, veteran New Jersey rapper and member of hip-hop groups Artifacts and The Weathermen, has died. He was 52.

His death was confirmed by Pitchfork and on Facebook by the late rapper’s mother, Darlene Brown Harris. “What’s on my mind….I cant express this any other way. My son, Rahem Brown, Tamer Dizzle Is Dead,” she wrote on Sunday. “The medical examiner says the six pharmaceutical drugs … prescribed to him last Friday, combined with the weed he smoked over this weekend … his heart simply gave out. He will know better after the autopsy. I will not be responding to all the posts for a bit, but the hardest words I will ever post or say is, my son, my heart, is dead.”

Tame One, born Rahem Brown, expressed himself as a teenager by way of music and graffiti. Tame One’s 1994 debut alongside Artifacts groupmate El Da Sensei, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, was an ode to the influential art form and broke the duo into the mainstream. The album appeared on both the Billboard 200 and R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. Despite their collective success, Artifacts only went on to release one more album together, That’s Them, in 1997 before moving on to solo careers.

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After the group’s initial split, New York hip-hop group The Weathermen, founded by a handful of East Coast producers and rappers, was formed. Tame One rapped alongside a number of co-members, including Cage Kennylz, Masai Bey, Aesop Rock, Yak Ballz, El-P, Jakki Tha Motamouth, Vast Aire and Breeze Brewin. The group released one mixtape in 2003, titled Conspiracy.

After 25 years, El Da Sensei and Tame One came together with producer Buckwild for their third album as Artifacts, No Expiration Date, which released on Aug. 20. “[In 1979], we would walk miles with markers and cans, taggin’ up everywhere,” he said in his final interview before his death. “I was influenced by my surroundings, I’m a product of my environment, and I capitalized upon what I saw. It’s a blessing to transform that energy and give back.”