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In Eight Nights, Vince Staples Made the Most Personal Album of His Career
“I was just learning how to speak appropriately. How to say things with the right production, tempo, and cadence so that they are understood in the right light,” he explains. Staples is also juggling the numerous other creative endeavors he has his hands in. In addition to this project, the “Norf Norf” rapper has his graphic novel Limbo Beach, Netflix’s The Vince Staples Show, an Amazon podcast, and his next album Ramona Park Broke My Heart in tow. Check out our interview with Vince Staples, where he speaks on Tyler, The Creator’s work ethic paying off, leaving Def Jam for Motown Records, and putting a bow on the Los Angeles Clippers season. Walk me through what the studio sessions with Kenny Beats were like and how this album came together. We too...
Bobby Brown vs. Keith Sweat in Essence Verzuz Battle of R&B Icons: Billboard’s Scorecard & Winner For the Showdown
“This is truly a celebration of two giants of the culture…” DJ Cassidy enthused later in the evening and he couldn’t be more on target. Bobby Brown’s career soared in the mid-‘80s as part of the omnipresent R&B boy band New Edition — and while he ventured out on his own in 1987 with a built-in fanbase, Keith Sweat was finding his place on the Billboard 100 for the first time with hits like “Make It Last Forever” and “I Want Her” from his debut album. As the lights brightened in the venue, the two sat across from each other, backs straightened against ornate thrones, ready to prove why they’ve long been crowned kings. Here’s how Billboard scored their showdown. Round 1: Keith Sweat’s “Something Just Ain’t Right” vs. Bobby Brown’s “Don’t Be Cruel” Sweat...
Mooski Hits No. 1 on Emerging Artists Chart, Maneskin Debuts in Top 10
Mooski succeeds Kali Uchis atop Emerging Artists. The latter spent 10 weeks at No. 1 and graduates from the chart this week as her hit single “Telepatía” jumps 30-25 on the Hot 100. The Emerging Artists chart measures artist activity across key metrics of music consumption, blending album and track sales, radio airplay and streaming to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity. The chart excludes acts that have notched a top 25 entry on either the Hot 100 or Billboard 200, as well as artists that have achieved two or more top 10s on Billboard‘s “Hot” song genre charts and/or consumption-based “Top” album genre rankings. Among other Emerging Artists moves, 2021 Eurovision Song Contest champion Måneskin debuts at No. 8 thanks to...
Soulja Boy vs. Bow Wow In Verzuz Battle of 2000s Teen Sensations: See Our Scorecard & Winner
For as chaotic of an event as it was, the Bow Wow-Soulja Boy Verzuz will go down as one of the more memorable and enjoyable nights in the Triller series’ history, which set records for guest appearances — ranging from DJ Paul to Romeo — and had one song played three separate times. Even though Soulja Boy and Bow Wow seemed to lose track of rounds and not reach the targeted 20, check out our scorecard below. Round 1: Soulja Boy’s “She Make It Clap” vs. Destiny Child feat. Bow Wow, Da Brat & Jermaine Dupri’s “Jumpin, Jumpin (So So Def Remix)” Big Draco kicks off the night with his 2021 TikTok hit “She Make It Clap,” which reached No. 1 on Billboard‘s Top Triller Chart in April. Bow Wow takes the stage replicati...
Cordae Announces His New Record Label Hi Level: ‘I Know What It Takes to Make Artists Legendary’
“Hi Level [will house] artists, production, and management, where everyone elevates together, by way of working together,” says Cordae’s manager, Ace Christian. The label will offer in-house marketing and PR services, in addition to artist development. While Cordae has yet to sign any artists, he says that there are a few he has his eye on. “Everybody thinks my first artist is gonna rap like me, when that may not be the case at all,” says Cordae. “If we find the next Jazmine Sullivan, I’d be extremely happy.” Christian says Cordae’s vision spans beyond the music, centering the importance of signed artists’ personal and professional growth. “Hi Level was created to focus on the well-being of artists and creatives, even before the business,” says Christian. “Artist developme...
Mach-Hommy & Westside Gunn Are Having Their Ric Flair-Bobby Heenan Championship Run
Pray For Haiti is the first collaboration between Westside Gunn and Mach-Hommy since they first went their separate ways in the early 2010s. Fans came up with all types of theories as to why there was friction, but at the end of the day, as Westside Gunn says, “We picked up right where we left off.” Time apart couldn’t tarnish the impeccable synergy Mach-Hommy and Westside Gunn show on Pray For Haiti. Mach leads the way with his complex array of bars, while Gunn’s ability to curate a well-rounded tracklist brings the masked rapper’s vision to life. “Who the f–k I’m supposed to call?” says Mach when asked why Gunn was the best choice to executive produce his album. “There’s somebody else for me to call? He’s ...
Eve vs. Trina in ‘Verzuz’ Battle of Hip-Hop Greats: See Billboard’s Scorecard and Winner For the Showdown
It was a certified ladies’ night at LIV Nightclub — if this truly were a playoff game, Trina would automatically have home-court advantage as Miami’s own, while Eve was videoing in from London — as the two competitors lathered each other in love, dancing along when the other was performing and noting favorites from each other’s catalog. Trina had previously said she really wanted to do a Verzuz with Lil’ Kim, but toward the end of her battle (read: celebration) with Eve, she put an end to that rumor. “I wouldn’t have wanted to do this with nobody else than my sister, Eve,” the Diamond Princess said. “We’ve been knowing each other for over 20 years. We always showed love, we always supported each other, we always held each other down.” The bars were flying, and with them came no...
Five Burning Questions: Lil Baby and Lil Durk’s ‘The Voice of the Heroes’ Tops the Billboard 200
1. Lil Durk and Lil Baby move an impressive 150,000 units of their near-surprise album Voice of the Heroes in its first week. Is that 150k number mostly attributable to their combined star power at this point, or is there something else the album does particularly well to poise it for such a strong bow? Carl Lamarre: Combined star-power propelled Heroes to top chair and leader on the Billboard 200. If you remember, Lil Baby himself was coming off a dominant 2020 campaign where he logged almost 200,000 first-week album-equivalent units with his sophomore project My Turn. Now, you couple his torrid success with Durk’s growing mainstream appeal (Drake’s “Laugh Now Cry Later” going No. 2 on the Hot 100 and netting a No. 2-peaking project on...
BTS’ ‘Butter’ Makes Record-Breaking Bow Atop Billboard Global Charts
Billboard‘s two global charts (the latest of which are dated June 5) rank songs based on streaming and sales activity culled from more than 200 territories around the world, as compiled by MRC Data. The Billboard Global 200 is inclusive of worldwide data and the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart comprises data from territories excluding the U.S. Chart rankings are based on a weighted formula incorporating official-only streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of audio and video music services, as well as download sales, the latter of which reflect purchases from full-service digital music retailers from around the world, with sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites excluded from the charts’ calculations. Record Streams & Sales for ‘Butter’ Atop Glob...
Forever No. 1: B.J. Thomas’ ‘Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head’
“When the film was released, I was highly critical — how did the song fit with the film? There was no rain,” Redford told USA Today in 2019, a half-century later. “At the time, it seemed like a dumb idea. How wrong I was.” “Raindrops…” was hardly the most sophisticated song that Burt Bacharach and Hal David — the duo who’d penned many of the most pristine and affecting pop songs of the late ’50s and ’60s, including most of Dionne Warwick’s signature smashes — ever wrote. But it may have been their most universal, a song that everybody who has ever had a bad day or a rough patch could relate to. David’s lyric has a dash of whimsical humor (“So, I just did me some talkin’ to the sun/ And I said I didn’t like the way he got things done...
Elton John Honored at 2021 iHeartRadio Awards With Medley Performance From H.E.R., Brandi Carlile & Demi Lovato
Then, the tribute performance began, with H.E.R. at the piano banging out Elton’s “Bennie and the Jets” — also singing the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road smash, and later whipping out the guitar for a ripping guitar solo. Then Carlile walked out to center stage in a very ’70s blazer and gold buttoned-down shirt to perform his mega-ballad “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.” Finally, Demi Lovato took the stage in John’s trademark square glasses to perform his ’80s classic “I’m Still Standing” — even handing the mic to Sir Elton for him to fill in on one lyric. After the medley and a time-filling return from Chris Martin, John accepted his Icon Award — raving about how radio is “where you hear thing...
Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis Bring Timely ‘Optimistic’ to the 2021 Billboard Music Awards With Sounds of Blackness and Ann Nesby
Legendary songwriter/producer duo Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis linked up with soul and gospel singers Ann Nesby and the Sounds of Blackness for a mighty performance of the early ’90s hit “Optimistic” at the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday night (May 23). Delivered as a tribute to the duo’s hometown of Minneapolis, from Prince’s Paisley Park, Jam and Lewis shouted out the “place that musically has always represented change to the status quo.” They were then joined on stage by Nesby and the Sounds of Blackness, who performed “Optimistic” in a towering a cappella rendition, with powerful photos of recent activism (much of which has been recently centered in Minneapolis) shown on a screen behind them. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you a...
