genius.com - 1 121 Showbiz News and Updates

Visionary artist Kanye West has been public about his struggles with bipolar disorder. Throughout the last month, Ye announced a run for president, a new album, and said some questionable things about Harriet Tubman.

Beyoncé’s new visual album, Black is King, is now available on Disney+. Written, directed, and executive produced by Beyoncé, the film is based on the music from last year’s The Lion King: The Gift compilation, which Beyoncé curated as a companion album to the Disney movie.

Rapper and singer The Kid LAROI has stayed in the spotlight over the past year, name-dropping TikTok star Addison Rae and releasing one Cole Bennett-directed music video after the other. Laroi was born in Australia, where he began rapping at the age of seven.

Houston artist BeatKing has been making club hits for over 10 years now, from 2012’s “Throw That Ahh” to 2017’s “Scream.” His recent hit, “Then Leave,” has found a new audience outside of the clubs by going viral on TikTok. With the help of the sensual hums and verses of fellow Houston rapper Queendome Come, “Then Leave” has sparked the #ThenLeaveChallenge and a number of other trends.

Two months after its original release date, Gunna just dropped a deluxe edition of WUNNA. The album now includes eight additional tracks featuring Young Thug (“ONE WATCH”), Lil Uzi Vert (“RELENTLESS”), Future (“STREET SWEEPER”), NAV (“NOTHING 4 FREE”), and Yak Gotti (“WUNNA FLO”).

Over the weekend, August Alsina extended the conversation about his recently revealed past relationship with Jada Pinkett Smith by dropping a new song titled “Entanglements.” It features a verse from Rick Ross and is co-produced by Alsina with Xeryus L. Gittens, The Exclusives, Cardiak, Tee Romano, and OG Parker.

Content warning: This article contains discussions of overt historical racism and racial stereotypes in popular culture. For many Americans, memories of summer are punctuated by the ever-familiar music of the ice cream truck rolling down their block, ready to dispense sugary treats in the heat.

Pop Smoke’s posthumous debut album, Shoot For the Stars, Aim For the Moon, made a huge splash on the Billboard 200 chart this week. Billboard reports that the late rapper’s album moved 251,000 equivalent album units in its first week, easily landing at No.

Thanks to a viral TikTok trend, a mid-aughts children’s TV show song has taken over the Internet with a catchy beat by Hip-Hop Harry. The “Go, Go, Go!” on the chorus proved infectious, sparking thousands of videos, tweets, and various memes.

DaBaby scored a major career milestone today, with his popular single, “ROCKSTAR,” reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song rose from No.

Last month, cinematographer Arthur Jafa revealed that Kanye West was readying a new album titled God’s Country. Today, the Chicago rapper began the rollout for that project with the release of his new song, “Wash Us In the Blood,” featuring Travis Scott.

RD Whittington of Wires Only has sold cars to Travis Scott, Lil Uzi Vert, Playboi Carti, A$AP Rocky, and more. Genius interviewed the Instagram car salesman for details on his biggest sales and how rappers buy cars for similar reasons as the average person.

On June 5, a photo of tween and aspiring rapper Ray 3 went viral on Twitter, showing him using a dangling, makeshift iPhone setup to record music. Producer Kenny Beats caught wind of the picture, and set out to find Ray and hook him up with some legit studio equipment.

The killing of 46-year-old George Floyd at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers on Monday has led to civil unrest across the United States. Yesterday, Derek Chauvin, the white former police officer who used his knee to pin down Floyd, was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

Now that 6ix9ine is officially out of jail earlier than expected due to the COVID-19 pandemic, questions have turned to when the rapper plans to relaunch his career and whether or not fans will still support his music. The Brooklyn rapper gave his first hint on Monday by hopping into Tory Lanez’s popular Instagram Live show Quarantine Radio.

Kid Cudi is back today with “Leader of the Delinquents,” exactly two years to the day since his last solo single, “The Rage.” He first previewed the track on Instagram Live over the weekend. It’s produced by his longtime friend and collaborator, Dot Da Genius.

Drake has always professed how important loyalty is it to him, especially on his earliest hits like DJ Khaled’s “No New Friends” and his song, “Over.” Genius put together a lyrical guide to his inner-circle, from 40 to Future The Prince and more.

Veteran producer The Alchemist and Griselda MC Conway the Machine have worked together before, but now they have their first ever collaborative project under their belts. On the latest episode of For The Record hosted by Genius' VP of Content Strategy Rob Markman, they discussed the meaning behind the project’s title, LULU, working with Eminem, and JAY-Z’s decision to turn down the now-iconic “We Gonna Make It” beat.

This past weekend, thousands of fans tuned in to an Instagram Live beat battle between DJ Premier and RZA. Debates about who won are still raging, but the clear cut winner were the fans who got to watch a contest between two hip-hop legends and (briefly) forget about the pandemic that’s on everyone’s minds.

Seattle, Washington rapper Lil Mosey is a Verified fan favorite. Lil Mosey has stopped by Genius to break down the meaning behind some of his biggest hits like “Pull Up,” “Stuck In A Dream,” and “Noticed” and each of those episodes has racked up millions of views on YouTube and Genius. On today’s episode of Verified, we’re looking back at all Lil Mosey’s appearances on the series.

Drake’s TikTok-oriented new single, “Toosie Slide,” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart this week, marking his seventh chart-topping single. Billboard reports that the song earned 55.5 million streams in the US last week, enough to help it dethrone The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the live music industry into a tailspin, with widespread concert cancellations and attempts to reschedule for later this year. While some have been hoping the pain is only temporary, bioethicist Zeke Emanuel believes it could be far longer. In a recent New York Times Magazine panel about how to safely reopen the country after lockdowns expire, Emanuel predicted that concerts and other large-scale events might not return until late next year.

On today’s episode of Verified, which premiered exclusively on Apple Music, R&B duo ​dvsn break down the meaning of “Between Us,” their collaboration with Swedish singer Snoh Aalegra.

HBO’s Insecure is back with its fourth season, continuing to follow the romance and friendship struggles of Issa (Issa Rae), Molly (Yvonne Orji), Lawrence (Jay Ellis), and more. Debuting nearly two years after Season 3, it’s the longest production gap in the show’s history.

Drake has been dropping hints about his next album for over a year now, and it finally feels like we’re closer than ever to a release date. In a recent Instagram Live appearance with Diddy, Drizzy divulged some more about his headspace while working on the project and how the COVID-19 pandemic has given him more time to focus on his music.

Earlier this week on April 8, Third Eye Blind celebrated the 22nd anniversary of their self-titled debut studio album.

Netflix’s crime drama, Ozark, recently returned to the streaming service for its third season. Jason Bateman stars as Marty Byrde, a financial advisor who gets involved with a Mexican drug cartel and is forced to relocate his family to the Lake of the Ozarks region of central Missouri.

Swizz Beats and Timbaland’s Verzuz series has drawn some of hip-hop’s biggest names into head-to-head battles, and the latest participants are RZA and DJ Premier. Two of rap’s most accomplished producers, the artists are facing off with the production from some of their biggest hits.

Green Day’s 2020 album, Father of All… (aka Father of All Motherf*ckers), includes nods to several classic rock songs. “Stab You In the Heart” takes the inspiration to another level by interpolating Little Richard’s 1995 classic, “Tutti Frutti.”

While the coronavirus epidemic is upending traditional music industry release schedules, it’s sent some artists into creative mode. ​twenty one pilots recently shared their take on the epidemic with “Level of Concern.” The track finds Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun creating a song and music video from scratch while in quarantine.

“The Hills” remains one of the biggest hits of The Weeknd’s career, sitting at 11x Platinum certification after peaking at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. While the final product was a smash, The Weeknd revealed in a new Variety interview that it went through an extensive revision process after a SoundCloud snippet blew up.

Dua Lipa and The Weeknd’s latest projects, Future Nostalgia and After Hours, both contain songs that evoke nostalgia of the 1980s. From Dua Lipa’s “Physical” to The Weeknd’s “In Your Eyes,” the synths and rhythm call back to the dance floors of queer clubs of color from the late ‘70s and '80s. Genius spoke to Charlie Harding and Nate Sloan from Vox’s Switched On Pop podcast to break down why it’s possible for a song to capture the sound of a generation.

Selena Gomez has often drawn from her own life when writing her music, but there are some specific details on her new song, “Souvenir,” that go beyond your ordinary autobiographical gestures. The song appears to reference several moments in her past relationship with The Weeknd, pointing to specific locations in New York City, Los Angeles, and more.

Alicia Keys‘ hook on JAY-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” helped the Brooklyn rapper earn his first No. 1 hit as a lead artist on the Billboard Hot 100, but the collaboration had some roadblocks along the way. In an interview with Beats 1’s Ebro Darden, the New York singer opened up about how she almost missed out on the opportunity and added that she also had to re-record her vocals on the track.

TikTok, which rose from the ashes of other short-form video apps like Vine and Musical.ly, is now one of Gen Z’s preferred platforms for funny memes and dance challenges. But as the app’s user base has grown, it has inadvertently become a place for music discovery, boosting the popularity of songs both within the TikTok ecosystem and outside of it as well.

One of the few bright spots during the COVID-19 pandemic has been watching the rise of Verzuz, the series of battles that started on March 24 when Swizz Beatz and Timbaland had an impromptu beat contest on Instagram Live. Since then, the superproducers have been hard at work pitting more producers and songwriters against each other in matchups that have delighted thousands of fans.