Today marks 26 years since we lost Christopher Wallace, better known as The Notorious B.I.G.
We never got to see just how far he could go, but in a few short years, Biggie established himself as one of the best to ever touch a mic. HisThough the debate about rap’s GOAT has evolved in the last quarter-century — and rightly so — there is no serious all-time ranking that doesn’t The
Tyler Perry is reportedly in talks to acquire Paramount’s majority stake in BET. According to the Wall Street Journal, Paramount is exploring the sale to raise funds for Paramount+, the company’s streaming platform.
Tyler Perry currently owns a minority stake in BET and has a long relationship with the network, which helped fund his first big screen movie, Diary of a Mad Black Woman.
We went without a TBT post two Thursdays ago, so I’m making you whole today.
As we’ve discussed many times in the past, commercial success in the music industry is not an exact science. Therefore, it is difficult to predict the kind of career an artist is going to have.
Every now and then, however, an artist comes along and you just kinda know: This one’s a star.
Adele is one of them ones.
To be fair, a white artist with a Black sound is a proven cheat code, but her debut single, “Chasing Pavements,” is worthy of the accolades. Written by the singer and Eg White, the ballad is based on an incident where Adele was walking down a pavement alone after being kicked out of a bar for punching her then-boyfriend in the face — she had gone to the bar to confront him after finding out he was cheating. The drama.
In 2023, it’s not unreasonable to be skeptical about some of the “true stories” that “inspire” Adele’s music, but back then, it all seemed legit. “Chasing Pavements” would go on to win a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Adele would also win the award for Best New Artist.
In the 15 years since the song’s release, Adele has established herself as one of the greatest artists of all time, with her albums, 21 and 25, holding the distinction as the last two albums to be certified diamond in the US — the latter also holds the record for the most sales in a debut week, with 3.38 million copies sold. She has also won 16 Grammys, including two wins each in the Album, Record and Song of the Year categories.
It turns out that those pavements were indeed leading Adele to world domination. Click play.
Commitment issues have never sounded sweeter than when Nelly Furtado sung about them on her debut single, “I’m Like a Bird.” Written by the Portuguese-Canadian singer and released in September of 2000, the song would peak at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and go on to win her a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
Nothing says “I want a No. 1 hit” like releasing a remix with a feature as your song sits in the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. This is especially the case when the song in question is an album cut from a project released in 2016 that has since been followed by two other albums.
This is the story of “Die for You,” the 17th track from The Weeknd’s third LP, Starboy, which has become a hit song after steadily gaining popularity over the last 18 months or so. The song became a viral hit on TikTok in the fall of 2021 and got added radio playlists. However, unlike your typical viral hit, this not only stuck but rose all the way to the top 10.
With the top spot within striking distance, The Weeknd has done what anyone playing to win will do: He released a remix with a feature. And not just any feature, an Ariana Grande feature. The two have collaborated multiple times in the past and topped the Billboard Hot 100 together with the “Save Your Tears” remix (i.e., the last time Abel pulled out all stops for a No. 1 hit).
One of the beauties of the new chart rules at Billboard is that it now reflects what people are listening to regardless of when the music was released. One could argue that Mariah Carey has been the biggest beneficiary of this change, but there have been others, including Kate Bush, who topped the global chart last year with a song released in 1985.
“Die for You” joins the list of songs that show that there is no expiration date for good music, and with Ariana Grande on the remix, The Weeknd has a strong shot at the throne on next week’s chart.
Earlier today, the OG Ashley Banks posted a pic to remind us that she’s still fine as hell. It had me thinking about how long she’s been in the public eye and how she has managed to remain unproblematic the whole time. In a world where so many child stars crash and burn, we simply must celebrate the Tatyana Alis.
All of this also had me thinking about her short-lived music career that deserved a much longer run. We’ve revisited her debut single on a previous Throwback Thursday, but today, we’ll be looking at “Everytime.”
Released as the third single from her one and only LP, Kiss the Sky, is a guitar-driven ballad about missing your boo every time they’re not here. In actuality, the song reads like the lamentation of a clingy-ass lover, but it is set to the sweetest melody and sung so beautifully.
“Everytime” didn’t fare as well as “Daydreamin’,” but it cracked the top 20 in the UK. Its video — set to the remix — features a mix of concert and behind-the-scenes footage, including a clip of Tatyana hanging with her Fresh Prince co-star, Will Smith.
While it would’ve been nice to embed a video, the fact of the matter is that the original is by far the superior version. Check it out below.
Da Brat just announced that she is expecting a baby! It will be the first child for the 48-year-old rapper. Her wife, Jesseca Harris-Dupart (a.k.a. Da Real BB Judy) has three from a previous relationship.
The rapper revealed in an exclusive interview with People Magazine that she had to remove fibroids and polyps prior to her embryo retrieval. She also revealed that she used an anonymous sperm donor and confirmed that she is currently 18 weeks pregnant.
Yesterday, we lost Burt Bacharach, one of the greatest songwriters of all time. He wrote over 70 top 40 hits over the course of four decades, including four No. 1s on the Billboard Hot 100. He has written songs for everyone from Nat King Cole to Patti LaBelle, but is perhaps best-known for his work with Dionne Warwick. Twenty-two of Bacharach’s top 40 hits were sung by Ms. Warwick.
We have previously highlighted their what is easily their signature hit, so we’re going to go for the next best thing: Their first single together.
“Don’t Make Me Over,” the first Bacharach-penned Dionne Warwick single, is also the singer’s debut single as a solo artist. Co-written by Hal David, the song pleads for a lover to reciprocate unconditional love. It was not initially selected to be Warwick’s first single — another Bacharach David composition, “Make It Easy on Yourself,” had been chosen by the singer. However, it was given to Jerry Butler despite the fact that she had recorded the original demo, so it ended up being an album cut.
The title for “Don’t Make Me Over” comes from a phrase that was popular at the time — meaning “don’t try to change me” — which Bacharach and David built the song around after Warwick used it in anger in the studio. The song would become the singer’s first top 40 hit, peaking at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100. It would be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000.
The Chinese spy balloon that has been floating in US airspace over the last few days has been shot down at the behest of President Joe Biden. He gave the orders on Wednesday, but the US Army waited till it was over water to minimize the risk of debris landing on people.
Earlier this afternoon, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) closed airspace in parts of North and South Carolina, which resulted in suspended operations at the airports in Charlotte, Wilmington and Charleston.
A trip to China by secretary of state Anthony Blinken was postponed as a result of the spy balloon. The Chinese government has since denied culpability, claiming it was a civilian airship for meteorological research that strayed into US airspace.
On Wednesday, Philadelphia Eagles rookie Josh Sills was arrested and charged with rape and kidnapping.
According to prosecutors, the charges stem from a December 2019 incident where the 25-year-old “engaged in sexual activity that was not consensual and held a victim against her will.” The incident took place in Ohio.
The accuser is a then-21-year-old woman who went to high school with Sills. She was riding in Sills car with her cousin and he was supposed to drop the both of them at a relative’s home, but when she tried to get out of his truck, he allegedly grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back in. She says he then grabbed her by the ponytail and tried to kiss her.
According to the police report, when a friend in another vehicle pulled up behind Sills’ vehicle, he “grabbed her by the neck and threw her down on the seat and got on top of her so no one could see them inside the truck.” He then forced her to perform a sexual act for 20 minutes, throughout which she tried to get him to stop.
Sills is said to have eventually let his accuser go after repeatedly asking if she would talk to him again.
The indictment came just 11 days before Super Bowl LVII and the first hearing is scheduled for February 16, four days after the game.
In a statement released after the indictment, the Eagles said they are “in the process of gathering more information.“