music

Beyoncé’s long-awaited seventh studio album, Renaissance, dropped late last month. In August 2021, the singer revealed that she had been working on the LP for about a year, though it wouldn’t be for about another year after that when she finally put out the project. While most singles on Renaissance were presumably recorded in the past few years, Hit-Boy says that one hit track, “Thique,” dates back to 2014. Speaking on Rolling Stone‘s Music Now podcast, the producer shared they were working on an early iteration of “Thique” in tandem with a different Beyoncé collaboration. The singer ultimately decided to shelve the beat but would go on to revisit it years later, eventually giving it a spot on her latest album. “I had to sit on that beat for eight years!” Hit-Boy said on the podcast. “Tha...

Blue Ivy Carter, JAY-Z and Beyoncé’s eldest daughter, has received two gold certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) at only 10 years old. The first-born child of the Carters earned the two plaques after Beyoncé’s 2013 track “Blue,” which appeared on Beyoncé, and “Brown Skin Girl,” which appeared on The Lion King: The Gift, earned 500,000 units each. Blue Ivy is credited as a featured artist on “Blue” and a songwriter and vocal contributor on “Brown Skin Girl.” Blue Ivy adds the plaques to her growing collection of achievements, which include a Best Music Video GRAMMY Award for “Brown Skin Girl” and the record for the youngest person to appear on the Billboard Hot 100 after Hov credited her on the track “Glory” just two days after her birth. Elsewhere i...

YoungBoy Never Broke Again may be hanging up his rap career with The Last Slimeto. In a now-deleted Instagram post, the Baton Rouge rapper shared that he was simply proud of being able to finish something for the first time and is more than open to retire. “To be honest I really don’t care about this being my last album. I finally can say I completed something. I ain’t finish school. I never finish nothing but my smoke… but nah gangster I then shedded tears from the way y’all been doing me but it’s all for the better,” he wrote in the caption, adding a sweet note to his late brother and grandmother, “[T]ell li Dave and grandma I completed something and I’m doing fine.” Before closing it out, YB also seemingly threw a jab at Kodak Black, writing “P.S. you don’t like my fans I don’t like you...

Kendrick Lamar‘s visual for “We Cry Together” has qualified for an Oscar consideration under the Best Live Action Short Film category. According to reports, the six-minute film, which stars K-Dot and Zola’s Taylour Paige as a quarreling couple, played in West Los Angeles’ Laemmle Royal Theater from June 3 to June 9, allowing it to receive an Oscar nomination. pgLang and Dave Free played one screening of the short film in the main 180-seat theater per day, with security collecting the phones of the movie-goers — most of whom were family and friends, but around 20 members of the general public were allowed to purchase tickets to each screening. “We Cry Together” appears on Lamar’s Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, his first album since 2017’s DAMN. which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 20...