music

TDE President Terrence “Punch” Henderson has opened up about Kendrick Lamar‘s imminent departure from Top Dawg Entertainment, sharing nothing but words of praise and encouragement for the next phase of the rapper’s career. In a recent interview with Mic, Henderson explained that K-Dot has been with TDE for so long — “almost 20 years” — that watching him grow and move on is completely natural: “I don’t even know if I would describe it that way as ready to leave, as more so ready to build his own thing. That’s a grown man right now. We watched him grow from a teenager up into an established grown man, a businessman, and one of the greatest artists of all time. So how long do you actually be signed up under somebody? It’s been almost 20 years. So it’s time to move on and try new things and ve...

The artist formerly known as Kanye West shared on social media that his Stem Player made $2.2 million USD in sales in just one day, and noted that his team would have never made the same amount of money if DONDA 2 was out on streaming services. Calling it “the first Yeezy Tech product,” Ye wrote, “To earn the $2.2 million we made on the first day on the stem player the album would have had to stream 500 million times.” He continued, “We did more revenue on stemplayer, without the album even being out, than we would have done with the album being out on streaming.” The artist announced last week that his upcoming album DONDA 2 will release exclusively on the Stem Player. “Today artists get just 12% of the money the industry makes. It’s time to free music from this oppressive system. It’s ti...

Snoop Dogg has released a new short film in celebration of his acquisition of Death Row Records and his new album B.O.D.R. (Bacc on Death Row). In a 43-minute long video set in Long Beach, the clip is a compilation of behind-the-scenes studio sessions, intertwined with old footage, new music videos and other Snoop moments. The video offers fans a first-hand look at what to expect for Snoop’s latest album under his new label. In one clip, Snoop performs at Nate Dogg’s cemetery alongside the late rapper’s son Naijiel Hale. Snoop acquired Death Row earlier this month from Blackstone-controlled company MNRK Music Group. In a statement, he said, “It feels good to have ownership of the label I was part of at the beginning of my career and as one of the founding members. This is an extremely mean...

SBTV founder Jamal Edwards has died at 31 years old. The BBC confirmed the news and reported that the British music industry figure died on Sunday. No other information about his death was revealed as of writing, other than the understanding that Edwards attended the BRIT Awards earlier this month and performed as a DJ in north London on the evening of Saturday. Edwards and his SBTV platform — which was launched in 2006 — were focused on shining a light on rising artists and were instrumental in aiding the early careers of musicians such as Stormzy, Dave, Ed Sheeran and more. He was awarded an MBE for his contributions to music in 2014, was an ambassador for the Prince’s Trust youth charity and renovated youth centers. Tributes to Edwards poured in on social media, with the likes of AJ Tra...