Music

Nas is getting his very own action figure.

In honor of hip-hop’s upcoming 50th anniversary, toy designer Steven Cartoccio has teamed up with Mass Appeal and Hip Hop 50 to create the limited edition collectible.

“Nas. Truly honored to collaborate with the hip hop legend I regard as the greatest of all time,” Cartoccio posted on Instagram, along with photos of the figure.

The figure comes with different removable accessories that pay homage to some of Nas’ iconic album covers, including the orange cap from Stillmatic and the Egyptian pharaoh mask from I Am…

The Nas collectible will become available on December 1 at 11 a.m. ET on shop.massappeal.com.

Hip-hop marks its 50th year in 2023. Earlier this month, hip-hop legends, including Grandmaster Flash, Roxanne Shanté and Slick Rick, gathered at Manhattan’s City Hall to announce NYC’s celebration plans for the milestone. There will be 50 events planned over 50 days in coordination with the Universal Hip Hop Museum, which is set to open its doors in The Bronx in 2024.

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Members of 98 Degrees, O-Town, All-4-One and more are about to launch A Boy Band Christmas tour.

98’s Jeff Timmons told ABC Audio plans originally featured just his group, but Nick Lachey‘s hectic schedule forced them to change course. That’s when they revisited the fun they had with the A Very Boy Band Holiday special that aired on ABC last year.

“We had so much fun doing that,” said Timmons. “We said, ‘Hey, why not call up some of our guys and some great vocalists from different bands and maybe replace that tour with this one?’ So that’s how it came about.”

98’s Justin Jeffre noted now is the perfect time to launch their ambitious tour, asking, “What better way to spend the holiday season than hitting the road and singing some holiday songs and bringing some holiday spirit?”

O-Town’s Erik-Michael Estrada chimed in, “Boy bands and Christmas belong together!” Estrada also joked he’s “putting a lot of miles on my treadmill” to prepare for the trek.

Drew Lachey added this concert series is also a thank you to those who propelled them to superstardom in the late ’90s and early 2000s. “That time for us was filled with these wonderful, life-changing memories… The fans were the ones that made all that possible for us,” he said.

“The interaction that we’ve had with fans over the last 20+ years have shaped our lives not only creatively and professionally, but also personally,” he continued. “The fact that we’re still able to do this 20+ years later? We still have people wanting to come out and see us? It’s a dream come true!” 

A Boy Band Christmas Tour kicks off December 2 in Bossier City, Louisiana. Tickets are on sale now.

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Former Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum plays on a new charity cover of the Tom Petty classic “I Won’t Back Down.”

The recording also features Eagles members Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit and country star Blake Shelton, and supports the organization Miraculous Love Kids, which provides music lessons to young women in Afghanistan.

“In ‘I Won’t Back Down,’ Tom Petty so powerfully wrote, ‘You can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won’t back down,'” says Miraculous Love Kids founder Lanny Cordola. “The girls and I are honored to have Blake, Joe, Timothy and Matt join us in spreading this message far and wide.”

You can listen to the cover now via GoodNoise.io, which describes itself as “a metaverse destination for people who are passionate about music, the arts and good causes.”

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Selena Gomez had a sweet reunion with BLACKPINK and tossed it back to their 2020 collaboration “Ice Cream.” She captioned the Instagram photos, “Selpink chillin,” which is a reference to the sultry song’s lyrics. 

Is Dua Lipa about to collaborate with Mick Jagger? She shared a series of Instagram photos of her and the Rolling Stones legend at the studio. She also used the caption “Sweeeet weeeek.” She has yet to clarify what this means, but fans think the two have a song coming out. That shouldn’t be all that surprising considering Dua’s ultra successful “Cold Heart” collab with Elton John.

Gwen Stefani will be assisting Pink at her BST Hyde Park shows in London. The venue, where Pink will play two headlining shows, confirmed the good news on Twitter. The shows will be held in June 2023.

Lady Gaga might need a refresher on how to do a Boomerang after fans noticed something off with the Black Friday ad for her beauty line on Instagram. A fan captured the bizarre video of Gaga making the same gesture over and over, thus sparking theories she was being deliberately campy — or doesn’t know how to make a Boomerang.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Madonna shared rare photos of herself with her six children, who range in age from 26 to 10. She captioned the Instagram collection, “What I’m thankful for…………” 

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The slave drama Emancipation was thought to be an Oscar vehicle for Will Smith — that is, until that infamous Academy Awards slap of Chris Rock, and the subsequent decade-long Academy ban for the King Richard Oscar winner.

In a chat with Entertainment Weekly, Smith acknowledged that his actions could hurt the reaction to Emancipation.

Will says, “The only discomfort my heart has around that is that so many people have done spectacular work on this film. My hope is that my team isn’t penalized at all for my actions.”

While praising the “spectacular” work of director Antoine Fuqua, cinematographer Robert Richardson and co-stars Ben Foster and Charmaine Bingwa, Will adds, “I definitely lose a couple winks of sleep every night thinking that I could have potentially penalized my team, but I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that everyone gets seen in the light that they deserve.”

The drama was inspired by the haunting image of “Whipped Peter,” a slave who escaped the Deep South, only to return and fight for the freedom of his friends and family as a soldier in the Union Army.

Smith also adds, “I had seen the image of Whipped Peter as a child, but as his story started to come into focus, I was moved in all of the most beautiful ways. When you look at the brutality that he suffered, and then realizing that through that he was able to sustain faith, gratitude, and love in the face of those kinds of atrocities — I knew that I wanted to learn from Peter.”

Emancipation debuts in U.S. theaters on Dec. 2 and hits Apple TV+ a week later on Dec. 9.

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Patti Smith is on the cover of this month’s Harper’s Bazaar, where she looks back on her 50-year career. The singer’s been given a variety of titles, including “rock poet,” “godmother of punk” and more, but she doesn’t care for them very much.

“Calling me a rock poet or the poet laureate of punk? What does that mean?” she asks. “If they just call me a worker, which is what I am, they wouldn’t have to try so hard to find some kind of absurd little tagline.”

Smith, who recently released her new visual book, A Book of Days, is certainly a lot of things, including a musician, poet and writer. She admits she has a lot of admiration for people who can focus on just one thing, which she’s incapable of.

“I’m just not that kind of person. I don’t know why,” she says, noting she loves to perform, talk to people and more. She does share, though, that there are times she’ll “just want my solitude or to sit alone in a café or in my room or at a desk and write for hours.” 

Patti is set to turn 76 on December 30, and she has some thoughts as to why she is still around. “I haven’t survived all this time, and sadly survived many of my friends and loved ones, because of any special formula,” she says. “I’ve survived [because] I want to live. I want to be here,” she adds. “Even in our troubled world. Even with all the greed and stupidity and terrible things that we’re all facing and reading in the news or experiencing, I want to be alive. I want to breathe. I want to do my work.”

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