After hitting number five on the Billboard 200 with his debut studio album, The Melodic Blue, Baby Keem is going on the road.
The rapper from Carson, California announced The Melodic Blue Tour on Thursday, which will kick off November 9 in Santa Ana, CA. Keem will perform 14 shows through December 3 in San Francisco. Tour cities also include Atlanta, Houston, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and New York.
The 20-year-old, who performed on the BET Hip Hop Awards, is the cousin of Kendrick Lamar, who released the album on his pgLang label. The 13-time Grammy winner came out of his long hiatus to drop rhymes on the project’s first single, “Family Ties,” and on another track, “Range Brothers. The Melodic Blue also features Travis Scott and Don Tolliver.
Tickets for the tour go on sale Friday at 10 am. ET on The Melodic Bluewebsite.
Illustration by Carlos Lerma/Courtesy of Song Exploder
A new episode of the Song Exploder online audio series focusing on the late John Lennon‘s 1970 solo song “God” debuted this week.
The presentation, which was created by the Song Exploder team in partnership with Lennon’s estate, features a new interview with Plastic Ono Band bassist and longtime Beatles associate Klaus Voormann, as well as archival interviews with John, Ringo Starr and late keyboardist Billy Preston, all of whom played on the track.
To produce the episode, which takes an in-depth look at the creation of “God,” Song Exploder was given access the John Lennon Estate’s extensive interview archives, as well as the song’s master recording, original demo and outtakes.
“I’m a big fan of Song Exploder and the way [host] Hrishi [Hirway] analyzes songwriting and recording using the multitracks and sessions and the creator’s voice,” says John’s son, Sean Ono Lennon. “The shows are always intelligent, well-researched and beautifully edited, so we felt comfortable and confident opening up the archive to them to tell the story of this important song’s creation.”
“God” appears on Lennon’s first solo studio album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, and famously features lyrics in which John declared that he’d put his famous band behind him, including, “I don’t believe in Beatles/ I just believe in me/ Yoko and me.”
The Lennon interview featured in the episode was taken from a December 1970 conversation with Rolling Stone‘s Jann Wenner. Starr’s audio comes from the 2008 Classic Albums documentary about John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.
You can listen to the episode at SongExploder.net, and via Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
I May Destroy You star Aml Ameen has shared the first trailer to his directorial debut, Boxing Day.
The holiday romantic comedy, which is named after the British holiday celebrated after Christmas Day, was also co-written by and stars Ameen. It follows the actor as Melvin, a British author living in the U.S., who returns home to London for Christmas with his American fiancée, Lisa. After Melvin introduces Lisa to his eccentric British-Caribbean family, his relationship is put to the test. Aja Naomi King, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Tamara Lawrance also star in the film. Boxing Day hits theaters in the U.K. and Ireland on December 3. A U.S. release has yet to be announced.
In other news, Melissa De Sousa and McKinley Freeman have landed recurring roles opposite Morris Chestnut and Yaya DaCosta on the new FOX drama series Our Kind of People, Deadline has learned. De Sousa will play accomplished financial reporter Alex Rivera, the ex-wife of Chestnut’s Raymond. Meanwhile, Freeman will play Nate, the father of DaCosta’s daughter, Nikki. As previously noted, the series follow DaCosta as Angela Vaughn, a single mother who moves her family to Martha’s Vineyard in hopes of growing her natural hair-care business and reclaiming her family’s name. Our Kind of People airs Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET.
Finally, Sistas star K.J. Smith has landed a major recurring role on the Power prequel Power Book III: Raising Kanan. According to Deadline, Smith will play Palomar, one of Famous’ new neighbors, who’s often mistaken for her daughter’s older sister. A season-two release date for Raising Kanan has yet to be announced.
Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton are more than just two of country music’s most prominent female stars — they’re also longtime friends. So Reba is as surprised as anyone else that she and Dolly never collaborated until they joined forces for a new version of “Does He Love You.”
“I’m shell shocked. How have we not done one?” Reba says in a new Billboard interview. “Every time I’d hear Dolly doing a duet with somebody else, I would get a little sad or jealous, like, ‘I want to do a duet with Dolly.’”
Still, she adds, “[E]verything happens for a reason and timing is everything. So it worked out perfectly.”
The new version of “Does He Love You” comes off of Revisited, one of the three sections of Reba’s massive upcoming box set project, Revived Remixed Revisited, which puts new and updated spins of some of Reba’s best-loved hits.
The singer first cut “Does He Love You” in 1993 as a duet with Linda Davis. Now, almost three decades later, Reba says that she and Dolly approached the topic a little differently for their new version.
“It’s like confrontation on Valium. It’s kind of like, ‘I know you. You know me. We’re adults,’” she explains. “Whereas when I did it with Linda, that was mid-’90s, and it was like catfight city. Now it’s like, ‘I don’t like him. Do you like him? You can have him.’ So it was totally different. It was confrontation, but not hatred.”
Olivia Rodrigo is now a member of an elite club, the members of which include Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and Gwen Stefani.
Olivia’s song “Traitor” has just hit the top 10 on Billboard‘s Pop Airplay chart, making it her fourth number one on that chart. All four hits are from her debut album, SOUR. That makes Olivia the first artist to score at least four Pop Airplay top 10s from a debut album since Lady Gaga, who did it more than a decade ago with her debut, The Fame. In addition to “Traitor,” Olivia’s also sent “Good 4 U,” “Drivers License” and “Deja Vu” into the top 10.
Olivia’s also now only the 11th artist in history who’s ever managed to place four singles from a debut album on the Billboard Pop Airplay chart. In addition to Lady Gaga, the others are Justin Timberlake, with Justified; Christina Aguilera and Backstreet Boys, each with their self-titled debuts; Fergie, with The Dutchess; Matchbox Twenty, with Yourself or Someone Like You; Alanis Morissette, with Jagged Little Pill; Hootie & the Blowfish, with Cracked Rear View; Gwen Stefani, with Love. Angel. Music. Baby.; and Ace of Base, with The Sign.
After being kicked off the Legendz of the Streetz tour, and having his Instagram account suspended, now Boosie Badazz is complaining about the lack of stars attending the premiere of his biopic, My Struggle.
The “Wipe Me Down” rapper held his event on September 22 in Atlanta, one day before 50 Cent‘s star-studded BMF premiere. Fiddy was joined on stage by Snoop Dogg, T.I., DaBaby, Moneybagg Yo, Flo Rida, Lil Duval and Jeremih for a concert following the screening of the first episode.
Boosie made his remarks Wednesday in response to a tweet by Duval saying that Badazz did not receive enough love for his event.
“Every celeb you can think of was at ‘BMF’ premiere,” Duval commented on Instagram after attending Boosie’s screeing. “But at @hesbackagain2021 premiere, I only saw @qcmceo_p @troublemmb and @iamdesibanks. All I’m saying is we gotta support the streets the same way we support the mainstream stuff. Especially in the south.”
Meanwhile, Boosie remarked to Vlad TV, “Nobody came out to support the way they should. I ain’t going to just say Atlanta. People think I was trying to go against 50 [Cent]. Hell no. That’s why I did it a day earlier. I’m a marketing genius. Come on, bro. I went a day before 50.”
As previously reported, Boosie was kicked off the Legendz of the Streetz tour headlined by Rick Ross, Jeezy, Gucci Mane and 2 Chainz after a fight broke out on stage during his set on Friday night in A-T-L during the second concert of the tour.
After being booted from the tour, Boosie promoted his appearance on Twitter at a party Sunday night at the Euphoria nightclub in Baltimore. A man was shot when a large fight broke out at the event, according to The Baltimore Sun.
That famous photo of Britney Spears and Madonna locking lips at the 2003 MTV VMAs is now reportedly being auctioned off as an NFT, a.k.a. a non-fungible token.
TMZ reports that the photographer, John Shearer, is teaming up with Cryptograph to sell the collectible digital token for a good cause.
The auction, which kicks off Thursday and lasts 72 hours, will share a portion of the proceeds with GLAAD.
The 2003 VMAs opened with the now-iconic performance from Madonna, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. The trio sang Madonna’s hits “Like a Virgin” and “Hollywood” and the performance concluded with Madonna kissing both Britney and Christina — though the Britney kiss garnered way more attention.
Mary J. Blige speaks in NYC during “Screening the System: A Dialogue on Bias and Breast Health”; Noam Galai/Getty Images for Hologic
As Mary J. Blige prepares to perform at the Super Bowl 56 halftime show in February, she wants her female fans to focus on getting a mammogram now during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The Queen of Hip Hop Soul has partnered with the Hologic medical technology company to spread awareness about the disease. She says families need to have more conversations about breast cancer and the importance of getting mammograms.
“My aunt died from breast cancer. My grandmother died from cervical cancer and one of my aunts just died from lung cancer,” Mary J said during in a panel this week in New York City, titled “Screening the System: A Dialogue on Bias and Breast Health,” according to Essence. “What happens is they end up in the hospital and there’s no one in our families speaking about it when we’re younger.”
The 50-year-old singer says she was not aware of the need for early detection until ten years ago, when she turned 40. “They don’t discuss this when we’re children. They don’t say, ‘Go get a mammogram.’ You learn about this as you get older,” she said. “So they don’t speak about it and that’s why they end up in the hospital with two weeks to live and now you know about it. That’s why it’s extremely important to me.”
Next year, the nine-time Grammy winner will celebrate her 30th anniversary in the music business. She’s a trusted role model for many women, and she wants to use her platform to help her female fans stay healthy.
“I’ve been in the forefront all my life as Mary J. Blige the singer,” she said. “Now I want to help women heal from breast cancer. I want to help us feel beautiful all the way around.”
Later this month, country artists will band together for the Grand Ole Opry’s 12th annual “Opry Goes Pink” event, a celebration and show that raises money and awareness for nonprofit organization Susan G. Komen, which works to support those affected by breast cancer.
As previously announced, Lauren Alaina will be among the stars performing during this year’s show. But she’ll also flip the celebratory switch at the beginning of the show, turning the Opry’s iconic barn backdrop pink to mark the occasion.
“I know firsthand how devastating cancer can be to a family,” Lauren shares. The singer’s stepfather, Sam, died of cancer in 2018. “Breast cancer in particular can be a difficult diagnosis,” she continues. “I am honored to bring awareness to this cause on my favorite stage in the world.”
The Opry’s “Opry Goes Pink” event will take place on Tuesday, October 19. Tickets to the show are available now.
OneRepublic recently released their new album Human, and the band will celebrate their new material with a special livestream later this month.
The band has teamed with Moment House for the October 27 stream, One Night in Malibu, which will feature Ryan Tedder and company playing 17 songs, including selection from Human and their biggest hits. The performance — from Malibu, CA, of course — will also feature an added string section.
The livestream will be available worldwide, including in Australia, New Zealand, Africa and Asia, with different times depending on territory. Tickets are on sale now via MomentHouse.com/OneRepublic, where you can also buy a ticket to a VIP after party, as well as exclusive merchandise for the event.
Here’s the information on when you can watch One Night in Malibu:
North + South America: October 27, 6 p.m. PDT
Asia, Australia & New Zealand: October 28, 6 p.m. JST/7 p.m. AEST
Europe, UK & Africa: October 28, 6 p.m. BST
