Amazon Music brought together Leon Thomas and Dylan Sinclair for an Amazon Music Originals cover celebrating the 30th anniversary of D’Angelo‘s “Brown Sugar.”
“There are few tracks more important than D’Angelo’s ‘Brown Sugar.’ I’ve always been inspired by the song, and it was a true honor to pay tribute to it,” Leon says. “Collaborating with Dylan on this made it all the more special.”
Dylan adds that the experience of honoring the special song in their own way “is something I’ll never forget.”
Leon and Dylan’s “Brown Sugar” cover is the latest drop from Rotation, the Black music brand from Amazon Music. Rotation is debuting new Amazon Music Originals songs from Black artists throughout the month of June in honor of Black Music Month.
Kane Brown is dealing his fans “2 Pair” as the weather heats up, though his new song has more to do with boots than cards.
“’2 Pair’ is an anthem for the summer,” he says of the new track. “I wanted to give my fans a song they can blast at full volume and sing along to all summer long. It perfectly matches the energy of the best time of the year, and I hope they feel that energy the same way that I do.”
“2 Pair” is the first new music from Kane since January’s The High Road. That album’s “Backseat Driver” is nearing the top of the chart.
Kane’s working fairs and festivals this summer as he prepares to take The High Road Tour to Europe this fall. He’ll also be shooting his feature film debut in The Token Groomsmen with Taylor Lautner.
Gunna shows off his resilience in his first song of 2025, “Won’t Stop.” “I thought I told you time and time again, this s*** won’t stop/ I backend show by show, I’m tryna triple and double the pot/ Booked for at least six figures a show or more from here on out,” he raps on the track.
Chris Brown sings about his thoughts and feelings about being around a woman he’s in love with on “Holy Blindfold.” It’s his first solo release since 11:11.
Joony raps about betrayal on his song “No Chill.” “It’s a song about doing so much for a person, giving them your all, upgrading their lifestyle, and going out your way to make things work but when things don’t, they act as if you were never there,” he said. “They leave you in the cold without a word’s notice as if you didn’t put it all on the line for them, and you can’t help but feel betrayed. You can’t help but feel like they really have no chill.”
Est Gee brings fans into his new world with his latest album, My World. There are only 14 songs and one feature: Yo Gotti.
Will Smith has delivered another summertime song, “Pretty Girls.” The song comes complete with a music video that’s available on YouTube.
Slick Rick is back with a new album, his first in over three decades. Executive produced by Idris Elba and Ricky Walters, Victory was written and recorded between London and France over the course of several years, while the visuals were filmed in the U.S., Africa and the U.K. Nas, Giggs and Estelle are on the album.
Cam‘s long-awaited third album, All Things Light, will arrive on July 18.
The artist, who is best known for her triple-Platinum hit “Burning House,” wrote the record after her daughter Lucy was born at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
She calls the project “a labor of love and hope and fear and surrender” on Instagram, going on to talk about the album’s inspiration: “Maybe it’s being a mother, or getting older, or maybe it’s the loss and grief I’ve had to make room for in my heart these last few years. This art helped me embrace the abyss- and even sing & dance in the face of all the unknown. I’m so proud to be able to give this to you.”
“There’s an Alan Watts talk where he speaks about how we’re all God, we’ve just forgotten,” she says. “I wanted this song to express that idea humbly, asking how we might live our lives if we acknowledged that we are all God together.”
“Turns Out That I Am God” follows “Alchemy,” which came out in May.
Earlier this year, Cam won an album of the year Grammy for her songwriting contributions to Beyoncé‘s Cowboy Carter.
Cam’s most recent album, The Otherside, came out in 2020, following her debut, Untamed, in 2015.
Ringo Starr made his Grand Ole Opry debut back in February, and now folks at home are finally going to get to see his performance.
Ringo’s set at the Nashville institution will air Saturday at 8 p.m. CT on Opry Live, as well as the Opry Facebook and YouTube channels, and on Circle Country.
Ringo performed three songs at the Opry: “Time on My Hands,” from his 2025 country album, Look Up, and “Act Naturally,” both with Molly Tuttle. He also performed his iconic Beatles hit “With a Little Help From My Friends.”
The news comes as Ringo just launched another tour with his All-Star Band, made up of Toto’s Steve Lukather, Men at Work’s Colin Hay, Warren Ham, Hamish Stuart, Gregg Bissonette and Buck Johnson. The tour hits New York’s Radio City Music Hall on Friday. A complete list of dates can be found at RingoStarr.com.
Former Butcher Babies vocalist Carla Harvey has premiered the video for “Hell or Hollywood,” her collaboration with Zakk Wylde for her new project, The Violent Hour.
The clip was filmed at the Rainbow Bar and Grill in Los Angeles, which was famously beloved by late Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister. It includes cameos by a Lemmy lookalike, as well as people playing Kurt Cobain and Janis Joplin.
“Shooting the ‘Hell or Hollywood’ video at the Rainbow was a full-circle moment for me,” Harvey says. “As a kid growing up in the Midwest, I saw the Rainbow in rock mags and iconic Guns N’ Roses videos … it exuded that gritty, dangerous, rock ’n’ roll lifestyle I craved. When I moved to LA, I practically lived there. I made my first friends at the Rainbow, found my first bandmates there, and got into plenty of trouble.”
You can watch the “Hell or Hollywood” video on YouTube.
“Hell or Hollywood” follows Harvey’s debut Violent Hour single, “Sick Ones,” which features John 5 of Mötley Crüe. Harvey recorded both songs with Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante.
Cody Johnson joins Parker McCollum on a cover of the Danny O’Keefe classic “Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blues.” That’s one of the things we learned as Parker unveiled the track listing for his self-titled fifth album.
“It is the best thing I’ve ever done,” he says. “This record is honest, this record is raw, this record is one thousand percent authentic Parker, and it feels really good to get back to writing and recording songs like I always wanted to.”
Parker has so far released the tracks “Hope That I’m Enough,” “Big Sky” and “Killin’ Me” from the album, as well as his hit “What Kinda Man.”
Here’s the complete track listing for Parker McCollum, which comes out June 27: “My Blue” “Big Sky” “Solid Country Gold” “Watch Me Bleed” “Killin’ Me” “Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blues” (featuring Cody Johnson) “Sunny Days” “Permanent Headphones” “New York Is on Fire” “Come On” “What Kinda Man” “Hope That I’m Enough” “Enough Rope” “My Worst Enemy”
It had to happen sometime: Alex Warren‘s “Ordinary” was #1 in the U.K. for a record 12 weeks, but he’s just been dethroned by Sabrina Carpenter and her “Manchild.”
The success of “Ordinary” made Alex the U.S. artist with the longest-running #1 single in U.K. chart history. Meanwhile, Sabrina now scores her fourth U.K. chart-topper in a little over a year. We’ll have to wait until next week to see if “Manchild” will also knock “Ordinary” out of the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100.
When Sabrina released “Manchild,” her fans and Alex’s fans started feuding online over which song deserved to be #1. It apparently got so bad that Alex took to social platform X to speak out about it.
“Wait why is everyone so mean on here… music is music. I’m so blessed to be on the chart and I’m also so happy for all the wins in music,” he wrote.
“‘Manchild’ is such a great record and I’m so honored to be mentioned in the same sentence as Sabrina. ‘Ordinary’ means so much to me and so many people and it’s totally ok if it doesn’t to you. I’m just happy to be here.”
“Manchild” is the first single from Sabrina’s new album, Man’s Best Friend, due Aug. 29. “Ordinary” will be included on Alex’s new album, You’ll Be Alright, Kid, due July 18.
Shannon Sharpe is setting the record straight after Nicki Minaj threw shade his way on Lil Wayne‘s “Banned From NO” remix.
Nicki raps in the remix, “‘Bout to cop you slides, all you do is flip-flop/ If I send a pic of Shannon, you ain’t that Sharpe.”
She later implied the lyric stemmed from Shannon responding “Nicki Who?” to a fan who told him a woman named Nicki wanted to come on his podcast.
Getting wind of the song, Shannon took to his Nightcap podcast and clarified that he was referring to then-Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley.
“I used to go back and forth with people. I was talking about Nikki Haley,” Sharpe said. “Nikki Haley said it’s really great for everybody of Black America, and I was like … ‘When has it ever been great?’”
“So somebody says Nicki really wants to come on your podcast. I’m like, ‘Nicki who?’” he explained.
Shannon said he was “not trying to be disrespectful” to Minaj and apologized.
“You’ll always have an open invitation if you ever want to come sit down and have a conversation. Even if you just want to have a private conversation on the phone or something. It won’t go any further between you and I,” he said. “I apologize sincerely and hopefully we can move forward.”
A new box set dedicated to Elvis Presley’s ’70s studio sessions in Los Angeles will be released in August.
The set, Sunset Boulevard, is a digital and five-CD collection of songs from The King’s recording sessions and rehearsals at RCA’s Los Angeles studios between 1970 and 1975. The set includes 89 rarities, with over half of them previously unreleased in the U.S.
Songs on the album include alternate takes of Elvis classics like “Separate Ways,” “T-R-O-U-B-L-E” and “Burning Love,” the latter of which is out now on digital outlets.
In addition, the set’s first two CDs, made up of new and never-before-heard mixes, will be released as a separate two-CD set, as well as a two-LP vinyl set.
And to celebrate the release, Graceland’s Guest House in Memphis will host a special Sunset Boulevard listening party on Aug. 13 as part of Elvis Week 2025, featuring a Q&A with yet-to-be announced guests. Tickets are on sale at ElvisWeek.com.
