It’s been almost 20 years since the debut of Ice Cube’s Friday After Next, the third film released under the “No Vaseline” rapper’s Friday franchise. As a result, there has been major speculation on when the next movie will be released, and during an episode of the Drink Champs podcast at L.L. Cool J’s Rock The Bells festival, Cube shares the reason behind the hold-up.

“I’m tryna get it out of Warner Bros. They don’t believe in the culture, man,” Ice Cube said to the podcast hosts, N.O.R.E. & D.J. E.F.N.

The 53-year-old Los Angeles native also revealed that Warner Bros. has distribution rights to the Friday films. “Once I take the character’s names, it becomes a property of Friday,” Cube added about people asking him to possibly change the film’s name. “It’s useless. They just need to come off that s—!”

Cube noted that Warner Bros. rejected two of his scripts for the movie. The first script included the characters Craig (Ice Cube) and Da Da (Mike Epps) going to jail for selling marijuana.

“The s— is funny,” Ice Cube said. “After they rejected it, they had all these movies about going to jail. So I was like, ‘Man, see, y’all f— me up.’ The other script was about the youngsters in the hood having beef with the OGs, and Craig has to come back and squash that. Smokey’s [Chris Tucker’s] son is the new Deebo [Tommy Lister Jr.], and he’s wilding.”

Cube added that Warner Bros’ “tripped on it,” in addition to talking about some of Friday’s prominent characters passing away, including John Witherspoon, who played Cube’s father in the films, Lister, who played Deebo, and A.J. Johnson, who played Ezal.

When asked if Tucker would star in another film, Cube said the comedian and actor hasn’t expressed full interest in doing another Friday. “Chris is slippy,” said Cube. “But me and Chris is cool.”

As far as Cube’s other notable projects like the 2002 All About The Benjamins movie and his 1998 hit film The Players Club, Cube said it’s tied up due to Warner Bros. “Once again, another Warner Bros’ f– up,” Cube concluded.

Lizzo is looking to trademark her signature flute — a.k.a. “Sasha Flute” — for a range of products in both the digital and physical spheres.

As first noted by trademark attorney Michael E. Kondoudis on Twitter, the global pop star recently filed a total of seven trademark applications for the instrument that cover a number of arenas, including:

  • NFTs and NFT marketplaces;
  • Virtual environments and digital accessories;
  • Animated TV programs and movies;
  • Toys, including action figures and “dolls in the shape of musical instruments”;
  • Clothing and accessories;
  • Physical and downloadable books.

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All seven trademark applications were filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by attorney Peter Nussbaum on behalf of Lizzo, LLC on Sept. 30. A representative did not respond to Billboard‘s request for comment by the time of publishing.

So can we expect a Sasha Flute animated series, plush toy or NFT collection in the future? While such applications aren’t a guarantee that anything will come of them in the real world, they’re a good indication of intent. Kondoudis previously told Billboard that those filing trademark applications typically already have plans in place to make good on them.

“Usually in our experience what we find is people file trademark applications after the plans have already started being formed and in motion — not when they get this idea,” he said at the time. “Because it does cost money, it does take some time and it is a federal legal matter. So when you have an attorney file it there has to be some kind of concrete plan to go from where they are today to selling the products and service in the metaverse.”

Since rising to fame with her third studio album, Cuz I Love You in 2019, Lizzo has become heavily associated with the flute, which she started playing as a child and studied at the University of Houston. She has since performed with the instrument at several live shows, including at the 2019 BET Awards and the 2020 Grammys. It’s worth noting that Sasha Flute itself has a healthy fanbase, with a fan-run Instagram account dedicated to the instrument boasting more than 325,000 followers.

The trademark applications coincide with Lizzo’s Sept. 27 performance at Washington, D.C.’s Capital One Arena, where she played a crystal flute once owned by U.S. president and Founding Father James Madison. The episode sparked the ire of some conservative commentators, leading the Library of Congress — which briefly loaned the instrument to Lizzo for the occasion — to defend the superstar in a series of tweets, noting that loaning out historic instruments is a routine practice and that some instruments in its collection “were donated with the stipulation that they remain functional & be played.”

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Attention, Barbz! Nicki Minaj will be hitting the mic for another episode of Queen Radio on Wednesday (Oct. 5). In August, the rap queen dropped a limited merch collection to coincide with the long-awaited return of her popular Queen Radio show.

Minaj, who headlined Rolling Loud New York and received the Video Vanguard Award at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards in August, topped the Billboard Hot 100 with her latest single “Super Freak Girl.” The track also went No. 1 on the Rhythmic Airplay charts.

Her unisex merch, available exclusively at Amazon’s Queen Radio storefront, consists of a black T-shirt ($35) and black hoodie ($60) designed with the Queen Radio logo and features a colorful illustration of Minaj on the front sporting pink hair with a pop of turquoise. Both pieces are available in sizes ranging from S to XXL, while supplies last.

Queen Radio made its return on Aug. 11 at 10 p.m. ET via Amazon’s Amp app. The rapper announced her partnership with Amazon and the return of Queen Radio back in March.

“I am very excited to be partners with Amazon on bringing back Queen Radio,” Minaj said on Instagram Live at the time. “Queen Radio is something that is so dear to my heart. Of course, there have been times where I’ve thought about not wanting to do Queen Radio, or any radio for that matter, but why not?”

Minaj released “Super Freaky Girl (Queens Remix)” featuring JT, BIA, Katie Got Bandz, Akbar V and Malibu Mitch last month.

The 39-year-old rapper had a busy summer. In addition to bringing Queen Radio back, Minaj headlined Essence Fest and Wireless Festival in July and linked up with Drake and Lil Wayne for a Young Money reunion at October’s World Weekend in Toronto.

Shop Queen Radio merch below.

 

Queen Radio Unisex Tee

$30

Queen Radio Unisex Hoodie

$65

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Harry Styles’ “As It Was” has spent an impressive 15 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (so far), and this week, it steps aside for a brand-new champ: Steve Lacy‘s “Bad Habit.” And that’s not the only major action in the Hot 100 top five this week. Sam Smith and Kim Petras‘ “Unholy” debuts at No. 3 (and atop the Global 200), marking Smith’s highest debut and Petras’ first appearance on the chart ever.

On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith are breaking down the massive moves on the chart and why these songs are especially notable. Oh, and we’re taking a page from Gary Trust’s story and talking about every song with “Bad” in the title to ever top the Hot 100.

Listen to the podcast below:

In addition to “Bad Habit” and “Unholy,” we also have chart news about Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti making it an even dozen weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, while 5 Seconds of Summer debuts at No. 2 with 5SOS5 and Alice in Chains’ 30-year-old Dirt album re-enters the chart at No. 9 after a remastered reissue (and big vinyl sales).

The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard’s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard’s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and Billboard’s senior director of charts Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)

On The Voice, four-chair turns are the stuff of dreams. Grace Bello is allowed to dream.

A 21-year-old, originally from Cibilo, Texas, Bello has just relocated to Lacey, Washington. Now she’s in America’s sweet spot.

When Bello performed Justin Bieber’s “Ghost” during the blind auditions, the response was positive and immediate.

John Legend turned two lines in. Then Blake Shelton spun around, and a frenzy of turns.

“It was amazing, because so many times we’ll get singers with these big, huge voices on the show and they do really well,” Legend remarks. “But, we’ve also had those singers who were way more subtle. I actually won with a singer like that in my first season here. Her name was Maelyn. I heard that in you as well. You just have so much control, and your tone is so beautiful.”

When asked if she plays any instruments, Grace said she’s learning the keys.

“I played a little keyboard in my day,” notes Legend. And then, the sales pitch: “I think we can make some beautiful music on this show, and I would love to coach you.”

Stefani explains, “It’s really rare that somebody will show that many sides of their voice, or that they even have that many sides to their voice. You were able to get tender with your voice, and really listen to the lyrics of what you’re saying.”

The No Doubt singer then gave her best pitch. “That’s also rare for someone so young, and I think you would fit in really, really good on Team Gwen. There really isn’t anyone on my team who can do runs the way that you do. There’s really nobody like you on my team.”

Camila Cabello was the only judge who knew the number by heart. “I was like, ‘Oooh, she’s singing a Justin Bieber song, so I’m guessing that she likes pop music.’ I would be really excited to explore song choices with you.”

Gwen chimed in, “And I love Justin Bieber!”

Sure, they all do.

Camila then compares Grace to Ariana Grande. Bello says she’s Sicilian, to which Gwen says she’s also Italian and John says he got married in Italy. Everyone wants a piece of Grace, who also happens to be Cuban.

“I don’t have a clue what I am. Maybe Italian?” quips Shelton.

Watch how it pans out below.

Watch below.

BTS take flight in an upcoming episode of their popular variety series, Run BTS. In a short teaser for the episode posted to the group’s YouTube channel on Tuesday (Oct. 4), the septet is seen brainstorming what they’d like to film for the show.

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While the BTS boys navigated through ideas like farming, going on a food tour, pole dancing and fencing — Jung Kook’s “flying yoga” idea ended up winning. The scene then cuts to the Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V and Jung Kook struggling through an aerial silk class, hanging from the ceiling while holding on to purple silks, all while joking around and being their goofy selves.

BTS first announced the return of RUN BTS — the first episode in 10 months — on Aug. 1. “We did some recharging and brought more fun back with us,” Jin said in the announcement video. “We hope you’ll look forward to it.” The RUN BTS web series kicked off in August 2015, with more than 150 episodes posted so far.

The announcement is one of the first group projects on the K-pop superstars’ roster since they announced a time-out in June to spend time on solo material.

The newest episode of the group’s variety web series, titled “Fly BTS Fly,” is set to air on Oct. 11 through Weverse and VLive, and will later be available on YouTube. Watch the forthcoming installment’s teaser below.