Machine Gun Kelly Strips Down for Wild Calvin Klein Campaign With Pete Davidson

Pete Davidson has finally joined Instagram — but it’s not what you think. On Monday, the Saturday Night Live star took over Calvin Klein’s Instagram to unveil his new campaign with Machine Gun Kelly.

The social media surprise began with Davidson posting a casual selfie to the brand’s feed. “I got Instagram,” he captioned the post, which featured him throwing up a peace sign in a simple, white Calvin Klein T-shirt, his face mostly obscured by his camera’s flash.

The post by the famously social media averse star quickly went viral, amassing more than 400,000 likes. For his part, Kelly took to the comments section to hint that he’d somehow be involved, writing, “Are you gonna post us in our undies[?]”

Hours later, the pair surprised fans by taking over Calvin Klein’s Instagram Live for an impromptu  modeling session, and as more screenshots trickled out across social media, it’s clear the buddies’ hang session only got wilder and wilder. In one shot, Davidson and Kelly sit side by side on a couch with their pants around their ankles; in another hilarious moment, the rocker stands up in his skivvies to gleefully pour a bowl of popcorn into the SNL vet’s mouth.

A NSFW conversation also ensued, with the duo discussing whether they were, ahem, “growers or show-ers.” ““Nice stuff, by the way. I get it now. Good for you. Good for you, dog,” Davidson complimented Kelly, leading the latter to joke, “I would’ve put an extra two socks in there and blew the world’s mind.”

Once the livestream wrapped, Davidson posted a follow-up snap to Calvin Klein’s Instagram of himself and Kelly staring questioningly into the camera. “Did we nail it or did we nail it,” Davidson wrote, while MGK commented by asking, “should we remake zoolander[?]”

Check out more from Kelly and Davidson’s underwear campaign below.

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K-Music to the World: How to Enjoy Korea Through Virtual ‘K-Vibe Festa’

For the past two years, lockdowns and travel bans have resulted in it being almost impossible to visit other countries. As the world resets and the global COVID-19 pandemic recedes, tourism is tentatively returning to some regions, but if you’re not yet ready to hop on a plane to South Korea, that’s all right, because with the K-VIBE FESTA, South Korea can come to you, virtually.

A multi-element experience that is built on the increasingly popular idea of a metaverse, the Korea Tourism Organization’s K-VIBE FESTA campaign is themed around the idea of “Come Play With Korea” and features a variety of different experiences for people to engage with in digital realms.

The overall theme of the K-VIBE FESTA is for international fans to explore and enjoy all that South Korean pop culture and traditional culture have to offer, through all the “hip,” “cool” and “inspirational” facets of local culture and entertainment.

Virtual reality and extended reality (XR) experiences enable “tourists” to do a variety of different things, through a different set of platforms.

The K-travelog, for instance, launched on Nov. 16, and enables people to travel around the country, with a special focus on the popular heritage destination Gyeongju, via a 3-D avatar using the Zepeto platform, dubbed the K-VIBE FESTA x ZEPETO collab.

The most popular attraction for music lovers is undoubtedly the XR K-Vibe Concert, which will be held on Dec. 8, and viewable via YouTube. A 90-minute concert, it’ll feature a variety of K-pop and other South Korean artists performing their hits for audiences around the world.

BoA, Key of SHINee, Aespa, Brave Girls, Mommy Son and Wonstein are all set to perform, while special guests include Lachica, a dance team that rose to popularity during this year’s hit series Street Woman Fighter, and Anupam Tripathi, who rose to fame through his role as Ali in Squid Game.

Music has taken a special focus of the KTO’s attempt to show the world Korea digitally when tourists can’t visit, and the K-Vibe Concert follows the “Feel the Rhythm of Korea” travel series shared by the Imagine Your Korea account on YouTube over the past two years.

Featuring the likes of alt pansori-pop group Leenalchi showcasing Seoul, and hip-hop artists roaming through Daegu, folk music and traditional heritages are shown off while blending with the most modern of pop culture sensibilities. The Feel the Rhythm of Korea films lean into a trend popularized by many K-pop acts, including BTS, VIXX and Stray Kids, as they incorporate Korean cultural heritage into their music and performances.

All of these different events are connected through the KTO’s attempt at building a metaverse, or integrated digital spaces, all related through the K-VIBE FESTA’s themes.

“The metaverse is a new ecosystem that can break down national borders and make everyone’s dreams and experiences come true,” says Choongsub Oh, the director of the brand marketing team at the KTO. “Through this metaverse campaign, we will be able to provide people around the world with opportunities to be immersed in new Korea travel experiences and dreams of visiting Korea. It also gives an opportunity for the nation to show leadership in the metaverse market.”

–By Tamar Herman

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Anuel AA’s ‘Las Leyendas Nunca Mueren’ Launches at No. 1 on Top Latin Albums Chart

Anuel AA collects his fourth straight, and total, No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart as Las Leyendas Nunca Mueren debuts at No. 1 on the Dec. 11-dated survey.

Anuel’s third studio album is a follow up to Los Dioses, with Ozuna, also a No. 1 debut (Feb. 6-dated list) and his second leader of 2021.

Las Leyendas Nunca Mueren starts with 22,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 2, according to MRC Data. Most of that sum (20,500) was driven by streaming activity, representing 30.2 million on-demand streams of the set’s 16 tracks, while a little over 1,000 units arrive from traditional album sales.  The rest comprises track equivalent album units. (One unit equals one album sale, 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams for a song on the album.)

Las Leyendas is Anuel’s fourth leader in as many appearances on the all-Latin genre tally. His first chart success arrived in July 2018 when album debut Real Hasta La Muerte bowed at No. 1 and held at the summit for two consecutive weeks (a 135-week run). Emmanuel, which remains at No. 20 on the current ranking, concurrently opened at No. 1 less than a year later (June 13, 2020-dated chart).

Las Leyendas, released via his own label Real Hasta La Muerte, congregates a group of producers including Chris Jeday, Gaby Music, Tainy, Nelly “El Arma Secreta,” and Ovy on The Drums. It likewise earns Anuel his fourth No. 1 on Latin Rhythm Albums among six entries. The set concurrently gifts Anuel his fourth entry on the all-genre Billboard 200, starting at No. 30.

Nine Leyendas cuts debut on the all-metric (airplay, digital sales, streaming data) Hot Latin Songs chart. However, the set was preceded by two songs: “Dictadura” (No. 12 debut and peak, Nov. 13) and “Leyenda” (No. 21 debut and peak, Nov. 27). In total, Anuel places 12 titles on the current survey (including “Ley Seca,” with Jhay Cortez), the most since his pair-up with Ozuna on Los Dioses placed 13 simultaneous tracks (Feb. 6-dated tally).

Here’s a recap of all Anuel’s titles on Hot Latin Songs (11 belonging to Leyendas):

No. 12, “Súbelo” (Greatest Gainer/ Airplay)

No. 16, “Ley Seca,” with Jhay Cortez

No. 24, “North Carolina” (debut)

No. 25, “McGregor” (debut)

No. 26, “Dictadura”

No. 31, “Real Hasta La Muerte” (debut)

No. 33, “Llorando En Un Ferrari” (debut)

No. 36, “Leyenda” (Greatest Gainer/ Sales & Streaming)

No. 39, “1942” (debut)

No. 41, “Rick Flair” (debut)

No. 44, “Pin” (debut)

No. 48, “Esa Cruz” (debut)

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‘The city will help us.’ Miami Beach took cash, fast-tracked tower on Champlain’s edge

When Miami Beach city officials rushed to greenlight construction of an 18-story ultra-luxury condo tower just across the city line from Champlain Towers South, no one knew the 40-year-old building … Click to Continue »
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At Ghislaine Maxwell trial, a fight over huge cache of photos of naked or semi-naked women

FBI agents found a cache of thick black binders — all labeled with names — that contain hundreds of naked or semi-naked photographs on CDs that Epstein stored in various … Click to Continue »
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UM booster’s pitch to build stadium at Coral Gables Senior High School lands with a thud

University of Miami booster and attorney John Ruiz’s Sunday night proposition to build the school a fully retractable football stadium at Coral Gables Senior High School was not well-received by … Click to Continue »
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Miami jury hits Bitcoin ‘inventor’ with $100M liability but he gets to keep billions in crypto

A Miami federal court jury decided Monday that a self-described Australian inventor of Bitcoin owed the estate of deceased Palm Beach County resident and computer forensics expert David Kleiman millions … Click to Continue »
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Gov. Hochul says at least a dozen omicron variant cases have hit New York

The omicron variant is here — and it’s starting to settle in. Like tourists hitting the streets for the holiday season, the latest strain of the COVID-19 virus began making … Click to Continue »
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Jonas Brothers Set to Debut Remember This Tour Mini-Series on Social Media

The Jonas Brothers are coming to a screen near you: On Monday afternoon (Dec. 6), Joe, Kevin and Nick revealed they’ve been cooking up a special behind-the-scenes look at their recently wrapped Remember This Tour.

“As some of you already know… we were doing a bit of filming during the #RememberThisTour,” the sibling trio shared on Instagram. “Starting tomorrow we’re dropping a mini-series (including footage from a special secret show in LA) all month on Facebook. It’s so exciting for us to be able to share some off these off-stage moments with all of you. Thank you again for making these last few months special for us.”

The first episode of Moments Between the Moments premieres Tuesday via Instagram and Facebook Messenger. If the promo photo of the guys in custom Red Sox jerseys is any indication, the premiere — which happens to be titled “A Year of Firsts” — will follow the JoBros’ epic show at Boston’s Fenway Park last October.

The cross-country trek, during which the Jonas Brothers debuted their latest single, “Who’s In Your Head,” raked in more than $300 million across 44 dates. Meanwhile, Moments Between the Moments will arrive fresh on the heels of Netflix’s Jonas Brothers Family Roast, which hit the streamer over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Next, the brothers are set to open a Nellie’s Southern Kitchen location at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas early next year. The Southern-style eatery will be the family’s second restaurant venture following the original Nellie’s in Belmont, North Carolina, which was opened by the brothers’ parents.

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Anthony Martini Joins Slip.Stream as Chief Music Officer

Music industry veteran Anthony Martini has joined record label, distribution platform and music licensing startup Slip.stream as chief music officer and partner, it was revealed today.

The announcement comes several months after Slip.stream acquired the brand and name of Martini’s indie hip-hop label, Commission Music, along with the recording contracts for Powers Pleasant, Big Havi, DJ Envy and DJ Holiday, in August. At the time, it was announced that Martini would join Slip.stream’s board to help guide the development of the company’s frontline record label. He will now lead that process, while also developing new music products across the intersection of gaming, content creators and brands.

Martini joins Slip.stream from a brief stint at Royalty Exchange, where he was appointed CEO in March. During his tenure there, the company paid out over $90 million to artists and Martini helped launch a new program allowing rightsholders to sell their royalty streams as NFTs. He became the first to take part in that program, selling an NFT of his share of the publishing royalty stream for his longtime client Lil Dicky’s 2015 track “Save Dat Money.”

In addition to his executive duties, Martini is an investor and advisor to the metaverse media company Factory New, which is behind TikTok avatar rapper FN Meka. He previously managed artists including Tyga and founded Commission Records, whose roster included Lil Dicky and MadeinTYO, before selling a majority stake in the company to Big Noise Music Group in 2019. (Big Noise still owns the entire Commission Music catalog along with MadeinTYO’s recording contract.)

Martini joins Slip.stream founder and co-CEO David Carson, co-CEO Dan Demole and CMO Jesse Korwin, the latter two of whom previously co-founded synch licensing company Jingle Punks. Slip.stream launched in July with a library of over 100,000 licensed music tracks and sound effects, which creators can access by purchasing a subscription plan.

“The music fan experience needs freedom to be more dynamic,” said Martini in a statement. “The reality is, people don’t just listen to music, they want to USE it. The more people can use music, the more exposure it gets, which increases an artist’s chance of success. Slip.stream is built on that premise. It never made sense to me how labels would pay an influencer to promote a song, but then penalize them if they promoted it for free. That’s the type of outdated model that I’m on a mission to change.”

Slip.stream’s label releases in 2021 have included Powers Pleasant’s single “Evil Twin” featuring Denzel Curry and Zillakami, DJ Five Venom’s “Look at What I Did,” and Big Havi and KyleYouMadeThat’s “Important!”

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