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When you think of great sister acts, the Pointer Sisters spring to mind. Haim, the Nolans. Ariana Grande is confident KCK3 could be added to the list.
The trio from Brandon, Mississippi stepped onto the stage for the final night of Blind Auditions on The Voice, for an energetic performance of Grande’s “No Tears Left to Cry.”
When Grande turned, the other three coaches stayed put. The girls were left with an easy decision to make.
“I think there’s an obvious reason here why none of us turned around, okay,” Kelly Clarkson said with a laugh. Yes, the girls wanted to go with Ari. And they got their wish.
“I got so excited because I love harmonies,” Grande remarked. “I didn’t even realize it was my song at first, and then three notes in, I heard.”
The Blind Auditions are done, the coaches’ bases are loaded. And, as previously reported, The Voice will bring in extra star power later this month when Ed Sheeran settles in as a Mega Mentor.
Watch the KCK3 performance below.
Tyler, The Creator was awarded best live performer and hip hop album of the year (Call Me If You Get Lost) at the 2021 BET Hip Hop Awards, while Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” was named song of the year, best hip hop video, and best collaboration.
Pre-recorded on Friday at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center in Atlanta, the 2021 BET Hip Hop Awards aired Tuesday night (Oct. 5) on BET.
Other notable wins include Lil Baby for hip hop artist of the year and best duo or group (with Lil Durk); Yung Bleu for best new artist; and Saweetie for hustler of the year.
The show featured performances from I Am Hip Hop awardee Nelly, Young Thug, Gunna and Baby Keem, among others.
Here’s the full list of winners.
Hip hop album of the year
A Gangsta’s Pain, Moneybagg Yo
Call Me If You Get Lost, Tyler, The Creator — WINNER
Culture III, Migos
Good News, Megan Thee Stallion
Khaled Khaled, DJ Khaled
Savage Mode II, 21 Savage & Metro Boomin
The Off-Season, J. Cole
Song of the year
“Back in Blood,” Produced by YC (Pooh Shiesty feat. Lil Durk)
“Late At Night,” Produced by Mustard (Roddy Ricch)
“Laugh Now Cry Later,” Produced by G. Ry, Cardogotwings, Roget Chahayed & Yung Exclusive (Drake feat. Lil Durk)
“Up,” Produced by Yung DZA, Sean Island, DJ Swanqo (Cardi B)
“WAP,” Produced by Ayo & Keyz (Cardi B Feat. Megan Thee Stallion) — WINNER
“Whole Lotta Money (Remix),” Produced By London Jae, Beatgodz, Tee Romano (Bia feat. Nicki Minaj)
Hip hop artist of the year
Cardi B
Drake
J. Cole
Lil Baby — WINNER
Megan Thee Stallion
Tyler, the Creator
Best hip hop video
Cardi B, “Up”
Cardi B feat. Megan Thee Stallion, “WAP” — WINNER
Chris Brown & Young Thug, “Go Crazy”
Drake feat. Lil Durk, “Laugh Now Cry Later”
Lil Nas X, “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”
Saweetie feat. Doja Cat, “Best Friend”
Best new hip hop artist
Blxst
Coi Leray
Don Toliver
Morray
Pooh Shiesty
Yung Bleu — WINNER
Best collaboration
21 Savage & Metro Boomin Feat. Drake, “Mr. Right Now”
Bia feat. Nicki Minaj, “Whole Lotta Money (Remix)”
Cardi B feat. Megan Thee Stallion, “WAP” — WINNER
DJ Khaled feat. Lil Baby & Lil Durk, “Every Chance I Get”
Drake feat. Lil Durk, “Laugh Now Cry Later”
Pooh Shiesty feat. Lil Durk, “Back in Blood”
Best duo or group
21 Savage & Metro Boomin
Chris Brown & Young Thug
City Girls
Future & Lil Uzi Vert
Lil Baby & Lil Durk — WINNER
Migos
Best live performer
Busta Rhymes
Cardi B
DaBaby
Doja Cat
Megan Thee Stallion
Tyler, the Creator — WINNER
Lyricist of the year
Benny the Butcher
Drake
J. Cole — WINNER
Lil Baby
Megan Thee Stallion
Nas
Best international flow
Ladipoe (Nigeria)
Nasty C (South Africa)
Xamã (Brazil)
Laylow (France)
Gazo (France)
Little Simz (UK) — WINNER
Dave (UK)
Video director of the year
Cole Bennett
Colin Tilley
Dave Meyers
Director X
Hype Williams
Missy Elliott — WINNER
DJ of the year
Chase B
D Nice
DJ Cassidy
DJ Drama
DJ Envy
DJ Jazzy Jeff
DJ Scheme
Kaytranada
Producer of the year
DJ Khaled
Hit-Boy — WINNER
Metro Boomin
Mustard
The Alchemist
Tyler, The Creator
Hustler of the year
Cardi B
Drake
Lil Baby
Megan Thee Stallion
Saweetie — WINNER
Yung Bleu
Best hip hop platform
Complex
Genius
Hip Hop DX
Hot New Hiphop
The Breakfast Club
The Shade Room
Worldstar Hiphop
XXL
Sweet 16: best featured verse
Cardi B, “Type Shit” (Migos feat. Cardi B)
Drake, “Havin’ Our Way” (Migos feat. Drake)
Jay-Z, “What It Feels Like” (Nipsey Hussle feat. Jay-Z) — WINNER
Lil Durk, “Back in Blood” (Pooh Shiesty feat. Lil Durk)
Megan The Stallion, “On Me (Remix)” (Lil Baby feat. Megan Thee Stallion)
Roddy Ricch, “Lemonade (Remix)” (Internet Money feat. Don Toliver & Roddy Ricch)
Impact track
Black Thought , “Thought Vs Everybody”
Lil Nas X, “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”
Lil Baby & Kirk Franklin, “We Win”
Meek Mill Feat. Lil Durk, “Pain Away”
Nipsey Hussle feat. Jay-Z, “What It Feels Like” — WINNER
Rapsody, “12 Problems”
I Am Hip Hop award
Nelly
Rock the Bells cultural influence award
Tyler, The Creator
DJ of the year and best hip hop platform will be revealed once the voting window closes on BET.com.
Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion were the top winners at the 2021 BET Hip Hop Awards, which were telecast on Tuesday (Oct. 5) on BET. They won three awards for their provocative smash “WAP”: song of the year, best hip hop video and best collaboration.
Cardi B is the first female artist to win best hip hop video twice. She won two years ago for “Money.” Among all artists, Drake is the category leader with five awards. T.I., Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Kendrick Lamar have each won twice.
This is the second year in a row that an all-female pairing has won best collaboration. “Savage” (remix) by Megan Thee Stallion featuring Beyoncé won last year.
Lil Baby, Tyler, The Creator and Jay-Z each won two awards in competition.
Lil Baby won hip-hop artist of the year for the first time. He was nominated last year but lost to Megan Thee Stallion. Lil Baby also shared the award for duo or group with Lil Durk.
Tyler, The Creator’s Call Me If You Get Lost took hip hop album of the year. The album reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200. All but two of the winners in this category have topped Billboard’s flagship chart. Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d. city (the 2013 winner) and The Carters’ Everything Is Love (the 2018 winner) both reached No. 2. Tyler, The Creator won a second award, best live performer, as well as an honorary award, the Rock The Bells cultural influence award. L.L. Cool J presented that honor.
Jay-Z won impact track for the second time for his featured role on the late Nipsey Hussle’s “What It Feels Like.” Jay-Z first won in the category four years ago for “The Story of O.J.” At this year’s show, he also won the sweet 16: best featured verse award for the track.
J. Cole won lyricist of the year for the second time in three years. Kendrick Lamar has won seven times in that category. Common and Lil Wayne have also won twice.
Missy Elliott won best video director of the year. She’s the third woman to win in that category in the last four years. Teyana “Spike Tee” Taylor won last year. Karena Evans won in 2018.
Hit-Boy won producer of the year for the second year in a row. He’s the third producer to win back-to-back awards in this category, following DJ Mustard (2013-14) and Metro Boomin (2016-17).
Yung Bleu won best new hip hop artist. Three previous winners in that category went on to win hip-hop artist of the year the following year. They were: Drake (2009), Nicki Minaj (2010) and Cardi B (2017).
Ahead of next month’s Virginia gubernatorial election, Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe is targeting the state’s Taylor Swift fans for support.
McAuliffe has launched a series of negative Facebook, Instagram and Google search ads tying the Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin to Scooter Braun’s 2019 purchase of the pop star’s master recordings, asking her fans to #StandWithTaylor — and vote for McAuliffe instead.
“Did you know that Republican candidate for Governor, Glenn Youngkin, helped buy Taylor Swift’s masters out from under her when he was co-CEO of Carlyle Group?” one of the targeted ads states.
Youngkin was co-CEO of private equity firm The Carlyle Group when it funded Scooter Braun’s $300 million acquisition of The Big Machine Label Group, including Swift’s master recordings, through his former media company Ithaca Holdings. The June 2019 acquisition infuriated Swift, who addressed the deal at the 2019 Billboard Women in Music event on Dec. 12 of that year. “This just happened to me without my approval, consultation or consent,” Swift said during her speech, which called out Braun, Carlyle and the other investors involved in the deal. “After I was denied the chance to purchase my music outright, my entire catalog was sold to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings in a deal that I’m told was funded by the Soros family, 23 Capital and that Carlyle Group.”
Although a Nov. 24, 2019 New York Times story reported that Carlyle had intervened to urge Braun to reach out to Swift and “brought the bitter fight closer to a resolution,” Swift, in her remarks at the Women in Music event, added that, “to this day, none of these investors have bothered to contact me or my team directly — to perform their due diligence on their investment. On their investment in me. To ask how I might feel about the new owner of my art, the music I wrote, the videos I created, photos of me, my handwriting, my album designs.”
In November 2020, Ithaca sold Swifts catalog to Shamrock Capital for $300 million.
Youngkin was named co-CEO of The Carlyle Group with Hewsong Lee at the beginning of 2018 and after a two-and-a-half year power struggle that Bloomberg Quint described as “increasingly acrimonious,” announced his retirement from the company in September 2020. He announced he was running for governor in January 2021.
“No matter the industry, Youngkin has shown he would rip off anyone for a profit,” Democratic Party of Virginia Spokesman Manuel Bonder said in his statement. “What happened here is a continuation of Glenn Youngkin’s abhorrent track record of shipping jobs overseas, raising rents on seniors, and harming working families across our country. When it comes to Taylor Swift’s music: what did Glenn know and when did he know it? Virginians deserve answers.”
Youngkin spokesperson Christian Martinez responded: “Terry McAuliffe has reached the stage of desperation in his campaign where he’s rolling out the most baseless attacks to see what sticks. It’s a pathetic fall that could only be achieved by a 43-year political hack.”
McAuliffe, who was governor of the state from 2014 to 2018 and co-chairman of Bill Clinton’s 1996 reelection campaign, has repeatedly used Youngkin’s tenure at Carlyle — which manages $260 billion in assets, according to its first-quarter 2021 report — as a sign that his opponent is not a man who will look out for working-class Virginians’ best interests. In reference to the sale of Swift’s masters, his camp also points to a YouTube video of a political meet-and-greet in which Youngkin says, “I will own everything that happened at Carlyle [when he was there]” and “will never walk away from anything I did in my business career.”
As with most things having to do with politics, the story is not so cut-and-dry. In July, Axios reported that McAuliffe had personally invested in co-investment vehicles tied to the Carlyle Group’s third and fourth buyout funds, plus an energy fund. His wife also invested alongside Carlyle Partners IV. At the time a spokesperson for the campaign told Axios that McAuliffe currently has less than $5,000 of exposure to Carlyle funds, which is below the amount that the candidate would have had to disclose publicly.
Carlyle first invested in Ithaca in 2017, a deal that was overseen by the head of the firm’s media, retail and consumer team, Jay Sammons. After helping to fund Braun’s acquisition of Big Machine, Carlyle sold its stake in Braun’s company when HYBE, the Korean company behind BTS, acquired Ithaca for $1.05 billion in stock and cash.
Swift’s spokeswoman did not respond to requests to comment.
The leaves are falling, the temperatures are dipping, and it’s almost sweater weather. That can only mean one thing: Adele Season has officially arrived.
On Tuesday (Oct. 5), Adele announced her first new music in almost six years, teasing the Oct. 15 release of “Easy On Me” — the presumptive lead single from her upcoming fourth album — with a 10-second snippet of a piano melody. Billboard also reported Tuesday that Adele is shopping a Las Vegas residency for next year to perform all this potential new music.
But what else do we know so far? On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, Katie & Keith dive into all the hints and breadcrumbs Adele has dropped over the past week-plus pointing toward her new album cycle. What will the new music sound like? Is the album definitely called 30? Can “Easy On Me” possibly make us cry as hard as “Hello” did? Listen below:
Also on the show, we’ve got chart news on how YoungBoy Never Broke Again becomes just the second artist — and first rapper — with a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 in 2021, 2020 and 2019, as his latest release, Sincerely, Kentrell, debuts atop the tally. Plus, how Coldplay and BTS’ “My Universe” debuts straight in at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
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 senior director of Billboard 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.)
When the Jeffrey Epstein estate needed to sell off assets to compensate victims and cover litigation costs, retired Haitian businessman Gilbert Bigio was the man with the money. He purchased … Click to Continue »
