Lil Loaded, Dallas Rapper Behind ‘6locc 6a6y,’ Dies at 20

Dallas rapper Lil Loaded has died at the age of 20.

Ashkan Mehryari, attorney for Lil Loaded (real name Dashawn Robertson), confirmed the rapper’s passing in an email to Billboard on Monday night (May 31). He said the death was a result of suicide.

Lil Loaded was known for the viral track “6locc 6a6y” that arrived in 2019, and just last week was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). He had released his latest music through Epic Records.

“dopest fanbase on earth,” he’d written on his last post on Instagram on May 27, when he proudly shared the news about “6locc 6a6y” being certified gold.

In 2020, Robertson had been arrested on a murder charge in connection to the shooting of 18-year-old Khalil Walker.

According to the Dallas Morning News, in February he was indicted on a lesser charge of manslaughter. At the time, his attorney told the local news outlet that the two were friends and the incident involved “no malice.”

Robertson was born in San Bernardino, California, before moving to Dallas when he was a kid. He grew up listening to Michael Jackson — “to me he started the whole rapping/singing thing. That’s where it originally came from for me,” he said in a 2019 interview with XXL — and Lyfe Jennings, and also drew inspiration from artists like Lil Wayne, The Game, Chief Keef, Snoop Dogg, Rich Homie Quan and Tupac.

He started rapping at 18. Before “6locc 6a6y” made its mark — as of May 31, its offical video on YouTube had been viewed close to 29 million times — he dropped his first song, “B.O.S.,” which was a reworking of YNW Melly’s “Butter Pecan.”

One of Robertson’s latest releases was his music video for the track “Hard Times,” feat. Hotboii, a track off of 2020’s Criptape.

If you’re thinking about suicide, or are worried about a friend or loved one, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, available 24 hours, at 1-800-273-8255.

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Travis Barker Shows Off His Hair Braiding Skills on Girlfriend Kourtney Kardashian

Travis Barker can’t get enough of braiding his girlfriend Kourtney Kardashian’s hair.

On Sunday (May 31), the Blink-182 drummer once again showed off his hairstyling handiwork on social media by reposting a photo of the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star’s beautifully long braided mane.

“Braid by @Travisbarker,” Kardashian captioned the snapshot, which Barker shared on his own Instagram Stories.

This isn’t the first time the superstar drummer has styled his girlfriend’s lovely dark hair. In April, Kardashian shared another sultry picture of her silky plait, writing “and he braids” on her Instagram Stories.

The couple, who made their relationship Instagram official in February, have been making headlines regularly with their PDA-filled social media posts.

In recent weeks, the pair made some magical memories during a trip to Disneyland with their respective kids. They’ve also been on other family outings together, including a ski trip to Utah in April.

Kardashian recently made it permanently clear how she feels about the musician. On May 12, she showed off the “I love you” tattoo she inked in her handwriting on Barker. The musician commented, “Woman of many talents.” In April, she also showed off the tattoo of her name that the drummer had gotten on his chest.

See Barker’s hair braiding skills on Kardashian here.

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Billie Eilish’s Stunning New Selfies Have Fans Wondering If ‘Lost Cause’ Is Coming

Billie Eilish is releasing a new song this week, and her latest Instagram post has fans murmuring about which Happier Than Ever track it will be.

Eilish announced on Friday (May 28) that a new tune was on its way some time this week. On Monday, she posted new photos of herself — a full-face selfie, a closeup of her gaze and a snapshot of a car tire — with the caption “nothing but a lost cause.”

One of the top comments left on her post was a fan’s prediction that “LOST CAUSE IS COMING,” and various comments below seemed to express the same thought.

“Lost Cause” could be a fair guess, as it is the title of one of the tracks from Eilish’s upcoming sophomore album. She announced the full album, Happier Than Ever, in April, sharing its track list and its July 30 release date.

See her new pictures, which have reached nearly 5 million likes as of 5 p.m. ET, and the comments from her fans over on Instagram.

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Taylor Swift’s ‘Evermore’ Breaks Modern-Era Record for Biggest Vinyl Album Sales Week

In just three days, Taylor Swift’s Evermore has set the record for the biggest sales week for a vinyl album in the U.S. since MRC Data began tracking sales in 1991.

The vinyl edition of Evermore, released on May 28, sold over 40,000 copies in the U.S. through May 30, according to initial reports to MRC Data. That beats the record for an entire single-week of vinyl sales, held by the debut frame of vinyl devotee Jack White’s Lazaretto, when it launched with 40,000 copies in the week ending June 15, 2014. (MRC Data began electronically tracking music sales in 1991, when the company was known as SoundScan.) It’s presumed that Evermore’s vinyl sales sum will grow by the end of the tracking week on Thursday, June 3.

Evermore was initially released digitally and through streamers on Dec. 11, 2020, but its vinyl edition was not issued until May 28. Evermore’s vinyl sales are helped greatly by five months of banked pre-orders, as the vinyl version of the album was announced in mid-December, and went up for pre-order at the same time.

Evermore’s record-breaking vinyl sales add to the great music-on-vinyl comeback story for the once-dormant format. 2020 marked the single-largest year for U.S. vinyl album sales in MRC Data history (27.54 million copies) and the 15th consecutive year of growth for vinyl (up 46.2%). Further, vinyl LPs accounted for 27% of all albums sold in 2020. Vinyl albums were once the dominant format for album purchases in the U.S., up until the early 1980s. After that, cassettes took hold until the early 1990s, when the CD format flourished and became the leading format for album sales.

Evermore, again, was initially issued to streaming services and as a commercial digital album on Dec. 11, 2020, and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. The album’s CD, cassette and vinyl editions followed on Dec. 18, 2020; Feb. 12 and May 28, 2021, respectively. The delayed release of Evermore’s physical formats is owed to the amount of time it takes to manufacture the products, with vinyl requiring the longest time to produce.

As Evermore was a surprise release (Swift announced its existence on Dec. 10), there was likely no time for her team and her record label, Republic Records, to coordinate the manufacturing of the physical editions of the album in time for the Dec. 11 streaming and digital release. So, the CD, cassette and vinyl editions hit retail later.

Not all albums these days have such delayed physical releases, but many do. Ariana Grande’s Positions is another such example. The album was released on Oct. 30, 2020, after Grande had teased the album’s existence Oct. 14. While Positions was released on Oct. 30 as both a digital album and as a CD, its cassette and vinyl LP were delayed until April 9. Like Evermore, Grande’s vinyl LP had months of pre-orders fueling its eventual arrival, when it sold 32,000 copies in the week ending April 15.

One superstar album on the horizon that will not have a delayed vinyl release is Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever. On July 30, the album will be released via streaming platforms; and commercially as a digital album, and on CD, cassette and vinyl formats (with at least six different color vinyl editions available in the U.S., in addition to its standard black vinyl edition).

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Katy Perry Gives Cute Update on Baby Daisy: ‘She’s Crawling’

Katy Perry called in to On Air With Ryan Seacrest and happily chatted about her baby’s latest milestones.

The “working mom,” as she very accurately described herself in the interview on Friday (May 28), has been plenty busy with American Idol, not to mention planning a Las Vegas residency. Meanwhile, just nine months ago, she welcomed her first child with Orlando Bloom, named Daisy Dove.

From the sound of it, the 9-month-old is getting mobile and keeping Perry on her toes at home.

“She’s crawling,” the pop star and proud mom revealed, “and she has one tooth. It’s barely poked through, though.”

“Actually, it’s kind of like one of my teeth,” she said of her little one’s baby tooth. “‘Cause I have pretty good teeth on the top but if you were to actually see my bottom teeth, they’re a little interesting, but I think that’s character.”

Listen to the interview clip in the video below.

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Olivia Rodrigo Tells the Stories Behind Several ‘Sour’ Songs on ‘Zach Sang Show’

Olivia Rodrigo, whose debut album, Sour, just launched at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 2021’s biggest week so far, opened up about many tracks from the set in a new interview with Zach Sang.

Their conversation — in which the “Drivers License” hitmaker was eager to chat about her songwriting inspiration and process — was uploaded to YouTube on Sunday (May 30).

“I’m a very in-the-present songwriter,” Rodrigo said. “I write songs when I’m in the depths of my emotions.”

They discussed heart-wrenching ballads like “Enough for You” and “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back,” the somewhat surprising album opener, “Brutal,” and more.

Below, see a few highlights from the nearly 22-minute heart-to-heart about the songs of Sour.

‘Brutal’ Is the Opening Number, But It Was a Last-Minute Addition

“I actually wrote ‘Brutal’ like two weeks before we had to turn the record in, which is very late in the game,” admitted Rodrigo. “It’s one of my favorite songs on the record. I think it sounds really unique, and I love the songwriting of it — I think it really represents my teenage years very well. I really wanted to put it as the opening track. Everyone was like, ‘Olivia, are you sure you want to that? It’s kind of weird,’ and I was like, ‘Love it. I wanna do it.’”

She went on to explain to Sang what exactly an “ego crush” (from the song’s lyrics) is: “An ego crush is just like feeling like you’re so inadequate and inferior and getting angry about it … feeling like your entire is just like, gone, which I think is something that I definitely felt and something that teenagers feel, I suppose, as they’re growing up.”

Moreover, she said, “It’s a song about when you’re in that pity party and you’re just like feeling sorry for yourself — it’s stuff that you would say when you’re in that.”

“It’s sort of funny to have songs get big about like, how much you feel like nobody likes you,” noted Rodrigo. “It’s sort of ironic and weird.”

How Taylor Swift (And Those Birds) Ended Up on ‘1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back’

Chirping birds can be heard in the beginning of “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back,” an idea that Rodrigo’s Sour producer, Daniel Nigro, came up with — and she loved it.

“My producer Dan, he actually just like stuck a microphone out of his window of his house and recorded the birds in the morning and put them in the song, which I think is great and it sort of adds a cool ambiance,” Rodrigo said of the track that was overall inspired by a text message.

“I really sort of loved that concept of ‘1 step forward, 3 steps back.’ Somebody texted it to me once, and I was like, ‘Ooo, that’s really interesting. I’ve never heard somebody say something like that.’ I thought it would be a cool way to describe this toxic, sort of manipulative, relationship.”

Swifties will immediately recognize the piano from “New Year’s Day” on this tune. Rodrigo offered some details about how that came to be: “We interpolated ‘New Year’s Day,’ which is Taylor’s song from Reputation. I came up with the ‘1 step forward’ concept and I sort of wrote a verse and a chorus, and when I got home — I was in the car on a road trip, and when I got home, I decided to sing it over the chords of ‘New Year’s Day.’ I think they’re really beautiful chords. I was lucky enough to get that approved, and it’s on the record now.”

Don’t Assume That ‘Enough for You’ Is About a Romantic Relationship

“‘Enough for You’ is one of my favorite songs on the record,” Rodrigo revealed.

“I wrote that entirely by myself which I’m really proud of. It’s super, obviously, very insecure and vulnerable, but I also love how it’s really hopeful,” she said, referencing the turnaround point of the song, when she comes to the realization that “someday I’ll be everything to somebody else.”

“I don’t think it neccessarily has to relate to a romantic relationship. I think I feel inadequate in many sort of relationships, whether that be a work relationship or a friendship relationship,” said Rodrigo.

Why ‘Hope Ur OK’ Was Rodrigo’s Ideal Closing Track

“‘Hope Ur OK’ makes me really sad, in a great way — it just makes me really emotional. It’s a super personal song about people that I really love. That one gets me,” Rodrigo said of Sour’s sweet final note.

She continued: “I feel like it’s super hopeful. Sour is a very sort of sad, angry, emotional record, and I wanted to end it with a song that was like, you know, ‘We’re all gonna be all right. We’re gonna get over it. Everything’s gonna be OK, and we have each other.’ It was really important for me to end this sort of somber record on that note.”

Watch Rodrigo’s full conversation on the Zach Sang Show below.

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Ed Sheeran & Courteney Cox Recreate Ross & Monica’s ‘Friends’ Dance Routine

Ed Sheeran stepped in for David Schwimmer to hilariously reboot a classic Friends moment this weekend.

The singer-songwriter teamed up with his friend Courteney Cox for an Instagram video that shows off their best take on Ross and Monica’s dance routine — the one that was shown in season 6, episode 10 of Friends, “The One With the Routine.” He shared the results on Sunday afternoon (May 30).

“Had a reunion of our own this weekend @courteneycoxofficial #theroutine #iknow #friends4eva #obviouslybetterthanross,” Sheeran captioned the video, referencing the recent HBO Max Friends reunion special.

“Just some routine dancing with a friend… @teddysphotos,” Cox wrote on her own Instagram.

Watch them go all in for the dance routine over on Instagram, and see how it compares to the original Friends scene with a fan-made Twitter clip below.

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George Floyd’s Family to Hold Houston Concert Marking Death

George Floyd’s family is holding a concert Sunday evening (May 30) in Houston, where he grew up, to mark the anniversary of his death.

Floyd’s family will join Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams and others at The Fountain of Praise, a church that held one of his funeral services. The event will also feature performers including gospel singers John P. Kee and Tamela Mann, and rappers JaiCei and Trae Tha Truth.

Floyd, who was Black, died on May 25, 2020, after a white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, pinned down Floyd’s neck with his knee for several minutes as Floyd pleaded for air. Floyd’s death sparked worldwide protests and calls for change in policing in the U.S. Chauvin was fired after Floyd died and was later convicted of murder and manslaughter in his death.

The concert being held by the George Floyd Foundation is among events being held across the nation to mark the anniversary. The foundation was launched by Floyd’s siblings in his honor to help combat racial inequities in Black and brown communities.

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Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Sour’ Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Albums Chart With 2021’s Biggest Week

Olivia Rodrigo captures the biggest week of 2021 for an album, as her debut release, Sour, opens at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with 295,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending May 27, according to MRC Data.

Sour also launches with the second-largest streaming week ever for a non-R&B/hip-hop album, and second-biggest for an album of any genre by a female artist.

Sour is the singer-songwriter and actress’ debut album, and was preceded by a trio of top 10 hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100 earlier in 2021, including two No. 1s: “Drivers License” and “Good 4 U.” Before “Drivers License” debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 in January, Rodrigo broke through with roles on Disney Channel’s Bizaardvark in 2016 and Disney+’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series in 2019 – along with contributions to those shows’ soundtrack albums.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new June 5, 2021-dated chart (where Sour debuts at No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard’s website on Wednesday, June 2 (one day later than usual due to the May 31 Memorial Day holiday in the U.S.). For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Of Sour’s 295,000 equivalent album units earned in the tracking week ending May 27, SEA units comprise 218,000 units (equaling 300.73 million on-demand streams of the album’s 11 tracks), album sales comprise 72,000 (making it the top-selling album of the week) and TEA units comprise 4,000.

Sour was released on May 21 via Geffen Records/Interscope Geffen A&M (IGA). It’s the second No. 1 for Geffen this year, following Rod Wave’s SoulFly (Alamo/Geffen/IGA, April 10-dated chart).

Biggest Week of 2021 for an Album: With 295,000 units, Sour surpasses 2021’s previous biggest-week, tallied by Taylor Swift’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version) when it bowed 291,000 units (April 24-dated chart). (Swift herself has a writing credit on Sour, as the track “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back” samples the Swift-penned “New Year’s Day,” from Swift’s 2017 Reputation album.)

Dominant Debut: Sour captures the largest week, by units, for an act’s debut charting effort since the Billboard 200 transitioned from an album-sales only ranking to an equivalent album units-based chart on the Dec. 13, 2014 survey. It beats Cardi B’s debut studio set, and first Billboard 200 entry, Invasion of Privacy, which opened at No. 1 on the April 21, 2018 chart with 255,000 units. Rodrigo is also the first woman to see her debut charting album open at No. 1 since Invasion of Privacy.

Second-Largest Streaming Week for a Non-R&B/Hip-Hop Album: Sour starts with 218,000 SEA units – totaling 300.73 million on-demand streams of the album’s 11 tracks. That marks the second-largest streaming week for both a non-R&B/hip-hop album and second-biggest for an album by a woman of any genre. Ariana Grande’s Thank U, Next continues to hold the record for the largest streaming week for a non-R&B/hip-hop set, and any album by a woman, with 307.07 million streams for its 12 tracks in its first week (chart dated Feb. 23, 2019).

Sour’s Short and Sweet Arrival: With just 11 tracks in total on Sour, the album is the shortest No. 1, by track count, since BTS’ eight-track Be debuted at No. 1 on the Dec. 5, 2020-dated chart. It’s fairly unusual for such a short album to crown the Billboard 200. Of the 27 No. 1 albums in the past 12 months (from June 6, 2020-onwards), 20 of them had at least 15 tracks in their opening week, and 11 of those had at least 20. (Some albums will garner a reissue in their first week of release, adding further tracks beyond their standard core tracklist. And many albums typically get reissued weeks and months later, with additional tracks. So far, Sour only has 11 tracks across all retailers and streamers.)

One last note on Sour’s debut: It brings just the second person named Olivia to No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Before Olivia Rodrigo, the only Olivia to top the chart was Olivia Newton-John, with two No. 1 albums in 1974 and 1975 (If You Love Me Let Me Know and Have You Never Been Mellow).

J. Cole’s The Off-Season falls 1-2 in its second week on the Billboard 200 with 92,000 equivalent album units earned (down 67%).

Twenty One Pilots score their third top five-charting Billboard 200 entry, as the rock act’s latest studio album, Scaled and Icy, bows at No. 3 with 75,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, album sales comprise 51,000, SEA units comprise 24,000 (equaling 33 million on-demand streams of the album’s tracks) and TEA units comprise less than 1,000.

Morgan Wallen’s former No. 1 Dangerous: The Double Album is a non-mover at No. 4 with 55,000 equivalent album units (up 4%), while Moneybagg Yo’s previous chart-topper A Gangsta’s Pain falls 3-5 with 49,000 units (down 12%). Pooh Shiesty’s Shiesty Season returns to the top 10, vaulting 32-6 with 35,000 units (up 97%) after the album was reissued on May 21 with four additional tracks. The album was initially released on Feb. 5 with 17 tracks and peaked at No. 3 on the March 20-dated chart.

Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia slips 5-7 on the Billboard 200 with 34,000 equivalent album units earned (down 16%).

42 Dugg scores his first Billboard 200 top 10, and second charting album, as Free Dem Boyz bows at No. 8 with 32,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, SEA units comprise 31,000 (equaling 43.56 million on-demand streams of the album’s tracks), album sales comprise 1,000 and TEA units comprise a negligible total. The album features his recent Hot 100 hit “4 Da Gang,” with Roddy Ricch.

Rounding out the new top 10 on the Billboard 200 are Justin Bieber’s former leader Justice (7-9 with 31,000 equivalent album units; down 10%) and Pop Smoke’s Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon (holding at No. 10 with 30,000 units; down 1%).

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Tourists, locals gather in South Beach to enjoy Air & Sea Show for Memorial Day Weekend

Steps away from world-famous Ocean Drive and its usual party crowds, families with small children joined locals and tourists Saturday to enjoy Memorial Day Weekend at the annual Hyundai Air … Click to Continue »
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