Miami police unveiled a Black History Month-themed cop car on Thursday afternoon, and many took to social media share their dissatisfaction with the concept. The red, yellow, green, blue and … Click to Continue »
From declarative album titles like Epik High Is Here and We’ve Done Something Wonderful to the more conceptual Shoebox and [e], Tablo, Mithra Jin and DJ Tukutz of Epik High have always been intentional in a multifaceted way with their record titles.
The hip-hop trio’s latest project leans toward the latter for the group to deliver a new sound that speaks to a fresh mindset and return to their roots as musicians after releasing their debut album 20 years ago.
“We like strawberry representing the album because it’s sweet and fresh, which is what we wanted to do at the beginning of our 20th anniversary,” explains group leader Tablo. “We thought that people would expect some music that is reminiscing and weighed down by the years, and we wanted to go against that expectation and just create something that sounds like three guys that just decided to create a group together. But strawberries are interesting because they’re so fragile; you can smash them up with your thumb but, somehow, they’ll stain on your table perfectly fine. And it reminds me of blood when it’s squished. So, there’s a little bit of pain in that sweetness. I think that that’s what Epik High is.”
Despite opening and closing the new Strawberry EP with, as they describe, “Epik High-ish” lo-fi tracks, the EP boasts some of the group’s most mass-appealing tracks in years inside: the knocking, melancholy hip-hop cut “On My Way” with Chinese K-pop star Jackson Wang, the disco-tinged “Catch” is smoothed out by a perfect feature from Hwa Sa of girl group MAMAMOO, plus an explicit, relatable freestyle from Tablo examines the online and real-life chaos of 2023. While Epik High has toured their brand of Korean hip-hop tour across the globe and scored multiples across Billboard‘s World Albums and World Digital Songs chart, Strawberry is intentionally described as a “global album” by the band to share their current mindset.
“Technically speaking, all our albums have been global, but not by choice, right?” muses Tablo. “K-pop and Korean music became a global thing even though it wasn’t ever a global release. But as a result, the audience for our albums has grown wider. And here’s how I approach progressing as a musician: I don’t think of myself as leading the way and my audience has to follow where I go—I will make music in the way that I want—but I believe that as my audience grows geographically and I’m flying there to perform for them, I want them in the center of my mind and my heart when I’m creating music. Before, I would create the music and the music’s audience grew. Now, that audience is affecting the way I create music as well, like, they’re in my mind when I make music…I think more because of COVID; I think how the entire globe is sharing the same fears and inspirations and hopes and dreams. We were just made more aware of it and, as a result, I think with this album, it’s just a mindset thing—calling it a ‘global album’ because there’s no real difference to how we’re releasing it; we’re just saying that because we want to remind ourselves that we are now speaking to people all over the world and we want them to know that we care about them.”
Despite Epik High intending for last February’s release of Epik High Is Here to be their final album, the trio naturally found themselves creating music again after career highlights like returning for their second Coachella performance and surrounding themselves with other musicians.
“So we actually did decide internally that Epik High Is Here would sort of be the last album,” Tablo explains. “Epik High Is Here Part 2 ends with ‘Champagne,’ which is sort of going back to the very first song on our first album [‘Go’ on Map of the Human Soul]. It’s like the curtain call. We were like, ‘We’ve made so many albums and I don’t think there’s anything we can really say. So, let’s continue to be Epik High and perform, but I’m not sure if we should ever make an album again. It was like a collective decision. What happened was…damn it, Coachella kind of inspired us again. We were like, ‘Oh my God…’”
Tablo says California continued to inspire the band despite their professional promises: “We just assumed that maybe we’ll release one single in October 2023 when it actually becomes 20 years, but nothing else. And then we were in LA for some festival, we just had like a week in L.A. but only one show so we had all this time. Being who we are, we ended up with a lot of musicians just making music and ended up with a ton of songs. We were like, ‘What do we do with these songs? We promised each other that we wouldn’t release an album,’ and then Tukutz was like, ‘This isn’t actually an album if we’re releasing three to five songs. Technically, it’s just a project.’ And I’m like, ‘You’re right. We did say we will never release another studio-length album so we’re not breaking that promise…yet.’ And we justified it to ourselves, hence, this situation.”
Let Epik High break down their new album/project/situation Strawberry below, track by track:
HARDY nabs his first No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Feb. 4), as his latest effort The Mockingbird & The Crow flies in atop the tally. The set, a half-rock and half-country project, bows with 20,000 copies sold in the U.S. in the week ending Jan. 26, according to Luminate. HARDY previously notched one entry on the list, with the No. 8-peaking A Rock in 2020.
Also in the top 10, Maneskin’s new studio effort Rush! debuts at No. 3; Wilco’s 2022 album Cruel Country re-enters at No. 4 – hitting the top 10 for the first time – after its wide release on CD and vinyl; the soundtrack to Halloween Ends scares up a No. 7 entry following its vinyl release; and Trippie Redd’s new Mansion Musik opens at No. 9.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of The Mockingbird & The Crow’s 20,000 sold, physical sales comprise 5,000 (4,000 CDs and 1,000 vinyl LPs) and digital album sales comprise 15,000. The album’s start also marks HARDY’s best sales week, surpassing the 5,000 sold in the debut frame of A Rock in 2020 (Sept. 19, 2020-dated chart).
As The Mockingbird & The Crow launches at No. 1 on Top Album Sales, it halts the chart-topping run of Taylor Swift’s Midnights, which spend its first 13 chart weeks at No. 1. On the new chart, it falls to No. 2 with 17,000 sold (down 21%). The set continues to be a hot-seller on vinyl, with 9,000 of its sales for the week on vinyl. In the latest tracking week, Midnights’ total U.S. vinyl sales crept past 1 million copies. Swift’s popularity on vinyl is well noted, and in 2022, one out of every 25 vinyl albums sold in the U.S. were by Swift.
Rock band Maneskin sees its new album Rush! bow at No. 3 on Top Album Sales with 11,000 copies sold. It’s the first charting entry for the act and its best sales week.
Wilco’s Cruel Country, which was released last May via digital retailers and streaming services, re-enters the chart at a new high of No. 4 after its release on CD and vinyl (7,000 sold across all formats; up from a negligible sales total the previous week). Cruel Country had previously topped out at No. 31 on July 2, 2022-dated list, following its limited CD release timed to Record Store Day 2022’s drop on June 18 last year. All told, Cruel Country is the eighth top 10-charting effort on Top Album Sales for Wilco, and it ties for the act’s highest-charting effort on the list. (A whopping five of the band’s eight top 10s all peaked at No. 4.)
Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours falls 2-5 on Top Album Sales with 6,000 sold (down 20%) and Michael Jackson’s Thriller dips 5-6 with 5,000 sold (down 13%).
The soundtrack to the film Halloween Ends debuts at No. 7 on Top Album Sales following its vinyl release on Jan. 20. The set, across all formats, sold nearly 5,000 copies for the week. Halloween Ends is the highest charting soundtrack from the Halloween franchise on the 31-year-old chart, surpassing the No. 9 peak of Halloween Kills in 2021.
SZA’s Ctrl vaults 57-8 on Top Album Sales with nearly 5,000 sold – mostly from vinyl sales – after a replenishment of stock. Trippie Redd’s new Mansion Musik bows at No. 9 with nearly 5,000 sold (the rapper’s fourth top 10 effort), while Harry Styles’ former leader Harry’s House rises 11-10 with a little over 4,000 sold (down 7%).
In the week ending Jan. 26, there were 1.653 million albums sold in the U.S. (down 6.3% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.312 million (down 9.3%) and digital albums comprised 341,000 (down 7.6%).
There were 523,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Jan. 26 (down 2.8% week-over-week) and 782,000 vinyl albums sold (down 13.1%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 2.330 (down 3% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 3.478 million (up 27.4%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 7.377 million (up 6.2% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 6.044 million (up 13.5%) and digital album sales total 1.333 (down 17.9%).
A member of the Senate Intelligence Committee is pushing Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores because of national security concerns as the Chinese-owned company faces escalating prospects of a national ban amid bipartisan scrutiny of its data-sharing practices.
In a letter addressed to the chief executives of Apple and Alphabet, Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo. says TikTok’s popularity “raises the obvious risk that the Chinese Communist Party could weaponize TikTok against the United States” by forcing parent company ByteDance to “surrender Americans’ sensitive data or manipulate the content Americans receive to advance China’s interests.”
The government has increasingly been taking action against TikTok’s ties to China. In December, President Joe Biden signed a bill prohibiting the use of TikTok by nearly four million government employees on devices owned by its agencies. At least 27 state governments have passed similar measures.
There’s no evidence that the Chinese government has demanded American user data from TikTok or its parent company or influenced the content users see on the platform.
In a statement, TikTok said that the Bennet “relies almost exclusively on misleading reporting about TikTok, the data we collect, and our data security controls.” It added that the letter ignored its investment in a plan, known as Project Texas, to “provide additional assurances to our community about their data security and the integrity of the TikTok platform.”
Mirroring concerns made in a letter from a Federal Communications commissioner to Apple and Google in June, Bennett stresses TikTok’s data harvesting practices. He says its reach “allows it to amass extensive data on the American people, including device information, search and viewing history, message content, IP addresses, faceprints and voiceprints.” Unlike other tech companies that harvest similar data, he claims TikTok “poses a unique concern” because its obligated under Chinese law to cooperate with state intelligence work.
TikTok has over 100 million active users. Roughly 36 percent of Americans over 12 use the platform, spending over 80 minutes per day on the app — more than Facebook and Instagram combined. In November, TikTok confirmed that China-based employees could gain remote access to European user data. Reporting by BuzzFeed News has also revealed that company employees in China had access to US user data.
The data TikTok collects can be leveraged by the Chinese government to advance Chinese interests, according to the letter. It may be forced, for example, to tweak its algorithm to boost content that undermines U.S. democratic institutions or “muffle criticisms of CCP policy toward Hong Kong, Taiwan, or its Uighur population.”
According to Pew survey in 2022, a third of TikTok’s adult users report that they regularly access news from the app. Forbes has reported on the ability of TikTok staff to “secretly handpick videos and supercharge their distribution, using a practice known internally as heating.”
To curb criticism of its data-sharing practices, TikTok has announced a partnership with Oracle to move its data on U.S. users stored on foreign servers to Texas. The project also includes audits of its algorithms and creating a subsidiary called TikTok US Data Security to oversee content moderation policies and approve editorial decisions. U.S. employees will report to an independent board of directors.
The US Committee on Foreign Investment, which reviews business dealing that may be a threat to national sceurity, is reviewing ByteDance’s 2017 merger of TikTok and Musical.ly. It may force TikTok to sell to a US company, harkening back to when former President Donald Trump issued in 2020 an executive order demanding ByteDance to divest ownership of the app (the order was blocked by a federal court). Scrutiny of TikTok quieted when Biden took office, but the company continued to run into legal trouble over data-sharing practices. In 2021, TikTok agreed to pay $92 million to settle lawsuits alleging that the app clandestinely transferred to servers in China vast quantities of user data on children.
Anupam Chander, a professor of law and technology at Georgetown University who was briefed by TikTok about Project Texas, says the U.S. banning TikTok may “embolden other governments to do the same to apps and services from the U.S.” He adds, “It’s not clear to me that anything short of a sale will satisfy TikTok’s critics.”
TikTok’s chief executive Shou Zi Chew will appear before a House committee in March.
This article originally appeared in THR.com.
When TOMORROW X TOGETHER unveiled the first visuals for their Billboard 200 No. 1–contending album The Name Chapter: Temptation, the K-pop boy band quickly set the Internet ablaze with the dreamy, skin-baring set of photos and videos. Even if the group’s millions of fans and followers aren’t similarly preparing for fantastical photo shoots and TV performances on the regular, the quintet is honest about the relatable mindset to push towards their goals and showcase why TXT is increasingly earning its title as “K-pop’s voice of Gen Z.”
When discussing The Name Chapter: Temptation, TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s Soobin, Yeonjun, Beomgyu, Taehyun and HueningKai don’t differentiate when speaking about the ways diet, idleness and exercise affect their lives as both musicians and everyday people. At just 20 years old, youngest member HueningKai describing resisting certain meals as “a war against food” may be an essential part of his K-pop experience but also a battle that everyone fights from time to time. Taehyun mentioning “the temptation of laziness” may be more top of mind for a schedule-packed starlet, but who hasn’t had a morning of hitting the snooze button an extraordinary amount of times?
TOMORROW X TOGETHER don’t preach to rise above vices, nor do they try to appear as if they don’t fall to temptations themselves, but instead bring these shared experiences to life through more outstanding creative contributions (like “Happy Fools” with Coi Leray) and the most impressive choreography of their careers (watch “Devil by the Window” and new single “Sugar Rush Ride”). The guys emphasize that not only are their lived experiences inside The Name Chapter: Temptation, but the front-to-back listening experience previews the next page in their story, which is sure to continue this deeper look into these five engaging, empathetic superstars.
Read on for Soobin, Yeonjun, Beomgyu, Taehyun and HueningKai’s reflections on their latest EP, new goals, favorite songs and more.
Congratulations on the new music, TOMORROW X TOGETHER! What are you most looking forward to starting this new chapter?
TAEHYUN: What I look forward to the most is the reaction of our fans when the music first releases. When we are preparing for the album release right now and that’s the time when we can most feel that “Oh, we are finally releasing the album” feeling.
Your album titles The Dream Chapter and Chaos Chapter give obvious hints about where the music will go, but The Name Chapter is a little more open-ended. Can you explain it?
TAEHYUN: We always talk about growth. We’ve talked about friendship for The Dream Chapter, and some love being broken in our Chaos Chapter. And, finally, we arrived at The Name Chapter and you know you have to grow up but sometimes you don’t want to yet. That’s what this EP is about: You’re tempted to stay in “Neverland” because it’s sweet and you’re young and free. But at the end of this album, you say “Farewell, Neverland” because you know you have to go, so you have to go.
TOMORROW X TOGETHER always put your stories into your albums. How do you relate and fit with what you just described?
TAEHYUN: The overarching theme of this album is “temptation.” And I think that we come across many temptations from different places as we grow. The track that I’ve felt like it’s really our story is the third track “Happy Fools.” We all contributed in making this track and it talks about a story of how we fall into the temptation of laziness. YEONJUN did a beautiful job top lining the song, and all five of us contributed to the lyrics writing so it truly became our song.
What does the new single “Sugar Rush Ride” represent in your story?
HUENINGKAI: I think this song really incorporates our overarching theme of this album, which is temptation, really well. So it talks about a temptation of a sugar rush, which is irresistible and very, very sweet. So, I think it represents our refreshing, dreamlike and even sexy charms.
SOOBIN: It’s not only about an experience that we have, but I think it’s an experience that everyone has. So, I think everyone can resonate with the song too.
“Sugar Rush Ride” has the lyric, “The devil said, ‘Gimme, gimme more’” and you have the “Devil by the Window” song. With the album’s theme, what temptations do you battle in your lives?
HUENINGKAI: I think the temptation that you come across in everyday life is diet. So, when you go on a diet, you can’t really resist the temptation of food. It’s basically a war against food. So, I think that’s the strongest and scariest temptation we can ever come across.
YEONJUN: I agree.
You guys always look great and the Internet went wild with your concept photos. Did you do anything specific to prepare for those, either mentally or physically?
YEONJUN: Yeah, I worked out almost every day.
Tell us more about the visuals for this album: You have “Daydream,” “Nightmare,” “Farewell,” and “Lullaby” concept photos.
TAEHYUN: I can basically explain our concept photo that it has different concepts and, I think, they’re basically in a chronological order. In “Daydream,” we depict how we fall into the temptation and how happy and pleased we are falling into the temptation. For “Nightmare,” we express how we recognize that we have fallen into the temptation and try to fight off the temptation. In “Farewell,” we finally overcome the temptation and take one step further away from the temptation.
You always emphasize wanting to grow with every album release. In what ways do you feel like you grew with this new album?
HUENINGKAI: Every time we release a new album, we give a try to new and various genres. And of course, for this album as well, we gave a try to many new genres. So it was our first time trying Afropop genre, which is a pretty difficult genre but I think everyone did a very good job in recording “Tinnitus (Wanna Be a Rock)” and we wrapped that up pretty nicely. And other than the songs, I think the concept photo–wise, it was our first time trying that concept of a “dreamlike” concept, but every member did a good job pulling off that concept.
What’s everyone’s favorite track on the album?
TAEHYUN: That’s my favorite today, “Tinnitus (Wanna Be a Rock).”
HUENINGKAI: I would choose “Farewell, Neverland,” the last track.
YEONJUN: I’ll choose “Happy Fools.”
SOOBIN: I’m the same with HUENINGKAI, the last track, “Farewell, Neverland.”
BEOMGYU: I will choose “Happy Fools” too.
TOMORROW X TOGETHER has hit No. 4 on the Billboard 200. I have a really good feeling about this album, but do you have any new goals, hopes or dreams this time?
HUENINGKAI: Of course, to perform at the bigger stages and perform at the AMAs.
YEONJUN: Attending [American Music Awards] was a really good experience, but next time we want to perform.
TAEHYUN: We also want to build and strengthen our color. We want people to listen to our music and think, “Hey, that’s TXT and that was awesome.”
What else do you want to emphasize to fans with this release?
TAEHYUN: Fans want spoilers and hints every time we release a new album. And I want to tell our fans that if you listen to the tracks from Number One to Number Five, in order, then you can get a hint for our next album.
Nick Carter is hitting back against a lawsuit that claims he raped a 17-year-old girl on his tour bus in 2001 following a Backstreet Boys concert in Tacoma, Wash.
In a countersuit filed in Nevada court Thursday (Feb. 2), the singer claims he’s the victim of a “five-year conspiracy” orchestrated by three individuals “to harass, defame and extort” him by latching onto the #MeToo movement. Among other allegations, Carter says the alleged victim of the assault, Shannon “Shay” Ruth, was manipulated into filing her lawsuit by Melissa Schuman Henschel — a former member of the teen-pop group Dream, who previously accused Carter of assaulting her in 2003 when she was 18 years old — and Schuman’s father, Jerome Schuman.
“Ruth was a vulnerable and highly impressionable individual, craving attention and desperate to fit in,” the lawsuit reads. “Schuman and Jerome groomed and coached Ruth, coaxing her to inflate her initial claim of being abused at the hands of a third-party, to being physically abused at the specific hands of Carter, and, finally, to being sexually assaulted by Carter.” The countersuit goes on to highlight the evolving nature of Ruth’s claims against Carter in social media posts as well as “numerous factual changes and amendments” made to her initial police report against him over a period of 12 months.
In addition to claims that the co-defendants illegally conspired against him, Carter accuses the defendants of defamation owing to various social media posts and a podcast appearance in which they variously accused him of being “a rapist,” an “abuser,” a “#SerialPredator” and more.
Also named as a defendant is the holder of the @ElaineModo Twitter handle (under the name Olay Elaine Mcintosh) — though the countersuit alleges that the account is likely orchestrated by the Schumans and Ruth to spread false information about him from a source designed to appear independent.
Carter is asking for damages of no less than $2.35 million — the amount he claims he lost in various career opportunities — as well as emotional distress damages, punitive damages and more.
In an emailed statement sent to Billboard, Ruth’s attorney, Mike Boskovich of Corsiglia McMahon & Allard, said: “Why should Nick Carter be believed with his long history of abusing females. A jury will weigh the evidence and decide.”
One particularly eyebrow-raising allegation in the countersuit involves Carter’s late brother, singer Aaron Carter, whom Nick alleges the Schumans and Ruth used as a pawn to try to “legitimize” their claims against his older brother. “The Schumans’ timing couldn’t have been better since, at the time, Aaron was addicted to drugs, battling serious mental health issues, and engaged in a misguided campaign of retaliation against Carter and other members of his family who were worried about Aaron and pushing him to seek professional help,” the complaint reads. It adds that the Schumans went so far as to accompany Aaron to a court hearing after a restraining order application was filed against him by Nick and his wife following a series of threatening social media posts by the younger Carter.
The countersuit notes that Aaron later recanted his previous statements backing up the women’s claims on Instagram and during a subsequent podcast appearance, but that the Schumans and Ruth continue to use those earlier statements to try to lend credibility to their claims.
In the wake of Melissa Schuman’s initial allegations against Carter in November 2017, the singer claims that, in addition to career and financial blowback, he has become the target of death threats and been forced to hire private security for himself and his family. He alleges that he and the Backstreet Boys were dealt an even costlier financial blow after Ruth filed her lawsuit last December, losing at least $2.35 million due to the cancellation of promotional events, contracts and endorsement deals with companies including MeUndies, VRBO, Roblox and ABC, which scrapped the group’s A Very Backstreet Christmas Special due to air on the network after Ruth’s lawsuit was filed.
Though named as a co-defendant, throughout the filing Ruth is depicted as little more than a pawn in a game designed to bring the Schumans wealth and attention. The countersuit paints Melissa specifically as a desperate fame-seeker who is using the allegations against Carter to revive her dormant career as a singer and actress. Jerome, meanwhile, is characterized as akin to an attack dog, regularly making “aggressive, nasty, and, often, threatening” statements on social media against Carter and his fans.
The lengthy countersuit includes a detailed account of Ruth and Melissa Schuman’s inconsistent statements since making their accusations and attempts to discredit them by noting that they waited 19 and 14 years, respectively, before going public about the alleged assaults. “Upon information and belief, Schuman and Ruth deliberately waited for the applicable limitation periods to run so as to allow evidence to spoil, witnesses to die or disappear, and memories to fade in an effort to evade any thorough investigation into their false claims,” the countersuit reads.
With respect to Ruth’s claims, the countersuit alleges that no autograph signing event was held outside Carter’s tour bus on the night in question, as she claimed in her lawsuit, and includes evidence that after going to the Tacoma police nearly 20 years later, Ruth continually contradicted important details in her account — including an initial claim that Carter had only “injured her arm.”
In further denying Melissa Schuman’s claims, Carter alleges that, far from a rape, the two engaged in consensual sex on the night in question. After highlighting Schuman’s prior statements that she tried to avoid the singer in the wake of the alleged rape, the countersuit adds that she not only completed work on the movie they were filming together after the alleged assault but recorded a duet with Carter and later performed it live with him. It also points to various supportive social media posts Schuman made about Carter as recently as May 2017.
You can read the full lawsuit below.
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