Category: Worldwide

Sometimes the best new R&B can be hard to find, but there are plenty of great rhythm-and-blues tunes to get into if you have the time to sift through the hundreds of newly released songs every week. So that R&B heads can focus on listening to what they love in its true form, we’ll be offering a digest of the best new R&B songs that fans of the genre should hear every Friday.

Since the last update of this weekly R&B column, we’ve received plenty of music and news from the genre’s artists.

Tinashe announced the release date for her Quantum Baby album with her “Getting No Sleep” video while Ravyn Lenae released her “Dream Girl” collaboration with Ty Dolla Sign. Lenae also announced the dates for her 2024 Bird’s Eye Tour and Anderson .Paak did the same for his Malibu Tour. Elsewhere, Lauryn Hill announced the The Miseducation Anniversary Tour with YG Marley, Jhené Aiko kicked off The Magic Hour Tour, and PartyNextDoor did the same for his Sorry, I’m Outside Tour.

Lucky Daye — Algorithm

Lucky Daye has entered his rock era! (Kinda). The singer’s third album Algorithm expands his artistry to include elements of rock and alternative that make for a thrilling experience throughout the album, which supplies 14 songs and a pair of guest contributions from Teddy Swims and RAYE.

Tinashe — “Getting No Sleep”

There’s so much to love about Tinashe’s latest era. She has another hit on her hands with “Nasty” and her upcoming album Quantum Baby will arrive on August 16. The latter news arrived with her new single “Getting No Sleep” which captures Tinashe’s intimate and sultry side. “Quantum Baby is about getting to know me on a deeper level,” Tinashe said about the upcoming album. “It’s about exploring who I am as a person and who I am as an artist. I’ve never been one to be put into a box, so the name Quantum Baby encompasses all the different parts that make up who I am as a creative.”

Jeremih — “Wait On It” Feat. Bryson Tiller & Chris Brown

It finally seems like Jeremih is ready to put himself back into the music cycle like the good ol’ days. What better way to do that than to deliver a summer R&B anthem? The singer teamed up with Bryson Tiller and Chris Brown for “Wait On It,” a track the trio uses to sing about the emotional and toxic back and forth they sometimes experience in love. The song arrives ahead of three seven-song EPs and an official that Jeremih will release in the coming months.

Hailey Knox — “On Nothing”

This year is looking to be Hailey Knox’s best yet. The 25-year-old multitalent is weeks away from releasing her debut EP, For The Best. Ahead of its arrival, she delivers “On Nothing” where she comes to terms with her current situationship and how its proven to be nothing more than a waste of time.

Blk Odyssy — “Stank Rose” Feat. Joey Badass

With his third album 1-800-Fantasy just a couple of weeks away, Blk Odyssy teams up with Joey Badass for their first collaboration, “Stank Rose.” The new song is carried by hypnotic guitar riffs and melodic drums as Odyssy and Badass trade lines about unrequited love. As for 1-800-Fantasy which arrives on July 19, the album will narrate the intense story of a teenage boy’s obsession with an unattainable woman.

Raahiim — “Nasty”

Less than a year after he released him BUT IF iiM HONEST album, Toronto singer Raahiim returns with a new single and new announcement. “Nasty” arrives as the first single from his upcoming EP NiiGHTBEFORESERVICE, which drops on July 5 and will feature his first ever collaboration. As for “Nasty,” the track finds a balance between upbeat and sultry, as Raahiim inquiries about his partner’s bedroom skills.

Zacari & BEAM — “Faith + Sight”

Next week, Zacari will release his long-awaited debut album Bliss. As a final treat to fans, Zacari teamed up with Beam for their new single “Faith + Sight,” produced by Skrillex. “This song came from conversations BEAM and I were having about God, questioning the idea of ‘walking by faith, not by sight.’ Why not both?” Zacari said about the new record in a press release.

Teenear — Never Met A Me

Teenear delivers her debut album Never Met A Me in what marks a unique coming out party for the Miami native. The project delivers 12 songs with a lone feature from Rick Ross and an amapiano remix of “Stay Home.” “Never Met A Me honestly feels like a re-introduction of myself to the world,” Teenear said about the album in a press release. “It’s me finally standing in the essence of who I truly am, and it represents what I feel like is my bigger purpose right now. The music – it exudes confidence. It’s for the girls, it’s for the lovers, it’s for the hard workers… It’s for the ones that truly know how to feel.”

Che Ecru — “Love Sick”

Los Angeles-based singer Che Ecru is back with his first single since dropping his Pain Pack 14 EP back in February. “Love Sick” continues the love-centered theme that Ecru uses to note that a lover and the intimacy they provide to him are not as unique as they think it is.

HENNESSY — “Jumbotron”

Just a few months removed from her Maybe I’m Oversharing EP, Providence, RI-born and Los Angeles-based singer HENNESSY checsk back in with her new single “Jumbotron.” On it, HENNESSY boasts about new connection with a significant other and all the favorable qualities she brings to their potential relationship.

LARA’ — “Something About Ur Luv”

After hitting us with the dreamy “Like Dat” alongside Ambré back in May, Texas-based singer LARA’ is back with “Something About Ur Luv.” The delicate and wholesome track, produced by Blk Odyssy and Jay Verace, is a truly sweet experience that LARA’ uses to explore the elation and infatuation between two lovers who are seemingly meant to be together.

Molly Dugan, 26, a teacher from the Kansas City area, has gone viral on TikTok with a video where she reveals the wilder things her 8th-grade students have said. They range from personal insults to strange observations that you’ll only get from kids stuck in the awkward phase between elementary and high school.

Since being posted on May 16, the video has been viewed over 15 million times.

What’s interesting about the video is that she delivers all of her students’ quotes in a stoic deadpan and they all come from memory. It’s a perfect performance for the teacher’s first-ever TikTok post. “Things that my 8th graders have said to me,” opens the video, looking straight into the camera.

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Here are a few of the things her students said:

“8th graders will make fun of you but in an accurate way.” – John Mulaney @John Mulaney official

@miss.dugan1

“8th graders will make fun of you but in an accurate way.” – John Mulaney @John Mulaney official

“Are you in therapy? You seem like the type.”

“You look like my grandpa’s couch.”

“Your pants look like trash bags sewn together. Ha ha. Trash bag pants.”

“I don’t get why you write so much on my rough draft. I’m not reading all that, bruh. For real for real.”

“Fat a** alert.”

“Miss Dugan, the toilet paper in this school sucks. I just got dookie on my hand.”

“How does it feel to be the only unmarried teacher in this school?”

“Yuh, I felt that one in my nuggets.”

The teacher captioned the post with a quote from comedian John Mulaney. “8th-graders will make fun of you but in an accurate way,” Mulaney said in his 2015 Netflix special, “The Comeback Kid.” The quote struck a chord with Dugan who teaches 7th and 8th-grade English-language arts and will begin working with high school students next year.

“I never related to something more,” she told The Kansas City Star. “Sometimes they say it and they don’t know that they’re insulting you, but they kinda do. That’s the beauty of middle school, they’re such a blend of elementary and high school. They know they’re saying something mean but they didn’t mean it in a bad way.”

“I fully believe that my students are really great at heart. The purpose was not to roast my students or put them on blast, rather than just to give people a little comedic relief,” she continued.

The video is a funny example of what life is like as a teacher, but it’s also proof that you need tough skin to step into the classroom. “Do teachers get like some mental support and treatment from like a group of psychologists by the end of each school year? This is so intense!” Andybeta74 wrote in the comments.

Ultimately, Dugan’s honest rapport with her students is great for everyone involved. “When I’m the first to show my human side, my students start to feel more safe to be themselves, too,” Dugan told Newsweek. “My kids might poke fun at me and have some brutal one-liners, but they are all incredible humans whom I am proud to have taught.”

Questlove is an amazingly accomplished artist, with six Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a slew of books and movies to his name. Likewise, fellow Philadelphian multihyphenate Quinta Brunson has a ton of hardware adorning her shelf, with an Emmy Award to go alongside multiple(!) Peabody Awards.

You’d think that these would be pretty serious people, but everyone needs to unwind sometime — and, in their case, they equally overachieve with their game nights as with anything else, putting on a party of epic proportions with a guest list that reads like a dream blunt rotation.

In addition to fellow Abbott Elementary stars Ayo Edibiri (who plays Quinta’s character’s sister), Cree Summer, and Zack Fox (who plays Quinta’s character’s ex), the guests included music stars like Eryn Allen Kane, Finneas, Jason Sudeikis, Jojo, Kelly Rowland, LL Cool J, Maggie Rogers, Steve Lacy, Thundercat, Vince Staples, Willow, and even Weird Al Yankovic. I’d ask what a brother has to do to get an invite, but it seems pretty obvious: Get nominated for a Grammy or two, shift the paradigms of popular music, or be one of the most talented humans alive. You can check out some photos from the hosts below.

Sean “Diddy” Combs has been named in a slew of lawsuits claiming sexual impropriety by the music mogul, and it seems new allegations keep cropping up. Today, another lawsuit was reportedly filed by a woman — a former porn star — who says she was forced into prostitution at Diddy’s now-infamous “white parties,” according to TMZ.

Adria English, who went by Omunique, says that after meeting Diddy in 2004 while accompanying her then-boyfriend to a modeling audition for Diddy’s clothing brand, Sean Jean, they were both propositioned by Diddy, who she says told him he’d get the job in exchange for oral sex. While he refused, another Diddy associate supposedly offered him the job if he could convince Adria to work as a go-go dancer for one of Diddy’s parties.

After working a few more parties, where she says she was encouraged to drink laced beverages, she says Diddy paid her an extra $1,000 to have sex with Jacob Arabov — better known as Jacob The Jeweler. She says after this, she was “passed off” to other people at Diddy’s parties, with Diddy threatening to blackball her and her boyfriend from the industry if she didn’t comply — which he eventually did when she returned to California. She’s named event curator Tamiko Thomas as a co-defendant, saying she helped facilitate the alleged sex trafficking.

Diddy’s a defendant in a number of lawsuits, beginning with him being sued by Cassie for abuse late last year.

Today (July 3), Lana Del Rey linked up with Quavo to drop “Tough,” a new collaborative single. Del Rey — who is best known for ethereal, Americana-inspired music that typically has little to do with rap — doesn’t exactly live and breathe hip-hop. At least, that’s what you might believe if you haven’t been paying attention.

Yes, she usually collaborates with artists like Taylor Swift and Father John Misty, but the truth is that hip-hop has been an undercurrent of Del Rey’s career since pretty much the very start. To drive that point home, let’s go through a few highlights that illustrate Del Rey’s long-running connection to hip-hop.

2012 — “National Anthem”

The world met Del Rey on her debut major-label album, 2012’s Born To Die. The project spawned a number of singles, the most relevant one here being “National Anthem”: In the video, she plays Marilyn Monroe and Jacqueline Kennedy, while she recruited ASAP Rocky to portray John F. Kennedy.

2015 — “Art Deco”

It was rumored that this song was about Azealia Banks, but Del Rey herself shut that narrative down, saying in an interview, “Definitely not. I have no idea where people got that from. I just don’t know what the correlation is. That song is actually about a group of teenagers who go out every night.”

That didn’t stop the two from getting into a Twitter spat in 2018, though, during which Del Rey showed her teeth: She invited Banks to “pull up” and declared, “I won’t not f*ck you the f*ck up.”

2017 — ASAP Rocky

Del Rey reunited with her “National Anthem” co-star on a couple of occasions in 2017: Rocky featured on “Summer Bummer” (as did Playboi Carti) and “Groupie Love” from the Lust For Life album.

2021 — Chemtrails Over The Country Club

When Del Rey revealed the album’s cover in 2021, she received some push-back over the apparent lack of racial variety among the people featured in the art. In response, she wrote in part on social media, “My best friends are rappers, my boyfriends have been rappers…. My dearest friends have been from all over the place, so before you make comments again about a WOC/POC issue, I’m not the one storming the capital, I’m literally changing the world by putting my life and thoughts and love out there on the table 24 seven. Respect it.”

(Per Harper’s Bazaar, Del Rey’s dating history includes G-Eazy; He’s the only rapper listed, but perhaps Del Rey has had some other relationships go under the radar.)

2021 — Migos

Del Rey manifested her Quavo collab in 2021 when she named Migos as the artist she’d most like to work with, saying, “I love them. Everything they do. There was kind of like a new revolution of sound 11 years ago in the singer-songwriter community, which I loved seeing. And then with Migos, I think they kicked off a new super fun, super autobiographical, completely different style of rap. I love them.”

2024 — Sexyy Red

Lana got in a good hang with Sexyy Red at this year’s Hangout Festival: The two made some waves online with their joint twerk session.

2024 — Quavo

Del Rey and Quavo were at the center of some dating rumors a few months ago, but Quavo explained, “We having hits,” ultimately teeing up their new song and bringing this timeline to an end.

Eminem might well be one of the most successful rappers from Detroit, but according to one of the Motor City’s rising stars, he’s not a hometown favorite. Skilla Baby, who has been experiencing a breakout over the past year thanks to collabs with Rob49, Sada Baby, and Tee Grizzley, told Keke Palmer on her podcast (the aptly titled Baby, This Is Keke Palmer) that Detroit actually doesn’t have any favorites after being asked about the “Houdini” rapper.

“Numbers wise, Eminem is the best Detroit rapper, but the gag is nobody would say that in Detroit,” he said. “Everybody had a turn being Detroit’s favorite rapper. Sada Baby had a turn, Tee Grizzley had a turn, Babyface Ray had a turn, Veeze is one of Detroit’s best rappers, Baby Smoove. Everybody had their turn being the best in the city. What we lack is consistency. Nobody has consistently been Detroit’s favorite rapper.”

Lest he be accused of haterism, Skilla Baby explainedI’m a fan of Eminem but do we consider him our best rapper? I don’t think Detroit does… No shade to anybody names I left off. Detroit is full of great rappers and I can’t forget Kash Doll, Big Sean, and Dej [Loaf], of course.”

You can watch the full interview above.

(WARNING: Spoilers for The Chi season 6 will be found below.)

Things were a bit different for The Chi viewers in the shows sixth season, which officially wrapped up last week. The season was expanded from its usual ten episodes, to sixteen which were split into to halves with part one launching on August 6, 2023 and part two kicking off on May 12, 2024. It was big change for one of Showtime’s most successful shows, and it seems to have paid off as there’s good news for the future of The Chi.

Will There Be A The Chi Season 7?

Yes! There will indeed be a seventh season of The Chi. According to Deadline, the show was renewed for another season back in May, just a few days before the second half of season six got underway. Production for the new season has already begun, and together with the announcement of the new season, Nina L. Diaz, President of Content and Chief Creative Officer, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks, shared a statement on the upcoming season.

Lena Waithe is a generational storyteller, whose authentic and unflinching narratives in The Chi resonate deeply, offering a powerful lens into both the complexities of life in Chicago as well as the Black experience in America. On the heels of a record-breaking season and ahead of this week’s return, we’re excited to provide fans with the promise of more – ensuring that they can continue to enjoy the raw, emotional stories and unforgettable characters that have made this seminal series a resounding success for Showtime.

‘The Chi’ season 6 is now streaming on on Paramount+ with SHOWTIME. Seasons 1-5 can also be streamed on the platform as well.

For all the drama surrounding leaks and cameos, Ryan Reynolds has seemingly kept a lot of the important parts of Deadpool & Wolverine under wraps. Yes, we know that Deadpool and Wolverine are frenemies and have to face off against some even bigger enemies (and Fox), but there are still a lot of mysteries surrounding the movie. Like, will Taylor Swift actually appear? No, for the 10th time, she won’t.

But one of the movie’s biggest mystery is the inclusion of Cassandra Nova, a villain who is technically not Charlies Xavier’s twin, but they did share a womb, and she turned out to be the evil one. It happens.

Emma Corrin stars as Nova in the upcoming installment, and the inspiration behind the character was a bit unconventional. “Ryan and Shawn [Levy] pitched this idea, which I was totally on board with: ‘We want this villain to not be a villain in the sense that you expect them to be. We want you to be so endeared by her, so charmed by her, and just when you think that maybe she’s totally seen into your soul and you are going to be best friends for life, you’re dead,’” The Crown star told Entertainment Weekly about their character. For some reason, that made Corrin think of Gene Wilder’s portrayal of Willy Wonka, who did in fact look like he was going to kill all of those children.

“They wanted her to be unpredictable,” Corrin said, who then channeled a different chilling character: Christoph Waltz’s Hans Landa from Inglourious Basterds. “He’s so disarmingly polite and nice and unaffected, and it’s really creepy,” they said. “It’s all the more sinister because he doesn’t need to do anything.”

In Deadpool & Wolverine, the two enemies meet up to fight some other bad guys from Wolverine’s past, which in hand changes the history of the MCU. It needed changing, anyway.

Deadpool & Wolverine hits theaters on July 26.

The Bear had a killer soundtrack in season 3 (including another Taylor Swift needle drop), but you know what artist it could have used more of? Kate Bush. I mean, sure, the English art-pop icon is already associated with Stranger Things, but there’s no such thing as too much Kate Bush. Besides, it would have made Ayo Edebiri very happy.

The cast of The Bear — Jeremy Allen White (Carmy), Ayo Edebiri (Syd), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Richie), Abby Elliot (Natalie), Lionel Boyce (Marcus), Liza Colon-Zayas (Tina), Matty Matheson (Fak #1), and Ricky Staffieri (Fak #2) — sat down with Vanity Fair for a video to see how well they know each other.

One question Ayo posed to her co-stars was: what’s my go-to karaoke song? After Moss-Bachrach jokingly suggested it was either the overture of Oscar-winning masterpiece Drive My Car or the theme from Dune: Part Two, both of which would bring the house down, Staffieri guessed “Believe” by Cher. Nope. It also wasn’t anything by Celine Dion, though Edebiri has been known to belt out “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now.” The actual answer: “Wuthering Heights” by Kate Bush or “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt.

Those are two quality karaoke songs, because neither is over five minutes. It should be illegal to perform a song over five minutes in karaoke, and yes, that includes “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

You can watch the video above.

On Tuesday, one of the all-time greats in Charlotte Hornets history officially called it a career, as Kemba Walker announced his retirement from basketball after a 13-year professional career that saw him make four NBA All-Star teams and a third-team All-NBA nod in 2019.

Walker played last year overseas with AS Monaco, winning a French League title, and spent the final four years of his NBA career in Boston, New York, and Dallas, but will be most remembered for his work in a Hornets uniform. While he won’t be playing basketball anymore, Walker will return to his adopted home of Charlotte for his next chapter, as he is joining the Hornets again, this time as a player enhancement coach as part of Charles Lee’s new coaching staff.

It will be cool to see Walker back with the Hornets, as he spent the first eight years of his career in Charlotte and cemented his place as one of the NBA’s best point guards while there. He is the franchise’s all-time leader in points, field goals, 3-pointers, free throws, and minutes played.

Injuries derailed his career after a stellar first season with the Celtics, but he’ll now shift into coaching where he’ll look to help pass down the knowledge he gained over his career to the next generation of hoopers.