Recently engaged romantics Blac Chyna and Rob Kardashian will soon welcome a new member to the fam. Blac Chyna is officially pregnant, E! News has confirmed. Shortly after the news started to spread across social media, Rob and Chyna hit the ‘gram to confirm the news in a cooler way: emoji.
The 2015 edition of Billboard’s annual report on “Music’s Top Earners” has just dropped. As usual, the list of “highest-paid” musicians holds a few surprises and a few expected artists. For last year, Taylor Swift, country star Kenny Chesney, The Rolling Stones, Billy Joel and One Direction filled up the overall top five. Taylor Swift holds the very top spot with $73.5 million made in total 2015 revenue, with most of that ($61.7 million) coming from her sold-out tours. When it comes to rappers and R&B acts, J. Cole took the top honors with $8.8 million earned in 2015, earning him #28 on the list. The Weeknd is a close second at $8.6 million, while Drake earned $7.4 million last year.
Kanye West is cooking up some new songs for a forthcoming film from Erykah Badu and Nas. The movie is entitled The Land, and features Erykah Badu as one of its stars and Nas as its executive producer. The lead trailer for The Land just dropped as well, and the recording artists it listed as its soundtrack creators might receive more attention than the movie’s actors. Besides Kanye, Nas and Erykah Badu, The Land boasts musical contributions from Pusha T, Jeremih, Nosaj Thing, French Montana and more. Nas is the individual responsible for curating and producing the soundtrack as well, which will come out via Nas’ own Mass Appeal label on July 29. You can check out the official trailer for The Land below.
Nia Long finally addresses J. Cole’s mention of her on “No Role Modelz.” Her response will likely make Cole blush.
Actress Nia Long sat down with Larry King recently, and King, a noted hip-hop enthusiast, asked her about why she has been mentioned in so many hip-hop songs. She explained that hip-hop began blowing up around the same time as black actors like herself were starting to land major roles, and thus, rappers often saw her as a symbol of success. Her good looks probably didn’t hurt either. King went on to mention that the most recent rapper to namedrop Nia Long in a song is J. Cole, who, on the 2014 Forest Hills Drive song “No Role Modelz,” rapped:
“My only regret was too young for Lisa Bonet / My only regret was too young for Nia Long”
After King read Long the lyric, the 45-year-old actress responded, “He’s really not too young. He just doesn’t know it.” Damn, Cole. After being reported as the highest-earning rapper of 2015 earlier today, and now some flirty action from the goddess Nia Long, he must be sitting pretty. Cole might not be able to respond back to Long, however, as he’s happily married. He had tried to keep his marriage a secret, though “Creed” director Ryan Coogler accidentally dropped the bomb earlier this year during a live interview.
The first week streaming numbers for Drake’s VIEWS album were announced and they’re even crazier than expected. Drake’s label, Republic Records, just revealed the album was streamed over 250 million times in the first week, which tops Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo album, which was streamed over 250 million times in the first 10 days. Not only are the streaming numbers for Drake huge, but the label also announced the project has sold over 1 million copies worldwide in just six days.
Though the final Billboard 200 chart numbers won’t be out until later this week, VIEWS is expected to bring in the biggest first week of sales in Drake’s career and another No. 1 album on his mantle. Early projections pegged the album to move over 1 million copies in the first week, and Republic confirmed that with streams and digital tracking, the project has already passed that mark in the United States. For Drake, this is only the beginning of his run in 2016, which will include an appearance on Saturday Night Live later this month and then an arena tour with Future this summer.
As of right now, the album has only been available on Apple Music and iTunes, but that will change on May 6 when physical copies are shipped out. Then, on May 13, the project will be available to stream on all streaming platforms and not just Apple Music. You can check out the full list of dates for Drake and Future’s upcoming tour here, and stay tuned for the official Billboard numbers in the coming days.
After singer Sinead O’Connor accused Arsenio Hall of delivering drugs to Prince in a bizarre Facebook post, the former talk show host is hitting back with a lawsuit. In a document filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court Thursday, Hall charges the “Nothing Compares to You” singer with defaming his name and is looking for $5 million in damages. He did not take too kindly to her rant, which paints him as a drug peddler and refers to him as “Prince’s and Eddie Murphy’s b***h.”
“Two words for the DEA investigating where prince got his drugs over the decades….Arsenio Hall,” she wrote before adding, “Anyone imagining prince was not a long time hard drug user is living in cloud cuckoo land. Arsenio I’ve reported you to the Carver County Sherrif’s office. Expect their call. They are aware you spiked me years ago at Eddie murphy’s house. You best get tidying your man cave.”
Justin Bieber and Desiigner were both at 1Oak nightclub in NYC last night and things apparently got a little testy when Bieber shoved the young G.O.O.D. Music rapper in the back. According to TMZ, Desiigner was in the middle of his set at the club when he got a little too excited and invaded the VIP section where Bieber and his crew were hanging out. Desiigner apparently ended up stepping on Bieber’s shoes a couple of times, which led Bieber to shove Desiigner in the back while he was performing his hit song, “Panda.”
Chance the Rapper debuted his new single “Blessings” tonight on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The powerful song features an appearance from Donnie Trumpet, as well as vocals from Jamila Woods. During the performance, Chance also announced that his Chance 3 project will be out on May 13. The performance was so spectacular that it garnered some high praises from Questlove and Black Thought, who tweeted out their admiration.
