Month: June 2023

Jelly Roll is taking things short for summer.

The “I Need a Favor” singer/songwriter cut off his long hair and shared a video of the process via Instagram on Friday (June 30).

“You ever wake up and just feel like ‘F— it’? That’s exactly how I woke up feeling this morning,” he says, narrating footage of his haircut. In the clip, Jelly Roll enlists a friend to cut his hair and shape up his beard.

As Jelly Roll readies himself to cut off his signature long mullet, he and his wife Bunnie XO banter, with Jelly Roll calling Bunnie “hair hater No. 1.”

“Are you excited it’s leaving today?” he asks.

“Me and about 5,000 other women!” she responds. “All the ladies in the comments are talking about how beautiful you look with your hair cut, so I’m so excited.”

Bunnie even grabs some clippers to help cut a few of Jelly Roll’s locks off herself. The video shows the rest of the haircut, as locks of Jelly Roll’s curls fall to the floor.

“I can’t believe I cut my curls!” Jelly Roll says at one point in the video clip. “This clip is about acceptance; you can see that I’ve accepted that there is nothing I can do.”

The video ends with Jelly Roll heading to a bathroom to check out his newly shorn hair in the mirror. Clearly happy with his new, shorter haircut, Jelly Roll asked fans to chime in in the Instagram comments section to give their opinions.

“Freshy,” commented Miranda Lambert, who co-wrote “The Lost” with Jelly Roll and Jesse Frasure on Jelly Roll’s album Whitsitt Chapel. Bunnie commented, “We stan a clean shaven king.”

Jelly Roll was recently the cover star of Billboard’s Country Power Players issue, and opened up about his life and career so far, including time spent in jail as a teen and young adult, launching his career as a rapper, meeting his wife Bunnie, and his recent success topping both Billboard’s country and rock charts.

For Ja Rule, the Fourth of July has always held special, family-centered memories in his hometown of Queens, New York.

“Growing up, we always did fireworks displays on the block. As I got a little bit older, before I was even an artist, me and my homies would go get fireworks and light them up for the young kids and stuff,” he recalls to Billboard. “We try to keep traditions rolling. A good friend of mine still does it in the hood every year for the kids. I also try to do it out in New Jersey for my family, but Jersey got the little foofoo fireworks.”

The “Mesmerize” rapper, however, is looking forward to having his family enjoy “the good stuff this year” in terms of fireworks, as he’s slated to perform at Macy’s iconic Independence Day fireworks show on Tuesday (July 4). He joins fellow performers Ashanti, Bebe Rexha, Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson and LL Cool J featuring DJ Z-Trip & The Roots for the big event.

“I’m bringing my kids,” Ja Rule gushes about the upcoming event. “They’re not kids anymore, they’re grown… I’m bringing my adults! [laughs] It’s going to be a family affair.”

The slew of hip-hop performers on the lineup is fitting, as the genre is celebrating its milestone 50th anniversary this year — something Ja Rule is immensely proud of. “50 years, who would’ve thought hip-hop would make it this far? I’m very happy to see the growth,” he says. “50 years ago, it was looked at as a fad and that it wouldn’t be here, so to be here 50 years later and be the number one genre of music is a testament to the power and perseverance of hip-hop.”

Ja Rule, who released his debut album Venni Vetti Vecci in 1999 and has since dropped six more studio albums, remembers the days when hip-hop artists were “once told that we weren’t real artists.” He’s one of the many legends of the genre who flipped the script, as Ja Rule boasts three Hot 100 chart-topping songs, two No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 and four Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart leaders over the course of his illustrious career.

“I wasn’t around for the history of other genres but I was around for hip-hop, and I’ve seen the hate we got,” Ja reveals, before quoting the King of New York and late hip-hop icon, The Notorious B.I.G. “Biggie said it best in ‘Juicy’ when he said, ‘Remember Rappin’ Duke? Duh-ha, duh-ha / You never thought that hip-hop would take it this far.’”

Catch Ja Rule’s performance during the Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks special, which will air live Tuesday (July 4) at 8 p.m. ET on NBC and will also stream on Peacock, which you can sign up for here.

Luke Combs notches his 16th No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart (dated July 8) as “Fast Car” pulls into the most coveted spot. In the tracking week ending June 29, it gained by 7% to 33.4 million audience impressions, according to Luminate.

The song is an update of Tracy Chapman’s 1988 classic, which hit No. 6 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100. Combs’ cover is the first take on a pop hit to top Country Airplay since Blake Shelton’s version of Michael Bublé’s “Home” led in 2008, after Bublé’s ruled Adult Contemporary in 2005.

Meanwhile, Combs’ “Fast Car” is the first remake of a Hot 100 top 10 to crown Country Airplay since Mark Chesnutt’s “I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing” led the latter list in 1999, after Aerosmith’s original topped the Hot 100 in 1998.

Plus, as Chapman solely-wrote “Fast Car,” it’s the first Country Airplay No. 1 authored by one writer since December 2017, when the Mitch Rossell-penned “Ask Me How I Know” became Garth Brooks’ 19th leader.

Additionally, Combs’ “Fast Car” completes an 11-week cruise to No. 1 on Country Airplay, marking his quickest, besting the 12-week climb for “Lovin’ on You” in 2020.

“Fast Car” follows Combs’ “Going, Going, Gone,” which ruled Country Airplay for two weeks in March. He owns another place in the top 10, as “Love You Anyway” rises to No. 9 (18.3 million, up 5%). Further, Riley Green’s “Different ‘Round Here,” on which he’s featured, holds at its No. 36 high (2.8 million, up 1%).

A crossover hit, “Fast Car” also hits the top 10 (12-10) on the Adult Pop Airplay chart, becoming Combs’ first song to reach the tier on the tally (in his first visit to the list).

‘Georgia’ Goes Top 10

Elsewhere, Kane Brown banks his 11th Country Airplay top 10 as “Bury Me in Georgia” lifts 11-10 (18.3 million, up 12%). It follows “Thank God,” with wife Katelyn Brown, which became his ninth No. 1 in February.

De La Ghetto has entered his new career era with the release of GZ — his first studio album in three years and the first released independently under his label Latin Nation Entertainment, distributed by The Orchard.

Home to 12 tracks, including the previously released single “My Love” with Quevedo, GZ (short for his alter ego De La Geezy) navigates sultry and bold R&B sounds, inspired by the genre’s street vibe in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. The set also embraces a few hard-hitting reggaeton tracks as heard in the Myke Towers-assisted “Me Dijeron,” which samples Mario Winans’ “I Don’t Wanna Know,” and unapologetic trap as heard in “Ya Lo Sabes” with Arcangel, Nesi and Villano Antillano.

“The creative process was a little bit different because we weren’t going to do this album. We just wanted to drop singles, but my manager put the pressure on me,” De La Ghetto tells Billboard. “The vibe was different because this is the first album I’ve dropped as an independent artist, so there was more motivation. I didn’t have a crazy deadline, there was no pressure, I just flowed and was having fun with the album.”

The artist’s last album was the star-studded Los Chulitos, released in 2020 before parting ways with Warner Music Latina.

Unlike Los Chulitos, on which he teamed up with acts such as Nicky Jam, Rauw Alejandro and Manuel Turizo, De La Ghetto reeled in a new wave of trap and reggaeton stars from La Isla del Encanto (RaiNao, Dei V, Lyanno, and others) — all of whom remind him of himself when he was a rising urban artist in the early 2000s. 

“Sometimes the old-school producers, as great as they are, are drained from doing a lot of work. I wanted to bring that new energy, that new sound from Puerto Rico to the world — I wanted to use the people from my island without taking credit away from the artists in Colombia, Argentina and the Dominican Republic,” he explains. “When I work with new artists, I let them take control. When we’re in the studio, I let them lead and show me what they want to hear from the new De La Ghetto. At times I even find myself, finding new ways of rapping and new melodies, because this is always changing. Music is moving really fast.”

After personally selecting his collaborators and following a creative span of nine months, GZ was created.

“That’s why I took sometime after ‘Los Chulitos’ to release a new album because I was by myself, I was independent, and I was trying to find that passion of mine to create music,” he says. “What’s the point of releasing an album without feeling? I couldn’t just drop an album with no purpose. It’s not in my DNA.” 

Stream and listen to the GZ album below:

Jenni Rivera‘s new album Misión Cumplida has been a long time coming. In fact, the five children of the Mexican-American icon spoke to Billboard about its making last September during Latin Music Week in Miami. There — Chiquis, Jacqie, Mike, Jenicka, and Johnny — talked at length for the very first time about how the album captures their mother’s true legacy. The posthumous album, released today (June 30), is a banda album through and through — just how La Diva de la Banda would have wanted it to be. The 16-track set, which included previously unreleased songs, was produced by Banda MS’ Pavel Ocampo (producer, songwriter and clarinetist) and Sergio Lizárraga (CEO and founder).

“My mom was very picky with her music, the arrangements,” said Johnny, the youngest of the five who has been super involved in the production of the album after finding unreleased songs on a hard drive. “What my mom loved was la banda sinaloense and Sergio is a master at that, so them together, it fit like a glove. More than anything, we wanted to have the consistency of the sound across her music and we wanted to make sure Jenni’s songs sound like before she left us.”

Jenni’s five children have been working on putting the album together since Jacqie Rivera took over as head of the Jenni Rivera estate in January 2022. After discovering original recordings of unreleased music, they decided as a family that the songs they had found would see the light of day.

“It’s definitely been healing,” Jacquie said back in September. “To be able to do this with my siblings, to be a representation of her…I think she’d feel proud and, in return, we also feel proud to be able to complete this for her. I love to see Johnny on the creative side, selecting the name and the order of the album, the arrangements. It’s beautiful to see him grow into his own.”

Jenni — at the pinnacle of her career — tragically died in 2012 at 43 years old. The most successful woman in regional Mexican on the Billboard charts — she has a total of 19 entries on Top Latin Albums, 12 of which reached the top 10 and seven of which topped the chart. She has earned a total of 12 entries on the Billboard 200 and has 14 top 10 hits on the Regional Mexican Airplay tally.

Given her career, coming into the project wasn’t an easy decision, Ocampo tells Billboard. “Sergio and I talked about the responsibility of doing an album for someone so important to Mexican music. The challenge here was for Jenni to sound like Jenni with the material they gave, which included recordings where she sang a cappella and not professionally-sounding; you hear background noise, people talking. We had to clean all that up,” he says. “Musically speaking, it was made how she worked, recording everything with her banda, those are small details that were part of her style and essence. I’m very satisfied with the results and I think Jenni’s kids are, too. They put their heart into this project, their mom’s legacy is being very well taken care of.”

“Pedacito de Mí” in particular — an interlude on the album — is heart-wrenching. You hear Jenni’s raw, passionate vocals singing over a guitar line something she had written for her kids. “Mami, I see you struggle, I see you cry alone. Pedacito de mí (little piece of me), I love you so much and I’ll love you till the very end … You’re my blood, I’m your mother, I’m here,” she sings.

“I used to have this feeling a few years ago, like anxiety, that everything would run out one day because she’s not here anymore,” Johnny said. “So when you find something new it becomes all the more special.”

While the album was set to drop last year, Jenicka, one of the youngest siblings, added that Misión Cumplida comes at the perfect time. “It may feel a little late, but we’ve been healing on our own. It was supposed to come out two years ago, then a year ago and now that we’re in charge, it’s here. This is us, this is what we have to offer.”

Additional reporting by Tere Aguilera.