Month: September 2023

Olivia Rodrigo jumps from No. 10 to No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart (dated Sept. 23), returning as the top musical act in the U.S. for a seventh total week, and for the first time since 2021, thanks to her new sophomore album, Guts.

The set launches at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 302,000 equivalent album units earned in its opening week, according to Luminate, while its lead single “Vampire” returns to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for a second week on top.

This marks the first time that Rodrigo has tripled up at No. 1 on Billboard’s three premier charts. She’s the 16th artist to achieve the feat (dating to the Artist 100’s 2014 inception). Drake has scored the most such success, with 16 weeks ruling all three rankings concurrently, followed by Taylor Swift (15).

Most Weeks Ruling the Artist 100, Hot 100 & Billboard 200 Charts Simultaneously:
(As of charts dated Sept. 23, 2023)

All 12 songs from Guts land in the top 40 of the latest Hot 100, led by “Vampire” and “Bad Idea Right?” (No. 7). Rodrigo makes history as the first artist to chart all songs from two career-opening albums in the ranking’s top 40, as all 11 tracks from 2021’s Sour likewise reached the region.

Also on the Artist 100, V re-enters at No. 3, reaching the top 10 for the first time as a solo act. The BTS member returns on the strength of his new solo EP Layover, which debuts at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 100,000 units.

V is the seventh and final member of BTS to reach the Artist 100’s top 10 in a solo capacity, after Jimin (No. 1 peak), Agust D (aka Suga; No. 3), Jung Kook (No. 5), J-Hope, RM (both No. 6) and Jin (No. 10).

The Artist 100 measures artist activity across key metrics of music consumption, blending album and track sales, radio airplay and streaming to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity.

Summer may be ending. But having fun while living life on your own terms is always in season for Tech N9ne. And the indie hip-hop pioneer illustrates how he does just that in the video for his latest single, “Pull Out” featuring Head Da Don.

Sliding into a brand new red Maserati with butterfly doors, Tech N9ne and fellow passenger Head Da Don cruise around Tech’s Kansas City, Missouri stomping ground, meeting women and handing out CD-styled invitations for a fly pool party at a mansion. Along the way, the pair rap to a head-boppin’, banging beat.

On the no-holds-barred first verse, Tech totes up his creds: “They said, ‘Tech N9na washed up.’ / I gotta tell ‘em, ‘Pull out the facts’ / Lot of ‘em stuck on planet rock / like I can’t pull out some plaques / What I scripted makes me tickets / Now I pull out the stacks / Cause I brought Independence, Overland Park and every hood out for rap.”

“When I heard that beat from Goodro, then that [pull out] hook from Head Da Don, I knew immediately that the song would get us back up on radio and the charts,” Tech N9ne tells Billboard. “This is just the beginning of the fire songs coming off my Bliss LP.”

Released in July in the midst of celebrations for hip-hop’s 50^th anniversary, Bliss is the follow-up to 2021 album Asin9ne. Describing Bliss as “a mirror to society,” the project marks Tech’s 24^th album via his Strange Music label — which will celebrate its own 25^th anniversary in 2024.

With its forays into R&B, soul, alternative and heavy metal plus a host of guests including Joyner Lucas, Durand Bernarr, RMR and Qveen Herby, the 25-track Bliss finds the prolific Tech still in full command of his signature fast-rhyming flow and fearless genre fusion. 

In addition to “Pull Out,” album highlights include “Fatha Fig Ya (Food for Thought)” featuring RMR, “W H A T (We’re Hungry and Thirsty)” featuring Kim Dracula and Hu$h and “Knock,” a master seminar in lyricism with Tech (Kansas City), Conway the Machine (Buffalo), X-Raided (Sacramento) and Joyner Lucas (Boston).

“You’ve got a quartet of MCs from different regions just crushing it,” Tech says about the track in his recent bio. “My East Coast fans are always like, ‘We want to hear you on some boom bap!’ So we got this incredible beat from Dame The Producer. ‘Knock’ is amazing for 50 years of hip-hip.”

Between operating his successful merchandise empire and teaming with Kansas City’s Boulevard Brewery for his craft beer Bou Lou, Tech N9ne will be co-headlining a North America tour with rock band — and fellow genre-busters — the Hollywood Undead this fall.

The Hollywood & N9ne trek kicks off Oct. 16 in Chesterfield, Missouri and wraps in Nashville on Nov. 19. Stops along the way include Chicago (Oct. 18), Las Vegas (Oct. 27), New York (Nov. 8) and Atlanta (Nov. 14). For more information, visit hollywoodandn9netour.com.

Marilyn Manson was sentenced to 20 hours of community service and fined by a court on Monday (Sept. 17) after pleading no contest to blowing his nose on a camerawoman at a 2019 concert in New Hampshire.

The controversial artist (real name: Brian Warner) was charged with two misdemeanor counts of simple assault, relating to an incident with the videographer during a show at Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion in Gilford.

Manson had initially pleaded not guilty to the assault charges, but later changed his plea to no contest, the BBC reports, which means the goth-rocker was not contesting the charge but does not admit guilt.

The judge required Manson to appear in court, and described the incident in question as “egregious.” Manson was fined about $1,400, with $200 suspended, and will be allowed to complete his community service in California, as requested.

According to a police affidavit, the Associated Press reports, Manson approached videographer Susan Fountain in the stage pit, and spat a “big lougee” at her. Later, he is said to have returned, kneeling and covering one nostril before blowing the other on her arms and hands.

Manson “blows a significant amount of mucous at Fountain,” a police sergeant who reviewed concert video footage said in the report. The camera then captures Manson “point and laugh at Fountain as she gets down and walks away,” reads the affidavit.

Manson reportedly wore a black suit in court, and spoke twice to the judge: to acknowledge his name and to confirm “yes” when asked if he understood the sentence.

Fountain did not attend court, but prepared a statement. “For me, I’m a professional person and I’ve been in this industry for 30 years. I’ve worked for a lot of companies, and in all the years I’ve worked with people, I’ve never been humiliated or treated the way I was by this defendant,” it reads. “For him to spit on me and blow his nose on me was the most disgusting thing a human being has ever done.

“I understand this was not a big criminal charge to begin with, but I was hoping that the defendant would receive a sentence that would make him think twice before doing something like this again,” the statement continues.

Manson has been the subject of sexual assault and abuse allegations from multiple women, including Evan Rachel Wood, Esmé Bianco, Ashley Waters, Illma Gore and others. Despite those claims, which Manson has denied, the artist returned from a social media hiatus earlier this year to seemingly tease new music.

Manson has achieved 10 top 10 titles on the Billboard 200 chart, including No. 1s with 1998’s Mechanical Animals and 2013’s The Golden Age Of Grotesque.

See Billboard’s full timeline of Manson’s abuse allegations here.