Beefs, new albums and comebacks, it was one other busy week within the hip-hop and R&B world of music. Billboard Unfiltered rises to the event to return with a model new episode recapping all the happenings on Thursday (Aug. 1).
Billboard co-hosts Carl Lamarre, Trevor Anderson and Damien Scott debated a myriad of subjects together with Ice Spice’s Y2K! debut LP, hip-hop media beefs and Will Smith’s return to the music scene practically twenty years after his Misplaced And Discovered album in 2005.
Senior Charts & Knowledge Analyst Trevor Anderson expects Ice’s Y2K! to debut outdoors the Billboard 200’s prime 10, however may crack the highest 20 with a late surge.
“Finally goes right down to a kind of albums the place the EP, the tapes, the singles beforehand are gonna be the factor we keep in mind greater than the precise debut album,” Anderson provides. “For no matter motive, when that phrase album comes on it — I don’t know if it’s the strain that ramps up or no matter — however it feels ehhh.”
He continues: “In case you suppose Ice Spice is gonna bounce out and swap onto lyricism in a means that’s gonna be much more introspective or greater than what it’s, it’s not gonna be for you.”
For Deputy Director of Hip-Hop/R&B Carl Lamarre, he sees Ice Spice as extra of a singles artist going ahead quite than placing collectively cohesive our bodies of labor.
“Once I consider Ice Spice, I simply consider her as a singles artist. An artist that thrives off making singles, an artist that would thrive off her options. I don’t suppose it’s any person that would put collectively a cohesive physique of labor. One thing that’s gonna be mind-blowing from a physique undertaking standpoint.”
It’s not solely the rappers which can be beefing, as media personalities Elliott Wilson and Charlamagne Tha God are entrenched in a feud that boiled over this week. The spat appeared to be sparked by Charlamagne taking difficulty with Elliott’s place at No. 5 on the Advanced Hip-Hop Media Energy Rankings.
Deputy Director, Editorial Damien Scott discovered the meat to be “corny” and thinks they need to set the correct instance for the subsequent era and settle it off the web.
“I discover this entire factor very corny,” Scott says. “This feels very clearly one particular person had an issue with one other particular person and used this as a chance to get some grievances off their chest and it derailed from there. I feel it’s a foul search for the trade.
Scott provides: “I feel we must be higher at how we symbolize the trade and the discussion board and ourselves. That that s–t offline. Go seize a drink or a espresso and discuss it out. Why are we performing like rappers?”
Will Smith is gearing up for presumably his first album since 2005. He returned final week with one other single alongside his son Jaden and rapper Russ for the introspective “Work of Artwork.” The Unfiltered trio have forgiven Smith for his notorious Oscars slap of Chris Rock and appear to be in favor of a return to rapping for the celebrity.
Damien Scott hypothesizes that Smith turned again to the hip-hop group for acceptance after his latest Hollywood initiatives stalled or have been placed on maintain following the 2022 Oscars slap heard ’around the world.
“My guess is as a result of we’ve seen this occur to Black celebrities earlier than is that he realized sure individuals weren’t f—ing with him anymore, and he was like, ‘ who’s gonna f–okay with me? My individuals,’” Scott speculates. “And he went and did this press run for Dangerous Boys 4 that was like podcasts and exhibits you’d by no means suppose Will Smith would do.”
Watch the complete episode beneath and search for one other episode of Billboard Unfiltered subsequent week.
