Category: Hip Hop

Black Eyed Peas are encouraging their fans to connect and share a positive message in a whole new way. Earlier this week, the group launched a “Where Is The Love?” microsite, named for their 2003 smash hit of the same name. On the site, fans can connect with other fans from all over the globe and engage with their content. Fans can make their own videos by using the official “Where Is The Love?” sound on TikTok and Instagram and by using the #wheresthelove tag. Once uploaded, fan videos are highlighted with location pins on an interactive globe, capturing the worldwide spread of the Black Eyed Peas’ message.

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In the more than 20 years since its release, “Where Is The Love?” has proved to be one of the Black Eyed Peas’ most enduring cuts. However, when the group went about writing and recording it, they didn’t intend to make a hit but to find a way to deal with “the stress, the anxiety and the pain of 9/11” and the tour that they had to continue in the aftermath. In creating the beat, Will.i.am said he was inspired by a human heart beat. “We were trying to articulate the emotion of that tour, and every single person that we came across with that tour,” Will.i.am later recalled in a 2018 interview with The Telegraph. “If there was a sonic occasion to our friendship, it would be that song.”

Upon release, “Where Is The Love?” was a success for the Black Eyed Peas, charting at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and topping charts in countries around the world, including in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. The track also became the Peas’ first to be nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year—a feat they would later repeat in 2010 with “I Gotta Feeling”—and earned another nomination for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.

Visit the ‘Where Is The Love’ microsite here.

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Coco Jones has released her new single “Body So Tea” through High Standardz and Def Jam Recordings. Produced by Stargate, Jasper and Hiddie, the track centers on beauty, confidence and self-acceptance. The release places Jones back in a solo spotlight after a year that has included new music, touring and acting projects.

“Body So Tea” arrives after Jones released the deluxe edition of her debut album, Why Not More? (MORE!). The expanded set included “Other Side of Love,” a collaboration with Alicia Keys. The original version of Why Not More? earned Jones her eighth career Grammy nomination and posted a Top 10 debut on the Billboard 200. The album also opened at No. 1 on the New R&B Artist Debut chart and No. 1 in Current R&B Album Sales. Its release marked Jones’ first full-length project after a series of singles and an EP.

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Jones released Why Not More? in 2025, with “Taste” later reaching No. 1 at R&B radio. She followed the album with a sold-out tour across the United States and Europe. Her current run continues a recording career that accelerated after she signed with High Standardz and Def Jam in 2022 and released the EP What I Didn’t Tell You. That project included “ICU,” which was certified platinum and reached No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B Airplay chart.

In 2024, “ICU” won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance after Jones received five nominations, including Best New Artist. She returned to the Grammys in 2025 with nominations for Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Song, then received a Best R&B Album nomination at the 2026 ceremony for Why Not More?. Raised in Nashville, Jones began recording at age 9 before building parallel careers in music and television. Outside music, Jones returned as Hilary Banks for the fourth and final season of Peacock’s Bel-Air in 2026. She also appears in Malcolm D. Lee’s thriller Strung on Peacock and stars in the upcoming romantic comedy That’s Her, which she executive produced.

Listen to Coco Jones’ Body So Tea here.

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Blackstreet are celebrating the 30th anniversary of their album Another Level with a vinyl reissue. The 1996 sophomore release from the R&B group will be available on 2LP standard black vinyl and limited Marshmallow Opaque 2LP color vinyl. The vinyl configurations will include the previously released bonus track “No Diggity (Billie Jean Remix).”

Released through Interscope Records, Another Level followed Blackstreet’s eponymous 1994 debut. That record produced a number of hits, including “Before I Let You Go” which hit the Top 10 of the Billboard charts. Blackstreet were at their commercial peak by the time they released Another Level, which blended their silky R&B harmonies with hip-hop production, resulting in a polished, radio-ready sound.

Largely produced by Blackstreet founder Teddy Riley, a pioneer of the new jack swing sound, Another Level incorporates a mix of soulful ballads, mid-tempos grooves, and club-oriented tracks. The record is anchored by the global smash hit “No Diggity” featuring Dr. Dre and Queen Pen, which features a Bill Withers vocal sample. The song went on to win a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and became one of the most iconic R&B/hip-hop crossover records of the decade.

Other standout tracks include “Don’t Leave Me” and “Fix,” which further solidified the group’s flair for balancing emotional storytelling. The album also features a version of The Beatles’ “Can’t Buy Me Love,” titled here as “(Money Can’t) Buy Me Love.” Another Level also includes interludes from Riley’s daughters, Deja and Taja. Also notable is an interview with the group and Morris Baxter that appears midway through the record, “Blackstreet (On The Radio).”

Another Level was Blackstreet’s most commercially successful album, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, and No. 1 on the Top R&B Albums chart for five weeks.

Order Blackstreet’s Another Level here.

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Diary Of A Mad Band, the 1993 sophomore album from R&B group Jodeci, is coming back to vinyl. Featuring singles “Cry For You,” “Feenin,” and “What About Us,” the album helped establish the group as a force to be reckoned with in the music industry and helped put many eventual titans, including Missy Elliot and Timbaland, on the map. The vinyl reissue of Diary Of A Mad Band is available for pre-order now.

Comprised of members DeVanté Swing, Mr. Dalvin, K-Ci, and JoJo, Diary Of A Mad Band was the followup to the group’s 1991 debut Forever My Lady. Notably, the record features the first album appearances from Timbaland & Magoo, S.B.I., and Missy Elliott, who was still credited as Misdemeanor at the time. Redman also appears on the album. Upon its release, Diary of A Mad Band topped the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop chart, and made it to number three on the overall Billboard 200. It has since been certified double platinum.

30 years after its initial release, recording engineer Prince Charles Alexander acknowledged that there was “something magical going on in the way K-Ci was singing it and the way Devante was hearing it.” As he explained to Soul Culture, “It would end up being that trademark Jodeci sound.” Alexander also shared some memories of specific tracks. On “Feenin,” he explained that “Devante wanted to do a song where he played the Talk box like Roger Troutman” of the band Zapp; the decision ended up giving the track its memorable sound. With “In The Meanwhile,” Alexander remembers “Timbaland had this nice little beat and we were trying to figure out what to do with it.” One day K-Ci started playing around with it, and it made it on the album.

Over the past year, Jodeci have revisited multiple pieces of their early work. Earlier this year, Forever My Lady was reissued on vinyl to celebrate its 35th anniversary. Last year, the group also brought several remastered versions of their music videos to YouTube.

Buy Jodeci’s Diary Of A Mad Band here.

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Tierra Whack has released the new music video for “CANDLE WAX,” a track from her June mixtape WHACK’S MUSEUM. Directed by Child, the visual continues the Philadelphia artist’s run of videos tied to the project.

The video opens with Whack resting her head on a row of candles before moving to scenes at a dinner table and what appears to be a funeral repast, where she stands next to a child eating. Its imagery keeps the narrative open-ended, placing Whack in a sequence of staged settings rather than following a linear storyline. The release follows her recent video for “WHACK JOB,” which cast Whack as a garbage collector hauling away what appear to be bodies wrapped in trash bags.

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WHACK’S MUSEUM marked what Whack described as her “first true rap project” when it was released in June. The 12-song mixtape includes no guest features, and its rollout has also included videos for “SIREN” and “WAX PAPER.” The project followed WORLD WIDE WHACK, her full-length album released in 2024, and extends a catalog that has often paired short-form songs with detailed visual concepts.

This Saturday, Tierra Whack is scheduled to perform at Complex Family Style in New York City. Last weekend, Whack joined Jill Scott for “Norf Side” at Philadelphia’s One Philly: Unity Concert for America, part of the city’s America 250th anniversary events. She also appeared with Tems during the 2026 BET Awards tribute to Ms. Lauryn Hill, where the two performed the Fugees’ “Fu-Gee-La” as Hill received the inaugural Living Legend Icon Award.

Listen to “CANDLE WAX” here.

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MOIO has released his new single “remember my name.” The Nigerian-Irish singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist uses the track to reflect on his family’s immigration story, tracing questions of identity, inheritance, and responsibility through a personal lens. The release marks the next step in a run of recent singles from the Dublin-raised artist.

On “remember my name,” MOIO looks to his mother’s journey from Nigeria to Ireland and the sacrifices behind his own upbringing. He said the song is “a much deeper song” for him. “It’s an ode to her and everything she left behind to give us a new life,” he said. “I have a responsibility to become even a fraction of how great a person she is.”

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The new song follows “we fall” and “Just A Man,” two recent tracks that also address vulnerability and personal change. MOIO previously said “Just A Man” is about expectations within a relationship and the awareness that someone may not be able to give love in the way another person deserves. “we fall” continued that inward focus, turning to emotional collapse and the complications of human connection.

MOIO’s single “Moments” passed 25 million Spotify streams and reached No. 1 on Spotify’s Viral 50 chart in seven countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland. His Earthday EP arrived in 2025 and included six songs, with “Moments” serving as one of its central tracks. He is also a co-founder of the creative collective Chamomile Club alongside Monjola, Aby Coulibaly, and Thomas Kettle. Early tracks including “SUNBEAMING” and “Open Your Eyes” helped introduce the Dublin-raised artist in 2023.

Listen to MOIO’s remember my name here.

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For Ne-Yo, “So Sick” was a life-changing hit. Before the song’s release in late 2005, the artist born Shaffer Smith had already been a successful behind-the-scenes figure in the music industry, most notably as a writer on Mario’s chart-topping “Let Me Love You.” But when “So Sick” also soared up the Hot 100, Ne-Yo secured his own place in the spotlight.

Ne-Yo performs “So Sick” in a new episode of “The One,” an Apple Music video series in which artists present a stripped-down rendition of an especially significant track in their catalog. The video is viewable now on Ne-Yo and Apple Music’s YouTube channels.

Ne-Yo wrote “So Sick” with the Norwegian production duo Stargate after a chance encounter at New York’s Sony Music Studios, where he and Stargate were both working on new music. In John Seabrook’s book The Song Machine, he describes hearing Stargate’s beat for the song for the first time: “When the track started, I teared up.” He channeled his own recent heartbreak into lyrics about a painful breakup, leading to the song that would become his breakthrough hit.

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“It’s definitely the one that started it all,” Ne-Yo later told Billboard of the song’s success. “So Sick” became Ne-Yo’s first No. 1 hit as a recording artist, establishing him as a radio fixture for years to come. The song has continued to be hugely popular in the streaming era, racking up enough plays to join Spotify’s Billions Club last year.

“So Sick” was the second single from Ne-Yo’s 2006 debut album In My Own Words, powering it to the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart with more than 300,000 in first-week sales. The album recently turned 20 years old, an anniversary the singer is celebrating with a pair of new vinyl formats, a standard edition 2LP and a limited edition “Enchanted Night” Color 2LP, as well as a new CD edition. The 20th anniversary In My Own Words reissues are due out June 19 and available for pre-order now.

Listen to Ne-Yo’s “So Sick” on Apple Music here.

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Ella Mai has shared a music video for Do You Still Love Me? cut “Might Just,” which pays homage to the 1995 film Waiting To Exhale.

Directed by Alfred Marroquin, the clip finds Mai reckoning with an unfaithful partner, featuring a climax that finds her and friends burning the house she once shared with that loved one down to the ground. The video features appearances from Taylor Rooks, Coco Jones, and Ryan Destiny.

On the track, which features a beat by Mustard, Ella sings: “Don’t fix your tongue to tell me lies about how she means nothing/ It was too wrong, it was too real, babe.” Do You Still Love Me? was released to critical and commercial acclaim on February 6.

In other Ella Mai news, the London artist is gearing up for the North American run of her Do You Still Love Me? Tour. The shows begin on July 2 at Milwaukee Summerfest. The 28-date trek includes stops in Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Boston, and more. She’ll wrap this stretch at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall on August 28.

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Mai has been honest about how Do You Still Love Me? was a difficult album title to land on. She explained to VIBE in an interview: “We really struggled to come up with this title. I’m not even going to lie. We had finished the album, had the track list together, and everything. Mustard and I just couldn’t find something that felt like it told the story well enough. Mustard was really vouching for a different title. And I said to him, ‘Okay, why do you think that should be the title?’

The duo stumbled upon the title almost accidentally: “I was like, ‘Why do you think that should be it?’ He starts explaining it, and he’s like, ‘Because if you say that, then you can ask the questions. Or somebody can ask you the question, do you still love me? Or do you still…’ And I was like, ‘Wait! That’s the title.’ It kind of just stuck, and we rolled with it. Also, because it can be a closed question. It could be very open-ended also.”

Buy Ella Mai’s Do You Still Love Me? on vinyl and CD here.

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BJRNCK has recruited G Herbo for a new single entitled “Coming Home,” out now via Interscope/Geffen Records.

The track serves as the first taste from the forthcoming deluxe version of BJRNCK’s A Girl Like Me, which was originally released in October of 2025.

On the alt-R&B cut, BJRNCK works through the emotions of heartbreak, crooning: “We’ve been on some bull**** lately/ And at this point I’m going crazy/ I’ve been doing things that I shouldn’t really be doing/ Hoping that it gives me over you but it ain’t working out.”

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The video pays homage to the two artists’ shared hometown of Chicago, and reflects the song’s themes of heartbreak and attempts at reconciliation. heartbreak from opposite sides of the same relationship.

Regarding the track, BJRNCK said, “‘Coming Home’ hits different for me because it brought two Chicago natives back to where it all started. Getting G Herbo on a classic R&B feel, and then going back to the city to shoot the video, made everything feel authentic in a way you can’t fake.”

A Girl Like Me is BJRNCK’s debut, a sterling introduction to one of Chicago’s most exciting artists. In a 2025 interview with Crucial Rhythm, the singer reflected on what allowed her to unlock her creativity on the LP: “I would say completely write my songs. Most of my songs on the project I wrote by myself, which was new to me. I’ve been doing this for a long time, my confidence shrunk for a little bit over time. I was trying for so long, and I was like, maybe I wasn’t doing something right. I felt like I needed to have a writer or a certain producer,” she explained.

She honed in on creating inimitable work, songs that would stand the test of time.“Someone gave me really good advice: make songs that no one can take away from you. It’s songs that I searched for the loop or started myself, learning how to record myself and write myself. Not really caring if people are gonna like it or not. Being genuine in my music.”

Listen to BJRNCK’s “Coming Home” here.

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The-Dream has announced a new full-length album, Love/Hate II. In anticipation of the album, the singer, songwriter, and producer has shared “Tampa,” a song featuring longtime collaborator Usher. Love/Hate II arrives July 10 via RadioKilla Records/Republic Records. Exclusive signed CD and vinyl editions are available for pre-order now, as well as official merchandise.

“Tampa” is a bedroom-ready banger boasting soulful harmonies and a cocky chorus: “This is where your man should be instead of worrying about me.” The R&B titans have worked together on fan favorites like Usher’s “Cold Blooded” in 2024 and The-Dream’s “Forget About Her” from 2016.

The-Dream offered the first preview of Love/Hate II earlier this year with “Bring That Body,” his first official solo single in more than a decade. The project dives head-first into the complicated realities of love today. “I want to make a record about where love is now,” he says. “Relationships became cheapened. People used to fight for their love.”

Love/Hate II is the sequel to his 2007 debut Love/Hate. Showcasing a powerhouse cast of collaborators, the album also features appearances from Pusha T, Swizz Beatz, T.I., Kelly ‘Dria’ Rowland, Rick Ross, and more. In an interview with Variety, The-Dream called the project the first taste of what’s shaping up to be a sonic progenitor of its predecessor,” while teasing contributions from Pharrell Williams, Mike Dean, Swizz Beatz, and more.

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The New York Times recently named The-Dream among “The 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters.” The publication noted, “Name a post-aughts R&B smash, and his imprint is probably on it…,” citing contributions to Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),” Mariah Carey’s “Touch My Body,” and Justin Bieber’s “Baby,” among many others.

The-Dream continues to shape the sound of contemporary music across genres, with recent contributing to records like The Clipse’s “All Things Considered,” Rosalía’s “Sauvignon Blanc,” and “Allegedly” with Summer Walker. His work has earned numerous accolades, including the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for his contributions to Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter.

Listen to THE-DREAM’s Love/Hate II here.

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