Here are Bad Boy's positions on the most recent Billboard U.S. album and single charts, released yesterday. This includes the debut of French Montana's "Excuse My French," which earns two #1s.
On Twitter, Diddy announced that Ciroc would be releasing a new flavor, Ciroc Amaretto. That product will become the fifth in Ciroc's line, including the original, Red Berry, Coconut and Peach.
Talking to The Urban Daily, Big Daddy Kane looks back on the 1995 show at Madison Square Garden where he brought The Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac on stage for a freestyle. Watch below.
AllHipHop.com has released part 1 of their web series, "The Next 48 Hours with French Montana." Watch it below.
Montana mentions that Mase was on "We Go Where Ever We Want" at one point and that Future had recorded a hook. He mentioned that he might release the Mase verse and might put Future on the remix.
The first week sales numbers are in and French Montana will debut at #4 on the Billboard 200 chart, which ranks the top 200 best selling albums in the country over the last week. It will also open at #1 on both the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Rap Albums charts. In total, it sold 56,000 units, reports Billboard.
Once again, this proves that the HITS Daily Double numbers should always be taken with a grain of salt. This week, they said that Montana would sell 49,775 units and place 6th. But they were off by more than 6,000 units and, more importantly, 2 spots. Multiple outlets reported those numbers, but the final numbers are always released by Nielsen SoundScan.
French Montana's "40," a bonus track for his "Excuse My French" album, was at one point thought to be on the deluxe CD version of the album. But, then the album was released and it wasn't there.
For those looking for it, I've found one place you can buy it: the iTunes U.K. store. I have not come across it anywhere else, yet.
As previously announced, Bad Boy today released Megan Nicole's new single, "Summer Forever," for digital purchase. You can buy it on iTunes and Amazon.com.
Here are Bad Boy's positions on the most recent Billboard U.S. album and single charts, released today. Diddy/Dirty Money's "Coming Home" gains while French Montana's "Ain't Worried About Nothin" makes its first move.
Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
35. "Lace Up" by Machine Gun Kelly (down from 30).
T'yanna Wallace, daughter of the late Christopher Wallace, has released a line of clothing, NotorioussClothing, beginning with a selection of t-shirts. You can buy them online.
Frequent French Montana collaborator Harry Fraud released "Been Around the Wave" last week. The song is a mashup of Daft Punk's "Around the World" with Max B's "Been Around the World," a years old track featuring French Montana where the pair rap over Diddy's "Been Around the World." Check it out and download below.
Music videos are on the way for French Montana's "I Told Em" and "Trap House." The "I Told Em" video was mentioned by director DRE Films, while Montana released some behind the scenes footage from "Trap House." Watch below.
On Wednesday, French Montana appeared on MTV's RapFix Live. He did an interview with Sway and then stuck around for Fat Joe's interview and appearances from the artists featured on XXL's Freshman Cover this year.
Among the more interesting notes is that Montana revealed that the only featured artist he paid for their appearance was Max B. Watch below.
Goodie Mob has released the first single from their upcoming album, "Age Against The Machine." It's "Special Education" featuring Janelle Monae. Listen below
French Montana's release party feature appearances from Diddy, Swizz Beatz, Wale, Fat Joe, Raekwon and Kirko Bangz. In addition, the rapper was presented with a platinum plaque for "Pop That." Watch below.
Machine Gun Kelly shared a link to HotNewHipHop where you can download a copy of "Peso," the first single from his upcoming mixtape, "Black Flag." It premiered online yesterday and features Pusha T and Meek Mill. Listen and download below.
"Didn't expect to see this hit the internet today, oh well," he wrote on Facebook. "Let's go! 'Black Flag' coming soon!" He then linked to the song, which I'll embed below.
KillerHipHop.com has an interview with Machine Gun Kelly, where he reflected on the sales of "Lace Up," commenting that "we, honestly, had no true, real support from the labels."
He also discussed his recent run in with a double-decker bus in London. He was in town to shoot a music video with Sleeping With Sirens and to perform "Alone" with them live.
When asked about the status of his upcoming mixtape, "Black Flag," he said that politics have delayed the release. Watch the full interview below.
Last week, during a trip to London, Machine Gun Kelly jumped on stage during a Sleeping With Sirens concert to perform "Alone," the group's new single that he is featured on. Check out some fan footage below.
French Montana stopped by Power 105.1's The Breakfast Club to talk about his album, including the creative control he had over it. He also revealed that he's been collaborating with Juelz Santana and that they'll be releasing some records soon. Watch below.
French Montana appeared as a guest on Life + Times' The Round Up with Shaheem Reid. They touched on a number of subjects, like Montana's background, signing with Bad Boy, the sound of "Excuse My French" and more.
On an episode of Complex TV's The Combat Jack Show, French Montana discussed the bidding war for his services and why he went with Bad Boy. Watch below.
"It was a deal that had to do with Ross and Diddy together," he said. "And these are people that I can call at any given time at night and tell them, 'Look, this is the problem that I have' and they would answer and they would not be weird people and have weird problems. People I could really hang out with.
"And everybody be thinking [that] because you're signed to Puff or Ross or you're signed to somebody, like you're under somebody - everybody gotta be an underboss because if you don't sign to these people, you're gonna sign to somebody that's in the label, that don't even listen to rap, that just got a position in there with those people that don't care about nothing that's got to do with music, one of them devils up there. And the minute you make that phone call when you're stressed out, guess what? You ain't gonna get no answer back."
XXL has an interview with David Catalano, the creator of a web series that takes lyrics from Biggie songs and has actors perform them in a sitcom setting. He's done five so far with two more written. Check them out below.
This is an album that saw a lot of delays. Did you guys have a full body of work ready to go last summer?
We had probably 300 songs by then, but with a situation like that… It’s a process. Most albums go through this. It’s gonna get pushed back for one reason or another. Until you’re done and upload the final album to the label, you know there are still going to be changes made. It’s usually not a creative thing when that happens. It’s the business side. Clearances or maybe it’s not the right time of year for an album to come out. Maybe they want something else to come out behind it or with it. Once I get more time with it, it opens up a lot more time to do work. So it’s a blessing and a curse at the same time.
French Montana's debut album, "Excuse My French," drops today. The album features collaborations with the likes of Diddy, Drake, Rick Ross, Lil' Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Snoop Dogg, Scarface, Ne-Yo and Raekwon and production from Rico Love, Young Chop, Cardiak, Lex Luger and more.
Update: Correction made regarding availability of the song "40," which is available through the U.K. iTunes store.
There are at least five versions of the album: the standard edition, the deluxe edition and the Best Buy and iTunes exclusive versions with bonus tracks (both in the U.S. and U.K.). The covers are the same except that the standard and deluxe album covers have a slight difference in the font color of "French Montana." Check out the full track listing below.
"If I Die," which was included on the iTunes track listing for the deluxe edition of French Montana's "Excuse My French" album is exclusive to that platform. It does not appear on the Amazon.com digital release or on the physical retail CD version.
French Montana was a guest on Complex TV's The Combat Jack Show. In the clip below, he discusses the Cocaine City DVDs and how he utilized them to build his craft and gain an audience. Plus, his friendship with Max B.
In the video below, Diddy gives French Montana some guidance on how he'd like his album to look once completed. He wants a pure, uncut look at French Montana, from start to finish.
Fabolous' website has photos from the music video shoot for Cassie's "I Love It," which features the rapper. The song was released on her mixtape, Rock a Bye Baby.
Here are Bad Boy's positions on the most recent Billboard U.S. album and single charts, released today. Diddy/Dirty Money's "Coming Home" makes an appearance.
Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
30. "Lace Up" by Machine Gun Kelly (down from 29).
Yesterday, Diddy announced that he had joined the cast of the popular drama, "Downton Abbey." Almost immediately, PBS denied this claim. Diddy promised that a preview would be released at midnight Pacific time.
I made the decision not to write about the story yesterday because there was too much wrong with it. If it was true, it was an exceptionally poorly handled roll out. A coordinated announcement with ITV, the U.K.-based television network where the series originated, would have been much more meaningful. In addition, I noted that for a few hours following the announcement, no Bad Boy artists had congratulated him - but seemingly every higher up at Blue Flame Marketing had done so. Blue Flame is Bad Boy's in house marketing company that most notably handles marketing for Ciroc. That was a rather large tell. Rather than writing about it, I wanted to let the chips fall and see what was released.
Downton Diddy is what was released, a video for comedy site Funny or Die, which was founded by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's production company, and often works with name celebrities in their videos. The clip inserts Diddy into a number of scenes of Downton Abbey, to humorous effect.
In the end, I believe this is a successful publicity stunt, because of the fact that the video was well produced original content and because it was released on a legitimate outlet like Funny or Die. If it had simply been a Downton Abbey inspired Ciroc promotion, that would have been a letdown. Of course, such a stunt does not come without a cost. It is fair to say that whenever Diddy announces that he has been cast in a film or TV show, media members will greet those announcements with trepidation.
Megan Nicole has announced that she will release a new original single, "Summer Forever," on May 28. She made the announcement last week via her YouTube channel.
In a brief interview with CleverTV, she mentioned that the music video would be release on the very same day.
Last week, Diddy released a video documenting his trip to Las Vegas for the Floyd Mayweather/Robert Guerrero fight on May 4 and subsequent after party. While the clip is mostly standard examples of Diddy having fun, there is one thing that might catch some by surprise: singer The Weeknd makes a brief appearance to present Diddy with a gold plaque for his album, "Trilogy."
From doing some Google searches, I can see that some people are taking this to mean that Diddy and The Weeknd may be involved business wise and it has not been announced yet. While that is possible, as usual, I would encourage caution when making those sorts of leaps. Sometimes these plaques are simply presented to people who have been supportive of an artist, that otherwise have no business ties to the artist. That may very well be the case here.
A$AP Ferg has released the music video for the remix for "Work," which features A$AP Rocky, French Montana, Trinidad James and ScHoolboy Q. Watch below.
For a while now, Uncle Luke has hinted that he was displeased with French Montana's handling of "Pop That," specifically his clearance of Luke's "I Wanna Rock" for the song's chorus.
Over the last couple of weeks, both made comments to Hot 97 that seemed to escalate the situation. First, Montana said he had heard that Luke said he was owed money and claimed that wasn't true because Luke did not own the rights to the song. "I can't owe you money if you don't own your thing," he said. Watch below, starting at 4:07.
This elicited a response from Luke, where he disputed saying that he was owed money, but maintained that he had a case for copyright infringement. The reason he hasn't pursued it, and doesn't want to, is because of his relationship with Diddy. But, he said, that if Montana continues to talk about it in this way, he leaves the door open to taking action.
The nominees for the 2013 BET Awards have been announced and French Montana's "Pop That" picked up a nod in the Best Collaboration category. The song, which features Rick Ross, Drake and Lil' Wayne, will go against 2 Chainz's "No Lie" (featuring Drake), A$AP Rocky's "Problems" (Drake, 2 Chainz and Kendrick Lamar), Lamar's "Poetic Justice" (Drake), Justin Timberlake's "Suit & Tie" (Jay-Z) and Kanye West's "Mercy" (Big Sean, Pusha T and 2 Chainz).
TMZ has video of four ex-members of Danity Kane - Aubrey O'Day, Aundrea Fimbres, Dawn Richard and Shannon Bex - having lunch in Los Angeles. They report that they did so "with a new manager to discuss the reunion ... and sources tell TMZ, it's definitely happening."
The clip below indicates none of these things, so it falls onto TMZ's reporting, which suggests that it will happen without Diddy. Fifth member D. Woods has not commented on Twitter.
"That was just fire. Just the verbal acuity, the cleverness that he's bringing. Eminem kind of popped that wide open for lyricists, like 'we got to go here' - of course, Biggie obviously. But that style of bringing it to that level, not just talking about your money and how many b******, I don’t care about that."
You can watch in the clip below, starting at the 5:58 mark.
Here are Bad Boy's positions on the most recent Billboard U.S. album and single charts, released today. Janelle Monae's "Q.U.E.E.N." makes several debuts this week.
Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
29. "Lace Up" by Machine Gun Kelly (up from 30).
Rap Albums
20. "Lace Up" by Machine Gun Kelly (down from 19).
In Flex We Trust has the premiere of "F*** What Happens Tonight," French Montana's posse cut with Snoop Dogg, Ace Hood, Scarface, Mavado and DJ Khaled. According it the cover, it was produced by Beat Bully and "orchestrated" by Khaled Khaled (that's DJ Khaled).
T.I.'s Hustle Gang collective has released a new mixtape, "G.D.O.D.," for free download on LiveMixtapes.com. It includes "Blocka," a song that features French Montana, Young Dro, Meek Mill and T.I. Listen below.
On mgklive.com, you'll be able to watch Machine Gun Kelly's concert tonight, live from the Fonda Theater in Los Angeles. The show starts at 8 PM Pacific time, 11:00 PM Eastern.
Ace Hood has released the remix to "Bugatti" for free via Twitter. Clean and dirty versions are available. The song features Wiz Khalifa, T.I., Meek Mill, French Montana, 2 Chainz, Future, DJ Khaled and Birdman. Check out the cover below.
Sean John has released a pair of promotional videos featuring Mike Woodson, coach of the New York Knicks basketball team, and Guerrimo Rigondeaux, a boxer from Cuban. Watch below.
On Instagram, French Montana posted a picture of the Best Buy exclusive edition of his upcoming album, "Excuse My French." There is a sticker that says that, in addition to "Hey My Guy" featuring Max B, a second bonus track will be included. It's "Ghetto Prayer" featuring Mavado. The album hits stores May 21.
French Montana has released a music video for a song called "Trouble." The song features Mikky Ekko and the video has cameos from 2 Chainz, Diddy, Jimmy Iovine, Harve Pierre and Rico Love. It was directed by Chris Latouche. Watch below.
Here are Bad Boy's positions on the most recent Billboard U.S. album and single charts, released today. Overall, a positive week with mostly gains and the debut of Janelle Monae's new single, "Q.U.E.E.N."
The new music video for Janelle Monae's "Q.U.E.E.N." will premiere tonight < ahref="https://twitter.com/106andpark/status/329656773072003073">on BET's 106 & Park. Monae has released a teaser for the visual, which you can wtach below.
