Innholdsfortegnelse for Jan 28 - Feb. 3, 2017 i Billboard Magazine

KEVIN WEAVER HAS A FIRSTclass problem. The veteran film and TV music executive is competing against himself for a Grammy at the Feb. 12 ceremony, scoring nominations for best compilation soundtrack in the visual media category for his work as a producer on both Suicide Squad (Collector’s Edition) and Vinyl: The Essentials Season 1. Suicide Squad, which earned recognition in five Grammy categories and spawned such hits as Twenty One Pilots’ “Heathens” and “Purple Lamborghini” by Skrillex and Rick Ross, is just the latest success for Weaver, who supervises the creation and placement of all Atlantic-affiliated music for film, TV and video games, and oversees all soundtrack projects for the label. He also operates a music publishing co- venture with Atlantic Records and Warner/Chappell Music. The New York native moved…

Bieber Bangs Drum For New Club Justin Bieber is among the celebrities and musical artists who have checked out The Peppermint Club in West Hollywood, a collaboration between Interscope Records and nightlife specialists The H.wood Group. On Jan. 10, guitar ace John Mayer stopped by; the following night, Cody Simpson got a lap dance and a kiss on the lips from a model after he danced on one of the club’s tables. Ireland Basinger-Baldwin — the daughter of Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin — provided the entertainment on Jan. 13, when she guest DJ’d at the nightspot. Bieber provided star power on Jan. 14, when he played a drum set after hitting the club with Patrick Schwarzenegger and Kourtney Kardashian (once again sparking rumors of romance between the pop star…

When I was growing up, I was into any artist who mentioned weed a lot in their music: Snoop Dogg, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Dipset, Cypress Hill, Three 6 Mafia — the people who were really forward about it. Back then, smoking weed was a thugged-out thing to do. It was underground and raw. But now, it’s not just a small community of hippies and growers who want legalization — it’s people across the board. More people are educated about it. It’s more of a culture. Music has always played a huge part in that. As artists, we can use our platforms to make people feel more comfortable with things they may not know about. It’s a positive thing to be able to do. The marijuana industry could be as big as…

iF THE CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATIC party could magically conjure up a rising star, that candidate might look a lot like Gavin Newsom. The 49-yearold lieutenant governor of the state is warm and articulate, an earnest progressive who’s approachable on national TV — take the time last June when, while appearing alongside Wiz Khalifa on Chelsea Handler’s Netflix show, the rapper dapped him in solidarity. He’s a successful entrepreneur who owns 23 businesses — a San Francisco club, wineries, restaurants — and hobnobs with rock stars, hanging backstage at The Fillmore recently with Sammy Hagar and John Mayer. And he’s a photographer’s dream, with a winning smile and sharp suit always at the ready, a beautiful wife (actress-filmmaker Jennifer Siebel) and four adorable children. This past November, Newsom also proved he’s a…

Migos Move, Sheeran Soars Although “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran (above) dethrones Migos’ “Bad and Boujee” (featuring Lil Uzi Vert) atop the Billboard Hot 100 (see page 1), the latter makes the biggest gains in streaming, sales and airplay (among nondebuting songs on the Hot 100), helping Migos ascend to the top 20 of the Artist 100 (22-17, up 11 percent in overall activity). Having inspired numerous memes and tweets playing off the song’s “raindrop, drop top” lyrics, “Bad” tops the Streaming Songs chart for a third week (38.7 million U.S. streams — the song’s highest weekly sum yet — up 10 percent, according to Nielsen Music). The track dips 2-3 on Digital Song Sales, but with a 14 percent gain to 86,000 sold, and debuts on Radio Songs…

No.1 on Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart Their big hit was made in a shed off Music Row. After two minorly successful albums, the group recorded “Take It All Back” — a folk stomper with mandolin, banjo and a raging chorus — while still struggling for a commercial win. “It’s a weird feeling,” frontman Judah Akers says of seeing the song hit No. 1. “I never thought radio would embrace us the way they have.” The band’s name comes from Akers’ rap alter ego. Akers wrote G-rated raps as a kid and performed them for his mother, who told him he should adopt the stage name The Lion of Judah. When the act formed at Belmont University in 2011, he simply flipped his mom’s script. They want Twenty One Pilots to…

As a lifelong marijuana smoker, I always kept pot on the down low when it came to my son. One time, when he was little, he came outside unexpectedly and saw me hitting a joint. “That’s daddy’s medicine,” his mom replied when asked about it. A year or two later, my son’s kindergarten teacher was cautioning the kids about playing with matches and asked if any of their parents smoked cigarettes. “My daddy smokes medicine!” my son chimed. Luckily his granddad, a handsome player in his 70s, had been dating the kindergarten teacher and both of them liked to inhale. But as Dr. Mitch Earleywine, Ph.D. — a board member of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws — explains, it’s never too early to prepare for meaningful…

2O17 BILLBOARD ’S POWER 1OO issue celebrates the top music power players who are at the top of their game and influence the music business. These are the major executives who create and curate recorded music, live concerts and song publishing on a global scale. They are the heavyweights who are ultimately transforming and evolving the music biz. Take this opportunity to advertise in this issue to congratulate this year’s Power 100 players and reach an influential audience of decision-makers in the music industry. BONUS DISTRIBUTION The Billboard Power 100 event (2/12), select American Airlines flights from LAX/JFK, Grammy Week CONTACT Joe Maimone 212-493-4427 | joe.maimone@billboard.com Aki Kaneko 323-525-2299 | aki.kaneko@billboard.com Lee Ann Photoglo 615-376-7931 | laphotoglo@gmail.com Cynthia Mellow 615-352-0265 | cmellow@comcast.net…

In the five years since Alex Da Kid launched KidInAKorner in partnership with Interscope Records, the British-born, Grammy-nominated producer (real name: Alexander Grant) has landed nine songs in the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 and five top 10s — among them “Love the Way You Lie” by Eminem (featuring Rihanna) and Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive,” reaching Nos. 1 and 3, respectively. Universal Music Group has re-upped its pact with the label, whose prior contract with Interscope Records concluded in 2016. The UMG deal expands the 35-yearold’s domain to include all UMG labels (Interscope, Def Jam Records, Capitol Music Group, Republic Records and Island among them) with which KidInAKorner can potentially collaborate. KidInAKorner acts include X Ambassadors and Imagine Dragons (both of whom are also signed to Interscope) as well…

WHAT DO A DOCUMENtary spotlighting the failures of the criminal justice system, a biopic on one of hip-hop’s forgotten trailblazers and a feature named for the Japanese word for “bullshit” have in common? All three projects are part of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival (running Jan. 19-29), and all, when the credits roll, will feature some of the music world’s biggest names. Music plays a huge part in the annual Park City, Utah, festival, now in its 39th year, both as fuel for its star- studded parties and inspiration for its trendsetting independent cinema. In recent years especially, some of the festival’s most talkedabout films have been by, about or featured pop artists. Take 20 Feet From Stardom, the 2013 documentary about unsung backup vocalists that won an Academy Award…

1. THE SINGLE “Bad and Boujee” arrived Aug. 27, 2016, exclusively on SoundCloud, “a community on the brink of what’s going to break,” according to Quality Control Records head Kevin “Coach K” Lee. The next step for the Metro Boomin-produced, Lil Uzi Vert-featuring track? Atlanta strip clubs, which Migos personally visited through September to perform and promote “Boujee.” “If those girls start putting up clips of themselves dancing to it on Snapchat,” says Lee, “you know it’s going to go.” 2 . THE VIDEO The track’s video, released Oct. 31, plays on the highlow lifestyle depicted in the cover art — itself taken from a meme featuring Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta star Tommie Lee (sample caption: “When you use Fiji water instead of tap water”). “I didn’t know they were…

Sleepaway Camp “I [wrote about] my younger life, which was haphazard: being at sleepaway camp away from my parents, being the only black girl, not even noticing until I got older, dealing with boys, self-hate, growth and God. It’s the first time I’m literally writing about my life instead of figuratively writing about it.” Listening To Her Own Voice “One time I met my boyfriend’s boss and he said, ‘Let’s see what this music is about.’ I don’t listen to my music on my own, and when I pressed Play, my voice was so quiet! There were no emotional moments. It felt boring. I was like, ‘OK, I need to exercise in letting go.’” Recording “Consideration” For Rihanna’s Anti ”She wanted to work with me, and I played some jams…

PREROLLED JOINTS Motörhead Kush $60/FIVE CIGARETTES Baby Bash and Berner partnered with California’s Finest to produce their own line of marijuana cigarettes, and it’s the company’s Motörhead Kush that steals the spotlight, says Dina. An indica hybrid made in partnership with the English rock group, it is intended to relieve stress as well as assist with graver illnesses like Parkinson’s disease. FLOWERS Zkittlez $65/ONE-EIGHTH OZ. Dina, who is believed to be the basis for Showtime’s Weeds, says Zkittlez has the heftiest price tag. “It tastes like the candy Skittles — it’s unbelievable,” she notes of the indica-dominant hybrid, which won High Times’ San Francisco Cannabis Cup 1st Place Indica in 2015 and has found fans in rappers Styles P and Taylor Gang’s Berner. HASH Cuban Grower Kimbo…

How did you decide to work with Pandora? When I met Tim, I saw the infamous Music Genome section [of the office] and it blew my mind. I didn’t believe that humans were determining the music — I thought it was impossible. And I was mind-blown at how similar my process for segueing songs is to theirs. What makes my DJ sets unique is that I conduct them based on tone, beats per minute, whether a song has a bridge in another key. There’s a melodic feng shui. I spend five hours every Sunday notating music. I feel like Pandora validated me. Are you afraid of being replaced by machines? I was elated that actual humans are doing it [at Pandora]. I’m the guy that everyone begs for a playlist.…

Weed And Me Five artists’ personal stories on lighting up THE FIRST TIME I SMOKED By BELLY I was in grade seven, and an older friend from the neighborhood rolled this big joint. It went around a couple times, and I didn’t feel nothing. So for the next year, I didn’t smoke. Then in grade eight, there was a girl that I really liked, and she smoked weed. We met up at a park one day, and she was like, “You smoke, right?” I got so high, I didn’t even know how to talk to the girl anymore. But I ended up going out with her. HOW I FEEL WHEN I SMOKE By MELISSA ETHERIDGE The part of cannabis that everyone is kind of afraid to talk about is the…