Innholdsfortegnelse for July 1-14, 2017 i Billboard Magazine

JUSTIN BIEBER CONTINUES HIS RECORD-BREAKING YEAR by becoming the first artist to boast the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 titles concurrently on Billboard’s Digital Song Sales chart. He leads the list for a seventh week as featured on Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito” (140,000 downloads sold in the week ending June 15, according to Nielsen Music); he holds at No. 2 as featured on DJ Khaled’s former No. 1, “I’m the One” (77,000, with Quavo, Chance the Rapper and Lil Wayne); and he debuts at No. 3, also in a featured role, on David Guetta’s “2U,” which launches with 72,000 first-week downloads sold. On the Billboard Hot 100, the songs rank at Nos. 1, 2 and 16, respectively. Bieber previously broke chart barriers with “Despacito” and “I’m the One”:…

At 20 years old, Andre Benz may not be old enough to get into clubs or order a beer. But during the past five years he has become one of the most powerful tastemakers in electronic music, combing through new tracks and featuring favorites on his YouTube channels Trap Nation, Chill Nation and Rap Nation, which he launched in high school. ”By the end of senior year I was already making enough capital to hire employees and expand,” says Benz, whose channels count a combined 20 million subscribers — more than Spotify’s most popular playlist — while Trap Nation alone has logged nearly 5 billion views. Benz now has eight full-time employees and three part-time contractors in a Los Angeles office he opened in 2016 and has begun signing artists…

Albert “Prodigy” Johnson, a New York hip-hop legend and one-half of iconic duo Mobb Deep, died June 20 at age 42 after being hospitalized due to complications from sickle-cell anemia. Here, journalistKathy Iandoli, who cowrote the book Commissary Kitchen: My Infamous Prison Cookbook with Prodigy in 2016, remembers the late MC. P spoke slowly, yet his mind moved rapidly. There’s a certain gift and a curse to that — especially when you’re the literary mouthpiece for a hip-hop legend. Every time a new idea would hit him, he would hit me. He kept those ideas and lyrics in marble notebooks in a secret compartment in his couch. He had a Tupac Shakur poster on his wall. We had several false starts on writing another book, mainly because we had 20…

Reggaetón/trap star Ozuna has six tracks charting simultaneously on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs — and the 25-year-old still doesn’t have a label or publishing deal. “I try to stay focused,” says the Puerto Rico native, who offers advice to those without major backing. DEVELOP A STRONG NETWORK Along with early supporters like Daddy Yankee and Wisin, Ozuna has had the same core team since day one. “It’s us against the world,” says longtime manager Vicente Saavedra. LEARN THE INDUSTRY Knowledge is power, especially with paperwork. “You can’t sign just any contract,” says Ozuna. “Today you have platforms that teach you everything from opening your own YouTube channel to using Shazam.” EMBRACE EVERY CHANNEL YouTube was initially Ozuna’s focus, but his 2016 single, “Dile Que Tu Me Quieres” (“Tell Him…

POP RADIO EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR 1MARK MEDINA, 42 PROGRAM DIRECTOR, WHTZ-FM New York IN A YEAR WHEN MUSIC STREAMING SERVICES HAVE GROWN FASTER THAN EVER, WHTZ (Z100) New York’s Mark Medina understands the enduring power of broadcast radio. “The personalities make it personal,” says Medina, who was named program director of Z100 in late 2014. “The human curation of radio can’t be matched by an algorithm. The companionship and relationships that [radio personalities] have with the audience ... they bring the music to life.” Medina is Billboard’s top pop programmer of the year, recognizing his leadership of Z100, iHeartMedia’s mainstream top 40 powerhouse. With a cumulative audience of 4.3 million in April, according to Nielsen Audio, WHTZ continues to be the most listened-to top 40 station in the United…

Witness: Perry’s Third No. 1 Katy Perry claims her third No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with Witness. The set earned 180,000 equivalent album units in the week ending June 15, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 162,000 are traditional album sales. Witness follows Perry’s two earlier No. 1s: Prism (in 2013) and Teenage Dream (2010). All three debuted atop the list. Previous studio release Prism launched with 286,000 in sales (before the chart transitioned to a unitsbased ranking in December 2014). Perry’s bow of 180,000 units is the biggest week for an album by a woman in 2017, and the largest since Lady Gaga’s Joanne started at No. 1 with 201,000 units on Nov. 12, 2016. Witness also logs the largest sales week for an album by…

Lady A, Dan + Shay Dominate Lady Antebellum’s Heart Break debuts at No. 1 on Top Country Albums, earning 53,000 equivalent albums (47,000 in pure sales), according to Nielsen Music. The set marks Lady A’s fifth leader, all of which have debuted at No. 1, and first since 747 took off at No. 2 on Oct. 18, 2014. Dan + Shay (above) link their third straight (and third total) Country Airplay No. 1 as “How Not To” jumps 4-1, increasing 7 percent to 41 million audience impressions. The song follows “From the Ground Up” (Sept. 3, 2016) and “Nothin’ Like You” (Dec. 19, 2015). On Hot Country Songs, Sam Hunt’s “Body Like a Back Road” rumbles to its 19th week at No. 1, tying Leroy Van Dyke’s “Walk On By”…

‘Despacito’ No. 1 For 20 Weeks “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee (above), featuring Justin Bieber, earns its 20th week at No. 1 on the Hot Latin Songs chart, becoming the eighth track to reach the 20-week mark. The song — which also earns its sixth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — first topped Hot Latin Songs on the Feb. 18-dated chart and has led ever since. Enrique Iglesias’ “Bailando” (featuring Descemer Bueno and Gente de Zona) holds the record for longest reign at No. 1 with 41 weeks in 2014 and 2015. Meanwhile, Shakira scores her sixth No. 1 on Top Latin Albums as El Dorado rises to the pinnacle. It earned 8,000 equivalent album units in the week ending June 15, according to…

Depeche Mode Is Hot In Europe Depeche Mode (above) lands 14 concert engagements on the chart with the first box-office grosses reported from its Global Spirit Tour that launched in May. On the road behind the March release of its 14th studio album, Spirit, the band kicked off the world tour with a summer run through European markets, opening in Stockholm on May 5. The trek’s starting leg in Europe is set to hit stadiums in 33 cities before wrapping July 23 in Romania. Ranked at No. 2 is the tour’s highest-grossing venue so far: HDI-Arena in Hannover, Germany, with the only two-show stint during the European run. Sales at the football stadium topped out at $6.2 million from 73,050 tickets sold for concerts on June 11 and 12. Following…

Few record labels were as important to the rise of West Coast hip-hop as Priority Records. From 1985 until 2004, when it first shut down, Priority was home to game-changing early albums from N.W.A, Dr. Dre and Ice-T, among a slew of others. Now, Capitol Music Group is relaunching the imprint as a versatile distribution wing overseen by CMG’s hierarchy, including chairman/CEO Steve Barnett, new executive vp Dion “No I.D.” Wilson and Motown president Ethiopia Habtemariam, and run by Los Angeles radio veteran William “Fuzzy” West and A&R rep Serge Durand to push Capitol deeper into the hip-hop market. ”Until Ethiopia arrived with Motown [in 2014], Capitol hadn’t been committed in urban for 25 years,” says Barnett. Capitol hopes to use that trailblazing legacy to compete with indie distributors that…

ALLEN HUGHES SAYS THAT THE biggest challenge he faced while filming The Defiant Ones, a four-part HBO documentary series that premieres July 9, was “thinking that it would be easy.” The 45-year-old Hughes brother (one half of the directorial duo, along with fraternal twin Albert, behind Menace II Society and Dead Presidents) got an immediate green light from HBO in 2013 when he pitched a project on the life of Dr. Dre, 52, whom he had met on an N.W.A music video set 25 years ago. What was supposed to be a hiphop documentary ended up as a music-business education centered on the relationship between Dre and Jimmy Iovine, following Apple’s $3 billion acquisition of Beats in 2014. Hughes filmed the series — which features commentary from Lady Gaga, Bruce…

Rob Thomas and Adam Duritz go way back (Thomas used to get Duritz comparisons when he was cutting his teeth). On July 12, their respective bands, Matchbox 20 and Counting Crows, will launch a co-headlining tour, A Brief History of Everything. Ahead of the joint trek, the frontmen reflect on each other’s most memorable hits ROB THOMAS ON COUNTING CROWS “Rain King,” 1994 “We used to cover that in college. If we wanted to play the big night on campus, we had to do half originals, half covers. The covers went from Counting Crows to Live to Melissa Etheridge. It was a ’90s cornucopia.” “Mr. Jones,” 1994 “Right after [that song came out], they played at our local place [in Orlando]. We hung out with them after the show. I…

WHO Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Joe Strummer and Topper Headon developed from an inner-city punk group from London to headlining festivals all over the world. THEIR LEGACY They did everything: rockabilly, reggae, dub and even hip-hop toward the end of their career. ENCOUNTER I worked on music with Paul and Mick in London two years ago. They were playing me songs off their iPads and telling me what they’re interested in. They’re still very fascinated by music. WHO A founding father of reggae and dancehall sound systems, he was among the first mainstream DJs in the United Kingdom to support reggae and dance music. He’s still doing radio and touring. HIS LEGACY He was the go-to guy in the U.K. if you wanted to break a reggae record — and…

Swift Streams Back To Chart Following the return of her catalog to all streaming platforms on June 9, Taylor Swift (below) re-enters the Billboard 200 with four of her five studio albums, including 1989, which jumps back into the top 40 at No. 31. The release has been absent from that section of the chart for more than a year. In total, Swift’s catalog of songs earned a 551 percent gain in on-demand audio streams in the week ending June 15, according to Nielsen Music. Her songs tallied 47.5 million streams for the week — up from 7.3 million during the previous frame. Swift’s most recent album, 2014’s 1989, generated 18.9 million streams for its songs in the latest tracking week. The set returns to the Billboard 200 at No.…

Rise Against Rises Again Wolves by Rise Against (above) howls onto Top Rock Albums, Alternative Albums and Hard Rock Albums at No. 1 with 29,000 equivalent album units (27,000 in pure sales), according to Nielsen Music. The Chicago-based band previously ruled all three charts with 2011’s Endgame and 2014’s The Black Market. Meanwhile, the new set’s lead single, “The Violence,” reaches a new peak on Mainstream Rock (9-7) and Alternative (22-19), while bulleting at its No. 13 high on Rock Airplay, up 14 percent to 4.8 million rock radio impressions. Atop Mainstream Rock, Stone Sour’s “Song #3” jumps 2-1, marking the Corey Taylor-led outfit’s fourth No. 1 on the airplay chart and second in a row, following “Tired” in early 2014. “Song” completes the band’s quickest climb to No. 1,…

Hillsong, LeCrae, MercyMe Reign Wonder, the new studio album from Hillsong United, bounds in at No. 1 on Top Christian Albums, earning 20,000 equivalent albums (16,000 in pure sales), according to Nielsen Music. The set marks the Sydney-based worship collective’s seventh Top Christian Albums leader, all of which launched at No. 1. The act last ruled with Empires (June 13, 2015, with 47,000 copies sold). Its previous No. 1s: Zion (2013), Live in Miami (2012), Aftermath (2011), [a_CROSS//the_EARTH] : : Tear Down the Walls (2009) and All of the Above (2007). Meanwhile, Wonder’s titletrack first single jumps to a new Hot Christian Songs high (20-11) and re-enters Christian Digital Song Sales at No. 6 (3,000 sold, up 218 percent). Also on Hot Christian Songs, LeCrae and featured artist Tori Kelly…

WHILE TOURING EUROPE WITH Public Enemy in the late 1980s, Ice-T noticed something that didn’t normally occur at American hip-hop shows: During songs like PE’s “Bring the Noise,” fans would form fierce mosh pits. For him, the experience was revelatory. “Fuck ‘wave your hands in the hair,’ ” says Ice-T. “Anybody who has played in front of a mosh pit knows it’s the best shit in the world.” Soon after, Ice-T formed Body Count, a group that mixed hip- hop with punk, hardcore and metal and provoked outrage with the thrashing 1992 single “Cop Killer.” Twenty-five years later, a version of Body Count’s sound has come storming back to the mainstream. On the July 1 Billboard Hot 100, Lil Uzi Vert’s single “XO Tour Llif3” is No. 10; the bruising…

LP The 36-year-old found her voice 10 years after calling it quits By Lyndsey Havens Photographed by Elizabeth Weinberg The ukulele kick-started her songwriting career After a pair of mid-’00s label deals flamed out, the artist born Laura Pergolizzi gave up on music in 2008. Then she picked up an old ukulele in her apartment and started strumming. “I just wanted to sit in bed and play,” she says, “but the ukulele inspired new songs.” Within two years, she had co-penned tracks for Rihanna and Christina Aguilera. Paul Simon influenced breakout single “Lost on You” The heart-wrenching alt-pop single, which has logged 10.5 million streams (according to Nielsen Music) and earned LP her first airplay, was written on the road in 2014, after the Long Island native had restarted her…

KCON is not merely a stateside K-pop music fest. The expo, which returns to the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., June 23-24 prior to its Los Angeles event in August, is more of a celebration of K-pop culture than a traditional lineup of major acts (though A-listers like Twice, CNBLUE and Highlight will perform). “What KCON does is actually bring all of Korea to America — the music, the fashion, K-beauty and K-food,” says Pious Jung, CEO of KCON co-organizer CJ America. Attendees should keep their eyes peeled for these fan experiences at KCON NY. CUTTHROAT CUTENESS “Aegyo” is a Korean word that refers to baby-like displays of affection; acts like GFriend became famous for the adolescent singing style, while crowds often beg male idols to break character and “do…

AS THE SUN SETS ON the CBS lot in Los Angeles on a recent Tuesday evening, Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas and Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins — the remaining members of TLC, the groundbreaking female R&B trio — stand on an outdoor stage at the season finale of Dancing With the Stars. As they sing a truncated version of the most mega of their megahits, “Waterfalls” (it ruled the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks in 1995), the dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy and his partner, former Glee star Heather Morris, twirl through a seductive rumba. Watkins and Thomas, meanwhile, bounce and snap much as they did in the song’s now-cherished 1995 music video: Watkins wearing her trademark asymmetrical blond bob, Thomas baring her still-enviable abs in a crop top. Ten minutes later, Thomas whoops…

NO. 1 KATY PERRY Perry completes a record 149-week climb to No. 1 on the Artist 100, passing Bruno Mars’ 114-week ascent (dating to the chart’s 2014 origin), as her new album Witness launches atop the Billboard 200 (see page 56). Childish Behavior Childish Gambino (above) continues to climb the Billboard Artist 100, rising 38-30 (up 6 percent in overall activity), in large part powered by “Redbone,” his highest-charting single on the Billboard Hot 100 (No. 14). The track by the musical persona of actor Donald Glover gains in all Hot 100 metrics, becoming his first top 10 on Streaming Songs (12-10; 20.7 million U.S. streams, up 8 percent, according to Nielsen Music), lifting 15-14 on Radio Songs (61 million in audience, up 11 percent) and rising 21-17 on Digital…

DJ Khaled Takes ‘Thoughts’ To No. 2 “Wild Thoughts” by DJ Khaled (below), a collaboration with Rihanna and Bryson Tiller, debuts at No. 2 on Billboard + Twitter Top Tracks after its June 16 release. The song scores Tiller his first top five hit on the chart, while it becomes Khaled’s sixth and Rihanna’s 12th since the ranking launched in 2014. Further, the tune ignites on radio with three days of activity for the tracking week (ending June 15), debuting at No. 32 on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and No. 37 on Mainstream Top 40. “Thoughts” previewed Khaled’s Grateful album, which arrived June 23. Meanwhile, Jaden Smith bows at No. 27 on Top Tracks with “Batman” after its dual audio and music video release on June 14. The clip, featuring Smith parading…

Lamar, SZA & Top Dawg: In Charge Singer-songwriter SZA (above) debuts at No. 2 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums with Ctrl, which opens with 60,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending June 15, according to Nielsen Music. The set, which was released through Top Dawg/RCA, gives Top Dawg the top two titles on the chart for the first time, as Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. (Top Dawg/ Aftermath/Interscope) retains the No. 1 slot. SZA’s album is her second top 10 on the list, after Z bowed at No. 9 in 2014. Six Ctrl tracks also enter Hot R&B Songs, led by the No. 7 “Love Galore,” featuring Travis Scott. Meanwhile, on Rhythmic, DJ Khaled’s “I’m the One” (featuring Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance the Rapper and Lil Wayne) climbs 3-1. “One” lifts…

Clean Bandit bounds 3-1 on Dance Club Songs with “Symphony” (featuring Zara Larsson). Remixed by Cash Cash, Joe Maz and R3hab, among others, the track is the first leader for both acts. “Symphony” is the follow-up to Clean Bandit’s first top 10, “Rockabye” (featuring Sean Paul and Anne-Marie), which hit No. 5 in March. Also on Dance Club Songs, Debbie Gibson scores her highest-charting hit in more than 25 years as a featured artist on Sir Ivan’s “I Am Peaceman” (42-29). Gibson, who boasts the top 10s “Shake Your Love” (No. 6, 1987) and “Electric Youth” (No. 3, 1989), last charted higher with “One Step Ahead” (No. 18, 1991). Among Sir Ivan’s eight chart entries is one with another ’80s hitmaker: “Kiss All the Bullies Goodbye” (featuring Taylor Dayne) reached…