The Playground: industry News Weekly Wrap-Up (March 5, 2021)
Tap in with The Playground for all the latest updates from New York and from around the industry - where we go over everything that went down this week that you need to know about
1) Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey Announce Tidal x Square Partnership
Square, the mobile payments company behind Cashapp led by Jack Dorsey (also founder of Twitter) announced its plans to obtain a “significant majority” of Tidal, the streaming music service owned by Jay-Z and other artists. Square will pay $297 million in stock and cash for the stake in Tidal. Also as part of the deal, Jay-Z will join Square’s board - a huge moment in hip hop history. In a tweet, Square CEO and founder, Jack Dorsey, further elaborated the reasoning for the acquisitionion: "Given what Square has been able to do for sellers of all sizes and individuals through Cash App, we believe we can now work for artists to see the same success for them, and us. We’re going to start small and focus on the most critical needs of artists and growing their fanbases." This is a big moment for the music industry… and may finally make Tidal make sense.
2) Eddie Huang’s New Movie Boogie, Co-Starring Pop Smoke Debuted This Week
The posthumous film debut of Brooklyn rapper Pop Smoke is now out in theatres. The film titled Boogie stars Taylor Takahashi as Alfred Boogie Chin a Chinese-American high school basketball star who resides in Flushing and has dreams of playing in the NBA. Pop Smoke portrays the role of Pop Smoke plays Monk, a rival basketball player. Other familiar faces in the film are Dave East and Taylour Paige. Make sure you check out Boogie in theatres and on streaming services today.
3) Renowned Fashion Stylist and Inventor of “Ghetto Fabulous”, Derek Khan, Passed Away
Derek Khan, a Renowned fashion stylist to hip-hop and R&B stars like Salt-N-Pepa, Lauryn Hill, and many other, died on Feb. 15 at a hospital in Dubai. He was 63. Known as the brain behind the over-the-top look known as “ghetto fabulous,” he convinced stars to get rid of the streetwear they were notorious for and to let him dress them in Fendi, Chanel and Dolce & Gabbana.
4) Pop Smoke's ‘Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon’ is The Longest-Running #1 R&B/Hip Hop Album since 1990
Pop Smoke's "Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon" hit an outstanding new record on the Billboard charts. Pop Smoke's Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon is officially the longest-running album on the R&B/Hip Hop chart since 1990, it held down its position at the top for a total of seventeen weeks. According to Billboard, only eleven albums have secured seventeen or more weeks at the top of the charts, with the only two rap projects being Shoot For The Stars and MC Hammer’s Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt ‘Em.
5) Cardi B’s ‘Invasion of Privacy’ Become’s Longest Charting Female Rap Album In History
March is Women’s History month and Cardi B continues to make her contributions to the history of women in Hip-hop. Cardi B’s debut album, Invasion Of Privacy, has officially spent one-hundred-and-fifty weeks on the Billboard 200; the highest amount of chart time spent by a female rapper’s album in hip-hop history. The album marked Cardi’s inauguration as an artist with notable tracks like Bodak Yellow, Be Careful and I Like It which features Latin sensations Bad Bunny and J Balvin. All this while Bodak Yellow approach 1 Billion view on Youtube.
6) Megan Thee Stallion Is Doing Her Part To Help Provide Relief to Houston Residents After Winter Storm Uri
Megan Thee Stallion is teaming up with Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and the National Association of Christian Churches (NACC) Disaster Services to help her hometown of Houston after the city and its residents were devastated by Winter Storm Uri last month. “Seeing the devastation and hearing the heartbreaking stories that have surfaced, I knew I had to do something to help my hometown,” Megan said in a statement. “I am so happy that Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, the NACC and I aligned on the goal of repairing the homes of the elderly and uninsured single moms who are the most vulnerable and often displaced by these kinds of devastating events.”
7) Billboard Announces Music Video Views on Facebook Will Count Towards Billboard Charts
Billboard announced that its Billboard Hot 100, Billboard 200, Artist 100, and Billboard Global 200 charts will now be counted in streams of officially licensed music videos on Facebook. The changes will go into effect on March 27 and retroactively count streams from March 12-18.
8) Cardi B deactivated her Twitter after fans got upset she is releasing a doll instead of an album.
#CardiB is sick of fans asking her for new music. Y'all done gave the lady migraine headaches 🙄 pic.twitter.com/Auz3BQYWds
— Passionteainfo (@passionteainfo) March 5, 2021
Cardi took to Instagram to rant about fans not being here for her latest business venture:
“I have so much pressure. I’m working on a lot of s–t to please people…I wanna please my fans, because y’all been asking for something from me for a very long time that I can’t say, and I’m doing it for ya…’eh, you’re dropping a f–king doll, we want an album!’ How am I supposed to be rich? How am I supposed to build my net worth?” she said on an Instagram Live.
And that’s the weekly Wrap-Up… see you next week!