Entertainment
R&B/Hip-Hop Fresh Picks of the Week: Rjtheweirdo, Sekou, Lazer Dim 700, Marlon Craft & More
It’s been a characteristically hectic week for the hip-hop world.
Last Thursday (April 2), Pooh Shiesty previewed the weekend with a shocking legal altercation barely six months after his release from federal prison. The Memphis rapper was one of eight men arrested on kidnapping and robbery charges tied to a physical altercation regarding his recording contract with Gucci Mane’s 1017 Records.
Ye quickly stole the weekend’s headlines from Pooh, thanks to his new Bully album, which opened at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 behind BTS’s Arirang, and its accompanying pair of SoFi Stadium shows in Los Angeles. At the final show (April 3), the controversial rapper brought out Ms. Lauryn Hill, Travis Scott, Zion Marley, YG Marley, CeeLo Green and André Troutman as special guests.
Despite packing one of the world’s flashiest stadiums and breaking the six-figure mark with Bully’s opening week total, Ye’s past antisemitic, antiblack and sexually violent controversies continue to muddy his comeback efforts. On Monday morning (April 6), flagship alcohol brand parent company Diageo and energy drinks company Rockstar Energy joined the growing list of sponsors severing ties with London’s Wireless Festival, which booked Ye as a headliner for all three nights (July 10-12). PepsiCo was the first sponsor to withdraw from Wireless, with PayPal also distancing itself from the Finsbury Park-set festival. As the summer approaches, all eyes will be on Wireless and Ye to see if the two parties can actually pull off this festival takeover.
Outside of the high-stakes headlines, we also got new albums from Arlo Parks (Ambiguous Desire), Swae Lee (Same Difference) and Earl Sweatshirt, Mike & Surf Gang (Pompeii // Utility).
With Fresh Picks, Billboard aims to highlight some of the best and most interesting new sounds across R&B and hip-hop — from a disco-infused Sekou to a new Lazer Dim 700 banger. Be sure to check out this week’s Fresh Picks in our Spotify playlist below.

Business
Bad Bunny’s Spotify’s Billions Club Concert Film Is Coming Sooner Than You Think: Watch the Teaser
Bad Bunny‘s first Asia show at Spotify’s star-studded Billions Club in Tokyo will arrive on the platform — and soon. Spotify announced on Monday (April 6) that the release date for the one-night event will be April 8.
Billions Club Live With Bad Bunny: A Concert Film will show the Puerto Rican superstar delivering 17 of his biggest hits — including “DtMF,” “Baile Involvidable,” “Nuevalyol” and “EOO” — at Tipstar Dome Chiba on March 7, almost a month after his headline performance at Super Bowl LX.
The show — Spotify’s first Billions Club Live in the region — also debuted a salsa version of his reggaetón hit “MIA” from 2018, featuring guest appearances by Puerto Rican musicians Los Pleneros de la Cresta and Los Sobrinos. Other highlights included “Yonaguni,” during which fans sang along to the Japanese lyrics, and a surprise appearance by Jowell & Randy for “Safaera.”
The evening opened and closed with music provided by DJ Nasthug, while BLACKPINK‘s LISA and contemporary artist Takashi Murakami were among the celebrities in attendance.
With 29 songs that have surpassed one billion streams on Spotify, Bad Bunny has been shattering numerous records in recent months. In February, he landed a record-breaking 29 simultaneous titles on Billboard‘s Hot Latin Songs chart, including the entire top 25, while also bagging the top spot on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100.
Furthermore, his Super Bowl LX Halftime Show was the most watched of all time. According to coproducer Roc Nation, Benito’s history-making performance set a global viewership record with 4.157 billion worldwide views in the first 24 hours across global and U.S. broadcasts, as well as YouTube and other digital properties.
Watch a teaser of Billions Club Live With Bad Bunny: A Concert Film below:
Entertainment
R&B/Hip-Hop Fresh Picks of the Week: Rjtheweirdo, Sekou, Lazer Dim 700, Marlon Craft & More
It’s been a characteristically hectic week for the hip-hop world.
Last Thursday (April 2), Pooh Shiesty previewed the weekend with a shocking legal altercation barely six months after his release from federal prison. The Memphis rapper was one of eight men arrested on kidnapping and robbery charges tied to a physical altercation regarding his recording contract with Gucci Mane’s 1017 Records.
Ye quickly stole the weekend’s headlines from Pooh, thanks to his new Bully album, which opened at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 behind BTS’s Arirang, and its accompanying pair of SoFi Stadium shows in Los Angeles. At the final show (April 3), the controversial rapper brought out Ms. Lauryn Hill, Travis Scott, Zion Marley, YG Marley, CeeLo Green and André Troutman as special guests.
Despite packing one of the world’s flashiest stadiums and breaking the six-figure mark with Bully’s opening week total, Ye’s past antisemitic, antiblack and sexually violent controversies continue to muddy his comeback efforts. On Monday morning (April 6), flagship alcohol brand parent company Diageo and energy drinks company Rockstar Energy joined the growing list of sponsors severing ties with London’s Wireless Festival, which booked Ye as a headliner for all three nights (July 10-12). PepsiCo was the first sponsor to withdraw from Wireless, with PayPal also distancing itself from the Finsbury Park-set festival. As the summer approaches, all eyes will be on Wireless and Ye to see if the two parties can actually pull off this festival takeover.
Outside of the high-stakes headlines, we also got new albums from Arlo Parks (Ambiguous Desire), Swae Lee (Same Difference) and Earl Sweatshirt, Mike & Surf Gang (Pompeii // Utility).
With Fresh Picks, Billboard aims to highlight some of the best and most interesting new sounds across R&B and hip-hop — from a disco-infused Sekou to a new Lazer Dim 700 banger. Be sure to check out this week’s Fresh Picks in our Spotify playlist below.

Entertainment
Chart Rewind: In 1996, Wynonna Judd Notched Another ‘Be Loved’ No. 1
Hindsight is 20/20, and 30 years down the road, it’s easy to look back and see Wynonna Judd’s “To Be Loved by You,” which topped Billboard’sHot Country Songs chart dated April 6, 1996, as a hall-of-fame project.
Wynonna, of course, earned a spot in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2022 as half of The Judds, while the single’s producer, Tony Brown (George Strait, Vince Gill), joined the Hall in 2025. Both of the “To Be Loved by You” songwriters — Gary Burr (Patty Loveless’ “I Try to Think About Elvis,” Conway Twitty’s “That’s My Job”) and Mike Reid (Ronnie Milsap’s “Stranger in My House,” Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me”) — became Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame members in 2005.
Wynonna infused “To Be Loved by You” with dramatic, R&B-shaded dynamics, debuting the recording at No. 59 on Hot Country Songs on Jan. 6, 1996, ahead of the Feb. 13 release of her Curb/MCA album Revelations. She performed it in her first TV special as a solo act, also titled Revelations, that Feb. 23, and it climbed to the top of the list in the single’s 14th charted week. It marked the most recent of her four solo No. 1s, following 14 chart-toppers in 1984-89 with The Judds, featuring now-deceased mother/duet partner Naomi Judd, who announced her health-related retirement from touring in 1990.
Wynonna covered another Hall of Famer this March 30 when she sang Tammy Wynette’s “Woman to Woman” during taping for a PBS Great Performances episode, “Forever Yours: The First Lady of Country Music,” slated for later this year.
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