Kanye & Ty Dolla $ign Confirm Multi-Stadium Event for Collab Album

Happy Birthday to Drake 🎂, who’s celebrating his 37th birthday today and ignoring Joe Budden’s request to hang out with people his own age. In other news today:

• Billboard Hot 100 📈 

• Kanye & Ty Dolla $ign announce “multi stadium” listening event 🎤

• Meet Barak Spice: Obama’s deep fake as Ice Spice 🤖 

• Jay-Z answers the “$500K or dinner with himself” question 👀 

• Discover new music with The Rap Index 🎵 

• Industry Insights 🔎 

The Billboard Hot 100

The above chart shows Billboard’s Hot 100 ranking for this week. The Hot 100 ranks songs based on a combination of streaming activity, radio airplay audience impressions, and sales data—all measured by Luminate.

Doja Cat climbs back up to the #2 spot, swapping places with Drake’s “IDGAF” ft. Yeat, which is now #4. J. Cole’s first No. 1 single with Drake was short-lived, declining to #8.

Album Debuts on Billboard 200

• Offset’s Set It Off debuts at #4 with 70K first-week sales.

• Ken Carson’s A Great Chaos debuts at #11 with 48K first-week sales.

• Westside Gunn’s And Then You Pray For Me debuts at #29 with 19K first-week sales.

Album sales are according to HDD, and Drake’s For All The Dogs moved 160K units in its second week.

Kanye & Ty Dolla $ign Announce Multi-Stadium Event for Collab Album

Kanye fans were down by one last week as the rumors of a concert in Italy turned into whispers of a cancelation. Until Monday night (Oct 23), when Ty Dolla $ign confirmed a “multi-stadium listening event” with Kanye on November 3rd via IG. Here’s everything you need to know.

In Kanye math, two rescheduled dates and one canceled concert in Italy equals a multi-stadium event at an undisclosed location(s). The cryptic announcement offers no further information but does confirm two crucial things: Kanye was plotting a listening event tangent to the release of an album with Ty Dolla $ign.

Kanye loves his multiplication; he held three separate stadium concerts before releasing Donda in 2021, but the singular “event” suggests he may be trying to execute listening sessions in different venues at the same time.

Considering he’s not running for president in 2024, confirmed by his lawyer last week, he, in theory, has more time to focus on a revolutionary listening experience that’s never been done before.

The breadcrumbs left by Ty Dolla’s post are enough to play the guessing game of who will attend and/or be involved based on likes and comments. Metro Boomin’ already reposted the announcement, Drake liked the post, and Quavo, YG, and Timbaland are in the comments.

Ty Dolla’s story also featured a clip of Kanye talking about their joint album to Power 106 during a 2018 interview. “That’s one of the best combinations ever. Whenever we get on joints together, it be like, ‘yo,’ it’s just outta here,” Kanye said, speaking about their collaboration. It's hard to say if anything the duo worked on five years ago will make the cut, but the clip sets the tone of high expectations.

Meet Barack Spice: Obama’s Deep Fake

If you’ve been on TikTok and ever engaged with Obama or Ice Spice content, you’ve probably come across a deep fake that’s deeply disturbing and entertaining—enough to become someone’s Roman Empire.

Obama starring as Ice Spice in various interviews might be the pinnacle of deep fake technology. The face and voice of Obama are eerily adapted to match the cadence and mannerisms of Ice Spice.

Zack Abrams, the creator and self-titled “deep fake meme pioneer,” delivered his best work adapting Ice’s “Now what, two-hit wonder? Like tf?” In the context of Obama winning his second term as president. If life were a simulation, these deepfakes would be on Malia and Sasha’s fyp and they would send it to their dad/former president.

For those unfamiliar with deepfakes, they’re created using AI and deep learning algorithms. The tech can replace the likeness of one person in a video or image with the likeness of another person. Abrams credited Roop AI and RVC voice changer for the assist with his memes.

Kendrick Lamar’s “The Heart Part 5” music video used deepfake technology to morph him into various figures like Kanye and Kobe Bryant. Drake’s been suspected of using deep fake on the younger version of him that appears on stage during his It’s All A Blur tour.

Jay-Z Answers the Viral “500K or Lunch with Him” Question

In a new interview with CBS Mornings, Jay-Z took Gayle King through The Book of Hov exhibit at the Brooklyn Public Library and answered a few burning questions. Should you take $500K or the opportunity to have lunch with him? Take the money, he says.

“You gotta take the money. You got all that in the music for $10.99 — that’s a bad deal. I wouldn’t tell you to cut a bad deal,” he says, referring to the wisdom one could potentially gain from a lunch. From his POV, any advice you need from him, you could find in the music and the money would be more beneficial.

He also explained the origin of his “one take Hov” nickname, pointing out that back in the day, the punch-in method didn’t exist, and time was money if you messed up recording a take. So, he memorized his lyrics to record his songs in one take and be more efficient with studio time.

The Rap Index ft. Meek Mill, Rick Ross, Swae Lee, Latto & More

The Rap Index is a way to follow and discover new music. Divided into 4 categories describing rap subgenres, songs are placed according to their style and sound—giving you a better idea of what songs will appeal to your musical taste. Only releases from the previous New Music Friday are included to help keep you up to date.

RapTV’s Ranking of NMF Songs Featured in the Rap Index

1. “Scary” by A1 x J1, Aitch (Listen on Apple Music & Spotify)

2. “Different Breed” By Mike WiLL Made-It, Swae Lee, Latto (Listen on Apple Music & Spotify)

3. “Lyrical Eazy” by Rick Ross, Meek Mill (Listen on Apple Music & Spotify)

4. “Presha” by 2 Chainz, Lil Wayne (Listen on Apple Music & Spotify)

5. “Too Much” by The Kid LAROI, Central Cee, Jung Kook (Listen on Apple Music & Spotify)

6. “Blowfly” by Jay Rock, Ab-Soul (Listen on Apple Music & Spotify)

7. “I Should’ve Known” by Lil Tjay, Kyle Richh (Listen on Apple Music & Spotify)

8. “Stomach Grumbling” by Gucci Mane (Listen on Apple Music & Spotify)

• Lil Yachty’s concert abruptly ends after he only performs 5 songs. Yachty told fans to fill the mosh pit, inciting chaos that led to the shutdown due to safety concerns.

• Instagram is testing a dedicated feed for posts from Verified users. The new toggle will appear under the IG logo and give increased visibility to Meta Verified accounts.

• Lil Wayne & Nicki Minaj fans debate who will sell more ahead of album showdown. The Young Money alumni are both set to release albums on November 17th.

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