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Is Cardi B the drama? Even she isn’t sure — including when it comes to her tensions with other female rappers in the music industry.
While speaking to Zane Lowe for Apple Music 1 in an interview posted Monday (Aug. 25), the Bronx native opened up about why she thinks people are always pulling her into feuds online and in person, a phenomenon that inspired the title of her upcoming sophomore album, Am I the Drama? After years of reflection, Cardi has concluded that she simply has a natural quality that elicits strong reactions from other people.
“It’s like, ‘Damn, does drama chase me? Or am I the drama?’” she told Lowe. “I just really think I was born with an anointed light. Sometimes the light is great, but it also disturbs people’s peace. It draws people to me, and it’s not always going to be good. That light might bother people … maybe it’s too bright, it’s too loud. It’s always been like this to me.”
That gravitational relationship between herself and drama has carried over from her high-school days into her professional life, the Grammy winner says. “Even in the industry, there is a lot of different female rappers, but for some reason, it’s something about me that these b—hes can’t stand,” she explained on Apple Music 1. “They can’t f–k with me. Some b—hes, I feel like they’re on this class right now, they’re sophomores, and I’m a senior. And it’s like, you want to f–k with the senior so bad. You think you’re here with the senior. You’re not even a junior. You need to worry about them other sophomores before you start worrying about the f–king senior.”
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“It’s something about [me] that it’s like, they can’t even focus on them,” Cardi added. “They got to focus on me. And they always got to focus on throwing me shots and throwing me slings … and I’m sick of it. It’s like, f–k you, f–k everybody.”
Though the hip-hop titan didn’t name names, it’s no secret that she’s found herself in the middle of numerous public spats over the years. In addition to her widely publicized conflict with fellow rap queen Nicki Minaj, Cardi has also traded barbs on social media with artists such as JT of City Girls, Akbar V and Bia.
But while fans will have to wait a few more weeks to hear whether Cardi addresses any of her feuds on Am I the Drama?, which drops Sept. 19, she did recently release a single from the LP titled “Imaginary Playerz.” The track samples Jay-Z’s 1997 song “Imaginary Players,” and on Apple Music 1, Cardi spoke about having the mogul approve her use of his work on her album.
“When it was time to submit it to get approved, I was a little scared,” she revealed. “I was a little shaky. ‘Wait a minute, Jay-Z got to approve it.’ I mean, I always knew that he got to approve it, but it was like, how about if he don’t approve it? How about if he f–king likes it? And he did like it. And it’s so crazy, the text message of him approving it, it was at 4:44 p.m.”
Watch Cardi’s full interview with Lowe above.
Michael “Tunes” Antunes, whose powerful saxophone playing since the early ’70s with John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band graced hits including the top 10 Billboard Hot 100 smash “On the Dark Side,” died Aug. 19, nine days after his 85th birthday.
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In a post about Antunes’ passing on his official Instagram account, Cafferty shared a video of the saxophonist playing his heartaching solo from “Tender Years,” a longtime staple of Beaver Brown’s bar shows, which reached No. 31 on the Hot 100 in 1985 after Eddie and the Cruisers was released on HBO.
“Our hearts are filled with so many emotions,” wrote Cafferty. “Love, gratitude, respect, joy for our precious time together and sadness for our gentle fond farewell. It will always be one of life’s true gifts to have traveled the world over these many years within Tunes’ inner circle of love and magic on this amazing musical journey we’ve been blessed with.”
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For more than five decades, Antunes — who was always known as “Tunes” to his bandmates and fans — was an exuberant and soulful onstage presence with the journeyman group, which rose from the East Coast bar scene to Platinum-selling success.
Beaver Brown, as the band was first known, gained acclaim in the 1970s in East Coast rock clubs, from Narragansett, in Cafferty’s native Rhode Island, to New Haven, Conn., where they were a mainstay at the famed Toad’s Place, to the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, N.J., where kindred spirit Bruce Springsteen jammed with them often.
The group, including Antunes, brought bar-band authenticity to the fictional group portrayed in the 1983 film Eddie and the Cruisers. Cafferty’s songs, including “On the Dark Side,” were beloved by fans in the bars for years in the 1970s before record-buyers learned of those tracks via the film soundtrack. “On the Dark Side” reached No. 7 on the Hot 100, No. 1 on Mainstream Rock Radio and has been streamed more than 47 million times, according to Luminate. In 1995, the Eddie and the Cruisers soundtrack was certified triple Platinum.
Antunes also performed on the joyous and reflective Sound of Waves, Beaver Brown’s first album of all-new songs in 37 years, which Cafferty and the group showcased in New York City at the Cutting Room on April 10. After that show, veteran music industry executive Steve Leeds posted ‘“Rock n Roll Never Forgets!’ The Beaver Brown Band kicked major ass at the Cutting Room to celebrate [their] first new CD in years. And they still have it!”
Antunes was born Aug. 10, 1940, the son of Peter and Mary Antunes. A native of New Bedford, Mass., Antunes took great pride in his Cape Verdean heritage. According to a 2015 profile in New Bedford’s newspaper, the Standard Times, his grandfather Joaquim Antunes was a Cape Verdean immigrant who played guitar and violin in the New Bedford region in the 1920s and 1930s, which his father Peter Antunes played upright bass, guitar and Hammond organ in performances throughout New England.
Antunes’ first show came at age 13 with the stage band of Dartmouth High School and most of his early shows were playing Cape Verdean music with his guitarist brother David and his cousin Joe Silva in a band called Second Generation, according to the Standard Times profile.
After Eddie and the Cruisers gave Cafferty, Antunes and their bandmates entrée into the world of film work. Sylvester Stallone came calling and used “Voice of America’s Songs,” from the album Tough All Over, as the theme song for the 1986 adventure flick Cobra.
Antunes’ first recorded credits with Beaver Brown, according to Discogs, was the band’s 1980 self-released single “Wild Summer Nights.” In addition to the soundtrack of Eddie and the Cruisers and its sequel, he played on the Beaver Brown albums Tough All Over in 1985 and Roadhouse in 1988. With Beaver Brown, he also played on a cover of “E Street Shuffle,” which Beaver Brown recorded for the 2003 album Light Of Day: A Tribute To Bruce Springsteen, released to benefit The Parkinson’s Disease Foundation and the Kristen Ann Carr Fund, which fights sarcoma cancer.
While complete family survivor information is not available, an announcement of services for Antunes states that he was the brother of siblings Jackie, David and Anthony; the father of Deborah, Michael, Juanita, Juan, Kevin, Derek, Michael, Dina and Wendle; the grandfather of 20; great-grandfather of 29 and the great-grandfather of two.
A funeral service is planned Thursday, Aug. 28, from the Saunders-Dwyer Funeral Home in New Bedford, Mass.
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We are 166 days away from Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. on Feb. 6. And even though the regular season doesn’t kick off until Thursday (Aug. 28), that doesn’t mean we can’t begin cranking up the speculation machine on who might perform during halftime at the big game next year.
Coming off of Kendrick Lamar’s universally lauded halftime show in New Orleans earlier this year featuring cameos from SZA, Samuel L. Jackson, Serena Williams and Mustard, Usher’s star-studded 2024 show in Las Vegas featuring Alicia Keys, Jermaine Dupri, H.E.R., Lil Jon, Ludacris and will.i.am and Rihanna’s baby bump bonanza in 2023, it feels like anything goes for next year’s show.
And while Jay-Z’s Roc Nation has been bringing the hip-hop/R&B heat since coming on as co-producers of the hugely watched extravaganza in 2019 with sets from The Weeknd in 2021 and 2022’s iconic performance by Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar, so far the biggest buzz for a potential ’26 headliner surrounds one of the biggest names in music who has never played the big show before: Taylor Swift.
Swift, who performed a pair of dates at Levi’s stadium in July 2023 on her Eras Tour has been in the conversation before, but the stage seems more perfectly set than ever this year for her to add a halftime show to her already gaudy resumé of achievements. Not only has the singer become a fixture at NFL games over the past two years due to her romance with three-time NFL champ Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, but on the baller’s New Heights podcast earlier this month she dropped a few breadcrumbs suggesting that she might enhance the sparkle of her upcoming 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl (Oct. 3) with a halftime ramble.
Swift isn’t the only name that has been in circulation as fans begin the annual ritual of searching for clues about who might headline the most-watched broadcast of the year. With the traditional September announcement of next year’s headliner possibly just a few weeks away, she joins a star-studded list of artists who have been mentioned as potential performers. Other names in the buzz bin this year include Justin Bieber — after his recent surprise drop of Swag, his first album in four years — Roc Nation boss Jay-Z, who is rumored to be prepping his first LP in more than eight years, as well as Bay Area locals Metallica and Green Day, Mariah Carey, Post Malone and Drake.
Check out the case for each of those acts (and a few more) below.
Lady Gaga
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The soundtrack to Netflix’s empowering, action-packed and heartwarming KPop Demon Hunters hauls in a fourth Hot 100 top 10, as HUNTR/X’s “How It’s Done,” the act’s second top 10, after “Golden,” bounds 14-10. “How It’s Done” was driven by 17.2 million streams (up 2%) in the tracking week.
HUNTR/X and KPop Demon Hunters adversaries Saja Boys come to a draw, each with two Hot 100 top 10s: the latter’s “Your Idol” keeps at its No. 4 high and “Soda Pop” leaps 10-5. The former boasts a gain of nearly 1% to 20.4 million streams and the latter, a 4% lift to 18.4 million. (“It is annoyingly catchy,” HUNTR/X’s Rumi concedes of “Soda Pop” in the film.)
Despite their on-screen combat, HUNTR/X and Saja Boys — whose music is voiced by Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo and samUIL Lee — combine to make KPop Demon Hunters the first soundtrack ever to generate four simultaneous Hot 100 top 10s.
It’s also the first soundtrack with at least four Hot 100 top 10s overall since Waiting To Exhale reeled off a record five in 1995-96. The only other soundtracks with four top 10s each: Saturday Night Fever (in 1977-78), Grease (1978) and Prince and the Revolution’s Purple Rain (1984-85).
Meanwhile, the last time a soundtrack sent three songs to the Hot 100’s top five simultaneously, as KPop Demon Hunters has now done via “Golden,” “Your Idol” and “Soda Pop”? April 15, 1978, when three Saturday Night Fever songs strutted in the tier: Bee Gees’ “Night Fever” (No. 1) and “Stayin’ Alive” (No. 2) and Yvonne Eliiman’s “If I Can’t Have You” (also written by the trio; No. 5).
“It’s so thrilling that people are hearing the songs in two ways,” KPop Demon Hunters executive music producer Ian Eisendrath recently told Billboard. “Some are loving the film, and the film is making the songs hits … and then some people are just encountering the songs, and the songs are making the film a hit.”
The movie’s profile will be further enhanced thanks to sing-along theater screenings held Aug. 23-24, with any related boost in its songs to be reflected on next week’s Billboard charts, dated Sept. 6 and encompassing streaming, airplay and sales Aug. 22-28.
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