Billboard // Current TV

Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales Chart: Most Indie of Them All?

"The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales rundown is the oddest and most... more

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To Be Young, Rapping and White

"These days the Asher Roth show begins after the concert is over. In late March Mr. Roth performed at the Sherman Theater here for East Stroudsburg University’s “I ♥ College” week. By 10:30 p.m. he was offstage, and the obstacle course began.

First came the well-wishers and the weed smokers, who kept this young rapper occupied for a long time in the basement dressing room. Then, outside the theater, came the frat boys, beers in hand. Was Mr. Roth, they wondered, man enough to party with them? Then there was the guy in the gray sedan who trailed Mr. Roth’s caravan back to the Budget Inn & Suites just to see what was going on. After that a return to town: house party crashed, beer pong played, pictures snapped.

“I have to embrace this role of ‘Asher Roth’ now,” he said the following morning in the hotel’s empty restaurant, wearing the same white T-shirt and grayish jeans as the night before and straining a bit after just a few hours’ sleep. “If I continue to behave this way, sure, people are going to love me, but I’m going to be run down into the ground.”

Mr. Roth is taxed because of another morning after, the one described in the woozy party anthem “I Love College,” his debut single, which has sold almost a million copies to date, peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has been streamed more than 30 million times on his MySpace page. It’s a wistful look back at his slacker student years: “I can’t tell you what I learned from school/But I could tell you a story or two.” In the video Mr. Roth winds his way through a surrealist frat party, dancing with people in animal suits, making out with girls and grinning madly.

This combination of geniality and mischief is the mood Mr. Roth strikes in person as well. “I have no real gimmick,” he said, shrugging. Raised by a father who is the executive director of a design firm and an herbalist-astrologer-yoga-teacher mother, he’s unfailingly affable, with a bit of Ferris Bueller-style naughtiness thrown in. And with his excellent, versatile debut album, “Asleep in the Bread Aisle” (SchoolBoy/SRC/Universal), out this week, he will become the most commercially viable white rapper since Eminem. It’s territory littered with land mines: questions of authenticity and cultural appropriation.""These days the Asher Roth show begins after the concert is over. In late March... more

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Adult Videos

Adult alternative music videos, that is. This week on the White Hot Top 5 Sergio Cilli... more

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infoMania 3.19.09: Sex Sells

On this week's infoMania Conor investigates bikini-clad baristas and freaky... more

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30 comments

5 Most Sexiest R&B Jams

Ne-Yo, Beyonce, The-Dream, Keri Hilson, and Jamie Foxx all make it into Sergio... more

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5 Lame Rap Songs That People Like

Soulja Boy, Jim Jones & Ron Browz, T.I., and Kanye West all make it into Sergio... more

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38 comments

Billboard Pays Tribute to Flight 1549

A Manhattan billboard for fashion designer Kenneth Cole has often been used to make a... more

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Billboards as Fashion Accessories

It’s early in the morning. You’re stumbling through your home half awake,... more

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Chris Brown is Billboard's artist of the year

Billboard magazine has named Chris Brown artist of the year for the second time. The... more

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Britney Oversexed Zombie

On this edition of Critic Critic, the Daily Fix turns to its very own puffed up... more

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Khloe Kardahian Goes Naked for PETA (photos)

Photographs from the unveiling of a billboard for People for the Ethical Treatment of... more

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Erotic Ad Has Community Angry

A rather eye-catching billboard of what must be a 30-foot-tall, partially nude, erotic... more

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3 years ago
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3 comments

Church billboard apologises for Prop. 8

The Mission Gathering Christian Church has erected a billboard reading: Mission... more

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3 years ago
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Times Square getting its first 'green' billboard

This winter, New Year's Eve revelers will have a close-up view of Times... more

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AC/DC album leads pop chart for second week

AC/DC began a second week at No. 1 on the U.S. pop album chart Wednesday, while Pink,... more

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3 years ago
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T.I. has dual No. 1s but claims underdog status

NEW YORK - Although T.I. owns both the No. 1 album and single in the country, the platinum-selling rapper says he still feels like the underdog. "Nobody has ever given me a win and nobody has ever said, 'T.I., you know he's going to do this thing.' They always (say), 'He's not going to do this much, he's not going to do that good, I don't believe he'll do that well.' So its always been an uphill battle for me no matter how big I get I'm always the underdog," he said in an interview.

But the 28-year-old may not be able to claim that underdog title for long. His latest CD, "Paper Trail," sold more than 560,000 copies in its first week to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 album charts, and his newest single, "Live Your Life" featuring Rihanna, supplanted the album's first single, "Whatever You Like," at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

The 28-year-old rapper made the comments before taking the stage at Diesel's 30th birthday celebration in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Saturday night. The circus-themed event for the apparel company featured mash-up performances; other artists performing included N.E.R.D., Hot Chip, Franz Ferdinand, Joel and Benji Madden of Good Charlotte, Chaka Khan and M.I.A., who performed her breakthrough Top 10 hit, "Paper Planes."

Other celebrities in attendance included Lindsay Lohan, "Gossip Girl" co-stars Chace Crawford and Taylor Momsen, actresses Emma Roberts and Zoe Kravitz, and former Destiny's Child member Michelle Williams.

T.I. also performed a song with the pregnant M.I.A., and called the lyricist "the hottest rap chick in the game right now, period." T.I. recently sampled "Paper Planes" for a collaboration with Jay-Z, Kanye West and Lil Wayne. The song, "Swagga Like Us," appears on "Paper Trail."

T.I. said the collaboration between the top rappers is a reflection of the respect they have for one another.

"It wasn't like I said let me get Jay, Wayne and Kanye on the same song," he said. "The song started off with me and Kanye and it was just me and Kanye, and mutual associates of all four of us suggested, 'Hey man, if Jay and Wayne were on here too, it'll be one of the biggest songs in hip-hop history.' So I said, 'You know what, that's a great idea. It's ambitious, but it's a great idea.' So we reached out and they agreed and it's a pleasure to have them involved."

The rapper, whose real name is Clifford Harris, was sentenced to one year in prison on federal weapons charges after he was arrested last October before the BET Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta for allegedly trying to buy automatic weapons. He is scheduled to start his prison sentence in March 2009 after completing 1,000 hours of community service.

"It's a blessing to come from where I was at the beginning of the year all the way to right here," he said. "It's an honor and a privilege to assume such levels of achievement."
NEW YORK - Although T.I. owns both the No. 1 album and single in the country, the... more

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Chubby Checker's Big Number 1

Billboard magazine just celebrated their 50th anniversary, and included lists of the... more

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3 years ago
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The Art & Crimes of Ron English

A preview of a documentary on Ron English, a political public artist.

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Sergio's White Hot Top 5: Billboard Mainstream Tracks

Get your own Sergio's White Hot Top 5 Alarm Hot Sauce branded shirt or coffee mug... more

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3 years ago
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Billboard with the Queen: "Is this what they call 'STREET ART'?"

Jimmy Cauty billboard hi-jack @ Victoria Station, London. (there's a Madonna... more

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3 years ago
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