The 2024 MTV Video Awards will return to New York on Tuesday, Sept. 10. That’s just four days shy of the 40th anniversary of the inaugural VMAs at Radio City Music Hall, where Madonna stole the show with a performance of “Like a Virgin” that people are still talking about. This year’s show will be […]

HipHopWired Featured Video Source: handout / Rico Wade It has been a little over a week since the untimely passing of Atlanta Hip-Hop luminary Rico Wade. The founder of the Dungeon Family will be laid to rest on Friday, April 26 at a private funeral. The late Organized Noize members homegoing will be held at the famed Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Per his press representative, Wade will be eulogized “privately and by invitation only” for close friends and family. Although the services will be private, Clark Atlanta’s band is scheduled to perform hits produced by Organized Noize (Wade, Sleep Brown and Ray Murray) outside of Ebenezer Baptist, the same church where Martin Luther King, Jr. served as co-pastor and is currently lead by US Senator Raphael Warnock. For those wanting to pay their respects along the funeral procession, details of the scheduled arrangements are below: Event: Private Funeral Service for Rico Wade Date:  Friday, April 26, 2024 Time: 11 AM (arrivals typically happen 30 minutes prior) Location: Ebenezer Baptist Church located @ 101 Jackson St NE, Atlanta, GA 30312 Procession to Gravesite Route: Start MLK @ Mercedes Benz Left on Harlan Road SW – Flowers to be laid at 409 Harlon Road SW Right on Peyton Road SW Right on Hayne Left on Lynhurst Drive SW Left Cascade Road Right on Adams Drive – Flowers to be laid at 1590 Adams Drive SW Left on Childress Drive SW Left on Campbellton Road Right on Delowe Drive Right on Headland Drive – Flowers to be laid at the corner of Delowe and Headliand Rest in powerful peace Rico Wade.

Universal Music Group is betting big on French-speaking Africa, announcing a new partnership on Wednesday with Wèrè Wèrè Music founder Binetou Sylla to lead Def Jam Africa‘s efforts in the rapidly growing music market. Working with Universal Music France and Capitol France, Sylla and her team will focus on discovering and producing French-speaking artists in […]

Halle Bailey is opening up about her struggle with postpartum depression. According to People, the singer/actress discussed her battle with the ailment that affects nearly one in seven women in a Snapchat video last week in which she shared her love for her “perfect” son Halo while discussing the serious postpartum feelings that overwhelmed her. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “I have severe, severe postpartum [depression], and I don’t know if any new moms can relate, but it’s to the point where it’s really bad, and it’s hard for me to be separated from my baby for more than 30 minutes at a time before I start to kind of freak out,” she said in the clip. In an accompanying Instagram post, Bailey got tons of love and support from other moms, including one who wrote, “I didn’t feel normal in my own body until like over a year after my baby,” while another said, “Thank you for your words on post partum. For using your voice to speak not only on your experience but that of so many mothers.” Trending on Billboard Little Mermaid star Bailey and partner DDG quietly welcomed their first child together last year and in the Snap she called the rapper the “most amazing daddy in the world” and praised him for his steady support through her postpartum blues. “Halo is a miracle. He is perfect. He is beautiful,” she said. “When I look at him, I cry because of how special he is. The only thing that’s been hard for me is feeling normal in my own body. I feel like a completely different person. When I look in the mirror, I just feel like I’m in a whole new body. Like, I don’t know who I am.” Like many women who suffer from postpartum depression, Bailey said she’s worried about the stigma about publicly talking about depression. “Before I had a child and I would hear people talk about postpartum, it would kind of just go in one ear and out the other. I didn’t realize how serious of a thing it actually was,” she said. “Now going through it, it almost feels like you’re swimming in this ocean that’s like the biggest waves you’ve ever felt and you’re trying not to drown. And you’re trying to come up for air.” Most importantly, Bailey stressed that, of course, her depression had “nothing” to do with her son and that her post was prompted by a comment she read about her family that she didn’t detail. “It has everything to do with me and who I am right now. I guess today I was just triggered — especially [since] social media is just not a good thing to be on when you have postpartum — but I was just really triggered today, especially by seeing some of the things that have been said about me and my family, and the one that I love and the ones that I love,” she said. In March, Bailey, 23, made an emotional speech at the 2024 ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Awards ceremony in which she explained why she hid her pregnancy from a “place of protection.” “There was no way in hell I was going to share the biggest joy of my world with anyone. Halo was my gift. He is the greatest blessing, and I had no obligation to expose him, me, or my family to that,” Bailey said. “With the state of the world and the place it is in with men trying to force their will on our bodies, no one on social media, and for d–n sure, no one on the planet was going to tell me what to do with my body or what to share with the world.” Bailey and DDG revealed their son’s birth in January with a post on social media about becoming new parents. The singer has been doing double-duty as a new mom and a recording star, dropping her new single, “In Your Hands” on March 15; she cradles baby Halo in the video for the moving ballad featuring the moving chorus, “All in your hands, in your hands/ The world is yours when I’m in it/ In your hands, in your hands/ You can’t let go or you’ll lose your chance.” The NIH says that postnatal depression is very common and can start anytime in the first year after giving birth and can also effect fathers and partners as well. Among the typical symptoms are a “persistent feeling of sadness and low mood,” “lack of enjoyment and loss of interest in the wider world,” “lack of energy and feeling tired all the time,” as well as trouble sleeping, difficulty looking after the baby or yourself, withdrawing from contact with other people, problems concentrating and making decisions and frightening thoughts, which can include thoughts of harming the baby. Bailey ended the video with a reminder that just because she’s a public figure doesn’t mean the harsh things people write about her online don’t hurt. “Even though you may look up to certain people and you think that they are celebrities, and they appear it have it all together, you never know what somebody else is going through, especially someone who just had a baby literally,” she said. Check out some of the supportive statements Bailey received on her Instagram post below.

Grammy-winning jazz artists Esperanza Spalding and Miguel Zenón are among six recipients of the 2024 Doris Duke Artist Awards. This honor comes with a significant monetary reward. Each of the six honorees is being awarded $525,000 in unrestricted funds and up to $25,000 in retirement funds. It’s billed as the largest prize in the U.S. specifically dedicated to individual performing artists. The Doris Duke Artist Award, established in 2012, recognizes artists for their record of achievement within the disciplines of contemporary dance, jazz and theater. This year’s four other honorees are Nataki Garrett and Chay Yew (both from theater) and Shamel Pitts and Acosia Red Elk (both from dance). The unrestricted nature of the award allows artists to use the funds for either personal or professional needs and enjoy the freedom to pursue projects of their choosing. Last year, the foundation doubled the amount of the award. Including the 2024 recipients, the foundation to date has provided 135 artists with $38.8 million through the Doris Duke Artist Award program. Trending on Billboard On Friday April 26, the Doris Duke Foundation will host a symposium in New York about the future of the performing arts entitled Creative Labor, Creative Conditions: A Symposium and Celebration of the Doris Duke Artist Awards. The foundation will also inaugurate an annual retreat for Doris Duke Artist awardees at Duke Farms, its 2,700-acre environmental center. This year’s retreat runs from April 29 to May 2. Spalding, 39, has won five Grammys. The bassist and singer famously won best new artist in 2011, prevailing over a red-hot field that also included Justin Bieber, Drake, Florence + the Machine and Mumford and Sons. She has since won three Grammys for best jazz vocal album for Radio Music Society, 12 Little Spells and Songwrights Apothecary Lab and one for arrangement accompanying vocalist(s) for “City of Roses.” Zenón, 47, won his first Grammy this year for best Latin jazz album for El Arte del Bolero, Vol. 2, a collab with Luis Perdomo. The alto saxophonist had previously gone 0-11 at the Grammys, so this year’s win was a breakthrough. Duke, a tobacco heiress, socialite and philanthropist, died in 1993 at age 80. Her philanthropic work in AIDS research, medicine, and child welfare continued into her old age. Her estimated $1.3 billion fortune was largely left to charity. The Doris Duke Foundation is one of only two foundations to have received the National Medal of the Arts from the National Endowment for the Arts. The foundation’s mission “is to build a more creative, equitable and sustainable future by investing in artists and the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research, child well-being and greater mutual understanding among diverse communities,” according to a statement. Visit www.dorisduke.org to learn more.