Table of contents for No. 1384 in Music Week

In the immortal words… …Of Naughty By Nature: hip-hop hooray! This issue of Music Week started off with a conundrum. Namely, how the hell do you celebrate something as monumental as the 50th anniversary of hip-hop? What began with us fielding various ideas from across the industry soon snowballed into this, one of the biggest – if not the biggest – features in Music Week's 60 plus year history. So, a huge, huge thank you to everyone who took time out to wax lyrical about, er, lyricists. My own journey as a hip-hop fan started with a cassette single in 1995. I'm looking at it now as I type: its purple cardboard case bearing the image of a chain link fence is crumpled yet intact nearly 30 years later, the…

“I'm Nigerian, I believe deeply in opportunities for the African market” TEMI ADENI JI, WARNER MUSIC AFRICA Two years ago, Temi Adeniji took on the combined role of MD at Warner Music South Africa (since rebranded to WM Africa) & SVP, strategy, Sub-Saharan Africa. Here, she shares her outlook for the continent's developing market and assesses breakout genres Afrobeats and amapiano… What was the opportunity you saw in this role? “I moved from New York to Jo'burg in November 2021. Through my experience, I'd had a lot of opportunities to interact with MDs across our business, including South Africa. So I had developed a rapport with the employees, and an understanding of the market, even while I was in New York. Also, I'm Nigerian and I believe deeply in this…

What a time to be alive. There has been another slew of moves and innovation afoot across the digital sphere. In fact, there have been so many changes of late I thought I might take a moment to discuss a couple of them here. Now, I know what you're all thinking, along with TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube Shorts, Twitter, Mastodon, Discord, Reddit, Snapchat, Weixin/WeChat, what we all needed was another social media network. Especially one owned by Meta, who already have WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Facebook, amongst others. Threads, which is Meta's competitor to Twitter, has been rumoured for some time, but it finally made its debut at the start of July in territories including the UK. At the time of writing, many artists – as well as labels and…

In February last year, when Jazzy found out she had her first No.1 as a vocalist on Make Me Feel Good with Belters Only, she was setting out trays of croissants in the bakery of a Dublin branch of Tesco. “It was proper surreal,” she says of the day her track with the producer duo topped the Irish singles chart. “A pinch-me moment. I took off my hat and my apron and went out the back to take the call and have a little cry. Everyone came to find me and was asking, ‘What's wrong? What's wrong?’ and I was saying, ‘No, I'm really, really happy.’” These days, Jazzy has many reasons to be happy. Her current single Giving Me, released in March through Polydor's new dance imprint Chaos, peaked…

“The toughest thing about the music industry is that it's not always a meritocracy” Hozier The new record takes a lot of thematic inspiration from Dante's Inferno. What was the key to making sure it didn't just become Dante's Inferno – The Musical? “It was just about trusting that the nods and references to the inspiration were going to be there regardless, it didn't have to present itself all too much. If I was writing too specifically about events, characters or moments in the poem, or if you needed to read the book to fully enjoy a song, that would be too far, so it was about trying to take a step back from that.” It also straddles several genres. How did you approach the music? “I think doing it…

50 YEARS OF HIP-HOP NAS – N.Y. STATE OF MIND FROM THE ALBUM: ILLMATIC (1994) “I have to give Large Professor the most credit because he's the one who told me about Nas. Well, he was called ‘The Rapper Nas’ – every Queens artist back then would call themselves ‘The Rapper…’ something. He played me Main Source's Live At The Barbeque, and I was like, ‘This is about to be a big record!’ Nas was the talk of the neighbourhood way before he did Illmatic. For N.Y. State Of Mind, Nas was in the studio when I was looking for samples. I had the drums and the [chiming sound] playing over and over but I was looking for some groove. When the piano part came in on the Joe Chambers…

FOXY BROWN “Foxy Brown was the first female rapper I heard that mixed patois with her American accent, which I could relate to as I'm Caribbean. It just brought so much new flavour to the table and set her apart from every other artist at the time. She bridged a gap between dancehall music and American hip-hop and I've never seen it done so gracefully before.” MISSY ELLIOTT “Missy Elliott is the reason why I dress the way I dress and the reason why I like to let the lyrics speak instead of the body. Her visuals, delivery and creativity are so inspiring!” NICKI MINAJ “Nicki Minaj is inspiring because of the hustle, the grind and how she manoeuvred in the industry creating her own lane, building a business and…

Jo Whiley is doing her best to reunite the Gallagher brothers. Noel has been a regular guest on the DJ's BBC Radio 2 show through the years, while Liam recently joined her on-air as a co-host. “Having Liam on the show and discussing Noel with him, and then having Noel on the show and discussing Liam with him was very insightful,” Whiley tells Music Week. “I said, ‘Why don't you just pick up the phone and call Noel?’ And Liam was like, ‘Well, have you got his number?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, do you want to call him?’ He didn't do it, but he reacted quite emotionally. That was a moment.” The co-host slot has been a welcome addition to Whiley's Monday to Thursday output, alongside established staples such as…

The world's greatest songs. By the people who made them. FLO FEAT. MISSY ELLIOTT FLY GIRL FLO's music is a love letter to ‘00s R&B and pop music made by Black girls who want to honour it and make it their own. The world got its first glimpse of that when FLO released their debut single Cardboard Box in March last year. We'd worked on the song three years prior, after Rob Harrison [manager] had introduced me to the girls, Jorja [Douglas], Stella [Quaresma] and Renée [Downer], and at this point we were already writing new music. Fly Girl came out of a camp the girls had put together in which we'd brought in loads of writers and producers to explore several different ideas. I was the executive producer of…

01 TALK OF THE TOWN TAYLOR SWIFT Speak Now (Taylor's Version) (EMI) SALES: 88,395 Taylor Swift topped our monthly rankings for four consecutive months with Midnights up to January. The US superstar returns to the summit with Speak Now (Taylor's Version), which was the biggest-selling album in July and achieved more than double the volume of its nearest rival. With opening sales of 67,112, Swift's re-recording of her 2010 album secured the third biggest weekly tally of the year to date. In total, she has eight albums in the monthly Top 50, including Midnights (No.5, 25,515 sales), 1989 (No.8, 21,418) and Lover (No.9, 21,390). On the weekly chart, Swift became the first artist in 59 years to have six studio LPs in the UK Top 20. Meanwhile, in the monthly singles…

@Skepta This Hus album is what I needed (Skepta, artist) Sunday, July 17 @lilyallen I saw Barbie and Oppenheimer this weekend and my takeaway is that if Oppenheimer was a woman, Hiroshima might not have happened. (Lily Allen, artist) Sunday, July 23 @jojoldn Sorry, the X app launch screen and notifications feel way too serious. I can see myself eventually appreciating it, under duress of course (Jojo Sonubi, No Signal) Sunday, July 30 @MissyElliott Dear EARTHLINGS… The YEAR 3000 will be the year of ORIGINALITY save this tweet, remember I said it! (Missy Elliott, artist) Tuesday, July 4 @iamcardib I'm not created, BITCH I'M SELF made! (Cardi B, artist) Monday, July 17 @ShauniCaballero I miss Ice Spice's Afro (Shauni Caballero, Sony Music Publishing) Saturday, July 8 @ibabsisaiah Ya boy has officially passed…

MAE STEPHENS (FEAT. MEGHAN TRAINOR) Mr. Right (EMI) Mae Stephens’ new one is slathered with funk and disco and has lyrics that speak to the swiping culture of dating apps. Meghan Trainor adds extra pop heft to a song that will shore up Stephens’ position as one of the year's biggest new success stories. Contact: Janet Cnoudnury janet.choudhury@umusic.com MITCH ROWLAND Come June (Giant Music/Erskine Records) Mitch Rowland has long been a cherished Harry Styles collaborator and, now that Love On Tour is over, the guitarist is making his solo bow, peddling a strain of faraway folk-rock that will delight his fellow long-hairs everywhere. Contact: Harriet Brampton harrietbrampton@chalkpressagency.co.uk LUZ Sustain (Luz) Irish/Argentinian singer and songwriter Luz has been on the rise since 2020, and emerging at the height of Covid has…

ANGELLE JOSEPH (BROADCASTER) Angelle Joseph is a community worker, broadcaster and the presenter of BBC Music Introducing in Suffolk. As a pioneer of unsigned, under the radar and undiscovered music, Joseph has presented mixes on BBC Sounds, covered on BBC Radio 1, 1Xtra and 6 Music and has also hosted at Latitude and Reading & Leeds, as well as Glastonbury this year for Suffolk artist Dylan. Joseph also runs a weekly girls’ youth project in Ipswich with Future Female Society which inspires and supports young women in media and music. Alongside this, she presents Belongings, a show on BBC Radio Suffolk and Norfolk which brings people together from different cultures to share their love of music and discuss their work. Here, she shares her top tips on how to get…

What's the best-selling hip-hop studio album in the UK since chart data began in 1994? That crown goes to Eminem. As does the runner-up medal! Here, we count down the Top 20 according to the Official Charts Company's classifications… Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP 2,735,540 Eminem – The Eminem Show 2,014,543 The Fugees – The Score 1,728,659 Black Eyed Peas – Elephunk 1,692,350 Black Eyed Peas – The END 1,630,718 Dr. Dre – 2001 1,532,226 50 Cent – Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ 1,514,852 Plan B – The Defamation Of Strickland Banks 1,450,169 Eminem – Encore 1,372,583 The Streets – A Grand Don't Come For Free 1,239,183 Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill 1,222,961 Eminem – Recovery 1,191,209 Black Eyed Peas – Monkey Business 1,184,650 Eminem –…

The latest Office For National Statistics report puts forward the theory that concert ticket prices are contributing to UK inflation. This follows up on a similar report in Sweden, where the contribution to inflation of Beyoncé's tour came under the spotlight. The ONS's report presents a view on not only the contribution that live music events, and culture more generally, might be making to inflation, but also addresses how the pressure on the cost of living is likely driven by the nature of UK tours specifically, from both national and international talent, in 2023. There is no doubt that concert ticket prices at the top level are generally up. Latest evidence suggests a worldwide growth of 10.8%, but even a cursory glance through stadium, arena and major festival prices would…

@tiadotcom How did you get your first break in the music business? “I grew up in a musical household but didn't realise music could become a career, so I thought a business degree was a safer option. I found a love for digital marketing and wanted to apply it to music, but I didn't know if this job existed so I then did a master's degree in digital marketing. At the time, I wanted to bring the music industry closer to me so I used my free time for events, started a music blog and joined an R&B platform. Eventually, I secured an assistant digital marketing role at Capitol Records [later merging with EMI Records], worked my way up and recently I joined the team at EGA Distro to manage…

Kaylee Golding, DJ, BBC Radio 1Xtra JORDVN EMANUEL – CALLS FROM ALL YOUR OLDERS I am excited by all of the talent coming out of Birmingham right now, but one artist in particular, Jordvn Emanuel, continues to impress me with every single release. I love his lyrical ability, which clearly comes from his poetry and spoken word background, and I especially love how he combines hip-hop and soul. It's the fresh take that the UK rap scene needs right now. Earlier this year, he dropped his debut album Calls From All Your Olders. He worked with some incredible fellow West Midlands artists such as Romey Five, Yatez & Madi Saskia. My favourite track is Cooked Food featuring Madi Saskia, her vocals are so beautiful and you can really hear their…

50 YEARS OF HIP-HOP LAURYN HILL THE MISEDUCATION OF LAURYN HILL (1998) The joint most popular album pick of those we surveyed? Lauryn Hill's Grammy-winning solo debut, which shares the crown with a certain 50 Cent record. But with Hill also securing two nods for The Fugees’ classic The Score, she's officially the most popular artist of our 50 Years Of Hip-Hop celebration… “The first time I heard those skits, I was hooked. I was obsessed with L Boogie already, but the introspective nature of her lyrics – daring to explore themes of love and relationships on songs like Ex-Factor, I Used To Love Him and Forgive Them Father – woven with blended elements of hip-hop, R&B, soul and reggae just converted me into the ultimate superfan. I loved that…

50 YEARS OF HIP-HOP “I was a lucky bast*rd in the right place at the right time” LYOR COHEN Take us back to the start with your years at Rush and Def Jam. You're running around with Run-DMC, Public Enemy, LL Cool J and Beastie Boys at a time when the world thinks hip-hop is a fad. What was the key to knocking down those mainstream barriers? “So, number one, I didn't give a rat's ass what anybody thought, or their projections, because I didn't even hear them. You know the phrase ‘ignorance is bliss’? I didn't even know people were talking like that. You have to pay attention to hear detractors and I was too focused on the mission to hear anything. When you hear the detractors you must have…

“Our Music Week Awards win was recognition for putting the creative process at the forefront” HITEN BHARADIA You can bet your house on Phrased Differently. Hiten Bharadia did just that, and his leap of faith paid off big time – eventually. “I sold my house and I started renting an apartment in Kentish Town and was able to save a little bit of money,” recalls the songwriter and MD, who used the equity from the sale to fund the launch of the independent publisher in 2006. “Looking back, you go, ‘Did I really do that?’ But I read a quote recently that said, ‘Entrepreneurs jump off a cliff and build a plane on the way down,’ because they're so positive they won't crash. And it was the same sort of thing…

The conventional wisdom about Sinéad O'Connor is that topping the charts with a worldwide hit was the making of her, and ripping up a photo of Pope John Paul II on live TV was the breaking of her. But as far as O'Connor herself was concerned, the opposite was the truth. “A lot of people say or think that tearing up the Pope's photo derailed my career, that's not how I feel about it,” wrote the singer/songwriter in her 2021 memoir Rememberings. “I feel that having a No.1 record derailed my career and my tearing the photo put me back on the right track.” That No.1 record – O'Connor's astounding 1990 cover version of Prince's Nothing Compares 2 U – featured on her double-platinum second studio album I Do Not…

01 NEED FOR SPEED CENTRAL CEE & DAVE Sprinter (Live Yours/Neighbourhood) SALES: 247,482 No.1 in our monthly chart for the second time in a row, Sprinter racked up 247,482 sales in July. The track's unbroken run at the top of the weekly chart saw Central Cee and Dave pass various milestones. Firstly, Sprinter eclipsed DaBaby's Rockstar (feat. Roddy Ricch) to become the rap track with most weeks at No.1 in the 2020s. A week later, in July's final frame, the duo equalled the longest run at the summit for a male duo since Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber's I Don't Care also spent eight weeks at the summit in 2019. Sprinter is Dave's longest-running No.1 and the longest-reigning rap No.1 of all time by a UK act. Its sales tally now…

UNITED KINGDOM Jorja Smith Little Things X Gypsy Woman (L Beats Mashup) Video Creations: 134,000 Earlier this year, Jorja Smith released her single Little Things, which quickly became a hit with creators across TikTok. As the song gained traction, the TikTok community started to experiment with the sound, which led to a mashup by DJ L Beats combining Little Things with Crystal Waters’ Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless) (La Da Dee La Da Da). TikTok creators have used the sound across a range of summer content, showing off fashion looks, holiday highlights and sharing their love for electronic music. Alice Razack, artist partnerships manager at TikTok, highlights how well L Beats’ remix fits the holiday season and how Smith has been engaging with fans on the platform. “Jorja Smith has brought…

Zane LOWG, (creative director & flagship anchor, Apple Music) When Zane Lowe left New Zealand for the UK, he worked in a record shop before moving to MTV, where his Gonzo show led to roles at XFM, BBC Radio 1 and a move to Apple Music. Now well-established in LA, he talks interviews, storytelling and meeting the stars. The industry should always listen to the fans… “When I was at Radio 1, the industry had more control over the narrative and the way things move, but I just don't see that anymore. The biggest lesson I've learned is to be really curious, open to change and listen to what the fans want, what the artists want and not be afraid to exercise your taste. Rick Rubin says, ‘When I go…