The Entertainment Weekend Recap: August 21st
African artists are staking their claim and growing their popularity amongst American audiences. The talents are crossing over and featuring on tracks with prominent American artists that allow them to reach new fan bases. For example, Davido and Latto collaborated on the “Unavailable” remix and surpassed 150,000 streams on the first day.
Their rise in prominence was also made clear this weekend when five different artists were charting on Apple Music in the U.S. Those artists were Burna Boy, Wiz Kid, Asake, Davido and Olamide – and coincidentally, they all have Nigerian roots.
While African artists are making headway in the U.S., rapper Boosie hopes to make a splash in the country music genre. New visuals were released for “Problem Solver” by rising country music star Jamie Ray and it features a verse from the Louisiana rapper. The video was released on Friday and has gained more than 95,000 views.
Fans may also see Boosie crossover into afro-beats, as he has previously asked Davido to collaborate with his new artists.
Fellow music artist Lizzo has been scrutinized lately after facing a lawsuit from former backup dancers. However, she now has additional dancers coming to her defense. A group of dancers who worked with Lizzo on her TV show and tour are defending the singer against accusations of sexual harassment and creating a toxic work environment. “We have had the time of our lives on The Special Tour,” noted THE BIG GRRRLS in a post to their Instagram account. The post continued on to say, “The commitment to character and culture taking precedence over every movement and moment has been one of the Greatest lessons and Blessings that we could possibly ask for.” The sentiments in the post contradict statements from the dancers who are currently suing their former boss.
Like Lizzo, Darius Jackson has also been facing public scrutiny. Jackson, who shares a child with actress Keke Palmer, came under fire for commenting on her birthday outfit of choice. His comments sparked mass criticism from social media commentators. However, Palmer only addressed the incident subliminally. However, Jackson became the center of conversation once more when rumors circulated that he had moved on. Jackson called out blogs for falsely reporting on the situation and announced on X (formerly Twitter) that he had not spoken about the situation.
Rapper NLE Choppa is no stranger to public criticism, but this week he made headlines for welcoming a baby boy. NLE Choppa and Marissa Da’Nae shared the news of the arrival of their son, Chozen Wone Da’Shun Potts, with a social media post. The couple was questioned about the name selection and revealed the meaning behind it. According to the rapper, “Chozen” has the double meaning of being picked by God and possessing “zenful energy.”
He added that the middle name “Wone” symbolized that his son won at life and was the “chosen one.” The baby’s third name is a combination of both parent’s middle names and his last name was taken from NLE’s legal name. The Memphis rapper has another child from a previous relationship.
