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Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers has earned the title of the biggest No. 1 Billboard debut of 2022 so far, making it Lamar’s fourth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart.  Mr. Morale topped Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti with 295,500 album-equivalent units; Bad Bunny had previously topped Future’s I Never Liked You. 

Lamar revealed that he was working on new material last summer, and said that the project — Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers — would be his final release for Top Dawg Entertainment.  Ahead of Mr. Morale’s release, Lamar continued his “The Heart” singles series with “The Heart Part 5.” He developed the deepfake video for the track alongside South Park creators Matt Parker and Trey Stone, but the track doesn’t appear on the album.

Mr. Morale arrives five years after its predecessor DAMN., for which Lamar earned the distinction of being the first hip-hop artist to win a Pulitzer Prize. In between the solo albums, Lamar curated and performed on the Black Panther soundtrack, which earned him a Best Rap Performance Grammy for the track “King’s Dead” with Jay Rock.

Lamar is set to tour the United States, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand with Baby Keem and Tanna Leone beginning in July.

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Vanessa Hudgens is set to host the 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards on June 5. Hudgens had previously hosted the ‘MTV Movie & TV Awards: Greatest of All Time’ special in 2020.

“I’m back,” Hudgens said in a video uploaded to the official MTV Movie & TV Awards Twitter account, along with the caption:  “The queen is BACK! Introducing your 2022 #MTVAwards host, @VanessaHudgens. Tune in to the biggest night to be a fan, June 5 at 8p on @MTV!”

The 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards is set to take place from the Barker Hanger in Santa Monica and will air at 8 p.m. EDT. The MTV Movie & TV Awards will also present its reality television-focused ‘Unscripted’ portion on the same night.  Spider-Man: No Way Home and Euphoria lead with seven nominations each. RuPaul’s Drag Race earned a leading four nominations in the reality television categories.

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Rina Sawayama has announced her sophomore album, Hold The Girl, which is set to be released September 2. The pop-R&B singer previewed the upcoming LP with her new single, “This Hell” (which you can listen to – here.)

According to a press release, Hold The Girl will “once again juxtapose intimate storytelling with arena-sized songs creating another ambitious and original album to excite fans and critics alike.”  Sawayama said in a statement:  “The past couple of years I’ve been listening to lots of female country singers and wanted to write a euphoric and tongue-in-cheek country-pop song. Country music at its core to me represents comfort, brilliant storytelling, and authentic expression of the writer’s reality. I’ve been dreaming of working with Paul Epworth my entire career so I knew it was meant to be when we finished this song in a day.”

Sawayama will also be kicking-off a European tour this summer, featuring performances at major festivals such as Primavera Festival. A fall tour will follow with shows scheduled in Scotland, Ireland, and England.

Pre-order “Hold The Girl” – here.

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Diana Ross ft. Tame Impala have released the new single “Turn Up The Sunshine” from the upcoming animated feature film ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru.’  You can take a listen to the new single, produced by Jack Antonoff, at the link here.

Turn Up The Sunshine is the first single from the recently announced original motion picture soundtrack for ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru,’ and is set for release on Friday, July 1 – which coincides with the film’s global theatrical release.  Minions: The Rise of Gru is set in the 1970s, and tells the origin story of how Gru (Steve Carell), the world’s greatest supervillain, first met his iconic Minions, forged cinema’s most despicable crew and faced off against the most unstoppable criminal force ever assembled.

The soundtrack features a star-studded line-up including St. Vincent, H.E.R., Phoebe Bridgers and Bleachers. The soundtrack’s executive producer, Jack Antonoff, is lead vocalist of Bleachers.

Pre-order the soundtrack to Minions: The Rise Of Gru – here.

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Post Malone has released the music video for his brand new single, “Cooped Up”, directed by Andre Bato directed and featuring a guest appearance from Roddy Ricch.

“Cooped Up” is the second collaboration between Malon and Ricch, following their Roddy’s appearance on the 2019 remix of Post’s quintuple-platinum track “wow.” The new single comes from Post Malone’s forthcoming album, “Twelve Carat Toothache”, that is set to be released on June 3rd.

Take a look at the vide for “Cooped Up” – here.

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