Category: Cover Story

Billboard Cover: One Wild Night with Rae Sremmurd

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My journey with Rae Sremmurd began with a monkey meet-and-greet in Los Angeles and ended at a Las Vegas nightclub in a literal hail of cash. In between, I met the Kings of Woodland Hills, watched the sunset over the desert from a private jet, went on a wild goose chase in search of a huge sack of cash, drank Hip and Hen in a multi-level hotel suite, rode around in a Hulk-green stretch Hummer limo, sat awkwardly at a strip club while one of my subjects threw about $2,000 in roughly 20 minutes, and—best of all—got to spend some quality time (10 hours) with two hard-working sibling sweethearts. Despite all the flash, my biggest takeaway was that, as Jhene Aiko put it and Mike WiLL Made-It confirmed, Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi are “a bundle of joy.”

BILLBOARD COVER: ZEDD IS EDM’S ANTI-BRO

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Want a true testament to the delightfulness of my subject this time around? Here’s the list of folks who went on the record to say nice things about Zedd: Kesha, Jared Leto, Liam Payne of One Direction, Hailee Steinfeld, Dillon Francis, Interscope CEO John Janick, songwriter/artist Julia Michaels, and DJ-producer Porter Robinson. As for the story, this one takes me into the Hollywood Hills home of the dance/pop genius not only for poker night (excerpted: his brother took me for $40), but for a hang sesh in which he plays piano, reveals his plans for Jeff Buckley’s legacy, and shows off a $13,000 side table that fills his living room with rainbows on sunny days. Also, as the headline suggests, there are the myriad ways in which he is not a basic bro.

PASTE COVER: GRIZZLY BEAR’S GOLDEN (STATE) REPUBLIC

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Did you know that Grizzly Bear moved to California, signed to a major label, and maybe kinda sorta unofficially broke up between their last album, 2012’s Shields, and their latest Painted Ruins, due in August? I didn’t either until I sat down with these indie rock titans for one-on-one convos at the various hip coffeehouses of Los Angeles’ east side. A lot of other stuff happened too: Chris Taylor staged at Noma, Ed Droste stumped for Bernie Sanders, Chris Bear got back to jazz, and Daniel Rossen disappeared way way Upstate. This is the story of how breaking up with Brooklyn, and each other, lured one of the millennium’s best bands out of hibernation. Not for nothing, we met up mid-April, making these their first interviews as a band since the Shields era.

Billboard Cover: When Fifth Harmony Become Four

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Barely a year after the Billboard cover feature in which Fifth Harmony broke down in tears over their brutal working conditions (for which we sought the salve of froyo), I reconvene with the girl group’s four remaining members to bake cookies and hash out the gory details behind their new better-than-ever status, which involves a lot of real talk about fixing their terrible contracts and moving forward in the wake of original member Camila Cabello’s exit. This is a special one not only because it’s our second cover together, but because I also profiled Cabello at the start of her solo career, plus wrote the mag’s first non-cover feature on 5H. So … they’re my beat now. Cameos from hitmakers Poo Bear and Dreamlab, fiery lawyer Dina LaPolt, Ginger Spice herself (hence the Spice Girls “2 Become 1” gag above), and, yes, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Fun fact: In addition to now finally owning the “Fifth Harmony” copyright (what this means is explained in the article), the ladies also own copyrights for Fourth Harmony and H4RMONY.

Billboard Cover: DJ Khaled Is the One!

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Another one! This time it’s a story on the uplifting oddity of DJ Khaled, in which I interview him in his mansion, we go on a snack run in a golf cart, and he signs for an Escalade while talking to me, without breaking eye contact. It wouldn’t be a DJ Khaled production without features galore, so you’ll find supporting quotes from Tony Robbins, Justin Bieber, Arianna Huffington, and Rick Ross, among others. I’d write more, but I gotta go double my home pillow inventory.

Billboard Cover: Niall Horan Goes Desperado

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Niall Horan is, well, normal. He likes golf, stays friends with his exes, and takes advice from his elders. Of course, for someone with his profile, that means he caddies for Rory McIlroy, kicks it with Selena Gomez on the regular, and calls Don Henley “dad” during their bimonthly chats about life and music. Still, normal. I met him several times over the past six months and every time found him to be exactly the type of dude you want to share a pint with. He even invited me into his house for a home-cooked meal. Anyhow, if you’re a One Direction fan who’s always wanted to know more about the cute Irish kid in the crew, or if you never cared about 1D but are looking for a worthy new man crush in your life, I’ve got you covered. With cameos from Sean Mendes, Don Was, Justin-Bieber-by-proxy, and, yes, the Eagles mastermind Don Henley.

Further reading: My 2016 profile of Horan’s ex-bandmate Zayn Malik.
Fun fact: They both talk about pooping.

Billboard Cover: Migos Splash in the Mainstream

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Migos took me to the show, the afterparty, and the hotel lobby, though not in that order and certainly without the connotations R. Kelly implied when he sang about such marathon misadventuring. I digress. The short of it is: I spent Grammys day/night not at the awards show, but running around with Atlanta’s hottest, most meme-able rap trio. We went to the cluuub. We went to a swank party at the storied Chateau Marmont. I sat on an ottoman in a hotel room while Quavo (leftmost above) got an $800 pair of track pants measured for alteration. There were many blunts, a couple boxes of jewels, and at least one white cup full of orange syrup. And while I interviewed Jermaine Dupri (bucket list, considering Kriss Kross was the first cassette I owned), there were unexpected in-story cameos from Chance the Rapper, Chris Brown, the Game, and Big Sean. Our nine hours together were equal parts bad and boujee. Mission accomplished.

Billboard Cover: Camila Cabello Is Miss Movin’ On

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Really proud of how this came out. I met Camila Cabello about the time I started writing with Billboard, late 2014, and was immediately impressed (duh) by both her and her Fifth Harmony bandmates. Then last year I got to write the 5H Billboard cover, which found them on top of the world professionally, but in a heavy shared personal space with much of the enthusiasm and warmth I first saw in them clearly absent. Now, Camila has her spark back, even if her old friends want nothing to do with her, as she plunges headlong into a solo career that seems destined to take off. The supporting cast in this story includes Cabello’s mom Sinu, the ever-adorable Shawn Mendes, producers Pop Wansel and Frank Dukes and Epic Records CEO L.A. Reid. Also, this marks the debut of the magazine’s gorgeous new online features format. Erm, dive in!

Lukas Graham on Grammys, Babies and Speedos

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I INTERVIEWED WYCLEF JEAN AND HE CALLED ME “FAMILY”!!! Oh, and I had a weird/awesome brunch with Lukas Forchhammer, the mastermind behind the Danish musical oddity that is Lukas Graham and their massive 2016 hit song, “7 Years.” Due to space constraints, this interview (one of three Grammy preview covers) was trimmed considerably, so you’ll miss the bit where I said, “He’s sporting … a fresh haircut he says makes him ‘look like a lesbian raver.’ Really, he looks like a ’90s rap-rock stoner. It’s one of the many things that set him apart from 2017’s music industry power players.” However, they did keep my quote from Wyclef (not the “family” part), which makes 15-year-old me die and go to heaven. So, I guess I’m dead now. Oh well.

Billboard Cover: Musical.ly’s Teenage Revolution

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I’ll level with you. I interviewed 14 people about this Musical.ly app—an international cast of adults (China, Germany, Russia, America), four tween/teen idols, a couple venture capitalists, representatives from three major labels, and my first Billboard cover subject Jason Derulo—and I’m still all “kids these days” about it, plus would have a hard time explaining in fewer than 3,000 words what Musical.ly is and why it has the music and tech industries scrambling for answers. But they are, and the answers are in this story about a lip-synch app turned revolution.