Greetings fellow readers!

It’s been quite a productive week in urban entertainment!

This past week saw the release of several new albums and one hell of a soundtrack, if we do say so ourselves! The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to the highly successful franchise The Fast & The Furious hit stores and digital download formats on March 17! The soundtrack features a variety of artists who are all popular in hip-hop & R&B, including T.I., Iggy Azalea, Walé, Rich Homie Quan, Flo Rida, Wiz Khalifa, and so many others.

Also releasing this past week on March 16 was Kendrick Lamar! Lamar has made a hugely successful name for himself in hip-hop, and fans have been anticipating this release for some time now.

The album, To Pimp a Butterfly, has already broken record on Spotify with 9.6 million streams happening on the day of release. This is monumental, not only for someone in hip-hop, but urban music in general. It does, however, show that music is still very much alive! The album features guest appearances from Bilal, Anna Wise, Snoop Dogg, George Clinton, James Fauntleroy, & Thundercat.

Other artists having released albums this week include Webbie and Da Mafia Six!

A number of celebrities were celebrating birthdays this past week. Those celebrating this week included #NaimLynn, #JabariParker, #HowardScott, #Rockwell, #SlyStone, #TerenceTrentDArby, #WillIAm, #YoungBuck, #DannyBrown, #FlavaFlav, #JheneAiko, #JonicaBooth, #Murs, #OzzieNewsome, #RodneyPeete, #SierraMcClain, #TimHardaway, #TyrelWilliams, #CynthiaMcKinney, #MyrlieEversWilliams, #NatKingCole, #RobKardashian, #SeanPrice, #TamarBraxton, #AdamLevine, #GeoffreyOwens, #IreneCara, #QueenLatifah, #VanessaWilliams, #AhmadBradshaw, #BarryCofield, #BunB, #DeaundreBonds, #EJManuel, #PhillipBolden, #RuthPointer, #ShawnBunch, #ThomasDecoud, #BiancaLawson, #CedricYarbrough, #JamalCrawford, #SpikeLee, #Touré, #ZonniquePullins, #VanessaBellCalloway, #MannieFresh, #DiggySimmons, DJPremier, #MsMelodie-RIP, #YandySmith, #YoungNoble, #MomsMabley-RIP, & #SabrinaLaBeauf!