With actress Erica Ash (‘Survivor’s Remorse’, ‘Real Husbands of Hollywood’) tapped to topline, April 10th brought with it the unveiling of BET’s fast-paced legal drama, ‘In Contempt.’  Featuring a star-studded cast filled out by the likes of Richard Lawson, Christian Keyes, and more, the series sees Ash portray “Gwen Sullivan” (a talented, tough, and opinionated public defender whose passion for her work makes her hated among her colleagues in an unforgiving legal system).

Its premiere this week was greeted by a wealth of promising reviews from viewers who took to social media to express their approval and anticipation for what was to come.  Unfortunately, that fanfare was not reflected by the week’s end when official ratings were revealed.  Not even placing in the top 50 most watched shows of the night, ‘In Contempt’ managed to rake in….

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Photo Courtesy: Instagram

Queen of Country Pop Shania Twain made it no secret that she’s a fan of rap queen Nicki Minaj, even telling fans she’s interested in a duet with the Harajuku Barbie (click here to read more on that).  If the two are anywhere near making that a reality ahead of the latter’s forthcoming new album has yet to be determined, but what is for sure is that the ladies looked pretty chummy as they enjoyed the sights and sounds of Coachella over the weekend.

Rubbing shoulders with the likes of The Weeknd (who headlined the festival’s first night), French Montana, Quavo (of Migos), and more, the chart-toppers took to their respective Instagram accounts to show love.

See more snaps inside:

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Chrisette Michele spent the latter half of 2016 and most of 2017 trying to work her way back into the good graces of longtime fans after her public support of Donald Trump (even performing at his presidential inaugural ball) led to a major backlash.

In the time since that damning performance, the songstress has released a number of singles including ‘Strong Black Woman’ and ‘Black Lives Matter’ – both of which were widely ignored.  Now, nearly 6 months after announcing she’d been dropped by her label due to the poor commercial performance of the tunes as well as her industry standing overall (click here to read more about that), she’s dropped the cuts’ parent album ‘Out of Control.’

The 11 song-long LP, executive produced by Michele’s husband and long-time collaborator, Doug “Biggs” Ellison, is the follow-up to her fifth album – 2016’s ‘Milestone.‘ 
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Concern for the well-being of Azealia Banks is high tonight after the rapper took to social media to claim that she had been sexually assaulted.

Via Instagram stories, the rapper left a number of alarming voice messages that begun with the chilling statement:

“lowkey just got raped. I feel like dirt.”

She went to explain that she was casually chilling with a man and ultimately found herself in a predicament she did not want.

Listen to her words below….

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It’s been quite the journey for Tinashe and new album ‘Joyride.’

Announced way back in 2015, the project was subject to several false-starts and abandoned launch singles.

Fast forward to this week and the LP finally landed in stores after a “tringle” was rolled out ahead of its release (see: ‘No Drama,’ ‘Faded Love,’ and ‘Me So Bad’ respectively).

After all the pre-roll-out hoopla, what are the album’s numbers looking like?

The answer awaits below…

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Off-days. Every artist has them. Just ask SZA. 

The rising star took to the stage at the first day of Coachella last night and aimed to please with an array of jams from her debut ‘CTRL’ and guest spots.

However, while corners of her set were well-received, others left much to be desired.

Beyond admitting to not being able to perform all of the songs she’d planned to, she seemed to struggle through ‘All Of The Stars’ when performing the ‘Black Panther’ cut with Kendrick Lamar. 

See what we mean below…

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Nicki Minaj made headlines for more than new music this week.

For, when promoting new singles ‘Chun-Li’ and ‘Barbie Tingz’ on Beats 1 radio, she revealed she does indeed have an issue with Cardi B.

And she stressed that she wasn’t impressed with Quavo either and inferred that he was one of the main catalysts for the drama.

In trademark fashion, Minaj’s fans swarmed the Migos star’s social media account to voice their displeasure.

Now, their leader has updated to say a truce has been called.

Her words below…

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With attendance north of 120,000 the 2018 Coachella festival is looking to be its best and biggest yet.

Most notably topping headlines for this year’s headliners – Beyonce, Eminem, and The Weeknd – the annual Indio, California festival kicked off today (April 13) and its star-studded lineup (beyond its top-billed) is causing fan frenzy.

And, while its diverse performance roster will give all attendees a little bit of something to love, R&B and Hip Hop-heads will be most pleased by performances scheduled to be delivered by the likes of Migos, SZA, Vince Staples, Cardi B, Tyler the Creator,Daniel Caesar, Kali Uchis, and many more.

On day one, The Weeknd and ‘The Weekend’ singer SZA are set to close out the show at 10:30p PST and 11:25p PST respectively.  If you aren’t able to join the fun in the desert, the next best option awaits inside:

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It’s evident Drake has no plans to relinquish his hold on the Hot 100 with his latest megahit, ‘God’s Plan.’

The record – which has already made the Grammy-winner the “first male soloist to have tallied two 10-week No. 1s on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in a lead role” (click here to read more on that) – has now earned a personal best for his already storied career.  With the latest refreshing of the Hot 100 ‘God’s Plan’ has notched its 11th consecutive week at #1.  The feat, passing Drizzy’s previous personal best (‘One Dance’ which reigned for 10 weeks in 2016), sees the cut two weeks shy of claiming the title of “longest run at #1 by a rapper.”

Currently that honor is shared by Eminem and Wiz Khalifa, both of whom held the top spot for 12 weeks each with their hits ‘Lose Yourself’ (2002) and ‘See You Again’ (2015) respectively.  While we wait to learn of the 6 God will take that crown, look inside to see who joined him in the top 25 of the Hot 100 this week:

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Destiny’s Child fans may want to take this moment to collectively freak out!

Sure, reports have been swirling for weeks the top-selling trio (comprised of Beyonce, Michelle Williams, and Kelly Rowland) have been secretly rehearsing for the set which was delayed a year due to Bey’s pregnancy with twins Rumi and Sir Carter.

Now, even though there was news indicating the diva went above and beyond with security to ensure the secrecy of her rehearsals (click here to read more on that), there’s still been a leak that she’ll indeed be joined on stage with her former ‘Bootylicious’ bandmates.

Details inside:

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Readers of That Grape Juice know what avid music lovers we are – especially of hits past.

So, as our retrospective features ‘From the Vault’ and ‘TGJ Replay’  allow us the chance to re-spin the gems and jams of yesterday of one artist, our newest feature Chart Rewind – a variation of our current Retro Rewind assay – accedes salutes to an entire era of music history.

This week it’s all about ‘All For You’ – pop icon Janet Jackson‘s 2001 smash hit from her seventh studio album of the same name.   Written by Jackson and her longtime collaborators, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, the cut – which samples Change‘s ‘The Glow of Love’ – was released in March 2001 and crowned the kick off single for the ‘All For You’ album.  Not even a month later ‘All’ saw itself enjoying the views from the Billboard Hot 100’s perch.

Going on to reign for a collective 7 weeks, it was the year’s longest holder of the chart’s peak position.  A platinum hit for the diva, ‘All For You’ remains her last chart-topper on the Hot 100.  Join us inside as we not only relive the number, but also see who joined her in the top 25 this week 17 years ago:

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In case the memo was missed, there are just some songs that are sacred to Black people.  Attendance at almost any Black cookout, family reunion, wedding, or other major family gathering would reveal that Earth, Wind, and Fire‘s 1978 hit, ‘September,’ is undoubtedly one of them.

Under ill advising, Grammy-winning pop darling Taylor Swift opted to give the tune a coffee house ready 2018 revamp.  The result?  Black Twitter erupted!

As if the backlash she endured from the #Beyhive wasn’t enough when she was accused of hijacking elements found in the ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ visual directly from Beyonce‘s ‘Formation’ video (click here to read more on that), the disapproval that greeted her EWF remake made the ‘Formation’ furor seem minimal.

Hear Taylor’s bland potato salad inspired version of the classic R&B number and see some hilarious Twitter responses:

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