Pop Shots – Can You Feel It?

Welcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. Covering all things pop culture, this week Pop Shots is hitting you with thoughts on everything from how Drake’s feelings have taken over the summer, to Nicki Minaj putting a hurtin’ on Safaree, to over 150 musicians showing love to save a Seattle venue, and since this is Pop Shots you know everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude.

* With just three weeks left to gain traction on Billboard’s Songs of the Summer chart – which tallies cumulative chart performance from Memorial Day through Labor Day – Drake’s “In My Feelings” has taken over the top spot from Cardi B, Bad Bunny and J Balvin’s “I Like It.” I had no idea until I read this how awful this summer has been on the pop charts, which I just mistakenly wrote as “pop sharts,” which actually seems like less of a typo, and more of a Freudian slip.

* Nicki Minaj did more than release a new album last week, she also started all sorts of beef that spilled over onto social media. After talking a bit of smack about her ex, Safaree, she was confronted by him on Twitter, as he alleged she had stabbed him and had him lie about the incident. Nicki responded by telling the world she paid $10k to have Safaree’s hairline fixed, and it was later revealed that the doctor had worked on Tyga’s hair line, as well. First off, if you stab me, paying to fix my hairline is only the start of making amends. Second, Nicki Minaj calling out someone for going to a doctor to have adjustments made to their physical appearance seems like a real “throwing stones in glass houses” type of thing.


* The MTV Video Music Awards are tonight. That’s right, it’s the one night of the year MTV pretends to care about music, and if the recent past is any indicator they’ll do so by flooding your screen with rapid-fire doses of visual overstimulation that will make you welcome the commercial breaks. Enjoy!

* Retired NBA player Matt Barnes and rapper Snoop Dogg each led teams of celebrities for Barnes’ 5th annual Celebrity Flag Football Game and All-Star Weekend, which is a fundraiser for cancer research. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that if Snoop Dogg was involved they didn’t embrace the NFL’s drug testing policy for this particular football game.


* Rapper Juelz Santana’s trial on charges he tried to get a gun onto a plane at an airport has been pushed back so he can continue negotiations for a plea deal. If his plea deal is anything like his music, it won’t go anywhere unless it features Cam’ron.

* Hollister Co., which is apparently still a thing, announced a collaboration with singer Khalid that will be released in September. Some of the clothes could be seen on Khalid’s backup dancers during his performance at the Teen Choice Awards. If the current generation is anything like the previous one, they’ll all eventually trade in their Hollister gear for Ed Hardy and Von Dutch, at which point we can totally give up on the future.


* New Kids On The Block will perform a special show on October 7th at Harlem’s Apollo Theater in celebration of the 30th anniversary of Hangin’ Tough. This will be the first time they’ve hit the Apollo stage since their performance at the theater’s amateur night way back in the day. I just gotta say I didn’t think the crowd at the Apollo got down like that. I now have to rethink everything I thought I knew about life.

* More than 150 local and national artists led by Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, Duff McKagan of Guns n’ Roses, Macklemore, and Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, signed an open letter in the Seattle Times urging residents to take action to save one of the city’s legendary music venues, The Showbox. The Showbox has been part of Seattle’s music scene for nearly 80 years, but Vancouver-based developer Onni Group filed preliminary plans last month to tear down the venue and build a $100 million, 44-story luxury residential tower. In an alternate universe a $100 million, 44-story luxury residential tower is being torn down to build a music venue … and I want to live in that alternate universe.

* Finally, my birthday is in two months. Should I attempt to reenact All Time Low’s video for their latest single, “Birthday”?


And with that, my time is up for the week, but I'll be back next week with more shots on all things pop.