Via Billboard

Janet Jackson, Chic, The Smiths, Nine Inch Nails and N.W.A are among the 15 finalists on this year’s ballot for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, organizers have announced.

Others to make the nominated class for the 2016 Rock Hall are The Cars, Chicago, Deep Purple, Cheap Trick, Chaka Khan, Los Lobos, Steve Miller, The Spinners, Yes and the J.B.’s.

Acts are eligible for the Rock Hall 25 years after the release of their first recording, album or single — 1990 or before for this year’s nominees.

Congrats to all the nominees.

Rihanna opens up in the latest issue of Vanity Fair about her non-existent relationship with Chris Brown and why she ended things the second time around.

Check out a quote from the magazine:

“I was that girl… that girl who felt that as much pain as this relationship is, maybe some people are built stronger than others. Maybe I’m one of those people built to handle s*** like this. Maybe I’m the person who’s almost the guardian angel to this person, to be there when they’re not strong enough, when they’re not understanding the world, when they just need someone to encourage them in a positive way and say the right thing.

I was very protective of him. I felt that people didn’t understand him. Even after … But you know, you realize after a while that in that situation you’re the enemy. You want the best for them, but if you remind them of their failures, or if you remind them of bad moments in their life, or even if you say I’m willing to put up with something, they think less of you—because they know you don’t deserve what they’re going to give. And if you put up with it, maybe you are agreeing that you [deserve] this, and that’s when I finally had to say, ‘Uh-oh, I was stupid thinking I was built for this.’ Sometimes you just have to walk away… I don’t hate him. I will care about him until the day I die. We’re not friends, but it’s not like we’re enemies. We don’t have much of a relationship now.”

Nicki Minaj makes an appearance on The New York Times Magazine.  She finally addressed the beef between Meek Mill and Drake, Lil Wayne vs. Birdman, and Miley Cyrus. Nicki was very candid as usual and wanted to set the record straight. Read the highlights below:

ON MILEY CYRUS: “The fact that you feel upset about me speaking on something that affects black women makes me feel like you have some big balls. You’re in videos with black men, and you’re bringing out black women on your stages, but you don’t want to know how black women feel about something that’s so important? Come on, you can’t want the good without the bad. If you want to enjoy our culture and our lifestyle, bond with us, dance with us, have fun with us, twerk with us, rap with us, then you should also want to know what affects us, what is bothering us, what we feel is unfair to us. You shouldn’t not want to know that.”

ON BODY IMAGE: “Back in the day, in hip-hop, the thick girl was glorified. Now the rappers are dating skinny white women. So it’s almost like, ‘Wait a minute, who’s going to tell the thick black girls that they’re sexy and fly, too?’”

ON COMPARISONS TO LADY GAGA: “I don’t even want to discuss that. That’s so old to me

ON HER ESTRANGED FATHER: “He was just abusive. I would always hear him yelling and cursing, always. And it made me feel it was the way to interact, because that’s how I saw him interacting.”

ON HER RELATIONSHIPS: “Since I was 15, I came out of one relationship and went into another relationship. In my relationships, I’ve been told, ‘You don’t have to work that much.’ But I can’t stop working, because it’s bigger than work to me. It’s having a purpose outside any man.”

ON MEEK MILL VS. DRAKE: “They’re men, grown-ass men. It’s between them,” she said, adding, “I hate it. It doesn’t make me feel good. You don’t ever want to choose sides between people you love. It’s ridiculous. I just want it to be over.”

The wait is over !! Rihanna has just turned up the heat and sent the #Navy into an uproar. She has revealed the title of of her highly anticipated 8th album, “Anti.”

She released the cover art for the album moments ago. The photo is a childhood photo of the singer on her first day of daycare. She collaborated with artist Roy Nachum, who distorted the image, added a gold crown over her eyes, and painted over in red and white.

Are you ready for “Anti?”