Tory Lanez was this close to throwing in the towel after he found out that 6ix9ine had beat his previously set record for most Instagram live viewers by a landslide. On Friday (May 8th), 6ix9ine made his return to the music scene by dropping his first post-prison single, “GOOBA,” along with some accompanying visuals. While the music video itself beat a Youtube record previously set by Eminem in 2018, 6ix9ine also conducted a record-breaking Instagram live session that same day. The controversial artist’s live racked up an impressive (albeit frustrating) 2 million viewers at one point, absolutely destroying the record Tory set last month with 300K during Drake’s appearance on an episode of Quarantine Radio.

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Of course, Tory caught wind of his defeat, and unsurprisingly, he’s being a good sport about it. However, he did slip in a joke about ending Quarantine Radio for good after getting annihilated by a notorious snitch.

“I was looking at that 2 mil like …. WELP …. Ima head out,” Tory wrote on Instagram. However, he quickly followed up his comment by clarifying that he was only kidding. “Lolol we not actually stopping quarantine radio !” he promised. “But it was great holding the record when we had it …” If you ask us, Tory deserves that title, so make sure you tune into the next episode of QR and go for that 3 mil.

Erykah Badu and Jill Scott’s display of neo-soul excellence took place on Saturday (May 9th), and the Instagram live stream garnered the most viewers on a “Verzuz” battle ever with nearly 750,000. Although many agreed that the “battle” felt more like a mutual celebration of each other’s talent and vast catalogues, it did mark the first female face-off of the “Verzuz” series, and it looks like the people showed their appreciation for finally including some ladies by tuning in in vast numbers. At one point, the two artists garnered nearly 750K, reaching just shy of it with 749K. Regardless, this number blows the previous record of roughly 500K set by Teddy Riley and Babyface last month out of the water.

To prepare for what would become a record-breaking battle, the two Grammy-winners launched a joint line of “Verzuz”-themed merch, which includes hoodies and graphic tees in black, white, gold, and orange colourways. The collection can be found on both Erykah and Jill’s websites here and here.

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The event was also done in partnership with Live Nation’s Femme It Forward series that celebrates women in entertainment. Watch the full battle below:

Travis Scott beat the all-time record on Fortnite previously set by Marshmello for the most live viewers at a time with his virtual ASTRONOMICAL performance on Thursday night. It had been speculated for quite some time that Travis was involved with the wildly popular video game in some way, but last week, some mined leaks seemed to provide concrete proof that the rapper was scheduled for an in-game performance. A few days later, a date and time was set for the virtual event, entitled ASTRONOMICAL, and on Thursday night, fans around the world tuned in to watch an animated Travis put on one hell of a show.

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During the roughly 15-minute concert, Travis performed some of his most beloved tracks, including “Highest In The Room.” He also previewed his new song with Kid Cudi called “The Scotts,” much to the excitement of fans. Overall, the event drew a massive online audience, garnering a whopping 12.3 million viewers. This number, which was no doubt somewhat thanks to the widespread quarantine occurring, officially marks the largest amount of live players on Fortnite at once. Travis broke the game’s all-time record previously set by Marshmello in February of 2019, when the DJ raked in 10.7 million live viewers during his own in-game musical event.

Fortnite has set four additional “tour” dates for Travis’ ASTRONOMICAL concert to accommodate fans living in different time zones: Friday, April 24th, at 10:00am. EST; and Saturday, April 25th, at midnight EST, 11:00am EST, and 6:00pm EST.

The power of Drake apparently cannot be underestimated, as it has been reported that his surprise appearance on Tory Lanez's Quarantine Radio, which garnered a whopping 315,000 viewers at one point, helped break a new IG live record for the most viewers in one session. While the coronavirus pandemic has been forcing everyone to stay inside their homes, Mr. Lanez has been keeping very busy. His launch of Quarantine Radio, in which he goes live on Instagram almost daily, has been keeping his followers, guests, and, most evidently, himself entertained during this strange and scary time. Tory has hosted guests such as 21 Savage, Young Thug, Megan Thee Stallion, Justin Bieber, and many more on Quarantine Radio, but it looks like one guest in particular caused the most excitement for viewers.

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During a standard "episode" of Quarantine Radio, a twerk contest would usually break out following the celebrity guest appearance, in which fans request to join the live stream and compete for the non-existent trophy. However, on Tuesday's Quarantine Radio session, Tory surprised everyone with an appearance from one of his most high-profile guests to date, after fans had repeatedly begged him to invite Drake onto the "show."

Almost immediately after Drake joined the livestream, the number of viewers began to rise exponentially. At one point, there were up to 315,000 viewers, which, according to DJ Akademiks, sets a new IG live record. Akademiks asserts that 315K is the highest number he's personally ever seen on a hip-hop-related livestream, the previous record "held by 6ix9ine and Trippie Redd beefing," to his memory.

50 Cent uses social media to stay in close communication with Power‘s viewership. He reminds them to tune in every week. He supplies them with funny memes to counterbalance the frustration they may experience from some moments of the television show. At times, he takes into consideration the viewers’ complaints and tries to appease them. When Power‘s sixth season kicked off over the summer, fans were disappointed to discover that the original theme song had been replaced by a new rendition by Trey Songz. After weeks of protest, Fifty conceded to switch the theme back to the version sung by Joe. This kind of relationship between a show’s executive producer and its fanbase can be fun, but it must be difficult to monitor the satisfaction levels of the masses. 

50 Cent has taken to Instagram to call out all the Power watchers that criticized him for last Sunday’s episode. “Y’all some funny motherfvckers man,” he wrote in a caption on a photo of himself. “Called me all kinds names because y’all didn’t like the last episode… now we friends again. ?ain’t this some bullshit.” In a follow-up post, he continued: “Now everybody love me again, I wasn’t shit last week. ? say sorry or something nice.”

In the midst of his beef with Fif, French Montana leaked a clip from last week’s episode of Power before it aired and tried to warn its viewers that they would be disappointed with the outcome. I guess he was on to something. Anyway, read our recap of that episode here.