Music nowadays has taken a dark turn.

Two of the most established musicians in today’s society, Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez, are targeting  a new-age rapper by the name of Roddy Ricch.

Roddy Ricch released an album last year on Dec. 6, and its most successful single as of recently is “The Box,” as it has been ranked No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the past three weeks. 

Not only does Roddy Ricch have a No. 1 single, he also has a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 titled “Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial.”

Senior Joshua Schmidt has noticed Ricch’s success.

“Roddy is doing a good job staying on the top of the charts…,”  Schmidt said. “…even though there are a lot of artists opposing him, including the musicians involved.”

Meanwhile, as for Justin Bieber, he had released a new single titled “Yummy,” and Selena Gomez had released a new album titled “Rare.”

Bieber and Gomez were known to take very long breaks from music.

“Yummy” was Bieber’s first music release since his 2015 album, “Purpose.”

“Rare” was Gomez’s first music release since 2017.

With their lackluster performance, both artists seem to be coming after Roddy’s newfound success.

Senior Coleman Bongardt found Bieber and Gomez to be in the wrong.

“I feel bad for the rapper, since his career just took off, and he’s already having bigger artists try to take him downs,” said Bongardt. 

Many fans of Bieber and Gomez are not happy at all for their aggressive actions.

Bieber was seen on social media begging for his fans to get “Yummy” to No. 1, telling them to stream the song while they sleep, as it would boost the song’s popularity.

Many people saw this as a shot at Roddy, as he was not seen begging any of his fans to stream the song or the album.

This is more respect for Roddy, as he is doing so well without the publicity stunts.

It should also be realized that some of the most loyal Bieber and Gomez fans have turned on them, roasting them on social media for it.

After securing the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, Bieber was seen congratulating Roddy Ricch for the accolade, but fans aren’t buying the sincerity due to his past actions.

Ricch was seen trolling Bieber on Twitter, telling his fans to stream “Yummy” sarcastically.

Despite dodging Bieber’s actions, Ricch could not dodge Gomez.

Gomez’s album “Rare” did surpass Ricch’s “Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial” for No. 1 on the Billboard 200. 

An amazing accolade, no doubt, but the way Gomez got to number one was not so amazing.

Gomez took the same action as Bieber, begging her fans for number one.

And just like with Bieber, Ricch took the same approach to Gomez, mocking her on Twitter begging for streams.

All in all, it seems that Roddy escaped this stunt unscathed.

As for Bieber and Gomez, they have received a lot of backlash for this, and quite deservedly so.

Junior Nicholas Letterman see this backlash as just.

“It isn’t very professional of big name artists like Bieber and Gomez to be doing these things, since they’ve been around much longer and should know how to approach new artists,” said Letterman.

Many believe Bieber and Gomez will recover from this, but it may take some time for it to run its course.