Author: djfrosty
Page: 31
Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile” notches a fourth total and consecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart.
The ballad became Gaga’s sixth Hot 100 leader and Mars’ ninth. Gaga runs up her sole second-longest No. 1 stay, as “Die With a Smile” breaks out of a tie with her debut smash “Just Dance” (featuring Colby O’Donis), which ruled for three weeks in January 2009. She dominated for six weeks in February-April 2011 with “Born This Way.”
Mars logs his fifth Hot 100 reign of four or more weeks, following his featured turn on Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk!” (14 weeks at No. 1, in 2015) and his own “Locked Out of Heaven” (six, 2012-13), “Grenade” (four, 2011) and “Just the Way You Are” (four, 2010).
Plus, Mars adds his 38th career week at No. 1 on the Hot 100, surpassing Michael Jackson (as a soloist, apart from the Jackson 5) for the sole eighth-most time spent in the top spot. Mariah Carey leads with 97 career weeks at No. 1.
Also notably, Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” at No. 4 on the Hot 100 after a record-tying 19 weeks at No. 1, matches the longest rule ever on the Radio Songs chart – 26 weeks – equaling the command of The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” in 2020.
Additionally, Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control,” at No. 7, becomes just the seventh single to spend at least 75 weeks on the Hot 100.
The Hot 100 blends all-genre U.S. streaming (official audio and official video), radio airplay and sales data, the lattermost metric reflecting purchases of physical singles and digital tracks from full-service digital music retailers; digital singles sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites are excluded from chart calculations. All charts (dated Feb. 1, 2025) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow, Jan. 28. For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
‘Die With a Smile’ Airplay, Streams & Sales
Kai Cenat didn’t become the most popular Twitch streamer in hip-hop by holding back his real opinions. So while speaking to Billboard for his January cover story, he didn’t hold back when it came to his takes on the Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar rap war of 2024.
In conversation with Billboard‘s deputy editorial director Damien Scott, Cenat — who once FaceTimed Drizzy on his Twich livestream — began by saying, “I’m cool with Drake.”
Trending on Billboard
“So people would expect me to be on Drake’s side,” he continued. “But I’m not going to lie. Kendrick won that battle.”
Cenat was one of countless hip-hop fans who was locked in during the Toronto native and Dot’s musical conflict last spring, during which the two rappers lobbed searing diss tracks at each other throughout April and May. The streamer reacted to the drops in real time on his channel, with Drake notably instructing him to “stay on stream” before releasing “Family Matters” in May.
“I loved every second of it,” Cenat told Billboard of the musical back-and-forth. “I was just appreciating the moment. Like, bro, we got bangers right now that’s dropping back to back and everybody’s talking about them. It was definitely fire.”
Things took a turn in November, however, when Drake filed two legal actions against Universal Music Group over Lamar’s “Not Like Us” — the two-week Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper in which the Compton musician famously calls his opponent a “certified pedophile.” The “God’s Plan” artist accused the label of inflating the track’s streams through nefarious methods and cited defamation, alleging that UMG “could have refused to release or distribute the song or required the offending material to be edited and/or removed.”
Earlier this month, Drake escalated things further by launching a full-blown lawsuit against UMG; the label has denied the allegations in his suit and called it “illogical.” Cenat also just so happened to be mentioned in the filing. The Degrassi alum’s lawyers named him and a few other streamers who reacted to “Not Like Us” when it dropped as examples of UMG “whitelisting” the song, something Cenat also reacted to on a stream.
“Wait, why am I in this s–t?” he asked his viewers at the time, baffled. “Wait, hold on! Wait, what the f—? I’m getting sued?!”
See Cenat on the cover of Billboard below.
In January 1975, on a side street in New Haven, Conn., surrounded by the campus of Yale University, a small French restaurant featuring live music opened its doors, with an unlikely name — Toad’s Place.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
This month, Toad’s Place marks its 50th anniversary, now with a national reputation earned by showcasing hundreds of artists, helping to launch the likes of R.E.M and U2 and hosting rare small-room performances by Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel and The Rolling Stones.
In the volatile venue business, Toad’s Place is a survivor. The club is older than many of the nation’s other iconic rooms of its size and has outlasted peers, like New York’s Bottom Line, which were once part of the same showcase circuit.
Trending on Billboard
Brian Phelps, owner of the club, recently reached out to many of the performers and industry figures who have passed through the club’s doors with the news that “we will be celebrating this golden anniversary” in the coming months. A documentary on Toad’s Place is in the works. Other details of the celebration have not yet been announced.
In 2021, Phelps and veteran New Haven journalist Randall Beach co-authored The Legendary Toad’s Place: Stories from New Haven’s Famed Music Venue (Globe Pequot) and hosted a book party at the club. (Editor’s note: This writer contributed a short essay to the book.) “It has been my job to present the music as best as I could,” said Phelps at that gathering.
It’s fair to say that almost any national or regional club-level artist touring the Northeast from the late 1970s onward has been welcomed at Toad’s Place. While the walls of Toad’s Place may not talk, they are emblazoned with the names of acts that played the club early in their careers. Among many others: U2, R.E.M., Meat Loaf, Michael Bolton (a native of New Haven), Ramones, Talking Heads, Pat Benatar, Joe Jackson and Huey Lewis & the News, whose lead singer told the book’s authors: “We love that joint.”
Phelps says Toad’s Place had survived through the decades thanks to the club’s willingness to evolve with tastes in music and the desires of fans. Paintings on the walls commemorate appearances by Kanye West in 2004, Drake in 2009, Iggy Azalea in 2013 and three bookings of Cardi B in 2016 and 2017. In the past year, the club has presented artists as varied as revered rocker Jack White, former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach and country singer Lauren Watkins.
Originally opened by the late Mike Spoerndle and two partners, Toad’s Place began booking national club acts in 1976 with the help of well-connected musician and agent Peter Menta — and, from 1977 onward, with help from promoter Jim Koplik, who is now Live Nation’s regional president of Connecticut and upstate New York.
On Aug. 25, 1978, Koplik had booked Springsteen to play the since-demolished New Haven Coliseum area. After the show, Springsteen stopped by Toad’s Place to jam with John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band. The club’s reputation was growing, thanks to the savvy of in-house bookers Lucy Sabini and her successor, Katherine Blossom.
By the summer of 1980, in the wake of the multi-platinum success of The Stranger, Billy Joel had become an arena-packing superstar, when he chose to play two nights at Toad’s Place to record tracks for his Songs in the Attic live album.
But the most remarkable night at Toad’s Place took place at the end of that decade, in August 1989. Beach recalled hearing a message on his home answering machine tipping him off to a hot booking at the club. Others had been told the event was a birthday party for Koplik. A local band, Sons of Bob, were on the bill that night.
On Aug. 12, 1989, The Rolling Stones took the stage at Toad’s Place in front of just 600-something dazed fans at Toad’s Place. The band, which had been rehearsing for their Steel Wheels tour in Washington, Conn., played an 11-song set that opened with “Start Me Up,” closed with “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” and featured the first live performance of “Mixed Emotions.”
Less than a year later, Dylan, also warming up for a concert tour, gave a marathon performance at Toad’s Place on Jan. 12, 1990, playing for four hours and 20 minutes in multiple sets, granting the request of an audience member to cover Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark,” and concluding with “Like a Rolling Stone” at 2:20 a.m.
In the book, Beach quotes Billboard touring editor Dave Brooks, who cites a handful of clubs nationwide that have survived as long as Toad’s Place, like the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, N.J.; First Avenue in Minneapolis; the Troubadour in West Hollywood; and the Iron Horse in Northampton, Mass.
“I think the main thing that has kept them open all these years is staff or current ownership who feel a sense of guardianship, and strive to protect these venues because of their cultural and historical impact on popular music,” said Brooks.
Phelps managed Toad’s Place from 1976 to 1985, then became a partner with Spoerndle and subsequently took over ownership of the club. But at the 2021 book party, Phelps praised the role of his former mentor and partner in launching Toad’s Place. “Big Mike” Spoerndle earned his nickname with his size, his appetites, his lifestyle, his charisma and his generosity; he became “the soul of Toad’s,” Koplik told the book’s authors.
But Spoerndle also struggled for years with substance abuse. For those familiar with the onstage history of Toad’s Place, the book’s deeply reported chapter on Spoerndle, his upbringing and the roots of his addictions is the emotional heart of the Toad’s Place story. On May 6, 2011, Spoerndle, then 59, was found dead at his home — and the cause of death was later given as poly-substance abuse and kidney failure.
When the pandemic struck, Toad’s Place was forced to close for months, “shut up like a damn morgue,” a Yale student said at the time. Phelps turned to savings, the federal Paycheck Protection Program — and, at the time of the book’s completion, was awaiting additional help from the Shuttered Venues Operators Grant, which Congress passed in December 2020.
Reflecting in the book on the pandemic and its aftermath, Phelps writes: “We will survive. We have a destiny in front of us!”
Snoop Dogg has been feeling the backlash after his performance at the Crypto Ball at Donald Trump’s inauguration earlier this month, and he appeared to clap back at the haters during a recent Instagram Live.
Snoop seemingly addressed the comments on Sunday (Jan. 26) while sitting in a car and sparking up. “It’s Sunday I got gospel in my heart,” he said in a video posted to his Instagram. “For all the hate I’m going to answer with love, I love too much.”
He continued to fire: “Get your life right, stop worrying about mine. I’m cool. I’m together. Still a Black man. Still 100 percent Black. All out ’til you ball out or ’til you fall out.”
Snoop wasn’t the only rapper in attendance, as Rick Ross and Soulja Boy also pulled up to the Crypto Ball in Washington, D.C., while Nelly performed at the Liberty Ball on Jan. 20.
He’s seen plenty of vitriol in his comments section on social media, as many have called him a “sellout.”
Over the weekend, Snoop addressed how he deals with the negativity while joining the R&B Money Podcast.
“You ‘gon deal with hate when you get to the top, no matter who you are. How do you deal with that hate? Do you answer it with hate, or do you answer with love and success?” he said. “Me, personally, I answer it with success and love. That’s my answer to any hate and negativity that comes my way, ‘cause it’s the strongest force that can beat it.”
Actor Marlon Wayans also came to the Death Row legend’s defense during a recent interview with 101.1’s The Wiz. “I know Snoop, and I know Snoop has always been a real one … I’m not gonna allow for public skewering,” Wayans said.
Snoop Dogg was previously very critical of Donald Trump, and he appeared to change his tune following Trump’s pardoning of Death Row co-founder Michael ‘Harry O’ Harris, who was behind bars on attempted murder and cocaine trafficking charges, before the twice-impeached president left the White House at the end of his first term.
“That’s great work for the president and his team on the way out,” Snoop Dogg reportedly said in 2021. “They did some great work while they was in there and they did some great work on their way out. Let them know that I love what they did.”
More recently, Snoop stated he had “nothing but love and respect for Donald Trump” during an interview with the U.K.’s Sunday Times.
As “sexy drill” continues to solidify its place in the New York drill scene, frontrunners like Bay Swag are becoming synonymous with the subgenre’s success. With the forthcoming project Damaged Thoughts in the works, he isn’t letting the sexy drill wave fade out anytime soon.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Last year, the Queens native teamed up with mini-genre architect Cash Cobain on his biggest hit, “Fisherrr.” Pronounced “fur-shur,” the sensual, R&B-meets-drill track achieves liftoff with a celestial melody and a pared-down flow. Fueled by a viral live performance and the Reemskii dance challenge (created by dancer and artist Kareem “Reem” Gadson), “Fisherrr” became an instant TikTok hit.
“We made the song at the end of 2023,” Bay tells Billboard. “We teased it, then it started going viral on TikTok. Then, me and Cash were like, ‘Yo, we gotta do [From the Block],’ he said, referring to the popular live music platform where up-and-coming artists perform viral songs in front of a suspended mic.
Trending on Billboard
Their live rendition for that series racked up 2.7 million views on Youtube — then in April, the pair followed up with a remix featuring Ice Spice to solidify the track’s slot in summer rotations. Operation: Slizzy Summer was in full effect.
Before Bay Swag helped spur a new wave in New York, he created local buzz at 16 years old with his debut “Rumors.” He followed up with “Saucin,” a track dedicated to his father, Bay Lloyd, who was sentenced to 85 years in prison for a second-degree murder charge from 2012. Lloyd built a reputation in Queens as a party promoter, and toured with the likes of A Tribe Called Quest and Swizz Beatz, eventually motivating his son’s musical aspirations.
In 2015, a chance meeting with Christian “King” Combs and Justin Combs during NBA All Star Weekend paved the way for him to join Christian’s rap collective, CYN. They collaborated on a handful of tracks, including Christian’s 2017 breakout single “Type Different,” featuring South Florida rapper Lajan Slim.
The track dropped during the same time Swag was introduced to an up-and-coming Bronx rapper and producer, Cash Cobain. The pair didn’t collaborate until 2021 when sexy drill infiltrated New York’s regional sound and TikTok. Swag’s playful, nonchalant style blends seamlessly into Cobain’s stripped-down R&B and drill samples. They proved an undisputed match on “Fisherrr,” and fanned Bay Swag’s momentum with their follow-up “Worldwide Sniper.” Cobain’s moody soundscape bolsters Bay Swag’s lothario tales. He curtailed the one-hit TikTok sensation curse with spontaneous one-offs, including “Nothing Last Forever,” “Patti Labelle,” and “Skims” featuring D Lou.
On his upcoming project, he navigates the emotional aftermath of a breakup on the Lil’ Mo-sampled “Make it,” while on “5 Star,” he reunites with Cobain and Chow Lee to put a “slizzy” spin on Selli Paper’s “5 Star Mami.” On the intoxicating club track “Drank,” featuring Detroit heavyweight 42 Dugg, he briefly departs from the project’s Y2K-inspired production into the menacing territory of Detroit drill. He stacks his carefree staccato bars with Dugg’s gravelly vocals and thumping 808s, boasting about the fast lifestyle, laced with sex and substances.
On the verge of dropping his first project in three years, Bay Swag spoke to Billboard on how sexy drill is uniting a new generation of drill artists, how “Fisherrr” came together and more.
Growing up with a father who was in the industry, which genres or artists initially influenced your interest in music?
My dad had me around [music] so much that I felt like it was the only thing for me to do. Being in the studio, in the car surrounded by music, that’s how I got the love for it. I grew up in a house full of women so my mom used to always play a lot of Keyshia Cole, Chris Brown, Trey Songz – a lot of R&B. My dad had me listening to rap [like] Future, Jadakiss, Juelz [Santana], Jim Jones, Biggie, stuff like that.
You made a splash with “Rumors” and “Saucin” when you were just a teenager, which also led to you joining King Comb’s collective, CYN. What were those earlier days in your career like and how did you link up with Christian Combs?
Around those times, I started taking music seriously. It was during the time my father got incarcerated, so I became the man of the household. That’s when I dropped “Saucin,” which was a song about my dad and him being wrongfully convicted.
After that, it was All Star Weekend. Me and my cousins were in the car and I had actually met Justin [Combs] a couple years before that at a club in Queens. Fast forward to All Star Weekend, we seen they were out here, and my cousin was like, “Yo. I bet you I hit him and he’ll answer before you.” So I hit him and he hit him and Justin ended up answering me. We had a connection because one of my homies from Queens was running with them. He hit me and asked what I was doing. He was like, “Yo. We about to go to the club, but I’ll link you with my little brother.”
So he sent me a driver to go to his little brother, which is Christian — and my cousin stayed with him, since they’re the same age. Literally, I just walked in. I don’t know these people from a hole in the wall. I walked into the restaurant and was like “Wassup.” We clicked just like that. From there on, history. [Laughs.] Isn’t that crazy though?
How did you transition from making music in Miami with the Combs brothers to linking up with Cash Cobain, Chow Lee, and the Sexy Drill cohort?
Queens is small. Everyone knows everyone. I had a buzz and [Cash] had a buzz in our younger days. One of my homies would always tell me he got this producer, so one day he came into the studio with me and brought some beats. That’s how we met.
Was this around his 2 Slizzy 2 Sexy era?
This was a while ago. Way before that. Like around 2017. Fast forward, I opened up a studio in New Jersey and he used to come to the studio. That’s how we really clicked. Him and Chow. That was around 2020-2021. We started making music and hanging with each other.
What was it like to see “Fisherrr” all over social media and blow up on TikTok?
We knew it was a fire song, but we didn’t know it was going to be the way it is. I feel like you never know. The songs you think is a hit don’t do nothing, but the songs you least expect [end up being] the one. It’s a blessing seeing all the kids, dancers and influencers dancing to it and having a good time. It really started a whole new dance. Shoutout Reemo. He started that s–t. It’s a whole new wave of music. It’s a whole new energy.
How did the feature with Ice Spice happen? Was it intentional to have a female rapper on the remix?
It just made sense. She’s the Queen of New York. I was super excited. I wanted to hear how she would come on it because that’s not the typical music she be dropping. She did her thing. Shout out Ice Spice.
Over the last year, you’ve been consistently releasing singles and helping spur this sexy drill wave. How are you putting your signature spin on this sound?
I call it being myself — and that’s a problem, too. A lot of people will try to do sexy drill and try to sound like someone, when you can just be yourself and that’ll make a difference. That’s why people will say it all sounds alike.
You’ve also mentioned in past interviews that New York artists are more united. How is it making music in this era of New York?
It’s good vibes. Especially right now, sexy drill is good energy. Even when we’re recording the music, it’s good energy. We’re dancing and we’re just having fun together.
In the past, drill has been criticized for its violent lyrics. How are you, Cash and Chow helping to rewrite that narrative?
We’re talking to the women. We’re telling them how pretty they are and how sexy they are. It’s a big difference. It’s fun. It makes you want to dance. We got the kids, elders, and the women, of course. We are trying to separate ourselves from that. We don’t want violence. We just want good vibes, good energy and good parties.
From your new project, it’s interesting you chose to release “Not Like Me,” because it’s the opposite of sexy drill and more vulnerable. What inspired that track?
On that song I was talking about the relationship I just got out of. I was rapping about how I felt when the relationship was ending. It lasted for like seven years, so I was describing how I was feeling during, after, and how I feel now.
How are you feeling now?
Amazing!
You also linked up with Sheff G for one of your features on the new project? How did you two meet?
I think it was on Instagram. One of us hit each other up. He told me to come to the studio and that’s how it happened. It was bound to happen because we were on a lot of the same shows together and would see each other a lot.
Are there any artists out right now that you want to collaborate with in the future?
I want to do music with a female artist. I like Latto. I like the music she drops. I like Sexyy [Red], SZA, Summer Walker. I really really like Dej Loaf. The female artists are doing their thing right now. I have to salute them.
You’re coming off a really big year. What do you have in store for fans this year?
I have merch coming with Barriers [Worldwide] and a lot of new music coming. I’ve worked with a lot of dope artists and I can’t wait for the world to hear it. I have a label called Nothing About Us Regular. And in 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029, I want all my artists to be huge. I want my producers to have a great year. I’m building my label. I’m a young CEO. I want my artists to be bigger than me. I have so much in store for 2025.
While Diddy remains behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn awaiting his day in court, many of his alleged victims and those who knew him best throughout the rise and fall of Combs’ Bad Boy empire are speaking out. Investigation Discovery’s The Fall of Diddy docuseries premieres on Discovery+ at 9 p.m. on Monday […]
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
Source: UCG / Getty
As Costco reaffirmed its support for DEI initiatives in its company, the Black community showed its support in numerous social media posts.
In the wake of President Donald Trump’s attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and standards in federal agencies last week, other private companies have followed suit including Target. Costco, however, has stood firm. The Black community took notice of their stance, and civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton punctuated the support by leading a “buycott” along with 100 members of his National Action Network organization at a Costco location in East Harlem, New York, last Saturday (January 25). “We will stand with those who stand with us,” Sharpton said to reporters, as NAN members who attended were given $25 gift cards to shop.
Leading a buy-in with 100+ @NationalAction members at the @Costco location in Harlem, NYC to show support for the company’s strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
This comes as DEI policies face growing attacks from both President Trump and the private… pic.twitter.com/D2eYTeAZlV
— Reverend Al Sharpton (@TheRevAl) January 25, 2025
Costco reaffirmed its commitment to DEI policies in a meeting with the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank that labeled DEI part of a “radical Marxist agenda” and called programs espousing it “illegal, immoral, and detrimental to shareholder value.” The company said that an “overwhelming margin” of 98% of its shareholders were opposed to a measure to strip DEI from its policies. Costco’s chair of the board of directors, Tony James, said the programs are “consistent with the company’s values and code of ethics.” He added: “We have always been purposefully nonpolitical, and a welcoming workforce has been integral to the company’s culture and values since its founding.”
The move by Sharpton coincided with several companies moving to limit or eliminate DEI programs, including Amazon, Microsoft, and Target. While some questioned the timing of the support as 18,000 unionized workers (represented by the Teamsters) at Costco stores nationwide approved a strike to begin on February 1, others lauded the company for standing up to the Trump administration’s pointed attacks on DEI. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, user Dale Thompson roasted those conservative supporters of Trump who vowed online to never visit Costco again. “If you’re a whiny Conservative who’s canceling their Costco membership b/c they won’t alter their hiring policies for Trump, go ahead & do it,” he wrote. “Costco hasn’t changed their $1.50 hot dog combo for 40 years, so you’re in for a loooong fight. And you’re freeing up parking too.”
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Mike Kemp / Getty
We’re only one week into Donald Trump’s second presidential term and already the man has taken a hatchet to all kinds of programs and initiatives meant to help, protect and advance the lives of Black and Brown communities.
Luckily for us, some companies like Costco and Ben & Jerry’s are pushing back, and MAGA country isn’t too happy about it as they refuse to fall in line with the demands of their orange king. Over the weekend, Ben & Jerry’s took things a step further in their continuous pursuit of equality for all and released a video on social media defending their stance on progressive activism and are now facing a potential boycott from MAGA country, as Trumpers want everyone to scale society back to the good ol’ 1930s.
According to Newsweek, Ben & Jerry’s TikTok video explaining how they’ll continue to support DEI and “never gonna stop trying to dismantle white supremacy, end the climate crisis or fight for our democracy” has gotten under the thin white skin of MAGA supporters who are now vowing to never eat any libertarian ice cream from the company again.
After the video hit social media it spread like wildfire, as it’s since received over 10 million views with much support from Americans who aren’t fans of the fascist regime that is currently residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. Needless to say, backers of the current administration didn’t take kindly to Ben & Jerry’s video and immediately began to call for a boycott over their “insubordination.”
Newsweek reports:
On X, formerly Twitter, user @TexasRepublic71, who described himself as a “political patriot,” shared the video and told his more than 200,000 followers—including conservative commentator Megyn Kelly—”If you’re not boycotting Ben And Jerry’s ice cream, you will be after you watch this video.”
In the video, two Ben & Jerry’s employees can be seen walking around an office as they deliver the following message together: “‘Stick to ice cream.’ Not gonna lie, we get this one a lot. Yeah, we’re in the ice cream business, but we’ve always been about much more than just ice cream. We use our power, our privilege, our platform and our relationship with our fans to advocate for progressive social change.
“So no, we’re not just gonna stick to ice cream. And we’re never gonna stop trying to dismantle white supremacy, end the climate crisis or fight for our democracy. And no, we’re not gonna stop fighting laws that restrict trans rights and books and roll back abortion protections.
While we’re sure there are hardcore MAGA supporters who’ll never eat Ben & Jerry’s again (mainly because they won’t be able to afford it at some point with the way things are going thanks to their orange overlord), we doubt it’ll be enough to put the delicious and democratic ice cream brand out of business. Just sayin’.
Check out Ben & Jerry’s PSA on DEI and democracy, and let us know your thoughts about the situation in the comments section below.
As the legal battle over Kendrick Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us” gets underway, both sides have retained top attorneys – with Drake hiring a lawyer who battles conspiracy theories and Universal Music Group turning to one of its favorite law firms.
Filed last week, Drake’s case accuses UMG of defaming him by boosting Lamar’s track, which attacks Drake as a “certified pedophile” and has become a chart-topping hit in its own right. The star says his own label “waged a campaign against him,” spreading a “malicious narrative” that it knew was false.
The courtroom showdown has drawn intense publicity, and it’s not hard to see why: It pits one of the world’s biggest stars against the world’s biggest music company after a lucrative, decade-plus partnership, over a smash hit song by a critically-adored rapper – one who’s set to perform at the Super Bowl next month, by the way. It also represents something of an unprecedented move in the history of hip hop: A lawsuit over a rap beef that allegedly went too far.
Trending on Billboard
To handle that kind of high-profile case, Drake has hired Michael Gottlieb, a former federal prosecutor who once served as a former associate counsel in the Obama White House. Gottlieb is currently a partner at the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, a national firm with a well-known music industry practice that has repeatedly been featured on Billboard‘s yearly Top Music Lawyers.
Based on his recent work, Gottlieb is unlikely to be intimidated by the media attention surrounding Drake’s lawsuit. He’s currently representing two Georgia poll workers in efforts to collect a huge verdict against Rudy Guiliani over his lies about election fraud, a case that just settled last week after high-profile court hearings in New York. He’s also repping Blake Lively in her battles against “It Ends With Us” co-star Justin Baldoni, including her harassment case as well as Baldoni’s libel countersuit – cases that have transcended the courtroom and crossed firmly into the messier world of public relations.
In Lively’s suit, she says she was the victim of a sophisticated “digital retaliation campaign” centered “manipulation” of social media designed to destroy her reputation across the internet. Those kinds of claims are nothing new for Gottlieb, who has made a name for himself in recent years filing defamation lawsuits on behalf of alleged victims of online disinformation.
In 2023, he won the $148 million defamation verdict against Giuliani. Before that, he represented the brother of Seth Rich, a Democratic staffer whose murder became grist for right-wing conspiracy theories, as well as the owners of the D.C. pizzeria at the center of Pizzagate — an infamous online hoax centered on false claims of child sex trafficking that later sparked a real-life shooting.
In bringing Drake’s case to court, Gottlieb has raised similar allegations against UMG. He argues that the label used secret payments and bot streams to help spread a “dangerous conspiracy theory” about his client on the internet, putting the rapper at risk of serious physical harm. He even cites the Pizzagate shooting by name, calling a shooting at Drake’s house the “2024 equivalent” of that earlier incident: “UMG’s greed yielded real world consequences.”
Defending against those claims, court records show that UMG has retained the law firm Sidley Austin — one of the largest of the country’s elite “BigLaw” firms, and one that has repeatedly repped the music giant in past legal battles.
Sidley attorneys represented UMG when the label was the named as a defendant in the copyright lawsuit filed by Marvin Gaye’s heirs over Robin Thicke and Pharrell’s chart-topper “Blurred Lines” – a case that transfixed the music industry for years. The firm also handled certain stages of a long-running copyright case filed by UMG’s Capitol Records against the video sharing site Vimeo over internet takedown rules.
More recently, Sidley defended UMG against a class action accusing the label of unfairly refusing to allow hundreds of artists win back control of their copyrights — eventually winning a key ruling that effectively gutted the case. The firm also won a decision last year killing another case filed by the hip hop duo Black Sheep, who accused UMG of securing its stake in Spotify by giving the streamer a “sweetheart” licensing rate that left artists underpaid by millions.
The firm has also handled numerous music matters outside the UMG orbit. Sidley attorneys have also repped Warner Music Group – including in transactional work like the label’s joint venture deal with Elliot Grainge’s label 10K Projects and its $400 million acquisition of 300 Entertainment, as well as defending the company against litigation like a copyright termination case filed by Dwight Yoakam.
As of Monday, the only Sidley attorney to formally appear in Drake’s case is Nicholas P. Crowell, a New York attorney focused on complex commercial litigation, though he’ll almost certainly be joined by other firm attorneys as the case progresses. Top members of the music team at Sidley include litigator Rollin A. Ransom and deals attorney Matthew C. Thompson – both of whom have also repeatedly been named to Billboard’s list of Top Music Lawyers.
If recent work is any indication, the attorneys at Sidley will take an aggressive approach to a lawsuit that UMG itself has already publicly blasted as “illogical” and “frivolous.”
Ransom and other Sidley attorneys are currently defending UMG against Limp Bizkit’s $200 million royalties lawsuit, a case filed in October that claims the band had “not seen a dime in royalties” because of “systemic” and “fraudulent” policies. The lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the case just a month later, ripping the lawsuit’s “entire narrative” as “fiction” and “based on a fallacy.” Last week, a judge sided with those arguments and rejected core aspects of the band’s case.
The firm will file its first response to Drake’s lawsuit in March.
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Getty / General
Another in depth examination on Diddy’s alleged misdoings is on the way. Identification Discovery is set to release a documentary titled The Fall of Diddy.
As per Variety, the ID Network is throwing their hat into the Diddy documentary ring. The Fall of Diddy attempts to pull back the curtain on the mogul’s personal and professional life. Here several of his former friends, staff and associates are interviewed and the picture they paint of Diddy is a man with many more secrets. One of the most memorable moments was what his short-lived girlfriend Kat Pasion had to share about her experience dating him back in 2019.
While she says everything was great in the very beginning she alleged that he tried to coerce her with drugs and even threatened to have her deported if she ever betrayed him. “This man is sick. He uses his resources and what he thinks he can do for you and thinks that that can band-aid and solve the horrible things he does to people because he thinks he’s God,” she said.
Former bodyguard Roger Bonds also confirmed he saw what he believed to be male sex workers when leaving hotels that Diddy and Cassie were staying at. “I’ve seen questionable things, but I never knew exactly what was going on. It’s been times where Cassie and Diddy would just go to the hotel for a weekend, and I would see guys get off the elevator,” said Bonds.
Diddy’s legal team has refuted the claims and part of their formal statement is said to be included in project. “These documentaries are rushing to cash in on the media circus surrounding Mr. Combs,” it read. “This production is clearly intended to present a one-sided and prejudicial narrative. As we’ve said before, Mr. Combs cannot respond to every publicity stunt or facially ridiculous claim. He has full confidence in the facts and the judicial process, where the truth will prevail: the accusations against him are pure fiction.”
The Fall of Diddy is set to premiere Jan. 27 at 9 p.m. ET on ID. You can view the trailer below.