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Beyoncé and her Cowboy Carter tour is underway, and the hottest ticket in every town will surely be packed with passionate members of the Beyhive. However, it looks like that passion was a little out of control after fans attending the opening Beyoncé show in California began fighting in the VIP section after it ended.
TMZ reports that Beyoncé’s opening night at SoFi Stadium this week to kick off the Cowboy Carter tour was a crowd-pleasing moment to remember, with the Houston superstar running through the hits and being joined by her eldest daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, and her youngest daughter.
As fans made their way out of SoFi, video footage revealed that a fight broke out after a woman knocked the cowboy hat off another woman, then shoved another woman as the woman went to retrieve her hat, who then fell to the ground before another person got between them. It wasn’t reported if law enforcement was involved, but the moment certainly garnered several shocked bystanders.
Beyoncé has four more shows to deliver at SoFi. Hopefully, less fighting afterward.
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Photo: James Devaney / Getty
Lil Durk remains behind bars in California, counting down the days until his trial is set to begin in October for his murder-for-hire case.
Durk’s family posted a clip to Instagram on Tuesday (April 29) giving fans an update on the Chicago rapper’s legal situation, and they claimed that the prosecution is building a case that uses his own lyrics against him.
“The recent developments in Durk’s legal case have brought a harsh truth to light: the government presented false evidence to a grand jury to indict him,” a statement from Durk’s team in the video reads. “This isn’t justice. That’s a violation of the very system that’s supposed to protect all of us.”
The clip goes on to explain that Durk has always been a vivid storyteller with his music, and his creative art shouldn’t be held against him in a court of law.
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“Durk has always used music to tell stories, to express pain to heal — and yet those same lyrics are now being used against him. We refuse to stay silent as Black artists continue to be criminalized for their creativity. Rap is art,” the video continued before calling for public support. “As a family, we are asking the public, the fans and the culture to stand with us. Stand for truth. Stand for fairness. Stand for The Voice.”
Lil Durk’s legal team continues to fight for his freedom. Earlier in April, Durk’s attorneys called for the case’s dismissal and claimed that “false evidence” was given to a grand jury.
Prosecutors are attempting to tie lyrics from Durk and Babyface Ray’s “Wonderful Wayne & Jackie Boy” to the murder of Lul Pab. While the track was released in December 2022, which would be a few months after Pab’s death, but Durk’s team says those lyrics were penned long before the shooting in January 2022.
“Told me they got an addy (go, go)/ Got location (go, go)/ Green light (go, go, go, go, go)/ Look on the news and see your son/ You screaming ‘No, no,” he raps on the track in question.
“The government told the grand jury that Mr. Banks, through specific lyrics in his music, celebrated and profited from a revenge murder that he had ordered,” Durk’s attorney, Drew Findling, said in the filing. “That claim is demonstrably false. Unless the government is prosecuting Banks on a theory of extra-sensory prescience, the lyrics could not have soundly informed the grand jury’s finding of probable cause.”
Lil Durk was arrested in Florida in October on a murder-for-hire charge hours after a few of his Only the Family associates were also indicted.
Prosecutors believe Durk plotted to have Quando Rondo killed as retaliation for the death of his friend King Von, who was murdered by Rondo’s associates in Atlanta in 2020, but the 2022 Los Angeles shooting ended up leaving Rondo’s cousin Lul Pab dead.
With Durk behind bars awaiting trial, the rapper’s team pieced together his Deep Thoughts album, which arrived in March and debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with 64,000 album-equivalent units earned.
See his family’s statement below:
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Source: Tim Mosenfelder / Getty
On Travis Scott’s birthday, we reflect on the early moments of his career and the unlikely co-sign that helped him rise from producer to global superstar.
While many initially praised Travis for his production skills, few believed in him as a rapper. His debut mixtape “Owl Pharaoh” received mixed reviews, critics loved the beats but questioned his ability on the mic. Despite the doubt, Travis never wavered in his belief. La Flame had a vision for himself that stretched far beyond beats and hooks.
One person who did see the bigger picture was Atlanta rap legend T.I. In a conversation with Hip-Hop Wired, T.I. spoke about what made him invest in Travis not just as a producer, but as an artist. “Ever since I met bruh (Travis), he always had such an idea on how he wanted to present his art. From fashion to live performances. He had such an interactive relationship with his fan base that people would travel to come see him perform. That always made me look at him and realize that he was special.”
At the time, Travis was signed to Kanye West’s GOOD Music as a producer. T.I. stepped in and brought him on board Hustle Gang as a rapper, solidifying a unique dual deal that reflected Travis’s versatility and ambition. T.I.’s early belief in Travis as a complete artist helped open doors that eventually led to one of the most impactful and genre-bending careers in modern Hip-Hop.
Happy birthday, Travis Scott, proof that betting on yourself pays off.
Post Malone and Jelly Roll kicked off their BIG ASS Stadium tour on Tuesday night (April 29) with a three-and-a-half hour extravaganza at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, UT that featured both men playing their hits and fan favorites as well as Jelly jumping up on stage for a duet with Posty. Coming off […]
Lorde has released three albums, but it’s been so long since she dropped one that her fourth full-length effort, Virgin — which the star announced at long last Wednesday (April 30) — might just make you feel like she’s doing it for the very first time.
The New Zealand native shared the news via a posting on her website, revealing the LP’s blue-toned cover art and sharing that it will arrive June 27. “100% WRITTEN IN BLOOD,” she wrote, revealing that the project’s collaborators include Jim-E Stack, Fabiana Palladino, Andrew Aged, Buddy Ross, Dan Nigro and Dev Hynes of Blood Orange.
The album’s artwork marks Lorde’s first since 2013’s debut project, Pure Heroine, to not feature the “Royals” singer on the cover. Instead, the photo shows what appears to be an X-ray of a crotch area with a zipper showing up on the scan in the front; between the bones that make up the pelvis, an IUD is visible.
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In a release, Lorde further teased the direction of the record. “THE COLOUR OF THE ALBUM IS CLEAR,” she wrote in an all-caps statement. “LIKE BATHWATER, WINDOWS, ICE, SPIT. FULL TRANSPARENCY. THE LANGUAGE IS PLAIN AND UNSENTIMENTAL. THE SOUNDS ARE THE SAME WHEREVER POSSIBLE. I WAS TRYING TO SEE MYSELF, ALL THE WAY THROUGH. I WAS TRYING TO MAKE A DOCUMENT THAT REFLECTED MY FEMININITY: RAW, PRIMAL, INNOCENT, ELEGANT, OPENHEARTED, SPIRITUAL, MASC.”
“I’M PROUD AND SCARED OF THIS ALBUM,” she added. “THERE’S NOWHERE TO HIDE. I BELIEVE THAT PUTTING THE DEEPEST PARTS OF OURSELVES TO MUSIC IS WHAT SETS US FREE.”
The announcement comes just more than a week after Lorde dropped Virgin‘s lead single, “What Was That,” on April 24. The track arrived with an accompanying music video filmed in New York City, featuring footage of the singer meeting up with fans in Washington Square Park.
Lorde hasn’t released an album since 2021’s Solar Power, which reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200.
See Lorde’s announcement below.
Before she was one of the most recognizable voices in pop music, Chappell Roan was just one of countless aspiring singers whose hopes were dashed by the audition process for competition shows such as The Voice and America’s Got Talent.
In her W Magazine cover story published Wednesday (April 30), the pop star recalled her disappointing experiences trying out for both shows back when she was a teenager, with Roan not even making it past the first round for either. “When I auditioned for The Voice, I was 15 and I sang ‘Stay’ by Rihanna,” she began. “The producer or whoever the f–k was watching did not even look up from his phone. He was like, OK, next.’”
“I went up there and sang a cappella, the scariest thing ever,” she added. “He never really looked at me.”
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At that point, Roan had already auditioned for America’s Got Talent two years prior. “I was 13, and we flew to Austin, Texas, and waited in line with thousands of people at 4 a.m.,” Roan recalled of that experience. “I sang ‘True Colors’ by Cyndi Lauper. Did not make it either.”
The Missouri native wouldn’t get her big break until more than a decade later, and not before she’d endure even more setbacks (such as being dropped from her label, Atlantic Records, in 2020). In 2024, Roan’s career exploded with a hot streak of festival sets and the success of single “Good Luck, Babe!” on the Billboard Hot 100 — it peaked at No. 4 in September — with the star going on to win best new artist at the 2025 Grammys in February.
During her acceptance speech at the ceremony, Roan used her time on stage to challenge the music industry to take better care of developing artists, reading out of a well-loved notebook, “Labels, we got you — but do you got us?” To W, the “Casual” singer confirmed that the book was her actual diary, revealing that she’s been journaling since she was in middle school.
Roan also opened up about her first kiss in the interview — she was 15 and in her parents’ driveway, though she now says that “kissing girls is funner” — as well as her biggest pet peeve. “When people name-drop,” said the vocalist, who recently confirmed that she has a serious girlfriend. “I immediately don’t trust them.”
“I’m not the girl to care about that stuff,” she added. “It is an immediate turnoff in a romantic or a friendship way. I’m like, ‘If you name-drop, I’m probably not going to be your friend.’”
See Roan on the cover of W below.
The U.S. House of Representatives easily passed the bipartisan TICKET Act in a 409-15 vote on Tuesday (April 29), sending Congress’ first-ever regulatory framework for the event ticketing business on to the Senate.
Sponsored by Reps. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-lll.), the legislation is meant to improve transparency and disclosure of ticket pricing and fees, ban deceptive marketing practices and improve consumer protections by requiring refunds for cancelled or postponed events.
While the legislation introduces long-sought legal protections for artists and fans, some advocacy groups argue that the bill doesn’t go far enough to curb ticket scalping and warn that its language could inadvertently legalize controversial sales practices, including speculative ticket sales.
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“The Ticket Act that just passed the House does not do nearly enough to protect fans and consumers against bad actors,” reads a statement from National Independent Trade Organization executive director Nathan Marro shortly after the bill passed.
At issue is a clause in the bill that Marro and other industry groups like the National Independent Venue Association say create a legal loophole for speculative ticket sales — a highly criticized practice where scalpers sell tickets they don’t actually own, only procuring the tickets after a consumer has agreed to buy them at a substantial markup. Under the language of the TICKET Act a “ticket exchange that does not have actual or constructive possession of an event ticket shall not sell, offer for sale, or advertise for sale such event ticket.” Marro worries that the provision is diluted by a loophole in the legislation which allows secondary sites like Vivid to offer “a service to an individual to obtain an event ticket on behalf of such individual.”
Marro argues that such a service — similar to Vivid’s Seat Saver program, where consumers pay to procure seats before they go on sale to the public, will worsen long-standing public complaints about fair access to tickets.
“Vivid Seats spec ticket ‘seat saver’ program is still 100% legal,” under the current language of the bill, Marro said. “NITO urges the Senate to strengthen this bill prior to passage and we will continue to advocate for stronger protections for our community.”
Stephen Parker, executive director for the National Independent Venues Association, also called out the spec ticket loophole, noting “the inclusion of a ‘concierge service’ carveout, as written in the TICKET Act, would undermine” the legislation. Specifically, Parker asserts that the carve out erodes the trust the public has in the artist — or show presenter — and their ability to fairly and transparently schedule ticket sales. When services like Seat Saver mislead fans into thinking they can buy tickets for high profile events ahead of schedule, Parker says trust in the safety and fairness of the ticket sales process is diminished.
“States across the country have proven that strong, loophole-free ticketing consumer protections work, and Congress should build on that momentum,” wrote Parker, noting that legislatures in Arizona, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Nevada all banned speculative tickets sales without carve outs for concierge programs like seat saver.
Parker and Marro have identified other shortcomings with the TICKET Act, including stronger enforcement of the BOTS Act. Marro said his group of talent agents and managers would also like to see greater disclosure around all-in pricing so fans know how much was added to the face value of the ticket by the promoter, the ticketing company and the venue.
The TICKET Act now heads to the U.S. Senate for consideration.
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Getty Images / Luka Doncic / Kobe Bryant
Luka Doncic hasn’t delivered an NBA Championship to the city of Los Angeles yet, but he is quickly earning the respect of Lakers fans.
Some unknown individual defaced a Downtown Los Angeles mural of the late Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna “Gigi” Bryant, with graffiti, turning it into a canvas for a dispute between street artists.
The touching tribute piece, which features Bryant donning his Lakers jersey while kissing a young Gigi on the cheek, was covered in white paint and graffiti tags.
TMZ Sports reports that someone wrote “keep running your mouth p***y” in the top corner where the mural’s creator, “Sloe Motions,” name is located.
That message or threat is crossed out with a reply stating, “Leave a name, p***y! Don’t B scared.”
Well, it looks like Luka Doncic, who is currently in his first year of donning the purple and gold after the Dallas Mavericks shockingly traded him to the Lakers, is stepping up to fix the mural and is opening up his wallet.
Per TMZ Sports:
There’s a happy ending to this story … as TMZ Sports has learned Lakers superstar Luka Doncic has donated $5,000 to help restore the mural.
It’s an incredible gesture … as that is the total amount the fundraiser was hoping to rake in for the effort.
That’s dope of the NBA superstar.
Kobe Bryant & His Daughter’s Global Impact
Following the tragic passing of the iconic NBA superstar and his daughter as a result of a helicopter crash, murals sprang up all over Los Angeles and around the globe honoring the Lakers legend and his daughter, who aspired to follow in her father’s footsteps on the basketball court.
Weirdly, a LA native would do such a thing to a piece of art honoring someone who is the embodiment of the city and brought so much joy to Lakers fans.
Salute to Luka Doncic.
On its face, Kendrick Lamar and Playboi Carti seemed like an unlikely duo until King Vamp recruited K. Dot for a few features on his Music album. They hit the stage together for the first time on Tuesday night (April 29) when Lamar brought out Carti as a special guest in Atlanta to perform their […]
More than a year after revealing that he had undergone surgery to remove a tumor from his brain, Michael Bolton is opening up about his cancer battle at length for the first time.
Speaking to People for a cover story with his family published Wednesday (April 30), the 72-year-old icon shared new details about being diagnosed with glioblastoma — an aggressive form of cancer that “starts as a growth of cells in the brain or spinal cord” and “can invade and destroy healthy tissue,” according to Mayo Clinic — in December 2023. After receiving the diagnosis, he quickly underwent surgery, something he shared with fans while announcing that he’d be postponing his upcoming concerts in a January 2024 Instagram post.
Fortunately, Bolton’s doctors were able to remove the tumor in its entirety during surgery, and after a second brain surgery in January 2024 to treat an infection — plus a combination of radiation and chemotherapy — the musician has had no new tumors as of early April, when he had his last scan. But the road ahead will still be challenging, with Bolton now undergoing MRIs every two months to stay vigilant against glioblastoma’s high recurrence rate.
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Fifteen months after surgery, Bolton reflects, “You’re reaching into your resources and your resolve in a way that you never would have thought.”
“Succumbing to the challenge is not an option,” he added to the publication, which noted that Bolton’s short-term memory, speech and mobility have suffered as a result of his treatments. “You’re really quickly drawn into a duel. I guess that’s the way you find out what you’re made of.”
Amid the life-changing experience, Bolton says he’s been redefining his definition of legacy. Rather than thinking about it in terms of his career — which includes two Grammys, 19 Billboard Hot 100 hits and two No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 — the “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You” vocalist is now choosing to focus on what he’s leaving behind for his family.
“How do I give things that they can take forward?” he told People. “Life lessons, love, any kind of validation that I can give [them] — I want to be on the right side of that so they feel great about who they are. It’s a reality of mortality. Suddenly a new light has gone on that raises questions, including ‘Am I doing the best that I can do with my time?’”
“I want to keep going. I feel there’s still a lot to do on the fight side,” added Bolton, who has deliberately not received a prognosis to keep his hopes high. “I got a title for a song: ‘Ain’t Going Down Without a Fight.’”
Also featured in the cover story were the musician’s daughters Isa, Taryn and Holly, who remembered how their dad started singing in his hospital room just minutes after waking up from surgery. Bolton and his family — which also includes six grandchildren — posed together in a photo for the piece, which Bolton shared on Instagram Wednesday and wrote, “My hope in sharing this part of my journey is that it might offer comfort to other families facing similar challenges, and perhaps even inspire those navigating their own adversity.”
“I also want to thank all of you for the love, support, and patience you’ve shown over this past year,” he added. “I’ve drawn strength from your encouragement, and I continue to draw strength from it every day as I move forward on this journey.”
The interview marks the first time Bolton has shared an in-depth update on his health. In March 2024, he simply wrote on Instagram, “I am healing well and doing better every day,” adding that he was “enjoying the company of my daughters and grandkids during this time at home and practicing on my putting green whenever it’s not raining!”
The following May, he announced that his postponed Greatest Hits Live concert at the O2 Arena in London would be rescheduled for July 5 this year. “Thank you all for your continued support during my recovery!” he wrote at the time. “Although I wanted to be there sooner I’m so looking forward to spending a special evening together at the O2 London next summer!!!”
