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They finally freed the wave.
Harlem’s Max B was sentenced to 75 years in 2009 for his role in a robbery gone wrong. However, in 2016, his sentence was reduced to 20 years after he struck a plea deal with prosecutors, and he finally came home on Nov. 9 to much fanfare, and was greeted outside the gates of Northern State Prison in Newark, N.J., by his longtime friend and collaborator French Montana.
In his first sit-down video interview since being released, Max B caught up with Billboard to talk about his influence, how he spent his time inside and his plans for the future.
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A couple of rappers who were influenced by Max are two widely popular ones out of Pittsburgh. He and Mac Miller struck up a relationship before Miller’s 2018 death, and Wiz Khalifa has mentioned Max’s influence on his style on multiple occasions.
“I didn’t know Mac too well personally, but we spoke a couple times before he passed away, rest in peace,” Max tells Billboard of the late MC. “I know he was a big fan, I’m a fan of his as well. You know these guys is music guys, they love music … You hear the music incorporated with the pain or whatever, so these is like musical guys. I kinda feel like musical guys adapt to my style.”
When it comes to how he’s been adapting to life outside the walls of a prison as a civilian, he’s still getting used to things. “I’m not gonna say I’m overwhelmed. Anxiety? I’m not really that anxious no more for nothin’,” he says. “I’m just taking my time, I’m out here. It’s real, I done woke up in my bed a couple days straight, so I can’t complain, man, you know what I’m saying? Eating good food, got my wife, got my kids — I’m seeing my kids everyday — I got my electronics … I start trying to hook my s—t up, I couldn’t. I didn’t know what the f—k I was doing with that, but I’ma keep trying, you heard? It’s mine, I’ma figure that s—t out.”
He adds that he’s going to turn over a new leaf.
“This the new grown and gorgeous Biggavel, this is the new and improved. This the new, distinguished Biggavel. This ain’t the old Biggavel from before, so you gotta love it,” he says of the white suit and red bowtie he wore during his “Welcome Home” dinner. “This is what I think is attracting the people like, ‘Damn, we thought this n—a was gonna come out and do the same s—t. He’s a prime example of what you’re supposed to do when you come out. His reentry at its purest form. This man right here: Max Biggavel.”
And his influence doesn’t only extend to rap music. Rap Twitter has long since dubbed Justin Bieber “Biebervelli” whenever the pop star decides to venture into R&B, and when Max caught wind of the Canadian singer’s nickname, he had nothing but nice things to say. “Shout out to the Biebs, man. That’s my guy. He’s soulful,” Max tells Billboard. “When I hear stuff like that, I get flattered, I go back in there and get some work done, man, and keep it going, so the game could love us.”
Check out In Conversation With Max B above for a lot more.
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In his first sitdown interview since being released from prison, Max B talked with Billboard‘s hip-hop editor Angel Diaz about a wide range of topics that include his first day out and reuniting with French Montana, how he’s readjusting to life outside and reviving his career, his friendships with the younger generation of rappers such as the late Mac Miller, Wiz Khalifa and Cash Cobain, his love for the Knicks and much more.
Angel Diaz: This is In Conversation with Max B, the boss of Biggaveli. Welcome back home, man.
Max B: Thank you, beloved. The one and only.
So let’s get started. You came home Nov. 9, right? French’s birthday, and you went straight to the Jets game. Can you kind of talk about why you were at the you were, like, on the field and everything.
Well, that was kind of like one of the signs where I knew I was, it was, I was like, the come out was gonna be impactful. So it just so happens I’m a Jet fan, anyway.
OK, all right.
So, you know, we needed to win. You know, it all ran good company that day. We wanted to win. And I wanted to, you know, finally meet Shedeur Sanders. So it was love, one of the fun days I’ll remember for a long time, very long time.
So how crazy was it, though, when you was on the field and you saw Method Man taking pictures?
I thought he found some type of loopholes. I said, “You don’t found some loopholes to the game.” And I’m like, “OK, do they let the guys take, you know, maybe you need some type of little photo, the little, you know?”
Yeah, like, he’s, like–
And they gonna give you a job, a volunteer, doing some photo. You be caught sight sidelined the game. You get to see all the players. You get, like, that’s some official s–t. So it was good shout-out to Meth, yo, because I been a Method fan forever. So to see him like that on that in that circumstance, it was just like, I knew the day was just beginning. I’m like, it’s gonna get more exciting.
Keep watching for more!
Trending on Billboard Audio entertainment and satellite radio company SiriusXM Holdings said on Tuesday its chief financial officer Tom Barry will step down by the end of the year. Zac Coughlin, currently CFO for Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein owner PVH Corp, was named to succeed Barry. Coughlin previously held CFO titles at the Nike […]
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Summer Walker might be “Finally Over It,” as she croons on the title track of her latest studio album, but she’ll never get over Anna Nicole Smith.
On Monday (Nov. 17), the Billboard 200-topping R&B star stopped by The Terrell Show to speak with host Terrell Grice about the journey to her third studio album, Finally Over It. Between professing her desire to further explore funk music and naming her favorite Erykah Badu song (spoiler, it’s “Honey”), the “Girls Need Love” singer also explained why Smith — who died in 2007 — was her visual and aesthetic muse for her new record.
“I love her. She’s hot. She’s sexy. She’s fun and free,” Walker gushed. “And I want that to be me … People come up with s—t for creative direction, but I really want to get into that. I got to find my old billionaire!”
The official artwork for the streaming and digital versions of Finally Over It, which arrived on Nov. 14, features a solemn Walker holding a bouquet of white roses and wearing a voluminous wedding gown as she poses next to her much older, white, wheelchair-bound husband. The image is a direct callback to Smith’s iconic 1994 wedding, during which she married J. Howard Marshall, a then-89-year-old petroleum tycoon billionaire.
’90s Playboy icons proved to be a key source of inspiration for Walker as she rolled out Finally Over It. At September’s MTV Video Music Awards, where “Heart of a Woman” competed for the best R&B Moon Person, Walker called upon Pamela Anderson’s iconic 1999 VMAs outfit for her red carpet look. “F—k my type,” she captioned a Sept. 7 Instagram carousel, teasing the latest Finally Over It single.
Finally Over It marks the conclusion to the trilogy Walker launched in 2019 with Over It, her debut studio album. The era-defining record reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200, and its follow-up, 2021’s Still Over It, became Walker’s first project to top the chart — and the highest charting album from a female R&B artist since Beyoncé’s Lemonade in 2016. Featuring a boatload of collaborators — including Anderson .Paak, Mariah the Scientist, Teddy Swims and Chris Brown — Finally Over It also includes the hit “Heart of a Woman,” which earned nominations for best R&B song and performance at the 2026 Grammys.
Watch Summer Walker explain Anna Nicole Smith’s influence over Finally Over It below.
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Chase Stokes is not pleased with certain people in Kelsea Ballerini‘s comments section.
After the country singer-songwriter — who reportedly reconciled with the Outer Banks star two months after ending their three-year relationship — posted a TikTok promoting new song “People Pleaser,” an onslaught of viewers replied with remarks that didn’t sit well with Stokes. “These comments are f–king weird,” he wrote.
The actor added, “Grow up.”
Some outlets have reported that Stokes’ response was in reference to certain comments about his ex-girlfriend and Outer Banks costar Madelyn Cline. On a different song from Ballerini’s brand new Mount Pleasant EP, “Emerald City,” she sings about struggling with jealousy and obsessive thoughts about her partner’s former flame, which has led some people to take sides between the two women.
“Always liked the color of my eyes ’til I knew she had brown/ I’m green/ Always liked my naïve innocence ’til I learned she got around,” the musician croons on the track. (Yes, Cline has brown eyes.)
But as one person wrote on Ballerini’s video — in which she had simply sung along to “People Pleaser” while showing off her glam look for the day — the song “Emerald City” simply “goes to show the most beautiful woman in the world can still have feelings of jealousy and insecurity.”
Ballerini has been clear in the past that she has no feelings of ill will toward Cline. “I met her and I talked to her and she’s lovely,” she said of the actress on a 2023 episode of Call Her Daddy. “And I think she’s wildly talented. I think the internet did its best to make it weird, and it didn’t work for them … At the end of the day, I’m a girl’s girl, I don’t buy into the bulls–t. I think they have a beautiful working relationship.”
It’s unclear what the status of Ballerini and Stokes’ relationship is currently. In September, a rep for the singer confirmed to Billboard that they’d split, about three years after they’d started dating.
However, People reported earlier in November that the pair appeared to have rekindled their romance, citing an onlooker who’d witnessed them holding hands while out to eat in Dubrovnik, Croatia, where the next season of Outer Banks is filming.
Trending on Billboard Drake and Sexyy Red are sparking collaboration rumors after posing for a tennis-themed photo shoot,which the 6 God fueled with a post to Instagram on Monday (Nov. 17). Explore See latest videos, charts and news “I said tennis lesson she said where’s the bracelet or the necklace,” Drizzy captioned the slideshow of […]
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Uketsu’s horror-mystery novel Strange Pictures has been shortlisted for Waterstones’ 2025 Book of the Year.
Originally published by Futabasha in 2022, Strange Pictures is an interactive horror-mystery in which readers unravel the story through clues scattered across “nine bizarre paintings” that feel subtly off. Since its release, the novel has garnered a broad following, selling over 1.2 million copies in Japan and surpassing 2 million copies worldwide.
Waterstones, the U.K.’s largest bookstore chain with nearly 300 locations across the U.K. and Ireland, selects its annual Book of the Year based on titles that booksellers most want to recommend to readers. The award draws significant attention in the U.K. publishing scene and is also widely followed by general readers. The chain described Uketsu’s work as “a horror novel by a Japanese author originating on social media, gaining attention even in the English-speaking world — an unconventional pick.”
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The novel has also been recognized internationally: In France, it was named FNAC’s Book of the Month, while in Germany it topped the May 2025 Krimibestenliste — Deutschlandfunk and Deutschlandfunk Kultur’s mystery list — as the best crime novel of the month. In Thailand, it debuted at number one in a major book event shortly after its release, and translation rights have now been secured in 36 countries and regions across five continents, including the U.S., South Korea, China, Brazil, and Morocco.
The enigmatic, masked writer and YouTuber’s latest installment in the “Strange” series called Strange Maps is currently available in Japan, and recently claimed the top spot on Billboard Japan’s new book chart, the Japan Book Hot 100. See Uketsu’s reaction to being nominated in the U.K. in full below.
I’m deeply honored and truly grateful. I lived in Surrey, England, as a child. The overcast skies, the scent of rain, and the serene yet slightly uncanny culture were formative experiences for my writing. I’m thrilled to reconnect with readers in the U.K. in this way.
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Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey, collectively known as Black Star, booked a trio of shows in the United Kingdom to celebrate three decades of existence as a crew, but things didn’t go as planned. Talib Kweli was witnessed on video screaming at a security guard during a show that was marred by reported time issues, but the Brooklyn rapper offered a statement explaining his side of things.
TMZ Hip Hop reports that Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey were performing at the 02 Victoria House in Manchester last Saturday (November 15) when, near the end of their set, a security guard walked out onstage to enact a curfew.
Kweli took offense to the guards coming out one minute after curfew and gave them a tongue lashing that can be seen in the video in this link.
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Talib Kweli has since offered a statement to TMZ Hip Hop explaining his reaction to the guards ending their set as they did.
From TMZ:
Black Star was at the O2 Manchester venue at 8:30PM for a 9PM set time, with an agreed to 11PM curfew. At 8:50PM the venue decided to push the show time back to 9:15PM without any input from Black Star, which made us end the show later than planned. At exactly 10:58PM as Black Star was performing our final song for the night, I witnessed venue staff on the side of the stage, harassing Black Star staff about the 11PM curfew.
At exactly 11PM, as Black Star was saying good night to the crowd, (we had completed our last song by then) someone from the venue came onto our stage to chastise us and demand we leave the stage. This is very disrespectful and not standard. You don’t walk on an artist’s stage during a show. I’m sure they would not have treated a white, UK artist this way, especially when we hadn’t disrespected the curfew at all.
When I came off stage, I asked to speak to the man who came on the stage. I was instead greeted by aggressive security guards who began to disrespect me immediately, so I argued with them and held them accountable for how they treated us as guests who helped the venue make money. O2 Manchester called security on their main act for the night to enforce us leaving the stage at 11PM, even though we were already in the process of leaving the stage at that exact time.
Kweli goes on to say that 02 Victoria House staff and crew should apologize to he and Yasiin Bey and their team for what took place. However, fans who attended the set say that the group wasn’t exactly the most pleasant during their November 11 stop at the 02 Academy in Brixton. Accounts online reported that the group took the stage just 30 minutes before curfew, performed only 25 minutes of their set, and told the booing crowd they were welcome to leave, among other choice words.
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Photo: Getty
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Legendarily prolific actor Samuel L. Jackson had no problem saying yes when he was asked to join Kendrick Lamar for the Grammy and Pulitzer prize-winning rapper’s Super Bowl LIX halftime show in February in New Orleans. And while Jackson thought he was signing up for another one of his eclectic acting gigs, the Tulsa King co-star told Jimmy Kimmel on Monday night (Nov. 17) that he had no idea he was signing up to be a surprise guest at a “revolution.”
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“Great time. I kind of had no idea when they called me and said, ‘Yeah, we’d really like for you to be part of Kendrick’s halftime show’… I was like ‘really?,’” Jackson recalled thinking at the time. When the show’s producers promised to send him the treatment for the show, consummate professional Jackson said he didn’t really care about all that and promised to be there when they needed him.
“And then when I got there and we were rehearsing, it was all kind of nice and fun and watching the dancers go through their routines,” he described. “It’s like, ‘damn! They’ve been rehearsing for a while, because they were like [snaps fingers.]’” In case you forgot, Jackson popped in dressed in a red, white and blue Uncle Sam outfit to welcome the crowd with the enthusiastic greeting, “your uncle… Sam and this is the great American game!”
Jackson said he had “no idea” about what was about to take place until dress rehearsal for what would become the most-watched halftime show in history, one in which he would provide Greek chorus-like commentary on the racial state of the nation. “That was the first time I knew we were doing a revolution,” Jackson said of the eye-popping spectacle at the Caesars Superdome that featured guest stars SZA, tennis great Serena Williams crip walking and record producer Mustard.
“I knew I was dressing as Uncle Sam, but I just thought that was like, okay, fine, it’s an Uncle Sam thing,” Jackson said. “When dress rehearsal starts I’m there I’m doing it and I turn around and I said, ‘wait a minute, that’s a flag… they’re making a flag up there,” he recalled of the sight of the mass of dancers in red, white and blue forming into the American flag. “Oh, now I’m going, ‘ah, now it’s revolutionary.’” He said it never occurred to him before that moment that the dancers would be activated into Old Glory, especially since a lot of people already call him “Uncle Sam” on the regular.
Jackson, who has worked with rappers before, including LL Cool J and Busta Rhymes, also famously appeared in the 1992 crime drama Juice alongside late rap icon Tupac Shakur in his first major role in a film. The actor, who had met Shakur before, said he was a “nice enough kid,” but recalled an incident on set that might surprise fans familiar with Jackson’s legendarily NSFW dialogue.
On a night when Jackson wasn’t shooting, his wife, actress LaTanya Jackson was sitting in a room with the mothers of the other kids who appeared in the film and “Tupac came through there and he was cussing somebody out and yelling, screaming.” So LaTanya Jackson grabbed Shakur and told the rapper, “‘Hey, don’t you see all the grown women, you can’t talk like that and use that kind of language!’ And everybody in the room was like [big inhale]. And he totally apologized [and said] ‘I’m so sorry.’” From that point on, Jackson said, Tupac was a gentleman and whenever he saw the actor’s wife he would greet her with, “‘Hey mom, how you doing?’”
Kimmel said it did strike him as odd that Jackson’s wife had a problem with foul language given his f-bomb proclivities. “Only in a room full of grown women,” Jackson explained, with Kimmel confirming that scripted cursing is seemingly okay with her. “If I’m at home, it’ my house,” Jackson explained. “I can say what I want to.”
Watch Samuel L. Jackson on Jimmy Kimmel Live! below.
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Eminem has launched a legal battle with an Australian beach umbrella brand called “Swim Shady,” claiming the company is just imitating his “Slim Shady” alter ego.
The rapper, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, is fighting a legal action at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, seeking to cancel an American trademark that the Sydney-based Swim Shady secured on its name earlier this year.
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Eminem’s attorneys say the similar-sounding name “uniquely and unmistakably” points to the “internationally renowned recording artist and entertainer” – and that customers will be “deceived” into thinking he’s somehow involved.
“The petitioned mark is highly similar to petitioner’s name,” his lawyers write in their September petition, obtained by Billboard. “Consumers and potential consumers, and anyone seeing one of respondent’s products in the marketplace … will assume that the source of the goods emanates from [Eminem].”
Eminem debuted the Slim Shady name in 1997, using it for an aggressive alter ego that explores darker and more violent subjects. His 1999 album The Slim Shady LP, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200, focused heavily on the name, including his breakout “My Name Is” and his smash hit “Real Slim Shady” that reached No. 4 on the Hot 100.
The star has had “Slim Shady” registered as a federal trademark since 2001, holding rights to the name covering a wide range of goods. And he’s not afraid to enforce those rights: In 2023, he filed a similar case against Real Housewives stars Gizelle Bryant and Robyn Dixon over their efforts to get a trademark for the name of their “Reasonably Shady” podcast.
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Swim Shady launched earlier this year to sell a small, foldable beach umbrella – a product it says is aimed at “solo beachgoers who wanted better sun protection without the hassle.” And the company has big plans: According to its website, it is seeking or has secured trademarks for that name around the globe, including in China, the U.S. and the European Union.
In September, the USPTO formally granted the company an American trademark registration for its name, covering both beach gear and a wide assortment of apparel. Such a registration makes it easier to sue someone selling a knock-off brand and allows a company to use the ® symbol.
But Eminem’s lawyers, in their Sept. 29 petition, say Swim Shady’s trademark never should have been registered. Such cases, filed with the PTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, are a common way that brand owners prevent others from securing rights to their names.
Eminem knows that process well. Since 2003, his lawyers have filed at least six such cases at that trademark dispute body — including not just the Real Housewives case but also one against an apparel brand called “Shadzy” and another against a sunglasses brand called “Shady Character.”
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Many other superstar artists have taken similar proactive measures to defend their names against similar-sounding trademarks filed by third-parties, which are cheap to file and sometimes slip through the approval process. Taylor Swift filed a case in 2017 to block a “Swifty” trademark; Jay-Z has filed more than ten over the years.
Such cases don’t legally stop a company like Swim Shady from using a brand name on their products, but merely from securing their own trademark rights to it; only a full-fledged federal lawsuit can shut down an infringing company. But in his new case, Eminem suggests that he thinks Swim Shady’s use of the name violates his rights.
“Petitioner is and will continue to be damaged by any sale or any offering for sale of Swim Shady goods by respondent, since there will exist a false association and suggestion as to the source of the goods involved,” his lawyers write. “Any inferior quality of respondent’s goods will damage the reputation of petitioner’s premium goods and services.”
Reps for both Eminem and Swim Shady did not immediately return requests for comment.
