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Tate McRae is more than OK following the reveal of this week’s Billboard 200, which puts her new album So Close to What at No. 1 — her first time ever reaching the chart’s summit. And in a couple of posts on social media Sunday (March 2), the Canadian pop star reacted to the news […]
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Source: MF DOOM Estate / MF DOOM Estate
MF DOOM’s estate can finally bring some of his personal belongings back home. They have settled the dispute with Egon Alapatt over the late MC’s notebooks.
As spotted on Hype Beast the issue regarding some of MF DOOM’s items have finally resolved. Last week the estate of the late rapper confirmed they have come to an agreement with Egon Alapatt—a former executive at Stone’s Throw Records. Jasmine Thompson, widow of DOOM, released a formal statement announcing the good news. “We are relieved to bring this chapter to a close. Over the years, there have been many public narratives concerning this matter, some of which have been misrepresented or unfairly magnified” she said.
Thompson went on to confirm that the two parties did not always see eye to eye throughout the process. “While differences did arise along the way, we acknowledge that Egon preserved DOOM’s invaluable notebooks and are grateful to now have them returned as part of this resolution” she added. “As a family, our focus remains steadfast on celebrating DOOM’s extraordinary legacy—his unparalleled artistry and his lasting impact on music and culture. We hope that this resolution serves as a step forward in continuing to honor his memory.”
Egon also commented cleared up his intentions for holding onto the notebooks. “DOOM was a dear friend to me and one of the most important artists I’ve ever known. I bought DOOM’s notebooks and kept them safe for years to ensure his powerful musical legacy could be preserved. My only goal has always been to showcase DOOM’s lasting musical genius, and the resolution Jasmine and I have reached regarding DOOM’s notebooks represents a significant triumph in protecting the genesis of a once-in-a-lifetime talent” he explained. “I am proud to have played a role in saving some precious markers of DOOM’s life in music and trust Jasmine to determine the next steps for his notebooks.”
According to the original lawsuit the 25+ notebooks contained the original lyrics to MF DOOM’s most celebrated works including Doomsday, MM…FOOD, Madvillainy and “other creative ideations.”
Venesti is on a roll as he secures his third straight No. 1 on Billboard’s Latin Pop Airplay chart, all within a little over a year, as “Fuera de Lugar” rises from No. 2 for its first week atop the March 8-dated chart. The single’s coronation comes after a 37% gain, to 7 million audience impressions, during the tracking week of February 21-27, according to Luminate.
“‘Fuera de Lugar’ is a song that connects with a lot of people because we’ve all been through that moment of giving up on a relationship out of pride and say things that we later regret,” Venesti tells Billboard about his third consecutive No. 1 on the Latin pop radio ranking. “But in this case what I want to convey is that sometimes you can put that pride aside and have at least one more day with that person; that story has made it stay in people’s hearts.”
Venesti’s “Fuera de Lugar” trades places with fellow Colombian Maluma, whose song, “Cosas Pendientes,” dips 1-2 after a 13% decline in impressions, to 6 million.
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Venesti’s winning streak on Latin Pop Airplay began as “No Es Normal,” with Nacho and Maffio, landed at the summit in January 2024, where it dominated for 10 weeks, the second-most that year, after Shakira’s “Soltera,” which crowned for 11 consecutive weeks in 2024. (The latter ruled for a total of 18 weeks, with seven of those frames in 2025).
Vensti’s “Es Normal” arrived at the summit six months later, to rule for four weeks starting the July 20-dated list.
Concurrent with its Latin Pop Airplay triumph, “Fuera de Lugar” surges 17-4 on the overall Latin Airplay chart, for Venesti’s fourth top 10 there.
All charts (dated March 8, 2025) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow, March 4. For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
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One of film’s finest (with some questionable past decisions) has finally received her long overdue acclaim. Zoe Saldaña has won an Oscar Award for her work in Emilia Perez.
As per The Guardian, the actor had one of the biggest nights of her professional career. On Sunday (March 2), the film industry gathered at the 2024 Academy Awards to celebrate the best performances of the previous year. The category for “Best Supporting Actress” was stacked with top tier talent including Felicity Jones (The Brutalist), Monica Barbaro (A Complete Unknown), Ariana Grande (Wicked) and Isabella Rossellini (Conclave). Zoe Saldaña took home the award for her stellar work as Rita Mora Castro, a struggling lawyer who takes a Mexican cartel kingpin as a new client.
It was clear to everyone in attendance at the Dolby Theatre and viewers online that Zoe was taken by surprise with her win. “I am floored by this honor,” she explained. She first thanked her mother and remaining family but made sure to highlight her immigrant background. “I am a proud child of immigrant parents, with dreams and dignity and hardworking hands,” she said while trying to hold back her tears. “And I am the first American of Dominican origin to accept an Academy Award, and I know I will not be the last.”
She then closed out her speech with a reference to her late grandmother. “I hold the fact that I’m getting an award to a role where I got to sing and speak in Spanish — my grandmother, if she were here, she would be so delighted. This for my grandmother, Argentina Cesse. Thank you so much. Muchas gracias.”
While Emilia Perez has been met with general critical acclaim, the film has faced some ongoing criticism due to Karla Sofía Gascón, the film’s protagonist. The actor’s old social media posts are where she made some very derogatory remarks about Islam, the murder of George Floyd and more.
Additionally, Mexican media was very critical of the film for how it represented the country. As spotted on Variety, after her Oscar win she addressed the criticism at a press junket. “First of all, I’m very, very sorry that many Mexicans felt offended. That was never our intention. We spoke from a place of love,” she explained in the interview room. “I don’t share your opinion. For me, the heart of this movie was not Mexico. We were making a film about friendship. We were making a film about four women.”
You can see Zoe Saldaña’s acceptance speech below.
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Source: Boston Globe / Getty
Hazel Dukes, the former NAACP national president and national civil rights leader, passed away in Harlem over the weekend.
On Saturday (March 1), longtime civil rights activist Dr. Hazel Nell Dukes died at her home in Harlem, New York. She was 92. Her passing was announced by her only son, Ronald. Former New York Governor David Patterson, a close friend and former neighbor of Dukes when she lived in Roslyn, Long Island, confirmed to reporters that she passed away at 6:20 a.m. surrounded by her family.
Born in Montgomery, Alabama, on March 17, 1932, Dr. Dukes was born to Edward and Alice Dukes. Activism was a strong influence from her youth, as Edward Dukes was a Pullman porter and union organizer, and one of their neighbors was Rosa Parks, who would become an iconic figure of the Montgomery bus boycott. After moving to New York in 1955 with her family, Dr. Dukes worked for President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Head Start program and became one of Nassau County’s first Black hires at the county’s Attorney’s office as well as the Economic Opportunity Commission.
She would make education and anti-poverty initiatives her focus for her political career, becoming a force alongside the “Gang of Four” – Percy Sutton, David Dinkins, Charles Rangel, and Basil Paterson – representing Harlem and the Black community’s interest for decades. It led to her 1977 election to lead the NAACP’s New York State Conference (a position she held until her passing) and to become president of the national organization from 1989 until 1992. Dr. Dukes was a passionate activist, unafraid to spar publicly with enemies such as former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, as she recounted in a New York Amsterdam News profile last year. “I had fights with them,” said Dukes. “We had a NAACP convention. Giuliani was so bad that I said he could not even bring greetings. His behavior toward the Black community was so bad that he could not speak at an NAACP convention.”
Numerous political allies paid homage to Dr. Dukes upon the news of her death, including Mayor Eric Adams, who ordered all flags at City Hall to be lowered at half-staff in her honor. Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman also decreed the same honor for Dr. Dukes upon hearing of her passing. Adams counted her as one of his most staunch supporters, having appointed her to his Charter Revision Commission in 2023, which was a temporary panel to suggest changes in city government.
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Source: Rich Polk / Getty
It’s been a few months since the heartbreaking passing of music icon Quincy Jones, and at last night’s Oscars Awards ceremony, his legacy was honored by Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, and the Hip-Hop legend, Queen Latifah.
Taking to the stage, Whoopi and Oprah gave Quincy Jones his flowers when they spoke about his embodiment of the term “Black excellence.” According to Variety, they credited Jones for helping pave the way for Black artists to make an impact in Hollywood. “In 1967, Quincy Jones was the first Black composer nominated in the original song category for ‘The Eyes of Love’ in the film ‘Banning.’ 1967 was the first time. Just keep that in mind,” Goldberg said. “And Quincy was also nominated that year for original music score for ‘In Cold Blood.’ He received seven Oscar nominations for ‘The Wiz,’ ‘In Cold Blood,’ ‘For Love of Ivy’ and ‘The Color Purple,’ which me and her, we’re part of.”
After speaking their kind words, the good Queen Latifah took to the spotlight and with the help of some backup singers and dancers gave a rousing rendition of “Ease on Down the Road” from the cult classic film, The Wiz.
You can just see Queen Latifah gave it her all, and for that, we love her.
Check out the Hip-Hop legend perform “Ease on Down the Road,” and let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
With International Women’s Day (March 8) just around the corner, and Women’s History Month in full swing, the editors of Billboard Latin and Billboard Español have compiled 28 of the best Latin music anthems by female artists. The list includes powerful songs across different music genres that may have marked a before and after in […]
Beyoncé is tipping her cap to Angie Stone after the 63-year-old R&B icon’s sudden death over the weekend. Shortly after her family announced that she’d died in a car crash Saturday (March 1), a black-and-white photo of Stone went up on Beyoncé’s website along with a personal tribute. “Thank you for your voice, your strength […]
Diane Warren lost the best original song award for the 16th time at the 2025 Oscars, but she’s keeping her characteristically good humor about it. The prolific songwriter was nominated for “The Journey,” sung by H.E.R. in The Six Triple Eight. Her first nod in the category came in 1987, for “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” from Mannequin. “I’m […]
Vermillio, an AI licensing and protection platform, raised $16 million in Series A funding led by Sony Music and DNS Capital, the company announced on Monday (March 3). This marks the first time Sony Music has invested in an AI music company.
Sony Music’s relationship with Vermillio dates back to 2023, when the two companies collaborated on a project for The Orb and David Gilmour. Through the partnership, fans could use Vermillio’s proprietary AI tech to create personalized remixes of the acts’ 2010 ambient album Metallic Spheres.
According to a press release, Vermillio plans to use the funds to scale operations and “continue building out solutions for a generative AI internet that enables talent, studios, record labels, and more to protect and monetize their content.”
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Vermillio’s goal is to create an AI platform that securely licenses intellectual property (IP). One of its core products is TraceID, which provides protection and third-party attribution for artists. Through it, the company claims artists and rights holders can control their data and AI rights.
Apart from its collaboration with Sony Music for the AI remix project, Vermillio has also worked with top talent agency WME to shield its clients from IP theft and find opportunities to monetize their name, image and likeness rights by licensing their data. Sony Pictures also worked with Vermillio to create an AI engine that allowed fans to make their own unique digital avatars in the style of Spider-Verse animation. Each of the fan generations were then tracked using TraceID so that all works could be tied back to the filmmakers’ original IP.
“We are setting a new standard for AI licensing — one that proactively enables consent, credit, and compensation for innovative opportunities,” said Dan Neely, co-founder/CEO of Vermillio, in a statement. “With the support of an innovation leader like Sony Music, Vermillio will continue building our products that ensure generative AI is utilized ethically and securely. At this critical moment in determining the future of AI and how to hold platforms accountable, we are proud to protect the world’s most beloved content and talent.”
“Sony Music is focused on developing responsible generative AI use cases that enhance the creativity and goals of our talent, protect their work, excite fans, and create new commercial possibilities,” added Dennis Kooker, president of global digital business at Sony Music Entertainment. “Dan Neely and the team at Vermillio share our vision that prioritizing proper consent, clear attribution and appropriate compensation for professional creators is foundational to unlocking monetization opportunities in this space. We look forward to expanding our successful collaboration with them as we work to support the growth of trusted platforms by enabling secure AI solutions that are mutually beneficial for technology innovators, artists and rightsholders.”
