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It seems Pop Smoke might have had some legal issues if his life wasn’t taken from him suddenly. The New York Police Department has confirmed they were investigating him prior to his death.
As per Complex, Pop Smoke was on the radar of police prior to his untimely passing. In a new interview, former NYPD Chief John Chell recently made an appearance on The John Rondi Show. The retired law enforcement official discussed a variety of topics regarding the city’s crime during his tenure and some famous cases he oversaw. He went on to add that he and his team had been investigating the G-Stone Crips, a gang they believe Pop Smoke had affiliation with.
“He’s the up-and-coming star, if you will, and we were into that gang, and he was part of it, but we didn’t have much on Pop,” he said. “What Pop did, he stole a Rolls-Royce I think from LA [Los Angeles] to Canarsie [Brooklyn], and we tried to leverage that.” Chell went on to lay out how they used the alleged grand theft auto to their advantage. “We made an arrest, and we tried to leverage that,” Chell said, explaining that police frequently use these types of tactics to get high-profile individuals to cooperate. “You might be running with the gang guys, and they’re your friends,” Chell said. “But you got a lot more to lose. You got millions, you’re a rising star.”
On Jan. 17, 2020 Pop Smoke was arrested at John F. Kennedy Airport for allegedly stealing a Rolls-Royce Wraith. The owner said he loaned the rapper the car for a video shoot with the understanding that it would be returned the next day. Authorities would later find the automobile in question at his mother’s house in Brooklyn. According to the New York Post, police tried to get him to talk on the Crip gang, but he refused to cooperate. You can see John Chell talk about Pop Smoke below.
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Get ready to hear a whole lot of “haaan’s”, French Montana and Max B are dropping a new project together.
This one hits different for fans of Biggaveli and French, as the duo announced a new installment of their Coke Wave mixtape series. Both Montana and Max did a collab post on Instagram to let the fans know, “Coke Wave NARCOS 3.5 – January 9th 2026 COKE WAVY SEASON BACK IN EFFECT.”
The Wave God has been applying pressure since coming home. He recently dropped a new single, “No More Tricks,” and also announced his first solo album since being back home will be titled Public Domain 7: The first Purge (Patient Zero). The project is set to arrive on December 3rd. The following month, it’ll officially be Coke Boy season.
The two NY MCs have been cooking up the Coke Wave series since 2009. Giving fans hits like “The New Wave“, “Here It Is“, “No No No (Hey We Love You)”, and more.
Max has been in a good creative space since returning home. In a conversation with Billboard last month, he talked about what fans can expect from the Wave: “It’s going to take me a little second to shake the rust off. I had went to the studio yesterday and the mic was sounding too perfect. So, it was a little throwing me off a little bit.”
After serving 18 years in jail, Biggavel is home, and the dynamic duo is back together.
The full list of Billboard’s 2025 year-end charts are almost here, and we’re counting down the days to their unveiling on Tuesday, Dec. 9, with a special look at select rankings in the lead-up to the big reveal — and today (Dec. 2)., we have the top 10s of three of the year-end R&B/hip-hop charts.
On Dec. 9, hundreds of year-end charts will be posted on Billboard’s website, following the conclusion of the Billboard 2025 No. 1s Livestream, hosted by Druski, which will broadcast on the Billboard News YouTube channel and BillboardTV on Samsung TV Plus starting at noon ET/9 a.m. PT, as special surprise guests stop by to celebrate the year in chart-toppers.
Today, we’re dropping the top 10s of the 2025 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Hot R&B Songs charts.
Kendrick Lamar and SZA‘s “Luther” leads the year-end Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs roundup, following its unstoppable run on the weekly version of the chart. It debuted on the chart dated Dec. 7, 2024, climbed to No. 1 just two weeks later, and was on the chart during the rest of the 2025 chart year (Oct. 26, 2024, through Oct. 18, 2025), never falling below No. 3.
SZA, meanwhile, crowns the year-end Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums recap, with a project that debuted on the weekly chart on Dec. 24, 2022 — SOS. It’s the second time the title has finished atop the year-end Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, as it also reigned in 2023. (It was the No. 2 album of 2024.) The album’s chart performance in 2025 was enhanced by its expanded reissue with additional songs in December 2024, dubbed SOS Deluxe: LANA. All versions of the album, old and new, are combined together with the original album for tracking and charting. During the 2025 chart year, SOS never left the chart, spent 15 weeks at No. 1, and never ranked below No. 6.
The Weeknd and Playboi Carti‘s “Timeless” tops the year-end Hot R&B Songs chart. The track premiered at No. 1 on the Oct. 12, 2024-dated Hot R&B Songs chart, and remained on the list through the July 19, 2025, chart. During that span, it spent 20 weeks atop the ranking, never going lower than No. 4. “Timeless” marked the 12th No. 1 for The Weeknd and the first for Playboi Carti.
For the top 10 of the three lists, scroll below. The full depth of the three rankings (beyond the top 10s of each) will be posted Dec. 9 alongside the complete menu of Billboard‘s 2025 year-end charts.
Billboard’s year-end music charts represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts from Oct. 26, 2024, through Oct. 18, 2025. Rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the entries appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology detail, and the October-October time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate.
2025 Year-End Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs: 10. GloRilla & Sexyy Red, “Whatchu Kno About Me”
We’re counting down the days to the unveiling of Billboard’s 2025 year-end charts on Tuesday, Dec. 9, with a special look at select rankings in the lead-up to the big reveal — and today (Dec. 2), we have the top 10 of the 2025 Hot Rap Songs chart. On Dec. 9, hundreds of year-end charts […]
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Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters spread some holiday cheer on Tuesday morning (Dec. 2) with the announcement of a big benefit show supporting the homeless non-profits Hope the Mission and the Los Angeles Mission. The special concert on Jan. 14 at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles will benefit the two organizations singer/guitarist Grohl, wife Jordyn Grohl and the band have long supported.
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“What better way to spend my 57th birthday than making a bunch of noise with a bunch of people for a good cause. This ain’t just a big ass rock show, it’s a big ass party with a heart,” said Grohl in a statement. Turn up the volume, turn up the hope, but most of all….TURN UP. The best gift is TO GIVE. Can’t friggin wait x.”
The only pre-sale opportunity for the show — which coincides with Grohl’s 57th bday — will be this Sunday (Dec. 7) at an in-person-only advance ticket purchase/donation drive at the Forum. Fans are asked to bring an item or items from a list of in-demand food and clothing necessities, with Hope the Mission slated to collect them on site. The list includes: socks and underwear (male, female, adult, children, all sizes, new/packaged only), dried pinto beans (bagged), pasta — spaghetti, macaroni (bagged or boxed) and dried rice (bagged), with a request not to bring canned or perishable goods.
The donations will support Hope the Mission and Los Angeles Mission provide food, clothing and direct services to unhoused and food-insecure Angelenos.
“Dave, Jordyn, and Foo Fighters are a striking example of what’s possible when we decide to show up and give back,” said Hope the Mission president Rowan Vansleve in a statement. “This concert will be more than just a celebration, it’s a statement that it will take all of us working together to end homelessness in our city so that no one is left suffering on our streets. We’re incredibly grateful to partner with the band. Foo Fighters and their fans have a reputation of always stepping up to help when people need it, and this concert will be no different.”
Dennis Oleesky, CEO of Los Angeles Mission added, “The impact of this event goes far beyond one night of incredible music. Every ticket purchased and every donation will directly help feed and house our unhoused neighbors. We’re honored Foo Fighters are joining to bring real help and real hope to people across Los Angeles.”
For more information on the charities and details on how you can help even if you can’t attend the show, click here.
The Foos have wrapped up their tour dates for the year, but will be back on stage on Jan. 10 at Feria Estatal De Leon in Guanajuato, Mexico, followed by a summer run of European shows and North American stadium gigs with Queens of the Stone Age in August and September.
Sean “Diddy” Combs is speaking out as a new docuseries focused on his legal woes went live Tuesday (December 2) on Netflix. According to Diddy and his team, the footage used in Netflix’s Sean Combs: The Reckoning was obtained without authorization, framing the docuseries as a “hit piece” partly inspired by a personal vendetta orchestrated by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.
Variety shared a statement from a spokesperson for Diddy in full, highlighting that much of the footage that was recorded was intended for the mogul to tell his story on his terms. We’ll share the full statement below.
From Combs’ spokesperson by way of Variety:
Netflix is plainly desperate to sensationalize every minute of Mr. Combs’s life, without regard for truth, in order to capitalize on a never-ending media frenzy. If Netflix cared about truth or about Mr. Combs’s legal rights, it would not be ripping private footage out of context – including conversations with his lawyers that were never intended for public viewing. No rights in that material were ever transferred to Netflix or any third party.
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It is equally staggering that Netflix handed creative control to Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson – a longtime adversary with a personal vendetta who has spent too much time slandering Mr. Combs.
Beyond the legal issues, this is a personal breach of trust. Mr. Combs has long respected Ted Sarandos and admired the legacy of Clarence Avant. For Netflix to give his life story to someone who has publicly attacked him for decades feels like an unnecessary and deeply personal affront. At minimum, he expected fairness from people he respected.
Netflix provided a quote to the outlet in response to the spokesperson’s statement attributed to the director of the docuseries, Alexandria Stapleton.
“It came to us, we obtained the footage legally and have the necessary rights,” began the quote. “We moved heaven and earth to keep the filmmaker’s identity confidential. One thing about Sean Combs is that he’s always filming himself, and it’s been an obsession throughout the decades. We also reached out to Sean Combs’ legal team for an interview and comment multiple times, but did not hear back.”
Sean Combs: The Reckoning was released on December 2 on Netflix.
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ROSÉ and Bruno Mars’ collaboration “APT.” has officially been crowned the biggest song of 2025 across Apple Music.
The track topped the streamer’s year-end Replay ‘25 recap as the most-streamed song globally, most-identified on Shazam, most-spun on radio, and the track with the most-read lyrics of the year.
The hit duet was part of Apple Music’s Replay ‘25 experience, which launched today (Dec. 2) and gives users a deeply personalised recap of their listening habits across total minutes, top artists, genres, and monthly trends — alongside expanded tools for artists and teams to track fan growth and global impact.
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Alongside “APT.”, major names like Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Billie Eilish and Lady Gaga also featured heavily across Apple’s full suite of charts. Kendrick and SZA’s joint track “luther” landed at No. 2 on the Top Songs of 2025: Global, with “Die With A Smile” by Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars rounding out the top three.
Apple Music’s Artist of the Year, Tyler, The Creator, also made his mark with “Sticky (feat. Sexyy Red, GloRilla & Lil Wayne)” coming in at No. 42 on the global chart — his first time appearing on the year-end list. Meanwhile, rising stars like Gracie Abrams (“That’s So True”) and Alex Warren (“Ordinary”) landed in the top 10, marking breakout years for both.
Fans can explore their full Replay dashboard in-app, including new monthly breakdowns, loyalty metrics, comeback artists, and All Time playlists based on historical listening data. Artists, meanwhile, can access powerful new insights into their reach, listener growth and performance across Shazam, radio, and playlisting.
To celebrate, Apple Music also launched The Replay Gallery at Miami Art Week — a physical exhibition inspired by the year’s most defining musical moments, with work from artists like Calida Rawles, Henry Taylor, and Jeremy Deller.
More Replay charts, artist dashboards, and playlists are available now via the Apple Music app.
Top Songs of 2025: Global
ROSÉ & Bruno Mars – “APT.”
Kendrick Lamar & SZA – “luther”
Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars – “Die With A Smile”
Kendrick Lamar – “Not Like Us”
Billie Eilish – “BIRDS OF A FEATHER”
Top 100: Shazam
ROSÉ & Bruno Mars – “APT.”
Lola Young – “Messy”
Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars – “Die With A Smile”
Alex Warren – “Ordinary”
MOLIY et al – “Shake It To The Max (FLY) [Remix]”
Top 100: Global Radio
ROSÉ & Bruno Mars – “APT.”
Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars – “Die With A Smile”
Lola Young – “Messy”
Alex Warren – “Ordinary”
Billie Eilish – “BIRDS OF A FEATHER
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While performing the song “Juno” on her recently wrapped Short ‘n Sweet tour, Sabrina Carpenter would “arrest” a fan or celebrity in the crowd in a fun moment involving pink prop handcuffs. The bit was a viral sensation during the outing that ended last month and it was accompanied by another viral favorite section where Carpenter would ask the crowd if they wanted to try out some “freaky positions,” before busting out a unique pose and saying “Have you ever tried… this one?”
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On Monday (Dec. 1), the White House once again appropriated a playful pop culture meme to shine a light on its attempt to deport undocumented people. In a 14-second TikTok video cued to “Juno,” a series of people are shown angrily filming ICE agents as they swoop in to arrest people on the street, with close-ups of handcuffs being slapped on someone. A series of clips of chases and arrests are then cued to Carpenter asking, “Have you ever tried this one?”
The caption to the clip reads “Have you ever tried this one? Bye-bye [kissy face emoji].”
At press time, a spokesperson for Carpenter had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment on the video; Billboard has also reached out to the White House to clarify if it got clearance from Carpenter to use her music in the ICE propaganda video.
The video dropped less than a month after Olivia Rodrigo lambasted the Trump administration after the Department of Homeland Security posted an Instagram video soundtracked by her Guts track “All-American Bitch” showing ICE officers forcibly tackling, detaining and deporting people. In the comments, Rodrigo wrote, “don’t ever use my songs to promote your racist, hateful propaganda.” The video featured a montage of what appeared to be undocumented people voluntarily boarding DHS flights and giving a thumbs-up as they depart. “LEAVE NOW and self-deport using the CPB Home app,” read the caption. “If you don’t, you will face consequences.”
Carpenter, a vocal supporter of Trump’s 2024 election rival Vice President Kamala Harris, is the latest artist to object to the president’s repeated use of popular music for his political videos without their permission. The pace of such seemingly unsanctioned usage has ramped up over the past few months, with Kenny Loggins lashing out at Trump for using his Top Gun classic “Danger Zone” under an AI-generated video of the president seemingly dumping a river of fecal matter on American citizens participating in the anti-Trump “No Kings” protests.
Swifties also aired their ire at the White House last month over a TikTok video set to Swift’s hit Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping single “The Fate of Ophelia,” renamed “The Fate of America,” depicting Trump’s mug shot from when he was charged with trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election results as well as an image of POTUS kissing an American flag. While Swift — an avowed Harris supporter who Trump has repeatedly said he “hates” — has not commented on the seemingly unauthorized appropriation of her music, the White House sent a response to Variety in which it gloated about owning the libs.
Representatives said they made the video specifically to get “fake news media brands” to “breathlessly amplify” their message. “Congrats, you got played,” the rep said.
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If you’ve ever wanted to get to know Lady Gaga better Stephen Colbert is here to help. On Monday night’s (Dec. 1) Late Show, Colbert revisited an interview he did with Mother Monster earlier this year at New York’s The Bitter End nightclub, during which she participated in his seriously silly Colbert Questionert interrogation.
The host hit her with an easy one early one: the best sandwich. Well, it wasn’t that easy. Gaga quickly answered Italian sub, but then busted out her impeccable French to give props to ham, butter and cheese on a baguette. “So an Italian sub, but in French,” Colbert clarified.
Then things started to get a bit more serious with a query about the first concert Gaga ever attended. Turns out it was a Jingle Ball show where the Goo Goo Dolls played amid a flurry of fake snow that broke her brain. “They had snow and I was losing my mind. It was my first experience with production in an arena. I was crying,” Gaga recalled.
According to Gaga, the scariest animal is any really large bird, like a big, scary hawk that might spirit you away to its nest and, if she had to choose between apples and oranges, she’d definitely go orange, seemingly to Colbert’s chagrin.
“You judged me,” she said in mock horror. I felt you go, ‘oh, New York, big apple!’” No, Colbert explained, it’s just that you can’t spread peanut butter on an orange, though Gaga did remind him that you can dip an orange in dark chocolate, which seemed to ease his mind.
To her recollection, Gaga said she’s never asked another famous person for their autograph, but when fans give her a piece of their art she does ask them to sign it.
And then came the big one, or as we like to call it the Keanu Question: what do you think happens when we die? “I’m not sure,” Gaga admitted with a heavy sigh. “I think we all vanish into each other. I say that on stage every night, but I think it’s just what I believe… Like I definitely believe that the soul is like kind of forever here in some way. That you go from being in one place to being everywhere.” Asked if she could sometimes sense those souls, Gaga said yes, that sometimes when people pass she thinks “‘they’re everywhere now.’”
Gaga said her favorite action movie is the 1993 Clint Eastwood political thriller In the Line of Fire, that she prefers a window seat for a feeling of safety and that her favorite smell is, awww, the scent of her fiancé Michael Polansky’s neck, noting that he doesn’t wear cologne and that bottled scents are her least favorite smell.
For a probing question about her earliest memory, Gaga got existential, asking for a clarification about whether it was her earliest memory in life. “Or before life if you can think that early,” Colbert shot back. Turns out the first thing Gaga can remember is getting really excited when her parents gave her a toy kitchen set. “I remember being really excited because I could play house,” she said.
As for what song Gaga would pick if she only had one tune to listen to for the rest of her life, Gaga chose John Lennon’s “Imagine,” explaining that she grew up very close to the Strawberry Fields Lennon memorial in New York’s Central Park. “That has a very special significance for me,” she said.
And finally, she described her life in five words: “It’s going to be great, hopefully.”
Gaga is preparing to wrap up her Mayhem Ball tour dates for the year with a pair of upcoming shows at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia on Friday (Dec. 5) and Saturday (Dec. 6).
Watch Gaga take the Colbert Questionert below.
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Parkway Drive’s planned Park Waves Festival — the band’s first-ever touring festival in Australia — will no longer go ahead.
Organisers Destroy All Lines confirmed the cancellation, posting a statement across social media explaining that the numbers behind the ambitious run “no longer stack up.”
“We’re devastated to confirm the Park Waves Festival Australian tour will not go ahead,” the statement read. “The cancellation is due to a combination of challenges, and ultimately, the numbers no longer stack up. With a heavy heart, we’ve had to make a difficult decision. We’ve tried everything. We’re gutted.”
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The festival was scheduled to take place across February and March 2026, with stops in Perth, Adelaide, Geelong, Scoresby, Bendigo, Wollongong, Sydney, Maitland, Toowoomba, Byron Bay and Sandstone Point. Ticket holders will automatically receive refunds, with organisers confirming additional details will be emailed directly.
In a separate statement posted to their own channels, Parkway Drive described the decision as “a kick in the guts,” noting the increasingly difficult landscape for major touring events in Australia.
“Another festival being crushed by the rising costs across our entertainment industry,” the band wrote. “It hurts to be another casualty in this chapter of the Australian music scene. We’ve tried every possible option to keep this dream alive, but the reality of the circumstances won’t allow for it.”
Park Waves originally launched in Germany in 2024, where Parkway Drive headlined alongside Fit for a King and Australian heavyweights Thy Art Is Murder. The Australian edition was intended to bring that model home, with the band emphasising their desire to reach regional audiences that often miss out on arena-level tours.
Speaking with Rolling Stone AU/NZ earlier this year, vocalist Winston McCall said the concept had been years in the making. “Being able to take it regional is really important,” he explained. “This is the first Byron show we’ve been able to play in 12 years… If you don’t have an entertainment centre, you’re playing a 1000-cap club and thousands of people are missing out.”
The cancellation follows a milestone era for Parkway Drive, who performed a widely praised, career-defining show at the Sydney Opera House in 2023 and released their single “Sacred,” their first new music since 2022’s Darker Still. Park Waves was expected to be the band’s major domestic live moment for 2026.
Destroy All Lines closed their statement by thanking fans who purchased tickets and continue to support Australian live music during a turbulent period for promoters and touring artists alike.
