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On Monday (June 2), Jay-Z visited New York’s State Capitol Building in Albany. The purpose of the surprise appearance by the rapper and entrepreneur was to meet with State Senate Minority Leader Andrea Cousins, in order to discuss a bid by his Roc Nation company to secure a gaming license to open what would be New York’s first Black-owned casino.
Jay-Z’s hope is to open a Caesar’s Palace casino in Times Square, with Caesars Entertainment and SL Green Realty. He explained his plans for the project in an open letter back in 2023. “We are New Yorkers. Supporting and providing opportunities for our neighborhoods and community isn’t just a part of Roc Nation’s ethos . . . It’s our collective responsibility,” the rapper said in the statement. “Any proposal that wins a gaming license will undoubtedly profit. Our vision is to give back to New York and ensure that the Broadway community, Hell’s Kitchen, and the surrounding businesses and areas all benefit. And not just for a minute, but for the long-term.”Last fall, Roc Nation proposed a reported $450 million in grants for the communities in Hell’s Kitchen and surrounding areas if they were successfully granted approval on their bid. According to The Robb Report, the first $15 million would go to the community, with regular grants based on 0.5% of the casino’s performance to be doled out. A local trust would be responsible for administering the funds to those in need and for infrastructure improvements in Hell’s Kitchen and the Times Square area.If successful, Jay-Z would become the second Black owner of a casino in the United States – the first was Don Barden, who in 2002 acquired three Fitzgeralds casinos in the Las Vegas area for $149 million. Currently, the Genting Group owns and operates the Resorts World Casino at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, New York. New York State is set to award three gaming licenses this year, and Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris has already backed an $8 billion casino proposal for the Metropolitan Park complex proposed by New York Mets owner Steve Cohen.
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Save this storySaveSave this storySaveTalking Heads are celebrating their 50th anniversary by releasing the first-ever video for “Psycho Killer.” The band enlisted the great Mike Mills to direct, with Saoirse Ronan starring as an office worker who dances, squirms, shudders, and screams through her daily routine. “This video makes the song better,” the band said in a press release. “We LOVE what this video is NOT—it’s not literal, creepy, bloody, physically violent or obvious.” Watch it below, and stay tuned for Talking Heads’ ongoing celebrations of the 50 years since their formation.Mills, who previously directed the National’s I Am Easy to Find short film, said Talking Heads’ debut album, Talking Heads: 77, “literally changed what was possible in life for me.” He went on, “To get to play with the subversive, uncategorizable beauty of Talking Heads, and to play with Saoirse who brought so much surprise, power, vulnerability and mischief to the party, it’s one of the best things I ever got to be a part of—still can’t believe it actually happened.”Ronan added, “To simply be mentioned in the same breath as Talking Heads is hands down one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me, let alone making a video with the singular Mike Mills to accompany one of their most iconic songs—‘Psycho Killer.’ I have grown up listening to their music, so this truly is a childhood/teenage/lifelong dream come true. Mike, myself and the rest of the creative team had so much fun making this, and I can’t wait for Talking Heads fans to see it!”Revisit Andy Cush’s 2021 interview “Talking Heads’ Original Lineup on Stop Making Sense, Their Early Days, and the Future.”
K-Pop boy band ENHYPEN dropped their sixth mini album, DESIRE: UNLEASH, on Thursday (June 5), an 8-track collection of upbeat dance pop tunes produced by Grammy-winner Cirkut (Katy Perry, Lady Gaga). Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The EP opens with the midtempo tune “Flashover” and features […]
Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” has become an anthem for the Edmonton Oilers, and the hit played throughout Rogers Place arena after the Oilers won game one of the Stanley Cup against the Florida Panthers in overtime on Wednesday night (June 4). NHL icon and former Edmonton Oiler Wayne Gretzky was in the building as […]
This May, only a handful of pop stars made major movement on the charts — including one with a historically huge Hot 100 album bomb, and one with a rare runaway breakout smash for 2025 — but we still saw some big names making big waves, with massive new tours and game-changing news announcements. And […]
Locked in a legal war with Jay-Z, attorney Tony Buzbee is now quoting the star’s lyrics from “Big Pimpin” in his latest court filings, claiming they describe the rapper’s views on “how men should treat women.”
Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) and Buzbee have been battling for months after the Texas lawyer filed shocking rape allegations against him last year. Those claims, which the star denied, were quickly dropped – and now Jay is suing the attorney for defamation and extortion across two different court cases.
Seeking to dismiss one of them, Buzbee took an unusual step Wednesday: directly quoting from decades-old lyrics in his legal filings. The song, the 2000 smash hit “Big Pimpin’,” includes crass references to prostitution – which Buzbee suggests contradicts Jay-Z’s claims to a stellar reputation.
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“Carter’s latest pleading bemoans what he describes as the ‘incredibly painful’ event of explaining [the rape] allegations to ‘his wife’ and ‘their children,’” Buzbee writes. “To put those allegations in their proper context, it is helpful to view them alongside the following lyrics from one of Carter’s most successful songs, which became famous nationwide around the time [the accuser] claims her sexual assault occurred.”
The filing included four lines from the opening verse of “Big Pimpin’,” including: “You know I thug ‘em, f*ck ‘em, love ‘em, leave ‘em ‘cause I don’t f*ckin’ need ‘em / Take ‘em out the hood, keep ‘em lookin’ good but I don’t f*ckin’ feed ‘em.”
“Released more than 25 years ago, this song of Carter’s, like many of the others that made him famous, contains lyric after lyric describing Carter’s views on the loss of innocence and how men should treat women,” Buzbee writes in the filing.
Jay-Z himself has previously expressed regret about the lyrics to “Big Pimpin’,” which reached No. 18 on the Hot 100 and spent 20 weeks on the chart in 2000. In a 2010 interview with the Wall Street Journal, he said that re-reading the song’s words was “really harsh.”
“Some [lyrics] become really profound when you see them in writing. Not ‘Big Pimpin’. That’s the exception,” Jay-Z said at the time. “It was like, I can’t believe I said that. And kept saying it. What kind of animal would say this sort of thing?”
The use of rap lyrics in court cases has become increasingly controversial in recent years, as critics argue that statements made in hip hop songs are unfairly treated more literally than other song lyrics. Efforts have been made to ban rap from criminal cases, and a group of law scholars recently warned that Drake’s civil lawsuit – claiming the lyrics to Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” defamed him – is “dangerous” and could have a “chilling effect” on future artists.
The case against Jay-Z, filed in December, claimed that he and Sean “Diddy” Combs raped a 13-year-old Jane Doe at an after-party following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. Jay-Z forcefully denied the allegations, calling them a “blackmail attempt” by Buzbee and his client. And after just two months of heated litigation, the accuser dropped her case without a settlement payment.
Weeks after the case was dropped, Jay-Z sued both Doe and Buzbee in Alabama, accusing her of defamation and accusing both of malicious prosecution and other wrongdoing. That case followed an earlier lawsuit in California in which the star accused Buzbee of extortion and defamation.
In Wednesday’s filing, the Texas lawyer asked a federal judge to dismiss the Alabama case, calling it a “clear attempt by Carter to punish his accuser and silence potential accusers.” And he cited the “Big Pimpin’” lyrics, using them to suggest that Jay-Z was being hypocritical when he said he “mourns his children’s loss of innocence.”
A rep for Jay-Z did not immediately return a request for comment on the new filing. In a statement to Billboard on Thursday, Buzbee said: “Mr. Carter’s lawyers have spent millions of dollars aggressively trying to cast me as a villain and unethical person with blatant lies and half truths. At the same time they’ve vainly attempted to portray Mr. Carter as a bastion of virtue. Look at my background and compare it to his. I’m a Marine Corps Captain who served my country in the infantry and recon during two conflicts. Enough said.”
Jay-Z’s California case against Buzbee also remains pending. As reported by Rolling Stone, the judge hinted in February that he might dismiss Jay-Z’s extortion claims while allowing the defamation claim against Buzbee to move ahead. Following new evidence about recorded conversations and a heated April hearing, the judge is still currently mulling whether and how the case should proceed.
Everything definitely changes for good in Wicked‘s second part, with the sequel’s new trailer showing how Oz is turned upside down by the actions of Ariana Grande‘s Glinda and Cynthia Erivo‘s Elphaba — as well as the entry of a certain gingham-wearing Kansan.
Arriving late Wednesday (June 4) as the first Wicked film returned to theaters for one night only in North America, the For Good teaser gave fans their first full taste of what’s to come in the darker, more intense sequel. “Elphaba Thropp, I know you’re out here — just come in before the monkeys spot you,” the blonde “Yes, And?” singer says in its opening scene, stepping out onto a balcony before the green-ified Pinocchio star silently appears, spooking her.
The nearly three-minute trailer then previews how the film’s plot unfurls, with the former best friends fully stepping into their chosen fates. Elphaba busies herself trying to expose the corruption helmed by the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum), while Glinda dons a tiara and becomes the people’s princess of the Emerald City, playing directly into the faux warlock’s agenda. At one point, Grande’s character walks down the aisle in a dramatic wedding dress to marry Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), who leads the hunt against the banished Elphaba before appearing to turn back to the pointy-hatted heroine’s side.
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“For a while there, I thought you’d changed,” she tells him during one tense moment.
“I have changed,” Bailey whispers back.
The trailer comes as there’s still several months to go before Wicked: For Good hits theaters in November, one year after the first installment in the Jon M. Chu-directed duology premiered. The 2024 movie was a massive success, so far grossing upward of $755.9 million worldwide — more than any other film adaptation of a Broadway musical — and winning two Oscars at the 2025 ceremony.
The Part 1 soundtrack also performed splendidly, debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. The new For Good trailer gives fans a taste of the film cast’s takes on the second half of the Wicked stage musical’s songbook, with Grande and Erivo delivering a few emotionally charged lines of tear-jerking duet “For Good.”
“Because I knew you, I have been changed for good,” they sing over a shot of the Tony winner telling a tearful Glinda, “You’re the only friend I’ve ever had.”
The trailer also shows several clips teasing one of the most pivotal developments of the musical’s second half: Dorothy Gale’s arrival in Oz. Though viewers never see her face directly, there are shots of her in her signature blue-checkered dress, walking down the Yellow Brick Road with Scarecrow, Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion. Viewers also see the iconic foursome standing before Goldblum as he commands them to “bring me the broom of the Wicked Witch of the West.”
In an interview with Vanity Fair published the same day as the trailer’s release, Chu discusses how he approached including the Judy Garland-originated character — who only ever appears as a shadow in the Wicked stage musical — in the films. “That intersection is the place that we were first introduced into Oz,” the director told the publication, which also shared brand new first-look photos.
“We tread lightly, but try to make more sense of how it impacts our girls and our characters than maybe the show does,” he continued. “We’re delicate.”
Watch the first Wicked: For Good trailer above.
Madonna is giving the people what they want. The singer announced on Thursday morning (June 5) that she will release the long-rumored Veronica Electronica collection, an album featuring rare and unreleased remixes of songs from her beloved 1998 Ray of Light album. The eight-track LP will be released digitally and on silver vinyl on July […]
True to her name, Mariah the Scientist’s songs are often the result of several months, and sometimes years, spent combining different elements of choruses and verses until finding the right mixture. But when it came time for the 27-year-old to unveil her latest single, the sultry “Burning Blue,” the R&B singer-songwriter was at a crossroads. So, she experimented with her promotional strategy, too — and achieved the desired momentum.
“Mariah felt she was in a space between treating [music] like a hobby and this being her career,” recalls Morgan Buckles, the artist’s sister and manager. And so, they crafted a curated, monthlong rollout — filled with snippets, TikTok posts encouraging fan interaction and various live performances — that helped the song go viral even before its early May arrival. Upon its release, Mariah the Scientist scored her first solo Billboard Hot 100 entry and breakthrough hit.
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Mariah Amani Buckles grew up in Atlanta, singing from an early age. She attended St. John’s University in New York and studied biology, but ultimately dropped out to pursue music. Her self-released debut EP, To Die For, arrived in 2018, after which she signed to RCA Records and Tory Lanez’s One Umbrella label. She stayed in those deals until 2022 — releasing albums Master and Ry Ry World in 2019 and 2021, respectively — before leaving to continue as an independent artist.
“Over time, you start realizing [people] want you to change things,” Mariah says of her start in the industry. “Everybody wants to control your art. I don’t want to argue with you about what I want, because if we don’t want the same things, I’ll just go find somebody who does.”
Mariah the Scientist
Carl Chisolm
In 2023, after six months as an independent artist, Mariah signed a joint venture deal with Epic Records and released her third album, To Be Eaten Alive, which became her first to reach the Billboard 200. She then made two Hot 100 appearances as a featured artist in early 2024, on “IDGAF” with Tee Grizzley and Chris Brown and “Dark Days” with 21 Savage.
“Burning Blue” marks Mariah’s first release of 2025 — and first new music since boyfriend Young Thug’s release from jail following his bombshell YSL RICO trial. The song takes inspiration from Purple Rain-era Prince balladry with booming drums and warbling bass — and Mariah admits that the Jetski Purp-produced beat on YouTube (originally titled “Blue Flame”) likely influenced some lyrics, too. She initially recorded part of the track over an unofficial MP3 rip, but after Purp caught wind of it and learned his girlfriend was a fan, he gave Mariah the beat. Mariah then looped in Nineteen85 (Drake, Nicki Minaj, Khalid) to flesh out the production.
“I [recorded the first part of ‘Burning Blue’] in the first room I recorded in when I first started making music in Atlanta,” Mariah says. “I don’t want to say it was a throwaway, but it was casual. I wrote some of it, and then I put it to the side.”
Once Epic A&R executive Jennifer Raymond heard the in-progress track, she insisted on its completion enough that Mariah and her collaborators convened in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, in February to finish the song. By that point, they sensed something special. Mariah shared a low-quality snippet on Instagram, but Morgan — who joined as a tour manager in 2022 — knew a more polished presentation was needed to reach its full potential.
Morgan Buckles (left) and Mariah the Scientist photographed May 20, 2025 in New York.
Carl Chisolm
Morgan eyed Billboard’s Women in Music event in late March as the launchpad for the “Burning Blue” campaign. Though Mariah wasn’t performing or presenting at the event, Morgan wanted to take advantage of her already being in glam to shoot a flashier teaser than Mariah’s initial IG story, which didn’t even show her face.
The two decided on a behind-the-scenes, pre-red carpet clip soundtracked by a studio-quality snippet of “Burning Blue.” Posted on April 1, that clip showcased its downtempo chorus and Mariah’s silky vocal and has since amassed more than two million views, with designer Jean Paul Gaultier’s official TikTok account sharing the video to its feed. Ten days later, Morgan advised Mariah to share another TikTok, this time with an explicit call to action encouraging fans to use the song in their own posts and teasing that she “might have a surprise” for fans with enough interaction.
Mariah then debuted the song live on April 19 during a set at Howard University — a smart exclusive for her core audience — as anticipation for the song continued to build. Two weeks later, “Burning Blue” hit digital service providers on May 2, further fueled by a Claire Bishara-helmed video on May 8 that has over 7 million YouTube views.
“We’re at the point where opportunity meets preparation,” Morgan reflects of the concerted but not overbearing promotional approach. “[To Be Eaten Alive] happened so fast, I didn’t even know what ‘working’ a project meant. This time, I studied other artists’ rollouts to figure out how to make this campaign personal to her.”
“Burning Blue” debuted at No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated May 17, marking Mariah’s first time in the top 40. Following its TikTok-fueled debut, the song has shown legs at radio too, entering Rhythmic Airplay, R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay — to which Morgan credits Epic’s radio team, spearheaded by Traci Adams and Dontay Thompson. “[The song] ended up going to radio a week earlier [than scheduled] because Dontay was like, ‘If y’all like this song so much, then play it!,’ and they did,” Morgan jokes.
With “Burning Blue” proving to be a robust start to an exciting new chapter, Mariah has a bona fide hit to start the summer as she prepares to unleash her new project, due before the fall. She recently performed the track on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and will have the opportunity to fan the song’s flames in front of festival audiences including Governors Ball in June and Lollapalooza in August. But as her following continues to heat up, Mariah’s mindset is as cool as ever.
“I’ll take what I can get,” Mariah says. “As long as I can use my platform to help people feel included or understood, I’m good.”
Mariah the Scientist
Carl Chisolm
A version of this story appears in the June 7, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Reservoir Media has entered into a strategic partnership with Fool’s Gold Records, adding the A-Trak co-founded independent label to its recorded music portfolio. As part of the deal, Reservoir acquires the master rights to key catalog recordings from artists including A-Trak, Danny Brown and Low Pros. In addition, Reservoir will take on exclusive marketing and distribution responsibilities for all past and future Fool’s Gold releases through its label platform.
As part of the deal, facilitated by Fool’s Gold CFO Jorge Mejias, label manager Nathaniel Heller and A-Trak’s management team at TMWRK, Fool’s Gold joins Reservoir’s roster of influential independent labels, which includes Chrysalis Records, Tommy Boy Music and New State. The partnership also extends to a new sub-label, A-Trak & Friends, which will be distributed by Reservoir. The first release from this imprint, “Reaching” by James Juke featuring LION BABE, debuted last month.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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Founded in 2007 by A-Trak (Alain Macklovitch), Nick Catchdubs, David Macklovitch, and the late Joshua Prince, Fool’s Gold has built a reputation for blurring the lines across hip-hop, dance and electronic music. The label played a pivotal role in launching the careers of artists like Kid Cudi, whose debut single “Day ‘N’ Nite” was released through Fool’s Gold, as well as Run the Jewels, Flosstradamus and Danny Brown. A-Trak’s own projects, including his duo Duck Sauce’s hit “Barbra Streisand,” are also part of the catalog now under Reservoir’s distribution.
A-Trak has also made a name for himself as a solo artist with tracks like his remix of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Heads Will Roll” and singles such as “Ray Ban Vision” and “Believe.” The Fool’s Gold catalog further includes music from Treasure Fingers, Hoodboi, Tommy Trash and Michael Christmas.
Reservoir president and chief operating officer Rell Lafargue said, “As both founder and artist, A-Trak has built Fool’s Gold into a genre-blurring label that has been at the forefront of hip-hop, house, and everything in between for nearly two decades. We’re proud to welcome A-Trak, Fool’s Gold, and its artists into the Reservoir family as we continue to champion culturally significant independent music.” He continued, “This multifaceted deal also highlights Reservoir’s ongoing expansion in recorded music and our team’s ability to deliver across the full spectrum of the music business.”
A-Trak added, “I’ve been thoroughly impressed by Reservoir ever since the first time we all spoke. Everyone at the company has a deep passion for quality music. A big part of what’s helped Fool’s Gold navigate 18 years in the music biz is staying very nimble and malleable. Reservoir was able to craft a creative deal with us that showed real agility — that’s exactly what we were looking for in a new partner.”