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Kanye West has thrown any cares he had left out the window. Ye clapped back at Lyor Cohen after he penned an open letter to him about antisemitism.
The storied music industry mogul did not take kindly to Kanye West’s recent antisemitic rants on X, formerly known as Twitter. On Tuesday, Feb. 11 the former head of Def Jam Records penned him a letter published by The Hollywood Reporter expressing his disappointment and concerns with Ye’s bigotry. “I am deeply disappointed and troubled by your recent actions involving the use of Nazi symbols and antisemitic rhetoric. Your words and actions are not only offensive but triggering to all decent people who recognize the horrors of the Holocaust and the suffering of millions” Cohen writes.
The YouTube Music honcho went on to call out that the two communities have worked together for years in the entertainment field. “The Jewish and Black experiences share a rich history of collaboration and mutual support, particularly in the music industry. From the early days of jazz and blues to the groundbreaking work of Motown and beyond, our communities have enriched each other through music and culture.”
Lyor Cohen closed the letter by pleading with Kanye West to cease his hate speech and promotion of Nazism. I urge you to reflect on this shared legacy and use your platform to build upon the love and understanding that have always existed between our communities.
As expected Kanye West responded to Lyor and didn’t seem to take anything he actully wrote nto consideration.
“You and your whole industry have promoted and got paid off songs where black people glorify killing each other. But my t shirt is the worst thing ever.” Ye wrote. “You start by apologizing and taking accountability for the massive promotion of black death that you’ve got paid off of for years. Also you too broke to speak to me in the first place.”
West closed his retort by referencing the late great Irving “Gotti” Lorenzo. “And you know what Irv said to you before he passed and since he not here, I’ll say it. Suuuuck Myyy D*****k.”
Lyor Cohen has yet to respond to Kanye West.
Concurrent with the release of their new album Automatic today (Feb. 14), The Lumineers notch their eighth No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Alternative Airplay chart, as “Same Old Song” rises two places to the top of the tally (dated Feb. 22). The Lumineers slot into a four-way tie with The Black Keys, Death Cab for […]
While talking over the phone from prison with The Art of Dialogue, Death Row co-founder Suge Knight made an interesting revelation involving two late superstars. Apparently, 2Pac was a big fan of Aaliyah — so much so that he not only wanted to make music with her, he also wanted to sign her to Death Row.
Suge explained that the first time the late rapper/actor learned about the young singer was when they went to check out a Gladys Knight show. “We had a thing,” Suge remembered. “I would always listen to oldies, and Pac would listen to rap. He didn’t like oldies, so I told him, ‘I gotta show you what oldies are about.’ So, I took 2Pac to go see Gladys Knight perform in Vegas.”
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He then says that eventually Aaliyah came out to perform and blew 2Pac’s mind. “Aaliyah starts singing and 2Pac said, ‘Don’t get up! Don’t get up!’” Knight recalled. “I said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘Because Gladys Knight knows you, you’re gonna speak to Gladys Knight, and then you’re gonna talk to that little girl singing. And the next thing you know, you’re gonna be doing an album.’ He said, ‘I’m gonna go talk to her, you come later on, because I want to do an album with Aaliyah.’”
Knight added of 2Pac, “He wasn’t thinking about signing nobody else. He thought she was the biggest star and had the best voice ever. Me and that dude spent hours and hours and days and days together. Me, personally, I never seen him get so excited about no female artist. … He lost his mind over Aaliyah. He talked about her for days and days. I got tired of hearing him talking about that little girl. He said, ‘I got these songs I want do with her. I’m gonna do this song with her.’ … He was super, super, super excited.”
“I always looked up to 2Pac because he was such a real brother,” Knight continued. “I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to get over his death, but I do know his music will live on forever. All of us have suffered a major loss, including those who tried to destroy his name, reputation and spirit when he was alive.”
A day after 2Pac’s fatal shooting in 1996 at age 25, Aaliyah told MTV News, “I was very saddened, truthfully, at the tragic and senseless loss of such a multi-talented young man.” Aaliyah also passed away tragically early, dying in a plane crash in 2001 at age 22.
Check out Knight’s new interview below.
Demi Lovato celebrated another Valentine’s Day with their fiancé Jutes on Friday (Feb. 14), taking to social media to share a carousel of gorgeous photos from a shoot the duo took part in recently.
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In the Old Hollywood-style snaps, Lovato is seen in a white dress and headscarf, complete with matching white sunglasses, loose 1950’s wavy hair and a red lip. Jutes, meanwhile, rocks a sleek black suit and sunglasses, as the couple poses in a vintage convertible car. “Jordan, I cannot WAIT to marry you!!” Lovato captioned the post. “The past 3 years have been the best 3 years of my life and I have you to thank for that. I’m obsessed with your heart, your love and your light. I can’t wait to grow old with you and start a family together. Happy Valentine’s Day to the love of my life. I love you honey!!!”
See the Instagram photos here.
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Jutes, meanwhile, posted photos from the same shoot on his Instagram page, writing in the swoon-worthy caption, “happy valentine’s day to the love of my life. words will never do you justice, and I’ll never stop feeling like the luckiest guy alive. there’s no better feeling than being loved by you. I adore you baby and I can’t wait to marry you.”
The couple first made their relationship Instagram official in August 2022, and the next year, Jutes popped the question, on Dec. 16, 2023. The following day, Lovato showed off her engagement ring on Instagram and wrote, “I’m still speechless … My love, I’m beyond excited to marry you.. every day I’ve spent with you has been a dream come true and I can’t wait to love and cherish you forever. Here’s to the rest of our lives. I love you baby.”
The duo have also worked together on music. Jutes helped Lovato write multiple songs on their most recent album, Holy Fvck, including second single “Substance,” “Happy Ending” and “City of Angels”; the LP reached No. 7 on the Billboard 200.
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Wendy Williams the popular radio show host turned TV talk show queen is trying to regain her personal and financial freedom by ending a guardianship enacted over her.
Williams has been in court-ordered guardianship since 2022 and is currently living in an assisted care facility. However, in her new petition she told the judge that she has “regained capacity” to function without a guardian, per TMZ.
The gossip news site recently released a documentary about her called, “TMZ Presents: Saving Wendy.” It is currently streaming on Tubi.
Williams who had been incapacitated in the past and was diagnosed with Frontotemporal Dementia has signed an affidavit that she is, in fact, healthy. Her friend, TMZ founder Harvey Levin has stated that he believes Williams was misdiagnosed and has gotten healthier since becoming sober.
According to Fox4News, Levin interviewed his old friend from the street, where Williams claims she is locked in a room with no internet access. He said she is rarely allowed visitors and has only been outside twice in the past month.
“She rightly feels like a prisoner,” Levin said.
According to Levin, Williams, 60, is “back to her old self”, but her guardian refuses to release her.
Fans on social media, are reacting to the news and the documentary with outrage asking for the same support be offered Williams as was offered Britney Spears in her conservatorship battle.
The hashtag #FreeWendyWilliams is currently trending on X.
Sources have told PageSix that Williams is set to be reexamined by a medical doctor on February 18.
Lorne Michaels once risked having bad blood with Taylor Swift, according to a new Vulture profile published Friday (Feb. 14) ahead of Saturday Night Live‘s 50th-anniversary special this weekend.
While looking back at the series creator’s legacy with SNL, the publication uncovered one moment from 2015 when the pop superstar apparently personally called Michaels to ask that he cut a sketch poking fun at her famous girl squad. Showrunners had initially reached out to Swift to ask if she would appear in the skit, according to the magazine; in addition to declining, the 14-time Grammy winner requested that the whole thing be cut.
Michaels’ response? “Taylor, I do not negotiate with terrorists,” he apparently told her over the phone, suavely tossing a piece of popcorn into the air and catching it in his mouth.
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Billboard has reached out to Swift’s rep for comment.
That year, SNL aired two sketches about the “Karma” artist’s friend group, which became a much-talked-about pop-culture staple thanks to Swift’s star-studded “Bad Blood” music video — in which she cast several of her famous pals — and her 1989 World Tour, where she often had her squad members walk out with her onstage. In one, the show imagined a post-apocalyptic reality where Swift and her buddies had taken over the whole world. (“First it was the models, then the athletes, then it was everybody,” cast member Kenan Thompson said dramatically in the spoof. “Police, the fire department, Matt LeBlanc.”)
Another sketch found Amy Poehler and Tina Fey re-creating Swift’s “Bad Blood” music video with their own version of the “squad” — featuring their nannies, gynecologist and friend Amy Schumer instead of the Eras Tour headliner’s troupe of models and actresses.
After the skit in question aired, however, Swift made sure Michaels knew that everything was cool in the end. The Monday after that week’s show, the SNL head honcho received flowers from the singer and a note reading, “I hope there’s no bad blood,” according to Vulture.
This weekend, the famed live show will air its highly anticipated SNL50 anniversary special, featuring performances from Paul McCartney, Sabrina Carpenter, Miley Cyrus and more famous guests. In its half-century on the air, Swift has appeared on the show multiple times. In 2009, she simultaneously made her hosting and musical guest debuts, after which she returned for performances in 2017, 2019 and 2021.
There’s a new category at the Juno Awards this year and for first-time nominee Lowell, it’s been a long time coming.
Lowell (Elizabeth Lowell Boland) has been in the industry for a decade, first as a performing artist and then as a songwriter and artist development expert. In the last two years, she’s helped break Canadian rockers The Beaches internationally and contributed to Beyoncé‘s first-ever album of the year win at the Grammys, co-writing several tracks on Cowboy Carter.
Now, she receives her first-ever Juno nomination, in the inaugural year of the new songwriter of the year (non-performer) category. The introduction of the category means that behind-the-scenes songwriters who would normally get squeezed out of the songwriter of the year category by big names like Abel Tesfaye (a.k.a. The Weeknd) are getting their due.
Last year, Billboard Canada and SOCAN introduced the Billboard Canada Non-Performing Songwriter Award, which Lowell won and accepted at the Billboard Canada Power Players celebration. Lowell was a fitting first winner, as she’s also been pushing the Junos to add the category for years.
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At a Junos media conference this week following the nominations announcement, Lowell spoke about how it’s been a long road to get here, but that songwriters are starting to get some recognition.
“I’m so glad that we have this category now,” Lowell said. “I think that if it didn’t exist I probably wouldn’t be nominated at the Junos — and I always said if I get Grammys before I get Junos you know there’s something wrong.”
Lowell added that in the past, Juno nominations have been bittersweet for songwriters.
“Usually we see a lot of artists that we maybe have developed or written their hits, but know that our name won’t be up there, just kind of having to live in it,” she reflected. “I’m a fighter so I kind of took the lead on it. One thing about songwriters is we’re so used to just being walked all over, we don’t often think we can do anything about it, and I refuse to think that way.”
As songwriter royalties have declined, it’s harder to make a living, Lowell pointed out, making this kind of recognition even more significant.
“All of these labels — Universal Canada, Warner Canada — we could be in L.A. but we’re here, we’re working on your artists, and we’re writing you guys hits and we’re bringing you money and allowing you to sign more artists, so the respect that we need and have earned needs to be at the Junos too,” she continued. “And here we are. It’s good — it’s a good day.”
She’s excited to be nominated in the category alongside Nate Ferraro, her songwriting partner on Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em.” Also nominated are Evan Blair, for work with Maren Morris and Benson Boone (including co-writing the No. 1 hit “Beautiful Things”); Shaun Frank, for work with Dua Lipa and Morgan Wallen; and Tobias Jesso Jr., for work with Camila Cabello, Morris and Lipa.
Producer Aaron Paris and recording engineer/producer Hill Kourkoutis also spoke about the importance of industry recognition for those working behind the scenes. Read more here. – Rosie Long Decter
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Junos and Polaris Prize Release Statements on Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Awards Following Order of Canada Cancellation
Though most focus was on the new Juno nominees this week, one prior winner was also under the spotlight: Buffy Sainte-Marie.
The acclaimed singer-songwriter’s Order of Canada appointment was canceled last week by The Governor General of Canada, Mary Simon. The decision came a year and a half after the CBC’s investigation into her claims of Indigenous ancestry and Canadian citizenship. Since then, there has been scrutiny into other awards Sainte-Marie has earned in the country.
CARAS, the body that governs the Junos, released a statement, saying they are aware of the decision to terminate her Order of Canada.
“We continue to consult with our Indigenous Music Advisory Committee and Indigenous stakeholders on how to best proceed as it relates to Sainte-Marie’s Juno Awards,” the organization said in a statement. “We recognize the importance of Indigenous music as a category and remain deeply committed to promoting, celebrating and honouring the contributions of Indigenous artists to the Canadian music industry.”
In 2023, a group named the Indigenous Women’s Collective called on CARAS to rescind Sainte-Marie’s 2018 Juno for Indigenous album of the year, which she won for the album Medicine Songs. The group pointed to the win over artist Kelly Fraser, who died a year later.
“We invite the Juno Awards Committee to revisit this 2018 category and explore ways of righting a past wrong,” they wrote. “All Indigenous Artists in this 2018 category, including Kelly Fraser, should be reconsidered for this rightful honour.”
Sainte-Marie won the Polaris Music Prize, which awards one album as the best in Canada of the year based solely on artistic merit, for her 2015 album, Power in the Blood. For her victory, Sainte-Marie earned a cash prize of $50,000.
The Polaris Music Prize Board released a statement.
“The Polaris Board is aware of the ongoing conversation around Buffy Sainte Marie’s Canadian status,” they said in a statement. “We have and continue to follow as new information is shared.”
Sainte-Marie has said that she has never lied about her identity. – Richard Trapunski
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With the NBA All-Star Game 2025 coming up in San Francisco this weekend, it’s also the 40th anniversary of “His Airness” Michael Jordan‘s first Slam Dunk Contest in 1985. During the contest, he wore the instantly recognizable Nike Air Jordan sneakers.
And to celebrate, Nike is re-releasing the Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG “Black Toe” sneakers in a classic white, varsity red, sail and black colorways — Chicago Bulls colors.
The signature shoes are priced at $180 and drop starting on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT at Nike.com.
The Nike Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG “Black Toe” sneakers are made from genuine leather for shape and durability, while they feature the modern “Air Jordan” logo on each collar instead of the classic logo from the ’80s.
The design and silhouette are iconic with a style that’s suited for the mid-1980s and mid-2020s, alike.
Nike
Nike Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG ‘Black Toe’
Release date: Feb. 15, 10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT
Meanwhile, Nike is also dropping a limited-edition Jordan Premium Basketball that’s signed and comes in in the same colorway as the sneakers. It’s priced at $150 and includes in a box with the same design too. The basketball releases on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT.
Nike
Nike Jordan Premium Basketball
Release date: Feb. 15, 10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT
In addition, the Nike Air Jordan 1 sneakers are the go-to shoes for a large number of celebrities and recording artists, including Travis Scott, J Balvin, Teyana Taylor, Kid Ink, Common, Justin Timberlake, Paloma Mami and many others.
The Nike Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG “Black Toe” sneakers are come in men’s and women’s sizes for $180, while the sports apparel company has the sneakers in big kids’ sizes for $140, little kids’ sizes for $85, toddlers’ and babies’ sizes for $70 and even baby crib booties for $70 at Nike.com.
Want more? For more product recommendations, check out our roundups of the best Xbox deals, studio headphones and Nintendo Switch accessories.
NFTs are back — but don’t worry about holding onto your wallet. At least in the music business, the NFT (non-fungible token) is quietly starting a second, more practical life far removed from the deafening hype that surrounded the digital assets just a few years ago.
At the beginning of the decade, some artists made millions selling NFTs while celebrities were helping legitimize them, with stars like Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg, Madonna and Paris Hilton all buying NFTs from the then-hot Bored Ape Yacht Club collection. Then, predictably, the NFT bubble burst in fantastic fashion. In less than a year, Bieber’s Bored Ape, which he purchased for $1.3 million, was worth around $69,000.
NFTs were often a bad investment, but the underlying technology still has many believers. Last week, Sony quietly launched a music NFT collection on its Soneium blockchain platform. The fact that Sony — the larger company, not Sony Music Entertainment — is investing in Web3 technology may come as a surprise, but its efforts go back more than a year. Sony Network Communications, later renamed to Sony Block Solutions Lab, revealed in September 2023 that it had created a joint venture with Startale Labs to develop “a blockchain that can become the backbone of global web3 infrastructure” and create “killer web3 use cases to drive the adoption of web3.” Eleven months later, Sony announced the development of the Soneium blockchain that will form the infrastructure for those so-called “killer use cases,” with the goal of expanding Web3 technology and services to a broader audience and “build[ing] a world where web3 services permeate people’s daily lives.” The launch of Soneium was announced on Jan. 14.
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One of the applications on Soneium is a new fan marketing platform through which companies can issue NFTs. So far, two of Sony’s music divisions, Sony Music Entertainment France and Sony Music Publishing (Japan), issued NFTs as “demonstration experiment[s]” for its entertainment companies to “provide new value to creators and fans through web3 services.” In France, Sony celebrated the second anniversary of a Web3 community called Sunny B. 1991 by distributing limited-edition NFTs to the community. In Japan, Sony will distribute limited-edition NFTs to coincide with a live event for the girl group SANDAL TELEPHONE.
Sony’s blockchain push comes at a time when music companies are increasingly targeting superfans through digital platforms and merchandise offers. “NFTs are uniquely suited for this because they are programmable digital assets that can evolve over time,” says Cherie Hu of Water & Music, a music industry research and consulting practice. NFTs and their “smart contracts” — self-executing code on the blockchain — allow artists to create membership experiences that can evolve over time. And because NFTs use decentralized technology, they aren’t reliant on any one platform or company — a notable advantage when a country can outright ban a social media platform. “This is quite different from traditional fan clubs, where fan data is otherwise fragmented and hard to act upon from the artist’s perspective,” says Hu.
Sony’s slow launch of its blockchain ambitions will ultimately be helpful to other companies in the music space, says David Greenstein, CEO of two blockchain-related startups, Sound and Vault. “Any legacy company that’s trying to innovate, I have a lot of respect for because I think the industry needs more innovation,” he says. Three years ago, releasing high-priced yet useless NFTs was seen as innovative. In 2025, innovation means using blockchain technology, cryptocurrency and NFTs to create consumer-friendly products that bring artists and fans together.
A fresh approach to NFTs makes sense now that the market is tanking. NFT trading volume fell 19% in 2024, according to DappRadar, making it the worst year for NFTs since 2020 and far below their height in 2022, when they boasted $57.2 billion in trading volume. Last year’s leading NFT collection was Pudgy Penguins, which goes far beyond Web3 by selling plushy toys in brick-and-mortar retailers and sponsoring the uniforms of Spanish soccer club CD Castellón. Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs still generate a relatively large amount of sales activity, but prices in the last 30 days were down about 91% from their highs in 2022.
As enthusiasm for NFTs waned, some worthwhile experiments went belly up. Universal Music Group’s foray into NFTs was Kingship, a virtual band comprised of three Bored Ape characters and a rare Mutant Ape. The 5,000 NFTs, which would unlock music and other perks for owners, quickly sold out in July 2022. The group landed a sponsorship with M&Ms in 2022 and a Kingship game launched on Roblox in 2023. But by all appearances the project is now dead, and Kingship NFTs that sold for 0.23 ETH three years ago (approximately $300 at the time) are trading for less than 0.002 ETH ($5) today.
“There’s going to be very fruitful, better things that come out of [blockchain technology] that are non-speculative, just because the technology is awesome,” says Greenstein. His latest company, Vault, allows artists to build relationships with fans and creates a blockchain-based digital wallet for each user. But Vault has made a conscious choice to put the technology in the background, and although “everything is Web3 enabled,” he says, it’s not germane to the fans’ relationship with artists. “Nobody asked what the tech stack of Spotify is,” he points out. “They just use the product.”
Sing, a Seattle-based startup that sells both digital collectibles and physical merchandise, also puts Web3 technology in the background. “We don’t talk about NFTs,” says CEO Geoff Osler. “We don’t lead with that, because I don’t think people care.” But Sing has the same end goal as early NFT proselytizers: to facilitate a relationship between artists and their biggest fans while allowing artists to realize more value from those relationships. “We think that artists should make a great deal more money than they already do on the releases,” says Osler. “And that there’s this overall feeling — at least among superfans — that there’s a gap in the market. People want to own their music and own that connection with the artists.”
Speculation isn’t gone, but it’s migrated. Blockchains like Solana that have lower transaction costs and higher speeds than Etherium have become “hotbeds” for the trading of memecoins, says Hu. Rather than pump money into NFTs, people are buying into the TrumpCoin and the Hawk Tuah coin. “In certain segments of pop culture and politics, I’d say the appetite for high-risk digital assets remains really strong,” she says.
But players in the music space seem content to focus on practical use cases and leave the speculation to memecoin hustlers. “Once we come out of this period, and people start to accept blockchain tokens, there’s some very, very interesting stuff that the technology will enable,” says Osler. “But for now, meet them where they are. Let’s sell them records from artists they love. Show them there’s this amazing digital stuff that goes along with it, and that it’s collectible, and just leave it at that.”
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This past Thursday (Feb. 13) social media was busting with news that Bianca Censoi had finally had enough of Kanye West’s off the padded wall antics and had walked away from their relationship and preparing to hit him with divorce papers.
Apparently, that seems to have been much ado about nothing as according to The Hollywood Reporter, reps for the couple are denying that the two are heading for divorce court as has been widely reported in the past 24 hours. While we’re sure there were many men typing up all kinds of slick lines and paragraphs in preparation to slide into Bianca’s DM’s (if they haven’t already), it seems likes the two are sticking it out for the time being regardless of what’s been reported thus far.
Per The Hollywood Reporter:
“Ye and Bianca are in Los Angeles, about to enjoy Valentine’s Day together. Announcements about their private life will come from them directly, not unsourced rumor in the tabloid press,” Milo Yiannopoulos, the couple’s longtime rep, told THR on Thursday afternoon. “Is this the fifth or is it the sixth time the press has wrongly reported that Ye and Bianca are separating? I’ve lost track.”
Wait, Milo Yiannopoulos is repping Kanye and Bianca Censori?! You learn something new everyday. Then again it shouldn’t be surprising as Milo and Kanye share similar views when it comes to their ideology for the most part.
News of the supposed divorce of Kanye and Bianca came a week after Kanye West went on an unprovoked Twitter rant in which he again took aim at the Jewish community, declared himself a Nazi, big upped Adolf Hitler, began selling shirts with swastikas on them, and even threw shots at Dave Chappelle while posting non-stop porno clips. This was all in a span of 72 hours. It got to the point where Elon Musk not only unfollowed Kanye, but ultimately suspended his account as Ye was too out of control even for the current shadow President of The United States. That’s saying something.
So when news broke that Bianca Censori was gearing up to divorce Kanye, not many people questioned why.
Alas, it seems like that is not the case (so far) and the two will continue to hit red carpets together with one being fully clothed and the other, not so much. And for people who feel that Kanye is forcing his wife to not wear clothes out in public, Milo is clapping back at such allegations.
“There is a person controlling what Bianca Censori wears. The name of that person is Bianca Censori,” he said, clarifying that West, a creative force in the fashion world, is the “final boss,” but Censori’s sensibility is “the guiding creative intelligence and impetus behind the way she dresses.”
Yeah, ok.
What do y’all think about Kanye and Bianca not getting divorced? Are they actually happily married or just capping to keep their marital issues under wraps? Sound off in the comments section below.