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Interscope Records rules the top of the latest Billboard 200 albums chart, as the company holds the top three titles on the list dated March 29. It’s the first time Interscope has held the top three concurrently in over 20 years. Further, Interscope is one of only two labels to have claimed the top three […]
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Source: NurPhoto / Getty / Pete Hegseth / Signal
Donald Trump’s second presidency continues to be a hot a** mess, largely thanks to the people in his administration, like Pete Hegseth.
Trump’s cabinet is full of DEI hires who never miss an opportunity to show the American people they have no business being in the positions that Republicans stupidly allowed them to have.
Former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, now Secretary of Defense, a position he has no business in, stupidly attacked the reporter who blew the lid on what could be one of the biggest blunders in national security history.
Jeffrey Goldberg did his job when he reported on the massive blunder of Trump’s national security team members sharing classified war plans on Signal, an unsecured messenger app.
In response, Republicans, especially of the MAGA variety, did what they do best: not take accountability for their actions. Pete Hegseth took things even further and attacked Goldberg even after his Boss’ administration did admit to Goldberg being in the group chat when he he he talking to reporters fresh off a flight to Hawaii.
Per Crooks & Liars:
You’re talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again to include the, I don’t know, the hoaxes of Russia, Russia, Russia, or the fine people on both sides hoax or suckers and losers hoax.
So this is the guy that peddles in garbage. This is what he does. I would love to comment on the Houthi campaign because of the skill and courage of our troops.
I’ve monitored it very closely from the beginning, and you see, we’ve been managing four years of deferred maintenance under the Trump administration.
Our troops, our sailors were getting shot at as targets. Our ships couldn’t sail through. And when they did shoot back, it was purely defensively or at shacks in Yemen.
President Trump said no more. We will reestablish deterrence. We will open freedom of navigation, and we will ultimately decimate the Houthis, which is exactly what we’re doing as we speak, from the beginning, overwhelmingly.
Republicans have been downplaying the incident all day, with Trump’s national security team doing a piss poor job answering questions during an Intelligence Committee grilling session on Capitol Hill.
The calls for Hegseth to be fired have been very loud, as have other reactions to the incident. You can see them in the gallery below.
Over the weekend, Chicago rapper Vic Mensa posted a video on his social media accounts about the time he got into it with some Italian mobsters in a club and how he had to pay them to leave him alone.
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Vic starts things off by painting a picture. He was on his tour bus already drunk, in an undisclosed city, when he decided to check out a club that a friend was DJ’ing at, and mentioned that he was supposed to make an appearance in that same club the very next day.
Once he gets to VIP, he was handed a blunt, a fifth of Dusse, and a bottle of Ace of Spades before he noticed a friend on the dance floor asking him for some backup. “So, I start going down there,” he recalled. “He like, ‘G, they just choked me and dragged me out the club! And they not even security!’ I’m like, ‘Who? Who did this to you?’”
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After his friend pointed the culprit out, Mensa claims that he hit he hit him with the bottle of Ace of Spades. “I’m a nut so I already had bottle of Ace of Spades in my hand,” he said. “Boom! I crashed his ass. Immediately, this shit turned into a melee. I told you, I only got one friend in the building. Now this shit is not going well. I’m getting punched up and down like cartoon fists in a cloud.”
Adding that once he got away and made it to his hotel, a friend called him to inform him that the people he fought were made men. “My mans called me, who I didn’t even know was in that city at that time,” Vic began. “He was like, ‘Man, that was the Italian mob. They finna kill you!’
Vic then had to give one of his “big homies” in Chicago a call to help him out and said he had to pay $10,000 to make things right and made his scheduled club appearance with extra security. “Long story short, I get the bread, I pay the mob,” he continued. “Oh yeah, but that’s another one of the reasons why I don’t drink.”
Vic talked about his journey on the road to sobriety on Instagram in 2023, saying that he had to “learn the difference between fun and joy.”
Check out his “Italian mob” story below.
Snoop Dogg will deliver the 2025 commencement address at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business graduation ceremony, the university announced Tuesday (March 25). “I am deeply honored to join USC Marshall’s commencement in celebrating the remarkable achievements of these graduates,” the Long Beach rapper said in a statement posted to the school’s […]
Wolfgang Spahr, whose tenure as a Billboard correspondent covering the German music business lasted from 1973 to 2020, died Friday (March 21). He was in his mid-80s.
Spahr was well known in the German music industry for running a newsletter, in addition to writing for Billboard, and perhaps even better known for being a true character, a gregarious figure who seemed to know, and joke around with, most of the people he covered. Besides his work as an industry journalist and communications consultant, he oversaw public relations for a theater festival dedicated to the works of the German author Karl May, who wrote Westerns without ever visiting the U.S., and wrote the lyrics for the Udo Jürgens schlager song “Aber bitte mit Sahne” (Translation: “But please with cream),” a No. 5 hit in 1976 that is regarded as a classic of the genre.
“Wolfgang was a very keen and passionate observer of our industry,” said Frank Briegmann, chairman/CEO of Universal Music Group Central Europe, in a statement. “I was always happy to welcome him to our events and I enjoyed his often-humorous comments on our business. He leaves a gap in the music business, and he will be missed deeply.”
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Spahr “was full of energy and he was very friendly to everyone,” remembers Hille Hillekamp, a music publisher and close friend of Spahr’s for decades. Many of his professional relationships were measured in decades, and he became a trusted advisor for many industry executives, both formally and informally.
“He was a great character and knew absolutely everyone in the German music business,” says Adam White, a former Billboard international editor and then the magazine’s top editor. “Yet he was a modest man with considerable charm and a warm sense of humor.”
Spahr may have been the longest-serving writer at Billboard. Although it is hard to determine exactly when he started, he is listed on the masthead as early as 1973 — as the correspondent for West Germany — and he kept contributing until 2020. During that time, he covered the rise of the country as one of the top global recorded music markets, the entry of Bertelsmann into the U.S. recording business and the industry’s digital transition. His access to sources was unparalleled. “You could call him and ask him about anything regarding the German industry and he would know it, and when he did not, he would always quickly get back to you,” remembers former Billboard international editor Emmanuel Legrand.
Legrand remembers seeing Spahr twice a year. “First at MIDEM, where we would share a few drinks, most of the time with his lovely wife Gabriele [Schulze-Spahr, a longtime lawyer at Warner Chappell], and then at the German Echo awards. At the afterparty, he would navigate between the various labels, and it was like seeing royalty. Everybody knew Wolfgang and he knew everybody.”
Over the years, whenever I met Spahr at a restaurant, he always seemed to know one of the owners, one of the chefs and at least a couple of other people — whether they had anything to do with the music business or not. More than a decade ago, at the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, I spent about 20 minutes with him walking the length of a city block, because he knew so many people and stopped to greet all of them.
His success as a songwriter, which he never mentioned, was no small thing. “Aber Bitte mit Sahne” was a defining hit for Jürgens, a German superstar from the 1960s to the end of the 1990s and beyond. Spahr is said to have written the words with the lyricist Eckart Hachfeld, but it is not entirely clear what exactly his role was. The song was an instant hit, and it aged into a classic — covered by numerous artists, used in a commercial with the name of the cream substitute Rama and remembered by millions of German music fans.
Spahr’s role in the annual Karl May theater festival in Bad Segeberg was substantial, too. May’s stories about a cowboy and an Apache chief became part of German pop culture, made into movies and TV shows – think Little House on the Prairie with the popularity of the X-Men comics – and the festival attracts hundreds of thousands of fans a year. Every year, it produces a new play, based on one of May’s stories, and Spahr would help recruit talent, plus work on marketing and communications.
Over the course of the last decade, especially as he reached his 80s, Spahr contributed fewer articles. (He died at 84 or 85, but even his close friends aren’t sure what year he was born.) As his health worsened, he withdrew from the industry. He died at home, in his sleep, of a lung infection. He is survived by his wife, Schulze-Spahr.
This is an S.O.S. — the Jonas Brothers are turning 20, and they’re celebrating in a massive way.
To kick it all off, thousands of fans gathered at New Jersey’s American Dream Mall on Sunday (March 23) for the first-ever JONASCON, a free fan event filled with performances, surprise guests, themed activations (like G.I. Jonas laser tag and Jonas Pizza), branded merch and much more. Joe, Nick and Kevin were of course in attendance — making multiple appearances throughout the mall all day long. It was a full-circle experience for the three brothers from Jersey — whose first performances ever (before they became who we know now as “the Jonas Brothers”) were in this same mall, but to much smaller audiences.
“This is, in a lot of ways, is 20 years in the making, and just a culmination of a lot of things going right and a lot of people believing in us,” Nick tells Billboard about the event right before their first performance of the day at Jonas Beach, which took place at the mall’s DreamWorks Water Park.
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Later in the day, the Brothers welcomed previously-announced performers, The All-American Rejects and Franklin Jonas, to the stage, but also had several other surprises up their sleeves. Big Time Rush traveled to Jersey for a mall-ready performance of “Boyfriend,” while Camp Rock cast members M Dot, Meaghan Martin, and Anna Maria Perez de Tagle joined podcasters Chicks in the Office on stage for a surprise chat down memory lane.
During their final keynote performance, Joe, Nick and Kevin treated fans to a slew of other special announcements — meaning much more for fans to get excited about for the band’s 20th year. The band revealed that their next studio album, Greetings From Your Hometown, will arrive on Aug. 8. They also announced the release date for Joe’s long-awaited solo album, Music For People Who Believe in Love, on May 23, their Disney+ film A Very Jonas Christmas (arriving later this year), a new song celebrating Disneyland’s 70th anniversary, a London Live album (out June 13) and a new song in collaboration with ESPN for Sunday Night Baseball called “I Can’t Lose.”
Even with so much to look forward to in their 20th year, the lessons they’ve learned aren’t lost on them — and they hope to pass on what they’ve learned to the next generation.
“I think speaking to any musicians and artists, really believe in your craft and what you’re creating. We had people around us that really lifted us up and [let us] go in the studio and create them. It’s important to have that, because even after time, 20 years later, people are still gonna have opinions,” Joe tells Billboard. “You have to be able to just remember that: This is why you love it, and you create something for yourself.”
Read their full interview with Billboard below.
I’m sure there are countless memories over the past 20 years, but do you have any favorites?
JOE: We can’t pick one, but I think probably […] the van/trailer that we also would drive around the Northeast playing in front of anyone that listened to us — usually in malls. We started in malls, and we would sound check at about 4 or 5 a.m. and mall walkers would yell at us, and then we perform about 10 times throughout the day in front of Build-A-Bear. And now we’re doing it again, just a different size of mall.
KEVIN: There are so many to count. We walked through the Jonas Museum last night while it was completely empty and so fun to see memories from so long ago. My Takamine guitar is there. That was like my first purchase of a guitar ever. It’s the [guitar] we wrote “Please Be Mine” on all together. So it was pretty cool to see that.
NICK: [JONASCON] has actually got to be up there, just seeing the excitement from the fans … and our family is here today with us. Our parents are here. Our dad’s doing a sing along later with the fans, and [our brother] Franklin is performing.
What do you remember about recording your first album?
JOE: Well, I’m gonna go with the album that John Fields recorded with us [Jonas Brothers], because that was one of the launching pad albums for us — we had It’s About Time earlier. But I think when we were really able to define our sound as a band, and those were some of the most heartwarming memories for us […] we had our buddy John Taylor doing belly flops in the pool almost every day. The pool was like 102 degrees. It was our first real experience in Los Angeles.
NICK: I think the early memories of recording and writing music, we really didn’t know what we were doing, to be honest … we still don’t know what we’re doing. We had a bunch of people, to Joe’s point, that just said, you can do it and pushed us. And that was our dad, John Fields, our record label at the time Hollywood and John Lind. We were surrounded by people that just said, ‘You can do it,’ and believed in us, and that’s what took us to the next stage.
Even now, looking up and seeing what these songs mean to people so many years later, even though they were written when we were teenagers, is so incredible to us, and they resonate for us in different ways as we look out and see how the fan base has grown and changed and evolved over the years.
You guys started out around the same time social media started popping off. How do you reflect on having that personal connection with fans from the jump and those early days making YouTube videos?
KEVIN: Short-form content on YouTube. We figured it out quickly.
JOE: If only we were smart enough to create an app. We missed out on that … Our writers room was great, which was actually that van. We flipped the two back seats facing each other, and we’d come up with all these fun ideas. We would always be pitched things that we’d need to promote, but we felt kind of weird trying to sell ourselves like that. So we always said, ‘Let’s just make it fun and come up with stupid ideas.’ Jackass was really popular time. A lot of fake injuries, sometimes that became real injuries, and trying to make it feel natural and put into our own words. Our fans really, I think, gravitated towards that. We still do that stuff.
What do you remember about “Bounce,” the song/music video you put out while filming Camp Rock 2?
NICK: Sidebar — One of funniest checks I ever received was for “Bounce,” and it was for like $10 [because I was credited as the producer].
JOE: Did it go Gold or Platinum?
NICK: I think it went Gold.
JOE: We have a Gold plaque for “Bounce,” which is ridiculous … It was literally made on Garage Band in our Camp Rock dressing room. We had a lot of hours spent on that set, which we didn’t realize at the time, it was our first real movie to be a part of. You’re sitting around a lot, so “Bounce” was created.
Will there be a “Bounce” part 2?
JOE: There is time, you know. We’ll see, the next 20 years might have it.
KEVIN: Only time will tell.
You guys announced your massive JONAS20: LIVING THE DREAM tour, kicking off at MetLife Stadium. What does it mean to be headlining that massive venue in your home state? And do you have plans to bring the tour internationally?
JOE: We do have plans to bring the tour internationally. We also are overwhelmed to be playing MetLife Stadium. We’ve done it with radio shows and things like that, and popped up here and there, we’ve seen countless New York Giants football games there. I remember buying nosebleed seats when we had just enough in our allowance to go and watch a game. So to be Jersey guys who grew up 10, 15 minutes away from the stadium, MetLife. It’s a dream come true — to celebrate with our fans as well. And then we’re starting there, it’s now tradition. We have to start with New York.
[Note: This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.]
Billy RayCyrus is a proud dad. The “Achy Breaky Heart” singer took to Instagram on Tuesday (March 25) to celebrate his two famous daughters, Miley Cyrus and Noah Cyrus, as they embark on new musical eras. “Holy s— . I seldom ever swear in my post but this deserves one,” he wrote alongside a split-screen of […]
Kenny Chesney got a very special early birthday present on Tuesday (March 25), one day before he turned 57. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, in a class that also included producer Tony Brown and the late June Carter Cash. Chesney is the youngest solo inductee since Garth Brooks, who was […]
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Source: Game Informer / Game Informer
Game Informer has been given a well-deserved extra life.
It’s been nearly half a year since the gaming community sobbed collectively and scowled at GameStop for the sudden shutdown of the beloved Game Informer Magazine. Now the gaming bible is back, and what’s even more dope is that the whole team is coming back.
Game Informer Editor-In-Chief Matt Miller revealed in a “Letter From an Editor ” section that Game Informer’s complete resurrection was made possible after Gunzilla Games secured the rights to Game Informer from GameStop. The plan was to bring back not only the entire editorial team but also “production and beyond.”
Miller also noted that Game Informer’s new owners “insisted on the idea of Game Informer remaining an independent editorial outlet; they felt just as strongly as our team did that the only path forward was with an editorial group that made 100 percent of the decisions around what we cover and how we do so, without any influence from them or anyone else.”
That’s dope.
A Breakdown of Gunzilla Games
As for Gunzilla Games, they developed and published the free-to-play battle royale game Off The Grid, which is now in early access. It’s also the developer behind GunZ, which is described as a “Layer-1 blockchain ecosystem powering community-driven economies in AAA games.”
District 9 and Chappie director Neill Blomkamp is also chief creative officer and co-founder.
GI will operate under a completely new entity called Game Informer Inc., which will also see the return of all 30 years of the website’s history after many thought it could have been lost following the website’s abrupt shutdown.
The GI team is also hitting the ground running. It will publish dozens of game reviews that were left in the chamber during the magazine’s unfortunate hiatus and its Best of 2024 awards.
As mentioned, the print magazine will also make its triumphant return, but GI fans will have to wait until a later date. Miller promises the magazine will be “bigger and better than it was before.”
GI will also be rolling out membership and subscription benefits plus “bigger and better than it was before” while expanding the “range of experts and partnerships we tap to bring you those perspectives.”
If you’re excited about this news like everyone else, you can create a new account to stay informed about the website’s updates.
Early signup will also get you access to the Game Informer Magazine Archive, an exclusive weekly newsletter, Dark Mode, and Early-Bird Founder Access.
Congrats to the GI team, and welcome back. You were all truly missed.
For reactions to the good news, hit the gallery below.
Miami has long been a staple in the hip-hop community, producing a range of rap stars over the decades. Miami-Dade County is honoring its rich hip-hop history by naming Liberty City neighborhood streets after rappers who have called the Sunshine State home.
Per NBC 6 South Florida, DJ Khaled (We the Best Terrace), City Girls (City Girls Street), Kodak Black (Tunnel Vision Street), Flo Rida (Welcome to My House Street), Trick Daddy (What’s My Name Street), Trina (Still Da Baddest Street) and many more were among those celebrated.
“If you play this music to the people who are from this area, they are going to light up like it’s the Fourth of July. The essence of this is to encourage economic development in our community,” Miami-Dade County District 3 Commissioner Keon Hardemon said. “The essence of this is to… let people know that this exists in Miami-Dade County and you should come and see it.”
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He continued: “In the 1950s or so, during the time of segregation, 18th Avenue was the place to be… It had juke joints, it had bars, it had restaurants, and it had living quarters… That’s why they named it Broadway.”
Hardemon hopes to see economic stimulation in the area to compete with surrounding areas. “Since I’ve been elected, that’s been my mission,” he added. “We’re moving on to the next phase of what it takes to bring Broadway to the 21st century, and allow it to compete with Wynwood and Overtown and things of that nature.”
The committee reportedly weighed Billboard chart success with how much certain artists contributed to the fabric of Miami while also leading philanthropic efforts to give back in the 305 during the selection process.
District 13 Commissioner René Garcia initially opposed the proposal due to lyrical content, but ended up changing her mind. “Even though I’m not a big fan of some of the lyrics in some of these songs, who am I to stand in the way of trying to do something innovative for your community and your constituency?” she said.
It’s been a winning year for DJ Khaled, who collected 17 new RIAA certifications in January. He’s working toward the release of his 14th studio album Aalam of God, which is expected to arrive later this year.