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Drake’s lawyers are quickly firing back after Universal Music Group’s recent attacks on the rapper’s defamation lawsuit over Kendrick Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us,” arguing that “millions of people” around the world think the song was literally claiming Drake is a pedophile.
In a motion filed in federal court Thursday (March 20), Drake’s team hit back at UMG’s core defense against the star’s libel lawsuit: That scathing lyrics are par for the course in diss tracks and that most listeners wouldn’t take such “outrageous insults” as statements of fact.
That argument is “doomed to fail,” Drake’s lawyers say in the new filing, because many people really did come away from Lamar’s song believing that he was — as a matter of fact — calling Drake a pedophile.
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“UMG completely ignores the complaint’s allegations that millions of people, all over the world, did understand the defamatory material as a factual assertion that plaintiff is a pedophile,” Drake’s attorneys write. “UMG also ignores [the lawsuit’s claim] that the statements in question (and surrounding context) implied that the allegations were based on undisclosed evidence and the audience understood as much.”
Thursday’s filing came in response to a motion from UMG, filed earlier this week, that seeks to halt all discovery in the case. In it, the music giant argued that Drake’s case was almost certain to be dismissed, meaning that handing over evidence would be a waste of time — particularly since his lawyers are allegedly demanding a vast swath of sensitive materials, including Lamar’s record deal.
But in the new response, Drake’s lawyers say that motion “does not come close” to showing that the discovery in the case is the kind of “undue burden” that must be halted: “UMG has not stated how long it expects discovery to take, the costs associated with discovery, or any other indicator that might demonstrate why discovery will be overly burdensome.”
Lamar released “Not Like Us” last May amid a high-profile beef with Drake that saw the two stars release a series of bruising diss tracks. The song, a knockout punch that blasted Drake as a “certified pedophile” over an infectious beat, eventually became a chart-topping hit in its own right and was the centerpiece of Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show.
In January, Drake took the unusual step of suing UMG over the song, claiming his label had defamed him by boosting the track’s popularity. The lawsuit, which doesn’t name Lamar himself as a defendant, alleges that UMG “waged a campaign” against its own artist to spread a “malicious narrative” about pedophilia that it knew to be false.
This week has seen UMG mount its first formal counterattack — first by filing a motion to dismiss the case on Monday (March 17), then seeking the halt discovery on Tuesday (March 18). In the strongly-worded request to toss the case out, UMG argued not only that the lawsuit was “meritless,” but that the star filed it simply because he was embarrassed: “Instead of accepting the loss like the unbothered rap artist he often claims to be, he has sued his own record label in a misguided attempt to salve his wounds.”
Drake’s attorneys have said in public statements that the label’s motion to dismiss the case is a “desperate ploy by UMG to avoid accountability” and that it will be denied. They will file a formal response in opposition to that motion in the weeks ahead.
J.B. Moore, a key contributor to some of hip-hop’s earliest hits, died in Manhattan on March 13 of pancreatic cancer. He was 81.
Though not well-known today, Moore was instrumental in hip-hop’s early mainstream success in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when he helped produce and write records for Kurtis Blow with Robert “Rocky” Ford Jr., his friend and colleague at Billboard, where Moore worked in ad sales and Ford was a reporter. (Ford died in 2020.)
Moore, who also sometimes wrote jazz reviews for Billboard, is credited as a producer and writer on classic early hip-hop tracks like “The Breaks,” “Christmas Rappin’” and “Basketball.”
“One of the interesting things about our partnership,” Moore said of Ford in a 2001 oral history for the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, “is that, as Robert and I got to know each other at Billboard, we realized that he was a black guy from the middle of Hollis, Queens and I was a white guy from the North Shore of Long Island, and our record collections were virtually identical. I think we had 800 records a piece and 200 of them were different.”
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Released during the 1979 holiday season, “Christmas Rappin’” was the brainchild of Ford, who came up with the idea of writing a Christmas song because he had a kid on the way — telling Moore that “Christmas records are perennials, and therefore you get royalties ad infinitum on them,” according to Moore’s recollection for the oral history.
Moore, already familiar with the guitar, bass, and songwriting, didn’t set out to write and produce rap records. Having served in the Vietnam War, he was originally saving up money to write a novel about the conflict. “I had been saving money to leave Billboard to write a book for five years,” said Moore for the oral history. “I had about $10,000 and that got invested in making ‘Christmas Rappin.’”
Through Ford’s relationship with a then up-and-coming Russell Simmons, who was then promoting Blow, he and Moore got the young rapper to lay down the “Christman Rappin’” lyrics, which were inspired by the Clement Clarke Moore poem “The Night Before Christmas” — and the rest was history.
Ford and Moore shopped the song around to about 20 labels and were rejected until Mercury Records gave them a shot with a two-single deal that would turn into an album deal if the singles were a success, according to a 2018 blog post written by Simmons.
“We didn’t think a major label would understand a rap record,” Moore recalled in the oral history. “But they would understand a parody.” He was right.
According to Simmons’ blog post, “Christmas Rappin’” sold close to 400,000 copies while their next single, Blow’s “The Breaks,” was the first rap song to be certified gold, selling 500,000 copies. “The Breaks” also peaked at No. 87 on the Billboard Hot 100, while “Basketball,” released in 1985, peaked at No. 71 on the chart. And just like that, Moore, Ford and Blow had carved out careers in the burgeoning new genre known as rap music.
Blow paid tribute to Moore on Instagram with a lengthy caption, writing in part, “Moore was a key figure in the early commercialization of Hip Hop. His productions helped bridge the gap between Hip Hop and mainstream audiences in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.” He concluded by writing, “Rest in power to a friend, teacher, pioneer who helped lay the foundation for what Hip Hop became. Thank you, JB, I learned so much.”
As a songwriting and production duo, Moore and Ford worked on Blow’s first four albums, helped produced three albums for Full Force, and even had a hand in Rodney Dangerfield’s classic parody rap song “Rappin Rodney,” which hit No. 83 on the Hot 100 in 1984.
Moore does not have any known immediate survivors.
Anitta has pulled out of her performance slot at the 2025 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, taking to X to announce the news to her fans on Thursday (March 20). Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “I was really looking forward to being at Coachella this […]
When the Eagles began their residency at Las Vegas’ Sphere back in September, they also debuted a Third Encore fan experience at the neighboring Venetian Resort. The space allowed fans to go inside a re-creation of the famed Troubadour venue where the California rockers got their start in the 1970s; legend has it that Don Henley and Glenn Frey met at the West Hollywood club.This year, Live Nation’s travel and music company Vibee expanded the VIP experience to include a Hotel California pop-up, paying tribute to the band’s 1976 album and its immortal title track, which has opened each Sphere show in epic fashion. Just like the Troubadour re-creation, the Hotel California installation includes memorabilia from the band’s archive, including Joe Walsh’s personal collection of hotel keys, a neon sign from the original Hotel California Tour, and unseen photos from the era.
A hotel lobby desk in the space also doubles as a bar — serving pink champagne on ice, of course — with the “Manager on Duty” listed as Irving Azoff, the band’s real-life manager for the past 50-plus years.
The most interactive piece of the space is three hotel room doors that open to three different moments in the song, with each room number representing the time code of the corresponding lyrics. Room 052 takes you to a “dark desert highway,” with a circa-1970s car dashboard leading the way; room 118 has a “mission bell” hanging above the doorway; and room 354 leads to a spooky mirrored hallway in search of “the passage back to the place I was before.”
On Thursday night (March 20), Dead & Company return to Sphere for their second-round residency, and their own Vibee space has popped back up on the floor above Third Encore. But Eagles fans can make their way back to the Troub and Hotel California when the band returns next month for four more dates.
Earlier this week, Eagles announced even more Sphere dates, with four concerts set for this September — marking their one-year anniversary of first playing the venue. Other Sphere concerts coming this summer: the first residencies for country star Kenny Chesney (starting in May) and pop all-stars the Backstreet Boys.
For more information on Vibee VIP travel packages that include Third Encore access, which also allows fans to buy exclusive merch not available at the concerts, click here. And for your first look inside the Hotel California pop-up, see the photos below.
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Source: Bernard Smalls / @PhotosByBeanz
Summer is coming and with that it looks like Wiz Khalifa is back on his grizzly to give his fans new work to bop to and for his latest offering he utilizes a classic RZA instrumental that had the hood on fire back in 1994.
Linking up with Chevy Woods for the visuals to “Scarface,” Wiz Khalifa and Chevy get things lit in a hotel room with a gang of groupies and pop some bubbly before pouring out the bottle in the hotel hallway while spitting their bars to Raekwon’s classic “Incarcerated Scarface” beat. Gotta love and respect the classics, man.
Down in Florida, Kodak Black is still making his presence felt and for his clip to “All Of Us,” KB has himself a good time and hits up a bowling alley with his crew in tow and ultimately heads home to count stacks of cash and show his mama some love while he’s at it. Good for her, man.
Check out the rest of today’s drops including work from Wiz Khalifa and Luh Tyler (told y’all he was grinding again), B.G., and more.
WIZ KHALIFA & CHEVY WOODS – “SCARFACE”
KODAK BLACK – “ALL OF US”
WIZ KHALIFA & LUH TYLER – “BLINDFOLD”
B.G. – “FREEDOME OF SPEECH”
VADO – “PAY ATTENTION FREESTYLE”
POPCAAN – “NOTHING WITHOUT GOD”
D CHAPO – “JWETT”
MIGHTY MF – “COLD BLOODED MINNESOTA”
Billboard’s iconic live music series The Stage at SXSW returned to Austin, March 13 to 15, 2025. This year they highlighted some of the biggest movers and shakers in Country, Latin and EDM. Billboard and Bulleit teamed up to elevate the experience and extend the celebration with an exclusive after party featuring the hottest music and the coolest cocktails.
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Bulleit and KSHMR during the Billboard THE STAGE After Hours on March 15, 2025 in Austin, Texas.
Julian Bajsel
As the Official Whiskey Partner of The Stage at SXSW, Bulleit curated a vibe that uplifted artists that not only push the boundaries of music but broaden their respective genres. Koe Wetzel and Grupo Frontera showed how they do it in Texas, repping their home state with electrifying headlining performances for Country and Latin nights. While John Summit, fresh off a globe-trotting series of shows, amped up the energy in the amphitheater with infectious beats and mind-blowing pyrotechnics.
The Bulleit bar during the Billboard THE STAGE at SXSW held at Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park on March 15, 2025 in Austin, Texas.
Gilbert Flores
Billboard and SXSW deepened their connection this year thanks to Austin-native mixologist, Ryan Smith, who created custom cocktails with Bulleit to celebrate the creativity and innovation that can only be found at the festival. The Bulleit Bourbon Austin Calling enticed with notes of elderberry, while the Bulleit Rye Wildcard had the perfect balance of basil and strawberry. They perfectly captured the energy of the city and the culture it creates.
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Bulleit during the Billboard THE STAGE at SXSW held at Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park on March 15, 2025 in Austin, Texas.
Julian Bajsel
At The Stage, guests cooled down in the Bulleit Lounge with whiskey drinks while basking in the beautiful orange neon lights. On the other side of the venue, Bulleit set up a stylish bar where you could sample Bulleit Bourbon and Bulleit Rye on the rocks or mixed in a Whiskey Sour or a Mule. Whether attendees were there to kick up their cowboy boots, celebrate Latin cultures, or dance to melodic beats, there was libation for every occasion.
Bulleit during the Billboard THE STAGE at SXSW held at Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park on March 13, 2025 in Austin, Texas.
Julian Bajsel
John Summit may have closed out the stage, but the party continued downtown at the After Hours presented by Billboard and Bulleit. KSHMR, the producer and songwriter behind some of the biggest industry shifting hits, brought his one-of-a-kind sound to SXSW when he took to the stage, spinning high-energy tracks and pulse-pounding classics. Those lucky enough to make it to the after party before the venue reached capacity were treated to a performance from KSHMR and Izzy Bizu who performed an upcoming single live for the first time.
Izzy Bizu, KSHMR Bulleit during the Billboard THE STAGE at SXSW After Hours on March 15, 2025 in Austin, Texas.
Julian Bajsel
KSHMR took a second to share a toast with everyone. With a Bulleit Cocktail in hand, he said “Thanks to Bulleit and Billboard for putting on this amazing party! I wanna put on a little toast… Austin, are we having a good time?” Which was met with thunderous cheers from the audience.
KSHMR Bulleit during the Billboard THE STAGE at SXSW After Hours on March 15, 2025 in Austin, Texas.
Julian Bajsel
The evening offered the perfect amount of style and edge with genre blending tunes and classic cocktails like Bulleit Bourbon Whiskey Sours and Bulleit Rye Mules. Whether you’re into the tried and true or trying something new, Billboard and Bulleit created an intersection of music and spirits that could only by accomplished by this pairing.
Bulleit during the Billboard THE STAGE at SXSW held at Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park on March 15, 2025 in Austin, Texas.
Julian Bajsel
For even more coverage of Billboard The Stage at SXSW and Billboard and Bulleit Present The Stage After Hours, including exclusive photos and video coverage, check out Billboard.com and Billboard’s social channels.
BULLEIT BOURBON Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. 45% Alc/Vol. The Bulleit Distilling Co., Louisville, KY. PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY.
If you’re tired of Kendrick Lamar, he’s not going anywhere for at least three years. Earlier Thursday (March 20), Casey Wasserman — the head of the Wasserman talent agency and the chairman of the 2028 L.A. Olympics organizing committee — spoke with The Associated Press in Greece during the 14th International Olympic Committee session and […]
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The first round of the Men’s NCAA March Madness is kicking off with the bottom-seeded teams taking on the top-seeded teams to see who will advance to the second round in the college basketball tournament.
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No. 16-ranked Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers vs. No. 1-ranked Duke Blue Devils takes place at Lenovo Center (formerly PNC Arena) in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday (March 21). Although Duke is the heavy favorite in the game, Mount St. Mary’s University Mountaineers could give the Blue Devils some healthy competition in the tournament’s opening round.
When Does Mount St. Mary’s vs. Duke Start?
Mount St. Mary’s vs. Duke broadcasts live, with a start time of 2:50 p.m. ET/11:50 a.m. PT.
Where to Watch Mount St. Mary’s vs. Duke Online
The Mount St. Mary’s vs. Duke game airs on CBS. It will be available to livestream on Hulu + Live TV. Keep reading for more details on how cord-cutters can watch the Mountaineers-Blue Devils game online with Hulu + Live TV.
How to Watch Mount St. Mary’s vs. Duke with Hulu + Live TV
Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers vs. Duke Blue Devils on CBS is available to watch with Hulu + Live TV. Prices for the cable alternative start at $82.99 per month, while each plan comes with Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+ at no additional cost. Sign up for a 3-day free trial to try out the streaming service for yourself.
Hulu + Live TV might be best for those who want all of these streaming services together in one bundle. It also features many other networks — including TNT, TBS, truTV and CBS Sports Network for more coverage of NCAA March Madness — as well as ESPN, Fox Sports, ABC, Hallmark Channel, BET, CMT, Disney Channel, NBC and more.
Who Is Performing During Mount St. Mary’s vs. Duke Halftime Show?
The Mount St. Mary’s University Pep Band and the Duke University Marching Band are likely to perform at halftime during the first-round matchup.
Starting at 2:50 p.m. ET/11:50 a.m. PT, the Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers vs. Duke Blue Devils airs on CBS on Friday (Mar. 21). The game is available to livestream with Hulu + Live TV.
Want more? For more product recommendations, check out our roundups of the best Xbox deals, studio headphones and Nintendo Switch accessories.
The Grateful Dead left behind a legacy that continues to thrive through its devoted fanbase, the Deadheads. In this documentary, we explore the band’s career trajectory, its influence in reshaping modern concerts and fandoms and the enduring impact of its legacy.
Keep watching for an in-depth analysis as to how the Grateful Dead impacted the music industry.
Are you a Deadhead? Let us know in the comments below!
Diplo:The fandoms of today are very temporary.
Hanson:The Grateful Dead invented the modern concert as we know it.
Eric Renner Brown:There are going to be some differences between Grateful Dead and Swifties. I think that there is a fundamental similarity in terms of how they helped have a roadmap for what does a hyper-engaged fandom look like.
Romeo Okwara:They’re the most loyal fan base in all of music.
Diplo:They kind of invented the idea of a fandom.
Narrator:Formed in Palo Alto, 1965, the Grateful Dead are one of the most popular and influential bands in American history, known for their improvisational approach to music and fusing rock, folk, soul, blues and jazz. They were the original jam band and paved the way for others in music.
Katie Bain:The Grateful Dead are the fathers of psychedelic culture. They are a touchstone for many generations of music fans. They’ve influenced countless artists. They have created really a culture unto their own, and they’ve made a ton of good music, while doing it.
Narrator:With songs like “Truckin’,” “Touch of Grey” and “Friend of the Devil,” the Grateful Dead captured audiences with their lyrics and visuals to match.
Eric Renner Brown:First and foremost, the thing about this band is the songbook. The majority of their repertoire was Jerry Garcia wrote the songs with the lyricist Robert Hunter, who’s like a visionary in his own right. Their songs stand toe to toe with any of the great songwriters of the 20th century.
Keep watching for more!
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Cassie isn’t here for Kanye West’s antics. After he tried to drag her into his mess. She clapped back in the simplest way possible by reposting a tweet from Playboi Carti that said, “Ye STFU.” In other words, she’s not about to let him play with her name.
This all comes after Cassie took a major stand in November 2023, when she sued Diddy for years of physical abuse. “After years in silence and darkness, I am finally ready to tell my story, and to speak up on behalf of myself and for the benefit of other women who face violence and abuse in their relationships,” she said in a statement. The lawsuit was settled in less than 24 hours, but the conversation about Diddy’s alleged abuse didn’t die down.
So for Kanye to try and bring Cassie into whatever he’s got going on? Yeah, she wasn’t having it. Instead of wasting time going back and forth, she hit him with that Carti quote and kept it pushing. It was short, direct, and straight to the point she’s not entertaining nonsense. Cassie’s focus is on healing, speaking her truth, and making sure other women in similar situations know they aren’t alone. She’s not about to get sidetracked by Kanye’s usual chaos. If he thought she was gonna sit quiet while he tried to play her, he definitely got the wrong one.