State Champ Radio genre hiphop
Trending on Billboard
Kendrick Lamar knows a thing or two about diss tracks — and it sounds like he won’t have to worry about one from Jussie Smollett anytime soon.
During an episode of Cam Newton’s Funky Fridays podcast over the weekend, the Empire star reflected on Lamar’s controversial 2022 “The Heart Part 5” music video, in which the rapper morphed into deepfaked versions of embattled Black male celebrities such as Smollett, Will Smith, O.J. Simpson, Ye (formerly Kanye West) and Nipsey Hussle.
“Maybe I’m completely naive, so don’t f—ing fill me in about anything… but I don’t know. I don’t know what Kendrick meant by the video. I really don’t,” Smollett said with a laugh. “I respect him as an artist, and that’s about as far as it can go. You ain’t going to see me putting out no diss track against him, I’m not doing that!”
When Lamar dropped “The Heart Part 5,” which won 2023 Grammys for best rap song and best rap performance, he neglected to provide a statement contextualizing the immediately divisive and intensely political music video. Given his selection of Black male celebrities battling various scandals, some viewers interpreted the Dave Free-co-directed video as a commentary on hypocrisy, fame and public perception. “Heart Part 5” earned additional Grammy nominations for best music video, as well as song and record of the year.
The music video, which also picked up two MTV Video Music Awards nods, arrived three years after Smollett was arrested for staging an alleged hate crime, sued by the city of Chicago, and sentenced to 150 days in jail. He ultimately served six days behind bars before being released on bond and having his conviction overturned in 2024. Due to the scandal, Empire writers removed Smollett’s character from the final two episodes of the series’ fifth season. Through the show, Smollett reached the Billboard Hot 100 with soundtrack singles such as “Keep Your Money” (No. 99), “You’re So Beautiful” (No. 47, with Yazz) and “Conqueror” (No. 42, with Estelle).
“Most people have made up their minds about what they want to believe,” the vocalist told Newton. “Either way, okay. Because at this point, my people know. My mother has always known. My siblings have always known. My love has always known.”
For his part, Lamar is up for another nine Grammy nominations at the 2026 awards show. At February’s ceremony, Lamar will contend in a slew of categories, including album of the year (GNX) and song and record of the year (“Luther,” with SZA). At the 2025 Grammys, the Pulitzer Prize winner took home five trophies for his searing Drake diss “Not Like Us.”
Watch Smollett’s full conversation with Cam Newton below.
Trending on Billboard Last month, it was announced that Pharrell would be awarded Shoe of the Year at the 2025 Footwear News Achievement Awards (FNAAs) for his Virginia Adistar Jellyfish collaboration with Adidas. Now Billboard can exclusively announce that the award will be presented by none other than fellow Virginia Beach native and frequent collaborator Pusha T. […]
When 50 Cent initially announced plans to put together a documentary surrounding Diddy and his longtime foe’s history of alleged sexual abuse tied to his federal case, many figured that was the G-Unit mogul back at his typical trolling ways.
Netflix picked up the documentary, produced by 50 Cent and directed by Alex Stapleton, and a release date for Tuesday (Dec. 2) was revealed last week, cementing that 50 was in fact very serious about putting the docuseries together.
Sean Combs: The Reckoning is broken down into four episodes about an hour in length each, detailing the rise and fall of Diddy, with contributions from those who worked close to him throughout his decorated hip-hop career — as well as those who were victims of his mental, physical and sexual abuse over the years. There’s also an episode dedicated to Diddy’s involvement in the East Coast-West Coast feud, and his ties to the deaths of The Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac.
“I’ve been committed to real storytelling for years through G-Unit Film and Television,” 50 said in a statement. “I’m grateful to everyone who came forward and trusted us with their stories, and proud to have Alexandria Stapleton as the director on the project to bring this important story to the screen.”
The Reckoning filmmakers also got their hands also got their hands on revealing footage of Combs filming his day-to-day life in the days leading up to his eventual arrest on federal charges in September 2024.
“Being a woman in the industry, and going through the #MeToo movement — watching giants in music and film go on trial, and to know what their outcomes were … When Cassie dropped her lawsuit, I just thought this could go a million different directions,” director Stapleton added. “I wondered how she had the confidence to go out there against a mogul like Sean Combs. As a filmmaker, I instantly knew it was a stress test of whether we’ve changed as a culture, as far as being able to process allegations like this in a fair way.”
Stapleton continued: “This isn’t just about the story of Sean Combs or the story of Cassie, or the story of any of the victims, or the allegations against him, or the trial. Ultimately, this story is a mirror [reflecting us] as the public, and what we are saying when we put our celebrities on such a high pedestal. I hope [this documentary] is a wake-up call for how we idolize people, and to understand that everybody is a human being.”
The docuseries features interviews with a pair of jurors from Combs’ federal trial, who shed light on the jury’s decision to reach a mixed verdict as well as what they saw inside the courtroom.
Diddy was sentenced to 50 months in prison with time served after being found guilty on a pair of federal prostitution charges, but avoided the harsher charges when the embattled mogul was acquitted of racketeering and sex trafficking in October.
A spokesperson for Diddy declined to comment on the specific allegations made in the series. “Many of the people featured have longstanding personal grievances, financial motives, or credibility issues that have been documented for years,” Juda Engelmayer said in a statement to USA TODAY. “Several of these stories have already been addressed in court filings, and others were never raised in any legal forum because they’re simply not true. The project was built around a one-sided narrative led by a publicly admitted adversary, and it repeats allegations without context, evidence, or verification. Sean Combs will continue to address legitimate matters through the legal process, not through a biased Netflix production.”
Here are 10 things we learned about from Sean Combs: The Reckoning.
Two Jurors From Diddy’s Federal Trial Speak Out
Trending on Billboard
UPDATE (Dec. 2): In a judgment entered Tuesday, Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga reduced Megan Thee Stallion‘s trial award from $75,000 to $59,000. The judge said Megan can’t get damages for defamation because the jury found Milagro Gramz to be a member of the media, and the rapper’s team did not send a pre-lawsuit notice required for libel claims against journalists.
Therefore, the judgment finds in Megan’s favor only on intentional infliction of emotional distress and promotion of an altered sexual depiction, two claims for which the jury awarded Megan a total of $59,000. Judge Altonaga struck the additional $16,000 that Megan won for defamation.
Megan’s lawyers will contest the reduction in post-judgment motions. They’ll also seek at that time to add legal fees onto the damages amount.
PREVIOUSLY: A jury has held celebrity gossip blogger Milagro Gramz liable for defaming Megan Thee Stallion and reposting a deepfake pornographic video of the rapper in the wake of her shooting by Tory Lanez.
A federal jury in Miami determined in a Monday (Dec. 1) verdict, reviewed by Billboard, that Gramz harmed Megan with her social media antics and awarded $75,000 in damages. That number will likely grow later on, since Megan won on a Florida law with a fee-shifting provision that could require Gramz to reimburse some of her hefty legal bills from the elite firm Quinn Emanuel.
“We’re thankful for the jury’s commitment to reinforcing the importance of truth, accountability and responsible commentary on social media,” said one of Megan’s lawyers, Mari Henderson, later on Monday. “This verdict sends a clear message that spreading dangerous misinformation carries significant consequences.”
A lawyer for Gramz, Jeremy McLymont, said in a statement, “We remain proud of the defense we presented and of Ms. Cooper’s willingness to stand up for her voice.”
“Ms. Pete and her attorneys asked the jury to send a message to the community by awarding Ms. Pete with an astronomical amount of damages,” said McLymont. “Indeed, the jury rejected Ms. Pete’s request and refused to send any such message as shown by the nominal damages Ms. Pete recovered.”
Related
Megan’s lawyers argued during the weeklong trial that Gramz acted as Lanez’s “mouthpiece” to spread misinformation and tank her reputation. Lanez (Daystar Peterson) is serving a 10-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2022 of shooting Megan in the foot during a drunken argument following a pool party at Kylie Jenner’s house in the Hollywood Hills. He continues to maintain his innocence, though the conviction was recently upheld on appeal.
A loyal Lanez supporter, Gramz has for years used her social media presence to doubt the veracity of Megan’s account. Many of her posts about the shooting case have been outright false, such as her claims that Lanez’s gun supposedly went “missing.” Megan’s lawsuit also accused Gramz of violating a Florida law against “altered sexual depictions” by encouraging followers to watch a deepfake pornographic video of her.
Gramz denied being paid by Lanez and said her social media posts were First Amendment-protected journalism. The question of whether Gramz is a protected member of the media became a key issue during the trial. Jurors determined on Monday that she does have some media credentials, teeing up more post-trial litigation over whether the defamation verdict can stand.
Lanez himself was not a defendant or a witness in this trial. The Canadian rapper was supposed to give a videotaped deposition from prison, but was so uncooperative during the repeated questioning from Megan’s lawyers that he was held in contempt.
This story has been updated to include additional details on the verdict and statements from both sides.
Aubrey O’Day participated in Netflix’s Sean Combs: The Reckoning, and the four-part explosive docuseries found the former Danity Kane member addressing her removal from the Making The Band girl group, as well as claims she was sexually assaulted by Diddy.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
“Diddy made it clear that I was ‘the looker,” she said in an early episode. “I remember that phrase a lot. He was separating me and there was a different set of expectations from me, and I just naturally float into the grooming.”
O’Day also alleged that Diddy repeatedly “crossed the line” and sent explicit emails that included photos of his penis.
“I don’t wanna just f—k you. I wanna turn you out,” she reads from an alleged email from Combs. “I can see you being with some motherf—er that you tell what to do. I make my woman do what I tell her to do, and she loves it. I just want — and like — to do things different. I’ma finish watching this porn and finish masturbating. I’ll think of you, happy face. If you change your mind and get ready to do what I say, hit me. Happy face. God bless, Diddy. God is the greatest.”
O’Day was part of season three of Making the Band in 2005 and picked to be a member of Danity Kane. She was eventually removed from the group when Diddy announced she was fired in 2008.
Episode four of the 50 Cent-produced docuseries features a heartbreaking scene, which finds O’Day reading an affidavit from an alleged witness to the singer being sexually assaulted by Diddy and another individual in a studio room. O’Day says she has no recollection of the assault taking place.
The affidavit claims O’Day was naked from the waist down when a witness stumbled into a room while looking for the studio’s bathroom and recalled opening the door to a horrifying scene, where “Puff Daddy was penetrating in her vagina, and there was another stalky light-skinned man with his penis in her mouth.”
“I didn’t have a recollection of this,” O’Day said. “I didn’t drink like that at all — I don’t drink at all, it’s never been an issue with me. Does this mean I was raped? Is that what this means? I don’t even know if I was raped, and I don’t want to know. I don’t want to find out any more than that woman has to say.”
She continued: “If she made it up, I would be compelled to take her the f–k down. You realize the burden that that puts on my soul for the past year, which is if I expose one victim who’s got a civil lawsuit, that gives Diddy and his legal team credit to take down everybody else as potential liars. Says Aubrey O’Day. It goes right back on my shoulders, just like that. The weight of that man and his bulls—t, I will never get up from under it.”
A spokesperson for Diddy declined to comment on the specific allegations made in the series. “Many of the people featured have longstanding personal grievances, financial motives, or credibility issues that have been documented for years,” Juda Engelmayer said in a statement to USA TODAY. “Several of these stories have already been addressed in court filings, and others were never raised in any legal forum because they’re simply not true. The project was built around a one-sided narrative led by a publicly admitted adversary, and it repeats allegations without context, evidence, or verification. Sean Combs will continue to address legitimate matters through the legal process, not through a biased Netflix production.”
If you or someone you know is struggling and in need of help in the wake of sexual assault, please contact RAINN at 800-656-4673 or at online.rainn.org.
Trending on Billboard
THE BIG STORY: It’s almost 2026. Music lawyers are grappling with streaming fraud, deepfakes and trillion-dollar battles over artificial intelligence. And the U.S. Supreme Court is talking about … file sharing?
Nearly 30 years after the industry-shaking debut of Napster, online piracy is no longer the existential threat it once was. (Don’t worry: We’ve got robot musicians to worry about now.) Are a commercially significant number of people really still illegally downloading music files when humanity’s full corpus of recorded music is available for $12?
But litigation moves at a glacial pace — and in the mid-2010s, piracy was still a big enough deal that the industry began cracking down on the internet service providers that enabled it. The biggest such case, filed in 2018 by Universal, Warner and Sony against Cox, eventually saw a jury award the labels a whopping $1 billion over piracy by Cox subscribers.
Related
Nearly seven years later, that case is now before the Supreme Court – something of a legal time capsule from an earlier technological era, but one that the justices are worried could lead to “extreme” outcomes for our current one.
For more, go read our full breakdown of the case and this week’s big oral arguments at the high court.
You’re reading The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between. To get the newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday, go subscribe here.
Other top stories…
TALK THE LINE? The estate of Johnny Cash is suing Coca-Cola over ads that allegedly mimic the country legend’s voice – the first ever case to be brought under Tennessee’s recently enacted ELVIS Act aimed at prohibiting voice cloning in the A.I. era.
MEGAN THEE PLAINTIFF – A jury issued a verdict siding with Megan Thee Stallion in her defamation lawsuit against celebrity gossip blogger Milagro Gramz, who the star claims acted as Tory Lanez’s “mouthpiece” to spread misinformation after he shot Megan in 2020.
DIDDY V. NETFLIX – Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs sent Netflix a cease-and-desist letter warning of litigation if the streamer releases a 50 Cent-produced docuseries Sean Combs: The Reckoning.
CAN’T SHAKE IT OFF – A federal judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by hundreds of Taylor Swift fans over Ticketmaster’s botched sale of Eras Tour tickets three years ago, allowing the case to move ahead.
TAKE IT EASY – A judge rejected a civil lawsuit against Don Henley and Irving Azoff over the criminal prosecution of three men who allegedly tried to sell stolen Eagles lyrics – a case that ended in a spectacular collapse in 2024.
Related
DOING TIME – Fugees rapper Pras Michel was sentenced to 14 years in prison following his conviction on illegal foreign lobbying and conspiracy charges linked to Jho Low, the Malaysian financier who masterminded the 1MDB corruption scandal.
RESTAURANT ROW – Usher is suing music producer Bryan-Michael Cox and other organizers of a failed Atlanta restaurant project, claiming they misused money he loaned and still owe him $700,000.
MJ BIOPIC – Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris fired a legal broadside at the executors of her father’s estate, claiming a looming Michael movie and other projects are designed to “enrich and aggrandize” them rather than build wealth for the family.
FEE FIGHT – Nelly is demanding that a lawyer for one of his former St. Lunatics bandmates repay more than $78,000 he spent in legal bills to defeat her “frivolous” lawsuit over the rights to his debut album Country Grammar.
“STRONG WORDS” – Live Nation and Ticketmaster filed a long-awaited motion for summary judgment seeking to end the Justice Department’s sweeping antitrust case – claiming the feds used “strong words” that do not have “a lick of truth to them.”
MORE ACCUSERS – Two more of Smokey Robinson’s former employees — a woman and a man — came forward with claims that the 85-year-old Motown singer sexually assaulted them, adding to four earlier accusers.
LYRIC LITIGATION – GloRilla won a ruling dismissing — for now, at least — a lawsuit that accused her of stealing a social media personality’s viral catchphrase “all natural, no BBL” with the lyrics to her 2024 song “Never Find.”
CASE DROPPED – An appeal filed by Making the Band contestant Sara Rivers aimed at reviving her $60 million sexual assault lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs was abruptly dismissed — a move that came after her lawyers failed to file basic court forms.
CASE TOSSED – A judge dismissed a civil lawsuit filed against Kevin Liles by an anonymous executive assistant who claimed she was sexually assaulted by the legendary record executive at Def Jam in the early 2000s.
GOING PUBLIC – StubHub is facing a class action claiming it hid key details from investors ahead of its $758 million initial public offering (IPO) in September.
TRIAL SET – Aaron Carter’s family will head to trial next year in a wrongful death lawsuit against doctors and pharmacies that allegedly gave the late singer access to Xanax pills before he drowned in a bathtub in 2022.
We’re counting down the days to the unveiling of Billboard’s 2025 year-end charts on Tuesday, Dec. 9, with a special look at select rankings in the lead-up to the big reveal — and today (Dec. 2), we have the top 10 of the 2025 Hot Rap Songs chart. On Dec. 9, hundreds of year-end charts […]
The full list of Billboard’s 2025 year-end charts are almost here, and we’re counting down the days to their unveiling on Tuesday, Dec. 9, with a special look at select rankings in the lead-up to the big reveal — and today (Dec. 2)., we have the top 10s of three of the year-end R&B/hip-hop charts.
On Dec. 9, hundreds of year-end charts will be posted on Billboard’s website, following the conclusion of the Billboard 2025 No. 1s Livestream, hosted by Druski, which will broadcast on the Billboard News YouTube channel and BillboardTV on Samsung TV Plus starting at noon ET/9 a.m. PT, as special surprise guests stop by to celebrate the year in chart-toppers.
Today, we’re dropping the top 10s of the 2025 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Hot R&B Songs charts.
Kendrick Lamar and SZA‘s “Luther” leads the year-end Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs roundup, following its unstoppable run on the weekly version of the chart. It debuted on the chart dated Dec. 7, 2024, climbed to No. 1 just two weeks later, and was on the chart during the rest of the 2025 chart year (Oct. 26, 2024, through Oct. 18, 2025), never falling below No. 3.
SZA, meanwhile, crowns the year-end Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums recap, with a project that debuted on the weekly chart on Dec. 24, 2022 — SOS. It’s the second time the title has finished atop the year-end Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, as it also reigned in 2023. (It was the No. 2 album of 2024.) The album’s chart performance in 2025 was enhanced by its expanded reissue with additional songs in December 2024, dubbed SOS Deluxe: LANA. All versions of the album, old and new, are combined together with the original album for tracking and charting. During the 2025 chart year, SOS never left the chart, spent 15 weeks at No. 1, and never ranked below No. 6.
The Weeknd and Playboi Carti‘s “Timeless” tops the year-end Hot R&B Songs chart. The track premiered at No. 1 on the Oct. 12, 2024-dated Hot R&B Songs chart, and remained on the list through the July 19, 2025, chart. During that span, it spent 20 weeks atop the ranking, never going lower than No. 4. “Timeless” marked the 12th No. 1 for The Weeknd and the first for Playboi Carti.
For the top 10 of the three lists, scroll below. The full depth of the three rankings (beyond the top 10s of each) will be posted Dec. 9 alongside the complete menu of Billboard‘s 2025 year-end charts.
Billboard’s year-end music charts represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts from Oct. 26, 2024, through Oct. 18, 2025. Rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the entries appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology detail, and the October-October time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate.
2025 Year-End Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs: 10. GloRilla & Sexyy Red, “Whatchu Kno About Me”
Trending on Billboard This is partner content. Not sure what to get a music lover this Christmas? If you’re looking for the best gifts for ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ watchers, BTS fans and hip-hop lovers keep watching to see what you can get them! Tetris Kelly: What’s underneath the tree for music lovers this Christmas season? […]
Trending on Billboard Florida rapper POORSTACY, real name Carlito Milfort Jr., has died at age 26. As confirmed by the Boca Raton Police Department, the 26-year-old rapper died Saturday after an “incident” at a disclosed address. Fans have flooded POORSTACY’s Instagram posts with comments implying that he died by suicide, but the cause of death […]
