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Travis Scott delivered a major surprise for fans during the Japanese leg of his Circus Maximus tour over the weekend, bringing out Kanye West for an unannounced set at the Belluna Dome in Tokorozawa on Saturday (Nov. 8).
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In fan-shot footage circulating online, West — who had his face covered — pulled off his mask mid-show to roaring applause before launching into his 2007 anthem “Can’t Tell Me Nothing.”
Scott remained onstage as a hype man and support act throughout Ye’s mini-set, which included hits like “Runaway,” “Heartless,” “Flashing Lights,” “Stronger,” and “All of the Lights.” The duo performed together in front of a packed Tokyo crowd as part of Scott’s two-night Japan stopover.
Scott previously hinted at a potential reunion with West during a Circus Maximus show in October, telling fans, “We might have to do something special.”
In April, La Flame spoke of his relationship with the controversial rapper in his Complex cover story. “S–t, man. That’s my kid’s uncle,” he said in the interview, which appears to have taken place in February. “That guy took me in when I was young, when I was like 19. He taught me a lot about music. And not even just ‘taught’ me, but he allowed me to experience the creation of music.”
The surprise performance comes just days after West made headlines for a sit-down with Israeli Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto, where he addressed past antisemitic comments and expressed a desire to make amends.
“I feel really blessed to be able to sit here with you today and just take accountability,” Ye told Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto in a video posted on social media.
“It’s a big deal for me as a man to come and take accountability for all the things that I’ve said, and I really just appreciate you embracing me with open arms and allowing me to make amends. And this is the beginning and the first steps, and the first brick by brick to build back the strong walls.”
West’s last major live performance was his Vultures listening event earlier in 2025, while Scott continues to tour globally.
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Drake is appealing after a judge dismissed his defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) over Kendrick Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us” — and some legal experts think it could be a closer case than one might expect.
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The appeal, filed last week, will seek to revive Drake’s case, which claimed that UMG defamed him by releasing lyrics that called him a “certified pedophile.” A judge tossed the case out last month, ruling that listeners would think Lamar was just lobbing hyperbolic opinions, not hard facts.
For many casual observers, the reaction to Drake’s decision to appeal was some version of the law of holes: If find yourself in one, stop digging. After taking a reputational hit from filing a lawsuit during a rap beef, and then quickly losing that case in court, why drag it out any further?
Because, some legal experts say, a court of appeal might be more open to siding with Drake than the court of public opinion. “I think there’s actually a good argument that ‘pedophile’ wasn’t meant metaphorically here,” says Benjamin C. Zipursky, a professor at Fordham Law School and an expert in defamation law.
Much of Judge Jeannette A. Vargas‘ ruling against Drake turned on context — that Kendrick’s lyrics came amid a “war of words” in which fans had seen repeated “inflammatory insults” from each side. In that setting, and within the art form of battle rap more generally, the judge said listeners would likely view the pedophile line as just one more “hyperbolic vituperation” rather than the kind of “sober facts” that could be proven true or false.
On appeal, Drake’s lawyers are likely to argue that Vargas got lost in that context-heavy approach and missed the actual reality of the case: That even if it came during a diss track, Kendrick accused Drake of a very specific type of wrongdoing. And some experts say that might gain traction at an appeals court.
“Is that a verifiable statement? Of course it is,” Zipursky says. “As opposed to calling somebody a ‘fascist’ or a ‘sh-thead’ or claiming they don’t love their family, the statement that ‘X is a pedophile’ falls more on the verifiable, falsifiable side. And that’s clearly what Drake’s lawyers are going to push.”
Zipursky stresses that Vargas had done an “artful” job crafting her ruling, taking into account layers of legal precedent and serious concerns about a chilling effect on free expression from letting a rich celebrity sue over art. But when dealing with the almost metaphysical complexity of speech law, he says an appeals court might still see things differently.
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“If I were Drake’s lawyers, I would absolutely try to pull apart some of these context issues,” Zipursky says. “I’d ask why it’s fine for rap musicians to tell lies about each other’s criminality when there’s nothing in New York law that says that.”
Another way for Drake’s lawyers to frame those issues could be to argue the case was simply tossed too soon. Judge Vargas dismissed the case on a so-called motion to dismiss — meaning at the earliest possible stage of a case. Under that rule, she said that even if Drake proved all his lawsuit’s defamation allegations were factually true, he still couldn’t win the case because the law itself was against him.
For Marina V. Bogorad, a veteran entertainment litigator at Munck Wilson Mandala LLP, that ruling smacks of blanket immunity for any statement made in the context of a diss track, even an accusation of heinous conduct that would obviously be defamatory if false.
“The statement on its face accuses Drake of a serious crime,” Bogorad says. “To find that you can lace rap songs with facially libelous statements with impunity as a matter of law is quite a holding.”
Of course, none of this means Drake’s appeal is a slam dunk. Other legal experts had predicted to Billboard that the case would be dismissed for exactly the reasons later cited by Judge Vargas. And scholars versed in hip hop also came out against the case, arguing that Drake’s effort to treat rap lyrics literally was both legally faulty and potentially dangerous.
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But reasonable legal minds can differ on something as complicated and nuanced as free speech and defamation — and Bogorad says the appeals courts might think Judge Vargas should have waited and allowed more discovery into the facts of the case, including into the falsity of the claim or how actual listeners understood Kendrick’s lyrics.
“Whether or not someone is a ‘certified pedophile’ is certainly a fact capable of being disproved,” Bogorad says. “It remains a question for the [appeals court] whether rappers have an instant immunity from these kinds of inquiries.”
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Sexyy Red has officially joined the lineup for Rolling Loud Australia 2026. The breakout rapper was announced as the second artist for the festival’s return, following last week’s confirmation of Gunna as the first headliner.
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Rolling Loud Australia is set to take place across two cities in March: Sydney’s Centennial Park on March 7, and Melbourne’s Flemington Racecourse on March 8. The twin one-day events mark Rolling Loud’s first shows in Australia since 2019, and the first time the global hip-hop festival brand has expanded to a two-city format in the country.
According to organizers, pre-sale tickets sold out within hours of going live, and general tickets are now on sale via australia.rollingloud.com. Promoters have confirmed that the full festival lineup will be announced in the coming weeks and will include a mix of major international acts and leading Australian artists.
Since breaking through in 2023, Sexyy Red has achieved several Billboard chart milestones. Her highest Hot 100 placement came in November 2024, when she reached No. 10 as a featured artist on Tyler, The Creator’s “Sticky” alongside Lil Wayne and GloRilla. She first entered the Hot 100 with the “Pound Town” remix featuring Nicki Minaj, and followed that with her viral hit “SkeeYee,” which peaked at No. 62 and topped the inaugural TikTok Billboard Top 50. She also appeared on Drake’s “Rich Baby Daddy” (No. 11) and scored her first top 20 solo hit in 2024 with “Get It Sexyy,” which peaked at No. 20.
On the Billboard 200, her 2024 mixtape In Sexyy We Trust debuted at No. 17, following her 2023 breakout Hood Hottest Princess (No. 62). In recognition of her independent rise, she was named Billboard’s Indie Rapper of the Year in 2025.
Rolling Loud co-founders Matt Zingler and Tariq Cherif, both named multiple times on Billboard’s Hip-Hop Billboard Hip-Hop Power Players list, continue to expand the brand globally. Alongside its flagship Miami festival, Rolling Loud has produced shows in Europe, Asia, Canada, and the Middle East. The franchise also recently announced its debut in India for 2025.
The festival first landed in Australia in 2019, with the debut including performances from Future, Playboi Carti, Rae Sremmurd, Tyga, and a surprise appearance from a then-rising The Kid LAROI.
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Cardi B punches her ticket into the double-digit No. 1 club on Billboard’s Rhythmic Airplay chart as “Safe,” featuring Kehlani, becomes her 10th leader. The track climbs from the runner-up spot to rule the list dated Nov. 8. Thanks to its victory, “Safe” outdoes the peak of Cardi B and Kehlani’s previous collaboration, “Ring,” which achieved a No. 2 best in November 2018.
“Safe,” released on Atlantic Records, was the most-played song on panel-contributing rhythmic radio stations in the United States for the tracking week of Oct. 24-30, according to Luminate, and improved 17% in plays compared with the prior week. Due to its surge, the collaboration wins the Greatest Gainer honor, awarded weekly to the song with the largest increase in plays.
With the new champ, Cardi B adds her 10th No. 1 on Rhythmic Airplay and is the 13th artist to reach the milestone since the radio ranking’s launch in October 1992. Drake leads all acts, with 43 champs, while Rihanna, at 17, places second overall and claims the best total among women.
Here’s a recap of the Cardi’s B No. 1s on Rhythmic Airplay:
Song Title, Artist (if other than Cardi B), Weeks at No. 1, Date Reached No. 1“Bodak Yellow (Money Moves),” four, Oct. 7, 2017“No Limit,” G-Eazy feat. A$AP Rocky & Cardi B, two, Dec. 16, 2017“Finesse,” with Bruno Mars, two, Feb. 17, 2018“Be Careful,” one, July 7, 2018“I Like It,” with Bad Bunny and J Balvin, four, July 14, 2018“Please Me,” with Bruno Mars, one, April 13, 2019“WAP,” feat. Megan Thee Stallion, one, Sept. 26, 2020“Up,” three, March 20, 2021“Outside,” one, Aug. 16, 2025“Safe,” feat. Kehlani, one (to date), Nov. 8, 2025
Featured artist Kehlani captures a second Rhythmic Airplay No. 1, just a month after “Folded” topped the chart for one week. “Folded” continues to break personal milestones, becoming the singer-songwriter’s first No. 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and top 10 entry on the Billboard Hot 100 this week.
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Elsewhere, “Safe” wins a third term atop the Rap Airplay chart, where it improved 19% in week-over-week audience and pushes 8-6 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart through a 22% gain to 13.5 million in audience at the format for the tracking week. Gains from various sectors help the single rise 22-21 on the Radio Songs chart, reaching 24.2 million (up 20%) across all radio formats during the latest tracking week.
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THE BIG NEWS: Universal Music Group and artificial intelligence music service Udio reached a landmark agreement last week to end their lawsuit – the first major settlement in the battle over the future of AI music. Here’s everything you need to know.
The deal, announced Wednesday, will end UMG’s allegations that Udio broke the law by training its AI models on vast troves of copyrighted songs — an accusation made in dozens of other lawsuits filed against booming AI firms by book authors, news outlets, movie studios and visual artists. The agreement involves both a “compensatory” settlement for past sins and an ongoing partnership for a new, more limited subscription AI service that pays fees to UMG and its artists.
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-The agreement is much more than a legal settlement, Udio CEO Andrew Sanchez told Billboard’s Kristin Robinson in a detailed question-and-answer session just hours after the news broke: “We’re making a new market here, which we think is an enormous one.”
-The deal between UMG and Udio will resolve their legal battle, but broader litigation involving rival AI firm Suno and both Sony Music and Warner Music is still very much pending. Are more settlements coming? Does the deal impact the case? Go read my look-ahead analysis of the ongoing court battle.
-Will AI do more harm than good for the music business? That’s the question Billboard’s Glenn Peoples is asking – and financial analysts don’t have a clear answer. Some believe AI’s negatives outweigh its positives, while others see mostly upside. Maybe it’s just too early to know, Glenn says: “In the near term, expect more deals like UMG’s partnership with Udio. Over the long term, expect to be surprised.”
-Artist advocates are already demanding answers about how exactly this whole thing will work. According to the Music Artists Coalition, talk of “partnership” and “consent” are all well and good, but details are what matter: “We have to make sure it doesn’t come at the expense of the people who actually create the music,” MAC founder Irving Azoff said.
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-To put it lightly, Udio subscribers were not big fans of the settlement, which saw the company immediately disable downloads – even for songs that users created long before the deal was reached. After two days of outrage and threats of legal action, Udio said it would open a 48-hour window for users to download their songs. But with wholesale changes to the platform coming soon, will that be enough to satisfy them?
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 this week…
AINT OVER YET – Drake is now formally appealing last month’s court ruling that dismissed his defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) over Kendrick Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us,” prolonging a messy legal drama that has captivated the music industry and, at times, drawn ridicule in the hip-hop world.
DIDDY APPEAL – Sean “Diddy” Combs is appealing too – and he’ll get a fast-track process to do it. With such cases sometimes lasting years, his lawyers argued that he could be nearly finished with his three-ish year prison sentence by the time an appellate court rules on his prostitution convictions.
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POT SHOTS – Offset is facing a new civil assault lawsuit claiming he punched a security guard in the face at a cannabis dispensary in Los Angeles after being asked to show his I.D., sending the staffer to the emergency room.
MASSIVE FINE – Fugees rapper Pras Michel must forfeit a whopping $64 million to the government following his conviction on illegal foreign lobbying and conspiracy charges, a federal judge says, overruling his protests that it’s “grossly disproportionate.”
DRAKE SUED – Drake and internet personality Adin Ross are facing a class action accusing them of using “deceptive, fraudulent and unfair” practices to promote online sweepstake casino Stake and “encourage impressionable users to gamble,” including using house money to do it.
DRAKE NOT SUED – Another class action, this one against Spotify, claims that the platform has turned a “blind eye” to streaming fraud and allowed billions of fake plays. It alleges that Drake is one of the most-boosted artists, but the rapper is not named as a defendant nor accused of wrongdoing.
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FAIR TRADE? Cam’ron is suing J. Cole over allegations he reneged on a deal to swap featured credits – claiming he provided a verse for Cole’s “Ready ’24” but that Cole repeatedly declined to do the same, or even appear on Killa Cam’s podcast.
CUSTODY TRUCE – Halle Bailey and DDG temporarily agreed to share custody of their son and drop domestic violence claims against each other, putting a halt to the musicians’ messy legal battle after months of back and forth.
NEWJEANS, SAME LABEL – A Korean court issued a ruling rejecting NewJeans’ attempt to break away from its label ADOR, dealing a major victory to the HYBE subsidiary in its closely-watched legal battle with the chart-topping K-pop group.
DEPOSITION DRAMA – A judge says Tory Lanez must sit for a deposition in litigation stemming from his alleged shooting of Megan Thee Stallion in 2020. The case was filed by Megan against gossip blogger Milagro Gramz, who she claims spread falsehoods about the shooting.
NOT VERY CASH MONEY – Former Hot Boys member Turk is being sued by a concert promoter over online threats that supposedly threatened to derail a Cash Money Records reunion tour featuring Birdman and Juvenile
UGLY DIVORCE – Sia and her estranged husband are fighting over custody of their child amid divorce proceedings — and the crossfire is getting ugly. Among other claims, he says the pop star is a drug addict who can’t care for a baby, and she says he was investigated over child pornography.
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Offset has been hit with new lawsuit claiming he attacked a security guard at a cannabis dispensary in Los Angeles after being asked to show his I.D.
The rapper (Kiari Cephus) faces civil assault and battery claims in a complaint filed last Wednesday (Oct. 29) by Jim Leobardo Sanchez, a security guard at the MedMen licensed recreational dispensary near Los Angeles International Airport.
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Offset and a group of associates visited the dispensary on March 14 of this year, according to the lawsuit. Sanchez alleges that the rapper grew violent when he was asked to provide I.D. before entering the store.
“Without legal justification or provocation, defendant Cephus became hostile, verbally confrontational and physically attacked plaintiff by striking him in the face,” writes Sanchez’s attorney Michael Karikomi. “Several unidentified individuals who were accompanying defendant Cephus then proceeded to grab, push and further assault and batter plaintiff.”
Sanchez says he was in “immediate and severe pain” after the alleged attack, and was treated by paramedics at the scene before being transported by ambulance to the emergency room.
According to the lawsuit, Sanchez has continued to suffer due to Offset’s behavior — and he now wants financial compensation from the rapper.
“Plaintiff suffered physical injuries, emotional distress, incurred medical expenses, suffered lost income and continues to experience pain and discomfort,” reads the lawsuit, which asks for unspecified monetary damages.
Offset’s reps did not immediately return a request for comment on Monday (Nov. 3).
This isn’t the first time Offset has been accused of attacking a security guard. In 2023, he was sued for allegedly assaulting a guard at a convention put on by Complex Networks two years earlier. That lawsuit claimed Offset and fellow rapper YRN Murk got physical after being told the event was restricted.
The security guard in that case, Daveon Clark, has not yet managed to serve Offset with legal papers. The claim remains pending.
Trending on Billboard Drake stepped out in full hometown hero mode on Halloween night (Oct. 31), attending Game 6 of the 2025 World Series at Rogers Centre in Toronto as the Blue Jays attempted to clinch their first championship since 1993. Explore See latest videos, charts and news The rapper, who has been trolling Los […]
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A judge has rejected Tory Lanez’s latest attempt to avoid sitting for a deposition in litigation stemming from his alleged shooting of Megan Thee Stallion in 2020.
Lanez (Daystar Peterson), who’s serving a 10-year prison sentence for allegedly shooting Megan in the foot during a drunken argument, is a begrudging witness in her civil defamation lawsuit against gossip blogger Milagro Gramz. The Houston rapper (Megan Pete) claims Lanez is paying Gramz (Milagro Cooper) to spread falsehoods about the incident and the 2022 trial.
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Lanez’s lawyers claim deposition testimony could hurt the Canadian rapper’s ongoing appeal of his criminal shooting conviction. But Judge Lisette M. Reid says in a Thursday (Oct. 30) order that it’s “unclear” how that’s possible.
“The focus of Mr. Peterson’s deposition is his relationship with defendant Cooper, not with plaintiff,” writes the judge. “Thus, the court does not see how testimony regarding Mr. Peterson’s communications and relationship with defendant would serve to prejudice his criminal appeal.”
Judge Reid says Lanez must be deposed, and he can assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination “on a question-by-question basis, the propriety of which will be decided by the undersigned who will be supervising the deposition.”
Reps for Megan and Lanez did not return requests for comment on Friday (Oct. 31).
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Megan’s attorneys have been attempting to depose Lanez for months. Lanez’s first deposition was held at the jail in April, but he was so uncooperative that the questioning had to be stopped after just 44 minutes.
Lanez was held in contempt for this behavior and ordered to sit for a second deposition, this time under a judge’s supervision. He showed up to the courthouse on Sept. 15 with a new lawyer, Crystal Morgan, who this time asserted that Lanez wouldn’t answer any questions at all due to concerns about the appeal.
A third attempt at Lanez’s deposition will be held “at a date agreed upon by all parties,” wrote Judge Reid, who says she may order Lanez to repay Megan’s lawyers for the time they’ve expended on the back and forth.
The deposition battle comes as a Nov. 17 trial date is fast approaching in Megan’s lawsuit against Gramz. The rapper says Gramz has been posting lies about Lanez’s shooting trial, including false information that the gun in question went “missing,” to undermine the guilty verdict and ruin her reputation. Gramz denies any wrongdoing and says all of her social media activity is First Amendment-protected free speech.
Lanez hasn’t been the only difficult witness in the case. Two of his close allies — legal advocate Ceasar McDowell and blogger DJ Akademiks — have also been accused of derailing their depositions with disruptive behavior.
Trending on Billboard Ken Carson is back with a haunting new single just in time for Halloween. Released Oct. 31, “yes” sees the Opium rapper dive deeper into his blown-out, post-apocalyptic sound — arriving alongside his ongoing run on Playboi Carti’s Antagonist 2.0 world tour. Produced by Clif Shyne, the track delivers Carson’s signature distortion-drenched […]
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Offset has delivered a Halloween treat to fans, releasing his surprise new solo album Haunted by Fame.
Released via UMG Recordings, Haunted by Fame features guest appearances from NBA Youngboy, NoCap, and Lil Dump. Offset also dropped a horror-themed music video for lead track “Ya Digg,” directed by HousePartii, pairing eerie visuals with haunted-house production.
The Migos rapper teased the project just hours before release, writing cryptic messages on social media and sharing a masked teaser clip that hinted at the darker sonic palette.
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The 11-track project arrives just two months after his introspective third solo effort Kiari, continuing a prolific run for the Atlanta rapper. While Kiari leaned introspective, Haunted by Fame sees Offset trading raw confessionals for paranoia-laced production, distorted hooks, and sparse 808s.
Offset’s Billboard chart history includes more than 30 entries on the Hot 100 as a solo artist, though he has yet to score a No. 1 hit on the chart.
Offset has logged over 30 solo entries on the Billboard Hot 100, though he’s yet to claim a solo No. 1. His highest-charting solo cut, “Ric Flair Drip,” reached No. 13, while featured spots on hits like Tyga’s “Taste” (No. 8) and Kodak Black’s “Zeze” (No. 2) helped boost his profile.
His debut album Father of 4 opened at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 in 2019 with 89,000 units, followed by Set It Off in 2023, which debuted at No. 5 with 70,000 units and hit No. 2 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Offset’s collaborative run—spanning Cardi B, Travis Scott, 21 Savage, and more—continues to keep him in rotation. And with Migos, he hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 in 2017 with “Bad and Boujee” featuring Lil Uzi Vert.
Haunted by Fame marks Offset’s fourth solo project and second album of 2025.
Stream Haunted By Fame below.
