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17 Jan 2025

Reacting to Drake’s UMG Defamation Lawsuit & Def Jam Signing LiAngelo Ball | Billboard Unfiltered

In today’s episode of ‘Billboard Unfiltered,’ Billboard staffers Trevor Anderson, Kyle Denis and Damien Scott react to LiAngelo Ball signing a deal with UMG & Def Jam after “Tweaker” became a viral sensation, Drake’s defamation lawsuit against UMG over Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” and more!

Kyle Denis:

Like give to people who actually do this for real a million dollars versus giving it all to this one guy, for all we know, got lucky.

Trevor Anderson:

They’re calling it like the Pizzagate of, you know, the music industry. 

Damien Scott:

If you’re Drake, is that really what you want to be tied to? You really want to be tied to Pizzagate?

Trevor Anderson:

Gentlemen, glad to see you again. This is round two of 2025, how’re we feeling?

Kyle Denis:

We’re living. We’re living. I’ve been better, but also been worse. I can’t complain.

Trevor Anderson:

That’s a good way to put it.

Damien Scott:

We are here which feels like a triumph in and of itself. 

Trevor Anderson:

Yeah, a lot of things are going on. Before we really get into all news, analysis and commentary, I know we all want to make sure and start with the acknowledgement of what’s going on in the greater Los Angeles area. These wildfires that have just been devastating. So many people have lost their homes, have been forced to evacuate, just really upending normal life for a lot of folks. We want to offer our thoughts, prayers, support to everybody that has been affected by this in any way. I know there’s a lot of events that are planned around the Grammys, that’s what people are talking about in particular, which is supposed to come up on February 2nd. 

Keep watching for more!

16 Jan 2025

Wendy Williams Speaks Out on Guardianship & More | Billboard News

Wendy Williams denies being cognitively impaired and speaks further about her guardianship, while Diddy’s lawyers claim ‘Freak-Off’ videos appear to be “consensual.” Keep watching for the updates on Diddy & Wendy Williams.

Tetris Kelly:

Diddy’s lawyers are claiming the ‘Freak-Off’ tapes aren’t criminal, and Wendy Williams is back saying she’s being imprisoned. 

Wendy Williams:

I am not cognitively impaired, you know what I’m saying? But I feel like I’m in prison.

Tetris Kelly:

We’re running down some serious hip-hop news. After reviewing the alleged ‘Freak-Off’ videos, Sean “Diddy” Combs’ legal team is now claiming the footage shows no evidence of criminal activity.

They continued in a new filing: “The videos do not depict sex parties. There are no secret cameras, no orgies, no other celebrities involved, no underground tunnels, no minors, and not so much as a hint of coercion or violence. Far from the government’s lurid descriptions, the videos show adults having consensual sex, plain and simple.”

And someone who has always had something to say about Diddy is now speaking out about her own legal issues. 

Wendy Williams: 

Do I think about being abused? Listen, look, this system is broken, you know this system that I’m in. You know this system has falsified a lot.

Tetris Kelly:

Wendy Williams spoke out on ‘The Breakfast Club’ about her current conservatorship and how it’s affecting her. 

Charlamagne tha God:

They say you are cognitively impaired and incapacitated.

Wendy Williams:

Do I seem that way? 

Charlamagne tha God:

You’ve been calling me five times a day for the last two weeks. No, you don’t seem…

Tetris Kelly:

We’ll keep you updated on these evolving stories.

16 Jan 2025

Bad Bunny’s ‘DTMF’ Is No. 1 on TikTok Billboard Top 50 | Billboard News

Bad Bunny debuts at No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50, and LiAngelo Ball and Flawed Mangoes make their way into the top 10. Keep watching to see where they land! 

Tetris Kelly:
This week sees two top 10 debuts and one of them is taking the top spot. Bad Bunny’s “DTMF” debuts at the top spot on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 for the chart posting Jan. 16. It’s the first track to accomplish this feat since August of last year. Another top 10 debut is “Tweaker” by G3, aka LiAngelo Ball, at No. 6. And our final new face in the top 10 is “Dramamine” by Flawed Mangoes. It climbs 20 to seven in its fifth week on the chart.

Every Thursday, Billboard will bring you the verified list of the hottest songs on TikTok by monitoring music discovery and engagement on the platform in the United States. To find the TikTok Billboard Top 50 each week, users can simply go to any sound detail page and tap the top right button to access the charts page.

16 Jan 2025

Doja Cat & Snoop Dogg Show Support for Victims of L.A. Wildfires | Billboard News

Doja Cat has partnered with Red Cross and an artist to sell a collection of clothes to aid those affected by the wildfires, and Snoop Dogg is thinking of doing a concert to help victims. Keep watching to learn more about how artists are helping. 

Tetris Kelly:
Doja Cat and Snoop are showing their support for the victims of the L.A. wildfires. As L.A. continues to recover from the massive wildfires that have raged over the last week, L.A. residents have come together with an outpouring of help for those in need. It looks like some in the music community are also willing to lend a helping hand, like the “Agora Hills singer Doja Cat. The California native posted on IG pictures of specially designed T-shirts and hoodies with the caption: “Please help me and @AmericanRedCross support my beautiful state of California. I teamed up with artist @Pini and designed a small collection of hoodies and tees on sale now – 100% of proceeds go to American Red Cross to support the people of California affected by the wildfires.”

While on the Jimmy Kimmel show, L.A. legend Snoop Dogg spoke about the possibility of a charity concert to help raise funds for those affected by the fires. 

Snoop Dogg:
There were talks about concerts to raise money for the victims and the people that have lost in this situation. So I think that’s more of the angle that I would be leaning towards. To do a concert and not, you know, be paid. And take my proceeds and the proceeds from the tickets and make sure that the people got something. 

Tetris Kelly:
Snoop also is still collecting donations at his Inglewood-based clothing store, Snoop Dogg Clothing, for those displaced by the wildfires.

Our hearts go out to L.A. and those who were impacted by the wildfires. For more news, stay tuned here at Billboard.

16 Jan 2025

Flawed Mangoes: Evoking Emotions Through Hopecore Music | Billboard Cover

Billboard cover star and the ‘Future of Hopecore’ artist, Flawed Mangoes, is bringing out the emotions through his music. He sits down and shares his thoughts on “Killswitch Lullaby” going viral on TikTok, meeting with Kai Cenat, his creative solo process and more!

Flawed Mangoes:

You know what it says? Yes, I know what this is. I was kind of just posting these guitar riff videos, and then people started messaging me, being like, oh, did you know that there’s this movement called hopecore that’s, like, really closely associated with your music. Like all these posts are using your music in the background. Hopecore is a funny thing to me. It’s just this content that’s like, really trying to focus on, like, the motivational, inspirational type of message and spread positivity through, you know, motivational speeches or, like, inspiring videos and things like that. It kind of blurs the line for me between, like, you know, music genre and like, sort of just like a like, an ethos. I’ve had a lot of people express to me that it’s interesting how many emotions I can convey without actually using words in music. And I think I’ve always been someone who, like, was always really keyed in on melodies, and didn’t always pay attention to words that much. And so I’ve always kind of been used to, like, extracting emotions from just the music itself. That kind of made it a good canvas for people to, you know, put quotes or speeches over. So that definitely helps. I feel like all of my like, sort of, I consider them peers, on TikTok who are kind of, you know, creating instrumental music in similar spaces, like it’s funny because a lot of their content tends to lean more towards the sort of melancholy side. 

Keep watching for more!

15 Jan 2025

Ariana Grande & Selena Gomez Snag 2025 BAFTA Nominations | Billboard News

Ariana Grande and Selena Gomez have both been nominated for their roles in ‘Wicked’ and ‘Emilia Pérez’ as Best Supporting Actress. Keep watching to see what other awards their respective films were nominated for!

Tetris Kelly:

From the Golden Globes and now on the road to the Oscars, both Selena Gomez and Ariana Grande have grabbed some new awards season nominations. Selena Gomez has grabbed a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in ‘Emilia Pérez.’ While a number of US awards shows and announcements are postponed, the British Academy released their nominations and said their thoughts are “very, very much” with everyone impacted by the still raging wildfires. Ariana Grande also snagged her first BAFTA nomination for ‘Wicked.’ Emilia Pérez’ was also nominated for Best Picture while ‘Wicked’ was left out of that category. We will keep you updated throughout the award season.

15 Jan 2025

Drake Files Defamation Lawsuit Against UMG Over Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’ | Billboard News

Drake filed a lawsuit against UMG for defamation over Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” Keep watching for the full details of the case. 

Tetris Kelly:
Is Drake ending his legal beef against UMG and Kendrick? From ending the petition to filing a lawsuit, we got the story. The Canadian rapper has filed an official lawsuit on Wednesday in federal court, suing Universal Music Group for defamation and harassment, calling its release and promotion of “Not Like Us” an example of valuing “corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.”

The suit accuses UMG of having “approved, published and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap track” that was “intended to convey the specific, unmistakable and false factual allegation that Drake is a criminal pedophile, and to suggest that the public should resort to vigilante justice in response.”

For a quick refresher, back in November, Drake shocked the music industry when he filed legal petitions against UMG and Spotify, accusing them of an illegal “scheme” involving bots, payola and other methods to pump up Kendrick Lamar’s diss song against Drake “Not Like Us.” Those filings were not full-fledged lawsuits, but rather, pre-action petitions aimed at seeking to secure information so that a full lawsuit can be filed.

An attorney for Drake did not immediately return a request for comment. A spokesman for UMG declined to comment. A representative for Spotify did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

For more hip-hop news, keep it locked right here at Billboard.

15 Jan 2025

Skillet’s John Cooper Has Some Business Advice for His Younger Self

Skillet’s John Cooper has a good sense of humor about some of the hard lessons he’s learned about the music business in nearly three decades as a musician. The outspoken, gregarious singer, fresh off the release of a new album (Revolution) and a European tour, laughs heartily when asked what lessons he wish he learned early his career.

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“I would go back to my younger self and say, ‘They call it the music business for a reason,” he tells Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast. “That part — ‘business’ — actually matters. Because when you first start — I mean, I don’t know if everybody’s like this, but I certainly was like, ‘No, no, it’s not a business, it’s art. It’s no business involved. It’s just what I want to sing about. It’s all about me and my feelings and my artwork, and I’m never gonna let anybody bastardize my art.’ And you just end up making a bunch of dumb decisions because you don’t realize that, yes, it is about art, but you still got to pay bills. And you’re in the van in the middle of the night — if anybody’s in a band out there, they’re going to know what I’m talking about — you’re driving the van, and all of a sudden you feel something. You look out the side as you’re driving and you see one of the wheels from the trailer going past you [and] it flies off in the middle of the night. And I’m sitting there going, ‘I don’t care. It’s all about my art.’ That’s not real! You’ve got to pay for that, man!”

It took Cooper a few years to realize he needed to be more hands-on and not expect others to handle his business the way he wants. “If you want it done right, you have to get involved,” he insists. “That’s not to say [my manager and business manager] didn’t do their job, but they’re never going to do it the way you want it done. And it’s easy to complain about it, but just get your hands dirty.”

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The need to be more involved in the business side of his career “really hit home” early in Cooper’s career when the person preparing his taxes asked to see his taxes for the band’s first four years. “And I said, ‘Well, we lost money for the first four years, so I didn’t turn them in,’” Cooper recalls. “He’s like, ‘Well, you’re gonna pay for that now. You’ve gotta pay a fee for not doing it right.’ And so I would go back and just say [to my younger self], ‘Hey, yes, it’s about the art, but you can’t be a moron. You’ve got to grow up.’”

Over time, Cooper has learned the business side of music from a variety of people, including a manager that arrived six years into his career and his business manager. He also took inspiration from Mötley Crüe bass player Nikki Sixx, who Cooper says “understood it’s about art, but you got to take care of your business. You want to be around for 30 years? You better get it in gear, son!”

The lessons Cooper learned will help now that Skillet is independent and self-releasing its music. After nearly two decades with Atlantic Records — 99% of which was positive, Cooper says — the band released Revolution on its own Hear It Loud imprint. While Atlantic Records helped Skillet find mainstream success (“Awake and Alive” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Active Rock chart in 2011) there was more bureaucracy than Cooper would have preferred. “A lot of red tape,” he says. “A lot of people having to approve the songs.” Now, Skillet now has greater creative control and can release music more frequently.

“We wrote 11 songs for this record, and I loved it,” he says. “I loved making the project. It was so much fun. We wrote, recorded and released this album in 13 months. And I’ll tell you what, it was so fun, and I love the music.”

Listen to the entire interview with Skillet’s John Cooper using the embedded Spotify player below, or go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music, Podbean or Everand. 

15 Jan 2025

Cardi B Seemingly Accuses Offset & His Mom of Robbing Her | Billboard News

Cardi B took to Spaces to accuse Offset and his mother of stealing from her, and reiterating she wants the divorce papers signed. Keep watching for her rant.

Cardi B:
I ain’t listen after you and your momma robbed me. Yeah, you and your mom robbed me cold, right under my nose. 

Tetris Kelly:
Cardi say what?! Cardi B is seemingly accusing her ex-husband and baby daddy plus his mom of stealing from her, and that’s not it … 

Cardi B:
I ain’t listen after you and your momma robbed me. Yeah, you and your mom robbed me cold, right under my nose.  

Tetris Kelly:
The “Bodak Yellow” rapper was going off on Spaces, though we aren’t actually sure what she meant concerning the alleged robbery. We’ve reached out to Offset for comment, but she also discussed Offset skipping out on being Santa … 

Cardi B:
Where are the Christmas gifts at? 

Tetris Kelly:
The whole situation seems to really be affecting Cardi, but she wants the divorce.

Cardi B:
A motherf–ker wants me to go on social media and crash out, so I can look crazy and they can look like they’re unbothered. That was always their plan. That’s why I’ve been quiet, but you’re going to stop ******** on me and you’re going to sign these f–king divorce papers. Child a–.

15 Jan 2025

Xavi: Sacrificing His Youth to Lead Latin Music’s Next Wave | Billboard Cover

Billboard cover star & the ‘Future of Latin’ singer Xavi is making his mark. The young singer is sacrificing his youth to put in the work to take over the Latin music, and he shares how he first started getting into music, how he created “La Diabla,” why he’s putting love and passion into his music and more!

Xavi:

Yes, sir. We speaking English today. Hey Phoenix, Arizona, is where we at. Billboard! I grew up listening to Vicente Fernandez, Selena, you know, the typical music where like, that’s what my mom would wake me up to, you know, like she would be cleaning and she would put on Selena, Vicente. You know, I feel like I just grew up with all that music and then going to the U.S., there was a whole different world, you know. And I got to, like, hear Justin Bieber, Daniel Caesar and a lot of other ones, you know. I was, like, I was a little kid, so I would, like, dress up, yeah, I don’t know. I just really liked his music and like style. Instead of, like, expressing my emotions, I expressed it through music.

Lyndsey Havens:

Do you remember the first time that you actually started writing out lyrics for your own music?

Oh my gosh, it was a long time ago, but yeah, I do remember. I was 12, and I remember I would just like freestyle songs and stuff, and so, like, I got to a point where I was like, Wait, why am I not writing this, you know? So I started writing it, and I didn’t have the best handwriting, you know, but we made it work, and we wrote a little song, but it’s an old, old, old song. I don’t even remember it, but yeah, I was told when I wrote my first song.

Keep watching for more!