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R. Kelly’s lawyer says the disgraced R&B star and convicted sex offender was recently hospitalized after overdosing on anxiety and sleep medication in prison, attributing the event to a supposed jailhouse murder plot that prosecutors have dismissed as entirely made-up.
Kelly, who’s serving a 30-plus-year sentence for two federal sex crime convictions, has been petitioning a Chicago court for release since last week. Defense lawyer Beau Brindley claimed in an eyebrow-raising June 10 court filing that Bureau of Prison officials had tried to solicit another inmate to kill the singer (Robert Sylvester Kelly) to stop him from uncovering prosecutorial misconduct in his trials. Prosecutors deny that there’s any murder plot against Kelly.
Now, Brindley claims prison officials have tried another method of killing Kelly: administering the singer an overdose quantity of his medications while he was in solitary confinement last Thursday (June 12).
“In the early morning hours of June 13, 2025, Mr. Kelly awoke,” Brindley writes in a court filing from Monday (June 16). “He felt faint. He was dizzy. He started to see black spots in his vision. Mr. Kelly tried to get up, but fell to the ground. He crawled to the door of the cell and lost consciousness.”
Brindley says Kelly was taken from the Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, N.C., to Duke University Hospital, where he was informed of the overdose. Kelly was hospitalized for two days to treat the overdose, according to the court filing.
To make matters worse, Brindley says, Kelly learned at the hospital that he had developed life-threatening blood clots in his lungs that required surgery. But Kelly was allegedly denied this surgery and taken back to Butner, where he was returned to solitary confinement without medical care.
“He could die from this condition, and they are letting it happen,” writes Brindley. “There is no legitimate explanation for that.”
Brindley’s court filing reiterates his request to have Kelly released to home confinement or temporary furlough, saying “his life actually depends on it.”
Prosecutors have called the allegations a “fanciful conspiracy” and “deeply unserious.” They also say the Chicago criminal court doesn’t have jurisdiction over the issue, and that it must be brought instead as a civil rights case or habeas corpus petition in North Carolina.
In response to Kelly’s latest claims about the alleged overdose and blood clot issue, prosecutors wrote late Monday, “This is the behavior of an abuser and a master manipulator on display.”
“This court should not allow Kelly to turn its docket into a grocery store checkout aisle tabloid,” prosecutors added.
Billboard reached out to Duke Hospital seeking to confirm the facts of Kelly’s hospital stay. A Duke spokesperson deferred to the Bureau of Prisons, which declined to comment on the matter.
“For privacy, safety and security reasons, we do not discuss the conditions of confinement for any incarcerated individual, including medical and health-related issues,” said Bureau of Prisons spokesperson Scott Taylor in a statement to Billboard.
The motion to release Kelly from prison is scheduled to be heard by the Chicago judge on Friday (June 20). Meanwhile, Brindley has been publicly asking President Donald Trump to pardon Kelly.
Kelly was convicted in 2021 and 2022 at two separate federal trials, one in New York and one in Chicago, on a slew of criminal charges including racketeering, sex trafficking, child pornography and enticing minors for sex.
The former R&B star was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the New York conviction and 20 years in the Chicago case, although the vast majority of the second sentence will overlap with the first. Both convictions have been upheld on appeal.
Coi Leray and Trippie Redd are officially parents. Coi revealed that she welcomed a baby girl named Miyoco on Tuesday (June 17) with a post featuring a glimpse of her new child on her Instagram Story. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The adorable photo finds her baby […]
Lola Young, Jungle and Florence Welch are among the top winners at this year’s ASCAP London Celebrates Creators event, held on Tuesday evening (June 17) at The Shard in London. The ceremony is designed to celebrate ASCAP’s U.K.-affiliated talent for their success in the U.S.
Continuing a breakout 12 months that have seen her score a Billboard Hot 100 hit with “Messy” (peaking at No. 8) and perform at Coachella, Young received the ASCAP Vanguard Award, which recognizes songwriters whose work is helping to shape the future of music.
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Hucknall collected the ASCAP Golden Note award, marking 40 years of international success with pop band Simply Red. The Golden Note has previously been awarded to icons such as George Michael, Elton John and, most recently, Duran Duran in 2016.
Florence Welch of Florence + The Machine fame was recognized for her contribution to Drake’s “Rich Baby Daddy” alongside Isabella Summers, which was named winning streaming song. The track features an interpolation of Welch’s “Dog Days Are Over” and features Sexyy Red and SZA on vocals. It reached No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2023, and also hit the summit on the Rhythmic Airplay chart.
Josh Lloyd-Watson, Tom McFarland and Lydia Kitto of dance act Jungle were honored with the hot dance/electronic song award for “Back on 74.” The trio won group of the year at last year’s BRIT Awards, where they performed the track live at London’s O2 Arena. It marks Jungle’s biggest streaming hit to date, currently at 420 million plays on Spotify alone.
Following his ASCAP Vanguard award in 2024, Cian Ducrot’s co-writing credits on SZA’s “Saturn” led to him being honored for song of the year as well as top streaming song by ASCAP.
Drum n’ bass artist Kenya Grace, meanwhile, took home the top hot dance/electronic song prize for “Strangers.” The track saw the 22-year-old become only the second woman in history to score a U.K. No. 1 with a single fully written, performed and produced by herself, following Kate Bush hitting the top spot in 2022 with “Running Up That Hill.” In 2024, the South Africa-born British-based singer-songwriter and producer received the ASCAP Global Impact Award, in recognition of her success in the dance music world.
2025’s top box-office film awards went to composers Robin Carolan for Nosferatu; Geoff Barrow (of Portishead) and Ben Salisbury for Civil War; Christopher Benstead for The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare; Daniel Pemberton for Fly Me to the Moon; Raffertie for The Substance; and Daniel Blumberg for The Brutalist.
A full list of 2025 ASCAP London winners can be found on ASCAP’s website.
After giving media members an early listen to Let God Sort Em Out at Roc Nation HQ in NYC, Clipse returned to heat up the summer with the album’s second single on Tuesday (June 17) as the Pharrell-produced “So Be It” arrived.
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Pusha T and Malice trade fiery bars over Skateboard P’s chiseled production, but a ton of eyeballs went to Pusha’s scathing final verse, which finds him sniping at Travis Scott.
“You cried in front of me, you died in front of me/ Calabasas took your b—h and your pride in front of me/ Heard Utopia had moved right up the street/ And her lip gloss was poppin’, she ain’t need you to eat,” Push raps in what appears to be a reference to Scott’s split from beauty mogul and reality star Kylie Jenner.
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Billboard has reached out to Scott for comment.
Some speculated that the verse was about his former G.O.O.D. Music running mate, Ye (formerly Kanye West), but King Push confirmed to GQ that he had smoke for La Flame.
Pusha T explained that his issues with Scott were tied to the Cactus Jack rapper pulling up to Louis Vuitton HQ to play his 2023 Utopia album for Pharrell while Clipse was also working on their upcoming album.
“He’s like, ‘Oh, man, everybody’s here,’ he’s smiling, laughing, jumping around, doing his f–king monkey dance. We weren’t into the music, but he wanted to play it, wanted to film [us and Pharrell listening to it],” he recalled. “And then a week later you hear ‘Meltdown,’ which he didn’t play. He played the song, but not [Drake’s verse].”
Drake takes several shots at Pharrell on the track and says he’s going to melt P’s classic jewelry. “Melt down the chains that I bought from your boss, give a f—k about all of that heritage s—t,” he raps.
Having that verse on Utopia after playing the track for Pharrell didn’t sit right with Pusha T, as he feels Scott aligns with whoever when it’s convenient for him, but doesn’t stand by his loyalty to anyone.
“He’s done this a lot. He has no picks. He’ll do this with anybody. He did it with ‘Sicko Mode’… He was on the [Rolling Loud] stage like, ‘Play that, play that,’” Push said in reference to “Like That,” which sparked the Drake and Kendrick Lamar feud. “He don’t have no picks, no loyalty to nobody. He’ll jump around whatever he feels is hot or cling onto whatever he feels is hot.”
Pusha T continued: “So, that’s where my issue comes in — like, dawg, don’t even come over here with that, because at the end of the day, I don’t play how y’all play. To me, that really was just like … He’s a whore. He’s a whore.”
Look for Let God Sort Em Out to drop on July 11. Watch the “So Be It” video below.
SZA might be co-headlining one of the biggest tours of the year, but she says she still struggled with imposter syndrome leading up to its kickoff.
While answering guest interviewer Chappell Roan’s questions for an Interview Magazine cover story published Tuesday (June 17), the R&B hitmaker revealed that she used to be plagued by anxious thoughts when it came to performing. “Every time I had to go on stage, every time I had to get on a carpet, I’d have full-on panic attacks,” she began.
“I used to not show up to something because it was like, ‘I’m never going to win. No one cares that I’m here. Why would I go?’” she continued.
SZA struggled with that anxiety as recently as right before the Grand National stadium tour kicked off in April, with the singer telling Roan that she was convinced people would only attend to see her powerhouse tourmate, Kendrick Lamar. “Same thing with the Kendrick tour,” she said. “‘Everybody’s going to see Kendrick. I don’t even know if I have anything to show these people that’s exciting and new.’”
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Fast forward a few months, and both SZA and Dot have been crushing their performances across the United States in Canada. In July, the “Luther” collaborators will bring the trek to arenas and stadiums all over Europe, closing the trek with two Australian shows in August.
Fortunately, SZA shared that she’s since been able to kick her anxious thoughts to the curb through connecting with her spirituality, whether it’s consulting her astrologer or learning about the “laws of magic.”
“Now it’s just like, ‘F–k it. I don’t have anything else to do, and I want to see where this door is going to lead,’” she said of her approach to performing now. “I want to walk through the door. I want to see what happens in the uncertainty.”
The interview comes about two months into the Grand National Tour, which launched April 19 with a show in Minneapolis. SZA and Lamar most recently stopped in Hershey, Pa., for one night at Hersheypark Stadium.
Some of the most memorable moments of the trek so far have been its special guests, with Playboi Carti, Baby Keem, Justin Bieber and Doja Cat all making appearances at various stops. In May, SZA was joined on stage by longtime bestie Lizzo, and the pair performed their remix of the latter’s “Special.”
Also in the Interview piece, SZA opened up about her friendship with the Yitty founder. “We’ve been friends since, like, 2013, but it was very organic and very random,” she explained to Roan. “One day we were on the same tour, and I was like, ‘We’re about to drive out to Lake Michigan, do you want to come?’ And she was like, ‘Yeah, let’s go.’ And then we just got drunk and hung out, and we kept doing that, and then our lives and careers progressed, and we kept talking and hanging out.”
John C. Reilly has made us laugh as dopey Dale in Step Brothers, had us believing in the power of true friendship as Cal in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, cured absolutely nobody at all as the no-nothing doc in Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule and melted hearts as the sweet-natured cop hoping he can save his addict neighbor in Magnolia.
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But the role he wanted so much he wrote it for himself, apparently, was of electrified, sanctified, possibly totally delusional “Archbishop Harold Holmes,” the hero of the song of the same name from Jack White‘s 2024 No Name album.
In the video for the hoot and holler blues rock track released on Tuesday (June 17) — directed by Gilbert Trejo from a concept written by Reilly — the versatile stage and screen actor slips into his Sunday best pin-striped blue suit for a fire-and-brimstone sermon in which Reilly mouths the lines, “If you’ve bot family trouble/ Man trouble, woman trouble/ No light through the tunnel/ If you’re lookin’ for a true friend, or a true lover/ Or if you’ve been livin’ undercover” in front of a glowing crucifix.
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It quickly becomes apparent that this archdiocese bible thumper has more than the good lord’s words backing him up, as electrical sparks buzz from his fingers as he sings, “Well, I’m comin’ to your town/ I’ll break it all down/ And help you with all of this/ I’m lookin’ to help you find bliss/ One day, one way, can’t miss.”
With an old console radio pulpit seemingly powering his holy spirit, Reilly’s Holmes gets the handful of parishioners energized, inspiring them to leap from their seats and shuffle in a circle around him as he chicken struts and shoulder shimmies the good word into their their bodies via blue sparks.
Or, spoiler alert, maybe it was all a dream?
The possibly confused, wound-up Holmes is a world away from Mister Romantic, the long-running alter ego behind Reilly’s new album of romance ballads, What’s Not To Love. On the LP that dropped last week, Reilly melts hearts with covers of such lovelorn classics as “La Vie En Rose,” “You Don’t Know Me,” “Falling in Love Again,” “Picture in a Frame,” “Moonlight Serenade” and more.
“I looked at our weary world a few years ago and tried to think of a way I could spread love and empathy,” Reilly wrote in a statement about the character. “I decided the most fun way to do that was through performing and singing and telling people I love them…so the emotional vaudeville show Mister Romantic was born, out of both hope and despair.” The Mister Romantic tour will hit Chicago’s Steppenwolf theater on Sept. 13-14.
Watch the “Archbishop Harold Holmes” video below.
Bunnie XO just had a breakthrough on her fertility journey with Jelly Roll.
In a raw video posted to her Instagram on Monday (June 16), the podcaster tears up while hiding her face in her hands as she talks inaudibly on the phone, seemingly having just received a piece of good news. “When you just got the call you’ve been waiting on for 5 months since this ivf journey started,” she wrote.
“All the tears, the hopelessness & the struggle, God finally said, ‘Here,’” Bunnie continued, adding in her caption: “Praise Jesus.”
The social media star and country singer have been trying to conceive through IVF for months. In the comments of her post, Bunnie clarified that she’s not pregnant yet — “We won’t announce that,” she asserted — but they are one big step closer to growing their family.
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“This is just a huge win for us,” Bunnie noted.
The Dumb Blonde host has been open about her experience with IVF, documenting the ups and downs on social media. In March, she got real on her podcast about how “lonely” the process can be, sharing, “It’s just you and these hormones and the waiting and the egg retrieval … It’s a lot to bear.”
Bunnie also recently clapped back at a troll who implied that she is too old to be trying for a baby. The same commenter also wrote that Jelly Roll — who has been open about his weight-loss journey over the past year — is “so unhealthy looking.”
“Yes, I have decided at the ripe age of 45 that I would love to hear the pitter-patter of little feet with the man that I’ve been with for almost a decade,” said Bunnie, who is a stepmom to Jelly’s two kids from past relationships, 17-year-old Bailee Ann and 7-year-old Noah.
“Not only am I financially in a great place to raise a child, but I’m also spiritually and mentally in a great place because I have been in the darkest places before and I drug myself out from the depths of hell,” she added at the time in a video on her Instagram Story. “Did you know that I was pregnant three times before we decided to do this IVF? I am so thankful that God did not let me have a baby when I was 20 years old because that poor child would have been through so much s–t with me. This is the perfect age.”
See Bunnie’s post about her IVF win below.
Some people might be obsessed with time, but Mariah Carey thinks the concept is nothing more than a thing of fantasy.
In a recent interview with Capital FM posted Monday (June 16), the superstar once again stated how she refuses to acknowledge the passage of time. Carey has long said she doesn’t subscribe to the construct of days, weeks and years, and has also asserted that she doesn’t have birthdays — only anniversaries.
“Is it true you don’t acknowledge the passing of time?” one interviewer asked, to which Carey confirmed, “That is true.”
“I just don’t believe in it,” she continued. “No, no, just time. Let it go. I don’t have a birthday, no. Anniversaries, yes.”
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Carey’s belief system also means that coordinating a so-called “time” to meet up with someone is not a viable option for her. “Yeah, I would have somebody call you and figure it out,” she calmly replied when asked how she goes about making appointments.
Mimi’s commitment to being free from the constraints of time dates back years. In an old interview reshared by the singer in 2023, a younger Carey explains, “I don’t have birthdays … I decided to do that. And I’ve noticed that people who decide not to have birthdays, they just don’t have them.”
That said, the “anniversary” of Carey’s ethereal existence is on March 27 each year. This year, she marked the occasion by sharing a photo of herself on a jet ski and writing on Instagram, “Thank you lambily for the anniversary wishes and for always making me so happy!!!”
Carey’s interview comes on the heels of her new single, “Type Dangerous,” which marks her first proper release since 2018. The track just debuted at No. 95 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated June 21, 2025 — not that she would recognize such a time stamp — becoming her 50th career entry on the chart.
Watch Carey discuss her thoughts on time below.
There are certain things you never forget: your first kiss, wrecking your dad’s new car, the birth of a child and, definitely, that time you slept with Warren Beatty. Barbra Streisand might have some of those memories, but when it comes to bedding down with Beatty, well, things are a bit fuzzy for the Hollywood legend.
Speaking to the New Yorker about her upcoming duets album, The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two, the 83-year-old star of stage and screen said she definitely remembered being propositioned by Marlon Brando back in the day, but, as she wrote in her 2023 memoir My Name Is Barbra, she just can’t remember is she and legendarily Casanova Beatty did the deed.
“I know I slept in the bed with him, but I can’t remember if we actually had penetration,” she said in answer to a question — more of a statement, really — about how no one in the “history of sex, or Hollywood, or anything” has ever written that line. “I swear to God, I can’t. There are certain things I block out,” Streisand said.
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Respectfully, New Yorker editor David Remnick couldn’t help calling b.s. on Streisand’s memory lapse, even as she doubled-down on saying she has no recollection of sex with Beatty. “But I know we’re still friends. Every year on my birthday, he calls me and we have a wonderful talk about our lives, our children, and so forth,” she said. “So we’re still friends. I met him when I was fifteen years old, and he was twenty-one, I think.”
In the memoir, Streisand first revealed that her memory is foggy about any intimate time with Beatty, who has been married to actress Annette Bening since 1992; Streisand married actor James Brolin in 1998. “Warren and I go back a long way (back to summer stock) and there’s some water under that bridge,” she wrote. “Recently, we were on the phone talking politics and who knows what else when he said, ‘I remember why we broke up.’ I said, ‘When were we together?’ Then I hung up and asked myself, Did I sleep with Warren? I kind of remember. I guess I did. Probably once.”
The book features details on the first time she met Beatty, when he was starring in a production of A Hatful of Rain in Connecticut. “He asked me to cue him on his lines. If that was a come-on, I missed it entirely,” she wrote. “He also played the piano. I was impressed. We used to eat together occasionally and talk about life. He was twenty-one, tall with movie-star looks, and women were already falling at his feet. I was sixteen.”
Streisand also chatted with Remnick about Bob Dylan after the New Yorker editor noted that in 1971 Dylan wrote a letter to one of his friends revealing that he’d written “Lay Lady Lay” about Babs, which was followed in 1978 by a letter/flowers exchange. Now, they are reconnecting on the Partners album, where they trade lines on the 1934 Ray Noble pop standard “The Very Thought of You.”
“The fun thing is that we were both nineteen years old, in Greenwich Village, never met each other. I was at the Bon Soir, and he was playing the guitar somewhere else,” she said. “I remember him sending me flowers and writing me a card in different-color pencils, like a child’s writing: ‘Would you sing with me?’ I thought, What would I sing with him? How could we get together on this? I couldn’t understand it at that time.”
But now that they’ve recorded “The Very Thought of You” she is delighted by the song choice that they both love. “He’s very shy, like I am. But he was wonderful to work with. I was told that he didn’t want any direction,” she recalled. “But when I talked to him about things that I suggested, he was so pliable — he was so open to suggestions. Everything I heard about him just went out the window. He stood on his feet for three hours with me.”
Also, for the record, when asked if she would ever tour or perform live on stage again after battling stage fright for much of her career, Streisand gave a clear answer: “Oh, my God! No!” The singer said that aside from when she was a teenager on her way up, she never really enjoyed live performance.
“I never wanted to be a singer; I wanted to be an actress. So I looked for material that I could act from Broadway plays — to be silly, you know, singing ‘Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?,’” she said. “I was open to the audience, and talking to them. Whatever I was doing was just about being in the moment, things that I was experiencing in acting class. It was never to be a singer; it was to be an actress.” That, and the fact that she’s had a lifelong battle with a bad back. “I’ve always had a bad back. So it’s not just age,” she said.
The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two is due out on June 27 and features a duet with Sir Paul McCartney on “My Valentine,” as well as guest spots from Hozier (the previously released “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”), James Taylor (“Secret O’ Life”), Tim McGraw (“I Love Us”) and Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande (“One Heart, One Voice”).
Karol G has teamed up with five telenovela giants for a new promotion clip of her forthcoming album, Tropicoqueta. Inspired by ‘90s Latin soap operas, the Colombian singer released a nearly two-minute Spanish-language video starring herself alongside actresses Anahí, Itatí Cantoral, Gaby Spanic, Ninel Conde and Azela Robinson. In true telenovela fashion, Karol and Anahí […]
