State Champ Radio Music News
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Kendrick Lamar won big at the 2025 BET Awards, taking home album of the year for his critically acclaimed 2024 LP GNX.
And while accepting the coveted prize onstage at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater on Monday night (June 9), the rapper explained why the recognition was extra special coming from BET. After first hugging his “Luther” collaborator and tourmate SZA, who excitedly cheered him on in the audience, Lamar began by saying, “I ain’t been here in a long time, but I always kept it in my heart.”
“BET always makes sure its representing the culture right,” Dot continued. “I’ll always give my heart to BET.”
After giving shout-outs “first and foremost” to God, followed by his teammates at his company PGLang, Lamar gave the grinning “Kill Bill” singer a nod. “SZA in the crowd,” he said, gesturing to his friend. “We on tour right now, please come to the show.”
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The Compton native then made his way to exit the stage, but the night’s host, Kevin Hart, stopped him in his tracks to unceremoniously present him with several other BET trophies. Lamar — who was the show’s top nominee in 2025, earning 10 nods — could barely hold all the prizes as he walked offstage with them.
Released in November, GNX was a massive success. The LP spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and produced several Billboard Hot 100 hits, including the 13-week chart-topper “Luther” with SZA.
As mentioned by Dot in his speech, he’s now supporting the album on his Grand National Tour with SZA. The joint run kicked off April 19 in Minneapolis, just a couple of months after the duet partners performed at the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show in February.
Monday night wasn’t the first time Lamar has won album of the year at the BET Awards, with the hip-hop titan last taking home the award in 2018 for his Pulitzer Prize-wining Damn.
GloRilla put on a great two-song set at the 2025 BET Awards, as she was dressed like Michael Jackson in the “Smooth Criminal” video in the front and dressed as Prince at the 1991 MTV VMAs in the back. The first song she performed was her hit single “Let Her Cook” as a kitchen crew […]
Lucky Daye, Luke James and Miles Caton joined forces to pay homage to one of music’s late icons and sonic architects in Quincy Jones, who died at age 91 in November. Daye, James and Caton’s performance was short yet sweet, as they delivered a soothing rendition of the sultry “The Secret Garden (Sweet Seduction Suite)” […]
Stevie Wonder surprised everyone at the 2025 BET Awards when he stepped out to honor his longtime friend Jamie Foxx. During the 2025 BET Awards on Monday (June 9), Jamie Foxx was set to be honored with the Ultimate Icon Award. Throughout the night, it was teased that a “special guest” would appear onstage to […]
At the 2025 BET Awards, Doechii had something to say. The Florida rapper continued her winning year by being named best female hip hop artist at Monday night’s (June 9) show, and instead of using her speech to talk about all she’s accomplished since dropping the critically acclaimed mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal, she addressed […]
The BET Awards 2025 are packing on the nostalgia. Millennials were transported back to sitting in front of their living room televisions after school as Ashanti opened the awards show by performing “Rock Wit U” and “Foolish.” Rocking her signature thigh-high black boots, gleaming off the Peacock Theater stage, she passed the diamond-encrusted mic to […]
Sly Stone of Sly and the Family Stone died Monday (June 9) at age 82, and the music community is grieving the groundbreaking funk pioneer.
Questlove, who directed the new documentary Sly Lives (aka The Burden of Black Genius), shared a touching tribute on Instagram.
“Sly Stone, born Sylvester Stewart, left this earth today, but the changes he sparked while here will echo forever. From the moment his music reached me in the early 1970s, it became a part of my soul. Sly was a giant — not just for his groundbreaking work with the Family Stone, but for the radical inclusivity and deep human truths he poured into every note,” he wrote. “His songs weren’t just about fighting injustice; they were about transforming the self to transform the world. He dared to be simple in the most complex ways — using childlike joy, wordless cries, and nursery rhyme cadences to express adult truths. His work looked straight at the brightest and darkest parts of life and demanded we do the same.”
The Roots drummer also highlighted two lines that “haunt me” as he reflected on his legacy: “We deserve everything we get in this life” from Sly Lives! and “We got to live together” from the group’s 1968 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Everyday People.” “Once idealistic, now I hear it as a command. Sly’s music will likely speak to us even more now than it did then. Thank you, Sly. You will forever live,” Questlove continued.
Public Enemy‘s Chuck D thanked Questlove “for keeping his FIRE blazing in this Century” on X while sharing an illustration of Stone and Questlove. He posted more artwork of the psychedelic soul group while writing, “………and The Family Stone Rest In Beats SLY.”
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Legendary record executive Clive Davis, who worked with the group when it signed to CBS Records in 1967, wrote in a statement to Billboard, “Sly was truly one of a kind. I had the very special experience of knowing him when he was at his most creative, his hardest working and his genius flourishing vibrantly. Sly’s artistry influenced so many of our important creative talents. He will be forever missed.”
KISS frontman Paul Stanley remembered seeing Sly and the Family Stone “debut at the Fillmore East in New York City opening for Jimi Hendrix. They were a freight train of bombastic, joyous SouI that would soon climb the charts and change the sound of R&B for so many other artists. Rest In Soul!” he wrote on X.
Holly Robinson Pete also celebrated Stone’s pioneering efforts. “You didn’t just make music—you shifted the culture. As kids in Philly, my brother played Sly, I was Cynthia on my imaginary horn. We lived your music. You gave us the groove & the message. Thank you, genius,” she wrote on X.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame posted an in memoriam tribute thread on X, including a clip of Stone’s acceptance speech during a very rare public appearance when he and the group were induced in 1993. The Rock Hall praised Sly and the Family Stone for making “it possible for Black popular music to burst free on its own terms” and “extending the boundaries of pop and R&B with each new song,” while hailing its 1969 Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),” the double A-side single with “Everybody Is a Star,” for helping “create the sonic blueprint for the funk and disco genres that followed.”
Country singer Conner Smith was driving the truck that struck and killed a 77-year-old pedestrian in Nashville on Sunday (June 8), Billboard has confirmed. A release from the Metro Nashville Police Department on Monday (June 9) stated that a 24-year-old man named Conner Smith was behind the wheel during Sunday’s accident. The pedestrian was identified […]
Jonathan Mayers, co-founder of Superfly Entertainment and the co-creator of iconic festivals including Bonnaroo and Outside Lands, has died. His age and cause of death are unknown at this time.
Mayers grew up an hour outside New York City and attended Tulane University in New Orleans, graduating in 1995. He was first introduced to the music business through his work with famed New Orleans venue Tipitina’s and the long-running Jazz Fest celebration. He co-founded promotion company Superfly in 1996 with Rick Farman, Richard Goodstone and Kerry Black and staged its first concert during Mardi Gras with the Meters, Maceo Parker and Rebirth Brass Band. In 2002, the four men launched and sold out the first Bonnaroo after discovering the perfect festival site an hour outside of Nashville in Manchester, Tenn. Partnering with promoter Ashley Capps of AC Entertainment, agent Chip Hooper of Paradigm and manager Coran Capshaw of Red Light — and securing headliners like Trey Anastasio from Phish and Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh and Bob Weir — the men created a 70,000-person festival that would become the blueprint for hundreds of other music festivals across the country.
In 2005, Mayers’ Superfly launched Vegoose in Las Vegas with programming at multiplevenues throughout the city. The first festival brought in approximately 37,000 visitors, and Mayers and his team ran the festival for three seasons before opting to shut it down. Mayers would also partner with Another Planet Entertainment in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2008 to launch Outside Lands in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. In 2017, Mayers led efforts to partner with Viacom and Comedy Central to produce a large-scale indoor/outdoor comedy festival in San Francisco called Clusterfest that included performances by Kevin Hart, Amy Schumer, Jon Stewart and Trevor Noah.
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While working on Clusterfest, Mayers began interfacing with major film and TV rights holders and created a new experience concept allowing fans to “step inside” some of their favorite TV shows on recreated TV sets. Mayers and team licensed rights from shows like Seinfeld, The Office, South Park, Arrested Development, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The Daily Show to create immersive fan experiences visited by hundreds of thousands of fans. For the show Friends, Mayers led efforts to create pop-up experiences in multiple cities, including New York, Boston and Atlanta.
Despite his success, Mayers’ relationships with his co-founders at Superfly began deteriorating during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in August 2021, he was terminated from his position at the company. In early 2022, Mayers sued Farman, Goodstone and Black and accused them of civil misrepresentation, breach of contract and fraud for allegedly lowballing him for the value of his shares in Superfly. Also named in the complaint was Virgo Investment Group, a California private equity fund; Mayers alleged that its top executive, Jesse Watson, strung him along for months, promising $5 million in financing before firing him last summer. On Jan. 20, 2023, a New York judge dismissed the lawsuit.
After leaving Superfly, Mayers began work on a new project called Core City Detroit which sought to raise money to invest in a “culturally rich neighborhood anchored by a music campus providing world- class services, infrastructure, and housing for local/national artists & industry along with entertainment experiences for the public,” according to an investment deck on the project. Phase 1 of the Core City Detroit project included a drive-in diner by celebrity chef Kiki Louya and the renovation of an old pickle factory into a music production complex.
Mayers’ longtime friend Peter Shapiro, founder of Dayglo Presents and the Brooklyn Bowl, described him as a creative mastermind who had a deep love for live music and a vision for how it would evolve over the next two decades.
“Jonathan was one of the true real visionaries of the modern concert world and one of the core minds behind Bonnaroo,” Shapiro tells Billboard. “Modern-day festivals are all in some way built off of his vision.”
Company officials at Another Planet Entertainment issued a statement to Billboard following Mayers’ passing. “Jonathan was a bright light, always pushing new and creative ideas in the entertainment space,” they said. “He was a visionary who was integral in the founding and the spirit of Outside Lands. Everyone in the Another Planet family will miss him dearly.”
Music rights and media investment company HarbourView Equity Partners raised $500 million through the sale of a private asset-backed securitization (ABS), backed by royalties generated from its music catalog, to insurance vehicles managed by global investment firm KKR, HarbourView announced on Monday (June 9). The news comes a little more than a year after HarbourView […]
