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Talent agent and Sound Talent Group (STG) owner Dave Shapiro, 42, was among those killed in a fiery plane crash in San Diego, Calif., in the early morning on Thursday (May 22), according to a statement from his agency.
“We are devastated by the loss of our co-founder, colleagues and friends,” said a spokesperson for Sound Talent Group. “Our hearts go out to their families and to everyone impacted by today’s tragedy. Thank you so much for respecting their privacy at this time.”
Shapiro and two other STG employees were killed when their 1985 Cessna Citation reportedly crashed around 4 a.m. on Thursday (May 22) in the Tierrasanta neighborhood. Billboard is not naming the two other victims at this time at the request of company officials, who are trying to notify family members. The plane was also carrying other passengers who have not yet been identified, officials tell Billboard, noting that there were no survivors.
A well-known music agent, Shapiro launched STG in 2018 with Tim Borror and Matt Andersen following successful careers at the Agency Group and United Talent Agency. His roster includes Sum 41, Pierce the Veil, I Prevail, Set it Off, Story of the Year, Silverstein, Parkway Drive and Eve 6. He also operates the Velocity Records music label, whose roster has included Thursday, Concrete Castles and Craig Owens.
Shapiro was also an avid pilot with more than a decade of flying experience and was the owner of Velocity Aviation, through which he offered pilot instruction. Known around the music industry as an adventurous spirit, Shapiro’s aviation website describes his thrill-seeking lifestyle and pursuit of adrenaline.
“From BASE jumping to aerobatic flying, Helicopters to twin engines, flight instructing to furthering his own education, doesn’t matter to Dave as long as he gets to be in the sky,” the website reads. At one point, Shapiro even housed the San Diego office of STG in an airplane hangar alongside some of his aircraft.
Besides aviation, Shapiro was a lifelong supporter of independent music and hard rock, punk and indie acts that didn’t fit within music’s mainstream. With the launch of STG, he and his partners paved the way for the launch of nearly a dozen independent agencies in the years that followed.
When Shamir first broke into music in 2015, the artist made a deal with himself: “Once I feel like I’ve done and said everything that I felt like I wanted to do and say, then I will call it,” he recalls. “I didn’t want to be an artist who was doing this just because it’s their job.”
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One decade and 10 studio albums later, Shamir is making good on that promise. Ten, the mercurial multi-hyphenate’s excellent, indie rock-infused new album (out now via Kill Rock Stars) is his last one, too. Over the course of 10 songs, Shamir tackles big and small questions — the existential struggle with aging on album-closer “29” feels right at home with the simpler understanding of love lost on “I Know We Can’t Be Friends” — before closing out this chapter of his professional life.
As he tells it, the decision to walk away from music was easy, at least in part because he had already experienced the closest thing he’s had to a break between his projects. Since putting out Ratchet in 2015, Shamir has released new albums at almost a yearly pace, occasionally dropping two full LPs in a single calendar year. But after the release of his 2023 project Homo Anxietatem, the singer says he found himself in need of some time off.
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“I was producing with a friend, and we were just, like, throwing the ideas around. And all of a sudden I realized I didn’t have any plans to make an album. I didn’t even really have, like, songs or anything,” he says. “But I was like, ‘I want to work with you just because we’re friends.’ That didn’t end up working out with that person, but the idea of working with friends really stuck with me.”
It was a different mode of operation for Shamir. Since getting dropped by XL Recordings over creative differences shortly after the release of Ratchet, he’s largely self-written and self-released his own projects, occasionally teaming up with other indie labels to help bring his LPs to life.
That changed when the artist found a new home at Kill Rock Stars. Since signing with the label in 2023, prior to the release of Homo Anxietatem, Shamir says he no longer felt burdened by the expectations of doing everything himself. “To have that space and have that backing from the label gave me a little bit more clarity,” he explains. “Ending this chapter of my career felt like it came from a place of peace instead of frustration, which I love.”
Where other artists might use a final album to say all the things they’ve ever wanted to say in their music, Shamir didn’t have to do the same — he’d already shared his deepest thoughts through albums like Heterosexuality and Hope. Instead, he decided to draw his conclusions about working with friends to their eventual conclusion.
Every song on Ten, for the first time in Shamir’s career, are entirely written and produced by others. Whether he was asking his closests friends to let him sing a song they wrote or combing through those same friends’ unreleased demos to find songs he could perform, Shamir ended up with 10 tracks, written by and for others, now being interpreted through his own distinct artistic lens.
“I have so many incredible friends who aren’t necessarily songwriters by trade, yet are just incredible songwriters,” he explains. “I didn’t want them to write ‘a Shamir song,’ you know what I mean? I wanted demos and vault tracks tracks, and to metabolize those and bring them into my world and make them my own.”
A key example of the selection process, Shamir says, is the album’s opening track “I Love My Friends.” Back in 2021, Shamir received an email from his close friend Andrew Harmon, with the song’s title as a subject line and nothing but an MP3 in the body. Enclosed was the song, written by Harmon exclusively as a dedicated thank you to his close-knit circle for helping him deal with the death of his father.
“I remember listening to it, and by the end I was just in tears,” Shamir says of the song. “A dedication like that, unprompted and as a thank you — as opposed to just sending a thank you card or something like that — was just so beautiful to me.”
Another standout from the album, the heartbreaking “I Don’t Know What You Want From Me,” was written by Torres, who Shamir “wasn’t even particularly close with.” But when he presented them with the idea backstage at a music festival, they immediately said they wanted to send him a track. “[Torres] was literally on tour, and still sent me three demos,” he says. “That one was definitely the most shocking, just in terms of their enthusiasm for the idea.”
It’s for that reason that Ten plays out as a love letter rather than a farewell, where Shamir thanks the people who buoyed him in a turbulent career for a decade. It’s also why Shamir decided to release the album on May 19 — the one year anniversary of his debut album Ratchet.
“It was just like an extra kind kismet thing that I was able to add on to the triple entendre of it all,” he says. “It’s so rare when that happens, so when it does happen, it just feels so much like confirmation.”
As it turns out, having said everything he wanted to say in his career is just one of the reasons Shamir made the decision to call it quits after Ten. Part of the reason he relied so much on the support of his friends was simply because the music industry is a hard place to thrive, especially as a Black queer artist wanting to do something different.
Shamir qualifies that with the simple fact that “we made a lot of strides with queer people in pop music.” But after a certain point, the singer saw a pattern emerge, and it was one that he had no interest in adding to. “As a Black queer person, it’s not only hard to assimilate, but we are rewarded when we assimilate. We have to play the game to for survival,” he says. “In a lot of ways, I have suffered because I refuse to assimilate — but it was worth it for me.”
Sure, there are drawbacks that came with that: “I was not able to reach a certain level of mainstream success,” Shamir relents. But broad recognition isn’t the metric by which he chooses to measure himself. “Whenever anyone looks back on my career in five, 10, 15, 20 years from now, they’re going to be like, ‘Oh, but he never compromised,’” he says. “And I never will.”
Tory Lanez’s father, Sonstar Peterson, joined NewsNation’s CUOMO hosted by Chris Cuomo on Wednesday night (May 21), where he revealed that his son is being transferred to a new prison after being stabbed while in prison earlier in the month.
Peterson explained that Lanez isn’t receiving any special treatment, but his move is part of California prison protocol following an act of violence.
“He’s being moved because it’s part of the prison’s protocol that when a situation like this happens. They believe it’s better for him to be in another facility, and so he is being moved as we speak,” he said. “One thing of course, we are concerned about is because my son is a high-profile person and when things like this happen, there is always some kind of weird news going out trying to spin it to be something else.”
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Lanez was attacked on May 12 by another inmate at California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi around 7:20 a.m. PT, and rushed to a nearby hospital, a spokesperson for the prison told ABC News. A message posted to the singer’s verified Instagram account said he suffered a pair of collapsed lungs and was stabbed 14 times in total, but was in “good spirits” while recovering.
Lanez’s father said that when he arrived at the hospital, he spoke to correctional officers who claimed they were surprised that the singer was involved in an altercation because Tory, according to his dad, “is someone who is liked. He’s not someone who is a troublemaker.”
The Toronto native is currently serving a 10-year sentence in prison after being convicted on three felony counts tied to him shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the feet during an argument outside of a Hollywood Hills party in July 2020.
Between the stabbing and claims of new evidence, Lanez’s case is picking up steam once again. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida’s 13th district called for California’s Gov. Newsom to pardon Lanez. The congresswoman claimed that there was new evidence exonerating Lanez.
Unite the People attorney Walter Roberts claimed that Kelsey Harris’ bodyguard, Bradley James, filed an affidavit saying he overheard Harris admit to firing the weapon and not Lanez.
Megan Thee Stallion posted a message to her TikTok calling Lanez a “demon” and pushed back against the hate she’s received in recent weeks regarding the shooting case, while SZA also came to Meg’s defense. “FACTS ARE FACTS, he did it , it was PROVEN IN COURT,” she wrote in part. “Ain’t no new f–king evidence yall been saying the same s–t for years.”
Megan’s legal team also released a report on Thursday (May 22) pushing back against the claims of new evidence and support from Tory fans, arguing that the findings are filled with “false narratives” from “foolish bullies.”
Watch the interview between Chris Cuomo and Tory’s father below.
German concert promoter CTS Eventim’s revenue grew 22.0% to 498.6 million euros ($525 million), nearly doubling its 11.6% growth rate in the prior-year period. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EDITDA) rose just 8.9% to 100.3 million euros ($106 million). Adjusted EBITDA margin of 20.1% was more than two percentage points lower than […]
Hot Ones host Sean Evans is blowing the lid off of one of the country’s most exclusive, top-secret concert venues: Aaron Paul’s living room. On the latest episode of his culinary web series posted Thursday (May 22), the interviewer got the Breaking Bad star to open up about his little-known house shows, for which Paul […]
Live Nation announced a deal to operate Arena Cañaveralejo in Cali, Colombia, in partnership with Mexican promoter OCESA and Colombian promoter Grupo Páramo. The 15,000-capacity arena is the concert giant’s first venue in the country. Notably, Live Nation acquired a 51 percent interest in OCESA in 2021 for $416 million and a majority stake in Páramo in 2023. Upcoming concerts to be hosted at the venue, which was built in 1957 and underwent a major renovation in 2021, include a show by Fonseca and Andrés Calamaro. “This venue will allow us to bring more world-class artists to Cali while also supporting local talent and growing the live music ecosystem in Colombia,” said Live Nation president/CEO Michael Rapino in a statement. “Live Nation is committed to investing in Latin America’s thriving music scene, and this partnership with Grupo Páramo will help us create unforgettable experiences for fans in the region.”
Management at music video streaming service ROXi completed a buyout of the ROXi business in partnership with investors that include U.S. TV broadcasters Sinclair and Gray Media. The new company created under the deal, FastStream Interactive Limited, has struck distribution deals with U.S. broadcasters that will bring FastStream’s new interactive TV channels to their customers. The first FastStream-powered TV channel will be ROXi, which is touted in a press release as “America’s first Interactive TV Music Channel.” The channel will be available for free on NEXTGEN TV, a “new digital TV standard” in the U.S. “By 2028, over 75% of all US TVs sold will be NEXTGEN TV sets,” the release states. Shareholders in the new venture include Sinclair and Gray Media; U2 bassist Adam Clayton; Terra Firma founder Guy Hands; British billionaire businessman Jim Mellon; and Warner Mandel, a global co-head of telecom, media and technology at Rothschilds Warner Mandel.
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British indie label Cherry Red Records acquired U.K.-based Dome Records from directors Peter and Santosh Robinson. Dome’s catalog primarily consists of soul and R&B from artists including Lulu, Beverley Knight, Incognito, Hil St Soul, the James Taylor Quartet, Shaun Escoffery, Brenda Russell, George Duke, Anthony David, Jarrod Lawson and Andrew Gold. Peter Robinson will continue working with Dome as a consultant.
Independent New York-based rock label Equal Vision Records announced a partnership with kill iconic records, the label that sprang from the quarterly heavy and progressive music magazine kill iconic. Through the deal, kill iconic brings current artists Moondough, Lobby Boxer, ahh-ceh and Gold Necklace along with new signings Dwellings, Mella and Resilia. The first release under the agreement is the single “IDGAF2” by Dwellings, a Sacramento, Calif.-based post-hardcore band. Equal Vision also announced it has partnered with Burlington Record Pressing to open a boutique solar-powered manufacturing plant located in Albany, N.Y., that uses recycled and lead-free materials to create custom vinyl records.
SongTools, a marketing and ad tech solutions platform for music creators, teamed up with Latin American radio monitoring company monitorLATINO to launch digitalLATINO, a new platform that offers digital charts, playlist promotion, automated advertising campaigns and more for musicians. In other SongTools news, the platform has also been integrated into the marketing dashboard for Symphonic via a new partnership with the distributor.
ALTER Music, a new indie record label founded by former 300 Entertainment executives Rob Stevenson and Matt Signore, signed a joint venture partnership with Firebird, a multi-sector music company that invests in and services labels and publishers, with an emphasis on management and label services. Through the deal, Firebird will provide ALTER with financial, analytical and strategic support.
Web3-based distribution and label services company Unchained Music struck a manufacturing and distribution partnership with vinyl pressing plant Sonic Wax. Under the deal, select artists on the Unchained Web3 services platform will enjoy physical releases of their music. Sonic Wax is a global vinyl distributor that has served artists including Raye, Swedish House Mafia, Boy George, Masters At Work and Chase & Status.
Loaded Dice Entertainment, the newly launched full-scale label services and distribution company, signed a deal with e-commerce storefront and supplier Amaze Holdings. Through the agreement, Amaze — which utilizes a print-on-demand model to reduce merch overproduction — will host Loaded Dice-branded merchandise and artist-specific items. The first Loaded Dice artist to be hosted on Amaze is Hudson Thames.
Ye’s (formerly Kanye West) time spreading antisemitism is over, according to the rapper. The embattled rap mogul claimed on X Thursday (May 22) that he’s turned a new leaf and that his time with anything associated with antisemitism is “done.”
“I am done with antisemitism,” he wrote to kick off a series of posts. “I love all people. God forgive me for the pain I’ve caused. I forgive those who have caused me pain. Thank you God.”
Ye has been vocal about having visitation rights with his children, and it appears seeing his kids on a FaceTime call has inspired him.
“I simply got a FaceTime from my kids and I wanna save the world again,” he wrote. “Share peace. Share love.”
Back in October 2022, Yeezy wore a shirt proclaiming “White Lives Matter” at his Paris Fashion Week show, then days later posted on social media he was going to go “death con 3 on Jewish people,” which set off a chain reaction of businesses and entities such as adidas, Balenciaga, Universal Music Group, Gap and more cutting ties with Ye.
The rapper apologized to the Jewish community with a post on social media in Hebrew in late 2023. Fast-forward to 2025, and Ye’s continued to spew antisemitic remarks as part of plenty of explosive X tirades, which also featured praise for Hitler and other forms of hate speech, as well as his attempt to sell a T-shirt featuring a swastika on his website in February, a move that the Anti-Defamation League criticized, writing on X, “There’s no excuse for this kind of behavior.”
But Ye wasn’t done. “I love Hitler, how what b–ches,” he wrote in March, followed by “I’m a Nazi.” The rapper has since claimed he’s not a Nazi and is now waving the white flag on antisemitism as well, though recent actions appear to show the opposite.
Earlier in May, Ye attempted to release his “Heil Hitler” track, but claimed the controversial single was “banned” from all digital streaming platforms. “Heil Hitler by Ye has been banned by all digital streaming platforms,” he wrote on X while calling out the double standard he sees in streaming censorship. “While Rednecks by Randy Newman remains streamable They’re literally keeping the n—-s down.”
He’s since released “Alive” — featuring YoungBoy Never Broken Again — a song that Playboi Carti on Thursday (May 22) slammed. The “Magnolia” rapper alleged in a since-deleted social media post that Ye used an unauthorized sample on the track.
The embattled rapper’s concert scheduled for May 31 in South Korea was also canceled due to “recent controversies” swirling around him.
See Ye’s posts on X about ending his antisemitism below:
God forgive me for the pain I’ve caused— ye (@kanyewest) May 22, 2025
I simply got a FaceTime from my kids and I wanna save the world again…— ye (@kanyewest) May 22, 2025
Forrest Frank has been a fairly consistent presence on the Top Gabb Music Songs chart in 2025, notching multiple entries on the monthly 25-position ranking.
But something Frank had not yet accomplished was a No. 1 on the tally — that is, until now, as “Your Way’s Better” tops the April 2025 survey.
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Billboard has partnered with Gabb Wireless, a phone company for kids and teens, to present a monthly chart tracking on-demand streams via its Gabb Music platform. Gabb Music offers a vast catalog of songs, all of which are selected by the Gabb team to include only kid- and teen-appropriate content. Gabb Music streams are not currently factored into any other Billboard charts.
“Your Way’s Better” was initially released in October 2024, but has achieved virality in recent weeks, just ahead of the debut of Frank’s latest solo album, Child of God II, which debuted at No. 12 on the Billboard 200 dated May 24.
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It marks the first new No. 1 on the monthly Top Gabb Music Songs chart since Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga’s “Die With a Smile” took over on the January 2025 list and ruled for the last three months.
Frank’s previous best rank on the chart had come in the previous month, when “Nothing Else,” featuring Thomas Rhett, debuted at No. 7. “Nothing Else” is one of four Frank songs on the latest tally; in addition to the lead of “Your Way’s Better,” he also appears via the re-entry of “Drop!” at No. 17 and the debut of “Up!,” with Connor Price, at No. 25.
“Your Way’s Better” debuted at No. 72 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated May 3 and has achieved a peak of No. 61 so far. It also spends its first week at No. 1 on the Hot Christian Songs tally dated May 24. (Frank’s catalog comprises the only Christian songs to make the ranking so far.)
The previous Top Gabb Music Songs No. 1, “Die With a Smile,” drops to No. 4, also passed by Benson Boone’s “Sorry I’m Here for Someone Else” (which holds at No. 2) and ROSE and Mars’ “APT.” (No. 3, up one position).
In all, three songs debut in the chart’s top 10, the most in one month since the ranking’s inception in October 2024. Following “Your Way’s Better,” there’s Alex Warren’s “Ordinary,” which starts at No. 6, and Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” at No. 8. Both songs are currently within the top 10 of the Hot 100 as well, “Ordinary” reaching a best of No. 2 on the May 10 list and Roan having peaked at No. 4 (April 26).
See the full top 25 below.
Top Gabb Music Songs
“Your Way’s Better,” Forrest Frank (debut)
“Sorry I’m Here for Someone Else,” Benson Boone (=)
“APT.,” ROSE & Bruno Mars (+1)
“Die With a Smile,” Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars (-3)
“Beautiful Things,” Benson Boone (-2)
“Ordinary,” Alex Warren (debut)
“Love Somebody,” Morgan Wallen (+9)
“Pink Pony Club,” Chappell Roan (debut)
“God’s Plan,” Drake (-4)
“Slow It Down,” Benson Boone (-1)
“Stargazing,” Myles Smith (+1)
“Face 2 Face,” Juice WRLD (-1)
“Deja Vu,” Olivia Rodrigo (-7)
“Butterfly Effect,” Travis Scott (-4)
“Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma,” Luke Combs (=)
“Stressed Out,” Twenty One Pilots (+7)
“Drop!,” Forrest Frank (re-entry)
“Please Please Please,” Sabrina Carpenter (-4)
“Nothing Else,” Forrest Frank feat. Thomas Rhett (-12)
“Pink Skies,” Zach Bryan (re-entry)
“Thick of It,” KSI feat. Trippie Redd (-8)
“Heat Waves,” Glass Animals (-4)
“Too Sweet,” Hozier (-4)
“Let You Down,” NF (-3)
“Up!,” Forrest Frank & Connor Price (debut)
DROPS FROM MARCH 2025: “Golden Hour,” JVKE; “Abracadabra,” Lady Gaga; “Run It,” Jelly Roll; “Bones,” Imagine Dragons; “Saturn,” SZA; “Hope,” NF
JIN covered a lot of ground during his appearance on The Tonight Show Wednesday (May 21), from opening up about BTS‘ upcoming reunion to trying out his skills as a late-night host and chatting about … butts.
During one of the more serious moments from his interview with host Jimmy Fallon, the K-pop star reflected on his feelings about bandmates RM, Suga, V, Jimin and Jung Kook approaching the end of their respective military enlistments in South Korea, after which ARMY is expecting the guys to resume full-band activities as early as June. JIN completed his service in June 2024, while J-Hope finished in October.
“It was great to be alone,” said JIN, who released two solo EPs, Happy and Echo, during the band’s time apart. “But when they come back, since they worked very hard, I’m going to honor them and give them great respect.”
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“They are my lifesavers, so I need to show my appreciation and take care of them,” he added of his bandmates as fans in the audience went “Awwww.”
The remaining band members will be discharged in June, allowing all seven of the Bangtan Boys free to regroup for the first time since JIN enlisted in December 2022. BTS hasn’t released a proper studio album since 2020’s Be, which topped the Billboard 200.
Elsewhere in his conversation with the Saturday Night Live alum, JIN talked about his love for Tom Cruise, working on new EP Echo and gearing up to embark on his upcoming solo tour. One of the silliest moments, however, came as the performer switched places with Fallon, testing out his hosting capabilities behind the famous Tonight Show desk. “Thank you for coming to my show!” JIN quipped as Fallon laughed. “I am a superstar.”
JIN went on to pose a very important question to his “guest.” “Do you think we have one butt or two?” he asked a perplexed Fallon, who eventually answered that humans have just one butt.
“One? No!” the “Running Wild” singer hilariously replied, standing up from his seat before gesturing to his own tush in demonstration. “It’s left leg and right leg, and left, right — two!”
Also on the show, JIN performed “Don’t Say You Love Me,” transforming the show’s stage into a giant bed. In conversation with Fallon, he revealed that the track is about the tough feeling of knowing you need to break up with someone, but not having the heart to do it.
Watch JIN’s full Tonight Show interview above.
When Ye (formerly Kanye West) shared his “Alive” collaboration with YoungBoy Never Broke Again, which samples Playboi Carti’s “Crank,” to his Instagram on Wednesday (May 21), many thought it signaled a truce between West and the Opium frontman, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.
Shortly after the embattled rapper shared “Alive,” Carti dropped his version with YoungBoy and fired at Ye with his caption, claiming ownership of the track. “DIS MY SONG LIL BRA @ye,” he wrote in the since-deleted post.
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Billboard has reached out to the “Stronger” rapper’s camp for comment.
It’s unclear who had the track first, but streamer Sneako, who has been with Ye over the last month or so in Spain, claimed that it’s Yeezy’s and he made the beat for the track, which sounds like a sister of the blaring “New Slaves” from West’s Yeezus album.
“Ye made the beat, clearly,” claimed Sneako. “If you listen to Carti’s version, it’s not good.”
Ye — who has been criticized for his repeated hate speech the last few years — ended up releasing “Alive” on Apple Music on Thursday morning (May 22), while Carti and YoungBoy have remained quiet. It’s unclear whether Carti will take action, since “Alive” samples DJ Swamp Izzo’s version of “Alive,” which is featured as part of Playboi Carti’s “Crank” track.
Carti moved on quickly Wednesday and leaked another song titled “Some More” on Instagram, but that post was also deleted. YoungBoy even shared a solo track called “Finest,” so it ended up being a great day for hip-hop fans of the three artists.
There have been instances where Ye has had issues with sample clearances in the past, as tracks from his Vultures album were removed due to unauthorized use, including “Good (Don’t Die)” for a Donna Summers sample.
Yeezy and Playboi Carti’s relationship soured earlier this year when the Atlanta rapper left Ye off his Music album and opted to invite guests including Travis Scott and Kendrick Lamar into the fold.
“I DECIDED NORTH WONT BE DOING ANY SONGS WITH CARTI HOW IT LOOK FOR ME TO GET LEFT OFF THE ALBUM AND THEN HE ASK KIM TO HAVE VOCALS FROM MY DAUGHTER,” Ye wrote to X in March.
Carti’s response to that? “YE STFU.”
