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50 Cent is back at it. The Queens rapper and filmmaker continues to troll Diddy as the Harlem mogul’s sex trafficking trial heads into its second week. This time, he posted an AI-generated picture of himself on Instagram wearing a white “Free Diddy” shirt in front of a courthouse and followed that up with a […]
Fuerza Regida celebrates a dual win this week, as 111XPANTíA, the group’s ninth studio album, moves 2-1 on the Top Latin Albums chart (dated May 24) in its second week. The set also earns a second week at No. 1 on the Top Regional Mexican Albums chart, plus, it becomes the eighth album of the 2020s to simultaneously top both charts.
111XPANTíA rises to No. 1 on Top Latin Albums despite slipping to 43,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. (from 76,000 the week prior), that’s a 43% decline during the May 9-15 tracking week, according to Luminate. Of the set’s second-week sum, album sales contribute 6,000 units, down 85%, which prompts a 2-12 drop on the overall Top Album Sales chart.
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Things look brighter in the streaming sector, as the album generated 38,000 units, up 6%, representing 53.4 million official on-demand U.S. audio and video streams of the album’s tracks. That figure yields a 5-4 jump on the overall Top Streaming Albums chart, becoming Fuerza Regida’s highest-charting title there.
Thanks to 111XPANTíA landing at the summit, Fuerza Regida dethrones Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos’ 18-week run at No. 1. Plus, the group earns a second champ on Top Latin Albums, which began in 1993. It joins Pa’ Las Baby’s y Belikeada (three consecutive weeks at No. 1 in 2024).
111XPANTíA was released May 2 on Street Mob/Rancho Humilde/ Sony Music Latin. A deluxe version of the album followed immediately on May 5. The latter includes three new songs, two of which debut on the multi-metric Hot Latin Songs chart: “Como Tú” at No. 13 and “Lokita,” with Anuel AA, at No. 43. Meanwhile, “Marlboro Rojo,” from the original album, climbs 14-4 with the Greatest Gainer honors in streaming, after a 56% gain, to 7.4 million clicks in the U.S.
With the new dual coronation on Top Latin Albums and Top Regional Mexican Albums, 111XPANTíA becomes the eighth album of the 2020s to simultaneously claim the No. 1 spot on both charts. Alejandro Fernández was the first to achieve the feat, placing Hecho En México, his 16th studio album, at the summit on both rankings for one week in February 2020.
Here’s a recap of all the albums with concurrent reigns on Top Latin Albums and Top Regional Mexican Albums, at least for one week, this decade:
Album, Artist, Peak DateHecho En México, Alejandro Fernández, Feb. 29, 2020Vibras de Noche, Eslabon Armado, Aug. 1, 2020Desvelado, Eslabon Armado, May 13, 2023Génesis, Peso Pluma, July 8, 2023Pa Las Baby’s y Belikeada, Fuerza Regida, April 27, 2024Éxodo, Peso Pluma, Sept. 6, 2024Incómodo, Tito Double P, Oct. 5, 2024111XPANTIA, Fuerza Regida, May 24
Neil Young has had it with President Donald Trump, especially after the politician’s recent digs at Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift.
In a post on his website Tuesday (May 20), the “Heart of Gold” singer slammed Trump for being “out of control” with his comments about the Boss and “Fortnight” singer on Truth Social a few days prior. On the platform, the POTUS had called Springsteen “highly overrated” and “dumb as a rock,” while saying that Swift is “no longer ‘HOT.’”
“Bruce and thousands of musicians think you are ruining America,” Young wrote in response to the insults. “You worry about that instead of the dyin’ kids in Gaza. That’s your problem. I am not scared of you. Neither are the rest of us. You shut down FEMA when we needed it most. That’s your problem Trump. STOP THINKING ABOUT WHAT ROCKERS ARE SAYING. Think about saving America from the mess you made.”
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“Taylor Swift is right. So is Bruce,” the Canadian-American musician continued, referencing the Eras headliner and “Born in the U.S.A.” rock star’s history of opposing Trump’s policies. “You know how I feel. You are more worried about yourself than AMERICA. Wake up Trump.”
The post is far from the first time Young has criticized the president, calling Trump a “disgrace to my country” in a scathing 2020 open letter and later speaking out about his fear of being barred from re-entering the United States after his tour on the president’s orders. The “Old Man” artist’s latest takedown comes after Trump went on a roll with posts antagonizing musicians, starting with Swift on Friday (May 16). “Has anyone noticed that, since I said ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,’ she’s no longer ‘HOT?’” he wrote on Truth Social.
He then turned his attention to Springsteen. Incensed by the E Street band leader’s prior comments in Manchester about Trump’s administration being “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous,” the latter wrote of Springsteen on Truth Social, “Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK.”
But that was just the tip of the iceberg. A few days later, Trump returned to Truth Social to once again slam Springsteen, this time accusing him — as well as Beyoncé, Bono and Oprah Winfrey — of taking part in an “illegal election scam” run by Kamala Harris. “HOW MUCH DID KAMALA HARRIS PAY BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN FOR HIS POOR PERFORMANCE DURING HER CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT? … WHAT ABOUT BEYONCÉ?” he wrote at the time.
“I am going to call for a major investigation into this matter,” the president continued Monday. “Candidates aren’t allowed to pay for ENDORSEMENTS, which is what Kamala did, under the guise of paying for entertainment.”
There is no record of Harris paying money to any of the artists who endorsed her, and her campaign has denied doing so. That didn’t stop Trump from perpetuating the unsubstantiated claim to the contrary through his posts, something Young sees as a distraction from what’s really important.
“You are forgetting your real job,” Young concluded his post on his website Tuesday. “You work for us. Wake up Republicans! This guy is out of control. We need a real president!!”
NFL wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. is standing by his friend Chris Brown, who remains behind bars in a U.K. jail following his May 15 arrest. The former New York Giants superstar took to his Instagram Story early Tuesday (May 20), calling for CB’s freedom. “Free Breeeezyyy,” OBJ wrote. “The moral compass will never lie… […]
Universal Music Group (UMG) announced on Tuesday (May 20) that it will move its East Coast headquarters to Penn 2, a recently redeveloped building that sits on top of the transportation hub Penn Station. “Located in the heart of Midtown Manhattan and literally adjacent to Madison Square Garden, one of music’s most storied venues where […]
Joe Jonas and Aly & AJ are squashing all potential of “Potential Breakup Song” being about the DNCE frontman, with the trio reuniting in a hilarious TikTok posted Tuesday (May 20). In the clip on Jonas’ account, he mimes talking on the phone while singing the lyrics to the 2007 hit. “It took too long, […]
Kid Cudi is expected to testify as a witness in Diddy’s sex trafficking trial.
According to CNN, prosecutor Maurene Comey announced on Tuesday (May 20) that Cudi (born Scott Mescudi) will take the stand later this week.
Last week, during Cassie’s time on the stand, she testified that Diddy became irate and threatened to blow up Cudi’s car after learning she was dating the Cleveland-bred rapper in 2011.
“Too much danger, too much uncertainty of what could happen if we continued to see each other,” she reportedly said of why she ended things romantically with Cudi after a brief dating stint.
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“[Diddy] said he wanted Scott’s friends to see Scott’s car blown up,” Cassie added. “We met, [Diddy], [Kid Cudi] and me. [Kid Cudi] said, ‘What about my vehicle?’ And [Diddy] said, ‘What vehicle?’ And that was the end of the meeting.”
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Cassie’s bombshell 2023sexualabuse lawsuit against Combs accused Diddy of blowing up Kid Cudi’s car in his driveway after repeatedly threatening the “Day ‘n’ Nite” rapper. Reps for Cudi confirmed the car explosion to The New York Times.
Cassie’s mother, Regina Ventura, took the stand and claimed that Diddy demanded he be paid $20,000 for the money he spent on Cassie as he became enraged to find out she was dating Cudi.
According to Complex, Ventura took out a home equity loan to get Diddy the cash, but returned the money days later without an explanation.
An email sent from Cassie to her mom was reportedly shown in court, which accused Diddy of threatening to leak a pair of sex tapes featuring Cassie. “He is going to release two explicit tapes of me,” the 2011 email reportedly reads. “One on Christmas Day… Another one soon after that. He has also said that he will be having someone hurt me and Scott Mescudi physically.”
Kid Cudi’s testimony will follow George Kaplan, who was an employee of Diddy’s who quit after allegedly witnessing physical abuse. Cudi’s time on the stand could come on Wednesday (May 21) or Thursday (May 22).
Diddy is facing charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, and the Bad Boy mogul could be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty on all counts. The trial is expected to last into July.
If not for TikTok, Connie Francis‘ 1962 tinkly organ bop “Pretty Little Baby” may have been forever obscure. It was never a hit, and Francis, reached by phone at her Parkland, Fla., home, barely remembers recording it. “I had to listen to it to identify it,” admits the 87-year-old pop legend, who became the first woman to top the Billboard Hot 100 as a solo act in July 1960 with “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool,” one of her three Hot 100 No. 1s.
“Then, of course, I recognized the fact that I had done it in seven languages.”
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A friend recently informed Francis that “Pretty Little Baby” had turned up on TikTok as a “viral hit,” an upbeat soundtrack for people (including Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian) showing off babies, puppies, kittens and — befitting the lyric “you can ask the flowers” — flowers. Francis responded: “What’s that?” In a sense, TikTok is just a technological update of American Bandstand in the ’60s, when Dick Clark’s TV countdown regularly drew 8 million viewers and automatically turned songs into hits. “Without Dick Clark, there would have been no Connie Francis,” Francis says.
“Pretty Little Baby” was one of 40 songs Francis recorded during several recording sessions over four days in August 1961, according to her 2017 autobiography Among My Souvenirs: The Real Story Vol. 1. The track landed on her Connie Francis Sings Second Hand Love & Other Hits album.
On April 10, “Pretty Little Baby” was streaming 17,000 times per week in the U.S.; a month later, it was streaming 2.4 million times, an increase of more than 7,000%. The track has 10 billion TikTok views, hitting No. 1 on the app’s Viral 50 and Top 50 charts, and recently crossed over to streaming success, with 14 million global streams, landing at No. 67 on Spotify’s Global Top 100. Francis’ label, Universal Music, recently reissued the versions Francis had sung in Swedish, Japanese and other languages in 1962, when her label, MGM, hoped to score hits in regions outside the U.S.
Francis, who told Facebook followers in March she is awaiting stem cell therapy to treat a “troublesome painful hip,” discussed “Pretty Little Baby,” “Who’s Sorry Now,” Just In Time (the hit Broadway musical about her late onetime boyfriend Bobby Darin) and the domineering nature of her late Svengali father, George Franconero Sr. Of her newfound virality, she tells Billboard: “I’m getting calls from everywhere: ‘You’re a TikTok phenomenon.’”
Did the memory of recording “Pretty Little Baby” come back to you when you recently listened to the song?
Yes. I remembered after I heard it. It’s just a blessing to know that kindergarten kids know me and my music now. It’s really thrilling.
That song was on Connie Francis Sings Second Hand Love & Other Hits. Phil Spector co-wrote the title track.
Yes, it was Phil Spector’s first top 10 record.
What do you remember about working with him?
I didn’t work with him on it. He wasn’t even at the session.
Since you posted “What’s that?” on Facebook, have you learned about viral hits and TikTok?
Yes. [Laughs.] Now I know.
Have you seen Just In Time, in which Gracie Lawrence plays you on stage?
I’m planning on going to see it.
Lawrence told an interviewer at Nylon that the most difficult song of yours to sing is “Who’s Sorry Now,” from 1958. She said: “The balance of singing emotionally, going through the heartbreak she experiences every night, while also wanting to deliver a pitch-perfect performance is a really challenging task. It’s one I assume Connie herself was navigating while performing the song as well at the pinnacle of her career, and she’s just been put through the ringer emotionally behind the scenes. I think about that a lot.” Does that resonate with you?
Yes. It does resonate with me.
How did you get through that emotion when recording it?
I didn’t want to record the song. My father insisted that I record “Who’s Sorry Now.” I did three other songs at the session first, in the hopes of not being able to get to “Who’s Sorry Now” in the four-hour time allotted to me. I had 16 minutes left in the session and I said, “That’s a wrap, fellas, there’s no time for ‘Who’s Sorry Now.’” My father said, “If I have to nail you to that microphone, you’re going to do at least one take of ‘Who’s Sorry Now.’” So that’s what I did — one take of “Who’s Sorry Now.” And I didn’t try to imitate anybody else, as I always had on my recordings. By the time I was 14, I did demonstration records, and a publisher would say, “Connie, give us some of that great Patti Page sound, give me some of that great Kay Starr sound, give me some of that great Teresa Brewer sound.” I didn’t have a style of my own yet. But on “Who’s Sorry Now,” I was so turned off on the song that I didn’t try to imitate anybody else. I just sounded like myself for the first time. And it was a hit.
So not only was that a breakthrough on the charts, it was a breakthrough for you creatively.
Yes, it was.
You described in your book the “arduous work” to drive between radio stations and record hops in different cities, “from one dreary, depressing $3 or $4 a day hotel room to the next.” When did that dreary, depressing part of your career come to an end?
It came to an end with “Who’s Sorry Now.” I didn’t have to worry about staying in $4-a-night hotels.
You wrote in your book: “Bobby wasn’t merely a person, he was an experience.” If an actor and actress were to reach out for suggestions on how to play both you and Mr. Darin, what advice would you give them?
Well, Bobby was very cool. And I was very naive. When he said, “I dig,” I said, “You do? For what sort of company? Oil?”
What plans do you have to promote “Pretty Little Baby”? Interviews? Appearances?
I don’t feel like going on the road.
TV shows?
Yes, I’ll do TV.
What do you miss about the music business?
I miss the stage.
Is there ever an opportunity for you to perform again?
Those days are over. That ship has sailed.
For health reasons? Or too difficult logistically?
For a variety of reasons. It’s too much work.
Anything else you want to say to your new “Pretty Little Baby” fans?
I want to thank everybody. It gives me a new lease on life.
Megan Thee Stallion is saying anything but “we can’t be friends” to Ariana Grande, whom the rapper said she’s eager to collaborate with again following the success of their “34+35” remix.
In a game of “Truth or Wear” for Who What Wear — the cover of which she appeared on Monday (May 19) — Meg had an immediate answer when challenged to name her dream duet partner. “I would probably have to say Ariana Grande,” the Houston Hottie said.
“I collabed with her one time, but now that I’m in a new space with music and such — and I feel like she’s in a new space with her life and her music,” she continued. “I would really like to see what we would come up with right now.”
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It’s been about four years since Thee Stallion and the Wicked star last teamed up, joining forces for a remix of Grande’s Positions single “34 + 35” with Doja Cat. After the two rappers added to the track, it reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Meg and the “Yes, And?” singer have been tight ever since, with Grande writing, “I adore @theestallion” on Instagram last year after the hip-hop star emphasized the importance of voting in the presidential election in her Billboard cover story.
For WWW, Meg reciprocated the love — “That’s my girl, that’s my queen,” she said of Grande — before setting things into motion. “Ariana!” the “HISS” artist said into the camera. “Call me.”
The interview follows the release of Thee Stallion’s new single, “Whenever,” which dropped in late April. This week, she also unveiled her new swimsuit collection with Walmart.
The past few days, however, have also presented some less pleasant news for the “Savage” spitfire; as rappers including Drake and Ye have started petitioning for the release of Tory Lanez, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted in December 2022 of shooting Meg in the foot three years prior, Lanez’s lawyers have claimed new evidence has surfaced proving he wasn’t the one who shot her. In response, Meg wrote in a post on TikTok Monday (May 19), “Ain’t no new f–king evidence yall been saying the same s–t for years … TORY PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE you are a f–king demon.”
Watch Meg reveal Grande as her dream collaborator above.
Phil Pulitano was deep into an ayahuasca ceremony when he knew definitively that it was time to move on from his longtime professional post.
In 2008, Pulitano co-founded the BPM festival, a January gathering of dance industry professionals — named for “bartenders, promoters, musicians” — that over the years grew into one of the electronic scene’s premiere indie festivals. During its nine-year tenure in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, the event drew tens of thousands of fans and a perpetually strong collection of techno, minimal and house music producers and DJs.
Then in 2017, a shooting in a club adjacent to the festival left one person dead, made the threat of violence painfully real and effectively forced BPM out of town. A message spray painted in town read in Spanish that “This is to show that we are here, for not falling in line, Phillip-BPM. This is the beginning.” The message was signed by the Zetas drug cartel.
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“In 90 seconds, our lives completely changed,” says Pulitano says over Zoom from his home in Ibiza. “We went from being [on the verge of] a 50% buyout for $40 million to having to pick up one of our security guards and dear friends off the ground after he was shot.” While BPM continued its expansion plans, hosting editions in locations including Portugal and Tel Aviv, Israel and eventually finding a new permanent home in Tamarindo, Costa Rica, the 2017 attack was ultimately the first in a series of unfortunate events.
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After its 2020 debut Costa Rica edition, the 2021 festival was cancelled due to the pandemic. Then in 2022, BPM was forced to cancel 30 hours before it was set to begin due to emergency covid restrictions put in place by the government that banned large gatherings. BPM organizers got this news after roughly 7,000 people, half of the total attendees, had already arrived to town for the event. While the team was able to host several smaller, renegade parties on nearby private land, Pulitano says the situation was “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” creating a financial blow that cost BPM millions.
The situation was compounded when the event’s ticketing company did not make good on its promise to refund the event’s 14,000 would be attendees, forcing Pulitano and his business partner, fellow Canadian and BPM co-founder Craig Pettigrew, to come up with the money to pay everyone back. Pulitano says his relationship with Pettigrew deteriorated under the strain. But “I couldn’t even walk away if I wanted,” he says. “My name was involved and people hadn’t received their ticket money back.”
BPM 2023 created an opportunity for the company to recoup funds and pay off debts, despite it being the smallest ever edition of the festival, hosting roughly 3,800 people. Pulitano was proud of the festival but felt the brand had lost credibility. He also knew his stress about it all was also stressing out his then pregnant wife. As the dancefloors at this 2023 edition heaved with party people, Pulitano looked on knowing it would be his last time with BPM.
He’d by then participated in a pair of ayahuasca ceremonies — an ancient Indigenous ritual during which participants drink a psychedelic brew made of boiled leaves and vine and which Pulitano refers to by the colloquial term “plant medicine” — and found certainty and inspiration in the experiences. “I needed to do my own thing,” he says. “I had these sketches. I came up with a new idea.”
Phil Pulitano
Courtesy of Phil Pulitano
That idea is The Fifth Element, a festival Pulitano is producing this January in the Puerto Rican rainforest. As with BPM, the center of the seven-day event will be techno and minimal music. But the real nexus of The Fifth Element Pulitano says, will be deep meaning, spirituality and elevated vibes.
“I knew I needed to figure out a way to create a hybrid experience in dance culture,” Pulitano says. “Not going for a super hippie vibe that plant medicine can be… but doing something that’s in service and creates a bit more awareness and brings more consciousness to what we’re doing.”
In practical terms, this will involve bringing a crowd of roughly 4,000 attendees and 60 or so artists to the currently undisclosed site in the Puerto Rican rainforest. (This site has some infrastructure including a restaurant and ATV and horseback riding facilities, and while in nature, is not in a particularly dense or remote area of the rainforest.) Puerto Rico is in fact where BPM had hoped to relocate to in 2018, although these plans were set aside when a devastating hurricane hit the island in August of that year. With rainforests being sensitive ecosystems, Pulitano says The Fifth Element will be strictly leave no trace and also provide opportunities to participate in beach cleanups.
Pulitano says the goal is to book artists who “want to come and experience something more as well, not just come in out and just and make money and leave.” Set times for the event’s two stages will not be publicly announced. “Your journey starts when you arrive,” says Pulitano.
Programming will also include yoga, culinary experiences, art and ritual. (Pulitano advises that The Fifth Element “is not a plant medicine event, but it is a consciousness event.”) His staff of nine even includes shaman to advise on spiritual concerns. He foresees rituals like smudging happening on the dancefloor, and altogether hopes to create an experience with greater depth and purpose than escapist partying and revenue. The seven days will be structured with an “opening ceremony ritual” at the beginning before gradually ramping up the music, and then winding down into ritual in the latter part of the week.
The Fifth Element is being marketed towards socially conscious, experience hungry, wellness driven and reasonably well-moneyed attendees looking for bespoke experiences hat are more unique than most large-scale corporate events. (Funding for The Fifth Element is coming from a private investor.)
Altogether, he says the event “is something that’s giving me the same feeling I had when we created BPM back in 2008 and that [we had] in Mexico.” (He now refers to Pettigrew as his “ex partner,” says the two are not speaking and that his agreement to be bought out of BPM is currently “in a court situation.” He adds that the BPM brand was “destroyed” after the 2025 event was cancelled last minute due to permitting issues. The festival has to date not announced plans for a 2026 edition.)
But with his ceremonial visions now taking material form, Pulitano says he’s again feeling a passion that he personally partially lost after the 2017 shooting. It’s a concept he hopes will inject some heart into the dance world at large.
“I think that the scene has become this crazy bubble where the fees are too high for artists, which then ultimately fall back on the promoter, then the then the ticket buyer,” he says. “I feel like it’s losing its essence this way. There’s really no soul behind it. What we’re trying to create is something with soul and love and unity, that’s trying to find purpose within the chaos.”
