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Much has been made of the Drake and Kendrick Lamar feud of 2024, and Xzibit has chimed in with some thoughts on the historic battle, as well as what’s fair when embroiled in a rap beef.
The West Coast rapper joined Bill Maher’s Club Random Podcast earlier this week, and X made it clear he’s backing Lamar in the feud.
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“What you’re seeing and why people are celebrating it so much is that this big, huge machine and this so-called rapper from Compton,” he said. “Yes, he has success, but he’s not as big as his [Drake].”
Maher was focused on getting Xzibit’s thoughts on Lamar calling Drake a “pedophile” on his Grammy-winning anthem “Not Like Us” and performing the track during his Super Bowl Halftime Show.
“This is a rap battle,” X pleaded. “This is not a testimony or deposition. This is a f—ing rap battle. I’m going to talk about your mama, your daddy, your children, your grandma’s wooden leg, your missing teeth. It’s all a game.”
However, Xzibit appears to say that if the pedophile allegations made in “Not Like Us” were true, there would be cases and lawsuits against Drake tied up in the court system.
“But I never saw anything that proved he was a pedophile. There’s been no court, there’s been nobody brought any cases against him,” X added. “If there was something weird going on, then there would definitely be people that would come forward and testify, and then people would be charged for that.”
Maher didn’t understand where the allegations against Drake stemmed from, and Xzibit pointed to the “Hotline Bling” artist’s friendship with actress Millie Bobby Brown.
“But when you’re playing the dozens, and I give you one that hurts your feelings, don’t be the guy who wants to fight because I got a good joke,” Xzibit said, defending Lamar.
But it seems the Pimp My Ride alum isn’t supporting Drake’s defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group over “Not Like Us.” (The label has denied the allegations made by Drake, slammed the suit as “illogical” and “frivolous.”)
“But he’s basically saying that you did something for someone else that you used to do for me, and here’s how I know,” X stated. “And I’m blowing a whistle now — but that’s not true. Like, the world loves that song.”
Drake reached a settlement with iHeartMedia over an airplay dispute surrounding “Not Like Us” earlier this week. Drizzy had alleged that iHeartMedia received illegal payments from Universal Music Group to boost the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit’s airplay.
Watch the full interview with Xzibit below.
It feels like almost as soon as Taylor Swift started dating Travis Kelce, the conversation turned to whether wedding bells were in the superstar couple’s future. Well, one person who’s never afraid to share his opinion has officially weighed in on the hot topic. ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith appeared on The Tonight Show Starring […]
In August 2022, Contemporary Christian Music mainstay TobyMac issued a project, Life After Death, that found the singer-songwriter wrestling with the emotional turmoil that followed the death of his 21-year-old son, Truett, in 2019.
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Nearly three years removed from Life After Death, the 14-time Billboard Christian Airplay solo chart-topper returns with his ninth solo studio album, Heaven on My Mind, on Friday (March 7) via Forefront/Capitol Christian Music Group. The new album finds him discovering a new equilibrium, while continuing to honor the sense of loss.
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“My last record was just facing things no one should have to face… the deepest, heart-crushing you could ever have in losing my first-born son, but I felt like this record was me gaining my footing a bit. Realizing, ‘Okay, I can breathe, and I can get my fist up in the air about things I believe in,’” the seven-time Grammy winner tells Billboard.
As with Life After Death, TobyMac turned to songwriting as an outlet to process this new life season, saying, “I’m a songwriter first and foremost. I’m a songwriter disguised as a pop artist.”
The album’s central theme is perhaps embodied in his uplifting, most recent Christian Airplay chart-topper “Nothin’ Sweeter.”
“I wanted to summarize a little bit that life is full of twists and turns and that I have seen a lot of it, and I’ve seen the sweetest parts of it, the best parts of it, and I’ve seen some really tough parts, and I landed on my feet was the goodness of God.”
TobyMac has weathered a few heartbreaking moments in recent years — not only the passing of his son, but the death of close friend and longtime associate Gabriel Patillo, who died in April 2024 following a battle with cancer. Patillo was a member of TobyMac’s Diverse City Band and an entertainer who had worked alongside TobyMac for 25 years, after first joining as a dancer when TobyMac was part of DC Talk.
He pays homage to Patillo on a pair of songs on the album: the folk-oriented “Campfire (That Very Love)” was written as a plea of healing, followed by the tender tribute “Goodbye (For Gabe).”
“Gabe was the heartbeat of Diverse City. We did everything together,” TobyMac recalls. “The backstage culture that we were always striving to create on our tours, Gabe and I came up with that together — how do we make backstage not competitive? How do we make it a community? How do we make it to where we’re praying for each other, hoping for each other, and cheering for each other when we’re on stage versus feeling competitive? My philosophy is that a healthy [environment] backstage leads to a healthy [environment] on stage. It made the shows stronger, more powerful. We produced every show together, wrote songs together, and he helped me think through everything. He was just my right-hand man for everything that I do.”
Determination and a refusal to lose hope pulsate through the album on songs such as the resolute anthem “Can’t Stop Me” (which feels reminiscent of TobyMac’s days as part of the 1990s CCM rock/rap group DC Talk) and the triumphant “God Did It.” Elsewhere, on “A Lil Church (Nobody’s Too Lost),” which is rising on the Hot Christian Songs chart, he seeks to redefine boxed-in assumptions of what a church can be—focusing more on community over stained-glass windows and towering buildings.
He initially had a current country music hitmaker in mind for “A Lil’ Church.” “I had Jelly Roll in my head, just because we’ve texted a bit here and there. I always wanted to hear him on it, maybe one day I will. That would be awesome,” TobyMac says.
“Rearview,” featuring Gospel artist-writer-producer Juan Winans, touches on coping with regrets.
“Juan wrote his verse, and I wrote mine,” he recalls. “We wanted to write it authentically so we each took a verse. I think regret is something that I struggle with. I look back like, ‘Should I have done this differently? Should I have done that differently?’ it can really imprison you. I tried to look into the things that trouble me, [and] into the things that empower me or make me feel like I can overcome.”
Outside of his work as an arena-headlining artist, TobyMac was part of the team that launched Gotee Records in 1994, developing it into a prominent label home, with a current roster that includes not only Terrian, but also Jon Reddick, Cochren & Co. and more. The label was recently acquired by global company Bell Partners.
“Partnering with a bigger company, we can put twice the power behind our artists,” TobyMac says. “I’m still doing A&R, still developing artists for Gotee. I made sure I could still do that. As a guy that’s had a label for 25 years, if I didn’t think this would serve our artistry in a greater way, there’s no way I would have done it. It’s nice to know that we have a partner where anything we dream of, we can go after it.”
While Contemporary Christian Music is growing domestically, the deal with Bell brings with it the benefit that it “is powerful in other parts of the world where it’s tough for us to get there and to be represented well,” he says. “I’m excited about the growth of our industry internationally. I feel like it’s absolutely moving in the right direction, and I look forward to what we can do with Bell.”
Gotee recording artist and former Diverse City bandmember Terrian, who released her own debut album in 2024, joins on “Resist (Keep the Devil Away).” Terrian is also opening shows on TobyMac’s current Hits Deep Tour.
“When we signed Terrian to a record deal, we started making songs on her right away and she started touring with Diverse City,” TobyMac says. “The plan was always for her to fly and do her own thing. This is the first tour I’ve done right now without Terrian in the band and she’s out there opening shows because I’m super proud of her and want to give her all the help I can to increase the foundation of what she’s doing as an artist. I love developing young artists, walking alongside them, and helping them gain their own vision for their artistry.”
His album finds its center in creating music of a scope both deeply personal and universal.
“I call it the good, the bad, the ugly of my life. Those just end up on the pages of my lyric notebook,” he says. “We’re all facing some relationships going great, and some relationships that are struggling and there are deep valleys. If I write from my life and I’m experiencing all those things, I find that people relate to it. It resonates with people because we’re not that different from each other.”
Dolly Parton has spoken out with another statement following the death of her husband of 60 years, Carl Dean. In a message posted to her Instagram Thursday (March 6) — about three days after she first revealed the Nashville businessman’s passing at the age of 82 — the country superstar wrote, “This is a love […]
Though Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan just kicked off their eighth season behind the iconic American Idol judge’s desk, they told Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday night (March 5) that newcomer Carrie Underwood is already shaking things up just one week into her tenure.
“She was the number one at the beginning,” Richie said of Underwood, 41, who memorably won the fourth season of the show when she was 21 and said she still has her “14887” contestant sticker from her audition. Asked what it’s like to have an OG Idol on the show, pop icon Richie said their new partner is a “jukebox… she knows every song that the contestants are singing,” joking that Underwood can’t help joining in.
“I go Carrie, ‘they’re competing. It’s not you. You already won,’” Richie joked, as Underwood defended herself by explaining that if a nervous contestant flubs a lyric she is happy to be their human “Teleprompter. I got you. I will help you.”
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As for whether contestants still try to “butter up” the panel by covering their songs, Underwood said they’ve all had it happen so far, for good or ill. “They think it’s to compliment us, but some days we’re just praying, ‘Please God, just let them be able to sing it.’ And sometimes they nail it and sometimes it goes south real fast,” Richie admitted.
Replacing fan favorite Katy Perry, Underwood appears to have slipped into the pump-up pal seat with no hiccups. Richie said the country star immediately said yes to the first singer the panel saw, then again for the second one, only to reach a crossroads for singer number three out of nearly 200. “Luke and I were laughing, ‘well, she’s gotta say no,’” Richie recalled. “And she said, ‘well, she’s so cute… she’s so adorable.’ I said, ‘the answer is no!’”
“I care a lot and it’s people’s hopes and dreams,” Underwood said in her defense. “I’m trying to evaluate, ‘is there more in there,’” she added, as Richie flashed some performative exasperation at his co-star’s gentle nature. “There was not any more in that woman’s [inaudible]… it was a firm ‘no,’” Bryan said.
Asked if some of the singers get nervous in front of the superstar panel, Bryan said he’s basically become an amateur psychologist at this point. “I can read a fainter when they’re about to faint… we had one kid and I went behind him and kind of patted him down and he was 157 degrees, his body temperature,” he said.
The trio kicked off their visit with a competitive, trash-dancing showdown in the “Name That Song Challenge,” during which Bryan and Richie faced off against Underwood and Fallon. Racing to guess which instrumental versions of pop songs house band the Roots were playing while adding one instrument at a time, UnderFallon shot out to an early lead when the host quickly guessed Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.”
Fallon rubbed in his correct guess with a hip-shaking dance and impromptu duet with Underwood, cheekily asking his rivals, “isn’t this the best game ever?” A not-amused Richie rolled his eyes and shot back sarcastically, “this is so much fun,” with Bryan pointing to the other team and saying, “she’s a jukebox and all you do [Fallon] is listen to music!”
The next one was trickier, with Fallon incorrectly guessing the Commodores’ “Brick House,” as the band’s former singer Richie snagged the obvious answer: the Jackson 5’s “ABC,” which set him and Bryan off on their own touchdown dance routine. They all struggled with the third track, with Fallon finally humming out Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” for the win, then fanning himself theatrically.
After Underwood nailed Huey Lewis & the News’ “Power of Love” to Bryan’s chagrin, Richie rocked back with a correct guess on Heart’s “Barracuda,” setting off a friendly twin air guitar solo with Fallon that lead to a celebratory couple’s waltz for the team that correctly guessed the last song. American Idol airs at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday (March 9) on ABC.
Click below to find out who won the guessing game and to hear Underwood, Bryan and Richie talk about the new season of Idol.
Cam’ron isn’t one to look back on his career, as he’s typically focused on the business moves ahead. However, during an episode of Talk With Flee on March 4, Cam talked about artists he wished he had collaborated with over the years.
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After mulling over it for a few seconds, the Dipset rapper admitted he would’ve loved to bar up on a track with Eminem as well as fellow New York legend Nas. “There was a time, probably when we first came out in the late ’90s, early ’00s, I wanted to work with Eminem when his career was taking off and my career with Dipset was taking off,” he said. “I wanted to do a record with Eminem because he’s super-duper lyrical.”
Cam continued: “I can be super-duper lyrical. I dumb a lot of my s–t down for my audience, but I thought that would have been a sensational record. The other person would be Nas. That would be the other artist I would have loved to work with at one time.”
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With Em and Nas still rapping in 2025, the dream’s not dead yet for Cam, although it would probably feel a lot different than the record fans would’ve received in the 2000s.
Cam has always held Eminem in high regard as one of rap’s best. “Is Eminem one of the best rappers? Yes, Eminem is one of the best rappers,” he said in an Instagram video last April. “Look, what happens is, a lot of people say Eminem don’t be saying nothing, he just putting words together or whatever, but you gotta realize you gotta do what works for you.”
Killa added: “If that works for Eminem, for him to make all the money he made and the Grammys and awards, he so rich that he can’t come outside by himself, then that just works for Eminem.”
While Cam and Em might not hit the studio, they may be appearing on the screen in Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore 2. “Put the whole team in da movie. #HappyGilmore2,” Cam captioned a social media post, hinting at his involvement. Sandler has previously confirmed Em’s cameo in the upcoming film.
Watch the clip of Cam’ron below. Talk about his missed collaborations with Eminem and Nas takes place around the 48-minute mark.
Millie Bobby Brown isn’t standing for any misconceptions about how meticulously Taylor Swift curates her albums, not even from The Electric State costar Chris Pratt.
In a new video posted by Netflix and the Jurassic World star on Instagram Wednesday (March 5), the two actors debate who had it better: teenagers in the ’90s or modern-day adolescents. Their biggest disagreement came, however, when it came to music, with the Enola Holmes leading lady aghast to find that teens had to listen to songs in the order they appeared on albums three decades or so ago.
“If I didn’t want to listen to ‘It’s Your Thing,’ I would have to fast-forward through all of ‘It’s Your Thing’ to get to ‘Dreams to Remember’?” she said while inspecting a cassette tape loaded into a Walkman. “That’s horrible!”
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Pratt then mused pointedly, “There was once a time where artists who made tapes, they curated their music into a very intentional list.”
“No, that’s not true, Chris,” the Stranger Things actress vehemently interjected. “Taylor Swift curates her album from start to finish.”
“You don’t have to listen to her album that way,” Pratt countered. “You can go on Spotify and hit shuffle and listen to it however the AI decides.”
Brown then finished the argument by insisting passionately, “A true Swiftie wouldn’t.”
“You don’t understand,” she added to the Parks & Recreation alum.
In the clip, Brown and Pratt also compared and contrasted Polaroid cameras with iPhone selfies, as well as inspected a 30-year-old answering machine. The inspiration for the video came from the 1990s setting of The Electric State, which arrives on Netflix March 14.
The spirited debate is also far from the first time Brown has demonstrated her fandom of the “Anti-Hero” singer. While on The Kelly Clarkson Show in March last year, the actress dubbed herself a “hardcore Swiftie to the point of knowing “exactly where [Swift] is at all times.”
“I went to the Eras Tour and it was just … it was the most amazing experience,” she gushed at the time. “So when I went to my show — I went to Ohio, I flew there solely for Taylor — and she played ‘Evermore’ and I collapsed to the ground. It was pretty crazy.”
Watch Brown and Pratt discuss Swift’s album-curation skills below.
Jesy Nelson is overjoyed to be expecting identical twins, but in a video, she and boyfriend Zion Foster revealed that the pregnancy has also come with some scary complications.
In the emotional clip posted to Instagram Wednesday (March 5), the Little Mix alum opened up about the medical concerns she’s currently facing when it comes to her babies, who, she revealed, are monochorionic/diamniotic twins — meaning they share a placenta while having separate amniotic sacs, according to Columbia University. “Normally, most twins will have two placentas that they feed off of, but when you have mono/di twins, that means your twins live off one placenta, which can lead to lots of complications,” Nelson explained, addressing the camera while sitting next to her partner.
“One baby might take all the nutrients, the other might, which — really awful to say — could lead to both babies dying,” the singer continued, fighting back tears as Foster comforted her by rubbing her arm affectionately. “At the moment, I am currently pre-stage TTTS, which is twin-to-twin transfusion. I’m being monitored very closely, I have to go be scanned twice a week.”
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John Hopkins Medicine defines twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, or TTTS, as a rare pregnancy condition that affects identical twins when their shared network of blood vessels in the placenta is imbalanced. One twin might give away more blood than it receives, risking malnourishment and organ failure, while the other twin might receive too much blood and become “susceptible to overwork of the heart and other cardiac complications.”
In Nelson’s case, she says the condition has “gotten a little bit worse” every time she’s gone to the doctor for a scan. “But we are just hoping and praying for the best,” she added as Foster nodded. “We feel really blessed that we’ve been given twins. It’s just really sad that, unfortunately, it comes with these complications, which we had no idea about.”
She added, “We just really want to raise awareness about this, because there’s so many people that don’t know about this.”
The couple’s update comes close to two months after the “Boyz” artist first revealed on Instagram that she was expecting not one, but two babies with Foster. In a joint post showing off Nelson’s baby bump, the pair wrote, “She’s eating for 3 now.”
Nelson and Foster have reportedly been dating on and off since January 2022. In August, they released a song together titled “Mine.”
Watch Nelson open up about her pregnancy complications below.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis is speaking out from behind bars as he faces a murder charge for the 1996 shooting death of Tupac Shakur.
Davis, who pleaded not guilty, has remained at Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas since his September 2023 arrest, and he has now given ABC News his first-ever interview since being arrested.
“I’m innocent,” he said in the sit-down, which aired Thursday (March 6) on Good Morning America. “I did everything they asked me to do. Get new friends. Stop selling drugs. I stopped all that. I’m supposed to be out there enjoying my twilight at one of my f—ing grandson’s football games and basketball games. Enjoying life with my kids.”
2Pac’s murder remained a cold case until Davis’ 2023 arrest nearly 27 years after the legendary Death Row rapper was gunned down in Las Vegas. Still, the former Crips gang member, who prosecutors believe was the “shot caller” to orchestrate the hit on Pac, is confident he’ll be found not guilty.
“I did not do it,” he insisted during the interview. “They don’t have nothing. And they know they don’t have nothing. They can’t even place me out here. They don’t have no gun, no car, no Keffe D, no nothing.”
Davis claims he was hundreds of miles away when the 2Pac shooting took place, and said he’ll have about “20 or 30 people” coming to court to corroborate his alibi.
He spoken about his alleged involvement in Pac’s murder in the past, as he’s given his account in numerous interviews as well as his 2019 Compton Street Legend memoir. However, back in 2008, Davis allegedly agreed to a proffer agreement with authorities connected to an L.A. task force, which would have granted him immunity from being prosecuted in the case.
Per ABC News, he once again admitted his alleged role in Pac’s murder a year later to detectives in Las Vegas, but they were not required to honor any previous agreements.
A Clark County District Court judge ruled in January that Davis had not shown proof of any immunity deals. He’s repeatedly been denied bail.
Shakur was shot on Sept. 7, 1996, in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. Authorities believe Davis orchestrated the hit with others in the car following a brawl at the MGM Grand casino.
Davis was arrested in September 2023 and has been charged with first degree murder. He will head to trial in February 2026.
Watch Davis’ interview with ABC News above.
There are a few things you can count on from former and once-again Oasis singer Liam Gallagher: a sneering deliver and jokes. So many jokes. Just 120 days until the July 4 kick-off of one of the most anticipated rock reunions in ages, Gallagher hopped on X on Wednesday (March 5) to finally reveal who […]
