Music
Page: 87
Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock’s Wildest Festival is an upcoming oral history about the Lollapalooza festival, from its genesis as a farewell tour for Jane’s Addiction in 1991 to becoming a counterculture touchstone by the end of the decade. The book comes out March 25 on St. Martin’s Press. Written by veteran music journalists Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour, it includes interviews with more than 200 people, including the fest’s organizers, bands, stage crews, promoters and more.
Excerpted from LOLLAPALOOZA: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock’s Wildest Festival by Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour © 2025 by the authors and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Press.
Trending on Billboard
Lollapalooza by Richard Bienstock & Tm Beaujour
St. Martin’s Press
TED GARDNER (manager, Jane’s Addiction; cofounder, Lollapalooza) The genesis of it all was that Perry decided that Jane’s Addiction was gonna break up.
GREG KOT (music critic, Chicago Tribune) It was well known that they were not loving each other as a band at that point.
STUART ROSS (tour director, Lollapalooza) I don’t believe that Perry felt that the trajectory of the band versus the extracurricular activities of the band were sustainable. And when Perry decided to break the band up, he was very specific that he wanted them to go out on a high note, rather than fade into obscurity.
NIKKI GARDNER (assistant to Ted Gardner; special groups coordinator, Lollapalooza) Lollapalooza would be their big farewell, with a bunch of bands getting together to celebrate the end of Jane’s Addiction.
STEVE KNOPPER (editor at large, Billboard magazine) It’s actually a canceled appearance at the 1990 Reading Festival that sparks the whole thing. Which is kind of funny to think about—that a show that doesn’t even happen leads to something so much bigger.
MARC GEIGER (agent; cofounder, Lollapalooza) Jane’s is playing the Reading Festival, and they have a warm-up club show. It’s a tiny club. Can’t remember the name of it. It was about 180 degrees inside. The walls were sweating. Simon Le Bon’s in the club. Everybody who’s somebody made it to that show for Jane’s Addiction. It was an amazing show.
CARLTON SANDERCOCK (owner, Easy Action Records; Jane’s Addiction superfan) It was a club called Subterania, underneath a flyover in West London. Jane’s Addiction, prior to that point, were cult in the UK, but by summer of 1990 they were a big band, and for our small group of people who were crazy about them, to see them in a club like Subterania was a f-cking big deal.
DAVE NAVARRO (guitarist, Jane’s Addiction) I totally remember that show at Subterania, and I’ll tell you why. I was a big heroin user back then, and the day before, I had hooked up with a bunch of street kids that knew where to cop. We got ahold of a bunch of dope and ended up going to a squatters’ flat in an abandoned building.
So me and a couple of these street kids were getting high, and somewhere along the line, I overdosed. And then all the kids that were living there, except my one friend, split, because they didn’t want to have a body on their hands. They all ran away, and my friend called an ambulance and dragged me down a flight of stairs to put me on the street corner to hopefully have an ambulance come and pick me up. And he said that when he pulled my body up to lean against a street sign, I started coughing. I had come back. So he had to pull me back up the flight of stairs and watch through the window as the paramedics were looking for whatever it is they were looking for. And they never found it and they went away.
I remember coming to the next day, somewhere in the afternoon. And my friend was perched over me, saying, “Dave! Dave! You were dead! You were dead last night!” I was completely confused. And the first thing I said to him was, “Is there any more dope left?” So my next move was to get high again, which is insane.
Then I realized that the Subterania show was that night. I looked at the clock, it was at four or five in the afternoon, and I think I had missed sound check. And this was before cell phones and computers. So I had to somehow find the venue, and I think I made my way there maybe twenty minutes before we were supposed to go on. Just before the show I was completely asleep, and someone had to tap me on the shoulder and say, “It’s time.” So I went from an immediate drug-induced sleep to being onstage. And then we played, the show went great, and everybody had a good time.
STEPHEN PERKINS (drummer, Jane’s Addiction) I tell you, man, nothing is better than playing to a roomful of people that want your music. They know the lyrics, they’re there for you. There’s a union. And Perry, he’s a shaman when he’s up there. You can go into the room and let him take you somewhere.
CARLTON SANDERCOCK I just remember the f-cking heat.
MARC GEIGER It was cool outside, hot in the club. Perry went outside after the show, caught a cold, lost his voice. Perry wakes up in the morning, the band cancels because he can’t sing.
PERRY FARRELL I got too f-cked up. So I didn’t make it to Reading. My voice was just shot.
DAVE NAVARRO I felt bad for Perry, of course, because no one wants to get injured like that. But I remember a sigh of relief coming over me that I could just go back to my hotel room instead of to Reading.
MARC GEIGER Stephen and I go, “F-ck it. We’re going down to the fes- tival anyway. We’re going to have a good time.” We went all three days. There’s a thousand bands: The Pixies, who were friends and my client, and were ruling the UK at the time. Inspiral Carpets were my client. The Fall was a client. And we had such a good time hanging with all of them. Stephen and I said, “This is what we should do in America.” A camara- derie of all these cool alternative bands.
STEPHEN PERKINS We knew the music was growing. We knew X and Black Flag and the Minutemen, all the bands that inspired us, they had hit the ceiling. But when we saw what was happening at Reading, there was the sense that there’s something about this music that’s not being shown or heard yet. And we knew the audience was there and ready for it. To have that eclectic day, eclectic night, that experience where the genres kind of just melt together and the fans are there.
MARC GEIGER They didn’t have this in America. So we went back to the hotel, and we described our day at Reading. With Jane’s, Perry had said, “We’re breaking up the band. We want to do something magical for our last tour.” So at that point, I described what I thought a format should be, and I said, “I think we should bring seven bands. Everybody should pick a band.” I literally just threw it out there, and everybody started picking bands. I was like a waiter taking orders, including my own. I think Dave picked Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Eric picked the Butthole Surfers . . .
ERIC AVERY (bassist, Jane’s Addiction) I was a huge Butthole Surfers fan.
MARC GEIGER . . . and Perry picked Ice-T, and I picked the Pixies and Nine Inch Nails, and Stephen picked Rollins, I want to say.
DON MULLER (agent; cofounder, Lollapalooza) They came back from the UK and said, “What do you think? Can we do this?”
MARC GEIGER When I went to contact the bands, everyone said yes. Except the Pixies.
JOEY SANTIAGO (guitarist, Pixies) That probably sounds like something stupid that we would do. I mean, we should have done it. Because we worked with one of the founders—he was our agent. So it’s like, “F-ck, why didn’t we do it?”
MARC GEIGER So then the Pixies choice eventually evolved into Living Colour. Great rock band. And they had the only hit record out of the whole bunch.
DAVE NAVARRO My first memory of hearing about the festival was in our rehearsal space. I wasn’t very coherent for the days prior, but that conversation didn’t happen until we were well back in Los Angeles. We were in this dingy little studio, and we kind of threw names around of who would be good to be on it. I just thought it was going to be another festival gig. I had no idea what it would become.
DON MULLER I’ll be brutally honest with you, we didn’t have a clue about what the hell we were doing. Zero. If anybody says differently, they’re lying. Because it was like, Okay, we’re going to put all these bands together, and we think we can move it around the country . . . but what do we do with it?
RICK KRIM (executive, MTV) This was 1990, 1991, way before festivals were really a thing over here. These days you have three festivals every weekend. There’s nothing unique about it. But at that time, and in this musical lane, no one had done it on that kind of scale.
GINA ARNOLD (journalist, author) Marc Geiger told me, “Oh, we have this great idea. We’re gonna do these festivals, just like in England . . .” And I was like, “That’s never gonna work.” I mean, think about the difference between those festivals and America. The size of America . . . it’s just too big. Also, I told him, “There’s no market for those bands.”
MARC GEIGER But the key point was it wasn’t about creating an alternative tour to represent the time. Jane’s was looking for ideas to go out with a bang, something different, okay? This is true. They’ll tell you they were splitting up. They were fighting, da, da, da, da, da. I think Eric was trying to be straight and the other guys were not. That was causing some frictions.
Now, it turned out that the right thing was reflecting alternative culture in a package that could get to a lot of people and be presented with force. But it wasn’t the front burner. Reading and England was the front burner. The back burner was the hair-band sleeve. MTV in England wasn’t showing Faster Pussycat and Winger videos every thirty seconds. England was Inspiral Carpets. Madchester. The BBC and Pete Tong and John Peel and Nick Cave. America was still scared of that. At Reading, the Pixies were headlining an eighty-five-thousand-person festival. Here, they were a club act. You’re trying to get that culture and that mindset over in America, which is still promoting Winger videos.
DAVE NAVARRO I wasn’t really aware of it being a farewell tour, just because we were on the verge of every show being a farewell show. I think that’s what Perry had in mind, but I don’t know that he shared that with us. Although it was pretty obvious to me that we weren’t going to be doing much after that.
PERRY FARRELL I told Marc, “I’m out of here after the tour, so let’s do something good.” And he looked at me and said, “Perry, you can do whatever the f-ck you want.” And I said, “I’m going to hold you to that.”
STUART ROSS Perry called us all in for a meeting and told us what was going to happen and what his concept was. I remember it as being Ted Gardner, Marc Geiger, Don Muller, and Peter Grosslight, who was one of the partners at Triad. Tom Atencio, one of Jane’s Addiction’s managers. Bill Vuylsteke, also known as Bill V., who was the business manager. I think it was at Bill’s office. And Perry sat us all down and said, “Guys, I’m breaking the band up. I want to go out on a high, good note. And for the last tour, we’ll get six other bands. We’ll get the promoters to provide crazy food like giant burritos, and we’ll do politics. We’ll get the NRA to set up a booth next to PETA. And we’ll get crazy art. And I’ve got a name for it, we’re going to call it Lollapalooza.”
PERRY FARRELL I do remember coming up with the name. Because everybody always wants you to title a tour. In all truth, it was a very humble moment. I was on a dirty carpet in an apartment in Venice. It was a shag carpet, I think it was green, it was kind of ugly, and there were crusty things on the carpet. I had books, like old secondhand books, and I picked up a dictionary. It’s kind of a rarity to have a real dictionary, but we all had them in those days. I used to like to use the dictionary for words when I would write songs, because you might run across a word that’s so amazing that it sparks something. And then sometimes I would read the dictionary just for fun. But I came across “lollapalooza,” because I was up to L.
TED GARDNER No one could pronounce it. No one could spell it.
STUART ROSS Nothing like this had been done before. There were a few festivals like WOMAD, which was the Peter Gabriel event that started in Europe that traveled a bit. And I believe there was one other smaller festival . . .
DON MULLER I don’t want to throw water on our fire, but there was a show down at the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa called A Gathering of the Tribes, I think that was 1990. And that pretty much was a model, even though nobody wants to talk about it, of how to put something like this together. It was the vision of Ian Astbury from the Cult. I was a huge Cult fan, and I went and saw the show and I thought, F-ck, this is amazing. But then again, living in Southern California, it works, right? But not in Cleveland.
STUART ROSS But none of us ever said, “How are we gonna get these bands on and off the stage? We should reach out to the Gathering of the Tribes people.” I don’t think we even called those things traveling festivals at the time. They were kind of “multi-act packages.” None of them were considered operations where we could just use their playbook. This was a much larger scope.
MARC GEIGER This was a presentation of this music and culture in a format that could get to everybody. Because it wasn’t England. It wasn’t a small country. You already had some culture in pockets, right? You had KXLU and KCRW and 91X and KROQ in Southern California. So those people benefited compared to others. You had to take this around.
This is where Stuart Ross and the whole team need their credit. Those guys made it work. They were killers. They figured out how to mobilize an army. That’s a little different than setting up base camp, which is today’s festival model, right? “I’m going to build a big village, and we’re not going to move for three days, and then I’ll tear it down.” That’s a very different product, massively. There were tons of logistical challenges.
STUART ROSS We were creating something that literally had to be redone every day. None of us had experience in putting together a seven-act traveling concert package with a ton of extra activities going on. And so we leaned on the promoters. We said, “Okay, you’re going to book Jane’s Addiction, and you’re going to book six other opening acts, and here’s who the acts are, and here’s what you’re gonna pay them.” They weren’t offered separately, but they were contracted separately. The promoters were told who the bands were going to be and what their guarantees were going to be. But there was no, “Oh, I don’t wanna pay that much for this band.” That was not an option.
And then we said, “And we need you to find alternative food”—not just the hot dogs and hamburgers and pretzels that were kind of prevalent as venue food in those days—“and if you can invite any political groups that want a table, that would be great.” And we got, obviously, varying results.
T. C. CONROY (front-of-house coordinator, Lollapalooza 1991) It was my job to make that field turn into Perry’s dream. And he was ethereal about it because he’s an ethereal guy. He was probably really high, too. But what they did was they gave me an office at Triad: “Here’s your desk, here’s your telephone, here’s your legal pad, here’s your Yellow Pages.” And I would go into Triad every day and work on organizing that front of house. And it was not easy because nobody knew what Lollapalooza was. I mean, it was a cold call . . . the coldest of cold calls. Because if you think about it in context, even the word “Lollapalooza” was weird. “Lolla what? Can you spell that?”
MISSY WORTH (marketing consultant, Lollapalooza 1991) Perry was very insistent on making sure that we represented the alternative world, both onstage and off. For instance, I remember having a big discussion with him, and I’m just using examples, I’m not saying they were on the tour, but it was, “If you’re gonna have the ACLU, do you also have the NRA?” Like, “You have to represent the world, not just our point of view.”
PERRY FARRELL I wanted to have a debate booth where the Republican and the Democrat and the Independent each gets up there and says their thing. Because doesn’t that seem, like, fair?
T. C. CONROY He asked me to get pro-lifers and then get the abortion clinics, and to get the military and then get Greenpeace. He had this concept of, “It all goes on the field.” The liberal side was more open to the concept. On the other side, I just remember them all saying no.
GARY GRAFF (music writer, Detroit Free Press) In the US we didn’t have the culture of the midway with all the booths, whether it was merchants or social causes or whatever else. It was an unusual thing.
STUART ROSS When we talked to promoters and said that we needed art, they pretty much all passed on that. Because they couldn’t figure out how to do it. So Perry found an art gallery owner in West Hollywood. Didn’t really work out well, but he curated it for us.
DON MULLER Stuart and I did most of the work putting the actual deals together, and it was literally going out and talking to people and saying, “Hey, do you believe in this?” “Can we work this?” “Do you need backing?” Because a lot of the promoters just didn’t have the wherewithal or the resources to do a show of this magnitude. But we needed them on the ground. We needed them marketing. We needed to hit all the clubs. We needed to work radio. There needed to be cohesiveness in getting the message out. Also, the idea was to be able to play a GA [general admission] place, so the kids could come and go as they wished.
STUART ROSS We’re talking about 1990, going into 1991, and amphitheaters were the new cool thing. They’re not the shopping centers that they are now. And everybody wanted to play them. They were brand-new buildings and they held eighteen thousand people, and there was a big general admission component. So that’s where we wanted to play.
DON MULLER It was one of those situations where we were, in a weird way, creating promoters in different cities as we went along. Seth Hurwitz is one that comes to mind. He had the 9:30 Club in D.C., and he grew his business off alternative music and things like Lollapalooza. We go to Toronto and there’s a guy named Elliott Lefko who gets it, breathes it, understands it, and likes it. Great Woods in Boston, same thing. But then we had people like Belkin Productions in Cleveland, which, for all intents and purposes, didn’t know what this was at all. I’m not certain if I sold that show or Geiger did, but we sold the show.
STUART ROSS Danny Zelisko, who had Compton Terrace in Phoenix, an alternative venue, was one who got it. As did Andy Cirzan with Jam Productions, who had the World Music Theatre in Chicago and Harriet Island in St. Paul, another unusual venue.
DANNY ZELISKO (promoter, Evening Star Productions) Festivals at that time were kind of passé—Woodstock happened twenty years earlier, and it just wasn’t something that was going on. Lollapalooza was a brand-new thing that we had to explain to the market and to rock audiences everywhere.
ANDY CIRZAN (promoter, Jam Productions) I’d already been working with Don and Marc, because I had relationships with a number of their bands, like the Beastie Boys. When they started talking about this, all I was saying was, “I wanna be involved. Okay? Please let me be involved!” It wasn’t a question of, “What are you guys doing?”
STEPHEN PERKINS I think promoters and everyone realized that this music is bigger than we thought it was.
DON MULLER We were also smart about our ticket prices. We knew we needed to be realistic about what we were doing.
STUART ROSS Our tickets were $27.50 the first year. And these were the days before Ticketmaster charges cost more than the ticket, so there might be $2.75, $3.00 on top of it. That was it. In 1991, that was a moderate price.
DON MULLER Some of these promoter guys we had to browbeat, but we were going, regardless. If you wanted to be a part of it, great. If you didn’t, you didn’t. But we were gonna make this thing happen.
BOB GUCCIONE JR. (editor, publisher, SPIN magazine) Lollapalooza came along and was a natural organic invention. I look at so many of the music festivals today, and they’re such total sh-t because they’re trying to re-create a blueprint from other times. You know, there’s no point in replicating Woodstock. You can’t re-create that spontaneity or authenticity. But Lollapalooza was purely a product of the imagination of the people of its time.
GARY GRAFF It was Brave New World in a lot of different directions, because festival culture in the United States really didn’t exist in ’91.
PERRY FARRELL It was early years. Do you know that 1991, that was the year Michael Jordan won the NBA title? Also, the World Wide Web was formed that year. And for mystics—if you speak to the sages—the rebbe, his greatest writings came in 1991, when he was talking about Mashiach and the era of redemption, ushering it in. It was all in 1991. So I look at that period as all the strong things that happened at that time. And that made Lollapalooza possible.
Comedian, actor and writer Deon Cole will host the 2025 NAACP Image Awards, airing live from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, Calif., on Saturday, Feb. 22, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on BET and CBS.
“BET is excited to partner once again with the incomparable Deon Cole, whose effortless charm and humor resonate deeply with our audiences,” Connie Orlando, EVP of specials, music programming and music strategy at BET, said in a statement.
“As a comedian, actor, and cultural icon, Deon Cole has consistently used his talent to entertain, uplift and inspire,” added Derrick Johnson, NAACP president and CEO. “His humor, deep appreciation for the culture and commitment to our community has cemented him as an entertainment legend.”
Trending on Billboard
This is Cole’s first time hosting the NAACP Image Awards. Queen Latifah hosted the show the last two years. Blackish star Anthony Anderson hosted the nine years before that.
BET Media Group will receive the NAACP Founders Award on the telecast. The award recognizes BET Media Group’s 45-year legacy of amplifying Black culture.
Launched in 1980 by founders Bob and Sheila Johnson, BET quickly became a force. Under Debra Lee’s leadership, the network expanded its global footprint. Today, under Scott Mills’ leadership, BET has become a multi-platform media powerhouse, spanning television, streaming, digital, live events and international markets.
“The Founder’s Award honors those who dare to dream beyond limits and turn vision into reality. Johnson said in a statement. “For more than four decades, BET has been an innovator of culture, creating space for our community to see themselves recognized on-screen and inspiring generations to believe that their dreams are within reach. BET has redefined media by championing bold storytelling, celebrating unforgettable music and delivering groundbreaking moments that resonate with audiences worldwide. Through their undeniable leadership in the entertainment industry, BET has continuously pushed boundaries and set new standards for others to follow in their path.”
Previous recipients of the Founders Award include Toni Vaz, founder of the NAACP Image Awards, and country music icon Garth Brooks.
Previously announced special award recipients at this year’s NAACP Image Awards are comedian Dave Chappelle (President’s Award) and The Wayans Family (NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame) and former Vice President Kamala Harris (Chairman’s Award).
The 56th NAACP Image Awards will be telecast live on Saturday, Feb. 22, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on BET and CBS. This year, the broadcast will be extended 30 minutes to 2.5 hours. NAACP will also recognize winners in non–televised categories at the 56th NAACP Image Awards Creative Honors Friday, Feb. 21.
Carl Cox will no longer appear at Movement 2025. A statement posted to the techno producer’s Instagram Story on Thursday (Feb. 20) reads, “I regret to inform you that due to scheduling complications, my show at Movement has been postponed to 2026. I’m sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, but I promise to make […]
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the upcoming Billboard 200 dated Mar. 1, we look at the chances of Drake’s and PartyNextDoor’s new full-length teamup to knock the former’s recent rap opponent out of the chart’s top spot.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
PartyNextDoor & Drake, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U (OVO/Santa Anna/Republic): Drake hasn’t been able to find a lot of wins since taking the consensus loss in his culture-conquering 2024 beef with Kendrick Lamar – the after-effects of which continue to permeate the culture on a weekly basis nearly a year later, with Lamar’s signature diss track “Not Like Us” recently winning five Grammys and serving as the centerpiece moment for the most-watched Super Bowl halftime show in history. But Drake may be due for a pretty big W shortly, following the release of his first full-length album since 2023’s For All the Dogs – the Valentine’s Day-released, R&B-focused $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, a teamup with longtime OVO labelmate and collaborator PartyNextDoor.
Trending on Billboard
The 21-track effort from the two Toronto natives unsurprisingly blanketed the Spotify Daily Top Songs USA and Apple Music real-time charts upon its release, even breaking the record for the biggest R&B/soul album in Apple Music’s history by first-day streams worldwide, and remains a major presence on both listings near the end of the tracking week. While many of the tracks have receded in daily streams since the set dropped, a couple have continued to grow, including the poppier mid-album cuts “Die Trying” and “Nokia,” the latter of which has also spent the majority of the week atop the iTunes real-time chart. The set is also being sold on CD via the album’s own website, with three variants of the CD case available for purchase.
Though the album might not match the first-week numbers of some past chart-conquering Drake projects – including the 404,000 first-week units posted by 2023’s Her Loss, his most recent full-length collaboration, alongside star rapper 21 Savage – it seems likely to return The Boy to No. 1, tying him with Jay-Z for the most Billboard 200 No. 1 albums of any rapper (with 14) and at least temporarily silence critics who declared him “done” following the feud. And of course, with Lamar’s GNX currently occupying the chart’s top spot, it could give him a much-needed triumph in the headlines over his perpetually victory-lapping foe.
Kendrick Lamar, GNX (pgLang/Interscope/ICLG): Even if Drake takes the Billboard 200’s top spot next week, don’t expect Kendrick Lamar to disappear from the chart in the weeks after his Super Bowl performance. In fact, in his first full tracking week following that globally buzzed-about Feb. 9 show, Lamar’s streaming numbers should be even more robust, with performed hits from his 2024 blockbuster GNX like “Squabble Up,” “TV Off” and the SZA-featuring “Luther” continuing to be consumed en masse, and the latter even threatening Lamar’s own “Not Like Us” to take over the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 next week.
Could it potentially stave off $ome $exy $ongs in that set’s debut week, giving K-Dot one more KO in this now-largely one-sided battle? It doesn’t seem too likely, given the natural disadvantages the 12-track GNX faces in terms of total streams when compared to the 21-track $$$4U – and the fact that the set should slide in terms of sales next week, after the set’s physical release on cassette, vinyl and CD format two Fridays ago (Feb. 7) helped it sell over 100,000 copies for the tracking week ending Feb. 13. Still, with so many of its tracks reconfirmed as streaming monsters, the album is likely to hang around the chart’s upper tier in the weeks to come — meaning we could very easily see GNX return to No. 1 for a third time in a future slow-release week.
Sabrina Carpenter, Short n’ Sweet (Island): Speaking of 2024 blockbusters – another one that’s spent multiple weeks atop the Billboard 200 and hung around the top 10 for many months since should be due for some big gains next week. On Friday (Feb. 14), pop superstar Sabrina Carpenter released the deluxe edition of her four-week No. 1 Short n’ Sweet, expanding the 12-track set to 17 — with four entirely new songs, and a redo of the set’s Hot 100-topping “Please Please Please,” featuring guest vocals from country icon Dolly Parton.
The combination of the original set’s sustained streaming performance – it’s held in the lower half of the top 10 on the Billboard 200 for the whole of February – and the boost it should get from the new deluxe edition should make it one of the top contenders on the chart next week. The bonus cuts have all seen solid streaming bows, with “Busy Woman” in particular appearing to be something of a breakout hit, and the deluxe version of the album should also do well in physical sales, with the set available on her webstore in both azure- and pearl-colored vinyl, and on lipstick-marked CD.
IN THE MIX
The Lumineers, Automatic (Dualtone): The arena-folk stars’ first new album since 2022’s Brightside doesn’t quite include the radio hits of previous sets, but does arrive during a time where a new wave of stomp-clappers led by Noah Kahan have reintroduced their signature sound to the mainstream – and is available for purchase in eight vinyl variants, including a signed edition. Each of The Lumineers’ four previous albums reached the Billboard 200’s top 10, though with streaming unlikely to offer a ton of help, the set will need to sell quite well to extend that streak to five.
Rihanna was a mainstay in A$AP Rocky’s corner throughout his three-week felony shooting trial, which ended with a not guilty verdict for the Harlem native on Tuesday (Feb. 18), but her presence in the courtroom wasn’t always in the cards.
Rocky’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, revealed following the verdict that his client originally didn’t want Rihanna in attendance at the trial.
“He didn’t want her there. He was very protective of her,” Tacopina told a reporter. “I was sort of supporting his decision to keep her away. The trial’s not about Rihanna.”
Trending on Billboard
However, RiRi would not be denied. as she went behind Rocky’s back to contact Tacopina and let him know she would be pulling up to court to support her boo. “But she called me one day and she was like, ‘Joe, wild horses aren’t going to keep me away, so let him know I’m coming and deal with him,’” Tacopina continued.
Billboard has reached out to Tacopina, as well as Rihanna and A$AP Rocky’s reps.
Rihanna was a staple at the courthouse, and she even made appearances with their two children, Riot and RZA, alongside Rocky’s mother and sister, who consistently supported the rapper in court.
Tacopina also recently explained to Extra why the little boys were there. “That day was summations, and in theory, what we initially believed, the judge had told us he was gonna start the jury deliberations that day after summations, right after summations. If they came back with a quick verdict — like they did — and it didn’t go his way, that would be the last time he saw his children,” the attorney explained. “So she wanted them in court, in the courtroom … house. One of the, the littlest one, you know, stayed outside. But you know, RZA was inside because he’s a little older and he comported himself very well, and he looked like a sweet little gentleman. … But you know, that’s family. I mean, it’s his family.”
Rocky (born Rakim Mayers) was found not guilty on both counts in the 2021 shooting case involving his former friend and associate A$AP Relli (born Terrell Ephron).
Upon hearing the verdict, Rocky jumped over the railing into the gallery to embrace Rihanna. He then thanked the jury and Judge Mark Arnold. “Thank y’all for saving my life,” Rocky said. “Thank you, thank you. Thank you for making the right decision. Thank you, your honor.”
Rocky was arrested in April 2022 at Los Angeles International Airport after being accused of firing a handgun at Relli near a Hollywood hotel in November 2021. The 36-year-old faced a maximum of 24 years behind bars and pleaded not guilty to all charges in August 2022. Last month, he turned down a final plea deal that would have landed him 180 days in county jail.
Rihanna took to her Instagram Story on Tuesday to celebrate the court’s ruling while giving thanks to the most high. “THE GLORY BELONGS TO GOD AND GOD ALONE! THANKFUL, HUMBLED BY HIS MERCY,” she wrote.
Dolly Parton has called on Indiana Governor Mike Braun to reconsider his decision to cut funding for her charitable Imagination Library initiative. “We are hopeful that Governor Braun and the Indiana Legislature will continue this vital investment by restoring the state’s funding match for local Imagination Library programs,“ Jeff Conyers, vice chair and president of […]
Following an extremely prolific 2024, Kendrick Lamar has dominated headlines into 2025. On Feb. 2, “Not Like Us” was a five-time winner at the Grammy Awards, becoming the second rap song to win record and song of the year. A week later, he headlined the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show, spotlighting the smash, along with songs from his latest album, GNX, and more. It became the most-watched halftime show ever and resulted in some major chart moves: GNX returns to the top of the Billboard 200 and Lamar is the first rap artist to ever log three albums in the top 10 simultaneously. On the Billboard Hot 100, he reclaimed the top three spots, led by his Drake diss track “Not Like Us.”
Though football and the Super Bowl are American-based phenomena, the game is broadcast in more than 130 countries, yielding similarly huge boosts on the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts. On the former, “Not Like Us” has blasted from No. 45 to No. 20 to No. 1 (on the Feb. 8, 15, and 22 charts), returning for a third non-consecutive week atop the list since its release last May. On Global Excl. U.S, the song reaches a new No. 3 high (after debuting at No. 9, climbing to No. 7 the following week, and reaching a prior No. 5 best after the July 4 release of its official music video).
This week doesn’t just set a new high for the track itself, but for all rap songs on the global stage. “Not Like Us” jumped 188% to 65.7 million streams outside the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 13, according to Luminate. That’s the highest non-U.S. streaming total for a rap title since the global charts launched in September 2020. It surpasses Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red,” which drew 64.9 million in the week ending Sept. 28, 2023.
Including the U.S., “Not Like Us” is up 176% to 113.2 million streams globally. It falls short of Eminem’s “Houdini” for the most among rap hits since the Global 200 began: 121.4 million in the week ending June 6, 2024. Still, the latest boost for “Not Like Us” nine months after its arrival re-asserts its longevity. Since the Global 200, there have been only six instances of rap songs exceeding 100 million weekly worldwide streams and four of them belong to “Not Like Us.”
The international success of “Not Like Us” is rare. Hip-hop’s struggle to export globally has been documented, and it’d be reasonable to expect Lamar’s lyrically dense tracks to hit a wall, particularly in countries where English is not the primary language. But the song’s reach is wide, appearing on more than 30 of Billboard’s territory-specific Hits of the World charts this week, including tallies in Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America and Oceania. It’s No. 1 on Australia Songs and Ireland Songs and ranks among the top 10 in 18 other territories.
While “Not Like Us” leads the charge, three other Lamar tracks – “Luther” and “All the Stars,” both with SZA, and “TV Off,” featuring Lefty Gunplay – score top 20 ranks on Global Excl. U.S. Altogether, he logs nine songs on this week’s chart and 13 on the Global 200.
Across Lamar’s charting entries, streaming gains are varied between the U.S. and beyond. “All the Stars,” “Humble.,” “Luther” and “Peekaboo” have bigger domestic lifts, while “Money Trees,” “Not Like Us,” “TV Off” and “Squabble Up” see sharper increases internationally.
Dream Theater returns to No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Hard Rock Albums chart for the first time in almost a decade, debuting atop the Feb. 22-dated survey with Parasomnia. The set bows with 18,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Feb. 13, according to Luminate. The majority of the sum – 16,000 units […]
South Korean boy band PLAVE debut four songs on the Feb. 22-dated Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart. And while K-pop acts regularly flood the global rankings with material from new EPs and albums, PLAVE sticks out by being a virtual group in its presentation.
PLAVE has five members — Bamby, Eunho, Hamin, Noah and Yejun — who sing, rap, write and choreograph. But for music videos, livestreams and performances, the collective uses motion capture technology to broadcast animated visuals.
Variations on this practice have been more common among Japanese artists, such as Ado, who reached No. 8 on Global Excl. U.S. in 2022 with “New Genesis,” among 12 entries on the chart to date. Plus, Korea’s K/DA hit No. 93 in 2020 with “More,” co-billed with a mix of American, Chinese and fellow Korean artists, both “real” (Madison Beer, [G]I-DLE, Lexie Liu and Jaira Burns) and virtual (Seraphine).
With this week’s debuts, PLAVE breaks new ground for Korean Vtubers (virtual YouTubers). “Dash” starts on Global Excl. U.S. at No. 89, while also hitting the Billboard Global 200 at No. 195. Plus, “Rizz,” “Chroma Drift” and “Island” debut on the former list at Nos. 111, 115 and 128, respectively.
All four tracks come from PLAVE’s third EP, Caligo Pt. 1, released Feb. 3. The group previously charted on Global Excl. U.S. with “Pump Up the Volume!” and “Way 4 Luv” last September.
“Dash” drew 11 million streams outside the U.S. in its first full tracking week (Feb. 7-13), according to Luminate, while PLAVE’s four chart entries combined for nearly 40 million in that span. Of those, 39.7 million, or 99.4%, were from outside the U.S. PLAVE’s home-country appeal is reflected on Billboard’s South Korea Songs chart. There, the group infuses the entire top five, led by “Dash” at No. 1 and rounded out by “12:32 (A T to T)” at No. 5.
Kacey Musgraves has forged a reputation as a fearless musical communicator, an an entertainer who focuses on making her shows engaging, visually impactful, and as creative as her songs. As an artist and songwriter has been lauded by the Grammys (she’s won eight trophies, most recently best country solo performance for “The Architect”), the CMAs, […]