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Hamilton is taking a stand.
The beloved musical was scheduled to perform at the Kennedy Center for the third time in March and April of 2026, but have since canceled the run due to President Donald Trump‘s recent takeover of the performing arts institution. “Political disagreement and debate are vital expressions of democracy,” lead producer Jeffrey Seller said in a statement, shared to the official Hamilton X page. “These basic concepts of freedom are at the very heart of Hamilton. However, some institutions are sacred and should be protected from politics. The Kennedy Center is one such institution.”
He continued, “The Kennedy Center was founded over 50 years ago with a sincere bipartisan spirit. Indeed, it was founded during the administration of President Dwight Eisenhower, named after President John F. Kennedy, and opened in 1971 under the administration of Richard M. Nixon. The Kennedy Center was meant to be for all Americans, a place where we could all come together in celebration of the arts. Politics have never affected the presentation of thousands of shows and the display of extraordinary visual arts.”
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However, Seller noted that, “Given the recent actions, our show simply cannot, in good conscience, participate and be a part of this new culture that is being imposed on the Kennedy Center.”
In the first month of his second term, Trump fired the Kennedy Center’s leadership and replaced the board of trustees with his supporters, ultimately announcing he had been “unanimously” elected the board’s chair. “At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN,” he wrote on his social media website at the time, according to the Associated Press. “I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.”
Several other famous names associated with the Kennedy Center resigned following the news, including Ben Folds, Renée Fleming and Shonda Rhimes. Like the Hamilton production, Issa Rae is also among those who cancelled shows at the Kennedy Center.
Jay-Z’s rape accuser says in court filings that she stands by her story, directly contradicting his recent lawsuit that claims she admitted to fabricating the allegations — prompting the star’s lawyers to offer testimony from private investigators and demand that the accuser sit for a deposition.
In Los Angeles court filings Monday (March 3), the unnamed Jane Doe stated that she had flatly refused to recant her story when approached last month by investigators for Jay-Z — an experience she said left her “intimidated and terrified.” She also denied that her attorney, Tony Buzbee, had pushed her to sue.
Those statements, which Doe made in a sworn affidavit, directly contradicted allegations leveled by Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) in a separate lawsuit filed earlier on Monday. In that case, he claimed Doe had “voluntarily admitted” directly to his team that her now-dropped lawsuit was premised on a false accusation.
“Although I ultimately chose not to pursue them, I stand by my claims in the New York action and believe that I had a meritorious claim against Jay-Z,” the woman wrote in Monday’s filing. “I ultimately decided to dismiss the [case] because I was frightened by the reaction of Jay-Z and his supporters, and the likelihood that I would have to be publicly named and subjected to public attacks.”
In the same sworn statement, the unnamed woman stressed that Buzbee had not sought her out, nor had he urged her to add Jay-Z to her allegations: “I told them that neither of those things ever happened, and I asked them to leave me alone.”
Monday’s statement from Doe quickly prompted a response from Jay-Z’s lawyers. In a flurry of new filings on Wednesday (March 5), they offered up sworn statements from the actual private investigators who allegedly talked to her, asking the judge for permission to add them to the case record.
In those statements, one of the investigators said, “Jane Doe stated to me that Mr. Carter did not sexually assault her.” At another point, the same investigator added: “Jane Doe stated ‘Buzbee brought Jay Z into it,’ and ‘he was the one that kind of pushed me towards going forward with him.’” Another investigator said Doe had told him that “lawyers at Mr. Buzbee’s law firm told her that, if she pursued Mr. Carter, she would get a payout.”
In the same filings, Jay-Z’s lawyers also made an alternative request: that the judge permit them to depose both the accuser and Buzbee under oath. “The new declaration only further reinforces the need for Jane Doe and Mr. Buzbee to sit for a deposition regarding their conversations, including her conversations with his colleagues who convinced Jane Doe to drop her lawsuit,” they wrote.
Depositions are not typically granted at the outset of such a case; instead, they are conducted during the later “discovery” phase as a case moves toward trial. But Jay-Z’s lawyers say Doe’s filing has opened the door to those issues and that the rapper is now “entitled to find out” what the woman knows.
In a detailed statement to Billboard on Wednesday, Buzbee strongly denied the various claims advanced by Jay-Z’s investigators in the new court filings. He said he believes they “flat out made all of this up” and that he “can’t wait to see what they have been paid and who is paying them.”
“Jane Doe’s case was signed up in October by another law firm to pursue allegations against Jay-Z and P. Diddy. Apparently it came in through Facebook to that firm’s page. After it was vetted it was sent to my firm weeks later,” Buzbee said. “The allegation that I sat with Jane Doe and suggested a suit against Jay-Z is not only a lie, it’s proveably and demonstrably false and is contrary to the documentation from referring counsel’s intake process and our own firm documents.”
The blockbuster case against Jay-Z, filed in December, claimed that he and Sean “Diddy” Combs drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl at an after-party following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. It represented a shocking expansion of the already-sprawling claims against Combs and came amid speculation that other stars might be implicated in Diddy’s alleged decades of abusive behavior.
Jay-Z forcefully denied the allegations, calling them a “blackmail attempt.” He accused Buzbee of trying to extort settlements from innocent celebrities by falsely tying them to Diddy and vowed to fight back and never pay his accuser.
Last month, Doe abruptly dropped the case — without explanation and without any kind of payment from Jay-Z. Two weeks later, Jay-Z sued both Doe and Buzbee for defamation, malicious prosecution and other wrongdoing, claiming they had carried out an “evil conspiracy” to extort a settlement from him by making the “false and malicious” rape allegations.
“Mr. Carter does not commence this action lightly,” his lawyers wrote in Monday’s lawsuit. “But the extortion and abuse of Mr. Carter by Doe and her lawyers must stop.”
The recent filing from Doe rebutting those allegations, also filed Monday, was lodged in a separate lawsuit in California in which Jay-Z is suing Buzbee for extortion and defamation over the same rape allegations. At a hearing in that case last week, a Los Angeles judge said he would likely dismiss the star’s extortion claims but likely allow the defamation claims against the lawyer to proceed.
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. After shooting her shot at Duke Dennis, GloRilla is back with another spicy Savage x Fenty campaign. Last month, the Grammy-nominated […]
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Joey BadA$$ and Capital STEEZ, along with Powers Pleasant, were considered the vanguard of the sprawling Pro Era collective, comprised of several teenage wunderkinds that placed their stamp in underground Hip-Hop circles. Nyck Caution, a member of Pro Era, shared a snippet of a track recorded by Joey BadA$$ and Capital STEEZ on his Instagram page, showing just how far ahead they were as lyricists even at their relatively young ages.
Nyck Caution shared a track with a presumed working title of “gwood.mp3” that featured himself, Joey BadA$$, and Capital STEEZ going back and forth over a mid-tempo beat while rapping in a style that was certainly inspired by an earlier time in Hip-Hop.
“[W]as going through old music remembering disguise the limit and Found this old gem circa 2010 with Joey and Steez lmao wanted y’all to peep,” Caution wrote in the caption of the post.
Capital STEEZ passed away on December 23, 2012, after jumping off the roof of a Manhattan building. He was just 19. Joey BadA$$ has honored his colleague and friend several times in his music and has carried the torch along with other members of Pro Era and the larger Beast Coast collective that includes The Underachievers duo and the Flatbush Zombies trio.
Check out the track below.
[h/t Hip Hop DX]
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Photo: Johnny Nunez / Getty
Travis Scott is one of music’s most exciting live performers, but even he can’t deny the allure of stepping inside the squared circle. The Houston rapper made headlines over the weekend when he reportedly ruptured Cody Rhodes’ eardrum and gave him a black eye during John Cena‘s Elimination Chamber heel turn. And he couldn’t contain […]
Reggaetón icon Daddy Yankee filed a massive lawsuit on Tuesday (March 4) against his ex-wife, Mireddys González Castellanos, and her sister, Ayeicha González Castellanos, for financial mismanagement, defamation, irregularities and negligence in the management of his music companies El Cartel Records and Los Cangris.
The 23-page lawsuit, filed in the Tribunal de Primera Instancia in Carolina, Puerto Rico, amounts to $250 million and accuses the sisters of breach of fiduciary duties, breach of contract and more. According to the complaint, after Yankee regained control of the companies, his team discovered administrative and fiscal irregularities. One claim detailed in the lawsuit states that Yankee (Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez) found uncashed checks — some for royalty payments dating back to the early 2000s — that had expired because the defendants never deposited them.
“Due to this gross and stubborn negligence of the defendants’ administrative management, the plaintiffs lost thousands of dollars,” the lawsuit states.
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The lawsuit follows an injunction Yankee filed in December against his then-estranged wife, whom he officially divorced last month, claiming she had withdrawn $100 million from the companies’ bank accounts without authorization. According to that legal filing, the alleged theft of company funds occurred after Yankee had already revoked Mireddys and Ayeicha’s authority and “warned that they could not carry out any transactions on behalf of the companies.”
A few days later, both parties agreed that the Puerto Rican star would regain the presidency of El Cartel Records and Los Cangris, where his ex-wife allegedly served as CEO and her sister as secretary/treasurer.
Now, Yankee claims that after regaining control of the companies in December, his team discovered irregularities, including the “disappearance” of key documentation related to the companies’ finances and his successful La Última Vuelta World Tour. The lawsuit also alleges that between Dec. 26 and Dec. 30, just before the completion of the court-ordered administrative transition, the sisters “deleted or removed essential emails related to the operation of the companies and migrated the information to devices that have not been turned over or identified.”
Furthermore, Yankee alleges that the sisters’ “disorganized, unprofessional and irresponsible handling of matters related to Ayala Rodríguez’s career” and a “defamatory campaign promoted by the co-defendants and their agents and legal representatives with their endorsement” has caused him to lose income and damaged his “career, good name and personal prestige as one of the most important international Latin music figures.”
Billboard reached out to Mireddys González’s attorneys for comment but did not hear back at press time.
As Carrie Underwood‘s career is about to come full-circle, the onetime American Idol hopeful is looking back to where she started.
In a new episode of the reality show’s Icon to Idol series posted to YouTube on Tuesday — just days ahead of the season 23 premiere, on which Underwood will make her debut as a judge — the country star rewatches her 2005 audition and gets emotional. In the old footage, a much younger version of herself sings Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” for the O.G. panel comprised of Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul, who unanimously push her through to Hollywood.
“I have no idea how that 21-year-old Carrie was able to muster up enough guts to walk into a room and audition in front of Simon, Paula and Randy, and the world,” Underwood says after the footage ends.
“At my audition, I think I was just trying to hold in all my emotions — literally, hold them into my body,” she continues, revealing that she still has her audition number memorized: “It’s tattooed in my brain. I should actually get a tattoo of that somewhere on my body. Because I will always be 14887.”
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A few months after her tryout, Underwood would go on to win the fourth season of Idol and kickstart a long, successful career in country music, complete with four top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as four No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200. She’ll soon experience what it’s like to be on the other side of the Idol auditions process once the next season of the show officially premieres Sunday (March 9), taking over Katy Perry’s vacant spot on the panel next to co-judges Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan.
She’ll also be the only judge to know exactly what it’s like to go through the show’s wringer. After rewatching her audition on Idol to Icon, Underwood also looked through the two-decade-old journal she kept while she was a contestant on the show and got choked up.
“I don’t even know if I could tell her what she’s about to experience,” she says in the video, fighting back tears. “Seeing myself, 21 years old, the world ahead of you. Obviously, it’s overwhelming, but you’re gonna do fine, kid. You’re gonna be OK. Just hold on.”
Watch Underwood get emotional after rewatching her Idol audition above.
Speaking with Saint Levant feels like encountering two personalities at once. One moment, you hear Marwan Abdelhamid (his real name), his intimate voice carrying the warmth of distant days spent with his father in Gaza. He recalls them in detail, as if each melody holds a story refusing to fade. The next moment, the more widely known artistic persona of Saint Levant takes over, exuding charisma and absolute confidence in front of the camera. The seamless blend of personal memory and stagecraft, nostalgia and defiance, defines his presence.
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As Billboard Arabia’s February cover star, Saint Levant’s artistic journey has taken him from Jerusalem and the alleys of Gaza to global stages from The Olympia in Paris and Coachella and Lollapalooza. Born into several cultures and languages, his identity is a fusion of Arabic, English and French, shaped by his Palestinian-Serbian father and Palestinian-Algerian mother. His migration to France and the U.S. further enriched his artistic outlook, injecting his work with a globally intertwined essence. This diverse background enables him to merge different musical styles, from funk to traditional Eastern rhythms, making him a rising star in Arabic music.
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When discussing the Arab artists who inspired him, Saint Levant looks back to his time in Gaza. He reminisces about road trips with his father, who played music in the car, filling the air with the voices of global stars like Lenny Kravitz and Michael Jackson. “Before any singer, my father was my inspiration,” he says. Yet, diving deeper into memory, he adds with nostalgia, “But if we’re talking about Arab singers, definitely Cheb Khaled. We used to listen to his albums, especially Sahra and Khaled, with songs like “El ‘Arbi” and “Wahran”—those are incredible. To me, Cheb Khaled is the top.”
Saint Levant’s first professional track carried his real name. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he released “Jerusalem Freestyle,” a rap song about the Palestinian cause. “That was my first real track where I put my name —on Spotify, I was Marwan Abdelhamid.”
Hussein Mardini
What sets Saint Levant apart are his multicultural roots, which grant him a broad perspective on music. He seamlessly sings in three languages, English, French and Arabic, within a single song. Explaining his unique lyrical structure, he says, “From my very first song, I was using three languages because that’s just how I talk. The same goes for my music. Now, I’ve learned to separate them more. Before, I used to mix all three languages in one sentence, but I realized not everyone is like me—they can’t follow that. So now, I do one chorus in English, one in Arabic and one in French, which makes it easier. But it all happened naturally. I never planned to be a trilingual artist.”
This cultural foundation also influences the structure of his music. When asked to define his genre, Saint Levant explains that his work transcends classification. He blends 1980s funk with traditional Palestinian and Algerian sounds, making it difficult to stick a single label to it. His team frequently revisits this question, reflecting the fluid nature of his artistic identity. Instead, he describes his music as part of a “New Wave Arab” movement, blending futuristic Arab sounds.
Hussein Mardini
His latest project, the album Love Letters, is an open letter to love in all its forms, released in February to align with Valentine’s Day. Elaborating on the title, he says, “Each song is a love letter in its own way. ‘Daloona,’ which I did with Qassem Alnajjar, Shadi Borini and 47Soul, isn’t a romantic love letter. It’s a love letter to my country and my people. I brought together seven Palestinian artists in one track, so it’s a love letter to Palestine. ‘Diva’ is a love letter to the golden girl and to Algeria. ‘Wazira’ is a tribute to the minister of love and ambassador of emotion. And ‘Wayn Ma’addi Wayn’ is a Libyan song, a love letter to Libya, and also a song for broken hearts. So to me, they are all different love letters.”
Explaining the album’s structure, he says, “I divided it into two sides: Side A and Side B, because there’s a difference. Songs like ‘Daloona,’ ‘Wazira’ and ‘Carmentina,’ those are love letters from Marwan. But ‘Diva’ and the rest are love letters from Saint Levant, the persona. Of course, I feel more comfortable as Marwan, but I have to play Saint Levant.”
Speaking about his collaborations, Saint Levant highlights his long-anticipated project with Marwan Moussa. “I’ve wanted to work with Marwan Moussa for a while. Since 2020, in interviews, whenever they asked me which rappers I’d like to collaborate with, I always said Shabjdeed and Marwan Moussa. To me, those two played a big role in my journey. So finally meeting him and being in the studio together was an insane experience.”
Before this project, Saint Levant released his debut full-length album, Deira, in 2024, following the success of his 2023 EP From Gaza with Love. The latter gained widespread attention for its raw and heartfelt expression. Deira is named after the hotel his father built in Gaza in 2000 when their family moved there. The hotel bore witness to many tragedies before being completely destroyed in the recent war. Singing about “Deira” became a celebration of Palestinian daily life and Gaza’s landmarks through a deeply personal lens, reflecting Saint Levant’s lasting bond with his hometown and how that bond has endured over time, adding a profoundly personal and emotional dimension to his work.
In Deira, he worked with prominent artists from different musical landscapes to expand its impact and make it a shared experience. His collaboration with Cheb Bilal on “Let Her Go” and the standout track “Allah Yihmeeki” with global artist Kehlani, who has publicly supported the Palestinian cause, are among the highlights. The album also features tracks that capture Saint Levant’s mix of defiance and emotion, alongside romantic ballads like “Forgive Me” and “Qalbi.”
Saint Levant has secured a consistent presence on the Billboard Arabia Top 100 Artists chart, holding a spot for 46 consecutive weeks. His single “Wazira” released before “Love Letters” entered the Hot 100 last week, with more songs from the album expected to follow in the coming weeks.
This article was originally published by Billboard Arabia, written by Omar Bakbouk.
Adidas split from doing business with Ye (formerly Kanye West) in October 2022 following his antisemitic remarks, and nearly 2.5 years later, the apparel giant says it has finally sold the last of its Yeezy supply.
Adidas hosted an earnings report on Wednesday (March 5) when chief financial officer Harm Ohlmeyer revealed that the Yeezy stock has run dry. “There is not one Yeezy shoe left,” he said, per Rolling Stone. “It has all been sold and that episode is behind us.”
Billboard has reached out to reps for Adidas and Ye for further comment.
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Ye and Adidas joined forces for a lucrative partnership in 2013, as the Yeezy footwear line was reportedly worth $1.5 billion at the time of the termination.
Adidas and other companies such as Balenciaga, Gap and Def Jam cut ties with West in late 2022 following the debut of his “White Lives Matter” T-shirt and his social media rant that included a promise to go “death con 3 on Jewish people.”
“Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech,” an Adidas spokesperson said at the time. “Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.”
The split left Adidas with $1.3 billion worth of unsold Yeezys, which contributed to a loss of $655 million in sales for 2022’s fourth quarter. The company went on to donate a portion of Yeezy sales to the Anti-Defamation League and the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism.
All subsequent litigation between Ye and Adidas came to a close in October when both parties reached a settlement. The terms were not disclosed.
“Both parties said we don’t need to fight anymore and withdrew all the claims,” Adidas CEO Bjorn Gulden said that neither side would pay the other as part of the settlement. “No one owes anybody anything anymore. So whatever was is history.”
In other Ye news, he once again caused a stir on X on Wednesday when he professed his appreciation for Drake and hopes that the 6 God will speak at his funeral when the time comes. “I SAW A VIDEO OF DRAKE WALKING THROUGH HIS HOUSE AND SHOWING HE HAD A LIBRARY OF RYHME BOOKS MAN I WISH I COULD HAVE SEEN AND REMEMBERED THIS WHEN MY JEALOUSY OVERTOOK ME,” he wrote. “I LOVE DRAKE IMA SAY THIS WHEN I DIE I NEED YOU TO SPEAK AT ME FUNERAL.”
While he’s repeatedly dissed Drake in the past and throughout the Kendrick Lamar feud, Kanye has turned a new leaf when it comes to Drizzy and showed him love. Even earlier this year, West said that you can’t ever count out a Drake comeback in the rap game.
“You can’t ever count out Steph Curry. That man might get 200 points in one song,” he said. Kanye credited Drake with adding “something to the algorithm to our frequency. He advanced us. Future advanced us and now Kendrick advanced the frequency.”
In today’s episode of ‘Billboard Unfiltered,’ Billboard staffers Damien Scott, Carl Lamarre and Trevor Anderson are joined by DJ Drewski to debate who the best lyricist is among Nas, Jay-Z and Biggie, discuss who among Drake, Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole would have been the most successful in the ’90s, and consider if Wiz Khalifa’s freestyling signifies his return, and more!
What do you want to hear more of? Drop your suggestion in the chat!
Carl Lamarre:
Yo, yo, yo what’s going on y’all. Welcome to a fresh episode of Billboard Unfiltered. And we have a special guest today. Holding it down, my brother from another, HOT 97 resident — I would like to say he is one of the biggest architects in New York City in terms of breaking talent.
Damien Scott:
Let’s go!
I’m talking Cardi B. I’m talking about late Pop Smoke, A Boogie, Fivio Foreign. I could keep on going, the good brother DJ Drewski in the house.
DJ Drewski:
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Carl Lamarre:
How are you feeling my brother?
DJ Drewski:
I’m feeling a little unfiltered, let’s talk about it
Trevor Anderson:
Okay!
He’s got a little feisty today, he’s feeling a little spicy today! Like I told you before the show, your political connects, they might be a little upset, but they’re going to be alright.
DJ Drewski:
Artists don’t get mad, please join Summer Jam if we need you. You know what I’m saying don’t-
Trevor Anderson:
Don’t take it personal.
DJ Drewski:
It’s just for the live.
Damien Scott:
Blame Carl.
DJ Drewski:
Right!
Carl Lamarre:
Don’t do that to me. I already got the Kendrick heads coming at me. But no, this is going to be a fun show today. Of course we’re going to bring some fire topics with the first one, we got to give flowers to Mr. Wiz Khalifa.
Keep watching for more!