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Koe Wetzel kicked off the first night at Billboard’s THE STAGE at SXSW 2025, and opening acts George Birge & Ashley Cooke set the mood for the country filled night. Keep watching for a recap of the first night! What do you think of Koe Wetzel’s performance? Let us know in the comments below! Narrator: […]
Mariah Carey is certified within rap circles and Cam’ron can attest to that.
The songstress frequently hung out and partied with rap stars during the ’90s and 2000s and never shied away from aligning herself with the genre as she rose to pop superstardom, having one of the more memorable pop rap hits in “Fantasy (Remix)” featuring the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard.
Cam’ron was one rapper who used to chill with Mimi back in the day and they’ve been rumored to be linked romantically throughout the years, but it has always been innuendo. In 2002, Carey was such a big fan of Cam’ron hit single “Oh Boy” featuring fellow Dipset member Juelz Santana, that she reworked the song for her record “Boy (I Need You)” and made sure to have Cam featured on it. They even performed the song on BET’s 106 & Park with Cam’ron donning his iconic pink fur outfit.
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A few years back, the Harlem rapper got into a trolling war Carey’s ex Nick Cannon where Killa posted photos of himself and the Long Island singer with captions insinuating that they once had a thing for each other. However, he was only joking around and in 2023, he reposted one of the pics along with the caption, “I’m the friend you shouldn’t worry about.”
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He addressed these old rumors on a recent episode of his YouTube show Talk With Flee. When asked by co-host Sen City about the nature of their relationship, Cam denied them and emphasized that their relationship has always been platonic. “She’s a friend,” he answered. “She’s a good friend. It’s nothing more, nothing less than that. She’s a super-duper good friend.”
He then commended her hip-hop knowledge and said she deserves more credit for bridging the gap between rap and the mainstream early on in her career. “We gotta realize,” he began. “When it comes to Mariah Carey — because she’s such a pop figure and so popular around the world and a mega superstar — people don’t give Mariah Carey a lot of credit for putting Hip Hop in her music and videos.”
Adding, “Mariah Carey worked with Da Brat, Mariah Carey worked with The LOX, Mariah Carey with Ma$e, Mariah Carey worked with me. Mariah Carey worked with Ol’ Dirty Bastard… I think she’s very underrated — that’s the word I would prefer to use — on how much she indulges in hip-hop and how much light she brings to hip-hop artists.”
Their friendship started when she heard “Oh Boy” and reached out. “She liked a song of mine and then we did ‘Boy’ and we hung out,” Cam explained. “She invited me [to Aspen]. Honestly, Mariah’s the first person who made me realize that it was festive in the Aspens about 20-something years ago. I drunk some wine, she had a pool house, we chilled out for a couple days… She took me to Capri, to Italy. She took me a lot of different places, but she’s just a friend.”
You can watch the clip below.
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. In 1993, Michael Jordan retired from the NBA for the first time. He traded in the basketball court for the baseball […]
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.
NBA legend, entrepreneur and DJ, Shaquille O’Neal is bringing the party with his new partnership and investment in BeatBox Beverages. The team up includes the launch of a new “shaqalicious” flavor Blueberry Lemonade. The beverage contains 11.1% alcohol-by-volume (ABV), delivering “big, full-court flavor and unforgettable fun.” It is also low in sugar, gluten-free and features resealable, eco-friendly packaging.
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Shaq discovered Beatbox while completing epic side missions as DJ Diesel touring the world and doing over “200 music festivals a year,” he tells Billboard. He described the drink as a “Capris Sun in a box” due to the brands incredibly fun mix of flavors, including orange blast, cherry limeade, peach punch, watermelon lemonade and more.
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“I never tasted anything that good. It was nice. So when I met with the team down in Austin, we had a great conversation and I told them, I would love to partner and help the company grow. I’ve always been about trying to create unforgettable experiences—whether it’s on the court, DJing, or through my business ventures. When I first came across BeatBox, I saw a brand with that same spirit of fun and boldness that’s really taking over the category.”
He continues, “When I partner with with young, new companies, I get in a basketball mode. Of course, we’re going to do business, but I want to help you win championships. I want the top spot. So for me, it’s just helping these guys grow.”
BeatBox is one of the fastest growing ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages on the market and gained national attention in 2014 after a receiving a record-breaking $1 million deal on Shark Tank by Mark Cuban. A decade later, the beverage company is now valued at over $200 million.
“We started this because of our love of going to music festivals,” says Brad Schultz, Co-Founder & CMO at BeatBox. “We thought, if the world could be more like a party and more like a music festival, we’d all be in a much better place.” Regarding the new partnership, he states, “There’s literally nobody more perfect, you know, Mark helping us get the business going, but Shaq is here to really help us take it to another level. From the start, he recognized that BeatBox is more than a drink – it’s a party movement. His passion for music, sports, entertainment and live events make this partnership a perfect fit.”
The new blueberry lemonade flavor and its packaging reflects on the playful nature of both the brand and the former NBA star’s larger-than-life personality. The product features playful doodles of lemons, lightning bolts, blueberries, and a DJ turntable, paying homage to Shaq’s music moniker, DJ Diesel.
BeatBox Blueberry Lemonade Drink
Shaq may be known as the powerhouse center in the NBA, but he’s no stranger to the music industry. He’s released music with many of hip-hop’s greats, including Jay-Z, Nas, Notorious B.I.G. and more. He’s dropped a hilarious Shannon Sharpe diss track and has been DJing the biggest music festivals around the globe since 2015.
He fell in love with festivals after attending one years ago and being exhilarated by the “million freaking people out there, and those people jumping up and down. I got the adrenaline back.” He continues, “I’ve been DJ my whole life, scratching mix and doing a lot. So when I step over into the festival world, I had a choice to make. You want to go mainstream right now, or do you want to start from the bottom like everybody. I’m gonna start from the bottom like everybody else.”
Since then, Shaq has performed at major festivals like Tomorrowland, Lost Lands, Lollapalooza, and Electric Forest, and he also launched his own festival series, Shaq’s Fun House and Shaq’s Bass All-Stars.
“For me, it’s like, if you ever get to this point and people pay to watch you perform, make sure you give them a show. It’s the motto for me. We’re going to party, we’re going to have a good time, we’re going to make sure everyone is safe and everything’s going to be done correctly. It’s like a game seven, and I try to make people smile.”
Shaq’s new Blueberry Lemonade BeatBox flavor is out now and available at Total Wine and other select retailers and grocers. It will be sold in a single 500-ml size, as well as in the new lemonade variety pack with two other new flavors in the Lemonade lime, Watermelon Lemonade and Lemon Squeeze. Shop some fan-favorite flavors below.
BeatBox Blueberry Lemonade Drink
BeatBox Fruit Punch drink
BeatBox Blueberry drink
BeatBox 6 Flavor Variety Pack
Taylor Swift was only 19 when she hosted Saturday Night Live back in 2009 — about 14 years before she even met boyfriend Travis Kelce — but the Kansas City Chiefs tight end is still familiar with her episode of the show. The topic of the pop superstar’s long-ago hosting stint came up on the […]
Dolly Parton celebrated the opening of Dollywood’s 40th anniversary season on Friday morning (March 14), marking the country superstar’s first public appearance following the death of her beloved husband, Carl Dean. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Parton started off the event thanking guests for their love […]
The sports and music world is full of exciting new updates, and we’re breaking it down. From Gelo and GloRilla’s new collab to Eminem reportedly wanting to bring a WNBA team to Detroit, keep watching to find out more! What do you think? Let us know in the comments below! Tetris Kelly:Gelo teams up with […]
Morgan Wallen’s upcoming fourth studio album, I’m The Problem — the follow-up to his smash hit projects Dangerous: The Double Album and One Thing at a Time — is ready, according to the singer-songwriter.
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The East Tennessee native posted on his official Instagram on Friday (March 14), stating, “Album is officially done. More news for y’all next week, but here’s a clip of one that’s coming out soon.”
With that, he offered a teaser of the new song, titled “Just in Case.”
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Wallen has released several new songs in previewing his upcoming album, including the Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “Love Somebody,” as well as “Lies Lies Lies,” “Smile” and the album’s title track. As with some of those previous outings, his newly previewed song delves into coping with heartbreak and wrestling with the complicated, heart-wrenching process of trying to move on.
“I ain’t sayin’ that I always sleep alone, I ain’t sayin’ that I ain’t met no one else/ Done a little bit of midnight movin’ on, and I ain’t sayin’ when I do that it don’t help,” he sings, before the song’s lyrics later laments never letting oneself fully depart from the longing for an ex-lover.
“I never let my heart go all the way, every time I try I just hit the brake…I never fall in love, baby, just in case,” the song snippet continues.
Wallen’s upcoming album has plenty of milestones to live up to. Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album spent total 10 weeks atop the all-genre Billboard 200 chart, while is successor One Thing at a Time, spent 19 total weeks at the chart’s pinnacle. To date, Wallen has earned a trio of Hot 100 chart-toppers, and 16 Country Airplay chart hits.
The upcoming album shares its name with Wallen’s 2025 tour, which launches June 20 at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas. The tour will include visits in Seattle, Washington; Foxborough, Massachusetts; Toronto, Ontario and more, and will feature a rotating roster of guest artists including Brooks & Dunn, Miranda Lambert, Thomas Rhett and Koe Wetzel, with direct support from Gavin Adcock, Corey Kent, Ella Langley and Anne Wilson as first-of-three across select dates.
Prior to the tour, Wallen’s inaugural Sand in My Boots Festival is set to take place May 16-18 in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
Listen to Wallen’s teaser of “Just in Case” below:
The heat was up in Austin, Texas, this week, but the music was even hotter. Approximately 300,000 people descended upon the Texas capital from March 7 to 15 for SXSW 2025. As it has annually since 1987, the gathering brought together musicians, artists, directors, innovators and other creatives for panels, performances, barbecue and general revelry. […]
A federal judge says the Justice Department can move ahead with a key allegation in its antitrust case against Live Nation: That the company illegally forces artists to use its promotion services if they want to perform in its massive network of amphitheaters.
In a written ruling issued Friday (March 14), Judge Arun Subramanian denied Live Nation’s request to dismiss an accusation that the concert giant illegally required artists to buy one service if they wanted to purchase another one — known in antitrust parlance as “tying.”
Ahead of the ruling, attorneys for Live Nation had argued that it was merely refusing to let rival concert promoters rent its venues, something that’s fair game under longstanding legal precedents. But the judge wrote in his ruling that the DOJ’s accusations were clearly focused on artists, not competing firms.
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“The complaint explains that due to Live Nation’s monopoly power in the large-amphitheater market, artists are effectively locked into using Live Nation as the promoter for a tour that stops at large amphitheaters,” the judge wrote, before adding later: “These allegations aren’t just about a refusal to deal with rival promoters. They are about the coercion of artists.”
The decision was not on the final merits of the DOJ’s case; the feds must still provide factual evidence to prove that Live Nation actually coerced artists. But at the earliest stage of the case, when courts must assume allegations are true, Judge Subramanian ruled that the DOJ had done enough to move ahead.
The DOJ and dozens of states filed the sweeping antitrust lawsuit in May, aimed at breaking up Live Nation and Ticketmaster over accusations that they form an illegal monopoly over the live music industry. The feds alleged Live Nation runs an illegal “flywheel” — reaping revenue from ticket buyers, using that money to sign artists, then leveraging that repertoire to lock venues into exclusive ticketing contracts that yield ever more revenue.
Among other accusations, the government argued that Live Nation was exploiting its massive market share in amphitheaters — allegedly 40 of the top 50 such venues in the country – to force artists to use its concert promotion services.
“Live Nation has a longstanding policy going back more than a decade of preventing artists who prefer and choose third-party promoters from using its venues,” the DOJ wrote in its complaint. “In other words, if an artist wants to use a Live Nation venue as part of a tour, he or she almost always must contract with Live Nation as the tour’s concert promoter.”
Not so, argued attorneys for Live Nation. In its own court filings, the company said that it merely refuses to rent out its portfolio of amphitheaters to the competing concert promotion companies that artists have hired — and that it is “settled law” under federal antitrust statutes that a company has “no duty to aid its competitors.”
In Friday’s decision, Judge Subramanian said that argument could succeed at trial, but that the DOJ’s basic legal theory was sound enough to survive for now: “The facts may ultimately show that the tying claim here is nothing more than a refusal-to-deal claim,” the judge wrote. “But at this stage, the court’s role is to determine whether the complaint states a plausible tying claim, and it does.”
Live Nation did not immediately return a request for comment. A trial is tentatively scheduled for March 2026.