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Influential Chicago musician DJ Funk, credited with coining the term “ghetto house,” has died at 54. The news was announced by friend and collaborator DJ Slugo, who revealed Funk’s passing in a video posted to Instagram on Wednesday (March 5). The news came just a few days after the the DJ’s family started a GoFundMe to help cover funeral costs after they said the artist born Charles Chambers was nearing the end of a long battle with stage 4 cancer. At press time Billboard had not independently confirmed Funk’s death.

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Funk made his name as the pioneer of the ghetto house (aka “booty house”) sound that bubbled up in his native Chicago in the early late 1980s and early 1990s, mixing spare drum machine beats with lascivious, sped up vocals on beloved tracks including “Work Dat Body,” “Run” and “Pump It.”

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Born in Chicago on March 5, 1971, Funk made his name in the early ’90s on a number of influential EPs for the Dancemania label (which he took ownership of in 2005), including the Street Traxx series, as well as House the Groove, Pumpin’ Tracks and The Original Video Clash. His fame among hardcore house heads reached its apex in 1999 with the release of his first Booty House Anthems album, which was followed by sequels in 2006 and 2013, as well as high-energy DJ sets at clubs and raves across the Midwest, where he would play his pitched-up, sex-themed songs at a rapid-fire pace, never lingering on any track for too long.

Though he never scored a traditional chart hit, Funk was gained global recognition in 2013 for his remix of French electronic duo Justice’s song “Let There Be Light” on which he demanded “I wanna see that ass bouncing” over one of his signature hyper-speed beats and a minimal, hypnotic bass line.

He was also given a prominent shout-out by Daft Punk on their 1997 Homework album track “Teachers,” where he came in as the second mention on the song behind fellow influential Chicago house legend Paul Johnson, and well ahead of some more well-known names such as George Clinton, Lil Louis, Kenny Dope, Dr. Dre, Jeff Mills and Joey Beltram.

Funk released dozens of singles, remixes and mix CDs over his nearly 30-year career and performed alongside such legends as Bad Boy Bill and Felix Da Housecat at the Out Cold indoor music festival in Aurora, IL in February 2024.

In an interview with the Guardian in 2015, Funk revealed how he’d like to be remembered when he was gone. “I really don’t want a funeral,” he said. “I’d like to have a party so people remember all the good times and aren’t sad. Then at the afterparty there’ll be a lot of booty shaking with all my music played.”

Check out some of Funk’s songs and tributes from fellow DJs below.

Heartbroken to hear about the passing of my friend DJ Funk. One of the best producers and DJs out of Chicago, his energy and iconic vocals could light up any dance floor. My thoughts and condolences go out to his family during this difficult time. There is a GoFundMe to help with… pic.twitter.com/WDQLx8o11b— DJ Bad Boy Bill (@djbadboybill) March 5, 2025

Though February is the shortest month of the year, it didn’t feel that way from a pop stardom perspective in 2025. Within 28 days, we got all kinds of major pop events — the Grammys, the Super Bowl, multiple music-heavy celebrations of Saturday Night Live‘s 50th anniversary — as well as several major new releases […]

Country Music Hall of Famer Randy Travis‘s life and career will be spotlighted in the upcoming biopic Forever and Ever, Amen, which will also star his fellow country singer Clay Walker, Travis announced on Wednesday (March 5) during his performance at the Grand Ole Opry.
The film is currently being cast by Anne McCarthy, Kellie Roy and Morgan Robbins at Engine Casting; the role of Travis will be portrayed by three actors. Walker will play Travis in his 40s and 50s, while casting is underway for actors to portray him as a child (around 9-12 years old) and at 20-30 years old, according to the press release.

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Writer-director Andrew Hyatt will direct from his own script, while Travis and his wife, Mary Travis, will serve as executive producers alongside Walker.

“We’ve been approached many times through the years about doing a movie … but the timing or team has never felt quite as good as it feels right now,” Randy Travis said in a statement. “With Clay on our side, and the creative direction he and the producers have, I feel good about telling my story through this medium.”

Walker added: “Randy Travis is the voice of a generation and one of the greatest country singers of all time. I am truly honored to be a part of this project, and cannot believe I get to play one of my heroes.”

The biopic will spotlight Travis, who sparked a time of surging sales success in country music in the mid-1980s, when he ushered in his traditional country sound and unmistakable, burnished voice on hits such as “Forever and Ever, Amen,” “Diggin’ Up Bones,” “1982,” and “On The Other Hand.”

The biopic’s titular song earned single of the year honors from the Country Music Association in 1987, while his album Always & Forever was named CMA album of the year, stayed at the pinnacle of Billboard‘s top country albums chart for 43 weeks, and sold 5 million copies. Travis’s subsequent five projects also reached platinum sales status. Along the way, he won numerous accolades, including the CMA’s horizon award (1986) and male vocalist of the year honor (1987-1988), the ACM’s male vocalist honor (1986-1987) and Grammy accolades for best country vocal performance, male, in 1987 and 1988.

Beyond music, Travis made his mark as an actor in film and television, with roles in films Black Dog, Maverick, The Rainmaker, The Legend of O.B. Taggert and The Wager, and television series including Touched by an Angel, King of the Hill and Matlock.

He made a music comeback in the 2000s, thanks to his country-gospel hit “Three Wooden Crosses,” which won song of the year at the CMA Awards and a GMA Dove Award for country song of the year. He released country-leaning gospel albums including Rise & Shine, Inspirational Journey and Passing Through.

Nearly 12 years ago, Travis suffered a stroke which limited his ability to sing and perform, but he has continued to release original music with the help of new AI technology.

Welcome to a snug-fitting Publishing Briefs, our semimonthly bulletin of recent signings, deals and doings in the wide world of music publishing. Since the last edition, OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder signed himself, Deadmau5 sold his catalog, Kobalt launched a new platform targeting the creator middle class, a deal for the $uicideBoy$’ publishing catalog is being shopped, and Primary Wave signed a marketing and admin deal with “Wichita Lineman” songwriter Jimmy Webb.
Caught up? Here’s what else is going on:

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Reservoir Media paired with PopArabia to acquire the publishing and master rights to Egyptian star Omar Kamal‘s catalog. Kamal is a key figure in popularizing mahraganat, a genre blending Egyptian rhythms, electronic music and rap. His 2020 hit “Mahragan Bent El Geran” with Hassan Shakosh became a cultural phenomenon, earning over 700 million YouTube views, and subsequent hits, “Oud Al Batal” and “LGHBTITA,” have attracted over 500 million and 300 million YouTube views, respectively. PopArabia vp of A&R Wissam Khodur highlighted Kamal’s ability to “pivot into mahraganat with his own unique twist,” while Reservoir CEO Golnar Khosrowshahi called the acquisition “another key growth moment” for both companies’ efforts in the booming Egyptian market. “This deal builds upon our other recent strategic acquisitions and further supports our efforts to become a major tastemaker in the region,” she said.

A Lau inked a global publishing deal with Position Music, joining artists like Tinashe and Cannons. Known for his work with Ice Spice, Lil Tjay and French Montana, Lau is a rising executive producer in NYC’s hip-hop scene. His credits include Ice Spice’s “Butterfly Ku” and Lil Tjay’s “Bla Bla.” Lau owns Off Record Studio in Manhattan and leads the Off Record producer collective, focusing on artist development, and this year plans to executive produce records for Ice Spice, Megan Thee Stallion and Babytron. Position Music’s vp of A&R Delmar Powell and partner Mark Chipello praised Lau’s record-crafting skills and talent for building connections, with Powell calling him a “dynamic producer with a sharp ear and a relentless work ethic.” He’s managed by Peter Robinson of Olympus Projects.

Kobalt signed South Arcade to a global publishing deal, representing the band’s entire catalog. The Oxford-based group, formed in 2021, has quickly gained prominence with over 20 million streams on their debut EP and nearly 800,000 monthly Spotify listeners, leading to multiple sold-out headline shows and support slots for bands like Dead Pony and Yours Truly. South Arcade has received significant radio support, including BBC Radio 1 features. Kobalt executives praised the band’s talent and potential, with head of creative (UK and GSA) Kenny McGoff highlighting their music as brimming with “energy and life,” and svp of creative Melissa Emert-Hutner saying the group “embodies everything that draws me to an artist – immense talent, unwavering drive, and incredibly catchy songs.” Manager Ben Karter offered props to Team Kobalt, which “truly understood the band’s vision and music, rather than just buying into their data.”

Concord Music Publishing signed Wyoming rapper Ryan Charles to a global publishing deal, covering his full catalog and future works. Charles, whose style blends cowboy culture with 2000s rap, is known for standout tracks including “Gettin’ Western,” “Old Dirt Fancy” and “New Boot Goofin’,” which he performed on American Song Contest as representative of his home state. He also collaborated with Ian Munsick on “Cowboy Killer,” amassing over 37 million Spotify streams. In 2023, he released tracks like “Turquoise Stones,” “Cold Beer Diet” and “Heartbreak Rodeo,” surpassing 65 million global streams. Melissa Spillman, VP A&R at Concord, praised Charles for his crossover appeal to country and rap fans, adding, “I can confidently say Ryan is unlike anyone I’ve ever worked with.”

Concord Music Publishing ANZ, established after Concord acquired Native Tongue in 2022, signed a worldwide publishing deal with Melbourne artist Glass Beams. Led by a masked Rajan Silva, Glass Beams blends Indian and South Asian heritage with psychedelic soundscapes, leaning heavily on live instrumentation and DIY electronica sounds. Their debut EP Mirage and breakout EP Mahal have propelled them to international success, with the group set to perform at Coachella and Primavera Sound this year. Jaime Gough, Managing Director of Concord ANZ, praised Rajan as a “supremely gifted artist and songwriter, who through Glass Beams has created a unique brand of serpentine, psychedelic-tinged music, capturing a spirit that drifts between worlds; mystical, elusive, and endlessly mesmerizing.”

Downtown Music Publishing signed writer-producer Cameron Montgomery, who has contributed to hit songs for Morgan Wallen, Kane Brown, 24kGoldn, HARDY and more. Based in both Nashville and Los Angeles, Montgomery is also working on music for film, brands and collaborations in the visual arts space. Downtown Music Publishing also represents Jason Isbell, Sadler Vaden, Tommy Prine and is aligned with the John Prine Estate, which it represents along with Oh Boy Records. –Jessica Nicholson

Regalias Digitales, an independent music publisher specializing in both Latin and non-Latin music, has signed several notable talents to global publishing administration deals. Among them are Peysoh and Wallie The Sensei, both collaborators on Kendrick Lamar’s latest album GNX. The roster also includes Mexican hip-hop icon Dharius, hip-hop artist 03 Greedo, rising roots/bluegrass artist Lindsay Lou, popular EDM duo Bonnie X Clyde, Cypress Hill member Eric “Bobo” Correa, New Age act Beautiful Chorus, and Uncle Murda, a protégé of 50 Cent.

Arden Records is expanding its artist-first lo-fi music label with a new publishing division. Founded in 2021 in partnership with Platoon, the label connects lo-fi artists, producers and songwriters. Co-founded by Nepalese artist sagun and executives Jordan Smith and Andrew Kwan, its roster includes sagun, clay house, DAVI JUNO and French WiFi. The publishing arm aims to create opportunities for lo-fi creators. Arden’s ethos, inspired by nature and tranquility, is reflected in projects like its Earth Day compilation. Smith stresses their commitment to community, while Kwan underscores their dedication to authentic musicianship amid the rise of AI-generated music. “We remain steadfast in championing our artists, ensuring their authentic musicianship receives the recognition it deserves,” said Kwan. “Now, through the launch of our publishing venture, we are excited to continue this mission from a fresh and dynamic perspective.”

Pixel Grip, a darkwave/club pop band, signed a co-publishing deal with Brill Building Music Publishing. Known for underground staples like “ALPHAPUSSY” and “Stamina,” the band’s next single, “Split,” drops on March 14, followed by their album Percepticide: The Death of Reality in May. Recently, they opened for HEALTH on a sold-out tour, further solidifying their presence in the scene.

MUSIC CITY MINUTES: Spirit Music Group renewed its co-publishing agreement with songwriter David Garcia and acquired rights to some of his catalog … The Warner Chappell Music Live Song Pitch Round is scheduled for March 13 at The Listening Room. Among the writers performing are Lydia Vaughan, Josh Kerr and Summer Overstreet … Finalists were revealed for the AIMP Nashville Awards, presented by the Association for Independent Music Publishers on April 8 at Marathon Music Works. Jordan Davis, Shaboozey and Carly Pearce are on the ballot, along with double nominees Tucker Wetmore, ERNEST, Laci Kaye Booth, Vincent Mason, Daniel Ross and Jessi Jo Dillon.

Last Publishing Briefs: ‘Cowgirls’ Co-Writer Finds Home at Range

The show was, unequivocally, going off.
In time with the beat, columns of fire blasted from a complicated and expensive-looking stage setup as a litany of dance hits blasted through the speakers of Los Angeles’ Kia Forum, where more than 15,000 people and their approximately 30,000 ears were gathered to hear the music.

Drunk girls traded compliments in line for the bathroom while staffers trying to prevent fire hazards cajoled people to dance in their seats instead of the aisles. It was a proper arena rager, a de facto badge of success for any artist, but particularly so in the world of dance music.

At the center of it all, John Summit — tanned, smiling, his shirt unbuttoned to a chest level that suggested a regular workout routine — threw up heart hands while manning the cockpit of CDJs before him. It was Nov. 16, 2024, the final evening of the producer’s sold-out three-night run at the Forum, shows executed by a 130-person team working overtime. It was just one of the very big moments of Summit’s biggest year to date, and while the set wasn’t even done yet, in his mind it was already over.

“I got too comfortable by the end,” he reflects three months later, “and I was like, ‘This show is done. This is the last one.’ And not because it wasn’t great. I think it was excellent. But I don’t want to write the same movie twice.”

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John Summit performs at Billboard Presents THE STAGE at SXSW at Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park in Austin on March 15. Get your tickets here.

This sentiment embodies three essential truths about Summit. First and most obviously, that the 30-year-old Illinois native has accomplished quite a lot since emerging from the froth of internet buzz over the last five years. Second, that Summit possesses an almost strangely intense drive, a kind of stubborn single-mindedness that propels him forward even when the thing he has spent a year working on is still happening around him. And third: Summit’s tendency to most often describe his life not in terms of music but cinema. His big shows and capital B bangers are, for example, “big-budget projects, like Marvel,” whereas his smaller, clubbier sets “are A24,” he says, referencing the lauded indie studio. He compares the beginning of his sold-out Madison Square Garden show last summer to an action film, calling the pyro-heavy moment “basically me blowing up onstage. It was very Michael Bay-esque.”

Surveying the public-facing landscape of Summit’s life helps to explain his tendency to process it all in leading-man terms. Through an alchemy of talent, will, hard work and smart decision-making, Summit and his team have pulled off one of dance music’s rarest feats: becoming a hard-ticket juggernaut with a signature sound, big-ass hits and intergenerational appeal.

At the Garden, says Wasserman’s Daisy Hoffman, who represents Summit alongside Ben Shprits, “older adult fans” intermingled with younger ones. “I have 35-year-old friends with kids who are doing a girls’ trip to Vail [Colo.] for his show there, while my 25-year-old sister is following his every move on TikTok.”

A DJ achieving this kind of broad appeal is, today, a bit like spotting a snow leopard in the wild. “It’s very rare,” Shprits says. “It is extremely rare.”

OFY top, Lost ‘N Found pants, Tercero Jewelry necklace and rings.

Ysa Pérez

But it’s also not a fluke: Summit is a confident and adorable hustler with high standards and an intense Midwestern work ethic. “I’m delusional,” he says on a recent balmy Wednesday afternoon in Miami, where he moved to in 2020 to try and make it as a DJ. “I thought the first track I ever made was amazing.”

Since his first release in 2017, he has steadily attracted other believers, with his sprawling business now populated by managers, agents, accountants, label operators, radio pluggers, marketers, production designers, social media experts and the videographer who silently and ceaselessly captures footage as Summit shows me around Miami, a city where he has not only made it, but where he now avoids “super-glamorous spots where I feel like people are just staring at me the whole time.”

Dance superstardom has changed him. Whereas his social channels used to be plastered with drunken shenanigans, Summit now posts a lot about exercising. Hours before we meet, he shares an image of a yoga mat on the balcony of the waterfront condo he bought two years ago. While we chat, he talks about his need for consistent sleep (he tucks in at midnight and wakes up at seven) and more than once references his “personal growth journey.” But while Summit is Evolving with a capital E, his tenacity remains unaltered. After releasing his debut album, Comfort in Chaos, last July, he’s already at work on its follow-up. This summer, he’ll also headline festivals including Movement, Lightning in a Bottle and Bonnaroo; launch an Ibiza residency; and play shows in Australia, Europe and beyond.

“I’m hustling harder than I’ve ever hustled before,” he says, his Chicago accent strong. “The shows are only getting bigger and not just bigger, but better. The team is growing. My record label is growing. I’m working on a second album already, whereas I think most dance artists, especially house artists, don’t even do albums. Every year is crazier and crazier. It would be stupid to slow down when it’s snowballing.”

And yet it all occasionally leaves his head spinning. For example, Summit compares spending the holidays in his native Naperville, Ill., to the end of The Lord of the Rings, when Frodo Baggins returns to the Shire after risking life and limb to destroy the One Ring and finds that while his idyllic homeland is the same as when he left it, he — fundamentally transformed by his quest — is not. “I’ve had the craziest life, toured the whole world, had many adventures and late nights, got into some bad situations,” Summit says. “Then I come back home and everything is the exact same.”

One can see how opening Christmas presents in your parents’ living room in the suburbs might seem surreal after playing for hundreds of thousands of people across multiple continents. But it was in Naperville and nearby Chicago where Summit — then a “kind of nerdy runner” born John Schuster — was first exposed to dance music. It happened while seeing deadmau5 at Lollapalooza in 2011, an experience Summit, then 16, has equated to a sort of spiritual awakening. His subsequent journeys through SoundCloud were exacerbated by a high school love interest. “At first, I was just making music to impress my girlfriend at the time,” he says. “She liked all these DJs, and I was like, ‘I can f–king do this.’ ”

OFY top, Lost ‘N Found pants, Rick Owens shoes, Tercero Jewelry necklace and rings.

Ysa Pérez

Summit got serious about DJ’ing and producing while a student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. By 2017, he had graduated with a master’s degree in accounting and was working at Ernst & Young while making music in his off-hours. (And, he admits, often during work hours, too.) He sent “dozens of demos” to a flurry of labels, focusing on esteemed U.K. imprints like Toolroom and Defected Records, which specialize in the house and tech house styles he was making.

“It’s no different than applying for 100 jobs when you’re out of college,” Summit says matter-of-factly of sending out demos. Eventually, a few small labels replied with feedback on how he could improve, and by 2018, they had signed a few of his tracks. By this time, Summit was in touch with a young manager named Holt Harmon, who was working with Summit on the release of a track he had made with an artist Harmon was then working with. The pair clicked.

“I had a call with Holt about, like, ‘How is this getting distributed? What’s the marketing strategy?’ I went very exec mode on him,” Summit says. “I think he was like, ‘Oh, this kid’s not just good at music. He gets it and he’s not lazy.’ I thought the same about him.”

Summit became the third artist signed to Metatone, the management company Harmon co-founded alongside Parker Cohen in 2018. But as things picked up for Summit, the pandemic hit. By now, Summit had been fired from Ernst & Young and was back living with his parents. But what might have seemed like a roadblock became something else.

“People saw the pandemic as a time to take their foot off the gas,” Shprits says. “And here you’ve got a 20-something guy on the verge of taking the next step in his career who saw it as an opportunity to do the opposite.”

In the basement, Summit made music and was extremely online, posting production tutorials, doing livestreams and winning people over with what Shprits calls his “unfiltered” personality. (“I would pay $500 to slap a warm bag of wine at a music festival right now,” Summit tweeted in May 2020, the deep days of the pandemic.) By the end of 2020, he had gone from livestreaming from Naperville to playing a b2b set with Gorgon City broadcast from a Chicago rooftop, racking up millions of views and likes along the way with this, as well as other self-deprecating, unapologetic and funny content. You couldn’t help but root for the guy.

Around this time, Summit moved to America’s dance music capital, Miami, with the goal of playing an extended set at the influential nightclub Space. “People didn’t see me as a serious DJ,” he says. “They saw me as someone who might have blown up on TikTok or something. Then I was doing these eight- to 10-hour sets of pretty underground music, not even playing a big vocal record until four or five hours in, kind of just proving like, ‘Yeah, I’m a f–king DJ.’ That was my version of taking on a very serious role.”

The method acting worked. When clubs reopened across the United States, Summit was suddenly selling out 500-capacity rooms in far-flung cities like Tempe, Ariz., often in seconds. He and his team focused on playing as much as they could, wherever they could, and venues eventually got bigger as the social media reach grew. His single and EP releases were largely house and tech house tracks, with his output helping propel the latter subgenre to increasingly bigger audiences, particularly as Summit experimented with bigger and more vocal-forward records, the kind that typically have maximum crossover potential.

His watershed moment came when he released “Where You Are,” a collaboration with power-lunged British singer-songwriter Hayla, in March 2023. “Before putting it out, I was like, ‘This is going to f–k up my entire career because this is a headliner, main-stage song,’ ” he says. “Very few DJs had become successful in the pop lane. It was like, ‘Am I ready for this challenge?’ Then I was like, ‘F–k it. Let’s do it.’ ”

“Where You Are” spent 26 weeks on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart; now has 298.7 million on-demand official global streams, according to Luminate; and was selected as a favorite song of 2023 by another Chicagoland resident, Barack Obama. By December 2023, Summit sold out Los Angeles’ BMO Stadium, moving 21,700 tickets and grossing $1.7 million, according to Billboard Boxscore.

“Where You Are” and other subsequent belters from Comfort in Chaos have, along with Summit’s general presence in the scene, agitated the dance world’s perpetual push-pull between the commercial and underground, a turf war that has long found artists wanting to play the biggest shows and have the biggest hits without losing the credibility and cool factor of dance’s less overtly capitalist sectors. But Summit wants to do both.

“John’s been very vocal about wanting to bring the underground to a large scale while bringing a production level that no one’s ever seen with this style of music,” Shprits says. “That’s always been the guiding light.”

But even if you’re playing music with underground origins, it’s not necessarily accurate to call yourself an underground artist while playing from atop a laser-shooting platform at the center of a sold-out arena. This is why Summit created Experts Only, the name of both the label on which he, in partnership with Darkroom Records, releases his own and other artists’ music and a party series where he plays lesser-known music (“I feel like I have to be very on the forefront with the records,” he says) for smaller crowds in tighter spaces.

“I look at John Summit and Experts Only as two different things,” Summit says. “John Summit is this grand display, a huge-budget production that shows my art and music from the album, whereas Experts Only is a party brand where me and DJ [friends] do cooler underground cuts … You hear so many artists who blew up that are like, ‘I hate playing my big song every night.’ They wish they could play more experimental stuff. I’m getting the best of both worlds.”

Doing both has broadened Summit’s appeal. The underground thing, Shprits says, is “generally attractive to an older demographic that’s experienced with electronic music. Then he has this amazing ability to craft songs that attract your high school and college demographic. Take all of that and then combine it with the personality, the packaging and the A&R’ing from the management and label side, it’s like the perfect big bang.”

And yet, Summit questions what the “hipster snob” John Schuster might think of it all. He recalls firing off “hypercritical” tweets at main-stage dance giants back in the EDM era; he preferred the heady vibes of Michigan’s beloved dance/jam festival Electric Forest and deep cuts like Shiba San’s 2014 house classic, “Okay.” “Now I’m here in those same shoes getting as much s–t talked about me. I think that’s maybe why I can get through it without getting too offended, because that was me doing the s–t-talking.”

CUBEL x The Room jacket and pants, Lost ‘N Found tee, Rick Owens shoes, Tercero Jewelry rings.

Ysa Pérez

But when you read most every social media comment, as Summit says he does, the ability to laugh off insults is helped by what he calls “a good supporting cast.” (He screenshots particularly egregious remarks and sends them to the inner circle for diffusion.) Taking a team approach to his career “is way less lonely,” with every person on the team not only bringing “a Swiss Army knife” of abilities, but together creating a perpetual group hang that’s the antidote to the cycle of loneliness, depression and addiction that has historically plagued dance artists.

Still, he is John Summit of the John Summit project, and his vision is specific. Here in Miami, he has ideas for how he wants to be photographed and filmed. He likes a lot of prep and knowing what the plan is. He’s agreeable and charming. You could also call him bossy — or just someone who knows what he wants.

“For better or for worse, I challenge people around me as much as possible to be at their greatest,” he says. “I’m ever-evolving, and everyone has to be ever-evolving around me.” Cohen says that among the team, Summit is often referred as “the third manager.” Shprits acknowledges that “at many times, John has challenged us to understand where he was going with this and to meet him.”

Summit isn’t quite sure where the drive comes from. “I was fortunate to have a very normal upbringing,” he says, and his parents (his father is a commercial airline pilot and his mother a real estate agent) “are like, ‘You’re doing great. You don’t have to keep pushing.’ I don’t come from an incredibly successful artistic family. There’s no mounting pressure.” At least, not from outside sources.

“This is one of the most competitive industries in the world,” he continues. “I can’t let off the gas because the second I do, someone else is going to steam ahead. I’m going to try my best and try to be the best. Otherwise, what’s the point?”

So, for the foreseeable future, Summit shall keep gunning it. After Comfort in Chaos hit No. 39 on the Billboard 200, he’s now at work on a follow-up album that he wants to be “bigger and better.” While he didn’t get any 2025 Grammy nominations after campaigning for them, he says that just gives him “something to strive for.” And while dance music isn’t even a genre that necessitates albums, Summit sees them as meaningful: “I look at some of the greatest artists over the last generations, where album after album, they try to outdo themselves, reinvent themselves.” He takes cues not only from musicians but high-achieving athletes and, naturally, actors, calling Timothée Chalamet’s recent run “f–king incredible” and particularly inspiring.

For the next album, he’s interested in releasing a short movie alongside it. A recent rewatch of the 2014 film Whiplash inspired him to buy a drum kit and, maybe, play percussion on some of his new music. While he “shot my shot” with pop stars like Charli xcx and Dua Lipa by tweeting at them asking to work together (no collaborations have resulted), he says working with this type of artist “is not needed in my career,” given the strong roster of vocalists with “raw talent” like Hayla, Julia Church and more that he has surrounded himself with. He regularly brings out these vocalists during big shows and “f–king loves it” when they get a huge crowd reaction.

Plus, having tried working with a few pop stars, he finds bumping into their limited schedules “very diva-like. And as a diva myself,” he says with a laugh, “there’s only room for one of us.”

OFY top and tee, Lost ‘N Found x Levi’s pants, Rick Owens x Dr. Martens shoes, Tercero Jewelry rings.

Ysa Pérez

As writing gets underway, he’s also finding that he has grown up a bit since the days when his tagline was “My life is a bender.” (“My bender era walked so brat could run,” he tweets while we have lunch; the sentiment gets 2,500 likes before the plates are cleared.) Comfort in Chaos explored deeper topics than partying, and he says making it was a huge leap in his maturation. A song like his 2022 “In Chicago” (sample lyric: “I’m drunk, I’m high and I’m in Chicago”) “is basically like LMFAO,” he says. “It’s like my ‘Party Rock [Anthem].’ ” Comfort in Chaos, on the other hand, was largely about love and longing. When asked about this subject matter, he acknowledges that “I’m a lover boy” but demurs when asked to expand, saying only, “I tell it through the music, not in interviews.” (If anyone wants to read the tea leaves, the lyrics of Summit’s most recent song, the moody indie dance track “Focus,” inquire, “How’d we get so lost inside of this room?/Watching you turn into someone I never knew/I remember love, but it’s slipping out of view.”)

While Summit works out these big feelings in his new music, he’ll also spend the rest of 2025 headlining major U.S. festivals and touring the world; he and his team are particularly focused on international expansion this year. Outside of Ibiza, he says “there’s really no money” in international shows, but adds that revenue isn’t the point: “I’m young and hungry, and I want to showcase my art with the world.”

It’s all a wild ride, a summer popcorn blockbuster, a journey to Mordor and back. It’s the kind of stuff Summit sometimes thinks about after the workday ends, when “I take an edible and think, ‘Holy s–t, this world is crazy.’ But then I wake up in the morning, snap out of it and get back to it.”

This story appears in the March 8, 2025, issue of Billboard.

The show was, unequivocally, going off. In time with the beat, columns of fire blasted from a complicated and expensive-looking stage setup as a litany of dance hits blasted through the speakers of Los Angeles’ Kia Forum, where more than 15,000 people and their approximately 30,000 ears were gathered to hear the music. Drunk girls […]

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Amber Rose is once again calling out her ex Kanye West, claiming that he’s the one behind his current wife Bianca Censori’s revealing outfits.

According to Amber, Kanye has been doing this to all his girlfriends, including her and Kim Kardashian, and it’s all about one thing: control. She says, “He likes it when other men want to f**k his woman. He likes that men are drooling over his woman,” adding that he gets off on the attention his partners get from other men.

Rose says that when she and Kanye started dating in 2008, he turned her into his own Barbie doll. Once she gained fame, he pushed her to dress in ways that were over-sexualized and attention-grabbing. Amber admits she was young and naive back then, so she went along with it, even though it wasn’t really her vibe. But the real kicker? Even after they broke up in 2010, Amber says she couldn’t shake that “sexy” image Kanye helped build for her.
The Philly native said it left her stuck in a box, constantly being seen as just the “hot girl” and never able to break free from that label. These recent comments revealed a pattern of manipulation she feels Ye used to control how his women were viewed—reducing them to their looks and making them objects of desire for other men. This isn’t just about fashion; it’s about power and how Kanye shaped her public persona.

Rascal Flatts announced their upcoming star-studded collabs album Life Is a Highway: Refueled Duets on Thursday (March 6). The project due out on June 6 through Big Machine Records will feature 10 re-imaginings of the country trio’s most beloved hits with guests including Kelly Clarkson, the Backstreet Boys, Blake Shelton, Jason Aldean and Carly Pearce.

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“It was such an honor to create this project with such incredibly talented artists, it’s a pretty indescribable feeling having your colleagues and friends do your songs in such unique ways and knock your socks off with the results,” said lead singer Gary LeVox in a statement. “This album is just another attempt for us to thank our fans for the blessings they’ve given us on this crazy journey the past 25 years, thanks for riding along with us!”

Rascal Flatts teamed up with the Jonas Brothers in January for the first single from the collection, “I Dare You,” which was written by the JoBros’ Nick Jonas with Dan + Shay’s Shay Mooney along with Dewain Whitmore Jr. and Tommy English. The song gave the Jonas siblings their first hit on the country charts after “I Dare You” spent a week on the Billboard Hot Country Charts (No. 31) last month; it is currently charting at No. 37 on the Country Airplay chart.

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Among the other acts who team up with LeVox, bassist/singer Jay DeMarcus and guitarist/vocalist Joe Don Rooney on the album are: Brandon Lake, Ashley Cooke, Jordan Davis and Halestorm singer/guitarist Lzzy Hale.

The country group is gearing up to kick off their Life Is a Highway tour in their hometown of Columbus, OH at the Nationwide Arena on Thursday night.

Check out the track list for Life Is a Highway: Refueled Duets album below.

1. “I Dare You” (with Jonas Brothers)

2. “Fast Cars And Freedom” (with Jason Aldean)

3. “My Wish” (with Carly Pearce)

4. “Mayberry” (with Blake Shelton)

5. “Stand” (with Brandon Lake)

6. “Summer Nights” (with Ashley Cooke)

7. “What Hurts The Most” (with Backstreet Boys)

8. “Yours If You Want It” (with Jordan Davis)

9. “Life Is A Highway” (with Lzzy Hale)

10. “I’m Movin’ On” (with Kelly Clarkson)

Billboard cover star John Summit takes you through a day in his life in Miami where he shares what he’s working on for his next album, who he would love to collaborate with, performing at the Sphere, how EDM music from the US has gone international and more! John Summit: I remember like I was […]

Rimas Entertainment, home to Bad Bunny and the No. 1 label on Billboard‘s 2024 year-end Top Independent Labels chart, has acquired a “significant” stake in Dale Play Records, the maverick Argentine label that’s home to DJ Bizarrap, Rels B and rapper Duki, Billboard can reveal.
The partnership includes Sony Music Latin Iberia, which continues to own a stake in the label. Helping bring the deal to fruition were Rob Stringer, Sony Music Group chairman and Sony Music Entertainment CEO; Afo Verde, chairman/CEO of Sony Music Latin America, Spain and Portugal; and Brad Navin and Jason Pascal of The Orchard.

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Fede Lauria, the Argentine executive who founded Dale Play out of Argentina and grew the label to its current stature, will retain a smaller percentage of the company and continue as CEO. The Orchard will also continue to distribute Dale Play as it has for years. The company’s other business verticals, which include booking and management — including the management of Duki, Nicki Nicole and Bizarrap — are not part of the deal and will remain solely under Lauria.

The partnership brings together two indie companies that have redefined the way Latin music is made and promoted on a global scale, with both developing and capitalizing on a new wave of urban music in Spanish — one centered in Puerto Rico (Rimas) and the other in Argentina (Dale Play) — with international ambitions. Rimas has already expanded its roster beyond Puerto Rico, signing Spain’s Quevedo and Mexico’s Latin Mafia.

“From day one, our mission has been to support and develop artists with authenticity and respect for their identity,” said Rimas Entertainment CEO Noah Assad in a statement. “With Federico and Dale Play, we’ve built a relationship founded on trust and mutual admiration. This alliance will allow us to break new boundaries and create opportunities for our artists and teams.”

In an earlier conversation with Billboard, Assad noted that this is Rimas’ first major acquisition and that it follows a longstanding friendship and years of business dealings between him and Lauria.

“We’re working hand in hand and all we’re doing is adding more value to each other, him to me and me to him,” he said. “The collaboration already existed. We’re formalizing something that was already happening.”

Lauria was already an established concert promoter in Argentina with the company Dale Play (which currently sells over 1 million tickets per year, mostly in Argentina) when he created the label portion of his business, Dale Play Records, in 2017, focusing on a previously untapped rap and trap music scene bubbling out of Argentina. Sony Music came in as a partner in 2020.

“Afo and I have had a long-standing friendship for many years, united by a mission to elevate Latin music to the highest level,” said Lauria in a statement. The new partnership with Rimas, he told Billboard earlier, “reflects a journey we have been on for many years with Noah, Jomy and the RIMAS team. We share the same vision and values. Our companies are 360 companies with similar philosophies and origins. They’re rare in the global market. We do management, booking, label, publishing. The potential that these two ecosystems have together and the mutual collaboration that our artists and businesses can have is huge.”

Fede Lauria, Noah Assad and Afo Verde.

Afo Verde/Sony Music Latin Iberia

Added Verde in a statement: “I have great admiration for the achievements of both Fede and Noah. They epitomize the new generation of executives and label leaders, characterized by their independent spirit and innovative approach. It is a privilege to continue our partnership with them, and I love that they wanted to work together.”

Assad and Lauria’s working relationship dates back to Bad Bunny’s early days as an artist playing small venues in Buenos Aires, which Lauria booked. Today, he still promotes Bunny’s Argentina stadium and arena dates. The two have since worked together on multiple artist collaborations and started discussing a possible partnership three years ago, with conversations solidifying last year.

 “This alliance is key to expanding our global reach and connecting with talent wherever it may be,” said Jonathan “Jomy” Miranda, president of Rimas Entertainment, in a statement. “We have always been at the forefront of discovering new artists, and now, through this partnership, we will have ears in more corners of the world to support and develop the next generation of stars.”

“Rimas is still Rimas and Dale Play is still Dale Play,” said Lauria during his conversation with Billboard, when asked about the future management of the respective labels. But, he adds, both labels have been “an essential part of the development of a cultural movement, and we’re in the process of shaping artists in Spain and Mexico that aren’t Argentine or Puerto Rican. Being together gives us huge power.”

Everything aligned to make the partnership come together now, said Assad. “We want a partner that has a clear vision, knows what they want and knows their destination,” he adds. “Culturally speaking, we share a lot of the same culture, and that’s why we’re doing this strategic alliance.”