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14 Nov 2023

Jailbird Singer R. Kelly Sues Feds & Tasha K, Alleging Leaks Of Personal Info

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R. Kelly Arrested for Unpaid Child Support

Source: Handout / Getty

R. Kelly has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government and prison officials for allegedly leaking his prison information before his Chicago-area trial to Tasha K.

On Monday (Nov. 13), R. Kelly filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court of Northern Illinois against the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, alleging that they leaked personal details about him before his infamous trial months ago. The lawsuit is also filed against the federal government as well as Latasha Kebe, better known as celebrity blogger Tasha K. Kelly is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for enticing a minor into sexual activity and producing child pornography. He’s also been convicted in a separate case in New York for sex trafficking and racketeering.

In the documents of the lawsuit, R. Kelly alleges that “at least 60 BOP officers made unauthorized access to plaintiff’s sensitive, confidential, and private information maintained by the BOP.” The controversial singer specifically cited three of the unnamed prison officials who he claimed looked at his visitor logs and private calls and then struck a deal with Tasha K – presumably for money – to leak that information to her so that she could share it with her vast audience in her role as a celebrity blogger.

“He had every right to be able to be confident, to think the BOP would protect his information and not exploit, but unfortunately, certain BOP officers did just that,” said Jennifer Bonjean, R. Kelly’s attorney to ABC7 Chicago. “He does not feel comfortable to this day talking to anyone, even his own lawyers, because of the impact of this event.” One of the singer’s sisters, Lisa Kelly, expressed her dismay over the situation. “You’re listening to personal phone calls. You’re listening to recordings. That’s not right. That’s not right. That doesn’t sit well with me at all,” she said.

Tasha K apparently felt something was up, as she addressed the lawsuit on social media months before it was filed in January. It’s notable that she went to those lengths as she is currently under duress after losing a major lawsuit brought against her by Cardi B for defamation of character. The blogger had vowed to go to the Supreme Court after the verdict, which found her liable for $4 million in damages. 

14 Nov 2023

The D.O.C. Reflects On Using AI To Make New Music

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Krush Groove 2018

Source: Scott Dudelson / Getty

The D.O.C. talked about how it feels to be creating new music after so many years using AI technology in a recent interview.

Iconic rapper the D.O.C. was the subject of an interview with CBS Mornings Nov. 10 on his career and the life-changing car accident that damaged his vocal cords, leading him to also share how he’s utilizing artificial intelligence to help him make new music. “Fab 5 Freddy asked me would I be interested in creating an album using AI technology,” he said to co-host Michelle Miller.



The former YO! MTV Raps host and Hip-Hop cultural pioneer felt that the idea of the D.O.C. using that technology was natural. “I just felt like it was a no-brainer for somebody like him to have an opportunity to bring new music to the world,” he said during the segment. Fab 5 Freddy would then connect the rap veteran to Mikey Scholman, the CEO of AI company Suno.

Scholman said that the company is “teaching the machine what D.O.C. used to sound like.” In studio sessions in the D.O.C.’s hometown of Dallas, Texas, which were captured for the interview, he took note of how fruitful their AI technology was in creating the voice he had before his car accident using his older recordings. “When this thing happens it sounds like a real me,” he said to the Suno personnel.

Miller asked Scholman towards the end of the segment, “Aren’t there ethical issues here?” voicing the concerns that have been raised about the technology being used for dubious purposes. Scholman acknowledged those concerns, but felt that in this case, the choice was a “slam dunk.”

“Letting D.O.C. recreate the voice that has been in his head that he hasn’t been able to get out there for the last 35 years – I can’t think of a better usage of this technology than that,” he said.

The D.O.C. echoed that sentiment, seeing it as a blessing, which he expressed in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on the day the CBS Mornings interview aired. “I gotta share this just to show you how cold G.O.D is,” he began. “In light of the news today that I’m getting an opportunity to make a new album using the voice I was born with, around 3:33am will be 34 years to the day I lost it on 11/11/89. Circle of light.”

14 Nov 2023

Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift & More Artists Who Could Make History at the 2024 Grammy Awards

We’ll find out on Feb. 4, 2024.

You probably already know that Taylor Swift could make history on Feb. 4, 2024 when the 66th annual Grammy Awards are presented at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. She could become the first artist to win album of the year four times.

Swift isn’t the only nominee who could set a record if they win. We rounded up two-dozen artists who could make history next February.

Keep in mind that not one vote has yet been cast. Final-round voting is set to begin on Dec. 14, one month from today, and continue through Jan. 4, 2024.

SZA was the leader in the nominations, which were announced on Nov. 10. The R&B star received nine nods. Phoebe Bridgers, Serban Ghenea and Victoria Monét followed with seven nods each.

Jon Batiste, Miley Cyrus, Olivia Rodrigo, Swift and SZA were each nominated in each of the Big Three categories – album, record and song of the year. Boygenius, Billie Eilish and Lana Del Rey were each nominated in two of those three categories.

The Recording Academy hasn’t yet announced who will host the show. Trevor Noah hosted the last three Grammy telecasts and he’s nominated for best comedy album for I Wish You Would. If Noah does host the show again in February, he’d be the first Grammy host to also be a nominee that same year since Queen Latifah in 2005. Latifah was nominated that year for best jazz vocal album for The Dana Owens Album.

Here are two-dozen artists who could be headed for the Grammy history books in February.

14 Nov 2023

As Hollywood Starts Back Up, So Too Do Music Supervision & the Synch Business

Now that the Hollywood actors’ strike is over, music supervisor Justin Kamps can afford to keep his 3-year-old daughter in daycare. “Things were getting a little bit scary these last couple months,” says Kamps, who picks songs for Bridgerton, Grey’s Anatomy and other hit TV shows. “We were going through the financials and cutting back whatever we can.”

SAG-AFTRA’s 60,000 members voted to approve a deal with studios last Friday, after halting work for nearly four months, following a screenwriters’ strike that lasted from early May to late September — both of which were devastating not just to Hollywood but the $2 billion music-synch industry. “That’s been quite a dark thing,” Stephanie Diaz Matos, head of music supervision for writer-actress Issa Rae‘s music company Raedio, told Billboard in July.

With Hollywood going back to work, TV shows and movies have already resumed sending out briefs to publishers and record labels requesting songs for key dramatic moments and soundtracks. “It’s definitely a relief,” says Alison Dannenberg Frost, vp of film and TV creative for music publisher peermusic. “We saw a slowdown on the creative side and licenses coming in the door. We really just started seeing it affecting our monthly numbers.” The synch business makes up 50% of Spirit Music Group’s publishing revenue, according to Amy Hartman, the company’s senior vp of creative services, film and TV music, who adds, “It’s incredibly important.”

Had the strikes continued much longer, Spirit would have had to consider cutbacks and “do some reevaluating,” Hartman says. “Thankfully, we’re pretty lean and mean, so we weren’t forced to face that question.”

By contrast, music supervisors for films and TV shows are generally freelance contractors and had to scramble to stay afloat financially during the strikes. Laura Webb, a supervisor for Love at First Sight, Monster High and other shows, spent the first month of the strikes on post-production for existing shows, but one of them wound up getting canceled and cut the pay for that job in half. “We have no protections. We were expecting to get that money, and we just lost it,” she says. “The last week has been slower, for sure — the slowest it’s been. But hopefully good timing for things to turn around.”

Webb and her colleagues faced a separate setback over the summer, when the National Labor Relations Board ruled against part-time freelance Netflix music supervisors who’d requested a union certification election in October 2022. After Netflix refused to recognize the union, the supervisors argued they needed collective-bargaining power to improve their financial conditions: “Their responsibilities have expanded, their conditions have deteriorated, and their pay has stagnated,” the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which collaborated with the Netflix employees, declared at the time. But Danielle M. Pierce, the NLRB’s acting regional director, wrote in August that “music supervisors are independent contractors who are not employees of Netflix.”

“We’re regrouping and trying to figure out next steps,” Webb says. “It’s not over, but really a big blow.”

Throughout the strikes, music companies pivoted to an increased focus on pitching for synchs in video games and TV commercials — continuing to take music supervisors to lunch to maintain relationships and help out their struggling freelance colleagues. Peermusic donated $100 grocery-store gift cards to out-of-work members of the Guild of Music Supervisors, a non-profit organization.

Although Spirit’s Hartman is ready for the synch faucet to turn back on and “all the beautiful amount of licensing and briefs to come our way,” peermusic’s Frost expects a lag, possibly extending into early 2024. Movie and show projects are likely to restart at the “script and filming stage,” she says, while synch work generally begins during post-production at the end: “I’m predicting it’s going to be a slow pickup, especially now we’re going into the holidays.”

Because Netflix, Disney and other top studios have said they would pull back on new content, the synch business may also begin to flatten after years of growth. Frost predicts a post-strike boom in synchs in early 2024, followed by a longer-term drop-off: “I think it’s going to slow down as streamers adjust to this new world, and they’re picking up less content.” Heather Guibert, a music supervisor working on a documentary about songwriter Diane Warren, adds: “Disney used to make, let’s hypothesize, 100 projects a year; suddenly, that goes down to 50. That’s 50 fewer projects for the music supervisor to work on. It’s rough.”

During the strikes, Amanda Krieg Thomas, a music supervisor for American Horror Story and Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, had to slash the hours for the three employees of her company, Yay Team — forcing one of them to quit for another job. She’s hopeful — and “still a little cautious” — that the post-strike era will restore her company to maximum financial health. “What’s the new normal? Is there actually going to be less content, and what does that look like for music supervisors?” she asks. “But everybody’s excited to really get going again.”

14 Nov 2023

Tencent Music Entertainment Reaches 103 Million Subscribers as Music Revenue Climbs 33%

Chinese music streaming company Tencent Music Entertainment saw its paying users grow to 103 million in the third quarter, up 20.8% year over year and 3.6% better than the previous quarter, the company announced Tuesday (Nov. 14). 

A 42% gain in subscription revenue to 3.2 billion RMB ($438 million) helped online music revenue grow 32.7% to 4.55 billion RMB ($624 million). Not only has Tencent Music Entertainment gained paying customers, but they’re also paying more: Average revenue per paying user (ARPPU) rose 17% to 10.3 RMB ($1.41) in the third quarter.

“We will continue to drive solid growth of our online music business, with subscription revenue driven by the subscription base growth and also ARPPU expansion as well,” said executive chairman Cussion Pang during Tuesday’s earnings call. “Outside of the subscription revenue, we expected the revenues from advertising and new initiatives, such as artist merchandise, to continue to grow healthily.”

Tencent Music Entertainment’s 103 million subscribers is well behind Spotify’s 226 million subscribers, but its subscriber base has grown steadily from 85.3 million and 71.2 million in the third quarters of 2022 and 2021, respectively. Its ARPPU of 10.3 RMB ($1.41) is also far lower than Spotify’s ARPU of 4.34 euros ($4.72), reflecting the relatively higher prices in the North American and European markets where Spotify is strongest. Still, Tencent Music Entertainment’s ARPPU showed strong growth last quarter after dropping from 8.9 RMB ($1.23) in the third quarter of 2021 to 8.8 RMB ($1.21) in the third quarter of 2022.

Tencent Music Entertainment operates the music streaming apps QQ Music, Kugou and Kuwo. It also owns WeSing, a social karaoke game. The music-focused company additionally offers podcasts and ventured into audiobooks with its 2021 acquisition of audiobook platform Lazy Audio.

The company touts what it calls a “dual-engine” strategy that improves both the content and the platform’s features and technology. In the third quarter, Tencent Music Entertainment expanded its partnership with K-pop company YG Entertainment to include ticketing, which gave subscribers the ability to purchase BLACKPINK concert tickets. A partnership with another South Korean company, Cube Entertainment, gives Tencent Music Entertainment a 30-day window of exclusivity on new song releases. On the technology side, a new music production tool in the Kugou app allows users to create music in multiple languages. “Through a brief training session, it can effectively and efficiently produce songs in Mandarin, Cantonese, English, Korean and Japanese,” said Pang.

Gains from the music side of the company couldn’t make up for steep declines in Tencent Music Entertainment’s social entertainment segment, however. Company-wide revenue declined 10.8% to 6.57 billion RMB ($900 million) due to a 48.8% year-over-year decline in social entertainment revenue and a 16.8% drop in social entertainment mobile monthly average users.

“For the social entertainment services, we will continue to execute our current operational strategy with the backdrop of the macro factors and competition for 2024,” said Pang. “Our primary target is to stabilize the business and better serve our core users.” 

Gross margin improved by 3.1 percentage points to 35.7% due to growth of music subscriptions and the company’s use of its own content. “Looking forward [to] Q4, we expect subscription revenue and advertisement revenue will continue to be strong,” said CFO Shirley Hu. “On the cost side, we expect our in-house made content will have a positive impact on gross margin continually and we will continue to increase our operational efficiency and monitor cost items.” 

Shares of Tencent Music Entertainment rose 3.1% to $7.66 on Tuesday. That was slightly better than the gains most stocks posted following a report that inflation was flat in October and up 3.2% from the previous year. The news sparked hope amongst investors that the Federal Reserve would stop hiking interest rates to help tame inflation. The Nasdaq composite gained 2.4% and the S&P 500 gained 1.9%. 

Tencent Music Entertainment third-quarter financial and user metrics:

  • Total revenue of 6.57 billion RMB ($900 million), down 10.8% year over year.
  • Music subscription revenue of 3.19 billion RMB ($438 million), up 42% year over year.
  • Social entertainment revenue of 2.02 billion ($276 million), down 48% year over year.
  • Net profit of 1.26 billion RMB ($173 million), up 15.6% year over year.
  • Monthly active users (online music) of 594 million, down 4.2% year over year.
  • Mobile monthly active users (social entertainment) of 129 million, down 16.8% year over year.
  • Paying users, online music of 103 million, up 20.8% year over year.
  • Paying users, social entertainment of 7.8 million, up 5.4% year over year.

14 Nov 2023

According To New Book Donald Trump Hung Up On Kim Kardashian Because He Was BIG MAD About Alleged Vote For Joe Biden

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Donald Trump Allegedly Hung Up on Kim Kardashian

Source: Alex Wong / Getty / Kim Kardashian / Donald Trump

Kim Kardashian learned the hard way that former President Donald Trump is a very bitter, transactional person.

Spotted on Business Insider, according to a new book, the disgraced and twice impeached former POTUS, Donald Trump, was not trying to give reality star/ mogul and aspiring lawyer Kim Kardashian his help and hung up the phone on her when she called about a clemency plea.

Trump invited Kardashian to the White House in 2018 as she was advocating for sentencing reform for nonviolent offenders.

Kardashian asked the orange menace for help obtaining clemency for several prisoners serving time. Kim K was determined to help felons who have served considerable time, paid their debts to society, and deserve a second chance.

After returning to the White House in 2020 to advocate for criminal justice reform and meet with Trump and ex-offenders whose sentences were commuted, Trump began to give Kim K the cold shoulder following his election defeat to President Joe Biden, according to a new book from ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl.

Per Business Insider:

Months after Trump left the White House, Kardashian reportedly called Trump to get his endorsement for a clemency plea. Instead, the former president angrily accused her of voting for Biden, according to Karl’s book, “Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party.”

“Hell no,” the ex-president told Kardashian after hearing her request, per the book. “You voted for Biden and now you come asking me for a favor?”

“After a few more choice words, the line went dead. Trump had hung up on her,” Karl writes.

Did Kim K Vote For Joe Biden?

Kardashian has never said anything publicly about her choice in the 2020 presidential election.

But she did post a photo of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris with three blue emoji hearts as the caption on X, formerly known as Twitter at the time.

Maybe Kim K posted that photo of Biden and Harris to spite Trump.

Regardless, the book mentions another by Kardashian to reach out to Trump to grant some last-minute commutations before he left the White House.

According to the book, Trump allegedly told Kardashian he would help her out if she got some football players she is friendly with to visit the White House.

“Kardashian actually tried to do what Trump demanded, seeing it as a small price to pay to get justice for people she believed were serving unjust sentences,” Karl writes. “But all the players she approached declined. Trump had become too toxic. In the final two weeks of his presidency, nobody wanted to be anywhere near him.”

Welp.

Trump is such a salty loser.

—

Photo: Alex Wong / Getty

14 Nov 2023

Olivia Rodrigo Says She’s ‘Running on the Treadmill & Singing’ to Prep for Tour: ‘I Want to Be Able to Jump Around’

Olivia Rodrigo is just months away from spilling her Guts on tour, and the Grammy-winning pop star shared some insight on how she’s prepping for her 57-date run.

“I’m getting it all together right now, brainstorming everything,” she told The Hollywood Reporter at the premiere of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes on Monday night (Nov. 13). “I’m running on the treadmill right now singing my songs, because I want to be able to jump up and down and sing the songs. I think it’s going to be really fun. I want the show to feel like a great place for people to scream and jump around and let loose.”

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When asked what song she’s most excited to perform, Rodrigo gushed over her sophomore album’s opener. “I really love the song ‘All-American B—h’ and I think that’s going to be a really fun one to perform live,” she said. “That’s a big yeller, so I hope people let out all their frustrations on that one.”

The tour kicks off Feb. 23 at Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs, Calif., before she spans North America and then heads overseas, beginning her international dates on April 30 in Dublin, Ireland. The pop star returns to the United States with a July 19 show in Philadelphia, and wraps her world tour with two concerts at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles on Aug. 13 and 14.

The Breeders, PinkPantheress, Chappell Roan and Remi Wolf are the tour’s openers on select dates, which you can check out in full here.

Watch THR‘s full interview with Rodrigo below.

14 Nov 2023

Post Malone Secures His First Hit on Country Airplay Chart With ‘Pickup Man’

Post Malone scores his first hit on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart (dated Nov. 18), as his duet with the late Joe Diffie on the latter’s 1990s classic “Pickup Man” debuts at No. 54.

The song, billed as Joe Diffie featuring Post Malone, and released Nov. 9 via Mercury/Republic/Big Loud Records, arrives with 826,000 country format audience impressions in the Nov. 3-9 tracking week, according to Luminate. It debuts after just one day of tracking.

Post Malone performed the song at the 57th annual CMA Awards on Nov. 8, alongside Morgan Wallen and HARDY. The latter two artists also covered Diffie’s “John Deere Green.” The trio performed in tribute to Diffie, who died in March 2020 after a battle with COVID-19. His original versions of “Pickup Man” and “John Deere Green” hit Nos. 1 and 5, respectively, on the Hot Country Songs chart in 1994.

Both updates (with Diffie’s vocals recorded in 2006) are set to appear on the third iteration of HARDY’s Hixtape series, Hixtape Volume 3: Difftape, due March 29, 2024. The first, Hixtape, Vol. 1, reached No. 35 on the Top Country Albums chart in 2019 and features songs by 17 country acts, including Wallen, Trace Adkins, Thomas Rhett, Cole Swindell and Keith Urban.

As Post Malone debuts on Country Airplay for the first time, he has now charted on 15 different Billboard radio surveys in his career: Pop Airplay, Adult Pop Airplay, Adult Contemporary, Rock & Alternative Airplay, Alternative Airplay, Adult Alternative Airplay, Mainstream Rock Airplay, R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, Rhythmic Airplay, Rap Airplay, Latin Airplay, Dance/Mix Show Airplay, Country Airplay and the all-format Radio Songs chart.

Of those 15 rankings, he has hit No. 1 on 11: Pop Airplay, Adult Pop Airplay, Adult Contemporary, Alternative Airplay, Adult Alternative Airplay, R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, Rhythmic Airplay, Rap Airplay, Dance/Mix Show Airplay and Radio Songs.

Billboard has 25 total radio charts. The only ones on which Post Malone hasn’t yet charted are Adult R&B Airplay, Christian Airplay, Christian AC Airplay, Gospel Airplay, Latin Pop Airplay, Latin Rhythm Airplay, Regional Mexican Airplay, Tropical Airplay, Smooth Jazz Airplay and Holiday Airplay.

Dating to when Luminate began tracking airplay data in 1990, Pharrell holds the record for reaching the most radio charts, with 18. Adele and Mariah Carey are next (17 each), followed by Beyoncé, Wyclef Jean, John Legend, Bruno Mars, Santana and Timbaland (16 each). The artists to chart on 15 radio charts each: Christina Aguilera, Akon, Justin Bieber (with a notable country crossover of his own this decade), Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Shaggy and Snoop Dogg.

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14 Nov 2023

Billie Eilish Says She Lost Her Identity in Her Hair Transformations: ‘I Just Got Swallowed Up in It’

A major part of Billie Eilish’s visual aesthetic has always been her hair. From blue to blonde to neon green and everything in between, the “Bad Guy” singer has created personas surrounding her musical eras with the help of some hair dye.

However, in a new interview with LA Times published this week, the Grammy-winning superstar opened up about how her hair journey led to her losing a sense of identity. “2019, that period of my life when I dyed my hair green, I was completely unstoppable,” she recalled to the publication. “I felt like I was on the moon. And I remember at the time being like, I’m finally happy. I’d never been happy before, and I just wanted to stay happy. Then a couple years happened. COVID happened. Another album happened. I got older and fell back into being a human and not being happy all the time — having good moments and having bad moments. Last year got really bad. And I just kept being like, ‘God, I miss 2019 so much. When can my life feel like that again?’”

She added that her introspective contribution to the Barbie soundtrack, “What Was I Made For?” was inspired by that feeling, and that she’d been “basing all my happiness on all these things in the material world that you have no control over and that will inevitably change.”

Eilish said that with her blonde hair during the release of her 2021 album Happier Than Ever, she thought she’d be — as the album title suggests — happier, and while it was “fun” at first, “it did not go how I wanted it to go.” She continued that her hair turned into a costume for her, which led to her struggling with her sense of identity. “I completely had no idea who I was,” she says. “I came up with this whole aesthetic, and I just got swallowed up into it,” she shared.

The singer has since returned to her black hair, accented with red roots this time, and is up for five Grammys for “What Was I Made For?” at the 2024 ceremony, including record of the year, song of the year, best pop solo performance, best song written for visual media and best music video.

14 Nov 2023

Rap Lyrics Go On Trial In Atlanta, Music #MeToo Cases, R. Kelly Sues Feds & More Top Legal News

This is The Legal Beat, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between.

This week: An Atlanta judge rules that Young Thug’s rap lyrics can be used as evidence in his upcoming gang trial; two new sexual assault cases are filed against powerful music executives; R. Kelly sues the federal prison system for allegedly leaking private info to a gossip blogger; and more.

THE BIG STORY: Rap Lyrics Headed To Trial

After years of reporting on “rap on trial” — the controversial use of lyrics as criminal evidence against the artist who wrote them — it was remarkable to watch last week as prosecutors from America’s rap capital battled with defense attorneys for one of hip-hop’s biggest stars over that very subject in open court.

Is Atlanta’s district attorney “targeting the right to free speech” by using Young Thug’s lyrics in the upcoming gang trial? Or are prosecutors merely pointing out glaring admissions of criminal activity that “just happen to come in the form of lyrics”?

In the end, as they often do when it comes to lyrics, the judge sided with prosecutors: “They’re not prosecuting your clients because of the songs they wrote,” said Judge Ural Glanville, speaking to Thug’s lawyer Brian Steel during the hearing. “They’re using the songs to prove other things your clients may have been involved in. I don’t think it’s an attack on free speech.”

For a full recap of the hours-long hearing, go read our full story here. And look out for our upcoming coverage on the YSL trial, which is set to start Nov. 27.

THE OTHER BIG STORY: More Music #MeToo

The music industry saw two new lawsuits last week alleging sexual abuse by powerful men, continuing a wave of such cases filed over the past year.

The first, filed Wednesday (Nov. 8) in New York state court, accused former Recording Academy president/CEO Neil Portnow of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 2018. Those are the same allegations that were partially aired four years ago in an explosive discrimination complaint filed by Deborah Dugan, who briefly replaced Portnow as Academy boss after he stepped down in August 2019.

The second lawsuit, filed later that same day in New York federal court, accused legendary industry exec Antonio “L.A.” Reid of sexually assaulting A&R executive Drew Dixon and then derailing her once-promising career when she refused his further advances. Those claims, too, were already public to some extent: Dixon previously accused Reid of harassment in a 2017 article for The New York Times as well as a subsequent documentary.

Over the past year, such accusations have become troublingly common.

Two women are suing Atlantic Records over abuse allegations against late co-founder Ahmet Ertegun; country star Jimmie Allen is facing two sexual assault lawsuits; Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter has been sued by three different women who claim he sexually assaulted them as minors in the 2000s; Kenny MacPherson, the CEO of Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s publishing unit, is facing a lawsuit claiming he subjected an employee at a previous company to an “onslaught of unwanted sexual advances”; a woman is suing singer Jason Derulo for allegedly harassing her and then dropping her from a deal with his Atlantic imprint after she rebuffed him; and Kobalt Music Group is facing claims that it enabled former exec Sam Taylor as he leveraged his position of power to demand sex from a songwriter.

Other top stories this week…

R. KELLY SUES FEDS OVER LEAKS – The disgraced R&B singer filed a lawsuit against the federal Bureau of Prisons over allegations that someone at the agency leaked private information about him — including recordings of private phone calls with his girlfriend and lawyers — to social media personality Tasha K, who then shared them with millions of followers. Before you ask: Yes, that’s the same YouTube gossip host that Cardi B successfully sued for defamation last year after Tasha K posted false stories about drug use, STDs and prostitution by the superstar rapper.

LINKIN PARK LITIGATION – The band was hit with a lawsuit over the anniversary re-release of its smash hit 2000 debut album Hybrid Theory, filed by a bassist who says he performed on rare and unreleased recordings that were featured as part of the deluxe box set but has “never been paid a penny.”

OFFSET ASSAULT ACCUSATION – The Migos rapper (real name Kiari Kendrell Cephus) was sued by a security guard who claims he was assaulted two years ago by Offset and YRN Murk after he turned them away from ComplexCon, a cultural festival hosted by Buzzfeed’s Complex Networks.