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We now have more details about the mishap at Jamie Foxx’s birthday. The incident was apparently caused by crew members of Jackass.
Page Six is reporting that the Oscar winner’s recent celebration of life came to an abrupt end thanks to an indecent attempt at humor. The celebrity website says the In Living Color talent invited a small circle of family and friends to Mr. Chow’s in Beverly Hills, Calif. While dining, someone in the upstairs VIP area starting shining a laser pointer in the shape of a penis to his table. Naturally, this infuriated the comedian especially considering both of his daughters Corinne, 30, and Anelise,16, were both present.
He and some of his party went upstairs to meet the troublemakers. According to TMZ, the area was rented out by Dickhouse Productions, the makers of Jackass. Words were exchanged, which resulted in a confrontation where one of the production crew members allegedly tossed a drink at Jamie’s face, which cut his mouth. Sources tell TMZ the Ray star stood there bleeding and said, “It’s my birthday, what is wrong with you?” It is reported he soon left after the incident, but the Dickhouse Productions crew continued to be aggressive to Jamie’s party downstairs.
A lawyer for Dickhouse has commented on the matter saying, “Although the crew has the greatest respect for Jamie, the version of events that has been presented is totally inaccurate and deeply unfair to those attending their holiday celebration that night.” None of the actual stunt cast members from the Jackass series were present.
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With the surprising success of Netflix’s Cobra Kai series, The Karate Kid is finding new life in a new generation and is now returning to the big screen as it first did back in 1984.
Looking to capitalize off the hype of Cobra Kai, Sony Pictures just dropped their first trailer to their upcoming Karate Kid: Legends starring Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan who starred alongside Jaden Smith in the 2010 remake of the classic film. Linking up two generations of Karate Kid characters, the film centers around Daniel LaRusso (Macchio) and Mr. Han (Chan) taking a new student under their wing (Ben Wang) and showing him the ropes in the world of martial arts.
Looking more like a Street Fighter film than anything, it seems like the tournaments and competitions will be taking place on rooftops and underground garages as LaRusso and Chan also get into some fisticuffs along the way.
Real talk, this joint looks entertaining as hell. We lowkey hope that Jaden Smith pops out with a jump kick at some point cause that’ll really set the audience on fire. Just sayin.’
Check out the trailer for Karate Kid: Legends below and let us know if you’ll be checking for this when it hits theaters on May 30, 2025.
Snoop Dogg has reacted to Drake’s pair of legal actions against Universal Music Group in which he alleges that his label artificially inflated the popularity of Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.”
The West Coast legend is on a press run in support of his Missionary album with Dr. Dre, and he stopped by The Bootleg Kev Podcast on Tuesday (Dec. 17).
Kev asked Snoop about myriad topics, including his thoughts on Drake’s legal action against his parent label, which Snoop initially offered up a “no comment” before expanding briefly. “On the West, we hold court in the streets,” he said of his policing preference rather than turning to the legal system.
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In November, Drake filed a pair of legal actions, which also alleged that UMG could’ve stopped the release of “Not Like Us,” which he believes defamed him and falsely accused him of being a sex offender. UMG denied Drizzy’s “offensive and untrue” allegations about artificially inflating numbers, telling Billboard at the time, “We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Snoop revealed he spoke to Kendrick Lamar in the weeks since K. Dot expressed his disappointment in one of his mentors on GNX‘s opening track “Wacced Out Murals.” In the midst of Kendrick’s feud with Drake, Snoop reposted Drizzy’s “Taylor Made Freestyle” — which included AI-generated vocals using Snoop’s voice — to Instagram.
“Snoop posted ‘Taylor Made,’ I prayed it was the edibles/ I couldn’t believe it, it was only right for me to let it go,” Lamar raps on the track.
Snoop Dogg quickly apologized and admitted it “was the edibles” and called Lamar the “West West King” shortly after on X.
“He’s a rapper he’s supposed to speak his mind and tell his truth,” Snoop told Bootleg Kev on Tuesday. “I’m his big homebody so I have to take what’s said from his perspective because he’s speaking truth. I’m willing to accept truth when it’s brought to me directly.”
Snoop explained he did a “collaborative post” on Instagram and allegedly didn’t even know what song he was posting. “I’m thinking I’m posting ‘Gin & Juice.’ Then I get the word [Kendrick] didn’t like what you posted,” he added. “Then I deleted it, called nephew and left him a message … Nephew, it’s uncle Snoop, I got the message I apologize I was f–ked up. My bad.”
Watch Snoop’s full interview below.
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Donald Trump’s claims of presidential immunity to dismiss his hush money conviction were struck down by the presiding judge in New York, dealing him a temporary loss.
On Monday (Dec. 16), New York District Court Judge Juan Merchan ruled that Donald Trump cannot use presidential immunity as a reason to overturn his felony conviction in the “hush money” election interference case. The decision is a blow to the president-elect weeks before he is set to return to the White House and comes after he has already seen several wins in other court cases against him.
“The People’s use of these acts as evidence of the decidedly personal acts of falsifying business records poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the executive branch,” wrote Judge Merchan in a 41-page document detailing the ruling. Trump was convicted in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to covering up an affair he had with adult film star Stormy Daniels, which was overseen by his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, who paid Daniels $130,000. Trump would eventually repay Cohen.
The ruling is not the definitive ending to this case. Judge Merchan has paused sentencing in the case several times, and prosecutors have signaled that they wouldn’t stand in the way of putting the case on hold until after Trump has served his time in office. While the conviction does carry a potential sentence of up to four years in prison, Judge Merchan can uphold the conviction but not impose any prison time or any other punishment. Trump can also argue for the conviction to be thrown out if he chooses to take it to the conservative Supreme Court, which ruled in his favor concerning presidential immunity in June.
Representatives for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to comment. Steven Cheung, a spokesman for President-elect Trump, called the decision “a direct violation of the Supreme Court’s decision on immunity,” adding: “This lawless case should have never been brought, and the Constitution demands that it be immediately dismissed.”
Numerous music stars are on the best original song shortlist for the 2025 Oscars, including Elton John and Brandi Carlile, Lainey Wilson, Pharrell Williams, Maren Morris, Robbie Williams, and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
John and Carlile are shortlisted for co-writing “Never Too Late” from Elton John: Never Too Late; Wilson for co-writing “Out of Oklahoma” from Twisters; Williams for writing “Piece by Piece” from the Netflix film Piece by Piece; Morris for co-writing Kiss the Sky” from The Wild Robot; Williams for co-writing “Forbidden Road” from Better Man; and Reznor and Ross for co-writing “Compress/Repress” from Challengers.
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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences released shortlists in 10 categories, including best original song and best original score on Tuesday (Dec. 17).
While music stars were well-represented on the shortlist, several others fell short, including Luke Combs, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Ed Sheeran and Megan Thee Stallion, Reneé Rapp and Ryan Tedder.
Two songs from Emilia Pérez appear on the shortlist for best original song. The songs are “El Mal” and “Mi Camino,” both co-written by Clément Ducol and Camille, with the film’s director, Jacques Audiard, co-writing “El Mal.”
Diane Warren is shortlisted for writing “The Journey” from The Six Triple Eight. If Warren is nominated, she’ll tie midcentury lyricist Sammy Cahn for the longest streak of consecutive nominations (eight) in the history of the category. (Cahn was a contender every year from 1954 to 1961.) This would be Warren’s 16th overall nod in this category, more than any other woman. Among women, she’s currently tied with the late Marilyn Bergman.
Lin-Manuel Miranda is shortlisted for writing “Tell Me It’s You” from Mufasa: The Lion King. Miranda has been just an Oscar away from an EGOT since 2014, when he won his first Primetime Emmy. He has been Oscar-nominated twice for writing “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana and “Dos Oruguitas” from Encanto.
“El Mal” and “Mi Camino” are both nominated for both the Golden Globe and Critics Choice Awards for best original song. Three other songs that are nominated for both of those awards are on the Oscar shortlist “Beautiful That Way” from The Last Showgirl, “Compress/Repress” from Challengers and “Kiss the Sky” from The Wild Robot.
The sixth nominee for the Golden Globe is “Forbidden Road” from Better Man. The sixth nominee for the Critics Choice Award is “Harper and Will Go West” from Will & Harper. Both are shortlisted here.
Kristen Wiig co-wrote the latter song with Sean Douglas. (The multitalented performer and writer was Oscar-nominated for best original screenplay for the 2011 hit Bridesmaids.) “Harper and Will Go West” has elements of humor, as have such recent nominees as “Husavik,” from the 2020 comedy Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, and “I’m Just Ken,” from last year’s Barbie.
Here’s a complete list of this year’s 15 shortlisted songs for best original song.
Shortlisted Songs
“Beyond” from Moana 2 (Walt Disney Pictures) — Abigail Barlow, Emily Bear
“Compress/Repress” from Challengers (Amazon MGM) — Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Luca Guadagnino
“El Mal” from Emilia Pérez (Netflix) — Clément Ducol, Camille, Jacques Audiard
“Forbidden Road” from Better Man (Paramount Pictures) — Robbie Williams, Freddy Wexler, Sacha Skarbek
“Harper and Will Go West” from Will & Harper (Netflix) — Sean Douglas, Kristen Wiig, Josh Greenbaum
“The Journey” from The Six Triple Eight (Netflix) — Diane Warren
“Kiss the Sky” from The Wild Robot (DreamWorks Animation) — Delacey, Jordan Johnson, Stefan Johnson, Maren Morris, Michael Pollack, Ali Tamposi
“Like a Bird” from Sing Sing (A24) — Abraham Alexander, Brandon Marcel, Adrian Quesada
“Mi Camino” from Emilia Pérez (Netflix) — Clément Ducol, Camille
“Never Too Late” from Elton John: Never Too Late” (Walt Disney Pictures) — Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Andrew Watt, Bernie Taupin
“Out of Oklahoma” from Twisters (Universal Pictures) — Lainey Wilson, Luke Dick, Shane McAnally
“Piece by Piece” from Piece by Piece (Focus Features) — Pharrell Williams
“Sick in the Head” from Kneecap (Sony Pictures Classics) — Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara, DJ Próvaí, Adrian Louis Richard Mcleod, Toddla T
“Tell Me It’s You” from Mufasa: The Lion King (Walt Disney Pictures) – Lin-Manuel Miranda
“Winter Coat” from Blitz (Apple Original Films) — Nicholas Britell, Steve McQueen, Taura Stinson
And here are some highly-touted songs that were passed over for the shortlist.
Not Shortlisted
“Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma” from Twisters (Universal) – Jessi Alexander, Luke Combs, Jonathan Singleton
“Beautiful That Way” from The Last Showgirl (Roadside Attractions) — Miley Cyrus, Lykke Li, Andrew Wyatt
“Folie à Deux” from Joker: Folie à Deux (Warner Bros.) — Lady Gaga
“Leash” from Babygirl (A24) — Sky Ferreira, Jorge Elbrecht
“Not My Fault” from Mean Girls (Paramount Pictures) — Alexander 23, Nell Benjamin, Jasper Harris, Megan Thee Stallion, Reneé Rapp, Jeff Richmond, Ryan Tedder, Billy Walsh
“Under the Tree” from That Christmas (Netflix) — Ed Sheeran
“Vaster Than Empires” from Queer (A24) — William Burroughs, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
Nominations-round voting runs from Jan. 8 to 12. Nominations will be announced Jan. 17. Final-round voting runs from Feb. 11 to 18. The 97th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 2, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 200 territories worldwide. The show will also stream live on Hulu for the first time.
With just over a week to go before Beyoncé turns the Netflix-NFL Christmas Day halftime show into her very own Cowboy Carter rodeo, there’s still tons of new music racing to get heard before the calendar flips over to January 2025.
Between Bossman Dlow (Dlow Curry), Snoop Dogg & Dr. Dre (Missionary) and Roc Marciano & The Alchemist (The Skeleton Key), hip-hop heavyweights kept the new projects rolling in. In addition, R&B sent a sterling representative in Mario, who dropped Glad You Came, his first studio album in six years.
Speaking of Beyoncé, the Billboard staff’s Greatest Pop Star of the 21st Century (So Far), also became the woman with the most RIAA-certified titles in history (103). The impressive news comes the day after husband Jay-Z‘s attorney Alex Spiro spoke out Roc Nation’s New York headquarters, reiterating that the minor rape allegations levied against the rap mogul are “provably, demonstrably false” and “never happened.”
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Jay wasn’t the only rap icon in the news this week; Lil Wayne cleared the air on his friction with Kendrick Lamar after the latter secured the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show and name-dropped Tunechi in his “Wacced Out Murals” verse. In addition, Future — who headlined Rolling Loud Miami’s victorious tenth anniversary alongside Travis Scott and Playboi Carti — sent “Too Fast” to the top of three different airplay surveys (Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, Rhythmic Airplay and Rap Airplay) in the same week (dated Dec. 21). Finally, SZA officially announced that the deluxe edition of her blockbuster SOS LP will arrive on Friday (Dec. 20).
With Fresh Picks, Billboard aims to highlight some of the best and most interesting new sounds across R&B and hip-hop — from Sleepy Hallow and Babyface Ray’s new team-up to Tank and the Bangas’ ode to Black womanhood. Be sure to check out this week’s Fresh Picks in our Spotify playlist below.
Tank and the Bangas, “This Black Girl”
This year, Tank and the Bangas picked up its third career Grammy nod, as “Todo Colores,” its team-up with Ibrahim Maalouf and Cimafunk, is nominated for best global music performance. To close out the year, the funky musical group has unleashed a loving ode to “This Black Girl.” Lead singer Tarriona “Tank” Ball begins things in media res by employing a spoken word-esque cadence in her delivery of, “This Black girl got a attitude/ This Black girl has a defense mechanism too, I feel played at least once a day/ I need the treatment that you give the white girls/ I know my worth,” over Kaidi Tatham’s lush, warm, slighlty ominous soundscape.
Less of a traditional song, this is Tank seizing the soap box for all Black girlhood and womanhood — particularly those whose Blackness can never be confused or obfuscated. Tank’s voice is filled with the conviction of a priest, the tongue-in-cheek diction sourced from intracommunal conversations and the endless hope and indecipherable exhaustion of generations of Black women. “And I’m only gon’ cut that shit once,” she proclaims in the song’s outro. “I ain’t doing it again/ Ooh, that felt powerful y’all/ Ooh, that felt powerful.” — KYLE DENIS
Sleepy Hallow & Babyface Ray, “Top Tier”
The Brooklyn native returned last week with his Read This When You Wake Up album, and Sleepy Hallow reasserted that he isn’t one to be slept on in the drill scene. The woozy “Top Tier” finds SH connecting with Detroit’s own Babyface Ray, as Sleepy ruminates about his near-death experiences — but he’s still here to tell the tales. “They say you toxic, bae, you top tier/ I keep a Glock, ’cause I got shot and life is not fair,” he raps. Ray invades the scene with a shout-out to NY’s Dyckman neighborhood and admits he’s kicked a prescription drugs habit as he’s put the bottle down. — MICHAEL SAPONARA
Mario, “Love Ain’t Perfect”
This year marks the 20-year anniversary of one of the most beloved R&B songs of the ’00s: Mario’s “Let Me Love You.” To celebrate, Mario kept pushing forward and treated fans to his first studio LP in six years, Glad You Came, via his New Citizen imprint through Epic Records. Though the three singles that preceded the album are all strong, “Love Ain’t Perfect” is the set’s hidden gem. “Baby, baby, baby, you turn me on/ Even you play me all day like a radio/ When it feels this good, you can’t let it go,” he croons, succinctly outlining the masochistic allure of an imperfect, but undeniably electric, connection. With BNYX behind the boards and James Fauntleroy helping out on the songwriting side, “Love Ain’t Perfect” is a solid synthesis of classic Mario and where he’s headed next. — K.D.
BossMan Dlow feat. Ice Spice, “Pillsbury Dlow”
BossMan Dlow is everyone’s cup of espresso to get up and be motivated to chase a bag. He caps off his rookie of the year campaign with his Dlow Curry album – an homage to the Golden State Warriors sniper Steph Curry. Nobody expected an Ice Spice appearance on the track, but her feature ended up being a slam dunk, as she slowed down her flow into cruise control mode. “Up and down his algorithm, every pic I post is pain/ I put that on that shit for real, broke hoes don’t even know the name,” she rhymes, while tormenting exes that fumbled her. — M.S.
Kalan.Frfr, “Dice Game”
With GNX keeping the upper reaches of the Billboard 200 and Hot 100 locked up, the West Coast is finishing out its seismic 2024 on top. Though he wasn’t one of the L.A. rappers featured on GNX, Kalan.FrFr is keeping up his Pop Out-assisted momentum with a new bass-heavy banger called “Dice Game.” “I done took the Wock’ a lot of places, never been to Poland/ Man, these niggas got lil’ money, Gary Coleman/ Yeah, either way it go, Rick James, Rick Owens/ Yeah, either way it go, bein’ tough ain’t no motion,” he spits over DTB’s gritty, synth-inflected beat, smartly combing cross-generational and cross-medium reference into one punchline-anchored verse. — K.D.
Sugarhill Ddot & Star Bandz, “Energy”
Two of the best teenage rappers out reconnect for another sexy drill anthem with “Energy,” which feels like a track Dej Loaf and Lil Durk would’ve ripped during their days of collaborating. Sugarhill Ddot and Star Bandz’s chemistry feels palpable and authentic. The duo should probably just lock in for a joint project, as speculation rages on that they could be rap’s junior prom power couple. Ddot and Star pass the mic back and forth living as young, wild and free teens figuring out life on the fly: “Yeah I like yo energy/ You bring out the best in me/ This s–t feel like destiny,” Bandz raps on the previously teased tune. — M.S.
Burna Boy announced on Tuesday (Dec. 17) that he will be releasing his eighth studio album, No Sign of Weakness, next year via Spaceship, Bad Habit and Atlantic Records. He kicked off the album rollout with the release of his new single “Bundle by Bundle” the same day. Produced by his frequent collaborator Telz, “Bundle […]
For this year’s update of our ongoing Greatest Pop Star by Year project, Billboard will be counting down our editorial staff picks for the 10 Greatest Pop Stars of 2024 all this week — having already revealed our Honorable Mentions, our Comeback of the Year and our Rookie of the Year artists all last week, and our No. 10, No. 9 and No. 8 Greatest Pop Stars earlier this week. Now, at No. 7, we remember the year in Beyoncé — who returned with one of the year’s most ambitious albums and change the game yet again.
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“OK, they ready: Drop the new music.”
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It was a quintessentially Beyoncé moment, the kind that has come to define the last decade-plus of her continually bar-raising 21st century pop superstardom. Greeting TV viewers around the world during the most-watched event of the year – February’s Super Bowl – Beyoncé co-starred with Veep actor Tony Hale in a Verizon ad in which she kept attempting to literally break the internet, to no avail. At the very end of the spot, having still failed to break the internet – even as “the first woman to launch the first rocket for the first performance in space” – she instead broke character, issuing the above decree over her spaceship’s intercom.
Lo and behold, two new songs magically appeared online immediately after: “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages,” presumed to be the first tastes of her upcoming album, the second part of the history-excavating trilogy project she kicked off in 2022 with the dance-oriented Renaissance. As fans raced to DSPs to confirm the rumors of new music that they were seeing on their social media feeds – likely ignoring whatever was transpiring between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers following their game’s resumption – it appeared that the artist who first stopped the world with that digital drop way back in late 2013 had done it again. You could practically hear the chuckling worldwide: Only Beyoncé.
But the songs that fans first greeted as part of Bey’s new project were not like other Beyoncé lead singles. From the opening banjos and stomping beat of “Texas,” it was clear that the rumors that had long circulated about her new LP were at least partially grounded in reality: This was going to be her country album, reclaiming the genre’s roots in Black music.
Renaissance had done the same two years earlier with club music, but as a modern pop star, Beyoncé always had at least a toe or two in dance music – she’d topped Billboard’s Dance/Club Songs chart a whopping 22 times in her career already, with various singles and remixes, by the time of that album’s release. Her history in country, however, was largely limited to one song: “Daddy Lessons,” from 2016’s Lemonade. That song was well received by fans and critics, but proved controversial within the country world; following her performance of the song at the 2016 CMA Awards (alongside the now-also-divisive The Chicks), complaints from viewers about Bey’s country qualifications flooded social media, while genre stalwart Alan Jackson reportedly had gotten up and left during the performance.
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If there was any doubt that Beyoncé could have success within the genre, though, the two new songs – particularly the hooting, dancefloor-storming “Texas” – quickly put them to bed. “Texas” debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 with just over four days of tracking in its initial release week; the following frame, helped by TikTok virality that included various line-dance challenges, the song climbed to pole position, becoming her ninth career No. 1 as a solo artist (and 13th including her work in Destiny’s Child). It also topped Hot Country Songs, making Bey the first Black woman to top the chart in its 65-year history.
A month after, Bey announced the full parent album for the two songs, which would serve as “Act II” in the trilogy that Renaissance had kicked off: Cowboy Carter, whose cover featured Bey riding side-saddle on a white horse in full cowboy regalia, while brandishing an American flag. The album, the superstar explained in her Instagram reveal, had been “over five years in the making,” and was “born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed…and it was very clear that I wasn’t,” which inspired her to do a deep dive into country’s history – with the “experience” in question being assumed by most to be the 2016 CMAs performance. However, despite the project’s roots in country, Bey remained unequivocal on the album’s classification: “This ain’t a Country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album.”
The new “Beyoncé” album arrived just a week and a half later: A 28-track journey through country’s past, present and future, Cowboy Carter was Bey’s highest-concept album yet, very deliberately paced and full of connective interludes and even paired at its bookends to essentially play in a continuous loop. It also had a guest list to match its simultaneously backwards- and forward-looking tracklist, including genre legends like Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Linda Martell, as well as rising artists like Willie Jones, Tanner Adell and Shaboozey, and even a couple lightly country-adjacent established pop stars in Miley Cyrus and Post Malone. But given the album’s explorations into both folkier and rockier territory, as well as with Bey’s usual inflections of pop and R&B across various tracks, it was true that the album’s core genre was not easily summarized by anything but the artist’s own name, now essentially a genre unto herself.
The set was clearly an event, and it was received as one. Cowboy Carter bowed atop the Billboard 200 – continuing a streak of every official non-soundtrack LP of Bey’s topping the chart, dating back to her first 2003 solo turn Dangerously in Love – with 407,000 units moved, besting the 332,000 units posted by Renaissance in its first week and still marking the best non-Taylor Swift single-week performance for any 2024 album. What’s more, the set drew near-unanimous acclaim, with a score in the 90s from critic-aggregating website Metacritic, making it easily one of the best-reviewed sets released by any artist this year.
The biggest commercial returns for Cowboy Carter were largely kept to its first few weeks of release, as “Texas Hold ‘Em” began to slide down the Hot 100 after its two weeks on top – and though the set blanketed the chart following its debut, it failed to produce a second enduring chart hit. However, Bey remained present in the pop culture landscape following the album’s release, even officially introducing Team USA during the Paris Olympics opening ceremonies in July (with a pre-filmed bit set to Cowboy’s “Ya Ya”), and appearing in a Levis commercial – soundtracked, of course, by the album’s “Levii’s Jeans” – a couple months later. Even when Beyoncé didn’t appear somewhere, it made headlines, as at April’s Stagecoach Music Festival in California, where rumors flew that Bey would make a surprise cameo to kick off the live element of her Cowboy Carter era – sadly for naught, as the festival weekend came and went without the Queen making an official appearance.
Another arena where Beyoncé’s participation was continually anticipated this year was at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where presidential hopeful Kamala Harris was building excitement over her own somewhat surprise-announced candidacy. Harris used Lemonade’s “Freedom” as one of her campaign anthems, and in late August, reports surfaced that the pop icon would be making an appearance in support of the candidate. That didn’t come to pass, though Bey eventually would appear – alongside Destiny’s Child groupmate and fellow Texan Kelly Rowland – at a Lone Star State rally that October. “I’m not here as a celebrity… I’m not here as a politician,” she proclaimed. “I’m here as a mother. A mother who cares, deeply, about the world my children and all of our children live in… Our moment is right now. It’s time for America to sing a new song.” (Sadly, America ultimately elected to sing the same song as it did in 2016, but given the multitude of A-list endorsements Harris received – including from several other artists on this list – it suggested that the impact pop stars could have on such matters in 2024 was perhaps limited to begin with.)
There was no doubt about the impact that Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter era had on popular music in 2024, however. Even before the LP’s release, in the weeks after the surprise drop of “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages,” you could already see big bumps for other Black artists in country music – including for eventual Cowboy collaborator Tanner Adell, whose streaming numbers nearly tripled in the days that followed – just based on the conversation that she was creating around the topic. And perhaps the two biggest breakthroughs in country music in 2024 could both be traced back to Bey: Post Malone, who soft-launched his country pivot on “Levii’s Jeans” before going full Nashville with his Hot 100-topping Morgan Wallen single teamup “I Had Some Help” and Billboard 200-topping full album F-1 Trillion, and Shaboozey, who made his Hot 100 bow via two tracks on Cowboy Carter right before besting the chart for a record-tying 19 weeks with his inescapable “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”
A full quarter-century after first topping the Hot 100 with “Bills, Bills, Bills” as a member of Destiny’s Child, our editorial staff’s No. 1 Greatest Pop Star of the 21st Century remains not only basically as successful and impactful as she’s ever been, but more adventurous and risk-taking than ever. She is well on her way to being one of the culture-defining superstars of the 2020s, just as she was for the ‘00s and ‘10s; this is her third straight year in our Greatest Pop Stars top 10, with only one other artist (yet to appear on our 2024 rankings) able to boast an active streak as long. She’s not likely to disappear anytime soon, either, as she already has her much-anticipated return to the live stage on the books for halftime of the Houston Texans’ Netflix Christmas game against the Baltimore Ravens, with a possible Cowboy Carter tour expected to follow – and of course, there’s still the perpetually buzzed-about closing act to her archival album trilogy. You can bet that whenever she does plan on dropping that new music, we’ll be staying ready for it.
Check back tomorrow for our Nos. 6 and 5 Greatest Pop Stars, and stay tuned all week as we roll out our top 10 — leading to the announcement of our top two Greatest Pop Stars of 2024 on Monday, Dec. 23!
Jay-Z’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, expects the rap mogul to be cleared of any wrongdoing in the coming days in the lawsuit filed earlier this month accusing him and Sean “Diddy” Combs of raping a 13-year-old girl at a 2000 MTV Video Music Awards afterparty.
Spiro hosted a press conference at Roc Nation’s headquarters in New York City on Monday afternoon (Dec. 16) where he defended his client’s innocence in the case while laying out a slideshow aiming to poke holes in the apparent inconsistencies of Jane Doe’s filing made by attorney Tony Buzbee.
Spiro chose not to unmask the now 38-year-old woman from Alabama who filed the complaint but chose to sharply criticize her case and her attorney. “This is not for truth and justice,” Spiro said. “This is for money.”
He continued: “When something isn’t real, when something doesn’t happen, you’re going to get the details wrong because you weren’t really there. [It’s] not possible. It’s because this never happened.”
According to her complaint earlier this month, the accuser got a ride from Rochester, N.Y. to New York City as a 13-year-old in 2000 to attend the MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall, where she remained outside and later came into contact with Diddy’s limousine driver.
Doe claims she was taken to a “large white residence” about 20 minutes from the award show venue where she was served a drink and then repeatedly sexually assaulted by Diddy and Jay-Z (born Shawn Carter) while another unnamed celebrity watched the rape take place. She says she then escaped the afterparty and made it to a gas station where she allegedly called her father to pick her up.
Jay-Z’s lawyer Alex Spiro hosted a press conference vehemently defending his client against the rape allegations made in the lawsuit. “It’s because this never happened,” he repeated. pic.twitter.com/XHfONUIMcd— LordTreeSa🅿️ (@LordTreeSap) December 17, 2024
But in an interview with NBC News on Friday, the accuser admitted to multiple inconsistencies in her story. And in the same story, her father admitted he can’t recall picking up his daughter following the alleged traumatic events 24 years ago. “I feel like I would remember that, and I don’t,” he said. “I have a lot going on, but I mean, that’s something that would definitely stick in my mind.”
At Monday’s event, Spiro focused on those seeming shortcomings in the story: “[Jane Doe] said she’s at the party alone, this 13-year-old girl, and she finds herself in the room with the three most famous people at the party — just think about how unnatural, how little common sense that makes. And according to her, one of the witnesses is a female celebrity who’s just standing there watching the repetitive rape of a child,” Spiro added. “There’s an adult female in the room watching the rape of a child. Afterward, she says she runs out of the house naked — none of them notice that? None of them pay any notice? For 24 years, none of them has said anything?”
While Jay-Z is named alongside Diddy, who will remain behind bars until his trial in May, Spiro attempted to distance Hov from the embattled Bad Boy CEO.
“Mr. Carter has nothing to do with Mr. Combs’ case or Mr. Combs,” he stated. “They knew each other professionally for a number of years. Just like in all professions, people know each other. At music awards, they support each other. They go to the NBA All-Star Game, they support each other. That’s just how professions work. There is no closer association between any of them — that’s also a matter of fiction.”
According to Spiro, Jay is “upset” about what he views as a baseless lawsuit. “He’s upset that somebody would be allowed to do this, would be allowed to make a mockery of the system like this,” he continued. “He’s upset that this distracts and dissuades real victims from coming forward. He’s upset that his kids and family have to deal with this. And he should be upset.”
In an earlier response statement, Jay-Z denied the allegations against him and called Buzbee a “deplorable human.” At Monday’s event, Spiro hinted at further legal action being taken against Buzbee, who he said “will be dealt with” separately following the lawsuit.
In an exclusive statement to Billboard on Tuesday (Dec. 17), Buzbee claimed that “Mr. Spiro has a history of making threats against opposing lawyers.”
Buzzbee continued: “We won’t be intimidated and will raise his conduct with the relevant entities. As for us, we will continue to conduct ourselves professionally. The only reason this dispute is in the public sphere is that Mr. Spiro filed a frivolous case against my firm and claimed extortion with absolutely no support for such an outlandish claim. We will file the appropriate paperwork in due course.”
To achieve the bright sound in his famous 1965 solo for The Who‘s “My Generation,” John Entwistle bought a cheap Danelectro bass, removed the strings designed by John D’Addario Sr., and transferred them to his Fender. The plan worked until one of the strings broke — and Entwistle had to buy two more Danelectros just for the strings.
Jim D’Addario, who built a multimillion-dollar guitar-strings empire on the foundation of his late father John’s early innovations, tells this story in a 50th-anniversary video series called Jim’s Corner. D’Addario, which sells drumheads, saxophone reeds, pedalboards, earplugs and other musicians’ gear in addition to its signature guitar strings at 3,300 retail outlets, earned $220 million in global revenue last year and employs 1,100 people, has taken a corporate victory lap throughout, combining history with “When You Know You Know” ads starring younger players like Chris Stapleton, Herman Li of DragonForce and Yvette Young of Covet.
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“Most people are very apathetic about their strings, and they usually listen to their teacher, or an artist that’s endorsing the product, to get them to try our strings,” says D’Addario, now chairman of the board of the company he named after his family in 1974. “The ones that know really know ours are better — and consistent.”
In addition to the video series, the company that started with teenaged Jim accompanying his guitar-playing father to music-business trade conventions in the ’60s launched a beer, Eddie Ate Dynamite (GoodBye Eddie), in early December; held a beer-launch party at the time starring a member of the Infamous Stringdusters; and spent much of 2024 releasing limited-edition merch and packages of strings in retro containers.
D’Addario acknowledges the company faces industry headwinds — the musical-instrument business, he says, is declining 2%-3% per year, which affects a company whose guitar strings make up 45% of its business. “People buy a guitar for their kid, and if he doesn’t play, they don’t put it in the attic or the basement anymore. They put it on eBay,” D’Addario says. “Everything a dealer sells, he’s going to compete with that instrument. That has had a very serious effect on the instruments bought at retail.”
But mostly, D’Addario is upbeat, describing the guitar pedalboards his company has spent two years designing, pedalboard power supplies containing USB batteries and coated strings that resist “moisture, perspiration, skin, debris.” Says D’Addario, “We keep an ideation list for each brand. We’ll have crazy things on there. When we have bandwidth, we’ll throw one on the active-project list.” Here, he discusses the company’s past and present in an hourlong Zoom from his home workshop in Farmingdale, N.Y.
What do you hope people learn about D’Addario from the 50th-anniversary campaign events?
It’s not the 50th anniversary of the family making strings, it’s the 50th anniversary of the brand name D’Addario. My dad and my grandfather were afraid to put their name on products. Italians would be discriminated against and it was a difficult name to pronounce. They felt like, in certain markets, it might not be accepted. In August of ’74, I said, “Nah, we’re going to get credit for making certain stuff, and our name’s going to be on it.”
Can you hear when a guitar player on the radio uses your strings?
No, that’s impossible. There are a lot of good strings out there that sound good. It’s very hard to discern that just from listening to it on the radio.
In the early 1990s, a package of strings had an envelope for each of the six strings — a paper envelope for each one, identified for each note, in a vinyl pouch with a fancy label. So there was a minimum of eight pieces of packaging; sometimes there was a little advertisement as well. My daughter Amy was in high school, and they were studying environmental friendliness and recycling and packaging, and I was changing my strings on the bed and I had all this garbage when I was done. She said, “You should really do something about that, that’s really criminal, you’re putting so much junk in the waste-stream just to change a set of strings.”
So it got me thinking. I came up with a system of color-coding the ball end on the string a different color, then coiling those together in one corrosion-resistant plastic bag and having them color-coded, so the silver one is this note and the brass one is this note. It eliminated 75% of the packaging. Since that time, we’ve saved billions of trees and millions of pounds of carbon not released into the atmosphere. That was one of the things that distinguished our strings. That’s one way we can tell onstage if our strings are being used. Otherwise, it’s very difficult. You can put branding on the package but when they’re playing on stage you can’t see it.
What music stars are your most loyal customers?
A lot of jazz guys, like Pat Metheny, who’s a good buddy, and Julian Loge. But there’s also a whole contingent of new people that I might not know. John McLaughlin, Blake Mills, Molly Tuttle, Billy Strings, Chris Thile of Nickel Creek, Sierra Ferrell, a mandolinist [who’s] going to be a superstar — those are the artists that really gravitate to our brand because they know they’re going to get the very best product.
How has the musical instrument market changed since you started?
It’s quite different. We also make drumheads and drumsticks and snare wires and guitar straps and cables. We make drumheads for acoustic drums and drumsticks and other accessories for drummers. The acoustic-drum market is 40-60% of what it was in 2004. Drums have been digitized. Instead of 20,000 drumheads a day, we’re only making 10,000. The other thing is the guitar was really the solo instrument, but it’s not anymore. You don’t hear a guitar solo in every hit; you hear repetitive rhythms and electronic sounds and synthesized sounds.
How much does this worry you?
We’ve seen this so many times — in the early ’90s, it was video games, and for three or four years, the guitar market didn’t have much growth. But then it came back. The acoustic guitar market was in the tank for the whole decade of the 1980s, and “MTV Unplugged” happened, then bingo, the acoustic guitar took off again. It always comes back.
What are your retirement plans, if any?
We don’t want to sell our business. Our family name is on the product. D’Addario strings are like the Titleist of golf balls, like Scotch Tape. When you walk into a music store, 40% to 50% of the strings on the wall are our brand, and that’s in almost every country around the world. I’d have trouble walking into a store and seeing my packaging screwed up or listening to people complaining about the quality.