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07 Jul 2023

Taylor Swift, TOMORROW X TOGETHER & Jonas Brothers and More: What’s Your Favorite Music Release of the Week? Vote!

The first new music Friday of July brings multiple new releases, including another re-recorded Taylor Swift album, a team-up between TOMORROW X TOGETHER and the Jonas Brothers, a new collection of tracks from Rauw Alejandro and more.

Swift gifted her devoted Swifties with the release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), which sees the pop star breathing new life into her old tracks, as well as sharing six previously unreleased songs “From the Vault” — “Castles Crumbling” featuring Hayley Williams, “Foolish One,” “Electric Touch” featuring Fall Out Boy, “Timeless,” “When Emma Falls In Love” and “I Can See You.” The previously unreleased highlight Swift’s maturity as she collaborates with some of the heroes from her youth. (See the full review of the “From the Vault” tracks here.)

The boys of TXT and the Jonas Brothers have linked on new track “Do It Like That,” and sees the K-pop group and American trio fitting in perfectly together. Accompanied by percussive bounce, snaps and pops for the song’s instrumentals, both groups find themselves marveling in the excitement of a new romance that keeps on surprising them. “Yeah, oh, my God/ Don’t know how you do it like that/ Blow my mind/ Then somehow you bring it right back,” the groups take turns singing on the chorus.

Alejandro brought scorching tracks with the release of new album Playa Saturno. The LP sees the Puerto Rican singer expanding on hits such as “Todo De Ti” and “Party” with Bad Bunny, while “Si Te Pegas” featuring Miguel Bosé — though placed toward the end of the record — serves as some of the most euphoric material in the singer’s career.

Dominic Fike, FendiDa Rappa featuring Cardi B, as well as NewJeans also released material this week.

Which new music release is your favorite? Vote in our poll below:

07 Jul 2023

Is Taylor Swift’s ‘When Emma Falls in Love’ About Emma Stone & Andrew Garfield? Swifties Think So

Back when Taylor Swift was writing Speak Now, she wasn’t afraid to use some cryptic references to her real life experiences — “Dear John” being the prime example.

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So when Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) arrived on Friday (July 7), Swifties immediately began analyzing the six new “From the Vault” songs, previously unreleased tracks that were cut from the original album.

Among the new songs, “When Emma Falls in Love” immediately stood out to Swifies, as they began to speculate who the Emma in the song could be. The most popular fan theory is that the song is about Emma Stone, who met her ex-boyfriend Andrew Garfield in 2010 (the same year Speak Now was released). The couple dated for five years before ultimately breaking up in 2015.

“When Emma falls in love, she calls up her mom / Jokes about the ways that this one could go wrong / She waits and takes her time / ‘Cause Little Miss Sunshine always thinks it’s gonna rain,” Swift sings in the track, which fans thought could be referring to Stone for a number of reasons.

In the 2010 film Easy A, one of the most memorable scenes was Stone’s character dancing around to Natasha Bedingfield’s hit, “Pocketful of Sunshine.” The sun reference also came up in a later interview with Garfield, who likened the actress to “sunlight.”

However, some fans don’t think the timeline adds up, as Speak Now was released in October 2010, after Stone and Garfield had met but weren’t publicly dating. At the time, Stone was actually dating Kieran Culkin.

See below for fan theories about “When Emma Falls in Love.”

07 Jul 2023

Digitally Salty? : Elon Musk’s Twitter Threatens To Sue Meta For Threads “Biting” Its Style

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Twitter Threatens To Sue Meta For Biting With Threads

Source: Anadolu Agency / Getty / Threads / Twitter

Elon Musk and his hot mess of a social media platform, Twitter, are looking salty in these digital streets after threatening to sue Meta for allegedly biting Twitter with Threads.

Spotted on The Verge, it looks like Elon Musk is shaking in his Allbirds following Threads’ successful launch and looks to be a strong contender to knock out the bird app.

In a letter addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg obtained by Semafor, Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro alleges that Meta is using te company’s trade secrets and intellectual property when making bringing Threads to life and is threatening legal action in “both civil remedies and injunctive relief.”

Per The Verge:

Spiro, who is also Elon Musk’s personal lawyer and a partner at the Quinn Emanuel law firm, claims that Meta hired “dozens” of ex-Twitter employees to develop Threads, which wouldn’t be all that surprising given just how many people were fired following Musk’s takeover.

But according to Twitter, many of these former workers still have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other confidential information. Twitter alleges that Meta took advantage of this and tasked these employees with developing a “copycat” app “in violation of both state and federal law.”

In response to the claims, the communications director for Meta, Andy Stone, said, “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing.”

Meta also doesn’t seem phased by Musk’s threat to sue, being that is usually the course of action the company seems to take, most recently threatening Microsoft with a lawsuit for allegedly abusing Twitter’s API.

In response to the letter, Musk said, “Competition is fine, cheating is not.”

Threads Is Winning Out The Gate

Musk and his company’s lawsuit comes on the heels of Thread’s incredible launch that saw over 10 million users eager to ditch Musk’s platform signup.

According to The Verge, Threads has over 30 million registered users, including big names like Kim Kardashian, Khloé Kardashian, J.Lo, and more already on board with the app.

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Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty

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07 Jul 2023

Taylor Swift Reveals the ‘Saddest,’ ‘Most Scathing’ & ‘Most Wistfully Romantic’ Songs She’s Ever Written

Taylor Swift unveiled Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) on Friday (July 7) and the superstar kept the nostalgia for her 2010 third studio album alive with a moving prologue reminiscent of her original Speak Now liner notes that remain popular among Swifties.

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“When I look back at the Speak Now album, I get a lump in my throat. I have a feeling it will always be this way, because this period of time is so violently aglow with the last light of the setting sun of my childhood,” she began her message, which fans who bought the album have taken to social media to share. “I made this album, completely self-written, between the ages of 18 and 20. I’ve spoken about how I feel like those ages are the most emotionally turbulent ones in a person’s life. Maybe when I say that, I’m really just talking about myself.”

Throughout the prologue, Swift recalls the Speak Now era of her life, which was complete with publicized romantic relationships, criticisms surrounding her musical abilities and, of course, the infamous VMAs scandal with Kanye West. “I wanted to get better, to challenge myself, and to build on my skills as a writer, an artist, and a performer,” she shared of her mindset at the time.

The superstar also revealed that three songs on Speak Now stick out to her even after all these years. “It was an album that was the most precious to me because of its vast extremes. It was unfiltered and potent. In my mind, the saddest song I’ve ever written is ‘Last Kiss.’ My most scathing is ‘Dear John’ and my most wistfully romantic is ‘Enchanted.’” she shared.

Read the full prologue on Reddit here.

07 Jul 2023

Jelly Roll Back Atop Mainstream Rock Airplay Chart With ‘Need a Favor’

Jelly Roll scores his second No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, as “Need a Favor” rises to the top of the July 15-dated tally.

The coronation follows the one-week rule of his “Dead Man Walking” in May 2022.

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Both of Jelly Roll’s songs that have hit Mainstream Rock Airplay have reached No. 1. He’s the first act to send two initial entries on the list to No. 1 since the Wolfgang Van Halen-fronted Mammoth WVH in 2021, via “Distance” and “Don’t Back Down.”

Jelly Roll is also the first soloist to rule the chart since Ozzy Osbourne, whose “Patient Number 9,” featuring Jeff Beck, led for three weeks beginning in July 2022.

On the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay survey, “Need a Favor” remains at its No. 5 high with 3.7 million audience impressions June 30-July 6, according to Luminate. In addition to its run on Mainstream Rock Airplay, the song also appeared at No. 39 on Alternative Airplay for a week (July 8).

Concurrently, “Need a Favor” lifts 7-6 on Country Airplay with 26.2 million audience impressions at the format. As previously reported, it’s the first song ever to enter the top 10 of both Country Airplay and Mainstream Rock Airplay.

The most recent, July 8-dated Hot Rock & Alternative Songs tally found “Need a Favor” at No. 2, with 11.5 million official U.S. streams and 5,000 downloads sold, in addition to its radio airplay (28.4 million all-format impressions). The song also placed at No. 4 on Hot Country Songs.

“Need a Favor” is the lead single from Whitsitt Chapel, Jelly Roll’s seventh studio album. The set debuted at No. 1 on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart dated June 17 and has earned 266,000 equivalent album units since its release.

07 Jul 2023

Party No Dey Stop: A Guide to Traveling Afrobeats Parties Around the U.S.

WORLD AFRIKA

(from left to right) Jonathan Bekele and Spinall at WORLD AFRIKA X AFROLITUATION party at Chinatown Country Club in Boston, Massachusetts on March 24, 2023.

@ntalani_

“An event whose culture and influence reaches far and wide across the globe” – Jonathan Bekele, founder of WORLD AFRIKA

Year started: 2022

Partners: EthioBoyzEnt (partner), NuWave Collective (partner), SuperSmashBroz (DJ/partner), King Collins (DJ)

Primary city: Boston

Main venue(s): Garage, Spirit of Boston, Shojo

What inspired you to come up with this party?

Before the pandemic, I created Anbessa. It was supposed to be a company that [had] different branches like events, clothing, miscellaneous things. It’s obviously based on our culture, the lion is embedded in Ethiopian culture. In the clothing brand, on the back of the T-shirts, you’ll see WORLD AFRIKA. The reason why I spell it WORLD AFRIKA with a “K” is because, initially, the name of Africa was with a “k” from the native countries, before colonization. Ethiopians never got colonized, so I was like, “I would love to keep that same identity with this.”

Back in March of last year, there was a need for a real curated event of experience in the city that focused around Afrobeats in Boston. My one-year anniversary with the clothing brand with the WORLD AFRIKA slogan on it was coming up in April. So I was like, “Let me just throw my first WORLD AFRIKA party.” I had SuperSmashBroz DJing, and it was received well. It gave a different feeling, like they felt like they were back home. And that’s what I want to bring: I want to make people walk out of the party and be like, “OK, I’m buying my ticket for December.”

How did you come up with its name? 

When I was creating the T-shirts, one T-shirt [has] two women that graduated from the airline academy in Ethiopia and they have a lion right in front of them, which is the ambessa. And WORLD AFRIKA was [about] traveling around the world because it was based on the aviation thing. Ethiopian Airlines was the first airline in Africa that was really able to travel across. And the second T-shirt was a lion literally walking past an Ethiopian Airlines plane. So that’s where it stemmed from. WORLD AFRIKA is a connection of all the different countries and just grouping them together.

Who typically attends?

Obviously, my Habeshas support. There’s a huge West African population here — a lot of my friends are Nigerian — and Cape Verdeans. Anybody who’s from Cape Verde, all of their people for some reason immigrated to Massachusetts or Rhode Island. The second [WORLD AFRIKA party] was on a yacht in the middle of Boston Harbor that held like 650 people. It was like three levels, different DJs. And the bottom floor was Cape Verdean DJs. But then you’ll also see groups of Asian people that just want to show up and party, dance. You’ll see a bunch of white people slide up. But I would say for the most part, it’s West Africans, East Africans, Cape Verdeans. We did an amapiano party one time, and hella South Africans popped up.

Where does this typically take place or where has it taken place before?

The first venue I did was Garage. The second one was called Spirit of Boston. The funny thing is Garage is closed, Spirit of Boston actually caught on fire two months ago — so they are no longer operational. I went to Addis, and I did two WORLD AFRIKAs over there at Midtown Ultra Lounge right on Bole. One of my good friends, his name is Nate Enzo, owns it. He was like, “What do you think about doing it over here?” And I was like, “Yeah, why not? This will pay for my trip, basically.” So I did it over there, sold out both times. And I didn’t really realize the impact of what I had until that happened in Addis. Because when it happened it in Addis, and when I did the yacht event, I was like, “D–n, this is not just a Boston thing. It’s becoming more than that.”

At the top of 2023, I’ve been at this venue called Shojo. And they’ve been my most consistent venue. So I did one right before I went to Ethiopia, and I’ve done one every single month, so February, March, April, I’ve been there. I also did one in D.C. first week of March. That was nice. I have a lot of connects in D.C. One of my friends, he owns a lounge, and he was just like, “Why don’t you try doing it over here?” And I was like, “Yeah, why not?” And it did really well. I was like, “D–n, if I start out in these small spaces or mid-sized spaces, whether it be New York, Atlanta, L.A., the world will come organically.”

Why does your party stand out?

I’m able to connect with people, I’m very personable. And I’m very good with business. Dami came to me back in March, and Dami was like, “Hey, Spinall wants to come to Boston.” I know they couldn’t find a venue. Essentially, they came to me, and I had a venue already locked for WORLD AFRIKA that I was going to do on my own. Personally, I could have just done the event and probably took all that money to the head. But I thought bigger — because I was like, “OK, if I have Spinall and I work with Afrolituation and Dami and all of them, this would be great for the brand going forward.”

I think [it’s because of] those collabs and those teams I put together. I really work hard day by day making sure everything is exquisite from the beginning to the end. And I’m always asking people throughout the event, like, “You need anything? You having a good time?” People feel at home there. People leave the event wanting more, and wanting to buy that ticket back home, whether it’s West Africa, North Africa, South Africa, East Africa, Central. That’s my mission to drive that idea home.

Recall your favorite memory at one of your parties.

My favorite memory was we were in Addis, and K-Meta put on a song called “WATAWI” [by CKay feat. Davido, Focalistic and Abidoza]. I’m standing on a couch in the middle of the party. A lot of people don’t know this song. But he didn’t realize at that moment that that was my favorite song of the year. And as the song is playing, I’m screaming the lyrics. At the same time, I’m taking a video and I’m turning, turning, turning and the whole place was filled up. All my friends from the Bay, all my friends from D.C., all my friends from Dallas, New York, Boston, all over the place [were] just mingling and having a great time.

In my mind, I was like, “OK, this is lit. I’m here. And I’m here to stay.” This is something that can be for real for real going forward. I had a serious in-my-head moment of like, “I could do this every week here.” And the funny thing was I did it back-to-back weeks, and they were both sold out. Typically, I take a month off to do it. But because I was in Addis and my time there was limited, I did it back-to-back weeks, and both weeks were sold out. And I was like, “No way! This is for real!”

07 Jul 2023

Leeds Hospital Trust Apologizes After MF DOOM Died In Facility

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A Street Naming Dedication for MF Doom in Long Beach, New York

MF DOOM passed away inside a Leeds hospital facility in the United Kingdom in 2020, and a recent inquest hearing uncovered shocking details. As a result, the trust for the hospital has issued an apology to the family of MF DOOM.

MF DOOM, real name Daniel Dumile Thompson, was admitted to the St. James hospital after suffering a reaction to ACE inhibitors according to details shared at the inquest. DOOM’s wife, Jasmin Thompson, issued statements about the condition of her husband and stated that he was placed in a room that, in her view, appeared to be an old office converted into a hospital room.

The Guardian has more:

On 23 October 2020, Thompson had breathing problems after taking new medication and went to the A&E department at St James’s hospital where he was given adrenaline, steroids and oxygen.

His condition appeared to improve but then suddenly deteriorated and he collapsed. Thompson, who had six children, was put on a ventilator and died on 31 October.

The assistant coroner Janine Wolstenholme said a care plan drawn up in hospital was not sufficiently detailed and that doctors were given a “false reassurance” about the musician’s condition when his health appeared to improve.

The Leeds teaching hospital National Heath Service (NHS) trust chief medical officer Dr. Hamish McLure said, “I would like to offer our sincere condolences to Daniel’s family, friends and fans at this difficult time. I apologise that the care he received was not to the standard we would expect.”

MF DOOM was 49 at the time of his passing.

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Photo: Getty

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07 Jul 2023

Fifty Fifty Joins BTS as the Only South Korean Groups With Top 10s on Pop Airplay Chart

Fifty Fifty makes history on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart as “Cupid” rises from No. 13 to No. 10 on the list dated July 15. The group becomes the second from South Korea – and the first all-female group from the country – to reach the survey’s top 10 after BTS, which has notched two top 10s: “Dynamite” hit No. 5 in December 2020 and “Butter” climbed to No. 7 in August 2021.

Before that, among soloists on Pop Airplay, South Korean rapper PSY broke through with the No. 10-peaking “Gangnam Style” in 2012.

The Pop Airplay chart began in October 1992 and reflects airplay, as tabulated by Mediabase and provided to Billboard by Luminate, on over 150 U.S. mainstream top 40 terrestrial and satellite radio stations.

Among the Pop Airplay chart panelists that have played “Cupid” the most to date are Alpha Media-owned KLLY Bakersfield, Calif., and KBFF Portland, Ore.; SiriusXM’s Hits 1 and Venus; and iHeartMedia’s KHKS Dallas.

The song debuted at No. 36 on the May 20-dated Pop Airplay chart, marking Fifty Fifty’s first appearance on the survey, and enters the top 10 in its ninth week on the ranking, reaching the top tier with a 9% gain in weekly plays.

Fifty Fifty formed in 2022 and consists of members Aran, Keena, Saena and Sio.

“Cupid” scored two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart in May and June. (The tally ranks songs based on streaming and sales activity culled from more than 200 territories excluding the U.S., as compiled by Luminate.) It has also risen to No. 17, in May, on the U.S.-based multimetric Billboard Hot 100.

Meanwhile, Fifty Fifty’s newest release is “Barbie Dreams” featuring Kaliii. The song, from the soundtrack to the movie Barbie, both due July 21, arrived July 6, and reworks Janet Jackson’s classic “Together Again,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in 1998.

All charts dated July 15 will update on Billboard.com Tuesday, July 11.

07 Jul 2023

Victor Wembanyama Guard Won’t Be Charged in Alleged Britney Spears Incident, Police Say

The Las Vegas Police Department has concluded its investigation into the alleged incident between Britney Spears and a member of NBA rookie Victor Wembanyama’s security team. In a statement to Billboard on Friday (July 7), the LVMPD said it had wrapped up its probe into the alleged battery that took place on Wednesday in Las Vegas and concluded that “no charges will be filed against the person involved.”

Spears filed a police report after she claimed that she was stuck by a member of Wembanyama’s security team while trying to greet the player in a Las Vegas hotel.

According to TMZ, which first reported the news, Spears was having dinner with husband Sam Asghari and two friends at Catch at the Aria Hotel when she saw the San Antonio Spurs No. 1 pick and wanted to take a photo with him. When she tapped Wembanyama on the shoulder, Director of Team Security for the Spurs Damian Smith reportedly pushed her, hitting her in the face and causing the singer to fall to the ground.

Smith then reportedly apologized to Spears, saying he didn’t recognize the pop star at the time of the incident, with the “Piece of Me” singer reportedly accepted the apology. Afterwards, however, Spears decided to file a police report alleging battery. TMZ reported that law enforcement checked the Aria Hotel’s security footage, which reportedly showed Smith pushing Spears’ hand away from Wembanyama, causing her own hand to strike her in the face before she fell.

Billboard reached out to Spears’ team and the Spurs for additional information and comment on the incident, with neither responding at press time.

On Thursday Spears posted a note on her Instagram explaining her side of the story. “Traumatic experiences are not new to me and I have had my fair share of them. I was not prepared for what happened to me last night,” she wrote. “I recognized an athlete in my hotel lobby as I was heading to dinner. I later went to a restaurant at a different hotel and saw him again. I decided to approach him and congratulate him on his success. It was really loud, so I tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. I am aware of the players statement where he mentions ‘I grabbed him from behind’ but I simply tapped him on the shoulder. His security then back handed me in the face without looking back, in front of a crowd. Nearly knocking me down and causing my glasses [to fall] off my face.”

Wembanyama issued a statement to the Associated Press in which he claimed that Spears “grabbed me from behind,” and that he didn’t know it was the singer until hours later. “I just know the security pushed her away. I don’t know with how much force but security pushed her away. I didn’t stop to look so I could walk in and enjoy a nice dinner,” he said.

Spears added in her statement that, “I get swarmed by people all the time. In fact, that night. I was swarmed by a group of at least 20 fans. My security team didn’t hit any of them. This story is super embarrassing to share with the world but it’s out there already. However, I think it’s important to share this story and urge people in the public eye to set an example and treat all people with respect.”

07 Jul 2023

Lawsuit Claims Kanye West’s Donda Academy Smelled of Mold

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Celebrity Sightings In Beverly Hills - June 16, 2023

Source: MEGA / Getty

A new lawsuit claims that Ye aka Kanye West’s Donda Academy had seriously unsafe conditions including a “moldy smell.”

According to reports, a lawsuit was filed on Thursday (July 6th) in a Los Angeles courtroom by a former teacher with the school. Isaiah Meadows’ suit is the third in the last three months. In the case, the former faith and physical education teacher (who also worked at the Yeezy Christian Academy which was a predecessor) claims that he was fired from his position after expressing his concerns about grave health and safety issues at the academy. He also claims he is owed back pay as well as compensation for rent at a place near the school.

The details begin with Meadows alleging that Donda Academy was built without windows in the window frames. This left the faculty and students vulnerable to the weather outside. “In the middle of the main classroom, a skylight was left without glass inevitably allowing rain to fall directly inside, where water would soak into the floor, which would lead to a moldy smell for the next few days,” Meadows’ lawyers wrote in the suit’s documents. “The skylight was intentionally without glass because WEST expressed that he did not like glass.”

Another issue that was presented in the suit concerned the septic tank that would “overflow every other day, causing a terrible smell.” There were also “serious wiring issues” at the school, leading to an incident of an electrical fire “near the student eating area where wire was laid atop the ground, exposed.” These add on to claims brought by former teachers Cecilia Hailey, Chekarey Byers, and Timanii Meeks in the May lawsuit which include students only being allowed to wear black clothing and not going to the second floor because the rapper was “reportedly afraid of stairs.”

“The unlawful and retaliatory behavior by Mr. West and the school directors have now been documented multiple times by other former employees who never even worked together but all experienced the same horrendous treatment and witnessed the same serious health, safety, and education code violations, while all were subjected to the same fate,” attorney Ron Zambrano wrote in a statement that accompanied the lawsuit. 

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