News

06 Apr 2023

Suga Says He Thinks of ‘Quitting Music More Than 100 Times a Day’ in ‘Road to D-DAY’ Trailer

BTS‘ Suga is using his forthcoming Disney+ documentary, SUGA: Road to D-DAY, to get personal with fans. The first trailer for the film arrived on Thursday (April 6), and shows the rapper asking himself a series of introspective questions while traveling across the world and writing his debut solo album, D-DAY.

“What I want to say right now … how should I do it? I’m 30 now. There are a lot of things you can do when you’re 30, aren’t there?” the rapper ponders while writing lyrics and recording for his upcoming release. “If people think that SUGA’s works are good, should it be good enough?”

The trailer sees the K-pop star traveling across various cities around the world, including San Francisco, Las Vegas, Malibu, Chuncheon (South Korea) and more as he continues to reflect, at one point admitting he often thinks about giving it up altogether.

“I believe that wounds and scars are the results of our actions. It takes a lot of guts to let go of something. The day I’m free from all the negative thoughts, I’ll set it as D-Day and start all over again,” he says. “I think of quitting music more than a hundred times a day, but when everyone comes together like this, I can do it because it make me feel like making music is fun.”

The trailer concludes with the official release date for SUGA: Road to D-DAY: April 21, the same day that Suga’s debut solo album is set to arrive.

Watch the first trailer for the documentary in the video above.

06 Apr 2023

David Bowie’s Son Duncan Jones Isn’t Having It With Donald Trump Using His Dad’s Music: See the NSFW Response

Duncan Jones doesn’t approve of Donald Trump using his dad’s music — not then, not ever. Once again, David Bowie‘s son is calling out the former president for using a track from the late glam rock star’s catalog, this time playing 1974’s “Rebel Rebel” for warmup music leading up to his post-arrest speech.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

“Pretty sure this f–ker keeps on using my dad’s music just to annoy me personally,” tweeted the 51-year-old filmmaker Tuesday (April 4), before conceding, “(Joke. I’m way below his radar.)”

Jones also shared a fitting GIF of his father, who passed away in 2016 at the age of 69 after battling cancer, giving a piercing, disapproving side-eye.

It’s far from the first time Ziggy Stardust’s kin has blasted Trump for the same exact reason. Just a few months ago, the politician used “Heroes” after announcing he was running for president again in 2024. “Pretty sure he’s just doing that now to wind me up,” Jones tweeted at the time.

“We’ve been though this before,” he later added. “He used the same track 6 years ago. Ive been told there is little we can do about it.”

Trump made history Tuesday by becoming the first current or former U.S. president to be placed under arrest, pleading not guilty to 34 felony counts during his arraignment in New York City. That day, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged the real-estate mogul with falsifying business records for an alleged hush money scheme.

Since Trump rose to power in 2016, countless musicians have also condemned his use of their music. There’s an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to tallying the major acts who’ve publicly spoken out against it or have sent cease and desists to Trump’s camp, including Rihanna, Queen, Bruce Springsteen, the Beatles, Adele and more.

See Duncan Jones’ NSFW reaction to Donald Trump’s latest use of David Bowie’s music below:

06 Apr 2023

SZA’s Explosive Touring Growth, From CTRL to SOS, by the Numbers

It’s been a transformative few months for SZA. The R&B superstar released SOS, her second studio album, in December to universal critical acclaim and blockbuster business. The set earned 318,000 album equivalent units in its first week of release, kicking off a non-consecutive 10-week run atop the Billboard 200. And in the middle of that chart-topping stretch, she kicked off the aptly titled SOS Tour.

The 18-date stint ran from Feb. 21 through March 23, giving SZA her first taste of headlining arenas on her own. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, the SOS Tour grossed $34.5 million and sold 238,000 tickets.

Spread across its month of action, SOS shows averaged $1.9 million and 12,812 tickets per night. Returns were remarkably consistent, only dipping below 11,000 at the (relatively) low-capacity Viejas Arena in San Diego. The SoCal arena sold 8,700 tickets, but fostered the tour’s second-highest ticket price, at $174.69. Otherwise, attendance swung between 11,069 (Atlanta) and 14,383 (Toronto) on a nightly basis.

New York and Los Angeles were the two markets, perhaps unsurprisingly, with double-headers. SZA played two shows at Madison Square Garden on March 4-5, and the run’s final two dates at Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif., on March 22-23. Logically, these were the highest grosses and attendance counts, hitting $4.7 million and 27,000 tickets at the East Coast arena, and $3.9 million and 25,000 on the West.

Reporting is limited for SZA’s pre-pandemic concerts, with a small handful of figures for 2017’s Ctrl the Tour and subsequent 2019 Australian shows. But matching up her shows market-by-market, her growth over the last six years is undeniable.

SZA played at Austin’s Emo’s on Oct. 1, 2017, earning $31,000 from a sold-out audience of 1,550. She returned to the city on March 9 at the newly minted Moody Center. She spun that attendance and its average $20 ticket seven times over, amounting to a show gross 55 times the total of her previous market play ($1.7 million).

In New York, it’s a similar – but bigger – story. SZA grossed $45,000 and sold 1,800 tickets at Brooklyn Steel on Dec. 10, 2017. Returning to Madison Square Garden last month, she earned $4.7 million and sold 27,000 tickets. That represents a jump of 1,376% in attendance and more than 10,000% in revenue.

The caveat in NYC is that SZA also played an un-reported show at Manhattan’s Irving Plaza the night after her Brooklyn date in 2017. But even if the 1,100-capacity club sold out at the same average ticket price, her growth in New York would still be nearly 6,500%.

SZA got some arena experience during her first album cycle, snagging co-headline billing on Top Dawg Entertainment’s Champions Tour in between Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q. But even that stacked bill played only one show in New York, selling fewer tickets (12,500) than SZA did on either of her solo ’23 shows at the same venue.

Much of that upward trajectory can be attributed to the slow-burn success of 2017’s CTRL. While peaking at No. 3 and spending “just” a handful of weeks in the Billboard 200’s top 10, it has accumulated more than 300 weeks on the chart. One of its five frames in the top 10 was in June 2022, after a five-year-anniversary deluxe edition hit streaming services.

After letting that album breathe for more than five years, SZA’s timing was sharp. The SOS Tour was announced days after its namesake album was released, with tickets going on sale a few days after that. The set’s massive opening week backed up the feverish hype surrounding her long-awaited comeback, and its subsequent ticket on-sale capitalized on that momentum without missing a beat.

The SOS Tour helped complete SZA’s transformation from slow-burn R&B wunderkind to genre-bending arena powerhouse. She is represented by Wasserman Music and promoted by Live Nation. The tour featured direct support act Omar Apollo.   

06 Apr 2023

Steven Tyler Denies Decades-Old Claim That He Sexually Assaulted a Minor

Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler is denying allegations that he sexually assaulted a minor in the 1970s.

In his first response to the lawsuit, attorneys for Tyler denied all of the accusations from Julia Holcomb, who sued in December over allegations that she was the person referenced in the singer’s memoir as almost his “teen bride.”

The response, a filing called an “answer” that is the standard first step for a defendant in any lawsuit, listed a wide range of possible defenses Tyler might employ. They included that Holcomb had consented to Tyler’s alleged conduct, or that he was immunized from her claims since he had been granted legal custody over her.

Tyler’s new filing elicited a strongly-worded response from Holcomb’s lawyers, taking particular offense at the claims about consent and custody.

“Never have we encountered a legal defense as obnoxious and potentially dangerous as the one that Tyler and his lawyers launched this week,” attorney Jeff Anderson wrote in a press release responding to the filing. “We hope Tyler’s mean-spirited gaslighting will backfire on him.”

A representative for Tyler did not return a request for comment on the new filing or on Anderson’s statement.

Holcomb’s allegations against Tyler are not new. She made similar accusations in a 2011 article published by the anti-abortion website LifesiteNews, and she made the same claims in 2020 during an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News.

But in December, she formalized those claims in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles court, claiming Tyler used his “power as a well-known musician and rock star” in order to “gain access to, groom, manipulate, exploit” and sexually assault her for three years starting in 1973, when she was just 16 years old.

The lawsuit repeatedly cited Tyler’s own memoir (Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?), in which he explicitly referenced a relationship with an underage girl. “She was 16, she knew how to nasty, and there wasn’t a hair on it,” Tyler wrote in the book passage that’s quoted in the lawsuit. “I was so in love I almost took a teen bride.”

The lawsuit alleges that Tyler convinced Holcomb’s parents to grant him guardianship over her — an accusation that also came with quotes from his memoir: “I went and slept at her parents’ house for a couple of nights and her parents fell in love with me, signed paper over for me to have custody, so I wouldn’t get arrested if I took her out of state.”

In technical terms, Holcomb accused Tyler of sexual battery, sexual assault and intentional infliction of emotion distress. The case was filed just days before the expiration of California’s Child Victims Act, which temporarily suspended the statute of limitations for sexual abuse lawsuits to allow for such years-old claims.

Read Tyler’s entire legal answer here:

06 Apr 2023

Travis Tritt Cuts All Anheuser-Busch Products From His Tour Rider Following Brand’s Trans-Inclusive Campaign

Country singer Travis Tritt is removing the King of Beers from his own royal retinue. On Wednesday night (April 5), Tritt released a series of tweets announcing that he would no longer be working with Anheuser-Busch, the company that produces Budweiser and Bud Light, among other beers.

“I will be deleting all Anheuser-Busch products from my tour hospitality rider,” the singer wrote, referring to the list of requests — including food and drink — an artist will submit to a live venue they’re scheduled to perform at. “I know many other artists who are doing the same.”

The announcement came after significant online backlash against the brand for partnering with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney in a March Madness campaign. One of the most vocal protestors of the announcement was Kid Rock, who posted a video of himself opening fire on three cases of Bud Light with an assault rifle, declaring, “f–k Bud Light and f–k Anheuser-Busch.”

When some commenters began asking which other stars Tritt knew would be removing Anheuser-Busch products from their tour riders, the “T-R-O-U-B-L-E” singer chose not to name names. “Other artists who are deleting Anheuser-Busch products from their hospitality rider might not say so in public for fear of being ridiculed and cancelled,” he wrote. “I have no such fear.”

The singer also added that he had worked directly with the beer manufacturer in the past, but had no plans to do so again. “In full disclosure, I was on a tour sponsored by Budweiser in the 90’s. That was when Anheuser-Busch was American owned,” he wrote. “A great American company that later sold out to the Europeans and became unrecognizable to the American consumer. Such a shame.”

While Tritt never directly referred to Mulvaney or Anheuser-Busch’s partnership with the TikTok star, the “Here’s a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)” singer did post an advertisement from Jack Daniel’s featuring RuPaul’s Drag Race stars BeBe Zahara Benet, Trinity Taylor and Manila Luzon, telling his followers that they “should take note.”

In a statement to Billboard, Jack Daniel’s stood by its Drag Queen Summer Glamp campaign, as well as its ongoing support for the queer and trans communities. “Jack Daniel’s is made with everyone in mind, including the LGBTQ+ community,” a spokesperson said. “As a longtime champion of the LGBTQ+ community, Jack Daniel’s celebrates individuality and living life boldly on your own terms.”

Anheuser-Busch has not yet responded to a request for comment regarding Tritt’s tweets, but in a previous statement shared with Billboard, the brand stood firm in its stance. “Anheuser-Busch works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics,” a spokesperson said.

The whiskey brand is not the only one to fire back at the online outrage. Country star Jason Isbell openly mocked Kid Rock for his violent response to the Bud Light advertisement, encouraging other beer brands to follow suit. “This is finally how we get him,” Isbell said. “Leave no bigoted beers to drink.”

Billboard has reached out to Tritt comment. See his tweets below:

06 Apr 2023

Roc Nation Sports Places Ad In Italian Paper In Support Of Romelu Lukaku

HipHopWired Featured Video

Football, Italy Cup: Juventus FC VS FC Internazionale

Romelu Lukaku, a striker for Serie A club Inter Milan in Italy, is the first Premier League player to sign with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Sports and has amassed fame for his exploits on the pitch. However, Romelu Lukaku, like many Black footballers before him, has endured racist taunts and Roc Nation Sports took out an ad in an Italian newspaper demanding they do better.

TMZ was the first to report on Roc Nation Sports taking out the ad in the Italian sports news daily, La Gazzetta dello Sport, which defended Romelu Lukaku and other Black footballers from the racist taunts from fans in attendance at matches.

On Tuesday (April 4), Inter Milan played against Juventus F.C. and fans in the stands made monkey noises toward Lukaku. The ad singles out how this practice has been allowed to endure for years during football (soccer) matches.

From the ad:

In professional football, Black players have been subjected to hatred during professional football games. The hatred has displayed itself in the form of monkey chants, racial slurs and banana peels tossed at the best players in the world, as the world watches, as the children watch, as the players’ families watch.

No one has faced any consequences for this heinous behavior. Nothing has changed. No action has been taken.

Roc Nation Sports put out an accompanying video demanding that fans stop the racist taunts, clearly singling out that this has been an issue for years in the game.

—

Photo: Mondadori Portfolio / Getty

06 Apr 2023

Red Hot Chili Peppers Become First Act to Double Up on Top Tours Chart

Just under the surface of Ed Sheeran’s chart-topping Oceania shows, the Red Hot Chili Peppers breaks new ground on Billboard’s monthly Boxscore charts. The band is No. 2 on February’s Top Tours ranking, and followed closely again at No. 6, becoming the first act to appear twice on the same chart since the list launched in February 2019.

The Chili Peppers played eight shows in Australia and New Zealand from Jan. 21 through Feb. 12. For those stadium gigs, the group paired with Post Malone for a co-headline run of $48.2 million, splitting by $15.2 million in January and another $33 million in February. That was enough to land them at No. 2 for both months, first behind Elton John and then Sheeran.

Without missing a beat, the Chili Peppers followed with three shows in Asia on Feb. 16, 19 and 21, sans Post Malone. Those earned $12.1 million, putting the unaccompanied band at No. 6 on February’s overall ranking. In the four years since the monthly charts premiered, no act had previously doubled up on the 30-position ranking, much less in the top 10.

Top 30 Tours February 2023, Boxscore

While it’s the first time that an artist has scored two positions on a monthly chart, it’s not unprecedented among all Boxscore rankings. On the 2018 year-end charts, Jay-Z was No. 3 alongside Beyonce for the On the Run II Tour, and at No. 25 for his solo headline dates.

The Chili Peppers also blanket the Top Boxscore chart, both on its own and alongside Post Malone. The co-headline shows appear at Nos. 5-6 and 9, topped by two shows on Feb. 2 and 4 at Sydney’s Accor Stadium ($13.5 million; 107,000 tickets).

Unaccompanied, the band hits Nos. 9 and 24, spotlighting the Feb. 19 performance at Tokyo Dome which earned $7.2 million and sold 45,000 tickets.

Top 30 Boxscores February 2023

In addition to two shows from Sheeran, the Chili Peppers’ Sydney dates helped make Accor Stadium the month’s top-grossing venue with a $32.4 million gross and 279,000 tickets sold.

Since launching in June in Europe, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Global Stadium Tour has earned $237.4 million and sold 1.9 million tickets. Beyond the Oceania and Asia legs, the band continues with a swing of North American shows that extend through mid-April, before returning to Europe and continuing on to Latin America later this year.

At $491.9 million, the soon-to-be-reported Western shows will push the band’s career Boxscore gross past the half-billion mark.

Top 10 Venues 15,001+ February 2023, Boxscores

06 Apr 2023

Diddy Says He Pays Sting $5K Every Single Day for Song Sample in ‘I’ll Be Missing You’

Forget “I’ll be watching you,” it’s “I’ll be paying you” when it comes to Diddy and Sting. The rapper shared in a tweet on Wednesday (April 5) that he pays the mighty hefty sum of $5,000 a day to the legendary singer for using a sample of The Police’s classic hit “Every Breath You Take.”

For those doing the math (or are math averse), that comes to an astounding total of $1.825 million per year.

Diddy’s revelatory tweet was in response to a resurfaced clip of Sting’s March 2018 interview on The Breakfast Club in which the singer-songwriter — who penned the lyrics to the song — confirms that the “It’s All about the Benjamins” artist pays him daily for reportedly not getting permission before sampling the hit in Diddy’s on “I’ll Be Missing You.”

“Is it true that Diddy had to pay you two grand a day because he didn’t have permission to sample ‘Every Breath You Take’?” host Charlamagne Tha God asks in the clip. Sting replies with a quick, “Yeah,” but also emphasized, “for the rest of his life.” The 12-time Grammy winner did go on to also confirm that Diddy did finally get clearance for the sample, though after the fact.

In the hip-hop star’s retweet of the resurfaced clip, he corrected to note that it’s $3,000 more than what Sting noted. But no hard feelings between the two music heavy-weights, though. “Love to my brother @OfficialSting!” Diddy noted in his tweet, including a smily, sunglass-wearing face emoji and heart hands.

The feeling appears to be mutual. In the 2018 interview, Sting adds of Diddy, “We’re very good friends now.”

The rapper’s hit “I’ll Be Missing You” was written to honor friend and collaborator Notorious B.I.G after the rapper was fatally shot in March 1997. The song — a collab with Faith Evans and featuring 112 — debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on June 14, 1997, and stayed atop the chart for 11 weeks. It remained on the all-genre tally for a total of 33 weeks.

“Every Breath You Take,” which debuted on the chart in June 1983, peaked at No. 1 in July that year, and remained at the top for eight weeks.

See Diddy’s tweet and the clip of Sting’s The Breakfast Club interview below.

06 Apr 2023

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Accused Of Hiding Luxury Trips From GOP Donor

HipHopWired Featured Video

Justice Thomas Attends Forum On His 30 Year Supreme Court Legacy

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, Ginny Thomas, are accused of hiding a slate of luxury trips gifted to them by a wealthy GOP donor according to a new report. These trips took place several times over the past two decades but were never reported on tax filings.

Pro Publica published an in-depth report regarding the trips that Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife took on behalf of real estate magnate, Harlan Crow, who is from Dallas, Texas. Crow is a known GOP donor with deep pockets, having delivered millions in donations to several Republican Party and conservative campaigns.

In the aforementioned report, the publication reveals that the Thomases traveled to faraway destinations such as Indonesia on Crow’s dime, which included island-hopping on a superyacht. Pro Publica said of one 2019 trip the couple took, the costs would’ve gone just north of $500,000.

It appears that Thomas has taken annual trips with Crow but failed to disclose details according to the investigative report. Along with the yacht trips, Thomas has flown on Crow’s Bombardier Global 5000, an aircraft that costs range between $26 to as high as $50 million. Thomas has also traveled to the all-male exclusive retreat, the Bohemian Grove alongside Crow and spent time at Crow’s East Texas ranch. Further, Thomas takes an annual week-long summer trip to Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks.

The failure to disclose the gifts might be a violation of a law passed after the Watergate scandal in the 1970s which requires justices, judges, federal officials, and members of Congress to disclose large financial gifts and expensive trips under the guise of gifts.

Pro Publica obtained a statement from Crow explaining the nature of the gifts. A portion of it can be read below:

On a number of occasions, we have made contributions to projects celebrating the life and legacy of Justice Thomas, just as we have done with other great leaders and historically significant figures. He and Ginni never asked us to do any of this. We did so because we believe Justice Thomas to be one of the greatest Americans of our time, and we believe it is important to make sure as many people as possible learn about him, remember him, and understand the ideals for which he stands. We will continue to support projects that advance this goal.

This report comes as Thomas’ wife, Ginny, is under heavy scrutiny due to her ties to conservative groups and her position as an activist among her political contemporaries. Crow has also donated to an organization helmed by Mrs. Thomas.

Justice Clarence Thomas did not respond to the publication’s questions.

—

Photo: Drew Angerer / Getty

06 Apr 2023

Twitter Had Words For Joe Budden & That Hip-Hop Media Power List

HipHopWired Featured Video

CLOSE

Brooklyn Chophouse Grand Opening

Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty

A list of the top media figures in the Hip-Hop world was released, with Joe Budden being named number one—leading some on social media to applaud and others to question how that was possible.
The power ranking of the top media personalities in Hip-Hop was released by Complex Media on Monday (April 3), with twenty-five notable figures on podcasting and radio being recognized. The host of The Joe Budden Podcast nabbed the top spot, edging out his former Everyday Struggle co-host DJ Akademiks.  Budden’s pick as number one by his former platform surprised some but also delighted many other fans, given how he and Complex parted ways under stormy conditions after he spoke out about being undervalued by the media group. And there were also those who openly wondered how such a list could be created without bias and with some questionable placements (i.e. Sway Calloway coming in at 23rd on the 25-person list).

Before unveiling the list, the staff detailed their criteria for putting the list together which had them focus on individuals rather than shows or platforms. In an apparent nod to those who might complain about the placement of certain figures above others especially if veteran personalities were lower on the list, the staff stated: “We engineered the list to be a ranking of the right now—which means that current relevance and influence supersedes legacy and longevity.” They also addressed potential questions about including those who have been hit with allegations of abuse and misconduct by stating, “We ranked the personalities strictly based on their content, not their character.”

Responses to the Hip-Hop Media Power Ranking were predictably all over the place, as some praised Joe Budden for attaining the top position. Others trashed the list for various reasons. We highlighted some more notable reactions in the gallery.

1. ImeWrites

Nigerian journalist ImeWrites weighed in with perspective. “I am disappointed at the ranking for Sway. However, Sway is an actual journalist, while this list is for media personalities,” they wrote.

2. DeronIsDope

This Twitter user offered a sarcastic jab at Budden’s placement at the top, while voicing that it was “egregious” that Sway came in at 23rd on the list.

3. Lauren

A viral video clip summed up this Twitter user’s response to Budden getting the top spot.

4. CRU137

“What does Joe Budden do other than hate on people for clout?”, they asked.

5. Nicholas Price Sr

“This list don’t make no sense. @RealSway is not number one with the impact that he has on hip-hop media?”, they asked.

6. Lloyd Banks

The G-Unit artist sent out his salute to Joe upon hearing the news.

7. Preston Taylor

“I must be missing something. The word power is definitely being thrown around nowadays for no rhyme or reason,” Preston Taylor wrote.

8. TheFuture8606

This user offered up praise for Budden’s ranking and his reformatting of his current podcast for success.

9. Joshua

Joshua called out the list for placing Narduwar towards the bottom. “Nardwuar should not be so low this is actual blasphemous writing y’all should be ashamed,” they wrote.

10. Joezzy_ACH

This Twitter user who goes by the handle “Wins and Losses” gave “The Pod Father” his due.