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14 Dec 2022

South Korea’s Beyond Music Makes Greg Wells Catalog Its First North American Acquisition

South Korean investment and management firm Beyond Music made its first acquisition of a North American music catalog by purchasing the rights to the music of Greg Wells, a Grammy-winning Canadian songwriter-producer whose credits includes music recorded by Adele, Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Katy Perry and Quincy Jones.

Wells’ career spans genres and decades. As a songwriter, Wells has credits on Aerosmith’s Nine Lives, Celine Dion’s Let’s Talk About Love, Adele’s 21 and John Legend’s Bigger Love. His production credits include The Greatest Showman: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Twenty One Pilots’ Vessel and the In The Heights soundtrack. The rights vary by title and include publishing rights, producing income rights, and master performance rights, according to a company spokesperson.  

With the Wells acquisition, Beyond Music’s assets under management are 300 billion won ($230 million). Before this deal, Beyond Music – which claims to be “largest music IP management company in Asia” – spent more than $200 million on acquisitions in Asia, including the catalogs of FNC Investment, KNC Music and Interpark, to build a catalog of more than 26,000 songs. The company received funding from institutional investors including KB Securities, Base Investment, Maven Growth Partners and Dreamus Company.

The Wells acquisition was made by a newly established U.S.-based subsidiary, Beyond Music US, because domestic transactions are simpler for tax and legal purposes, and the company wants to pursue additional international opportunities in the future, according to the spokesperson. That said, Wells’ catalog covers many Western artists who are also popular in South Korea and throughout Asia. This company believes this acquisition is a “unique opportunity” and “a stepping stone for Beyond to become a global music rights management company,” the spokesperson added.   

“Now is the time to become a global music rights management company by securing not only Asian, but also international music rights,” Beyond Music CEO Jangwon Lee said in a statement. Jangwon is also the CEO of Content Technologies and CT Investments, which debuted a K-pop focused exchange-traded fund, using the ticker KPOP, on the NYSE Arca Exchange in September. Beyond Music is a subsidiary of Contents Technology.

In a statement, Wells called it “an honor to be the first major music catalog acquisition for Beyond outside the Korean market. I am impressed with their commitment to creative freedom as well as maximizing the impact of my songs. I feel my work is in good hands with them.”

Wells won a Grammy in 2019 for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media for his production and engineering work on The Greatest Showman: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (he spoke with Billboard’s Pop Shop podcast about the soundtrack in 2018). He also received Grammy nominations for his work on In the Heights, Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella. 

14 Dec 2022

Doechii Is Coming for the Crown: TDE’s Next Big Bet Eyes Rap Royalty Status

When Jaylah Hickmon cultivated the moniker “Doechii,” it was formed as a way to protect her from adolescent bullying. Doechii would represent a fearless, bold, and all-around unapologetic version of the explorative sixth grader. It wasn’t like Jayla didn’t exist anymore, nor would Doechii be an alter ego, the artist clarified. Over time, the two simply became one. So, when Hickmon started middle school after the summer break, everyone was to call her Doechii – and it stuck ever since.

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Tapping into her creativity and entrepreneurial spirit, Doechii’s self-made empire started before she found success in rap. In 2016, the passionate visionary launched her clothing line: “Stay Woke, Stay Black.” The brand, described as “a movement promoting racial equity and implementing societal enlightenment,” was a labor of love for the budding activist, who used it as a platform to marry her passion for expressiveness with a social cause important to her. In a YouTube video announcing the release of the collection, a young Doechii lights up with joy describing the threads and their homage to the diverse black community that lay at the heart of the brand. Although her time as a fashion designer wasn’t long, through the trials and tribulations of a small black-owned business, the soon-to-be wordsmith learned the importance of market research, quality control, and product improvement. These hard skills seamlessly translated into her current rising musical career.

 “I can’t remember when I decided [to pursue music], but I just knew that I was supposed to be doing this and performing,” she explains. “And when that [the hoodie business] failed, and I had no money, I was like, ‘well, I’m going to make music, and that’s going to be what it is.’”  

Before the world got to know Doechii’s artistry, Hickmon was figuring out who she was. Her three integral anchors were her mother, Celesia, Howard W. Blake High School, and her home city of Tampa, Florida.

Growing up in a single-parent household had its pitfalls. Money was tight. Still, Doechii’s mother wouldn’t let financial struggles stop her from fostering her daughter’s creativity. “She spent her last dime on anything I wanted to do and try. She would support me, and I saw her watch me quit so many different things and still support me,” the rapper reflects, knowing now the seeds of her mother’s love would become fruitful. 

Fast-forward to 2021, Hickmon was fortunate enough to help relocate her mother from Tampa to Los Angeles, bringing her closer to the magic. And even though her mother spent years being Doechii’s cheerleader on the sidelines, she did not grasp the full complexity of her daughter’s stardom. “Now that she’s moved here, she gets it, and she comes on set and is like, ‘Girl, this is a lot!’” 

For Doechii, Howard W. Blake High School was a fortress of imagination, unlocking a world of endless creativity. The rising artist beams when proudly boasting about her alma mater and the various electives and majors the school offered, from nail design to hair and stage production. Doechii always gravitated towards being on stage–taking jazz, musical theater, and vocal training classes to fill her academic schedule. Through this period of her life she developed artistic skills through friendly competition with classmates.

“Everything I know, I learned from Blake,” she explains, “[Blake] was my first exposure to real art and art ethics and what it means to be an artist.” Her fondness for the school is palpable, and she hasn’t been back to visit since graduating. When she speaks about her hypothetical return to the halls, she gleams, “I would probably cry if I went back, but it would be a good cry…I hope I make them proud.”

Undoubtedly, Tampa has left a mark on the emcee. There, she fueled her creativity by competing in talent shows, nurtured her experiences into vulnerable, relatable songwriting, produced her original songs, and even dabbled as a fashion entrepreneur. Over time, Doechii realized that she had ambitions beyond hometown success and left Tampa at 21-years-old to foster her music craft. “In my city in Tampa, there’s this mindset that holds many people back. I read that Florida is four to six years behind in fashion and music and everything because we’re at the bottom of the country.” Eager to learn the music industry and how to put on a show live – skills she found lacking back home, the young artist headed to New York with no solid plan but to be a student of the music game. 

After touching down in the concrete jungle, her first order of business was a songwriter’s audition for The Voice – where she didn’t make the cut. Unable to pay for her flight back home, Doechii extends her New York adventure. This fateful turn of events would lead her to her introduction to the city’s underground music scene and ultimately down the road to success.

“I can’t remember his name, but I see his face when I close my eyes,” she recalls of her first East Coast supporter. “It’s this guy and his sister, and he introduced me to a lot of kids in the scene…and also Arty [Furtado].” Through these connections, she booked gigs and built up a budding fan base around her self-released single, “Spooky Coochie.”

Money was low and Doechii was juggling odd jobs and making music, so she couch surfed and, at times, leaned on her unemployment checks to pay for her craft. She was focused on music and refused to prepare a plan B. It was like eat or die, she jokes. “It had to work, and I was going to work. So, I wasn’t worried about it. ‘Oh I need to save for a rainy day. Like, no, it’s raining. You’re already hungry; you’re already poor. So you might as well invest in you and your music.” Her sacrifices and determination would prove to be worth it, and in the next few months, her dedication came to fruition. 

Exploring and experimenting with her flow from a young age, Doechii would borrow beats from Youtube to create her first songs before connecting with producers and engineers. Of course, she jokes that this was before she realized it was unethical. Today, she considers her niche alternative hip-hop, pulling influences from Tampa’s trap/hip-hop/club music scene. Ridding herself from the stereotypical arches that define the genre, Doechii convicts, “if hip-hop is going right, I want to go left.” 

In 2020, Doechii released All the Places You’ll Go EP. The  five-track compilation is a medley of hip-hop, rap, pop, and R&B, and “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake” would become the most popular track. The raw and relatable lyrics about childhood identity exploration: fashion, sexuality, and finance, to name a few, quickly gained buzz on TikTok amongst the Gen Z demographic, who used the audio as a soundtrack for their physical transformation videos. Subsequently, Doechii’s cyber popularity spilled into the halls of record labels, and quickly after, the MC was on the industry’s radars.

After a series of uneventful meetings with labels that didn’t fit her mold, Doechii flew to Los Angeles to meet with Top Dawg Entertainment. “I didn’t want to sign with anybody but was praying for an all-black team in a black-owned business,” she explains. “So it was perfect. Many labels had reached out, but it was TDE for me.”

When thinking of the legacy brand and the immense pressure of being their latest big bet, she reflects, “I have to rap my ass off, and the goal is to do everything to make it easier for the next person. Like Dot, SZA, and Q, whether they know it or not, they made it easier for me. I want to do that same thing, push the limits of creativity even more, and continue to carry the legacy of TDE.”

Since her signing, the rapper has had a tremendous year. 

Her TDE induction came with a feature on Isaiah Rashad’s “Wut U Sed,” later appearing alongside her labelmate during his Coachella set. Subsequently, she released “Crazy,” her superhero anthem, and “Persuasive,” a punchy club banger, both of which she performed on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in May. 

“Persuasive” landed on former President Obama’s Summer 2021 Playlist. “I can’t imagine Obama just jamming my song,” she jokes. “I just don’t believe it, but if he really does – that’s crazy.” 

Under her new home, she released her sophomore EP, She / Her/ Black B—h, in August 2022 – with labelmate SZA lending a melodic verse on to the remix of the already punchy “Persuasive.” When talking about the EP’s titular pronouns Doechii explains, “Some days it means something deep, and sometimes it’s just a joke – it’s funny to me. It was just a way of using humor to cope with the past slurs people used against me.” 

“Stressed,” her latest buzzworthy release is a push-and-pull relationship with keeping her anxiety and vices at bay, backed by jazz notes and a myriad of percussive patterns. “[The song] is basically me divorcing all my bad habits,” says Doechii, “like alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and just like poor negative behaviors that I recently have quit, which is great.”

With a bright future ahead, Doechii is working hard on her debut studio album. While her audience is growing, the rising star hopes to continue honing in on the vulnerability of her songwriting. “I just feel like I’m making music for like one person, and I’m just meant to be myself so they can feel like it’s easier to be themselves.”

14 Dec 2022

Mariah Carey Pulls Off Legit Christmas Miracle By Bumping South American Superfan Up to Front Row

Do you believe in miracles? One South American Mariah Carey superfan does now after the singer noticed her tweet and upgraded the woman to the front row for Tuesday night’s (Dec. 13) “Merry Christmas to All” gig at Madison Square Garden.

“Today I’m traveling from my country, which is 8.598km (5.342,55miles) away from NY, just to see my idol @MariahCarey,” wrote a fan from Uruguay named Mai on Monday, whose Twitter handle (@uruguayanlamb) made it clear that she’s a charter member of the Lambily. “I remember when I started saving for this day 5 years ago, wishing and hoping for this day. Words can’t describe my happiness rn, love u forever Mimi!”

Christmas Countess Carey noticed the long-haul love and responded in the perfect way: by giving Mai the ultimate upgrade. “I am so happy you’re going to be here!!!,” Carey responded along with a snowflake and Christmas tree emoji. “How would you like to sit in the front row for tonight’s concert??”

Mai reacted in exactly the way you might expect, responding, “OMG YESSSS YESS PLEASE,” followed by four crying eyes emoji and a trio of praying hands. “I can’t believe it I LOVE UUUUU.” As it was sinking in, Mai kept counting her blessings. “I though I was dead for a minute and then when I realized that I was alive I started crying, tears of pure joy and happiness!!!! It was the most amazing night of my life,” she said. “Thank youuuuu for being so kind.”

Mai then chronicled her great New York winter adventure, tweeting out pics from her walk around town, a shot of her holding MC’s The Christmas Princess children’s book while waiting for showtime and another of her MC-appropriate nails, and, of course, footage of the blessed event.

But it got way, way better than that. Mai tweeted that Carey dedicated a song to her during the show, which, of course, slayed her. “THE @MariahCarey just dedicated me a song. whaaat I’m dreaming, I was at the front row at her right, when I tell you the floor shaked while she sang Fly like a bird, Lord only knows!!!!!” she wrote. “HER power!!! Thank you Mimi for giving me the most amazing experience of my life.”

She later apologized to fellow Lambs for not filming much of the show, explaining that it was her first MC gig, so she wanted to really take it in (though she promised her boyfriend did take some video she will share later). In the end it was truly a night to remember.

“WHAAAAT Mimi making my wish come true, not only acknowledging my existence but inviting me to her show???” Mai wrote after the show. “When I told you several times before she is the most devoted artist to her fans I was being serious!!! I’m soooo happy rn.”

Check out the sweet back-and-forth and snaps from Mai’s adventure below.

14 Dec 2022

Meek Mill and Philadelphia Eagles Players Go Deep For Kids Caught in Justice System

Raised in the Philly hood, Meek Mill never attended an Eagles game growing up, much less tossed footballs inside the team’s practice facility.

Given the chance to show off his arm, the 35-year-old rapper and philanthropist lined up some area kids and had them go deep on the same field where the best team in the NFL trains. Meek Mill short-armed a wobbly pass that sailed about 20 yards and was hauled in by a kid to resounding cheers.

Let’s just say Jalen Hurts’ job is safe.

“He’s almost as unathletic as I am,” Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin teased Meek.

Meek Mill and Rubin shared laughs Tuesday (Dec. 13) at an outing arranged to brighten the day for children from families caught in the criminal justice system. Rubin, who recently sold his stake in the Philadelphia 76ers, co-founded the Reform Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to probation, parole and sentencing reform in the United States. Meek Mill, whose well-publicized prison sentence for minor probation violations became a lightning rod for the issue, is co-chairman of the organization.

His case grabbed the attention of criminal justice reform advocates after a judge in Pennsylvania sentenced him to two to four years in prison for violations of his probation conditions in a decade-old gun and drug possession case. He was incarcerated for months before a court ordered him released in 2018. Meek Mill successfully resumed his recording career and recently held a 10-year anniversary concert that celebrated his debut album Dreams And Nightmares. He’s been a big opening act of late, performing the title track and underdog anthem before Eagles games and at the World Series.

“I’ve got purpose on top of everything I’m doing,” Meek Mill said. “Before I went to prison, of course I was famous, of course I was making money feeding my family, but the purpose I have now, it actually started from the way people supported me.”

Meek Mill formed a friendship with Rubin and the billionaire became an ally in freeing him from prison. While Meek Mill was in prison, activists, celebrities and demonstrators rallied in 2017 for his release. “When I seen that with my own eyes, that type of support, which I never had in my life, I wanted to make sure I give that same support back to the world,” Meek Mill said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Born Robert Rihmeek Williams, he is now free of the court supervision he’s been under most of his adult life.

To their credit, years after Meek Mill’s release, the rapper and the mogul have remained steadfast in advocating for criminal justice reform. The Reform Alliance said the group has been responsible for 16 bills passed in 10 states that resulted in changes to probation and parole laws. Meek Mill was even honored in 2019 in his hometown of Philadelphia for his work as a criminal justice reform advocate and as a musician.

“We’ve actually created a pathway for 650,000 people to get out of the system already,” Rubin said. “And we’re just getting started. It’s hard to make change.”

Meek Mill and members of the Eagles including Darius Slay, Jordan Mailata, coach Nick Sirianni and general manager Howie Roseman mingled with 35 kids, took photos and ran combine drills. The kids signed honorary one-day contracts with the team.

“You’re all 12-1 for the day,” Sirianni said.

The kids moved across the street to the Wells Fargo Center and quizzed Philadelphia 76ers coach Doc Rivers on the usual hoops-themed topics. Allen Iverson or Steph Curry? Who’s your favorite player? But there were more serious inquiries about how to land internships and how to push through in a life that can be littered with hardships.

“You have the right to happiness and to smile and do everything you want in life,” Rivers told the kids. “These people here, Meek, Michael and everybody back here are here to tell you that there’s people in your corner. We’re going to fight for you. Fight for your families to make sure that one of you may be sitting here some day giving the same speech. Or one of you can be a doctor, a lawyer, an athlete. Whatever you want.”

Megan Parke spent almost three years in prison and gave birth to her son, Amir, while in jail. She was freed when he was 2½ years old and the family has settled in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Parke was on probation and hit with a technical violation, which in Pennsylvania means she had specifically violated one of the terms of her probation plan. Parke, who still has two years left on probation, said she was lucky the judge didn’t send her back to prison. She said Reform has offered her resources that could aid her and her case should problems arise in the future.

“That’s him right there,” she said, pointing at the 5-year-old boy running around the NFL complex. “He’s just so excited. These days just really mean a lot.”

Those memories are part of what it’s all about for Meek Mill. He missed Eagles games as a kid but once attended on a school trip a taping of The Randall Cunningham Show. “That was a highlight I’ll remember forever,” Meek Mill said. “With kids, I’m always doubling back, make sure I touch back to the people just like myself.”

14 Dec 2022

Diddy Sets New Album For ‘Early’ 2023

Diddy is full of surprises. After surprising the internet with the birth of his daughter, Love Sean Combs, the father of seven, dropped a short notice single alongside PARTYNEXTDOOR, titled “Sex in the Porsche.”

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The track comes by way of Diddy’s Love Records imprint, in partnership with Motown Records, and is the second single from his highly anticipated fifth studio album, set to arrive in early 2023.

“Sex in the Porsche” follows Diddy’s 2022 single, “Gotta Move On” featuring Bryson Tiller, which topped Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay Chart. “Gotta Move On” was the first release from Diddy’s Love Records, a label that marks his “next chapter” with the aim of “creating timeless R&B music with the next generation of artists and producers,” the 53-year-old told REVOLT in May.

Recruiting game-changing R&B acts like Tiller and the elusive Canadian singer-songwriter PARTYNEXTDOOR could prove a successful strategy in Diddy’s efforts to bring attention back to the genre space.

Diddy has been a headline darling this week outside of the music, following the news of his daughter’s birth, reportedly with 28-year-old cyber security specialist Dana Tran. The announcement came as an all-around shock, considering Diddy’s highly publicized relationship with City Girls member, Yung Miami.

The rapper and talk show host, born Caresha Romeka Brownlee, took to Twitter to voice her frustrations regarding rumors that she’s Diddy’s side chick. ““I’M NOBODY SIDE BITCH LETS JUST MAKE THIS CLEAR ON THIS GOOD MONDAY! I don’t come 2nd to no bitch!” she wrote.

Soon after, Diddy himself chimed in on Twitter adding, “@yungmiami305 is not my side chick. Never has been, never will be. She’s very important and special to me, and I don’t play about my Shawty Wop. I don’t discuss things on the internet and I will not start today.”

The “Sex in the Porsche” visualizer features creative direction by famed choreographer Lauriann Gibson and stars rapper Rubi Rose. Stream it here.

14 Dec 2022

Lizzo and Seth Meyers Go Day Drinking, Sample ‘About Damn Wine’

It’s official: Lizzo can drink Seth Meyers under the table.

Proof of the Detroit singer and rapper’s boozing prowess is laid bare in a pre-Christmas “Day Drinking” session, which aired Tuesday night (Dec. 13) on Late Night.

Lizzo, who earlier in the week was named People’s Champion at the 2022 People’s Choice Awards, and sealed the deal with a rousing speech, had something of a victory celebration at Valerie in Midtown Manhattan. Just her, Meyers, some crew, and enough drink to sink a ship of sailors.

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In an vacant bar decked in holiday goodness, the spirits flowed as the late-night TV show host and his guest got down to boozy business.

First up, a round of “guess the event.” You guessed right, Lizzo had to recall where she appeared in a selection of photos. No problem, the drinks hadn’t worked their magic.

Then, the pair necked cocktails with a Lizzo theme, starting with “About Damn Wine.”

It’s about this time when Meyers’ wheels fall off.

The pair keep knocking them down with a session based on “Truth Hurts,” where Lizzo has to answer honestly, or drink.

The “most absurd demand” in her rider? (Tampons, apparently. A good response but not “absurd”). Who’s more powerful, Oprah or Beyonce? (Lizzo drinks. She doesn’t want “the smoke”). Who’s the “most overrated artist” in music right now (“Have you lost your f***ing mind,” says Lizzo. Drink up).

It all gets loose before coming unstuck with some “knock knock” jokes, followed by a breakup game, the appearance of a Paul Rudd doppelganger, and a shambolic attempt to give a sign-off to camera.

Cheers.  

The three-time Grammy Award winner can add to her collection — and perhaps celebrate some more — when the 2023 Grammys roll around on Feb. 5. She’s up for the Big Three categories – album, record and song of the year.

When he’s not hosting his regular late-night gig, Meyers has coaxed Rihanna, Post Malone, Lorde and others into joining him for spots of “Day Drinking.”

Watch Lizzo “Day Drinking” with Seth Meyers below.

13 Dec 2022

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and PARTYNEXTDOOR Get the Engine Running With ‘Sex In The Porsche’: Listen

Sean “Diddy” Combs is motoring on with “Sex In The Porsche,” the hip-hop mogul’s new collaboration with PARTYNEXTDOOR.

Diddy is listed as co-writer (with PARTYNEXTDOOR, real name Jahron Brathwaite) and co-producer (with Nyan) on the smooth cut, the second lifted from Diddy’s forthcoming album release.

The first, “Gotta Move On” featuring Bryson Tiller, arrived in October, part of a three-pack which included the Queens Remix and the Kings Remix. “Gotta Move On” went to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart in November, the first No. 1 for both acts on the survey.

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According to reps, Diddy’s new album is scheduled to drop early next year through his Love Records imprint, a partnership with Motown Records.

“Sex In The Porsche” is accompanied with a visualizer featuring creative direction by Lauriann Gibson, and starring rapper and model Rubi Rose.

Diddy got his year in music underway by hosting, executive producing, and performing at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards.

Later, Diddy and Tiller performed “Gotta Move On” alongside Teyana Taylor at the 2022 BET Awards in June. During the ceremony, the mogul was presented with the show’s lifetime achievement award, which featured an introduction by Jay-Z and a tribute performance from Mary J Blige, Lil’ Kim, Shyne, Busta Rhymes, The Lox, Faith Evans. Ye and Babyface also gave speeches during the event.

“Music has always been my first love; Love Records is the next chapter about getting back to the love and making the best music of my life,” he said of his latest venture. “For the label, I’m focused on creating timeless R&B music with the next generation of artists and producers. Motown is the perfect partner for my album, and I’m excited to add to its legacy.”

Since his career took flight in the ‘90s, the producer, songwriter, rapper, label executive and head of Combs Enterprises, has scooped three Grammy Awards, won ASCAP’s “songwriter of the year,”  and collaborated with a host of hitmakers, including Mary J. Blige, The Notorious B.I.G., Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, Boyz II Men, Britney Spears and Kanye West, among others.

He’s not just a hitmaker. Diddy was in the news recently with the announcement of the birth of his seventh child.

13 Dec 2022

The Voice Crowns Season 22 Champion

After months of thrills, and near spills (certainly for Morgan Myles), America has chosen Bryce Leatherwood as the winner of The Voice 2022.

The country singer was guided throughout by Blake Shelton, and hadn’t hit a bum note during his ride.

Based in Statesboro, Georgia, the 22-year-old singer gives Shelton a record ninth victory. Shelton will get a chance to reach double figures in the win column before he steps away from the show at the end of the 23rd season.

Earlier, during the first part of NBC’s two-day finale, Leatherwood impressed with covers of Travis Tritt’s “T-R-O-U-B-L-E” and Keith Whitley’s “Don’t Close Your Eyes”.

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He wasn’t done there. During the finale, Shelton joined forces with his protégé for a performance of his 2011 hit “Hillbilly Bone”.

In the closing moments, Leatherwood out-pointed fellow Team Blake singers and Bodie, Team Camila Cabello’s Morgan Myles (Team Blake’s Brayden Lape and Team Legend’s Omar Jose Cardona were eliminated in the closing stages).

For Leatherwood, who is blessed with a name that resonates with country music, Christmas arrives early. His victory spoils include a recording contract with Universal Music Group and $100,000 in cash.

Prior to the nail-biting conclusion, The Voice finale also featured performances by Kane Brown, Kelly Clarkson, Maluma OneRepublic, BRELAND and Adam Lambert, who debuted his cover of Duran Duran’s “Ordinary World.”

Watch the closing moments below.

13 Dec 2022

Megan Thee Stallion Delivers Tearful Testimony During Day 2 of Tory Lanez Trial: ‘I Wish He Had Just Shot & Killed Me’

Megan Thee Stallion appeared in Los Angeles court Tuesday (Dec. 13) on the second day of the closely-watched trial over whether Tory Lanez shot her in the foot on July 12, 2020.

The rapper was met with a legion of her supporters at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, several of whom held a big, black “WE STAND WITH MEGAN” banner during a rally that was organized by non-profit The Gathering of Justice in conjunction with multiple women’s and violence prevention organizations. The Grammy winner arrived at the courthouse wearing a blunt shoulder bob and bold purple suit — a fitting color choice that symbolizes awareness of domestic violence, especially against women.

Once on the stand, Stallion’s voice cracked after L.A. County Deputy District Attorney Kathy Ta, one of the prosecutors on the case, asked her if she knew the defendant Lanez (real name Daystar Peterson). “Yes…. We used to hang out all the time,” said Stallion (real name Megan Pete), before admitting the two had an “intimate” but not exclusive relationship.

Lanez, wearing a cream patterned suit and white turtleneck, listened intently throughout Stallion’s testimony. He faces three felony charges: assault with a semiautomatic firearm; carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle; and discharging a firearm with gross negligence, the latter of which was added to the list of charges ahead of the trial last week. If convicted on all three counts, Lanez faces 22 years in prison.

Ta went on to ask Stallion about her relationship with Kelsey Harris — whom the rapper identified as her “best friend since freshman year of college” who later became her assistant at the end of 2019 — before asking what transpired the night of July 11, 2020, when the two women, along with Stallion’s stylist EJ King, attended a pool party at Kylie Jenner‘s house. Stallion recalled the evening’s events in front of the packed gallery, where Desiree Perez, CEO of Stallion’s management company Roc Nation, sat next to activist Tamika Mallory. Lanez’s family was also present in the room.

“I just don’t feel good,” said Stallion, 27, when asked by prosecutors if she was “nervous” to testify. “I can’t believe I have to come up here and do this.”

During her time on the stand, the Traumazine MC shared her side of the story as prompted by prosecutors, recalling that she had texted Lanez to come to the “small” gathering at Jenner’s home, where the makeup mogul was joined by friends and her mother Kris Jenner’s boyfriend, Corey Gamble. By the time Lanez arrived at the residence, Stallion said she, Harris, Jenner and Lanez were the only people remaining, and the foursome hung out in the pool together. “My hair [wig] was starting to come off and I wanted to go,” said Stallion, noting that Lanez “had an attitude because he wasn’t ready to leave the party.” Ultimately, Stallion, Harris, Lanez and his security guard Jauquan Smith, who had driven him to Jenner’s house, left the party together.

Stallion said tension initially rose in the car when Lanez, 30, allegedly told her, “You need to stop lying to your friend” regarding their sexual relationship. Stallion, who said she knew Harris had a crush on the R&B singer, “didn’t want her to know I had dealt with him in any kind of way.” While she said Harris was angry after learning about the relationship, Lanez provoked the ire of both women when he called them “bi—es and h–s,” Stallion claimed. Growing frustrated, Stallion says she asked to be let out of the car on Sunset Boulevard but quickly realized she was “literally at the peak” of her career and only wearing a “thong [bikini]” in the middle of the “most famous” street in L.A. To presumably avoid drawing any unwanted attention, Stallion says she got back inside the car, only to ask to be let out again on a side street not too far from the first stop because she was “over it.”

“I started walking away and I hear Tory yell, ‘Dance, bi—!’” she tearfully recounted in front of the jury, adding that she saw Lanez pointing a gun at her. “I froze. I just felt shock. I felt hurt. I looked down at my feet and I see all of this blood,” she said before explaining that she fell to the ground and crawled to a nearby driveway. “Everything feels blurry,” she continued, before recalling that Harris and Lanez bumped into each other on their way over to her. “Tory was basically telling me I wasn’t sh–, and I said, ‘Actually, you ain’t sh–. This is where you at in your career. This is where you at with your music.’ And I feel like that really rubbed him the wrong way,” she claimed.

The magnitude of both rappers’ careers was a point of contention in the hearing. At one point, Ta asked if Stallion’s career at the time was “bigger” than Lanez’s and she answered “yes.” “I had just done a song with Beyoncé,” she told the jury excitedly, referring to the remix of “Savage,” which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 upon its arrival in April 2020, just two months shy of the shooting. Lanez visibly furrowed his eyebrows when she added, “He was just Tory Lanez,” but that the highly publicized incident “has gained him a lot of popularity.”

Between sobs, Stallion argued that “every man that’s in a position of power that’s in the music industry” didn’t want to believe her side of the story. “I’m a villain and he’s the victim,” she claimed. According to Stallion, that’s one of the reasons why, immediately after the incident, she told police officers that she cut her foot stepping on broken glass. It was only four days after the shooting, during a phone interview with Detective Ryan Stogner, that she alleged she had suffered a gunshot wound, she said. “This was the height of police brutality and George Floyd,” she testified, adding that she feared everyone would wind up dead if she told officers Lanez had shot her. “I didn’t want to see anybody die. I didn’t want to die.”

Stallion also tearfully admitted to initially not being honest about her intimate relationship with Lanez because “it’s disgusting at this point. How could I share my body with somebody who could shoot me?” She added that her current partner, fellow rapper Pardison Fontaine, is “embarrassed” over the continual coverage of Stallion and her previous entanglements. “I can’t even be happy….I wish he had just shot and killed me,” she continued.

The courtroom noticeably stiffened once Lanez’s lead attorney, George Mgdesyan, began interviewing Stallion as part of the cross-examination. After bringing up Stallion’s CBS Mornings interview with Gayle King from April 2022, during which the rapper claimed she did not have an intimate relationship with Lanez, Stallion admitted to the jury that she had lied on national television about the nature of their relationship. The defense also presented her with the police report from her initial interview with Detective Stogner on July 16, 2020, in an effort to refresh her memory that she had told the police “this wasn’t the first time” she had “backdoored” Harris.

“I’ve never been with anyone Kelsey’s been with,” she told Mgdesyan, contradicting the attorney’s opening statement from Monday when he argued Stallion had also been romantically involved with fellow rapper DaBaby and NBA player Ben Simmons right after Harris had dated both men.

While attempting to build a timeline of the July 12, 2020, incident, Stallion and Mgdesyan engaged in a heated exchange about what she remembered, including what time she and her group arrived and left Jenner’s house, the geographical location of where the shooting occurred and Lanez’s whereabouts in relation to the SUV when he shot her. When the defense asked if she didn’t remember what Lanez was wearing that night because she was intoxicated, Stallion shot back by saying she didn’t remember because the incident was now two years old.

Stallion and Mgdesyan talked over each other when the defense showed different photos of the bloody luggage and Louis Vuitton bag from the back seat of the SUV, where Stallion and Harris were allegedly sitting right after the shooting took place. When Mgdesyan asked Stallion if the black Louis Vuitton bag was hers or if she owned one similar to it, she simply replied, “I have a lot of bags,” leading the jury and gallery to chuckle amongst themselves in a brief moment of levity.

The mood quickly tensed again when Mgdesyan again asked Stallion why she didn’t tell the officers at the hospital that she had been shot. “Snitching is frowned upon in the hip-hop community,” Stallion replied. That led the defense to swiftly quote a snippet of her Instagram Live video from Aug. 20, 2020, when the “WAP” rapper named Lanez as her alleged shooter publicly for the first time. The Houston-bred artist looked visibly shocked when Mgdesyan said aloud, “But I’m not finna let y’all keep playing in my face, and I’m not finna let this n—a keep playing in my face, either.” Mgdesyan is not Black and recited the uncensored version of the N-word, leading Stallion to request that he repeat the full line. Upon doing so, Mgdesyan again used the uncensored version of the word.

Lanez straightened his suit jacket and seemed pressed when the majority of Stallion’s seven-minute IG Live was played from this YouTube video, in which Stallion is seen telling nearly 90,000 live viewers, “Yes, this n—a Tory shot me. You shot me! And you got your publicists and your people going to these blogs, lying and sh–. Stop lying! Why lie? I don’t understand. I tried to keep the situation off the internet, but you dragging it! You really f—ing dragging it!”

Stallion grew upset again during the redirect examination, wiping her nose and unable to hold back tears when describing how the alleged shooting has impacted her life and career in the two years since. “People don’t even want to touch me,” she wept, adding that her peers in the music industry viewed Stallion — a moniker suggesting a robust horse — like a “sick bird.” Her desolation grew more apparent while identifying various social media posts that she’s seen in the aftermath of the incident, including one that read, “Megan Needs To Be Shot and Killed.”

Coming forward with who allegedly shot her, Stallion testified, has ultimately caused her to “lose my confidence, lose my friends, lose myself. Damn, maybe I should be dead,” she cried.

The trial will resume Wednesday (Dec. 14).