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Mystikal was arrested in July of 2022 on several serious charges, including first-degree rape, which carries a mandatory life sentence in Louisiana. This past Monday (May 17), a judge overseeing Mystikal’s case moved the trial to May 19 as the rapper continues to declare his innocence.
Mystikal, real name Michael Tyler, was first arrested on July 30, 2022, and booked at the Ascension Parish jail on charges of first-degree rape, simple robbery, damage to property, domestic abuse battery, strangulation, false imprisonment, and four counts of drug possession.
Local outlet KLFY reports that this past Monday, it was thought that Tyler, 54, would face his plea deadline and enter the record for the court. However, the judge decided to move the case to next month. Despite authorities saying that the victim appeared to have suffered physical harm and anguish, Mystikal pleaded not guilty to the bevy of charges.
As the outlet noted, Tyler has faced sexual assault charges in the past, going way back to 2003 when the Louisiana rapper pleaded guilty to sexual battery and did six years behind bars. In 2016, Tyler was charged with kidnapping and sexual assault but the case was dropped.
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Universal Music Group is asking a federal judge to halt all discovery in Drake’s defamation lawsuit over Kendrick Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us,” arguing that the star is unfairly demanding “highly commercially sensitive documents” – including Lamar’s record deal.
A day after moving to dismiss the lawsuit, UMG followed up Tuesday by asking the judge to pause discovery until he rules on that motion. That ruling is likely to end the entire case, UMG argued, and the label should not face costly demands for documents that will ultimately “be rendered moot.”
Such a delay is particularly necessary, UMG said, because Drake’s lawyers are already demanding “broad discovery” requests that impose an “undue burden” on the company. Those asks have allegedly ranged from Interscope boss John Janick’s pay structure to Lamar’s record deal.
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“Drake’s requests…seek production of confidential, proprietary, and highly commercially sensitive documents — including all contracts between UMG and Kendrick Lamar,” the label writes. “Proceeding with discovery while the motion is pending would waste the parties’ resources and would constitute an undue burden on defendant.”
In a statement Wednesday, Drake’s attorney Michael J. Gottlieb said it was “unsurprising” that UMG was “desperate” to avoid handing over evidence: “This motion is a ploy to delay producing documents and communications that UMG hopes to keep hidden and buried. If UMG has nothing to hide, it should not have an issue with discovery.”
UMG did not immediately return a request for comment.
Lamar released “Not Like Us” last May amid a high-profile beef with Drake that saw the two stars drop a series of bruising diss tracks. The song, a knockout punch that blasted Drake as a “certified pedophile” over an infectious beat, eventually became a chart-topping hit in its own right and was the centerpiece of Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show.
In January, Drake took the unusual step of suing UMG over the song, claiming the label had defamed him by boosting the track’s popularity. The lawsuit, which doesn’t name Lamar himself as a defendant, alleges that UMG “waged a campaign” against its own artist to spread a “malicious narrative” about pedophilia that it knew to be false.
UMG moved to dismiss the case on Monday, arguing not only that Drake’s allegations against the company were clearly “meritless,” but that the star filed his case simply because he had been publicly embarrassed: “Instead of accepting the loss like the unbothered rap artist he often claims to be, he has sued his own record label in a misguided attempt to salve his wounds.”
In Tuesday’s filing, UMG argued that it was highly likely to succeed on those claims. And it warned that the daunting cost of defending against meritless defamation cases can be abused by those that want to squelch free speech.
“Critically, courts in this District have emphasized that defamation defendants must be protected from unnecessary discovery to safeguard First Amendment protections,” the company’s lawyers write. “A stay is therefore particularly warranted here given the untenability of Drake’s defamation claim and the First Amendment rights at issue.”
The two sides have already sparred over discovery once before. In a court filing last month, Drake’s lawyers said UMG was unfairly seeking to delay the case as their client continued to be defamed — and they cited Lamar’s halftime show as evidence of such ongoing harm. A judge eventually sided with Drake over that procedural issue, setting the stage for UMG’s motion on Tuesday.
After publicly hard-launching her romantic relationship, Lucy Dacus is taking a moment to acknowledge her recent friendship with pop star Chappell Roan.
In a new interview with People, Dacus revealed that she and the “Pink Pony Club” singer have become friends over the course of the last year, saying that she is “really cherishing” her “new friendship” with the pop phenom.
Pointing to a recent example of that new rapport, Dacus said that Roan was there to support her when she was having a rough time recently. “I had kind of a bad week a couple of weeks back, where putting out music just feels worse, and it made me wonder if I should just skip to the part of my life where I live off the land and have a job that isn’t my name,” she said. “And [Chappell] was just like, ‘No, what you make is important and makes a lot of people feel less lonely.’”
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That relationship has proven to be a two-way street. When Roan was feeling overwhelmed with her sudden, meteoric rise to international recognition last year, the singer told Rolling Stone that Dacus and her Boygenius bandmates Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker were there to talk her through the experience of sudden fame, and how bad fan interactions can often feel “abusive and violent.”
Dacus recalled that same instance in her new interview, explaining that all three members of her rock supergroup know what it’s like to go from cult following to sudden, headline-making success. “When she was feeling spread really thin, all of us in Boygenius were encouraging her and telling her that it’ll die down,” she said. “It is just a really spinny trip when everybody has something to say about you.”
The news comes during a big week for Dacus. Along with continuing to promote her fourth studio album, Forever Is a Feeling (out March 28), the “Talk” singer also confirmed that she is in a relationship with Boygenius bandmate Baker in an interview with The New Yorker. “I want to protect what is precious in my life, but also to be honest, and make art that’s true,” Dacus said of her decision to open up about her relationship. “I think maybe a part of it is just trusting that [my relationship]’s not at risk.”
Roan, meanwhile, is fresh off the release of her country anthem “The Giver.” In a conversation on Amazon Music’s Country Heat Weekly, Roan said that her jump to the country genre was simply born out of a funny idea rather than a new direction for her music as a whole. “I’m not trying to convince a country crowd that they should listen to my music by baiting them with a country song,” she said. “I just think a lesbian country song is really funny, so I wrote that.”
Jelly Roll and Bunnie XO are currently in the midst of a challenging IVF journey, but it has its perks.
In a hilarious video shared by the Dumb Blonde podcaster on TikTok Tuesday (March 18), she comes down off of anesthesia following a fertility treatment. “Not gonna lie, I love propofol,” she says drowsily, lying back in a hospital bed as a healthcare professional tends to her. “That’s good s–t.”
“I’m f–king high as hell,” Bunnie continues in the clip, verbalizing her stream of consciousness. “I’m so thankful, praise Jesus … Did I poop on the doctor?”
For the record, the entrepreneur did not poop on the doctor, as the caregiver in the room quickly assured her.
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As good of a time as she appeared to have this time around while sedated, Bunnie shared in the comments that she had been “so stressed” about having to undergo anesthesia leading up to the procedure. “Mrs. Bunnie doing what she can for babies regardless of being terrified of anesthesia!” one fan had written, to which she replied, “I didn’t even sleep last night I was so stressed.”
The “Son of a Sinner” singer and Bunnie first revealed that they were trying to welcome children through in vitro fertilization in June last year. The two stars are already parents to 16-year-old Bailee, whom Jelly welcomed in a previous relationship but now shares full custody of with Bunnie. Jelly also has a son, Noah, from a previous relationship.
“My wife and I are talking about having a baby,” the country star said at the time on the Bussin’ With the Boys podcast, after which Bunnie clarified on Instagram, “We had planned on doing this privately, but decided our IVF journey needed to be shared because we’ve always been so open. And w/ all odds stacked against us, it’s already been hard and we have only just begun. We have been meeting with IVF doctors & exploring all our options to add to our family.”
Jelly is currently on tour in support of his Billboard 200-topping album Beautifully Broken. In April, he’ll kick off his joint stadium trek in North America with Post Malone.
While he’s on the road, Bunnie has seemingly been holding down the fort at home while continuing with her IVF treatments. In another TikTok shared a few days prior to the video about her latest clinic visit, she sits in a chair and acts out calling her husband on the phone, hilariously mouthing along to an audio that says, “I’m f–king cleaning, like I’m always doing.”
“When my husby is working hard on tour in another country & I’m at home baking eggs in my ovaries chilling by the pool,” she captioned the clip.
See Bunnie’s post-anesthesia TikTok below.
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Lil Durk just shook up the rap game, announcing his new album “Deep Thoughts” dropping March 28th.
This marks Smurk’s first project in over three years, following his 2022 album “7220”, which gave fans bangers like “AHHH HA,” “What Happened to Virgil,” and “Petty Too.” The streets been waiting, and now Durk is finally back.
Unfortunately, A LOT has happened since his last drop. Durk got caught up in some heavy legal drama after being hit with Murder for Hire charges. Word is, he and his team were tied to the 2022 killing of Quando Rondo’s cousin allegedly in retaliation for King Von’s death. Von. “T Roy” aka King Von who was signed to Durk’s OTF label, was shot and killed in 2020 by Quando’s homie, Lul Timm. Ever since, there’s been tension in the streets, and Durk found himself in the middle of it all.
Despite the drama, Smurk ain’t lost a step. He’s one of the realest voices in the game, and “Deep Thoughts” is expected to be his most personal project yet. Fans are ready for that pain music, those street anthems, and the real-life stories only Durkio can tell. After everything he’s been through, this album might just be his biggest moment yet. Many of his female fans are asking for an “India Part 4” which would continue the series of Durk loving on his lady. Which many have made it the soundtrack to their love lives.
It would have been a trio for the ages. According to a new interview with Barbra Streisand‘s A&R rep Jay Landers, when the singer was working on her 1993 Back to Broadway album, in the midst of recording some of the Great White Way’s most beloved tunes by Oscar Hammerstein, Richard Rodgers, Stephen Sondheim, Kurt Weill, Leonard Bernstein and Frank Loesser, someone came up with the brilliant idea to cover the Annie Get Your Gun classic “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better” as a duet with Madonna and another very special guest.
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“David Foster created a demo and we said, ‘well, who could we do this with?’” Landers said. “And we chose Madonna and… Bette [Midler]. So it was going to be the three of them.” As envisioned at the time, the triple-headed vocal extravaganza would then end with all three women in the lady’s room, with Madonna and Bette kvetching, “‘God, she’s such a b–ch! She’s so controlling’ and this and that and the other thing and blah, blah, blah. And then we hear another stall open and, ‘Ladies! I’m in here!’ And that’s how the song was going to end,” he said.
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Landers noted that Foster had cooked up a “brilliant” arrangement for the trio that started off in a manner similar to the Irving Berlin-penned version we all know and love, in which Annie Oakley and Frank Butler engage in a playful musical game of one-upmanship; the original version appeared in the Ethel Merman/Ray Middleton 1946 cast recording for the show. But when it came to the Madonna section where she sings, “Anything you can sing, I can sing sweeter,” Landers said Foster dropped in a “Madonna disco beat.”
Similarly, when it came to Midler’s section, Foster slid in a “Wind Beneath My Wings”-style motif. “So it touched upon their sounds,” Landers explained. “Really clever.” Landers’ job was to wrangle all three women, who, amazingly, all agreed to do the session. That is, he lamented, until Madonna was unable to participate at the last minute for an undisclosed reason.
Watch Landers tell his musical fish-that-got-away story below.
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After making its premiere radio broadcast in 1925, Grand Ole Opry radio show and music venue has become a country music institution over the last 100 years.
And now, to celebrate the 100th anniversary, a new live TV special called Opry 100: A Live Celebration airs on NBC. It features performances by Amy Grant, Eric Church, Jelly Roll, The War and Treaty, Luke Combs, Kelsea Ballerini, Lainey Wilson, Brad Paisley and many others.
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When Does ‘Opry 100: A Live Celebration’ Start?
Opry 100: A Live Celebration airs starting on Wednesday (March 19) at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. The TV special broadcasts on NBC and livestreams on Peacock.
Where to Watch ‘Opry 100: A Live Celebration’ for Free
Cord-cutters have a few ways to watch Opry 100: A Live Celebration online, especially if you want to watch for free. Fubo and Hulu + Live TV both have free trials, so you can watch NBC for free.
Keep reading for more details on how to watch the TV special with Peacock, Fubo, Hulu + Live TV and other streamers.
How to Watch ‘Opry 100: A Live Celebration’ With Peacock
The TV special airs on NBC and streams the following day on Peacock for Premium or Premium Plus subscribers only. If you don’t subscribe to the streaming service, you can get access with a Peacock monthly subscription, which starts at $7.99 per month for the ad-supported plan, or $13.99 per month for the ad-free plan.
Along with Opry 100: A Live Celebration, you’ll get access to original programming, such as Love Island USA, Bel-Air, The Traitors and others; hit movies, including The Wild Robot, Monkey Man, Abigail, The Holdovers, Oppenheimer and others; live sports from NBC Sports; live news from NBC News; and more than 50 streaming channels.
How to Watch ‘Opry 100: A Live Celebration’ With Fubo
To watch Opry 100: A Live Celebration on NBC, Fubo starts at $54.99 for the first month, $84.99 per month afterwards (the streamer’s current deal) with nearly 230 channel — including local and cable — that are streamable on smart TVs, smartphones, tablets and on web browsers.
The service even gets you live access to local broadcast networks including Fox, CBS and ABC, while it also has dozens of cable networks, such as ESPN, Bravo, CMT, ID, TV Land, VH1, TLC, E!, FS1, MTV, FX, Ion, OWN, Paramount Network and much more.
How to Watch ‘Opry 100: A Live Celebration’ With Hulu + Live TV
Opry 100: A Live Celebration on NBC is available to watch with Hulu + Live TV too. Prices for the cable alternative start at $82.99 per month, while each plan comes with Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+ at no additional cost.
Hulu + Live TV might be best for those who want all of these streaming services together in one bundle. It also features many other networks, including ABC, Hallmark Channel, BET, CMT, Disney Channel, NBC, Fox Sports and more.
How to Watch ‘Opry 100: A Live Celebration’ With DirecTV Stream
A subscription to DirecTV Stream — which comes with NBC for Opry 100: A Live Celebration — gets you access to live TV, local and cable channels, starting at $74.99 per month.
You can watch local networks such as CBS, ABC, Fox and PBS, while you can also watch many cable networks, including FS1, Lifetime, FX, AMC, A&E, Bravo, BET, MTV, Paramount Network, Cartoon Network, VH1, Fuse, CNN, Food Network, CNBC and many others.
Opry 100: A Live Celebration is available to watch on NBC via Fubo or Hulu + Live TV, on Wednesday (March 19) with a start time of 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. The TV special is streamable on Peacock.
Want more? For more product recommendations, check out our roundups of the best Xbox deals, studio headphones and Nintendo Switch accessories.
Miley Cyrus has lost her initial bid to dismiss a copyright case claiming her chart-topping “Flowers” ripped off the Bruno Mars song “When I Was Your Man,” allowing the high-profile lawsuit to proceed toward a trial.
Seeking to end the case at the outset, attorneys for Cyrus had argued that the plaintiff who filed the lawsuit lacked the legal “standing” to pursue it. The case was filed not by Mars himself, but a financial entity called Tempo Music Investments that bought the rights of his co-writer Philip Lawrence.
But in a ruling issued Tuesday, a Los Angeles federal judge rejected that argument, calling it “incorrect” and a “misunderstanding” of existing legal precedents.
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“Tempo now steps into Lawrence’s shoes and is a co‐owner of the exclusive rights of the copyright,” Judge Dean D. Pregerson wrote. “Because Lawrence as a co‐owner could sue for infringement, Tempo as co‐owner, in lieu of Lawrence, can sue for infringement without joining the other co‐owners of the copyright.”
Attorneys for Cyrus called Tempo’s partial ownership a “fatal and incurable defect in plaintiff’s claim,” but Judge Pregerson ruled that endorsing the star’s argument would be a radical shift in the legal landscape and have a profound economic and creative impact.
“Such a limitation would diminish the value of jointly owned copyrights, because buyers would be less interested in purchasing a copyright that they cannot enforce, thereby disincentivizing co‐authorship and collaboration in works,” the judge wrote. “This would undermine Congress’s intent.”
In rejecting it, the judge took Miley’s argument to its rational endpoint: “If, as songwriter defendants’ arguments seem to suggest, a co‐owner’s right to sue for infringement is lost upon transfer, then if all original co‐authors transferred their interest, the copyright could never be enforced.”
Tuesday’s ruling is only an initial decision, and does not mean that Tempo will win its case against Cyrus. As it moves ahead, her attorneys will pivot to more substantive arguments – that her song simply did not infringe the Mars hit because they share only “unprotected ideas and musical building blocks.”
Attorneys for both sides did not immediately return requests for comment on Tuesday.
“Flowers,” which spent eight weeks atop the Hot 100, has been linked to “Your Man” since it was released in January 2023. Many fans immediately saw it as an “answer song,” with lyrics that clearly referenced Mars’ song. The reason, according to internet sleuths, was that “Your Man” was a favorite of Cyrus’ ex-husband Liam Hemsworth — and her allusions were a nod to their divorce.
When “Flowers” was first released, legal experts told Billboard that Cyrus was likely not violating copyrights simply by using similar lyrics to fire back at the earlier song — a time-honored music industry tradition utilized by songs ranging from Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” to countless rap diss records.
But Tempo sued in September, claiming “Flowers” had lifted numerous elements beyond the clap-back lyrics, including “melodic and harmonic material,” “pitch ending pattern,” and “bass-line structure.” Tempo, which had purchased a fractional share in the song from co-writer Lawrence, argued it was “undeniable” that Cyrus’ hit “would not exist” if not for “Your Man.”
In her motion to dismiss the case, attorneys for Miley said that the total lack of involvement from Mars and the song’s two other co-writers was not some procedural quirk in the case, but rather a fatal flaw: “Without the consent of the other owners, a grant of rights from just one co-owner does not confer standing.”
LONDON — Global music sales grew for the tenth consecutive year in 2024 but the risk of generative AI systems using copyright-protected music to freely train their systems poses “a very real and present threat” to the future of the industry, warn record executives.
Total recorded music revenues climbed to $29.6 billion in 2024, a rise of 4.8% on the previous year, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s (IFPI) Global Music Report 2025, published Wednesday (Mar. 19).
Driving the growth was a strong increase in paid streaming subscription revenue, which rose 9.5% to $15.2 billion, while total streaming revenues, comprising of paid subscription and advertising-supported tiers, rose 7.3% year-on-year to $20.4 billion, representing 69% of recorded music sales worldwide.
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Although last year’s growth rate is roughly half that of 2023 (when revenues rose by just over 10%) total music sales still reached the highest level since 1999 — when IFPI first started compiling global music revenues and sales totaled $22.2 billion — on an absolute dollar basis, not accounting for inflation. Piracy and declining physical sales saw the market bottom out at $13 billion in 2014.
The subsequent recovery and decade-long growth of the global record industry is now, however, being placed in jeopardy by tech companies who want to rollback copyright protections to enable them to use music works without a license for training AI systems, caution creators and executives. Earlier this week, Paul McCartney and Paul Simon were among 400 musicians, filmmakers, writers and actors who signed an open letter to the Trump administration opposing submissions from tech companies OpenAI, Anthropic and Google who want to use copyrighted works without permission from rights holders.
In the United Kingdom, the government is consulting on proposed changes to copyright law that, if implemented, would allow AI developers to freely use creators’ content for training purposes, unless rights holders “opt out.”
“We are asking policymakers to protect music and artistry,” said IFPI CEO Victoria Oakley in a statement accompanying the Global Music Report. “We must harness the potential of AI to support and amplify human creativity, not to replace it.”
“If those [tech companies] arguing for these exceptions get their way, they can… put the existing [digital music services] out of business while paying artists and songwriters nothing. That is an incredible market distortion,” said Dennis Kooker, president of global digital business at Sony Music Entertainment, at the report launch in London.
Breaking down 2024’s global music sales, users of paid music subscriptions grew to 752 million worldwide, says the London-based organization, a rise of over 10% on the previous year. Subscription streaming revenues now account for just over 50% of global music sales.
On the physical side of the business, an 18th consecutive year of vinyl sales growth (up 4.6%) was not enough to arrest a 3.1% slide in overall physical revenues, which fell to $4.8 billion. IFPI said the decrease was partially due to a fall in physical sales in Asia, which accounts for more than 45% of all physical revenues worldwide.
In terms of market share, physical accounted for just over 16% of the overall market last year, down from 18% in 2023.
Performance rights revenue climbed 5.9% to $2.9 billion, representing just under 10% of global revenues and marking the sector’s fourth successive year of growth. Sync income was flat with 2023 at $650 million, representing a 2.2% share of the market.
Taylor Swift was 2024’s biggest-selling global artist, ahead of Canadian rapper Drake and K-pop sensation SEVENTEEN, IFPI announced last month, marking the fifth time she that she has taken the global crown and third consecutive year. Benson Boone’s Beautiful Things was last year’s biggest-selling global single across all digital formats with 2.1 billion equivalent streams.
Mexico Breaks Into Global Top 10 Music Markets, Bumping Australia
In terms of world markets, IFPI said that music revenues were up in every region and all but three of the 58 markets it tracks, with the U.S. retaining its long-held No. 1 position with music sales growing 2.2% year-on-year. By comparison, the U.S. recorded music market grew by 7.2% in 2023 and 4.8% the year prior.
The world’s second largest music market, Japan, was flat year-on-year due to a decline in physical sales, reports IFPI. The third and fourth-biggest markets for recorded music remain the United Kingdom (+4.9%) and Germany (+4.1%), respectively. China, ranked No. 5 globally, grew music sales by 9.6%. (IFPI’s free-to-access report does not provide market-by-market revenue breakdowns).
The rest of the top 10 is made up of France (+7.5%), South Korea (-5.7%), Canada (+1.5%), Brazil (+21.7%, the fastest growing top 10 market) and Mexico, which increased revenues by 15.6% to overtake Australia as the tenth largest global recorded music market.
Those cross-market gains are mirrored on a regional basis with revenues from the U.S. and Canada region up 2.1% and together representing the greatest share of global music sales at just over 40%.
Latin America — where streaming makes up almost 88% of the recorded music market — saw growth of 22.5%, once again far outpacing the global growth rate and marking the region’s 15th consecutive year of revenue growth.
Europe remains the second-biggest region for music sales, accounting for more than a quarter (29.5%) of global revenues and growing 8.3% year-on-year. In third place is Asia, where overall revenues rose by just 1.3% compared to almost 15% in 2023 due to a 4.9% fall in physical sales.
The two fastest growing regions globally were Middle East and North Africa, where streaming holds a 99.5% share of the market and which saw music sales grow 22.8%, and Sub-Saharan Africa, which recorded a 22.6% rise in revenues to surpass $100 million for the first time.
South Africa remains the largest market in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, accounting for 75% of its revenues, following growth of 14.4%. Revenues in Australasia climbed 6.4% to $629 million with Australia and New Zealand increasing sales by 6.1% and 7.8% respectively.
(IFPI uses current exchange rates when compiling its Global Music Report, restating all historic local currency values on an annual basis. Market values therefore vary retrospectively as a result of foreign currency movements, says IFPI, which represents more than 8,000 record company members worldwide, including all three major labels, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group.)