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Cassie has issued a statement in response to the outpouring of support she’s received following the release of the video of her then-boyfriend Diddy physically assaulting her at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
The “Me & U” singer hadn’t spoken out since CNN posted the footage on May 17, with only her attorneys issuing statements. That changed on Thursday morning (May 23) when she addressed the situation and thanked those who have supported her.
“Thank you for all of the love and support from my family, friends, strangers and those have yet to meet. The outpouring of love has created a place for my younger self to settle and feel safe now, but this is only the beginning. Domestic Violence is THE issue. It broke me down to someone I never thought I would become. With a lot of hard work, I am better today, but I will always be recovering from my past,” she wrote on Instagram, making no mention of Diddy by name.
“Thank you to everyone that has taken the time to take this matter seriously. My only ask is that EVERYONE open your heart to believing victims the first time. It takes a lot of heart to tell the truth out of a situation that you were powerless in.”
Cassie continued: “I offer my hand to those that are still living in fear. Reach out to your people, don’t cut them off. No one should carry this weight alone. This healing journey is never ending, but this support means everything to me. Thank you. Love Always, Cassie.”
Kelly Rowland, Chloe Bailey, Lala Anthony, Taraji P. Henson and more showered Cassie with love and commended her bravery in her IG comment section.
In the footage dated March 5, 2016, and released by CNN, Diddy is seen striking Cassie at an elevator bank of a Los Angeles hotel and dragging her through the hallway after kicking her.
“The gut-wrenching video has only further confirmed the disturbing and predatory behavior of Mr. Combs,” said Ventura’s attorney, Douglas Wigdor, in a statement to Billboard at the time. “Words cannot express the courage and fortitude that Ms. Ventura has shown in coming forward to bring this to light.”
Diddy issued an apology on Sunday (May 17), saying his actions in the video were “inexcusable,” and added he was “disgusted” with his behavior.
“It’s so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life, but sometimes you got to do that,” Diddy said in the video posted to Instagram. “I was f–ked up. I mean, I hit rock bottom. But I make no excuses. My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I’m disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it, I’m disgusted now.”
Cassie and Diddy met in 2005 and dated on-and-off for a decade before splitting for good in 2018. Ventura filed a lawsuit against Diddy in Manhattan federal court in November 2023, alleging rape, sexual assault, physical abuse and more.
The two parties settled the dispute less than 24 hours later. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. “I have decided to resolve this matter amicably on terms that I have some level of control,” Ventura said in a statement issued by her attorney at the time. “I want to thank my family, fans and lawyers for their unwavering support.”
With additional sexual assault lawsuits piling up, Combs has continued to deny all allegations made against him. “Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged,” he said in a statement on Dec. 6. “I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.”
Read Cassie’s statement in full below.
Normani‘s fans have been waiting a long time for the former Fifth Harmony member’s debut album. And on Wednesday (May 22) the singer really gave them something to look forward to with the super sexed-up trailer for the project entitled “Dopamine (First Dose).”
The 1:52 clip kicks off with a set of massive doors opening up to reveal Normani sitting on a desk in a spare office. Wearing a second-skin leather catsuit as stock images of space 1960s space footage flashes by, she slips on a headset and purrs, “Hello, Hotline 159. Yes, here to satisfy your deepest, darkest, wildest desires. No rules, no restrictions, straight dopamine,” as a mysterious man in an old-school phone booth breathes heavily on the other side.
As the strains of her previously released collab with Gunna, “1:59,” bubbles up and she pops a red lollipop between her lips, the phone rings and footage from the pair’s video streams. Cut to ‘Mani giving an acrobatic lap dance in just a bra, underwear and tights, intercut with subtle shots of rockets taking off.
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The clip ends with the phone ringing again an a close-up of Normani’s face while the camera slowly pans out to reveals her entire naked body encased in silver paint as she teases another song from the collection, “Candy Paint.”
“Bank roll, thubmin’, baby you know how I’m comin’/ Booty on bubonic, and I move it how I want it/ Big girl s–t, baby I don’t do no runnin’/ I can make it boom-boom clap, like I’m drummin’,” she sings as the camera pans out to reveal her stride a provocatively shaped silver rocket, which she proceeds to twerk atop.
Normani’s debut album, Dopamine, is due out on June 14. Its release comes after the singer has dropped a series of singles since leaving 5H in 2018, including her Billboard Hot 100 No. 9-charting solo debut collab with Khalid, “Love Lies,” as well as the No. 7 2019 collab with Sam Smith, “Dancing With a Stranger.” That same year she unleashed the ear worm single “Motivation” and the Charlie’s Angels soundtrack song “Bad To You” with Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj, followed by tracks with Megan Thee Stallion (2020’s “Diamonds”), Cardi B (2021’s “Wild Side”) and Calvin Harris (2022’s “New to You” with Tinashe and Offset).
Now, though, it is her time. As she recently told ELLE magazine about the LP that she thinks is the truest “representation of my resilience,” she promised myself, ‘If God gives me another opportunity to do things in my own way, I’m not going to take that for granted,’” she said of the collection that mixes uptempo dance songs with others that dig into her struggles during and after 5H’s split. “I think that there’s a false narrative that because of how long this process has taken, that means I don’t care, or that means I’m more interested in doing other things than putting this body of work out. Nobody wants this project to come out more than me. I think that at the end of the day, if I stand behind this wholeheartedly, it doesn’t matter what the world thinks.”
Watch the “Dopamine (First Dose)” teaser below.
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Don Toliver announced on Wednesday (May 22) that he’ll release his fourth studio album Hardstone Psycho on June 14. He also released the third single from the album, “Attitude” featuring Charlie Wilson and Cash Cobain, along with the official music video, which maintains the same leather jacket-wearing biker gang aesthetic from his previous visuals and […]
PinkPantheress wrapped up her solo headlining tour to close out April, and she’s got new music on the way before hopping on as a supporting act on Olivia Rodrigo’s arena trek this summer. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The bedroom pop princess surprised fans on Wednesday […]
Sexyy Red continues her dominance over the pop culture landscape. Over the weekend, she linked with Lana Del Rey at Hangout Festival in Alabama, and TikToker Young Mantis recently mocked up a prank Skee-Yee Shrimp promotion to help get Red Lobster out of bankruptcy. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, […]
Charlamagne Tha God’s Get Honest or Die Lying book tour stopped by The View on Wednesday (May 23). While in conversation about the healing that needs to happen in hip-hop and for him personally, The Breakfast Club co-host was asked about Diddy’s sexual misconduct allegations and the recently-published footage of him assaulting Cassie. Charlamagne told […]
Sexyy Red and Lana Del Rey are the duo we didn’t know we needed. The two artists hung out together at Hangout Festival in Gulf Shores, Ala., over the weekend, and Sexyy has the moment on camera. The “Get It Sexyy” MC posted an Instagram video Tuesday (May 21) of her and Lana twerking to […]
It’s a balmy late April day on the Brooklyn campus at Long Island University during the week before finals, and Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment students are presenting songs they recorded throughout the semester.
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Students vulnerably pressed play on their creations, ranging from a grungy rock backdrop to a rap song with Playboi Carti-esque ad-libs and an airy R&B singer, all surrounding the socially conscious theme of the assignment weaving the tracks together.
The songs will be packaged as part of an EP crafted by each student for their songwriting class final project — which definitely beats penning an eight-page research paper or completing a 50-question multiple choice test on a Scantron.
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“[There’s] opportunity here for them to look at contemporary popular music as an artform worth studying,” Dr. Carrie Erving – a professor at the Roc Nation school – explains to Billboard. “That is very much worth [it]. It’s still pretty rare. Compared to a lot of programs, it’s more difficult to find.”
One of the school’s pillars is a focus on the practical rather than the theoretical in the ever-changing music industry to properly arm students with the skill sets needed to hit the ground running and thrive. Roc Nation School Dean Tressa Cunningham was approached about an idea of brokering a partnership between Roc Nation and LIU in 2020 — and the team navigated the turbulence and uncertainty brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic to launch the Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment in the fall of 2021.
The school boasts about 300 students, in six different bachelor of arts programs (three from music side: applied music, vocal performance and music technology, entrepreneurship and production). Around 52 percent of those students are from New York state, while there’s a balance of kids coming in from across the country to see what the Roc has to offer.
Cunningham made the Roc Nation School a superstar acquisition when she recruited Jay-Z’s longtime engineer, Gimel “Young Guru” Keaton, into the fold. The Grammy-winning engineer came on board in June 2022 and he serves as the Director of the Music Technology, Entrepreneurship & Production program.
“I thought it was a really good chance for me to help design the curriculum. We pride ourselves on being current and up-to-date,” Young Guru explains to Billboard. “That’s something I love about where my industry is. It consistently updates and you have to stay up with the times. Our goal is to graduate students and have them be successful. There’s so many examples of people that are successful who don’t just look at wanting to be No. 1 on Billboard.”
Tuition currently stands at $32,000, but 25 percent of incoming freshmen at the Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment are granted Hope Scholarships, which allows them to explore a tuition-free education. Additionally, Tressa Cunningham relays that 99 percent of the student body in the program receives some form of financial aid.
The Roc Nation School of Music, Entertainment & Sports
Young Guru hopes to add a masters of arts degree in the near future, as the sports program already offers a masters in sports management. He’s also helping oversee the state-of-the-art Pro Studio being built, which is on pace to be finished for student use this fall.
It’s a “full-circle moment” for Guru with Dave Malekpour (Pro Audio Design) integrating the audio, who also designed NYC’s famed Baseline Studios where Gu essentially lived and made recording history. The Dolby Atmos enabled studio comes equipped with four isolation booths, a control room and a live room.
Ashlynn Guions is a 21-year-old junior student at Long Island University Brooklyn. Her mom actually told her to look into the Roc Nation School of Music after hearing a radio ad that piqued her interest. “I didn’t see a program like this, which I think led me to it,” she tells Billboard in conversation on campus. “Being surrounded by like-minded students in the same space, but also so diverse and different, I don’t think I can find that anywhere else.”
Guions will be part of the Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment’s inaugural graduating class (about 100 students) when she receives her diploma in the spring of 2025, which will look to shape the future of the music industry. As a Music Technology, Entrepreneurship & Production major, she’s an aspiring choreographer/creative director inspired by the likes of Charm La’Donna and Parris Goebel, who hopes to one day find a career in the live performance realm.
Guions loves the sense of community in the program on the campus sandwiched between Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene. She recalls a “big cypher” on the first night of college that set the tone for the next three years. “The fact that everybody has different but niche talents is so cool,” she muses.
She found a lane in performance and currently works at the Brooklyn Paramount theater in backstage concert design, which sits adjacent to the LIU Brooklyn campus. While Guions and the rest of her peers are much more confident in their abilities these days, that wasn’t always the case.
The 21-year-old recalls a lack of confidence in students exploring their potential career aspirations early on, whether that be as producers or singers, and how now their mentality has done a complete 180 with a strong belief in themselves and their crafts.
“Coming in, I feel like a lot of us would over-humble ourselves,” she admits. “We wouldn’t say, ‘I’m an artist. Oh, I’m a creative. I’m trying to do this.’ [Now] coming into junior year, everybody was like, ‘This is what I do, come to my performance!’ There’s a confidence and excitement to graduate. [To] get out and do our thing. It’s super cool to see everyone confident in what they’re doing now.”
She continues: “It’s reflecting back to when we first came in, everyone was like, ‘I rap a little. It might work out.’ Now people are like, ‘This is plan A.’ That’s the biggest difference I see from freshman year to now.”
Cardi B surprised fans with a guest appearance at Tuesday night’s (May 21) Hot Girl Summer Tour stop inside the World’s Most Famous Arena with Megan Thee Stallion, who was making her Madison Square Garden headlining debut.
The Bronx bombshell drew a raucous ovation from the sold-out Hot Girl Summer Tour crowd after being brought out by Meg.
Rocking a black corset and matching thigh-high leather boots, Cardi powered through audio issues as she kept up with the beat while performing her Hot 100-topping raunchy anthem “WAP,” as well as “Bongos,” with Megan.
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Cardi B then moved into her fan-favorite assist on the “Tomorrow 2” remix as GloRilla — who’s serving as the tour’s opener — returned to the stage.
There was one more surprise left as Megan got Glo to spill the beans about Cardi hopping on the remix to their “Wanna Be” collaboration. No release date was given just yet, though as “Wanna Be” sits at No. 47 on the Hot 100.
The Hot Girl Summer Tour has only just begun, with dates for the rest of May including Philly, Boston, Baltimore, Memphis and more.
As for Cardi B, it remains to be seen if an album is still in the works for later this year. Last week, much to the disappointment of the Bardi Gang, she tweeted-and-deleted a post about how there would be no sophomore LP in 2024. “Anyway NO album this year I don’t care I’m relaxing this year .. Dropping these features I already committed to and traveling and enjoying my summer,” she wrote.
However, a rep for Cardi then confirmed that an album was still on track for ’24 as part of her Rolling Stone cover story. In the feature, Cardi B declared her belief that she paved the way for the next generation of lady MCs.
“These labels was not believing in repping new rap artists,” she told Rolling Stone. “People from every single label have f–king told me this s–t in my face. They started signing new female rappers after I got signed.”
Watch clips of Cardi performing with Meg during the Madison Square Garden show:
True to its name, Gunna’s new album One of Wun debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The set launches atop the list dated May 25 with 91,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the tracking week of May 10-16, according to Luminate.
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Streaming contributes 90,000 units of One of Wun’s 91,000 start, a figure equal to 118.5 million official on-demand U.S. audio and video streams of the album’s songs. The remaining 1,000 units derive from a mix of traditional album sales and song sales of the album’s cuts. (One unit equals the following levels of consumption: one album sale, 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams for a song on the album.)
With his new champ, Gunna picks up his fifth No. 1 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. His last five projects have all ruled the ranking; the streak began with 2019’s Drip or Drown 2 and continued with Wunna (2020), DS4Ever (2022) and A Gift & a Curse (2023). All reigned for one week except DS4Ever, which posted five frames in the top slot.
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Elsewhere, One of Wun starts at No. 1 on the Top Rap Albums chart, where it likewise becomes Gunna’s fifth leader. It also opens at No. 2 on the all-genre Billboard 200 and gives its creator his sixth top 10 effort.
Millions of streams for One of Wun result in 13 of its tracks appearing on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, with the title cut’s entrance at No. 10 leading the pack. It secures Gunna’s 16th visit to the top tier and was the album’s most streamed track during its debut week, with 13.9 million official clicks.
Here’s a full review of Gunna’s One of Wun placements on this week’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. As 11 cuts earn their debuts, two previous releases – “Whatsapp (Wassam)” and the Offset-assisted “Prada Dem” — enjoy a respective second and seventh week on the list. The former climbs 28-24 for a new peak, while the latter rebounds 34-23, after having reached a No. 20 best.
No. 10, “One of Wun”
No. 21, “On One Tonight”
No. 23, “Prada Dem,” featuring Offset
No. 24, “Whatsapp (Wassam)”
No. 26, “Neck on a Yacht”
No. 27, “Hakuna Matata”
No. 29, “Collage”
No. 33, “Back in the A”
No. 35, “Treesh”
No. 37, “Still Prevail”
No. 39, “Trio”
No. 43, “Blackjack”
No. 49, “Let It Breathe,” featuring Roddy Ricch