T.I. Lands One More Billboard Top 10 With ‘Kill the King’

The cover art for T.I.’s “Kill the King,” which the Atlanta rapper has described as his final album. The project debuted at No. 10 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, giving him his 13th top-10 entry on the ranking.

T.I. is leaving the album business with one more Billboard top 10.
“Kill the King,” which the Atlanta rapper has repeatedly described as his final album, debuted at No. 10 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart dated July 11. It marks his 13th career top-10 entry on the chart.

The album earned 22,000 equivalent album units in the United States during the June 26-July 2 tracking period, according to Luminate. It also opened at No. 7 on Billboard’s Top Rap Albums chart and No. 30 on the Billboard 200.

Those numbers fall well short of the blockbuster launches T.I. delivered at his commercial peak, when “King,” “T.I. vs. T.I.P.” and “Paper Trail” each reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

But the latest debut carries a different kind of weight.

Released 25 years after “I’m Serious” introduced T.I. nationally, “Kill the King” extends a chart run that survived shifts from CDs to downloads to streaming — and from Atlanta fighting for rap-industry respect to becoming one of the genre’s dominant centers.

The 18-song album arrived June 26 through Grand Hustle and EMPIRE, nearly six years after 2020’s “The L.I.B.R.A.” It includes the Pharrell Williams-produced “Let Em Know,” which reached No. 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 4 on the Hot Rap Songs chart. The single also topped Billboard’s Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart in March.

“Let Em Know” became T.I.’s first top-40 Hot 100 entry since 2014, giving his farewell campaign a legitimate current hit rather than leaving it to depend entirely on nostalgia.

T.I., born Clifford Harris Jr., told People that he had already been living a largely retired life since the pandemic. He said he completed one last album because disappearing without formally closing that chapter would have felt unfinished.

“I’ve gotten everything I prayed for from the game,” he said.

The title completes an idea T.I. has carried for years.

After he began publicly calling himself the “King of the South,” Outkast’s Big Boi warned him that claiming the crown would place a target on his back. Big Boi compared the music business to chess, where the objective is to kill the king. T.I. said he knew then that the phrase would eventually become the title of his final album.

The crown once invited arguments that helped fuel T.I.’s ascent. During the 2000s, he helped move Atlanta trap music into the pop mainstream without sanding away its Southern identity. “Whatever You Like” and the Rihanna-assisted “Live Your Life” both reached No. 1 on the Hot 100, while “What You Know” earned him a Grammy Award and became one of the defining records of his career.

“Kill the King” does not recreate the enormous first-week totals of that era, nor does its No. 30 Billboard 200 opening suggest that it has. Its more meaningful achievement is continuity: another R&B/hip-hop top 10 for a rapper whose first album arrived before streaming, social media and Atlanta’s complete takeover of rap’s center of gravity.

T.I. may no longer be interested in defending the title that made him a target. Billboard’s latest chart still gives the King of the South one more number for the résumé.

Jay-Z Caps Three-Night Yankee Stadium Run With Beyoncé, Rihanna, Usher and More

Jay-Z performs Sunday during the “Extra Innings” finale of his three-night run at Yankee Stadium in New York. The show began shortly after midnight following a security breach that temporarily halted entry to the stadium. (Photo/Roc Nation via Instagram)

Jay-Z’s final Yankee Stadium concert began with locked gates and thousands of fans waiting outside. It ended shortly before 3 a.m. Monday with Beyoncé, Rihanna, Usher and collaborators from across his career helping him close a record-setting three-night run.

A security breach outside the Bronx ballpark forced officials to temporarily stop anyone from entering or leaving Sunday night. A police source told WABC that a large group pushed and shoved its way through security checkpoints, prompting a full lockdown while authorities regained control.

Gates began reopening around 10 p.m. under heightened security and what sources described as a slow, methodical screening process. The concert had been scheduled to begin at 8 p.m., but Jay-Z did not take the stage until about 12:20 a.m. No arrests were reported.

Jay-Z apologized after taking the stage and said he chose not to begin while so many people remained outside, fearing that starting the music could cause a dangerous rush toward the entrances.

@abc7ny There was chaos at Jay-Z's third and final Yankee Stadium concert after a security breach delayed the show. #nyc #jayz #jayzyankeestadium #yankeestadium #concert #entertainment #music ♬ original sound - ABC7NY

“I had to make sure everyone was OK,” he told the crowd.

The Yankees, Roc Nation and Live Nation later issued a joint statement thanking the New York Police Department and Yankee Stadium security personnel for putting attendee safety ahead of other considerations.

Once the show finally started, “Extra Innings” became the broadest of Jay-Z’s three Yankee Stadium concerts. Unlike the first two nights, which centered on specific albums, Sunday’s finale moved freely through his catalog and the relationships that have followed him from Brooklyn’s Marcy Projects to the top of the music business.

Teyana Taylor joined him for “Can’t Knock the Hustle,” the opening song from his 1996 debut album, “Reasonable Doubt.” Jermaine Dupri appeared for “Money Ain’t a Thang,” while Jeezy performed “Seen It All” and “Go Crazy.”

🎤The show must go on! Jay-Z explains the delay behind tonights show at Yankee Stadium - says there were 10,000 people outside and had to close the doors pic.twitter.com/eqIhYdoaIr

— HipHopKlipz36 (@hiphopklipz36) July 13, 2026

Usher joined Jay-Z for “Heart of the City (Ain’t No Love),” “Throwback” and “Part II (On the Run).” The-Dream appeared during “No Church in the Wild,” and Swizz Beatz accompanied Jay-Z through a stretch that included “On to the Next One.”

Rihanna delivered one of the night’s loudest moments when she emerged for “Run This Town,” then remained onstage for “Bitch Better Have My Money.” Pharrell Williams returned for a five-song run before Clipse joined them for “Grindin’.”

Beyoncé appeared later during a medley of “Drunk in Love,” “Tom Ford” and “Partition.” Fat Joe and Jadakiss helped bring the marathon show toward its close with “New York.”

The finale completed a weekend organized around two albums that marked different stages of Jay-Z’s rise.

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Friday’s opening concert celebrated the 30th anniversary of “Reasonable Doubt.” Beyoncé handled Mary J. Blige’s part on “Can’t Knock the Hustle,” Blue Ivy Carter played piano before “Feelin’ It,” and Nas, Jaz-O, Memphis Bleek and Alicia Keys joined Jay-Z during the night.

Saturday belonged to “The Blueprint,” released 25 years ago. Slick Rick joined Jay-Z for “The Ruler’s Back,” Eminem appeared for “Renegade,” and Pharrell performed five songs with him.

The show also established a Yankee Stadium concert record, selling 45,832 tickets and breaking the mark Jay-Z had set one night earlier.

The guests mattered because they were more than famous names added to a stadium bill.

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Jaz-O represented Jay-Z’s years before “Reasonable Doubt,” when the veteran rapper served as an early mentor. Nas stood beside the man he once battled in one of hip-hop’s most consequential feuds. Eminem’s appearance revived “Renegade,” a performance that has fueled rap arguments since “The Blueprint” arrived in 2001.

Memphis Bleek and Beanie Sigel connected the concerts to Roc-A-Fella’s peak. Dupri, Pharrell, Swizz Beatz and The-Dream represented different phases of Jay-Z’s evolution from street-level New York storyteller to crossover hitmaker. Beyoncé and Blue Ivy placed his family inside the story rather than alongside it.

The staging left room for those connections to carry the shows.

Creative director Willo Perron designed a largely bare stage backed by a massive outfield screen showing archival images from Jay-Z’s life and career. A 10-person band and an 18-piece string section supported the performances without overwhelming them.

“I think the statement piece in a Jay-Z show is Jay-Z,” Perron told Wired.

The Yankee Stadium run was originally announced as two concerts. Organizers added “Extra Innings” after the “Reasonable Doubt” and “Blueprint” shows quickly sold out.

Jay-Z will continue the “Jay-Z 30” anniversary celebration with stadium concerts Sept. 4 in London, Sept. 10 in Paris and Oct. 23 in Inglewood, California. Those shows are tied specifically to the 30th anniversary of “Reasonable Doubt,” not the full three-night New York format.

The final night nearly became a story about a security failure and a four-hour wait. Instead, after the gates reopened and the music finally started, Jay-Z finished a weekend that put his debut, his commercial peak, his family, his former rival and three decades of collaborators in the same ballpark.

The delay lasted four hours. The history took three nights.

Jermaine Dupri Lawsuit Claims Sony Underpaid So So Def Royalties

Producer and So So Def Recordings founder Jermaine Dupri filed an $18 million federal lawsuit against Sony Music Entertainment on Monday. The lawsuit alleges a systemic pattern of underreported royalties tied to foundational Atlanta hip-hop acts including Kris Kross, Xscape, and Da Brat. 

Jermaine Dupri turned So So Def into one of the most important Black music factories of the 1990s and
early 2000s. Now, he says Sony Music Entertainment owes him millions from the catalog that helped make Atlanta a permanent fixture on the Billboard charts.

Dupri, So So Def Recordings, and So So Def Productions sued Sony in federal court in New York on Monday, accusing the company of underpaying royalties tied to some of the biggest records of the era. The lawsuit seeks at least $18 million in damages, plus prejudgment interest and attorneys' fees.

The case, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, turns a three-decade label relationship into a fierce fight over accounting, recoupment, and catalog money.

The complaint outlines a systematic pattern of accounting errors, alleging Sony underreported royalties, failed to report others entirely, and altered old statements.

“As it turns out, many of SME’s dealings with So So Def have not been lawful and have harmed So So Def in its business,” the complaint states. “[Sony Music Entertainment] intentionally failed to account to Plaintiffs to avoid paying millions of dollars to the Plaintiffs."

The lawsuit names a roll call familiar to anyone who listened to R&B radio in the 1990s and 2000s, including Xscape, Kris Kross, Da Brat, Jagged Edge, Bow Wow and Bone Crusher.

The sharpest allegations in the lawsuit involve Kris Kross, the teenage Atlanta duo Dupri discovered before their smash hit "Jump" turned backward clothing into a national uniform.

Dupri alleges Sony did not report producer or override royalties tied to the group's first two albums, "Totally Krossed Out" and "Da Bomb," until 2023. The lawsuit claims more than $2.2 million is still owed from those two albums alone.

“SME attempted to conceal all Kris Kross royalties due Plaintiffs for over 20 years in a separate royalty accounting system unknown to Plaintiffs,” the complaint states.

The lawsuit also targets the accounting for Xscape’s 1993 debut album, "Hummin' Comin' at 'Cha." Dupri’s side alleges Sony underreported more than $960,000 in producer royalties from that specific project.

Despite both of Xscape's first two albums being certified platinum, the lawsuit claims Sony still listed a So So Def account as being more than $1.5 million in the red as of June 2020, calling the discrepancy "unfathomable".

Da Brat’s historic 1994 debut, "Funkdafied," is also part of the dispute. The complaint alleges Sony withheld more than $1 million in producer royalties tied to the album, which made Da Brat the first solo female MC to be certified platinum.

The legal filing states the problems came into sharp focus following a 2025 desk audit by Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman, an accounting firm frequently used in entertainment royalty disputes. Dupri and the So So Def companies allege the audit uncovered years of reporting problems, missing payments, and amended statements that only partially corrected old figures.

The lawsuit notes that Dupri’s So So Def recordings and production deals helped generate more than $200 million in gross revenue over their 32-year business relationship. The $18 million sought in the suit includes more than $10 million in interest.

Sony Music Entertainment has not yet publicly responded to the filing.

Sparky D, Pioneering ‘Roxanne Wars’ Battle MC, Dies at 61

Sparky D, born Doreen C. Broadnax, is shown in an undated publicity photo. Broadnax, the Brownsville, Brooklyn, rapper whose 1985 answer record “Sparky’s Turn (Roxanne You’re Through)” made her a key voice in the Roxanne Wars, died July 4 at 61. No cause of death has been announced.

Sparky D, born Doreen C. Broadnax, the Brownsville, Brooklyn, MC whose 1985 answer record “Sparky’s Turn (Roxanne You’re Through)” made her one of the defining voices of the Roxanne Wars, has died. She was 61.

Her death was announced over the holiday weekend by her family. No cause of death has been announced.

She first recorded with the Brooklyn group The Playgirls, then broke out on her own with “Sparky’s Turn,” a direct response to Roxanne Shanté’s “Roxanne’s Revenge.” The record arrived during one of rap’s earliest full-scale lyrical wars, when answer records were not social media events but actual vinyl releases, pressed, shipped and judged by DJs, radio listeners and crowds.

The Roxanne Wars began after UTFO’s “Roxanne, Roxanne,” a 1984 record built around a fictional woman who rejected the group’s advances. Roxanne Shanté, then a teenage MC from Queensbridge, answered with “Roxanne’s Revenge.” The response was sharp, funny and ruthless enough to create its own industry.

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Then came the replies to the reply.

Sparky D’s entry stood out because it did not sound like a novelty record or a quick cash-in. She came at Shanté with a hard Brooklyn delivery and the confidence of someone who understood the assignment before there was a phrase for it. “Sparky’s Turn” was not just part of the Roxanne craze. It became one of the records that made the feud feel like a real fight.

The rivalry soon moved beyond wax. Sparky D and Shanté appeared together in staged battles, sometimes leaning into the boxing imagery that surrounded the feud. In 1985, the conflict was captured on “Round One: Roxanne Shanté vs. Sparky Dee,” one of the most memorable documents from rap’s first great answer-record era.

For a later generation raised on diss tracks, beef timelines and endless commentary, the Roxanne Wars can sound almost quaint. They were anything but. They proved that rap audiences would follow conflict across records, boroughs, radio stations and personalities. They also proved that women MCs were not side characters in hip-hop’s competitive tradition.

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DJ Premier, in an Instagram tribute, called her “one of the 1st Female Battle MC’s” and said her “relentless voice and delivery” made her a force.

“I became an instant fan,” Premier wrote, recalling her battles with Shanté.

MC Sha-Rock, one of hip-hop’s first women on record and a founding member of Funky 4 + 1, wrote that “the HIP HOP WORLD has taken a tremendous loss.”

Grandmaster Flash called Sparky D “one of the dopest female MCs from back in the day.”

That praise carries weight because Sparky D’s career connects two crucial eras: the foundational days when women such as Sha-Rock helped open the door, and the mid-1980s moment when MCs such as Shanté and Sparky D kicked it wider through battle records, street-level radio and live performance.

Sparky D understood that lineage. At a 2021 Bronx event honoring MC Sha-Rock, she said, “Without MC Sha-Rock, my mother, there would be no me.”

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After “Sparky’s Turn,” she continued recording through the 1980s. Her catalog included “He’s My DJ” with Kool DJ Red Alert, “Throwdown,” “Sparky’s Back” and the 1988 album “This Is Sparky D’s World” on B-Boy Records. The records placed her in the same gritty independent ecosystem that helped define New York rap before major labels fully understood the music’s commercial power.

Her life after the first wave of fame was not easy. Sparky D later spoke publicly about addiction, abuse and the doors that closed once her early rap run slowed. In a 2007 profile, she described herself as a woman who had been through hardship and come out with faith intact.

“You gotta go through something in order to grow,” she said.

In later years, Broadnax turned toward Christianity, gospel rap and ministry. She moved to Atlanta, founded Treasure Ministries and won a Gospel Choice Award in 2007 for “This Is for the Church.” That part of her story mattered, too. It was not a footnote after hip-hop. It was how she chose to keep using her voice.

Diddy’s Pardon Push Reenters Trump’s Orbit

President Donald Trump, shown in his official 2025 White House portrait, has not announced clemency for Sean “Diddy” Combs, but the music mogul’s name has returned to private pardon discussions as Trump weighs a new round of clemency actions. 

Sean “Diddy” Combs’ name is back in President Donald Trump’s clemency orbit.

That does not mean a pardon is coming.

CBS News reported Friday that Trump is poised to pardon a group of people convicted of emissions and clean-air-related violations while still privately discussing other possible clemency moves, including Combs and other high-profile figures. According to the report, Combs and those other celebrity cases were not expected to be on the recommendations list from Trump’s pardon team.

That leaves Combs in a familiar place: close enough to power to be part of the conversation, but not close enough to know whether the door is actually open.

Combs is serving a 50-month federal sentence after a jury convicted him last year on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. He was acquitted of the more serious sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges, a split verdict that turned what could have been a life-sentence case into a shorter prison term — but still left one of hip-hop’s most powerful figures behind bars.

A White House official told CBS that “President Trump is the ultimate decider on any clemency related actions.”

The line matters because Combs’ case has never fit neatly into the normal legal lane. It has always carried the weight of celebrity, old New York money circles, hip-hop history, ugly trial testimony, political ego and a pardon system that often runs on access as much as argument.

Trump has been asked about Combs repeatedly since the case became a national spectacle. During Combs’ trial in May 2025, Trump said nobody had formally asked him for a pardon yet, but that he would look at the facts.

“I’d look at what’s happening, and I haven’t been watching it too closely although it’s certainly getting a lot of coverage,” Trump told reporters at the time, according to Reuters.

By October, after Combs had been sentenced, Trump said the request had come.

“A lot of people have asked me for pardons,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I call him Puff Daddy, [he] has asked me for a pardon.”
Embed from Getty Images

In January, Trump told The New York Times that Combs had asked for a pardon “through a letter,” but said he was not considering clemency then. Trump also said Combs’ past criticism made a pardon “more difficult to do,” according to Entertainment Weekly’s account of the interview.

That history is part of why the story keeps resurfacing.

Long before Trump became president and long before Combs became a convicted federal inmate, they occupied overlapping corners of celebrity Manhattan. Trump attended Combs’ 1998 Black and White Ball, where The New York Observer quoted him saying, “I don’t give a s--- about Puffy’s success. I just think he’s a good guy.”

Years later, Combs still described Trump as a friend while talking about mogul culture, race and the image of American business power.

“Donald Trump is a friend of mine, and he works very hard,” Combs told The Washington Post in 2015.

That was before the political break. By 2020, Combs had turned sharply against Trump, endorsed Joe Biden and told Charlamagne tha God that “white men like Trump need to be banished.”

Now, the relationship sits in a much different frame. Combs is no longer the Bad Boy mogul who made wealth look like a music video. He is a federal prisoner appealing his conviction and sentence, with his name appearing again in the same clemency conversation as Prakazrel “Pras” Michel of the Fugees.

CBS reported Friday that Michel, who is serving a 14-year federal sentence in a foreign-influence case tied to Malaysian financier Jho Low, is also seeking a pardon. The Justice Department said after Michel’s 2023 conviction that he engaged in an illegal foreign-influence campaign using millions of dollars in foreign money.

That gives the latest pardon talk a wider hip-hop frame. This is not just one fallen mogul hoping an old acquaintance can shorten his sentence. It is another moment where rap celebrity, political access and federal punishment are sharing the same room.

Trump has done this before.

In his final hours in office in 2021, Trump granted a full pardon to Lil Wayne and commuted Kodak Black’s prison sentence. He also commuted the sentence of Death Row Records co-founder Michael “Harry-O” Harris, whose release was publicly supported by Snoop Dogg.

Those cases were different from Combs’ case, legally and publicly. But they helped establish the pattern: Trump’s clemency decisions can move through celebrity circles, personal appeals, political allies and public pressure as much as through quiet paperwork.

That is why Combs’ name returning to the discussion is news, even if it is not yet a pardon.

The facts are still narrower than the noise around them. Trump has not announced clemency for Combs. CBS reported Combs was not expected to be on the main pardon team’s recommendations list Friday. Combs remains convicted, sentenced and incarcerated while his legal fight continues.

But the door is not fully closed, either.

For an artist who helped define the shiny, ruthless ambition of late-90s hip-hop, the possibility now hangs on a very different kind of access: whether a president who once called him a good guy, later heard him become a critic, and now controls his clemency fate decides there is anything left to reward.

Victor Willis, Village People Singer and “Y.M.C.A.” Co-Writer, Dies At 74

Victor Willis is shown in a promotional photo from the Village People’s “Cruisin’” album era. Willis, the group’s original lead singer and a co-writer of “Y.M.C.A.,” “Macho Man” and “In the Navy,” died Tuesday after a short but aggressive illness. He was 74.

Victor Willis, the original lead singer of the Village People and the voice behind some of disco’s most durable records, has died. He was 74.

Willis died Tuesday after a “short, but aggressive illness,” according to a statement posted to his official Facebook page by his wife, Karen Huff-Willis.

“It is with profound sadness that I must announce the death of my husband, Victor Willis,” the statement said. “The family requests privacy at this time of great loss.”

Willis was the visual and vocal center of the Village People, best known for performing as the group’s policeman and, later, in a naval officer’s uniform. But his place in music history is larger than the costume.

He was the group’s original lead singer and a key songwriter behind its biggest records, including “Y.M.C.A.,” “Macho Man” and “In the Navy.” Those songs turned the Village People into one of the defining acts of the disco era and kept Willis’ voice moving through weddings, sporting events, Pride celebrations, political rallies and dance floors for nearly 50 years.

For all the camp and theater built into the Village People’s image, Willis brought a real R&B foundation to the records. The son of a Baptist preacher, he developed his voice in church before moving through theater and eventually into the studio with French producer Jacques Morali.

That background mattered. Willis’ baritone gave the group’s biggest hits a force that could cut through the glitter. The records were fun, but they were not lightweight. The hooks worked because Willis delivered them like he believed every command.

His catalog kept him in the news long after disco’s commercial peak.

In the 2010s, Willis became a major figure in the fight over copyright termination rights, using provisions of U.S. copyright law to win back control of his share of Village People songs. The case was closely watched across the music business because it showed how legacy songwriters could challenge old publishing deals decades after signing them.

Willis also spent his later years protecting the meaning, ownership and use of the group’s music. He objected at times to the use of Village People songs in politics, later defended Donald Trump’s use of “Y.M.C.A.” and repeatedly pushed back against descriptions of the song as a gay anthem, even as the record remained deeply tied to LGBTQ culture in the public imagination.

Venues in Tampa and San Antonio Refuse to Block Kanye West Summer Stadium Dates

Rapper Kanye West is shown alongside the cover art for his album "BULLY". West is currently at the center of a major political standoff in Texas and Florida, where local officials have confirmed his upcoming summer stadium tour dates will proceed as scheduled despite intense public pressure and organized campaigns from lawmakers demanding their cancellation.

Kanye West is facing intense, organized political campaigns to cancel his upcoming stadium performances in Texas and Florida. However, local officials in both states have confirmed that the concerts are officially moving forward.

In Texas, San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones has spent the last week actively calling for the cancellation of West's scheduled Fourth of July concert at the Alamodome. The mayor publicly condemned the artist for his history of antisemitic comments. On Tuesday evening, however, Jones conceded that she had failed to gather enough support from the city council to block the performance.

"At this point, the only way to cancel this concert is if we have a public vote," Jones said Tuesday. "And we don't have the votes."

A joint statement issued by six members of the San Antonio City Council on Tuesday outlines their refusal to cancel Ye's scheduled July 4 concert at the Alamodome. The document strongly condemns antisemitism while arguing against government censorship and highlighting that the event is projected to generate $1.7 million for the city-owned venue.

A coalition of six San Antonio city council members released a joint statement outlining their refusal to break the venue's agreement. The group stated that "the City does not endorse his rhetoric by allowing the use of a public venue, just as a public library does not endorse every book's viewpoint simply by carrying it." The council members noted that they can condemn hate "without resorting to censorship, which could set a precedent toward limiting expression based on objectionable viewpoints."

The July 4 concert is projected to generate roughly $1.7 million for the city. The Alamodome staff stated the booking was treated as a standard economic decision based on public demand and facility revenue.

A nearly identical controversy is currently unfolding in Florida. U.S. Senator Rick Scott has launched a petition and directly urged the Tampa Sports Authority to cancel two West concerts scheduled for June 26 and June 28 at Raymond James Stadium.

"Floridians DON’T deserve to see their tax dollars go to give an antisemite a megaphone," Scott posted on social media.

Despite the pressure, internal communications reveal that the Tampa Sports Authority is locked into an agreement. According to the emails, the venue agreed to contract stipulations that prevent the organization from canceling the performances based on "artist identity," "public statements," or "political viewpoints." The organization stated that while they do not condone his remarks, they must "follow the principles of free speech in operating our venue."

Clive Davis, Visionary Record Executive Who Shaped Global Pop Culture, Dies at 94

 

Record executive and music industry mogul Clive Davis speaks during the Kennedy Center Honors Gala dinner at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 2, 2023. Davis, the visionary architect who built the global commercial infrastructure for 1990s and 2000s R&B and hip-hop through landmark joint ventures with LaFace Records and Bad Boy Records, died Monday at his home in Manhattan at age 94.

The legendary music executive, whose unparalleled ear and ruthless business acumen guided the careers of Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, The Notorious B.I.G., and Alicia Keys, died Monday at his home in New York City. He was 94.

His longtime representative Aliza Rabinoff confirmed the death, stating that Davis passed away peacefully from age-related illness. The executive had recently been hospitalized in May with a respiratory tract infection but was released in early June. His family also released a statement on social media confirming the passing.

While history will primarily remember him as the executive who discovered and championed Whitney Houston to global superstardom at Arista Records, for 90s and 00s culture, his legacy is far heavier.

He was the one of the first executives who understood that the future of global pop music was being constructed in Atlanta and Brooklyn, and he funded the blueprints.

In 1989, Davis engineered a joint venture with L.A. Reid and Babyface to create LaFace Records. That single executive decision effectively relocated the center of the music industry to Atlanta, providing the launchpad for TLC, Usher, Toni Braxton, and Outkast to permanently redefine the sound of the 1990s.

Four years later, Davis repeated the maneuver in hip-hop. He partnered with Sean “Diddy” Combs to launch Bad Boy Records as an Arista joint venture in 1993. The move gave a young Brooklyn executive the major-label distribution machinery needed to turn The Notorious B.I.G., Faith Evans, Mase, and 112 into an unstoppable, platinum-certified commercial empire.

When the industry shifted at the turn of the century, Davis did not lose his grip. After leaving Arista, he founded J Records in 2000 and immediately proved his instincts were still on-point. He signed a young Alicia Keys, guiding her 2001 debut studio album, "Songs in A Minor", into a multi-platinum, Grammy-sweeping juggernaut that shifted the entire trajectory of 2000s neo-soul.

Tay Keith, Producer Behind 'Look Alive,' 'Nonstop' and 'Sicko Mode,' Dies at 29

Grammy-nominated producer Tay Keith is shown in an undated promotional portrait. Keith, born Brytavious Lakeith Chambers, was found dead in his Nashville apartment on Thursday. The Memphis native fundamentally shifted the sound of late-2010s hip-hop, bringing his city's signature heavy bounce to global hits like Travis Scott's Sicko Mode and Beyoncé's Before I Let Go from her "Homecoming" live album.

The tag told you who made it. The drums told you where he was from.

“Tay Keith, f--- these n----- up” was crude, unmistakable and usually followed by something stripped down, hard and built to move. It was not just a drop. It was a producer’s signature at a moment when producers were becoming part of rap’s front-facing language.

Keith, the Grammy-nominated producer born Brytavious Lakeith Chambers, was found dead Thursday in his Nashville apartment, police said. He was 29.

Metro Nashville Police said Chambers was found in his Martin Street apartment during a welfare check. Police said no foul play is suspected. His death remains unclassified pending autopsy results.

Keith’s death lands hard because he helped put Memphis back in the middle of mainstream rap’s daily conversation.

He came from a city that had already changed Southern rap through Three 6 Mafia, 8Ball & MJG, Playa Fly, DJ Squeeky, Gangsta Pat, Project Pat, Yo Gotti, Young Dolph and a long line of producers and rappers who made darkness, bounce and bass feel like local language. Keith did not clean that language up for the mainstream. He made the mainstream come to it.

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“I always knew music was gonna be my outlet,” Keith told The Fader in 2018. “I just didn’t know when, or how it was gonna happen.”

It happened with BlocBoy JB.

Keith and BlocBoy were not an industry pairing cooked up after the city was already hot. They were Memphis kids who knew each other’s timing before the rest of the country caught on. When “Look Alive” arrived in 2018 with Drake on it, the record did not sound like a local act being invited into pop. It sounded like one of the biggest rappers in the world stepping into their room.

The beat was stripped down and cold. BlocBoy gave it movement. Drake gave it reach. Keith gave it the floor.

That year, his run got ridiculous. He produced or co-produced Drake’s “Nonstop,” Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode,” Eminem’s “Not Alike” and Lil Baby and Gunna’s “Never Recover,” featuring Drake. “Sicko Mode” brought him a Grammy nomination for best rap song.

Keith was barely in his 20s, and his sound was already moving through some of the biggest records in the country.

That is usually where the industry starts sanding off the regional edge. Keith’s records kept their accent. The drums stayed dry. The bounce stayed Memphis. The empty space was not empty; it was where the record got its nerve.

Memphis rapper BlocBoy JB, left, and producer Tay Keith pose in an undated throwback photograph shared to BlocBoy JB's Instagram Story on Thursday. The rapper posted the image with the caption "Damn Cuz You Just Hurt Me Bad" following the announcement of Keith's death at age 29. The long-time friends and collaborators rose to global prominence together with their 2018 hit Look Alive. (Screen capture via Instagram/blocboy_jb)

He could still move outside the expected lanes. Keith produced Beyoncé’s version of “Before I Let Go,” the Frankie Beverly and Maze classic that became part of her “Homecoming” release. He later helped push Sexyy Red into the wider conversation with “Pound Town,” a record plenty of people laughed at until the beat, the joke and the personality all started working at once.

Keith heard it before the room did.

“People were trolling the shit out of me,” he told Billboard in 2024. “It wasn’t much good feedback. It was coming from even people around me, ‘What you doing?’ I saw the potential. That’s as simple as it was, me believing in her.”

That was the job. Hear it early. Stand on it. Let everybody else catch up.

Keith’s production did not beg for approval. It gave rappers a hard, open lane and made them decide what to do with it. BlocBoy could dance inside it. Drake could turn it into chart language. Travis Scott could fold it into spectacle. Sexyy Red could make it blunt and funny.

The center still held because the center was Memphis.

Keith also finished college while his career was exploding. Middle Tennessee State University said he graduated in December 2018 with degrees in integrated studies and media management. By his last week of school, he had his first No. 1 single.

“There wouldn’t be any point for me to come to college if I didn’t want to finish it — I could have just focused 100% on music,” Keith told MTSU. “By my last week of college, I had my first number one single, so it didn’t make any sense to drop out.”

After news of his death, BlocBoy JB posted the kind of grief that does not need polish.

“Damn Cuz You Just Hurt Me Bad,” he wrote in an Instagram Story.

In another tribute, he wrote, “We talked everyday.”

Fellow Memphis producer Hitkidd wrote, “I ain’t even got the words, we been doing this since 2010 @taykeith.”

Former No Limit Rapper Mystikal Sentenced to 20 Years in Louisiana Rape Case

Michael Lawrence Tyler, the rapper known as Mystikal, is shown in a Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office booking photo from a previous arrest in Shreveport, La. Tyler was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison in Ascension Parish after pleading guilty to third-degree rape in a separate 2022 case. (Photo/Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office, File)

Mystikal’s long-running Louisiana rape case ended Tuesday with a 20-year prison sentence, a rejected attempt to take back his guilty plea and another grim turn in the legal history of one of No Limit Records’ most recognizable voices.
The New Orleans rapper, whose legal name is Michael Lawrence Tyler, was sentenced in Ascension Parish after pleading guilty in March to third-degree rape in connection with a 2022 assault at his Prairieville home.

Court records show Tyler’s guilty plea reduced the case from an original first-degree rape charge, which could have carried a mandatory life sentence if he had been convicted as originally charged. Prosecutors also agreed not to pursue several additional counts tied to the case, including allegations of false imprisonment, domestic abuse battery by strangulation, simple robbery and property damage.

Under Louisiana law, third-degree rape carries a maximum sentence of 25 years at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. In Tyler’s case, the plea agreement capped his exposure at 20 years.

The judge gave him all 20.

Before sentencing, Tyler’s attorney tried to withdraw the guilty plea, arguing that Tyler had not had enough time to fully consider the consequences of the agreement. The court rejected that request before imposing the sentence.

During the hearing, the victim asked for the maximum sentence and described being punched, choked, raped and prevented from leaving Tyler’s Prairieville home. Tyler was allowed to address the court after she spoke, though he was told to direct his remarks to the judge rather than to the victim.

“If I did that to you, I deserve the max sentence,” Tyler said, according to WBRZ.

The sentence closes a case that had kept Tyler in the Ascension Parish Jail without bond since his 2022 arrest. Deputies arrested him after authorities said a woman reported being sexually assaulted at a hospital and identified Tyler as the suspect.

The judge also ordered Tyler to continue complying with sex offender registration requirements after his release.

That requirement predates this case. Tyler was already a registered sex offender after pleading guilty in 2003 to sexual battery and extortion in an unrelated case involving his hairstylist. He served six years in prison in that case.

He was also charged in a separate 2017 rape and kidnapping case in Caddo Parish, but those charges were later dropped after he spent more than a year in jail.

Before his criminal cases became the dominant story around him, Mystikal was one of the most electric voices to emerge from No Limit Records’ late-1990s run. His raspy, explosive delivery powered hits including “Shake Ya Ass,” “Danger (Been So Long)” and “Bouncin’ Back (Bumpin’ Me Against the Wall).” His 2000 album “Let’s Get Ready” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and he later earned Grammy nominations for “Tarantula” and “Bouncin’ Back.”

Tuesday’s sentence turns what had been a pending legal threat into a long prison term. For fans who remember Mystikal as one of Southern rap’s most distinctive performers, the ruling is also a reminder that his musical legacy has been inseparable for years from a criminal record that repeatedly pushed him out of the spotlight and back into court.

Sega Adds Tupac Shakur’s Likeness to 'Stranger Than Heaven'

Nearly 30 years after Tupac Shakur’s death, Snoop Dogg has helped introduce another digital use of the late rapper’s image — this time inside a video game.

Sega of America and RGG Studio announced during Summer Game Fest that Shakur will appear in “Stranger Than Heaven,” the upcoming action-adventure game from the studio behind the “Like a Dragon” series. The reveal comes as fans mark what would have been Shakur’s 55th birthday on June 16.

The moment immediately recalled Shakur’s famous 2012 Coachella appearance, when a digital projection performed alongside Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. This version is different: Shakur is being placed inside an interactive game as Amaru, a character created with approval and supervision from Amaru Entertainment, the company tied to his estate.

Snoop, who also appears in the game as a smuggler named Orpheus, introduced the reveal with his son, Cordell Broadus. During the presentation, Snoop said he, Broadus and the Tupac estate worked closely together on the inclusion.

“The Tupac estate and my son and myself, we work very closely together,” Snoop said, according to PC Gamer and Video Games Chronicle. “So it just made sense to put him in this game, because his likeness and his spirit still lives on.”

Sega said Shakur’s portrayal was created without artificial intelligence and with permission and continuing oversight from Amaru Entertainment. The company said RGG Studio based the character design on archival photographs and footage. More details about Amaru’s role are expected later.

That no-AI detail is important. Fans have already seen posthumous albums, hologram-style performances, deepfakes and digital recreations of late artists. Estate approval answers part of the question. It does not automatically settle how people will feel about seeing Tupac’s likeness used in a new crime drama three decades after his death.

“Stranger Than Heaven” follows Makoto Daito across a 50-year story that begins in 1915. The game moves through five Japanese cities and eras, mixing crime, show business and combat. Snoop’s Orpheus finds Makoto after he stows away on a ship bound for Japan, while Broadus also plays a role that has not been fully detailed.

The trailer did not explain how Shakur’s character fits into the story. It also did not show him speaking. That leaves the central question open: whether Amaru is a meaningful story role, a careful cameo or another example of entertainment finding new places to put a dead icon’s image.

Sega and RGG Studio are clearly trying to get ahead of that concern by emphasizing estate approval, archival materials and the absence of AI. Snoop’s involvement also gives the project a direct connection to Shakur’s world. The two were linked by Death Row Records, West Coast rap and one of hip-hop’s most scrutinized eras.

Still, fans will judge the finished game by what it does with Tupac, not by who introduced the trailer.

“Stranger Than Heaven” is scheduled for release Jan. 15, 2027. For now, the safest read is this: Tupac is not being brought back. His likeness is being licensed into a video game with his estate’s approval and Snoop Dogg’s public blessing. Whether that feels like tribute, strategy or something in between will depend on what players see when the game arrives.