Erykah Badu Announces ‘LIVE’ Tour With De La Soul and The Alchemist

Erykah Badu’s “LIVE” tour with The Alchemist and De La Soul pairs neo-soul, hip-hop history and underground production on a September run scheduled to open Sept. 10, 2026, in Highland Park, Ill., and close Sept. 29 in Los Angeles. (Live Nation/313 Presents)

After spending last year revisiting "Mama’s Gun," Erykah Badu has announced "Live: A September Tour," a run that pairs her with De La Soul and The Alchemist — a bill that makes more sense the longer you sit with it.

The title may tug at anyone who remembers Badu’s 1997 live album, "Live," the record that gave "Tyrone" its permanent place in the R&B conversation. But this is not being billed as an anniversary tour. It reads more like Badu using the stage as the center of the story again.

That matters with this lineup.

The Alchemist is not just a left-field name on the poster. Badu and the Beverly Hills producer spent 2025 building toward "Abi & Alan," a collaborative project that has already produced the June 2025 single "Next to You" and remains a vital part of their shared orbit. His presence keeps this from becoming a clean nostalgia package. He brings the dust, the tension, and the kind of loops that make a room lean forward.

De La Soul brings a different kind of weight. The Long Island group is no longer just a beloved catalog act finally freed from streaming limbo. Last year’s "Cabin in the Sky" gave De La Soul a new chapter after the 2023 death of co-founder David "Trugoy the Dove" Jolicoeur, carrying grief, memory, and joy without turning the group into a museum piece.

That is where the bill gets interesting.

Badu’s catalog has always lived between soul, hip-hop, jazz, church smoke, and side-eye. "On & On" introduced her in 1997 as something more complicated than a standard R&B star. "Bag Lady" turned emotional baggage into a hook. "Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip Hop)" made the connection plain for anybody who somehow missed it.

De La Soul helped build a version of rap that could be funny, strange, smart, wounded, soulful, and still fully hip-hop. The Alchemist has spent the modern era proving that a beat can still sound dangerous without raising its voice.

So no, this is not a random throwback package.

It is Badu, De La Soul, and The Alchemist standing in the same old conversation from three different corners: the singer who never separated soul from rap, the rap group that never separated jokes from depth, and the producer who still knows what to do with a dirty record.

The tour includes a Friday, Sept. 11, stop at the Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre in Sterling Heights, Michigan, according to venue promoter 313 Presents. The show begins at 8 p.m., with tickets scheduled to go on sale Friday, June 26, at 10 a.m. local time through BaduWorld.market.

Badu’s official calendar lists the run opening Sept. 10 at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois. It continues through Toronto; Cleveland; Uncasville, Connecticut; Forest Hills, New York; Washington; Indianapolis; Denver; San Diego; Berkeley, California; Highland, California; and Los Angeles.

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."

Beau Williams, Houston-Born Gospel And R&B Singer, Dies At 76

Beau Williams, the Houston-born gospel and R&B singer known for “Wonderful” and his national exposure on “Star Search,” is shown in an undated promotional photo. Williams died June 17 after battling cancer. He was 76.

Beau Williams, the Houston-born gospel and R&B singer best known to old-school audiences for winning on “Star Search” and to gospel fans for his signature song “Wonderful,” has died. He was 76.

Williams died June 17 after battling cancer, according to a family statement posted to his Facebook page and a remembrance from PATH MEGAzine publisher Kris Patrick, who wrote that Williams had been “quietly fighting cancer.”

Born and raised in Houston, Williams grew up in a musical church family. His father was a pastor, his mother led the choir and his siblings sang. He later moved to Los Angeles, where George Benson helped him land a recording contract with Capitol Records.

Williams crossed into national view in the 1980s after appearing on “Star Search,” where he dethroned a longtime champion Sam Harris, who had become one of the show’s early breakout stars.

But Williams’ deepest mark came in gospel.

After recording R&B albums for Capitol, Williams signed with Light Records and returned to gospel music. His 1989 project “Wonderful” became his defining release, reaching No. 2 on Billboard’s gospel albums chart.

The Recording Academy lists Williams as a 1990 Grammy nominee for “Wonderful” in the best soul gospel performance, male category.

Williams’ catalog also included “Walk Around Heaven,” “Say Yes,” “Higher,” “Love” and “Power.” 

A public homegoing celebration is scheduled for Saturday, June 27, at The Fountain of Praise, 13950 Hillcroft Ave. in Houston. Public viewing is scheduled from 9 to 11 a.m., followed by the Celebration of Life service at 11 a.m.

Williams is survived by his wife, Elvina; daughters Nicole, Monica and Janetta; and son James.

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.

Fred Alexander Jr., Drummer for Funk and R&B Band Lakeside, Dies

Fred Alexander Jr., longtime drummer for Lakeside, sits behind his drum kit in a photo shared by The Original Lakeside - Unfiltered. The group remembered Alexander as “our friend, our family and our band member of over 40 years.” (Photo Credit: The Original Lakeside - Unfiltered/Facebook)

Fred Alexander Jr., the Lakeside drummer whose pocket helped carry “Fantastic Voyage” from the funk era into old-school R&B memory, has died.

Alexander’s death was announced by bandmate Stephen Shockley in a social media post. A cause of death and funeral arrangements were not immediately announced.

“Today is a Very Sad Day for our band Lakeside because we lost Fred Alexander,” Shockley wrote, calling him “The little General” and “The Backbone to all of our Records.”

Alexander’s role in Lakeside went beyond the drum kit. He was the drummer, the timekeeper and, later, one of the people helping keep the band’s business and road life together.

Alexander joined Lakeside in 1977, just as the Dayton-born band was moving into the stretch that would define its recording legacy. Lakeside had come through the Midwest funk circuit, early label stops and industry false starts before finding its place with Dick Griffey’s Solar Records, the Los Angeles label that also became home to acts including the Whispers, Shalamar, Midnight Star and Klymaxx.

That Solar run made Lakeside one of the most reliable self-contained funk and R&B bands of its era. The group’s records were not built only around lead vocals or studio polish. They moved because the band could play.

Alexander was part of that engine.

On “It’s All the Way Live,” the band’s 1978 breakthrough, Lakeside turned a stage command into a groove. On “Fantastic Voyage,” its signature record, the group built a party anthem that became bigger than its original chart moment. The song reached No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B chart and later found another life in 1990s hip-hop when Coolio used it as the foundation for his own “Fantastic Voyage.”

Alexander’s role also extended into the group’s survival after its main chart years. A 2025 Truth in Rhythm interview described him as Lakeside’s general manager, and Shockley’s tribute pointed to the administrative weight Alexander carried inside the organization.