Florida Venue Faces Backlash as Sen. Rick Scott Targets Upcoming Ye Performances

A promotional image advertises Ye’s scheduled June 26, 2026, concert at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., has urged the Tampa Sports Authority to review scheduled concerts by the artist formerly known as Kanye West, arguing that a taxpayer-supported venue should not give him a platform after years of antisemitic remarks.

A public stadium in Tampa has become the next test of how far Ye’s catalog can still carry him after years of antisemitic remarks turned his tour into a fight over speech, public money and institutional responsibility.

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott is pressing the Tampa Sports Authority to reconsider two scheduled Ye concerts at Raymond James Stadium, arguing that a taxpayer-supported venue should not help stage performances by the artist formerly known as Kanye West.

Ye is scheduled to perform June 26 and 28 at the Tampa stadium. Raymond James Stadium’s official events page still listed both shows Friday, with each scheduled to begin at 8 p.m.

In a letter sent Thursday to the Tampa Sports Authority’s board of directors, Scott called Ye a “vocal antisemite” and urged the authority to carefully review the decision to host him.

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., urges the Tampa Sports Authority Board of Directors to review scheduled Ye concerts at Raymond James Stadium in a June 4, 2026, letter. Scott argued that taxpayer-supported facilities should not give a stage to the artist formerly known as Kanye West after years of antisemitic remarks and controversy over swastika merchandise. (Office of U.S. Sen. Rick Scott)

“Kanye West’s consistent antisemitic attacks are an affront to the values of the people of the Hillsborough community,” Scott wrote.

Scott cited Ye’s past praise of Nazis, his claim that he was one and a 2025 Super Bowl ad that directed viewers to merchandise featuring swastikas. He argued that a stadium supported by public dollars should not be used to give the artist a platform.

“No taxpayer dollars should be used to give a vocal antisemite a stage in Florida,” Scott wrote. “What we spend public money on reflects our values, and using dollars from hardworking families to platform a hateful person pushing evil ideologies is not a Florida value.”

The Tampa Sports Authority manages Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and one of Florida’s highest-profile public sports and entertainment venues. In its response, the authority did not indicate the concerts were in immediate jeopardy.

“We recognize the concerns and viewpoints being expressed about the upcoming events at Raymond James Stadium,” the authority said in a statement. “As a public agency, we follow the principles of free speech in operating our venue, although we do not condone remarks or actions from any artists that are offensive and divisive.”

That response places the Tampa shows in a different position from a private venue’s booking decision. Scott is framing the issue around public money and community values. The authority is pointing to the free-speech principles that come with operating a public venue. The result is a collision between a legacy rap star’s market power and the civic responsibilities attached to the building where he is scheduled to perform.

For audiences who watched West alter the trajectory of 2000s hip-hop, the Tampa dispute carries its own dissonance. The producer and rapper who once challenged the American political establishment on behalf of people left out of its priorities is now drawing government pressure over antisemitic remarks, Nazi praise and merchandise tied to swastika imagery.

That tension is part of why the story travels beyond a local concert fight. Ye’s early albums, including “The College Dropout,” “Late Registration” and “Graduation,” helped expand mainstream rap’s emotional and sonic language. Now, the same catalog that made him a defining artist of the 2000s is moving through a public reckoning over what institutions are willing to host after the artist has made himself commercially powerful and publicly toxic.

The pressure in Florida follows similar challenges overseas. Ye was recently barred from entering the United Kingdom over his remarks, while scheduled performances in Italy and Poland were scrapped. A Dutch court this week allowed two concerts in the Netherlands to proceed, rejecting an effort by a Jewish organization to block them on public order grounds.

In Europe, governments, courts and Jewish organizations have been forced to weigh Ye’s history of antisemitic statements against public order, censorship laws and venue decisions. In Tampa, the argument has moved to a publicly owned American stadium, where Scott’s demand and the authority’s response have turned two scheduled concerts into a broader test of speech, money and consequence.

For now, the shows remain listed. So does the pressure to stop them.

Michael Jackson’s 'Chicago' Gives Him Hot 100 Entries in Six Decades

Cover art for Michael Jackson’s “Chicago,” a track from the 2014 posthumous album “Xscape.” The song debuted at No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Jackson new chart entries in six decades and showing how streaming and short-form video can turn a deep cut into a new chart moment years later. (MJJ Productions/Epic Records)

Michael Jackson’s “Chicago” was not built like a comeback single.

It was not one of the untouchable 1980s records that never really left radio. It was not featured in the new biopic. It was not even a hit when it first surfaced in 2014 on the posthumous album “Xscape.”

That is what makes its new Billboard moment more interesting.

“Chicago” debuted at No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated June 6, making Jackson the first artist with new Hot 100 entries in six different decades, from the 1970s through the 2020s. The song also becomes his 52nd solo entry on the chart.

The numbers tell part of the story. “Chicago” drew 10.7 million official on-demand U.S. streams during the May 22-28 tracking week, a 30% jump from the previous week, according to Luminate data cited by Billboard and People. Under Billboard rules, older songs can enter the Hot 100 if they rank in the top 50 and show meaningful growth.

The rest of the story belongs to the way catalog now moves.

The “Xscape” version of “Chicago,” written by Cory Rooney, was produced by Timbaland and Jerome “J-Roc” Harmon. The song has found a new audience through streaming and TikTok at the same time Jackson’s catalog is benefiting from renewed attention around the film “Michael.” But the song’s rise is not a simple movie bump, as is not featured in the film.

That matters. The track’s path is less about a soundtrack push than a deep cut becoming newly legible to listeners who did not meet Jackson through radio, MTV, Motown specials or the first life of “Thriller.” They met the song through the modern discovery machine: fragments, algorithms, playlists, short videos and catalog curiosity.

Jackson’s best-known records have also moved in the same chart cycle. On the latest Hot 100, “Billie Jean” sits at No. 19, “Human Nature” at No. 31 and “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough” at No. 43. Earlier this spring, six Jackson songs charted simultaneously, a reminder that the current surge is broader than one viral track.

Still, “Chicago” is the record that changes the chart history. It joins “Love Never Felt So Good,” featuring Justin Timberlake, and “Slave to the Rhythm” as Hot 100 entries from “Xscape.” But unlike “Love Never Felt So Good,” which was presented as a major posthumous single, “Chicago” has taken the long way around.

That long route is the point. Catalog used to move in predictable waves: anniversaries, reissues, documentaries, death, scandal, commercials and tribute performances. Those forces still matter. But in the streaming era, a song can wait in the middle of an album for 12 years and become new again because enough people finally hear the same few seconds at the same time.

For Jackson, whose career was built on controlling spectacle, the achievement lands differently. This is not the “Thriller” video changing MTV, the Motown 25 moonwalk resetting television or a blockbuster album forcing the industry to recalculate pop ambition. It is quieter, stranger and more modern: a non-single from the estate era entering chart history through the habits of listeners born long after his imperial run.

That does not make the record bigger than the classics. It makes the catalog harder to contain.

“Chicago” is not the reason Michael Jackson matters. It is proof that the machinery around his music keeps changing, and the music keeps finding its way back into the room.

Lauryn Hill to Receive Living Legend Icon Award at BET Awards

BET will honor Ms. Lauryn Hill with its Living Legend Icon Award this month.

The network announced Thursday that Hill will receive the award during the 2026 BET Awards. The show is scheduled to air June 28 from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, with Druski as host.

BET said the award honors artists who “mastered their craft and never let go of the culture.” The line could drift into award-show excess. For Hill, it lands close to the record.

Hill first became a generational voice with the Fugees, whose 1996 album “The Score” moved across hip-hop, soul, reggae and pop without sounding designed for any one lane. Two years later, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” made her a solo force on terms almost no other artist could have demanded at the time.

Released in 1998, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” blended rap, soul, gospel, reggae, live instrumentation and diaristic writing into a record that felt both intimate and public. It explored love, faith, motherhood, self-worth and Black womanhood. The album sold more than 10 million copies and became a model for artists who wanted reach without softening their point of view.

Connie Orlando, BET’s executive vice president of specials, music programming and music strategy, said Hill “never chased the moment; she has shaped it.”

“Her artistry redefined what was possible in our music and gave a generation permission to be fearless, spiritual, and free,” Orlando said in a statement.

The honor follows a rare televised appearance from Hill. In February, she returned to the Grammy stage for an In Memoriam tribute honoring D’Angelo and Roberta Flack, opening with “Nothing Even Matters” before moving through a broader tribute to two artists whose work helped shape the vocabulary of soul and R&B.

Hill has often been discussed through absence — the long wait for another studio album, the uneven touring history, the distance between public demand and the artist’s own terms. But the BET honor is a reminder that her legacy has never depended strictly on output.

It is defined by what that output changed.

“The Score” remains one of the defining albums of the 1990s. “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” remains a landmark in modern Black music. Nearly three decades later, Hill’s influence is still heard in artists moving between rap and melody, confession and critique, spirituality and edge.

That makes the Living Legend Icon Award less a coronation than a formal acknowledgment of what the music already settled.

Peabo Bryson, Voice Behind 'A Whole New World,' Dies at 75 After Stroke

Peabo Bryson appears in an undated photo posted to his official Facebook page. Bryson, the two-time Grammy-winning R&B singer known for “Beauty and the Beast,” “A Whole New World (Aladdin’s Theme)” and decades of romantic ballads, died Tuesday at 75, days after suffering a stroke. (Credit: Peabo Bryson/Facebook)

Peabo Bryson, the two-time Grammy-winning R&B balladeer whose voice moved from soul radio to Disney’s early 1990s renaissance without losing its foundation, died Tuesday evening, days after suffering a stroke. He was 75.

His family confirmed his death in a statement, saying it found comfort in knowing “how deeply Peabo was loved and how many lives were touched by his voice and his generous spirit.”

The announcement came after Bryson’s representative said Sunday that the singer had suffered a stroke and was under medical care. At the time, his family asked for privacy as he received treatment.

Bryson’s voice became part of pop memory through two of the most recognizable movie duets of the early 1990s. He won Grammys for “Beauty and the Beast,” performed with Celine Dion, and “A Whole New World (Aladdin’s Theme),” performed with Regina Belle. Both songs won best pop performance by a duo or group with vocal.

Those records made him part of childhood for millions. But R&B audiences knew Bryson long before animated films carried his voice into the pop mainstream.

Born Robert L. Bryson in Greenville, South Carolina, Bryson came through the Southern music circuit before becoming one of contemporary R&B’s premier male vocalists. His official biography says he got his start as lead singer of Al Freeman & The Upsetters and Moses Dillard & The Tex-Town Display before releasing his 1976 debut LP, “Peabo,” on Atlanta’s Bullet/Bang label.

His catalog includes “Feel the Fire,” “I’m So Into You,” “If Ever You’re in My Arms Again,” “Can You Stop the Rain” and “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love,” his duet with Roberta Flack.

Roc Nation Partners With Target and D’Ussé for Massive 'Reasonable Doubt' 30th-Anniversary Campaign

Target is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Jay-Z's "Reasonable Doubt" with an exclusive white-vinyl edition. The two-LP set arrives nationwide June 26, anchoring a broader retail and luxury campaign for the 1996 hip-hop classic.

Jay-Z’s “Reasonable Doubt” is entering its 30th anniversary year in a form that says almost as much about his career as the album itself.

Target is listing an exclusive two-LP edition of the 1996 debut for $40, with a June 26 street date. Roc Nation’s official store lists a white vinyl Target exclusive shipping around the same date, while the Jaÿ-Z 30 site lists “Reasonable Doubt” as a two-LP vinyl album tied to Roc-A-Fella Records and the album’s original 1996 release.

The Target listing keeps the original album sequence and adds “Can’t Knock the Hustle (Fool’s Paradise Remix)” featuring Meli’sa Morgan to Side D. The listing also identifies the record label as S Carter Enterprises LLC/Roc Nation Distribution.

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The rollout gives “Reasonable Doubt” a retail footprint far removed from the conditions that produced it. The album arrived June 25, 1996, through Roc-A-Fella Records, after Carter and his partners built their own route around an industry that had not made him a priority.

In a GQ interview published this year, Carter said the fact that Roc-A-Fella released the album at all was “proof enough of concept.” He also said the album moved differently at street level than it did on paper: “On the streets we were platinum.”

That history is what makes the anniversary campaign more than a standard reissue. “Reasonable Doubt” was not a blockbuster on arrival. It was a controlled, expensive-sounding debut about appetite, discipline, guilt, leverage and survival, delivered by a rapper who already sounded as if he was thinking several exits ahead.

The anniversary is also being extended beyond vinyl. D’Ussé Cognac, the brand founded by Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter and created at Chateau de Cognac, is marking Jaÿ-Z 30 with a limited-edition VSOP collector’s box set, a Code30 cocktail and activations connected to the Roots Picnic, Carter’s July residency at Yankee Stadium and regional events in cities including Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, Washington, New York and Philadelphia.

“Mr. Shawn Carter’s codes of ambition, craftsmanship, and excellence are woven into the DNA of D’Ussé, and Jaÿ-Z 30 is a powerful reflection of that legacy,” Gigi DaDan, general manager of D’Ussé, said in the company’s announcement.

D’Ussé Cognac’s limited-edition Jaÿ-Z 30 VSOP collector’s box set and the Code30 signature cocktail, part of a nationwide campaign celebrating the 30th anniversary of Jay-Z's “Reasonable Doubt.”

The quote is brand language, but the larger picture is harder to dismiss. “Reasonable Doubt” has become a heritage object — vinyl, commemorative packaging, cocktails, stadium dates, retail placement — without losing the tension that made it matter in the first place.

The album was built around a man studying the distance between risk and ownership. Thirty years later, the anniversary rollout finds that same record moving through the institutions Jay-Z spent his career learning how to enter, use and, when possible, control.

Boosie Badazz Gets $85,000 Bond After Felony Assault Charge in Houston Nightclub Case

Boosie Badazz addresses his felony aggravated assault charge in a video posted to social media after a Harris County judge set an $85,000 walk-through bond in Houston. The Baton Rouge rapper denied wrongdoing after authorities alleged he struck a nightclub security guard with a broken glass hookah base during a Memorial Day weekend incident. (Credit: @boosieig2024/Instagram)

Boosie Badazz’s latest legal fight began inside a Houston nightclub at closing time, when a dispute over a closed restroom allegedly turned into a felony assault case involving a broken glass hookah base and a security guard left bleeding from the head.

The Baton Rouge rapper, whose legal name is Torrence Ivy Hatch Jr., is facing a felony aggravated assault charge in Harris County after authorities said he struck a security guard at a downtown Houston nightclub during Memorial Day weekend.

The alleged incident happened May 24 as security was clearing the club at closing time. According to court records cited by Houston police, security guard Edward Iglehart became involved in a dispute with a female patron who wanted to use the restroom after the club had closed.

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Police said the woman struck Iglehart in the face after he refused to let her into the restroom. TMZ reported that club owners and promoters told police the woman was Boosie’s niece. Boosie’s attorney has described her more generally as a female relative.

As Iglehart escorted the woman out of the club, she dropped some of her belongings, according to court records. Iglehart told police he bent down to pick them up and suddenly felt an object hit the top of his head.

Iglehart said he noticed blood running down his face and turned around to see Boosie holding a broken glass hookah base, according to the court documents. Investigators said another security guard reported hearing glass break, seeing Iglehart bleeding from the head and seeing Boosie holding the broken hookah base while yelling at the injured guard.

Iglehart was taken to St. Joseph Hospital, where he received eight staples for the wound, according to court records.

Boosie appeared in Harris County court Monday morning, where a judge set an $85,000 walk-through bond. His attorney described the arrangement as a bond process that would allow the rapper to avoid being taken back into custody. Conditions reported by Houston media included staying away from the venue and having no contact with the alleged victim.

After the hearing, Boosie addressed the case in a video posted to social media, denying wrongdoing and calling the charge “basically a money grab.”

“It’s what you go through as an entertainer,” Boosie said in the video. “The facts of the case will come out. I’m alright though. Life be lifing, bro.”

His attorney, Carl A. Moore, told TMZ that Boosie was trying to defend a female relative who was being escorted from the club and said the defense was seeking surveillance video from the venue.

“We plan to vigorously investigate and defend Mr. Hatch against these allegations,” Moore told TMZ, adding that he wanted people to reserve judgment while the case plays out in court.

The new charge comes less than five months after Boosie resolved a federal firearm case in California without additional prison time. In January, a federal judge in San Diego sentenced him to three years of supervised release, 300 hours of community service and a $50,000 fine after he pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Boosie also said in his social media video that he contacted his supervision officer about the new charge.

The Houston case adds another legal complication for one of Southern rap’s most outspoken veterans. Boosie has built a career on raw, direct street narratives, but his name has often moved through courtrooms as much as clubs and stages. This time, the question is not only what happened inside the nightclub, but whether surveillance video, witness accounts and court filings will support the version of events that made the case a felony.

Boosie’s next court date is expected in September.

Peabo Bryson, Singer of 'Beauty and the Beast' and R&B Classics, Suffers Stroke

Peabo Bryson appears in an undated photo posted to his official Facebook page. Bryson, 75, has suffered a stroke and is under medical care, according to a statement from his representative. (Credit: Peabo Bryson/Facebook)

Peabo Bryson’s voice has lived in slow dances, quiet-storm dedications, wedding receptions and Disney memories shared across generations. Smooth, controlled and unmistakably rooted in R&B, it carried romance with a kind of dignity that never needed to shout.

That made Sunday’s news hit hard.

Bryson, 75, the two-time Grammy-winning singer known for “Beauty and the Beast,” “A Whole New World (Aladdin’s Theme)” and decades of romantic R&B ballads, has suffered a stroke and is under medical care, according to a statement from his representative.

No additional details about Bryson’s condition have been publicly released. His family asked for privacy as he receives treatment. The statement said the ‘thoughts, prayers and love’ of friends and fans are welcomed.

The support began moving through R&B circles quickly. Stephanie Mills, one of Bryson’s contemporaries and a defining voice of her own generation, posted a message of support for him on social media.

“Right now for my friend @peabobryson2,” Mills wrote. “I truly love you. I am here for your family while you recover. ABUNDANT #POWER AND #STRENGTH.”

For casual listeners, Bryson may be most widely known as one of the voices behind two of the most recognizable movie duets of the early 1990s. He won Grammys for “Beauty and the Beast,” performed with Celine Dion, and “A Whole New World (Aladdin’s Theme),” performed with Regina Belle. Both songs won best pop performance by a duo or group with vocal.

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Those records made him part of childhood for millions. But R&B audiences knew Bryson long before animated films carried his voice into the pop mainstream.

Born Robert L. Bryson in Greenville, South Carolina, he came through the Southern music circuit before becoming one of contemporary R&B’s premier male vocalists. His catalog includes “Feel the Fire,” “I’m So Into You,” “If Ever You’re in My Arms Again,” “Can You Stop the Rain” and “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love,” his duet with Roberta Flack.

Those records belonged to a tradition that treated romantic ballads as serious craft. Bryson’s best work had polish, but the polish never flattened the feeling. He could make longing sound composed without making it cold, and tenderness sound powerful without turning it theatrical.

That restraint became part of his signature. It let him move from soul radio to adult contemporary and into Disney’s early 1990s run without sounding like a visitor in any room. He brought the grammar of R&B with him — the patience, the breath, the glide, the quiet command.

Two Eras of 1970s R&B Mourn as The Commodores’ Ronald LaPread and The Sylvers’ Foster Sylvers Die

Foster Sylvers, left, and Ronald LaPread are shown in a composite illustration honoring two figures from 1970s R&B and soul. Sylvers, a child star with the Sylvers, died at 64, and LaPread, a founding member and former bassist for the Commodores, died at 75. 

Two R&B bloodlines that helped define the sound of the 1970s were being mourned this weekend, as the deaths of Ronald LaPread of the Commodores and Foster Sylvers of the Sylvers were reported by multiple outlets.

LaPread, a founding member and former bassist for the Commodores, died at 75 after helping anchor one of Motown’s most durable funk and soul machines. Foster Sylvers, the gifted child star whose voice and musicianship helped carry the Sylvers from family act to disco-era hitmakers, died at 64 after a cancer battle.

The losses hit different corners of the same musical universe — one rooted in Tuskegee, Alabama, and Motown’s polished rise through the 1970s; the other in the bright, youthful harmonies of a Los Angeles family group that gave R&B and pop one of the era’s most infectious records.

Soraya LaPread announces the death of her father, Ronald LaPread, a founding member and former bassist for the Commodores, in an Instagram Story. LaPread, whose bass helped anchor the group’s classic funk and soul sound, died at 75. (Credit: Soraya LaPread/Instagram)

LaPread’s daughter, music producer Soraya LaPread, announced his death on social media Saturday. TMZ reported that the New Zealand Herald said LaPread died after a sudden medical event in Auckland, New Zealand, where he had lived for decades.

LaPread was part of the original Commodores lineup with Lionel Richie, Walter “Clyde” Orange, William “WAK” King, Milan Williams and Thomas McClary. The group formed in 1968 at Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University, and became one of Motown’s defining acts of the 1970s and early 1980s, moving easily between hard funk, lush ballads and crossover soul.

As the group’s bassist, LaPread helped give shape to records that became part of the American songbook, including “Brick House,” “Easy” and “Three Times a Lady.” His role was not always the one that drew the spotlight, but it was central to the Commodores’ identity: the pocket, the weight, the movement underneath the melodies that made the band both radio-ready and deeply funky.

The Recording Academy lists the Commodores with one Grammy win and nine nominations. Their lone Grammy win came for “Nightshift,” the 1985 tribute to Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson that earned best R&B performance by a duo or group with vocal. By then, the group had already lived through Richie’s departure and the turbulence that followed, but the record showed how much musical force remained in the Commodores name.

LaPread’s death also came days after the Commodores withdrew from the Freedom 250 concert series tied to the Great American State Fair in Washington, D.C., amid backlash over the event’s political connections. That controversy may have placed the group back in the headlines, but LaPread’s legacy rests much deeper — in the grooves that made the Commodores a bridge between Southern musicianship, Motown discipline and the mass appeal of late-20th-century Black popular music.

Hours after LaPread’s death was reported, TMZ reported that Foster Sylvers had died in hospice care. Reports differed on the specific cancer diagnosis, but Leon Sylvers III confirmed to multiple outlets that his brother died after a cancer battle.

Foster Sylvers entered the music world young, and with rare command. His 1973 solo single “Misdemeanor,” written by Leon, became a breakout R&B hit and later took on a second life through hip-hop sampling, including its use on the D.O.C.’s “It’s Funky Enough.” That afterlife matters: Foster’s work did not simply sit in the ’70s. It echoed forward into the sample-based language that helped build hip-hop’s golden age.

With the Sylvers, Foster became part of one of the decade’s most recognizable family groups, a sibling act often remembered alongside the broader wave of Black family bands that included the Jackson 5 and the Five Stairsteps. The Sylvers’ biggest pop moment came with “Boogie Fever,” which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976. The record was bright, polished and impossible to shake, but beneath its pop sheen was the architecture of a serious family band — harmonies, rhythm, choreography and production moving as one.

The Sylvers also scored with records such as “Fool’s Paradise” and “Hot Line,” while Foster built a reputation beyond the family name as a bassist, singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist. He worked in the same lineage as his brother Leon, whose production and songwriting later helped shape the sound of SOLAR Records and acts including Shalamar and Dynasty.

The deaths of LaPread and Foster Sylvers are not connected beyond timing, but together they mark the passing of two musicians whose work lived inside the machinery of classic Black music rather than outside it. LaPread helped drive a band that could make funk muscular and ballads feel monumental. Foster Sylvers helped bring youthful electricity to a family sound that crossed from soul into disco and later found its fingerprints in hip-hop.

They came from different bands, different regions and different roles. But both belonged to a generation of musicians who built songs strong enough to outlive the charts, the trends and even the eras that first made them famous.