Month: July 2025

We haven’t had a new Justin Bieber album in over four years now, since 2021’s Justice. In recent times, there have been rumors of a new album coming and sightings of him in the studio. Now, it looks like the situation may be coming to a head quickly: The Hollywood Reporter reports that according to “sources,” Def Jam is releasing Bieber’s new album in a matter of hours, on July 11. The project will supposedly feature Gunna, Sexyy Red, and Cash Cobain.

In Reykjavík, Iceland, a billboard was spotted, featuring a photo of Bieber and what looks like a simple album cover featuring the word “swag” (perhaps the album title). Notably, in May, Bieber was seen in Iceland working on new music. The same billboard was also spotted in Los Angeles, per The Hollywood Reporter.

Bieber himself hasn’t talked much about new music lately, but he did recently speak out against Drew House, his clothing brand from which he has distanced himself. In April, he wrote, “I Justin Bieber am no longer involved in this brand. Drew House doesnt represent me or my family or life. If your rocking with me the human Justin Bieber dont waste ur money on Drew House.”

Megan Thee Stallion fans are wondering whether the Houston rapper has picked up a new NBA suitor after her latest post featured a surprise cameo from one of the league’s best shooters. While on vacation, Meg posted selfies from the pool — and a recognizable figure in the background captured fans’ attention.

Fans zeroed in on a man lounging on a pool chair behind Meg, determining that he bore a very strong resemblance to Dallas Mavericks shooting guard Klay Thompson. Thompson, who gained widespread popularity with the Golden State Warriors as one-half of the championship backcourt duo the “Splash Brothers” alongside fellow NBA nepo baby Steph Curry, sports a distinctive goatee, which fans noted matches the one on the man in the background.

Admittedly, that’s not a guaranteed sign of any association between the two — after all, they could simply be vacationing at the same resort — but that’s never stopped fans from spreading dating rumors. Meg has apparently had an affinity for athletes — her last confirmed relationship was with another NBA player, Torrey Craig, and she was previously linked with Belgian footballer Romelu Lukaku — and given her stature in both bank account and physique, a pro basketball player would at least make an attractive pairing.

Neither Meg nor Klay has said anything about the rumors, but then again… they’re on vacation.

In an interview from a few months ago, when asked to name her favorite actor, Billie Eilish had two picks: Steve Carell and Jake Johnson. She’s had the chance to speak with Carell before (as well as other favorites from The Office). She’s met the New Girl star, too, but before she did, she was very starstruck, to the point of tears.

Eilish revealed this during a recent interview, explaining:

“Last year, I was flying somewhere and as we pulled up to the airport, Jake Johnson got out of another car. My dad was there and was like, ‘Billie, you have to get out of the car,’ and I was just like, ‘I can’t, Jake Johnson is right there.’ And I started to tear up and cry, and my dad was asking, ‘Who even is that?’ And I said, ‘It’s Jake Johnson, the best actor in the world.’

I went into the airport and just sobbed, and called a couple of my friends and said, ‘Jake Johnson is at the same airport as me!’ My dad was begging me to go and talk to him and I refused […] and this was last December, so not even that long ago! Eventually, I had to walk by him as he was in the same room and he called my name out and said hello […] and it was an awesome day!”

Check out more from the interview here.

Metro Boomin detailed his upcoming surprise mixtape, revealing its title via a billboard and information about its features on social media. According to the billboard, it’s called A Futuristic Summa, and per Metro in the replies to the July 4th announcement on Twitter, it will feature an “all new cast” of features, meaning the usual suspects — 21 Savage, Future, Nav, Offset, Quavo, Travis Scott, Young Thug, etc. — might not make any appearances at all. So far, he’s released one single, “Slide” featuring Roscoe Dash(!), which is a new name on his long list of collaborators.

The mixtape will arrive a year after Metro Boomin played a major part in setting the rap world ablaze with his collaborative project with Future, We Don’t Trust You, and its flamboyant Kendrick Lamar-featuring record “Like That.” The resultant beef between Kendrick and his target, Drake, shook up the hip-hop scene, and the fallout still hasn’t settled.

Perhaps that’s why Metro never released the third of the three projects he teased at the beginning of 2024. While his two projects with Future — including the follow-up, We Still Don’t Trust You — could be considered runaway successes, he never did get around to dropping his promised collaborative project with Atlanta rapper JID. However, he did launch his own comics line, Metroverse, which accounts for at least some of the delay. The wait is over sometime this month.

The ongoing Oasis Live ’25 reunion tour will presumably make for a hell of a live album some day. In the meantime, Oasis have at least offered a taste of what that might sound like.

Yesterday (July 9), they shared the audio of their performance of “Slide Away,” from the tour-opening show in Cardiff, Wales on July 4. This is the first official audio from the tour to be released. The song came late in the set, between “Cast No Shadow” and “Whatever.”

Check out the setlist of the opening-night concert below, along with Oasis’ upcoming tour dates.

Oasis’ Oasis Live ’25 Tour Setlist

1. “Hello”
2. “Acquiesce”
3. “Morning Glory”
4. “Some Might Say”
5. “Bring It On Down”
6. “Cigarettes & Alcohol”
7. “Fade Away”
8. “Supersonic”
9. “Roll With It”
10. “Talk Tonight”
11. “Half The World Away”
12. “Little By Little”
13. “D’You Know What I Mean?”
14. “Stand By Me”
15. “Cast No Shadow”
16. “Slide Away”
17. “Whatever”
18. “Live Forever”
19. “Rock ‘N’ Roll Star”
20. “The Masterplan” (encore)
21. “Don’t Look Back In Anger” (encore)
22. “Wonderwall” (encore)
23. “Champagne Supernova” (encore)

Oasis’ 2025 Tour Dates: Oasis Live ’25

07/11 — Manchester, UK @ Heaton Park
07/12 — Manchester, UK @ Heaton Park
07/16 — Manchester, UK @ Heaton Park
07/19 — Manchester, UK @ Heaton Park
07/20 — Manchester, UK @ Heaton Park
07/25 — London, UK @ Wembley Stadium
07/26 — London, UK @ Wembley Stadium
07/30 — London, UK @ Wembley Stadium
08/02 — London, UK @ Wembley Stadium
08/03 — London, UK @ Wembley Stadium
08/08 — Edinburgh, UK @ Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium
08/09 — Edinburgh, UK @ Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium
08/12 — Edinburgh, UK @ Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium
08/16 — Dublin, IE @ Croke Park
08/17 — Dublin, IE @ Croke Park
08/24 — Toronto, ON @ Rogers Stadium
08/25 — Toronto, ON @ Rogers Stadium
08/28 — Chicago, IL @ Soldier Field
08/31 — East Rutherford, NJ @ MetLife Stadium
09/01 — East Rutherford, NJ @ MetLife Stadium
09/06 — Los Angeles, CA @ Rose Bowl Stadium
09/07 — Los Angeles, CA @ Rose Bowl Stadium
09/12 — Mexico City, MX @ Estadio GNP Seguros
09/13 — Mexico City, MX @ Estadio GNP Seguros
09/27 — London, UK @ Wembley Stadium
09/28 — London, UK @ Wembley Stadium
10/31 — Melbourne, Australia @ Marvel Stadium
11/01 — Melbourne, Australia @ Marvel Stadium
11/04 — Melbourne, Australia @ Marvel Stadium
11/07 — Sydney, Australia @ Accor Stadium
11/08 — Sydney, Australia @ Accor Stadium
11/15 — Buenos Aires, Argentina @ Estadio River Plate
11/16 — Buenos Aires, Argentina @ Estadio River Plate
11/19 — Santiago, Chile @ Estadio Nacional
11/22 — São Paulo, Brazil @ Estadio MorumBIS
11/23 — São Paulo, Brazil @ Estadio MorumBIS

Beatles legend Paul McCartney performed for a few nights at New York’s Bowery Ballroom, ahead of the SNL50 anniversary special. He hasn’t properly toured North America since 2022, though. That’ll change later this year: Today (July 10), McCartney has announced a run of Got Back tour dates in the US and Canada.

It opens in late September in Palm Desert and runs until late November, hitting Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Buffalo, Montreal, Chicago, and more cities along the way.

A pre-sale starts July 15 at 10 a.m. local time, and registrations for that are open now. The general on-sale then begins on July 18 at 10 a.m. local time. More information is available on the tour website.

Find the full list of tour dates below.

Paul McCartney’s 2025 Tour Dates: Got Back 2025

09/29 — Palm Desert, CA @ Acrisure Arena
10/04 — Las Vegas, NV @ Allegiant Stadium
10/07 — Albuquerque, NM @ Isleta Amphitheater
10/11 — Denver, CO @ Coors Field
10/14 — Des Moines, IA @ Casey’s Center
10/17 — Minneapolis, MN @ U.S. Bank Stadium
10/22 — Tulsa, OK @ BOK Center
10/29 — New Orleans, LA @ Smoothie King Center
11/02 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
11/03 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
11/06 — Nashville, TN @ The Pinnacle
11/08 — Columbus, OH @ Nationwide Arena
11/11 — Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena
11/14 — Buffalo, NY @ KeyBank Center
11/17 — Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
11/18 — Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
11/21 — Hamilton, ON @ TD Coliseum
11/24 — Chicago, IL @ United Center
11/25 — Chicago, IL @ United Center

Benny Blanco is still in his 30s, but he’s an industry veteran who has worked with just about everybody in pop at this point. That list includes Billie Eilish, and Blanco actually collaborated with her, and Finneas, at the very start of their journey, as he explained on a new episode of Therapuss

The conversation got to Selena Gomez’s old show Wizards Of Waverly Place, and Blanco noted he knew the theme song because it inspired Eilish’s “Bad Guy.” Shane then asked if he had worked with Eilish before and he responded, “I worked with her when she was legit like 14 years old or something.”

When asked if the song was ever released, Blanco explained:

“No, no, no. We have the same lawyer, or we did have the same lawyer, and he was like, ‘There’s this kid Finneas who’s really good and he works with his little sister, and we rep them and we think they could be something.’ They have just signed to Interscope after that and then I was like, ‘Oh, I really like this song,’ and they hadn’t ever played a concert of anything and they were like ‘Oh, come over.’ Or I invited them over to work at my house before anything.

And then literally a week or so later, we went to their first concert ever at… I think it was at The Echo or something. And there was a hundred kids there and half of them were from the label, and then I went to her second show. I think her second show was at the El Rey, and I went to that. I went to her first eight shows and just saw it all happen from the beginning, and they don’t need my help at all.”

Watch the full interview above.

Ravyn Lenae has a portion of the end of this year blocked off, as she’ll be touring along Reneé Rapp. Until then, she’s warming up her vocal cords, and she just did so for BBC Radio 1 with a Live Lounge session. Artists routinely perform covers in that space and for her turn in the studio, she opted to sing a rendition of Sabrina Carpenter’s hit “Please Please Please” (here’s the video).

Lenae kept things minimal, opting for intimate instrumentation, letting the performance focus primarily on her vocals.

This comes after Dolly Parton added to the song’s legacy by hopping on a remix with Carpenter earlier this year. Parton said of the collab, “Of course, she can talk a little bad now and then. I told her, I said, now, I don’t cuss. I don’t make fun of Jesus. I don’t talk bad about God, and I don’t say dirty words, on camera, but known to if I get mad enough.”

Watch the performance here and check out Lenae’s upcoming tour dates supporting Rapp below.

Ravyn Lenae’s 2025 Tour Dates: Reneé Rapp’s Bite Me Tour

09/23 — Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre
09/25 — Rosemont, IL @ Allstate Arena
10/22 — Austin, TX @ Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park
10/23 — Irving, TX @ The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
10/26 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
10/27 — Tampa, FL @ Yuengling Center
10/29 — Charlotte, NC @ Spectrum Center

A few weeks ago, Kevin Abstract and Dominic Fike released their joint single “Geezer” as a preface to a longer project called Blush. At the time, they teased that Geezer would also end up being the name of their group, which they made official today with the release of their second single, “Doggy.”

While Abstract had initially called the song “Doggystyle” in a teaser tweet about its release, it seems that they’ve toned down the imagery of the title. This could end up being a wise choice, as the upbeat toe-tapper certainly comes across less raunchy than the original title suggests.

As for Blush, the album wound up being the follow-up to Kevin’s 2023 album Blanket, albeit casting the Texas musician as more of a curator than the sole focus. The title also refers to the collective of artists featured on the project, which includes fellow former Brockhampton member Ameer Vann, rappers Danny Brown and Jpegmafia, Fike, and a crew of up-and-coming Houston artists.

Despite Blush being less than two weeks old, Abstract has already begun soliciting producers and collaborators for a sequel album on Twitter; you can find more info about that here.

You can listen to Geezers’ “Doggy” above.

Just days ahead of a headlining performance at the Essence Festival of Culture, New Orleans rap legend Master P announced that the set would be his last. After over three decades of setting the standard for independent rap hustle with his label No Limit Records and classic songs like “Ghetto D” and “Make ‘Em Say Ugh,” the man born Percy Miller will hang up his mic to accept a position coaching the basketball team for his hometown college, the University of New Orleans.

With Master P moving on from music, it’s a great time to reconsider his substantial musical legacy — and, perhaps, to speculate a bit on his future, which has ties to all the things he did outside of music. You know how J. Cole played pro in Africa and Canada? As we’ll discover throughout this retrospective, as with so many things, he was just following in footsteps laid down by Master P.

It’s a fitting career pivot for the veteran music impresario, who already had at least a pair of side quests into the sports world. In 1999, he was invited to play in the Charlotte Hornets’ training camp; although he didn’t make the roster, the opportunity turned into a second NBA stint with the Toronto Raptors the following season. He also diversified No Limit to include sports management, representing the New Orleans Saints’ Ricky Williams in his 1999 contract negotiation.

While other rap impresarios such as Jay-Z and Dr. Dre seem to get more press these days, it’s fairly safe to say that hip-hop just wouldn’t look or sound the same without Master P. Certainly, No Limit Records was one of rap’s first completely independent record labels, and its unprecedented success set the bar for endeavors from peers like fellow New Orleanians Cash Money Records and successors such as Tech N9ne’s Strange Music and Los Angeles-based Top Dawg Entertainment.

No Limit was spun off from No Limit Record Shop in Richmond, California, where P first sold tapes from himself and his small cadre of initial signees, which included Big Ed, Dangerous Dame, and Kane & Abel. The direct market success of No Limit led to its deal with Priority and relocation to New Orleans, where P signed many of the artists that eventually became one of the most iconic rosters in Southern rap: Mystikal, Mia X, Mac, Mercedes, Silkk The Shocker, C-Murder Fiend, and even eventually Snoop Doog, fresh from his falling out with Death Row.

Aside from putting New Orleans on the map as one of hip-hop’s most productive hubs, No Limit pioneered the borderline insane level of output we’ve come to expect from today’s rappers. Every time the label released an album, its jewel case booklet featured ads for at least four more listed as “coming soon.” Any discography printed online is almost certainly incomplete, as even the most ardent fans probably couldn’t tell you if every one of those projects dropped as planned.

Then there are the covers. There have already been extensive histories written about Houston’s Pen & Pixel Graphics Inc., the design company that photoshopped bling, flames, military tanks, strippers, and brown bears onto the covers of albums, generating some of the most ludicrous and legendary album covers in hip-hop history. This isn’t scientific, but there’s a nonzero chance that some portion of No Limit’s awe-inspiring sales numbers in the late ’90s and early 2000s were at least partly inspired by the covers alone.

The success of the label allowed No Limit to spin off into a diverse portfolio of industries, including low-budget films (a tradition that continues to this day with labels like Buffalo, New York’s Griselda picking up the torch), television production (hello, 50 Cent and G-Unit), book publishing, fast food (Rap Snacks!), real estate, and even a travel agency. There should be little doubt that P’s broad-ranging, omnivorous appetite for business laid a blueprint for so many rappers-turned-moguls to follow — and a map of pitfalls to avoid in the process.

At Essence Fest, P seemed reluctant to reflect on those days, choosing instead to highlight his ongoing and future endeavors, as well as partners like former Pretty Ricky member Spectacular Smith and Smith’s online business school, Spectacular Academy. The two also apparently have a joint interest in tech. He passed the mic to entrepreneur Jack Hutton, who gave away pieces from his designer eyewear collection to attendees. And he took care to direct attention to Syrita Steib, founder of Operation Restoration, a non-profit geared toward reintegration for incarcerated women, offering education, housing, and employment resources.

And as for P’s future employment: while I’m sure his experiences playing pro and semi-pro basketball and coaching AAU will serve him well at U of New Orleans, it’s his killer instinct that will probably end up determining his success there. During a weekend celebrity basketball game presented by The Battle of Jollof in which P coached Team Jambalaya, he demonstrated some real hoop psychopathy, instructing his team to press full-court from opening tip-off. Again, this was in an exhibition game featuring teams named after diaspora rice dishes, stocked mostly with actors and influencers. Kobe Bryant was definitely looking down grinning from ear to ear.

So if the next few years sees a rash of rappers suddenly jumping into coaching or commissioning their own basketball leagues, you can thank Master P. He may not get the credit for being the pioneer that he is, but just remember: if a rapper anywhere does practically anything other than rap, Master P probably did it first.