Author: Rap Hooks

Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter made a rare live appearance during a surprise DJ set with Fred again.. in Paris.

On Saturday (Oct. 25), the duo went B2B at Paris’ Centre Pompidou as part of Because Beaubourg, a two-day celebration marking the 20th anniversary of French record label Because Music. They were joined by fellow DJs Erol Alkan and Busy P.

The performance marked Bangalter’s first DJ set in 16 years. During the set, the French musician spun a mix of Daft Punk classics — including “Contact,” “Rollin’ & Scratchin’,” and “Digital Love” — as well as The Chemical Brothers’ “Galvanise” and Jonny Greenwood’s score for One Battle After Another, according to NME.

Saturday’s performance was also the final show at the Centre Pompidou before the venue closes for renovations over the next five years. Check out the livestream here.

“Last night I got to play with Thomas Bangalter, Erol Alkan, Busy P at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the last night before it closes for 5 years,” Fred Again.. wrote on Instagram. “Thomas told me in this lift on the way down to the show that the first time he fell in love with electronic music was in this building in 1992. He also told me hasn’t played a proper set without the mask on for 24 years. I didn’t know what to say to either of those things and I still don’t.”

The electronic producer added, “All I said to him at the end is that I hope it isn’t 24 years til the next.”

Iconic dance artists flooded the comments to share their excitement. “Legendary!!” Tiësto wrote, while David Guetta added “wow,” accompanied by several raised-hand emojis.

Daft Punk’s last live performance took place alongside The Weeknd at the 2017 Grammy Awards. Since the pioneering French electronic duo announced their split in 2021, Bangalter has scored several projects, including a French ballet and a comedy film inspired by Salvador Dalí.

Snoop Dogg is celebrating his time with the No Limit crew.

The veteran hip-hop star made a surprise appearance on Saturday (Oct. 25) to show support for his former record label during its battle against Cash Money Records at ComplexCon in Las Vegas.

The “Drop It Like It’s Hot” rapper hit the stage to perform C-Murder’s classic “Down 4 My N****z,” sending the crowd at the Las Vegas Convention Center into a frenzy.

After leaving Death Row Records, Snoop joined Master P’s No Limit Records in 1998, releasing three albums — No Limit: Da Game Is to Be Sold, Not to Be Told (1998), No Limit Top Dogg (1999) and Tha Last Meal (2000) — during his brief time at the label.

Saturday’s Verzuz showdown celebrated two of Louisiana’s most iconic rap labels. No Limit’s lineup included Master P, Mia X and Silk the Shocker, while Cash Money brought heavy hitters like Juvenile, B.G., Mannie Fresh and Birdman.

Fans were treated to performances of legendary tracks including “400 Degreez,” “I’m Still Fly,” “Bling Bling,” “Break Em Off Something,” “How U Do That There,” “Slow Motion,” “Project Chick,” “Bout It Bout It,” “Real Big,” and “Make Em Say Unh,” according to Complex.

In early October, Complex announced a partnership with Verzuz to relaunch the music battle series at ComplexCon. “Rather than talking so much, we just want to get to the action,” Verzuz co-founders Swizz Beatz and Timbaland said in a joint statement.

Verzuz was launched in March 2020 by Timbaland and Swizz Beatz as a creative outlet during the COVID-19 pandemic. The platform was sold to Triller Network in March 2021 but had been largely dormant for nearly three years. Its most recent battles before ComplexCon included Cypress Hill vs. Onyx; 8Ball & MJG vs. UGK; Omarion vs. Mario; and Luny Tunes vs. DJ Nelson.

Watch Snoop’s surprise appearance at the No Limit-Cash Money Verzuz battle on Instagram here, and see more photos from the event here.

Hailey Bieber is opening up about whether she and her husband, Justin Bieber, are ready to expand their family.

During an appearance on the In Your Dreams With Owen Thiele podcast, posted Friday (Oct. 24), the 28-year-old Rhode Beauty founder shared that she’s definitely open to having more children following the birth of her first son, Jack Blues Bieber, in August 2024.

After host Thiele joked that she and Justin could soon have “five Biebers running around,” Hailey didn’t rule out the idea.

“I know I want more than one, but I’m not in a rush,” the model said. “I always knew I wanted to be a mom, though. Since I was a little kid, I always envisioned myself having kids. You know what’s funny? The older I’ve gotten and now that I have a kid, I think any decision anyone makes about having them or not having them is totally amazing.”

She admitted that motherhood has come with its challenges, adding that having her first child at 27 “felt a little daunting.”

“I do think there were fears around it,” Bieber said. “I didn’t know what to expect. Once they’re here, you just figure it out day by day. And it’s like every single day I’m learning about how to be a mom and what’s best for my son and what’s best for me as a mom.”

While she describes herself as “super, super, super hands-on” with 14-month-old Jack Blues, Hailey also acknowledged that she has help with childcare.

“I do have help, I have full-time help and I’m super not ashamed to say that,” she said. “And I would never shy away from talking about that because I wouldn’t be able to have my career and do the things that I do without the help, and I’m really grateful for that.”

She added, “If he’s not with me, he’s with his dad. He’s always with his family and he’s always with one of us, or with his godparents.”

Hailey also shared that she and Justin plan to take Jack along on their travels so he can experience the world alongside them.

“I think I want him to grow up in multiple places,” Bieber said. “I think we’re such travelers as a family and we were that way before we had him. So, I think I just want him to grow up traveling, which is honestly how I grew up and I love that. I learned so much.”

Hailey and Justin Bieber married in a New York City courthouse in 2018 before celebrating with a larger wedding ceremony in Bluffton, South Carolina, the following year.

Watch Hailey’s full conversation on the In Your Dreams With Owen Thiele podcast here.

Carly Rae Jepsen and Cole M.G.N. have officially tied the knot.

The pop star, 39, and music producer, 40, exchanged vows on Oct. 4 at New York City’s Chelsea Hotel in an intimate ceremony attended by about 100 guests in the iconic building’s Bard Room, according to Vogue.

“We knew we wanted a location that meant something to us, and the Chelsea Hotel had become a home away from home every time we were in New York,” Jepsen told the publication. “As artists, its iconic history and lore made it that much more appealing. For planning, we had weekly dates to talk out all the details of the wedding. This way it was only ever fun and not too much at once.”

On Saturday (Oct. 25), the “Call Me Maybe” singer confirmed the nuptials on social media, sharing behind-the-scenes glimpses from the celebration. Her posts included black-and-white snapshots from inside the Chelsea Hotel and photos in front of NYC’s Broni & Belle Pizzeria.

“Thank you for this magic,” she captioned the Instagram gallery.

Jepsen wore two wedding looks: a strapless corseted gown by Australian designer Toni Maticevski for the ceremony and a tiered dress by Danielle Frankel for the reception. “We knew we were trying to get pregnant, so I also wanted an alternative dress that was much more flowy that I could sub in for the ceremony or just change into for dancing,” she said.

The intimate celebration reportedly featured a surprise performance by Rufus Wainwright, who delivered an a cappella rendition of Leonard Cohen’s 1974 song “Chelsea Hotel #2.”

Jepsen announced her engagement to Cole M.G.N. in September 2024 through Instagram, sharing photos of the couple embracing outdoors and showing off her sparkling engagement ring. “Very engaged over here,” she captioned the post.

Alongside her personal milestone, Jepsen is celebrating the release of the special edition of her 2010 album, Emotion. The 10th anniversary deluxe project, released on Oct. 17, features four brand-new songs and two remixes of her 2015 single “Run Away With Me” by Kyle Shearer and Rostam.

Check out Jepsen’s wedding posts on Instagram here and here.

Three decades ago, Bette Midler eyed trash-filled parks in New York City with a mixture of dismay and anger. But unlike most people who complain about things in NYC, she did something about it—and inspired countless others to follow in her footsteps. In 1995, the actress-singer-comedian tapped her connections and resources to form the New York Restoration Project (NYRP), which over the course of the last 30 years has cleaned up, transformed and created green spaces for New Yorkers across the five boroughs, with a focus on helping underserved communities get the green space they deserve as much as the loaded locales living across from Central Park.

Part of the NYRP’s fundraising arm is its annual Hulaween gala, an explosion of costumed creativity that took over Manhattan’s Cipriani South Street on Friday (Oct. 24) night to mark 30 years of the Tony-, Grammy-, Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning icon’s nonprofit. And what better way to salute the tart-tongued talent than publicly insult her. “We’re here for the late Bette Midler,” joked surprise performer Buddy Young Jr., aka Billy Crystal resurrecting the character from his 1992 dramedy Mr. Saturday Night. “Talk about a restoration project!”

Backed by a band led by the indefatigable Will Lee, Crystal performed a bawdy tune and cracked a few Borscht Belt-styled jokes (“My wife told me to come upstairs and make love to her; I told her, ‘Make up your mind, I can’t do both!’”), clearly relishing the opportunity to dust off the deliciously kitschy character from his directorial debut and surprise an old friend. By the time Midler took the stage to accept the catalyst award to mark her environmental efforts, she was genuinely in tears, having had no idea Crystal and Marc Shaiman, another longtime friend, would be onstage paying tribute to her.

Midler herself got off a few zingers during her heartfelt speech, which saw her generously praise dozens of people who helped her nonprofit help New Yorkers over the decades. “Credit where credit is due,” she said as she thanked Rudy Giuliani (who was not present) for helping NYRP back when he was the city’s mayor—“back when he was sane,” she added, casting an eye up to the heavens: “God help that young man.”

The 2025 Hulaween theme was “New York, New York, A Helluva Town!”, which inspired dozens of knockout costumes, from a group who did Sesame Street characters to a woman who walked around in a bloody daze with a fallen AC unit smashed around her body. That theme also inspired the musical selections for the evening’s performers: Christopher Cross trotted out his Oscar-winning tune “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)”; Ben Platt knocked a funky cover of the Drifters’ “On Broadway” out of the park; Sandra Bernhard belted a killer take on St. Vincent’s “New York” (any song with “motherf–ker” in the lyrics is gonna be a natural fit for Bernhard); Shoshana Bean sang a delightful version of the Ad Libs’ girl-group classic “The Boy From New York City”; and Marisha Wallace dazzled with a powerhouse “New York, New York” in the vein of the original Liza Minnelli version.

The event raised $2.9 million, thanks in large part to a $1 million donation from designer Mica Ertegun (the wife of late music industry titan Ahmet Ertegun) prior to her death. Generous bids from the 500-strong crowd—which included Michael Kors, Darren Criss, Andy Cohen (as Andy Warhol), host Busy Philipps (as Cher in Moonstruck), Jann Wenner, Graydon Carter and Midler’s daughter Sophie von Haselberg—also helped bring in that whopping total for the nonprofit’s 30th birthday.

“That’s what we were put on earth to do,” Midler said at one point during the night. “To share. Not to hoard.”