Author: Rap Hooks

Wearing a Spurs jersey, Texas native Mickey Guyton sang the U.S. national anthem at game five of the 2026 NBA Finals Saturday night (June 13). The game had the San Antonio Spurs in their hometown, playing the New York Knicks at Frost Bank Center.

The country singer — a four-time Grammy nominee who’s no stranger to “The Star-Spangled Banner,” having notably performed it at the Super Bowl a few years ago — put her natural twang into a powerful vocal delivery that had her hitting a triumphant high note on “free” in the last line of the national anthem.

Born in Arlington, Texas, Guyton’s personal connection to the national anthem runs deep — it was a mesmerizing performance by a very young LeAnn Rimes at a Texas Rangers game, when both Guyton and Rimes were just kids, that inspired her to pursue a music career. “Our church had drove from Waco to Arlington to see a Texas Rangers game,” she recalled to Billboard in an interview back in 2015. “I’ll never forget it. We were all the way in the nosebleed section, and I wasn’t more than 8 or 9 years old. The announcer came on the PA and said, ‘Here is 10-year-old LeAnn Rimes performing the national anthem.’ I thought, ’10? She’s 10?’ Then, she starts singing, and she sounds like a grown woman. It was so bittersweet because I wanted to do that. I was so envious of her.”

Guyton’s latest album release is her sophomore full-length studio set, 2024’s House on Fire, which was led by the single “Nothing Compares to You” featuring Kane Brown.

She recently performed at the 51st annual Gracies Awards Gala, presented by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation (AWMF). The May event, held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., honored actress Andie MacDowell and was hosted by Yvette Nicole Brown.

Watch Guyton’s performance of the national anthem at Saturday’s Spurs vs. Knicks game below.

On the final day (June 13) of an eventful Tribeca Festival, Bono, Patti Smith and Tribeca co-founders Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal gathered in lower Manhattan to honor Bruce Springsteen with the Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award.

“I’m a little embarrassed to get this award,” Springsteen, who dedicated the award to the people of Minneapolis, Portland and Los Angeles for standing “against the federal invasion of their cities this year,” admitted during a lengthy sit-down conversation with Bono. “I’m just a concerned citizen.”

Much like Springsteen’s recent Land of Hopes & Dreams Tour, the main topic of concern at this Tribeca Storytellers event was the erosion of democracy in America and President Trump’s federal overreach. Prior to the conversation, De Niro and Rosenthal introduced the Boss and explained why he was receiving the award.

“This is a man who knows how to use his voice,” explained the Oscar-winning actor. “He uses it to give voice to the powerless and he uses it to lead the resistance. He is fearless and direct. He knows what the problem is and he names it: Donald Trump. Donald J. Trump and his feckless enablers. That’s so important because this isn’t about reasonable disputes on policy: this is about the corruption and megalomania of one person. Bruce Springsteen puts a face on it, and he does it with the words of a poet.”

Though a peer and a self-professed “fan masquerading as a friend,” Bono asked thoughtful and even tough questions of Springsteen during their chat.

Speaking about a rock star’s ability (or inability) to connect with the working class, which both Bono and Springsteen came from, the U2 frontman said, “I fear sometimes we on the left lost a little bit of it and that the accusations of elitism that are out there for people like me are not inaccurate.”

“Has it cost you?” Bono asked Springsteen. “Do you feel torn at all thinking there’s people in this town that used to come see my shows who don’t now? Or have you made peace with that?”

“I’m not sure,” Springsteen candidly answered. “You have to do two things. There’s the classic folk song, “Which Side Are You On?”: you have to make your stand and follow your beliefs and you have to have the faith in them that they will be explicable and understandable by your fellow citizens. And you have to believe that America is a sacred argument and a compromise.”

Elsewhere in the chat, Springsteen pointed out that no one should have shown up to his recent tour – the most explicitly political one he’s done in a career marked by socio-political concerns – expecting anything different from what they got. “I warned everybody what the tour was gonna be like so they didn’t waste their money before they came,” Springsteen said with a chuckle. “I figured I did my job and it was every man for himself after that.”

Despite his consistent activism, Springsteen chooses his battles carefully. Bono shared that in the past he’s asked the Boss to sign various petitions and has been politely but firmly turned down. Bono recalled asking Springsteen to license his 2007 song “Girls In Their Summer Clothes” for a Gap commercial when Bono joined up with the clothing brand for the (PRODUCT) RED campaign, which raised money to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa. Springsteen’s response? No.

“That was a big mistake, too,” Springsteen cut in, seemingly to Bono’s surprise. “I should have said yes.” Explaining it was one of his favorite songs even if it wasn’t a hit, Springsteen admitted, “I should have f–king done it. I have to apologize.”

After standing up and hugging it out, the two welcomed a third Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, Patti Smith, to the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center stage. With Tony Shanahan on keys, she performed a soft plea for peace, “Peaceable Kingdom,” which was inspired by Rachel Corrie, who was killed by an Israeli military bulldozer in 2003 while protesting the demolition of Palestinian homes in Gaza Strip.

Smith then performed a live favorite of hers, “People Have the Power,” a rousing call-to-activism. Springsteen and Shanahan backed her on acoustic guitar, and though Bono left the stage, Bruce called him back out to contribute backup vocals (which he also did).

Nothing on the advance program promised a live performance from Springsteen, but everyone in the crowd was quietly hoping for a little something (key word: quietly, unlike the extremely vocal fans at Miley Cyrus’ Tribeca Q&A last year who heckled until she sang something, though her event never promised music). Springsteen did, in fact, perform, offering up an utterly mesmerizing solo version of “Land of Hope and Dreams.”

Before leaving the stage amid a standing ovation, Springsteen offered up one more important thought to the New York City audience: “Go Knicks.”

Blink-182 have released the 25th anniversary edition of Take Off Your Pants and Jacket via Geffen Records, marking a quarter-century since the landmark album rewrote the rules of what punk rock could achieve commercially.

The expanded edition adds six vault tracks to the original 13-song album — “time to break up,” “mother’s day,” “what went wrong,” “f— a dog,” “don’t tell me it’s over” and “when you f—ed grandpa” — making them available on streaming platforms for the first time.

Originally released across three separate physical configurations of the album in 2001, each corresponding to one of the three emblems on the cover — a red airplane, yellow pants and a green jacket — the hidden tracks have never previously appeared together on a single release. A 2-LP vinyl edition pressed on black vinyl is available for pre-order, with one of the three emblems etched at random onto Side D of each set.

Originally released June 12, 2001 and produced by Jerry Finn — who also helmed 1999’s Enema of the State — Take Off Your Pants and Jacket debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with more than 350,000 copies sold in its first week, making it the first punk rock album in history to open atop the chart. It also hit No. 1 in Canada and Germany and topped the U.K.’s Official Rock & Metal Albums chart.

Lead single “The Rock Show” peaked at No. 3 on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart, “Stay Together for the Kids” reached No. 7 on the same chart, and “First Date” also cracked the top 10 — all three singles landing in the top 10 of Modern Rock in the same album cycle.

Blink-182 — Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker — have sold more than 50 million albums worldwide, accumulated over 16 billion streams and earned a Grammy nomination. Their catalogue includes the Platinum Dude Ranch (1997), 5x Platinum Enema of the State (1999), 2x Platinum Take Off Your Pants and Jacket and 2x Platinum blink-182 (2003). Their 2023 comeback album ONE MORE TIME… logged their third No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 — giving them three chart-toppers in total.

Stream it below.

During a recent episode of his sports talk YouTube show It Is What It Is, Mase hoped that President Donald Trump doesn’t decide to attend another NBA Finals game at Madison Square Garden after he and the crew were discussing how there were more celebrities than usual sitting courtside during Game 3 earlier this week.

“I’m just so glad that they didn’t have Trump come back,” he said in reference to the hoopla that the president’s attendance caused. “It just messed the vibe up, and having the arena back like it was gonna be before he came was really, really exciting to see, and I hope they keep it that way moving forward.”

Co-host Treasure “Stat Baby” Wilson then brought up that Taylor Swift attended Game 4 at MSG and that’s where Cam’ron went on a quick public service about bandwagon fans. “Nothing turns me off [more] than a follower. I can’t stand it. I hate it. I really, really hate it,” he ranted before saying he blocked multiple people for calling him about the Knicks for the first time after they erased the largest deficit in NBA Finals history on Wednesday (June 10). “Taylor Swift, what are you doing there? You’re not even from New York, and you’re jumping around. I hate people like that.”

Adding, “I smile and give you a handshake and still be your friend, but in the back of my brain, I’m like, ‘I have no respect for you. You’re a follower and me and you, we’re not the same kind. So, be careful trying to act like, ‘Hey, Cam, you seen the Knicks?’ Yeah. Congrats to the real Knicks fans. You’re a follower. You’re a Swifty.”

However, the pop singer has actually been a fan of the team for about 20 years and Knicks radio analyst Monica McNutt was reminded of that when she accidentally got herself in trouble with the Swifties after a hot mic caught her questioning Swift’s fandom as well. “She’s not a Knicks fan. Get out of here, girl,” she scoffed as her co-host Tyler Murray was trying to get a picture of Taylor Swift sitting courtside. To Monica’s credit, she took to social media and admitted that she was wrong.

You can watch the full episode below.