Author: Rap Hooks

PETA tried to talk Trina out of performing at SeaWorld.

VIBE was in San Diego on Saturday to see the Miami rapper live at the famous theme park and caught up with Trina after her performance. She told the outlet that she was hesitant at first when she got the invite, saying, “I was excited, but I was like, SeaWorld? How do you perform at SeaWorld? This is like a theme park with kids.”

Trina then revealed that animal rights group PETA sent her “aggressive” messages in an effort to convince her to cancel her appearance. “‘We love you as an artist, we respect you, but you can’t perform,’” Trina recalled. The “Pull Over” rapper and her team ultimately decided to go ahead with the opportunity. VIBE also confirms that PETA reached out months before Trina was set to perform with a message requesting that she cancel while also making a “commitment to stay away from SeaWorld.”

SeaWorld San Diego president Tyler Carter was asked to comment on criticism over the park’s treatment of wildlife, and he told VIBE: “I think the biggest thing we say is come check it out for yourself.”

He added: “Our core mission is education, conservation, and doing better for the planet. I think there’s a lot that people may not fully understand. And so we always recommend checking out our website. We have a lot of information about what we do, and really, just come see it.”

Elsewhere in the profile, Trina spoke highly of the new crop of female rappers, including GloRilla and Sexyy Red saying that she often plays their music to get the crowd excited for her live sets. “When it’s time for the crowd participation, I always go to the new girls coming up, because I be turned up, [and] intrigued with their music,” she admitted. “I hear it, and I see people going crazy; I love it. Because I know how that was when I started. And these little girls, I love them… They have came and dominated the game.”

This isn’t the first time SeaWorld San Diego has made headlines. Soulja Boy and Bow Wow‘s performance last month at their “Summer Spectacular Concert Series” went viral for the second consecutive year.

No matter whose fan army is victorious in the 2025 Billboard Fan Army Face-Off, history will be made. If SB19’s fan army, A’TIN, wins, it will be their third victory, tying T-ara’s Queens for the most wins since the nearly annual competition originated in 2014. (The competition wasn’t held in 2019 or 2021).

If Sabrina Carpenter’s Carpenters, Selena Gomez’s Selenators or Miley Cyrus’s Smilers prevail, it will be the first time that the fan army for an American artist – or for an artist from anywhere other than Southeast Asia – has won. (SB19 is a Filipino group. All the previous winners hailed from South Korea.) It would also be the first time that the fan army for a solo artist has won. All the previous winners were fan armies for groups.

All four artists have had notable chart success. SB19’s “Dam” reached No. 4 on the Billboard Philippines Hot 100 in March. Carpenter, Gomez and Cyrus have each landed No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 during their careers.

The number of fan armies in this competition (which was 64 at the outset on July 14) narrowed from eight to four on Monday Aug. 11 at noon ET. Semifinals voting is now live and wraps on Friday, Aug. 15, at noon ET – at which point the number of fan armies still standing will drop from four to two for the finals.

Here’s a complete list of previous winners of the Billboard Fan Army Face-Off:

2014: BIGBANG’s VIPs
2015: T-ara’s Queens
2016: T-ara’s Queens
2017: T-ara’s Queens
2018: Super Junior’s E.L.F
2019: not held
2020: Super Junior’s E.L.F
2021: not held
2022: Stray Kids’ STAY
2023: SB19’s A’TIN
2024: SB19’s A’TIN

Amid Warner Music Group’s stated efforts to cut annual costs by $300 million, several veteran promotion executives at Atlantic Records were laid off at the label last week after decades in the trenches, Billboard has confirmed.

They include Greg Dorfman, executive vp of promotion; John McMann, executive vp of pop and rhythmic promotion; Tim Dalbec, vp of promotion; and Mark Chotiner, regional director of West Coast promotion. All four executives spent decades with either Atlantic or the larger Warner Music Group (WMG). The layoffs were first reported by RAMP.

Dorfman is a 30-year WMG veteran, having started in radio promotion at Warner before joining Elektra Records in 1994; he was named executive vp of promotion at Elektra Music Group in 2020. McMann, who worked at Atlantic Records for 25 years, joined the label as vp of rhythmic promotion in 2000; prior to that, he worked at Jive Records after beginning his career in radio. Dalbec was at Atlantic for 35 years after starting at the label in 1989 in Northwest promotions, while 35-year industry vet Chotiner had been with Atlantic for roughly 17 years.

Representatives at Atlantic were not reachable at press time.

In July, WMG CEO Robert Kyncl announced the $300 million in annual cost cuts in a staff memo, stating the savings would be achieved through a combination of layoffs and slashing administration and real estate expenses. Kyncl noted that the staff cuts would account for $170 million of the total amount. In the memo, he contextualized the cuts as “the remaining steps in our plan to help future-proof the company and unlock the next era of growth,” adding that the money would be reinvested in the company’s A&R and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) efforts.

Kyncl added that the current wave of layoffs would be the end of a series of staff reductions that began early in 2023, when he assumed the CEO role. A September 2024 round saw significant staff cuts at Atlantic Music Group, with sources estimating that a total of 150 to 175 employees would lose their jobs. The job cuts followed a substantial restructuring at Atlantic Music Group in August 2024, which saw 10K Projects founder Elliot Grainge taking over as CEO and longtime Atlantic leader Julie Greenwald exiting the company. Layoffs have also hit Warner Records and Warner Music Nashville, most recently via a realignment of the Warner Records marketing department.

Doja Cat defended her position as a rapper over the weekend when someone on social media sparked a debate of what she should be classified as.

X user @playeration wrote on Saturday (Aug. 9), “Hopefully after Doja drops pop disco album of the century her fans can stop trying to force her into female rap conversations.” Doja said in her recent V Magazine cover story that Vie, her upcoming fifth studio album, is a “pop-driven project,” while the publication also pointed out that she’s still rapping on much of the album. The same X user doubled down in a subsequent post by writing, “Sorry to inform you guys but you can’t be taken seriously as a rapper without ever prioritizing bars, punchlines, wordplay, and storytelling: the very things that make rap what it is.” They later claimed they asked four different members from Doja’s Kittenz fanbase to share “their best Doja bar and it’s CRICKETS.”

“You don’t listen to or read enough of my writing to be able to make this claim. I’m alright at what I do and sometimes I’m incredible,” Doja replied in the same thread. Please stop trying to downplay my ability it feels like you’re doling out criticism with no constructiveness based on something that’s deeper than just the topic of music.”

The X user @playeration continued emphasizing how examples of Doja’s punchlines and wordplay would justify her position as an MC, but the Grammy-winning artist was purposefully resistant to providing such because “part of me feels like you will immediately shoot it down. What I intend with my work is for the listener to choose what they rock with and what they don’t,” she wrote back. “You have to give me a chance if you’re going to make criticisms about the entirety of my raps. You have to listen. You have to read. If you don’t read or listen how will you know. I shouldn’t have to sit here on twitter and give you a simplified, snipped, deconstructed, and without insulting you, DUMBED down version of my writing for you to be able to hear what hundreds of thousands and lets be honest, millions of people are recognizing as adequate rap bars. You aren’t stupid. Listen to my music.”

The same X user claimed they’ve listened to Doja’s full catalog and are excited about her upcoming Vie tracks “Jealous Type” and “Take Me Dancing,” the latter of which she previewed over the weekend at an after party at the San Francisco drag nightclub Oasis following her headlining set at Outside Lands on Friday night, Aug. 8. Doja debuted the former track during her festival performance. X user @playeration later cited Rakim, Jay-Z and Jeezy as their “frame of reference” when it comes to rappers, which Doja understood and respected.

“Jay Z is a great writer and so is Rakim and Jeezy you have great taste. 😉 Thank you for opening up about that,” she wrote. “If you’ve listened to every single song off of every single album I’ve made I appreciate that. If you’ve haven’t been able to find a bar that you can connect with, thats more than okay, that’s your right. Thank you.”