Category: Music

Kacey Musgraves dedicated her emotional Golden Hour ballad “Rainbow,” as well as a cover of “Here You Come Again,” to Dolly Parton in Boston on Friday (Aug. 28).

Musgraves, who’s on tour in support of her Middle of Nowhere album, took a moment on the TD Garden stage Friday to point out it’s not just Parton’s Grammys, or countless other career accolades, that people are talking about in the wake of the country trailblazer’s death.

“It’s what a humanitarian [she was],” Musgraves said. “Someone always looking out for someone else, looking out for the underdog, even when it probably wasn’t easy, even when it didn’t benefit her career. We can all learn a lot from someone like that.”

“She’s woven into the fabric of who we’ve always been, so it just feels extra sad. Let’s all sing this together for her memory, OK?” she suggested, leading the arena crowd in a sweet sing-along of “Rainbow,” the closing track from Musgraves’ Grammy Award-winning 2018 album, Golden Hour.

Photos of Parton, who passed away on Aug. 25 after a brief battle with cancer, were displayed on the big screen behind Musgraves as the room paid tribute to her, singing, “There’s always been a rainbow hangin’ over your head.”

The next song on Musgraves’ set list at Friday’s show was a performance of “Here You Come Again,” off of Parton’s 1977 studio album of the same name.

“Here You Come Again” was Parton’s earliest pop crossover hit, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978. In fact, just two other recordings from Dolly have topped its success on the all-genre ranking: “9 to 5” and her Kenny Rogers duet “Islands in the Stream,” which both became Hot 100 No. 1s in the early 1980s. Though Parton was a prolific songwriter, “Here You Come Again” was penned by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.

Musgraves’ song choice is a callback to when she performed “Here You Come Again” alongside Parton in 2019, during a special segment featuring a medley of Parton’s hits at the Grammys. That year, she also sang the tune in Parton’s honor — as a duet with pop star Katy Perry, in a reprise of their CMT Crossroads performance several years prior — at the MusiCares Person of the Year gala. Musgraves has had a solo cover of “Here You Come Again” in rotation at concerts dating back to 2014.

“She’s an earth angel,” she said of Parton in a red carpet interview at the 2019 Grammys. “She really is. She’s so cool. She’s so present. What I like about her is she has a keen attention to detail, and that’s obviously why she’s had such a long, amazing career. She really cares about those things, she can put her stamp on things without apology … She paved the way for a lot of us, especially in country music. We wouldn’t really be able to do what we do without her. She’s the first who had all of it together. The sex appeal, the brains, the humor, the songwriting, the outfits, the hair.”

Watch the clips Musgraves shared from her Friday night show in Boston below.

Taylor Swift has donated $50,000 to a GoFundMe supporting Ashley Taunton, a Connecticut mother of three who suffered life-threatening injuries while helping strangers after a car accident in Rhode Island.

Taunton, 42, a certified nursing assistant, was driving south on I-95 in July with her youngest daughter when she came upon a group of teenagers whose vehicle had hydroplaned in a rainstorm. She stopped to help move them to safety. While assisting, another car hydroplaned toward the group; Taunton pushed one of the teens out of the way and was struck herself, absorbing the impact. She has since undergone two major surgeries, with more scheduled, and her family says recovery could take up to a year.

Swift’s $50,000 gift, confirmed by Rolling Stone and People, is the largest single donation to the fundraiser, which had raised more than $64,000 as of Friday (Aug. 28); a separate Meal Train for the family has drawn over $16,000. Swift left a message for Taunton in the GoFundMe’s comments: “Wishing you the best recovery possible and sending love to your family! Taylor.”

The gesture continues a pattern for Swift, who has a long history of quietly funding GoFundMe campaigns for fans and strangers facing medical emergencies, including past donations to families affected by natural disasters and accidents. It also comes weeks after Swift and husband Travis Kelce donated $26 million across 20 U.S. charities ahead of their July wedding at Madison Square Garden.

Getting singled out by Sacha Baron Cohen‘s most infamous character turned out to be good publicity, not an insult, for Ed Sheeran.

Cohen’s Ali G: Who Iz I?, due in theaters Oct. 23 via Amazon MGM, resurrects the fictional interviewer 24 years after his last film outing. The character narrates his own return in the trailer, listing everything that went wrong during his two decades away — wars, the pandemic, and Sheeran by name — before pivoting into the film’s premise: a “documentary” built from real interviews and unsuspecting public figures, in the spirit of Cohen’s late-’90s TV show.

Sheeran took the jab as an honor rather than a slight. “Tell 10-year-old me that Ali G would put him in his movie,” he wrote on Instagram. “Restecpa” — the character’s signature butchering of “respect,” first used in 2002’s Ali G Indahouse.

The film marks Cohen’s first time directing a feature himself, after previous Ali G and Borat projects were helmed by other directors. Production was kept under wraps entirely; Cohen reportedly showed up in character at Wimbledon this year without tipping off the film’s existence. The plot centers on Ali G discovering his girlfriend, played by Morgana Robinson, is pregnant after he resurfaces in the public eye.

Not every reaction has matched Sheeran’s good humor. The trailer has stirred real objections in the U.K., where critics and a cinema-boycott push have called out the character’s styling — dreadlocked wig, Rasta-style hat — as racial caricature that hasn’t aged well since Ali G’s original run.

Cohen built Ali G into a defining piece of British comedy before moving on to bigger disguises: Borat, Brüno, a Madonna video cameo, and eventually straight dramatic work in projects like The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Marvel’s Ironheart.

Young Thug and his YSL Records surprise-dropped the Slime Language 3 double album late Friday (Aug. 28).

In addition to the YSL roster, the 41-track project also includes appearances from Lil Baby, Travis Scott, Future, Yeat, Trippie Redd, Cash Cobain, Veeze, Rob49 and more. Among the YSL vets and rookies onboard across the two-plus-hour album: Lil Keed, diamond*, Tezzus, Pz’, Sk8star, 1300SAINT, Yung Kayo, Biggs, iyrus, Yume, Lil Unky, Unfoonk and more.

Slime Language 3 is the latest in a trilogy of YSL compilation albums that started with 2018’s Slime Language and continued with 2021’s Slime Language 2. The series became progressively more popular, with the original project debuting at No. 8 on the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart, while the most recent entry topped that chart as well as Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.

The two biggest songs to come from Slime Language 2 were Young Thug and Gunna’s “Solid” (featuring Drake) and Young Thug and Gunna’s “Ski,” both top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Of course, Gunna is nowhere to be found on this new project, after fulfilling his contractual obligations to YSL with his 2025 album The Last Wun following a falling-out with Young Thug involving the RICO charges that plagued the label.

In October 2024, Young Thug was sentenced to 15 years’ probation and no prison time after pleading guilty in the criminal case accusing him of leading an Atlanta street gang. He released his first post-prison album, UY Scuti, in September 2025.

Listen to the double album and find the full track list below:

SIDE A:

SIDE B:

Cardi B took it to the streets of NYC for the gritty “AH HA” music video, but it cost more than she anticipated, as Cardi revealed the total price tag for shooting the visual was north of $1 million.

The Grammy-winning rapper hopped on Spaces on Thursday (Aug. 27), where Cardi detailed the exhausting process of getting permits in NYC and working with the NYPD, who she feels overcharged her throughout shooting the video because of her A-list celebrity status.

“I don’t understand how the f— this music video was expensive. I swear to God, I wanted this music video to be simple. I wanted a very street New York summer vibe,” she said. “A lot of artists do videos in the streets, that this video would be about $250,000. Bro, this video came out to be over a million.”

Cardi explained that she originally wanted to shoot the visual in her home borough of the Bronx, but ultimately was steered toward Sunset Park in Brooklyn.

“If you look at the video, it doesn’t even give that. Because I’m Cardi B, I be getting overcharged. To get permits, I know for a fact the average rapper that do music videos on blocks, it doesn’t cost that much. I really wanted to do my music video in a small block in the Bronx,” she added. “No, they made me do it in different places.”

Cardi continued: “To get permits, it was so expensive. I feel like they overcharged me for permits. They made it a big deal because I guess I’m Cardi B. It was about 40 NYPD cops, which made it impossible to motherf—ing shoot. NYPD was being so… They was just doing too much.”

The 33-year-old claimed this will be the last time she does a video shoot with fans being able to watch from a distance due to it being an open set, as she gets nervous with hundreds of onlookers.

“This will be the last time I ever do music videos in a public setting that I cannot get control. I was so overstimulated, I was so underwhelmed,” she said. “I did not enjoy doing this music video. … I’m not doing music videos in open settings ever again.”

“AH HA” served as Cardi’s first single of 2026, which arrived on July 31, while the music video was released nearly a month later on Friday (Aug. 28). The DJ SqanQo-produced hit debuted at No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and currently sits at No. 40 on this week’s chart.

The first week of Lil Durk’s murder-for-hire trial featured text messages, an unreleased music video and key testimony from a former member of the Chicago rapper’s Only the Family (OTF) crew.  

You’re reading Billboard’s weekly Lil Durk trial recap, a one-sheet breakdown of everything that happened in the murder-for-hire case over the past week. Stay tuned here each Friday for all the testimony and big events you might have missed.

The trial began Monday (Aug. 24) in Los Angeles federal court, where the “All My Life” hitmaker (Durk Banks) is charged with ordering OTF members to kill rival rapper Quando Rondo in retaliation for the 2020 killing of his close friend and collaborator King Von. Rondo was shot at a Los Angeles gas station in 2022 and survived, but another man known as Lul Pab was killed in the crossfire.

During opening statements, prosecutor Daniel Weiner argued that Durk was “consumed with revenge” after Von’s death. Weiner said Durk arranged for numerous OTF associates to travel from Chicago to L.A. and “track, stalk, hunt and kill” Rondo while he waited for updates in a nearby rental house. Two alleged participants in the killing, David “Browneyez” Lindsey and Deandre “OTF Dede” Wilson, are also on trial.

Defense lawyer Marissa Goldberg responded in her own opening statement that the rapper had “nothing to do with” the shooting, arguing that there isn’t any evidence showing he paid for a hit on Rondo. Goldberg said the real mastermind of the plot was Kavon “Vonnie” Grant, one of the shooters who has flipped and become a government witness.   

“He thought, ‘Oh man, I’ve got an insurance policy,’” said Goldberg of Vonnie’s decision to point the finger at Durk. “I’ve got a big fish I can give them.”

After openings, the first two days of Durk’s trial focused largely on hard evidence. Surveillance video was played on Tuesday (Aug. 25) from an In-N-Out Burger restaurant, where the shooters allegedly stopped for a bite after killing Pab. A detective who reviewed the tape testified that the men seemed to be “joking around” and “having a good time,” according to Los Angeles Magazine.

Also on Tuesday, prosecutors showed numerous text messages sent by Durk after Von’s 2020 death. This included messages where Durk wrote, “I gotta go all out for him,” “I can’t let this slide” and “him dying turning me a different animal.”

On Wednesday (Aug. 26), the jurors heard the first of what is expected to be multiple Durk songs admitted as evidence of Durk’s alleged motive. The prosecution played an unreleased 2021 music video for the song “Redman,” which depicts Durk reading news stories about Von’s death and then shooting a man that prosecutors describe as a Rondo “look-alike.”

Durk’s lawyers maintain that his music should not be taken literally, but instead ought to be viewed as a performance in which he’s “challenging his emotions through his artwork.” Durk attorney Brian Steel drilled down on this argument while cross-examining an FBI agent about the “Redman” video on Wednesday, per Rolling Stone.

“You know that Durk is a musical artist, a poet, true?” Steel asked the agent.

The real fireworks began later on Wednesday when the first of multiple cooperating witnesses took the stand: Kacey “OTF Jam” Hester, a Chicago gang member and former friend of Durk’s who has admitted to being one of the shooters who targeted Rondo.

According to Courthouse News Service, Jam said during direct testimony on Wednesday and Thursday (Aug. 27) that he regretted participating in the murder of an “innocent” man. He told the jury, “I wasn’t feeling good about it at all. I felt it was sloppy.”

Jam testified Thursday that Durk offered a hefty cash reward for the shooting. While this promised sum was never paid, he allegedly received $10,000 to record a track with Durk. After being arrested in 2023 on separate gun charges, he wrote in a note to police, “I know about murders.”

“I had to get it off my chest,” said Jam of his decision to become a government informant. “It was weighing on me.”

Steel aggressively cross-examined Jam on Thursday and Friday (Aug. 28), pointing out that his story had “dramatically” changed over time. Steel suggested that Jam, who has been in and out of prison for much of his life, is lying about Durk’s involvement because he wants a reduced sentence.

“Going home, that’s your mission?” Steel asked the witness, per Rolling Stone.

 “Me, trying to go home? Yes,” Jam replied.

The trial is set to resume Monday and run for several more weeks. It has already drawn some notable spectators, including Ye (formerly Kanye West) and mgk.