It appears Wu-Tang Clan may be set to invade Madison Square Garden, according to multiple reports as well as hints from the group itself. The legendary rap crew has been tapped to perform the halftime show for Wednesday’s (June 10) game four of the NBA Finals, a source confirmed to Rolling Stone.

Page Six first reported that the Wu would be heading to MSG as halftime’s entertainment with the NBA Finals returning to the Big Apple for the first time since 1999, which also saw the New York Knicks battling the San Antonio Spurs back then.

Wu-Tang Clan’s official Instagram also appeared to confirm that the group would be performing at MSG on Wednesday night. “Bring Da Hive Knicks in 5,” the Wu captioned a post on its Instagram Story.

Billboard has reached out to Wu-Tang Clan’s reps, the NBA and the Knicks for comment.

It’s still unclear which members will be representing Wu-Tang Clan, but Method Man is a prominent Knicks fan and courtside staple at MSG. Meth also fired up the crowd when he performed the halftime show during game two of the Eastern Conference Finals as the Knicks throttled the Cleveland Cavaliers in May.

The Wu is currently on a break from the crew’s Wu-Tang: The Final Chamber tour. The farewell trek will resume with a North American leg kicking off in August. The crew will be making stops in Atlantic City, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Toronto, Atlanta, Orlando, Tampa, Albuquerque, Salt Lake City and Las Vegas before hosting a final show on Oct. 4 in Phoenix.

2026 is slated to be a celebratory year for Wu-Tang Clan, as the Staten Island group is set to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in November as part of the performers category in the class of ’26. Wu-Tang Clan was also inducted into Billboard‘s Hip-Hop Hall of Fame in 2025.

The Wu will follow Cardi B, who performed at halftime of game three of the NBA Finals at MSG on Monday (June 8). As the series currently stands, the Knicks hold a 2-1 lead with a pivotal game four on tap for Wednesday night.

On Tuesday (June 9), Billboard honored this year’s Indie Power Players during an event held at the Cutting Room in midtown Manhattan, celebrating many of the independent music industry’s top artists and music executives.

Billboard co-chief content officers Jason Lipshutz and Leila Cobo kicked off the evening, highlighting how indie music’s market sector has continued to expand over recent years.

“Many of the world’s biggest artists are signed to indie labels,” Cobo said. “Some of them are here in the house. And, more importantly, what you do is really fueling creativity and musicianship at a very essential and existential time for music.”

Zena White, COO of Partisan Records, accepted the award for Executive of the Year, which was presented to her by Femi Koleoso, the drummer and leader of British jazz group Ezra Collective. The group has had two top 10 hits on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Albums chart with 2019’s You Can’t Steal My Joy and 2024’s Dance No Ones Watching. Partisan is also the label home to Geese, Cigarettes After Sex, Blondshell and Interpol, among many others.

“Your belief and support is allowing us to scale and genuinely compete with established players with much bigger pockets than us,” White said in her acceptance speech. “Art is not a luxury. It’s necessary for us to connect with and understand one another, as well as ourselves. It can be a balm, an escape and in some cases, even a lifesaver.”

Cobo presented Rubén Blades with the Icon Artist award.

“My decision to come to New York was a product of desperation, not careful planning,” Blades said in his acceptance speech. “My first job was as the only employee in the mailroom finding records at the No. 1 salsa recording label in the world. One of my chores was to label and carry a hefty load of LPs and cassettes to the nearest post office while trying to avoid being run over by a bus, taxi or messenger bicycle. To explain how from there I have ended up here tonight will take a while. So instead, my intention is to let everyone understand that my success also belongs to many other people’s talents.”

Richard Gottehrer, co-founder of The Orchard, received the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by current Orchard CEO Brad Navin. Gottehrer detailed his early career as a songwriter, creating “My Boyfriend’s Back” along with Jerry Goldstein, who was also in the room. Gottehrer recalled that, during a downturn in his career where his songs weren’t charting, “if you’re not making hits, no one wants to hire you anymore.” He said how his mother wanted him to go to law school, but he found himself on the Lower East Side in Manhattan in front of a storefront on Orchard Street — which became the first office of what is now the biggest indie label distribution company in the world.

“From the beginning, all we cared about was bringing independent music to the world — anywhere in the world, it makes no difference,” Gottenhrer said. “What language you sing makes no difference. Music is a shared culture that breaks down barriers between people. The Orchard stands for that, believes in it.”

Billboard Indie Power Players cover artist RAYE was honored with the Indie Spirit Award. RAYE has had three songs enter the Billboard Hot 100, including 2025’s “Where Is My Husband!” which peaked at No. 11 on the chart. Her most recent album, This Music May Contain Hope, peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard 200, a career milestone for the wildly talented singer and songwriter whose journey through the major label system to independence has been one of the most intriguing stories in music.

“[RAYE] is a wildly talented singer and songwriter whose career faced years of trials and tribulations, the product of an imperfect major label system that she eventually rejected,” Lipshutz said while presenting RAYE with the award. “The fact that she has gone on to score huge hits, played to sprawling audiences, and released one of the most ambitious albums of any genre this year all as an independent pop superstar is both a miraculous feat of professional reinvention and a foregone conclusion for an artist bursting with ideas.”

In her own speech, which captivated everyone in the room with its inspirational tone, RAYE was effusive about her indie label, Human ReSources, and its founder J Erving, who believed in her when many in the industry had said her career was over.

“I just want to encourage us to ignore the lies, ignore people that don’t need to have an opinion over what you are, who you can be and what you’re gonna do,” she said. “You get to decide that. So let’s keep deciding to make art that inspires us. Maybe it’s seven minutes long, I don’t care. I like it, I believe in it, and that’s what I want to spend my life doing. I’m so grateful, so grateful, that after 14 years in this industry since I started as a songwriter at 14, I really feel like we’re just doing it now. I’m so grateful to J, Human Re Sources, The Orchard and independent artists, come on, let’s go! Thank you!”

On the eve of the fan-centered CMA Fest, Billboard put the focus on country’s movers and shakers with a June 3 Country Power Players party that saw five artists and executives honored with awards that recognized both a new generation of talent and the predecessors who set the table for them.

Tucker Wetmore received the rising star award during the event at Category 10 in Nashville. Red Clay Strays took the groundbreaker award, Riley Green earned the hitmaker award, and The Neal Agency founder Austin Neal collected executive of the year. Miranda Lambert received the icon award.

The hand-me-down nature of the format, which sees the music evolve as new classes of artists and business people emerge, was most evident in Neal’s emotional acceptance of his honor. His father, retired WME partner Kevin Neal, handed off the executive trophy to Austin, acknowledging that Kevin’s own father, the late Bob Neal, was Elvis Presley’s first manager.

As a third-generation construct, The Neal Agency started as a boutique agency, but with a roster that includes Green, Morgan Wallen, HARDY and Ella Langley, Kevin noted, “it’s no longer a boutique agency.”

Green received his hitmaker hardware from Clint Black, a key figure from a previous generation who Green cites as one of his strongest influences. Like Black, Green writes the bulk of his own material while remaining firmly rooted on the traditional end of country’s spectrum. Appropriate to tradition, he paid a nod to his grandparents at the podium.

HARDY hailed Wetmore as a hard-working man reaping the benefits of his dedication, and comedian Matt Rife introduced Red Clay Strays’ mix of country, rock and blues as “a timeless sound that sends us back to music’s golden age at a time when the world sometimes feels like it’s lost its soul.”

Red Clay frontman Brandon Coleman paraphrased another comedian, Eddie Murphy, while embracing their improbable rise: “It’s not a row boat, it’s a sailboat. We’re not looking at a destination and just being like, ‘I’m going to go there and I’m going to achieve this.’ We’re just in a sailboat going where the wind takes us, just trying to be honest and authentic along the way.”

Songwriter Tom Douglas (“The House That Built Me”) celebrated Lambert as an artist who’s “rugged enough to weather whatever this town brings and generous enough to let the young ones stand on her shoulders.”

Lambert confirmed her desire to share her knowledge.

“I’m trying to lift up the next generation,” she said, “because country music is my life. It’s what I’ve dedicated my entire adulthood to.”

Go here for the Country Power Players list.

25 Years Ago

Once Upon A ‘Twice,’ Kenny Chesney Made A Youthful Run At No. 1

The Country Music Hall of Fame member’s single referenced another Hall member’s chart-topper

Most people fall in love more than once during their lifetime, but one thing holds true for everyone: Falling for the first time can only happen once.

That’s the gist of Kenny Chesney’s “Don’t Happen Twice,” which took him to No. 1 for the fourth time in his career on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart dated June 9, 2001. Young romance was definitely a thing for Chesney in that part of his career — 1995’s “Fall in Love” became his first top 10 single, and his early successes also included “Me and You”; his first No. 1, “She’s Got It All”; and six-week chart-topper “How Forever Feels.”

Songwriters Thom McHugh (“Holdin’ Heaven,” “Life Goes On”) and Curtis Lance drew the opening line of the “Don’t Happen Twice” chorus — “We sang ‘Bobby McGee’ on the hood of my car” — from Lance’s own romantic memories. They paid homage in the process to Kris Kristofferson, whose “Me and Bobby McGee” rose to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 after it was covered by Janis Joplin.

“Don’t Happen Twice” followed “I Lost It,” which peaked at No. 3 on Hot Country Songs, as the two new singles pulled from Chesney’s Greatest Hits, which emerged as his first package to lead Top Country Albums on Oct. 14, 2000. Chesney has amassed 23 total No. 1s on Hot Country Songs to date and sent an additional 10 titles to the summit on Country Airplay. He joined the Country Music Hall of Fame last October — that’s another thing that just don’t happen twice.

David Harbour has finally addressed Lily Allen‘s searing West End Girl album, which delves into the breakdown of their four-year marriage that singer has implied was due, in part, to the actor’s alleged infidelity.

In a Variety interview published Wednesday (June 10), Harbour opened up about the “weird” experience of having his personal life dissected by strangers after the British pop singer’s LP dropped in October, which the article notes led to him having a “frightening mental health emergency” exacerbated by his struggles with bipolar disorder. “I do believe that it is the privilege of every artist to use their experience to create art, and so I respect her for doing that,” the Stranger Things star began.

“I can’t really say that much more,” he continued, “because it’s my private life. In spite of the fact that a lot of people don’t allow me a private life — I value it. And I also value the lives of the people that I interact with privately. I just won’t speak about that … Stories are complex. That’s why I say I respect her creation of art to channel her experience. It wasn’t my experience.”

Through blunt songs such as “West End Girl” and “Madeline,” Allen narrates the deterioration of a relationship from start to finish, beginning with her ex-husband resenting her for landing a lead role in a West End play and asking for an open relationship during her time acting overseas. She then describes how that partner allegedly violated the terms they’d agreed upon for hooking up with other people, calling him a “sex addict” on “Pussy Palace.”

The project earned Allen more critical acclaim than she’d garnered in years, reaching No. 10 on the Top Album Sales chart. “It’s viscerally like going through the motions,” the musician told Interview in October, noting that some of the LP “is based on truth, and some of it is fantasy.” “At the time, I was really trying to process things, and that’s great in terms of the album, but I don’t feel confused or angry now. I don’t need revenge.”

The aftermath of West End Girl‘s release looked a lot different for Harbour, who revealed in his conversation with Variety that he “had a breakdown” after it dropped. “I do suffer from some confusing stuff — it’s confusing as hell,” he explained. “I think a lot of people have a friend or a brother or a coworker that deals with mental health stuff, and they’re probably pretty confused when that person gets depressed or gets manic or has an episode.”

“Under times of extreme stress, that can cause somewhat erratic behavior, and it’s embarrassing, and I’m ashamed of it,” he continued. “It’s not something I choose, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy … it can also force me, in moments of extreme stress, to act a little weird.”

As for those stories that his Stranger Things costar Millie Bobby Brown had filed a harassment and bullying report against him on set of season five, which emerged shortly after West End Girl dropped, Harbour said they were overblown. “It was just a simple rupture-and-repair thing that,” he explained of what went down with the young actress. “Once we cleared everybody out of the way and talked to each other, we’re fine.”

“You’ll see more of me and Millie — 10 years wasn’t enough,” he also hinted. “There is a special bond there. I love her. She loves me.”

Allen and Harbour tied the knot in 2020 after meeting on the dating app Raya. News of their separation came in February 2025, shortly after the singer had shared with podcast listeners that she was struggling with her mental health and disordered eating.

She’s now in much better shape, having embarked on a tour supporting West End Girl in March. She’ll continue the trek through the summer and fall, with the last date set for Nov. 1 in Perth, Australia.