The NFL and Roc Nation revealed the league’s playlist for the 2025 Songs of the Season ahead of week one on Thursday (Aug. 28).

The season-long initiative is led by Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out single “Ace Trumpets,” along with tracks such as Flau’jae and Waka Flock Flame’s “Courtside,” DJ Snake and J Balvin’s “Noventa” and HDBEENDOPE’s ode to Master P with “Percy Miller.”

“Music is central to the way fans experience the NFL, and Songs of the Season is one way we bring that connection to life,” said Angela Ellis, who serves as the NFL’s vice president of original content and entertainment, in a statement.

She continued: “Together with Roc Nation, we’re celebrating artists who shape culture, giving players and fans a soundtrack that reflects the energy of the game.”

Other artists making the playlist’s cut include Hardrock, Bootsy Collins, Dorothy, Clark D, Nico the Owl and Rhyan Besco. Music from Songs of the Season will be integrated across NFL social platforms, in-game broadcasts and stadiums for all 32 franchises.

The NFL posted a TikTok previewing the pivotal opening Sunday Night Football matchup between AFC heavyweights, with the Baltimore Ravens traveling to western New York to take on the Buffalo Bills in week one, which is soundtracked by Clipse’s Pharrell-produced “Ace Trumpets.”

@nfl

2025 Songs of the Season are here! Click the link in our bio to check out the full playlist on @Apple Music! @Roc Nation #nfl

♬ original sound – NFL

Songs of the Season works in tandem with the league’s Inspire Change platform, which supports social justice initiatives.

Travis Kelce shook up the sports media landscape earlier this week with his engagement to Taylor Swift, but the 2025 NFL season gets underway in Philly next Thursday night (Sept. 4)., when the Dallas Cowboys collide with the defending Super Bowl champions, the Philadelphia Eagles.

Find the entire Songs of the Season playlist below.

The 2025 NFL Songs of the Season have arrived! Check out the official playlist now.

Listen on @AppleMusic: https://t.co/oax7CGft58 @RocNation pic.twitter.com/mwkh24b4vW

— NFL (@NFL) August 28, 2025

Kid Cudi has opened up about how he needed a stint in rehab to curb his marijuana use. On the heels of releasing a new album and his memoir, People sat down with Cudi earlier this week, and during the chat, he admitted there was a point he was smoking 15 blunts per day.

“I just was in this place where I was abusing it,” Cudder said. “I was really abusing it. I was smoking maybe 15 blunts a day, wake up in the mornings, get high. It truly ruled my life.”

After getting out of rehab, Cudi stayed away from smoking weed for two months and then restarted a healthier relationship with marijuana, which he has under control now.

“And now I just get after it at night or on the weekends when I have the free time and I’m just relaxing, but I’m not smoking nowhere near as much weed as I was smoking before,” the Ohio rapper explained. “A joint lasts me all day, damn near. So my relationship has changed with that in a major way. And I’m just more interested in being sober a lot more and being more present.”

Cudi’s memoir arrived on Aug. 12, which finds him baring his soul and delving into his turbulent journey filled with stories of loss, love and battling addiction. An early excerpt from the memoir revealed Cudi nearly died of a drug overdose circa 2010.

“I was at peace with dying,” Cudi wrote. “After doing more coke than I ever had in my life I was losing all sense of what was real. I’d been alone in my New York apartment, crying for hours, listening to the Lykke Li song ‘Time Flies’ on repeat. It was a love song, but the melodies and her voice filled me with despair.”

He continued: “It was peace I was after. Here, crippled on the floor, minutes from overdosing, was the closest I’d ever come to finding it. ‘You made great music that people loved,’ I thought, ‘but this is the end.’”

On the music side, Kid Cudi released his Free album on Aug. 22, which boasts 13 tracks and no featured guests.

Flo Milli is in her mother era. The Alabama rapper returned on Friday (Aug. 22) with Coop for “Perfect Person,” Flo’s second single of 2025, and first since revealing she gave birth to her baby boy, Sixx, in April, which coincided with the arrival of the T-Pain-assisted “Gripper.”

“Perfect Person” unexpectedly samples Hoobastank’s “The Reason,” which flips the 2004 Grammy-nominated hit over trunk-rattling drums and leans into women’s empowerment, as Flo realizes she deserves better while knowing she doesn’t represent perfection herself.

“We knew we’d heard the song before,” Flo tells Billboard of recognizing hints of the alt-rock smash. “The way the sample was singing, they made it sound so much higher than their actual song, so we thought it was girls. We looked it up, and we saw it was slower and everything, and we were just in awe, and we loved it.”

The 25-year-old gushes about her mini-me changing her entire world, as she opens up about love for Mickey Mouse, baby talk and even hair-pulling. Having Sixx around has also amplified her intentions as an artist, realizing it’s not just her she’s responsible for these days.

“It definitely made me go harder, because now I got somebody to not only look after, but I have to set an example to show you can do anything you put your mind to, whether it’s music or not, like you can make it,” she says. “I think it’s just more of me being more hands-on and 10 times more serious about my work.”

Flo Milli’s promising more music later this year, as she builds off the success of her 2024 Fine Ho, Stay project, which produced the top-15 Billboard Hot 100 hit “Never Lose Me.”

Tap into the rest of our interview with Flo, who reveals what Megan Thee Stallion gifted her for Sixx, why women are winning in rap and what it was like like working with Tate McRae.

Walk me through how “Perfect Person” came together?

I kind of just was in the space of observing what’s going on in the media and tapping back into vulnerability and connecting with my fans. Because I feel like I have a lot of different fans around the world. So it’s just about like me tapping into all of that — like, not just making one type of music for one group of people — and I felt like it was a fun song. We’re in summer right now. When Coop and I heard the beat, we loved it from the jump, and we were vibing in the studio and it just came about naturally.

Why did you think about flipping Hoobastank’s “The Reason” into your own world?

The song sounded familiar and I remember we actually did our research on it. I was actually supposed to perform it at one festival, and [Hoobastank] was actually there, and I was so excited, but I ended up not being able to go. I think they loved the song. So it was a cool little moment to cross over.

Tied to the single, you were asking fans about their biggest crashouts on social media. What were some of the funniest responses you got?

This one girl said, “Kicked his side b—h door in, she called the police and I ran a red light and crashed and went to jail.” I’m not gonna say her name, but she said, “Ran an ex over with my car and got 10 years of felony probation. Another one: “Broke my baby daddy’s Rolex and threw his jewelry box out that’s worth $80,000. I’ma keep reading them: “Sliced shorty’s tires for not understanding principles and not giving me money back.” Somebody said, “He kept cheating on me so I lied and said I had gonorrhea. Somebody else said: “F—ked the s—t out of him and then told him we should start seeing other people.” Girl, you did him a favor. 

Obviously, there’s been a huge change in your life with you giving birth to your son, Sixx. How has motherhood been treating you?

It’s been great. Everything, plus more than I expected from it. It’s just cool having a mini-you. It’s just such a blessing. I literally love my son so much. It’s fun and I can’t wait — well, I can wait, because I don’t want him to grow up. Whenever we’re able to go to theme parks and all types of stuff like that, I love doing stuff like that, so it’s been fun so far. It’s just cool watching a baby grow. They literally grow every two days and they do something new. Like, it’s just amazing.

What are some of his recent accomplishments as a baby?

He knows how to flip over. I gotta watch him. He’s starting to crawl a little bit and scream baby talk. He pulls people’s hair. He’s so strong. He loves Mickey Mouse. He’s pretty chill, like, he’s a really cool baby. I’m excited to see how he’s gonna act when he gets older. Like, how his little personality comes in.

Have you played any of your music for him yet?

I actually did play him one of my music videos the other day. I was waiting for him to notice, but I don’t think he noticed me. We gotta give him like a year. He was just looking, but I don’t think he noticed that it’s me yet.

Did any of your music friends get you any cute gifts for him?

Yeah, Megan [Thee Stallion] got us some stuff on my registry, his bassinet and some other cool things that we use all the time. Honestly, I got a lot of gifts. I’m so grateful because I really didn’t have to buy anything, but I still bought a lot of stuff. Like, I actually have an issue. I’m on Amazon buying every day for no reason.

How has being a mom infiltrated your artistry?

Before, it was just like, “Okay, I was doing it for myself, and I love music.” But now it’s like, okay, I’m doing it for myself and somebody else, and I got to do it even better now. So, yeah, it just really made me be more passionate.

How did you link up with Tate McRae for “Bloodonmyhands?”

She reached out and was so sweet about it. I just love her music. First of all, she’s fire, and I went down the whole rabbit hole looking at her videos and songs. She’s dope. She sent me the song, and at first it was melodies, and then we were both kind of like brainstorming on it, but then she finally sent me more, and I was able to kind of like bounce off her energy after that. So it was really, really dope. And I was so excited about that collab, because I’ve never really worked with many pop artists. I was hella pregnant at the time. 

I wanted to touch on you working with T-Pain on “Gripper” and sampling “I’m N Luv (Wit a Stripper).”

I grew up on T-Pain, so that was really exciting. And it was like a no-brainer to put him on the song. And it was pretty easy, he shows love all the time, and it was down for it from the jump. I love the verse and I thought it was a full circle moment. I would have never thought that 10-year-old me would have a song with T pain. So yeah, that’s crazy.

How was going into the K-pop world and hopping on a remix with Aespa?

That was interesting, because I’m like, “Damn, like, they want me on a song?” I was really shocked, but I was super excited about it, because it’s like showing where it really makes me feel like people know that I’m multifaceted and I have different things that I could tap into. So it was a challenge for me, because I was like, “How am I going to do this? Do I need to learn some of their language? How can I stand out? How can I make it amplify this already?” So I sat on that one for a minute because I didn’t want to f—k this up. But eventually I just was like, “I’m gonna just match it up.” 

What was the Flo Milli emo era like?

My emo era, she did what the f—k she wanted, like any style I wanted to try. If I was feeling a little emotional, I might make some sad music. I felt like I was in my very vulnerable era. When I say that, I was in my lover girl vibe, I’ma be very vulnerable, and I feel like people really weren’t used to that Flo Milli, because that’s not the Flo Milli they met. They met the girly, upbeat tempo. I could see people boxing me in, knowing that that’s the only thing they saw. It was really just me showing different parts of myself. 

Flo Milli mourns her emo era via IG story pic.twitter.com/eghuBnlVea

— FloMilliAccess (@FloMilli_Access) August 20, 2025

What kind of music did the emo Flo Milli listen to?

I don’t think these artists are emo, but Kesha, Katy Perry, Fergie and Linkin Park. 

What do you want out of this next era of music and chapter of your career?

I can’t give y’all a direct answer because I’m still exploring and experimenting. I’m literally out here recording now. It depends on how I feel that day. It might be 10 different Flo Millis, but all my personalities in one. I guess how I’m feeling today is very confident. If I could mix two of my alter-egos, it would be Florence Million and Dirty Floanna. It’s rock mixed with hip-hop.

More music coming before the end of the year?

Of course, definitely. I plan on dropping more music soon. 

2024 was such a massive year for women in rap. What do you think was the key to that?

I’ve been writing music since I was nine years old and telling people you want to be a rapper as a woman in 2010, you literally got laughed at, because that wasn’t heard of. Not saying it was impossible, but people just thought it was such a male-dominated thing to where they almost looked at it like football. Why are you a girl playing? Mysteriously, I feel like around 2020 was when everything started happening. I started noticing there’s a lot of female rappers, and they’re all doing their own thing with their own sound and niche thing that makes them different.

I felt like a lot of the women were thriving because we put a lot of energy into our craft. As a guy, all you gotta do is throw a chain on and get a little haircut and you’re a star. I’m not saying there aren’t talented males, but I think it’s easier for them to thrive. Hence, why we have to go overboard to do our best to make sure we’re getting noticed and being creative about it. I think that pushed women to thrive in this era. 

Apple TV+ is about to launch one of its boldest music competition series yet with KPOPPED, a cross-cultural spectacle that brings K-pop idols and Western legends together on the same stage.

Executive produced by Lionel Richie and Megan Thee Stallion, the show pairs acts like TLC, Kylie Minogue, Patti LaBelle and Boy George with some of today’s biggest K-pop groups for high-stakes song battles judged live in Seoul, South Korea. With limited rehearsal time and a mix of languages, styles and generations, each collaboration reimagines iconic hits with a K-pop twist, from “Lady Marmalade” to “Can’t Get You Out of My Head.”

Billboard spoke with Richie and Megan about what drew them to the project, the lessons they learned while filming in Korea, and how they approached creating authentic collaborations that honor both K-pop and Western pop traditions.

You’re both executive producers on KPOPPED. What drew you to this project in the first place, and why did you feel it was the right time to bring K-pop and Western pop together on this scale?

Lionel Richie: The idea was, clearly K-pop in Korea has already popped. K-pop in the rest of the world is popping. So, the concept of putting this in the world, and how we present it to the world, was probably the challenge.

K-pop understands every song that we’ve ever put out in America, in the world — they know it by heart, backwards and forwards. They know every group by heart. But we don’t know them and their culture. So let’s take this culture of our musical history and heritage back to Korea.

PSY was right there. PSY’s ready to go, but who’s going to be my co-pilot, my wing person? And of course, when it came down to, “Okay, who do you want, Lionel?” I said, “Let’s just go all the way crazy, let’s go Megan.”

And all of a sudden, we heard the greatest word I could ever hear in the English language: “Yes, I’m in.” Megan said “yes.” And from that point on, we had magic. Because now we have curiosity. And putting this magical gumbo of music and talent together with Megan is now: “What the hell are we doing?”

Megan Thee Stallion: So when the opportunity came to me, I automatically was like, “Lionel Richie? Hell yeah, I’m in. Whatever he want me to do, I’m doing it.”

Everybody already knows about my love for K-pop, for just being a weeb, an anime nerd and just a big K-pop stan in general. This is right up my alley. This is right up my lane. Y’all don’t gotta twist my arm because I want to do this anyway. When we went to Korea, I was just having a blast. I forgot we were even out there working because I was just living my best life.

Just coming together with him [Lionel] and doing this project, I felt so much gratitude. I felt so much appreciation. I’m just thankful, and I can’t wait for people to see it, because we were literally out there just having a ball.

This show is all about bridging cultures, genres, and generations. What’s one thing you each learned about K-pop during filming that surprised you?

Lionel Richie: For me, it was the precision. I must say, I’m fascinated. A lot of times, you have to figure out how to look relaxed on stage while going through a rehearsal. You’re supposed to make it look like you just did this automatically, and there’s a whole lot of letting go you have to do.

With K-pop, it looks so intricate, but at the same time, when you watch it, they’re flowing together as one unit. I said, “That’s magical, let me figure that out.” And of course, from that point on, I realized they know every song, every musical style. That’s what sparked my curiosity: Can we make this work, to blend these styles, these languages and these generations together? It was basically a cultural conversation through music.

Megan Thee Stallion: I’m a big fan of a lot of girl K-pop groups. So when I see them dance and be so in tune with each other, so in sync, it feels like, “Okay girl, I eat, breathe and sleep performance. This is just me.” I get it.

So I kind of thought they might come off cold, because I didn’t know — do you have interests outside of this? But actually, meeting a lot of those girls and women, we sat down, took our hair out of those ponytails, took the makeup off and just chilled, talking. I realized they’re just girls at the end of the day. We’re from two different parts of the world, but we connected on things we related to as women and as entertainers, especially the pressure that comes with being female entertainers.

Just knowing they were real people, really sweet people, made me so happy. I made a lot of friends and they taught me so many cool things. It wasn’t an act, it wasn’t a show. If you see them being sweet in little moments in interviews, that’s who they actually are. They’re really, really sweet, and I miss them so much.

I was just surprised at how genuinely sweet everybody was.

We’re seeing legendary artists team up with K-pop groups to reimagine iconic songs. How did you approach making sure these collaborations still felt authentic to both sides?

Megan Thee Stallion: I don’t do anything that doesn’t feel authentic to me. If this opportunity didn’t feel like something I was gonna be able to be on board with, I wouldn’t have did it because I don’t know how to fake it. I don’t know how to be anything other than Megan Thee Stallion. I didn’t know how I was gonna make everybody get on my page, but I knew that’s what I was gonna have to do. I was definitely down to come and learn and be a part of this K-pop collab, but how do we make this be Megan Thee Stallion and BILLLIE? How do we make this feel like both of us without taking away the core parts of each of us?

When we had those personal conversations in the back, that real chemistry, once we got on stage, it was just too easy because now we already know each other and we made each other feel very comfortable. We were making stuff up as we go low key. We just met each other and we vibed. We were really up there just being our authentic selves.

Lionel Richie:  When Megan took the time to go beneath the facade of their performance and really found and met them as people, it became a real thing. Megan does not know how to be anything else authentically, but Megan, so that’s perfect. And same with me. I know I act a lot of crazy stuff, but my point is there’s a real Alabama guy here and I only know how to be a certain way. So, when we approach people, we’re looking for where’s the real. I think Megan did a great job in pulling that out of everybody. You did a great job, kid.

If you could pick any K-pop artist or group to remix one of your songs, past or present, who would it be and which song would they do?

 Lionel Richie: I’m gonna call out the big guns, BTS, “All Night Long.” I think that that would be stupid.

Megan Thee Stallion:  I think I would love to hear ATEEZ do “Cognac Queen” or something. Take them completely out of their element and bring them over here on some real Southern Megan Thee Stallion type stuff. I think that’ll be really cute. I think the girls would go crazy.

Watch an exclusive Megan Thee Stallion and BILLLIE rehearsal clip below.

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