At a time when most major artists are holding their lyrical fire when it comes to protest songs taking on the norm-smashing Trump administration, as always, Neil Young is saying the quiet part out loud. Very loud, in fact, on his latest broadside against Donald Trump and his MAGA-fication of Washington, “Big Crime.”

The song from Young and his Chrome Hearts band that dropped on Thursday (Sept. 4) was recorded live at a soundcheck at the group’s Chicago-area show last week and pointedly uses some of Trump’s own catchphrases and recent actions to decry what many have deemed the autocratic-like actions of the current administration.

“No more great again/ No more great again/ There’s big crime in DC at the White House,” Young wails over the stomping, grungy track that opens with a flip of Trump’s signature Make America Great Again slogan before moving on to slamming the president’s recent move to flood the streets of the nation’s capital with armed troops to fight what the White House has claimed is a crime epidemic in the city.

“Don’t need no fascist rules/ Don’t want no fascist schools/ Don’t want soldiers on our streets/ There’s big crime in DC at the White House,” sings Young, 79, who has been a stalwart protest song singer for more than half a century, dating back to 1970’s CSNY Kent State massacre anthem “Ohio.”

Though he doesn’t mention Trump by name on the tune, the target of the lyrics is crystal clear on such lines as, “No more money to the fascists/ The billionaire fascists/ Time to blackout the system/ No more great again.” In a note on his site on Tuesday (Sept. 2), Young called the tune a “new piece of music for these strange times.”

Practically alone among his generation of protest singers in speaking out against Trump, Young has not been shy lately about sharing his thoughts on the sometimes shocking actions during the former reality TV star’s second administration. “If I talk about Donald J. Trump, I may be one of those returning to America who is barred or put in jail to sleep on a cement floor with an aluminum blanket,” Toronto-born Young — who became dual citizen of the U.S and Canada in 2020 — wrote on his Neil Young Archives site in April in a message that appears to have since been taken down.

“That is happening all the time now. Countries have new advice for those returning to America … If I come back from Europe and am barred, can’t play my USA tour, all of the folks who bought tickets will not be able to come to a concert by me,” Young worried at the time. “That’s right folks. If you say anything bad about Trump or his administration, you may be barred from re-entering USA if you are Canadian. If you are a dual citizen like me, who knows? We’ll all find that out together.”

Young has hit out at Trump a number of times in the past, including when Trump used Young’s 1989 protest against injustice anthem “Rockin’ in the Free World” during first White House run in 2015-2016; Young sued Trump over his use of that song and “Devil’s Sidewalk” during the president’s failed 2020 White House bid, dropping the suit after Trump lost to President Joe Biden. After obtaining his American citizenship in 2020, Young wrote a scathing open letter to Trump, calling him a “disgrace to my country.”

In May of this year, Young against vented his anger against Trump, slamming him for being “out of control” following the president’s digs at Bruce Springsteen (“highly overrated… dumb as a rock”) and Taylor Swift (“no longer ‘HOT’”). “Bruce and thousands of musicians think you are ruining America,” Young wrote at the time. “You worry about that instead of the dyin’ kids in Gaza. That’s your problem. I am not scared of you. Neither are the rest of us. You shut down FEMA when we needed it most. That’s your problem Trump. STOP THINKING ABOUT WHAT ROCKERS ARE SAYING. Think about saving America from the mess you made.”

Watch the “Big Crime” video below.

Are you ready for some football? Shaboozey sure is. The “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” singer has partnered with Amazon’s Prime Sports for “Let ‘Em Know,” a new song that will be part of the Thursday Night Football show opening and a national marketing campaign.

The song — snippets of which can be heard in the commercial below and will be part of the campaign rolling out Thursday (Sept. 4) — will premiere Sept. 11 with the Green Bay Packers and Washington Commanders game, and will lead TNF Tonight and Thursday Night Kickoff on Prime Sports each week. This is Prime Sports’ fourth year streaming NFL games on Thursday nights.

“Our collaboration with Shaboozey has produced an incredible campaign that showcases TNF as the ultimate fan experience,” Stacey Rosenson, head of U.S. sports marketing for Prime Video, said in a statement. “Shaboozey is the perfect artist to kick off TNF each week and reflects our commitment to capturing the energy of starting the weekend on Thursday nights.”

Composer Pinar Toprak’s original anthem, commissioned for Thursday Night Football‘s debut in 2022, will continue to serve at TNF’s theme music.

Shaboozey’s career continues to soar. “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” is the longest-running No. 1 by a solo artist on the Billboard Hot 100 at 19 weeks. His follow-up, “Good News,” stands at No. 1 this week on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart.

“Let ‘Em Know” continues Shaboozey’s connection with the NFL: He performed a three-song medley at the Detroit Lions Thanksgiving halftime show in November 2024 against the Chicago Bears.

At a time when social media rewards musicians who share their lives with the public, Japanese artist Ado is proof that mystery can also be a valuable commodity. 

The 22-year-old singer spent the spring and summer performing at arenas in 33 cities across Asia, Europe and the Americas, standing inside a see-through, cube-shaped cage that revealed only her silhouette. Without a video screen to show her face — even cameras and binoculars are strictly forbidden at her concerts — the audience focuses only on her electrifying voice and the orgy of light and graphics displayed behind her. 

“I suppose one of the reasons why the people that come to my shows or listen to my music is so diverse because my style doesn’t specifically speak to a particular gender,” the 22-year-old singer tells Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast through an interpreter. “Perhaps it has to do with me not revealing my identity, but also my voice as well. It’s not typically feminine, and sometimes it can be even more powerful than a masculine voice.” 

Although the audience could see only her silhouette, Ado was aware of her surroundings. “I see a lot,” she explains. “There’s some people out there who are jumping, and then there are others that are like laser fixed on my performance. There are little kids and they’re also older people as well. There’s a wide diversity in terms of my fans, from teenagers to older people [who] seem to love me or love my music, which I appreciate.”

Ado has quickly ascended to a leading role in Japan’s push to export its music to the U.S. and other markets. Signed to Universal Music Group in 2020, Ado topped the Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart the following year with the song “Usseewa.” 

The global popularity of Japanese anime has helped Ado gain a following outside of her home country. In 2022, she was the singing voice actress for the animated film One Piece Film: Red and reached No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 chart with “New Genesis” from the movie. Last year, she found a new audience as a guest on a remix of Imagine Dragons’ “Take Me to the Beach.” This year, Ado become Spotify’s most-streamed Japanese artist outside of Japan.

On her recently concluded Hibana World Tour, Ado became the first Japanese artist to sell out such arenas as Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, SAP Center in San Jose, Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, Uber Arena in Berlin, Accor Arena in Paris and Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam. Through it all, audiences know very little about her other than her music.

As Ado is quick to point out, she’s not unique in hiding her identity. Anonymity is standard in Japan’s vocaloid music scene that centers around music made by a singing synthesizer software that creates vocals in the same way a person can use a digital audio workstation to create songs by dragging and dropping notes onto a screen. She grew up watching vocaloid videos on Niconico, a Japanese video sharing platform, and eventually become an utaite, a person who covers vocaloid songs. Utaite singers traditionally keep their identities a secret and use an avatar to represent their public persona.  

“I thought, ‘Okay, this might be something that I can do.’ Because up until then, if I thought that if I were to sing or become a singer, it involved going on TV, showing who I was, you know, having a spotlight on myself. But being able to do this anonymously seemed to bring up endless possibilities.”

Listen to the entire interview with Ado in the embedded Spotify player below, or go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeart, Podbean or Everand. 

Ice Spice and Latto have ended their feud, surprising fans with a thumping collaboration, “Gyatt,” that hit streaming services on Thursday (Sept. 4).

It’s unclear exactly what caused the pair of rappers to turn the page and get back on good terms, but fans welcomed the admirable team-up with open arms.

“Lord, have mercy, shape real curvy/ My man buy me sticks and stones, words can’t hurt me,” Latto shrewdly rhymes.

Ice Spice takes the baton, rapping about how her figure and beauty always keep the guys fawning over her every word. “N—s be so damn thirsty, tryna jump head first into this fountain,” she raps.

The cover art finds Latto and Ice Spice in the wrestling ring with “Gyatt” splattered across the top in WWE font, which could be a hint at where the direction of the music video is going when it arrives on Friday (Sept. 5).

The Ice Spice/Latto feud dated back to 2023 and they continued to exchange shots last year on Billboard Hot 100 hits like “Sunday Service” and “Think U the Shit (Fart).”

Latto also sniped at Ice in her 2024 Billboard cover story while seemingly dissing her rapping ability by saying she wouldn’t even be worth engaging in a rap battle.

“If I was to do [a battle], it would have to be with somebody I feel like Imma go tit for tat with,” Latto said. “I really don’t mean it as shade. Would she even want to do that?”

Latto’s last single arrived in May with “Somebody,” but she’s dished out some assists like her recent appearance on Young Nudy’s PARADISE album.

Ice Spice has kept relatively quiet in 2025 until “Gyatt”; the Bronx native didn’t release a single all year until joining forces with Latto (though she hopped on KATSEYE’s “Gnarly” remix in June).

Listen to “Gyatt” below.