Concert and hospitality veteran Dan Berkowitz will take on operation of the Playa Luna destination concerts portfolio through his firm 100x Berkowitz tells Billboard. Berkowitz is the founder and CEO of 100x and previously founded CID Entertainment and CID Presents, which he sold to Primesport in 2016. Berkowitz launched 100x in 2022.

Created in partnership with Live Nation in 2023 following the pandemic, Playa Luna briefly served as the umbrella organization for a number of Mexico-based destination events. Starting this month, Berkowitz’s firm 100x will now take sole responsibility for promoting events at the Moon Palace Hotel in Mexico’s Riviera Maya and the Barcelo Hotel in Cabo San Lucas, as well as new events at the historic Charles Krug Winery in Napa where 100x recently organized the sold-out A Weekend in Napa with Andrea Bocelli.

“Playa Luna has set the standard for destination events,” said Berkowitz. “We’re building on that foundation while doubling down on our commitment to putting guests first and artists forward — whether it’s 25,000 people at a camping festival or 200 at an intimate gathering.”

Upcoming events include Viva El Gonzo next May in San José del Cabo, and Brandi Carlile’s Girls Just Wanna Weekend this January in Riviera Maya along with Phish Riviera Maya, Crash My Playa with Luke Bryan, Out of the Blue with Noah Kahan, and more. Berkowitz also told Billboard he plans to expand the number of events that take place at the Moon Palace beyond the traditional January season into a year-round events schedule.

“We want to do more at the venues we operate — more at the Barcelo in Cabo and hopefully more in Napa,” Berkowitz tells Billboard.

The recent transition signals 100x’s success with artist-curated events and the strong consumer demand for destination experiences and VIP ticketing services, Berkowitz tells Billboard, which is planning to begin expanding its portfolio of events starting in 2026.

“This is about building a company grounded in care, trust, and creative ambition,” Berkowitz tells Billboard. “Our goal is to raise the bar for how live events feel — for guests, artists, and the teams that make them happen. None of this would be possible without the incredible team behind 100x and Playa Luna — a group of passionate, hardworking individuals who bring these experiences to life with care, creativity, and excellence.”

Beyond Mexico, 100x is also producing a camping fest in Virginia for Griz and organizing VIP packages and travel experiences for national tours with Chris Stapleton, Luke Bryan, Goose, Phish, The Lumineers, and Max McNown. This summer, 100x will support Dead & Company’s sold out three night run at Golden Gate Park celebrating 60 years of the Grateful Dead’s music.

Raekwon says he often gets asked to explain what constitutes real hip-hop. As one of the founding members of Wu-Tang Clan, and as one of New York hip-hop’s long reigning titans, it’s hard not to ask him this question again.

Especially considering that as I talk with him, he’s on a tour bus with his Wu-Tang brethren — the same brethren who cultivated rap in their gritty, messy image with some of the genre’s most seminal releases, the same brethren who crafted one (quite literally one) of the most infamous albums in music history as a means to protest the devaluation of music in the digital age. This DIY nature behind Raekwon and Wu-Tang’s legacy is rank with a word the former uses a lot during our conversation: “authenticity.” Their fame and legacy are merely secondary, what Rae has always sought to do is make the most truthful art he can.

“To me, it’s like going to the movie theater,” Rae says. His bus is en route to what will soon be two legendary Wu-Tang farewell shows in New York City and California. “You go there, you go pay for what you wanna pay for — but at the same time it’s like, I can’t go see something that’s supposed to be a horror flick but it feels like a commercial horror flick. At the end of the day, give me what I expect of it and don’t allow it to be pushed under the rug, because it may not be as popular as things today is.”

As part of a massive rollout with Nas’ Mass Appeal Records, Raekwon returned with his eighth studio album The Emperor’s New Clothes last week. While we talk about the project, at this point in his career, Rae seems interested more in speaking his mind on the state of hip-hop.

“I see the industry is fouler now, and filled with the greed,” he raps on “1 Life.” “Controlling narratives, sending wrong thoughts to the seeds. Save our babies, there’s nothing else to vibe with the means.”

In a quick chat with Billboard, Raekwon elaborates on these concerns he has with the genre he’s helped define, and how an old Dutch folk tale inspired his latest LP.

Why did you feel now was the time for a new project, and why was Mass Appeal the right vehicle for this next chapter?

Number one, the Mass Appeal collaboration was kind of personal. Because me and my brother Nas, we have a 30-year friendship, and we always said that one day we would connect together and do a project together. So the timing was perfect, and I felt that it was time that I release some music that I had ready for the world that I was working on. So I just kinda leave it in God’s grace, when the time hits it hits. Right now, it was just dope timing. I’m working on a couple of other different projects, so I wanted to make sure that I take care of everything I needed to do with that.

Why did you name your album after a famous folk tale?

That title is a reality title to me. Today, everything is being followed by status quo. I’m a person that’s a big advocate of authenticity over popularity. Just because tomato is to-mato, that don’t mean that you can change the words up. I just think hip-hop is being — what’s the word I wanna say? — hip-hop is definitely being punctured right now by elements that really don’t hold onto the culture the way we know it to be.

I feel like it’s our job to stay authentic. This is not to take shots at anybody, but I just feel like hip-hop is not being represented right. There’s so many different layers on top of it that makes it not authentic to me that it’ll make you question what you know about hip-hop and what you feel. That’s something that I don’t wanna ever have to sacrifice when it comes to knowing what made me who I am today.

The Emperor’s New Clothes is an old folk tale that basically describes: “Don’t believe anything you hear.” I just love the title because I know people automatically would think it was about changing clothes. But nah, it’s really more about don’t get caught up in stuff that doesn’t equate the reality of what s—t really is.

Can you speak on that a little more? What aspects of hip-hop are being punctured right now?

it’s not the same anymore. A lot of things are sounding alike. People are emulating each other, [doing] whatever makes sense according to their popularity, and you have these labels that are so much in power they could change the dynamics of what hip-hop really is, you know? Rap music is rap music, but hip-hop is something that to me always had its own flagship. Rap is something I feel like anybody can do. You can learn overnight to do it, but that doesn’t make you authentic. That just shows you have the talent and the ability to create something, but a lot of times things that everybody feel are hip-hop is not hip-hop, it’s rap. I just think it’s a separation gap here. Rap to me sounds like you’re wrapping something up. I get it — but I just think that it’s a little bit too much to the left when people are still trying to figure out what is really hip-hop.

Hip-hop is not only just skills and good production and art, but it’s supposed to make you feel a certain way. A lot of times, you got all this other stuff sterilized inside of it that makes it not feel authenticated. It’s about if you popular. The bottom line: I just wanted to stay true to the culture. I just feel like hip-hop ain’t authentic no more, you know?

Still, you have Clipse reuniting and and Drake and Kendrick on top. It doesn’t feel like rap is only a young man’s sport anymore.

You just gotta be genuine with knowing that it can’t stray away from what we know it to be. It doesn’t make you less of an artist if you don’t sell a million, billion records. But if you’re authentic, and we feel like at the end of the day it makes sense to do it the way that you feel you wanna do it, and it still feels like something new and fresh… it just can’t be something that at the end of the day everybody is yapping that, “This is it!” When it’s really not it.

A lot of the times it be like that, it be like, “Where the f—k did this s—t come from?” But the popularity of it can make things become that, and then next thing you know you start to feel like you have to respect the status quo because that’s what they feel. When you know at the end of the day, it’s like, “Hol’ up, this is not what I know hip-hop to be.”

So its like you said — you got guys like the Clipse, that they have their own flagship with how they do things and they continue to stay where people expect them to stay. That’s how I feel about myself. Just stay in pocket with what you know people love about the culture and about hip-hop. We were able to express ourselves and not have to worry about listening to somebody that’s trying to capitalize off fame and fortune.

Let’s make sure at the end of the day it feels like a body of work, that it makes sense for what we all love. Even not having albums and CD’s no more in your hand! Now you gotta deal with all these different levels of how music is made. I feel like all of that is just saturating what we all love. To be able to go look at a CD and look at the inside and read the credits and know those sales, whatever they are, are realistic. The way the game is now, you don’t know who’s really selling!

It’s a different game, and not only just that, but the only way I can explain it is authenticity versus popularity. Just because you’re popular don’t necessarily mean that you’re giving us what we want. It’s a lot of stuff out there that just sounds the same.

You connected again with Griselda for this album. You’ve worked with them multiple times. What is it about Westside, Conway and Benny that appeals to you so much?

They take their craft very serious. They know what they’re doing — even when I met them, they always paid me respect and paid my team respect and knew what they had to do. They knew they had to walk a certain way to where people were respecting them. I kinda seen them when they was on they mode, really getting to where they gotta go. I seen their future ahead of time, so I kinda knew that they was gonna be great in this business because I felt it. I felt like they was putting the work in.

How have you been navigating this landscape now when it comes to making and selling music? Did you feel you had to change your practice at all?

I never really felt like I had to change my practice, I only just know I had to become sharper and continue to do what I love and make fresh music and make music that I know moves people. That shows my cleverness, that shows my level of putting my passion into it. That’s important, you don’t wanna lose passion and you also wanna keep being innovative.

I guess maybe coming from one of the biggest rap groups in the world, or the most famous one that really paid their dues, I guess we was just cut from that cloth to keep it the way we know how to keep it, and not just settle for anything. It’s like listening to one of my songs. Somebody might listen to it and be like, “That ain’t it, Chef. That ain’t your style.” You know what I mean? Sometimes you could be persuaded to do something that you think may fit you that really don’t fit you.

Having a cult following like we do, we always get criticized and judged according to our sound and things that we create, and all those things right there keep me grounded. I love criticism, I’m not expecting everybody to love what I do, but I gotta stand next to the ones that know what I’m capable of doing and let them know, “Yo listen, ain’t nothing changed.” I’m still going to give you guys a body of work. I’m always trying to make sure each record plays a significant role in the culture and I just feel like that’s my duty.

Keeping all this in mind, I can’t help but think of Drake at Wireless Fest saying that U.K. rappers are better than American rappers now. What are your thoughts on comments like that?

American rap is the king, we know that. We know where it came from, not taking anything away from European rappers. I just feel like that might have been just something that he felt at that time, but he has his own opinion and that’s cool, you know. To each his own, he may feel that way. He may not feel inspired by what is going on in this side of the world, and he has that opinion. I might beg to differ, but everybody wanna have their moments on what they like and don’t… frustration is definitely in the air.

When you go back to the title “Emperor’s New Clothes,” that’s really a Dutch folktale about a king listening to people that really are following what other people do, and thinking at the end of the day that you could come and bring something over here that’s not real. But he wind up taking the word of others until he realize somebody came out of the blue and said, “Yo, what is that? That’s not what the king should be wearing!” Are you familiar with “The Emperor’s New Clothes?”

I haven’t read it since grade school.

Exactly, but it’s so real — because at the end of the day, somebody will tell you, “Yo, wear this shirt,” and it ain’t even a shirt, but everybody around you: “Yo, that s—t is dope, that s—t is that.” But you’ll be saying to yourself, “Yo, where’s the shirt at? It’s not even a shirt.” Everybody around you in order to please themselves and become a part of what’s going on, to just get a merit from that, they may convince themselves that it is a shirt.

It’s like Nas said a long time ago, “Y’all appointed me to bring rap justice.” I’m just part of that justice that feels at the end of the day, “Hol’ up, hol’ up, hol’ up, hol’ up — let’s figure this s—t out and put it back on track.” That’s all, not to take away from anybody else’s hip-hop. I just know what kind of hip-hop created this s—t. The minute we lose that, we lose the grip on what we created and what we built. I hope that hip-hop will still be exciting 300 years from now, but if we don’t pay attention to certain things that’s important… we wanna make sure it’s preserved.

It feels like what you’re saying is it’s important to remain a student. To know who Wu-Tang is, to understand who Dr. Dre is, in order to keep the culture grounded.

Trust me, I hear a lot of my peers, a lot of times we’re always saying the same thing. Like, when we know that there’s a person that really does something great in the culture, and created a body of work that influenced the people, I hear a lot of my friends say: “Yo, I needed a battery.” I needed this or I needed that. Because it’s too watery right now for me. We gotta keep this s—t on the right track. That’s what I’m aiming to do, to bring that feeling back to the table. It was fun listening to s—t! It was fun hearing, “Yo, what did he say? Rewind that.” It just felt good. We need that. We need that.

Jimmy Buffett’s widow says her late husband’s longtime business manager is improperly using her inheritance to bankroll his legal battle for control of the singer-songwriter’s $275 million estate.

Jane and Mozenter, co-trustees of the $275 million estate, have each brought lawsuits seeking to remove the other due to supposed mismanagement and hostility. Responding to Mozenter for the first time on Tuesday, Jane says the accountant only brought his case as a “retaliatory maneuver” after she notified him that she planned to sue unless he resigned from managing the estate.

“Mr. Mozenter did not resign,” write Jane’s lawyers in the filing, obtained by Billboard. “Instead, he raced to a different court and filed two separate actions against Mrs. Buffett, including this one, as retaliation for her attempt to remove him — presumably using marital trust assets to fund his retaliatory campaign, without ever seeking approval from his co-trustee, Mrs. Buffett, to use marital trust money intended for her benefit to litigate against her.”

Jane Buffett makes the claims in a Monday (July 22) court filing against Rick Mozenter, an accountant who served as Jimmy Buffett’s financial adviser before the singer’s death in 2023. Jane and Mozenter are locked in litigation over who should control Jimmy’s hefty estate, which includes a stake in his successful island-themed hospitality company, Margaritaville.

Jane claims Mozenter’s use of the estate’s funds for legal fees is a “tactic” to improperly gain leverage in the dispute; the move is “clearly intended to drain” Jane’s inheritance so that she’ll back off from her attempts to remove him as trustee, says the court filing.

But Jane isn’t surrendering. Instead, she’s opted to re-assert her allegations against Mozenter – which she originally filed in California – as counterclaims to the accountant’s Florida lawsuit in order to “minimize Mr. Mozenter’s waste of trust funds.”

A lawyer for Jane, Matt Porpora, says in a statement, “Jane will not play into Mr. Mozenter’s hands by litigating this dispute in two separate courts across the country, which would drain the very trust money that Jimmy specifically set aside for her care.”

“Instead, Jane is bringing the fight to Florida, where she and Jimmy called home,” adds Porpora. “Jane is confident she will prevail regardless of where her claims are heard, and her decision to move her claims from California to Florida illustrates that she is the only co-trustee looking to conserve — not waste — trust assets.”

An attorney for Mozenter did not immediately return a request for comment on Tuesday.

Jane and Mozenter’s lawsuits, both filed in early June, tell markedly different stories about the management of Jimmy’s estate after his death at the age of 76.

Mozenter says Jimmy’s will purposefully limited Jane’s control because the singer had concerns about his wife’s ability to manage the family inheritance. Jane grew “very angry” about this situation and as a result became “hostile” towards Mozenter, claims the accountant, refusing to do what he asked and interfering with his duties.

Jane, meanwhile, alleges Mozenter is actually the one acting hostile. She says that after months of refusing to provide her with details about Jimmy’s finances, Mozenter told her that she should only expect to earn $2 million in annual income from the $275 million estate – a “remarkably poor return” that indicates Mozenter is mismanaging the funds, Jane claims.

Shakira and The Weeknd will headline the 2025 Global Citizen Festival on the Great Lawn in New York’s Central Park on Sept. 27. The show hosted by Global Citizen ambassador Hugh Jackman will also feature performances from Tyla, Ayra Starr and Mariah the Scientist, with more participants to be announced soon.

This year’s Global Citizen festival campaign is focused on providing energy access to one million people across Africa, according to a release, an effort that aims to provide access to quality education and football — in partnership with FIFA — for 30,000 children around the world. In addition, the campaign will look to “mobilize $200 million to protect 30 million hectares of the Amazon rainforest, and registering 40,000 New Yorkers to volunteer across the city.”

Tickets for the Global Citizen Festival are free and can be earned by taking action on these issues on the Global Citizen app or here.

“I’m honored to headline the incredible Global Citizen Festival in Central Park this September,” said Shakira in a statement. “Music has always been my way of connecting with people and leaving a mark on the world. I can’t wait to perform, unite, and inspire action.”

Jackman added, “The 2025 Global Citizen Festival marks my eleventh year as host, and I’m thrilled by the progress we’ve made over the years. The growing impact of the Global Citizen movement touches every corner of the world, and I’m eager to advocate alongside my fellow ambassadors, performers, world leaders, and private sector executives to leave the world better than we found it.”

Global Citizen was one of the co-producers behind the first-ever FIFA Club World Cup halftime show on July 13 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey featuring Doja Cat, J Balvin, Tems and Coldplay with Emmanuel Kelly.