In a bid to widen awareness and distribution of Dominican music at a global scale, Alofoke Music, the label founded by media personality Santiago “Alofoke” Matías, has entered into a strategic alliance with Sony Music Central America and the Caribbean (CAC). Under the new partnership, Sony Music CAC will become the exclusive distributor of all upcoming Alofoke Music releases, and will also help market and promote those titles.  

As part of the deal, Sony has also acquired the majority of the more than 700 tracks released under Alofoke Music for over a decade, including  viral hits like “Que Linda” (Lomiiel, Donaty, and Papera); “Con Sonido”(Bulin 47, Ceky Vicini, Alofoke Music), and “Baje Con Trenza” (El Cherry Scom and Ozuna).

“This is a collaboration,” Matías said an exclusive interview in Billboard’s New York offices. “Sony Music is providing us a great opportunity for the platform we’ve created for music and to raise awareness of popular culture, not only in Dominican Republic but also in the Caribbean and throughout Latin America.”

Matías, known by his stage and media name Alofoke, is Dominican Republic’s best-known media personality and founder of Alofoke Media Group, a multimedia platform for urban music, culture and entertainment that’s been instrumental in the promotion and popularization of Dominican music and personalities.

Its holdings include Alofoke Music, which oversees the group’s recorded music ventures, plus radio shows, management of two radio stations in the Dominican Republic (including Alofoke Radio, 99.3FM), social media channels, and his hugely popular YouTube channels: Alofokeradioshow (with 5.49 million subscribers) and AlofokeTVshow (with over 1 million subscribers).

While the Sony deal will no doubt make use of Alofoke’s vast platform, the partnership is only with Alofoke Music, which oversees the group’s recorded music ventures, including the acclaimed “Alofoke Music Sessions”—live studio performances during Alofoke’s radio/YouTube broadcasts that spotlight emerging and established urban artists.

At a time when dembow is finally getting mainstream attention and local artists from El Alfa to Tokischa have millions of streams, acquisition of the Alofoke recordings provides Sony a strong foothold into the market, both for existing material and for new recordings. These will include strategic collaborations on select tracks with potential for global rollout under a shared rights model. The first two releases under Sony are already in development, with official release dates to be announced soon.

“We’re thrilled to join forces with Alofoke, who is a monumental figure in the music and media space in the Dominican Republic and beyond,” said Melissa Exposito, president of Sony Music CAC in a statement. “What he represents in terms of community, culture, and championing talent aligns perfectly with our vision. This partnership is about elevating regional voices in key international markets and building bridges for emerging artists to thrive globally.”

Matías originally launched Alofoke as a website where fans could download music and watch interviews with Dominican artists. When the advent of streaming services made downloading obsolete, the website evolved to become a platform for news and information on Dominican and urban music. What Matías quickly realized was fans not only wanted to hear the music but also hear the news and learn about the artists. The platform became so successful, Matías eventually also took it to radio.

“There were always a lot of websites to download music from. But I gave mine a more informative spin,” says Matías. “I wrote articles on the artists, I would go see them record in the studios and I started to post content on YouTube. YouTube was our big ally.”

Alofoke was an early supporter of many artists. His 2013 compilation album Un Sólo Movimiento, for example, includes tracks by Bad Bunny and Lenny Tavarez.

Matías also used his recording studios to record live performances, often bringing artists together to collaborate, like Lomiiel, Donaty, and Papera in “Que Linda.” On the Alofoke El Iluminado YouTube channel, the video has over 60 million views, and on Spotify, it has over 28 million streams.

Sony began to take notice. Last year, after Matías sold out the Prudential Center for a performance that included his live podcast and musical performances, he began conversations with Sony’s Exposito.

“I sum up this partnership as a blessing,” says Matías. “Not for Alofoke, but for Dominian Republic, the Caribbean, the music, including dembow, merengue, bachata, perico ripiao. All those Dominican roots rhythms that haven’t had exposure. I don’t see it as a business, because the Dominican Republic is a small country and we don’t have an international platform to support us. Sony is bringing that platform and that experience to a country that is so culturally rich. It’s putting us on the map.”

Rapper Busta Rhymes, hip-hop duo Clipse, rapper and singer Tobe Nwigwe and basketball player-turned-rapper LiAngelo Ball — who raps under the stage name GELO — are set to perform at the 2025 ESPY Awards. The show will be held Wednesday (July 16) at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

Nwigwe, joined by David Michael Wyatt, is set to perform the In Memoriam tribute. The spot is expected to include such notables as soccer player Diogo Jota, boxer-turned-pitchman George Foreman and baseball great Bob Uecker. Comedian, actor and podcaster Shane Gillis is set to host the show.

Clipse, which consists of brothers Pusha T and Malice, released their fourth studio album, Let God Sort Em Out, on Friday. It’s the duo’s first studio album in nearly 16 years.

GELO released his debut single “Tweaker” on Jan. 3. The song debuted and peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 later that month. A remix featuring Lil Wayne was released on Feb. 7. “Tweaker” will be featured on GELO’s debut album, League of My Own, which is due July 18 on Def Jam.

Ball played college basketball at UCLA in 2017 and then went pro for the Los Angeles Ballers, Queensboro Swarm and Astros de Jalisco in Mexico. His older brother, Lonzo, is a point guard for the Chicago Bulls, while his younger brother, LaMelo, is a point guard for the Charlotte Hornets.

Busta Rhymes, Clipse and Nwigwe are all past Grammy nominees.

ABC has aired the ESPYs every year since 2015 (except for the pandemic year of 2020, when the show aired on ESPN).

Serena Williams hosted last year’s ESPYs. Ciara was the opening music act.

The 2025 ESPYs will be broadcast on Wednesday (July 16) and air live on ABC at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT. The show will also stream on ESPN+ in pattern with ABC airings across time zones. The ESPYS will also be available to stream on-demand the next day on Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+.
 

Tame Impala frontman Kevin Parker has teased big happenings in the near future, seeming to confirm a new record with his latest social media update.

Taking to Instagram on Saturday (July 13), Parker uploaded a series of images which captured his last few months. Captioned with the phrase “Been busy,” the collection showed pictures depicting Parker with friends and family, behind-the-scenes shots of the promotional video for his Orchid musical “ideas machine,” and snaps of him surrounded by music-making equipment both in and out of the studio.

The last image, however, showed a whiteboard which ostensibly has been used to track the progress of the next Tame Impala album. Notably, all tracks included in the image are listed as “Done.”

The photographic update comes a matter of weeks after Parker previewed new Tame Impala material during a surprise DJ set at Barcelona’s Nitsa Club. “You guys want to hear a new song? “You want to hear a new Tame Impala song?” he asked the crowd. “You’re going to be the first ones to hear it, you realize? There’s no going back from this point on, you realize?”

As it stands, it’s been five years since the last full-length release from Tame Impala. In February 2020, The Slow Rush became the project’s fourth studio record, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard 200. This was one position higher than the previous album, 2015’s Currents, which served as a commercial breakthrough for Parker.

In the time since the last record, Parker has been busy with myriad other projects. In 2023, second album Lonerism would receive a tenth anniversary reissue, and would be followed by the release of the track “Journey to the Real World” for the Barbie soundtrack.

Additionally, Tame Impala would also be credited with remixes of songs from Crowded House and Elvis Presley, and would appear as a guest artist on cuts from Diana Ross and Gorillaz. 

In 2024, Parker would serve as a producer and guest musician for Dua Lipa‘s Radical Optimism album, and would also serve as a guest artist on two tracks from French outfit Justice‘s Hyperdrama album. One of those collaborations, “Neverender,” would see Parker win his first Grammy for best dance/electronic recording in 2025.

Most recently, Justice also announced a series of Australian tour dates for December 2025, with a Tame Impala DJ set listed as the main support alongside Busy P.

As rumors swirl regarding a new album from prog-rock icons King Crimson, the band’s manager has urged fans not to get too excited about the prospect.

News of a fresh record from the English outfit first came to light last week when guitarist Jakko Jakszyk spoke to Goldmine Magazine about his recent solo album, and his joining King Crimson back in 2013.

“It was an amazing thing to have done, and in a way, part of it’s still happening. As we speak, we’re doing a King Crimson studio album,” Jakszyk admitted.

“When that will come out and what format or how—that’s beyond my brief. But yeah, we’ve been doing it piecemeal, and then a couple of months ago, the management said, ‘Can we?’ So, yeah. I’ve been recording that with a view to it coming out in some format at some point. But who knows when?”

Word of a potential new album from the veteran group undoubtedly came as a surprise to many, especially given that King Crimson was viewed as having effectively come to an end following the completion of their 2021 tour dates.

In the wake of mounting speculation, manager David Singleton took to social media to respond to the claims that King Crimson have been in the studio. 

“Addressing this very question before he died, Bill Rieflin posed the excellent question ‘why make a studio album? There are excellent live recordings of all the songs out there already,’” Singleton wrote.

“One possible answer would be an album the very sound of which no-one has ever heard before. A sound driven by the three drummers. And it is true that those drummers have now recorded studio versions of their parts – separately, so that there is perfect separation.

“So there is indeed the seed of a new recording,” he continued. “Whether it is an album, whether it sees the light of day, whether it is something else is unknown. As is the outcome of any creative process.

“So yes, recordings have taken place. We are building a new studio, and when it is complete I am looking forward to seeing what may, or may not, exist. Getting excited about the possibility of a new album, as has been happening in some quarters, is however somewhat premature. Carts before horses.”

King Crimson was initially formed in 1968 by Robert Fripp, Ian McDonald, Greg Lake, Michael Giles, and Peter Sinfiel, with the band releasing their debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King the following year.

Initially disbanding in 1974 after seven albums, further reunions would take place throughout the ’80s and ’90s, with the group’s most recent record, The Power to Believe, arriving in 2003. 

At the time of their last dissolution, in December 2021, Fripp remained the only continuous member from the original lineup, telling Rolling Stone the following year that future tours from the band would only take place “If I knew for certainty that King Crimson touring was the only way to prevent World War III.”