Phil Wickham banks his sixth leader on Billboard’s Christian Airplay chart as “What an Awesome God” ascends 2-1 on the list dated Aug. 16. During the Aug. 1-7 tracking week, the song increased by 10% to 5.1 million audience impressions.

On Billboard’s Christian AC Airplay chart, the track reigns for a second frame, having upped Wickham’s career count to eight No. 1s.

“What an Awesome God” has become a popular worship anthem, especially in churches. It was written and originally recorded by Rich Mullins, who released it on his album Winds of Heaven, Stuff on Earth, which hit the Top Christian Albums top 10 in April 1989.

For Wickham’s update, released in April, he and Jonathan Smith wrote new verses, combined with Mullins’ original chorus.

On Christian Airplay, “What an Awesome God” follows “The King Is in the Room,” which hit No. 4 in July. Wickham had last led with “Angels (Glory to God)” for two weeks over the 2024 holidays. He earned his first No. 1 with “This Amazing Grace,” which dominated for 10 weeks starting in March 2014.

Words About ‘Words’

Donald Lawrence earns his seventh Gospel Airplay No. 1 as “Words” rises 2-1 (up 6% in plays).

The song is billed as by Donald Lawrence Presents Music + Arts Global featuring Blanche (last name McAllister). Music + Arts Global is a three-day seminar that includes classes and discussions on gospel music, held this past May in Stockholm.

Lawrence last topped the chart with “In Him There Is No Sorrow,” with Twinkie Clark and Yolanda Adams, in April 2024.

Welcome to heartbreak. Kid Cudi and Ye (formerly Kanye West) had a close bond in the late 2000s and well into the 2010s, but that magic is gone. Cudi joined CBS Mornings on Wednesday (Aug. 13), where he discussed his fractured relationship with Yeezy.

“It’s a sad thing,” Cudi explained. “The freedom we experienced when we were creating, it will just never happen again, and that’s just the heartbreaking side of things.”

The Cleveland rapper said that West left him heartbroken “multiple times.” “Just the code of a friendship,” he added. Kid Cudi even shared they’ve tried to revive their friendship on different occasions, but “[Ye’s] said some things that there’s no coming back from.”

Cudi got specific about how much West’s comments criticizing Virgil Abloh, the late Louis Vuitton designer, after his death irked him.

“The comments that he’s had about Virgil Abloh are just some of the most evil, vile, disturbing, f–ked-up things I’ve heard,” he said. “Every time he took a dig at Virgil, it just made me super angry. Virgil was an angel to everyone.”

While he considered Ye a “really good friend” at one point in their lives, that ship has sailed, as Cudi’s “done” with him now and doesn’t recognize the guy he was once tight with.

“There’s no coming back from that, man,” Cudi continued of his Kids See Ghosts collaborator. “I’m done with you. And it breaks my heart because I loved Kanye. I really loved him. He was part of my life changing and at some point, he was a really good friend, but the man that he has become … I just don’t know that guy anymore. I don’t know him. I don’t know that version of him, and it’s really heartbreaking.”

Ye — who in recent years has faced criticism and consequences for his repeated hate speech — helped usher Cudi to stardom with his contributions to 2008’s 808s & Heartbreak album. A decade later, they finally reunited for a true joint project with 2019’s Kids See Ghosts.

While they had their falling outs and reconciliations in the past — see their memorable reunion on stage in Sacramento in November 2016, for example — the duo appears to be done for good, at least from Cudi’s side.

Cudi’s memoir arrived on Tuesday (Aug. 12), and he’s preparing the release of his Free album on Aug. 22. Watch his full interview with CBS Mornings below.

JISOO of BLACKPINK‘s new music video for “Your Love” is everything BLINKs see in their dreams.

In the hypnotic visual for the South Korean performer’s solo single posted Monday (Aug. 11), she models a pink princess gown while wandering mystical nature landscapes provided by Rainforest Wild ASIA in Singapore, where the video was filmed. “Your love feels like the rain, feels like a song I used to know/
And your love feels like the way there’s only green lights driving home,” JISOO sings as rose petals rain down on her.

The video comes about six months after the K-pop star dropped “Your Love” as part of her AMORTAGE EP. Featuring five tracks total, the project reached No. 11 on the Billboard Top Album Sales chart — marking JISOO’s first solo entry on the listing — while single “Earthquake” peaked at No. 47 on the Billboard Global 200.

JISOO also performs “Your Love” during her solo set each night on BLACKPINK’s ongoing DEADLINE World Tour, which kicked off in early July after more than a year of the group’s members spending time apart to focus on independent projects. LISA, JENNIE and ROSÉ have also been playing solo sets during their shows, which will continue with a run of Asia dates in October and January.

And while JISOO thrived during her solo era with AMORTAGE, she told Billboard back in February that she couldn’t wait to reunite with her bandmates. “Working solo has been an amazing experience,” she said at the time. “But honestly, it can get a little lonely sometimes.”

“Last year, as each member focused on individual activities, we all grew a lot,” she continued. “Now, as we come together for this year, I feel like we’ll be able to return with an even bigger and more spectacular presence.”

Watch JISOO’s new music video for “Your Love” above.

Tory Lanez has lost two of his appeals seeking to overturn his convictions for shooting Megan Thee Stallion, with judges rejecting his argument that the gun allegedly used in the crime had gone “missing.”

In a pair of rulings on Tuesday, a California appeals court denied two so-called habeas corpus petitions filed by Lanez’s attorneys challenging the his felony convictions over the 2020 incident, in which the singer shot Megan in the foot during a drunken argument.

Among other arguments, Lanez claimed in his petitions that key pieces of evidence — including the gun used in the shooting and bullet fragments removed from Megan’s foot — had not been made available to defense attorneys, violating his due process rights.

But in one of Tuesday’s rulings, the appeals court cited a response from prosecutors that said the gun was still simply sitting at the Los Angeles Police Department. And the court said testing it again for DNA evidence would have made no difference to the case.

“Petitioner has failed to [show] that additional DNA testing would establish a claim of actual innocence,” the court wrote. “Both parties’ experts at trial agreed that DNA testing of the magazine showed none of petitioner’s DNA was present, and as to the gun itself the inconclusive findings could neither exclude nor include petitioner as a minor contributor to the DNA found on the gun.”

The court also rejected arguments that prosecutors violated Lanez’s rights by failing to collect a DNA sample from Kelsey Harris – a friend of Megan who Lanez’s lawyers suggested at trial had actually pulled the trigger. “Petitioner essentially concedes that such a claim is ineffectual,” the appeals court wrote. “The prosecution does not have a duty to collect evidence helpful to the defense.”

Tuesday’s rulings are the not the end of the road for Lanez. His direct appeal of his convictions, in which his lawyers have called the guilty verdict a “a miscarriage of justice,” remains pending before the same appeals court. A live hearing for oral arguments is scheduled for next week, with a ruling at some point in the months ahead.

Lanez (Daystar Peterson) was convicted in December 2022 on three felony counts over the violent 2020 incident, in which he shot at the feet of Megan (real name Megan Pete) during an argument following a pool party at Kylie Jenner’s house in the Hollywood Hills. According to prosecutors, when Megan got out of the vehicle and began walking away, Lanez shouted “Dance, bitch!” and fired a gun at her feet. In August 2023, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

In addition to arguments about evidence and DNA, Lanez’s team has offered up testimony from Bradley James, a bodyguard for Harris, that he overheard Harris say that she fired the gun. But in Tuesday’s decisions, the appeals court said Lanez “offers no explanation” why such testimony was submitted in July 2025 “on the eve of oral argument.”

“To the extent petitioner asserts the James affidavit constitutes new evidence, the petition is untimely, and petitioner fails to explain and justify the significant delay in seeking habeas corpus relief on this basis,” the court wrote.

Eminem is never one to back down from a rap challenge, and after being called out by LL Cool J’s Rock The Bells platform on X, Slim Shady delivered.

Rock The Bells sent over a message claiming that nothing in the English dictionary rhymes with “silver,” and Em responded with a verse starting with just that word, and continued to put together a freestyled verse.

The effortless bars included plenty of random name-drops, ranging from comic Bill Burr to Super Bowl-winning quarterback Trent Dilfer and a reference to his Stans documentary.

“Silver pilfer kill fer Gilbert’s still hurts steel shirts Bill Burr milf word off kilter no filter chill brrrr feel burn still slur will stir Trent dilfer Val kilmer Still third shield her he’ll squirt Steven Spielberg Lil twerp Wilshire She’ll purr Kill birds milk curd feel worth Real nerd Stans documentary I liked your film sir,” he wrote to X.

Fans were impressed with Em’s dexterity. “My goat can make anything rhyme,” one person replied, while another said, “Bro’s a walking dictionary.”

Slim Shady is still keeping his mind and pen sharp these days. He reunited with JID for “Animals, Pt. 1” in July as part of the Atlanta rapper’s GDLU preluxe. Eminem also released his Stans documentary, which hit theaters over the weekend. Earlier in August, he popped out at the NYC premiere of the doc to speak to fans.

“Let me tell you why this s–t is crazy to me,” he said in a video of his remarks posted by Shady Media. “Because, when I was writing the song ‘Stan,’ I think I was just understanding the impact that my music was having on some people. And it’s so crazy to me to look at, over my career, just the fact that I was able to impact people.”

Check out Em’s rhyme and the challenge posted to X below: