Usher has won a court ruling allowing him to proceed with $700,000 legal claims against music producer Bryan-Michael Cox over a loan for a failed Atlanta restaurant.

A Monday (May 11) ruling in Fulton County court, first obtained and reported by Billboard, says Cox and his business partners cannot dismiss the lawsuit brought against them by the star (born Usher Raymond IV) this past November. This means the case will now move forward into evidence discovery and toward a possible trial.

Cox, whose work with Usher and other R&B artists like Mariah Carey earned him a spot on Billboard’s top producers of the 21st century list, was part of a team that developed plans for a restaurant called “Homage ATL” in 2024. Cox’s business partners in the project were songwriter Keith Thomas, who’s also credited on multiple Usher hits, including the chart-topper “Love In This Club,” and Charles Hughes, who was previously involved in T.I.’s own troubled Atlanta restaurant.

Usher alleges these men approached him in 2024 about investing in the restaurant as a full partner and that he declined, instead opting to lend them $1.7 million to help fund the purchase of a $6 million building in Atlanta’s upscale Buckhead neighborhood. The real estate deal ultimately fell through, and Usher asked for his money back.

According to the lawsuit, the group’s attorney, Alcide Honoré, returned $1 million to Usher. But $700,000 is still missing — and the singer says Honoré effectively admitted that the funds had been improperly spent elsewhere. Now, Usher is leveling breach of contract claims against Cox, Thomas, Hughes and Honoré over the loan balance.

Cox and Thomas both argued that a judge should dismiss them from the case because Honoré was the sole person responsible for processing Usher’s loan, and they had no involvement in the movement of the funds. But Judge Craig L. Schwall Sr. denied the motion during a Monday hearing in Atlanta.

“Construing the pleadings in plaintiff’s favor, those allegations are sufficient to survive dismissal at the pleading stage,” wrote the judge in his order. “Plaintiff has plausibly alleged that the moving defendants solicited, directed, benefited from, or retained the funds at issue, notwithstanding that the funds were routed through defendant Honoré’s attorney trust account.”

Hughes has not responded to the lawsuit. Honoré, meanwhile, countersued Usher last year for interfering with his reputation. Judge Schwall ruled Monday that this counterclaim “appears inartfully pled and may ultimately prove deficient as matter of law,” but he declined Usher’s request to dismiss it outright.

A lawyer for Thomas, Leron Rogers of the firm Fox Rothschild, told Billboard on Thursday (May 14) that they “respectfully disagree with the court’s ruling on procedural grounds.” According to Rogers, Judge Schwall made clear during Monday’s hearing that Honoré will be primarily responsible for explaining where Usher’s $700,000 has gone.

“Our client is aligned with the court’s primary question toward defendant Honoré concerning the location of Mr. Raymond’s money,” said Rogers. “We await attorney Honoré’s response.”

Lawyers representing Usher and the other defendants did not immediately return requests for comment. When the case was first filed, Cox wrote on Instagram that he was only a “passive minority shareholder” in Homage ATL: “I was not a participant in that business transaction and have no involvement in the ongoing legal process,” he claimed. “While I’m unable to share more details right now, I want to make one thing absolutely clear: my 27-year friendship with @usher remains fully intact.”

Coran Capshaw, founder of Red Light Management, will receive the lifetime music industry award at the T.J. Martell Foundation’s 51st annual New York Honors Gala on Tuesday, Sept. 15, at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City.  The event is the foundation’s primary annual fundraiser.

Capshaw has built Red Light into the world’s largest independent artist management company, where he personally manages Dave Matthews Band, Phish, Chris Stapleton and The Strokes, among others.  Beyond management, he has helped shape acclaimed music festivals and venues across the United States.

Capshaw is consistently ranked highly on the Billboard Power 100 List (he ranked No. 19 on the latest list, published in January). He also received an award for personal manager of the year at the 37th Annual Pollstar Awards last month in Los Angeles, as well as the City of Hope’s Spirit of Life Award in 2017. In 2011, he became the first artist manager to receive the Humanitarian Award at the Billboard Touring Awards.

“We are deeply honored to recognize our esteemed music industry colleague Coran Capshaw with this year’s Lifetime Music Industry Award, a tribute to decades of remarkable dedication and philanthropic leadership,” said Steve Gawley, executive vp of Republic Co/head of business & legal affairs at Republic Collective and chairman of the board of trustees at T.J. Martell Foundation. “Coran’s enduring commitment to philanthropy, as well as his ability to rally artists in support of meaningful causes, has made a profound impact on our community. We are proud to shine a spotlight on Coran’s exceptional leadership and lasting contributions to the causes that matter most.”

“I’m honored to support my longtime friend and colleague Coran Capshaw as he receives the T.J. Martell Foundation’s Lifetime Music Industry Award,” said Elliot Groffman, partner at Carroll Guido Groffman Cohen Bar & Karalian, LLP. “In all the years I’ve known Coran and worked alongside Red Light and their artists, philanthropy has always been close to his heart — particularly causes like T.J. Martell, which hits close to home for so many of us who’ve lost friends and colleagues to cancer.”

“I am incredibly honored to support this life-saving work,” Capshaw said in a statement. “Giving back has always been important to me, and being able to engage our generous music community to support vitally important organizations such as the T.J. Martell Foundation is something I’m proud of and will keep doing my part however I can.”

The event’s red carpet will be sponsored by Live Nation. The program will include special performances and celebrity presenters to be announced in the weeks ahead.

For more information on the T.J. Martell Foundation, visit their website. Click here to view tables, tickets, sponsorships and tribute journal ad opportunities.​

Clarence Carter, the blues and soul musician and singer/songwriter with the raspy, emotional vocals whose hits included the sentimental “Patches” and the salacious “Strokin,’” has died at age 90.

Carter’s death was confirmed by Bill Carpenter, a spokesman for his former wife and fellow singer, Candi Staton. Carter died Wednesday of natural causes, according to Carpenter.

Carter, a self-taught guitarist who was born blind in Montgomery, Alabama, and majored in music at Alabama State College, had his biggest hit in 1970 with “Patches,” a plaintive tale about a poor country boy who must become a man and run his family’s farm after his father dies that peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. His 1970 Patches album was also his highest-charting on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 44.

But he specialized in exuberantly raunchy songs like “Strokin’,” a funky, talking ode to sex (“Have you ever made love just before breakfast?” he asks) that was too explicit for commercial radio but became a standard on nightclub jukeboxes and was featured in Eddie Murphy’s 1996 remake of The Nutty Professor.

Another favorite was “Making Love on the Dark End of the Street,” in which Carter narrates a long, cheerful account of how humans and other creatures will go to extremes in the pursuit of passion. His other songs about illicit love included “Slip Away,” a No. 6 Hot 100 hit in 1968, and “Back Door Santa.”

On his bluesy “The Road of Love,” Carter was backed by Duane Allman, then a little-known rocker and session musician who went on to cofound The Allman Brothers Band and make memorable contributions to records by Eric Clapton and Wilson Pickett among others. His hard-hitting “Tell Daddy” was the basis for an Etta James standard, “Tell Mama.”

Carter recorded some of his biggest hits at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where Pickett, Aretha Franklin and other soul greats recorded. In later years, he recorded for the now-defunct Ichiban Records and his own Cee Gee Entertainment.

Carter and Staton were married briefly the 1970s before they divorced. They had a son, Clarence Carter Jr.

In a 2012 interview with The Montgomery Advertiser, the elder Carter said, “I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be going, but I’m going to keep going until something tells me it’s time to quit or Old Man Death comes to run me down.”

–Additional reporting by Katie Atkinson

Madonna’s guerrilla marketing campaign for Confessions II continues, as an album track list has now been announced via posters that were plastered across major cities on Thursday (May 14).

The posters — which echo the album’s cover art — are the latest in the ongoing street marketing blitz for the project that began in mid-April. Since then, posters have appeared in major cities globally, teasing the album’s release date (July 3), title, visuals and cover art.

On the new posters (of which Madonna’s official fan account MadonnaHQ reshared fan-snapped photos), 12 song titles are listed, divided into “Side 1” and “Side 2” with a notation of “33 1/3 RPM” — seemingly a nod to a vinyl album. Currently, there are two options of Confessions II available for preorder in a variety of configurations and variants – one with 12 tracks and one with 16 tracks.

Among the tracks revealed are the set’s lead single “Bring Your Love,” with Sabrina Carpenter, as well as “I Feel So Free,” which was the first song released from the project. Both tracks populate Billboard’s May 16-dated charts, including a Billboard Hot 100 debut for “Bring Your Love.”

Also among the announced tracks is “Danceteria,” which is titled after the famed former New York nightclub from the early 1980s that Madonna frequented pre-stardom and was pivotal in the launch of her career with Sire Records in 1982.

Confessions II is the sequel to Madonna’s 2005 Confessions on a Dance Floor album, which topped the Billboard 200 chart and went on to win the Grammy for best electronic/dance album. For Confessions II, Madonna reunited with her Confessions on a Dance Floor collaborator, writer/producer/DJ Stuart Price.

Also Thursday, Madonna was announced as a headliner for the 2026 World Cup final halftime show alongside Shakira and BTS, with the game taking place July 18, two weeks after her album’s July 3 release.

Here’s the track list that appears on the new poster:

Side 1
I Feel So Free
Good for the Soul
One Step Away
Bring Your Love
Danceteria
Read My Lips

Side 2
Everything
Love Without Words
Bizarre
School
Fragile
My Sins Are My Savior

DJ charity soccer tournament Copa Del Rave has been a fixture in Los Angeles since it launched in 2019. Now, the tournament is activating in a big way for the 2026 FIFA World Cup that starts in June.

In conjunction with the tournament — being played in 16 cities throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada — Copa Del Rave will set up in Los Angeles nightclubs Academy and Exchange L.A. for a residency of match viewing parties.

Each event will feature DJs, labels and party brands representing the countries playing in that day’s match, with Claude VonStroke repping Team USA, Tokimonsta’s Young Art label showing up for South Korea, Reggaeton Rave, Gasolina and Bolo’s Vibraza Records locking in for Mexico and Blaq Pages and Afrobeats To The World repping the African diaspora. The dancefloors will be going off both before and after each game. See the full lineup below.

These events are free with RSVP, with VIP tables also available for a fee. Secure your spot and see the complete event schedule here.

Copa del Rave has raised more than $75,000 for various charities since 2019. Proceeds from this year’s event will go to Common Goal, an organization that creates greater access for kids to play soccer.

“Copa del Rave has always been a huge labor of love, and we’re grateful for everyone’s support over the years,” Copa del Rave co-founders Alastair Duncan and Jonathan McDonald tell Billboard in a joint statement. “For the stars to align, and us to be able to platform global dance music and DJ culture, and support a good cause alongside the world’s biggest sporting event here in LA, was a dream opportunity. Massive thanks to all the DJs and partners, and to the venue team at Academy, for helping bring the Residency to life. It’s going to be a really fun few weeks.”

Meanwhile, stars from all genres are getting in the game for World Cup festivities, with Madonna, Shakira and BTS announced as headliners for the FIFA World Cup Hafltime show happening at MetLife Stadium on July 19. This will mark the first time the World Cup has ever featured a halftime show.