Adin Ross has come to Drake’s defense and blasted LeBron James after footage surfaced earlier this week of the Los Angeles Lakers superstar in France dancing and singing along to Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” diss.

Ross went after King James during a Tuesday (July 22) livestream for crossing Drake, whom the streamer is tight with, and went as far as labeling him a “piece of s—t human.”

“As I love LeBron my whole life, you can just see what a piece of s–t human he is,” Ross spewed. “Imagine if your best friend for 15 years — and he’s met his actual children — and you’re rapping to a song about him being a pedophile. It’s sad.”

He continued: “This is not my beef, but I’m very close with Drake and it’s just sad. You guys can call me parasocial, but it does affect the way that I like LeBron. How can you respect someone that has no loyalty with someone he has known for 15 years? … Y’all know it’s wrong. Y’all know it’s whack.”

Ross also has a relationship with LeBron’s son, Bronny Jr., who also plays for the Lakers, but they haven’t been spotted together in recent months.

Billboard has reached out to James’ reps for comment on Ross.

Drake appeared to address James switching sides on him in January with the Conductor Williams-produced “Fighting Irish Freestyle,” which never hit streaming. The 6 God was also spotted with his James tattoo covered up by ink featuring NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He also possibly took another shot at LeBron on his “What Did I Miss?” single earlier in July for attending Kendrick Lamar’s Pop Out concert. “I saw bro went to Pop Out with them, but been d—k riding gang since ‘Headlines,’” he raps.

Drake is gearing up for the second episode of Iceman, which appears to be slated for Thursday night (July 24) at 9 p.m. ET.

Klay Thompson definitely scored an ace with Megan Thee Stallion, whom the basketball player called his “good luck charm” during an adorable golf date shared by the rapper on TikTok.

Shortly after confirming their romance, the couple hit up a golf course in Arkansas and practiced their swings together, as captured in a video posted by Meg on Wednesday (July 23). The clip opens with Thompson sweetly picking out an outfit for his Grammy-winning girlfriend before cutting to the couple riding on a golf cart, the NBA star lighting up a cigar while driving Ms. Stallion around the putting green.

Repeatedly calling her boyfriend “baby” and cheering him on as he makes his way through the course, Meg plays the role of cheerleader before getting in on the action, with Thompson at one point wrapping his arms around her from behind to correct her stance. “There you go!” he tells her supportively. “That was really good.”

“Ooh, you look handsome!” Meg tells Thompson, kissing him on camera.

After calculating his score at the end of the date, the Dallas Mavericks player says excitedly, “Ever since I’ve been in love, my golf game’s reaped all the benefits!”

The lovey-dovey post comes less than two weeks after the hip-hop star and Thompson announced their relationship by going Instagram official, days after which they made their red-carpet debut at Meg’s inaugural Pete & Thomas Foundation Gala. The Houston Hottie has been giving fans peeks into their dynamic ever since, at one point sharing a video of their couple’s workout routine.

“I have never dated somebody so kind,” Meg told Page Six at her gala. “This is my first relationship where I’ve ever been with somebody who’s genuinely a nice person, and he makes me genuinely happy.”

Watch Thompson and Stallion’s golf date below.

@theestallion

Okay so boom Im learning about golfing ⛳️🏌🏽‍♀️

♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys – Kevin MacLeod & Kevin The Monkey

The best revenge, it’s been said, is a life well-lived.

That doesn’t mean twisting the knife is completely out of bounds. Morgan Wallen’s new single, “I Got Better,” is an ideal example. The protagonist reclaims his personality, reestablishes broken friendships, then suggests his improvement is all a result of his ex’s departure: “I got better since you got gone.” But interpretations of “I Got Better” are not limited to that surface storyline; there’s something deeper at work.

“The girl could be anything to me,” Wallen says. “It wasn’t necessarily a relationship with another human. It could have been a relationship with anything in your life that was holding you back, and the only thing that you did was eliminate that, and everything became clearer in your life.”

That therapy session of a song came from a breakfast songwriting session, conducted at Wallen’s farmhouse around the end of last year.

There were plenty of contributors at the table: Blake Pendergrass (“Heart of Stone,” “Just in Case”), HARDY, ERNEST, Charlie Handsome (“Last Night,” “Downtown’s Dead”) and Chase McGill (“Happen to Me,” “Straight Line”). And Wallen handled the cooking himself.

“He’s a big cast-iron skillet guy,” Pendergrass says. “Especially out in the country, it just gives it that great flavor.”

Food wasn’t the only thing on the menu. The group chat turned toward religion, and they specifically debated how extensive the flooding was in the Old Testament tale of Noah’s ark.

“ERNEST was going off of that conversation,” Pendergrass remembers. “He just sang that melody, like, ‘The world got bigger since the Bible got wrote.’ ”

That clicked with the crew, and in short order, they revised the words over that same melody to “I got better since you got gone.” Meanwhile, Handsome shuffled through his trove of track ideas and came across something he’d started with Joe Reeves (“Broadway Girls”), based primarily around chugging arpeggios on electric guitar. It was unusual for a country song — all major sevenths and minor chords; not a single major triad, according to ultimate-guitar.com.

“That’s not the music I would play at all,” McGill notes. “But Charlie does that perfectly wrong in all the right ways.”

That’s apropos, given that the song’s protagonist was flipping all the wrongs in his life to right. Wallen insisted on painting that picture simply, which actually makes the story all the more dramatic.

“We went through all kinds of different ways to write it, and in my mind, the song needed to be a certain way, and everyone else kind of had a different idea about it,” he says. “I was adamant that I wanted it to be where the guy literally didn’t change anything in his life other than the girl was gone.”

With that decided, the opening verse recounted a few regular activities that would seem fairly typical for a good ol’ boy: deer hunting, sports, Fridays at the bar. They used the title twice in that verse, then HARDY took charge of the chorus melody, bumping it up just a hair higher as the singer celebrates how his world has turned: “I’m finally back to being who I am,” he proclaims, arguably offering the most important observation in the second line of that chorus.

“That’s kind of the idea of life, right?” McGill says. “I mean, everybody just kind of wants to be who they are and accepted and loved for it.”

The second verse moves the focus from the guy’s current normalcy to the ex-girlfriend’s classic bad-relationship behavior, recounting how she’d separated him emotionally from his friends and family.
Not every song needs a bridge, but when they built one for “I Got Better,” they took the therapy part to its maximum conclusion, matching his rejuvenation to her departure in a passive-aggressive way.

“‘I ain’t saying you’re the weight on my back, but it’s not there anymore’ — it’s kind of just a funny way of saying everything without saying it,” Pendergrass explains. “I think it’s just a great summary. That was the goal, at least.”

Handsome rode herd on the demo, which featured the relentless electric guitar arpeggios that had started them off musically, plus some percussion and not much else. Because not much else was needed. The musicians picked up the essentials from the first play of the demo when they recorded “I Got Better” in early 2025 at Nashville’s Blackbird Studios.

“It was classic Charlie,” says producer Joey Moi (Florida Georgia Line, Nickelback). “He writes just one fucking lethal part. We were like, ‘Oh, my god. OK, now we know where the song is going to go.’ ”

Dave Cohen played simple keyboard lines that thickened the sound and emphasized the unusual chord structure. Guitarist Tom Bukovac composed a flowing instrumental riff to open the performance, creating a little extra sweetness that helps hide the passive-aggressive venom. “It probably is a Duesenberg or some guitar of that ilk,” Moi says. “It’s got the tone knob rolled right back so it sounds like it’s kind of muffled and round, and it’s doubled and harmonized. That’s it.”

Bukovac also developed a simple, descending passage that became a hooky, recurring theme: five quarter notes beginning in the last bar of every eight-bar section. They tested playing it every four bars, but decided that was too much. It’s an essential part of “I Got Better.”

“Anytime there’s a demo, if it doesn’t have something happening on the eighth bar, you always try and add something to it to make it unique or [provide] some kind of dismount into the next section,” Moi says. “He always knows that eventually I’m probably going to ask for something there.”

Wallen delivered the vocal with a subtle shudder on some of the longer notes, hinting at anger and sadness even as the character tries to keep his attention on the life-changing transition that the lyrics represent.

“There is something beautiful about music in that you don’t always have to go to exact feelings or scenarios,” Wallen says. “A good song has a way of bringing out those feelings in you that may not be at the forefront. There is anger, there is sadness, there is disdain, there’s a lot of things in that song that make you just feel. Of course, I have some of those experiences in my life that I could [draw from], but something about a good song just harkens that within you and it makes it easier to bring out.”

Fans definitely felt it after Wallen included it on his album I’m the Problem. “It was obvious in the consumption that it was reacting really well,” Moi says. “The audience was finding it and repeating it over and over.”

Mercury/Republic/Big Loud released it to country radio through PlayMPE on June 16. It’s already at No. 25 on Billboard’s Country Airplay list dated July 26 in its fourth charted week. It ranks at No. 5 on Hot Country Songs. “It is one of my most personal songs on the entire record,” Wallen says, “and it’s a song that a lot of fans are relating to.”

Whether they think of it as a song about giving up a relationship, a bad habit or something else, a life improvement is always worth celebrating. 

Cardi B had one question for Patientce Foster when the soon-to-be chart-topping rapper was looking for a new publicist in 2015. The two had met a month before when Foster’s longtime friend Bun Monroe, an A&R consultant and live-event producer at BDW, had brought Cardi to Wilmington, Del., and Foster suggested he bring the artist to her hair salon there.

Cardi and Foster ran into each other again at New York Fashion Week, where Foster had begun transitioning careers through an internship at fashion and beauty brand firm PR Consulting. Cardi invited her to dinner, where she sought advice regarding her planned cosmetics line, Washpoppin.

“She asked, ‘My old publicist said that I should name this eyeshadow Pretty in Pink, but I want to name it Pussy Poppin Pink. What do you think?’ ” Foster recalls. “I was like, ‘You should name it Pussy Poppin Pink.’ And she was like, ‘OK.’ I guess that was my interview: if I was down for who she was or if I thought she needed to be rebranded.”

Cardi had found her new publicist; someone who would amplify her creative vision. And for more than a decade, Foster has guided the “WAP” rapper to become a household name far beyond music. She helped align Cardi with brands such as Fashion Nova, a partnership that started with promotional social media posts and led to capsule collections that sold out in hours. That list has since grown to include deals with Balenciaga, Pepsi, Uber Eats and Amazon, creating a strong brand identity for an artist with just one studio album to her name.

After 10 years of partnering on live events and other creative projects, Foster and Monroe are merging their expertise to found management firm Fifth and Freedom with talent and brand clients including Joey Bada$$, Lakeyah, Meta/Facebook, Cîroc and their “proof of concept,” Cardi B. (While Foster and Monroe work with her on the creative and brand side, Full Stop Management handles the rapper’s music career.)

“What Cardi has become and what we have built with her,” Foster says, “is a reflection of that type of authenticity and hands-on approach.”

How will your management company differentiate itself from others?

Bun Monroe: Fifth and Freedom is going to be focused on ownership, wellness and not traditional management.

Patientce Foster: We’ve been able to see from a ton of different points of view how traditional management handles talent. It is very much about the bottom line. A lot of times, it is about finding leverage and advantages for the management companies and agencies themselves. We’re not knocking the hustle, but mental wellness is often neglected. Watching celebrities, we’ve always had this idea that because they were rich and famous, they were happy. You can only create something to the best of your ability when you are genuinely well from a mind perspective and a soul perspective.

How do you intend to address financial and mental health concerns?

Foster: We want to create partnerships with [companies like] betterhelp.com, Chime or Cash App. We understand that there are degrees of separation. We are not going to say, “Hey, this is the business manager you need,” but, “You may need business management,” or, “We have access to some life coaches or people to help you navigate what you’re feeling.” A lot of the time, artists think of their management as all of the above: “You’re my therapist. You’re my travel agent. You’re my accountant.”

How is Cardi B an example of what Fifth and Freedom will offer?

Foster: Building a brand that supports an artist outside of music is extremely important. A lot are not able to sustain [careers] off the money they make through their music because of how many hands are in the pot: publishing, labels, commissions — the list goes on.

Recently, myself, Cardi and the team announced a joint venture with [online fashion retailer] Revolve & FWRD, where she has a substantial amount of equity and has been able to build a relationship with billion-dollar partners. We’re not relying on one stream of income. We’re focused on building our artists’ brands so they have a strong foundation to rely on through every high and low in their music careers.

How have you been able to keep Cardi’s stock high with one album that was released in 2018?

Foster: If you have not successfully built a [brand] that can still drive without putting out an album, then you’ve done a disservice to your talent. You put them in a position where they feel like, “I have to put something out immediately because I need to generate income.”

The way that we have done that for the past seven years is consistently keeping Cardi part of the conversation, whether it is lifestyle or fashion. In the beginning, when she decided, “I really want to do music,” my thought process was, “Until they listen to you, let’s get them to look at you.” We would use my access as a [public relations] intern to see her front row at fashion shows before any of these fashion houses had a level of respect for who she is. [Stylist] Kollin Carter came on and, with his brilliance and genius, built her in the fashion space. If everything were to fall today, we know she can build a partnership with a fashion brand.

Why has Cardi waited seven years to release another album?

Foster: Cardi didn’t allow the pressure of the public to push her into putting something out that she wasn’t ready to put out. She was OK with the sacrifice that she may lose fans; she may lose interest. We’ve all watched her evolve over the past seven years. She started as an internet personality. She went into television. She started to build her music career. She became a mother. She showed us she can do multiple things without compromising. It’s perfect timing for her. She’s ready for a new era.

Can you help any artist build a brand as strong as Cardi’s?

Monroe: Some artists are brats and can’t be managed.

Foster: Before we decide to work with an artist, we make sure we align on a few principles. Some people just want an assistant; people to answer their emails. They don’t want advisement. They don’t want structure.

A part of the process is understanding whether that person is capable of building a [brand]. With Cardi, early on it was hard to build a business that attracted multiple audiences because she was too urban, too unapologetic. She’s super uncensored, and our approach was taking that authenticity and helping to amplify that to everyone else in the world who can relate to what she’s saying and where she’s been.

It is a disservice to tell someone, “I can make you into a Cardi B.” Now, can I help develop who you already authentically are? Can I help you leverage that into brand opportunity and equitable opportunity? Yes. Can Bun hear what you’re saying, hear what your sound is and help you build on that? Yes. We have seen some of the most interesting and some of the most boring people do that. I’m truly a believer that there’s an audience for everyone.

What makes you good partners?

Foster: Bun’s ability to know raw talent when he sees it and then, with his network of producers and songwriters, help build that out for emerging artists and established artists who need direction. I’ve got the business stuff; he’s got the music stuff. So let’s create a safe place for artists to create.

Monroe: We’ve known each other since we were 19. Patientce had the same drive back then as she does now. If she’s got her mind on something, she’s going to get it done.