On Wednesday (March 25), BTS kicked off their two-night stint on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, with all seven members sitting down for an interview after recording a performance of “SWIM” earlier in the day at The Guggenheim — and Billboard was in the building for both.

Ahead of the episode premiering at 11:35 p.m. ET/PT on NBC tonight, RM, Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V and Jung Kook joined Fallon for a taping of The Tonight Show — see a Billboard exclusive preview photo above — and judging by the volume in Studio 8H, the crowd was all ARMY. Instead of emerging from behind the blue velvet curtain like most guests, BTS made their way to the stage from behind the audience, touching fans’ hands on the way down.

In addition to the interview, the crowd also got to watch a pre-recorded bit that showed fans entering a recording booth to sing “SWIM” — the lead single from BTS’ just-released sixth album ARIRANG — but when they exited, Fallon and the members of BTS were all on the other side to surprise (or sometimes terrify) them. The crowd also got to watch BTS’ performance of “SWIM,” taped earlier in the day at NYC art museum The Guggenheim.

Below, find a highlight from each of the seven members before watching the full episode tonight:

RM

When Fallon asked if anyone had driven in a car with RM yet, since he just got his license, V could be heard saying, “Scary,” over his bandmates’ chatter.

Jin

Calling back to his last visit to The Tonight Show, Jin answered whether we have “one or two butts” — arguing that we have two because we have a left leg and a right leg, and therefore a left butt and a right butt, sending the crowd into a fit of laughter.

SUGA

The crowd kept screaming SUGA’s Korean name Yoongi seemingly in reference to “Yoongi, marry me!” joke among ARMY.

j-hope

When Fallon asked what mission he would need to complete if he were the eighth member of BTS, j-hope answered with a laugh: “practice.”

Jimin

During his monologue, Fallon joked about how his name sounds like Jimin’s, then he did a little song about it that the audience ate up.

V

V explained that the ARIRANG track “2.0” is like a “chapter 2” for them, referring to BTS’ comeback.

Jung Kook

When the seven guys were roomies again in Los Angeles while recording ARIRANG, they said Jung Kook was the messiest and that he had two suitcases always open in his room.

Tune in to catch BTS on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35 p.m. ET/PT tonight — and Thursday night too — on NBC and streaming next day on Peacock. Wednesday night’s episode also includes an interview with Ariana DeBose, while Thursday’s show includes Chris Pratt, Charlie Day and Roman Reigns.

As of the release of ARIRANG, BTS has finally returned. And in an upcoming Netflix documentary, the band is showing ARMY everything it took to get here.

In a sneak peek for the streamer’s BTS: The Return posted Wednesday (March 25), cameras follow RM, Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V and Jung Kook behind the scenes of their cover shoot for ARIRANG. In the final artwork, the septet poses in two rows wearing suits, looking stoically ahead. But the documentary footage shows how much work the seemingly simple shot took, with a team of producers, stylists and creatives milling about around the Bangtan Boys.

The teaser also shows each of the members sitting down for solo talking-head interviews showcasing their individual personalities. It previews some of the questions asked — Do you feel that you’re trying something completely new? What changed the most for you as an artist? Are you returning with something familiar? — but holds off on showing any of their answers.

“They’re back!” a description of the doc reads. “BTS gathers in LA to record their album ‘Arirang’ in this documentary offering unprecedented access to the band as they enter a new era.”

The sneak peek comes just two days ahead of the Friday (March 27) premiere BTS: The Return on Netflix. The project will drop exactly one week after the release of ARIRANG, which features 14 tracks — including single “Swim” — and marks the band’s first full-length since 2020’s Billboard 200-topper Be.

The group is currently in the midst of promoting ARIRANG with a series of performances that’ll build to a global tour in April. After hosting a huge comeback concert in Seoul, BTS descended on New York City for a Spotify showcase followed by performances at the Guggenheim for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Watch the sneak peek for BTS’ upcoming Netflix doc above.

Timbaland‘s AI artist TaTa Taktumi (“TaTa”) has signed with Pacific Music Group, a Pan-Asian music and entertainment company founded by NE-YO, Sonu Nigam, MC Jin and Jonathan Serbin. TaTa was created as part of Timbaland’s AI entertainment company Stage Zero, which will continue to be involved in her development, but now, PMG will “exclusive[ly] manage” TaTa across Asia, acting as her record label for all upcoming releases in the region.

Pacific Music Group, founded in 2025 and headquartered in Hong Kong, will start rolling out TaTa’s upcoming releases and collaborations across Asia in the coming months.

Along with the new deal, a press release about TaTa’s signing claimed for the first time that the artist who created TaTa is of Filipino heritage. “While her personal identity remains intentionally private, this acknowledgment reflects the human voice and perspective at the heart of the music as the artist begins to step forward into the spotlight for this next chapter,” the announcement reads. “This moment represents more than a confirmation of heritage. It underscores the vision.”

TaTa’s creation was first announced in June 2025, alongside the founding of Stage Zero. It was noted at the time that TaTa’s music was created by Timbaland with the help of Suno, a popular AI music model. At the time, Timbaland said that “TaTa is a living, learning, autonomous music artist built with AI. TaTa is the start of something bigger. She’s the first artist of a new generation. A-Pop is the next cultural evolution, and TaTa is its first icon.”

“TaTa’s story is about convergence, culture, technology, and identity coming together,” said Serbin, CEO and co-founder at Pacific Music Group. “Revealing her human identity at this moment creates the perfect bridge into Asia. This isn’t just a signing, it’s a homecoming. We are proud to support her as she reconnects with her heritage and builds a new cultural movement from it.”

“Artist development has always been about connecting the imagination of the artist to real people,” Timbaland added. “At Stage Zero we are expanding that process, allowing ideas to take shape across music, visuals, and identity in real time, sometimes even in reverse order. Tata represents a shift towards hyper creativity. It opens the door for a new generation of artists and a new era of entertainment to emerge.”

“This project has always been about blending worlds — technology and humanity, past and future, identity and imagination. With Pacific Music Group, I’m excited to continue exploring what that future can look like,” added TaTa.

Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip. 
 
This week: Afroman turns a headline-capturing legal victory into newfound streaming popularity, while Nothing But Thieves gets a huge look from an Amazon Prime superhero show and 3OH!3 benefits from an animated dance challenge.

Afroman Turns Legal Victory into Streaming Triumphs, Led by “Lemon Pound Cake” 

“Because I Got High” rapper Afroman found himself back in the zeitgeist after winning a jury verdict last week (Mar. 18). The jurors sided with the Cali rapper in a lawsuit filed by seven Ohio cops, who claimed the MC defamed them by releasing music videos mocking them after a failed, guns-drawn raid on his home in 2022. Naturally, the quirky lawsuit caught the public’s attention, as did Afroman’s testimony that the music videos fell with his First Amendment rights — a hot-button topic across the States right now. As a result, the rapper’s catalog exploded over 500% in streaming activity in the week following the jury’s decision, according to Luminate. 

During the week of his the four-day period leading up to his trial (Mar. 13-16), Afroman’s discography earned 1.12 million official on-demand U.S. streams and just over 100 U.S. digital downloads. In the four-day period following the verdict (Mar. 20-23), those figures jumped 511% to 6.8 million official streams, and 2,113% to over 2,500 paid digital downloads. The buzziest track is “Lemon Pound Cake,” in which Afroman jeers at one deputy for apparently eyeing a cake on his counter. That song jumped 9,353% to 2.12 million official on-demand U.S. streams following the verdict (Mar. 20-23), and leapt a whopping 126,300% to over 1,200 U.S. digital downloads. 

The streaming love isn’t exclusive to Afroman’s raid-related joints. His signature hit, the Grammy-nominated “High,” earned over 600,000 official on-demand U.S. streams on the Friday following the verdict (Mar. 20), up 133%.

Lemon Pound Cake, the album that compiles Afroman’s police disses, has already hit No. 8 on Billboard‘s Comedy Albums chart (dated Mar. 28), and bigger gains could very well be in store. — KYLE DENIS 

‘Invincible’ Season Premiere Revives Decade-Old Nothing But Thieves Single

English alt-rock band Nothing But Thieves has never totally crossed over on the Billboard charts, but it’s been a fixture on various rock charts for a decade now, since the release of its 2015 self-titled debut album. That set generated multiple hits on the Rock & Alternative Songs chart, and also led to a Billboard Hot 100 hit in 2024 when country superstar Morgan Wallen put his spin on the Nothing But Thieves deep cut “Graveyard Whistling.” But now, it’s one of the less-known singles on the debut that’s getting its moment in the spotlight: “If I Die Tonight.”

The power ballad, which never reached a Billboard airplay, sales or streaming chart during its initial mid-2010s release, got its biggest look yet this month with its inclusion in the latest season of Amazon Prime’s hit animated superhero series Invincible. In the season four premiere, “If I Die Tonight” plays over an opening montage showing the fallout from the previous season’s finale — and plays for over three minutes, giving viewers plenty of opportunity to make it one of the most Shazamed songs in the country the past week.

Plenty of those viewers went on to check out the song on DSPs, as well. After totaling under 17,000 streams during the first four days of the previous tracking week (Mar. 13-16), that number was up to 345,000 for the same period this week (Mar. 20-23) — a gain of 1,942%, according to early data provided by Luminate. It could lead to a big moment for Nothing But Thieves, and to even bigger musical moments on Invincible, now that it’s been confirmed as one of the more valuable shows for synch placements in 2026. – AU

Animation-Inspired Dance Trend Revives 3OH!3’s “Richman” 

On Feb. 4, user @/hymnuslop shared an original animation featuring two My Little Pony-inspired characters dancing to Denver electro-pop duo 3OH!3’s “Richman,” setting into motion a streaming resurgence for the 18-year-old deep cut. The clip finds one character lip-syncing in the foreground while the other dances in the background — and the trend has now transferred to real people. 

User @/janabananathings was the human to kick the trend into high gear with her March 2 post, which has since garnered nearly four million views and over 540,000 likes. The accompanying sound, which originates from user @/hymnuslop’s clip, boasts over 52,000 TikTok posts. The official 3OH!3 TikTok account got in on the fun, sharing several clips of the EDM duo performing the song throughout the years. 

The week user @/janabananathings shared her video (Feb. 27-Mar. 5), “Richman” logged 429,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, up 193% from the week prior. The following week (Mar. 6-12), which accounts for a full week of the trend truly taking off, that figure leapt a further 133% to a little over one million official on-demand U.S. streams. Continuing its ascent, “Richman” jumped another 44% to 1.44 million official streams the next week (March 13-19). 

Over the past four weeks, “Richman” has exploded over 1,800% in streaming activity, bringing 3OH!3 back into the center of the pop conversation — with a song that was never even an official single. — K.D. 

From gin and juice to lights, camera, action, Snoop Dogg is stepping onto the big screen again.

On Wednesday (March 25), Deadline reported that Snoop will be starring in God Of The Rodeo, a new film written and directed by Rosalind Ross. On top of leading the film on-screen, Snoop will also be taking on two major behind-the-scenes roles. His film company Death Row Pictures will be producing the film and his label Death Row Records is creating the soundtrack. Snoop joins previously signed on producers Giannina Scott and Ridley Scott, who are producing the film through Cara Films and Scott Free Productions, respectively.

The film is based off journalist Daniel Bergner’s 1998 book God of The Rodeo which takes place inside Louisiana’s infamous Angola Prison. Bergner spent a year in the prison, following along as the inmates put together the prison’s annual rodeo and watching as they grappled with harsh realities inside the prison’s walls. The movie will follow Buckkey (played by Shia LaBeouf), an inmate serving a life sentence who participates in Angola’s inaugural inmate rodeo in 1967.

While he’s best known for his impact in hip-hop culture, Snoop Dogg is no stranger to the screen. The rapper made several cameos in films throughout the ’90s before making his major acting debut in 2001’s Bones where he played the lead character Jimmy Bones. Most recently he starred in 1992, a heist thriller film written by Sascha Penn and directed by Ariel Vromen. He’s even lent his voice to animated features such as Pharrell’s 2024 Lego biopic Piece by Piece.

Snoop’s on-screen role in God of the Rodeo has not yet been announced but he has expressed excitement to step into the film.

“Linking up with Scott Free Productions and working with Ridley Scott and Giannina Scott on God of the Rodeo is life changing and an honor,” Snoop said to Deadline. “We’re bringing an important story and something special to the screen.”

Billboard has reached out to a representative for Snoop Dogg for comment.