A band called The Velvet Sundown has made waves in the music industry over the last week due to allegations that the images and songs on its Spotify profile were AI-generated. Now, in a new conversation with Rolling Stone, a so-called “adjunct” member of the band, Andrew Frelon, admits to using AI music company Suno in the creation of some of its songs, calling the whole project an “art hoax.”

“It’s marketing. It’s trolling. People before, they didn’t care about what we did, and now suddenly we’re talking to Rolling Stone, so it’s like ‘Is that wrong?’” Frelon told the outlet.

Frelon reportedly changed his story multiple times during the interview. First, he said Suno’s tools were only used in the brainstorming of the writing process; later, he admitted to using Suno but “not in the final product.” Later in the interview, he again changed his position, saying at least some of the songs were generated by Suno, but that he didn’t “want to say which ones.” Of the tools in Suno’s suite of features, Frelon cited using Persona, a product released in October 2024 that allows users to remix songs on the Suno platform into new genres and styles.

The Persona tool was also recently employed by Timbaland in the creation of his controversial AI artist TaTa, which is part of the artist and producer’s new AI entertainment company Stage Zero. (Timbaland has been a strategic advisor for Suno since October 2024.)

“Personally, I’m interested in art hoaxes,” Frelon added in the interview. “The Leeds 13, a group of art students in the U.K., made, like, fake photos of themselves spending scholarship money at a beach or something like that, and it became a huge scandal. I think that stuff’s really interesting … We live in a world now where things that are fake have sometimes even more impact than things that are real. And that’s messed up, but that’s the reality that we face now. So it’s like, ‘Should we ignore that reality? Should we ignore these things that kind of exist on a continuum of real versus fake or kind of a blend between the two? Or should we dive into it and just let it be the emerging native language of the internet?’”

The Velvet Sundown became a viral sensation last week after the band’s Spotify profile was posted to Reddit by a user who accused the band of being AI-generated. At the time, Sundown’s top song had just over 100,000 plays on the platform, but after the Reddit post spurred widespread discussion about the band — and AI music in general — listens for its top song have climbed to 675,000 and counting.

The band is just one example of many, however. French streamer Deezer reported this spring that 18% of songs delivered to them every day are now fully AI-generated, equating to about 20,000 new AI songs daily.

Last month, “A Million Colors” by Vinih Pray became the first-known AI-generated song to rank on the TikTok charts. The song, which has since been removed from TikTok, peaked at No. 44 on the TikTok Viral 50 and was used by hundreds of thousands of users on the platform, including Kylie Jenner, who used the song to soundtrack a makeup tutorial with 1.7 million likes. To date, it has over 1 million plays on Spotify.

So far, most streaming services, including Spotify, do not have policies specific to AI music on their platforms. Among the streamers, Deezer has taken the lead. Since January, the company has spoken out about how the company plans to regulate AI content on the platform. Now, anything that Deezer’s proprietary AI detection tool flags as fully AI-generated is removed from its algorithm and is ineligible for playlisting, although users can still listen to the tracks via search. All AI songs on the platform will also be tagged to ensure that users know what they are listening to. The Velvet Sundown’s artist page on Deezer currently displays this tag.

Nelly and Ashanti know a thing or two about making hits. The couple stopped by Cocoa Butter on Tuesday (July 1), where the St. Louis native played a game to narrow down and pick his favorite song by his wife.

For the first round, Nelly went with “Baby” over “Foolish.” He had Ashanti cackling after he asked her about which video actor Larenz Tate starred in, which happens to be “Rain on Me.”

He continued to ride the “Baby” train while choosing the 2002 hit from Ashanti’s self-titled debut album over “Happy” and “Rock Wit U.”

Nelly had to do some thinking when it came to “Rain on Me,” but the timing of the track’s arrival in regard to their relationship rubbed him the wrong way. “‘Rain on Me’ was at a different time in our relationship,” he said. “We gon’ slide ‘Rain on Me’ along like that and stick with ‘Baby.’”

Next in the gauntlet came a couple of Ja Rule-assisted anthems with “Always on Time” and “Mesmerize.” “See all of these are great records,” Nelly said. “Yeah, some of them are with my brother Ja [Rule], ‘Baby’ is just my wife, [so] I’m gonna ride with ‘Baby.’”

Perhaps it’s because Nelly and Ashanti welcomed their first baby last July, but the Country Grammar artist is sticking with “Baby. “I’m a Scorpio man, so I stick to what I know and love and that’s ‘Baby,’” he claimed.

So it ended up being “Baby” supremacy for Nelly. “I love ‘Baby.’ That’s one of my favorite Ashanti records,” he added.

“Baby” served as a standout on Ashanti’s 2002 self-titled debut. The Chink Santana- and Irv Gotti-produced hit — which samples Scarface’s “Mary Jane” — reached No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. Actress Nia Long makes a cameo in the Murder Inc. anthem’s video.

Ashanti and Nelly embarked on a recent press run in support of their Nelly & Ashanti: We Belong Together reality series, which was released June 26 on Peacock. The unscripted show will give fans a peek behind the curtain of life as partners and parents for the celebrity couple, who rekindled their romance in 2023.

Watch the clip below.

Diddy‘s son King Combs spoke with the press outside the courthouse after his father was acquitted of three of five charges against him, and he’s celebrating the mixed verdict.

ABC 7 caught up with him as he celebrated while playing his new song “Diddy Free” from his recently released EP Never Stop, which is executive produced by Ye (formerly Kanye West), and expressed happiness and gratitude to reporters. “We love y’all. We love everybody watching. I’m so happy,” Combs said. “Pops coming home. God bless the whole world.”

On Wednesday (July 2), Sean “Diddy” Combs was convicted on two counts of illegal prostitution and is facing a maximum of 20 years, while being acquitted of more serious sex-trafficking and racketeering charges that could’ve put him behinds bars for 15 years to life, with the jury deliberating for two days after a trial that lasted seven weeks.

Diddy was taken into custody on Sept. 16, 2024 and was denied bail after pleading not guilty to charges that included sex trafficking and racketeering. This whole ordeal started when his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura filed a lawsuit claiming that the fallen mogul abused her for years. In a statement to Billboard, her lawyer Douglas H. Wigdor, commending her courage for coming forward. “This entire criminal process started when our client Cassie Ventura had the courage to file her civil complaint in November 2023,” he said. “Although the jury did not find Combs guilty of sex trafficking Cassie beyond a reasonable doubt, she paved the way for a jury to find him guilty of transportation to engage in prostitution. By coming forward with her experience, Cassie has left an indelible mark on both the entertainment industry and the fight for justice.”

Diddy and his attorneys will more than likely file an appeal once his sentence is finalized. For now, he’s been denied bail and will remain behind bars until his sentencing.

Sean “Diddy” Combs will remain in custody despite his stunning partial acquittal on sex-trafficking and racketeering charges, after a judge found the rap mogul’s history of domestic violence makes him a danger while awaiting sentencing on his prostitution conviction.

Judge Arun Subramanian ruled Wednesday evening (July 2) that Combs, who’s been in jail since his arrest 10 months ago, will have to stay there until a sentencing hearing a few months from now. The judge proposed an October sentencing date, though the schedule has not yet been finalized.

A jury cleared Combs Wednesday morning of charges that alleged he operated a criminal syndicate under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and trafficked singer Cassie Ventura and an anonymous ex-girlfriend dubbed “Jane” for marathon sex with male escorts. The rapper was found guilty on two other counts for transporting Ventura, Jane and various sex workers across state lines for the dayslong, drug-fueled hotel parties known as “freak-offs.”

Judge Subramanian agreed with prosecutors that Combs is still a danger to society despite his acquittal on the more serious charges. According to the New York Times, the judge cited the fact that Combs’ lawyers admitted throughout the trial that the rapper was physically abusive to his girlfriends.

“You full-throatedly in your closing argument told the jury that there was violence here,” the judge told Combs’ team.

Combs will thus remain at New York’s Metropolitan Detention Center until the sentencing hearing, where he faces a maximum of 20 years in prison. He’ll likely get significantly less than that; the defense says his suggested sentencing guideline will come out to around two years in prison, while prosecutors say it’s more likely to be around four to five years.

If Combs had been convicted on all charges, he would have been subject to a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison and a maximum term of life behind bars.

Combs’ lawyers argued in their motion for bail following the verdict that the rapper “demonstrated a pattern of trustworthiness and cooperation” throughout the case and would be a model citizen if let out of jail until sentencing.

“There is simply no risk Mr. Combs will seek to flee or recidivate,” wrote attorney Alexandra Shapiro. “Throughout these proceedings, Mr. Combs’s family has been seated by his side, demonstrating the same respect for these proceedings and support for Mr. Combs that they will pay going forward. They were here and are here to support him, and he is obviously committed to reuniting with this family to continue to support them, not to flee or put them at further risk.”

Prosecutors, meanwhile, said Combs continues to be a flight risk and a danger to those around him. They pointed to evidence throughout the trial of Combs’ domestic abuse, including a now-infamous surveillance video of the rapper kicking and ragging Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016.

“The overwhelming evidence established at trial — which the defendant did not dispute — shows that the defendant has engaged in a yearslong pattern of abuse and violence, including as recently as in June 2024, approximately three months before his arrest in this case,” added the prosecution team led by Maurene Comey. “Despite the knowledge that he was under federal investigation, the
defendant nevertheless brutally assaulted Jane, leaving injuries that were visible for days after the
assault.”

Ventura’s lawyer submitted a letter to Judge Subramanian on Wednesday asking that Combs remain in jail, as did a stylist who testified at the trial that he witnessed the rapper brutally assault Ventura.

“Ms. Ventura believes that Mr. Combs is likely to pose a danger to the victims who testified in this case, including herself, as well as to the community,” wrote Ventura’s attorney, Douglas Wigdor.