Madison Beer caught up with Billboard’s Rania Aniftos & Jazzy on the red carpet at the Billboard Women in Music 2025.
Tinashe caught up with Billboard’s Rania Aniftos & Jazzy on the red carpet at the Billboard Women in Music 2025.
Muni Long caught up with Billboard’s Rania Aniftos & Jazzy on the red carpet at the Billboard Women in Music 2025.
Suki Waterhouse caught up with Billboard’s Rania Aniftos & Jazzy on the red carpet at the Billboard Women in Music 2025.
Charlotte Cardin caught up with Billboard’s Rania Aniftos & Jazzy on the red carpet at the Billboard Women in Music 2025.
Megan Moroney caught up with Billboard’s Judy Sanchez on the red carpet at the Billboard Women in Music 2025.
Anna caught up with Billboard’s Rania Aniftos & Jazzy on the red carpet at the Billboard Women in Music 2025.
Young Scooter died Friday night (March 28) on the rapper’s 39th birthday, according to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and details from Atlanta Police.
Atlanta Police Lt. Andrew Smith led a news conference late Friday night to share details about what reportedly led to the death of Young Scooter (real name: Kenneth Edward Bailey). According to Smith, police responded to a call about a dispute with a weapon at a home and then set up a perimeter outside the house after a man shut the door on officers. Two men fled from the rear of the house, Smith said, with one returning to the home and the other jumping two fences as he was fleeing.
According to the AJC story, Young Scooter was the man who jumped the fences, and Smith said, “When officers located him on the other side of the fence, he appeared to have suffered an injury to his leg.”
Atlanta Police say the man was taken to Grady Marcus Trauma Center and died there.
During the news conference, Smith denied widespread reports spreading on social media that Scooter had been fatally shot by Atlanta PD officers. “Just to be very clear, the injury that was sustained was not via the officers on scene. It was when the male was fleeing.”
Young Scooter’s peers mourned the late rapper on social media, with Playboi Carti sharing the news on Instagram Stories with the caption “SMFH.” Quavo took to X with broken-heart and prayer-hands emojis, writing, “ion understand,” alongside a video of Scooter performing. The late rapper’s Instagram Stories shared dozens of posts wishing him a happy birthday throughout Friday.
While Scooter was born in South Carolina, his family moved to Atlanta when he was just 9 years old, and his music career has been based in the rap mecca ever since. He broke out locally with the song “Colombia” in 2012 before joining forces with hip-hop heavyweights Future, Juicy J and Young Thug for “DI$Function” in 2014. He hit the Billboard charts as a featured artist on Young Thug’s “Guwop,” also featuring Quavo & Offset of Migos, in 2016 (peaking at No. 45 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart) and on Future & Juice WRLD’s “Jet Lag” in 2018 (his only Billboard Hot 100 appearance, peaking at No. 72).
Billboard has reached out to the Atlanta Police and a rep for Young Scooter for further information.
Find Quavo’s X post about Scooter below:
Demi Lovato is a Little Monster!
The 32-year-old singer took to TikTok on Thursday (March 27) to share a video, in which she lip syncs along to Lady Gaga’s “How Bad Do U Want Me,” off her recently released album, Mayhem. “That girl in your head ain’t real/ How bad do you want me, for real?” Gaga sings on the track, as Lovato sings along dressed in a silky, silver turtleneck top with her hair in a sleek ponytail.
“Mayhem on repeat,” they wrote in the caption.
Mayhem, released earlier this month, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart dated March 22. It’s the seventh leader for Gaga, and her seventh studio album. She previously led the Billboard 200 with Chromatica (2020), the soundtrack to A Star Is Born (with Bradley Cooper, 2018), Joanne (2016), Cheek to Cheek (with Tony Bennett), ARTPOP (2013) and Born This Way (2011). In total, MAYHEM is Gaga’s 11th top 10-charting effort, stretching back to her debut project, The Fame, which reached No. 2 in 2010, after bowing on the list in 2008.
Gaga’s also heading out on her summer-fall 2025 Mayhem Ball tour in support of the album. Gaga’s first North American and European tour since her 2022 Chromatica Ball tour will open in the U.S. with a double-down in Las Vegas on July 16 and 18, two shows in Seattle, three nights at Madison Square Garden in New York and two-night runs in Miami, Toronto and Chicago. She will then play a run of arena dates across Europe from Sept. 29 through Nov. 20. See the full list of dates here.
GIVĒON, whose latest single “Twenties” reached No. 6 on Hot R&B Songs, celebrated another momentous milestone last night (March 27): the five-year anniversary of his debut EP Take Time. Released on March 27, 2020, the eight-track project features the seven-time Grammy nominee’s two breakthrough singles, “Like I Want You” and “Heartbreak Anniversary.” Both are now RIAA-certified at 3x and 6x platinum, respectively,
Celebrating with GIVĒON inside the Los Angeles club Living Room were members of his Epic Records team, headed by chairwoman/CEO Sylvia Rhone, president Ezekiel Lewis and general manager Rick Sackheim. Also spotted at the intimate gathering were Grammy-winning songwriter-producer Jimmy Jam, fellow R&B singer Amerie and actress/producer Lena Waithe.
Nominated for best R&B album at the 2021 Grammy Awards, Take Time was followed by GIVĒON’s top 10 R&B album When It’s All Said and Done in October 2020 and his guest turn on Justin Bieber’s 2021 multiplatinum smash “Peaches.” Now the singer-songwriter is at work on his sophomore set, which will include current hit “Twenties.” The Long Beach, Calif. native has also scored a second top 10 this year with his feature on Teddy Swims’ Hot R&B Songs No. 4 hit “Are You Even Real.”
A couple of days prior to his Take Time celebration, Billboard caught up with GIVĒON during a phone interview. Here are a few soundbites from that conversation.
Who he was as an artist five years ago: When I wrote the songs for Take Time, I was only 23-24. But I was also very confident in myself, especially for someone who hadn’t released a body of work on a major label. That’s because I knew this EP was my life’s work at the time. It took 24 years to make because it was all of my life experiences wrapped up into one unique project.
Who he is as an artist now: I feel a lot more aware when it comes to my process and what I need to do to grow at all times. I never want to become stagnant with my creative process I’ll also say I’m more polished, more professional; I just understand things more. And I’m a lot more decisive: I don’t really waste too much time when I’m creating. I just get right down to it, saying, “This is exactly what it is that I want to say.”
What he’s been doing between albums: I get that question a lot [laughs]. I always tell people that I’ve just been absorbing bodies of work that inspire me. Not just music but multiple mediums like paintings films, life itself. Because there’s a lot of inspiration that comes from life and all of my music is autobiographical. So I don’t have a choice but to experience life and then write it out while working on my craft.
Tapping into the aching and yearning that music: I grew up in a house with all boys, so there wasn’t a lot of expressing emotions. So this [music] has always been an outlet to express my emotions. Sometimes the story I’m telling comes off more on the somber or melancholy side because it’s something I’m not comfortable in freely telling people. But I’m a lot more than just that emotion [laughs]. My biggest goal is always to just be believable and honest.
The inspiration behind “Twenties”: I love to just keep it vague so people can leave it up to their own interpretation and apply it to whatever it specifically means in their life. But I will say it’s just trying to capture that feeling of wasting time on something. It could be a person, it could be a place, it could be an idea or a career. For me, it was a specific person in a relationship. But, yeah, I was just trying to capture the emotion of feeling like you spent time on something or somewhere that you can’t get back.
Hints about his sophomore album: Just that I’m excited for people to hear it. With my first album, I was just making music and having fun. Now I’m still having. But I’m also like, “Oh, I have a responsibility with this music because I see how it touches and helps people.”
