THE BIG STORY: Many breakout artists regret signing their first record deal. Very few of them try to break it by holding the head of their record label at gunpoint.

But here we are: On Thursday (April 7), Pooh Shiesty (Lontrell Williams Jr.) was arrested on federal charges of kidnapping and armed robbery over a January incident in Dallas in which he allegedly pulled an AK-style pistol on Gucci Mane, who had signed the young rapper in 2020 to his 1017 Records.

Prosecutors say the veteran Atlanta rapper was lured to what he thought was a normal business meeting, only to be angrily confronted by an armed Shiesty over the terms of his deal. Gucci was allegedly forced — at gunpoint and on camera — to say he was releasing the young rapper from the deal, then robbed of his wedding ring, Rolex watches and cash.

“Instead of discussing business in a civil matter, the defendants resorted to violence and intimidation to achieve their purported business objectives,” prosecutors said in a statement.

The case doesn’t look great for Shiesty and eight other men accused of participating in the alleged attack. But the rapper’s lawyer has already said his client’s side of the story is “significantly different from what the government says.”

“The government tries to characterize this as a dispute over money between Lontrell and his record label,” Shiesty’s attorney told the Dallas Morning News last week. “But in this business, things are very often not what they seem.”

Other top stories this week…

— Universal Music Group (UMG) reached a settlement to end a $500 million lawsuit accusing Believe and TuneCore of “massive” infringement by distributing sped-up or remixed knockoffs of tracks by Kendrick Lamar, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber and others.

— Salt-N-Pepa moved to launch an appeal seeking revive their lawsuit against UMG over control of their masters via copyright termination, telling the Second Circuit that their records have “been a windfall for UMG” and that it’s high time the actual artists got them back.

— The choreographer behind *NSYNC‘s famous “Bye Bye Bye” dance filed a copyright case against Sony Music after the iconic routine appeared in the Marvel movie Deadpool & Wolverine, claiming the label doesn’t own the dance and can’t license it to others.

— Live Nation’s antitrust trial entered its fourth week of testimony, with key defense witnesses taking the stand as the concert giant made its case to the jury. The blockbuster monopoly case could see closing arguments and the start of jury deliberations later this week.

— Lil Nas X will see his felony assault charges dismissed as long as he sticks to a two-year mental health treatment plan, a judge ruled — largely ending a case that started when the “Old Town Road” rapper allegedly attacked cops while walking around Los Angeles clad only in underwear and cowboy boots.

— Legal scholars criticized Drake’s appeal seeking to revive his lawsuit over Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” arguing that he cannot sue after he “consented” to the war of words — and that litigation over rap lyrics is “dangerous.”

— A week after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its big music copyright ruling in Cox v. Sony, Elon Musk’s X cited the high court’s decision as a reason that a judge should dismiss the massive infringement lawsuit the major music publishers are litigating against the social media platform.

— An ex-guitarist for the band Turnstile was charged with attempted murder after he allegedly hit the lead singer’s father with his car. The band said Brady Ebert’s alleged attack came in the wake of years of threats after they cut ties in 2022: “We have no language left for Brady.”

— A federal judge once again dismissed a lawsuit against Showtime that claimed George & Tammy — a TV series about country music legends George Jones and Tammy Wynette — unfairly turned her late husband into “the villain.”

— Radio company Urban One asked a court to throw out Brian McKnight’s defamation lawsuit over statements made by the singer’s ex-wife and son in radio interviews, arguing the case is a non-starter.

Lil Tjay has been arrested and charged with disorderly conduct in Florida following the shooting of fellow rapper Offset.

According to arrest records, the New York native born Tione Merritt was booked into the Broward County Jail on a $500 bond. A spokesperson for the Seminole Police Department told Billboard in a statement on Tuesday (April 7) that one person was charged “in connection with the incident that took place Monday night at a valet area outside of Seminole Hard Rock,” referring to the altercation at the hotel-casino that left the Migos star hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries. After identifying the 24-year-old rapper as the man charged with disorderly conduct, the spokesperson noted that “the incident began with an affray, or fight. Merritt was booked into the Broward County Jail late last night.”

In a statement shared with Billboard, Lil Tjay’s lawyer, Dawn M. Florio, asserted that any claims about her client being involved in Offset’s shooting are “false rumors.”

“Lil Tjay has not been shot, nor has Lil Tjay been charged with any shooting,” she said. “Any reporting to the contrary is false. We encourage people to consult trusted news sources, and to verify the accuracy of any reporting, before reflexively sharing or repeating baseless rumors.”

Billboard has also reached out to reps for Offset for comment. The police spokesperson added in his statement that the Migos rapper remains hospitalized.

The news comes the morning after Offset — real name Kiari Cephus — was transported to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Fla., after sustaining gunshot-related injuries. “We can confirm Offset was shot and is currently at the hospital receiving medical care,” his rep told Billboard on Monday. “He is stable and being closely monitored.”

Police also said Monday night that two individuals had been detained, but that the investigation is ongoing. The second person who was detained at the scene has not been charged at press time. Added the Seminole Police Dept. spokesperson on Tuesday, “The investigation to identify one or more additional persons involved in the incident is ongoing.”

At 24 years old, Lil Tjay has scored a number of hits on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as five entries on the Billboard 200. He and Offset have collaborated in the past, teaming up alongside Moneybagg Yo on “Run It Up,” which appears on Lil Tjay’s 2021 album Destined 2 Win.

Lil Tjay has had brushes with the law in the past, having spent a year in a detention center after being arrested for robbery as a teenager. He also has his own experience with gun violence, suffering injuries after being shot several times during an attempted robbery in 2022.

Dalia Mubarak didn’t arrive at the Billboard Arabia March cover shoot as just another cover star. She arrived as a woman carrying her entire life with her.

With her two daughters, Lily and Jazz, by her side, the set felt less like a production and more like a natural extension of her reality, where motherhood, work and creativity coexist.

There’s an immediate familiarity to Dalia. At first, she comes across as effortlessly unpretentious, someone who doesn’t perform for the room. But as the moment unfolds, a clearer picture emerges: a woman deliberately shaping her life on her own terms, and a voice that moves with conviction.

Moving between takes, checking in on her daughters, and keeping an eye on the shoot, Dalia carried herself with warmth and generosity, never too busy to offer a smile, even in the most hectic moments.

Watching this, the cover lines began to write themselves. But the image was too layered to reduce to a single angle: there is Dalia the mother, the woman, and the artist, one of Saudi Arabia’s most distinctive voices carving her own path. Above all, she is a creator finding her way at a time of profound transformation across the Arab world.

That’s precisely why her presence on the March cover feels so fitting.

In a month where International Women’s Day meets Mother’s Day, the choice carries added resonance, especially as Dalia enters a pivotal moment in her career: a new album on the horizon and a highly anticipated role as a coach on The Voice Kids. More than ever, she seems more in sync with herself than ever.

Since 2014, Dalia has built her career with a quiet sense of purpose. She experiments, produces and moves fluidly between dialects, treating production and visuals not as decoration, but as extensions of her sound.

Her relationship with music began early, shaped in part by her mother, whose voice, Dalia insists, is sometimes even more beautiful than her own. From early attempts in talent show auditions to eventually sitting on the judging panel herself, her true breakthrough came in her early twenties. From the start, it was clear she was pushing Saudi music toward bolder territory, whether through lyrical choices or her ability to reframe Gulf poetry and feminine expression within a contemporary sonic landscape.

She has continuously expanded her musical boundaries, drawing from diverse rhythms and influences so that each release feels like a new challenge across voice, language, and performance. From the contemporary pop energy of “Mara ‘Aan Million” (One in a Million Woman), to the traditional Gulf spirit of “Yareitni Rajal” (I Wish I Were a Man), and more recently, her Iraqi dialect experiment “Arja’ La’en” (Come Back, Because…), Dalia resists settling into a single sound.

As she puts it, boredom has been her greatest enemy since childhood, and it doesn’t seem likely to catch up with her anytime soon.

Her trajectory includes milestones that arrived earlier than expected: becoming one of the youngest Saudi artists to join The Voice Kids as a coach, and gaining early recognition in global Billboard headlines following her signing with Warner Music, one of the first moves of its kind for a Saudi artist at that level.

When reminded of these achievements, her reaction was one of genuine surprise, as if hearing them for the first time. Off camera, she said, almost questioning rather than celebrating, “I never really reflected on that before… should I have? Maybe.”

That same honesty carried into the interview itself.

From the outset, it was clear Dalia doesn’t have much patience for overly polished conversations.

Whenever the discussion drifted toward the kind of rehearsed territory typical of artist interviews, she instinctively pulled it back to something more real, more human.

No matter the angle, honesty remained the anchor. Because with Dalia, the conversation doesn’t stop at the music, her personality is inseparable from her work. Which raises another way of looking at her: what if we read Dalia through her songs?

From “Qimmat Tumoohi” (Top of My Ambition) to “Ya Hasidi,” (Those Who Envy Me) from “Enta Koni” (You’re My Universe) to “Tamanni ‘Alaik,” (Let Me Check in on You), these titles feel like fragments of a personal narrative, each opening a window into a different layer of her identity: ambition, defiance, vulnerability, anger, heartbreak and a constant pull to reclaim control.

As the conversation deepened, those layers became more visible.

The woman who appeared so radiant and spontaneous also carried the weight of difficult chapters: two marriages, personal disappointments, clashes within the industry and moments where stepping away seemed easier than continuing.

And yet, alongside those challenges, her career has been marked by significant successes. The latest chapter: her role on The Voice Kids, which she described as a “divine sign” to keep going, at a time when she was genuinely close to walking away from music altogether.

There’s a quiet irony here.

Dalia, who speaks about motherhood with deep intensity, and openly admits she doesn’t want to go through the experience again due to the overwhelming love, emotional exhaustion and constant worry it entails, found her way back to herself, through children.

During our conversation, she recalled a moment with one of the young contestants on the show, a brief encounter that felt powerful enough to ground her again, or perhaps return her to her earliest beginnings, when the dream was simpler and less burdened.

Holding back tears, she said, “I had lost my passion. The energy I got from the kids reminded me of my dream, why I’m here, why I’m sitting in that chair.” She continued: “When I sat on The Voice panel and saw the kids, it felt like rescue. I was taking energy from them, and I told myself, ‘Dalia, you’re here because one day, you were there.’”

With that spark, the idea of retirement faded.

Now, she steps into a new phase, arguably her most energized yet, with her upcoming album promising even greater diversity in dialects and musical directions. Iraqi joins the mix, alongside Egyptian, a dialect she has mastered over the years, bringing her closer to a wider Arab audience.

Which raises the question: is this the most liberated version of Dalia we’ve seen yet?

Whatever impression she leaves on those who meet her, or those who follow her, it’s likely they’ll see an artist more daring than ever. But Dalia herself resists being reduced to any single identity: not just an artist, not just a mother, not even a woman with an “inspirational story” in the conventional sense.

What lingers after the interview is something rarer: A woman who has reclaimed the center of her life, who has finally stopped trying to become what others expect, and simply started being herself. And perhaps that is exactly why this cover feels so fitting.

This in an English translation of an article that originally appeared on Billboard Arabia.

Being in a pop group is a lot of work. Aside from the endless press, appearances, performances, choreo rehearsals and travel, there’s the trickiest work of all: managing personalities and relationships in an often high-pressure situation. Currently on-hiatus KATSEYE member Manon Bannerman hinted as much in a new NYLON cover story about the international girl group that was completed before the singer announced in February that she was taking a temporary hiatus to “focus on her health and well-being.”

“Being in a group, it’s just about good communication and setting good boundaries and building a friendship, but also work relationship, and always remembering that it’s a shared goal that we have,” Manon told the magazine, which noted that remaining members Yoonchae Jeung, Sophia Laforteza, Daniela Avanzini, Lara Raj and Megan Skiendiel declined to answer additional questions about Manon’s hiatus when the news broke of her hiatus after the initial interview was completed.

“There’s six of us, so obviously not everyone’s always going to be on the same page about everything,” Manon added. As an example, she noted that during photo shoots two members might have their eye on the same outfit, leading to a tough decision about who gets to wear what. “But I think we all are at, or have been learning and are finally coming to, a point where for the group’s sake, you give and you take. You pick your battles,” she told the magazine.

KATSEYE came together in 2023 via the reality competition series The Debut: Dream Academy, in which 20 candidates were cut down to the final six-member group, who’ve gone on to release two EPs — 2024’s SIS (Soft Is Strong) and 2025’s Beautiful Chaos — with the latter launching their first two Billboard Hot 100 hits: “Gnarly” (No. 82) and “Gabriela” (No. 26).

Since their formation, the group told NYLON that they’ve tried several methods of sorting out any differences, including a majority-rules method. Though when it came to tough decisions on new songs or choreo, that approach has sometimes felt too exclusionary and potentially divisive.

“We’ve learned that if even just one person doesn’t feel good about a certain thing, we need to heavily consider and communicate about it — because it’s not about the majority enjoying it and just having the people who don’t enjoy it adjust,” said Sophia. “If we don’t feel comfortable, we don’t feel passionate. We don’t feel good about something. We need to help that person see another perspective or adjust everything overall because it really is hard to perform a song if you don’t enjoy it.”

When all is said and done, Sophia said it’s all about professionalism and mutual respect. “We’re only as strong as our weakest member,” she told the magazine. “We need to make sure that we’re all showing up for each other and all going at the same pace. We cannot leave anybody behind.”

That all-for-one approach was in evidence in the announcement of Manon’s hiatus in February, when HYBE and Geffen posted a notice on the Weverse fan community that read: “After open and thoughtful conversations together, we are sharing that Manon will be taking a temporary hiatus from group activities to focus on her health and well-being. We fully support this decision. KATSEYE remains committed to showing up for one another and for the fans who mean everything to us. The group will continue scheduled activities during this time, and we look forward to being together again when the time is right. Thank you to our EYEKONS for your continued love, patience, and understanding.”

After missing out on a run of South American shows last month, Manon is also expected to sit out the group’s performance at the Coachella Festival this weekend in Indio, Calif. on Friday (April 10) and the following weekend (April 17). At press time it was unknown if Manon will be on hand for future shows this summer, including the Governors Ball Festival on June 5 in New York, the Hinterlands Music Festival in Saint Charles, Iowa on July 30 and the 88rising Festival: Head in the Clouds in Los Angeles on Aug. 8.