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When it comes to Lana Del Rey’s style, the singer can often be spotted showcasing a boho, free-spirited look, which includes flowy skirts and crochet styles. And while she showed off a more fantastical look at the 2024 Met Gala, where she appeared as a whimsical forest nymph, Del Rey was back to her signature style on her most recent outing on Wednesday (June 26). Even better? She was spotted in one of her most wallet-friendly looks yet: an $11 top from Walmart.
Days after performing her one-night-only show at Boston’s Fenway Park on June 20, the “Summertime Sadness” singer was photographed in South Carolina wearing a floral tube top from the brand No Boundaries, according to Lana Del Rey fashion blogger Anna Hocking (known on Instagram as @lanadelreysclosets). The shirt is available on sale right now on Walmart. Keep reading to shop the tube top below.
No Boundaries’ Crochet Bra Top is ready to bring a boho Y2K vibe to all of your summer outfits. The design has a fitted bodice that flares out into an asymmetrical hem decorated with a blue floral crochet pattern. In the center of the bodice are tie strings that you can tie into a bow for a more flirty appearance.
Walmart’s crochet top comes in four different patterns, but sizes for the exact blue floral shade seen on the Del Rey are already selling out, which means you’ll want to add it to your cart fast if you plan on channeling her summer look.
The “Young and Beautiful” singer chose a more casual route and paired the crochet top with ripped jean shorts and white sneakers, which can be seen in a photo slide posted by the fan account @lanadelreypictures on Instagram.
Rey has previously stated that she’s feeling more playful as she gears up to drop her first-ever country album. Her style always embodies individuality, and this wallet-friendly top only further proves her free-spirit energy towards everything from her music to fashion.
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2024-06-28 16:44:422024-06-28 16:44:42Lana Del Rey Stepped Out In a Beachy $11 Walmart Top (And It’s Almost Sold Out)
Over three years into his solo career, Aaron Frazer is about to embark on his first headlining tour. Frazer – the drummer and vocalist for soul outfit Durand Jones & The Indications – released his first solo album Introducing… in January of 2021 when touring options were limited due to COVID-19 restrictions and only managed to fit in a few opening gigs with fellow retro-enthusiasts Black Pumas.
For his sophomore setInto the Blue (out today via Dead Oceans), Frazer will support the new record across nearly 30 dates and multiple countries – a challenge he’s nervous, but ready to accept.
“At this point in people’s careers, if they’re the front person up there without an instrument in their hands they have probably been doing it since they were a kid,” Frazer tells Billboard. “And I’ve spent a lot of time on my butt … behind a drum kit.”
But Frazer isn’t entirely untested as a headliner. His booking team floated the idea of a one-off show at the iconic Troubadour in Los Angeles (the city he now calls home) for February and, within minutes of onsale, it was sold out. The team added two more nights around the city including The Lodge Room and The Paramount in the Boyle Heights neighborhood, both of which also sold out.
“It moved really quick, which was cool, man,” says Frazer. “I don’t think anywhere in the world has my back the way L.A. has my back.”
Tonight, he’ll celebrate the release of Into the Blue at The Wiltern, which has a larger capacity than his Threepeat run combined, and will formally introduce his loyal audience to the 10-track collection that showcases an even wider range of Frazer’s talents. Following his heavily soul-focused debut, Into the Blue takes the listener from 1950s pop of “Perfect Strangers” to the ‘90s R&B-styled “Fly Away,” along with boleros-inspired Spanish-language track “Dime.” While the genres sound disparate, Frazer and co-producer Alex Goose manage to ground the album in Frazer’s slick drumming and signature falsetto.
Billboard caught up with Frazer prior to his album release gig to discuss growing into a frontman, his love for hip-hop and how he manages to create cohesion as a “genre-agnostic” artist.
Into the Blue takes you into even more genres than before with ‘90s R&B, 1950s/1960s rock’n’roll and, of course, soul. How do you make all these genres sound cohesive on one album?
I am extremely eclectic in my listening, but for some people I did want to avoid the feeling of whiplash. Finding these through-lines that you can weave together to make it a more cohesive listening experience. So, like, Italian film score, some of the spaghetti western stuff. Ennio Morricone was a big influence on this record, and David Axelrod. Both Morricone and Axelrod, you have these big operatic background vocals, but then you also have very tough drums – very breakbeat-oriented drums. For me, it is keeping the drums tough throughout.
For example, the opening track “Thinking of You” — I was listening to a lot of Black Ivory from Harlem when I was writing that. The true period take would be to actually dial back the drums a little bit, but I wanted to push the drums a little bit more forward so that it can also blend with a song like “Dime” which is part Little Beaver and part Kali Uchis. So, yeah, tough drums, the background vocals and I am still me in every context. That is also the tie that binds.
Speaking of “Dime” featuring Cancamusa, what made you want to add Spanish-language vocals to this track?
I was working with a Spanish co-writer. I had this beat that I had made in collaboration with Alex Goose, my co-producer, as well as Robin Hannibal from Rhye. We put this track together and it had this smooth, intimate romance to it and Spanish is such a romantic language – it literally is a romance language. It felt like the right context for a Spanish-speaking artist. I wrote the lyrics with a writer named Sofia Lafluente, and she brought the Spanish perspective to that. I love being able to shine a spotlight on other artists, whether it is with my production or if it’s on my own social media. So much of the soul audience that I have is Spanish-speaking, and I wanted to show respect to the culture and bring a Spanish-speaking artist onto the track.
Your career has been heavily influenced by older soul music. What drew you to that music?
I’ve always felt genre agnostic. Hip-hop for me has always been at the core of my musical DNA. That’s how I learned soul music in the first place. The first CD I ever owned was Big Willie Style by Will Smith. I wish it was a cooler album. [Laughs] You get what you get when you’re a kid. But on that record there is “Just the Two of Us” which is a Bill Withers interpolation and the “Men in Black” rap which is Patrice Rushen’s “Forget Me Nots.”
From the jump, my introduction to soul music was filtered through hip-hop. It’s always been part of how I’ve understood music. Every hip-hop record draws multiple lines outward to other records across generations. So, here’s a drum break from the ‘60s. Here’s a soul sample from the ‘70s. There’s a jazz piano snippet. That’s the core of my musical philosophy. All these genres and different decades, it’s all just one thing.
Despite the depth of genres and instruments you introduce on the album, the tracks never sound cluttered. How do accomplish that?
It definitely takes a lot of work the more elements you put in. A lot of my musical heroes are good at exactly that. Curtis Mayfield builds these huge arrangements but they’re never like, “Whoa! Okay, I get it.” It’s never overbearing. Lee Hazlewood is another one that I come back to a lot. He’s making country music but there’s a toughness to it and his arrangements are just cavernous. A lot of it comes down to the part arranging and being able to see when everything fits. There’s a call and response to create a conversation between the elements. That’s what it is a lot of the times.
You had a very successful Threepeat run of shows in Los Angeles earlier this year, but now you’re going on a full headlining tour. What can fans expect?
I have a drummer who signed on for this tour who also sings background and plays percussion. So, when I’m on the kit, he’ll be on percussion and background vocals and then when I go up front, he’ll be on the drums.
So, unlike previous gigs, you’re going to be even more of a frontman. How does that feel?
It feels naked. It feels like a fever dream where you walk on stage without your pants on. It is fun, but it is a challenge. It requires a certain amount of bravery. I’m learning as I go, but I’m looking forward to this opportunity to experiment with abandon. That’s something I admire so much about Durand as a front person – his sense of abandon, his freedom on stage.
I also need to figure out who I am as a front person. I don’t come out of the James Brown school of frontmanship. It would be weird if I did. Smokey Robinson had his own kind of stage presence that is more demure. Or Curtis Mayfield, his stage presence was interesting because he held a guitar for a lot of it, which is nice. When I have a guitar in my hand, I’m like, “Okay, I’m safe. I’m good. I have something to do with my limbs.”
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2024-06-28 16:09:362024-06-28 16:09:36Aaron Frazer on Avoiding ‘Whiplash’ With New Eclectic Album: ‘I Am Still Me in Every Context’
For the past few months, things seem to have only been getting better for Sabrina Carpenter. Last summer, while opening on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, she began going viral for the city-specific outros she would tack on to the end of her song “Nonsense,” a true fan-driven hit that reached No. 56 on the Hot 100 and No. 10 on Pop Airplay. Next came “Feather,” off the deluxe edition of her Emails I Can’t Send album, which went even further, reaching No. 21 on the Hot 100 and becoming her first-ever Pop Airplay No. 1 earlier this year.
But that was just the beginning. “Espresso,” her single she released on top of her Coachella performance in April, exploded to No. 2 on the Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Global 200, cementing her as the pop superstar of the moment, crowned accordingly with a performance (and skit appearance) on Saturday Night Live. But her latest single, “Please Please Please,” then went even further — after debuting at No. 2 on the Hot 100 and giving her the top two songs on the Global 200, “Please Please Please” then ascended to the top of both charts, giving Carpenter her first-ever Hot 100 No. 1 and the distinction of replacing herself atop the global charts.
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The momentum has been dizzying — with every level conquered, another fell right after. Or, as Island Records vp of A&R Jackie Winkler puts it, “‘Nonsense’ walked so ‘Feather’ could jog, then ‘Espresso’ ran so that ‘Please Please Please’ could start a stampede.” And the success earns Winkler, who originally signed Carpenter to Island and has worked with her ever since, the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Winkler talks about the building success of each of these songs, Carpenter’s evolution as a songwriter, the way that A&R has evolved over the years — and what will come next. “I think this album is going to blow people away,” Winkler says of Carpenter’s forthcoming Short N’ Sweet, due out in August. “If you like ‘Please Please Please’ and ‘Espresso,’ just wait for what’s in store.”
This week, Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please” reached No. 1 on the Hot 100, her first-ever song to top the chart. What key decision did you make to help make that happen?
Sabrina and Jack Antonoff had known each other personally for some time, so it was a natural progression for them to eventually work together. Given the chemistry that Sabrina and Amy Allen had already built, putting the three of them together felt like the perfect musical combination to undoubtedly yield something exceptional. It’s also fun to share the success of this song with David Gray and Jenn Knoepfle at UMPG who were instrumental in connecting the dots.
“Please Please Please” also hit No. 1 on the Global 200, replacing “Espresso,” which was No. 1 last week. Why do you think these songs are resonating, and working so well, around the globe?
To put it simply, the two songs speak for themselves. The first time I heard “Please Please Please” and “Espresso,” both sounded like hit records to me. The extraordinary nuances of Sabrina’s vocal delivery and quick-witted lyrics, combined with Jack Antonoff and Julian Bunetta’s brilliant productions, all play an essential role in what makes these songs so infectious and undeniable. They are especially bold, and nobody could pull them off as fearlessly and authentically as Sabrina.
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Since last year, Sabrina has been on an increasingly-ascendant run up the charts, from “Nonsense” to “Feather” to “Espresso” and “Please Please Please.” How have you worked with her to help her develop her sound in the past year to reach this level?
It really feels like all four songs came at the perfect times in her career. “Nonsense” walked so “Feather” could jog, then “Espresso” ran so that “Please Please Please” could start a stampede. At the core, the music Sabrina makes is perfectly reflective of who she is as a person, and all the quirks and character are what give her such a strong musical identity. Writing with her friends has always felt like the most effortless way to allow her to be herself, so protecting that process at all costs will remain a vital part of her ever-evolving sound.
You originally signed Sabrina to Island several years ago. How have you seen her develop as a songwriter and as an artist since then?
From day one, Sabrina’s superpower has always been knowing exactly who she is and the type of musical collaborators she’s wanted to work with. I’ve witnessed her develop into an extraordinary songwriter who has not only coined entirely new phrases, but also infiltrated popular culture around the world with her lyricism alone. One of the most rewarding parts about seeing her succeed is that none of this has happened by skipping steps or catching a lucky break. It is all owed to her remarkable talent, the music itself and the relentless detail put into every aspect of her creative campaign. [Island co-CEOs] Justin Eshak and Imran Majid are ambitious leaders who strongly encourage our artists and our Island Records staff to take risks musically and strategically, which has made this journey even more gratifying as we continue to charge forward with no limitations.
With such a string of successful singles, how does that influence your approach to her upcoming album?
I think this album is going to blow people away. If you like “Please Please Please” and “Espresso,” just wait for what’s in store. Every ounce of the album oozes with Sabrina’s personality — funny, sincere, cheeky and intelligent, but above all, it’s honest. There isn’t a single song on the album that one could mistake for another artist, which is by far my favorite part.
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How has A&R changed over the course of your career, and how has technology changed the role?
Technology continues to be a valuable tool for us to perform our jobs more efficiently. Since the start of my career, our access to information, data and even resources used to break artists have multiplied; however, my approach to signings, choosing singles and pairing creatives has never wavered from following my gut instinct. What will remain constant in A&R is the importance of maintaining genuine relationships, remaining selective and staying true to finding artists with longevity, a point of view and an unparalleled vision.
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2024-06-28 16:01:152024-06-28 16:01:15How Sabrina Carpenter Conquered the Charts With ‘Please Please Please’ and ‘Espresso’
Mustard is riding high off of his success with Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” He sits down with us and gives us the inside scoop on how he helped create it and how it changed his life, how the late Nipsey Hussle helped name his new album ‘FAITH OF A MUSTARD SEED’ and his opinion on why the Kendrick & Drake beef was good for hip-hop. He goes in-depth about his latest single “Parking Lot” with Travis Scott, his divorce, collaborating with Rihanna, Mariah Carey and more!
Mustard:
Drake and Kendrick and even J. Cole, they all came and just made this thing the top of- It’s back. Would you guys rather me stay with this lady and me be unhappy and me dog her or something? What would you want me to do? I remember like the last conversation I had with Nipsey he was telling me to name that album ‘FAITH OF A MUSTARD SEED.’ What up, it’s Mustard, and you’re watching Billboard News.
Tetris Kelly:
You picked the perfect time to stop by Billboard. Hot 100, No. 1 song-
Mustard:
Yeah.
Tetris Kelly:
“Not Like Us,” man. How’s it feel at this point of your career to be topping the Hot 100?
Man, I keep saying it. And I can’t say enough. It’s got to be God. Like, because you think about it, it’s like I think like a couple months ago, I knew I had this whole album. And I’m just like, Okay, what am I gonna do to get myself back hot? What am I going to do to? You know, I can’t I want to do drip checks no more. I did that already. I don’t want to do the weight check stuff. I’ve done that already. I want to get as much as in shape as I can, but you know, I was just like, what am I going to do? How are we going to spark for people to be like, oh, I want to hear Mustard, again? You know, that’s just like, I think every artist would think about that. And then the song came out.
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2024-06-28 16:01:142024-06-28 16:01:14Mustard Talks ‘Not Like Us’ Success, Nipsey Hussle Helping Name His New Album & More | Billboard News
The Los Angeles native pulled up to Billboard News recently to put the whirlwind of the last couple of months into perspective. Mustard was wondering how he was going to pick up a buzz heading into his album, before the Drake-dissing “Not Like Us” seemingly fell out of the sky in May and gave him an ace in the hole.
Mustard had long wanted to land a placement with Kendrick Lamar to the point that he’d pepper the Compton rap dignitary with five beats at a time on some days.
“I keep saying it and I can’t say it enough — it’s gotta be God,” Mustard says, crediting a higher power. “What am I gonna do to get myself back hot? … How are we gonna spark to where people are like, ‘I wanna hear Mustard again.’ … Then the song came out. There’s my rollout.”
He continued: “I’ve been literally trying to get a song with him for years… Before I even made that beat, I got to a point where I was like, ‘I’m gonna send five beats a day.’ I maybe sent him five beats a day for maybe three months. I’m still doing it right now just in case he wants to record something. I sent him that beat and then I think that day I would make it a point just to go to the studio to make a couple of beats to send to him.”
Mustard cooked up the “Not Like Us” beat and sent it over to Kendrick in early April before running to his manager’s birthday dinner.
“I started chopping it up and I sped it up and I did the drums and I was like, ‘This is fire.’ … I sent him the beat and I was going to my manager’s birthday party and that was April 6,” he recalled. “He never responded until 12 at night and was like, ‘This is fire.’”
Mustard admitted: “I don’t think I even understood how big it was until it went No. 1 (on the Billboard Hot 100). I was like, ‘This is the biggest song I ever had in my life.’ I just wanted a song with Kendrick.”
The 10 Summers Records boss is rolling into his upcoming album, Faith of a Mustard Seed, which he revealed was named by the late Nipsey Hussle. He continued the album rollout on last Friday (June 21) with the release of “Parking Lot” feat. Travis Scott.
“When I was doing Perfect Ten, I remember the last conversation I had with Nipsey, he was telling me to name that album Faith of a Mustard Seed,” he added. “We talked for hours that night and I always kept that in the back of my head.”
Watch the full 20-minute interview with Mustard below, which also finds him touching on the losses he’s recently endured, how it was to work with legends like Mariah Carey and Rihanna, plus much more.
It’s International LGBT Pride Day (June 28th), and to celebrate, we have created a playlist with great music from LGBTQ artists who have broken barriers and conventions, paving the way for others to present themselves to the world as they are
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With songs like “FruityBoy” by Villano Antillano (from their new album Miss Misogyny, released Thursday); “Nonbinary” by Arca; “MADRE” by Young Miko; and “Rubi” by Pabllo Vittar, to name a few, the playlist encompasses both emerging and established artists from various nationalities and musical genres who have raised awareness with their art.
International LGBT Pride Day commemorates the 1969 Stonewall Riots, a series of protests against a police raid that took place in the early hours of June 28 that year at the Stonewall Inn pub in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village — often cited as the first time the LGBTQ+ community fought against a system that persecuted them in the U.S. It is celebrated to reaffirm pride in sexual orientations and gender identities that have traditionally been marginalized and suppressed, and to make the community’s presence visible in society.
In the music industry, Ricky Martin was one of the first mainstream Latin stars to come out. “I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man,” he expressed in an open letter on his website in 2010. Since then, many other artists have not only spoken openly about their sexual orientation or identity, but released music that celebrates the LGBTQ community.
The titles on our playlist, which also include “Mi Secreto” by Kany García, “Dime Precioso” by Álex Anwandter, and “La Isla de los Lesbos” by Javier Mena, are a representation of that. Listen to all 21 songs below.
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2024-06-28 15:50:082024-06-28 15:50:08The Ultimate Latin Playlist to Celebrate International LGBT Pride Day
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Getting a natural-looking tan doesn’t have to require lounging in the sun with little to no sunscreen — Tarte’s popular bronzing drops have developed a cult following for providing a glowing, sun-kissed appearance with no soaking under the sun’s rays required.
The benefits of using a bronzer go beyond just giving you a tanner appearance. The makeup product also helps to even out your skin tone and has a formula boosted with moisturizers to give skin a more nourished and plumper appearance. For a limited-time, QVC is upgrading your makeup routine with a major beauty deal by offering the viral Key Largo Glow Drops bundled with Tarte’s Hydrating Primer. When purchased separately, the two products are $53 each, but this deal gets you both for just $35.
QVC’s deal gets you the Key Largo Glow Drops and Hydrating Primer for under $40. The brand recommends mixing equal parts of the primer and bronzer drops together before applying to your skin. Once applied, the primer will keep the bronzer looking fresh for up to 12 hours while using ingredients like coconut jojoba extract, grapeseed extract, olive oil, sunflower seed oil and meadowfoam oil to hydrate your skin, creating a smoother appearance.
Reviewers rave over how the glow drops and primer combined are “so silky” when applied and leave behind “no streaks.”
While QVC’s bundle comes in the shade Rich Bronze, there are four total colors you can stock up on through Ulta and Sephora, which TikTok user @itsmekelc shows off in a video you can see here.
TikTok hasn’t been able to stop gushing over Tarte’s bronzing drops and its “natural” look. User @sarah_wolak even racked up more than 48,000 views for a review video of the makeup product.
“It’s not patchy, I don’t think it looks orange at all – I think it looks quite natural,” the TikToker said in the video. “It blended in beautifully, it didn’t stick to any of my dry patches.”
Gracie Abrams is living out every Swiftie’s wildest dreams, having gone from childhood fan to Eras Tour opener to close friends with Taylor Swift herself. With that in mind, the 24-year-old singer-songwriter can say from firsthand experience that the pop superstar is just as great a pal as she is an idol.
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“She’s extraordinary, which we all know,” Abrams told TODAY Friday morning (June 28), sitting down for an interview between live performances as part of the show’s Citi Concert Series. “But she’s as extraordinary a friend and mentor as she is an artist and a writer.”
The “Close to You” singer also rehashed the viral story of how she and Swift put out a fire together after writing their collaboration “Us” at the latter’s New York City apartment, an anecdote she first told Billboard earlier this month. “She saved the building,” Abrams recalled of the 14-time Grammy winner coming to the rescue with a fire extinguisher. “She literally just made it happen. She’s a superhuman.”
“Us” appears on Abrams’ sophomore studio album The Secret of Us, which dropped one week prior to her TODAY appearance. The project is currently challenging Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department for the No. 1 spot on next week’s Billboard 200, where the “Anti-Hero” singer’s LP has reigned for nine consecutive weeks.
During her time on the Today Plaza stage, the California native also performed new song “Blowing Smoke” and older fan favorite “I Miss You, I’m Sorry.” Plus, she got the chance to interact with ecstatic fans in the audience, gifting one tearful person — who just so happened to be graduating that day as their school’s valedictorian — free tickets to her Radio City Music Hall concert later this year.
See clips of Abrams on TODAY below.
“She’s as extraordinary a friend and mentor as she is an artist and a writer.”
Gracie Abrams speaks on TODAY about her friendship with Taylor Swift, details the night of the fire at Taylor’s apartment from going to dinner to writing “us.” and more! pic.twitter.com/cJVyXJuTen
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2024-06-28 15:43:052024-06-28 15:43:05Gracie Abrams Says Taylor Swift ‘Saved the Building’ When She Put Out Apartment Fire
Diplo is facing a civil lawsuit accusing him of violating “revenge porn” laws by sharing sexually-explicit videos and images of a former romantic partner without her permission.
In a complaint filed Thursday in Los Angeles federal court, an unnamed Jane Doe accuser claimed that the DJ (real name Thomas Wesley Pentz) recorded their sexual encounters and shared the materials with others on Snapchat “without plaintiff’s knowledge or consent.”
“Plaintiff brings this action to recover for the emotional and physical injuries she endured because of Diplo’s actions and to make sure no one else is forced to suffer the privacy invasions and physical and mental trauma she felt and continues to feel to this day,” the woman’s attorneys write.
In her complaint, the woman claims she had consensual sexual relationship with the DJ from 2016 to 2023. During that time, she says she occasionally “gave defendant Diplo permission to record them having sex, but never gave him permission to distribute those images and videos to third parties and reiterated that he was not to record them without her explicit consent.”
“Plaintiff trusted defendant Diplo and believed that he would respect her wishes to keep their sexual images and videos confidential and that he would not record them having sex without her consent,” her lawyers write.
But last fall, the woman says she was contacted by someone claiming to be in possession of images and videos of “plaintiff and defendant Diplo having sex.” She says the materials, allegedly shared over Snapchat five years earlier, depicted her “genitals, buttocks, and face,” as well as her voice.
After the incident, Jane Doe says she reported Diplo’s actions to the New York Police Department, which later “issued a warrant for defendant Diplo’s arrest for dissemination of intimate images and/or videos depicting Plaintiff.”
In an email to Billboard, the NYPD confirmed that a report had been filed and that there was an active investigation, but declined to comment on the claims of an arrest warrant: “There is a criminal complaint on file for unlawful dissemination for a suspect with the name of Thomas Pentz which is currently being investigated by NYPD detectives.”
In 2022, when Congress reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act, lawmakers created for the first time a federal law banning the disclosure of “intimate” images without the consent of those depicted in them. The lawsuit accuses Diplo of violating that provision, as well as an earlier revenge porn law enacted by the state of California.
Both representatives and an attorney for Diplo did not return requests for comment.
Diplo was previously accused of revenge porn by another woman. In 2020, he was sued by a woman named Shelly Auguste over claims that he had distributed nude photographs of her without permission. His attorneys called it a “smear campaign” and sued her back for stalking, trespassing, and distributing private materials. That litigation is ongoing.
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2024-06-28 15:38:342024-06-28 15:38:34Diplo Hit With ‘Revenge Porn’ Lawsuit Claiming He Shared Sex Videos Over Snapchat
Ron Chapman thought making a documentary about the 1969 Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert in 1969 would be “a no-brainer.”
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It certainly had the provocative goods to make for a great movie, from a stellar lineup of rock legends to John Lennon’s first full-blown concert appearance outside of The Beatles to Alice Cooper‘s infamous chicken-killing incident. And there was footage of it all, shot by no less than the legendary D.A. Pennebaker, then of Monterey Pop and Bob Dylan’s Don’t Look Back fame. It seemed like a slam dunk.
But “it was much harder than I thought it would be,” Toronto-based Chapman tells Billboard. Financing took a good six years, during which Pennebaker as well as performers such as Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis passed away. “This festival had been passed over by time and history,” explains Chapman (Who the F**k is Arthur Fogel?, The Poet of Havana, The Forbidden Shore). “One, because it happened in Canada and nobody paid much attention to Canada. Secondly, because Woodstock had just happened and everybody was festivaled out. It got bookended between that and Altamont and was somewhat forgotten.”
The Revival has been revived, however.
Chapman’s Revival69: The Concert That Rocked the World — which was shown at this year’s South By Southwest Film Festival and won the audience award for best international feature at the Florida Film Festival — comes out Friday (June 28) via Apple TV, on DVD and in theaters. That night, music critic Robert Christgau — who covered the concert and appears in the film — will moderate a Q&A with Chapman at New Plaza Cinema in New York City.
It will, Chapman and others associated with the project hope, give the festival the prominent place in rock n’ roll history they feel it’s been denied. “You were always playing this festival or that festival back then…but this one had John Lennon. That’s kind of a big deal, right?” says Cooper, whose band performed on its own — between Lennon and the Doors, in fact — and also backed up Gene Vincent. “If that doesn’t make it historic, what does?”
“If it had happened in Buffalo, it would’ve been a movie in the ‘70s,” adds John Brower, who co-promoted the Sept. 13, 1969, event with partner Ken Walker. “Up here in Canada things take a long time to get figured out or acknowledged. No U.S. media was here (except Christgau). And it was such a desperate struggle to put it on. How could we imagine it being historical at the time? But it’s very powerful for me to remember Jim (Morrison) and John (Lennon).”
The Toronto festival’s story was as epic and epochal as any of the others that dotted the rock landscape at the time. Brower and Walker originally planned to celebrate rock n’ roll OGs like Berry, Little Richard, Lewis, Vincent, Bo Diddley and others. They were also partly financed by a local motorcycle club, the Vagabonds, and alarm bells sounded when ticket sales were slow. The Doors, in need of shows after Morrison’s arrest in Miami six and a half months prior, were added to the bill but didn’t provide the expected boost. Brower and Walker planned to cancel, but when they told Kim Fowley and Rodney Bingenheimer, who’d been flown in from Los Angeles to emcee, the former had a different idea.
“(Fowley) went into hyper overdrive bordering on rage that we would even considering canceling the show,” Brower recalls. “His brilliance was to realize John Lennon lived and breathed Chuck Berry and Little Richard and the Beatles had opened for Gene Vincent at the Star Club (in Hamburg, Germany). He just said, ‘You need to call John Lennon and tell him you’ve got all these bands.’ He was smart enough to say, ‘Don’t tell him about Chicago, the Doors, Alice Cooper. Tell him about the old rock n’ rollers.’”
So on the Tuesday before the concert, Brower put in a call to Apple Corps in London and managed to not only get a hold of Lennon but convince him to come. Lennon put together an ad hoc Plastic Ono Band last minute, with his wife Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton on guitar, future Yes drummer Alan White and longtime friend Klaus Voormann on bass. They rehearsed on the plane ride over and later in the dressing room before going on stage for a performance preserved on the album Live Peace in Toronto 1969, released three months later.
“It was a joke,” Voorman remembers. “How dare somebody like John Lennon get out there with a band that had never played together, didn’t know the songs, didn’t know what microphone or what amplifier or drum kit would be there. That was real, how can I say…scary in a way for John to do this. It was fun to play, yes, but we played the wrong notes and played the wrong things. It was…crazy.”
The Lennon booking did succeed in selling out the concert’s 20,000 tickets. Brower calls it “the Hail Mary pass we threw because nothing else would win the game.” He ultimately let in another 1,500 fans who were pushing at the gates as the show went on.
Revival69 documents the myriad machinations that went into the concert, even beyond luring Lennon and company — and including the Cooper chicken incident, when he hurled a live chicken his manager Shep Gordon had let loose on stage into the crowd, which promptly tore it to pieces. “I’m from the Midwest; I didn’t know chickens don’t fly,” says Cooper, whose unwitting stunt ironically made more international news than Lennon’s performance.
“John and Yoko loved what we were doing,” recalls Cooper, who didn’t become friendly with Lennon until some years later in Los Angeles. “We were doing street art with the pillows and the CO2 and the chicken and the whole thing. Yoko and John Loved all that. It was primitive, sort of guerilla theater that we were doing, and that’s what they liked about it so much.”
Chapman “wanted to take the viewer back and feel like they were there at the festival. So much of this was the essence of rock n’ roll and everything that was so great and so wonderful about it. I think a lot of that has been lost — and that’s okay, because progress is progress. But the music industry and the culture in that moment in time was so special and so different in so many ways.”
Revival69 includes interviews with Brower, Cooper, Gordon (who helped the organizers put things together), Voormann, Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger and other participants, as well as members of Pennenbaker’s film crew and even Rush’s Geddy Lee, a friend and tennis partner of Chapman’s who attended the festival. Ono and Clapton were on Chapman’s wish list but were unavailable.
The linchpin for the film, of course, is Pennebaker’s footage, which surfaced briefly in 1971 as Sweet Toronto and has been used for subsequent video releases of the Berry, Lewis and Little Richard performances. “He barely got the financing to do it,” Chapman says, “but his instincts to go and shoot the festival and that it would be worth documenting were good.” That Pennebaker was not able to release a successful film, according to Chapman, “was his greatest disappointment. After Don’t Look Back and Monterey Pop he was riding a wave. He really thought this film was going to be his greatest success; it was, in fact, his greatest failure. D.A. spoke very rarely about this film. I really was looking forward to interviewing him. I was really looking forward to being able to stand with D.A. when we launched it.”
Filmmaker Chris Hegedus, Pennebaker’s widow, says he “loved the film” footage that he shot. “The performers were legends, and they gave amazing performances in it, so that aspect of having it as history is really precious.” She and their son, Frazer Pennebaker, worked with Chapman in reviewing the footage, using an old Steenbeck editing table. In the boxes of the film reels they also found some of the Super 8 cameras that Pennebaker had given to crew members and performers to shoot whatever they wished.
“That was a huge find,” Chapman says. “I was so excited. Here was great backstage footage that had never been seen, and all kinds of audio I was able to use. It was fantastic.”
Hegedus considers Revival69 to be “Ron’s version of what happened, which is a fantastic concert story.” But she makes clear that it’s different than what Pennebaker would likely have done if he’d had the opportunity. “Really what Penny was trying to do was memorialize the performances of this particular time in history and what happened there,” she explains. “You can see this festival fell between Woodstock and Altamont in a certain way. it starts out as this kind of, ‘Let’s have a good time rock n’ roll,’ and ends with this (Lennon) performance that’s really about revolution and what’s happening in the world. I don’t think those concertgoers were really ready for that kind of end statement that happened because of John and Yoko’s political beliefs,” Hegedus notes. “(Chapman) started wanting to make the film when Penny was alive, so he would have had a lot to contribute about that aspect of the film, and his point of view. Sadly he died (in 2019) before Ron got the money, so it proceeded as it is — a riveting film and a real tribute to somebody like Penny who really had documented so many cultural and political moments that were incredibly important.”
“I think (Lennon) would’ve loved this movie,” Brower says. “I think (Morrison) would’ve loved this movie, even though he chose not to be on film. In the movie you see people having the greatest time — not of their lives, maybe, but a great time. They’re screaming, they’re laughing, having a fabulous time watching all the rock n’ rollers. Bo Diddley said, ‘I’ve never heard an audience scream or cheer for me like that, ever.’ It almost brought me to tears.”
https://i0.wp.com/neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/station.nez_png.png?fit=943%2C511&ssl=1511943Yvetohttps://neztelinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/nez_png.pngYveto2024-06-28 15:38:332024-06-28 15:38:33‘Revival69’ Documentary Shines New Light on Forgotten 1969 Toronto Rock Revival Festival
