An 18-year-old man who was charged in the 2020 fatal shooting of rising Brooklyn rapper Pop Smoke admitted to killing him during a home-invasion robbery at a Hollywood Hills home in juvenile court Friday (May 12), according to City News Service.

The man, who was 15 at the time of the crime, admitted to a first-degree murder charge stemming from the Feb. 19, 2020, killing of Pop Smoke (real name Bashar Barakah Jackson). He also admitted to a home-invasion robbery charge as well as an allegation that he personally and intentionally discharged a firearm during the crime.

He is expected to be held in a state juvenile facility until he turns 25.

City News Service reported that during the hearing, L.A. County Superior Court Judge J. Christopher Smith told the 18-year-old man and his 19-year-old co-defendant, the latter of whom admitted to a juvenile court petition charging him with home-invasion robbery, “That man lost his life over no good reason. … You have no right to take somebody’s life. You have no right to take somebody’s property.”

The 19-year-old man and a third, 20-year-old man, who pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and another count of home-invasion robbery during an April 6, 2023-dated hearing, could both remain in juvenile custody until they turn 25. The names of all three men are not being publicly released because of their ages at the time of the crime.

Only one of the four men who were charged in the killing of Pop Smoke, Corey Walker, is being charged in adult court because he was 19 at the time of the crime and is now 22. City News Service reports he is awaiting a pretrial hearing scheduled for June 16 in L.A. on murder, robbery and burglary charges.

Cumulus Media’s share price climbed 11.9% to $3.30 on Friday (May 12) after the company announced it commenced a “modified Dutch auction” tender offer to purchase up to $10 million of shares of its common stock at up to $3.25 per share. That news led to a 19.1% improvement this week and made Cumulus, the third-largest radio company in the U.S. by revenue, the week’s top performer on the Billboard Global Music Index.

Radio companies have suffered from an advertising slowdown since the second half of 2022. Two weeks ago, Cumulus CEO Mary Berner cited “considerable macro-driven weakness in the national advertising market” when the company announced its first-quarter revenue declined 11.4% to $205.7 million and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization fell 66.9% to $10.3 million. To shore up its bottom line and share price, which has fallen 46.9% year to date, Cumulus has cut costs — it also announced an additional $10 million of annualized savings — and retired debt at a discount. The Dutch auction is part of its previously announced $50 million share repurchase program and is “is consistent with its goal of maximizing shareholder value,” the company said in a statement.

The Billboard Global Music Index, a composite of stocks of 21 music companies across the global music industry, declined 2.8% to 1,203.04 last week. Nine of the index’s stocks were in positive territory, 10 stocks declined and one stock was unchanged. Year-to-date, the index has gained 3.0%.

Sphere Entertainment Co. declined 28.9% this week after the company disclosed on Wednesday that construction costs for the state-of-the-art venue in Las Vegas had increased $125 million to $2.3 billion. Sphere blamed the increase on the “overall complexity of the project” and noted it had made “significant progress” towards completing the structure before U2’s inaugural performance on Sept. 29.

The stock market in general performed better than the Billboard Global Music Index. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.3% and 1.1%, respectively. The Nasdaq composite index improved 0.4%. In the U.K., the FTSE 100 index dropped 0.3%. Korea’s KOSPI composite index fell 1.0%.

Chris Stapleton won entertainer of the year for the first time at the 58th Academy of Country Music Awards, which were presented Thursday (May 11) at the Ford Center at the Star in Frisco, Texas. Garth Brooks and Dolly Parton – both past ACM entertainer of the year winners – co-hosted the show.

This was Stapleton’s fifth nomination in the category. The award comes seven years after he won new male artist of the year. Stapleton is a three-time winner for male artist of the year, which means he qualifies for another award, what the ACM calls its “Triple Crown.”

HARDY and Lainey Wilson were the top winners at the 2023 ACMs, with four awards each, followed by Cole Swindell with three awards and Ashley Gorley with two.

HARDY won two awards (as artist and co-producer) for music event of the year for “wait in the truck,” his collab with Wilson. HARDY and Wilson also won visual media of the year for that hit. HARDY, who won last year for songwriter of the year, won this year in the new artist-songwriter of the year category.

In addition to two awards she shared with HARDY, Wilson won two other awards. Her Bell Bottom Country won album of the year. It’s the first album by a female artist to in in the category since Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour four years ago. The album was produced by Jay Joyce, who previously won in the category 10 years ago for producing Eric Church’s Chief.

Wilson also won female artist of the year for the first time, just one year after winning new female artist of the year. That’s the fastest climb from a win for new female artist of the year to a win for female artist of the year since Carrie Underwood also took one year to make that climb 16 years ago.

Swindell’s “She Had Me at Heads Carolina” won awards for both single and song of the year. It’s the first work to win in both categories since “Tequila” by Dan + Shay four years ago. The song contains lyrical and melodic references to Jo Dee Messina’s 1996 debut single “Heads Carolina, Tails California,” and credits that song’s writers Mark D. Sanders and Tim Nichols as co-writers.

That contributed to “She Had Me at Heads Carolina” setting a new record as the song of the year winner with the most credited writers (six). The previous record of four songwriters on an ACM song of the year winner was held jointly by “Need You Now,” written by the three members of Lady A plus Josh Kear, and “One Man Band,” written by three members of Old Dominion plus frequent collaborator Josh Osborne.

Messina joined Swindell to perform the song on the ACM Awards, as she did at the CMA Awards in November. ACM voters have had their eye on both artists for many years. Messina won top new female vocalist in 1998. Swindell won new artist of the year in 2014.

Zach Crowell produced “She Had Me at Heads Carolina.” It’s his second single of the year award. He also produced Sam Hunt’s “Body Like a Back Road,” which won five years ago.

Morgan Wallen took male artist of the year for the first time. He won two awards last year – album of the year for Dangerous: The Double Album and an ACM Milestone Award. These awards cap a remarkable comeback from a career-threatening episode in which Wallen was videotaped using a racial slur. Country fans rallied behind him, not wanting to see a promising star cancelled so early in his journey. Wallen, who was forced to cancel six weeks of shows on May 9 on the advise of his voice doctor, was the only winner who wasn’t present to accept.

Brothers Osborne won duo of the year for the fourth time. The brother duo has now won as duo of the year as many times since T.J. Osborne came out as gay in February 2021 as they did before his revelation. Only three other duos have won four or more times in this category. Brooks & Dunn leads with 16 wins, followed by The Judds with seven and Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn, also with four.

Old Dominion won group of the year for the sixth consecutive year. That’s the longest streak of consecutive wins in the category since Rascal Flatts won seven years in a row from 2002-08. Before that, Alabama also won six years straight from 1980-85.

Gorley, who co-wrote three of the contenders for this year’s song of the year award (including the winner, “She Had Met at Heads Carolina”), won songwriter of the year for the first time. Gorley is only the third songwriter in ACM history to have a writing credit on three song of the year nominees in one year. The first two were Merle Haggard in 1969 and Kris Kristofferson in 1971.

Zach Bryan and Hailey Whitters won new male and female artist of the year, respectively. Bryan was eligible and entered for a Grammy nod for best new artist last year, but failed to be nominated.

​​The ACMs made history in 2022 as the first major awards ceremony to exclusively livestream, partnering with Prime Video. For the 2023 event, the show again partnered with Prime Video on an exclusive global live stream. The full rebroadcast will stream for free on Friday, May 12 on Freevee.

The ACM Awards are produced by Dick Clark Productions. DCP is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a Penske Media Corporation (PMC) subsidiary and joint venture between PMC and Eldridge. PMC is the parent company of Billboard.