Spinnin’ Records Germany launches Friday (April 10) with an all-star, all-international single featuring Afrojack, David Guetta and Sia Furler.
An initiative of Warner Music Central Europe and Spinnin’ Records, the new Berlin-based label hopes to create opportunities for artists across Germany, Switzerland, and Austria (GSA), and welcome talent from around the world, reads a statement, who will enjoy access to the brand’s global ecosystem, reaching upwards of 40 million dance music fans.
Also, regional artists are plugged in and have access to Spinnin’s teams based across the United States, the United Kingdom, Benelux, Germany, and China.
“The launch of Spinnin’ Records Germany marks a pivotal moment in our strategy to bridge the gap between regional excellence and global stardom,” explains Niels Walboomers, president, Warner Music Central Europe and Spinnin’ Records. “By uniting the heritage of Spinnin’ alongside the creative energy and dance scene of the GSA region, we are creating something special.”
The first release is “Awake Tonight,” a dramatic, strings-powered track that debuted live at Ultra Miami, and marks the first collaboration by Guetta and Sia in 15 years, since “Titanium.”
With co-founders Roger de Graaf and Eelko van Kooten at the helm, Spinnin’ Records opened for business in the Netherlands in 1999. The record company was a cornerstone of the EDM era, with a roster including Afrojack and Martin Garrix, Tiësto, Martin Solveig, Nicky Romero, Sander van Doorn, and others. The company’s business structure also includes a slew of artist imprints including Tiësto’s Musical Freedom and David Guetta’s Future Rave. In 2019, the label focused on international expansion, making inroads in the Brazilian market by signing Brazilian producer Alok and launching Spinnin’ Records Asia.
“In the beginning, we wanted to become the No. 1 dance company in the Netherlands,” de Graaf told Billboard in 2019. “Then we wanted to become the No. 1 dance company in Europe, and then the No. 1 dance company in the world.”
Its success caught the attention of Warner Music, which acquired the label in 2017 in a deal reportedly worth more than $100 million. This transition saw van Kooten depart the label, with the exec going on to launch Ledo, a global digital distribution platform that partners artists with social media influencers. De Graaf retired in 2024.
By launching Spinnin’ Records Germany, comments Marco Pantuso, marketing director, Spinnin’ Records, “we’re evolving our ecosystem to ensure that the talent in the genre across Germany, Switzerland, and Austria has a direct pipeline to our global fanbases and artists. This is a world-class platform designed to amplify club culture on an international scale.”
Adds Kevin Segler, dance marketing director, Warner Music Central Europe: “We believe in the power of local expertise and the impact of a global network. With the teams in Hamburg, Berlin, and Amsterdam working in lockstep, we’re providing a unique proposition for artists.”
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Lil Baby’s hemp company is suing its joint venture partner for allegedly tarnishing the rapper’s reputation by shipping illegal, contaminated cannabis products across the country.
The claims come in a Monday (April 6) complaint filed by The Holding Co., an entity that owns several Lil Baby (Dominique Jones) trademarks, including WHAM, the rapper’s nickname and the title of his chart-topping 2025 album. The lawsuit targets cannabis company Bay Smokes, which signed a joint marketing venture with The Holding Co. in 2024 for a WHAM hemp brand.
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The crux of the lawsuit is that under this joint venture, Bay Smokes was only supposed to sell low-THC, federally legal hemp available for shipping nationwide. But The Holding Co. says it recently tested the product and found that it contained over 22% total THC, far above the federal limit of 0.3%.
According to The Holding Co., its WHAM product tests also revealed the presence of microbes, including E. coli, yeast and mold. As a result, the company says, Lil Baby’s name has now been unwittingly tied to both unsafe contamination and the interstate transportation of illegal drugs.
“[Defendants] associated plaintiff’s marks with unauthorized illegal cannabis sales, concealed sales, contaminated products and unlawful conduct, thereby creating a harmful and negative association with plaintiff’s brands,” reads the lawsuit, obtained by Billboard.
The lawsuit further alleges that Bay Smokes has falsely claimed in advertising that it owns Lil Baby’s trademarks, and that founders Will Goodall and Katiana Kay are inappropriately marketing the cannabis brand with “erotic videos.”
The Holding Co. says these issues have only worsened since it sent a cease-and-desist letter to Bay Smokes in February. Now, Lil Baby’s company is seeking unspecified financial damages for a slew of civil claims, including trademark infringement, trademark dilution and false advertising.
Bay Smokes did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday (April 9).
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.pngYveto2026-04-10 00:50:352026-04-10 00:50:35Lil Baby’s Company Sues Biz Partner Over Illegal THC Levels and E. Coli in Hemp Products
Monday through Sunday, Lady Gaga and Doechii can turn a dance floor into a runway.
The powerhouse pop/hip-hop duo have joined forces for the just-released duet “Runway,” the first new music from The Devil Wears Prada 2. The song — which is named after the fictional fashion magazine at the center of the movie series — was announced earlier this week when it soundtracked the final trailer for the sequel, which arrives in theaters on May 1.
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“Runway” was co-written by Lady Gaga along with her “Die With a Smile” collaborators Bruno Mars, Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II and Andrew Watt, as well as Mayhem producer Cikut, Jaylah Hickmon and Jayda Love. Mars, Watt, Cirkut and D’Mile produced the song.
The song is perfect for the catwalk, even starting with the spoken intro: “No matter what, you better strut.” In the outro, Gaga sings, “You were born for the runway,” perhaps tipping her hat to her 2011 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 smash “Born This Way.”
Last year, Doechii presented Gaga with the Innovator Award at the 2025 iHeartRadio Music Awards, saying that she identified as a “Little Monster” growing up. “Lady Gaga wasn’t just a pop star; she was a lifeline,” Doechii said of Gaga’s impact on young queer kids. “Gaga taught us it was OK to be our real selves.” In a British Vogue interview last year, Gaga praised Doechii, saying, “You don’t often see someone come out of the gate with a pen that feels immediately legendary. That’s Doechii to me.”
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.pngYveto2026-04-10 00:41:382026-04-10 00:41:38Lady Gaga & Doechii’s ‘Runway’ From ‘Devil Wears Prada 2’ Makes Its Fashionable Debut: Stream It Now
For her 10th studio album, Kany García decided to revisit her past and return to her mother’s home in the countryside of Morovis, Puerto Rico, delving into memory and establishing a beautiful, sincere dialogue with her inner child.
“When I finished García, it felt a big challenge because after naming an album after your last name, it’s like, ‘Where do we go next?’” the singer/songwriter tells Billboard Español about her ultra-personal 2024 set, which earned a Latin Grammy for best traditional pop vocal album. “I felt the need to explore things connected to my roots in terms of instrumentation. I didn’t necessarily want to make a folkloric album, but I did want to lean into something that had those kinds of connotations. So, we started thinking about conceptualizing the album before writing the songs.”
“I did everything backward,” she continues, “because throughout my career, I’ve always written the songs first and then figured out how they all fit together. This process has been so beautiful for me, full of learning, and I think it gave me more clarity and direction about where I wanted the songs to go. When I conceptualized it with the team, it was like, ‘What if you had a conversation with your inner child?’”
Thus was born Puerta Abierta, released Thursday night (April 9) under 502 Records with 11 tracks, including the previously released singles “Tierra Mía” and “La Mala Era Yo,” a norteño-inspired tune featuring Yuridia. Full of reflections on identity, resilience, tenderness and self-discovery — and infused with rhythms and native instruments from Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and beyond — the album also features collaborations with the legendary Juan Luis Guerra on “Amor Bonito,” Venezuelan band Rawayana on “La Culpa,” and Argentine singer Nathy Peluso on “Gatita.”
Just like in the album cover and the previews she shared on social media, her “inner child” will appear in some way in the music videos.
“It’s not just an ode to my childhood,” García notes. “I think the inner child was the starting point for having conversations with her, telling her what I love today, what I’ve healed from what she experienced, and also embracing the things about her that I adored and had forgotten I adored… It quite autobiographical.”
Next week, the artist will embark on an extensive world tour that will keep her on the road for most of the year. Kicking off on April 17 at the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City, it currently includes stops in nearly 40 cities across Latin America and Europe, with more dates to be announced.
Below, Kany García breaks down five essential songs from Puerta Abierta. To listen to the full album, click here.
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.pngYveto2026-04-10 00:01:162026-04-10 00:01:16Kany García Breaks Down 5 Essential Tracks From Her New Album ‘Puerta Abierta’
After months of buildup, BTS finally kicked off its global tour in support of new album ARIRANG, performing in front of thousands of ARMY at Goyang Stadium in South Korea on Thursday (April 9).
RM, j-hope, Jin, SUGA, V, Jung Kook and Jimin were a force onstage as they presented a united front in a live setting for the first time in years (aside from their official comeback performance in Seoul in March). They sang and danced to a number of tracks from ARIRANG, as well as older Billboard Hot 100-topping smashes such as “Dynamite” and “Butter,” as fans waved their signature lightsticks in the crowd.
And as good of a time as the audience had at the first show on the yearlong trek, the band might have enjoyed it even more. “I had so much fun at Arirang Tour’s first concert,” Jin wrote on Weverse shortly after the concert wrapped. “I feel comfortable performing as a team and being in the same space with ARMY, so I feel like I’m back home.”
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BTS will perform a total of three shows in Goyang before heading over to Tokyo, at which point the sprawling stadium tour will be really underway. The global run — which begins after ARIRANG spent its first two weeks atop the Billboard 200 and spawned a No. 1 hit on the Hot 100 with lead single “SWIM” — will take the Bangtan Boys through cities in North America, Latin America, Europe, Australia and more parts of Asia through March of next year.
So whether you’re planning to catch a show or just want to know what songs the guys are playing on a nightly basis these days, Billboard has the full setlist from night 1. Check out every track BTS played at the kickoff show of tour below.
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Health has been releasing “sad music for horny people” — their description! — since its self-titled debut in 2007. But in the years since, the industrial band comprised of Jake Duzsik, John Famiglietti and B.J. Miller has not only cultivated its own standout, bleak-yet-lush sound that captures the emotional horrors of life set to infectious beats, but also a hilarious social media presence that proves the trio isn’t just all doom and gloom.
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Nineteen years and six full-length albums later — the latest, Conflict DLC, arrived in December 2025 — the band has been touring what seems like endlessly, selling out shows around the world and still finding time to drop releases while on the road. Case in point? On Thursday (April 9), Health released R-Type IV — the fourth in a series of remix albums that have been arriving mere weeks apart (R-Type I was released at the end of February) — with the set dropping just a day before back-to-back sold-out shows in Minneapolis followed by Chicago, with more sellouts ahead in Toronto, Brooklyn, D.C., Nashville and Austin. Not only that, the band has squeezed in collabs over the years with some of industrial and rock’s heavyweights — think Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor (“Isn’t Everyone”), Deftones’ Chino Moreno (“Anti-Life”), Bad Omens (“The Drain”), Lamb of God (“Cold Blood”) and Chelsea Wolfe (“Mean”), for starters. (The NIN and Bad Omens collabs hit Nos. 11 and 7, respectively, on Billboard‘s Hot Hard Rock Songs chart.)
Though constantly hard at work, the band finds time to share the lighter side of their lives and personalities, whether they’re touring or not, with bassist Famiglietti (aka Johnny Health) showing off a particularly fun side — and his cat ears! — in social media videos promoting Health’s shows and music. Some of that playfulness comes through via their merch stand, which has offered some — shall we say “fun”? — items for consenting adults, including band-branded condoms and yep, butt plugs.
But the band isn’t the only musical act with adult toys. For example, one Harry Styles launched his Pleasing line of pleasure products in July 2025, after all. What does Health think about the competition? Lead singer Duzsik shares his thoughts on that, the inspiration for their latest album, the record to introduce to people to the industrial genre, dream collabs and more.
1. Where are you in the world right now, and whats the setting like?
Home. Sitting at my desk in Los Angeles.
2. What is the first album or piece of music you bought for yourself, and what was the medium?
Alice In Chains, Dirt. On CD.
3. What did your parents do for a living when you were a kid, and what do or did they think of what you do for a living now?
My mom managed the warehouse of a moving company and my dad worked in a print shop. My family has always been very supportive of music.
4. What’s the first non-gear thing you bought for yourself when you started making money as an artist?
Booze.
5. If you had to recommend one album for someone looking to get into industrial music, what would you give them and why?
People can find a reason to complain about anything, and even if it seems too obvious, I’m going to say Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral. It did more to introduce a worldwide audience to industrial music than any other album. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
6. What’s the last song you listened to?
Bjork, “Hyperballad.”
8. You released Conflict DLC in December. For those who have never listened to Health before, how would you describe the album — and your sound — to encourage them to give the album a listen?
I’d call the sound Neo Industrial. I would say the album is an attempt at creating a collection of sad and dystopic songs that is still somehow fun. It’s not up to me to say if it was a success of not.
9. What topics have been the biggest influences for your most recent music, and why?
The general unraveling of civilization and our abrupt decent into a technocratic nightmare of ignorance and cognitive decline.
10. The band has some pretty fun slogans — “Sad music for horny people” and “cum metal,” for example. How did you come up with those?
John is the slogan man.
11. You’ve got some competition from Harry Styles, who last year started selling his “Pleasing Yourself” line of intimate products such as lube and vibrators, while you started selling butt plugs in 2023. What do you think of this new competition from him, and do you have any new toys planned to challenge his line of products?
If someone in Harry Styles’ camp was inspired by our “non traditional” merch, we would view it as a compliment.
12. It feels like Health is constantly on the road, yet you are also consistently and regularly releasing new music, whether it be new albums or remixes and collabs: two albums, three versions of Disco4 and five versions of R-Type, all between 2020 and end of April 2025. Where do you find the time?!
We try to never get out of the habit of writing new music. It’s just like anything else, once you stop it can be hard to start again.
13. You’ve had some amazing collabs over the years — Trent Reznor, Chino Moreno, Bad Omens and more. Who’s at the top of your dream collab list for next? Who’s been your favorite so far, and why? Any you can tease for the upcoming R-Types?
There are so many dream collabs, it’s hard to narrow it down. Depeche Mode and 2hollis would be high on the list for me. My personal favorite are the ones we did with Xiu Xiu as well as NIN.
14. Your music is, as you’ve put it, “sad,” but your online personas are hilarious, especially on social media. Was it a conscious decision to have such a dichotomy?
It feels like this is a more honest representation of how feel at the current moment. Simply being melancholy and mysterious seems a bit forced in the age of social media. At least for us it would.
15. You’re big into anime. For fans who’ve yet to explore this art form, which anime would you recommend for them to get started? And what are your personal favorites?
Start with the classics: Akira, Ghost in the Shell and Ninja Scroll. If you aren’t into it by then, you can stop trying to understand.
16. Speaking of anime, Megan Thee Stallion is also a huge fan, and is launching her own anime series with Amazon Prime. If you could have your own anime series, what would it be about, and which network/streamer would be the best fit?
John says, “A dark fantasy epic on Crunchyroll.”
17. Are there causes or charities involved with that you’d like people to know about?
I have a child, as such I’m very aware of how fortunate he is. In that context, I think charities like Unicef are hugely important and can really help. As a band we work closely with END OVERDOSE, and give out free fentanyl testing kits at our merch tables.
18. What’s your favorite place to listen to and experience industrial music?
In a dark warehouse made of crumbling brick and rusted steel … obviously.
19. What’s the best business decision you’ve ever made?
To stop killing myself with alcohol and drugs, I guess.
20. One piece of advice you’d give to your younger self?
Invest in bitcoin and buy property in New Zealand.
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The blockbuster Live Nation antitrust trial is finally coming to an end, and a federal jury will soon decide whether the company has used its size to wield unlawful monopoly power in the live music industry.
The New York jury heard closing arguments on Thursday (April 9), more than a month after the trial first kicked off in the case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and dozens of state attorneys general. The DOJ settled with Live Nation just a few days into the trial, leaving 33 states and the District of Columbia to pursue the company’s divestiture of Ticketmaster on their own.
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According to the Associated Press, the states’ lawyer, Jeffrey Kessler, told the jury in his final pitch on Thursday that Live Nation is a “monopolistic bully.” Kessler said the company controls 86% of major concert venues in addition to the artist promotion and ticketing business — a level of control he equated to “digging the moat around the monopoly castle.”
Live Nation attorney David Marriott countered in his own closing statement that while the company is indeed big, it is a “fierce competitor” that plays fair in the live entertainment industry. He said the states do not have any tangible evidence of monopolistic conduct, and that Kessler’s 86% figure is a misleading number calculated by excluding key venues, such as stadiums, from the pool of “major concert venues.”
“This is a gerrymandered market made up for purposes of this litigation,” Marriott told the jury, per the New York Times.
The lengthy trial featured testimony from venue bosses including former Barclays Center CEO John Abbamondi, who said Live Nation CEO Michael Rapinothreatened to divert concerts if he switched to rival ticketer SeatGeek. Rapino denied making such threats when he later took the stand himself, saying the company has achieved its success through top-notch work, not anticompetitive conduct.
Other key witnesses included AEG Presents CEO Jay Marciano, Live Nation president of touring Omar Al-joulani and Drake’s manager, Adel Nur (aka Future the Prince). A slew of economics and other expert witnesses also testified.
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The jury will begin deliberating in private on Friday morning (April 10). On a technical level, the verdict form asks whether Live Nation violated federal and state antitrust laws via two key practices: requiring artists to use its promotion services in order to play its amphitheaters, and threatening to withhold Live Nation-promoted concerts from venues that don’t sign exclusive primary ticketing contracts with Ticketmaster.
Financial damages could be on the table if the jury’s answer is “yes” to any of these questions. It would then be up to Judge Arun Subramanian to decide what kind of structural relief is required. The states want to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster, but the judge could find that limits on the company’s business practices are sufficient.
Live Nation has already agreed to some such limits as part of its settlement with the DOJ, including opening up its back-end technology to rival ticketers, allowing rival promoters to book its amphitheaters and offering a non-exclusive primary ticketing option to venues. The deal also created a $280 million fund to be distributed to any states that chose to sign on, though just a handful of states took that route.
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In spring and summer 2026, country singer Willie Nelson goes on tour throughout the United States, with dates going until Wednesday, April 22, at Avondale Brewing Company in Birmingham, Alabama. Meanwhile, throughout the tour, recording artist Drayton Farley is supporting as the opener.
However, many of the dates have either sold out, or are very close to selling out, so one of the best ways to find Willie Nelson tickets online is through third-party sites, including StubHub, Vivid Seats, SeatGeek, Event Tickets Center, Gametime and others. All online retailers guarantee authentic tickets in time for your concert.
In addition, Billboard likes that tickets are all delivered digitally, so you can get them sent instantly to your smartphone or email. Prices may also be above or below face value at times.
Where to Find Willie Nelson Tour Tickets Online
Looking for cheap seats to see Willie Nelson live? Here’s where to find tickets still available and on sale online.
As a bonus, you can use our exclusive promo code BB30 to take $30 off your purchase at VividSeats.com.
You can find Willie Nelson tickets online at Vivid Seats, which lets you search by price, location and “Super Sellers,” which denotes reputable sellers with the best deals on tickets. Vivid Seats is great for group tickets: the site has a rewards program that gives you your eleventh ticket free (in the form of a credit) after you buy 10 tickets online.
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Heated Rivalry, the envelope-pushing TV series about gay hockey players that had a broader cultural reach than anyone could have predicted, was nominated Thursday (April 9) for a Peabody Award. Other nominees included Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Pitt,Dying for Sex, FOREVER and programs about influential musicians Sly Stone and Fela Kuti: the documentary Sly Lives! (a.k.a. The Burden of Black Genius) and the podcast Fela Kuti: Fear No Man.
Kuti, a Nigerian musician, producer, arranger, political radical and outlaw, is widely regarded as the father of Afrobeats. The musician, who died in 1997 at age 58, received a posthumous lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy earlier this year. Stone, who led Sly & the Family Stone to three No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Everyday People,” “Thank U Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin” and “Family Affair,” received that same honor in 2017.
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Heated Rivalry won outstanding new TV series at the GLAAD Media Awards on March 5 in Los Angeles.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! was suspended for a week last September following a controversial remark by Jimmy Kimmel about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, but it survived that near-death experience. Kimmel’s progam has received 14 consecutive Primetime Emmy nominations for outstanding talk series (or in a predecessor category, outstanding variety series), but it has yet to win.
The Peabody Awards board of jurors announced the nominees in the arts, children’s/youth, entertainment, and interactive & immersive categories. The nominees were chosen by a unanimous vote of 28 jurors from more than 1,000 entries from television, podcasts/radio and the web.
“These nominees showcase the power of storytelling at its most urgent and expansive, where art, entertainment, and innovation collide with the defining issues of our time,” Jeffrey Jones, executive director of Peabody, said in a statement. “From identity and mental health to political extremism, systemic inequality, and the search for belonging, this work reflects exactly what the Peabody Awards stand for: stories that challenge, illuminate, and push culture forward.”
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The winners of the 86th annual Peabody Awards will be announced April 23, and then celebrated on May 31 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Actress and podcast host Amy Poehler will receive the Peabody Career Achievement Award; director, producer and screenwriter Sterlin Harjo will receive the Peabody Trailblazer Award; Multiple Oscar- and Emmy-winning creator James L. Brooks will be honored with the Peabody Industry Icon Award; and historic programmer PBS KIDS will receive the Peabody Institutional Award.
Here are the honorees of greatest interest to the music community, with capsule descriptions provided by the Peabodys. The first two are in the Arts category, the last five in Entertainment.
Hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa (born Lance Taylor) has died at age 68. According to TMZ, which first reported the news, the “Planet Rock” artist died Thursday (April 9) from complications due to cancer.
Born in The Bronx, Bambaataa began DJing block parties in the South Bronx in the early ’70s, which led to him being credited as an originator of breakbeat DJing and one of the influential architects of hip-hop culture alongside founding father DJ Kool Herc.
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As a teenager, Bambaataa traded his Black Spades gang ties to form the Universal Zulu Nation following a trip to Africa. He went on to found rap groups like Jazzy 5 and the Soulsonic Force, and brought rap to the masses with his first tour in 1982.
Afrika Bambaataa teamed up with Soulsonic Force for 1982’s “Planet Rock.” The electronic-fused track gave Bambaataa his lone Billboard Hot 100 entry, with the song peaking at No. 48 in September 1982, and later appeared in NBA 2K7 in 2006. The “Planet Rock” remixes also reached No. 4 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in July 1982.
Bam joined forces with George Clinton and James Brown throughout his career. His James Brown collab “Unity” hit No. 87 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in 1984.
He was part of the Artists United Against Apartheid and contributed to the 1985 album Sun City, which peaked at No. 31 on the Billboard 200.
Afrika Bambaataa also infiltrated the Dance Club Songs chart, notching a top five hit on the chart in 1991 with “Just Get Up and Dance” (peak No. 4).
The innovative DJ’s death was confirmed by The Hip Hop Alliance on Thursday with a statement.
“As the founder of the Universal Zulu Nation, Afrika Bambaataa helped shape the early identity of Hip Hop as a global movement rooted in peace, unity, love, and having fun. His vision transformed the Bronx into the birthplace of a culture that now reaches every corner of the world,” said executive director Rev. Dr. Kurtis Blow Walker.
“Through his music, leadership, and influence, he contributed to the foundation of Hip Hop’s core principles, inspiring generations of MCs, DJs, breakers, and cultural leaders. His imprint on Hip Hop history is undeniable and will forever remain part of the culture’s origin story.”
Walker continued: “At the same time, we recognize that his legacy is complex and has been the subject of serious conversations within our community. As an organization committed to truth, accountability, and the preservation of Hip Hop culture, we believe it is important to hold space for all voices while continuing to uplift what empowers and protects the people. Today, we extend our condolences to all who were impacted by his life, his work, and his presence.”
Afrika Bambaataa’s legacy was muddied in recent years by a series of sexual abuse allegations against minors. He resigned from his position as head of the Universal Zulu Nation in 2016 following abuse allegations from activist Ronald Savage, who accused Bambaataa of molesting him when he was 15.
The Assassin Collective’s Solo accused Bambaataa of sexual abuse when the French rapper was 15. Bambaataa was also accused of sexually abusing and trafficking a minor, who remained anonymous as John Doe, in a civil lawsuit, which Bambaataa lost in 2025 due to a default judgment.
Billboard has reached out to Afrika Bambaataa’s reps for comment.
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.pngYveto2026-04-09 21:20:272026-04-09 21:20:27Afrika Bambaata, Hip-Hop Pioneer, Dead at 68
