As the top politician in the sun-soaked British Virgin Islands, Andrew Alturo Fahie had spent 20 years in the trenches of the tiny British overseas territory near Puerto Rico to … Click to Continue »
Now that Miami has approved a new stadium and park for David Beckham’s soccer team, we all want to know: What’s it going to look like? Although completion is a … Click to Continue »
The city of North Miami Beach and Commissioner Daniela Jean present the first North Miami Beach Small Business Expo on Tuesday, May 10. The event, which will be free, will … Click to Continue »
LOS ANGELES — For months, Hyepin Im thought about calling Shinese Harlins-Kilgore, but she couldn’t work up the courage. Im wanted to discuss the fatal shooting of Harlins-Kilgore’s cousin, Latasha … Click to Continue »
Goldenvoice has quietly instituted a new rule banning Confederate flags at this year’s Stagecoach, according to the General Resort Rules page on the festival’s official website. The change was first spotted by Palm Springs’ Desert Sun.
The rule bans “divisive symbols, including, without limitation, Confederate flags and racially disparaging or other inappropriate imagery/public displays” on Stagecoach’s campground, known as the “The Resort.”
Goldenvoice declined to comment when Billboard reached out about the ban.
Stagecoach attendees have previously complained in online forums about the display of Confederate flags at the festival. One of them, Gigi Mitchell, started a Change.org petition in 2020 calling for a ban, though it garnered just 57 signatures.
The Confederate flag has long had a presence at country music events, though modern-day stars including Maren Morris, Mickey Guyton and Luke Combs have more recently been critical about the display of the racist symbol at concerts. Guyton, one of only a handful of Black performers to find success in country music, has recalled “singing in front of Confederate flags” at concerts while on tour. “That absolutely inspired [my song] ‘Black Like Me,’” said Guyton, who scored a Grammy nod for best country solo performance for the 2020 track, marking the first nomination for a Black female solo artist in the category.
During a virtual panel on inclusivity at the annual Country Radio Seminar in February 2021, Morris slammed the display of Confederate flags at country music festivals. “I don’t want to play those festivals anymore,” she said at the time. “If you were a Black person, would you ever feel like going to a show with those flying in the parking lot? No. I feel like the most powerful thing as artists in our position right now is to make those demands of large organizations, festivals, promoters, whatnot. That’s one of the things we can do, is say, ‘No, I’m not doing this. Get rid of them.’”
During the same panel, Combs apologized for photos that had recently surfaced of him posing with the Confederate flag. Claiming the photos were seven or eight years old, Combs went on to say, “I think as a younger man, that was an image I associated to mean something else, and as I’ve grown in my time as an artist and as the world has changed drastically in the last five to seven years, you know, I’m now aware of how painful that image can be to someone else. … I would never want to be associated with something that brings so much hurt to someone else.”
The Confederate flag – which was brandished on the battlefield by Confederate troops during the Civil War but was never the official military or government symbol of the Confederacy – became a symbol of racist hate for white supremacist groups starting in the post-Reconstruction period. In 1948, the flag was adopted by the pro-segregation “Dixiecrat” political party, which was founded in resistance to civil rights reforms ushered in by then-president Harry Truman.
A Brooklyn federal judge on Friday sided with Vans and banned all future sales of Tyga‘s “Wavy Baby” sneakers, ruling that they likely violated the sneaker company’s trademarks.
Two days after a key hearing, U.S. District Judge William F. Kuntz issued a temporary restraining order blocking a New York art collective called MSCHF from continuing to sell the sneaker – a surreal, warped version of Van’s classic Old Skool sneaker launched in collaboration with Tyga on April 18.
Vans sued MSCHF earlier this month, calling the Wavy Baby “blatant trademark infringement.” MSCHF argued back that the shoe was a work of art protected by the First Amendment, but Judge Kuntz was unswayed.
“Despite defendant’s assertions the Wavy Baby shoes belong in museums and galleries for exhibition, the production of 4,306 pairs of shoes places the Wavy Baby shoes on a mobile footing vastly different from one found at the Brooklyn Museum,” the judge wrote.
MSCHF had argued that the shoe was a parody, designed to comment on “sneakerhead” culture. But in Friday’s injunction ruling, Judge Kuntz said he – and, more important, consumers – didn’t quite get the joke.
“Whatever the actual artistic merits of the Wavy Baby shoes, the shoes do not meet the requirements for a successful parody,” Judge Kuntz wrote. “While the manifesto accompanying the shoes may contain protected parodic expression, the Wavy Baby shoes and packaging in and of themselves fail to convey the satirical message.”
The injunction was relatively harsh. Since MSCHF argued that nearly all of the Wavy Babys had already been sold and shipped, Judge Kuntz ordered the company to place any funds earned from the brand into escrow so they could be potentially returned to any customers. He also ordered MSCHF to cancel or reverse any orders it could.
In a statement to Billboard, MSCHF’s attorney Megan K. Bannigan vowed that the company would fight on, saying the decision entirely omitted key legal precedents. “The court’s decision fails to recognize MSCHF’s First Amendment rights to artistic expression, regardless of the particular medium or form of that expression,” Bannigan said. “MSCHF will continue to litigate this case, including through all available appeals, to secure its and all artists’ freedom to make their art.”
Tyga announced the Wavy Baby in an April 6 post on Instagram, sparking plenty of buzz but also immediate comparisons to Vans. Footwear News said the shoe “appears to be loosely based on the classic Vans Old Skool” that had been altered with a “wave-like aesthetic.” The site HighSnobiety went bolder: “MSCHF & Tyga’s Insane Skate Shoes Look Like Liquified Vans.”
Three days before the shoes were set to drop on April 18, Vans filed suit – claiming MSCHF’s sneakers violated its trademark rights and demanding an immediate restraining order. Citing its own efforts to collaborate with artists and riff on its own designs, Vans argued that consumers would think Wavy Baby was an authorized product, not a parody by a separate company.
MSCHF fired back with interesting arguments. It admitted that the Wavy Baby was based on the Old Skool, but said it had a legal right to use the shoe as “the cultural and physical anchor when creating its art.” The company said it wanted to critique “consumerism inherent in sneakerhead culture” and “the phenomenon of sneaker companies collaborating with anyone to garner clout and shoe sales.”
It also stressed that there was no need for a temporary restraining order since all roughly 4,000 pairs of the Wavy Baby had already been sold and the company had no plans on selling more in the immediate future.
Those arguments clearly didn’t persuade Judge Kuntz. Despite MSCHF’s changes, he said the two shoes had “striking visual similarities,” and that “multiple independent sources” had been confused about whether Vans was involved in the project. He also didn’t buy the company’s promises about future plans.
“Defendant failed to make any representations it will not continue to produce iterations of the Wavy Baby shoes following the conclusion of the present litigation for one reason: it intends to precisely that,” Judge Kuntz wrote.
The ruling not only bans MSCHF from selling more of the Wavy Baby, but it also strongly indicates that the company will lose the case when it is fully litigated, which could subject the company to damages. That could lead to a quick settlement – a common outcome in trademark cases after such early-stage rulings. For instance, after losing a similar ruling to Nike last year over Lil Nas X’s “Satan Shoe,” MSCFH quickly struck a deal to end the dispute. If the case doesn’t settle, the case will move into discovery and toward an eventual jury trial.
Kelly Clarkson delivered another showstopping performance as part of her “Kellyoke” segment on The Kelly Clarkson Show Friday (April 29), this time singing to every “Narcissist” out there.
The American Idol alum sang a moving rendition of rising singer Avery Anna’s tune “Narcissist” and received a standing ovation from the live studio audience.
Clarkson also received social media love from an elated Anna, who wrote on Twitter, “I am freaking out,” alongside exploding-head emojis. Earlier on Friday, Anna shared a video of Clarkson’s performance on her Instagram Story. The aspiring star wrote, “You guysssssss this is insane.”
The song opens with the gripping lyrics, “Out of touch with my feelings/ I can’t help it if I’m happy or sad/ Today I cried for no reason/ Made me feel like a psychopath/ I should hate you ’cause I love you/ You should hate yourself for treating me like that/ We both know you only love you/ Did you know they got a name for that?”
With such a heartbreaking message, Anna’s song might have struck an emotional chord for Clarkson, who finalized her split from ex-husband and father of her children Brandon Blackstock last month. She filed for divorce in 2020 after nearly seven years of marriage, citing “irreconcilable differences.”
In addition to hosting her own daytime talk show, Clarkson co-hosts NBC’s new singing competition American Song Contest alongside Snoop Dogg.
Watch Clarkson cover Anna’s original song “Narcissist” below:
In only two years, the Florida-based Vibra Urbana Music Festival has gained the respect of music lovers and artists nationwide, becoming reggaeton’s hottest ticket.
Despite its inaugural event taking place in February 2020 in Miami, just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, founder and partner Javier Caso not once thought the festival was going to flop. “It was a win or lose but we knew at the end of the day that if we were doing something we love, it would be reflected through the product we put out,” he tells Billboard.
It was definitely a win for Miami-based organizers Caso, David Adan, Lesty Adan, Kirk Taboada and Ian Ruzal-Bron as the music festival returned in 2021 for two summer shows in Orlando and two winter shows in Miami, racking up more than 90,000 collective attendees.
Now they are trying their luck on the West Coast, making their debut stop in Las Vegas this weekend (April 30-May 1), promising a lineup with more than 30 urban acts each day, including Anuel AA, Don Omar, Nicky Jam, Rauw Alejandro and Tego Calderon, to name a few.
“It’s the party capital of the U.S., possibly the world, so why not throw one massive party in the desert?” says Taboada, who’s produced events in Miami since 2005. “Las Vegas is a huge market and since there are a lot of residencies and festivals there, we felt Latin [urban] needed to be represented as well.”
Similar to its Orlando and Miami lineups, the Las Vegas Festival Grounds will see three different stages featuring the iconic big dogs of reggaeton (Nicky Jam, Don Omar, Ivy Queen, Tego Calderon, De La Ghetto, Arcangel), the hottest acts of the moment (Anuel AA, Nio Garcia, Rauw Alejandro, Sech), and also the rising stars (Tiago PZK, Tokischa, Boza, Mora).
Don Omar & Nio Garcia
“That’s our DNA. We want to give new artists the opportunity to shine, and that’s why we do the three-stage concept,” Ruzal-Bron explains. “We know we’re taking some big dips on these up-and-coming acts, but we’re not going to stop because the genre has so much growth to do. We’re really looking forward to seeing how fans on the West Coast react to that.”
Or as Caso simply put: “We are honoring the past, the present and the future.”
Up next, Vibra Urbana is set to return to Orlando’s Central Florida Fairgrounds in the summer, with confirmed acts Farruko, Myke Towers, Eladio Carrion, Lunay and many more. In between festivals, they will kick off a concert series called “Vibra Urbana Presents” beginning May 14 with Blessd in Miami’s “Oasis.”
“We want to be the biggest party in reggaeton,” says Ruzal-Bron. “We’re going to start doing hard-ticket shows for acts that we believe in and have great relationships with. There was a void in the South Florida market for good concerts for some of these not arena-level reggaeton acts.”
“We’re giving these artists who have a lot of momentum a platform,” Caso elaborates. “We’re helping out the artists, we’re helping out the brand, and we’re proving more parties for our fans. Vibra Urbana is our baby but it also has the connotation that it goes beyond a music festival.”
For more information on upcoming events, visit VibraUrbanaFest.com.
Years after then-teenager Jack Harlow messaged Grammy-nominated singer/rapper Bryson Tiller, crediting him for bringing Louisville artists to the mainstream, Tiller is putting his support behind the rising star.
“Get ready for my bro Jack’s new album. Soon you’ll see why he is number 1. MAY 6th,” Tiller tweeted on Thursday.
Harlow replied, tweeting, “Dreams come true,” alongside a series of direct messages he previously sent the “Don’t” hitmaker.”
In the messages, dated June 30, 2015, Harlow wrote to Tiller, “Just wanted to hit your DMs and say thank you for what you’re doing for the 502. truly putting us on the map.”
In the next message, Harlow added, “Obviously we are from the same city and have a lot of mutual friends but I can’t describe how f—ing dope it is to watch.”
Harlow later wrote, “I’m a massive fan dude and study your every move. I just turned 17 and I’m very confident in my craft and trajectory of my career.”
The “Nail Tech” rapper concluded by calling Tiller a “hometown hero,” writing that he hopes they meet one day.
At the time, nearly seven years ago, Tiller replied, writing, “Thanks man I appreciate it. keep working. anything is possible.”
Since then, Harlow has appeared atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart twice. His collaborative track “Industry Baby” with Lil Nas X earned his first No. 1 on the list, while he made his No. 1 debut as a solo artist last week with the release of “First Class.”
With his new album Come Home the Kids Miss You out next month, some fans believe Harlow and Tiller may release a collab.
Dreams come true https://t.co/oILI9D10YJ pic.twitter.com/KvjqLuByCx
— Jack Harlow (@jackharlow) April 29, 2022
British Virgin Islands Premier Andrew Alturo Fahie and the Caribbean territory’s port director, Oleanvine Maynard, were arrested on drug trafficking and money laundering charges Thursday after they went to a … Click to Continue »
