It’s that time of year again when Top Dawg Entertainment’s stacked roster gathers for the label’s holiday benefit, which in 2025 will feature performances from SZA, Doechii and more.
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The event lineup was announced Thursday (Dec. 4), revealing that ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock, Isaiah Rashad, SiR, Ray Vaughn, Ab-Soul, Zacari and Kal Banx will also take the stage at Nickerson Gardens in Watts, Calif., for the 12th Annual TDE Holiday Charity Concert and Community Celebration. The company promises that more “special guests” will be announced later on as well.
This year’s charity concert will take place on Dec. 18. The next day, TDE will host its annual community giveback event. In addition to distributing toys to local children, the day will be full of raffles, youth sports and activities, barbering services, holiday photo backdrops, a “snow experience” and on-site job opportunities.
Sharing the news on Instagram, TDE simply wrote, “12 Years Strong!”
Those interested in attending the concert need only bring a donation item to the entrance, whether it’s an unwrapped toy, new clothing or other necessities. Last year’s event recorded 10,000 attendees and raised about $750,000 in donated toys and clothing, with SZA, Kendrick Lamar and GloRilla performing songs.
Each year, TDE just seems to grow even bigger and better. Its annual benefit weekend serves as the label’s opportunity to show gratitude for its successes by paying it forward to the community in which the Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith- founded company originated.
In 2025, SZA and former TDE label mate Lamar spent an eye-popping 13 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with smash hit “Luther,” while Doechii made history at the Grammys by becoming just the third woman to ever win best rap album thanks to Alligator Bites Never Heal before winning Woman of the Year at Billboard‘s Women in Music event. Plus, company president Anthony “Moosa” Tiffith — son of Top Dawg — was named on Billboard‘s 40 Under 40 list this year.
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.pngYveto2025-12-04 19:21:012025-12-04 19:21:01SZA, Doechii & More Top Dawg Entertainment Artists to Perform at Annual Holiday Charity Concert
Billboard Japan has unveiled its 2025 year-end charts, tracking the period from Nov. 25, 2024, to Nov. 23, 2025.
The No. 1 Song of the Year on the Japan Hot 100 is Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s “Lilac.” Released April 12, 2024, the track serves as the opening theme for the anime Oblivion Battery. It placed at No. 5 on the 2024 year-end list, but renewed attention from the end of that year into this one propelled the song back to the top of the Japan Hot 100, logging five weeks at the summit during the 2025 chart year.
The three-man band dominates the top 2 year-end slots, with “Darling” finishing at No. 2. The song was written as the theme for NHK’s television special featuring the group collaborating with teenagers called Mrs. GREEN APPLE 18 Fes that aired on NHK Dec. 25, 2024.
No. 3 goes to ROSÉ & Bruno Mars’ “APT.” Amid these long-running hits, Kenshi Yonezu’s “IRIS OUT,” released in September 2025, breaks through at No. 4. Mrs. GREEN APPLE rounds out the top 5 with “KUSUSHIKI.” The hitmakers place three songs in the year-end top 5 and five in the top 10.
Commenting on Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s year-end accomplishments, frontman Motoki Omori shared, “I’m happy. Simply happy, and I really feel the weight of it. I’m going to keep working hard so we live up to what this represents. At the same time, I don’t want to carry it so heavily that it becomes a burden. I want to keep enjoying the process of making music.” Guitarist Hiloto Wakai adds, ‘Lilac’ came out in 2024, so having it recognized like this in 2025 makes us truly grateful that it’s been loved for this long. We love the song ourselves, so it’s a real joy.” Keyboardist Ryoka Fujisawa noted, “Part of why we push so hard with Mrs. GREEN APPLE is to get Omori’s lyrics and music out into the world, so it makes me really happy to see ‘Lilac’ being enjoyed for so long and that it’s reaching people. It means a lot to us that people are enjoying the various songs we’ve been releasing as a band.”
Snow Man
Courtesy Photo
For the second year in a row, the Album of the Year on Billboard Japan’s Hot Albums chart goes to Snow Man, with their best-of collection THE BEST 2020 – 2025. The hugely popular J-pop boy band becomes the first act ever to take the title three times, the other two works being Snow Labo. S2 in 2022 and RAYS in 2024.
“We’re grateful to have received this award thanks to the many people who support us every day,” says Snow Man leader Hikaru Iwamoto. “We hope THE BEST 2020 – 2025, which we released to mark the fifth anniversary of Snow Man’s debut, will continue to serve as a way for people to discover us in the years to come.”
Mrs. GREEN APPLE sweeps the slots from No. 2 to No. 4, with ANTENNA, Attitude and 10, respectively. At No. 5 is Vaundy’s first album strobo. Since streaming was added to the Hot Albums chart methodology late last year, long-running hits have become more prominent on the tally.
And the Artist of the Year on the Artist 100 ranking compiled from the results of the Japan Hot 100 and Hot Albums charts is Mrs. GREEN APPLE. The band becomes the first act to top this list for two consecutive years. Veteran band back number follows at No. 2 on the strength of “Blue Amber,” and hitmaker Kenshi Yonezu places at No. 3 with “Plazma,” which rules the year’s Top Download Songs list. HANA, the breakout girl group that made its major-label debut in April, comes in at No. 5, while the group’s producer, rapper-singer CHANMINA, appears at No. 10.
Creepy Nuts
Courtesy Photo
With Japanese artists expanding their touring overseas and the launch of the international music awards show MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN, momentum toward a more global music market continues to accelerate in the country’s music industry. On the year-end Global Japan Songs Excl. Japan chart — which ranks songs from Japan that are being listened to internationally — tracking the period from Nov. 22, 2024, to Nov. 20, 2025, Creepy Nuts’ “Otonoke” finishes at No. 1. The song also claims the top spot in five countries and regions on the Japan Songs charts that list songs by each country and region.
“Traveling with our own headlining shows really made us feel just how many fans we have in each country,” says Creepy Nuts rapper R-Shitei. “We toured Asia this time around, but it made me think how great it’d be to do the same in countries we haven’t toured yet.” DJ Matsunaga adds, “Bringing Japanese as-is to listeners overseas — preserving the quality of the language — really depends on the sound acting as a hub, so we’ve got to keep taking in new ideas and refining what we do. What defines us most is the language. That’s the biggest thing for us.”
Billboard JAPAN Hot 100 of the Year 2025
1. “Lilac” / Mrs. GREEN APPLE
2. “Darling” / Mrs. GREEN APPLE
3. “APT.” / Rosé & Bruno Mars
4. “IRIS OUT” / Kenshi Yonezu
5. “KUSUSHIKI” / Mrs. GREEN APPLE
6. “ROSE” / HANA
7. “Kaiju” / sakanaction
8. “Que Sera Sera” / Mrs. GREEN APPLE
9. “Bitter Vacances” / Mrs. GREEN APPLE
10. “Plazma” / Kenshi Yonezu
Billboard JAPAN Hot Albums of the Year 2025
1. THE BEST 2020 – 2025 / Snow Man
2. ANTENNA / Mrs. GREEN APPLE
3. Attitude / Mrs. GREEN APPLE
4. 10 / Mrs. GREEN APPLE
5. strobo / Vaundy
6. replica / Vaundy
7. No.Ⅰ / Number_i
8. Hello! We’re timelesz / timelesz
9. BAD HOP / BAD HOP
10. LOST CORNER / Kenshi Yonezu
Billboard JAPAN Artist 100 of the Year 2025
1. Mrs. GREEN APPLE
2. back number
3. Kenshi Yonezu
4. Vaundy
5. HANA
6. Snow Man
7. Official HIGE DANdism
8. Fujii Kaze
9. YOASOBI
10. CHANMINA
Billboard JAPAN Global Japan Songs Excl. Japan of the Year 2025
1. “Otonoke” / Creepy Nuts
2. “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” / Creepy Nuts
3. “TOKYO DRIFT(FAST & FURIOUS)” / TERIYAKI BOYZ
4. “IRIS OUT” / Kenshi Yonezu
5. “Shinunoga E-Wa” / Fujii Kaze
6. “Mayonaka no Door / Stay With Me” / Miki Matsubara
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.pngYveto2025-12-04 19:00:432025-12-04 19:00:432025 Year-End Billboard Japan Charts Unveiled: Mrs. GREEN APPLE Dominates as Snow Man & Creepy Nuts Top Album, Global Lists
Jimmy Buffett was present at his posthumous Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, and more than just in spirit.
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In a new interview on The Howard Stern Show posted Tuesday (Dec. 2), Kenny Chesney — who helped induct the late tropical rocker alongside James Taylor and guitarist Mac McAnally in 2024 — revealed that some of Buffett’s ashes were smuggled into the venue with some help from daughter Savannah Buffett. “We were sitting back there warming up, trying to figure out our parts and stuff, and Mac comes up to me and he goes, ‘Look at this,’” the country star told the radio host.
“And it was a small urn,” Chesney continued. “He had Jimmy’s ashes in his coat pocket. So Jimmy’s ashes were in Mac McAnally’s coat pocket on stage with us as [Jimmy] was getting inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.”
Apparently, Savannah was all for the idea, because she was the one who handed off her dad’s ashes to McAnally before the ceremony. So even after he passed, Jimmy found a way to join the party,” Chesney added.
After five decades of writing iconic hits such as Billboard Hot 100 entires “Margaritaville,” “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” and “Cheeseburger In Paradise,” Jimmy Buffett died at the age of 76 in September 2023. In October the following year, he was inducted into the Rock Hall alongside Cher, Mary J. Blige, Ozzy Osbourne, Kool & the Gang, A Tribe Called Quest, Dave Matthews Band, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Dionne Warwick, MC5 and Norman Whitfield.
Watch Kenny Chesney recall how Jimmy’s ashes were smuggled into the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 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.pngYveto2025-12-04 18:46:022025-12-04 18:46:02Jimmy Buffett’s Ashes Were Smuggled Into His Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction With Help From His Daughter
The Trump administration has drawn fire recently for its unauthorized use of music by A-listers including Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and Kenny Loggins and others in videos promoting its agenda. And while the use of recognizable hits by chart-toppers appears to be a feature, not a bug, of the White House’s attempt to keep attention focused on the president’s top priorities, on Wednesday (Dec. 3) the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) posted a video promoting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recruitment set to the tune of a song most music lovers are probably unfamiliar with.
The results, however, were the same: anger from the artist who said he was furious about what he deemed the wholly unauthorized, inappropriate use of his music in a government propaganda video.
“I’m disgusted to see our music was used without our knowledge or consent to promote I.C.E.,” wrote indie producer/rapper Joey Valence of the Philadelphia hip-hop duo Joey Valence and Brae on X. “To be clear this video does NOT represent my OR JVB’s thoughts or beliefs in any form and we are actively working to have it taken down.”
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The DHS promo video in question that dropped on Wednesday evening is cued to the group’s 2023 single “Hooligang,” and it opens with the track’s spoken word intro, “Yo, you wanna see something cool?… Well, I’m a do it anyway,” over video of the sign outside the Buffalo, N.Y. ICE detention facility. It then cuts to a series of shots of snow-covered ICE military vehicles and groups of masked, long-gun-toting ICE agents in full combat gear aiming their rifles and tooling around in aimless circles on the running boards of the trucks in the recruitment clip that ends with the message “Join ICE.GOV.”
The video’s caption reads: “This winter, the forecast calls for ICE.” The clip is the latest example of the Trump White House using popular music to advance its domestic agenda in meme-seeking clips that mix lighthearted captions with visuals intended to feel ominous or edgy.
At press time a spokesperson for ICE/DHS had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment.
Earlier this week, Carpenter lambasted the White House for posting a compilation of ICE officers chasing, tackling and handcuffing people on the streets set to her Short n’ Sweet song “Juno.”
“This video is evil and disgusting,” Carpenter wrote on X. “Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.” In keeping with its edgelord-style responses to pushback from the peeved artists, Trump spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Newsweek, “Here’s a Short n’ Sweet message for Sabrina Carpenter: We won’t apologize for deporting dangerous criminal illegal murderers, rapists, and pedophiles from our country. Anyone who would defend these sick monsters must be stupid, or is it slow?”
Carpenter joins a long list of musicians who have expressed their anger and disgust with the administration for hijacking their songs without authorization to promote its agenda. Last month, Rodrigo condemned the White House for pairing a video encouraging self-deportations with her song “All-American Bitch.”
“don’t ever use my songs to promote your racist, hateful propaganda,” she wrote. In addition, Loggins lashed out at POTUS for using his Top Gun hit “Danger Zone” in an AI-generated video in which Trump appeared to spray fecal matter on “No Kings” protestors. And Swifties called out the White House for a TikTok that used the lyrics to Swift’s Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “The Fate of Ophelia” in a bizarre promotional video mixing footage of military hardware with images of twice-impeached Trump’s mugshot and pictures of his cabinet.
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.pngYveto2025-12-04 18:30:432025-12-04 18:30:43Indie Rapper Joey Valence ‘Disgusted’ By Unauthorized Use of His Group’s Song In ICE Promo Video: ‘Actively Working to Have It Taken Down’
The holidays may be right around the corner, but it’s war season in the world of dancehall.
As 2025 comes to a close, dancehall stars Masicka — who exclusively announced his new Her Name Is Love EP via Billboard on Monday (Dec. 1) — and Tommy Lee Sparta have kicked off the culture’s latest clash. Seemingly stemming from Masicka proclaiming himself as the “greatest of all time” at this year’s Reggae Sumfest, where Vybz Kartel was officially crowned King of Dancehall, the clash finds each artist taking jabs at the other’s career. On “Control” (released on Monday), Tommy Lee — a longtime Kartel associate — advised Masicka not to “size up wid di Gaza don”; by Tuesday morning, Masicka replied with “Vain,” doubling down on his Sumfest declarations with lines like “mi say mi a di GOAT a who fi vex.”
Between Masicka accusing Tommy Lee of hijacking Kartel’s post-incarceration momentum and the latter Lee jeering at the former’s alleged lack of street cred, the two deejays are clearly just getting started. Case in point: Masicka dropped “Tears” on Tuesday, and Tommy Lee responded on Wednesday with “Destroyer.”
On the flipside, a more pop-leaning dancehall song returned to the headlines last month. Two weeks ago (Nov. 19), Billboard reported that Moliy, Silent Addy, Disco Neil, Shenseea and Skillibeng’s “Shake It to the Max” was deemed ineligible to compete in best global music performance at the 2026 Grammys because the song was submitted with the word “remix” in its title. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, Shawn Thwaites, a former genre manager in the Recording Academy’s awards department, took to social media to share that he had been terminated 48 hours afterBillboard published his article — and that he would be “seeking the proper legal support.”
The world also spent November grieving the loss of Grammy-winning reggae icon Jimmy Cliff, who passed on Nov. 24 due to “a seizure followed by pneumonia,” according to his wife, Latifah Chambers. Check out the Billboard staff’s list of Cliff’s ten best songs here.
Naturally, Billboard’s monthly Reggae/DancehallFresh Picks column will not cover every last track, but our Spotify playlist — which is linked below — will expand on the 10 highlighted songs. So, without any further ado:
It’s a rainy afternoon in Los Angeles, and listening to the new TEED album during a crosstown drive shapes the grey into a moody ambience, like melancholy laced with longing and a beat, with the cumulative effect making even the stop/start traffic feel vibey.
“To me, it’s romantic,” TEED himself says upon sitting down at a Hollywood lunch spot, where he orders a turkey club and black tea. Dressed for the weather in jeans and a brown leather jacket, he looks like a colder-climate version of the character he’s been channeling in the promo materials for his third album, Always With Me — out Friday (Dec. 5) via The Orchard and his own label, Nice Age.
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In these music videos and IG posts, he plays a sort of serious man on vacation, with imagery finding him in beachy locations gazing seriously towards the sea. The aesthetic is a sort of adult take on the summer vacations the Los Angeles-based, U.K.-born artist, whose real name is Orlando Higginbottom, took as a child, when his big family piled in the car and drove to France, where his mother is from.
“We’d take two days to get there, and I’d have my headphones on for two days, and it would be like my own little hero’s journey, this sort of transformation,” he says. “I’d be in the mountains for a month, and my imagination would go off… Lots of dreaming happened on holiday.” Years later and thousands of miles away, he’s tried weaving the afterglow of these memories into the album’s 11 tracks and, through them, passing the feeling forward: “I hope that it’s dreamy for people,” he says, “and that it makes them daydream.”
The music is transportive, and in a more practical sense it’s also helped deliver Higginbottom’s project to its latest incarnation, with the artist long known as Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs now just going by TEED. The way he tells it the decision was both natural — a lot of people have always just called him TEED anyways — and a function of a more adult hero’s journey that’s brought him through the mad success of his 2012 debut, Trouble, through the strange wilderness of the music industry and his subsequent rejection of it, with a decade passing between Trouble and its 2022 followup, When The Lights Go. Amid it all there were “some real low points,” sobriety achieved during the pandemic, and now, a new body of work.
Always With Me comes at moment when the music industry is distinctly different from the era in which TEED started releasing music. “I think strategy has become as much of a conversation, if not more of a conversation, than the actual art,” he says. “Everyone is a marketing expert. We’re watching the marketing as art now, which is really funny. It’s really strange. I don’t like it. We’re clapping for people’s strategy. Can we just listen to the song and applaud that?”
But now older and wiser — and settled into nice working relationships with The Orchard, through which he releases music, and his team at Jet Management (a place he calls “calm”) — one gets the sense that TEED is watching it all now with a sort of distanced amusement that’s created the space for him to make the stylish and thoughtful songs that make up his new album. While he confesses he’s “failed completely” at making a club record, he’s making it work on the road, with his current headlining tour taking him across the U.S. until Dec. 20 and picking up in Australia around the new year.
Below, he talks about it all.
Your new album is really gorgeous. What is it about?
It’s a less self-involved record than the last one. There’s a bit of course-correction, in a way. I often wonder if we all just make records to apologize for the last one we put out. I feel like that’s partly what’s going on here. I wanted to make something lighter, warmer, less heavy, a more enjoyable listen. I realized that actually, what I asked from people listening to the last one was like, “Do you want to come down to my murky, sad little cabin with me and listen to my sadness?”
Is that what you’re apologizing for?
Kind of. I wanted to do something that was a nicer listen, basically, so you start from that point of view. It was less self-involved in my present — I was thinking about long-gone past things… You explore ideas, but it’s how those ideas make you feel. So I was thinking about a thing, then about how that thing makes me feel. Then I made the music. So it’s not like I put the actual idea I was thinking about directly into the music, it’s the secondary feeling.
Break that down a bit for me.
One of the things I’ve been slightly obsessing about is the tone of an emotion. My version of the blues is different from your version of the blues. We both had a first experience with the romantic blues at some point in our lives, and a pin got set in the ground and in our emotional map. For me, the color of that first experience has resonated all the way through my life. And it’s so bizarre, because your first experience of the blues might be so different, or it might be the same. I just don’t know.
But a lot of these big first romantic feelings and awakenings, I realized, happened during summer holidays. So this is the through line. Once I started thinking about it, I was like, “This is the world I’m going to build, and I’m going think about this, and I’m going angle things that are a bit over here a bit more towards this.” So some theme appears slowly, and then I go, “That’s what I’m gonna do.” So there’s, like, 60% of a record that looks a bit like that, and then I push everything else in that direction.
I was wondering where this kind of “sad guy on vacation” aesthetic that’s present in the rollout materials came from.
[Laughs.] If I could present as happy, believe me, I would, but it is almost impossible for me. I mean, like, I’m smiling at the moment — because this is a nice natural thing for me to do — but if you put a camera in front of me, I can’t do it.
Why?
I don’t know. Because I’m British? I just present as disappointed. I think I have resting disappointment face.
There were 10 years between your first two albums, then three years between this one and the last one. Tell me about that timeline, and if there was anything to that longer gap and then this shorter one.
Well, the longer gap is difficult for me to talk about, because it was just s–tty. I guess I lost my way, got pretty depressed for a bit, couldn’t figure out the music industry, was very confused by my first experience with my first album and the success of that. I didn’t have the means to understand that it was successful and how far it had gone. I didn’t have any perspective on it.
Why?
I was either unable to hear what people were saying to me, or no one said the right things to me. I was just like, “F–k this. I want to disappear for a bit.” I’d had a weird time releasing with Universal, like everyone does. Then I sort of spiraled for a long time. I was having a reasonable time, but it was also very hard, and there were some real low points. I found my way out, basically, thanks to the pandemic and thanks to a stubbornness and sort of “f–k it” attitude, which I managed to pick back up again. I’d always had that when I was growing up, then suddenly it was knocked out of me somehow.
What did the “f–k it” attitude turn into caring too much?
You just lose it. You lose the sparkiness. You lose the silliness. You have to be goofy to survive this thing. There has to be a little bit of “Well, who cares?” But it all became too serious, and too big and too heavy. I went round and met all the managers at one point when I didn’t have management. I knew enough about the music industry to know that everyone was lying to me at a certain point in the conversation. Nice people, but they all bulls–tted me. So I was like, “Well, I’m not gonna work with any of you guys. This is depressing.” There’s a sort of learning curve in the game.
So what did you do?
It definitely helped that I sobered up in 2020 or 2021. I got that album out, self-released it, worked with The Orchard, which actually changed my whole thing, because I was the record label. They were super supportive. They gave me the marketing money I needed to do everything. So actually, I found a version of the music industry that made me feel safe, and it was [The Orchard]. I love them; I’m working with them again on this record. They love me, it’s great. They haven’t made any money out of me, but they’re supportive, and they know they will one day, or they think they will one day.
Can you give me an example of a lie someone told you, in all those conversations with potential management?
Who their clients are, who they manage. They lie about what kind of deals they’ve gotten for people. They’ll lie about the people they know. They’ll say, “Oh, I’m best friends with this person.” It’s like, “I know that person very well.” I’d call them afterwards like “Do know this manager?” “No, met him once four years ago.” Where I’m at now, I see it very clearly, and I can kind of find my way through it. But at the time, because I was in a very vulnerable place, I was like, “No, I can’t be around this thing.”
So you kind of rejected the whole thing.
I kind of rejected the whole thing. I could go on about that whole thing for a long time. It was lost years, in a way. There were definitely albums I made that never came out. I was always making music. It wasn’t a creative block. It was like the final action of putting music out was the hard thing.
Was there a turning point?
I had a birthday in 2018, and a friend texted me that day and said, “Do something for yourself today.” I was like, “I’m going to put some music out.” I’d been into every room I wanted to go into with these two unreleased songs I had. Everyone wanted to hear them, and I just put one of them up on SoundCloud that day. The artwork was me eating a banana in the mirror.
That was a huge release for me, personally — because I’d been holding on, and I put it out, and people loved it. I went out that day and partied with my friends, and I got home and realized that I’d released music again, after not putting anything out for five years. I just burst into tears for hours. It was great. It was just like, “Oh, here we are. That’s what I that’s what I’m supposed to do. I’m supposed to put stuff out, whether I’m sure of it or not.”
So the actual like time spent making the music for this new album, set that scene for me. Was there a typical sort of day?
My ideal day is that I get up, immediately go and listen to what I did the day before, have a coffee, then go do some exercise and spend the rest of the day making music. I love that, and it doesn’t go unappreciated. I’m so grateful that that’s what I get to do a lot of the time. Because of the relative success of the project, I can afford to do that and take time. That’s a big factor in this industry now: How do you afford to take the time to develop a piece of work? Because everyone is pushing you to put something out. The game is content, content, content, so things are really rushed.
So this was a year or so of making music while I was touring and running around and producing other people’s records, then maybe six months of being very focused on this album. Obviously I’m still traveling and playing at the same time. So maybe three days a week I can do that… And now I’m working on the next one, apologizing for this one. [Laughs.]
What do you think you have to say “sorry” for now?
I don’t know if I should say, but I think it could be cooler. My big revelation about my creative process over the last two weeks is that I have an inner contrarian against my own taste… There is a part of me that goes [gestures towards water glass] “That glass is absolutely perfect. It’s beautiful. That’s exactly how we like a glass.” Then this other part of me goes, “Yeah, but you can’t just do what you like like. Let’s f–k it up a bit. Let’s ruin it 15%”
I think that’s probably what I’m going to be thinking about — can I actually make a record that’s entirely to my taste, without letting contrarian saboteur come in and spoil the elements?
So you’ve been able to identify this voice as a saboteur, versus someone who’s like, nudging you in a particular creative direction?
It’s a saboteur. It’s bad.
That’s great to know, because we all have so many voices in our heads that it can be hard to ascertain what’s true.
I’ve had a Greek chorus of critics for a long time. You know, my enemies. They’re up there, and they’re like, “Haha, this is s–t. You’re an idiot.” I think everyone has that. This one is much closer to me. This is very personal. When I was a kid, my friends would say I was a contrarian, and I think this is where that’s ended up.
I can see how it could be confusing, because the idea it’s giving you isn’t necessarily bad.
Yeah, it’s like, “If it sounds a bit s–t, maybe that’s how it should sound”. And it’s like, “Well, actually, I have a big intellectual, technical part of me that knows I can make that sound better, even closer to perfect.” I’m always trying to get somewhere near that thing. I know how to do that, and I know what it is. Then the saboteur, the contrarian, goes, “Nah, f–k it. F–k it. F–k it!!”
Kind of like a nihilist.
Totally. It’s a defense thing. Like, “Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs.” That was a defense.
Right, so you’ve officially changed your name to TEED. I read in an interview from awhile ago that you chose that first name in an attempt to be outside trends. But it sounds like maybe you have a different perspective now?
No, no, no. That was it, but like, what is that? What is an attempt to be outside of trends? Really, it’s an attempt to not be pinned down, to have an ironic shield against the world. I’m actually pretty grateful for it. I think maybe I wouldn’t be here without it. If I’d been an entirely self-serious artist without humor and without a little silliness, I never would have put anything out. It helps to have a thing where you’re a bit like, “Here’s this thing I really love, but I don’t really mean it.”
So if someone else hates it, it doesn’t hurt you.
Yeah, less so. It’s less harmful. But also, on the trends and the what’s cool/what’s not cool thing, it was nice not to really be part of that, because that’s such a silly, fickle world, and it’s run by about 100 people. I don’t want to give them the keys to my career. And actually, that worked really well. A lot of people just completely ignored me. They didn’t say good things or bad things about me, and that was nice, but I found my audience anyway.
So along with the maturity, I think, comes the feeling that times have changed. Having an ironic outward brand no longer works, because people don’t spend more than half a second assessing your outer brand, as it were… I think within the music and within me, there’s still humor and subversion, but on the surface of it, it’s just TEED, so think whatever you like. It doesn’t mean anything.
Also Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs is a mouthful. Did you ever run into difficulty of it just being like, a lot to get out?
Radio DJs hated it. But actually most of all, I feel bad for fans, because, phonetically it’s horrible to say. As it comes out of your mouth, it is a nasty experience. People who are like, out there telling their friends about my music and that they love it, and I’m putting them through this thing of them wanting to feel cool, telling their friends about cool music, but then I make them say this insanely uncool thing, which… I feel bad about that. So, sorry about that.
Apologizing still!
Always.
You worked on the last SG Lewis album and his Heat EP with Tove Lo, which makes sense as there’s a lot of connective tissue between those projects and your new album. What sonic world do you think you guys are inhabiting?
A lot of people I work with, myself included, I think we’re all trying to do a very similar thing, which is try and merge the body, the physicality of electronic music, with songwriting and the emotional depth of songwriting. Obviously some people have managed to do it very well over the last 40 years. Depeche Mode, or Michael Jackson, or lots of the ’80s U.K. synth wave people. Then you have classic house records from the ’90s and 2000s that really sit in that place where there’s a great song with great lyrics and you can ignite a dance floor. I think there’s certainly an itch there that loads of us are trying to scratch and figure it out. I still haven’t managed to do it.
Do you think you’re getting close?
I don’t know. I enjoy the journey, because then I end up with completely different things and it’s fine… It’s a kind of timeless problem to be staring at.
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.pngYveto2025-12-04 18:25:432025-12-04 18:25:43Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs Is Now Just TEED & His Gorgeous New Album Is an Apology
Kim Kardashian tearfully recalled being allegedly accused by her ex-husband Ye (formerly Kanye West) of faking her 2016 robbery in Paris “for a TV show.”
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The latest episode of The Kardashians, which arrived on Thursday (Dec. 4), centers around the robbery trial with Kim back in Paris reliving the horror from the 2016 events.
While Kardashian didn’t call out Ye by name, it can be assumed she’s talking about her husband at the time of the heist (Kardashian and West got married in 2014 and she filed for divorce in 2021, which was settled in 2022).
“My ex-husband had said, ‘And you faked your robbery for a TV show,’ and had said that in front of all these people,” she said while tearing up. “That was a knife to my heart. Just to think that someone wouldn’t believe you — that’s so close to you, that should know you, that should know how much that affected your life — it just really bothered me. You don’t know who I am.”
At the time of the October 2016 robbery, Ye was actually mid-performance at Meadows Fest in Queens, NYC, and abruptly cut his set short due to a “family emergency” after learning of Kardashian’s status in Paris.
The robbers ended up making off with $10 million in jewelry as she was tied up in the bathroom and held at gunpoint. “To finally be able to go to trial and face these people and hear their accounts and apologies, I’m like, see, guys. It was real. I’m happy it’s over,” she added.
Nearly a decade later, eight of the 10 people (seven men and one woman) involved in the Paris heist were convicted at trial in May and handed sentences ranging from three to eight years in prison. Two individuals were ultimately acquitted.
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.pngYveto2025-12-04 17:55:312025-12-04 17:55:31Kim Kardashian Recalls Ye Claiming She ‘Faked’ Her 2016 Robbery: ‘A Knife to My Heart’
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Bath & Body Works’ Candle Day 2025 is underway, which means more savings on all things candles.
While the brand has made a name for itself through viral bath products, Bath & Body Works is also well-known for its candles, specifically the fan-fave Three-Wick Candles. The scented item is so popular that even Taylor Swift has been known to light them up on occasion.
Right now, the beloved candles are available onlinefor just $9.95, a steal considering the decor item can be priced as high as $30+, depending on the scent and style. The annual candle sale and unofficial holiday will begin online at 10pm ET Dec. 4, 2025, and will run until Sunday, Dec. 7th, giving you around 2 to 3 days to shop candles until you drop.
The Three-Wick offerings make the best stocking stuffers or full-blown gifts for the candle-lover in your life. These candles are often a blend of wax and soy and feature a high concentration of fragrance oils, heavily perfuming every room with your chosen scent. These candles can burn up to 45 hours. There’s no time like the present to shop for presents, pun intended, and you won’t find big deals like this anywhere else. Below, we’ve shared some of our favorite Three-Wick offerings from wonderful to wacky with unique scents galore, all for $9.95. Keep reading to shop our picks.
If you’re ready to get into the holiday spirit without breaking the bank, this Fresh Balsam candle is for you. The Three-Wick offering is 64% off and scented with woodland balsam, crisp eucalyptus, and cedarwood, transforming your space into a snowy, resinous, fresh forest.
A three-wick candle scented like a perfect snow day.
Bring the snow to you this holiday season with this Snow Day Three-Wick Candle, now 62% off. If it isn’t snowing just yet, you can light this candle up to get the vibes going, filling the air with scents of spruce branches, peppermint and sweet vanilla. When lit, the candle reminds us of cozying up on the couch beside your decorated Christmas tree, sipping on a peppermint mocha.
A three-wick candle smelling like fig and brown sugar.
If you aren’t ready to give your space the full-blown holiday treatment just yet, this Brown Sugar Fig Three-Wick Candle is a great way to subtly dip your toes in without going full-blown Christmas. This warm and sweet scent is currently available for 62% off and is scented like fresh fig, coconut milk and caramelized brown sugar. The scent is akin to a freshly baked fig tart coming straight out of the oven.
A three-wick candle scented like rose water and ivy.
For something a little more fresh and floral, we’d choose this Rose Water & Ivy Three-Wick Candle, just 63% off. The candle is scented like rose petals, English ivy and lemon blossom, a floral and earthy scent that smells like you just stepped into a garden.
Who doesn’t like ice cream? If you can’t pick one flavor, why not choose three with this Neapolitan Ice Cream Three-Wick Candle, now 64% off. The candle combines all your favorite flavors, including milk chocolate, strawberry and vanilla, filling any space with sugar sweet scents. It’s safe to say that this candle is an ice cream-lover’s dream.
Another unique scent, this time, even sweeter. This Gummy Candies Three-Wick Candle is currently 64% off and is scented like, as you’d expect, gummy candy. Specific notes include pineapple gummy candy, lemon juice and sugar sprinkles, a puckering sour-sweetness that fills any space with fun and whimsicality.
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.pngYveto2025-12-04 17:45:342025-12-04 17:45:34Bath & Body Works Candle Day Is Back & Better Than Ever: Shop the Sale
Guns N’ Roses have forever see-sawed between singer Axl Rose’s penchant for Elton John-style florid piano/synth rock and a grittier, bombastic hard rock style influenced by their metal and punk forefathers. In an early Christmas gift to their fans on Thursday (Dec. 4), the veteran band stuffed a bit of each into their stockings via a pair of new songs.
The latest in a series of loosies the group has sprinkled out over the past few years, the swooning ballad “Nothin’” brings to mind such GNR classics as “November Rain” and “Don’t Cry,” while the more hard-charging “Atlas” is a straight-on rocker that fans are sure to dive into given the veteran band’s meager studio output over the past 17 years.
“Nothin’” opens with plaintive keyboards as Rose sings “There’s nothing I could see/ That would mean more to me/ Than what you are to me/ All my love,” before the arrangement cranks up, with the drums and churning electric guitars swelling and then receding as Rose climbs into his classic high register to wail about love redemption and salvation when it feels like no one else is there to save him. Then, of course, there is a crying, bluesy solo from guitarist Slash, who sounds in peak form as he provides the instrumental compliment to Rose’s love lament, including a moving section at the three-minute mark that is reminiscent of the iconic guitar opening to Pearl Jam’s “Yellow Ledbetter.”
The turbulent four-minute journey crashes to a close with Rose desperately wailing, “without your love I’ll never make it.”
On the flip-side, “Atlas” charges out of the gate with a more aggressive posture, with a hard-charging rock attack and yet another signature Slash solo at the three-minute mark on the song that was also reportedly first conceived during the sessions for 2008’s eternally gestating Chinese Democracy. Both songs are credited to the full band, with production credit to Rose and Caram Costanzo (Janet Jackson, Rage Against the Machine); Costanzo co-produced Chinese Democracy alongside Rose.
The songs are the first tracks from the band since the 2023 two-fers of “The General” and “Perhaps” and “Hard Skool” and “Absurd” in 2021. While Slash recently told Guitar World that there is “so much” material for a new album, at press time there was no definitive word about what would be the group’s first LP of new material since 1991’s Use Your Illusion I and II; Slash and founding bassist Duff McKagan left the group in 1996 and 1997, respectively, and re-joined in 2016.
The songs come as GNR are gearing up for massive 2026 world tour that will include summer stadium and amphitheater dates in North America, as well as South American and European shows.
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.pngYveto2025-12-04 17:36:342025-12-04 17:36:34Guns N’ Roses Dip Into Classic Sound on New Singles, Bombastic Rocker ‘Atlas’ and Turbulent Ballad ‘Nothin’
Rihanna‘s “We Found Love” kept the cast of Hamnet from going to a hopeless place mentally after emotionally heavy days on set, according to leading lady Jessie Buckley.
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During a chat on The Late Show on Wednesday (Dec. 3), the Irish actress shared that she and costar Paul Mescal would take part in weekly dance breaks set up by director Chloe Zhao, who wanted the performers to be able to let loose after spending so much time emulating grief and hardship on camera. “We’d have gone through a lot as a family in these weeks, lived a lot, loved a lot, lost a lot,” recalled Buckley, who plays Agnes Hathaway in the film, the fictionalized version of William Shakespeare’s wife.
“But at the end of the week, [Zhao] would spend an hour setting up the camera to do a dance take, where she basically would blast Rihanna, ‘We Found Love’ at the top of the sound system,” Buckley continued. “Whether it was just the family or 300 extras dressed up in period costume, we’d all create our own mosh pit to Rihanna.”
Released in late November, Hamnet is based on a novel of the same name that dramatizes the real-life story of Shakespeare — who is portrayed by Mescal in the film — and his wife, Anne Hathaway. The couple shared two children, but their son, Hamnet, died at the age of 11. Shakespeare would later pen his infamous Hamlet play.
Needless to say, the script called for a lot of intense days on set. But while there is footage of the cast dancing off that heaviness, Buckley says they can’t release it because it would cost too much to obtain the rights to “We Found Love,” which features Calvin Harris and spent 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the early 2010s.
“It’s so embarrassing, because I’ve actually talked about this quite a lot now,” Buckley told Colbert, laughing. “Rihanna must be like, ‘Can you please just stop asking me?’ But it’s really expensive to get that song. So we can’t show it.”
“Rihanna, come on,” the late-night host then implored into the camera. “Do a solid here.”
Watch Buckley’s full conversation with Colbert above.
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.pngYveto2025-12-04 17:30:322025-12-04 17:30:32How Rihanna Helped Jessie Buckley & Paul Mescal Stay Positive After Intense Days on ‘Hamnet’ Set