Precious Jacobs-Perry, a Chicago-based partner at the law firm Jenner & Block, says Chance the Rapper “has a reputation that precedes him in in this city” for both musical excellence and business acumen. After representing Chance at trial against his longtime manager Pat Corcoran, Jacobs-Perry says she can confirm that this reputation holds true.

“He is a man of principle,” Jacobs-Perry tells Billboard of Chance, adding that the rapper “is in control” of several businesses that “all start and end with him. He takes his role seriously, not only as an artist, but also as the head of all these different businesses,” she says.

The business activities of Chance (born Chancelor Bennett) were the subject of the rapper’s Chicago court battle against Corcoran, commonly known as Pat the Manager. Corcoran sued in 2020, alleging Chance owed him nearly $4 million in commissions, including under a so-called “sunset clause” that he said should have gotten him paid for three years post-termination. Chance maintained that there was no such sunset clause, and the nearly $11 million he paid Corcoran over the years was more than sufficient

What made this case so novel was that Corcoran and Chance never had a written contract; they always operated under a handshake deal. While this sort of casual arrangement is common in artist-manager relationships, there’s very little settled case law about how to interpret oral contracts. This meant that after years of litigation, a judge ruled the dispute had to be decided by a jury. That jury ultimately sided with Chance after a two-week trial last month, rejecting all of Corcoran’s claims.

Chance also won on his counterclaims for breach of contract and tortious interference, which alleged that Corcoran took kickbacks and improperly structured business dealings to benefit himself. The one point of loss for Chance was that the jury awarded him only $35 on these counterclaims. In a statement following the verdict, Corcoran’s lawyer Jay Scharkey said, “We respect the jury’s decision, but the message to music managers is clear: Get it in writing. The jury award of $35 speaks to how seriously the jury viewed Chance’s case.”

Jacobs-Perry says this $35 award was out of $98,000 Chance was seeking, not the $1 million number that’s been floated in some reports. She also notes that Chance’s financial damages could be significantly boosted following another mini-trial on a remaining breach of fiduciary duty counterclaim, which must be decided by a judge rather than the jury under the law. This second trial, scheduled to begin May 27, could see Chance walk away with as much as $11 million from Corcoran.

“We don’t want people to think that it’s not worth fighting for your rights when you believe that you’re being taken advantage of,” says Jacobs-Perry of why she thinks these counterclaims are important. The attorney discussed this and more during an extended interview with Billboard.   

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

What pieces of evidence do you think were most crucial for the jury to return a verdict in your favor when it came to that sunset clause?

We had two pieces of critical evidence that I described as smoking guns in this case. First, Pat himself wrote a five-page email in March of 2014 to Chance’s lawyer detailing what he believed the agreement was. What was missing? The alleged sunset and post-termination provisions. Then in 2019, he again wrote to Chance’s lawyer when they were thinking about restructuring. He wrote, “To date, here’s what we had.” It was 15% of net. That’s it. Nothing about a sunset. Nothing about a post-termination provision. Never writing down anything about any obligations that would extend beyond his termination.

We had those two critical pieces of evidence regarding what he believed in real time the agreement was. And then we had Chance’s testimony that he did not agree to this kind of provision and explaining why he, as an independent artist and someone who believes that artists should own their art, would never have agreed to any of that. And I think putting all that together, what the parties actually agreed to in 2013 became very clear.

You also won a verdict on your counterclaims against Pat for breach of contract and tortious interference. What pieces of evidence do you think led the jury to reach that conclusion?

There were a couple of different buckets. One was his website, chanceraps.com. Pat registered that in his name back in 2012 or 2013, which is a complete violation of their relationship, because that is Chance’s website that was being used to conduct his merchandise business. The second bucket was merchandise vendors. Pat was picking a vendor and then saying to the vendor, “I’m going to bring all this business to you, including Chance’s business, and I want a kickback.” If it is your job to negotiate the best price for an artist, then the fact that you’re negotiating this kickback for yourself inevitably means that you are not then negotiating the best price for the artist on the merchandise.

The other bucket was a movie deal where Scott Bernstein, who was the producer for Straight Outta Compton and Respect, featuring Aretha Franklin’s story, came to Pat as Chance’s manager to figure out a project that he could do with Chance, and [Pat] cut himself into that deal. And so instead of it being a 50-50, split between Mr. Bernstein’s company and Chance’s company, it then became one-third, one-third and one-third, including Pat and his company. Pat’s position was that there was nothing wrong with any of this, that he should be able to do these things, and that the evidence did not support that they were a violation of his duties. The jury decisively said this was not the case – that a manager, when you are interacting with third parties, your goal should always be to act in the best interest of your principal. And the testimony and the documents showed that was not happening here.

Do you still view the jury’s decision on the counterclaims as meaningful even though they awarded only $35?

What came out of that decision was very critical: Managers and other third-party agents will be held accountable if they are out in the world doing things outside the purview of their artist and things that are not in that artist’s best interest. And the jury was very decisive on that. They said, “You breached the contract because you were engaging in this behavior, and you violated the law because you tortiously interfered with Chance’s business relationships with third parties.” That was a decisive outcome, and I think it’s an important one that should be focused on, especially when you talk about precedent.

What potential damages remain for Chance’s breach of fiduciary duty counterclaim against Pat, which still needs to be decided by a judge? 

This is why this case, I believe, is so important and precedential for third-party managers and agents: What you risk is a full forfeiture of the compensation you have been paid during the time that you were breaching your fiduciary duty. During that entire time, Chance paid Pat over $11 million pursuant to a handshake deal because he is a man of his word and he did honor his agreement. Chance even paid him almost half a million dollars after he was terminated. And so now what we have is a jury who has determined that he breached his contract with Chance, and we have a determination that he engaged in tortious conduct.

In Illinois, agents are fiduciaries. And so if during the entire time you were breaching your fiduciary duties to your principal and your artist, then that entire amount is at risk — so the over $11 million. It may seem harsh, but in the state of Illinois, that’s our public policy. But the judge gets to decide the extent and the time period he finds that he was breaching his fiduciary duties. It doesn’t have to be the entire period, even though that is what our position would be based on how the evidence came out at trial. The court will get to decide whether it’s everything, or whether it’s some smaller portion of the whole.

On a more personal level, what was it like working with Chance as a client?

He is an incredible human being, and I am very impressed by his decision to stand on principle. Because being an independent artist means so much, and because it is so important that independent artists and artists across the board be protected, he was willing to stand on principle and fight back against something that he absolutely did not agree to. To stand up and say: Managers, you can’t retroactively try to insert complicated provisions into an agreement that were not agreed to. At his core, he believes in this. He’s spoken about how the industry has historically treated Black artists across the board. And so this was so important to him – it was correcting history. Just because you want to take something doesn’t mean you get to do it. He is a very impressive individual. I literally take my hat off to him for standing on principle for not only himself, but doing something that will have an impact on others who someday someone may take advantage [of]. We have someone who stood up, and now there’s precedent for saying that these things are wrong.

Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith says he was “kind of dreading” the prospect of being part of Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition, the new documentary about the band that’s opening May 7 in theaters worldwide. But the guitarist is pleased to report that he “was pleasantly surprised” with the results.

“I enjoyed it,” Smith tells Billboard via Zoom from Turks and Caicos. “It’s a pretty deep dive. It’s great for the fans to have this.” And, he adds, it’s nice for the members of the band as well.

“For me, personally, it’s nice to see the old footage,” Smith acknowledges. “It’s like another life back 40 years ago, whenever. There’s some things in there that are discussed more thoroughly than it’s ever been. It’s an interesting piece, I think.”

The film comes on the heels of news that Maiden will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Nov. 14. The group — whose frontman, Bruce Dickinson, famously called the Rock Hall “an utter and complete load of bollocks” — will not attend the ceremony, which falls on a day in between two stops on the Australian leg of its Run For Your Lives World Tour.

Directed by Malcolm Venville (Churchill at War) and produced by Dominic Freeman (Depeche Mode: Spirits in the Forest), Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition is as much about the fans as it is the band. There are some famous faces among them, too — including actor Javier Bardem, Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, Public Enemy’s Chuck D, Tom Morello, Kiss’ Gene Simmons, Anthrax’s Scott Ian and the Cure’s Simon Gallup, who are interviewed alongside the rank-and-file faithful. The Maiden members, present and past, spoke with Venville for the film but are heard off-camera rather than seen.

“It felt like something that needed a clear point of view from the outset,” Venville explains. “From the beginning I wanted to avoid the conventionally narrated documentary. The Iron Maiden story felt like it had to be told through the fans. What struck me was how difficult Maiden fans are to define. They cut across countries, backgrounds and generations but behave like a single community. That became the foundation of the film. The fans themselves became the story. They don’t just attend shows. They organize their lives around the tours, forming social groups that span continents. It began to feel less like documenting an audience and more like observing a culture.”

That, of course, extends to Eddie, Maiden’s longtime, ghoulish mascot whose history and evolution is treated in depth during the film. “He isn’t just a mascot, he’s a visual expression of the band’s identity,” Venville says. “That idea informed how we approached the animation throughout the film.”

The director’s approach was illuminating for the band, too, according to Smith.

“I thought Javier Bardem reading the lyrics to ‘Run to the Hills’ was amazing; he made them sound so deep and meaningful. I’ve never heard them like that before,” Smith says. “I always get a kick when people turn up who are very successful in other fields, and they like what you do — like Chris Jericho, Javier, people like that. I’ve heard the new (prime minister) of Japan (Sanae Takaichi) is an Iron Maiden fan. The fans of yesterday are now part of the sort of establishment. I find it amusing, and quite flattering.”

Numbering the Beast

The guitarist feels that connection with fans, famous and otherwise, has been forged mostly by Iron Maiden’s continued presence on stage. “It’s always been a touring band,” he says. “We took the music to the people. I think in the long run people remember that, and it’s a very honest way to build up a following.” Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition is loaded with live footage from throughout the band’s now 51-year career, right up to longtime drummer Nicko McBrain’s final performance during December 2024 in Sao Paulo before retiring due to health issues.

Smith describes Burning Ambition as an independent endeavor by the filmmakers. “It’s got very little to do with the Iron Maiden organization,” he says. “I think in the past we’ve always been involved in the production of these things, but this is a totally outside job rather than an inside job. The only part we had was people from the film company came to our homes and interviewed us and then laid our voices over some of the footage, but we don’t actually appear. It’s quite a powerful way of doing it.”

A particularly illuminating segment of the film for Smith was the treatment of his time out of the band from 1990-1999, during which frontman Bruce Dickinson also left the group for several years. “Bruce is talking about that (in the film) and how he felt, and that was quite nice to see that he kind of cared a bit, and that I was kind of missed, I suppose,” says Smith, who played on two of Dickinson’s solo albums during that time. “I think it needed to happen at the time. It was the right thing to do. I wasn’t happy. I didn’t jump up and down and stamp my feet and storm off; it just kind happened over a period of time. It was difficult.

“When I came back to the band I had a different perspective. I could see it for what it was and appreciate it a lot more and be part of it. And I haven’t looked back since.”

Maiden Voyage

Smith and the rest of Maiden — including new drummer Simon Dawson, though McBrain remains a band member — are in the midst of the Run For Your Lives World Tour, which began last May and runs through November. A North American leg will take place during late August and September. The setlist this time out is drawn from Maiden’s first nine albums, including the first performances in many years for early favorites such as “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “Killers,” “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” “The Clairvoyant” and others.

“It’s great playing that set,” Smith says. “It’s songs from way back, and they still sound great when you give them an airing. They still sound fresh and powerful. We try something different every time, a different kind of theme, to keep it fresh rather than just playing the same old thing, and it’s great fun. The fans are loving it. And for me…I mean, it changed my life, joining Iron Maiden (in 1980) and then we went on to record Killers. So playing those songs just takes me back in time, temporarily.”

Smith advises that fans should get their Maiden fix this year, since the group is planning to be inactive during 2027. He’ll fill the time with his other band, Smith/Kotzen, with Richie Kotzen, which has so far released two albums. Smith will likely do some fishing, a passion he chronicled in his 2020 memoir Monsters of River and Rock. He’s not worried about Maiden’s break being too open-ended, however.

“I can’t see that happening,” Smith notes. “We all love doing it. (Bassist and founder) Steve Harris, he’s 70 now, and the guy can go and play (soccer) in the afternoon, 90 minutes, a proper game, then go on stage and play tours of a Maiden set — then get up and basically do the same thing the next day. That’s the kind of spirit that drives all of us, so…I’m sure we’ll be back to it before too long.”

According to a new study from Luminate, U.S. consumer interest in listening to AI-assisted music declined across all age groups from when they were first surveyed in May 2025 to November 2025. The greatest decline comes from Gen Alpha and Gen Z in particular, falling from net -6% to -16% during that period.

Overall, U.S. listeners have had a net negative interest in listening to music if they knew it was produced using generative AI since they were first surveyed in May 2025, but that score became even more negative by the next time they were tallied in November. Millennials were the most open to listening to AI-assisted music, and Boomers constituted the group least likely to say they would feel positively about listening to AI-assisted music.

Below is a breakdown of falling consumer interest in listening to AI-assisted music across age categories:

The latest November 2025 survey occurred right around the time that top music companies — including Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, Merlin, Kobalt and more — and AI music firms like Suno, Udio and ElevenLabs’ Eleven Music, started to come together to forge AI licensing deals.

Luminate’s findings also note that while U.S. consumers are more likely to report negative sentiments toward AI use in musicmaking across all types of use — from instrumentals, lyrics or a totally new work — about a third of respondents can be described as ambivalent toward AI use.

Below is a breakdown of consumer comfort with AI in music creation:

The study from Luminate also tracks the rise of AI-assisted artists — like Xania Monet, Breaking Rust and Cain Walker — and the listenership for their songs over time. Luminate notes a spike in streaming consumption for certain AI-assisted projects around the time that Suno released v5 of its model (around September 2025), which improved song composition, audio quality and vocals. Luminate also details that often, AI-assisted artist projects quickly lose listenership after the initial spike in interest.

Often, AI-assisted artist projects spark controversial headlines, leading to an influx of interest in hearing the music, but the quick decline in the months afterward suggests that these songs are not retaining true fans long term. Monet, the AI project of Telisha “Nikki” Jones, which landed songs on Billboard‘s Adult R&B Airplay and Hot Gospel Songs charts, is the clearest example of this sharp decline. Luminate notes that her music had over 7 million total weekly streams in September 2025, but by March 2026, her total weekly streams decreased to below 3 million.

As music companies continue to resolve their lawsuits with AI companies like Suno and Udio and reach new licensing deals, those deals could have a significant impact on consumer sentiment and comfort with AI use in the music-making process — as could upgrades to these music models to make their outputs better resemble human artistry.

Still, based on the Luminate study, the lack of long-term interest in AI-assisted songs signals there will be challenges to forming true fandom around this work.

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If you’re thinking about joining Peacock, a free trial is the best way to test out a streaming platform to see if it’s a good fit. However, Peacock no longer offers a free trial, but we found a clever workaround to watch for free.

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