As YoungBoy Never Broke Again prepares to embark on his MASA Tour this September, the rapper has been hit with a lawsuit for allegedly trying to cut an established merchandise partner out of his first-ever headlining trek.

YoungBoy (Kentrell DeSean Gaulden) and his label Never Broke Again face the claims in a federal complaint filed Friday (Aug. 8) by retail partner Westside Merchandising. The company supposedly paid YoungBoy a $1 million advance in 2023 as part of a licensing deal that gave the company the exclusive right to sell the rapper’s apparel and other merch online and at live shows.

Westside says the deal requires YoungBoy to promote the company’s merch — obligations he’s largely shirked due to being in prison on gun charges for the majority of the contract. Yet even now that YoungBoy is free (and pardoned by President Donald Trump), he’s allegedly still not marketing the apparel on Instagram as promised.

In fact, soon after announcing his MASA arena tour in May, YoungBoy sent Westside a letter announcing he was terminating their contract due to “poor performance” on the company’s part.

“The purpose behind defendants’ purported termination is clear: YoungBoy has embarked on a nationwide 32-date lucrative tour, and defendants have obviously obtained a new advance from another company to handle the touring merchandise even though defendants are contractually obligated to use Westside,” reads the complaint. “Westside has an exclusive license to sell Never Broke Again merchandise — rights that upon information and belief will be infringed by the new merchandise that will be sold at YoungBoy’s upcoming tour.”

Westside is now seeking a court order confirming that it is entitled to handle merch at the MASA Tour — scheduled to kick off Sept. 1 at Dallas’ American Airlines Center — as well as financial damages from YoungBoy.

The lawsuit alleges that, in addition to trying to cut Westside out of the MASA Tour, YoungBoy also breached the licensing contract by promoting a competitor’s merch and getting in the way of Westside’s business efforts.

Westside says, for example, that YoungBoy ruined a potentially lucrative partnership to sell the rapper’s merch at the retail chain Pure Atlanta by insulting the store’s founder with an Instagram comment that called her “unprofessional and clout chasing.”

“Although Westside was diligent, obtained numerous opportunities for the venture, and performed all of its contractual duties in good faith, YoungBoy did nothing except fail to perform his duties, while impeding Westside’s efforts, and causing the parties to lose significant opportunities and profits,” says the complaint.

Reps for YoungBoy did not immediately return a request for comment on the allegations.

Madonna is speaking out about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, sharing a poignant message on Monday (Aug. 11) calling for an end to the suffering caused by the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

In a letter on Instagram, the pop icon began by sharing a written prayer to her “Most Holy Father.”

“Please go to Gaza and bring your light to the children before it’s too late,” she wrote. “As a mother, I cannot bear to watch their suffering. The children of the world belong to everyone. You are the only one of us who cannot be denied entry.”

“We need the humanitarian gates to be fully opened to save these innocent children,” she continued. “There is no more time.”

In her caption, Madonna continued her plea. “Politics Cannot affect Change. Only consciousness Can,” she wrote. “Therefore I am Reaching out to a Man of God.”

“Today is my Son Rocco’s birthday,” she added. “I feel the best gift I can give to him as a Mother is to ask everyone to do what they can to help save the innocent children caught in the crossfire in Gaza. I am not pointing fingers, placing blame or taking sides. Everyone is suffering.”

Encouraging followers to join her in donating to relief efforts, Madge concluded, “I am merely trying to do what I can to keep these children from dying of starvation.”

Madonna’s post comes as the war in Gaza approaches the two-year mark, throughout which time there have been many reports that the Israeli military is blocking humanitarian aid from entering the region. The violence first began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas killed more than 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostages. Since then, more than 61,000 Palestinian people have died in Israel’s retaliation efforts, according to PBS, while countless others have been suffering from the widespread hunger and homelessness affecting the area.

Over the course of the war, several other musicians besides Madonna have also spoken out on behalf of Palestinian people in Gaza. In recent weeks, Olivia Rodrigo has slammed the “horrific” conditions the area’s children are facing, while U2 posted Monday, “Everyone has long been horrified by what is unfolding in Gaza – but the blocking of humanitarian aid and now plans for a military takeover of Gaza City has taken the conflict into uncharted territory.”

See Madonna’s post below.

When Jim Asker steps down Aug. 15 as the Billboard senior country/Christian/gospel charts manager, it will represent a bittersweet end to an eventful decade.

Asker moves into the next chapter of his journey in media after stepping into the role under improbable — and difficult —conditions. He would oversee day-to-day chart machinations during a challenging adjustment period for Nashville’s music community when country consumers fully embraced the digital age and the business faced related struggles that are reflected in the ebb and flow of Billboard’s weekly lists. 

“He was able to navigate that shift in many ways,” Billboard executive vp of charts and data development Silvio Pietroluongo says, “including the change of our genre album charts, such as Top Country Albums, from being purely sales-based to an album-consumption methodology blending sales and streaming in 2017.”

The job became available following the unexpected death of Asker’s predecessor, Wade Jessen, who had handled the role for 20 years. Asker was aware of Jessen’s stature in the business, but was able to turn the position into his own playground, bringing a dark humor to a taxing occupation that never allows a full day away from work.

“It’s three-quarters sarcasm,” says EM.Co senior vp of promotion Jack Purcell of Asker’s wit. “Then right behind that grumpy sarcasm, there’s always that big, boisterous laugh. I can imagine some of the young kids coming in are probably afraid to call Jim, but I think he always looks out for everybody.”

Asker brought valuable skills to his Billboard era, sharpened by a unique history. Determining at age 9 that he wanted to go into radio, he served as WJMC Long Island, N.Y., PD, winning several program director of the year awards and taking a seat on the Country Radio Broadcasters board of directors. He taught communication classes at three Tennessee community colleges — Columbia State, Motlow State and Nashville State — and he worked as the editor for former broadcasting trade All Access.

A bout with stage four non-Hodgkins cancer could have ended it there. But cancer was a setback, not an end. Despite a prediction that he had just two weeks to live, Asker fought through it and became a champion for the cause in a very unexpected way.

“When life gives you lemons,” he once wrote, “run a marathon.”

Asker ran 15 of them, raising tens of thousands of dollars through his running group, Team in Training, for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

“Jim is the pied piper,” media personality Suzanne Alexander says. “Before you knew it, everybody was joining Team in Training. In fact, it was hilarious because Jim is notorious for going into a Starbucks and sitting down and parking himself there to write or to do his charts. He would inevitably get to know the staff, and even the staff at Starbucks would be running for Team in Training.”

The Familie partner Royce Risser ran his first marathon with Asker in 1999. They did some training runs together ahead of the event, then endured 85-degree heat on the San Diego course. Asker pulled back when Risser struggled physically.

“He was fine,” Risser recalls. “I cramped up at mile 15 on both my hamstrings and quads. It was brutal, but Jimmy stuck with me the whole time.”

When the Billboard chart job opened, Asker was pleasantly surprised to get another chance in the business.

“When he went to Billboard, I really think that that was what he wanted,” Risser says. “He loved writing, he loved being involved with radio again, but he always gave a really good, fair look at radio stations on the panel, off the panel. He took that really seriously.”

It wasn’t just the radio component that drew him. Asker was aware that the chart — and his honest, accurate work on it — held ramifications for the entire business.

“Jim would always look at it from every angle possible,” Purcell says. “I don’t think he was just looking at it by the numbers and being stoic about it. He cared about the music, cared about the artists, cared about every chart position and what it potentially meant — positive or negative — for that artist’s career. Every position on that chart resonates with Jim Asker. There’s been that level of care and attention in it.”

Pietroluongo immediately sensed the integrity that Asker would bring to the position. During the job interview in 2015, Pietroluongo mentioned a Country Radio Seminar event several years prior when they had bonded over dinner.

“He quickly responded that he had no recollection of that at all,” Pietroluongo says. “Most people would just pretend that they remembered to please their potential new boss, but that response truly showed the essence of Jim; as someone honest and true to himself and a person I could trust to handle the delicate industry communication balance of that role.”

Asker’s honest answers didn’t make everyone happy — they couldn’t be if he was truly doing the job — but they earned him respect, especially because he didn’t shy away from confrontations.

“We’re all going to feel this loss,” Alexander says. “He was accessible. I mean, in his business, sometimes you hesitate to make a call. You feel like you’re being pushy. Jim was the guy that you can just call.”

While Asker’s last full-time date with Billboard will be Aug. 15, he will remain in a part-time role for several weeks as his successor is determined. He plans to return to teaching at Columbia State and to earn a third degree. He filled big shoes when he joined the team in 2015. He leaves big ones for the next country chart manager.

“He’s a gentleman and a good friend,” Pietroluongo says, “and his Billboard family wishes him nothing but the best in his post-Billboard career.”