Jeremy Strong can be a little intense. The Succession star who has established a reputation for being hyper dialed-in to his roles proved it again on Thursday night (Sept. 25) when he told The Late Show host Stephen Colbert that not only does he play Bruce Springsteen‘s legendary manager, Jon Landau, in the upcoming biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere, but he embodied him so completely that when the real Landau was on set he wasn’t sure who was whom.

“You are famous for going deeply into character,” Colbert said to Strong, who revealed that Springsteen and Landau were on the set of the film “almost every day” during the shoot. “Jon has been a friend, mentor, manager, producer, co-pilot for nearly 50 years,” Strong said as Colbert held up a shot of the actor on set with Landau, Springsteen, director Scott Cooper and the film’s star, Jeremy Allen White.

Wondering if method man Strong even realized that Landau was on set most days, Colbert asked, “did you notice him? Or did you notice him more because you were so him?” Strong said he was able to relate to Landau “as Jon,” explaining that as an actor, “you walk out on this limb. You find ways to believe in what you’re doing.”

And then he dropped the Strong sauce, adding, “And in a way, if Jon Landau… if I’m Jon Landau, who’s that guy over there?” Colbert had to laugh at that Jedi acting mind trick, comparing it to the famous Star Trek season one episode “The Enemy Within,” in which a transporter malfunction creates two contemporaneous Capt. Kirks.

For real, though, Strong said Allen really had to do the heavy lifting in the film that chronicles the then about-to-be-even-more-massive singer’s interior retreat to write the stark, story-cycle Nebraska album. For example, he said, Allen had to perform “Born in the U.S.A.” at the Power Station studio in Manhattan where it was originally recorded by the Boss while Springsteen and Landau were watching.

“It’s a movie about integrity and authenticity and healing,” Strong said. “It’s a story about a time in Bruce’s life in 1982 where he was, I would say, trying to find, in James Baldwin’s words, ‘an honest place to stand.’” Strong also noted that even before he signed on to the film that is due out on Oct. 24, he was a Springsteen superfan, revealing which Boss song he played at his wedding.

“[The album] is about someone struggling with the feeling of being unfit to live, which is a lyric in the album,” said Strong. “I’m someone who… I had a song of his played at my wedding, ‘If I Should Fall Behind’ [from 1992’s Lucky Town] and Nebraska is an album I’ve always loved, so to give back even a modicum of something to give back to someone who has given so much to all of us was a real privilege.”

Strong also talked to Colbert about his new documentary, The White House Effect, which zooms in on the origin story of the climate crisis at a time in the 1990s when climate science began to get politicized.

Watch Strong on The Late Show below.

SoundPatrol has entered a partnership with Universal Music Group and Sony Music to protect artists from copyright infringement coming from AI music models.

According to a press release, SoundPatrol specializes in using a “forensic AI model for audio-video fingerprinting.” Through neural fingerprinting, SoundPatrol claims it can analyze fully (or partially) AI generated songs to identify influences and traces of human-made music.

For the music industry, finding out ways to fingerprint, track and attribute traces of copyrighted material in AI songs is the key to properly compensating and crediting talent for their work when it’s used to influence AI models. In recent months, AI companies like Udio and Music AI have proactively announced partnerships with Audible Magic to help fingerprint their works.

But UMG and Sony’s approval of SoundPatrol’s “neural fingerprinting” approach represents a major co-sign for this type of technology, which SoundPatrol claims is “a significant advancement beyond traditional audio fingerprinting techniques”

“Traditional audio fingerprinting… primarily rel[ies] on matching exact audio snippets. Neural embeddings capture semantic relationships to identify covers, remixes and generative-AI derivatives,” the press release states. SoundPatrol also has future plans to develop tools and models that will “proactively help third-party platforms and research labs prevent copyright violations,” the press release reads.

SoundPatrol is a company that originated in a Stanford University lab and was founded by top AI, machine learning and cybersecurity academics. This includes Walter De Brouwer Ph. D., SoundPatrol’s co-founder and CEO, and Percy Liang Ph. D. (director of the Center for Foundation Models and leading Stanford’s Marin, the Open Lab for Building Foundation Models), Chris Re, Ph. D. (Stanford AI Lab, Director of FactoryHQ), and Dan Boneh, Ph. D. (Director of the Applied Cryptography Lab and Co Director of the Cybersecurity Lab).

Lucian Grainge, UMG’s chairman and CEO, says of the deal: “We’re constantly focused on enabling AI — bringing to market the many commercial and creative opportunities that will benefit our artists while establishing effective tools to protect them. Bringing solutions to the table that support the entire industry is at the heart of our relationship with SoundPatrol, who share our commitment to safeguarding our artists’ creative integrity and work.”

“The possibilities of AI present opportunities for artists and creators when used the right way,” says Dennis Kooker, president of global digital business at Sony Music. “We’re committed to navigating this developing landscape by protecting their work while also exploring the innovative potential of these technologies. Our collaboration with SoundPatrol is about respecting artists’ rights to build a sustainable and equitable ecosystem for everyone.”

“Generative AI is transforming music in extraordinary ways, but if we abandon copyright, we risk severing artists from ownership of their own work,” says Walter De Brouwer, SoundPatrol co-founder and CEO. “It is compulsory to proactively feed deep embeddings of these neural signatures into streaming infrastructures so that owners can maintain control, authenticity, and monetization of their intellectual property in the generative AI era. Eliminating copyright to accelerate AI is like changing the speed of light to advance physics — it misunderstands the fundamental laws that sustain creativity.”

Michael Ovitz, SoundPatrol co-founder and chairman of the board, adds: “This is a huge victory for all artists in the creative universe.” He continued: “One of the premier issues affecting artists has always been the protection of their intellectual property rights. SoundPatrol has answered the long-standing problem of IP theft by creating a frontier lab with neural fingerprinting capabilities that can identify all pipelines of directly transmitted content, whether on its own or intermixed, in real time. This is the first of-its-kind technology implemented to protect all copyright holders and creators of any type of intellectual property.”

Kneecap had a terror charge thrown out of court on Friday (Sept. 26) in a legal victory for the Irish rap trio.

Rapper Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who performs under the name Mo Chara, had been charged with a terrorism offense for allegedly showing support for Hezbollah, a group proscribed terrorist status by the U.K. government.

But at Woolwich Crown Court on Friday, the judge presiding over the case dismissed the charge due to a technical error in the way the charges were brought by London’s Metropolitan Police (via Sky News). Ó hAnnaidh had always denied any wrongdoing in the case, and had been granted unconditional bail since June.

The incident occurred in November 2024 at a concert at London’s Kentish Town Forum. Video footage from the show appeared to show Ó hAnnaidh displaying a flag associated with Hezbollah, and he was subsequently charged with an terrorism offence in May.

In August, legal arguments by Ó hAnnaidh’s team questioned whether the charge was brought within the six-month time limit. His defense team argued that the case should be thrown out. Ó hAnnaidh claimed that the charges were politically motivated, and linked the case to the band’s longstanding support for the people of Palestine. 

Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring, the judge presiding over the case, said that “proceedings against the defendant were instituted unlawfully and are null.” Following the ruling, the judge said, “Mr O hAnnaidh, you are free to go,” which was met by cheers and applause in the public gallery. The court was told: “You can do your celebrating outside, but the court now has other business to attend to.” The judge commented that the decision was not a ruling on his innocence or guilt, but the technical error in bringing the case.

Kneecap’s manager Daniel Lambert wrote on social media, “We have won. Liam Óg is a free man. We said we would fight them and win. We did (Twice). Kneecap has NO charges OR convictions in ANY country, EVER. Political policing has failed. Kneecap is on the right side of history. Britain is not.”

The Northern Irish hip-hop trio released their breakthrough album Fine Art in 2024 alongside a self-titled biopic which saw critical acclaim, and was nominated for an Academy Award as well as winning a BAFTA prize.

In April 2025, the group ended their Coachella sets with a message that stated: “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. It is being enabled by the U.S. government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes. F–k Israel; free Palestine.” A number of industry names including Sharon Osbourne called for them to be removed from the bill and their work visas to be revoked.

Their set at Glastonbury Festival in June was well-attended and peaceful, and went ahead despite disquiet from the U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer who said their performance would not be “appropriate.” 

They have since been banned from a number of countries (Hungary and Canada) and been forced to cancel shows in the U.S., as well as in the U.K. while the court case was ongoing. Earlier this month (Sept. 18), the trio played their largest ever headline show in the U.K. at London’s Wembley Arena and were joined by Massive Attack.

It’s been a turbulent ride since Young Thug was released from jail in October 2024. Nearly 11 months later, Thugger finally returns to speak out with his music, as the highly anticipated UY Scuti album arrived on Friday (Sept. 26).

Thugger set the table for UY Scuti with the Future-assisted “Money on Money” in April. He followed up with “Miss My Dogs” earlier in September, which found him apologizing and addressing some major figures in his life, including girlfriend Mariah the Scientist, Drake, Gucci Mane, 21 Savage, Future and Lil Baby.

The Atlanta native’s last album, Business Is Business, was released in June 2023 while Thug was still behind bars. The LP debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 89,000 total album units earned.

UY Scuti suffered plenty of delays before arriving, as the project was previously rumored to be released in May and June, before getting pushed to Sept. 19.

Thug pivoted to Sept. 26 out of respect for Cardi B, who dropped her Am I the Drama? album on Sept. 19. “Yall know I wasn’t dropping Friday. It’s a ladies day,” he wrote to X. And Cardi replied, “And you better step next week …you got this, You know this !!”

Thugger explained to GQ in April about why he titled the project UY Scuti. “I just feel big, you know. The name of my album UY Scuti. I feel like I’m one of the biggest stars,” he said. “I did a lot. Founding this culture. The new rap game that’s happening right now. I’m out of this world. Not like God, though.”

Young Thug spent Wednesday (Sept. 24) at the Los Angeles federal courthouse supporting his friend Metro Boomin, who was facing trial in his civil sexual assault lawsuit.

Stream UY Scuti below.

Leading up to the Latin American leg of his Cosa Nuestra World Tour, set to continue on Oct. 13 in Chile, Rauw Alejandro dropped his new studio album Cosa Nuestra: Capítulo 0 — a prequel to his chart-topping Cosa Nuestra released last fall — on Friday (Sept. 26).

A contrast to his 2024 set that was elegant and glamorous, and inspired by New York in the ‘70s and the era of the Sicilian mafia, Cosa Nuestra: Capítulo 0 “is all about the Caribbean, not only Puerto Rico,” he tells Billboard. “There’s so much inspiration in music from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti — I believe we’re all one nation. The Caribbean shares the same blood — we’re Indian, African and Spanish — that’s our race.” 

Sonically, the 14-track set offers traditional bomba and plena (“Carita Linda,” “Caribeño”); his first-ever bachata called “Silencio,” written and produced by Romeo Santos; and closes with three brand new salsa tunes, including the sultry “Callejón de los Secretos” with Mon Laferte.

In between, he gives fans his signature perreo and R&B numbers, including “Buenos Términos,” “Nostalgia de Otoño” and “Contrabando,” and is also home to the previously released 2024 banger “Santa” with Rvssian and Ayra Starr.

Cosa Nuestra: Capítulo 0 — which Rauw began working on in 2023 — drops in the midst of this Cosa Nuestra world tour, allowing him to create new music while “staying in the same era and character,” he notes. 

“The meaning of Cosa Nuestra is so big that I have to release 20 albums to explain its concept. There’s no time to do that in just one album,” he laughs. “I’m going to continue to bring my roots to the world. Nowadays I feel so connected with my people and am very proud of where I come from. I don’t have to look outside when I have everything here.” 

Stream and listen to Cosa Nuestra: Capítulo 0 below: