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City of Oakland Settles Ghost Ship Fire Civil Suit for Nearly $33 Million
The City of Oakland announced in a release that it has settled with the families of the 2016 Ghost Ship fire that left 36 people dead. The suit was brought on behalf of 32 of the 36 families of the people who died in the fire. Of the $32.7 million that will be paid out, $9.2 will go to plaintiff and Ghost Ship fire survivor Sam Maxwell, who is battling severe lifelong injuries and major medical expenses. The settlement brings to a close the civil suit, and the city continues to assert, per the settlement, that it is not liable for the loss of life. Instead, the release says, the city settled the case because of the cost-benefit analysis. A retrial in the criminal case against Ghost Ship master tenant Derick Almena is set to resume in October. Previously, the criminal case against Alme...
Audio Engineer Kesha Lee in Atlanta, in a Pandemic: ‘I’m Getting to the Place Where I’m Wanting to Create’
Lee was planning to travel for audio engineer work when her car broke down — now, she’s collaborating with a local songwriter on her own music. Since getting her start through a chance meeting with Gucci Mane, Atlanta-based audio engineer Kesha Lee has worked on chart-toppers like Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” and Migos’ “Bad and Boujee” and is now the go-to audio engineer for rappers including Playboi Carti and Lil Uzi Vert. She spent the past two-and-a-half years working on Uzi’s Eternal Atake album in the artist’s native Philadelphia, before it was released on March 6 — mere weeks before the near-national lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus began. As part of Billboard’s efforts to best cover ...
The Prince Estate Drops Unreleased Track ‘I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man (1979 Version)’
The Prince Estate partnered with Warner Records to drop the previously unreleased song “I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (1979 Version)” today (July 16). The track will be featured on the upcoming expanded reissue of the late pop star’s iconic ninth album Sign o’ the Times this fall. Prince originally recorded the song, which layers his voice nine times, in Studio A at Hollywood Sound Recorders on May 23, 1979 during sessions for his 1979 self-titled sophomore album. He retrieved it from the vault and re-recorded it in 1986 with a guitar solo and updated sound that made its way onto the 1987 album, which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200. Fans can head to Prince’s Instagram and Twitter to read the full handwritten lyrics sheet. &...
Watch Kygo Discuss His Favorite Summer Activities & Preview His Upcoming Performance With Ryan Tedder
Tedder and the producer will perform tomorrow (July 17) as part of iHeartRadio’s ongoing ‘Summer Camp With the Stars’ series If you went to summer camp as a kid, you know how meaningful it was to spend those glorious golden days running around the woods and making new friends around the campfire. But with COVID-19 closing and dramatically reducing the capacity of summer camps around the world, iHeartRadio is offering an alternative with their Summer Camp with the Stars series. This week’s installation will feature a performance from Kygo and OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder, who teamed up like camp buddies in a three-legged race for “Lose Somebody,” from Kygo’s latest LP Golden Hour. The album is currently in the No. 2 position on Billboa...
Still Mixing It Up While Clubs Are Closed: Kaskade, Diplo, Katy Perry & More Stay-at-Home DJ Picks
Each week, Billboard is polling club DJs, with venues shuttered due to the coronavirus. With clubs closed across the country and Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart on hiatus, we’re asking reporting club DJs what they’ve been listening to lately, while at home, of course. This week, we spoke with Detroit DJ Captn20; Los Angeles’ SRO; and Las Vegas’ Marc Stout. Captn20Captn20 (real name: Nick Haddad) has been enjoying Tony Arzadon and Kendall Huggins’ “Right Now,” from the former’s new album of original music, From Within. “This track has great energy and the synthesized vocal is perfect,” Captn20 tells Billboard. “It’s great for any club setting or just to get hyped to at the gym. Tony is a super-talented DJ, prod...
Total Madness Final: This is Who Won The Challenge Season 35
After a war’s worth of explosions, enough tears to flood a frigate and a mountaintop sojourn that’d leave Edmund Hillary breathless, the Challenge Season 35 declared two brand-new winners on Wednesday’s Total Madness finale. But when you look back at the season as a whole, were the top man and top woman worthy of $500,000 each? With nine people — five men and four women — left in the game, TJ Lavin welcomed the group to the base of a mountain to begin the game’s final race. He told Kyle, Fessy, Bananas, Cory, Rogan, Kaycee, Jenny, Melissa and Bayleigh that the journey ahead would find them climbing to nearly 10,000 feet altitudes across a 12-mile trek in freezing-cold temperatures. One man and one woman would be deemed champions, he added, while the remaining seven players would go home wi...
Aisha Dee Says The Bold Type Has A Serious Diversity Problem
“What would Kat do?” That’s what the actress Aisha Dee, who plays Scarlet magazine’s social media director Kat Edison on The Bold Type, recently asked herself when, on Wednesday (July 15), she took to Instagram to point out the Freeform show’s failure to reflect the diversity seen on-screen behind the camera. “I’m ready to take a cue from my girl Kat,” she wrote in a heartfelt open letter. “She would take a stand and advocate for herself and all other marginalized voices to influence change.” The Bold Type, with the finale to its fourth season airing tonight (July 16), follows a trio of young women who work at a Cosmopolitan-like publication (Cosmo’s former editor in chief, Joanna Coles, is e...
Tomorrowland Reveals Set Times for Forthcoming Virtual Edition with Martin Garrix, Steve Aoki, More
Expectations are high for Tomorrowland‘s foray into the digital concert space, and ahead of the debut of the brand’s highly anticipated Tomorrowland Around the World livestream on July 25th and 26th, organizers have shared the official schedule. According to a press release issued in June 2020 to announce the festival, Tomorrowland Around the World will be employing the “world’s best technology in 3D design, video production, gaming and special effects” to funnel eight stages to ravers’ devices, including its iconic Mainstage, which will introduce a new live concept called “The Reflection of Love – Chapter 1.” Over the course of two days, the Mainstage will feature Afrojack, Alan Walker, Armin van Buuren, David Guetta, Dimitri Vegas &...
Nicky Romero’s Eye-Popping 3D Livestream “Another World” is Live
Iconic dance music producer Nicky Romero has taken the livestream game to the next level with with “Another World,” an immersive 3D streaming event. Fresh off the release of his highly anticipated collaboration “I Need You to Know” with fellow electronic icon Armin van Buuren, Romero has launched his new livestream concept amidst a COVID-19 pandemic that will simply not relent. Ideated and produced by Visual Lab, the show is being touted as a technological pièce de résistance with cutting edge design and animation. According to a press release issued to announce “Another World,” the stream will feature many exclusive, never-before-heard tracks from Romero and his illustrious label, Protocol Recordings. Romero teased the stream on Instagram earlier i...
EDM.com Quarantine Diaries: Kaleena Zanders
“Quarantine Diaries” is an editorial series in which EDM.com invites members of the music community to contribute guest posts about how they’re coping with the pandemic. The goal of the series is to provide a platform for these individuals to share their own experiences and perspectives and ultimately inspire anyone experiencing pitfalls contrived by the impact of COVID-19. The thoughts and viewpoints expressed are those of the author, Kaleena Zanders. Oh boy, I feel like I’ve been around the sun and back during this quarantine, witnessing some of the most unique and transformative times. I am really not one to dwell on bad or negative issues, but I’ve felt extremely sensitive during quarantine, especially at the start of it all. I’ve been bewildered by ...
Excision Announced as Headliner of 2021 Edition of Belgium’s Dour Festival
While he has been staying busy in the livestreaming landscape with his Couch Lands shows, Excision is set to take his patented brand of dubstep sonic boom to Belgium next year for Dour Festival. The trap and dubstep dynamo will join a bevy of major artists for the 2021 edition of Dour, including A$AP Rocky, Amelie Lens, The Black Madonna, Carl Cox, Dirtyphonics LIVE, Honey Dijon, Princess Nokia, and Sven Väth, among others. For the first time, Dour Festival is expanding to a staggering five days. The event is set to take place July 14th to 18th, 2021. You can find more information and a full lineup here. Dour Festival FOLLOW EXCISION: Facebook: facebook.com/ExcisionTwitter: twitter.com/ExcisionInstagram: instagram.com/excisionSpotify: spoti.fi/3gatMO0
LAMB OF GOD’s MARK MORTON Featured In LIVE NATION’s ‘Backstage With Crew Nation’ Video Series
Live Nation has launched a new series on the “Live From Home” platform in conjunction with the Crew Nation fund called “Backstage With Crew Nation” — an authentic and uplifting giveback video series spotlighting relationships between touring artists and the backstage crews that help them make their concert dreams a reality. Kicking off the series is LAMB OF GOD‘s Mark Marton in conversation with the band’s guitar tech, Jake Hobbs, discussing a range of topics, including their unique arcade meeting, their first gig together in India, and everything in between that lead to them working together on the road. “Backstage With Crew Nation” will feature natural conversations over video call between artists and members of their crews, highlighting th...
