Month: July 2023

Walk the Moon, the alt-rockers behind the hit song “Shut Up and Dance,” have announced that they’re going on indefinite hiatus.

On Friday (July 14), the Walk the Moon frontman Nicholas Petricca broke the news to fans in an emotional 11-minute video.

“The time has come for us to take a good long break from touring and making records together,” the keyboardist/singer said in the opening of the clip, which was posted on the Cincinnati-based band’s official YouTube channel. “When we do reconvene, that will be a glorious day. The truth is, we don’t know when that’s going to be.”

Petricca noted that he and Walk the Moon bandmates, guitarist Eli Maiman and drummer Sean Waugaman, are “filled with love, gratitude, appreciation and some heartache” as the group goes into hibernation.

“It is an enormous act of love to carefully lift something like this from the center of our lives and place it gently to the side, out of focus, and let it rest for a moment,” Petricca said. “It’s a choice we made powerfully to follow our truth, to make space for new creations, for family, to serve our well-being and, in the long run, even serve the well-being of Walk the Moon, like hibernation, to hopefully come back one day stronger than before.”

In the video, Petricca revealed that Walk the Moon’s final concert (scheduled for Aug. 12) will be livestreamed and that the band plans to release new music. The frontman also teased that he’s working on a “solo project universe” and that Maiman has “a new musical collaboration” on the way.

Walk the Moon’s self-titled debut peaked at No. 36 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in 2012. Two years later, the rock act dropped their breakout hit “Shut Up and Dance,” which peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The group’s most recent album, Heights, arrived in 2021.

Watch Walk the Moon’s hiatus announcement below.

Lizzo showed some love to Taylor Swift during her tour opener in Australia on Friday (July 14).

While chatting up the audience at Perth’s RAC Arena, the “About Damn Time” singer spotted a concert-goer holding up a sign that read, “I Chose You Over Taylor Swift (Heart) Can I Get a Hug.” Before addressing the flattering message, Lizzo thanked fans for attending the performance.

“I’m going to start off be saying thank you for coming to my show,” the pop-rap star said. “I know tickets are expensive to everybody’s shows, so it means the world to me that you’re here.”

She added, “Taylor Swift is amazing as well. And you don’t have to choose, because I’m going to get you tickets to Taylor Swift! I’m just kidding.”

Lizzo then asked the crowd if Swift — who is currently touring North American stadiums on her The Eras Tour — had already toured in Australia.

“Did she already play? When does she come here? She’s not coming here?” Lizzo asked before joking, “How you choose me over Taylor?”

The singer-rapper then autographed the sign and commented, “I love TayTay too … there’s no competition here.”

In late June, Lizzo received backlash from Swifties after comments she made during an Instagram Live. “The most popular person of today ain’t even comparable to what Beyonce is doing,” Lizzo said.

Many of Swift’s fans believed her words were aimed at the pop superstar, who is currently dominating the Billboard charts with her re-recorded Speak Now album and breaking records with her Eras Tour.

Watch Lizzo react to the Taylor Swift sign at her Australia concert on Twitter here.

A judge on Friday (July 14) set a trial date for two men charged in the killing of rapper Young Dolph in a daytime ambush at a bakery in Memphis, Tennessee.

Justin Johnson and Cornelius Smith are scheduled to stand trial March 11 in the fatal shooting of the Memphis-born rapper, Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Lee Coffee said during a hearing.

Johnson and Smith have pleaded not guilty to charges including first-degree murder in the November 2021 shooting of Young Dolph, whose real name was Adolph Thornton Jr. A motive for the killing has not been disclosed.

The 36-year-old rapper, label owner and producer was buying cookies near his boyhood home in Memphis when he was gunned down by two men who drove up to the bakery in a stolen Mercedes Benz, authorities said. The slaying rattled Memphis and shook the entertainment world.

Two other men have been charged in the killing.

Jermarcus Johnson, the half brother of Justin Johnson, pleaded guilty June 9 to three counts of accessory after the fact, and he could testify at the trial.

Jermarcus Johnson acknowledged that he helped the two suspects communicate by cellphone after the killing while they were on the run from authorities, and that he helped one of them communicate with his probation officer after the killing.

During questioning by prosecutor Paul Hagerman, he also acknowledged taking possession of car from Justin Johnson. The car was not the one tied to the killing, Hagerman said. Jermarcus Johnson also identified a photo in which Justin Johnson was wearing the same clothing as one of the two shooters accused of gunning down Young Dolph the day the rapper was killed.

After Jermarcus Johnson’s plea hearing, Hagerman said he had no role in the actual killing of Young Dolph, but that he was one of “multiple players” who did things connected to it.

Another man, Hernandez Govan, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and conspiracy in the case. He is accused of arranging the killing. Govan has been released on bond.

Young Dolph was known in Memphis for his charitable works and his success as an independent musical artist and businessman. Young Dolph had been in the city to visit a sick relative and hand out Thanksgiving turkeys at a church when he was killed.

After his death, Memphis named a street after him and the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA honored him during a game. Murals of the rapper have been painted around the city and a pop-up museum featuring him was opened earlier this year.

The bakery, Makeda’s Homemade Cookies, became an impromptu memorial site for the slain rapper. It was closed for months after the shooting, but has since reopened.

Nigerian superstar Asake, his label EMPIRE and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s estate announced on Friday (July 14) that they’re curating a special event filled with art, music and drinks in Los Angeles, Calif. next week.

The exhibition viewing of Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure, guided paint and sip session, and album listening party of Asake’s latest LP Work of Art will take place next Friday, July 21 from 5 to 9 p.m. at The Grand LA. There will be multiple guided paint and sips seated sessions, which are limited to the first 120 guests who register for each session upon arrival. Last entry is at 8 p.m., as gallery doors will close promptly at 8:30 p.m. The event is 21+.

The event celebrates the release of Asake’s sophomore album Work of Art album that he released last month via YBNL Nation/EMPIRE. Work of Art reached No. 4 on Billboard‘s World Albums chart and No. 66 on the Billboard 200. Highlight track “Basquiat” peaked at No. 9 on U.S. Afrobeats Songs.

Basquiat’s sisters Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux serve as the executive producers and curators of the Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure exhibition, in collaboration with Ileen Gallagher and ISG Productions Ltd. The exhibition consists of nearly 200 rarely seen paintings, drawings, ephemera and artifacts from the late, great artist as well as recreations of his NYC artist studio on Great Jones St., the Basquiat family home and the Michael Todd VIP Room of NYC’s iconic Palladium nightclub, for which Basquiat created two large-scale paintings.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow, July 15 at 9 a.m. local time here.