Music

Jhené Aiko and Big Sean are expecting a bundle of joy soon, and they just revealed a baby boy is on the way. 

The rapper and singer announced the news onstage in LA Thursday during a special performance of their 2017 collaboration “Memories.” As seen in a Twitter video later shared by The Neighborhood Talk, Big Sean rubs the stomach of a very pregnant Aiko before they request that the audience “make some noise for our baby boy!”

The viral video comes just a few days before Aiko post a series of photos and videos on Instagram of a shower celebration alongside family and friends. 

“so thankful for all of our beautiful friends and family who came out to shower our baby with love,” the 34-year-old mom-to-be said. “what a perfect day it was!”

Aiko’s unborn baby boy marks the first for Big Sean, the second for the singer. She shares 13-year-old Namiko Browner with O’Ryan Browner, the brother of former B2K member, Omarion.

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Harry Styles shook off an “unfortunate” injury during his concert in Chicago. A fan threw a bottle toward the stage, and it hit him square in the groin.

Fan-captured videos of the event are circulating on social media. One video, taken from fan account @glambygab, starts a few seconds before the bottle made contact.  

Harry is seen chatting with the crowd before the stray bottle flies from the pit area and pelts him between the legs. Harry immediately stops talking, lets out a pained “oh” and winces all at once. He then stays doubled over for nearly 10 seconds before he speaks to the crowd again, starting with a frank, “Well. That’s unfortunate.” 

Harry then comically begins kicking his legs one at a time and declares, “Okay. Shake it off.” After a few bounces, he goes back in business and jokingly restarts the concert by talking in a high-pitched voice.

Harry just wrapped his residency at Chicago’s United Center. He is next heading to Inglewood, California for a multi-date residency at the Kia Forum, set to start on October 23.

Harry isn’t the only artist who has to deal with rowdy fans throwing objects onstage. During Lady Gaga‘s Chromatica Ball tour, her team had to issue a warning to fans about the danger of throwing objects onstage.

Gaga was hit by a teddy bear while belting out “Hold My Hand” at a show in Toronto. Her Twitter fan page posted the video and warned fans, “Please DO NOT throw items on stage at The Chromatica Ball. This not only is dangerous to Gaga, but items may also catch on fire in the jets as well and cause damage.”

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Five Finger Death Punch frontman Ivan Moody is stepping away from the metal game.

During the band’s show in Denver on Friday, Moody told the crowd that he’ll be “retiring from heavy metal” after the next Death Punch album so that he can spend more time with his family.

“The last 15 years of my life, I have toured the world, I have seen every country, every city on this planet at least twice — that’s a fact,” Moody said while sitting next to his children. “Through that time, as many of you parents know, hard workers, I have missed a lot of time with my kiddos.”

Moody then shared that he’d “made…a deal” with his kids earlier that day, and he’s “gonna stick to it.”

“After this year, I am going to make one more Five Finger Death Punch, and then I am retiring from heavy metal,” Moody declared.

Fan-shot footage of Moody’s comments was posted to YouTube by user Follow Me to the Rockshow.

The Denver show was the penultimate stop on Five Finger Death Punch’s tour in support of their new album AfterLife, which dropped in August. The outing also included Megadeth, The Hu and Fire from the Gods on the bill.

Five Finger Death Punch will return to the road in November for a U.S. tour with country star Brantley Gilbert.

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Beck has exited Arcade Fire‘s U.S. tour.

The “Loser” artist was set to perform an acoustic set as the opener on the tour, but, according to Variety, those who purchased tickets to the upcoming shows received an email informing them that Beck will “unfortunately no longer able to join Arcade Fire on their upcoming North American tour.”

The news comes after four people accused Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler of sexual misconduct in a report Pitchfork published in August.

The allegations against Butler range from sending unwanted sexually explicit photos and demanding such photos and videos from women to sexual assault. In a statement to Pitchfork, Butler maintained that his encounters with all four accusers were “mutual and always between consenting adults.”

Pitchfork’s report was published just days before Arcade Fire was set to embark on a European tour. While Arcade Fire still went through with the European dates, opener Feist dropped off the bill after two shows.

Beck’s reps declined to comment to Variety. Neither he nor Arcade Fire has publicly commented on the development.

If you are affected by abuse and needing support, or know someone who is, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).  You can also chat online at thehotline.org or online.rainn.org, respectively. 

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Taylor Swift‘s got a busy couple of weeks ahead of her, as she rolls out the promotional activities for her new album Midnights, due out Friday.

On Instagram, Taylor posted a video detailing what fans can expect in the near future, starting this Thursday: A teaser trailer will be released during the third quarter of Thursday Night Football on Prime Video.

Friday, the album arrives, followed by what is described as a “special very chaotic surprise” at 3 a.m ET.  At 8 a.m ET, the music video for one of Midnights’ tracks, “Anti-Hero,” premieres, along with what’s described as a #TSAntiHeroChallenge on YouTube Shorts. The lyric videos for other tracks drop at 8 p.m. ET.

As previously announced, Taylor will then appear on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday, October 24.  Tuesday the 25th we’ll get another music video — so far, she hasn’t told us which one it’ll be. Next Friday, October 28, Taylor will appear on the BBC’s Graham Norton Show.

Meanwhile, Sunday night at midnight, naturally, Taylor released a first look at the lyrics of the album in partnership with Spotify. A billboard in New York City’s Times Square reads, “I should not be left to my own devices.”  More lyrics will be revealed on billboards around the world, and on Spotify, this week.

Along with the lyric reveals, Taylor will also be sharing clips about Midnights on the pre-save page of Spotify’s mobile version.  In the first clip, she says she’s going to reveal “five things that kept me up at night and helped inspire the Midnights album.” She then reveals what one of those things is: “Self-loathing.”

There’s also exclusive merch available via that pre-save page.

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Despite various proposals that would have allowed the members of BTS to avoid South Korea’s mandatory military service, it appears that ultimately, ARMY will have to allow their boys to serve in the actual army.

In a statement released on Twitter, the group’s label, Big Hit, announced that all seven members of BTS will enlist in the military, with the first one up being Jin.  He’ll be releasing solo material at the end of this month and will then “initiate the process” of enlistment.  The group’s label said that the rest of BTS — RM, J-Hope, Suga, Jimin, V and Jungkook —  will then subsequently enlist “based on their own individual plans,” which means they won’t be able to perform with their full lineup until 2025.

“BIG HIT MUSIC has focused to the milestone moment when it would be possible to respect the needs of the country and for these healthy young men to serve with their countrymen, and that’s now,” the statement said in part. It added, “The members of BTS are honored to serve.”

As Billboard notes, in South Korea, all able-bodied male citizens must spend at least 18 months in the armed forces. The draft usually starts at age 18, but K-Pop entertainers can postpone their service until age 30.  Jin turns 30 in December. The youngest member, Jungkook, is 25.

Over the weekend, BTS performed in the South Korean city of Busan, in their role as ambassadors for that city’s bid to host the World Expo in 2030. The BTS in BUSAN concert was attended by about 50,000 people, with 49 million more watching online. 

Billboard reports that at the concert, J-Hope told fans the group was “in a stage where we need your trust.”

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After weeks of getting in hot water on social media, Kanye West is buying his own platform.

Specifically, Ye has agreed to acquire the app Parler, which bills itself as “the world’s pioneering uncancelable free speech platform.”

The move comes after Ye’s Instagram account was restricted recently for violating the platform’s rules and guidelines, reportedly over a now-deleted post that was labeled as anti-Semitic. Twitter on the same day also removed a tweet that was judged anti-Semitic.

In the Parler announcement, Ye declared, “In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves.”

The announcement — which described West as “the richest Black man in history,” a descriptive he himself has used recently — claims Ye is “taking a bold stance against his recent censorship from Big Tech, using his far-reaching talents to further lead the fight to create a truly non-cancelable environment.”

Further, the press release says Ye’s ownership “will assure Parler a future role in creating an uncancelable ecosystem where all voices are welcome.”

Parlement Technologies CEO George Farmer noted in the announcement, “This deal will change the world, and change the way the world thinks about free speech,” explaining, “Ye is making a groundbreaking move into the free speech media space and will never have to fear being removed from social media again. Once again, Ye proves that he is one step ahead of the legacy media narrative.”

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Jimmie Allen’s spent a fair bit of time on the small screen in recent years and he’s not done with TV work yet — the country star announced this week that he’s going to be a guest star on an episode of ABC sitcom The Conners.

“This is gonna be a good time!! Learning my lines as I type,” Jimmie wrote on Twitter when he shared the news.

In addition to his musical projects, Jimmie has been expanding his reach in all directions lately. Not only has he appeared on American Idol, The Voice and as the co-host of the ACM Awards, he’s also been busy behind the scenes, serving as the executive music producer of Netflix series Titletown High last year.

As if that weren’t enough, Jimmie hosted a Professional Bowlers Association Challenge tournament with amateur and pro bowlers earlier this month. He’s an avid bowler who has said he hopes to join the PBA in 2023.

The Conners is a sequel to classic TV sitcom Roseanne. It’s currently in its fifth season.

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