Music

Lil Baby‘s The Leaks project will be arriving sooner than you think. In an Instagram post Wednesday, he announced it will be dropping on his 31st birthday, Dec. 3.

“I’m Dropping ‘The Leaks’ next week for my birthday 12/3 to celebrate with the fans who kept these leaks & snippets alive,” he wrote in the caption. The album is now available to presave.

The Leaks serves as a gift to Lil Baby fans. It contains “full versions of previously teased snippets and leaked songs that have circulated online over the years,” a press release says. The album was originally set for an Aug. 15 release but was pushed back a few times.

The news of its updated release date arrives on Wham Wednesdays, a series that sees Lil Baby drop a new song and accompanying video every week through the end of 2025. His latest contribution, “Middle of Summer,” is now available for fans to stream.

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The Gibson SG Custom guitar played by Metallica‘s Kirk Hammett during the massive Back to the Beginning concert has sold at auction for $76,800.

The winning bid dramatically exceeded the estimated price of the guitar, which was set between $4,000 and $6,000.

Kirk played the guitar during Metallica’s Back to the Beginning set for a cover of Black Sabbath‘s “Hole in the Sky.” The concert, which took place July 5, ended with a performance from the original Sabbath lineup: Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward.

The show was announced as Ozzy’s final live performance ahead of time, and his promise was sadly fulfilled upon his death just over two weeks later on July 22.

Hammett’s guitar was part of Julien’s Auctions’ Played, Worn, & Torn sale, which also included the infamous safe from which the Tommy Lee/Pamela Anderson sex tape was stolen. That safe, which was estimated to go for between $5,000 and $7,000, went for $2,560.

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My Chemical Romance has announced the openers for the band’s 2026 European tour.

Each show will feature a different supporting act, depending on the night. For example, Joan Jett will be on the bill for MCR’s July 10 performance at London’s Wembley Stadium.

Other openers include Interpol, Sunny Day Real Estate, Echo and the Bunnymen, Mogwai, Idlewild and Skunk Anansie.

MCR’s 2026 tour, which celebrates the 20th anniversary of their 2006 album, The Black Parade, will come to the U.S. starting in August. The openers for the U.S. leg include Franz Ferdinand, Pierce the Veil, Modest Mouse, Iggy Pop, Sleater-Kinney, The Breeders, BABYMETAL, Jimmy Eat World, The Mars Volta, The Used and Thrice.

My Chem will also launch a tour of South America in January with support from The Hives.

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After scoring the entertainer of the year trophy at the Country Music Association Awards, Lainey Wilson is ready to entertain the entire country Thursday at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

On Wednesday she shared footage on her Instagram Story of her parade rehearsals. She sang “Somewhere Over Laredo” while holding an umbrella and wearing a festive red coat with a fur collar. She captioned it, “You can’t rain on this parade!” Unlike most of the other performers, Lainey isn’t riding on a float — she’ll be performing on a stage in front of Macy’s store entrance. 

And if you want more Lainey holiday viewing, she appears as an animated version of herself in Disney’s Hulu’s Family Guy’s Hallmark Channel’s Lifetime’s Familiar Holiday Movie, which begins streaming on Hulu Friday. She also sings the theme song, which includes fitting the special’s very long title into the lyrics.

Speaking of “Somewhere Over Laredo,” it just became her ninth top-10 hit on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.

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Sombr is one of 2025’s biggest breakout alternative artists, but he’s also become a giant pop act — his single “back to friends” reached the top 10 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100. Speaking with Vanity Fair, sombr shares that he hopes to follow in the footsteps of other musicians he feels has bridged the gap between alternative and pop.

“I feel like Hozier is a great example of being alternative and sustaining it. He still has such a successful business,” sombr says. “The 1975, same thing. Billie Eilish, when I first heard her music, I considered it to be alternative pop, and I relate.”

“I feel like I make alternative music now,” he continues. “I’m a pop star, apparently. That’s kind of how I feel.”

Asked what “alternative” means to him, sombr replies, “Alternative music is just music that is not pop.”

“It’s not made to be a pop song, but it can become a pop song, because it may be a good song that people gravitate toward,” he says. “When I made ‘back to friends,’ that is an indie-rock song.”

Sombr adds that he always felt “alternative” while in school.

“I painted my nails. I wore all black in high school,” sombr says. “I listened to alternative music, so I make alternative music.”

“I feel like some people are just born alternative,” he continues. “I remember being in high school and thinking, Am I going to be emo forever? And I think I am.”

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Thomas Rhett and his family are mourning the loss of another beloved pet, after losing their dog Cash in October.

On Wednesday he posted a photo of his dog Kona and wrote, “It’s been a tough dog month for our family. We lost our little Kona girl. I think after cash passed she just wanted to go be with him.”

“It’s weird losing a dog, cause whether you know it or not they are just always there, always by your side at the dinner table,” he continued. “They are truly a part of your family. Got the courage last night to listen to @hardy song ‘Dog years’ I cried like a child, but dang that song is so spot on about the life of a dog if they could talk.”

“Kona and Cash yall will be missed a lot. I know yall are having a blast up in heaven together.”

When Cash passed, TR paid tribute by writing, “He was the most loyal, kind dog that I have ever known. He was [my wife] Lauren’s best friend. He was there when every single baby came home for the first time.”

Thomas and Lauren share four children and are expecting their fifth in 2026.

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There’s so much AI content floating around online these days that you never know what’s real. Maybe that’s why we can forgive sombr for thinking that a quote from Taylor Swift praising him was fake.

Taylor did an interview in October in which she said, “Tate McRae is amazing. Sombr is amazing. There are so many incredible artists that I love listening to … I’m supporting them by streaming their music constantly in my house.”

Speaking to Vanity Fair, sombr said, “[E]very time anything cool happens to me, I’m sleeping. And I sleep really late, so I always wake up and already have a bunch of texts about it, spoiling it. … I just woke up and I opened my texts: ‘Taylor Swift mentioned you!’ I was like, No, no way. This is AI. But it wasn’t!”

“I was … six years old listening to pop radio, and it was Taylor Swift. Now I’m on pop radio with Taylor Swift, and she says she listens to my music,” he continued. “Life doesn’t feel real. And what do you mean, I’m a pop star? I’m still trying to process it all.”

The best new artist Grammy nominee had a similarly suspicious reaction to hearing his song on the radio for the first time. “I remember, when it first started picking up, I was going to meet my friends, and I got into an Uber and ‘Undressed’ was just on, and I had never experienced something like that, so I got really scared,” he told Vanity Fair.

“I was like, Am I getting kidnapped? Then I looked at the screen on the car and it was just on a radio station. Ever since then, it’s gotten to be more normal.”

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Juelz Santana doesn’t believe it’s necessary for kids to learn how to read. He contends in a recent episode of the No Funny S*** show that it’s not as important as learning about financial literacy.

“By the time they get to ninth grade they should be learning how to start businesses, but they don’t really need to learn how to read,” he said. 

Though he clarified that people are not “supposed to be illiterate,” he doubled down on his argument that reading comes second to learning math, as there are ways to survive without knowing how to read.

“You could listen to a book on YouTube. You can still obtain the information. You don’t have to know how to read. … I believe common sense is better than everything,” Juelz said, noting he recently listened to Robert Greene‘s The 48 Laws of Power.

He even pushed back on host Kenny “KP” Supreme, who argued that reading is essential to reviewing and understanding contracts.

“Reading is just when people want to embarrass you and try to play you … or, ‘You can’t read your contract.’ Anybody who said you can’t read your contract, they didn’t read their contract,” Juelz said. “They had a lawyer read their contract. They just saying it to be funny.”

The full episode is now available to watch on YouTube.

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