Music

Since Taylor Swift released The Life of a Showgirl, seemingly everyone has weighed in with their hot takes on it — not just fans and critics, but those mentioned in and those who coined phrases that appear in the lyrics. Not every reaction is positive, but Taylor believes that ultimately all publicity is good publicity.

While appearing on The Zane Lowe Show on Apple Music, Taylor was asked, “How do you absorb all of that?” She replied, “I welcome the chaos. The rule of show business is, if it’s the first week of my album release and you are saying either my name or my album title, you’re helping.”

She added, “I have a lot of respect for people’s subjective opinions on art. I’m not the art police. It’s like, everybody is allowed to feel exactly how they want.” 

“We’re doing this thing for keeps,” Taylor noted. “I have such an eye on legacy when I’m making my music. I know what I made. I know I adore it, and I know that, on the theme of what the Showgirl is, all of this [reaction] is part of it.”

Taylor was also asked about her video for “The Fate of Ophelia,” in which she says she inserted “over 100 Easter eggs.” She says, “I was just going through my list and checking them off one by one.” She added, “It’s a blast because the fans have made it a blast, because they know that this all points to current art, past art or future art.” 

Taylor said she’s “very honored” that fans “care that much” about her hints, so she’ll keep on doing it. “As long as this is something that’s fun for them, it’s going to be fun for me to plan.”

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Nas is paying homage to the pioneers of hip-hop and the artists who helped shape the genre with an album series and comic book titled Legend Has It. He tells Rolling Stone his goal is to celebrate their talent and impact, as well as the high standard they set that “keeps us aiming higher.”

“This series is to encourage [and] inspire hip hop and remind us all [of] the pureness of hip hop,” he explains. “I hope that we all can do this together.”

He adds it’s “a dream come true” to amplify the voices in hip-hop with his series.

Legend Has It the comic book is a partnership with Marvel featuring hip-hop acts who are comic book fans. It immortalizes the artists as superheroes, created with their input.

“Every one of us had a bunch of questions and a bunch of ideas, and we put together what we felt would be the best representation of us and a comic book superhero,” Nas says.

He also discusses with Rolling Stone his ongoing Legend Has It album series, which will see the release of new music from hip-hop legends including Big L, Prodigy and De La Soul.

“Big L was always ahead of his time,” Nas says of the late rapper, who has a posthumous record coming out on Oct. 31.

He adds that Prodigy of Mobb Deep is “one of the best,” and notes it was a blessing for Havoc and Prodigy’s family to give the green light for the new Mobb Deep album, Infinite, which is set to drop on Oct. 10.

Nas also talks about De La Soul, calling them “hippies in hip-hop,” and says he’s excited “for people to finally hear” his upcoming album with DJ Premier.

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Rage Against the Machine‘s Tom Morello has put out plenty of material on his own, but now he’s prepping his “first-ever solo rock album.”

“I really wanted to make … a record that is relentless in its big guitar riffs, relentless in its inventive guitar solos,” Morello tells Billboard Español.

Morello’s previously released three albums under his own name, The Atlas Underground, The Atlas Underground Fire and The Atlas Underground Flood, but those all featured guest vocalists and brought in electronic elements. He’s also recorded acoustic folk music with his project The Nightwatchmen.

With his upcoming album, which is due out in 2026, Morello also wanted to showcase his teenage son Roman Morello, who he calls a “tremendous guitar player.” He hopes the record “welcomes [Roman] and his ideas into it, as a new generation who has this Morello DNA of rock ‘n’ roll power.”

You can catch Morello playing a run of U.S. tour dates starting in November.

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The 20th anniversary celebration of Alicia Keys‘ Unplugged continues.

MTV has announced they will replay the performance on air through Sunday across MTV Live, MTVU and MTV Classic in the U.S., as well as several international channels. Excerpts from the concert event will also be included in this week’s “Fresh Out” playlist, with graphics encouraging people to watch the entire Unplugged episode on Paramount+.

MTV’s Unplugged announcement is Alicia’s latest act celebrating 20 years of the album. She previously performed songs from the album at Broadway’s Shubert Theater and at Jungle City Studios in New York City. She also released Unplugged 20th Anniversary, a 2-LP black vinyl edition of the album featuring live footage of the original 2005 concert.

It marked Alicia’s first-ever live recording and the first by a female artist to top the Billboard 200.

An album featuring live songs from her set was released in October of that year and was nominated for the best R&B Grammy.

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Tate McRae‘s latest album, So Close to What, has been RIAA certified Platinum for sales of 1 million units. Three songs from the album have also been certified Platimum: “It’s ok I’m ok,” “Revolving door” and “Sports car.” Another track, “2 hands,” has been certified Gold for sales of 500,000 units. The Canadian star’s Miss Possessive tour wraps up Nov. 8 at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California.

Ed Sheeran wants everyone to know that what Taylor Swift said about him on The Tonight Show is true. While appearing on the show Monday, Taylor told Jimmy Fallon the reason she didn’t call Ed to tell him she was engaged is that he literally doesn’t own a phone. Taylor said, “You have to email him and then if you wanna set up a FaceTime, he has to find an iPad — they have to give it to him like he’s a child, they give the iPad to him.” When the Tonight Show TikTok posted the clip, Ed wrote in the comments, “Hello from my allotted iPad time, this is factual.” 

Speaking of Taylor Swift, Billboard reports that her new album, The Life of a Showgirl, has now sold 3 million copies, according to data tracking firm Luminate. As previously reported, in its first day of release it sold 2.7 million copies. The only album that has ever sold more in a single week since Luminate began electronically tracking data in 1997 has been Adele‘s 25, which sold 3.378 million copies in its first week in 2015.

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“Single Again” hitmaker Josh Ross made his U.S. TV debut Tuesday on Live with Kelly & Mark, performing his new single, “Hate How You Look.”

Russell Dickerson is following up his #1 “Happen to Me” with his new radio single, “Worth Your Wild,” from his Famous Back Home album.

The season 2 trailer for Happy’s Place, starring Reba McEntire, is out now, ahead of the show’s Nov. 7 premiere on NBC.

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Pooh Shiesty has been granted an early release from prison. He was initially set for an April 2026 release, but according to records from the United States Penitentiary, Canaan, is no longer in custody. 

As previously reported, Pooh, born Lontrell Donell Williams Jr., had been serving a five-year, three-month sentence after pleading guilty to a single federal firearms conspiracy charge related to a 2020 robbery and shooting in Miami, Florida. The plea saved him from a potential life sentence and resulted in three other related charges getting dropped. 

Videos of Pooh seemingly celebrating his release have circulated the internet. Pooh’s lawyer, Bradford Cohen, has since teased the rapper’s next moves.

“@poohshiesty is ready….wait until you see hus comeback. He will be bigger than ever. I am always glad to see a client start the climb back up to elite status. Always kept it [100],” Cohen wrote on Instagram Tuesday.

“The government wanted 10…he got 3,” the lawyer continued. “I always think there is a plan for people and his story isnt over its just starting.”

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Louis Tomlinson is opening up about the death of his One Direction bandmate Liam Payne, who died last year after falling from the balcony of his hotel in Argentina. 

Speaking with Rolling Stone UK for a cover story, Louis said that it was “really uncomfortable” to mark the 15th anniversary of the formation of 1D earlier this year, because it was the first one the band celebrated without Liam. Still, Louis noted, “The [collective] feeling to celebrate is as important, if not more important than ever, on behalf of Liam.”

“You know, there’s still a level in my head [where it feels] unjust and frustrating that he’s not with us anymore,” Louis continued. He added that the anniversary “just brought up those feelings, although I’m still living with them anyway.”

“It was really, really, impossibly difficult for me to deal with losing Liam. Naively, I thought that because at this point, I’m relatively well versed in grief for my age, that it might soften the blow,” said Louis, whose mother and sister died in 2016 and 2019, respectively.

But he admits, “[That was] super-naive. It’s very different. I’ve never lost a friend before.”

Louis said that within the group, Liam was the “safest pair of hands” due to his previous musical experience.

“We were all just so amateur, but he was already where he needed to be by the time he did his first [X Factor] audition,” Louis said. “[W]e all looked up to him like that.”

Asked what he’d want fans to know about Liam, Louis said, “He was just a very misunderstood person, I think, from a public perspective. … He was someone who just wanted to be liked.”

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