Fans of Travis Scott have spurred rumours that his first live show since this year’s Astroworld festival – where in a tragic crowd surge during his headlining set, 10 were killed and hundreds more were injured – could be at next year’s Rolling Loud in Miami.

The buzz started to circulate on Tuesday (December 28) when a Tweet was posted by the festival reading: “This early bird presale is for the ragers that trust the process.” An innocuous post by any other metric, punters were quick to note that Scott often refers to his fans as “ragers”.

Adding to it the rapper’s storied history with Rolling Loud – having performed at eight editions since 2017, including the New York and Miami stints of Rolling Loud 2021 – and fans seem to be convinced that Scott is likely to appear on the forthcoming bill. Not all of them reacted positively, however, with one fan preemptively calling for a boycott if Scott is indeed billed to perform.

Take a look at just some of the reactions to Rolling Loud’s Tweet below:

We NEED Travis again https://t.co/0Z2vjZ3b8K

— Jools (@Julian_g_03) December 28, 2021

Travis

— yahboimak (@Yahboimak) December 27, 2021

So does that mean @trvisXX

— jonathan (@jmacielXX) December 29, 2021

Oh shit Travis Scott is performing does mean we gonna die ?

— Harman (@Frushed_) December 30, 2021

If that dirtbag Travis headlining, boycott it. He should never get behind a mic again.

— Lady Marija Norris (@MarijaNorris) December 31, 2021

Next year’s Rolling Loud Miami will take place from Friday July 22 through to Sunday 24. The lineup is due to be announced sometime in January.

Scott has largely kept out of the spotlight since the Astroworld tragedy, however just before Christmas (December 23), the rapper was seen giving out over 5,000 toys to kids in his hometown of Houston.

December 9 saw Scott give his first public interview since Astroworld, telling Charlamagne Tha God that he’d been on an “emotional rollercoaster” in the weeks following the tragic event, and admitting that he has a “responsibility to figure out what happened”.

The families of several victims have since spoken out against Scott for his statements, arguing that he was merely punting the blame elsewhere. Half of the victims’ families have rejected Scott’s offer to cover funeral expenses.

Reports later surfaced that he had been taken off the Coachella 2022 line-up, after more than 60,000 people signed a Change.org petition calling on festival organisers to remove him. Dior also indefinitely postponed their collaboration with the rapper out of respect for the families of victims.

Last Wednesday (December 22), the US’ House Oversight and Reform Committee launched a bipartisan investigation into Live Nation, scrutinising the company’s role in the festival’s planning, and how those representing it responded when chaos began to unfold in the crowd.

A day prior, Scott appeared to resume promotion for his upcoming ‘Utopia’ project, returning the phrase to his Instagram bio. He’d preciously scrubbed any mention of it from his social media platforms in the wake of the Astroworld tragedy.

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MANILA, Philippines—Love him or hate him, but Jake Paul was just given the ESPN’s Knockout of the Year plum. The YouTube personality put former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley to sleep in their second meeting and the knockout earned the fans’ votes in ESPN’s Twitter poll. Of the more than 68,000 votes, 56 percent went […]

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The National Basketball Association and National Hockey League were both forced to postpone games on Thursday, as the COVID-19 surge continued to wreak havoc on sport schedules. The Golden State Warriors’ contest at Denver on Thursday was postponed after the Nuggets, who have been hit by a COVID-19 outbreak in the locker room, could not […]

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Sufjan Stevens has called for every band to break up after ten years together in his end-of-year roundup.

READ MORE: Sufjan Stevens – ‘Convocations’ review: 49-song ambient opus is moving, but hard work

Writing on Tumblr, Stevens listed his favourite and least favourite albums of 2021 – even though most of the entries aren’t actual albums, and a majority of those that are, weren’t released this year.

Topping Stevens’ list of the worst albums of 2021 was Netflix’s hit show Squid Game. “I didn’t actually see it but it looks really stupid,” he wrote before giving it a score of F-.

Also on Steven’s list of his least favourite albums was The Matrix 4 (“Ugh. Computers. Hackers. Cyberpunks. Simulated Reality. The ’90s. The color green”), Dune (“A very long Zara ad”) and everything Marvel have released, with Stevens explaining that “if it’s on Disney+, it’s for children”.

As for music, Stevens isn’t a fan of the ‘90s revival (“Please. It was bad enough the first time around”), musicals (“Please stop singing and dancing”) or Adele’s latest album ‘30’. “Girl, please. We know you’re 33. It’s on your Wikipedia page,” he wrote.

Stevens also doesn’t like any band who’ve been together for over a decade. “Any band that is still together after ten years – Please. Break up. Do your solo albums. Move on.”

As for Sufjan Stevens’ favourite albums of 2021, he listed Peter Gabriel’s 2002 album ‘Up’, Ringo Starr’s 1970 record ‘Beaucoup Of Blues’ and Alain Goraguer’s soundtrack to La Planète Sauvage, which was released in 1973.

In November, Stevens said he thinks it’s about time he took a break and stepped back from music.

Despite confirming he had three albums on the go, Stevens said: “I think it’s time for me to take a break and step back, and just be. And listen.”

In May, Stevens released ‘Convocations’, a five-volume instrumental tribute to his late father. In September, he teamed up with Angelo De Augustine for the collaborative album ‘A Beginner’s Mind’.

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Kylie Minogue has recruited drag icon Jodie Harsh to remix her collaboration with Years & Years, ‘A Second To Midnight’.

READ MORE: Kylie Minogue – ‘Disco’ review: a terrific fit for this seasoned showgirl

The track originally featured on the expanded edition of Minogue’s 15th album ‘Disco’, which was released earlier this year.  ‘Disco: Guest List Edition’ also featured new tracks ‘Can’t Stop Writing Songs About You’ (featuring Gloria Gaynor) and ‘Kiss Of Life’ (featuring Jessie Ware).

Speaking about the collaboration, Years & Years’ Olly Alexander said: “Working with Kylie was a literal dream come true. Her music has consistently inspired me since I was a kid, she is a true icon I am pinching myself this actually happened!!”

“I had so much fun channeling my inner Olly in this video – felt like a KING,” added Minogue.

Thank you to the ICON @jodieharsh for this incredible remix of A Second To Midnight @yearsandyears which is out NOW, have a great NYE Lovers! https://t.co/GiEb1tQjNU pic.twitter.com/UMyBD4mFqq

— Kylie Minogue (@kylieminogue) December 31, 2021

Now, to celebrate the countdown to midnight tonight (December 31), the duo have released an official remix of the track, with drag star Jodie Harsh putting their own spin on it.

Listen to ‘A Second To Midnight (Jodie Harsh Remix)’ below:

Writing on Instagram, Harsh said: “Couldn’t get to the final day of 2021 without a special musical treat! My remix of ‘A Second To Midnight’ is out everywhere NOW! I loved making this so much – hope it gets you dancing way into the new year.”

“Thank you to the ICON Jodie Harsh for this incredible remix of ‘A Second To Midnight’,” Minogue added.

Earlier this year, Years & Years’ teamed up with Kylie for a joint remix of ‘Starstruck’, the original of which came out in April. Alexander subsequently shared a piano-led reinterpretation of the Kylie classic ‘Love At First Sight’.

And the collaborations keep on coming. Minogue will be joining Years & Years to ring in 2022 with a special performance as part of BBC’s One’s The Big New Years & Years Eve Party with Kylie and Pet Shop Boys. Watch the show on iPlayer or on BBC One from 11:25pm GMT tonight, December 31.

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A statue of Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has caused a stir in the southern Indian state of Goa, with locals accusing officials of insensitivity for honoring a sports star from the region’s former colonial power. Protesters with black flags gathered at the site after the statue was unveiled this week in the town of Calangute. […]

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Just a few weeks out from the release of his forthcoming second album, ‘From A Bird’s Eye View’, Cordae has shared a vintage clip of himself rapping over Kanye West’s 2005 track ‘Gone’.

READ MORE: Kanye West and Drake live in Los Angeles: titans unite for a near-religious experience

The former YBN member adds his own bars to the ‘Late Registration’ cut, rapping: “…Couldn’t find the basement / We try to move up but we climb adjacent / Presently these goals are just manifesting / ‘Cause right now, our pockets looking anorexic / People hating on the grind and I can’t respect it / Got a vision for the future, damn my plans is hectic, n****.”

In a caption shared alongside the clip, Cordae wrote: “16 yr old me was fake nice haha.” Check it out below:

‘From A Bird’s Eye View’ is due out on January 14 via Atlantic. It follows the April 2021 release of his four-track EP ‘Just Until…’ – for which he teamed up with A Tribe Called Quest founder Q-Tip, Young Thug and Raphael Saadiq – and is set to feature the singles ‘Gifted’ (featuring Roddy Ricch), ‘Super’ and ‘Sinister’ (featuring Lil Wayne).

Earlier in the year, Cordae teamed up with Eminem and Jack Harlow for a new version of the former’s track ‘Killer’. The original version of the song appeared on Eminem’s most recent album, ‘Music To Be Murdered By – Side B’.

Meanwhile, West recently teamed up with Drake for their ‘Free Larry Hoover’ benefit concert, which took place in LA earlier this month. It marked the ‘DONDA’ rapper’s monumental reunion with Drake after the pair put an end to their longstanding feud, and saw them perform together for the first time since 2016.

In a five-star review of the concert, NME said: “Tonight it turns out that you don’t need to have faith in anything other than the power of two talents at the top of their respective games to have a near-religious experience. Here’s to making up with your enemies.”

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Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson has admitted he doesn’t “really get” Drake after going head-to-head with the rapper in a chart battle earlier this year.

READ MORE: Iron Maiden – ‘Senjutsu’ review: an imaginative instant classic

Iron Maiden’s seventeenth album, ‘Senjutsu’, went up against Drake’s ‘Certified Lover Boy’ in a chart battle in September, with the metal icons narrowly missing out on getting another UK Number One album.

Despite Maiden leading in the midweeks, ‘Certified Lover Boy’ ended up racked up 46,000 chart sales in the UK, giving him a lead over Maiden by only 1,200 units.

In a new Interview with Yahoo, Dickinson spoke about Drake and said: “I don’t really get what he does.”

“Going head to head with him felt like, ‘No this is real music played by a bunch of old geezers who make no concessions to the times in which we live’,” he added. “People say, ‘You’re dinosaurs.’ And we go, ‘Yeah and there aren’t too many of those left.’ This is who we are, it’s what we do.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Dickinson explained that Iron Maiden fans are like “a table made of plywood”.

“By and large our audience has moved on with us,” he said. “Every year you just add a new layer and the table gets bigger and bigger. We’ve grown organically – not through social media or any of that stuff. We’ve grown by going out and doing it in front of people.”

Despite missing out on the top spot in the UK, ‘Senjutsu’ was Iron Maiden’s highest charting album in America.

The album landed at Number Three in the charts after shifting the equivalent of 64,000 album units. Their previous two albums, ‘The Book of Souls’ and ‘The Final Frontier‘, both peaked at Number Four.

Not everyone is a fan though. In October, parents at a Canadian school launched a petition calling for the removal of its principal, an ardent Iron Maiden fan, who shared two photos on social media.

One saw her posing in-front of an Iron Maiden banner and license plate whilst throwing a ‘horns up’ gesture while the other featured a figure of the band’s mascot, Eddie, sitting alongside a handwritten note saying “Eddie 666” inside a love heart. The “concerned parents” said the post’s affiliation to Iron Maiden demonstrates “satanic imagery”.

However, a week later, the petition was closed after amassing just over 500 signatures and it was confirmed that the teacher in question, Sharon Burns, would be keeping her job.

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Rafael Nadal revealed on Friday he had arrived in Melbourne ahead of the Australian Open after recovering from coronavirus. The 35-year-old Spaniard, whose only win at the tournament came in 2009, tweeted a photo of himself on an empty court at Melbourne Park with the comment ‘Don’t tell anyone… … here I am’. The 20-time […]

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Roddy Ricch has teased that at some point in 2022, he’ll release a third instalment in his ‘Feed Tha Streets’ series of mixtapes.

READ MORE: He just beat Justin Bieber in the TikTok wars, but who is Roddy Ricch?

The series began in 2017, with ‘Feed Tha Streets’ marking Ricch’s debut effort that November. He followed it up a year later with ‘Feed Tha Streets II’ – which featured the double-Platinum hit ‘Die Young’ – before eschewing the mixtape format in 2019 with his Atlantic Records debut, ‘Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial’.

Ricch confirmed ‘Feed Tha Streets 3’ in a Tweet posted on Wednesday (December), in which he wrote that “u n****s playin wit my top ”.

FTS 3 comin 2022 , u niggas playin wit my top

— Roddy Ricch (@RoddyRicch) December 29, 2021

The news comes less than a month after Ricch dropped his second album, ‘Live Life Fast’. The record – which landed on December 17 via Atlantic – earned a four-star review from NME, with writer Will Lavin saying it “finds Roddy Ricch on a creative upswing” with “a real sense of nobility ingrained in his music”.

Ricch won his first (and currently only) Grammy at last year’s ceremony, taking home the title for Best Rap Performance at the hands of his Nipsey Hussle and Hit-Boy collab, ‘Racks In The Middle’. The track was also nominated for Best Rap Song, while ‘Ballin’’ (a collab with Mustard) was nominated for Best Rap/Sung Performance.

At this year’s Grammys, Ricch was nominated twice for Best Rap Song and Best Melodic Rap Performance, with both ‘The Box’ and ‘Rockstar’ (his team-up with DaBaby) earning nods. The former track was also nominated for Song Of The Year, and the latter for Record Of The Year.

Earlier this month, Ricch said he spoke to the team behind the Grammys about their alleged snubbing of his colleagues, saying Lil Uzi Vert and Lil Baby should have been nominated for awards with their recent releases.

In November, Ricch announced he’d be donating his artist fee for the recent Astroworld festival to the victims of the festival’s tragic crowd crush. He played a 30-minute set at the event, shortly before ten people died – and hundreds more were reportedly injured – in a “mass-casualty” stampede during Travis Scott’s headlining set.

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MANILA, Philippines—Athletes are often used to celebrating wins on the field, court, cage, or ring, but sometimes the big moments outside of it are usually the sweeter ones. From marrying your betrothed, to seeing your son make the next leap, or just spending some prime quality time with family, athletes long for those life moments […]

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