Las Vegas Honors the R&B Group That Took Its Area Code Worldwide

LeMisha Fields and Kameelah “Meelah” Williams of R&B group 702 are celebrating the 30th anniversary of their debut album, “No Doubt,” with a hometown honor and weekend performances in Las Vegas. (Photo courtesy of Troutman Music Group)

Thirty years after taking their hometown's area code to the R&B charts, the women of 702 are coming home to a welcome only Las Vegas could give them. Thirty years after taking their hometown's area code to the R&B charts, the women of 702 are coming home to a welcome only Las Vegas could give them.

The group behind “Steelo,” “Get It Together” and “Where My Girls At?” will be honored Thursday at the iconic Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, where Clark County officials plan to recognize three decades of music that helped bring the city's R&B talent to an international audience.

Commissioner William McCurdy II is scheduled to present a proclamation to Kameelah “Meelah” Williams and LeMisha Fields during the 5 p.m. ceremony. The county also plans to pay tribute to Irish Grinstead, Fields' younger sister and longtime bandmate, who died in September 2023 at age 43.

The landmark sign will be illuminated in the group's honor.

It's a fitting tribute to an act whose name has always been a declaration of where it came from.

702 released its debut album, “No Doubt,” on Oct. 8, 1996, through Motown and Biv 10 Records. The album went gold, pairing R&B harmonies with hip-hop production and contributions from a young Missy Elliott.

702 performs “Steelo,” featuring Missy Elliott, from the group's 1996 debut album, “No Doubt.” (702 Official/YouTube)

Elliott wrote and appeared on “Steelo,” which sampled the Police's “Voices Inside My Head.” The album also produced “Get It Together,” a Donell Jones-penned ballad that reached No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The singers were still teenagers when they recorded much of that music, balancing schoolwork in Las Vegas with studio sessions in Los Angeles.

In an interview published Tuesday by Las Vegas Weekly, Fields recalled leaving school, flying to California to record and returning home in time for classes. While one member was in the recording booth, the others did homework. Some sessions stretched into the early morning hours.

The demanding schedule produced music that would long outlast the teenage experiences behind it.

In 1999, 702 scored its biggest crossover hit with the Elliott-written “Where My Girls At?,” which climbed to No. 4 on the Hot 100. The song helped propel the group's self-titled second album to platinum status and became a fixture of an era when female R&B groups were among popular music's dominant voices.

For Williams and Fields, the songs have taken on different meanings with age.

702 performs “Get It Together,” a single from its debut album, “No Doubt.” (702 Official/YouTube)

Williams told Las Vegas Weekly that motherhood, relationships and heartbreak have given the material a depth she could not fully appreciate as a teenager. Songs that once described emotions she was just beginning to understand now reflect experiences she has lived.

But the anniversary also brings an absence that cannot be overlooked.

Irish's death left the surviving performers to navigate the stage without a voice that helped define 702's sound. Fields said continuing to perform is part of honoring her sister, not leaving her behind.

“She would want us to continue and live out the legacy of 702,” Fields told the publication.

The homecoming extends beyond Thursday's ceremony.

702 is scheduled to perform Friday at On the Record inside Park MGM, followed by a '90s-themed skate party Saturday at Skate Rock City. Motown also has released a limited-edition 30th-anniversary vinyl pressing of “No Doubt,” including three additional mixes.

The festivities offer a chance to celebrate a group whose music has followed its fans from their teenage years into adulthood, even as the women behind those songs have endured changes of their own.

Three decades after turning a telephone prefix into a musical identity, 702 is returning to the place where it all began.

ThIs time, Las Vegas is welcoming them home — and honoring the sister who won't be there to celebrate.

From NFL Critic to Halftime Kingmaker, Jay-Z May Finally Take the Super Bowl Stage

Jay-Z visits the New York state Capitol in Albany, N.Y., on May 19, 2025. The rapper reportedly is expected to headline the 2027 Super Bowl halftime show. (Photo: New York Senate Media Services/CC BY 2.0; cropped)

Jay-Z once told the NFL he didn't need its biggest stage. Seven years after going into business with the league, he reportedly is preparing to headline it himself.

The Brooklyn rapper and Roc Nation founder is expected to perform at the 2027 Super Bowl halftime show, according to Puck, a subscription-based publication specializing in insider reporting on entertainment, media and business. The outlet reported Tuesday that Jay-Z selected himself for the performance.

Deadline separately reported that a music industry source confirmed Jay-Z would headline. Neither the NFL nor Roc Nation has officially announced a performer.

ORIGINAL REPORTING | PUCK

Jay-Z Picks Jay-Z for Super Bowl LXI

Dave Brooks reports that multiple sources say Jay-Z has selected himself for the 2027 halftime show.

Source: Puck | Oct. 20, 2026

If confirmed, the booking would complete a remarkable reversal for an artist who rejected the Super Bowl before becoming one of the most influential figures behind its halftime entertainment.

In 2018, Jay-Z addressed his decision on “APESHIT,” his collaboration with Beyoncé: “I said no to the Super Bowl. You need me, I don't need you.”

The refusal came during a period of growing controversy over the NFL's treatment of players protesting racial injustice, led by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Jay-Z later described objections to the league's proposed performance conditions as another reason he declined.

By August 2019, however, Jay-Z was sitting beside NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, announcing a partnership that would give Roc Nation a role in shaping the league's major entertainment events, including the Super Bowl.

FROM THE ARCHIVES | NFL

Jay-Z's Roc Nation enters partnership with NFL

The league's 2019 announcement describes Roc Nation's role in advising on major performances and supporting social justice initiatives.

Source: NFL | August 2019

The agreement also included work with Inspire Change, the NFL's social justice initiative.

The partnership drew immediate criticism from those who questioned why Jay-Z would work with the league while Kaepernick remained unsigned.

Jay-Z defended the arrangement as an opportunity to pursue change through the NFL's platform.

He also made clear that the negotiations had not begun with a desire to perform.

“First thing I said to Roger was, ‘If this is about me performing at the Super Bowl, then we can just end this conversation now,’” Jay-Z said at the 2019 announcement.

Instead, the agreement put Roc Nation in a position to help shape who would take the stage.

The company has since helped produce a succession of halftime shows featuring hip-hop and R&B stars, including Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Rihanna, Usher and Kendrick Lamar.

Those performances reflected a significant change for a genre that had spent decades fighting for mainstream recognition even as it became one of popular music's dominant forces.

Jay-Z remained behind the scenes.

According to Puck, that could change Feb. 14, when Super Bowl LXI takes place at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

The publication reported that Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber also were considered for the performance. Representatives for the NFL and Roc Nation did not respond to its requests for comment.

The timing adds another layer to the story.

Jay-Z is scheduled to perform Friday and Saturday at SoFi Stadium as part of a yearlong celebration marking the 30th anniversary of his 1996 debut, “Reasonable Doubt,” and the 25th anniversary of “The Blueprint.”

The venue will host the Super Bowl less than four months later.

Puck's report also raises a question about the unusual relationship between the artist and the event he may headline.

Roc Nation's original agreement called for the company to advise the NFL on performer selection. Although Puck described Jay-Z as the principal decision-maker, the league's final approval process has not been publicly detailed.

For Jay-Z, 56, a halftime appearance would bring together several chapters of a career that has taken him from Brooklyn's rap scene to the highest levels of the entertainment business.

It would also return him to a stage he once said he could do without.

This time, he would arrive not just as a performer, but as someone who helped reshape the show.

Drake Sued Over ‘Janice Stfu’ by Fellow Beyoncé ‘Heated’ Songwriter

Drake is shown in a scene from the official music video for “Janice STFU.” The rapper faces a federal copyright lawsuit alleging he copied the song's chorus from another songwriter's recording. Drake denies the allegations. (Drake/YouTube)

A Grammy-winning songwriter who shares writing credits with Drake on Beyoncé's “Heated” has sued the rapper over one of his biggest hits, alleging that the chorus of “Janice STFU” was taken from a demo he submitted to producers in Drake's circle months before the song was released.
Aviel Calev Hirschfield, a Portland, Oregon, producer who records as GoodbyeCalev, filed the copyright infringement lawsuit Friday in federal court in Los Angeles against Drake, OVO Sound, UMG Recordings and Universal Music Publishing.

Drake's representatives emphatically deny the allegations.

The dispute centers on eight lines Hirschfield says he wrote and recorded in January for a song he hoped Drake would perform. According to the complaint, he sent the finished recording to several producers who had worked with the rapper, including the production duo FnZ, but received no response.

Then came May 15.

Hirschfield says he was listening to Drake's newly released album, “Iceman,” when he heard “Janice STFU” and immediately recognized the chorus.

The lyrics, melody and cadence were identical to his recording, he alleges.

The lawsuit places an unusually detailed account of the song's creation at the center of the dispute, including a drive to Seattle, a Lykke Li recording and digital files that Hirschfield says establish when his vocals were recorded.

Hirschfield alleges that hearing Li's 2011 song “I Follow Rivers” inspired him to develop a new chorus with Drake in mind. Working over an instrumental supplied by FnZ members Michael Mulé and Isaac De Boni, he completed the recording around Jan. 25.

“Janice STFU” also interpolates “I Follow Rivers,” but the complaint concerns Hirschfield's claimed original lyrics and vocal melody, not ownership of Li's song.

Drake's official music video for "Janice STFU," released May 15, 2026. A songwriter alleges that the song's chorus was copied from his earlier recording. Drake denies the claim. (Drake/YouTube)

After the release, Hirschfield's representatives supplied Drake's team with the recording and individual audio tracks, known as stems, containing metadata that he contends establishes when the work was created.

Rather than acknowledge his contribution, Hirschfield alleges, Drake's representatives questioned the authenticity of that metadata and sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding that he stop publicly claiming authorship.

Drake's camp tells a very different story.

“These allegations are categorically, unequivocally, and completely denied,” a representative told TMZ.

The representative said Drake wrote the song himself and had no knowledge of Hirschfield, calling the lawsuit an attempt to exploit the rapper's success.

That denial raises an important distinction in Hirschfield's account: Although he and Drake are both credited as writers on “Heated,” from Beyoncé's 2022 album “Renaissance,” the lawsuit does not claim Hirschfield personally delivered the disputed recording to Drake.

Instead, Hirschfield alleges that Drake had access to it through producers who received the demo.

Their connection through “Heated” is documented. Hirschfield told Portland's Willamette Week in 2023 that his manager had circulated one of his tracks before Beyoncé selected it for her album.

Another detail could become important as the case progresses.

Drake previewed an early version of what became “Janice STFU” during a September 2025 livestream, months before Hirschfield says he finished his chorus. That earlier version, titled “That's Just How I Feel,” did not appear to contain the eight disputed lines, according to a transcription published at the time.

Whether Hirschfield's recording reached Drake's collaborators, and when the disputed chorus took its final form, remain central unanswered questions.

The stakes are substantial. “Janice STFU” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent two weeks atop the chart. The lawsuit says the recording has surpassed 300 million Spotify streams.

Hirschfield is seeking damages and profits attributable to the alleged infringement, along with attorney fees. He has not specified a dollar amount.

His recording was registered with the U.S. Copyright Office effective July 21, more than two months after Drake released the song. That timing could restrict the availability of certain statutory damages and attorney fees under federal copyright law, although it does not by itself resolve the infringement claim.

The lawsuit does not seek an order removing the song from streaming platforms.