Steve Cropper, Guitarist Who Defined the Stax Records Sound, Dies at 84

Steve Cropper, second from right, with Booker T. & the M.G.’s in 1967. The integrated Stax Records house band helped shape the sound of Southern soul and backed artists including Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, and Wilson Pickett. 

Steve Cropper, the guitarist and songwriter whose clean, deliberate touch helped define the sound of Southern soul, died Thursday in Nashville at 84. His family confirmed the news, saying he passed peacefully surrounded by loved ones.

Cropper’s name might not ring as loud as the singers he backed, but his guitar did. As a founding member of Booker T. & the M.G.’s — the integrated house band for Stax Records — he played on and co-wrote a catalog that became the backbone of American R&B. His rhythm lines cut through songs like “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” “Soul Man” and “Knock on Wood,” records that carried the sound of Memphis across the world.

Unlike the guitar heroes of his era, Cropper’s approach wasn’t flash or volume — it was precision. He understood space. His riffs were short, economical, built to leave room for Otis Redding’s rasp, Wilson Pickett’s howl, or Sam & Dave’s shouted harmonies. “I’m not listening to just me,” he once said in an interview. “I make sure I’m sounding OK before we start the session.”

 

At Stax, Cropper’s sound helped set the label apart from Motown’s polish. The Memphis sessions were grittier — bass up front, horns pushing, drums dry and close — and Cropper was the glue between rhythm and melody. When Sam Moore yelled “Play it, Steve!” on “Soul Man,” it wasn’t ego. It was acknowledgment.

Through the 1960s and early ’70s, Cropper quietly built one of the most durable resumes in popular music. He co-wrote “In the Midnight Hour” with Pickett, co-produced “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” with Redding — finishing the song after Redding’s death — and helped shape dozens of sessions for artists including Carla Thomas, Eddie Floyd and Rufus Thomas. He rarely sought the spotlight, but he was rarely far from a hit.

His work carried into later decades through The Blues Brothers, where he and bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn brought Stax’s feel to a new generation. That exposure turned him into a cult figure — a sideman suddenly seen.

 

Cropper was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, though he often brushed off accolades with the same ease he brushed off solos.

Even in later years, his reach extended further than many fans realized. Hip-hop producers and soul revivalists sampled the grooves he helped shape; his rhythm lines became part of the DNA of American popular music. He didn’t chase influence — it found him.

“Every note he played, every song he wrote, and every artist he inspired ensures that his spirit will continue to move people for generations,” his family wrote in a statement. He is survived by his wife, Angel Cropper, his children Andrea, Cameron, Stevie and Ashley, and generations of musicians who learned that sometimes the most powerful sound is restraint.

Chance the Rapper, 50 Cent and Mariah Carey Lead Culture-Shifting 'Rockin’ Eve'

Chance the Rapper, co-host of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve 2026,” will lead the show’s first-ever live Central Time Zone countdown from his hometown of Chicago, joining 50 Cent, Mariah Carey and Coco Jones in a lineup that blends hip-hop, R&B and pop across four time zones. (Courtesy ABC / Dick Clark Productions)

The clock still drops in Times Square, but this year the sound belongs to us. For the first time in its half-century run, Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve feels less like a network broadcast and more like a playlist — one where hip-hop, R&B and pop collide in real time instead of being boxed off by genre.

The 2026 lineup is its most ambitious yet: 50 Cent, Chance the Rapper, Ciara, Coco Jones, Busta Rhymes, Wyclef Jean and T.I. share space with Mariah Carey, Charlie Puth, Post Malone, and country star Maren Morris, while newcomers like Chappell Roan, LE SSERAFIM, and BigXthaPlug stretch the sound across generations and continents. Over 80 performances will air across four time zones and eight hours of live television — the show’s longest broadcast in its history.

Chance the Rapper hosting the first-ever Central Time countdown from Chicago hits different. For a city that’s given the world everyone from Common and Kanye to Chief Keef and Noname, seeing Chance lead a national celebration from home feels like a long time coming. Out east, 50 Cent returns as New York royalty — not the provocateur he once was, but a fixture of the same culture that built Times Square’s pulse.

And in a moment that says everything about R&B’s quiet resurgence, Coco Jones takes center stage with the same voice that made “ICU” one of the genre’s defining songs of the decade. Then there’s Mariah Carey — timeless, theatrical and inevitable — the connective tissue between every generation the show’s ever tried to serve.

But the real cultural moment comes when DJ Cassidy’s “Pass the Mic Live!” unites Busta Rhymes, Wyclef Jean, and T.I. for a run that’s part cipher, part celebration — the kind of thing that never used to make it to network TV. For a show built on pop polish, this year’s lineup finally looks like the culture it’s been chasing for decades: messy, electric, and unapologetically Black at its core.

Sure, pop and rock names like Goo Goo Dolls, OneRepublic, and New Kids on the Block will keep the nostalgia crowd covered. But what gives Rockin’ Eve 2026 its spark is the mix — a reflection of how people really listen now: crossfade to crossfade, mood to mood, vibe to vibe.

It’s not that the show suddenly belongs to hip-hop or R&B. It’s that television finally understands it can’t ring in a new year without them. Because when midnight hits, it won’t be the confetti that gets remembered — it’ll be the bassline that carried us into the next one.

For more information on the show and to view the full lineup click here.

Antone 'Chubby' Tavares, Lead Singer of R&B Group Tavares, Dies at 81

Antone “Chubby” Tavares, lead singer of the Grammy-winning R&B group Tavares, is pictured in a later-career promotional portrait. Known for his smooth falsetto on classics like “Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel,” Tavares helped define the sound of 1970s soul and disco.

Before the Bee Gees made disco global, a group of Cape Verdean brothers from Massachusetts gave the genre its heartbeat. Antone “Chubby” Tavares — the frontman whose falsetto carried “Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel” and helped shape the sound of ’70s R&B — died Nov. 29 at his home in New Bedford. He was 81.

His son, Antone Tavares Jr., shared the news on Facebook, writing that his father “passed last night at home in peace & comfort” after a year of declining health. “Dad and his brothers touched many people and brought joy worldwide,” he wrote. “They were blessed to experience many places and things.”

 

Tavares’ surviving brothers confirmed the news on the group’s official Facebook page, asking fans for privacy and prayers. “We do know that he is now eternally with our Lord,” the post read. “We thank you in advance for allowing us to mourn privately as a family. We love you and God bless you all.”

Chubby Tavares and his brothers — Ralph, Arthur “Pooch,” Feliciano “Butch,” Perry “Tiny,” and Victor — first performed as Chubby and the Turnpikes before signing with Capitol Records and reintroducing themselves as Tavares. Their breakthrough single “Check It Out” launched a string of R&B and pop hits that helped define a generation of dance-floor soul.

The brothers’ clean harmonies and smooth arrangements drove classics like “It Only Takes a Minute,” “Whodunit,” and the era-defining “Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel.” Their soulful take on the Bee Gees’ “More Than a Woman” landed on the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack — one of the best-selling albums in history — earning them a share of the 1979 Album of the Year Grammy.

 

While Tavares never sought the spotlight like some of their contemporaries, their influence stretched far beyond their chart run. Their grooves and melodies have been sampled and reinterpreted by generations of R&B and hip-hop artists — from LL Cool J’s “Around the Way Girl” lineage to producers shaping Beyoncé’s retro-soul moments — keeping the Tavares sound alive in modern music. Their harmonies remain a blueprint for any artist trying to bridge church, street, and disco with equal grace.

Tavares in 1977 — From left: Arthur “Pooch,” Ralph, Antone “Chubby,” Feliciano “Butch” and Perry “Tiny” Tavares. The Grammy-winning brothers behind “Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel” helped define the sound of 1970s R&B and disco. (Capitol Records, Public domain, via Wikimedia Common)

He was preceded in death by brothers Ralph (2021) and Arthur “Pooch” (2024). He is survived by brothers Perry “Tiny” and Feliciano “Butch” Tavares, along with his children and extended family.

A proud son of New Bedford, Chubby Tavares was a pillar of the Cape Verdean-American community, representing an often-overlooked lineage in American soul. In 2024, the city honored the family’s legacy by naming a downtown street “Tavares Brothers Way.” “They’ve been around the world, and every time they were introduced, New Bedford, Mass., was attached to it,” Councilor Derek Baptiste said at the dedication. “They were at the forefront of a whole era.”

After decades of touring with his brothers, Chubby released solo albums "Jealousy" (2012) and "Can’t Knock Me Down" (2015), proving his voice still carried the warmth and sincerity that made Tavares a household name.

Super Bowl LX pregame show to feature Coco Jones, Brandi Carlile and Charlie Puth

Coco Jones performs during the Essence Festival of Culture at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on July 4, 2025. The Grammy-winning R&B artist will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing” at Super Bowl LX in February 2026. (Gabriel Brooks, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The NFL announced Friday that Charlie Puth, Brandi Carlile, and R&B star Coco Jones will headline Super Bowl LX’s pregame at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara on Feb. 8, 2026. It’s a lineup that feels intentional — a mix of pop, Americana and soul designed to speak to a country still searching for harmony.

Puth will perform the national anthem, Brandi Carlile will deliver “America the Beautiful,” and Coco Jones — one of R&B’s brightest new stars — will sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the Black national anthem that’s become a Super Bowl fixture since Roc Nation helped reframe the event as more than spectacle.

“Charlie, Brandi, and Coco are generational talents,” Roc Nation CEO Desiree Perez said. “This moment embodies the best of culture, live performance, and our country — perfectly kicking off game day.”
NFL executive Jon Barker called the Super Bowl “the world’s biggest entertainment stage,” adding that the pregame show “spotlights artists who embody the best of music and culture.”

For Coco Jones, it’s a defining milestone in a rise that’s been impossible to ignore. The Nashville-raised singer, actress, and Grammy winner has quickly become the face of modern R&B — a genre that’s found its way back to the Super Bowl stage after decades of being left on the sidelines. Her debut album, “Why Not More?,” has earned eight Grammy nominations, and her platinum single “ICU” still sits heavy on radio rotations two years later.

Carlile, one of music’s few crossover icons who can move between rock, folk, and gospel without losing her soul, arrives fresh off the success of “Returning to Myself.” Puth, whose fourth album “Whatever’s Clever!” drops in March, remains pop’s consummate technician — the guy who can find melody in anything, including the buzz of a text alert.

The performances will be joined by American Sign Language artists Fred Beam, Julian Ortiz, and Celimar Rivera Cosme — the latter signing Bad Bunny’s halftime show in Puerto Rican Sign Language, another first.

It’s a quietly radical lineup: Black, brown, queer, pop, and country, all sharing the same space before the first whistle blows. And it’s no accident that Roc Nation is again in the producer’s chair, guiding the event from spectacle to statement. From Beyoncé’s “Formation” to Rihanna’s midair return, to last year’s Vegas-sized Usher celebration, the Super Bowl has become something closer to a cultural census — one that now sounds like the country it represents.

In 2026, it’s Coco Jones’ turn to carry that torch. Her voice, her presence, and her moment are all part of the evolution Jay-Z predicted when he said the partnership wasn’t about appeasement — it was about access.

Now, America’s biggest game is listening.

Federal Jury Rules in Favor of Megan Thee Stallion in Online Harassment Lawsuit

Megan Thee Stallion was awarded damages Monday after a federal jury found blogger Milagro Cooper liable for defamation and harassment tied to a deepfake video that circulated following her 2020 shooting.

Megan Thee Stallion didn’t cheer, didn’t gloat, didn’t throw a bar. She just looked tired and said, “I’m just happy.”

And that was enough.

A Miami jury ruled Monday that online blogger Milagro Cooper — better known as “Milagro Gramz” — defamed and harassed the Houston rapper by pushing false stories and promoting a sexually explicit deepfake video that spread across social media. The nine-member panel awarded her $75,000, later reduced by the judge to $59,000, but the number wasn’t the headline. The verdict was.

Megan Thee Stallion leaves the Miami federal courthouse after a jury found online streamer Milagro Cooper liable for defaming her, promoting a fake sexually explicit video of her and intentionally inflicting emotional distress by coordinating with Tory Lanez. pic.twitter.com/TYGI6yG10r

— Meghann Cuniff (@meghanncuniff) December 1, 2025

After years of being mocked, doubted, and digitally dissected, Megan finally got a courtroom acknowledgment of what she’s been saying all along: that the lies hurt, that the internet isn’t a free-for-all, and that even rap’s toughest woman can bleed from words.

The case traces back to the fallout from her 2020 shooting by Tory Lanez, when online conspiracy theorists tried to turn her trauma into clickbait. Cooper’s posts and livestreams fanned that fire, urging thousands to share a fake video built from AI and spite. Jurors heard how the content spread faster than the truth ever could, and how it nearly broke her.

“She’s been through hell,” one of Megan’s lawyers told reporters after the ruling. “This was about setting a boundary for basic decency.”

Somewhere in the middle of all this noise, Megan has found calm again — smiling in photos on her boyfriend Klay Thompson’s boat, the one he just renamed the “SS Stallion.” Maybe it’s coincidence, maybe it’s a love note, but after everything she’s endured, it’s hard not to see symbolism in a vessel built to stay steady through rough waters.

Because on this day, that’s exactly what she did.

Jay-Z’s Roc Nation School Earns Repeat Billboard Spot, Stirs Debate Over Fine Print

Inside the Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment’s new Dolby Atmos studio at Long Island University’s Brooklyn campus. The state-of-the-art space, designed by Young Guru and modeled after the legendary Baseline Studios, is the first of its kind in Brooklyn and among the largest in New York State. (Photo credit: Long Island University / Roc Nation)

Long before he owned a label, a liquor brand, or an NFL halftime show, a sixth-grader from the Marcy
Projects stunned his teacher by reading at a 12th-grade level. That same prodigy, JAY-Z, would go on to co-found Roc Nation — and partner with Long Island University to create a college that now bears its name. The Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment at LIU-Brooklyn has again landed on Billboard’s Top Music Business Schools list, even as questions linger over what “debt-free” really means.

Founded in 2021 through a partnership between Roc Nation and Long Island University, the school was built to merge hip-hop’s creative DNA with the formal structure of higher education — turning hustle into curriculum. At the launch announcement, Roc Nation CEO Desiree Perez said, “The Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment will provide unique insight, knowledge and experiences for students and will empower the next generation of leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs.”

LIU President Kimberly Cline called the partnership “an opportunity to open doors for countless young people who might never have imagined a pathway into these industries.”

From the start, the vision was ambitious. Roc Nation stated that its Hope Scholarship program would “help students graduate without debt, ensuring that financial barriers don’t stop creative potential.” And JAY-Z’s guiding principle, quoted in the company’s early materials, set the tone: “Education and opportunity should go hand in hand. Our hope is to teach the business, not just the art.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Roc Nation School (@rocnation_school)

That vision carried the school into Billboard’s national spotlight for a second consecutive year. The magazine cited its “Music Entrepreneurship” course — which trains students to pitch business ventures to executives from Universal Music Group and Live Nation — and its financial-literacy partnership with JPMorgan Chase’s Money Smart program. Together, they reflect an attempt to fuse cultural capital with real-world economics — something hip-hop has long practiced, but academia is only starting to teach.

The honor comes as the school faces scrutiny over its “Hope Scholarship” program, which promised to help a quarter of students graduate “without debt.” Some recipients told Black Enterprise and HipHopDX they were surprised to learn that while tuition was covered, housing and fees were not — leaving them with debts of up to $40,000. University officials maintain that the scholarships were always meant to cover tuition only.

Still, the Roc Nation School’s footprint is growing. Its first graduating class crossed the stage in May 2025, with alumni joining Roc Nation, Bob Elliott’s Music Makers Studio, and other music firms. The Brooklyn campus has also become a hub for industry events, including this fall’s MetaMoon Summit on Asian representation in entertainment, drawing executives from Live Nation, Roc Nation, the NBA, and Foot Locker.

 

This year’s recognition also lands amid a broader debate about education in hip-hop. When Juelz Santana went viral this fall for downplaying reading skills in favor of financial literacy, artists and fans pushed back — while Lupe Fiasco continued teaching hip-hop at MIT, proving the classroom and the culture can coexist. Against that backdrop, the Roc Nation School represents hip-hop’s evolution: the same ambition that once fueled mixtape grinds now fuels accredited degrees.

As Roc Nation summarized in its own 2021 mission statement, “From the studio to the stage to the front office — this school exists to make sure our culture owns every part of what it creates.”

For a generation raised on the idea of ownership, Billboard’s honor feels symbolic — a stamp of legitimacy from an industry that once kept hip-hop out of its classrooms. But as the “debt-free” debate shows, the culture’s next test isn’t whether it can build institutions. It’s whether those institutions can live up to hip-hop’s original promise: freedom, fairness, and financial truth.

50 Cent Takes His Feud Global With Netflix Doc 'Sean Combs: The Reckoning'

Promotional poster for Netflix’s “Sean Combs: The Reckoning,” a four-part documentary series executive-produced by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. The series, directed by Alex Stapleton, explores decades of sexual-assault and trafficking allegations against Sean “Diddy” Combs and premieres December 2, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

When 50 Cent trolls, it’s entertainment. When he warns, it’s prophecy. And this time, Curtis Jackson wasn’t joking.

The Queens mogul’s long war of words with Sean “Diddy” Combs has exploded into something bigger — a global event. Netflix just dropped the trailer for “Sean Combs: The Reckoning,” the four-part documentary executive-produced by 50 Cent and directed by Emmy nominee Alex Stapleton, set to premiere December 2, 2025. It’s the project nobody in hip-hop wanted to touch — until now.

“They said I was capping 🤷 What happened?” 50 wrote on Instagram after posting the teaser. The clip opens with a voice, low and final: “You can’t continue to keep hurting people, and nothing ever happens.” Then the screen cuts to black, stamped with 50’s calling card — “GLG 🚦 GreenLightGang 🎥 G-Unit Film & TV.”

The message landed like a gavel. For years, 50 and Diddy have traded public jabs — one man the corporate kingpin of the “All About the Benjamins” era, the other a bulletproof hustler who built an empire off instincts and smoke. But what started as an ego clash has now turned into one of hip-hop’s most consequential reckonings.

The series pulls back decades of headlines, lawsuits, and whispers around Diddy’s rise — from “No Way Out” and Bad Boy’s platinum run to Cîroc, Revolt TV, and the empire that once made him untouchable. Netflix’s synopsis calls it a “complex human story spanning decades,” but the timing says more than the tagline ever could. The streaming giant announced “The Reckoning” just a week after Combs’ 2024 arrest on federal charges of racketeering, sex trafficking, and transporting individuals for prostitution.

50 Cent had been teasing this moment since December 2023, when he first revealed plans to produce a documentary on the mounting allegations, pledging to donate proceeds to sexual-assault victims. At the time, many thought it was just another viral 50 stunt. By the fall of 2024 — after raids, indictments, and settlements — nobody was laughing.

In a joint statement, 50 and Stapleton said their mission was to “give a voice to the voiceless and present authentic and nuanced perspectives,” while reminding viewers that Combs’ story “is not the full story of hip-hop and its culture.” It’s a take that shows how carefully this project is walking the line — a film that both calls out individual power and protects the broader culture it came from.

The rivalry itself is pure hip-hop mythology — born in the early 2000s, when 50 accused Diddy of exploiting artists and disrespecting the streets that made him. For years, their feud simmered through cryptic interviews and social media. When the lawsuits hit, 50 shifted from jokes to journalism, posting court filings and clips like he was running his own newsroom. His followers called it obsession; now it looks like documentation.

Alex Stapleton’s direction adds weight to the production. Known for “Reggie” and “Black Hollywood: They’ve Gotta Have Us,” she approaches the story like an autopsy of fame and silence — combining survivor testimonies with archival footage and insider accounts from inside Diddy’s once-impenetrable circle. Netflix insiders describe “The Reckoning” as “methodical, not messy” — a rare attempt to dissect power without glorifying it.

When the trailer hit social media, hip-hop stopped scrolling. Within hours, 50’s post hit six figures in likes. Comments split between applause and disbelief — some called it overdue justice, others called it opportunism. But either way, the same name dominated the feed: Diddy.

Fifty Cent’s greatest gift has always been timing — and this time, his timing might have changed the course of hip-hop’s accountability era. The streets remember the shine, the suits, the whispers, and the silence. Now, with “The Reckoning” set to stream worldwide, it’s all coming back under lights no bottle service can dim.

Watch the full teaser below:

Travis Scott’s ‘Circus Maximus’ Becomes the Highest-Grossing Solo Rap Tour Ever

Travis Scott performs onstage during his “Circus Maximus” World Tour. The record-breaking global trek grossed more than $265 million across six continents, making it the highest-grossing solo rap tour in history, according to Live Nation. (Photo courtesy of Travis Scott / Cactus Jack)

Travis Scott has closed the loop on a story few artists could survive.

The Houston rapper ended his globe-spanning “Circus Maximus” World Tour on Nov. 19 with a stadium blowout in Mumbai, India before more than 40,000 fans — the finale to a two-year run that’s now the highest-grossing solo rap tour in history, according to Live Nation and Billboard Boxscore.

By the numbers, the achievement is staggering: more than 2.2 million tickets sold, $265 million grossed, and stops on six continents from South Africa to Seoul. But behind the victory lap lies a harder question — what does triumph look like for an artist whose brand was once synonymous with chaos?

Scott’s partnership with Live Nation, the same promoter behind the 2021 “Astroworld Festival” that ended in tragedy, has quietly become one of the most scrutinized second acts in music history. After years of investigations, lawsuits, and public backlash, both sides were under pressure to prove that the artist and the infrastructure could coexist safely again. So far, they have. Eighty shows, no major incidents — and a narrative that’s shifted from controversy to control.

Still, Scott’s tour wasn’t without unease. The scale itself — a rotating stage, fire bursts, 475 performances of “FE!N,” and crowds topping 100,000 across India — rekindled memories of the dangerous synergy between fandom and frenzy that once defined his shows. The difference this time was choreography, not chaos. Stadiums were carefully engineered, capacity managed, and cameras tracked nearly every surge.

Fueled by his 2023 album “Utopia,” the production played like a global reboot of Scott’s mythology: part redemption arc, part empire expansion. The trek began in North America before spilling into Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East — bringing the rage, but also restraint, to audiences that had only watched it unfold online.

There were no public apologies built into this run, no explicit reckonings — just bigger venues, tighter logistics, and a setlist that reminded fans why his stage power was so coveted in the first place. At his best, Scott turned arena rap into cinematic theater. At his worst, he reminded everyone how thin the line between spectacle and catastrophe can be.

In Mumbai, as fireworks closed out the final show, Scott stood as both symbol and survivor — a Houston artist who turned a near career-ending disaster into an unprecedented global haul. Whether “Circus Maximus” represents redemption or simply reinvention depends on who’s watching.