Latest news with #Hypnotize
Business Insider
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
How to get System of a Down tour tickets: New Jersey, Chicago, and Toronto
System of a Down will be going on tour for the first time since their Wake Up the Souls world tour in 2015, so if you were worried you'd missed your chance to see the band live, now is your opportunity. This fall, their stadium tour will bring them to three cities across North America, with two concerts in each city, and I've broken down how to get System of a Down tickets below. The band featuring Serj Tankian (lead vocals, keyboards), Daron Malakian (guitar, vocals), Shavo Odadjian (bass, backing vocals), and John Dolmayan (drums) will start at Metlife Stadium in New Jersey August 27 and 28 before they travel to Chicago's Soldier Field for their concerts on August 21 and September 1. The tour will come to a close in Toronto at the Rogers Stadium for the shows on September 3 and 5. The Armenian-American heavy metal band was formed in Glendale, California, in 1994. Over 7 years between 1998 and 2005, the band released five total albums, and no additional albums have been released since the final two, Mezmerize and Hypnotize. The band went on hiatus a year later before getting back together in 2010. In November 2020, in response to the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, System of a Down released their first songs in 15 years, "Protect the Land" and "Genocidal Humanoidz". If you're looking for how to get tickets to System of the Down's 2025 stadium tour, then we've got you covered. Here's our breakdown of the band's 2025 tour schedule, purchasing details, and price comparisons between resale and original tickets. You can also browse concert and ticket specifics at your convenience on StubHub and Vivid Seats. System of a Down's 2025 tour schedule System of a Down will be hitting three cities for two days each for their 2025 stadium tour. The tour starts in New Jersey for the August 26 and 27 shows, moves on to Chicago for August 31 and September 1, before concluding in Toronto for the September 3 and 5 concerts. August 27, 2025 New Jersey, NJ $111 $101 August 28, 2025 New Jersey, NJ $136 $119 August 31, 2025 Chicago, IL $188 $176 September 1, 2025 Chicago, IL $92 $84 September 3, 2025 Toronto, Canada $68 $83 September 5, 2025 Toronto, Canada $101 $119 Follow our WhatsApp channel and Instagram for more deals and buying guides. How to buy tickets for System of the Down's 2025 concert tour You can buy standard original tickets for System of the Down's 2025 stadium tour dates on Ticketmaster. However, due to the high demand, the number of remaining original tickets is limited. Tickets to System of the Down's 2025 tour can also be purchased through verified resale ticket vendors like StubHub and Vivid Seats. For tour dates with a more limited inventory of original tickets, you may find better luck with seating variety and availability on these sites. How much are tickets? Ticket prices for System of the Down's 2025 tour dates vary depending on the date, location, and demand for each show. On Ticketmaster, the cheapest available tickets range from $133 for the opener show in New Jersey on August 27 to $464 for the August 31 show in Chicago. As of writing, the full price breakdown for the cheapest original tickets on ticket master is as follows: Date City Ticketmaster prices August 27, 2025 New Jersey, NJ $133 August 28, 2025 New Jersey, NJ $469 August 31, 2025 Chicago, IL $464 September 1, 2025 Chicago, IL $138 September 3, 2025 Toronto, Canada CA$231 September 5, 2025 Toronto, Canada CA$243 The lowest-cost tickets to System of the Down's shows on StubHub range from $68 for the September 3 show in Toronto to $188 for the Chicago show on August 31. Vivid Seats has similar prices, with the least expensive tickets ranging from $83 to $176 for the same dates. Who is opening for System of a Down's tour? System of a Down will co-headline with different bands at each location and have an opener for all of the stadium tour's shows. The band will appear alongside Korn in New Jersey on August 27 and 28, Avenge Sevenfold in Chicago on August 21 and September 1, and finally Deftones in Toronto on September 3 and 5. Progressive rock band Polyphia will be opening for all six shows of the tour. Will there be international tour dates? Two of the six shows for the Stadium tour will be in Toronto at the Rogers Stadium on September 3 and 5. No additional international tour dates have been announced at this time.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
System of a Down's Daron Malakian strikes familiar, violent chords on new Scars on Broadway album
Fans of System of a Down desperately hoping the Armenian American alt-metal band will one day release a full-length follow-up to their chart-topping 2005 companion albums "Mezmerize" and "Hypnotize" can at least seek some solace in the latest offering from band co-founder Daron Malakian. "Addicted to the Violence," the third album from his solo project Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway, may lack System frontman Serj Tankian's mellifluous singing, iconoclastic rants and feral screams, but its eclectic structure, melodic earworms, fetching vocal harmonies and poignant themes are sonically and structurally similar to System of a Down — and with good reason. 'All of my songs can work for either Scars or System because they come from my style and have my signature,' Malakian says from his home in Glendale. 'When I wrote for System, I didn't bring guitar riffs to the band. Like with [System's 2002 breakthrough single] 'Aerials.' That was a complete song. I wrote it from beginning to end before I showed it to them.' Malakian — who tackled vocals, guitar and bass — assembled "Addicted to the Violence" (out Friday) during the last five years, using songs he'd written over roughly two decades. The oldest track, 'Satan Hussein,' which starts with a rapid-fire guitar line and features a serrated verse and a storming chorus, dates to the early 2000s, when System's second album, "Toxicity," was rocketing toward six-times platinum status (which it achieved nine months after release). With Scars, Malakian isn't chasing ghosts and he's not tied to a schedule. He's more interested in spontaneity than continuity, and artistry takes precedence over cohesion. None of the tracks on the band's sporadically released three albums — 2008's self-titled debut, 2018's "Dictator," and "Addicted to the Violence"— follow a linear or chronological path. Instead, each includes an eclectic variety of songs chosen almost at random. 'It's almost like I spin the wheel and wherever the arrow lands, that's where I start,' he explains. 'I end up with a bunch of songs from different periods in my life that come from different moods. It's totally selfish. Everything starts as something I write for myself and play for myself. I never listen to something I've done and say, 'Oh, everybody's gonna love this.' For me, a song is more like my new toy. At some point, I finish playing with it and I go, 'OK, I'm ready to share this with other kids now.'' Whether by happenstance or subconscious inspiration, "Addicted to the Violence" is a turbulent, inadvertently prescient album for unstable times — a barbed, off-kilter amalgam of metal, alt-rock, pop, Cali-punk, prog, Mediterranean folk, alt-country and psychedelia — sometimes within the same song. Lyrically, Malakian addresses school shootings, authoritarianism, media manipulation, infidelity, addiction and stream-of-consciousness ramblings as dizzying as an hour of random, rapid-fire channel surfing. Is writing music your way of making sense out of a nonsensical world? I like to think of it as bringing worlds together that, in other cases, may not belong together. But when they come out through me, they mutate and turn into this thing that makes sense. In that way, music is like my therapist. Even if I write a song and nobody ever hears it, it's healthy for me to make and it helps me work stuff out. When I write a song, sometimes it affects me deeply and I'll cry or I'll get hyped up and excited. It's almost like I'm communicating with somebody, but I'm not talking to anyone. It's just me in this intimate moment. Is it strange to take these personal, intimate and therapeutic moments and turn them into songs that go out for the masses to interpret and absorb? I want people to make up their own meanings for the songs, even if they're completely different than mine. I don't even like to talk about what inspired the songs because it doesn't matter. No one needs to know what I was thinking because they don't know my life. They don't know me. They know the guy on stage, but they don't know the personal struggles I've been through and they don't need to. Was there anything about "Addicted to the Violence" that you wanted to do differently than "Dictator"? Different songs on the album have synthesizer and that's a color I've never used before in System or Scars. Every painting you make shouldn't have the same colors. Sometimes I'm like, "Will that work with the rest of the songs? That color is really different." But I'm not afraid to use it. [Warning: Video includes profanity.] 'Shame Game' has a psychedelic vibe that's kinda like a hybrid of Strawberry Alarm Clock and Blue Oyster Cult, while the title track has a prog rock vibe redolent of Styx, Rush and Mars Volta. I love all that stuff. I spend more time listening to music than playing guitar. It's how I practice music. I take in these inspirations and it all comes out later when I write without me realizing it. In 2020, System released the songs 'Protect the Land' and 'Genocidal Humanoidz,' which you originally planned to use for Scars on Broadway. At that time, I hadn't recorded 'Genocidal Humanoidz' yet, but I had finished 'Protect the Land,' and my vocals on the song are the tracks I was going to use for my album. Serj just came in and sang his parts over it. Why did you offer those songs to System when every time you tried to work on an album with them after 2010, you hit a creative impasse? Because [the second Nagorno-Karabakh War] was going on in Artsakh at that time between [the Armenian breakaway state Artsakh and Azerbaijan], and we decided we needed to say something. We all got on the phone and I said, 'Hey, I got this song 'Protect the Land,' and it's about this exact topic.' So, I pulled it off the Scars record and shared it with System. You released the eponymous Scars on Broadway album in 2008, almost exactly two years after System went on a four-year hiatus. Did you form Scars out of a need to stay creative? At the time, I knew that if I wanted to keep releasing music, I needed a new outlet, so Scars was something that had to happen or I would have just been sitting around all these years and nobody would have heard from me. You played a few shows with Scars before your first album came out in 2008, but you abruptly canceled the supporting tour and only released one more Scars song before 2018. That was a really strange time. I wanted to move forward with my music, but we had worked so hard to get to the point we got to in System, and not everyone was in the same boat when it came to how we wanted to move forward. I just wasn't ready to do a tour with Scars. Was it like trying to start a new relationship after a bad breakup? I might have rushed into that second marriage too quick. I had [System drummer] John [Dolmayan] playing with me, and I think that was [a sign that] I was still holding onto System of a Down. That created a lot of anxiety. A few years later, you announced that you were working on a new Scars album and planned to release it in 2013. Why did it take until 2018 for you to put out "Dictator"? I was writing songs and thinking they were amazing, but in my head I was conflicted about where the songs were going to go. "Should I take them to Scars? Is that premature? Would System want to do something with them?" I underwent this constant struggle because Serj and I always had this creative disagreement. I finally moved past that and did the second album, but it took a while. System of a Down played nine concerts in South America this spring, and you have six stadium gigs scheduled in North America for August and September. Is there any chance a new System album will follow? I'm not so sure I even want to make another System of a Down record at this point in my life. I'm getting along with the guys really well right now. Serj and I love each other and we enjoy being onstage together. So, maybe it's best for us to keep playing concerts as System and doing our own things outside of that. The cover art for "Addicted to the Violence" — a silhouette of a woman against a blood-red background holding an oversize bullet over her head, and standing in front of a row of opium poppies — is the work of your father, Iraqi-born artist Vartan Malakian. Was he a major inspiration for you? My approach to art and everything I know about it comes from my dad, and the way we approach what we do is very similar. We both do it for ourselves. He has never promoted himself or done an art exhibition. The only things most people have seen from him are the album covers. But ever since I was born, he was doing art in the house, and he's never cared if anyone was looking at it. Do you seek his approval? No, I don't. He usually is very supportive of what I do, but my dad's a complicated guy. I admire him a lot and wish I could even be half of the artist that he is. And if he and my mom didn't move to this country, I would not have been in System of a Down. I would have ended up as a soldier during Desert Storm and the Second Gulf War. That's my alternative life. It's crazy. Have you been to Iraq? When I was 14 years old, I went there for two months to visit relatives and it was a complete culture shock. I'm a kid that grew up in Hollywood, and I went to Baghdad wearing a Metallica shirt and I was a total smart aleck. Everywhere we went, I saw pictures and statues of Saddam Hussein. I turned to my cousin and said, 'What if I walked up to one of the statues and said, 'Hey Saddam, go f— yourself?'' Just me saying that made him nervous and scared. Talking like that was seriously dangerous and I had no idea. That was a definite learning experience of what I could have been. And it inspired me later to write 'Satan Hussein.' You had a glimpse of life under an authoritarian regime. Do you have strong feelings about the Trump administration and the way the president has, at times, acted like a dictator? I don't hate the guy and I don't love the guy. I'm not on the right, I'm not on the left. There are some things both sides do that I agree with, but I don't talk about that stuff in interviews because when it comes to politics, I'm not on a team. I don't like the division in this country, and I think if you're too far right or you're too far left, you end up in the same place. Is "Addicted to the Violence," and especially the song 'Killing Spree,' a commentary on political violence in our country? Not just political violence, it's all violence. 'Killing Spree' is ridiculous. It's heavy. It's dark. But if you listen to the way I sing, there is an absolutely absurd delivery, almost like I'm having fun with it. I'm not celebrating the violence, but the delivery is done the way a crazy person would celebrate it. So, it's from the viewpoint of a killer, the viewpoint of a victim, and my own viewpoint. I saw a video on social media of these kids standing around in the street, and one of them gets wiped out by the back end of a car and flies into the air. These kids are recording it and some of them are laughing like's it's funny. I don't want to say that's right or wrong, but from what I'm seeing, a lot of people have become desensitized to violence. You're releasing "Addicted to the Violence" about six weeks before the final six System of a Down dates of 2025. Have you figured out how to compartmentalize what you do with System of a Down and Scars on Broadway? There was a time that I couldn't juggle the two very well, but now I feel more confident and very comfortable with where System and Scars are. I love playing with System, and I want to do more shows with Scars. I couldn't tell you how either band will evolve. Only time will tell what happens and I'm fine with that as long as it happens in a natural way. Everything we've experienced has brought us to where we are now. And now is all we've got because the past is gone and the future isn't here yet. So, the most important thing is the present. Get notified when the biggest stories in Hollywood, culture and entertainment go live. Sign up for L.A. Times entertainment alerts. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
System of a Down's Daron Malakian strikes familiar, violent chords on new Scars on Broadway album
Fans of System of a Down desperately hoping the Armenian American alt-metal band will one day release a full-length follow-up to their chart-topping 2005 companion albums 'Mezmerize' and 'Hypnotize' can at least seek some solace in the latest offering from band co-founder Daron Malakian. 'Addicted to the Violence,' the third album from his solo project Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway, may lack System frontman Serj Tankian's mellifluous singing, iconoclastic rants and feral screams, but its eclectic structure, melodic earworms, fetching vocal harmonies and poignant themes are sonically and structurally similar to System of a Down — and with good reason. 'All of my songs can work for either Scars or System because they come from my style and have my signature,' Malakian says from his home in Glendale. 'When I wrote for System, I didn't bring guitar riffs to the band. Like with [System's 2002 breakthrough single] 'Aerials.' That was a complete song. I wrote it from beginning to end before I showed it to them.' Malakian — who tackled vocals, guitar and bass — assembled 'Addicted to the Violence' (out Friday) during the last five years, using songs he'd written over roughly two decades. The oldest track, 'Satan Hussein,' which starts with a rapid-fire guitar line and features a serrated verse and a storming chorus, dates to the early 2000s, when System's second album, 'Toxicity,' was rocketing toward six-times platinum status (which it achieved nine months after release). With Scars, Malakian isn't chasing ghosts and he's not tied to a schedule. He's more interested in spontaneity than continuity, and artistry takes precedence over cohesion. None of the tracks on the band's sporadically released three albums — 2008's self-titled debut, 2018's 'Dictator,' and 'Addicted to the Violence'— follow a linear or chronological path. Instead, each includes an eclectic variety of songs chosen almost at random. 'It's almost like I spin the wheel and wherever the arrow lands, that's where I start,' he explains. 'I end up with a bunch of songs from different periods in my life that come from different moods. It's totally selfish. Everything starts as something I write for myself and play for myself. I never listen to something I've done and say, 'Oh, everybody's gonna love this.' For me, a song is more like my new toy. At some point, I finish playing with it and I go, 'OK, I'm ready to share this with other kids now.'' Whether by happenstance or subconscious inspiration, 'Addicted to the Violence' is a turbulent, inadvertently prescient album for unstable times — a barbed, off-kilter amalgam of metal, alt-rock, pop, Cali-punk, prog, Mediterranean folk, alt-country and psychedelia — sometimes within the same song. Lyrically, Malakian addresses school shootings, authoritarianism, media manipulation, infidelity, addiction and stream-of-consciousness ramblings as dizzying as an hour of random, rapid-fire channel surfing. Is writing music your way of making sense out of a nonsensical world? I like to think of it as bringing worlds together that, in other cases, may not belong together. But when they come out through me, they mutate and turn into this thing that makes sense. In that way, music is like my therapist. Even if I write a song and nobody ever hears it, it's healthy for me to make and it helps me work stuff out. When I write a song, sometimes it affects me deeply and I'll cry or I'll get hyped up and excited. It's almost like I'm communicating with somebody, but I'm not talking to anyone. It's just me in this intimate moment. Is it strange to take these personal, intimate and therapeutic moments and turn them into songs that go out for the masses to interpret and absorb? I want people to make up their own meanings for the songs, even if they're completely different than mine. I don't even like to talk about what inspired the songs because it doesn't matter. No one needs to know what I was thinking because they don't know my life. They don't know me. They know the guy on stage, but they don't know the personal struggles I've been through and they don't need to. Was there anything about 'Addicted to the Violence' that you wanted to do differently than 'Dictator'? Different songs on the album have synthesizer and that's a color I've never used before in System or Scars. Every painting you make shouldn't have the same colors. Sometimes I'm like, 'Will that work with the rest of the songs? That color is really different.' But I'm not afraid to use it. [Warning: Video includes profanity.] 'Shame Game' has a psychedelic vibe that's kinda like a hybrid of Strawberry Alarm Clock and Blue Oyster Cult, while the title track has a prog rock vibe redolent of Styx, Rush and Mars Volta. I love all that stuff. I spend more time listening to music than playing guitar. It's how I practice music. I take in these inspirations and it all comes out later when I write without me realizing it. In 2020, System released the songs 'Protect the Land' and 'Genocidal Humanoidz,' which you originally planned to use for Scars on Broadway. At that time, I hadn't recorded 'Genocidal Humanoidz' yet, but I had finished 'Protect the Land,' and my vocals on the song are the tracks I was going to use for my album. Serj just came in and sang his parts over it. Why did you offer those songs to System when every time you tried to work on an album with them after 2010, you hit a creative impasse? Because [the second Nagorno-Karabakh War] was going on in Artsakh at that time between [the Armenian breakaway state Artsakh and Azerbaijan], and we decided we needed to say something. We all got on the phone and I said, 'Hey, I got this song 'Protect the Land,' and it's about this exact topic.' So, I pulled it off the Scars record and shared it with System. You released the eponymous Scars on Broadway album in 2008, almost exactly two years after System went on a four-year hiatus. Did you form Scars out of a need to stay creative? At the time, I knew that if I wanted to keep releasing music, I needed a new outlet, so Scars was something that had to happen or I would have just been sitting around all these years and nobody would have heard from me. You played a few shows with Scars before your first album came out in 2008, but you abruptly canceled the supporting tour and only released one more Scars song before 2018. That was a really strange time. I wanted to move forward with my music, but we had worked so hard to get to the point we got to in System, and not everyone was in the same boat when it came to how we wanted to move forward. I just wasn't ready to do a tour with Scars. Was it like trying to start a new relationship after a bad breakup? I might have rushed into that second marriage too quick. I had [System drummer] John [Dolmayan] playing with me, and I think that was [a sign that] I was still holding onto System of a Down. That created a lot of anxiety. A few years later, you announced that you were working on a new Scars album and planned to release it in 2013. Why did it take until 2018 for you to put out 'Dictator'? I was writing songs and thinking they were amazing, but in my head I was conflicted about where the songs were going to go. 'Should I take them to Scars? Is that premature? Would System want to do something with them?' I underwent this constant struggle because Serj and I always had this creative disagreement. I finally moved past that and did the second album, but it took a while. System of a Down played nine concerts in South America this spring, and you have six stadium gigs scheduled in North America for August and September. Is there any chance a new System album will follow? I'm not so sure I even want to make another System of a Down record at this point in my life. I'm getting along with the guys really well right now. Serj and I love each other and we enjoy being onstage together. So, maybe it's best for us to keep playing concerts as System and doing our own things outside of that. The cover art for 'Addicted to the Violence' — a silhouette of a woman against a blood-red background holding an oversize bullet over her head, and standing in front of a row of opium poppies — is the work of your father, Iraqi-born artist Vartan Malakian. Was he a major inspiration for you? My approach to art and everything I know about it comes from my dad, and the way we approach what we do is very similar. We both do it for ourselves. He has never promoted himself or done an art exhibition. The only things most people have seen from him are the album covers. But ever since I was born, he was doing art in the house, and he's never cared if anyone was looking at it. Do you seek his approval? No, I don't. He usually is very supportive of what I do, but my dad's a complicated guy. I admire him a lot and wish I could even be half of the artist that he is. And if he and my mom didn't move to this country, I would not have been in System of a Down. I would have ended up as a soldier during Desert Storm and the Second Gulf War. That's my alternative life. It's crazy. Have you been to Iraq? When I was 14 years old, I went there for two months to visit relatives and it was a complete culture shock. I'm a kid that grew up in Hollywood, and I went to Baghdad wearing a Metallica shirt and I was a total smart aleck. Everywhere we went, I saw pictures and statues of Saddam Hussein. I turned to my cousin and said, 'What if I walked up to one of the statues and said, 'Hey Saddam, go f— yourself?'' Just me saying that made him nervous and scared. Talking like that was seriously dangerous and I had no idea. That was a definite learning experience of what I could have been. And it inspired me later to write 'Satan Hussein.' You had a glimpse of life under an authoritarian regime. Do you have strong feelings about the Trump administration and the way the president has, at times, acted like a dictator? I don't hate the guy and I don't love the guy. I'm not on the right, I'm not on the left. There are some things both sides do that I agree with, but I don't talk about that stuff in interviews because when it comes to politics, I'm not on a team. I don't like the division in this country, and I think if you're too far right or you're too far left, you end up in the same place. Is 'Addicted to the Violence,' and especially the song 'Killing Spree,' a commentary on political violence in our country? Not just political violence, it's all violence. 'Killing Spree' is ridiculous. It's heavy. It's dark. But if you listen to the way I sing, there is an absolutely absurd delivery, almost like I'm having fun with it. I'm not celebrating the violence, but the delivery is done the way a crazy person would celebrate it. So, it's from the viewpoint of a killer, the viewpoint of a victim, and my own viewpoint. I saw a video on social media of these kids standing around in the street, and one of them gets wiped out by the back end of a car and flies into the air. These kids are recording it and some of them are laughing like's it's funny. I don't want to say that's right or wrong, but from what I'm seeing, a lot of people have become desensitized to violence. You're releasing 'Addicted to the Violence' about six weeks before the final six System of a Down dates of 2025. Have you figured out how to compartmentalize what you do with System of a Down and Scars on Broadway? There was a time that I couldn't juggle the two very well, but now I feel more confident and very comfortable with where System and Scars are. I love playing with System, and I want to do more shows with Scars. I couldn't tell you how either band will evolve. Only time will tell what happens and I'm fine with that as long as it happens in a natural way. Everything we've experienced has brought us to where we are now. And now is all we've got because the past is gone and the future isn't here yet. So, the most important thing is the present.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sean ‘Diddy' Combs: The ups and downs of a ‘bad boy' turned businessman
Sean 'Diddy' Combs once traced his success back to a pair of shoes. One day, when he was a child, he asked his mother for a new pair of sneakers, but she couldn't afford them. He recalled in a 2016 CNN interview that his mother almost began to cry upon hearing his request. That day, he said, 'my hustle was born.' The man who famously once sang about being a 'bad boy for life' had it pretty good for a long time, thanks to that hustle and his entrepreneurial successes. Buying new shoes may not be a problem anymore but he has bigger ones — especially lately. This week, authorities conducted searches on two of Combs' homes as part of a federal investigation carried out by a Department of Homeland Security team that handles human trafficking crimes, according to a senior federal law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. The probe reportedly stems from many of the same sexual assault allegations put forth in some civil lawsuits against him, according to a different law enforcement source familiar with the searches conducted on Combs' homes. Combs has been accused of sexual misconduct in five separate lawsuits filed in recent months – allegations he has repeatedly denied. It is unclear which allegations are included in the federal investigation. Throughout his career, the tides have changed for Combs about as often as he's changed his name. With his legacy in question, this particular chapter of the story of Sean 'Diddy' Combs is currently punctuated more by an ellipsis than a period. But if he manages to rebuild a once towering professional empire in the aftermath of his present legal troubles, Combs' image may one day be more synonymous with miracle worker than hitmaker. Before the world knew him as Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Puffy, Diddy and Love, Combs was building a career for himself and, most notably, as a producer for other artists, like Christopher Wallace, who was better known as Notorious B.I.G. Combs signed Wallace to his label Bad Boy Records in 1993, going on to produce with the young talent hit records like 'Big Poppa,' 'Hypnotize' and 'One More Chance' until 24-year-old Wallace's murder in March 1997. Months later, Combs, then only 27 himself, released his debut album, 'No Way Out.' It included a tribute song to Wallace that remains one of Combs' most memorable songs. 'I'll Be Missing You,' which sampled the The Police's 1983 hit 'Every Breath You Take,' was a massive hit for Combs and recording artist Faith Evans. 'I think I'll always feel some sort of responsibility because I'm in this thing with him,' Combs told Wendy Williams of Wallace's murder during an episode of her show in 2017. 'He's my artist.' 'I'll Be Missing You' was the first rap song to debut as No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and went on to win a Grammy. His success continued with albums such as 1999's 'Forever' and 'The Saga Continues…' which was released in 2001. That same year, Combs was found not guilty of charges relating to a shooting incident outside a Manhattan night club in 1999, following a high-profile trial. After the verdict, Combs told reporters that he would speak more on the matter at a later time, 'but right now, I just want to go and be with my kids.' He had two children at the time, but Combs is now a father of seven. His first child, Justin, was born to Combs' former girlfriend, stylist Misa Hylton, in 1993. Combs' long time, off and on relationship with model and actress Kim Porter resulted in the birth of son Christian in 1998. Twin daughters Jessie James and D'Lila Star followed in 2006. Combs adopted Porter's son, Quincy, from a previous relationship. He also fathered daughters, Chance, with internet personality Sarah Chapman in 2006, and, Love, with cybersecurity professional Dana Tran in 2022. In the world of business, Combs kept himself busy with ventures both during and after he peaked in the music world. Between his Sean Jean clothing line, his lucrative deal with Ciroc Vodka, his Revolt Media film and TV projects and his record label — among other ventures — Combs proved that 'All About the Benjamins' wasn't just a phrase in a song, it was a code he lived by. Those once burgeoning brands and businesses, however, are not what they once were. Founded in 1998, his Sean Jean clothing line once had annual retail sales of around $450 million by 2016, when Combs sold a majority stake to Global Brands Group, according to Women's Wear Daily. Combs won a bidding war to buy the brand back in 2021 after Global Brands Group went bankrupt. 'I launched Sean John in 1998 with the goal of building a premium brand that shattered tradition and introduced hip-hop to high fashion on a global scale,' Combs said at the time in a statement to Billboard. 'Seeing how streetwear has evolved to rewrite the rules of fashion and impact culture across categories, I'm ready to reclaim ownership of the brand, build a team of visionary designers and global partners to write the next chapter of Sean John's legacy.' There was drama with some of his other business ventures. In May 2023, he filed suit against Diageo PLC, his partner in the Ciroc vodka and DeLeón tequila businesses, alleging discrimination and that the company was limiting the reach of his brands by marketing them as 'urban.' That suit was resolved in January 2024. 'Sean Combs and Diageo have now agreed to resolve all disputes between them. Mr. Combs has withdrawn all of his allegations about Diageo and will voluntarily dismiss his lawsuits against Diageo with prejudice,' both parties said in a statement. 'Diageo and Mr. Combs have no ongoing business relationship, either with respect to Cîroc vodka or DeLeón tequila, which Diageo now solely owns.' His Bad Boy Entertainment label is still operating. The hip-hop mogul was also known for the media company Revolt. In November of 2023, the company announced Combs had temporarily stepped down as chairman after being hit with a suit by former longterm girlfriend Cassie Ventura, in which she alleged that she had been raped and repeatedly abused by Combs during their more than decade long relationship. Combs denied the allegations and the suit has been settled. The settlement was followed by four other civil suits filed in the past four months. The cases returned to the spotlight this week when authorities swarmed homes owned by Combs in Los Angeles and Miami as part of a federal investigation carried out by a Department of Homeland Security team that handles human trafficking crimes, according to a senior federal law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. 'There was a gross overuse of military-level force as search warrants were executed at Mr. Combs' residences,' Aaron Dyer, Combs's attorney, said in a statement to CNN on Tuesday. 'There is no excuse for the excessive show of force and hostility exhibited by authorities.' Dyer added, 'There has been no finding of criminal or civil liability with any of these allegations. Mr. Combs is innocent and will continue to fight every single day to clear his name.' Several artists long associated with him have yet to comment about Combs' legal issues publicly. CNN has reached out to some of his former collaborators, including Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans, MGK and Janelle Monáe, for comment. Combs and his twin teenage daughters were preparing to leave Miami for a planned spring break trip on Monday when the searches happened, a source close to Diddy and with direct knowledge of the situation told CNN. He was briefly stopped by law enforcement and subsequently released The source would not reveal Combs' vacation destination or current whereabouts. CNN's John Miller, Elizabeth Wolfe, Eric Levenson, Denise Royal, Elizabeth Wagmeister and Carlos Suarez contributed to this report
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Primary Wave Finalizes Deal For Biggie Smalls Catalog
The Notorious B.I.G.'s estate has closed on a deal to sell a stake in the legendary rapper's catalog to Primary Wave, the company confirmed on Thursday. The deal comes weeks after The Hollywood Reporter first broke the news on the deal's development.. Primary Wave didn't disclose the financial details of the deal. Sources previously told THR that Biggie's publishing rights were up for about $100 million, while the master rights were on the table for another 30 to 50 million. Sources said the deal gives Primary Wave 50 percent to both rights, as well as his name and likeness. More from The Hollywood Reporter Coachella 2025 Is Almost Here: These Are the Best Deals on Weekend Passes, One-Day Tickets, Camping and More Online Eminem's Former Employee Charged With Leaking Rapper's Music On 'Hot,' K-Pop Stars Le Sserafim Explore Love and Perseverance: "We Are Going to Give Our All" Voletta Wallace died last month, and as the Wall Street Journal reported, she reached the deal just before her death. Biggie is known as one of the greatest and most influential artists in the history of rap, recording hits like 'Big Poppa,' 'Juicy' and 'Hypnotize,' while his 1994 debut album Ready to Die is considered one of the greatest albums of all time. Biggie, whose real name is Christopher Wallace, was tragically killed in Los Angeles in 1997 when he was just 24 years old. Life After Death, the sequel to Ready to Die, came out two weeks after his death and featured the hits 'Hypnotize' and 'Mo Money Mo Problems.' Since his death, Voletta Wallace oversaw his estate and worked at preserving her son's legacy as one of the seminal figures of hip hop. The estate released the posthumous albums Born Again and Duets: The Final Chapter in 1999 and in 2005. She was a producer on the 2009 biopic Notorious as well. Primary Wave has been one of the most active companies in the catalog acquisition space over the past several years, buying up rights for legendary artists like Whitney Houston, Stevie Nicks, Bob Marley and Luther Vandross. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Highest-Profile Harris Endorsements: Taylor Swift, George Clooney, Bruce Springsteen and More Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2024: Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Olivia Rodrigo and More
