Drake and Diddy Altercation Reportedly Over A Beat

Gawker is confirming that the fight stems from "misuse" of the "0 to 100″ beat that has been a hit for Drake this year. The beat, made by Boi-1da, was reportedly given to both Diddy and Drake, with Drizzy getting restless about Puffy sleeping on the beat, and finally releasing the song without the hip-hop legend.

Much of the Gawker story comes from TMZ, but according to the story, Diddy saw Drake at DJ Khaled's Miami birthday party and punched him in the shoulder, exasperating an old injury that required the Canadian rapper seek medical attention.

Read more here.

Avril Lavigne Reportedly Suffering From Undisclosed Illness

That account posted what is reportedly a private conversation between the account's owner and Lavigne, with the pop star saying that she was "not feeling well" and had been "having some health issues."

It's unknown, however, what those health issues may be. Billboard reached out to a rep from Lavigne's camp, but the rep could not disclose the illness. Read more here.

Rihanna Previews New Song 'Kiss It Better'

In the clip we see a guy with a guitar, believed to be her touring guitarist, Nuno Bettencourt, who is known for his band Extreme. This would certainly explain the video's caption "phuck wit nuno" and the track's very '80s, early '90s sound.

Someone else is also seen at the computer figuring out the final touches of the track, asking questions about the song's intro and whether they should go back to that instead.

So when will Rihanna actually drop this single for real? Or, even better, when will R8 be announced? We're not sure, but the singer is certainly having fun teasing us.

Rihanna even took to Twitter to play with the hype, writing, "So where is the #R8 starter pack?" only to reveal a photo of an older lady wearing a turquoise hat with a metal plate reading "Bad Gal."

Check out the preview here.

Charli XCX Streaming New Album 'Sucker'

In an interview with Radio.com, the singer, who rose to pop music prominence singing the hook on Iggy Azalea's "Fancy" and with her solo singles afterward, explained the album's title.

'I think firstly, the name is like a 'told you so' to all the people who doubted me and thought I was a bad songwriter," she says. 'It's also my cynical view on some of the people in the music industry and how they're so weird and caught up in such bizarre, tiny things. I guess it's also a comment on me, because even though I feel like I'm critiquing the pop circus, I'm also very aware that I'm part of that now." More including the stream link here.

Garth Brooks Announces World Tour

The tour kicked off Sept. 4 in Chicago with 10 shows, and nearly each week since then the country singer has added new cities to the roster including Atlanta, Lexington, Minneapolis, Boston, Tusla, Little Rock, St. Louis, Greensboro, Buffalo and Pittsburgh.

The latest city added to his tour, which is expected to go through 2015, is Detroit. The shows will be held at Joe Louis Arena on Feb. 27 and 28. More including the dates here.

Taylor Swift Featured In 'South Park' Holiday Episode

As if that depiction wasn't provoking enough, the episode will be called, The Washington Redskins' Go F**k Yourself Holiday Special. As far as other celebrities go, Swift and Cosby will be joined in the episode by cartoon renderings of Al Pacino, Iggy Azalea, J.J. Watt, Miley Cyrus, U2, Angelina Jolie and Lady Gaga--plus the holograms of Elvis Presley, Kurt Cobain and Michael Jackson as Peter Pan.

Judging by the promo, Lady Gaga will even perform--with commentary by Eric Cartman--Miley Cyrus will swing on her wrecking ball and Iggy Azalea will rap next to a snowman. Check out the preview here.

Beyonce, Pharrell Lead Facebook's 2014 Top Entertainers List

And the Pew Internet Center says that 71 percent of Americans are on Facebook as of 2013, so she's captured the attention of the actual majority of the country.

The site ranked several other categories, with Frozen landing at the No. 1 spot for movies and Pharrell's "Happy" was the No. 1 song, with John Legend's "All of Me" and Sam Smith's "Stay with Me" following. Beyonce & Jay Z's "Drunk in Love" was No. 6 on the song list, with no other Bey entries.

The full list of Facebook's Top 10 Entertainers of 2014 is here.

Katy Perry Reveals Fitness Plan For Super Bowl Performance

The pop singer, who'll make her first appearance at the halftime show early next year, tweeted her new low-carb mantra today: "Eye on the prize not on the fries."

It's a pretty surprising choice of words for someone who dressed up as a flaming hot Cheeto for Halloween, but then again that's a small sacrifice to perfect a performance that about 100 million people will watch live.

Of course, she could be as serious about her fries ban as she was about filling her show with cats, glitter you can eat, fire-breathing sharks and a pegasus she purchased online--which were all rattled off by the singer in a new Pepsi commercial that doubles as an early promo for the show. Read more here.

U2 Release Surprise Visual Album

The Films of Innocence project premiered Monday across 11 platforms according to the band's website. The films are created by a series of urban artists, including Robin Rhode, D*Face, Oliver Jeffers, Chloe Early and several more.

"With the political murals of Northern Ireland as a reference point, U2 chose the artists and gave them complete creative freedom to create personal responses to the music of their new album," the band explain in a statement on their website. Read more here.

Future and Mike WiLL Made It Team For New Mixtape

This is not the first time that the pair have worked together, as Mike WiLL Made It executive produced Future's recent LP, Honest. But Mike WiLL Made It says this will be something different than what the two have done in the past.

"It's like a tape, really," Mike said to XXL. "Just something to just feed the streets right quick, 'cause at the end of the day me and Future do so many different types of music."

Read more here.

Migos and Chief Keef Apparently End Beef

But Monday night the two parties didn't act like there's any bad blood while at an event in New York, seeming to indicate that if there was a problem at all, it's now been resolved.

Migos even posted a picture of their crews together along with the caption, "Miglo." That would coincide with a statement Migos gave to Billboard last month concerning the two groups. Read more here.

Victoria's Secret Angels 'Shake It Off' to Taylor Swift Hit

Models Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, Behati Prinsloo, Candice Swanepoel, Doutzen Kroes, Karlie Kloss and Lily Aldridge can all be seen showing off their best dance moves. Since Kloss and Aldridge are apparently Swift's new besties, it makes sense they'd be a part of it.

It appears that Swift approves of the girl's moves, since she promoted the video on her personal Twitter with one word: "swoon." She also tweeted a gif showing how she gets ready for a show with Ed Sheeran.

See the tweets and the promo here.

Jessie Ware Announces Tour

However, the sophomore album hasn't quite lived up to the pre-release anticipation, peaking at number 50 on the Billboard 200, while reaching number 9 in the U.K.

So Ware will do what every other hard-working artist does to boost album sales: she'll tour the heck out of it. Ware has announced a hefty run of dates that will reach Europe and the U.S. in early 2015.

Among the stops are O2 Academy Brixton in London, Terminal 5 in New York City, and The Wiltern in Los Angeles. Not included on the dates are an announced appearance at South by Southwest in March, which probably means, like, half-a-dozen Austin club dates in a weeks' time.

Check out the dates here.

Deadmau5 Reacts To Krewella Op-Ed Criticism

Given the article's baiting title ('Deadmau5 Saved Me from Going into Porn"�), it was only a matter of time before the Mau5-headed EDM producer also known as Joel Zimmerman would fire back, and he did so in a matter of just a few hours.

In a series of profane tweets, Deadmau5 called Yousaf out not for being female, but for "play(ing) the sex card" and not being very good at their job. ".@Krewella @billboard it has nothing to dow ith you being a woman, it has everything to do with you sucking at music. Im an equal sex hater.- (@deadmau5) December 09, 2014"

Deadmau5's tweets ranged from angry to confused, openly wondering why Yousaf chose to single him out in the op-ed. "god, sorry folks, im just so... in awe that they would even bother. 'the spread of negativity toward women in this industry' f'n wut?- (@deadmau5) December 09, 2014"

More including Krewella response to Deadmau5 here.

Kanye West Gave Seth Rogen Private New Album Listening Party

Not just any sneak peek--unlike the handful of lucky people at Paris Fashion Week who had the chance to mosh to the new full-length, Seth Rogen's listening party was as intimate as one can get. Namely, it consisted of the comedian sitting in a limo with the masked man himself, who rapped the entire thing live atop beats. Not to mention for two hours.

Rogen recalled the unreal experience to Rolling Stone. "There's no lyrics, only beats," he said. "So he raps the whole album, and after each song, he stops it, like, 'So what do you think?' We were in the van for two hours!"

As for how Rogen was invited inside Kanye's limo? The opportunity came up after he and James Franco released their parody "Bound 3″ video, and ran into West at a New York hotel. Read more here.

Jason Aldean Realizes Baseball Stadium Dreams In A Different Way

The country star has spent most of 2014 rolling across America on the Burn It Down Tour, which has included stops at a handful of the country's premier Major League Baseball stadiums, moments that the former baseball player always makes a point to appreciate.

"I grew up honestly thinking that baseball was going to be my career path. To walk away from that, what could've possibly been a career in baseball to play music�for me, it does bring it full circle," he says. "It gives me a chance to go in and play some of these ballparks. Fenway Park, Wrigley Field�to sort of experience that vibe in the ballparks is something I never thought in a million years. For me, it's just a cool way to bring it all back together and have the best of it all, really."

When asked which of his own songs would make for a good baseball walk-up track, he immediately calls out the title track of his fourth studio album, released back in 2010.

"If I had to pick one of my songs, it would probably be 'My Kinda Party.' It's hard not to get jacked up for that one," he laughs. "There's a song that we actually come out to every night onstage, and it's a song called 'Secret Weapon.' It's by the Jompson Brothers. It's just one of those songs that gets you fired up ready to go. If I had to pick something that wasn't mine, it would probably be that."

Watch the full video interview to watch Aldean discuss his lifelong love of sports, and which professional athletes he would choose for his fantasy all-star sports band here.

Maddie and Tae Score No. 1 Single

This is a significant achievement not only because it's the brand-new duo's very first single, but also because it's only the second radio single from a female artist or group to reach No. 1 this year on a country airplay chart (Mediabase or Billboard), following Miranda Lambert's "Automatic." (Carrie Underwood's "Something in the Water" and Lambert and Underwood's duet "Something Bad" topped Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, but that chart takes more than radio airplay into consideration.)

And if you look at the Billboard Country Airplay chart alone, "Girl in a Country Song" is the first song to reach No. 1 since Underwood did so back in October of 2012 with "Blown Away." Yes, based on that chart it's been two long years since a female artist reached the top.

By comparison, in 1995 five female artists reached the top of the Billboard country singles chart. The following year was even better: Of the 28 singles topping the that chart, 12 were from women.

Does this mean there aren't worthwhile female artists in country music right now? Not at all. In fact, the current country landscape is full of powerful (and, yes, popular) female singers who've been earning attention and seeing their profiles grow. Read more here.

Jennifer Nettles Going Broadway In 'Chicago'

She'll appear in the show for a limited eight week engagement, kicking off her run on February 2. "I love the story. It's lighthearted," she told Today. "Lighthearted about murder."

Nettles isn't so much scared to hit the Great White Way, but excited. "This one makes me on fire, thrilled," she said, explaining that "no one phones it in on Broadway."

"You can be Auto-Tuned, or your looks can carry you," she said of pop music. "But not on Broadway." Read more here.

Beyonce and Jay-Z Meet Royal Couple: William and Kate Middleton

William and Kate Middleton took their court side seats across from Queen Bey and Jay before the third quarter. The two couples then shared royal pleasantries and handshakes and smiles.

"Jay Z wished Will and Kate 'Merry Christmas' when he was talking to them," an eyewitness told People. It was also reported that while the two couples were chatting, the songs "God Save the Queen" and then "Crazy In Love" played throughout the arena.

Some people on Twitter dreamed up what the Royals were thinking as Bey and Jay came over to speak to them. "Kate is like 'OMG I met Beyonce!' #royalvisitusa #williamandkate http://t.co/6CQL24ePFW- Sara Sumners (@PurpleYing) December 09, 2014"

But, watch the real clip of Will & Kate meeting Bey & Jay here.

Lorde's Favorite Activity Is Dumpster Diving

Except for maybe that one hobby of hers, which is actually quite interesting. "See, I'm boring because my favorite thing to do is trawl the inorganics," she told the mag. "Do you have inorganics here?"

What Lorde calls inorganics, we would call dumpster diving. According to Stella, Lorde is referring to a reuse/recycling initative in her mother land, New Zealand. It's a period each year when everyone does a little bit of spring cleaning, getting rid of old items like electronics and clothes.

"It stays on the street for a few days and then it's collected and put into a landfill somewhere," Lorde explained. "But people drive around and go through other people's household rubbish. And, honestly, I've gotten amazing furniture, shoes, hats, jackets."

Read more here.

Did Apple Kill the iPod Classic Prematurely?

But the company may have jumped the gun by pulling the plug, as it were, on the device that arguably both changed the music industry and saved Apple.

Since vanishing from Apple's online store earlier this year, fans have been scrambling to purchase the last few touch-screen-less iPods on the market. With most of them having sold out from retail outlets, many are taking to eBay and Amazon to buy secondhand (but unopened) iPod Classics for well over their list price.

But why are people so attached to a device that Apple itself has deemed no longer necessary? The 160 GB Classic can hold around 40,000 songs, far more than any iPod Touch can hold, and is probably more than most people actually need. With streaming services increasing in popularity, and the near ubiquity of the iPhone, the iPod may have lost its appeal to many. However, there are no subscription or data charges with an iPod classic, you can listen to it anywhere and many users prefer to have their music player separate from their phone (how old school!). Read more here.

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