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After shaping the sound and style of generations, MTV is preparing to close a major chapter in its history. According to E! News, the network will shut down five of its music channels in the United Kingdom, including MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, Club MTV, and MTV Live, on Dec. 31, 2025. While this has raised questions among fans wondering, “Is MTV shutting down?” its main channel, MTV HD, will continue broadcasting, focusing on reality programming, the outlet reports. The decision comes more than four decades after MTV revolutionized television by becoming the world’s first 24-hour music video channel. When it launched in the United States in 1981, it famously opened with The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star.” Six years later, MTV Europe expanded the brand’s reach, and by 1997, the U.K.’s MTV channel became a cultural staple for audiences. Why MTV Is Ending Its UK Music Channels As BBC News reports, the shutdown reflects the ongoing shift in how audiences consume music. Viewers...
Lil Jon said he will forever be indebted to Too $hort for setting him free from a lifetime contract. Lil John was first a DJ, making waves in the Atlanta music scene, he explained in a podcast interview with “Bringing Down The Band.” He had become interested in DJing while throwing house parties in his home, carrying on the tradition of one of his high school friends who went away to the Navy. Lil John’s rise in the city then caught the attention of Jermaine Dupri, who enlisted him for A&R and street promotions at his label, So So Def Recordings. Lil Jon gained momentum in the area as a producer. He admitted his claim to fame was executive producing all three compilations of the “So So Def Bass All-Stars” albums, which featured one of today’s enduring classics, Ghost Town DJs’ “My Boo.” He also formed a group called the East Side Boyz during this period, with Big Sam and Lil Bo , according to Franchise Record Pool . Escaping Lifetime Deal Lil Jon worked with the label from 1993 to...
AI artist Xania Monet has signed a lucrative deal. AI has permanently changed the landscape. In the music industry, it is used to create song lyrics or beats. Some have used it further, creating entire artists utilizing the technology. One named Xania Monet is an R&B artist created by Mississippi poet and design studio owner Telisha Jones, who made Monet’s music using her own lyrics as well as live elements and Suno. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Suno is a leading AI music creation tool, also used by Timbaland, its strategic advisor. The company has also faced a copyright infringement lawsuit in 2024. Timbaland himself has signed an AI artist, named TaTa, under his AI-focused entertainment company Stage Zero, as mentioned in a separate AFROTECH™ story. So, it should be no surprise that he is a Xania Monet fan. “You better check out xania monet who’s killing it good music,” Timbaland said in a post promoting his interview with Billboard. PC: Instagram/ Timbaland Romel Murphy, a...
Teyana Taylor is crediting Beyoncé for the sound advice that she applied to her business endeavors. The Harlem, NY, native is a jack of all trades , with titles that include artist, actor, dancer, choreographer, model, creative director, and businesswoman. View this post on Instagram A post shared by i-D (@i_d) As AFROTECH™ previously reported, she attended the Harlem School of Arts to study music, acting, and choreography. Her breakthrough in the entertainment industry occurred in 2007 after signing a record deal with Pharrell Williams’ Star Trak Entertainment. Working as the choreographer at age 15 for Beyoncé’s “Ring the Alarm” music video the year prior served as a career catalyst, according to a separate AFROTECH™ article. Fast forward to 2025, Taylor acknowledged in an interview with Marie Claire that Beyoncé supported Taylor during the highs and lows of her career. Taylor retired from music in 2020, stating she felt “unappreciated” by her label, Def Jam, per People. She...
Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, has entered the crypto world. What To Know About $YZY The “Ultralight Beam” rapper launched the $YZY token on the Solana blockchain platform and announced it on X. The token’s website describes it as a “concept for a new financial system, built on crypto rails.” On X, Ye also refers to the $YZY token as “Yeezy Money.” “YEEZY MONEY IS HERE. A NEW ECONOMY, BUILT ON CHAIN,” he wrote on X. Photo Credit: X Upon its launch, the token, described by Forbes as a “memecoin,” sent people into a frenzy. Within 40 minutes, the coin reached a $3 billion market capitalization at its peak before moving to $1.1 billion, according to Forbes and information shared with AFROTECH™. It was also noted that the coin increased by nearly 1,000% upon its launch. CoinDesk reports the token’s price has now fallen below $1. Nansen, an on-chain analytics firm, said early buyers have reported millions in wins and losses within hours of trading. According to the top 500 wallets...
Kandi Burruss is still making a bag from her gift of writing. Burruss, part of the legendary R&B female vocal group Xscape, also writes hits for some of music’s best. This includes Pink’s debut single, “There You Go,” in 2000, which was the pop artist’s first hit, according to People. She is also responsible for co-writing TLC’s “No Scrubs,” a certified classic that took the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks when it was released in 1999, mentions Bravo TV. The following year, the song earned Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal at The Grammys. Additionally, the track reached 1 billion streams on Spotify in 2024 — making it the first song to hit that milestone for TLC, which included Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas, according to Rated R&B. “‘No Scrubs’ will forever be my gift that keeps on giving back to me. People keep sampling it,” Burruss told Entertainment Tonight. When recalling some of her favorite songs she...
Lloyd understood the importance of being a student of the game when he entered the music industry as a child. Industry Journey The R&B crooner is known for hit songs such as “You,” his “biggest earned streamed song.” He spent a lot of time in the studio learning from those who paved the way such as Dallas Austin, Gerald Busby, Tricky Stewart, as well as Joyce Irby, a mentor of his who signed him to Atlanta-based teen pop group N-Toon in 1997 when he was just 10 years old, noted Foxy 107.1/104.3. “She basically just poured a lot of time and love into me so that I wouldn’t make kinda the same pitfalls in the beginning. So by the time I was 18 years old, I was really headstrong. I knew exactly what I wanted. I knew exactly how to find my sound, and I wasn’t gonna let anybody tell me what I already knew, “ Lloyd said following a performance on the Coca-Cola Stage at the Convention Center during the 2025 Essence Festival of Culture, held in his hometown of New Orleans, LA. Photo Credit:...
Grammy Award-winning singer Kirk Franklin has deepened his partnership with a media and entertainment company, which will increase funding for his creative endeavors. Franklin’s Fo Yo Soul Recordings and CLTRE Lab merged with Insignia Assets, established by Norman Gyamfi and Jonathan Jay, according to Billboard . The companies will be able to benefit from Insignia Assets’ portfolio, which encompasses recorded music and publishing, television, film, touring and events. The gospel artist will assume a new title, serving as Insignia Assets’ chief of creative services. “We’ve worked with Kirk for some time now—from the 2022 release of the multi-GRAMMY®-winning collaborative album, Kingdom, to producing sold-out arena tours with him consecutively over the past few years,” Gyamfi, Insignia Assets’ co-founder and CEO, told the music publication. “Today, we’re thrilled to fortify and deepen our partnership by welcoming Kirk to our executive team and by charting a course for the future with...
Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” proved to be good business for Chicago, IL, locals. The entertainer who won Best Country Album at the 2025 Grammy Awards for “Cowboy Carter” is currently touring its tunes with a stop in the Windy City. According to USA Today, the three planned concerts took place on May 15–18 at Soldier Field . View this post on Instagram A post shared by Beyoncé (@beyonce) The tour brought great momentum for the city and was beneficial to several Black-owned businesses, including Bronzeville Soul. The restaurant first benefited from the Carter family in 2023. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Hip-Hop mogul Jay-Z had been in the area to celebrate his wife Beyoncé’s second night of her “Renaissance World Tour,” which was also held at Soldier Field. The soul food restaurant had been “up and down” for nearly a year before Jay-Z’s visit, but it was able to gain new momentum afterward. “The element of that surprise was huge. It was overwhelming,” Bronzeville Soul Co-Owner Mario...
Salt-N-Pepa are taking Universal Music Group (UMG) to court. Comprised of Cheryl “Salt” James and Sandra “Pepa” Denton, the rap duo Salt-N-Pepa — who has released 11 albums since their debut in 1986, according to Genius — has filed a lawsuit over their masters . According to the Associated Press, they allege that ownership of their masters should be transferred to them and that UMG is in violation of the Copyright Act of 1976, which states that artists have the right to reclaim ownership of their masters and can void previous agreements after several decades. In 2022, the pair first filed to terminate the terms they had established with UMG, stating they were “eager to retake full ownership of their art and legacy,” and adding, “inexplicably, UMG has refused to honor” their rights. The pair believe they should have ownership of their masters for albums such as debut “Hot, Cool & Vicious” (1986), “Push It” (1987), and by 2026, “Very Necessary” (1993). In response, UMG said in a June...
Editorial Note: Opinions and thoughts are the author’s own and not those of AFROTECH™. The theme of the 2025 Met Gala was “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”, particularly focused on Black dandyism. Guest Curator Monica L. Miller’s book, “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity,” served as the primary inspiration for the exhibit. Black dandyism began in 18th century Britain, but its cultural movement took root in the early 20th century, in which Black people embodied the European sensibility through clothing as a form of self-expression. Emerging during a time when African Americans had little to no agency after the Emancipation Proclamation (1863), they used dandyism to address the erosion of their civil rights. The theme highly parallels the current fight to retain ownership and freedom during a divisive time in politics. The 2025 Met Gala had Black male co-chairs for the first time in history, with celebrities A$AP Rocky, Lewis Hamilton,...
Bobby Brown reveals the one business move he wish he had implemented at the start of his career. Brown’s rise to fame was through New Edition, which also included members Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Ralph Tresvant, and Ronnie DeVoe. The group infamously got their start in the industry after signing a $500 deal with musician and producer Maurice Starr, as AFROTECH™ previously told you. Their hit singles include “Can You Stand the Rain” and “If It Isn’t Love.” Brown later went solo after being voted out of the group, launching a highly successful career that saw him sell over 12 million physical copies. The success of his sophomore album, “Don’t Be Cruel,” alone was enough to set him up for life. He also made several business moves that benefited his career, including his publishing deal, which was structured by his mother and management team. “I saw a lot of it, because my deal was situated in a way where I made dollars on each record, not pennies,” he said on the “Club Shay Shay”...
Bobby Brown’s mother had a hand in his publishing deal that is still sending him checks today. Brown is an R&B crooner whose music career began with the boy group New Edition. The group was formed in the Orchard Park Projects of Roxbury, Boston, MA, and originally included Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, and Brown. Ralph Tresvant and Ronnie DeVoe joined later, notes The Grio. Their claim to fame was participating in a talent show in 1983 where they finished in second place, catching the attention of musician and producer Maurice Starr. The group signed to Starr under a deal with a $500 bonus . “Our royalty check was like $168 but we got $500 to sign and a VCR… We didn’t know anything about it,” Brown acknowledged on the “Club Shay Shay” podcast with Shannon Sharpe . “All we wanted was to perform. All we wanted to do was make enough money to go to the movies, buy candy, date girls. That’s all we thought about. We wasn’t thinking about the longevity.” New Edition then released their debut...
Despite major record labels suing it for its AI technology, Timbaland is standing beside Suno, the music creation program. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, Timbaland aligned himself with the artificial intelligence (AI) music creation tool Suno in October 2024, taking on the title of its strategic advisor. He had already been an avid user of the platform for several months. “You can put out great songs in minutes,” he said during an interview with Rolling Stone. “I always wanted to do what Quincy Jones did with Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ when he was [almost] 50. So my ‘Thriller,’ to me, is this tool. God presented this tool to me. I probably made a thousand beats in three months, and a lot of them—not all—are bangers and from every genre you can possibly think of. I just did four K-pop songs this morning!” Timbaland’s embrace of AI is not new. While speaking at the AFROTECH™ Conference in November 2023, during a panel titled “From Producer to Founder: A Conversation with...
A portion of Notorious B.I.G.’s estate will now be handled by Primary Wave. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, a deal rumored to be in the “eight figures” was in the works between Notorious B.I.G.’s estate and the music publisher and involved half his publishing and master rights, including his rights to name, image, voice, and “other identifiable characteristics.” Notorious B.I.G.’s estate had been primarily run by his mother, Voletta Wallace, who was instrumental in securing stake from Bad Boy Records. Christopher Wallace, otherwise known as Biggie Smalls or Notorious B.I.G., had been one of the first artists to sign to the label owned by Sean “Diddy” Combs. Bad Boy Records had 50% stake in his songwriting catalog, Variety mentions. Voletta was able to increase the estate’s stake to 85% after arguing it was doing the heavy lifting in securing deals to license and monetize Notorious B.I.G.’s music. She then secured the remaining 15% stake in 2020. “Securing control of my son’s...
