Latest news with #SiR
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
SiR Claims Drake, Kendrick Lamar Beef Resulted In Toronto Concert Cancellation
SiR is pointing fingers at Drake, claiming the rap superstar may have had a direct hand in the cancellation of a scheduled concert in Toronto last year. During a recent live show in Canada, the Top Dawg Entertainment singer opened up to fans about the behind-the-scenes drama that led to the nixed tour date, which would've occurred in July 2024. 'So the venue in Toronto, which was partially owned by Drake, cancelled the show completely,' SiR revealed to the crowd in a now-viral clip. 'Then when we tried to switch venues, the next venue was like, 'Nah we ain't f**cking with it, I ain't taking no motherf**cking chance.'' The Inglewood native went on to explain that he 'kinda got caught' in the crossfire of the ongoing feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, citing 'complications' that were 'too close to home for a lot of people.' The cancellation came in the wake of Lamar's explosive diss track 'Not Like Us,' which took direct aim at Drake and has since become central in the latter's ongoing lawsuit against Universal Music Group. Initially, SiR took a diplomatic stance, apologizing to his Toronto fans and attributing the cancellation to the venue. 'So sorry to my Toronto fans. The show has been cancelled. We're working on rescheduling for a later date,' he wrote on social media. 'For those wondering, we sold that show out. It was cancelled by the venue. Not sure why. My apologies again to those that came just to see me.' SiR isn't the only TDE member affected. In 2024, ScHoolboy Q hinted that his own Toronto stop was similarly blocked, writing on X (formerly Twitter), 'THey just cancelled my sHow in TORONTO,' followed by a laughing emoji. 'CANADIAN POLICE DONT WANT NOBODY FROM TDE PERFORMING.' See footage of SiR addressing his cancelled Toronto concert below. More from Drake And PARTYNEXTDOOR Announce Summer 2025 Overseas Tour "$ome $pecial $hows 4 U" Pusha T Addresses Drake's UMG Lawsuit Over Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" DJ Akademiks Clowns Ab-Soul For Being Legally Blind In Response To Diss Track
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Queens of the Stone Age Couldn't ‘Over-Rehearse' for Paris Catacombs Concert Film: ‘You Go Down There & All the Plans Are Off'
Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme has some sage advice for anyone who finds themselves in a difficult situation. 'If you're going through hell,' Homme says, 'keep going.' More from Billboard Queens of the Stone Age Announce 'Alive in the Catacombs' Concert Film, Album Billboard & Global Venture Partners Launch Billboard Africa Here's What Fans Think of SiR Claiming Drake Had His 2024 Toronto Show Canceled Easy for him to say: He's one of the few lucky souls who has left the Paris Catacombs, the subject of his band's new film and the final home to more than 6 million deceased Parisians following an 18th-century effort to fix Paris' overcrowded, dilapidated cemetery system. Homme has long been fascinated by the underground burial site, visited by more than a half-million people each year, and chose the dark and foreboding underground capsule as the central motif for Queens of the Stone Age's new project Alive in the Catacombs, a concert and concept film directed by Thomas Rames and produced by La Blogothèque. 'This place is like trying to run on a sheet of ice,' Hommes explains in the accompanying documentary Alive in Paris and Before, shot by the band's longtime visual collaborator Andreas Neumann. 'You have no idea how much time has passed up there, up above, and no time has passed below. It's the same time, all the time, every time.' It's easy to get lost in the maze-like film as it wanders through the subterranean tunnels and ossuaries buried deep beneath the City of Light. The film captures Homme at a low point in 2024, having to cancel a major European leg of the band's tour due to a cancer diagnosis from which he has since recovered. Performing in the Catacombs had been a lifelong dream of Homme's, and he pushes though the pain to delivery a carefully arranged performance of music from the band's back catalog, 'stripped down bare, without taking away what made each one wonderful,' band member Dean Fertita explains in the documentary. The band recruited violinist Christelle Lassort and viola player Arabella Bozig to repurpose tracks like 'Paper Machete,' 'Kalopsia' and 'Villains of Circumstance'; while each song was performed acoustically, Homme was adamant the project not simply feel like 'Queens of the Stone Age Unplugged.' 'When you go into the Catacombs, there are 6 million people in there, and I think about, 'What would you want to hear if you were one of those people?'' Homme said Wednesday night (June 4) during a Q&A in Los Angeles following a screening of the film. 'I'd want to hear about family and acceptance and things I care about. A lot of the songs we picked are about the moment you realize there's difficulty and the moment you realize you're past it, so a lot of the songs we picked were about letting the people down there know it's all right and that we care about them.' Homme said the challenges of the performance was that unlike a traditional concert where the band plays to the audience, 'We're in the belly of this thing. The ceiling is dripping and it's an organic thing that's really dominating.' The Paris Catacombs were built during a time of great upheaval in French society, as revolution completely reshaped civic life and laid siege to the political fabric of the French monarchy. There are no coffins or headstones in the Catacombs, with the bones of the princes and kings mixed with peasants and non-nobility. The band shot the entire film in one day, Homme said, securing permission from the historical group that oversees the Paris Catacombs to shoot on a day the space was closed to the public. 'We didn't over-rehearse; we just rehearsed twice,' Homme said. 'It's not supposed to be perfect. You try to make a plan, but you go down there and all the plans are off.' Fans can preorder the film in advance on Queens of the Stone Age's website; fans who order the video before Saturday will also receive the mini-documentary film. Watch the trailer below: Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Here's What Fans Think of SiR Claiming Drake Had His 2024 Toronto Show Canceled
Top Dawg Entertainment singer SiR had his 2024 tour stop in Toronto canceled, and he made his return north of the border for a show on Wednesday (June 4). During his performance, SiR placed the blame for his original cancellation on Drake. In a clip from the performance, SiR says that he was 'caught in the middle of a beef I ain't have s–t to do with,' referencing the ongoing feud between the Toronto rapper and Kendrick Lamar. However, SiR quickly walked back the claims and said it was the venue — which is co-owned by Drizzy — that cancelled his show. More from Billboard Monkees' Micky Dolenz Reveals He Lost Out on 'Happy Days' Fonzie Role to Henry Winkler: 'I Almost Got It' Lil Wayne's Unreleased 'Tha Carter VI' Song With U2's Bono Soundtracks NBA Finals Promo Tiësto & Sexyy Red Get Slinky on New Collab 'OMG!': Stream It Now 'Then when we tried to switch venues, the venue was like, 'Nah, we ain't f—ing with it. I ain't taking no motherf—ing chance you gon' get your ass beat,'' he says in the clip. Billboard has reached out to Drake's team for comment. The clip from Wednesday's concert went viral on social media as fans had plenty to say about SiR's claims, who himself wondered, 'Why is this news?' Plenty of OVO fans were riled up at SiR's comments and hopped into his replies on X. 'It's news because you said Drake name,' one person said. Another added: 'Why you mentioning Drake when he has no clue who you are?' At the time of the 2024 show, SiR blamed the venue in a statement to fans on X. 'So sorry to my Toronto fans. The show has been canceled. We're working on rescheduling for a later date,' he wrote, per VIBE. 'For those wondering, we sold that show out. It was canceled by the venue. Not sure why. My apologies again to those that came just to see me.' SiR wasn't the only TDE-affiliate to have issues touring in Canada, as ScHoolboy Q also had a show scrapped in Toronto last summer. 'THey just canceled my sHow in TORONTO,' he said at the time. 'CANADIAN POLICE DONT WANT NOBODY FROM TDE PERFORMING.' See how fans reacted to the clip of SiR talking about his 2024 cancellation below:Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
Winnipeg Free Press
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Wait no more
On a sweltering May afternoon, with an apocalyptic smokescreen descending upon the ruins of a burned-down monastery in St. Norbert, director Rodrigo Beilfuss leads rehearsals for a play that's frustrated him every day since preparation began in April. 'It's killing me in a beautiful way,' the artistic director of Shakespeare in the Ruins says with a smile. The work he's discussing is Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, a play that since its première has confounded, confused, delighted and enlightened audiences the world over. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Macbeth (Darren Martens, left) and Lady Macbeth (Lindsay Nance) are the sensual heart of Shakespeare's classic murder mystery. Called an 'acrid cartoon of the story of mankind' in 1956 by New York Times reviewer Brooks Atkinson, Godot opens on June 13 in St. Norbert, with an estimable cast led by Arne MacPherson's Vladimir, Cory Wojcik's Estragon and Tom Keenan's Pozzo. This season at the Ruins, the company is producing Godot in repertory with Macbeth, which opens tonight, directed by Emma Welham. Last produced by SiR as an award-winning feature film in 2020 as a pandemic pivot project, the Scottish-based play features Darren Martens in the titular role, alongside Lindsay Nance (Lady Macbeth), Tracy Penner (Banquo), Ray Strachan (Macduff) and three actors — Keenan, Liam Dutiaume and Mackenzie Wojcik (Cory Wojcik's son) — who will straddle the worlds of Beckett and Shakespeare by appearing in both productions. Welham, making her professional directing debut, says that like Godot, Macbeth is a challenging, layered piece of theatre that demands consideration of tragic structure, the presence of the supernatural and the masks its characters wear to cover their private selves. In complementary ways, both directors agree, the works wrestle with human nature, trust and the fallibility of the universe. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Emma Welham takes on the challenge of directing Macbeth. 'Throughout the course of the play — spoiler alert — Macbeth becomes a tyrannical ruler, and this show really asks the question of how we're willing to stand up to it. What are we willing to do to stand up against injustice? It asks the question of who we put our trust in and why,' says Welham, who just finished her first year at the National Theatre School's directing program in Montreal. 'The central image of the show I return to is when Lady Macbeth says, 'Look like the innocent flower / but be the serpent under't.'' Nothing is exactly as it seems, and as in Godot, the work calls into question what is ever knowable about the characters we watch onstage or meet in day-to-day life. At the rehearsal for Godot, the cast and crew are working their way through the particularities of the movement and dialogue in Beckett's two-act tragicomedy, so clearly described in the script that each time the slavish Lucky (Dutiaume) moves a muscle, it must perfectly follow — or blatantly ignore — the orders of Keenan's prim Pozzo. 'It's relentlessly specific,' Beilfuss says, again smiling. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Director Emma Welham (right) works with Darren Martens and Lindsay Nance prior to the opening of Macbeth. 'Can you propose a rhythm for us?' MacPherson asks the director after his Vladimir and Wojcik's Estragon ran through a playful tête à tête. Moments later, Keenan tests his character's coachmen's whip, and soon, Pozzo is smoking a pipe and discarding the bones from a bucket of freshly consumed St. Norbert fried chicken. Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. Nearby, Mackenzie Wojcik, his father and Dutiaume kick around a hacky sack in the shade of a monastery wall. After about an hour, stage managers decide it's time for a break, suggesting the cast drink water and take respite from the sun. 'I don't know where a logical place to break is,' Keenan says. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Darren Martens and Lindsay Nance get up to a bit of mayhem and murder in Macbeth. 'That's the problem with this play,' says Beilfuss, laughing. Ben WaldmanReporter Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University's (now Toronto Metropolitan University's) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben. Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Black America Web
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Black America Web
The Top 10 SiR Collaborations You Need to Hear
Source: Frank Hoensch / Getty In an era where R&B continues to evolve and blur genres, SiR has carved out a lane that's uniquely his own. Hailing from Inglewood, California, and signed to the iconic Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE), SiR blends classic soul sensibilities with modern production and deeply personal storytelling. His voice is velvet but grounded, tender but never soft — a reminder that R&B can still be emotional without losing its edge. Whether he's singing about love, loss, or growth, SiR has a way of making you feel like he's having a one-on-one conversation with your heart. What truly sets SiR apart, however, is his collaborative spirit. He doesn't just work with artists — he builds moments with them. Whether it's teaming up with hip-hop giants like Kendrick Lamar or trading bars with introspective lyricists like D Smoke, SiR has consistently shown that he knows how to complement, elevate, and merge with any artist he's paired with. His collaborations aren't just features — they're seamless integrations of sound, emotion, and perspective. From soulful duets to West Coast anthems, SiR's catalog is full of hidden gems and genre-bending collabs that highlight his versatility and musical ear. These moments showcase not just his technical skill, but his ability to connect — across sounds, styles, and stories. If you're just diving into SiR's work or looking to revisit the brilliance of his partnerships, this list is a curated journey through his top 10 collaborations that capture the magic when SiR steps into the booth with someone else. RELATED: SIR THE STEP INTO THE LIGHT: TOUR SETLIST The Top 10 SiR Collaborations You Need to Hear was originally published on Album: Chasing Summer (2019) A hypnotic, bass-driven groove with a subtle flex. SiR's velvet tone glides over the beat while Kendrick delivers one of his most lowkey but potent verses. This is West Coast soul at its finest. Single (2020) A powerful reimagining of an already emotive track. SiR's tribute to heartbreak gains even more depth with poetic contributions from his brother D Smoke, the ever-introspective Boogie, and the legendary Jill Scott. Album: November (2018) Cool, jazzy, and mature — this is what sipping red wine in silk sounds like. ScHoolboy Q's laid-back verse contrasts SiR's smooth melodies for Album: Chasing Summer (2019) This track is dreamy and celestial, with SiR and Kadhja floating across a sonic sky. Her ethereal vocals complement his grounded delivery, creating an experience that feels spiritual and healing. Album: Chasing Summer (2019) A mellow vibe full of nostalgia and temptation, this song finds SiR at his most chill and Boogie in a vulnerable groove. It feels like a late-night smoke session with emotions creeping in. Unofficial Remix Anderson .Paak blesses this already smooth track with his raspy charm and funky bounce. It's two West Coast heavyweights vibing over a soulfully sampled beat that never gets old. Live Performance / Fan Favorite Though unofficially released, their live version of 'You Can't Save Me' became a fan-favorite — sultry, tragic, and vocally rich. The blend of their tones makes this a performance to revisit over and over. New York City legend @AliciaKeys graces the COLORS stage with an exclusive rendition of 'Three Hour Drive' featuring SiR; which is taken from her newly released self-titled album 'Alicia'. Lance Skiiiwalker ft. SiR 'Peso' Directed/Created by: Matthew Freiheit Produced by: FRGN-SPCMN Additional Production: Amaire Johnson Flute/Saxophone: Henry Solomon SiR – Chasing Summer out now!: Production Company: TDE Films X AJR Films Directed by Mez for Heirs Executive Producer: Anthony 'Top Dawg' Tiffith Producers Roberto 'retOne' Reyes, Edgar Moreno, & Angel J Rosa DP David Bolen Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE
