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Jay Z, Kanye West and Diddy are all among the highest paid hip-hop artists of 2021. Jay Z topped the list, after making $470 million last year, with a net worth of $1.5 million. Ye comes in at number two with $250 million. Diddy snagged the number three spot with $75 million and Drake comes in at number four with $50 million. Wiz Khalifa rounded out the top five with $45 million.

Check out the top 10 hip-hop earners:

1. JAY-Z – $470 million
2. Kanye West – $250 million
3. Diddy – $75 million
4. Drake – $50 million
5. Wiz Khalifa – $45 million
6. Travis Scott – $38 million
7. DJ Khaled – $35 million
8. Eminem – $28 million
9. J. Cole – $27 million
10. Birdman – $25 million
10. Doja Cat – $25 million

Kanye West has reportedly waved the white flag. According to Hollywood Unlocked, Kanye said that he will no longer fight to keep his divorce from moving forward. He told the site, "I've asked my team to expedite the dissolution of my marriage to Kim so I can put my entire attention into our beautiful children." Ye also fired his attorney Chris Melcher, after a reported contentious relationship.

According to TMZ, sources claimed that a breakdown in communication is the reason for the fallout. One day he wanted to settle things with Kim and other days, he wanted to put up a fight. Ye has hired Samantha Spector, who recently represented Nicole Young in her divorce from Dr. Dre.

Meanwhile, Kanye's lawyers have raised an issue about he and Kim's prenup. Ye's lawyers filed legal docs claiming prenups in California after 2002 are presumed invalid.

Ariana Grande tested out her new R.E.M. makeup line in a new YouTube video with RuPaul's Drag Race alum, Gottmik.

The two-time Grammy winner announced, "I'm really proud of this s**t," before getting a makeover from her guest.

The "Positions" singer revealed that she began working on R.E.M. Beauty touring in support of her 2018 album Sweetener, adding, "Tour was a great time to test things on stage."

CHVRCHES TO TOUR NORTH AMERICA: Chvrches is bringing their Screen Violence tour to North America this spring. The band will kick off the next leg of their tour on May 13th in Mexico City, Mexico and hit cities like Miami, FL, Orlando, FL Washington DC, and Omaha, NE, before wrapping things up in Manchester, TN on June 18th. Presale begins on Wednesday (March 2nd).

HAIM DROPS 'LOST TRACK': Haim dropped the song, "Lost Track" on Tuesday (March 1st) along with a video directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The visual was shot at The Balboa Golf Course in Encino, California on January 26th as a part of W Magazine's feature on the Licorice Pizza director.

It was 53 years ago today (March 2nd, 1969) that John Lennon and Yoko Ono made their first live public concert performance. Although the couple had first played together the previous December for the Rolling Stones' Rock And Roll Circus TV special, Lennon's appearance at Ono's concert at Cambridge University's Lady Mitchell Hall marked the first time the couple performed to the open public.

Lennon and Ono, along with saxophonist John Tchicai and percussionist John Stevens, performed the cacophonous experimental piece "Cambridge 1969," which featured a bearded, denim-clad Lennon creating a wall of feedback guitar under Ono's avant-garde singing. The song was eventually released later that year, and made up the entire second side of the couple's second album, Unfinished Music No. 2: Life With The Lions.

Yoko Ono told us that she has mixed emotions about her and Lennon's performance that day: "It was an iconic moment, because when I did that in Cambridge with John, I was, like, thinking, 'This is it!' I really sent a message to the world, saying 'This is the thing!' But then, when that was on lacquer, people attacked it so much. And John was the only one who was in love with it. John would say -- in the car when we were going somewhere, cross country or something -- he would say, "Okay, let's play 'Cambridge 1969' I said, 'Please don't do that John (laughs),' because by then it was attacked so much that I was like, 'Ugh, I don't want to hear it.'"

Yoko Ono believes -- both then and now -- trying to pin down what John Lennon meant to the world is impossible: "John was an artist and musician -- and a poet, as well. And also, he was a songwriter, singer, rocker. So, he was a very complex character."

A remixed and revamped version of Lennon and Ono's "Cambridge 1969" was featured on Ono's album, titled Yes, I'm A Witch. The critically acclaimed set features modern rockers the Flaming Lips' updated take on the track, which is re-titled "Cambridge 1969/2007."

It was 55 years ago today (March 2nd, 1967) that the Supremes recorded their hits "The Happening" and "Reflections." "The Happening" was the theme song to the 1967 movie of the same name, which starred Anthony Quinn, George Maharis from TV's Route 66, and Faye Dunaway. The song was the final Number One by the original lineup of the Supremes, and also featured one of co-founder Florence Ballard's last performances with the group. The song hit Number One on May 13th, 1967, topping the charts for just one week.

"The Happening" was the tenth and final Number One song written for the group by Motown staff writers Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland -- who in this instance were joined by The Happening's musical director Frank De Vol, best known for composing the theme song for the TV shows My Three Sons and The Brady Bunch.

Although Ballard sings on both tracks, she left the group after the release of "The Happening." She was replaced by Cindy Birdsong, and Motown head Berry Gordy Jr. renamed the group Diana Ross & the Supremes.

"Reflections," which was released later that summer, was actually the bigger hit, despite the fact that it never got higher than Number Two. The song was a change of pace for the group and featured a more modern sound, which strayed from the orchestral rhythm tracks of their previous singles.

In the '80s the song went on to be featured as the theme to ABC's Vietnam drama China Beach, and served as the opening number for Diana Ross' ill-fated Supremes reunion tour in 2000 with two latter day, non-original Supremes.

Not long before her death on February 8th, 2021 at the age of 76, Mary Wilson talked bout how important the legendary songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland -- who wrote most of the Supremes biggest hits, including, "Baby Love," "Come See About Me," "You Can't Hurry Love," and "I Hear A Symphony" -- was for the group: "These three guys have actually made my life. I mean, it's been over 40 years and I've got to say, before I met them, before Diana met them, before Florence met them, we were called 'the no-hit Supremes.' These guys are artisans, because they have created a musical mass of music that has not been passed by anyone. I mean, their catalog is just tremendous."

Songwriter/producer Lamont Dozier recalled how he and the Holland brothers worked while at Motown: "There was a time clock. Nine o'clock in the morning we punched a clock and at six we punched out. During that day we would have lunch. It was like school, in a sense. We had an in-house band, so if we came up with anything we would either cut the song that day or the track. And after on, we would dub it in, say, a couple of days later, after we had finished the lyric. But that was, y'know, the general work schedule that we had."

Brian Holland recalled that once their songs clicked with the Supremes, it was onward and upward for the Motown team: "When we first started getting hit records on them, we were writing songs, and we were asking, 'Well, who can sing this?' But once we locked in and it was a hit, then we knew where you were. Because, before you've gotten a hit record you really haven't established (an) identity, so to speak. Once you get those hit records, a hit record, or whatever -- depending on how big it is -- you really kind of establish a direction at least for a while."

Louis Tomilson stopped his sold-out show in Minneapolis Thursday (Feb. 24th) night to get help for a female fan in distress.

According to a video obtained by TMZ, The former One Direction singer was performing his hit “Walls” when security guards were summoned to escort the woman out of the theater. Tomilson had the lights turned up and stopped playing until the fan was brought to safety.

Witnesses told the site that he was helpful throughout the ordeal.

Paul McCartney has added a second Fenway Park show to his upcoming tour itinerary. The pre-sale for the new show, set for June 8th, goes on sale today -- Monday, February 28th -- for American Express Card Members at 12 noon local time. General on-sale begins Friday, March 4th at 10 a.m. local time.

As it stands now, "Macca's" 14-date 2022 "Got Back" tour will kick off on April 28th at Spokane, Washington's Spokane Arena and wrap on June 16th at East Rutherford, New Jersey's Met Life Stadium -- just two days before the former-Beatle's 80th birthday, which falls on June 18th.

Brian Ray, McCartney's touring guitarist for the past two decades, told us he's still amazed by his boss' onstage stamina: ["We get a break, and he doesn't. He stands up there in front of the crowd for another, I don't know, 20 minutes more than we do, doing his solo bit in the middle. We get a break, and I am flattened by the end of the night!"] SOUNDCUE (:12 OC: . . . of the night)

Although once on the road his set lists don't vary much from night-to-night, Paul McCartney explained that at the start of each tour he likes to throw a few unproven rarities in to shake up the mix: ["I just like doing it, and whenever I go out on tour it's exciting to stick a few things in that I haven't done before, just 'cause then it's sort of like there's a bit of a nervous edge to it, which is quite cool -- except on the first night when you think 'Why did I do this? Why didn't I stay safe?'"] SOUNDCUE (:19 OC: . . . I stay safe)

McCartney admitted that his primary reason for still going out and embarking on globe-trotting tours is that he loves performing more than almost anything: ["Then the audience is the other big thing. The audience is amazingly warm these days. And what I do is, I tell my promoter, I'll say, 'Just put one of the shows on sale and just see how we're doing.' And he might ring me back and say: 'Fantastic! Sold out in an hour -- the whole thing!' So, I go 'Okay, I'm cool. They like me!'"] SOUNDCUE (:19 OC: . . . they like me)

UPDATED: Paul McCartney tour dates (subject to change):

April 28 - Spokane, WA - Spokane Arena
May 3 - Seattle, WA - Climate Pledge Arena
May 6 - Oakland, CA - Oakland Arena
May 13 - Los Angeles, CA - SoFi Stadium
May 17 - Fort Worth, TX - Dickies Arena
May 21 - Winston Salem, NC - Truist Field
May 25 - Hollywood, FL - Hard Rock Live
May 28 - Orlando, FL - Camping World Stadium
May 31 - Knoxville, TN - Thompson Boling Arena
June 4 - Syracuse, NY - Carrier Dome
June 7 - Boston, MA - Fenway Park
June 8 - Boston, MA - Fenway Park
June 12 - Baltimore, MD - Oriole Park
June 16 - East Rutherford, NJ- Met Life Stadium

IN OTHER McCARTNEY NEWS

Mary McCartney, Paul and Linda McCartney's 52-year-old photographer daughter -- and host of the Food Network's Mary McCartney Serves It Up -- shed light on her famous dad's culinary talents.

Mary told London's The Express that there's definitely a difference between him when he's at home and at work: "I see my dad in two very different ways. When it’s family, it’s family, and when he tries to tell a story everyone talks over him. Then when he’s on stage I think, 'Wow. He’s pretty amazing.'"

She went on to explain, "Dad can cook, he likes to make the lasagna out of mum's first cookbook, and he makes a very good mashed potato. If we’re all having Sunday lunch, he’s in charge of mash. He doesn’t put any special ingredients into it, I think it’s just because he takes the time. He mashes it and then spends ages whipping it with a fork -- and he’s not shy with the butter either."

For more info on the Food Network's Mary McCartney Serves It Up, log on to: https://bit.ly/35vBToj

Stevie Nicks had some tough words for Russian president Vladimir Putin comparing him to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler for his invasion of Ukraine.

On Saturday (February 26th), Nicks took to Instagram and addressed the loss of life and displacement of the Ukranian people following Russia's unwarranted invasion:

At 4 am this morning me and a friend sent a message to a lady in Ukraine who sent us a beautiful hand painted box -- to thank her again and check up on her after watching the news all night -- she immediately wrote back that she was home and still fine...

At 4:45 am she wrote us back that she was now 'just trying to escape'; that changed everything. Now I know someone, an innocent person, who is having her freedom taken from her. I  have been crying ever since. My mom said to me after 9-11 – don’t forget what your father and I were fighting for; don’t forget it. . . (I am glad she isn’t here to see this).

This is Hitler coming back to haunt us. In one evening -- until now, an entire sovereign country has been full on invaded. How dare he. My heart is broken for our new friend – and for people of Ukraine -- I am so, so sorry.

Love and prayers for them.
Stevie Nicks
 

In celebration of Billy Joel's 50th anniversary, the "Piano Man" has launched the "Billy Joel New York State Of Mind" Landmarks website -- and the digital-only release of Places, the first in a series of thematic EP's showcasing select tracks from across his career.

Fans can log on to the "Landmarks" website at https://nysom.billyjoel.com/ to explore an interactive map highlighting 50 special New York locations connected to Billy's life and songs, "from Cold Spring Harbor to Madison Square Garden, from Sullivan Street to the Hudson River Line."

The site includes song histories, listening/saving options, and more. Fans can offer up their own suggestions for the "New York State Of Mind" website, which could expand the map beyond its current 50 locations.

Places, the five-track EP showcases songs associated with New York locations on the interactive map: "New York State Of Mind," "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," "Big Man On Mulberry Street," "Everybody Loves You Now" and "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)."

Any time that New York has faced tough times -- be it 9/11 or Hurricane Sandy, Billy Joel has been front and center -- often on the front lines supporting and cheering for New York on many levels. He recalled back in the '70s when the "Big Apple's" dire straits made him realize New York was the only place he could truly call home: ["I had moved back to New York from California; it was 1975 to '76. There was a famous headline when New York City was going to default. And New York turned to the feds and said, 'Can you help bail us out?' -- and there's a famous Daily News headline, 'Ford To New York: 'Drop Dead.'' And I remember seeing that headline -- I was out in L.A. -- and I said, 'I'm goin' back. I'm goin' home. If the city's goin' down, I'm goin down with the city.'"] SOUNDCUE (:24 OC: . . . with the city)

IN OTHER BILLY JOEL NEWS

During his Saturday night (February 26th) concert at Las Vegas' Allegiant Stadium, Billy Joel paid tribute to Procol Harum leader Gary Brooker, who died on February 19th at age 76 after a battle with cancer.

Following his nightly rendition of "Only The Good Die Young," Billy tackled Brooker's 1967 "Summer Of Love" standard, "A Whiter Shade Of Pale."

David Crosby revealed that despite selling his music catalogue to music mogul Irving Azoff's Iconic Music Group -- he'll soon be strapped. Crosby, who gladly followed estranged bandmember Neil Young in pulling his music off Spotify in the face of the recent Joe Rogan controversy, has long blamed music streaming and its owners unwillingness to compensate artists as a huge reason for his financial woes.

In a frank new interview with Stereogum, Crosby revealed, "I’m going to run out of money in a couple of years and then I’ll have to sell my house. That’s just how that is. I can’t do s*** about it. I can’t play live anymore. I’m 80-years-old and I’m very fragile health-wise. I can’t change the marketplace. They’re making the money and they’re not going to change that. They’re not going to suddenly develop a sense of moral responsibility. They’re scummy people."

As far eventually allowing his music back on the streaming platform: "No, I don’t want to be in there. I don’t like ’em and their quality’s lousy and their payscale’s lousy and I don’t want anything to do with them. . . I do not envision going back."

Crosby went on to say, "You have to understand -- I don’t like Spotify. I don’t like any of the streamers, because they don’t pay us properly. Their proportion is wrong. They’re making billions with a b and they’re paying out pennies with a p. That’s not OK. It’s not OK in that it took away half my income, and it’s not OK in that, especially, it makes it impossibly difficult for young people to make it in the business. It doesn’t pay them anything. It’s wrong. I don’t like Spotify on purpose because of that. I don’t like their quality level either. They bum up the signal pretty badly. But they and all the other streaming services are ripping us off. They’re quite happy with it. They have no intention of changing it."

Not too long ago, David Crosby told us that these days he doesn't enter into any aspect of his life -- personally or professionally -- without a great deal of soul searching: ["I look at myself a lot, I made an awful amount of mistakes in my life, and I've done harm. And I've had to look at myself. I had a year in a prison cell to look at myself. A lot of time to think. So, I do think about what I do and why and what it means and if it's significant, or not."] SOUNDCUE (:18 OC: . . . significant or not)

Last week, Kanye West filed court docs to seemingly prevent estranged wife Kim Kardashian from becoming legally single. According to TMZ, Ye filed docs to make his social media posts towards Kim and her boyfriend Pete Davidson and others inadmissible in next week's court hearing.

Kanye argues that Kim can't prove that he wrote the posts, which Kim claimed in her own court docs caused her "emotional distress."

Kanye's lawyer said, “Kim claims she read something online allegedly by Kanye and characterizes the posts in her declaration as misinformation.

The lawyer added, “Kim needed to offer the social media posts into evidence, and show that the posts were written by Kanye." 

In other news, Kanye released Donda 2 on Stem Player on Friday (February 25th). 

Madonna shared her support for Ukraine by posting a fan made video set to a remix of her song “Sorry.”

The singer captioned the clips of explosions and the aftermath of Russian attacks with, “Putin continues his Senseless And Horrifying attacks on The Ukraine!! Innocent people are being killed and wounded every day! Innocent people are fighting for their lives And learning to shoot guns to protect themselves Refugees are crowding the borders and being stopped from escaping. So many brave people are staying to fight.

"God Bless You All. We are praying for you all. Please let’s do what we can to help! ”

AVRIL LAVIGNE DROPS NEW ALBUM: Avril Lavigne released her seventh studio album, Love Sux, on Friday (Feb. 25th). The 12-track album marks the first new music to be released from the star since 2019. Love Sux showcases Lavigne’s pop-punk sound, featuring collaborations with artist like Machine Gun Kelly, Mark Hoppus and blackbear. 

BTS DROPS NEW MERCH: BTS dropped their official merchandise collaboration with HYBE at Nordstrom on Friday (Feb. 25th) and pieces quickly began to sell out.  The store's website features 50 pieces of unisex clothing, home items, stickers, buttons, and more ranging from $9 to $110.

DEMI LOVATO'S FAVORITE BAND IS TURNSTILE: Demi Lovato spent time hanging out with their favorite band last week.  On Friday (Feb. 25th), the singer shared a photo on Instagram in which they wore wide leg jeans, a white t-shirt and a black bucket hat while posing next to the band, Turnstile.  They wrote, “My favorite band (Turnstile) & my favorite hat (apparently)”

It was 55 years ago Sunday (February 28th, 1967) that the Beatles began sessions for "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds." As opposed to their first album in 1963, in which the majority of the album was recorded in one marathon 11-hour session, the Beatles were now afforded the luxury of open-ended studio time and spent the night's session only rehearsing the song without the tapes rolling. The session, which took place at Abbey Road's Studio Number Two between 7 p.m. and 3 a.m., featured numerous unnumbered run-throughs of the song as the group worked out its arrangement. Session tapes for "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" show that the song, which was mainly written by John Lennon, was greatly enhanced by Paul McCartney's instrumentation and guidance as he helped Lennon nail the spacey lead vocal.

Among the instruments featured on the eventual track, the 11th song recorded for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, were McCartney's unique mellotron introduction and bouncing bass line, Lennon's acoustic guitar and lead vocal, George Harrison's electric guitar echoing Lennon's vocal line, and Ringo Starr's legendary thumping drum part. The song also featured maracas, a piano, a Hammond organ, and a tamboura -- an Indian instrument, which provided a distinctive droning sound. Lennon, McCartney and Harrison all contributed backing vocals.

The initials of the song's title are the same as those of the hallucinogenic drug LSD and that caused enough controversy to get the song banned from British airwaves. Lennon, who wrote the majority of the lyrics, always insisted that the song was written after his then-three-year-old son Julian came home from school with a crayon drawing of a schoolmate. When Lennon asked him what the picture was of, Julian answered, "Lucy in the sky with diamonds."

John Lennon was quick to give to give credit to the group’s producer George Martin and his tireless effort to help realize and expand their musical visions: [“We did a lot of learning together. He had a very great musical knowledge and background, so he could translate for us and suggest a lot of things; which he did. And he’d come up with amazing technical things, like slowing down the piano, playing it slow and putting it on. . . . and things like that. Where who’d be saying: ‘Well can we, we wanna go ‘ooh’ and ‘eee-eee’ and he’d say (imitates Martin), ‘Look chaps, I thought of this this afternoon. Last evening I was talking to . . . .’ - whoever he was talking to - ‘. . . and I came up with this.’ Y’know, and we’d say, ‘Oh, great!’ But he’d also come up with things like, ‘Well, have you heard an oboe?’ -- ‘’Oh, which one’s that?’ -- ‘It’s this one.’”] SOUNDCUE (:33 OC: . . . it’s this one)

Ringo Starr's former songwriting partner and producer Mark Hudson says that in 1974 Lennon gave him advice on lyric writing, and told him that words don't need to be literal to work in songs: [(Imitates Lennon) 'Cause you make up your own meaning, man.' And part of me was crushed, because I was waiting for this deep stuff and part of me was set free as a songwriter to go, 'You make up your own image, and let people take the meaning of the image.' And when you hit 'em over the head with (sings) 'All You Need Is Love' -- that's self-evident. But with all the other stuff, just be colorful. So I got to ask him one Beatles question every time I was with him."] SOUNDCUE (:19 OC: . . . was with him)

The Beatles had permanently stopped touring in 1966, and when Sgt. Pepper's was released in June 1967, much was made of the fact that they had deliberately created an album that could not be reproduced live.

George Martin's son, producer Giles Martin explained that his father and the Beatles were only interested in the creative end of recording: ["The wanted to push the boundaries of sound. They wanted to create something new all of the time. He was open to anything. There were no rules. The only rules were to make great sounding records."] SOUNDCUE (:09 OC: . . . great sounding records)

"Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" holds the distinction of being the first song from the album to ever be performed live by a Beatle. John Lennon, in his second-to last live appearance, performed the song with Elton John on November 28th, 1974 at New York's Madison Square Garden. Lennon had contributed to Elton's remake of the tune, which went on to reach Number One early in 1975.

In 2009, Julian Lennon wrote and recorded the charity single "Lucy" for his childhood friend Lucy Vodden, who had recently died after battling lupus. A portion of the proceeds from the "Lucy" EP went to benefit Lupus research.

Included in the EP was a copy of Lennon's original 1967 drawing of Lucy which inspired his dad to write "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds: ["Dave Gilmour has it. He's kindly allowed (laughs) us to use a copy of the version for the EP cover and the little poster inside."] SOUNDCUE (:06 OC: . . . little poster inside)

Metallica played its first show of 2022 on Friday night (February 25th) at Las Vegas' Allegiant Stadium. Blabbermouth reported the band played to a reported 60,000 fans with both Greta Van Fleet and Ice Nine Kills serving as their opening acts.

Drummer Lars Ulrich told us a while back that Metallica has forever changed the way it tours: ["The old days of a year-and-a-half on the road, I mean, that's not going to happen again. If our success has bought us anything, it's the freedom to do these things the way we want to do them, on our own agenda, on our own time frame. We don't really even need to have, like they say in the business, a 'product' out there. We can just sort of go out and tour if we wake up one morning and feel like it."] SOUNDCUE (:19 OC: . . . feel like it)