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      What Happens Next for Kendrick Lamar and Drake? Let’s Discuss.

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      After a week of bitter diss tracks, a conversation about how the rap battle played out for the chart-topping rappers and how their personas and careers might be affected.It’s gotten ugly between Kendrick Lamar and Drake.Over the weekend, the two generation-defining rappers turned a decade of competitive tension into increasingly personal attacks delivered on a barrage of diss tracks filled with taunts, insults, accusations of abuse, alleged inside information and threats.With Lamar’s songs, including “Euphoria” and “Not Like Us,” dominating the online conversation and streaming charts, the battle seemed to cool on Sunday evening, after a resigned-sounding second response this weekend from Drake, who denied some of the most serious claims against him, including pedophilia, even as he doubled down on his allegations against Lamar. Then, on Tuesday, a security guard was shot and hospitalized in serious condition outside Drake’s Toronto home; the authorities said they did not yet have a motive and the investigation was ongoing.As the musical volleys paused, at least for now, the New York Times pop music critic Jon Caramanica and the Times music reporter Joe Coscarelli surveyed the songs, the strategy, the reputational wreckage and where each rapper stands now for an episode of the video podcast Popcast (Deluxe). These are edited excerpts from the conversation.JOE COSCARELLI I don’t think we need to jump in right away to definitively say who we think won this beef, because the fight seems to have been decided by popular vote. Nobody’s really calling this for Drake, right?JON CARAMANICA I think even Drake is not calling this for Drake, because of the tone of what he put out last, “The Heart Part 6.” In the big picture, though, everyone won and nobody won. Thinking about fandom in the stan era, you’re either on one side or the other. But what I’ve realized in the wake of these songs is that Drake fandom comes with different levels of fickleness. His fans are willing to entertain, “Maybe he’s not the person that I thought he was.” Whereas most Kendrick fans are not willing to entertain that idea, despite Drake’s allegations in “Family Matters” that Kendrick at some point hired a crisis management team to cover up that he abused his fiancée, which are quite serious.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Popcast (Deluxe): How Kendrick Lamar Out-Drake’d Drake

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTubeThis week’s episode of Popcast (Deluxe), the weekly culture roundup show on YouTube hosted by Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli, includes segments on:The back story of the tension between Kendrick Lamar and DrakeThe early songs: “First Person Shooter,” “Like That” and “7 Minute Drill”Drake responds: “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle”Kendrick Lamar responds: “Euphoria” and “6:16 in LA”Drake responds, and shifts the tone of the battle to the personal: “Family Matters”Kendrick responds, upping the personal ante: “Meet the Grahams” and “Not Like Us”Drake bows out?: “The Heart Part 6”How this battle will play out for Drake and Kendrick Lamar as musiciansHow this battle will play out for Drake and Kendrick Lamar as peopleA snack of the week, chat about TikTok, “Challengers” & the most annoying songs of the N.B.A. playoffsConnect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica. More

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      Israel’s Eurovision Entrant Faces Down Her Critics

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      Campaigners have unsuccessfully urged the Eurovision Song Contest to ban Eden Golan because of her country’s war in Gaza. “I won’t let anything break me,” she said.Taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest is nerve-racking, even when the audience welcomes you to the stage.For one singer at this year’s contest, it will likely be a particularly anxious experience. When Eden Golan, 20, performs representing Israel at the second semifinal on Thursday, a significant portion of the audience will not be cheering for her. In fact, many people don’t want her country to be at Eurovision at all.For months, pro-Palestinian groups and some Eurovision fans have been trying in vain to get the contest’s organizers, the European Broadcasting Union, to ban Golan from taking part at this year’s event in Malmo, Sweden, because of Israel’s war in Gaza.Those protests were particularly vocal after the title of Golan’s entry was announced in February: “October Rain,” an apparent reference to last year’s Hamas attacks, in which Israeli officials say about 1,200 people were killed and 240 taken hostage. The European Broadcasting Union objected that the title and some of the song’s lyrics were overly political, and asked Israel to change them. Golan tweaked the song, which is now called “Hurricane.”Golan with members of her team at a recording studio in Tel Aviv last month.Amit Elkayam for The New York TimesEurovision’s organizers have always insisted that the contest is no place for politics, and this year is clamping down on slogans and symbols that could stir up dissent. Bambie Thug, representing Ireland, said at a news conference on Tuesday that, after a dress rehearsal, officials had demanded that the singer remove pro-Palestinian slogans from an outfit.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Neil Portnow Accuser Asks Court to Dismiss Her Sexual Assault Lawsuit

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      The woman, who sued the former head of the Grammy Awards anonymously, expressed concern that her identity would be revealed in the proceedings.A woman who filed a lawsuit accusing Neil Portnow, the former head of the Grammy Awards, of drugging and raping her in a New York hotel room has asked a federal judge for her case to be dismissed.The request by the woman, who filed her suit anonymously in November, was addressed to Judge Analisa Torres of Federal District Court in Manhattan over the weekend via email, and it was posted on Monday to the court’s website. Days before, her lawyers had opposed a statement by Mr. Portnow’s lawyers to require the woman to use her real name in the case.In her letter, the woman made clear that she was concerned about her identity being revealed. She also noted a dispute with her lawyers. Despite their opposition to Mr. Portnow’s request, she wrote that her lawyers’ filing “did not accurately reflect my position.”Also on Monday, her lawyer, Jeffrey R. Anderson, filed a motion to withdraw as her counsel. Mr. Anderson said she had submitted the letter without his knowledge, and that “the attorney-client relationship has deteriorated beyond repair.” Reached by phone on Tuesday, Mr. Anderson declined to comment.The woman’s lawsuit, originally filed in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, arrived as a legal window in New York was drawing to a close that had allowed people to file civil suits alleging sexual assault even if the statute of limitations for their cases had expired. The case was removed to federal court in January.The woman, who was identified in her suit only as a musician from outside the United States, said she met Mr. Portnow, then the chief executive of the Recording Academy, at a Grammy event in New York in early 2018. According to her complaint, that June he invited her to a Manhattan hotel room where he was staying. He gave her wine and she lost consciousness, according to the suit, and the woman said that she awoke to find him “forcibly” penetrating her.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Piano From Titanic’s Sister Ship, Olympic, Awaits an Audience

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      A gilt-trimmed upright Steinway piano commissioned in 1912 for the ocean liner Olympic is on dry land and ready to be heard again.This article is part of our Design special section about water as a source of creativity.During the Titanic’s maiden voyage, musicians played pianos from Steinway & Sons to entertain passengers with waltzes and opera overtures. A twin of one of the ship’s Steinway instruments has been found in northern England, and a new nonprofit organization is gearing up to return it to the limelight.The gilt-trimmed walnut upright, now at the showroom of Besbrode Pianos in Leeds, was commissioned in 1912 for the Titanic’s sister ship, the Olympic. It was made by the same craftspeople, and in the same style and materials, as its disintegrated counterparts underwater near Newfoundland. But before its provenance trail was traced in the last few years, “Nobody showed the slightest bit of interest in it,” said Melvin Besbrode, the showroom’s owner.The nonprofit RMS Olympic Steinway Association aims to raise about $125,000 to acquire it and make it publicly accessible. The only other Olympic piano known to survive is a Steinway grand with checkerboard inlays, which the musician Bill Wyman sold through Sotheby’s in 1994 for about $38,000. Its current location is a mystery. “No one can hear it, no one can see it, and we don’t want that to happen again,” said Patrick Cornelius Vida, an Austrian musician who is the association’s president.The Olympic, circa 1911.Popperfoto, via Getty ImagesMr. Vida has made pilgrimages to Besbrode Pianos to bask in the upright’s aura and used it for filmed performances of 1910s music. “It’s stayed within my soul, within my memory,” he said. “It’s a grand old lady who’s young at heart.”The association has made a documentary, explaining that the piano’s “timber, character and tonal quality” are nearly identical to what Titanic passengers heard. When the Besbrode piano was in use for decades aboard the Olympic (which was scrapped in 1935), the passengers included Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Irving Berlin, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Security Guard Injured in Shooting Outside Drake’s Home in Toronto

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      The police said that they did not know whether the shooting was related to the recent exchange of increasingly personal diss tracks traded between Drake and Kendrick Lamar.A man identified as a security guard for Drake was wounded in a shooting outside of the rapper’s Toronto mansion around 2 a.m. on Tuesday, the police said.The man was taken to a hospital with a gunshot wound, Inspector Paul Krawczyk, a member of the gun and gang task force, said at a news conference at the scene on Tuesday morning. The suspects fled in a vehicle and remain at large; the police did not offer a description but said the shooting had been captured on video.The shooting occurred outside the gates in front of Drake’s 50,000-square-foot mansion on Park Lane Circle in the North York neighborhood known as Bridle Path in Toronto, but did not involve the rapper, the authorities said. Drake was previously permitted to build fences twice as high as allowed by city law, citing a need for increased security.The shooting followed a weekend of increasingly personal diss tracks traded between Drake and the Compton, Calif., rapper Kendrick Lamar, whose long-simmering musical rivalry resulted in the release of six songs in 72 hours, including detailed attacks involving family members and claims of abuse against women on both sides.“I cannot speak to a motive at this time, because it’s so early, but as we get information we will share it with you,” Inspector Krawczyk said at the news conference. He said that he could not confirm whether Drake was home at the time of the shooting, but that authorities had been in contact with the rapper’s team, which was cooperating.The police said the victim, who was not identified, remained at the hospital in serious condition.A representative for Drake declined to comment.Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” which was released on Saturday and taunts Drake and his associates as “certified pedophiles,” features an aerial shot of Drake’s home on a map as its cover art. The track is currently topping the charts globally and in the United States on streaming services including Spotify and Apple Music. The cover is edited to portray the home as dotted with markers meant to represent the presence of registered sex offenders.Kendrick Lamar’s single “Not Like Us,” which was released on Saturday and taunts Drake, features an aerial shot of Drake’s home on a map as its cover art.Drake has previously referred to the location of his home, which he calls the Embassy, on tracks like “7AM on Bridle Path.”Representatives for Lamar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Olivia Chow, the mayor of Toronto, said she had been briefed by the police but declined to offer any details.“Any shooting is not welcome in this city and I hope the police will find the people that are violating the law and catch them,” she told reporters.Ian Austen More

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      Madonna’s Hits-Filled Celebration Tour, Dissected

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      Hear five standouts from the set, and six we wish she’d played.Pablo Porciuncula/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesDear listeners,Lindsay is desperately seeking some time off this week, so I am the first of your guest playlisters: Caryn, the pop music editor. I’m going to tell you a secret — you could consider it one of my confessions on a dance floor. I saw Madonna’s Celebration Tour seven times; eight if you include the livestream from Rio de Janeiro on Saturday night, where the Queen of Pop wrapped her first-ever retrospective with a free show before an estimated 1.6 million people on Copacabana Beach.Some have asked why, so a brief explanation: I believe Madonna is the most important and influential solo figure in pop history, and I don’t skip opportunities to see her onstage, where she has innovated and thrilled throughout her four-decade career. (If you’re wondering who was behind “60 Times Madonna Changed Our Culture,” wonder no more.) I was too young to catch the Virgin or Who’s That Girl tours — and nobody took me to Blond Ambition or the Girlie Show (ahem, parents) — so my live history begins with Drowned World in 2001 and I have done my best to catch up.The Confessions Tour from 2006 is the best I’ve seen in person, the Tears of a Clown revival at Art Basel in 2016 was the zaniest, and Celebration is the first one I’ve reviewed (on its U.S. leg’s opening night in October). Repeated viewings haven’t changed my initial critical overview, though some parts of the show grew on me, some vocal performances sharpened up, and some of the extemporaneous speeches Madonna gave during the two breaks each night designed for them were stunningly raw and moving. (See Bonus Tracks below for more on that.)But the point of today’s playlist is to take a deeper (and deeper) look at the songs Madonna did — and didn’t — select for the tour. The first five tracks are my favorites from the show, which has a lot to do with how she staged them. The second six are songs that were sorely missed, so should you ever do a Celebration 2, M, please consider them official requests.Crazy for you,CarynListen along while you read.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      2024 Met Gala After-Parties: Usher, Serena Williams and Other Celebs

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      One reason the Met Gala after-parties are nearly as famous as the Met Gala itself has to do with an incident that took place 10 years ago at the Standard Hotel in the West Village of Manhattan.On that night, Beyoncé was a star of the red carpet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, along with her husband, Jay-Z, and her sister Solange Knowles. Afterward, in an elevator car headed to the Boom Boom Room, the club on the top floor of the Standard, Solange attacked her brother-in-law while Beyoncé stood watching and a bodyguard tried to restore order. The security-cam footage leaked to TMZ and the internet, and a family fight became the stuff of New York social lore.Things were less dramatic this year and less star studded at the annual Standard after-party. Just past midnight, the most famous person at Boom was the designer Christian Siriano, who had arrived with his date for the evening, the model Coca Rocha. Connie Fleming, the hotel’s longtime doorwoman, reflected on the changes in the social atmosphere since the heady days of 2014.“I think the Met Gala has peaked in its base of being about real fashion and real fashion people,” said Ms. Fleming, who became one of the trans community’s first stars in the 1990s, when she walked runways for Thierry Mugler.Christian Siriano and Coco Rocha at the party at Boom. Nina Westervelt for The New York TimesLil Nas X and Camila Cabello at Boom.Nina Westervelt for The New York TimesPedro Oberto and Marc Bouwer.Nina Westervelt for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More