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      Trump Says He’d ‘Look at the Facts’ of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Case: Latest Trial Takeaways

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      President Trump discussed if he would consider a pardon for Sean Combs, while in court, an ex-assistant testified about sexual abuse. Mr. Combs denies sexually assaulting anyone.As the third week of Sean Combs’s racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking trial came to a close on Friday, the second woman to testify that she was sexually abused by him came under close questioning by the music mogul’s lawyers. The woman, who took the stand under the pseudonym Mia, spoke about eight grueling years working for Mr. Combs in an environment characterized by sleep deprivation and violent outbursts.In the afternoon, President Trump commented on the trial, saying that although no one had asked about a potential pardon, he would be open to looking “at the facts” of the case.The music mogul has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. His lawyers have acknowledged their client has a history of violence and a “bad temper,” but assert he is not a racketeer or sex trafficker.Here are some takeaways from the day in court.Mia faced her former boss’s lawyers.Mia testified that Mr. Combs threatened her, threw objects at her and sexually assaulted her during her years working for him. Prosecutors have accused him of subjecting her to forced labor — including sexual activity — through violence and threats of serious harm.During cross-examination, Brian Steel, a lawyer for Mr. Combs, sought to show the jury another side of Mia’s time working for the famous record producer. The defense displayed dozens of posts from her Instagram account, many of which showed her posing beside or celebrating Mr. Combs, whom she called a “mentor” and an “inspiration,” as well as marveling at her good fortune to be working for him — years after she says he first sexually assaulted her.“Why would you promote the person who has stolen your happiness in life?” Mr. Steel asked.“Those are the only people I was around, so that was my life,” Mia replied, describing her time working for Mr. Combs as a “confusing cycle of ups and downs.”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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      Lorde’s Anthem of Transformation, and 9 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by Miley Cyrus featuring Brittany Howard, Thom Yorke, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.Lorde, ‘Man of the Year’“I’ve become someone else, someone more like myself,” Lorde sings, somewhere between pride and astonishment, in “Man of the Year,” the second single from her album due in June, “Virgin.” It’s a crescendo of self-transformation, from quietly plucked cello to full-band stomp, as Lorde seizes the masculinity within herself. In the video clip, she flattens her breasts, taping them down with duct tape; she ponders, “Who’s gonna love me like this?” and then proclaims, “Now I’m broken open / Let’s hear it for the man of the year.”Miley Cyrus featuring Brittany Howard, ‘Walk of Fame’“Walk of Fame,” from “Something Beautiful,” the new Miley Cyrus album, turns the proverbial morning-after walk of shame into something prouder: “I walk the concrete like it’s a stage.” The song is mostly formulaic disco, thumping away. But the voice of Brittany Howard — adding little responses and wordless overlays, then promising “You’ll live forever”— gives it some gravity.Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, ‘Urges’Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, an dedicated electronic-pop experimenter, toys with and displaces dance-floor rhythms in “Urges,” from her coming album, “Gush.” She whisper-sings “I keep getting urges /What if I just let them move through me like this” while brittle programmed syncopations, disembodied voices and distant, tootling arpeggios materialize around her voice; even as the sounds disintegrate, the pulse is danceable.Santana and Grupo Frontera, ‘Me Retiro’Two generations of Mexican American musicians — the Texas band Grupo Frontera and the guitarist Carlos Santana — make a natural combination in “Me Retiro” (“I’m Leaving”), a song about trying to drink away a heartbreak. Santana sits in with the Grupo Frontera band and, rightly, takes over; his guitar slices through the clip-clop beat and accordion chords and compounds the sorrows that Adelaido “Payo” Solís III sings about.Obongjayar featuring Little Simz, ‘Talk Olympics’Obongjayar — Steven Umoh, a Nigerian musician based in London — has a new album, “Paradise Now,” that’s full of inventive, Pan-African electronic grooves like the zippy staccato propulsion of “Talk Olympics.” With an octave-bouncing bass line and the sounds of balafons, drums, synthesizers and sampled voices, Obongjayar and Little Simz take turns complaining about someone who’s far too chatty: “I let you speak, that was my mistake,” Little Simz notes; Obongjayar adds, in his sweetest falsetto, “Shut up! Shut up!”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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      Taylor Swift Buys Her Masters From Shamrock Capital, Reclaiming the Rights to Her First 6 Albums

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      The master recordings to the pop superstar’s earliest work were sold to Scooter Braun in 2019, and acquired a year later by the investing firm Shamrock Capital.It was a business deal that led to one of the most ambitious recording projects in pop: When Taylor Swift’s catalog was sold in 2019 as part of a larger acquisition of the Nashville record company Big Machine, she said she would redo all of the affected albums to maintain some control over her creative work.Now the original recordings are hers again.On Friday, Swift announced on her website that she had bought her masters back from Shamrock Capital, the Los Angeles-based investment firm that was founded by Roy E. Disney, a nephew of Walt Disney. She did not disclose the price.“I can’t thank you enough for helping to reunite me with this art that I have dedicated my life to, but have never owned until now,” she wrote to fans. “The best things that have ever been mine … finally actually are.”In her statement, Swift said she now had ownership of all of her music videos, concert films, album art and photography and unreleased songs.Shamrock acquired the rights to Swift’s first six albums — “Taylor Swift” (2006), “Fearless” (2008), “Speak Now” (2010), “Red” (2012), “1989” (2014)” and “Reputation” (2017) — in 2020 from Scooter Braun, the music manager who shepherded Justin Bieber’s career and had worked with the longtime Swift adversary Kanye West, and his company Ithaca Holdings.Braun’s 2019 deal for the Big Machine Label Group, founded by Scott Borchetta and also home to country artists like Florida Georgia Line, Rascal Flatts and Thomas Rhett, was estimated at $300 million. Shamrock paid more than $300 million for Swift’s catalog, according to a person briefed on the deal.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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      Smokey Robinson Accuses Housekeepers of Defamation in Countersuit

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      Four of Mr. Robinson’s former employees had sued the Motown singer, saying he sexually assaulted them for many years. He argues their anonymity is a reason to dismiss their suit.Lawyers for the Motown singer Smokey Robinson, whom four former housekeepers have accused of sexually assaulting them dozens of times, filed a cross-complaint on Wednesday that accuses the women and their lawyers of defamation.Mr. Robinson’s lawyers also filed a motion to dismiss the women’s lawsuit, arguing that they should not have been granted anonymity.In the legal filings, Mr. Robinson’s lawyers said the housekeepers had “fabricated” the abuse allegations “in support of their extortionate scheme.” The countersuit describes a caring relationship that Mr. Robinson and his wife, Frances Robinson, had with the women, noting that they vacationed together, celebrated holidays and doted upon them with concert tickets and, in one case, a car.The court papers, which were filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court and ask for $500 million in damages, offered as evidence text messages in which the women wished Mr. Robinson a happy birthday, invited him to celebrations and gave other expressions of support. The filings said Ms. Robinson had considered at least one of the women a friend, including her in a will.“The Robinsons did not abuse, harm or take advantage of plaintiffs; they treated plaintiffs with the utmost kindness and generosity,” the countersuit said. “Unfortunately, the depths of plaintiffs’ avarice and greed knows no bounds.”John Harris and Herbert Hayden, lawyers for the former housekeepers, said in a statement that the countersuit was an attempt to silence and intimidate the women.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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      Rick Derringer, 77, Who Sang ‘Hang On Sloopy’ and ‘Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo,’ Dies

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      A Zelig-like rocker, the guitarist, singer and songwriter collaborated with the likes of Barbra Streisand and Peter Frampton and composed Hulk Hogan’s “Real American” theme.Rick Derringer, the ubiquitous rocker who sang the hit songs “Hang On Sloopy” and “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo” in a music career that spanned several decades and also included collaborations with Hulk Hogan and Weird Al Yankovic, died on Monday in Ormond Beach, Fla. He was 77.His longtime caretaker and friend, Tony Wilson, announced his death in statement on Tuesday. No cause was given.From his early garage rock success to his many contributions to albums or tours by music royalty — Barbra Streisand, Cyndi Lauper and Peter Frampton all enlisted him — Mr. Derringer introduced himself to audiences across several generations.One of his better-known and enduring collaborations was with the Edgar Winter Group, for which he produced the instrumental chart-topper “Frankenstein,” which the band released in 1972.Early on, Mr. Derringer was the shaggy-haired guitar impresario who was the frontman for the band the McCoys, who rose to the top of the Billboard singles chart in October 1965 with their catchy rendition of “Hang On Sloopy.”The song, about a girl known as Sloopy from a rough part of town, has become synonymous with Ohio State University, where the marching band first played it during a Buckeyes’ football game in 1965. In 1985, the Ohio Legislature adopted it as the official state rock song.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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      Looking Back at Lollapalooza 1995

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      Revisit a peak music festival with songs by Hole, Beck, Elastica and more.Michael Robinson Chavez/The Boston Globe via Getty ImagesDear listeners,Hi, I’m David Malitz, an editor on the Culture desk who has been writing or assigning music coverage for almost 20 years now. As summer festival season kicks into high gear, I’m thinking about the best music festival I ever attended: Lollapalooza 1995. Unlike today, when there’s seemingly a different mega-festival each weekend, 30 years ago there was really only one major player. Lollapalooza was both a mainstream touring behemoth and the embodiment of alternative culture that ruled the ’90s.When people (like me, often, I’m sorry) speak of the glory days of the ’90s, Lollapalooza 1995 was both the peak and the end of the road. We still had it plenty good for a while, but this tour did feel like a last gasp. Looking at the lineup now, it seems like a great college radio playlist, but not exactly a shed-filling financial success. The festival pivoted away from underground rock the following year and went on hiatus after its journey into electronica in 1997.To celebrate 30 years of this inspired collection of bands, here’s a playlist of songs from the acts that performed on the tour’s main stage, with a couple of bonus tracks from the not-to-be-missed second stage.Time takes its crazy toll,DavidListen along while you read.1. Sonic Youth: “The Diamond Sea”If it seems weird now that a famously iconoclastic band without even a single gold record to its name headlined a festival playing to upward of 25,000 people at each stop, it was weird then, too. Chalk it up to something of a lifetime achievement award for the New York legends who influenced acts down the rest of the bill.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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      The Return of Pulp, a Serious Band That Doesn’t Take Itself Seriously

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      The Britpop group led by Jarvis Cocker reunited for “More,” its first album since 2001. The stakes are different, the band more mature and the songs still thoughtful.Jarvis Cocker can opine. The mop-topped, bespectacled frontman of Pulp, the beloved Britpop act, is in demand as a conversationalist for the canny turns of phrase and pungent references that also animate his lyrics.Get him into a room with his bandmates — he and the three longest-running members had gathered last month at the Barbican Center in central London to talk about their newest album — and he will gladly unspool about what undergirds pop (“repressed feelings”) and the unexpected strife of band life: “You can’t get insurance! It’s loads more expensive for a musician.”Then there’s the threat posed by streaming. “We’re in a situation now where you could live your whole life without ever listening to a piece of music more than once; you can just let it all just go past you, in a kind of scented candle vibe,” he said with horror.Pulp, as the name suggests, is more visceral than that, with wryly observed dance-floor anthems that explore the social pecking order, like the enduring 1995 track “Common People.” What “made Pulp songs interesting,” Cocker said he realized lately, is that “they’re often quite frantic, trying to get some idea across or to work something out in your mind. Hysterical, sometimes, almost.”That propelled them through their ’90s heyday, anyway. But “More,” Pulp’s first record in nearly a quarter-century, out June 6, has a different thrust: more introspective, more room to breathe. When he played it in the offices of Rough Trade, Pulp’s label, “Someone said, oh, that’s very age appropriate,” Cocker, 61, recalled. “I took it as a compliment.”Sitting around a long conference table at the Barbican, the cultural center where they had gigged over the years, his bandmates — Candida Doyle, the keyboardist; Mark Webber, the guitarist; and Nick Banks, the drummer — mostly jibed with their songwriter and semi-democratic leader. But they did sometimes laugh (affectionately) at him.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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      Karol G’s Ode to Curves, Plus 7 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by Alejandro Sanz and Shakira, St. Vincent, Stereolab and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.Karol G: ‘Latina Foreva’The Colombian singer and rapper Karol G cheerfully fends off some unwanted male attention by praising Latin women instead: “Those curves don’t even exist in NASCAR.” The inventive pop-reggaeton production stays light and changeable, with little keyboard blips and string lines making sure the familiar beat is always laced with bits of melody.Alejandro Sanz featuring Shakira: ‘Bésame’Husky meets breathy in “Bésame” (“Kiss Me”), the new duet by Alejandro Sanz, from Spain, and Shakira, from Colombia: a 20-years-later reconnection after their 2005 megahit “La Tortura.” They trade endearments over a track that connects Latin pop to Nigerian Afrobeats — and, in the bridge, tosses in some flamenco handclaps for more trans-Atlantic fusion.Guedra Guedra: ‘Drift of Drummer’Abdellah M. Hassak, the Moroccan electronic producer, records as Guedra Guedra. Guedra is a Tuareg dance that shares its name with a cook pot that becomes a drum when covered with an animal skin. “Drift of Drummer” mixes field recordings that Hassak gathered in his travels across Africa with hand drum machines and synthesizers. Juggling ever-changing layers of percussion over a brisk implied pulse and a terse bass line, the song is a cauldron of rhythms, humanized by snippets of speaking voices.St. Vincent featuring Mon Laferte: ‘Tiempos Violentos’St. Vincent is joined by another high-drama songwriter and singer, Mon Laferte, for a third iteration of “Violent Times,” which appeared on her 2024 album “All Born Screaming” and its Spanish-language version, “Todos Nacen Gritando.” The ominous horns, looming drumbeats and James Bond-theme chords of the original track remain. Where Laferte takes over certain lines, she brings her own sharp-clawed sweetness.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