Entertainment
Brooklyn Mirage Has Been Quietly Co-Managed by Hedge Fund Manager Axar Capital Amid Reopening Drama

A New York hedge fund manager linked to the SFX bankruptcy has been quietly co-managing Avant Gardner and the temporarily closed Brooklyn Mirage nightclub since late last year and leading unsuccessful efforts trying to get it reopened, Billboard has learned.
Andrew Axelrod’s Axar Capital has been a secured creditor of Avant Gardner — the Brooklyn nightclub company that books and manages the Brooklyn Mirage, Kings Hall and the Great Hall — since late 2023, sources close to the company have confirmed.
A year prior, former Avant Gardner CEO Billy Bildstein had negotiated the purchase of the Electric Zoo festival from Axelrod, whose Axar Capital was the senior creditor to media mogul Bob Sillerman’s one-time EDM conglomerate SFX — of which Electric Zoo’s parent company, Made Events, was a part. When SFX went bankrupt in 2015, Axar Capital led a takeover of the company, rebranding it LiveStyle and hiring music executive Randy Phillips to lead a selloff of its assets, which included U.S. promoters like Disco Donnie Presents and Life in Color; Europe’s ID&T, the Dutch promoter behind Tomorrowland; and EDM tech startups like Denver-based electronic music platform Beatport. The last asset to sell, in 2022, was Made Events. Axelrod wanted $15 million for the company and structured the deal so that Avant Gardner could pay Axar Capital using the proceeds from the Electric Zoo festival.
Avant Gardner successfully ran the Electric Zoo festival in 2022 but was sidelined by multiple fiascos the following year including permit denials, gate crashers, the cancellation of the festival’s opening day and accusations of overselling the closing day by 7,000 fans. Due to the disastrous 2023 run, Avant Gardner has faced multiple lawsuits from both fans and unpaid vendors and was condemned by a one-time ally, New York Mayor Eric Adams, who had previously supported the popular Brooklyn Mirage and sided with Bildstein during his high-profile battle with the State Liquor Authority.
Sources tell Billboard that the demise of the festival, and Avant Gardner’s inability to pay Axar the reported $15 million price tag for Electric Zoo, are what led to Axar becoming a senior creditor to Avant Gardner. Terms of the Electric Zoo sale are not public, but a previous agreement between Axar and publicly traded streaming service LiveOne, which purchased Chicago’s Spring Awakening festival — another SFX asset — shows how Axelrod liked to structure some of those deals.
In that agreement, Axelrod sold Spring Awakening to LiveOne for $2.5 million in convertible loans that Axelrod could turn into equity. The deal allowed LiveOne to take over the festival immediately and pay Axelrod back over two years. There was even an option for Axelrod to accept LiveOne stock instead of cash if shares of the company hit certain price targets, but they never did. A month after the deal closed, COVID-19 hit, and Spring Awakening 2020 was canceled. After LiveOne lost $3.5 million on the 2021 event, Axelrod agreed to accept $2.4 million worth of LiveOne stock. But five months later, the value of LiveOne’s stock had fallen 70%, dropping the value of Axelrod’s LiveOne shares to approximately $700,000.
Avant Gardner is a private company, so it’s unclear how the agreement with Axar was structured. Sources tell Billboard that Axelrod made additional investments into the Brooklyn Mirage, which recently underwent extensive renovations and is now attempting to navigate New York’s Department of Buildings to secure a permit to open.
On May 22, Avant Gardner parted ways with Josh Wyatt, a hospitality executive Axelrod had hired to run the company and guide it through renovations that saw the club close for construction. The Brooklyn Mirage was supposed to open May 1 with a concert by Sara Landry, but building inspectors declined to grant the facility a permit to open. A month and a half later, the club has been forced to cancel and relocate more than a dozen shows as its permit problems persist.
Gary Richards, a promoter, touring artist and former CEO of Livestyle for Axar Capital, is now running Avant Gardner and managing day-to-day operations. Billboard reached out to Richards and Axar but was told that neither planned to comment for this story.
Entertainment
Myke Towers & Quevedo Set Charts Ablaze With ‘Soleao’

Myke Towers and Quevedo propel “Soleo” to the top of Billboard’s Latin Airplay chart as the song jumps a spot to No. 1 on the list dated Aug. 9.
Their first collab, “Soleao” (which translates to “sunny” in English), was released May 20 on One World International/Warner Records/Warner Latina. It leads the way in its ninth chart week, after an 11% growth in audience impressions, to 9.1 million, across U.S. panel-contributing Latin radio stations in the tracking week of July 25-31, according to Luminate.
Towers claims his 15th Latin Airplay champ, and third consecutively of 2025, after one-week rulers “Otra Noche,” featuring Darell (February), and “Degenere,” featuring Benny Blanco (May).
Further, Towers adds to his satchel of wins as he accomplishes a third trio of No. 1s in a single year. Rewind to 2021, when (after landing two early chart-toppers, for that matter) the Puerto Rican delivered a streak of three straight No. 1s: “Bandido,” with Juhn; “Pareja del Año,” with Sebastián Yatra; and “Bésame,” with Luis Fonsi, that June, August and November, respectively. In 2024, Towers replicated the success with another trio of consecutive No. 1s: “Borracho y Loco,” with Yandel; “La Falda”; and “La Capi,” between that February and May.
Meanwhile, Quevedo makes a comeback to No. 1 on Latin Airplay. He previously led, for four weeks, with “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 52,” with Bizarrap, in 2022.
Beyond its Latin Airplay coronation, “Soleao” likewise lifts 2-1 on Latin Pop Airplay. There, Towers tallies a third No. 1 and Quevedo, his first. Further, the song adds a second week atop Latin Rhythm Airplay.
Banda Carnaval Ignites Regional Mexican Airplay: Elsewhere on the Latin charts, Banda Carnaval secures its eighth No. 1 on Regional Mexican Airplay, and second of the year, as “Ya La Hice” bounds 9-1 with 6.6 million audience impressions, up 47%, in the tracking week. The act’s “Pude” led for a week in March.
“We are deeply grateful to our fans for taking ‘Ya La Hice’ to No. 1 on Billboard’s Regional Mexican Airplay chart,” Banda Carnaval tells Billboard. “This song represents a very special moment for us, and seeing it connect with people in this way fills us with pride and emotion. Thank you to everyone who has made it their own, to the composers for this great story, and to our team who continues to believe in our music. Let’s go all the way with Síganme Tirando!”
“Ya La Hice” earns Greatest Gainer honors, awarded to the song with the largest week-over-week increase in impressions at the format. Leading the charge during the tracking period are Univision stations, with standout support from KSCA-FM Los Angeles, KLNO-FM Dallas, and WOJO-FM Chicago.
Entertainment
Ice Cube’s ‘War of the Worlds’ Film Has a 0% Rating on ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ & Cube’s Son Is Weighing In

Ice Cube‘s latest movie is off to a slow start on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. According to 15 critics (and counting), War of the Worlds so far has a zero percent rating on the Tomatometer scale, while thousands of moviegoers have given it at 14 percent rating on the Popcornmeter.
One review in particular, from Variety‘s Peter Debruge knocked the film for essentially doubling as a commercial for Amazon, writing, “Even with a Prime subscription, you have to sit through two minutes of ads to watch 90 more of what amounts to a feature-length commercial for all things Amazon,” while another from The Telegraph‘s Ed Power wasn’t really into all the screen time Cube got, saying, “It is silly, shoddy and features far too much of rapper-turned-leading man Ice Cube staring at a computer screen while looking as if he’s working through a reasonably urgent digestive ailment.”
An adaptation of H. G. Wells’ classic 1898 novel The War of the Worlds, this version is an Amazon Prime production directed by Rich Lee and also starring Eva Longoria. Cube plays Will Radford, a surveillance expert at the Department of Homeland Security, and most of the movie takes place on his computer screen as he deals with a hacker and an alien invasion while trying to keep his family out of harm’s way.
The synopsis on Prime Video reads as follows: “A gargantuan invasion is coming with this fresh take on the legendary novel of the same name. Renowned actress Eva Longoria is joined by iconic rapper and actor Ice Cube, along with Michael O’Neill and Iman Benson, for a thrilling out-of-this-world adventure that is filled with present-day themes of technology, surveillance, and privacy.”
Cube’s son, actor O’Shea Jackson Jr., replied to a tweet on X of a video clip from the movie in which an Amazon Prime delivery person tells Cube’s character to cop a USB from Amazon, so he can deliver it via Prime Air with a drone. “I truly can’t believe this adaptation of War Of The Worlds is actually a real film with a real budget and Ice Cube is actually in it,” a fan posted, with Jackson replying that the movie was “Shot during the pandemic. Released 5 years later.”
Billboard has reached out to Ice Cube’s team for comment.
Entertainment
Cara Lewis Group Hires Ashley Ventura, Who Will Bring Bhad Bhabie & More to the Agency

Cara Lewis Group (CLG) has hired agent Ashley Ventura, who will bring her clients to the independent agency.
“CLG is an obvious fit for her talents,” said founder/CEO Cara Lewis in a statement. “The entire Cara Lewis Group team is thrilled to have her as a valued addition. We look forward to continuing our mantra of artist development, creating stars and long lasting careers.”
Ventura has worked as an agent in the hip-hop and R&B space for more than five years, previously working at MAC Agency. A press release announcing her hire described her as a “proven” leader and “one of the newest, most exciting agents in the industry.”
“I’m thrilled to be joining the Cara Lewis Group and to continue pushing culture forward alongside such a respected team,” added Ventura. “This new chapter marks an exciting step in my journey, and I’m looking forward to building with incredible artists and creating what’s next.”
Ventura will be bringing a number of talented artists to the CLG roster, including hip-hop icon French Montana and reality TV star and rapper Bhad Bhabie. Her other clients include Atlanta rapper Anycia, Bay Swag, Bktherula, Gashi, K Camp and Kentheman, all of whom are following her to CLG.
CLG’s roster currently includes Eminem, Travis Scott, Khalid, Don Toliver, Clipse, The Roots, Russ, Jill Scott, Ludacris, Ice Spice, BIA and Erykah Badu. Lewis is one of the most successful independent agents in hip-hop, having spent more than 20 years at William Morris as a partner, where she built the urban-pop division before joining CAA’s music department.
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