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Kota the Friend to Be Halftime Performer for Brooklyn Nets’ Opening Night: ‘This Feels Like Coming Home’

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Kota the Friend has announced that he will be the halftime performer for the Brooklyn Nets opening hometown game at Barclays Center.

In an exclusive with Billboard, Kota revealed on Thursday (Oct. 16) that he will serve as the halftime performer during the Nets opening game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Oct. 24.

“Performing at the Brooklyn Nets home opener feels like a full-circle moment,” Kota tells Billboard in a statement. “It’s crazy because I went to high school literally just a few blocks away in one direction, and I grew up just blocks away in the other direction, at a time when I was dreaming big and making music in my room. Being on the Barclays Center court right here in my hometown — that’s what Brooklyn energy is all about.”

While the Nets have always taken pride in elevating local talent and spotlighting artists with direct ties to the borough, Kota’s performance will come as part of a broad strategy this season to celebrate Brooklyn in a massive way. The Nets announced they’re collaborating with the estate of The Notorious B.I.G. on a series of Biggie Nights for this season. The campaign will kick off on Nov. 11 at Barclays Center, with special musical performances handpicked by the estate.

“Being in Brooklyn, Biggie’s influence was everywhere — he made you believe you could make it from right here in Brooklyn,” Kota continues. “I wrote ‘Go Brooklyn’ as an ode to the city that shaped me, and we shot parts of the video around the neighborhood, including outside Barclays. So this feels like coming home in every way.”

Past hometown halftime performers have included other New York hip-hop powerhouse’s such as Saint JHN, Joey Bada$$, Capella Grey, Young M.A., Busta Rhymes, Lil’ Kim, Dave East, Method Man, M.O.P. and Maino.

The halftime performance caps off a stellar year for Kota the Friend, who dropped off his latest album, No Rap On Sunday, back in June, and will wrap up his tour with a hometown Brooklyn performance at Williamsburg Music Hall on Thursday.

Check out the official flyer for his performance below:

Kota The Friend

Courtesy


Billboard VIP Pass

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XG Announce Japanese Dates for Kick-Off of 2026 World Tour

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Japanese girl group XG announced the initial dates for their second world tour on Friday (Oct. 17), which is slated to kick off on Feb. 6 with the first of three shows at K-Arena Yokohama in Yokohama, Japan. Following a run of 10 more shows in Japan, a press release announcing the outing promised as-yet-unannounced shows in North America, U.K. and Europe, Australia, Latin America and other regions.

Exclusive early ticket reservations for the 13 Japan dates will open to members of XG’s ALPHAZ fan club will begin on Nov. 1, with additional details coming soon.

The tour is in support of the septet’s upcoming debut album, which is due out on Jan. 23. Last month, JURIN, CHISA, HINATA, HARVEY, JURIA, MAYA and COCONA released the first taste of the LP, the high-energy French-English dance burner “Gala,” which debuted at No. 10 on Billboard‘s U.S. Dance Digital Song Sales chart. At the time of the single’s release, MAYA told The Hollywood Reporter, “This song was mainly inspired by the iconic Met Gala. We tried so many new things, choreography wise, music wise and fashion wise, so we’re really excited to showcase that. I feel like this song is really XG.”

HARVEY added, “I think it’s fair to say that we’ve grown a lot since we first debuted, but personally I think we became a lot more fearless when it comes to challenging ourselves to new things. Especially with ‘Gala,’ I think we can see that come into play fully. We’ve challenged ourselves to try many different dances and a new sense of fashion that we haven’t done before to become bolder. In that sense, I think we’ve seen ourselves come a long way.”

XG’s first world tour, 2024’s The first HOWL, included 47 shows across 35 cities around the world in front of 400,000 fans, capped off this spring when they were the only Japanese artists to perform at the Coachella Festival.

Check out the dates for XG’s 2026 tour below.

  • Feb. 6: Yokohama, Japan @ K-Arena Yokohama
  • Feb. 7: Yokohama, Japan @ K-Arena Yokohama
  • Feb. 8: Yokohama, Japan @ K-Arena Yokohama
  • Feb. 17: Osaka, Japan @ Osaka-Jo Hall
  • Feb. 18: Osaka, Japan @ Osaka-Jo Hall
  • Feb. 21: Nagoya, Japan @ IG Arena
  • Feb. 22: Nagoya, Japan @ IG Arena
  • March 14: Fukui, Japan @ Sundome Fukui
  • March 20: Sendai, Japan @ Miyagi Sekisuiheim Super Arena
  • March 25: Kobe, Japan @ GLION Arena Kobe
  • March 26: Kobe, Japan @ GLION Arena Kobe
  • April 4: Fukuoka, Japan @ Kitakyushu Messe
  • April 5: Fukuoka, Japan @ Kitakyushu Messe


Billboard’s Live Music Summit will be held in Los Angeles on Nov. 3. For tickets and more information, click here.

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Sen. Martin Heinrich Backs Cardi B’s Claims About the Economy & Cost of Living Being Too High: She ‘Is Right’

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Cardi B has often been outspoken about political matters in the United States, and she recently slammed the economy’s rent prices while thanking fans for purchasing and supporting her new album, Am I the Drama?. And now, a senator is voicing his agreement with the rapper’s concerns about economic issues.

“I feel so bad because I didn’t realize how quickly they raised the rent prices. And I’m out here asking y’all to buy my album and s—t. I’m so sorry, y’all,” Cardi had said during an Instagram Live session earlier this week. “When I was looking at those rent prices, I was so f—king disgusted. They need to make it easier to get welfare to get a little help.”

New Mexico’s Sen. Martin Heinrich, who is a member of the Democratic party, got wind of Cardi’s sentiments and backed her up while supporting her worries about the cost of living skyrocketing across the country when it comes to rent, groceries and health-care premiums.

“@iamcardib is right. And it’s not just rent that’s going up–costs are rising across the board,” the senator wrote on X on Thursday (Oct. 16). “From your rent to your groceries to your utility bills to your health care premiums, this administration is making your life more expensive and Republicans in Congress aren’t doing anything to stop them.”

According to the USDA, food prices in America rose 3.2 percent from August 2024 to August 2025, which went up faster than inflation during the same timeframe (up 2.9 percent).

Amid the murky economic conditions, the Bardi Gang still came out to support Cardi B, as her anticipated sophomore album, Am I the Drama?, debuted atop the Billboard 200 with 200,000 album-equivalent units earned.

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The Last Dinner Party’s ‘From The Pyre’: All 10 Tracks Ranked

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Underpinning The Last Dinner Party’s polished, Rococo-era aesthetic is an epic striving for greatness. When the London-formed five-piece crashed into the indie consciousness two years ago, they arrived seemingly fully-formed, with a fairytale arc to their origin story. Major record labels had clamoured over them after YouTube footage of a set at the tiny Windmill pub in Brixton gathered momentum in late 2022, leading to a deal with Island.

The success of the storming and anthemic debut single “Nothing Matters” made the group, alongside recent Billboard U.K. cover stars Wet Leg, a rare British guitar band from the last few years admitted to the genre’s increasingly rarefied upper echelons. It was a remarkable rise, though perhaps what’s more admirable is how The Last Dinner Party turned all of that immediate attention into a foundation for longevity as a unit.

The Last Dinner Party photographed by Nicole Nodland on August 30, 2023 in London.

Chartbreaker: The Last Dinner Party Is ‘Not F–king Around’ Following Its Debut Hit

Rather than blast straight into the theaters it could have filled, the group toured smaller venues and took a step back from media commitments in order to grow their confidence as performers, honing one of the most energetic live shows on the circuit. Yet in the U.K., The Last Dinner Party’s swift ascent became subject to scrutiny online, with the term “industry plant” disproportionately thrown its way; images of early gigs from 2021 onwards, however, show that the band had been steadily gathering a cult following for years prior to its mainstream crossover moment.

By early 2024, their BRIT and Mercury Prize-nominated debut LP Prelude to Ecstasy reached the top of the Official U.K. Albums Chart with the biggest opening week for a debut by a band in the U.K. since 2015. Unlike its explosively successful predecessor, which was buoyed by tight, richly-decorated pop melodies, new record From the Pyre is darker and more ambitious. These 10 songs see The Last Dinner Party weave tales of greed and obsession, hinting at a fabulist side to its writing by pulling from Greek mythology, and references such as Joan Of Arc, apocalyptic imagery and the Medieval age.

With an extensive U.K. headline tour on the horizon, including first-time arena billings, From the Pyre arrives as The Last Dinner Party makes good on years of industry hype with a definitive artistic statement. Consider the moment met. See our ranking of the 10 songs from From the Pyre below.

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