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There’s Apparently Some Serious Drama Brewing Between Elon Musk’s DOGE and Trump’s MAGA

The firing of America's top copyright official was seen as a boon for Big Tech — but the new guys are not so sensitive to industry's needs. 

Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s firing of the United States’ top copyright official was seen as a boon for the Big Tech agenda — but as it turns out, the new guys are not so sensitive to the industry’s needs.

As The Verge reports, most everyone presumed Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its anti-regulation stance were to blame for the firing of Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter.

The firing came in the wake of her office releasing a preliminary report suggesting that training AI on copyrighted data was not legally considered fair use.

But as it turns out, the men replacing her — Paul Perkins, a Justice Department veteran from Trump’s first administration, and Brian Nieves, who works for the Deputy Attorney General — are not DOGE, but MAGA stalwarts who seem bent on tech regulation.

Perkins, Nieves, and Todd Blanche, who was picked to lead the Library of Congress after the former librarian was fired alongside Perlmutter, are “there to stick it to tech,” according to one official who spoke to The Verge.

Along with now being the deputy attorney general, Blanche also served as Trump’s defense attorney during his 2024 “hush money” criminal trial. As deputy AG, the official is also arguing on the administration’s behalf as it seeks to force Google to lay aside 20 percent of its profits to fix issues flagged by the Justice Department.

While the DOGE faction of the president’s coalition is all-in on AI and seeks its deregulation, Republican stalwarts were actually upset with Trump and Musk for firing Perlmutter because, as some conservatives believe, AI should be reined in when it comes to copyrighted materials.

“We don’t have to steal content to compete with China. We don’t have slave labor to compete with China. It’s a bullshit argument,” exclaimed Trump antitrust adviser Mike Davis in an interview about the firings with The Verge. “It’s not fair use under the copyright laws to take everyone’s content and have the big tech platforms monetize it. That’s the opposite of fair use. That’s a copyright infringement.”

With the backdrop of Musk’s alleged exit from government, one thing seems to be clear: that the conservative business interests that bolstered Trump to power in 2016 and 2024 may finally be winning out over the technolibertarianism that brought Musk along for the ride.

More on Muskian power plays: Government Furiously Trying to Undo Elon Musk’s Damage

The post There’s Apparently Some Serious Drama Brewing Between Elon Musk’s DOGE and Trump’s MAGA appeared first on Futurism.

Benmont Tench – The Melancholy Season

Benmont Tench doesn’t name his pianos as such, but he lovingly distinguishes each of the keyboards he plays on his latest album. “Mr Tench’s piano” is a Steinway B. So is “the Village Recorder’s piano” used in the eponymous studio. “Mr Wilson’s piano”, belonging to producer Jonathan Wilson, is a 1913 Steinway A3. You get to know all these keyboard characters and more on The Melancholy Season, the gorgeous, heart-warming second solo album by a musician better known as a sought-after Los Angeles session player and lifetime member of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.

Buy The Melancholy Season here

Benmont Tench doesn’t name his pianos as such, but he lovingly distinguishes each of the keyboards he plays on his latest album. “Mr Tench’s piano” is a Steinway B. So is “the Village Recorder’s piano” used in the eponymous studio. “Mr Wilson’s piano”, belonging to producer Jonathan Wilson, is a 1913 Steinway A3. You get to know all these keyboard characters and more on The Melancholy Season, the gorgeous, heart-warming second solo album by a musician better known as a sought-after Los Angeles session player and lifetime member of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.

THE JUNE 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING R.E.M., A DOORS RARITIES CD, BON IVER, PRINCE, SHACK, AMY WINEHOUSE, DIRE STRAITS, STEREOLAB AND MORE

Benjamin Montmorency Tench III’s artistic alliance with Petty stretches back to the early ’70s in their native Florida. He was a founding member of the Heartbreakers, collaborating joyfully across the decades until Petty’s untimely death in 2017 put a full stop on the band just as they had rounded off their 40th-anniversary tour. Since the early ’80s, he has also applied “the Tench touch” to countless records and sessions, starting with Stevie Nicks’ solo debut Bella Donna and Dylan’s Shot Of Love. He played alongside Petty on Roy Orbison’s Mystery Girl and has executed subtle work for Alanis Morissette, Jackson Browne, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Costello and, most recently, Ringo Starr and The Rolling Stones.

Tench is no flashy showman, sliding in like part of the furniture on Hackney Diamonds’ “Dreamy Skies”, brooding beautifully on Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” and delivering an emotional gut punch on Johnny Cash’s version of “Hurt”. He takes the same intuitive approach to his own music. “If a song shows up, you’ve gotta write it,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2014. Feargal Sharkey and Roseanne Cash have benefitted from his largesse, scoring hits with “You Little Thief” and Petty co-write “Never Be You”, respectively.

The songs that make up on The Melancholy Season have been percolating for some time, with births (his first child), deaths (Petty) and marriage (to writer Alice Carbone) all delaying recording. Tench favours a limited palette, citing Dylan’s John Wesley Harding and Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band, both uncluttered benchmarks using a small cast of players. Tench’s team here includes Jonathan Wilson, also on drums, bassist Sebastian Steinberg and classy cameos from Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith, singer-songwriter Jenny O and Nickel Creek’s Sarah Watkins.

The opening title track is a gem of poetic parsimony, conjuring a world of turning seasons and moods from a few well-chosen phrases, layered with simpatico textures. First, the graceful stroking of piano, lithe and effortless, then gentle bassline, metronomic beat and the warm bath of organ, keeping it simple yet somehow sumptuous. It’s an arresting start, the work of a man alive to and respectful of his environment. “Pledge” is pacier and more voluble, a peppy meditation on the mysteries of time and nature with a touch of fabulism and Biblical allusions. It builds to a clamorous prayer for social justice, looking for some earthly redemption, and signs off with a well-aimed lyrical dart: “Jesus ain’t the only one that wept.”

Tench steers his team through the rollicking rock’n’roll of “Rattle”, an impish cavalcade of freewheeling philosophy and juke joint spirit, before dispensing with their services on bare bones ballad “If She Knew”. There is a husky sweetness to Tench’s tone, channelling some of the gruff melodrama of Lee Hazlewood here and the beer-goggled night vision of Tom Waits on mischievous lounge bar vignette “Wobbles”, which previously featured as an instrumental on his 2014 debut You Should Be So Lucky.

“Back” is delicious brooding R&B, with aqueous bassline, stealthy sustained notes on Hammond and acid inflections from Wilson on guitar. Tench sounds like a total cat but not so cool that he won’t beg for the return of his woman. He lets the vulnerability in his voice leak out on outlaw country amble “Like Crystal”. Accompanied by a loping bassline, like a trusty old steed, he sizes up the return of an old adversarial love. Even better, “Dallas” reels you in from the first line as Tench plays the mildly repentant drifter, raising a wizened toast to all the folks he’s vexed before.

Tench jokes that he sings like Chet Baker if Baker couldn’t sing. His second instrument has taken a battering in the decade since his debut, but he has emerged from mouth cancer surgery in 2023 with a rebuilt jaw, refreshed purpose and an album of songs encompassing beguiling naivety, terse wisdom and twinkling regret.

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The post Benmont Tench – The Melancholy Season appeared first on UNCUT.

Julee Cruise – Fall_Float_Love (Works 1989 – 1998)

The ethereal voice of Julee Cruise is as essential to the world of Twin Peaks as cherry pie and Dale Cooper’s dreams, yet we may have never heard it if visionary director David Lynch had more funds. He really wanted to include This Mortal Coil’s cover of Tim Buckley’s “Song To The Siren” in Blue Velvet, but he couldn’t afford the rights. Composer Angelo Badalamenti, who in short order would become Lynch’s go-to for the rest of their careers, was tasked with writing an original piece of music for the movie instead, given little instruction beyond its eventual title (the phrase “mysteries of love”) and an idea that the song should “float on the sea of time”, with Elizabeth Fraser’s voice in mind. Badalamenti had just met Cruise at a theatre workshop, so he brought her in. The result is a uniquely incandescent piece of music, shimmering poetry animated by Cruise’s vertiginously angelic voice. Blue Velvet is unimaginable without it.

Buy Fall_Float_Love (Works 1989 – 1998) here

The ethereal voice of Julee Cruise is as essential to the world of Twin Peaks as cherry pie and Dale Cooper’s dreams, yet we may have never heard it if visionary director David Lynch had more funds. He really wanted to include This Mortal Coil’s cover of Tim Buckley’s “Song To The Siren” in Blue Velvet, but he couldn’t afford the rights. Composer Angelo Badalamenti, who in short order would become Lynch’s go-to for the rest of their careers, was tasked with writing an original piece of music for the movie instead, given little instruction beyond its eventual title (the phrase “mysteries of love”) and an idea that the song should “float on the sea of time”, with Elizabeth Fraser’s voice in mind. Badalamenti had just met Cruise at a theatre workshop, so he brought her in. The result is a uniquely incandescent piece of music, shimmering poetry animated by Cruise’s vertiginously angelic voice. Blue Velvet is unimaginable without it.

THE JUNE 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING R.E.M., A DOORS RARITIES CD, BON IVER, PRINCE, SHACK, AMY WINEHOUSE, DIRE STRAITS, STEREOLAB AND MORE

It’s fitting that a cosmic bit of happenstance brought Cruise into the orbit of those who would shape the career documented on Fall_Float_Love (Works 1989-1998), a 2CD set compiling her first two albums alongside additional singles and remixes. Her first LP, Floating Into The Night, was originally released in 1989 and introduced the world to the hazy, romantic mysteries that the three collaborators would bring to life together. The Voice Of Love was released in 1993, a sonic continuation of the first album’s otherworldly moods and retro atmospherics.

Cruise, like the characters whose voice she came to represent, came from a small town: Creston, Iowa, with a population of less than 8,000 (her father was the town dentist). She headed to Des Moines’ Drake University to study French horn, then joined the Children’s Theater Company in Minneapolis, and finally moved to New York, where she would have her fateful meeting with Badalamenti. He wasn’t even sure she’d be the right fit for the Lynch gig; Cruise was a powerhouse vocalist, belting out theatre tunes. She was encouraged to explore a softer side of herself, so she held back, letting her voice glide and hover instead of commanding attention. Lynch and Badalamenti were so taken with “Mysteries Of Love” that they wanted to keep recording with Cruise. The songs were moody, dreamy and undoubtedly strange; Cruise was unsure how well it would work. Her family members didn’t care for it, and radio stations had a hard time with it, even the avant-garde ones. But over time, Floating Into The Night eventually became both an iconic dream pop album and an iconoclastic one, a deeply Lynchian work hung on the ethereal scaffolding of Cruise’s reverb-laden voice. It was also David Bowie’s favourite soundtrack to dinner.

Cruise’s voice would go on to score numerous other moments in Lynch productions. The languorous, jazzy doo-wop of “Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart“, the sinister sweetness of “Into The Night” and “I Float Alone“, and the unsettling beauty of “The World Spins” were all included in the 1990 Lynch production Industrial Symphony No. 1 (as well as “This Is Our Night” from Cruise’s second album). Three of those songs were also notably used in Twin Peaks, and then there’s “Falling“, the instrumental version of which is the show’s monumental theme song, transformed into a haunting love song with Cruise’s vocals.

The Voice Of Love includes three songs that Lynch used in 1992’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (in which Cruise also made a brief appearance): the devastating ambient pop ballad “Questions In A World Of Blue” and instrumental versions of “She Would Die For Love” and “The Voice Of Love”. An instrumental version of “Kool Kat Walk”, with its off-kilter piano and finger snaps, fittingly appears in Lynch’s Wild At Heart, while the electric atmosphere of “Up In Flames” originated in Industrial Symphony No. 1.

All of this is deeply enjoyable on its own, in no small part due to Cruise’s hypnotic voice, but the context of Lynch’s work shades the music considerably. It’s a revelation to hear a legendary Frank Booth line issue from Cruise’s gentle lips, imbuing the sick words with a sweeter sense of melancholy. All the Americana flourishes Lynch sweeps into his films are represented here sonically, the retro sensibilities of lounge, noir and girl groups comfortably cohabiting with electronic experimentation and off-putting dissonance. And then there’s the jazz element, a nod backwards to ’50s crooners and forwards to the controlled freedom of the avant-garde.

Cruise would go on to have a unique career, at one point subbing in live for Cindy Wilson of The B-52s and later exploring trip-hop with DJ Dmitry of dance music group Deee-Lite. She even reappeared in Twin Peaks: The Return, her voice and live performance a deeply necessary component of the show’s enduring mythology. Cruise died in 2022, followed by Badalamenti later that year, while Lynch of course passed away this January. Humming eternally within their shared creative legacy are the works documented on Fall_Float_Love, three perfect words to encapsulate Cruise’s enigmatic career as an avatar for Lynch’s fascinations.

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Bang & Olufsen unveils Atelier Limited Edition Art Deco

Bang & Olufsen has launched the Atelier Limited Edition Art Deco, a striking new sound system that reimagines the brand’s iconic Beolab 28 speakers and Beovision Theatre through the lens of Art Deco – the defining aesthetic of the 1920s and the decade of Bang & Olufsen’s founding. 

“This edition is a tribute to our origins and our journey,” says Bang & Olufsen CEO Kristian Teär. “It’s a fusion of design heritage and technical mastery, crafted to celebrate 100 years of innovation through timeless form,” he continues. 

With the same sculptural elegance and refined details that made Art Deco an enduring icon, the Atelier Limited Edition Art Deco pays homage to a century of design excellence and acoustic craftsmanship by drawing on Art Deco’s bold geometry, rich materiality, and exquisite craftsmanship. Limited to just 100 units globally, this release marks a rare convergence of performance and artistry. 

Crafted from dark rosewood and anodised in chestnut aluminium, the system showcases alternating lamella panels in tapered wood and straight aluminium, evoking the rhythmic facade of classic Art Deco architecture. A matching rosewood case handcrafted at Bang & Olufsen’s headquarters in Struer houses the engraved Beoremote, finished in chestnut aluminium and certificates of authenticity. The aluminium surfaces feature a precision-etched geometric motif blending modern machining with classic ornamentation. Hidden within the pattern, 100 engraved strokes subtly commemorate each year of Bang & Olufsen’s legacy. 

The attention to detail and tactility continues with Beosound Theatre’s newly introduced wooden top cover, sculpted in a radial pattern inspired by Art Deco sunburst motifs. Beyond its visual elegance, the cover enhances acoustic transparency, exemplifying  Bang & Olufsen’s commitment to harmonising form and function. The Beolab 28’s floating acoustic lens, encircled by a finely detailed radial ring, anchors the system as a sculptural centrepiece.  

The Atelier Limited Edition Art Deco starts from 65,000 USD, excluding the screen and is available exclusively at select Bang &  Olufsen stores.

The post Bang & Olufsen unveils Atelier Limited Edition Art Deco appeared first on Decoded Magazine.

Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band, Co-Op Live, Manchester, May 14, 2025

Bruce Springsteen has spoken recently about the responsibility of the artist in a turbulent world and he wastes no time putting those words into action tonight. He opens with an extraordinary monologue in which he calls on “the righteous spirit of art, of music, of rock ’n’ roll in dangerous times”, rails against how the country that he loves has fallen into “the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration” and concludes by asking “all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experiment to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring!” Then the 18-piece E Street Band hurtle into the title track of this two-year tour, now on its final leg, with a righteously impassioned “Land Of Hope And Dreams”.

Bruce Springsteen has spoken recently about the responsibility of the artist in a turbulent world and he wastes no time putting those words into action tonight. He opens with an extraordinary monologue in which he calls on “the righteous spirit of art, of music, of rock ’n’ roll in dangerous times”, rails against how the country that he loves has fallen into “the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration” and concludes by asking “all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experiment to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring!” Then the 18-piece E Street Band hurtle into the title track of this two-year tour, now on its final leg, with a righteously impassioned “Land Of Hope And Dreams”.

THE JUNE 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING R.E.M., A DOORS RARITIES CD, BON IVER, PRINCE, SHACK, AMY WINEHOUSE, DIRE STRAITS, STEREOLAB AND MORE

Springsteen, a stadium veteran of over 40 years, rarely plays indoor venues in Europe now, but the relative intimacy of the first of three nights at this 23,500 seater allows an unusually closer quarters view of a performer on a mission, delivering what must surely be the most politically-charged show of his career. As he stands just feet from the front rows, video screens show the singer’s face furrow with concentration as he delivers every line with passion, precision and often venom. Springsteen is 75 years old now. His hair is greyer and wirier. He no longer plays guitar on his back or does knee slides across the stage like he did in his youth, but he’s still more than capable of helming a powerhouse two and a half hour show which never once loses fire, brimstone or focus. The main members of the E Street Band are now in their 70s too, but with saxophonist Jake Clemons replacing his late, legendary uncle Clarence, they roar away as inimitably as ever.

The song choices reflect Springsteen’s prevailing mood and theme. Delivered with barely a pause for each “wun-two-three-fah!” between them, the likes of “Death To My Hometown”,  “Youngstown” and “Darkness On The Edge Of Town” are songs about ordinary lives or livelihoods crushed by situations beyond their control. Springsteen pointedly dedicates 2020’s “Rainmaker” – receiving its live debut – to “our dear leader”. It’s the story of Charles Hatfield, an early 20th century sewing machine salesman who claimed to be able to produce rain but who was exposed as a conman. Springsteen never once mentions Donald Trump by name, but during an acoustic “House Of A Thousand Guitars” the line “The criminal clown has stolen the throne/He steals what he can never own” triggers spontaneous cheering.

The singer previews a gospel-tinged “My City Of Ruins” with another angry monologue about the “weird, strange and dangerous shit going on in America”, detailing events from the “rolling back of historic civil rights legislation” to “siding with dictators”. However, he urges “we’ll survive this moment” as the show’s life-affirming second half gradually becomes a hope-filled celebration of the power of music to protest and inspire.

Although a rousing “Hungry Heart” appears early on, the floodgates open with “Because The Night“, an epic singalong “Badlands” and a furiously rejuvenated “Born In The USA”, which sees gravel creep into Springsteen’s vocals as he roars the chorus with the crowd. “Dancing In The Dark” is pure gleeful pop and “Born To Run” sounds so enormous one fears the roof will blow off and it won’t be an indoor venue any more. By now, the house lights are up, guitarist Nils Lofgren is spinning round during solos, the audience’s  hands are in the air and Springsteen is down in the crowd for “the bit that really matters”.

By the end, for a closing cover of Bob Dylan’s rallying cry “Chimes Of Freedom”, he looks emotionally and physically drained, but euphoric. The message of this incredible show is that however bad things may seem people have the power. As Springsteen puts it, “I believe in the truth of what the great American writer James Baldwin said: ‘In this world there’s isn’t as much humanity as people would like, but there’s enough.’ Let’s pray.” Amen.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played:

Land Of Hope And Dreams
Death To My Hometown
Lonesome Day
My Love Will Not Let You Down
Rainmaker
Darkness On The Edge Of Town
The Promised Land
Hungry Heart
My Hometown
Youngstown
Murder Inc.
Long Walk Home
House Of A Thousand Guitars
My City Of Ruins
Letter To You
Because The Night
Human Touch
Wrecking Ball
The Rising
Badlands
Thunder Road
Born In The U.S.A.
Born To Run
Bobby Jean
Dancing In The Dark
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Chimes Of Freedom

The post Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band, Co-Op Live, Manchester, May 14, 2025 appeared first on UNCUT.

Bruce Springsteen Unloads On Trump At Summer Tour Kickoff

Bruce Springsteen slammed U.S. president Donald Trump as “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous” last night (May 14) before he and the E Street Band had even struck a note at their summer European tour opener in Co-Op Live in Manchester, England.

“In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration,” the artist said prior to “Land of Hope and Dreams.” “Tonight we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experiment to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring!”

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Later, before “House of a Thousand Guitars,” he noted that “the last check on power after the checks and balances of government have failed are the people” is “you and me. It’s in the union of people around a common set of values now that’s all that stands between a democracy and authoritarianism. At the end of the day, all we’ve got is each other.”

The Boss then spoke at length when introducing “My City of Ruins” about the “very weird, strange and dangerous shit going on out there right now. In America they are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. This is happening now.”

“In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death,” he added. “This is happening now. In my country they’re taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal American workers. They’re rolling back historic civil rights legislation that has led to a more just and plural society. They are abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom. They are defunding American universities that won’t bow down to their ideological demands. They are removing residents off American streets and, without due process of law, are deporting them to foreign detention centers and prisons. This is all happening now.”

“A majority of our elected representatives have failed to protect the American people from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government,” he said. “They have no concern or idea for what it means to be deeply American. The America l’ve sung to you about for 50 years is real and, regardless of its faults, is a great country with a great people. So, we’ll survive this moment. Now, I have hope, because I believe in the truth of what the great American writer James Baldwin said: ‘in this world there isn’t as much humanity as one would like, but there’s enough.’ Let’s pray.”

The Springsteen tour continues through early July. Last night’s show wrapped with a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom,” which the artist hadn’t played live since 1988.

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.

Music Biz President Portia Sabin Reveals Conference Will Return to Atlanta in 2026

With more than 2,000 attendees converging on Atlanta for the annual Music Biz conference at the Renaissance Atlanta Waverly Hotel and Convention Center Galleria, Music Business Association president Portia Sabin opened day 2 by reminding everyone of the “guiding belief” behind the Music Business Association and its conference — while revealing the conference will return to Atlanta next year.

“We’re all better together,” Sabin proclaimed. “We know we can achieve success and overcome any challenge in our way when we come to the table with open minds, foster collaboration, and develop solutions that truly support one another.”

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Sabin pointed out that the music industry has become truly global in the past several years and, corresponding to that, international music companies now comprise one-fifth of Music Biz’s membership. What’s more, she said 15% of the attendees at this year’s conference (which runs from May 12-15) are from outside the U.S: “That’s 250 individuals, representing 168 companies and over 30 countries, ranging from Vietnam and Australia, to Japan and Egypt,” she said.

In order to better represent its membership and the global music industry, “we’ve embraced this shift by hosting our virtual Passport series — free webinars that dissect issues in music markets across the globe — as well as expanding our traveling Roadshow series with our first international event in Toronto this past March,” Sabin added.

Finally, Sabin pointed out that in preparing to hold the conference in Atlanta over the last year, Music Biz hosted a number of mixers and meetups to “build relationships with Atlanta’s vibrant music business community. Most recently, we partnered with the Mayor’s Office of Film, Entertainment and Nightlife for an event at City Hall, to connect local & global music professionals and preview some of the programming we offer at our conference.”

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After holding the convention for the last 10 years in Nashville, the Music Biz conference is going on the road again, just like its antecedent organization, the National Assn. of Recording Merchandisers, did for decades by moving the annual convention to various cities. However, Sabin revealed that Atlanta will host the convention again next year, too, while thanking the city and the hotel for supporting it.

“Thank you to the team here at the Renaissance for making this year’s event possible, and to the city of Atlanta for being such gracious hosts ever since we announced plans to bring our conference here in 2025 and 2026,” Sabin said at the beginning of her remarks to attendees.

Diddy Trial Day 3 Recap: Cassie Testimony Covers Threats Against Kid Cudi, $20M Settlement & More

Sean “Diddy” Combs’ ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura wrapped up her direct testimony against the rap mogul on Wednesday (May 14), telling jurors that Combs threatened to blow up Kid Cudi’s car and revealing the dollar amount of a bombshell settlement that set off the sex-trafficking probe.

Ventura, an R&B singer who dated Combs on and off for 11 years, is the star witness in Combs’ criminal trial. She’s been on the witness stand since Tuesday (May 13), testifying that Combs physically abused her and forced her to have sex with male escorts during drug-fueled events known as “freak offs.”

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In her final day of direct testimony, Ventura reportedly told the jury that Combs became enraged when he discovered she was dating Cudi (Scott Mescudi) in 2011, according to The New York Times, which also reported that Ventura testified that Combs lunged at her with a wine opener and threatened to release freak off videos and hurt both her and Mescudi.

Ventura also said that Combs threatened to blow up Mescudi’s car, the Times reports, and that she soon broke things off with Mescudi out of fear.

“Too much danger, too much uncertainty of what could happen if we continued to see each other,” Ventura reportedly testified.

Ventura alleged in a November 2023 civil lawsuit that Mescudi’s car did, in fact, explode in his driveway a short while after Combs’ threats. Combs has not been officially linked to the incident.

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Ventura’s civil lawsuit, the first major public accusation against Combs, was also a key topic during her final day of direct testimony. Though Combs settled with Ventura after a single day, the case sparked the criminal probe that led to the current trial and a deluge of other civil sex abuse lawsuits against Combs.

The dollar amount of Ventura’s settlement was kept confidential and long unknown to the public. But according to the Times, Ventura revealed for the first time during her testimony Wednesday that the settlement amounted to $20 million.

Ventura is scheduled to undergo cross-examination by Combs’ lawyers starting Thursday (May 15). The trial could last up to two months total.

Diddy Trial Recap: Opening Statements, Cassie on the Stand & More | Billboard News

Diddy’s trial started on Monday, May 12th, and we’re breaking down what’s happened in the first two days of the trial, including his charges, opening statements, Cassie taking the stand and more.

What do you think of Diddy’s trial so far? Let us know in the comments.

Tetris Kelly:

All right, guys, so this is not a fun one, but the Diddy trial kicked off, and I’m, for one, in shock that they decided that the defense’s argument was gonna be, yeah, there was domestic violence, but not sex trafficking. Like what? 

Judy Sanchez:

It’s a lot to take in. Like, racketeering is a very serious charge, but so is domestic violence. So to sort of brush that under the rug, and especially with Cassie knowing that she’s taking the stand pregnant, I don’t know, the optics are very intense. You know, it was, it was a lot of intense, graphic news coming from the Diddy trial this morning. 

Tetris Kelly:

I mean, it’s so interesting that you phrase it that way, because I think sex trafficking, racketeering, it’s like, and there’s been all this evidence that’s been in the media, what would your argument be to defend Diddy at this point?

Stefanie Tanaka:

Yeah. I mean, I’m not sure there’s much. He’s gonna try to save his a–, I’m sure. But, you know, I don’t know how you can, I mean, your crimes are bad enough. I don’t know if there’s much. I mean, the lawyers are gonna do their jobs because they’re lawyers, but I don’t know, like, if there’s any way he could really get out of it. I mean, they’re pretty serious. All the allegations we’ve heard, the video evidence with Cassie in the hotel.

Keep watching for more.