Jelly Roll took several jabs at President Donald Trump during his opening monologue as guest host of Jimmy Kimmel Live on Monday (Aug. 24), turning his fill-in stint into a pointed political set.

The country star, who is guest-hosting the ABC late-night show for four nights while Jimmy Kimmel is away, opened by noting it was the first time he’d “worn a suit and a tie ever.”

“I didn’t wear one to the Grammys. I didn’t wear one to court. I didn’t wear one to my father’s funeral,” he said. “But I look alright, don’t I?”

Referencing a Washington Post report on the president’s recent weight gain, Jelly Roll noted that he has dropped around 300 pounds himself in recent years — “that means I’ve lost an entire Donald Trump,” he said, before tacking on a jab at the president’s approval numbers.

He also mocked Trump’s appearance at a Washington, D.C. IndyCar race over the weekend, and ran a montage of the president mocking other people’s appearances after wryly insisting the audience shouldn’t stoop to weight jokes.

“Well Mr. President, from one fat pig to another, take it from me that physical fitness is very important,” Jelly Roll concluded.

Back for his second consecutive summer filling in for Jimmy Kimmel, Jelly Roll is hosting for four nights, with guests including podcast host Jay Shetty and actor Glen Powell — who revealed that Jelly Roll has a small role in his upcoming film The Comeback King — and Stevie Nicks booked as a musical guest later in the run.

The guest hosting spot comes at a career high point for the country star, born Jason DeFord, who has become one of the most successful crossover artists in country music.

Earlier this year, he won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Country Album for Beautifully Broken, the 2024 release that became his first No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Its single “I Am Not Okay” reached No. 14 on the Hot 100 and became one of six career No. 1s on the Country Airplay chart, alongside “Son of a Sinner,” “Need a Favor,” “Save Me” (with Lainey Wilson) and “Halfway to Hell.”

Nearly 20 years after the original, Busta Rhymes has posthumously collaborated with the late J Dilla to release their joint Dillagence II project. The anticipated sequel arrived on streaming services on Tuesday (Aug. 25).

The project boasts 19 tracks and is loaded with a range of features, including Dilla’s mother, Ma Dukes, R&B legend D’Angelo, Big Sean, Ludacris, Lil Wayne, Common, Talib Kweli, Anderson .Paak and upstarts like La Reezy and Honey Bxby.

D’Angelo, who passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2025, appears on “This Woman” and Busta revealed that the track came from an unfinished collab between the Voodoo singer and J Dilla over 20 years ago.

“I was gifted with something that they did that they didn’t finish when the word started to spread about this project. I didn’t know that it existed because it was done 20-something years ago,” Busta told New York Times’ Popcast. “They started something and it just never got finished. I love both of them, so I wanted to do whatever justice I could do and continue to uphold the legacies of these brothers.”

Busta also teased a music video for “This Woman” on social media directed by Hype Williams, who has an extensive history working with both the New York rapper and D’Angelo.

Bus-a-Bus has been sitting on nearly 300 J Dilla beats, a portion of which he polished to make up Dillagence II. “In my experience with Dilla, he was a man of few words. I heard him talk more when he was rhyming than in actual conversation,” the 54-year-old explained on Popcast.

Dilla and Busta originally joined forces for Dillagence in 2007, which came just over a year after J Dilla’s death in February 2006.

Even at 54, Busta Rhymes has stayed in the studio. Busta’s Dragon Season… Equinox project arrived last year and he released his BLOCKBUSTA album in 2023.

Stream Dillagence II below.

Australia’s Laneway Festival has confirmed the dates for its scaled-back 2027 edition, with Sydney set to open the touring festival for the first time in its history.

The four-date run begins at Sydney’s Centennial Park on Friday, Feb. 12, followed by Brisbane Showgrounds on Saturday, Feb. 13. The following weekend, the festival returns to its longtime Melbourne home at Flemington Park on Friday, Feb. 19, before wrapping across the Tasman at Auckland’s Western Springs on Sunday, Feb. 21.

The route follows confirmation earlier this month that Adelaide and Perth would miss out on Laneway in 2027 as organizers reduce the festival’s footprint. At the time, the festival said the demands of staging multiple events across Australia and New Zealand within a short window had contributed to the decision.

“Running so many shows, so close together, across so much ground is a logistical feat we’re proud of, but it also asks a lot of our lineup and crew,” organizers said, adding that a pause would allow them “to focus on making the festival the best it can be.” They stressed the omissions were not necessarily permanent.

The 2027 route also marks Laneway’s return to the Brisbane Showgrounds after the Queensland leg moved to Southport Sharks on the Gold Coast for the 2026 edition. The lineup remains under wraps, with the first artist announcement expected in late September.

The dates arrive during a period of transition for the festival, which last week saw festival director Jessie Parker announce her departure after 16 years. Laneway marked its 21st anniversary in 2026 with a lineup led by Chappell Roan, alongside Wolf Alice, Role Model, Wet Leg, PinkPantheress and Geese.

LANEWAY FESTIVAL 2027

Feb. 12 — Sydney — Centennial Park

Feb. 13 — Brisbane — Brisbane Showgrounds

Feb. 19 — Melbourne — Flemington Park

Feb. 21 — Auckland — Western Springs

The Australian Recording Industry Association has become the first national chart body to implement eligibility rules for recordings made with generative AI, confirming that wholly AI-generated tracks will be barred from the ARIA Charts.

Recordings that use AI in a supporting role remain eligible; tracks generated wholesale by AI do not. The changes take effect from the chart dated Monday, Aug. 31.

To qualify, a recording must be “substantially human-made” and raise “no stream or chart manipulation concerns,” with ARIA applying the global music industry’s AI labelling standard, announced July 10, to tell AI-generated recordings from AI-assisted ones.

The move implements the global principles set by the IFPI and the major labels earlier this year — ARIA being the first national chart body to adopt them with a firm date.

“Artists already use AI tools in their work, the charts can and should evolve to keep room for that, but music generated wholesale by services built on artists’ recordings is a different matter,” ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd said. She added that “a chart that rewards unlicensed AI output would undercut the very basis of the recorded music we exist to represent,” and urged other decision-makers, “particularly radio,” to adopt similar codes.

The rules carry teeth. ARIA can decline to survey an ineligible recording, remove it from the charts, adjust positions, withdraw accreditations, and revoke any ARIA No. 1 Award; ineligible tracks are also barred from the ARIA Awards. Artists can contest exclusions through an updated disputes process.

The policy arrives as AI-generated music has begun testing the boundaries of chart systems worldwide. The AI country act Breaking Rust reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart in 2025, and in April 2026 the AI act IngaRose topped iTunes charts in the U.S. and globally — cases that focused industry attention on the absence of any chart rules governing AI.

Neither involved detected streaming fraud; both drew on real purchases or organic interest on narrower charts.

ARIA said it will keep the code under review as AI policy and technology continue to develop.

Veteran music journalist Vernell Hackett, a longtime chronicler of Nashville’s top music artists, died on Aug. 14 in Chicago, after suffering from cardiac arrest. Hackett was 77.

Born Vernell Dell Boswank, she grew up in the small Texas town of Riesel, and graduated from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. 

Though she initially had plans to pursue a career in crime reporting, her passion for music led her on a path to becoming a top music journalist. She and her husband Ken relocated to Buffalo, N. Y., to live closer to his family, before relocating to Nashville. Hackett worked for booking agent Tandy Rice at Top Billing International, where Rice represented artists including Dolly Parton, Jim Ed Brown, Jerry Clower, Porter Wagoner, Jeannie C. Riley, Tom T. Hall and others. 

Hackett was known for her heartfelt and vivid storytelling, her deep connections with artists and songwriters, and her passion for music and creativity. Hackett’s work in journalism included time as an editor of Country News, Country Rhythms and American Songwriter magazines. Hackett was a co-founder of American Songwriter magazine, and she served as the publication’s editor-in-chief for over a decade. She also freelanced for many publications, as well as radio syndicators.

During her career, Hackett also worked in public relations, including time as part of the Country Music Association’s communications department. In the 1980s, Hackett worked with a young rodeo cowboy by the name of Chris LeDoux, who also dreamed of being a country music singer. LeDoux went on to earn the top 10 Billboard Country Airplay chart hit “Whatcha Gonna Do With A Cowboy” in 1992, while his song “Cadillac Ranch” reached the chart’s top 20 in 1993. LeDoux passed away in 2005, and Garth Brooks honored LeDoux’s memory with the song “Good Ride Cowboy.”

Hackett also represented artists including bluegrass artist Dale Ann Bradley, Americana duo Jesse and Noah, nitty gritty dirt band founding member John McEuen, and singer-songwriters Ryan Murphey, Joni Harms and Randy Huston.

She was also an author, writing books including a biography of Carrie Underwood. She also penned the book Ghosts, Gangsters and Gamblers of Las Vegas, with her longtime friends and colleagues Liz Cavanaugh and Michelle Honick.

Beyond music, Hackett was a champion for animal rights, working with rescue shelters and supporting the Robyn’s Nest shelter. Many years ago, after Hackett asked that friends bring dog food in lieu of gifts to her birthday party, a longtime tradition was started, which ultimately resulted in thousands of pounds of pet food, as well as monetary donations, being made to Robyn’s Nest.

“Vernell was my close personal friend for decades. Sometimes, we would talk two or three times a week,” The Oak Ridge Boys’ Duane Allen said in a statement. “The last week of her life, she sent a beautiful poem that was suitable to hang on any wall. She was always positive. I sent her a funny video of a very small dog singing and a big dog hitting the small dog with flip-flops. Vernell and I had three things in common. She loved the Lord, her friends and animals. I look forward to seeing her in Heaven, rejoicing with our many mutual friends, and I can imagine that there will be many of our four-legged friends to keep us company.” 

Musician Michael Martin Murphey added in a statement, “Vernell Hackett was the kindest, most down-to-earth journalist and human being I’ve ever known. She had a sense of what the common, everyday country music fan is looking for in a story…Vernell went out of her way to support me on my journey.”

“Very sad to hear about Vernell’s passing; she was always so very kind to us, and we feel privileged to have known her through the years,” said David Bellamy of The Bellamy Brothers said in a statement. “We send prayers and condolences to her family and loved ones.” 

Hackett is survived by her nephew Glen Boswank (Nashville, Tennessee) and niece Katy Prewitt (Kaufman, Texas).

Taylor Swift has made a name for herself as a singer/songwriter for the past two decades exploring different genres of music, including pop, indie, country and other styles. But she says her country roots have only become more meaningful to her over time.

During a conversation at the Grammy Museum presented by the Recording Academy’s Songwriters & Composers Wing on Aug. 18 (which was just released in full on YouTube), Swift fondly reflected on the songwriter she was when she released her debut single, “Tim McGraw,” and the artist she has become nearly two decades later. When asked by Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. what has remained the same and what has changed between herself then and now, Swift pointed to the country foundation that assisted in the launching of her career.

“I’ve loved — and I think this can happen as you grow up — my country roots more and more,” Swift said. “The further along this path I get, I want to honor them more and more, and I feel more and more tied and more loyal to them — the people that shaped who I am as an artist and as a writer.”

Those roots, Swift noted, trace back to Nashville, where she developed her identity as a songwriter. Earlier in the conversation, she recalled becoming fascinated with the city at around age 10 after learning that Faith Hill had been discovered at the Bluebird Cafe. Swift made it a personal goal to perform at the famed Nashville venue, while also teaching herself instruments and writing songs by studying the structures of the music she loved.

That early immersion in country music did influence the picturesque storytelling that would become one of the distinctive and beloved attributes of Swift’s songwriting. Looking back at “Tim McGraw,” she pointed to elements of the song that seemingly foreshadowed the kind of writer she would eventually become, including character work, vivid detailing and the way the song moves through time.

“I was 16 putting out an album in country music that was all about my life as a kid in high school,” Swift explained during the conversation, recalling how some people around her questioned whether a teenager writing about her own life would connect with country’s music presumed audience. She decided to trust her instincts rather than conforming to those expectations.

Swift famously pushed far beyond the country genre once her debut album ignited. Audiences first saw her experimenting with her 2012 album Red, straying away from traditional collaborators and sounds before she made her official pop pivot with 2014’s 1989, both of which debuted atop the Billboard 200. Even as her music evolved, however, the songwriting principles she refined in Nashville remained part of her creative groundwork.

She pointed to “Mean,” from 2010’s Speak Now, as one example of how her country background directly influenced her approach. At the time, one criticism she was hearing was that she wasn’t “country enough,” so she responded by leaning into the genre’s sonic characteristics, joking that she put “just as much banjo on this as we can possibly put.”

That willingness to experiment did lead her to some of the more unexpected genre combinations of her career. Swift spoke about bringing the earworm hit “I Knew You Were Trouble.” to Max Martin and Shellback as a sad piano ballad, only for the producers to suggest turning it into somewhat of a dubstep-influenced track. She agreed to try it, and the result become the biggest turning point of her moving away from the country genre.

Nearly 20 years after “Tim McGraw,” Swift seems to be looking back at her country beginnings with renewed appreciation.

Watch the full conversation with The Recording Academy below.

In addition to the Q&A with Mason, Swift also threw things back to her Eras Tour days by mashing up her Toy Story 5 song “I Knew It, I Knew You,” “August” and “All Too Well” on the very piano she brought out for the acoustic section of that show. Watch the full mash-up below: