Random music news for Saturday, July 18, 2026

This man is on a quest to cut the perfect slice of bread. Godspeed, sir. Moving to music news for July 18, 2026…

1. Guess who’s asking Trump for a pardon now? R Kelly.
2. A company called Gentone has a new “proof of human” initiative for AI music.
3. There’s also Sound Patrol, which calls itself a “neural enforcement engine” that keeps track of unlicensed activity and copyright infringement. It’ll go after AI, too.
4. Travis Scott has been sued by three crew members of a yacht. They say he assaulted and threatened them during a chartered trip out of Miami in 2024.
5. Rapper Boosie Badazz wants his money back. He paid a Washington DC lobbying firm US$600,000 to get him a pardon from Donald Trump. They failed. Now he wants a refund.
6. Wait: The president of Albania spent €4 million buying up unsold tickets for a Kanye show in the country? Yes.
7. Did you miss the Jack White show in Toronto? Here’s what happened.
8. The National Music Centre in Calgary is expanding its Music Therapy Initiative. Great!
9. The Polaris Music Prize is changing things up. Here’s what’s going on.
10. Who should be in the Scottish Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Discussions are ongoing.
11. The analogue revival continues. Printed fanzines are back in the UK.
12. Lenny Kravitz is 62. He has a 28-inch waist. That is all.
13. There’s a new channel on SiriusXM satellite radio: Rolling Stone Canada.
14. How about a retro light-up Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon cassette machine?
15. Who was responsible for England’s loss in the World Cup? System of a Down says fans should blame Oasis.

More music news? Go here.

BONUS: This AI-generated version of The Odyssey takes AI slop to a new level.