Polo G Arrested for Kidnapping, Robbery, and Assault Following House Raid

Donald Trump hired the Atlanta lawyer who represented Gunna in the YSL RICO case ahead of turning himself in today. No word on his mugshot yet but you can be sure it’ll break the internet. In other news today:

• Song streams & revenue 💰️ 

• Polo G arrested after cops swarm and search his L.A. home
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• Why is every major artist breaking up with Scooter Braun? 💔 

• New Music Friday releases 💿️ 

• Industry Insights 📈 

Song Streams & Revenue

It’s a new Thursday and a new song revenue chart. As reported by Hits Double Daily, which tracks streaming revenue week over week, the above chart reflects the streaming period from August 11th to 17th.

Gunna holds the #1 spot for streaming revenue, pulling in almost $95K from 19M streams. Travis Scott’s Utopia amassed over $233K from over 48M streams of “Meltdown,” “I Know,” “Fe!n,” and “Telekinesis” during the third streaming week of the album.

In comparison, seven Utopia songs amassed $386K from over 80M streams during the second streaming week of the album.

Polo G Arrested After Police Raid His L.A. Mansion

Law enforcement swarmed Polo G’s home in L.A. on Wednesday, July 24, and placed him in cuffs while they searched his property. The search warrant was executed in relation to a robbery and his brother, Trench Baby, who was also cuffed and taken away. Below, find a breakdown of everything we know so far about the arrest.

TMZ broke the story and obtained a video of Polo and his brother walking out of the home with their hands up before being handcuffed. He was detained after the search as part of an ongoing investigation, and his attorney, Bradford Cohen, issued a statement shortly after.

“The incident surrounded someone staying in Polo’s home and not Polo directly,” Cohen said likely referring to Polo’s brother Trench Baby. “The officers have detained Polo to ‘verify’ that he is not a convicted felon, as they assert a firearm was found in the home. It is widely known that Polo is not a convicted felon and never was a convicted felon.”

“Any previous charges he had I got dismissed and it’s all public record. They are also denying myself and my California law partner, Zoe Aron, access to him while he is being illegally detained,” Cohen concluded in his statement. The previous charges are related to Polo’s 2021 Miami arrest, explained in the “context” section below.

Kidnapping, robbery, and assault

Unfortunately for Polo and his brother, they were arrested for several felonies after being released from detainment for the house raid. Officers waited for the pair to be let go from LAPD custody and apprehended them again on outstanding warrants for kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, and robbery, based on a report filed last April.

Polo was released from jail on a $100K bond at around 4:30am on Thursday, August 24. Trench Baby also posted $100K bond for the LAPD raid and $100K bond for the outstanding warrants.

Context for those of you out touching grass

In June 2021, Polo was arrested in Miami following a release party for his Hall of Fame album. He allegedly attacked a cop during a traffic stop, throwing multiple punches and elbow strikes, and was hit with several charges, including battery against a police officer.

But bodycam footage from the incident showed Polo using his words more than his fists to taunt the officer. The case was thrown out in April 2022, with all charges being dropped after he completed court-ordered anger management classes.

Why this matters

The melodic, emotive rapper from Chicago was gearing up to release his new album, Hood Poet, his first in two years, prior to his arrest. It’s unclear if these new charges will delay the album, but his release on bond is a positive sign that he can go about business as usual. He recently tweeted, “This rap shit got so lame and watered down, it ain’t no fun in it no more,” before hinting at retirement after this next album. The arrest has no doubt added to his woes.

Why Is Every Artist Breaking Up With Scooter Braun?

There’s a new breakup in the headlines this week, and for once, it’s not romantic. Semi-famous artist management executive Scooter Braun, best known for plucking Justin Bieber out of acoustic anonymity on YouTube, is allegedly being dumped left and right. Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, and Bieber have reportedly left his roster.

Is this the biggest triple fumble of the year? Catch up on the Scooter Scandal below.

The first of many reports came from Puck News, claiming that Bieber had been estranged from his OG mentor for months and was looking for new management. Representatives for both parties denied the report, but Puck insisted it’s true, and Variety has a source that claims the breakup is actual.

Then, Puck’s co-founder, Matthew Belloni, who broke the Bieber news, tweeted that Ariana Grande had also jumped on the dump Scooter bandwagon. Another source denied that this happened, but Billboard confirmed it with more anonymous sources.

Trying to explain all the sources in the Scooter Scandal

At this point, you could play a drinking game for every time “source” is written in this breakdown. Once again, unnamed sources speaking to various outlets reported that Demi Lovato had split with Scooter in July, with some claiming the split was amicable. Variety claims to have verified this with Demi and Scooter’s reps off the record.

The stack of “off the record” confirmations and denials is piling up faster than the indictments against Donald Trump, which suggests no one is telling the whole truth. The PR-friendly narrative, pushed by—you guessed it—more sources to Variety, is that Scooter is stepping back from day-to-day management to focus on his role as CEO of HYBE America, and neither Ariana nor Justin has left SB management.

The juicier narrative, peddled by more sources, is that another shoe will soon drop with reputation-damaging information about Scooter coming to light. “He’s imploding. It’s a different world since the pandemic, you just can’t be an asshole like that another,” the source said to Variety.

If there’s one person who’d back that narrative—it’s Taylor Swift. She famously feuded with Scooter over his 2018 acquisition of the rights to her first six albums, which she called “underhanded” and spared no discretion in voicing her distaste.

Context for those of you out touching grass

In 2021, Scooter sold Ithaca Holdings, the parent company of SB management, to HYBE, the South Korean entertainment giant behind K-pop group BTS, for a casual $1 billion. It was the beginning of HYBE’s larger plan to get a foothold in the US music industry.

He was then appointed CEO of HYBE’s US division to oversee the company’s expansion into the market he’s been a power player in for the last decade. His first major move? Brokering the acquisition of Quality Control, the Atlanta label home to Migos, Lil Baby, Lil Yachty, and more, for $320 million.

Why this matters

It’s no secret that Scooter hasn’t been handling the day-to-day management of the major artists signed to his company, and losing a few clients in that context is hardly scandalous. He’s focused on the next phase of his career, but the timing and volume of these rumors are too much for it to be dismissed as pure gossip. Get your popcorn ready, as there’s undoubtedly more to come.

New Music Friday

You’ll find out soon if Drake’s For All The Dogs is really dropping tonight or if the rollout continues 🐶 Look out for new J. Cole x Gucci Mane and Swae Lee x French Montana. Here’s all the music dropping tonight—categorized by 💿️ for albums and 🎶 for singles:

• 💿️ Almost Healed (deluxe) by Lil Durk

• 💿️ For All The Dogs by Drake (unconfirmed)

• 💿️ I Told Them by Burna Boy

• 💿️ Fridayy by Fridayy

• 💿️ MOREWARD (deluxe) by Jordan Ward

• 💿️ IGNORANT by Doe Boy

• 💿️ Back To Square One by Digga D

• 💿️ Soul Assassins 3 by DJ Muggs ft. Westside Gunn & more

• 🎶 MMM MMM by Lil Yachty

• 🎶 There I Go by Mike WiLL Made-It, J. Cole & Gucci Mane

• 🎶 Moment Of Your Life by Brent Faiyaz, Coco Jones

• 🎶 Wish U Well by French Montana, Swae Lee

• 🎶 Face Down by City Girls

• 🎶 CRAZY GIRL PT. 2 by Bktherula, NBA YoungBoy

• Trump makes changes to Georgia legal team and hires Atlanta attorney who represented Gunna in the YSL RICO case. Steve Sadow is now Trump’s lead counsel and has previously represented T.I., Rick Ross, and Usher.

• Fyre Festival II tickets are allegedly selling out, according to founder Billy McFarland. It started with a 50-page plan Billy wrote in solitary confinement while serving time for crimes related to the disastrous 2017 Fyre Festival.

• Sexyy Red roasts Lil Durk for misspelling her name in collab announcement. “Dang, you gon spell my name wrong Lil Jerk?” she said on Twitter.

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