The 5 biggest music news stories of this week

The clubs are reopening and festivals are going for cheap.

Pixel Grip spoke out over an uncleared sample on JackBoys 2

The electronic group believes their 2021 song “Pursuit” was sampled by Travis Scott and his team on the new Cactus Jack label compilation without permission. “As soon as I had headphones on, I was like yo, y’all, this is just a sample,”” quote, said the band’s Jon Freud in an interview where they also revealed one of Scott’s producers had reached out to offer them an apology.

Nicki Minaj tweeted about SZA… a lot

Nicki Minaj posted a string of tweets aimed at SZA this week, saying she sounds like “a fkng dead dog” and “looking & sounding like she got stung by a fucking bee.” SZA, to her credit, didn’t rise to the bait and simply blamed Mercury retrograde for the whole bizarre furore. Check out everything that went down, and how Jay-Z is involved, here.

Someone stole unreleased Beyoncé music

A vehicle belonging to members of Beyoncé’s dance crew was broken into in Atlanta this week, with thieves taking a tranche of items connected to the Cowboy Carter tour. These included hard drives containing set lists and imagery, as well as audio files of unreleased music. As yet no arrests have been made.

Fyre Fest sold for a disappointing amount

Disappointing to former owner Billy McFarland, that is. He placed the IP to his infamous music festival for sale on eBay and then watched as the winning bid secured them for just $245,300. “Damn. This sucks, it’s so low,” McFarland said at the result. Seller’s remorse. Something familar to many an eBay user.

New York’s Paragon is back back back

Paragon is back from the dead. After shuttering its doors in April, the beloved Brooklyn venue is set to reopen on August 1, thanks to new investment from Detroit techno pioneer Kevin Saunderson. To celebrate it’s return, Paragon has announced a month of “resurrection” shows throughout August.