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Taylor Swift Announces New Album ‘Tortured Poets Department’ at Grammys


 Taylor Swift has announced a new album, Tortured Poets Department, out April 19.

The megastar revealed the news at the 2024 Grammys when she took the stage to accept the award for Best Pop Vocal Album (Midnights). The fact that it marks her 13th Grammy win (her lucky number), caused fans to speculate that Swift would make an announcement, with many convinced it would be Reputation (Taylor’s Version).

@cbs In our #GRAMMYs ♬ Trendsetter - Connor Price & Haviah Mighty

Instead, she caught us all by surprise by revealing her 11th studio album, the follow-up to Midnights. “I want to say thank you to the members of the Recording Academy for voting this way,” she said. “But I know that the way that the Recording Academy voted is a direct reflection of the passion of the fans. So I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I’ve been keeping from you for the last two years, which is that my brand new album comes out on April 19. It’s called The Torture Poets Department. I’m gonna go and post the cover. Right now, backstage. Thank you.”

Swift stayed true to her word, posting a black & white cover of her lying in bed. “And so I enter into evidence/My tarnished coat of arms/My muses, acquired like bruises/My talismans and charms/The tick, tick, tick of love bombs/My veins of pitch-black ink,” she wrote. “All’s fair in love and poetry/Sincerely, the Chairman of the Tortured Poets Department.”

On the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, Grammys executive producer Raj Kapoor revealed that Swift would definitely not be performing at the ceremony because following the show, she has to hop on a plane to Japan to resume the Eras tour. From there, she’ll immediately head to Las Vegas to watch her boyfriend, Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs, play in Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday, Feb. 11 — which prompted an uproar from the far right. This is why we can’t have nice things.

Killer Mike was detained at the 66th Grammy Awards at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles Sunday afternoon, shortly after winning three of the four rap categories in the pre-show telecast about two hours earlier.

An LAPD source tells Rolling Stone that Render was handcuffed and detained after an alleged “physical altercation” inside the arena involving a third party. “Somebody complains, obviously we have to do something about it,” the source said. Render was questioned and later booked for misdemeanor battery, according to the LAPD. He was released Sunday night on his own recognizance.

Video captured by The Hollywood Reporter’s Chris Gardner showed Render, being taken away in handcuffs. Gardner reported that an official said the arrest was related to an unspecified misdemeanor that didn’t have to do with any happenings during the Grammys on Sunday. (A rep and attorney for Render did not immediately reply to a request for comment.)

The detainment came shortly after the rapper had gone to the press area fielding questions about his win — elated to have been recognized after more than 20 years into his hip-hop career. “It feels absolutely grand,” Render said. “If it feels like some people are reaching the finish line first, don’t worry. Just keep running your race. The only thing stopping you is your imagination. It’s our responsibility to be grand in every action.”



Sunday’s award marked the first time Render had won a Grammy for his solo work. His first win came more than two decades ago for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group alongside Outkast for “The Whole World.” Before 2024, he was last nominated in 2018 for Best Rap Song for “Chase Me,” the Run the Jewels collaboration with Danger Mouse and Big Boi. Render did not address the incident on social media following the detainment, but proclaimed “Thank God” and “Dreams come true – It’s a sweep!”

Ironically, Mike’s father served as a policeman in Atlanta. In 2014, he told The Fader that his father wanted him and his siblings to be “good citizens,” but he didn’t want them to join the police force. 

Mike also referenced his father in 2020, during an emotional press conference amid intense protests in the wake of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor’s police killings.

“I’m the son of an Atlanta City Police Officer. My cousin is an Atlanta City Police Officer…I got a lot of love and respect for police officers,” he said standing alongside then-Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and rapper T.I. Mike, along with T.I. also made polarizing pleas for Atlanta residents to stop looting and burning area establishments. 

He noted, “I’m duty bound to be here to simply say that it is your duty not to burn your own house down for anger with an enemy. You must fortify your own house so that you may be a house of refuge in times of organization.”

Mike has frequently discussed the failings of the police system in his music, in interviews, and in a 2014 op-ed about the Ferguson uprising,” where he wrote “I will never take a day off policing the people we pay and keep a public trust with. I will use my camera, my pen, my pad, and my network to do my part, to make sure that Americans will no longer fear their government. or its employees.  They work for us — not the other way around.  

This is not the first time an artist has been arrested on the site of an awards show. In 2006, Yaasin Bey was arrested by the NYPD after a guerilla-style street performance. He traveled to Radio City Music Hall, where the MTV Video Music Awards were taking place, and performed “Katrina Clap,” a remix of UTP’s “Nolia Clap” that spoke on the Hurricane Katrina tragedy. Though Bey’s then-publicist claimed he had a permit to perform, he was still arrested after a crowd gathered around the flatbed truck he was performing on.

Many of the awards at the 2024 Grammy Awards went as expected. You had to know that Lainey Wilson’s Bell Bottom Country was going to win best country album. It had already won Album of the Year at both the Academy of Country Music Awards and the Country Music Association Awards. Joni Mitchell’s Joni Mitchell at Newport [Live] also seemed like a lock to win for best folk album. And Karol G’s Mañana Será Bonito seemed sure to win best música urbana album. Sure enough, all three of those albums won in those categories.

Some singles or songs also seemed like locks to win, including Tyla’s “Water” as the inaugural winner for Best African Music Performance and Billie Eilish and Finneas’ “What Was I Made For?” for Best Song Written for Visual Media. Yep, they won too.

But, as always, there were snubs and surprises. Trevor Noah, who hosted the show for the fourth year in a row, was nominated for best comedy album, but lost to Dave Chappelle’s What’s in a Name? That was a mild surprise, but Chappelle is such a giant in comedy – this was his fifth win in that category in the past seven years – that it doesn’t really qualify as a snub.

The 3-1/2-hour telecast, held at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, had something for everybody. Performers ranged from 20-year-old pop superstar Olivia Rodrigo to music legend Joni Mitchell, who is still adding to her considerable legacy at 80.

Here are snubs and surprises from the 2024 Grammy Awards.

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