Tottenham Hotspur stadium, London
The crowd-pleasing ham holds court to thrill his audience of ‘ragers’ with a combination of brawny bangers, force of will and a big box of fireworks

There are moments when tonight’s stop on Travis Scott’s Circus Maximus tour feels more metal gig than rap-show. It’s not just the numerous circle-pits (with the passion if not the ferocity of a Slayer crowd) or the boulder-strewn, prehistoric stage-set straight out of Masters of the Universe. It’s the blunt assault of the music – the buildup of tension and the cathartic relief, the puncturing, kinetic power of those drum-machine pulses – and how the tireless Scott commands this gargantuan stadium with sheer force of will, and a massive box of fireworks.

Sporting quarterback shoulder-pads, he bounds and pogos across the stage, the rich-guy ennui that sometimes fugs his records entirely absent. His energy is matched by his fans, whom he’s named “ragers”, and who jump when he says “jump!” and thrust their middle-fingers in the air when he asks them to do that. Little of the Dolby Atmos-ready, cathedral-of-sound aesthetic that made albums such as Astroworld and Utopia such psychedelic experiences survives the transition to this vast space. Instead, Scott leans on the pugilistic likes of Meltdown and No Bystanders, whose bold, bellowed hooks make Onyx sound like Clannad, and whose blitzing, acid-trap beats sound like early Schoolly D on steroids, coldly mechanical and raw.

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Crystal Palace Park, London
The Tottenham-born rapper transmits forceful hits and ferocious lesser-known cuts to the inaugural Big Smoke festival crowd

Skepta has been basking in legend status as of late, enough to step with one Air Max into the pinnacles of other creative disciplines, from taking over Ibiza’s DC10 with his tech-house project Más Tiempo, to auctioning his paintings at Sotheby’s. He clearly feels he can take the liberty: “I’m talking about taking a year out, still I can’t see no competition” he says on recent hit Gas Me Up (Diligent). On a run of some of his best singles in years, Skepta holds the inaugural Big Smoke festival, his own curated one-dayer bridging longtime affiliates with more recent interests in tech house and amapiano. He treats the festival to a gig like no other, taking fans through some of the older and more personal cuts that a normal festival date couldn’t accommodate.

An air-raid siren announces his presence, and he begins with Same Shit Different Day from his 2012 mixtape Blacklisted. No one transmits their voice as forcefully while maintaining such a calm demeanour as the Tottenham-born artist, who raps with a mic stand as though he’s singing a ballad. Rolling out ferocious lesser-known cuts including Nokia Charger Wire and Text Me Back, they don’t inspire uproar, but those who have ridden with him for years understood their significance.

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O2 Forum Kentish Town, London
The seven-piece’s first London show in six years sees them tear through tributes to Slayer and the Exploited, while Ice-T’s son and daughter join him on stage

Ice-T contains multitudes. Thirty-two years ago, the man born Tracy Lauren Marrow was one of the most righteously furious-sounding figures in music, Body Count’s breakthrough single Cop Killer having smashed the barrier between hardcore hip-hop and hardcore metal while its incendiary lyrics drew condemnation from then-president George Bush. Tonight, however, the prevailing emotion isn’t the anger that burst from that signature song; Body Count’s first London show in six years is more instantly a love letter to heavy music.

After the seven-piece – long Ice’s main career focus, beyond even his solo and film work – bound out with Body Count’s in the House, they tear through a medley of songs by extreme metal antagonists Slayer. A similar tribute to punk legends the Exploited comes later in the set.

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With the BBC livestreaming globally for the first time, and an especially rich lineup of Black artists, 2024’s festival champions a broad remit – but plays it safe with Coldplay

Whether seen as too male, too white, too traditional or not traditional enough, complaints about the Glastonbury lineup have become something of a national pastime. But as it opens its gates for 2024’s edition, the festival can lay claim to one of the most diverse and globe-straddling bills in the British festival calendar this year.

For the first time there are two women among the three Pyramid stage headliners. On Friday Dua Lipa is expected to bring lavish production and thrilling choreography to her relatively small but hits-packed discography, making her the most dance-focused headliner since Basement Jaxx in 2005. On Sunday the American singer SZA becomes the first Black woman, and first R&B artist, to headline the Pyramid since Beyoncé in 2011. The Sunday teatime “legend” slot will also be held by a woman: Shania Twain.

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Rapper who amassed tens of millions of streams for his emotional trap music was reportedly ambushed outside a Tampa hotel

US rapper Foolio has died at the age of 26 after being shot in a hotel car park in Tampa, Florida.

The rapper, real name Charles Jones, had amassed tens of millions of streams for a discography that stretches back to 2017.

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From A-list pop names such as SZA and Dua Lipa to rising stars and leftfield oddities, here’s who to try and catch at this year’s festival

There have been the usual Facebook-comment grumbles about how there’s too much bloody pop, but at the very top of Glastonbury’s Pyramid this year is a formidable trio: high-production dance from Dua Lipa (Fri, 22.00), quintessential flag-waving whoa-oh-oh-alongs from Coldplay (Sat, 21.45) and a new flavour for a Pyramid headliner: atmospheric, emotionally intelligent R&B from SZA (Sun, 21.30). Elsewhere, there are ample party-starters in Jessie Ware (West Holts, Sat, 22.15), Jamie xx (Woodsies, Fri, 22.30) teasing his long-awaited new album, LCD Soundsystem (Pyramid stage, Fri, 19.45) and Confidence Man (Other stage, Fri, 15.45). PJ Harvey (Pyramid stage, Fri, 18.00), Little Simz (Pyramid stage, Sat, 19.45), Brittany Howard (West Holts, Sun, 18.30), Corinne Bailey Rae (West Holts, Sat, 16.00) and Kim Gordon (Woodsies, Sun, 18.30) offer various shades of provocation; and Danny Brown (West Holts, Fri, 18.30) and the National (Other stage, Sun, 21.45) essay middle age from fairly polarised perspectives. And after the reformed, original Sugababes (West Holts, Fri, 16.55) packed the Avalon field to bursting in 2022, it seems as though Avril Lavigne (Other stage, Sun, 18.00) will be this year’s hottest nostalgia ticket for the festival’s millennial core. Laura Snapes

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Musician, 33, faces retrial after being sentenced to death for ‘corruption on Earth’

Iran’s supreme court has overturned the death sentence imposed on the rapper Toomaj Salehi, his lawyer said.

The decision comes in the middle of Iran’s presidential election campaign but seems unrelated to the fierce public debates under way about Iran’s future direction, including the rights of women not to wear the hijab if they wish.

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O2, London SE10
Tonsorial maximalism and pyrotechnics set the scene as the uncompromising artist showcased her recent album Scarlet with blasts of bilious and bawdy hip-hop

Hair and fire: Doja Cat’s blistering set boasts copious amounts of both, often in worryingly close proximity. The star herself is modelling a new look tonight, a date added owing to demand. While her first night in London Doja was a blonde, tonight, she sports a long black fringed wig with rectangular glasses, giving this frequently shape-shifting artist the unexpected form of a sexy secretary in a temper.

Doja Cat’s excellent live band are perched atop risers entirely covered in blond extensions; later, a giant Rapunzel-like plait descends from the heavens for Doja Cat to rub herself up against. The set is not quite as shaggy as the rapper singer’s standout performance at the US Coachella festival in California in April, where her dancers resembled a bevy of headbanging Cousin Itts from The Addams Family , but it is enough to make a point. Back in 2022, the artist born Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini shaved her head and eyebrows on Instagram live , resulting in both alarm and dismay among her fans. In typically robust style, Doja Cat met those feelings with a bristle. You want hair, her set asks? Here’s your hair.

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Irish language group granted leave to seek judicial review of government decision at full hearing in November

The Belfast hip-hop group Kneecap have obtained legal clearance to contest a government decision to withhold £15,000 in funding because of their political views.

The high court in Belfast on Thursday granted the Irish language rappers leave to seek a judicial review at a full hearing in November after they return to Northern Ireland from a US tour.

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