| Funk can be rock, funk can be jazz and funk can be soul. Most people have a checklist of what makes a good pop song: it has to be three minutes long, it must have a repeatable chorus and it must have a catchy hook. That's what makes music stale. We say 'Do what feels good.' |
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Pakistani (via Brooklyn) composer Arooj Aftab's third album, "Vulture Prince," is out today on New Amsterdam.
(Daniel Hilsinger/New Amsterdam Records)
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“Funk can be rock, funk can be jazz and funk can be soul. Most people have a checklist of what makes a good pop song: it has to be three minutes long, it must have a repeatable chorus and it must have a catchy hook. That's what makes music stale. We say 'Do what feels good.'”
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Looked Funny, Made Money
Oh lord we haven't even had DMX's memorial service yet—there will be twin official events this weekend, on Saturday and Sunday, both livestreamed—or BLACK ROB's, which will be next week, and now SHOCK G, a visionary hip-hop bandleader, dancer, cartoon character and carrier of the (P) funk, is gone, too. They were all in their 50s and this sums up that. GREGORY JACOBS, who became SHOCK G, who became his own sort of comic foil, HUMPTY HUMP, co-founded and led DIGITAL UNDERGROUND, which gave the world both "THE HUMPTY DANCE" and TUPAC SHAKUR, a combination that looks odd on paper but made every bit of sense in real life. You can be a poet and a firebrand and you can put on a huge prosthetic nose and do a silly dance and it doesn't have to be a contradiction, it's just human. "Our cash cow was Humpty," Shock G, who co-founded and led the group and went on to produce some key early Tupac tracks after the latter struck out on his own, said a few years back. "But behind the scenes, all we did all day on the bus was watch MALCOLM X tapes. We’re in that zone of STOKELY CARMICHAEL/KWAME TOURE. So we were excited about Pac. He was the outlet that TOMMY BOY [Digital Underground's label] didn't allow us." Humpty was more than a cash cow; he was an expression of freedom and joy, which is is own kind of politics. Shock G and Digital Underground sampled liberally from his musical idols PARLIAMENT and FUNKADELIC while participating in the rainbow-like expansion of hip-hop's possibilities in the late '80s and early '90s. All the political firebranding that followed as hip-hop changed course/moved forward in the 1990s wouldn't have made a difference if you couldn't dance to it. Digital Underground helped make sure you always could. RIP... This four-part Q&A by ALICE PRICE-STYLES, originally published by WAX POETICS, is fantastic.
Celestial Jukebox Etc Etc Etc
SPOTIFY was founded in Stockholm 15 years ago today (though it didn't launch until two years later). Streaming music already existed in various forms but it was still very much an ITUNES/IPOD download world. No one, I don't think, understood how much was about to change, and how fast (not even me, who was at MTV, preparing for the launch a month later of our own subscription music service, URGE, and telling anyone who'd listen about a future where anyone walking down the street in Columbus, Ohio, could summon any song ever made at the push of a button. I just didn't realize how soon)... BEYONCÉ choreographer JAQUEL KNIGHT launches a company to copyright dance moves... UNIVERSAL, which just had a very good quarter, says it will start reopening its US offices in September... DR. LUKE is not a public figure, says a New York appeals court... An ode to CHUCK E. CHEESE, anti-capitalist rock star.
It's Friday
And that means new music from AROOJ AFTAB, a Pakistani-born Brooklyn composer and singer whose third album, VULTURE PRINCE, draws on Pakistani classical forms, American minimalism, drone and new age (at least) and arrives at a style that's as alluringly original as it is hard to describe (though "neo-Sufi" has been suggested in the past). She has a way of enveloping you with space. There's a dark undercurrent to the songs on "Vulture Prince," but I find myself getting lost in its detailed stillness and trance-like beauty... And from Memphis rapper MONEYBAGG YO, who, critic WILL HAGLE once wrote, wants you to believe he has no heart even though he clearly does. Take your authenticity and shove it and revel in a 22-track fourth album with as many A-list features as his third, which this time around means FUTURE (on the hit "HARD FOR THE NEXT"), POLO G, LIL DURK, JHENÉ AIKO and PHARRELL... LIL YACHTY, who's from Atlanta, turns his allegiance over to Detroit and its environs for his crew-heavy mixtape MICHIGAN BOY BOAT... PORTER ROBINSON became an overnight dance music star in 2014 and then went all but silent for seven years, until today, and this SONG EXPLODER episode explains why... ERIC CHURCH, who released the album HEART a week ago and then a mini-album called [AMPERSAND] to his fan club on Monday, completes the trilogy today with another full-length, SOUL... Long-lost recordings arrive from the late SUICIDE frontman ALAN VEGA, Philly jazz pianist HASAAN IBN ALI and Texas rockers the MARS VOLTA.
And more new music from TOPAZ JONES, CHEVY WOODS, MYKE TOWERS, PJ HARDING & NOAH CYRUS, JUSTIN MOORE, REMEMBER SPORTS, DINOSAUR JR., CABARET VOLTAIRE, TOM JONES, STEVE CROPPER, SUFJAN STEVENS, BIG|BRAVE, ETHEL CAIN, ALFA MIST, DAN WILSON, SSGKOBE, CITIZEN COPE, RATA NEGRA, FIELD MUSIC, JEN SHYU, DĀM-FUNK, SATOMIMAGAE, PETER FRAMPTON (instrumental album), DIRTY HONEY, SIR SLY, LILITH CZAR (formerly Juliet Simms), ETHEL CAIN, TODD SNIDER, DUMPSTAPHUNK, the PRIZE FIGHTER INFERNO (aka Claudio Sanchez from Coheed & Cambria), TAPE DECK MOUNTAIN, FOG LAKE, LADY DAN and a benefit album for FEEDING AMERICA by CALIFORNIA MUSIC, which is the BEACH BOYS minus BRIAN WILSON plus lots of Beach Boys children.
Rest in Peace
BAY CITY ROLLERS singer LES MCKEOWN... Jazz producer and longtime WBGO radio host BOB PORTER.
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| Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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Alice Price-Styles |
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| RETRO READ: Shock G Interview : Not Just Knee Deep (Part 1) |
| by Alice Price-Styles |
| I caught up with Shock from his Mount Olympus-like retreat, hearing stories from his childhood, music career and musings on life, as he scored our conversation with piano at hand. |
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The Business Side |
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| Chris Zarou - Building the Record Label of the Future |
| by Chris Zarou and Ian Borthwick |
| Chris Zarou, founder and CEO of Visionary Music Group, discusses the future of artist management and label execs, how Spotify and TikTok have disrupted the Music Industry ad Chris' journey from naive college kid to managing a Grammy-nominated rapper. |
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The New York Times |
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| Verzuz Is One of the Least Toxic Places Online. Here’s Why |
| by Jody Rosen |
| A musical battle, the hit webcast suggests, is really just a pretext for a party and an occasion to appreciate something. |
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Billboard |
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| Inside Prescription Songs, the Company Behind Some of 2020’s Biggest Hits |
| by Nolan Feeney |
| Led by a team of women executives, Prescription's roster of songwriters and producers are behind hits from Dua Lipa, Doja Cat, 24kGoldn and more. |
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Passion of the Weiss |
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| Things That Go Bump in the Psyche: A Critical Look at What Makes Boldy James So Compelling |
| by Dashiell Lewis |
| Dash Lewis deciphers the Detroit veteran rapper’s deadpan delivery, his 2020 three-peat and Boldy’s generational talent. |
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Raspberry Fields |
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| RETRO MUST READ: My Name Is My Name — some thoughts about Prince |
| by Piotr Orlov |
| What’s in a name, in receiving one, choosing one, choosing to change one, and bringing forth meaning with that choice? Naming something or someone is a radical act of assimilation and dissimilation, full of preferred results, unintended consequences, and endless reactions, as playful as a romp in the sunshine, or as serious as your life. |
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Pitchfork |
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| What Can Music Do During Climate Collapse? |
| by Jayson Greene |
| Everyone from pop stars to metal urchins to avant experimentalists are grappling with the grief and anger that comes with living on a planet careening toward environmental disaster. |
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The Guardian |
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| ‘It reeked of hope and ambition’: 30 years of riot grrrl label Kill Rock Stars |
| by Daniel Dylan Wray |
| Born in the Pacific north-west scene that produced grunge - but often in opposition to it - Kill Rock Stars pushed women to the front of the stage, and also gave Elliott Smith a platform. |
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Music Business Worldwide |
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| Universal Music Group generated over $1m per hour in Q1… and expects to go public in the fall |
| by Tim Ingham |
| Major music company expected to go public in the fall, says parent Vivendi, as it reveals UMG turned over $2.2 billion in Jan-March period of 2021. |
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GoldenSound |
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| I published music on Tidal to test MQA |
| A deep dive into MQA, and its problems. |
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Los Angeles Times |
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| In 2021, the complicated lives of Black music legends power Oscar's acting noms |
| by Mikael Wood |
| Viola Davis, Andra Day, Chadwick Boseman and Leslie Odom Jr. will vie for Oscars for their portrayals of Black jazz and soul musicians. |
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NPR Music |
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| The 2021 Oscars' Best Original Song Nominees, Cruelly Ranked |
| by Stephen Thompson |
| This year's choices include Diane Warren's 12th Oscar nomination, a show-stopper from Eurovision Song Contest and three entries in a subgenre we call "Glorycore." |
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Pitchfork |
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| Catching Up With Jucifer, the Extremely Loud Duo That Inspired the Band in 'Sound of Metal' |
| by Sam Sodomsky |
| Jucifer’s Gazelle Amber Valentine shares the painful but rewarding experience of acting in the movie "Metalhead," which was later retooled as "Sound of Metal." |
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The Guardian |
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| ‘It needs to change’: are music supervisors the most unsung people in film? |
| by Dorian Lynskey |
| They create hit soundtracks and some of the most memorable moments in movies -- but even their parents don’t know what they do. Top music supervisors lament their lot. |
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The New York Times |
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| RETRO READ: Digital Underground Trips the Rap Fantastic |
| by James Bernard |
| Sporting a name that sounds like a band of outlaws from a cyberpunk novel, Digital Underground straddles the line between reality and fantasy, between silliness and social commentary. |
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And The Writer Is... |
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| And The Writer Is...Special Episode Kris Ahrend and Michelle Lewis |
| by Ross Golan, Kris Ahrend and Michelle Lewis |
| Today we are joined by two highly-influential music creators’ rights advocates. |
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Billboard |
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| Antitrust Advocate Lina Khan, FTC Nominee, Hailed by Music Orgs |
| by Chris Eggertsen |
| Congress is poised to confirm Lina Khan to a seat on the Federal Trade Commission, effectively installing a key antitrust advocate to the oversight agency. |
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Los Angeles Times |
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| Music's best podcast stars a self-taught know-it-all talking about George Jones. For 30 hours |
| by Randall Roberts |
| Season two of Tyler Mahan Coe's "Cocaine & Rhinestones" podcast focuses on country great George Jones: "His chest cavity glowed with so much air." |
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Pitchfork |
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| How Alessandro Cortini Distilled His Haunting Aesthetic Into an Unconventional Synthesizer |
| by Philip Sherburne |
| The electronic musician and Nine Inch Nails member discusses his new synth that sounds like the bottom of the ocean and what the future may hold for NIN. |
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Attack Magazine |
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| Get Your MicroFreak On: The Story Of An Unconventional Instrument |
| by Adam Douglas |
| We spoke with Sébastien Rochard, Product Lead on the Arturia MicroBrute, on how the company’s trend-busting digital synthesizer went from idea to realization. |
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| Music of the day |
| "Diya Hai" |
| Arooj Aftab feat. Badi Assad |
| Mesmerizing! Arooj Aftab's "Vulture Prince" is out today on New Amsterdam. |
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YouTube |
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Mesmerizing! Arooj Aftab's "Vulture Prince" is out today on New Amsterdam.
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| Music | Media | Sports | Fashion | Tech |
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“REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in
everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask ‘why?’” |
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| Jason Hirschhorn |
| CEO & Chief Curator |
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