| Yeah, you got some songs. Yeah, you got some verses. But are you writing every day? Are you treating this s*** like a sport? |
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Theon Cross at Abbey Road Studios, London, during an SXSW streaming showcase, March 16, 2021.
(SXSW/Getty Images)
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“Yeah, you got some songs. Yeah, you got some verses. But are you writing every day? Are you treating this s*** like a sport?”
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Basketball Diaries
Having long given up my gig moonlighting as the curator of SportsREDEF, my interest in the pro baskeball career of J. COLE, which reportedly will begin Sunday in Rwanda, is mostly a matter of curiosity. I won't be regularly sharing box scores and video highlights in this space. I will, however, be rooting for him and admiring the incredible work ethic that one of the 21st century's best rappers has brought with him to every venture he's attempted.
Cole has always been driven by his love for basketball. He learned early on, as he explains to the basketball magazine SLAM (this is such a good interview), "The difference between the pro guy that sits on the bench and the superstar, it’s just a matter of intentional hours. They’re both really good, but that final foot of separation comes in the amount of hours that were put in." And that's how Cole, who once had dreams of an NBA career, works at his musical craft. He wants to be a DAMIAN LILLARD. He recognized his gift early on, but never fell back on it. "Every day I started writing verses, treating that s*** like a sport. Like, 'Yo, I got to put up shots every day. Even if this verse never makes it, I’m just trying s*** out in this verse. It’s just to get better and hone my craft.'"
His album THE OFF-SEASON is out today, two days before what's expected to be his first in a short run of games for the RWANDA PATRIOTS of the new BASKETBALL AFRICA LEAGUE, and he says the sporty album title isn't meant to connote a time of rest or slowing down. The off-season, he tells Slam, is when you do the hard work—"the training, the drills, the intensity, the craft"—that pays off in the season. Whether it's a season of basketball or a season of touring arenas.
May Cole's basketball career be at least a little more successful than the rap career of the late KOBE BRYANT, who'll be inducted into the BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME Saturday. This is a great Grantland piece from a few years back chronicling Bryant's attempts to make it as a rapper, which at one point led to 20-year-old Kobe living for three weeks in STEVE STOUTE's house in New Jersey, practicing his jump shot in the mornings and spending the rest of his days immersing himself in the New York rap world while recording tracks at the HIT FACTORY with producers the TRACKMASTERS. He had the work ethic but not necessarily the raw talent. His career would eventually amount to a single, an uncredited appearance on a SHAQ track and an album, VISIONS, that's never been released. The basketball thing worked out pretty well though.
Dot Dot Dot
"Interim" has been removed from HARVEY MASON JR.'s title at the RECORDING ACADEMY. On Friday he was officially named president and CEO, a job he's been doing on an interim basis through a rocky year and a half since the controversial ousting of his predecessor, DEBORAH DUGAN. Mason will give up his seat as chairman of the Academy's board of trustees... Will the US Centers for Disease Control's relaxing of its recommendations for mask-wearing by vaccinated people quicken the return of major live music events? Variety reported Friday that the city of Chicago has approved a four-day LOLLAPALOOZA in late July and early August "at near-to or -full-capacity"... Rolling Stone's BRIAN HIATT goes deep on BTS... The first two episodes of my friend JON WEIDERHORN's podcast BACKSTAGED: THE DEVIL IN METAL, which draws on three decades of interviews with everyone who's ever played a power chord or worn a black leather jacket, drop today. Jon is co-author of the highly recommended LOUDER THAN HELL: THE DEFINITIVE ORAL HISTORY OF METAL... The final weekend of the LAND AND HOPE OF DREAMS online conference, celebrating the work and world of veteran rock critic DAVE MARSH, includes an interview with Marsh tonight and an afternoon of panels Saturday on collaboration and mentorship, education, and songwriting and storytelling.
It's Friday
And in addition to J. COLE's THE OFF-SEASON, that means new music from ST. VINCENT, whose DADDY'S HOME could be subtitled That Introspective '70s Show... British jazz quartet SONS OF KEMET, whose BLACK TO THE FUTURE is "a sonic poem for the invocation of power, remembrance and healing" featuring guests Moor Mother, Angel Bat Dawid, Kojey Radical and Lianne La Havas... 21 SAVAGE's soundtrack to SPIRAL: FROM THE BOOK OF SAW featuring Young Thug, Gunna and others... ALAN JACKSON's first studio album in six years... An album of north Mississippi blues covers from the BLACK KEYS...
And projects from NICKI MINAJ (rerelease of her 2009 mixtape BEAM ME UP SCOTTY with three new songs), SHAED, KMRU, JAYDA G (DJ-Kicks mix), ANDREW EMIL (compilation of Chicago producer's remixes), FATIMA AL QADIRI, JORJA SMITH, THEHXLIDAY, TALEBAN DOODA, KODAK BLACK, PI'ERRE BOURNE, SARAH NEUFELD (of Arcade Fire), LSDXOXO, RODRIGO Y GABRIELA (EP of jazz covers), THALÍA, DAMIEN JURADO, DORDEDUH, THE EMBER THE ASH, SUBTERRANEAN MASQUERADE, PANTOPTICON, JULIANA HATFIELD, PAUL WELLER, MORCHEEBA, the CHILLS, BERNER, ANKHAL, PARIS TEXAS, EURO GOTIT, SMOL DATA, CURRENT JOYS, FIGHTMILK, FROST*, JOHN ANDREWS & THE YAWNS, RILEY DOWNING, JOHANNA SAMUELS, DAVID GRAY and MATT BERRY.
Rest in Peace
JACK TERRICLOTH, frontman of Brooklyn's WORLD/INFERNO FRIENDSHIP SOCIETY.
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| Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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Slate |
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| The Music Industry Is Finally Scaring Spotify |
| by Nitish Pahwa |
| The music business is booming again—and musicians are fighting for a bigger, better piece of the pie. |
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Vanity Fair |
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| When MTV Debuted 40 Years Ago, Everyone Thought It Would Fail. Here’s Why It Didn’t |
| by Rob Tannenbaum |
| Scorned by adults, adored by kids, and built on other people’s content, the music video network was TikTok and the iPhone rolled into one totally ’80s package. |
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Billboard |
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| Pulling Back the Curtain on Alexander Shustorovich, Classical Music’s International Man of Mystery |
| by Fredric Dannen |
| Alexander Shustorovich has kept IMG Artists alive through the pandemic and an internal power struggle to become the world’s largest manager of classical music. |
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Grantland |
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| RETRO READ: The Secret History of Kobe Bryant's Rap Career |
| by Thomas Golianopoulos |
| For three weeks during the summer of 1998, Kobe Bryant lived in the New Jersey mansion of hip-hop record executive Steve Stoute. Bryant was there to try on the role of rap star, but since he was also training to be the next Michael Jordan, basketball consumed most of his time. |
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The New York Times |
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| St. Vincent Flirts With Autobiography and the Sounds of the ’70s |
| by Lindsay Zoladz |
| On her sixth album, “Daddy’s Home,” the singer and songwriter Annie Clark turns her world-building and role-playing briefly inward. |
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Dazed Digital |
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| Mdou Moctar: the shred star of the Sahara |
| by Gabriel Szatan |
| On the precipice of international success and new album Afrique Victime, we meet the world’s most uniquely thrilling guitarist at home in Niger, building wells and advocating anti-imperialism. |
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The Washington Post |
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| Everyone wants Garth Brooks on their side. He just wants everyone to get along. |
| by Emily Yahr |
| Okay, here's what happened at President Biden's inauguration. Garth Brooks didn't mean to cause a slight delay. If anything, he joked, it was Barack Obama's fault. |
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Office of Copyright |
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| The Ins and Outs, the Good and the Bad, of The Mechanical Licensing Collective |
| by Stephen Carlisle |
| The good news for songwriters is that you're going to get paid, where you probably weren't before. The bad news is you have to do this yourself. |
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Music Tech Solutions |
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| What Would Taylor and Eddie Do? One solution to the frozen mechanical problem |
| by Chris Castle |
| The Copyright Royalty Board should take inflation into their decision on mechanical royalty rates. |
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VICE |
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| Two Upcoming Mac Miller Books are Mired in Controversy |
| by Ashwin Rodrigues |
| Who gets to tell artists’ stories after they die? |
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Vulture |
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| The Making of 'Girls5eva's' Catchy, Laugh-Out-Loud Fake Pop Songs |
| by Shannon Carlin |
| Creator Meredith Scardino and composer Jeff Richmond break down what went into making Peacock’s new hit-making, best-selling fictional pop group. |
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Slate |
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| The Stories Behind Every Song in 'Girls5eva' |
| by Karen Han |
| The sitcom’s songwriters reveal the inspirations behind every track. |
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The Seattle Times |
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| What it’s like going to shows as live music slowly comes back in Seattle |
| by Michael Rietmulder |
| Our music writer attended three different types of concerts currently happening around Seattle: an outdoors, socially distanced show; an outdoor minirave; and a small club gig. Here’s what each was like. |
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VICE |
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| COVID Isn’t the Only Reason Live Music Workers Won’t Return to Their Jobs |
| by Josh Terry |
| The pandemic made people find new work with stable hours, better pay, and benefits. Some aren't coming back to their old gigs when concerts return. |
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Billboard |
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| License to Thrive: Olivia Rodrigo Zooms Ahead After 2021’s Biggest Breakout Hit |
| by Andrew Unterberger |
| Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license” made her a pop-music sensation. With her surprising debut album, 'Sour,' she’s determined to prove her staying power. |
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Consequence |
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| On Czarface and MF DOOM’s Super What?, A Late Visionary Cements His Legacy |
| by Jayson Buford |
| MF DOOM didn’t get to see the release of "Super What?," but on it, the late underground MC's spirit is intact. Read how the album cements his legacy. |
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Nashville Scene |
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| Nashville’s Wealth of Top Hip-Hop Production Talent Is Hungry for Opportunity |
| by Brittney McKenna |
| Talking with producers A.B. Eastwood and Jeremy Prince, journalist and author Andrea Williams and more. |
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The New York Times |
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| Met Opera Protest: Unions Rally Against Proposed Pay Cuts |
| by Julia Jacobs and Matt Stevens |
| The Metropolitan Opera hopes to reopen in September after its long pandemic closure, but simmering labor tensions have called that date into question. |
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Cleveland.com |
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| Rock & Roll Hall of Fame continues to challenge ignorant definitions of ‘rock and roll’ |
| by Troy Smith |
| By inducting artists like Jay-Z and LL Cool J, the Rock Hall continues to stand by its virtues. |
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Petzold Book Blog |
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| Undisembodying Recorded Music |
| by Charles Petzold |
| When listening to music, I now need to see the musicians and their instruments, a need that has likely intensified due to the absence of in-person concerts for the past 14 months. That’s why I skip Spotify and instead go straight to YouTube. |
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| Music of the day |
| "Hustle" |
| Sons of Kemet ft. Kojey Radical |
| From "Black to the Future," out today on Impulse! |
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YouTube |
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From "Black to the Future," out today on Impulse!
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Rock and roll dreams in the Welsh countryside.
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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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