| I rap about the trauma that I went through, and to make my generation better, speaking my truths. I have those records where I’m flexing and bragging and boasting, but I’m not that artist. I don’t rap about how many chains I got, but I got it. |
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Words and keytar: Laura Mvula at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, Cape Town, South Africa, April 1, 2017.
(Xabiso Mkhabela/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
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“I rap about the trauma that I went through, and to make my generation better, speaking my truths. I have those records where I’m flexing and bragging and boasting, but I’m not that artist. I don’t rap about how many chains I got, but I got it.”
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Say Goodbye It's Independence Day
It's the Fourth of July weekend, Independence Day in America, and today's MusicREDEF is dedicated to BRITNEY SPEARS, may she find her way to freedom soon. MusicSET: "Framing, Failing and Freeing Britney Spears."
Crosstown Traffic
As agents and promoters had predicted for months, the more the live music circuit opens, the bigger the traffic jam gets. Rolling Stone's SAMATHA HISSONG on "The Mad Pandemic Bottleneck of Indie Bands," in which bigger and smaller artists are competing for the same rooms, bookings can vanish into thin air and the circuit has become "essentially a free-for-all"... PIOTR ORLOV writes for Bklyner on "learnings, insights, new truisms and beefs" for fans heading out to increasingly crowded clubs and dancefloors in New York. Pro tip: "Carry your card." You know which one... You'll need that card in Ibiza, too... But not in Britain... "The Dancing Man of LA," superfan HOWARD MORDOH, is planning his return (ERASURE! TAME IMPALA! SLEIGH BELLS! LORDE! SPARKS!) while a new documentary tells his endearing story... PATTERSON HOOD writes about his first shows back, on Vashon Island, Wash., after a year and a half of unemployment: "I managed to not be a blithering crying idiot"... BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, having reopened Broadway, is now on the calendar to reopen Central Park, so to speak, along with JENNIFER HUDSON and PAUL SIMON.
Summer of Film
QUESTLOVE's SUNDANCE-winning documentary SUMMER OF SOUL, chronicling the 1969 HARLEM CULTURAL FESTIVAL, opens wide (which is apparently a thing again) in theaters today, while also debuting on HULU. Shoutout producer JOSEPH PATEL... Opening not so wide theatrically, and virtually via the KINO MARQUEE platform, is BETH B's doc on a long-running New York underground icon, LYDIA LUNCH: THE WAR IS NEVER OVER.
It's Friday
And that means new music from British R&B singer LAURA MVULA, who explores her inner synth-popper on PINK NOISE, her first album in five years... Chicago rapper G HERBO chronicles life at age "25" on the album of that title (no, it isn't an Adele cover album), with help from Polo G, Lil Tjay, 21 Savage and others... LANA DEL REY quietly (relatively speaking) drops BLUE BANISTERS, her second album in four months, which apparently is meant to be heard while watching fireworks, as it won't actually arrive until Sunday, July 4... The dance-music comp RED HOT + FREE, produced/curated by BILL COLEMAN and benefitting the HIV/AIDS nonprofit Red Hot, features tracks from Sofi Tukker, Ultra Naté, Billy Porter and many more... Primal Scream's BOBBY GILLESPIE and former Savages frontwoman JEHNNY BETH join up for "a set of songs located within the wreckage of a marriage" on UTOPIAN ASHES.
Also today: new albums and EPs from BOMBA ESTÉREO, JEFF LORBER FUSION, VINCE MENDOZA, LANCO, RILEY GREEN, FLATLAND CAVALRY, AT THE GATES, SNAG, JXDN, PEEZY, DECLAIME & MADLIB, FENIX FLEXIN (ex-Shoreline Mafia; released earlier this week), YN JAY, YUNGEEN ACE, MOLLY LEWIS, REXXIE (released earlier this week), the GO! TEAM, DRUG STORE ROMEOS, TASHAKI MIYAKI, DESPERATE JOURNALIST, SNAPPED ANKLES, KAT EATON, IZZY TRUE, JONATHON LONG, EARL SLICK (instrumentals) and, strangely, for the first time ever, a SEINFELD soundtrack, consisting of composer JONATHAN WOLFF's cues for Jerry, Elaine and the gang. Listen to the slap bass go boom.
Rest in Peace
Avant-garde jazz pianist BURTON GREENE... Dutch composer LOUIS ANDRIESSEN... Electronic musician/producer NAPOLIAN... HUM drummer BRYAN ST. PERE... Downtown New York pianist, conductor and event concert programmer MIMI STERN-WOLFE.
Programming Note
MusicREDEF is taking a long July 4 weekend. We'll be back in your inbox Wednesday morning, July 7.
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| Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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REDEF |
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| REDEF MusicSET: Framing, Failing and Freeing Britney Spears |
| by Matty Karas |
| Britney Spears wants her life back. Literally. But why does a major pop star need permission to regain control of her own affairs? Why does anyone? What did the #FreeBritney movement get right, what did everyone else get wrong, and what's a conservatorship anyway? |
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DJ Mag |
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| Who owns the night?: the complicated reality of the Night-Time Economy |
| by Ed Gillett |
| The relationship between dance music and British politics has often been fraught and confrontational. But in the last five years, promoters and politicians have started to break down barriers, uniting around the “Night-Time Economy”. Has dance music benefited from embracing the concept, or is an emphasis on financial growth and political optics bleeding the life out of clubbing? |
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VICE |
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| ‘It Wouldn't Have Been Done By Anyone in Their Right Mind’ – The Oral History of ATP |
| by Daniel Dylan Wray |
| We spoke to founders, staff, bands, fans and writers about the boom and bust of All Tomorrow's Parties, the UK's most left-field festivals. |
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Pitchfork |
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| Questlove on Restoring Black Music History and Making One of the Year’s Best Films |
| by Clover Hope |
| The Roots drummer discusses "Summer of Soul," his new documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, and the ongoing fight to give Black musicians their rightful due. |
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NPR |
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| 'Summer Of Soul' Celebrates A 1969 Black Cultural Festival Eclipsed By Woodstock |
| by Eric Deggans |
| The Harlem Cultural Festival was filled with stars from soul, R&B, blues and jazz and drew more than 300,000 people. Questlove directs this breathtaking chronicle of Black culture in a pivotal moment. |
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The Ringer |
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| 'You Have to Be Selfish As an Artist': The Valiant Return of Hiatus Kaiyote |
| by Lex Pryor |
| The genre-smashing group discusses their creative process and their long-awaited third album, ‘Mood Valiant.’ |
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Complex |
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| G Herbo’s Life at 25 |
| by Andre Gee |
| We spend a day with G Herbo as he prepares to release ‘25,’ a confessional album that opens a window into his world at the quarter-century mark. |
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Wax Poetics |
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| Monumental Moment |
| by Piotr Orlov |
| Conducted and composed from behind a deck of samplers and drum machines, Damon Locks’s Black Monument Ensemble is a happening, a sermon, a party, and a rally, all rolled into one. |
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FLOOD Magazine |
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| Hit the Deck: The Cassette Tape Revival Is in Full Swing |
| by A.D. Amorosi |
| Artists, tape manufacturers, and distributors weigh in on major-label involvement in the latest trend in physical music media. |
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Billboard |
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| Why Universal Music Could Pursue a Dual Listing on the New York Stock Exchange |
| by Glenn Peoples |
| Vivendi is going to spin off Universal Music Group on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange this fall. The New York Stock Exchange would help UMG tap the U.S. market. |
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Okayplayer |
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| The Origin Story of D’Angelo |
| by Chris Williams |
| On July 3, 1995, D’Angelo released his game-changing debut album Brown Sugar. We spoke with some of the figures who shaped the beginnings of D’Angelo’s earth-shattering career. |
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Billboard |
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| How Hyperpop Became a Force Capable of Reaching and Rearranging the Mainstream |
| by Emma Madden |
| Unlike punk, emo, grunge, psychobilly, this niche that’s been called "Hyperpop" is keen to reach the mainstream, albeit through experimental means. |
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Refinery29 |
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| The Music Industry Has Failed Black Women Survivors |
| by Alexia Norton-Jones |
| The music industry has cultivated a culture of harm and misogyny for women survivors and Black women in particular have yet to have their reckoning. |
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Dazed Digital |
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| What are inclusion riders and why are DJs talking about them? |
| by Felicity Martin |
| Equality stipulations are becoming increasingly common in contracts – here, artists discuss whether they’re a step forward for the electronic music scene or a tokenistic approach to diversity. |
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Music x |
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| Wait, is Spotify trying to make all musicians creators? |
| by Maarten Walraven-Freeling |
| In a recent Means of Creation podcast Spotify’s Chief R&D Officer Gustav Söderström spoke about how all of their creator tools are also aimed at musicians. Let’s unpack what that means and how it can play out. |
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Mixmag |
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| A protest without politics?: We went to London's Save Our Scene march |
| by Gemma Ross |
| Thousands marched through London to protest the government's handling of the nightlife industry through the pandemic. |
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Music Tectonics |
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| Music Tectonics: Native Instruments: 25 years Pushing the Boundaries of Sound |
| by Dmitri Vietze, Constantin Koehncke and Robert Linke |
| CEO Constantin Koehncke and President Robert Linke of Native Instruments join host Dmitri Vietze to explore the future of sound and music production. |
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On An Overgrown Path |
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| How classical music ignored the awakening electronic dream |
| by Pliable |
| Eclectic Dutch composer Louis Andriessen has died at the age of 82. This post inspired by his brother Jurriaan Andriessen originally ran in 2019. |
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NPR |
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| Radio Diaries: Harry Pace And The Rise And Fall Of Black Swan Records |
| by Ari Shapiro |
| Decades before there was Motown, there was Black Swan Records. Radio Diaries brings us a two-part story about the world's first major Black-owned record label and the mystery of the man behind it. |
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The New York Times |
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| Whistling as an Art Almost Died Off. Can Molly Lewis Keep It Alive? |
| by Nate Rogers |
| The 31-year-old has whistled at tournaments, in the studio for Dr. Dre and at her Los Angeles lounge show, Café Molly. Now she’s releasing her debut EP. |
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| Music of the day |
| "Church Girl" |
| Laura Mvula |
| From "Pink Noise," out today on Flamingo/Atlantic. |
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YouTube |
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From "Pink Noise," out today on Flamingo/Atlantic.
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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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