| We occupy one of the most unique spaces in the world of music, in that way of being able to put out material that makes real social commentary and speaks to real things that are going on and that represents the way people really feel about the moment, about the future, about history. And then you can go and do some animated thing or something with puppets. |
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Herbie Hancock sitting for an interview at MTV's studios, back when that was possible. New York, 1984.
(Gary Gershoff/Archive Photos/Getty Images)
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“We occupy one of the most unique spaces in the world of music, in that way of being able to put out material that makes real social commentary and speaks to real things that are going on and that represents the way people really feel about the moment, about the future, about history. And then you can go and do some animated thing or something with puppets.”
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Laws of Motion
The best story I've read about the gentleman who was told not to show up at LOLLAPALOOZA in Chicago on Sunday, on account of some things he said onstage at ROLLING LOUD in Miami Gardens the previous Sunday, is this essay by Vulture's CRAIG JENKINS, which appeared in between the two weekends and which is as much about the culture around the gentleman as it is about the gentleman himself. And about how in hip-hop, as in physics, every action invites an equal and opposite reaction. The action in this case is the mere existence of a man named LIL NAS X, one of the most delightfully provocative pop stars of recent years. The reaction belonged, infamously, to the gentleman who calls himself DABABY, whose words at Rolling Loud need not be repeated here or anywhere, and which the organizers of Lollapalooza made sure wouldn't be repeated there. The hip-hop physics professor who most bluntly explained (and defended) the action/reaction equation in this instance is yet another gentleman, an elder statesman (of a sort), who explained it this way: "If you gonna have the Lil Nas X video and him living his truth, you gonna damn sure have people like DaBaby who are going to speak their truth." Thank you, Professor T.I., for that false equivalency, but also for helping make it clear that this isn't about DaBaby, it's about a bigger issue in hip-hop culture, which itself is about a bigger issue in culture in general.
The same weekend that Lollapalooza turned DaBaby away, a well-liked and well-respected movie star gentleman told a British newspaper that he just learned a few months ago that it isn't appropriate to use a certain six-letter F-word. He learned this from one of his daughters. He was surprised, the movie star gentleman said, because it's a word that "was commonly used when I was a kid, with a different application." I grew up in the same town as this particular movie star and, um, no, it never had a different application. It just had less pushback. If I was running Lollapalooza, I wouldn't want DaBaby showing up on my stage a week after his offensive and hurtful appearance at Rolling Loud either. He was the author of his own cancellation. But if I was DaBaby, I might ask what MATT DAMON's punishment is going to be, and where exactly the uncrossable line is, and how pop culture in general decides who gets to cross it once in a while, and who doesn't.
Plus Also Too
The other question raised around Lollapalooza this weekend was whether Lollapalooza should have happened at all in a climate of rising Covid-19 cases. MORGAN ELISE JOHNSON, publisher of Chicago Black culture journal the TRIIBE, explains why "We're not covering Lollapalooza 2021," and it's a compelling argument, based only partly on the virus. I don't think music journalist ERIC RENNER BROWN was responding directly to Johnson when he wondered if similar arguments might be different if Lollapalooza, whose headliners included POST MALONE, MILEY CYRUS, FOO FIGHTERS and TYLER, THE CREATOR, had a "Pitchforkier" lineup, but he has a valid question, too... The estate of JACQUES LEVY, who co-wrote most of BOB DYLAN's DESIRE album, has no valid claim to a piece of the nine-figure payday Dylan got when he sold his songwriting catalog to UNIVERSAL MUSIC, a judge has ruled. An agreement between the collaborators made clear Levy was an "employer-for-hire," New York supreme court JUDGE BARRY OSTRAGER wrote... A couple great Twitter threads on the history of MTV, which turned 40 on Sunday, from ROB TANNENBAUM, co-author of I WANT MY MTV: THE UNCENSORED STORY OF THE MUSIC VIDEO REVOLUTION, and AMANDA ANN KLEIN, who wrote MILLENNIALS KILLED THE VIDEO STAR: MTV'S TRANSITION TO REALITY PROGRAMMING. And a more personal one from REDEF chief JASON HIRSCHHORN, who I met shortly after MTV acquired us in separate transactions a little over 20 years ago. (I left MTV a decade later in another corporate transaction. MTV is basically where I learned what it's like to be a baseball player who keeps getting traded.)
Rest in Peace
JACOB DESVARIEUX, singer and co-founder of pioneering zouk band KASSAV', a victim of Covid-19... Veteran LA rapper GONZOE, founder of the group Kausion and an affiliate of both Ice Cube and Tupac Shakur. He was murdered in Seattle on Thursday, making him at least the 15th hip-hop artist murdered in 2021... CHARLES CONNOR, drummer for Little Richard, James Brown, Jackie Wilson and other rock pioneers... Italian tenor GIUSEPPE GIACOMINI... Nigerian gospel singer TOPE TAIWO AJOGBAJESU.
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| Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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Vulture |
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| I Don’t See an End to This |
| by Craig Jenkins |
| DaBaby’s vile remarks about gay sex and AIDS mixed with the furor over Lil Nas X’s “Industry Baby” have made for the eye of a perfect s***storm. |
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GQ |
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| How DaBaby's Homophobic Comments at Rolling Loud Set Off a Firestorm |
| by Grant Rindner |
| Since his rapid ascent to A-list status in 2019, DaBaby has consistently found himself amidst controversy. |
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Variety |
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| As MTV Turns 40, It’s Time to Embrace the Generation That Grew Up With It (COLUMN) |
| by Michael Schneider |
| It’s been a cliché for years to complain about what happened to the music on MTV. But the larger issue is, what happened to the programming, period, on MTV? It’s become a zombie channel, and for those of us still rooting for the brand, it’s a sad sight to see. |
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Los Angeles Times |
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| Op-Ed: How country music can help America get back to normal |
| by Kurt Bardella |
| The industry and its stars need to promote COVID-19 vaccinations to fans who simply don't want to listen to the government. |
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The Forty-Five |
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| Meet the musicians working behind the scenes for the NHS during the pandemic |
| by Aliya Chaudhry. |
| Musicians supporting their careers with side jobs took on a whole new meaning during the pandemic. Aliya Chaudhry spoke to members of Creeper and Bury Tomorrow about their demanding work with the NHS. |
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NPR |
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| Billie Eilish Can't Wait To See The Future |
| by Lulu Garcia-Navarro, Andrew Craig and Melissa Gray |
| With lyrics poking at the ways young women are scrutinized and exploited, "Happier Than Ever" finds Eilish in some dark corners - but the pop supernova tells NPR she's got lots to feel hopeful about. |
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SPIN |
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| Journey to the Past: How Lollapalooza’s Unlikely Headliner Influenced Gen Z |
| by Daniel Kohn |
| A much younger crowd still won't stop believin'. |
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Worth |
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| Rock ‘N’ Roll Meets E-Commerce: How A Retail Giant Created A New Way To Shop Via Streaming Music |
| by Beau Draghiciu |
| Brazilian mega retailer Magazine Luiza--known in its home country simply as Magalu--is pioneering a new type of shopping, s-commerce. |
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Music Industry Blog |
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| Labels are going to become more like VCs than they probably want to be |
| by Mark Mulligan |
| Record labels like to compare themselves to venture capital (VC), taking risks, investing in talent and sharing in the upside of success. While that comparison is flawed, its relevance is going to increase, but not in the way many labels will like. |
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Vulture |
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| Welcome 2 Prince’s America |
| by Craig Jenkins |
| As told by the band who helped make the late legend’s “lost” album "Welcome 2 America" over a decade ago - never released until now. |
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Pollstar |
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| Delta Dilemma: Live Industry Navigates More Contagious Variant, Changing Regulations |
| by Eric Renner Brown |
| Even when venues and artists do everything right, coronavirus can still spoil the party. |
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Variety |
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| Brit Beat: Labels Plot Response to Scathing U.K. Streaming Report -- Is a Similar One Coming to the U.S.? |
| by Jem Aswad |
| Summer vacation season may have started in the U.K., but the fallout from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport's Parliamentary Committee report into the economics of music streaming continues to keep much of the British industry hard at work. |
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VICE |
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| 'The Ascent Was Just Wild' -- The Oral History of The Strokes' 'Is This It' |
| by Danny Wright |
| On the 20th anniversary of modern rock's most seminal album, Vice spoke to its producer, publicist, journalists and the guy who shot the "arse cover". |
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gal-dem |
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| ‘Everyone was a white man’: what it was like being a woman of colour in the 2000s indie scene |
| by Stephanie Soh |
| 20 years after The Strokes set forth a new era of rock’n’roll, Stephanie Soh speaks to the members of LCD Soundsystem, New Young Pony Club and The Go! Team who didn’t quite fit the skinny white dude mould. |
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The Verge |
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| K-pop’s fandom platforms are changing what it means to be an idol |
| by Stitch |
| Digital fan clubs are turning into single-purpose social networks. |
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them. |
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| How TORRES and Jenna Gribbon Became Each Other’s Muses |
| by Emma Madden |
| Ahead of Mackenzie Scott’s new album "Thirstier," the musician and painter discuss the exhibitionist and voyeuristic themes in their art. |
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The New Yorker |
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| Woodstock ’99 and the Rise of Toxic Masculinity |
| by Amanda Petrusich |
| “Woodstock 99” is far darker than the Fyre Festival films; it evokes not schadenfreude but terror. The grimmest scenes reminded me of watching footage of the Capitol riot. |
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Trapital |
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| Steve Rifkind on Loud Records, Spring Sound, Wu-Tang Clan, and the Family Business |
| by Dan Runcie and Steve Rifkind |
| Steve Rifkind is the founder of Loud Records, SRC Records, and his new label Spring Sound. Loud Records, which celebrated its 25th anniversary last January 2020, is one of the most influential record labels in hip-hop with artists like Wu Tang Clan, Twista, and Akon. |
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The New York Times |
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| The Tao of Snoop Dogg |
| by David Gelles |
| “Companies that get down with me know how I get down.” |
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Okayplayer |
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| Rap Is Still Culturally Conservative To A Fault |
| by Elijah C. Watson |
| Although the genre has made progress, the rap conservative is still dominant in contemporary music. DaBaby is a case study of this. |
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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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