| I didn’t have Wi-Fi at first. I did pep rallies, I battled in the street. I battled online with Netzero free trials, on dial-up. I did talent shows. I paid to perform. I sold tickets to open up for people. I did the whole dance. I passed out my mixtape for real... My first demo was on cassette; I gave it to DJ Quik. I’ve been doing this s*** for real, out the trunk. |
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| Ab-Soul at Rolling Loud, Los Angeles, Dec. 14, 2018. |
| (Scott Dudelson/Getty Images) |
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| quote of the day |
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“I didn’t have Wi-Fi at first. I did pep rallies, I battled in the street. I battled online with Netzero free trials, on dial-up. I did talent shows. I paid to perform. I sold tickets to open up for people. I did the whole dance. I passed out my mixtape for real... My first demo was on cassette; I gave it to DJ Quik. I’ve been doing this s*** for real, out the trunk.”
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- Ab-Soul, whose fifth album, "Herbert," is out today on Top Dawg
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| rantnrave:// |
It’s Friday...
...the last one of 2022 that doesn’t begin a holiday weekend, the last one with any entries in my new-releases calendar, and this will be the last regular edition of MusicREDEF this year. Christmas is coming and we’re wrapping. Look for two special editions in your inbox in the next two weeks, one collecting some of the year’s best reads (and maybe some listens), the other our annual in-memoriam newsletter. We’ll return the first week of January, when labels and everybody else can resume worrying about whether TIKTOK will be music’s next savior or not, or if it will even continue to exist; whether TICKETMASTER can successfully sell another 170,000 TAYLOR SWIFT tickets; whether US radio stations will have to start adding artist royalties to their budgets; whether artificial intelligence is planning to help or replace us; whether the live music business is back for everybody or just the one-percenters, and whether we’ll be in the middle of a third straight Covid winter surge. Hugs to every artist and crew member out on the road this holiday season, and to every fan who walks through the doors at any of their shows, whether it’s a club, an arena or an office holiday party. They are why the world continues to spin.
Top Dawg rapper AB-SOUL tops today’s new-music pile with the cathartic, therapeutic—but also, for him, celebratory—HERBERT, his first album in six years. Some of them dark years. The critically acclaimed LA artist says he’s good now, and “Herbert,” opines Paul Thompson in Rolling Stone, is his “best album by a chasmic margin, both more urgent and mature than everything that precedes it.”
Also today: new music from the late Young Dolph (posthumous album featuring Gucci Mane, 2 Chainz and others), Nakhane, Jacquees, the Alchemist (compilation of two previously released EPs with two new tracks), Ransom x V Don, $uicideboy$ x Germ, Discreet, Circa Survive, Thanks for Coming, Senth, Machina Mundi (jazz quartet led by Czech saxophonist Luboš Soukup) and Chief Keef.
Etc Etc Etc
TREVOR NOAH will host his third straight GRAMMYS in February—something only LL COOL J has done before him—and he tells Billboard he feels “lucky because I’m not responsible for voting. I’m not in charge of anything. I just get to be the person who keeps the show moving.” His preparation, he says, involves listening to “absolutely everything that’s going to be on the show, just to get a sense of the vibe. I want to get into the feeling of what’s going to be happening on the night. I spend a lot of time writing and preparing for what will or won’t happen”... DAVIDO and OZUNA are among the artists performing at the WORLD CUP’s closing ceremony Sunday, shortly before France and Argentina compete in the tournament final in Lusail, Qatar... LLOYD’S OF LONDON doesn’t have to pay METALLICA for six South American concerts canceled early during the Covid-19 pandemic, a Los Angeles judge has ruled. The “CREEPING DEATH” band’s insurance policy had a “communicable diseases” exception, but its lawyers tried to argue the disease itself wasn’t the primary cause of the cancellations... Our year-end list of lists is up to some 150 lists from around the music polling universe, including, for example, a Seattle Times’ critics’ poll of the year’s best Seattle albums; the Quietus’ assessment of the best French music of the year; DJ Mag’s monster lists of dance/electronic albums, tracks and compilations; eight metal lists; nine hip-hop lists; one guitar riff list, and much, much more—MusicSET: “Best Music of 2022: The Year in Lists.” We’ll continue to add entries over the break.
Rest in Peace
DINO DANELLI, drummer and co-founder of ‘60s rock hitmakers the Rascals. His fellow New Jerseyan Steven Van Zandt called him “the greatest rock drummer ever,” and in later years he played in Van Zandt’s Disciples of Soul... Music + video = JOHN BEUG, a longtime Warner Bros. Records’ exec who played a key role in the making of iconic videos by A-Ha, Peter Gabriel and others, and produced film and TV projects including Peter Bogdanovich’s Tom Petty doc “Runnin’ Down a Dream”... Canadian singer/songwriter SHIRLEY EIKHARD, whose songs were recorded by Cher, Anne Murray and, most famously, Bonnie Raitt, who had her biggest hit with Eikhard’s “Something to Talk About.”
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| - Matty Karas, curator |
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| now the calendar's just one page |
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Variety |
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| The American Music Fairness Act Finally Puts Justice for Artists Within Reach |
| By Common |
| This fight isn’t about me. It’s about the thousands upon thousands of everyday artists whose names most people will likely never know, but whose contributions are essential to making the soundtrack to our lives. They are the session musicians and background singers, the producers and engineers — regular people trying to make a living and feed their families by doing what they love. |
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The FADER |
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| The 100 best songs of 2022 |
| By Alex Robert Ross, Jordan Darville, Gyasi Williams-Kirtley... |
| From Jockstrap to Carly Ray Jepsen and Karol G to Alex G, these are the songs we had on repeat this year. |
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NPR Music |
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| In 2022, Bad Bunny made pop stardom a subversive act |
| By Isabelia Herrera |
| An irrepressible global pop star and political provocateur, Bad Bunny collects streaming accolades with ease, but refuses to temper his idiosyncrasies or move to U.S. pop's center. |
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Los Angeles Times |
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| Turnstile's Brendan Yates on the Grammys, Rosalía and his mom |
| By Suzy Exposito |
| The Baltimore-based hardcore punk band Turnstile is one of this year’s surprise Grammy stories, nominated for three awards for songs from its breakout LP, “Glow On.” With the help of producer Mike Elizondo, the band seamlessly incorporated 1980s-era synthesizers and tropical percussions into its thunderous rock. |
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Music x |
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| An invitation to dig into what crypto music means |
| By Maarten Walraven |
| We have a crypto music movement which is trying to steer away from music copyright's ‘old world.’ Then, we have artists who rightfully need to protect their IP for unfair use. But some of the ‘old world’ solutions won’t fit and we’ll need to come up with new solutions. |
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Pitchfork |
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| The Best Music Videos, Movies, and TV of 2022 |
| By Eric Torres, Quinn Moreland, Gio Santiago... |
| Documentaries on Sinéad O’Connor and Phil Elverum, thrilling videos from Rosalía and Björk, a genius “Grunge Frasier” parody, and more. |
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Vulture |
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| The Composer Who Made Sense of David Lynch |
| By Matt Zoller Seitz |
| Without Angelo Badalamenti’s music, it’s uncertain whether audiences would have understood the utter sincerity of "Blue Velvet" and "Twin Peaks." |
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Midia Research |
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| Music industry revenues in review -- what 2022 tells us about 2023 |
| By Mark Mulligan |
| The case for music lies in lipstick. During previous recessions, lipstick sales boomed, representing an affordable luxury for consumers who could no longer afford the big-ticket items that they had been saving for or were used to buying. Music subscriptions may play an affordable luxury role. |
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Kreative Kontrol |
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| Kreative Kontrol: Steve Albini |
| By Vish Khanna and Steve Albini |
| Steve Albini discusses Poverty Alleviation Charities' annual Letters to Santa program and the 24 Hour Marathon variety show taking place on December 19, what's new at Electrical Audio, pandemic touring with Shellac twitter, his friend Dave Grohl, the band Dry Cleaning, and much more. |
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Vulture |
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| Everything We Know About YSL’s RICO Case |
| By Zoe Guy |
| Here’s everything you need to know about the case, updated as it develops, from the people involved to a summary of the charges and the lyrics cited. |
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The Ringer |
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| The Ringer’s 101 Best L.A. Rap Songs |
| By Andrew Gruttadaro, Keith Fujimoto, Justin Sayles... |
| We’re counting down the biggest and most influential hip-hop tracks from Los Angeles-from Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg to more recent legends like Drakeo the Ruler and Nipsey Hussle. |
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| what we're into |
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| Video of the day |
| “Neptune Frost” |
| Saul Williams/Anisia Uzeyman |
| Movie quote of the year, from what the LA Times called "a visually dazzling tech musical": "The drum is nothing without the drummer." |
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| Music | Media |
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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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