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Keys N Krates Unveil Triad of Remixes of Black Artists, Pledge to Donate Proceeds to NAACP Legal Defense Fund
Renowned production trio Keys N Krates recently unveiled a new remix pack titled Flips Vol 1, which was released in their continued support of the Black Lives Matter movement. The triptych of remixes, which arrived on Bandcamp, covers songs by Frank Ocean, Snoh Aalegra, and Lauryn Hill. The Juno Award-winning group took to social media to share the news. Keys N Krates’ unique melodic trap and R&B hybrid sound is on full display throughout, as they kick off the project with a velvety edit of Aalegra’s “Love Like That” and follow with a hypnotic flip of Ocean’s “Chanel” before closing it out with a moombah-inspired rework of Hill’s “Ex-Factor.” You can check out and purchase the album via Bandcamp here. Keys N Krates al...
John Dolmayan of System of a Down Calls Defunding Police ‘Stupidity’
Following a 13 minute Instagram video last week where he explained how his socio-political views differed from those of his bandmate Serj Tankian, System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan shared another post to explain more of his viewpoints on what’s going in the U.S. right now. Dolmayan’s recent post — which was a photo of Mark Twain paired with a quote that he may or may not have coined — emphasized that he thought defunding the police was “stupidity.” Dolmayan says he believes that celebrities calling for the defunding of police are doing “one of two things:” showing “how woke they are” or saying “anything to maintain their positions.” He insisted that money taken from police budgets will later wind up back in police budgets. Throughout the U.S., protesters have pushed to ...
The King of Staten Island Turns Pete Davidson Into a Judd Apatow Archetype: Review
The Pitch: There’s not much distance between The King of Staten Island, the sixth feature film from comedy legend and super-producer Judd Apatow, and Pete Davidson’s much-publicized real-life. The circumstances are different — Davidson’s character in the film isn’t a comedy star on the most-watched sketch comedy show in the world, nor has he ever dated the world’s most famous pop star — but the background details are largely the same. Essentially, the movie is a fictional dramedy based on the real-life of 26-year-old Pete Davidson, comedian and the youngest cast member currently on Saturday Night Live. Art Imitating Life: On Saturday Night Live, Davidson traditionally opts to appear as himself, often riffing about his actual mental health issues and sobriety. When he became tabloid fo...
Tiger King’s Joe Exotic Says “I’ll Be Dead In 2-3 Months”
Hard times for Tiger King’s Joe Exotic. In a letter obtained by TMZ, dated June 1st, and addressed to “supporters, fans, and loved ones,” the imprisoned Netflix celebrity paints a pretty bleak portrait for himself. In fact, he predicts, “I’ll be dead in two to three months.” Before that, though, Exotic thanks everyone for their support, erroneously claiming the pandemic is over, and pleading for that sweet presidential pardon, writing: “I ask President Trump to keep his word and look into making this wrong a right and grant me a miracle.” It’s perhaps at this point that Exotic realizes everyone’s moved on from Tiger King mania because things take a dark turn. “My soul is dead,” he writes, “I struggle every day to hold on to what little hope I can find.” Reason being, he has no outside...
John Prine “Picture Show” Livestream to Feature Sturgill Simpson, Kacey Musgraves, Bill Murray & More
The life and legacy of John Prine will be celebrated later this week with a star-studded livestream tribute concert. Presented by the folk legend’s own family, “Picture Show” promises appearances from Sturgill Simpson, Kacey Musgraves, Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires, My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James, Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, Bonnie Raitt, and Brandi Carlile. Also included on the lineup are Eric Church, Sara Watkins, Kurt Vile, Vince Gill, Margo Price, Courtney Marie Andrews, Fiona Whelan Prine, Jack Prine, Tommy Prine, John Paul White, and The Secret Sisters. Additionally, Prine’s own longtime backing band — that’s Kenneth Blevins, David Jacques, Fats Kaplin, Jason Wilber — is participating. The virtual event will also be “attended” by actors and TV personalities such as Bill Mu...
How We Work Now: Concord Senior VP Synch Licensing Brooke Primont
In a series amid the coronavirus pandemic, Billboard is asking individuals from all sectors of the music business to share stories of how they work now, with much of the world quarantined at home and unable to take in-person meetings, attend conferences or even go into the office. Submissions for the series can be sent to HowWeWorkNow@Billboard.com. Read the full series here. This installment is with Brooke Primont, Concord’s senior vp of synch licensing. Brooke Primont: I commute into [Manhattan] every single day. I live in a small town about 40 minutes outside of New York, so when this came down, it wasn’t as painful for me because it’s an hour and 15, sometimes two hours, door to door, depending on the day. So the idea of working from home was welcomed, in a sense. But there...
YG Plays ‘FTP’ During L.A. Protest: ‘All of Us Protesting Are on the Same Side’
As celebrities continue to protest across the nation in hopes of accelerating justice for George Floyd and the entire Black Lives Matter movement, YG participated in the action and had a resounding message for his detractors over the weekend. “For anyone out there talking I don’t question your advocacy and don’t think you should question mine,” he wrote in an Instagram post Monday (June 8) after protesting in Los Angeles alongside BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors, Melina Abdullah of BLM LA and Kendrick Sampson in Hollywood. “See you gotta understand that a lot of people out there they see me as a N—a. They don’t see the black proud man. They see a kid from Bompton and they expect violence. They hear FTP and they think I’m gonna come and burn m...
‘Why I Protest’: Snow Tha Product on Why She Marches in Solidarity With Black Lives Matter
People across the country and around the world have taken the streets to protest since late May, demanding justice for George Floyd and other black citizens who have died in the hands of police. Marching in solidarity with the black community and fighting against institutional racism, Mexican-American rapper Snow Tha Product (real name: Claudia Feliciano) is among the thousands of people who are chanting “black lives matter.” “We represent a culture that has our own struggles, and me as a Mexican queer woman, I definitely have plenty struggles tacked on to my career,” Snow tells Billboard. “But this is about all of us. This is about inequality. Black and brown unity is very important.” The California-born “Bilingue” singer has also ...
Nick Cordero’s Wife Amanda Kloots Gives Update on His Condition: ‘Things Are Moving in the Right Direction’
Nick Cordero’s wife, Amanda Kloots, gave a hopeful update on the actor’s condition on Sunday (June 7) as he battles the coronavirus. “S0 I think this weekend was a good weekend, it was uneventful,” she said in a series of videos posted to her Instagram Stories. “Which, uneventful in the ICU is a good weekend. I think he had a weekend of rest, a weekend of growing, strength in his body and recovering a little bit. … Not too many changes were made, which is also a good sign, but one really good sign is his white blood count number is way down. So it has been as high as 65,000; we are now at 30,000. A frame of reference: a normal healthy person is around 15-20,000, even lower sometimes. So 30,000 is a great sign that things are moving in the right direction...
Metallica to Stream 2019 Rain-Soaked Show From Manchester
For the latest show in their ongoing streaming series, Metallica turned the clock way back to…2019. The band’s show at Manchester City’s (the football club) Ethiad Stadium was typical for the locale, especially for mid-June: a rain-drenched affair. But that didn’t stop the band though, running through a fierce 18-song set from the Hardwired tour. The set featured a bunch of fairly rare songs, like “The Memory Remains,” “The God That Failed” and “St. Anger.” In recent weeks, Metallica streamed a show from Salt Lake City from the Load tour and a 2014 “by request” Peru show, where the group played everything and anything the audience wanted to hear. Before that, they shared a Kill ‘Em All era show at Chicago’s Metro, a 20th anniversary Black Album show from Austria, and a 1991 show ...
Vic Mensa, Janet Devlin, and More Headline SPIN’s Untitled Twitch Stream This Week
We’re back with another stacked week of your favorite artists on SPIN’s Untitled Twitch Stream. This week (June 8 – June 14) will feature incredible intimate performances from Nova Miller, Christian Janet Devlin and Alt Bloom as well the debut of our brand new show in which reporter Kat Bein will (virtually) sit down with Vic Mensa to discuss his new music, daily life, and thoughts on everything going on in the world. We’re also just continuing to update subscriber benefits with new official SPIN badges and emotes on Twitch (in addition to the usual benefits, like ad-free viewing), all of which you can get for free with an Amazon Prime membership. For those who haven’t joined us on Twitch yet, head to twitch.tv/spinmag to see what you’ve been missing. Ch...
System of a Down’s John Dolmayan Blasts “Defund the Police” Movement as “Stupidest Thing I’ve Heard”
System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan has been very open about his political beliefs in the midst of protests across the country. Now, he’s blasting the “Defund the Police” movement as “probably the stupidest thing [he’s] heard.” Last week, Dolmayan made headlines when he called President Trump the “greatest friend to minorities” around the same time his bandmate Serj Tankian called for the protesters to “force the [Trump] regime to resign.” In a 13-minute Instagram video posted over the weekend, Dolmayan addressed the backlash he has received since that post, while also outlining his positions on a variety of socio-political issues. As far as the differences between him and his bandmates, particularly Tankian, Dolmayan said, “We have differing opinions in System of a Down. That shouldn’t...