Culture
Whatever Is Left of It
April 1st (aka April Fool’s Day) marks 13 months since independent venues have been shut down across the country due to COVID-19, including comedy clubs and comedy theaters. While musicians adapted nimbly and found ways to thrive publicly with livestreams, comedy went underground. Backrooms, basements, rooftops, alleyways and even apartments and backyards became the new home for standup comedy in urban cities across North America. If you knew, you knew, and even that didn’t guarantee you entry. To document the past year, comedian/actor Derek Gaines (The King of Staten Island, The Last O.G.) wrote an ode to comedy at a time most cities had banned it or made it illegal to perform publicly. Gaines says the constant hiding and paranoia about performing is why he wanted to name the video he cre...
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Soundtrack Gets Limited Edition Colored Vinyl Release
Fans of the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla soundtrack can finally rejoice, as their wish for a limited edition vinyl release has finally come true. Ubisoft partnered with Lakeshore Records to put out the multicolored double-album containing hours of the game’s original score. The May 21 release (which is available for preorder through Lakeshore right now) features an entire album dedicated to each composer, with the first disc including 13 tracks created primarily by Jesper Kyd (Borderlands, Darksiders II, and early Assassin’s Creed titles) while the second focuses on 15 of Sarah Schachner’s (Call of Duty, Anthem, recent Assassin’s Creed titles) contributions. As expected, the album also features one of the highlights of the entire game: the vocal contribution...
Lil Nas X Exposed Our Own Hypocrisy With “Montero” Video, Y’all Are Just Mad He’s Unapologetically Gay
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: YouTube / Youtube Lil Nas X wanted to test just how tolerant and welcoming some of y’all really are when it comes to treating people equally. So, the 21-year-old, gay Black man celebrated his sexuality and put our boundaries to the test with his video for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).” And some of you truly showed your whole entire ass by expressing your outrage on social media due to the imagery in the video. But more on that later. “What Montero Lamar Hill was showing you is that he isn’t afraid of the hell that some of you have already put him in for being gay.” And it wasn’t necessarily what was in the video but who was behind those “provocative” and “evil” images. To be Black is one thing that this country is still trying to accept. To be Black an...
Heavy Culture: Moonspell’s Fernando Ribeiro Talks Hermitage, Pandemic, Growing Up in Portugal, and More
Heavy Culture is a monthly column from journalist Liz Ramanand, focusing on artists of different cultural backgrounds in heavy music as they offer their perspectives on race, society, and more as it intersects with and affects their music. The latest installment of this column features an interview with Moonspell frontman Fernando Ribeiro. The year 2020 made most of us embrace our hermit-like ways. Little did Moonspell singer Fernando Ribeiro know that the word Hermitage that he came across in 2017 would be an apt title for the band’s brand new album. The new release Hermitage is the veteran Portuguese gothic metal band’s 12th full-length studio album. The LP focuses on topics such as solitude and isolation, but also on community. Heavy Consequence caught up with Ribeiro via Skype in mid-M...
Presidency: President Buhari never promised to make N1 equal $1
The Presidency has said that there was not a time when President Muhammadu Buhari promised to make N1 equivalent to $1. The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said this on a Channels Television programme, Sunday Politics, on Sunday. Adesina, who also addressed complaints about the economy by Nigerians, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, said of the often quoted promise by Buhari to make N1 exchange for $1: “It does not exist, it is fake, it is false, it is apocryphal, it doesn’t exist.” He further told Channels Television that the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has debunked the claim several times and challenged anyone with clips and publications of the President promising such to make them available. On the critic...
Sudan and rebel group sign agreement on separation of religion and state
The Sudanese government and a major rebel group from its southern Nuba Mountains on Sunday signed a document which paves the way for a final peace agreement by guaranteeing freedom of worship to all while separating religion and the state. The signing is viewed as a crucial step in efforts by the power-sharing government headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan to reach accords with rebel groups across the country and end decades of conflicts that left millions displaced and hundreds of thousands dead. Last year Sudan signed a peace agreement with many groups, including from the Western region of Darfur. But a key faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu, did not join in last year’s agreement because it stuck to its demand that Sudan dispens...
Simply the Best
To be a Baptist gospel choir singer from Nutbush, Tennessee, and dream of being the first Black rock and roll performer to sell out football stadiums is a daunting desire to have, let alone achieve. However, Tina Turner did just that and HBO’s documentary TINA shares that story from desire to fulfillment. Magnetized by her huge voice, swinging hair, and massive stage presence in a sequin mini dress, I loved Tina before I knew I loved rock and roll. It was as if I’d been born with the lyrics of “River Deep Mountain High” pre-programmed in my brain. I still remember wearing my mom’s jewelry and singing “do I love you, my oh my” into a hairbrush, mimicking Tina’s dance moves in the mirror. I was drawn to her before I knew her past, long before I found inspiration in the resilience she n...
Grammy-Nominated DJ Kaskade Explains Why He’s Performing in Fortnite Tonight
If normal live-streamed performances haven’t been enough for you during the COVID era, Epic Games are back with another big addition to their Fortnite Party Royale series. As previously announced on Monday, Grammy-nominated DJ Kaskade is the latest artist to be featured within the massive video game, headlining tonight’s event at 8pm ET. As those who remember Travis Scott’s larger-than-life performance and J Balvin’s Halloween concert already know, the Fortnite concert experiences are nothing to scoff at thanks to Epic’s use of XR technology and special effects that would make most festival producers jealous. For Kaskade, the gaming titans are sending him into the world of car-based soccer title Rocket League, where the Chicago native will be able to driv...
UFC star Israel Adesanya tenders apology after ‘rape’ comment
UFC star Israel Adesanya has apologized to fellow fighter Kevin Holland after he came under attack for his rape comment. Isreal Adesanya made the “rape comment” while trash-talking Holland in a since-deleted video. “Bro, I will fuckin’ rape you,” Adesanya said in an Instagram video directed at Kevin Holland, who had targeted him with a series of insulting remarks. However, in a statement on Friday morning, the Nigerian-born New Zealand MMA fighter said he “crossed the line” and he understands the gravity of what he said. The statement on Adesanya’s official Twitter account reads: “Last week fight talk escalated to a point in which I crossed the line. I understand the gravity of this word and how it can affect and hurt other people apart from my opponent, although that was never my intentio...
Robert Banks Is a One-Man Movie Studio
The employees of the Lakeview Cemetery, on the east side of Cleveland, watched as a busload of kids and adults dressed in bizarre costumes made their way onto the grounds. There were no funerals scheduled for that particular day. Just a man trying to bring his dream to life. “I had told everybody to park in the back,” filmmaker Robert Banks tells SPIN about trying to film his movie Paper Shadows. “But nobody listened and they all parked right out front. <!– // Brid Player Singles. var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ “div”: “Brid_10143537”, “obj”: {“id”:”25115″,”width”:”480″,”height”:”270″,”playlist”:”10315″,”inviewBottomOffset”:”105p...
Minister: Nigerian government to establish micro enterprises in 774 local council areas
Dr George Akume, the Minister of Special Duties and Inter Governmental Affairs, on Wednesday said that micro enterprises will be established in the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the country. The Minister disclosed this in Abuja at the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) General Assembly with the Theme: Strategic Positioning for the Future: A New Era. “As a ministry, we have proposed the establishment of Micro, Small and Medium enterprises in the 774 local governments in Nigeria based on economic corridors. “We believe that this will create jobs and ensure improvement in the well-being of the local populace,’’Akume said. The minister, who was represented by Mr Simon Tyungu, Deputy Director, Office of the Minister, said that the establishment of the micro enterprise wa...
Yoruba monarchs warn Nigerians to stop making inflammatory comments
Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, and the Oluwo of Iwoland, Oba Abdul-Rasheed Akanbi, yesterday, cautioned Nigerians against making inflammatory statements that could ignite ethnoreligious crisis in the country. The monarchs gave the warning during the visit of Oba Akanbi to the Alaafin’s palace, in Oyo. Asking those stoking ethno-religious crises to have a retrospective look at the past, the monarchs advised that anything that could fan the embers of discord should be avoided. They said: “Nigerians must exercise restraints; they must bear in mind Nigeria’s long history of ethno-religious conflicts, as people use this type of deep-seated animosity in their speech precisely because of the culture of impunity which reigns in the country.” “What is more, hate speech is an agent provocateur ...