Editorials
The Delicate, Dirty and Diverse World of UK Garage
An upbeat two-step rhythm, a touch of R&B soul, and a groovy house vibe. That’s what it takes to conjure the sound of the people — or as those people call it, UK garage. You may know it from Daniel Bedingfield’s 2001 UK No. 1 “Gotta Get Thru This” or T2’s 2007 single “Heartbroken” with Jodie Aysha. Maybe you heard the recent streaming hit “Pain” by breakout star PinkPantheress, and wondered to yourself where you could find more. From the London streets in the mid ’90s to the modern stages of now, the upbeat rhythms and flirtatious vocals of UK garage is a sound that stays fresh after 30 years due mostly in part to its inherent diversity: diversity of sounds, of influencers, and of creators and fans alike. Advertisement While garage is a definitely UK kinda vibe, the genre has its roots...
Why CODA Should Be This Year’s Underdog Oscar Triumph
Following the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday, February 27th and the Film Independent Spirit Awards on Sunday, March 6th, awards season is now officially going full steam ahead. Every Oscars race tends to have its underdog, and this year’s movie-that-could has the potential to be Sian Heder’s CODA. CODA received warm reactions following a premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and was acquired by Apple TV+, but initially failed to generate the kind of buzz seen around some of this year’s other top titles. Even so — and rightly so — the morning of the Oscar nominations saw CODA emerge with three nominations, including one for Best Picture. Adapted from a 2014 French film, La Famille Bélier, CODA is centered on Ruby (Emilia Jones), the only hearing member of a deaf family. The stor...
Why You Should Be Watching FX’s Snowfall
Since its debut in 2017, Snowfall, a show set during the crack epidemic of the 80s, has quickly become one of the hottest must-watch shows on television. Living up to the reputation that FX has created for itself with its culture-defining shows and characters, Snowfall has managed to take the “drug drama” sub-genre to new heights through layered, intense storytelling, award-worthy acting, and awe-inducing cinematography. With the acclaimed series returning for its fifth season on February 23, the hype for the show has become almost inescapable, with the drama trending every other day on Twitter in anticipation of its return. But, if you’re somebody who has been frankly confused by the sudden reemergence of the show’s endless amount of memes and the seemingly never-ending thirst for Damson ...
Why We’ll Never Stop Talking About NBC’s Smash
An important thing to remember about Smash is that when it premiered, 10 years ago today, the NBC musical drama was supposed to be capital-G Good. We’re talking “awards contender” Good. “All star cast” Good. “Executive produced by Steven Spielberg” Good. Sadly, that didn’t ultimately align with what we got, which was two seasons of the messiest yet ultimately most fascinating broadcast drama of the 2010s — maybe even the 21st century so far. The thing about Smash is, if it had been a total failure, it wouldn’t still occupy space in our mental real estate. But there were just enough glimmers of good TV, aligned with some moments of pure brilliant camp and what is legitimately a top-tier original soundtrack, to ensure its place in television history. Perhaps you missed Smash when it original...
Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours: Still Flawless at 45
As Fleetwood Mac prepared to make its 11th album — and second with its latest lineup — in 1976, it was on top of a world that was falling apart. The group’s self-titled 1975 release, its first with new American members Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, had revived the veteran British band’s flagging fortunes. It was certified seven times platinum and gave Fleetwood Mac its first No. 1 album in the U.S., spawning three Top 20 hits. The group was top of the pops, quite literally. But the quintet wasn’t quite able to bask in its success. All hell broke loose, also quite literally, between albums. Buckingham and Nicks, a couple when they joined Fleetwood Mac, broke up. Singer-keyboardist Christine McVie and bassist John McVie ended their eight-year marriage. Drummer Mick Fleetwood and his w...
Joss Whedon, Spilling Your Guts Doesn’t Mean You’ve Done the Work
Sometimes, the best profiles are the ones that know when to let the subject speak for themselves, and Monday we received a great example of this in Vulture writer Lila Shapiro’s lengthy examination of where Joss Whedon is at in the year 2022. The profile’s answer: not great, on a lot of levels, due to years of controversy stemming from allegations of bad behavior across multiple projects, and Whedon’s not likely feeling much better, given the current online reaction to his statements. There are no shortage of pull-out quotes in the Vulture piece. Whedon refutes Ray Fisher’s allegations by saying the Cyborg scenes in Justice League “logically made no sense” and that’s why he wanted to cut down Fisher’s role. He then uses the sort of terminology that Giles might use to introduce one of Buffy...
DJ Neptune Cares About Bringing African Creators and Exposing the Culture in New Album “Greatness 2.0”
The project was good enough and Neptune understands how to bring cultures closer, both from the acts, the sounds, and as he innovates completely. Well, his previous effort dished out with an army of creators across Africa was cultural enough as much as the sophomore which he collectively puts together and showcased what a range of cultural experiences can bring. DJ Neptune is one of the most creative Nigerian DJ so far, in 2018 when he dished out the first volume of “Greatness” which cuts across diverse sounds and serves as his debut album housing a plethora of West African and Eastern creators; in 2021, he brings the culture much closer, innovating trendy sounds with it as well as a range of superstars he took alongside. Nigerian creators are dominant on the album. With a range of exhilar...
Ruger’s Talents Becomes More Evident On Second Wave
Second Wave is more evidence of his talents and seeks after connecting a particular demography with it. Second Wave becomes aware of this knowledge and races after it, although a couple of the essence of the track has a stronger relationship with his debut extended play in 2019, now, it becomes intentionally evident as he tends to connect with Gen Z through topics of the project, the slang most especially which connotes strong meaning and relationship around this same set of audience. Ruger and his look sustain a unique identity, with his talents taking another shape on the pensively structured sophomore extended play. “Second Wave” emboldens his talents and makes them evident after dishing out his most promising debut in 2019 titled “Pandemic”. With Second Wave, Ruger attempts the explora...
Ask Dr. Mike: The Big Lie We Tell Ourselves About Substance Abuse
Supplementing the Going There with Dr. Mike podcast presented by Consequence and Sound Mind Live, the monthly “Ask Dr. Mike” column is here to answer listeners’ questions about their mental health. This past month’s episodes focused on Substance Abuse, and with the holiday season rife with reasons to turn to unhealthy behavior, Dr. Mike is here to help demystify the reasons why we often turn to such bad habits. The holiday season is upon us once again. For many people, this can be a wonderful time in our lives filled with holiday parties, seeing family and friends, and exchanging gifts and gratitude. It’s also the time where we often find ourselves engaging in a range of unhealthy behaviors that are intended to be celebratory in nature. Those behaviors may range from bi...
Who Profits From the Posthumous Album Release?
“Do not continue anything in my name if I die. You got this on record,” Tyler, the Creator told XXL in October 2021. “If I ever die, I don’t want people to put my music out… [with] features with people I do not fuck with. The companies are over with. Everything’s done.” Amid a continuous tide of posthumous releases, where quality and quantity battle against each other in the streaming era, that sentiment is becoming louder. In fact, Tyler’s fellow Californian Anderson .Paak went as far as to tattoo his perspective across his right forearm back in August: “When I’m gone, please don’t release any posthumous albums or songs with my name attached. Those were just demos and never intended to be heard by the public.” Tyler and .Paak are two of the more outspoken artists on this increasingly...
Grammys 2022 Nominations: As Usual, The Best New Artist Category Is a Head-Scratching One
The Recording Academy, aka the voting body responsible for the Grammy Awards, has been vocal this past year about the internal work of growth and change. They are trying to put on a new face — one that’s more inclusive, one that is more equitable, and one with more voices in the room. They did away with nomination committees, an antiquated system that filtered final say for nominations. With that in mind, many expected the 2022 Grammy Nominations to look a bit different — or at least a little different from past years. At the end of the day, though, the more some things change, the more they stay the same. The Grammys seem to be one of those things, but their Best New Artist category is especially confusing. Best New Artist is, consistently, a pretty baffling category. Maybe the best way t...
Ghostbusters: Afterlife Went Too Far With Its Most Unsettling Cameo
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Ghostbusters: Afterlife.] Jason Reitman‘s Ghostbusters: Afterlife is packed with callbacks to the original 1980s films, not just drawing upon the iconography established by Reitman’s father but also bringing back much of the original cast, including Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, and Ernie Hudson. It also chose to pay tribute to the fourth member of the Ghostbusting team, actor and filmmaker Harold Ramis — but went too far in doing so. As Egon Spengler, Ramis was one of the original film’s most memorable characters, and Ramis also had a long and fruitful career as a director of films including Caddyshack and Groundhog Day; he died in 2014 at the age of 69 after an illness, and Afterlife is dedicated to his memory. Which is fitting, given that ...
