FEATURES
Space Force Director Ken Kwapis on Making Changes For Season 2
Over the course of several decades, director Ken Kwapis has established a career working in both film and television, with plenty of feature work including Follow That Bird and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, but also notably directing the pilots for two truly game-changing series: The Larry Sanders Show and the American adaptation of The Office. It was the latter assignment which led to his most recent project: the second season of Space Force, created by The Office‘s Greg Daniels and Steve Carell. While the first season had plenty of charms, including a truly stacked comedy ensemble including Carell, John Malkovich, Ben Schwartz, Diana Silvers, Tawny Newsome, Jimmy O. Yang, and Don Lake, those involved have been open about knowing that the second season could improve on the first....
Clairo Brings the Intimacy of Sling to Radio City Music Hall: Review, Setlist + Photos
Clairo’s 2021 sophomore album Sling is an album of closeness, immediacy, and contemplation; it is turned inward, but the moments that burst out do so like snowfall, and even the warmest, brightest choices are dripped in a haze, like you just woke up and the sun is shining through the corner of your window. So, hearing it performed live in the 6,000-capacity Radio City Music Hall on Thursday night (February 24th) is a little strange. The whimsy and intimacy of Sling almost suggests it should be performed in a cozy cabin somewhere in the woods, but Clairo’s remarkable rise to stardom has proven that the upgrade in venue size is deserved. Considering that Clairo’s debut album Immunity came out only six months before the pandemic began, as well as the fact that her biggest single to date, “Sof...
Song of the Week: All Hail Florence + The Machine’s “King,” a Complicated Coronation Anthem
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, Florence + the Machine assume their rightful place on the throne. Florence Welch has assumed a wide range of identities over the past 15 years. Since she first formed Florence + The Machine in 2007, Welch has been a punchy indie rocker; an empowerment anthem siren; a beguiling chanteuse; a dancefloor diva; a witchy woman; a poet. Like David Bowie before her and contemporaries like St. Vincent, Welch isn’t only writing and recording music with Florence + The Machine — she’s developing personae complete with richly-imagined aestheti...
Rap Song of the Week: Conway the Machine Brings Out the Best in Lil Wayne and Rick Ross on “Tear Gas”
Our new music feature Rap Song of the Week breaks down the essential hip-hop tracks you need to hear. Check out the full playlist here. This week, Conway the Machine links up with Lil Wayne and Rick Ross on “Tear Gas” from his long-awaited Shady debut, God Don’t Make Mistakes. Conway the Machine’s tenure on Shady Records has been the latest case study for exactly what a major label can provide for a rapper who was already well-respected and making good money from merch and touring. Back in 2017, our former Artist of the Month signed on to make Eminem his ostensible boss as part of a package deal for Griselda, the label and collective founded by his brother Westside Gunn. In the five years since then, both rappers (along with Benny the Butcher) have continued to operate outside of the lines...
Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz on Character Complexity in ‘The Batman’
Batman, the alter ego of reclusive billionaire Bruce Wayne, has been a complex character since his DC Comics debut in 1939. The Gotham City vigilante has been portrayed on the silver screen by A-list actors like Michael Keaton, Christian Bale and Ben Affleck, and now Robert Pattinson is bringing new life to the franchise in the upcoming Warner Bros. film The Batman, directed by Matt Reeves. “The Batman is such a feat of craftsmanship,” Pattinson told HYPEBEAST. “Matt has really destroyed himself over the last five years with [this film].” Reeves, who first began penning the script with Peter Craig in 2017, set his take on the legendary character in the second year of his vigilante career as Batman. Drawing inspiration from comics including Year One (1987) and Zero Year (2013), the fil...
Dave Grohl’s Top 10 Drum Performances
Foo Fighters Week continues here at Consequence with a list of Dave Grohl’s best turns on the kit. Keep it locked here throughout the week for more interviews, lists, editorials, and videos — it’s all things Foos, all the time. You can see everything in one convenient place here. In most cases, drummers are the unsung heroes of rock and roll — besides keeping time, drummers can lift a track off its feet, aid heavily in the composition of songs, and add a component to music that’s both physical and visceral. Then you get Dave Grohl, the frontman of Foo Fighters and drummer of Nirvana, Scream, Tenacious D, Them Crooked Vultures, and often, Queens of the Stone Age. There may not even be a drummer more prolific than Dave Grohl considering the sheer magnitude of projects he’s participated in, a...
Best New Tracks: Kanye West, Denzel Curry x slowthai, Conway The Machine and More
As the week in music comes to a close, HYPEBEAST has rounded up the best projects for the latest installment of Best New Tracks. This week’s list is led by releases from the artist formerly known as Kanye West, Denzel Curry x slowthai and Conway The Machine, who dropped DONDA 2, the single “Zatoichi” and God Don’t Make Mistakes, respectively. Also joining this selection are offerings from EARTHGANG, Bakar, Kehlani, Toro y Moi, Deb Never, Baby Keem and Robert Glasper. Kanye West – DONDA 2 #Donda2 Experience LIVE NOW @kanyewest (https://t.co/T1k9LnSjNs) pic.twitter.com/Hm7sBOxRAm — Amazon Music (@amazonmusic) February 23, 2022 Almost all the tracks from Ye’s DONDA 2 are available now, but exclusively on the YEEZY Stem Player. Earlier this week, the artist ...
Karol G Made It Big By Being Herself: My Fans ‘Are a Movement’
You could measure the success of Karol G’s first North American headlining tour last year by the numbers: 24 shows, 128,000 tickets sold, a gross of $10.9 million, according to Billboard Boxscore. Or you could measure it in wigs: Countless fans, from the floor seats to the rafters, donning aqua-blue hair for the night to mimic the pop star’s own technicolor tresses. The first time she noticed it, “I was very shocked,” the 31-year-old says. “But after the tour, I realized Karol G and ‘Bichota’ ” — slang for bad b–ch, and the title of one of her hit singles — “are a movement.” Explore Explore Karol G See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news With her relatable lyrics, empowering expressions of female sexuality and adventurous sound — incorporating elements of R&am...
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 ...
Digging for Gold: Brazilian Hip-Hop and R&B
Digging for Gold is HYPEBEAST’s monthly playlist series that highlights regions across the world and the genres that come out of them. By putting together a mix of essentials and hidden gems, we hope to add to how you discover music and to deliver the thrill of finding new tracks. As HYPEBEAST Brasil makes its official debut, we’re delving deep into how the country’s innovative sounds are flipping the script. With homegrown genres like bossa nova, samba, and baile funk slowly making it onto some of our favorite artists’ radars (case in point: Juice WRLD’s Death Race For Love, Pharcyde and J Dilla’s “Runnin,” Lucky Daye’s “Call,” and plenty more), its musical influence continues to simmer. Few places loom as prominently as Brazil on hip-hop and R&B’s maps. Staying true to local roots, t...
The jeen-yuhs Cast and Crew Take it Back to S.O.B.’s For Q&A Event: Recap
It was family business for the cast and crew behind jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy at Sound of Brazil (S.O.B.’s) in New York City on Monday, February 21st. Over two hours, a panel of artists featured in the documentary, led by the project’s braintrust Clarence “Coodie” Simmons and Chike Ozah, gathered to share their memories beyond the film, full-circle moments, and the lasting impact of Ye on their careers now. The night began with a poetic parallel, as fans eager to go back to The College Dropout era poured into the SoHo dancehall where Ye held his first headlining show in 2003. QR codes lined the walls with offers for an exclusive $225 hoodie that commemorated both the documentary’s release and S.O.B.’s 40th anniversary this year. The merch was only for sale that night. The event started wi...
Cordae Brings His “Futurist” Vision to Life in a New NFT Collection
A little over a month out from the release of his highly-anticipated sophomore album, From a Birds Eye View, Cordae has already moved on to his next creative project. A self-described “futurist,” the 23-year-old breakout rapper told HYPEBEAST that he is drawn to anything new and innovative – and for the time being, that means pivoting from music to explore NFTs. “I always like to just put my head into it and do research to learn more about it,” Cordae said of exercising due diligence before hopping onto a new creative project. “In general, I like to think into the future. Learning and doing research, NFTs were definitely something that caught my interest.” It seems that the rapper already has a built-in audience for his new venture into digital collectibles. Earlier today, Cordae debuted h...
