Hip-Hop
Post Malone Headlines Pokémon 25th Anniversary Concert: Watch
As part of the festivities celebrating the 25th anniversary of Pokémon, Post Malone headlined a virtual concert on Saturday night. The event saw a digital avatar version of the rapper perform a pre-recorded four-song set for an audience of Pokémon characters. Throughout the course of the 15-minute concert, Posty was transported to different Pokémon environments, from Glimwood Tangle to Charizard’s lair. All the while, beloved Pokémon figures like Gyarados, Umbreon, and Lugia could be seen vibing out. Posty’s setlist included “Psycho”, “Circles”, and “Congratulations”, in addition to his newly unveiled cover of Hootie and the Blowfish’s “Only Wanna Be With You”. Replay Post Malone’s Pokémon concert in its entirety below. At the end of the concert, The Pokémon Company International...
Nashville’s National Museum of African American Music: An Inside Look
The Wade in the Water exhibit chronicles the history of African-American religious music, starting with indigenous African spirituals and musical traditions. The Crossroads and A Love Supreme exhibits (the latter borrows its name from jazz pioneer John Coltrane‘s iconic album) focus on blues and jazz, respectively. One Nation Under a Groove (the title of the Funkadelic classic) recounts the history of R&B from WWII to its contemporary counterpart. Final exhibit The Message (Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five) traces the development of rap/hip-hop from its origins in the South Bronx to its global impact. NMAAM also houses several mini-exhibits including The Business Behind the Music. Sponsored by Sony Music Group, the display spotlights trailblazing Black industry executives...
Song of the Week: Jay Som and Palehound Choose the Bachelor’s Life and Debut “Anything at All”
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, two longtime friends form a new band and find a new sound. The past year of our lives has taught us that loneliness comes in several shades of blue. It can feel like total isolation, separation from dear friends, or even the tedium of seeing the same faces every single day. Those among us who have fared best have either found ways to beat the loneliness (a little Zoom went a long way there for a while, didn’t it?) or embrace it as a chance to remain in the moment and accomplish something. Jay Som (Melina Duterte) and Palehound voc...
Facebook’s New App Bars Lets You Rap Over Premade Beats
The follow-up era to SoundCloud rappers may well be upon us. As noted by TechCrunch, Facebook is releasing an app that will let users rap over premade beats and share a video of it with their community. It’s called Bars, and it’s currently available to download in closed beta form. From the sound of it, Bars is an app geared towards beginner rappers and freestyle pros alike. Users can choose from a rolodex of beats already available to use on the app, rap over them for 60 seconds, and then post the video to a “TikTok-style feed” where fellow Bars users can watch it and mark it as “fire” if they like it. Bars reportedly offers “studio quality vocal effects,” including everybody’s favorite AutoTune feature, too. Those in need of a creative boost should be pretty pleased with Bars because it ...
Freddie Gibbs Covers Gil Scott-Heron’s “Winter in America”: Stream
Gary, Indiana rapper Freddie Gibbs has released a cover of influential poet Gil Scott-Heron’s 1975 song, “Winter in America”. Check out the song below. Shining a light on American colonialism, the absence of democracy, and racism, “Winter in America” first appeared on Gil Scott-Heron, Brian Jackson, and the Midnight Band’s 1975 album, The First Minute of a New Day. In his version, Gibbs pays tribute to Scott-Heron by singing in a spoken-word flow. Unfortunately, the lyrics are just as applicable today as they were 45 years ago. “Just like the cities staggered on the coastline / In a nation that can’t take much more,” he croons. “Like the forest buried underneath the highway / Never had a chance to grow.” “Winter In America” appears on Black History Always – Music For The Movement Vol. 2, t...
How to Watch D’Angelo & Friends ‘Verzuz’
It remains to be seen who D’Angelo’s “Friends” are, and whether they’ll be battling against D’Angelo or just performing alongside him, so tune in Saturday to find out. D’Angelo’s most recent album, 2014’s Black Messiah, peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200. His highest-charting Hot 100 hit, “Lady,” stands as his lone top 10, having hit No. 10 on March 30, 1996. You can watch it all go down Saturday night, Feb. 27, at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on VerzuzTV’s Instagram Live and Apple Music. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing...
Pop Smoke’s Posthumous ‘Boogie’ Track ‘AP’ Is Here: Stream It Now
Pop Smoke will make a posthumous acting debut in the film Boogie, Eddie Huang’s coming-of-age story of Queens basketball prodigy Alfred “Boogie” Chin, in which the rapper plays on-court rival Monk. The Brooklyn native also has a song on the soundtrack, “AP,” which dropped at midnight and can be streamed in full below. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet revenue.
Posthumous Pop Smoke Single “AP” from Eddie Huang’s Boogie Soundtrack Released: Stream
Late Brooklyn drill rapper Pop Smoke’s new posthumous single, “AP”, is here. The track was co-produced by his frequent collaborators 808 Melo and Rico Beats along with Jaycen Joshua. It appears on the soundtrack to the Pop Smoke-co-starring Boogie, Eddie Huang’s feature directorial debut. A recent string of posthumous hits — including “Mood Swings”, “For the Night”, and “What You Know Bout Love” — have revealed Pop Smoke’s softer side, but “AP” is a return to his signature, hard-hitting style. On the track, the Canarsie native reminds enemies he won’t be caught without a gun. “I’m with bae eatin’ steak dinner/ Just know he got a K with him,” he raps. “If I run down, it’s a drum round/ All you gonna hear is gun sounds.” Check out the song below. Boogie marks Pop Smoke’s posthumous acting de...
Kanye West Spent Millions of His Own Money on Presidential Campaign
A snapshot of West’s contributors’ professions provides some insight into the citizens backing his campaign. More than one third — 1,191 — self-identified as students, pitching in $60 to $4,220. More than 20% identified as self-employed and nearly 11% as not-employed. The majority of West’s campaign funds went to “ballot access” services and consulting. After entering the race in July, missing numerous deadlines to appear on state ballots, West qualified for ballot access in 12 states: Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and Vermont. His second largest single expense of $918,130 went to Los Angeles Apparel for campaign apparel. West managed to earn 66,636 total votes for about 0.04...
Noname Releases New Single “Rainforest” featuring Adam Ness: Stream
Barely five years after releasing her debut mixtape, Noname is gearing up to drop what may be her last album ever, Factory Baby. Today, she’s teasing its release by sharing a new single called “Rainforest” featuring fellow Chicago rapper Adam Ness. Stream it below. Clocking in just under three minutes in length, “Rainforest” is the latest track to showcase Noname’s unique mellow flow and her penchant for slick retro-themed beats. While the hook is seemingly a forlorn take on trust in relationships (“How you get closer to love?/ How you lemonade all your sadness when you opening up?”) the rest of the song concerns itself with the realities of hustle culture, the environmental ignorance of greed, and the intersection of capitalism and race. Noname is one of the few modern rappers to imbue he...
Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats Connect with Joey Bada$$ and The Alchemist on “‘Cosmic’.m4a” Remix: Stream
Last week, Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats announced UNLOCKED 1.5, a reimagining of last year’s UNLOCKED EP. Today, the duo has shared producer The Alchemist’s take on “‘Cosmic’.m4a” featuring Joey Bada$$. Stream it below. Due out March 5th, UNLOCKED 1.5 is described as “a brand new release inspired by Denzel and Kenny’s original.” Additional remixes are produced by Charlie Heat, Jay Versace, Sango, GODMODE, and Georgia Anne Muldrow, with new verses from recent Artist of the Month Arlo Parks, Benny the Butcher, Kenny Mason, and more. Alongside the EP announcement, Denzel and Kenny shared Robert Glasper’s version of “So.Incredible.pkg”, which includes a guest verse from Smino. Pre-saves for UNLOCKED 1.5 are live now. Related You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are ...
C. Tangana’s ‘El Madrileño’ Trades Trends for Edgy Collaborations and Spanish Soul
One of my favorite tracks is “Cambia!,” featuring two up-and-coming regional Mexican stars: Adriel Favela and Carin León. I discovered Adriel Favela with his [2018 song] “La Escuela No Me Gustó,” which introduced me to corridos. I have many Mexican friends and they told me about the new trend with young acts doing more urban corrido. And during a trip to Mexico, I heard Carín León on the radio, and his melodies reminded me of ’90s Spanish pop act Andy y Lucas. Then, one night in Madrid, we began writing a corrido, I sent the demo to Adriel on my phone, and he heard it while he was on the touring bus with his musicians. Half-hour later, he sent me a video of all of them singing and playing the song. When I saw that reaction, I made the move to call Carin and also ask him to be o...
