music blog
Stormzy Makes Epic Solo Return in Three Years With New Track “Mel Made Me Do It”
Stormzy has made an epic return with his first solo project in almost three years. The UK grime rapper is ready to make his legendary status known and he is holding nothing back in his announcement to the world. Returning with a new single, “Mel Made Me Do It,” a seven-minute track accompanied by a 10-minute music video, the release hits all the right notes and stands out as one of the most-anticipated comebacks this year. The track already stands out with its progressive beats and minimalistic instrumentals that accompany Stormzy’s striking lyrics and vicious flow, however, a guest verse from Stylo G and a hard-hitting monologue by Wretch 32, narrated by actress Michaela Coel, gives the additional emotional weight for the track, “Today, we speak about foundation/Many great Black influenti...
Lil Nas X Delivers New Song “STAR WALKIN’ (League of Legends Worlds Anthem)”
Lil Nas X is taking his League of Legends presidency to the next level with his new single “STAR WALKIN’ (League of Legends Worlds Anthem).” Clocking in at three-and-a-half minutes, the cut is produced by Cirkut and Omer Fedi and arrives with an accompanying music video featuring the animated landmarks of San Francisco, where the World Final is set to take place. Easter eggs can be found as the visual progresses, ranging from Champions-turned-mechs to fun facts about the pros of LoL. “I’m not really much of a gamer anymore. I haven’t been since a teenager. But for whatever reason, I have a huge gamer fan base, and this is sick for them. Go, them,” the MONTERO artist told Apple Music 1. “Making this song was a lot of fun,” he continued. “I had the verses forever, and it took, no joke, 30 di...
Questlove To Executive Produce J Dilla Documentary ‘Dilla Time’
Questlove and his Two One Five Entertainment are set to executive produce the upcoming J Dilla documentary, Dilla Time. The upcoming docu will be based on Dan Charnas’ book Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, The Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm and will take a deep dive into “the brief life and pervasive and largely uncredited influence of music producer J Dilla,” as well as his influence on modern pop music thanks to his pioneering use of the drum machine. Dilla Time will be “part biography, part musicology, and part musical meditation, featuring insight from some of the most influential and innovative voices of modern music” and will be produced alongside Dilla’s estate, which benefits his two kids, younger brother and mother. The estate and its production company,...
PnB Rock Honored with City Council Resolution in Philadelphia
Philadelphia’s city council has unanimously passed a resolution in honor of the late PnB Rock, as Metro Philadelphia reports. Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson introduced the motion earlier this month, citing his community advocacy against gun violence. The rapper was shot and killed on September 12 at the age of 30. “He definitely represented a generation of young people that need help when it comes to issues of trauma around gun violence, when it comes to the issue of providing them opportunities, but most importantly, making sure they have a voice and a seat at the table,” Johnson said when he introduced the resolution on September 15, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. The musician born Rakim Allen was killed while being robbed at Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles in Los Angeles. He gre...
Stormzy Shares Video for New Song “Mel Made Me Do It”
Stormzy is back with a new song called “Mel Made Me Do It.” The seven-minute single arrives with a nearly 11-minute video directed by the filmmaker KLVDR, which includes cameos from an eclectic cast of characters including track star Usain Bolt, documentarian Louis Theroux, and soccer manager José Mourinho. Check it out below. Stormzy’s sophomore album Heavy Is the Head was released in 2019. The UK rapper released four singles ahead of the full LP: “Vossi Bop,” “Crown,” “Wiley Flow,” and “Own It.” In 2020, he won a BRIT Award and released “Still Disappointed,” a diss track continuing his longstanding feud with fellow grime MC Wiley. Read Pitchfork’s Rising feature “Stormzy: Grime Heavyweight” from 2016. Content This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
Natalia Lafourcade Announces New Album De Todas Las Flores, Shares Title Track
Natalia Lafourcade has announced the release date for her upcoming album. De Todas Las Flores is due out October 28 via Sony Music Entertainment Mexico. The album was produced by Adán Jodorowsky, son of filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky, and includes contributions from Marc Ribot, Emiliano Dorantes, Sebastian Steinberg, Cyril Atef, and more. It is Lafourcade’s first album of completely new material in seven years. Ahead of the full release, the Mexican vocalist has also shared the album’s title track. In a statement, Lafourcade said: I wrote it in 2018, after a romantic breakup. A relationship that began with passion and fireworks, then deteriorated into agony and self-destruction. Sometimes we must experience such moments in order to understand that love is more closely linked to the relatio...
Timbaland and Swizz Beatz Settle Verzuz Lawsuit with Triller
Timbaland and Swizz Beatz have settled their recent lawsuit over Verzuz with the social video platform Triller, which they announced in a press release Thursday evening (September 22). “VERZUZ has always been a platform that is by the artists, for the artists and with the people,” the pair shared in a joint statement, continuing. “We’re glad to come to an amicable agreement with Triller and continue giving fans the music and community that they’ve come to know and love from the brand.” They did not reveal the financial details of the settlement. Swizz Beatz and Timbaland sued Triller for $28 million in mid-August, claiming the company had been negligent with royalty payments throughout 2022. Triller acquired Verzuz in March 2021 after the Instagram-launched series had expanded to simultane...
Dahmer Review: Ryan Murphy’s Serial Killer Drama Puts the Victims First
The Pitch: What often gets lost in the lurid stories of America’s most infamous serial killers is how profoundly they expose the cracks in our democracy. Such is the case for Jeffrey Dahmer (Evan Peters), a lonely and disturbed young man who murdered and dismembered 17 young men between the years of 1978 and 1991. The horrific details of those murders gained Dahmer immediate fame when he was finally arrested in 1991 and eventually sentenced to 16 terms of life imprisonment: this was a necrophiliac, a cannibalistic child molester, a gay man who drugged and killed other gay men at the height of the AIDS epidemic. When the Milwaukee Police Department searched Dahmer’s apartment, they found so many severed body parts that the chief medical examiner described the experience as “more like disman...
Interview With the Vampire Review: AMC Delivers a Proudly Queer Take on the Anne Rice Saga
The Pitch: Vampires are back! Really, our bloodsucking undead brethren never truly go out of style, but it’s been a few years since the sparkly Twilight boom and it’s time for the original kings of the genre to make their way to the forefront. Hence AMC throwing a lot of money behind a lavish adaptation of Anne Rice’s multi-million best-selling gothic saga, The Vampire Chronicles — starting with her most famous work, Interview With the Vampire. The late Rice essentially reinvented the modern vampire, turning them into baroque creatures of sensuality and emotion, and with it, she inspired intense devotion from her fans. It’s no mean feat for any creator to take on this saga for the big or small screen, given that it encompasses hundreds of characters, thousands of years, a total r...
Vince Gilligan’s Next Series to Star Better Call Saul’s Rhea Seehorn
Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul creator Vince Gilligan has landed his next series, and it’s set to star a familiar face: Rhea Seehorn. Described as a blended, grounded genre drama, the currently untitled project has already been picked up for a two-season straight-to-series order from Apple TV+. According to Deadline, the show has been compared to The Twilight Zone. Though it is set in our world, the series is said to be focused on “bending reality and focusing on people and exploring the human condition in an unexpected, surprising way.” Advertisement Related Video Gilligan will serve as showrunner and executive producer through his own High Bridge Productions as part of an overall deal at Sony Pictures Television. The series marks a reunion with Apple heads of worldwide video Zack Van ...
Reservation Dogs Renewed for Season 3
Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi’s FX comedy Reservation Dogs has been renewed for Season 3. The third installment is set to air in 2023, exclusively on Hulu. When it debuted in 2021, Reservation Dogs was the first television series written and directed entirely by Indigenous people. Filmed on location in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, the series follows a group of Native American teenagers (Devery Jacobs, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Paulina Alexis, and Lane Factor) who take to scheming and stealing in order to save up for a trip to California. In its second season, however, that plan began to fall apart. “I couldn’t be more proud of this show that I created with my friend Taika Waititi,” Harjo said in a statement. “It was born out of a conversation in Taika’s kitchen and has now made its way into...
Timbaland & Swizz Beatz Settle ‘Verzuz’ Lawsuit With Triller
Timbaland and Swizz Beatz have settled their $28 million lawsuit against Triller for allegedly failing to pay money owed from the sale of their popular Verzuz livestream series. “VERZUZ has always been a platform that is by the artists, for the artists and with the people,” said Swizz Beatz and Timbaland in a statement. “We’re glad to come to an amicable agreement with Triller and continue giving fans the music and community that they’ve come to know and love from the brand.” Triller, a TikTok-like app that allows users to create and share short videos, announced in March 2021 that it would pay an undisclosed sum in cash and equity to acquire Verzuz, the pandemic-era hit in which two artists square off in a livestreamed music battle. Under the terms of the original deal, the Grammy-w...
