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Texas Church Twists Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton into Bible-Thumping Homophobic Screed
A Texas church’s unauthorized production of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton has drawn widespread criticism and a cease-and-desist letter for shoehorning in several references to Jesus as well as a homophobic screed that compares being gay to being addicted to drugs. This attempt to put some rap into the rapture was first reported by OnStage Blog, with more details provided by The Washington Post and The Dallas Morning News. On Friday, August 5th, The Door McAllen church livestreamed a never-before-seen take on Hamilton, with plenty of lyrics that would have surprised, if not the Creator, then at least the show’s creator, Miranda. Now-iconic lyrics such as, “What is a legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see/ I wrote some notes at the beginnin...
Austin City Limits Reveals Season 48 Lineup, Watch Japanese Breakfast Perform “Posing for Cars”: Exclusive
PBS’ long-running live music series Austin City Limits is set to return with the first half of Season 48 this fall. In addition to announcing the show’s lineup of performers, ACL has today teased the new season with an exclusive performance from Japanese Breakfast. The first of seven fresh Austin City Limits installments will debut on October 1st at 8:00 p.m. CT/9:00 p.m. ET with an episode headlined by Brandi Carlile. New hour-long episodes will then drop weekly, with guests including Japanese Breakfast and Arlo Parks (October 8th), Sylvan Esso and Lucius (October 15th), Allison Russell and The Weather Station (October 22nd), Parker McCollum and Robert Earl Keen (October 29th), and Lyle Lovett and His Large Band (November 5th). Season 48 part one will close with Cuban funk sensations...
Pete Davidson in Trauma Therapy Following Harassment from Kanye West: Report
Pete Davidson is reportedly in trauma therapy following the belligerent online harassment he experienced at the hands of Kanye West. A source told People that Davidson began seeking help in April of this year “in large part” due to the rapper’s consistent verbal and physical threats against him, sparked by the Saturday Night Live alum’s romantic relationship with West’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian: “The attention and negativity coming from Kanye and his antics is a trigger for [Davidson], and he’s had to seek out help,” the source added. In addition to his social media tirades, West also encouraged his fans to publicly harass Davidson, and even released music videos that depicted him decapitatating, skinning, and burying the comedian alive. After nine month of dating, h...
Makin’ Tracks: Miranda Lambert Navigates a Pandemic-Era House of Mirrors in ‘Strange’
It’s a little early to be thinking about trick-or-treaters, but Miranda Lambert’s “Strange” is perhaps a good soundtrack for ultra-organized planners considering this year’s Halloween costume. “It does sound like this creepy carnival in a cool way,” she says with a laugh. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “Strange” is a reaction to the pandemic, an out-of-balance period in American life that threw the population into uncertainty, battling a creepy virus that — particularly in its infancy — was novel and dangerous. Lest we forget how odd it was, Lambert and her co-writers, Luke Dick (“Burning Man,” “Don’t Come Lookin’”) and Natalie Hemby (“Heartache Medication,” “Pontoon”), wrote “Strange” at Lambert’s Tennessee farm in 2020, when vaccines...
Beyoncé Triples Up Atop Artist 100, Hot 100 & Billboard 200 Charts for First Time
Beyoncé triples up at No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100, Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200 charts (dated Aug. 13), ruling as the top musical act with both the No. 1 song and album in the U.S. for the first time. Beyoncé tops the Artist 100 for the first time, dating to the chart’s 2014 launch, thanks to her new LP Renaissance. The LP launches as the superstar’s seventh No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, with 332,000 equivalent album units earned in the July 29-Aug. 4 tracking week, according to Luminate. The set scores the second-largest weekly total for an album this year, after the opening week of Harry Styles’ Harry’s House (521,000) in June. It’s also the first album by a woman released in 2022 to rule the chart. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest vi...
Grupo Firme Set for Latin Music Week 2022 in Miami
Grupo Firme is confirmed for the 2022 Billboard Latin Music Week, set to take place Sept. 26-30 at the Faena Forum. The regional Mexican supergroup will be participating in one of the various superstar panels taking place during the week in Miami. Founded by Caz in Tijuana, Mexico, in 2013, the group — which straddles the genres of banda and norteño — is comprised of Eduin’s brother Jhonny Caz, Abraham Hernández, Joaquín Ruiz, Christian Gutiérrez, José Rubio and Dylan Camacho. Touring titans, in 2021, the band secured a historic booking at Los Angeles’ 20,000-capacity Staples Center as the first Latin act to perform the most shows in a single calendar year at the venue with seven sold-out concerts this summer. (The only other artist who has done more in one year is Adele, with eight perfor...
100 Weeks of the Billboard Global Charts: The Songs That Never Left
The latest Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts, dated Aug. 13, 2022, mark 100 weeks since the worldwide song lists launched in September 2020. This week, we’re celebrating the hits that topped, lingered on, and shaped the surveys throughout their first 100 weeks. Today, we continue with the enduring songs that have lasted all 100 weeks. Becoming a member of the 100-week club on Billboard‘s global charts does not simply require longevity – timing matters, too. Some of the longest running No. 1s that we covered yesterday – “Drivers License,” “Stay” and “As It Was,” among them – do not qualify since they were released after the charts launched. Despite never falling off, they have each tallied fewer than 100 weeks (so far …). The songs on the triple-digit-weeks list we...
Madonna Joins Beyoncé on New “Break My Soul” Remix
Madonna has jumped on the latest remix from Beyoncé’s Renaissance LP, “Break My Soul (The Queens Remix).” The song prominently features an interpolation of Madonna’s 1990 hit single “Vogue” and name-drops a bevy of Black artists and ballroom legends. Listen below. Madonna’s original song and video for “Vogue” was a watershed moment for ballroom culture in the mainstream. In the new remix, Beyoncé calls out several ballroom houses, including the House of Aviance; she samples Kevin Aviance’s 1996 single “Cunty” on the Renaissance track “Pure/Honey.” Beyoncé released Renaissance late last month; she’s already edited two songs in response to controversies over credits and ableist language. Earlier this week, she shared a “Break My Soul” remix by Honey Dijon. Check out “Catching Up With M...
Rae Sremmurd’s Slim Jxmmi Arrested at LAX, Lawyer Blames “Miscommunication”
Rae Sremmurd’s Slim Jxmmi was arrested at LAX on Sunday when border agents found a warrant for his arrest in Georgia, as TMZ originally reported. Slim Jxmmi’s lawyer, Steve Sadow, tells Pitchfork the warrant has in fact been dismissed and blamed a “miscommunication” between law departments. The warrant pertained to an earlier arrest for marijuana possession with intent to sell. In that case, Slim Jxmmi had entered a plea in Cobb County, Georgia, and received five years’ probation, court documents show. In January, Slim Jxmmi was arrested for misdemeanor battery after a domestic violence report by his girlfriend, but the case was dropped when she recanted her testimony the following month. In June, Sadow says in a statement that “someone filed an untruthful complaint [about [Sli...
Motown Legend Lamont Dozier Dies at 81
Lamont Dozier, an all-time great pop hitmaker who supplied endless classics to Motown in the 1960s with the production team Holland-Dozier-Holland, has died, his son Lamont Dozier, Jr., said on social media. No cause of death was given. Dozier was 81. Born in Detroit in 1941, Dozier was raised by his churchgoing grandmother, grew up listening to Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals and Nat King Cole, and made his first record aged 15 with a group called the Romeos. The following year, Motown boss Berry Gordy approached him, eventually bringing him in-house as a hitmaker. He formed a production team with Brian and Eddie Holland, arriving in the studio at 9 a.m. and working until the early hours. “It was blood, sweat and tears,” he told The Guardian in 2015. “We pounded on the piano ...
HHW Gaming: Microsoft Unveils Its First-Ever “Singing Xbox Controller”
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Xbox / Xbox singing controller Did you ever want your controller to sing to you? Well, your wish has come true thanks to the singing Xbox controller. Microsoft has teamed up with Interscope Records, DJ benny blanco, K-Pop band BTS and rapper/actor/gamer Snoop Dogg to celebrate the release of their new single “Bad Decisions” with its first-ever singing Xbox controller. Related Stories The controller’s frame is decked out in red with white thumbsticks, D-PAD, and a speaker on the back right below the battery cover. “Bad Decisions” plus the artists’ names are also written in white on the front of the controller. With a button press, “Bad Decisions” will play through the controller’s speaker. The controller will surely stand out among your collection and will...
Kanye West Mourns “Skete” After End Of Kim Kardashian & Pete Davidson Union
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Gilbert Carrasquillo / Getty Kanye West hasn’t shown much in the way of grace towards his ex-wife Kim Kardashian and boyfriend Pete Davidson, and that streak continues after the end of the celebrity union. Ye took to Instagram and delivered his thoughts on the conclusion of Kardashian and Davidson’s romance in an extremely petty way. Taking to Instagram, Kanye West AKA Ye shared an image of a doctored New York Times newspaper issue with the breaking headline reading, “Skete Davidson Dead At The Age Of 28” which was posted in the early morning hours of August 8. Related Stories In small print below the larger headline, Kid Cudi caught an unfortunate stray. As so might know, the Cleveland star recently performed in Kanye’s stead at Rolling Loud Miami and wa...
