music

Joe Armon-Jones is a musician of many hats — keyboardist, composer, producer, record label owner and member of Ezra Collective — and fresh off the September release of Ezra Collective's Dance, No One's Watching, he's back with his first solo LP in six years: All the Quiet. Spanning 20 tracks, All the Quiet will be released in two installments, with "Part I" touching down on March 28 and "Part II" releasing June 13.As a scholar of dub music, Armon-Jones spent much of the COVID lockdowns in 2020 teaching himself how to use a mixing desk, the same tool used by pioneers of the genre like King Tubby. His passion led him to create an entire at-home setup with everything from reel-to-reel tape machines to spring reverb, and he'd then test out the recordings on the booming Unit 137 sound system in...

Producer and Murder Inc. Records co-founder Irv Gotti has died at 54 years old.The news was confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter, however a cause of death was not revealed. Gotti, whose real name is Irving Domingo Lorenzo Jr., was of Filipino-American descent and was instrumental in creating some of music's biggest hits in the early 2000s. He signed the late DMX in 1997 and oversaw the development of his debut studio album It's Dark and Hell is Hot, as well as worked closely with the likes of superstars Ja Rule and Ashanti. The music exec's career also included producing a track on JAY-Z's Reasonable Doubt, and Ye's "Violent Crimes" and "Brothers."“Def Jam has lost one of its most creative soldiers who was hip-hop,” Lyor Cohen, who worked with Gotti at Murder Inc. Records and currently YouT...

Calling all HBCU and/or college bands — Travis Scott is looking to integrate a marching band element for his Coachella set this April.La Flame put out a call over X (formerly Twitter) and confirmed that it will be for his latest single, "4x4." He tweeted, "Any hbcu or really any college with a band. Big or small. That stand to take on that horn arrangement from 4x4. I’m down to bring u with me to Coachella to do it with me."As a form of gratitude, Scott added that he's willing to pay their tuition for a semester, "And posssibly figuring out a way to take care a semester cause college is hard. But music is fun. :)). Show me something."Scott previously performed "4x4" with a marching band at the College Football Playoff National Championship Halftime Show last month and it seems like he's in...