NEWS
Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon Set to Play Central Park Homecoming Concert
Bruce Springsteen and Paul Simon will be headlining New York City’s “homecoming concert” this summer in Central Park. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the outdoor event, which is being booked by none other than Clive Davis, today during video press conference. Jennifer Hudson will serve as another of the show’s headlining act, with several more performers still to be announced. “This is going to be one of the greatest Central Park concerts in history,” the mayor said during his remarks. “This is something for the ages.” Related Video The event will take place this summer at Central Park’s Great Lawn to celebrate the city’s re-opening following the COVID-19 pandemic. An official date for the concert has yet to be announced. Mayor De Blasio previously said he envisioned a three-hour concert fo...
Bessemer Trust Requests to Withdraw as Co-Conservator of Britney Spears’ Estate
Bessemer Trust has officially requested to discontinue its role as co-conservator over Britney Spears’ estate amidst the pop star’s ongoing fight to end the conservatorship that has governed her life for the last 13 years. The wealth management company, which was appointed to serve alongside the icon’s father Jamie Spears in the fall of 2020, filed the motion on July 1st citing “changed circumstances” surrounding the conservatorship, according to The New York Times. “As a result of the conservatee’s testimony at the June 23 hearing, however, the Petitioner has become aware that the Conservatee objects to the continuance of her Conservatorship and desires to terminate the conservatorship,” the company wrote in its filing. “Petitioner has heard the Conservatee and respects her wishes.” ...
Nandi Bushell and Matt Helders Cover Arctic Monkeys’ ‘R U Mine?’ and ‘Brianstorm’
The internet’s new favorite pair, 11-year old Nandi Bushell and the band’s drummer, Matt Helders, are back with part two of their four-part collaboration, taking on “R U Mine?” from Arctic Monkeys’ 2013 album, AM and “Brainstorm” with both on their respective drumkits. Bushell shared both clips to her social media, writing “Matt Helders came to my house for a cup of Tea and a Jam with me.” For “R U Mine?” Helders used Bushell’s drumkit labeled with “Peace, Respect, Love” while his sat in the background. Meanwhile, Bushell hopped on guitar, crushing through the song and its riffs. [embedded content] Both musicians kept their game faces on for “Brianstorm,” which you can watch below. [embedded content] Bushell shared in the caption that an interview with the seasoned Arctic Monkeys member is...
Tenacious D Drop Beatles Medley Single to Benefit Doctors Without Borders
Tenacious D, the rock comedy duo manned by Jack Black and Kyle Gass, started July with a rambunctious tribute, a medley of two classics by The Beatles, “You Never Give Me Your Money” and “The End.” “Tenacious D are paying tribute to the greatest band in the world…not themselves…The Beatles!!! In the spirit of healing the world….please enjoy tenacious d’s mashup of two classics from Abbey Road,” the band says of the release. It arrived on Thursday with a music video where Black and Gass travel to London, sing atop mountains, and dance on the beach. They basically take you on the ideal vacation… besides those 15 seconds of chaos. You’ll see. See Tenacious D in their stylish outfits, and lack thereof, in the “You Never Give Me Your Money / The End” music video below. [embedded ...
Bryan St. Pere, Hum Drummer, Dies at 52
Bryan St. Pere, the drummer for ’90s favorites Hum, has died at the age of 52. The band confirmed the news of St. Pere’s passing in a statement on their social media platforms. St. Pere joined the Champaign, Illinois-based band in 1990 and performed on the band’s cult single “Stars” prior to the band’s breakup in 2000. St. Pere didn’t rejoin the band for their 2015 reunion tour, but he featured on the band’s surprise 2020 album, Inlet, which landed on our list of the best albums of 2020 (so far) and was their first album in 22 years. According to the band, the death was sudden. Here’s the full statement from the band and the social media post where they announced the news: It is with very heavy hearts and tear filled eyes that we share the news that our beloved friend and bandmate, Bryan S...
Wilson Launches “Bonded By Ball” Campaign With Dreamville On Sound
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Wilson / Wilson Wilson is now the official game ball of the NBA, as well as the WNBA, NBA 2K League, NBA G League, Jr. NBA, BAL, NCAA and FIBA 3×3. The brand just launched a new campaign called “Bonded By Ball” that features J. Cole’s Dreamville holding down the sound direction. The 60-second spot drills down the brand’s focus on the family bonds that basketball sparks locally and globally, and features a number of familiar faces who are also Wilson Advisory Staff members. They include star hoopers from the WNBA—Liz Cambage (Las Vegas Aces) and Kysre Gondrezick (Indiana Fever)—and the NBA—Jamal Murray (Denver Nuggets) and Trae Young (Atlanta Hawks). Also seen in the spot is renowned basketball skills coach Chris Brickley while other fellow Wilson Advisory...
Lil Nas X Responds To Benzino Criticism of His BET Awards Performance
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Rich Fury / Getty Just when it seemed like Benzino’s days of getting into squabbles with other rappers was over, the Made Man went and joined in on the criticism Lil Nas X was getting for his BET Awards performance. Taking issue with X’s live rendition of “Call Me By Your Name,” and took to IG in a since deleted post saying “That sh*t BET pulled yesterday was lame asf.” He went on to add “It was too uncomfortable, too irresponsible, too forced and too irrelevant to the awards. Homie ain’t even hot like that for music anymore anyway. It’s a shame what all this is comming too. I wish I has the backing to bring the Source Awards back.” Though Benzino did express his “respect and love for the gay community,” he questioned how parents are supposed to explain w...
Keith Sweat & Bobby Brown Will Have VERZUZ Battle At 2021 ESSENCE Festival
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Johnny Louis / Getty Among the R&B giants living today, both Keith Sweat and Bobby Brown have enough hit records between them to go head to head and that opportunity is now presenting itself in epic fashion. The Triple OG vocalists will take on one another at the 2021 ESSENCE Music Festival in a special edition of VERZUZ later on Thursday (July 1). The announcement was made earlier in the week just as a recent VERZUZ event between Soulja Boy and Bow Wow recently concluded. This year’s ESSENCE, presented by Coca-Cola, launched on June 25 and totally virtual due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. VERZUZ, one of the many vital creative properties to emerge from the worldwide lockdown, has shown and proven that the digital broadcast format is a viable e...
Photographer Calls Out Quavo For Jacking Her Photo & Not Properly Crediting Her
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Bernard Smalls / @PhotosByBeanz83 Photography can be very rewarding, but most of the time, it’s a thankless job. One photographer took to Twitter to express that, and it opened the flood gates. Breanna Seward, 25, is a woman of many talents. She is a multimedia artist, licensed aesthetician, and photographer whose work has been featured on sites like HelloBeautiful (part of the iOne Digital network), BuzzFeed, and Allure Magazine. She took to Twitter this week to share a story about the time she took a photo of Migos member Quavo back in 2019 that he liked so much that he had time to take off her page and repost but didn’t give her credit for. In the tweet’s caption that included a screenshot of the Instagram post, she wrote, “I wonder how many book...
City of Denver Claps Back After Red Rocks Petition Picks Up Steam
Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado has hosted thousands of iconic bands and musicians for more than 80 years. It’s no secret that the venue remains one of the most beloved in the world, but after its proprietors introduced new headphone technology—which allows attendees to live music delivered directly from the soundboard—Red Rocks received an overwhelming amount of backlash. Fans were not happy with the prospect of potentially needing headphones to hear the music when attending a concert in some of the amphitheatre’s upper rows. This led many to believe that the sound ordinances for the venue had changed, due to complaints from nearby residents. Following the launch of a fan-led petition to eradicate sound limitations, the City of Denver has ...
Blood Orange’s “Born to Be” Soundtracks Trailer for Netflix’s Beckett: Watch
Netflix has unveiled a first look at its upcoming action movie Beckett, and the tense teaser is soundtracked by a brand-new song by Blood Orange. Starring John David Washington, the thriller tells the story of an American tourist in Greece who becomes the center of a dark political conspiracy after his girlfriend mysteriously disappears. As the couple’s car careens over a cliff and Washington’s Beckett wakes up in a hospital with more questions than answers, the atmospheric track “Born to Be” plays on top of the clip. “Not a soul will take my breath,” Blood Orange croons as the Greek police turn on Beckett and he finds himself on the run for his life. A figure at the American embassy says, “I know you’re scared, I get it. But you don’t have the whole picture,” leading Beckett to ask, “Then...
At the Gates Open the Door to Experimentation on The Nightmare of Being: Review
The Lowdown: Swedish death metal giants At the Gates made one of heavy music’s most influential albums – 1995’s Slaughter of the Soul, which had a huge influence on the wave of American metalcore that followed it. In 2014, the band returned after a long hiatus, and have since delivered two respectable albums that mostly follow the template that they created in the ’90s. Their latest effort, The Nightmare of Being, bucks that trend in favor of wild experimentation. The Good: While Slaughter of the Soul solidified the melodic death metal template — Iron Maiden riffs over thrash beats filtered through the famed Swedish Buzzsaw guitar tone, with a little industrial here and there to spice things up — in some ways it ended that genre’s period of vast exploration. The irony is that At the Gates’...
