Winning a TV award doesn’t christen me successful. It took me some time to learn that. I bought all my masters back last year in the prime of my career, that’s successful. 'Blonde' sold a million plus without a label, that’s successful. I am young, black, gifted and independent. | | | | | The queen of the Grammys leans back. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images) | | | | | | “Winning a TV award doesn’t christen me successful. It took me some time to learn that. I bought all my masters back last year in the prime of my career, that’s successful. 'Blonde' sold a million plus without a label, that’s successful. I am young, black, gifted and independent.”
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| | rantnrave:// Hello. Are you kidding me?... GRAMMY thinkpiece #1: Wrong. But not ADELE's fault... #2: Technically, BEYONCÉ still won... #3: The tone-deafness of RECORDING ACADEMY president NEIL PORTNOW singling out "AMERICAN" music in his annual lobbying speech (what about Grammy winner VICENTE FERNÁNDEZ? Or CHUCHO VALDÉS? Or FLUME?), followed by the tone-deafness of his own academy snubbing one very particular American artist... #4: They could've ended the show after the first words host JAMES CORDEN spoke: "Stop! Stop! Stop it! I said stop! This is a disaster!"... Facts: Last black artist to win Album of the Year: HERBIE HANCOCK (2008). Last black woman to win: LAURYN HILL (1999). The three artists who have beat Beyoncé for it: TAYLOR SWIFT, BECK, Adele... I'm tired... It's late night, and not confident I'm going to be able to put this in the proper cultural perspective. So I'll just note this: This awkward (and in many ways painful) choice in crowning the year's best album continues a long-running pattern from an industry that's largely based on the coasts, so no blaming the rest of the country for this one... That all said (sort of): Props to Beyoncé for a next-level performance of "LOVE DROUGHT" and "SANDCASTLES," which was so much deeper, crazier and more ambitious than any other live event on TV this year that you could start compensating her by giving her an EMMY... And for the night's most beautiful speech... And for surprise-dropping a single with JAY Z and DJ KHALED during the ceremony... Props to Adele for her final speech ("I can't possibly accept this award... The LEMONADE album was just so monumental"), and for breaking her Album of the Year trophy afterward (unclear if it was on purpose or not)... A TRIBE CALLED QUEST were angry, political and great; KATY PERRY weird, political and almost great; CHANCE THE RAPPER gospelly and great... Doubling down on Beyoncé and the DIXIE CHICKS' controversial CMA AWARDS collaboration, the Grammys offered stellar pairings of MAREN MORRIS and ALICIA KEYS, and STURGILL SIMPSON and the DAP-KINGS... BRUNO MARS is a flawless performer... LADY GAGA was the best part of GAGATALLICA... Chance the Rapper's three Grammys, including Best New Artist, are a big win for indie music, and his shoutouts to "DJ DRAMA for doing it first" and "SOUNDCLOUD for holding me down" were nicely on point. But no shoutout to APPLE?... DAVID BOWIE won four Grammys. He won one when he was alive... Over the course of three decades, AL JARREAU, who died Sunday, won jazz, pop and R&B Grammys, and was as comfortable scatting with a jazz band as cutting a breezy studio pop single. If pure joy were a Grammy category, he would've won more... RIP also: NICOLAI GEDDA and HARVEY LICHTENSTEIN. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| The most infamous ticket scalper of all time used bots to buy millions of tickets. Now he wants to stop them. | | |
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| Company wants to show internet exposure can outdo radio play. | | |
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| The British singer swept the top awards of the night after a performance mishap as A Tribute Called Quest and Busta Rhymes called out ‘President Agent Orange.' | | |
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| As in almost every show in this volatile awards season, political protest was all over the Grammys this year. >From subtle and poised to outraged and esoteric, resistance came from artists of all genres and will likely be a major part of what this contentious Grammy ceremony will be remembered for. | | |
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| "Type Beat" producers mimic other artists and game YouTube for a modest living. What do you do after that? | | |
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| Kurt Bardella, a former Republican congressional aide who is now a public relations consultant and skeptic of President Trump, has started The Morning Hangover Tipsheet. | | |
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| In an era of “alternative facts,” music lovers might seek out new sources of truth. | | |
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| We gathered the players behind this classic to share its secret history with us. Featuring Bill Adler, Bill Stephney, Eric Haze, Hank Shocklee + Chuck D. | | |
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| Mr. Jarreau blurred the lines between jazz, soul and pop and was called the “Acrobat of Scat.” | | |
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| Unlike every other platform that delivers music to fans, legacy FM stations never pay a cent to the musicians who perform the songs they use on the air. | | |
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| Musician, Hollywood producer, designer, inventor - Pharrell Williams is a restless polymath. Sasha Frere-Jones asks if this is a star looking for a life beyond music. | | |
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| Five creatives discuss the role art - and black art in particular - can play in unsettling times. | | |
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| That Beyoncé didn’t win Album of the Year is inexcusable on its own. That only 10 black artists ever have won the award is insane-as insane as Sunday’s ceremony was painful. | | |
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| Jazz Great Charlie Haden's social justice legacy lives on in each of the members of his band. | | |
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| Five years after the Grammys stopped recognizing zydeco music, how is the Gulf Coast genre faring? | | |
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| When Colin Hanks approached members of Eagles of Death Metal with the idea of directing a documentary about their harrowing experience in Paris -- the band was onstage at the Bataclan theater in 2015 when terrorists burst in and killed 89 concertgoers -- drummer Josh Homme’s first response was to warn him off. | | |
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| In the 19th century, critics and audiences thought blacks were incapable of singing as well as their white, European counterparts. Greenfield forced them to reconcile their ears with their racism. | | |
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| Older musicians got the Grammy nod this year for best Latin jazz album. But the real excitement is brewing in emerging corners of the genre. | | |
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| David Axelrod was a genre-fusing genius, a visionary artist in a boxer's body, a producer and composer who propelled popular music into an unknown future. | | |
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| Five years after her death, we remember and honor a legend. | | |
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| | | | | | | Live on German TV, 1976. RIP. |
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| © Copyright 2017, The REDEF Group |
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