I’m a young dude from Chicago who grew up with Kanye as my image of hip-hop. Finding your voice in a room where you have to challenge Kanye is scary—but it’s also life-affirming. | | | | Solange performing at SXSW, March 15, 2017.
(Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images) | | | | | | “I’m a young dude from Chicago who grew up with Kanye as my image of hip-hop. Finding your voice in a room where you have to challenge Kanye is scary—but it’s also life-affirming.”
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| | rantnrave:// As you read about how EPIC RECORDS is trying to right its ship after the sudden departure of CEO L.A. REID, you might want to skip over the bits about what this means for the bottom line of a label that had been steadily increasing its market share in recent years, and instead navigate your way to the one-paragraph detour about how a sexual harassment claim by a female assistant "wasn't the first complaint made against Reid over the course of his career." And then you might want to navigate to this VARIETY editorial by JULIE GORDON, a former label and publishing exec and founder of the legendary music-biz message board THE VELVET ROPE, who traces a history of sexual harassment in the business that's so appalling and so not-at-all surprising that you may find yourself asking not why there are so few women in the ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME but rather why any women would want to be anywhere near the place or the industry it purports to represent. Gordon's perfectly understated lede: "I am not convinced that L.A. Reid’s high-profile ouster from SONY MUSIC signals a new era in the music industry, where sexual harassment of women will no longer be tolerated." All of this, it needs to be said, is not necessarily about Reid himself. The allegations against him are unproved. It is, rather, about an industry that preaches liberalism, tolerance and equality but has been consistently slow to act on complaints and allegations against its own ruling class. Then again, the particular ship that needs to be righted at this particular moment is one that Reid captained. So it is about him, too... This week's award for swagger in music media goes to TEEN VOGUE, which got JORDAN PEELE to interview CHANCE THE RAPPER for its music issue and then didn't bother to mention Peele on the cover, in the headline or in its own promo copy. The mag also has an awesome letter from SOLANGE to her teenage self and an essay by KESHA on her eating disorder... It's easy to read BILLBOARD's stories on MILEY CYRUS and LADY GAGA abandoning pop's fringes for its heartland, and country radio giving less airtime to bro-country anthems and more to "weightier songs," as two different but equally valid reactions to the political climate of 2017 AMERICA... A portrait of KENDRICK LAMAR will hang in the US CAPITOL for the next year... Is the possibility of SIRIUS XM buying PANDORA back on the table? The clock, at least, is ticking. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| I am not convinced that L.A. Reid's high-profile ouster from Sony Music signals a new era in the music industry, where sexual harassment of women will no longer be tolerated. Rather, I am assuming that there are many more incidents that Sony must know about, and probably incidents going back to his days in Atlanta, more than 25 years ago. | | |
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| From Joni Mitchell and Fleetwood Mac to Oasis and Air, Pete Paphides enters the upside world of the pop B-side. | | |
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| The rapper and visionary spoke with *Get Out* writer-director Jordan Peele for our Volume II issue. | | |
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| Epic’s fate has been thrown into jeopardy following Reid’s unceremonious exit on May 11 in the wake of a sexual harassment claim made by one of his female assistants, leaving the label’s artists and staff in the lurch. | | |
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| A response to Solange’s A Seat at The Table by t’ai freedom ford. | | |
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| “The Therapist” isn’t perfect, but it offers viewers a careful example of what it looks like to talk to someone about trauma. | | |
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| Taking the viewer through shoe shine parlors, barber shops and packed night clubs, writer Elizabeth Pepin Silva and photographer Lewis Watts offer a glimpse at a bygone jazz era--a time when it seemed as though “the entire neighborhood was a giant multicultural party throbbing with excitement and music.” | | |
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| Fun company culture, or workplace hell? | | |
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| Ineffectual messaging isn’t a crime in the court of public opinion, but when wokeness is your stated aim, thoughtlessness is the result. | | |
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| Right now a pile of Russian bands are producing the most visceral, inventive, wiry, and ecstatic Post-Punk anyone has made in a generation. | | |
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| "I never would've believed you if three years ago you told me I'd be here writing this song," Miley Cyrus sings in one of the most revealing lyrics to new single "Malibu." It's no doubt a true statement for Miley for any number of personal and professional reasons, but for fans, the sentiment will most resound when interpreted musically. | | |
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| For a PBS documentary, contemporary artists recorded music on a re-assembled 1920s lathe. | | |
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| Doing away with the study of musical theory and notation will simply entrench elitism in the music world. | | |
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| Considering the career-spanning leaks of Yeezy. | | |
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| At eighty, pianist Eddie Palmieri still continues to shape Afro-Latin jazz | | |
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| This collection of rock criticism includes thoughts on hazing, lyrics, death and so much more. | | |
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| From N-Trance's "Set You Free" to Alice Deejay's "Better Off Alone," these soldiers guarded and unleashed positivity. But where are they now? | | |
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| Joe Seaton, the DJ and producer better known as Call Super, examines the election's consequences for club culture, and explains how to get involved. | | |
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| In a rare, new Chief Keef interview, the rapper talks about being influenced by Drake, the sound of his 'Thot Breakers' mixtape and passing up on an Apple Music deal. | | |
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| Freetown arts-education center provides former child soldiers and other at-risk youth with an inspiring creative outlet. | | |
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| © Copyright 2017, The REDEF Group |
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