There's a certain target group that wants to be global and international: to go for McDonald's and pizza rather than for local food. Spotify will serve them, I guess, but we have a different approach. We're very local. | | | | Wayne Shorter at the Town & Country Club, London, April 1987.
(Fin Costello/Redferns/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | "There's a certain target group that wants to be global and international: to go for McDonald's and pizza rather than for local food. Spotify will serve them, I guess, but we have a different approach. We're very local."
| | | | | | rantnrave:// We'll start today with this astoundingly ill-timed signing announcement by R. KELLY's label (your periodic reminder: R. Kelly still has a label deal). It's a deal with a certain pop star who is not R. Kelly but who has collaborated with him in the not-too-distant past. It was announced the day the first episodes of SURVIVING R. KELLY premiered on LIFETIME, as if to distract from the awful publicity the label knew was coming with some not-quite-as-awful-but-still-kinda-awful publicity. The announcement is rosy, noting the artist's charity work and how the new deal will continue a "successful, intensely creative relationship between him and his partners" at the label. There is much that is not mentioned, which would make the announcement sound a whole lot less rosy, and timely, and appropriate... As for Kelly, has the Lifetime series changed the conversation around music's most notorious (alleged) predator and made it impossible, finally, for anyone in polite society to work with him, co-sign him or remain silent about him? It's not as if it was OK to be performing with and recording with Kelly in 2014-15, when CHANCE THE RAPPER was doing just that, but if it took six hours of women testifying on television about what exactly Kelly did to them (and, crucially, describing how it felt) to make Chance the Rapper finally understand that, then thank you, Lifetime. We don't know much now that we didn't know last week or last year, except this: We know we can no longer ignore all that we know. March 2002 was a little too late for JAY-Z to be releasing a joint album with Kelly, and 2013 was way too late for LADY GAGA to be collaborating with him, but for the first time I feel confident in saying they'll come around to understanding and acknowledging their mistakes soon enough, too. Eighteen days ago was ridiculously late for B2K to be announcing a reunion tour that would spotlight the R. Kelly productions the group is best known for, and I'm not sure we should be applauding the group's frontman, OMARION, for acknowledging on Monday that it's no longer cool to be playing them live and therefore he will officially retire them—"after the tour." "We need more," said the beautifully understated headline atop HAZEL CILLS' essay for the MUSE, from "famous men." The WASHINGTON POST's excellent rock critic CHRIS RICHARDS did a nice job Monday addressing the shortcomings of his own writing about Kelly over the years, which began, in 2007, with this note from his female editor: "Should we be doing this?" That's a question more people should have been asking themselves over the years and that more people, including Richards, including me, could have and should have answered differently at one time or another. The time for hedging, if ever there was one, is up. MusicSET: "Surviving, Discussing and Muting R. Kelly"... Also, now would be a good time for DRAKE to offer more than a "no comment" on this... RIP to two major behind-the-scenes figures: ALAN R. PEARLMAN and HOWELL BEGLE.
| | | - Matty Karas, curator | | | |  | REDEF | | Has the explosive Lifetime series "Surviving R. Kelly" finally changed the conversation about music's most notorious (alleged) predator? After two decades of whispers, accusations and investigations, is silence no longer an option? Is his time finally up? | | | |  | Complex | | Silentó, Trinidad James, Zack Fox, and Tisakorean break down what it's like for an artist to go viral, and move past it. | | | |  | NewMusicBox | | My experience as a transgender nonbinary singer has led me to question the effectiveness of the voice type classifications that we currently have in place. | | | |  | MusicAlly | | Music-streaming service Deezer ended 2018 with seven million subscribers: half of its 14 million monthly active users. Its CEO revealed the figure. | | | | | Complex | | From André 3000 to Jay-Z, these are the rappers who reigned from 2000 to 2009. | | | |  | Billboard | | A look at the New York label's most transformative decades as 2019 marks its 80th anniversary. | | | |  | Trench | | Tom will forever be our G. | | | |  | Pitchfork | | A decade after its release, the experimental pop group's mesmerizing pinnacle remains in a class all by itself. | | | |  | XXL | | Vic Mensa chops it up with XXL about his activist efforts, his infamous 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards cypher and rap's treatment of women. | | | |  | Innovating Music | | Stephen White shared his journey from Madison, WI, to various ventures combining music, communities, DJing, and tech, which led him to Gracenote and now Dubset and MixBANK. He shared his observations on early streaming and in shifting from one type of B2B model to another. | | | |  | Longreads | | Lauren DePino looks back at her ambitions as a singer, and re-evaluates the rejections she once allowed to define her. | | | |  | Variety | | The curiously timed announcement arrived during the airing of "Surviving R. Kelly," a three-part Lifetime documentary in which multiple women accuse the singer, who is also a longtime RCA recording artist, of sexual assault and misconduct. | | | |  | The Creative Independent | | Musician and activist Joan Baez on why denial can be healthy, letting things go, and pointing people in the right direction. | | | |  | ABC News (Australia) | | With the technology reaching a tipping point, several companies are clamouring -- sometimes by way of the courts -- to create a hologram performance that can be as engaging as a human one. | | | |  | Highsnobiety | | Tame Impala's upcoming headlining slot at Coachella caps what's been a whirlwind evolution for Kevin Parker and his mark on music. | | | |  | She Shreds | | Women are, and have always been, an indispensable part of the Jam Band scene. | | | |  | Music Industry Blog | | Apple's downgraded earnings guidance represents its first profit warning in 10 years. This is clearly a big deal, and probably not as much to do with a weakening Chinese economy if Alibaba's 2018 Singles' Day annual growth of 23% is anything to go by. But it does not indicate Apple is about to do a Nokia and quickly become an also-ran in the smartphone business. | | | |  | Noisey | | In a world of algorithms, angry old music fans and no more HMV, what exactly draws the next generation to their new, favorite artists? | | | |  | Bandcamp Daily | | For Kelsie Hogue, pop is the place to bring together her theatrical background, her interest in sound engineering, and her sense of humor. | | | |  | The New York Times | | Mr. Begle's efforts on behalf of performers like Ruth Brown led to royalty reform and the creation of the charitable Rhythm and Blues Foundation. | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | | | | New Hampshire bubblegum. From "Crush on Me," out Feb. 15 on Father/Daughter Records. | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2019, The REDEF Group | | |
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