The number one thing they absolutely drill into you as a country artist, and you can ask any other country artist this, is 'Don't be like the Dixie Chicks!' I watched country music snuff that candle out. The most amazing group we had, just because they talked about politics. | | | | Rico Nasty at Afropunk, Brooklyn, NY, Aug. 24, 2019.
(Jason Mendez/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | "The number one thing they absolutely drill into you as a country artist, and you can ask any other country artist this, is 'Don't be like the Dixie Chicks!' I watched country music snuff that candle out. The most amazing group we had, just because they talked about politics."
| | | | | | rantnrave:// "Diversity on this planet is not something to be tolerated; it's something to be celebrated." You're not going to argue with that fairly innocuous (in most circles anyway) liberal sentiment, and KAMASI WASHINGTON, who's saying it out loud to a friendly audience at AFROPUNK BROOKLYN on Sunday night, knows that, but he's going to test your tolerance anyway. The next song, he tells you, is "a piece called 'TRUTH.' You're gonna hear five different melodies at the same time." He's exaggerating, but only slightly. And perhaps you're rethinking how tolerant you are, for just a moment. You don't have to. The long and winding 'Truth,' whose melodies are more consecutive than concurrent, is one of the most cogent and beautiful pieces in the Kamasi Washington songbook, and though there are clear, dark overtones within, it's played tonight—as Afropunk heads toward its conclusion—as pure celebration. This, all of this, is diversity not as argument or political platform, but as pre-existing, inescapable, necessary life force. Diversity is how, and why, culture exists, and it's why some 30,000 people are here at Commodore Barry Park, as they are every year on this second-to-last summer weekend. The music abides. Saturday afternoon is a hip-hop volcano, with RICO NASTY, LEIKELI47 and TIERRA WHACK performing back-to-back on two stages. All three sets are mobbed, and a little insane. Rico Nasty trips up over some lyrics, apparently distracted by a front-row fan in full DAVID BOWIE makeup, and then calls for an all-woman moshpit, which she gets. Tierra Whack opens her set, oddly, at mid-tempo, and singing (one melody at a time), as if to make clear that she's in charge and we'll be obeying her rules now. A few minutes later, ALICIA KEYS is standing next to her, the rapper and singer are serenading each other, and you feel like a coronation has taken place. Deserved. The three of them kind of ruin me for the rest of the day, in the good way. Sunday's two best sets may both be by South African acts. BCUC packs its usual two-hour set into 30 nonstop minutes of what you might call township funk, lead singer ZITHULELE ZABANI NKOSI performing with a frenzy that's half shaman, half rock and roll showman. THANDISWA leads a politically charged band that glides through reggae, funk and various strains of traditional South African music and you should be, and are, dancing. LIANNE LA HAVAS quiets you down with some silky British soul—and a solo electric guitar and vocal take on "I SAY A LITTLE PRAYER" in memory of ARETHA FRANKLIN—but you can't help notice the bleed from HO99O9's hardcore-punk-meets-hip-hop set across the way (hey, the festival *is* called Afropunk), and so you wander over and watch to the end, when the trio destroys its own drum kit. The name is pronounced "Horror." The set is pure id, and great. The last music you and everyone else will see is FKA TWIGS, whose gorgeous, theatrical set is as much a ballet performance as it is anything else. The dance is the expression; the music, performed by players who spend half the set hidden behind a curtain, is the sound design. Over the course of the weekend, nine of 10 people who stepped a little too close to your feet or bumped into you smiled and apologized. You did the same. You were perhaps part of their diversity, and they part of yours... Tonight's MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS is raising diversity arguments with the introduction of a "Best K-Pop" category, which not everyone thinks is a good idea. Giving MISSY ELLIOTT the Video Vanguard Award is a fantastic idea, and if that had anything to do with why Elliott surprise-dropped this EP on Friday, that makes it even more fantastic. The VMAs air at 8 pm ET. ARIANA GRANDE and TAYLOR SWIFT lead with 10 nominations each... It took two days for Swift's LOVER to become the bestselling album of 2019 in the US, with sales of nearly 500,000... "Since Joe writes better songs than you do, the Copyright Act rewards him by letting him decide who gets to use the songs he writes." JOE WALSH (rocker) vs. JOE WALSH (politician), circa 2010... Nuthin' but a MR. POTATO HEAD thang... DAVID BYRNE, who was in the audience at Afropunk this weekend, has just launched REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL, a site he describes as "part magazine, part therapy session, part blueprint for a better world," which does in fact sound like a reason to be cheerful... Someone's been listening to LIZZO, GOLDLINK, LIL NAS X and STEELY DAN this summer and no, you can't vote for him again... Hearts and hugs to EDDIE MONEY... RIP GERALD "BUDDIE" TILLER. | | | - Matty Karas, curator | | | |  | The Undefeated | | From a pop-up museum to a new project to a Vanguard Award to the 18th anniversary of losing Aaliyah, this weekend is an emotional roller-coaster. | | | |  | Yahoo! News | | Trump's role in pushing for Rocky's release started with a reality television megastar calling the West Wing, a mysterious entertainment industry "fixer" and two Trump supporters. They were left angry when Rocky failed to thank Trump or those around him. | | | |  | The Guardian | | The singer spills on feuds, fame, failure - and why she's taking on the president. | | | |  | Music Business Worldwide | | It's not hard to see why lyrics from enduring Death Row standards aren't likely to delight the house of My Little Pony and Power Rangers, so you'd expect Hasbro to offload the rap label to the highest bidder, sharpish. | | | |  | Ultimate Classic Rock | | Package tours, "evening with" performances and even comedians are pushing out rising stars at rock shows. So how will they break through? | | | |  | The New Yorker | | Eilish is speaking directly to a generation of people who, like her, were born either right before or right after 9/11, which means they're intimately familiar with feelings of worry and instability on a macro level, having been born into a war that was broadcast live on television, and grown up in an echo chamber of very bad news. | | | |  | InsideHook | | From Jerry to dancing bears to the Steal Your Face logo, Welch will sell you anything you can dream up. | | | |  | Pollstar | | Once Bob Weir arrives in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains for Lockn', the jam-heavy festival held in Arrington, Va., he sticks around. "He doesn't even travel to a hotel," says Matt Busch, Weir's co-manager. "He just camps on a bus backstage, and he's there." | | | |  | GeekWire | | These Bluetooth headphones from Seattle startup Human are getting mixed reviews for their appearance and their initial starting price of $399. But their unique design, which completely envelops both ears, reflects a vision of the future in which technology will be melded to our bodies, and potentially to our minds. | | | |  | Music Industry Blog | | When consumer income declines or is at risk, discretionary spend is hit first and often hardest. | | | |  | Billboard | | On the morning of July 26, Christian hard-rock band Skillet gave an interview to and performed on Fox News channel's Fox & Friends All-American Summer Concert Series in Midtown Manhattan. For the next few hours, the group was the most-searched act on iTunes -- and preorders for its album "Victorious," due out the following week, doubled. | | | |  | Pitchfork | | The Detroit rapper's case puts the Music Modernization Act under threat. | | | |  | Rolling Stone | | Midland go for a ride in their pink limo to talk new album 'Let It Roll,' the rigors of the road, and country music. | | | | | The New Yorker | | The story behind an obscure and beloved rocksteady recording and a singer who tried to bring worlds together in his music. | | | |  | Aleteia | | As Augustine wrote, "He who sings prays twice." | | | |  | Vulture | | In the music community in which Swift got her start there can be added significance to the practice of highlighting guest performers - it's a nod to forebears; a way of positioning oneself in an ongoing lineage. | | | |  | Los Angeles Times | | The South L.A. native's career-defining video for Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" earned eight nominations at Monday's MTV Video Music Awards. | | | |  | Variety | | Country music has never been known as a bastion of diversity. Even in this era of female empowerment, the genre remains largely a man's world -- make that a white man's world. But things might be improving slowly, in the industry as a whole and, by extension, maybe even with Grammy voters. | | | |  | The Telegraph | | Soundtracking video games is no easy task. Hollywood is flush with iconic, soaring scores but, generally speaking, do not have to dynamically shift and alter to the whims of an unpredictable player. | | | | | Billboard | | Some of these artists, no doubt, have been offered the award. In those cases, MTV is waiting for them to finally say yes. | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2019, The REDEF Group | | |
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