| Our dancefloors have own character. It's not just about going clubbing, it's about showing your position, against police, against corruption, for human rights and freedom. The dancefloor in Ukraine, it's not just a place for having fun. | |  |  | | Ukrainian pop star Monatik performing at Stereo Plaza, Kyiv, Nov. 18, 2016. | | (Alexandr Gusev/LightRocket/Getty Images) | | | | quote of the day | | "Our dancefloors have own character. It's not just about going clubbing, it's about showing your position, against police, against corruption, for human rights and freedom. The dancefloor in Ukraine, it's not just a place for having fun." | | - Bodya Konakov, Ukrainian DJ and label owner | |
| | rantnrave:// | Sweethearts of the Rap Rodeo
There appears to be a small traffic jam on the highway connecting hip-hop to Lower Broadway, starting with the new album by Chicago drill star LIL DURK, whose final track is a duet with a certain Nashville superstar who's spent the past year proving that being held accountable for the things you say is not the same thing as being canceled, unless being canceled includes having the biggest selling album of the year in the US and then walking away with one of the biggest awards at one of your genre's biggest awards shows, as voted on by the people who had supposedly canceled you. My friend MARCUS K. DOWLING, writing in the Tennessean, called "BROADWAY GIRLS" "a musical milestone" when it was released as a single in December—"rap music authentically borrowing from the sounds of country (and not the other way around)." A more measured response from the New Yorker's KELEFA SANNEH: "far from the best song in either guy's catalogue, but it's a great example of the way that musicians and listeners alike sometimes recognize kindred spirits in unlikely places." It blew up on TIKTOK and went to #1 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, while not showing up on the magazine's Country Airplay or Hot Country Songs chart. You're free to draw your own conclusions. Maybe the other guy was temporarily canceled for *this*.
Elsewhere on Lil Durk's album, 7220, which is out today, the vibe is more in tune with his usual work and his collaborators include GUNNA, FUTURE and SUMMER WALKER. (A sobering reminder, meanwhile, of what else is going on in Lil Durk's world, which is no doubt reflected on that album.) But elsewhere in Music City, Tennessee rapper (and EMINEM collaborator) YELAWOLF and Tennessee country scion SHOOTER JENNINGS have teamed up for an entire album under the band name SOMETIMES Y that isn't destined for any hip-hop chart or country chart. It's a straight-up rock album. Yelawolf tells HipHopDX he considered using a pseudonym for the project but Jennings convinced him to stick with his hip-hop name: "He's like, 'If you think about it like a house, you just built another room on the house.'" It's a room covered with rock and roll posters, but hip-hop and country fans have an open invitation.
It's Friday
And that means Jamaican dancehall singer SHENSEEA's first album, ALPHA, is also here, after a year of high-profile collaborations with Kanye West, Rauw Alejandro and Megan Thee Stallion (the memorable NSFW anthem "Lick," whose January release Shenseea celebrated by tweeting, "some of y'all need guidance on how to eat"). It's been a long road to potential overnight stardom, from singing in church when she was 8 to being discovered while working as a bottle service waitress to the Vybz Kartel collab that made her a star at home, where she's now known as the Princess of Dancehall. "What I like about my journey is that I started from the bottom," Shenseea tells Rolling Stone. "I didn't skip no line or disrupt the algorithm"... Lo-fi underground rap icon FLY ANAKIN releases FRANK, his first proper album after years of growing his reputation on mixtapes and collaborations, with the help of his longtime friends in the Richmond, Va., crew Mutant Academy. He lives in Atlanta now, but "I wanted to make sure my album felt like home," he tells Pitchfork... CORNERS is the second, and likely last, album by BASTARDS OF SOUL, a retro R&B band from Dallas that a lot of people in Texas thought was on the verge of a national breakthrough. But singer CHADWICK MURRAY died suddenly while the album was still being recorded last summer. "He could bring to mind Otis Redding one minute, Bobby Womack the next," Chris Vognar writes in Texas Monthly, and the album backs that up. "I need you hear me when I say goodbye," Murray sings on "Come Around." Here's hoping people do... It's "*sort of* true" that experimental Norwegian singer/songwriter JENNY HVAL has finally made her pop album, Stereogum's Ryan Leas writes of her sixth album, CLASSIC OBJECTS. "But because of how these songs emerge more than start, it's almost like you're hearing Hval work her away around those structures... like she is considering the idea of writing a pop song before she shows you the pop song she wrote." This is what that sounds like... Masked (by choice) country singer ORVILLE PECK has dropped a second batch of four songs from his second album, BRONCO, which is due in April but half of which has now been released. I'm intrigued by this trend of artists having and eating their cake by making proper albums in a post-album age but not releasing them *as* albums. The increasing common deluxe-album cycle may be part of this album/content hybrid, too. Discuss.
Plus, new music from YOUNG RODDY, LUIS FONSI, BENNY THE BUTCHER, ELZHI & GEORGIA ANNE MULDROW, JEREMIAH CHIU & MARTA SOFIA, HO99O9, GHOST, DRUG CHURCH, LUCKY DAYE, KALI, BABY STONE GORILLAS, MIKE DIMES, JAMESZOO, ERNEST, BRANDON BOYD, TREY ANASTASIO (his first solo acoustic album), BRYAN ADAMS, FRANZ FERDINAND, REX ORANGE COUNTY, ALEX CAMERON, WALTER SMITH III & MATTHEW STEVENS, HE JINHUA, MESSA, WOLVES AT THE GATE, IDOL OF FEAR, WARFARE, NAPPYNAPPA, CLAMS CASINO & RYOTA NOZAKI, LAURA CANNELL, SHXCXCHCXSH, TONY PRICE, FOR KING & COUNTRY, the BOO RADLEYS, HOODOO GURUS, YOUNG GUV, MANEKA, A. BILLI FREE & THE LASSO, WIDOWSPEAK, MAIA FRIEDMAN (of Dirty Projectors), WEDNESDAY, the MYSTERINES, SET IT OFF, BODEGA, JEREMY IVEY, SHAMAN'S HARVEST, BRAD ARMSTRONG, MICHAEL FEINSTEIN, FERRIS & SYLVESTER, JESSICA WILDE, ETHAN P. FLYNN, LOOP and the MONOCHROME SET.
Rest in Peace
Country pianist/singer BOBBIE NELSON, best known for the half-century she spent in her brother Willie's band. He called her his "little sister" even though she was older. "You sing," she once told him, "and I'll play the piano." She also released one solo album and she and Willie released a handful of gospel albums together... Publicist ELLEN ZOE GOLDEN, whose clients included Billy Idol, Hall & Oates and Violator Records. She played a key role at several PR firms and labels—she created the publicity department at Universal Records—before moving to Costa Rica two decades ago to surf and work in the travel business. "She was on my publicity team during a period in my life when representing me wasn't necessarily an easy task!," Billy Idol said. "She always had my back and I'm forever grateful"... MIKE CROSS, guitarist and co-founder of '90s rock band Sponge.
| | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | |
| | | | |  | | The New York Times |
| | Major Music Companies Pause Business in Russia | | By Ben Sisario | | The three major record conglomerates and the touring giant Live Nation are suspending operations over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, while individual artists have canceled tour dates. | | | | | | | | | | | | | The New York Times |
| | Remembering Avicii by Stepping Into His Bewildering World | | By Imogen West-Knights | | The Avicii Experience offers a taste of the pressures that led up to the D.J.'s death. It's the latest immersive exhibition trying to find the line between emotional engagement and entertainment. | | | | |  | | Tidal |
| | Johnny Winter: The Coltrane of Blues-Rock | | By Jim Farber | | The late musician's virtuosity and soulfulness set a new standard for guitar heroism -- a paradigm heard throughout a star-packed tribute album helmed by his brother Edgar. | | |  | | D Magazine |
| | The Death of a Singer | | By Zac Crain | | Chadwick Murray was poised to break big with Bastards of Soul. | | | | | | | what we're into |  | | Music of the day | | "Kyiv" | | Konakov | | | |
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| | Music | Media | | | | | | Suggest a link  | | "REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask 'why?'" |
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