NEWS
The Beths, Haiku Hands, Tkay Maidza & More Among Levi’s Music Relief Fund Winners
Haiku Hands, Tkay Maidza, Jaguar Jonze and Miiesha are among the first five winners of the Levi’s Music Prize, which has been reimagined this year to spread the cheer to more Australian and New Zealand musicians during the health crisis. The winning acts all pocket A$4,500 ($2,960) cash, as will The Beths, who become the first New Zealand act to share in the prize which has been redesigned this year as the Levi’s Music Relief Fund. Now in its fourth year, the quarterly honor is said to be the largest single music prize in Australasia, and is typically awarded to those artists that have built “significant initial career momentum” through their performances at the annual Bigsound summit and showcase event, but who still require a cash injection. Across 2020, A$45,000 ($29,600) in cash will b...
Little Richard Statue to be Erected Outside Childhood Home
A statue of the late rock ‘n’ roll legend Little Richard is expected to be installed outside his childhood home in Macon, Georgia. The Little Richard House Resource Center Facebook page announced the tribute during a live Zoom meeting, news outlets reported. Little Richard, also known as Richard Wayne Penniman, died May 9 in Nashville at the age of 87. He was laid to rest Wednesday at his alma mater Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama. A fund established by Friends of the Little Richard House and the Community Foundation of Central Georgia will be used to pay for the statue and a replica of Little Richard’s Hollywood Walk of Fame. Rep. James Beverly, D-Macon, said the fund will also be used to support organizations that provide music education to low to moderate-income students...
Eminem Just Invited All His ‘Stans’ To Text Him
The Rap God just got closer to his fans. From out of leftfield, Eminem shared his phone number and invited all his “Stans” to get in touch. “’Dear Stan, I meant to write you sooner, but I just been busy’ text me, ill hit you back,” he writes in an Instagram post, which is accompanied with a snippet of his classic “Stan”. He completes his message with his phone number — 313-666-7440 — and the hashtags #MMLP20 and #DearSlim. Eminem’s causal call-out to his fans comes on the 20th anniversary of his third album release, The Marshall Mathers LP, which ruled the Billboard 200 for eight weeks. MMLP single “Stan” went to the top in the U.K., fueled British vocalist Dido’s fledgling career and gave the English dictionary a spanking new entry. All these years later, Mathers i...
Angelique Kidjo Covered Midnight Oil’s Politically Charged ‘Beds are Burning’ on ‘Colbert’: Watch
Few songs light the blue touch paper quite like “Beds Are Burning.” Midnight Oil’s signature work from 1987 was also a political weapon, a history lesson, and an apology to Aboriginal communities who were forcibly removed from their lands. “Beds are Burning” earned a Grammy nomination (for best rock performance by a duo or group with vocal), it came in at No. 3 on a poll of the greatest Australian songs of all time, conducted by APRA. And its parent Diesel & Dust is recognized as one of the great Australian albums. On Stephen Colbert’s A Late Show, Beninese singer-songwriter, activist and four-time Grammy winner Angélique Kidjo delivered a passionate, reimagined cover of the song. The artist has a strong connection with the land Down Under having made the long haul to ...
Dr Dre Believes Social Media ‘Destroyed’ Artist Mystique
The current generation of artists would probably tell you social media helped lead to their success, but not Dr. Dre. The hip-hop titan is old-school, and to him Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and all the rest have done nothing more than destroy the artist mystique. During a chat with fellow music mogul and Beats Electronics co-founder Jimmy Iovine for British GQ, Dre expressed his qualms with these platforms. “I probably would’ve hated social media when I was coming up,” he confessed. “There’s a certain mystique that gets destroyed. I like the mystique. I like waiting. I don’t need anybody to know where I am every minute or what I’m doing. Or what I’m about to do… There’s a certain mystique that came along with music that was entertaining to wait to see what was about to ...
Boy George Has Written ‘Six or Seven Albums’ Worth of New Music in Quarantine, But It’s Not All Good
Boy George has been quite productive during quarantine. During a recent visit to the Grounded With Louis Theroux podcast, the Culture Club singer revealed he’s written “six or seven albums” worth of new music while in lockdown. “I’ve written so much music I’ve got enough for six or seven albums,” he divulged before admitting it might not all be quality material. “I’m not saying every single thing is good, but I signed a deal just before Christmas with a company called Primary Wave, whose job it is to go out and place your music in movies,” George explained. “I own copyright with them. It’s a new experience for me to own music.” “I don’t own any of the stuff I did in the ’80s – the publishers can do what they want with it and they do do what they want with it,” he added. And that...
Brian May Suffered Small Heart Attack, Compressed Sciatic Nerve After Gardening Accident
Brian May took to Instagram Sunday night to tell “the truth about what happened” to him earlier this month. Though it’s true he tore his gluteus maximus during a gardening accident, that ended up being the tip of the iceberg. A week after the incident, the Queen guitarist was still on “severe painkillers” and in agony, so he went in for a second MRI that showed a severely compressed sciatic nerve. “I could not believe the pain,” he said in the video. “That’s why I had the feeling that someone was putting a screwdriver in my back the whole time. It was excruciating.” But that’s not even all of it. The 72-year-old also revealed that he suffered “a small heart attack.” “I thought I was a very healthy guy and everyone said, ‘You’ve got a great blood pressure, you’ve got a great heart rate...
Sonic Youth Add Hold That Tiger Live Album to Bandcamp
This year may not be going according to plan, but Sonic Youth fans can find solace in the fact that the band has been beefing up its archives on Bandcamp. Since March, they’ve shared 12 live shows, their out-of-print 1987 EP Master-Dik, and some live albums. Today, Sonic Youth added another rare live album to the profile: Hold That Tiger — a “semi-official bootleg LP” that was recorded in 1987 and released in 1991. Here’s what the band has to say about it: Originally released as a semi-official bootleg LP in 1991 by friend and music writer, Byron Coley, on his Goofin’ imprint (we would eventually hijack the Goofin’ moniker for our own band-run label a few years later). The recording was nearly 60-minutes in length, so to prevent manufacturing a cost-prohibitive double lp, th...
From Roadsters to Rocketships at the Indy 500
This year, for the first time ever, the Indianapolis 500, The Greatest Spectacle in Racing, will not be held in the month of May. Due to the global health crisis, Indy race fans will have to wait until Sunday, August 23, to hear the sound of Honda and Chevrolet race engines shrieking at 230 mph around the fabled 2.5-mile track. They like their tradition at Indy, from the yard of bricks at the finish line that is the only remnant of the surface Ray Harroun’s Marmon Wasp rumbled over en route to victory in the very first 500 in 1911, to the rousing rendition of Back Home in Indiana that sets the stage for the most famous command in racing: “Start your engines!” And that’s what makes the Indy 500s held from 1963 through 1968 the most fascinating of them all. See all 46...
Kim Kardashian Celebrates Anniversary With Kanye West: ‘Forever to Go’
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West celebrated six years of marriage on Sunday (May 24). Kardashian marked the occasion on social media by posting a set of pictures with her arms around her husband. In one, she’s seen kissing him on the cheek, and in the other, they’re both smiling at the camera. “6 years down; forever to go,” she captioned the sweet snapshots. “Until the end.” They were married in 2014 at Fort di Belvedere, a 16th century fortress in Florence, Italy, and have four children, North, Saint, Chicago and Psalm. See their anniversary photos below. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in t...
The 7 Best Moments From ‘A Tribute to Andre Harrell: Mr. Champagne & Bubbles’
Legendary entertainment executive Andre Harrell passed away on May 7 due to heart failure at just 59 years old. To celebrate the fulfilled life of Mr. Champagne & Bubbles, the music world came together with a virtual broadcast paying tribute to Harrell on Sunday evening (May 24). Whether it was his signature infectious smile, eye for talent or sheer wisdom, a plethora of artists’ careers have been positively impacted by Harrell during his near four decades in the music business. The Uptown Records founder is lauded for helping launch the careers of music luminaries Mary J. Blige and P. Diddy. The BET-REVOLT TV program saw moving tributes from some of Harrell’s closest entertainment industry friends, like Mariah Carey, Babyface, Pharrell Williams, Russell Simmons, Jamie...
Mory Kante, African Music Star and ‘Yeke Yeke’ Singer, Dies at 70
Guinean singer Mory Kante, an influential figure in African and world music, has died, his family said Friday. He was 70. Kante brought Guinean, and Mandingo, culture to the world. He was called an ambassador of Afro-Pop music. His song “Yeke Yeke,” released in the late ’80s, has been remixed and covered extensively. “Guinea and the whole world have lost a great personality,” Kante’s son, Balla Kante, told The Associated Press. “My father was a great personality. We lost a large library today.” [embedded content] Balla said his father had not been feeling well for quite some time and died in a hospital in the capital, Conakry. He will be tested for COVID-19, his son confirmed.“He was an elderly man who did a lot and exerted a lot of physical energy,” Balla said. Born on March 29, 1950 in A...
