NEWS
Nu Deco Ensemble Premieres Symphonic Daft Punk Suite
One of dance music’s most iconic discographies meets the symphony orchestra in “Humans vs. Robots (Daft Punk Suite),” featuring the music of Daft Punk. Hailing from Miami, the New Deco Ensemble pride themselves on creating genre-bending experiences and have been known to deliver fresh, creative adaptations of existing musical works. This is not the first time the group’s co-creator, Sam Hyken, has made the ambitious move to adapt the music of Daft Punk into a symphonic arrangement. When creating the current rendition, “Humans vs. Robots (Daft Punk Suite),” Hyken’s goal was to highlight more of the classical elements present in Daft Punk’s music. Removing the drum elements from the arrangement, Hyken wanted to focus on dissecting wha...
Spotify Launches “Group Session” Feature for Premium
After a prolonged developmental period, Spotify‘s shared listening feature “Group Session” has launched into the beta testing phase. Arriving in the era of social distancing, the new feature is the latest offering to hit the platform specifically for premium subscribers. With Group Session, those in close proximity can collectively control the music that plays. The shared queue allows participants to collaboratively develop a playlist as well as play, pause, and skip music in real time. It’s this real time sharing component that makes Group Session an upgrade from existing shared features on Spotify such as collaborative playlists. Group Session is a feature that has been in development since at least May of 2019, when the original code was discover...
Clap For Him: It Only Took 274 Years, But Princeton Finally Has Its First Black Valedictorian
Source: Lisa Festa, Center for Career Development / Nicholas Johnson/Princeton Some good news during these absolutely trying times, Princeton has announced that it will have its first Black valedictorian in the school’s 274-year history. The prestigious university made the announcement that Montreal native, Nicholas Johnson was named the valedictorian of the class of 2020. The decision marks the first time Princeton will have a Black person who will hold the highest academic achievement in the school, which has a checkered past when it comes to slavery. View this post on Instagram Congratulations to Nicholas Johnson, named valedictorian and Grace Sommers, named Latin salutatorian for #Princeton20! 👏 Nicholas Johnson ’20 Hometown: Montréal, Québec Major: Operations Re...
HHW Gaming: Job Listing Claimed PS5 Was Dropping In October, Sony Says Aht Aht
Source: SOPA Images / Getty We can’t front, but the rollout for the PS5 has been extremely sloppy. Sony already announced that its highly-anticipated console, PS5 was arriving on shelves this holiday. The video game world’s eyebrows were raised after they spotted a Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan job listing that claimed the PlayStation 5 was coming October 2020, a few months earlier than expected. Today (May 12) one Twitter user, @Nibellion, shared a tweet featuring a photo of the listing and it states: “PlayStation 5 scheduled to be released in October 2020.” Typically, Sony has historically launched its consoles around November. Still, due to COVID-19, the supply chain for components for the PS5 has been disrupted, possibly leading to the console being limited at launch. Since the ...
Broadway Shutdown Extended Until at Least Labor Day
The shutdown on Broadway has been extended again — until at least early September. Although an exact date for performances to resume has yet to be determined, Broadway producers are now offering refunds and exchanges for tickets purchased for shows through Sept. 6. “While all Broadway shows would love to resume performances as soon as possible, we need to ensure the health and well-being of everyone who comes to the theater — behind the curtain and in front of it — before shows can return,” said Charlotte St. Martin, president of the Broadway League, which represents producers. Broadway theaters abruptly closed on March 12, knocking out all shows — including 16 that were still scheduled to open — and postponing indefinitely the Tony Award schedule. Producers, citing health and city authori...
Brockhampton Announces Two New Albums in 2020, Drops Surprise Singles
Brockhampton hit only a number of fans with quite the double whammy Friday night (May 8) during their secret, password-protected live stream titled “Technical Difficulties Radio.” Frontman Kevin Abstract announced the LA-based boy group would release two albums in 2020 and dropped two new singles “N.S.T.” and “things can’t stay the same” on YouTube later on. But while Abstract and the clan tie loose ends on both of their full-length projects, he revealed they’ll be dropping new non-album tracks every Friday. The latest batch of roughly mixed two-minute songs gives fans the first taste of Brockhampton’s new music since their album Ginger from August 2019, consisting of Abstract and Matt Champion’s nostalgic vocals about gr...
Time for a Comeback? Fans Want RBD to Do a Virtual Concert
The quarantine and social distancing life caused by the novel coronavirus outbreak has sparked a new way music lovers are enjoying live music in 2020: virtual concerts. Many Latin artists have already jumped on the bandwagon, with artists such as Reik, Juanes, Sech, and Karol G entertaining fans with their at-home livestreams. Because of this new trend, Billboard was curious to know which Latin artist or group from the early 2000s should host a virtual show next? After a two-week poll that made the rounds on social media, fans picked RBD as their winner. The former Latin pop group, composed of Alfonso Herrera, Anahí, Dulce María, Christian Chávez, Christopher von Uckermann, and Maite Perroni, nabbed a whopping nearly 87 percent of the votes, proving that maybe this is a good time for a com...
Kygo Announces New OneRepublic Collab Out This Friday
After tormenting fans with the incomplete tracklist for his forthcoming Golden Hour LP, Kygo took to Instagram one day later to unveil one of its long-awaited collaborations. He also revealed that the single, “Love Somebody,” featuring OneRepublic, will be released this Friday, May 15th. Yesterday, Kygo shared a graphic depicting Golden Hour‘s official tracklist, which spans 18 songs. However, he crossed out each and every collaborator, sending EDM Twitter into a furious rabbit hole of theories as to who will appear on Kygo’s highly anticipated third studio album. “Love Somebody” marks the second time Kygo has teamed up with OneRepublic and its prolific frontman, Ryan Tedder. Back in January 2018, they released their collaborative single “...
Porter Robinson Uploads Full Secret Sky Set
After a whirlwind week for Porter Robinson in which he announced, planned and performed at his first virtual music festival, Secret Sky, the prolific producer and DJ and uploaded his set for his fans to relive the magic. His performance was bursting at the seams with the distinct ingenuity, forward-thinking sonic flair, and pure rapture of a signature Porter Robinson set. It served as perhaps the most popular of the fest, which many are lauding as the quintessential virtual music festival among the litany of livestream events launched during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the highlights of Porter’s set is the debut of a curated Lil B freestyle and a never-before-heard mashup of his electro house staple “Language” and Avril Lavigne‘s 2002 pop-punk classi...
Irv Gotti Fires Back At 50 Cent Claiming He Owes BMF Money, Says “Homie Is A Clown”
Source: TM/Bauer-Griffin / Getty The beef between 50 Cent and Irv Gotti has been in motion for a while, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down any time soon. The G-Unit boss claimed that the Murder, Inc. co-founder owed money to the Black Mafia Family, but Gotti claims Fif has his facts all wrong. Last week, 50 posted an image of Gotti on Instagram with the caption insinuating that he owed BMF’s Southwest T payback on a cash loan. “yo @irvgotti187 you best be coming up with that bread you borrowed from Big T in Encino you sucker ass n*gga. you didnt go see him or put nothing on his books. yeah he home now so you can stretch out to him or get stretched,” read the caption. Fif also trained his sights onto Jeezy, stating that the rapper who has long been affiliated with BMF didn’t show supp...
Kanye West Sued For Allegedly Not Paying Software Company
Source: Splash / Splash News Kanye West is a multi-billionaire, allegedly. Nevertheless, it seems like someone in the Yeezy camp neglected to pay a bill, and now Mr. West’s company is getting sued for it. According to The Fashion Law, last week, a Colorado-based company called Backbone PLM filed a complaint in a California state Superior Court in Los Angeles alleging that Yeezy Apparel is in breach of contract for an agreement that was inked back in September 2018. Backbone claims they have not been paid for the software it provided Yeezy to manage their design specs and inventory. Reportedly, Backbone and Yeezy Apparel’s relationship was all good until the latter stopped paying its bills. In exchange for a subscription fee of $198,000 for two years, Backbone – which counts Allbirds, Outdo...
Diddy, Mary J. Blige Share Moving Tributes To Andre Harrell On Social Media
Source: photo: WENN Last week we lost one of our greatest cultural architects in Andre Harrell. Two of his greatest proteges have testified to his indelible energy and passion for Black excellence. As spotted on HipHopDX the outpouring of love for the legendary record man continues to come in. While the general population was immediate with paying respects to him those super close to him needed more time to really accept the sad truth. On Monday, May 11 Sean “Diddy” Combs shared a very touching post about his late mentor. And by the caption it is clear Puffy is heartbroken. “I’ve got to give myself the reality of this in doses. Because I can’t even handle this. I hope to God that you are all blessed to have someone in your life that loves you and believes in you like this man believed...
