MUSIC

This is so f$#king awesome! Can he kick it? Yes he can. And THAT'S what we call a tribute! Mark Arum from WSB-TV dropped A Tribe Called Quest lyrics in his traffic reports to honor Phife Dawg, who passed away this morning. He's definitely invited to the cookout! // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) {  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];  if (d.getElementById(id)) return;  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;  js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3";  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]>       ...

I slept hard on this gorgeous, wistful 3:03 minute slip of a song--in fact on this band in general. Sure I'd heard of Brittany Howard, loving how she broke all boxes that defined a rock star, Black music, Black woman. But for some reason they were on my shortlist that I never manifested. I don't watch TV so I didn't see the iPad Pro commercial, but after they won a couple of Grammies it was time I woke the f#$k up. Future People and...

I've been trying to figure out how to address my feelings on the passing of Maurice White since he left this earth on February 3rd, 2016. I think I have to go back to 1976, around the time my then 13-year-old brother discovered That's The Way of the World and Spirit. See, my French horn-playing baby bro Deryck was absolutely OBSESSED with EWF. I mean as in carrying-a-boombox-into-the-bathroom-so he-wouldn't-miss-a-single-note-type obsessed. Over and over and over again. Don't get me wrong, I loved them too--but unfortunately hearing...

Star men … David Bowie in 1974 and Glenn Frey of the Eagles in 1973. Photograph, Terry O'Neill | Hulton Archive | Getty Images | Rex Features Last night, walking up 7th Ave around 40th Street I hear the last strains of "Witchy Woman" bouncing off the buildings. I follow the sound and trace it to a lone Asian man on the corner, wrapped in a blanket, rocking a Tibetan sort of hat and blaring the Eagles' classic out from a...

Flowers and messages left by fans in front of the David Bowie mural in Brixton Photograph by Han Yan/Xinhua Press/Corbis   by Suzanne Moore The Guardian For some, a hole has been ripped in the universe and we are lost. Our sadness doesn’t mean we don’t care about Madaya or Istanbul – but what if there is never anyone else like him? OCTOBER 01: RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL  David BOWIE live onstage, Philly Dogs Tour | Photo by Steve Morley/Redferns | Steve Morley/Redferns/Getty Time takes a cigarette...

by Greg Tate mtv news David Bowie ranks as high in our electric church’s Afrofuturist pantheon of demiurges as Jimi Hendrix, George Clinton, and Miles Davis. That’s for his outrageous aristocratic style, not-just-skin-deep soul, badass brinksmanship, and all-around Alter-Negrocity. Not to mention the Starman’s own sui generis take on The Funk. Bowie remains that rarity — a white rock artist whose appropriations of black kulcha never felt like a rip-off but more like a sharing of radical and bumptious ideations between like-minded...

The Nigerian remake of "Purple Rain is cinematic magic by Dangerous Minds | Photos: Jeremy Fino “A revolutionary story of guitars, motorcycles, cell phones – and the music of a new generation” is how director Christopher Kirkley describes his West African re-imagining of Purple Rain. Set in the Saharan city of Agadez in Niger, Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai (Akounak for short) is a visually sumptuous and musically thrilling movie that works splendidly with or without the Purple Rain mythos. But riffing on Prince’s tale locates Purple Rain’s universal heartbeat. Like the lone, nameless...

** UPDATE ** After 20+ years, Brother Israel's is another casualty of the raging gentrification in Bed Stuy; he closed a few months ago. He said he was looking for another spot and he had a couple of leads...

 by Richard Metzger, Dangerous Minds (This guy really did his homework!) Although a famous Vogue magazine cover shot by Patrick Lichfield of Marsha Hunt, naked, with a huge Afro, as a London cast member of Hair is an indisputably and quintessentially iconic image of the 1960s, Hunt remains under the radar of most music fans. For one (quite good) reason, there are exactly zero CDs of her music on the market currently and there is nothing on iTunes or Spotify either. This is too bad, because...

Rock music from Africa is nothing new, but this is a good piece on some of the latest bands. (I've been a fan of The Brother Moves On for a couple of years, thanks to my South African inside music source, Palesa.)   by Lateef | teefonline True Africa I may not be versed in every language and dialect in Africa… but I know bad-ass rock music when I hear it.  So, here’s a list of five hard rock bands performing on the continent in a range...

by Natalie Weiner Noisy | Music by Vice LONGREADS OR WHATEVER Thundercat, Kamasi Washington, and Flying Lotus, image by Lia Kantrowitz You’re listening to a jazz record. There are the frantic, slightly irregular drums; the thrumming of an upright bass; virtuosic runs on some invisible Steinway—all punctuated with the familiar crooning of a tenor sax. The melody, consciously separate from the genre’s well-worn standards, could easily pass for a new composition. But it’s not. It’s an acoustic rendition of “Never Catch Me,” the Kendrick Lamar-featuring...

The Vinyl Factory One of my all-time favorite bands, Cymande was a UK band in the 70's made up primarily Guyanese immigrants (my homeboys). "Nyah-rock" lives! Following their 2012 reunion and a string of successful shows, Cymande will release a full length album produced by most of the original core band members. Following over forty years of dormancy, the UK based ‘nyah-rock’ and funk band are set to release their first album in four decades with most of the original band members, including...

I sobbed when I heard Amy Winehouse died--sobbed. I mean WTF, I didn't even know her. No one was surprised of course; she was the proverbial train wreck waiting to happen. But that didn't mean we didn't hope against hope. Come on girl, don't let your Saturn Return put you in the 27 Club, please. I know you're hurting, but not like this. Don't take your gift away just yet, we need you. Don't go. Like Sia, Janis Joplin, Lisa Stansfield, Annie Lennox, Lulu, Alison Moyet,...

Collaborator with reggae poet legend Linton Kwesi Johnson, founder of Matumbi, production master and one of the key creators of the reggae sub-genre 'Lovers Rock', music legend Dennis 'Dubmaster' Bovell has created a great show called 'Dub on the Air' for Soho Radio. Packed with 70's dub, lovers rock gems, new reggae from around the world, a little punk and his resonant voice sharing his great history, tune in to 'Dub on Air' (love the play on words!). Live toasting, too--Blackbeard still got it goin' on! (Listen live every Sunday...