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Kendrick Lamar | DAMN. that Pulitzer! | News

Maarten — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 13:23:05 +0000

Kendrick Lamar | DAMN. that Pulitzer! | News Maarten Tue, 04/17/2018

Kendrick Lamar has won the Pulitzer for Music for his album DAMN. and we should all take a moment to understand the historical implication of this moment.

You often hear people talk about modern musicians as the Mozart or Beethoven of our era. I’ve personally had these discussions about artists ranging from Paul McCartney to Trent Reznor and there are arguments to be made that these musicians are just as lyrical and melodic as the classical music canonical composers.

However, discussions between music-lovers about the significance of their favorite artists in the broader history of music is a far cry from an institution such as the Pulitzer for Music consecrating one of them alongside Aaron Copland, George Crumb, Wynton Marsalis, John Adam, and Jennifer Higdon.

I mention Wynton Marsalis because he was the first jazz artist to win the prize in 1997. He was only able to do so because the previous year the board of the Pulitzer Prize had decided to change its rules.

From 1996 onwards the “musical composition” could be music that wasn’t necessarily composed in what we consider the classical-music framework. After Wynton, there was an honorable, posthumous prize for Thelonious Monk in 2006, and Ornette Coleman won the prize in 2007 for his Sound Grammar album.

Within this expansion of musical compositions to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music over the past 20 or so years, it actually makes sense for Kendrick Lamar to be the first winner operating outside of the world of jazz and classical music. Both of these genres have been going through a reinvention within this period. (For example, there’s Indie Classical, where a Juilliard-trained composer such as Nico Muhly works together with artists such as Björk.)

More importantly to the Kendrick Lamar story, there’s been some heavy crossover between jazz and hip-hop. In the UK, the jazz scene, nurtured by bands such as Polar Bear and Acoustic Ladyland, and with Shabaka Hutchings as the spider-in-the-web has morphed into a funky, danceable hip-hop-influenced music. The musical pinnacle being the album Black Focus by Yussef Kamaal and the recognition coming the way of the Sons of Kemet’s new album getting a major label release on Sony.

A similar melting of styles has happened in Los Angeles, where Flying Lotus has given jazz an electronic edge and where Kamasi Washington has become the standard-bearer for what is already referred to as the new West Coast jazz sound.

Furthermore, Kendrick Lamar himself sits within that West Coast jazz scene. Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, and Flying Lotus contributing to the 2015 masterpiece To Pimp a Butterfly. And it’s not just Kendrick Lamar embracing jazz in his music, this is something that hip-hop itself is founded on.

But there’s more to it than that. Hip-hop and DAMN., in particular, is also a work of pop music. And with that, the real sense of history comes with awarding the Pulitzer to Kendrick Lamar. That “distinguished musical composition of significant dimension” can now describe any music.

Getting back to those discussions on which artists are like other great artists of the past. I recently heard Gilles Peterson say that he got to interview Kamasi Washington and Shabaka Hutchings in the same week. This had given him the feeling that Kamasi is our modern day John Coltrane, exploring the cosmic immenseness of our music. Shabaka, on the other hand, is our modern day Miles Davis continuously pushing the boundaries of what “jazz” is. I wonder where that leaves Kendrick Lamar?

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Coachella Must-Sees | Top 10 Artists

Noémi — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 11:50:47 +0000

Coachella Must-Sees | Top 10 Artists Noémi Fri, 04/06/2018

COACHELLA 2018: Friday, April 13 to Sunday, April 22, 2018

Hidden gems and timeless all-stars

Times they are a-changin’ and music is constantly evolving. Coachella began as one of the best festivals for rock, indie, underground hip-hop, electronic, and avant-garde artists outside the realm of commercialized music monarchy. For the first time in history, Coachella is running without a single rock headliner (this year's headliners: The Weeknd, Beyonce, and Eminem) and not everyone is stoked about it. Musical tastes aside, one can experience the production value and scale that comes with huge artists paired with the authenticity and accessibility of smaller acts. Keep reading for our top 10 must-see artists worthy of all the attention.

HAIM

The drums are sticky and sneak into the mix, and the synth tone washes over the rhythm, permeating each crack in the sound. A trip into the bubbly part of HAIM’s brain. As charming as it is immediate, and as familiar as it is wrenching, HAIM smiles at you, then hugs you. Danielle Haim’s smooth voice somehow sounds light and genuine at the same time. They consistently show the instinct needed to stand out as an indie pop creation. Track after track, their music wins.

KYGO

Kygo’s harmonizing skills fall in the eccentric and hella catchy category. He crafts beautiful and spacious sonic beds that manipulates his guest singers’ voice into something gorgeously melodic over low-key shapeshifting synths. With rumbling drums and throbbing bass pushing his music onward, we look forward to his exotic and synthetic tracks.

ST. VINCENT

It’s been wonderful seeing St. Vincent gracefully transition from one-hit wonder to poptimist icon over the past couple years. She’s pulled off the impressive feat of appealing to both the holdover die-hards and her newfound niche admirers, keeping her upbeat sound while expressing her deep and gripping emotions. The “female Bowie” is this decade’s next cult artist.

TYLER, THE CREATOR

The 26-year-old rapper’s name has become synonymous with controversy. The beats and raps come fast, with the raw confidence of a guy who’s been selling out stadiums for years. He’s experimented, and he got results. Tyler, the Creator knows what works and what doesn’t, and blends both without a care in the world. Get hypnotized and catch his set on day 2!

He was also our #1 of 2017 ? : Top 10 | Best Songs of 2017 part II

BEYONCÉ

Queen B = an exquisite emotional outburst. The perfect musical microcosm. Her music occupies a controlled, tranquil space where the turmoil always within grasp — like watching a storm while underwater. Beyoncé asks massive questions on the nature of love, empathy, empowerment, and womanhood, and finds the perfect answers. This is going to be a good one.

EMINEM

“Put your moth--rf----g hands up and follow me!” Marshall Mathers’ name holds an unconventional amount of weight in the music industry. Needless to say, Marshall comes to the table with an impressive portfolio, and his latest album Revival is no exception. Eminem is a beautifully layered human being with stylishly slick productions and steadily increasing musical range. No track of the ‘00s captures the duality of human emotion and daily hustle like “Lose Yourself”.

“I been chewed up and spit out and booed off stage / But I kept rhymin' and stepwritin' the next cipher”

ALVVAYS

Alvvays are the urbanite cynics we need. They are genuine and sarcastic, cerebral and unpretentious, complex but uncomplicated. Their unique lyrical takes are a pastiche of forces pulling against one another in eternal contradiction, a reflection of our fractured world. They can drop hometown references with off-the-cuff cleverness and straight-up indie full of catchy and memorable hooks, and how often do we get one of those anymore?

SZA

St. Louis hip-hop soul goddess SZA will be appearing at Coachella, and her presence alone is worth attending the festival! SZA’s glowed up in 2017 and continues to flourish and knock out with heavy jams. With vocal influences including Ella Fitzgerald and Lauryn Hill, the young singer is creating the R&B of the future. It’s rumored that Kendrick might make a surprise appearance alongside SZA at Coachella (*coughs “All The Stars” *coughs*). But with or without Kendrick, this unstoppable woman is important so do not miss her performance!

THE WAR ON DRUGS

Dense, meticulous, and proudly indie, The War on Drugs is genius. The band is ideologically confusing, fragmented often at the same time as being beautiful, and one of the best heartland rock bands in ages. They constantly break the rules to achieve an authentic sound. If you’re into genre-breaking, iconic, and great music, make sure to check them out on day 1!

MØ

MØ is a moment of mystery, so beautiful and human, stuck in an infinite loop to be pondered, examined, and dwelled in. She performed at Coachella in 2015 and goes up on day 2 of this year! Get ready to dance all night and experience the future of pop music!

In the meantime, get your ears ready for this year's Coachella on Stingray Music!

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No News Is Good News by Phonte

Brian — Tue, 03 Apr 2018 19:05:54 +0000

No News Is Good News by Phonte Brian Tue, 04/03/2018

I was maybe 25 when I met Phonte. I was late to one of his shows at B.B. King’s near Time Square in NYC (which sounds easy to get to but with all the tourists, just walking a block sometimes feels like an hour). I walked, and Phonte was standing right there, talking with someone. Since I had no shame, I walked over and full on interrupted to ask for a pic.

Phonte wasn’t rude about it, even though he didn’t smile, but looking back I understand why. Heck, he didn’t even owe me the pic, but he was nice enough to take one. In a genre that is so often about egos, Phonte has managed to be both a hard rapper and kind of a teddy bear (although he wasn’t the one named for an actual teddy bear in his previous group, Little Brother).

Flash forward to 2018 when I got wind that his latest solo project was out. I wanted to do the “Oh Damn” test - where I put on an album while doing anything other than pay attention to it and see if the lyrics can pull me out of what I was doing. Within forty-five seconds I hit the first “Oh Damn” and never turned back to my video game.

"At a minimum, we gonna handle 'em

Tell ya whole crew they better ante up

'Cause he don't pause, no flaws, these bars is

adamantium"

-To The Rescue, Verse 1

Reading those lyrics do not do the delivery justice. Phonte spits the line in a somewhat A-B-C-A rhyme scheme that not only caught my geek ears on the word "adamantium", but makes you think back to the first line, bringing the rhyme full circle - opting for something more distinct than an otherwise easy rhyme for "flaws" (with what could have been "claws", which any geek would know Wolverine has adamantium ones). And that’s only 45 seconds into the album.

Since my most recent Phonte music binges were all from his Foreign Exchange albums, where he works with producer Nicolay, I was a little shocked by the themes in some of the early songs on No News is Good News. Don’t get me wrong, I know Phonte brought that heat as part of Little Brother, but to hear him do neo-soul love songs on the album Leave It All Behind, to dropping lyrics about murdering the competition in “So Help Me God”, or even how his best work comes from pain and loneliness in “Pastor Tigallo” showed his range.

"Wonderin' why the best

Ideas only come to me when I'm alone or I'm depressed"

-Pastor Tigallo, Verse 3

One of my favorite producers, Nottz, works on “Expensive Genes”, a short song that rolls into “Cry No More” so quick that I thought it was the same track with a beat change up in the middle. While musically I didn't like the song, I appreciated the message about health as it relates to the black community, tackling medication, cholesterol, and overeating. When hip-hop is criticized for not being mature or grown up, I can turn to this 1m 45sec Phonte song about being a grown-ass man and dealing with these issues.

From “Cry No More” to “Change of Mind”, there were small “Oh Damn” moments. “Cry No More” starts off heavy, “Such is Life” is a beautiful song that taps into Phonte’s skill to do a throwback style R&B jam effortlessly, and “Change of Mind” featuring Freddie Gibbs sounds like a mix of late '00’s Rap&B. Then comes “Sweet You” which legit made my say “hot damn” out loud, sampling “Sweeter Than You” off of Foreign Exchange’s 2008 album Leave It All Behind. Ten years later and to be able to sample yourself, have another producer flip the sample so well, write new lyrics over the new beat, and that track to STILL had a voice of its own - I was honestly so impressed it took three repeats before I moved on.

Closing out the album is “Find That Love Again” and "Euphorium (Back to the Light)”, unfortunately following my favorite track and were initially judged harshly. But after stepping away and taking them in on their own, they're actually pretty good, especially the end of “Find That Love Again” which runs down the album's thank yous - shouting out Rapper Big Pooh, 9th Wonder, Erykah Badu, Questlove, Domo Genesis, Montreal native Kaytranada, and more.

This might not be Phonte’s strongest album, but I think it may be his most honest, with him opening up on his thoughts about life, health, aging, mortality, relevance, motivation, sadness, loneliness, and whether or not he's leaving his mark. Interestingly enough, he could have retired from music ten years ago and would still be the best at what he does - playing the soulful lover and lyrical fighter better than anyone in the game.

Sorry, T-Pain.

Keep it fresh with Phonte on Stingray Music!

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Artists to Watch | March 2018

Sophie — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 14:23:54 +0000

Artists to Watch | March 2018 Sophie Thu, 03/01/2018

Keep your eyes peeled

From viral sensations to mysterious up-and-comers, 2018 has already produced an incredible crop of new artists that remind us why we listen to new music at all, and what it can do on emotional and social levels. Here are some of our favorites so far. They are the future.

Rejjie Snow

24-year-old Dubliner signed to the same label as major players Fetty Wap and Young Thug
Dear Annie debut album released in Feb 2018
One of rap’s rising stars, mingling with heavyweights such as Kendrick Lamar

Moon Taxi

American indie-alternative rock band based in Nashville
“Moon Taxi embodies the best of the jam band aesthetic: positive, bright, challenging and fun.” NPR
Scored a major-label deal with RCA

(from left to right: Rejjie Snow, MILCK, Eden)

Eden

Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer from Dublin, Ireland
debut LP vertigo was released on 19 January 2018 and EDEN will be embarking on his Vertigo world tour this March
His melodic pop-EDM caught the attention of Lorde

Parson James

23-year-old singer-songwriter best known for his breakout Temple EP and Kygo collaboration “Stole The Show”
New breakup ballad “Only You” is the first single off his highly anticipated debut album
Variety said: “Parson James’ music has reached some of the country’s biggest platforms in the past two years, from “American Idol” and “Grey’s Anatomy” to festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza, as a solo artist and through his mega-streamed collab with Norwegian DJ Kygo, “Stole The Show”.”
Shares the same birthday as Prince

(from left to right: Parson James, Moon Taxi)

MILCK

Los Angeles singer-songwriter MILCK is on a mission to change the world through music, and her highly-anticipated debut EP This Is Not The End is finally here to do just that
At the Women's March on Washington in 2017, MILCK performed her single, “Quiet,” which encourages women to speak their truth and stand up for themselves. The song that would blossom into the March’s unofficial anthem
Within days, the song went viral, and MILCK’s career transformed

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