Kanye West is the last old school rock star. Who else will go to the same crazy extremes? Who else measures the extremity of his actions by the number of TVs thrown out the window an act equates to? Coldplay’s Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow got in the inevitable-therapy game when they named their child Apple, but Kim and Kanye chose North and Saint. Advantage Kanye, and there’s no other level at which Martin is in his league.
In a world where Lil Uzi Vert and Migos call themselves rock stars, does that make Post Malone the 2017 Pat Boone? In The Atlantic, Spencer Kornhaber breaks down the contemporary hip-hop use of the phrase “Rock Star” in part because Malone just topped Billboard’s Hot 100 with “Rockstar,” his collaboration with 21 Savage.
Visit Fro-Yo Ma’s Soundcloud page and it refers you to his social media pages and the bandcamp page for his Pants EP. That page tells you he’s from Covington. Under his name on his Facebook profile, it says simply, “Middle School.” His image on the pages don’t give you any help; they’re all cartoons he’s drawn.
Kanye West recently dropped the track list from his upcoming album, The Life of Pablo and he'll debut it when he livestreams his show from Madison Square Gardens tonight on Tidal. When West played New Orleans on December 5, 2013 on the Yeezus tour, I walked away bringing a little literary analysis to the concert, largely on the strength of an extended mid-show sung/spoken passage.
Who knew that the Grammys would spend almost all of its energy in the first hour? After AC/DC's opening number and Miranda Lambert's "Little Red Wagon," there was a power outage, and Lambert aside, the telecast was as sexy as a dental exam. If you only paid attention to music once a year, you'd think its primary use was to help the downtrodden deal fight the brave fight. Madonna's song seemed very familiar for her, but at least her performance with dancing minotaurs briefly dispelled the air of dreary, well-meant glumness that weighed the night down.
[Updated]Pell doesn’t sound like a New Orleans rapper. His new album lives up to its title, Floating While Dreaming, with an ethereal defined by airy keyboard textures and spare, comparatively small drums and bass in the mix. He’d like to think his music would have been the same had he gone through his formative years in New Orleans, but Hurricane Katrina forced his mom to leave the St.
My Spilt Milk picks our favorites for the week, including Sweet Crude's sweet French, rapper Kevin Gates, brass funk with Magnetic Ear, The Howlin' Brothers' roots rock, the Yeezus Tour, and a number of holiday-inspired concerts.
This Week's Soundtrack tries out the new and eagerly awaited releases in hip-hop as well as some legendary re-issues, says goodbye to old friends, and makes some new ones.
