It's like a knife, and you can use it as a weapon or you can use it as a tool. It's been used as a weapon against us by white people. And we not gonna let that happen again, by nobody, because it's not cool. Now I know you heard, it's in the lexicon, everybody talkin', but that's our word now, that's our word now, and you can't have it back. | | | | Ice Cube has something to say and you will listen.
(Earl Gibson/Getty Images) | | | | | | “It's like a knife, and you can use it as a weapon or you can use it as a tool. It's been used as a weapon against us by white people. And we not gonna let that happen again, by nobody, because it's not cool. Now I know you heard, it's in the lexicon, everybody talkin', but that's our word now, that's our word now, and you can't have it back.”
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| | rantnrave:// What they're saying, MIDEM edition: 7DIGITAL CEO SIMON COLE says the streaming-music audience totals around 300 million worldwide, while 3 billion people listen to the radio every day. "Those people are going to be the streamers of the future." Obvious question: But will they pay? Secondary question: Are they looking for an on-demand experience, a lean-back experience or a future experience that neither of those phrases anticipates?... TENCENT MUSIC's ANDY NG (same link as above) takes a stab at answering that secondary question, based on the current market in CHINA, where the most popular playlist option, by far, is "don't care." "They just need music but ‘I just don’t care!’ Maybe they are doing exercise, having a shower. They just want some background noise, some background music"... DEEZER CEO HANS-HOLGER ALBRECHT says users do care, and what they care about is local programming (did someone say "radio"?) that speaks to their local culture and tastes. That means sertanejo music in BRAZIL and Colombian music in COLUMBIA. "You need to adapt to local taste, otherwise you build a product no one wants to listen to"... Then again, sometimes local culture is global culture... Visual content matters... The "value gap" matters... Metadata matters. A big issue for the music blockchain: Once you establish a secure way to centralize metadata and rights in a blockchain system going forward, what do you do about the rights and metadata for the millions of tracks that came before?... Is PANDORA the THERESA MAY of digital music? The NEW YORK POST reports the streaming radio leader turned down a $15/share offer from LIBERTY MEDIA last summer because it thought it was worth more. But on Friday, a day after the snap British election that proved disastrous for May, Pandora presumably discovered that it, too, might have miscalculated its value in the public marketplace. In need of cash, it announced a $480 million investment from Liberty-controlled SIRIUS XM at what amounts to around $8/share. And still, analysts and investors, sensing synergy, like the deal... Leave it to a guy who called his group NWA to explain to BILL MAHER why it wasn't cool for him to use the "N" part of that acronym on his HBO show. "That's our word now and you can't have it back," ICE CUBE told the HBO host during a righteous four-minute rant that left Maher visibly rattled and possibly wishing he could cancel his show right then and there. If only... The PULSE nightclub massacre happened a year ago today. Mourners from around the world descended on the ORLANDO club on Sunday, and memorials will be held throughout the day today... The HIP-HOP HALL OF FAME appears to have a home in HARLEM, and has launched a $150 million fundraising campaign to develop it... "DEAR EVAN HANSEN" and "HELLO, DOLLY!" win big at TONYS... Yes, I will listen to DERAY MCKESSON and KATY PERRY chatting about cultural appropriation... RIP T.C. IZLAM. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| Wyatt Mason takes stock of an artist whose astonishing creativity, business career, and public profile have transformed America over the last two decades. | | |
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| Having silently endured epithets for years, the company would like to soften its image and clear up the myths and misconceptions about its facelessness and lack of empathy for customers. | | |
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| Can you build a canon for a genre of writing that is at its best when at its most iconoclastic? | | |
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| On the eve of her fifth album and Glastonbury debut, the pastors’ daughter-turned-hit machine talks about ‘purposeful pop’, the joy of meditation, and her feud with Taylor Swift. | | |
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| Witness a historic recording session led by Jack White and T Bone Burnett with top artists, including Willie Nelson, Elton John, Nas, Taj Mahal, Alabama Shakes, Beck, and Los Lobos, as they recreate America’s musical past using a recording lathe. | | |
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| After nearly a year of on-again, off-again talks to sell itself, Pandora, the struggling radio streamer, said Friday it had agreed to accept a $480 million investment from SiriusXM. Liberty Media-controlled SiriusXM would get a nearly 20 percent stake in Pandora, a 6 percent dividend on its Series A convertible preferred shares and three board seats - including the chairman's seat. | | |
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| The singer's music taps into a shared queer history of escape, longing, and disappointment-while reveling in the pleasure of all those emotions. | | |
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| Yes... the John Hughes film is as weighty as that sounds! | | |
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| Andrew Friedman recalls "The Wire" and "Luther" star Idris Elba's past DJing and MCing at early-00s New York City 2-step night Wikkid! | | |
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| Was the all-American pop star the victim of a 'Toxic' Russian spy campaign? | | |
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| Something big happened last week in the world of music and copyright: a case about a music sample was won on fair use grounds. This basically never happens for a variety of problematic historical reasons. And yet, it did. The hip hop artist Drake was found not to be infringing on a Jimmy Smith composition due to fair use. And that's a big deal. | | |
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| New albums from both men are being presented as their final statements, yet each has its own ideas about what that means. | | |
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| It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a music-industry conference in possession of a good audience must be in want of a blockchain panel. | | |
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| Forgotten souls of the analog heartland. | | |
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| J.Lo’s hard work and versatility, rather than solely raw talent, have kept her on top for decades. Now, with "World of Dance," she’s using her power to mold new stars in her own image. | | |
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| Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke talks through his musical firsts. | | |
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| Two years since his passing, one of Ornette Coleman's dear friends Vivien Goldman remembers his legacy with help from those who knew him best. | | |
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| Theaster Gates' unique pursuit. | | |
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| What I do? What I do do do!?!? | | |
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| At National Sawdust in Williamsburg on Friday, the legendary avant-garde artist's music was confounding, overwhelming, and-just for a moment-eternal. | | |
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| © Copyright 2017, The REDEF Group |
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