The photographer calls Kanye a “arrogant hypocrite.” That made Kanye react big time. Kind of comical to see how that statement really bothered Ye’.
source TMZ
Showing posts with label NEWS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NEWS. Show all posts
Saturday, March 5, 2016
Kanye Responds To Photographer Calling Him An Arrogant Hypocrite
The photographer calls Kanye a “arrogant hypocrite.” That made Kanye react big time. Kind of comical to see how that statement really bothered Ye’.
source TMZ
Saturday, February 27, 2016
Samsung Is Reportedly Trying To Buy TIDAL
Google and Spotify have also expressed interest in acquiring TIDAL.
"Samsung is re-engaging," a source told the New York Post. "They are working on something really big, and they’re keeping it very quiet in case it leaks."
Jay Z acquired the streaming service for $56 million in January 2015. Two months later, he established the TIDAL Mafia by bringing on such A-listers as Kanye West, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Daft Punk, Jack White, Nicki Minaj, Madonna, Rihanna, Usher, Alicia Keys, & J. Cole to become partners.
Samsung has expressed interest in acquiring TIDAL before, and they inked a $20 million deal with Jay Z in 2013 and a $25 million deal with Rihanna in October 2015. TIDAL hit the million subscriber mark in September and has gained 1.5 million subscribers since the release of The Life of Pablo.
Acquiring TIDAL may be Samsung's best bet to enter the music streaming game. Spotify, which has 25 million subscribers, and Google have both been eyeing TIDAL as a potential acquisition. Apple, Samsung's chief rival in the phone and consumer electronics game, has already established itself with iTunes and Apple Music. Don't be surprised to see Jay Z get an excellent return on his $56 million investment if he can come to an agreement with Samsung.
[via]
How Soca Is Absorbing Afrobeats To Create A New Subgenre
Caribbean and African artists like Olatunji, Machel Montano, and Timaya are reaching across the Atlantic to create a global Carnival sound.
By Jesse Serwer
On a Friday night last February, a singer in a gold lamé suit and matching kufi stepped off a throne to pounding drums and a loud chanting of his name. As Olatunji performed his single “Ola,” dancers in feathered headdresses and face paint interpreted its rhythms with movements like the etighi, a step popularized by Nigerian artist Iyanya's 2012 hit, "Kukere." Despite the West African signifiers, the performance took place in Port of Spain, Trinidad, where Olatunji is based, during one of the most climactic moments of 2015’s International Soca Monarch competition.
The Monarch competition is a key event in the run-up to Trinidad and Tobago’s annual carnival, and one of the most prestigious music showcases in the Caribbean. Olatunji’s triumphant performance of “Ola,” already one of the most popular songs of the 2015 carnival season, earned him the title of Groovy Soca Monarch, one of two prizes awarded at the competition. Perhaps more significantly, it also confirmed the arrival of a new subgenre that's come to be termed “afrosoca”—a blend of Caribbean and African rhythms that reflects both the outward expansion of Trinidad’s signature sound and the growing influence of afrobeats on the island, and worldwide. It was Shakira Marshall, a New York-based choreographer of Guyanese descent, who coined the term afrosoca as a name for her Brooklyn-based dance class in 2012.
The emerging hybrid is the latest volley in a transatlantic conversation that began, like so many other cultural transfers, with the enslavement of millions of West Africans and their forced relocation to Caribbean colonies centuries ago. Trinidadians proved to be remarkably resilient and creative in preserving African traditions over the years, refashioning the spoken word commentary of the griot into calypso, defying colonial bans on drums by creating new percussion instruments from bamboo and turning discarded oil drums into the steelpan. Similar developments occurred across the Caribbean—notably in Jamaica, where the mento style of folk developed in parallel to calypso in the early 20th century, and where African drums later reasserted themselves in the form of Nyabinghi drumming, the rhythmic foundation of reggae.
Rawiya Kameir
The Monarch competition is a key event in the run-up to Trinidad and Tobago’s annual carnival, and one of the most prestigious music showcases in the Caribbean. Olatunji’s triumphant performance of “Ola,” already one of the most popular songs of the 2015 carnival season, earned him the title of Groovy Soca Monarch, one of two prizes awarded at the competition. Perhaps more significantly, it also confirmed the arrival of a new subgenre that's come to be termed “afrosoca”—a blend of Caribbean and African rhythms that reflects both the outward expansion of Trinidad’s signature sound and the growing influence of afrobeats on the island, and worldwide. It was Shakira Marshall, a New York-based choreographer of Guyanese descent, who coined the term afrosoca as a name for her Brooklyn-based dance class in 2012.
The emerging hybrid is the latest volley in a transatlantic conversation that began, like so many other cultural transfers, with the enslavement of millions of West Africans and their forced relocation to Caribbean colonies centuries ago. Trinidadians proved to be remarkably resilient and creative in preserving African traditions over the years, refashioning the spoken word commentary of the griot into calypso, defying colonial bans on drums by creating new percussion instruments from bamboo and turning discarded oil drums into the steelpan. Similar developments occurred across the Caribbean—notably in Jamaica, where the mento style of folk developed in parallel to calypso in the early 20th century, and where African drums later reasserted themselves in the form of Nyabinghi drumming, the rhythmic foundation of reggae.
By blending with afrobeats, a rhythmically similar but more nebulous category with less restrictions and more visibility, soca is broadening in a way that’s true to its origins and identity.
Today, Jamaican reggae and dancehall are among the most popular music forms in many parts of Africa. Along with hip-hop, house, and African sounds like highlife and kwaito, reggae and dancehall represent a major thread in the expansive category of African dance rhythms that has come to be known as afrobeats, from the patois-inflected bashment pop of Nigeria’s Burna Boy and Timaya, to the quasi-dancehall azonto beats used by Ghanaian artists like Sarkodie.
That kind of organic culture-mashing is how soca itself was born. The genre first developed in the mid-’70s through the music of calypsonian Lord Shorty (later known as Ras Shorty I), who sought to blend calypso with the chutney sounds of the polyglot island’s substantial East Indian population, creating a Trinidadian sound he called “the soul of calypso.” Abbreviated to soca, the genre crystallized in the ’80s, with synthesizers and drum machines approximating the sounds of brass bands and rhythm sections. Spreading across the Caribbean, it took on different shapes on different islands, from the rugged bashment soca of Barbadian artists like Lil Rick, to the jab jab style associated with Grenada. About a dozen Caribbean nations and island territories, including Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines—just about every English-speaking country in the region, save Jamaica—count soca as their primary musical product.
But what drives and propels soca is precisely what limits it: it is music made expressly for the Caribbean’s annual carnival celebrations. Carnival traditions have their own African roots, having originated as a means of resistance among Trinidadian slaves. Each year, a few dozen songs, mostly from Trinidad and Barbados, take hold region-wide and advance through the diaspora, where they soundtrack floats at celebrations from London to Brooklyn to Baltimore. A handful of songs—Kevin Lyttle’s “Turn Me On” and Rupee’s “Tempted to Touch”—have made it to Top 40 radio, though often in a form remixed to fit global tastes. Yet the genre remains inexorably tied to the parades, or road marches, that are the climax of every Caribbean Carnival.
That kind of organic culture-mashing is how soca itself was born. The genre first developed in the mid-’70s through the music of calypsonian Lord Shorty (later known as Ras Shorty I), who sought to blend calypso with the chutney sounds of the polyglot island’s substantial East Indian population, creating a Trinidadian sound he called “the soul of calypso.” Abbreviated to soca, the genre crystallized in the ’80s, with synthesizers and drum machines approximating the sounds of brass bands and rhythm sections. Spreading across the Caribbean, it took on different shapes on different islands, from the rugged bashment soca of Barbadian artists like Lil Rick, to the jab jab style associated with Grenada. About a dozen Caribbean nations and island territories, including Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines—just about every English-speaking country in the region, save Jamaica—count soca as their primary musical product.
But what drives and propels soca is precisely what limits it: it is music made expressly for the Caribbean’s annual carnival celebrations. Carnival traditions have their own African roots, having originated as a means of resistance among Trinidadian slaves. Each year, a few dozen songs, mostly from Trinidad and Barbados, take hold region-wide and advance through the diaspora, where they soundtrack floats at celebrations from London to Brooklyn to Baltimore. A handful of songs—Kevin Lyttle’s “Turn Me On” and Rupee’s “Tempted to Touch”—have made it to Top 40 radio, though often in a form remixed to fit global tastes. Yet the genre remains inexorably tied to the parades, or road marches, that are the climax of every Caribbean Carnival.
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
ZHU Announces 'Neon City' North American Tour
Zhu logo
Courtesy of Sony Music
ZHU is officially hitting the road this spring.
The anonymous artist today (Feb. 24) announced his Neon City North American headlining tour via a recorded prank call with a ticket scalper on his Soundcloud, directing fans to his NeonCityTour.com website and teasing a new original song set to debut with Apple Music's Zane Lower on Beats 1 Radio tomorrow.
https://soundcloud.com/zhu/neoncitytourcomThe anonymous artist today (Feb. 24) announced his Neon City North American headlining tour via a recorded prank call with a ticket scalper on his Soundcloud, directing fans to his NeonCityTour.com website and teasing a new original song set to debut with Apple Music's Zane Lower on Beats 1 Radio tomorrow.
Kicking off with highly-anticipated performances at Coachella, ZHU's tour will feature brand-new stage and visual production set to feature-length film, as well as support from alternative R&B singer Gallant.
Neon City Tour Dates
4/16/16 - Coachella - Indio, CA
4/23/16 - Coachella - Indio, CA
4/26/16 - Fox Theatre - Oakland, CA
4/28/16 - Commodore Ballroom - Vancouver, BC
4/29/16 - Showbox - Seattle, WA
4/30/16 - Roseland Theater - Portland, OR
5/4/16 - The Depot - Salt Lake City, UT
5/5/16 - Ogden - Denver, CO
5/7/16 - Skyway Theatre - Minneapolis, MN
5/8/16 - Concord - Chicago, IL
5/9/16 - Royal Oak Theater - Detroit, MI
5/12/16 - Terminal 5 - New York, NY
5/13/16 - Echostage - Washington, DC
5/14/16 - Electric Factory - Philadelphia, PA
5/16/16 - Pheonix - Toronto, ON
5/17/16 - New City Gas - Montreal, QC
5/18/16 - Royale - Boston, MA
5/20/16 - Shaky Beats Festival - Atlanta, GA
5/21/2016 - Fillmore - Miami, FL
Monday, February 22, 2016
(Photo) T.I. Announces Roc Nation Distribution Deal As Well As Joining Tidal As An Artist Owner
T.I. Announces Roc Nation Distribution Deal As Well As Joining Tidal As An Artist Owner
T.I. has just announced some big boss moves that he has made. He is now the 19th artist owner of Tidal. His new single, “Money Talk,” will be able to get exclusive streaming rights on Tidal. OKAY T.I.
T.I. has just announced some big boss moves that he has made. He is now the 19th artist owner of Tidal. His new single, “Money Talk,” will be able to get exclusive streaming rights on Tidal. OKAY T.I.
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