With Vaccination Rates Rising, Music Festivals Cash In

With Covid-19 vaccines becoming increasingly available to all Americans and national infection rates on the decline, several large outdoor music festivals are scheduled to return this summer and fall. Most notably, Rolling Loud (Miami), Governors Ball (New York), Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival (Houston) and the Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash (Chicago) have all been rescheduled after having their 2020 editions postponed. For fans of today’s popular music, this is particularly exciting news, gi

"Slime Language 2" Leaves Emerging Rappers in the Lurch

Throughout the late 2010s, Young Thug proved himself as one of this era’s most significant rappers, shaping the genre both sonically and stylistically. While his eccentric delivery and untamed vocal inflections have inspired countless imitators, Thug has also directly promoted several relatively unknown artists by signing them to his Young Stoner Life (YSL) Records imprint under 300 Entertainment. With YSL’s latest release “Slime Language 2,” the follow-up compilation album to 2018’s “Slime Lang

In 2021, The Grammys Remain Woefully Out of Touch with Newer Styles of Rap

The 2014 Grammys featured perhaps the most stacked list of nominees for “Best Rap Album” imaginable. Between Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s instant classics “Take Care” and “good kid m.A.A.d City,” Kanye West’s then polarizing but now widely acclaimed “Yeezus,” and Jay-Z’s impressive “Magna Carta Holy Grail,” the voting committee certainly had a tough decision to make. While I hoped and expected that Kendrick Lamar would walk away with the award, I was excited by the prospect of any of these talente

“The United States vs. Billie Holiday” is a Misguided Portrayal of the Jazz Singer’s Life Story

Before her 25th birthday, jazz singer Billie Holiday had already earned a career’s worth of artistic accomplishments. After overcoming a shockingly turbulent childhood, she broke through with a number of hit recordings alongside legendary artists Benny Goodman and Lionel Hampton, toured with the nationally acclaimed Count Basie Orchestra and even appeared in a film alongside Duke Ellington. She also broke racial barriers by touring with the Artie Shaw Orchestra and becoming the first Black woman

Revaluing Cinema in the Age of Streaming Services

In a recent essay for Harper’s Magazine, Martin Scorsese delivered a scathing critique [https://harpers.org/archive/2021/03/il-maestro-federico-fellini-martin-scorsese/] of the movie streaming industry, charging that the rise of streaming has “devalued, sidelined, [and] demeaned” the “art of cinema.” While Scorsese readily admits that he has personally benefited from streaming platforms (his 2019 film “The Irishman” was released on Netflix and his next film “Killers of the Flower Moon” is set t

Spotify to Allow Artists' Enhanced Algorithm Placement in Exchange for Royalties

On Nov. 2, Spotify launched its new “Discovery Mode” program, which will allow artists to receive algorithmic boosts in exchange for reduced royalty payments. The program will affect Spotify’s personalized autoplay and radio feeds, which account for a large portion of new artist discovery on the platform. The program is optional for artists, who can select any number of their tracks to boost and opt out of the program at any time. To anyone concerned about fair compensation for musicians and t

The Rise of TikTok During the Covid-19 Pandemic

It’s no secret that Covid-19 has had devastating economic consequences for businesses and individuals. However some companies, like Amazon, Zoom, Netflix and several social media platforms, have profited greatly from government imposed quarantines. Yet, in my mind, no business has reaped the benefits of isolation more than TikTok. With everyone trapped inside since March, TikTok has been able to grow from being a sizable yet often overlooked platform to the most downloaded application [https://

Lil Uzi Vert’s Latest Album Wavers Between Contagious Energy and Disappointing Melancholy

Lil Uzi Vert, pictured above, drops long-awaited second album “Eternal Atake,” a mixed bag of both interesting and slightly weak tracks. In February 2016, emerging rapper Lil Uzi Vert appeared on radio station “Hot 97” for an interview [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq6IsU390E0]. After Uzi struggled to freestyle over the instrumental to Kanye West’s “RoboCop,” host Ebro Darden challenged the then 20-year-old rapper, predicting his career would “struggle” by the age of 27 or 28. Contrary to Dar