Swinging Modern Sounds: Observations on the Occasion of a 100th Column
The clash of opinions about music is music itself.
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Posts Tagged: Kendrick Lamar
The Rumpus Book Club Chat with Tracy O’Neill
Tracy O’Neill discusses her new novel QUOTIENTS.
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To Pimp a Mockingbird: A Lesson Plan
Literacy, you know firsthand, is a tool, is a motivator, is the beat of education.
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The Good, the Bad, and the Unf*ckwittable: Talking with Ron A. Austin
Ron A. Austin discusses his debut novel, AVERY COLT IS A THIEF, A SNAKE, A LIAR.
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Swinging Modern Sounds #96: Voices of Displacement
Thank God music has wings and it can fly wherever, even countries we can’t reach.
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An Arduous Reality: Testify by Simone John
Simone John’s first full-length collection of poems, Testify, is a remarkable exercise in documentary poetics.
...moreAlbum of the Week: Take Me Apart by Kelela
“The reality is that the way that I’m expressing myself on this record is coming from a place of vulnerability that is very much in the tradition of R&B.”
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Swinging Modern Sounds #82: Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark: A Symposium
…yet she did what she did, and in the process made the most successful album of her career.
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Slang and Swagger: Riffing with Jeff Chang
Jeff Chang discusses his latest book, We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation, his work in hip-hip journalism, and the beauty and humanity of political protest.
...moreAlbum of the Week: Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN.
With rumors and speculation about another new record dropping on the second Coachella weekend flying, Kendrick Lamar’s fourth studio album DAMN. (out via TDE/ Interscope) has already established itself as an instant classic. Lamar, who prefers to identify as musician and a writer rather than a rapper, called his album “Very urgent.” DAMN. is a […]
...moreThe Rumpus Interview with Rion Amilcar Scott
Rion Amilcar Scott discusses his story collection Insurrections, father relationships, hip-hop, knowing when to abandon a project, and choosing not to workshop certain stories.
...moreThis Week in Posivibes: A Frank Ocean Bonanza
It’s not hyperbole to say that everyone is losing their minds over Frank Ocean’s release of Endless, Blonde, and Boys Don’t Cry Magazine. After a four-year wait between albums, this outpouring offers a lot of incredible material to unpack. Blonde’s credit list alone makes perfect fodder for music writers, listing David Bowie, Brian Eno, Kanye West, Jamie xx, Kendrick Lamar, Elliott Smith, Beyoncé, the Beatles, André 3000, and Pharrell, among others. Add in Ocean’s […]
...moreThe Fire Every Time
“Will the world my pains deride forever?” At Lit Hub, Precious Rasheeda Muhammad traces the lineage of black protest writing from W.E.B. De Bois to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to Kendrick Lamar: how the layers of subtext in each iteration work to be felt so powerfully.
...moreThis Week in Posivibes: Songs for Survival
In addition to his song “Spiritual,” which deals with the issue of police brutality, Jay Z has released a playlist of songs to get us through the crushing violence lately exposed by social media. “Songs for Survival” includes music by Beyoncé, Curtis Mayfield, James Brown, Common, Outkast, Gil Scott-Heron, Fela Kuti, Kendrick Lamar, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, Kanye West, and others. You can listen to […]
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Swinging Modern Sounds #73: Prince Rogers Nelson, Guitar Player: A Symposium
I started thinking about additional, more slantwise ways we might talk about his legacy. What if I organized a bunch of guitar players?
...moreA Language Only We Can Hear
Kendrick Lamar’s debut album “Good Kid, M.A.D.D. City” contains the basic, essential elements of a novel: a protagonist faced with an antagonistic outer world, plot and its arc—from opening scene to crisis to climax on down to denouement, a narrative connected through scenes, and character development and expression through dialogue. It follows the structure of […]
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The Read Along: Omar Musa
In the second installment of The Read Along, Omar Musa shares how airplane delays can lead to productive reading sessions and how easy it is to get sucked into Internet wormholes about geodesic domes.
...moreDr. Dre and N.W.A., Reunited
No lie. In what was the closest the living world will ever get to a full-fledged N.W.A. reunion, Dr. Dre joined Ice Cube, DJ Yella, and MC Ren at Coachella to perform “Still D.R.E.” Kendrick Lamar accompanied them as well, Vulture reports. Watch the videos after the jump.
...moreThis Week in Posivibes: Anna Wise
Anna Wise, the Grammy winner formerly of Sonnymoon who has collaborated with Kendrick Lamar, released a new video that sums up pretty beautifully a core reason for the continued importance of feminist discussion today: after all the work that has been done, women are still apt to fall subject to the frigid/fast binary. She says […]
...moreTrump Rally Halted by Hip-Hop
The nominee’s scheduled event at Chicago on Friday night was cancelled due to the overwhelming attendance of protesters chanting lyrics to Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright.” Trump may still be steamrolling his way into other cities and we don’t condone any violence that may have occurred in the rally, but it’s nice to see ignorance cower in the […]
...moreThis Week in Posivibes: untitled unmastered
Kendrick Lamar has released a new album, untitled unmastered. The album was a surprise, although the artist performed some of its songs last year on The Colbert Report and this past January on The Tonight Show. The album is available via iTunes (along with just about every other online music retailer). The full album is also available to stream from Spotify.
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The Saturday Rumpus Interview: Angela Flournoy
My ambition is personal. I don’t think I need to succeed so that the race can succeed.
...moreDrake Shares “Summer Sixteen”
Drake shared the song “Summer Sixteen” on the latest episode of OVO Sound Radio, Pitchfork reports. Among other things, the track calls out President Obama in reference to the Commander-In-Chief publicly declaring his preference for Kendrick Lamar, saying, “To do what you couldn’t do/ Tell Obama that my verses are like the whips at the end/ […]
...moreObama Answers the Big Question
Kendrick or Drake? YouTube vlogger Adande Thorne asked President Obama the big question, and Obama went with Kendrick Lamar. “Got to go with Kendrick,” President Obama responded, as reported Consequence of Sound. The President continued to say, “I think Drake is an outstanding entertainer, but Kendrick—his lyrics, his last album was outstanding. Best album of […]
...moreWhat Hip-Hop Owes David Bowie
The Internet has been (rightfully) full of David Bowie tributes in the last week, including a series of pieces about the icon’s influence on hip-hop music. Noisey traced Bowie’s public admiration for hip-hop, beginning with the 1993 clip of Bowie asking MTV why the network wasn’t featuring black artists that went viral following his death, […]
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Sound & Vision: Tony Visconti
Legendary producer Tony Visconti talks to Allyson McCabe about working with David Bowie, his own touring musical super-group Holy Holy, and his thoughts on the music industry today.
...moreThis Week in Posivibes: One More (Great) List
Aquarium Drunkard put out their list of 2015 favorites and like many things they do, it’s pretty comprehensive, respectable, and a great way to catch great music that you’ve missed. Included in the list are Jessica Pratt, Yo La Tengo, Destroyer, Joanna Newsom, Kendrick Lamar, Lead Belly, Drinks, The Mantles, The Staple Singers, Father John Misty, […]
...moreFunk Will Never Die
George Clinton spoke to VICE about his work with WOKE, Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly, and how “funk is always gonna survive.” Read the full interview here.
...moreKendrick Lamar and J. Cole Collaboration
The rumors circulating about a collaboration between Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole may have been confirmed: in a post highlighting the freestyles that the two rappers put out in honor of Black Friday, Lamar’s sister might have accidentally leaked info about a song, or an album, or something, coming out this February. The related posts have […]
...moreKendrick Lamar and His Orchestra
If, like us, and you were unable to score a ticket to see Kendrick Lamar perform with the National Symphony Orchestra this week, you can watch him thanks to a series of clips posted by The Fader. Watch one after the jump.
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