Marvin Gaye was a friend of mine, and he used to say, ‘Man, I wish I could sing like you, if I could have that growl in my voice.' And I said, ‘Man, are you kidding me? I want to sing like you. Everybody wants to sing like you.’ | | | | Dennis Edwards, 2nd from left, with the Temptations on "Top of the Pops," March 29, 1972.
(Ron Howard/Redferns/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “Marvin Gaye was a friend of mine, and he used to say, ‘Man, I wish I could sing like you, if I could have that growl in my voice.' And I said, ‘Man, are you kidding me? I want to sing like you. Everybody wants to sing like you.’”
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| | rantnrave:// You don't need me to tell you JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE had a problematic day to cap a problematic week in what has been a problematic year. Suffice it to say it's possible more people were rooting against JT on Sunday than were rooting against TB12, and he did not let them down. Hashtag of the day: #JANETJACKSONAppreciationDay. Headline over CHRIS RICHARDS' brutal teardown in the WASHINGTON POST: "This is how JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE lost the SUPER BOWL." All this for a dizzyingly programmed and choreographed halftime show that was flawlessly executed—shoutout to the crew that had to build that stage in less than 9 minutes—but which carried less weight than a deflated football and which found Timberlake striking a few, um, curious poses. There was a duet with a not-quite-hologram of PRINCE, which seemed designed as much to prove Timberlake's bona fides as to honor Prince and MINNEAPOLIS. And a long snippet of his own "ROCK YOUR BODY" which served, intentionally or not, to dishonor Janet Jackson, who was famously standing next to him the last time he sang that one in the middle of a February football game. A selfish performance, and not just because he invited no guests. Also: boring. A pop singer's greatest crime... But should the internet, and the rest of the world, maybe ease up on Justin Timberlake? Perhaps. I'm sympathetic to UPROXX editor PHILIP COSORES' complaint about pop's "Takedown Culture." People can be mean. Collectives of people can be meaner. Mea culpa. But there's a reason Sunday was #JanetJacksonAppreciationDay and not #JustinTimberlakeAppreciationDay. Just sayin'... PINK though... You can count on less than one hand the number of major bands who have replaced a lead singer at the peak of their fame and upgraded themselves in the process. In fact, the TEMPTATIONS might be the only one. The replacement was DENNIS EDWARDS, who took over for DAVID RUFFIN in 1968 and had a lot to do with turning a great MOTOWN 1.0 band into a great Motown 2.0 band. Along with producer NORMAN WHITFIELD, Edwards was responsible for a good deal of the psychedelic soul of late '60s/early '70s masterpieces like "CLOUD NINE," "BALL OF CONFUSION" and "PAPA WAS A ROLLIN' STONE." Plus, he was the kind of dude who, when Ruffin bumrushed the stage a few times after he was fired to try to reclaim the lead microphone, would generous stepped aside and let Ruffin have at it. That's what cool looks like. And sounds like. RIP... RIP also LEON "NDUGU" CHANCLER, a jazz, funk and R&B drummer who played with MILES DAVIS, THELONIOUS MONK, JAMES BROWN and scores more, and whose obits will all note, not incidentally, that he laid down the beat for "BILLIE JEAN." Or, as QUESTLOVE puts it in a lovely tribute, he "literally gives MJ his dna"... Embattled RECORDING ACADEMY president NEIL PORTNOW on Friday announced an "independent task force" to "identify where we can do more to overcome the explicit barriers and unconscious biases that impede female advancement in the music community." Minutes later, a group of powerful women in the business called for his resignation... SPOTIFY adds writer and producer credits... BEST BUY subtracts CDs... The SPICE GIRLS are up to something. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| | | we walk the streets at night |
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 | Complete Music Update |
| Major entertainment award ceremonies have come in for much scrutiny and criticism for their diversity -- or a lack thereof -- in recent years. None more so than the Grammy Awards. | | |
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 | The Ringer |
| An ode to one of Motown’s psychedelic soul stars. | | |
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 | Slate |
| "When he was really young, I'd put him on stage," says Ed Hamell of his son Detroit. "I put him in a chair next to me on stage. He was with me all the time. Remember that kid that got eaten at Disneyland, by the alligator? That would never have happened on my watch. | | |
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 | The Washington Post |
| A review of the pop superstar's underwhelming halftime show. | | |
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 | Medium |
| Thoughts on our exploitation of black bodies, in music, on the football field, and in ads. | | |
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 | PBS |
| Nas teamed up with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., to stage a symphonic rendition of “Illmatic,” one of the most revered albums in hip-hop history. The concert film "Great Performances — Nas Live From the Kennedy Center: Classical Hip-Hop" captures the energy and nostalgia of this collaborative performance. | | |
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 | HipHopDX |
| Chicago Hip Hop blogger Andrew Barber went from grinding alongside his favorite small-time rappers to joining them as they celebrated their massive success. | | |
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 | The New Yorker |
| A new documentary rightfully marvels at the brothers’ ongoing coöperation as they navigate family life, touring, illness, marriage, and the writing and recording of their ninth album. | | |
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 | PopMatters |
| Among Jamaicans it's generally felt that if a Marley is in the running, they're pretty much guaranteed to win, no matter if their album is "savage, average, or garbage". | | |
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| Slate |
| Few things are more gratifying than calling out world-famous pop stars for lip-syncing their shows. But how can you tell? | | |
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 | Remezcla |
| As a new wave of highly marketable pop-reggaeton has taken hold of the music industry, the artists at the forefront of the movement have started to look less and less like the genre’s pioneers. | | |
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| Medium |
| Or, “on how women and rhythm and blues have saved the day…” | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| More than 11 years after the Godfather of Soul’s death, his hope of providing for underprivileged children remains entangled by conflict and lawsuits. | | |
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 | recode |
| CEO Patrick Spence explains Sonos’ answer to Apple, Amazon and Google on the latest episode of Too Embarrassed to Ask. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| The guy who sang “Let’s Marvin Gaye and get it on” wants to put his cheeseball past in the rearview. The new Charlie Puth is penning sleek, “s***-talking” hits in the pursuit of Range Rovers, Porsches and “freshly cut fruits.” | | |
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 | Consequence of Sound |
| By padding their “playlists” with filler, artists try to game a system rigged against them. | | |
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 | New York Post |
| You can still hear it blasting out of classic rock and golden oldies stations all over the world, and against all odds, Toto's "Africa" has become a millennial anthem 35 years later. The rousing rocker is enjoying a second life thanks in part to the internet, and web users have embraced the song as a guilty pleasure. | | |
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 | Fact Magazine |
| As Brian Eno's ambient classic "Music For Airports" turns 40 this year, Lawrence English examines the genre's impact, its initial manifesto and where it can go as it struggles past its mid-life crisis. | | |
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 | The Root |
| I'll start with a disclaimer: I'm an old hip-hop head. I am thirty-*coughs and crumples paper while driving under a bridge* years old and I am set in my taste similar to how white people describe their racist parents as being "set in their ways." | | |
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 | UPROXX |
| From Elton John to Ozzy Osbourne, many of the stalwarts of ’60s and ’70s rock and starting to hang it up. | | |
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 | YouTube |
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