You’ve got to respect the gift God gave you by learning your craft. | | | | An American messenger in Paris: Art Blakey in 1965.
(Herve Gloaguen/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “You’ve got to respect the gift God gave you by learning your craft.”
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| | rantnrave:// It's BLACK HISTORY MONTH and we lost a tangible part of black music history on Thursday. LOVEBUG STARSKI was present at pretty much the beginning of the beginning of hip-hop, running parties and freestyling in the Bronx in the mid-'70s and DJ'ing at the Bronx club DISCO FEVER. And then, along with COWBOY from GRANDMASTER FLASH AND THE FURIOUS FIVE, he gave the music its name. There are competing stories and claims on the birth of the name "hip-hop" but, as with any good myth, the differing details circle around the same basic legend. Starski has said "hip, hop, hippy to the hippy hop-bop" was a nursery-rhyme-like line he used to rap at parties. In COWBOY's telling, it dates to a farewell party for a friend of theirs who was joining the army. Mimicking an army march, he chanted "hip-hop-hip-hop-hip-hop" from the stage. Starski could finish either story by saying he and Cowboy, who were friends, started playing around with the words as a call-and-response. "I'd say the 'hip,' he'd say the 'hop.' And then he stopped doing it, and I kept doing it." Maybe Cowboy would flip that ending, but it's the same story either way. And like Starski, it don't stop. Starski never enjoyed the notoriety of contemporaries like Grandmaster Flash and AFRIKA BAMBAATAA, but that doesn't diminish his pioneering role. As a bonus, his "YOU'VE GOTTA BELIEVE" single, released in 1982, had an unexpected influence outside hip-hop. JOHNNY MARR, a fan, borrowed its main riff for the SMITHS' "HOW SOON IS NOW?" Cultural miscegenation at its best. KEVIN "LOVEBUG" SMITH was "One Of Our Greatest Pioneers," DJ PREMIER wrote Thursday. RIP... Thirty-eight men, including SCOOTER BRAUN, PETER MENSCH, JUSTIN TRANTER, RANDY JACKSON and TOM WINDISH, add to the pressure on NEIL PORTNOW... SHARON OSBOURNE kindly requests that AEG LIVE stop "blackmailing" her husband into playing the STAPLES CENTER in LA on his farewell tour... The OLYMPIC figure skating competition begins today, and this is the first Games at which skaters will be allowed to use music with vocals. MALAYSIA's JULIAN YEE will skate his long program to a JAMES BROWN medley. AMERICAN ADAM RIPPON—who became national political news this week—recently skated to his own cover (yes that should probably be illegal) of RIHANNA's "DIAMONDS" before deciding "trashy" (his word) club music would work better (yes MusicREDEF is officially rooting for him). On Thursday, meanwhile, the NORTH KOREAN SAMJIYON ORCHESTRA performed its first concert in SOUTH KOREA, mixing Korean folk and pop songs with classical pieces. Cultural diplomacy at its best. Need a K-pop primer to help get you through the next two weeks? Here you go... It's FRIDAY and that means the BLACK PANTHER soundtrack is here, along with new music from DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL, SHIRT, MGMT, NIKLAS PASCHBURG, TAL NATIONAL, MARK BATTLES, 2 CHAINZ, PALM, BRIAN FALLON, FRANZ FERDINAND, LEGEND OF THE SEAGULLMEN, LARA DOWNES, RUBY BOOTS, EZRA FURMAN, SON LUX, NANA MOUSKOURI, REFRIGERATOR, GOOD TIGER and FBI agent FOX MULDER... RIP MICKEY JONES and PAT TORPEY.
| | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | Pitchfork |
| Slayer is one of those bands that people who know nothing about metal know about. Do you know how hard that is to do (and still sound good)? | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| Drew Findling, a criminal defense lawyer in the hip-hop capital, has become an advocate and father figure for rappers like Offset, of Migos, and Gucci Mane. | | |
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 | Nashville Scene |
| History is still being made at 30 Music Square West thanks to modern classics by Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell and others. | | |
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 | SPIN |
| Vice has turned the rapper Action Bronson into a television star, but in conversations with Spin, over a dozen sources at the company say his disruptive presence and rude behavior is everything they're seeking to eradicate from the company. | | |
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 | Variety |
| "Red Right Hand" has built up a formidable second act in sync. | | |
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 | Slate |
| Featuring Jian Hong Shi, age 15, grade 10. | | |
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 | The Independent |
| The Gaslight Anthem frontman on his new solo album 'Sleepwalkers', the ''59 Sound' anniversary, and how he finally learned how to ignore the bad and embrace the good | | |
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 | Hypebot |
| While the Music Modernization Act to revamp music copyright has its critics, most in the industry support it. Here, Sound Royalties' Alex Heiche explores the objections in detail, and finds most insufficient to dampen enthusiasm for the bipartisan legislation. | | |
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 | Pollstar |
| Moderator Jason Hirschhorn led a discussion that surely left audience members inspired to follow the leads of the panelists and do their part to make the world a better place, whether it’s by feeding the hungry and like Bon Jovi, assisting cancer patients and like Osbourne, helping underserved students like Braun, or making a difference through music like Harris. | | |
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 | Big Questions With Cal Fussman |
| In a year filled with terrorist attacks and natural disasters, Scooter Braun is pushed to get the most out of himself. | | |
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 | Complex |
| Hip-hop is an art form that carries multiple dimensions, and believe it or not, it often has nice things to say about women. Take a look at (and listen to) our picks, and don’t forget to show the ladies in your life some love. | | |
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 | The Guardian |
| Of all the great pop stars, she is the least diva-like - the one who most seems like a regular person. | | |
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 | BBC Radio 4 |
| Google's new rules on ticket resale websites have come into force, aiming to help prevent buyers being exploited. | | |
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 | Mixmag |
| If you're playing in a pair, this is essential reading. | | |
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 | Dancing Astronaut |
| Ibiza's latest nightlife crackdown illustrates daunting realities about the Balearic utopia. | | |
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 | Polyphonic |
| To understand "Wish You Were Here," we need to know the story of Syd Barrett. | | |
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 | Talkhouse |
| Basinski works with decaying analogue tape loops to create ambient soundscapes, while Jlin constructs brilliant, stuttering reimaginings of footwork rhythms. The friends and collaborators sat down in the Sonos room at Rough Trade NYC for one of three conversations that Talkhouse curated for Northside Festival. | | |
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| The New York Times |
| Mr. Buffett, who has a new Broadway show, “Escape to Margaritaville,” built a half-billion-dollar empire on his laid-back beach brand. But he’s all business now. | | |
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 | The Ringer |
| The Brit pop icons of girl power are reuniting for a U.K.-U.S. tour. How can they make sure it goes better than their past few public appearances? | | |
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| Pollstar |
| A recent string of high-profile acts announcing they would soon be hanging up their road hats – including Elton John, Paul Simon, Neil Diamond, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Slayer– prompted us to take a look into the phenomenon of the “farewell tour.” | | |
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 | YouTube |
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