He's talking about an 'us.' I would die for you. Let's go crazy. Take me with you. It's a generous record. He's happy to be alive. He's happy to be 24. He clearly loves people. He's not a sexual predator. He's not talking about 'I will conquer you,' with that braggadocio of young men. There's us, and we're having fun. | | | | Prince at Wembley Arena, London, Aug. 14, 1986.
(David Corio/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “He's talking about an 'us.' I would die for you. Let's go crazy. Take me with you. It's a generous record. He's happy to be alive. He's happy to be 24. He clearly loves people. He's not a sexual predator. He's not talking about 'I will conquer you,' with that braggadocio of young men. There's us, and we're having fun.”
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| | rantnrave:// PRINCE ROGERS NELSON died a year ago today. It's the one loss, in a year full of loss, that I remain unable to process, the one that leaves me most lost. The one I manage to forget every night and remember, with a purple tear or two, every morning. It feels like he's still here. His spirit (see the above quote of the day from his longtime engineer SUSAN ROGERS) was, and is, overwhelming. (Actually, read that whole interview with Susan Rogers; it's amazing.) While corporations big and small squabble over his estate and his music—please make it all better, TROY CARTER—there's nothing I want to do today except celebrate, and remember exactly why I want to forget. I am, obviously, not alone in this. According to BILLBOARD, Prince sold more albums in 2016 than anybody else, even ADELE. YOUTUBE, which he zealously policed in his lifetime, has become a treasure chest of purple music (and, yes, there are valid questions about whether it's appropriate to click into that treasure chest). Prince kept a lot of that music locked away in his infamous VAULT; in its first deep posthumous dive into the Vault, WARNER BROS. will release an album's worth of songs from it as part of its deluxe reissue of PURPLE RAIN. The REVOLUTION on Thursday began a spring tour in which they're reviving the '80s classics they recorded and played live with him. Prince was, in the words of PITCHFORK's STEPHEN THOMAS ERLEWINE, a "queen-maker" who "made too much music for one person," and you could make a great case for his career based solely on his composing credits for SHEILA E., SHEENA EASTON, the BANGLES, SINEAD O'CONNOR, KENNY ROGERS (hi mom), MARTIKA and, well, it's a long article, there are a lot of names to talk about. (But not the VIOLENT FEMMES, who said no to "WONDERFUL ASS," which Prince tried to gift to them, and, lord, how to do you explain that to your grandchildren?) But, anyway, he didn't make too much music for you and me. And today we celebrate... Better than any rap battle ever: a venue war between LA's STAPLES CENTER and THE FORUM that also involves MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, the O2 ARENA and more. IRVING AZOFF, whose portfolio includes the Forum and MSG, weighs in with a delicious response... TAYLOR SWIFT on ED SHEERAN, for TIME's "100 Most Influential" list... And COMMON on CHANCE THE RAPPER... It's FRIDAY and that means new music from ANGALEENA PRESLEY, CHARLY BLISS, RAY DAVIES, MR. MITCH, BRAD PAISLEY, BARRY MANILOW, JOE GODDARD, BLACK ANGELS, VALGEIR SIGURDSSON, CHARLIE WORSHAM, IMELDA MAY, SHERYL CROW, J DILLA, SAMUEL ROHRER, ROBYN HITCHOCK, COIN, OVERCOATS and INCUBUS... RIP CUBA GOODING SR. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | Billboard |
| A-list artists choosing Staples over The Forum can forget about playing Madison Square Garden, as Irving Azoff and Jay Marciano clash over exclusives. | | |
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 | The Ringer |
| The opinionated host breaks down Beats 1’s role in the streaming wars. | | |
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 | The Undefeated |
| The only thing wilder than Death Row Records’ rise was its public and violent fall. | | |
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 | Pitchfork |
| Sunday mornings at this evangelical mega-church in North Carolina can look-and sound-more like a rock concert than a typical service. | | |
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 | REDEF |
| My name is Prince: singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer, one-man band. Master of funk, soul man, rock and roller, pop star, jammer. Read, watch, listen, drool. | | |
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 | attention econo.me |
| Labels should love the music-as-a-service world. Why don’t they? | | |
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 | Los Angeles Times |
| To make their third album, the members of the xx wanted to get out of their native London to see how a change of scenery might affect the trio’s music. | | |
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 | Consequence of Sound |
| The dance-rock icons talk about their evolution as both a live act and a studio band. | | |
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 | Thump |
| We talked to the legendary composer about his recent Coachella debut, 'The Lion King,' and avoiding Hollywood typecasting. | | |
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 | Variety |
| Musician Graham Nash has been very vocal in the last two years about his anger with bandmate David Crosby over a series of personal clashes, so much so that fans of 1960s supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young had all but given up hope of a reunion. | | |
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| Pitchfork |
| Prince changed countless careers besides his own, building entire acts, writing under pseudonyms, and rewiring the pop songbook. | | |
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| The Ringer |
| The Atlanta rapper’s bombastic ‘Back to the Basics’ project is well worth half an hour of your time. | | |
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| Billboard |
| Spotify and independent label organization Merlin have agreed to a multi-year licensing agreement that ensures an uninterrupted flow of music from non-majors to the music streaming leader, plus extends to Melin members the same flexible release option that was core to a recent deal with Universal Music Group. | | |
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 | Fact Magazine |
| Oli Warwick investigates whether the recent resurgence of interest in vinyl is having a negative impact on the sale of new music as reissues fill shelves. | | |
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 | Pigeons & Planes |
| Designers and A&Rs for Lil Yachty, Young Thug, 6lack, Kodak Black, Odd Future, and more weigh in on the importance of cover art in 2017. | | |
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 | Vulture |
| At first glance, "DAMN.," the fourth and latest opus from Kendrick Lamar, doesn’t seem as much of a group effort as his previous works. Compared to his last album, 2015’s "To Pimp a Butterfly," it has a fraction of the featured guest artists and a shorter run time. But a look at the 14 one-word-titled songs that comprise "DAMN." doesn’t tell the whole story. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| At the University of Tennessee Knoxville, an honors seminar on the country music star was conceived as a fresh approach to 20th century history. | | |
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 | The Reykjavik Grapevine |
| “Welcome to Iceland. Don’t like the weather? Wait fifteen minutes.” So goes the clichéd joke about Iceland’s capricious meteorological tendencies--windy and wet one moment, sunny and still the next, but never comfortable enough for shorts. | | |
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 | Heavy Blog Is Heavy |
| Linkin Park are pop now. With their last three tracks -- “Heavy,’’ “Battle Symphony’’ and “Good Goodbye’’ -- they are one step closer to becoming an all-out boyband. Even for a band who are hated by a significant portion of metal circles, the new tracks have incurred the wrath and mockery of haters and fans alike. But it’s not that much of a grand departure either. | | |
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 | NPR |
| "The Simpsons" has won tons of TV awards in its 30-year run. But the sitcom's music has had its share of success on the Billboard charts, too. | | |
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 | YouTube |
| | | | Prince and the Revolution |
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| © Copyright 2017, The REDEF Group |
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