At a record store in Denver in July, a well-intentioned fan yelled out during a break in Gracie Abrams’ short acoustic set: “Congrats on your Grammy nomination!” The only problem? “I-I don’t have a Grammy nomination,” Abrams responded kindly, part-confused and part-appreciative that her fans would manifest that for her. …
Read More »
When DPR Ian said farewell to his career in the K-pop-idol group C-Clown in late 2015, his future was vague. “Right about the time C-Clown split up, I was already invested in videography,” says Ian, who (under the name Rome) had been the leader and rapper of the moderately successful …
Read More »
Pharrell‘s Something in the Water music festival returned for the second time ever this weekend, bringing three days of music to Washington, D.C. for Juneteenth weekend. The location was new: Pharrell moved his festival to D.C. after criticizing the “toxic energy” of the local government in his hometown of Virginia …
Read More »
D uring breaks from her recent Rolling Stone photo shoot, Jennie Kim could more than once be spotted walking arm in arm with staffers from YG Entertainment, Blackpink’s label and management company. “I talk to her often about my own problems,” says stylist Park Minhee, who’s known Blackpink since before …
Read More »
Ukrainian pop star Max Barskih’s last single, released in a more peaceful time — November 2021, to be precise — was a vaguely Ed Sheeran-esque breakup ballad called “Tequila Sunrise,” complete with a video where he danced shirtless atop a barroom table. Three months later, Russian troops invaded his country. …
Read More »
D.C. born, New York-based underground rapper billy woods specializes in music about poor city dwellers, sadistic police, and conniving landlords. Woods, who prefers his name to be all lowercase and his face never shown, raps like he’s omnipresent, watching an unlivable society from the sky; his music vividly evokes the …
Read More »
It’s a gray April morning in a sleepy town outside Boston, and Chadwick Stokes is in the wood-walled studio above his garage, reworking a song he wrote decades ago. “The General” tells the tale of a Civil War veteran who has a dream that makes him realize the futility of …
Read More »
As soon as Kevin Greene got up to speak, he noticed people walking out. Greene was in Washington D.C., about to begin his presentation on Black music, copyright law, and social justice at the annual conference for the Association of American Law Schools in the mid-2000s, when he saw a …
Read More »
For this year’s Icons & Influences issue, we asked 10 artists to pay tribute to the women who have shaped their sound, provided an example, and inspired them to break down barriers. Benin-born singer Angélique Kidjo remembers her “musical mother,” the late South African artist-activist Miriam Makeba. The first time …
Read More »
In the fall of 2020, while quarantined and bored, Gavin Ruta and Carlos Juico started a podcast. Friends since St. Mary Catholic Secondary School in Pickering, outside of Toronto, the two figured they’d mostly talk about streetwear. Then, while recording the first episode, Juico offhandedly mentioned a conspiracy theory he’d …
Read More »