Music

Why Nadia Rose put her ‘finger up’ to music bosses

By Gertrude Aziz 1 week ago

Rose raps and sings over a mix of hip-hop, grime, drill and dancehall beats on her latest EP
Rose raps and sings over a mix of hip-hop, grime, drill and dancehall beats on her latest EP

When Nadia Rose and her “Skwod” of dancers descended on the streets of London in her Mobo Award-winning 2016 music video, it looked for all the world like one of the UK’s hottest new hip-hop/grime acts had arrived.

The south London rapper, who drew easy comparisons to her heroes Missy Elliot and Eminem, finished fifth on the BBC Sound of 2017 list; before her debut EP, Highly Flammable, introduced listeners to more of her wickedly funny wordplay.

But as the grime scene caught fire, hitting the mainstream, the heat around Rose’s career curiously cooled.

Now, several years on, as she returns with her “outlandish” follow-up EP, First Class – via her own new label, Qwerky Entertainment – the 27-year-old tells the BBC about the “incredibly frustrating” machinations of the music industry that

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Music Magnate Jimmy Iovine Is Wading Into the Fashion Business

By Gertrude Aziz 4 weeks ago

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Will music business icon Jimmy Iovine become fashion’s next mogul? Iovine announced this week that he and his wife Liberty Ross, a model and actress, have made a majority investment in ready-to-wear women’s fashion brand The Vampire’s Wife. The news comes three months after FaZe Clan, an online retailer of sports-centric clothing, closed a $40 million round of funding led by Iovine.

The Vampire’s Wife is a U.K.-based company created by model-turned-designer Susie Cave, wife of beloved alternative rock troubadour Nick Cave, who helps name her dresses. “I know more about music and tech and different things like that than I know about fashion, but I do know a bankable artist when I see one,” Iovine tells Rolling Stone. “Susie is as much of an artist as the great women I’ve worked with, including Stevie Nicks and Patti Smith.”

More from Rolling Stone

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Interviewing the music icon was like talking to a ‘really cool, funny’ grandpa

By Gertrude Aziz 1 month ago

“People ask me all the time, ‘Where do you like to play?’ I say, anywhere I can get grits for breakfast. I don’t think that’s a problem in Montgomery,” Charlie Daniels told me with a laugh four years ago.

I’m sure they’ve got grits in heaven, too.

We lost a country rocking, fiddle playing icon this week when Daniels died Monday at 83 in Hermitage, Tennessee from a hemorrhagic stroke.

READ MORE: Country Music Hall of Fame member Charlie Daniels dies at 83

Allen Sanders, general manager at the Montgomery Performing Arts Centre, said he’d worked on and off with Daniels for about 15 years.

Charlie Daniels, left, with Allen Sanders, general manager of the Montgomery Performing Arts Centre, prior to Daniels MPAC concert on Aug. 2, 2019.
Charlie Daniels, left, with Allen Sanders, general manager of the Montgomery Performing Arts Centre, prior to Daniels MPAC concert on Aug. 2, 2019.

“He was a gentle, soft spoken, authentic genuine man,” Sanders said. “He was always very gracious for the shows we did together.

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ITV Studios, BMG Partner on Production Music Label and Online Platform

By Gertrude Aziz 1 month ago

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Bertelsmann-backed BMG Music and ITV Studios have struck a partnership that will see the German music publisher become the go-to partner for the “Love Island” and “Bodyguard” producer-distributor’s business spanning production music, records, publishing and synch.

The deal includes a global music publishing and administration agreement for future commissioned music, as well as the launch of a joint venture production music label and the development of a customized online platform.

More from Variety

The BMG-created platform will be a top music delivery system serving as a one-stop shop for ITV Studios’ creative teams. The platform will host ITV’s commissioned music, music from the new joint venture production music label, as well as BMG Production Music’s broader catalogue offering. The portal will also provide a direct link for ITV Studios’ creative teams to browse and search across BMG’s synch catalogue.

Under the deal, ITV

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The Pandemic Is Still Killing People. Why Is Country Music Putting on Concerts?

By Gertrude Aziz 1 month ago

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Last Saturday, Chase Rice played a concert in Petros, Tennessee, for nearly 1,000 smiling fans. You could tell they were smiling because virtually none of them were wearing masks.

Photos and videos of the gig showing concertgoers packed in tight by the stage — some of them shared by Rice himself — went viral over the weekend. “We back,” Rice wrote over an Instagram video of fans cheering and potentially spewing COVID-19 droplets into the air at the Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, a historic site and concert venue about three hours east of Nashville.

More from Rolling Stone

On the same night — 2,000 miles away at the Hwy 30 Music Fest in Filer, Idaho —  Chris Janson was performing his own concert without apparent social-distancing precautions. The “Buy Me a Boat” singer — who called for the economy to reopen in April

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JoJo Siwa responds to accusations of blackface in music video

By Gertrude Aziz 2 months ago

JoJo Siwa is setting the record straight regarding accusations that she featured a dancer wearing blackface in her new music video for her song “Nonstop.”

The 17-year-old “Boomerang” singer and former “Dance Moms” star posted a message on Instagram Friday explaining that the dancer in question was dressed up as a circus animal to go along with the video’s big top theme and wasn’t wearing blackface.

“I need to set the record straight about a few things because some have been irresponsible in recent stories and posts about me, and everyone seems to rush to conclusions without having all of the facts,” Siwa posted.

The big bow-wearing star, known for her appearances on YouTube and hosting kid-friendly shows on Nickelodeon, said she experienced backlash from haters that devolved into criticism of her appearance and sexuality over a costume that was in not intended to depict race.

“My instagram post yesterday

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Brittany Howard Got Personal, and Now Her Music Is More Political Than Ever

By Gertrude Aziz 2 months ago

For Pride 2020, GQ’s Give It Up series invites influential artists and athletes to shine a spotlight on charities that are important to them. If you feel inspired—give!

Brittany Howard has never let the world dictate her fate. In her still-young career, her musical outpouring has been relentless: she’s formed three bands (Alabama Shakes, Thunderbitch, and Bermuda Triangle), released four albums (two with the Shakes, one with Thunderbitch, and a recent solo record, Jaime), and worked herself into a dizzy, dripping fever on countless stages. Each successive project has marked a step in a new direction, but none more so than, Jaime, her first nakedly autobiographical album.

Though Howard’s prior music had been personal to varying degrees, Jaime was the sort of work that only she could make, and that she could only make alone. Named after her sister who died of cancer as a teenager, it faced

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Entrepreneur, musician Dae-Lee strives to make Charlotte’s music scene more inclusive

By Gertrude Aziz 2 months ago

David “Dae-Lee” Arrington doesn’t fit into any one box: He’s a creative entrepreneur who owns two businesses, co-founded a nonprofit, and writes, produces and performs original music.

He draws upon his faith and his experiences growing up in a low-income Black neighborhood and later moving to a predominately white one in Charlotte.

“I went from the corner of my neighborhood in Norfolk, Va. to the cul-de-sacs of Ballantyne in Charlotte,” said Arrington, 38. “It was a 180-flip for me.”

The need to connect people drives Arrington to make music and start organizations that support relationship building and expose people to differences.

“I believe we are better together and that comes from my journey of living on both sides of the track,” he said. “I’m a bridge builder. It’s very much a part of me to leverage the power of art to bridge what is divided, whether it’s people, culture or

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Music Biz College Graduates Keep Their Heads up, Despite Grim Job Market

By Gertrude Aziz 2 months ago

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Genna Batson, who graduated last month from Syracuse University’s Bandier Program with a music business degree, was about as poised for a career in the concert industry as a senior without a nepotistic benefactor could be. She’d focused on the touring business early in her college days, serving as talent buyer and co-director of the school’s concert board, and held internships at industry titans Live Nation, Red Light Management and Superfly, where last summer she interned as a sponsorship coordinator for the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco. She’d secured a contracted position for this summer in the same role, and a permanent job looked promising.

But then came the pandemic, which in a matter of days flattened the entire concert industry — the financial engine of the music business, which touring trade Pollstar had projected would generate $12.2 billion in box office

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