“I’ve never doubted the power of music to cure, heal and make sense of things” Jean-Paul “Bluey” Maunick has always given credit to the music from the beaches of Mauritius for being the nucleus of the Incognito sound. The Sega music he heard during his youth started his visceral understanding of music’s power to heal [...]
“No matter who it is there’s this common denominator that I’m trying to get to and I think a lot of artists are doing that. I’d love to see them all leave the margins or everyone else step into the margins and be comfortable there and have a party there.” Tunde Olaniran’s thunderous dance music [...]
Two weeks ago Etta James’s death announcement went viral and her name appeared in as many urban blogs as mainstream news organizations as if she were an artist of more recent times than the ‘50’s. Beyonce’s portrayal of her time at Chess Records in the loosely autobiographical “Cadillac Records” reinvigorated James’ pop culture stock and [...]
“I just want to be able to show people not to always look at things as necessarily being bad but as something to show how strong you are how powerful you are” Eleven years ago DE’Aundre Bonds struck fortune and tragedy at the same time by gaining the most important role of his career and [...]
I love Kanye he really inspires me. Anyone who’s kind of taking on life with freedom inspires me. Doxi Jones is a new pop artist out of San Francisco who grew-up with jazz musicians for parents and ‘80’s pop as her dominant muse. She got the proverbial record deal with SRC/Republic and she’s in the [...]
“It’s about women being seen as potential rulers of the world in a way that is sweet and endearing” Jeffrey Page got to Africa the way a lot of American artists do; he followed African-American cultural retentions via hip-hop and Black popular culture. The recognizable rhythms of rap in his Indiana hometown worked like an [...]
“I began writing songs when I was about 9 and I would perform them in church” When TL Cross was a youngster he quickly learned how to identify, study and emulate a great muse. Michael Jackson’s artistic childhood genius gave Cross an archetype to filter his gospel background and R&B studies into Black pop. The [...]
On April 1st five women rappers from the Midwest turned The Corner Bar in Kalamazoo, MI into a sweaty basement party. For three hours Miz Korona, Mz Jonz, Ms. Chyna D., MizJes and DC created the ambience of a block party with rugged rhyming in the lounge. There was a balance of local emcees blended [...]
“We call it Train music because we mix kind of these genres that influenced us through our time from rock, pop, soul and we try to combine it.” Dawn Richard’s membership in Diddy’s club music trio Dirty Money has transformed her into a modern dance diva. The former Danity Kane singer embarked on a daring [...]
“My goal is to make music. I’m not trying to change the game I’m not trying to be anybody’s saving grace” Fifteen years ago Rashia Fischer debuted her fiery inflection on “Cowboys” from The Fugees album The Score. Her unmitigated word flux was instantly recognized as one built on sober rhyme schemes and perennial boldness. [...]
