Day in Pop Report for 07/16/2014
The problem this time? Chief Keef, legally named Keith Cozart, failed to show up at a hearing for his child support case. According to the Chicago Tribune, a warrant was issued for his arrest after he missed court on Monday. The hearing was intended to address the more than $10,000 Cozart allegedly owes the mother of his 17-month-old daughter - a figure stated in a petition filed last month by the state attorney, consisting of $5000 in back payments and monthly payments of $1,650. The mother of his child, Erica Early, told the Tribune that Cozart not only hasn't seen his daughter in months, but also said that he never paid off everything he owes in child support. more on this story
The parody artist and singer, on the second day of his eight-day string of video releases, dropped new album Mandatory Fun today (July 15), and after releasing "Tacky," his "Happy" rendition, yesterday, he's tackling Pharrell again with a version of "Blurred Lines" that's bound to get grammar nazis from all over to stand up and cheer. "Word Crimes," the new video, doesn't reference Thicke's perhaps poor choice of words on the original. Instead, Weird Al is giving a lesson in grammar. "Everybody shut up," he announces at the beginning of the video before launching into a bit of a tirade against improper English. "If you can't write in the proper way / If you don't know how to conjugate," he sings, "Maybe you flunked that class / And maybe now you find / That people mock you online." The video is a lyric video of sorts, but its content sort of lends itself to that setup. "I hate these word crimes!" he declares as the words pop up in dictionaries, mangled tweets and more. Perhaps the best call-out: "You should never write words using numbers / Unless you're seven / Or your name is Prince!" Watch it here.
Holler If Ya Hear Me seemed to struggle from low ticket sales from the start, reportedly causing worries that the production would not even open officially outside of previews. THR says the musical never even broke $1 million in ticket sales, hitting a cumulative amount of $942,000. Most hit shows on Broadway reportedly hit a $1 million gross in a given week, but Holler If Ya Hear Me was unable to ever break $200,000. Critical response was mixed, with most critics lamenting an issue with trying to use Tupac's lyrics to create a conceptual story. more on this story
Little else is known about the project; Drake has reportedly started recording his new release, but little other than last month's "0 to 100/The Catch Up," which has already inspired multiple remixes from artists prominent and otherwise. In the song, a release date of spring 2015 for his new album was brought up as a possibility, following a rhyme listing releases from OVO Sound artists, including "not to mention me droppin'." more on this story
While news of the impending show has elicited a variety of responses across the dance music universe, veteran DJ/producer Fatboy Slim has let it be known in no uncertain terms that he is not feeling the concept even a little bit. "Simon Cowell was talking about doing a show and everyone in the business, he kind of started approaching us, and we were like, 'F-k off. No - that's a terrible idea!'," the artist born Norman Cook ranted to Digital Spy during an interview at France's Electrobeach Music Festival last weekend (July 11-12). "That's the good thing about dance music; it grows organically through drunk people late at night coming up with stupid ideas. It's not something that can be scripted or transported into a TV studio." Fatboy Slim went to elaborate how genuine dance music simply doesn't fit into television's rigid formats, no matter how hard programmers try to make it work. more on this story
"It's a misunderstanding," Ross told the magazine. "As soon as the tweets went out, I spoke to both of them on the phone. Those two guys, they're brothers. At the end of the day, they're brothers and it's time to turn up right now. It's time for all of us to turn up and stay turned up, you know what I mean? But it's all love between those two and everybody knows that." Ross added that Meek Mill's comments on Twitter, and Wale's response on Instagram, were nothing but "brotherly jabs" and that it would not escalate further than that. Ross' need to intervene came after Meek Mill tweeted last Tuesday (July 15) that Wale was not promoting Meek Mill's album in the way he saw fit. more on this story
The rapper released her own version of the song yesterday (July 15). The verse had been expected since the duo of Rae Stremmurd teased it in an interview with Rap-Up late last month. For Minaj's guest spot on "No Flex Zone," she pops in about 40 seconds in. "Running this game for five years / Guess that's why my feet hurt," she rhymes. "Wonder when they bite me / Do these b-hes teeth hurt." She also name drops Rick Ross and Brad Pitt, because that's a thing stars do sometimes. Listen to it here.
But the twist is that Trejo is the good guy and romantic hero in a play against typecasting, while Train's frontman, Pat Monahan, gets to strut his acting chops as the villain. The clip is directed by SCANTRON FILMS & Mel Soria, while the song will be featured on the new Train album, Bulletproof Picasso, which will be released on Sept. 16. Check out "Angel in Blue Jeans" here.
According to Rolling Stone, Sunday Night Football coordinating producer Fred Gaudelli said that Underwood and a dozen NFL players met in L.A. to shoot their rendition of "Waiting All Day for Sunday Night." "There's a two-and-a-half-minute trailer that's going to debut in 19,000 movie theaters across America starting July 25," Gaudelli said. Underwood will also star in the opening for Super Bowl XLIX. more on this story
But that's about to change because, out of the blue, he just returned to his first passion and dropped a new mixtape with The Eastsidaz dubbed That's My Work 4. Snoop's new project combines old and new material and is like a homecoming of sorts, considering his reunion with The Eastsidaz, a group he signed to his Doggystyle Records back in the late '90s that earned a platinum record with their debut album, Snoop Dogg Presents Tha Eastsidaz. The group later disbanded in the middle of making their second album, when member Tray Dee was convicted of attempted murder, and presumably some of the older material on That's My Work 4 is from that time period. There's no guests on the mixtape though it is hosted by DJ Drama, best known for his production with T.I. and Lil Wayne. Grab the mixtape here.
Now 50 years later comes Look Again to the Wind: Johnny Cash's Bitter Tears Revisited, which features new recordings by such artists as Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson and Gillian Welch. Produced by Joe Henry, the tribute album is set for release Aug. 19. "Prior to Bitter Tears, the conversation about Native American rights had not really been had," Henry said in a press release, "and at a very significant moment in his trajectory, Johnny Cash was willing to draw a line and insist that this be considered a human rights issue, alongside the civil rights issue that was coming to fruition in 1964. But he also felt that the record had never been heard, so there's a real sense that we're being asked to carry it forward." Related: Rosanne Cash on the Southern Influences Behind Her New Album The River and the Thread The original album's best-known song is "The Ballad of Ira Hayes," a song written by folk singer Peter La Farge about the tragic downfall of Native American soldier Ira Hamilton Hayes, who fought in WW2 and was one of the Marines famously portrayed planting the American flag at Iwo Jima. "He died drunk one mornin', alone in the land he fought to save," sang Cash. "Two inches of water in a lonely ditch was a grave for Ira Hayes." more on this story
"So so so so excited to finally present 'Core' - the first single off my debut album, coming later this year on Wedidit Records," Grime enthused on Facebook with a link to the video. "Big big ups to David Rudnick and Dan Swan for such an amazing video," the DJ/producer said via Twitter in regards to the music video's directors. "We have so much more in store for u guys." RL Grime is among the many acts slated for this year's edition of the Mad Decent Block Party tour, which also includes Fatboy Slim, Chance the Rapper, Action Bronson and more, depending on the date. Watch the video here.
In her latest music video for "Gunshot," Li finally lets her artistic side take over the visuals she creates. For the first time she is giving us a piece of performance art not based in any realistic depiction of the song or her actual persona. In "Gunshot" she is, for lack of a better term, a mime. Directors Fleur and Manu, a Parisian duo who have also worked with M83 and S�bastian Tellier, find Li in the middle of an urban wasteland. In a half-destroyed parking lot filled with people sporting realistic apocalypse wear, Li is a person trapped in a state of being somewhere between mindless idiot and zombie. She reacts to the motions of people around her, going where she is pushed and falling down when she is shot by a gun made of a child's hand. She is an empty shell, an unwanted scavenger with no place among the placeless. Watch it here.
Now, the synthpopper is back again with her sophomore release, Trouble in Paradise, which is now available to stream ahead of its July 22 release on her website. La Roux, now a one-piece made up of Elly Jackson following the departure of Ben Langmaid, who contributed songwriting, production and keyboards to the group, still features Langmaid's flourishes throughout the album; he co-wrote six of Trouble in Paradise's nine songs. Jackson, meanwhile, c0-wrote every song but one: "The Feeling," the album's climax, which she wrote by herself. more on this story
"Unbreakable" will precede a new full-length from the DJ born Dragan Roganovic, which will be his first for veteran dance music imprint, Astralwerks. The album will also have an accompanying short film written, directed and shot by the artist himself. "The as-yet-untitled album represents the next step in Dirty South's ongoing artistic evolution; traversing the electronic, indie, and alternative soundscape to create a sound all his own," according to a label press release. more on this story
Set in Los Angeles, the video follows a trio of masked high-flying thieves (an homage to Point Break, perhaps?) hopping through the city's downtown area on pogo sticks. The thieves soon find themselves being pursued by a crafty policeman riding a Segway. Not to give away the ending, but the clip ends on a cliffhanger that promises to be continued, presumably in Dumont's next music video. "Won't Look Back" follows the DJ/producer's attention-grabbing clips for previous singles "Need U (100%)" and "I Got U." Check it out here.
Oh, and also that it is probably not an accident that her song title is also the title of a gender-swapping comedy movie from the '80s. And so in "One of the Guys" Lewis gets by with a little help from her famous friends. She's assembled a girl band that includes Anne Hathaway, Kristen Stewart and Brie Larson. Then, as the counter argument to the song's lyric, she dresses them all up in drag with some ungodly unfashionable details. "The rat tail was all Annie," Lewis, who directed the video, told GQ. "Deep character exploration. Her dude is a bit more Backstreet Boy than the rest. Melancholy Backstreet Boy is what I think she was going for - he really feels things deeply and break dances like a motherf-er." Lewis brilliantly gets Stewart to poke the bear that is her public reputation by having her lip synch the lines "If I get caught being rude in a conversation" and "I'm not gonna pray for you." Watch the video here.
Back in the early days of his career, West actually liked airports, a lot. One thing he didn't like about them? His overly persistent fans. In a recently-surfaced pilot for a show about Kanye's travel agent, Brett Goetsch - the "ultimate travel agent to the stars," as he refers to himself - that TMZ obtained, the rapper outlines how he gets himself out of uncomfortable situations. His go-to move involves pretending to be on the phone. As he sarcastically explains, "People like to say really stupid things to me. OK, that's completely politically incorrect. No, I really like being in airports. I like people walking up to me and saying sh*t like, 'Are you Kanye West?' 'Yes.' 'Quit lying!' And the whole time I'm on the phone." more on this story
After an argument with a scalper last week and later an ESPN radio host on Twitter, Moore spoke with Jeff Thurn, host of JT in 60 on Monday (July 14) to explain his side of the story. "You made the comment that my fight against this was a PR move," Moore explained on the call. "I'm gonna tell you something, buddy, you rubbed me the wrong way. You were walking on the fightin' side of me pretty fast. I realize your job is to stir things up and be combative with people. I do things all on my own. I don't have a team of people telling me what to do. Where I'm from you don't question people's character." Moore went on to passionately explain why he is fighting so hard for his fans. "If I don't stand for something and I don't fight for something, there ain't no sense of me even breathing on this earth." Read his full statement here.
But after listening to the record, we wanted to unpack Morrissey's 10th solo album and peel back the layers of the songs to see how they're made - find out what makes Moz, well, Moz. So we sat down with GRAMMY-winning producer Joe Chiccarelli, who produced the album with Morrissey in the studio. "He has a vision," Chiccarelli says. "I didn't know he would be so actively involved in every aspect of the process. I mean every aspect, down to the mixes. Even if he wasn't in the studio, he'd send me a note: like, 'At two minutes and thirty-two seconds, please bring up the guitar on the right, it's not cutting enough.' Or, 'In the bridge, my voice needs a different treatment.' His sensibility and style might be more akin to an old-school crooner, and we think of those people as artists who work with an arranger or a producer: they'd go into the studio, do their vocals and then they're done. That's not how he is, he's very involved." Also impressive is Morrissey's band, which includes long-time guitarist/musical director Boz Boorer, guitarist Jesse Tobias (formerly of Alanis Morissette's band, he also spent a month as a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers), bassist Solomon Walker, drummer Matt Walker (formerly of Filter and Smashing Pumpkins), and keyboardist Gustavo Manzur. "Their team spirit was impressive," he noted. "Morrissey really does trust and rely on these guys. They all separately bring him songs." We went through the album, track-by-track, with Chiccarelli, who has also worked with some of the greats over the past few decades. He engineered albums for the famously demanding and moody Frank Zappa, and in more recent years, he's produced/engineered/mixed projects for Jack White (for both the White Stripes and the Raconteurs), My Morning Jacket and the Strokes. So when he says that Morrissey is an artist with a vision, the man knows of what he speaks. Chiccarelli was enthused about the project and happy to talk about the behind-the-scenes story about each song. Whereas artists may sometimes burn out on this sort of interview, lower profile team members like Chiccarelli aren't interviewed as often, leading to (perhaps) more detail than you'd get in an interview with the Mozzer himself. Read the track by track here.
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