He single-handedly elevated a 100-string instrument little known outside Kashmir into a prominent component of Hindustani classical music.Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, an Indian musician and composer who was the foremost exponent of the santoor, a 100-string instrument similar to the hammered dulcimer, died on Tuesday at his home in Mumbai. He was 84.Indian news reports said the cause was cardiac arrest.Over a career spanning nearly seven decades, Mr. Sharma became the first musician to propel the santoor onto the world stage, at concerts and recitals in India and elsewhere.Before Mr. Sharma started playing the santoor, it was little known outside Kashmir. Even there it was used only to play Sufiana Mausiqi, a genre of Kashmiri classical music with Persian, Central Asian and Indian roots.The santoor, a trapezoidal wooden instrument whose strings stretch over 25 wooden bridges, is played with slim wooden mallets. On the santoor, in contrast with the sitar, sarod or sarangi, the string instruments traditionally used in Hindustani classical music, it is difficult to sustain notes and perform the meends, or glides from one note to another, essential to the Hindustani musical tradition.That might be one reason it took Mr. Sharma so many years to be recognized for his artistry.At the beginning of his career, purists and critics derided the santoor’s staccato sound, and many urged Mr. Sharma to switch to another instrument. Instead he spent years redesigning the santoor to enable it to play more notes per octave, making it more suitable for the complex ragas, the melodic framework of Hindustani music.“My story is different from that of other classical musicians,” Mr. Sharma told The Times of India in 2002. “While they had to prove their mettle, their talent, their caliber, I had to prove the worth of my instrument. I had to fight for it.”He released several albums, beginning with “Call of the Valley” (1967), a collaboration with the acclaimed flutist Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia and the guitarist Brij Bhushan Kabra.Mr. Chaurasia and Mr. Sharma were close friends and frequent collaborators. Together they composed music for several successful Bollywood films in the 1980s and ’90s including “Silsila” (1981), “Chandni” (1989), “Lamhe” (1991) and “Darr” (1993). Mr. Sharma was one of the few Indian musicians who straddled the worlds of classical and popular music.In 1974, Mr. Sharma performed across North America with the sitar virtuoso Pandit Ravi Shankar as part of the former Beatle George Harrison’s 45-show “Dark Horse” concert tour, bringing Indian classical music to audiences beyond South Asia alongside some of the finest classical musicians from India — Alla Rakha on tabla, Sultan Khan on sarangi, L. Subramaniam on violin, T.V. Gopalakrishnan on mridangam and vocals, Mr. Chaurasia on flute, Gopal Krishan on vichitra veena and Lakshmi Shankar on vocals.Mr. Sharma, center, in red, in 2018 in Mumbai. He was awarded some of India’s highest honors for his contributions to Indian culture.Pratik Chorge/Hindustan Times via Getty ImagesMr. Sharma was awarded some of India’s highest honors, including the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1986, the Padma Shri in 1991 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2001.Shiv Kumar (sometimes rendered Shivkumar) Sharma was born on Jan. 13, 1938, in Jammu, India, to Pandit Uma Devi Sharma, a classical musician who belonged to the family of royal priests of the maharajah of Jammu and Kashmir, and Kesar Devi. He began singing and tabla lessons in with his father at the age of 5, showing great promise. In “Journey With a Hundred Strings” (2002), a biography of Mr. Sharma, Ina Puri wrote that he would spend hours immersed in music, practicing various instruments.“There was an obsessive element in my attitude to music even then,” she quoted him as saying. “It was the air I breathed, the reason I lived.”By age 12 he was an accomplished tabla player, regularly performing on Radio Jammu and accompanying leading musicians who visited the city. When he was 14, his father returned from Srinagar, where he had been working, with a present: a santoor. Mr. Sharma was not happy about learning a new, unfamiliar instrument. But his father was adamant. “Mark my words, son,” he recalled his father saying. “Shiv Kumar Sharma and the santoor will become synonymous in years to come. Have the courage to start something from scratch. You will be recognized as a pioneer.”In 1955, Mr. Sharma gave his first major public performance on the santoor, at the Haridas Sangeet Sammelan festival in Bombay (now Mumbai). The youngest participant at 17, he persuaded the organizers to allow him to play both the santoor and the tabla. He was reluctantly given 30 minutes to play the instrument of his choice, but on the day of the recital he played the santoor for a full hour — to rapturous applause. The organizers called him back for another recital the next day.He soon received offers to play and act in Hindi films, but after one film, the 1955 hit “Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje,” he was determined to focus on classical music. He performed around the country in an effort to establish the santoor as a classical instrument.He moved to Bombay at 22; to make ends meet, he played the santoor on sessions for dozens of popular Hindi film songs while continuing to build his classical reputation.He is survived by his wife, Manorama; his sons, Rahul, a well-known santoor player and composer, and Rohit; and two grandchildren.After Mr. Sharma’s death, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among those paying tribute. “Our cultural world is poorer with the demise of Pandit Shivkumar Sharma Ji,” he wrote on Twitter. “He popularized the santoor at a global level. His music will continue to enthrall the coming generations.” More

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The Public Enemy co-founder insists Flavor was not kicked out of the group due to their different political views following dispute over Bernie Sanders support.
Mar 4, 2020
AceShowbiz – Flavor Flav has responded after being fired from Public Enemy, admitting he’s “very disappointed” in co-founder Chuck D.
The feud between the pair began after Chuck signed up to perform with offshoot band Public Enemy Radio at a Los Angeles rally for Bernie Sanders, leading to Flav sending the politician a cease-and-desist notice to stop using Public Enemy’s name and his likeness in campaign propaganda.
Chuck then hit back at his original bandmate, with his attorney insisting he “could perform as Public Enemy if he ever wanted to” because “he is the sole owner of the Public Enemy trademark,” and insisted on Twitter that his issues with Flav’s stance don’t stem from their political beliefs.
A few hours later, a statement from Public Enemy announced they would be “moving forward without” Flav, and the rapper responded on his own Twitter page on Monday night, March 2, 2020.
“Are you kidding me right now??? Over Bernie Sanders???” he tweeted. “You wanna destroy something we’ve built over 35 years OVER POLITICS??? All because I don’t wanna endorse a candidate… I’m very disappointed in you and your decisions right now Chuck.”
He then added that he is not Chuck’s “employee… I’m your partner… you can’t fire me,” and tweeted, “There is no Public Enemy without Flavor Flav… so let’s get it right Chuck.”

Following his tweets, Public Enemy hit back in another statement, insisting they “did not part ways with Flavor Flav over his political views.”
“Flavor Flav has been on suspension since 2016 when he was MIA from the Harry Belafonte benefit in Atlanta, Georgia,” the statement continued. “That was the last straw for the group.”
“He had previously missed numerous live gigs from Glastonbury to Canada, album recording sessions and photo shoots. He always chose to party over work.”

Flav has yet to respond to the latest Public Enemy statement.

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Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | StitcherWhen the Scottish singer-songwriter Katie Gregson-MacLeod recorded a verse of an unfinished song called “Complex” and posted it to TikTok in August, she was tapping into the app’s penchant for confessional storytelling, and demonstrating its ease of distribution and repurposing.Overnight, the snippet propelled her into viral success, leading to a recording contract and placing her in a lineage of young women who have found success on the app via emotional catharsis — sad, mad or both. That includes Olivia Rodrigo, whose “Drivers License” first gained traction there, and also Lauren Spencer-Smith, Sadie Jean, Gracie Abrams, Lizzy McAlpine, Gayle and many more.On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about the evolution of TikTok’s musical ambitions and the expansion of its emotional range, how the music business has tried to capitalize on the app’s intimacy, and the speed with which a bedroom-recording confessional can become a universal story line.Guest:Rachel Brodsky, who writes about pop music for StereogumConnect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica. More

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The ‘Amen’ rapper claims he has personally reached out to Vanessa Bryant to offer his apology for seemingly disrespecting her late husband in his newly-leaked song.

Feb 24, 2021
AceShowbiz – Rapper Meek Mill has apologised to Kobe Bryant’s wife for referencing the sports legend’s helicopter death in his new song.
Vanessa Bryant attacked Meek for his verse about her late husband, calling it “extremely insensitive and disrespectfull,” and now he has revealed he has apologised “in private.”
“Nothing I say on my page directed to a internet viral moment or the family of a grieving woman!” he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday (23Feb21). “If you care about someone grieving change the subject!”
Vanessa Bryant was upset when a snippet of Meek’s unreleased song with Lil Baby, “Kobe”, leaked last week (ends19Feb21).
In it, Meek raps, “I’ll go out with my choppa / It’ll be another Kobe.”

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The widow of the Los Angeles Lakers legend took to her Instagram Story on Monday night and wrote, “I find this line to be extremely insensitive and disrespectful. Period. I am not familiar with any of your music, but I believe you can do better than this. If you are a fan, fine, there’s a better way to show your admiration for my husband. This lacks respect and tact.”
Before his apologetic statement, Meek Mill drew more outrage following a series of cryptic foul-mouthed messages on his Twitter. “I’m going back savage in this s**t … f#%k ya feelings!” he wrote without mentioning the controversy surrounding his song. “Ion trust people gotta play it raw …… Head taps for n#%ga tryna pull my card!”
Although he didn’t mention Kobe’s name, he seemingly referred to the backlash as he continued, “Somebody promo a narrative and y’all follow it…. y’all internet antics cannot stop me ….s**t like zombie land or something! Lol.”
“They paying to influence y’all now … its almost like mind control ‘wake up,’ ” he added.
Meanwhile, he insisted he’s a fan of Kobe and Gianna by posting on Instagram a picture of a hat with Kobe’s and Gianna’s names on it.

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