Music

Subterms

    More stories

    • 125 Shares99 Views

      in Music

      Sean Combs Fights Lawsuit by Music Producer Alleging Sexual Misconduct

      by

      The hip-hop mogul’s lawyers are seeking the dismissal of a suit from Rodney Jones Jr., arguing it is baseless and “replete with far-fetched tales of misconduct.”Lawyers for Sean Combs filed court papers on Monday seeking the dismissal of a civil suit by a music producer who accused Mr. Combs of making unwanted sexual contact, arguing that the lawsuit was baseless and “replete with far-fetched tales of misconduct.”The filing, in Federal District Court in Manhattan, is the latest effort by the hip-hop impresario’s legal team to dismiss a series of recent lawsuits that accuse him of sexual assault and misconduct. The suit by Rodney Jones Jr., a music producer who worked on Mr. Combs’s most recent album, accuses Mr. Combs of groping him and forcing him to solicit prostitutes; he also alleges that Mr. Combs threatened him with violence.In their response, lawyers for Mr. Combs wrote that Mr. Jones’s claims lack basic details, including where and when the alleged groping occurred, along with how, exactly, Mr. Combs pressured him into hiring prostitutes.“Such vague allegations fall well short of federal pleading standards,” wrote one of the lawyers, Erica A. Wolff, who argued that the real purpose of the lawsuit is to “generate media hype and exploit it to extract a settlement.”One threat of violence that the lawsuit alleges was that Mr. Combs once threatened to “eat Mr. Jones’s face,” but the exact context for the comment was unclear in Mr. Jones’s suit, a 98-page document that details a litany of allegations from his time as a part of Mr. Combs’s entourage.Mr. Jones’s lawyer, Tyrone A. Blackburn, called the filing a “desperate Hail Mary attempt.”“Nothing in this complaint is far-fetched,” he said. “Nothing in this complaint is too vague.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 150 Shares169 Views

      in Music

      Post Malone Returns to No. 1 With His Country Debut, ‘F-1 Trillion’

      by

      The shape-shifting pop songwriter’s new album debuts atop the Billboard 200, and Chappell Roan’s “Midwest Princess” holds at No. 2.Post Malone, the face-tattooed singer and songwriter who emerged a decade ago with a rock-meets-folk-meets-rap style that caught fire on streaming services, opens at No. 1 on the latest Billboard album chart with “F-1 Trillion,” which repositions the star in a country context.“F-1 Trillion,” featuring guest spots by a bevy of Nashville stars like Dolly Parton, Tim McGraw, Morgan Wallen, Lainey Wilson and Jelly Roll, was released on Aug. 16 — two days after Post Malone’s debut at the Grand Ole Opry — and garnered the equivalent of 250,000 sales in the United States. That total includes 213 million streams and 80,000 copies sold as a complete unit, according to the tracking service Luminate. The full “deluxe” version of the album has 27 tracks.The success of “F-1 Trillion” is the latest swerve in the story of Post Malone — real name Austin Post — who in the late 2010s became one of the flagship stars of the streaming era with emotive earworms like “Rockstar,” “Better Now” and “Sunflower.” His albums “Beerbongs & Bentleys” (2018) and “Hollywood’s Bleeding” (2019) were mainstays in the top ranks of the chart. But he stumbled with two follow-up LPs, “Twelve Carat Toothache” (2022) and “Austin” (2023), which leaned deeper into pop and rock but had considerably weaker sales.Recently, Post Malone returned as an unexpected guest star on two of this year’s biggest albums: Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” and Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department,” where he duetted with Swift on the album’s lead single, “Fortnight.” In May, he revealed his country direction with “I Had Some Help,” featuring Wallen, the first single from “F-1 Trillion”; it became his first solo No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart since “Circles” in 2019. (“Fortnight,” naturally, went straight to the top.)Also this week on the Billboard 200 album chart, Chappell Roan’s “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” holds at No. 2, while Swift’s “Tortured Poets” falls to No. 3 after logging its 15th week at No 1. Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time” is No. 4 and Billie Eilish’s “Hit Me Hard and Soft” is in fifth place. More

    • 125 Shares149 Views

      in Music

      Sabrina Carpenter Is Sly and Merciless on ‘Short n’ Sweet’

      by

      The pop singer and songwriter’s new album, “Short n’ Sweet,” lives up to her ubiquitous summer hits.In Sabrina Carpenter’s songs, young romance is all sexy fun and games — until it’s not. “Short n’ Sweet,” her sixth full-length album, is a smart, funny, cheerfully merciless catalog of bad boyfriend behavior and the deceptions and rationalizations that enable it. Carpenter mostly smiles and winks her way through songs that recognize the irrational power of lust, but deftly twist the knife on cheaters and hypocrites. “No one’s more amazing at turning loving into hatred,” she warns in “Good Graces.”Carpenter, 25, has triumphed in a career path that doesn’t always work out: spending her teens in show business. A contest entry for “The Next Miley Cyrus Project,” in 2011, led to Carpenter joining the Disney entertainment empire: signing to Disney’s Hollywood Records and gaining recognition with acting roles on the Disney Channel series “Girl Meets World” and in movies. Her Hollywood albums tried on teen-pop styles with middling results, gradually easing toward more adult material.But she gained full artistic control with a new label, Island, and her 2022 album, “Emails I Can’t Send,” made the leap into her grown-up persona: equal parts playful, vulnerable, amorous and calculating. The album mixed post-breakup plaints with flirtations like the hit “Nonsense,” a song about overpowering attraction that’s also about songwriting: “Woke up this morning, thought I’d write a pop hit,” she lilts.It also included “Because I Liked a Boy,” a ballad that seemingly addressed a celebrity romantic tangle and promoted everyone involved. Was Carpenter the “blond girl” who captured the ex-boyfriend that Olivia Rodrigo sang about in “Drivers License”? The internet thought so. “Now I’m a home wrecker, I’m a slut/I got death threats filling up semi trucks,” Carpenter sang, adding, “When everything went down we’d already broken up.”“Short n’ Sweet” arrives powered by two ubiquitous summer hits. One is “Espresso,” a retro disco-pop groove carrying the boast of a confident hottie: “He looks so good wrapped around my finger,” she coos. The other, “Please Please Please,” begs an unstable boyfriend not to embarrass her in public. “Whatever devil’s inside you, don’t let him out tonight,” she admonishes, then sings “Please, please, please, don’t prove I’m right,” in the sugariest of harmonies.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 100 Shares129 Views

      in Music

      Russell Malone, Acclaimed Jazz Guitarist, Dies at 60

      by

      Russell Malone, a jazz guitarist whose encyclopedic knowledge of musicians and songs, combined with a precise yet relaxed playing style, earned him jobs with Harry Connick Jr., Diana Krall and many others, as well as a dedicated following as a solo artist, died on Friday in Tokyo. He was 60.His death, from a heart attack, was announced on social media by the bassist Ron Carter, in whose trio Mr. Malone had worked for many years. The trio, with Donald Vega on piano, was touring Japan and had just finished a performance at the Blue Note Tokyo when Mr. Malone died.Mr. Carter said that he and Mr. Vega would continue the tour as a duo.Mr. Malone was highly regarded for his versatility: He was able to support a variety of singers and instrumentalists in a range of styles, but he also had his own well-defined sound as a bandleader and soloist.He was open about his influences — among them B.B. King, Wes Montgomery and Pat Martino — and he was never shy about pointing out how much he had learned from them, and how much of their sound showed up in his playing.“When I hear a player play, if I don’t hear a smidgen of influences, I get suspicious,” he said in a 2023 interview with the online magazine Jazz Guitar Today.He managed to carry the weight of those influences without sounding derivative. He was known for a distinctive style that was precise and spare but at the same time warm and luscious.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares119 Views

      in Music

      Toni Braxton, Whoopi Goldberg Fan, Watches ‘The View’ in Her Pajamas

      by

      “I love a good debate,” said the R&B singer and actress, who can be seen alongside her sisters in the TV series “The Braxtons.” “It doesn’t always make you smile, but it always provokes thought.”Toni Braxton wasn’t initially enthusiastic about rebooting “Braxton Family Values,” the reality show in which she starred for seven seasons with her sisters, Traci, Towanda, Trina and Tamar.“Not that I don’t love hanging out with my sisters — I’m just not comfortable with people being in my space like that,” she said. “I’m old school. I’m a bit aloof.”She ultimately did it for Traci, who died of esophageal cancer in 2022 and who had been adamant that her sisters continue with the show.Grief and healing are the main themes in the all-new series “The Braxtons,” which airs on We TV and is available on the streaming service ALLBLK.It isn’t the same without Traci, Toni Braxton said. “Part of our DNA is missing. Everyone is trying figure out how to live in this heartache.”Besides “Braxton Family Values,” Braxton is known for her roles on Broadway (“Beauty and the Beast,” “Aida,” “After Midnight”) and for her many R&B hits, including “Breathe Again,” “Another Sad Love Song” and “Un-Break My Heart” — which she performs in “Love & Laughter,” her joint Las Vegas residency with Cedric the Entertainer.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares129 Views

      in Music

      Beyoncé Rumors Briefly Took Center Stage. Kamala Harris Grabbed It Back.

      by

      Unsubstantiated rumors that the star would appear at the Democratic National Convention, perhaps alongside Taylor Swift, created a daylong frenzy. Then the headliner took control.The report was published around 7 p.m. on Thursday, in all caps. TMZ announced that Beyoncé would be “PERFORMING AT DNC’S FINAL NIGHT!!!” After days of increasingly frenzied rumors that she would make an appearance at the Democratic National Convention, this report set the United Center in Chicago abuzz. But TMZ was wrong. So was Mitt Romney. So were the betting markets. So was basically all of social media.Instead, Vice President Kamala Harris ended the convention by advising attendees to take seriously the task of preserving democracy and not to celebrate prematurely.It was a sobering end to a day of celebrity-centered anticipation. Since the Harris campaign chose Beyoncé’s “Freedom” as its campaign theme song, I had heard intense speculation that the singer would be a special guest on the night of Harris’s acceptance speech to become the party’s presidential nominee. On the convention’s first day, Harris released her new campaign ad, featuring “Freedom.” There was the precedent set by past conventions, with Stevie Wonder performing in 2008 for Barack Obama, and Katy Perry in 2016 for Hillary Clinton. There was the footage of a marching band rehearsing Beyoncé’s songs in the arena.As I entered the United Center, I heard the rumor that Beyoncé and Jay-Z had been in Chicago for several days. Before I settled in at the arena, she had been “sighted” at O’Hare airport. Similar stories were ricocheting across the arena.There was the national anthem sung by the Chicks, with whom Beyoncé performed at the Country Music Association Awards in 2016. Their presence seemed only to reinforce the inevitability of her grand entrance. By 9 p.m., things had reached a fever pitch: I was told by a friend of a friend I was sitting next to that Beyoncé and Taylor Swift were expected to appear onstage together in a mark of feminist solidarity, and stand with the thousands of delegates dressed in suffragist white clothing. The specificity of the rumor was astounding.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 150 Shares139 Views

      in Music

      Sabrina Carpenter Slices Up Her Sunny Image, and 7 More New Songs

      by

      Hear tracks by Yaeji, Amythyst Kiah featuring Billy Strings, Broadcast and more.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.Sabrina Carpenter, ‘Taste’Sabrina Carpenter’s winning streak of singles continues on “Taste,” the lilting, deceptively chirpy opening track from her hook-filled new album, “Short ’n’ Sweet.” A bright, buoyantly delivered blend of ’80s pop gloss and ’90s country sass, Carpenter lets a paramour’s on-again-off-again ex know exactly whose bed his boots have been under lately: “I heard you’re back together, and if that’s true,” Carpenter taunts, “you’ll just have to taste me when he’s kissing you.” The music video, which stars the “Wednesday” actress Jenna Ortega, makes the lyrics’ queer subtext clear as day, while also indulging in some surprisingly gory Tarantino-esque violence that subverts Carpenter’s sunshiny image. Not that she’s taking any of it too seriously. “Singin’ ’bout it don’t mean I care,” she coos on the bridge, issuing another giggling wink at that image: “Yeah, I know I’ve been known to share.” LINDSAY ZOLADZAmythyst Kiah featuring Billy Strings, ‘I Will Not Go Down’“I’m the only one to ease my soul/I’m the only one that’s in control,” Amythyst Kiah vows in “I Will Not Go Down.” It’s a fierce, foot-stomping song laced with backup vocals and bluegrass virtuosity — on multiple instruments — from Billy Strings. The song’s stark declarations arrive fully armored in musicianship. JON PARELESGeordie Greep, ‘Holy, Holy’We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares99 Views

      in Music

      8 Correct Answers to ‘What Was the Song of the Summer?’

      by

      Revisit contenders from Sabrina Carpenter, Kendrick Lamar and Billie Eilish.Sabrina Carpenter has the top contender for song of the summer.Amy Harris/Invision, via Associated PressDear listeners,I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you, but the end of the summer is approaching. Every year around this time, music fans’ favorite unwinnable debate reaches an apex: What was the song of the summer?At the risk of breaking even more bad news, I’ll say that for the most part, the Song of the Summer is a fictitious and even pointless construction, generally immeasurable and usually difficult to agree on unanimously. Sure, every so often a single tune becomes so ubiquitous during those sweltering, school’s out months that it rightfully earns the title. Think of Lil Nas X’s chart-dominant “Old Town Road” in 2019; the viral glee of Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” in 2012; or, if you can remember that far back, the Bayside Boys remix of Los Del Rio’s “Macarena” in 1996 (Ay!).But more often than not, the Song of the Summer is up for debate. And given that I believe a true S.o.t.S. must be monocultural and undeniable, most contenders do not truly reach that status.Around Memorial Day, it did seem like we had a prime candidate: the rising pop star Sabrina Carpenter’s fun, flirty “Espresso.” It had all the makings of a summer smash, including a well-timed release date, a beach-themed music video and several goofy, endlessly quotable lyrics that just begged to be printed on novelty boardwalk T-shirts. Case closed, right?But as the summer continued, “Espresso” faced some formidable challengers. The Drake-vs.-Kendrick Lamar beef produced a bona fide anthem in “Not Like Us,” by most measures the biggest hit of Lamar’s career. The rise of the Midwest princess Chappell Roan became one of the year’s most captivating narratives, and her wrenching synth-pop single “Good Luck, Babe!” climbed the Hot 100 accordingly. Even Carpenter herself gave “Espresso” a run for its money with its irresistible follow-up single, “Please Please Please,” which achieved a feat that her previous hit did not: It went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.So, which was the Song of the Summer? Today’s playlist contains 8 different and entirely acceptable answers to the question. If I had to pick just one, I’d still go with “Espresso,” but I’d argue this summer contained too many unexpected plot twists for there to be a unanimous winner. Maybe it’s just one of those years where you need a collection of different tunes to tell the full story of the season. So let this playlist be a time capsule that you can return to in subsequent years when you want to conjure up the sound of summer ’24 — or in a couple of months, when the autumn chill makes you long for these endless sunny days.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More