Music

The death of the Detroit house-music D.J. and producer Mike Huckaby on Friday, at 54, sent a shock wave through the music community he called home. Huckaby — who died from complications of a stroke and Covid-19 at Beaumont Hospital in Detroit’s Royal Oak suburb — was one of global dance music’s most widely beloved figures.A tall, quiet man with a sly sense of humor who made friends easily and often, Huckaby — known widely as “Huck” — was a pivotal scene figure, equally renowned as a D.J., producer, educator and tastemaker who was widely acknowledged as one of the foremost practitioners of the jazzy, mature house variant dubbed “deep house.”Between 1992 and 2005, he worked at the Roseville, Mich., store Record Time as the buyer for the dance room — a separate space within the shop dedicated solely to house, techno and hip-hop 12-inch singles. This was a rich period for Detroit dance music, in particular, and Huckaby was a tireless champion of local music.“Tons of the music we sold was made right down the street,” said Record Time’s founder, Michael Himes. “We were the epicenter of a lot that was happening during the most formative and busiest years for Detroit electronic music.”The dance promoter Adriel Thornton, who worked with Huckaby in 2002 on the third Detroit Electronic Music Festival, called him “an unspoken force, the unseen influencer on the music itself in the city.” Huckaby was on the event’s programming committee alongside fellow techno pioneers Juan Atkins, Mike Grant, K-Hand and Alan Oldham. They all came with their own ideas for who should perform, but Huckaby’s word carried the most weight, because he was responsible for most of the other D.J.s’ playlists. “He made sure the music that needed to get to them, got to them,” Thornton said.Rick Wade, a Record Time co-worker and close friend of Huckaby’s, said, “People would come to the store and Huckaby already had records in a bag, their name on the bag.” He added, “They wouldn’t even listen to the records. They’d pick up the bag and head to the register. If Huck pulled it, they bought it.” More

When the North Carolina rapper DaBaby first reached No. 1 on Billboard’s album chart last fall, it was the triumph of a fast-moving newcomer who was a master of meme-ready marketing — that album, “Kirk,” was the third project in 12 months from a musician who had gotten attention by walking the streets of South by Southwest wearing only jewels and an adult diaper.DaBaby has now repeated his success with a new album, “Blame It on Baby,” and has said that he plans to release yet another full-length project his year.“Blame It on Baby,” with a cover image featuring the rapper in a face mask, opened at No. 1 with the equivalent of 124,000 album sales in the United States, according to data from Nielsen Music. His success was driven almost entirely by streaming, with almost 159 million clicks on streaming services and just 12,000 copies sold as a complete package.Also this week, the Weeknd’s “After Hours” falls to No. 2 after a four-week run at the top, and the rapper Lil Uzi Vert’s “Eternal Atake” — another recent chart-topper — is No. 3.Fiona Apple’s first album in eight years, “Fetch the Bolt Cutters,” which stunned critics across the board, opened at No. 4. The rapper Lil Baby — this Baby is from Atlanta — fell to No. 5 with “My Turn.” More