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    An Unearthed Johnny Cash Recording, and 11 More New Songs

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    Hear tracks by Normani, Nilüfer Yanya, Thom Yorke and others.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.Johnny Cash, ‘Well Alright’Johnny Cash wasn’t always the stoic Man in Black. He also had a droll side, as revealed in this song reconstituted from demos he recorded in 1993; a latter-day band, including Marty Stuart on guitar, now fills out the original tracks. In “Well Alright,” previewing “Songwriter,” an album due June 28, Cash is deadpan and droll, singing about a liaison that starts at a laundromat. Even the Man in Black had clothes to wash. JON PARELESNilüfer Yanya, ‘Like I Say (I Runaway)’“I run away, ’cause I’m on precious time,” the British musician Nilüfer Yanya sings on the first single she’s released since her excellent 2022 album “Painless.” In classic Yanya fashion, “Like I Say (I Runaway)” has an almost collagelike feel, reveling in contrasting textures and suddenly erupting into a blaze of guitar distortion on the chorus. “The minute I’m not in control, I’m tearing up inside,” Yanya sings, as her own sonic universe bends to her will. LINDSAY ZOLADZNormani featuring Gunna, ‘1:59’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

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      Iran Sentences Prominent Rapper to Death, Lawyer Says

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      The rapper, Toomaj Salehi, was initially arrested after releasing music in support of the 2022 protests over the death of a young woman in police custody.A dissident rapper has been sentenced to death in Iran after releasing music in support of antigovernment demonstrations that rocked the country in 2022, according to his lawyer, in a case that has prompted global condemnation.The rapper, Toomaj Salehi, 33, was one of the most prominent voices among those arrested over nationwide protests against Iran’s clerical rulers after the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, 22. Human rights organizations have been calling for Mr. Salehi’s release, saying that he has been tortured in prison and warning that he could face execution.Amir Raesian, Mr. Salehi’s lawyer, told the Iranian reformist newspaper Shargh in an article published on Wednesday that a court in the central city of Isfahan had sentenced Mr. Salehi to death and that his client planned to appeal.The office of the U.S. Special Envoy for Iran condemned the sentence, calling it another example of “the regime’s brutal abuse of its own citizens, disregard for human rights, and fear of the democratic change the Iranian people seek.”Mr. Salehi was initially arrested in October 2022 for releasing music criticizing the government and backing the demonstrations ignited by the death of Ms. Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police. He also posted videos on his Instagram account encouraging his followers to protest.The Iranian authorities charged him that November with “spreading corruption on earth,” an offense that can carry the death penalty. U.N. experts said the court proceedings were held behind closed doors without Mr. Salehi’s lawyer present and expressed alarm about reports the artist had been tortured, citing reports of his broken nose and several broken fingers.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

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      RZA of Wu-Tang Clan Has Beef With Meat

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      The rapper, producer, actor and vegan talks about the connections between meat and masculinity, animal welfare and the environment.RZA, the leader of the groundbreaking hip-hop collective Wu-Tang Clan, is a producer, rapper, writer, director, film scorer and actor. He is also a promoter of a meatless lifestyle.The 54-year-old creator gave up red meat in the mid-1990s, followed by chicken, fish, and eventually dairy and eggs. He has since worked with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, started a vegan clothing line and appeared in a surreal video series with other Wu-Tang members to promote White Castle’s meatless Impossible Sliders.In a recent interview, RZA, whose real name is Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, talked about why he went vegan, cultural links between masculinity and meat and how going meatless just a few days a week would help the planet. Here are excerpts from that conversation, edited and condensed for clarity.There’s increased awareness these days about the environmental harms of meat consumption, particularly beef, along with health concerns. Why did you stop eating it?For me, it was consciousness. It was just the awareness of life itself. It became almost illogical, almost unethical. Why does the animal have to die for me to live? And then learning that our digestive system really has a hard time digesting red meat. As I became more conscious, it started to make less and less and then no sense to eat a dead bird. To even eat a dead fish.What about dairy?Eggs and milk and cheese were the last things to go from my diet. There were multiple reasons. And it was tough. The animal is not dying. It’s the animals being useful. Look, I’m a New Yorker. There’s nothing like the New York slice of pizza. But I realized how much mucus was building up in my own body. And the process of the milk we are consuming is so chemically infused. Even with pasteurization, there’s still other elements of bacteria that are getting into our systems. Eggs was another tough one. But eggs are so porous, and they hit them with chemicals. And there’s mistreatment of those animals. So now you’re consuming that trauma.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

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      8 Songs From the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024

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      Listen to soon-to-be inductees Cher, Foreigner, A Tribe Called Quest and more.Cher.Mario Anzuoni/ReutersDear listeners,On Sunday night, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced its 2024 inductees. And while I find this year’s class a tad less exciting than last year’s, there are still quite a few names I was pleased to see: A Tribe Called Quest, Kool & the Gang, Ozzy Osbourne, Mary J. Blige and the artist who would have been at the top of my ballot, if I were a Rock Hall voter: Cher.*In recent years, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has been in something of a transitional period, as it expands its definition of “rock & roll” to include country legends (last year’s inductees included Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson) and hip-hop stars (like Eminem in 2022, and Missy Elliott, who in 2023 became the first-ever female rapper inducted). Last September, the Rock Hall co-founder Jann Wenner made headlines for all the wrong reasons when he espoused sexist and racist comments in a New York Times Magazine interview; shortly after, he was removed from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation’s board.The Billboard writer Andrew Unterberger took stock of all this in an astute column about this year’s inductees, which he believes strike a balance between the hall’s more old-fashioned view of rock and a fresher, wider definition that is less beholden to tradition. Artists like Tribe, Cher and Blige are in step with the institution’s drift toward becoming “a less hemmed-in, genre-specific institution,” but the presence of acts like Foreigner, Peter Frampton and the Dave Matthews Band also suggest that “there are still plenty of voters primarily concerned with rock representation.”All of this variety, though, means that this year’s inductees make for a thrillingly eclectic playlist. Check it out below, featuring some recognizable hits, a few rollicking live cuts and in my humble opinion, a very underrated Cher single.Allllll aboard!,Lindsay*Last month, the hosts of the excellent podcast “Who Cares About the Rock Hall?” had me on to discuss why I believe Cher belongs in the pantheon, as well as my obsession with the outrageous cover of her 1979 album “Take Me Home.”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

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      Future and Metro Boomin’s Second Joint LP Opens at No. 1

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      The Atlanta rapper and producer’s “We Still Don’t Trust You” reached the top of the Billboard 200 before the expected arrival of monster numbers from Taylor Swift next week.Future and Metro Boomin, two of the big kahunas of Atlanta hip-hop, have released a pair of joint albums in the last month — wisely getting them to market ahead of Taylor Swift’s new “The Tortured Poets Department,” which has the music industry braced for gigantic sales figures.“We Don’t Trust You,” the first LP by the rapper Future and the producer Metro Boomin, went to No. 1 three weeks ago with solid streaming numbers. “We Still Don’t Trust You,” its sequel, opens at No. 1 this week with the equivalent of 127,500 sales in the United States, largely from its 163 million streams, according to the tracking service Luminate. (“We Don’t Trust You” is No. 3.)By the time next week’s chart lands, however, those numbers will look minuscule. “Tortured Poets,” released Friday, was credited with 1.4 million in traditional album sales — meaning CDs, vinyl LPs and full-album downloads — on its first day out, according to Billboard. That indicates a huge number of pre-orders; Swift’s website was selling the album as early as Grammy night in February, when she announced it from the stage. On Spotify alone, the songs from “Tortured Poets” were streamed 300 million times around the world, a new record on the platform.Numbers that big on Day 1 mean that Swift is on track for the biggest opening sales week of her career — more than for “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” last year (1,653,000) or “Midnights” in 2022 (1,578,000), her best so far. How high Swift’s numbers could go is anybody’s guess, but the big target is Adele’s “25,” which opened with 3,482,000 in 2015.Swift delivered “Tortured Poets” with an aggressive and far-reaching promotional plan, including tie-ins with streaming services, social media platforms and radio networks. The album was released in an array of collectible physical products, including colored vinyl and signed editions; by making it a surprise double album — bringing its standard track list to 31 songs — Swift stood to benefit from even more clicks on streaming platforms.Aside from Future and Metro Boomin, this week’s chart also includes Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” at No. 2, after two weeks at the top; Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time,” at No. 4; and Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season,” in fifth place. “Papercuts (Singles Collection 2000-2023),” a greatest-hits compilation by Linkin Park, opens at No. 6. More

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      Cher, Dave Matthews Band and A Tribe Called Quest Join Rock Hall of Fame

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      Mary J. Blige and Ozzy Osbourne were also voted in, but Sinead O’Connor, who died last year at 56, did not make the cut.Cher, Ozzy Osbourne, Peter Frampton and Mary J. Blige are part of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s class of 2024, along with Dave Matthews Band, Kool & the Gang, Foreigner and A Tribe Called Quest, the hall announced on Sunday.The latest crop of stars will officially join the pantheon in a ceremony on Oct. 19 at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, where the hall’s affiliated museum is also located.The 39th annual group of inductees matches the hall’s genre and demographic spread of recent years, with a pop diva (Cher), a metal idol (Osbourne), a top funk band of 1970s and ’80s vintage (Kool & the Gang), a couple of ’90s hip-hop and R&B heroes (Blige, Tribe) and rock mainstays from the boomer (Frampton, Foreigner) and Gen X (Matthews) eras.Of those artists, four were elevated to the hall on their first nomination: Cher, Foreigner, Frampton and Kool & the Gang. Osbourne was nominated for the first time as a solo act, though he had joined the hall as part of Black Sabbath in 2006. The Rock Hall has come under increasing pressure in recent years to diversify its ranks with more women and artists of color, and has made progress in that regard, though some critics say it is not enough.“Rock ’n’ roll is an ever-evolving amalgam of sounds that impacts culture and moves generations,” John Sykes, chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, said in a statement. “This diverse group of inductees each broke down musical barriers and influenced countless artists that followed in their footsteps.”Seven acts that were nominated in February did not make the cut: Mariah Carey, Jane’s Addiction, Oasis, Sade, Eric B. & Rakim, Lenny Kravitz and, perhaps most surprisingly, Sinead O’Connor, whose death last year, at age 56, elicited a global outpouring of grief and a reconsideration of her place in rock history.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

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      Rico Wade and Organized Noize’s 10 Essential Songs

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      The producer helped shape and boost the sound of Atlanta rap starting in the mid-1990s. His death at 52 was announced last Saturday.The Atlanta producer Rico Wade was the de facto leader of the Dungeon Family, the loose collective of rappers and musicians that coalesced around his mother’s smoke-filled Georgia basement — a.k.a. the Dungeon — in the mid-90s. Wade’s open doors and nurturing vision became the engine of Atlanta’s creative explosion, tilting the spotlight away from New York and Los Angeles and toward the homegrown sounds of artists like Outkast, Goodie Mob, Killer Mike, Janelle Monáe and eventually Wade’s younger cousin Future. Wade’s death at 52 was announced on social media last Saturday.Beyond his roles as conceptualist and deal maker, Wade served as one-third of the adventurous production team Organized Noize. The crew’s red-clay-scuffed sound was steeped in vintage ’70s soul, cutting-edge electronica, murky noise, slurping hi-hats and the warmth of live instruments. Working alongside the melodic sensibilities of Sleepy Brown and the beatmaking prowess of Ray Murray, Wade was “the mouthpiece,” Outkast’s Big Boi said in the 2016 documentary “The Art of Organized Noize.” “He was the inspiration guy; he could sell it.”Here are 10 essential productions from Rico Wade and Organized Noize, who brought the “dirty South” to the world. (Listen on Spotify and Apple Music.)Outkast, “Player’s Ball” (1993)The slow-rolling breakout moment for the Atlanta sound emerged after the LaFace Records co-founder L.A. Reid tapped the teenage duo Outkast to fill the final spot on the R&B-heavy album “A LaFace Family Christmas.” Though initially reluctant to make a Christmas record, Outkast decided to focus on lived reality instead of holiday cheer. “Just talk about how we kick it on Christmas at the Dungeon, man,” Big Boi recalled for GQ. “There ain’t no chimneys in the ghetto. We won’t be hanging no socks on no chimneys.” A slightly less Christmas-themed version was released as the group’s debut single, and the Puff Daddy-directed video was filmed in Wade’s house. (Wade convinced André 3000 to wear an Atlanta Braves jersey for the clip.) “I remember the day they played it on the radio — everybody quit they job,” Goodie Mob’s Big Gipp said in “The Art of Organized Noize,” thinking, “‘If one of us’ll get in, all of us’ll get in.’”TLC, “Waterfalls” (1994)This indelible pop smash emerged from a moment of studio serendipity. The songwriter Marqueze Ethridge sang the hook to Wade in the middle of an Outkast session. Murray played a stuttering beat on the SP-1200 and LaMarquis Jefferson improvised some slippery bass licks. They called TLC’s T-Boz to come in and do a demo and a No. 1 hit was born. “The horns in the song was live,” Wade told Complex. “As you can tell, the horns were very pop. But we were at that point in our career where we wanted to bring everything back that was analog.”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

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      Rico Wade, an Architect of Atlanta Hip-Hop, Dies at 52

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      As one-third of the production team Organized Noize, Wade nurtured the careers of Outkast, Goodie Mob and Future from the confines of his mother’s basement, known as the Dungeon.Rico Wade, an architect of Southern hip-hop who produced albums for rap acts including Outkast, Goodie Mob and Future, has died. He was 52.The death was announced on social media on Saturday by the artist and activist Killer Mike, a longtime collaborator. No cause of death was provided.His family confirmed the death in a statement. “We are deeply saddened by the sudden and unexpected passing of our son, father, husband and brother Rico Wade,” the statement said. “Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of a talented individual who touched the lives of so many. We ask that you respect the legacy of our loved one and our privacy at this time.”Wade, Ray Murray and Patrick Brown, known as Sleepy, formed the Atlanta-based production crew Organized Noize in the early 1990s, coalescing during an era when offerings from the East and West Coasts dominated radio and major label releases. Their work propelled the region from the fringes of the genre to a mainstay at its center.Barely out of their teens, the production crew welcomed aspiring musicians and artists into the basement of Wade’s mother’s home in East Point, Georgia, in the early 1990s. The cellar became known as the Dungeon with the artists who performed there, including the groups Parental Advisory and Goodie Mob, who emerged from it as part of the collective colloquially called the Dungeon Family.“I don’t know if you can imagine how weed and must and dirt would smell together, but that’s what it smelled like,” Dee Dee Hibbler, Outkast’s former manager, said of the Dungeon in the 2016 documentary “The Art of Organized Noize.”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

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      Sean Combs Sold Share of Tequila Brand for $200 Million

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      Mr. Combs, who was accused of sexual assault in several lawsuits, made the sale as he ended his long-term partnership with the liquor giant Diageo. He has denied wrongdoing.Sean Combs, the music mogul whose business empire has been upended by recent lawsuits accusing him of sexual assault and a federal investigation, sold his half of the tequila brand DeLeón for about $200 million this year, according to a public report for investors.Mr. Combs, who has vehemently denied allegations of sexual assault and sex trafficking, came to prominence as a hip-hop impresario but amassed much of his wealth from other businesses, including through work with the liquor giant Diageo. Their partnership, which was thrown into turmoil last year before the sexual assault lawsuits, is now over.Diageo disclosed in a recent financial statement that it had agreed on Jan. 16 to buy the 50 percent stake in the DeLeón tequila brand from Mr. Combs’s company, Combs Wine and Spirits, “for a total consideration of approximately $200 million.”Mr. Combs’s work with Diageo began more than 15 years ago when he began promoting its vodka brand Ciroc. He purchased DeLeón in a joint venture with the company about a decade ago, leveraging his celebrity to promote the tequila brand on social media, in interviews and as a prop in music videos.According to a court filing in June by a Diageo executive, Mr. Combs — who has also been known throughout his career as Puff Daddy or Diddy — amassed nearly a billion dollars from his relationship with the company.But the mogul’s partnership with the liquor giant began to fray, spilling into public last year. Combs Wine and Spirits sued Diageo and accused it of typecasting Ciroc and DeLeón as “Black brands” that should be targeted only to “‘urban’ customers,” limiting potential growth.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