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What MF Doom's 'Operations: Doomsday' Contributed to Hip-Hop
With his 1999 debut album, “Operation: Doomsday,” the masked rapper blurred the line between present and past. More
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Meet Kidd G, Country Music’s Next Emo-Rap Star
A 17-year-old from a small Georgia town built an audience as a rapper on TikTok and SoundCloud before pivoting to country music and inching his way into a notoriously cloistered industry. More
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Adolfo Quiñones, an Early Star of Street Dance, Dies at 65
Mr. Quiñones, also known as Shabba-Doo, rose to fame in the movie “Breakin’” and helped bring a distinctly urban kind of movement to the mainstream. More
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Why Digga D, a British Drill Artist, is Banned from Using Violent Lyrics
#masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyFor British Drill Stars, the Police Are Listening CloselyRecent court rulings require officers to keep watch over artists’ rap lyrics, which prosecutors say celebrate gangs and violent crimes.The rapper Digga D, whose real name is Rhys Herbert, in a North London park this month. A court order, issued in 2018, restricts the subjects the musician can mention in his lyrics.Credit…Adama Jalloh for The New York TimesJan. 11, 2021LONDON — The British rapper Digga D can’t explain how he lost the use of an eye while serving a prison sentence last year: not because he doesn’t want to, but because talking about what happened might get him sent back to jail.The police here scrutinize everything the 20-year-old says in public, whether in an interview, or on a track.In 2018, Digga D was sentenced to a year in prison for conspiracy to commit violent disorder, after a court case in which music videos by the masked rapper were presented as evidence. In sentencing Digga D, whose real name is Rhys Herbert, the judge also issued an order banning him from releasing tracks that describe gang-related violence.He must notify the police within 24 hours of releasing new music, and provide them with the lyrics. If a court finds that his words incite violence, he can be sent back to prison; parole conditions also limit what he can say publicly about his past.So when asked, in a Zoom interview, about how he lost the sight in his eye, Digga D could only shrug.Digga D is a leading voice in Britain’s drill scene, a subgenre of hip-hop featuring eerie piano melodies layered over droning bass lines, and lyrics portraying life in some of the country’s most deprived neighborhoods. Arising in Chicago, drill started to take on a new life in London in the mid-2000s, fusing with the city’s grime and garage sounds and helping to drive offshoot scenes in places as disparate as Brooklyn and Brisbane, Australia.Digga D performing at the Wireless Connect virtual festival in July 2020.Credit…Lambert Productions, via BBCBut drill’s sometimes violent lyrics have led the police and lawmakers to accuse the genre of fueling knife crime, which is currently at a 10-year high in England, according to government figures.Like Digga D, some of Britain’s most popular drill artists have found themselves on the wrong side of the law, and their lyrics reflect their experiences of gang life, criminal justice and time behind bars.Sentencing orders, like the one banning Digga D from rapping about violence, have also been handed to other drill artists. Introduced in 2014 and known as criminal behavior orders, the measures give judges broad powers to regulate a convicted criminal’s life, such as by banning them from certain neighborhoods or by preventing them from meeting former associates. Judges have also used the orders to control some musicians’ lyrics, arguing that when rappers brag about attacks on rivals, it stokes street tensions.In January 2019, for example, a London judge sentenced the musicians Skengdo and AM to nine months in prison for breaking a criminal behavior order by performing a song with lyrics including a list of gang members who had been stabbed.Rebecca Byng, a spokeswoman for the London police’s violent crime unit, said in an email that criminal behavior orders had “a wide-ranging scope, and go beyond addressing lyrics which incite violence,” adding that they were an important tool to “steer young people away from violence.”“We are not targeting music artists, but addressing violent offenders,” she added.Yet the London police has recently stepped up its efforts to remove drill music videos from YouTube.In 2020, the video platform removed 319 music videos at the force’s urging, according to a police report obtained through a Freedom of Information request. That is more than twice the number it took down in 2019. In total, YouTube has removed more than 500 music videos over the past three years, the report says.Keir Monteith, a criminal defense attorney based in London, is advising a government-funded research project studying how rap lyrics are used as evidence in court. He said that in some ways, the authorities’ treatment of drill recalled the heyday of punk in the 1970s, when the police shut down concerts and the BBC banned a hit single by the Sex Pistols.But if punk artists were treated harshly, drill rappers have it even worse, Monteith said. The efforts of the criminal justice system were “focused, worryingly, on a particular set of our society, which is young Black lads,” he noted. “That’s the real concern here.”Lyrics that deal with life behind bars have long been defining features of American hip-hop, but they are relatively new preoccupations for British rappers. As a growing number of drill artists fall foul of the criminal justice system, however, those themes are starting to trickle through.“There’s more in my heart that I would like to speak about and show,” Digga D said.Credit…Adama Jalloh for The New York TimesIn a recent freestyle posted to YouTube, Digga D raps about using his jail kettle to boil canned tuna; and Headie One, another London-based drill rapper, describes using cookies to make a birthday cake in prison in “Ain’t It Different,” a song that reached No. 2 in the British singles chart this summer.Potter Payper, a 25-year-old drill musician, was incarcerated on drug-related charges when he wrote much of his most recent album, “Training Day 3.” He has been in prison 14 times, and, like Digga D, his music videos have formed part of the evidence used to convict him.During his most recent custodial sentence, Payper initially wasn’t writing music or looking after himself, he said in a phone interview. But a turning point came one evening in June 2019.Stormzy, perhaps Britain’s most commercially successful rapper, was performing on the main stage at the Glastonbury Festival, and Payper could hear fellow inmates in nearby cells listening to the rapper’s performance. After Stormzy named him onstage as one of his influences, the other prisoners started banging on their doors, yelling Payper’s name.After that, he wrote nearly 30 new songs, he said.How Digga D lost the use of his eye — the story he was so hesitant to talk about — can be found in prison records. He was stabbed with a blade fashioned from a tuna can, according to an official at the Ministry of Justice who was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Cecilia Goodwin, Digga D’s lawyer, said that the rapper had been struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder after the attack.But much of Digga D’s experience remains hidden, for now.“There’s more in my heart that I would like to speak about and show,” he said.He might get to do that with music when the court order expires, in 2025.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More
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Taylor Swift’s Ode to Moving On, and 9 More New Songs
#masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe PlaylistTaylor Swift’s Ode to Moving On, and 9 More New SongsHear tracks by Barry Gibb and Dolly Parton, Rhye, Tim Berne and others.Taylor Swift’s “It’s Time to Go” is a bonus track from the sessions that yielded her quarantine albums.Credit…Beth GarrabrantJon Pareles, Giovanni Russonello and Jan. 8, 2021Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new songs and videos. Just want the music? Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes). Like what you hear? Let us know at theplaylist@nytimes.com and sign up for our Louder newsletter, a once-a-week blast of our pop music coverage.Taylor Swift, ‘It’s Time to Go’[embedded content]Of course Taylor Swift had even more songs recorded during the 2020 quarantine that has already yielded her albums “Folklore” and “Evermore,” which now gets a bonus track. “It’s Time to Go” — terse lines set against an insistent one-note guitar and four chords — maps romantic and workplace setbacks against her own struggle to hold onto her multiplatinum catalog: “He’s got my past frozen behind glass/But I’ve got me.” It’s advice, rationalization, a way to move on: “Sometimes giving up is the strong thing,” she sings. JON PARELESCeleste, ‘Love Is Back’Celeste — who, at least in Britain, has been on the verge of a breakout moment for the past few years — rang in 2021 with a performance of her new single “Love Is Back” on Jools Holland’s annual New Year’s Eve show. Amid rhythmic blasts of brass, the 26-year-old soul singer croons coolly for much of the song before a dazzling grand finale showcases the strength of her smoky voice, which recalls both Amy Winehouse and Billie Holiday. With a debut album, “Not Your Muse,” slated for release on Feb. 26, this could finally be Celeste’s year. LINDSAY ZOLADZSaweetie featuring Doja Cat, ‘Best Friend’The gender warfare in pop hip-hop continues with “Best Friend,” particularly in its video version, which opens by mocking “toxic masculinity” and “another fake woke misogynist” — a bare-chested guest guy — while Saweetie and Doja Cat lounge in bikinis. A twangy two-bar loop accompanies the two women as they flatly declare financial independence and, eventually, find each other. PARELESRhye, ‘Come in Closer’Ideas waft up and ripple away throughout “Come in Closer” the smoothly elusive new single from the breathy, androgynous-voiced Canadian singer and songwriter Michael Milosh, who records as Rhye. Hardly anything is stable; not the beat, not the chord changes, not the vocal melodies or instrumental countermelodies, not an arrangement that moves from churchy organ to a string-laden R&B march to eerie a cappella vocal harmonies. The only constant is yearning: “How I’d love for you to come home with me” is the song’s closest thing to a refrain. PARELESVirgil Abloh featuring serpentwithfeet, ‘Delicate Limbs’Virgil Abloh is best known as a designer; no wonder “Delicate Limbs” begins with fashion-conscious lyrics: “Those gray pants you love might bring you luck, but if they ever fray you can call on me.” But “Delicate Limbs” even more clearly ties in with the catalog of Abloh’s collaborator, serpentwithfeet, a.k.a. the singer and songwriter Josiah Wise. It’s an incantatory enigma, wandering among electronic drones, jazzy drum crescendos and cinematic orchestration, building extraordinary drama. PARELESBarry Gibb featuring Dolly Parton, ‘Words’Viewers of the recent HBO documentary “The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” will recall that it was not Dolly Parton nor Kenny Rogers who wrote their mammoth 1983 hit “Islands in the Stream,” but, actually, the Brothers Gibb. So Parton is a natural choice for a duet partner on Barry Gibb’s moving and delicately crafted new album “Greenfields — The Gibb Brothers’ Songbook Vol. 1,” on which the last surviving Bee Gee adds a little twang to some of the group’s standards and collaborates with country artists like Miranda Lambert and fellow Aussie cowboy Keith Urban. Parton joins him for a piano-driven, gently elegiac rendition of the 1968 hit “Words.” On the original single and often in concert, this was the rare Bee Gees song that Barry Gibb sang solo. Reimagining it as a duet, and especially with a voice as warm as Parton’s, makes “Words” feel less like a confession of regret and more like a prelude to reconciliation. ZOLADZSun June, ‘Everything I Had’“Everything I had, I want it back,” Sun June’s Laura Colwell sings on the Austin band’s latest single — certainly a relatable refrain for these times. It’s also a fittingly wistful sentiment for a band that playfully describes its sound as “regret pop,” blending the melodic flutter of Colwell’s voice with dreamy tempos that invite contemplation. (Its second album, “Somewhere,” will be out on Feb. 5.) The lyrics, though, conjure a certain restlessness, as Colwell considers moving all the way to Los Angeles before settling on a new apartment three doors down from where she used to live — presumably just far enough to stare longingly at the old one. ZOLADZJohn Fogerty, ‘Weeping in the Promised Land’“Weeping in the Promised Land” is John Fogerty’s memento of 2020: pandemic, disinformation, economic crisis, Black Lives Matter. In a quasi-hymn, with bedrock piano chords and a swelling choir, he surveys the devastation overseen by a “pharaoh” who keeps “a-preaching, but he never had a plan.” It doesn’t foresee redemption. PARELESScience Friction, ‘Heavy Mental’[embedded content]The alto saxophonist Tim Berne and the trumpeter Herb Robertson circle each other like fighters getting acquainted in the first round at the start of this itchy, low-fi recording, which Berne captured at 55 Bar in Greenwich Village 17 years ago. He’s been releasing recordings from the vault on Bandcamp, and this one — which he found on a CD-R lying on his studio floor, and posted Christmas Day — is especially raw and lively. The guitarist Marc Ducret joins after a minute, adding his own wiry lines and helping outline the track’s central melodic phrase before Tom Rainey’s drums and Craig Taborn’s keyboards enter and the quintet wriggles into a long, tumbling jam. GIOVANNI RUSSONELLOMiguel Zenón and Luis Perdomo, ‘Alma Adentro (Live)’At the Jazz Gallery this fall, the alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón and the pianist Luis Perdomo recorded a concert of boleros (or romantic songs, from a range of Latin American traditions), and the set was so understatedly good that after streaming it on Zenón’s Facebook page, the pair decided to release it as an album. This track is a ruminative lament, written by the Puerto Rican singer and polymath Sylvia Rexach for her brother, who had died in an accident; it was the title track — and the most tender moment — on Zenón’s big band album a decade ago. On the new version, as Perdomo alone carries its downward-spiraling chord progression, the pair spends nearly 10 minutes wandering into and away from the song’s wistful melody, as if reliving a distant memory. RUSSONELLOAdvertisementContinue reading the main story More
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How Zev Love X Became MF Doom
#masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storyPopcastSubscribe:Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsHow Zev Love X Became MF DoomConversations about the legacy of the beloved rap figure’s early career, which set the table for the artist he would become.Hosted by Jon Caramanica. Produced by Pedro Rosado.More episodes ofPopcastJanuary 7, 2021How Zev Love X Became MF DoomDecember 23, 20202020 Popcast Listener Mailbag: Taylor, Dua, MGK and MoreDecember 15, 2020Taylor Swift’s ‘Evermore’: Let’s DiscussDecember 9, 2020The Best Albums of 2020? Let’s DiscussNovember 29, 2020Saweetie, City Girls and the Female Rapper RenaissanceNovember 18, 2020Who Will Control Britney Spears’s Future?November 10, 2020Ariana Grande, a Pop Star for the Post-Pop Star AgeOctober 22, 2020 • More
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Dr. Dre, Hospitalized in Los Angeles, Assures Fans He’s ‘Doing Great’
#masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyDr. Dre, Hospitalized in Los Angeles, Assures Fans He’s ‘Doing Great’The rapper, producer and entrepreneur is being treated at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.The producer and executive Dr. Dre said, “I will be out of the hospital and back home soon” in an Instagram post.Credit…Tim Mosenfelder/Getty ImagesJan. 6, 2021Dr. Dre, the music producer and entrepreneur who leveraged his fame in hip-hop into billion-dollar businesses with the Beats brand of headphones and a music streaming service, confirmed on social media late Tuesday that he had been hospitalized in Los Angeles and that he was “doing great.”“Thanks to my family, friends and fans for their interest and well wishes,” he said on Instagram, adding that he was at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center there. “I will be out of the hospital and back home soon.”Dr. Dre’s statement came after reports that he had had a brain aneurysm and had spent time at the intensive-care unit. Three people close to the musician confirmed those reports, but little other information was available, and neither Dr. Dre nor his representatives gave any specific information about his condition.He was still in the hospital on Wednesday, one of those people said.On Tuesday night, while Dr. Dre was in the hospital, a burglary was attempted at his home in Los Angeles. The police said that four people were arrested, according to a report by NBC News.Dr. Dre, 55, whose real name is Andre Young, rose to fame in the late 1980s as part of N.W.A., the rap group from Compton that helped establish and popularize gangster rap — a style known for its unflinching lyrics about violent street life and its aggressive audio production.In a stylistic shift in the 1990s, Dr. Dre slowed the beat down and borrowed heavily from 1970s funk groups like Parliament-Funkadelic to create a new sound, G-Funk. It was exemplified by his 1992 album “The Chronic,” and in the work of rappers like Snoop Doggy Dogg, whom he introduced as a protégé.He also founded his own label, Aftermath, and became closely associated with Eminem, leaving an indelible imprint on hip-hop as the music evolved over two decades. As a producer, he worked with artists like Gwen Stefani and 50 Cent, with a reputation for perfectionism that led to marathon sessions. He abandoned a planned solo album of his own, “Detox,” after more than a decade of work.Working with Jimmy Iovine, the producer and record executive behind the label Interscope, Dr. Dre also established a headphone brand, Beats by Dre. Selling $300 headphones to ordinary consumers, and marketing its products with endorsements by sports and music celebrities, the venture transformed the audio market. By 2013, Beats Electronics, the company behind the headphones, had annual revenue exceeding $1 billion.Around that time, Beats acquired a small music-streaming service, Mog, for $14 million, and amped it up with help from Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. The next year, Apple bought Dr. Dre and Iovine’s company for $3 billion. In a video that circulated online before that deal was formally announced, Dr. Dre bragged that it had made him “the first billionaire in hip-hop.”In recent years he has kept a relatively low profile. He and Iovine endowed a program at the University of Southern California in 2013 for a degree that blends business, marketing, product development, design and liberal arts.Dr. Dre and his wife, Nicole Young, have also recently been involved in divorce proceedings that have been followed in detail by the celebrity media.Joe Coscarelli contributed reporting.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More
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Bobby Shmurda Eligible for Release From Prison in February
#masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBobby Shmurda Eligible for Release From Prison in FebruaryThe Brooklyn rapper, whose viral ascent was cut short by gang conspiracy charges, may serve the remainder of his seven-year sentence on parole, thanks to good behavior.The Brooklyn rapper Bobby Shmurda, who was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy and weapons possession, will be eligible for release next month.Credit…Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesJan. 4, 2021The Brooklyn rapper Bobby Shmurda, whose quick rise in the music industry was cut short when he was arrested on gang conspiracy charges in 2014, will be eligible for release from prison next month, the New York State Department of Corrections said on Monday.Shmurda, 26, whose legal name is Ackquille Pollard, was sentenced in Oct. 2016 to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy and weapons possession in connection with what prosecutors said was his leading role in the GS9 gang, an offshoot of the Crips, in the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn.Shmurda was denied parole in September, in part because of disciplinary actions taken against him while he was incarcerated, and he was ordered then to serve his maximum sentence, to Dec. 11, 2021. But after a review by the Department of Corrections, Shmurda’s credit for good institutional behavior was restored, making him eligible for conditional release as of Feb. 23, barring any further incidents, with the remainder of his sentence to be served on parole.“I’m glad he’s coming home,” said Alex Spiro, a lawyer who represented Shmurda in the criminal case.Before his arrest at a Manhattan recording studio in December 2014, Shmurda was enjoying a viral ascent in hip-hop thanks to a hit single, known as “Hot Boy” in its edited version, and a related meme originating on the social media app Vine that showed him throwing his hat in the air and doing his trademark “Shmoney Dance.” The move was mimicked by Beyoncé and in N.F.L. touchdown dances, helping send “Hot Boy” to No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.Shmurda, then 19, signed a seven-figure, multi-album deal with Epic Records, but while awaiting trial and unable to pay his $2 million bail, he complained that the label had abandoned him. “When I got locked up, I thought they were going to come for me,” he told The New York Times in an interview, “but they never came.”In the years since, though he had only released a handful of songs, Shmurda became something of a folk hero in rap; his release from prison has been highly anticipated by fans and fellow artists alike. His close collaborator, Rowdy Rebel, who was convicted in the same case, was released on parole last month.While behind bars, Shmurda was disciplined for numerous violations involving fighting and possessing contraband, which damaged his standing with the parole board. In a partial transcript of the parole hearing published by New York magazine, Shmurda said that he was “trying to learn how to defend myself” while being held at Rikers Island, calling the jail “just a crazy place.”Shmurda is currently being held at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y., according to the Department of Corrections inmate database.He told the parole board last year that he hoped to return to rap and the entertainment business, while also counseling children from neighborhoods similar to the one where he grew up. “I was just young, I was just being a follower,” he said, “and then I got older, I started making music and then I seen my life take off in a different path, but my past just caught up with me.”In a recent interview with NPR’s Louder Than a Riot podcast, Shmurda suggested that he should have started rapping earlier. “I would have never been in the streets, you know what I mean?” he said. “My biggest regret is not following my dreams earlier.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More
