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    ‘A Freeky Introduction’ Review: Pleasure Principles

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    NSangou Njikam’s latest offering is an ode to the erotic and the divine, set to winking R&B and hip-hop songs, in a new production by Atlantic Theater Company.In “A Freeky Introduction,” the writer-creator, NSangou Njikam plays a quasi-deity, M.C., holy hedonist named Freeky Dee. He is a poet delivering sybaritic couplets above the thrum of R&B tunes. He is a missionary preaching the gospel of freakdom: “All of us are aftershocks of the Divine orgasm.” (The Big Bang, Freeky argues, was an explosive one.) The result is a sort of hip-hop hallelujah — a work of interactive theater that’s funny and familiar in its embrace of Black culture, yet flattened at times by a lack of specificity.Freeky Dee is also a storyteller. He opens the show, now at Atlantic Stage 2 in Manhattan, with the tale of an eagle destined to fly, but born into a nest of bullying buzzards — a not-so-subtle allegory about one species that must resist the self-appointed superiority of another. Accompanied by DJ Monday Blue onstage, Freeky Dee is the sole performer who acts out these scenes, including his pursuit of a fine lady named Liberty (“French, with a splash of Africa” and wearing “a crown that looked like sun rays coming out her forehead” — you get it).Njikam, who wrote and starred in the lively and semi-autobiographical “Syncing Ink,” is a fan of salacious reinterpretations. Under Dennis A. Allen II’s well-paced direction for this Atlantic Theater Company production, he delivers them with the charisma of a folkloric trickster. DJ Monday Blue’s sounds and samples lend a rock-steady groove — a feast of R&B and hip-hop staples. Whenever Freeky Dee sets up for a spoken-word set, the standing bass and sax lines of “Brother to the Night,” from the movie “Love Jones,” ring out. It’s a knowing wink — sonic choices that affirm Black cultural memory as its own special canon.Audience participation also becomes a form of communion for Njikam and Blue. At times, we’re ordered to recite an affirmation-laden “Mirror Song” or do kegel exercises in our seats. The show is always edging the sacred up against the sexual, which set designer Jason Ardizzone-West reinforces, adorning square columns with divine contradiction: half evoke West and North African etchings of figures kneeling in spiritual offering; while the other lean into smut — peach and eggplant emojis, thirst drops, figures on their knees for a different purpose.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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      South by Southwest London Has Its Own Musical Touch

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      The festival, which has a long association with music, presents an opportunity for London acts to perform on a bigger stage.When South by Southwest first began in Austin, Texas, in 1987, the Shoreditch neighborhood in East London was still filled with empty warehouses. But it was beginning to attract a wave of artists who would help it eventually become synonymous with music and culture.Almost 40 years later, this area will be the site of South by Southwest London, the organization’s first foray into Europe. And for some of the London-born musicians who are performing, it’s a huge opportunity that also reflects the area’s reputation and artistic cachet.“It’s super exciting that it’s now finally arriving on home soil,” said Joel Bailey, an R&B and soul artist from Southwest London whose stage name is BAELY. He continued: “London’s got so many different hubs of, kind of like pockets of creative spaces and Shoreditch is definitely one of them. It’s thriving.”Jojo Orme, who performs as Heartworms, was born in London and said she briefly lived in Shoreditch. “They just have the fingers on the pulse there. It’s always beating,” she said, adding that “so many people love to travel to Shoreditch for a show because it’s always a good time.”Jojo Orme, who performs as Heartworms, said people flock to shows in vibrant Shoreditch, the festival’s home base. “They just have the fingers on the pulse there.”@kate.samsara.photographySouth by Southwest London, which begins on Monday and runs through June 7, will feature performances by more than 500 artists across about 30 venues as part of its music festival. It will also include a film and conference series, just like the flagship festival in Austin. An Asia-Pacific branch of the event started in Sydney in 2023.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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      Chris Brown Released on $6 Million Bail by London Court

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      The R&B singer was charged last week with grievous bodily harm over a 2023 incident in England. His release from custody means he can proceed with a world tour.Chris Brown, the R&B singer, has been freed from custody by a London judge as he awaits a court case over accusations of an assault in a nightclub.Mr. Brown, 36, was arrested last week at a hotel in Manchester, England, and charged with grievous bodily harm.The singer is accused of attacking a music producer with a tequila bottle at Tape London, a nightclub in the Mayfair district, on Feb. 19, 2023.Lawyers representing Mr. Brown applied for him to be bailed at a hearing at Southwark Crown Court in South London on Wednesday, and London’s Metropolitan Police said the application had been granted.The judge’s decision means that Mr. Brown will be able to perform on an international tour that is scheduled to begin in Amsterdam on June 8. He is then set to visit European countries including Germany, Britain, Ireland, France and Portugal before traveling to the United States.The BBC reported that the judge, Tony Baumgartner, imposed a series of conditions on Mr. Brown, including that he must surrender his passport when not on tour and stay away from Tape London.Mr. Brown’s representatives agreed to pay into the court a security fee of five million pounds ($6.7 million), which can be forfeited if any of the conditions are breached.He has not yet been asked to enter a plea in the case, and British law bans the reporting of any details that could prejudice a jury at a future trial.Omololu Akinlolu, 38, an American rapper who performs under the name HoodyBaby, was charged with grievous bodily harm two days after Mr. Brown, in relation to the same incident.Mr. Brown and Mr. Akinlolu are scheduled to appear at a hearing at Southwark Crown Court on June 20. More

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      Who is Dawn Richard, the Danity Kane Singer Who Will Testify at Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’s Trial?

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      The musician performed in two of the mogul’s best-known recent acts, Danity Kane and Diddy — Dirty Money. She sued him last year, alleging threats and groping.Dawn Richard, the singer expected to take the stand as a witness at the Sean Combs trial after Casandra Ventura, was part of two of Mr. Combs’s best-known acts over the last two decades. She was in the R&B girl group Danity Kane, familiar to viewers of his MTV reality show “Making the Band,” and a trio called Diddy — Dirty Money.And like Ms. Ventura, she has accused Mr. Combs of misconduct during her time with him, alleging in a lawsuit filed last year that he threatened her, groped her and would fly into “frenzied, unpredictable rages” while he oversaw her career. In response to that suit, a lawyer for Mr. Combs said in a statement that Ms. Richard had “manufactured a series of false claims all in the hopes of trying to get a payday.”Danity Kane was assembled by Mr. Combs during the third iteration of “Making the Band,” which began in 2005. On the show, 11 finalists were winnowed to a final team of five, their name inspired by a superhero character that Ms. Richard had drawn.Ms. Richard, now 41, grew up in New Orleans, and she was the subject of the premiere episode of the show’s third season, as the group visited her hometown and surveyed the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina. That season ended with the quintet’s filming a video for its debut single, “Show Stopper,” which reached No. 8 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.Danity Kane opened for Christina Aguilera on tour and released two albums before going on a hiatus in 2009. Then, Ms. Richard remained in Mr. Combs’s musical tent as part of Diddy — Dirty Money, a trio that also featured Mr. Combs as well as another singer, Kalenna Harper.After one album, Mr. Combs disbanded the trio — over email — but Danity Kane reunited, releasing a third and final album in 2014. After another break, Danity Kane was active again, from 2018 to 2020.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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      Chris Brown Arrested in Connection With 2023 Assault, British Authorities Say

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      The R&B singer, who has a history of violent episodes, was charged with grievous bodily harm.British prosecutors on Thursday arrested and charged Chris Brown, the R&B singer, with grievous bodily harm and are holding him in custody.Brown, 36, was charged over an assault that reportedly took place at a venue in Hanover Square in London, on Feb. 19, 2023, according to the Metropolitan Police. He remains in custody and was set to appear at Manchester Magistrates’ Court at 10 a.m. on Friday, the police said.A news release from prosecutors on Thursday gave no further details. Under British law, news outlets are not allowed to publish details of an incident that may prejudice any trial once someone has been charged.A lawyer and a talent agency that represents Brown did not immediately respond to emails and calls seeking comment on Thursday night.Brown has a history of violent episodes and has been accused of violence against women multiple times. In 2014, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault after assaulting a man outside of a hotel in Washington the previous year. In 2018, a woman sued Brown, saying he held her against her will at his Los Angeles house while a friend of his raped her; that lawsuit was settled out of court in 2020. In 2009, Brown pleaded guilty to assaulting Rihanna, his girlfriend at the time, in his car. He and received a sentence of five years’ probation. He has also been accused of throwing a rock through his mother’s car window in 2013 and punching a woman at a Las Vegas nightclub in 2016.Brown’s songs have landed him 17 Billboard Top 10 hits, most of which were released between 2005 and 2015.Hank Sanders More

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      In Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’s Trial, Cassie Is the Star Witness

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      The identity of the individual referred to in waves of dramatic legal filings as Victim-1 — the woman at the very center of the racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking case against the music mogul Sean Combs — was never much in question.But when she takes the witness stand at a Manhattan courthouse under her own name this week, there will be little doubt that there would not have been a criminal indictment against Mr. Combs without the testimony of Casandra Ventura.A singer and model known mononymously as Cassie, she was Mr. Combs’s on-and-off girlfriend — and employee — almost from the time they met in 2005 (when she was 19, he 37), until she finally severed ties from his storied record label, Bad Boy, in 2019.After months of preparation and anticipation, Ms. Ventura, now 38, is expected to recount for the jury how Mr. Combs instituted a system of abuse and control over her life and career for more than a decade. Prosecutors say the executive dangled ever-disappearing music opportunities; beat her when she stepped out of line; and plied her with drugs, forcing Ms. Ventura to have marathon sex sessions with male prostitutes while he taped the encounters.Lawyers for Mr. Combs have portrayed the relationship as loving but deeply toxic and complex, prone to infidelity and mutual abuse, while maintaining that any sexual arrangements were completely consensual. They depict Ms. Ventura as a bitter ex and extortionist who sought only a payday, not justice.What both sides cannot disagree about is that it was Ms. Ventura’s decision in late 2023, following extensive therapy, to pour her allegations into a federal lawsuit — and Mr. Combs’s choice not to settle the dispute before it became public — that led to this moment, in which Mr. Combs, 55, has fallen from a beloved billionaire celebrity to an inmate facing a potential life sentence.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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      Kendrick Lamar and SZA Bring Storms and Celebrations to the Stadium Stage

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      The rapper and R&B star are taking victory laps for smash hits and albums. But their co-headlining tour is still threaded with angst and reflection.A little over a year ago, Kendrick Lamar had a comfortable perch as one of hip-hop’s most popular performers, and also the most pious. Then came his monthslong quarrel with Drake, which turned into a referendum on ethics in hip-hop (and life). That led to the emergence of Lamar as a maker of tsk-tsking anthems, which turned into his leanest and meanest album to date. Then came a valedictory performance at one of the biggest stages in the world: the Super Bowl halftime show in February.The outlier song on that album, “GNX,” is the SZA duet “Luther,” which has reigned atop the Billboard Hot 100 for 11 weeks. It’s both sweet and dour, a love song that somehow romanticizes the obstacles that get in the way as much as the affection itself.Despite the success of “Luther,” Lamar and SZA aren’t necessarily natural duet partners; they’re two complementary but not overlapping styles of sentimentalist. Lamar treats remembrance as if it’s a moral act, and SZA expresses a kind of agitation about looking backward. They’ve shared a record label and collaborated several times over the past decade — some good songs, some great ones, all of them in slight tug of war with themselves.That added a layer of complexity to their current outing, the Grand National Tour, which came to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Thursday night for the first of two performances. Even if the overall song count tilted a bit in Lamar’s favor, it was in essence a co-headlining event: Lamar, his popularity at its peak, touring stadiums for the first time, while SZA takes a victory lap for “S.O.S.,” her beloved 2022 album.Lamar’s set list right-sized the role of the Drake beef in his career arc — important and perspective shifting, but not dominant.Graham Dickie/The New York TimesFor almost three hours, Lamar and SZA traded control of the stage, a few songs at a time, a conceit that gave the performance quickness and unpredictability. Sometimes they’d hand off the spotlight with a tender duet, little dollops of warmth amid the high-energy, boldly produced presentation. (Others have taken this trade-off approach before: Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Charli XCX and Troye Sivan.)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 Shares188 Views

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      ‘Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted’ Review: In the Deep End

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      The movie offers full-on immersion, or perhaps submersion, in the singer-songwriter’s musical world.Premises for documentaries don’t come much more casual than in “Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted,” a profile organized around exactly what the title says. As the singer-songwriter Swamp Dogg, born Jerry Williams Jr., awaits the completion of a custom paint job on his pool in Los Angeles, he hangs out on the patio with various friends (including, at one point, Johnny Knoxville of “Jackass”) who drop by to reminisce. The directors — Isaac Gale and Ryan Olson — observe.The movie offers full-on immersion, or perhaps submersion, in Swamp Dogg’s world. His daughter Dr. Jeri Williams, a neurologist (“I’ve got five daughters, but this is the main one,” Swamp Dogg says), likens his home in Northridge to a bachelor pad for “aging musicians.” For years, Swamp Dogg let some of his musical collaborators, like David Kearney, who performed as Guitar Shorty and died in 2022, and Larry Clemon, known as Moogstar, live there too.With Swamp Dogg as MC, the film dutifully checks off biographical highlights: how Little Jerry Williams came up through R&B beginning in the 1950s; how he changed his name to Swamp Dogg in 1970 (“Jerry Williams just seemed too soft”); how the politics of his music (he played in Jane Fonda’s touring anti-war show in 1971) led, he says, to questions from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.In addition, you’ll hear about how Swamp Dogg arranges the TVs in his home, about his recipe book (“If You Can Kill It I Can Cook It”) and about that time he put out an album of pets singing Beatles songs. At one point, the musician’s phone rings. He answers, “I’m in the middle of an interview. Call me later.” Somehow, an editor thought that was worth keeping — which should indicate how much this fans-only documentary gets bogged down with dull asides.Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool PaintedNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. In theaters. More

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      Barbra Streisand’s Silky Duet With Hozier, and 9 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by Summer Walker, Nilüfer Yanya, Ed Sheeran 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.Barbra Streisand with Hozier, ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’At 83, Barbra Streisand still commands a voice of dewy-eyed purity, long-breathed grace and tremulous anticipation. She has announced “The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume 2” — an album of duets with Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Sting, Laufey and more — with “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” A deferential, un-gritty Hozier joins her in a slow, string-laden arrangement that changes key to accommodate him. This duet definitely won’t eclipse Robert Flack’s eternally radiant version, but it has an earnest charm.Ed Sheeran, ‘Old Phone’Fireside folk-rock contends with digital technology in “Old Phone.” It’s a guitar-strumming, foot-tapping ditty about realizing, too late, that cellphone storage can hold a Pandora’s box of regrets: lost friends, misjudgments, arguments, “messages from all my exes.” Better to wipe it next time.Summer Walker, ‘Spend It’The sound is plush and sensual, a silky, spacious R&B ballad with glimmering vocal harmonies sharing the chorus. But the message is coldly mercenary: “Give me the last four of your credit card / Buy back my love, you can keep your heart.” Instead of refuting the hip-hop cliché of women as gold-diggers, Summer Walker leans into it.Nilüfer Yanya, ‘Cold Heart’With her new single, “Cold Heart,” Nilüfer Yanya sets aside her trusty fuzz-toned guitar. Amid undulating keyboard chords and programmed beats, she sings about desire, separation, resentment and heartache: “I don’t wanna bear this burden ’cause it hurts like hell,” she sings. Many of her previous songs have built toward grungy catharsis, but in “Cold Heart,” the chords keep cycling around her; she’s still enmeshed.Bambii featuring Jessy Lanza and Yaeji, ‘Mirror’Bambii, a Jamaican-Canadian D.J. turned producer and songwriter who’s based in Toronto, keeps reconfiguring a sparse, syncopated bass riff and twitchy, flickering breakbeats in “Mirror.” Jessy Lanza sings in English and Yaeji sings and raps in English and Korean, pondering connection and identity — “I look in the mirror / I see your eyes” — as the rhythms ricochet.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