Get Prepared for Sunday’s PLAY A FANTASY VERSION OF THE Epic Producer Battle On Sunday, Timbaland and Swizz present were planning to stage the most legendary match up to date for their short-lived but quickly growing VERZUZ IG live-based producer battle: Kenny “Babyface” Edmunds and Teddy Riley. Two of the biggest contributors to the sound
As part of Billboard‘s celebration for all things 2000 last week, I wrote about Neo Soul’s mainstream breakthrough, and why it didn’t last long. If you chart modern R&B’s course on a map, you’ll notice a giant fork in the path around the year 2000. Actually, it was more of a massive roundabout, leading to
#MusicSermon’s annual Springtime Music Showdown is still on and poppin’! This year, it’s the BATTLE OF THE REMIXES! We resumed regular #MusicSermon services last weekend with a celebration of the real and true REMIX. Not these somebody-emailed-you-the-track-you-laid-you-verse-and-emailed-it-back joints, but the real and true, change the whole song, change the lyrics, up the energy, put fiftylemn
You’ve likely peeped that there’s a call-out moment happening with artists and their first contracts. Kelis and Mase are addressing false promises, low earnings, and jacked publishing with Pharrell and Puffy, respectively. But how much of this is just business and how much of it is, indeed, sheisty? I wrote about complicated contracts and the
Prince was a perfectionist. He was a relentlessly creative musician and a refined aesthete, careful about the music he put out in the world, always presenting a seamless package — image and sound.In the three and a half years since Prince’s death at 57, those responsible for his estate have had to decide just how much
Let’s ignore my expression in this thumbnail for a second. I was invited back to the Marlie Show to debate the top 5 women in hip hop this year, including who belonged on the list and who didn’t (there was a good bit of debate around Missy – is it minimizing her to say ‘of
Both in #MusicSermon and in my writing, I like to stay in a certain pocket: pre-2000 Black music and culture. Untold or undertold stories. We move into more current music and things get a little sticky for me as someone whose been working in the music industry since 1998, and I never want to cross
My journey in the entertainment industry began at entertainment law firm Ossé & Woods, led by young partners Ed Woods and the man who later became Combat Jack. We lost both of them within three days of each other in 2017, and we’re all still reeling. I had the honor of joining a host of people from
As journalists, we often deceive ourselves into believing that it is not our place to make moral judgments, that we merely let the public decide how to feel. This tends to be particularly true of critics, who have historically seen their role as offering critiques of the art, not appraisals of the human beings behind
On the 10th anniversary of Jackson’s death, I sat down with CBS News to discuss Leaving Neverland and how, if at all, the resumed conversation about allegations against Michael have impacted his legacy. I also wrote for Vibe about Leaving Neverland and why I feel we can’t just ignore the conversation about Michael.
Naima Cochrane 