“Every day seems to bring a new dispatch about the dire state of a world in climate crisis: Species extinction. Rising temperatures. Melting ice sheets. The reports are depressing to the point of despondency: What can individuals do when our fellow citizens, corporations and governments seem content to push the pedal to the floor and accelerate toward an uninhabitable planet?”
“Smino had been performing at the Fillmore Silver Spring for about an hour on Tuesday night, and it was time for what he called his “favorite part of the show.” As his band played the “Jeopardy!” theme, he asked a fan in the middle of the crowd to choose between the “ratchet right side” or the “legendary left side.”
The fan picked the “ratchet right side,” and the crowd went wild, but the decision seemed irrelevant. Smino had used that kind of tried-and-true crowd work all night, even getting the audience to throw their hands in the air and wave them like they just don’t care. His ability to do it all without feeling corny was just one of his many gifts on display.”
“In his lyrics, Kodak Black vows to let his “soul bleed on the track,” and it’s a promise the 21-year-old rapper always keeps. When Kodak raps about his struggles, the pain is palpable. “You know death right around the corner and prison my next-door neighbor,” he intones on his latest album, “Dying to Live.”
It’s Kodak’s preternatural ability to paint pictures about his come-up in rap and extravagant, law-straddling, post-fame life that makes him one of the genre’s brightest stars.”
“On the eve of International Women’s Day, America’s Next Top Rapper played an all-too-brief set at a radio station-sponsored show, started a minor Twitter controversy and ended the night by making it rain at a strip club. For most people, that would be the height of excitement. For Megan Thee Stallion, that’s just Thursday.”
“Growing up in Riverdale, Md., Michael Olumide Ogunnubi — who performs as Olumide — saw hip-hop as a way to fool around with his siblings, imitating music videos on VHS or recording Weird Al-styled parodies with a USB microphone borrowed from a PlayStation. But after feasting on a diet of such aughts heavyweights as 50 Cent, the Game, T.I., Ludacris and Chamillionaire, the 27-year-old talent got more serious about his craft, quietly recording music and eventually releasing it into the world.”
“On his forthcoming release “On Time Out of Time,” composer William Basinski samples the sound of two black holes colliding, creating more energy than all the stars in the universe and a rift in space-time.”
“It was only about a half-hour into Nao’s set at the Fillmore Silver Spring when an audience member passed out. As security provided assistance, the British soul singer sheepishly joked, “I didn’t know my voice could do that.” The sold-out crowd spent the rest of Tuesday night finding out exactly what her voice can do.”
“These days, if you catch a DJ set by Juana at a secret warehouse rave or subterranean nightclub party, you’re likely to be inundated by techno, that pulsating and pneumatic attack girded by nonstop industrial grooves and synthesizer squelches. But it wasn’t always that way for the Chicago-born, D.C.-based selector.”
“At one point at the 9:30 Club, Noname promised: “I’m going to be transparent with you.” All tour long, she confessed, she had been having trouble getting through the entirety of her just-released track, “Song 31.” Her Wednesday night show was no different, but after a break for water and encouragement from the crowd, she tiptoed her way through her latest lyrical minefield to cheers.”
“Music for teenagers lives in dualities and extremes — songs about love so intense, it curdles into hate; songs about pain so deep, only destruction and drugs offer amelioration. Rapper-singer Juice WRLD, who just turned 20, is the latest in a long line of musicians who alchemize these emotional EKGs into pop songs.”
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