"It's an amalgamation of the Chicago neighborhood aesthetic with a Bulls fan, quite literally. It's kind of on the nose, but that's how I juxtapose the elements of my work, with the structure of a home and then a figure who is around or in the home."
Mamdani opened up about his journey from immigrant child to becoming the city's 112th mayor, calling it a dream realized. Born in Uganda in 1991 and arriving in New York at age 7, he's now the youngest person to hold the office in over a century and the city's first Muslim and African-born mayor.
Earl has spent the past decade or so immersing himself in New York's underground rap scene, resulting in one of the most unique and unpredictable discographies of his generation.
Officer Scott was sort of born by accident. He was a character in a sketch I wrote, written for a male actor, but I always would direct to give more Chris Farley energy to the character. Unfortunately, the actor that was supposed to play Officer Scott became sick the day before the show, but as showrunner and writer of the sketch, I figured I'd buy a costume and perform Scott myself.
In §46, Kant defines genius as "the inborn predisposition of the mind through which nature gives the rule to art" (5:307). Because beautiful art cannot be created according to fixed rules, the artistic genius is a kind of channel for the way beauty appears spontaneously in nature. (My slideshow includes Angelus Silesius's "Die Rose" on this point: "The rose is without why.") For Kant, genius has a talent that cannot be learned or taught, and it cannot give an account of itself.
Other Dimensions in Sound is our Friday music series curated and hosted by Boohaabian multi reed player extraordinare David Boyce. Each week David will be inviting different musical guests to join him in our galeria for a night of sonic sustenance. This month: fiery Filipino-American guitarist Karl Evangelista performs the entirety of Sonny Sharrock's "Guitar" album - solo, as intended. The trio of Ari Brown, Elango Kumaran, and David Israel Katz joins.
Mariachi El Bronx, the mariachi alter ego of LA punk band The Bronx, are about to release Mariachi El Bronx IV, their first album in 12 years, this Friday (2/13) via ATO. They'll also be playing Kimmel tonight (2/12) and livestreaming their Tijuana album release show on Veeps on Saturday (2/14), and to help usher in the release of this new LP, Mariachi El Bronx vocalist Matt Caughthran has made us a list of five of his favorite albums of all time.
The rapper, known on his tax form as Charles Wingate and known by his old Harlem associates as Charley Rambo, made his name in the rap game during an all-too-brief run in the 2000s, as one of the most colorful members of Jim Jones' Byrdgang, his solo offshoot from the Diplomats (although due to his growing up with rappers Cam and Mase, Max is like honorary Dipset).
"Many found the music offensive, the dancing objectionable, and the popularity of both with young people verging on a mental health crisis." So writes music historian Susan C. Cook about ragtime, the heavily syncopated ancestor of jazz that arose in the late 1800s. Like all things, ragtime's subversiveness faded over time, and, a century later, the works of Scott Joplin and other practitioners had been relegated to carnivals and fairs, their jaunty piano melodies now evoking quaint notions of old-timey fun.
Last month, LaRussell announced his signing of a "project deal" with San Francisco label EMPIRE, one of the music industry's largest and most powerful independent labels and distributors. In 2023, he announced a deal with Live Nation for select concert dates. Both deals, LaRussell indicated, allowed him to make decisions on his own terms. The Roc Nation announcement comes after images of a late January meeting between LaRussell and Jay-Z were shared online.
The staff of Pitchfork listens to a lot of new music. A lot of it. On any given day our writers, editors, and contributors go through an imposing number of new releases, giving recommendations to each other and discovering new favorites along the way. Each Monday, with our Pitchfork Selects playlist, we're sharing what our writers are playing obsessively and highlighting some of the Pitchfork staff's favorite new music.
As the CEO and co-founder of the generative AI music company Suno, Shulman currently finds himself in the exhilarating if perhaps unenviable position of being simultaneously regarded as the architect of music's future and its executioner. Suno, which was founded just over two years ago, allows users to create entire songs with just a few text prompts. At the moment, you can't prompt it with the name of a specific pop star
What does Comic Sans sound like? What does it feel like? And is it actually kinda good? These were the questions ever-present in the minds of early PC Music acts like Kero Kero Bonito's Gus Bonito, who, to this day, performs DJ sets in front of a strobing projection of his moniker Kane West in the notorious font.
