Today we recognize the 68th birthday of one of Hip Hop’s foundational figures, Afrika Bambaataa—a man whose influence helped shape the sound, style, and soul of the genre as we… The post Happy 68th Birthday to Afrika Bambaataa, One Of The Founding Fathers of Hip Hop Culture appeared first on .

We’ve Got A File On You features interviews in which artists share the stories behind the extracurricular activities that dot their careers: acting gigs, guest appearances, random internet ephemera, etc.

Long-running electronic duo Matmos have long built their albums out of playful concepts. Their most recent LP, for instance, is 2023’s Return To Archive, which is built entirely from samples of non-musical sounds drawn from the Smithsonian’s Folkways archives. Matmos’ next record is their metal album — as in, their album recorded entirely with metallic objects.

A very big Happy Birthday shout-out goes out to Hip Hop legend and actor Redman! The Newark, NJ-bred icon turns 54 today and continues to show no signs of slowing… The post Happy 55th Birthday To Hip Hop Legend Redman! appeared first on .

Charli XCX’s great 2024 album Brat huge a big cultural splash, and it owes at least some of its impact to the Apple Dance, the bit of viral choreography that goes along with the titular song. The Apple Dance gets a showcase moment at every Charli show, but it doesn’t come from Charli herself. Instead, the dance’s inventor is TikTok …

Ken Calvert doesn’t seem like a very good guy. He’s a Southern California Republican congressman who signed onto the lawsuit seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election, who voted against expanding federal hate crime laws, and who supported the overturning of Roe V. Wade. But there’s a new Democrat in town — California’s 41st congressional district, to be exact — …

Legendary bassist Peter Hook was one quarter of Joy Division, and he played in New Order from the band’s 1980 beginning until 2007, when he split bitterly with his longtime bandmate Bernard Sumner. Over the years, Hook and Sumner have sniped back and forth in the press, and Hook launched a 2015 lawsuit that’s since been settled. These days, Hook …

Philly’s Kevin Basko used to be a touring member of Foxygen, and he’s collaborated with artists like John Andrews & The Yawns, the Lemon Twigs, and Thank You, Thank You (you can hear him on last year’s great “Watching The Cyclones“). Under the name Rubber Band Gun, Basko releases his own tunes, which Thank You, Thank You’s Tyler Bussey affixed …

The mercurial Kilo Kish has a new EP called Negotiations on the way, and its almost-title-track features Miguel. The two artists are longtime collaborators, and here they team up on “Negotiate,” a hard-edged computer-pop track built on synths, blips, and a skittering drum machine. Within this mechanistic groove, Kish and Miguel’s voices provide a glimpse of human yearning, which fits …

Lil Wayne really wanted to headline the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Earlier this year, the Super Bowl came to New Orleans, Wayne’s hometown, and he waged a public campaign to get the Halftime Show. It didn’t happen. That spot instead went to Kendrick Lamar, currently at the peak of his commercial powers. When Kendrick was announced as the headliner, Wayne …