
Islands in the Stream
Musicians are in peril, at the mercy of giant monopolies that profit off their work.
Great articles, every Saturday.
Musicians are in peril, at the mercy of giant monopolies that profit off their work.
David Dayen The Prospect Mar 2021 30min Permalink
The search for Guns N’ Roses’ elusive guitarist.
Art Tavana L.A. Weekly Oct 2016 Permalink
A trip to Kingston, Jamaica to track down Bunny Wailer, a reggae legend now living “in his own private Zion.”
John Jeremiah Sullivan GQ Jan 2011 35min Permalink
The Brooklyn rapper, fresh out of prison on parole, talks about life on the inside and where he goes next.
Frazier Tharpe GQ Feb 2021 15min Permalink
Why did I ever believe a teen girl could hold all the power?
Tavi Gevinson The Cut Feb 2021 15min Permalink
On Black nonchalance.
Gold and diamond grills. Stilettos you can’t walk in. Grandly arching fingernails, lovingly adorned. Such flouting of functionality is an obvious fuck-you to the days of scrutinized teeth at auctions and picking cotton on plantations.
Namwali Serpell The Yale Review Dec 2020 25min Permalink
A profile of MF Doom.
Ta-Nehisi Coates New Yorker Sep 2009 20min Permalink
A months-long interview with the singer-songwriter.
Jenn Pelly Pitchfork Dec 2020 40min Permalink
An interview with rapper Drakeo the Ruler after he was released from prison, having previously faced the possibility of 25 to life despite being previously acquitted of murder charges related to a 2016 killing.
Jeff Weiss The Ringer Nov 2020 Permalink
Our writer nearly drowns, 236 songs later.
Robbie Fulks Talkhouse Jan 2020 40min Permalink
In 1990, there was no star bigger than the man born Robert Van Winkle. But just as quickly as he became the bestselling rapper the world had ever seen, he became a pariah.
Jeff Weiss The Ringer Oct 2020 40min Permalink
The Puerto Rican reggaetonero has come to dominate global pop on his own terms.
Carina del Valle Schorske New York Times Magazine Oct 2020 30min Permalink
On Glenn Gould.
A profile of the singer.
Claudia Rankine Vogue Sep 2020 20min Permalink
A visit to the Christian rock Cross-Over Festival in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri.
John Jeremiah Sullivan GQ Feb 2004 45min Permalink
Wendy Carlos’s music of the spheres.
Will Stephenson Harper's Sep 2020 15min Permalink
A profile of Mariah Carey.
Allison P. Davis New York Sep 2020 20min Permalink
I don’t want my part to get skipped over, but I still don’t know how to write directly about what went down between me and M. All I can do is worry a detail like an R&B singer worries a line.
Carina del Valle Schorske The Believer Aug 2020 10min Permalink
From 1968-1973, the three teenage Wiggin sisters, guided by a domineering father, played their strange music at New Hampshire ballrooms and recorded a single album. The Philosophy of the World LP goes for over $500 today, but the intervening decades have not been kind to the Wiggins.
Susan Orlean New Yorker Sep 1999 20min Permalink
A look at Chicago’s DJ culture in the ’90s.
One day in 1997, Sneak promised his friend and fellow Chicago DJ Derrick Carter a new 12-inch for Carter's label Classic, then spent hours fruitlessly laboring over a basic, bustling four-four beat. Finally, Sneak gave in and smoked the J he'd had stashed for later in the day. When he came back inside, he carelessly dropped the needle onto a Teddy Pendergrass LP, heard the word "Well . . . ," and realized, "That's the sample, right there." He threaded Pendergrass's 20-year-old disco hit "You Can't Hide From Yourself" through a low-pass filter to give it the effect of going in and out of aural focus, creating one of the definitive Chicago house singles.
Michaelangelo Matos Chicago Reader May 2012 30min Permalink
An interview with the singer.
Brandon Stosuy The Creative Independent Oct 2016 15min Permalink
Four years ago, Dominique Jones got out of prison and learned to rap. Today he is, by many metrics, the most popular rapper in the world.
Charles Holmes Rolling Stone Jul 2020 20min Permalink
A profile of the rapper and activist.
Donovan X. Ramsey GQ Jul 2020 25min Permalink
The producer behind nearly everything Drake does and the multiple sclerosis that has claimed significant portions of his brain.
Charles Holmes Rolling Stone Jun 2020 25min Permalink
How does a Latin-pop superstar spend lockdown? Hanging out with his girlfriend, watching ‘Toy Story’ and surprising the world.
Suzy Exposito Rolling Stone May 2020 20min Permalink