What if you could pay $2 dollars to get a private 30-second performance from Ed Sheeran, would you? Of course, right!? Apparently it’s not so obvious though, as fans in Melbourne, Australia were given the opportunity for a “Ed Sheeran peep show”. It’s not as dirty as it sounds, though. Instead of stripping down, Ed stripped down in a different way with Australian comedians Hamish & Andy, playing in a small room with just his guitar for the brave souls who decided to make the best investment they ever could.
After a couple hours, finally a curious couple decided to take the risk. In return they got to hear Ed Sheeran’s Grammy nominated song of the year, ‘Thinking Out Loud’ front and center. Watch Ed Sheeran’s $2 peep shows below!
Whenever a president steps foot into office, it always comes with a bunch of empty promises to get our hopes up, which only leaves us more disappointed in the end. Let’s hope the same isn’t true when that rule is applied to Kanye West founded music labels though, as rapper Pusha T, the new president of Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music, shared some huge aspirations on Apple‘s Beats 1 Radio today.
When talking about the direction he wants to take for G.O.O.D. Music, Push told Zane Lowe that he wants to make a G.O.O.D. Music festival. While this wouldn’t be the first of it’s kind, as we already have Drake’s OVO Fest and Tyler the Creator’s Camp FLOG GNAW, this one would surely be epic. Imagine Kanye West, Big Sean, Travis Scott, Pusha T, Kacy Hill and all their friends?!? The festival has the potential to be legendary.
Pusha T didn’t only talk about his music festival hopes though, he also teased fans about Kanye’s forthcoming and highly anticipated album Swish. “Kanye called me the other day and was very excited to tell me about his music,” said Pusha T on Beats 1 Radio. “I can’t say when it comes out but fans are in for a treat.” Let’s hope that means it’s coming real soon!
Get familiar with the name “Kipp Stone”. The Cleveland rapper recently signed to one music’s biggest PR firms, with Chicago’s Biz3 (home to J. Cole, A$AP Rocky, Alesso, G-Eazy, Run The Jewels & more). Biz3 wasn’t the only big signing for Kipp Stone though as the newcomer also signed to the Chicago indie label, Closed Sessions. And in celebration of the new signing, Stone has released a new Boathouse produced record, titled ‘Seen It All’. In the new track the 23-year-old introduces himself to fans and details his life growing up in East Cleveland.
We said it time and time again, no one is better than their job than Nardwuar the Human Serviette. His interviews are on point and after every interaction he has with an artist, they are amazed (yet very confused) over how thorough Nardwuar’s research skills truly are. Nardwuar will tell you things about you that even your mother doesn’t know.
This time around Nardwuar landed a rare interview with rapper Travis Scott, who for the most part doesn’t do interviews. As always, the interview is awesome and hopefully this will be the much needed connection that Nardwuar needs to finally land a legendary interview with Kanye West. Fingers crossed!
Watch the full interview below. Doot Doola Doot Doo…
2016 Grammy Nominees Taylor Swift and Sam Hunt (Photo by Dan Garcia/The Early Registration)
The official nominations for the 58th Annual Grammy Awards were announced earlier today and while none of their picks were major surprises, artists like Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd are looking to win big when the awards are announced next year on February 15th, 2016. And if reading the list of nominations has your scratching your head, wondering who will pick up the W for each particular category, don’t worry! We have the work cut out for you as we put together our list of predictions for some of Grammy‘s biggest categories.
Check out our predictions for the 58th Annual Grammy Awards below.
Last night, rapper Yo Gotti brought his secret tour of 8 shows, 8 cities and only 8 dollars, “The 8 For 8 Tour”, to The Metro in Chicago, IL. Now over half way through his tour, which kicked off December 1st in New York, Gotti will hit stops in St. Louis, Oakland, and his hometown crowd in Memphis before the tour concludes. Last night though, it was all about the Windy City! Gotti put everything into his show last night, performing a number of records from his CM8: Any Hood America project, the newest installment of his Cocaine Muzik mixtape series, as well as a number of Yo Gotti’s fan favorites, including his 2014 hit ‘Errrbody’.
For a price of only $8 per ticket, it is more than an understatement to say everyone at The Metro got their money’s worth, so we sent our photographer Ariana LaBarrie to capture some of the show’s best moments.
Check out some of Ariana LaBarrie’s photos of Yo Gotti’s Chicago performance below!
Following an arguably weak year for albums, 2015 has seen a lot of great projects and many unexpected ones as well. While this year we saw the highly anticipated return of Adele, patient fans are still awaiting Frank Ocean’s sophomore album and Kanye West’s Swish. But where Frank and Kanye have left music fans hanging, new comers like Bryson Tiller, Alessia Cara, GoldLink, BOOTS, Halsey and more have put out some great albums to help kick off their relatively young careers. 2015 though was also a great year for some heavyweights, of course we’re referring to artists like Drake, Future, Kendrick Lamar and even pop superstars like One Direction and Justin Bieber. In just one day, November 13th, the music world saw more great releases than it did in a span of months in 2014. Cheers to hoping 2016 delivers as well as 2015 did!
Are music videos a lost art in 2015? With MTV and VH1 airing more reality television programs than actual music videos, it is no surprise that a lot of artists have abandoned the music video route of promotion. Fortunately not all artists subscribe to such logic. Many superstar artists still know that fans crave visuals, even if they are streaming it from their phone or tablet.And a lot of emerging artists know that creating some dope visuals are a great way to gain exposure and put your name on the map. Check out our favorite music videos from this past year and see who got our number one spot.
Arguably the best live performers of a generation, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band are hitting the road in 2016, for yet another countrywide tour. In support of their classic 1980 album, The River and today’s reissue of that memorable LP, the guys will kick off “The River Tour” next month in Pittsburgh, and will be on the road for 9-weeks before the tour concludes March 17th at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.
This time around, the tour will be surrounded by even more excitement as each night of The RiverTour will be mixed for release, for HQ downloads and CDs, via Live.BruceSpringsteen.net. Recordings will be available within just days of each performance. The 2016 tour doesn’t only pay homage to the legendary LP, rather it also pays tribute to the original tour of the same name, which ran for almost an entire year in 1980 to 1981. With sets that continually hit near the 4-hour mark, if this tour is even have as great as its prequel, then we’re in for quite the ride!
Check out the official tour dates below and get your tickets when they go on sale December 11th.
Ever since Judd Apatow’s “40 Year Old Virgin”, where Paul Rudd’s character told Seth Rogen’s, “you know how I know you’re gay? You like Coldplay”, it has been uncool to be a Coldplay fan. And as crazy as it sounds, and while no one should every denial the cultural influence that the comedic genius Judd Apatow has on society, that small joke has almost single handedly made it lame to like Coldplay. As a result, given today’s reports that Chris Martin and company will be headlining the NFL’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, everyone on your Twitter and Facebook feed has gone nuts! Year-by-year, the Superbowl is criticized for it’s relatively safe and underwhelming choices for the Halftime Show, and while fans this year are probably more upset than ever, they are wrong.
On the surface, given the unwarranted hate that they get, Coldplay seems like another bust for what could be an epic performance on America’s most watched event. Hell, the highlight of Katy Perry’s performance last year was a meme that came from a guy in a Shark suit who couldn’t dance along to Perry’s colorful performance. Why no Drake? Why no Kanye West? Why no Adele, even? Those are valid questions, but don’t sleep on Coldplay!
A few years ago, I was offered a free ticket to see Coldplay at the United Center in Chicago. Because I had no other plans, because the ticket was free, because I wasn’t driving, I decided to go (note that I was not a Coldplay fan). To me, when I heard “Coldplay” I instantly thought of that hilarious one liner from “40 Year Old Virgin”, I didn’t think, “great entertainers”. Going into the performance, for no rational reasons at all, I expected not to enjoy myself.
Boy was I wrong! In the past year alone, having the opportunity to see some great live performers up close and personal in the photo pit, I’ve seen amazing sets from Kanye West, Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Future, Neil Young and many many more. Not knowing the exact number, I’ve probably seen 200+ concerts in the past couple years alone. However, still Coldplay’s performance from the 300 level of the UC stands out as one of the best concerts I have ever seen. The performance had unmatched energy from everyone on stage and an entertaining set-up and light show that has been replicated by many since. At this time especially, artists did not put a lot of money back into their performances, and for this reason Coldplay’s performance that night was well ahead of its time. I could write 1,000 words on what made that performance stand out, but I will spare you too many spoilers from what you will see in 2016.
Reminder, I am not a Coldplay fan, not then and still not now. That is no disrespect to Chris Martin, rather there are just so many artists and bands I can regularly listen to and their sound generally isn’t my go-to sound. But I can’t deny their stage presence, their live performances, the energy they put into those live performances, and in general their ability to craft a more than memorable show.
Hit me up if I am wrong, but I bet Coldplay’s performance at this year’s Super Bowl will leave a ton of people surprised and will gain them a whole new fan base. You heard it here first…
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