In 2014 our Editor-in-Chief and lead photographer Dan Garcia teamed up with Pigeons & Planes to cover Lollapalooza, live at Chicago’s Grant Park. Returning to the festival the next year, Garcia got to witness some of the best moments from the premiere festival in the past couple years. Returning to Grant Park this year, Lollapalooza is expanding the festival to include a fourth date for its 25th Anniversary, and many expect festival organizers to release its best lineup yet by the end of the month. So to celebrate Lolla’s 25th Anniversary and built up anticipation until it’s forthcoming lineup is announced, we are sharing some of our favorite moments and photos from Lollapalooza since our publication’s inception.
Looks like Big Boi has moved on from trying to reunite Outkast for another album…for now at least. The Grammy winning rapper and genre-blending duo, Phantogram, have combined forces to form their new group, “Big Grams”. And don’t think that you will have to wait too long to hear some music from the new trio, as they will be releasing their self-titled debut in less than a month, September 25th via Epic Records.
Pre-orders for Big Grams start tomorrow (9/10) and you won’t want to miss at they pay a visit to Beats 1 tomorrow at 12:40 PM EST as Zane Lowe premiere’s their first track, ‘Fell In the Sun’. Also appearing on their forthcoming 7-track project will be Skrillex, on their record ‘Drum Machine’ and Run The Jewels (Killer Mike & El-P) on ‘Born To Shine’. Coming out of virtually nowhere, this is already one of our most anticipated projects of the year.
Like all genre-stricken art forms, hip-hop music has garnered a plethora of tropes and cliches that it will forever carry with it. This was no overnight happening; but rather, it comes from an abundance of similar-sounding releases spanning multiple decades. Artists who verbally tread the same ground as their predecessors. And for those who aspire for a lyrically different route, still manage to get categorized by their beat construction and selection. As an art, hip-hop’s metaphorical canvas is stained and its brush has withered, leaving only so many strokes left. Most artists reach to break the mold and put their own little spark of energy back into the culture. For all the flames that have been lit and blown out, there is at least one hip-hop group whose spark has yet to even start dimming. Continue reading Throwback Thursday Review: Aquemini | OutKast→
In his recent feature with GQ, Chicago’s Chance the Rapper spilled some awesome details about his debut LP. When speaking about Chance’s debut LP’s guest features, GQ’s Byard Duncan writes “His subsequent guest appearances—nasally breathless, startlingly precocious—gained the attention of artists like Frank Ocean, J. Cole, and André 3000, all of whom will appear on his yet to be named debut LP.” If we weren’t already, this definitely has us hype for Chance’s debut album, especially since his last mixtape Acid Rap was critically acclaimed and an excellent follow-up to his 10 Day project.
In 2014, we at The Early Registration have been able to cover and send our photographers to a lot of great shows throughout the country. Check out our list below (in no particular order) to see some of our favorite shows and best shots of the year.
For our Hate It or Love It series we take a current hot topic in music news that polarizes reasonable minds in the music and entertainment world, and we have one of our writers advocate for one side of the argument and have another one of our writers advocate for the other side (trying our best to always stay fair and balanced). One debatable topic in music has resurfaced with today’s release of Rick Ross’ Hood Billionairealbum, Ross’ second album release in 2014. While artists like Ross do not let long periods pass before releasing new projects, other artists take noticeable hiatuses between releases, but which model is better for the musician?
During his Outkast Reunion tour, Andre 3000 wore various jumpsuit that were virtually identical from head-to-toe, however each displayed a different saying. Sometimes these sayings were humorous, sometimes they were deep, sometime they were head-scratching. Either way, all 47 jumpsuits will be displayed in Miami Beach next month during Art Basel (from December 3-13).
Ever since 2008, vinyl has been seeing a huge revival, with more and more records being bought each year. In fact, vinyl sales this year are projected to go up8.9 millionthis year. One of the reasons for this comeback has beenRecord Store Day, which was started in 2007 by independent record store owners who wanted to celebrate and spread the spotlight on themselves. Since then, the day has grown bigger and bigger and this year, they will be celebrating Black Friday by having exclusive releases for independent record stores. The list of releases this year is down below via The Future Heart.
Top Dawg Entertainment singer SZA and half of the legendary Outkast, rapper Big Boi, were the studio together. No word yet on what music will come from this, but this would definitely make for a great collaboration. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
While together they have given some of the best quality music for literally decades, the relationship between Andre 3000 and Big Boi has been questionable for the past few years. However, many Outkast fans will be happy to hear the words Andre shared about his partner in crime recently in an interview with Rolling Stone.
The Early Registration 