The Human Rights Foundation has asked Nicki Minaj to cancel her scheduled performance in Angola, amidst controversy surrounding a list of abuses committed by the President of the nation.
Minaj confirmed via Facebook that she has been booked to play at a Christmas festival in the Angolan capital Luanda. The country has been accused countless times of violating the rights of journalists, activists and almost anyone who speaks out against the government’s oppression.
In a letter mailed to Minaj, Thor Halvorssen, the head of Human Rights foundation, asked the rapper to reconsider her scheduled performance. Halvorssen is well known for criticising celebrities that fraternise with repressive countries. He was introduced to many in Hollywood after using balloons to airlift thousands of copies of James Franco’s The Interview into North Korea, in order to embarrass dictator Kim Jong Un.
In his letter, Halvorssen noted that Angolan hip-hop artist Luaty Beirao was arrested in June after attending a meeting to discuss democracy and non-violence, using this as a key point to validate his argument against Minaj’s performance.
“As a strong-willed independent artist, shouldn’t you be advocating for the release of the imprisoned rapper Luaty Beirao rather than entertaining the dictator and his thieving family?” asks Halvorssen in his letter.
“Ms Minaj, you are well known for being involved with charities such as the Get Schooled Foundation, which helps motivate young people to graduate from high school and succeed in college. If you move forward with this performance for the dictator and his family, you will be in league with the people stealing educational resources and opportunity from young Angolans.”
As of yet, there has been no official response Nicki Minaj, or anyone in her party. Here’s hoping she considers the letter before she chooses to perform.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JipHEz53sU
James Franco is a man of many trades. He’s spent considerable time within both the film and publishing industry (who could forget the NY times op-ed he wrote on fellow actor Shia Lebouf?), and now he’s trying his hand at music.
Franco, along with his old schoolmate Tim O’Keefe have started a band called Daddy, and are currently gearing up to release an album entitled Let Me Get What I Want next year. The LP is based on The Smiths-inspired lyrics, penned by Franco in his book Directing Herbert White: Poems. Just this week, the band dropped a sneak peek of the album in the form of new track, You Are Mine.
According to a press release, the album and film follow “three characters as they weave through the dark ways of high school: love, death, and dreams.”
In a statement, Franco described the meaning behind the album’s lyrics, “High school is a time of longing for the unattainable. We dream big, but we’re still too young to make anything significant happen. At least I was too immature and sensitive to be the person I wanted to be. You Are Mine is about one teenager dreaming about another, even though they’ll never be together.”
Tim O’Keefe also added, “Transforming James’ poems to songs took on it’s own creative process which was a new direction for me. Because the words weren’t written by me, I had to take on the character of the individual whose perspective I was singing from. You Are Mine like many of the songs on Let Me Get What I Want expresses experiences that were relatable to my own high school experience, and therefore I had a lot of my own emotions to pull from.”
Franco also somehow managed to get actual The Smiths bassist Andy Rourke on board for the project, which lends a little bit more integrity to the project that could have easily been written off as a poorly executed side-project of Franco’s (think his Lana Del Rey novel). You Are Mine is a new wave, garage-esque track that showcases Franco’s vocals as he harmonises with O’Keefe. It’s surprisingly not too shabby.
Take a listen for yourself below.
Pharmaceuticals CEO and altogether terrible person, Martin Shkreli has been in the public eye for some time now. He caused considerable uproar earlier this year after raising the price of a life-saving drug by a whopping 5,000 percent, and in recent times he’s been stirring up commotion in the hip-hop world. Just a few weeks ago, Shkreli was outed as the mysterious buyer who spent an approximate $2 million on the only copy of Wu-Tang Clan‘s Once Upon A Time In Shaolin. Now, the self-proclaimed hip-hop aficionado has stated plans to bail out incarcerated Brooklyn rapper Bobby Shmurda, according to a recent interview with Hip Hop DX.
“We’re actually in discussion to try to bail out Bobby Shmurda. Forget whether you think he’s guilty or not, the guy should not be sitting in jail right now,” He stated during the interview, “He deserves a fair trial. He deserves good lawyers. He doesn’t have good lawyers. His label is hanging him out to dry and so I have a conference call tomorrow morning with them (December 15). I’ll show up with $2 million bail money no fucking problem.”
However, he’s not doing all this for free. If all goes to plan and the money he throws at the case sees Shmurda walk free, Shkreli expects his plan to become lucrative.
“Look, the guy’s going to have to record for me if he comes out. I’ll just come out and say it. If I’m gonna post his bail, pay for his trial, get him a “Not Guilty” verdict… With the right lawyer, it’s just a matter of money. I see opportunity. The guy’s going to be more popular when he’s out. The guy probably didn’t do shit.”
Bobby Shmurda was arrested on gun charges and gang conspiracy in December 2014, with his bail set at $2 million. His next court appearance is in January, and his trial is set to begin in February.
It’s almost certain that we will be hearing more of Martin Shkreli’s exploits in the hip-hop world in the months to come. While there’s no word on whether or not he will be releasing Wu-Tang’s record for all of us to hear, at least we can rejoice in knowing that the group will be coming down under in just over two months. Maybe Shkreli should listen to the words of Wu-Tang before he really pisses someone off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpQmFfdYFzY
It’s rare to see Azealia Banks in the spotlight for anything pertaining to her music, rather than her Twitter feed, but with the release of the video for Count Contessa, she’s made a long awaited switch. The track was the first to be release from Fantasea II, the rapper’s second LP with a still unknown release date. Reports initially suggested the LP would be dropped in July 2014, but with Banks citing troubles with her label and management, it may be a long while until we get to hear the record in full.
Directed by Rony Alwin, the video begins with the rapper walking a pig and getting her fortune read (the fortune teller is also played by Banks), learning that she will soon encounter some romance. The track then kicks off, with Banks dancing in a bathing suit and serving that nonchalant attitude she’s known for. The video also features an unknown female co-star who one could assume is the romantic interest spoken of prior, although it’s never made clear in the video.
The video premiered on Fun-Mag, which also posted a special behind-the-scenes on the life of Azealia Banks. Banks’ discussed her ever-upcoming album with them, stating that “I’ve been working on a full body of work, aka an album, since I was 17 years old. Now, all sorts of things like life and circumstance have happened since then”. It could be possible that she’s simply given up on Fantasea II. However, considering she’s still releasing visual accompaniment’s for tracks that were released years ago, it’s unlikely she has a new or different project in the works.
Take a look at the clip below:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNi6PJpB3JU&w=560&h=315]
The results are in, and the most watched video of 2015 goes to Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars, which has been viewed over one billion times. Obviously, garnering this amount of views is no simple feat. Ronson and Mars beat out many heavyweight artists, including but not limited to Maroon 5, Adele and Taylor Swift (yay), the latter of which had three singles in the top ten- this is truly a victory for all.
It’s not surprising that the duo managed to make this feat, since it’s 2014 release Uptown Funk has been almost inescapable. Despite it being released last year, it seems that time has not been a boundary for the track- it’s also become the number one most downloaded song on iTunes this year, as well as Michelle Obama’s pick for her favourite song of the year.
Jeff Bhasker, a songwriter who helped produce the track spoke with LA weekly about the makings of a hit, stating that “we really studied the mechanisms of what makes a hit song, and one of our mentors, Steve Lindsey, really pounded that into us. The term “hit song” implies a successful song, but you can also think about it as, like, a song that hits you. To get your point across and to get people to understand a concept clearly within a three- to four-minute time frame takes songcraft, and making it very clear and interesting to listen to, almost like you’ve heard the song already.”
It’s unclear at this point whether this track’s popularity will ever slow down, it’s already lasted a year- let’s see how it fares in 2016.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPf0YbXqDm0&w=560&h=315]
The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is good for a few things. Destroying a woman’s self esteem, providing a brief burst of motivation to eat right and exercise (emphasis on brief), and finding humour in watching the selected artists dodge overzealous angel wings and try not to stare at the model’s asses (both of which Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber were terrible at doing). This year saw Selena Gomez, The Weeknd and Ellie Goulding take the runway- in what could possibly be one of the show’s most successful years, musically.
Both Goulding and The Weeknd performed two songs (Army/Love Me Like You Do, and In The Night/Can’t Feel My Face, respectively), but it was Selena Gomez’ performance that stirred the most after-show commotion. The singer performed a medley of her hits Hands To Myself and My Girls on the runway, where both her outfit and vocal skills were impeccably on point. So on point, however, that VS fans took to Instagram to vent their frustration over what they perceived was a lip-synced performance.
Past fashion shows have seen all performers sing live, and Gomez’ performance- while remarkably spot on- doesn’t sound any different. Perhaps it would have been better if she did lip sync though, there would be less to envy.
Check out the performance below, and try not to cry:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTtoxL9yeXU&w=560&h=315]
Taylor Swift is currently in Australia for her 1989 tour, and as expected the media is going insane. Amongst all the fanfare surrounding the singer, however, is one very unhappy news team. Channel Seven’s Sunrise were recently left fuming after being denied entry into T-Swift’s birthday bash, which took place on a privately owned resort in Hamilton Island (of course).
After being told to fuck off by security (probably not in those exact words, but whatever), and having their bags and equipment confiscated, the Sunrise crew took to the waters to film a live cross from a boat near the island. But, as Swift obviously has legal right over not only the island, but the entire ocean surrounding it- they were promptly asked to leave again, by security. Journalist Michelle Tapper argued the legality of being forced to leave open water, and also referred to the incident as ‘outrageous’, telling News Corp that she’d “never encountered anything like this in 20 years of journalism”.
This probably doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone. While Taylor Swift has consistently tried to embody the ‘good girl’ aesthetic throughout her career, certain tactical moves she makes prove her to be the kind of powerful artist we love to hate. She is a juggernaut in the pop music industry, in the worst kind of way. No matter what she does, no matter what media outlet she pisses off, she’s impossible to get away from. Due to this, and our collective annoyance at her insistent presence on our news feeds, we’ve compiled a list here of the five most annoying things T-Swift has done this year.
1. Her excessive use of trademarking.
Trademarking is a normal, if not necessary way for artists to retain their original work. There’s no issue with that. However, when Swifty is involved it gets a little bit ridiculous. Earlier this year, she applied for a list of phrases from her 1989 album to be trademarked, mainly in relation to their use in merchandising. All sounding good so far, right? That is, until you take a look at the list of quotes she wanted to trademark. Phrases like “This sick beat”, “‘Cause we never go out of style” and most confusingly, “nice to meet you. Where you been?”, have all been requested- the latter of which one could argue is a considerably generic phrase that doesn’t really SCREAM Taylor Swift when heard. The trademarking only covers merchandising, including but not limited to T-shirts, skin cream, bean bags and christmas stockings… which leads me to my next point.
2. Suing her own fans.
The fact that these trademarks were still pending didn’t stop Swift’s lawyers from issuing takedown notices to poor Taylor Swift fans on Etsy. Fans that were selling candles and apparel with Swift’s lyrics on them were forced to take down their merchandise in fear of legal retribution, despite many of them making little money from their art. One such fan spoke to Buzzfeed about the debacle, stating that she “originally made the item for fun, we love Taylor and we had friends that love Taylor. We never intended for it to be a profit making item. The cost of the item covered shipping costs, and production costs with very little left over”. So unless you’re willing to spend $41.99 on a Taylor Swift ‘kitchen package’, or $49.99 for a pillow from her official merchandise store, it looks like you’ll be going without.
3. Going hard on copyright claims.
From her infamous battle with Spotify and Apple Music, to actually sending a cease and desist letter to a radio host for briefly reciting her lyrics– Taylor Swift doesn’t fuck around when it comes to copyright. This culminated in her legal team taking down audio from a popular Youtube couple’s wedding video for use of her song. The couple had their entire 30-minute wedding video, including vows, muted because their first dance was to Shake It Off. As sad as that is, it did lead to Taylor Swift’s own fans mocking her copyright claims and essentially turning this into a meme, so at least one good thing came out of it… Sort of.
4. Her misuse of feminism.
While she did apologise for this one, her beef with Nicki Minaj is hard to look past. As we’ve reported before, Minaj’s outcry at her lack of nominations at the VMAs came across less as a valid argument than it was an entitled tantrum. However, with those problems aside, Swift completely missed the point. Responding to an argument that has been clearly defined as one pertaining to racial issues, Swift pulled out the ol’ faithful “Don’t pit women against each other.” It would be easier to dismiss this as a one off incident (especially considering how absurd the whole fight was), if it wasn’t something she’d done before. I’m referring of course to her oft-quoted statement of, “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women,” which was a result of a pretty innocent joke made about her by Tina Fey.
5. THIS FUCKING VIDEO.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcIy9NiNbmo&w=560&h=315]
This fucking video. There’s too much to say here. This is probably a personal one, as there was a point where I genuinely couldn’t go a day without seeing it somewhere (my tram trip to work was spent looking at Bad Blood posters on every single street), but it’s so ridiculous. What is the plotline? Why did so much money go into making it? What do Lena Dunham and Hayley Williams have in common besides from being part of this unnervingly weird girl group? Is Selena Gomez meant to represent Katy Perry? And for the love of god, why is Kendrick Lamar involved?!
All jokes aside, Taylor Swift’s work ethic is an inspiration to us all, and in the event that she reads this, I’m sorry for any times I may have misused the phrase ‘this sick beat’ (Taylor Swift™ No copyright infringement intended. Property of TAS LLC Management 2008 ©).
During The National‘s set at Treasure Island Music Festival last October, CHVRCHES frontwoman Lauren Mayberry made a surprise appearance, helping the band perform a stellar rendition of I Need My Girl. Now, two months later, she has paired up with The National’s Matt Berninger again, for an interview on Live Nation TV.
The pair sat down for a nine minute discussion, exchanging tales on a number of subjects including performance nerves and their perspectives of fame. Both of them expressed fears of messing up in a live setting, with Berninger stating that “there’s no way to be totally confident up there. I don’t know how a human being would be confident elevated 15 or 20ft off the ground with everyone looking at you.”
At one point in the interview, Mayberry admitted she once took a hip-hop dance class to help aide her stage presence, to which Berninger responded with “Performing is exhilarating, but just right on the edge of completely humiliating all the time.” He then continued to recount an early experience performing at SXSW, where he jumped ahead an entire song on the setlist – leaving his band and presumably his audience bewildered. “I was screaming my head off to Available,” he recalls, “and they were playing a totally different song. I was singing those lyrics to a drum beat. We didn’t get signed.”
The interview as a whole is very, very charming. The pair discusses these topics in a way that humanises them even more so. It’s nice to realise that even large performers like Matt Berninger get stage-fright at times.
You can watch the interview below.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj5yWgycCXs&w=560&h=315]
CHVRCHES will be hitting up Australia shortly for St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival, as well as three sideshows:
Laneway:
Sat, 6 Feb: Laneway Fest, Sydney College of the Arts, NSW
Sat, 13 Feb: Laneway Fest, Footscray Community Arts Centre, VIC
Sun, 14 Feb: Laneway Fest, Esplanade Reserve and West End, WA
Sideshows:
Thurs, 4 Feb: The Enmore Theatre, NSW
Tues, 9 Feb: The Forum, VIC
Wed, 10 Feb: The Forum, VIC
Remember that one beef between Action Bronson and Wu-Tang Clan‘s Ghostface Killah? You know, the one where Action Bronson dissed Ghostface on national television, and Ghostface retaliated by saying he would gut Bronson like a pig? It’s been a minute, so you’d be forgiven for forgetting. But never fear, now you can relive it over and over again- as it’s been immortalised into a video game.
An online developer called Swamp Penguins created the game which pits the two against each other in a Nintendo-esque, arcade platform. If their name sounds familiar, it’s because they’re the same team that are responsible for the Drake vs Meek Mill game back in August. In this game, you play as Bronson, who is being chased by Ghost’s head. You also need to dodge literal ghosts, while collecting ‘points’ in the form of the Twitter logo. It’s also soundtracked by an 8-bit version of Bronson’s acclaimed single, Actin’ Crazy.
“The wonderful adventures of BronBron and the 36 chambers,” the game description reads, “Ghosts and ghouls and drugs and rap. Is the Wu Tang Clan something to fuck with? Will Mr.Fabulous escape the clutches of the evil face that also happens to be a ghost? How hard will ghostface grab his nuts? What about the wu tang affiliates? Will killah beez come for dem kneez? Find out next time on whats beef.”
You can play the game here, and ultimately try to escape Ghostface Killah yourself.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nmNnDuvYFQ&w=560&h=315]
Action Bronson will be hitting our shores early next year in celebration of his brilliant 2015 album Mr. Wonderful. You can read our review of the LP here.
Tour Dates
Monday March 7: Villa Nightclub, Perth
Thurs March 10: The Met, Brisbane
Sunday March 13: Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Tues March 15: The Forum, Melbourne
Purchase tickets here.