The Best Rap Album category at the Grammys has an odd history. It tends to reward the same artists again and again: Since 2000, Eminem has won a ridiculous six times, while Kanye West took home the trophy at four separate ceremonies, and Kendrick Lamar has already won three more. …
Read More »Artist You Need to Know: Flasher
In the fall of 2017, Flasher were close to a breaking point. The Washington, D.C. punk group had traveled to Brooklyn to make their first full-length album, and it wasn’t going very well. Before entering the studio, they’d had an idea of what Flasher was; now they were ripping at …
Read More »Ozzy Osbourne: On the Road With the Prince of Darkness
O zzy Osbourne will never forget the terrible tremor that overtook his body in the early Nineties. “It was like having my skeleton ripped out of my body every day,” he says, looking surprisingly serene given the subject matter. “It hurt really deep inside. I thought it was due to …
Read More »D.A. Doman Produced Two of the Year's Biggest Rap Hits — But Doesn't Want to Give Away His Secrets
The producer D.A. Doman has enjoyed two very different paths to success in 2018.In the streaming era, splashy rap hits often arrive fully formed at the top of the Hot 100. In contrast, Tyga’s “Taste,” featuring Offset, inched up the charts after it was released in May. The single never …
Read More »Lil Wayne's 'Tha Carter V' Took 5 Years to Make. Why It Still Hits Hard in 2018
The long, convoluted road to Lil Wayne‘s Tha Carter V can be demonstrated by the contrasting trajectories of two songs on the album, “Famous” and “Demon.” “Famous” is an oldie: This sentimental rap ballad was produced by Lasanna “Ace” Harris and Shama Joseph in 2014. That year, the two beat-makers …
Read More »How Led Zeppelin Came to Be
On September 7th, 1968, Led Zeppelin played their first live show ever in, of all places, a converted gym in Gladsaxe, Denmark. They weren’t yet billed under their soon-to-be world-famous name but were instead performing under the guise of the New Yardbirds, a relaunch of the British Invasion blues rockers …
Read More »Aretha's Greatest Albums: 'Who's Zoomin' Who?' (1985)
Aretha Franklin, who died on August 16th at age 76, recorded more than 40 full-length albums in her six-decade career. It’s a deep catalog, crowded with indisputable classics and hidden gems. Rolling Stone’s music staff is paying its R.E.S.P.E.C.T.s to the Queen with tributes to our favorite Aretha LPs. Next …
Read More »Aretha's Greatest Albums: 'I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You' (1967)
Aretha Franklin, who died on August 16th at age 76, recorded more than 40 full-length albums in her six-decade career. It’s a deep catalog, crowded with indisputable classics and hidden gems. Rolling Stone’s music staff is paying its R.E.S.P.E.C.T.s to the Queen with tributes to our favorite Aretha LPs. First …
Read More »Inside 03 Greedo's Last Days of Freedom
It’s Saturday night everywhere in Los Angeles except the recording suite hidden along a deserted stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard. The clock is inching toward quitting time — 2 a.m. — and 03 Greedo has been grinding since early evening. Exhaustion and overindulgence have slowly but surely picked off person …
Read More »The Prince Estate's Big Plans: Inside the Upcoming Purple Reign
One Monday in April 2016, Tyka Nelson received a call from her brother, Prince. Tyka worked for Prince in the last four or five years of his life, and he would routinely bounce ideas off her for projects he wanted to get off the ground. That day, he was in …
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