Source: Ronald Martinez / Getty Look, as a super fan of multiple genres of music — including hip-hop, r&b, reggae, bluegrass, and, of course, rock and roll — I just need to say… KISS frontman Gene Simmons is out here trying to piss me off. Recently, Simmons shared his thoughts on why hip-hop artists shouldn’t […]

Prince Williams For everything that we love about reality television, it’s often overlooked that before our eyes are real people — scripted or not! — doing their best, and most times the most, to simply entertain us. For those that succeed in doing so, the pressure to continue finding ways of putting on for the […]

Source: Jason Kempin / Getty The gospel titan Richard Smallwood died Dec. 30, at the age of 77, from complications of kidney failure, and Black America responded the way it always does when a true architect of our inner lives leaves us.  We responded with sound. Choirs leaned into his harmonies. Church musicians pulled his […]

Source: BG048/Bauer-Griffin / Getty Where is the prevailing subversive music in the Trump era? Is the scarcity merely a reflection of U.S. imperial collapse being met with the wider disgruntled masses’ inaction?  The Trump administration has confronted a record number of protests, but the music of this moment is generally not reflective of the ire […]

✕ If every musical note in New Orleans were history, then Sweet Lorraine’s Jazz Club could be the city’s master historian. For more than five decades, this intimate music house has welcomed locals and travelers alike, offering traditional Creole dishes and some of the best jazz, blues, and R&B the city has to offer. It’s not just […]