El-P, our resident rap doomsayer, warned us that everything was going to shit long before it got there. As a solo artist, a producer, a member of the rap groups Company Flow and now Run the Jewels, and the former head of the venerable hip-hop label Def Jux, El-P, born Jaime Meline, built a sturdy […]
Part rapper, part singer, and part heir to the throne of BET Uncut, Ontario hip-hop star Tory Lanez has carved out a unique path to fame that began as an overactive youth bouncing between family in Montreal, Toronto, New York, and Atlanta, then broke big thanks in part to Chixtape, a mixtape series on the […]
You might know Mike Dean from his work on pivotal Texas rap albums by UGK, the Geto Boys, Z-Ro, and Devin the Dude or from his work as a co-producer, mixer, and masterer for everyone from Kanye West and his G.O.O.D. Music collective to Travis Scott, Frank Ocean, BeyoncĂ©, and Madonna. The Houston native is […]
Fiona Apple FaceTimes me on a recent Friday afternoon from a bright-pink futon inside her Venice Beach home, her hair in a long braid, wearing giant headphones, a cozy green sweatshirt, and no makeup. The first thing she says is that sheâs nervous. âIâm like, Oh, shit,â she says, laughing. Her nerves are understandable. Apple, […]
I havenât been able to read a book in three weeks. Watching a two-hour movie is an exercise in extreme willpower: Can I watch three scenes in a row before checking my phone for news? Maybe two and a half? During conversations, I find myself trailing off mid-thought, imagining, in great detail, the circumstances of […]
Brandy Clark, one of country musicâs great songwriters and behind-the-scenes collaborators, has had a hand in writing hits for Kacey Musgraves, Keith Urban, Sheryl Crow, Reba McEntire, Toby Keith, Miranda Lambert, and more. But on March 6, she let the world in on an even lesser-known secret: Clarkâs been keeping her best work yet to […]
In a certain world, you could sum up the mid-â90s with Stephen Malkmus, crying while drinking a martini, singing Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh. Malkmusâs group, Pavement, is still one of the great examples of what was thought possible with guitars and irony at the dawn of the internet. Decades later, we caught up with the joke, and […]
Dave Burd is Ăber-confident. And not like his satirical rapper alter ego Lil Dicky, whose constant garish flexing and bravado are so blatant it borders on the absurd. No, Burd is simply self-assured to an extreme degree. âThese guys would be crazy not to green-light this,â the curly âfroed rapper, who turns 32 later this […]
Best Coastâs last album, 2015âs California Nights, was the ultimate Best Coast album: crisp, guitar-driven music about love and getting high in California. But when a journalist recently asked front woman Bethany Cosentino how many songs on her bandâs new album, Always Tomorrow, were about California, she recalls having to break the news that, this […]
When ZoĂ« Kravitz got involved with the Hulu adaptation of High Fidelity and decided to play the role of romantically challenged record shop owner Rob, she reached out to the man who invented him: Nick Hornby. Kravitz and the showâs creators and showrunners, Veronica West and Sarah Kucserka, were already in the midst of developing […]
Frances Quinlan is still getting used to performing with backing tracks. She didnât want to take more than a guitar on tour, to make it easier to explore cities, but that means she has to keep up with the Macbook on stage next to her instead. âItâs like playing with the most merciless band in […]
I first spoke with Fiona Apple back in September, after she spontaneously emailed me and gave her first interview in seven years. She was in the midst of working on a new album, her first since 2012âs The Idler Wheel, and had quite happily become the sort of homebody who rarely left her house except […]