Day: October 5, 2018

British rapper Chipmunk began his musical career during grime’s first wave of artists in the U.K., eventually moving toward a more mainstream hip-hop sound that brought him success in his home country and America. After the release of his second full-length, 2011’s Transition, Chipmunk officially shortened his name to Chip, signifying a gradual return to his grime roots. The change coincided with the collapse of Jive Records and Chip’s subsequent move to T.I.’s label Grand Hustle. His first release for the label was 2012’s London Boy mixtape, which featured both U.K. and American guests, including Iggy Azalea, Meek Mill, Skepta, and Wretch 32. Over the next three years — and two further mixtapes, Get Dough or Die and Rap vs. Grime — Chip re-established himself as grime artist; in particular an artist who wasn’t afraid out call out his peers, as in 2015 when he called out Tinie Tempah during a freestyle on BBC Radio One. Later the same year he also began feuds with Bugzy Malone and Yungen, as well as releasing a two-part EP series called Believe and Achieve. By 2017, Chip was fully submerged in the London grime scene; signified by the release of his third album, […]

An imaginative and stylistically dynamic rap artist who emerged during the early 2010s, Logic launched his career through uploads and independent mixtapes prior to reaching the mainstream with a Def Jam record deal. Born Sir Robert Bryson Hall II in Gaithersburg, Maryland, the rapper, singer, songwriter, and producer dropped a mixtape as Psychological in 2009, then shortened his name. After the 2010 release of Young, Broke, & Infamous, Logic joined the independent label Visionary Music Group. A one-tape-per-year schedule continued with a trilogy of Young Sinatra releases, a period during which he toured internationally without label support and was selected for XXL magazine’s Freshman Class of 2013. Additionally, Logic and Visionary Music Group worked out a contract with Def Jam. Logic released his major-label debut album, Under Pressure, in October 2014. Executive produced by No I.D., it didn’t need any guest appearances to enter the Billboard 200 chart at number four, and was eventually certified gold by the RIAA. The Incredible True Story, an ambitious concept album based 100 years in the future, arrived in November 2015 and peaked at number three on the Billboard 200. The following year, Logic embarked on the Endless Summer Tour with G-Eazy, YG, and […]

“I wanted to write an album that could give justice to being someone complex in the pop world,” the surging French star sometimes known as Héloïse Letissier tells Apple Music. “Pop music is so much recently about trying to simplify narratives, and I was trying to complexify mine. Christine is really me taking your shirt and talking to you really up close. I just want to make sure you actually meet me.” If you have not yet made her acquaintance, you are about to: Her second album under the name Christine and the Queens takes her alter ego a step further with a bolder, more androgynous iteration named Chris. “The first album was born out of the frustration of being an aberration in society, because I was a young queer woman,” she says. “The second was really born out of the aberration I was becoming, which was a powerful woman—being lustful and horny and sometimes angry, and craving for this will to just own everything a bit more and apologize a bit less.” While the new album, also named Chris, undoubtedly works as an exploration of identity and sexuality and power—and as self-aware performance art worthy of touchstones like David […]

Armed with a mesmerizing, nimble soprano—and a vocal register often likened to Mariah Carey’s and Christina Aguilera’s—Ariana Grande began her career as a child star on Broadway and Nickelodeon before transforming into a pop and R&B powerhouse. Instantly recognizable thanks to her signature ponytail, cat ears, babydoll dresses, and breezy self-confidence, her slyly sexual personal brand has, like that of the Spice Girls before her, become an iconic image of young female power. But Grande is more than a symbol: Over the course of several albums and scores of hit singles—beginning with 2013’s “The Way” (featuring Mac Miler) through The Weeknd-assisted “Love Me Harder” and “Break Free” (featuring Zedd)—she has consistently outshined her male collaborators and deftly parlayed her stardom into activism. An LGBTQ advocate and outspoken feminist (“I’m tired of living in a world where women are mostly referred to as a man’s past, present, or future PROPERTY,” she tweeted in 2016), she uses her platform to confront issues like misogyny, sexism, homophobia, and bullying, spreading a message of love over all. Nowhere was this more clear than in May 2017: After terrorists attacked her concert in Manchester, England, killing 22 and injuring hundreds, Grande continued her tour. “Perspective […]

Kojo Funds emerged amid a number of rap artists mixing Afro-swing, dancehall, and R&B in the late 2010s. He was born and raised in East London — an area that also produced Dizzee Rascal, Kano, and Wiley — but was also of Ghanaian and Dominican Republic heritage, and African and Caribbean influences would later influence his work. Kojo’s music career began in 2014 when he started freestyling with friends, and their encouragement led him to take his musical aspirations seriously. His first track, “Want from Me,” was released in 2014 and featured his melodic rap style as well as demonstrating the impact of dancehall on his music. In 2016, Kojo released the track that would prove to be his big break. He collaborated on “Dun Talkin’” with Abra Cadabra, and it won the Mobo 2016 Best Song Award. ~ Bekki Bemrose https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/golden-boy/1434400391?app=music