“I’m partying harder than ever,” Andrew W.K. assures Rolling Stone during a recent phone chat. “It’s synonymous with living.” On Friday, the perpetually amped artist will release You’re Not Alone, his first new album since 2009, but the record isn’t exactly a comeback. Since his prior LP, 55 Cadillac, he’s …
Read More »Rhye: How Former It Band Returned From the Brink With 'Blood'
In the fall of 2012, Mike Milosh released “Open,” his first single under the name Rhye, a track that melded hushed chamber pop with a serene electronic pulse. The music was unwaveringly gentle, but surprisingly, it incited a major-label feeding frenzy. “I was not expecting 20 labels to be fighting …
Read More »The Roots' Black Thought on How He Spit Nearly 10-Minute Viral Freestyle
On December 14th, Black Thought – the voice of the Philadelphia-bred band the Roots, and presence on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon – reminded us why he deserves consideration on your greatest rappers of all time list. While visiting Funkmaster Flex’s show on Hot 97.1 FM in New York …
Read More »Eminem's 'Revival': A Track-by-Track Guide
Eminem, the best-selling rapper of all time, returned at midnight with Revival, his first album in four years. The new LP sprawls across 19 tracks, touching on rock, gospel, pop and, of course, hard-bitten hip-hop. Eminem veers from sassy to self-deprecating, dependent to dismissive, murderous to politically conscious, uncontrollably lusty …
Read More »Shoom: An Oral History of the London Club That Kicked Off Rave Culture
In September 1987, four London club and pirate-radio DJs – Nicky Holloway, Paul Oakenfold, Danny Rampling and Johnny Walker – spent a week on the Balearic island of Ibiza, a place where, legend had it, as journalist Chris Heath wrote in 1990, “it was even possible to get drugs on …
Read More »Taylor Bennett on New Artist-Friendly Label, First Signee Bianca Shaw
During the past few years, Taylor’s Bennett’s older brother, Chance the Rapper, has become one of the most successful independent acts in music. But as the 21-year-old Bennett will tell you, it’s he, not Chance, who has been leading the charge in their native Chicago for years now. “I was …
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