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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">A\u003c/span>ugust 2021 was a lot. The return to in-class learning. The COVID vaccine debates. The massive fires, big earthquakes and huge storms. And the music. Thank the powers that be for the music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-13833985\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/OGPenn.Cap_-160x184.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"184\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/OGPenn.Cap_-160x184.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/OGPenn.Cap_.jpg 180w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kendrick Lamar dropped one verse and smoked your top five rappers, Kanye West took off that goofy red hat and dropped an album, Aaliyah’s discography finally became available on streaming platforms, and The Lox got their flowers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area, meanwhile, music headlines were overshadowed by the unexplained series of events that led to the death of\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13901310/baba-zumbi-zion-i-dies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Zion I’s Baba Zumbi\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I tested positive for COVID on the same day that Zumbi, a talented artist and friend who I’d seen two months prior at my best friend’s birthday party, was involved in a mysterious conflict at Alta Bates Hospital. While overcoming a case of COVID, Zumbi reportedly became involved in a physical altercation with hospital staff. Berkeley police responded. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13901310/baba-zumbi-zion-i-dies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zumbi ended up dead\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I spent a week-plus quarantining and staring at my phone—scrolling, contemplating current events and critically thinking about what it all means—you know, in the larger context of this “freedom” we’re all inherently pursuing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Again, thank God for music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All my time has been focused on my freedom now,” says Ms. Lauryn Hill, opening her verse on the track “Nobody” from Nas’ latest project \u003ci>King’s Disease II\u003c/i>. The album, a follow up to Nas’ 2020 Grammy-winning \u003ci>King’s Disease\u003c/i>, dropped the first week of the month and quickly topped Billboard’s hip-hop charts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ms. Hill’s extended barrage of bars on “Nobody” are packed with quotable lines, but nothing spoke to me like the idea of spending every second engaged in the process of emancipation. “Focused on my freedom now.” What an idea. Now I can’t stop thinking: \u003ci>shit, I wanna spend my time focusing on my freedom, too\u003c/i>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unfortunately, in a lot of ways, my time is spent indirectly paying for continued oppression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=234OiGtOvII\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">E\u003c/span>xactly 20 years ago, Nas was in a dispute with Jay-Z that would be well-documented in a Summer Jam performance, multiple interviews, and of course music—starting with Jay’s “The Takeover,” featured on Jay-Z’s album \u003ci>The Blueprint\u003c/i>, which dropped Sept. 11, 2001. We all know what else happened that day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was a first-year high school student, living in a small apartment in South Berkeley and attending the Athenian College Preparatory School, 45 minutes away in the town of Danville. A scholarship offered to me through the \u003ca href=\"https://www.abetterchance.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A Better Chance\u003c/a> program landed me at school in one of the wealthiest places in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every morning I’d get on a big ‘ole Twinkie bus at Berkeley BART and pursue a \u003ci>better chance\u003c/i> of getting out of the hood, going to college, and eventually finding freedom. Between my taped-up Sony headphones and beneath my tightly wrapped durag, my big head bobbled on the back of the bus—I don’t know what I was bumping, but I can tell you that my brain was already brewing up ways to break bondage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I wanted freedom. Economic freedom, specifically. I was told that academia was the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That first month of school, I got real familiar with the connection between my oppression locally and the oppression of people around the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13901531']In response to how our friends and neighbors with roots in the Middle East were being treated post-9/11, I worked with my schoolmates, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/amis_umi/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Agzja Carey\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/norah-alyami-5a385511/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Norah Alyami\u003c/a>, to organize a rally in front of Oakland’s City Hall. The keynote speaker was \u003ca href=\"https://www.daveyd.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Davey D\u003c/a>, a journalist I knew from his KMEL days, and who I’d grow to admire and even mimic in his ability to mix hip-hop, politics, and the fight for freedom into one conversation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two decades later, life has evolved. Davey is a person I can call with hard journalism questions—I literally did just a few days ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nas is seeing great success as of late; he even has a classic instrumental in a\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CSzRrJQHnQ0/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Tiffany and Co. advertisement\u003c/a>… but he’s still overshadowed (for better \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13901650/that-beyonce-jay-z-and-basquiat-ad-for-tiffanys-does-have-some-upsides-you-know\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">or for worse\u003c/a>) by Jay-Z, who along with Beyoncé was also featured by the same high-end jewelry company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And earlier this month, as the United States pulled out of Afghanistan, and Al Qaeda forces gained control of Kabul, it became clear that our 20-year war effort, launched after 9/11, had failed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I watched the news clips of people running toward large moving jets, even clinging on as the planes took off—just to fall to their deaths. It was reported that \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/human-remains-plane-departing-afghanistan/#:~:text=Human%20remains%20were%20found%20in,clamoring%20to%20get%20on%20board.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">human remains were found\u003c/a> in the wheel well of one of the airplanes. For me, it was further clarification of what had been long suspected: this country’s “war on terrorism,” its sacrifice of both civilians and civil liberties, had been pointless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I broke from my anger-inducing news intake to experiment with my COVID-driven lack of taste. I ate cloves of garlic whole and lemons with the rind still on, just for kicks. I couldn’t read my books, so I balanced my intake of important headlines with clips of crate-mountain conquerors falling to their doom for the whole internet to see.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And when all else failed, I revisited classic hip-hop albums as an escape. Scarface’s \u003ci>The Fix\u003c/i>, Snoop Dogg’s \u003ci>The Last Meal\u003c/i>, tracks from Foxy Brown’s \u003ci>Broken Silence\u003c/i> and Curren$y’s \u003ci>Pilot Talk\u003c/i> trilogy. I dug up the lesser-known Nas and Lauryn Hill track, “It Wasn’t You,” as well as the staple “If I Ruled The World”—another song about the pursuit of freedom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlp-IIG9ApU\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The alone time ate at me. How confined am I? Is my freedom found solely in music? Even then, I pay streaming services or take in unwanted advertisements to taste my source of liberation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How has my push toward freedom led to further oppression? How much have I given to big business? How much revenue have I generated for millionaires with adverse views? Hell, how much have I personally contributed to this country’s war efforts?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was in high school when our government started the longest war in this nation’s history. I entered the workforce shortly thereafter. Every legal dollar I’ve ever earned has been taxed and, in one way or another, used as fuel in this war machine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How many guns have I indirectly purchased? How many were distributed in Black and brown communities overseas? How many have ended up back in my own neighborhood?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How many cops’ salaries have I contributed to? How many of those cops have harassed me, pulled over people I know for no reason, or killed someone who looks like me?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are the unforeseen byproducts of working toward what I perceive as financial freedom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.instagram.com/p/CPBy3rqh3z0/\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">T\u003c/span>his is far from a complaint. I know the significance of being an African American person who gets paid to read and write. I write about artists, creators of color, working-class folks, and disenfranchised Black Americans who have whole bloodlines full of family who were deemed unworthy of the right to read, write, and pursue freedom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I write about them; I write about us. But I’m still not free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“… focused on my freedom now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>August, Black August, is a time we look to honor those who’ve radically committed themselves to the pursuit of freedom. It encompasses Marcus Garvey’s birthdate, Nat Turner’s rebellion, The Haitian Revolution, and George Jackson’s death, as well as the date that Dr. Huey P. Newton was killed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On that day, Aug. 22, the site where Dr. Newton is set to be honored with a bust created by Dana King \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CS676K9r03y/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">was defaced.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s no freedom, not even in death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This August has been rough. There have been a couple of deaths in my inner circle and some unnecessary family drama. I’ve spent ample time reflecting on the nonsense I’ve traversed in my pursuit of freedom. And I’ve gotten wrapped in the pessimism that comes with the potential of dealing with COVID-19 and its variants for another six months, another year, maybe more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My hope for economic, political, or any other substantive form of freedom has turned bleak. I don’t think it’s coming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But more music is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every Thursday I look forward to new music dropping. After a week of working and inching slowly forward without finding the freedom I’d been told about, at least there’s music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I celebrated every track \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/rexxliferaj/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rexx Life Raj\u003c/a> dropped this summer, got juiced when I saw \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CS5e3UFlBfz/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ruby Ibarra\u003c/a> in the \u003cem>New York Times\u003c/em>, and while I despise the NFL, I love that \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CTLhzBtlEhm/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stunnaman 02\u003c/a> is \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CS5Mpt5p8K_/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">providing the soundtrack\u003c/a> for the region’s remaining pro football team.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The closest I’ve ever been to liberation is within the confines of my headphones. I choose what music I’m going to ride to before I put on my seatbelt. There’s hardly a moment where my house is silent, even if it’s just some instrumentals playing softly in the other room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I need music all the time. Every moment is focused on my freedom.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "A Month in Pursuit of Freedom | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">A\u003c/span>ugust 2021 was a lot. The return to in-class learning. The COVID vaccine debates. The massive fires, big earthquakes and huge storms. And the music. Thank the powers that be for the music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-13833985\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/OGPenn.Cap_-160x184.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"184\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/OGPenn.Cap_-160x184.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/OGPenn.Cap_.jpg 180w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kendrick Lamar dropped one verse and smoked your top five rappers, Kanye West took off that goofy red hat and dropped an album, Aaliyah’s discography finally became available on streaming platforms, and The Lox got their flowers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area, meanwhile, music headlines were overshadowed by the unexplained series of events that led to the death of\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13901310/baba-zumbi-zion-i-dies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Zion I’s Baba Zumbi\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I tested positive for COVID on the same day that Zumbi, a talented artist and friend who I’d seen two months prior at my best friend’s birthday party, was involved in a mysterious conflict at Alta Bates Hospital. While overcoming a case of COVID, Zumbi reportedly became involved in a physical altercation with hospital staff. Berkeley police responded. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13901310/baba-zumbi-zion-i-dies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zumbi ended up dead\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I spent a week-plus quarantining and staring at my phone—scrolling, contemplating current events and critically thinking about what it all means—you know, in the larger context of this “freedom” we’re all inherently pursuing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Again, thank God for music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All my time has been focused on my freedom now,” says Ms. Lauryn Hill, opening her verse on the track “Nobody” from Nas’ latest project \u003ci>King’s Disease II\u003c/i>. The album, a follow up to Nas’ 2020 Grammy-winning \u003ci>King’s Disease\u003c/i>, dropped the first week of the month and quickly topped Billboard’s hip-hop charts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ms. Hill’s extended barrage of bars on “Nobody” are packed with quotable lines, but nothing spoke to me like the idea of spending every second engaged in the process of emancipation. “Focused on my freedom now.” What an idea. Now I can’t stop thinking: \u003ci>shit, I wanna spend my time focusing on my freedom, too\u003c/i>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unfortunately, in a lot of ways, my time is spent indirectly paying for continued oppression.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/234OiGtOvII'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/234OiGtOvII'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">E\u003c/span>xactly 20 years ago, Nas was in a dispute with Jay-Z that would be well-documented in a Summer Jam performance, multiple interviews, and of course music—starting with Jay’s “The Takeover,” featured on Jay-Z’s album \u003ci>The Blueprint\u003c/i>, which dropped Sept. 11, 2001. We all know what else happened that day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was a first-year high school student, living in a small apartment in South Berkeley and attending the Athenian College Preparatory School, 45 minutes away in the town of Danville. A scholarship offered to me through the \u003ca href=\"https://www.abetterchance.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A Better Chance\u003c/a> program landed me at school in one of the wealthiest places in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every morning I’d get on a big ‘ole Twinkie bus at Berkeley BART and pursue a \u003ci>better chance\u003c/i> of getting out of the hood, going to college, and eventually finding freedom. Between my taped-up Sony headphones and beneath my tightly wrapped durag, my big head bobbled on the back of the bus—I don’t know what I was bumping, but I can tell you that my brain was already brewing up ways to break bondage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I wanted freedom. Economic freedom, specifically. I was told that academia was the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That first month of school, I got real familiar with the connection between my oppression locally and the oppression of people around the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In response to how our friends and neighbors with roots in the Middle East were being treated post-9/11, I worked with my schoolmates, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/amis_umi/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Agzja Carey\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/norah-alyami-5a385511/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Norah Alyami\u003c/a>, to organize a rally in front of Oakland’s City Hall. The keynote speaker was \u003ca href=\"https://www.daveyd.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Davey D\u003c/a>, a journalist I knew from his KMEL days, and who I’d grow to admire and even mimic in his ability to mix hip-hop, politics, and the fight for freedom into one conversation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two decades later, life has evolved. Davey is a person I can call with hard journalism questions—I literally did just a few days ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nas is seeing great success as of late; he even has a classic instrumental in a\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CSzRrJQHnQ0/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Tiffany and Co. advertisement\u003c/a>… but he’s still overshadowed (for better \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13901650/that-beyonce-jay-z-and-basquiat-ad-for-tiffanys-does-have-some-upsides-you-know\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">or for worse\u003c/a>) by Jay-Z, who along with Beyoncé was also featured by the same high-end jewelry company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And earlier this month, as the United States pulled out of Afghanistan, and Al Qaeda forces gained control of Kabul, it became clear that our 20-year war effort, launched after 9/11, had failed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I watched the news clips of people running toward large moving jets, even clinging on as the planes took off—just to fall to their deaths. It was reported that \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/human-remains-plane-departing-afghanistan/#:~:text=Human%20remains%20were%20found%20in,clamoring%20to%20get%20on%20board.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">human remains were found\u003c/a> in the wheel well of one of the airplanes. For me, it was further clarification of what had been long suspected: this country’s “war on terrorism,” its sacrifice of both civilians and civil liberties, had been pointless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I broke from my anger-inducing news intake to experiment with my COVID-driven lack of taste. I ate cloves of garlic whole and lemons with the rind still on, just for kicks. I couldn’t read my books, so I balanced my intake of important headlines with clips of crate-mountain conquerors falling to their doom for the whole internet to see.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And when all else failed, I revisited classic hip-hop albums as an escape. Scarface’s \u003ci>The Fix\u003c/i>, Snoop Dogg’s \u003ci>The Last Meal\u003c/i>, tracks from Foxy Brown’s \u003ci>Broken Silence\u003c/i> and Curren$y’s \u003ci>Pilot Talk\u003c/i> trilogy. I dug up the lesser-known Nas and Lauryn Hill track, “It Wasn’t You,” as well as the staple “If I Ruled The World”—another song about the pursuit of freedom.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/mlp-IIG9ApU'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/mlp-IIG9ApU'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The alone time ate at me. How confined am I? Is my freedom found solely in music? Even then, I pay streaming services or take in unwanted advertisements to taste my source of liberation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How has my push toward freedom led to further oppression? How much have I given to big business? How much revenue have I generated for millionaires with adverse views? Hell, how much have I personally contributed to this country’s war efforts?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was in high school when our government started the longest war in this nation’s history. I entered the workforce shortly thereafter. Every legal dollar I’ve ever earned has been taxed and, in one way or another, used as fuel in this war machine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How many guns have I indirectly purchased? How many were distributed in Black and brown communities overseas? How many have ended up back in my own neighborhood?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How many cops’ salaries have I contributed to? How many of those cops have harassed me, pulled over people I know for no reason, or killed someone who looks like me?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are the unforeseen byproducts of working toward what I perceive as financial freedom.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">T\u003c/span>his is far from a complaint. I know the significance of being an African American person who gets paid to read and write. I write about artists, creators of color, working-class folks, and disenfranchised Black Americans who have whole bloodlines full of family who were deemed unworthy of the right to read, write, and pursue freedom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I write about them; I write about us. But I’m still not free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“… focused on my freedom now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>August, Black August, is a time we look to honor those who’ve radically committed themselves to the pursuit of freedom. It encompasses Marcus Garvey’s birthdate, Nat Turner’s rebellion, The Haitian Revolution, and George Jackson’s death, as well as the date that Dr. Huey P. Newton was killed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On that day, Aug. 22, the site where Dr. Newton is set to be honored with a bust created by Dana King \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CS676K9r03y/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">was defaced.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s no freedom, not even in death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This August has been rough. There have been a couple of deaths in my inner circle and some unnecessary family drama. I’ve spent ample time reflecting on the nonsense I’ve traversed in my pursuit of freedom. And I’ve gotten wrapped in the pessimism that comes with the potential of dealing with COVID-19 and its variants for another six months, another year, maybe more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My hope for economic, political, or any other substantive form of freedom has turned bleak. I don’t think it’s coming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But more music is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every Thursday I look forward to new music dropping. After a week of working and inching slowly forward without finding the freedom I’d been told about, at least there’s music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I celebrated every track \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/rexxliferaj/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rexx Life Raj\u003c/a> dropped this summer, got juiced when I saw \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CS5e3UFlBfz/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ruby Ibarra\u003c/a> in the \u003cem>New York Times\u003c/em>, and while I despise the NFL, I love that \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CTLhzBtlEhm/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stunnaman 02\u003c/a> is \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CS5Mpt5p8K_/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">providing the soundtrack\u003c/a> for the region’s remaining pro football team.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The closest I’ve ever been to liberation is within the confines of my headphones. I choose what music I’m going to ride to before I put on my seatbelt. There’s hardly a moment where my house is silent, even if it’s just some instrumentals playing softly in the other room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Must-See Concerts in the Bay Area This Fall",
"headTitle": "Must-See Concerts in the Bay Area This Fall | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Even with BottleRock and Outside Lands sold out, there are plenty of live music experiences to look forward to this fall, especially beyond the mega-fests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/fallarts2021\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-13901773\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/FallArtsPreview2021_400x400_blue.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/FallArtsPreview2021_400x400_blue.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/FallArtsPreview2021_400x400_blue-160x160.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A concert on a mountaintop, beloved local acts at intimate clubs, a walking sound installation, must-see touring artists—you’ll find it all on this list. And because Bay Area music lovers can never be confined to a single genre or subculture, we’ve tried to include a bit of everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cb>Reminder:\u003c/b> COVID precautions remain in flux. Proof of vaccination is a requirement for many indoor events. Before making plans, and again before arrival, be sure to check event websites for the latest protocols.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/nq33UIpMVo4\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ticketweb.com/event/los-rakas-the-new-parish-tickets/11259895\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Los Rakas with Qing Qi\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The New Parish, Oakland\u003cbr>\nSept. 10\u003cbr>\nMasks required\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Los Rakas rep Oakland as hard as they do Panama, and influences from the two regions come together in a dynamic, signature sound that bridges Latin trap, hyphy, reggaeton and dancehall. The cousin duo has been rocking in the Bay Area since the mid 2000s, and on their 2019 album, \u003cem>Manes De Negocio\u003c/em>, they pay homage to their Afro-Latino roots and the African diaspora’s enormous contributions to reggaeton and urbano. Known for their pumped-up live shows, Los Rakas take the stage at their hometown concert hall, the New Parish, with support from Qing Qi, the East Palo Alto rapper whose music is delightfully raunchy and rebellious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/mfdYMKbNLww\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tixr.com/groups/soundsummit/events/sound-summit-2021-26107\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sound Summit\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Mountain Theater, Mt. Tamalpais State Park, Mill Valley\u003cbr>\nSept. 11\u003cbr>\nProof of vaccination or negative COVID test required\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nature lovers know that Mt. Tam is home to some of the most stunning hiking trails in the Bay Area, with 360-degree views of the Pacific Ocean, the Oakland and San Francisco skylines and even Mt. Diablo. This fall, Sound Summit returns to Mt. Tam’s Mountain Theater, a 4,000-seat amphitheater at the peak. The festival’s guitar-forward lineup boasts folk singer-songwriter Father John Misty, New Orleans funk band Cha Wa, Mill Valley folk singer Teal Collins, Texan rocker Lukas Nelson, folk-rock band Allah-Las and DJ Andy Cabic. Their stylings should provide a mellow soundtrack for gazing at the sunset and communing with bluejays and chipmunks. Round-trip bus service up to the top of the mountain is available. And remember, this is one of the Bay Area’s most prized natural treasures, so leave no trace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/hr-I6-gxecg\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://thechapelsf.com/e/the-residents-at-the-castro-theatre-161017813615/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Residents\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Castro Theatre, San Francisco\u003cbr>\nSept. 17\u003cbr>\nProof of vaccination and masks required\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Residents have been creating delightfully wacky music, performance and multimedia art in the Bay Area since 1969, making them as much of an institution as, say, the San Francisco Symphony or the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Throughout their boundless career, they’ve written spoken-word rock operas, created fictional universes, scored documentaries and helped popularize the art of the music video. And all the while, the members of the collective have remained mostly anonymous. During the last several years, their album release schedule has remained as prolific as ever, and in 2020 they performed at the Museum of Modern Art. The subject matter? “A ruined evangelist and his twisted obsession with a pair of gender-fluid conjoined twins he claims are miracle workers,” according to the museum. Their performance at the Castro Theatre should be no less imaginative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/-k3JwqzgVl8\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eventbrite.com/e/la-santa-cecilia-tickets-96595221909\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">La Santa Cecilia\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Ritz, San Jose\u003cbr>\nSept. 17\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The members of La Santa Cecilia met while busking on the streets of Los Angeles, and together the Grammy-winning group created a sound that spans cumbia, mariachi, jazz and bossa nova—a reflection of their many musical influences as the children of immigrants. Singing in Spanish about topics as varied as family tragedy, immigrant rights and queer love, lead vocalist Marisol Hernandez brings powerful storytelling to the band’s danceable, accordion-, guitar- and percussion-forward compositions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/2ZfcZEIo6Bw\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://www.theregencyballroom.com/events/detail/400451\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Japanese Breakfast with Luna Li\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Regency Ballroom, San Francisco\u003cbr>\nSept. 30–Oct. 1\u003cbr>\nProof of vaccination and masks required\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast writes lyrics that trace delicate outlines of emotions, as if drawing on a foggy window on an introspective, snowy day. Her writerly curiosity as a musician propelled her into a second career as an author. Earlier this year, her memoir about her mother’s death and her Korean heritage, \u003cem>Crying in H Mart\u003c/em>, became a \u003cem>New York Times\u003c/em> best seller. And a few months later, in June, she released her critically acclaimed album \u003cem>Jubilee\u003c/em>, an indie rock record with celebratory horns, hopeful strings, stomping dance floor catharses and bittersweet reflections on the fleeting nature of happiness. Harpist, violinist and multi-instrumentalist Luna Li joins her for two nights in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/1NMZ0MpaEuY\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://www.axs.com/events/409353/isaiah-rashad-tickets?skin=warfield&src=AEGLIVE_WWRFLSFO022715VEN001\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Isaiah Rashad\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Warfield, San Francisco\u003cbr>\nOct. 7\u003cbr>\nProof of vaccination and masks required\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After five years of silence, Isaiah Rashad returned with what will surely be considered one of the best rap albums of 2021: \u003cem>The House is Burning\u003c/em>. The project chronicles a search for hope after hitting rock bottom, with warm, nostalgic rhythms occasionally destabilized by lurching, gothic undertones. Drawing on influences such as Three 6 Mafia, Outkast and his Top Dawg label mate Kendrick Lamar, Rashad wrote the album after several bad years of substance abuse and mental health issues that forced him to disappear from public life and eventually get clean. He writes with the sage perspective of someone who’s been to hell and back, finding beauty even amid these traumatic experiences, and managing to still have fun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/bl1IUpOT8NY\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"http://soundwavesf.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Soundwave NEXT: Translocality\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Various outdoor locations, Bay Area\u003cbr>\nOct. 22, 2021–Feb. 22, 2022\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soundwave made its Translocality festival COVID-safe by commissioning site-specific works that listeners can access via the \u003ca href=\"https://echoes.xyz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Echoes app\u003c/a> as they walk through various landscapes. Lalin St. Juste, lead singer of the band the Seshen, created a piece for the Sutro Baths in San Francisco that questions the colonial-era artifact collections of figures like Adolph Sutro, a former San Francisco mayor. Travis “Queen” Roland takes participants into the National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park, where they’ll listen to a soundtrack that pays homage to queer nightlife, punk rock, cruising and drag from the ’70s to now, and then takes us into the future. The other artists are Rumi Koshino, Fereshteh Toosi, Dylan Marx, LeAnn Perry, John Patrick Moore, Akaina Ghosh, Tyler Holmes and Dario Slavazza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/XWSVHYBo_7I\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://wl.seetickets.us/event/Nef-The-Pharaoh/433315?afflky=CornerstoneBerkeley\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nef the Pharaoh\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cornerstone, Berkeley\u003cbr>\nOct. 23\u003cbr>\nMasks required\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Bay Area treasure, Nef the Pharaoh is carrying the torch of E-40 and Mac Dre with rhymes that are streetwise, politically aware, raunchy and occasionally psychedelic. The Vallejo native raps with the momentum of a bouncy ball, moving quickly between ideas and sometimes going in unpredictable directions. His breakout hit “Big Tymin” put him on the map in 2015, and since then he hasn’t slowed down with releases that have earned him a cult following—most recently, 2021’s \u003cem>SINsational\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Intimate club gigs, a concert on a mountain top and site-specific sound art are just a few of the musical offerings in our fall preview. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Even with BottleRock and Outside Lands sold out, there are plenty of live music experiences to look forward to this fall, especially beyond the mega-fests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/fallarts2021\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-13901773\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/FallArtsPreview2021_400x400_blue.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/FallArtsPreview2021_400x400_blue.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/FallArtsPreview2021_400x400_blue-160x160.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A concert on a mountaintop, beloved local acts at intimate clubs, a walking sound installation, must-see touring artists—you’ll find it all on this list. And because Bay Area music lovers can never be confined to a single genre or subculture, we’ve tried to include a bit of everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cb>Reminder:\u003c/b> COVID precautions remain in flux. Proof of vaccination is a requirement for many indoor events. Before making plans, and again before arrival, be sure to check event websites for the latest protocols.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/nq33UIpMVo4'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/nq33UIpMVo4'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ticketweb.com/event/los-rakas-the-new-parish-tickets/11259895\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Los Rakas with Qing Qi\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The New Parish, Oakland\u003cbr>\nSept. 10\u003cbr>\nMasks required\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Los Rakas rep Oakland as hard as they do Panama, and influences from the two regions come together in a dynamic, signature sound that bridges Latin trap, hyphy, reggaeton and dancehall. The cousin duo has been rocking in the Bay Area since the mid 2000s, and on their 2019 album, \u003cem>Manes De Negocio\u003c/em>, they pay homage to their Afro-Latino roots and the African diaspora’s enormous contributions to reggaeton and urbano. Known for their pumped-up live shows, Los Rakas take the stage at their hometown concert hall, the New Parish, with support from Qing Qi, the East Palo Alto rapper whose music is delightfully raunchy and rebellious.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/mfdYMKbNLww'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/mfdYMKbNLww'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tixr.com/groups/soundsummit/events/sound-summit-2021-26107\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sound Summit\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Mountain Theater, Mt. Tamalpais State Park, Mill Valley\u003cbr>\nSept. 11\u003cbr>\nProof of vaccination or negative COVID test required\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nature lovers know that Mt. Tam is home to some of the most stunning hiking trails in the Bay Area, with 360-degree views of the Pacific Ocean, the Oakland and San Francisco skylines and even Mt. Diablo. This fall, Sound Summit returns to Mt. Tam’s Mountain Theater, a 4,000-seat amphitheater at the peak. The festival’s guitar-forward lineup boasts folk singer-songwriter Father John Misty, New Orleans funk band Cha Wa, Mill Valley folk singer Teal Collins, Texan rocker Lukas Nelson, folk-rock band Allah-Las and DJ Andy Cabic. Their stylings should provide a mellow soundtrack for gazing at the sunset and communing with bluejays and chipmunks. Round-trip bus service up to the top of the mountain is available. And remember, this is one of the Bay Area’s most prized natural treasures, so leave no trace.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/hr-I6-gxecg'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/hr-I6-gxecg'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://thechapelsf.com/e/the-residents-at-the-castro-theatre-161017813615/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Residents\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Castro Theatre, San Francisco\u003cbr>\nSept. 17\u003cbr>\nProof of vaccination and masks required\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Residents have been creating delightfully wacky music, performance and multimedia art in the Bay Area since 1969, making them as much of an institution as, say, the San Francisco Symphony or the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Throughout their boundless career, they’ve written spoken-word rock operas, created fictional universes, scored documentaries and helped popularize the art of the music video. And all the while, the members of the collective have remained mostly anonymous. During the last several years, their album release schedule has remained as prolific as ever, and in 2020 they performed at the Museum of Modern Art. The subject matter? “A ruined evangelist and his twisted obsession with a pair of gender-fluid conjoined twins he claims are miracle workers,” according to the museum. Their performance at the Castro Theatre should be no less imaginative.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/-k3JwqzgVl8'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/-k3JwqzgVl8'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eventbrite.com/e/la-santa-cecilia-tickets-96595221909\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">La Santa Cecilia\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Ritz, San Jose\u003cbr>\nSept. 17\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The members of La Santa Cecilia met while busking on the streets of Los Angeles, and together the Grammy-winning group created a sound that spans cumbia, mariachi, jazz and bossa nova—a reflection of their many musical influences as the children of immigrants. Singing in Spanish about topics as varied as family tragedy, immigrant rights and queer love, lead vocalist Marisol Hernandez brings powerful storytelling to the band’s danceable, accordion-, guitar- and percussion-forward compositions.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/2ZfcZEIo6Bw'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/2ZfcZEIo6Bw'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://www.theregencyballroom.com/events/detail/400451\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Japanese Breakfast with Luna Li\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Regency Ballroom, San Francisco\u003cbr>\nSept. 30–Oct. 1\u003cbr>\nProof of vaccination and masks required\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast writes lyrics that trace delicate outlines of emotions, as if drawing on a foggy window on an introspective, snowy day. Her writerly curiosity as a musician propelled her into a second career as an author. Earlier this year, her memoir about her mother’s death and her Korean heritage, \u003cem>Crying in H Mart\u003c/em>, became a \u003cem>New York Times\u003c/em> best seller. And a few months later, in June, she released her critically acclaimed album \u003cem>Jubilee\u003c/em>, an indie rock record with celebratory horns, hopeful strings, stomping dance floor catharses and bittersweet reflections on the fleeting nature of happiness. Harpist, violinist and multi-instrumentalist Luna Li joins her for two nights in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/1NMZ0MpaEuY'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/1NMZ0MpaEuY'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://www.axs.com/events/409353/isaiah-rashad-tickets?skin=warfield&src=AEGLIVE_WWRFLSFO022715VEN001\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Isaiah Rashad\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Warfield, San Francisco\u003cbr>\nOct. 7\u003cbr>\nProof of vaccination and masks required\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After five years of silence, Isaiah Rashad returned with what will surely be considered one of the best rap albums of 2021: \u003cem>The House is Burning\u003c/em>. The project chronicles a search for hope after hitting rock bottom, with warm, nostalgic rhythms occasionally destabilized by lurching, gothic undertones. Drawing on influences such as Three 6 Mafia, Outkast and his Top Dawg label mate Kendrick Lamar, Rashad wrote the album after several bad years of substance abuse and mental health issues that forced him to disappear from public life and eventually get clean. He writes with the sage perspective of someone who’s been to hell and back, finding beauty even amid these traumatic experiences, and managing to still have fun.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/bl1IUpOT8NY'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/bl1IUpOT8NY'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"http://soundwavesf.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Soundwave NEXT: Translocality\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Various outdoor locations, Bay Area\u003cbr>\nOct. 22, 2021–Feb. 22, 2022\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soundwave made its Translocality festival COVID-safe by commissioning site-specific works that listeners can access via the \u003ca href=\"https://echoes.xyz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Echoes app\u003c/a> as they walk through various landscapes. Lalin St. Juste, lead singer of the band the Seshen, created a piece for the Sutro Baths in San Francisco that questions the colonial-era artifact collections of figures like Adolph Sutro, a former San Francisco mayor. Travis “Queen” Roland takes participants into the National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park, where they’ll listen to a soundtrack that pays homage to queer nightlife, punk rock, cruising and drag from the ’70s to now, and then takes us into the future. The other artists are Rumi Koshino, Fereshteh Toosi, Dylan Marx, LeAnn Perry, John Patrick Moore, Akaina Ghosh, Tyler Holmes and Dario Slavazza.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/XWSVHYBo_7I'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/XWSVHYBo_7I'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://wl.seetickets.us/event/Nef-The-Pharaoh/433315?afflky=CornerstoneBerkeley\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nef the Pharaoh\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cornerstone, Berkeley\u003cbr>\nOct. 23\u003cbr>\nMasks required\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Bay Area treasure, Nef the Pharaoh is carrying the torch of E-40 and Mac Dre with rhymes that are streetwise, politically aware, raunchy and occasionally psychedelic. The Vallejo native raps with the momentum of a bouncy ball, moving quickly between ideas and sometimes going in unpredictable directions. His breakout hit “Big Tymin” put him on the map in 2015, and since then he hasn’t slowed down with releases that have earned him a cult following—most recently, 2021’s \u003cem>SINsational\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Whether you love hip-hop, punk, modern jazz, jam bands, salsa or country music, George Horn’s fingerprints are all over your playlist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the chief engineer at a succession of Bay Area studios, most importantly during a nearly three-decade tenure at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, Horn mastered thousands of albums by artists including Bob Dylan, Charles Mingus, MC Hammer, the Dead Kennedys, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Simon & Garfunkel, the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Rosemary Clooney and Santana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An unsurpassed master of the mysterious art of mastering, Horn died early Saturday morning at 87 from pulmonary hypertension exacerbated by COVID-19, according to brother-in-law William Stetler. Described by family and colleagues as an introverted, deeply private man, he launched his own independent mastering studio in 2008 after Concord Records acquired Fantasy’s vast catalogue of jazz labels. At his studio within the Fantasy Studios building, he and his last protégé, Anne-Marie Suenram, maintained the region’s only regularly working lathe for cutting vinyl records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13902061\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/GeorgeHorn.Handbook-800x512.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"512\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13902061\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/GeorgeHorn.Handbook-800x512.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/GeorgeHorn.Handbook-1020x653.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/GeorgeHorn.Handbook-160x102.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/GeorgeHorn.Handbook-768x491.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/GeorgeHorn.Handbook.jpg 1263w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">George Horn on the cover of ‘The Mastering Engineer’s Handbook’ (Thompson Course Technology); a recent photo in the studio. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Anne-Marie Suenram)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A San Francisco native, Horn spent his teenage years building and repairing electronic devices. After working in broadcasting, he became chief engineer at a number of labels and studios, notably Columbia Records and Bill Putnam’s Coast Recorders Studios, before becoming chief engineer at Fantasy Studios in 1980. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The process of mastering has long held a bit of mystique. Horn learned the craft in the 1960s, when mastering was a mechanical job that meant using a record lathe to etch grooves onto a lacquer or acetate disc—and when, simultaneously, the Bay Area became ground zero for a rock movement unleashed as folk, blues and bluegrass musicians plugged in electric instruments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='forum_2010101866567']In the digital age, the job of mastering means preparing any kind of audio for release—a more complicated job “that requires taking all these different tracks that may have been recorded in different studios with different engineers and making them sound like a coherent album,” said veteran Oakland audio engineer Myles Boisen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a science and an art. As a producer, you want a good mastering engineer to sprinkle their magic mastering dust on it,” Boisen added. “There are nuances they can do above and beyond what’s done in mixing, putting the final sheen on a project before it’s transmitted to the marketplace. Mastering is the last chance for a fresh set of ears.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13902059\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Horn.Albums.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"599\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13902059\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Horn.Albums.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Horn.Albums-160x159.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Horn.Albums-768x765.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nine of the thousands of albums mastered by George Horn. Albums spanning every genre came across Horn’s sharp ear for finishing touches.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Horn navigated the digital transition seamlessly, embracing the advent of compact discs and each subsequent sea change in the music business. At Fantasy, which owned a treasure trove of jazz recordings by epochal artists such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and Thelonious Monk, Horn and Fantasy colleague Joe Tarantino ushered classic albums by the labels Prestige, Riverside, Contemporary, and Pablo into the digital age as part of a vast Original Jazz Classics (OJC) reissue series.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For me, his major accomplishment was working on the OJC reissues, just a huge number of essential jazz records by Monk, Miles, Trane, and on and on,” Boisen said. “That earlier generation of compact discs didn’t always sound really good, but he took the time and care to make those CDs sound great.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As word of Horn’s passing spread on social media, numerous musicians and colleagues reached out to share stories about him. He may have been loath to talk about his life outside the studio, but in his circle, he was a quiet force who emanated respect for the artists entrusting him with their music. Nothing seemed to faze him, and when punk rock exploded in San Francisco, he became the go-to guy for mastering their records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13902060\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George_and_rob-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13902060\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George_and_rob-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George_and_rob-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George_and_rob-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George_and_rob-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George_and_rob-1536x1021.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George_and_rob.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">George Horn and Ralph Kaffel in the Fantasy Studios parking lot. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Anne-Marie Suenram)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He saw everything as a challenge, and he wanted to translate what people wanted,” said Jello Biafra, who started hiring Horn in the early 1980s for the Dead Kennedys. “Before long, he was also doing Flipper and all the stuff Subterranean put out, and of course the rest of the Alternative Tentacles releases too. I attended every single cut that he did, knowing I had somebody’s baby on the line. We had a lot of respect for each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among his fellow engineers, Horn was known for his versatility and exceptional ears. He imbued his artist-first sensibility in the select group of engineers he took under his wing. Gary Hobish, who runs A. Hammer Mastering and Digital Media in San Francisco, got his start under Horn at Fantasy in the early ’80s, where he learned that “in mastering, you have to be able to take on all comers,” Hobish said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“George was amazing at that. It seemed to me he didn’t feel it was his place to tell somebody how their record should sound. One day you’re doing a catalog cut of a classic Bill Evans recording from 1957 and the next day you’re doing a Flipper record or MX-80, something avant garde and intentionally harsh. I never saw a reaction or judgement either way. He knew he was contributing to an artistic scene.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13901978\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13901978\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George-Horns-lathe-800x451.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"451\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George-Horns-lathe-800x451.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George-Horns-lathe-1020x575.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George-Horns-lathe-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George-Horns-lathe-768x433.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George-Horns-lathe-1536x866.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George-Horns-lathe-1920x1082.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George-Horns-lathe.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The lathe in George Horn’s studio that’s cut hundreds of albums.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When interest in vinyl came roaring back, Horn was uniquely placed to take on the new flow of work. He never got rid of his lathe, and he had a young set of ears to assist him. Anne-Marie Suenram, a classically trained vocalist and pianist, met Horn while interning at Fantasy Studios, and he welcomed her evident interest in the mastering process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As soon as my internship was over he started training me,” she said. “Within a year, he didn’t need to oversee me and he let me do a lot of the mastering and cutting. He was very good to me. When I was expecting my daughter, he would insist on doing anything with chemicals, and he was very supportive during maternity leave.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the immediate future, Suenram will continue operations at Horn’s studio in Berkeley, cutting records and mastering albums. She’ll also be talking about him, she knows, for years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He really was very much a background character,” Suenram says, “and I’d like people to know about him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Horn is survived by his wife of 20 years, Diane Mansfield. Services will take place graveside on Friday, Aug. 27, at 2:45pm, at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma. Due to COVID, no gathering will follow.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Whether you love hip-hop, punk, modern jazz, jam bands, salsa or country music, George Horn’s fingerprints are all over your playlist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the chief engineer at a succession of Bay Area studios, most importantly during a nearly three-decade tenure at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, Horn mastered thousands of albums by artists including Bob Dylan, Charles Mingus, MC Hammer, the Dead Kennedys, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Simon & Garfunkel, the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Rosemary Clooney and Santana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An unsurpassed master of the mysterious art of mastering, Horn died early Saturday morning at 87 from pulmonary hypertension exacerbated by COVID-19, according to brother-in-law William Stetler. Described by family and colleagues as an introverted, deeply private man, he launched his own independent mastering studio in 2008 after Concord Records acquired Fantasy’s vast catalogue of jazz labels. At his studio within the Fantasy Studios building, he and his last protégé, Anne-Marie Suenram, maintained the region’s only regularly working lathe for cutting vinyl records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13902061\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/GeorgeHorn.Handbook-800x512.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"512\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13902061\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/GeorgeHorn.Handbook-800x512.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/GeorgeHorn.Handbook-1020x653.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/GeorgeHorn.Handbook-160x102.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/GeorgeHorn.Handbook-768x491.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/GeorgeHorn.Handbook.jpg 1263w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">George Horn on the cover of ‘The Mastering Engineer’s Handbook’ (Thompson Course Technology); a recent photo in the studio. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Anne-Marie Suenram)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A San Francisco native, Horn spent his teenage years building and repairing electronic devices. After working in broadcasting, he became chief engineer at a number of labels and studios, notably Columbia Records and Bill Putnam’s Coast Recorders Studios, before becoming chief engineer at Fantasy Studios in 1980. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The process of mastering has long held a bit of mystique. Horn learned the craft in the 1960s, when mastering was a mechanical job that meant using a record lathe to etch grooves onto a lacquer or acetate disc—and when, simultaneously, the Bay Area became ground zero for a rock movement unleashed as folk, blues and bluegrass musicians plugged in electric instruments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In the digital age, the job of mastering means preparing any kind of audio for release—a more complicated job “that requires taking all these different tracks that may have been recorded in different studios with different engineers and making them sound like a coherent album,” said veteran Oakland audio engineer Myles Boisen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a science and an art. As a producer, you want a good mastering engineer to sprinkle their magic mastering dust on it,” Boisen added. “There are nuances they can do above and beyond what’s done in mixing, putting the final sheen on a project before it’s transmitted to the marketplace. Mastering is the last chance for a fresh set of ears.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13902059\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Horn.Albums.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"599\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13902059\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Horn.Albums.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Horn.Albums-160x159.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Horn.Albums-768x765.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nine of the thousands of albums mastered by George Horn. Albums spanning every genre came across Horn’s sharp ear for finishing touches.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Horn navigated the digital transition seamlessly, embracing the advent of compact discs and each subsequent sea change in the music business. At Fantasy, which owned a treasure trove of jazz recordings by epochal artists such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and Thelonious Monk, Horn and Fantasy colleague Joe Tarantino ushered classic albums by the labels Prestige, Riverside, Contemporary, and Pablo into the digital age as part of a vast Original Jazz Classics (OJC) reissue series.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For me, his major accomplishment was working on the OJC reissues, just a huge number of essential jazz records by Monk, Miles, Trane, and on and on,” Boisen said. “That earlier generation of compact discs didn’t always sound really good, but he took the time and care to make those CDs sound great.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As word of Horn’s passing spread on social media, numerous musicians and colleagues reached out to share stories about him. He may have been loath to talk about his life outside the studio, but in his circle, he was a quiet force who emanated respect for the artists entrusting him with their music. Nothing seemed to faze him, and when punk rock exploded in San Francisco, he became the go-to guy for mastering their records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13902060\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George_and_rob-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13902060\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George_and_rob-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George_and_rob-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George_and_rob-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George_and_rob-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George_and_rob-1536x1021.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George_and_rob.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">George Horn and Ralph Kaffel in the Fantasy Studios parking lot. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Anne-Marie Suenram)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He saw everything as a challenge, and he wanted to translate what people wanted,” said Jello Biafra, who started hiring Horn in the early 1980s for the Dead Kennedys. “Before long, he was also doing Flipper and all the stuff Subterranean put out, and of course the rest of the Alternative Tentacles releases too. I attended every single cut that he did, knowing I had somebody’s baby on the line. We had a lot of respect for each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among his fellow engineers, Horn was known for his versatility and exceptional ears. He imbued his artist-first sensibility in the select group of engineers he took under his wing. Gary Hobish, who runs A. Hammer Mastering and Digital Media in San Francisco, got his start under Horn at Fantasy in the early ’80s, where he learned that “in mastering, you have to be able to take on all comers,” Hobish said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“George was amazing at that. It seemed to me he didn’t feel it was his place to tell somebody how their record should sound. One day you’re doing a catalog cut of a classic Bill Evans recording from 1957 and the next day you’re doing a Flipper record or MX-80, something avant garde and intentionally harsh. I never saw a reaction or judgement either way. He knew he was contributing to an artistic scene.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13901978\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13901978\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George-Horns-lathe-800x451.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"451\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George-Horns-lathe-800x451.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George-Horns-lathe-1020x575.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George-Horns-lathe-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George-Horns-lathe-768x433.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George-Horns-lathe-1536x866.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George-Horns-lathe-1920x1082.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/George-Horns-lathe.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The lathe in George Horn’s studio that’s cut hundreds of albums.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When interest in vinyl came roaring back, Horn was uniquely placed to take on the new flow of work. He never got rid of his lathe, and he had a young set of ears to assist him. Anne-Marie Suenram, a classically trained vocalist and pianist, met Horn while interning at Fantasy Studios, and he welcomed her evident interest in the mastering process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As soon as my internship was over he started training me,” she said. “Within a year, he didn’t need to oversee me and he let me do a lot of the mastering and cutting. He was very good to me. When I was expecting my daughter, he would insist on doing anything with chemicals, and he was very supportive during maternity leave.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the immediate future, Suenram will continue operations at Horn’s studio in Berkeley, cutting records and mastering albums. She’ll also be talking about him, she knows, for years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He really was very much a background character,” Suenram says, “and I’d like people to know about him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Horn is survived by his wife of 20 years, Diane Mansfield. Services will take place graveside on Friday, Aug. 27, at 2:45pm, at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma. Due to COVID, no gathering will follow.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "On the Joys and Complexities of Aaliyah's Music, 20 Years After Her Death",
"headTitle": "On the Joys and Complexities of Aaliyah’s Music, 20 Years After Her Death | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>It was such a pleasurable experience being able to finally listen to \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/15121547/aaliyah\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aaliyah\u003c/a>‘s \u003cem>One In A Million \u003c/em>album from beginning to end this past weekend, her lilting vocals pouring smoothly through my Sonos speakers. This was a moment fans have been waiting on for years, as \u003ca href=\"https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/9610793/aaliyah-music-return-streaming-services-blackground-empire/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">behind-the-scenes business wrangling\u003c/a> has long kept the majority of her relatively small discography off most streaming platforms. And as of Aug. 20, just a few days ahead of the 20\u003csup>th\u003c/sup> anniversary of her death in a plane crash, it was finally here, her second studio album available to enjoy and rewind and skip ahead through and immerse one’s self in, in all its sonic glory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her third and final studio album is set to arrive in the fall, and an equilibrium of sorts will have ultimately been restored. Because for far too long, only her first and most fraught album, \u003cem>Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number\u003c/em>, had been widely available, a fact that felt like a slap in the face to her legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In death, as in life, Aaliyah deserved better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what, exactly, does “better” entail? Especially within the last couple of years, some things have become undeniably obvious: She deserved to have been better protected by those around her, to have had someone who saw the writing on the wall when a grown man, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/156679430/r-kelly\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">R. Kelly\u003c/a>, was penning songs for a 14-year-old to sing as a come-on to an older “lover.” The music industry shouldn’t have swept the revelation of Kelly’s illegal marriage to Aaliyah when she was just 15 (or the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/08/09/1022231076/r-kelly-abuse-charges-trial-aaliyah-timeline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">many other allegations\u003c/a> that have arisen over the years) under the rug.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More difficult, at least for me as both a fan and critic, is to reconcile that early part of her career with the rest of her body of work. A part of me would love nothing more than to never have to mention Kelly—who would later go by the ghastly nickname “\u003ca href=\"http://abcnewsradioonline.com/music-news/2016/2/3/r-kelly-reveals-why-he-calls-himself-the-pied-piper-of-rb.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Pied Piper of R&B\u003c/a>“—when discussing Aaliyah. It remains infuriating that (alleged) victims of sexual abuse are forever linked in name to their abusers, often to the detriment and overshadowing of everything else they accomplished. But while \u003cem>Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number \u003c/em>is forever tainted in the minds of fans, it’s impossible to ignore how crucial it was in establishing Aaliyah’s continuous appeal even as she distanced herself from Kelly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKSz4NE6PwY&t=1s\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s been said many times before, but really it can’t be overstated: “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d03dmVx86Nk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">One in a Million\u003c/a>” sounds as if it was predicting the future; indeed, it sounds like now. In Timbaland’s skittering production, Missy Elliott’s staccato phrasing of the lyrics, and Aaliyah’s mellifluous interpretation you can hear the descendants that have followed in their wake—\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKtVHStkB5c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Drake\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEm3lY3trRU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jhené Aiko\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXgA3koewAo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Syd\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFMEBquxeO8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Normani\u003c/a>. Her various looks in the video were sleek, sexy, and mysterious, as she donned low-rise pants, crop tops and bras, and, in one scene, a silver eye-patch that seemed to come straight from a sci-fi dystopia playbook.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She seemed fully formed, utterly confident and secure in her body. This was true in her other songs from that era as well, from “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_Qy6vaMsFQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">If Your Girl Only Knew\u003c/a>,” a self-assured midtempo joint in which she boasts how she won’t “be no fool” for a guy who’s trying to cheat with her, to “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98ha5Ng913w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Are You That Somebody?\u003c/a>” an earworm where she insists on keeping a hookup on the low until he can prove he’s serious. And if you were a young Black girl in the ’90s like I was, of course you were probably going to look at her and be struck by how cool she seemed, without thinking twice about it. You’d assume she was a grown woman, because if you’re below the age of 12, everyone older than you seems \u003cem>ancient\u003c/em>, and what young person is able to assert that much control? Yet she wasn’t even 18 when she recorded \u003cem>One in a Million\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s what made her special—she stood out from the balladeers of the era (the Mariahs, Whitneys, En Vogues) and the teen pop stars (Brandy, Britney, Christina), in part because she seemed in command without needing to do too much. Her theatrics were subdued and contained, more slinky and less in-your-face. In hindsight, though, I’ve begun to wonder what it meant that she was introduced to the world as being fully formed, despite being a young teenager, an age where everyone is still trying to figure themselves out (and usually awkwardly so).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUGjras2kvQ\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Female teen pop stars usually emerge with a hint of innocence baked into their public persona, even as they playfully suggest their own sexuality and fuel many a boy’s or man’s sexual fantasy: Britney Spears is the prototypical example here (the schoolgirl outfit and pigtails in “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-u5WLJ9Yk4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">…Baby One More Time\u003c/a>“; that infamous \u003ca href=\"https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/britney-spears-teen-queen-rolling-stones-1999-cover-story-254871/\">\u003cem>Rolling Stone\u003c/em> cover\u003c/a> with the lingerie and stuffed Teletubby), but this was also true of Spears’ contemporaries in the ’90s and early ’00s, from Christina Aguilera to Mandy Moore to Jessica Simpson. The playbook for the biggest of those stars seemed to be this: Breakout by towing the line between virginal and sexy (and piss off religious groups and middle-class suburban parents in the process), then, a couple of years later, when you’re in your late teens or early 20s, enter your “mature” period, i.e. going full-on SEX KITTEN. Suggest a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzybwwf2HoQ#t=02m46s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sweaty, dance-orgy\u003c/a> in your video; get \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Rg3sAb8Id8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">dirrty\u003c/a>. Get \u003ca href=\"https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/wtf-parents\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">blamed for corrupting America’s tweens\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aaliyah was rarely granted the opportunity to display that kind of innocence—she was branded as “mature” out the gate. From the beginning of her career, the dichotomy between her actual and perceived age was integral to her image. It was right there in the title of that debut album; in the lyrics of that song, where she seductively coos that “age ain’t nothin’ but a number, throwing down ain’t nothin’ but a thang.” In early interviews her exact age was usually treated as a jokey open secret—”\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jMwKZE6Ce4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">I won’t reveal it, but I’m in my teens\u003c/a>, I’m still in high school”; “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwasUMVq-_8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">You know I don’t tell my age, it’s a secret\u003c/a>,” she’d coyly respond, with a giggle and a smile, when asked about how old she was.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13901854\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13901854\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/gettyimages-2250935_custom-23251aaa6a7c48f3b90d7b76b1b37c7f8c397d8e.jpg\" alt=\"Aaliyah at 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno' at the NBC Studios in Burbank, July 2001.\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/gettyimages-2250935_custom-23251aaa6a7c48f3b90d7b76b1b37c7f8c397d8e.jpg 200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/gettyimages-2250935_custom-23251aaa6a7c48f3b90d7b76b1b37c7f8c397d8e-160x240.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aaliyah at ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’ at the NBC Studios in Burbank, July 2001. \u003ccite>(Kevin Winter/Getty Images.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Clashing with the acknowledgment of her youth was how Kelly and her management team played down that crucial facet of her age, in the way she swaggered and sauntered in the baggy outfits, dark sunglasses, and swoop of hair draped over one eye, as if she were a neo-noir femme fatale from the ‘hood. (\u003ca href=\"https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/107416%7C150623/Veronica-Lake/#overview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Veronica Lake\u003c/a> was a frequent reference point for critics describing her look and mysterious aura.) The public pretty much accepted and played along with it. \u003cem>Billboard\u003c/em>‘s review of \u003cem>Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number \u003c/em>described her as an “\u003ca href=\"https://books.google.com/books?id=UAgEAAAAMBAJ&q=aaliyah+age+ain't+nothing+but+a+number&pg=PA64#v=snippet&q=aaliyah%20age%20ain't%20nothing%20but%20a%20number&f=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">urban teenaged siren\u003c/a>“; a \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/click-track/post/archives-remembering-aaliyah/2011/08/25/gIQAEjUwdJ_blog.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">review in the \u003cem>Washington Post\u003c/em>\u003c/a> held her up as a refreshing divergence from other teen stars of the moment, because unlike them, “she doesn’t try to assume emotions she’s never felt or take on material outside her range of experience”—implying that the image of Aaliyah as a fully sexualized woman (not a 15-year-old girl) with experience “go[ing] all the way” had been so strong at the time as to have been normalized and etched in stone. When that’s the public’s first impression of you in this business, there’s ostensibly no going back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so she didn’t—instead, she continued to build upon that persona while leaving Kelly behind. If \u003cem>One in a Million \u003c/em>largely eschews the ickiness that lies at the core of \u003cem>Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number\u003c/em>, it’s because that Svengali wasn’t involved, and Aaliyah was a little bit older. Still, there’s that tension and looming sadness over the thought that the singer was forced to grow up too soon. The evolution from \u003cem>Age\u003c/em>-era Aaliyah to \u003cem>One in a Million\u003c/em>-era Aaliyah wasn’t such a huge leap stylistically; she was still being put forth and received as more experienced than her counterparts, and comparisons to Janet Jackson (who by then had fully transitioned into her uber-sensual \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b_KfAGiglc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>janet.\u003c/em>-era\u003c/a>) began to surface. “\u003ca href=\"https://books.google.com/books?id=4SsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA133#v=onepage&q&f=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">It’s still illegal to act on the thought\u003c/a>” of Aaliyah’s sexuality, dream hampton wrote in her contemporary review of \u003cem>One in a Million\u003c/em>, while noting that since her debut, the singer had “encourage[d] Lolita fantasies.” (hampton would later go on to executive produce the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/08/23/1029623250/r-kelly-britney-spears-allen-farrow-russell-simmons\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">damning and watershed docuseries \u003cem>Surviving R. Kelly\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the video for the title track, her love interest is Ginuwine, the R&B singer who was nearly a decade older than her; years later, Timbaland, who was 23 when he first met 16-year-old Aaliyah, would \u003ca href=\"https://www.complex.com/music/2019/01/timbaland-confesses-his-love-for-underage-aaliyah-in-resurfaced-video#cookie-settings\">admit in an interview\u003c/a> that he was “in love” with her, and had to “fight” to control his attraction to her. (By all accounts, their friendship remained platonic and professional.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aaliyah’s was a different trapping of fame as a teenaged female pop star—instead of dodging invasive questions about whether or not she was \u003ca href=\"http://www.mtv.com/news/1473676/britney-talks-sex-turns-out-she-really-wasnt-that-innocent/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a virgin\u003c/a> or if she’d \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgImasn50ZU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">gotten a boob job\u003c/a>, she dodged questions about an illegal marriage to a much older man while few seemed disturbed by the fact that this was even a question to be asked in the first place. (Most interviewers, in fact, seemed titillated by it.) Neither scenario is a healthy one for a young girl to have to deal with, but at least in the case of Aaliyah, the divide seems stark: to the public, white girlhood was something to be fiercely protected and saved from “corruption”; Black girlhood—Black innocence—cannot even be comprehended. And when Black girlhood isn’t fathomed, it’s not protected, as the many accounts from the young girls and women featured in \u003cem>Surviving R. Kelly \u003c/em>has made clear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTkba6mXMis\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yet, there’s a narrative of resilience that can be gleaned from \u003cem>One In A Million\u003c/em>, one that unearths power in the singer’s creative choices over her image and sound post-Kelly. She seemingly took the parts that felt the most like herself—the air of mystery, the laid-back vibes—and reworked them to help pioneer a new way forward in pop and R&B. Her boldness feels less put-upon and more natural, like the musings of the older teenager/budding young adult she was at the time, especially on an earnest track like “4 Page Letter.” I love to listen to it in this way, because I remember what it was like to be 16, 17-years-old, exploring my own personality and approach to relationships.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the last years of her life, she had found more nuance to mine at 22-years-old—on “Try Again,” for instance, she expresses hesitancy in starting a new relationship, while coaxing her romantic interest to try a bit harder to earn her love and respect. That word that would follow her until the end—”mature”—still applied here, but this time it applied more to how she played with and expanded upon her vocal lyrical interpretations than it did her sexuality. She was growing up, even though she had been treated like an adult for much of her childhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tragedy of Aaliyah is there are so many “What ifs?” that will forever remain unresolved. The upside is that, at least professionally, she managed to persevere in spite of the many people and institutions that failed her personally. Her final albums deserve to be heard in this way, and her legacy deserves to be remembered this way, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=What+Made+Aaliyah+So+Special+Is+More+Complicated+Than+It+Seems&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It was such a pleasurable experience being able to finally listen to \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/15121547/aaliyah\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aaliyah\u003c/a>‘s \u003cem>One In A Million \u003c/em>album from beginning to end this past weekend, her lilting vocals pouring smoothly through my Sonos speakers. This was a moment fans have been waiting on for years, as \u003ca href=\"https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/9610793/aaliyah-music-return-streaming-services-blackground-empire/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">behind-the-scenes business wrangling\u003c/a> has long kept the majority of her relatively small discography off most streaming platforms. And as of Aug. 20, just a few days ahead of the 20\u003csup>th\u003c/sup> anniversary of her death in a plane crash, it was finally here, her second studio album available to enjoy and rewind and skip ahead through and immerse one’s self in, in all its sonic glory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her third and final studio album is set to arrive in the fall, and an equilibrium of sorts will have ultimately been restored. Because for far too long, only her first and most fraught album, \u003cem>Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number\u003c/em>, had been widely available, a fact that felt like a slap in the face to her legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In death, as in life, Aaliyah deserved better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what, exactly, does “better” entail? Especially within the last couple of years, some things have become undeniably obvious: She deserved to have been better protected by those around her, to have had someone who saw the writing on the wall when a grown man, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/156679430/r-kelly\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">R. Kelly\u003c/a>, was penning songs for a 14-year-old to sing as a come-on to an older “lover.” The music industry shouldn’t have swept the revelation of Kelly’s illegal marriage to Aaliyah when she was just 15 (or the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/08/09/1022231076/r-kelly-abuse-charges-trial-aaliyah-timeline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">many other allegations\u003c/a> that have arisen over the years) under the rug.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More difficult, at least for me as both a fan and critic, is to reconcile that early part of her career with the rest of her body of work. A part of me would love nothing more than to never have to mention Kelly—who would later go by the ghastly nickname “\u003ca href=\"http://abcnewsradioonline.com/music-news/2016/2/3/r-kelly-reveals-why-he-calls-himself-the-pied-piper-of-rb.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Pied Piper of R&B\u003c/a>“—when discussing Aaliyah. It remains infuriating that (alleged) victims of sexual abuse are forever linked in name to their abusers, often to the detriment and overshadowing of everything else they accomplished. But while \u003cem>Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number \u003c/em>is forever tainted in the minds of fans, it’s impossible to ignore how crucial it was in establishing Aaliyah’s continuous appeal even as she distanced herself from Kelly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/KKSz4NE6PwY'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/KKSz4NE6PwY'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s been said many times before, but really it can’t be overstated: “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d03dmVx86Nk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">One in a Million\u003c/a>” sounds as if it was predicting the future; indeed, it sounds like now. In Timbaland’s skittering production, Missy Elliott’s staccato phrasing of the lyrics, and Aaliyah’s mellifluous interpretation you can hear the descendants that have followed in their wake—\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKtVHStkB5c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Drake\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEm3lY3trRU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jhené Aiko\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXgA3koewAo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Syd\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFMEBquxeO8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Normani\u003c/a>. Her various looks in the video were sleek, sexy, and mysterious, as she donned low-rise pants, crop tops and bras, and, in one scene, a silver eye-patch that seemed to come straight from a sci-fi dystopia playbook.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She seemed fully formed, utterly confident and secure in her body. This was true in her other songs from that era as well, from “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_Qy6vaMsFQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">If Your Girl Only Knew\u003c/a>,” a self-assured midtempo joint in which she boasts how she won’t “be no fool” for a guy who’s trying to cheat with her, to “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98ha5Ng913w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Are You That Somebody?\u003c/a>” an earworm where she insists on keeping a hookup on the low until he can prove he’s serious. And if you were a young Black girl in the ’90s like I was, of course you were probably going to look at her and be struck by how cool she seemed, without thinking twice about it. You’d assume she was a grown woman, because if you’re below the age of 12, everyone older than you seems \u003cem>ancient\u003c/em>, and what young person is able to assert that much control? Yet she wasn’t even 18 when she recorded \u003cem>One in a Million\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s what made her special—she stood out from the balladeers of the era (the Mariahs, Whitneys, En Vogues) and the teen pop stars (Brandy, Britney, Christina), in part because she seemed in command without needing to do too much. Her theatrics were subdued and contained, more slinky and less in-your-face. In hindsight, though, I’ve begun to wonder what it meant that she was introduced to the world as being fully formed, despite being a young teenager, an age where everyone is still trying to figure themselves out (and usually awkwardly so).\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/JUGjras2kvQ'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/JUGjras2kvQ'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Female teen pop stars usually emerge with a hint of innocence baked into their public persona, even as they playfully suggest their own sexuality and fuel many a boy’s or man’s sexual fantasy: Britney Spears is the prototypical example here (the schoolgirl outfit and pigtails in “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-u5WLJ9Yk4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">…Baby One More Time\u003c/a>“; that infamous \u003ca href=\"https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/britney-spears-teen-queen-rolling-stones-1999-cover-story-254871/\">\u003cem>Rolling Stone\u003c/em> cover\u003c/a> with the lingerie and stuffed Teletubby), but this was also true of Spears’ contemporaries in the ’90s and early ’00s, from Christina Aguilera to Mandy Moore to Jessica Simpson. The playbook for the biggest of those stars seemed to be this: Breakout by towing the line between virginal and sexy (and piss off religious groups and middle-class suburban parents in the process), then, a couple of years later, when you’re in your late teens or early 20s, enter your “mature” period, i.e. going full-on SEX KITTEN. Suggest a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzybwwf2HoQ#t=02m46s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sweaty, dance-orgy\u003c/a> in your video; get \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Rg3sAb8Id8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">dirrty\u003c/a>. Get \u003ca href=\"https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/wtf-parents\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">blamed for corrupting America’s tweens\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aaliyah was rarely granted the opportunity to display that kind of innocence—she was branded as “mature” out the gate. From the beginning of her career, the dichotomy between her actual and perceived age was integral to her image. It was right there in the title of that debut album; in the lyrics of that song, where she seductively coos that “age ain’t nothin’ but a number, throwing down ain’t nothin’ but a thang.” In early interviews her exact age was usually treated as a jokey open secret—”\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jMwKZE6Ce4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">I won’t reveal it, but I’m in my teens\u003c/a>, I’m still in high school”; “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwasUMVq-_8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">You know I don’t tell my age, it’s a secret\u003c/a>,” she’d coyly respond, with a giggle and a smile, when asked about how old she was.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13901854\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13901854\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/gettyimages-2250935_custom-23251aaa6a7c48f3b90d7b76b1b37c7f8c397d8e.jpg\" alt=\"Aaliyah at 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno' at the NBC Studios in Burbank, July 2001.\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/gettyimages-2250935_custom-23251aaa6a7c48f3b90d7b76b1b37c7f8c397d8e.jpg 200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/gettyimages-2250935_custom-23251aaa6a7c48f3b90d7b76b1b37c7f8c397d8e-160x240.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aaliyah at ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’ at the NBC Studios in Burbank, July 2001. \u003ccite>(Kevin Winter/Getty Images.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Clashing with the acknowledgment of her youth was how Kelly and her management team played down that crucial facet of her age, in the way she swaggered and sauntered in the baggy outfits, dark sunglasses, and swoop of hair draped over one eye, as if she were a neo-noir femme fatale from the ‘hood. (\u003ca href=\"https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/107416%7C150623/Veronica-Lake/#overview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Veronica Lake\u003c/a> was a frequent reference point for critics describing her look and mysterious aura.) The public pretty much accepted and played along with it. \u003cem>Billboard\u003c/em>‘s review of \u003cem>Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number \u003c/em>described her as an “\u003ca href=\"https://books.google.com/books?id=UAgEAAAAMBAJ&q=aaliyah+age+ain't+nothing+but+a+number&pg=PA64#v=snippet&q=aaliyah%20age%20ain't%20nothing%20but%20a%20number&f=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">urban teenaged siren\u003c/a>“; a \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/click-track/post/archives-remembering-aaliyah/2011/08/25/gIQAEjUwdJ_blog.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">review in the \u003cem>Washington Post\u003c/em>\u003c/a> held her up as a refreshing divergence from other teen stars of the moment, because unlike them, “she doesn’t try to assume emotions she’s never felt or take on material outside her range of experience”—implying that the image of Aaliyah as a fully sexualized woman (not a 15-year-old girl) with experience “go[ing] all the way” had been so strong at the time as to have been normalized and etched in stone. When that’s the public’s first impression of you in this business, there’s ostensibly no going back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so she didn’t—instead, she continued to build upon that persona while leaving Kelly behind. If \u003cem>One in a Million \u003c/em>largely eschews the ickiness that lies at the core of \u003cem>Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number\u003c/em>, it’s because that Svengali wasn’t involved, and Aaliyah was a little bit older. Still, there’s that tension and looming sadness over the thought that the singer was forced to grow up too soon. The evolution from \u003cem>Age\u003c/em>-era Aaliyah to \u003cem>One in a Million\u003c/em>-era Aaliyah wasn’t such a huge leap stylistically; she was still being put forth and received as more experienced than her counterparts, and comparisons to Janet Jackson (who by then had fully transitioned into her uber-sensual \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b_KfAGiglc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>janet.\u003c/em>-era\u003c/a>) began to surface. “\u003ca href=\"https://books.google.com/books?id=4SsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA133#v=onepage&q&f=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">It’s still illegal to act on the thought\u003c/a>” of Aaliyah’s sexuality, dream hampton wrote in her contemporary review of \u003cem>One in a Million\u003c/em>, while noting that since her debut, the singer had “encourage[d] Lolita fantasies.” (hampton would later go on to executive produce the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/08/23/1029623250/r-kelly-britney-spears-allen-farrow-russell-simmons\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">damning and watershed docuseries \u003cem>Surviving R. Kelly\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the video for the title track, her love interest is Ginuwine, the R&B singer who was nearly a decade older than her; years later, Timbaland, who was 23 when he first met 16-year-old Aaliyah, would \u003ca href=\"https://www.complex.com/music/2019/01/timbaland-confesses-his-love-for-underage-aaliyah-in-resurfaced-video#cookie-settings\">admit in an interview\u003c/a> that he was “in love” with her, and had to “fight” to control his attraction to her. (By all accounts, their friendship remained platonic and professional.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aaliyah’s was a different trapping of fame as a teenaged female pop star—instead of dodging invasive questions about whether or not she was \u003ca href=\"http://www.mtv.com/news/1473676/britney-talks-sex-turns-out-she-really-wasnt-that-innocent/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a virgin\u003c/a> or if she’d \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgImasn50ZU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">gotten a boob job\u003c/a>, she dodged questions about an illegal marriage to a much older man while few seemed disturbed by the fact that this was even a question to be asked in the first place. (Most interviewers, in fact, seemed titillated by it.) Neither scenario is a healthy one for a young girl to have to deal with, but at least in the case of Aaliyah, the divide seems stark: to the public, white girlhood was something to be fiercely protected and saved from “corruption”; Black girlhood—Black innocence—cannot even be comprehended. And when Black girlhood isn’t fathomed, it’s not protected, as the many accounts from the young girls and women featured in \u003cem>Surviving R. Kelly \u003c/em>has made clear.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/rTkba6mXMis'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/rTkba6mXMis'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>And yet, there’s a narrative of resilience that can be gleaned from \u003cem>One In A Million\u003c/em>, one that unearths power in the singer’s creative choices over her image and sound post-Kelly. She seemingly took the parts that felt the most like herself—the air of mystery, the laid-back vibes—and reworked them to help pioneer a new way forward in pop and R&B. Her boldness feels less put-upon and more natural, like the musings of the older teenager/budding young adult she was at the time, especially on an earnest track like “4 Page Letter.” I love to listen to it in this way, because I remember what it was like to be 16, 17-years-old, exploring my own personality and approach to relationships.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the last years of her life, she had found more nuance to mine at 22-years-old—on “Try Again,” for instance, she expresses hesitancy in starting a new relationship, while coaxing her romantic interest to try a bit harder to earn her love and respect. That word that would follow her until the end—”mature”—still applied here, but this time it applied more to how she played with and expanded upon her vocal lyrical interpretations than it did her sexuality. She was growing up, even though she had been treated like an adult for much of her childhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tragedy of Aaliyah is there are so many “What ifs?” that will forever remain unresolved. The upside is that, at least professionally, she managed to persevere in spite of the many people and institutions that failed her personally. Her final albums deserve to be heard in this way, and her legacy deserves to be remembered this way, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=What+Made+Aaliyah+So+Special+Is+More+Complicated+Than+It+Seems&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Man Photographed as a Baby on 'Nevermind' Cover Sues Nirvana for Sexual Exploitation",
"headTitle": "Man Photographed as a Baby on ‘Nevermind’ Cover Sues Nirvana for Sexual Exploitation | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated, Jan. 4, 2022: \u003c/strong>Judge Fernando M. Olguin has dismissed Spencer Elden’s lawsuit against Nirvana and related parties over the artwork for the band’s 1992 \u003cem>Nevermind\u003c/em> album. Elden, who was featured on the record cover as a naked 4-month-old baby, missed the deadline of Dec. 30, 2021 to oppose the defendants’ motion to dismiss. As a result, Olguin dismissed the case on Jan. 3.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cover for \u003cem>Nevermind\u003c/em>, a 1991 Nirvana album that is said to have helped redefine rock music, features a naked 4-month-old baby in a pool, appearing to swim after a dollar bill that’s pierced with a fish hook.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That baby—the now 30-year-old Spencer Elden—is suing Nirvana for child exploitation and pornography, saying the band knowingly distributed the naked photo of Elden as a baby and profited from it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s asking for $150,000 in damages from each of the defendants, which include members of the band, Kurt Cobain’s estate, photographer Kirk Weddle, Universal Music, Geffen Records, Warner Records and MCA Music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cover photo was shot by Weddle, who was \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2008/07/23/92833535/once-naked-for-nirvana-now-a-teen-spirit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a friend\u003c/a> of Elden’s father. The lawsuit accuses Weddle of producing a “sexually graphic” photo of Elden. It adds that there was initially pushback against featuring Elden’s genitals on the album cover and the plan was to place a sticker over it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The sticker, however, was never incorporated into the album cover,” the lawsuit states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elden’s parents also never signed a release authorizing the use of the image, and Elden himself never received any compensation, the lawsuit says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Spencer’s true identity and legal name are forever tied to the commercial sexual exploitation he experienced as a minor,” Robert Lewis, Elden’s attorney, writes in the lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lewis writes that Elden has experienced emotional distress and interference with emotional and educational development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nirvana fans took to social media on Wednesday to express cynicism about Elden’s motivations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/TheOtherGSP/status/1430539014692478980\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twitter users rushed to highlight the fact that Elden has the word \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/come_back_shane/status/1430530982944313347\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">“Nevermind” tattooed\u003c/a> across his chest and has a long history of posing underwater, in tribute to the album cover.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/UpToTASK/status/1430549339676438529\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a 2008 interview with \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2008/07/23/92833535/once-naked-for-nirvana-now-a-teen-spirit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>, Elden, then in high school, was still struggling to make sense of his public image.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Quite a few people in the world have seen my penis,” he said, “So that’s kinda cool. I’m just a normal kid living it up and doing the best I can while I’m here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 2016, in an interview with \u003ca href=\"https://www.gq.com.au/entertainment/music/the-cover-star-baby-of-nirvanas-nevermind-album-25-years-on/news-story/091b16069b5f54dc0d27a86cf1ea3f6e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>GQ Australia\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, Elden’s tone had shifted considerably. “Recently I’ve been thinking, ‘What if I wasn’t OK with my freaking penis being shown to everybody?’” he said. “I didn’t really have a choice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He admitted in the same interview that his feelings about the album cover had changed after he invited Nirvana to be part of an art show he was organizing with Weddle. “I was getting referred to their managers and lawyers,” he said. “Why am I still on their cover if I’m not that big of a deal?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>This story includes reporting from KQED’s Rae Alexandra. Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Man+Photographed+As+A+Baby+On+%27Nevermind%27+Cover+Sues+Nirvana+For+Sexual+Exploitation&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\"> \u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated, Jan. 4, 2022: \u003c/strong>Judge Fernando M. Olguin has dismissed Spencer Elden’s lawsuit against Nirvana and related parties over the artwork for the band’s 1992 \u003cem>Nevermind\u003c/em> album. Elden, who was featured on the record cover as a naked 4-month-old baby, missed the deadline of Dec. 30, 2021 to oppose the defendants’ motion to dismiss. As a result, Olguin dismissed the case on Jan. 3.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cover for \u003cem>Nevermind\u003c/em>, a 1991 Nirvana album that is said to have helped redefine rock music, features a naked 4-month-old baby in a pool, appearing to swim after a dollar bill that’s pierced with a fish hook.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That baby—the now 30-year-old Spencer Elden—is suing Nirvana for child exploitation and pornography, saying the band knowingly distributed the naked photo of Elden as a baby and profited from it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s asking for $150,000 in damages from each of the defendants, which include members of the band, Kurt Cobain’s estate, photographer Kirk Weddle, Universal Music, Geffen Records, Warner Records and MCA Music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cover photo was shot by Weddle, who was \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2008/07/23/92833535/once-naked-for-nirvana-now-a-teen-spirit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a friend\u003c/a> of Elden’s father. The lawsuit accuses Weddle of producing a “sexually graphic” photo of Elden. It adds that there was initially pushback against featuring Elden’s genitals on the album cover and the plan was to place a sticker over it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The sticker, however, was never incorporated into the album cover,” the lawsuit states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elden’s parents also never signed a release authorizing the use of the image, and Elden himself never received any compensation, the lawsuit says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Spencer’s true identity and legal name are forever tied to the commercial sexual exploitation he experienced as a minor,” Robert Lewis, Elden’s attorney, writes in the lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lewis writes that Elden has experienced emotional distress and interference with emotional and educational development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nirvana fans took to social media on Wednesday to express cynicism about Elden’s motivations.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Twitter users rushed to highlight the fact that Elden has the word \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/come_back_shane/status/1430530982944313347\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">“Nevermind” tattooed\u003c/a> across his chest and has a long history of posing underwater, in tribute to the album cover.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>In a 2008 interview with \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2008/07/23/92833535/once-naked-for-nirvana-now-a-teen-spirit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>, Elden, then in high school, was still struggling to make sense of his public image.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Quite a few people in the world have seen my penis,” he said, “So that’s kinda cool. I’m just a normal kid living it up and doing the best I can while I’m here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 2016, in an interview with \u003ca href=\"https://www.gq.com.au/entertainment/music/the-cover-star-baby-of-nirvanas-nevermind-album-25-years-on/news-story/091b16069b5f54dc0d27a86cf1ea3f6e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>GQ Australia\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, Elden’s tone had shifted considerably. “Recently I’ve been thinking, ‘What if I wasn’t OK with my freaking penis being shown to everybody?’” he said. “I didn’t really have a choice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He admitted in the same interview that his feelings about the album cover had changed after he invited Nirvana to be part of an art show he was organizing with Weddle. “I was getting referred to their managers and lawyers,” he said. “Why am I still on their cover if I’m not that big of a deal?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>This story includes reporting from KQED’s Rae Alexandra. Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Man+Photographed+As+A+Baby+On+%27Nevermind%27+Cover+Sues+Nirvana+For+Sexual+Exploitation&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\"> \u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Rolling Stones Drummer Charlie Watts Dies at Age 80",
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"content": "\u003cp>Charlie Watts, the self-effacing and unshakeable Rolling Stones drummer who helped anchor one of rock’s greatest rhythm sections and used his “day job” to support his enduring love of jazz, has died, according to his publicist. He was 80.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bernard Doherty said Tuesday that Watts “passed away peacefully in a London hospital earlier today surrounded by his family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Charlie was a cherished husband, father and grandfather and also as a member of The Rolling Stones one of the greatest drummers of his generation,” Doherty said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts had \u003ca href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/now/drummer-charlie-watts-likely-miss-005445235.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">announced he would not tour\u003c/a> with the Stones in 2021 because of an undefined health issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The quiet, elegantly dressed Watts was often ranked with Keith Moon, Ginger Baker and a handful of others as a premier rock drummer, respected worldwide for his muscular, swinging style as the Stones rose from their scruffy beginnings to international superstardom. He joined the band early in 1963 and remained over the next 60 years, ranked just behind Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as the group’s longest-lasting and most essential member.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts stayed on, and largely held himself apart, through the drug abuse, creative clashes and ego wars that helped kill founding member Brian Jones, drove bassist Bill Wyman and Jones’ replacement Mick Taylor to quit and otherwise made being in the Stones the most exhausting of jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A classic Stones song like “Brown Sugar” and “Start Me Up” often began with a hard guitar riff from Richards, with Watts following closely behind, and Wyman, as the bassist liked to say, “fattening the sound.” Watts’ speed, power and time keeping were never better showcased than during the concert documentary, “Shine a Light,” when director Martin Scorsese filmed “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” from where he drummed toward the back of the stage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Stones began, Watts said, “as white blokes from England playing Black American music” but quickly evolved their own distinctive sound. Watts was a jazz drummer in his early years and never lost his affinity for the music he first loved, heading his own jazz band and taking on numerous other side projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He had his eccentricities—Watts liked to collect cars even though he didn’t drive and would simply sit in them in his garage. But he was a steadying influence on stage and off as the Stones defied all expectations by rocking well into their 70s, decades longer than their old rivals the Beatles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts didn’t care for flashy solos or attention of any kind, but with Wyman and Richards forged some of rock’s deepest grooves on “Honky Tonk Women,” “Brown Sugar” and other songs. The drummer adapted well to everything from the disco of “Miss You” to the jazzy “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” and the dreamy ballad “Moonlight Mile.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jagger and Richards at times seemed to agree on little else besides their admiration of Watts, both as a man and a musician. Richards called Watts “the key” and often joked that their affinity was so strong that on stage he’d sometimes try to rattle Watts by suddenly changing the beat—only to have Watts change it right back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jagger and Richards could only envy his indifference to stardom and relative contentment in his private life, when he was as happy tending to the horses on his estate in rural Devon, England, as he ever was on stage at a sold-out stadium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts did on occasion have an impact beyond drumming. He worked with Jagger on the ever more spectacular stage designs for the group’s tours. He also provided illustrations for the back cover of the acclaimed 1967 album “Between the Buttons” and inadvertently gave the record its title. When he asked Stones manager Andrew Oldham what the album would be called, Oldham responded “Between the buttons,” meaning undecided. Watts thought that “Between the Buttons” was the actual name and included it in his artwork.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To the world, he was a rock star. But Watts often said that the actual experience was draining and unpleasant, and even frightening. “Girls chasing you down the street, screaming… horrible!… I hated it,” he told the \u003cem>Guardian\u003c/em> newspaper in an interview. In another interview, he described the drumming life as a “cross between being an athlete and a total nervous wreck.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Author Philip Norman, who has written extensively about the Rolling Stones, said Watts lived “in constant hope of being allowed to catch the next plane home.” On tour, he made a point of drawing each hotel room he stayed in, a way of marking time until he could return to his family. He said little about playing the same songs for more than 40 years as the Stones recycled their classics. But he did branch out far beyond “Satisfaction” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” by assembling and performing with jazz bands in the second half of his career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charles Robert Watts, son of a lorry driver and a housewife, was born in Neasden, London, on June 2, 1941. From childhood, he was passionate about music—jazz in particular. He fell in love with the drums after hearing Chico Hamilton and taught himself to play by listening to records by Johnny Dodds, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington and other jazz giants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He worked for a London advertising firm after he attended Harrow Art College and played drums in his spare time. London was home to a blues and jazz revival in the early 1960s, with Jagger, Richards and Eric Clapton among the future superstars getting their start. Watts’ career took off after he played with Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, for whom Jagger also performed, and was encouraged by Korner to join the Stones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts wasn’t a rock music fan at first and remembered being guided by Richards and Brian Jones as he absorbed blues and rock records, notably the music of bluesman Jimmy Reed. He said the band could trace its roots to a brief period when he had lost his job and shared an apartment with Jagger and Richards because he could live there rent-free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Keith Richards taught me rock and roll,” Watts said. “We’d have nothing to do all day and we’d play these records over and over again. I learned to love Muddy Waters. Keith turned me on to how good Elvis Presley was, and I’d always hated Elvis up ’til then.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts was the final man to join the Stones; the band had searched for months to find a permanent drummer and feared Watts was too accomplished for them. Richards would recall the band wanting him so badly to join that members cut down on expenses so they could afford to pay Watts a proper salary. Watts said he believed at first the band would be lucky to last a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every band I’d ever been in had lasted a week,” he said. “I always thought the Stones would last a week, then a fortnight, and then suddenly, it’s 30 years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Former\u003c/em> Associated Press \u003cem>writers Greg Katz and Janelle Stecklein compiled biographical material for this story. Copyright \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AP\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Charlie Watts, the self-effacing and unshakeable Rolling Stones drummer who helped anchor one of rock’s greatest rhythm sections and used his “day job” to support his enduring love of jazz, has died, according to his publicist. He was 80.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bernard Doherty said Tuesday that Watts “passed away peacefully in a London hospital earlier today surrounded by his family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Charlie was a cherished husband, father and grandfather and also as a member of The Rolling Stones one of the greatest drummers of his generation,” Doherty said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts had \u003ca href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/now/drummer-charlie-watts-likely-miss-005445235.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">announced he would not tour\u003c/a> with the Stones in 2021 because of an undefined health issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The quiet, elegantly dressed Watts was often ranked with Keith Moon, Ginger Baker and a handful of others as a premier rock drummer, respected worldwide for his muscular, swinging style as the Stones rose from their scruffy beginnings to international superstardom. He joined the band early in 1963 and remained over the next 60 years, ranked just behind Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as the group’s longest-lasting and most essential member.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts stayed on, and largely held himself apart, through the drug abuse, creative clashes and ego wars that helped kill founding member Brian Jones, drove bassist Bill Wyman and Jones’ replacement Mick Taylor to quit and otherwise made being in the Stones the most exhausting of jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A classic Stones song like “Brown Sugar” and “Start Me Up” often began with a hard guitar riff from Richards, with Watts following closely behind, and Wyman, as the bassist liked to say, “fattening the sound.” Watts’ speed, power and time keeping were never better showcased than during the concert documentary, “Shine a Light,” when director Martin Scorsese filmed “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” from where he drummed toward the back of the stage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Stones began, Watts said, “as white blokes from England playing Black American music” but quickly evolved their own distinctive sound. Watts was a jazz drummer in his early years and never lost his affinity for the music he first loved, heading his own jazz band and taking on numerous other side projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He had his eccentricities—Watts liked to collect cars even though he didn’t drive and would simply sit in them in his garage. But he was a steadying influence on stage and off as the Stones defied all expectations by rocking well into their 70s, decades longer than their old rivals the Beatles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts didn’t care for flashy solos or attention of any kind, but with Wyman and Richards forged some of rock’s deepest grooves on “Honky Tonk Women,” “Brown Sugar” and other songs. The drummer adapted well to everything from the disco of “Miss You” to the jazzy “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” and the dreamy ballad “Moonlight Mile.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jagger and Richards at times seemed to agree on little else besides their admiration of Watts, both as a man and a musician. Richards called Watts “the key” and often joked that their affinity was so strong that on stage he’d sometimes try to rattle Watts by suddenly changing the beat—only to have Watts change it right back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jagger and Richards could only envy his indifference to stardom and relative contentment in his private life, when he was as happy tending to the horses on his estate in rural Devon, England, as he ever was on stage at a sold-out stadium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts did on occasion have an impact beyond drumming. He worked with Jagger on the ever more spectacular stage designs for the group’s tours. He also provided illustrations for the back cover of the acclaimed 1967 album “Between the Buttons” and inadvertently gave the record its title. When he asked Stones manager Andrew Oldham what the album would be called, Oldham responded “Between the buttons,” meaning undecided. Watts thought that “Between the Buttons” was the actual name and included it in his artwork.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To the world, he was a rock star. But Watts often said that the actual experience was draining and unpleasant, and even frightening. “Girls chasing you down the street, screaming… horrible!… I hated it,” he told the \u003cem>Guardian\u003c/em> newspaper in an interview. In another interview, he described the drumming life as a “cross between being an athlete and a total nervous wreck.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Author Philip Norman, who has written extensively about the Rolling Stones, said Watts lived “in constant hope of being allowed to catch the next plane home.” On tour, he made a point of drawing each hotel room he stayed in, a way of marking time until he could return to his family. He said little about playing the same songs for more than 40 years as the Stones recycled their classics. But he did branch out far beyond “Satisfaction” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” by assembling and performing with jazz bands in the second half of his career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charles Robert Watts, son of a lorry driver and a housewife, was born in Neasden, London, on June 2, 1941. From childhood, he was passionate about music—jazz in particular. He fell in love with the drums after hearing Chico Hamilton and taught himself to play by listening to records by Johnny Dodds, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington and other jazz giants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He worked for a London advertising firm after he attended Harrow Art College and played drums in his spare time. London was home to a blues and jazz revival in the early 1960s, with Jagger, Richards and Eric Clapton among the future superstars getting their start. Watts’ career took off after he played with Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, for whom Jagger also performed, and was encouraged by Korner to join the Stones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts wasn’t a rock music fan at first and remembered being guided by Richards and Brian Jones as he absorbed blues and rock records, notably the music of bluesman Jimmy Reed. He said the band could trace its roots to a brief period when he had lost his job and shared an apartment with Jagger and Richards because he could live there rent-free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Keith Richards taught me rock and roll,” Watts said. “We’d have nothing to do all day and we’d play these records over and over again. I learned to love Muddy Waters. Keith turned me on to how good Elvis Presley was, and I’d always hated Elvis up ’til then.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts was the final man to join the Stones; the band had searched for months to find a permanent drummer and feared Watts was too accomplished for them. Richards would recall the band wanting him so badly to join that members cut down on expenses so they could afford to pay Watts a proper salary. Watts said he believed at first the band would be lucky to last a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every band I’d ever been in had lasted a week,” he said. “I always thought the Stones would last a week, then a fortnight, and then suddenly, it’s 30 years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Former\u003c/em> Associated Press \u003cem>writers Greg Katz and Janelle Stecklein compiled biographical material for this story. Copyright \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AP\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Online discourse got a little heated on Sunday and Monday over a new Tiffany & Co. ad campaign featuring Beyoncé, Jay-Z and a long-unseen Jean-Michel Basquiat painting titled \u003cem>Equals Pi\u003c/em>. The “About Love” campaign will last an entire year, hit print publications on Sept. 2, and, at some stage, will take over every digital billboard in Times Square.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the first released image, Beyoncé stands in a sleek gown, presenting a modern take on Audrey Hepburn’s iconic outfit from the opening scene of \u003cem>Breakfast at Tiffany’s\u003c/em>. Behind her hangs the 1982 Basquiat masterpiece, which has been in a private collection, hidden from the world, for close to 40 years. At her side, Jay-Z reclines in an arm chair, with his locs arranged to mimic Basquiat’s signature hairstyle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while no one had anything bad to say about Beyoncé…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/BTSOriented/status/1429717656727326726\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twitter was upset about a plethora of other things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/yungseafx/status/1429667087572557829\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Basquiat cosplaying accusations were rife…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/MsLaFitteTweets/status/1429765208386457602\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plus, understandably, art lovers were perturbed that \u003cem>Equals Pi\u003c/em> was being revealed in public for the first time as part of an ad campaign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/ScBayScJohnson/status/1429677853252202502\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fact that the painting was partially obscured did not help matters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/Demboslice_/status/1429673868046778369\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Questions were also raised about whether Basquiat would want his work used in such a way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/notoriouskpg_/status/1429810458672783362\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And others just questioned whether art, period, should be used to decorate capitalist endeavors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/spoonspoon_/status/1429680587305103362\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s before anyone even got into the moral questions around important art works staying hidden from the world in private collections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/__lukec/status/1429676847869034500\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the online kerfuffle, three significant aspects of the ad campaign have been largely skipped over. Those being:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>1. Tiffany & Co’s (undoubtedly gargantuan, but currently unknown) payment to Bey and Jay for the campaign also involves a $2 million donation for scholarship and internship programs at HBCUs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>2. Tiffany’s has purchased \u003cem>Equals Pi\u003c/em> and plans to display it in their flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York once it has completed renovations. Which means the world will finally be able to see it, \u003cem>and\u003c/em> in a place that doesn’t charge an entrance fee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>3. Beyoncé is the first Black woman to ever wear the 128.54 carat Tiffany Diamond. Only three other women have ever been permitted to wear it: Mary Whitehouse, Audrey Hepburn and Lady Gaga.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of which are, quantifiably, very good things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Would it have been more ideal for people to first see this painting in a way that didn’t involve also trying to sell jewelry? Of course. Should Jay-Z think about getting his own hairdo? Maybe. Does it feel weird to see Basquiat’s work being used in this way? That’s up to you, but given that one of his closest collaborators in life was Andy Warhol—the person most responsible for blending high art with commercialism in the first place—it’s hard to imagine he’d mind very much. Are we all going to be sick to death of this ad campaign in six months’ time? Oh, you betcha. (Beyoncé is even going to sing “Moon River” to Jay-Z at some point, so … that’s happening.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Truthfully, if anything in this whole campaign is ripe for mockery, it’s the completely unfounded assertions that Tiffany & Co. have been making about \u003cem>Equals Pi\u003c/em>‘s turquoise background. “We don’t have any literature that says [Basquiat] made the painting for Tiffany,” executive vice president of products and communications, Alexandre Arnault, told \u003ca href=\"https://wwd.com/accessories-news/jewelry/beyonce-jay-z-tiffany-ad-campaign-1234900967/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>WWD\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. “My guess is that the [blue painting] is not by chance. The color is so specific that it has to be some kind of homage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If we could get a collective Twitter eyeroll for \u003cem>that\u003c/em>, that’d be marvelous.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>In the online kerfuffle, three significant aspects of the ad campaign have been largely skipped over. Those being:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>1. Tiffany & Co’s (undoubtedly gargantuan, but currently unknown) payment to Bey and Jay for the campaign also involves a $2 million donation for scholarship and internship programs at HBCUs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>2. Tiffany’s has purchased \u003cem>Equals Pi\u003c/em> and plans to display it in their flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York once it has completed renovations. Which means the world will finally be able to see it, \u003cem>and\u003c/em> in a place that doesn’t charge an entrance fee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>3. Beyoncé is the first Black woman to ever wear the 128.54 carat Tiffany Diamond. Only three other women have ever been permitted to wear it: Mary Whitehouse, Audrey Hepburn and Lady Gaga.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of which are, quantifiably, very good things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Would it have been more ideal for people to first see this painting in a way that didn’t involve also trying to sell jewelry? Of course. Should Jay-Z think about getting his own hairdo? Maybe. Does it feel weird to see Basquiat’s work being used in this way? That’s up to you, but given that one of his closest collaborators in life was Andy Warhol—the person most responsible for blending high art with commercialism in the first place—it’s hard to imagine he’d mind very much. Are we all going to be sick to death of this ad campaign in six months’ time? Oh, you betcha. (Beyoncé is even going to sing “Moon River” to Jay-Z at some point, so … that’s happening.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Truthfully, if anything in this whole campaign is ripe for mockery, it’s the completely unfounded assertions that Tiffany & Co. have been making about \u003cem>Equals Pi\u003c/em>‘s turquoise background. “We don’t have any literature that says [Basquiat] made the painting for Tiffany,” executive vice president of products and communications, Alexandre Arnault, told \u003ca href=\"https://wwd.com/accessories-news/jewelry/beyonce-jay-z-tiffany-ad-campaign-1234900967/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>WWD\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. “My guess is that the [blue painting] is not by chance. The color is so specific that it has to be some kind of homage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If we could get a collective Twitter eyeroll for \u003cem>that\u003c/em>, that’d be marvelous.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Michael Morgan, the longtime music director and conductor of the Oakland Symphony, died on Aug. 20 at age 63, his publicist announced today. He passed away at Kaiser Permanente hospital after being admitted last week for an infection, three months after undergoing a successful kidney transplant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morgan made his mark on the Oakland Symphony with his boundary-pushing programming and passion for education and outreach. Always one to make classical music accessible to new audiences, he invited comedian W. Kamau Bell and activist Dolores Huerta to curate “playlists” for the orchestra to perform, interjecting the canon with songs by John Coltrane and Jimi Hendrix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As one of the few Black and openly gay conductors in the country, Morgan made inclusive programming standard at the Oakland Symphony—well before other orchestras began to grapple with racism in the wake of last year’s protests. His “Notes From…” concert series celebrated the music of Native American, Korean, Vietnamese and LGBTQ+ composers. And as the host of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfsymphony.org/CURRENTS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Currents\u003c/em>\u003c/a> video and podcast series from the San Francisco Symphony, he examined the cross-pollination of classical music with genres as varied as hip-hop and traditional Chinese music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our primary question is ‘who’s not here?’ And we look around the room, and see who is not there,” Morgan told \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2021/03/24/oakland-symphony-classical-music-race-social-justice-michael-morgan/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oaklandside\u003c/a> earlier this year, describing his vision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of Morgan’s last public appearances was as guest conductor of the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall on July 23. He led the orchestra through a performance of works by overlooked French composer Louise Farrenc and the 1920s jazz classic “Charleston” by James P. Johnson. “He’s made [the Oakland Symphony] a vibrant hotbed for innovative programming, combining a judicious helping of the standard repertoire with music from a wide array of less familiar sources—including, in recent seasons particularly, works by female composers who have too often been left out of the historical narrative,” wrote \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> music critic Joshua Kosman in his \u003ca href=\"https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/music/review-conductor-michael-morgan-jazzes-up-a-guest-appearance-with-s-f-symphony\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">review\u003c/a> of the concert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morgan was born in Washington D.C. and began conducting at age 12. In addition to his duties with the Oakland Symphony, he also held the titles of artistic director of Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra, music director at Bear Valley Music Festival and music director of Gateways Music Festival. He was music director emeritus of the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera, and sat on the boards of Oaktown Jazz Workshops and the Purple Silk Music Education Foundation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"\">“This is a terribly sad moment for everyone in the Oakland Symphony family.\u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"\"> \u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"\">We have lost our guiding father,” said executive director Mieko Hatano in a statement.\u003c/span> \u003cspan class=\"\">“Michael’s plans and ambitions were set for several seasons to come.\u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"\"> \u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"\">He made his Orchestra socially authentic, demanded equality, and he made his Orchestra our orchestra.\u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"\"> \u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"\">He fashioned a unique, informed artistic profile that attracted one of the most diverse audiences in the nation.\u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"\"> \u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"\">His music reflected his beliefs:\u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"\"> \u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"\">reverence for the past, attuned to the future, rooted in his adopted home of Oakland.\u003c/span> \u003cspan class=\"\">His spirit will always guide the enduring future of the Oakland Symphony.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Correction: \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cem>This story originally stated that Michael Morgan’s final performance was with the San Francisco Symphony on July 23 when it was actually at the Bear Valley Music Festival on July 29-Aug. 1.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Michael Morgan, the longtime music director and conductor of the Oakland Symphony, died on Aug. 20 at age 63, his publicist announced today. He passed away at Kaiser Permanente hospital after being admitted last week for an infection, three months after undergoing a successful kidney transplant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morgan made his mark on the Oakland Symphony with his boundary-pushing programming and passion for education and outreach. Always one to make classical music accessible to new audiences, he invited comedian W. Kamau Bell and activist Dolores Huerta to curate “playlists” for the orchestra to perform, interjecting the canon with songs by John Coltrane and Jimi Hendrix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As one of the few Black and openly gay conductors in the country, Morgan made inclusive programming standard at the Oakland Symphony—well before other orchestras began to grapple with racism in the wake of last year’s protests. His “Notes From…” concert series celebrated the music of Native American, Korean, Vietnamese and LGBTQ+ composers. And as the host of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfsymphony.org/CURRENTS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Currents\u003c/em>\u003c/a> video and podcast series from the San Francisco Symphony, he examined the cross-pollination of classical music with genres as varied as hip-hop and traditional Chinese music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our primary question is ‘who’s not here?’ And we look around the room, and see who is not there,” Morgan told \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2021/03/24/oakland-symphony-classical-music-race-social-justice-michael-morgan/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oaklandside\u003c/a> earlier this year, describing his vision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of Morgan’s last public appearances was as guest conductor of the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall on July 23. He led the orchestra through a performance of works by overlooked French composer Louise Farrenc and the 1920s jazz classic “Charleston” by James P. Johnson. “He’s made [the Oakland Symphony] a vibrant hotbed for innovative programming, combining a judicious helping of the standard repertoire with music from a wide array of less familiar sources—including, in recent seasons particularly, works by female composers who have too often been left out of the historical narrative,” wrote \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> music critic Joshua Kosman in his \u003ca href=\"https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/music/review-conductor-michael-morgan-jazzes-up-a-guest-appearance-with-s-f-symphony\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">review\u003c/a> of the concert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Morgan was born in Washington D.C. and began conducting at age 12. In addition to his duties with the Oakland Symphony, he also held the titles of artistic director of Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra, music director at Bear Valley Music Festival and music director of Gateways Music Festival. He was music director emeritus of the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera, and sat on the boards of Oaktown Jazz Workshops and the Purple Silk Music Education Foundation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"\">“This is a terribly sad moment for everyone in the Oakland Symphony family.\u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"\"> \u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"\">We have lost our guiding father,” said executive director Mieko Hatano in a statement.\u003c/span> \u003cspan class=\"\">“Michael’s plans and ambitions were set for several seasons to come.\u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"\"> \u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"\">He made his Orchestra socially authentic, demanded equality, and he made his Orchestra our orchestra.\u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"\"> \u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"\">He fashioned a unique, informed artistic profile that attracted one of the most diverse audiences in the nation.\u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"\"> \u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"\">His music reflected his beliefs:\u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"\"> \u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"\">reverence for the past, attuned to the future, rooted in his adopted home of Oakland.\u003c/span> \u003cspan class=\"\">His spirit will always guide the enduring future of the Oakland Symphony.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Correction: \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cem>This story originally stated that Michael Morgan’s final performance was with the San Francisco Symphony on July 23 when it was actually at the Bear Valley Music Festival on July 29-Aug. 1.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "That Viral TikTok Joke About Country Music is an Actual Country Music Song Now",
"headTitle": "That Viral TikTok Joke About Country Music is an Actual Country Music Song Now | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>“Could be a hit,” country artist \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@georgebirgeofficial?\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">George Birge\u003c/a> says with a shrug and a smile at the end of a TikTok video from last year. He was stitching a video posted by fellow \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@rynnstar?\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">TikToker Erynn Chambers\u003c/a>, in which she satirizes the difference in subject matter that men and women in mainstream country music typically sing about. Birge added a melody and a few more lyrics, and a coy tagline: “if this blows up ill [sic] finish the song and release it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Birge was right on both accounts: His TikTok did blow up, and the full version of the song, which he released in June, is currently a minor hit. It was one of the top 10 most added new singles for country radio on the day it was sent to stations last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afb-H8fqkJ4&t=48s\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Beer Beer, Truck Truck” is not the first song to spring from TikTok to the radio, but here’s how it all came together over the last 10 months.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>“Girls in tight jeans” vs. “I destroyed everything he loved—and then I killed him”\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXAgv665J14\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Boys ‘Round Here\u003c/a>,” Blake Shelton sings about how he and his friends aren’t like your normal guys who listen to The Beatles or do the Dougie. Blake and his boys keep it country by drinking ice cold beers while “runnin’ them red dirt roads out, kicking up dust.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaSy8yy-mr8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Before He Cheats\u003c/a>,” Carrie Underwood laments her partner’s infidelity using her writer’s pen, a set of keys and a Louisville Slugger in a passionate fit of property damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13875953']Meanwhile, in “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mdh2p03cRfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Body Like a Backroad\u003c/a>,” Sam Hunt sings about how his partner has “hips like honey” and about the “way she fit in them blue jeans.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And again in “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEPomqor2A8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">No Body, No Crime\u003c/a>,” Taylor Swift and HAIM tell the tale of a woman avenging her best friend’s murder at the hands of an unfaithful husband—and then destroying all the evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of men’s country is ‘the beers’ and ‘the trucks’ and that kind of thing,” Erynn Chambers says. “And then women’s country is like revenge songs on their cheating husbands.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chambers, a music teacher with a popular TikTok account where she posts educational and social justice related content, decided to poke fun at this stereotype. In October 2020, she posted a video of herself depicting a male country artist, singing the lyrics “beer beer, truck truck, girls in tight jeans,” with the caption “men in country music,” above her head. As for her female country artist? Yeah, she killed her cheating husband.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" style=\"max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px\" cite=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@rynnstar/video/6884621398111816966\" data-video-id=\"6884621398111816966\">\n\u003csection>\u003ca title=\"@rynnstar\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@rynnstar\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@rynnstar\u003c/a>\u003ca title=\"countrymusic\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/countrymusic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#CountryMusic\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"♬ original sound - Rynn\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-6884621469750594310\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">♬ original sound – Rynn\u003c/a>\u003c/section>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>[tiktok]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The video went viral; it currently has 1.8 million likes, over 67,000 shares, and 27,000-plus comments—many of which were polarized, either praising Chambers for her humor and cultural insight or criticizing her for what they thought was an unfair reduction of the genre.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A self-issued songwriting challenge\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>When country artist George Birge, one of the 5.6 million viewers, first saw the video, he was at a crossroads in his career. Until February of this year, Birge was one half of the country duo Waterloo Revival, but was unsatisfied with its level of success; at that point, he was having more luck writing for other artists and was considering ending his singing career altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was at a writing session with fellow country artist Clay Walker, one of his idols, when Birge first learned about TikTok as a tool to grow his platform.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had finished writing for the day and he was like, ‘Dude, you just need to get on Tiktok and put your songs on there,’ which was like the last thing I expected,” Birge says—but he ended up taking the advice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13870376']“As musicians, we go grind it out and play to 100 or 1,000 or a couple of thousand people a night,” he says. “But if you do something that catches fire on TikTok, you can get in front of a million people instantly, and so that kind of piqued my interest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Birge found Chambers’ video in the country music hashtag, one of the first places he went after he made his account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My first reaction was like, ‘Yeah, she makes a really good point,’ ” he says. “But my second reaction was kind of like, ‘OK, it’d be fun to take this as a challenge and see if I can write a legitimate song using her hook up at the top.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" style=\"max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px\" cite=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@georgebirgeofficial/video/6908404290574961926\" data-video-id=\"6908404290574961926\">\n\u003csection>\u003ca title=\"@georgebirgeofficial\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@georgebirgeofficial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@georgebirgeofficial\u003c/a>If y’all blow this up I may have to finish it and release it, should we write the whole thing @rynnstar 🔥 \u003ca title=\"countrymusic\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/countrymusic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#countrymusic\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"country\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/country\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#country\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"originalsong\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/originalsong\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#originalsong\u003c/a>\u003ca title=\"♬ original sound - George Birge\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-6908404270417201926\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">♬ original sound – George Birge\u003c/a>\u003c/section>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>[tiktok]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To Birge, Chambers’ TikTok parody poking fun at the genre his life revolves around had all the ingredients for a bonafide country hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We always say that the best country songs are the ones that get stuck in your head, that are easy to remember, that you can sing back after one [listen],” he says. “And even though she is kind of doing it in jest—that ‘beer beer, truck truck’ hook she did off the top—I feel like that could be something that could burn in your brain and be a big country hook, so I kind of took it and ran with it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That same day, Birge wrote a melody for the chorus and added a few more lines. He posted a stitch of him singing the new version in December 2020, and it quickly took off. People made it clear they wanted to hear a full song.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TikTok has not, in fact, killed the radio star\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In early January, Birge called his friend and producer, Ash Bowers, and asked him to come over and help him record the song.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So we got on his computer and recorded a demo in like three hours,” Birge says. He posted another TikTok of himself playing the full version from his car speakers—\u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@georgebirgeofficial/video/6912460114561649926\">that got 2.6 million views\u003c/a>—and that’s when “almost every record label in Nashville started calling me, asking to take meetings,” he says. Birge signed with RECORDS Nashville and had a studio version recorded by February.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13866382']What emerged was “Beer Beer, Truck Truck,” in which Birge takes Chambers’ jesting chorus and turns it into a genuinely sweet ballad. With new lyrics about driving down dirt roads and spending summer nights staring at the stars, the song’s narrator tries to convince his lost love—who gave up her life in the country for the big city filled with bright lights and endless opportunity—that country life \u003cem>isn’t\u003c/em> all beers and trucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he posted the initial TikTok, Birge says he had six followers. Now, he has just over 160,000. Likewise, Chambers’ account has ballooned to over 700,000 followers, with just over 70 million likes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I certainly didn’t think I was going to grow a big audience with it,” she says. As someone who grew up loving country music and just wanted to make a fun parody, she says her TikTok’s success “was never a thing that I was thinking was going to happen.” She never imagined that she’d have writing credits on a song in radio rotation and with over 4 million streams, either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really an honor and a privilege and a shock to see something that I came up with on the fly really connect with people and go out there like that,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=How+A+Joke+TikTok+About+Country+Music+Stereotypes+Hit+The+Radio&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>“Could be a hit,” country artist \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@georgebirgeofficial?\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">George Birge\u003c/a> says with a shrug and a smile at the end of a TikTok video from last year. He was stitching a video posted by fellow \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@rynnstar?\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">TikToker Erynn Chambers\u003c/a>, in which she satirizes the difference in subject matter that men and women in mainstream country music typically sing about. Birge added a melody and a few more lyrics, and a coy tagline: “if this blows up ill [sic] finish the song and release it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Birge was right on both accounts: His TikTok did blow up, and the full version of the song, which he released in June, is currently a minor hit. It was one of the top 10 most added new singles for country radio on the day it was sent to stations last week.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/afb-H8fqkJ4'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/afb-H8fqkJ4'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>“Beer Beer, Truck Truck” is not the first song to spring from TikTok to the radio, but here’s how it all came together over the last 10 months.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>“Girls in tight jeans” vs. “I destroyed everything he loved—and then I killed him”\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXAgv665J14\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Boys ‘Round Here\u003c/a>,” Blake Shelton sings about how he and his friends aren’t like your normal guys who listen to The Beatles or do the Dougie. Blake and his boys keep it country by drinking ice cold beers while “runnin’ them red dirt roads out, kicking up dust.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaSy8yy-mr8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Before He Cheats\u003c/a>,” Carrie Underwood laments her partner’s infidelity using her writer’s pen, a set of keys and a Louisville Slugger in a passionate fit of property damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Meanwhile, in “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mdh2p03cRfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Body Like a Backroad\u003c/a>,” Sam Hunt sings about how his partner has “hips like honey” and about the “way she fit in them blue jeans.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And again in “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEPomqor2A8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">No Body, No Crime\u003c/a>,” Taylor Swift and HAIM tell the tale of a woman avenging her best friend’s murder at the hands of an unfaithful husband—and then destroying all the evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of men’s country is ‘the beers’ and ‘the trucks’ and that kind of thing,” Erynn Chambers says. “And then women’s country is like revenge songs on their cheating husbands.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chambers, a music teacher with a popular TikTok account where she posts educational and social justice related content, decided to poke fun at this stereotype. In October 2020, she posted a video of herself depicting a male country artist, singing the lyrics “beer beer, truck truck, girls in tight jeans,” with the caption “men in country music,” above her head. As for her female country artist? Yeah, she killed her cheating husband.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" style=\"max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px\" cite=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@rynnstar/video/6884621398111816966\" data-video-id=\"6884621398111816966\">\n\u003csection>\u003ca title=\"@rynnstar\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@rynnstar\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@rynnstar\u003c/a>\u003ca title=\"countrymusic\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/countrymusic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#CountryMusic\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"♬ original sound - Rynn\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-6884621469750594310\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">♬ original sound – Rynn\u003c/a>\u003c/section>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The video went viral; it currently has 1.8 million likes, over 67,000 shares, and 27,000-plus comments—many of which were polarized, either praising Chambers for her humor and cultural insight or criticizing her for what they thought was an unfair reduction of the genre.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A self-issued songwriting challenge\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>When country artist George Birge, one of the 5.6 million viewers, first saw the video, he was at a crossroads in his career. Until February of this year, Birge was one half of the country duo Waterloo Revival, but was unsatisfied with its level of success; at that point, he was having more luck writing for other artists and was considering ending his singing career altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was at a writing session with fellow country artist Clay Walker, one of his idols, when Birge first learned about TikTok as a tool to grow his platform.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had finished writing for the day and he was like, ‘Dude, you just need to get on Tiktok and put your songs on there,’ which was like the last thing I expected,” Birge says—but he ended up taking the advice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“As musicians, we go grind it out and play to 100 or 1,000 or a couple of thousand people a night,” he says. “But if you do something that catches fire on TikTok, you can get in front of a million people instantly, and so that kind of piqued my interest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Birge found Chambers’ video in the country music hashtag, one of the first places he went after he made his account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My first reaction was like, ‘Yeah, she makes a really good point,’ ” he says. “But my second reaction was kind of like, ‘OK, it’d be fun to take this as a challenge and see if I can write a legitimate song using her hook up at the top.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" style=\"max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px\" cite=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@georgebirgeofficial/video/6908404290574961926\" data-video-id=\"6908404290574961926\">\n\u003csection>\u003ca title=\"@georgebirgeofficial\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@georgebirgeofficial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@georgebirgeofficial\u003c/a>If y’all blow this up I may have to finish it and release it, should we write the whole thing @rynnstar 🔥 \u003ca title=\"countrymusic\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/countrymusic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#countrymusic\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"country\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/country\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#country\u003c/a> \u003ca title=\"originalsong\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/tag/originalsong\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#originalsong\u003c/a>\u003ca title=\"♬ original sound - George Birge\" href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-6908404270417201926\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">♬ original sound – George Birge\u003c/a>\u003c/section>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To Birge, Chambers’ TikTok parody poking fun at the genre his life revolves around had all the ingredients for a bonafide country hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We always say that the best country songs are the ones that get stuck in your head, that are easy to remember, that you can sing back after one [listen],” he says. “And even though she is kind of doing it in jest—that ‘beer beer, truck truck’ hook she did off the top—I feel like that could be something that could burn in your brain and be a big country hook, so I kind of took it and ran with it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That same day, Birge wrote a melody for the chorus and added a few more lines. He posted a stitch of him singing the new version in December 2020, and it quickly took off. People made it clear they wanted to hear a full song.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TikTok has not, in fact, killed the radio star\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In early January, Birge called his friend and producer, Ash Bowers, and asked him to come over and help him record the song.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So we got on his computer and recorded a demo in like three hours,” Birge says. He posted another TikTok of himself playing the full version from his car speakers—\u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@georgebirgeofficial/video/6912460114561649926\">that got 2.6 million views\u003c/a>—and that’s when “almost every record label in Nashville started calling me, asking to take meetings,” he says. Birge signed with RECORDS Nashville and had a studio version recorded by February.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>What emerged was “Beer Beer, Truck Truck,” in which Birge takes Chambers’ jesting chorus and turns it into a genuinely sweet ballad. With new lyrics about driving down dirt roads and spending summer nights staring at the stars, the song’s narrator tries to convince his lost love—who gave up her life in the country for the big city filled with bright lights and endless opportunity—that country life \u003cem>isn’t\u003c/em> all beers and trucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he posted the initial TikTok, Birge says he had six followers. Now, he has just over 160,000. Likewise, Chambers’ account has ballooned to over 700,000 followers, with just over 70 million likes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I certainly didn’t think I was going to grow a big audience with it,” she says. As someone who grew up loving country music and just wanted to make a fun parody, she says her TikTok’s success “was never a thing that I was thinking was going to happen.” She never imagined that she’d have writing credits on a song in radio rotation and with over 4 million streams, either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really an honor and a privilege and a shock to see something that I came up with on the fly really connect with people and go out there like that,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=How+A+Joke+TikTok+About+Country+Music+Stereotypes+Hit+The+Radio&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "13 Years After the Last R. Kelly Trial, the Culture Has Changed",
"headTitle": "13 Years After the Last R. Kelly Trial, the Culture Has Changed | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Editor’s note: This essay includes allegations of sexual assault and physical abuse.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, testimony is scheduled to begin in a Brooklyn courthouse in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/08/09/1022231076/r-kelly-abuse-charges-trial-aaliyah-timeline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">first of two federal trials\u003c/a> against singer, songwriter and producer \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/156679430/r-kelly\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">R. Kelly\u003c/a>. Across two sets of indictments in New York and Illinois, the one-time R&B king is accused of abusing 11 girls and women over more than two decades; making child pornography; making hush-money payments to silence alleged victims; and building a \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/r-kelly-charged-racketeering-including-predicate-acts-coercing-and-transporting-minor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">criminal enterprise\u003c/a> specifically to “prey upon young women and teenagers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='pop_104682']Additionally, the New York prosecutors want to admit what they say is \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/07/23/1019972507/r-kelly-prosecutors-evidence-more-crimes-bribery-trial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">evidence\u003c/a> that Kelly sexually and physically abused girls and women as far back as 1991, sexually abused a boy, and committed bribery. Kelly has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and has consistently denied accusations that he abused anyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Often, when I’ve told people that I’m covering the New York trial, they have been confused. Allegations have swirled around Kelly for \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/01/11/683936629/r-kelly-allegations-an-abridged-history\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">over 25 years now\u003c/a>, and so they ask me: Wasn’t he arrested years ago? Yes: he was arrested most recently in July 2019, and he’s remained in custody for the two years since, awaiting trial. But they may also be thinking of his first big trial in 2008—and those accusations, and that trial, figure into some of the current charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2002, in his hometown of Chicago, Kelly was indicted on numerous child pornography charges after a notorious sex tape circulated: it purportedly showed the singer having sex with and urinating on a female whom prosecutors said was about 14 years old at the time. A full six years later, Kelly went to trial and was acquitted of all charges. The young woman who was thought to be the girl on the tape and her parents refused to testify.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That 2008 trial figures heavily into some of the current Illinois charges, which include accusations that Kelly and members of his circle intimidated the girl and her father, and persuaded them to lie to both police and a grand jury. Their subsequent refusal to testify, despite \u003ca href=\"https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2008-06-14-0806140185-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">14 other witnesses\u003c/a> identifying the girl, seems to have swayed many jurors to acquit Kelly. (That same woman, now in her thirties, said in 2019 that she was \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/arts/music/r-kelly-sexual-assault-tape.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">cooperating\u003c/a> with federal investigators.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back then, it seemed like much of the pop culture conversation was primarily about Kelly and his alleged predilections and behaviors, and not so much about anyone who may have been hurt. In certain ways, the culture has shifted since Kelly last stood on trial. Many fans today seem far less willing to overlook what they perceive as problematic content or context in an artist’s work—whether it’s related to racism, sexism, unfair power dynamics or \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13900624/the-music-industry-is-holding-dababy-accountable\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">homophobia\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='pop_109568']The intervening 13 years have also seen dogged, tenacious reporting on Kelly, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/06/04/729310654/in-soulless-a-journalist-takes-on-r-kelly-and-the-business-that-made-him-a-star\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Soulless: The Case Against R. Kelly\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, \u003c/em>a book by former \u003cem>Chicago Sun-Times\u003c/em> journalist and music critic \u003ca href=\"http://jimdero.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jim DeRogatis\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/02/20/695083431/surviving-r-kelly-producer-dream-hampton-takes-on-ecosystem-that-s-supported-him\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Surviving R. Kelly\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>,\u003c/em> a six-part docuseries helmed by \u003ca href=\"https://www.dreamhampton.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">dream hampton\u003c/a> that aired on Lifetime. Both were released in 2019, in the midst of the #MeToo movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early days of #MeToo, many prominent accusers were \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/01/22/798222176/the-harvey-weinstein-trial-a-brief-timeline-of-how-we-got-here\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">white women\u003c/a>. But the Kelly-related projects explicitly centered the mostly Black girls and women who allegedly were harmed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As those projects were being developed, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/05/06/608802024/-muterkelly-gathers-momentum\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#MuteRKelly\u003c/a> movement—founded by two Black women, Kenyette Barnes and Oronike Odeleye—gathered steam in an effort to pressure large entertainment companies to sever their ties with Kelly. In writing about #MuteRKelly, \u003cem>Washington Post\u003c/em> columnist Christine Emba \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/black-women-deserve-better-will-2019-be-the-year-of-change/2019/01/09\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">cited\u003c/a> a 1962 speech by Malcolm X: “The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an \u003ca href=\"https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jimderogatis/jerhonda-pace-r-kelly-me-too-tarana-burke#.vc8K1olGo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">interview \u003c/a>Barnes gave to DeRogatis for BuzzFeed News in March 2018, she asserted: “We don’t give a damn about Black girls. If R. Kelly was white, every civil rights leader would be marching in every street in this country. If the girls were white, every feminist group would be coming out enraged in droves of pussy hats to march against him. The bottom line is that R. Kelly and his victims are the perfect storm of people we don’t care about. We protect problematic Black men in the Black community, and we discard Black girls in all communities. Essentially, he is the greatest example of a predator in that he went after the most vulnerable that no one cares about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few months later, though, Kelly’s management called #MuteRKelly “a public lynching,” noting that “since America was born, Black men and women have been lynched for having sex or for being accused of it.” At the time, #MeToo founder and activist Tarana Burke \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2018/05/01/607448801/-metoo-founder-tarana-burke-responds-to-r-kelly\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">told me\u003c/a>, “The reality of lynching in America is so, so painful and so real. This is not a public lynching. This is a call for public accountability.” (Moreover, in many cases Kelly’s accusers have said that they were underage girls, not women, when they began sexual contact with him.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='pop_108417']“We have seen 24 years of allegations leveled against R. Kelly, and he has gone unscathed,” Burke continued in that 2018 conversation. “What we are looking for, in our community and out, is some accountability from the corporations that support this person who has a 24-year history of sexual violence perpetrated against Black and brown girls around the country.” (At the end of that year, Burke was one of the victims of a gun threat called into an advance screening of \u003cem>Surviving R. Kelly\u003c/em> in New York; Kelly’s former manager, Donnell Russell, has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/08/14/902514816/r-kellys-former-manager-charged-with-gun-threat-to-surviving-r-kelly-screening\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">charged\u003c/a> with making that threat. His case is ongoing.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To a large extent, #MuteRKelly came to fruition, albeit years after Kelly’s commercial and creative peak, and sometimes in highly qualified ways. In May 2018, for example, Spotify \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2018/05/10/610051559/starting-with-r-kelly-spotify-pulls-artists-from-playlists-for-hateful-conduct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">dropped\u003c/a> Kelly from its playlists, the way that \u003ca href=\"https://www.wired.com/2017/05/secret-hit-making-power-spotify-playlist/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">many listeners\u003c/a> use the service, rather than seeking out particular artists or songs. If you actively search for Kelly’s music on Spotify, however, it’s still there, as are the songs he wrote and/or produced for other artists, including Celine Dion, Janet Jackson, Ludacris, Lil Wayne, Ciara, Missy Elliott and another artist some listeners consider problematic: Michael Jackson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s been one notable exception: Much of the music by Kelly’s protégée Aaliyah—whom he married in 1994, when she was 15 years old and he was 27—is not on Spotify or other streaming services at all. But in an interesting bit of timing, Barry Hankerson, Aaliyah’s uncle and the former manager of both artists, \u003ca href=\"https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/9610793/aaliyah-music-return-streaming-services-blackground-empire/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">announced\u003c/a> just days before the Kelly trial began that he is making her recording catalog available to streaming services. The New York prosecutors refer to Aaliyah in their indictment as “Jane Doe #1,” for whom they say Kelly and associates bribed a public official to create a fake ID before their marriage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Jan. 2019, Kelly’s longtime record label RCA and its parent company, Sony Music Entertainment, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/01/18/686641970/r-kelly-has-been-dropped-by-rca-records-billboard-reports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">dropped him\u003c/a> from their artist roster after \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/01/16/685912752/the-muterkelly-movement-takes-its-protest-to-the-steps-of-his-record-label\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pressure mounted\u003c/a> from #MuteRKelly. But that decision, apparently made in the wake of \u003cem>Surviving R. Kelly\u003c/em> airing, came 16 years after his last big chart hit, 2003’s “Ignition (Remix).” Furthermore, RCA and Sony never publicly acknowledged having dropped Kelly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Long before the most recent wave of accusations and reporting, Black and brown voices were calling for a reckoning. Nearly two decades before \u003cem>Surviving R. Kelly,\u003c/em> longtime \u003cem>Chicago Sun-Times \u003c/em>columnist Mary Mitchell wrote many pieces asking why the alleged victims were being dismissed or ignored, and why so many Chicagoans were so eager to \u003ca href=\"https://chicago.suntimes.com/2002/8/8/22613656/r-kelly-2002-trial-fans-rally-cook-county-chicago-sun-times-mary-mitchell\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">side with Kelly\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, many fans adored him. Quite a few fellow artists brushed aside the allegations and continued to work with him. And comedians like \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eafRE74JGZ8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dave Chappelle\u003c/a> joked about the alleged Kelly tape and its contents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the aftermath of the debut airing of \u003cem>Surviving R. Kelly,\u003c/em> then-\u003cem>New York Times \u003c/em>culture editor (and now \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/912788259/aisha-harris\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR colleague\u003c/a>) Aisha Harris wrote about how the allegations against Kelly became pop-culture\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/06/arts/television/surviving-r-kelly-dave-chappelle.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> joke fodder\u003c/a>: “For years,” she wrote, “those who laughed at Kelly were able to ignore the charges against him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='pop_109631']In retrospect, that particular spin cycle is reminiscent of what happened to Britney Spears \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/06/25/1009859700/opinion-britney-is-the-latest-victim-of-the-industry-machine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in the same era\u003c/a>. (She was one of R. Kelly’s labelmates at Jive and then RCA, and Kelly wrote and produced her song “Outrageous,” released in 2004.) Spears’ public struggles, which became little more than a joke and grist for the 24/7 grind of gossip blogs and cable channels vying for eyeballs, happened nearly simultaneously with Kelly’s Chicago trial. The girl at the center of that trial, like Spears, largely became a punchline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several of the women who have accused Kelly of sexual, physical and/or psychological abuse say that when they met him, they, too, like that girl allegedly featured on the infamous tape, were teenagers attempting to become professional musicians, and hoped that the king of R&B would help them chart their own musical careers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the music industry, this is a familiar story. Young men strive to make it in the tough, unforgiving music industry; if they succeed, it’s often at least partly through the help of older male mentors. Young women striving to make it in the tough, unforgiving music industry might also seek the help of older male mentors; after all, there are still \u003ca href=\"https://annenberg.usc.edu/news/research-and-impact/annenberg-inclusion-initiatives-annual-report-popular-music-reveals-little\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">far more\u003c/a> successful men in the business than women. But sometimes, rather than being given guidance or opportunity, they instead are cultivated as sexual conquests—and those dreams fade away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Opinion%3A+13+Years+After+The+Last+R.+Kelly+Trial%2C+The+Culture+Has+Changed&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The first federal trial against disgraced R&B superstar R. Kelly is finally underway, after over 25 years of abuse allegations.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Editor’s note: This essay includes allegations of sexual assault and physical abuse.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, testimony is scheduled to begin in a Brooklyn courthouse in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/08/09/1022231076/r-kelly-abuse-charges-trial-aaliyah-timeline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">first of two federal trials\u003c/a> against singer, songwriter and producer \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/156679430/r-kelly\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">R. Kelly\u003c/a>. Across two sets of indictments in New York and Illinois, the one-time R&B king is accused of abusing 11 girls and women over more than two decades; making child pornography; making hush-money payments to silence alleged victims; and building a \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/r-kelly-charged-racketeering-including-predicate-acts-coercing-and-transporting-minor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">criminal enterprise\u003c/a> specifically to “prey upon young women and teenagers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Additionally, the New York prosecutors want to admit what they say is \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/07/23/1019972507/r-kelly-prosecutors-evidence-more-crimes-bribery-trial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">evidence\u003c/a> that Kelly sexually and physically abused girls and women as far back as 1991, sexually abused a boy, and committed bribery. Kelly has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and has consistently denied accusations that he abused anyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Often, when I’ve told people that I’m covering the New York trial, they have been confused. Allegations have swirled around Kelly for \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/01/11/683936629/r-kelly-allegations-an-abridged-history\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">over 25 years now\u003c/a>, and so they ask me: Wasn’t he arrested years ago? Yes: he was arrested most recently in July 2019, and he’s remained in custody for the two years since, awaiting trial. But they may also be thinking of his first big trial in 2008—and those accusations, and that trial, figure into some of the current charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2002, in his hometown of Chicago, Kelly was indicted on numerous child pornography charges after a notorious sex tape circulated: it purportedly showed the singer having sex with and urinating on a female whom prosecutors said was about 14 years old at the time. A full six years later, Kelly went to trial and was acquitted of all charges. The young woman who was thought to be the girl on the tape and her parents refused to testify.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That 2008 trial figures heavily into some of the current Illinois charges, which include accusations that Kelly and members of his circle intimidated the girl and her father, and persuaded them to lie to both police and a grand jury. Their subsequent refusal to testify, despite \u003ca href=\"https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2008-06-14-0806140185-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">14 other witnesses\u003c/a> identifying the girl, seems to have swayed many jurors to acquit Kelly. (That same woman, now in her thirties, said in 2019 that she was \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/arts/music/r-kelly-sexual-assault-tape.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">cooperating\u003c/a> with federal investigators.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back then, it seemed like much of the pop culture conversation was primarily about Kelly and his alleged predilections and behaviors, and not so much about anyone who may have been hurt. In certain ways, the culture has shifted since Kelly last stood on trial. Many fans today seem far less willing to overlook what they perceive as problematic content or context in an artist’s work—whether it’s related to racism, sexism, unfair power dynamics or \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13900624/the-music-industry-is-holding-dababy-accountable\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">homophobia\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The intervening 13 years have also seen dogged, tenacious reporting on Kelly, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/06/04/729310654/in-soulless-a-journalist-takes-on-r-kelly-and-the-business-that-made-him-a-star\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Soulless: The Case Against R. Kelly\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, \u003c/em>a book by former \u003cem>Chicago Sun-Times\u003c/em> journalist and music critic \u003ca href=\"http://jimdero.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jim DeRogatis\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/02/20/695083431/surviving-r-kelly-producer-dream-hampton-takes-on-ecosystem-that-s-supported-him\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Surviving R. Kelly\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>,\u003c/em> a six-part docuseries helmed by \u003ca href=\"https://www.dreamhampton.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">dream hampton\u003c/a> that aired on Lifetime. Both were released in 2019, in the midst of the #MeToo movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early days of #MeToo, many prominent accusers were \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/01/22/798222176/the-harvey-weinstein-trial-a-brief-timeline-of-how-we-got-here\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">white women\u003c/a>. But the Kelly-related projects explicitly centered the mostly Black girls and women who allegedly were harmed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As those projects were being developed, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/05/06/608802024/-muterkelly-gathers-momentum\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#MuteRKelly\u003c/a> movement—founded by two Black women, Kenyette Barnes and Oronike Odeleye—gathered steam in an effort to pressure large entertainment companies to sever their ties with Kelly. In writing about #MuteRKelly, \u003cem>Washington Post\u003c/em> columnist Christine Emba \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/black-women-deserve-better-will-2019-be-the-year-of-change/2019/01/09\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">cited\u003c/a> a 1962 speech by Malcolm X: “The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an \u003ca href=\"https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jimderogatis/jerhonda-pace-r-kelly-me-too-tarana-burke#.vc8K1olGo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">interview \u003c/a>Barnes gave to DeRogatis for BuzzFeed News in March 2018, she asserted: “We don’t give a damn about Black girls. If R. Kelly was white, every civil rights leader would be marching in every street in this country. If the girls were white, every feminist group would be coming out enraged in droves of pussy hats to march against him. The bottom line is that R. Kelly and his victims are the perfect storm of people we don’t care about. We protect problematic Black men in the Black community, and we discard Black girls in all communities. Essentially, he is the greatest example of a predator in that he went after the most vulnerable that no one cares about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few months later, though, Kelly’s management called #MuteRKelly “a public lynching,” noting that “since America was born, Black men and women have been lynched for having sex or for being accused of it.” At the time, #MeToo founder and activist Tarana Burke \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2018/05/01/607448801/-metoo-founder-tarana-burke-responds-to-r-kelly\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">told me\u003c/a>, “The reality of lynching in America is so, so painful and so real. This is not a public lynching. This is a call for public accountability.” (Moreover, in many cases Kelly’s accusers have said that they were underage girls, not women, when they began sexual contact with him.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We have seen 24 years of allegations leveled against R. Kelly, and he has gone unscathed,” Burke continued in that 2018 conversation. “What we are looking for, in our community and out, is some accountability from the corporations that support this person who has a 24-year history of sexual violence perpetrated against Black and brown girls around the country.” (At the end of that year, Burke was one of the victims of a gun threat called into an advance screening of \u003cem>Surviving R. Kelly\u003c/em> in New York; Kelly’s former manager, Donnell Russell, has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/08/14/902514816/r-kellys-former-manager-charged-with-gun-threat-to-surviving-r-kelly-screening\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">charged\u003c/a> with making that threat. His case is ongoing.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To a large extent, #MuteRKelly came to fruition, albeit years after Kelly’s commercial and creative peak, and sometimes in highly qualified ways. In May 2018, for example, Spotify \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2018/05/10/610051559/starting-with-r-kelly-spotify-pulls-artists-from-playlists-for-hateful-conduct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">dropped\u003c/a> Kelly from its playlists, the way that \u003ca href=\"https://www.wired.com/2017/05/secret-hit-making-power-spotify-playlist/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">many listeners\u003c/a> use the service, rather than seeking out particular artists or songs. If you actively search for Kelly’s music on Spotify, however, it’s still there, as are the songs he wrote and/or produced for other artists, including Celine Dion, Janet Jackson, Ludacris, Lil Wayne, Ciara, Missy Elliott and another artist some listeners consider problematic: Michael Jackson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s been one notable exception: Much of the music by Kelly’s protégée Aaliyah—whom he married in 1994, when she was 15 years old and he was 27—is not on Spotify or other streaming services at all. But in an interesting bit of timing, Barry Hankerson, Aaliyah’s uncle and the former manager of both artists, \u003ca href=\"https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/9610793/aaliyah-music-return-streaming-services-blackground-empire/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">announced\u003c/a> just days before the Kelly trial began that he is making her recording catalog available to streaming services. The New York prosecutors refer to Aaliyah in their indictment as “Jane Doe #1,” for whom they say Kelly and associates bribed a public official to create a fake ID before their marriage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Jan. 2019, Kelly’s longtime record label RCA and its parent company, Sony Music Entertainment, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/01/18/686641970/r-kelly-has-been-dropped-by-rca-records-billboard-reports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">dropped him\u003c/a> from their artist roster after \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/01/16/685912752/the-muterkelly-movement-takes-its-protest-to-the-steps-of-his-record-label\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pressure mounted\u003c/a> from #MuteRKelly. But that decision, apparently made in the wake of \u003cem>Surviving R. Kelly\u003c/em> airing, came 16 years after his last big chart hit, 2003’s “Ignition (Remix).” Furthermore, RCA and Sony never publicly acknowledged having dropped Kelly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Long before the most recent wave of accusations and reporting, Black and brown voices were calling for a reckoning. Nearly two decades before \u003cem>Surviving R. Kelly,\u003c/em> longtime \u003cem>Chicago Sun-Times \u003c/em>columnist Mary Mitchell wrote many pieces asking why the alleged victims were being dismissed or ignored, and why so many Chicagoans were so eager to \u003ca href=\"https://chicago.suntimes.com/2002/8/8/22613656/r-kelly-2002-trial-fans-rally-cook-county-chicago-sun-times-mary-mitchell\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">side with Kelly\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, many fans adored him. Quite a few fellow artists brushed aside the allegations and continued to work with him. And comedians like \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eafRE74JGZ8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dave Chappelle\u003c/a> joked about the alleged Kelly tape and its contents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the aftermath of the debut airing of \u003cem>Surviving R. Kelly,\u003c/em> then-\u003cem>New York Times \u003c/em>culture editor (and now \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/912788259/aisha-harris\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR colleague\u003c/a>) Aisha Harris wrote about how the allegations against Kelly became pop-culture\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/06/arts/television/surviving-r-kelly-dave-chappelle.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> joke fodder\u003c/a>: “For years,” she wrote, “those who laughed at Kelly were able to ignore the charges against him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In retrospect, that particular spin cycle is reminiscent of what happened to Britney Spears \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/06/25/1009859700/opinion-britney-is-the-latest-victim-of-the-industry-machine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in the same era\u003c/a>. (She was one of R. Kelly’s labelmates at Jive and then RCA, and Kelly wrote and produced her song “Outrageous,” released in 2004.) Spears’ public struggles, which became little more than a joke and grist for the 24/7 grind of gossip blogs and cable channels vying for eyeballs, happened nearly simultaneously with Kelly’s Chicago trial. The girl at the center of that trial, like Spears, largely became a punchline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several of the women who have accused Kelly of sexual, physical and/or psychological abuse say that when they met him, they, too, like that girl allegedly featured on the infamous tape, were teenagers attempting to become professional musicians, and hoped that the king of R&B would help them chart their own musical careers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the music industry, this is a familiar story. Young men strive to make it in the tough, unforgiving music industry; if they succeed, it’s often at least partly through the help of older male mentors. Young women striving to make it in the tough, unforgiving music industry might also seek the help of older male mentors; after all, there are still \u003ca href=\"https://annenberg.usc.edu/news/research-and-impact/annenberg-inclusion-initiatives-annual-report-popular-music-reveals-little\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">far more\u003c/a> successful men in the business than women. But sometimes, rather than being given guidance or opportunity, they instead are cultivated as sexual conquests—and those dreams fade away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Opinion%3A+13+Years+After+The+Last+R.+Kelly+Trial%2C+The+Culture+Has+Changed&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "McDonald's Launches a Saweetie Celebrity Meal",
"headTitle": "McDonald’s Launches a Saweetie Celebrity Meal | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Watch out folks: This summer may just be getting a little bit \u003cem>icy\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Multi-platinum rapper Saweetie, who rose to fame with her hit single “Icy Girl,” is teaming up with McDonald’s to bring a little twist to her favorite menu order for her fans. Starting this week, customers across the United States can order “The Saweetie Meal,” featuring a few of the fast-food chain’s signature items—and a “Saweetie ‘N Sour” sauce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/Saweetie/status/1424809356063764482\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“McDonald’s and I run deep—from growing up back in Hayward, California, all through my college days—so I had to bring my icy gang in on my all-time favorites,” Saweetie, whose real name is Diamonté Harper, said\u003ca href=\"https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/saweetie-taps-in-for-a-new-collab-with-mcdonalds-usa-unveiling-her-signature-order-301343969.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> in a news release\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company’s partnership with the rapper is just the latest example of major brands, from Adidas to Cadillac, reaching out to diverse consumers, as the nation continues to recover from the racial turmoil following George Floyd’s murder last summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Saweetie’s promotion joins a variety of diverse artists\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Saweetie marks the first female musician, and the first African-American female musician, to have a celebrity menu collaboration with McDonald’s since the company kicked off its \u003ca href=\"https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/en-us/our-stories/article/press-releases.alistair-btsmeal.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Famous Orders program in 2020\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Previous limited-time meals introduced by the company featured a wide variety of celebrities, including last September’s meal with rapper \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/17/913880991/mcdonalds-runs-low-on-ingredients-for-travis-scott-quarter-pounder\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Travis Scott\u003c/a>, last October’s meal with reggaeton artist\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/altlatino/2018/05/24/613004703/j-balvin-wont-settle-for-anything-less-than-world-domination\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> J Balvin\u003c/a> and, most recently, this summer’s meal with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/05/27/1000786862/k-pop-group-bts-and-mcdonalds-launch-exclusive-meal-and-clothing-line\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">South Korean pop band BTS\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13881731']The celebrity-inspired meals have been a hit for the fast-food chain. McDonald’s President and CEO Chris Kempczinski hinted this month that more celebrity meals may be coming, according to \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/food/2021/07/29/mcdonalds-saweetie-menu-meal-celebrity-famous-orders/5409895001/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">USA Today\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May, McDonald’s announced \u003ca href=\"https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/en-us/our-stories/article/press-releases.diverse-owned-media.html\">new investments in diverse-owned media \u003c/a>content for the company in an effort to further reflect its diverse customers, workers and communities in its marketing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the next four years, the company says it will allocate advertising dollars to diverse-owned media companies, production houses and content creators. With Black-owned properties specifically, McDonald’s says its diverse-owned media partners will increase from 2% to 5% of the company’s national advertising spending over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Representation of diversity is on the rise among major brands\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In the past year, many brands and companies have become noticeably more inclusive, featuring more Black and other minorities in their ads and marketing materials as a way to take a stand against racism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following George Floyd’s murder last May, companies across the globe began issuing various calls to action—including more diversity in advertising, increased spending on diverse companies and investing a greater amount of money in minority-owned media companies—in an effort to connect with Black and brown consumers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With the uprising and the advocacy and the demands after the murder of George Floyd, really there’s been a spotlight shining on the importance of highlighting and making space for Black people, specifically Black women,” said Alfredo Del Cid, head of learning and development at Collective, a diversity, equity and inclusion consulting firm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A number of major brands have struck deals with major Black celebrities in an effort to maintain and expand their consumers of color.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, Uber Eats partnered with \u003ca href=\"https://adage.com/creativity/work/simone-biles-and-jonathan-van-ness-are-duo-you-never-realized-you-needed-uber-eats-matchup-ads/2288491\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Olympian Simone Biles\u003c/a>, featuring the star gymnast in its ads and TV commercials around the time of the Tokyo Olympics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VKeiNjM-AM\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://media.cadillac.com/media/us/en/cadillac/vehicles/ct4-v/2021.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2020/sep/0930-cadillac-technologies.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cadillac partnered with award-winning actress\u003c/a> Regina King, naming her a brand ambassador and the star for its campaign for the newest line of the Escalade SUV.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And \u003ca href=\"https://news.adidas.com/originals/ivy-park-rodeo--fourth-ivy-park-collection-with-beyonc-/s/2fc39fb5-18b9-45bb-a0de-045df1212125\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Beyoncé partnered with Adidas\u003c/a> to launch her “Ivy Park” clothing collection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s all of these ways that these partnerships are coming together that influence the consumer—because the consumer is ultimately interested in trust, right?” said Christina Ferraz, founder and head consultant of marketing agency Thirty6five.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That trust with the brand is what’s going to make them invest in the brand. When they see that that brand is doing what they want,” they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>In a social media world, brands are being held accountable\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>So far in 2021, large brands are continuing their commitment to invest more of their budgets in minority-owned companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13898881']General Motors \u003ca href=\"https://plants.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/home.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2021/apr/0423-gm.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">announced in April\u003c/a> significant changes to its model for partnering with diverse-owned and diverse-targeted media—allocating 2% of its ad spending in Black-owned media in 2021, and 4% in 2022, with a goal of reaching 8% by 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in June, Coca-Cola pledged to double its ad spending with minority-owned media, saying it will be five times higher in 2021 than a year earlier, \u003ca href=\"https://www.coca-colacompany.com/press-releases/minority-owned-media-spending\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">according to a news release.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ferraz says that in the social-media era, companies and their reputations with diverse consumers are in increasingly intense spotlight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Brands now have to be held accountable in a way that they’ve never been held accountable before,” they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Editor’s note: \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cem>McDonald’s is among NPR’s financial supporters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=As+Brands+Reach+For+Diverse+Customers%2C+McDonald%27s+Launches+A+Saweetie+Celebrity+Meal&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Watch out folks: This summer may just be getting a little bit \u003cem>icy\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Multi-platinum rapper Saweetie, who rose to fame with her hit single “Icy Girl,” is teaming up with McDonald’s to bring a little twist to her favorite menu order for her fans. Starting this week, customers across the United States can order “The Saweetie Meal,” featuring a few of the fast-food chain’s signature items—and a “Saweetie ‘N Sour” sauce.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>“McDonald’s and I run deep—from growing up back in Hayward, California, all through my college days—so I had to bring my icy gang in on my all-time favorites,” Saweetie, whose real name is Diamonté Harper, said\u003ca href=\"https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/saweetie-taps-in-for-a-new-collab-with-mcdonalds-usa-unveiling-her-signature-order-301343969.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> in a news release\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company’s partnership with the rapper is just the latest example of major brands, from Adidas to Cadillac, reaching out to diverse consumers, as the nation continues to recover from the racial turmoil following George Floyd’s murder last summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Saweetie’s promotion joins a variety of diverse artists\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Saweetie marks the first female musician, and the first African-American female musician, to have a celebrity menu collaboration with McDonald’s since the company kicked off its \u003ca href=\"https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/en-us/our-stories/article/press-releases.alistair-btsmeal.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Famous Orders program in 2020\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Previous limited-time meals introduced by the company featured a wide variety of celebrities, including last September’s meal with rapper \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/17/913880991/mcdonalds-runs-low-on-ingredients-for-travis-scott-quarter-pounder\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Travis Scott\u003c/a>, last October’s meal with reggaeton artist\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/altlatino/2018/05/24/613004703/j-balvin-wont-settle-for-anything-less-than-world-domination\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> J Balvin\u003c/a> and, most recently, this summer’s meal with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/05/27/1000786862/k-pop-group-bts-and-mcdonalds-launch-exclusive-meal-and-clothing-line\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">South Korean pop band BTS\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The celebrity-inspired meals have been a hit for the fast-food chain. McDonald’s President and CEO Chris Kempczinski hinted this month that more celebrity meals may be coming, according to \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/food/2021/07/29/mcdonalds-saweetie-menu-meal-celebrity-famous-orders/5409895001/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">USA Today\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May, McDonald’s announced \u003ca href=\"https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/en-us/our-stories/article/press-releases.diverse-owned-media.html\">new investments in diverse-owned media \u003c/a>content for the company in an effort to further reflect its diverse customers, workers and communities in its marketing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the next four years, the company says it will allocate advertising dollars to diverse-owned media companies, production houses and content creators. With Black-owned properties specifically, McDonald’s says its diverse-owned media partners will increase from 2% to 5% of the company’s national advertising spending over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Representation of diversity is on the rise among major brands\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In the past year, many brands and companies have become noticeably more inclusive, featuring more Black and other minorities in their ads and marketing materials as a way to take a stand against racism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following George Floyd’s murder last May, companies across the globe began issuing various calls to action—including more diversity in advertising, increased spending on diverse companies and investing a greater amount of money in minority-owned media companies—in an effort to connect with Black and brown consumers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With the uprising and the advocacy and the demands after the murder of George Floyd, really there’s been a spotlight shining on the importance of highlighting and making space for Black people, specifically Black women,” said Alfredo Del Cid, head of learning and development at Collective, a diversity, equity and inclusion consulting firm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A number of major brands have struck deals with major Black celebrities in an effort to maintain and expand their consumers of color.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, Uber Eats partnered with \u003ca href=\"https://adage.com/creativity/work/simone-biles-and-jonathan-van-ness-are-duo-you-never-realized-you-needed-uber-eats-matchup-ads/2288491\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Olympian Simone Biles\u003c/a>, featuring the star gymnast in its ads and TV commercials around the time of the Tokyo Olympics.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/6VKeiNjM-AM'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/6VKeiNjM-AM'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://media.cadillac.com/media/us/en/cadillac/vehicles/ct4-v/2021.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2020/sep/0930-cadillac-technologies.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cadillac partnered with award-winning actress\u003c/a> Regina King, naming her a brand ambassador and the star for its campaign for the newest line of the Escalade SUV.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And \u003ca href=\"https://news.adidas.com/originals/ivy-park-rodeo--fourth-ivy-park-collection-with-beyonc-/s/2fc39fb5-18b9-45bb-a0de-045df1212125\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Beyoncé partnered with Adidas\u003c/a> to launch her “Ivy Park” clothing collection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s all of these ways that these partnerships are coming together that influence the consumer—because the consumer is ultimately interested in trust, right?” said Christina Ferraz, founder and head consultant of marketing agency Thirty6five.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That trust with the brand is what’s going to make them invest in the brand. When they see that that brand is doing what they want,” they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>In a social media world, brands are being held accountable\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>So far in 2021, large brands are continuing their commitment to invest more of their budgets in minority-owned companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>General Motors \u003ca href=\"https://plants.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/home.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2021/apr/0423-gm.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">announced in April\u003c/a> significant changes to its model for partnering with diverse-owned and diverse-targeted media—allocating 2% of its ad spending in Black-owned media in 2021, and 4% in 2022, with a goal of reaching 8% by 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in June, Coca-Cola pledged to double its ad spending with minority-owned media, saying it will be five times higher in 2021 than a year earlier, \u003ca href=\"https://www.coca-colacompany.com/press-releases/minority-owned-media-spending\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">according to a news release.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ferraz says that in the social-media era, companies and their reputations with diverse consumers are in increasingly intense spotlight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Brands now have to be held accountable in a way that they’ve never been held accountable before,” they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Editor’s note: \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cem>McDonald’s is among NPR’s financial supporters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=As+Brands+Reach+For+Diverse+Customers%2C+McDonald%27s+Launches+A+Saweetie+Celebrity+Meal&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "baba-zumbi-zion-i-dies",
"title": "Steve 'Zumbi' Gaines, Prolific Bay Area MC from Zion I, Dies at Age 49",
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"headTitle": "Steve ‘Zumbi’ Gaines, Prolific Bay Area MC from Zion I, Dies at Age 49 | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story has been updated. Zumbi’s death has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13901531/lawyers-investigate-death-of-steve-zumbi-gaines-zion-i-mc\">investigated as a homicide\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steve Gaines, the MC known as Baba Zumbi from Bay Area hip-hop group Zion I, has died. KQED spoke with Zumbi’s family and confirmed his death on Friday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family shared a statement with KQED Friday evening:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>It is with utter disbelief and great sadness that the Gaines family shares the news of the passing of Steve “Zumbi” Gaines on Friday, August 13, 2021. Gaines, 49 and the MC of the critically acclaimed hip-hop group Zion I, passed away at Alta Bates Hospital today in the early morning from unknown causes. The family requests privacy in this very challenging time while they await further details.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13962689']\u003cem>Steve is survived by three sons, his mother and his brother. He was working on a Zion I reunion tour with longtime producer and collaborator, Amp Live, to honor the legacy of their musical endeavors for their fans.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither Zumbi’s family nor his publicist addressed early reports that he died from complications related to COVID, as initially told to KQED by close friends. Zumbi was said to be hesitant about receiving the COVID vaccine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier Friday, the Los Angeles hip-hop collective Project Blowed \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CSig6tTrDyH/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">posted a statement\u003c/a> from DJ True Justice, a touring DJ for Zion I, saying that Zumbi had been recovering from COVID when “he had a severe asthma attack and his heart stopped. He died in the hospital. They were unable to revive him.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13936095']But Berkeley police, who responded to a physical altercation between a patient and hospital staff shortly after 5am on Friday, are now investigating Zumbi’s death. A spokesperson for the Berkeley Police Department \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Police-investigating-death-of-well-known-Bay-Area-16388574.php\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">told the \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em>\u003c/a> that the involved patient was eventually pinned down by hospital security. The spokesperson added that, upon arrival, officers began handcuffing the patient when they determined that he needed immediate medical assistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Police and hospital staff performed livesaving measures, but the patient was unresponsive and pronounced dead at the scene, the spokesperson said. Police dispatch recordings reviewed by KQED identify the patient as Steven Gaines. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13901318\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zumbi.WEB_.Vertical-1020x1427.jpg\" alt=\"Baba Zumbi of Zion I in 2012. \" width=\"640\" height=\"895\" class=\"size-large wp-image-13901318\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zumbi.WEB_.Vertical-1020x1427.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zumbi.WEB_.Vertical-800x1120.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zumbi.WEB_.Vertical-160x224.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zumbi.WEB_.Vertical-768x1075.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zumbi.WEB_.Vertical-1098x1536.jpg 1098w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zumbi.WEB_.Vertical.jpg 1372w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Baba Zumbi of Zion I in 2012. \u003ccite>(Pendarvis Harshaw)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Zumbi began releasing music under the Zion I name in 2000 together with DJ and producer Amp Live. Over the next decade and a half, the group released nine full-length albums, plus several mixtapes and collaborations. Amp Live left Zion I in 2015, but the two had reunited this year for an anniversary tour together, scheduled for October. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zumbi was known for weaving a spiritual approach into hip-hop, reflected in his searching, mystical lyrics, and in the title of Zion I’s debut album \u003cem>Mind Over Matter\u003c/em>, which \u003cem>The Source\u003c/em> nominated for Independent Album of the Year in 2000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='pop_28324']Yet Zumbi also understood the streets, as evidenced by \u003cem>Heroes in the City of Dope\u003c/em>, Zion I’s hoodwise 2006 collaboration with The Grouch. Stridently creative and uncomfortable in any box, Zumbi strove for blending different musical styles, notably on the widely varied 2008 album \u003cem>The Take Over\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zumbi was no stranger to the social issues in his music. In 2016, he became a victim of the Bay Area’s housing crisis when he was evicted from his Oakland home, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pop/28324/on-zion-is-tech-a-housing-crisis-turns-personal\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">filmed the video for the song “Tech $” inside his house\u003c/a> as his family packed up belongings into moving boxes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wrote the song out of frustration with trying to find something affordable and being abruptly introduced to skyrocketing rent prices and hordes of people eager to pay,” he told KQED at the time. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13901317\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zunbi.Videoshoot.Horiz_-800x500.jpg\" alt=\"Zumbi of Zion I performs at the video shoot for 'Human Being,' in 2012.\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13901317\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zunbi.Videoshoot.Horiz_-800x500.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zunbi.Videoshoot.Horiz_-1020x638.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zunbi.Videoshoot.Horiz_-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zunbi.Videoshoot.Horiz_-768x480.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zunbi.Videoshoot.Horiz_-1536x960.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zunbi.Videoshoot.Horiz_.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Zumbi of Zion I performs at the video shoot for ‘Human Being,’ in 2012. \u003ccite>(Pendarvis Harshaw)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Two years later, while wrestling with the deaths of his father, his grandmother and a close friend, Zumbi \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/the-reawakening-of-zion-is-baba-zumbi-2-1/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">told the \u003cem>East Bay Express\u003c/em>\u003c/a> that he found strength in tai chi and inspiration from his family, including his three kids. In the recording studio, he said, he’d had an epiphany that his deceased loved ones were there in spirit, supporting him. “Now I can never deny the fact that I know that the spirit world is always present,” he said, “and I always have to acknowledge it from here on out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zumbi loved the Bay Area so much that he wrote an ode to the region, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMmZuKUzeXE\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">The Bay\u003c/a>,” and he performed with, collaborated with, and recorded with countless other Bay Area musicians up until his death. In April, he released “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKzKKxnWX5w\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Try & Try\u003c/a>,” a collaboration with Fantastic Negrito, and over the past summer had played shows with Mac Mall, San Quinn and Equipto.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKzKKxnWX5w\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A prolific live performer who toured regularly, Zumbi had also performed with Shock G from Digital Underground, upon whose death Zumbi \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CN_WWgwLmu1/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">wrote\u003c/a>: “hip-hop is getting rocked left and right… tears stream down my face as I write this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an Instagram post after the death of Biz Markie last month, Zumbi sounded a more somber tone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Feels like an entire generation is leaving us as of late,” he wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Pendarvis Harshaw contributed reporting.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "Steve 'Zumbi' Gaines, Prolific Bay Area MC from Zion I, Dies at Age 49 | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story has been updated. Zumbi’s death has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13901531/lawyers-investigate-death-of-steve-zumbi-gaines-zion-i-mc\">investigated as a homicide\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steve Gaines, the MC known as Baba Zumbi from Bay Area hip-hop group Zion I, has died. KQED spoke with Zumbi’s family and confirmed his death on Friday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family shared a statement with KQED Friday evening:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>It is with utter disbelief and great sadness that the Gaines family shares the news of the passing of Steve “Zumbi” Gaines on Friday, August 13, 2021. Gaines, 49 and the MC of the critically acclaimed hip-hop group Zion I, passed away at Alta Bates Hospital today in the early morning from unknown causes. The family requests privacy in this very challenging time while they await further details.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cem>Steve is survived by three sons, his mother and his brother. He was working on a Zion I reunion tour with longtime producer and collaborator, Amp Live, to honor the legacy of their musical endeavors for their fans.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither Zumbi’s family nor his publicist addressed early reports that he died from complications related to COVID, as initially told to KQED by close friends. Zumbi was said to be hesitant about receiving the COVID vaccine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier Friday, the Los Angeles hip-hop collective Project Blowed \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CSig6tTrDyH/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">posted a statement\u003c/a> from DJ True Justice, a touring DJ for Zion I, saying that Zumbi had been recovering from COVID when “he had a severe asthma attack and his heart stopped. He died in the hospital. They were unable to revive him.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But Berkeley police, who responded to a physical altercation between a patient and hospital staff shortly after 5am on Friday, are now investigating Zumbi’s death. A spokesperson for the Berkeley Police Department \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Police-investigating-death-of-well-known-Bay-Area-16388574.php\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">told the \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em>\u003c/a> that the involved patient was eventually pinned down by hospital security. The spokesperson added that, upon arrival, officers began handcuffing the patient when they determined that he needed immediate medical assistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Police and hospital staff performed livesaving measures, but the patient was unresponsive and pronounced dead at the scene, the spokesperson said. Police dispatch recordings reviewed by KQED identify the patient as Steven Gaines. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13901318\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zumbi.WEB_.Vertical-1020x1427.jpg\" alt=\"Baba Zumbi of Zion I in 2012. \" width=\"640\" height=\"895\" class=\"size-large wp-image-13901318\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zumbi.WEB_.Vertical-1020x1427.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zumbi.WEB_.Vertical-800x1120.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zumbi.WEB_.Vertical-160x224.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zumbi.WEB_.Vertical-768x1075.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zumbi.WEB_.Vertical-1098x1536.jpg 1098w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zumbi.WEB_.Vertical.jpg 1372w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Baba Zumbi of Zion I in 2012. \u003ccite>(Pendarvis Harshaw)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Zumbi began releasing music under the Zion I name in 2000 together with DJ and producer Amp Live. Over the next decade and a half, the group released nine full-length albums, plus several mixtapes and collaborations. Amp Live left Zion I in 2015, but the two had reunited this year for an anniversary tour together, scheduled for October. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zumbi was known for weaving a spiritual approach into hip-hop, reflected in his searching, mystical lyrics, and in the title of Zion I’s debut album \u003cem>Mind Over Matter\u003c/em>, which \u003cem>The Source\u003c/em> nominated for Independent Album of the Year in 2000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Yet Zumbi also understood the streets, as evidenced by \u003cem>Heroes in the City of Dope\u003c/em>, Zion I’s hoodwise 2006 collaboration with The Grouch. Stridently creative and uncomfortable in any box, Zumbi strove for blending different musical styles, notably on the widely varied 2008 album \u003cem>The Take Over\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zumbi was no stranger to the social issues in his music. In 2016, he became a victim of the Bay Area’s housing crisis when he was evicted from his Oakland home, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pop/28324/on-zion-is-tech-a-housing-crisis-turns-personal\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">filmed the video for the song “Tech $” inside his house\u003c/a> as his family packed up belongings into moving boxes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wrote the song out of frustration with trying to find something affordable and being abruptly introduced to skyrocketing rent prices and hordes of people eager to pay,” he told KQED at the time. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13901317\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zunbi.Videoshoot.Horiz_-800x500.jpg\" alt=\"Zumbi of Zion I performs at the video shoot for 'Human Being,' in 2012.\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13901317\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zunbi.Videoshoot.Horiz_-800x500.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zunbi.Videoshoot.Horiz_-1020x638.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zunbi.Videoshoot.Horiz_-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zunbi.Videoshoot.Horiz_-768x480.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zunbi.Videoshoot.Horiz_-1536x960.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/Zunbi.Videoshoot.Horiz_.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Zumbi of Zion I performs at the video shoot for ‘Human Being,’ in 2012. \u003ccite>(Pendarvis Harshaw)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Two years later, while wrestling with the deaths of his father, his grandmother and a close friend, Zumbi \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayexpress.com/the-reawakening-of-zion-is-baba-zumbi-2-1/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">told the \u003cem>East Bay Express\u003c/em>\u003c/a> that he found strength in tai chi and inspiration from his family, including his three kids. In the recording studio, he said, he’d had an epiphany that his deceased loved ones were there in spirit, supporting him. “Now I can never deny the fact that I know that the spirit world is always present,” he said, “and I always have to acknowledge it from here on out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zumbi loved the Bay Area so much that he wrote an ode to the region, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMmZuKUzeXE\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">The Bay\u003c/a>,” and he performed with, collaborated with, and recorded with countless other Bay Area musicians up until his death. In April, he released “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKzKKxnWX5w\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Try & Try\u003c/a>,” a collaboration with Fantastic Negrito, and over the past summer had played shows with Mac Mall, San Quinn and Equipto.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/KKzKKxnWX5w'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/KKzKKxnWX5w'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>A prolific live performer who toured regularly, Zumbi had also performed with Shock G from Digital Underground, upon whose death Zumbi \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CN_WWgwLmu1/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">wrote\u003c/a>: “hip-hop is getting rocked left and right… tears stream down my face as I write this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an Instagram post after the death of Biz Markie last month, Zumbi sounded a more somber tone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Feels like an entire generation is leaving us as of late,” he wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Pendarvis Harshaw contributed reporting.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"id": "baycurious",
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"tagline": "Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time",
"info": "KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.",
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},
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},
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"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
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"order": 8
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"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
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"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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"order": 1
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"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
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"title": "Forum",
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"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 9
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"meta": {
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"source": "WNYC"
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"hidden-brain": {
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
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"source": "NPR"
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"how-i-built-this": {
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"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
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"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"jerrybrown": {
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"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"order": 18
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},
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"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
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"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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