The rock world is in a state of deep mourning for Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley, who died Thursday following a fall at his home. “We are devastated by the passing of Ace Frehley,” Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley said in a joint statement. “He was an essential and irreplaceable rock …
Read More »'Everything in Our Lives Was Traumatic': Tupac Shakur's Early Years in Baltimore
The story of Tupac Shakur has been told many times since his tragic death at just 25 following a drive-by shooting in 1996. Yet a life so big and complicated is always ripe for further exploration. Jeff Pearlman’s new biography, Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac …
Read More »Gracie Abrams Grew Up Listening to Cyndi Lauper. Here's What Happened When They Met
F orty-two years ago, Cyndi Lauper told the world that “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” on her debut single. And right now, she’s sitting in a north Brooklyn studio with Gracie Abrams and doing just that. They’re bopping their heads to Rickie Lee Jones’ “The Last Chance Texaco” and …
Read More »Farewell, Ace Frehley: The Kiss Spaceman Who Plugged Us In and Kept Us High
The world is pouring out some cold gin for the late, great Ace Frehley, the guitar spaceman of Kiss. Frehley died last night from complications after a fall, at 74. He summed up the archetypal Seventies guitar hero if anyone did — the space cadet from the planet Jendell. He …
Read More »Todd Snider Stares Down Pain: 'I Don't Think I'm Going to Get Better'
Todd Snider is in pain. And fans hoping to catch the gritty, live-it-to-the-hilt storyteller in person would be wise to catch the full-band tour he is launching at the end of October in support of High, Lonesome and Then Some, his just released new album. After more than three decades …
Read More »Jack Antonoff and Hayley Williams on the Joy (and Drama) of Being in a Band
O ne day in 2013, Jack Antonoff was sitting in a car in Los Angeles with his friend Hayley Williams when he decided to play her a new song. Back then, Antonoff was best known as a member of the band Fun., and he hoped to release the track, “I …
Read More »Big L and Nas Connect on Lead Single from 'Harlem's Finest: Return of the King'
The first single from Big L’s posthumous Harlem’s Finest: Return of the King album is here. Today, Mass Appeal released “u aint gotta chance,” pairing Big L’s bars from a 1997 freestyle with a fiery verse from Nas. The song, gradually crafted by seven people, is the first glimpse of …
Read More »Photographer Eric Johnson Remembers Cruising New York With D'Angelo
O n Oct. 14, the iconic singer D’Angelo died of pancreatic cancer at 51. Tributes and recollections of the Brown Sugar, Voodoo, and Black Messiah artist poured in from all over the world, including from legendary photographer Eric Johnson, who posted never-before-seen pictures he took of the soulman in the …
Read More »Anthony Hamilton on What He Learned From D'Angelo: 'I'm Grateful'
Two weeks ago, Anthony Hamilton’s phone rang with a call from an old friend. D’Angelo, the visionary soul artist who died Oct. 14, was reaching out for one last conversation with the singer whom he lovingly called Ant-eezy. “By the time I got to the phone and realized it was …
Read More »Gucci Mane Explains How His Infamous Ice Cream Tattoo Was 'A Cry for Help' in New Memoir
In the late 2000s into the 2010s, Alabama-born, Atlanta-bred rapper Gucci Mane was at the height of his popularity. He performed the iconic party song “Wasted” at the BET Awards in the fall of 2009. That winter, his sixth studio album The State vs. Radric Davis topped the charts, and …
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