Coachella 2012 has been announced and the three-day music festival looks quite promising. Day one’s stacked with artists with The Black Keys headlining the show. Pulp, Arctic Monkeys, Frank Ocean, Radiohead, A$AP Rocky, Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg and several others will be filling in the slots for the overall show. Coachella will be held from April 13th to 15th and April 20th to 22nd in Indio, CA. Full-res flyer is below.
Frank Ocean gives us a snippet of an upcoming release, dubbed “4 Tears”. “I just listened to this a few times for myself. Figured maybe some else needed to hear it.” As you can tell, we’re itching from some new music from FO, this will hold us off for a few days. If that.
As promised, Canadian artist The Weeknd has released his third mix tape before the holiday weekend — “Echoes of Silence”. Nine tracks on this one and from the ones we’ve listened to thus far, we can only hope The Weeknd’s first official album is as good. Tracklist and download link below. Happy Holidays, folks.
Here’s episode two of VOYR’s series which gives us a behind the scenes look at Kanye West and Jay-Z’s Watch The Throne tour. This time, Kanye leads the way as he takes a trip down memory lane, visiting his old neigbhorhood and highlighting a few memories in the process.
Common, the 39-year-old hip-hop veteran slash actor slash writer has had an exceptional 2011 to say the least. It’s been mostly a turning of a new leaves as he’s explored new avenues like authoring a book — his memoir, One Day It’ll All Make Sense — and even landing a role on AMC TV show Hell On Wheels. Beyond all the new, the Chicago-bred artist stays in touch with his old self with the release of his upcoming album, The Dreamer, The Believer. Slated for a December 20th release, the album features appearances by fellow Chi-Town native John Legend, Nas and an original work by Maya Angelou. Common even takes a shot at the soft-sounding works of contemporaries with a new song called “Sweet”.
Interview Magazine spoke to Common about the track, Hell on Wheels, and his memories of living with his late colleague, celebrated producer J Dilla. A few notable excerpts can be found below with the full feature available at Interview Magazine.
Apple has released iTunes 10.5.1 which brings along a few minor fixes but also gives users access to iTunes Match, a feature in iTunes that users can subscribe to for $24.99 annually. It’s listed as a beta feature, and beta subscribers are warned that their iCloud libraries will be deleted at the end of the beta. To thank beta testers for their participation, Apple is offering them an additional three months on their subscription.
As part of their Music Issue, GQ Magazine has released some really amazing content as part of The Survivors series. The feature highlights music legends and legends in the making. The list is pretty reputable with the likes of Keith Richards, Eminem, Lil’ Wayne, and a few other selects making the list. The content is rich and is available now online ahead of the spread in GQ’s November 2011 issue. Check the teaser below.
News of Jay-Z releasing The Blueprint in a limited edition, numbered vinyl set to mark the album’s 10th anniversary broke early last week. I was so busy grabbing one for myself that I didn’t even think to turn you all to it. “My bad” on this one. Fear not, it’s still in stock on Jay’s online store on Live Nation. Each one is individually numbered and limited to 2001 sets.
The music video for Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Otis just premiered on MTV and you can check it out below in case you haven’t peeped it. Watch The Throne is an epic album and this is one heck of a video. Directed by Spike Jonze. Just one thing — What the heck is Aziz Ansari doing? Comedic relief FTW!
If you pre-ordered Jay-Z & Kanye West’s Watch The Throne album through www.watchthethrone.com, you’ve probably already gotten a link to the download. The highly anticipated album is now available through iTunes as well. The Deluxe version features 4 bonus tracks. The hard copy drops on the 12th but digital’s reigning supreme right now. In the modern digital era, Watch The Throne may be the first major album to not leak before its release date. I’m almost done going through my first complete listen of WTT and I’ve been thoroughly impressed.
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