When The Inc. started to cave under pressure from CEO Irv Gotti's federal money-laundering case in 2005, many Inc. artists seemed to duck and cover – but Lloyd stayed busy. The 22-year-old New Orleans native sprinkled his feathery vocals on hooks for 8Ball and MJG, Young Jeezy and Rick Ross, and leveraged his relationships with various DJs to help “You,” featuring Lil Wayne, become one of 2007’s hugest hits. Along with the slinky second single, “Get It Shawty,” Lloyd catapulted into the “TRL” stratosphere, and Street Lovewent gold. Rhapsody caught up with Lloyd, eager to follow up on last year’s success, while in New York promoting “How We Do It in the A,” featuring Ludacris, the first single from his upcoming as-yet-untitled third album.
As you can see from the album art for her newest full-length, New Amerykah, Erykah Badu has a lot of things on her mind. And as you can see from her fabulous video for "Honey," what's on her mind is music. So we decided to check out how she made this Amerykhan quilt and, more specifically, the diverse fabric of sounds woven through it.
This working-class lullaby remains one of our favorites from the quietly celebrated Canadian songwriter.The swan song from Sarah Harmer's debut is as simple as they get -- only an acoustic guitar and her horse whisper gently griping about "all those poor bastards, [who] gotta go to work."
On Monday, February 25, songwriter Stephen "Static" Garret died of an apparent brain aneurysm, robbing pop music of one its most articulate and sensitive voices, even if his own voice was rarely heard.
Despite the formidable presence of former Airplane member Jack Casady on bass, San Francisco's SVT got lost in the gap when mid-'80s new wave was waning but hard rock hadn't yet found an audience. "Heart of Stone" is a taut, melodic slice of rock that should have propelled this band to fame and fortune.
Even in election years, the music-and-politics story isn’t always about the soundtrack of the campaign trail. Sometimes it’s about the soundtrack behind the DMZ.
The New York Philharmonic Orchestra made news this week by traveling to North Korea to play what turned out to be a historic, internationally televised concert in Pyongyang on Tuesday. The visit took on both ambassadorial and artistic trappings. The trip was the first-ever to North Korea by an American cultural organization, and included the biggest delegation of Americans to visit the country since the end of the Korean War in 1953. It also included a Wednesday morning rehearsal during which members of the Philharmonic and the Orchestra’s musical director Lorin Maazel played with the State Symphony Orchestra of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, allowing for historic interaction between groups of people who may as well be ghosts to one another. (It may be the first of many: if reports of continued cultural exchange are to be believed, classic rock/blues legend Eric Clapton may be following the Phil to play for and with the North Koreans.)
New York's Pete Rock is one of
hip-hop’s most influential and respected artists. The Long Island native got his
start in radio, during hip-hop’s “golden age,” working alongside the legendary
producer Marley Marl on the beloved radio show, In Control. In the early '90s, he reinvented
the art of hip-hop sampling with his classic albums (Mecca & The Soul
Brother and The Main Ingredient) with emcee C.L. Smooth. Since then, he’s worked
with nearly every major emcee to come out of NYC in the past two decades, and
he’s been cited as an influence by everyone from Kanye West to Pharrell Williams.
His recent release, NY’s Finest,
proves that he’s still got it. Appearing on this latest showcase of Rock’s beat
acumen is a cast of emcees that includes Wu-Tang Clan, Little Brother and Papoose. Rhapsody recently got the legendary producer’s opinion on a variety of topics.
Leave it to David Byrne to pull of a feel-good piano ballad about how awesome it might be to die. His vision of the appealing, repetitive monotony of the afterlife could break your heart if you let it. “When this kiss is over, we’ll start again. It will not be any different, it’ll be exactly the same.”
What’s new? What’s good? What will you find here that you won't hear
anywhere else this week? Sit back, relax and click through to the
premieres, the originals and the exclusives available only on
Rhapsody! This week:
Kelley Polar, I Need You to Hold on While the Sky Is Falling (Streaming Premiere) Beach Boys harmonies, lush string arrangements (courtesy of a Juilliard education), bubbling synth work and a deep disco jones, Kelley Polar's second full-length will keep all us Chicken Littles happy for a while. An elegant and sensual collection.
The Afters, Never Going Back to OK (Rhapsody Exclusive) This prayer and amplifier-friendly troupe hail from Texas, but its hyperactive power-pop has roots in the Brit-pop of the '90s. Songs like "Tonight" and the bittersweet title track are reminiscent of U.K. rockers like Stereophonics and Coldplay.
Nick Lowe, legendary solo artist and acclaimed producer (Elvis Costello) stopped by our offices recently to perform a couple of his power-pop nuggets. Check out an acoustic version of "People Change" from his 2007 album, At My Age, above, and check out a beautiful take on his classic "Without Love" after the jump.
