Jem Aswad-Senior: Last News

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorLike virtually every major rock act in the mid-1970s, the Rolling Stones had become bloated and overblown. After the generation-defining singles of the ‘60s and the stellar string of albums running from “Beggars Banquet” to “Exile on Main Street,” they’d eked out three comparatively uninspired sets that, due to Keith Richards’ formidable heroin addiction and its multiple accompanying legal problems, found Mick Jagger seeking musical foils in guitarist Mick Taylor and then guest keyboardist Billy Preston.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorOne of Kendrick Lamar’s great strengths as a rapper is his ability to acknowledge and criticize his own biases and prejudices and not place himself above the people he’s singling out. It’s a characteristic that appears frequently in his work, particularly on his deep and dense new album, “Mr.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorKendrick Lamar’s fifth solo album, “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers,” finally arrived on Thursday night — his first full-length in five years.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIt’s safe to say that although Italian rock quartet Maneskin were pretty huge in their home country and parts of Europe when they took the Eurovision stage last year, their name recognition and popularity exploded when they won the coveted prize with their song “Zitti E Buoni.” Over the past year, the group has seen their streams, sales and tour itineraries soar, appeared on “Saturday Night Live” and at the Coachella festival — and perhaps most impressive of all, began working with Max Martin, the most successful songwriter-producer of the past 25 years (from Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys to Katy Perry to the Weeknd and Taylor Swift), on their next album.Although the group premiere a new, anti-Putin song called “Gasoline” at Coachella last month, the first fruit of the new partnership arrives tonight: the single “Supermodel,” which drops tonight. While Martin started off as a singer in a hard rock band, this is the first time in many years he’s worked with one — and it’s hard not to notice that the song’s riff owes more than a little to Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” “Yeeepppp,” bassist Victoria De Angelis acknowledges coyly.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorRapper Gunna, who was named Monday with fellow Atlanta rapper Young Thug and dozens of others in a massive gang indictment, was booked into Georgia’s Fulton County jail on Wednesday, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other news outlets.The 28-year-old rapper (real name: Sergio Giavonni Kitchens) is charged with a single count of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act in the 56-count state indictment, which is aimed at alleged members of the Young Slime Life gang — which is similar to the name of Young Thug’s independent label, Young Stoner Life — and includes charges of murder, drug and gun possession, witness intimidation, carjacking, robbery, theft and drug dealing. The indictment includes 28 total defendants affiliated with YSL, and charges them with 56 counts related to gang activity and racketeering; the indictment alleges that Gunna committed felonies including receiving stolen property and drug possession with intent to distribute.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBMG is ramping up its development of new stage musicals in both the U.S., with its first production “Punk Rock Girl!,” and in Germany, following the successful run of its first musical, “Ku’damm 56.”“Punk Rock Girl!” is the debut developmental theatrical production from BMG in the U.S., in partnership with New York-based theatrical company Lively McCabe Entertainment. It features a score of songs written and made famous by female artists and female-fronted bands from the BMG catalog, including Blondie, P!nk, Avril Lavigne, Pat Benatar and Sleater-Kinney, along with the title song, the Dead Milkmen’s 1988’s “Punk Rock Girl”; the full tracklist appears below.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBob Dylan’s share of the Traveling Wilburys has been acquired by Primary Wave Music — an asset that most people probably did not realize was not included in the Nobel Prize-winning artist’s nine-figure deals with Universal Music Publishing and Sony Music.Dylan’s master royalties and neighboring rights royalties for both of the group’s albums, as well as a 2007 box set, are included in the deal. Terms were not disclosed.The Wilburys were a supergroup comprised of Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison, and released two albums filled with lighthearted, not-too-serious songs in contrast to their usually weighty work.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorRed Hot Chili Peppers, P!nk, the Chicks, Kacey Musgraves, SZA, Flume, Paramore, and Lil Nas X are the headliners for the 2022 Austin City Limits Music Festival, along with performances from Phoenix (weekend two only), PinkPanthress, Wet Leg (weekend two only), Diplo, Zhu, Lil Durk (weekend one only), Billy Strings, James Blake (weekend one only), Jazmine Sullivan, the War on Drugs, Spoon, Sabrina Claudio and many more. The nine-stage, two-weekend event will take place October 7-9 and October 14-16, 2022, at Zilker Park in Austin.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSean “Diddy” Combs has announced the launch of a new R&B label called Love Records via a deal with Motown Records. According to the announcement, the new label “will be dedicated to R&B music and will release singles and collaborative projects from a collective of world-class artists, producers and songwriters.” Also according to the announcement, today’s news marks Combs’ official return to music.An album by Diddy himself will be Love Records’ first project, set to be released this summer.“Music has always been my first love, Love Records is the next chapter is about getting back to the love and making the best music of my life,” said Combs (pictured above, left). “For the label I’m focused on creating timeless R&B music with the next generation of artists and producers.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorRepublic Records has announced the promotion of Chris Blackwell to EVP of A&R and Content Strategy, as announced today by label president Wendy Goldstein.According to the announcement, in this new role, Blackwell will continue to shepherd the creation and development of content for the entire Republic Records roster. Additionally, he will work with new artists to identify and maximize content opportunities at the onset of their careers. Blackwell played a major role in Coi Leray’s rise by producing her viral “Cooking With Coi Leray,” and also collaborated with Ka$hdami, Lil Wayne, Benee and Kash Doll on upcoming programming.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIt took a village to create Kendrick Lamar’s mind-melting new video for his song “The Heart Part 5,” which on the surface is just him performing in front of a red backdrop until you realize that his face deepfakes into those of OJ Simpson, Jussie Smollett, Nipsey Hussle, Kobe Bryant and Kanye West (who, ironically, himself dropped a video the same day using deepfake technology).While the video was directed and executive produced by Lamar and longtime collaborator Dave Free and features a host of creative collaborators (listed below), the deep fake is credited to Deep Voodoo, a studio launched by “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone to specialize in the technology — and the “The Heart Part 5” video appears to be the first fruit of a partnership between Lamar’s PGLang company and the “South Park” founders’ Park County banner to produce a new feature film for Paramount Pictures. (While Lamar, Parker, Stone and reps for PG Lang and Deep Voodoo all declined Variety’s requests for an interview about.) The Deep Voodoo studio — the name of which almost certainly was chosen in part for its phonic similarity to the term “deep doodoo” — made its first major splash late in 2020 with “Sassy Justice,” a spoof of a television investigative report on deep fakes done in collaboration with actor Peter Serafinowicz.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorA series of wildly colorful posters with an unusual collection of artists have appeared in London in recent days, listing Diana Ross and Tame Impala across the top, along with Phoebe Bridgers, St. Vincent, Thundercat, Brockhampton, Caroline Polacheck, RZA, Brittany Howard, Bleachers, Tierra Whack, Weyes Blood, Kali Uchis, H.E.R.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorKendrick Lamar dropped his first new solo single in nearly four years on Sunday night, called “The Heart Part 5.” The song arrives just days before the long-awaited release of his fifth solo album, “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers” on May 13.The song’s video begins with Lamar rapping by himself in front of a red screen, but occasionally has the faces of other rappers and controversial public figures photoshopped over his: Kanye West, Nipsey Hussle, Will Smith, Kobe Bryant, OJ Simpson and Jussie Smollett are six that we noticed after one screening.  Lamar unveiled the long-awaited “Mr.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorUniversal Music’s share of Todd Moscowitz’s Alamo Records was acquired by Sony Music Entertainment for around $125 million, with a total purchase of between $188 million and $225 million, according to Universal’s recent earnings report and an educated estimate by Music Business Worldwide published Thursday.The company, which was founded as a joint venture with Universal Music Group by the former 300, Warner Music and Def Jam exec in 2016, has been on a hot streak in recent years with Blackbear, Lil Durk and Rod Wave. Sources told Variety at the time that there was a buy/sell negotiation in the months leading up and UMG opted to walk away.While some sources at the time of the June 2021 deal put the sale price at $250 million, MBW spied an item in Universal Music Group‘s recently-issued annual fiscal report stating that Sony Music paid €102 million (around $123 million, which MBW rounded up to $125 million) to buy UMG’s interest in Alamo, which was presumably 50%, with Moscowitz owning the other half.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorCamila Cabello will host a benefit concert on Sunday, May 8, to announce the launch of her “Protect All Kids” Fund.This emergency fund, established in partnership with Equality Florida and Lambda Legal to protect students and families from Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” law, will also provide resources to impacted students, teachers, and families. The launch event will be held at private venue in West Hollywood and will also include special performances by RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant Valentina, transgender singer Shea Diamond and a local youth choir.“As someone who grew up and still lives in Florida, I am appalled that my home state is putting the health and lives of young Floridians at risk by passing this law and inviting discrimination into our schools.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorLos Angeles-based Saudi-Arabian/American singer-rapper-producer $kinny has released his new album, “Have a Nice Trip,” which was executive produced by Swizz Beatz, on Universal Arabic Music.The album features his new single “Salam” with Swizz Beatz and French Montana, the video for which also dropped today (pictured above at the video shoot, L-R, are Swizz, UAM CEO Wassim “Sal” Slaiby, $kinny and Montana).$kinny grew up in Los Angeles as the child of an American mom and Saudi-Arabian dad, and his music is germane to both cultures. Swizz Beatz has been spending a lot of time in the Middle East in recent years, and the match was easy.“It’s crazy, Swizz and I made ‘Salam’ the day we met,” $kinny tells Variety.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorLive Nation Entertainment posted the best first quarter in its history this year, according to financial results released Thursday for the quarter ended March 31, 2022.“Momentum has picked up for all of our businesses over the course of the first quarter, and as a result, we delivered financial performance that greatly surpassed our previous expectations, with operating income of $27 million and [adjusted operating income] of $209 million,” CEO Michael Rapino said in a statement accompanying the results. “Artists are back on the road and fan demand has never been stronger, a reflection that live events remain a clear priority for consumers as our social lives restart.”The company’s AOI of $209 million topped the previous record, Q1 of 2019, by $94 million, and was $361 million better than 2021 — when the industry had not yet begun to emerge from the pandemic — with a boost of $269 million in ticketing, $66 million in sponsorship and $26 million in concerts.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorJust two weeks before the release of his “Harry’s House” third solo album, Harry Styles has announced the dates for “Love on Tour 2022.”Coming off of a sold out 42-date arena tour in 2021 and two special “One Night Only” shows in New York and London, the 2022 tour works the “Harry’s House” theme by turning arenas in New York, Los Angeles (10 nights each), Chicago, Austin (5 nights each) and Toronto (2 nights) into Harry’s de facto house.Produced by Live Nation, the tour kicks off on Monday, August 15th and Tuesday, August 16th at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, ON. Styles will continue his residencies in New York City for ten nights at Madison Square Garden, Austin for five nights at Moody Center, and Chicago for five nights at United Center, before wrapping up at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum for 10 night run concluding on Tuesday, November 15th.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorR&B star and former Fifth Harmony member Normani has inked a global publishing deal with Hipgnosis Songs Group — but the most eye-grabbing news in the announcement comes toward the end: “Normani has confirmed new music and a larger body of work is on the way.”Fans have been impatiently awaiting new material from the singer for years, and the announcement of a publishing deal often means (although does not guarantee) that its release is relatively imminent. She was named Collaborator of the Year at Variety‘s Hitmakers event in December.The deal includes all of the future works by Normani, a six-time BMI Award winning songwriter.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorPearl Jam paid tribute to the late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins on the opening night of their “Gigaton” tour in singer Eddie Vedder’s hometown of San Diego on Tuesday night.Before performing “Quick Escape” at the city’s Viejas Arena Vedder paid homage to drummer Matt Cameron’s friendship with Hawkins, who died in Columbia while the Foos were on tour, and added a personal touch as well.“[Hawkins] emitted something very incredible and very special,” Vedder said to the audience, before turning to Cameron and saying, “We’re all missing him, and so, Matt, I’m sorry again for your loss. But it just gives us another chance to say how much we appreciate you as well.” Cameron and Hawkins formed a side ban called the Nighttime Boogie Association in 2020 after both took part in a tribute concert for the late Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell in 2019.On Sunday night, the  Red Hot Chili Peppers honored Hawkins as well, at Jazz Fest in New Orleans on Sunday while frontman Dave Grohl, Hawkins’ widow Alison, and other members of the Foo Fighters looked on from the wings.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorNot a moment too soon, the #iVoted Festival, which drew a massive audience for its 2020 digital concert, is back for the 2022 midterms and has revealed its initial lineup, which includes Run the Jewels, Lake Street Dive, CNCO, Carl Craig, Rise Against, Umphrey’s McGee and loads more.The festival will take place virtually on Election Day: November 8th.Fans RSVP to access the Mandolin hosted stream with a selfie from outside their polling place or at home with their blank and unmarked ballot. Underage fans RSVP by letting #iVoted Festival know what year’s election they will be 18 for and why they’re excited to vote.