Public Enemy’s Chuck D Sells Catalog to Reach Music Publishing

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Def Jam Recordings has entered into an exclusive worldwide joint venture partnership agreement with the Lagos, Nigeria and UK-based Native Records. The announcement was made by Def Jam chairman/CEO Tunji Balogun and Seni “Chubbz” Saraki and Teni “Teezee” Zaccheaus, co-presidents and co-founders of Native Networks. Native Records is the music division of Native Networks, a black-owned and operated, multi-platform, multi-disciplinary media and content company “dedicated to the discovery and development of young African artists and youth culture” via its Native print and digital magazine, its Nativeland festivals and more, according to the announcement. Founded in 2016 by Saraki and Zaccheaus with Shola Fagbemi, Addy Edgal and Suleiman Shittu, the label has been a driving force in the Afrobeats movement.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor When YouTube chief business officer Robert Kyncl announced late last month that he’ll be leaving the company after 12 years in the job, many observers quickly moved him to the front of the line to replace outgoing Warner Music CEO Steve Cooper, who’d announced just two months earlier that he’ll be stepping down after 11 years in the job. After all, Kyncl knows the music industry  — YouTube is both the world’s largest video-streaming platform and the largest music-streaming platform, and he played a huge role in its negotiations with labels and publishers and generally received high marks (remarkably, considering the often-contentious relations between the two sides). He’s also pioneering force in the streaming business: Before he was chief business officer of YouTube, he led Netflix from DVDs to digital, a transition that was much more complex and fraught with potential failure than he and the company made it seem.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Though she’s just 22, Noah Cyrus has seen some stuff. As Miley’s younger sister, her music and acting careers launched early — at 16 and 2 (!), respectively — and she released several pop-leaning singles and EPs during her teens, opened an arena tour for Katy Perry in 2017 and was even nominated for a Best New Artist Grammy in 2021. On the less positive side, there was substance abuse, a bad relationship and lockdown isolation — but she overcame all of it, and that battle informs nearly every song on “The Hardest Part,” her long-percolating debut album, which sees her truly finding her voice in a way that her previous recordings only hinted at. Surprisingly or no, the Nashville native did it by returning home, musically speaking. Although her main collaborators here are Northern Irish producer Mike Crossey (Arctic Monkeys, the 1975) and Australian songwriter PJ Harding (Chromeo, Ruel), the sound is country-leaning, heavy on harmonies, organic instrumentation and Music Row-friendly melodies; its big, stacked harmonies recall everything from the Chicks to Boygenius.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Considering their short lifespan and relatively slim discography, the Velvet Underground may be the most thoroughly excavated and documented rock band of their era: Nearly every studio and concert recording, acetate and demo has been scrutinized, digitized and optimized for the many awesome boxed sets that have been released since the world caught up with the group’s brilliance in the 1980s, a dozen-odd years after they split up. The foundation of that brilliance, of course, is Lou Reed’s songwriting, which combines a novelist’s gritty realism with equally confrontational rock music, but also includes soft, vulnerable songs like “Pale Blue Eyes” and “I’ll Be Your Mirror” — songs that are all the more poignant because you can sense, somehow, that the sensitive soul who wrote them isalso kind of an asshole.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor The first thing to know before seeing “Moonage Daydream,” Brett Morgen’s dazzling, exhaustive and exhausting memoir of David Bowie’s life and career, is that it assumes the viewer already knows a lot about the subject — his relevance, his influence, the brilliance of so much of his music, and the basics of his personal history. Like another recent historical film about an oft-trodden subject — Todd Haynes’ “The Velvet Underground” — it eschews the standard, chronological, done-to-death “Behind the Music”-style template that has become a predictable default for music documentaries and finds a dramatically different way to tell the story. In the case of “Moonage Daydream” — the significance of the second word of the title in this impressionistic film cannot be overemphasized — that different way is to let the man himself do all of the talking: Literally the only voiceovers heard in this 135-minute-long film are from Bowie (presenting real or conveniently fictionalized accounts of his life and work) and various interviewers. While that makes for an unusually free-form approach to structuring a documentary (and was enormously challenging for Morgen, who worked on the film for over four years and suffered a heart attack while doing it), in many ways it’s freeing: Instead of a rigid timeline or forced, overarching theme dictating the narrative, Bowie’s words do.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Rina Sawayama is one of a handful of artists who released an album just as the pandemic was beginning and watched, astonished, as their stars rose during lockdown. The Japanese-British singer’s debut, “Sawayama,” was a wild fusion of Lady Gaga with nu-metal guitars, but also showed a penchant for sentimental ballads amid the power chords and intensity. The album won a co-sign from none other than Elton John, and its videos got her cast in the fourth installment of Keanu Reeves’ “John Wick” series, due in March. In fact, Elton was one of many people who spoke out against Sawayama’s exclusion from eligibility for England’s BRIT and Mercury awards because she isn’t a U.K. citizen, even though she’s lived in England since the age of 5. After #SawayamaIsBritish became a trending topic on Twitter, the British Phonographic Industry changed the eligibility rules to include anyone who lived in the country for at least five years, including her.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor While the title of the “world’s greenest music festival” may be impossible to determine with total accuracy, Norway’s long-running Øya is as close as it gets. The festival — which has featured Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Robyn, Lana Del Rey, the Cure and hundreds of Norwegian acts since it launched in 1999 — has been named an “Outstanding” honoree by the international non-profit A Greener Festival nine out of the last 10 years the awards were held, and is certified as an “Environmental Lighthouse” by the Norwegian foundation of the same name. In 2010, it even received an honorary award from Norway’s minister of agriculture for its work in promoting organic food. 

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Michelle Branch appeared on the “Tamron Hall Show” Thursday to address her recent martial problems with her husband, the Black Keyes’ Patrick Carney, which saw her arrested for domestic disturbance. “They are not allegations,” she told Hall, according to Rolling Stone. “Violence — I don’t condone violence. I slapped my husband. Not the finest moment of my life.” The singer said several factors contributed to the incident, including postpartum depression and having had “a few drinks” at a friend’s birthday party. Branch, 39, and Carney, 42, married in 2019; their son was born the previous year and their daughter this past February. Branch filed for divorce on Aug. 12, citing irreconcilable differences.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor There’s a good chance that you’ve never heard the name Richard Gottehrer — but there’s an equally good chance that if you’re even a casual music fan, you know something, or several things, he’s done very well. As a songwriter in the early ‘60s, he co-wrote such hits as “I Want Candy,” “My Boyfriend’s Back” and “Sorrow.” As a producer, he helmed classic albums by Blondie, the Go-Go’s, Richard Hell, Joan Armatrading, the Raveonettes and the Dum Dum Girls among many others. As an artist, he formed a short-lived group called the Strangeloves with songwriting/producing partners Jerry Goldstein and Bob Feldman that nonetheless racked up several hit singles (including the original “I Want Candy”). As an executive, he co-founded Sire Records with Seymour Stein in 1966, and 30 years later, he co-founded the Orchard with Scott Cohen. Now owned by Sony Music, that company is one of the world’s largest distributors of independent music.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor YouTube, the world’s largest streaming platform for music, announced that it has paid more than $6 billion to the music industry in the 12 months between July 2021 and June 2022 — some $2 billion more than it said it paid in the previous 12 months. Like last year, the announcement comes in the form of a blog post from the platform’s head of music, Lyor Cohen. While short on specifics, the post does outline some of the contributing factors. “We want our twin engine of ads and subscriptions to be the #1 contributor of revenue to the industry by 2025,” Cohen wrote. “That’s why YouTube is monetizing all music formats (short & long form video, audio tracks, Live, etc.), on all platforms (desktop, tablet, mobile, and TV), in over 100 countries. And overall watch time of music content on YouTube across desktop, tablet, mobile, and TV continues to grow year over year.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Harry Styles has announced that he is partnering with non-partisan voter-engagement organization HeadCount in an effort to inspire his U.S fans to check their voter registration status and vote in this year’s midterm elections — and he’s throwing in a free trip to his legendary “Harryween” Halloween concert as an incentive.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Grammy-winning producer-songwriters Hit-Boy and James Fauntleroy have signed on as  co-executive producers and the sonic creative team for the “NFT supergroup” Kingship. Together, the pair will work with Arnell, Kingship’s “Mutant DJ and Producer,” to oversee the group’s music direction and sound.  “I’m always looking to push things forward musically,” said Hit-Boy, who has worked with Beyonce, Rihanna, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West and many others, “and this is a great opportunity to do something new in the web3 space.” Fauntleroy, who’s collaborated with Beyonce, Rihanna, Drake, Nipsey Hussle and others, added, “It’s so exciting to be a part of something historical and ambitious. As a huge nerd, and music fanatic, I can’t wait to see what comes from the intersection of the web3 collectors/creatives and the entertainment creative community.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor YouTube’s royalty system has long been criticized by multiple music-industry organizations for opaqueness, a lack of oversight and, many feel, insufficient payments. But a new report in Billboard makes a number of detailed allegations, supported by claims from a number of unnamed sources, who say that YouTube — which is the single largest streaming service for music in the world — has a rights-management system that is “full of errors” and “ripe for abuse,” and claim that Create Music Group, which initially established itself as a royalty-collection service for music companies, frequently collected royalties to which it is not entitled. Create co-founder Jonathan Strauss categorically denied those claims, and said the company’s claims are always guided by its clients’ deals — “CMG does not input or remove shares without authorization.” In a statement to Variety, a rep for Create said: “At Create Music Group we work tirelessly to ensure that our clients, independent artists and labels, receive all of the revenue that they are entitled to. We take that responsibility very seriously. We unequivocally deny, however, the assertion made in the Billboard article by our competitors that we “game the system,” and the data proves this out. More than 90% of the conflicts created by our competitors, over 26,000 in all, have been settled in our favor. We follow both the letter and spirit of the rules YouTube has set up for our industry and are very proud of our track record in this regard.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Amid the series of bombshells about her family, her conservatorship and business managers Britney Spears has dropped on her Instagram account, on Sunday she posted a lengthy message in which she says that she will “probably never perform again.” After writing about the lack of creative control she was allowed during her conservatorship, particularly with music videos and photographers, she took aim at her father and former conservator, Jamie Spears. “…[T]he most offensive SO CALLED professional pictures on every tour,” she said. “I mean they could have at least cheated and retouched them for me … just saying … 2 day shoots for new show in Vegas literally the worst ever … and me excited for the pictures for 5 months on tour … they never showed me any. I’d rather quit shit in my pool and shoot photos of myself in studios over working with the most offensive people in my life.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor If the past few years and months have proven one thing, it’s the importance of voting in the United States. While Census Bureau’s estimates confirmed that 2020 voter turnout was the highest in nearly 30 years — 66.8%, 5 points higher than 2016 — the forthcoming midterm elections, which traditionally have much lower turnout than presidential ones, are vitally important as well. In that spirit, Lizzo, who released her stellar second major label album “Special” over the summer, has joined forces with the nonprofit, non-partisan voter-engagement organization HeadCount to encourage her fans to get out to the polls and make their voices heard this election season.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor For all the uproar it caused 45 years ago, for all the controversy and outrage, it’s hard in retrospect not to see the Sex Pistols’ world-changing single “God Save the Queen” for what it was: Rebellious young people with a Svengali-like manager trying to be shocking (and succeeding). Deliberately released the week before the Silver Jubilee, a major national celebration observing her 25 years as on the throne, the song was just a loud raspberry (and, not incidentally, a stone-cold rock and roll classic). They didn’t really believe the Queen wasn’t a human being or led a fascist regime, whatever issues they might have had with the concept of royalty. And while the group’s singer and lyricist, John Lydon a.k.a. Rotten, certainly had issues with the institution of monarchy (and has had other issues in recent years, leaning conservative and voicing support for both Donald Trump and Brexit), he said in a commentary this past June that he never had one with the Queen or the royal family.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Hours after Queen Elizabeth II’s death at the age of 96 was announced on Thursday, Elton John — who enjoyed the closest relationship with the Royal Family of any music artist — paid tribute at his concert in Toronto. “We have the saddest news about the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth,” he said. “She was an inspiring person to be around — I’ve been around her and she was fantastic. She led the country though some of our greatest and darkest moments with grace, decency and a genuine care and warmth. “I’m almost 75 — she’s been with me all my life and I feel very sad that she won’t be with me anymore. But I’m glad she’s at peace, and I’m glad she’s at rest, and she deserves it because she’s worked bloody hard,” he continued as the audience cheered.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Busta Rhymes received the Icon award, Megan Thee Stallion and Christopher “YC” Pearson were named songwriters of the year and Justin Beiber’s “Peaches” was song of the year at the BMI R&B/Hip-Hop Awards, held at Miami’s LIV nightclub on Wednesday night. Other top honors went to Sony Music Publishing as publisher of the year and Silk Sonic/ Drake/ H.E.R. collaborator Dernst “D’Mile” Emile was named producer of the year. The event, which recognizes the top producers and songwriters of the previous year’s 35 best-performing R&B/hip-hop songs in the U.S., was hosted by BMI President and CEO Mike O’Neill and Vice President of Creative (Atlanta) Catherine Brewton. (Pictured above, L-R: O’Neill, Busta Rhymes, DJ Khaled, Brewton and Khaled’s wife, Nicole Tuck.)

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Shortly after the death of Queen Elizabeth II was announced on Thursday, Elton John, who has had a close relationship with the Royal Family for the past several decades, posted a heartfelt remembrance on his social media accounts. “Along with the rest of the nation, I am deeply saddened to hear the news of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s passing. She was an inspiring presence to be around and led the country through some of our greatest and darkest moments with grace, decency and a genuine caring warmth. “Queen Elizabeth has been a huge part of my life from childhood to this day, and I will miss her dearly,” he concluded. Indeed, John was 4 years old when Elizabeth ascended to the crown in 1952.