Lately I’ve been trying to fill the Prince-sized whole in my life. I’ve made various mixes, creating killer could-have-been albums. I’ve latched on to new artists hoping to catch a fire in some profound reconfiguration of noises I hadn’t heard before. I’ve tried listening to the worst of his bootlegs in an attempt to draw…
I was commissioned to write an essay commemorating the one year anniversary of Prince’s death for Legacy.com, which I am linking here so they can get their props. Check it out. It’s pretty good, if I say so myself (through a few tears). In short, I still miss my old friend.
If you are, say, thirty-five years of age or older there is a 99% chance that you are no good right now. Not merely sad, but irreparably despondent. Verily, Shakespearean in your grief. Depending on how old or weird or gay or starstruck or black you were in 1984, Purple Rain was either an awakening, a…
On the occasion of the recent death of Malik Izaak Taylor – known worldwide and for all time as Phife Dawg – I honored his passing the way one honors a musician’s death now: playing his music loud and on repeat for at least two days straight, crossing my fingers that no one would be…
In the roiling wake of Beyonce’s new video for “Formation”, I am reminded of a bout of argumentative dissonance I experienced last year when Kendrick Lamar’s record came out. It was an argument I sorely wanted to have, but chose not to publicly. It was loaded with far too much idol worship/hatred, depending on what…
Prince’s success across a wide range of styles is why we’ll be talking about him in a hundred years, but isn’t how most long-standing fans process his persona. Most people know Prince for a few key songs during impressionable points in their lives, or they’re going to. He may have peaked thirty years ago, but…
R&B stinks and everybody knows it. But is it beyond repair? Of course not. Every genre of music that’s gone rancid – and most of them have at some point – is just a few great records away from re-inventing itself (as opposed to just digging out the old tricks that used to work and…
