Eric Gasa

Quality Control Music / Motown Records / Capitol Records

The first salvo from Migos’ upcoming album Culture 2, is gritty, raunchy, saucy fun from 2017’s hottest hip-hop super group. On “MotorSport” the trio enlist Nicki Minaj and chart-topping powerhouse Cardi B. Tabloids may have rumored a feud between Minaj and Cardi but on “MotorSport” any signs of rivalry fall to the wayside as the two dominate the track with their monster verses. Migos’ name may be on the single cover, but “MotorSport” belongs to the ladies.

Cardi’s gruff flow erupts with steamy verses about sex tapes and her best Daddy Yankee impression (“dame mas gasolina!”) while she buries her hatchet with Minaj: “Why would I hop in some beef?/When I could just hop in a Porsche?/You heard she gon’ do what from who?/That’s not a reliable source, no.”

Minaj resumes the throne as usual with her iconic inflection and aggressive flow. Fresh from guest verses on Katy Perry’s awkward last record, Minaj sounds at home on “MotorSport”. Here she’s prowling, scheming, calling shots from the center of the track. Though lyrical bravado, Minaj’s verses carry some serious stopping power (“My crown won’t fit on your bum lace fronts.”) Minaj may be with new company, but she hasn’t lost the pink pint, “Pull up in the space coupe, I done linked with Marty/I can actually afford to get a pink Bugatti.”

At its core, “MotorSport” is a ballsy, swaggering song. It checks off every credential for a Migos track: fast cars, fast sex, and fast ladies. But here, the Georgia trio take a backseat to the two queens facing off on the song. Even if “MotorSport” feels like more of the same thing from Migos it’s still a monumental single for bringing the two greatest female MCs of our time together. If Culture 2 can pull off more moments like this then we are sure to see one of the premier hip hop releases of 2017.

Migos have yet to announce a release date for Culture 2, though Offset hints that the record will be out by the end of this year. This new album is the follow up to Migo’s massively popular sophomore record, Culture, which debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 and featured smash hit single “Bad and Boujee.”

By Armando

Asylum. Atlantic.

Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” has just been certified diamond in the US, which signify sales and streams of at least 10 million, Billboard reports Friday.

Written by the English singer-songwriter himself together with Amy Wadge, the song was release in September 2014 as the third single from his “×” (Multiply) album.

What makes the feat even more impressive is the fact that the song never made it to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song peaked at number two for eight consecutive weeks, blocked by “Uptown Funk” from reaching the summit.

“Thinking Out Loud” later won Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance, while also receiving nomination for Record of the Year, the former two being the singer’s first Grammy wins.

Sheeran shared the news to his official instagram page (below): “Thinking out loud is diamond in the US. Thank you to everyone who streamed or downloaded it x.”

This accomplishment puts the romantic ballad in rarefied company: since the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) implemented Diamond certification, only 14 other songs have achieved it.

As impressive the accolade is, this likely won’t be Sheeran’s last. Earlier this year, the singer released “Shape of You” which seem destined to top Billboard’s Year-End Hot 100 singles of 2017: as of August 2017, the single has sold 2.3 million copies and spent 32 weeks at the top 10, a record it shares with The Chainsmokers’ “Closer” and LeAnn Rimes’ “How Do I Live.”

“Shape of You” is from Sheeran’s third studio album ÷ (Divide), also in the running for biggest-selling album of the year. If Sheeran successfully accomplish both feats, he will be the first artist since Adele to top both single and album year-end charts with “Rolling in the Deep” and “21” respectively back in 2011.

 

Thinking out loud is diamond in the US. Thank you to everyone who streamed or downloaded it x

A post shared by Ed Sheeran (@teddysphotos) on Oct 27, 2017 at 7:01am PDT

By Niy Birden

Bendo

With their first bit of discography, aside from being an obviously white male duo, they had gained a lot of recognition for their massive success as indie artists. This is an especially noteworthy part of their career, considering their influence with The Grammys and other mainstream music platforms.

With their second album they started to show a reputation for making viral videos, but suddenly, as of earlier this summer they have since gone on a hiatus, which of course caused a major shock to their loyal fanbase. But separation seems to have been a quite amazing thing for the both of them, with Lewis snatching himself another hit for his work on Kesha’s comeback hit “Praying”, and Macklemore having lined up pop and new R&B hitmakers with his sophomore album Gemini.

So what does Macklemore (real name Benjamin Haggerty) sound like without Ryan Lewis?

For Gemini, we see Macklemore essentially much more personal than ever. The nostalgic vintage imagery is placed perfectly within the context of the album through songs like “Good Old Days”, and we get a closer look into how we perceive his contradictory views of America, and himself.
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CMA Announces More Unexpected Musical Performances And Collaborations For “The 51st Annual CMA Awards,” Airing Wednesday, Nov.8, On The ABC Television Network. New Performers Include Tim McGraw & Faith Hill, Pop Superstar P!NK, Keith Urban and an All-star Group Performance Featuring Eric Church, Lady Antebellum, Darius Rucker and Urban

NASHVILLE—One of the best things about the CMA Awards are the surprises, and “The 51st Annual CMA Awards” has more unexpected collaborations to share as another round of superstar performances are announced for the Wednesday, Nov. 8 (8-11 PM ET), live broadcast from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on the ABC Television Network.

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, P!NK, and Keith Urban will perform on this year’s Awards, and an unprecedented opening collaboration will feature Eric Church, Lady Antebellum, Darius Rucker, Keith Urban and more. Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood will co-host The Awards for the 10th consecutive year.

Hill and McGraw are among Country Music’s most nominated couples and “Speak to a Girl” marks the sixth time they’ve been nominated together for a CMA in the Vocal Event of the Year and Musical Event of the Year categories since 1997’s “It’s Your Love,” which they won. The couple has 61 nominations combined, with McGraw winning 11 times, including the 2001 Entertainer of the Year. Hill has three victories.
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By Niy Birden

RCA Sony Music Entertainment

“Emotion, empathy, feeling…
these human qualities, gentlemen, are for the weak
for those that we leave behind,
for those that we remove from the crop.
You are the leaders of tomorrow,
bred, to be the future’s history.
You should hold yourselves as such.
Do not let the world see you tremble.”

This introduces us to the world of Paloma Faith’s new dystopian musical entity. A world where emotion and resistance are often side-by-side. But this really is no wonder for the loyal listeners of Paloma. From the start of her career, she has shown to her royal subjects that she loves contradiction and embraces the artistic characteristics that come with it.

Paloma Faith started out with an extremely humble beginning, which makes it very easy to understand why playing other roles is such a second skin for her. In one of her many prior jobs and education, as a magician’s assistant she became a virtuoso in creating the fairytales needed to wow the minds of audiences. Unfortunately though, this role was relatively unheard. It was mostly silent and non-confrontational. Be pretty and follow directions, but don’t hit them where it hurts.

Don’t suggest you know too much more than them. Don’t suggest to the magician that you can do his job. Her early video, Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful?, taken from the album of the same name, is a direct testament to the life that is lived through a magician’s assistant. Wow and amaze, but don’t take them out of that dream land.

And now, Paloma has created her own. From her studio debuts all the way to now, Paloma has quite honestly almost perfected the visual and audio partnering for her specific niche of music.
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By Niy Birden

Dutchess – BMG

But Fergie has always been one to surprise her audiences. While her absence has been one of constant discussion, she has been kind enough to surprise us with generous music tidbits, such as her infamous star-studded “M.I.L.F. $” released earlier in the year, and a few others. But now, Fergie has made it a point to let us know: we’d better not forget who she is. While her visuals do mostly differentiate with tone and genre, the effect makes us remember why we loved dancing to and watching her bangers like “London Bridge” and even “Fergalicious”. With a complimentary visual album slowly making its way into the YouTube-o-sphere, here’s a glance at her new album, Double Dutchess:

The album starts off with “Hungry”, a dark pad complimented with an even-darker foreign sung sample, and immediately we hear Rick Ross’ authoritative voice, having Fergie back him up. It’s a bit weird to hear Fergie, of all people, adapting to trap music, but it is fair to say that she was a part of one of the most commercially -successful and impactful rap groups ever, that being Black Eyed Peas. It was no secret that they were not afraid of adapting to new sounds.

In fact, their sound is what helped the hip hop/rap genre incorporate a new pop integration. Some heavily criticized it, but eventually a very large amount of people globally all decided that the music was of noteworthy cause. For that reason being, if there are any female rappers that have the full right to play along with new sounds unashamedly, it is definitely Fergie Ferg. She actually sounds more authentic, compared to even most newer male rappers. The traditional snare hits, paired with the chorus, cello-like pad and glitch effect, opens up the album in a very, as she so fairly puts it, ambitious way.

Both she and Ross do a very nice way of giving off the “Hungy” vibe. The paired music video also of course seals in the deal. It’s suffice to say that Fergie’s really taking a leap visually. An early shot of the video shows Fergie looking into a device normally worn during eye exams, immediately finding a similarity to the album art cover of Justin Timberlake’s 2012 album The 20/20 Experience. And the rest of the video makes the perfect thematic change from her previous videos with its dark-toned colors in high contrast and trippy double-shots. Very fitting for a modern rap video. The car, the smoke, but still Fergie’s glamour.
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