Gravel or velvet, jagged edges or curved slopes, coarse scales or soft fur: A voice generally contains one or the other. But Rod Wave plays between extremes. His singing voice is gentle and yearning, while his rapping is akin to DMX after taking ineffective cough medicine. The Florida rapper plays …
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Half the joy of being an R&B fan is incessantly complaining about the state of R&B — the lack of hits, the sexlessness of its 2019, the cottage industry of lullaby drones filling downtempo streaming playlists. Then Ann Marie drops “My Body,”and my complaints about R&B quickly seem lazy. The …
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Neil Young had already decided to release Tuscaloosa — a primo live set documenting a hot February, 1973 gig with his then-current band the Stray Gators — when Alabama’s current governor signed a new anti-abortion law on May 15, and when GOP sleazebag Roy Moore threatened to re-up his Senate …
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Last year, Crudo Means Raw reached Number One on Spotify’s viral chart in Colombia with “La Mitad De La Mitad.” The track’s appeal was immediate — a slippery, live-sounding bass line rubbed against sharp, terse raps — and widespread: When Crudo Means Raw posted a screenshot of Spotify’s chart on …
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