He Never Stopped
"There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder." Colin Kaepernick said that in 2016, the first time anyone asked. He was right, it cost him a career and a hundred and fifty million dollars, and ten years later he is still paying for other people's autopsies.
Every Opener Walked
Macklemore was removed from Ed Sheeran's tour for saying "Free Palestine." Within a day, every remaining support act quit. Finneas. Lukas Graham. Aaron Rowe. Beoga, who co-wrote "Galway Girl." The bill is empty.
He Was The Opening Act
Macklemore had the least leverage on that stage and he used it anyway. What it cost him tells you who actually decides what an artist is allowed to say.
Twenty Five Years Here. Thirty Years Gone.
Thirty years ago today Tupac Shakur was pronounced dead at twenty five. He has now been gone longer than he was ever here, and he is still the one everybody else gets measured against.
The Lawyer They Chant For
Fans swarmed Brian Steel outside a federal courthouse Friday night chanting MVP. Drake named a song after him. Young Thug sent him to Lil Durk. How a former tax attorney from Queens became the most trusted man in hip hop's legal fight.
Three Days' Notice
Jhené Aiko announced the album on a Tuesday and put it out on a Friday. By Friday night she held all ten songs in the iTunes R&B top ten and the number one album overall. No rollout. No lead single. Twenty tracks.
Young Thug Says He Sent His Lawyer
Lil Durk was acquitted Friday on all five federal counts. The attorney who argued him out of a life sentence got into that courtroom because another rapper picked up the phone.
The Jury Needed Three Hours. Some of Us Closed This in 1998.
Duane Davis is guilty and Tupac's family finally has a verdict with a name on it. For the people who tracked every thread of this for thirty years, the closure came a long time ago, and it did not come from a courtroom.
The Scoreboard Said YG. Bompton Said Both.
A voice born in Compton reads a Compton Verzuz. What the 19-3 does not tell you about the night YG and Game traded catalog in Los Angeles.
Marcy to the Mound
Three nights at Yankee Stadium, thirty years of a catalog, and the American story we still argue about because the man who wrote it is still writing.