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Hear Jay-Z and Kanye West Collaborate on “Clique”

By Judy Berman on

We’re not going to pretend we watched last night’s MTV Video Music Awards, but from what we’ve read this morning, we still feel pretty confident saying that the latest G.O.O.D. Music track is more exciting than anything that show had to offer. The song made news earlier this week when a 30-second excerpt surfaced that included Kanye West rapping, “Eat breakfast at Gucci/ My girl a superstar all from a home movie.” For those of us who aren’t into gossiping about Kim Kardashian’s sex life, though, the big news is that “Clique” features the first collaboration between West and Jay-Z since Watch the Throne — and, yes, that means the brand-name boasts and baroque production are out in full force. Oh, and Big Sean’s on the track, too. Stream it below, and look for G.O.O.D. Music’s Cruel Summer September 18th. … Read More

Music

10 Auto-Tune Songs That Don’t Suck

By Tom Hawking on

Cat Power’s new album Sun dropped earlier this week, and the fact that she uses Auto-Tune on the track “3, 6, 9″ has generated almost as much interest as the album itself. For an ostensibly innocuous pitch-correction effect, Auto-Tune has generated a heap of controversy over the last decade, ever since Cher introduced it to the world during the chorus of “Believe.” Much of the opprobrium directed at the use of the software is entirely justified (Hi, Eiffel 65! Hi, Chris Cornell!), but that’s not to say that every Auto-Tuned track is a priori awful — so we’ve set ourselves the challenge of finding 10 tracks that use its sound in creative or interesting ways. And for clarity’s sake, we’re discussing Auto-Tune as an audible pseudo-vocoder effect here, not as a production tweak to correct an errant vocal — otherwise every chart song since the turn of the millennium would be eligible. Anyway, let us know if we’ve missed anything. First person to suggest “Believe” or anything by T-Pain gets a lump of coal for Christmas. … Read More

Music

Jay-Z, Run-DMC, and More: The Made in America Fest in Photos

By Doug Levy on

Jay-Z helped turn Philadelphia into a veritable music lover’s paradise over Labor Day weekend with the debut of his two-day Made in America festival. The fest, which the superstar hopes to make a yearly one, included performances from Janelle Monáe, D’Angelo, Miike Snow, Odd Future, Skrillex, The Hives, Santigold, Dirty Projectors, and Drake, in addition to headline performances by Pearl Jam and Jay-Z himself. It also marked hip-hop legends Run-DMC’s first return to the stage since the death of founding member Jam Master Jay in 2002. Surprise collaborations were a theme of the weekend, as well, with Eve joining Jill Scott during her set; Kanye West and his G.O.O.D. Music crew storming the stage to close out Jay-Z’s performance, and day one, with renditions of “Mercy,” “New God Flow,” and, of course, “Ni**as in Paris”; and Jay himself joining Pearl Jam for an unprecedented take on “99 Problems.” Even President Obama showed up, albeit in video form, urging people to vote while Jay looked on. Click through for our exclusive photo gallery from Made in America to see more of what went down in… Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Ron Howard has confirmed that he and Brian Grazer will be filming Jay-Z’s Made in America music festival for a feature that will be released next year. “This will not be a concert film,” he explains. “It’s a reflection of the fabric of what it means to be Made in America – what the… Read More

Design

Iconic Album Covers Recreated With Socks

By Emily Temple on

Now this is an entertaining way to spend laundry day. Neatorama pointed us towards The Sock Covers, a very clever Tumblr devoted to recreating famous and iconic album covers with, you guessed it, socks. Sure, it’s not high art, but it’s goofy and cute and irreverent in all the right ways — if a sock-version of Warhol’s iconic banana on The Velvet Underground & Nico doesn’t make you at least crack a smile, well, we just don’t know what to tell you. In addition, we have to say that we’re rather impressed by the anonymous author’s collection of socks. Click through to check out a few of our favorites from the project, and then head on over to The Sock Covers to see some more for yourself. … Read More

Pop Culture

What’s on at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Judy Berman on

Today at Flavorpill, we watched a hilarious supercut of rock stars saying dumb things in interviews. We watched a personal video about the Mars landing made by someone who worked on Curiosity. We learned about 23 unexpected things that turn people on and revisited Helen Gurley Brown’s… Read More

Music

The Most Gloriously Absurd Lyrics in Hip Hop History

By Tom Hawking on

Juggalos rejoice! The new Insane Clown Posse album is finally out this week — it was due earlier this year, but record company wrangling resulted in its release date being pushed until the end of summer. Of course, beyond their selective appeal to Faygo devotees, ICP are largely known to the general public because of the immortal couplets from their 2009 single “Miracles,” which will go down in history as one of the most ridiculous and somehow awesome songs ever made. In celebration of their new record, then, here’s a selection of the most gloriously awesome lyrics that hip hop has given the world. Your suggestions are of course welcome. (And just to pre-empt any of the accusations that have a magical way of appearing in our comments section every time we say anything remotely negative about hip hop: we’ve done this before for ’80s pop songs and we’ll most likely do it for other genres in due course. So there.) … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. D’Angelo made his first TV appearance in over a decade at last night’s BET Awards. Check out a few minutes from his fantastic performance, which included his beloved hit song “Untitled (How Does It Feel),” as well as a new track called “Sugar Daddy,” here.

2. In other BET Awards-related news,… Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Last night on the Late Show, Alec Baldwin discussed his fists’ recent run-in with New York Daily News photographer Marcus Santos. He also dropped his pants.

2. Katy Perry is planning to launch her own record label. “I’m preparing for it now,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “And when this record… Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Caroline Stanley on

Today at Flavorpill, we spent way too much time playing around with this fantastic Ray Bradbury quote generator. We learned that you probably shouldn’t hit on the model who’s sitting next to you on a plane if don’t want your wife reading a recap of the entire awkward exchange on Twitter.… Read More