Music News

Shortly before midnight Thursday, Atlanta trap provocateurs Future and Young Thug, coated the world with the surprise release of their collaborative mixtape, Super Slimey.

Augustin Mawangu Mingiedi, leader of the Congolese group Konono No. 1, died on Monday, Oct. 16 after a months-long illness related to complications from diabetes, a representative for the band confirmed. He was 56 years old.

In April, a long list of musicians, comedians and visual artists were announced for 7-inches For Planned Parenthood, featuring new and rare tracks from the likes of St. Vincent, Feist, Björk, Bon Iver and Helado Negro. The box set is a response to "lawmakers with extreme views [who] are working hard to shut down Planned Parenthood," according to the creators of the project.

Updated at 11:10 a.m. ET

Gord Downie, singer of The Tragically Hip, died of complications from brain cancer Tuesday night at the age of 53. His death was announced in a statement from his family.

The tarantella is a lively folk dance and musical style originating in southern Italy's Apulia region, the heel of the Italian geographic boot.

Content advisory: The videos and language below contain strong language and may be offensive to some.

Content advisory: The video below contains imagery and language that some may find offensive.

Move over, Eminem.

Advisory: The above video contains language that some may find offensive.

Karin Dreijer likes to play; the pitch-shifted vocals found on Fever Ray's self-titled 2009 debut forced questions of authorship, voice and beauty through ritualistic electro-pop.

Four years after an acclaimed debut, King Krule is back with his second proper album, The OOZ. The 23-year-old, UK-born Archy Marshall grew up in a family of musicians who played everything from ska to jazz to experimental jams in the house, and the eclecticism of his upbringing can be heard in tracks like "Bermondsey Bosom" — essentially spoken poetry in Spanish, with a beat. To mark the release of The OOZ, NPR producer Anjuli Sastry asked him to explain where that odd title comes from.

Ian Brady killed five children in the 1960s, in an infamous case of depraved murder. Brady died five months ago, but arguments over disposing of his body only now seem to be over, with a U.K. court saying Brady will be cremated with "no music and no ceremony," rejecting a plan to play the "Witches' Sabbath" portion of Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.

Filmed July 14, just a week before Chester Bennington died in July, Carpool Karaoke has released its Linkin Park episode with the blessing of Bennington's family and the band, dedicated to the singer's memory. Ken Jeong hosts this particular episode, and, given the fervor in which he sings along to "Numb," "In The End" and "Talking To Myself," the actor and comedian looks thoroughly stoked to share his screams with Bennington, Mike Shinoda and Joe Hahn.

A little over two months after it became the most-viewed video on YouTube, "Despacito" has broken another record, being the first on the platform to surpass 4 billion views. The video's growth is astronomical, surpassing Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth's 2015 hit "See You Again," the second-most-viewed video on the site, by hundreds of millions of views in less than a year.

Latinx Pop Crossovers, Cultural Globalization And YouTube's Primacy

The receipts from Bruce Springsteen's first week on Broadway are in. The Boss, over five sold-out performances, grossed $2.33 million — or about $466,000 per night.

Sufjan Stevens is sharing a rare outtake he recorded while making his 2015 album Carrie & Lowell. The song, "Wallowa Lake Monster," is one of several previously unreleased tracks included in an upcoming collection of remixes, demos and alternate versions of songs from that period.

Call it a comeback. After years of absence from the spotlight, Eminem returned to relevance last night with a fierce lyrical condemnation of President Trump.

It's not often you'll find these 24 names in the same place. They are historians and musicians, computer scientists and social activists, writers and architects. But whatever it may read on their business cards (if they've even got business cards), they now all have a single title in common: 2017 MacArthur Fellow.

Advisory: The above video/song contains language that some may find offensive.

St. Vincent's "Pills" is the kind of psychedelic Franken-pop monster that could only be concocted by Annie Clark in a lab with a mess of mad scientists — which is exactly what happened.

Thelonious Monk, the incomparably influential jazz composer and pianist, would have turned 100 today, and across the country a healthy range of commemorative tributes is already underway. But the flagship event that bears his name has quietly been put on hold: the next Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, which at one point had been scheduled for this week at the Kennedy Center in Washington, will not happen in 2017.

Jason Aldean is going to grab the headlines this morning, but he wasn't the only chart-topping musician on Saturday Night Live this week.

Sam Smith made his second appearance on the set at Studio 8H to promote his upcoming sophomore album, The Thrill Of It All, which is due out November 3. He performed the album's two lead singles, the stone-faced lament "Too Good At Goodbyes" and atheist hymn "Pray."

Updated Saturday 4:15 p.m

Nelly, the rapper behind hits "Hot In Herre" and "Ride Wit Me," was arrested Saturday morning for alleged sexual assault during a tour stop in Washington state.

The Auburn Police Department said in a statement that a woman called 911 at 3:48 a.m. Saturday and said she was assaulted by Nelly, whose given name is Cornell Haynes Jr. After a police investigation, Nelly was taken into custody an hour later.