Hip-hop lost a visionary thinker and a lifelong tastemaker over the weekend in the late Andre Harrell, founder of the seminal hip-hop label Uptown Records, home to a number of the architects of the new-jack-swing revolution of the ’80s and ’90s and an integral stepping stone for black music icons like Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, […]
Influencial soul and R&B singer Betty Wright, born Bessie Regina Norris, died today at the age of 66. According to the New York Times, president of S-Curve Records Steve Greenberg confirmed Wright’s death on Sunday; the singer had reportedly been diagnosed with endometrial cancer in the fall of 2019. Said Greenberg, “She was an incredible […]
Imagine sitting next to Little Richard at a dinner party: I remember one night, we had this wonderful orgy going. It was one of the best I have ever been to. And in the middle of this orgy, that was fantastic, somebody knocked on my door. I said: ‘Just a moment! This is an orgy!’ […]
Andre Harrell, a veteran record executive and founder of the influential hip hop label Uptown Records, has died at the age of 59. His death was first announced on DJ D-Nice’s daily Instagram Live party and later confirmed by the CEO of the music television network REVOLT, where Harrell served as vice-chairman. “Andre’s impact on […]
Little Richard, one of the most influential figures in the foundation and evolution of rock and roll, has died at the age of 87. His son confirmed the news to Rolling Stone, but said that the cause of death was still unknown. With songs such as “Tutti Frutti,” “Good Golly Miss Molly,” “Rip It Up,” […]
Florian Schneider, one of the founding members of pioneering German electronic group Kraftwerk, has died at 73 years old, Billboard reports. No cause of death has been identified. Schneider founded the group in 1970 with Ralf Hütter as an experimental rock outfit before beginning to use synthetic instrumentation on third album Ralf und Florian in […]
Chynna, an on-the-rise rapper from Philadelphia, died April 8 at 25, her family confirmed through management to Pitchfork. Her cause of death is unknown. “Chynna was deeply loved and will be sorely missed,” her family said in a statement. Born Chynna Rogers, she asked rapper A$AP Yams over Twitter if she could intern for him […]
We talk about death every day now. It’s in the air. It’s on the ground. It’s waiting on the other end of cell phones buzzing in the wee, small hours. It’s peering back at us through laptop screens. It’s wafting into windows on sirens punctuating silent nights, slicing through our illusion of calm as steel […]
Folk music legend John Prine died today at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. Prine’s family confirmed that he died of complications from COVID-19. Prine’s wife and manager Fiona had previously tested positive for COVID-19 before Prine was hospitalized “after a sudden onset of COVID-19 symptoms.” He was 73. Prine had previously survived cancer twice, […]
I spent most of my 20s toiling away in supermarkets and minor chain department stores, making just enough money to get to the next week in one piece. (My heart goes out to grocery store employees in hectic public-facing positions during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is draining, often thankless work on a good day; if […]
It was the dog-end days of the 1960s. Psychedelia still hung like a haze in the air; Altamont’s bad taste lingered with it. Dylan was doing who knows what, the Beatles had broken up. The Black Panthers were both preparing for war and being entertained in Leonard Bernstein’s Park Avenue apartment. Four students were gunned […]
Soul singer-songwriter Bill Withers died March 30 at 81, his family told the Associated Press in a statement on Friday. He died in Los Angeles due to heart complications. Withers wrote and performed multiple soul hits in the 1970s, including his Grammy-winning debut “Ain’t No Sunshine,” his sole No. 1 “Lean on Me,” and the […]
Singer and songwriter Alan Merrill, perhaps best known for co-writing Joan Jett & the Blackhearts’ monster hit “I Love Rock ’N’ Roll,” has died at the age of 69 following a battle with COVID-19. His daughter Laura Merrill wrote about his passing this morning on Facebook. “The Coronavirus took my father this morning,” Merrill writes. “I […]
Legendary country-music singer Kenny Rogers has died at the age of 81. Rogers’s family announced his death on social media, stating that he “passed away peacefully at home from natural causes under the care of hospice.” A six-time Country Music Award winner and three-time Grammy Award winner, Rogers’s prolific career in country music spanned six […]
According to the New York Times, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, British musician, writer, performance artist and gender nonconformist, has died at the age of 70 following a battle with leukemia. Ryan Martin of Dais Records, to which the singer was signed, posted a message about P-Orridge’s death from her daughters Caresse and Genesse to Facebook on […]
Early Monday morning, Bashar Barakah Jackson, better known as the Brooklyn rapper Pop Smoke, was shot and killed in Los Angeles following a home invasion. He was 20 years old. At the time of his death, Jackson had been making music for less than 18 months; nevertheless, he’d become perhaps the most unmissable young rap […]
Up-and-coming rapper and leader in the Brooklyn drill movement, Pop Smoke, was killed Wednesday morning. According to Fox LA, the rapper, born Bashar Jackson, was in a Hollywood Hills home owned by Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave and her husband around 4:30 a.m. when two men wearing masks and hoodies broke […]
Andy Gill, founding member of post-punk band Gang of Four, has died. He was 64. Gill’s passing was announced on Twitter by his bandmates on Saturday. “This is so hard for us to write, but our great friend and Supreme Leader has died today,” their statement reads. “Andy’s final tour in November was the only […]
David Olney, a singer-songwriter who’s been prevalent in the folk and Americana music communities since the 1970s, died on Saturday evening during his set at Florida’s 30A Songwriters Festival. He was 71. Per Variety, Olney was in the middle of performing the third song in his set when he apologized to the audience, ceased movement, […]
Neil Peart, the idiosyncratic drummer and lyricist of prog-rock band Rush, has died at age 67, according to family spokesperson Elliot Mintz. Peart died in Santa Monica, California, on Tuesday, after a battle with brain cancer. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Peart joined bandmates Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson in 1974. On albums like Fly by […]