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Singer/Songwriter/Musician Rudy Currence drops his latest visual for the hit song “Testimony.” Get into the inspirational vibes that Rudy delivers with his dynamic vocals and catchy tune. Just to add, Chance The Rapper would be a great addition to this track for a remix.
On the heels of its inaugural “Culture Vultures” digital cover, CASSIUS — the latest brand from iONE Digital (formerly Interactive One) and the definitive digital destination for urban millennials – has announced its June 2017 cover: The First Supper.
‘The First Supper,’ a graphic illustration featuring 30 of the most talked-about, controversial figures in pop culture and American history, is divided into four covers featuring distinct groups of ‘Unapologetics’-cultural disruptors as they are known in the CASSIUS world. The series features critical essays penned by CASSIUS top editors and on video, extended conversation about the covers’ ultimate message and the sheer power of its many subjects.
The June cover is in keeping with CASSIUS’ mission to cut through today’s headlines with stories and critical commentary that are relevant to millennials and directly address the global impact of Black culture. Each month, CASSIUS will create original covers underscoring their unique point of view on themes such as power, identity, and race. Video content will accompany each cover.
“This month, we wanted to nod to ‘The Unapologetics’ of then and now,” says CASSIUS creator Kierna Mayo, SVP, Content and Brands at iONE Digital. “We determined that people throughout time who change the world and never apologize for it, fall into fascinating sub-categories worthy of exploration. Deciding which ‘disciples’ should have a seat at the ‘First Supper’ table was hotly debated in our office. The truth is, the world is filled with ‘Unapologetics’ -fearless individuals who push us to think differently and for everyone depicted, there was also the case for someone else. We hope our audience has the same endless discussion we did. Who really moves culture forward?”
The June cover art was illustrated by Mark Hammermeister.
At a time when mainstream media is dominated by political theater and extreme narratives, CASSIUS provides readers with a rare lens that positions Black culture as central to the world’s key issues.
Cadillac and The Coca-Cola Company are the proud launch partners of CASSIUS.
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Francis And The Lights pairs up with the buzzing Chance The Rapper for an official remix video for “May I Have This Dance.” The visual was directed by Jake Schreiber and finds Chance and Francis delivering smooth moves like Jagger.
The song itself is originally a single off Francis and the Lights’ album Francis, Starlite!, which dropped last year.
Check it out above.
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Is the new Chance The Rapper verse ready??!! *in our Khaled voice*
The supreme 305 master of the mix, DJ Khaled is back at it with the ultimate collaboration that one has yet to match. Coming back with more heat, the “Snapchat King” tags in Chance The Rapper, Quavo, Justin Bieber and Lil Wayne for the much-anticipated song and visual “I’m The One.”
Eif Rivera puts his magic touch on the video as the director and takes the party over to Khaled’s home base as the fellas party-it-up with a few beautiful women.
Check it out above.
Grammy-winning artist Chance The Rapper will join Diana Ross, Mary J. Blige, John Legend and others as a headliner of Time Inc.’s ESSENCE Festival presented by Coca-Cola, taking place June 30–July 2, 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
After recently making history as the first streaming-only artist to win multiple Grammys in top categories such as Best Rap Album and Best New Artist, Chance The Rapper will make his ESSENCE Festival debut and round out the full performance lineup for the festival concert series of more than 40 acts, including new additions: No Limit Records’ Mystikal, Mia X and Silkk; BJ the Chicago Kid; Daley; Elle Varner; Emily Estefan; Gallant; Kelly Price; Leela James; and Rhonda Ross.
The full weekend concert lineup is as follows:
2017 Mainstage Artists
Diana Ross, Mary J. Blige, Chance The Rapper, John Legend, Ari Lennox, Chaka Khan, India.Arie, Jazmine Sullivan, Jill Scott, Master P, No Limit Records’ Mystikal, Mia X and Silkk, Monica, Rhonda Ross, Solange and Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue.
2017 Superlounge Artists
BJ the Chicago Kid, Daley, Doug E. Fresh, Elle Varner, Emily Estefan, Gallant, Jhené Aiko, June’s Diary, Kelly Price, Lalah Hathaway, Leela James, Lizzo, Michel’le, Moses Sumney, PJ, Sir the Baptist, Remy Ma, Ro James, Shaggy, Teyana Taylor, The Jones Girls Featuring Shirley Jones, Tweet, Yuna
Weekend ticket packages are on sale now with prices starting at $126. For information about ticket sales, accommodations and the latest news about the ESSENCE Festival®visit EssenceFestival.com.
Media applications for the festival are now open. To apply for media accreditation to the nightly concerts, visit the following link: HERE.
Join the festival community: Follow us on Twitter @essencefest #EssenceFest and become a fan of 2017 ESSENCE Festival on Facebook.
The 2017 ESSENCE Festival is presented by Coca-Cola and sponsored by Ford, State Farm and Walmart.
Last night, February 9th, in Los Angeles, at the Arclight Hollywood Theater, Grammy nominated artist Chance The Rapper hosted a private screening of the highly anticipated Universal Pictures film Get Out.
In attendance was the film’s director and writer Jordan Peele as well as the cast of the film Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, and Lil Rel Howery. After the film Chance moderated an intimate Q&A session with the director and cast of the film.
After the Q&A session, Chance and the cast mingled with guest who were in attendance. Other notables on hand to see and celebrate the film were hip-hop star Lil’Yachty and Lena Waithe (producer of Dear White People).
Guests at the screening raved about the film after seeing it and we definitely understand cause we also got a chance to see it and it is incredible.
Get Out is in theaters February 24th and we HIGHLY recommend that you go see this movie when it hits theaters nationwide. For more photos from the night checkout the gallery below.
Photos: Eric Charbonneau
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Chance The Rapper brings his Coloring Book project to life and delivers his new visual to the nostalgic song “Same Drugs.” The song features vocals from Eryn Allen Kane, Yebba Smith, John Legend, Francis Starlite and Macie Stewart.
From a vintage frame, the video shows the young Chance sitting at the piano as he plays and sings from the soul paired with a Muppet-like songstress, along with a staff of muppets running a live show recording.
Chance spoke on why he wanted to premiere the Jake Schreier directed video on Facebook:
“I say, yo, I wanna put a video that I already recorded on Instagram Live, I wanna put it on Twitter Live, I wanna put it on Snapchat, and they said no,” Chance said. “But would you look at that? That’s Facebook Live holding me down with a countdown to an HD premiere of my shit.”
Chance recently released a clothing line honoring the first Black President, Barack Obama called #ThankYouObama.
Catch the 7-time nominated artist hitting the stage on Sunday at the 2017 Grammy Awards.
SOUL TRAIN AWARDS 2016 celebrated the best in Soul, R&B and Hip-Hop by highlighting both returning legends and breakout stars with unrivaled musical moments and titillating performances. The awards show, which aired tonight on CENTRIC and BET, was hosted once again by the funkadelic Godmother of neo-soul, Erykah Badu, who also served as Executive Producer.
Beyoncé led the night’s winners dominating in top categories including Video of the Year, Album/Mixtape of the Year, Best R&B/Soul Female Artist, and Song of the Year. Fat Joe and Remy Ma featuring French Montana and Infared took home two awards of their own, Rhythm & Bars Award (Formerly Best Hip-Hop Song of the Year) and Best Collaboration, for their smash hit “All the Way Up.” Artists were honored across 12 different categories and additional winners included Kanye West featuring Teyana Taylor for Best Dance Performance for “Fade,” Chance the Rapper (Best New Artist), Anderson .Paak (Centric Certified Award), Andra Day “Rise Up” (The Ashford & Simpson Songwriter’s Award), Maxwell (Best R&B/Soul Male Artist), and Kirk Franklin “123 Victory” (Best Gospel/Inspirational Song.)
The evening marked the inaugural Soul Train Awards since BET Networks officially acquired Soul Train earlier this year and it did not disappoint. The night featured crowd-loving classics and current favorites from the best Soul artists of yesterday and today.
Dru Hill kicked off the Soul Train Awards 2016 with the ultimate throwback of their 90s R&B jams including “Tell Me,” “In My Bed,” and “Beauty.”
Dru Hill lead singer Sisqó then took the stage solo to perform his late 90’s mega-hit “Thong Song.”
An endearing and inspired Jill Scott presented Brandy with the second annual Lady of Soul Award, who went on to blow the crowd away with a full dance and stunning vocal performance of her most beloved hits including “Almost Doesn’t Count,” “What About Us,” “Full Moon,” “I Wanna Be Down,” “The Boy Is Mine,” “Talk About Our Love,” “Have You Ever,” and “Sitting On Top Of The World,” joined by MA$E.
Soulful newcomers Anderson .Paak and BJ the Chicago Kid performed “Waters” and “Cha Cha” singer D.R.A.M. joined Badu on stage for their recently released single, “WiFi.”
The awards ended on a high note with Teddy Riley pulling out all the stops for an unforgettable showcase following his receiving of the night’s highest honor, the Legend Award. Riley brought out retro hitmakers and past collaborators including Doug E. Fresh, Bobby Brown, Tito Jackson, Wreckx-N-Effect and Guy for a medley of classics including “My Prerogative,” “Remember the Time,” “Rump Shaker,” and more.
Alongside the amazing performances, the second annual Soul Cypher, featuring Erykah Badu, Tyrese, Ne-Yo, Angie Stone and the incomparable Gladys Knight was another musical moment not to be forgotten.
SOUL TRAIN AWARDS 2016 WINNERS
Best New Artist – Chance the Rapper
Best R&B/Soul Male Artist – Maxwell
Centric Certified Award – Anderson .Paak
Video of the Year – Beyoncé – “Formation”
Best Gospel/Inspirational Song – Kirk Franklin – “123 Victory”
Album/Mixtape of the Year – Beyoncé – “Lemonade”
Rhythm & Bars Award (Formerly Best Hip-Hop Song of the Year) – Fat Joe & Remy Ma featuring French Montana & Infared – “All the Way Up”
Best R&B/Soul Female Artist – Beyoncé
Song of the Year – Beyoncé
The Ashford & Simpson Songwriter’s Award – “Rise Up” – Written by Andra Day and Jennifer Decilveo (Andra Day)
Best Dance Performance – Kanye West (Dance Performance featuring Teyana Taylor) – “Fade”
Best Collaboration – Fat Joe & Remy Ma featuring French Montana & Infared – “All the Way Up”
The SOUL TRAIN AWARDS 2016 are produced by Jesse Collins Entertainment. Executive Producers of the network telecast are as follows: Debra Lee, Stephen G. Hill and Connie Orlando from BET; and Jesse Collins for Jesse Collins Entertainment.
Photo Credit: Getty Images for BET
More photos below:
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CENTRIC today announced the godmother of soul, Erykah Badu, will return to host the Soul Train Awards 2016. The four-time Grammy-award winning soul singer and songwriter will once again take over the Vegas stage with her eccentric style, cerebral music, incomparable spirit and comedic commentary. The yearly celebration will honor the best in soulful music from returning legends to the next generation. Filmed November 6 at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, the awards special will air on Centric and BET on November 27th, 2016 at 8PM ET.
Centric also announced the all-star nominees for the STA 2016 across 12 different categories. Drake leads the pack with 12 total nominations including two nominations for the highly coveted Video of the Year Award for his feature on Rihanna’s single “Work” and this year’s mega hit “Hotline Bling.” Beyoncé follows with 8 nominations including Best R&B/Soul Female Artist, Album/Mixtape of the Year for her groundbreaking album “Lemonade,” and multiple honors for lead single “Formation” including Song of the Year, Best Dance Performance and The Ashford & Simpson Songwriter’s Award. Rihanna, Kanye West, DJ Khaled and Usher also received multiple nominations this year including Video of the Year, Album/Mixtape of the Year and Best Collaboration. The next generation of soul is also being recognized, including Bryson Tiller, Chance the Rapper and Anderson .Paak who are multi-nominees across categories including Best New Artist, Best R&B/Soul Male Artist and the Rhythm & Bars Award (Formerly Best Hip-Hop Song of the Year.)
Multi-platinum and three-time Grammy award-winning producer, singer-songwriter, artist, musician and technology expert Edward Theodore “Teddy” Riley, also known as the creator and king of “New Jack Swing,” is set to receive the coveted Legend Award. His major accolade was producing Michael Jackson’s “Dangerous LP” which sold over 32 million copies worldwide. Riley produced number one hits for countless icons which have governed the airways for decades. As a founding member of the multi-platinum groups Guy and Grammy award-winning Blackstreet, Riley’s “Swing” sound was the epic lifeline that forever changed the design for R&B and Hip-Hop music. He is the first African-American producer to bring Korean Pop (K-Pop) music to the USA and has been producing number one hits on Billboard charts for nearly a decade.
The 2nd annual Lady of Soul Award will be presented to singer-songwriter and actress Brandy. The platinum selling artist and actress has sold over 40 million records and received numerous awards and accolades, including a Grammy Award, one American Music Award, and seven Billboard Music Awards. Last year’s inaugural Lady of Soul Award went to R&B torchbearer Jill Scott. Both Brandy and Teddy Riley are being recognized for their longstanding presence in the music industry and influence on the world of soul and R&B music past and present.
Congrats to all of the nominees, Teddy Riley and Brandy!
Hope you will be watching! We will!
Photo Credit: Photo by Paul R. Giunta/FilmMagic
The complete list of nominees for SOUL TRAIN AWARDS 2016 are:
Best New Artist
ANDERSON .PAAK
ANDRA DAY
BRYSON TILLER
CHANCE THE RAPPER
RO JAMES
TORY LANEZ
Best R&B/Soul Male Artist
ANTHONY HAMILTON
BRYSON TILLER
MAXWELL
THE WEEKND
USHER
Centric Certified Award
AFTER 7
ANDERSON .PAAK
BILAL
LALAH HATHAWAY
MUSIQ SOULCHILD
Video of the Year
BEYONCÉ – FORMATION
BEYONCÉ – SORRY
DRAKE – HOTLINE BLING
KANYE WEST – FADE
RIHANNA FT. DRAKE – WORK
Best Gospel/ Inspirational Song
DONNIE MCCLURKIN – I NEED YOU
HEZEKIAH WALKER – BETTER
KIRK FRANKLIN – 123 VICTORY
TAMELA MANN – GOD PROVIDES
TRAVIS GREENE – MADE A WAY
Album/Mixtape of the Year
BEYONCÉ – LEMONADE
BRYSON TILLER – T R A P S O U L
DJ KHALED – MAJOR KEY
DRAKE – VIEWS
KANYE WEST – THE LIFE OF PABLO
RIHANNA – ANTI
Rhythm & Bars Award (Formerly Best Hip-Hop Song of the Year)
CHANCE THE RAPPER FT. LIL WAYNE & 2 CHAINZ – NO PROBLEM
DJ KHALED FT. DRAKE – FOR FREE
DRAKE – CONTROLLA
DRAKE FT. WIZKID & KYLA – ONE DANCE
FAT JOE & REMY MA FT. FRENCH MONTANA & INFARED – ALL THE WAY UP
Best R&B/Soul Female Artist
ALICIA KEYS
BEYONCÉ
FANTASIA
JILL SCOTT
RIHANNA
Song of the Year
ADELE – HELLO
BEYONCÉ – FORMATION
BRYSON TILLER – DON’T
DRAKE – CONTROLLA
RIHANNA FT. DRAKE – WORK
The Ashford & Simpson Songwriter’s Award
HELLO – WRITTEN BY: ADELE LAURIE BLUE ADKINS, GREGORY ALLEN KURSTIN (ADELE)
RISE UP – WRITTEN BY: ANDRA DAY, JENNIFER DECILVEO (ANDRA DAY)
FORMATION – WRITTEN BY: MICHAEL L. WILLIAMS II, BEYONCÉ KNOWLES, KHALIF BROWN, AAQUIL BROWN, ASHETON HOGAN, (BEYONCÉ)
DON’T – WRITTEN BY: JOHNTÁ M. AUSTIN, MARIAH CAREY, BRYAN-MICHAEL COX, JERMAINE DUPRI, TAVORIS JAVON HOLLINS, ISOM BRANDON STEWART, BRYSON DEJUAN TILLER (BRYSON TILLER)
NEEDED ME – WRITTEN BY: NICHOLAS VALENTINO AUDINO, RACHEL DERRUS, ADAM KING FEENEY, ROBYN R. FENTY, BRITTANY TALIA HAZZARD, CHARLES HINSHAW JR., LEWIS BERESFORD HUGHES, DIJON ISAIAH MCFARLANE, KHALED ROHAIM, TE WHITI TE RANGITEPAIA MATAA WARBICK (RIHANNA)
Best Dance Performance
BEYONCÉ – FORMATION
DRAKE – HOTLINE BLING
KANYE WEST (DANCE PERFORMANCE FT. TEYANA TAYLOR) – FADE
RIHANNA FT. DRAKE – WORK
USHER FT. YOUNG THUG – NO LIMIT
Best Collaboration
BEYONCÉ FT. KENDRICK LAMAR – FREEDOM
CHANCE THE RAPPER FT. LIL WAYNE & 2 CHAINZ – NO PROBLEM
DJ KHALED FT. DRAKE – FOR FREE
FAT JOE & REMY MA FT. FRENCH MONTANA & INFARED – ALL THE WAY UP
RIHANNA FT. DRAKE – WORK
Still committed on changing the pace of hip-hop music in a more positive direction, Chance The Rapper stuns the audience and many onlookers at home with a profound performance of his song “Blessings (Reprise)” from the current album Coloring Book.
Tagging along with Chance were the likes of Raury, Ty Dolla Sign, Anthony Hamilton and D.R.A.M. who each added their own vocal flavor to the Fred Hammond inspired song, paired with choir all decked out in white robes throughout the aisles; spreading the gospel cheer.
This is definitely one performance you will not forget.
Check it out above.
