The youngest Kardashian family members, Kendall and Kylie Jenner, yanked a line of overpriced T-shirts after enduring the scorn of the music world. The sisters thought it would be, like, soooo awesome to put a twist on the “music T-shirt” concept and place their own faces over top of the logos and likenesses of Biggie Smalls, The Doors, Ozzy Osbourne, Tupac and others, then sell the shirts for $125. The flagrant trademark violations (which are so blatantly illegal and idiotically tone-deaf, it smells like a PR stunt) were met quickly by lawsuit threats and public ridicule. The shirts were quickly pulled and the women apologized for their “mistakes.”
WARM: JAY-Z Stands Up for Prince
The lyrics on JAY-Z’s new album about his relationship have been drawing a lot of attention, but there are some notable lines on 4:44 about the late Prince. “Caught Their Eyes” features a blistering critique of the handling of Prince’s estate after his death, something JAY-Z had prime seats for after his Tidal streaming service (the only such platform Prince allowed to feature his music) was sued and all of Prince’s music was made available to competing streamers. Among the no-punches-pulled lines: “This guy had ‘slave’ on his face/You think he wanted the masters with his masters?/You greedy bastards sold tickets to walk through his house/ I’m surprised you ain’t auction off the casket.”
COLD: Annie’s Big Break
You may have noticed on Facebook pages for nearly every musical act, big or small, notices from alleged music outlets expressing interest in the artist (and offering flattery) and proposing services like airplay or marketing (and hinting at costs). The phishing scam literally happens to the best of them — legendary singer Annie Lennox reposted just such a message in which the phisher tells her she “really liked what (she) heard!” as if Lennox was a newbie. The singer included a warning to new artists with the social-media post, telling them to immediately throw out the “dodgy” cold-call proposals.
