HOT: FLOTUS/POTUS Music News
Barack and Michelle Obama each made music-news headlines recently. The first lady debuted her Rap skills in a joke-y video with Saturday Night Live’s Jay Pharoah to promote her Reach Higher campaign, which encourages young people to pursue higher education. “Old people” rapping to kids to send a message is never not embarrassing, but Mrs. Obama is not too shabby on the mic. Meanwhile, the president told People that his favorite song of 2015 was Kendrick Lamar’s “How Much a Dollar Cost.” The lyrics connect the Bible to giving to those in need and there’s an “f-bomb,” which, coupled with the first lady rapping, probably made some conservatives’ heads explode.
WARM: Filter Guy Says ‘Sorry’
The death of ex-Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland brought out an odd chorus of comments from his peers. One of the more interesting commenters was Filter’s Richard Patrick, who won some sad redemption after being criticized earlier this year for saying Weiland’s fans were enabling his addiction and pushing him toward death (Weiland responded by saying he had overcome his heroin addiction years ago). Patrick recently wrote on Facebook that he was sorry for his comments, but he was trying to be helpful. At press time, Weiland’s cause of death had still not been announced (it's been reported that he died of cardiac arrest, but not what brought that on).
COLD: Wu Gotta Be Kidding
We’ve written previously about Wu-Tang Clan’s fascinatingly weird album-release project, which saw the group auction off (reportedly for $2 million) the one and only copy of Once Upon A Time In Shaolin. The endeavor took a depressing turn when it was revealed that worst-Bond-villain-ever, Martin Shkreli (the man whose company acquired rights to a life-saving drug and jacked up the price astronomically), was the purchaser. The deal was reportedly done before the drug controversy, and the group donated some proceeds to charity to offset the ickiness. Shkreli added more weirdness to the already-bizarre story by admitting he hasn’t even listened to the album yet and enjoyed the prospect of never letting anyone else ever hear it.
