HOT: How to Exit Gracefully
In this day when bands gaudily milk every last dollar from their legacies, star Canadian group The Tragically Hip recently capped off what may well be the most graceful and moving “farewell tour” in Rock history. After the band’s singer/songwriter Gord Downie was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of terminal brain cancer, the band launched one final tour, which was recently capped off with a concert in the group’s Kingston, Ontario hometown. The show (attended by fan and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau) was broadcast nationwide on live TV and also live-streamed around the world (in Canada alone, nearly 12 million reportedly tuned in).
WARM: Taste The Roots
Hip Hop group The Roots plays a key role in what is being called “the first music video you can taste.” Those behind the multi-sensory experiment ("scientists"!) claim that watching two different clips of The Roots’ song “Bittersweet” while drinking a (product placement!) Stella Artois brings out different “notes” of flavor in the beer. One version is said to bring out the fruitier notes, while the other brings out the more bitter taste. Stella’s VP of global marketing said it’s all about those coveted millennial consumers and bringing their “passion points of food, music and art together.” So older people should just keep drinking in lonely silence?
COLD: Paper “Outs” Firefighter/Rapper
Conservative “news” rag the New York Post put longtime Brooklyn-based rapper Ka on its cover, purporting to out him for being a secret “FDNY captain” who “moonlights as anti-cop rapper.” Ka has been an MC since the early ’90s and his longtime job as a firefighter has never been hidden. The paper managed to find some fellow firefighters and police officers who, of course, expressed disgust over lyrics the Post obviously showed them out of context. Numerous fellow MCs showed support on social media, but Ka has yet to respond and there’s no word yet on if he still has his job after the Post’s hit job.
