HOT: The Best Donald
The viral ascension of Donald Glover’s brilliant and chart-topping “This is America” (released by his Hip Hop alter-ego Childish Gambino) has resulted in the best viral fan swarm ever (sorry, Beyhive). Gambino/Glover fans overtook the #MAGA minions on the subreddit /r/thedonald, which is usually reserved for grammatically sketchy discussions about “Donald Trumps (sic) great contributions to modern society.” Now, that little corner of Reddit is overwhelmed with photos, gifs, music and more, all in tribute to “the real Donald.” A photo of a sticker on the page summed it up nicely: “The Only Donald We Acknowledge is Glover.”
WARM: Worse Than Confederate Memorials?
Has Wynton Marsalis just become the Kanye West of Jazz? Short (and only) answer: No. The legend has done noble work to preserve Jazz’s rich history in the public consciousness, but he recently drew headlines and criticism for comments about a different kind of history. The trumpeter/composer re-entered the national argument over whether statues honoring heroes of the losing, slave-wanting side of the Civil War have any place in modern society; on a Washington Post podcast he said that he feels Hip Hop is “more damaging” than Robert E. Lee memorials in terms of racial issues. Though baiting headlines made it sound like he was going all Geraldo Rivera, Marsalis was just continuing a longtime curmudgeonly streak that is on-brand with his purist inclinations — he has long been against the use of derogatory words in Rap music (though he praised the aforementioned “This is America”) and, in the same interview, he also complained about the use of drum machines.
COLD: Swift Injustice
She may have co-written a huge hit with a complete nonsense word as its hook (“bah-dee-yah”?), but songwriter Allee Willis does have a way with words. Commenting on Taylor Swift’s unnecessarily maligned version of that hit Willis co-wrote with Earth Wind & Fire — “September” — she said, “I felt it was as lethargic as a drunk turtle dozing under a sunflower after ingesting a bottle of Valium.” But she also defended Swift, saying she didn’t think her cover was “horrible,” adding a little perspective to the backlash by remarking, “I mean, she didn’t kill anybody.”