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Pussy Riot Goes Pop
This article originally appeared on VICE UK.It's been almost a decade since five members of the feminist punk collective Pussy Riot disrupted Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior in multicoloured...
View ArticleProducer Mike Dean Broke a Toe Jumping Over a Ditch With Kanye and Jay Z
This article originally appeared on VICE UK.If you know Mike Dean, then you know Mike Dean. The 55 year-old Texan instrumentalist (not the English football referee!) has produced on every Kanye West...
View ArticleNew Research Confirms Banning UK Drill Does More Harm Than Good
This article originally appeared on VICE UK.For all the potential opportunities UK drill provides, the police, government and tabloid press still see the genre as single-handedly inciting city-wide...
View ArticleUK Drill's Best Artists Pick Their Favourite Drill Tune
This article originally appeared on VICE UK.Press Play is one of the go-to spots for hearing the best up and coming UK drill. The platform clocks in around two million views weekly, pushing many of the...
View ArticleThe Best and Worst Case Scenarios for Music Festivals in 2021
This article originally appeared on VICE UK.Packing onto a crowded, muddied festival field, squatting over a petri dish-like Portaloo while your pal protects the door, sharing a key of drugs with a...
View ArticleHow 'Candy' by Cameo Became a Joyous Black Call To Arms
Music has long had the power to unite, but there are a few songs that have that power more than most. If you go to a football match, it'll most likely be "Seven Nation Army" or "Sweet Caroline", and if...
View Article10 out of 12 Music Industry Trade Bodies Don't Employ a Single Black Woman
A new report published on Wednesday has found shocking disparities of employment of men and women – in particular Black women – across 12 music industry trade bodies in the UK. Ten out of 12 of the...
View ArticleGrime MC Solo 45 Sentenced to 29 Years for Multiple Counts of Horrific Abuse
Andy Anokye is the former member of grime crew Boy Better Know that no one wants to talk about. Known publicly as the musician Solo 45, he lived the extravagant life many UK rappers dream of when he...
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The 'ABC of UKG' is the Definitive UK Garage Book, For Kids
UK garage holds a special place in the hearts of millions. A rare case of homegrown club culture that translated perfectly to the charts, UKG was inescapable in the late 90s and early 00s. Even today,...
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The Strange New World of Socially Distant Gigs
On a Tuesday night in late July, people slowly trickled into an empty venue for what was the first indoor socially distant gig in the UK. Ticket-holders were excited to be present for a strange...
View ArticleThe Musical Legacy of Brokencyde, One of History’s Most Hated Bands
The year is 2009 and you’re in your mid-teens. You’re wearing neon checkered vans, skinny jeans and a hoodie unzipped to show off your Christian metalcore band T-shirt. Your penny-sized gauges glimmer...
View ArticleDrill Lyrics Are Being Used Against Young Black Men in Court
Prosecuting Rap: Criminal Justice and UK Black Youth Expressive Culture, which I joined as a researcher in early 2020, looks at how lyrics and videos from rap subgenres like drill are being presented...
View ArticleThe Top 50 Greatest Landfill Indie Songs of All Time
Somewhere between the “indie rock revival” of the early-2000s and the emergence of “poptimism” in the early-2010s, the UK charts were dominated by a procession of homogenous bands making a type of...
View ArticleHow It Felt When a Grime MC Slut-Shamed Me During a Clash
When I started a music mentorship scheme in London in 2016, I was 21 and very excited. I’d been selected as one of 40 young people on One True Calling – an initiative set up by ex Beats 1 DJ Julie...
View ArticleI Had My Name Ruined By a Pop Song
Since the advent of pop music, people have been writing songs with names in them. Typically, these tracks were written by hopeless romantics looking to garner the attention of the girl who rejected...
View ArticleThe Guide to Getting Into Sufjan Stevens, Master of Emotion
Sifting through Sufjan Stevens’ discography, you start to question whether you’ve imagined some of the entries. An instrumental album based around the animals of the Chinese zodiac; a multi-media...
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The Rebirth of Slowthai
Slowthai’s nan, Patsy, is facing the September sun from her daughter’s patio. She shuffles in her flip flops and watches slowthai wander in circles as his cousin and manager, Lewis, wrestles with a...
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Photos of Hometown Fans at Kid Laroi's First Headline Australian Show
Whether you like Kid Laroi’s music or not, he is inarguably one of the most important artists to have come out of Australia in the last decade, or maybe ever. A proud Kamilaroi man – of which his...
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'There's No Other Rapper Doing Geopolitical, Communist Rap': An Interview...
Ghais Guevara's music is chaotic, confronting, and cathartic. Swirling, jazz-inspired beats whip around his frenetic-yet-precise wordplay, evoking images of Black pain, violence and joy. Channelling...
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