Choo Yi Feng, M.S. Dean, Wen-yi Lee, poetry from Rasha Abdulhadi and Folarin James, and cover art by Yu Ying. Read the entire issue free online:Anathema: Spec from the MarginsIssue 15, May 2022
While Legend wrote all of the original songs on his own — a career first — he insistsMy Favorite Dreamwouldn't have been as impactful without Stevens' production. Legend was first introduced to Stevens' work through his critically acclaimed 2005 LP,Illinois."It's such...
In the XXL magazine in 2009, Rick ended up on the cover with some Louis Vuitton sunglasses. This cause huge controversy since someone noticed that the sunglasses are fake. However, later it had turned our that they were personalized by a professional. Since 2010, he made quite a lot of EP...
Years back I had a unique opportunity to profile Motown's top two bassists, James Jamerson and Bob Babbitt, forBass Guitar Magazine. By virtue of the iconic Detroit label's global success, the pair is among the most recorded and widely heard bass players in music history. In particular, i...
“Before Def Jam, hip-hop records were typically really long, and they rarely had a hook,” Rick Rubin told The New York Times in 2007.“By making our rap records sound more like pop songs, we changed the form.” He had a passion for catchy songwriting and melodies and used radio-...
Rapper Ice Cube performs during Nightmare On Q Street at the Orleans Arena on October 16, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada. David Becker, Getty Images Ice Cube Song:"No Vaseline" Year:1991 Target:N.W.A, Jerry Heller Brutal Bars:"Lookin' like straight bozos/I saw it comin', that's why I ...
LeBron James shouted you outon Instagram when “INTRO” dropped, and you remind me of him: No matter the situation, he gets it done. Do you see that similarity? I’m aware, but it’s just the way I’m set up. Being that once-in-a-generation, once-in-a-lifetime, once-in-an...
While he now speaks openly about the fact that he’s responsible for writing half of the songs on Biz Markie's 1988 debut album,Goin’ Off, Kane says that wasn’t always the case. Back then, Biz, Big Daddy Kane and the team around them felt it was important to keep it on the low...
Rick Stevers: You know that song is funny that way: it’s both. I kind of hate that song was our biggest hit song, as we had other songs I deemed of a much better quality and actually in a different direction, such as ‘A Song For Freedom’, which should have been an even bigge...
Bruce Springsteen (1982):Springsteen originally meant for these stark, desolate songs to serve as demos for the E Street Band, but their themes - mostly death and despair, and lots of it - worked better as stripped-down acoustic numbers. We can't imagine them any other way. ...