California rapper Kendrick Lamar won the Pulitzer Prize for music on Monday for his album “DAMN.,” organizers announced.
Lamar, 30, is the first rapper to win the prestigious award. The Pulitzer follows the five Grammy awards won by Lamar in January for the album
Previous Pulitzer music winners include jazz musicians Wynton Marsalis and Ornette Coleman.
Rap is now officially the biggest music genre in the United States after surpassing rock in 2017.
Lamar’s fusion of jazz, poetry and blues with social themes and love songs has made him one of the most innovative rappers of his generation.
The Pulitzers, the most prestigious honors in American journalism and the arts, have been awarded since 1917. Lamar’s Pulitzer win marked a significant departure as previous honorees have been drawn from the worlds of classical music and jazz.
The Pulitzer board on Monday hailed “DAMN.”, which was released in April 2017, as “a virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African-American life.”
“DAMN.,” Lamar’s third album, topped the Billboard 200 album charts for three weeks on its release last year.
Lamar is from the Los Angeles suburb of Compton, the home of hip-hop pioneers
DB Records boss, pop-star and entrepreneur, D’banj made alarming comments on Wednesday, February 28, 2018, when he spoke at the 2018 edition of social media week in Lagos.
The Kokomaster, who spoke as one of the panellists on the topic: Changing The Game: Artistes As Leaders, threw a jab at record label owners in Nigeriia.
Here are the three issues he raised at the event.
Most record labels are owned by Yahoo boys.
Nigerian artistes lack capacity.
Record label owners don’t know anything about music.
“Most of the new generation record labels are founded by Yahoo boys. You must understand first, why are you coming into music.
“Nigerian artistes need a lot of capacity building. It is only in Nigeria that the owner of a record label doesn’t know anything about music.
“Just like any product, you must always evolve. The fear of being poor made me think outside the box. This is one of the factors that drove me into music” he said.
Seun Oni a.k.a Saeon needs no introduction in the Nigerian music space. The versatile singer has said she doesn’t do music to compete; rather she does it to fulfil her purpose.
Saeon who lost her dad in 2017, has described is death as a terrible blow to her music career.
She made this known in a chat with Punch.
“I had a tough but interesting 2017. I lost my dad midway through the year and I kept a low profile afterwards because he was dear to me. He inspired my love for songwriting and music generally. He was my number one supporter; so, losing him felt like I had lost a huge part of me. I had to take time to process it and to be with my family. I’m happy to be back to work and I know he would want me to forge ahead and keep following my dreams.”
“I don’t do what I do to compete. I make music to fulfill my purpose. I make music to inspire, reform and connect people. I make music for arts and culture. I make music for the people.”
Nigerians have continued to react over a video of Omotola that surfaced online yesterday. In the video Omotola can be seen performing on stage with her band at the grand ball in commemoration of her 40th birthday.
They advised her to give up on music, adding that she needs to focus on her acting.
Recall that Omotola released her debut album in 2005 with the release of her hit song ‘GBA’
A certain Royal wrote on Instagram: “Omotola please give up on your music dream please. Don’t sing again”.
“Why does she think she can sing though? She doesn’t have a nice voice” Odionzure said.
Azebookhai said: “As in I am watching d song again! The backup singer keeps going off key, she d omosexy keeps missing a beat before singing. Why? Maybe you could have read a poem? Acted a play? Or launched a book? Like kilode”?
“I love her, but she needs to stop singing” Mayowa asserted on Instagram
M.I Abaga, renowned Nigerian rapper and Chocolate City Chairman has announced his new body of work.
“I should be close to retirement/ but none of you rappers inspiring/ none of you pass the requirements/ I can’t retire yet then,” MI Abaga had declared on his provocative song, titled ‘You Rappers Should Fix Up Your Lives’.
After releasing three albums, a compilation album and three mixtapes, MI is back in the game. The talented rapper made this known on Instagram.
In his statement, M.I said he “will never rush music”.
“People ask me to rush and just put out music. I have tried and failed horribly because music is too important to me,” the Chocolate City president reiterated
“This project has taken so long.. but I promise it is worth it.
“Every project for me is a piece of my life. I will never rush music because I respect my fan base too much.”
MI began his music career when he returned to Nigeria in 2003. Finding his place in an industry dominated by the likes of Modenine, Ruggedman and Eedris Abdulkareem, he quickly commenced the production of mixtapes with his friend Djinee. This led to the critically acclaimed single “Safe”, (a song which he parodied popular Nigerian songs in its lyrics) which gathered impressive airplay by African radio and music video stations such as MTV Vibe.
The year 2017 is almost coming to an end and YouTube, in its yearly tradition, has released its top 10 list of trending videos along with the top 10 music videos that ruled the charts in the year.
The music videos list is topped, unsurprisingly, by Luis Fonsi’s Spanish song Despacito (featuring Daddy Yankee) that recently became the most watched video on YouTube raking in more than 4.4 billion views. It broke the record set three years ago by PSY’s Gangnam Style.
Other music videos in the top 10 list include Ed Sheeran’s popular song Shape Of You and That’s What I Like from Bruno Mars.
The interesting part about this year’s list is that 6 out of the 10 music videos are in Spanish, a feat that owes itself mostly to Despacito’s blockbuster success.
On the other hand, the top 10 trending videos of 2017 include a variety of genres like covers of Shape Of You, a ping pong trick shots video from the Dude Perfect channel, and Lady Gaga’s Pepsi Zero Sugar Super Bowl video from this year’s NFL finale.
Collectively, the 10 top viral YouTube videos have racked up more than 633 million views (83 million more than last year’s top 10 list) and have been watched for over 40 million hours.
The top trending videos are, in fact, not the most viewed videos for the calendar and are based on YouTube’s algorithm that takes into account a combination of factors including measuring users’ interactions (number of views, shares, comments, and likes).
YouTube Top 10 Trending Videos of 2017
1. Until We Will Become Dust – Oyster Masked | The Mask Singer 2
2. Ed Sheeran – Shape Of You | Kyle Hanagami Choreography
In continuing with its annual tradition, Google on Friday announced the best and most popular apps, games, music, movies, TV shows, books of 2017 on the Google Play apps store.
While Game of Thrones emerged the most popular TV show on Google Play for the second year in a row, Rick and Morty and The Walking Dead are on the second and third positions, respectively.
Kendrick Lamar has become the most streamed song of this year, while Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You is now the second-most streamed song worldwide, whereas His DNA holds the number three spot.
Nintendo’s “Super Mario Run” was the most downloaded new game of the year, but not all bubbles were burst, as “Bubble Witch 3 Saga” was closely behind at number two.
Photo Editor – Beauty Camera & Photo Filters was the most downloaded new app with fans touching up their favorite photos for social media.
TheNewsGuru.commobile app is outperforming news apps on the Google Play, and the app has recorded tremendous downloads barely three months of its release.
“To close out another great year for Google Play, we’re sharing the best and most popular apps, games, music, movies, TV shows and books in 2017.
“We also have curated lists this year from our editors to help you find the best apps and games of 2017, such as “Socratic – Math Answers & Homework Help” and “CATS: Crash Area Turbo Stars,” respectively,” Brett Bouchard, Global Head of Apps & Store Engagement, Merchandising, Google Play, said announcing the list.
Folarin Falana, an entertainer better known as Falz, has said Nigerian artistes are not to blame for the poor lyrical content of their songs.
According to Falz, “Nigerians just want to dance” and as such, artistes will feed them with what they desire.
Of late, many entertainment stakeholders and veterans have complained that lyrics are often centred around money, women, and alcohol.
Reacting, Falz said: “Music of today truly lacks content, but it is hardly the fault of the musician, as Nigerians just want to dance.It is correct to say that a lot of artistes are not concerned about lyrical content because they know that the Nigerian people just want to dance.
“However, a few musicians still pay attention to lyrical content. I personally pay a lot of attention to that.
“Music shouldn’t be about the beats alone. Good music is a good blend of everything – good beat, good message and nice melody.”
Speaking in the same vein, Innocent Onyemuwa (Daddy Fresh) said, “Music should not be on ‘whine your waist’. Our artistes are trying but I have a little problem with their stereotyped lyrics. Everybody is talking about, `whine your waist’.
“Sometimes, there is too much repetition and I’m not okay with that. I want us to be more creative.
“Creativity will give us what we are looking for to stand out internationally and when it comes to nominations for awards,” he said.
Onyemuwa, however, hailed Nigerians musicians for efforts in promoting the entertainment industry.
“It gives me the hope that Nigeria will in future be on top because we have got all it takes: good rappers, good singers; we have got our representatives.”
A veteran reggae musician, Daniel Wilson, who came to limelight in the early 90s with his hit tune, ‘Mr Ragamuffin’, told NAN that he was dissatisfied with lyrics of contemporary music.
“I grew up listening to good music from Mike Okri, Evi Edna Ogoli and Majek Fashek and others,” he said.
“Music can mean anything to anybody. I grew up listening to the best Nigeria had to offer, but what I listen to these days breaks my heart.
“Times without number, I ask some young musicians what they know about music. How can you hope to be celebrated when you don’t even celebrate those who were there before you?” Wilson asked?
Renowned Nigerian musician, music producer and saxophonist, Lagbaja has shared his opinion about contemporary Nigerian music.
At a time when Nigerian music is dominating on the world stage, the veteran singer noted that when it comes to entertainment, Nigeria is the influence on African nations.
Speaking in a chat with TheNewsGuru,he said: “People complain that Nigerian music is monotonous, but we are growing.Now we have learnt to use Nigerian beats . Even if an artiste is doing hip hop, the beat is still Nigerian. That is growth, you might say many of them don’t play instruments, Micheal Jackson no dey play Instrument.Its an explosive industry, its growing. We are the influence on other African nations.
On how Afrobeat legend , Fela Kuti inspires him, he said Fela made him understand the African heritage
Hear him: “The major thing I learnt from Fela was the fact that I learnt about my heritage . We didn’t know about heritage until somebody told us about it. Oyinbo pushed so many things to our head.When Fela talked about history and explained to me the importance of the black man, what we did before Oyinbo sef come learn small small, it was an eye opener.The major impact is giving me a sense of pride . A lot of people don’t know wearing of tattoos originated from Africa and even wearing of dreadlocks”
Vices like smoking and drinking alcohol is peculiar to entertainers. Many were shocked when Nigerian entertainer and gubernatorial aspirant, Kingsley Okonkwo a.k.a Kcee stated that he has never smoked in his entire life.
Hear him:”I have never smoked in my entire life. The only time I’ve held a cigarette was while shooting a music video. If I want to unwind, I just take a little sip here and there, and I’m good.
When asked why it took him so long to release an album , the Limpopo crooner admitted that the Nigerian music industry doesn’t support album projects.
“The industry doesn’t support album projects and this makes some of us to see it as a waste of time, money and energy. After my last album, I was very busy travelling round the world performing, but I’ve never slacked in releasing singles. The songs I’ve released after my last album are enough to fill up an album. Having that long interval between my albums doesn’t mean I’m a lazy artiste but I think this would be the last time that I would wait so long before releasing an album. I may even release one next year”.
