Certified Classics celebrates the 25th Anniversary of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) with the release of For The Children: 25 Years of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), a short film featuring members of Wu-Tang, family, and friends discussing the impact of the iconic album.
Taking viewers on a tour through 36 Chambers, this film explores each song via untold stories from Wu-Tang Clan members, alongside personal reflections from artists like A$AP Rocky, A$AP Ferg, Joey Bada$$ and more.
Directed by Shomi Patwary
Creative Director Ashima Aiyer
Executive Producer Ash Peters
Co-Executive Producers Kaki Stergiou & Will McKinney-Raphelt
Editor, VFX, Sound Design Omar Jones
Director of Photography Jon Carr & Nick Kachibaia
Music by Wu-Tang Clan
Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder, entrepreneur and owner of the Washington Post, talks to David Rubenstein about his background, how he came up with the idea for Amazon, building the company, some of the key businesses including Prime and Whole Foods, the space race and philanthropy. The world’s richest man says his most important decisions are made not with quantitative analysis but “with instinct, intuition, taste, heart.”
Just 20 when this story publishes (she’ll turn 21 in August) and an extremely young mother (she had baby daughter Stormi in February), Jenner runs one of the hottest makeup companies ever. Kylie Cosmetics launched two years ago with a $29 “lip kit” consisting of a matching set of lipstick and lip liner, and has sold more than $630 million worth of makeup since, including an estimated $330 million in 2017. Even using a conservative multiple, and applying our standard 20% discount, Forbes values her company, which has since added other cosmetics like eye shadow and concealer, at nearly $800 million. Jenner owns 100% of it.
Over the years, mainstream media and pop culture created a stigma that looks down upon being intelligent. In today’s society “being cool” is actually the opposite of being intelligent, and essentially certain entertainers “dumb down” their intelligence for ratings and record sales. Dumb it Down exposes the entertainment industry for forcing prominent African American celebrities to tone down their intelligence in order to maintain relevant.
Tidal, the high-definition music streaming service acquired by rapper and music mogul Jay-Z, is gearing up for its official relaunch under new ownership today, and it will be doing so by reportedly making a move to snag new releases by some of the biggest musicians of the moment including Kanye West, Madonna and Daft Punk, ahead of rival services like Spotify and Beats.
The company has been sending out invites for a press conference being held at 5pm Eastern time today, in which Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter “will announce a commitment to a new direction for the music industry from both a creative and business perspective.” While there is not much detail being provided officially, unofficially we’ve heard that the company will be using the event to confirm the first big-name artists to stream music exclusively on the Tidal platform.
What might those artists be doing on Tidal? Not an ordinary streaming deal, it seems. Over the weekend, the Swedish blog Breakit reported — citing sources close to the deal — that Tidal’s plan of attack will be to ink first-window deals with the artists, where Tidal would get first releases of tracks from big-name artists ahead of any other digital streaming services. This would be exclusive, but only for a period: Spotify, Deezer and others would eventually also get these tracks, but only later.
It would also follow on the heels of Taylor Swift’s catalog coming to Tidal last week — minus her 1989 album. This is not an exclusive deal but lays the groundwork for other Swift music to make its way to Tidal first.
What’s the pull for these artists? It’s partly the Jay-Z connection. His Roc Nation agency works with a long list of musicians to provide publishing, management, label and other services, with Tidal becoming yet another string on Roc Nation’s bow as a one-stop music distribution shop.
On the other hand, from what we understand, Tidal is also offering a more attractive set of terms to musicians than other streaming services — often agreeing to payouts of twice as much as its rivals.
With many artists complaining that digital music is not providing decent enough returns, the later of these could be a deal maker for Tidal. The big question is whether artists are willing to make the bet on payouts-per-stream over that of visibility: right now Tidal has only 35,000 subscribers paying $19.99 per month across the markets in which it is active, which include the U.S. and UK. By comparison, Spotify noted 15 million paying subscribers in January of this year. Tidal also offers a standard definition service at $9.99.
How does a song become popular? In episode nine of Noisey Atlanta, we look at the backbone of the trap scene: the producers. We sit down with an elite squad of the most significant names in the scene now—Zaytoven, Mike Will Made It, Sonny Digital, Metro Boomin’, Southside, TM88, and Houston’s Travi$ Scott —as they explain the process of how a track moves from being created in the studio to becoming a hit. No A&Rs are needed. No major labels are needed. The city breaks the mold. What’s the main reason? The key to success in Atlanta is simple: the nightlife.
Both Coach K and super producer Zaytoven—who rose to prominence alongside Gucci Mane—explain the explosion of the genre and eventual beef between Young Jeezy and Gucci Mane. We quickly learn that Gucci Mane has not only become one of the most significant rappers in the Atlanta scene, but has so much leverage that his opinion can essentially decide the career trajectory of any new rapper trying to make it. What’s perhaps most impressive is that Gucci’s influence is still just as prominent as ever—even though he’s currently locked up until 2016.
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