NBA All Star weekend is going to be star studded! The NBA has drafted a superstar lineup of performers for this year’s festivities in New Orleans.
Janelle Monáe; Earth, Wind & Fire; Dr. John; and Gary Clark Jr. will join forces for a New Orleans-inspired performance during Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game halftime show. Pharrell will also be taking the stage and performing his hit song “Happy” with some surprise guest!
On the eve of the game, Kendrick Lamar will headline All-Star Saturday Night, performing hits off his debut good kid, m.A.A.d city.
Hard Knock TV, in collaboration with GRAMMY.com, sits down with Producer of the Year Pharrell Williams for in-depth interview.
In part 1, Pharrell recalls how Sugarhill Gang, Afrika Bambaataa’s Planet Rock and Nile Rodgers all played into his early music memories. Pharrell explains how he’s always felt a “little left of center”. He adds that “I think music helped me and other people make sense of it. You are only crazy when there is nothing to go along with it…When you have these eccentric characteristics, its more accepted and understood when there is some sort of skill-set attached to it…For example Jay Z mumbles when he writes his songs, he mumbles for 10-15 minutes, then he comes back with like 16 bars of one of the most comprehensive verses you have heard in a long time.
He does it every time. But again, there is some sort of skill-set to accompany his madness…Music was my inner sanctum, that’s where I found my peace.” As the interview continues Nick ask’s Pharrell about his creative process when he goes in the studio with an artist and what his thought process was going into the making of Blurred Lines. You don’t want to miss what he has to say about that plus how he thinks artists like Lorde, Kendrick Lamar and Ed Sheeran are changing the game by making meaningful music and letting the people speak for them instead of record labels executives.
XXL caught up with Kendrick sat night at Dom Kennedy’s concert in New York, and got his thoughts on the Grammys.
On Macklemore: “It’s well deserved; he did what he did, man. He went out there and hustled and grinded. Everything happens for a reason; the universe comes back around, that’s how it go.”
On Grammys: “I definitely feel like they should always have more of the culture up in there, for sure, because we definitely stand out just like any other genre. We part of the world. We part of the movement. So I think any awards, including the Grammys, should always push for more hip-hop because it’s music as a whole, it’s not just splitting different regions. Everything moves as far as sound and vibrations, and that’s how it goes. And we are a part of that.”
After the Grammys TDE put on a show at the House Of Blues to show their fans love . The show included performances from Isaiah Rashad , SZA & Ab-Soul , Schoolboy Q, Kendrick performed with a fan and freestyled to “Rigormortis”, he also performed m.A.A.d city.
Imagine Dragons released their official remix to “Radioactive” featuring K.Dot, which they performed during their mash-up with Kendrick tonight at the Grammys.
The Hollywood Reporter caught up with Kendrick Lamar, and talked his Grammy nomination, his controversial “Control” verse, and his new album he has in the works.
On his next album:
I got ideas, I haven’t really locked in the studio yet. Really challenge myself to do something better. I mean, of course you want to do better than your last. But creatively, I want to be in another space. That’s the challenge, if anything.
On “Control”:
It wasn’t pre-meditated, it just came to me when I was writing that bar,” says Lamar. “The crazy part is, I didn’t think it would ever go to where diss records were coming at me. I thought people would be like… he threw some challenges out there… that was dope.
Kanye taught me to never to downplay your ideas. I learned to always stay as creative as possible and never have any boundaries. Those things that people called ‘rants’ on-stage are real conversations that we had behind closed doors — about business and how when you get to a certain level people won’t want to see you break through because they only see you as a rapper.
On his Grammy nominations:
I was actually on stage, so I had no idea. Everybody else knew but me. By the time I got off I kinda got the news late. It was a great feeling, everybody was happy, excited. We celebrated in that dressing room.
The Grammys has teamed up with Pepsi to spotlight their Best New Artist nominees with this mini series called “Day in the Life.” Here, Kendrick Lamar walks us through his daily schedule (which includes late nights in the studio and early mornings doing press), lets us in on his “spontaneous” creative process and talks about the hard work and dedication required to stay on top. K. Dot is up against Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, James Blake, Ed Sheeran and Kacey Musgraves for Best New Artist at the Grammys, which goes down Sunday, Jan. 26 in Los Angeles.
