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The Grammys Announce Major Changes To Rap & R&B Categories

The Grammy Awards is a presentation ceremony held by the Recording Academy that recognizes musical achievements. The first Grammy Awards was held in 1959, and twenty-eight awards were presented. In the past sixty-one years of the award ceremony, many changes have been made in terms of the actual ceremony, the number of awards presented, and the categories. 

In light of the murder of George Floyd, the nationwide protests, and the recent increased prominence of the Black Lives Matters movement in the media, many people have been calling for companies to take actions in support of the movement. The Grammys have unfortunately previously come under fire before for snubbing black artists and not adapting to the current times. 

Most notably, in 2017 Drake’s song “Hotline Bling” was nominated for Best Rap Song and Best Rap/Sung Performance even though it is not a rap song. In response to this and “One Dance” not being nominated for Record of the Year, Drake did not attend the awards ceremony. Additionally, in the same year, Adele’s 25 won Album of the Year over Beyoncé’s Lemonade. In her acceptance speech, Adele even mentioned how monumental Lemonade was, and said that Beyoncé’s album should have won over hers.  

Well, in response to all of this, the Recording Academy released a press release on Wednesday, June 10 announcing changes that will “go into effect immediately” for the future Grammy Awards. These changes include the renaming of the Best Urban Contemporary Album award to Best Progressive R&B Album, the renaming of the Best Rap/Sung Performance category into Best Melodic Rap Performance, and more. 

The emphasis of the changes was mainly on the usage of the word “urban,” which Tyler, The Creator has previously commented as being “just [a] politically correct way to say the N-word” and place all “the guys that look like me” into the same category while almost ignoring and simplifying his “genre-bending” work. Last week, Republic Records announced that it would stop using the term “urban” to “not adhere to the outdated structures of the past” and urged the rest of the music industry to follow suit. 

To learn more and support the movement, listen to Dash Radio’s Fight The Power Radio here, we will continue to organize benefit streams to raise awareness and funds.

#BlackLivesMatter

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Anderson .Paak Releases Powerful Visual For New Single “Lockdown”

Aftermath’s very own Anderson .Paak returned with a new single last week “Lockdown” the release was accompanied by a moving music video.

The video was directed by Dave Meyers who started his career shooting videos for E-40 & others as early as 1997. More recently Dave Meyers has directed Kendrick Lamars award-winning “Humble” music video. “Lockdown” fits in that same vein of being a powerful music video filled with strong imagery.

The new single finds Anderson singing and rapping about the current protests and everything we’re seeing on the news. He begins the song/chorus singing “You should’ve been Downtown, The people are rising”. This sentiment is expressed throughout the entire song. While painting the picture of the harsh realities we are facing today .Paak is able to bring light to one beautiful aspect of the situation exclaiming that “The people are rising.”

Not only is “Lockdown” incredibly catchy but the lyrics are extremely raw and honest. The verses are rapped from the perspective of a protestor. By the end of the song, Anderson addresses the rubber bullets, tear gas, looting, and everything else we’re seeing on the news.

The R&B crooner never fails to deliver and he went above & beyond on “Lockdown” embodying the voice of the frustrated youth behind a soothing jazzy instrumental. The visuals amplify the message and feature cameo’s from Jay Rock, SiR, Syd the Kid & more.

The music video features a guest verse from Jay Rock which is delivered in poetic fashion. The interesting part about this verse is it’s not featured on the song rather only in the music video.

As the protests continue we will continue to empower those protesting through our Fight The Power Radio station. We have organized 3 benefit streams and have more coming soon.

Hear “Lockdown” and all the best protest songs on Fight The Power Radio powered by Dash Radio.

 

 

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The Philando Castile Fight The Power Benefit Stream

Today beginning at 4 PM PST on our Twitch channel we are airing our Philando Castile Fight The Power Benefit Stream.

Over the last few weeks, we have organized benefit streams in honor of George Floyd & Breonna Taylor, opening discussions on the protests, systematic racism, the trauma of being Black in America, and we dove into the healing process.

Hosted by Zo Williams alongside guest hosts we intend to open up discussions that will guide us towards a better tomorrow. With the inclusion of poetry, DJs, and artists we intent to create a special that will live on forever in honor of those we have lost over the years to senseless violence and abuse of power.

This week we are tackling the issues of policing the Black community & we want to dive into the #DefundThePolice debate. Zo will be joined by the Honorable Judge Hanif Johnson. Hanif at the age of 28 is the youngest judge elected in Pennsylvania history.

Joining our hosts will be a set of speakers including Philando’s mother Valerie Castile, John Rose, attorney to Rick Ross & Kanye West, civil rights attorney Ludlow Creary, and others.

All proceeds from the benefit stream will go the Philando Castile Relief Foundation.

Please join us from 4 PM  – 8 PM PT.

Artists joining include:

DJ Inspire, Yasmin Williams, Louie Tha Profit, Prince Riley, & more!

To watch go to our Twitch channel.

https://www.twitch.tv/dashradio

To hear the audio stream join us on Fight The Power Radio.

https://dashradio.com/ftp