put another way:
McDonald’s didn’t kill Peter’s Luger’s Steakhouse - if anything it strengthened their business
if you make“McDonald’s music” AI is a problem & “you must adapt”
if you make “Peter Luger” music it’s not
AI is not gonna put Yo-Yo Ma out of business
but it will put 99% of the Diplo-type record producers out of business
my hot take:
ALL of the people saying “adapt or die” are BUSINESS people 1st - MUSIC people 2nd and/or people who’ve made careers in music w/o actually learning to play an instrument or sing
www.musicradar.com/artists/i-ca...
my nephew was the head of a Zulu Nation chapter in Brooklyn
when the “allegations” hit we had a sit-down so I could find out what action I was going to need to take against the person who started the whole thing
In that case none was necessary
but I can’t say RIP
www.tmz.com/2026/04/09/a...
this still slaps:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlbA...
Jimmy Douglass, "The Senator", is one of my inspirations
I 1st saw his name on a Black Heat album he produced
then found out he'd worked w Roxy Music, Aretha, & the Rolling Stones
when hip-hop hit, he reinvented & became Timbaland & Missy's right hand man
Respect
www.musicradar.com/artists/prod...
"A series of related concerts and events in New York, backed by the arts presenter FourOneOne, kicks off April 15"
www.fouroneoneprojects.org/events/melvi...
"After decades of research as both a scholar and performer, he’s sharing his findings in a revelatory new book, “How Black Music Took Over the World,” out April 14."
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/a...
last thoughts:
a) Flea was the bassist in Johnny Depp's band, so him having the LA flavors-of-the-moment backing him up is a full-circle moment
b) You gotta respect the fact that something that would be a pinnacle moment in most musicians' careers (a Nonesuch Record) is just a footnote in his
it's sort of parallel to how making records in general has changed. Ppl rarely hire a full set of A level session musicians to cut tracks now.
They call 1 or 2 ppl who are "ok" - just good enough - on a few different instruments who understand the process of making records.
I witnessed an interesting back & forth between my Tubman partner Brandon Ross & Tomin (check out his stuff on IA) about the Chicago(/LA) scene vs our generation/our methods of collaboration
openness to non-virtuosity vs you need to be able to play at an A level IS one of the diffrences
thoughts:
I feel:
a) that the "Alternative Jazz" category exist b/c of Glasper winning that R&B Grammy over Chris Brown
b) the proper frame for the currently hot subset of the L.A. scene/ Int. Anthem roster is "Birth Of The Cool" era Miles
&
b) non-virtuoso jazz has been a thing for a while now
It’s out!
Electrical Field of Love:
Harriet Tubman
&
Georgia Anne Muldrow
harriettubman.bandcamp.com/album/electr...
Join theoretical cosmologist/ jazz musician/ author Stephon Alexander and I at the Library for Arts & Culture in Brooklyn on April 15th
for a discussion about “How Black Music Took Over The World”
www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar/how...
The UN General Assembly just adopted a resolution on the enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity.
123 in favor.
Countries in red - voted against.
Countries in yellow - abstained.
#BlackskyNews
🥴
my book “How Black Music Took Over The World” drops on April 14th
to mark the occasion
FourOneOne will be presenting a series of events in NYC
www.fouroneoneprojects.org/residencies/...
a good analogy
is people who say Anthony Edwards
is a better dunker that Doctor J
Yeah...But
Doctor J set the template
& did s#it people could barely imagine doing at the time
plus
you're seeing Edwards in hi def
vs Doctor J's 70's film
in context who's "better"?
what come to mind
is Lil Yaughty opining about hip-hop icons
he usually hates & old heads get upset
they forget - He Wasn't There
his opinions are valid circa '26
but they ignore context
It's like ppl in ' 26 thinking Basquiat is "better"
than Rammellzee or Case2
they don't know the lineage
having said that
I’d argue that None of the records truly capture what was great about what Sun Ra did
it really was a “you had to be there” kind of thing
I haven’t seen the PBS special yet
so I won’t comment on that
I’m old enough to remember when the rockers who discovered free jazz didn’t like anything with a groove & didn’t get Ellington’s connection to the music
understanding Fletcher Henderson & HIS contribution to free music - & swing
is the next step after that
this is how it was back in the day
EVERYBODY knew who
Phase 2
was
but only a few of us
knew who Phase 2 WAS
my most unexpected hot take is:
Fcuk Swans!
I hate them all lol
(juskiddin' - I don't Hate anyone or anything
but I'm deadass about the f swans part)
seeing "X is shocking" on an internet post will normally guarantee that I scroll past it
But this genuinely IS shocking
He obviously believes in the cause
very Eichmann-like
1) making "Product" is not the same as making Music
2) If you're gonna talk about the "working class" and "production" -- you need to talk about workers OWNING the means of production ---
3) Music creators are owners by default by law
so SUNO's business model (like this framing) is a flim-flam
I’m old enough to remember Fox News whining about Obama wearing a tan suit. Those same people ain’t gonna say jack about this fashion crime
so
the US definitely targeted the school
got it
what you said: right
what they said: wrong
the mass audience is not going away
corporate America's ability to drive what they pay attention to is
& "Micro-Community", like "Superfan" is a digital marketing term - an attempt to redefine & capture something that already exists beyond technofeudalism
I've said it before
but at this point it's undeniable
the French postmodernists/deconstructionists were right
and their naysayers are wrong
right now
we're watching the most speculative/far out s#it
Baudrillard talked about
play out in real time
he's owed an apology lol
If he's saying "don't listen to lawyers" publicly
He's already said it privately
to the people at DHS & ICE
