MNOTW: Louis Theroux enlists Stormzy for first episode of new docu-series, Black Star announces first album in 24 years & more

This week’s news includes: the announcement of Louis Theroux’s forthcoming documentary with Stormzy, Blackstar’s first album in over 20 years to be produced by Madlib, The Grammys face backlash after labelling Virgil Abloh as a ‘hip hop designer’ in tribute and more.

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Stormzy to appear on Louis Theroux’s new docu-series

Louis Theroux will be starting a six-part self-titled series, The Louis Theroux Interviews. The first episode will feature Stormzy as the focus. Filmed during his latest tour and at his home in London for an ‘in-depth and personally revealing encounter’.

The remaining episodes will each feature a different guest, which is yet to be announced. Speaking about the series, Theroux said: “I’m so excited to be embarking on this new series – something very different to the kind of TV I normally make. This will be a chance to meet and spend time with people I admire, get to know them, having long-form and revealing conversations, with honesty, emotion, and humour.

“To be kicking off with the genius that is Stormzy is proper pinch-me stuff. I can’t wait to get going.” The Louis Theroux Interviews will be available on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer. A release date is yet to be announced. Earlier this month, Stormzy confirmed his third studio album will be released this year following 2019’s Heavy Is The Head.

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Black Star announce first album in 20 years, to be produced by Madlib

Black Star have announced their first album in 24 years produced by the luminary that is Madlib. No Fear of Time will be available to stream exclusively on the Luminary podcasting platform starting May 3, nearly 24 years after the release of their cult-favourite collaborative debut, Most Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star.

The pair had been teasing the album over the last few years however their attempts were thwarted by “interlopers and culture vulture” according to Kweli. On this he adds, “About 3-4 years ago I was visiting Yasiin in Europe and we started to talk about songs to do on an album, so I flew an engineer out just to see what that would be,” Kweli adds.

“Once I realized this conversation is starting to organically become a creative conversation, I started making sure to have the engineer around at all times. There was one day we were just in a hotel listening to Madlib beats, and he’s like ‘Play that Madlib tape again.’ I’m playing the beats and he starts doing rhymes to the beats. And that’s how we did the first song. This is very similar to how we did the first album. But the first album, there were no mobile studios. This entire album, we have not set foot in one recording studio. It’s all been done in hotel rooms and backstage at Dave Chappelle shows.”

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Grammy’s face backlash for ‘In Memorium’ section of the show: Virgil categorised as a ‘hip hop designer’, recognition not given to the late Drakeo the Ruler

Anyone who has become familiar with Virgil Abloh’s work knows it to be ‘visionary’ to say the least and “the meaning of fashion itself.”. So when the Grammy Awards memorialized Abloh over the weekend as a “hip-hop fashion designer,” those familiar with his body of work were understandably upset.

It’s difficult to apply one title to Abloh when he held so many. He was the founder of Off-White, artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear, and longtime creative director for Kanye West. But somehow, Abloh also found time to work as a DJ, architect, and visual artist with exhibitions in some of the world’s top museums. As a creative leader in so many spaces, although he worked alongside many greats in the world of hip hop, giving Abloh the title “hip-hop fashion designer” felt like an egregious disservice.

It wasn’t the only blunder during the awards ‘In Memorium’ section. It also came as a shock to fans of Drakeo the Ruler, “On behalf of Drakeo The Ruler, Ketchy The Great and The Stinc Team, it comes off as a spit in the face disregarding the facts that we’ve created an entire movement that generated the momentum for underground emerging L.A. artists to have a platform,” Ralfy said in a statement. “Let alone the reality that we lost my Brother, Drakeo The Ruler, the poster child for systematic prejudices against rappers by law enforcement using lyrics against our culture and violating what they call our constitutional rights of freedom of speech- The First Amendment.”

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Bandcamp has been acquired by Epic Games

Epic Games, a world-renowned video game developer, have announced they will be acquiring Bandcamp in a move to branch out into music services and support artist-focused platforms. A statement on Epic Games’ website reads: “Today, we are thrilled to announce that Bandcamp will become part of Epic Games…”

“Fair and open platforms are critical to the future of the creator economy. Epic and Bandcamp share a mission of building the most artist-friendly platform that enables creators to keep the majority of their hard-earned money. Bandcamp will play an important role in Epic’s vision to build out a creator marketplace ecosystem for content, technology, games, art, music and more.” Despite being bought by Epic Games, the online music platform will continue to operate as a standalone marketplace and music community and will continue to be led by Bandcamp’s co-founder and CEO, Ethan Diamond.

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Spotify is piloting a way to promote user-made playlists

Spotify is testing a new “Featured Curators” feature that promotes popular user playlists alongside its official Spotify playlists, the company announced on Monday. The new feature is part of a limited-time test that is designed to amplify the playlists that users create on Spotify. The feature is also a way for listeners to discover more music on the platform.

The company says the curators it has selected for this feature are music lovers with established followings and popular playlists on Spotify. Users in select markets will start to see Featured Curator playlists recommended in-app and on their homepages. Spotify plans to tweak the new feature throughout the testing period. “Our goal is always to make Spotify the number one destination for the best listening experience, and with this pilot, we’re giving listeners a new way to discover music from fellow fans who are as engaged as they are,” the company said in a blog post about the announcement. “We’re always testing unique and different listening experiences and programs for our fans, and we’re excited to watch this one unfold.”