Latest news with #ChuckD
BBC News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Big names heading to Leeds for International Festival of Ideas
Comedian David Baddiel, rapper Chuck D and journalist Victoria Derbyshire will be among the big names to appear at this year's Leeds International Festival of Ideas (LIFI), organisers have taking part would be writer Sally Wainwright, talking about her new Hebden Bridge-based TV drama, I Predict A Riot, along with Tamsin Greig, one of the show's festival, between 14-18 October, was expected to feature talks, discussions and performances tackling some of society's biggest questions, organisers director Martin Dickson said this year's event, also featuring Vicky McClure, Myleene Klass and Caitlin Moran, would be "the most urgent and exciting edition yet". "In an increasingly polarised world, we need safe spaces to explore difficult topics with empathy, expertise and a sense of hope," he said. Baddiel, who is also an author and podcaster, was expected to explore faith, division and identity in Is Religion the Ultimate Culture War? which would take place at Leeds Playhouse on 16 October, according to the festival's Public Enemy frontman Chuck D would take part in How Hip-Hop Changed the World, a conversation with broadcaster Nihal Arthanayake at the same venue on 14 etiquette expert and podcaster William Hanson was expected to present Manners Cost Nowt, an exploration of what counts as good manners, and why they still events would include Our Dementia Choir Live, with Vicky McClure bringing her inspiring project to Leeds with a mix of music and conversation, while Fara Williams MBE, Verity Smith and Emily Campbell would take part in How Level is the Playing Field? - a debate on gender equality in Dickson said: "This year's line-up reflects the richness of public discourse, from legendary cultural icons to everyday change-makers, all ready to challenge ideas, share truths and spark curiosity. "Leeds has always been a city of voices. LIFI is where they come together." Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sly Stone Believed Everybody Is a Star: The Massive Legacy of an Avant-Funk Revolutionary
Thank you for the party, but Sly could never stay. Sly Stone was always the ultimate mystery man of American music, a visionary genius who transformed the world with some of the most innovative sounds of the Sixties and Seventies. With Sly and the Family Stone, he fused funk, soul, and acid rock into his own utopian sound, in hits like 'Family Affair' and 'Everyday People.' Yet he remained an elusive figure, all but disappearing in the 1970s. When he died on Monday, it seemed strange he was 'only' 82, because he seemed even older — as if he'd outlived himself by decades. Yet his music sounds as boldly futuristic and influential as ever, which is why the world is still reeling from this loss. Nobody ever sounded like this man. Sly could write inspirational songs of unity, anthems like 'I Want to Take You Higher' that would turn a live crowd into a euphoric tribe, or uplifting hits like 'Stand!' or 'Everybody Is a Star' that can catch you in a lonely moment and make you feel like the rest of your life is a chance to live up to the song's challenge. More from Rolling Stone 'He Would Be in the Top 10': Ben Fong-Torres on Writing Sly Stone's Rolling Stone Cover Story Vernon Reid on Why Sly and the Family Stone Were the Greatest American Band Chuck D Explains How Sly Stone Influenced Public Enemy But that went side by side with his streetwise sense of betrayal and rage. 'Everybody Is a Star' comes on like a love song to human hope, so radiant in every tiny sonic detail, with Sly chanting, 'Shine, shine, shine!' But it's also got the weird question, 'Ever catch a falling star? Ain't no stopping till it's in the ground.' Sly Stone wanted to remind you that you were the star of hope in the sky — but you could also be the star that comes crashing down into a crater. All his contradictions come together in his greatest song, the 1970 funk blast 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),' with the hardest bass-versus-guitar staccato slash attack on Earth. The chorus sounds cheerful on the surface: 'Thank you for letting me be myself again!' But the closer you listen, the more dread and anger you hear. For Sly, with all of his fame and fortune, this is what it all comes down to: Lookin' at the devil. Grinnin' at his gun. Fingers start a-shakin'. I begin to run. It's a death haiku that's all the scarier for being delivered as a party chant. Bullets start a-chasin'. I begin to stop. We began to wrestle. I was on the top. The groove keeps churning, but with no resolution. There's no victory in Sly's battle with the devil — just the temporary triumph of not being defeated, at least not yet. The Family Stone was his ideal of a band as a self-contained community, uniting musicians of different races, different genders, some friends, some relatives — but with everyone lending a voice. His Family Stone built the template for countless music collectives, whether it was the Native Tongues, Prince's Revolution, Afrika Bambaata's Zulu Nation, the Wu-Tang Clan, OutKast and the Dungeon Family, or beyond. 'The concept behind Sly and the Stone,' he told Rolling Stone in 1970, 'I wanted to be able for everyone to get a chance to sweat. By that I mean … if there was anything to be happy about, then everybody'd be happy about it. If there was a lot of money to be made, for anyone to make a lot of money. If there were a lot of songs to sing, then everybody got to sing. That's the way it is now. Then, if we have something to suffer or a cross to bear — we bear it together.' Some of the Family were virtuoso singers, others just filling in for a line or two at a time, but there was always that utopian tribal spirit. His band was a visionary blend of James Brown/Stax/Muscle Shoals funk teamwork, but with the anarchic jamming of the hippie bands from the San Francisco acid-rock scene where he made his first converts. As Sly put it in the title of their debut album, it was A Whole New Thing — a radically democratic sound where everybody was a star. Sly's tough charisma made him a unique presence in Seventies pop culture — remote, cool, unknowable, hiding behind a smile that gleamed like bulletproof glass. You could always see him show up in places like the sitcom Good Times, set in a Chicago housing project, where the cool teenager Thelma had posters of Sly and Stevie Wonder on her bedroom wall, almost like good-angel/bad-angel twins. There was a comedian on BET who used to do a hilarious routine about growing up in the Seventies and watching Soul Train. 'When I was a kid, I didn't know what drugs were. I just knew there was something wrong with Sly.' Those contradictions were always built into his music. 'If It Were Left Up to Me' is one of his funniest, nastiest gems ever, a Fresh funk quickie from 1973, where the singers chant sardonic promises full of sleight-of-hand wordplay, until it ends with a sarcastic, 'Cha-cha-cha!' There's 'Que Sera Sera,' also from 1973, refurbishing an old Doris Day chestnut about how everything always works out for the best, except that Sly turns it into a slow-motion dirge full of dread, a warning that fate is out to get you. 'Que Sera Sera' took on a new life in 1989 as the perfect closing theme for Heathers, as Winona Ryder struts through her high school, covered in soot and ashes. When Shannen Doherty gasps, 'You look like hell,' Winona smirks, 'I just got back.' A very Sly line — so it's fitting that Heathers made 'Que Sera Sera' the closest he got to a comeback hit in the Eighties or Nineties. Sly Stone was born in Texas, but raised in the blue-collar Bay Area town of Vallejo. He was just five years old when he cut his first record with his family gospel group, the Stewart Four. But he was already a musical prodigy, mastering piano, guitar, bass, and drums. Barely out of his teens, he became a radio DJ on KSOL ('Super Soul'), where he honed his eclectic musical tastes. 'I played Dylan, Lord Buckley, the Beatles. Every night I tried something else,' he said in 1970. 'I really didn't know what was going on. Everything was just on instinct. You know, if there was an Ex-Lax commercial, I'd play the sound of a toilet flushing. It would've been boring otherwise.' But he got bored with the strictures of genre formatting. 'In radio,' he said, 'I found out about a lot of things I don't like. Like, I think there shouldn't be 'Black radio.' Just radio. Everybody be a part of everything.' He became a house producer at the local label Autumn Records, producing Bobby Freeman's huge 1964 dance hit 'C'Mon and Swim.' But he also worked with the wildly innovative folk rock of the Beau Brummels — he helmed their 1965 classics like 'Don't Talk to Strangers,' 'You Tell Me Why,' and 'Not Too Long Ago' with the melancholy tinge he would bring to his own band. He also produced one of the Bay Area's first hippie bands, Grace Slick's pre-Jefferson Airplane group, the Great Society. For their classic debut single — 'Free Advice' on one side, the original 'Somebody to Love' on the other — he famously drove the band through 286 takes. But one of his most crucial learning experiences at Autumn was watching everybody get ripped off. It was his first time getting burned in the music business, and he made sure it would be the last. He never again got involved with projects he didn't control. So he began putting together his own band, inspired by the local free-form rock scene happening at places like the Family Dog and the Fillmore. 'The concept was to be able to conceive all kinds of music,' he said in 1970. 'Whatever was contemporary, and not necessarily in terms of being commercial — whatever meant whatever now. Like today, things like censorship, and the Black-people/white-people thing. That's on my mind. So we just like to perform the things that are on our mind.' Once the world heard 'Dance to the Music,' nobody could resist, as the hits kept coming: 'Everyday People,' 'M'Lady,' 'Stand!,' 'Hot Fun in the Summertime.' The Family stole the show at Woodstock, turning 'I Want to Take You Higher' into a massive hippie chant. People always wanted more-more-more from Sly, based on the utopian promises of his songs. But he became the first major star who made an artistic flourish out of pulling back, whether it was going onstage late — he made that one of his trademarks — or simply blowing off shows. He made a point of being combative in interviews. That also meant long delays between records — after Stand!, he kept everyone waiting an unimaginable 18 months for new music, forcing his record company to drop the utterly perfect Greatest Hits. (The delay also gave Motown time to whip up the perfect Sly and the Family Stone substitute: the Jackson 5, who filled the gap with their doppelganger hits like 'I Want You Back' and 'The Love You Save.') After the wait, he stunned everyone with There's a Riot Goin' On, his radically negative refusal to play the commercial game, with its low-fi beatbox avant-funk. It was the prototype for independent swerves like Radiohead's Kid A or Nirvana's In Utero — yet like those albums, it was a sales blockbuster, hitting home with an audience that idolized him for going his own way. 'Family Affair' is the best-known classic, with Bobby Womack's virtuoso blues guitar, in a heartbreaking tale of newlyweds falling apart. But it also has stunners like 'Spaced Cowboy,' sounding uncannily like Young Marble Giants with its basement drum-machine clank, before it builds into a cocky drug boast with ironic Wild West yodels. 'I can't say it more than once, because I'm thinkin' twice as fast,' Sly growls. 'Yodel-ay-hee, yay-hee-hoo!' But the toughest, bleakest moment is 'Africa Talks to You (The Asphalt Jungle),' where the chorus chants, 'Timberrrrr! All fall down!' 'I wrote a song about Africa because in Africa the animals are animals,' he told Rolling Stone at the time. 'The tiger is a tiger, the snake is a snake, you know what the hell he's gonna do. Here in New York, the asphalt jungle, a tiger or a snake may come up looking like, uhhh, you.' He switched gears with Fresh in 1973 — his most exuberantly upbeat funk, jumping right out with 'In Time.' It's as flamboyantly cheerful as Riot was hostile, which isn't to say it's any less brash in its confrontational spirit. 'Let Me Have It All' is the most openhearted love song he ever did, rhythmically and vocally. Yet it's also an album about drugged-out euphoria on the verge of crashing. 'If You Want Me to Stay,' with its drowsy pimp strut of a bass line, warns you not to be foolish enough to count on him or expect anything out of him — especially if you bought a ticket for one of those shows where he didn't turn up. After Fresh, his music suddenly fell off a cliff, with depressing comeback efforts like Small Talk, High on You, or Heard Ya Missed Me, Well I'm Back, with its faux anthem 'Family Again.' Everyone was still stealing ideas from Sly — most notably Miles Davis — but the man himself ghosted. The tabloids kept reporting the bad news: He was wasted on drugs, broke, living out of a car. His final albums barely got noticed, with smarmy titles like Back on the Right Track or Ain't but the One Way, ending with 'High, Y'All.' His final highlights came with George Clinton, his most outspoken disciple, on Funkadelic's 1981 The Electric Spanking of War Babies. 'FREE SLY!' Clinton declared in the liner notes, having recently gotten busted with Stone. Sly also shone on Clinton's 1983 robot-funk hit 'Hydraulic Pump,' from the P-Funk All-Stars' album Urban Dance-Floor Guerillas. 'Hydraulic Pump' was a prophecy of the Detroit techno to come, but it also turned out to be Sly's final moment of glory on wax. When Stone died on June 9, it was just a few days after the 51st anniversary of his most famous celebrity stunt: getting married onstage at Madison Square Garden, in a sold-out 1974 show. In so many ways, that wedding event was his farewell to his public life, as he became a reclusive figure for his final decades. 'Dying young is hard to take, selling out is harder,' he warned in 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),' still just in his 20s. The ultimate epitaph for Sly is that he managed to avoid doing either. Yet the world never came close to forgetting about Sly Stone. The excellent Questlove documentary Sly Lives! (The Burden of Black Genius) was a reminder of why he still loomed so large, years after he'd seemingly said his goodbyes. You can hear that legacy everywhere, even in young punk rockers like Turnstile, who turned 'Thank You' into their own 'T.L.C. (Turnstile Love Connection).' 'Everyday People' has to be the only song that's ever gotten covered by both Tom Jones and Joan Jett. 'We gotta live together,' the song goes, even though its author made a point of living apart. But he went out as a musical revolutionary who owed the world nothing. Every goodbye he ever had to say was already there in 'Thank You': 'We began to wrestle, I was on the top.' Sly Stone defined that sense of lifelong struggle in his music. But he managed to turn that struggle into songs that will keep right on changing and challenging the world forever. The message in the music is clear as always — everybody is a star. Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked
Time of India
28-05-2025
- Sport
- Time of India
Tyrese Haliburton silences Knicks crowd with historic triple-double as Chuck D fumes online
Tyrese Haliburton delivered a historic performance, recording a triple-double with 32 points, 15 assists, and 12 rebounds, leading the Indiana Pacers to a 130-121 victory over the New York Knicks in Game 4. Chuck D criticized Haliburton's play and the officiating amidst the Pacers' dominant performance. Indiana now leads the series 3-1, one win away from the NBA Finals. Tyrese Haliburton put on a playoff masterclass at Madison Square Garden, delivering a record-setting triple-double to lead the Indiana Pacers to a 130-121 win over the New York Knicks in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals. His electric 32-point, 15-assist, 12-rebound outing with zero turnovers sent the Knicks spiraling to a 3-1 series deficit and earned Haliburton praise across the league… and a bit of heat from hip-hop royalty. Chuck D calls out Haliburton and referees as Pacers inch closer to Finals As Haliburton carved up the Knicks' defense, one iconic New York voice had seen enough. Legendary Public Enemy rapper Chuck D took to social media mid-game, calling out Haliburton's ball-handling style and throwing subtle jabs at the officiating. In a now-viral tweet, Chuck D nicknamed the Pacers guard 'Halle Berry' and claimed, 'Referees are wearing Pacers uniforms tonight.' He also criticized the broadcast crew, saying, 'Stan Van Gundy makes my ears hurt.' Image via @tyresehaliburton While the tweets sparked debate, Haliburton's composure on the court stood in stark contrast. The fifth-year guard became the first player in NBA playoff history to record 30+ points, 15+ assists, 10+ rebounds, and zero turnovers in a single game. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Добро пожаловать в Аравию SAUDI Забронировать Undo Not even LeBron James or Magic Johnson have hit those numbers. Haliburton's dominant Game 4 performance wasn't just about stats, it was about timing. He started hot, scoring in bursts and orchestrating the offense with surgical precision. His floor general play helped Indiana maintain control despite late pushes from the Knicks. He also joined an exclusive playoff company by becoming the only player with those stats. Just the second player after LeBron James with 15+ points, 5+ rebounds, and 5+ assists in a single playoff quarter, and one of two players (with Russell Westbrook) to post 20+ points, 10+ assists, and 5+ rebounds in a playoff half since 1998 Pascal Siakam and Bennedict Mathurin also delivered. Siakam scored 30 points, while Mathurin added 20 off the bench. The Pacers' bench outscored the Knicks 36–21, adding to their edge. With the Pacers now one win away from their first NBA Finals appearance in 25 years, the pressure is on New York. And while MSG crowds are famously loud, Haliburton may have just become their most feared playoff visitor since Reggie Miller. Game 5 returns to New York. Expect boos, bold plays and maybe another tweetstorm from Chuck D Also Read: Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton wins hearts as he signs a jersey for die hard Pacers fan Hans Get IPL 2025 match schedules , squads , points table , and live scores for CSK , MI , RCB , KKR , SRH , LSG , DC , GT , PBKS , and RR . Check the latest IPL Orange Cap and Purple Cap standings.
The Herald Scotland
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
How Average White Band 'touched the core' of Black America
Yet a group of six guys from Scotland are among the most influential figures in the contemporary sound of all those genres, and that's despite literally being called the Average White Band. "Those are some Scottish guys," former U.S President Barack Obama said in an interview with Bruce Springsteen. "And those boys can jam." The Boss concurred. Read More: Chuck D of Public Enemy said seeing them on Soul Train was "a revelation", they've been sampled by NAS, N.W.A, The Beastie Boys, De La Soul and Del tha Funkee Homosapien to name but a few. Glasgow's David McCallum may have provided the basis for Dr Dre's 'The Next Episode' but the AWB leave him in the dust - the website WhoSampled credits 169 to one song alone. Go one step removed and you can probably trace Kendrick Lamar's funk and soul infused To Pimp a Butterfly to the Average Whites, Eminem once said "I'm a product of Rakim", who famously sampled the group's 'School Boy Crush'. Anthony Baxter, the director of You've Been Trumped, is currently in the process of making a film about the group entitled Soul Searching. A snippet will be shown at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, with some of the biggest names in music already on board. He tells The Herald: "I've been blown away by how deeply their music is revered in the United States, I've spent the best part of the last couple of years filming extensively and whether it's the audiences they had on their last tour, which was 80% black in pretty much every place I went to, or they incredible impact they've had on some of the biggest names in music today, predominantly hip-hop artists and music producers, they've told me what the band means to them. 'Whether it's Flava Flav, Questlove, or a woman called Melody Spann Cooper who runs Chicago's longest-running black music station who told me: 'they touched the very core of who we were'. "Chuck D said to me, 'you just feel it and that was the epitome of soul'. DJ Premier said 'their funk wasn't made up, it was from their heart and soul'. Average White Band (Image: Supplied) "Questlove told me that when he came across the band on Soul Train it was at that moment he decided he wanted to become a drummer. He played their live album every day for 10 years, because he just loved it so much. "In Scotland everyone knows their songs but I think the story of how they've impacted hip-hop and black music culture in America is one that really surprised me with how deep it goes. 'In Detroit there was this band of brothers called The Jitterbugs who pioneered this dance move called The Jit, and 'Schoolboy Crush' was one of the real influences on that dance move. 'In Los Angeles I spoke to two former Crips and the infamous Crip Walk was really influenced by 'Schoolboy Crush'. Their music has penetrated the culture in America in a much deeper way than I'd initially thought and it's just been a real joy to see how revered the band is." On the face of it, it's a pretty unlikely combination. Six white guys who grew up in post-war Scotland not just doing R&B and funk, but doing it so well they became adored in the places which gave the world that sound. Mr Baxter says: "There were six of them in the beginning and they listened to this kind of music coming in from the United States – Aretha Franklin was their heroine. 'They would search through all the latest Black music coming in, it was being played in one or two pubs around Scotland and they would seek out that music. 'They've explained to me that their Scottishness helped, not only just in the sound of their voices in singing this very soulful, funky music but also when they were growing up after the war it was extreme austerity and I think people like Chaka Khan were going through a similar kind of thing – so there were parallels there." The filmmakers are hoping to have it finished by the end of this year, which marks 50 since the Average White Band topped the charts Stateside. It's produced by Montrose Films along with Screen Scotland, Kartemquin Films, Vertigo Films, and Sky Originals, and it's hoped with the threat of Trump tariffs in the air there will be some Hollywood interest. Mr Baxter says: "I came to know the music of the band when I was growing up but I didn't really know much about their backstory until I read a piece a journalist friend of mine wrote about them. 'I contacted Alan Gorrie about three years ago and sat down with him and spoke about making a film. Since then I've embarked on a journey and found this extraordinary story which was far more multi-layered than I had ever anticipated. "There are still one or two very high profile musicians who are keen to speak to me for the film but what we have already is a terrific story. 'We've uncovered some amazing archival footage along the way, part of the ambition I have is to put the viewer back in 1970s America when they've come across there. "This is more than a music documentary, people will celebrate the music but also be able to immerse themselves in the world of Average White Band and that profoundly important point in music culture. "It's funky, it's R&B, it's soul… it's Average White Band.'
Times
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Some songs just make the speed dial creep up
One, I can definitely attribute to Public Enemy. Song called You're Gonna Get Yours, opening track on their first album Yo! Bum Rush The Show. Not that I'm so brazen I actually tried to blame Chuck D for those three points. Just that I know what was playing when the flash went off, and I know what that song is about and, well, if the speed dial had crept up a little, I understand why. It's a 1987 album, so I was 23. Youthful foolishness had no influence on the other one. That's a track from 2001, so I was old enough to know better. It was the small hours of the morning, mind. Three lanes clear on the A1 coming back from
