Pharrell and Jay-Z Release Empowering New Song and Video, ‘Entrepreneur’ (Watch)

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorTriller, the music-video creation app, has named a dozen top female music industry executives to a new advisory board.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorLiz Phair, whose widely influential 1990s albums have been enjoying a revival in recent years, has signed a new deal with the relaunched Chrysalis Records and will release her first album in a decade next year, the company announced Wednesday.Phair’s albums, particularly her 1993 debut “Exile in Guyville” and the follow-up “Whip-Smart,” have influenced two generations of young female singer-songwriters.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorOn Sept. 13, Carl Cox, Pete Tong and Roger Sanchez are just three of the legendary DJs who will take part in “For Beirut,” a 12-hour-long livestream event presented by Electronic Labor Day and Beatport ReConnect to raise funds to support Lebanon and its people in the wake of the August 4 explosion that killed more than 200 people and leveled a large area of the city.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSinger-songwriter-actress-activist Janelle Monáe has released “Turntables,” her first new song since her Grammy nominated 2018 album “Dirty Computer.” The song was written for and featured in the upcoming Amazon Studios documentary, “All In: The Fight for Democracy,” premiering in select theatres nationwide on Wednesday (September 9) and then streaming exclusively via Amazon Prime Video starting Friday, September 18.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorUnless you’ve been in the right place in Los Angeles at the right time over the past several years, Fiona Apple performances have been as rare as Bigfoot sightings.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorLive Nation and Ticketmaster were hit with another round of furloughs on Thursday, said to number in the hundreds, sources tell Variety. The cuts at the world’s largest live-entertainment company (Live Nation owns Ticketmaster) are said to reach across all business units, particularly regional offices.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIn the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police in May, an organization formed by music industry execs Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang under the name #TheShowMustBePaused began with a call for a single day shutdown soon grew into a movement that called for change across the entire industry.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorDavid Byrne has issued an apology for impersonating people of color, including wearing brownface and blackface, in a 1984 promotional video for the Talking Heads’ iconic concert film “Stop Making Sense.” In the clip, which was intended to be humorous, Byrne interviews himself in a split-screen scene, portraying multiple different reporters.Byrne addressed the matter in a series of tweets on Tuesday.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorFive agents formerly with Paradigm have launched a new agency called TBA that represents The War on Drugs, Courtney Barnett, Chvrches, Jose Gonzales, Guided by Voices, Jay Som, Yaeji, Omar Apollo and many other artists.The company, which has offices in New York and Los Angeles, was founded by agents Marshall Betts, Avery McTaggart, Amy Davidman, Ryan Craven, and Devin Landau.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorHipgnosis Songs has acquired the music catalog of Motley Crue bassist and main songwriter Nikki Sixx, one of the most successful rock bands of the 1980s.Hipgnosis have acquired 100% of Sixx’s writer’s share of PRO income and writer’s Sound Exchange royalties for the cataog, which contains 305 songs.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIn this pivotal year and racially charged era, the BET Awards chose to open their show in June with a new version of Public Enemy’s iconic 1989 song “Fight the Power,” which sadly is as relevant today as it was 31 years ago.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorEven in a pandemic, the VMAs found a way to start off their show with a bang: The Weeknd performed his smash single “Blinding Lights” 1,100 feet above New York, from the city’s highest observation deck, Edge at Hudson Yards.Weeknd was in the guise of the busted-nose character he portrays on his latest album, “After Hours,” and the performance began in a way similar to the album’s videos, which depict the character having a surreal and absolutely terrible night in

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorK-pop titans Blackpink are joined by Selena Gomez for a new song and video called “Ice Cream,” the second single from the quartet’s debut album, set for release via YG Entertainment/Interscope Records on October 2.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorPublic Enemy, the legendary rap group that helped shape socially conscious hip-hop into what it is today, have returned to Def Jam Recordings, the label that hosted their most iconic recordings.The reunion launches with a remix of the group’s classic 1989 song “Fight the Power (Remix 2020),” which opened the 2020 BET Awards in June featuring Nas, Rapsody, Black Thought, YG, Jahi and Questlove. The song, originally featured in Spike Lee’s film “Do the Right Thing,”

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorPrince’s songs were always works in progress — he rarely played one exactly the same way twice in concert, and as more of the music from his vast vault has been released in recent years, it’s become clear that many of his songs underwent multiple, drastically different iterations before they were released, if they were released at all.A case in point is “Forever in My Life,” from his classic 1987 album “Sign O’ the Times,” which gets an massive-ultra-deluxe reissue

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBillie Eilish and her brother/musical collaborator Finneas were supposed to be six months into their “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” world tour — but just two dates into the tour, it was postponed due to coronavirus.The pair have been keeping busy over the past few months, playing livestream benefits, Billie did an Apple Music radio show with her dad, and of course they performed during the Democratic National Convention last week, with Billie delivering

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorJust hours after announcing the Sept.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBTS have dropped an alternate video for their blockbuster new single “Dynamite,” filmed on the same set but with different angles — and a few amusing bloopers as well.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBeyonce has released a new video for her song “Brown Skin Girl,” featuring appearances from her daughter Blue Ivy and former Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland, along with Naomi Campbell, actor Lupita Nyong’o, singers Saint Jhn and WizKid and others.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorEven in a week loaded with high-profile singles and albums, one song stands out: Pharrell and Jay-Z’s moving ode to Black entrepreneurship, “Entrepreneur,” which is part of an issue of Time magazine dedicated to the subject called “The New American Revolution” and curated by Pharrell.