Jason King
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Boldly going where few gay men of color have been allowed to go before, Lil Nas X won the year by joyfully violating cultural taboos and exploiting media far more than it was able to exploit him. -
The gifted songwriter and singer wasn't a born superstar — but became something of a sleeper hit on the strength of his singing, songwriting and history-making collaborations.
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We got two writers, Ann Powers and Jason King, going back and forth on what they've found in the reclusive singer's third album.
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The YouTube star's virtuosic debut album, actually recorded in his room in the house where he was raised, reveals a young artist unafraid of gleefully trying it all.
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No black artist who came before him aggregated so many diverse people in the service of anti-normativity and perverse polymorphism; the world is a better and richer place for it.
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His clever idea in forming Earth, Wind & Fire was to power forward with an ethical black music that could force us to keep our heads up to the sky when it matters most.
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She who ended Aretha Franklin's eight-year Grammy-winning streak deserves more credit than she's usually afforded: she was influential and flexible and a phenomenal singer.
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Natalie Cole, the Grammy award-winning singer and daughter of Nat King Cole, has died at 65.
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The audacious early-adopter weathered a storm of "Auto-Tune sucks" moral panic to emerge as a true artist, a mirror for our culture and a creative force.
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The concert, like Black Messiah, was bulwark: it was a reminder that music's ability to bring people together to celebrate soulful feeling is, as Fela once remarked, a weapon of the future.
