Eminem surprises with new album, Mac Miller's Circles is out, Grammy loses chief
Eminem comes back out of nowhere
Last night at midnight Eminem made his comeback with a new album and a video for a new single.
"Music to Be Murdered By" is the name of Eminem's new album, it's a surprise follow up to his 2018's Kamikaze, an album that did not land well and seemed more like attention-seeking than an artistic project.
In addition to the album, he shared a video for the track "Darkness", an anti-gun violence ballad that starts with a talk about loneliness and finishes with a Las Vegas shooting scenario. Besides using that event as an example, in the end, Eminem includes a few more clips of other shootings ending the video with "When will this end? When enough people care. Register to vote at Vote.gov. Make your voice heard and help change gun law in America."
This rather lengthy album features many guests such as Ed Sheeran, Black Thought, Q-Tip, Royce Da 5’9″, Anderson.Paak, Young M.A. as well as posthumous appearance by Juice WRLD.
As Rolling Stone writes, Eminem's inspiration for the album came from non-other than Albert Hitchcock and his 1958's album Music to Be Murdered By. A clip from that album is included on the album interlude "Albert".
Mac Miller posthumous album "Circles" is available for streaming
Circles, a posthumous release from Mac Miller is now available for streaming on Apple Music and Spotify.
A week after the release of a video for "Good News", the first posthumous single, comes the whole project. It comes as a follow-up to 2018's Swimming released a month prior to Mac's untimely death. As Consequence of Sound writes, Miller was already in the process of recording Circles before he passed. Miller's family posted that news to his social media accounts adding that these albums are “Two different styles complementing each other, completing a circle — Swimming in Circles was the concept.”
Jon Brion, producer of Swimming is to be credited for the completion of this record. Brion was already working with Miller on Circles, but after Miller's passing he stepped up his role.
Mac Miller's well-deserved reputation was confirmed after his death by many posthumous features and an all-star tribute concert "Mac Miller: A Celebration of Life" featuring Earl Sweatshirt, Vince Staples, SZA, Chance the Rapper and more.
Grammy loses CEO days before Awards Show
Deborah Dugan, new Recording Academy CEO has been put on 'administrative leave' just 10 days before the Grammy Awards ceremony.
Dugan has been put on administrative leave effective immediately, Recording Academy spokesperson confirmed to Rolling Stone.
“In light of concerns raised to the Recording Academy™ Board of Trustees, including a formal allegation of misconduct by a senior female member of the Recording Academy team, the Board has placed Recording Academy President and CEO Deborah Dugan on administrative leave, effective immediately,” the organization told Rolling Stone in a statement. “The Board has also retained two independent third-party investigators to conduct independent investigations of the allegations.
“The Board determined this action to be necessary in order to restore the confidence of the Recording Academy’s Membership, repair Recording Academy employee morale, and allow the Recording Academy to focus on its mission of serving all music creators,” the statement continued. “Board Chair Harvey Mason Jr. will serve as interim President and CEO pending the conclusion of the investigation. The Recording Academy Board of Trustees is committed to fostering a safe, diverse, and inclusive workplace, music industry, and society".
Dugan inherited her position from Neil Portnow, who was head of the organization for 17 years. Portnow was removed for his comments on gender diversity in the music industry, saying that women should step up if they want to be better represented in the music industry. In August 2019 Dugan became the first female head of the organization.
