Music

Eminem‘sKamikaze, the album he unexpectedly released Thursday night, was designed to sow controversy. Its most incendiary track is likely “Fall,” which features open disses towards a host of Eminem’s perceived foes, from hip-hop commentators Joe Budden and DJ Akademiks to Tyler, the Creator, who Eminem calls a “faggot” on the …

Country-fried hip-hop/alt-rock troubadour Everlast returns next month with his first album of original songs since 2011, Whitey Ford’s House of Pain. The latest single, the chiming, heartbroken folk ballad “It Ain’t Easy” was written during a time of turmoil for the “What It’s Like” songwriter. “My oldest daughter was born …

Louisiana-born crooner Luke James has appeared on a slew of great singles this year thanks to his star turn in the soapy Empire spinoff Star; he joined the cast in season two as comeback-trail-riding bad boy Noah Brooks, whose trip back to the top of R&B’s heap caused chaos even …

Sofia Sanchez, the 11-year-old girl who Drake visited last week at Chicago’s Lurie Children’s Hospital, received a heart transplant on Monday, the Associated Press reports. The rapper visited Sanchez after she appeared in a video dancing to Drake’s “In My Feelings.” Surgeons operated on Sanchez for nine hours. Cardiovascular surgeon …

Aretha Franklin, who died on August 16th at age 76, recorded more than 40 full-length albums in her six-decade career. It’s a deep catalog, crowded with indisputable classics and hidden gems. Rolling Stone’s music staff is paying its R.E.S.P.E.C.T.s to the Queen with tributes to our favorite Aretha LPs. Next …

Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora joins Steven Van Zandt for a rollicking rendition of Marvin Gaye’s “Can I Get a Witness” in the first clip from the new Blu-ray version of Van Zandt’sSoulfire Live!The concert video is expected to arrive later this year with a seven-LP vinyl box set. Van …

Radio’s reluctance to take a chance on unknown, independent acts is almost cliche at this point: The airwaves are dominated by a few major-label records that are played into the ground. But along comes Esnavi, whose independently-released “The Way” is getting played by two brave R&B stations, WBLS in New …

Eurythmics singer-songwriter Annie Lennox released a statement Thursday honoring the life of Aretha Franklin, who died Thursday at age 76 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Both lifelong champions of women’s rights, Lennox sang beside Franklin on their 1985 duet, “Sisters Are Doin’ it for Themselves.” The song featured on …

Last Monday, Aubry “Big Juice” Delaine went into the studio for a marathon recording session with Nicki Minaj. He didn’t leave again until Thursday night, when they had finally completed the rapper’s new Queen album, which hit streaming services Friday around noon. Delaine has served as Minaj’s go-to recording engineer …

Elvis Presley stayed on the road until the end of his life, playing his final show at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, Indiana less than two months before his death on August 16th, 1977. But with a handful of exceptions, the gigs he played in his last years were …