Producer extraordinaire Sir George Martin has passed away. Often called the Fifth Beatle, Martin not only gave the group their first recording contract, but continued to produce everything the band released up to their final album, 1970’s Let It Be. Martin went on to produce solo efforts for Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney, as well as records for musicians like Celine Dion and Elton John. The six-time-Grammy winner and Oscar-nominee passed away in his home on Tuesday at the age of 90.
Q-Tip has been named the Kennedy Center’s first artistic director of hip-hop culture. The A Tribe Called Quest co-founder has already begun curating a diverse line-up of programs for the Kennedy Center between now and the end of 2017, focusing chiefly on hip-hop’s roots, everything from dance to beats to poetry. Q-Tip’s hip-hop series kicks off in July with the Brave New Voices Youth Summit and Poetry Slam Festival.
If you’re itching to get your SXSW Music on, like, say, today, the Pink Elephant Hip-Hop Festival’s got you covered. The festival celebrates the marriage of the hip-hop and LGBTQ communities, kicks off with a Conference this morning followed by two days of performances.
Actor and Filmmaker Alex Winter, you know, Bill from Bill and Ted’s Big Adventure, has recently been granted access to the behemoth-sized media archive of Frank Zappa. Winter’s plan is to take assemble the contents into a new documentary, but what’s interesting isn’t what he’s doing, but how he’s doing it: by selling pieces of the Zappa estate. Through its Kickstarter campaign, not only can you purchase producer credits for the documentary, ride in Frank’s Rolls-Royce, or tour the Zappa family house, you can also show your $9 million support and buy the house itself.
-Taylor Wallace
