The Starting Five - April 26, 2024
5 recommendations to jumpstart the weekend:
Billboard: Drake Removes ‘Taylor Made Freestyle,’ With AI Tupac & Snoop Vocals, From Social Media. In the craziest twist in the latest rap beef, Drake used AI to make his voice sound like the voices of Tupac and Snoop Dogg. As soon as the diss track “Taylor Made” (aimed at Kendrick Lamar) was released on IG, a good friend asked me, “Is this legal?” The answer is no (which I might answer more fully in a TikTok YouTube video soon), and I predicted that a cease and desist would be coming from ‘Pac’s estate. It did. Here’s a good article about the saga: https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/drake-removes-taylor-made-freestyle-ai-tupac-snoop-1235667030/amp/
Sinead Harnett - Boundaries
The third studio album from an English singer/songwriter who is one of the best active R&B artists.
$10 Cowboy - Charley Crockett
The title track for Crockett’s 13th studio album in nine years, which dropped today.
What’s a $10 Cowboy? From Crockett’s interview with Variety:
"We're playing the songs and starting to do a lot of press for this thing and people are like, every time, 'What's a $10 cowboy?' I'm like, well, a $10 cowboy is a guy that learned how to do all this shit standing behind a guitar on a Louisiana sreet corner, on South Congress in Austin, and subway cars in New York and the BART Rail in San Francisco.”
Link to Variety interview: https://variety.com/2024/music/news/charley-crockett-10-dollar-cowboy-album-single-interview-1235881463/amp/
Link to song: https://tidal.com/track/358967304?u
Jim Trotter’s latest: The Caitlin Clark Effect and the uncomfortable truth behind it.
From the article:
“Because sport and society are constructed from the same fabric, it’s impossible to separate them, which is why it’s foolish to act as if basketball is the only thing fueling The Caitlin Clark Effect. The primary thing? Yes. But not the only thing.
Some will attempt to mold these words into a disparagement of Clark or her accomplishments. They are not. She is a tremendous player and, by all accounts, a quality human being. But multiple things can be true at the same time, particularly when discussing why one player is perceived to be a better brand ambassador than someone else.”
Link: https://theathletic.com/5440119/2024/04/25/caitlin-clark-marketability-racial-bias/
I’ve been a frequent reader of the GQ essays for years. GQ’s Senior Staff Writer Zach Baron penned an excellent piece called “My IVF Years.” April 21-27, 2024 is National Infertility Awareness Week. The World Health Organization estimates that roughly 1 in 6 people worldwide are affected by infertility.