Posts tagged with "Black artist"

Chris Brown’s New Visual

Global superstar Chris Brown drops the child-directed visual for his buzzing RIAA-certified Platinum single “Under The Influence” out now – click here to watch. The track also reached #1 on U.S. Apple Music and is currently #3 on Billboard’s Hot R&B Songs.

Watch “Under The Influence” HERE

Previously, Brown released his BREEZY (Deluxe) album in July – click here to listen. The 33-track deluxe version adds Anderson .Paak and Davido to the already star-studded list of features from major artists that include H.E.R., Jack Harlow, Bryson Tiller and more. The original version of his 12^th studio album BREEZY, which came out in the end of June, debuted at #2 on the R&B Albums and R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts and #4 on the Billboard 200 chart, marking this as Chris Brown’s 11^th album to chart in the top 10 on both the Billboard 200 and R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. Additionally, Chris Brown currently stands as the R&B singer with the most Hot 100 entries in Billboard history to-date. He recently wrapped his One Of Them Ones Tour with Lil Baby and is working on new music. Brown is up for a 2022 American Music Awards nomination for “Favorite Male R&B Artist.”

Listen to BREEZY (Deluxe) HERE

Throughout his career, Brown has continued to break records – even his own – and received a plethora of accolades. The original version of “Go Crazy” topped his single “No Guidance” as the longest running #1 song on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart at 28 weeks and counting. In the past two years alone, he’s garnered nominations and wins from multiple award shows. “Go Crazy” won three Soul Train Awards in 2020 for Song of the Year, Best Collaboration and Best Dance Performance and garnered seven more nominations in 2021. He was also nominated for seven Billboard Music Awards, including Top R&B Artist, Top R&B Album and Top R&B Song (“Go Crazy”), four BET Awards including Video of the Year (“Go Crazy”) and Best Male R&B/Pop Artist, two BET Hip-Hop Awards for Best Hip-Hop Video (“Go Crazy”) and Best Duo or Group, and two MTV Video Music Awards for Best R&B Song (for two songs – “Go Crazy” and “Come Through” with H.E.R.). In 2022, Brown has been nominated for NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration – Contemporary (“Go Crazy (Remix)” with Young Thug, Lil Durk, Future and Latto) and the BET Awards for Best Male R&B/Pop Artist.

A chart-topping force throughout his expansive career, Chris Brown will continue to break records. Check out the video for “Under The Influence” out now!

Watch “Under The Influence”

Buy/Stream BREEZY (Deluxe)

Watch “Call Me Every Day” featuring WizKid

Watch “C.A.B. (Catch A Body)” featuring Fivio Foreign:

Watch “WE (Warm Embrace)”:

Watch “Iffy”:

Keep Up With Chris Brown:
Instagram / Facebook / Twitter / Website

About Chris Brown:

Chris Brown, a consummate entertainer who has shifted the climate of R&B culture since his eponymous 2005 debut, has sold in excess of 40 million albums worldwide and has surpassed over 10 billion audio streams across digital outlets to date. Brown has won more than 125 awards including a Grammy Award for his album F.A.M.E. in 2011 and has amassed over 13.7 billion YouTube views – including over 40 music videos that each have more than 100 million views earning him the title of male artist with the most Vevo certified videos ever and ‘Diamond’ status from the streaming platform.

A chart-topping force, Brown has made more Billboard Hot 100 entries since the start of his career than any contemporary male singer alive to date, spending 160 consecutive weeks charting on the Hot 100. Albums from recent years include 2017’s Heartbreak on a Full Moon, which spent more than a year on the Billboard Hot 200 and 2019’s INDIGO, which marked his third U.S. No. 1 album, has been streamed over 5.7 billion times and contained the hit song “No Guidance” featuring Drake. His 2020 album, Slime & B, is a collaboration with Young Thug that has accrued over 1.8 billion streams worldwide since its release and includes the hypnotizing smash hit “Go Crazy,” which has been his biggest radio hit since 2008. Now, with the release of his new album BREEZY out now via RCA Records, Chris is ready to have a breezy summer and play the new project live while on his One of Them Ones tour with Lil Baby.

An accomplished entrepreneur and business owner, Brown’s tenacity behind his venture into fashion with his Black Pyramid brand has transformed his business from a digital fashion giant to acquiring a worldwide distribution deal and being carried in major retailers globally. In addition, Brown’s commitment to philanthropy is as important to him as his professional pursuits – including his dedication to the Symphonic Love Foundation, a charitable organization that he founded which supports and creates arts programs for youth. Brown has also donated his time and resources to various non-for-profit organizations including St. Jude Children’s Hospital, Best Buddies, Hurricane Harvey victims, and Colin Kaepernick’s “10 for 10” million-dollar pledge.

Amanda Reifer – Crazy

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Positioning herself for a major breakthrough, bold and buzzing Bajan singer and songwriter Amanda Reifer reveals her new single “Crazy” today.

Listen to “Crazy” HERE

Bright keys underpin the bouncy production of the track as her voice sails over a head-nodding groove on a hypnotic island-inflected refrain. The song showcases yet another side of this dynamic force of nature, breaking boundaries between borders and genres along the way.

It paves the way for more music to come from Amanda Reifer very soon. It’s about to be a “crazy” year for her…

“Crazy” arrives on the heels of her most recent release “Bag.” In addition to turning heads with its sexy, slick, and cinematic music video, it incited widespread tastemaker applause. Wonderland hailed it as “empowering and attitude-filled,” and LA Weekly dubbed it “a vibrant, strong anthem.” Meanwhile, Nylon touted her among “17 Under-the-Radar Black Musicians to Know Right Now” and praised “Bag” as “an airy, dance-y track with a tropical twist about getting green that highlights her clarifying vocals.”

Last year, audiences fell under her spell when she stirred up the single “Rich Bitch Juice,” cracking over 1 million streams and attracting a growing fan base. Sending shockwaves through the game, she caught the attention of TITLE 9, who signed her through a partnership with Republic. Now, she’s cooking up more music to be released soon. She’s primed for a massive 2022!

About Amanda Reifer

Music moves like colors, swirling in and out of different shades and styles. Amanda Reifer emerges out of a similar kaleidoscope of pop, R&B, Caribbean, soul, hip-hop, and reggae hues. The Barbados-born singer and songwriter does everything as vibrantly as possible, projecting her voice and presence with power and passion in equal measure. Growing up in the Caribbean, she initially made waves as the frontwoman for Cover Drive. After gaining traction online, the group flourished across the pond in the UK, notching three Top 10 hits in the UK and landing a #1 with “Twilight.” During 2018, she followed her internal creative compass towards a signature solo style of her own. After dropping her solo debut “Girl Like Me,” she put up numbers with “Ransom” and “Bang Bang.” However, “Rich Bitch Juice” exploded in 2020. As she graced Spotify playlists such as “Leo,” it clocked over 1 million total streams and caught the attention of TITLE 9 who signed her through a partnership with Republic Records. Now, she asserts herself as a dynamic and diverse international disruptor.

Amanda Reifer artist image in the desert via Naomi Christie for use by 360 Magazine — *Photo Credits Naomi Christie*

Queen Naija × Big Sean – Hate Our Love

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Detroit natives Queen Naija and GRAMMY-nominated, multi-Platinum artist Big Sean team up on the soulful new single “Hate Our Love.“ The deeply romantic track, which samples the classic 70s hit “Sounds Like A Love Song,“ celebrates the kind of love that thrives despite hard times and haters.

“What I‘d like for people to take away from ‘Hate Our Love‘ is don‘t let anybody come in between anything or anyone that you love,“ says Queen Naija. “I‘m so excited to finally collaborate with Big Sean on a record, it’s been a dream of mine for a while now. With both of us being from Detroit, it felt like the perfect match up and I hope everyone loves the song!“

Big Sean topped the Billboard 200 for the third time with his 2020 album DETROIT 2. His six-song EP with Hit-Boy, What You Expect, was released last fall. He will be performing at Coachella in April.

Queen has amassed over three billion combined global streams in her career to date. Her debut album, missunderstood, entered Billboard‘s Top R&B Albums chart at No. 1 and earned a place in the top 10 of the Billboard 200. Nominated for a 2021 American Music Award in the Favorite R&B Album category, it includes the No. 1 hit “Butterflies Pt. 2“ and the Gold-certified singles “Pack Lite“ and “Lie To Me“ ft. Lil Dirk. Views of the official video for the fan favorite “I‘m Her“ ft. Kiana Lede has surpassed 3.2 million and the track has racked up over 37 million combined streams worldwide. The deluxe edition of the album, missunderstood, still, includes five previously unreleased songs.

Flaunt said, “Equipped with a smooth and sultry voice and infectious energy, each one of her R&B ballads are real, honest, and relatable.“ Essence Girls United noted, “Queen Naija‘s album, missunderstood, touches the soul in a way that only Black music can.“ “Queen Naija is, without question, who R&B heads should be checking for,“ declared DJ Booth.

JON BATISTE NEW MUSIC VIDEO – FREEDOM

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Today, Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe winning musician Jon Batiste releases a vibrant new music video for his single “FREEDOM,” a celebration of Black joy, independence and New Orleans culture and energy. Watch here.

There is no better time for Jon Batiste’s song of the summer “FREEDOM,” a funk-driven 70s-pop banger that Entertainment Weekly called an “exhilarating, horn-heavy celebration of independence.”

In this electrifying love letter to his hometown of New Orleans, Batiste leads the ultimate second line through the streets, linking with the legendary St. Augustine High School Marching 100 (Batiste’s alma mater), the Joyful Choir of New Orleans, Queen Tahj of the Golden Eagles Mardi Grass Indian Tribe, dancers, musicians, and residents alike.

Jon Batiste has had a good year. The Academy Award, Golden Globe, BAFTA winning musician’s hit song “I NEED YOU” reached #1 on the AAA Radio Charts, his album WE ARE debuted in the Billboard Top R&B Charts, Top Album Charts, and Top 200, his “I NEED YOU” music video surpassed 10MM views, he’s appeared on American Idol, Live with Kelly and Ryan, The Today Show, The Late Late Show with James Corden, CBS This Morning as guest and co-host, and of course the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

“We Are represents a vivid turn from straight jazz to joyful, danceable pop and neo-soul… a bold declaration of conscience…” –Vanity Fair

On WE ARE, Batiste presents a captivating musical experience to the world rooted in catharsis, joy, freedom, contemplation and sensuality. It’s a love letter to his southern roots and the heritage of Black Music with guest appearances by Mavis Staples, Quincy Jones, Zadie Smith, PJ Morton, Trombone Shorty, St. Augustine Marching 100, his father Michael Batiste, grandfather David Gauthier and many more. It is a meditation steeped in the sounds of the times with collaborators including POMO (Anderson.Paak), Ricky Reed (Lizzo), Jahaan Sweet (Drake, Eminem) and others.

“I’m publicly known for some things already,” says Batiste. “But there’s so much more to know about me. It’s always been there. Now is the time to show the world my full artistry.”

Batiste continues, “WE ARE is a message of love for humanity, of humble reverence for our past, and of a hopeful future, in which we are the ones who can save us. The art reveals its motive to you. You just have to wait for the Spirit to tell you what it wants.”

A special thanks to Coach for dressing members of the cast of the “FREEDOM” video.

About Jon Batiste
One of the best-known musicians of his generation, virtuoso pianist, singer, bandleader, educator and television personality Jon Batiste has spent his career bringing that music back to where it started — that is, with the people. From his days at Juilliard, where he established his Stay Human band by playing around New York City’s subways and in street performances he called “love riots,” to his work since 2015 as the bandleader and musical director of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, the Kenner, Louisiana native has consistently channeled his superb technical skill and deep knowledge of jazz tradition towards a specific, intentional purpose: making people’s lives better and brighter, one harmonaboard (that’s harmonica and keyboard, combined) solo at a time.

Born into Louisiana’s legendarily musical Batiste family, Jon has performed and recorded widely since his teens. His flexibility as an artist, his fluency in jazz as well as popular music of all stripes, has allowed him to collaborate with legends from Wynton Marsalis, a mentor since his Juilliard days, to Prince — as well as many of the widely-varied artists who appear on the Late Show.

Batiste’s marquee performances have ranged from the Grammy’s, to the Kennedy Center Honors, to the US Open and the NBA All-Star Game — in 2015, Batiste and the Stay Human Band became the first group to play the main stage at both the Newport Jazz and Folk festivals.

Batiste played himself on the HBO series Treme and appeared in director Spike Lee’s Red Hook Summer — most recently, his music was featured in the 2020 Disney/Pixar film Soul. Batiste won a Golden Globe and Critic’s Choice Award for his participation in the soundtrack alongside Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and the trio are currently nominated for an Oscar and BAFTA for Best Soundtrack.

He’s been awarded the American Jazz Museum Lifetime Achievement Award, the Harry Chapin ASCAP Humanitarian Award and appeared on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list; Batiste also currently serves as the Music Director of The Atlantic and the Co-Artistic Director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem.

Jon Batiste is devoted to the education and mentorship of young musicians. He has led his own Social Music Residency and Mentoring Program sponsored by Chase, as well as master classes throughout the world. He has also led several cultural exchanges, beginning in 2006, while still a teen, with the Netherlands Trust, which brought students from the USA and Holland to perform with him at the Royal Concertgebouw and Carnegie Hall.

Batiste balances a demanding performance schedule with public speaking engagements, masterclasses, brand partnerships, community activism and acting roles. His composing and songwriting will be featured in his large-scale, genre-melding symphonic work “American Symphony,” set to premiere at Carnegie Hall in 2021 and he has been developing a Broadway musical about the life of famed painter Jean-Michel Basquiat.

David Uzochukwu – Mare Monstrum/Drown in My Magic

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Mare Monstrum/Drown in My Magic, a digital exhibition by David Uzochukwu on Artsy

2016 – ongoing.
Italy, Senegal, Germany

Artist statement:

Mare Monstrum / Drown In My Magic channels the power of myth by explicitly visualizing Black merfolk. It envisions water as expanse which the characters can cut through, be safe in. No longer are they subject to whims of the tide, or drift into a void that holds the potential for destruction. Instead, the portrayed are equipped to survive and find freedom in the monstrous.

It almost seems as though Blackness is inevitably linked to a passage through the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, Evros River, whether historic or recent. The potential of self-actualisation lapping at someone’s feet always calls to mind the blood, sweat and tears of those who have come before them. Can new lore shift the entanglement of Black bodies and their environments, making unquestionably clear that they belong?

About the series:

David Uzochukwu’s photographs deliver you into warm and sensitive worlds where humans and nature entwine in search of belonging. Expanses of sand, water or sky embrace Black bodies emanating strength and resilience. Often their limbs morph into fantastical forms against hyper-real landscapes that offer a space for contemplation or escape. It’s this interplay between the natural and supernatural, between the visible and invisible, that imbues the artist’s images with an arresting presence.

Uzochukwu’s ongoing body of work, Mare Monstrum / Drown In My Magic, uses the central idea of Black mermaids to explore both the historical relationship between the African diaspora and the water, and contemporary politics around illegal migration. A great part of the images were made in Senegal in 2018 and show mermen emerging from the seas protecting and healing one another. The most recent images came together in Germany and introduce a whole community of hybrid merfolk in states of solace and rebirth. An incubated baby, a proud centaur and a tender couple, among others, inhabit a boundless realm.

The Austrian-Nigerian artist was born in 1998 in Innsbruck. His photographic practice began as a teenager with intimate self-portraiture that soon gained recognition. He’s enjoyed collaborations with artists including FKA Twigs, Pharrell Williams, Ibeyi and Iris van Herpen. Since joining Galerie Number 8, he’s exhibited at Bozar, Photo Vogue Festival, Unseen Amsterdam, Off Biennale Dakar and LagosPhoto. He was named ‘One to Watch’ by the British Journal of Photography in 2020, and his first co-directed short film, Götterdämmerung, was selected for Max-Ophüls-Preis in 2021. He is currently studying philosophy at HU Humboldt University of Berlin.

“The long history of oppression experienced by people of color in the West makes an unlikely context for art devoted to the fantastical. All the more so when you consider recent developments such as the racist rhetoric and anti-immigration policies of the Trump administration, the chilling roll call of African-Americans killed by US police (Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, Philando Castile) and the bigotries unleashed in Britain by Brexit (monkey chants at football matches and a spike in xenophobic hate crimes). Under such conditions, it’s worth asking if a turn to the fantastic by black artists is driven by a desire to escape from the charged and painful circumstances of daily life. Yet the opposite seems to be true. What characterizes much of the imagery being produced today is an eagerness to grapple with urgent questions of culture, identity and history– albeit through imagery that accentuates the extraordinary rather than the everyday. (…)

Ultimately, the Berlin-based David Uzochukwu – whose recent Drown in my Magic project situates a panoply of mythical water creatures within arid landscapes – may speak for all the artists currently finding inspiration in fantasy. The goal, as Uzochukwu puts it, is to reclaim the narrative of fantasy’ by embracing ‘the alien otherness projected onto black bodies in a way that could be read as pure empowerment.’”
-Extract of the essay “A Fantastic Turn” by Ekow Eshun for Unseen Magazine.

Drown in My Magic will go live starting April 16th 2021 on Artsy HERE.