Anthony Ray — aka Sir Mix-A-Lot — still loves an intimate rap show, which is why the man who made the big butt immortal will perform at Seattle’s 475-person-capacity Nectar Lounge on Thursday and Friday, Feb. 2 and 3.
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On a bright Sunday afternoon, Jamil Suleman walks through the doors of Columbia City’s Royal Room and people instantly turn toward him and exclaim, “Hey! Jesus!”
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“It’s one thing to say to folks, ‘Go and do the work,’ ” says Seattle activist and writer Marissa Jenae Johnson. “I certainly understand that sentiment, but it can be hard for some people to grasp.”
The work she’s referencing, of course, is visible, tangible efforts made by everyday citizens to dismantle oppressive systems like racism, ableism, and the patriarchy. Johnson, world-renowned for her work with Black Lives Matter, is a staunch advocate for sacrifice, especially when it comes to privileged white people giving up their comforts to people of color and the marginalized, who have suffered at the hands of an abusive system for hundreds of years.
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When Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready walks into a KEXP music fair wearing your record label’s T-shirt, you know you’ve officially made it.
That’s what happened for Freakout Records, a new Seattle-based venture started by four locals — Ian Cunningham, Skyler Locatelli, Guy Keltner and Nathan Casey — who, in addition to running the label, are putting on a loud, two-day music festival Thursday and Friday (Dec. 8-9).
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Natasha Marin, the Seattle-based conceptual artist who created the donation website Reparations.me, which gets tens of thousands of clicks daily from all over the world, remains surprised at the number of people in need and how relatively little it takes to help.
“You think you know what’s going on,” she says, Facebook notifications dinging incessantly on her computer. “Then suddenly you’re facing this portal—like, wow, there are a lot of people out there that have no choice but to take a chance on this project. There are people who are dollars away from having their lives saved short-term. That’s shocking.”
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For Seattle University’s Quinton Morris, one of two tenured African-American violin professors in the United States, the violin is both an instrument and a seed. And with it Morris is growing a great forest—his most recent plot being south of Seattle, where he’s founded Key to Change, a violin studio with branches in Renton and Maple Valley for students of color with limited financial resources.
The studio’s origins began way back in the ’90s, when Hank Linear, then president of the Renton Black Parents Association, saw Morris had talent. Linear, through his organization, made it possible for Morris to attend college tuition-free and bought him his first violin. Now Morris wants to pay that generosity forward.
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For any fan of National Public Radio, the names “Fresh Air,” “This American Life” and “Prairie Home Companion” are quite familiar. But there’s another program quickly rising up the NPR listener ranks: the Pacific Northwest-based variety hour “Live Wire!,” which will host a live show Saturday (Sept. 10) at the Neptune Theatre.
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In the male-dominated world of hip-hop, it’s not easy to be a woman. It’s even harder if you’re a woman of color who identifies as queer.
But that’s exactly the position Christy Karefa-Johnson — aka Seattle-based hip-hop artist DoNormaal — finds herself in.
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For the psychedelic soul singer and producer SassyBlack, who will release her first solo record, “No More Weak Dates,” on Tuesday (May 17) at Barboza, much of what shapes her aesthetic has roots in things odd and uneven.
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Bands are often described as creating “driving” songs — as if their melodies and rhythms propelled the listener forward. But with Seattle hip-hop duo Sleep Steady — at the Central Saloon on Wednesday (May 11) for the next BAD DAD Collective showcase — that descriptor is especially apt. These guys make music they want to listen to in the car.
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It still brings tears to Erik Blood’s eyes.
“It” being the final track on his new record, “Lost in Slow Motion,” which the Seattle producer will celebrate with a release show Saturday (April 30) at the High Dive.
Sinking into a small, orange-cushioned chair in his dark studio near the old Rainier Brewery, Blood seems lost in thought. He’s staring into space as “Out This Way” — that final track — plays on his monitors. He sips a cup of coffee, tears percolating in the corners of his eyes.
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Rapper Vince Staples — playing the Neptune Theatre on Wednesday (March 2) — understands that a great deal of life is contradiction.
That idea is succinctly summed up in his song “Lift Me Up,” the second track from his 2015 double-album release, “Summertime ’06,” in which he raps, “I need to fight the power, but I need that new Ferrari.”
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Time travelers live among us.
Take, for example, Ishmael Butler, frontman for the classic ’90s rap group Digable Planets and the current avant-garde duo Shabazz Places. Both are playing Seattle this week — the former at the Moore Theatre on Wednesday (Dec. 30), marking the first reunion for Digable Planets since 2011.
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Chad Nicefield is not ashamed to admit that he got into the whole music thing for the free beer. But as the sound of his band, Wilson, matured, so did its goals. Its focus has widened, turned into something more than the members themselves. The group has taken on the role of repping and bolstering its hometown of Detroit, a city that's seen its fair share of turmoil over the past decade.
"We're not ashamed to say we're products of our environment," Nicefield says during a phone interview while on tour with his band, supporting its latest full-length, Right to Rise. "Given all the hardships our city and families have gone through, we wanted to honor the stories of Detroit. It's not just about the rubble."
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On January 30, Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready teamed up with the Seattle Symphony and an all-star cast of rock musicians – from bassist Duff McKagan to singers Chris Cornell and Kim Virant – at Benaroya Hall to perform original compositions as well as songs from the band, Mad Season. The night of music, part of SSO’s fifth annual Sonic Evolution Series, where well-known musicians write original works tailored specifically for the symphony, was laid to tape and will be released August 28 on vinyl. And there is only one man McCready would trust to master this project: Seattle’s Ed Brooks.
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