Music

After years of jokes and complaints about her tardiness at live shows, Ms. Lauryn Hill is addressing the matter. 

“They say, ‘Oh, she’s late’ and ‘She’s late tonight,’” Hill told fans Saturday during her show at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles. “Yo, y’all are lucky I make it to this bloodclot stage every night. I leave my soul on this stage. And I don’t do it because they let me do it. I do it because I stand here in the name of God. And I know it. God is who allows me to do it.”

“He surrounded me with family and community when there was no support,” Hill continued. “When the album [her 1998 solo debut, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill] sold so many records and no one showed up and said, ‘Hey, would you like to make another one.’ So I went around the world, and I played the same album over and over and over and over again. Because we’re the survivors. We’re not just the survivors; we’re the thrivers.”

Hill had previously mentioned her tardiness in a 2016 Facebook post, where she noted, “The challenge is aligning my energy with the time, taking something that isn’t easily classified or contained, and trying to make it available for others.”

Her 25th anniversary tour celebrating her one and only solo album heads to Oakland on November 7.

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Flyleaf frontwoman Lacey Sturm has announced a new solo album called Kenotic Metanoia.

The record arrives on November 17. It includes the previously released singles “Reconcile,” “Awaken Love,” “State of Me” and “The Decree,” as well as the Lindsey Stirling collaboration, “Breathe with Me.”

Kenotic Metanoia is the sophomore follow-up to Sturm’s 2016 solo debut, Life Screams.

Sturm reunited with Flyleaf in 2022 to play a number of 2023 festivals, including the inaugural Sick New World. She previously parted ways with the group in 2012.

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If you’re greedy for more music from Tate McRae, then you’re in luck. The pop star has announced the upcoming release of her sophomore album, Think Later.

From RCA Records, the Ryan Tedder-produced album releases on December 8. It features Tate’s track “greedy,” her first song to make it to number one on the Spotify global chart. The song also hit number three on the Billboard Global 200.

“[T]his album means sooo much to me and i can’t believe it’s so close to coming out,” Tate wrote on Instagram. “[W]riting this whole thing was one of the most stressful, exciting, nerve racking, and fun things i’ve ever gone through. for the first time in my life i lived this year a little less with my head and a little more with my intuition – and i rlly hope u guys can feel that through the music.”

Along with the album, Tate’s announced an accompanying global tour. The Think Later Tour will span 53 dates throughout 2024, across Europe, the U.K., North America, Australia and New Zealand. It’ll kick off on April 17 in Dublin, Ireland.

If that wasn’t enough, Tate will also make her Saturday Night Live debut later this month. She’ll serve as the musical guest on November 18, alongside host Jason Momoa.

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Slipknot drummer Jay Weinberg is out of the band.

Weinberg, the son of E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg, joined the masked metallers in 2014 following the departure of founding member Joey Jordison. He played on the last three Knot records: 2015’s .5: The Gray Chapter, 2019’s We Are Not Your Kind and 2022’s The End, So Far.

“We would like to thank Jay Weinberg for his dedication and passion over the past ten years,” reads a post on Slipknot’s website. “No one can ever replace Joey Jordison’s original sound, style or energy, but Jay honored Joey’s parts and contributed to the last three albums and we, the band, and the fans appreciate it.”

“But as ever, Slipknot is intent on evolving,” the post continues. “The band has decided to make a creative decision, and to part ways with Jay. We wish Jay all the best and are very excited for what the future holds.”

Weinberg is the second Slipknot member to leave the band in 2023. Keyboardist and sampler Craig Jones, who’d been with the Knot since 1996, departed the group in June. Slipknot also parted ways with percussionist Chris Fehn in 2019.

Slipknot, of course, is notoriously tight-lipped about the identity of new members, so it may be awhile before the identity of their next drummer is revealed. While fans had long hoped that the group and Jordison would reconcile the difference that led to his 2013 departure, he died in 2021.

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Katy Perry bid farewell to PLAY, her Las Vegas residency, with a star-studded audience that included Céline Dion, Prince Harry and Megan Markle.

In a video captured by a fan who attended the Saturday, November 4 finale, Prince Harry and Meghan were spotted among the crowd seated beside Perry’s fiancé, Orlando Bloom. Prince Harry appeared utterly captivated by the stage performance, while Meghan was seen grooving to the music from a row behind.

In another photograph, Prince Harry and Meghan looked like they were lining up to talk to Céline.

One attendee even documented their experience meeting Céline on X, formerly known as Twitter, as “the best moment of my life thus far,” sharing that they were able to “meet & talk with the legendary icon.”

The appearance marked a rare public appearance by Céline since she was diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome in 2022. The rare neurological syndrome causes muscle stiffness and painful spasms. Last week, she visited the Montreal Canadiens hockey team in their locker room after they played the Las Vegas Golden Knights in Sin City.

Katy’s three-year-old daughter Daisy, who she shares with Bloom, was also in attendance at the grand finale of the residency at Resorts World, which saw her perform chart-toppers like “California Girls,” “Roar,” and “Firework.”

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Missy Elliott officially became the first female rapper to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame November 3 at the induction ceremony in Brooklyn, New York.

Missy’s friend Sandra “Pepa” Denton of Salt-N-Pepa came out to support her, and on the red carpet, she told ABC Audio how impressive it is that Missy’s talents go far beyond simply rapping.

“To be a songwriter, producer, singer, dancer, director … and not only for herself, but for other artists that she has also made a star, you know? And it was, it’s just amazing,” she gushed. “I’m happy for her because I’m happy to have seen where hip hop has evolved. And women in hip hop.”

Pepa added that it was great to see Missy walk through the doors that she, Salt and DJ Spinderella kicked down in the late ’80s and early ’90s.

“It feels amazing. I mean, because she always talks about it. I mean, she even [has] a whole big picture up of Salt-N-Pepa and Spinderella in her music room,” she shared. “So it’s amazing because like, from where we coming from and the struggle that we’ve been through, just to be here 50 years celebrating hip hop as a woman, it’s a proud moment because just to see the levels that we took the game, you know, for the music and she did it. And it’s a beautiful thing to be a part of it.”

Asked by ABC Audio if she hopes that her group will be next on the induction list — given that they laid much of the groundwork that allowed Missy to shine — Pepa said, “Yes, yes, yes.”

“I got a few pieces in the museum, so hopefully,” she laughed.

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It’s no secret Kirk Franklin endured an unexpected time of difficulty when recording his latest album, Father’s Day. 

The title alone is nod to the life-changing event of finding his birth father after more than 50 years. But if he had to pinpoint which of the album’s 10 tracks most accurately illustrates what it was like dealing with the news, it’d be the number six track, “Listen.”

“I remember ‘Listen’ and I remember the day that lyrically I had to try to find my way and listen,” Kirk said.

Describing the special song as somewhat of a “beautiful funeral,” the Grammy winner said the lyrics are a direct reflection of his emotions. 

“The lyrics say, ‘Light of the world, please don’t give up on me. I’m so lost right now,'” Franklin recited, adding that the words help to start a conversation.

He continued, “Reach through the dark, I feel like I’ve been missing/ God of the stars, can You silence the storm deep in me right now?/ Relight my fire, That warm embrace has ended.”

Franklin, who was adopted as a young child and did not have much information about his biological dad, said that the time recording “Listen” was “the hinge that the album, in that moment of my life, was hanging on.” 

The heartfelt song, echoing his “painful, really dark, sparse, empty” emotions, was his opportunity to really let it all out. 

“Let me go ahead and do this doggone thing,” Franklin thought at the time. “Let me go ahead and say I’m concerned about all of this.”

Franklin’s 14th album, Father’s Day, is available for streaming on major platforms.

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