The Roots and Michelle Obama are hosting a virtual festival on June 27, with a lineup featuring The Roots, SZA, Roddy Ricch, Lil Baby, Kirk Franklin, H.E.R., G Herbo, Earthgang, Polo G, DJ D-Nice, Snoh Aalegra, and Musiq Soulchild, CNN reports. Various non-musical guests will make appearances as well (no word on Barack Obama yet). The virtual fest, organized through When We All Vote as the 13th annual Roots Picnic, can be watched via the Roots’ YouTube page.

Last weekend British jazz pianist and composer Keith Tippett has died, with Raspberry Fields' Piotr Orlov writing a lovely short text about the musician. Orlov sees him as "an indispensable connector between the post-psychedelic jazz-rock folks, the free-form players, the South African expats who were completely turning the sound of improvisation upside down, and the chaotic big-bands that were striking many different kinds of fancies". Tippet collaborated a lot - with Stan Tracey, Julie Tippetts (his wife, née Driscoll, King Crimson - "his career encompasses many many records and musical turns that are beyond dope, and have seemingly little to do with one another, except that the players on them strangely overlap, and Tippett is often near the center".

New EP by the non-binary Sudanese-American singer Dua Saleh was inspired by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, known as the Godmother of rock and roll, and it is "full of diverse soundscapes with hypnotizing synths and guitars for emotionally resonant trips through Dua’s candid memories", Hypebeast says. Brooklyn Vegan hears "the influence of loud, distorted rock on this powerful EP, but you can also hear modern R&B, auto-tuned trap, atmospheric art pop, and more. It breaks down boundaries left and right". Listen to the EP in full at Bandcamp.

"I’m pretty sure it was the time I watched 'Schindler’s List' on Netflix that pushed me over the edge. If ever there was a movie where the credits were an integral part of the experience this was it. However, the second after Steven Spielberg’s name came up, the screen was shrunk to the size of a postage stamp and a massive advert appeared telling you to watch something else" - TV composer Daniel Pemberton writes in the Guardian, annoyed, by the cable-TV practice. "The end credit sequence is an unsexy but still important part of the film-going experience. It can be a key moment of contemplation, to assess, absorb and reflect on everything you have just experienced" - he argues.

Nick Cave has published a list of his favourite books on his Red Hand Files blog, a "rather formless and incoherent grab bag of titles that come to mind at this moment that, for one reason or another, I have loved over the years" (all of his books are at an exhibition now). It's nice to see there's plenty of poetry there, some familiar names, and some that just might be a starting point of a discovery.

Warner Music Group, Sony Music and Spotify plan to commemorate the June 19 holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the U.S., Billboard reports. At Warner, Juneteenth is not being treated as a day off but rather “an important time for all of us to learn, reflect, and connect as we continue to battle systemic racism". Spotify will exclusively feature black artists on Friday, June 19th.

Among the 40 artists on the 2020 Long List for the best Canadian album are: Caribou, Lido Pimienta, Jessie Reyez, Andy Shauf, KAYTRANADA, The Weeknd, U.S. Girls, dvsn, Leif Vollebek, Jacques Greene, Daniel Caesar, Cindy Lee, Men I Trust, and Allie X.

6,000 people attended two illegal “quarantine raves” in Manchester, England on Saturday, June 13th, which left one young man dead due to suspected overdose death. According to the BBC, there were also three stabbings, and the rape of an 18-year-old-woman. Streams of young people were seen on their way to the two "quarantine raves" on Saturday evening. There was also a large police presence at both sites.

"I want to see a new generation of female writers achieve even more without age-old sexism holding them back" - former NME editor Charlotte Gunn told Music Week about her new project - The Forty-Five, an online platform with an all-female base of contributors. The site's already online - there's an interview with former Maccabees frontman Orlando Weeks who's just released his solo debut; also, a commentary on Lady Gaga’s queer pop dominating the charts.

John Prine sang "Got no future in my happiness/Though, regrets are very few/Sometimes a little tenderness/Was the best that I could do" on 'I Remember Everything', the last song he recorded before he passed away from COVID-19; JD Simo's 'One Of Those Days' is a soulful, psychedelic and amusing rock; Bettye LaVette remade Billie Holiday's iconic 'Strange Fruit' reminding us public executions of this day aren't that different from the ones from two centuries ago; bass icon Bootsy Collins released 'Stars', featuring philosopher Dr. Cornel West, drummer Steve Jordan, banjo legend Béla Fleck, and EmiSunshine & Olvido Ruiz; Pop Smoke's posthumous album is coming out in July, 'Make It Rain' sounds promising, in mainstream hip-hop terms; Woodkid's 'Pale Yellow' is a strange fruit, dramatic, cinematic, folk-ish.

An encouraging story in the Rolling Stone about clubs in New York, California, and California D.C., shut down in March due to coronavirus, opening lately to shelter anti-police brutality protesters. Venues like Flight Deck, Club Cumming, 9:30 Club have become havens for protesters offering them charging facilities, hand sanitizer, water, restrooms and basic first-aid, some milk to dull the sting of pepper spray...

For over two decades, New York City police has had a unit dedicated to keeping tabs on rappers and the people around them, keeping files on figures like Jay-Z, Cam’ron, Damon Dash, Busta Rhymes, and 50 Cent. To this day, officers create reports about rap shows in NYC, naming artists they believe are gang members or that have rivals who may show up looking for trouble. Derrick Parker, the man who initiated the "hip-hop police", says the squad is "for their [rappers'] safety”. Complex reports they don’t just make reports about who is going to be appearing at a club - they also intimidate club owners into canceling events. “They’re a shadowy specialized unit that conducts overly aggressive investigations that monitor every move of entertainers”, says Dawn Florio, who has represented a number of rappers, “to me, it's like stalking at the highest level... This unit is really out of control”.

Rage Against the Machine were a target to some fan criticism due to band's "political opinions", with one fan saying "music is my sanctuary and the last thing I want to hear is political bs when i’m listening to music". RATM's Tom Morello answered kindly - "Scott!! What music of mine were you a fan of that DIDN’T contain 'political BS'?. I need to know so I can delete it from the catalog". Lawyer Elisabeth Ryan, Morello's Harvard colleague, was more straightforward saying - "What machine did you think they have been raging against for decades? The Ice cream machine? The ATM? Lawnmowers?".

Billie Eilish shared her anger over the killing of Rayshard Brooks in an Instagram post - “man FUCK. watching this video made me so fucking angry”, she wrote aside a photo of Brooks. “FUCK THIS SHIT. JUSTICE FOR RAYSHARD BROOKS. FUCK THIS SHIIIIIIIIT. #justiceforrayshard !!!! WHY ISNT EVERYONE TALKING ABOUT THIS??”, Billie Eilish added. On Friday, Brooks was shot in the back and killed while fleeing after Wendy’s employee called police to report a man sleeping in their drive-thru, Billboard reports. Eilish’s brother Finneas also reacted to the murder via Instagram: "Asleep in his car in a parking lot. Shot to death. Don’t let yourself be numb to this. Don’t let the world stay this way”. In similar news, Beyoncé has shared an open letter on her website to Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, seeking swift justice for Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old emergency room technician who was killed in her home by Louisville police, Time reports. Also, Barbra Streisand has gifted her Disney shares to the young daughter of slain Minnesota man George Floyd, CNN reports.

“Just the idea of playing a gig – we’d play a gig for an empty room, really. We’re super keen to get out there” - surf rock duo Hockey Dad told Guardian about their concert in July while 400 carloads of fans watch from behind their windscreens. Drive-in festival Airwaves will happen on the Sunshine Coast for three nights from 10 July, headlined by the Chats. The Drive-In is a “live entertainment precinct” about to happen in Melbourne, offering weekly live music. Drive-in Entertainment Australia plans to launch around the country next month...

Dolly Parton fan named Alex Parsons has set up a petition to replace Tennessee's Confederate monuments with statues of one of the state's most admired country singer-songwriters, the Charlotte Observer reports. Parsons argues Parton "has given more to this country and this state than those confederate officers could ever have hoped to take away".

Eminem listed his selection of the best rappers of all time on Twitter, saying that "in no particular order" it was a "toss up between" Lil Wayne, 2Pac, Royce Da 5'9", Jay-Z, Redman, Treach, Kool G Rap, Biggie, and Kxng Crooked, XXL reports. In a second tweet, he added, among others, a few younger ones - LL Cool J, Nas, Joyner Lucas, Kendrick Lamar, J Cole, Andre 3000, Rakim, and Big Daddy Kane.

Lil Baby returns to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with his latest release 'My Turn', with 65,000 equivalent album units earned, Billboard reports. It’s the second week at No. 1 for the album, following its debut atop the chart in March. 'My Turn' tallies the smallest sum for a No. 1 album in over a year, in a slow week for new albums - there were no debuts inside the top 40 of the new chart. Last week, the Atlanta rapper released the song 'The Bigger Picture' in response to the national protests over police brutality.

Music company BMG has pledged to address "inequities or anomalies" in the record contracts of black artists, following criticism of widespread financial inequality in the music industry, Music Business Worldwide reports. BMG CEO Hartwig Masuch said the label was “mindful of the shameful treatment of black artists”, and would begin a review of historic record contracts within 30 days.

age Against the Machine's music has proven to be relevant now, decades after it was released - politically charged band’s 1992 self-titled debut is back at No. 174 on the Billboard 200 chart, Forbes reports. The debut LP features the classic 'Killing in the Name', which was written in the wake of Rodney King’s beating at the hands of the LAPD and the subsequent riots that followed. In addition to that, all three of RATM’s original studio albums - the 1992 debut, 1996’s 'Evil Empire', and 1999’s 'The Battle of Los Angeles' - climbed to the Top 30 of Apple Music’s Rock Albums chart.

"An artist who’s quite literally said nothing new for the last eight years, he suddenly turned very loquacious indeed, unleashing a series of dense, allusive tracks packed with thorny references to art, literature and pop culture" - Guardian's Alexis Petridis wrote in a review of folk great's new album. "'Rough and Rowdy Ways' might well be Bob Dylan’s most consistently brilliant set of songs in years: the die-hards can spend months unravelling the knottier lyrics, but you don’t need a PhD in Dylanology to appreciate its singular quality and power". NME's Mark Beaumont is equally impressed: "Arguably his grandest poetic statement yet, a sweeping panorama of culture, history and philosophy peering back through assassinations, world wars, the births of nations, crusades and Biblical myths in order to plot his place in the great eternal scheme". In a rare recent interview in the New York Times Dylan said his songs "seem to know themselves and they know that I can sing them, vocally and rhythmically. They kind of write themselves and count on me to sing them".

"Drab City make strangely cinematic music, full of flutes, vibraphones, soft vocals and glitchy beats" - Guardian writes in their newest "One to watch" segment about USA-Berlin duo. They've just released their new album 'Good Songs for Bad People' with "stronger, more haunting songs and a strangeness that feels fitting for our surreal times". Listen to the album in full at Bandcamp here.

The independent music ecosystem has historically provided an alternative to corporate labels, broadcasting networks and other consolidated organs of power - InsideHook argues in favour of indie music scene in times of no shows. But the future is not dark - while small bands and labels might currently run on the thinnest of margins, it’s possible that it is precisely this thriftiness that will benefit them in the long term.

Nashville country trio Lady Antebellum have changed their name to Lady A, alluding in their letter to fans to recent weeks of Black Lives Matter protests across the United States and the world, New York Times reports. In the United States, the term antebellum, which comes from the Latin for “before war,” is generally used to refer to the antebellum South, pre-Civil War, and can be seen as a way of romanticizing plantation life while overlooking centuries of black slavery. The band said it took the name when it formed in 2006, as a reference to the “‘antebellum’ style home where we took our first photos”.

"I can’t say that I thought this would happen, because it’s one of those things - you know, my 20-year old self or my 15-year-old self would never have thought that would happen" Aaron Dessner told Stereogum about working with Michael Stipe, since R.E.M. were such a bih influence on The National - "but more recently, it seemed like more of a dialogue". The band is quarantined now, which is a huge difference, for The National in particular - "we’ve played so many shows for 20 years, and now who knows when that will come back. One of the negative sides of a really intense arc as a touring band is there are big gaps in your memory because you’re so exhausted. It’s an amazing job, and we’re so lucky and grateful for that. But one of the things that is maybe sometimes bittersweet is you miss a lot of normal rites of passages and people’s birthdays and such".

A great little indie label One Little Indian - home to Björk, the Sugarcubes, Olga Bell, Cody Chesnutt, and more - has changed its name to One Little Independent Records, Flood Magazine reports. Label's founder Derek Birkett decided to change it this week after receiving an “eye-opening letter from a Crass fan” that made him feel "equally appalled and grateful to them for making me understand what must be changed”. He apologised "to anyone that has been offended by the name and the logo“ and admitted he recognises "now that both contribute to racism and should have been addressed a long, long time ago”. Birkett is making donations to organizations such as Honouring Indigenous Peoples Charitable Corporation and the Association on American Indian Affairs on behalf of the label.

"Just last week Billie Eilish told an interviewer: 'sometimes I feel trapped by this persona that I have created'" - NME's Mark, My Words writes, and offers her advice - "History tells her that she’d best change it sharpish, or she’s liable to get lumbered with it for good". The power of an image is paramount in music, Mark says - "If Slipknot drummer Jay Weinberg suddenly developed a debilitating allergy to gimp gear and nail wigs, they wouldn’t ditch the masks in solidarity – they’d be taking forehead measurements for a new drummer".

The music world is in the middle of a process of kicking out the word "urban" as a denominator used to describe music of black origin, because, as Tyler, the Creator said, "urban" is “a politically correct way to say the N-word to me”. Grammys joined the trend, but it turned more than clumsy. A category formerly known as Best Urban Contemporary Album lost "urban" and became Best Progressive R&B, with Latin Pop Album becoming Best Latin Pop Or Urban Album. Vulture says these changes are just simply wrong - "rectifying these long-standing and persistent issues requires much more than switching a few words around, and thinking deeper than semantics... Until the Recording Academy takes stock of its house, the Grammys will remain a holistically damaged and toxic institution". NPR is much more direct - "On the surface, these seem like clumsy name changes... But their introduction points to larger, systemic issues for an organization that has long struggled to acknowledge and celebrate music made by artists of color".

The Flaming Lips performed on Stephen Colbert’s 'Late Show' last night, playing 'Race For The Prize' from their 1999 album 'The Soft Bulletin', while every member of the band and everybody in the audience was inside giant inflatable bubbles, a staple from the group’s live shows.