"Fueled by a young population, great musical talent, and more streaming opportunities, Africa’s music industry is booming, and the world’s major record labels are taking notice" - QZ starts its article about the potential of music in Africa. Universal and Warner, two of the biggest record labels, are taking action "signing top African artists, hiring personnel for their operations in the continent, and entering deals with local labels and music streaming companies as they strategically position themselves for a share of Africa’s growing music earnings".

Financial Times has shared a video about a struggling hip-hop artist Dirty Blonde trying to make it in the time of coronavirus and the domination of streaming. FT also talked to some of the world's biggest music companies, record labels, and producers, how they are adapting to this fast-changing industry.

"People just want to dance" - veteran producer and DJ Sarz says to DJ Mag about street-hop, ever-evolving sound of the 16-million people megacity of Lagos, Nigeria. It’s a mutating sound: even its most basic elements are in motion, influenced by hyperactive, ephemeral street trends. Dance music in Lagos is a percussion-heavy sound with a pitter-patter of percussive progression. DJ Mag speaks to some of street-hop’s key artists, like DJ Kaywise, Rexxie and Sarz, to find out how it’s evolved and where it’s going next.

Fiona Apple covers Sharon Van Etten’s 'Love More' for Van Etten's 'Ten' anniversary reissue, adding heartbeat drums and subtle piano to the song; Low cover Bob Dylan’s 'Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door' for the Uncut compilation 'Dylan Revisited'; The Black Keys share their version of 'Crawling Kingsnake' by Big Joe Williams, from their album of Mississippi hill country blues standards 'Delta Kream', out May 14.

Consequence chose dark Americana singer-guitarist Amigo the Devil as their Artist of the month, and had interviewed him. His sophomore album, 'Born Against', released, Friday, April 16, as he's told the C,"has to do with … doubting faith itself. … I kept asking myself, 'Are we born a blank slate?' … or 'Are we built pre-programmed with things'. It was more of that exploration of intention versus purpose, of discovery versus instinct”. He also discusses three of his biggest influences: Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, and Fiona Apple.

Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson is set to play Joe Ramone in a new biopic 'I Slept With Joey Ramone', based on the memoir of the same name by Joey Ramone's brother, Mickey Leigh, who is also one of the film’s executive producers. Davidson and his frequent collaborator Jason Orley also penned the script for the film, with Orley also directing the biopic, Rolling Stone reports. Mickey Leigh shared a bed with Joe Ramone, as well as childhood, family, and a lifetime.

Puerto Rican star was the big winner at the Latin American Music Awards, taking home five awards including artist of the year, album of the year for 'YHLQMDLG' and favorite male artist. Bad Bunny was followed by Karol G and Nicki Minaj who took three awards each including song of the year thanks to global hit 'Tusa', Hola! USA reports. Check out all the nominees and winners here.

"There isn’t a single wasted second among its ten tracks, navigating the waters between discordant grit and lilting harmony with a steady hand" - Heavy Blog is Heavy wrote reviewing new album by the screamo/post-hardcore quintet Dreamwell. Everything is Noise insists this is "a must-listen album to anyone who enjoys emotionally heavy music as a catharsis", with Noob Heavy adding it's a "powerful, mature, and often quite moving listen". Brooklyn Vegan argues "Dreamwell's screamo can be metallic and aggressive as much as it can be soaring and post-rocky, and it feels big enough to fill stadiums".

The staff of The Verge recommend their favorite music straming services:

Radio Dismuke, a little-known streaming service with a constant diet of pop and jazz from the early part of the last century

Soma FM - has tons of different genre stations

YouTube Music - incomparable catalog

8tracks - lets users upload playlists of at least eight songs, possible to get three skips per playlist per hour

KEXP - consistently excellent music selection by the public radio station based in Seattle

Aux Live - a music-focused service with a range of live concerts and documentaries

Qobuz - a place with higher-resolution music

Spotify - a nice user interface and compatibility with almost every piece of streaming hardware on the market

Apple Music - does a great job of syncing all of the music across devices

Live Music Archive - over 200,000 concerts in lossless audio quality for free

Guitarist Anthony Garone wrote a book 'Failure to Fracture' chronicling his 22-year-long journey of learning how to play King Crimson’s 11-minute instrumental 'Fracture', Guitar World reports. Robert Fripp once described his 1974 masterpiece as “impossible to play”, especially because of the section roughly three minutes in where the guitarist begins a nonstop barrage of notes called a “moto perpetuo” – an Italian term for “perpetual motion”. Over the years, Garone published blog posts and videos about his efforts, and kept working at it until he had a breakthrough after enrolling in a week-long guitar instruction course led by Fripp in rural Mexico in 2015. Last year Garone released a video of him playing the song (watch it below). 'Failure to Fracture' is released May 18.

A hilarious article by Tracy Clark-Flory for Jezebel about men displaying their power with air-sex: "When I think of stage humping, I think of a man thrusting against the floor in a modified pushup, an enactment of missionary screwing that presupposes a very long, and soon to be broken, dick... Recently, I came across similar moves on TikTok and was reminded, once again, of men making love to the floor. And I thought: From whence the floor grind? It was time to investigate this important topic".

"If the Internet existed back when Slayer released their very first album, we would have been destroyed" - speed-metal icons' drummer Dave Lombardo says to Pit's MoshTalks Cover Stories (via Loudwire). "So, today, these days, you have to go with the approach of how we did it back then — we didn't care. We thought it was heavy, we thought it was brutal and evil. It was dark. It had a certain feel to it. And it made all of us happy. It had our stamp of approval" - the drummer continued. Lombardo urges bands to listen to themselves only - "and another thing is bands that feel, 'Oh, no. Our fans won't go for that, because our fans only like us to do this style'. Well, then there's no growth. You're gonna grow stagnant. It's just not gonna evolve if you don't venture out and try new things".

YouTube star Chris Crocker, who shot to online infamy for their ‘Leave Britney Alone’ viral video, has sold the original clip as an NFT (non-fungible token) for 18.69 ether, which is roughly equivalent to around $41,000. Crocker explained to Business Insider that selling the video was their way of reclaiming the clip after years of relentless mockery and abuse. The money made from the sale would go primarily towards helping their grandmother, and their gender transition surgery.

London based rapper Berwyn shares a smooth '100,000,000', following in the rich British lyrical tradition; Matthew E. White and Lonnie Holley share a psychotic jazz groove 'Broken Mirror (A Selfie Reflection) /Composition 9'; José González announces his new album with gentle and personal 'Visions'; 'Instrumental' is the highpoint of Samba Touré's latest album.

The political right-wing has a history of using songs of leftist or rebellious nature for its cause, starting with Ronald Reagan who used Bruce Springsteen's 'Born in the USA', to Boris Johnson who co-opted Clash, and Donald Trump who saw it fit to connect himself with Neil Young's 'Rockin' in the Free World'. The latest example comes from anti-lockdown protesters who, positioning themselves as oppressed, have contorted Twisted Sister’s 'We’re Not Gonna Take It' into an anti-mask anthem. Guardian makes a step in trying to explain it. "Co-opting is part of an effort to link conservatism to rebellion and the idea that to be conservative is to be rebellious. This crops up in younger conservatives" - says Jack Hamilton, a professor at University of Virginia. There is a way for the real freedom fighters to reclaim their culture - "what we can do is educate, empower and encourage people to listen with a critical ear” - says Kevin Fellezs, associate professor at Columbia University, who is researching “freedom musics”.

'Xeno' examines a brief yet intimate encounter between two strangers, against the backdrop of a barren hillside in Montreal (watch it below). It is a part of Films.Dance series, which also features original music by Berlin-based artists Alice Phoebe Lou and Thor Rixon. 'Xeno' is a part of a series of 15 free films shot during the COVID-19 pandemic, which have involved the participation of more than 150 artists from 25 countries. All of the Films.Dance programme so far can be seen at the project’s website.

24-year old Grammy-nominated rapper CHIKA has announced her retirement from the music industry due to the impact it was having on her mental health. In a statement, she told fans that “the mental toll being in the industry has taken on me is not something you bounce back from easily”. CHIKA is known for being vocal about political and societal issues and was detained by police at a Los Angeles protest over the police killing of George Floyd last year.

Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl directed a new movie about touring vans and life on the road called 'What Drives Us', featuring interviews with Lars Ulrich, Slash, the Edge, Flea, Steven Tyler, St. Vincent, and many others. “This film is my love letter to every musician that has ever jumped in an old van with their friends and left it all behind for the simple reward of playing music” - Grohl said.

"Big companies going forward will just be managers of catalog. I don’t see the need for a record company [beyond that] to exist... Their ownership in artists’ intellectual property will diminish" - UnitedMasters founder Steve Stoute tells MBW. Last month, his independent artist distribution platform has secured a $50 million investment by Apple, Alphabet, and Andreessen Horowitz supporting his mission to become "a full-service music company in your pocket”.

"Right now, when you get songwriters in the room, they're trying to write a radio hit, because that's the only way you make money. If we create an environment where songwriters are not worried about this, if they're not freaking out about paying their rent, and they're just able to focus on being creative, there will be a musical renaissance" - US writer Emily Warren tells BBC about her initiative The Pact, a group of the world's biggest songwriters who got together to stop the practice of pop-stars taking credit for songs they didn't write any part of. It used to be rare, but in recent years, artists have started demanding a share of the publishing "ninety-nine per cent of the time", says Tayla Parx, another Pact member, whose credits include Ariana Grande's 'Thank U Next' and 'High Hopes' by Panic! At The Disco. Warren, who recently received a Grammy nomination for her work on Dua Lipa's 'Don't Start Now', says that demands for co-writing credit start with a 1% share, rising as high as 20%, with an average of about 15%. Since The Pact launched two weeks ago, more than 1,000 people have signed the open letter.

The John Lennon Estate has released a never-before-seen video of John Lennon and Yoko Ono rehearsing 'Give Peace a Chance', just days before they premiered the song in May of 1969, Spin reports. The restored video shows the artists side-by-side in another bed, at the Sheraton Oceanus Hotel in the Bahamas. Lennon mumbles most of the song unintelligibly - "Everybody’s talking about revolution, masturbation, hasturbation, constipation … uh … rasturbation, cake, chocolate cake … uh… fake, cake, glasses, passes”, apart from the chorus. The release is part of a massive new box set 'John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band – The Ultimate Collection' commemorating the 50th anniversary of the famous Bed-In for Peace, due April 23.

Mick Jagger and Dave Grohl have just released their first song together, a lockdown-themed number 'Eazy Sleazy' written by Jagger and performed by both the rock stars. The Rolling Stone says to the Consequence it's the only song he's written on the subject of lockdown, in a "semi-humorous way", just like the lyric “Shooting the vaccine/ Bill Gates is in my bloodstream/ It’s mind control".

The music streaming giant has stepped into music listening hardware business - Spotify is launching a smart device for the car called the Car Thing. The new voice-controlled device, which only works with a Spotify Premium account, will let users say “Hey Spotify” to ask for a song, album, artist, playlist, station, or podcast. It also features a dial to browse, select, play and pause content, a 4″ touchscreen and four preset buttons for shortcuts to user's favorite artists, playlists, stations, and podcasts. The device connects to Spotify’s app on a smartphone and connects to the car stereo via Bluetooth, AUX or USB cable, TechCrunch reports. Initially available for select US users, the new gadget’s anticipated retail price is $79.99, but is available at no cost for a limited time for those select users, with SPOT only charging $6.99 postage.

Recorded in a matter of days in a Chicago backyard, 'NOW' joins together three essential Black American genres - jazz, gospel and hip-hop - made with the goal of getting together to commune and make art. "The feel is that of a live prayer-meets-politics meeting... The overall experience is restorative and uplifting" - All About Jazz reviews the new album by multi-talented composer, musician, educator, and visual artist Damon Locks and his impressive collective Black Monument Ensemble. Stereogum describes ''NOW' as "a sweaty, roiling piece of music, answered by vocalists who are tracing pathways from grief to ecstasy... Dense with ideas and sounds", while Pitchfork praises "grand and luminous statement" made by it.

"Lil Nas X used one of America’s most reliable engines for cultural outrage to his advantage: the conservative media ecosystem... With the 'Montero' video, Nas affirmed his personal identity as one of vanishingly few out gay rappers by expressing himself as flamboyantly and unabashedly as possible. He actively courted the controversy, measuring his success by the outrage and teeth-gnashing of his opponents - an approach straight out of the conservative culture-war playbook" - Politico analyses how the rapper turned the weapons against the shooter. He was prepared for this social-media battle - "for years as a teenager, Nas operated a popular Twitter account that reposted and repurposed viral content... He understands all too well that in 2021, there may be no quicker way to pump oxygen into a brand than to let partisan politics do it for you".

Phoebe Bridgers’ guitar that she smashed against an amplifier on Saturday Night Live in February, was sold for a shocking $101,500 in a GLAAD auction, Loudwire reports. Bridgers, who identifies as bisexual, was nominated for outstanding breakthrough music artist for Thursday’s GLAAD Music Awards. The winner was the upstart rapper Chika. Bids for the guitar had remained in the low five figures in the days leading up to the auction’s close, but the price went up in a bidding frenzy Sunday, the last day of the auction. Jason Isbell has said the guitar was worth around $85, before it got smashed, which means the price went up 1,200-fold after Bridgers had smashed it.

Taylor Swift released 'Fearless (Taylor's Version)', a much-anticipated re-record of her 2008 pop breakthrough album. Since 2016, Wheatus have been working on a painstaking re-record of their 2000 debut. KISS, Blondie, DMX, Frank Sinatra and many more have made re-records of their biggest hits for their hits albums. Pre-Beatles rock artists, from '57 to '63, the 90 percent majority of them must have re-recorded their hits at some point or another in the last half century - as Andy Zax, a music producer specializing in historical and archival releases, assesses. In general, NPR puts it simply, the reasons for these re-records are simple: financial control and creative ownership.

Streams of DMX’s catalog of songs increased 928% in the United States in the days following his death - his tracks garnered 75.7 million on-demand streams (audio and video combined) on April 9 and 10, a nine-fold increase compared to the 7.36 million they earned on April 7 and 8. In terms of music sales, DMX’s collected songs and albums sold 101,000 copies on April 9-11 – up 1,036% compared to the 9,000 they sold on April 6-8.

Diddy wrote an open letter to highlight the low advertising revenue his network REVOLT gets from General Motors and how it reflects an inequity for Black-owned media companies. "In 2019, brands spent $239 billion on advertising. Less than 1% of that was invested in Black-owned media companies. Out of the roughly $3 billion General Motors spent on advertising, we estimate only $10 million was invested in Black-owned media... It’s disrespectful that the same community that represents 14% of the population and spends over $1.4 trillion annually is still the most economically undervalued and underserved at every level... Corporations like General Motors have exploited our culture, undermined our power, and excluded Black entrepreneurs from participating in the value created by Black consumers... We demand that Corporate America reinvest an equitable percentage of what you take from our community back into our community". His letter has gotten mixed reviews.

Jim Ward of the At The Drive-In, delivers a positive message "to die a better man" on 'Paper Fish', with help from friends, members of Incubus and Thursday; Keen Dreams share dream pop song 'Pinks & Reds'; Trade Wind shares atmospheric indie rock 'Die! Die! Die!' together with a morbid video; Mina Tindle shares a pretty live version of 'Give A Little Love'.