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The wide and accepting genre that is hip-hop has opened its doors to Asian artists over the past half-decade, ushering a new wave of talent most notably led by Rich Brian. Looking at the past three years, artists like Joji, Higher Brothers, Keith Ape and more have joined Brian as successful Asian hip-hop artists making waves around the world. Teaming up with Red Bull, 88Rising — a media company that has played a large role in propelling Asian artists toward U.S. audiences — and the aforementioned artists sat down to speak on their rise to fame, cross-culture, and collaborative work within the 88Rising group.

In the documentary 88Rising founder Sean Miyashiro explained he felt was the reason behind the success of the company.

“The reason for why this is working is a myriad of factors,” Miyashiro said. “It’s certainly the internet and accessibility. The world is more open, and I think that we are certainly bringing it closer together.”

The film is a partnership between Red Bull Japan and Red Bull Media House, and producer Chris Heinrich said the collaboration was an easy success.

“I was fortunate to enough to be a part of this project from the initial conversations and see it grow into the feature documentary that it is today, Heinrich said. “This documentary is just a preview of the art and creativity that these (showcased) and other defining cultures are now getting the opportunity to share on a world stage that is the internet.”

Foo Fighters’ frontperson Dave Grohl revealed last month that he would venture out to a new corner in the creative world as coronavirus has halted the band’s tour. Grohl revealed that he would begin telling short stories as a way to pass the time during self-isolation. Staying true to his promise, he uploaded his first short story to his Instagram page just a day after his announcement. Sharing another story before the end of March, Grohl returned with another story on Monday, a thrilling anecdote that caught the attention of his fans: a jam session with Prince.

Flash back to 2011, Prince had just begun a 21-show residency at the Los Angeles Forum and Grohl had decided to attend one of the shows. Prince learned of Grohl’s attendance and approached him afterward and requested a jam session between the two. “How about next Friday?” Prince asked.

For the remainder of the short story, Dave Grohl accounts the following seven days and the suspense and fear he had while waiting for Prince to give him a call to confirm the jam session. In addition to the story about the jam session, Grohl also shared his reaction to finding out Prince would cover the Foo Fighters’ “Best of You” at the 2007 Super Bowl halftime show.

Broken down into several slides, read through Grohl’s short story above.

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At the age of 73, legendary songwriter John Prine passed away due to coronavirus complications on Tuesday night. Elevating from a working-class mail carrier to a remarkable country and folk-leaning musician, his influence has traveled with him throughout the decades. Even into his sixties and seventies, he had yet to lose a step as he continued to produce incredible work. With his fingerprint on so many decades and generations of musical talents, fans of all ages and classes expressed an outpouring of grief on social media to honor the legendary songwriter.

Amber Coffman shared how much John Prine meant to her and her music. “I grew up on John Prine’s music- his was some of the first music I remember hearing as a little kid. If you’re not familiar, I highly recommend doing a deep dive. #RIPJohnPrine.”

Strand Of Oaks and Jack Antonoff also shared their thoughts and condolences online as well. Strand Of Oaks said Prine “represented everything I love about music,” while Antonoff called him “as good as it gets.”

Reactions to the passing of John Prine also came in from Marc Maron, Margo Price, Stephen Colbert, Bon Iver, Andy Ritcher, and more.

Prine’s influence was felt throughout entertainment, and his impact went far beyond music in many ways.

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Coronavirus has millions across the world and hundreds of thousands in the United States are fighting the virus day in and day out. As its spread continues, many notable figures have unfortunately been impacted by the deadly virus spreading across the globe as a pandemic. Nearly a week after the passing of Founders Of Wayne founder and Emmy-winning songwriter Adam Schlesinger, the family of John Prine confirmed to Rolling Stone that the legendary songwriter passed away Tuesday night due to coronavirus complications. He was 73.

via Billboard:

Americana legend and revered singer-songwriter John Prine died Tuesday (April 7) from complications of COVID-19, Prine’s family confirmed to Rolling Stone and Billboard separately confirmed. The two-time Grammy-winning artist was 73.

Prine was first hospitalized with complications from the coronavirus on March 26 and at that time he was listed in critical condition. A few days later his wife Fiona Prine took to social media to shared a promising update on his condition.

“I have recovered from Covid-19,” she wrote at the time. “We are humbled by the outpouring of love for me and John and our precious family. He is [stable]. Please continue to send your amazing Love and prayers.” Upon hearing news of his condition, fans came together to show support for the legendary songwriter, but sadly things turned for the worse in recent days. A few days ago, Fiona returned with another update on John via a series of tweets.

“He still needs quite a bit of help with his breathing. Like many patients currently in ICU beds all around the world, John has pneumonia in both lungs. He has also developed some peripheral issues that are being treated with meds, including antibiotics. He is very ill and yet I remain hopeful that he can continue to fight this devastating virus and come home where we can care for him.”

While fans from all over praying and hoping for a full recovery from the legendary songwriter, Prine’s battle with the virus sadly came to an end just two weeks after being hospitalized.

There are a lot of aspects of social distancing and quarantining that make life today very different from normal, with one of the things many of us took for granted and likely never will again being the opportunity to go out and get your haircut when needed.

Around the country, folks are tasked with the difficult question of whether to just let their hair grow and grow or cut it themselves, with the ever-present risk of giving yourself a disastrous cut. Ray Allen, who has long shave his head, has decided on the former and announced this with an Instagram picture showing just how bad his hairline is currently. He’s also calling on his fellow bald and “going bald” brothers like LeBron James, Shaq, and Stephon Marbury to do the same.

I wasn’t gonna post this but two tears in a bucket! This is where I’m at with it. Lol So I’m gonna ride #myJefferson out until the “Rona” kicks rocks! For those of you that don’t know I have cut my own hair my whole life so it’s been hard not to put the clippers to it but when I look back at these pics I will remember the Rona! Lol Fish don’t fry in the kitchen, beans don’t burn on the grill, took a whole lotta tryin, just to get up that hill, now we’re up in the big leagues, getting our turn at bat, as long as we live, it’s you and me baby, there ain’t nothing wrong with that”! I nominate all my bald or going bald brothers to let it grow out, y’all know who you are! Lol. #pulluptothescenewitmyceilinmissin #shoutouttothefivehead #movinonuptotheeastside #myjeffersonon @kingjames @ripcity3232 @mrcbooz @shaq @starburymarbury @dwilk3000 @jermaineoneal @therealchrisspencer #napsknotsandbeebeeshots #georgejeffersonchallenge #kickitray

The “George Jefferson Challenge” is quite funny and it would be pretty great if some NBA legends and current bald and balding stars join in to make everyone else feel a little better about letting their hair get a bit out of control right now. We’ll see if anyone follows suit and joins in on the fun, most notably LeBron and Shaq, who we saw where his hairline is recently after losing a bet to Dwyane Wade.

Future has been consistently active for the majority of 2020, a level of activity that began with the release of his Drake-featured track, “Life Is Good.” Since then, he’s shared a remix of the track with DaBaby and Lil Baby, released another track with Drake, worked alongside 2 Chainz Jhene Aiko and Rich The Kid, vowed to donate masks to nearby Atlanta hospitals to protect health professionals in the midst of the coronavirus. He also placed his beloved Beast Mode mixtape on streaming platforms.

Aside from his mask donation, we now know Future’s recent activity will lead up to a new project in the near future. In a recent profile with XXL for their Spring 2020 issue, Future shared the title of the upcoming project. Revealing its title to be Life Is Good, Future explained its title and its meaning to him personally.

It’s about life and being good and just enjoying life. So many tragedies and catastrophes and everything is going on in the world. And you want to enjoy life, as long as you have it. Waking up, breathing, well, you want to be able to soak it all up and be appreciative for every moment on this earth, every moment that you’re living.

Later in the interview, Future was asked about Juice WRLD’s tragic death and whether he feels he influenced the rapper to go down a bad path with drugs.

Me having an influence on that, I just feel like…that is not my intentions. My intention was just to be me. I’m just being me and what you get from it is what you get from it, but at the same time, I wouldn’t want no one to go through anything to harm theyself or to bring death to theyself and Juice Wrld is a touchy situation. I’m heartbroken by the whole thing. My heart goes out to his family, his mom.

Prior to their joint project WRLD On Drugs, Juice WRLD admitted in an interview with Vulture Future was the artist who influenced him to experiment with lean. “That’s the first thing I told him. He just was like, ‘Wow.’ He kind of apologized.”

Check out Future’s recent video for “Tycoon” here.

[via XXL]