Indholdsfortegnelse for Volume 3, 2021 i W Magazine

Martine Syms Photographer, “Bad Bunny” (page 72) Have you ever made a mixtape? All the time, and I’m very proud of their titles; I have a monthly show on NTS Radio. Last month’s was the Benito Seduction Special. This month’s is DED, and I’m working on a mix called 1 Earthy Mfckr. I also make a quarterly sex playlist. What was the first CD you ever bought? The Cranberries, and the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack. I was 7 years old, singing about the Troubles and infidelity. What’s your go-to karaoke song? “Not Gon’ Cry,” by Mary J. Blige. Which album have you listened to the most in your Lauryn Hill’s MTV Unplugged No. 2.0. I just learned recently that it was regarded as a flop when it came out. Which…

“I was a very political kid—the kind that throws rocks at Israeli soldiers and fantasizes about liberating Palestine,” Sama’ Abdulhadi says via Zoom from her childhood bedroom, lifting a hand to toss a tangle of dark hair behind her shoulder. Her phone tips to the side as she does this, revealing the terraced cityscape of Ramallah through an open window. Today, the 30-year-old Palestinian DJ finds herself at the heart of a far more complex cultural struggle than her childhood self could ever have imagined: She is awaiting trial on charges of desecrating a holy site and disrespecting religious symbols. Late one afternoon last December, Abdulhadi, a fixture on the West Bank party scene since her teenage years, began a five-hour set at the Nabi Musa, an ancient stone compound…

Remember when record label A&R guys scouted dingy rock clubs and open mics looking for the next big thing? Today, that dream job is about as obsolete as a fax machine. Generation Z decides for itself what the next big thing is, whether anyone who owns a suit notices or not. Take the musician Benee’s single “Supalonely,” which was a Top 40 hit everywhere from America to her native New Zealand last year; you might have completely missed its rise if you weren’t on TikTok. When The New York Times called Girl in Red, aka the Oslo, Norway–based 22-year-old Marie Ulven, “one of the most astute and exciting singer-songwriters” working today, it was two years after cool teens had already figured that out. R&B stars Umi and Omar Apollo got…

At 8:30 a.m. on a chilly spring morning in Los Angeles, the singer Saweetie, wearing a yellow Gucci sweatshirt and leggings that both covered and enhanced her famous curves, emerged from a white Mercedes G-Wagon and walked tentatively into a photo studio. She seemed distracted. On that day, Saweetie’s hit song “Best Friend”—a joyous, who-needs-men rap with Doja Cat—had reached almost 100 million streams and counting. The video for the song, which Saweetie had conceptualized, begins with the two women lounging poolside in bikinis and stilettos. A man—the comedian King Bach—saunters up and propositions them, but they are decidedly not interested. Their thought bubbles crowd the frame with phrases like “toxic masculinity.” “You don’t want us,” Doja Cat says flatly, as Saweetie rolls her eyes. “We’re freaks.” The independent, girl-power…

The fashion world fell in love with you after your performance at the Telfar show at Pitti Uomo in Florence last year. What was that like? I thought it was a beautiful thing. Going to places where you don’t usually see Black people—or, to be more specific, Black Africans—shows that the talent that we all have is breathtaking. It made the point that we should all be taken seriously. Where are you from? I was born in Berlin and grew up in Saint-Tropez, France, and Central Africa. We were in Conakry [the capital of Guinea], where my grandpa was the prime minister. It’s kind of like upstate New York—a lot of trees and woods and rivers and all that. And then I came to the Upper East Side in New…

Before your “Beef FloMix” was a hit, in 2019, you were in college and were dabbling in music. When did you real  ize you were becoming a star? I started going to a studio when I was, like, 16. When my song “Beef FloMix” started blowing up, I was like, I’m here to stay; the girls need to get prepared. People were making mood edits, and other celebrities would post them, so it got traction on TikTok. I’ve been wanting to rap since I was 9 years old, so it’s been a lifelong dream. But it took me a long time to feel like it was working. A certain audacity comes out in your music. Were you always like that? I come from a household full of women. We used…

Lady Like, your debut country album, just garnered three Grammy nominations. Before that, you were known for writing songs for other artists in a variety of musical genres, including “Boys,” which you cowrote for Charli XCX. How did writing for other artists affect how you found your own voice? When you write from your perspective, even for artists who are completely different from you, it does not matter what genre you are. If it is a universal feeling, then it is all the same. At the end of the day, it comes down to the song and people’s stories. You grew up in Colorado, were planning to move to Los Angeles, and then settled in Nashville about seven years ago. Growing up, did you always know you wanted to be…

It seems like you emerged a few years ago as a fully formed pop star, with a distinctive look and a slate of songs you wrote yourself. What is it that attracted you to the genre? Growing up, I really loved big pop vocalists like Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears and Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. I would sing their songs in my basement nonstop. I started doing singing competitions, and when I got onstage for the first time, I fell in love with performing. Then I started songwriting when I was around 13. Around 14, my whole family moved to California for a couple of years in hopes of me getting signed, but that didn’t happen. So I went back east and lived in South Carolina for a few…

At only 21 years old, you’ve already had a whirlwind career, since the release of your debut album, Épico, in 2019. Did you always want to be a musician? I read that you were a star athlete when you were young. Yeah, I was really into soccer, and I also played volleyball. But at the same time, I was missing something. I would sing in front of my friends, showing off to them, and they would always encourage me, being like, “Papi, you really have to do this; you have to go into the studio.” And that’s how it all happened, gracias a Dios. Are there any other artists or musicians in your family? My dad and my brother were both drummers. I definitely followed in their footsteps and then…

You released your debut EP, Ache of Victory, in April 2020, without being signed to a label. It’s a melancholic, five-track R&B project enriched by your deep vocals. Why was it important for you to release the album then, just as the pandemic was peaking? I had the date before the pandemic. I was really doomsday about everything when it started—I was with my family, and we were just spiraling, going nuts, so I kept the date. I was thankful that I kept it, because if I can just communicate with people through my music, and hopefully provide any kind of stillness in this time, it can slow people down for a second. The EP was produced by Daniel Aged, who is known for his work with Frank Ocean. What do…

Although your massively popular—over 100 million streams on Spotify for your song “Don’t Wanna Cry”!—K-pop group is called Seventeen, there are actually only 13 members. Since your debut, in 2015, there have been three subgroups: the hip-hop unit (S.Coups, Wonwoo, Mingyu, Vernon), the vocal unit (Woozi, Jeonghan, DK, Seungkwan, Joshua), and the performance unit (Hoshi, Jun, Dino, and The 8). The original and enduring idea behind the group was that the whole was greater than the parts—which were still pretty amazing—and that the three units would operate as one entity. So to do the math: 13 mem bers + 3 units + 1 group = Seventeen. Vernon: That’s correct. Because I don’t speak Korean, Vernon and Joshua, both of whom speak English, are representing Seventeen. Joshua: We will try! How…

In the Editor’s Letter of last year’s Music Issue, I talked about how music had been one of the few joys we’d had during the worst of the pandemic. Many of us had been dancing in our homes to Dua Lipa and Megan Thee Stallion, both of whom were on our cover, and went on to break records and win Grammys. Months later, we are still living as much on Zoom as we are in the real world, but now we can see a light at the end of the tunnel—and music remains a source of happiness and togetherness, and a way to stay connected with friends all over the world. When we started to plan this issue, I looked—as always—to the amazing team at W. Someone who came up…

Rarely has heartbreak looked so attractive. “Why’d you have to hit and run me? Now I’m all alone cryin’ ugly,” sings the Korean megastar Rosé, swaddled in bright green marabou feathers. Rosé is known to many millions around the world as a member of the red-hot K-pop foursome Blackpink, but we see her here in her second solo video, for a song called “Gone,” which dropped earlier this year. In another scene from the same video, she beats up a pillow. Once again, she is draped in marabou, but this time in a deep blue. She might be crying, but she sure isn’t crying ugly. Perhaps marabou feathers help ease romantic pain. “For us, when we listen to a song, we instantly think of a look: how we’re going to…

The English rapper Slowthai grew up listening to American musicians. “Rappers coming from Memphis, SpaceGhost-Purrp, Raider Klan, even Elliott Smith,” says the 26-year-old, born Tyron Frampton, ticking off his major influences on both hands. He notes that many of his British contemporaries were also raised on the music, movies, and pop culture that came from the other side of the Atlantic, because “Americans just generally have a cheat code, where they sound good,” he says, his cheeky grin widening. “They could say anything on a song, and it sits well.” Today, the current of influence is flowing in the other direction. Rap artists from the U.K.—including Headie One, Digga D, Ivorian Doll, and Central Cee, along with producers like AXL Beats, M1 on the Beat, and MK the Plug—have carved…

For thousands of homebound people, your album Punisher was their lockdown soundtrack. Most of your songs are intensely personal. Do you play your new music for your family before it comes out? Yes, I play stuff for my mom and my friends. After my first record, my mom thought she was going to have to intervene, because every song was so depressing. In fact, I probably needed that, but hey… Maybe you write music to release your demons. Perhaps. The whole narrative around catharsis is complex. Sometimes it can put you in a box, where you feel like you can’t write anything but heartfelt songs that offer an emotional release. The other day, Lucy Dacus [Bridgers’s bandmate in Boygenius, the indie rock trio] posted this thing about how capitalism commodifies…

You had a big moment on TikTok in April 2020, after the rapper Sleepy Hallow used a sample from your song “Deep End.” What was that like? I didn’t find out until millions of people were using the clip as a sound for their videos. People were like, “Who is this person?” I made a TikTok saying it was me, and people were like, “Drop your version.” Two parts of the song ended up going viral: the “deep end” part and the clip “Shawty, go get that paper.” Do you like being referred to as a Tik-Tok artist? I was actually very new to TikTok when that happened, so I would not say I’m a TikTok artist at all. I’m just an artist. I was on that independent grind. And…

You’re a true multihyphenate, acting alongside your father, Will Smith, and appearing as a cohost on Red Table Talk with your mother, Jada Pinkett Smith, and your grandmother Adrienne Banfield-Norris. But you’ve forged your own path with music: After your breakout hit, the 2010 banger “Whip My Hair,” you switched to soulful, experimental alt-R&B, and even shoegaze. Now you’re making a pop-punk rock album. What led you in this new direction? I always wanted to do a metal album, because my mom was my inspiration as a child. I went on tour with her when I was 7 or 8, when she performed at Ozzfest with her band, Wicked Wisdom. Seeing a strong Black woman onstage singing rock was so amazing—but a lot of people weren’t happy about seeing a…

For six years, you were primarily known as a member of the pop girl group Fifth Harmony. But in 2018, you released “Love Lies,” a duet with Khalid, and the following year came “Motivation,” a chart-topping, upbeat single, with a music video filled with ’90s and ’00s pop references. How have you been preparing for your next project, out this summer? Honestly, 2020 was a tough year for me, because my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, and I couldn’t travel home to Houston because of Covid. But then I kind of had to shift my perspective and just know that finishing my album really helped her get through it, and helped me get through it. What do your parents think of the new music you’ve been working on? Oh…

In 2018, “Not Steady,” the first song you ever wrote, recorded, and released, became a sensation and now has over 80 million views on YouTube. Almost three years later, your debut album, Sueños de Dalí, is finally out. How does it feel? I’m so excited. I’d been working on it for two years—Covid kind of just added more time to it, because everything slowed down. My boyfriend and I went down to Puerto Rico, where he’s from, and we wrote this whole album together. Was his writing something that attracted you to him to begin with? It seems like it could be a little nerve-racking to work so closely with somebody you’re in a relationship with. Actually, I didn’t even know that he was a writer. He kind of got…

You play Usnavi, the lead character in the upcoming movie version of In the Heights, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s semi-autobiographical, Tony Award–winning musical. When the show was on Broadway, did you see it? Yes! This was the one musical that I could be in—the lead was Latin, the songs were from my world, and I memorized every line. I was 18, and I was attending the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, studying musical theater. I was learning songs from Carousel and Gypsy, and I was thinking, I don’t know about this. Then I went to In the Heights, and there were so many people who looked and sounded like me. I grew up on those streets, eating that food, and I had been to those beaches in Puerto Rico. In the…

Jazmine Sullivan: For me, you have always represented confidence and fire and owning who you are. Did confidence come easily for you, or was it something you had to work at? Chaka Khan: Okay. Well, surprise, surprise—I am actually shy. I still dry-heave sometimes when I go onstage. Yes, I’m scared to death. Are they going to like me? Am I going to fuck up? Will I remember the words? I think that the moment I become confident for real is the time that I will probably need to do something else. Because as long as I have these feelings of inadequacy, I will always strive. You know what I’m saying? I’ll always have something to work on. In what ways do you think the music industry has evolved—or not—since your…

Growing up in East Orange, New Jersey, in the 1940s and ’50s, Dionne Warwick was surrounded by music—both at home and in church, where she got an early vocal education before being catapulted to fame (left, Warwick performs at the Olympia in Paris, in 1964). One might even venture that her talent is genetic—Whitney Houston, Leontyne Price, and Gary Garland are all Warwick’s cousins, and her mother, aunts, and uncles, widely regarded as trailblazers, were members of a gospel singing group called the Drinkard Singers. After performing at the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island in 1957, they were signed by RCA, making them the first gospel group signed by the label. Warwick says, “To this very day, I attribute everything that I do, vocally, to my ability to sing…

the day before the Grammys, Bad Bunny could be found playing dress-up in a Hollywood studio. The Puerto Rican megastar, who had turned 27 a few days earlier, emerged from a dressing room in a tailored Celine suit. The look was Men in Black sharpness—thin black tie, crisp white lapel, sleek lines—but with some key twists. His mop of tight curls was gathered on one side of his head, and where one might have expected to see a dress shoe, he was wearing imposing furry boots—not après-ski so much as full-on yeti. Bad Bunny has been known to incorporate mouse ears and other animal motifs into his aesthetic, but the yeti boots were taking the theme to a new place. He looked a bit as if he’d been cast as…

J Balvin When you have five albums, dozens of awards under your belt, and millions of listeners worldwide, your fans might feel like they already know what there is to know about you. But apparently, on your forth-coming album, your music gets truly personal for the first time. What will you be opening up about? I talk about my anxiety, my depression. I talk about how hard it was for me, being Colombian in a Puerto Rican game, trying to get the respect of the whole world. I talk about my mom, and my relationship with my dad when he used to be my manager—when I had to step back and be like, “I love you, Dad. And I think it’s better to just have you as my dad.” The…

You were nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammys, and you released an EP, Once Upon a Time, the Friday before the ceremony, in March. Were you surprised when you heard about the nomination? I was in Georgia, and I had turned off my phone, and I was chilling, staying off social media. But my Twitter exploded, and my fans said, “You need to come back on right now; you were nominated!” I sent out a holy shit tweet and then turned off my phone again. What was the show like? You looked great in your custom Nike ensemble. My category was first, so it was all over very fast, and I didn’t win. Four months of prep, and then it was done. So we all went out for…

During what has been a solitary stretch for so many people, you released a number of collaborations, including “Inside Friend,” featuring John Mayer; “All About You,” with Lucky Daye; and the EP Texas Sun, with Khruangbin. In May 2020, you released “Sweeter,” featuring Terrace Martin, which is written from the perspective of a Black man facing an untimely death. How did it feel to put it out into the world during this tumultuous time? This was my contribution to the movement. I had been sitting on those lyrics; I just didn’t know the right outfit to put them in. Throughout my career, I’ve been scrutinized for not being political enough. And I always just wanted the right time to do it, and the right way to say it. The crazy…

Your last album, Eternal Atake, is still charting one year after its release. But you’ve said that you weren’t happy with the way it turned out. All of my music for Eternal Atake got leaked, so I had to redo it. It didn’t reach its full potential—I just knew it wasn’t the sound I was going for. Let’s just say Eternal Atake, for another artist, would have been really good, because it was super dumbed down to where everyone could enjoy it, but that’s not my artistry. I want my new music to be more intimate to my real fans. I wanted it to be almost cultlike. You’re known for spending hours in the studio, editing your songs over and over. Are you still working that way? No, I’m just leaving…