Kings of Leon: American Regal
Their Southern Gothic mystique helped make Kings of Leon multiplatinum rock gods overseas. What will it take for the boozin' and brawlin' Followill boys to conquer their native land?
By David Peisner 09.22.08 11:03 AM
Caleb Followill needs a dentist. The day before the biggest gig of his life, the 26- year-old Kings of Leon frontman is standing outside a boutique hotel in London, flanked by his bald, tattooed bodyguard and his girlfriend, a thin, dark-haired model named Lily Aldridge.
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K'naan, 'The Dusty Foot Philosopher' (Interdependent Media)
Afro-Canadian MC channels Eminem, Q-Tip, and Bob Marley.
By David Peisner 08.20.08 2:37 PM
"If I rhymed about home and got descriptive / I'd make 50 Cent look like Limp Bizkit," claims this Somali expat on "What's Hardcore," a bleak but bouncy throwdown from his debut album. The dude isn't kidding: K'naan grew up in the war-ravaged streets of Mogadishu, before emigrating to Toronto as a teenager.
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D'Angelo: What the Hell Happened?
Thanks to that video, D'Angelo was poised for superstardom, and the R&B renaissance he led was about to change the world. Instead, he fell into a spiral of substance abuse and arrests -- and virtually disappeared. Eight years later, his friends and colleagues reveal where he's been and what it's going to take to bring him back.
By David Peisner 08.05.08 5:38 PM
On a Sunday in April 2006, Gary Harris pulled up to D'Angelo's large starter mansion outside Richmond, Virginia, in a limo. Harris, the A&R man who'd first signed D'Angelo in the early '90s and who had overseen his 1995 debut, Brown Sugar, was on a mission: to escort the singer to Eric Clapton's Crossroads Treatment Centre in Antigua.
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Power Ballots
Dozens of rockers, rappers, and pop stars have been hitting the campaign trail this year, singing, dancing, speaking, smiling, and waving for their favorite presidential candidates. But is anyone paying attention?
By David Peisner 03.26.08 7:34 PM
Deafening screams echo off the walls of the large gymnasium at South Carolina State University on this evening in late January. Flashbulbs pop. People jump up and down, shaking hand-lettered signs reading WE WANT CHANGE and S.C. STATE LOVES BARACK over their heads.
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Who's Next '08: B.O.B.
The next hip-hop eccentric. With bonus live video.
By David Peisner 02.01.08 10:47 AM
Bobby Ray Simmons was an early bloomer. At an age when most kids are still mastering the finer points of tag, the man who would later be known as B.O.B. was mapping his future.
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The View, 'Hats Off to the Buskers' (1965/ Columbia)
Searching for hope - or at least booze and chicks - in a dead-end town.
By David Peisner 01.18.08 4:17 AM
Like the Jam before them, the Libertines were a phenomenon in Britain that never clicked on this side of the pond. The View descend directly from that pissed-off, working-class punk-pop tradition -- in fact, their debut owes such a debt to the Libertines, it's tempting to dismiss them as imitators.
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