Tagged: drake + exclusive

Filed under: News , Exclusive , New Music , New Releases Chilly Gonzales Facebook Unlike that other noted ivory tickler Billy Joel, nobody's asking Chilly Gonzales to sing them a song. For this piano man, all they need him to do is play. And if you're the right person -- he'll wait forever to play for you. The self-proclaimed all-round "entertainist" is not only hot off the heels of a new [...]

Filed under: News , Exclusive , Awards , Music Appreciation Daniel Boud Prog-hardcore adventures and 2012 Polaris Music Prize short list nominees Fucked Up are grizzled veterans when it comes to the music critic award. After all, they won the prize -- which goes to the best Canadian album of the year, based on "artistic merit without regard to genre, sales history or label affiliation" -- in 2009 with [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News , Exclusive Sarjoun Faour Photography/WireImage For three years running, Drake has hosted the biggest hip-hop event in Toronto (and almost anywhere else, too). His OVO Fest , named after his hometown pre-fame October's Very Own clique, began in 2010 as a way to stake his claim in the hip-hop scene. He did this by not just headlining his own festival, but bringing out the biggest special guests [...]

Filed under: News , Exclusive , Awards , New Releases , Q + A Upper Class You might not be a fan of Cadence Weapon , but it's hard not to like the real life side of Rollie Pemberton. The Edmonton-born rapper -- once that city's poet laureate -- who recently relocated to Montreal knows all about his hate-it-or-love-it reputation. "I made my bed for myself, you know? I can't be [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , Exclusive After the newly reformed Afghan Whigs celebrated their 25th anniversary with a reunion show in New York and subsequent dates across Europe , fans in front man Greg Dulli 's city of residence, Los Angeles, began awaiting West Coast dates with baited breath. It came as a shock, then, when it was suddenly announced last week that the quartet would be playing their first [...]

Filed under: News , Exclusive , Pop Culture , Music Appreciation , Between the Notes Jag Gundu, Getty At the tail end of 2011, we declared it "The Year Canadian Music Broke," what with everyone from Feist , Deadmau5 and Arcade Fire to Drake , Michael Buble and Justin Bieber dominating their respective genres at home and abroad. [...]

Filed under: News , Exclusive Universal Drake is currently overseas preparing to perform his final Club Paradise show in the U.K. Wednesday (April 25). Once he wraps his set, the Toronto native has exactly 12 days until the second leg of his U.S. tour begins, where buzzing rappers like J. Cole , 2 Chainz , French Montana , Waka Flocka Flame and Meek Mill join the bill. [...]

Filed under: News , Exclusive , The Hit List Robin Marchant, Getty Images Easter gets the most mainstream attention with its bunnies and its chocolate eggies and such, but it's not the only religious holiday going down this time of year. This weekend also marks Passover, the Jewish holiday and festival that celebrates the ancient Israelites and their freedom from slavery in Egypt, as detailed in Exodus (the book of the bible, not the movie starring Paul [...]

Filed under: News , Exclusive , Awards , Junos Getty I CP I Getty The Juno Awards have made great strides in credibility in recent years, but that may have culminated in last year's Drake -hosted crowning of Arcade Fire . The 2012 Junos took a great big step backwards -- and a curiously unnecessary one -- by overlooking Drake's critical and commercial [...]

Filed under: News , Exclusive Marwa Hamad Coeur de Pirate , the nom de chanson of French-Canadian crooner Béatrice Martin, is all about juxtaposition. She looks like a tat-covered skater girl and started out singing about meeting cute boys at Warped Tour, but she also wears pretty dresses and sounds like an old-fashioned singer from France. Her latest album Blond e -- which is nominated for Francophone Album of the Year at the [...]

Filed under: Exclusive , RPM , New Music , Q + A Tim Saccent As genre-defying Minnesota-born, Brooklyn-based visual artist/producer Mux Mool prepares to release his sophomore LP, 'Planet High School,' he sat down with Spinner/RPM to discuss his beautiful, frenetic collection of melancholic synth-funk instrumentals, the fate of America's youth, his pursuit of happiness and why he'd rather remix Smokey Robinson than Lil Wayne or Drake . [...]

Filed under: News , Exclusive , RPM , Awards Josh Ostroff, AOL Another year, another Juno nominees list that reads like the actual year in music -- and not just Canadian music -- with nominations going to North America's biggest stars, from Drake and DeadMau5 to Justin Bieber and Michael Buble to Feist and F---ed Up . (And, yes, to Nickelback [...]

Filed under: News , Exclusive Dancap Actor/singer Jake Epstein is no stranger to angst. As Craig Manning on Canadian teen-soap ' Degrassi: The Next Generation ,' the aspiring rock star struggled with everything from physical abuse and drug addiction to bipolar disorder. As Melchior in the touring cast of the hit musical 'Spring Awakening,' he faced oppression at school, the suicide of a good friend and a tragic romance. Now, as one of the [...]

Filed under: News , Exclusive Getty Images | Chromewaves | Getty Images 2011 was the year the Occupy movement dominated politics, but the American music industry also faced an occupation as Canadians set up their metaphorical tents in the charts, at award shows and on music critic best-of lists. In the first week of December, for the first time ever, four of the Top Five albums on the Billboard pop charts were by Canadians. Crooner [...]

Filed under: News , Exclusive , New Music , New Releases Alexandre Bédard 'Tis the season for year-end lists. But it's not just music critics and bloggers tallying up the records that rocked 2011, Cadence Weapon is also taking stock of the releases that moved him this year -- and he's not pulling any punches when it comes to albums that fall flat either. So whose record failed to make the [...]

Filed under: News , Exclusive , The Hit List WireImage | AOL | Getty Images Donald Glover 's cult sitcom ' Community ' was recently removed from NBC's midseason schedule -- a minor misadventure, we hope, on the show's self-declared road to six season and a movie -- but things have been going really well otherwise for the pop culture Renaissance man. Glover, who got his first break as a writer [...]

Filed under: News , Exclusive , New Releases The Weeknd Toronto indie R&B sensation the Weeknd decided to top off the epic month that has been July (the act debuted live just weeks ago then rubbed elbows with Stevie Wonder and Lil Wayne at Drake 's OVO Fest ) by delivering the 'Thursday' mixtape. The follow-up to the celebrated 'House of Balloons' mixtape sees the Weeknd, [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News , Exclusive Josh Ostroff for AOL Drake 's surprise appearance during Nicki Minaj 's opening set on Britney Spear 's 'Femme Fatale' tour stop Saturday night (Aug. 13) in Toronto wasn't that much of a surprise. After all, the hometown hero has been entertaining himself between summertime recording sessions for his sophomore album by appearing all over town, be it supporting friends like the [...]

Stalley , Rick Ross , Gunplay , and Drake at the I Am Music Tour in Ohio. Shot, edited by Illusive Media . Related Posts: Fam-Lay, Chad Hugo, Pusha T, Illusive Media "Beach Cruiser" Behind the Scenes Asher Roth "Summer Time" Behind the Scenes with Illusive Media, Quan, Nottz and Fam-Lay Kanye West - Monster (Feat. Jay-Z, Bon Iver, Rick Ross and Nicki [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News , Exclusive WireImage | Getty Images | FilmMagic By 4PM on Sunday, July 31, the day of Drake 's second annual October's Very Own (OVO) Festival at the Molson Amphitheatre in his hometown of Toronto, Twitter was a flutter with the rumour that Stevie Wonder was currently soundchecking at the venue. At last year's inaugural event, Drake proved his growing clout and procured two of rap's biggest [...]