Episódios

  • Halsey | Audacy Check In | 9.11.24

    Halsey | Audacy Check In | 9.11.24
    Sep 11 2024
    Halsey checked in with Audacy’s Mike Adam at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York, to chat all about her new single “EGO,” forthcoming album The Great Impersonator, arriving October 25, and more. With her 30th birthday coming up, Halsey started the conversation off by reflecting on just how much has happened in the last decade, both personally and professionally. “I'm excited for this birthday… because it means a lot to me. It's been a hard couple of years and I'm about to turn 30. It's a big, big birthday. It's also, you know, 10 years since I put out my first album, Badlands." She continued, “so… that decade from being 19 turning 20, putting out my first album, now being 29 turning 30 about to put out my fifth album. It all just feels mystical… feels like a lot of synchronicity in that.” As for feeling her age, Halsey admitted, “I’ve felt 30 since I was like 15. I’m catching up now." “Sometimes, there's certain people in this life who are the age they are and then they stay that way… Like my mom, for example, is just perpetually 21. She had me when she was 20, and has just been 21 for as long as I've known her. She's 51 and she is like tatted up, tongue piercing, like super cool girl, but she just gives off the energy of someone who's like 21. I've been 35 since I was born.” Halsey who outwardly loves Halloween, also shared she has some costume ideas for this year, but didn’t feel like sharing them. Noting, “I’m a big gatekeeper about Halloween,” not wanting to give any ideas away. “I love Halloween, every couple of years I throw a huge Halloween party in LA, and we do it to benefit My Friend's Place, which is a charity organization and a resource center for unhoused youth in Los Angeles. It’s super awesome, super close to my heart, and I love it,” Halsey expressed. “I prepare for my costume for like months.” Ultimately deciding to share her idea after all, Halsey revealed the costume idea she wants to do with her son. “I really want to do The Shining, and I want to get him on his little tricycle as Danny, and I want to be Shelley Duvall and I just want to like take these pictures with my creepy little kid on a tricycle and his hair is like the perfect, he's got those long bangs.” Naturally shifting the conversation from Halloween to parenthood, Mike asked Halsey if having a child has changed her relationship with her parents. “Oh my gosh, I'm actually really glad you asked me this question because there's a lot of this on the album actually,” Halsey answered. “So when I was writing The Great Impersonator, I was going through a lot in my personal life, a lot of those changes were becoming a new mom, and I also, I got really sick. I got the kind of sick that makes you think about your life and look at it in that way,” Halsey reflected. “I started thinking about my childhood, and there's a lot of songs on this album that kind of touch on that, touch on my relationship with my parents.” Noting that “one in particular” is “just about watching my mom grow older. Like I said, she's perpetually 21 to me, just watching her age… it’s like this cognitive dissonance, like your brain can't compute.” “In the song, I talk about when I was a kid listening, hearing my dad, like make a snide remark about her or like, you know, me and my dad kind of ganging up on my mom. I wanted his approval so much and I did it at the cost of like kind of ganging up on her. And I say in the song, that alliance didn't save me from her fate. Like, aligning with my dad didn't stop my life from turning out almost exactly like hers. I became a single mom, and I look back on that and I go ‘wow, I should have had more compassion for her,’ and I say in the record, ‘I hope my son realizes it before it's too late,' like I did.” Sharing about what her mom’s reaction was to hearing the track, Halsey said, “my mom cried like a baby.” Before delving into the specifics of how she played the song for her mom at “the worst time,” after she had stayed up all night taking care of her after getting sick in the studio and going to the hospital. “It was just like this crazy moment where I looked at her and I was like, I'm a mom too. We are more the same right now at this moment in life than we ever have been,” she said of the emotional moment. With the Badlands anniversary coming up next year, this year Halsey gets to celebrate 10 years of her OG EP, Room 93. A project she looks at with nothing but love, “I love Room 93,” Halsey expressed, “I loved it so much that I took half the songs and put them on the debut, you know, ‘Hurricane,’ ‘Ghost,’ like I still play ‘Is There Somewhere’ live a lot of the time, it's definitely a fan favorite.” “You know, it's funny, I love Room 93 so much. I actually reference it in a way… there’s a single on this album called ‘EGO,’ and in the song I say ‘I want to go back to the ...
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    12 minutos
  • Khalid | Audacy Check In | 9.11.24

    Khalid | Audacy Check In | 9.11.24
    Sep 11 2024
    Checking in with Audacy’s Mike Adam at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York, Khalid chatted all about his new album Sincere, song samples, possible collab project pairings, and more. With five years between his last and most recent album, Khalid spoke to why he knew now was the time to finally drop his third album. “Well when I started off, I started writing music at 17 years old. So to go from being a high school student to a multi-platinum career in a matter of 2 to 3 years… it was insane,” Khalid began. “It’s nothing that they can teach you, it’s nothing that they can prepare you for. So I really feel like I had to take some time off to write, to understand what I wanted my true impact as an artist to be on this earth. What ways I wanted to connect with my fans, and so it took a lot of lived experiences, and walking life, and seeing the world… seeing different sides of the world for me to get to this point where I finished this album… and I feel like I’m putting something out that is rooted in my core, it’s exactly the name of the album, it’s Sincere.” The album’s lead single "Please Don't Fall in Love with Me,” samples the Alicia Keys and Drake 2009 bop “Unthinkable (I’m Ready).” A song millennials need no introduction to, but perhaps the Gen-Zs listening do. A thought that got Mike thinking to ask Khalid if he can remember the first song he heard that he didn't know was a sample, that introduced him to an old song or even a recent song that he might have not known about before. “I would say it was this song, one of my favorite songs actually that I've loved for years, ‘Feel It All Around’ by Washed Out," Khalid shared. “I didn't know that the whole baseline of that song is a sample from another song." After some internet research, it turns out the sample is Italian singer Gary Low's "I Want You,” released in 1983. Khalid also mentioned “Changes,” by Tupac as an example, noting “I love the sample now,” adding that he’s “been listening to ‘The Way It Is,' Bruce Hornsby, for a minute now, I’m addicted to that song.” Having sampled Drake and being, as Mike put it, “a lifelong die hard Kendrick fan as well, he wanted to know Khalid’s thoughts on if he feels that “in 2024 rap beef is still important for the culture, for Hip-Hop." Admitting that he while definitely believes “that competition in any sport is important to thrive, to create, for the culture,” he went on to say, “Me, I'm a little Pop star that stays out the way and minds my own business. So I don't really get too much in other people's business or anybody else's altercations. I kind of try to choose a low profile, chill, relaxed life over here.”Adding, “as long as people are looking at it for their benefit, to thrive in creativity… I don't necessarily see it as a problem.” So if Khalid was to come out with a full project, or even an EP with a rapper, Mike wanted to know who the self-proclaimed “Pop star” thinks he’d pair well with, and create the project with. “Oh, I don't know, actually… I'm more of a vibe person. I feel like it's about just sitting in the room with you, getting to know who you are, connecting with you on a deeper level,” Khalid said at first, before coming to the realization that if he were to “choose any rapper to do a collaboration project with, I'm definitely going with 6LACK.” “I mean, we've already done songs together so we have chemistry," he continued. “I would probably do something with J. Cole as well. I've met him and he was super kind to me… I feel like kindness is key, if you can have a conversation and you can meet someone and you can connect with them, then the sky's the limit.” Khalid also went on to reflect on the polished engineering of today’s music, as opposed to the more raw and less refined vocals from musicians of the past, such as Al Green or Marvin Gaye. “I feel like nostalgia is one of the biggest drugs known to man. We have to just understand that times are different and auto-tune can also be a talent. The way that people can utilize these programs on their computers, that has to be respected for something. But it doesn't mean that there's not classically trained musicians that are thriving and are killing it in the game. But I like to see the beauty in both sides of the spectrum.” Khalid also went on to reveal what track almost didn’t make it on the album, talk about his love for writing music, his music writing process, and more. To catch it all, check out the entire interview above. Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Mike Adam
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    9 minutos
  • Gracie Abrams | Audacy Check In | 9.3.24

    Gracie Abrams | Audacy Check In | 9.3.24
    Sep 3 2024
    Back for another Audacy Check In now that her album has dropped, Gracie Abrams stopped by to chat with Bru all about The Secret of Us, and share what fans can expect from her upcoming headlining tour, plus a whole lot more. Released June 21, Gracie’s sophomore album features lead singles, “Risk” and “Close To You,” as well as the standout track, “Us,” featuring Taylor Swift, who Gracie opened for on The Eras Tour last summer. Set to rejoin Swift for some additional dates this fall, Gracie also has tour plans of her own. Hitting up theaters across the United States from September 5 through October 10 with special guest, Role Model. Filling us in on what she’s most excited about on The Secret of Us Tour, Gracie shared, “Honestly I’m just excited to be back with everyone, I feel like the heart of tour is the people that you get to do it with both backstage and also the people that show up and make up the audience.” “I've missed the community, and I feel like touring is such a specific environment and brings out like a very chaotic, beautifully chaotic side in people. So I've missed that kind of chaos and I'm excited to kind of just have a really fun loose tour.” Sharing what fans can expect, and what makes this tour different from the previous, Gracie noted, “This is like a different scale for us… I mean, even seeing the stage yesterday for the first time was pretty mind blowing. I didn't even anticipate, even after having seen renders of the stage, it's just really wild when you're actually standing there and everything exists and is tangible.” That being said, Gracie is no stranger to big stages, having opened up for artists like Noah Kahan, and of course, Taylor Swift. Revealing that stepping onto their stages inspired her when putting together her own show, Gracie revealed, “I think it's like infectious to be around artists that are great at what they do. And I think, you know, Noah and Taylor are both incredibly talented performers and both are so connected to their audiences. So I think more than anything, it just contributes to the itch of wanting to be back on stage.” A feeling, that as an introvert, Gracie found surprising to crave. “I never thought when I started playing shows that I would miss it, just because it is… intense. And also even just socially for someone that leans kind of more on the introverted side, it can feel like a lot of almost overexposure. But then it's funny, I totally fell in love with what it is, to connect with people in that way.” Though it might seem like The Secret of Us just dropped, because it kind of just did, Gracie, while enjoying it’s success and spoils, naturally already has her mind on what’s next. “I think after something's been released, I tend to just get this anticipatory anxiety around making the next thing. So I've started to feel that creep up.” Part of that next step obviously includes her tour, which will of course get a heavy does of The Secret of Us tracklist added to the setlist. “Honestly it's been great just because I get to put all of that into the tour,” Gracie expressed. “But it does feel like I have just enough time where it's been out, that there's like some perspective of it, where I feel like I'm in a even slightly different place than when I wrote all the songs. Which is just, I'm always surprised by how quickly that feeling comes up, even though it consistently does happen every single time, I think it's just like songs are such a moment in time really.” “It's funny how quickly life can change,” she continued. "Mostly I just am so thrilled about the opportunity to share in the kind of love that I have for the album with the people that are kind enough to come out to the shows.” Gracie also chatted about her music videos, which despite being the daughter of JJ Abrams, she credited to coming from more of a creative or experimental self-expression. Among the many facets of being a musician, which include vocals, performance, production, and so on, Gracie see’s herself, first and foremost as a songwriter. When asked if there’s a particular lyric that she loves or wishes she wrote, Gracie had the answer right away. “I mean, like all of Adrianne Lenker’s music. I feel like everything that she's made I just, it feels like my ribs are breaking and my heart is split open. Just the most beautiful words every single time. So I'd say her entire discography.” As for any of her tracks that with time past, she feels she would now rewrite or change, Gracie admitted “Yeah, of course,” however she’s “accepted that those songs just have to exist as they are.” That being said, Gracie note that with live shows “you get to mess around with old songs and rearrange them. We've done that with some stuff this upcoming show. Just reimagining songs that I kind of have gotten a little bit tired of that I put out years ago. But if I take it and like restructure ...
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    15 minutos
  • Zedd | Audacy Check In | 8.28.24

    Zedd | Audacy Check In | 8.28.24
    Aug 28 2024
    Following the release of his summer singles singles "Out of Time” featuring Bea Miller and “Lucky” featuring Remi Wolf, and ahead of dropping his forthcoming album, Telos, out August 30, Zedd checked in with Audacy’s Mike Adam at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York to chat all about both, plus a whole lot more. Curious about how the final work comes together, Mike asked, “Were you able to get in studio with the majority of these people or does that just not happen that much anymore?” “It depends,” Zedd admitted. “What I will very frequently do is I will ask singers to record a little demo for me just so I can feel the tone on a record and see if this is something that I think will fit.” Adding, “Now, when it matters, I will usually be in the studio and record them.” “I think that's one of my strengths,” Zedd continued, “to get the best out of a singer and to make them feel comfortable and confident to sing they're heart out. So when it matters, when I record the final vocal, I will in 99% of cases, record the singers myself.” Admittedly very demanding, and the type of producer to want to get as many takes to have the most amount of options possible, Zedd said, “Every singer temporarily hates me at the end of a session and I typically will stop just before the voice gives up. But the reason is because in the past I recorded a song where I had to have a singer come back to sing one singular word and I don't want to do that. Honestly, I do it for for the singer because I want them to be super happy.” “I record an obscene amount of takes of everything in octaves and doubles and harmonies. But then in every case, when I then send them the final result, they're always so happy.” Zedd recalled working with Bea Miller in the studio on his new album’s first single, as a prime example of a demanding studio sesh. “I think Bea Miller was one of the artists that I've probably pushed the hardest because the song is not easy to sing and it's in a really high range and she already was kind of unsure if she could do it.” “I knew she could do it without a question,” he continued, “but I think there's so many vocals, vocal parts, and octaves… that like we really went up until the voice gave up.” Facetiously adding, “I think she still to this day has severe PTSD of recording with me.” “She's funny because she's so good and she's such an incredible singer but she doesn't think of herself that way. I mean, she's very humble about her voice, but genuinely saved the song we did together because she brought an energy to the song that really was missing.” Mike then recalled a time after Zedd’s 2018 hit track “The Middle” came out, there were many headlines reporting that “there were 5,000 demos from everybody from Camilla Cabello to Demi Lovato, Bebe Rexha,” for the song, that ultimately went on to feature Maren Morris. Referencing Zedd’s earlier comment, Mike inquired if it’s a regular occurrence for the producer to “have people record these demos… where you're shopping around a song?” “Sometimes I bring a song to 80% and the only missing link is the final vocal and I just have a demo,” Zedd expressed. “And then it can get tricky and either nobody wants to sing it or everybody wants to sing it. Like in the case of ‘The Middle,’ where everybody wanted to be a part of it. But I didn't feel like anybody had everything that I wanted.” When it comes to his forthcoming album Telos, Zedd revealed, that it “has much more been a case of me getting in the room with the singers and just working through it and figuring things out and doing it together.” Later on adding, “But yeah, it depends, sometimes I do shop for singers and the only way to do it properly is for everybody to record a little bit of a demo.” “Sometimes that turns into like a full blown production and sometimes it turns into people being disappointed because they don't end up on the song and they spend time recording it. That happens unfortunately.” However, just because that particular song and artist combo didn’t work out, Zedd noted its not a hopeless cause. “The real ones, I still work with them, the ones that know that it might not be the one but another song.” Revealing that was actually the case on Telos, “I actually got to work with the people that I for so long wanted to work with,” Zedd said. Before concluding the conversation, being that they were in the Hard Rock Artist Lounge, and the Hard Rock is known for its unique collection of items. Mike inquired what Zedd’s contribution would be. We can guarantee its not what you’d think. To find out and catch more of the convo, listen to the entire interview above. Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Mike Adam
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    15 minutos
  • Katy Perry | Audacy Check In | 8.26.24

    Katy Perry | Audacy Check In | 8.26.24
    Aug 26 2024

    On the precipice of her brand new era, Katy Perry checked in with Audacy’s Bru to chat all about her upcoming performance plans, as well as receiving the Video Vanguard Award at the MTV VMAs, reflecting on everything she’s accomplished, and more.

    By bidding adieu to her American Idol judging days, Katy has been able to make time and space for other things. "We're developing a big show. I'm going to be playing big, big shows on the album release on September 20 I'll be in Rio de Janeiro and playing Rock in Rio, and it's like over 100,000 people," Katy shared. "And then I get to go to Australia to play the Australian Football League game. It's kind of like the Super Bowl there, but their version of it.”

    But before all that Katy will be attending the MTV VMAs to receive the Video Vanguard Award, revealing, “I get to just do a celebratory show,” where we’ll “get to hear the familiar songs and be introduced to some new ones.”

    While Katy’s Vegas residency experience is great to have under her belt, the singer expressed how “totally different” it is than a tour, when it comes to coming up with creative concepts for the show. Explaining, “because with a tour show you have to move, you're on the go every single day. Vegas, you actually get to play with more toys and there's less restraints.”

    “But… we’re trying, we're figuring some things out,” she continued. “I'm just excited to go out into the world again. It's been a minute… 2018 was my last tour. Then everything was on pause, and then I had my child and I was raising a whole human being very responsible for it, wanted to get it right. So far so good,” Katy jokingly added.

    “I want to go tour and visit all of my fans who have come out so hard, and so supportive, and they have ridden so hard for me and, not to like be cheesy, but we have really loved each other for lifetimes,” Katy noted, plugging her latest single “LIFETIMES.”

    “The truth is I’ve grown up with them and we've grown up together and we've kind of leaned on each other. I've seen photos of them when they're 13, and now 26, 28… It's amazing, they all have lives, families, some of them and it's so cute, it’s adorable and I really appreciate it. So I got to go give my love out and that's what I'm going to go do.”

    For those of us, like Bru, who started listening to Katy in our formidable pre-teen/teenage years, we truly have grown up with her, and she’s grown up with us. Reflecting on what it’s like coming from her Warped Tour and “I Kissed a Girl” days to now receiving the Vanguard Award and reaching that icon status, Katy said, “I don't know… I mean, I still crowd surf… Look, I just, I’ve got some fun toys to play with now, and I’m very proud of everything I accomplished, and I really don't feel like I have anything to prove.”

    “I’m creating from this abundance space and this artistic space… I said I always wanted to make a dance pop record, and so I feel like I've kind of checked that bucket list off for me. And there's a couple of records that I have in my mind that I still want to make, and I'll just go along that process if I get the opportunity to… This is a part of my purpose,” she went on to note, “this is a part of my vision for myself.”

    Katy went on to talk about the calculated risk she took jumping 15-20 feet out of a helicopter in her “Woman’s World” music video. A risk, she revealed, her beau Orlando Bloom, wasn’t too keen on.

    She also gabbed about her love and appreciation for lint rollers, and shared a special message to her fans listening, saying, “I just want to tell them I love them. I’m so excited to see them around the world. If you wanna have a fun dance party or if you want your spirits lifted, I think 143 will do the trick.”

    Before closing out the convo, since she’ll no longer be guiding aspiring singers on American Idol, Bru asked Katy to offer up “advice to anyone” that wants to make it on the singing competition or just make it in music. To hear what she had to say and more, listen to Katy’s entire Check In above.

    Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Bru
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    10 minutos
  • Coldplay's Chris Martin | Audacy Check In | 8.23.24

    Coldplay's Chris Martin | Audacy Check In | 8.23.24
    Aug 23 2024
    Joining host Bru for a special Audacy Check In today is Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, giving us details about the band’s forthcoming 10th studio album, Moon Music, their current record-breaking world tour, and more on the release day of the band's brand new single, "WE PRAY." It’s a bright and shiny Friday for Coldplay fans with the arrival of their new track, "WE PRAY," the band’s collaboration with UK rapper Little Simz, Nigerian Afrobeats superstar Burna Boy, Palestinian-Chilean R&B phenomenon Elyanna and chart-topping Argentine TINI, from 2024's highly-anticipated follow-up to 2021’s Music Of The Spheres set to arrive on October 4, Moon Music. Things are certainly coming together quickly, as the band just revealed the tracklist for the new offering just last week. Pre-orders for the upcoming release -- which will set new standards for sustainability, with each LP made from 100% recycled plastic bottles (nine per record) -- are available now on EcoCD, EcoRecord LP, and digital download. “’WE PRAY’ sort of wrote itself like some of the good songs do,” Chris tells us of how the new single came about. “In Taiwan, in the middle of the night, I woke up and the song was in my head, and I don't know where it came from. So the sound of it sort of dictated itself and that's all. I just sort of followed the road map that it said.” When choosing to include features on any project, he says, “You have to let the song decide; the song sort of says what it needs, and I think that the song ‘WE PRAY’ probably arrived from wherever it arrived from because I've been thinking a lot about all of these conflicts and people that hate each other. We're all praying for the same things, and we’d probably all get along if you just sat down long enough. I think that was the field into which it landed, and then it felt very natural that I wouldn't do all the verses or wouldn't sing it all on my own.” “It felt like it's a song about different types of people, so we should have different types of people singing it,” he explains. “Burna Boy, Elyanna, TINI, Little Simz, they're all from different continents and different languages, and that's what just felt really right.” Coming up on the band’s tenth studio album, Bru wondered what Chris thinks a pre-“Parachutes” era version of himself would think of the success the band has seen over the years. “It's funny, because maybe you have this in your own life, or athletes have it,” he says, “You have what's in front of you, and then a sense of where you're going in the bigger picture, and you also become more and more aware that everything you're doing and have done is all a gift. You're sort of doing it, but sort of not doing it too. Everything is given. So, I think the younger version of me would be surprised,” he admits. At the same time, he acknowledges by paraphrasing Liam Neeson, “I don't know why I got given this particular set of specialist skills. So, yeah, I think it'd be a mixture of, ‘Yeah, that sounds about right,’ or ‘No way!’” Music continues to inspire and surprise Chris as “infinite and unknowable like life itself,” Chris says. “I think as some people, as they get older claim to know less and less, and I think that's how I feel about music,” he adds, which has become, “more and more of a mystery, and more and more amazing and magical.” “You realize you're just so lucky to be able to do it,” he says, “and there's so many great young people coming through -- and older music you haven't heard. If you stay a fan, there's more and more things to be fans of -- which in itself is inspiring and humbling.” As genres bend and mesh together with fans’ tastes, Martin explains, “I feel like music -- if I can speak in a boring way for a minute -- music kind of shows where culture could go in terms of how humans work. If you think about the fact that the first gay people that were really accepted was in music, the first place where racial diversity became totally normal was in music. Maybe [with] this sort of, ‘no genres,’ there's no us and them in music… and I feel that's such a healthy place for us all to head towards.” “What's so beautiful about the Olympics,” Chris believes, “is that it's a healthy amount of ‘us and them,’ but it's not really a serious ‘us and them,’ it's enough to make the whole thing interesting. But ultimately, it's one massive collaboration between people who are supposed to hate each other, right? And a big concert is like that too. A big concert these days is one of the only peaceful places in the world where thousands of people just hang out together without caring who's what. And that's what the Olympics does, and I think that's why we all love watching these things -- because it shows, ‘Oh, this is no problem here.’” “One thing that's important to remember in sport is, you need the opposition,” he adds. “You can't have the...
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    13 minutos
  • MC Lyte | Audacy Check In | 8.12.24

    MC Lyte | Audacy Check In | 8.12.24
    Aug 12 2024
    Joining us for a special Audacy Check In is Hip-Hop icon MC Lyte chatting with host DJ Scratch from 94.7 The Block in NYC about her brand new 2024 album 1 of 1, inspiration, and a whole lot more. We’re celebrating a Queen from the county of Kings today as GRAMMY-nominated Hip-Hop legend MC Lyte is set to return almost a decade since the release of her previous album with 2024’s 1 of 1, which includes her new single “King King” featuring Queen Latifah, "Woman" with Salt, Big Daddy Kane, and Raheem DeVaughn, and more. MC Lyte's forthcoming 1 of 1 will mark the rapper and actor's first full-length since her collab-filled 2015 release Legend, and promises to be a deeply personal journey. "What I'm saying is real. And it's important," Lyte told GRAMMY.com about the new offering, also featuring collaborations with Stevie Wonder, KRS-ONE, and more. "It's just real talk, and I think we haven't had that for some time." Diving into how Hip-Hop first became a part of her life, MC Lyte tells us, “My first exposure was in Spanish Harlem where my grandma, my nana lived, and all of my cousins who were maybe 5-6 years older than me, they were all listening to cassettes. I remember hearing the Funky Four Plus One, the Treacherous Three, and of course, I think Curtis Blow was doing some things at that time. It was a big deal because one of my cousins knew his brother, Kim. It's like, ‘Oh my cousin knows Curtis Blow's brother!’ You know, it was a big deal… that was my introduction. Also, of course, I want to highlight Sha-Rock being the first female MC that I heard.” Though she recalls listening to the likes of Reggae legends Yellow Man and Shaba Ranks growing up in Brooklyn, “When Hip-Hop finally landed,” she says, “I remember being at a block party and listening to Sucker MCs -- but wait, before that it was The Sequence and [The Sugarhill Gang’s] ‘Rapper's Delight.’” Fast-forward to her very first whirlwind record deal, Lyte remembers being in high school when her friend and lyrical coach Eric Cole called asking if she wanted to meet with a label looking for a female emcee. “Of course, I had to ask my mom,” she says, “and literally the decision as to whether it would happen or not was all hers, because she had to allow me to get on the Staten Island ferry to go to Staten Island. And you know what, I later knew was an audition. I thought I was just gonna meet somebody -- I don't think I had ever been on an audition, much less even knew what it took to audition. I just went with my little rhyme book and once I got there, they were like, ‘Oh, this is the Tascam four-track.’ They listened to me rap, I guess they were all checking me out and then they were gonna talk about me later as to whether or not I passed the test.” “So, I kicked out these rhymes or whatever, and Milk made up the beat for 'I Cram to Understand U' right there on the spot. I said this rhyme that I had in my book I think since I was 12, and then later on they called and said, ‘We'd like to sign you to the label.’” MC Lyte’s first album, Lyte as a Rock, came soon after she says, with the help of producers King of Chill and Milk D, “I think Prince Paul was on that album and I think Puba was on that album as well,” she says. “It didn't take long. They had the tracks and I had a book of rhymes… I don't even know that I had to really write anything for that album. It always was pretty much my whole life up until that point waiting to record.” Lyte says she learned her craft as a storyteller by listening to pioneers like Slick Rick and Melle Mel. “When I heard ‘The Message’ I just was infatuated,” she says, “I think I wrote down all the words, I knew all the lyrics. He vividly painted a picture of The Bronx. I had not been there yet, so from both of them being able to really tell those stories, with so much detail -- they definitely influenced and inspired me.” Revealing what led her to make a return with new music in 2024 Lyte says, “I didn't even know that the love for Hip-Hop was still embedded in me the way that it is, and it was sparked. Because of that, I got into a real zone about what I wanted to say, how I wanted to say it, what I wanted to say it on, who I wanted to say it with." "It just became laser-focused and it hadn't been that way for a while because, life, you know? I'm trying to do this and that and that and broaden in the business -- so it is easy to take your eyes off of something that means so much to you when you have all of these other things going, as well as distractions," she admits. "Once I was able to sit down and get it going, I just was really excited.” Don't miss our full Check In with MC Lyte above and stay tuned for more conversations with your favorite stars and artists right here on Audacy. Words by Joe Cingrana Interview by DJ Scratch
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    12 minutos
  • The Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan | Audacy Check In | 8.2.24

    The Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan | Audacy Check In | 8.2.24
    Aug 2 2024
    Joining us for a special Audacy Check In today is Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins on the release day of the band’s brand new album, Aghori Mhori Mei, to give us some insight about the making of the record, his idea of not being able to go home again, and plenty more. The Smashing Pumpkins' Aghori Mhori Mei is out everywhere today, August 2. “We're difficult in our own weird way, but we really wanted to make an album that people just felt really warm about,” frontman Billy Corgan tells us of the new record. “It was just that time in our lives to sort of make peace with a bunch of stuff, including our past, and somehow this record seems to bring all that together.”Released on the heels of the band’s ambitious, three-part rock opera, ATUM, and while on the road, most fans couldn’t have imagined another full-length would arrive before 2025. Why the quick turnaround? Billy explains, “When I was making ‘ATUM,’ we started during the pandemic and you know, like everybody, we were all locked inside and we were freaking out about what was gonna happen, and how long is this gonna last. So, in making the record, you know, the whole concept, we ended up doing some kind of more, I guess, 'traditional' Pumpkin style Rock on the record. But it was really in the character of the story.““But doing the music,” he adds, “I found I still really enjoyed playing guitar like this, this kind of old school-ish thing. And so even before I finished the record, I told my, my partner in crime, which is Howard Willing, who makes the records with me, I said, ‘We gotta go right into another record and we gotta make the Rock record. I just feel that. The minute then when I started meditating on it, I was like, 'we really need to go back to the way we used to play.' Not to try to recreate it, but to sort of redefine It, to put ourselves in the right frame of mind or something. It just took a life from there.”“On paper, you would think you pick up a guitar and go, ‘Let's do like a ‘Siamese Dream’ type song,” Corgan explains. “Not at all. You gotta get back into the mindset that you were in when you wrote those types of songs, and then those types of songs start coming out of you naturally. It takes a hot second. If you've ever -- I'm trying to make people laugh -- but if you've ever done a thing where you dated somebody for a while and then you broke up for a while, but then you get back together… the relationship's not quite the same because you've broken up. You’ve gotta almost kind of figure out like a new version of the old version.” That kind of process can come up with positive results, he says, “Because you bring with you the lessons that you've learned. So you go back to the old school but with a new version of yourself. It does take a second to get your footing, because there are some stuff that we did that, you know, it doesn't age well. Somehow over time, it felt like, you cross the street and kind of pick up one thing and then go to the other side and try it, which is really how those records were made back in the day. It was a lot of experimentation and then it just kind of took on a life of its own.”The idea of not being able to go home again is prevalent throughout the new release, which according to Billy, stems from the success the band achieved in the ‘90s. “I had money and I had status,” he explains, “and I fell into that temptation to go back to where I grew up, thinking that somehow people would treat me differently, or look at me differently. And I learned really quickly that nobody gave a s***. It was weird. Like when I put out a poetry book, I think in 2004, I was doing these autograph signings and I would do autograph signings. In Boston, like on the night there was a playoff game with the Red Sox, the guy from the bookstore would come and say, ‘This is the biggest autograph signing we've ever had, ever. And he would name-check famous authors. In the hubris of the moment, I decided to set up an autograph signing at the mall that I used to hang out in Bloomingdale, Illinois when I was a kid… There was a Borders or something. It was the worst-attended book signing of the entire country… This signing I think lasted 15 minutes. There was like 30 people there. Like, nobody cared. It was crazy to me, and even to this point -- I'm just trying to be funny -- I've never been invited back to my high school that I graduated with honors. I was an honors student, never been invited back to my high school ever for anything. Not a charity function, not a 'come talk to the music class about your experiences that shows you the world that I grew up in this pernicious, bitter world.' So, when I did try to go home again at different times in the ‘90s and the 2000s, it was like getting slapped in the face with a fish or something. It was like, ‘Hey kid, this part of your life is over. There's no making peace with this.’" “People also feel safer ...
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    23 minutos