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GRAMMYs

Yung Miami of City Girls 

Photo: Daniel Mendoza/Recording Academy

News
City Girls' Yung Miami Backstage At ESSENCE Fest city-girls-yung-miami-talks-black-girl-magic-cardi-b-more-essence-fest

City Girls' Yung Miami Talks Black Girl Magic, Cardi B & More At ESSENCE Fest

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One half of the fire-hot Miami rap duo tells us how she and JT write songs, how natural it was working with Cardi, what being at ESSENCE Fest means to her and more
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Jul 8, 2019 - 5:10 pm

ICYMI, City Girls have been blowing up! From their feature on Drake's "In My Feelings" to releasing two albums last year, Period and Girl Code, to collabing with the likes of Cardi B, all eyes are on the Miami rap duo of Yung Miami and JT.

City Girls' Yung Miami Backstage At ESSENCE Fest

The Recording Academy sat down with Yung Miami backstage at the 25th ESSENCE Festival to get the inside scoop on the group, including some insight on her creative process with JT.

"When we get in the studio, our songs come from conversations we've had," Yung Miami said. "I say something and she'll be like, 'you need to turn that into a lyric.'... it's just whatever mood we're in." 

She also revealed what it was like working with GRAMMY-winning rap superstar Cardi B, who is featured on "Twerk" from Girl Code.

"It was everything I imagined. Working with Cardi B was like working with one of my best friends, like somebody I knew all my life, and we just got in the studio and made a song." 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bzq5J2tlkbw

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A post shared by CITY ON LOCK 💖🌃🔒 (@citygirls)

We also talked to Yung Miami about how it felt to be part of ESSENCE this year, what Black girl magic means to her and more. 

Afrobeats Artist Ayoinmotion's Journey To ESSENCE Fest: "Hard Work Pays"

 

GRAMMYs

King Combs

Photo: Daniel Mendoza/Recording Academy

News
King Combs Talks New EP, Bad Boy's Legacy & More king-combs-his-star-studded-new-ep-his-fathers-bad-boy-legacy-essence-fest

King Combs On His Star-Studded New EP, His Father's Bad Boy Legacy & ESSENCE Fest

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Diddy's talented son stoped by backstage at ESSENCE Fest to talk about his new EP, 'Cyncerely, C3,' what it was like working with City Girls and how he's inspired by his father's Bad Boy legacy.
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Jul 9, 2019 - 3:54 pm

With great power comes great responsibility, and being born into rap royalty creates as much pressure as it does opportunity. But for 21-year-old Christian "King" Combs, following in the footsteps of hip-hop mogul father, Sean "P Diddy" Combs, has come naturally.

King Combs On His New EP, Bad Boy's Legacy & More

"Ever since I've been watching my pops, I've been watching the whole Bad Boy legacy, I've always been inspired and really wanted to be an artist on my own," Combs told us backstage at the 25th ESSENCE Festival. "So to now have the chance to be out here, have the fans receiving my music, and to really be working hard, it's dope."  

With a fresh new EP out now, Cyncerely, C3, boasting featuries from City Girls, Ty Dolla $ign, Jeremih and more, Combs continues to shine his way out of his father's shadow.

#CyncerelyC3 OUT NOW EVERYWHERE!! https://t.co/PLuQX6nRm3 pic.twitter.com/9JnNhVuDwZ

— King Combs (@Kingcombs) March 29, 2019

"I had to really do my research and write rhymes, and find myself as an artist," he said. "And now that I feel I have created my own sound now, and really locked in."

Combs also talke about the thrill of being at ESSENCE Festival for the first time and what's next for his blossoming career.

R&B Singer Jacquees Reveals Details Behind Forthcoming Album 'Round 2'

 

GRAMMYs

MC Lyte

Photo: Daniel Mendoza/Recording Academy

News
MC Lyte Talks "Women In Hip-Hop" At ESSENCE mc-lyte-curating-%E2%80%9Cwomen-hip-hop%E2%80%9D-essence-her-new-acting-role-giving-back

MC Lyte On Curating “Women In Hip-Hop” for ESSENCE, Her New Acting Role & Giving Back

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We took a beat with Lyte backstage to hear about the all-star female rap event she put together for the 25th ESSENCE Fest in New Orleans and much more
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Jul 7, 2019 - 2:33 pm

GRAMMY-nominated rap pioneer MC Lyte is a busy woman. She took a quick minute backstage at the 25th ESSENCE Fest this weekend to talk about her latest projects, including curating “Women In Hip-Hop” for the festival, which featured royalty of rap including Trina, Rapsody, Yo-Yo, and more.

MC Lyte Talks "Women In Hip-Hop" At ESSENCE

Lyte talked about what ESSENCE means to her, as something that didn't exist when she was growing up. "Being able to celebrate Black culture at this magnitude means everything because we’ve never had anything like this," she said. "ESSENCE Music Festival is truly one of a kind.” 

The Women in Hip Hop #EssenceFest After Dark show at @RepublicNOLA was  Who’s ready for day two tomorrow? pic.twitter.com/CH4l1dSRcj

— ESSENCE (@Essence) July 5, 2019

She also talked about her upcoming role on “New York Undercover,” where she plays a detective, and detailed some of her recent philanthropic work supporting students with her international non-profit foundation Hip-Hop Sisters.

Rapsody Reveals The Influential Black Women Behind Her New Album 'Eve' At ESSENCE Fest

J.I.D at Lolla 2019

J.I.D at Lolla 2019

Photo: Josh Brasted/FilmMagic/Getty Images

News
J.I.D On Lolla Debut, J. Cole & Dreamville jid-talks-lollapalooza-debut-working-j-cole-dreamville-new-music-more

J.I.D Talks Lollapalooza Debut, Working With J. Cole & Dreamville, New Music & More

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"I've been doing a lot of shows this year, but this has been one of the best festivals," the Atlanta rapper told the Recording Academy while On The Road at Lollapalooza 2019
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Aug 7, 2019 - 5:09 pm

Rising hip-hop artist J.I.D, part of J. Cole's Dreamville Records powerhouse squad, has been on fire lately. Late last year, just in time for his Halloween birthday, the Atlanta rapper released his sophomore album, DiCaprio 2, which is filled with big collabs and even bigger energy throughout its 14 tracks.

Just minutes after making his Lollapalooza debut, he explained the mood behind the album, saying: "I wanted it to be a festival-like project… So I made these songs specifically for energy, for working out, for cardio."

J.I.D On Lolla Debut, J. Cole & Dreamville

He also talked about loving the crowd at his epic Lolla show, as well as working with his Dreamville labelmates and Cole on their recent masterpiece album, Revenge Of The Dreamers III. The Atlanta native also discussed the rich music scene in his hometown, his biggest influences and his eclectic list of dream collaborators—Beyoncé, James Blake and Little Dragon all make the list.

Finally, he teased some new music, telling the Recording Academy, "The first one was the introduction to me, second one was all about performances, energy and all that stuff. The next one, you guys will see." Check out J.I.D's interview in full above.



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Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza lolla Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza (that was a someone in the crowds hat) Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza Lollapalooza lollapalooza

A post shared by J.I.D (@jidsv) on Aug 7, 2019 at 11:40am PDT

Looping Guru FKJ Talks Improvising "Tadow" With Masego & Being "A Melting Pot"

GRAMMYs

Molly Tuttle

Photo: Daniel Mendoza/Recording Academy

News
Bluegrass Heroine Molly Tuttle On Her Debut LP molly-tuttle-when-youre-ready-her-modern-nashville-bluegrass-classic-newport-folk-2019

Molly Tuttle On 'When You're Ready,' Her Modern Nashville Bluegrass Classic | Newport Folk 2019

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Hot off four nominations for this year's International Bluegrass Music Awards, Tuttle took time to talk with the Recording Academy at Newport Folk Fest about her groundbreaking debut album & more
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Jul 27, 2019 - 5:47 pm

Bluegrass master Molly Tuttle continues to accumulate accolades. Last year she was named Guitar Player of the Year at the International Bluegrass Music Awards, the first female ever to receive the honor, and just this week she received four nominations for this year's IBMAs, including Female Vocalist, Guitar Player and Song of the Year, all before clearing her first quarter-century. But what's striking about Tuttle, beyond her staggering talents, is her authenticity as an artist and a human being.

Molly Tuttle On Newport, "Million Miles," More

Born into a bluegrass family band in Northern California, Tuttle relocated to Nashville not long ago, where she'd write all the songs for her debut LP, When You're Ready. The album blossoms from her deep bluegrass roots and blooms into a sound all her own, with sweet dashes of pop, weeping streaks of Americana and the simple sincererity of country.

Backstage at this year's Newport Folk Festival, we caught up with Tuttle to talk about When You're Ready, working with GRAMMY-winning producer/engineer Ryan Hewitt, what it means to be a strong female role model and much more.

Let's start with Newport Folk Festival. It's your second time here. What do you think makes this festival special?

This festival is so historically incredible. I grew up listening to folk and bluegrass, and so many of my heroes have played on the stages here and have had really historic musical moments. I remember seeing footage of Bob Dylan going electric here for the first time and Pete Seeger, of course, playing here and Joan Baez, and also bluegrass people like Ralph Stanley. So I think the legacy of this festival, it's always been pushing the boundaries and it's always been really inclusive to tons of different styles, which is why I think the audiences here are so incredible, because they get exposed to so many different styles of music. And it just feels like a really welcoming and really special event.

Is there anybody on the bill that you're excited to see?

Today I'm really excited to see Kacey Musgraves. And I just watched part of I'm With Her earlier, they're always incredible. I think Maggie Rogers is playing this weekend; I've never seen her before, so I'm really stoked for her. I haven't downloaded the app yet, I need to do that and really plan out my schedule.

More: Backstage At Newpork Folk Festival's 60th Anniversary

Let's talk about When You're Ready. It's officially your debut album, but as your career and life have been centered around music, and I'm curious how you feel about it now that it's out. Also, what do you think you accomplished with this project?

I think I've just taken my music a step further in the direction of really having it feel genuine to who I am, including all my different influences. I grew up playing bluegrass, but I've always listened to so many different styles of music, and with this record I really just wanted to follow my muse wherever it took me with songwriting and then build the album around the songs. To not try to stay in one particular style of music or keep with one kind of instrumentation, but really just follow what the songs wanted and what I thought would be best. I think I achieved that. I think it's a lot different than all the music I've made in the past, and it's been fun playing the songs on the road with a totally different band, it feels really reenergizing to me.

What was it like working with Ryan Hewitt on the album? He's new to Nashville, and he's done all sorts of rock projects.

It was amazing working with Ryan, we instantly connected. We met at one of my shows in Nashville and talked for only a couple of minutes, and he was telling me about all these bands he'd produced, engineered and mixed. He'd worked with [GRAMMY-winning super-producer] Rick Rubin a lot, with Blink-182 and Red Hot Chili Peppers, also the Avett Brothers. And it felt like he was just naming all these bands that I listened to at different ages of my life, and I was totally fangirling about all of it, like, that's amazing. But beyond that, when we kept talking further, we really just connected about different things we loved about music and about our favorite bands and favorite records. It really flowed well with and we work together really well.

Is there a song on the album, maybe "Million Miles," that you want to talk a bit about how you wrote it?

"Million Miles" is the first track on the record, and that one came about through my friend Steve Poltz, who's a great singer/songwriter and lives in Nashville as well. We were writing together a bunch one summer, the other song we wrote on the album together was "Don't Let Go."

One day we had finished writing a couple of songs, and I had known Steve had written a bunch of incredible songs with Jewel back in the '90s; they wrote "You Were Meant For Me" and a bunch of other really incredible songs that ended up on her records. So we'd finished up the writing session for the day, and he said, "Hey, I just remembered the song that I started writing with Jewel over 20 years ago, and we never finished it." They had a verse and a chorus, and he played that for me, and I recorded it on my phone and he was like, "Maybe you would want to take this and finish it."

So I did. A couple months later I sat down, and the song was kind of haunting me because I instantly really loved the song, and I was a little intimidated to try to write another verse. But I sat down and finished the song and sent it back to him, and he said he really liked it, and I knew I really wanted to record it on the album. I had to get Jewel's permission somehow, but I didn't really know how to get in touch with her, so I asked Steve if he could send my version of the song to her.

He did, and I didn't hear back. She wasn't really responding back to the song. I found out later she had been on a meditation retreat for the whole time we were trying to get in touch with her, so she wasn't checking her phone. Steve actually just decided to tell me it was okay with her, which I found out a year later. He had never heard back, but then months later, she eventually heard it and really liked it. Luckily, it was totally fine with me recording it and we got to play it. The three of us played it at a festival earlier this summer at Telluride Bluegrass Festival. That was really cool and really special.

Talk about a full circle moment.

Yeah, it was cool.

I want to ask you about the IBMAs. First of all, congratulations on the nominations.

Thank you.

And last year you became the first female to win Guitar Player Of The Year. We talk about gender issues a lot within the music industry. I'm curious how it feels for you to have that distinction as the first female guitar player to win that award.

Yeah, it felt really, really important to me. That was probably one of the biggest things that has happened to me in, I guess, my musical life or career. It felt really special to win that award because I've been a part of the bluegrass community and have grown up in that world. So to feel the whole community lifting me up in that way was really special, and it was just really meaningful to me to be a woman playing lead guitar. Sometimes it doesn't really dawn on me that there aren't a lot of other women playing lead guitar. It's always just felt really natural to me to play guitar. It's something that's really important to me to hopefully get more girls playing guitar. I studied guitar in college and I was always the only female in my classes.

I think it's kind of a combo of women who play guitar historically haven't really been recognized in the way that men have, their legacies have kind of been erased in a way. But I also think that there are fewer women playing guitar because we're not encouraging it as much as we encourage boys to pick up a guitar, maybe. I really hope that changes in the coming years and hopefully, if a girl sees me or sees other women playing guitar and being recognized, that'll encourage them to pick up a guitar too.

Thank you so much @intlbluegrass for nominating me for Female Vocalist, Guitar Player, and Song of the Year (Take the Journey), and Collaborative Recording of the Year with Roland White, @hiltnerj, @jonweisberger and @patmcavinue!! see y’all in Raleigh!! pic.twitter.com/EyjURmxsOI

— Molly Tuttle (@molly_tuttle) July 25, 2019

Back to the album; the songs were all written in Nashville, right? What about that city do you think added a specific touch of spice to this record?

Yeah, I think Nashville is just so full of songwriters, and it was fun in the first few years that I lived there. I just would reach out to anyone I knew, really, who I loved their songs or I knew they wrote a bunch of songs, and it was fun getting to meet so many new people through writing songs together. I think I wrote in ways that I wouldn't naturally have written on my own. And it was cool to see how other people worked with songwriting.

Nashville is such a collaborative city. The music community is just so intertwined, and everyone's kind of working with each other and supporting each other, which I felt right away when I moved there, that was really cool. I think this album kind of represents that because I had a lot of friends that I wrote with for it and I brought in a lot of friends living in Nashville to play on it. So yeah, the city definitely influenced the record a lot.

This is an optional question, but I was really touched by your article on No Depression, especially about your history with alopecia.

Oh, thank you. Yeah.

I just really want to point people to that interview, and I would love to know how it felt for you to share that story?

It felt really great. I loved writing about my journey with alopecia and playing at the conference that I went to. It was a conference for all people with alopecia, which is an autoimmune hair loss disease, and it's just something that's been a really big part of my whole life. But I haven't always been open about it with others and with the public and my fans. So it feels really freeing and great to be at a point where I can just share openly with people about it. And it feels like I've let the world see this other part of myself that I used to keep hidden, that I would only share with people I knew really well. But now it feels cool to get to share that with everyone.

That's great. I'm sure it'll inspire a lot of people to be themselves.

Yeah, I hope so.

I want to ask you about a big issue in music and entertainment; mental health. A lot of artists are under a lot of pressure, which can be difficult to cope with. I'm curious what you do to stay grounded and what your processes is for staying mentally healthy.

That's a good question. I think that's something I'm still learning, because it is challenging when you're traveling and you have all the pressure. I felt it a lot with having my first record come out, I was putting all this pressure on myself. But then, as you develop a team of people, you're feeling outside pressure as well. I found that seeing a therapist regularly when I'm off the road is really helpful, and there's a few different groups. There's MusiCares, which helps musicians afford mental health services, and there's other groups that do similar things. I've done meditation, which always helps me stay grounded on the road, if I can make myself get in the routine of doing it, which isn't always easy. Those two things have been big for me.

Do you have any dream co-write collaborators out there? Are there any artists that you'd really like to get in a room with?

Oh, yeah, there's a lot. I grew up just obsessed with Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, so both of them are huge songwriting inspirations to me. So they would be probably my biggest dream collab.

I've been working on the crosspicking that he does recently.

I love his playing. That really influenced me as well.

What is next for you? You've got the debut that you're touring on, what else are you looking at down the road?

We have some festivals, we're doing Pilgrimage Festival later this Summer. We're doing a little run in Colorado and we have a couple of festivals and tours in the works for this Fall. Going to IBMA, of course, for the award show, and then I'm playing there [in Raleigh] that weekend. We'll be doing the AmericanaFest, which happens in Nashville every year. it's gonna be a busy Fall full of tours and festivals and different events, but it'll be a lot of fun.

Charley Crockett's Walk Through 'The Valley': "That's What Artists Do" | Newport Folk 2019​

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Some of the content on this site expresses viewpoints and opinions that are not those of the Recording Academy. Responsibility for the accuracy of information provided in stories not written by or specifically prepared for the Academy lies with the story's original source or writer. Content on this site does not reflect an endorsement or recommendation of any artist or music by the Recording Academy.