Shinedown portrait

Shinedown

Photo: Jimmy Fontaine

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How Shinedown Got Real On 'Attention Attention' | Mental Health Awareness Month

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In an exclusive op-ed, Brent Smith and Eric Bass share why the time was right to tackle the subjects of mental health and addiction on their latest Top 5 album, 'Attention Attention'
Steve Baltin
GRAMMYs
May 30, 2018 - 4:20 pm

Throughout Mental Health Awareness Month in May, GRAMMY.com has shared quotes and stories from artists who have made the choice to speak publicly about how their mental health has directly affected their lives, and how the healing power of music has helped them on their path toward a more peaceful, present and mindful life.

Multiplatinum rock band Shinedown, who recently released their sixth studio album, Attention Attention, are all too familiar with the struggles that stem from addiction and depression. Frontman Brent Smith is recently sober, while bassist Eric Bass, who produced the album, battles with depression. The group channeled those battles into the conceptual Attention Attention, an album that takes place in one room as one man fights his demons.

The results have clearly resonated with fans with Attention Attention debuting at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 (marking their fourth consecutive Top 10 album) and simultaneously topping on Billboard's Alternative, Top Rock and Hard Rock charts, in addition to landing at No. 1 on iTunes' album chart.

Below, Smith and Bass share their thoughts, in their own words, on their own struggles, the role of music in fighting addiction and depression, and why they are hopeful what they have learned can help others.

Eric Bass: Once we finished ["Get Up"] it became OK to write about everything else we were going through. It almost became a conscious effort to tell the story of what we had gone through. We really knew what we were writing about once we kind of looked at each other and went, "We need to be real about this and we don't need to mask it and hide it in a bunch of metaphor. We just need to say what we need to say." It was the best therapy I've ever had.

Brent Smith: The entire Attention Attention record was born from real situations and real people. And the fact of the matter is Attention Attention is a very necessary record right now. It does have a very urgent message through it all the way through the album. Like Eric said, therapy is a keyword here. I've always said I write songs because it's cheaper than therapy.

Bass: In the metal/hard-rock community for a long time it was about being macho and not spilling any of that stuff. And if you did write about it, it was covered in metaphor and you buried it in the lyrics in a way. I always say a listener can smell bulls*** a mile away. The more honest you are in the music the more accepting your fans are gonna be of what you're offering them.

The fans have latched onto the song "Get Up" in a way we haven't seen on a song in a long time. It's been this overwhelming march towards that song. It's a great thing when your heroes, for lack of a better term, can let you know that they bleed the same way you do, struggle the same way you do. Just because you have the term rock star attached to your name doesn't mean it's not a human being that doesn't always go through the same exact things everyone else does. I think it's been a really great thing for the subject of mental health and addiction to come more into the forefront.

Smith: I don't take it lightly that I survived. You're not promised tomorrow and I carry that with me every day now, more than I ever have. The last album cycle was basically 20 months of a withdrawal, so I don't think I'm immortal. I think that I'm humbled more than anything that I was able to survive those demons. I think me, Eric, Zach [Myers] and Barry [Kerch] are living proof if you just refuse to give in and give up there's nothing you can't accomplish. And the other side of that, too, is if you're staying down a mountain in front of you by yourself you might look at that and go, "There is no way I can scale this." Maybe not, but, for us, as a band and a family if we all four do it together we can climb any mountain. It doesn't matter the size.

Bass: Addiction and depression share a lot of the same attributes. The one main thing that's different is if I could reach into my brain and pick out this thing that makes me feel the way depression makes me feel, and take it away, I would do it in a heartbeat. But it's always going to be there and I just gotta find a way to deal with it, [but] not in a destructive way. That's the biggest challenge. For people who are in bands the road can be a mind-numbingly boring place if you let it become that. That's where a lot of addiction issues start; that's where a lot of depression spirals start, I believe. And I'm not a therapist so what works for me might not work for anybody else.

Each individual is gonna have to find what works for them. For me, I have discovered the way to respect my depression and to not let it get the best of me is to stay as busy as I possibly can. I just know the more things I can concentrate on outside of my depression the better I am. I go to the gym, I go to the studio to work on music when I can. On tour, I try to work on music. The other side of that is I'm extremely blessed to have my bandmates, who don't judge me and don't judge the fact I can be moody. A lot of people who don't have depression don't understand, it's not something you can help. These guys don't ever judge me for that, they accept it. But they're always there to help me and hear me talk if I need to. And when I'm home I have my wife who is caring and just as understanding as my brothers are. So that is something I have the luxury of having.

It really breaks my heart about Chester [Bennington] and Chris [Cornell], and anyone else who doesn't make it out. One of my best friends was my manager for years, a guy named Johnny Diamond, and he took his own life from depression. It's always gonna get better, I know that. I know how it feels to want relief of not having to deal with it anymore and that's what it is — that's what someone who takes their own life is wanting, they're wanting a relief.

I've learned that if I just hang in there there's going to be a brighter day and things are gonna get better. If it's this bad now it can only go up and get better. So that's how I cope with it and make it through. And hopefully, that can help someone else.

More Mental Health Awareness: Rapper Pouya On Living With Anxiety
 

GRAMMYs

Turning Jewels Into Water

 

Photo: Ed Marshall

 
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World Music Innovators Turning Jewels Into Water Fuse The Spiritual With Digital On Their New Album

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Genre pioneers Ravish Momin and Val Jeanty talk to GRAMMY.com about the making of their forthcoming work, 'Our Reflection Adorned by Newly Formed Stars'
Noah Berlatsky
GRAMMYs
Aug 8, 2020 - 7:00 am

"What is world music? What is global music? Do you have to show up in ethnic gear with a tabla and a sitar for you to consider me Indian?" drummer Ravish Momin says, with some exasperation. "Or what if I just showed up with an electronic drum pad? If you were a quote unquote, world promoter, you'd be like, 'No…that's not right.'"

Momin and Haitian-born drummer Val Jeanty's electronic music project Turning Jewels into Water draws on influences and collaborators from across the planet, but, as Momin says, their music isn't easily slotted into any one genre. On their new album from FPE Records, Our Reflection Adorned by Newly Formed Stars, laptops sound like traditional instruments and geeky experimentation is indistinguishable from spiritual yearning. It's music that pounds and shakes and shimmies so hard it lifts off from any one country, drumming in the stratosphere, and points higher up.

Momin's been difficult to pin down ever since he was a child. Though he was born in India, his father's job at an Australian bank kept the family on the move. "We lived in the Middle East for a minute. We lived in Australia for a minute. We lived in Hong Kong for a minute. We were just traveling around, and I was picking up music in all those places," Momin told me.

The family finally settled in New York in the late '80s when Momin was around 14. He was interested in jazz, and started taking drumming lessons. But he had trouble finding a teacher comfortable with his range of influences. "They'd be like, man, all that stuff you're doing, we've got to work on getting rid of all that and making you a real jazz drummer," Momin told me. "And I felt bad for a long time, like, oh shit, I'm doing something totally wrong here." It wasn't until after college when he studied with the great avante garde drummed Andrew Cyrille that he started to see his background as a resource rather than a hindrance. Cyrille, Momin says, "was the first drummer I'd gone to who listened to my audition and said, okay, cool, I see what you have. But I also see what you don't have. So let's find a way to make that work."

Momin went on to lead the global/jazz band Tarana for 14 years. He gradually became more and more interested in incorporating electronic percussion into his music. But, he says, "I immediately found out [I] was not accepted in the so-called jazz world at all. You can't be a legitimate jazz musician and have a laptop on stage. That was just heresy for a long time. It's still stuck, believe it or not, where Miles [Davis] left off. There are innovators, obviously, that have been pushing it, but it really hasn't kept up with electronic innovation happening elsewhere."

Looking for a new direction, Momin invited Val Jeanty to jam with him while he was in residency at Brooklyn's Pioneer Works. The two, who were already friends, clicked musically. Their first album as Turning Jewels Into Water, Map of Absences, was released in 2019.

Jeanty "was the first person that I met who was channeling electronics with this spiritual vibe," Momin says. "And I'd never really experienced that. I'd only heard experimental electronics like blips and screech, or very much four-on-the floor techno in New York. So it was incredible to hear this historical, organic rootedness, and have it still be all digital."

Jeanty started drumming with her family in Haiti during Vodou religious rituals. "You can think of it like church music, but in a different culture," she told me. "The drums are very important; it's like the heartbeat. Each rhythmic pattern is dedicated to a specific ritual."

For Jeanty, raised with drumming as part of religious festivals, all music is a spiritual practice. "In our culture, there's no separation between what we do and the music. It's all one. It's all a prayer. It feels for me like a spiritual practice, whether I'm listening to classical music, whether I'm listening to John Coltrane. It's the same thing."

Working with Momin has been exciting, Jeanty says, because "in the Indian culture, the music is very spiritual. So, we have that connection instantly. And he's also very progressive pushing it as far as using triggers, using Ableton Live. That's the stuff that I love. It's just great to have similar aspirations as far as keeping connected to the culture but working with electronic instruments."

One of the album's most ambitious mixtures of traditional and electronic music is "Crushed Petals and Stones Fall On My Drum." The track features South African percussionist and musician Mpho Molikeng, who plays a range of African instruments, including the lesiba (a mouth-resonated bow), and the mamokhorong (a kind of single-stringed violin). On the collaboration between Molikeng, Momin and Jeanty, electronics and indigenous instruments drone, thump and shake around each other as Molikeng chants, and it's virtually impossible to tell the analog from the digital. Here and there, meatspace and binary realm stomp and change places in a joyous dance or trance. And then they get up and do it again on a remix by Shanghai producer Laughing Ears, who ads a vivid club-ready techno sheen. From Haiti to India to South Africa to Shanghai, the petals fall everywhere, nowhere, and on all the spots in between.

"Swirl in the Waters," is another collaboration, this time with Washington, D.C.-based Iranian singer Kamyar Arsani, who plays the daf, a wide drum, and fronts the punk band Time is Fire. "I've been trying to get people involved in the project, who can again span different worlds and can do different things," Momin says, and, sure enough, on "Swirl in the Waters" Arsani moves seamlessly from spooky post-punk intonation to ululating Middle Eastern chant. "I used to be a goth when I was a high-school teen," Momin laughs, "and this track has that dark energy."

The album's title track, "Our Reflection Adorned by Newly Formed Stars" is a tribute to the Siddis, a group of Indians of East African origin who are believed to have come to India in the 600s AD. Momin says he was not aware of the Siddis while growing up. Their history is not commonly taught in much of India, a fact which Momin attributes to anti-Blackness. But, Momin says, "they have been here in India for a long time, and they came in not as slaves, which is really important to know. It's one of on the first instances of Africans ruling a non-African population."

The video for the song, designed by Art Jones, includes historical Siddi images, and a dancer rotoscoped in angular blocks of color, so they seem to pulse from future to past and back again. "It's capturing the spirit of the Siddis and the dancers and the movement. It's an imaginary timeline of what would have happened, if they had never lost their grandeur, and were still regal. It's creating awareness of the Siddis and their plight."

A track about the Siddis, and their mix of African and Indian culture and art, fits naturally on an album by a duo from the African and Indian diasporas, creating music steeped in where they're from, where they are and the journeying between the two. A tribute to the Siddi was initially Momin's idea, Jeanty says, but it made sense to her. "We're all connected. Especially right now with all this separation and division, I think it's important for us to know that we all belong to one thing, to one mother."

Work on the album began before the coronavirus made travel impossible, but the collaborators had to finish it in isolation, sending files back and forth. Jeanty acknowledged that the conditions were not ideal. "There's something spiritual about being in the same space at the same time," she said. "The virus is disconnecting us more, so it was a little bit more challenging than if we were together." The disconnection and the need to focus made the recording process "a little bit more intense. I do feel like there were some really potent moments that I couldn't get if this COVID thing wasn't happening," she laughed.

Our Reflection…is an album about bridging distances, that didn't seem bridgeable by music, boat or byte. "We want to just showcase the idea that, hey, look, we're still doing all this stuff, where we're bringing all these rhythmic and melodic and other practices from our folkloric traditions, but we're doing it in this new environment," Momin says. That new environment is the whole world, and some newly formed stars as well.

Noise Experimentalist Evicshen Talks First LP 'Hair Birth,' Crafting Xenomorph Face Masks & More

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Jamie Grace

Jamie Grace

Photo: Leon Bennett/Getty Images

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Jamie Grace On Her Uplifting Song "Marching On," Life With Tourette's Syndrome And The Transformative Power Of Gospel And Contemporary Christian Music

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The GRAMMY-nominated singer-songwriter talks about the personal journey and universal message behind her inspiring track and how she's advocating for the Tourette's community
Susan L. Hornik
GRAMMYs
Aug 8, 2020 - 5:00 am

Jamie Grace strives to be a beacon of hope for young people who struggle with Tourette's syndrome (TS). Diagnosed with the debilitating disease when she was just 11, the GRAMMY-nominated singer-songwriter creates contemporary Christian music fueled by empowering lyrics inspired by, but not limited to, her condition, as heard on her recent song, "Marching On."

The song carries a message about the importance of resilience in the face of adversity. Its uplifting lyrics unify those who suffer from TS while celebrating their uniqueness: "We are warriors / We are beautiful / Even with our scars / We march on / 'Cause we are fighters," she sings in the chorus. 

While the song grew from her personal experience with living with TS, its underlying theme of positivity is universal, Grace says.

"I intentionally avoided talking about Tourette syndrome in the lyrics ... I wanted people to hear this song and immediately think about something they have faced, but have chosen to continue to press through, whatever that may be," she tells GRAMMY.com.

As an advocate for the TS community, Grace has been vocal about her condition throughout her career. She's actively worked with the Tourette Association Of America (TAA) for the past 10 years. During Tourette Syndrome Awareness Month, which ran from May 15–June 15, she joined the organization for a livestream performance of "Marching On" and worked with the nonprofit on National Advocacy Day in March.

"We are proud to have Jamie as a partner, raising awareness and fostering social acceptance for Tourette' Syndrome, which impacts an estimated 1 million Americans," Amanda Talty, CEO and president of TAA, says. "'Marching On' is an anthem for people in the Tourette community; they are diverse and talented and bring incredible gifts to the world like Jamie!"

Released in May, "Marching On" has since taken a new meaning in the wake of the nationwide protests in response to the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black U.S. citizens by police. Grace, who's faced racism throughout her life and career, has embraced the song's second life. 

"Now when I sing 'Marching On,' I am reminded of my culture ... the beauty in the color of my skin ... and the many Black men and women who are fighting every day to continue marching on."

GRAMMY.com spoke with Jamie Grace about the personal journey and universal message behind "Marching On" and the healing power of gospel and contemporary Christian music.

You released your song, "Marching On," in May, but it resonates even more so now.

As a songwriter, you never know how people will interpret the songs that you write, even if they are very specifically about something that happened in your life. However, it's rare that I write a song about one thing and once it's released, it begins to take on a new meaning for me. In the last few months, I have shared more than I have before when it comes to my experiences as a Black woman in America. I did lose some followers on social media who oppose the idea of speaking out. But more than anything, I have been privileged to be a part of seeing perspectives shift and eyes opened. 

Over the years, I have faced racism in many of the churches where I was booked to sing, and I have dealt with the daily microaggressions as both an entertainer and in social settings. These experiences have been pushed aside or shot down by many [of my] peers and some of my audience, but I am seeing a shift toward humility and a willingness to listen that I am grateful for.

Even so, the last thing I want is for stories of racism to become emotional bait that do not call for self-evaluation, intentional education and, ultimately, action. And as Black people, though often faced with the struggle, we are many years post action, as resilience is simply a part of who we are. So now when I sing "Marching On," I am reminded of my culture ... the beauty in the color of my skin ... and the many Black men and women who are fighting every day to continue marching on.

Tell me about the inspiration behind the song.

I never want to be seen as a victim. While I want people to be empathetic toward what I go through on a daily basis with Tourette Syndrome, I want my resilience to speak louder than my pain. My friends and I saw Billie Eillish perform at the [2020] GRAMMY Awards. When someone complimented her voice, I casually said, "There's something about us … " alluding to the fact that when you face adversity in your life, resilience is almost an obvious sequel.

I finished "Marching On" just weeks before flying to [Washington] D.C. with the Tourette Association for National Advocacy Day in March, spending intentional time thinking about and praying for kids, teens and adults with TS. Many of us share our stories publicly, but if you stop for a moment and hear about our Tourette, we simply hope that you will stick around and hear the rest of the story, and how in spite of our challenges, we are marching on.

What makes the song so relatable?

I intentionally avoided talking about Tourette syndrome in the lyrics. I did mention a "tic" in the lyrics, but even then, most people have had or known someone who has had a temporary eye twitch or nervous tic. I wanted people to hear this song and immediately think about something they have faced, but have chosen to continue to press through, whatever that may be. 

We have all experienced something in our lives that we cannot control—whether it's our health, family dynamic, the result of a test, job application, loss of a job or even losing a loved one. There is "a time to weep and a time to laugh ... a time to mourn and a time to dance … " [Ecclesiastes 3:4] and I wanted this song to be a bridge of those moments that we all inevitably face.

You recorded your tics and implemented them into the song, with your tics themselves becoming instruments. How did that feel? What does that sound like?

At 28, my tics are vastly different than they were when I was a teenager. When I was growing up, there was a list of 10-12 physical and vocal tics that weren't very easy to disguise, so it was pretty obvious that I had Tourette's. Even so, I would often suppress them, which I shouldn't have, to attempt to present myself as "normal" to my peers. But my tics would always find a way to show up.

As an adult, my tics range from blinking my eyes to hitting my upper chest to making "ah!" and "uh!" sounds to my arms and legs bending repeatedly. Most days, I may not twitch a lot, but when I do, it's pretty obvious. The list of the subtle and bold ways Tourette presents itself in my speech and movements [is quite long], so recording it for a song felt more natural than suppressing it.

Some people with Tourette have explained it like a sneeze. You can hold it in as much as you'd like, but eventually it's going to show back up, and maybe even more intense than it would've been the first time. So pressing "record" and letting those walls fall down felt like pure freedom. Then, as a musician and nerd, I enjoyed chopping up the sounds and making them into music.

Read: Want To Support Protesters And Black Lives Matter Groups? Here's How

What do you think about what is happening in our country right now?

Growing up as a little Black girl in Georgia who rode horses, wore boots, dreamt of playing guitar but also loved hip-hop and smooth jazz, I am not oblivious to what it means to be different and to be treated differently because of it. I have experienced racism since I was a child, and I have heard the many stories of my parents, grandparents and others. While I continue to grieve the injustices that Black men and women face, I am grateful that things are being brought to light.

I do believe that there is hope for our future—I must. I try my hardest to do my part in sharing music that is honest and joyful, in sharing my story in hopes of providing understanding for those whose eyes are just now being opened. And I try to shed light on the activists who are on the front lines of the fight for justice and the calls to action they so graciously share.

The gospel music featured during the George Floyd memorial in June was so soothing. Can you talk more about the spiritual side of gospel music? Do you think the genre can cross over into mainstream audiences?

Historically, music has been a crucial part of recovery and rejoicing for Black people and people of color. I remember being a little girl and my mom playing Mahalia Jackson throughout the house and making sure that my sister and I knew about Negro spirituals. These songs, while full of hope and joy, were oftentimes written out of places of absolute despair ...

George Floyd did not deserve to be treated the way he was treated and certainly did not deserve to be killed. As I heard "Amazing Grace" at his funeral and later in the service, seeing people get up and clap and sing along to "Every Praise," I realized that the world is seeing who we genuinely are. 

As a people, we have been victimized and brutalized, but we will not allow our voices to be silenced. Whether singing about not turning around when faced with gas-masked injustice or about the grace we still find to face yet another day in the midst of tragedy, we will always sing. But know that our voices don't end when the song does. Our lyrics are a representation of the depths of who we are, and the message in our words is a call to action for us all to create and advocate for significant change.

How have you overcome the challenges of having Tourette's while being a singer-songwriter?

I realized that music was therapeutic for me when I was really young, even though "therapeutic" wasn't yet a part of my everyday vocabulary. It always brought me so much joy to sing songs with my mom in church or to dance in the living room to jazz with my dad or listen to rock music that my older sister, Morgan, loved, though I wasn't positive I was cool enough!

Shortly after my diagnosis, our grandaddy brought over a drum set and a guitar for Morgan and I. He wanted to bring a little bit of joy into our day, but he sparked something in us that, years later, still remains. Our dad is also a drummer, and both our mom and granny love to sing. I remember the entire family staying up way too late, making up new songs night after night.

The physical act of playing music is a literal antidote for my tics. The choice of choosing songs with lyrics that encourage and empower subconsciously start the work of building me up emotionally. 

I am grateful for my therapist, my doctors and my family, of course, but being a singer-songwriter has been one of the greatest parts of having Tourette. Because even though I have a complex condition that often causes me physical and emotional distress, it always pushes me to be creative and find a release that I always enjoy.

How resilient did you have to be when you were growing up?

Fortunately, my family is the greatest support system I could have asked for. I had to learn to bounce back and recover from bullying and the everyday stress of having a neurological condition. However, I always had a safe place at home. I was provided with love, support and understanding, which took some of the pressure off of me to be resilient. If I needed to cry for what seemed like a long time, I could, because their strength was always something I could depend on.

Even so, I didn't realize until adulthood that I had to grow up a lot faster than most of my peers. There was a time when my medication was affecting my heart, so I was put on a heart monitor. Learning how to jump very gently on a trampoline so as to not mess up a heart monitor was a casual lesson for me in middle school. 

Spending nights in the hospital because my tics had caused physical damage was "normal," and my tics being mocked was a part of my life almost every time I was around kids and teens. When you grow up with a medical condition, your mental health is largely dependent on your ability to face and experience excruciating pain and disappointment, yet still find the strength to press on. I am so grateful for a family that provided comfort in my life, allowing me to find that strength.

Do you ever want to perform other kinds of music?

I've always felt privileged to be able to incorporate all styles of music into the kind of music that I make, especially now as I've been producing my music for a few years. I'm definitely a Christian, and I love singing about my journey as someone who truly loves God. And for me, that includes singing about everyday life experiences.

Within the genre of gospel music, there are so many different styles. I grew up on mostly faith-based lyrics, and most people think that means I don't know much about music. But within gospel, there is hip-hop, country, soul, contemporary and so much more.

I play the banjo, and recently did a singer-songwriter-style project with my sister called "Show Love." I also love hip-hop, and I recently shared a single called "Dream Big." One of my favorite things about my faith is that God is leading me through every aspect of my life. So whether it's a song about my husband ("90's Kids") or a song about my relationship with God ("Wonderful"), to me, it is gospel music because it's a part of a story that is so beautiful, I know that it must be bigger than me.

What's next for you?

I will continue to raise awareness by helping the Tourette Association Of America, and I'm releasing music every month for the rest of 2020, including an EP in October that will be released alongside my book, "Finding Quiet." Most people, whether you have Tourette or not, face some kind of anxiety or anxiousness throughout life. The book is about my journey to quieting my mind in our anxious world. The EP features songs that I have written during this journey.

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Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion

"WAP"/ YouTube 

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Cardi B And Megan Thee Stallion Deliver A Juicy Collaboration With "WAP"

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The song is Cardi B's first collaboration with Megan Thee Stallion, and their sexually empowered lyrics leave nothing to the imagination
Jennifer Velez
GRAMMYs
Aug 7, 2020 - 2:42 pm

Cardi B has released her first song in nine months and has tapped in Megan Thee Stallion for the juiciest collaboration yet—pun intended. 

"WAP" is a sexy song showing off how proud the "Money" rapper is of her vaginal lubrication. Short for "Wet A** P**sy," the song is Cardi B's first collaboration with Megan Thee Stallion—and their sexually empowered lyrics leave nothing to the imagination.

"Bring a bucket and a mop for this wet-a** pussy/ Give me everything you got for this wet-a** p**sy," Cardi B raps. 

In the past, the rapper has expressed on social media how she feels judged for her sensual vocals, particularly when it comes to lyrics about her lady part. 

"People will be saying don't like hoes and they don't like that p**sy talk. People love it. People love it. They love it," she said in a recent interview with New Music Daily on Apple Music.

Cardi B insists while some people may judge her for her lack of PG content, they like to listen to it: "There's different rappers that rap about those things that you all want to hear. There are conscious rappers. But you all not going to them. So you can't be mad."

"WAP" shows the rapper undoubtedly sticking to her guns. The just-as-sexy video, featuring both rappers walking around a house full of sensual decor in skin-tight, eye-catching outfits that serve non-stop curves, set out to not only celebrate sexual liberation but highlight female empowerment. To do so, the rapper invited special guests including Spanish singer Rosalia, who appears in a latex matador-inspired jumpsuit, and model/rapper/influencer Rubi Rose. 

"I wanted a lot of different females, not just female rappers. I wanted different... A lot of different people," Cardi said about her vision. "And y'all going to see it on the music video as well, from models to influencers and everything. And I really wanted the video to be very sexy, very clean, very nice, very cut." 

During her conversation with Apple, the Latinx artist said a months-long pause on music can be seen as a negative thing these days.

"When you put out music in nine months, people on social media will make you feel like you're doing something bad or you went away," Cardi B said. 

The new song will be featured on her forthcoming album and follow-up to Invasion of Privacy. The rapper said she wanted to work on more music but the current times have her feeling a certain way.

"This whole f**king Coronavirus, shit. It's just really f**ks with things and how you want to move. Like even when I had a song, it just, I was like, damn, like I don't want to put my next song with a f**king Corona video in my backyard," she shared. "I want to f**king be able to f**king perform my song. Like that's what I want to do. I don't know when this shit happen."

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U2 at 1988 GRAMMYs

U2 at 1988 GRAMMYs

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GRAMMY Rewind: U2 Win Their First-Ever GRAMMY For 'The Joshua Tree' In 1988

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For the latest episode of GRAMMY Rewind, revisit the "With Or Without You" act's first GRAMMY wins for their fifth studio album, 'The Joshua Tree,' at the 30th GRAMMY Awards
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Aug 7, 2020 - 2:13 pm

Back in 1987, Irish rock icons U2 were a favorite rising act of college radio DJs and Bono had yet to discover his love of sunglasses. It was the year they released their momentous chart-topping fifth studio album, The Joshua Tree, shortly after which Time declared them "rock's hottest ticket" with a cover story. The classic album not only put them on the map as socially conscious rock gods, it earned the group earned their first four GRAMMY nominations and first two wins. 

Read: Bono Names 60 Songs That Saved His Life On His 60th Birthday Playlist

For the latest episode of GRAMMY Rewind, revisit the "With Or Without You" act's first-ever GRAMMY win, for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal at the 30th GRAMMY Awards.

Watch U2 Accept Their First-Ever GRAMMY In 1988

With Bono and The Edge and Adam Clayton rocking choice steampunk looks, the quartet, also consisting of Larry Mullen Jr., accepted the award with big smiles as The Edge did the talking.  

"I don't know about you, but I'm still recovering from Whitney Houston," he said during the laugh and applause-filled speech, pulling out a paper and offering thanks to their lawyer, manager and "everyone at college radio, I don't know where we'd be without them."

The guitarist also thanked Jack Healy and Amnesty International, who hosted the 1986 Conspiracy of Hope U.S. benefit tour they took part in, along with Sting, Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel and Bryan Adams.

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He also gave gratitude to social justice heroes Desmond Tutu and Martin Luther King Jr., before moving into joking territory, offering thanks to Batman and Robin, Donald Duck "and, of course, [then President] Ronald Regan" whose name he ended on with a facetious, winking grin.

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Later in the evening, they took home the coveted Album Of The Year award for The Joshua Tree. It's unforgettable single "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" was nominated for both Record Of The Year and Song Of The Year.

The 1987 album's other memorable singles include "Where The Streets Have No Name" and "With Or Without You." It was produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, the same powerhouse pair who produced U2's prior album, 1984's The Unforgettable Fire. Its title was inspired by a Death Valley photo shoot with Anton Corbijn, whose epic black-and-white shots of the group in front of a lone joshua tree were featured in the album's art.

"People respond to our naïveté," Clayton in the 1987 TIME interview. "I think they see four guys from Ireland who don't want to let go of their dreams."

To date, U2 has earned 22 golden gramophones over the years, most recently for How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb at the 2006 GRAMMYs. 

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