Arnstar might not seem like a familiar name yet, but he has been slowly rising as a star in multiple areas of entertainment.
HBO took over Brooklyn’s Union Hall for a second night (May 17th) hosting Speakeasy451 in honor of the upcoming premiere of the network’s Fahrenheit 451.
In her latest film “Breaking In,” which arrives in theaters this Mother’s Day weekend (May 11th), Gabrielle Union portrays a mother who must take any means necessary to protect her children when they are held hostage in their home.
Tyler Perry, along with Academy Award-nominated actress Taraji P. Henson premiered their latest collaboration a film written directed and produced by Tyler called Acrimony on Tuesday (March 27th) at New York City’s SVA Theatre.
Disney’s upcoming film adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time features some magical looks particularly unique otherworldly hairstyles created by Kim Kimble. Kimble chatted with The Knockturnal about capturing the magic of the characters in the hairstyles in the film recently.
In less than four years since landing in Hollywood in 2014, Celebrity Trainer Body Transformation Specialist, and TV Personality, Corey Calliet has become a go-to guy for helping to sculpt Hollywood’s A-listers into the bodies the iconic characters they display on the screen.
BET is celebrating social media this weekend leading up to their first social media awards ceremony, with the opening of a pop-up temporary exhibition in New York City called Museum of Meme.
As part of Mastercard House’s “Start Something Priceless” campaign they teamed up with The Fader magazine to host a panel discussion January 25th hosted by Ebro Darden on the hip-hop diaspora featuring panelist who are connected to hip-hop in different areas which included Fader co-founder Rob Stone, designer Jeff Staple, photographer Jonathan Mannion and rap artist Young M.A.
In reflecting on becoming connected with hip-hop, Stone said, “I think for me I felt like I was in on a secret. I felt like this hip-hop thing I don’t know if it was meant for me. I had moved to Long Island at that point and I would catch Ralph McDaniels show Video Music Box. I remember standing next to my basketball team and saying have you heard the song “Roxanne,” and I was like ‘Yeah my sister plays Sting’. And he was like no “Roxanne” and he played me that record and just opened me up to hip-hop and from early I couldn’t get enough of it. At the time it wasn’t all over the place, if you wanted to hear hip-hop in New York it was Friday, Saturday night shows on the major New York stations or you had to find your college radio station that was playing at 1-3 in the morning. There was such a confidence in it that I knew I wanted to spend my life in hip-hop but you kind of knew if you were on the ground floor and you saw the talent and the effect of how much it means to people you knew it would grow to this level. And it was all naysayers who said it was just a fad it would go away and thirty almost forty years later it’s here and stronger than ever.”
When asked the same question M.A replied, “I grew up in the early 2000’s that was my era, I was born in 92. Can’t really say too much about the 90’s now yea I learned a lot just by looking back on everything. I was in the era of Jay Z, Dipset, G-Unit, Talib Kweli. I ain’t gonna lie 2000 was a good year for hip-hop that’s when I think it really broke through as far as us getting real mainstream with it. I was a big fan I loved it. 50 Cent is one of my favorite rappers of all time, when he came about it was like something different to me. I just loved it. I just thought I was gonna be the best of all time when I first wrote my first rap. I was like this is it, I believe in this, I love this I want this. It was like my first love and I didn’t want nothing else.”
During the Q and A with the audience after the panel discussion a question was asked do hip-hop artists need to address social issues in their music to which Darden expressed his personal opinion stating, “I don’t feel like anyone creating any type of art has an obligation to do anything other than create the art they want to create. I will say in hip-hop as an MC, hip-hop being from the community and the street and being a part of the struggle specifically the black nationalist struggle, there’s an unspoken obligation because hip-hop has always been an extension of that in its essence of bringing the community together and empowering voices that were not heard being and being paid attention to. So I feel like that’s about of the fabric of hip-hop, but at the same time would never require an artist to rap about something they are not knowledgeable or passionate about.”
Music streaming service Spotify celebrated some of this year’s Grammy Best New Artist nominees which include SZA, Khalid, Julia Michaels, Alessia Cara, Lil Uzi Vert with a special star studded event which included guests Sting, Jared Leto, Keith Urban, Hailey Baldwin, Ansel Elgort, Shaggy, Justine Skye, Nick Cannon, Normani Kordei, Alesso, CHVRCHES, Martha Hunt, Danielle Brooks, Rachel Platten, Marshmello, Pentatonix, Jade Bird, Ryan Leslie, DJ Z-Trip and more along with 300 of these artists’ biggest fans on Spotify Premium at New York City’s Skylight Clarkson SQ on Thursday January 25th.
NEW YORK, NY – JANUARY 25: Singer Khalid performs onstage at “Spotify’s Best New Artist Party” at Skylight Clarkson on January 25, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Spotify)
The best new artist nominees hit the stage to perform some of their popular hits that have helped them to achieve recognition and stand out. There were also special guest performances by Logic and Marshmello. Speaking with fashion model Martha Hunt about what stands out about the new artists, she gushed talking about SZA, “Well I’ve been a fan of her for a long time since ‘Sweet November.’ Then to see her excel with this new album it’s been really exciting for me because I think she is a true talent and she has one of those artist souls and I respect that about her.”
The Knockturnal also spoke with music legend Sting who discussed the importance of Spotify for finding new artists:”Well there are so many of them, and they’re all available on Spotify, so you can find them.” The music legend went on to further discuss his latest collaboration with reggae artist Shaggy and their meshing of musical styles, “Well you know I’ve been into Jamaican music from Ska from Blue Beat through reggae through Bob Marley. I knew Shaggy’s music because he’s one of the biggest stars in the world and so it was kind of a natural thing when we started to go in there and explore reggae with an authentic reggae artist. So we’re trying to produce something kind of hybrid of what I do with what he does and I think we manage a very successful combination of the two of our vocal styles and two of our musical styles which has been mainly fun more than anything.”
You can check out their new song below:
The Global Spin Awards, honoring the top DJ’s around the world will host its sixth annual awards ceremony in Los Angeles on February 15th, 2018 at The Novo Theater.