Lat year, we eagerly watch to see if Diplo would take home a Grammy with M.I.A. and Switch for “Paper Planes (they didn’t). This year, we didn’t really have a horse in the Grammy race (David Guetta’s co-writing credit on “I’ve Got A Feelings” not withstanding). But Diplo had his own particularly skewed take, releasing a Major Lazer cover of Beyoncé’s “Halo” with Elephant Man on vocals, just as the pop starlet won Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
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Back in the mid ’90s when The Roots were unknowns on the national music scene but already buzzing in the underground, they were criticized in the pages of URB. Even though we had recently published a glowing multi-page feature on the band in 1994, another writer later ridiculed them for playing covers of classic hip-hop tracks in their live show. A Roots member by the name of Brother Question—soon to be known as ?uestlove, the de facto band leader and icon—took umbrage to say the least and wrote an angry letter to the editor which we published. 15 years later and The Roots are one of music’s most enduring hip-hop bands, …
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