Category: specifics

Billboard Cover: Niall Horan Goes Desperado

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Niall Horan is, well, normal. He likes golf, stays friends with his exes, and takes advice from his elders. Of course, for someone with his profile, that means he caddies for Rory McIlroy, kicks it with Selena Gomez on the regular, and calls Don Henley “dad” during their bimonthly chats about life and music. Still, normal. I met him several times over the past six months and every time found him to be exactly the type of dude you want to share a pint with. He even invited me into his house for a home-cooked meal. Anyhow, if you’re a One Direction fan who’s always wanted to know more about the cute Irish kid in the crew, or if you never cared about 1D but are looking for a worthy new man crush in your life, I’ve got you covered. With cameos from Sean Mendes, Don Was, Justin-Bieber-by-proxy, and, yes, the Eagles mastermind Don Henley.

Further reading: My 2016 profile of Horan’s ex-bandmate Zayn Malik.
Fun fact: They both talk about pooping.

Rita Ora Talks Fifty Shades Darker, Top Model

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READ IT AT MEN’S FITNESS (in print too)

Had a lil’ chat with the mighty Rita Ora about the incredibly lengthy list of things she’s doing including but not limited to: ramping up her Fifty Shades roll in Darker, stepping in for Tyra Banks as host of America’s Top Model,  running the fashion game in collaboration with Adidas, acting in an indie flick alongside the late great Carrie Fisher, and being a body-positive badass.

Billboard Cover: Migos Splash in the Mainstream

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Migos took me to the show, the afterparty, and the hotel lobby, though not in that order and certainly without the connotations R. Kelly implied when he sang about such marathon misadventuring. I digress. The short of it is: I spent Grammys day/night not at the awards show, but running around with Atlanta’s hottest, most meme-able rap trio. We went to the cluuub. We went to a swank party at the storied Chateau Marmont. I sat on an ottoman in a hotel room while Quavo (leftmost above) got an $800 pair of track pants measured for alteration. There were many blunts, a couple boxes of jewels, and at least one white cup full of orange syrup. And while I interviewed Jermaine Dupri (bucket list, considering Kriss Kross was the first cassette I owned), there were unexpected in-story cameos from Chance the Rapper, Chris Brown, the Game, and Big Sean. Our nine hours together were equal parts bad and boujee. Mission accomplished.

Billboard Cover: Camila Cabello Is Miss Movin’ On

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Really proud of how this came out. I met Camila Cabello about the time I started writing with Billboard, late 2014, and was immediately impressed (duh) by both her and her Fifth Harmony bandmates. Then last year I got to write the 5H Billboard cover, which found them on top of the world professionally, but in a heavy shared personal space with much of the enthusiasm and warmth I first saw in them clearly absent. Now, Camila has her spark back, even if her old friends want nothing to do with her, as she plunges headlong into a solo career that seems destined to take off. The supporting cast in this story includes Cabello’s mom Sinu, the ever-adorable Shawn Mendes, producers Pop Wansel and Frank Dukes and Epic Records CEO L.A. Reid. Also, this marks the debut of the magazine’s gorgeous new online features format. Erm, dive in!

Lukas Graham on Grammys, Babies and Speedos

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I INTERVIEWED WYCLEF JEAN AND HE CALLED ME “FAMILY”!!! Oh, and I had a weird/awesome brunch with Lukas Forchhammer, the mastermind behind the Danish musical oddity that is Lukas Graham and their massive 2016 hit song, “7 Years.” Due to space constraints, this interview (one of three Grammy preview covers) was trimmed considerably, so you’ll miss the bit where I said, “He’s sporting … a fresh haircut he says makes him ‘look like a lesbian raver.’ Really, he looks like a ’90s rap-rock stoner. It’s one of the many things that set him apart from 2017’s music industry power players.” However, they did keep my quote from Wyclef (not the “family” part), which makes 15-year-old me die and go to heaven. So, I guess I’m dead now. Oh well.

Juicy J Is Cooking with Weed (and Chris Sayegh)

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READ IT AT BILLBOARD (in print too)

Memphis rap OG Juicy J gets a lesson in cannabis cuisine from fine dining stoner Chris Sayegh, aka The Herbal Chef (“THC,” of course). I sat in on the entire thing, and while I interviewed the two of them afterward, you really just want to read this for the play-by-play: “Juicy J holds a single flower with a pair of extra-long tweezers cautiously, as if the tiny bloom is a hunk of uranium. His hand seems to lilt ever so subtly, pulled to the right by three heavily studded gold rings. But the rapper gets it together and, at the last second, sticks the landing…” Toldja.

British Invasion 2.0: Critic-Proof Dance Music

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With help from a pond-hopping lineup of U.K. garage and dance music experts—shout out AlunaGeorge, Pete Tong, MNEK, Gorgon City and, especially, Todd Edwards—I trace the lineage of English underground music all the way to the upper reaches of Billboard Hot 100, from Kyla & Crazy Cousinz to Disclosure to Drake to that place where all roads eventually lead: Justin Bieber. This is part three in a highly interactive, very wide-ranging British Invasion-type series I dreamt up (story-wise) for Slate underwritten by Jaguar. See the food and design pieces too.

Billboard Cover: Musical.ly’s Teenage Revolution

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I’ll level with you. I interviewed 14 people about this Musical.ly app—an international cast of adults (China, Germany, Russia, America), four tween/teen idols, a couple venture capitalists, representatives from three major labels, and my first Billboard cover subject Jason Derulo—and I’m still all “kids these days” about it, plus would have a hard time explaining in fewer than 3,000 words what Musical.ly is and why it has the music and tech industries scrambling for answers. But they are, and the answers are in this story about a lip-synch app turned revolution.

The Golden Age of Robot Pottery

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READ IT AT SLATE

Part two in this Slate X Jaguar collabo finds me delving deep into the world of 3D printing to learn about the digital future of an ancient, haptic art—pottery. I spoke to a series of expert practitioners in the U.K. (where computer-assisted ceramix have been embraced in both academic and fine art circles) and here in the U.S. (where the practice of clay fabrication is just, um, taking shape). I loved speaking to these folks, so please be sure to check out their work: Kate Blacklock, Chris Gustin, Michael Eden, Jonathan Keep, and Ronald and Virginia Rael.