BILL VAUGHAN'S TASTY CLIPS: Music Is Not Cancelled At 1st PlayOn Fest!
Warner Music Group is presenting a first-of-its-kind virtual music festival this weekend supporting the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the World Health Organization, powered by the UN Foundation.
As part of a spectacular three-day live streaming event kicking off April 24 at 9 a.m. by LL Cool J, PlayOn Fest promises to dip in the vaults to bring energy and high production values from world class stages to music fans hungry for communal live experiences.
The sets will stream live for 72 hours straight through April 26 exclusively via Songkick’s YouTube channel giving music fans across the world access to legendary never-before-released on YouTube performances, including sets from artists like:
• Nipsey Hussle (the incredible “Victory Lap” album release show from the Hollywood Palladium).
• Bruno Mars (24K Magic Live at the Apollo – Mars’ first primetime special that was recorded from the stage of the legendary Harlem theater in 2017).
• Janelle Monáe’s enthralling 2019 Coachella mainstage performance.
• Andra Day’s 2017 Global Citizen Festival set, where she performed a beautiful rendition of Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit.”
• Lil Uzi Vert’s 2018 Lollapalooza debut.
• Gary Clark Jr.’s latest headline appearance on “Austin City Limits,” celebrating his Grammy-winning album “This Land.”
• And Wiz Khalifa’s 2019 Coachella set, marking his third appearance at the festival.
Atlantic Records’ Grammy-winning megastar Cardi B says, “Don’t play yourself! Tune into PlayOn Fest April 24-26 and help us raise money for the World Health Organization to boost COVID-19 relief funds. Thank you to all of the health care workers who are dedicating their services and helping to save lives! Since I can’t get on stage right now … I’m throwing it back to my party at the Global Citizen Festival to hopefully send some love and light to y’all. Stay safe everyone!”
The full lineup will be available, as well as more information, at www.playonfest.com .
CAUSE WORTHY: As the world comes together to fight against COVID-19, Ice Cube is creating special “Check Yo Self Before You Wreck Yo Self” T-shirts, using his famous lyrics as a perfect microcosm for how we all need to act: nobody is immune and we all need to protect each other.
All net proceeds will be donated to underfinanced hospitals and nurses in inner cities and rural areas throughout America, including the staff at his hometown L.A.’s Martin Luther King Jr. Community Medical Center. The funds will be donated directly to hospitals to get much needed supplies.
“As a global community, we all need to come together to fight against this coronavirus. Every citizen needs to step up. Hopefully people can buy the shirts (at IceCube.lnk.to/Merch) and help us get supplies directly into the hands of the frontline health care workers that need it the most,” he said. “We all need to do our part in helping the essential workers. We hope the funds from this program can help.”
CERTIFIED CLASSICS: Legacy Recordings’ division for the celebration of Sony Music’s Hip Hop and R&B catalog, is commemorating the 25th anniversary of Mobb Deep‘s “The Infamous” with a digital only expanded edition of the ground-breaking East Coast rap masterpiece available online April 24.
Featuring contributions from guest artists including Nas, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah and Q-Tip, the album marked Havoc and Prodigy‘s evolution from Queensbridge underground phenomenon to one of the most influential and successful duos in hip-hop, selling more than three million records.
Prodigy died on June 20, 2017 after a lifelong battle with sickle-cell anemia, but Havoc remains to keep the legend alive.
“I’m often asked out of the Mobb Deep albums I made, which one’s my favorite … and I tell them ‘The Infamous’ every time,” Havoc said. “Without its existence, I probably wouldn’t even be giving you this quote!”
CLIPPETTES: “Reading Rainbow” guy LeVar Burton is not just reading for the kiddies but for grown-ups, too. You can catch his adult only sets on Fridays at 6 p.m. on his social media accounts …
Legendary jazz pianist Ramsay Lewis is coming back from retirement to perform a rare special livestream concert on April 25 at 11 a.m. This one’s not free though. A $20 viewing fee payable at paypal.me/RamseyELewisJr. is required with a portion of the proceeds going to MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund. Read more about his illustrious career and the event in the new 50BOLD …
Also that day, the critically acclaimed documentary “American Heretics: The Politics Of The Gospel” will be screened for free over Facebook Live at 1 p.m. followed by a live panel event with members of the cast. Visit ABCinemaNow.com for details …
Up next at 3 p.m. is Jack Johnson’s Kokua Festival 2020 – Live From Home with Ben Harper, Ziggy Marley, G. Love and others along with two of Hawaii’s top chefs, Ed Kenney and Mark Noguchi, breaking up sets with cooking sessions. The two-hour event commemorates the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and supports the education non-profit Kokua Hawai’i Foundation. Amazon Music’s Twitch channel or Johnson’s Facebook page will stream.
TASTY QUIP: “I haven’t had a drink since I realized I needed to take it day by day, but I never owned up, or was even told, ‘Hey, you’re a functioning alcoholic.’ People have called me a crazy person; people have called me everything … but not a functioning alcoholic. One day I was in my office working on the couture collection and there was some Grey Goose in the fridge and I was just going to get a daytime drink, and I looked and thought, ‘Devil, you’re not going to beat me today.’” – KANYE WEST to GQ
TC ON TV: April 24 – “Beastie Boys Story” (Apple TV ): Director Spike Jonze documents the story of the storied hip hop group’s 40 years of friendship. “Extraction” (Netflix): Thor’s Chris Hemsworth, David Harbour (“Stranger Things”) and Derek Luke (“The Purge”) collaborate with “The Avengers” filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russo for this action thriller based on the comic “Ciudad.” “Somewhere South” (PBS): “It’s a Greens Thing” in this episode covering chef Vivian Howard traveling from North Carolina to Georgia to learn about their leafy goodness. “RuPaul’s Secret Celebrity Drag Race” (VH1): This four-part expansion of the Emmy-winning franchise has hit written all over it as the audience must tune-in to find out which film, music, television, and comedy stars will be featured in the competition benefitting the charity of their choice. “International Jazz Day From Australia” (PBS): Herbie Hancock, Ledisi, Lizz Wright and many more join forces to celebrate the music. “The Tonight Show” (NBC): Lester Holt
April 25 – “Club MTV Presents: #DanceTogether With D-Nice” (MTV/VH1/MTV2): The world’s hottest DJ Derrick “D-Nice” Jones is presented doing what has become an Instagram sensation from his Los Angeles home.
April 26 – “Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children” (HBO): The trial of Wayne Williams and its aftermath is dissected in this episode. “God Friended Me” (CBS): The faith-based series starring Brandon Micheal Hall, Joe Morton and Erica Gimpel comes to its end with back-to-back episodes featuring Carl Lumbly and Tonya Pinkens. “The Last Dance” (ESPN): Dennis Rodman is featured in this installment of the record-setting doc on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. “Penny Dreadful: City Of Angels (Showtime): This next chapter of the horror series is set in 1938 L.A. and incorporates the building of the first freeways, deep traditions of Mexican-American folklore, the Third Reich and the rise of radio evangelism.
April 27 – “Never Have I Ever” (Netflix): Mindy Kaling is the creator and executive producer of this comedy series inspired by her own childhood. “Celebrity IOU” (HGTV): Viola Davis delivers a dream home. “Songland” (NBC): Two-time Grammy Award-winning R&B singer/songwriter H.E.R. comes to hear unknown songwriters pitch their original material. She also will be performing by remote on ABC & ESPN’s 9 a.m., April 25 broadcast of “NFL Draft 2020.”
April 28 – “Nick Cannon Presents: Wild ‘N Out” (VH1): Doja Cat vs. Big Daddy Kane “Ellen’s Game Of Games” (NBC): Usher joins in on the fun. “Mixed-ish” (ABC): The kids meet a homeless man (played by Wayne Brady) in their neighborhood “The Last O.G.” (TBS): Tray and his family go on a citywide hunt for an old pair of Air Jordan’s after Tray discovers that they are worth big bank.
April 29 – “Nadiya’s Time to Eat” (Netflix): The charismatic 2015 “Great British Bake-Off” Champ gets her own cooking show. “Murder To Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story” (Netflix): Documentary on the celebrated 16-year-old who had her life sentence overturned. “Ellen” (Syn): Tiffany Haddish “Celebrity Ghost Stories” (A&E): Nene Leakes
April 30 – “Dangerous Lies” (Netflix): Camila Mendes and Jessie T. Usher star in this labyrinthine whodunit with Jamie Chung, Sasha Alexander and Elliott Gould. “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” (ABC): Anthony Anderson and Hannibal Burress play for charity. “Shaq Life” (TNT): After a crazy whirlwind European DJ tour, Shaquille O’Neal takes some time to connect with his kids in L.A. while training for his upcoming UFC wrestling match.
TASTY QUIP: “To those in the food industry, delivery workers, mail carriers, and sanitation employees, who are working so that we can be safe in our homes, we thank you for your selfless service. Black Americans disproportionately belong to these essential parts of the workforce that do not have the luxury of working from home. And African American communities at large have been severely affected in this crisis. Those with preexisting conditions are at an even higher risk. This virus is killing black people at an alarmingly high rate here in America. Please protect yourselves; we are one family. We need you. We need your voices, your abilities, and your strength all over this world.” – BEYONCE
As featured in the Los Angeles Wave and Independent, Tasty Clips is one of the leading entertainment columns in the nation, serving nearly one million weekly readers. Bill Vaughan may be reached at [email protected], via Twitter @tastyclips, or Instagram @tasty_clips.