Malen Blackmon Malen “Mars” Blackmon has been a contributor to the
Observer since 2019. Entrenched in Southern California’s music and culture at an early age, he wrote and recorded music until he realized he wasn’t cut out for the music industry and turned to journalism. He enjoys driving slowly, going to cannabis conventions and thinking he can make sweatpants look good with any outfit. Find Stories by Malen Blackmon
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The cultural war, or blame game, between baby boomers and millennials is still going strong. Hundreds of memes and YouTube-aired discussions later, there is not much of anything on which the two generations seem to agree aside from their shared love of avocados. But a new study suggests that both generations love weed, and for similar reasons.
In 2020, Verilife, a cannabis company with a chain of medical marijuana dispensaries located in the Midwest, surveyed 1,000 millennials between the age of 24 to 39 and 1,000 baby boomers between the age of 56 to 74 who consume marijuana on a regular basis to see if there were any similarities or differences between why the two generations choose cannabis.
Madukwu Chinwah s career started out like that of many musicians, by playing in a high school garage band. It was called Krystal Klear, and while the band didn t quite make it, Chinwah would become one of the main originators of the neo-soul genre.
As a songwriter and producer, Chinwah was awarded a Grammy and a platinum plaque for his contributions on longtime friend Erykah Badu’s
The Love of My Life and
Baduzim.
The term multi-instrumentalist still feels short when describing Chinwah, who plays something between 17 to 20 different instruments; he can t keep track. He s spent most of his musical career behind the scenes in the studio, adding sounds and lyrics to other artists records. Recently, Chinwah stepped into his recording studio to write, produce and lay the vocals for his third solo album,
Trying to understand cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) can be annoying AF, but the amount of cash being made and spent in the crypto space can’t be ignored. Artists and musicians have been independently making millions of dollars by selling digital versions of their art, music, video clips, photos and pretty much any other kind of digital media they can think to throw up on the blockchain.
In February, DJ and music producer 3LAU made $11.6 million selling music NFTs in only 24 hours. Just a few days later, Canadian musician Grimes made $5.8 million in 20 minutes. DJ Steve Aoki made $4.2 million in the first week of March, while Post Malone auctioned off an NFT to play beer bong against him. Those types of paydays might ve normally taken the artists years to collect, but NFTs have created a new model for artists to reach consumers by avoiding middlemen in distribution.
Since the earlier part of the century, the sound of saxophones and soul-heavy vocals have been heard coming out of Deep Ellum bars. In the history of Dallas’ music scene, funk and R&B have always enjoyed a prominent position. The nominees for Best Funk and R&B for the 2020
Dallas Observer Music Awards honor that tradition, and certainly stepped up for the city this year, mostly through original releases. Here are this year s nominees. Bree & The Fellas It Be Like That Sometimes on Nov. 6. It had been four years since we d heard a collection of new works from the band, but it was well worth the wait. At this point in her career, lead singer Breanna Parker says, the most important thing is the message she can convey through lyrics. If she were to die tomorrow, Parker says she wants her friends and fans to remember her music as relatable and positive.