Nicki Minaj doesn't really apologise, but comes close enough for Spin

Nicki Minaj decided to use Malcolm X to promote her new single.

Spin explains how:

Nicki Minaj has come under fire not for her new video — in which she fires a pair AK-47s akimbo — but for the art used to promote that song, "Lookin Ass Nigga." Found on her site (still, as of 6:15 p.m. EST) and on her Instagram (no longer), the grainy image repurposes a famous photo of Malcolm X holding a large gun while he peers out a window, seemingly concerned for his safety. Considering her use of weaponry, and that titular oft-weaponized word, people are pissed.

Pissed enough for two petitions to be raised - and, okay, "creating a petition" is probably the very least activity that can still be called activism, but it stung Minaj into a response.

Spin sees this an apology:

What seems to be the issue now? Do you have a problem with me referring to the people Malcolm X was ready to pull his gun out on as Lookin Ass Niggaz? Well, I apologize. That was never the official artwork nor is this an official single. This is a conversation. Not a single. I am in the video shooting at Lookin Ass Niggaz and there happened to be an iconic photo of Malcolm X ready to do the same thing for what he believed in!!!! It is in no way to undermine his efforts and legacy. I apologize to the Malcolm X estate if the meaning of the photo was misconstrued. The word "nigga" causes so much debate in our community while the "nigga" behavior gets praised and worship. Let's not. Apologies again to his family. I have nothing but respect an adoration for u. The photo was removed hours ago. Thank you.

This is a whole new level in the apology that isn't an apology, because not only does Minaj do a "if the meaning of the photo was misconstrued" non-apology, but then she follows it up with an "apologies again to his family" - which doesn't really require an "again" and, from the whole tone of the response, right from the opening, bored "what seems to be the issue now", shows no understanding of the cause of offence or any real contrition at having got it so badly wrong.

Still: it doesn't matter if you do something crudely insulting, providing it's not done on an official single. So that's alright then.

Ha ha Har Mar Superstar not a replacement Replacement

Yesterday, Har Mar Superstar tweeted that he was going to be the new Replacements guitarist.

Spin ran this news as fact.

They've updated their story a little now:

Har Mar Superstar Didn't Join the Replacements

Update: It never made much sense anyway

Yeah, it never made any sense at all, although that didn't stop Spin announcing they'd confirmed the surprise signing. I wonder what the 'confirmation' process was - "it's obviously bollocks, but on the other hand that time two of Spandau Ballet signed for Melchester Rovers, but that really happened. On which basis..."

For those of you who have trouble remembering which one is Andrew WK, and which is Har Mar Superstar, here's a simple mnemonic: It doesn't matter.

Having destroyed Spin, the internet steps in to save it

Spin Magazine, the American one that isn't Rolling Stone, has been sold to Buzzmedia, webhome of Stereogum and Hype Machine amongst other things.

Buzzmedia is getting the lot - the print title, the archive and the iPad edition (does an iPad edition really count as a thing in its own right?) - but isn't entirely clear that it this going to be an entry into print media:

“We believe print is important for Spin,” [Buzzmedia Chief Executive Tyler] Goldman said. “As we continue to invest in the platform, we’re going to look at defining what that role is.”

This could mean anything from 'further investment in a magazine which has just shaved 100,000 off its guaranteed circulation' to 'allowing the team to still have a printer in the office'. The smart money would be on it being closer to the latter than the former.

Liam Gallagher finally finds a worthy target

At last, a band deserving of what Liam Gallagher clearly believes is withering contempt:

Liam Gallagher feels his brother Noel made Oasis look like "Culture Club on shit acid" in their videos.[...]
He told Spin magazine: "Sometimes Noel treated us like his fucking backing band. Some of the videos we did were fucking shocking. 'Lyla', for example. We look like fucking Culture Club on shit acid.

Gallagher's pledge to hand back the thousand upon thousands of pounds he made from the era seems to have been dropped from the quote, perhaps for length considerations.

Liam then trumpets how Bleeding Eye or whatever it's called is, you know, a democracy:

He added: "The little fella's gone. I watch enough Sky News to know that we shouldn't have leaders. This band is four geezers all on the same page, wanting to make this the greatest band in the world."

Yes, it's a total democracy. That's why Spin was interviewing Liam Gallagher. It could have oh-so-easily have been The Former Andy Bell, the one that used to be in Heavy Stereo or David Laws who did the interview. It just so happened that the Beady Eye commune decided Liam would do it today.

Bookmarks - Internet stuff: U2

Lovely piece by Luke Lewis on the NME blogs in response to Spin naming U2 the makers of the most influential album of the quarter-decade:

But once I’d reset my face from a “beg pardon?” grimace, I realised that the Spin team were entirely correct. Rather than diminishing over time, U2’s influence has grown with each decade. Trouble is, that’s a cause for angst, not celebration.

With ‘Achtung Baby’, U2 set the default mode for the next two decades of guitar music - sonically expansive yet lyrically evasive, “emotive” yet essentially meaningless. Today, thanks to U2, all bands with vague designs on the mainstream sound broadly the same.

Second Spin

As part of the intense desire to scan everything ever printed, Google Books has just put the entire back catalogue of Spin online. Look, here's their review of 1998 issue in a tiny box:



So that's Spin; Plan B was released as torrents and - ahem - IPC apparently nearing the end of a ten year plan to digitise Melody Maker. Can we have Select and ZigZag in full, too, please?

Amy 4Real

A rising pop star, cutting words into their flesh during an interview with a journalist from the pop papers.

Amy Winehouse has gone a bit Richey Manic:

The Camden Caner carved words into her own FLESH, rushed back and forward to the TOILETS and launched into four-letter RANTS during an interview with a US rock mag.

Not, of course, that Victoria Newton has any sympathy for a young woman who's clearly in need of support right now, headlining the report:

Amy's sick self harm stunt

Now, we're no fans of the Winehouse here, but if someone is carving chunks out of their flesh, we can't but be worried for them - and dismissing it as a "sick stunt", like it's Marilyn Manson waving around a walking stick, is missing the point somewhat.

But dont think that Victoria is not concerned:

I fear her behaviour is putting her huge potential for success across the pond in danger.

Yes, that's the real worry here - never mind that Amy is teetering on the brink of a long, hard, deep fall, let's fret about how it might harm chances of getting a good position on the Best Buy racks.

Blake Fielder-Civil takes the interview with Spin to show himself as something of a delight:

The article, which appears in the July edition of the magazine, also shows a chilling, aggressive side to Blake, who got annoyed with a bald man sitting in the bar where the interview took place last month.

The interviewer writes: “Fielder-Civil whispers into my ear cheerily, ‘Tell the guy who looks like he has leukaemia I’m going to slit his throat.’ I don’t.”

Newton, of course, isn't bothered by the callousness or casual violence, but frets about the poor PR:

Hardly the ideal man to have at your side on a charm offensive.

And the "rant" isn't so much a rant as self-flagellation:

“I don’t care. I don’t care about any of this and I don’t have much of an opinion of myself. I don’t think people care about me.

“I made an album I’m very proud of and that’s about it.

“I write songs because I'm fucked in the head and need to get something good out of something bad. I thought, ‘I’m going to die if I don’t write down the way I feel. I’m going to do myself in.’ It’s nothing spectacular.

“I don’t think I’m such an amazing person who needs to be written about.

“And if I did I’d be a fucking right cunt, wouldn’t I?

“Just ask me a silly question, like, What's my favourite Tootsie Pop. I’m just a very silly girl.”

Hopefully, the people who are supposed to support Amy will read this and, unlike Newton, think "this person is in trouble" rather than "well, that's our sales in the MidWest tanked."

Spin magazine's band of the year

They've plumped for the Strokes, which we think is kind of interesting; we wonder if that's a compromise between The White Stripes and The Vines.

The Hives, apparently, are being given live act of the year, which seems to be the consolation prize they're picking up in all the end-of-years. In a way, I feel a bit sorry for them - if they'd gotten their asses into gear 18 months earlier, they'd have been able to look like the godfathers of the new craft rock scene; as it is, they seem to have been filed in most people's minds as slightly better dressed scenesters.

Spin thinks the best single since last Christmas is Eminem's Cleaning Out My Closet, which is arguable - surely it's merely the rap Candle In The Wind?