Frank Farian, the mastermind producer responsible for the groups Milli Vanilli, Boney M., La Bouche, and more, has died. He was 82 years old.
Over the course of his six-decade career, Farian saw considerable success as a songwriter and producer, but his time as the mastermind behind Milli Vanilli — and their infamous lip-syncing controversy — is likely what most remember him for. Farian first met the group’s frontmen, Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan, in Frankfurt, and signed a contract with them in January 1988, locking them into a deal.
Then, dissatisfied with the quality of the group’s vocal performances, Farian employed session vocalists — including Charles Shaw, John Davis, Brad Howell, and others — to provide the lead vocal parts for the duo’s recordings, leading to an arrangement where Pilatus and Morvan, against their desires, lip-synced the parts that they claimed to be singing themselves.
Upon the release of Milli Vanilli’s biggest hit,...
Over the course of his six-decade career, Farian saw considerable success as a songwriter and producer, but his time as the mastermind behind Milli Vanilli — and their infamous lip-syncing controversy — is likely what most remember him for. Farian first met the group’s frontmen, Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan, in Frankfurt, and signed a contract with them in January 1988, locking them into a deal.
Then, dissatisfied with the quality of the group’s vocal performances, Farian employed session vocalists — including Charles Shaw, John Davis, Brad Howell, and others — to provide the lead vocal parts for the duo’s recordings, leading to an arrangement where Pilatus and Morvan, against their desires, lip-synced the parts that they claimed to be singing themselves.
Upon the release of Milli Vanilli’s biggest hit,...
- 1/24/2024
- by Jo Vito
- Consequence - Music
“Everything I drop is a banger,” Kim Petras declares on “Uhoh,” a filter house-influenced track from her long-awaited debut studio album, Feed the Beast. And, for the most part, she delivers on that promise. From the verse to the pre-chorus to the instrumental drop and chopped-up vocal bridge, the song—which was produced by Ian Kirkpatrick, the knob-twirler behind Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now”—is stacked with hooks.
Much of the rest of Feed the Beast follows suit, including the Dr. Luke-helmed “Revelations,” which channels ’80s post-disco, complete with squelchy electric guitar solo, and the breezy “Coconuts,” a cheeky, pun-filled ode to Petras’s “margari-tatas.” Elsewhere, lead single “Alone” is built around a sample of Alice Deejay’s infectious “Better Off Alone,” though it leans too heavily on that late-’90s club hit’s synth hook to make much of a distinct impression of its own.
Alice...
Much of the rest of Feed the Beast follows suit, including the Dr. Luke-helmed “Revelations,” which channels ’80s post-disco, complete with squelchy electric guitar solo, and the breezy “Coconuts,” a cheeky, pun-filled ode to Petras’s “margari-tatas.” Elsewhere, lead single “Alone” is built around a sample of Alice Deejay’s infectious “Better Off Alone,” though it leans too heavily on that late-’90s club hit’s synth hook to make much of a distinct impression of its own.
Alice...
- 6/23/2023
- by Alexa Camp
- Slant Magazine
“For Khadija” is billed as a documentary about French Montana, but there’s a reason that it’s named not after the hip-hop alter ego of Moroccan expatriate Karim Kharbouch, but his mother. “I felt like my mother’s story, the beginning to the end, the closure of her going back to Morocco, is when I was like, okay, now the story has a meaning,” French tells Variety. “This goes out to all the mothers that struggle, that have kids, that was forced to sacrifice.”
Given the other films made about rappers and their families — including “Dear Mama,” about Afeni and Tupac Shakur and “Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell,” which heavily features Notorious B.I.G.’s mother Violetta Wallace — it’s not necessarily an unexpected place to start. But the documentary, which premieres June 16 at the Tribeca film Festival, uses the relationship between Karim and Khadija to highlight the...
Given the other films made about rappers and their families — including “Dear Mama,” about Afeni and Tupac Shakur and “Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell,” which heavily features Notorious B.I.G.’s mother Violetta Wallace — it’s not necessarily an unexpected place to start. But the documentary, which premieres June 16 at the Tribeca film Festival, uses the relationship between Karim and Khadija to highlight the...
- 6/16/2023
- by Todd Gilchrist
- Variety Film + TV
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