SPIN

April 18, 2012 – Dick Clark, the longtime host of the legendary American Bandstand, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, and the man who embodied New Year's Eve for 40 years, passed away this morning in Los Angeles after suffering a heart attack. He was 82. According to ABC News, Clark spent last night in an L.A. hospital following an outpatient procedure, but the iconic TV personality experienced a "massive heart attack" early this morning and resuscitation efforts didn't succeed, Clark's manager Paul Shefrin said in a statement. Clark first got his start as a disc jockey in Syracuse and Philadelphia before segueing to television as the host of American Bandstand in 1957. His first day on the job, he interviewed some guy named Elvis Presley.

April 13, 2012 – Just 24 hours before the Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Axl-less Guns N' Roses and the rest of the Class of 2012 will be enshrined into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with a lavish Cleveland induction, the ceremony has lost another of its top-billed stars. Rod Stewart has bailed last minute, putting an end to the much-anticipated Faces reunion. Stewart, who canceled due to an illness, follows Axl Rose as inductees who won't appear at tomorrow night's bash. At least John Mellencamp will still be there… "Lead singers are dropping like flies. Rod, Axl Rose," guitarist Ronnie Wood said today at a pre-Q&A, Billboard.biz reports. Drummer Kenney Jones then tweeted, "Unfortunately Rod is complaining of a sore throat...

March 22, 2012 – Late last year, it was revealed that an Ol' Dirty Bastard biopic was in the works based on a script written by the late Wu-Tang rapper's cousin, Raeshawn. Tracy Morgan and Eddie Griffith were rumored to be up for the role of the madcap Big Baby Jesus, but another, more accomplished thespian has beaten them to it: Boardwalk Empire’s Michael Kenneth Williams, the man responsible for one of television's greatest characters (Omar Little from The Wire), has signed on to Dirty White Boy. Directed by "99 Problems" cinematographer Joaquín Baca-Asay, the film will cover the final years of ODB's life EW's Inside Movies reports. However, and this is where things get complicated, this is not the ODB movie that Raeshawn penned. Just as there are currently two different Jeff Buckley films in the works, Dirt McGirt is also the focus of competing biopics.

March 21, 2012 – Janelle Monáe's expansive The ArchAndroid had several moments where the Of Montreal pal wandered into Electric Ladyland territory — most notably "Mushrooms & Roses" — but last night at her concert in Papantla, Mexico, Monae went full-Hendrix with a cover of Jimi's Axis: Bold as Love classic "Little Wing." Monáe delivers a dead-on rendition of the guitar god's most beloved ballad, though she adds a sultriness that makes her "Little Wing" sound like it was re-imagined by one of Prince's Paisley Park protégés. Guitarist Kellindo Parker absolutely nails the solo, something that has given expert musicians fits for decades. It's the best "Little Wing" cover since Pearl Jam's "Yellow Ledbetter." Check out the performance via Consequence of Sound:

March 21, 2012 – Sometimes Nicki Minaj is a Top 40 popstress. Other days, she's the premier female rapper in hip-hop. Today, she's both — Minaj has dropped a pair of tracks from April 3's Pink Friday 2: Roman Reloaded that showcase those very different sides of her personality. For the former, there's "Right By My Side" with Chris Brown, which finds Nicki in full-on Rihanna mode, right down to turning simple syllables and repeated vowels into irresistible hooks. (The song also bears a striking resemblance to Riri's turn on "Live Your Life.") For those of us who prefer Nicki's rhymes to her singing prowess, there's "Beez in the Trap," which is arguably her purest (and best) hip-hop track since her mixtape era.

March 21, 2012 – As Spin noted earlier this week, Beck took a timeout from his heavy schedule of producing the likes of Dwight Yoakam to contribute a new song called "Looking for a Sign" to the Jeff, Who Lives at Home soundtrack. The Yoakam influence — and perhaps performing with Neil Young at this past Bridge School benefit — seems to have rubbed off. "Sign" is another country-tinged number from Beck, something between the melancholic Sea Change and his lo-fi folk beginnings. This is essentially Beck on cruise control, as the finger-picked guitar, mournful harmonica, and pedal steel are all continuing motifs in his repertoire, but at least he's taking a scenic drive. "Looking for a Sign" is now available on iTunes.

March 21, 2012 – Mississippi's Big K.R.I.T. doesn't know the meaning of the word "breather." Less than three weeks after dropping his latest 17-track mixtape 4evaNaDay, he's already back with a brand new single called "I Got This," which he premiered yesterday on Sirius XM's Shade 45. The song appears to be the first from K.R.I.T.'s long-delayed major label debut album Live From the Underground, due out later this year, maybe. But for all we know, this might just pop up on one of the three or so mixtapes K.R.I.T. seems to drop annually now. While 4evaNaDay was steeped with K.R.I.T.'s own Southern rap-flavored productions, "I Got This" has a West Coast, "Let Me Ride" vibe, and that's really what separates this track from the rest of the rapper's ever-growing mixtapeography.

March 21, 2012 – Going into 2012, The Dark Knight Rises was easily the year's most anticipated third part of a trilogy… until yesterday, when IFC announced that after a five-year break, the auteur R. Kelly has penned and co-directed a third installment of his legendary "hip-hopera" Trapped in the Closet. Between 2005 and 2007, Kelly, armed with only a single melody, created one of the most complex and downright batshit soap opera of this or any millennium, and now the singer will bring his twisted musical drama back to television later this year with 22 new chapters. According to IFC, Kelly has reunited the original cast a half-decade later, ensuring there will finally be some closure for characters like Sylvester, Twan, Gwendolyn, the dwarf under the kitchen sink, and Pimp Lucius.

March 21, 2012 – It's been a week of firsts for Odd Future's long-absent Earl Sweatshirt. Just hours after giving his first ever interview to Hot 97 and posing for his first Terry Richardson photo shoot, the 18-year-old MC found himself onstage in front of thousands of fans who had already committed his lyrics to memory. Last night Thebe Kgositsile made his live debut during Odd Future's gig at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom. Sweatshirt was center stage for three tracks — "Orange Juice," "AssMilk" and his debut album's "Kill" — before closing out his debut live performance with his namesake track, "Earl." As the New York Times notes, Hodgy Beats and Domo Genesis rapped on their track "Tang Golf" that they would free Earl from Samoans — a reference to the rapper's exile at a boarding school — summoning Sweatshirt to the stage.

March 20, 2012 – The Flaming Lips are always planning some adventures for Record Store Day, whether it's a remake of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon or a digital EP trapped inside a gummy fetus or a vinyl box set featuring their first five albums on Warner Bros. This year, Wayne Coyne and Co. have once again upped the ante, recruiting Bon Iver, Nick Cave, Jim James, Chris Martin, Ke$ha, and many more for a 2-LP collaborative album titled The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends. The limited-edition collection will be released this Record Store Day, April 21. Some of the Fwends collaborations have previously been released, like "Is David Bowie Dying?" with Neon Indian, "I'm Working At NASA on Acid" with Lightning Bolt, and "Supermoon Made Me Want to Pee" with Prefuse 73, but that's only a third of what will be sprawled on the album's four sides.