Masigat shows she’s a singular voice – Drake drops new song ‘Nice’

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Faustina Masigat, “Faustina Masigat” (Mama Bird)

Faustina Masigat leans in on her debut album. The Oregon songwriter’s breathy alto sometimes drops to a near whisper, and she’s so close to the microphone that P’s pop; T’s too. Forte is not her forte.

Listeners will lean in, too, for a concise 11-song set that connects because it’s refreshingly free of fluff. Masigat performs with a bargain-bin guitar, and her austere approach extends to the arrangements, which makes every ornamentation that much more powerful. Support comes primarily from The Minus 5’s Tucker Jackson, who provides washes of pedal steel that enhance the beauty of the music.

The songs are duets with the second voice absent — three tunes start with “you” and two with “I.” The missing partner provides inspiration for the material as Masigat sings about heartbreak and healing, honesty and deceit, cold baths and cold apartments.

At times the music recalls Joan Shelley, Kat Edmondson or Margo Price, but Masigat is a singular voice. The title of the final song is “Words Left to Say.” She’s just getting started.

As promised, Drake dropped a new song Friday night, a Lauryn Hill-sampling smooth groove called “Nice for What.” Along with the song came a video that features 20 famous (and kind-of famous but fabulous) women, most of them actresses or musicians: Olivia Wilde, Misty Copeland, Issa Rae, Rashida Jones, Jourdan Dunn, Tracee Ellis Ross, Tiffany Haddish, Yara Shahidi, Zoe Saldana, Letitita Wright, Bria Vinaite, Emma Roberts, Syd, Michelle Rodriguez and Elizabeth and Victoria Lejonhjarta. All are filmed separately.

Directed by 22-year-old Toronto native Karena Evans — who also helmed Drake’s clip for “… Plan,” which featured him giving away $1 million to various people and organizations in need — the clip doesn’t have a plot, just Drake performing while the ladies groove.

The song samples “Ex Factor,” one of the most popular tracks from the 1999 classic “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” Drake previously sampled Hill’s “Doo Wop (That Thing),” from the same album, on his 2014 song “Draft Day.”

Surprise

Drake announced the single was coming during a quick surprise appearance at a Toronto concert by Majid Jordan, adding that his new album is nearly finished.

“The reason I’m here tonight is because I’m back in the city finishing my album,” Drake told the audience. “I’ve got a new single dropping tomorrow night, too, just in case you got some free time.” He also said he’ll be playing live dates this summer, and talked briefly about how proud he is of Majid Jordan and the “OVO family.”

The MC hasn’t released a full-length album since 2016 or even an extended work since the “More Life” mixtape just over a year ago, but as always he’s been active: He dropped a pair of new songs in January — “… Plan” and “Diplomatic Immunity” — and appeared in Migos’ hilariously ’70s-retro video for “Walk It Talk It.” He also premiered several new songs in a surprise appearance at a pop-up party in Memphis.

Lorde wrote and recorded much of her sophomore album “Melodrama” in New York with bestie/ Bleachers frontman Jack Antonoff, so it’s hard to imagine that anyone was surprised when she called him onstage during her tour stop at a sold-out Barclays Center in Brooklyn Wednesday night.

Antonoff, who’d performed a set with Bleachers at Madison Square Garden opening for Pink just an hour before, joined Lorde on acoustic guitar and piano during the quiet segment at the center of the show, which she’s used to play covers relevant to the city in which she’s performing during other stops on the tour: Kanye West’s “Love Lockdown” and “Runaway” in Chicago, Drake’s “Shot For Me” in Toronto, Prince’s “I Would Die 4 U” in Minneapolis. She brought the themes home in multiple ways, recalling frequently how being back in New York reminded her of making the album, and noting that Antonoff had recorded with several other strong female performers over the past few years: Taylor Swift, Pink, and St Vincent, whose “New York” the pair covered, to a rapturous response from the crowd.

They also performed some of their own “Hard Feelings” as well as “Liability,” a heart-wrenching ballad from “Melancholy” that Lorde said was the first time they’d ever performed it live.

Late in January, the two performed together during Grammy Week at Antonoff’s Ally Coalition benefit, where they as well as covers of songs by Roy Orbison and Carly Rae Jepsen.

The North American leg of the “Melodrama” tour wraps in Nashville on April 15.

Also:

NEW YORK: A day after releasing one of the most eagerly awaited rap debut albums in recent years, rapper Cardi B made another splash — revealing she is pregnant.

The fast-rising 25-year-old star showed off an unambiguous baby bump as she appeared on weekly comedy show “Saturday Night Live,” becoming a top trending item on social media.

In a teasing confirmation to persistent pregnancy rumors, Cardi B took the stage twice on “Saturday Night Live,” first concealing her body with a fulsome feather boa as she performed her breakout single “Bodak Yellow.”

When she returned to rap “Be Careful,” a track off her debut album “Invasion of Privacy” that came out Friday, Cardi B donned a body-hugging white dress and smiled knowingly as the lights shone on her protruding belly.

Cardi B is engaged to Offset of rap trio Migos, who shortly after his fiancee’s television appearance confirmed the pregnancy on Instagram, writing, “We feel so blessed.”

Cardi B, a Bronx native whose real name is Belcalis Almanzar, has quickly found stardom with her hard-driving rhymes that unsentimentally tell a story of a rough life.

“Bodak Yellow,” released less than a year ago, made her one of the most watched names in rap — a genre dominated by men and, often, by machismo.

She raked in top prizes including single of the year at last year’s BET Hip Hop Awards, leading to high anticipation for her debut album — and she is not letting the pregnancy slow her down.

The rapper is due to perform next weekend at Coachella, the premier US music festival — whose top headliner Beyonce pushed back her appearance by one year as she gave birth to twins in 2017. (Agencies)

The gossip site TMZ earlier reported that Cardi B is due to give birth in early July. (Agencies)

By Steven Wine

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