wearethelastbeatniks

As ‘Magna Carta… Holy Grail’ hits Number One, NME looks behind the hype and high-level hustling to evaluate Jay-Z’s position in popular culture today, complete with in-studio insights from his closest collaborators and the big man himself. PLUS… the album reviewed!

…And it sounds fine. Ahead of the release of the third and final part of their ‘Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy’, Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright fill us in on the 90s-leaning soundtrack to The World’s End, featuring Blur, The Stone Roses, Primal Scream and Pulp. Last orders!

Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine looks back at how they wrote the greatest protest song ever, but who decided it’d be a single? Why did they ‘play’ Lollapalooza naked? And how are bands today carrying the protest torch?

James Murphy gives NME a guided tour of the £700,000 sound-system he’s put together for the Manchester International Festival, which is set to ”make people vomit blood…”

Having blown the music world away with their energized sets of classic blues covers, The Strypes have been busying themselves writing actual tunes of their own. But can they justify the New Stones hype?

Chicago bluesman Willis Earl Beal explains why he’s prone to kicking hecklers in the face and getting seven bells beaten out of him in redneck bars.

Radar stars Speedy Ortiz on the art of breaking up onstage! Why new bands are taking over the festival scene! Eggsy from Goldie Lookin’ Chain takes the Braincells quiz! And Fuck Buttons, Joey Bada$$, Johnny Borrell, The Rolling Stones, Smashing Pumpkins, Odd Future and Open’er Fest reviewed!