The Fader Names Tay-K’s “The Race” Its Top Song Of 2017, Go Yayo Raps During A Court Appearance, NYE Blowouts Take Shape And More Dallas Music News.

As the year winds down and publications start prematurely releasing their year-end lists, it’s a sure thing that numerous North Texas artists will find their way onto these lists, as happens year after year.

But one placement in particular this week felt extraordinarily newsworthy: In a list detailing its staff’s picks for the 101 best songs of 2017, The Fader ranked Tay-K’s “The Race” as its No. 1 song of the year. While the song spent months on the Billboard 100 and was remixed or shouted out by nearly every relevant rapper in existence this year, the publication’s reasoning for the track’s placement seemed more in line with fitting the track and Tay-K’s legal troubles into a narrative that highlights the inordinate amount of crimes known to be committed by artists and entertainers this year, with “The Race” being the de facto leader of complexity and moral ambiguity. In its write-up, the publication further points out that it excluded some artists in order to avoid being “complicit” with their crimes this year, which explains why artists like Kodak Black and XXXtentacion are nowhere to be found on the list. In many ways, Tay-K’s inclusion appears to be the publication’s nod to acts of that ilk as much as it is to the Arlington-sprung emcee himself. But, hey, Drake still got a pass from The Fader in spite of his relationship with Baka, who served time for assault and human trafficking charges. Interesting!

Also mentioned in The Fader’s write-up of “The Race” is the fact that the teenage rapper is still in jail awaiting trial on two capital murder charges (and other crimes) and that he is possibly facing the death penalty. It doesn’t seem likely his burgeoning music career will help him out of these legal situations, but maybe Tay-K could take a note from Fort Worth’s Go Yayo on that front? This week, Yayo leveraged his rap career into avoiding further legal troubles, as he chose to rap his defense in court, in front of a judge. Later, he posted the video to his Twitter account.

Sadly, if it’s not legal troubles holding artists back, it’s medical issues. Yesterday, the Dallas Observer reported that rapper C Struggs is battling a rare head and neck cancer that’s left the artist with a tumor and is forcing him to begin chemotherapy treatment next week.

Meanwhile, the Fort Worth Weekly also dropped a bomb yesterday, announcing that the long-running music venue The Aardvark will be closing in the coming months after nearly 20 years in business.

Yeesh. Let’s try to lighten the mood some, shall we?

This video featuring 34 houses worth of Christmas lights synchronized to Brave Combo’s “Must Be Santa!” at the Clovis Festival of Lights at Ladera Ranch in California should help.

That’s not Brave Combo’s only new contribution to the cheer of this season, either. Tonight, the band’s “Hanukkah, Oh, Hanukkah” song from its holiday album It’s Christmas, Man! will appear on an episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow on The CW.

For more smiles, check out Kelly Clarkson’s appearance on The Late Late Show With James Corden’s ever-popular Carpool Karaoke segment.

But wait! There’s more to share this week from our collection of powerhouse North Texas pop stars!

Last night, St. Vincent performed a stirring rendition of “Slow Disco” on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. Check it out:

And, not to be outdone in the drama department, Demi Lovato also checks in this week with a new video for her single, “Tell Me You Love Me,” starring Jesse Williams.

Moving on, how are your New Year’s Eve plans shaping up? If you’re still figuring that all out, a couple announcements might be exactly what you need.

Late last week, the gigantic EDM festival Lights All Night, which is set to go down on December 29 and 30 at Dallas Market Hall, announced its daily schedule, which you can peruse here.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Tyler announced that he will be celebrating his 10th annual New Year’s Eve show at the Granada Theater with an impressive lineup of special guests, among them including The Texas Gentlemen and The Vandoliers, along with appearances by Nikki Lane, Charlie Sexton and Paul Cauthen. Get your tickets to that one here.

Speaking of Cauthen: You can watch a special performance from him of a holiday tune called “Blue Christmas” for Stolen Spirits right here. An outlaw country singer and a liquor company? That’s one hell of a collaboration.

Speaking of collaborations, Rhett Miller’s been busy with some of his own lately. First up, the Old 97’s frontman joined Laura Stevenson on a new song by Macrofone that you can check out below.

He’s also featured in a new Shovels & Rope song called “Do You Love Me Now?” that you can also check out now.

Staying on the new music front, Fort Worth’s Matthew McNeal recently announced a new LP titled Good Luck that’s due out February 16. The album was recorded with Israel Nash’s band at his studio Plum Creek Sound and found McNeal working with Grammy-award winning engineer Ted Young (Kurt Vile, Gaslight Anthem).

Motorcade, meanwhile, has followed up an appearance in our previous Songs of the Week column with the premiere of another new tune from its upcoming album, this one coming via Big Takeover. Check it out:

Dallas rapper Nawfside Kognac dropped new heat of his own last week, continuing his current streak of impressive releases by putting out the visuals for a new track called “Grindin.”

Not to be outdone, Crit Morris of the ever-exciting Crit Life crew just dropped a new track titled, “Finally.”

Arlington rock act Lindby, meanwhile, continued to make a case for its being the region’s preeminent Christmas music act, as the group just released its whopping sixth holiday-themed release. Check it out:

Avant pop act Sudie, on the other hand, is tinkering with her old stuff. This week, she released the music video for “Van Morrissey II,” a song she initially released a few years back (along with an accompanying music video), but re-recorded earlier this year at Elmwood Studios here in town. Now this new version has a video all its own:

Another ethereal-minded local, IAMYU, also has some new tricks up its sleeve in the form of a new album called [self] that’s now available for streaming.

And last, but certainly not least, we leave you this week with a short trailer for the Arlington-sprung Todrick Hall’s upcoming documentary, Behind The Curtain, which details his rise to YouTube stardom and broadway success.

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