The Independent — Prominent Motown studio musician and Funk Brothers member Bob Babbitt, whose bass playing pounded through the Temptations hit "Ball of Confusion" and Marvin Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)," has died. He was 74. more info

Guardian Music — He's been called the 'greatest rapper alive' and this year celebrates 20 years in the game. So why is Nas holding his ex-wife's wedding dress on the cover of his new album?Ever since Illmatic, his classic 1994 debut, Nas has been hailed as the "great... more info

Discobelle.net — Berlin based producer/dj SIS turns the Marvin Gaye track “How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You” into 14 minutes of aural bliss that comes in the shape of this funked up, hypnotic and soulful edit. more info

Guardian Music — With George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic on the bill for this weekend's Hop Farm festival, we delve once more into Rock's Backpages – the world's leading archive of vintage music journalism – to bring you this NME piece from 1978Warner Broth... more info

USA Today Music — The latest from the R&B superstar echoes the seductiveness of Marvin Gaye and Teddy Pendergrass. more info

Guardian Music — Danny Boyle's supposedly dangerous playlist is nothing of the sort. It just proves we're a nation of stick-in-the-muds and conformistsSo the Olympics opening ceremony isn't just going to be Teletubbies Land with sheep? Albion will rise, for the Queen... more info

Guardian Music — Womankind is apparently to blame for the hiatus in D'Angelo's careerIf you've ever wondered what became of D'Angelo, the singer-songwriter once hailed as the new Marvin Gaye and dubbed "R&B Jesus", the good news is that he's back and working hard on ... more info

Popdose — The list of great Motown albums doesn’t start to fill in until 1971 or so, when Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder used their new creative freedom to make fully realized wholes. For Motown’s first decade, the focus was on singles, mixed on a rickety t... more info

Guardian Music — 'I still get berated for the line "Take your seaside arms", but it's from Nabokov's Lolita'Gary Kemp, songwriter/guitaristI wrote the song at my parents' house, where I was still living at the time. As a working-class boy, I wouldn't think of moving ... more info

The Hip Hop Chronicle — Oddisee drops a dope remix to Marvin Gaye’s “Ain’t That Peculiar”. I can’t wait for “People Hear What The See”, which is on iTunes June 5th. Pre-Order the album here   more info