It seems a little late in the timeline of civilization for pop musicians to be dropping anti-gay slurs in their songs like random drum fills. The proper time to do so was never. But it also seems a little late in the timeline of hip-hop for a musician like BON IVER's JUSTIN VERNON to be collaborating with EMINEM without understanding that the license to freely drop slurs is, and always has been, an essential part of Eminem's brand. So while I sympathize with Vernon's plight over his allegedly inadvertent collaboration on Em's song "FALL," his public campaign against the song ("we are gonna kill this track," he tweeted) seems a little strange... On the other hand, I love the response to another new Eminem song from KALA BROWN, the victim of a gruesome crime who is used as a gratuitous simile in Em's "THE RINGER." A spokesperson for Brown noted that Eminem's music "can come off a little unnerving," but: "It was a clever line that rhymed and we'd like to leave it at that. Everyone expresses themselves in their own way, and if anything, people will always feel a flash of Kala's struggle when hearing that line." That's my pop music review of the year, right there... I learned more about life from reading about music in the VILLAGE VOICE than I learned about music from reading about music anywhere else. RIP to the most influential music journal that ever was, and to everything else the Voice represented at its best. And thank you MOM for buying my first copy for me when I was a suburban kid dreaming of a culture that seemed tantalizingly close and yet so far away... School supplies, 2018 version: pencils, notebooks, rulers, rap songs, music videos. More than 200 schools across the US have incorporated MUZOLOGY, which uses pop videos to teach math. GARTH BROOKS' manager, BOB DOYLE, helped develop the program; it employs professional songwriters to compose musical lessons that sound like contemporary pop songs. In London, rapper CONFUCIUS MC is teaching lyricism to primary school students as well as writing rap songs to teach various subjects. He says other teachers are "perplexed because these are kids who can’t read, don’t write, don’t have very good levels of retention, but they’re learning these raps word for word in 10 to 15 minutes." One wonders if KRS-ONE knew, when he rapped "YOU MUST LEARN" all those years ago, that the best means of learning may have been contained on the very BOOGIE DOWN PRODUCTIONS record on which he was rapping... RIP RANDY WESTON, CONWAY SAVAGE, MIKE KENNEDY, ELLIE MANNETTE and IOSIF KOBZON.