The week in music: Race 'silos' on BBC radio, Hall & Oates smack down a cereal company and more

Method Man swore a lot in an interview about Wu-Tang’s album

The rapper didn’t hold back on his thoughts about Wu-Tang’s forthcoming single-copy album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, in an XXL magazine Q&A. In his own words, the choice to keep the album fenced off from commercial sale for 88 years is “fuckin’ stupid”. Fellow Wu-Tang member RZA responded on Twitter, and the rap blogosphere gently imploded with gossip-filled excitement.

Hall & Oates sued Haulin’ Oats

In a wonderful mix of yacht rock and breakfast cereal punnery, duo Daryl Hall and John Oates have smacked down on a Brooklyn-based granola company’s range of oats. No “phonetic play on Daryl Hall and John Oates’s well-known brand name” for you, Early Bird Foods.

Kanye West pitched up at Koko for a surprise gig

Perhaps West’s collaborations with Paul McCartney have inspired his recent Beatlemania-like press-tour mentality. West has been in Europe for the fashion weeks (in London, Paris and Milan) and has crammed in a spread of UK appearances: a tell-all interview on BBC Radio 1; a lecture at Oxford University; a tour through Central St Martin’s; and, finally, a surprise gig at Koko in Camden on 3 March. He was about an hour late, but in Kanye time that’s not half bad.

A BBC DJ flagged up race-based ‘silos’ in music radio

Nihal Arthanayake, known as DJ Nihal on BBC Asian Network and BBC 5 Live, spoke frankly about the racial disparities between staff on mainstream music station Radio 1, digital radio station 1Xtra and the Asian Network. “All the Asians are sitting in one corner, all the white people are on Radio 1 and all the black people are on 1Xtra,” he said, speaking at the Oxford Media Convention on Wednesday. A good point: perhaps we’re getting to the stage when DJs of any ethnicity can speak with expertise about a variety of genres.

Robin Thicke and Pharrell each made $5m from Blurred Lines …

A court case this week revealed that Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams took home a cool £3.25m each for that intolerable 2013 hit, Blurred Lines. This all came to light because Marvin Gaye’s family are suing Thicke and Williams for writing a song – which, it turns out, Thicke didn’t really write – which sounds similar to Gaye’s Got to Give It Up.

… But of course it was inspired by Miley Cyrus, not Marvin Gaye

Williams, in his one-hour court description of the creative process behind Blurred Lines, said he was channeling “that feeling, that late 70s feeling” – but not anything to do with Gaye. Before composing the song, he said he had been working on some country-inspired tracks with Cyrus and must have had country on the mind. It happens to all of us, Pharrell. It happens to all of us.

Björk’s Museum of Modern Art retrospective opened for the press

It was really only a matter of time before Iceland’s supreme queen of musical quirk was granted a museum retrospective – she has made an album that was also an app, for crying out loud. Guardian US critic Jasan Farago didn’t exactly love the exhibition, but the show still looks like one worth seeing.

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Buddy Holly’s plane crash case might be set to reopen

The tragic plane crash that resulted in the deaths of rock’n’roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and JP Richardson AKA the Big Bopper might be re-examined by a federal safety board in the US. Interesting news for those who found the story too eerie to believe, and possibly painful territory to revisit for the families of the men who died that evening in 1959.

St Vincent quizzed Gang of Four’s Andy Gill

Author and journalist Michael Azerrad’s Talkhouse Music site – where musicians review other acts’ albums – has spawned a podcast. In this particular episode, guitar-slinging master Annie Clark of St Vincent tries to get Andy Gill to open up about his techniques and tricks. Fretboard nerds, this one’s for you.

Mumford & Sons apparently ditch the banjos

Remember, in about 2010, when Mumford & Sons were no more an obtrusive presence in your life than the band that Spotify played in ads between songs? They’re now on to their third album, and according to band frontman Marcus Mumford, it is set to be light on the banjo but heavy on, er, drums and electric guitar. So … rock music? We’ll see.