The Tiny Desk series became a prime venue for artists seeking an authenticity baptism. But for pop artists, it has become a tool with a very specific utility: demonstrating in-the-room chops. You don’t have to perform with acoustic instruments on Tiny Desk, but musicians often choose to. But Tiny Desk offers the perfect venue to present himself as a genre-transcending renegade. But Fred Gibson aimed his music at a Tiny Desk funnel, performing alone at a piano amid a nest of samplers and synthesizers.

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Persons: MTV’s, ”, Post Malone, There’s, Usher, Anderson, Paak, Malone, Fred Again, Fred Gibson, Gibson Organizations: Post, NPR, Las Locations: Las Vegas, British