Sampa the Great's The Return is both a willfully enigmatic and deeply revealing album. It serves as a dazzling celebration of her cultural and musical heritage that will resonate for years to come.
Enlisting the production prowess of Timbaland, Wili Hendrix, and Missy Elliott herself, Iconology is both a signifier of Missy's role in contemporary popular music while ushering in a welcomed opportunity to #throwitback.
The world's most inscrutable rapper, Young Thug makes clear what he's saying and where he stands on his most forthright release yet.
Salvador Santana and Asdru Sierra's video for the new RMXKNZ single "Canvas" is a vibrant celebration of personal expression that sets the spotlight on inclusivity.
Georgia Anne Muldrow and Dudley Perkins portray despair and hope in difficult times on Black Love & War.
On Azeem's Craft Classic, listeners get a window into an odd, shape-shifting pandemonium, in which the view on display is a sort of glamorous anarchy.
Breakup albums have a rare power; they mark the moment when an image-conscious artist is suddenly compelled to let his guard down. Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks and Tyler the Creator's IGOR are similar in their vulnerability.
Producer Ekiti Sound debuts with an ultra-modern take on Nigerian traditions old and new on the eclectic Abeg No Vex.
On any given day, you may see Kate Tempest working as a poet. Or maybe a playwright. Or a spoken-word artist with hip-hop connections. As she celebrates the release of her third album, she reflects on where her place is in Britain's powerful cultural moment.
For the man behind some of the most memorable hip-hop productions of the last few decades, a new challenge hits Daniel M. Nakamura in the form of coming up with the emotional soundtrack for the stellar new teen comedy film Booksmart.
Chris Schwartz's memoir on founding Ruffhouse Records attempts to be many things but doesn't fully deliver on any of them, making for a conventionally-structured memoir that often reads as slapdash and dry.
Through a discerning balance of Nekfeu's competitive rap instincts and the contemporary trend of embracing grief in sixteens, Les étoiles vagabondes excels as a multifaceted, exhilarating and ultimately inspired body of hip-hop.
The genre-agnostic "Old Town Road" rapper's lyrics are less interesting than the scenery Lil Nas X drops them in.
As we should expect from Mndsgn by now, he creates fantastic layers of atmosphere throughout Snaxx. The rest, though, is a lush, wondrous surprise, promising much more to come.
Flying Lotus' fifth album Flamagra contains plenty of strong material but ultimately lacks a unifying coherence.
Zoospa finds producers Machinedrum and Jimmy Edgar finding plenty of shared musical ground, laying charges, and then detonating them.
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