Music Features

On G Perico's new album, G Slim's Revenge, a certain rap archetype that has faded since its '90s ubiquity appears to be alive and well.

Music & Culture

Whither the West Coast gangsta?

6:12pm April 25, 2024

by Sheldon Pearce

A familiar rap character, the Cali hustler cruising in a low-rider, has faded in the 21st century. On new albums by G Perico, Mozzy and Gangrene, that figure is alive and well, living in the margins.

American actress and singer Liza Minnelli with her mother, American actress and singer Judy Garland, backstage at the Alvin Theatre in New York City in 1965.

Music & Culture

What song reminds you of Mom?

10:59am April 25, 2024

by Robin Hilton

Record and email us a voice memo telling us about a song that reminds you of Mom. We'll share select stories and songs on an upcoming episode of All Songs Considered.

The anonymous producer Ghostwriter, seen here in February at a Grammy party at the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, created a stir in 2023 with the single "Heart on My Sleeve," which used deepfake technology to recreate the voices and styles of Drake and The Weeknd without either artist's involvement or permission.

Music & Culture

AI music isn't going away. Here are 4 big questions about what's next

5:00am April 25, 2024

by Jewly Hight

Tennessee just passed the first U.S. law regulating generative AI in music. But the technology, adept at copying real artists' voices and styles, is moving too quickly for one law to keep up with.

Queue Listen Now

To help the group feel like a band, Will Butler had them open for him in Brooklyn.

A new play peers into a band's life, from the inside

4:49pm April 19, 2024

by Jeff Lunden

Stereophonic, a new play on Broadway with music by Arcade Fire's Will Butler, tracks the volatile creation of a rock and roll album over the course of a year in the 1970s.

On Taylor Swift's 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department, her artistry is tangled up in the details of her private life and her deployment of celebrity. But Swift's lack of concern about whether these songs speak to and for anyone but herself is audible throughout the album.

Music & Culture

Taylor Swift's 'Tortured Poets' is written in blood

2:18pm April 19, 2024

by Ann Powers

With The Tortured Poets Department, the defining pop star of her era has made an album as messy and confrontational as any good girl's work can get.

Metro Boomin and Future perform during 2023 MTV Video Music Awards. The producer and rapper have linked for two sprawling new albums this year, released weeks apart.

Music & Culture

Why Future trusts Metro Boomin

12:04pm April 18, 2024

by Sheldon Pearce

After a decade ruled by their influence, the buzzy reunion of two hip-hop giants finds one imbued with a startling new power.

The Phoenix rapper RiTchie, on the heels of his genre-breaking group Injury Reserve, returns from a creative block with his solo debut, Triple Digits [112].

Music & Culture

After Injury Reserve, RiTchie gets back in the game

12:29pm April 16, 2024

by Rodney Carmichael

In his first solo outing, the rapper breaks free of the stifling expectations set by the experimental music of his group in pursuit of a pure love of rapping.

Founded by brothers Pat and Lolly Vegas, Redbone scored a Top 5 hit in 1974 with "Come and Get Your Love," launching their Indigenous style and influences into the pop conversation.

50 years ago, 'Come and Get Your Love' put Native culture on the bandstand

5:03am April 16, 2024

by Elizabeth Blair

Redbone's hit cracked the Billboard Top 5 this month in 1974. It was a first for a band with all Native and Mexican American members — but the song itself had a quietly political message, too.

J. Cole and Drake perform during the 2023 edition of Cole's Dreamville festival in Raleigh, N.C., last April. Their collaborative track "First Person Shooter" recently touched off a war of words with fellow MC Kendrick Lamar.

Music & Culture

Can rap beef exist when no one agrees on what's being fought for?

5:35pm April 11, 2024

by Sheldon Pearce

If the current conflict between J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar and Drake feels confusing, it's because the artists often hailed as hip-hop's "big three" have never played by the same rules.

Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter has ignited discourse about the place of Black musicians in country music. But it's also evidence of its creator's desire to break genre walls by following her most eccentric impulses.

Music & Culture

Beyoncé's 'Cowboy Carter' is a portrait of the artist getting joyously weird

5:33pm April 10, 2024

by Ann Powers

Cowboy Carter has spurred plenty of discussion for being a groundbreaking country album. But for one critic, it calls to mind is a cult favorite '70s psych-rock concept album.