Essays •
Briana Younger
Journalist - Music, Arts, Culture
United States
[email protected]
Howard University
Bachelor of the Arts in Journalism, cum laude, May 2012
United States
[email protected]
Howard University
Bachelor of the Arts in Journalism, cum laude, May 2012
Essays •
It's a famous scene by now: André 3000 in a purple dashiki, Big Boi in an Atlanta Braves jersey, the pair ascending the steps of the stage at the 1995 Source Awards to accept the trophy for New Artist of the Year amid a flurry of boos from a less-than-pleased audience.
How does one exist as a Black pop musician when pop is predicated on whiteness? Unpaid Royalties is a series about the myriad ways that the music industry exploits Black artists-and what's being done to change them. Read more here.
This week, in a New York district court, one of music's least sympathetic characters, the Brooklyn rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine, took the stand to testify against alleged members of the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods, the gang with which he associated himself.
Just a few weeks after its release, " Twerk," by City Girls and featuring the superstar rapper Cardi B, entered Billboard's Hot 100 in the ninety-second slot. The occasion marked a milestone for City Girls, a Florida-based duo made up of the rappers JT and Yung Miami.
For nearly four decades, Bill Withers' +'Justments sat hidden in plain sight. It was beloved, and even deemed a masterpiece, by listeners in the know, and for a certain kind of music fan, one of those albums that could confirm you're amongst your kind - the ones who venture beyond charts; the diggers and the excavators.
In Slate's annual Music Club , Slate critic Carl Wilson emails about the year in music with fellow critics - featuring New York Times contributor Lindsay Zoladz, freelance writer Briana Younger, NPR music critic Ann Powers, Glitter Up the Dark author Sasha Geffen, Pitchfork contributing editor Jenn Pelly, WXNP Nashville editorial director Jewly Hight, Penguin Books author Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, critic Steacy Easton, Slate pop-culture critic Jack Hamilton, and Chris Molanphy, the host of...
There was nothing about Pop Smoke that suggested fragility. The rapper, from Brooklyn's Canarsie neighborhood, was at once larger than life-luxury cars, high fashion, glitzy jewelry-and too cool for any of it. His music was all bravado and swagger, topped off by a preternatural charm that could draw in even the most resistant.
The tumultuous weeks leading up to the Grammys on Sunday included the dismissal of the Recording Academy president and chief executive, Deborah Dugan, who went on to make bombshell allegations of behind-the-scenes harassment and assault, along with accusations that the integrity of the awards had been compromised by insider self-dealing.
The rapper Nipsey Hussle played the long game, and he played in South Central Los Angeles, a place where it is far from guaranteed that such efforts will be rewarded. On Sunday afternoon, all of his potential futures came crashing down on the corner of Slauson and Crenshaw, in the neighborhood where he was raised, when unknown assailants shot him down.
Last Monday, the rapper known as Juice WRLD, who was born Jarad Higgins, celebrated his twenty-first birthday; on Sunday, he died after having a seizure. It was a soul-crushing end for a man who celebrated life-on and off wax-even when it looked as though there was so little worth celebrating.
"Am I really that much to handle?" Summer Walker coos in the opening seconds of her début album, "Over It." It's the question women ask ourselves when we're trying to make sense of love and of how much space we're allowed to take up.
Bathed in icy turquoise, purple, and red hues, the R. & B. singer Jacquees took the stage at Irving Plaza on Sunday night with the confidence of a seasoned veteran and a reception fit for a champion.
Any version of D.C. that doesn’t embrace go-go is one that denies a half century of the city’s lived history and tacitly rejects the value of its people and their contributions.
As the city of Atlanta was abuzz with celebrities and awash in lemon-pepper wings in the hours ahead of the Super Bowl, the news broke that the Atlanta-based rapper 21 Savage had been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Swag Surfin’ has embedded itself as not only a staple at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (H.B.C.U.s) but as a ritual within a long tradition of black people dancing publicly and proudly.
Within the first minutes of the six-part documentary "Surviving R. Kelly," one thing was clear: no one- R. Kelly, the music industry, his fans, ourselves-would emerge unscathed. Viewers had been called to bear witness to the stories and pain of black girls and women-an essential and revolutionary act in its own right-and to the failings of the individuals and the systems that allowed these women to suffer.
Briana Younger writes on the quest for the next great hip-hop festival, including events like Rolling Loud, Day N Vegas, Something in the Water, and Dreamville Fest, and featuring artists such as Travis Scott, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Migos, and Juice WRLD.
"IF YOU CAN'T BEAT THEM, JOIN THEM. IF YOU CAN'T JOIN THEM, KILL THEM. ALL" - Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All Tumblr (2012)
The first thing you hear in The Chi, Showtime's new series, is Chance the Rapper's triumphant " All We Got." The song, which opens his 2016 mixtape Coloring Book, features a majestic horn line, courtesy of Nico Segal (formerly known as Donnie Trumpet), and an angelic outro from the Chicago Children's Choir (and Kanye West).
When Kanye West's "Ultralight Beam" floated down from the heavens in February 2016, there was a palpable cultural shift. The song culled the feel-good elements of church - the music, the soul, the encouragement - and isolated them on a hip-hop track to make what was arguably the most culturally consequential gospel song since Kirk Franklin's " Stomp (God's Property) " 20 years earlier.
Frank Ocean knows the frustration of being creatively pigeonholed by the color of his skin. "If you're a singer and you're black, you're an R&B artist. Period," he told the Quietus back in 2011. FKA Twigs also understands this feeling.
Black girls searching for themselves in lyrics must often compromise. Surrender your blackness, your femininity, or both. Look past the harm or the invisibility, find what you need, and take only that with you.
Before I knew anything of hip-hop, I knew the gospel. Growing up in a southern Baptist home can be an insular experience. God and Christianity were a serious affair, and a conservative, largely unquestioned way of life tended to follow. Dresses and suits were required to step into church, profanity and promiscuity were considered sinful.
Original release date: 25 August 1998 Label: Ruffhouse / Columbia "This is crazy because this is hip-hop," a stunned Lauryn Hill announced as she accepted her Album of the Year trophy at the 1999 Grammy Awards. Her victory marked the first time any rap album won the night's top honours; the first time a woman had earned five awards in a single ceremony.
In the early 1990s, a Hollywood film led by women was rare but visible (see: Steel Magnolias; The First Wives Club). But a Hollywood film led by black women was nearly unheard of. Enter 1995's Waiting To Exhale.
Day 355: "I Feel Like Dying" - The Drought Is Over 2 (The Carter 3 Sessions) , 2007 For the past several years, rap has exulted in a culture of prescription drug abuse, with hazy anthems to pharmaceuticals like Xanax, Percocet, and codeine cough syrup.
He laces his bouncy, terse rhymes with a charisma reminiscent of another musician - Ringo Starr. The success of both artists, one in a '60s rock 'n' roll era and the other in a 21st century rap era, is a testament to people who consume pop music, which is everybody.
Album Reviews •
It's been five months since Pop Smoke's death and just over a year since "Welcome to the Party," the first single of his debut mixtape, Meet the Woo, began snaking through the firmament. Then it was joined by the even more irresistible "Dior."
Taylor's latest stands up as an assertion of her sexuality in a world that often desexualizes mothers. By Briana Younger The first voice on The Album isn't of Teyana Taylor but of her husband, Iman Shumpert, asking her to get married.
If Noname's 2016 debut Telefone was the musings of a young woman trying to write her way into a sense of place and self, then Room 25 is the blazing soliloquy that spills out after putting the pen down to live a life.
Until recently, JAY-Z and Beyoncé had made careers of being astoundingly larger than life-cults of personalities we, in fact, knew very little about.
Tierra Whack raps "best believe I'm gon' sell if I just be myself" less than 30 seconds into her debut audiovisual album, Whack World. But it is nearly impossible to prepare for exactly what she looks and sounds like.
The rapper GoldLink has always had the kind of sound that's easy to imagine ringing out in international night clubs. "The God Complex," from 2014, introduced us to his style: a mix of groovy house and electronica, which he anointed "future bounce," that supplied a plush backdrop for his elastic flows.
Intimacy can be music's greatest muse, and yet often it can be belabored to the point of deadened cliché. Many times one feels that there are few original things left to say in a love song. But serpentwithfeet, aka the Baltimore-born and New York-based musician Josiah Wise, has proved this notion wrong.
"Murder On My Mind," the biggest single by the Florida rapper YNW Melly, is an exercise in contrasts. He waxes about taking someone's life as if the act were akin to making love, describing in exacting detail how he wakes up consumed with homicidal thoughts and how the scene would play out, over sombre piano chords.
" They gave a bitch two options-stripping or lose," snarls Cardi B over the dramatic piano pings and hazy synths of "Get Up 10." It's the opening line on her debut album, Invasion of Privacy, and a tone-setting declaration that reveals exactly where she's coming from.
Kodak Black stands accused of sexual assault. It's an inconvenient truth, but it's the lens he invites when he releases a so-called R&B album on Valentine's Day. Over the course of 17 tracks, the Florida rapper grants entry into his troubled affairs with women through a combination of crooned love letters and woeful screeds.
To reign over the charts, the critics, and the streets, a hip-hop star with pop ambitions must be everything to everyone while holding on tight to their identity. This balancing act is especially unforgiving for women, and Nicki Minaj has contended with these double standards and sky-high expectations for over a decade.
"People try to put us down by saying 'she's doing the most' or 'he's way too much,' but why would we want to do the least?" Janet Mock asks in the opening minute of "Jewelry," one of the lead singles from Blood Orange's new album Negro Swan.
Father's music has always been flippant. That was part of the draw: He absorbed bleak topics like police brutality, selling drugs, and gun violence and warped them into shrug-worthy fodder with his alluring black humor. The nasal monotone of his flow is so blithe and dry that everything, no matter how weighty, sounds as casual as eating dinner.
Most artists have to push themselves to be more experimental, but the challenge that Young Fathers face is being more conventional. This was the task that the Edinburgh trio-Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole, and Graham "G" Hastings-set for themselves when they took to the studio to create their latest album, Cocoa Sugar.
Toward the end of Mozzy's latest album, over a synth and sax-laced beat, he admits, "Day in, day out I would beg for this life/Lot of misfortune that came with this life." In the moment, he sounds at once grim and grateful.
Every week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week's album is Dirty Computer, the new album from Janelle Monae. Janelle Monae came out last week-as pansexual and a "queer Black woman in America," sure, but also as her most honest and whole self.
When Buddy first moved out of his parents' house in Compton, he landed at an apartment in Santa Monica at the corner of Ocean and Montana. The intersection inspired the title of the collaborative EP he released with producer Kaytranada last year-five tracks as warm and breezy as their beachside namesake.
From a young age, most of us are bombarded with Miss Othmar-styled messages cautioning us away from the Bad Things: drugs (D.A.R.E.), sex (run-of-the-mill sex education), the streets (G.R.E.A.T.). It seemed like sensible advice, but it was overly simplistic.
From U2's rock anthems and Enya's smoky dirges to Snow Patrol's post-Britpop, Ireland, Scotland, and Northern Ireland have produced some noteworthy musicians whose sounds have become staples in the United States: It's hard not to immediately associate the TV show Grey's Anatomy with Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars" (2006), or any sorrowful event with Enya's "Only Time" (2000).
The description on Chloe x Halle's YouTube channel still reads "just two girls who love making music in our living room." Perhaps it stands as a monument to their humble beginnings, or maybe it's as true today as it was 12 years ago, when they launched the page.
Shamelessness rules SAINt JHN's world. It's a place devoid of inhibition, where overindulgence is as regular as breathing, and "ratchet" is a compliment of the highest order. Consider his maddeningly addictive single "I Heard You Got Too Litt Last Night," a gleeful account of bad decisions ("One pill had her looking like Naomi/And two pills had her looking like my soulmate") without any of the regret.
With more and more artists milking their own streaming numbers by releasing absurdly long albums, there's something to be said for concision. 2 Chainz knows about getting to the point: He's changed the dynamics of countless songs with little more than a quick one-liner, or a well-placed ad-lib, or a four-word bar.
On the title track of Majid Jordan's The Space Between, singer Majid Al Maskati invites the object of his affection-or the listener, or both-to live in the moment with him. The directive comes at the end of a blissful album that aims to make each song its own event.
Daniel Caesar knows gospel. Twice on Freudian, the Toronto R&B singer folds in interpolations of well-known gospel songs: On "Hold Me Down," he refashions the familiar melody and wispy soprano of Kirk Franklin's " Hold Me Now" into a testament to romantic loyalty, and a few songs later, on "We Find Love," he does it again with Kyle David Matthews' " We Fall Down."
It's somewhat unbelievable that T-Pain would ever feel the need to reintroduce himself, but here we are. Six years removed from his last proper album, he opens Oblivion in grand fashion, kicking open the casket at his own funeral.
Up to this point, Kweku Collins has subsisted in shades of grey. His music slides between abstract poetry and melodic rap over production that extracts elements from several genres; he's biracial, and he's from Evanston, Ill., a town that almost lets you say you're from Chicago.
Dave East doesn't rap as though he's still in the streets but like he's eternally haunted by the experiences and playing them back in his mind. He can recall every detail of every dirty deed; every mood and regret just burned in his brain.
Whatever Playboi Carti lacks in substance, he makes up in sheer audacity. For the better part of two years, he kept his fans waiting for a full-length project, held over by a handful of songs, and previews. "Less is more" is the Atlanta-native's mantra, and the arrival of his eponymous debut is only further confirmation.
Rap's love affair with collaborative projects is as long as it is fascinating. Some of the best music and debates have come on the heels of two artists combining forces just because, and while there's a slew of rumored and dream collabs that will probably never come into fruition, every now and then, a pair does deliver.
On the first proper song of SiR's latest LP, he sings, "All her lil friends can't stand me/Because they know I would trade her love for a Grammy."
On the cartoonish cover of his debut album, Aminé sits nearly naked on a bright blue toilet reading The Good for You Post, a newspaper-a real one, in fact-featuring writing by friends and peers like Steve Lacy, Taco, and Madeintyo, as well as his mom.
In the time of oversharing and overbranding, mystery markets itself. For singer-songwriter H.E.R.-the irony, of course, is the letters stand for Having Everything Revealed-obscurity is about more than strategy or privacy. By rendering herself faceless, she's looking to create a space for her listeners to fill in the blanks and take what they need, as the chilly blues of thaw into sultry warmth on H.E.R.
Regionalism in hip-hop is one of its greatest achievements. These sounds and signifiers tie together generational experiences like time capsules of micro-cultures contained within a larger unique one. Though the homogenized internet has rendered some regional (mostly southern) sounds ubiquitous, West Coast hip-hop hasn't wavered. From L.A.
The "Elsewhere" in Sasha Perera's stage name should be taken literally. Her music sounds as if it exists in different locations around the globe, in different times and dimensions. But beyond its physicality, it's also a space for refuge and meditation.
The opening track of Queen Elizabitch is a scathing onslaught set to disquieting keys and decaying synths as CupcakKe reveals herself as a rapper to be taken seriously alongside songs like " Best Dick Sucker " and " " She's the artist that things like "I'm spring cleaning out this pussy" on a Saturday morning and affectionately refers to her fanbase as "slurpers," but album opener "Scraps" sets a different tone.
Sometimes clarity means moving away from the places where you've staked your dreams and quieting the noise of outsiders in order to hear your voice. For Denitia, that meant getting out of Brooklyn-where she'd met musical partner Brian Marc to form futuristic soul duo Denitia and Sene -to the Rockaways.
The D.C. rapper's latest finds him looking to God and asking big questions. The first voice on Chaz French's sophomore project, These Things Take Time, isn't his own but his mother's. In a voicemail, she calls to let him know she awoke in the middle of the night with an urge to pray for him, and she warns of danger ahead.
In the description of GoldLink's breakout mixtape, there's a quote from author and pastor Rob Bell: "The moment God is figured out with nice neat lines and definitions, we are no longer dealing with God."
Features | Interviews | Profiles •
Kendrick Lamar has been going through something-or so he announces in the opening lines of his latest album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers. In the 1,855 days after the release of his previous album, DAMN., which he refers to in the song "United in Grief," he won seven Grammys and a Pulitzer, went on a four-year musical hiatus, had two children, and, if Mr. Morale is any indication, did a whole lot of soul-searching.
With revelatory fresh music and her big screen debut on the way, a newly emboldened FKA twigs is an artist in her ascendancy Before FKA twigs arrived at a quaint coffee shop in Los Angeles' Arts District, she'd been on the phone with a friend, wondering whether she was intimidating.
Welcome to Rolling Stone's 2021 Musicians on Musicians package, the annual franchise where two great artists come together for a free, open conversation about life and music. Each story in this year's series will appear in our November 2021 print issue, hitting stands on November 2nd - with four special covers, including this one.
In 2020, a harrowing breakup during the pandemic rocked Syd's foundations. Then she wrote an album, scrapped it, and started again - and, in the process, found something resembling inner peace The staff at Syd's neighbourhood coffee shop know her order by heart - an espresso on ice with almond milk and a little vanilla.
During one particularly hellish February weather week for most of the country, Los Angeles hovers just above 70 degrees. No breeze, the sky a cloudless shade of aqua. The stillness is broken only by the sounds of city wildlife: chirping, squirrels in motion, people boxing on the nearby Poinsettia Park basketball court that's been turned into a makeshift gym.
Every time Billie Holiday laughs in "The United States vs. Billie Holiday," it cracks the air, scratchy and ephemeral, fading just as quickly as it began. The first instance, just a few minutes into the film, comes as she bristles at the audacity of the question "What's it like to be a colored woman?"
Shop The Collections now, and order your copy of the Playboi Carti cover here Playboi Carti got dressed specifically for this interview. It's over the phone, but he says he's wearing an all black Rick Owens outfit accented with a Givenchy chain.
The DNA of Jamila Woods's new album, "LEGACY! LEGACY!," was written into her solo début, "," from 2016. In that release, she mined the tragedies and triumphs of history to create contemporary freedom songs that inhaled adversity and exhaled permission to live anyway.
In 2020, there were many ways to understand the year in music; this week, we're considering four. It's been a long journey for women to get their critical and commercial dues in hip-hop, but the past year came replete with glimpses of progress.
By Briana Younger "Free Posse Cuts From Some of the Illest Rappers Alive." -Raekwon "With Competition Comes Silent Rivalry, Spoken Rivalries, Tense Situations, and Great Moments. That's What It Was." -Consequence "That Shit Was Crazy, He Was Bending Quarters and Splitting Hundred Dollar Bills in Half.
"I put your favorite rapper on that sangin'-rappin' and shit," Skooly asserts on " Bacc on My Shit" from his 2015 mixtape Blacc Jon Gotti. The Atlanta artist's voice-somewhere between nasally snarl and warped trill-splits an imaginary line that divides swag rap and contorted R&B.
Hit-Boy: It's almost like a subconscious thing. You're listening to what's out and what's going on, but you also might listen to classic stuff. A few of the Benny the Butcher beats were made over 10 years ago, and there's people hitting me like, "This shit some of the illest stuff for the year!"
The Philadelphia native's debut project, the visual album Whack World, provides one-minute snapshots into a captivating, genre-bending universe. The FADER's longstanding series GEN F profiles emerging artists to know now.
One look at Chynna and it's easy to see why she inked a deal with the prestigious Ford Models agency at 14, after being discovered in between rollercoaster rides at New Jersey's Six Flags Great Adventure. But have a conversation with her, and it's just as clear to see how a life of silent beauty would have never been enough-a disservice, even.
In 2013, Mississippi rapper Big K.R.I.T. was one of the most celebrated rapper/producers on Earth: signed to Def Jam, shouted out as Kendrick Lamar's competition on his "Control" verse and regarded as the future-minded heir to the bass-heavy "country rap" pioneered by UGK.
How Q Da Fool's urgency changed his life Hard-won success for a perpetual underdog from the DMV. The FADER's longstanding GEN F series profiles emerging artists to know now. Go-go music and the carryout are some of the DMV's most cherished cultural staples, but rapper Q Da Fool isn't particularly a fan of either.
Ask anyone about Brooklyn or Oakland and words like "gentrification" and "hipsters" will inevitably sneak into the conversation. In the District, those terms are overheard on the Metro and in the coffee shops that line U Street - which generations ago was proudly pegged Black Broadway.
With the help of designers like Singh and Midyan, music becomes an immersive and immediate experience, available at any time and place. Listening habits become the concern of companies from front to back, as platforms, like the artists themselves, race to keep up with consumers who are now accustomed to soundtracking their everyday lives.
Moses Sumney wants to be real. His search for truth is a hallmark of his music, and he's spent plenty of time exploring the shadows of his mind, getting comfortable with his own darkness.
A musician's early work often functions as a time capsule - it retroactively serves as evidence of creative and personal growth, with glimpses of vision that find clarity in hindsight.
In 1986, Island Records released a film titled "Good to Go." The label hoped the movie would elevate go-go, the percussive party music native to Washington, to a national platform much like "The Harder They Come" did for reggae.
A quote from artist Keith Haring is sprawled across Brent Faiyaz's chest. "I don't think art is propaganda," it reads. "It should be something that liberates the soul, provokes the imagination and encourages people to go further."
A few hours before he takes the stage for a show at NYU, JPEGMAFIA is in the green room vaping a strain of weed called "grape ape" and watching Girls Trip with his team and friends. It is somehow, both, the most reasonable and random activity he could possibly be doing.
"It feels too good to be back home," Ari Lennox tells a sold-out crowd at U Street Music Hall on an unseasonably warm night in January. The show was her fifth in the area in as many months since releasing her debut EP "Pho" in October.
VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we're featuring Extended Plea, the debut EP by Toulouse. Extended Plea is out on vinyl now in the VMP store, and you can read our interview with Toulouse below.
This feature was produced in partnership with Nissan. Nissan is proud to support college athletics at Hampton University as part of the Nissan College 100. Learn more. When DJ Envy arrives at Hampton University's Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communication, he's rocking a blue pair of Pirates basketball shorts and matching blue and black Jordans.
When Sudan Archives left Cincinnati, Ohio to follow her dreams, she traveled light. She brought just a few outfits, and her violin. The daughter of a preacher, the musician grew up attending church several times a week, which perhaps made her leap of faith towards the City of Angels a little easier.
In conversation, Abra radiates an enviable confidence. A singer, songwriter and producer from Atlanta, she exemplifies what it can look like to be a carefree black girl in 2016. Remember, carefree doesn't mean care less - Abra is simply doing, dressing, and saying exactly what she wants.
In the era of user-friendly digital music tools, composition, it could be argued, is an undervalued art. It's rare to find an artist skilled in the pen-to-page aspect of music creation, while also refusing to be hemmed in by its limitations. Echelon the Seeker is that kind of artist, and his music reflects that accordingly....
Brandon Perry aka K.A.A.N.. Photo by Earl Davis "I do this to have fun. If I make some money, if I get some attention, cool. If not, I'll be at work."- K.A.A.N. The lead single and opening track on Uncommon Knowledge-a collaborative effort between rapper K.A.A.N.
Going bankrupt, falling asleep, and falling in love can all happen at first gradually, then suddenly. Success can happen the same way - or at least that's how it did for Anderson .Paak. The Oxnard, California, native, born Brandon Paak Anderson, has been a career musician for the better part of the last decade.
Shy Glizzy doesn't necessarily command attention when he walks into a room, as his name would imply. He keeps his head down, not seeming to seek validation-when he performs, through his catalog, or even when he speaks. The charisma is undeniable, though. Shy, he says, in fact stands for Street's Hottest Youngin.
When twins Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Diaz-the duo known as Ibeyi who fuse traditional Afro-Cuban influences into neo-soul spirituals-took the stage at Washington DC's 9:30 Club at the end of September, it was as if they were trying to highlight their differences.
Habesha. Queer. Mother. Witch. Musician. These elements help define Witch Prophet, a singer-songwriter from Toronto, Canada, whose dreamy blend of R&B is equal parts KING and Control era Janet Jackson. Born Ayo Leilani, she says her stage name was gifted to her by a friend and fellow performer because of the spiritual advice she'd offer.
Passion or practicality: It's a choice faced by many teenagers as high school winds down and the road to adulthood lies ahead. Virginia singer-songwriter Reece found himself at that crossroads last year. Reece loved music, but his parents hoped he'd go to college, then law school.
When Drew Love puts his mind to something, telling him "no" only fuels his flames. The singer-songwriter chose his craft, seemingly, as a means of resisting his rigidly structured military upbringing. As with many children of the armed forces, he has lived in several places - he was born in San Antonio and moved to El Paso before arriving in the suburbs of Montgomery County in seventh grade.
Virginia rapper GoldLink doesn't consider himself a straightforward rapper-he calls his music "future bounce," a term he credits to producer Lakim -and today, he takes his first big step toward planting a stake in the genre. GoldLink released his first long-playing mixtape, "The God Complex," this afternoon.
One of hip-hop's most commendable qualities is that it gives voice to a diversity of narratives. In the lyrical tradition of hip-hop, there can be dope dealers and athletes, revolutionaries and nerds - and people like Brian Raupp.
"Blessed." That is what "Masego" means in Tswana, the official language of Botswana - and 22-year-old multi-instrumentalist Masego picked the name for a reason. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, and raised in a Christian community in Newport News, Virginia, Masego - real name Micah Davis - could be called musically blessed.
It's somewhat surprising that the rising singer, rapper, and producer Kali Uchis has spent much of her life in the humble suburbs of Northern Virginia. Her style seems sourced from somewhere between Beverly Hills and South Central Los Angeles, and her music-a mix of doo-wop, R&B, and hip-hop-doesn't sound like anything being made in the D.C.
Chris McClenney tried out his first instrument around 8 years old, but he didn't get hooked on music-making till a friend introduced him to Guitar Hero. The rock-band simulation game proved to be the perfect lure for the Ellicott City native who had tried - then abandoned - piano and clarinet in his younger years.
New York rapper Roc Marciano, riding a wave of acclaim for his second solo album, Reloaded, is moving into a position usually awarded to musicians with platinum plaques on their walls. The work he's produced over the course of his career, while critically respected, hasn't resulted in huge sales, but his opinion is valued enough that a small Virginia label sought him out.
Rappers might be the face of D.C.'s growing hip-hop scene, but producers are its pulse. In this multipart series, Bandwidth talks to local hip-hop producers making tracks you should hear. Read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Producer: Tone P Stats: Age 27, Southwest D.C.
Maryland R&B duo April + VISTA made its debut in early March with the lingering track "If Light Escapes." Today, the pair makes good on the single's promise with its brand-new Lanterns EP ( listen below). Lanterns opens with a serene instrumental - one of two on the six-track EP - that sets the release's contemplative mood.
Since its birth in the '70s, hip-hop has become a global phenomenon and cross-cultural unifier. Countless artists like the members of Native Deen, a D.C.-area trio, have harnessed the power of the genre for social good.
Live Reviews •
Bruno Mars is a once-in-a-generation artist. A master of his craft and consummate performer, he's one of the few whose comparisons to icons like Michael Jackson, James Brown and Prince aren't hyperbolic or altogether absurd.
"I put my faith in these lyrics," Kendrick Lamar rapped on "PRIDE." from this year's acclaimed "DAMN." album. When he performed the song in the packed Verizon Center on Friday night, he stood on the stage by himself, just as he had most of the night, with that faith on display.
Great art is challenging. At its best and most powerful, it destroys preconceived notions and creates room for new ideas to flourish. For Australian singer-songwriter Sia, her ascent to superstardom - and her uncomfortable embrace of that status - has forced her to find new ways of doing old things.
The xx's music has traditionally been associated with tiny spaces. Their sound is stripped down, brooding and intimate - the kind that could backdrop a night of lying on the bedroom floor trying to stare through the ceiling.
Flanked by 20 or so female dancer of all shades - in cornrow braids, bantu knots and afros - and backed by an all-woman band, Beyoncé captivated as she commanded her troops in perfect formation at Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium on Friday night.
Two days before Washington found itself in the Weeknd's orbit, the video for his single " Starboy " officially surpassed 1 billion YouTube views. In it, the Canadian crooner kidnaps and suffocates a version of his former self, destroying any evidence of its existence.
On the cover of his debut album, D.R.A.M. is beaming as he embraces his golden doodle named Idnit. (Or, perhaps more accurately, as Idnit embraces him.) Smiles and designer puppies aren't exactly staples of rap album art, but D.R.A.M. isn't exactly a rapper, either.
In a musical landscape where emotion is siphoned, watered down and sold back to listeners craving both validation and escape, the songs of British singer-songwriter and producer Sampha are a breath of fresh air. Sampha's debut album "Process," released last week, is a meditation on mourning, love and loneliness.
Detroit rapper Danny Brown, well into his 30s, has made a career of defying expectations. His music is still assuredly youthful and experimental, but his lyrics are those of a man who's lived several lives. His appearance Tuesday night at the Fillmore in Silver Spring was consistent with a career and catalogue full of twists and turns.
Experimental pop or electronic R&B and any combination thereof are all boxes much too small to fit James Blake. The British singer-songwriter and producer awed Saturday night at the sold-out Lincoln Theatre with a musical experience that displayed an impeccable attention to detail. Blake's music is an exercise in both subtlety and space.
Kicking off his first headlining tour, Gallant returned to the place it all began. The ultra-talented singer-songwriter was born in Washington and raised in Columbia, Md., before, like plenty of artists before him, leaving the area to further his career. But on Tuesday night, before the sold-out crowd jammed into U Street Music Hall, he came home.
A Schoolboy Q show is like a family reunion, with Schoolboy playing the role of everyone's favorite drunk uncle who happens to rap well. He cracks jokes - some self-deprecating, some lighthearted jabs at fans - and jovially bounces around. His energy welcomes you in as he regales with stories that teeter between fact and fiction.
At just over 5 feet tall, Lil Uzi Vert still managed to dwarf everything else in the sold-out Fillmore Silver Spring on Sunday night. Over the past year, Uzi has become one of rap's most beloved rising stars, amassing a following much too large to consider him niche but not sweeping enough to be considered a pop crossover act . . .
Midway through her Friday-night set at U Street Music Hall, Bibi Bourelly paused for a moment between songs. Looking over the crowd, she smiled as she proclaimed, "Who would've thought the city that I almost failed high school in - three years later, people would come see me play."
There was no room for sanctimony in the sold-out Warner Theatre on Saturday night. Everything in Kirk Franklin's show, from the gospel artist's ultra-casual black jogger pants and collared tunic to his pop-lock and milly-rock dances, was meticulously coordinated in defiance of many churches' stuffy and judgmental reputations.
The 'hood of New York met the 'burbs of D.C. in a psychedelic collision courtesy of the Flatbush Zombies on Tuesday night. The trio, made up of Meechy Darko, Zombie Juice and producer Erick "The Architect" Elliott, brought all of the ingredients to turn Fillmore Silver Spring into a tiny, urban Woodstock, but this not quite sold-out crowd seemed more concerned with getting hype than high.
Guest writer Briana Younger joins to talk about Wayne's 'Nightline' comments and Young Money's "Politician"
A parade of flower crowns, cutoff jeans and crop tops signal the arrival of the new festival season each year, which draws upwards of zealous live music fans in the United States every year. For many festival organizers around the world, this is also an opportunity to encourage a more sustainable lifestyle.
On March 7, as the first hints of spring sun were peeking through, a new generation of poets rose at an unofficial coronation ceremony known as the Grand Slam Finals at Arena Stage. These new poets have big shoes to fill as they step up to carry the crown earned by the 2014 DC Youth Slam Team, the reigning national champions.
Last week the ninth edition of the A3C Hip-Hop Festival went down in Atlanta, Ga. A3C, which stands for All Three Coasts, began as a three-day event at one venue in Atlanta's Midtown neighborhood and this year spread over five days and dozens of venues all over the city.
No bottle service. No dress code. No high door fee. Could it be the future of nightlife in D.C.? Ask the people behind promotions group WERC, and they might say it's the present. That's because the Atlanta event planners are bringing their alternative party, VIBES, to D.C. for the first time tonight.
Blurbs | Previews | Listicles •
This year, my favorite music arrived wearing multicolored coats: hip-hop and R. & B. combined with jazz and gospel, plus lots of stunning visual elements-all sewn together with a commitment to making music that reflects an artist's highest truths, no matter what those truths might be. BbyMutha, "BbyShoe" BbyMutha had a productive 2018.
At any given moment during a weekend night on U Street, there's a strong possibility of hearing go-go-the signature sound of black Washington, DC -echoing through bars and music venues. Perhaps an impromptu performance has drawn a crowd in front of the Metro station across from DC staple Ben's Chili Bowl, or maybe someone is drumming on a bucket on the corner by Busboys and Poets.
"Everything went back into the basement... We were the few people doing this in 2008. Really bad, wussy emo rock 10 years after it was relevant." In 2013, this is how former The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die guitarist and Broken World Media founder D.
The New York-based art ensemble Standing on the Corner-the brainchild of Gio Escobar-makes the kind of music that sounds like genres rising up in rebellion. Drop a pin at any point in the 2017 album "Red Burns" or in last year's immersive visual project "The Atmosphere Phased at 120º and Went Blank When the Universe Collapsed," and some version of gritty punk rock, experimental jazz, or lo-fi hip-hop might rip through your speakers.
The history of music and psychedelics is as vast as it is colorful. Last year, Kacey Musgraves added a remarkable chapter with her chromatic country-pop (and Grammy-nominated) album "Golden Hour." Only two of the songs are said to be the souvenirs of a trip, but one of them, the serenely crawling "Slow Burn," became the record's opening track and set the tone for what has become the singer-songwriter's shining moment.
More than any pop star today, Rihanna makes it look easy. But a look at the numbers proves that her career has been anything but that: Across 12 years, eight albums, and 52 singles as a lead artist or equally billed collaborator, she has reinvented and redefined herself in incredible ways.
Twenty-five years ago today Queen Latifah released her debut All Hail the Queen; its single "Ladies First", a woman-power anthem that also featured British emcee Monie Love, cemented them in hip-hop's annals. The song is part celebration-an exercise in recognizing the importance of self-and part resistance, serving a demand for respect.
"Architectural designer" has to land pretty high on the list of unexpected day jobs for musicians, but that's the world singer-songwriter Anne Dereaux traverses. Dereaux began her journey in architecture in pursuit of a career path that would be deemed professional and acceptable but that would still fulfill her creative inclinations.
Anderson .Paak is at his best when he's making music that reflects its own genealogy. In his marriage of R&B and rap, he conjures the sounds of bygone eras while simultaneously forging the path of what could happen next.
On “Backseat,” Little Simz's first release since last year's Stillness In Wonderland, she continues her no-nonsense approach, but this time turns inward. Her adversary is the disillusion and isolation that the spotlight often brings—success can be knotty that way.
In the opening line of "Grass (Survivor's Guilt)," Topaz Jones declares he's "found love - a great distraction from checking the evening news and staying up on what's happening." Coming from someone whose father was a guitarist and whose mother was an activist, it feels like a mission statement.
Ritual and pop aren't usually words that are associated with each other, but "ritual pop" is how Francine Thirteen describes her music and message. "Lust Heals, Give Me My Sin Again" is a meditative take on the Bible's creation story, mastered by the legendary Dave Cooley ( J Dilla, M83, Madlib).
After the release of her debut album Reelease in 2012, Maryland soul singer Reesa Renee went somewhat quiet. But recently she re-emerged with "Invisible," a single that makes no effort to conceal what's been going on in the vocalist's mind. Produced by Renee's brother PKay The Producer, "Invisible" explores how it feels to lose loved ones far before their time.
A shrewd lyricist and observer, Oddisee has always been steadfast in his quest to expose uncomfortable truths - some that he's faced as an artist and others he's faced as a Sudanese-American Muslim. In "Things," the lead single from his forthcoming album The Iceberg, he delivers a bit of both, but this time the stakes seem a little higher.
Radio & Podcast Appearances
Briana Younger talks with the bassist and producer who helped make the Kendrick Lamar album “To Pimp a Butterfly.”
We've been starting this new year off arguing on the behalf of genres of music you might not listen to, like country, deep house and opera. Next on our list: hip-hop.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: And finally today, singer Summer Walker made history this week. Her debut studio album called "Over It" became the most-streamed album by a woman R&B artist ever, breaking Beyonce's record for the album "Lemonade." Summer Walker is 23 years old. She's from Atlanta, Ga., and she is notoriously shy and doesn't give many interviews.
Gospel has long been one of the bedrocks of American soul music, but it has also been very mindful of its own borders. But now, perhaps more than ever, it's embracing a kind of fluidity: Influences are flowing into the genre from outside, and other styles are absorbing its aesthetics.
Music may not see color, but the music industry certainly does. Until the systemic and overt biases that undermine our celebration of the contributions of black artists can be eradicated, we appreciate Black History Month as an opportunity to lay the groundwork for conversations we should be having and actions we should be taking year-round.
How are women and the LGBTQ community reclaiming their power through hip hop?
The singer and spoken-word poet performs live.
When an artist finds their song climbing up the Billboard charts for the first time, it's usually a cause for celebration. But in the case of 19-year-old rapper Lil Nas X and his viral hit, "Old Town Road (I Got Horses in the Back)," it's also been a cause of controversy.
Nicki Minaj is one of hip-hop's old-fashioned superstars - an impressive technician, a character actor, a cross-genre fixture. Travis Scott is a star of the new generation, focused on aesthetics and reception more than his own technique. For the last two weeks, Mr. Scott's "Astroworld" has been the No.
This month Mariah Carey released "Caution," her 15th studio album, and one of her most relaxed in years. She deploys less flamboyant vocal approaches, and works with producers from a wide range of perspectives, including Nineteen85, Blood Orange, DJ Mustard and Skrillex.
21 Savage is a major force in Atlanta's rap scene, but he's being held in detention in the U.S while he awaits immigration proceedings. Now, celebrities and politicians are getting involved. Rapper 21 Savage is a major force in Atlanta's rap scene.
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