After elevating Afropop's standing with a standout guest spot on Wizkid's "Essence" and becoming a secret weapon for Rihanna, Drake and Beyoncé, Tems is ready for center stage. Adrienne Raquel hide caption
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Ayra Starr's second album, The Year I Turned 21, is a global-minded symphony of influences, and part of a recent wave of young women charting their own course for African pop. Mikey Oshai/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Janelle Monáe gives a commencement speech at Loyola Marymount University's 2024 Graduate ceremony. JC Olivera/Getty Images hide caption
Omar Sosa Fabrizio Cirulli/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Vince Staples' latest album, Dark Times, represents a new direction in an already singular major-label rap career. Shaniqwa Jarvis/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Lara Downes and Brittney Spencer. Nickolai Hammar hide caption
Brittney Spencer brings her culture to country music
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Rapsody's album Please Don't Cry functions as a reintroduction to the rapper — long defined by her technique, now revealing some of the real person behind that prowess. Jhalin Knowles/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
The retro-pop artist Cindy Lee doesn't sit for interviews, use social media and rejects the streaming era's demands on independent artists. Photo by Meaghan Garvey/Illustration by Jackie Lay/NPR hide caption
A new album by pianist Inna Faliks features world premiere recordings of works by five composers. Rosalind Wong/Inna Faliks hide caption
Pianist Inna Faliks traces musical odyssey from Soviet Ukraine via Faustian fantasy
Gunna performs during the event "A Grammy Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop" on Nov. 08, 2023, at YouTube Theater in Inglewood, Calif. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording Academy hide caption
'I Saw the TV Glow' dives deep into the pop cultural obsession of two outcast suburban teenagers, with a curated soundtrack that matches their malaise. Photo by A24/Illustration by Jackie Lay/NPR hide caption
Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov fled his hometown of Kyiv for Berlin in early 2022. Dmitri Matveyev/Naxos hide caption
After a whirlwind rise, Dallas singer 4batz has released his debut mixtape, u made me a st4r. Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Speranza Scappucci conducts singers on stage and the orchestra in the pit for the Washington National Opera's production of Turandot. Keren Carrión/NPR hide caption
One of opera's greatest hits gets a new and happy ending in Washington
Kendrick Lamar performs during the Rolling Loud hip-hop festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in 2023 and Drake performs during Day 2 of Lollapalooza Chile 2023. Last week, the two rappers' long-running feud exploded in a flurry of diss tracks. Jesse Wensing/ANP/AFP and Marcelo Hernandez/Getty Images hide caption
Mystery manifests on Pratt's albums as the texture of dreams. But Here in the Pitch, her best album, feels completely lucid. Samuel Hess hide caption
A crowd of White House press looks on as Kanye West and then-President Donald Trump meet in the Oval Office on Oct. 11, 2018. Ron Sachs/Consolidated News Pictures/Getty Images hide caption
Cookie in the Kitchen's cookie collection riffing on Taylor Swift's relationship with football player Travis Kelce. Cookie in the Kitchen hide caption
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. Estevan Oriol/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
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. Express/Getty Images hide caption
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. JC Olivera/Getty Images hide caption