Music Features

Like many African countries colonized in the 20th century, Kenya has struggled to find its diplomatic footing in the decades since gaining independence. The East African nation successfully broke away from British rule in 1962, and a small circle of affluent and influential Kenyans quickly took over. They banked on …

There are all other songwriters, and then there is Carole King. Nobody’s ever had an epic career quite like the Brooklyn girl who spent the Sixties writing classic hits for other artists—then spent the Seventies writing her own. With her 1971 solo classic Tapestry, she set the standards that all …

It makes zero sense and all the sense in the world why Flavor Flav and I have spent the past hour grabbing lunch at New York’s Harvard Club. Built in the 1890s, the stately private social club in midtown Manhattan boasts an elegant dining room with chandeliers, ornate silverware, and …

On July 2, U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan ruled that B.G. must turn in his written lyrics to the government before releasing them. The ruling is the latest setback the rapper born Christopher Dorsey has faced since he was sentenced in 2012 to 14 years in federal prison for felony …

The Outlaw Music Festival Tour has generated much attention due to Willie Nelson’s extended absence from the first two weeks of shows due to illness, Lukas Nelson stepping in for his father with occasional help from guests like Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, and Edie Brickell, the triumphant return of Willie …

Sometime in 1986, Darius Rucker was singing in his dorm shower at the University of South Carolina when another kid on the floor overheard him. Mark Bryan grabbed his guitar and asked Rucker to jam in his room, leaving the door open. Within minutes, they were drawing their first crowd. …

T AIWO LIJADU’S TWO-BEDROOM apartment in Harlem is filled floor to ceiling with relics that span time and space — elaborate canopies, a puzzle of rugs, and an expansive encyclopedia set among a wall of other books; aged printers and flip phones; wooden and stone African masks and pottery; Black …

When Sabrina Carpenter was six, she watched Disney’s Hannah Montana and realized exactly who she wanted to be. “I remember…watching the pilot and being like ‘I want to do that. I want to sing, and I want to act, and I want to dance. I want to do all those …

Ten years ago this month, everything seemed to be going to hell for Maggie Rose. In July of 2014, the Maryland-raised vocalist, then 26 and trying to find her lane in mainstream country music, dropped a song that should have finally given her the Nashville success so many had been …

On a recent afternoon in a cinderblock-walled rehearsal room in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park neighborhood, a gem of the British folk-rock movement is returning to life. Fronting a small band, Tammy Faye Starlite, a petite blonde with a commanding voice, is throwing herself into Richard and Linda Thompson’s “Hokey Pokey,” jumping …