Music Features

Asake appears on the Zoom screen, a puff of smoke rising behind him, his chunky dreads — often dyed gold and green — hidden under a black Ushanka that contrasts his plain white shirt. Asake’s music evokes a deep connection to the gritty realities of Lagos, and our interview had …

Rolling Stone interview series Unknown Legends features long-form conversations between senior writer Andy Greene and veteran musicians who have toured and recorded alongside icons for years, if not decades. All are renowned in the business, but some are less well known to the general public. Here, these artists tell their …

Patrick Stickles has returned to the bar’s backyard with a Guinness, finished marveling at the absurdity of a Pringles commercial in which a man dies with a chip can stuck on his hand, and is meditating on the interconnectivity of all life on Earth — bound by the will to …

Over the decades, Buckingham Palace summoned a select group of musicians to be awarded by Queen Elizabeth II. Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, Elton John and Bob Geldof were knighted, and Robert Plant was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire. One of the few female musicians to receive …

When Michael Render — a.k.a. Killer Mike of Run the Jewels — attended an Atlanta City Council meeting last month, he wasn’t interested in performing for the crowd. Instead, he wanted to vent his frustrations. The 47-year-old rapper, like many of the meeting’s attendees, felt like he was being used. …

A world-class outdoor venue inspired by ancient Roman designs is probably the last thing you’d expect to find in Huntsville, Alabama, but the city’s new Orion Amphitheater is all about exceeding expectations. Which actually makes perfect sense for a town that’s primarily known for sending rockets into outer space. Funded …

Beyond Pi’erre Bourne’s famous producer tag and the infectious sonic landscapes he’s created for the likes of Playboi Carti, Drake, Young Nudy and more, the Queens native has been quietly carving out his own sound as a rapper. The last two installments of The Life of Pi’erre cemented him as …

In the summer of 1966, the Beatles dropped Revolver — an album so far ahead of its time that the world is still catching up with it. It’s the moptops mutating at warp speed, outgrowing all their former incarnations. Paul McCartney is exploring avant-garde art and music. John Lennon is …

When Leon Thomas III wrote his song “Love Jones” a few years ago, he had one artist in mind for a feature: Ty Dolla $ign. “I really didn’t know this man,” Thomas tells Rolling Stone. When he saved the recording to his iTunes, he named the file “Love Jones ft. …

Touring as an independent artist, with little to no financial support from a record label or sponsor, can be a dream-crushing experience. But the singers, songwriters, and bands that play Appleton, Wisconsin’s Mile of Music Festival each year find themselves reminded of exactly why they chase the muse. “You go …