Beyoncé‘s Cowboy Carter is much more than a country album — it’s actually a tour through the Black roots of American music that manages to be both thematically rich and stuffed with indelible pop songs, in multiple genres. Kendrick Lamar‘s virtuosic “Not Like Us,” meanwhile, completely transcends its status as …
Read More »Flo Milli Rules the Stage at SXSW as Her Album Drops — Literally
On Wednesday night, Peso Pluma headlined a night of music that careened from música mexicana to urbano to Norteño-inflected folk at Rolling Stone’s Future of Music showcase, causing lines around the block. The next evening, the showcase pivoted in another, no less potent, direction, mixing up hip-hop with innovative sounds …
Read More »Afrobeats, Música Mexicana, and a Canadian Hologram Take Austin
Would you believe us if we said a hologram sponsored by the government of Ontario was one of the best things we saw on the second full day of SXSW 2023? There were plenty of flesh-and-blood performances that knocked our socks off, too, as the festival hit its stride with …
Read More »Two Years Ago, Pheelz Was at a Low Point. Then He Posted a Song Snippet on TikTok
In early 2021, things started to fall apart for Pheelz. That February, he released his debut EP, Hear Me Out, following nearly two decades of producing some of Afrobeats’ greatest hits. The EP was relatively successful, racking up millions of streams all around, but the process cost Pheelz a lot …
Read More »Pheelz and Bnxn's 'Finesse' is Utterly Cool — and Breaking Through Globally
Pheelz is perhaps best known as the Nigerian producer who’s contributed to notable releases like Fireboy DML’s Apollo, Olamide’s Carpe Diem, and Tiwa Savage’s Celia. But he worked both the boards and the mic on his latest single, “Finesse.” He floats across the slinky beat, built around gentle guitar, subtle …
Read More »