For the occasion of its half-centennial, cultural critic and poet Hanif Abdurraqib takes the measure of Stevie Wonder's unmatchable artistic achivements in the early-to-mid '70s.
Some of the first truly American music was created by Black voices. In this playlist, pianist Lara Downes offers a broad range of songs that speak to the irrepressible, irresistible sound of hope.
Raucous, outspoken and empowered, Davis, who died last week at 77, always knew what she wanted her music to be — raw — and she took control of her career in an era when few Black women could.
A contemporary brass band that grew out of one of Nashville's historically Black universities is helping to expand the lost musical identity of the country capital.
On her new album, Asha's Awakening, the artist Raveena sends her protagonist on a thousand-year intergalactic journey of discovery, all in order to better understand her own place on Earth.
The incandescent, influential funk musician Betty Davis died on Wednesday. She made a string of albums in the mid-1970s that helped to shape stylish, Afrofuturist strains of funk and hip-hop.
Think of the best songs of 2021 as a playlist catering to the most basic human urges. Within it, booties were called, muffins were buttered and bloody revenge was contemplated. It was quite a year.
NPR's annual list of the year's best albums is full of work by musicians who hit career peaks, discovered their voices or willed something new into reality.
Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, masters of throwback, have delivered a tribute to Black pop's imperial era. If you're feeling the album's sound, there's plenty more where it came from.
