Selected features
COVER STORY: Moses Sumney
A couple of days in Asheville with the proudly post-genre artist.
COVER STORY: TIERRA WHACK
I ran around Philly with battle-rapper-turned-cross-genre-trickster Tierra Whack.
COVER STORY: CARDI B
From midtown to Jersey to the Bronx with Cardi B, who was making compelling music even before “Bodak Yellow.”
COVER STORY: DAVIDO
I went all the way to Lagos, Nigeria, to the home of afropop star Davido.
Feature: OVO’s Family Business
With his friends, Drake made OVO an institution. Oliver El-Khatib and Noah “40” Shebib explain how.
Feature: How waist trainers became the biggest thing on Instagram
These new corsets turn extreme body goals into big profits. But do they even work? And for whom? .
Selected essays and criticism
Essay: Rethinking Appropriation and Wokeness in Pop Music
The language and aesthetics of social justice have become the social currency of the music industry, ultimately yielding the myth that representation solves everything. This is one story of how we got there, and where we carefully go from here.
Review: Kanye West’s Review: Kanye West’s Jesus Is King
Christianity is the unwavering focus of Kanye’s gospel album, a richly produced but largely flawed record about one man’s love of the Lord (and himself).
Essay: Does Citizenship Shape Identity? A “Third-Culture” Writer Takes Stock
I wrote a personal essay about my heritage, and a life lived bouncing from country to country.
Essay: Lawn to earth
The lawn was once a unique marker of American life and class mobility. In Los Angeles and beyond, the drought has changed what that looks like.
Essay: More Life, more problems
Drake’s 2016 project exposes the limits of cultural appropriation discourse and critical conversation on social media.
Essay: Maybe We Shouldn’t Be Surprised That Kanye And Trump Are “Friends”
Kanye, too, knows showmanship can get you as far as substance.
Selected interviews
Interview: Mustafa
Mustafa’s meditative songs of mourning.
Interview: Big TC
In prison for a crime he says he didn’t commit, Big TC finds hope in Islam.
Interview: Mara Brock Akil
The force behind shows like Girlfriends and Being Mary Jane has made hit programs for black girls for over 20 years, but she’s just getting started.
Interview: Gary Land
Allen Iverson’s longtime photographer uses his lens to remind us that the basketball legend has always been human first.
Interview: Uncle Luke
Uncle Luke went to the Supreme Court for hip-hop, and he wants more credit.