On her third album, the French-Malian singer artfully slides between lingo and genres—Afrobeats, zouk, R&B—to create a far-reaching pop experience about life, love, and freedom

On her third album, the French-Malian singer artfully slides between lingo and genres—Afrobeats, zouk, R&B—to create a far-reaching pop experience about life, love, and freedom
“All essential workers—from fast-food to health care to child care —deserve at least $15/hour to make ends meet and the right to come together in a union.” – Mary Kay Henry
The wildly popular TLC television franchise captivates audiences by showcasing couples in love. It also mimics harmful tropes.
From the small empires being built out of Highbridge to the mantles being passed down in Canarsie, artists are beginning to redefine the soundscapes of New York City — and they are as robust as ever.
New York rap is a distinct sound rooted in the thunder-and-lightning interplay between kick and snare drums in an East Coast boom-bap track, but really, it’s an attitude, a way to be. It’s the noisy, flashy style Harlem folks pick up across 125th Street and the gruff, no-nonsense speech of Brooklynites, the insular slang of the Queensbridge projects and the versatile blend of cultures you see in a trip through the Bronx. The enduring spirit of New York hip-hop is unbridled confidence, limitless audacity.
The arts are instrumental avenues for healing and justice. The arts can be used to center the narratives of people at the margins of society. It provides us supplements of joy and gives us mantras to build upon a movement.
Artists like Megan and Cardi B are leveraging their varied skills with a forceful reconstruction of the lascivious Jezebel stereotype that has long been affixed to Black women — removing the shame and immorality from sexual desire and highlighting the transactional power that has always existed.
The star of ‘black-ish’ and ‘grown-ish’ on her overall deal with ABC Studios, her role as a storyteller and her efforts to get young voters informed: “I’m working on honoring all of my desires”
The streamer’s growing library of Black programming has led to spinoff projects (the #HeyQueen video series and ‘Okay, Now Listen’ podcast) and necessary conversations on race in the industry: “It’s time to shift the narratives in Hollywood.”
“I mourn being someone who was known for her work and not by the harm that was inflicted on her by a serial predator. I’m just reduced to “Russell Simmons’s rape accuser,” and that is yet another act of violence. Erasure is violent.”