With 11 nominations for Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé now has more than any artist in Grammy history. Her competition this year includes Taylor Swift, Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter and Post Malone.
The Grammy-winning rapper, who spent this summer topping the charts, previously performed at the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show. But this will be his first Super Bowl as the headliner.
Swift's The Tortured Poets Department has been the biggest album in the country for 12 consecutive weeks, the longest run atop that chart of her career.
Lamar's blowout Juneteenth concert, held at the Forum in Los Angeles and live-streamed on Amazon Music, planted flags for the future of LA rap, while uniting in hate for a certain Toronto titan.
Canon-making is a core part of rap fandom, the subject of endless barbershop parleys and message-board battles. But something curdles when the companies that control the music business enter the chat.
AI can conjure the voice or likeness of a dead celebrity with just a few clicks. This opens a host of legal questions about the rights of the deceased and their heirs to control their digital replicas
Drake and Kendrick have been trading diss tracks for weeks, and it's gotten darker and darker with each track. Drake accuses Kendrick of beating women, and Kendrick accuses Drake of abusing minors. It's a spectacle, but who are the pawns? Brittany chats with NPR Music's Sidney Madden and writer Tirhakah Love about the collateral damage in this rap beef.
Then, Brittany turns to Holding It Together a new book that describes how America has avoided building a social safety net and instead relies on women to provide the services that could be universal to all. Author Jessica Calarco joins the show to dive into the book and take a look at the cultural forces that keep women holding it all together.
2024 seems destined to go down as the Year of Pop Culture Grievances. Megan vs. Nicki. Beyoncé vs. Nashville. But above all: Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake, who are currently engaged in the nastiest lyrical warfare rap fans have seen in a minute. Today, we're talking about all the pettiness: Why so much beef, and what makes a good battle? And is there ever a clear "winner" in these battles?
As the jolt of adrenaline lit by the clash between the two biggest rappers of a generation fades, it's worth holding onto the possibility — however slim — that something new can grow from the chaos.
If the current conflict between J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar and Drake feels confusing, it's because the artists often hailed as hip-hop's "big three" have never played by the same rules.
From Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion to Coldplay, here they are: the magnificent, the flawed-but-forceful, the forgettable and the truly, epically misbegotten.
NPR's Rachel Martin talks to writer Raquel Willis about Kendrick Lamar's song "Auntie Diaries" which has divided trans people with its story of how he came to accept his relatives' gender identities.
