Beneath the 8 million stories in the culture's birthplace lies a bigger one: the story of American Blackness, which crystallized in a music that can't and won't stop growing.
The London-born star, whose British accent and natural style charmed her adopted country of France, died on Sunday. Her fame rivals the Hermès luxury handbags named after her.
Octavia Butler's novel Parable of the Sower — depicting a dystopian U.S. in 2024 — was published 30 years ago. Toshi Reagon's new musical retelling explores the web of past, present and future.
In August 1973, an 18-year-old DJ Kool Herc played his sister's back-to-school fundraiser in the rec room of their apartment building. But he and his friends sparked something much bigger.
Recorded in 2018 but only now seeing daylight, it's the prolific drummer's first release in years at the head of his expressive and enduring Fellowship Band.
A year after releasing an award-winning album that touched on deeply personal subject matter, Kwenders looks back on his origins in Central Africa, and his path as a musician.
Multiple handwritten wills were found in Franklin's home in 2019. Two of Franklin's sons would like a 2014 will to be honored and are up against their brother, who wanted to uphold a 2010 will.
For years, the relatable Michigan rapper's lore was missing a crucial component: an album. In the lead up to its release, he talked leak culture, becoming a talk-show host and his idea of taste.
The acclaimed British singer's final concert was set in Stockholm, and marked the culmination of his "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" tour, which spanned over five years, 330 shows and 16 Gucci suits.
NPR's Scott Detrow talks to NPR's Ann Powers and Marcus Dowling of The Tennessean about how two country songs sit atop the Billboard Hot 100, and the context for this moment.
The composer, in a new collaboration with the Grammy-winning choir The Crossing, uses the words of Jeff Bezos and William Penn to explore connections among farming, colonialism and capitalism.