Tory Lanez was one of the more versatile commercial artists to surface during the early 2010s. A songwriter and producer who flits between and fuses R&B and rap — his vocals alternate between swift and rugged boasts and smooth and sensitive come-ons — he made steady strides toward the mainstream with numerous mixtapes, guest appearances, and self-directed videos. He spent parts of his early life in Toronto, his birthplace, as well as in Montreal, Miami, Atlanta, and New York. Although he was known underground well before his 20th birthday, and was supported early on by Sean Kingston, he made some of his biggest moves in 2014. During that year, he was featured on “Me & My Bitch” — a track off YG’s Top Five album My Krazy Life — and among his own tracks that circulated in 2014 was “The Mission,” his first cut to hit Billboard’s Twitter Emerging Artists chart. In July 2015, after he had signed an Interscope-affiliated deal with Benny Blanco’s Mad Love label, he released “Say It,” an R&B slow jam that sampled Brownstone’s mid-’90s hit “If You Love Me” and peaked the following February at number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100. A handful of additional tracks, including the dancehall-flavored “Luv” — his second Hot 100 placement — led to his debut album I Told You, issued in August 2016. ~ Andy Kellman

Thugga’s agility and anguish come together in a high-impact performance for the ages. He’s always been lithe, but witness the rapper’s snakelike vocals slide through “Wyclef Jean” and “Swizz Beats,” both built on the subliminal rumbles of dub and dancehall. While he digs into “Future Swag” with wolfish gusto, his fractured croon finds home in the sore-hearted hedonism of “Riri.”

VIA

“Luv is Rage 1.5” Is a mini-tape Uzi released on SoundCloud while fans are waiting for the release of his “Luv is Rage 2” tape.
This mini-tape includes of 4 tracks:
1. Boring shit
2. LUV SCARS K.o 1600
3. XO TOUR Llif3
4. YSL

Eric Bellinger presents “Cannabliss”

In the two years since To Pimp a Butterfly, we’ve hung on Kendrick Lamar’s every word—whether he’s destroying rivals on a cameo, performing the #blacklivesmatter anthem on top of a police car at the BET Awards, or hanging out with Obama. So when DAMN. opens with a seemingly innocuous line—”So I was taking a walk the other day…”—we’re all ears. The gunshot that abruptly ends the track is a signal: DAMN. is a grab-you-by-the-throat declaration that’s as blunt, complex, and unflinching as the name suggests. If Butterfly was jazz-inflected, soul-funk vibrance, DAMN. is visceral, spare, and straight to the point, whether he’s boasting about “royalty inside my DNA” on the trunk-rattling “DNA.” or lamenting an anonymous, violent death on the soul-infused “FEAR.” No topic is too big to tackle, and the songs are as bold as their all-caps names: “PRIDE.” “LOYALTY.” “LOVE.” “LUST.” “GOD.” When he repeats the opening line to close the album, that simple walk has become a profound journey—further proof that no one commands the conversation like Kendrick Lamar.

Dequantes Lamar dropped the summer hip-hop hit “Type of Way” in 2013 under his teenage nickname, Rich Homie Quan. He first considered a career in professional baseball, but in 2008, the Atlanta native dropped the single “Stay Down” featuring the Stack Money Boyz. Things came to a halt when he landed in jail for a year on burglary charges, but upon his release in 2011, Quan began to make up for lost time. Hooking up with the Atlanta crew Loyalty Ova Royalties and becoming quick friends with member CEO Teezy came next, but Teezy’s untimely death later in the year put a stop to Quan’s planned mixtape debut. He would re-emerge a year later on the T.I.G. label and drop the mixtapes I Go in on Every Song plus Still Goin’ In. The year 2013 began with a tour opening for Trinidad James, along with a guest appearance on Gucci Mane’s Trap House 3 album. In the summer, he dropped the infectious club track “Type of Way,” which cracked Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. Rich Homie Quan released a fistful of mixtapes, and in 2016 he landed a record deal with Motown. March 2017 saw the release of the single “Replay,” a preview of the upcoming album Rich as in Spirit. The following month, the rapper dropped the mixtape Back to the Basics, his debut release for Motown. ~ David Jeffries

On his third full-length, the English dynamo shows the full wealth and range of his powers. ÷ is a ruthlessly melodic run through a staggering array of styles, further proof that Sheeran is a singer/songwriter for these musical times: a balladeer who can blur the lines between Celtic folk and hip-hop (“Galway Girl”) just as readily as he can summon big, festival-ready sentiments (“Castle on the Hill”), impassioned serenades (“Perfect”), and pulse-quickening pop (“Shape of You.”)