Beyonce cowboy carter More than just a country album, this is a tour through the roots of black American music, managing to be rich in themes and filled with memorable pop songs, across multiple genres. Meanwhile, Kendrick Lamar’s brilliant “Not Like Us” completely transcends its status as a killer punch in the Lamar-Drake battle, containing an astonishing amount of lyrical and musical intensity, and it’s also somehow the most entertaining song of the year, endlessly replayable.
In the new episode of our program Rolling Stone Music Now In this podcast, we’re kicking off a multi-part look at the best music of 2024 so far, with picks from our staff — in this episode, Mankaber Conteh joins host Brian Heyett to review her favorite R&B, hip-hop, and Afropop songs and albums of the year. Along the way, we make a case for cowboy carter As the top pick for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year — including the obvious fact that Beyoncé deserves it after being turned down so many times — we also argue that “Not Like Us” should be the clear favorite for both Song of the Year and Record of the Year.
To listen to the full episode, go here for your podcast provider of choice, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or hit the play button above.
Elsewhere in the episode, we delve into albums and songs from artists including Tems, Tyla, Normani, Kendrick Lamar, Megan Thee Stallion, Tierra Whack, Flo Milli, Card B, Sexyy Red, Schoolboy Q, Ayra Starr, Rema, Tems, Mustafa, Cash Cobain, J. Cole, SiR, Ab-Soul, Denzel Curry, Usher, Pheelz, Nnena, and Remi Wolf.
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