‘I just want to shake my tail feather’: how KeiyaA shut out the noise to make one of the year’s best albums

The pressure of besting her self-released debut – and becoming a public figure – made the US vocalist spiral. Remembering who she was inspired her phenomenal second LP, a comparison-defying odyssey of jazz, pop and club music

Cardi B: Am I the Drama? review – vigorous score-settling and brutally witty put-downs

Seven years after her debut, Cardi B is back with a ferociously enjoyable 70-minute album of eclecticism and enthusiastic annihilation of her enemies

MTV VMAs 2025 winners: Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter triumph at muted award ceremony

Singers took home two trophies each as Mariah Carey won a lifetime achievement award, in a night that largely celebrated female artists

Gorillaz review – after 25 years, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s cartoon band are still riveting and relevant

Dressed like a vicar, Albarn leads his band – joined by a choir, a string quartet, De La Soul and more – in renewing Demon Days’ downbeat drama

Straight outta Stirling: the musical giving William Wallace the Hamilton treatment

Beats, rhymes and Bannockburn? The creators of Wallace explain why they used hip-hop to tell the story of Scotland’s national hero

Earl Sweatshirt: Live Laugh Love review – a head-spinning trip with rap’s great rulebreaker

With a sunlit disposition and paeans to his daughter, the mood turns lighter on the US MC’s sixth album – but the glitching, crashing beats are as esoteric as ever

‘The Black experience is more than just London’: Chiedu Oraka, the Hull rapper handpicked to support Coldplay

When Chris Martin called, the MC saw an opportunity to rep his city, pursue his goal of being rap’s next ‘king of the north’ – and expand perceptions of Black British identity

Drake lawyers allege Universal head Lucian Grainge ‘personally involved’ in Kendrick Lamar diss track

Lawyers for Universal Music Group deny that British chief exec had any ‘meaningful involvement’ in the promotion of allegedly defamatory track Not Like Us

National Indigenous Music awards 2025: Emily Wurramara wins artist of the year

Warnindhilyagwa singer also wins film clip of the year, while Malyangapa Barkindji rapper Barkaa wins album of the year

Busta Rhymes calls assault lawsuit by ex-assistant ‘an attempted shake-down’

Rapper’s former assistant has alleged an abusive work environment which climaxed in being punched in face

‘Working with Kanye? That’s definitely in the past’: rap legends Clipse on beef, Bono and Mr Bean

Amid their triumphant reunion, the brothers Pusha T and Malice answer your questions on the wisdom of the apostles, the catharsis of writing about their late parents and the greatness of Billy Joel

‘Stevie Wonder really stirred something in me’: Melanie Blatt’s honest playlist

The All Saints singer can do all the rap bits in Neneh Cherry’s Buffalo Stance but which Prince tearjerker does she want for her funeral?

AraabMuzik: Electronic Dream 2 review – the return of a maximalist MPC wizard

This sequel retains the original’s generation-defining mix of dread and debauchery, although it is overshadowed by recent bolder versions of the sound

The DJ who united the warring tribes of French rap and dance – and died far too young

DJ Mehdi perished in a tragic accident aged 34. A new documentary, Made in France, restores his pivotal role in the electronic music revolution that grew out of 00s Paris

‘They’re rowdy. They’re vibing. I rip my shirt off’: the exploding career of Hanumankind, India’s hottest rapper

He’s a thrilling performer who rails against injustice and ‘mob mentality’ in his homeland – but is he burning himself out? Recovering from an onstage injury, he discusses stereotypes and subversion