Enjoying mafia movies doesn’t make me a killer. So be wary of the state using rap music to prove murder

UK prosecutors are recklessly deploying art against young men in court. That’s why I’m taking parliamentary action to curb it, says lawyer and Labour peer Shami Chakrabarti

J Cole: The Fall Off review – rap legend’s final album is a self-obsessed hip-hop history lesson

(Interscope)Bowing out after six consecutive US No 1 albums, Cole references rap greats and even conjures a convo between Biggie and 2Pac – but the lens rarely strays from himself

Unmasking US rap iconoclast MF Doom’s final years in West Yorkshire

Podcast by Adam Batty and BBC 6 Music DJ Afrodeutsche follows the leads to Leeds

Campaigners urge UK ministers to make music lyrics inadmissible in court

Art Not Evidence group wants change in law that currently allows lyrics by defendants to be presented as evidence of gang affiliation

The Grammys riled Donald Trump – but the big winners were chosen for their music, not politics

The president called the ceremony ‘garbage’, but in reality it was a celebration of artists whose commercial success was matched by boundary-pushing boldness

Grammys 2026: the nominations in all the major categories

With big numbers for Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, Bad Bunny and more, check out the nominated artists this year

Gonna be golden? Who will – and should – win the big awards at the 2026 Grammys

The top categories are stacked with quality, from Bad Bunny to Kendrick Lamar, Chappell Roan and K-pop hits – but here are the artists who most deserve to triumph

Kanye West takes out full-page ad apologising for antisemitic behaviour and denying he is a Nazi

Rapper, now known as Ye, apologises to his family and to the Black community and says he loves Jews, blaming his bipolar disorder for his ‘poor judgment and reckless behaviour’

Olivia Dean and Lola Young lead 2026 Brit award nominations

Singer-songwriters each receive five nominations at British music industry’s flagship awards – where Jarvis Cocker will return 30 years after Michael Jackson incident

Urthboy AKA Tim Levinson: ‘My most chaotic gig? There’s a lot where it’s pretty good knowing we didn’t die’

The Herd emcee on the highs and lows of noughties touring, the perfect protest song, and his cringeworthy encounter with a hero

A$AP Rocky: Don’t Be Dumb review – a charismatic, playful return, but it’s no slam dunk

Now a father of three and burgeoning actor, Rocky finally comes back to music with his strongest album since his 2013 debut – though there’s plenty of flab

Lily Allen’s live return, Charli xcx’s Wuthering Heights and Simon Rattle’s Janáček: music to listen out for in 2026

Raye, Deftones and Yungblud do UK tours, Jill Scott returns for more neo-soul, and classical world gears up to celebrate György Kurtág at 100

‘A lot of men don’t open up’: Kidwild, the UK rapper unafraid to bare his soul

As a child he performed in the West End and appeared in a Stormzy video. But after his early music career faltered, he began to write about his troubled childhood – and hit a nerve

The 10 best global albums of 2025

Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with mournful minimalism, Mohinder Kaur Bhamra’s 1982 album of Punjabi disco makes a comeback and Venezuelan-Guatemalan duo Titanic serve up ecstatic tracks

The 16 best Australian albums of 2025

Your guide to Australia’s best music of the year, including Folk Bitch Trio, Ninajirachi, Tame Impala and others