On Maps, an album-length collaboration with the producer Kenny Segal, rapper billy woods (in the photo above obscuring his face, as is his custom) offers the collected wisdom of two decades worth of journeys. B.A. Stubbs/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Anna Thorvaldsdottir begins her composing process by drawing shapes and writing words to help store musical information. Her scores themselves are finely detailed. Hrafn Asgeirsson/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
The rapper's third album is an introspective record without the self-scrutiny that comes with real reflection. Julian Buchan hide caption
"I was told by the world I wasn't allowed to write classic country, even though I'd written so much of it and I loved doing it," Mya Byrne says of her new album, Rhinestone Tomboy, which melds her punk sensibility with polished songwriting. Tui Jordan/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
On her sixth album, Feist's barely adorned honesty is consummate, the result of someone who has lived enough to have a story and worked enough to set it brilliantly to song. Sara Melvin & Colby Richardson/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Atlanta rapper Latto belongs to a lineage of women inspired by Miami icon Trina, whose sexually explicit bars have both challenged gendered double standards and shown their staying power. Breyona Holt/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Rapper Doechii planned for the song "Crazy" to be her industry coming-out party — but the music video, with its focus on Black femme bodies, ran afoul of an unspoken rule. Amanda Howell Whitehurst for NPR hide caption
Soprano Jessye Norman left a number of recordings in the vault at the time of her death. Now some of them have been released for the first time. Decca Archives hide caption
MC Sha-Rock was the first woman to rap on national television in 1981, but hip-hop's double standards have left her legacy as the first female MC buried. Amanda Howell Whitehurst for NPR hide caption
In the controlled stillness of a theater stage-managed to match her songs' swirling moods, Adele seems to have found her place at last. Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for AD hide caption
In their work as Fever Ray, artist Karin Dreijer has used eerie, experimental pop music to excavate love's more complicated or marginalized incarnations. Nina Andersson hide caption
Conductor Rafael Payare has released a recording of Mahler's Fifth Symphony and taken it on tour. The music figures prominently in the Oscar-nominated film Tar. Gerard Collett/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Missy Mazzoli's new album, Dark with Excessive Bright, features the composer's orchestral compositions. Caroline Tompkins/courtesy of the artist hide caption
When you go back and listen to De La's early run you're getting a lesson about how hip-hop itself was born, how it survived in the past, how it functions at its most imaginative and how the artform can live on in the future. Jackie Lay/NPR hide caption
BBoy B, Flash, 38 Slugs and Skol's 'Frankie Knuckles' tribute mural is displayed in the Fulton Market neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois on July 6, 2019. Raymond Boyd/Getty Images hide caption
Muni Long takes her Grammy nominations to heart. Grace Widyatmadja/NPR hide caption
A few years after winning a prestigious jazz vocal competition while still a college student, 23-year-old Samara Joy is now a multiple Grammy nominee for her album Linger Awhile. Meredith Truax/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Molly Tuttle is right at home at The Station Inn in Nashville, Tenn. Joseph Ross for NPR hide caption