Editors' Picks A selection of stories handpicked by NPR Music editors.

Editors' Picks

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

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B.A. Stubbs/Courtesy of the artist

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

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Hrafn Asgeirsson/Courtesy of the artist

"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

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Tui Jordan/Courtesy of the artist

How Mya Byrne paved her long, winding road to country music with grit and sparkle

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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

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Sara Melvin & Colby Richardson/Courtesy of the artist

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

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Breyona Holt/Courtesy of the artist

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

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Amanda Howell Whitehurst for NPR

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

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Decca Archives

The voice of Jessye Norman soars again in trove of unreleased recordings

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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

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Amanda Howell Whitehurst for NPR
Cristina Merchán (Miti Miti)/Radio Ambulante

A tough question led one woman to create the first Puerto Rican reggaeton archive

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Missy Mazzoli's new album, Dark with Excessive Bright, features the composer's orchestral compositions. Caroline Tompkins/courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Caroline Tompkins/courtesy of the artist

Missy Mazzoli is a symphonic composer with a photographer's eye

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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

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Raymond Boyd/Getty Images

Muni Long takes her Grammy nominations to heart. Grace Widyatmadja/NPR hide caption

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Grace Widyatmadja/NPR

Before 'Hrs and Hrs,' Muni Long spent years and years working for others

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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

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Meredith Truax/Courtesy of the artist

Molly Tuttle is right at home at The Station Inn in Nashville, Tenn. Joseph Ross for NPR hide caption

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Joseph Ross for NPR

In bluegrass, as in life, Molly Tuttle would rather be a 'Crooked Tree'

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