Denzel Curry’s *KING OF THE MISCHIEVOUS SOUTH* enterprise is the multipronged project that just won’t quit. The first edition of the mixtape arrived way back in 2012 and has since been lost to the ether, but Curry re-upped the project in 2024 with a 2.0 version. The second mixtape showcased his sterling stature while still paying homage to his roots, carrying on the *MISCHIEVOUS* torch and highlighted by features from Maxo Kream, Juicy J, and That Mexican OT. Before 2024 wrapped, though, Curry unveiled an album version of the project, which features a new tracklist and five additional songs. The updated collection is highlighted by “STILL IN THE PAINT,” which interpolates the legendary Waka Flocka Flame song and boasts verses from LAZER DIM 700 and Bktherula. It features the Carol City, Florida, MC at his charismatic best, revealing a world that looks and sounds familiar but is painted with that one-of-a-kind Denzel Curry style.

From the outside, Cordae has a good life: He’s earned a handful of gold plaques and collaborated with the likes of Lil Wayne and Stevie Wonder. But with his third album *The Crossroads*, he’s attempting to find balance between enjoying the spoils of his success and staying grounded. He’s boastful and braggadocious on “Mad as F\*ck” and “Back on the Road” (which includes one of the album’s two Lil Wayne features), but he never lets his success lead him too far from what’s important to him. He admits to buying a house in Boca Raton, Florida, since Miami homes were too expensive, and recalls memories of working at a TGI Friday’s restaurant and growing up around violence. But he’s arguably at his best when he’s waxing poetic about his family: “06 dreamin” honors his mom’s musical pursuits on shows like *American Idol* and *Making the Band*, “Shai Afeni” is a heartfelt ode to his newborn daughter, and “Now You Know” mourns the loss of his grandmother.

Perfume connoisseurs will recognize the title of the shadowy singer-songwriter’s third album: the mythic word for the earthy scent that accompanies the first rain after a long dry spell. For 070 Shake, the smell reminds her of her childhood in New Jersey; her mother would point it out after a heavy rain. After breaking through in 2018 with a handful of deeply felt features on songs from Pusha T and Ye, Shake’s haunting blend of rap and R&B wallowed in romantic anguish. On *Petrichor*, the 27-year-old musician gets vulnerable, stripping down her sound and falling headfirst into love. With the help of two longtime collaborators, composer Johan Lenox and producer Dave Hamelin, the ultra-private musician departs from the foggy synths and heavy vocal processing of past work, embracing guitar, piano, and lovestruck lyrics that leave it all on the table. Still, moodiness and mystery abound, from the dark ’80s power-pop of “Elephant,” an ode to uneasy mornings after long nights, to “Vagabond,” which channels old spaghetti westerns for a song about giving up your wild ways for a more domestic life. The tight guest list is made up of iconoclastic divas only (like an inspired cover of Tim Buckley’s “Song to the Siren” with none other than Courtney Love), but the best cameo comes from Shake’s partner Lily-Rose Depp, who delivers a raw spoken-word poem touching on aliens, Joan Baez, and mutual masochism.

On *Access All Areas*, FLO deliver a fierce, shapeshifting debut album of tracks that explore the hopes, fears, and burning ambitions that come after a breakthrough which saw them tagged as *the* great hopes for British R&B. On 2022’s “Cardboard Box,” Jorja Douglas, Stella Quaresma, and Renée Downer’s tidy chemistry and harmonic timing referenced greats of the sound from yesteryear, while providing a glimpse of the future. “We know better than anyone what a journey it has been to get here,” Quaresma tells Apple Music. “But this is actually only the beginning. Those years, filled with lessons, learning, and even trauma…it’s all in the past as the *AAA*-era starts from today. This album signifies us letting our supporters in, sharing more of our lives, and giving out more of *us*.” *Access All Areas* strikes at the sounds they’ve always dreamed of—guided by the razor-sharp writing, education, and smooth production chops of exec producer MNEK. “He’s a really big part of helping us unlock different parts of our voices,” Quaresma says of the British multi-hyphenate. “We’re still so young with so much to learn, so we do lean on him for guidance.” And the results speak for themselves. FLO tangle with trifling partners (“Caught Up”), sizzling rap-style production (“Shoulda Woulda Coulda”), and self-acceptance (“I’m Just a Girl”) on the album which is a big-time flex session from a trio of stars stepping into their power, with even greater goals in sight. “We want to push the perception of girl groups so we had to start and finish with really strong statements on this album,” adds Renée. “We just had to. Because, as young Black women on the rise in this industry, when we reflect on our come-up and everything that we’ve been through, there are bittersweet but also positive messages that mean so much to us. So here it is, this is our truth.” Here, the London trio talks us through *Access All Areas*, track by track. **“Intro” (feat. Cynthia Erivo)** Jorja Douglas: “We wanted to start this up in a really clear environment. And we spent the time to get it right. This is sultry and musical, we even added in bits with lovely strings—and finally asked \[British actor and musician\] Cynthia Erivo to narrate. She’s Black, British, and so talented, she’s someone we adore. This intro sets everything off nicely as we tap into our history here—and share how the journey so far has been for us these last few years.” **“AAA”** Stella Quaresma: “We recorded this out in LA, in what was probably our favorite session for this whole album \[working with Pop Wansel, MNEK, and Sevyn Streeter\]. So the title of the album feels slightly different to this song, but it still felt like a nice way to continue with this start. This feels like a mix between throwback and current \[R&B sounds\], which we love.” **“In My Bag” (feat. GloRilla)** SQ: “This is about being on top of your game in any situation or scenario—physically, mentally, just whatever makes you feel good. We’re tapping into that confidence with this song. So it’s big and braggy, but also centers on being authentic to you. We don’t have Birkins, and we don’t have a \[Rolls-Royce\] Wraith, but we’re still true to ourselves.” **“Walk Like This”** Renée Downer: “We love trying out different \[singing\] styles like we did with this song. If you feel this, you’ll really appreciate a few more songs of this vibe across the album, some really fun ones. Even now as we listen back, I feel that \[variation\] we went for really adds so much.” **“How Does It Feel?”** JD: “We were instantly attracted to this pretty much as soon as we heard the demo. It was written by \[American songwriter\] Theron Thomas, and it’s the type of music we love to listen to, and always dared to be a part of. We want to push perceptions and this is the perfect sonic fit for that. If male artists are comfortable singing across any kind of style and approach, then why not us?” **“Soft”** JD: “This reminds me of my favorite Justin Bieber project, \[2013 compilation\] *Journals*. I think that’s why I fell in love with this song, even if others around us disagreed. Maybe they didn’t connect with the song, whatever, but we had to be clear and tell them where to go! This song is an R&B dream. And this is *our* album—so we don’t believe in persuading, anyway. So here it is.” **“Check”** RD: “We’re so happy that this song came about. MNEK and \[British songwriter\] Ryan Ashley were involved in writing this, and I feel they know us so well. At times, we struggle to write love songs that aren’t cringe! Honestly, we’ve made a few of those. But this one just had a vibe to it, like \[USHER and Alicia Keys’ 2004 single\] ‘My Boo,’ and we were who keen on adding in a sound that people could dance to.” **“On & On”** SQ: “This was written by \[British singer-songwriter\] KABBA, who did many songs for our last EP \[2023’s *3 of Us*\]. We were so captivated by this song it’s a straight old-school love song. I can still remember being in the room when we first heard it. We haven’t performed it yet, but we honestly can’t wait.” **“Bending My Rules”** SQ: “An inspiring vibe here. We’ve made sexy songs before, but this one just sounds so grown-up. It’s complex yet simple, it’s great to sing live and really shows off our voices.” **“Trustworthy (Interlude)”** JD: “This was a really pretty song to create \[with MNEK and NOVA WAV\] in London. It’s very easy to talk about the great things in a relationship but not so much with the difficulties. This is about the sensitive stuff, but it’s always easy when you speak from the heart and your own experiences, then everything flows easily.” **“Caught Up”** RD: “What I find so cool about this song is just how passionate it is. It takes me back to being 12 years old, listening to \[Jazmine Sullivan’s\] ‘Bust Your Windows,’ even when I obviously don’t know anything about that kind of behavior. But it fueled our imaginations and, as girls, we were still able to relate. We all play through these scenarios in our heads, even if they drive us crazy. Sometimes you have to remind your partner: You don’t know who you’re dealing with!” **“IWH2BMX”** RD: “If you could imagine \[pulling\] your stank face, with gun fingers in the air? That’s how we imagine this song— it’s ‘I Would Hate to be My \[E\]X,’ essentially. That’s it really—we’re flexing on them in a big way. Why not? If you feel good then stunt!” **“Nocturnal”** RD: “This song is a testament to FLO. We’ve been working so hard this last few years, hardly getting sleep, just trying to do things the right way. Not the easy way; we want longevity. This is about the lifestyle of not getting any sleep. We want to be ahead of up here even if that’s not immediately visible.” **“Shoulda Woulda Coulda”** SQ: “At first, it was hard for us to wrap our heads around this beat. It’s a really nostalgic sound that we wanted to sink our teeth into. Once we finished this song, we knew that our album was on a good path.” “Get It Till I’m Gone” RD: “The way that we layer our ad-libs here, and it’s mainly for the outro \[section\], is something we’ve done in the past: on ‘3 of Us,’ definitely, and some others. Now it’s a FLO thing. I just love it. One of us says \[the line\], and the rest come in and overlap. It’s really cool.” “I’m Just a Girl” SQ: “The writing process of this song was interesting. It started off about sex, as they always do. But somehow it wasn’t resonating. But we loved the sound here, this Rihanna-inspired rock vibe, think of maybe her *Rated R* era \[in 2009\]. We put this one aside until MNEK revealed to us a few days later in a session, that he had reworded, reordered, and completely reworked it. It went from this awkward, almost jokey vibe to now being something that’s deep and personal, and it’s because MNEK has been with us for so long. He’s heard us rant on his sofa over the years. He gets it, so he was able to capture five years’ worth of trauma and wrap it up into one angry song.”

“It feels really good to be in the driver’s seat,” singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes tells Apple Music’s Zane Lowe on the eve of releasing *Shawn*, his first album in four years and most personal record to date. A teenage social-media sensation who became one of pop’s biggest stars in the late 2010s, Mendes pulled back after the release of 2020’s *Wonder*, canceling a 2022 tour and setting out on a journey to find himself, a decision he calls “terrifying” but one that was ultimately liberating. “It was the greatest gift I’ve ever given myself,” he says. “I gave myself a life. The best part about that is, it taught me that the next time I’m standing at the crossroads between choosing something in my truth or doing what would make everyone else happy, I have this reference point.” “Everything’s hard to explain out loud,” Mendes sings on the hushed opener “Who I Am,” a sketched overview of where Mendes has been and what’s to come over the next half-hour. It strips down Mendes’ music to its essence—vocals and strummed guitar framing lyrics that detail the way his thoughts raced as his life got too big around him. *Shawn* feels loose and confident even as it’s economical, putting Mendes’ reflections and smoke-plume voice front and center on the campfire sing-along “Why Why Why” and his tender, album-closing cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” The swaying “Heart of Gold” is a Laurel Canyon-inspired cut where Mendes laments the way a longtime friend slipped out of his circle before passing away, its weeping slide guitar providing a counterpoint to the bittersweet reminiscing about the days when he and his friend “shot for the stars.” “That’ll Be the Day” is fatefully lovelorn, its arrangement as delicate as lace, as Mendes muses on the idea of eternal love. On “The Mountain,” Mendes takes aim at the many rumors that have swirled around him and his intimates over the last two years in gently devastating fashion, rebuking anyone who might put him in a box while acoustic guitars roil beneath him. “Call it what you want,” Mendes sings on its refrain, and that phrase became an almost-defiant mantra for him as he was working on his fifth album. The song references a spiritual experience he had in Kauai. “Without going into the exact details of it, leaving that mountain that day gave me something I’ve always wanted, which was a sense of security that no success could ever provide me, no relationship could ever provide me,” he says. “It was security with myself. A lot changed after that, because when you’re not chasing something, you let go. And then it almost feels like things are starting to appear.” As he tells Lowe, whatever label people might want to place on him “really doesn’t matter, because I feel this.” *Shawn*, as a whole, is a statement of purpose from a musician who’s a veteran of the game in his mid-twenties—and it shows what he’s capable of when there’s nothing holding him back.

Though SahBabii has been a staple of the rap scene for over a decade, his 2024 album *Saaheem* is only his second full-length LP. SahBabii sounds so confident, though, that it’s clear he spent his off-seasons practicing. The Chicago-born rapper moved to Atlanta as a young teen, and the blend of trap and drill that he brings to his albums is an effortless combination of the two subgenres. On *Saaheem*, which is also his birth name, SahBabii doesn’t force-feed these different aspects of his musical style. Rather, they subtly shape his sonic worldview, creating an album that’s fascinating in its understated variety. Take “Viking,” a booming, rumbling track that features the canonlike bass of Windy City street rap with the triplet hi-hat rhythms and syrupy flow of ATL mainstays like Young Thug and Migos. On “Kodak,” he plays with the plugg style prevalent on the East Coast, crooning over pillowy synths so warm they practically wrap him in a hug. No matter what city he touches down in, SahBabii sounds at home.

Back in the 2010s, the A$AP Mob was a force to be reckoned with in hip-hop. Masterminded by A$AP Yams, the Harlem-based, fashion-centric crew helped redefine what a New York rapper could look and sound like. But in the 2020s, most of the members had spun off into their respective lanes, not the least of whom being A$AP Ferg. Having apparently shed half of his moniker and capitalized the rest, he makes his full-length return four years after the *Floor Seats II* mixtape, offering some insight into the artist—and the man—he grew into. After pledging his neighborhood allegiance alongside fellow Harlemites DD Osama and Bloody Osiris on the dizzying opener “Light Work,” Ferg gets straight to it over the Lex Luger/Mike WiLL Made-It co-production “Thought I Was Dead.” With proof of life now well established, plus the added benefit of a Dapper Dan introduction, he recounts on “Alive :( ” how he unplugged from online life and took inventory of himself, leading to meditative introspection as well as self-destructive whims. Some might find it surprising to learn the erstwhile Hood Pope came to resent what fame did to him, but these reflective revelations seem to have improved his New York state of mind. That said, he hasn’t rejected the rich-rapper lifestyle wholesale, evident on the not-so-humble brags of “Messy.” On “Casting Spells,” he flips the perspective to a more critical lens, offering rare scrutiny in verse of a cultural propensity towards materialism and superficiality. Indeed, he aims to do something good with what he’s got, a message summarized amid the grieving of “Dead Homies.” Elsewhere, Southern rap royals Future and Denzel Curry commune with Ferg in their unique ways on “Allure” and “Demons,” respectively, reaffirming his Trap Lord bona fides. Yet *DAROLD* finds him just as likely to connect with soulful singers as rappers, with the inimitable Mary J. Blige joining for two songs, including the hopeful “Chosen.” Assured of his own greatness and his accomplishments thus far, he says it with his whole chest on the righteous closing track.

When Young Nudy and Pi’erre Bourne dropped *Sli’merre* back in 2019, they recruited superstars like 21 Savage, Megan Thee Stallion, DaBaby, and Lil Uzi Vert to help prop up their psychedelic, red-eyed collaborative project. On the 2024 sequel, though, the duo opt to mostly handle things themselves, with Nudy riding high off the success of his 2023 album *Gumbo* and Pi’erre in a similar boat following his decision to release some of his rarest snippets in an EP titled *Grails*. With a sole feature from BabyDrill, *Sli’merre 2* is entirely centered on Nudy’s flow and the way he wraps himself in the warm, synth- and bass-heavy beats from Pi’erre. The Atlanta-born rapper remains as defiantly playful as ever, dedicating an entire track entitled “Money” to “trying to break” his bank account, and another that finds him explaining how little he worries by invoking the age-old saying of “Hakuna Matata.” As is always the case when Young Nudy and Pi’erre Bourne link up, the duo cook up the cleverest, strangest, and most interesting ways to highlight just how colorful this world really is.

It’s not by chance that Make Them Suffer’s fifth album is self-titled. After weathering lockdown-related cancellations and a prominent lineup adjustment, the Perth metalcore crew emerge reenergized on their first album in four years. Notably, keyboardist/vocalist Alex Reade (ex-Drown This City) has replaced Booka Nile as the melodic counterpoint to Sean Harmanis’ harsh, aggrieved outbursts. Their powerful contrast is most striking on tracks like “Oscillator,” on which Reade cuts through the tumult with the pointed refrain “You’ve waged a war against yourself.” The 2022 single “Doomswitch”—which marked her recorded debut with the band and sees her break out some dynamic keytar flourishes in the song and video alike—sets the tone for the new entries, thanks to its industrial-level rhythmic pounding and repeated electronic lashings. Foregrounding vocal layering and a sudden swath of open space before one final crushing crescendo, “No Hard Feelings” makes for a cathartic centerpiece. Consolidating their strengths while audibly evolving as an ensemble, Make Them Suffer stake their claim as one of Australia’s most unflinching forces in heavy music.

A mysterious trailer emerged the week before the release of Uzi’s fourth studio album, *Eternal Atake 2*. “On March 6, 2020, Lil Uzi Vert mysteriously vanished,” it narrated. “While it was never confirmed what happened that day, the faithful believed it to be the fulfillment of a long awaited prophecy… Eternal Atake.” Fans will recognize that fateful date in 2020 as the release of their mythic second album, *Eternal Atake*—a high-stakes concept album that not-so-subtly referenced the Web 1.0 aesthetics of Heaven’s Gate. (The religious group’s surviving members threatened the rapper with legal action over appropriation of their logo.) The project has taken on cult-classic status in the years since, representing Uzi’s peak as both a futuristic trendsetter and a shockingly great rapper. Nearly half a decade later, Uzi’s still light-years ahead: “My life amazing and I been that n\*\*\*a, but fuck all that, let’s fast-forward,” they chirp on “Black Hole.” The Philly rapper’s throwing curveballs on *Eternal Atake 2*, whether that’s casually dropping the best Drake song in years (the Chipmunks-sampling “Chill Bae”) or yelping “Bitch, I’m Big Time Rush!” on a song called “The Rush” which also features Big Time Rush. “I don’t think that they ready,” Uzi repeats like a mantra on “Light Year (Practice)” before spitting a verse like a machine gun just to remind you they can. Uzi hinted in 2023 at the prospect of retiring from music to make clothes, but for now there’s still new galaxies to be explored.

“I know that my world is grown old,” Robert Smith says in “And Nothing Is Forever,” one of the many standout tracks on The Cure’s 14th studio album and first in 16 years. *Songs of a Lost World* deals almost exclusively in death, dying, and the relentless march of time; the songs move slowly, and many go on for minutes before Smith opens his mouth. There’s no pop hits, no hooks, and—let’s face it—no fun. It’s also some of the band’s most engrossing work, a statement that, like most great Cure songs, can’t be taken lightly. The glacially paced opener and lead single, “Alone,” is majestic and mournful, with string swells and apocalyptic lyrics about birds falling out of the sky. But mostly it’s about dying alone, the shattered pieces of a regret-filled life, and the forgone conclusion that is our mutual demise: “This is the end of every song that we sing.” On “A Fragile Thing,” a plinking piano gives way to a thudding bassline as Smith sings of heartbreak, distance, and fait accompli. It might be the closest the album comes to vintage ’80s Cure, but now the 65-year-old Smith’s customarily downbeat lyrics come with the weight of lived wisdom and cruel inevitability. “Warsong” twists the screws with a churning, droning meditation on domestic battles and bitter regret; at a bit over four minutes, it’s also the shortest song on the album. “Drone:Nodrone” is the catchiest and most upbeat of the bunch—musically speaking, anyway. Smith’s lyrics are no picnic, of course. They’re not a completely hopeless death spiral, but they certainly acknowledge a tumultuous relationship: “The answers that I have are not the answers that you want” and “I can’t anymore/If I ever really could.” The track also features squalling guitar leads from former Tin Machine/David Bowie sideman Reeves Gabrels, who joined The Cure in 2012 but makes his first studio appearance with the band here. “I Can Never Say Goodbye” laments the death of Smith’s brother Richard with the refrain “Something wicked this way comes,” a phrase popularized by the title of Ray Bradbury’s influential 1962 novel. (The Cure debuted the song in concert in 2022 in Poland, where Richard Smith apparently lived for many years.) Like much of *Lost World*, it’s a tearjerker. With all this loss and mortality, *Songs of a Lost World* recalls Bowie’s 2016 swan song, *Blackstar*. Finishing an album about death with a sprawling, gorgeous track called “Endsong” isn’t necessarily ominous, but who knows? For what it’s worth, Smith is already promising a follow-up to *Songs of a Lost World*. Hopefully, it won’t take 16 years.

Westside Gunn’s *Still Praying* has long been a grail in Griselda Records lore. The label’s head honcho began teasing the project long before its 2024 arrival, and it came after threats of retirement, disgruntlement with the music industry, and drama within his family-first crew, which includes his brother Conway the Machine and his cousin Benny the Butcher. On *Still Praying*, all is well, with Westside setting the scene as a family reunion of sorts: Conway and Benny make appearances, as does close friend Boldy James. DJ Drama plays the role of host, and Westside does what he does best: talk shit and count all that money he’s got. The Buffalo native is one of the best one-line spitters in rap, and throughout *Still Praying* he delivers plenty of quotables that linger long past the project’s runtime. On “Speedy 40” he recalls a particularly romantic night in New York City, rapping: “I done fell asleep, woke up in the Waldorf/Top floor, spooning with her shirt off.” On “Underground King,” which features his daughter Westside Pootie and frequent collaborator Rome Streetz, Gunn sums up his role in rap in only the way he knows how: “I\'m MJ from the free throw in designer.”