Dawn Richard is opening a new chapter with the album 'creole culture' and its first single, 'enough.' For listeners meeting her through this release, the moment is also an invitation into one of independent R&B's most ambitious careers, from Danity Kane and Dirty Money to her fiercely self-directed solo catalog.

Alemeda's new single, "The World Keeps Spinning" featuring Foushee, finds the TDE alt-pop artist confronting the disorienting routine that follows a profound loss. The soulful, rock-leaning collaboration arrives as Alemeda prepares to join Isaiah Rashad's Lil Sunny's Awful Road Trip across North America in 2026.

Sam Smith's new single 'When He's Gone' finds the singer turning relationship anxiety into a slow-building, live-recorded soul storm. The track arrives ahead of the Aug. 21 release of Hazel Eyes, while Smith prepares intimate residency dates in Mexico and the UK.

This week's New Music Friday runs defiant rap, grown-and-expensive R&B, and the Dinner Party soul album six years in the making.

E-40, Cam'ron, Rapsody, and a posthumous Nipsey album own August. It is the strongest case for human curation all year.

J. Cole closed a five night New York metro run at UBS Arena with a floor that rapped every album cut back at him. The streaming dip on The Fall-Off was real. It was also the least useful number on the page.

Eight tracks, no features, no announcement, and for most of day one, no Spotify. HitsCulture on why Lil Uzi Vert's birthday EP is a business document before it is a music one.

Rochelle Jordan is stretching Through The Wall across five remix EPs, and the first name on the list is Ron Trent. That choice is the whole story.

Over half of Deezer's daily uploads are now AI. Why human-led curation is the firewall protecting hip-hop and R&B from the flood.

Rihanna has not toured since 2016. Beyonce has nothing on the calendar. HitsCulture ranks the ten women closest to filling that vacancy, and names exactly what each one is still missing.

The "I Guess" video is the fifth visual from an album that came out ten weeks ago. In a streaming economy built on release-week detonations, 6LACK is running the opposite play, and September explains why.

RBX refiled his streaming-fraud suit against Spotify, alleging the platform bans the little guy for fake plays while waving through bot-inflated superstar catalogs.