Kendrick Lamar performs during Outside Lands Music Festival in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on Aug. 11, 2023. Let’s start with the standard history lesson for those of you just joining us: In 2018 I completed a quest to list my top five (or so) songs for every…

RIFF’s best albums of 2024 include Tyler, The Creator, Charli XCX, Beyoncé, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Brittany Howard, Kamasi Washington, St. Vincent, The Cure, Jack White and Vampire Weekend. Our album reviews are the opinion of one writer, while this list is a survey of our entire…

Kendrick Lamar performs during Outside Lands Music Festival in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on Aug. 11, 2023. Matt Pang/STAFF. Back in 2018, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I listed my top five or so songs from every year since 1967 in this column. I then went on…

“COWBOY CARTER.” I don’t really like modern country music, at least the mainstream country that gets radio airplay and genre awards. Even beyond my issues with its exclusionary practices and politics, nearly all of it feels derivative. It’s been so insular for so long it’s gone full Habsburg. So…

Beyoncé, “COWBOY CARTER.” “Genres are a funny little concept, aren’t they?” asks Linda Martell—the first commercially successful Black female country artist in history—in an audio clip about halfway through COWBOY CARTER. “In theory, they have a simple definition that’s easy to understand,” she continues, “But in practice, well, some…

Beyoncé performs on the opening night of the Renaissance World Tour in at Friends Arena in Stockholm, Sweden on May 10, 2023. Photo by Mason Poole. Beyoncé has the no. 1 country song on Billboard with “Texas Hold ‘Em.” That’s generating a lot of talk, most of it hysterical…

Nile Rodgers and Chic perform at Chase Center in San Francisco on Sept. 4, 2022. Sean Liming/STAFF. Nile Rodgers hasn’t stopped moving in years. The Chic cofounder and writer and producer of countless hits since the ‘70s—often the biggest hits of his collaborators’ careers—says his recent lifetime achievement award…

Beyonce performs at the HP Pavilion in San Jose on July 2, 2013. Roman Gokhman/STAFF. Beyoncé on Wednesday announced a world tour in support of her 2022 smash album, Renaissance. The Renaissance World Tour, her first solo tour in more than six years, will begin in Europe in May…

The best albums of 2022 include Beyoncé, Gang of Youths, Weyes Blood, Rosalía, The Smile, Nas, The Weeknd, Lupe Fiasco, Spoon and Ho99o9. We’re down to the top 10 albums of the year. Before continuing, check out parts one, two, three, four and five. The conclusion includes the guitar-based rock of Gang of Youths…

Beyoncé, ‘Renaissance’ The problem Beyoncé created for herself when she released Lemonade back in 2016 was it was instantly regarded as her best project. It was lauded by critics, showered with awards and consistently ranked as one of the best albums of the year, decade and—sometimes—of all time. How…