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The documentary On the Record opens by asking a question: “What is missing from #MeToo?” In the nearly three years since the hashtag went viral, the phrase has become a de facto movement, a derisive verb, and a platform for high-profile survivors in the entertainment industry and beyond. But despite originating from Tarana Burke, a Black woman, #MeToo has failed to provide a platform for the unique circumstances of Black women who dare to speak truth to power.

Many artists have postponed new releases to avoid distracting from the Black Lives Matter protests that have swept all 50 states. And yet, the recent unrest has generated some of the most beautiful sounds I’ve ever heard.

As cities around the country participated in protests and rallies this weekend, a somewhat unusual song kept spilling out of the windows of cars that honked by in solidarity—the modern New York classic “Dior,” by the late Pop Smoke. From Seattle to the rapper’s home borough of Brooklyn, video clips also showed masses of people rapping along to the 2019 shopping spree anthem.

Just as activists have raised their voices demanding justice for George Floyd and the many killed by police violence, the police have met them with their own sound: the LRAD. These audio devices, colloquially known as “sound cannons,” can be used either as conventional public address speaker systems or to generate extremely loud high-frequency sounds specifically intended for the dispersal of crowds, which can also cause pain, disorientation, and injury to those exposed to them.

Last week, the musician and actor Janelle Monáe sent a message to her 4.7 million social media followers, offering a remarkable delineation of the responsibilities of modern pop stars. “I do not consider myself an activist or an organizer,” she wrote amid ongoing protests decrying the racist killings of Black victims like George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor.

In our weekly series, we revisit some of our favorite music movies—from artist docs and concert films to biopics and fictional fantasies—that are available to stream or rent digitally. Spoilers ahead.

As people across the world mourn and protest the police killing of George Floyd, more and more are also discovering his music. As Big Floyd, the 46-year-old was a freestyle rapper in the late 1990s, as part of Houston legend DJ Screw’s influential Screwed Up Click.

By the time he reached his twenties, George Floyd was already a legend on the streets of Third Ward, a historically Black and culturally rich enclave on the south side of Houston, Texas. A two-sport athlete at Jack Yates High School, he was the generous giant of a tight end who helped lead his team to a state championship game in 1992.

Pitchfork’s weekly rap column covers songs, mixtapes, albums, Instagram freestyles, memes, dances, weird tweets, fashion trends—and anything else that catches our attention in the world of hip-hop.

Upon its premiere last spring, Ramy Youssef’s Hulu dramedy was showered with praise for bringing Islam and Arab culture—rarely seen with any nuance on American TV—to the masses in a heartfelt way. It brought Youssef an HBO standup special and a Golden Globe at 28. Two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali was such a big Ramy fan that he asked to be written into the new season—which he was, as a sheikh.

You won’t find 75 Dollar Bill anywhere on the Billboard charts, but the New York act’s latest studio album nabbed the No. 1 spot on experimental bible Wire magazine’s best albums of 2019 list.

Each month, we’re running down memorable clips and celebrating artists who are breaking new ground with their visuals or choreography. In May’s edition, Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande carry out dance battles in outer space, Bronx rapper 645AR takes an unhinged field trip to Times Square, Kate NV sends a brilliantly campy news broadcast from Russia, and more. Check out the best of the best below.

George Floyd had roots in Houston’s influential hip-hop scene. After growing up in the city’s Third Ward, he was a member of DJ Screw’s hometown collective, the Screwed Up Click.

The killings of George Floyd, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor are the most recent in a long history of horrific systemic racism and police brutality against Black people in the United States. Black communities have been at the forefront of so many major American musical movements, including jazz, rock’n’roll, hip-hop, soul, and house.

In the last few years, Lady Gaga has found new ways to show us the human inside of the fame monster. She offered her equivalent of rootsy singer-songwriter fare on Joanne, opened up about her private pain and trauma in the press, and delivered a moving (and meta) performance in A Star Is Born. But we all knew a time would come when Gaga would return to her high-camp dance-pop theatrics.

Every month, Philip Sherburne listens to a whole lot of mixes so you only have to listen to the best ones.

Pitchfork’s weekly rap column covers songs, mixtapes, albums, Instagram freestyles, memes, dances, weird tweets, fashion trends—and anything else that catches our attention in the world of hip-hop.

In our weekly series, we revisit some of our favorite music movies—from artist docs and concert films to biopics and fictional fantasies—that are available to stream or rent digitally. Spoilers ahead.

Nick Hakim is most comfortable with an instrument in his hand, playing with other musicians. That kind of creative camaraderie helped the psychedelic soul artist overcome writer’s block while making his new album, WILL THIS MAKE ME GOOD, a woozy affair that manages to sound both homespun and exacting.

Invisible Hits is a column in which Tyler Wilcox scours the internet for the best (and strangest) bootlegs, rarities, outtakes, and live clips.

Pitchfork’s weekly rap column covers songs, mixtapes, albums, Instagram freestyles, memes, dances, weird tweets, fashion trends—and anything else that catches our attention in the world of hip-hop.

Dancing in a club, surrounded by people, is one of those things you just can’t recreate at home. But approximating the feeling is good enough for now.

U.S. sales of vinyl albums have risen for 14 consecutive years, to $504 million in 2019. But extending that streak could be a tall order—and not just because the coronavirus pandemic has shuttered many record stores for months. The couple of dozen or so vinyl record pressing plants that still exist in the United States have been hit hard too.

In TikTok Report, we look at the good, the bad, and the straight-up bizarre songs spreading across the platform via dances and memes.

Pitchfork’s weekly rap column covers songs, mixtapes, albums, Instagram freestyles, memes, dances, weird tweets, fashion trends—and anything else that catches our attention in the world of hip-hop.

In our new weekly series, we’re revisiting some of our favorite music movies—from artist docs and concert films to biopics and fictional fantasies—that are available to stream or rent digitally. Spoilers ahead.

Onscreen, Caleb Landry Jones knows what it takes to be a psychotic dirtbag. He’s prowled the edges of Jordan Peele’s Get Out, David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return, and the Safdie brothers’ Heaven Knows What, where he played a dangerous junkie whose idea of fun is listening to the notorious death metal act Burzum, led by real-life convicted murderer Varg Vikernes, on a public library computer.

Last weekend, in a corner of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park called the Drummers Grove, a group of about nine djembe players, dancers, and flautists dug into a syncopated rhythm while an audience of revelers and police looked on. A “Respect Social Distance” sign fashioned out of a plastic lid hung lopsidedly nearby.

Blake Mills is a collector of small details. The producer and songwriter’s fourth solo album, Mutable Set, is full of sounds that benefit from a dark room, a good pair of headphones, and undivided attention.

Over the last few years, through hurricanes of prying headlines, the sudden deaths of artist friends Mac Miller, Chynna, and Lexii Alijai, and the whirlwind of motherhood, Kehlani has continued to release a stream of intensely personal pop and R&B songs. So when the coronavirus hit and the singer’s label urged her to delay her sophomore album It Was Good Until It Wasn’t, or else take charge of the promotion of it herself, she got to work.