Kiana Fitzgerald
Kiana Fitzgerald is a freelance music journalist, cultural critic, and DJ. She writes for the world from deep in the heart of Texas.
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Depression and addiction stymied the rapper after a promising debut on the same label that launched Kendrick Lamar. On The Sun's Tirade, he sounds like a new man, refreshed and self-aware. -
This year's AfroPunk Festival in Brooklyn features artists who are expanding the universe of punk and ideas about who belongs there. -
The two — one the face of a new-age quiet storm entity and the other a low-key rapper making small, but steady, waves at home — are convincing. Seattle has something to say. -
The Philadelphia rapper continues to set himself apart visually with a surrealist twist in this video for the standout track from his Missed Calls EP.
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The Brooklyn DJ's final installment of her curated mixtape series is a patient journey toward personal excellence, crafted with a steady hand and a discerning ear fixed to the streets.
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The Chicago rapper's new mixtape, Coloring Book, walks a line between the secular and the religious, bringing gospel sounds to listeners who may not have darkened the doors of a church in a while. -
The Brooklyn rapper-producer's latest instrumental album is evenly weighted from front to back. There's never an off moment — or even a precarious one.
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The R&B stalwart has long vibrated on a different wavelength than do his contemporaries; in a turbulent, bruising world, he's stayed rock-steady.
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Smith has a steady, well-trained swell of a voice and a knack for whipping in and out of his falsetto in a hairsbreadth. He doesn't feel the need to hide — certainly not by stifling his vocal skills. -
Teeming with stream-of-consciousness scatting, ethereal exploration and frenetic features, the beauty of the producer-composer's debut lies in its carefully orchestrated ebb and flow.
