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Discover new music from artists we think you'll like. Refreshed every Friday.

Rapper Encore ABJ and emcee-producer Calm—two friends from the Delhi hip-hop circuit—announced their arrival as Seedhe Maut with a powerful resolve, teaming up with producer Sez on the Beat for “Seedhe Maut Anthem” in 2017. Since then they’ve moved away from English in favour of Hindi as their language of choice while retaining their firepower flow on verses packed with Indian pop-culture references. They also more than hold their own in collabs with the likes of Prabh Deep (their labelmate on Azadi Records), electro-pop artist Ritviz and rap star MC STAN as they make every bar count.

Drake officially became the voice of a generation with 2011’s sumptuous <i>Take Care</i>, a career-defining magnum opus that earned a prized slot in Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums list. Was he an R&B singer who rapped or a rapper who sang? Was he really that sad, or just exploiting a cultural preference for male vulnerability? Adding to the slipperiness of it all, any given Drake project might incorporate dreamy house and club music into his comfort zone of rap, pop and R&B with equal conviction. Even after cementing his prowess as an MC many times over, Drake still retains the capacity to surprise. His 2015 earworm “Hotline Bling” radiated universal cool without breaking a sweat, while 2024’s “Push Ups” arrived during his fleeting beef with Kendrick Lamar yet applies lasting heat to its minimalistic prowl. Drake is now such a part of the firmament that his slightest move can trigger aftershocks far beyond his immediate reach.

Justin Bieber is one of the few pop stars of his generation to have truly grown up in public. The Canada-born singer arrived in 2009 at age 15, lending his baby-faced image and voice alike to collabs with rap and R&B royalty like Ludacris (“Baby”) and USHER (“Somebody to Love”). More than just catnip for pre-teens, he proved himself as a chart-topping balladeer with 2012’s “Boyfriend”, while still playing well with rappers on the same year’s Nicki Minaj-assisted “Beauty and a Beat”. But Bieber’s biggest smashes were still ahead of him, thanks to a post-teen career reset in 2015 that began with the ubiquitous Skrillex and Diplo teamup “Where Are Ü Now” and hit properly with his fourth album. <i>Purpose</i> yielded multiple diamond-certified singles, including the clubby mea culpa “Sorry” and the weepy farewell “Love Yourself”. Bieber didn’t slow down from there, reteaming with “Love Yourself” co-writer Ed Sheeran for the jaunty dancehall flirtations of 2019’s “I Don’t Care” and enlisting Migos leader Quavo for the feathery R&B of 2020’s “Intentions”. After cementing his adult identity as a sensitive singer who can make a meal of either comforting arrangements or edgy electronics, Bieber sounds equally at home on “STAY”—passing the torch of young talent to The Kid LAROI—and the beachy future soul of “Peaches”, both from 2021. He’s still maturing in real time in front of the whole world, and we’re still hanging on his every word.

Discover new music from artists we think you'll like. Refreshed every Friday.