@Anya Boyd

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

To call Nicki Minaj one of the greatest female MCs of all time is to add an unnecessary qualifier to a much simpler truth: Nicki Minaj is one of the greatest MCs of all time, period. The Queens-bred spitter’s verses have provoked scrunched-up faces since around the time of 2009’s <i>Beam Me Up Scotty</i> mixtape, a project so impactful that she would repurpose it for streaming some 12 years later (with the addition of the equally spectacular Lil Wayne and Drake collab “Seeing Green”). Before celebrating an anniversary though, Minaj built her reputation in hip-hop the old-fashioned way, verse by verse, dazzling fans of artists like Ludacris (“My Chick Bad”), Big Sean (“Dance (A$$) [Remix]”), Trey Songz (“Bottoms Up”) and Yo Gotti (“Rake It Up”)—to name but a few—with scene-stealing guest verses. (What Minaj did to Kanye West’s “Monster”, in particular, is something likely to be studied by MCs for generations to come.) “Plays well with others” was the read on Minaj from the very beginning, with the MC going on to make magic with some of the biggest voices in hip-hop and R&B, namely Beyoncé (“Flawless [Remix]”), Ariana Grande (“Side to Side”) and her Young Money stablemate, Drake (“Truffle Butter”, “Up All Night”, “No Frauds”, “Make Me Proud”). And did we mention she can sing? That’s right, the queen of rap has pipes, and when she slows things down and shows some emotion (“Right By My Side”, “Starships”, “Right Thru Me”), it’s straight to the top of the pop charts.

R&B is one of the most dynamic, adventurous sounds in modern music, a place where art both personal and provocative meets the mainstream. From the alt vanguard to modern vets, straightforward to left-field, these tracks capture where R&B is now and point the way to where it’s going. This week, Queen Naija’s newest single “rain…” is at the top of the playlist. The sexy and sultry track finds the singer-songwriter eagerly waiting for a night of passion. “When you get me in that mode, I get dangerous/The way that my body tremblin’, you think you gotta call the ambulance/You make it do all of the things I thought it never could/So what you waiting for?” she lilts. We update this playlist regularly. If you like a track, add it to your library.

Great music doesn’t age, it ripens. So take this collection of party-ready tunes from the late ’90s through the early 2000s as a hit of nostalgia. But also take it as a musical cross-section of a particular time. From mainstream smashes to underground highlights, hip-hop and R&B to indie folk, one-hit wonders to modern classics, this is the sound of our still-young century. As throwback as it may be, our editors still update tracks regularly, so if you hear something you like, add it to your library.

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.