African American artists

Beginning in 1905, one star-studded song-publishing company would push the aesthetic limits of how Black popular music was shown to the public.

We cannot understand the last fifty years of U.S. history—certainly not the first thing about Black history—without studying the emergence and evolution of rap.

A memoir of the Family Stone.

The relationship between the DJ and his MC derived from a Jamaican “toasting” tradition and its related “sound clash” culture.

A conversation with the longtime director about “Rustin,” growing up in Kentucky, and putting on a show.

How the album pays homage to hip-hop's mythical and martial arts origins.

For decades, Americans have argued over the icon’s legacy. But his archives show that he had his own plans.

It’s because the rapper’s life and work were a cascade of contradictions that we’re still trying to figure him out today.

RJ Smith’s biography of Chuck Berry examines his subject’s instinct for crossing the line musically, racially, and morally.

The most hypnotic piece of music released so far in 2023 was recorded forty-seven years ago in a barely adequate studio in Rockland County, New York.

Sly and the Family Stone suggested new possibilities in music and life—until it all fell apart.

Louis Armstrong’s complicated relationship with New Orleans.

How August Wilson became one of the country’s most influential playwrights.

The Sugarhill Gang song remains one of rap's most beloved. But it took serendipity, a book of rhymes, and an agreement to settle a lawsuit for it to survive.

A Smithsonian curator John Troutman and a blues musician discuss a new folk album, "Playing for the Man at the Door," from late chronicler Mack McCormick's collection.

A look at "Biography Of A Phantom", Robert McCormick's book about blues legend Robert Johnson.

Rollins never wavered in his determination to get things right, and often that meant reinventing himself and, along the way, jazz as well.

Who was that traveler? And what did she signify to the poet?

Attendees packed D.C.’s Griffith Stadium in 1951 for the wedding spectacular of gospel singer Rosetta Tharpe, who’s now the subject of a show at Ford's Theatre.

The new documentary “I Am Everything” explores the gulf between what Richard accomplished and what he got for it.