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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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.
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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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With her new, scaled-back style, the New Jersey singer-songwriter proves that she can strip away the frills and still make us feel all of the emotions.
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In a video packed with myriad cinematic influences, the neo-soul and hip-hop duo wages a war against superficiality that spares no one.
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The Atlanta singer and DJ follow closely, but not wholly, in Missy Elliott's empowering footprints in this flip of her subversive hit single from 1999.
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The new "it" guy of that place where R&B and hip-hop overlap showed why he's attracted so much attention at NPR Music's SXSW showcase at Stubb's.
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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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A young singer-rapper from Atlanta displays her signature hard-edged playfulness and sonic extremes.
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Out of nowhere, Kendrick Lamar dropped a new record this week, called untitled unmastered. Reviewer Kiana Fitzgerald says that listening to these demos "feels like we're playing catch-up."
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Jersey City singer-songwriter perfects the art of simple R&B seduction on a track that would have made our "Songs of 2015" list, if there was room for one more.