Wes Anderson recruits ¡MAYDAY! & Trey Miller in “Red Cup Dub”

Baltimore solo artist Wes Anderson has played for 20+ years — and sowed his musical oats in the reggae spectrum for over half of them! You might recognize Anderson as lead guitarist from Chicago-based band Shanghai Superstars or reggae rock band Fiction 20 Down or, most recently, Fiction 20 Down’s spin-off band, Big Infinite. Now […]

Steven Malcolm x Shaggy ignites in “Fuego (Remix)”

Indie rapper turned major label artist Steven Malcolm has built a hefty following up over the years — boasting over 2.1 million Spotify streams for his last album alone! That’s right, Malcolm’s The Second City was so fuego, it garnered attention from all over the globe, most notably from GRAMMY-award winning reggae superstar Shaggy (who, […]

Kaviedes hustles hard in “Get a Meal” single

Straight out of Toronto and Montreal comes Kaviedes: a hip hop artist, combining multiple genres to craft his sound. If Kaviedes were to be compared, he’s in the same vein as Lil Wayne, et. Al. Following two seamless singles “Mean” and “Brick By Brick”, this rising rap artist returns with “Get a Meal”, an ode […]

Vokab Kompany unveils “Like That” video off new LP

Hip hop-EDM duo Vokab Kompany is back with their latest LP, Small Viktories. The nine-track album is the first of four years and breaks boundaries by launching the listener on hip hop-driven electronic soundscapes — such that will transport you for any occasion. Whether you feel politically-charged or in the mood for romance or simply […]

Rockstead to release “Distractions” single off forthcoming album

Hailing from Cincinnati, Ohio, four-piece reggae rock band Rockstead has been making moves and making people groove since 2013. The band is known for their ability to mix reggae, rock, hip hop and alternative flawlessly into their performance and sound. Through the last seven years, the band has managed to make quite a name for […]

Top Shelf Music News: Episode 6

Top Shelf Music News is back on the virtual airwaves, standing as the first post-quarantine episode with both hosts Matt Cook & Kristy Rose filming inside the newsroom! After taking June off to observe a month of silence in the support of Black Lives Matter, Top Shelf Music feels the world — and the music […]

TSM Artist #HotList: July 12th, 2020

Filmed in June and premiering today, Alexia Johnson brings you another #TSMArtistHotList. This week features Reed Dollaz (Philadelphia), FillmoeTrev (San Francisco) and Krooked Treez (Los Angeles) pairing with Sen Dog (of Cypress Hill), Karim Israel (of Arise Roots) and Sid Wilson (of Slipknot) This episode includes strong Artists of Color, making waves within the music […]

Ramz celebrates black women in “Underneath” music video

UK hip hop artist Ramz follows up his “Belong To The Streets” and “Brixton to Oxford Circus” freestyle releases with an official ‘black is beautiful’ statement in his latest single “Underneath”. As nations around the world continue to demand justice for black citizens, particularly in America, it’s uplifting to hear artists standing firm in the […]

Audic Empire demands attention in ‘Head Change’ album

Audic Empire of Austin, Texas takes no names. Instead, this reggae rock band open fires on all topics in their latest Head Change album, now available on all streaming outlets via Reggae 360 and Blue Avenue Music Group. Matching the music’s metal-infused demeanor is the album’s producer Howi Spangler, frontman of similar zero-fucks-given reggae rock […]

Riot Fest drops massive 2021 Phase One lineup

Without the thrill of monthly festivals and concert getaways, 2020 has been, well, the biggest drag of all time musically. Great pieces of art have surfaced along the way, sure, yet only an extremely limited amount of events are being experienced in-person due to social distancing. Damn COVID. In summary, festivals need a do-over. Up […]

John Legend marks Juneteenth with ‘Bigger Love’ LP

A second after the stroke of midnight on Juneteenth (aka, June 19th, a day commemorating the final emancipation of black slaves in 1865), John Legend unleashed his highly anticipated full-length album Bigger Love to the public. Four years have lapsed since Legend’s last Darkness and Light LP heightened the soulful superstar’s career ever-higher and, let […]

Run The Jewels answers BLM call in ‘RTJ4’

What to say about Run The Jewels… what to say about vigilante justice? For that is exactly what rappers El-P and Killer Mike are — lyrical vigilantes. Exposing the world for what it is one track at a time, this renegade hip hop duo bluntly states what’s been on everyone’s mind this past year and […]

Fyah Roiall explodes in “Energy” single

Up-and-coming Jamaican artist Fyah Roiall defies classification, mashing UK grime with American trap and dancehall into something new, dubbed ‘grimehall’. Grimehall — or traphall, depending on preference — is a rising trend for JA artists, taking modern twists from other parts of the world to mix with traditional Caribbean music, rendering edgy rap-reggae paired to […]

Pastor Ayu pledges 365 original songs in 365 days

Washington D.C. has been thrust full-throttle into the front lines of the Black Lives Matter movement sweeping the nation and rightly so, considering that is where country leaders reside! This fight is long overdue to be resolved and fed up citizens are taking to the streets to voice their anguish for the atrocious death of […]

Unified Highway preaches positivity in ‘Headlines’ album

Headlines may be Unified Highway’s sophomore album, yet these are no green musicians! Unified Highway is a dual collaboration consisting of Amp Live (formerly of Zion I) and of Eric Rachmany (frontman of Rebelution). Amp Live has been recording important music for over 20 years; Rachmany and his mates recorded the first Rebelution album back […]