Dawn Richard’s visual for “A Flex” has all the confidence of the title. Richard’s lithe moves turn the room into a tinderbox of aspiration. The Katalyst Collective produced the latest single from Richard, who released her Quiet in a World Full of Noise album in 2024, her second collaboration with artist Spencer Zahn. “A Flex” is back into her R&B world with a hip-hop stance, hence the grill and fluttery variation on a trap beat. The sound and visuals are pure Dawn and the chemistry of it all makes you wonder if her next project will be just like “A Flex.”

Electric Ladyland is the third and final studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Many listeners discovered the album after hearing Hendrix’s cover of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower,” which became the group’s best-selling single. “Still Raining, Still Dreaming” demonstrated Hendrix’s mastery of the wah-wah pedal and his ability to make the guitar “talk.” He was playing a kind of lazy funk with the guitar, almost sounding like a human voice. It was psychedelic like “Purple Haze,” but the sound was less compressed. The song sounded like part of a jam session instead of a neat song for radio consumption. The album’s loose structure, except for the Dylan cover, is the reason critics did not initially understand the music. Over time they started to see what Hendrix was doing and how he was innovating rock music again.

Electric Ladyland was the band’s sole number one album, and it grew in value, becoming one of the many important links to music of the future with sounds landing everywhere from P-Funk to rappers like Outkast, The Soulquarian collective, and D’Angelo. In 1997 the Hendrix estate released At Last… The Beginning: The Making of Electric Ladyland, a documentary about the album. The film was reissued in 2008 with an additional forty minutes of footage. In 2025, the Axis Bold As Love Sessions was released on Blu Ray and the Seattle Seahawks dropped Hendrix-inspired merchandise. 

Is Lil’ Kim’s Hard Core album cover the best hip-hop album cover ever? 

Will Spotify’s purchase of Whosampled.com lead to more artists being sued for sampling and how will that impact art?  

Is Metro Boomin’s take on contemporary hip-hop albums sounding like compilations because there are too many producers and no single vision correct? 

Kate Pierson sings Patti Smith’s “People Have The Power” with Uniting Voices Chicago. The B-52s vocalist got the idea to record the song after discussing contemporary politics with her SongVest label head Roy D’ Souza. The collaboration between Pierson and the youth choir is an act of creativity and charity as the proceeds from the single will be donated to Uniting Voices Chicago and Sandy Hook Promise. Pierson shared her feelings about her version of Smith’s song in a statement. “The reason this song means so much to me is that it demonstrates that we really do have the power to change the world, especially through art and music – and that’s why I’m so thrilled to be working with these exceptional young people who are using their voices and actions to express compassion and understanding. Having the voices of the next generation of global leaders featured on the song takes us into the future, a future built on unity and love.”

Pierson released her sophomore solo album, Radios & Rainbows last year and has plans for more live shows in support of it.