Enlarge this image Kanye West returned to Twitter this week to post aphorisms... and announce several new albums, including one from Pusha-T (left). Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Yeezy Season 3 hide captiontoggle caption Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Yeezy Season 3 Forget that old adage about hip-hop being a product of the streets. Nowadays, if you really want to keep your finger on the pulse, you better follow the tweets.Consider the events this week in rap as exhibits A, B, C and D: In the last five days, three of the biggest, most elusive names in rap have taken to social media to tease fans with forthcoming album release dates, while rap's reigning G.O.A.T. collected the big cheese.It all started on Monday, when Kendrick Lamar won a damn Pulitzer Prize in music, the first of its kind awarded to any artist outside of classical or jazz. Word spread like wildfire on the web. The same day, Drake announced on ...

Enlarge this image Lykke Li's so sad so sexy comes out June 8. Chloe Le Drezen/Courtesy of the artist hide captiontoggle caption Chloe Le Drezen/Courtesy of the artist Lykke Li has always found her own path through pop music. She is and isn't a part of that landscape, instead dancing along its edges where the grass grows wild. There was her whimsical, indie-electro debut from a decade ago, Youth Novel, the wide-ranging but altogether rollicking Wounded Rhymes, and 2014's I Never Learn, which closed a conceptual trilogy, with anthemic production very much of its time, yet intimately reined in by Li's voice.In June, the Swedish artist will release so sad so sexy, and after listening to its first two singles, it's clear Li has absorbed pop's recent obsessions with the kind of care that comes from deep listening. "Hard Rain" finds her in lonely-in-the-woods-with-AutoTune mode, something James Blake or Bon Iver might make with a ...

Norteñoband Los Tigres del Norte became the first free musicians to play at Folsom Prison since Johnny Cash did 50 years ago. Let's block ads! (Why?)

Enlarge this image This week's episode of The Thistle & Shamrock features music by Battlefield Band. John Slavin/Courtesy of the artist hide captiontoggle caption John Slavin/Courtesy of the artist Although the scenes of immigration may change, the tragedies of displaced people are replayed with each passing year. Fiona Ritchie's selections this week include traditional broadsheet ballads and music hall choruses from artists like Dolores Keane, Mick Moloney, and Battlefield Band.Let's block ads! (Why?)