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Tony Allen 1940-2020. His music lives on in this and upcoming posthumous releases, including the album There Is No End
Song of the Day: Another fantastic posthumous release by the legendary drummer and Afrobeat pioneer from a forthcoming album, There is No End, here featuring the writer Ben Okri and rapper Skepta on vocals
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On the button: Earth Scum by FYI Chris
Song of the Day: The final track on the album Earth Scum by the Yorkshire and Macclesfield duo of Chris Coupe and Chris Watson features viscerally acerbic, self-deprecating gallows humorous delivery by Mancunian poet and performer Thick Richard
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Pa Salieu with Mahalia
Song of the Day: Released at the tail-end of 2020, this beautifully smooth and soulful hip-hop number with a gorgeous bass line, African instruments and melody is by the British rapper from his EP Send Them To Coventry, named after his home town
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Totally dental: Genesis Owusu
Songs of the Day: With a vibrant, mischievous, refreshing delivery, a couple of fabulously catchy, clever hip hop/funk songs by the Ghanaian-Australian singer and rapper from Canberra, in advance of his debut album Smiling With No Teeth, out in March
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The talented St Panther aka Daniela Bojorges-Giraldo
Songs of the Day: Slick rapping, rhythmic laughter, sand a super-tight funk sound are just some of the elements that make the young LA-based singer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Daniela Bojorges-Giraldo a huge talent to watch
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Tierra Whack is back
Song of the Day: Whistles, tongue clicks and super slick vocal delivery make up this clever number by the 25-year-old singer and rapper from Philadelphia who has her own uniquely eccentric and humorous style
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Nayana IZ
Song of the Day: The latest number by the British-Asian rapper and singer from the London creative collective, NiNE8, is a love song with rich layers of jazz, soul, R&B and Bollywood, with horn and keyboard parts and a strong, smooth assertive voice
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The new single by Common, with Black Thought and PJ
Song of the Day: The latest from the Chicago-born rapper, actor and activist both political and personal mix of unusual rhythms and rhymes and is taken from his seven-track album project with guests, A Beautiful Revolution (Pt 1)
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2020 sees the very welcome return of Stevie Wonder
Song of the Day: While both began as love songs, these first new numbers in four years by the soul great have a strong multi-layered political element, calling for solidarity in times of rising racism, an election and an epidemic
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Janelle Monáe in the video for Turntables
Song of the Day: Is change coming? A punchy, funky, powerful new number by the American star that has a weighty political element, and part of the soundtrack to a new documentary out now before the US elections – All In: The Fight For Democracy
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Marlowe’s second album, Marlow 2
Song of the Day: Supremely slick hip hop delivery, clever, humorous sampling, witty pace-changing, plus scratching by DJ Trackstar? It’s all here from Seattle producer L’Orange and North Carolina rapper Solemn Brigham from their second album, Marlow 2
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The two Bobby’s of Bob Vylan
Song of the Day: Blisteringly brilliant, angry, scorching guitar punk hip-hop-grime number by the London duo focusing on the state of Britain, growing up mixed race in a racist, abrasive culture that is continually prevalent now for Black Lives Matter
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Song of the Day: Unstoppable bassline, fierce, driving energy, and uncompromising lyrics delivered in a talk/sing style by the British artist Tor Maries, this brilliant single has the punchy air of Sleaford Mods and also Róisín Murphy
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Khruangbin – unforgettable
Song of the Day: A delicious sounding, smoothly delivered new track fusing funk, soul dub, African, and psychedelia by the American musical trio from Houston, Texas, comprising Laura Lee on bass, Mark Speer on guitar, and Donald Ray "DJ" Johnson Jr on drums
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Cover from the forthcoming collaborative Keleketla! album
Song of the Day: Embracing the South African musical protest style toyi-toyi borne out of anti-apartheid, this new track fuses dance, jazz, gqom beats, hip hop and Afrobeat featuring Tony Allen alongside collaborators Coldcut, Soundz of the South, DJ Mabheko, Tenderlonious, Afla Sackey and Afrik Bawantu
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Run The Jewels: Killer Mike and El-P
Song of the Day: With the early launch fo of the hip hop duo of Killer Mike and El-P’s fourth album RTJ4, proceeds of which go towards legal support for activists for social change, the final heartfelt track about fear, violence and love
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Cover of Wilma Archer’s album A Western Circular
Song of the Day: Taken from the British producer and multi-instrumentalist’s album, A Western Circular, this wonderfully eclectic fusion of classical and jazz intertwined and MF Doom’s unmistakable rapping, tells a tale of a New York drug dealer
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Sandi Shaw
Song of the Day: To capture the current state of farcical flux and political impasse over Brexit and US government shutdown, a classic written by Lionel Bart for the musical Oliver!, which also became a feminist 60s pop hit for the female star
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Brooklyn’s 3rd Bass from the early 1990s
Song of the Day: After R.E.M.’s The Wrong Child, a more discursive number about teenage problems, ranging from drugs, gangs, sexual abuse, to depression and suicide by one of the finest New York rap outfits from the golden age of early 90s hip hop
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Frankie Smith and friends twirl the rope
Song of the Day: After Malcolm McLaren and echoes of The Boyoyo Boys, another skipping-related number, a 1981 funk hit less about the music, more notable about the first use of "izzle" hip hop stylings
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