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Martha Temmuz 22, 2022

beyonce age

Blue Ivy Is Beyoncé's Mini-Me in This Rare Birthday Instagram Photo - Oprah Mag

Posted: 08 Jan 2020 12:00 AM PST

The World Premiere Of Disney's "THE LION KING"

Alberto E. RodriguezGetty Images

It's hard to believe that Beyoncé and Jay-Z's eldest child, Blue Ivy, is 8 years old. After all, this writer still remembers when the singer delivered a chilling medley of Lemonade songs while pregnant at the 2016 Grammys. But a recent picture of Blue Ivy has rendered us speechless. Why? Because in it she looks grown—and just like her mom. Seriously, Blue Ivy is Beyoncé's mini.

The image, shared by Matthew Knowles on Instagram, was posted in honor of Blue's birthday. In the shot, Blue Ivy can be seen wearing an off-the-shoulder orange top and cherry-covered skirt. Her hair is straight and long and a pineapple backpack is slung over her shoulders.

Knowles captioned the photo: "Happy Birthday to my beautiful and oldest granddaughter Blue Ivy.⁣ Love, Papa G." He also added some cute animations, including stars, confetti, and a big "Happy Birthday" message.

Of course, this isn't the first time fans (and even Blue's family) have noticed similarities between her and her parents. When she was born, Beyoncé admitted Blue looked just like Jay-Z. Last week, Megan Thee Stallion posted a pic of Mama Bey and Blue, prompting one follower to write "Beyoncé made blue by herself."

And last year, the "Single Ladies" singer posted a side-by-side comparison. "Someone made this comparison of me at age 7 and Blue at age 7," the singer wrote, adding "my baby is growing up."

As for the couple's twins, Rumi and Sir, many believe the former looks just like Beyoncé and Blue Ivy too. Who do you think the kids most resemble?

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Beyoncè’s Ivy Park x Adidas Collaboration Is Already A Major Success - Vibe

Posted: 18 Jan 2020 05:34 PM PST

It was the shot and meme that was heard around the world. Earlier this year, Portland Trailblazers' star point guard Damian Lillard hit a series-clinching jumper from beyond the arc as time expired, advancing to the second round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs. The shot, launched over former Oklahoma City Thunder forward Paul George's outstretched hands was a big deal to seemingly everyone else on the planet, but for Lillard, it was simply business as usual. "We're a really resilient team," Lillard told a reporter in a post-game interview. "We knew it was ups and downs throughout the series, we just had to keep our heads right, stay focused, stay together. We stayed together and it came down to one play and we executed really well and we were able to get it done."

This wasn't the first time he had shattered a championship contender's dreams and delivered defeat as a cold dish served. In May 2014, Lillard buried a three-pointer at the buzzer to give the 'Blazers a 99-98 win over the Houston Rockets, clinching a 4-2 win in the first round of that season's NBA Playoffs, Portland's first in fourteen years. When asked about his ability to keep his composure during these pressure-packed moments, Lillard credits his big-picture outlook with keeping him poised. "It's usually not a whole lot going through my head," he says. "I think what allows me to be confident and just keep my cool in those situations is knowing that I put the time in to give myself a chance to be successful and to end these games and staying in shape physically and just having my mind in the right place. And also understanding that I can shoulder the success and the failure of it. Whichever one happens on that night, I know I can handle both. So I go into those situations not really concerned with the outcome."

Selected by the Trailblazers in 2012 with the sixth overall draft pick, Portland, Oregon would be a culture shock for the average kid bred in the mean streets of East Oakland, California. But for Lillard, his collegiate tenure at Weber State in Utah, where he competed in Portland on several occasions, afforded him some familiarity with the city. "I always liked Portland," he shares. "Because when I was in college, at Weber, we'd play Portland State every year. So when you get a chance to come to a real city like Portland where it's like an actual downtown and stores you can go to and kind of move around, you just have a different appreciation of it when you're playing all of these different small towns. I already kind of liked the city to begin with. Now I get to explore more. My best friend was already going to college here when I got drafted so I've always liked it even before I got here. When I got here and started to meet people and learn the city, move around and just being a resident here, I've only grown to like it more. It's become more of a home to me over the years."

Many words have been used to describe Lillard's play on the court, but one of the most appropriate is "ruthless," which is a major theme of the concept behind the DAME 6, his sixth signature shoe with adidas. Released November 29, the DAME 6 is another reflection of Lillard's ties to the city. "It's a great feeling especially for me because I live in Portland," he says. "And [with] adidas being in Portland, we're able to have a strong partnership. Because of the communication and us being able to get in front of each other, it's not hard to figure things; it's always one drive. I can get to them or they can get to me and I think it makes things easier. If it's a shoe I need to see or some type of hoodie or anything, socks, whatever, they can get it in front of me right away, it's not a drawn-out process."

According to Rashad Williams, adidas Basketball Senior Director of Footwear, the brand set its sights on making Lillard one of the pillars of the three stripes not long after taking the league by storm during his Rookie of the Year campaign. "I'm from the west coast so I knew where Weber State was," Williams recalls. "And then him being a lottery pick, I think he got on everyone's radar. And Dame played in adidas growing up, all the way through college so we signed him on to the family. Then I think it was by his second or third year, we were like, 'Wow.' Not only did the Trailblazers realize they had something special, adidas realized they had something special as well."

When it comes to the shoe's creation, Williams credits Lillard with streamlining the designing process with his own ideas and input. "I think that's the big thing with Dame, he constantly challenges us on every shoe. If something's on his mind, he'll text you or he might pull up to the office, but that's how we grow and it's real." Aside from being relentless within the confines of the game, a term that embodies who Damian is as a person is "duality." He can go from being calm and collected in the midst of family and friends to transforming into a fiery floor general. And it's artistically reflected in the DAME 6, which has many different dimensions, layers and moving parts that speak to Lillard's multifaceted lifestyle.

"I think the best way that it mirrors me is just the duality, having both sides of the shoe looking different," the All-NBA point guard explains. "I think as a player on the court, I definitely have a mean streak. That's one side of me you won't always see, but then my demeanor and my face is completely calm. Right after the game, I'm playing with my son, during the game I'm completely different so I think that's the way that it connects. Just the duality: who I am on the court and off the court, being a rapper, being a basketball player...I just think there are so many sides to who I am."

As a long-time rap fan and aficionado, Lillard began to share his talents on Instagram with his #4BarFriday posts. Lillard, who raps under the name Dame D.O.L.L.A. (the acronym standing for "Different on Levels Lord Allowed") upped the ante from there. In 2016, he released his debut album, The Letter O, and launched his record label, Front Page Music. Featuring appearances from Lil Wayne, Juvenile, Jamie Foxx, Marsha Ambrosius and Front Page Music's flagship signees Brookfield Duece and Danny from Sobrante, The Letter O peaked at No. 62 on Billboard's Top Album Sales chart, a respectable debut for any new artist, let alone one tasked with carrying an NBA franchise on his back. After returning with a sophomore album, Confirmed, the following year, Lillard's reputation as a lyricist began to precede him with a number of rap artists and critics viewing him as the most talented rhymer currently in the NBA, rather than an athlete moonlighting as a gimmick.

"I think one of the things people recognize is that I'm a real student of hip-hop. I know the history of hip-hop and I respect the history of hip-hop. The reason I rap is 'cause of some of the best people who have rapped. I'm a big, big 2Pac fan, big Nas fan. Big Andre 3000 fan, Juvenile, all of these guys. Wayne, Common...like I'm a fan of that type of music. Just creating a feeling and people being able to connect with what you're saying and because I'm a fan of that, that's the kind of rap I like to create. I like to put words together to give people a feeling and allow them to be able to connect with what I'm saying. And I think a mix of all of those things, being authentic with my music and genuine with my music, I think people can hear it and they can respect it. They can connect with it and I think they respect it more when they're like, 'This dude is a basketball player.' There are people who do this as their primary career who don't know the history of the game that they're playing. And they don't respect the history of the game that they're playing in. I think a mix of those things has allowed people to respect me doing it."

Dame's quest to be not only the best rapping athlete but the greatest rap artist of all-time has not come without its share of challengers. The biggest contender for the crown is Sacramento Kings forward Marvin Bagley, a former No. 2 overall pick whose debut mixtape, Don't Blink, dropped on the night of the 2018 NBA Draft. During an appearance on ESPN's First Take, analyst Max Kellerman asked Bagley who would be the victor in a rap battle between the two, to which he responded by picking himself as the superior rhymer. As the competitor that he is, Lillard accepted Bagley's challenge, prompting the former Duke star to throw down the gauntlet with "No Debate," a direct shot at Dame D.O.L.L.A. Not one to be outgunned, D.O.L.L.A. fired back quickly with a pair of tracks, "Bye Bye" and "MARVINNNNNN???." Bagley retorted with "Checkmate," which would be the final salvo in the pair's brief yet entertaining back-and-forth.

While a number of NBA players have released material, two had never engaged in lyrical warfare, making Lillard and Bagley's battle a historic one. "That was the reason I did it," Lillard says. "At first, I was like, 'If somebody ever says something to me with some music, I'm just gonna say nothing at all' 'cause it ain't that important for me. I rap for me, I'm just pushing my own music. I ain't in competition with no athletes. He mentioned my name once before and then it was on TV and it was like a thing. I started to prepare myself for it to happen for that reason, 'cause it hadn't been done before. So to be a part of the first, it was enticing. We did it and then after that, I was like, 'I'm not gonna do it.' Unbeknownst to Lillard, his days of sparring were far from over, as one of his own comments would land him in hot water with none other than retired NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal, who didn't take too kindly to a reference Lillard made during an appearance on The Joe Budden Podcast.

Lillard's remark caught the attention of Shaq, who unleashed his vengeance against Dame on "The Originator," which saw the veteran comparing D.O.L.L.A.'s net worth and lack of championship hardware with his own. Undeterred, Lillard tossed out a pair of diss tracks, "Reign Reign Go Away" and its follow-up, "I Rest My Case." While a large chunk of the public deemed Dame D.O.L.L.A. the victor in their dust-up, Lillard makes it clear this will likely be the last time he lyrically goes head-to-head with a fellow athlete. "Again, that was it," he reiterates. "The fact that it was Shaq, and that's like a big stage for my rap career. Having such a huge figure that I'm engaging with, I was like 'That's cool.' But that's probably it for my battle rap career."

With the release of his third studio album, Big D.O.L.L.A. — which has been billed as his most impressive project to date — Lillard plans to keep his buzz afloat this NBA season. "I mean, I've only recorded during the season maybe once or twice my whole career," he shares. "Typically I just rap in the summer and I go away during the season, but this is the first time I did a lot of stuff in advance. I recorded a lot of extra music and I partnered with a lot of different people so that my music can continue to have legs and keep moving." He continues, "I got some stuff coming up, for sure. During the NBA season, I got some stuff coming, and something else that I can't mention right now, but y'all gonna see. But next summer, hopefully, I'll have another project ready."

Lillard looks to make up for 2018's loss in the Conference Finals and shepherd the Trailblazers toward an NBA championship. However, with squads like the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, Houston Rockets, and Utah Jazz all retooling, the western conference is as daunting as it's ever been. "I knew it was gonna be a tough season just because of every team getting better," he says. "And us coming into the season with a completely new roster, a lot of our guys that we had for the last three to four years are on new teams now. And we brought in a new group of guys, so it's like not only did everyone get better, but we're in a process where we're trying to figure each other out. We're trying to learn each other, we're still trying to put plays in and get our chemistry together and it's just gonna be a process so we're trying to find our way in an already tough western conference. I know it's gonna be tough, I know it's gonna be a battle, but we just gotta keep our head in it for the full eighty-two [games]."

And he intends to play in every single regular-season game, an anomaly of today's NBA superstars in the age of load management. Birthed by Gregg Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs and popularized by Kawhi Leonard and the Toronto Raptors, the load management theory has been pegged as a key component in winning NBA championships, with last year's Raptors squad being the latest test case. Just don't expect Damian Lillard to be sitting any games out voluntarily anytime soon. "I mean, I think LeBron said it best: 'If I'm healthy, I'm playing,'" he says, shrugging off any notion of him logging DNPs. "I think as somebody that just loves the game and I've worked hard my life to be able to play in an NBA game, I'ma have a whole post-game career to do load management or whatever. And I also think everyone doesn't have that luxury," he adds. "I think that's part of the reason why so many top players are teaming up and trying to go to the team that's the strongest. Because it kind of affords you that opportunity more often than not where you can say, 'Okay, I'm not feeling great. I'ma sit this one out and worry about me because we have a team that's good enough to go out there and win without me.' But me personally, I love to play the game so I'm gonna always choose to play, but I also wouldn't wanna put my teammates in that position where I put myself above the team. We all can go out there and play, I always put myself on the same level as my teammates."

Lillard's game-winning shot may have been heard around the world, immortalized in memes and gifs, cementing him as one of the most clutch performers in the game, but the story didn't end there. Upsetting the Denver Nuggets in seven games in the second round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs, Lillard, CJ McCollum and company were stymied by the Kevin Durant-less, Steph Curry-led Golden State Warriors, who swept the Trailblazers in four games, ending Portland's most successful season in nearly two decades. And with starting center Jusuf Nurkic not expected to return to the lineup anytime soon, not to mention losing Moe Harkless, Al-Farouq Aminu, Evan Turner, Seth Curry and other key players from last year's roster, Portland is looking to integrate various moving parts on the fly. Currently sitting at 9th in the Western Conference with a 9-13 record as of press time and depleted by injuries, the Trailblazers haven't gotten off to as hot of a start as expected, but with an eighty-two game season and one of the NBA's top floor generals at the wheel, counting Portland out of contention wouldn't be the safest bet.

And if Portland's recent acquisition of free agent Carmelo Anthony—who was recently named Western Conference Player of the Week (from Nov. 25 to Dec. 1)—out of basketball exile can give a jolt to the Trailblazers' offense, a return to form is certainly not out of the question. "I'm always optimistic about every team that I'm on so I think we always have a chance," says Lillard, whose streak of double-digit scoring games was broken the night before this sit-down in a home loss to the Raptors. "Last season, we got to the Western Conference Finals and I think that experience of playing that deep into the season was our first time and you felt it. We were up against a championship-caliber team, an experienced team and that's where we lost it; We had double-digit leads in every game, it's just that championship mentality and that championship experience kind of outdid us. But I think it's all about that process for us to just continue to move forward and try to get better so that we can get back to that position and hopefully the outcome is different."

Back to that loss at the hands of the Raptors. Afterward, as Moda Center employees, team personnel, and security hold court by the loading dock, family and friends of Blazers players await to console them after a tough defeat. Portland shooting guard CJ McCollum emerges from the press conference first, with Lillard trailing. McCollum greets Lillard's two-year-old son, Damian Lillard, Jr., who is being held by a member of Lillard's entourage while the man of the hour holds court with a few close pals. Clad in street clothes and looking unlike a world-class athlete that just finished fielding questions from a room of reporters about what went wrong and what they could've done differently, Lillard shadow-boxes with his son, a moment that brings to mind a remark he shared about how he keeps up with all of the moving parts of his life while living under the constant flicker of the lights.

"It's one thing to be a professional athlete and have to deal with the era that we play in, where people have so much more access to you on social media," Lillard candidly shares. "Instagram, Twitter, all these ways to kind of just poke at you, positive and negative. Like you saw, we come back there through the tunnel, the loading dock and it's a bunch of people and you're faced with what your job is all the time. People on TV are commenting on everything you do so it adds stress and it adds pressure. It just makes it harder to play in this era. But when you've got that family support and your own kid and that real love, that unconditional love around you, it just keeps everything in perspective and it makes it easier to deal with what your job is. It makes it easier to step out of that, even in the arena that I just lost the game in. I'm still able to step out of what my reality is."

As pleasantries turn into farewells, Lillard picks up Damian Jr. and the pair fade into the Portland night. With the Trailblazer's set to embark on a six-game road-trip, Dame's stay in the city will be short, but at that very moment, his face says it all: there's no place like home.

Meet the UI Writers' Workshop grad whose novel is about to take over the world - The Gazette

Posted: 18 Jan 2020 10:33 AM PST

PHILADELPHIA — As a teenager growing up in Tucson, Ariz., author Kiley Reid wrote several stories with the same plot: teenagers escaping the watchful eye of their parents and making out with each other.

Reid, now 32 and living in Philly's cool Fishtown neighborhood, said she's moved on to more ambitious projects that explore "class dynamics in tiny microcultures," like her debut novel "Such A Fun Age," which was published Dec. 31.

The Philly-set novel follows Emira Tucker, a casually cool 25-year-old black babysitter on the brink of a quarter-life crisis, and her white employer, Alix Chamberlain, a former public speaker and marketing maven.

Themes of race and class anchor the novel — it opens in a high-end grocery store — as the two women attempt to figure out each other, and themselves.

Reid has an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and her book has big buzz in the publishing world. The New York Times is running an excerpt. NPR's "Weekend Edition" aired an author talk. Elle magazine hailed "Such A Fun Age" as "the must-read book of the holiday season."

"Queen & Slim" writer/producer Lena Waithe has already acquired the film and television rights to the book.

"We're still figuring out what that means and where that adaptation will live," Reid said. "Different mediums can do different things, so I'm excited to see what that will look like."

In advance of a 19-city book tour, Reid spoke with The Inquirer about the provocative questions she set out to raise with her first book, and her delight at no longer needing to juggle multiple part-time jobs. This is an edited and condensed transcript.

Q: You're not a native to Philly. Why set the book here?

A: I came to Philadelphia in 2015 to see Beyonce. I fell in love with the city then. I wish there was a name for it, but I think certain cities have a little bit of an "it" factor in terms of architecture and people and food.

I knew I wanted to base the book here, so I came back.

Q: Why did you write the book?

A: As someone who cares about the quality of human life, I love it when I read fiction that makes me think about the boundaries that we're living within. I like when a book makes me zoom out and think, "Why can't Emira be a nanny for the rest of her life?" or "Who's in charge of making sure she can go to the doctor?" I love when books raise questions like that, but not in a polemic tone. That was my intention.

Q: The book feels very contemporary with commentary on social media, sexual consent, class and race. What made you want to make these themes so apparent?

A: The things that I love to read and write about are moments that are almost like a glitch in the system, like when the etiquette around money and class drops off for a second and all we're left with is each other. I think those moments are super revealing, and that mixed with modern technology like social media, Venmo, group text, etc., I wanted to explore how the history of slavery in this country works through systematic racism and through all of those technological advances.

Q: Every major character has qualities to admire and despise.

A: I think that the characters that do the most damage sometimes are often very good at doing other things, including being really kind and generous people. The damage, I think, is almost doubled because no one sees it coming.

It seems like a small thing, but when we start categorizing people into good and bad, we stop judging the systems that let them act the way they're acting, and we stop seeing them as a symptom of capitalism or systemic racism. All of those things move aside when (the reader) categorizes someone as good or bad.

Q: Zara is Emira's ride-or-die friend. Who's the Zara in your life?

A: I definitely have a group text of girlfriends who are honest, caring, funny and would definitely help me at any moment. When I applied to grad school the first time, my group of girlfriends helped me by tutoring me for the GRE because I'm terrible at math. One of them did my resume, and one of them wrote the recommendation letter. That support alone was incredible, but the fact that they kept supporting me even when I didn't get accepted is where friendship really lives.

So yes, I have a few Zaras in my life.

Q: What have you learned so far from being an author?

A: The more I keep writing, the more I'm interested in class dynamics in tiny microcultures. So in this (novel), it was how class works within the world of babysitting.

I think the best thing now about having a platform to write (is that it) makes me actually fail more early and often with new things.

I have the best opportunities to do really intensive research and explorations into things I never thought I would have time to do because I was always working two or three part-time jobs. That's the most exciting part, but it also really puts on the heat for challenging myself. I hope that always stays.

Book reading

• What: Kiley Reid will read from and talk about "Such a Fun Age"

• When: 7 p.m. Friday (1/24)

• Where: Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City

• Cost: Free

Arab designs make a cameo on Beyonce's 2019 'Bey-cap' - Arab News

Posted: 01 Jan 2020 12:00 AM PST

DUBAI: On Dec. 31, multi Grammy award-winning artist Beyonce dropped what she calls a 2019 'Bey-cap' on her Instagram in celebration of the New Year.

The clip is filled with personal footage documenting the past 12 months of her life set to the soundtrack of her song "Mood 4 Eva" with Childish Gambino, Oumou Sangare and her husband, Jay Z.

Among the moments highlighted were her daughter Blue Ivy Carter's fourth birthday, the 2019 Brit Awards, her acclaimed Coachella performance, "The Lion King" premiere and sitting courtside at a slew of basketball games with her rapper husband. 

The fast-moving clip also featured plenty of cameos from the region's Arab designers, who memorably dressed the "Single Ladies" hitmaker on a number of different occasions throughout the year.

There was the floor-length, gold sequined gown from Kuwaiti couturier Yousef Al-Jasmi that she wore to the opening of the Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta. Also featured was the purple, croc-effect Ida handbag from Dubai-based accessories label L'Afshar Queen B chose to accessorize her checkered EnaGancio suit  at an exclusive art event hosted by producer Swizz Beatz.

And who can forget the embellished "Lion King" inspired ensemble custom-made by Lebanese designer Georges Hobeika, which she wore to her mother Tina Knowles Lawson's annual Wearable Art Gala in Santa Monica, California? 

The superstar clearly rates talent from the Middle East. While she can – and does – have her pick from any of the globe's thousands of designers, the singer and actor has routinely turned to labels from the region in recent years, and the 2019 'Bey-cap' further proves that.

The Best Albums of the Decade - Variety

Posted: 20 Dec 2019 11:36 AM PST

Are we ready to shake it off — the 2010s? Just about, but before the decade slaps us on the behinds on our way out the door, here are some of the albums that Variety music critics Jem Aswad, Andrew Barker and Chris Willman couldn't have made it through the terrible teens without.

(Click here to read Andrew Barker's list)

(Click here to read Chris Willman's list)

Jem Aswad's 10 Best Albums

Even though, like most "critics," I've been doing best-of lists since my early teens, trying to pin down my favorite albums of a year, let alone 10, is a daunting task. Yet after a weekend spent perusing archaic media I hadn't touched in years (a.k.a. magazines and CDs), and with the benefit of considerable hindsight, this covers most of my favorites of the 2010s.

And although my response to most questioning commentary will be "F— OFF! IT'S MY LIST!," I will note that the absence of certain artists, particularly hip-hop ones, is usually due to the lack of a great album (which is admittedly a rapidly antiquating art form); the absence of certain others is because their greatest work was done in previous decades. And also, rather than muddle up the list with multiple albums by the same artist, I am going to take the liberty of giving certain artists two albums — truly great artists have hot streaks rather than singles albums (think the Beatles in the '60s, David Bowie and Stevie Wonder in the '70s, Prince in the '80s, Jack White and Kanye West in the '00s, etc.), and the perspective of 10 years enables us to recognize that. And yes, they're in alphabetical order: Trying to rank them would take another 10 years …

The Avalanches, "Wildflower" (2016)

At the beginning of the millennium, a trio of Australian DJs calling themselves the Avalanches served up the greatest masterpiece of sampling brilliance since the Beastie Boys' "Paul's Boutique": "Since I Left You" is a vibrant mashup of densely layered samples that still managed to have actual songs and an album's arc, all without (as far as I know) a single live vocal or instrument. To do what they do takes so long that the follow-up took 15 years, but "Wildflower" was well worth the wait (and even includes a few live vocals). While these albums can sound at times like you're in an apartment with stereo wars going on between both of your neighbors, more often it's a gloriously impressionistic aural experience that stands up to hundreds of repeated listens. I've probably listened to these two albums more than any others over the past 20 years.

Beyonce, "Beyonce" (2013) / "Lemonade" (2016)

People tend to bow down before "Lemonade," and while there's no question that "Formation" and "Sorry" might be the two best songs Queen Bey has ever done, for my money "Beyonce" is a better album, with a murderer's row of opening songs that proved she's much more than a singles lady (sorry).

Charli XCX, "Charli" (2019)

It's an oddity of this very odd era that the greatest musical innovation has also been in its most popular genres: hip-hop, R&B and pop. Like Sia, Charli XCX is an artist who almost seems too prolific and talented for her own good. While she wrote or cowrote massive global hits ranging from Icona Pop's "I Love It" to Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello's "Senorita," she seemed to spent the past five years doing everything except create a formal third album: She dropped two mixtapes, a flurry of one-off singles and in 2018 toured the world opening for Taylor Swift early in the evening and playing underground clubs at night — and that latter fact may crack the code of this brilliant album. While the singles and mixtapes felt inconsistent or overly experimental, "Charli" finds her combining innovation and commercial appeal as brilliantly as Robyn or Solange, and even Beyonce. With soaring synthesizers, grinding bass, sophisticated melodies and autotune being used as an instrument instead of a crutch, it's the most forward-looking, futurist pop album since Robyn's "Body Talk."

D'Angelo, "Black Messiah" (2014)

The success that followed 2000's "Voodoo" — arguably the most visionary and organic R&B album made in the past 25 years — messed up D'Angelo so badly that he basically vanished from the mainstream for almost 15 years, obsessing over the same songs year after year. The irony? "Black Messiah" was worth the wait: All of that obsessing paid off, with a studied form of funk that somehow sounds spontaneous, even though it was years in the making.

Lana Del Rey, "Born to Die: The Paradise Edition" (2012)

For an artist with a relatively one-dimensional singing voice, Lana Del Rey has managed to morph her sound into remarkable new shapes over the course of six albums (and a couple dozen singles and guest appearances) in nine years. While she's made several fine albums since this (her third but the de facto debut of her character), "Born to Die" remains the one that made the biggest impact — especially the "Paradise Edition," which includes the Rick Rubin-helmed "Ride," possibly her best song to date.

Kendrick Lamar, "Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City" (2012) / "Damn." (2017)

It's somehow indicative of Kendrick Lamar's casual brilliance that he'd drop one of the greatest debut albums in history so seemingly effortlessly, then follow it with what might be the most jazz-heavy hip-hop LP to date, and then distill it all into a seasoned and mature third effort — all without appearing to break a sweat. While he can crank out inspirational bangers with the best of them (see "Alright," a song we could all use right about now), he can also serve up some of the most brain-twisting innovation that the genre has heard yes (witness "DNA"). Here's hoping the best is yet to come.

Frank Ocean, "Nostalgia, Ultra" (2013) / "Blonde" (2016)

As beautiful, influential and innovative as Frank Ocean's music has been over the past few years, he's arguably been even more influential as a champion for what I guess we can call artist's prerogative: He does what he wants, when he wants, and everyone just has to wait. He'll drop two albums in a week, three songs in a month, and even though there are often months of silence, you know he's working up something great that he'll share when he's good and ready. We trust you, Frank. Just don't make us watch any more videos of you building a staircase …

Robyn, "Body Talk" (2012)

Back in 1997 this young Swede was touted to be the next teen pop star alongside Britney Spears, but within a few years she chose another course for herself, forming her own label and crafting an innovative strain of pop along with collaborator Klas Ahlund and others. While that sound first bore fruit on her self-titled 2005 album (released three years later in the U.S.), it climaxed with 2012's near-flawless "Body Talk," a blast of ecstatic pop melodies and deeply sophisticated arrangements that arguably launched a whole new strain of "intellipop" (an insulting and musically prejudiced term). It's a mantle Charli XCX would soon pick up — and create the next chapter (see above).

The Weeknd, "House of Balloons" (2011)

The mystery associated with this mixtape, which first wormed its way across the Internet in 2011, is hard to imagine now that Abel Tesafaye is a global superstar: Back then, you couldn't even find a photo of him, and the only info was that he was a Canadian friend of Drake's. Yet "House of Balloons" is where his and so many other stories began: It arguably spawned a whole new strain of alt-R&B, one that was at times depressive and mined previously untouched sounds and samples. The Weeknd himself worked this vein to a logical conclusion and then unveiled the superstar he'd apparently been hiding all along, but it's rare to hear an R&B artist — and particularly an R&B producer — today who doesn't owe this album a monumental debt.

Kanye West, "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" (2010)

Setting aside where he is today, both musically and otherwise, there's no question that Kanye West may be the single most influential and important musical artist of the 2000s so far: Without Kanye, there could be no Drake and so many others. One could view this album and his 2004 debut, "The College Dropout," as bookends for the arc of his first five years, with the debut setting the tone for the happy, melodic Kanye and "Fantasy" being the ambitious end point — and he reinvented himself yet again with "Yeezy," which was equally influential but, to me anyway, less likeable. It's hard to hear any of Kanye's music now without picturing him in that f—ing red hat, and even in the midst of cancel culture, these albums stand as the work of a true innovator.

Andrew Barker's 10 Best Albums

1. Kendrick Lamar, "Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City" (2012)

With his subsequent albums, Kendrick Lamar would go on to craft jazz anthems for the Black Lives Matter movement, win the Pulitzer Prize, and turn a Marvel movie tie-in into a genuine work of art, but nothing in his formidable catalog has quite managed to equal the power of his major label debut. Everything that makes Lamar the greatest rapper of his generation is present and accounted for here: his slippery spirituality, his sensitivity to the grayest of margins between good and evil, his nose for hyperlocal yet universally understandable details, his ear for opulent yet unorthodox beats, his appreciation for hip-hop history and his disinterest in retreading that history, his anger, his empathy, his vulgarity, his monastic grace, his sincerity, his humor. From Tyler to Earl, Nipsey, Schoolboy, FlyLo, Jonwayne, YG, Greedo, Drakeo and Vince, it's truly been a banner decade for LA hip-hop, yet this is the already-timeless masterpiece by which an entire era will likely be remembered.

2. Joanna Newsom, "Have One on Me" (2010)

I don't cry much. And I'm not saying that to try and burnish my nonexistent tough-guy credentials – I'd probably be a much more emotionally healthy person if I cried more easily – it's just not a reaction I have too often, especially not in response to something like a song. But I remember the first time I heard "Baby Birch," the nine-minute waltz that serves as the centerpiece of Joanna Newsom's "Have One on Me," and I not only teared up, I had to immediately take a walk around the neighborhood to collect myself. I teared up the second time I heard it, too. And then again the first time I saw her perform it live. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe it was personal. Maybe it's just a beautiful song. Maybe, after a decade of wading through countless cooler-than-thou indie bands and first-thought-best-thought songwriting, I just wasn't sure how to handle that kind of sincerity and intensity – a piercingly direct song about a lost pregnancy by a woman playing a goddamn harp, writing lyrics in perfect Wordsworthian stanzas with archaic diction, blending Appalachian folk melodies with Baroque arrangements, always willing to risk seeming indulgent or pretentious or ridiculous because she knows she has the chops to pull it off. In any case, there are 17 other songs on "Have One on Me"; some are just as long, most are just as good.

3. Kamasi Washington, "The Epic" (2015)

As anyone who's been paying attention knows, jazz has remained a resilient, endlessly adaptable medium well into its second century. The trouble is, the number of people who've been paying attention has never been lower, and it takes something momentous for a jazz musician to regain the world's ear. Enter Kamasi Washington, who managed to do just that with this three-hour work of jaw-dropping ambition and invention. Equal parts cosmic, acrobatic, playful and melancholy, "The Epic" refused to fit neatly into any of the boxes of an increasingly regimented genre, wrestling America's greatest art form out of the clutches of academia and shoving it exuberantly towards the future.

4. D'Angelo and the Vanguard, "Black Messiah" (2014)

D'Angelo's career has followed a fairly straightforward pattern: Release an album, disappear from public sight for a decade or so, then repeat. It may be an A&R nightmare, but when it's resulted in three consecutive masterpieces, it's tough to argue with it. More explicitly political and willfully avant-garde than his first two LPs, "Black Messiah" nonetheless hit all of the same pleasure centers. D'Angelo's inimitable, multitracked vocals soar above continually surprising arrangements and ceaselessly sinewy grooves, with drummer Questlove and bassist Pino Palladino easing back into a pocket so deep it's almost subterranean.

5. Shabazz Palaces, "Black Up" (2011)

Back in 2011, nothing in hip-hop sounded quite like Shabazz Palaces: the off-kilter, glacial rhythms; the microdoses of atonality; the pointillist rhyme patterns; the use of empty space; the knack for creating subtle — at times almost gentle — textures out of teeth-rattling squalls of sub-bass… Nearly a decade later, so many of the touches that made Ishmael Butler and Tendai Maraire sound so extraterrestrial have become de rigueur on rap radio. And still, nothing sounds quite like Shabazz Palaces.

6. Beyoncé, "BEYONCÉ" (2013)

"Lemonade" might be the Beyoncé album that goes in the 21st century cultural time-capsule; "Dangerously in Love" might have had the biggest hit singles; and "4" might have had the best hit singles. But her self-titled, internet-breaking surprise release was where Beyoncé truly became BEYONCÉ – and not just on the front of the album cover. Complicating her sound and letting her mask of Olympian perfection slip, she revealed a more nuanced, interesting human character behind the flawless public persona. And it was thanks to these moments of vulnerability that her imperial phase began in earnest.

7. Kacey Musgraves, "Golden Hour" (2018)

Was "Golden Hour" really my favorite country album of the decade? My favorite pure pop album? My favorite stoner-folk-rock record? Can it properly be called any of those things? Who the hell knows. All I know is that the 2010s offered no mood-brightener as consistently effective as Kacey Musgraves' third full-length, and its Grammy coronation as Album of the Year forced me into the uncomfortable position of agreeing with the Recording Academy for the first time in decades.

8. Poliça, "Shulamith" (2013)

On their second album, the Minneapolis synth outfit managed to locate that perfect midpoint between Enya, the Cocteau Twins, and Nine Inch Nails that no one else would've even thought to look for. Their debut, "Give You the Ghost," had plenty of gems, but it was here that Poliça realized their full potential. "Chain My Name" sounds like the hottest club banger in the discos of the ice planet Hoth; "Very Cruel" keeps twisting a creeping synth line into something more and more sinister until you can barely recall where it started; and "Tiff" features the best Justin Vernon cameo of any song this decade (no disrespect to Kanye).

9. Vince Staples, "Summertime '06" (2015)

He may have only been 22 when he released his major label debut, but Vince Staples was already an old soul. And not an old soul in the selfie-gazing-wistfully-at-Machu-Picchu-on-your-Tinder-profile sense, but an old soul in the sense that he'd seen enough of the world to know exactly how full of shit it is, and he seemed to regard everything – even, and maybe especially, the vicissitudes of his own music career – with a deservedly skeptical eye. But what's remarkable about Staples is how rarely his skepticism ever sours into cynicism. Even at its darkest (and it gets plenty dark), "Summertime '06" never lacks a moral center. "My feelings told me love is real/But feelings known to get you killed," he raps on the title track, and he's smart enough to know just how sad that line really is.

10. The Coathangers, "Suck My Shirt" (2014)

How do you make punk rock relevant in the 2010s? If you're the Coathangers, you do it by forging your own unique sound using the same principles as the earliest punks in the 1970s: play hard, play fast, don't sweat the details, and don't take anything you're doing too seriously. The Atlanta band certainly didn't take much seriously on their infectiously rough first three albums – sample song titles: "Don't Touch My Shit," "Arthritis Sux," "Haterade" – but they managed to kick things into a much higher gear on their fourth, demanding a greater degree of respect without losing any of their smartass edge. Irreverent, chaotic, catchy, punk AF and occasionally a little threatening, you're never quite sure if the Coathangers are about to let you in on a joke or pull a knife on you in the parking lot.

Honorable mentions: Sade, "Soldier of Love"; No Age, "Everything in Between"; Kanye West, "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy"; Vampire Weekend, "Modern Vampires of the City"; Miranda Lambert, "The Weight of These Wings"; El-P, "Cancer 4 Cure"; My Bloody Valentine, "mbv"; Tyler, the Creator, "Igor"; Frank Ocean, "Channel Orange"; Calle 13, "Multi_Viral"; A Tribe Called Quest, "We Got It From Here…Thank You 4 Your Service"; Carly Rae Jepsen, "Emotion"; THEESatisfaction, "Awe Naturale"; Roc Marciano, "Reloaded"; Lana Del Rey, "Norman Fucking Rockwell!"

Chris Willman's 10 Best Albums

1. Taylor Swift, "1989" (2014)

"I swear I don't love the drama, it loves me," Swift swore in another of the terrific albums she made this decade — and whichever way you think the laws of attraction swing in this instance, there can be little doubt that she's the great pop dramaturgist of her generation. Really, any of the five albums she released during the 2010s could be on a best list, each one with 13 (or more, once she started valuing volume over superstition) vivid setpieces that were little mini-plays unto themselves, reenacting  conflicts with antagonists we can all relate to: self-doubt; careless lovers who won't return scarves; the Kardashians. So what made "1989" stand out, beyond the unerring musical instincts that make all her records just a bridge or pre-chorus away from pop sublimity squared? It's partly that it's the one where she "picked a lane," as she put it, zooming away from Nashville to welcome herself to New York and L.A. (or maybe, by Max Martin-ized proxy, Sweden) as an unabashed Top 40 stylist. But it's also the album where she found increased maturity in lightening up a little. In sexier songs like "Style," she was finding that not every mistake has to feel tragic; as Sheryl Crow once said, you can have favorite ones, too.

2. Brandi Carlile, "By the Way, I Forgive You" (2018)

The most thrilling moment of the 2019 Grammys — maybe any recent Grammys — was in seeing Carlile perform the new song that instantly became her signature one and, as she hit those final high notes, realizing that at that moment, the rest of the world was in on "The Joke," too. A song that leaps movingly between verses about adolescent gender identity issues and immigrant bias makes a pretty solid mascot for an entire album in which the Seattle native is a proponent for what she calls "debilitating empathy." Empowering empathy might be the phrase more listeners would pick, but maybe you should just go with her instinct on a record that does, in the end, floor you. There wasn't anything wrong with Carlile's previous five albums, but the sixth time was really the charm when it came to making a record that had some cohesion but also really allowed each track a distinctive musical personality, all the way to the epic closer, "Party of One," which somehow married the sensibilities of two of Carlile's heroes: Joni Mitchell in the writing, Elton John in the arranging. She has been elevated to their company, but it's the combination of chops and compassion that lands Carlile on her own shelf.

3. Billie Eilish, "When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?" (2019)

Eilish's full-length debut album has been so culturally ubiquitous, commercially successful and inter-generationally accepted that it's easy to forget, for a minute, just how deeply and wonderfully weird a lot of it is. She seemed just a little scary when she first came out, at least to parents, with the spider videos and epic liquid mascara fails and resting bad-ass face. And then she turned out to be completely warm and lovable, after all. So let's backtrack for a second, if we still can, to the scary parts of "When We All Fall Asleep," like deep anxiety, dread, night terrors and suicidal tendencies. That she and her collaborating brother Finneas could wrap all these dark elements up in such an inviting bow was one of the major musical accomplishments of the 2010s. There were moments on the album that were just a little less idiosyncratic and more timeless, too, like the ballads "I Love You" and "When the Party's Over" — the songs that make you believe she'll still have everyone's attention into the 2040s and '50s. You can love those signposts of a maturity and maybe normalization to come and still cherish the oddest moments of the album, too, when the low-key combination of buzzy synths, deep bass lines and the sound of Eilish whispering somehow adds up to a transfixing kind of rock 'n roll.

4. Beyoncé, "Lemonade" (2016)

Even back to her earliest Destiny's Child days, Beyoncé was more of a confessional singer/songwriter than she was perhaps given credit for at the time. The shine coming off show business's most spectacular legs can distract you from a thing like that. But there was no escaping it when it came to her sixth solo album, for which she chose not to do any interviews, because, you know, the album was the interview. There were the songs of marital distress, but did anyone ever look so delighted to be brought down to size in a roman a clef as Jay-Z? Of course the narrative of the album moves from personal revenge to scorching the earth with positivity, with "Freedom" and "Formation" as the album's great singles and climaxes. You could view all this as precursor to Beyoncé's even greater triumph with her Coachella show, the singular live event of the decade, a celebration of the African American experience that felt like the greatest halftime show that ever just took over and superseded the game.

5. Kacey Musgraves, "Same Trailer Different Park" (2013)

Since her arrival on the scene six years ago, Musgraves has pretty much redefined what a modern country singer can be as well as just what side route they can take to becoming an arena headliner. And maybe all those kids buying "Golden Hour" LPs in Urban Outfitter aren't thinking of her as a country star at all. As wonderful a wistfully romantic turn for her as that latest Grammy-winning album was, her most defining moment is still the album that brought her to the dance, in which Musgraves could flaunt her mobile-home cred along with her glamour, her tartness with her sweetness, her observational humor with her heartache. "Follow Your Arrow" was the accidental progressive anthem the genre needed; breakout single "Merry Go Round" somehow went top 10 despite being the downbeat antithesis of the hometown pride corkers that still dominate country. But Musgraves is really at her best when she's doing something as subtle as noting the transactional nature of a dying relationship in "It is What It Is." Is it too much to ask her to be our modern-day Loretta Lynn, Bobbie Gentry and John Prine wrapped up into one? Apparently not.

6. The New Pornographers, "Whiteout Conditions" (2017)

The benefits of having several lead vocalists — by this point, one male and several female (including Neko Case) — become apparent as you're listening to any of the recent albums by the New Pornographers, whose songwriter and leader, A.C. Newman, has described the sound they're going for as something akin to a "Krautrock Fifth Dimension." That witty thumbnail only begins to get at what's great about an indie-rock group that channels the synth-y joy of ELO and cheerfully nonchalant harmonies of an ABBA into broodingly amped-up songs about depression, the artist's role in times of turmoil, the nature of persona, and the impending demise of Western civilization.

7. St. Vincent, "St. Vincent" (2014)

Even before we lost the existing David Bowie, it was clear we were going to need a new one, and that it would probably need to be a woman. Lady Gaga didn't fit the bill as originally expected: the world really wants, or most needs, her to be a new Tony Bennett. But Annie Clark fit the bill, as one of the true rock stars who came to the fore in the 2010s, and as someone whose considerable gift for vivid visual presentation and reimaging is literally just about the least of her prodigious talents. Her most recent album, the Jack Antonoff-produced "Masseduction," provided a promising example of how she might be able to ramp up a more grandiose-pop side while retaining her essential avant-garde-iness. But when it comes down to a choice of just one pick, the self-titled album that preceded it is deeply satisfying as a slightly more stripped-down example of her ethos, with a little more allowance given for the lead guitar breaks that suggest she might have taken to Robert Fripp most of all while she was absorbing her Bowie. If at any time her musings on the traps of the digital age risked becoming an indie-rock TED talk, she would always bring it right back with a personal gut-punch that took these songs out of the realm of theory and back into raw emotion. We're going to need her clear vision in the 2020s.

8. Elvis Costello & the Imposters, "Look Now" (2018)

This is a top 10 with, as you may have noticed, a lot of great female perspectives in it. The same goes for Costello's "Look Now," actually: at least half the songs on it are from a woman's point of view, oftentimes in the first person, a p.o.v. the veteran rocker obviously feels comfortably slipping into. He maybe had an advantage with that, in how a number of the album's songs derive from unproduced musicals he'd spent the decade working on, which provided Costello ample opportunity to try on a gown, as it were, as a writer. But this wasn't a completely abrupt shift; even some of his earliest records had him wanting to protect women from the wolves at their door, even if his lyrical angle may have been motivated more by jealously romantic self-interest at the time. At this late stage in the game, Costello is almost completely a sympathetic character writer… and "Look Now" has a lot of musical character to it, too. This '60s pop-influenced collection puts a fresh spin on his '90s collaboration with Burt Bacharach (who did co-write a few songs here): What if Dionne Warwick were backed by a band with a good deal more nervous energy to it? Popular music doesn't get any better crafted, or — even with all the story-songs and character sketches here — any more deeply felt.

9. Aimee Mann, "Mental Illness" (2017)

She could just about claim a spot on this list for having the best album title of the 2010s alone. But even more than that was required, and Mann delivered it with a quiet set of exquisitely frowny chamber-pop. The inherent joke of the album's name is that we're just about all pretty effed up, or diagnose-able, in the way we return to the patterns that serve us least. "I can see your light on, calling me back to make the same mistake again," she sings in the album's closer. "My heart is a poor judge, and it harbors an old grudge." Of course, anyone who knows Mann knows she really harbors the ability to make all this clinical dysfunction sound very, very, very pretty. And "Mental Illness" is uncompromising in just how uncommercial a style it picks as a delivery system for that down-on-luck loveliness: acoustic guitars and pianos accompanied by a string section that lends even more solemnity to the whole beautifully sorry affair. It's not really that much of a bummer, in the end: Mann is too deadpan in her observations to wallow in melancholy, and damn if that potentially morose orchestration isn't its own kind of pick-me-up.

10. Leonard Cohen, "You Want It Darker" (2016)

As our favorite boomer rock stars and singer-songwriters push the envelope further into the territory of how close you get to the dying of the light and still make a compelling record, we see some actually acting their age. In the Who's "Who," Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend sounded oddly vigorous in the midst of a record about being angry old men. Cohen, of course, was not destined to convey either vigor or anger, whether or not he knew illness would make this album the last he would complete during his lifetime. As a writer, he faces the near-end courageously — which is to say, with as little cockiness as possible. There are songs in which the one-time ladies' man acknowledges that lust is no longer the point of pride or problem that it once was. But what's most interesting is how, in the title track and others, he wrestles with a God he doesn't necessarily believe in — not just taking issue with his own mortality but with the humanity that's fashioned itself in his image. (In that, this album has something in common with another top-shelf '10s album, Father John Misty's "Pure Comedy," although Misty is more direct about his divine argumentation.) You may or may not believe in the concept of a "good death," but Cohen's earthly finale proved it's possible to fashion a good end in art, at least.

And not to forget: Cecile McLoran Salvant's "Dreams & Daggers"; Jason Isbell's "Southeastern"; A Tribe Called Quest's "We Got It from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service"; "Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording)"; Lucius' "Nudes"; Father John Misty's "God's Favorite Customer"; Dawes' "All Your Favorite Bands"; Miranda Lambert's "Four the Record"; "Heathers (Original Cast Recording)"; David Bowie's "Blackstar"; Pistol Annies' "Interstate Gospel"; the Raconteurs' "Help Us Stranger"; Maren Morris' "Hero"; Ariana Grande's "Sweetener"; Muse's "The 2nd Law"; Bob Dylan's "Triplicate"; Robyn's "Body Talk"; Robbie Fulks' "Gone Away Backward"; Adele's "21"; Randy Newman's "Dark Matter"; Lorde's "Melodrama"; Sara Bareilles' "What's Inside: Songs from 'Waitress'"; Ryn Weaver's "The Fool"; Tom Waits' "Bad as Me."
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