When you hear the name Stephen Thomas, you might right away think of Charleston, West Virginia, or maybe his own genre name, "Universal" As a label, it does not feel like a neat box. Instead, it feels like an open field where hip-hop and alternative pop music mix. His most recent song, "Breaking Hearts," sounds a lot like that. It utilises sounds from artists like...

The Cadence of Rhyme, an independent UK-based poet-turned-songwriter, has dropped a defiant single called "Dalek". Billed as an intersection of alternative hip-hop and indie pop, the release operates on a heavily defended philosophy: the meaning leads, the emotion guides, and the production simply serves the story. https://open.spotify.com/album/6LJgrHMFuRlVR6LvanuwHr?si=XA9RzhO_TQiPMltZfPtK0A He takes AI-generated instrumentals and painstakingly wrestles them into submission, bending the tech to fit his precise, human-crafted poetry....