Kylah Williams

If you want to understand music the way kwn does, just peep their trademark dance, a twitchy neck movement that involuntarily pops out when she’s really feeling it. The internet immediately latched onto the move, along with kwn’s hair-raising R&B. “If you look at my dad listening to music, you'll know why I do what I do," she laughs when we speak at The FADER offices on June 3, three weeks ahead of her new album and all pride aside.

Queens rapper Bay Swag doesn’t fuck with people coming around when his money is up. Case in point: the new music video for “LAYDERR” — which follows Bay Swag before and after getting a bag, and culminates in a celebration at the strip club. The track and video are his second link-up with Chicago royalty G Herbo, and it arrived six years after their last collaboration, 2023’s “Quagen.” The new Lavish-directed video has a dark and moody feel to it, mirroring the haunting production of the track.

“Make some noise if you’re gay! Make some noise if you’re gayer!! Make some noise if you’re GAYEST!!!” Kennie, one of the founders of Gay, Gayer, Gayest (GGG), a New York City party series for Black and queer sapphics — set the mission for the night. In response to her call, the crowd, a beautiful spectrum of Black and Brown queerness, got loud enough to shake the walls of H0l0, a no-phones basement venue in Bushwick.