The FADER

Loe Shimmy. Loe Shimmy is determined to make 2026 his biggest year yet. “Summertime coming up, it's time to take that over,” Shimmy said when he stopped by The FADER offices with his crew in mid-June. “We want to take over the fall, winter, summer, all that.” After landing one of the best songs on Habibti by Drake, Shimmy kept his momentum up with a new single “Body Dangerous” the following week.

Rain and a 20% chance of thunderstorms didn’t stop hundreds from pulling up to Brooklyn's Elsewhere to catch a sunset set from The FADER's new cover star underscores. Giggly and high-spirited fans arrived as early as 9 a.m. to hold down the line, which eventually grew to stretch multiple city blocks around the venue. If you ask us, the trek was worth it.

The 47th annual BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! performing arts festival kicked off on June 4 and this year’s lineup is seriously stacked. Don’t worry if you missed out on your chance to see Sheila E., Wayne Wonder, or Patti LaBelle – there are still plenty of great concerts to catch between now and September when the festival winds down.

Canadian composer Michael Cloud Duguay wanted to break out of the “sterile” box of a recording studio, so naturally he found his way to a solar-powered, vehicular recording studio. Duguay, who came up musically in the 2010s Toronto indie scene, took a 10-year hiatus from making music as he grappled with addiction. When he moved towards deeper recovery and, in turn, music, the notion of returning to the often stuffy, rigid environments of a recording studio, became a non-starter.

Fame brings frenzy. Frost Children — the expansive EDM/pop project of siblings Lulu and Angel Prost — learned that lesson the hard way near the end of last year, when they experienced a phenomena all too common in music today: fan stalking. “Internet and real life things happening that were terrifying,” Angel tells the FADER in a July video call.

GEN F: Absolutely’s stirring pop fantasy Just like her name, the British singer-songwriter’s music is boundless and larger than life. The FADER's longstanding series GEN F profiles emerging artists to know now. It’s been quite the year for Abby-Lynn Keen. When I catch the 22-year-old musician over a video call in early June, she’s three weeks from embarking on a four-month global tour with her big sisters, RAYE and Amma. After that, she’ll open for pop star-slash-actor Reneé Rapp in Europe.

When you listen to S.K.A.T.E. by Rylo Rodriguez, you’re never far from a ridiculous pun. Signed to Lil Baby, the Mobile, Alabama, rapper has a knack for outlandish free-association that brightens up his stone-serious trap music. So although the midtempo raps on his first album in three years remain firmly in the bluesy territory of Southern pain rap, his lyricism more readily recalls forebears like Lil Wayne and collaborators like Rio Da Yung OG – for better and worse.

For three days every summer, a new country appears on the outskirts of Paris. It's called Yardland. The "Land" in the French music festival’s name isn't totally figurative. It's an apt descriptor for what the event has become: a temporary territory where the Afro-diasporic and Caribbean cultures shaping contemporary France finally have a place to call their own.

Kindergarten Records founder Ma Sha evokes the spirit of her label name. A key part of New York City's Bass revival, Ma Sha and her Kindergarten crew (which has been going strong for over five years) have infused the City’s scene with a pugnaciously playful quality. Working with the likes of Sobolik, Ayesha, and Stolen Velour, among many others.

Justin Bieber will play the ultimate halftime show at the 2026 FIFA World Cup Finals. Bieber will join a globe-spanning set of co-headliners: Madonna, Shakira, and BTS. Other performers include Burna Boy, LA Philharmonic music director Gustavo Dudamel, and the famous PS22 Chorus from Staten Island, who have gone viral for their covers of Björk and Kate Bush. Coldplay's Chris Martin curated the performance and Coldplay is also featured on the stacked line up (which even includes The Muppets).