The rapper would sing Bob Marley going to school and gets the party started with Black Eyed Peas, but which pop classic is he ashamed to admit liking?

The first song I remember hearing
I don’t know if it’s the first song I remember hearing, but the first song I remember singing was No Woman, No Cry by Bob Marley . I grew up in Senegal and I would sing it on my way to and from school.

The song I stream the most
I’m pretty versatile these days but I would probably say Costa Titch by Big Flexa featuring C’buda M, Alfa Kat, Banaba Des, Sdida & Man T.

Her song Water made the South African a global star, while her undulating dance moves inspired TikTok challenges. Now the 22 year old is ready to take her ‘popiano’ sound to the next level

Tyla may have 4.3 million followers on Instagram (called the Tygers), but she isn’t yet used to the equivalent real-world level of fame. For instance, she was recently approached by TikTok troll Harry Daniels . “There’s this guy that finds celebrities and sings to them,” she explains. “He sang Water” – her breakthrough single – “and poured water on his head.”

She laughs down the phone from Los Angeles, where she is promoting her self-titled debut album, which is out today. At 22, Tyla has already won a Grammy for Water (it netted best African music performance, a new category), and has performed it on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show, while the song charted in more than 30 countries. This level of cut-through isn’t common for South African musicians, and Tyla knows that she is blazing a trail for the country’s music scene. “More people are starting to know about South Africa now,” she says. “They want to hear me say ‘Yoh!’ and they love the dancing.”

(Interscope)
The Philadelphia rapper takes her Missy Elliott-gone-Sesame Street vibe to a darker place on her debut album proper

Hailed as her generation’s answer to Missy Elliott, Philadelphia rapper Tierra Whack has been celebrated not just for her lyrical dexterity but for her commitment to goofiness. Her exuberant debut mini-album, Whack World (2018), clocked in at 15 one-minute tracks; a clutch of EPs and some standalone singles consolidated her effervescence across different genres.

Last year’s award-winning thriller/spoof documentary about Whack, Cypher , also attested to the weirdness that the creative nonconformist has experienced during her rise. She has trailed World Wide Whack , her official debut LP , with a trio of tracks – one ditty about her smell ( Chanel Pit ); a funky cut about singing in the shower ( Shower Song ); and a moving tune about feeling “broken”. The track’s title, 27 Club, refers to Whack not joining the set of artists who died at that age (she is now 28).

The teenage Mancunian is one of British rap’s finest prospects, with a defiant flow and sly humour that’s won him nods from Drake and more

You could make a case for British rap being more compelling than its American cousin of late; it’s in its rapid expansion phase, not caught in a holding pattern. Partly that’s because there are now so many talented UK artists with non-London accents that it could soon be a disadvantage to spit from England’s capital. Teenage Mancunian Nemzzz is one of our most exciting prospects.

Growing up in Gorton in a house with a kitted-out studio, he was destined for the stage. “My mum made beats – all genres, you can’t box her in! And Dad sang reggae and bashment. I thought, let me give this a try,” the 19-year-old, real name Nemiah Simms, recalls. Six years ago he was ripping beats off YouTube to practise over, obsessively improving his vocal technique and lyrical dexterity. By 2021 he was working with professional beatmakers and scoring a viral smash, Elevate , leading to co-signs from Drake, Central Cee and Lil Yachty. Nemzzz’s voice is unforgettable: pugilistic truculence mixed with sly humour that’s as Manchester as drizzle on a Friday night.

Do Not Disturb is out now. Nemzzz tours Ireland and the UK from 30 April

She’s a muse to Beyoncé, a champion of Lego and raps about her imaginary friend – but behind the whimsy is a street-hardened MC confronting grief and depression

• This article contains discussion of suicide

There’s a video of Tierra Whack filmed when she was 15, dressed in dull pink knitwear on the corner of a Philadelphia street, surrounded by older guys smoking weed. “Rapping is my destiny / Especially for these hysterectomies who be testing me / You deaf to me / You’re not hearing what I’m sharing like an uncaring parent …” Words pour out of her in an a cappella freestyle to camera, more performance poetry than rap, voice morphing from one persona to another – one of those mic-drop, jaw-drop moments where you see a new star gather light in real time.

Twelve years later, and the knitwear is bright and expensive, she’s a muse to Beyoncé and has become one of the most singular rappers and singers in America. Her 2018 debut album, Whack World, felt like a piece of performance art with 15 multi-genre tracks each exactly one minute long; her feature film last year, Cypher, flipped the tired fly-on-the-wall music documentary format into a satirical horror movie about conspiracy theories and selling out. While many rappers align themselves with luxury brands, Whack did a campaign with Lego, and her brilliant second album, World Wide Whack, out this week, shows off that whimsy on songs about an imaginary friend, dates at the cinema and singing in the shower. But it is also devastatingly honest about her experience of depression. “I’m 28 now – I was supposed to kill myself when I was 27,” she tells me in the London offices of her record label. “But I decided to keep going.”

Coldplay become act to headline most times with their fifth top slot, while Shania Twain is booked for the Sunday teatime ‘legend’ set as the lineup is announced

Dua Lipa, Coldplay and SZA will headline Glastonbury 2024, a diverse spread of A-list artists matched by a strong supporting lineup across the festival including Little Simz, LCD Soundsystem and Burna Boy, plus Shania Twain in the always-jubliant “legend” slot.

Much loved by Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis who once said they can “call in and do the milking any time” on his Worthy Farm site, Coldplay continue their longstanding relationship with the festival, becoming the first act to headline the Pyramid stage five times. They launched themselves into pop-rock’s big leagues with their first headline performance in 2002 when they had only released one album, and have since headlined in 2005, 2011 and 2016, as well as doing a livestreamed performance to an empty Pyramid stage field in lieu of a 2021 festival cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Paul Mescal spoke Gaeilge at the Baftas, Cillian Murphy at the Oscars. Films are being written in it, dramas acted in it – and rappers are translating drug lingo into it. Our writer hails an extraordinary renaissance

Grindr, Saghdar agus Cher is a modern play about hook-ups, dating apps and going on a bender. But the most current thing about it may be that the piece, staged by LGBTQ+ collective Aerach Aiteach Gaelach, is performed entirely in Irish.

“We just wanted to show that these things are happening in Irish,” co-writer Ciara Ní É says of the drama, which lands in Dublin this week. “We have slang, we have messy nights, and it’s all as Gaeilge ” – that is, in the Irish language. “It’s real in that sense,” she continues. “These things happen around the country regularly.” The title only barely needs translating (“saghdar” means cider), but the show itself is unapologetically in the native tongue. “It has English subtitles. We do try to be accessible,” says Ní É.

(Warner)
The grime veteran proves he’s still on the up with a well-crafted collection of thoughtful, impassioned tracks

Remarkably, rappers who were teens when grime went national are now turning 40. After half a lifetime at the mic, Ghetts is one of the few rap veterans who can still be considered on the up. He’s never had a crossover radio hit yet was a popular winner of this year’s Mobo Pioneer award, as “a true inspiration and icon” to UK black music. And last album Conflict of Interest was his most successful project yet, scooping a 2021 Mercury nomination after reaching No 2 in the charts.

In a world where André 3000 questions the point of old MCs, Ghetts’s On Purpose, With Purpose repeatedly makes the case for his own relevance in typically thoughtful, impassioned style. Sampha-assisted Double Standards is a fabulous showcase for his elegant fury, covering hypocrisy, colourism, paedophilia and prejudice with courage and wisdom. Mount Rushmore (featuring fellow heads Kano and Wretch 32) has the best beat-and-flow marriage, but there’s also solid work on Afrobeats and amapiano tracks such as Tumbi, Blessings and Hallelujah. This is a well-crafted collection that could maybe do with a couple more heaters, but will keep the wider audience he picked up with Conflict of Interest happy.

Their riotous music is uniting young people in Northern Ireland and reviving the Irish language; a fictionalised film about their rise just won the audience award at Sundance. The punk-rap trio talk about raving, working with Toddla T – and enraging politicians

A slow afternoon in the warm wooden enclave that is Madden’s Bar, Belfast. A handful of middle-aged Guinness drinkers chat quietly, nestled like comfy dogs in the corner. The lights are low. The music is comforting.

Until, blap! Not quite a cowboy entrance, but the door opens and the energy levels leap. In bowl three young men, familiar to the barman, the drinkers and anyone who’s interested in rap or who watches joe.co.uk or Vice videos. Kneecap , the Irish-language band smashing out of Belfast and into the world, are here: rappers Mo Chara (Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, 26), smooth-skinned and pretty in a blue jumper and mac; Móglaí Bap (Naoise Ó Cairealláin, 30), with a grin like a smiley shark, in an excellent Lacoste tracksuit, and DJ Próvaí (JJ Ó Dochartaigh, 34), usually pictured wearing an Irish flag balaclava, but today in his civvies of no face covering and black clothes. They’re straight up to the bar: Guinness for Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap, a blackcurrant and soda for Próvaí.