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IA LOOK INTO THEIR ACCOMPLISHMENTS, AWARDS, STRUGGLES; THE UNIQUE JOURNEY.

the hottest artists

40 eussI

Exclusive interview with

complex table of con tents

01

02

03

Drake 08 01

02 12

14

Travis Scott

Rihanna

04

Taska Black

03

04

04

69

complex

Drake.

DRIZZY

Drake's "In My Feelings" tallies a 10th week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, granting the superstar yet another record: he leads the Hot 100 for an unprecedented 29th week in 2018, via his three No. 1s this year.

Meanwhile, Drake becomes the first soloist, and second act overall, after Boyz II Men, with three songs that have topped the Hot 100 for at least 10 weeks each, as "Feelings" joins Drake's two other smashes that led for at least that long: "God's Plan," earlier this year, and "One Dance," featuring WizKid and Kyla, in 2016.

Drake has now led the Hot 100 for a record-breaking 29 weeks in 2018, as, prior to "Feelings," "Nice for What" spent eight weeks at No. 1 beginning April 21, directly succeeding "God's Plan" after 11 weeks on top, with all three songs from his album Scorpion.

complex

Travis Scott.

LA FLAME

Astroworld is an epic collaboration project where every guest nails it

Astroworld is one hell of a ride, where each song is like a different attraction while managing to fit the overall theme of Travis Scott’s hyperactive mind. The aesthetic and textures of the album are brilliantly laid out as the listener journeys from one ride to the next.

You'll enjoy some rides more than others, but this is undoubtedly Travis Scott’s most mature work to date. Songs like “R.I.P. Screw,” which involves a homage to the late Texas DJ, serve as the calm walk to the next adrenaline-filled rush, like the volatile “No Bystanders,” where you’ll most definitely want to throw a chair through a window. It’s the ebb and flow that makes this album everything you want out of the shuttered Houston theme park that it is named after.

Yes, it’s a Travis Scott solo album, but this could be deemed as something akin to a DJ Khaled album, with all of the guest spots.

While it can be considered a crutch for some artists to jam pack their album with guests, Scott effectively orchestrates each guest's involvement, making sure they all play a vital role in shaping the sound of the album. Think of it as Travis Scott having a plethora instruments at his disposal and knowing how to play each one. Other collaborative albums have guests for the sake of having the opportunity to show the world how deep one's personal contacts list is, but Scott ensures that each guest has a purpose. No guest is misused or inserted arbitrarily.

complex

Rihanna.

BADGAL RIRI

And yet Rihanna’s most impressive body of work begins and ends with her music. While it’s been more than two years since she released Anti, she continues to dominate the pop charts, and she set yet another benchmark this March as the first female artist ever to surpass two billion streams on Apple Music. With her next record—her ninth —Rihanna is moving the needle on her creative output all over again: She plans to make a reggae album.

The album received a lukewarm reception at the time of its release. Some critics wrote it off as scattershot and uneven, laden with pop songs that were anything but sweet. Others called it selfindulgent, made to please herself. In the end Anti defied all expectations, landing more number-one hits on Billboard’s dance-club-songs chart than any other album in its history. And though it was famously snubbed at the Grammys, Rihanna would end up scooping the prestigious Vanguard award (MTV’s equivalent to a lifetime-achievement award) at the VMAs. Fans will recognize a version of this mission statement from the lyrics of “Needed Me,” the hit single from Anti that has gone platinum five times over. In the video, Rihanna is a woman on a revenge mission who assassinates her former lover in the smoky back room of a Miami strip club. The singer has been criticized for glamorizing violence, though her defenders say that this subversive imaging speaks to the culture’s shifting power dynamics.

complex

Taska Black.

ANTWERP

Rising through the ranks of the production community, Taska Black has become a name to watch in the future melodic community with his impeccable production style that is both unique while being masterful in quality.

"I’m working on a lot of music for next year already. Working with vocalists is definitely something I really enjoy doing. I’m trying to implement different aspects of pop music in my tracks while still maintaining my sound."

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