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Argentine rapper, Nicki Nicole (born Nicole Denise Cucco), is a sensation, a creative dynamo and a success story. The 20-year-old artist boasts handfuls of tracks with millions upon millions of streams on YouTube alone. She is brash, stylish and snarling. She’s magnetic. As a result, Nicole has a bright future ahead of her fueled both by her obsessive passion for song and by her legions of fans that propel her to do more.

We caught up with Nicole, who speaks Spanish fluently but does not speak much English, to ask her about her relationship to music, hip-hop and what fans can next expect from her on the heels of the recent release of her hit, “No Toque Mi Naik,” which features the Puerto Rican vocalist, Lunay. Below are Nicole’s answers, given to us through a translator.

Chicago-born rapper, Vic Mensa, is a dreamer. But unlike many dreamers, Mensa puts his ambitions and goals and wildest creative fantasies into action. He’s a man of action, equipped with a mind rich with ideas and hopes. But, for better and for worse, there is nothing especially happy-go-lucky about the wildly successful artist, either. Mensa has seen a lot, heard a lot, felt a lot in his years growing up on the south side of Chicago. It’s one of the country’s most dangerous neighborhoods and, as such, it shapes how its residents view and react to the world. Chicago, in another way, is also something of a crossroads. For Mensa, it meant a place from which to grow into a successful artist. For others, it’s a place that’s led them to prison, both justly and unjustly.

These are the things Mensa talks about on his new album, I TAPE, which is out now. Whether it’s the heavy new single, “Shelter,” or any of the other six tracks on the record, Mensa is open to talk about pain, suffering, prison and the dearth of justice so many see on a daily basis. We caught up with the rapper to ask him about how he found music, what it means to him and what went into his latest release.

The great Alice Cooper is back!

The artist, who rose to prominence in Detroit in the ‘70s, has a new album, Detroit Stories, set for release February 26. This is the first new release for Cooper—who will likely have many fans these days saying that they’re not worthy —since the 2017 record, Paranormal, which hit number 32 on the Billboard 200 chart. On the new 15-track album, Cooper and company channel the Motor City, which, of course, is known for hard-pumping, piston-pounding rock ‘n’ roll, as much as it is for hip-swaying Motown R&B.

Cooper growls about the golden era of the radio, changing the world through rock and much more. Listening to the record, it feels as if he’s been reinvigorated, as if he’s fallen in love with music and recording all over again. For the album, Cooper also reunited with longtime producer, Bob Ezrin, and brought in several Detroit all-stars for the sessions.

American Songwriter caught up with Cooper to ask him about his early days in the Motor City, what he loves about music today and when he first put on makeup to play the theatrical rock ‘n’ roll character, Alice Cooper.

For fans of the historic hip-hop ensemble, the Roots, or regular watchers of NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the expressive, dynamic guitarist, Captain Kirk Douglas, is no stranger. His wild, bending solos careen off the staccato, precise drum fills from the group’s leader and drummer, Quest Love.

Douglas, who grew up in New York City and later joined the Roots in 2003, came to guitar at an early age (10 years old) and music at an even earlier age (birth). His parents played music all the time, for celebrations, family events and just to relax.

Later, Douglas remembers, when his parents told him they’d get him a new guitar, he ran around the house like a maniac in celebration. That love has both persisted and paved the way for Douglas’s long and noteworthy career as a musician.

We caught up with Douglas, who recently launched his own signature electric guitar line with Gibson, to talk about the new axes and find how just what it is about the six-string that invigorates him so much.

With the news of the forthcoming Carrie Brownstein-written Heart biopic on the way, it’s as good a time as ever to dive back into the music of the chart-topping, ground-breaking anthemic rock ‘n’ roll band. Born in the Pacific Northwest, Heart’s music has inspired musicians of all kinds, from the Hall of Famer Robert Plant to the garage band next door. And it’s all because of two things: singer Ann Wilson’s sweeping, sky-scraping vocals and sister Nancy’s guitar shredding, riff rocking prowess. The band, which formed in 1970, is essential to American music history.

To celebrate the transcendent group, we caught up with front woman and vocalist Ann to ask her about one of Heart’s first hit singles, “Magic Man.” The track, which was released in July 1975, was one of the first songs from the group’s debut LP, Dreamboat Annie. The track, which includes a belted chorus, is all about falling in love and acting on those feelings. It peaked at number-9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has gone on to inspire chest-pounding romance ever since. “Magic Man,” which is about the spell of a lover, simply wails.

You may recognize Jon Batiste from the popular program, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Batiste, is of course, the band leader for the TV show. Or you may recognize Batiste (and his animated hands) from his work on the new Pixar movie, Soul, for which he both scored and composed songs. Batiste, who was born and raised in New Orleans, made his professional bones in New York City beginning at the age of seventeen. On March 19th, though, Batiste will release his latest LP, We Are, featuring the current single, “I Need You,” out now.

American Songwriter caught up with Batiste to talk about discovering music in the Crescent City, the story behind his new album and Soul and what he loves most about making music.

The great American musician, Taj Mahal (born Henry Saint Clair Fredericks), is, at heart, an essentialist. The music he loves is often the distilled essence of a genre or style, rather than the pomp and circumstance that can be fashioned out of it.

Sometimes that means putting a subtle but modern spin on an old folk or blues classic. Sometimes that can mean just playing the root, third and fifth the way the first blues men and women did it hundreds of years ago. In that same way, Mahal, who was born in Harlem, New York, and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts, has labored many of his adult years as a farmer, working the earth, growing crops and looking after livestock. This is important stuff, he reminds. And he’s right. It builds soul and character from the earth up.

American Songwriter caught up with the 78-year-old Mahal to ask him about how he first came to music, what it was like for him to toil on farms, why he’s intrigued by Hawaiian culture and what he loves most about music.