Words + Music

For the past 30 years, Usher has exhilarated audiences with stadium-sized anthems, innovative choreography, and dazzling charm that has made him a once-in-a-generation superstar. The Last Showman is an introspective look into the past, present, and future of a beloved global R&B icon. Usher opens up about the inspirations, heartache, and growth that fueled the creation of his record-breaking magnum opus, Confessions, while revisiting some of its most iconic tracks.

In his W+M installment, A Dynamic Career in Communications, yasiin bey treats listeners to a rich and immersive experience that goes beyond the surface. It's a captivating journey that explores his roots, beliefs, and creative process. Through his words and music, yasiin bey offers a unique and powerful perspective on life, art, and the role of communication in shaping the world we live in.

Launching during the 30th anniversary year of Doggystyle, Snoop Dogg’s installment of Words + Music reflects on his coming-of-age journey from the streets of Long Beach to around the world and his decision to pursue love and life over death and destruction.

A leading light on the alternative and indie music scene for nearly 40 years, Jeff Tweedy is a master of the art in the artifice of songwriting. In this volume, Tweedy introduces listeners to the people, occasions, and frames of mind that have inspired but don’t necessarily populate the iconic songbooks of bands Wilco, Uncle Tupelo, and Tweedy.

The Art of Confessing is an intimate diary entry from Jazmine Sullivan, a Grammy-winning vocal powerhouse blessed with the unique gift of emotional storytelling. R&B is a space for Black women to create their own language around love, sexuality, and heartache. Within that space, Jazmine Sullivan has built a strong, powerful sisterhood through her music.

Indie-rock icon Aimee Mann is well acquainted with trauma and the transformative act of using it as a basis for artistic expression, but that doesn’t mean that she knows how or why it works. Mann goes on a journey of discovery to better understand the link between damage and why what we do with it matters.

This is the story of how a nerdy, homeschooled kid in the church choir named John Stephens became the Grammy-winning, platinum-selling, genre-pushing pop star we know as John Legend. For a long time, he led a double life—excelling as a star student while his home life was in shambles, working in corporate America as a financial consultant while moonlighting as a musician in nightclubs, always straddling a line between the person he was and the person he wanted to be. These are his Words + Music.