Common’s resume is that of a 21st-century renaissance man: GRAMMY Award-winning rapper, renowned activist, recipient of an Academy Award for his song “Glory” from the 2014 film Selma and a key influence in the emergence of a movement of thoughtful black culture spanning from Dave Chappelle to Ta-Nehisi Coates. However, in spite of all of this success, one phone call from his daughter Omoye — in which she told him that he was falling short as a father — caused his world to crumble. He had to reevaluate fatherhood, love, faith — everything.

The emcee now debuts the video for “Show Me That You Love,” which depicts this big bang moment that sparked a period of therapy and self-examination that led to the writing of his New York Times best-seller Let Love Have The Last Word and the creation of his new album, Let Love (out August 30th on Loma Vista Recordings).

Let Love finds Common sounding as vital as ever, with a soul-forward sound that delves into issues of fatherhood, masculinity, self-care and more. With contributions from A-Trak, BJ The Chicago Kid, Leon Bridges, Daniel Caesar, Dwele, Leikeli47, Jill Scott and more, it’s a radical statement that is among hip-hop’s most incisive, insightful albums this year.

Watch the video for “Show Me That You Love,” directed by Sadé Clacken Joseph.

Hip-hop pioneer Fred Brathwaite AKA Fab 5 Freddy has announced that his acclaimed BBC documentary — A Fresh Guide To Florence With Fab 5 Freddy, which debuted in the UK this past weekend — will be coming to the US this fall. The documentary follows Fab 5 Freddy as he embarks on a quest to uncover the hidden black figures of Italian Renaissance art.

“Not only were Renaissance artists making art that defined high aesthetic ideals but they were also groundbreaking in showing an ethnically diverse, racially mixed Italy in the 15th and 16th century. You just have to look at the art,” he said in a statement.”

The documentary centers the hip hop legend and art lover as he examines the 15th and 16th century Italian Renaissance art in 15th-century style – on horseback. Amidst superstar artists such as Michelangelo and powerful patrons such as the Medicis, Fab discovers ground-breaking images of a multi-racial and multi-ethnic society that have slipped through the cracks of art history. In a 5-star review, The Financial Times says Fab “visits Florence to insouciantly blow the dust off art history” and The Guardian says that he is “on terrific form.”

A Fresh Guide is just another chapter in the incredible year for Fab 5 Freddy. He released the highly praised 4/20 Netflix documentary Grass Is Greener, which traces the history of cannabis in America and its relationship to people of color. The film takes an unparalleled look at the history of cannabis usage in America through the lens of popular forms of music — jazz, reggae, and hip hop — while also examining the racial disparities and injustices within that world. The film has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and just was named to the UK-based Grierson Awards shortlist for Best Single Documentary (International).

A Fresh Guide To Florence With Fab 5 Freddy will come to US homes this fall, date and other details to be announced later this year.

Alex Knight who launched his career under the moniker Brightness dropped a new tracked, dubbed “Dallas” via I OH U. The mellow song was recorded in upstate New York with producer Sam Griffin Owens (Cass McCombs, Chris Cohen, Sam Evian), the song is – per Knight’s description – “about being spiritually hungry…the volatility and fragility of being in that state.” A heady offering equipped with slanting melody, baritone guitars, and erratic squalls that dunk you in cloudy space for the bulk of its duration, then slowly lifts you out in its final phrases to the sound of rapturous falsetto and luminous French horn.

“I wrote ‘Dallas’ when I was living alone in my brother’s garage. It’s probably hard to tell, but I was listening to a lot of Springsteen at the time, he said. I was inspired especially by his ‘Darkness On The Edge Of Town’ record…the themes etc. I’d pretty much razed my life to the ground, and was intent on looking upwards…looking outwards.”

Knight affirms “the location and pairing (with Owens) couldn’t have been more fitting.” The song was recorded in Spillway Sound, a freshly opened studio nestled in the Catskills, a spread of nature known to stir wonder in those who’ve beheld it, from the addled attendees of Woodstock Festival to 19th-century transcendentalist, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The accompanying visual for “Dallas” is similarly gripping. Directed by Charlotte Evans, the video finds Knight in a state of insomnia-induced disarray, the singer slowly spiraling out in his unkempt bedroom as he becomes increasingly mesmerized by a preacher on TV. The song is the first taste of new music from a forthcoming album following his critically-acclaimed 2017 debut, Teething, and marks a darker shift in sound characterized by deeper contour, contrast, and confidence.