“Only Three Black Women Have Won the Top Award. Is Beyonce Next?,” New York Times, January 29, 2025

“Breaking Through Rock Journalism’s Boys’ Club,” an interview with Althea Legaspi, Rolling Stone Magazine, October 23, 2023

‘The architect of Black Gen X sonic feeling and eloquence’: D’Angelo’s 10 greatest tracks,” The Guardian, October 15, 2025

“Tina Turner: Ten of Her Greatest Songs,” The Guardian, May 24, 2023

“Beyonce’s Renaissance is the #1 Album of 2022,” In Conversation with Danyel Smith and Ann Powers, NPR.com, December 2022
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/12/1141591672/beyonce-renaissance-best-album-of-2022

“The Vitality of Black Criticism,” Roundtable Conversation with Greg Tate, Thulani Davis, Danyel Smith and Wesley Morris, The New York Times, January 7, 2022

“Forever on Duty: Remembering Greg Tate, the G.O.A.T.,” Book Forum, December 14, 2021
https://www.bookforum.com/culture/greg-tate-1957-2021-24752

“Thulani Davis and the Secret History of Women Writing Album Liner Notes,” The New York Times, March 12, 2021

"'Everything I Wanted': Black Women Listeners and the High Fidelity Culture of Taste-Making,” Harvard University Press Blog, April 7, 2021
https://harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicity/2021/04/everything-i-wanted.html

“Why Radiohead Is the Blackest White Band of Our Times,” The Guardian October 2, 2020

“One Hundred Years Ago, ‘Crazy Blues’ Sparked A Revolution for Black Women Fans,” The New York Times August 10, 2020

“‘Drag ‘Em’: How Movement Shaped the Music of Mary Lou Williams,” NPR.Org, September 2019

“Diana Ross’s Greatest Songs—Ranked,” The Guardian, June 18, 2020

Contributing writer, “The Zora Music Canon: The 100 Most Iconic Albums by African American Women,” Medium.Zora.com, June 15, 2020

“Toni Morrison and the Music of Black Life,” Pitchfork.com, August 2019

“At ‘Black Woodstock,’ An All-Star Lineup Delivered Joy and Renewal to 300,000,” The New York Times, August 18, 2019

“Drenched in Glory: How Aretha Gave Voice to Embattled Black Women—And Transformed a Nation,” The Guardian.com, August 2018

“Aretha’s Bridge,” NPR Music.com, August 2018

“Betty Davis, Grace Jones and the Art of Anti-Confessional Cinema,” Los Angeles Review of Books, July 2018

“Girl Groups: TLC, The Pointer Sisters, The Supremes,” Pitchfork.com special issue, June 2018

“Tina Turner: The Making of a Rock ‘n’ Roll Revolutionary,” The Guardian.com, March 2018

“It’s After the End of the World,” Introduction to Pitchfork.com special issue: Nina Simone, May 2017

“On Nina Simone’s ‘Why? (The King of Love is Dead)’ and ‘22nd Century’,” Pitchfork.com special issue: Nina Simone, May 2017

“See My Face From the Other Side: Freedom is a Blues Woman’s Prerogative,” Oxford American Magazine, Southern Music Issue 2016, pp. 130-141.

“Mama’s Gun: Tarrying with Erykah Badu in the Y2K Era,” Pitchfork.com, September 2016

“Review of Prince, Controversy,” Pitchfork.com, April 2016

“The Missing Blacknuss in Nina,” Slate.com, April 2016

“How #Blacklivesmatter Started a Musical Revolution,” The Guardian.com, March 13, 2016

“‘Ain’t Got No, I Got Life: #Oscarssowhite & The Problem of Women Musicians on Film,” The Los Angeles Review of Books, Feb. 2016 LARB.com

Invited Contributing Writer for The Nation Magazine, Slate.com, slavetotheism.com

“‘I’m Every Woman’: Whitney Houston, Voice of the Post-Civil Rights Era,” The Nation.com, February 2012

“Tainted Love: Amy Winehouse & the (Black) Art of Appropriation,” The Nation, September 29, 2008.  Reprint in eds. Gerald Early and Randall Kennedy, Best African American Essays 2010 (New York: Random House, 2011)

“’What More Do You Want From Me?’: Making Sense Out of Al’s Green Eggs and Ham,” slavetotheism.com, 2008 summer edition.

“Suga Mama Politicized: Beyonce’s B-Day,” The Nation.com, December 18, 2006.  Reprint in eds. Robert Christgau and Daphne Carr, Best Music Writing 2007 (New York: Da Capo Books, 2007): 27-35