[From All Music.com-Thom Jurek] Lakecia Benjamin is a New York-based saxophonist, arranger, composer, and educator. Her music offers a unique meld of R&B, several strains of jazz, and funk. Her warm, resonant tone -- that has been compared to Johnny Griffin's -- lends itself to any form of music she chooses to play. In addition to honing her chops early with Clark Terry and later Terri Lyne 
Carrington, she is also a noted accompanist for vocalists -- among them Gregory Porter and Theo Crocker. Retox, her 2012 leader debut, offered a beat-conscious set of soul and funk covers and originals produced by Ben Kane. Benjamin played on "Right on Brotha," the closing track from Robert Glasper's Everything's Beautiful in 2018, a collection of reimagined Miles Davis tracks. Her sophomore date, Rise Up for Ropeadope, contained a Prince-inspired series of original jazz-funk jams. In 2020, she released Pursuance: The Coltranes. The widely acclaimed set contained six tunes each by Alice and John Coltrane, with Benjamin leading a large cast that included former Coltrane sideman Reggie Workman. In 2023 she returned with the star-studded Phoenix. Produced by Carrington, it wed jazz, funky soul, R&B, and hip-hop with an all-star cast.
Benjamin was born in New York City and raised in Manhattan's predominantly Dominican Washington Heights neighborhood. She played recorder in grade school and junior high where she also began writing songs and lyrics. She won admission to the Fiorello LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts. It was there she began playing saxophone in earnest. She picked it up quickly and after graduating joined the renowned jazz program at New York's New School University.
[From All Music.com-Andy Kellman] Shooting from obscurity to fame as the featured artist on Disclosure's "Latch" in 2012, a global smash hit that showcased their distinctively stirring high tenor, Sam Smith has since become one of pop's most prominent balladeers. Taking cues from soul belters like Aretha Franklin and Chaka Khan, followers such as Amy Winehouse and Adele, and their own church upbringing, Smith effectively arrived as a headliner with 2014's In the Lonely Hour. Multi-platinum in the singer's native U.K. and the U.S., the album also garnered Best New Artist and three additional Grammys among a slew of 
accolades. Smith followed up with 2017's The Thrill of It All, a heartsick album favoring Southern soul and gospel, and by the end of the 2010s had accumulated six number one U.K. singles as a headliner: "Money on My Mind," "Stay with Me," and "Lay Me Down," followed by the Academy Award-winning James Bond theme "Writing's on the Wall," "Too Good at Goodbyes," and the Calvin Harris collaboration "Promises." The singer entered the next decade with a handful of additional Top 20 U.K. singles that led to 2020's Love Goes, followed by the Grammy-winning "Unholy" and its parent album, 2023's Gloria.
[From All Music.com-Neil Z. Yeung] Los Angeles-based electronic trio Cheat Codes deliver floor-filling, radio-ready bites of pop-friendly house in a vein similar to the Chainsmokers, Seeb, and Sigala. They built a steady following in the late 2010s with hit singles such as "Sex" with Kris Kross Amsterdam, 
"Feels Great" with Fetty Wap and CVBZ, and "No Promises" with Demi Lovato. The latter track became their first U.S. Top 40 and was certified platinum in the U.S., Australia, and across Europe. Maintaining their presence on the Dance charts, they issued a steady stream of singles, many of them appearing on their EPs Level 1 and 2. In 2021, the group released the first two volumes of their three-part debut full-length, Hellraisers, Pt. 1 and Pt. 2, with Pt. 3 arriving in 2022. The country-influnced One Night in Nashville appeared in early 2023.
[From All Music.com-Corey Apar] Volatile post-hardcore outfit Dance Gavin Dance deliver thrashing, emo-leaning anthems performed over the years by a frequently shifting lineup anchored by stalwarts Will Swan (lead guitar, vocals) and Matt Mingus (drums). 
Signed to Rise Records since their 2006 debut, the Sacramento-based band steadily climbed the charts over a series of albums and mainstream success found them in the mid-2010s. Ten years into their career, 2016's Mothership landed at number 13 on the Billboard 200 with its 2018 follow-up, Artificial Selection, performing nearly as well at number 15. Dance Gavin Dance headed into their next decade with 2020's Afterburner and, following more lineup changes, 2022's Jackpot Juicer.