The Cosmic Mix: Black Women's R&B, Pop and Electronic

Listen to my new DJ mix celebrating songs from 2008 to 2022.

The “Cosmic” mix is a journey through sounds by Black women musicians that connect modern R&B/soul, pop, and deep electronic dance music. Released from 2008 to 2022, these are my favorite originals and official remixes. Expect Billboard and viral hits, club bangers and deep cuts. Press play below!

In the tracklist at the bottom of the page, I linked out to articles or videos covering each artist for deeper dives into the minds creating this music.

While building a playlist for this sonic variety the last few weeks, I remembered how much Black women vocalists innovated and popularized subgenres that merge R&B, pop and electronic in recent years. This inspired me to create a separate set centering their cosmic contributions in time for Women’s History Month.

Since its inception in the early 1980s, Black women singers, songwriters [and producers] have been integral to popularizing house and electronic dance music, a foundationally Black queer genre founded in Chicago. They set the vocal standard for soulful expressions of romance, heartbreak, self-love, sexual liberation, spiritual and real-life sh*t over the thumping beats that help us find release. Unfortunately, singers such as Loleatta Holloway, Jocelyn Brown, Martha Wash, and DJs Yvonne Turner and Sharon White fought for recognition in the genre’s early days, writer Renee Jarreau wrote in an analysis on this topic for ZORA. It is uncertain whether these women will ever receive adequate credit for their work.