For Black Music Months in previous years past, Apple Music has relished the opportunity to big up all-timers, proudly telling the stories of artists whose work remains as integral to the fabric of American music as the radio itself. This year, however, we’ve turned our focus to the future, selecting 40 artists from a wealth of disparate backgrounds who we foresee shaping Black music in the years to come. Their work spans the multitude of genres we know Black artists to have created and elevated (jazz, hip-hop, R&B, dancehall, gospel, Afropop, EDM), along with a handful whose art defies classification altogether. Many of these artists will go on to win awards, set streaming records or deliver seminal pieces of art, but there’s a certainty that whatever any of them do next, it will be both exciting and original. Get yourself aquainted with them and hear what the future of Black music means to them, then experience for yourself why they are its cornerstones.