VMP Magazine

In a 2015 FADER story about the rise of Brainfeeder, the Los Angeles-based label that revered electronic music producer Flying Lotus founded in 2008, beloved saxophonist Kamasi Washington points out that hip-hop and L.A.’s late-2000s beat scene — a loose genre-ifying of L.A.-created experimental music rooted in electronic and hip-hop — both have roots in his genre, jazz. “It’s coming from the same place, the musical rebellious nature of it,” he said.

Before Björk Guðmundsdóttir was an internationally renowned avant-pop star, she was just another child prodigy. In 1977, when she was just 11, she released a self-titled album consisting mostly of covers, a record often not counted as part of her discography. Björk track “Jóhannes Kjarval,” however, is a Björk original; from even her earliest years, it’s been clear that she’s a creative force, and starting in her teenage years, she helmed seemingly countless rock bands. The Sugarcubes were the first of these to break internationally, and their short lifespan led the newly famous Björk to embark on an extensive solo career that still reaps revolutionary rewards.