NME’s latest star of The Cover, Samara Cyn, has created an exclusive playlist to accompany the story’s launch – check it out below.
The Los Angeles-based lyrical hip-hop artist is on this week’s (March 23) edition of The Cover, a manifestation of NME’s commitment to supporting emerging talent across the globe on a weekly basis. Every week, a rising artist will feature on The Cover – you can read Samara Cyn’s profile here, written by David Renshaw and featuring photography by Brianna Alysse.
Alongside The Cover, Cyn has curated a playlist titled ‘Go Touch Grass’, featuring tracks by Sales, Christina Aguilera, Crumb, Willow, Florence + The Machine, and more. Listen to the full playlist on Spotify below and on Apple Music.
The title of Cyn’s playlist is fitting, given that, as she tells NME in her Cover story, last year she invited her fans to join her in touching grass as part of her Digital Detox event in Los Angeles. The no-phones hangout coincided with the one-year anniversary of her debut EP ‘The Drive Home’, and fans brought their own favourite vinyl records to play on the speakers while they built Legos and made candles. Unusually in our digital age, the day wasn’t filmed for social content. “There was a push for that, obviously,” she laughs. “People were asking, ‘Are you sure you don’t want to capture this?’ I was like, ‘Can we just give this space and enjoy it for ourselves?’”
Elsewhere in The Cover, Cyn dives into her new EP ‘Detour’, released last week (March 20), her beginnings as a songwriter, and where she goes from here. “All of my EPs and songs are contributing to a skillset that the first album is going to master,” she says. “Rushing into things doesn’t benefit artists. Also, the mixtape phase is so important. Kendrick, J. Cole, Drake, Tyler: all of these people had an era before they dropped their debut album. Give me a little [time], and I know the first album will be incredible.”
Read Samara Cyn’s full Cover story here and find out who else has been on The Cover here.
Every year, NME produces 50 Cover stories, showcasing the future of music via in-depth profiles and exclusive photoshoots. Check out our coffee table book NME The Cover 2024-2025, which features the likes of Kneecap, Lola Young, Amaarae, LE SSERAFIM, Oklou and many more.