The 10 best acts to see at Afropunk Festival 2015

With her 1999 single “Caught Out There,” Kelis gave us license to publicly scream “I hate you so much right now!,” and we shall be eternally grateful. We’re excited to get down on the dance floor for everything from Flesh Tones’ electro-dance beats to the recent Food’s hybrid rock-and-soul stylings. Oh, and of course: “Milkshake!”

^{_{Photograph: Laurent Levy}}

Grace Jones’ angular shoulder paddings have arguably exerted as great, if not greater, an influence in the musical world than most musicians’ entire oeuvres. The postdisco diva might be releasing a memoir later this year, but make no mistake: After 67 years of pushing the boundaries of the artistic avant-garde, she’s not done yet.

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Danny Brown is a weird dude and weirdly irresistible—a word-drunk rapper with the technical skills of a Scribble Jam champion, the ability to rap over any beat you throw at him, the imagination of a dadaist genius, no front teeth and a slash of hair that belongs on the teenage frontman for a crappy screamo band. Expect a lively set, to say the least.

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For our money, Bloc Party was one of the strongest British bands that became popular in the mid-’00s playing songs marked by the mid-’80s. It's no surprise that both the solo albums from Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke have been keepers—at once, arty and dancey.

A veteran of Suicidal Tendencies (also playing Afropunk) and a protégé of Flying Lotus, electric bassist Stephen Bruner now plies funky, jazzy grooves as Thundercat, in which guise his work can call to mind vintage Stanley Clarke and Bootsy Collins as easily as more recent low-end theorists Squarepusher and Victor Wooten.

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With his slippery wordplay and mercilessly aggressive flow on songs like the recent “Serve It Up,” Cakes is maintaining his status this year as vanguard underground rapper and “most likely to steal your boyfriend.”

^{_{Photograph: Red Bull Content Pool/Hank Pearl}}

Brenmar can’t be boxed in—while the skittering kicks and snares on songs like “Done (Don’t Luv Me No More)” place him alongside footwork producers like DJ Rashad and Spinn, others like “Taking It Down” infuse house beats with R&B flavor. Regardless of the genre, Brenmar slays a dancefloor.

^{_{Photograph: Red Bull Content Pool/Nicholas Schrunk}}

Over lush synths and muted guitars, Cape Town native Petite Noir’s voice sounds just as arresting at a crackly falsetto whisper as it does at a sonorous heartbroken wail.

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Though numerous artists over the past few years have used R&B as a material for newly retro-styled sounds, no one has attempted and succeeded at straight-forward soul like Curtis Harding. It’s refreshing to see someone revitalize and push the genre forward, rather than pick it apart.

^{_{Photograph: Hedi Slimane}}

Ballroom vogue prodigy MikeQ is one of the leading figures in Jersey Club, and for good reason. Bombastic beats and stuttering fractured vocal samples make for an explosive party whenever he hits the decks.

^{_{Photograph: Courtesy LVL3 Media}}