PowerPage Nightcap October 26th, 2026: The Work Behind the Music
Monday’s music coverage moves between the work that happens before a record reaches listeners and the ideas that give a new release its shape. Pharrell and Pusha T revisit “Grindin’,” Mahalia builds a single around the stages of heartbreak, and Skepta opens another door into an approaching album. PowerPage Nightcap brings those reports together for October 26th, with a different listening route through each story.
Our Pharrell and Pusha T report returns to their Vogue conversation about “Grindin’.” Pusha T recalls rewriting his verse three times, while the discussion also considers how long the record took to find its audience. The exchange gives creative criticism a practical meaning: a familiar recording can be the result of several attempts, close attention and a willingness to go back to the work.
That perspective makes an interesting companion to Mahalia’s new single. Our Mahalia report follows “the 5 stages of heartbreak,” a three-minute recording with a Relta-directed video. Its sections are identified as denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, with a saxophone solo occupying the depression passage. This is one song with a defined structure, rather than a five-track release.
Our Skepta report turns toward “Pandora’s Box” and the forthcoming The Fork and Knife. With the album set for November 6th, the single gives listeners another piece of the project to consider before hearing the whole. For tonight, the useful distinction is between what is already available to hear and what remains ahead on the release calendar.
These stories invite three different kinds of attention. Pharrell and Pusha T look back at revisions and persistence; Mahalia organizes an emotional subject into a compact musical framework; Skepta offers a single within a larger rollout. Following the complete reports keeps those details attached to the music, rather than reducing each artist’s work to a headline.
Catch up with Pharrell, Pusha T, Mahalia and Skepta through the linked coverage, then settle into tonight’s separate Grown & Sexy Slow Jams selection. Kut Klose opens that ten-song sequence and Michael Jackson closes it, with DJ Quest a.k.a. Mr. Exclusive guiding the evening’s quieter finish.
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