Major-Label Deal: Billie Eilish and Rule-Breakers Starcrawler

major-label deal: For a rap group featuring a prominent openly gay member Kevin Abstract to land a 15 million major-label deal and have the No. 1 album in America and to achieve that entirely through streaming and touring, with zero support from traditional radio felt like nothing less than a revolution in 2018, according to Rabble. Shea Diamond This trans R&B singer has a backstory that really should be made into an Oscar-winning biopic. Photos Getty Images More Every genre of music launched promising new stars in 2018, from silky-smooth soul stylists H.E.R., Ella Mai, Jorja Smith to rawk rabblerousers Dream Wife, Shame from LGBTQ trailblazers Shea Diamond, MNEK, Teddy 3 to fearless female rule-breakers Starcrawler, Billie Eilish . Below, the 15 artists who made the wildly diverse year's best first impression Brockhampton This year, the Pharrell-championed alternative hip-hop collective built on the buzz of their 2016 mixtape All-American Trash and 2017 Saturation trilogy with their first full-length release for RCA, Iridescence and the album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart edging Josh Groban down into the No. 2 spot. After robbing a convenience store to try to fund her gender-affirming surgery and spending a decade in various men's correctional facilities as a result, the now-40-year-old Diamond found her voice behind bars. The record is funky AF but brims with the pain and passion that can only come from hard life experience. After her release from prison, she impressed hit songwriter Justin Tranter with a video of her a cappella at a Trans Lives Matter event; Tranter reached out and eventually executive-produced Diamond's supremely soulful and aptly titled debut EP, Seen It All. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.