If there’s a podcast out there with a hip-hop lean to it, there’s a better than 98 percent chance that I will give it a listen.
Like many people, hip-hop was my entryway to a lot of the music I know and love today. Through the use of samples, I made my way into various genres of music and discovered the lifeblood of artistry on several continents. Similarly, it enabled me to become more well-versed in American treasures.
It can be said Big Freedia, the iconic, bounce music artist whose signature delivery has popped up on songs from the music industry’s biggest names, does far more than represent New Orleans. She embodies it.
MC Lyte recently performed with a nostalgic lineup at the Cincinnati Music Festival, proving once again that black don’t crack. Lyte (born Lana Michelle Moorer) looks and sounds like what happens when you mind your business and drink water.
Some say hip-hop is an overstuffed musical genre. That’s both a gift and a curse because it means there’s a variety of ways to express yourself as a hip-hop artist. And that’s what rapper pineappleCITI loves about music—self expression.
It’s not every day that one of the most savage lyricists in hip-hop gets sweet and sentimental, but that’s what happened on Saturday evening when Terrence Thornton—better known as Pusha T—married longtime girlfriend Virginia Joy Williams at the historic Cavalier Hotel in their hometown of Virginia Beach, Va.
We’ve been buzzing about the renaissance of the Harlem-based designer known as Dapper Dan so long, it’s hard to believe that his much-anticipated collaboration with former nemesis Gucci only launched this week. After all, we’ve been seeing teases for months: in Beyoncé’s tour wardrobe, on any number of red carpets,…
Some conspiracy theories are real.
The G Funk era of hip-hop was ushered in by three hip-hop giants, Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg and Warren G. The genre represented everything west coast hip hop was and is, but focused more on having fun than gangbanging.
Drake needs a woman who’s going to make him happy.
When I’m in the studio, I sometimes have these visions of conversations I’d like to have with my father. It leads me to think what it would be like if he and I could communicate on a higher level because there’s always been this barrier between us.
Perhaps, in several days or weeks or months, Drake will (finally) respond to Pusha T. And maybe that response, when it (finally) happens, will be amazing.
Since June is Black Music Month (or, more formally, African-American Music Appreciation Month), I figure that one of the best ways to celebrate is to talk about my own love for black music. There’s no talking about my love for black music without discussing hip-hop because it is now and has been the most prominent…
Right now, hip-hop is in the midst of an actually entertaining rap beef. Both Drake and Pusha T, two capable wordsmiths, are trading diss records down the slippery slope of who might be willing to go the lowest, leaving family members, producers and potential children in their wake. And as usual, I think Brick killed…
1. Drake might be THE most bored superrich entertainer of all time. Like, he must literally sit around WAITING for motivation to do something ... anything. Only a bored rich person gets that amped up, that quickly, in that fashion. Drake was probably playing himself in chess when he heard “Infrared” and was like,…
As it did for so many folks I know, hip-hop changed my life. I don’t mean in the “It saved my life” way, but when I was introduced to hip-hop, I fell hook, line and sinker into the ocean and never came up for air.
Nigga, you? (In Nas’ “Ether” voice.)
I’m not Wale’s biggest fan, but the man can make a hit song. He has several of them. If you listened to the radio at all in 2011, you heard “Lotus Flower Bomb” multiple times a day. His verse on Waka Flocka Flame’s “No Hands”? Stellar. I still know it word for word. He’s got hit albums, hit songs and critically…
A horn riff. A thump of the bass. A tinkle of the keys followed by the “boom-bap” of the drums. These sounds are the hallmarks of legendary jazz label Blue Note Records, which was the first recording showcase of talents like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk and many more who would go on to be jazz legends.
It’s no secret that Jermaine “J. Cole” Cole is one of the most polarizing artists in hip-hop. Possibly ever. He’s got a legion of fans who believe that Light-Skinned Jermaine is the second coming of rap Jesus, and that his super-relatable persona, plus his above-average lyrical content, makes him one of this…
