hip-hop
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The Best Rap Beefs Ever
It’s interesting—and somewhat sad—that this decade’s only two meaningful rap beefs have involved attempts to sink the same floating dead body. It started in 2015, when everyone’s favorite manila-folder-complected, suburban Torontonian, Drake, traded “bars” with the somewhat less-meaningful Philly maestro of shout raps, Meek Mill. Though Meek exposed Drizzy for employing ghostwriters—a damning accusation in the world of…
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What Conservatives Really Mean When They Talk About Rap
What you say about somebody else reveals you. What I think of you as being is dictated by my own necessities, my own psychology, my own fears and desires. I’m not describing you when I talk about you; I’m describing me. —James Baldwin Donald Trump supporters have continually found new, improbable ways to rationalize the…
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An Ode To DeVante Swing On His Birthday
Today is Donald Earle “DeVante Swing” Degrate Jr.’s birthday. According to Wikipedia – the world’s most reliable source of information – he is now 47 years old. Based on the series of unfortunate sightings of Jodeci in both its parts and its formation, I think I speak for everybody in saying that it’s an amazing…
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FX’s Atlanta Is Fucking Awesome. Signed, An ATLien.
I couldn’t wait for FX’s new series, Atlanta, to hit the screen. Ninety percent of my excitement is that it’s named after a city I like to call home. ZONE 4 ADAMSVILLE. WHAT! The other ten percent is because of all the press and promotion done on behalf of the show. If you watch television…
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Kidz Bop Is the Best Hustle Ever
For a vast many people who haven’t put birth control to the test (and failed), Kidz Bop isn’t a thing. If you don’t have children, there’s literally zero reason to know of its existence. But for a lot of us with kids old enough to comprehend, process and regurgitate what they hear, the music struggle…
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Hip-Hop’s Best Year Ever Can Almost Buy You A Drink
It should come as no surprise to most of you that I wasn’t the most popular kid in high school. During my 1995 – 1996 freshman year, I endured an awkward post-pubescent, pre-growth-spurt phase that had me looking like the love child of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man and Associate Bob from Demolition Man. Making matters…
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Prince Be of P.M. Dawn Dead at 46
Yet another ’90s rap icon has gone on to the ancestors. Attrell “Prince Be” Cordes of the rap-pop act P.M. Dawn is dead at 46. People magazine confirms that Cordes died Friday of renal kidney disease from diabetes. The Jersey City, N.J., native is survived by his wife, Mary, and three children. Prince Be started…
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It’s Easier to Blame Hip-Hop for Concert Shootings Than It Is to Address America’s Violence
As common as death by gun in America is, the hand that holds the gun often defines how those deaths are depicted. So it was not surprising to see the kind of reaction generated by one man being killed and three people being wounded at a T.I. concert in New York City recently. It concerned…