Tag Archives: hip-hop

Lost tapes, warped vinyl records, and scratched CDs have historically been the relics of hip-hop yore. But now, 404 errors, dead links, and server failures illustrate the erosion of hip-hop’s early online age. The digital marketplace makes music listening more convenient, but things also feel more tenuous: acts like De …

Bronx rapper Drag-On was a key part of the Ruff Ryders rap dynasty in the late Nineties and early 2000s, making many memorable appearances alongside DMX, the Lox, and Eve. As fans around the world mourned DMX after his death at age 50, Drag-On called to share his memories of …

Riz Ahmed is alone in the Great American Music Hall, San Francisco’s legendary concert venue. He knows we’re watching him, however: It’s part of a livestream of The Long Goodbye, a half-hour performance piece adapted from his acclaimed live show, which was itself inspired by his 2020 album of the …

The only certainties in this world are death, taxes, and Playboi Carti fans leaking his songs before he can release them himself. For the last two years, Carti’s highly anticipated album Whole Lotta Red has appeared within sight but out of grasp; the leak-industrial complex has acted as a perpetual …

Lil Nas X is back with “Holiday,” a Christmas-themed single with a wacky music video to match. Co-directed by Nas and Gibson Hazard, the visual takes place on Christmas Day in the year 2220. Lil Nas X portrays four distinct characters within a gigantic, sci-fi Santa’s Workshop at the North …

Up-and-coming Mobile, Alabama, artist Yung Bleu — signed to Empire — has released a new remix of his single “You’re Mines Still,” featuring Drake. Lyrically, Yung Bleu mulls over a past relationship, insisting that it could still work out: “If I ever made you angry, girl/Just know that it get …

For years, Future’s music has been about chasing highs. In Nayvadius Wilburn’s world, the addictions may change, but everything else stays the same. Sometimes the drugs are the work of Big Pharma: Comethazine, Codeine, Xanax, Percocet, Adderall. Other times the substance is universal: conquering heartbreak, purging childhood scars, escaping poverty. …

One of the many reverberations of the coronavirus pandemic is its decimation of the entertainment business as we knew it. Movie theaters across the nation are shut down, the box office is non-existent, and the year’s biggest summer blockbusters have been delayed. These desperate times clearly call for a music …

Kanye West wants to make the perfect hoodie. In his estimation, the 90-year-old garment “is arguably the most important piece of apparel of the last decade.” Kanye’s quest for said perfect sweatshirt is at the centerpiece of his recent WSJ Magazine cover story. According to writer Christina Brinkley’s description of …

“The Box” isn’t the best song on Roddy Ricch‘s (great) debut album, Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial (that would be “God’s Eye”). It’s also not the most ambitious (“War Baby”), or the obvious hit single single (“High Fashion”). It is, however, the album’s biggest hit since its release in …