Strange Music If there is any rapper in the modern era that can truly wear the “underground king” crown it’s Tech N9ne; a rapper who so blatantly fits the UGK description. The man who refers to himself as Tecca Nina has quietly made it to the Forbes Hip-Hop Cash Kings list every year since 2012, all while […]
Top Dawg Entertainment Existing within the TDE crew can come with its ups and downs – just ask Ab-Soul. The Carson, Calif. native was revered as one of the crew’s most promising acts circa 2012, but after the release of his 2014 album, These Days…, critics were writing him off as the crew’s token bench warmer but […]
Dreamville / Roc Nation J. Cole had a hell of a task on his hands while creating the follow-up to 2014 Forest Hills Drive. His first two albums, Cole World: The Sideline Story and Born Sinner, had plenty of good about them but not everything hit the mark. That was especially evident in his attempts at making radio […]
Babygrande Records Smoke DZA first met Pete Rock 12 years ago. At the time, the Harlem MC was an aspiring rapper in his early 20s. His first interactions with Rock were carrying his crates of vinyl records into clubs just so he could get inside. Things have changed drastically in the dozen years since those first meetings. […]
Heavy On The Grind Ent. Whether it was an overhaul of unreleased material just sitting around on E-40’s hard drive or he had an urge to flex when it came to the amount of songs he’d release in a single year, the Bay area legend decided to drop The D-Boy Diary: Book 1 and 2 […]
Glassnote Entertainment This year, the actor Donald Glover has been showing his face much more than his alter ego Childish Gambino. Glover has been busy giving fans the critically acclaimed 10-episode dramedy Atlanta this fall. On the music side, he released the virtual reality smartphone app Pharos and performed in a desert while embracing his inner warrior. Atlanta […]
The Weeknd XO By the time House of Balloons reached its fifth anniversary last winter, it was clear The Weeknd had come a long way from the shadowy crevices of Toronto’s bursting underground. After his song “Earned It” landed on one of 2015’s biggest movie soundtracks, Fifty Shades of Grey, and he carved his drug-addled […]
FBG1017 It was only a matter of time before Gucci Mane and Future linked up again following Guwop’s prison release but little did fans know they would actually hammer out a six-track mixtape and drop it out of thin air. Continuing the traptastic momentum the duo had with the first Free Bricks project, Wop and Hendrix […]
Epic Records This probably wasn’t the rollout French Montana was hoping for with MC4, a sophomore album that would confirm his hit-making abilities to the rap game and beyond. Short for Mac & Cheese 4, the rapper was hoping to follow up his acclaimed Mac & Cheese mixtape series by making the fourth installment an actual album. […]
Epic A Tribe Called Quest is giving a wake-up call to America on their new album, We got it from Here… Thank You 4 Your service, a dedication to a fallen soldier while at its core a celebration of family and teamwork. The project finds the group retaining their classic sound with lyrics of the times. “Gotta get […]
