Dr. Dre

Who Says "Fuck" the Best in Music?

Next to "baby," "love," "yeah, "ooh," and "hey," the word "fuck" might be the most ubiquitous word in the history of pop. People love to curse in their songs. It's given us hundreds of memorable hooks, and hours of litigation. It's forced countless middle-schoolers to play Dookie through headphones, ... More >>

The Graying of Hip-Hop

What happens to the youth-obsessed genre when its greats reach retirement?

The 10 Best Male Rappers of All Time

Since the birth of hip-hop, male rappers have been bringing their unique viewpoint to the art of rhyme. Today, we're shining some long overdue light on their important contributions to rap. We're proud to present our list of the 10 finest male rappers, from the smoking-hot hardbodies to the true lyr ... More >>

BOYCOTT! Like Rick Ross, These Product-Endorsing Artists Have Said Vile Things

Yesterday activists protested Reebok's flagship store to put pressure on the company to cut its ties with rapper Rick Ross, who recently ... well you already know this story. Whether or not the more than 71,000 signatures collected to get Ross fired will work remains to be seen, but Big Corporations ... More >>

The Five Best NYC Rap Albums That Never Happened

This week, while we've taken a loving look back at the finest album-length offerings that the home of hip-hop has contributed to the genre, we're also reminded of the empty spaces in our record collections where masterpieces should sit. It's heartbreaking enough that rap in an album form didn't catc ... More >>

Pazz & Jop: Kendrick Lamar, Finally Compton's Most Wanted

It took quite some time for the rapper to become an overnight success

The Legend Of Snaggapuss: The Cult Bronx MC Who Rapped In A Cartoon Voice And Was Courted By Dr. Dre

Snaggapuss ingratiated himself to the early-'90s New York City rap scene through a series of guest verses recited in a tone resembling Hanna-Barbera's pink cartoon lion Snagglepuss. As part of mixtape master Doo-Wop's Bounce Squad, Snagga was prepped to emerge as the break-out solo artist of the bun ... More >>

Action Bronson on Mac Miller, Oxtail, and Why You Won't Ever See Him Wearing A Skirt

Unquestionably New York's biggest do-no-wrong rap story of 2012 was Bronsalino, the Albanian Queens-native chef in which rap fans witnessed the face (well, cadence) of the blessed Tony Starks. Lobbing the early career peak Blue Chips onto the web for free and following it up with Rare Chandeliers fo ... More >>

Rappers At Award Shows: A History Of Violence

This past weekend saw Rick Ross and Young Jeezy's long-simmering beef boiling over into fisticuffs as the rappers and their entourages went at each other at the BET Hip-Hop Honors Awards (and possibly broke a very expensive mirror in the process). That squabble wasn't a one-off though! Here's a prim ... More >>

The Top 3.5 Hip-Hop Songs Of The Week

The worst result of 21st-century technological advances, at least from a musical point of view, is the dual proliferation of DIY recording equipment and social media, allowing millions of—notice the quotation marks—"musicians" to flood inboxes, festival backpacks, Facebook timelines and ... More >>

Schoolboy Q

Live: Stalley's New Mixtape Gets Lost In The Clutter At The Beats By Dre Store

Stalley (Savage Journey To The American Dream listening session) Beats By Dr. Dre store Monday, March 12 Better than: Buying a pair of $400 headphones. Welcome to the Rick Ross and Stalley bobblehead show, in town for one night only. That, effectively, went down last night at Soho's Beats By Dr. D ... More >>

12 Tracks, Two And A Half Hours: Sound Of The City's Mixtape Of Long Rap Songs

Last week, the new Gorillaz track "DoYaThing" dropped. It's long—a full 13-minutes and some seconds of music, a lot of which involves Andre 3000 getting frenzied and inspired with that rapping thing he does so well. With "DoYaThing" and persistent talk about Outkast reunion rumors bedazzling u ... More >>

Q&A: Crosstown Rebels Boss Damian Lazarus On Sexual Danger, Dr. Dre Starting Burning Man & When Keeping It Real Goes Right

Camilo Fuentealba​​"Look at me, Damien! It's all for you," says a possessed nanny before jumping out a window with a noose around her neck in 1976's The Omen. After Resident Advisor released the 2011 edition of its Top 100 DJs poll earlier this week, one might be tempted to think of the nann ... More >>

Here Is A Cake Shaped Like A Pair Of Those Beats By Dr. Dre Headphones You've Probably Seen Around Town

​Snapped at last night's opening party for The Beats Store, an emporium devoted to Beats By Dr. Dre, the headphone line that sprung from the collective mind of the aforementioned rapper-producer and Interscope-Geffen-A&M honcho Jimmy Iovine. (Both Dre and Iovine were present at the bash, as wa ... More >>

The Five Best Moments On Yo! MTV Raps

MTV turns 30 on Monday. To celebrate, we're running a bunch of pieces on the channel, its legacy, and its future. ​ Debuting during the golden year of '88, Yo! MTV Raps revolutionized TV coverage of hip-hop music. Of course, hip-hop videos existed long before Yo! launched—Grandmaster Fl ... More >>

50 Cent Is Done With The Album-Releasing Game

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Q&A With DJ Quik: "I Still Got My Talent. That's Not Going Anywhere."

​DJ Quik is feeling jovial. He's in New York for a pair of shows at the Knitting Factory and an appearance on Jimmy Fallon, all on the back of his masterful 2011 record The Book Of David. David isn't just the rap record of the year; it's one of the most accomplished albums in his far-too-long ... More >>

Nate Dogg, R.I.P.: A Tribute And A Playlist

​Hip-hop legend Nathaniel Hale, a/k/a Nate Dogg, has passed away at the age of 41. The cause of death is still being investigated; he suffered a pair of strokes in recent years, reportedly paralyzing the left side of his body and severely impairing his speaking ability. Hailing from Long Bea ... More >>

Rock-Critic Pop Quiz #10: Name The Hosts Of Yo! MTV Raps

​Recently our hackles were raised after a concerned Park Slope resident (or, as reports increasingly indicate, a gifted troll) sent out a petition hoping to keep a new club from playing the hip-hop music (gasp!) in yuppietacular Brooklyn. We could not imagine the anarchy if rap music ever hit ... More >>

Q&A: Taylor McFerrin On The Art Of Beatboxing, Life On Flying Lotus' Label, And Why His Dad, Bobby, Threw Out His Rap CDs

"It's extra wack if your dad disses what you do." ​The McFerrin clan is creating a beatboxing dynasty. Father Bobby hit the pop heights in the '80s with "Don't Worry Be Happy" and caught ears with his knack for making music with his mouth. Next up is his son, Taylor. Based in Bedford-Stuyvesa ... More >>

Ten Reasons Why Dr. Dre's Detox Will Be Great

Does this man have another classic in him?​Dr. Dre's long, long awaited Detox has received its latest release date, this time via a press release from Interscope's London office guaranteeing that hip-hop's most-awaited album will touch down on "February 2011." The project's first single, "Kush ... More >>

The Top Ten Rap Supergroups That Never Happened

Over the weekend, the rapper Sean Price took to Twitter to propose a collaboration album between his own Brooklyn-based Boot Camp Clik hip-hop crew and Staten Island's mighty Wu-Tang Clan. The idea has been received rapturously. But then again, theoretical hip-hop supergroups usually are. Rap's hi ... More >>

Joell Ortiz vs. Gentrification

Of Brooklyn, yes, but also of the NYC hip-hop on which he still aims to make his name

Dre Day: A Fine Holiday Only Slightly Marred By The Whole Wet-T-Shirt-Contest Thing

all photos by Nate "Igor" SmithThat illustrious Wet T-shirt contest Dre Day--the holiday, not the song--was first celebrated in 2003. Life Sucks Die magazine's Andrew Broder had recently released a song called "What a Day Day" (under the pseudonym Fog), soliciting a slew of puns from his coworkers: ... More >>

Nosaj Thing+Daedelus+Jogger

Hm, Dr. Dre Will Be DJing at Best Buy Later Today

​This is your new Virgin Megastore in-store, I suppose. The brand new Union Square 24-hour retail outlet will host Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine , will.i.am, Major Lazer, and David Guetta for some sort of series of live appearances, starting at 4pm today. Asking "why?" is futile and probably pointless ... More >>

Rakim's Second Coming

The God MC confronts a hip-hop landscape far different from the one he once ruled

'Mister Saturday Night Presents Theo Parrish, Grand Pubah & Lord Finesse'

T.I. As Dr. Dre: "Topless," "Shit Popped Off," "I Am Hip Hop," and the Glory of Being Ghostwritten

Ed Kavishe We're up to three or four reference tracks leaked off Dr. Dre's Detox: "Crack a Bottle" (which 50 has now apparently taken for Before I Self-Destruct), "Topless," "Shit Popped Off," and maybe some other ones. "It Could've Been You," on which 50 Cent shouts out a phantom D.R.E.: probably. ... More >>

Barry Michael Cooper's New Jack Comeback

The Game Goes to War (Again)

The Game's "One Blood": Coming Back Hard

Too Legit

Busta Rhymes pisses more grape seeds

Status Ain't Hood Interviews Rakim

Super-Prolific Song Kings From Previous Century Emerge From Rocking Thrones

Young Buck Isn't Going to Prison Because Young Buck is Awesome

Pulling the White Strings

Light-skinned acts ride hip-hop’s changing tide with dark-skinned Svengalis

Hurting No More

Promising r&b songstress bounces back to her old freedom

Black Women!

French Fries and Fruit Flies

Not Yesterday Once More

Y2Care

Millennium Movies Get a Second Chance

Pazz & Jop Preview

Music

Age of Discovery

Birds Do It, Bees Do It, Mammals on TV Do It

Rev That Azz Up

Nervous Rhythms, Chopped-Up Language, Thumping Slapstick Pop

Bitches Brew

Nookie Monster

Half and Half

32 Questions