Kool G Rap

Kool G Rap Reveals He Used To Sell Crack Out Of A Key Food Supermarket

"Been through hard times, even worked part-time/ In a Key Food store, sweeping floors sometimes," rapped Kool G Rap back on 1989's golden era rap standard "Road to the Riches." So on a whim we asked Corona's gangsta rap godfather about the line. He obliged and regaled us with an anecdote that involv ... More >>

Six Rare Early Jay-Z Appearances

Earlier this week, the archival department over at Rap Radar unearthed some 1989 public access TV-looking footage of a pre-fame Jay-Z freestyling with his mentor The Jaz over an instrumental of E.P.M.D.'s chunk 'o funk "So What Cha Sayin'." Ever one for a sense of occasion, Jigga decided to sport a ... 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 >>

Five Great Nas Songs You May Have Missed

Tonight, hip-hop legend Nas will be sitting down with Rolling Stone contributing editor Anthony Decurtis at the 92Y for a discussion on his lengthy, important and influential career. For over 20 years, Nas, with his innovative writing style and signature delivery, has contributed some of the most ce ... More >>

Five Hip-Hop Albums We're Excited For in 2013

The new year is right around the corner, and while we're sure you're squeezing every last bit of new music you can from the few remaining "Best of 2012" lists, it's important to look toward the future and keep in mind all of the great music still to come. While we've all but given up hope that 2013 ... More >>

Six Very Important Interactions Between Rappers And Dogs

As part of this weekend's Catalpa Festival, Snoop Dogg will slouch around Randall's Island to perform his debut album, Doggystyle, in its entirety. With the Doggfather being somewhat obsessed with all things canine, SOTC decided it was fine time to shed light on hip-hop's infatuation with dogs. But ... More >>

The Top Five Queens Rap Anthems (As Chosen By Hip-Hop Artists)

Talk of patriotism might be all up in the BBQ-scented air at this time of year, but rap artists are equally as proud of their local roots, not least when it comes to the great masses who hail from Queens. With the Q-Boro having provided perhaps more great rappers than any other section of New York C ... More >>

Large Professor, Bigger Than Life

The legend continues with Professor @ Large

Q&A: Blockhead On Public Access, The Baby Show, And Learning About Sex From Channel J

"Public access was a platform for the weirdest New Yorkers who had any sort of gumption to create," says Blockhead, a hip-hop producer whose new album on the Ninja Tune label, Interludes After Midnight, is named in homage to a late-night show on channel 35 that just so happened to be hooked around t ... More >>

People Who Died 2011: The Year In Obituaries

Amy Winehouse passed away on July 23. ​In memory of the people, places, and things that passed away in 2011, here's a collection of links and streaming-video artifacts.

M.O.P.'s Five Favorite Collaborations

If you don't like M.O.P., you probably don't really like rap music—or so the cliché goes. But there's something in the sentiment: For nearly two decades now, Billy Danze and Lil Fame have been putting out passionate, uncompromising rap music that's rooted in a resolutely east cost aesthetic. ... More >>

Heavy D, R.I.P.

​Mount Vernon-raised rapper Heavy D passed away yesterday. The artist, born Dwight Errington Myers, was found having problems breathing outside his home in Beverly Hills; he was taken to the emergency department of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and died later in the afternoon. For many, Heavy D ... More >>

Hip-Hop's Top Ten Otis Redding Samples

​"Otis" fever is in full effect, thanks to the Otis Redding-sampling song from Jay-Z and Kanye West's much-ballyhooed Watch The Throne project leaking Wednesday night. The track's production, based around a slick chop of Redding's "Try A Little Tenderness," might be the most impressive thing a ... More >>

Blue Note Records' Ten Best Sample Sources

Blue Note's cover art: Also an inspiration. (Original on the left, homage on the right.)​Hip-hop artists have never been shy about sampling songs from the vaults of the Blue Note jazz label, and few have pilfered with as much creativity and gusto as A Tribe Called Quest's one-time de facto lea ... More >>

Ten Hip-Hop Covers Of Rap Songs

​Last week, the Detroit-based rapper and one-time J Dilla collaborator Elzhi released Elmatic. It's the second time a rapper has re-written and re-made Nas's hallowed Illmatic, with Fashawn attempting a similar feat last year. As a listening experience, Elmatic is less than convincing, leaving ... More >>

The Ten Best Hometown Productions By Large Professor

​Large Professor cuts an outside figure in the New York hip-hop scene these days. As a producer who also happens to rap in an endearingly economical manner, he's integral to any overview of hip-hop's storied golden era--he tutored under Paul C, contributed production input to Eric B & Rakim so ... More >>

Top 10 Prodigy Prison Rants, Starring Obama, Jay-Z, Napoleon, Corny Backpack Rappers, And Demonic Owls

Pic by Chad Griffith​Mobb Deep rapper Prodigy was released from prison yesterday after serving three and a half years on a gun-possession charge. During that time, the voluble emcee used his Internet access and old-school pen-and-paper interview privileges to hip the world to his theories on s ... More >>

Top Five Young, Hometown-Obsessed New York City Rappers

Roc Marciano, leading the charge​Last year a small, underground pocket of NYC-based hip-hop found its voice again. With Roc Marciano's unimpeachable Marcberg album as the catalyst, a crew of loosely associated artists shook off that tired cliché about our city's commercial-outsider status and ... More >>

Group Home Reminisce Over Guru

The veteran rap duo pay tribute to their late mentor

Q&A: Rapper 9th Prince On His Older Brother RZA And The Early Days Of The Wu-Tang Clan

​The Wu-Tang Clan is hip-hop's most enduring family. Thanks to seemingly unbreakable bonds both artistic and familial, the now eight-strong crew of rappers is still together, despite frequent -- and usually shoddily sourced -- media claims that they're about to implode due to rampant bickering ... More >>

Ten Pioneering Pieces Of Hip-Hop Street Art

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Triple Self Portrait. All images courtesy the Eric Firestone Gallery.​Street art has enjoyed a steady resurgence in rap over the last few years, with Kanye West and the Clipse jostling to let KAWS design their album and magazine covers, 50 Cent and Busta Rhymes appearing ... More >>

The Ten Most Exploitative Posthumous Rap Projects

​Being a dead rap artist isn't much fun. Whether The Notorious B.I.G., Tupac, or J Dilla, death has never seemed to do much to alleviate the constant pressure on artists to muster up new recordings to satisfy the bulging posthumous rap retail market. (In the hip-hop world, possessing a heart t ... More >>

Live: The Roots Regale The Teeming Prospect Park Masses With -- And Why Not -- "Sweet Child O' Mine"

​Black Thought greets his (overflowing) public. Photos by Nicole Ankowski, more below.​The Roots and friends Prospect Park Bandshell Sunday, July 11 Welcome to another preposterously well-attended Celebrate Brooklyn! fete, David Byrne-ian in its excess of humanity, thousands upon thousa ... More >>

Pusha T Presents: A Clipse Guide to New York City

Pusha T at the Highline Ballroom last year. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.​The Clipse make coke rap cut straight out of Virginia. But Pharrell's favorite rapping brothers, Malice and Pusha T, have a discernible New York streak running through their rhymes. Which is no surprise given that they were b ... More >>

R.A. the Rugged Man Abides

An uncouth Long Island rapper battles labels, homelessness, and (maybe) STDs

Booker T. Jones, Man at Work

The indomitable MG finally embraces his inner surly rock star

The Diss-Track Family Tree

Who to insult, how, and why

Two Hours of Inspired Weirdness With Erykah Badu

Status Ain't Hood Interviews Bun B

Status Ain't Hood Interviews Joe Budden

Emo-Rap Discovers the Mixtape

Live: Fall Out Boy's Arena Emo

Jurassic Park

Old-timers want attention, need better songs

UGK's Underground Kingz

Overdue Southern comfort

LL Cool J, Please Break Up

Private Enemy

Two New York rappers dreamed of stardom. MF Doom got it. MF Grimm didn't.

Status Ain't Hood Interviews Labtekwon

The Quarterly Report: The Summer's Best Singles

Feeding the Root

Talking with Large Professor, premier hip-hop producer

Time to Play B Sides

Undie rappers spin hip-hop from 17 years ago on its head

Off Balance

Illadelphians lose their cultural momentum, maybe even tipping in the wrong direction

A Fistful of Mighta Been

How the Miramax of Music Soundbombed

The Bridge Is Still Over

Music

Pazz & Jop Preview

Call and Response

Targeting Silent Rappers: A Street Fight for Justice or Hip Hop McCarthyism?

Music

Recordings

It's Nation Time. Again.

A new vanguard of rap activists takes to the streets