Southern Rap

On Lil Wayne and Future and Hip-hop Authenticity

Rap game ouroboros

Lil Wayne, Future, and the Ouroboros of Defensive Trendhumpery

If you pay attention to the Rap Internet, you are probably up to your elbows in people slinging the term "Appropriation" around, mostly in the context of the Harlem Shake meme. Even more loosely, people have been talking about what the idea of "ownership" in hip-hop actually, like, means these days. ... More >>

Live: Nicki Minaj Takes Off From Summer Jam, Nas And Lauryn Hill Climb Aboard

Hot 97 Summer Jam: Nicki Minaj, Young Jeezy, Rick Ross, J. Cole, Wale, Meek Mill, DJ Khaled, Waka Flocka, Trey Songz, Maino, Big Sean, 2 Chainz, French Montana, Mavado, Tyga, Slaughterhouse (and Nas and Lauryn Hill) MetLife Stadium Sunday, June 3 Better than: Seeing a Nicki Minaj concert. In an er ... More >>

Q&A: Big K.R.I.T. On His Rise, Dedicating Songs To His Grandma, And Being Inspired By Friday Night Lights

His rap moniker is an acronym for King Remembered In Time, but the way he's going about crafting timeless soulful music, Big K.R.I.T. is being remembered as a king right now. Just ask those who sold out his recent show at the Highline, where just two years ago he was booed while opening for Jay Elec ... More >>

Five Reasons Why XXL's Freshman Class Issue Is Going To Be A Yearly Ritual For A While

As traditions go, XXL's annual "Freshman Class" issue is neither all that time-honored or worthwhile. The magazine's been putting rappers it calls freshmen on its cover since 2008, but hasn't exactly been kingmaking or future forecasting in doing so: 2008's list featured Crooked I and Joell Ortiz, h ... More >>

André 3000, Most Valuable Supporting Player

The erstwhile OutKast member has a great year without a single starring role

Live: Swizz Beatz Brings Out T.I., DMX's Brother And Some Other Guys At The IAC Building

Swizz Beatz IAC Building Wednesday, November 30 Better than: Ja Rule's acting in The Fast and the Furious. It seems cruel that as the recession continues to hit the "snooze" button, Swizz Beatz has picked up yet another job, another paycheck. He is the luxe James Franco, collecting 1099s like pass ... More >>

Live: B.o.B Shows Flashes Of Megastardom At The Bowery Ballroom

B.o.B w/Lauriana Mae Bowery Ballroom Tuesday, November 29 Better than: Living in New Jersey. (Joking, Taylor Ham aficionados!) 9:56 p.m.: "He represents Atlanta, ladies and gentlemen... He's sold like a million records and like 15 million downloads... He's had a Grammy nomination... It's B.o.B!" S ... More >>

Young Jeezy Gets Personal In A Hustlerz Ambition

Young Jeezy Sunshine Cinema Tuesday, November 29 Better than: Combing his Wikipedia page. Perhaps Young Jeezy's biggest weakness as an artist is the information that's out there about him, or the lack thereof. Four albums and a plethora of mixtapes deep and even ardent fans like myself admittedly ... More >>

Mark Drake's Words

The artist steps up his lyrical game on his second album, Take Care

Radio Hits One: T-Pain Escapes Lead Single Purgatory

The Revolver cover.​On Thursday Jive Records announced that T-Pain's fourth album rEVOLVEr would be out on December 6. That same day, the rappa ternt sanga's single "5 O'Clock" reached a new Hot 100 peak of No. 25 . The timing wasn't exactly coincidental. The track, on which T-Pain is supporte ... More >>

Radio Hits One: VH1 Takes On The '00s Pop Canon

VH1 spent last week counting down what the channel, and its panel of celebrities and "experts," consider The 100 Greatest Songs of The '00s. They certainly haven't been the first to assemble such a list—Rolling Stone and Pitchfork and every blog under the sun had their say about two years ago, ... More >>

Ten Trends That Watch The Throne Could Kickstart

​It's way too early to have a critical judgment on Watch The Throne; didn't you read the rules? But since Kanye West and Jay-Z's colossal collaboration plopped into the raging waters of Internet opinion early Monday morning, I've been watching for ripples. Here are ten new things that Watch Th ... More >>

Live: Young Jeezy Plays To The Locals At The Highline Ballroom

Young Jeezy Highline Ballroom Monday, July 25 Better than: Listening to Funkmaster Flex break a record live on air. Yep, Jay-Z did come out to play, and yes, Kanye did put in an appearance, but the biggest draws at Young Jeezy's NYC gig were the secret stars. Despite initially taking the stage wi ... More >>

Radio Hits One: The Disappearing Urban Crossover Hit Says "Look At Me Now"

​Chris Brown's "Look At Me Now" has topped Billboard's R&B/Hip-hop Songs chart for seven weeks in a row, and it recently peaked at No. 6 on the Hot 100. In terms of Brown's career, it's notable for being the singer's first top 10 hit in the two years since that whole violent incident with then ... More >>

The Curious 21st-Century Decline Of Hype Williams

On Friday, a link to three-minute making-of video for a scrapped, Hype Williams-helmed clip of "XXXO" appeared on M.I.A.'s twitter. The footage shows M.I.A and a small group of dancers (including Beyoncé choreographer Jonté) painted head-to-toe and gyrating to the song's hissing, whirling beat. Th ... More >>

Q&A: Flynt Flossy On The Past, Present, And Future Of Turquoise Jeep Records

​ I was introduced to hip-hop/r&b collective Turquoise Jeep a couple of weeks before Christmas, when a fellow SOTC contributor recommended Yung Humma's breakout "Lemme Smang It." I expected to listen once or twice and then move on, but a month later, Humma's trademark "Mmm" is still stuck in ... More >>

Cee Lo Green and the Year of "Fuck You"

Summing up 2010 in two little words

Big Boi and Terry Riley Added To the Animal Collective-Curated All Tomorrow's Parties

​Say what you want about Animal Collective's recent turn as wedding music for the shrillest people alive, they will probably always have a better record collection than you. To wit: The line-up for May's AnCo-curated All Tomorrow's Parties Festival in Minehead, England just added OutKast funka ... More >>

Neon Trees

The Most Overlooked Tracks of 2010: Alley Boy and Young Dro, Trae, Husalah, and More

​Our look back at all things 2010 continues this week as we highlight some of the year's most overlooked tracks. In this edition: unheralded regional rap.

WALK IT OUT

Make room for Daddy Fat Sacks

The Top Ten Best Worst Singing Rappers

​These days, there's nothing attention grabbing about rappers who sing, whether it's Andre 3000's amped squawk, an Auto-Tune-enabled Kanye West, or Lil Wayne's upcoming Riker's Island shower room spirituals. This week the canon sees new album additions from one-time Goodie Mob member Cee-Lo Gr ... More >>

Waka Flocka Flame Is Yelling at You for a Reason

Why Flockaveli is hard to listen to and even harder to not listen to

The 10 Greatest Rap Songs About Video Games

​Def Jam Rapstar is the latest attempt to merge the worlds of hip-hop and video games. In the past, this has involved shoehorning playable rapper characters into cliched genres -- a Wu-Tang Clan beat-'em-up! 50 Cent's first-person shooter! -- or rappers licensing a few throwaway songs to the l ... More >>

Big Boi Is Guest-Starring On East Village Radio Right Now

Here's your proof. CREDIT​Fresh off his triumphant show at Brooklyn Bowl last night and set to play NYU's mystery concert (with, uh, Dr. Dog) tonight, Big Boi is spending the afternoon at First and First on East Village Radio.

Drake Is Not Exactly Answering Lil Wayne's Prison Phone Calls

​"I call Drake at least once a week," Lil Wayne told Hot 97's Funkmaster Flex last night, phoning in from Rikers. "I actually call three or four times a week, but he only picks up for me once a week." He was laughing when he said it: Wayne, of all people, knows what it is to be one of the most ... More >>

On Big Boi And Andre 3000's "Lookin' For Ya"

​Rap Radar has your hookup: I am beginning to suspect that Big Boi's (finally!) imminent Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty (which it's not even clear if this song is even on) is going to be fantastic. Here we have one of those heartbreakingly rare de facto Outkast reunion tracks, a ... More >>

Law & Order's Five Most Ridiculous Rapper Cameos

​Law & Order ends its 20-year run tonight. Throughout the show's long reign, phalanxes of honorable detectives have cleaned the New York streets of crime and debris while throwing out witty one-liners and re-enacting plotlines ripped from real-life headlines. Grabbing a cameo on the show has a ... More >>

And the Third Drake Single Is..."Miss Me," Featuring Lil Wayne

The full version, after Drake's verse leaked a month ago. If you're following along, we now have the willfully perverse first single--that'd be "Over," probably the most bizarre half-sung album-announcing lead record since Kanye did 808s--the loverman-showcasing, Jamaican tourism minister-angering ... More >>

Drake Asks Nicki Minaj to Marry Him

This snippet of "All Night Long," the next song to leak from Drake's forthcoming Thank Me Later, seems to be missing at least a Bun B verse if not--as rumor has it--one from Lil Wayne himself. Not missing? Drake sort of proposing to his Young Money comrade in arms, Queens rapstress Nicki Minaj. Th ... More >>

DO THE TIGHTROPE

Janelle Monáe juggles three nights in NYC

You Will Have to Wait Until Lil Wayne Gets Out of Jail to Get His Autograph

​Though it may have been a decent way to for Wayne to while away the days in prison, and though the mind boggles at the prison economy that could've sprung up around Lil Wayne signatures (that's worth like a box of cigarettes at least, right?), alas, it is not to be. TMZ reports that Wayne has ... More >>

T.I. Brings Fellatio, Scandal to Downtown Newark

Photo via NJ.com/The Star-Ledger​We're gonna go out on a limb and say that it's the dude's hand that does it, the right one, in this billboard recently thrown up by T.I.'s Akoo clothing line--something about lovingly clutching a girl's head to your unbuckled crotch just screams fellatio, or do ... More >>

On Janelle Monae's Incredible "Tightrope," Which Finally Exists In Physical Form, And Which You Should Hear Immediately, And Not Just Because Big Boi Is Involved

​Head to Pitchfork now and bask in this shit. I have been waiting for this song's release for 11 months, since I first heard it at SXSW 2009 (sorry about the photo), wherein my JM obsession began. (Several months later I was on the phone with her at the exact moment Michael Jackson's death was ... More >>

So Was Lil Wayne's Rebirth a Modest Success Or a Total Commercial Failure? Maura Johnston Reads the Charts

"Billboard's 'Tastemakers' chart is the one we should all paying attention to, don't you think?"​This week's Billboard 200 is headed once again by Lady Antebellum, the milquetoast country trio whose second album Need You Now moved 481,000 copies in its debut week, and 209,000 copies in the sal ... More >>

Go Ham or Die Trying: Pill's Calm Path to Mixtape Stardom

TRADING LACES

Stock up on sneakers and hip-hop

Jay-Z vs. Jay-Z

Suddenly vulnerable hip-hop superstars go to war with themselves

Track 18 Wins Again

Major-label hip-hop records in burying-best-tracks shocker!

Totally Use Your Illusion, Dude

Rap stars see how the other half lives

Noise from the Front

Pazz & Jop Special for the week of February 7-13, 2007

About a Boi

OutKast's Depression-era hip-hop musical has a loving respect for the old South

Microcrunk

Atlanta reductionist rappers give snappy answers to stupid questions

Dirty-Dirty Deeds

As O'Reilly's nemesis lip-smacks toward financial future, Rubber Band Man one-ups him

Off Balance

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

Letters

Do the Damn Miracle

Special-ed teacher helps New Orleans's third-biggest rap label back its free-for-all up

Back That Mass Up

Rev That Azz Up

Nervous Rhythms, Chopped-Up Language, Thumping Slapstick Pop