Big Hit, Boom Bap
What happens when hip-hop leaves the glossy stuff at the door and gets back to the business of bars? There is a reason boom bap keeps finding its way back into the...
Making Art Anyway
What if the hardest part of making hip-hop isn’t getting heard, but finding a reason to keep going when the world isn’t listening? There’s a particular...
METAPHYSICAL’s “Hemp Poet” Is a Smoke-Filled Reintroduction to Conscious Hip-Hop
What happens when the haze clears and the person holding the mic has something to say? Some rappers want to sell you a fantasy. Others want to tell you a story. And then...
Cam Be, Neak & Co. Find a Higher Frequency on “God Somewhere”
Some records want your attention. Others ask you to sit with yourself for a minute. “God Somewhere,” the new collaboration from Chicago-connected creatives...
DCoop & Nessy the Rilla Turn Life’s Everyday Moments Into Jazz-Hop
Some hip-hop records demand your attention. Others give you a little room to breathe. DCoop’s “It’s Just Life” featuring Nessy the Rilla sits in...
Cash Ruins Everything Around Me: DJ Jean Maron and Forsyth Flip a Classic for the Inflation Era
DJ Jean Maron is a 45-year-old French producer who has spent over two decades touring Europe and beyond. Throughout his career, he has shared stages with heavyweights...
The Unseen Crown: Navigating Grit and Grace in the Modern Sound
Jump to: The concrete doesn’t lie, and neither do the voices rising from the margins of the map. In a landscape where Black and Brown erasure often strips the soul...
Perseverance in the Margins: 5 Artists Fighting Erasure
We are living in an era of algorithmic smoothing. The jagged edges of culture—the specific, painful, and beautiful realities of Black and Brown...
TEGA Makes Waves
What happens when the world gets loud, the pressure rises, and somebody decides to speak instead of sit quietly on the sidelines? TEGA’s “Bubble in the...