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...
Turn It Up, Oatmeal Jenkins
Some records arrive dressed for approval. Others kick the door open, turn the speakers toward the street, and let the room decide what to do with the noise. Oatmeal...
Edd Stark Makes Rome Feel Right
What if the best kind of escape isn’t running from the world, but finding a little more joy in the middle of it? With “When in Rome,” Minnesota...
Doubt Me Now
What hits harder than a locked door—the sound of someone telling you that you’ll never make it, or the moment you finally kick that door off its hinges?...
Grief Goes Double-Time
What do you do when life starts swinging, your coping mechanisms get questionable, and the only thing left to do is put that shit on a beat? Jared, better known as...
Brogawd’s “Civilians Buildin’”: Boom Bap With a Blueprint
What happens when the underground stops talking about the work and starts laying bricks? Rochester, New York, meets Paris on “Civilians Buildin’,” the...
Kanye’s “Streetcar” Gets a New Passenger
What happens when a familiar Kanye West song gets handed to a new voice, a new beat, and a different corner of the internet? There’s a particular kind of nerve in...
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...
JMERGZ’s “Alphabet Soup”: When Rap Turns Into a Word Game
Can a rapper turn the entire alphabet into a lyrical obstacle course without making the music feel like homework? JMERGZ is betting that the answer is yes. There’s...
XHOSEN x Vince: The Quiet Pull of Plugg
Some rap demands the room. Plugg knows how to take over your headphones without asking for anybody’s attention. There’s a particular kind of late-night...
